nester, N. H.

a

DR. ARNOTT.

THE

POPULAE SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

CONDUCTED BY E. L. YOU MANS,

VOL. X.

NOVEMBER, 1876, TO APRIL, 1877.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
54 9 & 551 BROADWAY.

. 1877.

Copyright by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1877.

lO + lk

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

NOVEMBER, 1876.

WHAT AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS HAVE DONE FOR

EVOLUTION.1

Br Professor EDWAED S. MOKSE.

I.

IT would be pleasant indeed if only a lecture or an essay were ex-
pected from the presiding officer of the Section ; but an address
implies a great deal more, and the giver of it is not only expected to
be entertaining, where perhaps he never entertained before, but in-
structive upon grounds upon which, perchance, he has made but par-
tial survey. Among the many questions of sustaining interest, a
number of subjects intrude themselves. A general review of the
work accomplished since the last meeting of the Association would
seem an appropriate subject for discourse. Yet beyond my special
studies I feel quite incompetent to scan so broad a field. In this year
of Centennial reviews, one might naturally fall into an attempt to
sketch the growth of science and the work accomplished within the
last hundred years, but that would not only be too vast a field, but
would on the whole be unprofitable, since time-boundaries, like the
surveyor's lines bordering a State, have no definite existence in Na-
ture. The natural boundaries of oceans and sierras do indeed isolate
and impress peculiarities of thought and action upon man, as upon the
creatures below him, and for this reason we may with propriety ex-
amine the work of our nation in any line of investigation. Never be-
fore has the study of animals been raised to so high a dignity as at
present. While chemistry could point to its triumphs in the arts, and
geology to the revelations of hidden wealth in the rocks, zoology was
for the most part a mere adjunct to geology, or a means to thwart the

1 An address delivered at the meeting of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Read at Buffalo, New York, August, 1876. By Edward S. Morse,
Vice-President Biological Section.
roL. x. — 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ravages of insects. Now, however, it is the pivot on which the doc-
trine of man's origin hinges. The worlds themselves are too old to
study, though tbe spectroscope reveals the existence of celestial pro-
toplasm as their physical basis. The rocks are too rigid and the time
too immense to come within tbe compass of our minds, but the living
facts of evolution are with us to-day in these graceful forms and their
constant changes, while the records more or less preserved in past times
give us a clew to things hinted at in the earlier changes of present ex-
isting forms. It seems, therefore, at the present time, that a review
of the work accomplished by American students for the doctrines of
natural selection might be acceptable for several reasons, and first
among them might be mentioned the fact that thus far no general re-
view of the kind has been made; and, secondly, that with few excep-
tions all the general works upon the subject are from English or Ger-
man sources, and filled with the results of work done there oftentimes
to the exclusion of work done elsewhere. The oft-repeated examples in
support of the derivative theory belong to Europe. The public are fa-
miliar with these facts only, and come naturally to believe that these
examples alone exist, and from their remoteness do not carry the
weight of equally or perhaps more suggestive facts which lie concealed
in the technical publication's of our own societies. A review of the
work accomplished by American students bearing upon the doctrine
of descent must of necessity be brief. Even a review of a moiety of
the work is beyond the limits of an address of this nature. And for
obvious reasons I must needs here restrict it to one branch of biology,
namely, zoology. For material, the scientific publications of the coun-
try have been scanned, and an attempt has been made to bring to-
gether the more prominent facts bearing upon natural selection. In
this review the zoological science of the country presents itself in two
distinct periods : The first period, embracing as to time-limits the
greatest portion, may be recognized as embracing the lowest stages of
the science ; it included among others a class of men who busied them-
selves in taking an inventory of the animals of the. country, an im-
portant and necessary work to be compared to that of the hewers and
diggers who first settle a new country, but in their work demanding
no deep knowledge or breadth of view. And so the work to be done
in tabulating the animals has more often been done by specialists who
neither knew nor cared to know the facts lying beyond the limits of
their studies ; a work often prompted by the same spirit that one sees
among children in the collection of birds'-eggs and postage-stamps.
The workers in this class were compared by Agassiz to those who
make the brick and shape the stone for the edifice, an indispensable
work, but with it was raised not the edifice but an almost insuperable
barrier against the acceptance of views more in accordance with rea-
son and common-sense. So thoroughly interwoven with this work
were certain conceptions believed to be infallible, that overpowering

AMERICAN ZOOLO GIS TS AND EVOL UTION. 3

indeed has been the argument to render as coadjutors the very men
who so thoroughly opposed Darwin at the outset. It seems unneces-
sary to point out the mode of work adopted by the class above de-
scribed. Their honor involved as soon as their name had been at-
tached to a supposed new species, and any deviation from the type
oftentimes persistently overlooked, what wonder, when every local
variety received a new name and that name stamped upon a supposed
valid creation — what wonder, I repeat, that whole groups of animals
have been so thoroughly scourged by such work that few have the
courage to engage in the task of revision ?

Emerson's reflections on the science of England in 1847 would
apply with far more propriety to our country even at a much later
date, where in his words " one hermit finds this fact and another finds
that, and lives and dies ignorant of its value." With the noble ex-
amples of Dana, Wyman, Leidy, and Burnett, before them, they did
not profit. In fact, the labors of these honored men, and early in the
century Lesueur and others, gave the country its largest claim to
recognition abroad. The second period dates from the advent of
Agassiz in this country. With his presence a gradual but entire
change took place. He rendered the study a dignity rather than a
pastime, No longer were the triflers to fling their loose work before
the academies unrebuked. The protests he uttered in this Association
were the means of elevating the tone of the communications. In
fact, nothing indicates the poverty of our attainments in zoology more
than an examination of the volumes preceding Agassiz's presence and
the succeeding volumes. With his honest repudiation of all that was
bad, he frightened away the lighter chaff, and there was but little
solid work left to take its place. Agassiz made men, and his example,
and the methods of work taught by him, spread to other parts of
the country. He brought the American student into intimate ac-
quaintance with the classical work of European naturalists. In his
public lectures the names of Cuvier, Von Baer, Leuckart, and others,
became familiar. The public caught the enthusiasm of this great
teacher, and money was lavishly given by the citizens and the State
in aid of his scientific undertakings. Agassiz's earnest protest against
evolution checked the too hasty acceptance of this theory among
American students. But even the weight of his powerful opposition
could not long retard the gradual spread of Darwin's views ; and
now his own students,- last to yield, have, with hardly an exception,
adopted the general view of derivation as opposed to that of special
creation. The results of his protest have been beneficial in one
sense. They have prompted the seeking of proofs in this country,
and now our students are prepared to show the results of their work
in evidence of the laws of progressive development, and it is mainly
this work that I wish to review. So much is claimed for birthplace
that, in the way of history, it may not be amiss to call attention to

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the fact that the first clear premonition of the theory of natural selec-
tion came from this country.

William Charles Wells, born in this country, at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1757, in a paper read before the Royal Society, in 1813,
first substantially originated the theory to account for the black skin
of the negro. He limits his application to races of men and certain
peculiarities of color, correlated with an immunity from certain dis-
eases ; in proof of it he cites domesticated animals, and the selection
by man in precisely the same line of argument urged by Darwin. In
the preface to the last edition to the " Origin of Species," Darwin
refers to Wells's essay as entitled to the credit of containing the ear-
liest known recognition of the principle. Dr. Wells first shows that
varieties among men as among animals are always occurring, and
having cited the way in which man selects certain qualities among
domesticated animals and thus secures different breeds, -calls atten-
tion to the well-known fact that the black as well as the white races
are differently affected by certain diseases of the countries which
they inhabit. He finds a coincidence between the immunity from
certain diseases and the black color of the skin, though why this is
so he does not attempt to explain. He thinks that, through the suc-
cessive survival of dark skins, the dark variety of the human race
has become fixed. Referring to the man's selective action regarding
domesticated animals, he says : " But what is here done by art seems
to be done with equal efficacy, though more slowly, by Nature, in the
formation of varieties of mankind fitted for the country which they
inhabit." These sentences have such a Darwinian sound that, when
we remember they were dragged from obscurity by Mr. Darwin him-
self, we can share in what a recent writer ' happily calls " Mr. Dar-
win's evident delight at discovering that some one else had said his
good things before him, or has been on the verge of uttering them."
As early as 1843, Prof. Haldeman2 discussed some of the arguments
brought forward by the opponents of the Lamarckian theory, and
offered certain views in favor of the transmutation of species. While
he does not hint at the laws of natural selection, he recognizes fully
the value of varieties and their persistency and ultimate divergence.
He says, "Although we may not be able artificially to produce a
change beyond a given point, it would be a hasty inference to suppose
that a physical agent acting gradually for ages could not carry the
variation a step or two farther, so that instead of the original one we
will say four varieties, they might amount to six, the sixth being suf-
ficiently unlike the earlier ones to induce a naturalist to consider it
distinct."

In the year 1850, Dr. Joseph Leidy, in a paper on entophyta in
living animals, wrote as follows: " The essential conditions of life are

1 Gray's " Darwiniana," p. 284.

2 Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. iv., p. 368.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 5

five in number, namely: a germ, nutritive matter, air, water, heat,
the four latter undoubtedly existing in the interior of all animals." 1
Dr. Leidy affirms his belief that very slight modifications of these essen-
tial conditions of life were sufficient to produce the vast variety of liv-
ing beings upon the globe. The theory of derivation based upon the
principles of natural selection demands the following admissions : that
species vary, that peculiarities are transmitted or inherited, that a
greater number of individuals perish than survive, and that the physi-
cal features of the earth are now and have been constantly changing,
and that precisely the same conditions never recur. These are ad-
mitted facts. Now comes the theoretical part of natural selection,
namely, that the varieties which survive are those which are more in
harmony with the environments of the time. These propositions,
with minor ones, form the theory of Darwin. Lamarck and others
had recognized the gradual enhancement of varieties into species, but
had not struck the key-note of natural selection, though Wells in the
beginning of the century had clearly recognized it in a pertinent
example. If we look impartially at these propositions, we need no
demonstration to prove the inheritance of characters the most minute,
and even the perpetuation of the most subtile features.

On general principles, too, the proposition, that those individuals
best adapted to their surroundings survive, need only be stated to be
accepted by a reasonable mind. In truth, to deny it would be to
deny, as Alphonse de Candolle says, that a round stone would roll
down-hill faster and farther than a flat one. Indeed, this eminent
botanist affirms that natural selection is neither a theory nor an hy-
pothesis, but the explanation of a necessary fact. The constant physi-
cal changes in the past and present condition of the world are incon-
trovertibly established. It seems, then, that the prime question re-
solves itself into whether each species as a whole has something
inherent which prompts it to vary irrespective of its environments, or
whether a correlation can be established between the variation of spe-
cies and certain physical conditions inducing these variations, and
here let me add that of all groups of animals from species through
genera to higher divisions, that group of individuals recognized as a
species has the most tangible existence. And, as a proof of this,
there need only be mentioned the fact that many naturalists, while
regarding species as clearly distinct, have on the other hand looked
upon classification as an artificial method to facilitate the study, and
hence the innumerable schemes and the successive interpolation of sub-
classes, sub-orders, sub-families, and sub-genera, which simply circum-
scribed smaller proofs than had before been recognized.

The rapid multiplication of some of these groups has already
formed a serious obstacle to the study of systematic zoology.

What would good Dr. Mitchell have said if he could have foreseen

1 " Proceedings of the Philosophical Academy," vol. iii., p. 7.

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the generic lists of to-day ! In an article on the " Proteus of Lake
Erie," he expressed his aversion to multiplying names in zoology,
and lamented the tendency. He protested as follows, fifty years ago :
" By some, these innovations have been so wantonly introduced, as
almost to threaten in the end the erection of every species into a dis-
tinct genus." l Though these words were undoubtedly aimed at Rafi-
nesque, they were none the less prophetic. Whatever may be said
of the existence in nature, of other groups, there can be no question
that species have the most definite existence, and it would seem then
that nothing more need be proved for the theory of descent as
opposed to the theory of special creation, than the establishment of
the fact that species assume the characters of new species, or disap-
pear altogether with a change of surroundings. As examples might
be cited, the transplanting of Alpine seeds to warmer regions below,
and an accompanying change of the plant into another species before
known in the warmer region, or, more remarkable still, the change
of a species of Crustacean which lives in salt water, to another species
with a partial freshening of the water, and this freshening slowly
persisted in, the form changing into another genus, and in so doing
losing: one of its segments. In the first case we see the effect ol
temperature, and in the second case the physical influence of salt anfl
water in different proportions.

Now, these and hundreds of similar examples can be incontestably
proved.

Even the prolonged existence of the form of some animals, like
Lingula, may be referred to an inherent vitality which enables them
to survive changes that caused the death of thousands of others.

In an early discussion of Darwin's theory,2 Prof. Agassiz cited the
persistence of Lingula as fatal to the theory, and Prof. William B.
Pogers replied that the vital characters of some animals would enable
them to survive above others. Ten years later, I had an opportunity
of studying living Lingula on the coast of North Carolina, and
brought specimens home alive in a small jar of water, and kept them
in a common bowl for six months without the slightest care. Their
power of surviving under changed conditions — their vitality, in other
words — seems incredible.3 (For further details, see reference below.)

It has for a long time been suspected that the species of Jfollusca,
described in such profusion in this country, would be redubed when
the slightest attention to their habits had been made. Dr. James
Lewis4 long ago observed that a certain species of fresh-water mussel,
described as Alasmodonta truncata, is only the truncate form of
another species, A. marginata. From a careful study of the condi-

1 American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. vii., 1829.

s " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. vii., p. 231, December
15, I860.

3 Ibid., vol. xv., p. 315. 4 Ibid., vol. v., p. 121.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 7

tions surrounding the first form in the Mohawk River, he had reason
to believe that the rapid currents which pass over it bear along sub-
stances that, coming in contact with the exposed edges of the shell,
break them down, thus retarding the growth of the shell at this point,
and the animal concentrates its growth -powers to the repairs of the
broken portion. The same gentleman also shows that the so-called
species Lymnana elodes, catascopium, and marffinata, " are modifica-
tions of one type or species, influenced by locality and temperature
varying the method of development." '

A. G. Wetherby 2 calls attention to the variation in form of a group
of fresh - water snails, found in the greatest abundance in certain
streams of Tennessee and North Alabama. In showing the varied
influences they are subjected to he cites the rapid currents of the
channels, and the greater liability of the snails being torn from the
rocks. He shows that they are exposed in various ways to the effects
of these currents, with all their changing impetus of high and low
water — exposed also to privation of food from the scouring sand re-
moving the conferva?, upon which they subsist, from the rocks. He
takes into account temperature, chemical action, and the like, and
says, " No greater vicissitude can be imagined than this growth in an
unstable element." Coincident with these diverse conditions he finds
an enormous variety of forms, and frankly acknowledges that many
of those described as distinct species must be reduced to synonyms.

George W. Ti-yon, in his large work on the American Melanians,
published by the Smithsonian Institution, having finished his manu-
script in 1865, says, under date of 1873, when the work was finally
published, "A more enlarged acquaintance with fresh-water shells con-
vinces me that a much greater reduction of the number of species
than I have attempted must eventually be made."

If we now look upon the definition of a species, as given by a gen-
tleman foremost in the ranks as a describer of species, we find it formu-
lated as follows : A species represents " a primary established law,
stamped with a persistent form (a type) pertaining solely to itself,
with the power of successively reproducing the same form, and none
other ;" and this gentleman has not hesitated to base these " primary
organic laws" upon the evidence of a single specimen, and in some
cases even the fragments of one have offered him a sufficient induce-
ment !

But it has been argued by some that a wide variation may be the
case "with many species. Prof. Agassiz,3 at a meeting of the American
Academy, reiterated his opinion that what are called varieties by
naturalists do not in reality exist as such. He found a great abun-
dance of diverging forms in Echinoderms, which, without acquaintance

1 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. v., pp. 121-128.

2 Proceedings of Cincinnati Society of Natural Science, No. 1, June, 1876.
8 " Proceedings of the American Academy," vol. v., p. 72.

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with connecting ones, would be deemed distinct species, but he found
they all passed insensibly into each other.

Prof. Parsons suggested that more extended observations might
connect received species by intermediate forms, no less than so-called
varieties ; and Prof*. Gray remarked that the intermediate forms, con-
necting by whatsoever numerous gradations the strongly divergent
forms with that assumed as a type of a species, so far from disproving
existence of varieties, would seem to furnish the best possible proof
that these were varieties. Without the intermediate forms they would,
it was said, be taken for species; their discovery reduced them to va-
rieties, between which (according to the ordinary view), intermediate
states were to be expected.

Recognizing, then, the existence of varieties, and of varieties suffi-
ciently pronounced to have led careful naturalists to regard them as
distinct species, what shall we say when it is found that these marked
forms are correlated with certain physical conditions, many of which
have originated within comparatively recent times ? Dr. J. G.
Cooper,1 after a careful study of the California land snails, ascertained
that " species, sub-species, and varieties, living in cool, damp situa-
tions, become more highly developed (but not always larger) than
the others ; the shell assuming a more compact (imperforate) form,
and losing those indications of immaturity referred to, viz., sharp, deli-
cate sculpture, bristles, and angular periphery. These characteristics,
however, remain more or less permanently for indefinite periods, and
give that fixedness to the various forms, even when living under the
same conditions, which enables us to retain them as sub-species differ-
ing from varieties in permanency, and from races in not inhabiting
distinct regions." It may be added that Stearns, Bland, and Binney,
have likewise observed the same peculiar variations associated with
aridity.

In a broader field, and compassing different classes, Prof. Spencer
F. Baird, Mr. J. A. Allen, and Mr. Robert Ridgway, have severally
shown that marked and specific changes are seen in birds and mam-
mals corresponding to differences in their surroundings. Prof. Baird,
in a paper entitled " The Distribution and Migration of North Amer-
ican Birds," 2 has shown that birds in high altitudes and those bred at
the North are larger than those born South and at low altitudes ; that
Western birds of the same species have longer tails than eastern exam-
ples, and that the bill increases in size in those birds occurring in
Florida as compared with those found north of that State, and that on
the Pacific coast the birds are darker in color than those found in the
interior.

Mr. J. A. Allen3 has made a more special study of this matter, and

1 "Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Science," vol. v., p. 128.

2 American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xli., January and March, 1866.

3 "Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xv., p. 156.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 9

his work ranks among the most important contributions to this sci-
ence. Mr. Allen finds that there are marked geographical variations
in mammals and. birds. He shows that northern mammals of the
same species are more thickly and softly furred, and that toward the
south the peripheral parts, such as the ears and feet, are more devel-
oped. The same law holds good in birds, a diminution in size being
observed toward the south, and the individuals being darker in color.

As one goes south he meets with the same species of birds, whose
bodies are shorter, but whose beak, tail, and claws, are longer. On
the Plains, also, he found the birds with plainer tints, while south-
ward the colors became more intense. On drawing up a table indi-
cating the regions of lighter varieties, and comparing it with a chart
of mean annual rainfall, Mr. Allen found the lighter forms occurred
in dry regions, and the dark forms in relatively humid regions. To
sum up : Mr. Allen finds in latitudinal variation climatic influences
affecting color as well as altering the size of bill, claw, and tail, while
longitudinal variation usually affects color alone.

He states that these laws are now so well known that a species
may be predicted to assume a given color if under certain specific
climatic conditions.

Mr. Robert Ridgway ' has in a similar way called attention to the
relation between color and geographical distribution in birds as ex-
hibited in melanism and hyperchromatism, and has shown that red
areas " spread " or enlarge their field in proportion as we trace cer-
tain species to the Pacific coast, and that in the same proportion yel-
low often intensifies in tint.

The results of these investigations can be easily understood.
Nearly if not quite one hundred and fifty species of birds, which
were recognized as distinct, are at once reduced to varieties, though
less than twelve years ago they were looked upon as good species,
with which no external influence had anything to do. Nearly if not
quite a fifth of the number of species of birds have been reduced by
the investigations of Baird, Allen, Coues, and Ridgway.

The mammals, through the same study of geographical variation,
will have been reduced at least one-fourth. Already Mr. Allen2
has studied the geographical variation of the squirrels, and the
result is that a reduction has been made of one-half the number
of species before recognized. Prof. Baird, in his monograph of
North American squirrels, reduced the number from twenty-four, as
acknowledged by Audubon and Bachman, to ten well-established
species and two doubtful varieties. Allen, with still greater advantage
in the shape of a mass of material from the Western surveys, l-educed
the ten species to five species, with seven geographical varieties.

1 American Journal of Science and Arts, vol, iv., December, 1872, p. 454, and vol. v.,
p. 39.

2 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xiv., p. 276.

io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Should it be urged that the present tendency toward reducing
species be taken as an evidence that species had not before been
properly defined, then it offers a stronger argument still in favor of
the fact that species are even more variable than had before been
supposed, leaving the greater possibility of larger numbers of these
ultimately surviving. Again, the assumption that the limitation of
specific variation had not been properly indicated, shows how repre-
hensible has been the work of some of those who have burdened our
literature with their bad species.

The fact is, the work has in a measure been justifiable, and is
not' to be wholly condemned. The workers in this line have followed
the teachings of their masters. A group of individuals removed
from an allied group of individuals by an extra dot or darker shade,
perpetuating their kind from generation to generation, marked with
persistent characters, and in every way coming up to the standard
recognized as specific, had the right to be judged as such. It is only
when a whole series of forms are collected, and climatic influences
are seen to affect these in the same way that they affect other groups
of species even in different classes, that the mere influence of
moisture and temperature is shown to be the sole cause of many of
these supposed specific characters.

Dr. A. S. Packard, in his remarkable monograph of a group of
moths, the Phalcenidce, published under the auspices of the Hayden
Survey, finds that with some species there are changes analogous to
those pointed out by Baird and Allen ; and while he does not find
enough to establish a law, yet to his mind enough is seen " to illus-
trate how far climatic variation goes as a factor in producing primary
differences in fauna? within the same zones of temperature," and he
admits that varietal and even specific differences may arise from these
climatic causes alone. Dr. Packard, in the same work, under the
head of " Origin of Genera and Species," says, " The number of so-
called species tends to be reduced as our specimens and information
increase." The genera also " are as artificial creations as species and
varieties. The work of the systematic biologist often amounts to but
little more than putting Nature in a strait-jacket."

An application of the influence of temperature is here proper, as
explaining, on a rational ground, the persistence of peculiar arctic
forms of animals and plants on the summits of Mount Washington
and other high peaks. With a knowledge of glacial phenomena, we
are capable of judging the condition of things which must, of neces-
sity, have existed directly after the recedence of the great ice-sheet :
its southern border slowly retreating, and, with the encroachment of
the warmer zone, the arctic forms dying out, or surviving under
changed conditions ; but, in high plateaus and mountains, local
glaciers flourished for a while, and at their bases arctic forms flour-
ished, and, lingering too long, were ultimately cut off by the retreat

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. n

of the main field. This interpretation of arctic forms on high peaks,
though attended to by several American naturalists, is not new. Os-
wald Heer, in discussing the origin of certain animals and plants,
coincides with De Candolle that Alpine plants are relics, as it were,
of a glacial epoch. Prof. Gray ' had also independently arrived at
the same conclusions, based on a comparison of the plants of Eastern
North America and Japan. In the position he maintained regarding
the derivation of species from preexisting ones, he stood far in ad-
vance of his brother naturalists in this country, for this was before
Darwin's great work had appeared, and before Heer had developed
the host of fossil plants from the arctic zone. Mr. S. I. Smith, in
speaking of mountain faunae, points out the gradual encroachment of
glaciers, and the drawing down of northern forms ; and, as the gla-
ciers retreated, these forms were caught, "the mountain-summits
being left as aerial islands." Dr. Packard and Mr. Scudder have
severally called attention to the same thing.

Prof. A. R. Grote has more fully dealt with the subject in a paper
read before this Association, and in a graphic way shows that the
"former existence of a long and widely-spread winter of years is
offered in evidence through the frail brown OEneis butterflies, that
live on the top of the mountains within the temperate zone." I have
been thus explicit, in order to contrast these more rational views with
those formerly entertained by eminent naturalists, whose minds were
imbued at the time with the idea of special creation. Mr. Samuel H.
Scudder2 read before the Boston Society of Natural History an ac-
count of distinct zones of life on high mountains, as illustrated in the
insect-life of Mount Washing-ton. He called attention to certain insects
which he supposed peculiar to the summit, and not found farther
north, though showing a remarkable correspondence to certain arctic
forms. Prof. Wyman asked whether all the facts might not be ac-
counted for on the theory of migration northward after a glacial
epoch, and Prof. Rogers suggested that the facts might be accounted
for on the migratory theory if we added thereto the supposition of
subsequent variation induced by isolation. Yet these views were
persistently opposed by the other naturalists present. The mass of
evidence already contributed, as to the extraordinary variation in
color, markings, and size of species coinciding with their physical sur-
roundings, though perhaps trivial in itself, becomes important when
the proofs are grouped together, and all bear upon the theory of
derivation. So slight a thins; as change of food is found to influence
certain animals even to a degree usually regarded specific. The late
Dr. B. D. Walsh 3 discovered some very curious features among in-

1 "Memoirs of the American Academy," vol. vi., pp. 37*7-458 (1859).
3 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. ix., p. 230.
3 " On Phytophagic Varieties and Phytophagic Species," " Proceedings of the Ento-
mological Society of Philadelphia," vol. iii., p. 403.

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sects connected with a change of food. First, he established the fact
that insects accustomed to one kind of plant could acquire a taste for
another kind, and he has shown that in thus changing the food of the
insect a change took place in the appearance of either the larva,
pupa, or imago, and sometimes all three stages were affected. Dr.
Fitch had observed that changing an insect's larva from the leaf to
the fruit affected the appearance of the larva. It would be impossible
to give even an abstract of Dr. Walsh's remarkable essay. It may
be said, however, that his investigations led him irresistibly to the
conclusion that the present species have been derived from preex-
isting ones, and in numberless cases he is capable of showing the
successive stages from the dawn of a plant-eating variety, where
the changes are slightly seen in the larva only, to the plant-eating
species in which profound changes are seen in the larva, pupa, and
imago.

The minor factors of natural selection, such as protective coloring
and mimicry, have been variously illustrated by Mr. R. E. C. Stearns,
Dr. Kneeland, Prof. Cope, Dr. Charles C. Abbott, and others. In a
special paper on " The Adaptive Coloration of Mollusca," ' I have en-
deavored to show not only a wide-spread application of this feature
to mollusks, and especially those exposed by the tide, but in some
cases a mimicry of inanimate objects, as the accumulation of clay or
grains of sand upon the shell.

Wallace's theory of birds'-nests finds interesting confirmations in
the observations of Dr. Abbott, who made a special study of a large
number of robins'-nests, and found the widest variation among them.
He studied also the nests of the Baltimore oriole, where, according to
the theory of Wallace, a concealing nest should be made, the bird
being exceedingly bright-colored. He found that, away from the
habitations of man, the orioles built concealing nests ; but in villages
and cities, on the other hand, where they were in no special danger
from predatory hawks, the nests were built comparatively open, so
that the bird within was not concealed.8

The differences in the habits of animals of the same species are
noticed in different parts of the country, and such facts militate
against the idea that certain unerring ways were implanted in them
at the outset. Indeed, such facts go to show that these various creat-
ures not only become adapted to their surroundings, but that individ-
ual peculiarities manifest themselves. The observations of Dr. Cones,
Mr. Allen, and Mr. Martin Trippe, go to prove that certain birds
change their habits in a marked degree. In their behavior, too, cer-
tain birds, which are wild and suspicious in New England, are com-
paratively tame in the West. In their resting-places they show wide
individual variation.

1 " Proceedings of the Boston Society* of Natural History," vol. xiv., p. 141,
5 Popular Science Monthly, vol. vi., p. 481.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 13

Prof. A. E. Verrill,1 on the supposed eastern migration of the cliff-
swallow, traces historically its first appearance in various places in the
East, and is inclined to the opinion that as the country became settled
by Europeans the birds left their native haunts for barns and houses,
and increased in number to a greater extent than before on account
of the protection invariably furnished by man.

Rev. Samuel Lockwood2 records a curious case of the Baltimore
oriole acquiring a taste for the honey-sacs of bees, tearing off the
heads of those insects, and, having secured the honey-sacs, rejecting
the rest of the body.

Prof. Wyman3 observes a curious case in Florida of a colt and a
number of pigs and cows thrusting their heads under water and feed-
ing on the river-grass, in some cases remaining with their heads im-
mersed for half a minute.

Hon. A. II. Morgan 4 observes the widest difference in the habits
of the same species of beaver iu the Lake Superior region and in the
Missouri, constructing their dams and ways differently, and meeting
the varied conditions, not by a blind instinct, but by a definite intelli-
gence manifested for definite purposes.

All of these facts, simple in themselves, yet together go to prove
that animals do vary in their habits, and with a persistent change in
habits arises the minute and almost insensible pressure to swerve and
modify the animal.

So much does the influence of season, with its accompanying pe-
culiarities of food, temperature, humidity, and the like, affect certain
animals developing coincidently with its different phases, that it is
instructive to note that in certain species of insects two or three dif-
ferent forms occur. Thus Mr. Edwards 6 has in an elaborate way
worked up the history of a polymorphic butterfly [Ephiclides ajctx),
showing that there are three forms heretofore regarded as distinct
species, which are only varieties of one and the same species, but ap-
pearing at different times of the year, and consequently confronted
by different influences as to temperature, moisture, food, and the like.
These forms are known under the names of Walshii, Telemonides,
and JIarcellus, and both sexes are equally affected. The first form
mentioned represents the early spring type, Telemonides the late
spring type, and Marcellus the summer and autumn type {see also
Mr. Scudder's paper 6). If these influences affect species, we should
expect to see the greatest variety of forms in a country possessing
the widest diversity of conditions.

Some suggestive paths of investigation have been pointed out by

1 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. ix., p. 276.
a American Naturalist, vol. vi., p. 721. 3 Ibid., vol. viii., p. 237.

4 " " The American Beaver and his Works."
6 " Butterflies of North America," part ix.
6 American Naturalist, vol. viii., p. 257.

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Prof. N. S. Shaler ! on the connection between the development of the
life and the physical conditions of the several continents, showing first
that the greatest amount of shore-line in proportion to the internal
areas indicates a greater diversity of surface within.

Another proposition he attempts to establish : that in propor-
tion to the shortness of the shore-lines, or, in other words, to the
want of variety in their surfaces, will be the diversity of animal life
in the continent. He then proceeds from Darwin's standpoint, and
follows out many curious and instructive lines of thought regard-
ing increased amount of influences in diversified surfaces — a level
plain having the same conditions throughout, but a mountainous re-
gion having for each one thousand feet of elevation a new condition
of things, in the form of streams, winds, humidity, and the like. In
areas of simple outline and unvarying surfaces wTe do, in fact, have a less
diversity of forms.

Recognizing the mutation of continents through past geologic ages,
we again see the accompanying physical changes in not only modify-
ing forms, but in selecting them afterward by succeeding changes.

The widely-diversified nature of the facts bearing on the doc-
trine of natural selection baffles all attempts at a systematic classifica-
tion of them. Of such a nature are many of the valuable communi-
cations of Prof. Wilder.

At the meeting of this Association 2 he has, among other matters,
confirmed in a young lion the discovery of Prof. Flowers that, in the
young dog and probably in other carnivora as well, the scapho-lunar
bone has at the outset three centres of ossification, and that these
really represent the radiate intermedium and centrale of the typical
carpus. By study of a foetal manatee, Prof. Wilder is able to de-
termine its affinities, and to point out the probable retrograde meta-
morphosis of some ancient ungulate animal, and that the mana-
tee is widely removed from the whales Avith which it has been
associated.

Mr. William K. Brooks has published a very remarkable paper on
certain free swimming tunicates, the /Salpa, giving for the first time
a clear and comprehensive history of certain ohscure points, and has
at the same time applied the principles of natural selection theoreti-
cally in showing the origin of salpa from sessile tunicates, and mak-
ing clear the peculiar modification of parts which accompany these
changes.

In the field of entomology some capital work has been done, both
practical and theoretical.

Prof. Riley's demonstration of the yucca-moth is unique in its
way. Dr. Engelmann has discovered that the yucca depends upon
insects for fertilization ; and Prof. Riley, by patient study, not only

1 " Proceedings of the American Academy," vol. viii., p. 349.

2 " Proceedings of the American Acc.demy of Arts and Sciences," vol. xxii., p. 301.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 15

discovered the moth which fertilizes the flower, but finds an anoma-
lous change in the maxillary palpi of the insect, by means of wbich
the moth collects bundles of pollen, which it inserts into the stigmatic
tube, and during this peculiar act deposits her eggs in the young fruit.
Prof. Riley has reasons to believe that this is the only insect engaged
in the fertilization of this plant. A mutual dependence is here met
with of extreme interest. The yucca unfertilized forms no fruit, and
the larva of the moth consequently perishes.

Prof. Augustus K, Grote, in an examination of butterflies, finds
successive gradation in their structures, and shows that as these or-
gans " become less serviceable to the insect they become more rigid
and in position more elevated above the head in the butterfly, while
in the moth they are more whip-like and directed forward." While
protesting against the separations which have been made in the order
based upon the antenna?, he directs attention " to the real differences
in antennal structure between the butterflies and moths, while show-
ing that the antenna? are modified by desuetude in the higher and
former group." Prof. Grote,1 in dealing with a family of moths, the
Noctuidce, calls attention to the unequal value of Acronycta, and is
forced to admit that these differences become clear through the
theory of evolution. He says : " Where in Acronycta there is a gen-
eral prevailing uniformity in the appearance in a single group of spe-
cies and generally broad distinctions between the larval forms, it is a
not unreasonable conclusion that these larval differences are gradu-
ally evolved by a natural protective law, which intensifies their char-
acters in the direction in which they are serviceable to the continu-
ance of the species."

Those who have believed in types as fixed laws, rigidly impressed
at the outset of life, are those also who have recognized in the cells
of a honey-bee, as well as in the arrangement of leaves about the
axis of a plant, a perfect mathematical adjustment of parts, which
were stamped at the beginning, and have so continued to exist with-
out deviation. For nearly two hundred years it has been believed
that the instinct of a bee guided it to shape a cell which of all other
forms should use the least amount of material. A theory having been
established as to the constant shape of a bee's cell, namely, that it
was an hexagonal prism with trihedral bases, each face of the base
being a rhomb with certain definite angles, a mathematician wTas
given the problem to construct similar cells, and to determine the
best possible form with the use of the least amount of material. The
coincidence between theory and observation and experiment was so
remarkable as to settle apparently for all time the question as to the
perfectly-implanted instinct of the bee with its unconscious power of
accurate work. Prof. Jeffries Wyman,2 to whose memoir I am indebted

1 " Proceedings of the Buffalo Society of Natural Science," vol. i., p. 130.

2 " Proceedings of the American Academy," vol. vii., p. 68.

16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. .

for the above facts, has by an ingenious study of the cells of bees shown,
first, that, a cell of this perfection is rarely if ever attained. Further-
more, that, while the honey-cells " are built unequivocally in accord-
ance with the hexagonal type, they exhibit a range of variation which
almost defies description ; " that the worker-bees, from incorrect
alignment and other causes, build cells, the measurement of which
shows the widest limit of variation ; that the drone-cells are liable
to substantially the same variations, while the transition-cells, namely,
those in which drones and worker-cells are combined in the same
piece of comb, are extremely irregular. As the drone-cells are one-
fifth larger than worker-cells, " a transition cannot be made without
some disturbance in the regularity of the structure." And Prof.
Wyinan states distinctly that the bees do not have any systematic
method of making the change, adding that " the cell of the bee
has not that strict conformity to geometrical accuracy claimed for
it," and the assertion, like that of Lord Brougham, that there is in the
cell of the bee " perfect agreement between theory and observation,
in view of the analogies of Nature, is far more likely to be wrong
than right, and his assertion in the case before us is certainly wrong."
Prof. AYyman closes his essay by saying that " much error would
have been avoided if those who have discussed the structure of the
bee's cell had adopted the plan followed by Mr. Darwin, and studied
the habits of the cell-making insects comparatively, beginning with
the cells of the humble-bee, following with those of the wasps and
hornets, then with those of the Mexican bees, and finally with those
of the common hive-bee ; in this way they would have found that,
while there is a constant approach to the perfect form, they would at
the same time have been prepared for the fact that even in the cell of
the hive-bee perfection is not reached. The isolated study of any-
thing in Nature is a fruitful source of error."

The remarkable ingenuity, so characteristic of Prof. Wyman's ex-
periments, is fully shown in this memoir. He made plaster-casts of
the comb, and then sawed transverse sections, and by slightly heat-
ing the plaster the wax was melted and absorbed, leaving the deli-
cate interspaces representing the partitions. From these sections
electrotypes were taken, and thus the veritable figures were used to
illustrate the absolute structure of the comb. The results of these
brilliant researches were published in the " Proceedings of the Amer-
ican Academy of Sciences."

\To be continued.]

THE EARLY HIS TOBY OF FIRE. i7

THE EAKLY HISTORY OF FIRE.1

Br Professor N. JOLY,

OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCES, TOULOUSE.

FIRE, the common source of heat, of light, and of life, and the
active principle of a multitude of industries, and of metallurgi-
cal industry in particular, is unquestionably one of the greatest con-
quests achieved by man over Nature.

The discovery of fire was more than a benefit ; it was, in fact, a
giant stride on the road to civilization. With fire arose sociability,
the family, the sacred joys of the domestic hearth, all industries, all
arts, together with the wonders they have produced, and still pro-
duce from day to day. Hence w'e can readily understand how it is
that fire has ever been and still is, among many nations, the object of
a special worship (priests of Baal, Ghebers, Hindoo Brahmans, Roman
vestals, priestesses of the sun in Peru, etc.) ; and that it has often fig-
ured in the relioious or funereal rites of nations most remote from one
another, both in time and space, as the Chaldees, Hebrews, Greeks,
Romans, Peruvians, Mexicans, etc. But how and when was this great
discovery made, in the absence of which we can hardly conceive of
the possibility of human arts or even of human existence ? Did man,
as we are told in the myths of India and Greece, steal fire from heav-
en ; or did he, as other legends affirm, take advantage of spontaneous
forest-fires, arising from the violent rubbing together of dry branches
under the action of the wind ; or, finally, was man so ingenious, even
from the beginning, as to devise one of those simple and practical
contrivances by means of which certain savage and half-civilized
tribes in our own time obtain the fire they need for their daily uses ?

However far back we may trace man's history, we find him always
in possession of fire. The story of Prometheus getting fire from
Olympus is nothing but the Vedic myth which tells of the god Agni,
or heavenly fire (Latin, ignis), as squatting in a hiding-place whence
he is compelled by Matarichvan to come forth in order to be com-
municated to Manu, the first man, or to Bhrigu (the shining one), the
father of the sacerdotal family of the same name.

The very name of Prometheus is of purely Vedic origin, and calls
to mind the process employed by the ancient Brahmans in getting the
sacred fire. For this they used a spindle called rnatha or pramatha,
the prefix pra adding the idea of taking by force to the signification of
the root matha ; this latter is from the verb mathndmi, or manthdmi —
" to bring out by friction." Prometheus, therefore, is the one who dis-
covered fire, brings it forth from is hiding-place, steals it and gives it

1 Translated from the French by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.
vol. x. — 2

18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to mankind. From Pramantka, or Pramathyus — " lie who hollows out
by rubbing," "he who steals fire" — the transition is easy and natural,
and there is only one step from the Indian Pramathyus to the Prome-
theus of the Greeks, who stole the heavenly fire to light the spark of
life, the soul, in the clay-formed man.

The spindle or pramantha had wound round it a cord of hemp
mixed with cow-hair, and with this cord the priest of Brahma gave
it an alternating rotary motion from right to left and from left to
right. In rotating the spindle, one end of it rested in a depression
made at the intersection-point of two crossed pieces of wood, the ends
of which were bent to a right angle, and firmly secured with four
bronze nails, thus preventing them from moving. The entire appa-
ratus was called sioastika.1 The father of the sacred fire was named
Twastri, i. e., the divine carpenter who made the sioastika and the
pramantka, the mutual rubbing of which together produced the divine
babe Agni. Its mother was named Maya. Agni took the name of
Akta (i. e., anointed, christos) after the priest had poured on its head
the soma, and on its body the purified butter of the sacrifice.

In his interesting work on the " Origin of Fire," Adalbert Kuhn

gives to the r-M and to this other like sign, r^H the name of arani,

and both of them he regards as the religious symbols, par excellence,
of our old Aryan ancestors — the symbols of sexual reproduction.

This fire-myth occurs also in the Zendavesta, or sacred book of
the Persians, and in the Vedic hymns of the Hindoos, under a two-
fold form, both material and metaphysical. But the authors of these
hymns bear witness that this same myth was, long before their time,
symbolized in a great national religion, the founder of which, Rhibu,
is no other than Orpheus. This tradition, common to Greeks, Hin-
doos, and Persians, carries us back to those ancient times when the as
yet undiscovered branches of this stock wandered upon the banks of
the Oxus.

In his " Researches into the Early History of Mankind," Tylor
gives interesting details about the discovery of fire, and the various
modes of obtaining it in every age. The primitive method of all
would seem, according to him, to have consisted in rubbing together
two pieces of dry wood, but this process was perfected in the course
of time. Thus, friction is produced by means of a stick which is made

1 It is well worthy of note that the swastika, !_L1 , of India occurs very frequently in

two forms, viz., !ZLJ and w o "P, on the earthen-ware disks found in such great numbers

I 1— L'-T1

by Dr. Schliemann among the ruins of ancient Ilium. From this it would seem to follow
that the Trojans were of Aryan origin. As for the analogies, or even direct resemblances,
between certain ceremonies to the worship of Agni and certain rites of the Catholic
worship, they, too, may be explained, at least to some extent, by community of origin :
Agni, as Akta, would be Christ ; Maya, the Virgin Mary; Twastri, Saint Joseph.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF FIRE.

19

to slide rapidly to and fro upon a piece of dry, soft wood laid upon the
ground (in Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Timor, etc.).
This process Tylor denominates the stick-and-groove (Fig. 1), but the
fire-drill (Figs. 2 and 4) is more generally used. In its simplest form,
the fire-drill consists of a stick, one extremity of which is inserted in

Fig. 1.— The Stick-and-Groove. (Tylor.)

Fig. 2.— The Fiee-Drill. (Tylor.)

a hole bored in a piece of dry wood, while the stick itself is twirled
between the hands and pressed downward {see Fig. 2).

This instrument occurs not only in Australia, Sumatra, the Caro-
line Islands, and Kamtchatka, but also in China, South Africa, and
North and South America. It was employed by the ancient Mexicans,
and is still in use among the Yenadis of Southern India, and the
Veddas of Ceylon (Fig. 3).

^l^^T^^^^

Fig. 3.— Ancient Mexican Fire-Drill. (Tylor.)

It is still further modified by causing the stick to whirl by means
of a thong wound round it, the ends of which are pulled in opposite
directions alternately. This is the instrument described in the Ve-
das, and it is still employed by the Brahmans of our own day for
lighting the sacred fire. For, as Tylor well observes, we very often
see fire obtained for use in religious rites by the ancient processes,

20

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

rather than by the readier means discovered in later times. Thus,
when the vestals permitted the sacred fire to go out, it was rekindled
by means of the sun's rays, concentrated by a lens. A similar method
was employed by the ancient priests of Peru in kindling the sacrificial
fire.

Fig. 4— Fike-Dkill of the Oauchos. (Tylor.)

An instrument resembling that employed by the Brahmans of
India is to this day in use among the Esquimaux and the Aleuts (Fig.
G). It consists of a rod, one end of which fits into a mouth-piece, and
the other into a hole in a piece of dry wood. The rod is twirled by
means of a thong wound twice around it, and pulled to the right and
left alternately by the hands.

Slight modifications occur in the form of the fire-drill, and various
instruments have been devised to serve the same purpose. For in-
stance, there are the bow-drill and the pump-drill, which latter is used
both for obtaining fire and for boring holes in wood, stone, and metal
(Figs. 5 and V).

Fig. 5.— Bow-Drill, used bt the Sioux. (Tylor.)

Of other means of procuring fire we will simply mention, in passing,
the striking together of flints, or flint and steel, or iron pyrites; strik-
ing together two pieces of bamboo (this method peculiar to China) ;
compressing air in a tube of ivory or of wood (a process adopted by
the Malays, etc.).

THE EARLY HISTORY OF FIRE.

21

The dried parenchyma of the Boletus igniarius, frayed cedar-bark,
dry leaves, carbonized vegetal fibres, and the like, are the combustible
materials commonly employed to receive the spark produced by
friction or by concussion.

Is there or has there ever been a people absolutely ignorant of the
means of producing fire ? Many authors answer this question affirm-
atively. Thus we are told that the natives of Tasmania, though ac-
quainted with fire and making use of it, nevertheless are ignorant of
the means of producing it. Hence it is the special duty of their
women to carry fire-brands that burn day and night, and by the light
of which the tribe make their way through the woods. If the torches
or brands go out, it may be necessary to make a long journey in order
to have them lighted again from the fire kept up by another tribe.
Nearly every family, too, carries about a cone of banksia, which burns
slowly like amadou.

Fig. 6.— Esquimau Thong-Drill. (Tjlor.)

Fig. 7.— Pump-Drill. (Tylor.)

That the Australians are not so ignorant of the uses of fire as they
are said to be, is shown by a legend current among them about the
origin of fire. This legend we copy from Wilson, who, in his work,
" Prehistoric Man," devotes a highly-interesting chapter to the ques-
tion we are considering : " A long, long time ago, a little bandicoot '
was the sole owner of a fire-brand, which he cherished with the great-
est jealousy. So selfish was he in the use of his prize that he obsti-
nately refused to share it with the other animals. So they held a
general council, where it was decided that the fire must be obtained
from the bandicoot either by force or strategy. The hawk and the
pigeon were deputed to carry out thts resolution ; and, after trying to
induce the fire-owner to share its blessings with his neighbors, the
pigeon, seizing, as he thought, an unguarded moment, made a dash to
obtain the prize. The bandicoot saw that affairs had come to a crisis,
1 A small, sharp-nosed animal, not unlike the Guinea-pig.

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and, in desperation, threw the fire toward the river, there to quench
it forever. But, fortunately for the black man, the sharp-eyed hawk
was hovering near, and, seeing the fire fall into the water, with a
stroke of his wine: he knocked the brand far over the stream into the
long, dry grass of the opposite bank, and the flames spread over the
face of the country. The black man then felt the fire, and said it
was good." '

Did prehistoric man possess fire ? If we are to believe the Abbe
Bourgeois, man was in possession of fire since Miocene times. This
assertion rests upon the discovery in the sands of the Orleanais of a
fragment of artificial paste 2 mixed with charcoal, and lying in the
midst of mastodon and dinotherium bones. It also rests, but not so
firmly, upon the discovery by the same savant of cracked flints in the
neighborhood of Thenay, not far from the banks of the lake of Beauce.
These flints appear to bear plain traces of the action of fire ; but may
not these be due to lightning ? If not, where are the ashes, where
the charcoal which naturally would accompany the flints if they had
been really brought under the action of fire ? Then, where is the fire-
place ? Hence, the Abbe Bourgeois's deduction is not an impossible
one, though in my opinion it is by no means demonstrated. •

But, though the discovery of fire in Miocene times may be ques-
tioned, it cannot be denied that in the earliest Quaternary times this
element was known to man. Several fireplaces, ashes, charcoal, bones,
either entire or partly calcined, fragments of coarse pottery black-
ened by smoke, and similar objects, have been found in caverns be-
longing to the epoch of the Cave Bear, and of the Reindeer and the
Polished Stone age. These things prove that the men who inhabited
the caves commonly enough cooked their food, thus making it more
readily digestible.

With the aid of fire, prehistoric man cremated his dead, hollowed
out his pirogue, and saved from too rapid destruction the lower extrem-
ity of the piles on which he built his lake-dwellings. And not only
did the troglodyte and the lacustrian know how to cook their food
and warm their habitations, but they also were acquainted with vari-
ous methods of lighting them during the darkness of night. There
have been found in the Lake of Geneva carbonized sticks of resinous
wood, which, in all probability, once were employed for this latter
purpose. Just as the Esquimaux now light their snow huts by means
of lamps fed with the oil of the porpoise or the whale, so did the
Danes of the kitchen-middens use, for illuminating purposes, a wick
made of moss, one end of which was introduced into the stomach of a
great penguin (Alca impennis) filled with fat.

The use of flint, quartz, and iron pyrites, in the Lacustrian period,
for procuring fire by striking these substances against one another, is

1 Vol. i., p. 139.

2 Paste, the mineral substance in which other minerals are imbedded. — Webster.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS. 23

proved by the discovery, in the lakes of Switzerland (at Meilen, Moos-
seedorf, Wangeu, and Robenhausen), of bits of tinder prepared from
the Boletus igniarius. And, if we accept the views of Messrs. Ed.
Lartet and Christy with regard to certain blocks of granite, hol-
lowed out in the centre, which have been found in the caves of Peri-
gord, these blocks would appear to have been intended for the pur-
pose of procuring fire by rapidly rotating a wooden rod in the central
cavity, as is done by the priests of Brahma.

And, indeed, how could it happen that fire should have been un-
known even in the earliest periods of Quaternary time, considering
the chances of fire being struck from these flints, whether in the
workshop or in battle, and of the sparks falling upon combustible
materials — for instance, dry leaves ? This explanation we hold to be
simpler and more natural than the other, which refers the discovery of
fire to the spontaneous conflagrations of forests, or to the friction of
dry branches of trees.

Fire, we repeat with profound conviction, must have been very
early known to man, for we cannot conceive of his living without it.
And hence, " who can picture the joy, the gladness, the radiant ec-
stasy of that one of our unknown forefathers who first triumphantly
exhibited to his astonished tribesmen the smoking brand from which
he had succeeded in causing flame to burst forth ? " '

Thus we have seen that fire gave rise to nearly all the arts, or at
least promoted their development. Metallurgy, architecture, ceramic
arts, agriculture, navigation, commerce, industry, all are quickened
by its vivifying flame. It has played, and still does play, an impor-
tant part in the religious ceremonies and the funereal rites of nations,
both savage and civilized. But then, in turn, as though by a law of
Fate, evil accompanies the good : fire destroys with greater rapidity
than it produces by forging those formidable engines, those imple-
ments of death, by which in the twinkling of an eye the flower of
nations is cut down on the battle-field. — Revue Scientifiqtie.

♦ «»

PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

AT a meeting of the British Association five years ago, the subject
of science-teaching in our higher schools excited unusual inter-
est. Not only were papers read and followed by enthusiastic discus-
sion, but a committee was privately formed, including more than
twenty leaders of the Association, all of whom undertook to combine
in pressing the claims of science on our head-masters, and in offer-
ing counsel as to systems and methods, apparatus, and expenditure.
1 Albert Reville, Revue des Deux Mondes, tome xl.

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Technical difficulties prevented the formal nomination of the com-
mittee in that year ; and before the next meeting came round the
Science Commission was in full work, and the ground was covered.
Five years have passed; the commission has reported ; and the Brit-
ish Association, if it deals at all Avith the problem that lies at the
root of our scientific progress, will have to face the fact that only ten
endowed schools in England give as much as four hours a week to
the study of science ; in other words, that, in spite of ten years of
talk, the eclat of a Royal Commission, a complete consensus of scientific
authority, and the loud demands of less educated but not less keen-
sighted public opinion, the organization and practical working of
science in our higher schools has scarcely advanced a step since the
Schools Inquiry Commission reported in 1868.

Are the causes of this strange paralysis discoverable, and are they
capable of present remedy ? We believe that they are notorious, and
that it is in the power of the British Association at the present mo-
ment to overrule them. It is therefore in the hope of rekindling a
productive enthusiasm at a critical moment in the history of our
science-teaching that we appeal with all the earnestness of which we
are capable to the leaders of the great parliament, whose session will
have opened before this goes to press.

The first obstacle to be understood and reckoned with is the
amazing confusion in the minds of unscientific leaders of opinion as
to the very nature of education. An ex-Lord Chancellor gives away
prizes to a school, declares in stately terms that Greek and Latin must
always form the backbone of high intellectual training, and that the
sciences can only be tolerated as a sort of ornament or capital to this
great central vertebral column. On the following day an ex-Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer gives away prizes at another school, assures the
boys that modern scientific teaching is their being's end and aim, and
envies them by comparison with himself, who at Winchester and Ox-
ford basked only in the " clarum antiques lucis jubar." 1 In all such
public utterances chaos reigns supreme. Men take side with one or
other branch of mental discipline, unconscious of the Nemesis which
waits on the divorce of literature from science, or of science from liter-
ature, forgetful of the fundamental truths that all minds require gen-
eral training up to a certain point, and that the period at which special
education should supervene is the problem which awaits solution.

The hostility of the clergy ranks high among the difficulties we
have to recognize. To the gi-eat public schools this is matter of in-
difference; but the vigorous head-master of a young and rising coun-
ty school, who attempts, being himself a clergyman, to make real
science compulsory in his school, is rattened by the vulgar heresy-
hunters, who swarm in every diocese. The hint and shrug in society,
the whisper at clerical conferences, the warning to parents attracted

1 The bright radiance of ancient light.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS. 25

by the school against " atheistic tendencies," keep down his numbers
and wear out his energies, till his enterprise becomes a warning in-
stead of an example to his admirers at other schools. In a neighbor-
hood of rural squires and clergy, untempered by a large town's neigh-
borhood, and unchecked by any man of education and intelligence
holding sovereignty by virtue of superior rank and wealth, a school
which treads doggedly in the ancient paths, and is flavored with gen-
tle " High-Church tendencies," will certainly succeed even in second-
rate hands, while a school which under superior chieftainship asserts
the claims of science, and whose theology is therefore suspect, will
as certainly long struggle for existence, if it does not finally succumb.

The head-masters, with no inveterate intention, but by the force
of circumstance's, are potent allies upon the side of nescience. Their
position is peculiar. Enlightened, able, high-minded, and most labo-
rious, to speak of them with disrespect would be to forfeit claim to a
heai-insr. But of their whole number not more than two or three
know anything at all of science ; they have gained honors and
supremacy by proficiency in other subjects ; to teach well these sub-
jects which they know, forms their happiness and satisfies their sense
of duty ; and they feel natural dismay at the proposal to force upon
them new and untried work which they have not knowledge to super-
vise, and which must displace whole departments of classical study.
Bifurcation they do not mind, for they hope that the dunces will be
drafted into the modern school, and the clever boys retained upon the
classical side ; but the momentous recommendation of the Royal
Commission that six hours a week of science-teaching should be given
to every boy in every school has taken away their breath ; it was
only once alluded to at the last head-masters' meeting, and then with
something between a protest and a sneer. They are too clear-sighted
not to see that the demand for science-teaching is real, and too liberal
not readily to accede to it, if some central authority, which they
respect, at once puts pressure on them, and tenders such assistance
and advice as they can trust. But, until these two things are done,
they will pursue a policy of inaction.

Nor is there any hope that this reluctance of head-masters will be
stimulated by exuberant energy on the part of governing bodies.
The instances in which these pet creations of the Endowed Schools
Commission have appeared before the public hitherto make it evi-
dent that absolute inactivity is the service they are best calculated
to render to the cause of education ; but their probable devotion to
science may be guessed from an incident reported in our columns
some months ago, where a body of trustees, composed of country
gentlemen of local mark, having to arrange a competitive examination
under a scheme of the Charity Commission, adopted the machinery
of the University Leaving Examination, but inserted a distinct pro-
viso that no scientific subject recognized by the university regula-

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions should under any circumstances be taken up by the candidates,
either as an alternative or a positive branch of work.

Will the universities help or impede the spread of school science-
teaching ? The universities adhere at present to their fatal principle
that only one-sided knowledge shall find favor within their walls. A
boy who knows nothing but classics, nothing but mathematics, noth-
ing but science, may easily win a scholarship ; a boy who knows all
three must seek distinction elsewhere ; and this rule shapes inevita-
bly the teaching of the schools. The science scholarships at Oxford,
of which we hear so much, fall mainly to three distinguished schools :
two so large and wealthy that they can overpower most competitors
by their expenditure on staff and apparatus ; the third planted in
Oxford, with access to the university museum and laboratory, and
with a pick of teachers'from the men of whom examiners are made ;
and these schools insure success in science by abandoning other sub-
jects almost or altogether in the case of the candidates they send up.
No school which should carry out the recommendations of the com-
missioners by giving six hours a week to science, and the rest of its
time to literature and mathematics ; no school which should realize
its function as bound to develop young minds by strengthening in
fair proportion all their faculties of imagination, reason, memory, and
observation — could offer boys for any sort of scholarship under the
present university system with the faintest chance of success.

What these institutions are powerless to avert or helpless to bring
about is, we repeat, within the scope of the British Association to
effect. All institutions, political or educational, will bow to a strong-
ly-formed committee of scientific men, formally commissioned by the
Association and speaking with authority, delegated as well as per-
sonal, on scientific subjects. Let such a committee be revived as
died on paper in 1871, including the acknowledged leaders of pure
science, and weighted with the names of such educationalists as have
shown themselves zealous for science-teaching. Let their functions
be — 1. To communicate with the head-masters and governing bod-
ies, calling attention to the recommendations of the Duke of Devon-
shire's commission, asking how far and how soon each school is pre-
pared to carry these out, and tendering advice, should it be desired,
on any details as to selection and sequence of subjects, teachers, text-
books, outlay. 2. Let them appeal to the universities, to which many
of them belong, as to the bearing of science scholarships and fellow-
ships upon school-teaching, and the extent to which such influence
may be modified or ameliorated in that rearrangement of college
funds which next session will probably be commenced. 3. Let them
be instructed to watch the action of Government in any proposal
made either in pursuance of Lord Salisbury's bill, or as giving effect
to the Duke of Devonshire's commission, and let them be known to
hold a brief for school science in reference to all such legislation. A

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN. 27

single meeting of such a committee before the Association separates
would settle a basis of action and compress itself into a working sub-
committee. The time for papers and discussions is past ; they have
done their work. What the schools and the head-masters want is
authoritative guidance — the guidance not only of a blue-book, but of
a living leadership, central, commanding, and accessible, to which
they may look with confidence, and bow without loss of prestige.

The precision of its dicta will clear up public confusion ; its abil-
ity, conscientiousness, and pojmlarity, will overawe the clergy ; schools
and universities will listen respectfully to suggestions echoed by their
own best men ; and the three great departments of intellectual culture,
equal in credit, appliances, and teaching power, will bring out all the
faculties and elicit the special aptitudes of every English boy.

" Hinc omne principium, hue refer exitum." l

— Nature.

-+*+-

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN.

By Professor H. CHAELTON BASTIAN.

II.

IT now remains for us to consider the disposition of the nervous sys-
tem in some of the principal types of the sub-kingdom Mollusca.

These are animals wholly different in kind from those we have
just been considering, mostly aquatic, and all of them devoid of
hollow, articulated, locomotor appendages. Their organs of vege-
tative life attain a disproportionate development. On the other hand,
what are termed the " organs of relation " present a wide range of
variation, as may be imagined from the fact that while some of the
simplest representatives of the Mollusca consist of mere motionless
sacs or bags, containing organs of digestion, respiration, circulation,
and generation, its more complex forms are active predatory creatures,
endowed with remarkable and varied powers of locomotion, and with
sense-organs as keen and as highly developed as those of insects. The
lower type is represented by the motionless ascidian, and the higher
by the active and highly-endowed cuttle-fish.

Omitting any reference to the Polyzoa, we may turn our attention
first of all to the Tunicata, of which the solitary ascidians may be
taken as the type. They are marine animals, possessing no powers
of locomotion, and having no head. The current of sea-water, serving
for respiratory purposes, and, at the same time, containing food-parti-
cles, enters a large branchial chamber, through an open, funnel-like
projection of the investing tunic of the animal, the orifice of which

1 With this begin, to this refer the end.

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is guarded by sensitive tentacula and a sphincter muscle. The mouth
is situated at the bottom of this branchial sac, down the side of which
minute particles of food are swept by ciliary action, so as to be
brought within the simple commencement of the oesophagus. The
effete sea-water passes through the walls of this branchial cavity into
a general body-chamber, in which the viscera are contained. This
cavity is bounded externally by a muscular expansion, lining the outer
cellulose tunic. By the periodical contraction of this muscular sac,
the water which enters it, together with food-residues and ova, is ex-
pelled through another funnel-like opening, adjacent to and very
similar to that by which it gains entry to the branchial chamber.

Although these ascidians have a definite alimentary canal, a circu-
latory system, and respiratory organs, together with a distinct genital
apparatus, their life of relation with the external world is of the sim-
plest description. They are stationary creatures, and have no pre-
hensile organs, food being brought to the commencement of their
alimentary canal by ciliary action.

In correspondence with such a simple mode of life, we might ex-
pect to find a very rudimentary nervous system, and this expectation
is fully realized. The Tunicata possess a single small nervous gan-
glion lying between the bases of the two funnels through which water
is taken in and discharged. This ganglion receives branches from the
tentacula guarding the orifice of the oral funnel, and possibly from
the branchial chamber, while it gives off outgoing, filaments to the
various parts of the muscular sac, and perhaps to the alimentary
canal, and some of the other internal organs. In some of the solitary
Tunicata a rudimentary visual function is presumed to exist. At all
events, pigment-spots are situated on, or in very close relation with,
the solitary ganglion. This single body seems to serve for the per-
formance, in a rudimentary manner, of the various functions dis-
charged by at least two pairs of ganglia in a large number of higher
Mollusca, viz., those known as the cerebral and the parieto-splanchnic
or branchial.

The brachiopods are among the oldest and most wide-spread of
the forms of life in the fossil state, and the geographical distribution
of their living representatives at the present day is also very wide.
Like the Tunicata, they are headless organisms, and lead a sedentary
existence, attached either by a pedicle or by one division of their
bivalve shells. The mouth is unprovided with any appendages for
grasping food — nutritive particles being brought to it by means of
ciliary currents. Numerous muscles exist which connect the valves
of the shell to one another, and with the inclosed animal. And,
though the visceral organization of the brachiopods is somewhat
complex, no definite sense-organs have yet been detected in any of
them. In the nervous system of these sedentary animals, there is,
therefore, nothing answering to a brain as it is ordinarily constituted,

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN. 29

though ganglia exist around the oesophagus which must receive
afferent impressions of some kind, and from which branches proceed
to the various muscles and viscera of the body.

Such low sensory endowments as are presented by the Brachiopoda
would be wholly incompatible with that degree of visceral complexity
of organization which they possess, had it not been for the fact that
they lead such a passive existence 'in respect to quest of food. They
do not go in search of it at all — they remain securely anchored while
food is brought to the entrance of their alimentary canal by means
of cilia. • The absence of sense-organs and of a brain is, indeed, only
compatible with a ^wtm-vegetative existence such as this.

The lamellibranchs, or ordinary headless bivalve 3Iollusca, also
include some representatives — such as the oyster and its allies — which
lead a sedentary life after the fashion of the Mollusca already men-
tioned. The valves of the shell in these lamellibranchs are lateral,
instead of being dorsal and ventral as among the branchiopods. The
shell is, however, closed by a single adductor muscle, and it is opened,
when this relaxes, by means of an elastic hinge.

The mouth of the oyster is surrounded by four labial appendages,
whose functions are not very definitely known. It presents no other
appendages of any kind in the neighborhood of the mouth, and, as in
the two types of Mollusca already described, the food which it swal-
lows is brought to the entrance of its oesophagus by means of ciliary
currents. This well-known animal has a large and important nervous
ganglion (Fig. 8, b) situated posteriorly, and close to the great ad
ductor muscle. It gives off' branches to this muscle, to each half of
the mantle, to the gills (c, c), and it sends forward two long parallel
branches (d, c7), which serve to connect it with a much smaller an-
terior ganglion (a, a) situated on each side of the mouth. These an-
terior or labial ganglia are joined by a commissure arching over the
mouth, and also by a more slender thread beneath the mouth, from
which filaments (e) are given off to the stomach. These latter filaments
may be considered to have a function similar to that of the stomato-
gastric nerves in insects. The anterior ganglia receive nerves (/) from
the labial processes, probably for the most part afferent in function.
At all events, these processes have no distinct muscular structure.

Other lamellibranchs possess a remarkable muscular appendage
known as the foot, w*hich is in relation with an additional single or
double nervous ganglion, and is used in various ways as an organ of
locomotion. The animals possessing this organ are also provided
with a second adductor muscle for closing their shells. Speaking of
the various uses of the foot among bivalves, Prof. Owen says : " To
some which rise to the surface of the water it acts, by its expansion,
as a float ; to others it serves by its bent form as an instrument to
drag them along the sands ; to a third family it is a burrowing organ ;
to many it aids in the execution of short leaps."

3°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

These bivalves possessing a foot present three pairs of ganglia in-
stead of two — the anterior or oval, the posterior or branchial, and the
inferior or pedal. It occasionally happens, however, that the ganglia
of the posterior or of the inferior pair become approximated or even
fused into one. The fusion of the posterior pair takes place, as in the
oyster, when the branchiae from which they receive nerves come close
together posteriorly. On the other hand, in those mollusks in which
the branchiae are farther apart, the two ganglia remain separate, and
are connected only by a short commissure, as in the mussel (Fig. 9, b).

Fig. 8. — Nervous System of the
Oyster.

Fig. 9. — Nervous System of the Common Mcssel.

The separate existence or fusion of the inferior or pedal ganglia
depends upon the size and shape of the foot. The nerves in relation
with these ganglia are distributed almost wholly to this organ and its
retractor muscles. Where the foot is broad the ganglia remain sep-
arate, and are merely connected by a commissure. But where the
foot is small and narrow, as in the mussel, the two ganglia become
fused into one (Fig. §,p).

Some of the special senses are unquestionably represented among
these headless Mollusca, though the distribution of the different or-
gans is very peculiar. Thus in Pecten, Pinna, Spondulus, the oyster,
and many others, very distinct and often pedunculated ocelli are dis-
tributed over both margins of the pallium or mantle. These vary in
number from forty to two hundred or more, and are in connection
with distinct branches of the circurupallial nerves. In the razor-fish,

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN. 31

the cockle, Venus, and other bivalves possessing those prolongations
of the mantle known as siphon-tubes, the eyes are situated either at
the base or on the tips of the numerous small tentacles distributed
around the orifices of these tubes, which in those of them living in
the sand are often the only parts appearing above the surface. The
margins of the mantle are also garnished by a number of short though
apparently very sensitive tentacles, in which the creature's most spe-
cialized sense of touch seems to reside. Some of these tactile append-
ages, as well as some of the ocelli, send their nerves to the posterior
or parieto-splanchnic ganglia, while those situated on the anterior
borders of the mantle communicate with the anterior or oral ganglia.
The latter ganglia also receive filaments from the so-called labial ap-
pendages, whose function is uncertain, though it has been suggested
that they may be organs of taste or smell. Lastly, in close relation
with the pedal ganglia or ganglion, there are two minute saccules
(Fig. 9, s), to which an auditory function is usually ascribed.

Thus we find among these headless mollusks a distribution of spe-
cially impressible parts or sensory organs, such as cannot be paralleled
among any other animals. The sense of touch and the sense of sight
seem to be more especially in relation with the great posterior gan-
glia. These sensory functions are, however, to a minor extent shared
by the oral ganglia, which are also in relation with parts that may
possibly be organs of taste or smell. On the other hand, auditory
impressions are invariably brought into relation with the inferior or
pedal ganglia. In these headless mollusks, therefore, the functions
pertaining to the brain in other animals are distributed in a very re-
markable manner, and the anterior ganglia cannot in them be proper-
ly regarded as representing such an organ.

The viscera in these lamellibranchs are also in relation with the
three pairs of ganglia, and not exclusively with any one of them.
Filaments to the intestinal canal and the liver are usually given off
from the commissures between the anterior and the posterior ganglia;
the genital organs are in connection with filaments coming from the
commissures between the anterior and the inferior or pedal ganglia ;
while the branchiae are in relation with the ganglia at the posterior
part of the body.1

There is another interesting class of mollusks — the Pteropoda —
which,, in respect of powers of locomotion and the possession of a dis-
tinct head, may, if for no other reasons, be said to lead us on from the
comparatively sluggish bivalve Mullmca to the gasteropods and the
cephalopods, all of which are distinguished by definite and wide-
reaching powers of locomotion, and by the possession of a distinct
head carrying sense-organs, and a more or less developed brain.

1 In speaking of the nervous system of the lamellibranchs, I have not alluded to cer-
tain small accessory ganglia which exist in some of them in relation with peculiar special-
ly developed contractile structures.

3z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The possession, by many members of this class, of two fin-like mus-
cular expansions attached to the side of the head induced Cuvier to
give them the name Pteropoda. Prof. Owen says : "All the species
of Pteropoda are of small size ; they float in the open sea, often at
great distances from any shore, and serve, with the Accdep/ice, to
people the remote tracts of the ocean. In the latitudes suitable to
their well-being, the little Pteropoda swarm in incredible numbers, so
as to discolor the surface of the sea for leagues ; and the Clio and the
Limacina constitute, in the northern seas, the principal article of food
of the great whales."

Some of the least highly-organized members of this class, such as
the Hyalaceos, are provided with a bivalve shell, and cannot be said
to possess a head. They have a simple commencement of the ali-
mentary canal at the anterior extremity of the body ; but since this
anterior extremity has no tactile appendages and no eyes, and inas-
much as it also contains no cerebral ganglia, it can have no claim to
be considered as a head. Their chief nervous centre consists of a
flat, somewhat quadrate, sub-oesophageal ganglion, to the anterior
angles of which is attached a nervous commissure which extends
upward so as to encircle the gullet, though there are no ganglia either
on or at the sides of this tube in the usual situation occupied by cere-
bral ganglia.

In other pteropods devoid of a shell, we meet with a higher organ-
ization. Thus in Clio there is a distinct head bearing sensory ap-
pendages in the form of two tentacula and two eyes, and containing
in its interior a brain. This brain is represented by two connected
super-oesophageal ganglia, which are in relation, by means of nerves,
with the cephalic sensory organs, and in connection with the sub-ceso-
phageal commissure are the two pedal and two branchial ganglia.
The two pairs of ganglia exist separately in Clio and its allies,
though they are combined into one quadrate mass in Hyalea. In this
latter there are two acoustic vesicles in contact with the anterior part
of the great ganglion, while in Clio similar vesicles are in connection
with the anterior pair of sub-cesophageal ganglia — that is, with the
pair which corresponds with the pedal ganglia of the common bivalve
mollusks.

Gasteropods constitute a class of organisms which, in point of
numbers, can only be compared with the still more numerously repre-
sented class Of insects. Their name is derived from the fact that
these animals crawl by means of a large muscular expansion stretched
out beneath the viscera. The locomotion of the members of this class
may be said to be, in the main, dependent upon their own individual
efforts, so that, in this respect, they differ widely from the pteropods,
whose locomotions are brought about by wiuds driving them along
the surface of the water on which they float.

Some gasteropods are terrestrial, air-breathing animals, though by

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN.

33

far the greater number are aquatic, and breathe by means of gills.
But being all of them, as Prof. Owen says, "endowed with power to
attain, subdue, and devour organic matter, dead and living," we find
their nervous system not only better developed, more complex and
concentrated, but also in relation with more highly-evolved organs of
special sense and exploration. It offers considerable variations in its
general arrangement, especially as regards relative positions of gan-
glia, though these modifications are, to a great extent, referable to
differences in the outward configuration of the body.

Some of the differences in external form which are to be met with
among gasteropods are well illustrated by the limpet or the chiton, as
compared with the snail. Here differences in form coexist with dif-
ferences in habit, so that we almost necessarily meet with notable
variations in the disposition of the principal parts of the nervous
system.

In the limpet we find that the two small cerebral ganglia (Fig.
10, a) are widely separated from one another, and lie at the side of the
cesophagus. Each receives a rather large nerve from one of the ten-
tacles, and a smaller optic nerve. A commissure connects these cere-
bral ganglia above the cesophagus with one another, while each of
them is also in relation by means of two descending commissures
with a series of four connected ganglia forming a transversely-ar-
ranged row beneath the cesophagus. Of these the two median gan-
glia (JB) correspond with the pedal, while the two external ( C) cor-
respond with the branchial ganglia, though they are here separated
from one another by an immensely wide interval.

Fig. 10.— Nervous System of the
Common Limpet.

Fig. 11. — Nervous System of Chiton
marmoralus.

However small and undeveloped t-he duplex brain of the limpet
may be, this organ exists in an even more rudimentary state in some
other gasteropods. Thus, in the chiton, which is a close ally of the
limpet, and about the most simply organized of all the gasteropods,
there are neither tentacles nor eyes, and, as a consequence of this,

VOL. X. — 3

34

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

there are (Fig. 11) no supra-oesophageal ganglia. There is nothing,
in fact, to which the term brain can be appropriately applied.

But, if we turn now to the much more active snail, we find the ner-
vous system existing in a more developed and concentrated form.
There is (Fig. 12, I) a large ganglionic mass situated over the oesopha-
gus, each half of which receives a considerable bundle of nerve-fibres
(f) from the eye (b) of the smaller side, which is situated at the tip of
the larger tentacle. It also receives another bundle of nerves (k)

Fia 12.— Head and Nekvous System of the Common Snail.

from the small tentacle on each side, which has in all probability a
tactile function. The auditory vesicles are here in a new position.
They are in immediate relation with the posterior aspect of these
ganglia constituting the brain, though in other gasteropods »they are,
as in bivalve Mollusca, found to be connected with the pedal ganglia.
That gasteropods are endowed with a rudimentary sense of smell is
now generally admitted by naturalists, though hitherto they have
been unable to locate this endowment in any particular organ or sur-
face-region.

The brain of the snail is connected, by means of a triple cord or
commissure on each side of the cesophagus, with a still longer double
ganglionic mass (m). This latter body, situated beneath the oesopha-
gus, represents the pair of pedal and the pair of branchial ganglia of
the bivalve Mollusca. Here nerves are received from the integument
and given off to the muscles of the foot, while they are also received
and given off from the respiratory and other organs.

In the nautilus and some other representatives of the next class,
Cephalopoda, the nervous system attains a development only slightly
in advance of that met with among the highest gasteropods, though
in the active and predaceous cuttle-fish, and in its near ally, the octo-
pus, we find the nervous system presenting the highest development
to be met with araons; the sub-kino-dom Mollusca.

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN. 35

One of the most striking characteristics of the principal nerve-
centres of the cuttle-fish is the fact of the existence of a very large
optic ganglion (Fig. 13, 2), in "connection with a well-developed eye,
on each side. Each optic lobe, according to Lockhart Clarke, is " as
large as the rest of the cephalic ganglia on both sides taken together."
From each of these lobes an optic peduncle passes inward to join a
supra-oesophageal ganglionic mass, which bears on its surface a large
bilobed ganglion (1), thought by Clarke to be homologous with the
cerebral lobes of fishes. It is connected, by means of two short cords,

Fig. 13.— Nervous Ststem of the Common Cuttle-fish (Sepia officinalis).

with a much smaller bilobed ganglion, known as the pharyngeal (7).
This double ganglion receives nerves from what are presumed to be
the organs of taste and smell, and gives off nerves to the tongue
and powerful parrot-like jaws with which the creature is provided.

The supra-oesophageal mass is connected, by cords at the sides of
the oesophagus, with a very large ganglion lying beneath it (4), which
is partially divided into an anterior and a posterior division. The
anterior division is in relation, by means of large nerves (6), with the
feet and tentacles. A commissure also unites it with the pharyngeal
ganglion, so that the tentacles and arms are thus able to be brought

3 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

into correlated action witb. the jaws. The posterior portion of the
sub-oesophageal mass receives nerves from, and also gives off nerves
(14) to, the branchiae and other viscera, as well as to the mantle (13, 13).

The auditory organs and their nerves are also connected with this
branchial and pallial ganglion. These organs are lodged in the sub-
stance of the cartilaginous framework investing the nerve-ganglia — a
structure which seems to answer to a rudimentary skull. The roots
of the auditory nerves are probably principally in relation with the
pallial portion of the branchio-pallial ganglion. The locomotions of
these creatures are largely brought about by contractions of the pal-
lial chamber, though these contractions of the mantle are also subser-
vient to the respiratory function.

The share which the branchio-pallial ganglia take in bringing
about and regulating the movements of the cuttle-fish would seem to
explain the connection of the auditory nerves with them rather than
with the homologues of the pedal ganglion, with which the auditory
saccules are in relation in most other mollusks. But, whatever may
be the precise explanation of the different connections of the auditory
nerves in the cuttle-fish tribe, the fact remains that their connections
are still away from the brain proper. They are, as in most other
Mollusca and in those insects in which auditory organs are known to
occur, in intimate relation with one of the principal motor centres.

This survey of some of the principal forms of the invertebrate
brain, brief though it has been, should have sufficed to call attention
to the following important facts and inferences :

1. That sedentary animals, though they may possess a nervous
system, are often headless, and then have nothing answering to a
brain.

2. That where a brain does exist, it is invariably a double organ.
Its two halves may be widely separated from one another, though at
other times they are fused into a single mass.

3. That the component or elementary parts of the brain in these
lower animals are ganglia in connection with some of those special
impressible parts or sense-organs, by means of which the animal is
brought into harmony with its environment or medium.

4. That the sensory ganglia, which as an aggregate constitute the
brain of invertebrate animals, are connected with one another both
on the same and on opposite sides of the body, either by continuous
growth or by means of commissures.

5. The size of the brain as a whole, or of its several parts, is
strictly regulated by the development of the animal's special sense-
organs. This is so, because, the more these impressible surfaces be-
come elaborated and attuned to help in discriminating between nu-
merous different external impressions, the larger are the ganglionic
masses with which their nerves ai*e in relation.

6. Of the several sense-organs and sensory ganglia whose activity

NATURE OF THE INVERTEBRATE BRAIN. 37

lies at the root of the intellectual and instinctive life (such as it is)
of invertebrate animals, some are much more important than others.
Two are notable for their greater proportional development, viz.,
tactile organs and visual organs. The former are soon outstripped in
importance by the latter. The visual sense, indeed, and its related
nerve-ganglia, attain an altogether exceptional development in the
higher insects and mollusks.

V. The sense of taste and that of smell are developed to a much
lower extent. It is even difficult to point to distinct organs or im-
pressible surfaces as certainly devoted to the reception of impressions
of this kind.

8. The sense of hearing is also developed to a very slight extent.
No distinct sense-organ of this kind has been discovered, except in a
few insects and in members of the sub-kingdom Mollusca It is,
however, of no small interest to find that, where these organs do exist,
the nerves issuing from them are not in direct relation with the brain,
but are immediately connected with one of the principal locomotor
nerve-centres of the body.

9. The associated ganglia representing the single or double brain
are, in animals possessing a head, the centres in which all impressions
from sense-organs, save those last mentioned (the auditory), are re-
flected on to appropriate groups of muscles. This "reflection occurs
either at once or after the stimulus has passed through other ganglia,
whence it is passed along nerves to those groups or combinations of
muscles whose simultaneous or successive contractions give rise to
the organism's reply to such impressions. It may be easily under-
stood, therefore, that in all such animals perfection of sense-organs,
size of brain, and power of executing varied muscular movements,
are intimately related to one another.

10. But a fairly parallel correlation also becomes established be-
tween these various developments and that of the internal organs.
An increasing visceral complexity is gradually attained. Such in-
creased visceral complexity carries with it the necessity for a further
development of nervous communications. The several internal or-
gans have to be brought into more perfect relation with the sensori-
motor nervous system, and also with one another, for all joint actions
in which two or more of them may be concerned.

11. In invertebrate animals the visceral system of nerves has,
when compared with the rest of the nervous system, a greater pro-
portional development than among vertebrate animals. Its importance
among the Invertebrata is not dwarfed by the enormous development
of the brain and spinal cord, which gradually declares itself among
the Vertebrata.

12. Impressions emanating from the viscera and stimulating the
organism to movements of various kinds, whether in pursuit of food
or of a mate, would, therefore, have a proportionally greater impor-

3 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tance as constituting part of the ordinary mental life of invertebrate
animals. Movements thus initiated will be found to afford a basis
for the development of many so-called instinctive acts.

-♦-*♦-

PKENATAL AND INFANTILE CULTURE.1

By Dr. E. SEGUIN.

TO educate children for themselves is rare in Europe, and is
considered rather quixotic. The youth of the people are mer-
chantable commodities, soon to be credited to the party which puts
its stamp upon them. Therefore, when they are worth having, they
are picked up as eagerly as nuggets. Priests pretend to teach them
to think, yet care only to impose upon them a belief which implies
obedience to their craft ; Kaisers claim their direction, not to elevate
them, but to put them among their droves of subjects ; bourgeois and
manufacturers give them a minimum of instruction, just sufficient to
insure their working dependence, and to qualify their own sons to be
fed at the public expense ; while the working-men themselves — de-
moralized by such examples — put their apprentices at menial employ-
ment, and cheat them out of their rightful technical training.

From this standpoint we consider European children as in four
groups : those who receive no education ; those who do not receive
the education they need ; those who receive an education which dis-
qualifies them for work ; and those whose education prepares them
for work. From another point of view we saw that the European
children enter the school younger, are trained longer, and are ad-
vanced further, than the Americans. As a consequence of this last
contrast, we shall have less to say about the primary and' grammar
schools, and more about the infantile and the professional. We will
leave the other consequences to issue naturally from observation.

1. The Cradle. — At the Vienna Exposition there was a pavilion
de V enfant (infant pavilion), a room replete with the necessaries of
the nursery — and also with its superfluities — intended altogether to
represent the unbounded wishes of a mother for her baby's comfort
and happiness. This palace of luxurious nursing ought, in the esti-
mation of the writer, to have been accompanied by a little manual of
what is necessary to protect and to prepare life before nativity, in re-
lation to what may be called foetal education.

During this first period the feelings come mainly through reflex
impressions from the mother, a process which not only lays the foun-
dation of health and vitality, but which forms the deeper strata of

1 Extracts from the Report of the Commissioners of the United States to the Inters
national Exhibition held at Vienna, 1S73.

PRENATAL AND INFANTILE CULTURE. 39

the moral dispositions and of the so-called innate ideas. The man-
agers of the world " from behind the screens " know this, for it is at
this time that they impose on plebeian women pilgrimages and ec-
static "nove7ias"1 and keep those of a higher class under more strin-
gent impressions. Here, in Vienna, for instance, from the time of the
Emperor Charles V. till quite recently, when an heir to the throne
was expected, the empress was given in charge of a special director,
who would regulate all her actions and surroundings, in view of com-
mencing the course of submissive education of the contingent mon-
arch, as early as the first evolution from the yolk-substance of the
human egg during embryogenesis. Similar influence is now claimed
for an object diametrically opposed to the degeneracy thus arrived at
in the house of Hapsburg. It can be attained by counsels printed
either in book-form or on scrolls, as are the sentences of the Koran.
But, whatever may be the form given to this magna charta of the
rights of the unborn, let it be found precisely where these rights
ought to be kept most sacred, in the nursery ; where their enforce-
ment would protect the mother and elevate her function, at the same
time that it would insure her fruit against the decay resulting from
wrong prenatal impressions.

We know that a cold contact with the mother makes the foetus fly
to the antipode of its narrow berth ; that a rude shcck may destroy
it, or originate life-long infirmities ; that, the emotion of fear in the
mother is terror or fits within ; that harsh words vibrate as sensibly
in the liquor of the amnion as in the fluid of the labyrinth of the ear.
For instance, when a mother has lulled her home-sorrows with strains
of soothing music, her child, too often an idiot, shows wonderful mu-
sical proclivities amid the wreck of all the other faculties of his mind.
For thirty-five years the writer has furnished his share of the facts,
which abound in modern books on physiology, in support of this
doctrine.

It is useless to give here the illustrations detailed in the report ;
but experienced physicians will testify that, when their hands receive
a new-comer, they plainly read upon his features the dominant feel-
ings and emotions of its mother during that intra-uterine education
whose imprints trace the channel of future sympathies and abilities.
Therefore, if it is noble work to educate or to cure the insane, the
idiot, the hemiplegic, the epileptic, and the choreic, how much higher
is the work of preventing these degeneracies in the incipient being,
by averting those commotions which storm him in the holy region in-
tended for a terrestrial paradise during the period of evolution ! To
teach him reverence toward the bearer of his race, to instruct her in
the sacredness of bland and serene feelings during the Godlike cre-
ative process, is educating two generations at once — this is the high-
est education of the nursery.

1 A nine days' season of prayer.

4o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

From this, the true cradle of mankind, let us look at that made
for the baby. There was no end of cradles in the pavilion de Pen/ant ;
and we may find more philosophy in them than the upholsterer in-
tended to put there. Therein the infant will at first but continue his
ovum-life; and for this the cradle must be fitted. Let us see. The
head is bent, the extremities are drawn up, and the body shaped like
a crescent. This attitude gives to the muscles the greatest relaxation,
and to the cartilages, which cap the bones, the position most favor-
able to nutrition and growth. Generally, the baby rests on the right
side, to free the heart from pressure and to facilitate its movements.
In this mode of reclining, the left hemi-cerebrum will contain more
blood than the right, which is compressed by the pillow. Attitudes
concordant with the sleepy habits of the first months, and the activity
of the mind during this long sleepiness, indicate the future prepon-
derance of the mental operations of the left over the right side of the
brain, the approaching superior nutrition and dexterity of the right
over the left hand, and later even the causation of paralysis on the
left. For the present, and for some time yet, the infant will live
mainly in his sleep ; during which, more than when awake, he will be
seen angry, smiling, or thinking, even in his well-defined dreams.

How important it is, then, that the cradle be formed in accord-
ance with these natural indications ! A transitory abode between the
basin and the bed, it should be a warm, soft, yet supporting recipient,
ampler than the former, better defined in its shape than the latter,
with curves less short than circles, and more varied than ovals. An
egg, vertically split, would make two such cradles, or nests, suited
either for child or bird.

But as soon as the nursling awakes to the world, and wants to be
introduced to everything, his couch must be enlarged and enlivened,
and must look more and more like a school and play-room. Other-
wise it becomes a prison, whence, Tantalus-like, baby looks at his
surroundings. Here is his first lesson of practical sociability. To
see, and not be able to reach, to perceive images, with no possibility
of seizing the objects, renders him impatient, fretful, or unconcerned,
and opens an era of exaction upon others, or of diffidence of himself,
or of indiffex-ence for any attainment, which unavoidably ends in im-
morality or incapacity, or in both. Viewed from this standpoint,
these cradles, so varied, so elegant, so easy to keep clean, and to carry
from the light of the window by day to the recess of the alcove at
night — the best being of French and Austrian manufacture — are yet
very imperfect in their bearing on education. Let us mark some of
their shortcomings.

Little ones have an instinctive horror of isolation. Whoever
studies them knows that when they awake they look not, at first,
with staring eyes, but with searching hands ; they seek not for sights,
but for contacts. This love of contact, whence results the primary

PRENATAL AND INFANTILE CULTURE. 4i

education of the most general sense, the touch, is ill-satisfied with the
uniformity of the materials at hand, as exemplified at Vienna or Paris.
(In November last I saw a similar exhibition, a pavilion de V enfant,
in the Champs Elysees, but it was no improvement on that of the
Prater.)

In this respect, the child of poor people fares better, having the
opportunity of amusing himself for hours in experiencing the rude or
soft, warm or cold, contacts of his miscellaneous surroundings ;
whereas the hand of the offspring of the rich finds all around the
sameness of smooth tissues, which awake in his mind no curiosity ;
he calls for some one to amuse him, gets first angry, then indifferent,
and does not improve the main and surest sense of knowledge, his
touch.

But soon other senses are awakened : audition — of which here-
after— and vision, for the enjoyment of which the cradle becomes a
kind of theatre. For a mother must be very destitute or despondent
who does not try to enliven it with some bright things laid on, or
flapping above. One may benevolently smile at the extravagancies
of colors and patterns intended to express this feeling, but these ex-
aggerations must also give a serious warning.

Physiologically viewed, this is a grave matter. The form of the
cradle demands fitness ; its ornamentation requires a more extended
knowledge. When planning it, a mother must remember that the
fixity of the eye upon any object — particularly upon a bright one,
and more so if that object is situated upward and sideways from the
ordinary range of vision — and through the eye the fixedness of the
mind while the body is in a state of repose, constitute a concurrence
of conditions eminently favorable to the production of hypnotism, and
its terrible sequels, strabismus and convulsions. Hypnotism, which,
when unsuspected, is not controlled, is often mistaken for tranquil
happiness or natural sleep.

Psychologically viewed, the decoration of the cradle is of equal
moment. To surround an infant with highly wrought or colored
figures, often grotesque, or at least untrue to Nature, may, by day,
attract more attention than his faculties of perception can safely
bestow ; hence fatigue of the brain, or worse ; but it will, by night,
evoke other than the perceptive and rational powers, for, when the
lights and shadows of dusk alter all the forms and deepen every
color, the faculty of imprinting images being led astray, it photo-
graphs distorted imprints from confused, often moving, sometimes
rustling, ornaments. In this way the mind is made the subject of hal-
lucinations, which it accepts as objective, without inquiring into their
causes, till it comes to the fatal credo quia absurdum (I believe, be-
cause it is absurd). The seeds of most of the insanities are sown at
or before this time.

These were the first impressions that forced themselves upon my

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mind in the pavilion de P enfant. Here is, in a few words, a resume
of them : Paucity of the material upon which the inexperienced yet
inquisitive baby can exercise, with interest and profit, his sense of
touch ; profusion, bad taste, and dangerous disposition of the objects
which speak to the eye, if not always with the intention, at least
with the almost uniform result, of giving wrong or dangerous im-
pressions.

Attention was next called to what had been done, and to what had
been left undone, for the cultivation or the satisfaction of the other
senses of the infant. But here it was soon perceived that our inqui-
ries went beyond the sphere of what was exhibited. There were
plenty of Farina's and Rimmel's volatilities, some of Alexander's, De-
bain's, or Smith's sighing accordeons, but no means of cheering and
educating the nascent yet already inquisitive senses. Further exami-
nation showed that the perfumes were there as an attenuation and
the music as a distraction, and both intended for other senses than
the infant's. From these and other omissions it was concluded that
nursery arrangements are as yet intended rather for the mother's and
nurse's comfort than for the baby's improvement.

2.' The Ckeche. — This pavilion de V enfant ought to contain at
least ene model crhche.

Creche is the French name of the public nursery where working-
women leave their little ones in the morning, and whence they bring
them home at night. The cr&che I Horrid necessity ! Beginning of
the communistic inclined plane upon which those who pay and do not
receive rents slide with a fearful rapidity; yet a kind institution for
those already fallen into the gulf. Since, therefore, creches must
be, their latest improvements should have been represented at the
Vienna Exhibition next to the appliances of the most luxurious
nursing. There could have been tested the action of colors, of light,
and its various attributes, on the organ of vision ; the influence
of varied sounds, of harmonies and melodies on the virgin audi-
tion, the mind, and the sympathetic centres ; the power of primary
perceptions to awaken first ideas, to impel to determinations of the
will, and to raise or calm the various passions ; the effects of diet
upon those passions ; the effect of modification of food and digestion ;
the influence of rest and sleep on the body's temperature, on the pulse
and respiration ; the influence of the artificial, the moist, or the dry
heat of the nursery on the too precocious development of the nervous
centres, and, subsequently, on the prevalence of chronic or acute
meningitis, diphtheria, and croup ; besides many other problems
whose solution depends on the early study of phenomena wdiich can
be found in the creche as surely as the flower in the bud. There, bet-
ter than anywhere else, they may be studied with profit to all parties.
Let us bear in mind that the rich man can never flatter himself that
he does a gratuitous charity, since from its poor recipient comes many

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 43

times its worth in useful experience, directly benefiting the would-be
benefactor. We do not overlook the fact that many mothers, particu-
larly among those both educated and fruitful, pay the closest atten-
tion to these questions, and become expert therein, but, as they lack
the means of record and transmission of their observations, their ex-
perience dies, so to speak, with each generation. Hence the nursing
of babies continues to be a work of devotion, but does not become
the coordinated and progressive art it ought to be in well-organized
creches open to criticism in public exhibitions. Thus in Vienna, at
least, an opportunity was lost.

-*♦*-

PKOFESSOK HUXLEY'S LECTURES.1

THE THREE HYPOTHESES OF THE HISTORY OF NATURE.

WE live and form part of a system of things of immense diver-
sity and perplexity, which we call Nature, and it is a matter
of the deepest interest to all of us that we should form just concep-
tions of the constitution of that system and of its past history. With
relation to this universe, man is, in extent, little nipre than a mathe-
matical point ; in duration, but a fleeting shadow. He is a reed shaken
in the winds of force ; but, as Pascal long ago remarked, although a
reed, he is a thinking reed, and, in virtue of that wonderful capacity
of thought, he has a power of framing to himself a symbolic concep-
tion of the universe, which, although doubtless highly imperfect, and
although wholly inadequate as a picture of that great whole, is yet
sufficient to serve him as a guide-book in his practical affairs. It has
taken Ions; asres of accumulated and often fruitless labor to enable
man to look steadily at the. shifting scenes, phantasmagoria of Na-
ture, to notice what is fixed among her fluctuations, and what is regu-
lar among her apparent irregularities ; and it is only comparatively
lately, within the last few centuries, that there has emerged the con-
ception of a pervading order and a definite course of things, which
we term the course of Nature.

But out of this contemplation of Nature, and out of man's thought
concerning her, there has in these later times arisen that conception
of the constancy of Nature to which I have referred, and which at
length has become the guiding conception of modern thought. It has
ceased to be almost conceivable to any person who is familiar with

1 The first of three lectures on " The Direct Evidence of Evolution," delivered at
Chickering Hall, New York, September 18th. From the report of the New York Tribune,
carefully revised by Prof. Huxley.

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the facts upon which that conception is based, that chance should
have any place in the universe, or tbat events should follow anything
but the natural order of cause and effect. We have come to look upon
the present as the child of the past and as the parent of the future;
and, as we have excluded chance from any share or part in the order
of things, so in the present order of Nature men have come to neglect,
even as a possibility, the notion of any interference with that order.
And, whatever may be men's speculative notions upon those points, it
is quite certain that every intelligent person guides his life and risks
his fortune upon the belief that the order of Nature is constant, and
the relation of cause to effect unchanged.

In fact, there is no belief which we entertain which has so com-
plete a logical basis as that to which I have just referred. It tacitly
underlies every process of reasoning ; it is the foundation of every
act of the will. It is based upon the broadest induction, and it is
verified by the most constant, regular, and universal of deductive
processes. But we must recollect that any human belief, however
broad its basis, however defensible it may seem, is, after all, only a
probable belief, and tbat our broadest generalizations are simply
statements of the highest degrees of probability. Though we are
quite clear about the constancy of Nature at the present time, and in
the present order of things, it by no means follows necessarily that
we are justified in expanding this generalization into the past, and in
denying absolutely tbat there may have been a time when Nature did
not follow a fixed order, when the relations of cause and effect were
not definite, and when external agencies did not intervene in the gen-
eral course of Nature. Cautious men will admit that such a change
in the order of Nature may have been possible, just as a very candid
thinker may admit that there may be a world in which two and two
do not make four, and in which two straight lines do not inclose a
space. In fact, this question with which I have to deal in the three
lectures I shall have the honor of delivering before you, this question
as to the past order of Nature, is essentially an historical question, and
it is one that must be dealt with in the same way as any other histori-
cal problem.

I will, if you please, in the first place, state to you what are the
views which have been entertained respecting the order of Nature in
the past, and then I will consider what evidence is in our possession
bearing upon these views, and by what light of criticism that evidence
is to be interpreted. So far as I know, there are only three hypotheses
which ever have been entertained, or which well can be entertained,
respecting the past history of Nature.

Upon the first of these the assumption is, that the order of Nature
which now obtains has always obtained ; in other words, that the
present course of Nature, the present order of things, has existed
from all eternity. The second hypothesis is, that the present state of

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 45

things has had only a limited duration, and that at some period in the
past the state of things which we now know (substantially, though not,
of course, in all its details) arose and came into existence without any
precedent condition from which it could have naturally proceeded.
The third hypothesis also assumes that the present order of Nature
has had but a limited duration, but it supposes that the present order
of things proceeded by a natural process from an antecedent order,
and that from another antecedent order, and so on ; and on this hy-
pothesis the attempt to fix any limit at which we could assign the
commencement of this series of changes is given up. I am very
anxious that you shall realize what these three hypotheses actually
mean ; that is to say; what they involve, if you can imagine a spec-
tator to have been present during the period to which they refer. On
the first hypothesis, however far back in time you place that specta-
tor, he would have seen a world essentially, though not perhaps in all
its details, similar to that which now exists. The animals which ex-
isted would be the ancestors of those which now exist, and like them ;
the plants in like manner would be such as we have now; and the
supposition is that, at however distant a period of time you place your
observer, he would still find mountains, plains, and waters, with ani-
mal and vegetable products flourishing upon them and sporting in
them just as he finds now. That view has been held. It was a favor-
ite fancy of antiquity, and has survived toward the present day. It
is worthy of remark that it is an hypothesis which is not inconsistent
with what geologists are familiar with as the doctrine of Uniformita-
rianism. That doctrine was held by Hutton, and in his earlier days
by Lyell. For Hutton was struck with the demonstration of astrono-
mers that the perturbations of the planetary bodies, however great
they may be, yet sooner or later right themselves, and that the solar
system contained within itself a self-adjusting power by which these
aberrations were all brought back to an equilibrium.

Hutton imagined that something of the same kind may go on in
the earth, although no one recognized more clearly than he the fact
that the dry land is being constantly washed down by rain and rivers
and deposited in the sea, and that thus in a certain length of time,
greater or shorter, the inequalities of the earth's surface must be
leveled, and its high lands brought down to the sea. Then, taking into
account the internal forces of Nature, by which upheavals of the sea-
bottom give rise to new land, he thought that these operations might
naturally compensate each other, and thus, for any assignable time,
the general features of the earth might remain what they are. And,
inasmuch as there need be no limit under these circumstances to the
propagation of animals and plants, it is clear that the logical develop-
ment of this idea might lead to the conception of the eternity of the
world. Not that I mean to say that either Hutton or Lyell held this
conception — assuredly not ; they would have been the first to repu-

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

diate it. But, by the arguments they used, it might have been pos-
sible to justify this hypothesis.

The second hypothesis is that to which I have referred as the
hypothesis which supposes that the present order of things had at
some no very remote time a sudden origin, so that the world, such as
it now is, arose. That is the doctrine which you will find stated most
fully and clearly in the immortal poem of John Milton, the English
" Divina Commedia," "Paradise Lost." I believe it is largely to
the influence of that remarkable work, combined with daily teachings
to which we have all listened in our childhood, that this hypothesis
owes its general wide diffusion as one of the current beliefs of English-
speaking people. If you turn to the seventh book of " Paradise Lost "
you will find there stated the hypothesis to which I refer, which is
briefly this: That this visible universe of ours made its appearance
at no great distance of time from the present day, and that the parts
of which it is composed made their appearance in a certain definite
order in the space of six natural days, in such a manner that in the
first of these days light appeared; in the second, the firmament or
sky separated the water above from the water beneath it ; on the
third day the waters drew away from the dry land, and upon it a
varied vegetable life similar to that which now exists made its ap-
pearance ; that the fourth day was devoted to the apparition of the
sun, the stars, the moon, and the planets ; that on the fifth day aquatic
animals originated within the waters; that on the sixth day the earth
gave rise to our four-footed terrestrial creatures, and to all varieties
of terrestrial animals except birds, which had appeared on the pre-
ceding day ; and, finally, that man appeared npon the earth, and the
work of fashioning the universe was finished. John Milton, as I have
said, leaves no doubt whatever as to how, in his judgment, these
marvelous processes occurred. I doubt not that his immortal poem
is familiar to all of you, but I should like to recall one passage to
your minds, in order that I may be justified in what I have said re-
garding the perfectly concrete, definite conception which Milton had
respecting the origin of the animal world. He says :

" The sixth, and of creation last, arose
With evening harps and matin ; when God said,
' Let the earth bring forth soul living in her kind,
Cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth,
Each in their kind.' The earth obeyed, and straight
Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limbed and full-grown ; out of the ground uprose,
As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den ;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, and walked ;
The cattle in the fields and meadows green ;
Those rare and solitary, these in flocks

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 47

Pasturing at once, and in broad hoards upsprung.

The grassy clods now calved ; now half appears

The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, -then springs, as broke from bonds,

And rampant shakes his brinded mane ; the ounce,

The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole

Kising, the crumbled earth above them threw

In hillocks ; the swift stag from underground

Bore up his branching head; scarce from his mould

Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved

His vastness ; fleeced the flocks and bleating rose

As plants ; ambiguous between sea and land,

The river-horse and scaly crocodile.

At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,

Insect or worm."

There is no doubt as to the meaning of this statement, or as to
what a man of Milton's genius expected would have been actually
visible to one who could witness the process of the origination of liv-
ino; things.

The third hypothesis, or the hypothesis of evolution, supposes that
at any given period in the past we should meet with a state of things
more or less similar to the present, but less similar in proportion as
we go back in time ; that the physical form of the earth could be
traced back in this way to a condition in which its parts were sepa-
rated, as little more than a nebulous cloud making part of a whole in
which wTe should find the sun and the other planetary bodies also re-
solved ; and that, if we traced back the animal world and the vege-
table woi'ld, we should find preceding what now exist animals and
plants not identical with them, but like them, only increasing their
differences as Ave go back in time, and at the same time becoming
simpler and simpler, until finally we should arrive at that gelatinous
mass which, so far as our present knowledge goes, is the common
foundation of all life.

The hypothesis of evolution supposes that in all this vast progres-
sion there would be no breach of continuity, no point at which we
could say " This is a natural process," and " This is not a natural pro-
cess," but that the whole might be compared to that wonderful series
of changes which may be seen going on every day under our eyes, in
virtue of which there arises, out of that semifluid, homogeneous sub-
stance which we call an egg, the complicated organization of one of
the higher animals. That, in a few words, is what is meant by the
hypothesis of evolution.

I have already suggested that in dealing with these three hypoth-
eses, in endeavoring to form a judgment as to which of them is the
more worthy of belief; or whether none is worthy of belief — and our
condition of mind should be that suspension of judgment which is so
difficult to all but trained minds — we should be indifferent to all a

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

priori considerations. The question is a question of fact, historical
fact. The universe has come into existence somehow or other, and the
question is, whether it came into existence in one fashion, or whether
it came into existence in another ; and, as an essential preliminary to
our further discussion, permit me to say two or three words as to the
nature of historical evidence, and the kinds of historical evidence.
The evidence as to the occurrence of any fact in past time is of one or
two kinds, which, for convenience' sake, I will speak of on the one hand
as testimonial evidence, and on the other as circumstantial evidence.
By testimonial evidence I mean human testimony ; and by circum-
stantial evidence I mean evidence which is not human testimony. Let
ine illustrate by a familiar figure what I mean by these two kinds of
evidence, and what is to be said respecting their value:

Suppose that a man tells you that he saw a person strike another
and kill him ; that is testimonial evidence of the fact of murder. But
it is possible to have circumstantial evidence of the fact of murder;
that is to say, you may find a man dying with a wound upon his head
having exactly the form and character of the wound which is made by
an axe, and, with due care to take surrounding circumstances into ac-
count, you may conclude with the utmost certainty that the man has
been murdered — is dying in consequence of the violence inflicted by
that implement. We are very much in the habit of considering cir-
cumstantial evidence as of less value than testimonial evidence, and
it may be in many cases, where the circumstances are not perfectly
clear and perfectly intelligible, that it is a dangerous and uncertain
kind of evidence ; but it must not be forgotten that in many cases it
is quite as good as testimonial evidence, and that not unfrequently it
is a great deal better than testimonial evidence. For example, take
the case to which I referred just now. The circumstantial evidence
is better and more convincing than the testimonial evidence, for it is
impossible, under the circumstances that I have mentioned, to suppose
that the man had met his death from any cause but the violent blow
of an axe wielded by another man. The circumstantial evidence in
favor of a murder having been committed, in that case, is as complete
and as convincing as evidence can be. It is evidence which is open
to no doubt and no falsification. But the testimony of the witness is
open to multitudinous doubts. He may have been mistaken. He may
have been actuated by malice. It has constantly happened that even
an accurate man has declared a thing has happened in this, that, or the
other way, when a careful analysis of the circumstantial evidence has
shown that it did not happen in that way, but in some other way.

Now we must turn to our three hypotheses. Let me first direct
your attention to what is to be said about the hypothesis of the eter-
nity of this state of things in which we now are. What will first
strike you is, that that is an hypothesis which, whether true or false, is
not capable of verification by evidence ; for, in order to secure testi-

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

49

mony to an eternity of duration, you must have an eternity of wit-
nesses or an infinity of circumstances, and neither of these is attain-
able. It is utterly impossible that such evidence should be carried
beyond a certain point of time, and all that could be said at most
should be that there was nothing to contradict the hypothesis. But
when you look, not to the testimonial evidence — which might not be
good for much in this case — but to the circumstantial evidence, then
you find that this hypothesis is absolutely incompatible with that cir-
cumstantial evidence, and the evidence is of so plain and so simple a
character that it is impossible in any way to escape from the conclu-
sions which it forces upon us.

IDEAL SECTION OP THE CRUST OF THE EARTH.

-—Post-tertiary and Recent.

— Pliocene.

— Miocene.

— Eocene.
Cretaceous.

•—Jurassic or Oolitic.

— Triassic (New Red Sandstone).
•— Permian.
.... Carboniferous.

— Devonian or Old Red Sandstone.

— Silurian.

— Cambrian.

— Huronian.

— Laurentian.

B J m1 -> -.a • W ft. - t .

^^^mmm

°IgSoI°r°I c .'£?■*« T *' : " <i *&

.'g.'p.iiO Fo-ZoZo Ze.'o.

VOL. X.

5°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

You are, doubtless, all aware that the crust of the earth, the su-
perficial part of the earth, is not of an homogeneous character, but
that it is made up of a number of beds or strata, the titles or the prin-
cipal groups of which are placed upon the accompanying diagram —
beds of sand, beds of stone, beds of clay, of slate, and of various
other materials.

On further examination, it is found that these beds of solid mate-
rial are of exactly the same nature as these which are at present being
formed under known conditions at the surface of the earth ; that the
chalk, for example, which forms a great part of the Cretaceous forma-
tion in some parts of the world, is identical in its physical and chemi-
cal characters, or practically so, with a substance which is now being
formed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and covers an enormous
area ; that other bodies of rock are comparable with the sands which
are being formed upon sea-shores, packed together, and so on. Thus it
comes to be certain that, omitting rocks of igneous origin, all these beds
of stone, of which a total of not less than seventy thousand feet is
known, have been deposited and formed by natural agencies, either
out of the waste and washing of the dry land, or else as the product
of plants and animals. Now, these rocks or strata are full of the
remains of animals and plants. Countless thousands of species of
animals and plants, as perfectly recognizable as those which you meet
with in museums at the present day, or as the shells and remains
which you pick up upon the beach — countless thousands of spe-
cies of these creatures have been imbedded in the sand or mud, or
limestone, just as they are being imbedded now. They furnish us
with a record, the general nature of which cannot be subject to any
misinterpretation, as to the kind of things that have lived upon the
surface of the earth during the time that is registered by this great
thickness of stratified rock. The most superficial study of these re-
mains shows us that the animals and plants which live at the present
time have had only a temporary duration ; that you will find them
and such as they are now, for the most part, only in those uppermost
of the strata called Tertiary. As you go back in time their places are
taken by other forms as numerous and diversified, but different, and
you will find yet others different from the Cretaceous or Tertiary, and
from those of the present day, and so on, as you go further and further
back. Thus, the circumstantial evidence absolutely negatives the
conception of the eternity of the present condition of things. We
can say with certainty that such has not been the coui*se of Nature.
We can say with certainty that the present condition of things has
existed for a comparatively short period ; and that, so far as animal
and vegetable nature are concerned, it has been preceded by a differ-
ent condition of things. We can pursue this evidence until we reach
the lowest of stratified rocks, in which we lose the indications of life
altogether. The hypothesis of the eternity of the present condition
of things may, therefore, be put out of court.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. . 51

We now come to what I may call Milton's hypothesis — the hypoth-
esis that the present condition of things has endured for a compara-
tively moderate time, and at the commencement of that time came
into existence within the course of six days. I doubt not that it may
have excited some surprise in your minds that I should have spoken
of this as Milton's hypothesis, rather than that I should choose the
terms which are much more familiar to you, such as "the doctrine of
creation," or " the Biblical doctrine," or " the doctrine of Moses," all
of which denominations, as applied to the hypothesis to which I have
just referred, are certainly much more familiar to you than the title
of the Miltonic hypothesis. But I have had what I cannot but think
are very weighty reasons for taking the course which I have pursued.
For example, I have discarded the title of the hypothesis of creation,
because my present business is not with the question as to how Nature
has originated, as to the causes which have led to her origination,
but as to the manner and order of the appearance of natural objects.
Our present inquiry is not why the objects which constitute Nature
came into existence, but when they came into existence, and in what
order. This is a strictly historical question, a question as completely
historical as that about the date at which the Angles and the Jutes
invaded England. But the other question about creation is a philo-
sophical question, and one which cannot be solved or even approached
by the historical method. What we want to know is, whether the
facts, so far as they are known, afford evidence that things arose in the
way described by Milton, or not ; and, when that question is settled,
it will be time enough to inquire as to the causes of their origination.

In the second place, I have not spoken of this doctrine as the
Biblical hypothesis. It is quite true that persons as diverse in their
general views as Milton the Protestant and the celebrated Jesuit
Father Suarez, each read in the first chapter of Genesis the interpre-
tation adopted by Milton. It is quite true that that interpretation,
unless I mistake, is that which has been instilled into every one of us
in our childhood ; but I do not for one moment venture to say that it
can properly be called the Biblical doctrine. In the first place, it is
not my business to say what the Hebrew text contains, and what it
does not ; in the second place, were I to say that this is the Biblical
hypothesis, I should be met by the authority of many eminent schol-
ars, to say nothing of men of science, who in recent times have abso-
lutely denied that this doctrine is to be found in Genesis at all. If
we are to listen to them, we must believe what seems so clearly defined
in Genesis — as if very great pains had been taken so that there should
be no possibility of mistake — is not the meaning of the text at all.
The account is divided into periods that we may make just as long as
convenience requires. We are also to understand that it is consistent
with that phraseology to believe that plants and animals may have
been evolved by natural processes, lasting for millions of years, out

52 • THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of similar rudiments. A person who is not a Hebrew scholar can only
stand by and admire the marvelous flexibility of a language which
admits of such diverse interpretations.

Assuredly, in the face of such contradictory authority upon mat-
ters upon which he is competent to form no judgment, he will abstain
from giving any opinion, as I do. In the third place, I have carefully
abstained from speaking of this as a Mosaic doctrine, because Ave are
now assured upon the authority of the highest critics, and even of
dignitaries in the Church, that there is no evidence whatever that
Moses ever wrote this chapter, or knew anything about it. You will
understand that I give no opinion — it would be an impertinence upon
my part to volunteer an opinion upon such a subject. But, that being
the state of opinion among the scholars and the clergy, it is well for
us the laity, who stand outside, to avoid entangling ourselves in such
a vexed question. So, as happily Milton leaves us no conceivable am-
biguity as to what he means, I will continue to speak of the opinion
in question as the Miltonian hypothesis.

Now we have to test that hypothesis. For my part, I have no
prejudice one way or the other. If there is evidence in favor of this
view, I have no sort of theoretical difficulties in the way of accepting
it, but there must be evidence. We scientific men get an awkward
habit — no, I won't call it that, for it is a valuable habit — of reason-
ing, so that we believe nothing unless there is evidence for it; and we
have a way of looking upon belief which is not based upon evidence,
not only as illogical, but as immoral. We will, if you please, test this
view iu the light of facts, for by what I have said you will understand
that I don't propose to discuss the question of what testimonial evi-
dence is to be adduced in favor of this view. If those whose business
it is to judge are not at one as to the authenticity of the document,
or as to the facts to which it bears witness, the discussion of testimo-
nial evidence is superfluous. But one regards this less because the
circumstantial evidence, if carefully considered, leads to the conclu-
sion that the hypothesis is altogether inadequate, and cannot be sus-
tained. And the considerations upon which I base that conclusion
are of the simplest possible character. Whatever the flexibility of in-
terpretation of the statement on which Milton's hypothesis is based,
it is quite impossible to deny that it contains assertions of a very
definite character relating to the succession of living forms. It is
stated that plants, for example, made their appearance upon the third
day, and not before. And you will understand that what was meant
by plants are plants which now live — the trees and shrubs which
we now have. One of two things — either the existing plants have
been the result of a separate origination of which we have no record
or ground for supposition, or else they have arisen by process of
evolution from the original stock. And, in the second place, it is
clear that there was no animal life before the fourth day, and that on

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 53

the fourth day marine animals and birds appeared. And it is further
clear that terrestrial life made its appearance upon the sixth day, and
not before. Hence, it follows that, if in the large mass of circumstan-
tial evidence as to what really has happened in the past history of the
globe — if in that we find down to a certain point indications of the
existence of terrestrial animals, it is perfectly certain that all that
has taken place since that time must be referred to the sixth day.

In this great Carboniferous formation whence America has de-
rived so vast a proportion of her actual and potential wealth, in that
formation and in the beds of coal which are formed from the vege-
tation of that period, we find abundant evidence of the existence
of terrestrial animals. They have been described not only by Euro-
pean naturalists, but by your own naturalists. There are to be found
in the coal of your own coal-fields numerous insects allied to our cock-
roaches. There are to be found there spiders and scorpions of large
size, and so similar to existing scorpions that it requires the practised
eye of the naturalist to distinguish them. Inasmuch as these things
can be proved to have been alive in the Carboniferous epoch, it is. per-
fectly clear that, if the Miltonic account is correct, the huge mass of
rocks extending from the middle of the Palaeozoic formations to the
end of the series must belong to the day or period which is termed
by Milton the sixth day of the creation. But, further, it is expressly
stated that aquatic animals took their origin upon the fifth day, and
did not exist before ; hence all formations in which aquatic animals
can be proved to exist, and which therefore lived at the time these
formations were deposited, must have been deposited during the
time of the period which Milton speaks of as the fifth day. But there
is absolutely no fossiliferous rock in which you do not find the remains
of marine animals. The lowest forms of life in the Silurian are ma-
rine animals, and, if the view which is entertained by Principal Daw-
son and Dr. Carpenter respecting the nature of the Eozoon be correct,
if it is true that animal remains exist at a period as far antecedent to
the deposit in the coal as the coal is from us, at the bottom of the
series of stratified rocks in the Laurentian strata, it follows plainly
enough that the whole series of stratified rocks, if they are to be
brought into harmony with Milton at all, must be referred to the
sixth day, and we cannot hope to find the slightest trace of the work
of the other days in our stratified formations. When one comes to
consider this, one sees how absolutely futile are the attempts that
have been made to run a parallel between the story told by the strati-
fied rocks as we know them and the account which Milton gives of
it. The whole series of stratified rocks must be referred to the last
two periods, and neither the Carboniferous nor any other formation
can afford evidence of the work of the third day. Not only is there
this objection to any attempt to run a parallel between the Miltonic
account and the actual facts, but there is a further difficulty. In the

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Miltonic account the order in which animals should have made their
appearance in the stratified rock would be this : Fishes, including the
great whales, and birds ; after that, all varieties of terrestrial animals.
Nothing could be further from the facts as we find them. As a mat-
ter of fact we know of not the slightest evidence of the existence of
birds before the Jurassic and perhaps the Triassic formations.

If there were any parallel between the Miltonic account and the
circumstantial evidence, we ought to have abundant evidence of the
existence of birds in the Devonian, the Silurian, and the Carbonifer-
ous rocks. I need hardly tell you that this is not the case, and that
not a trace of birds makes its appearance until the far later period
which I have mentioned.

And again, if it be true that all varieties of fishes and the great
whales, and the like, made their appearance on the fifth day, then we
ought to find the remains of these things in the older rocks — in those
which preceded the Carboniferous epoch. Fishes, it is true, we find,
and numerous ones ; but the great whales are absent, and the fishes
are not such as now live. Not one solitary species of fish now in ex-
istence is to be found there, and hence you are introduced again to
the dilemma that either the creatures which were created then, which
came into existence the sixth day, were not those which are found at
present, are not the direct and immediate predecessors of those which
now exist ; in which case you must either have had a fresh creation
of which nothing is said, or a process of evolution ; or else the whole
story must be given up, as not only devoid of any circumstantial evi-
dence, but contrary to that evidence.

I placed before you in a few words, some little time ago, a state-
ment of the sum and substance of Milton's hypothesis. Let me try
now to put before you as briefly the effect of the circumstantial evi-
dence as to the past history of the earth which is written without the
possibility of mistake, with no chance of error, in the stratified rocks.
What we find is, that that great series of formations represents a
period of time of which our human chronologies hardly afford us a
unit of measure. I will not pretend to say how we ought to measure
this time, in millions or in billions of years. Happily for my pur-
pose, that is wholly unessential. But that the time was enormous,
there is no sort of question.

It results from the simplest methods of interpretation, that all that
is now dry land has once been at the bottom of the waters. Leaving
out of view certain patches of metamorphosed rocks, certain- volcanic
products, it is perfectly certain that at a comparatively recent period
of the world's history — the Cretaceous epoch — none of the great phys-
ical features which at present mark the surface of the globe existed.
It is certain that the Rocky Mountains were not. It is certain that
the Himalaya Mountains were not. It is certain that the Alps and
the Pyrenees had no existence. The evidence is of the plainest pos-

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 55

sible character, and is simply this: We find raised up on the flanks of
these mountains, elevated by the forces of upheaval which have given
rise to them, masses of cretaceous rock which formed the bottom of
the sea before those mountains existed. It is therefore perfectly clear
that the elementary forces which gave rise to the mountains operated
subsequently to the Cretaceous epoch ; that the mountains themselves
are largely made up of the materials deposited in the sea which once
occupied their place. We meet as we go back in time with con-
stant alternations of sea and land, of estuary and open ocean, and in
correspondence with these alternations we meet with changes in the
fauna and flora of the kind I have stated.

But no inspection of these changes gives us the slightest right to
believe that there has been any discontinuity in natural processes.
There is no trace of cataclysm, of great sweeping deluges or universal
destructions of organic life. The appearances which were formerly
interpreted that way have all been shown to be delusive as our knowl-
edge has increased and as the blanks between the different formations
have been filled up. It can now be shown that there is no absolute
break between formation and formation, that there has been no sud-
den disappearance of all the forms of life at one time and replacement
by another, but that everything has gone on slowly and gradually,
that one form has died out and another has taken its place, and that
thus by slow degrees one fauna has been replaced by another. So
that, within the whole of the immense period indicated by these strati-
fied rocks, there is assuredly — leaving evolution out of the question
altogether — not the slightest trace of any break in the uniformity of
Nature's operations, not a shadow of indication that events have fol-
lowed other than their natural and orderly sequence.

That, I say, is the most natural teaching of the circumstantial evi-
dence contained in the stratified rock. I leave you* to consider how
far by any ingenuity of interpretation, by any stretching of the mean-
ing of language, it can be brought into the smallest similarity with
that view which I have put before you as the Miltonic doctrine.

There remains the third hypothesis — what I have spoken of as the
hypothesis of evolution; and I propose that in lectures to come we
should consider that as carefully as we have considered the other two
hypotheses. I need not say that it is quite hopeless to look for testi-
monial evidence of evolution. The very nature of the case precludes
the possibility of such evidence. Our sole inquiry is, what foundation
circumstantial evidence lends to that hypothesis, or whether it lends
any, or whether it controverts it ; and I should deal with the matter
entirely as a question of history. I shall not indulge in the discussion
of any speculative probabilities. I shall not attempt to show that
Nature is unintelligible unless we adopt some such hypothesis : for
anything I know about it, it may be the way of Nature to be unin-
telligible. She is often puzzling, and I have no reason to suppose she

5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is bound to fit herself to our notions ; but I shall deal with the matter
entirely from the point of view of history, and I shall place before
you three kinds of evidence entirely based upon what we know of the
forms of animal life which ai*e contained in the series of stratified
rock. I shall endeavor to show you that there is one kind of evidence
which is neutral, which neither helps evolution nor is inconsistent
with it. I shall then endeavor to show you that there is a second
kind of evidence which indicates a strong probability in favor of evo-
lution, but does not prove it ; and, lastly, I shall endeavor to show
that there is a third kind of evidence which, being as complete as
any evidence which we can hope to obtain upon such a subject, and
being wholly and entirely in favor of evolution, may be fairly called
demonstrative evidence of its having occurred.

-♦*♦-

THE MOON'S INFLUENCE ON THE WEATHER.1

By Pbofessob M. A. F. PEESTEL.

A SUDDEN and considerable fall of the barometer is of frequent
occurrence ; but to find a case identical with that of Novem-
ber 22, 1873, I had to search my journals for many years back. It is
worthy of note that, in 1854, an equally sudden and considerable fall
of the barometer took place here on the coast of the North Sea on
precisely the same days as in 1873. According to observations made
at Emden, the barometric column on November 21, 1873, at 6 a. m.,
was 762.3 millimetres, and it then fell steadily till 2 p. m. on the
22d, when it reached the minimum, 732.5 millimetres, and then it again
began to rise. At 6 a. m. of November 21, 1854, the barometer
stood 760.7 millimetres, and the mercurial column then steadily fell
until 6 A. m., November 23d, when it was 734.7 millimetres ; it then
began to rise. The point to which I would call special attention is
that, on the occasion of both of these great falls of the barometer, the
position of the moon with respect to the earth was precisely the
same. There was new moon at 3 a. m. of November 20, 1873,
and at 8 a. m. of November 20, 1854; in 1873 the moon entered
the southern lunistice at 3 a. m. on November 23d, and in 1854 at
6 A. m. of November 23d ; in both years the moon's declination on
November 23d was 27° south.

Still, the occurrence of storms and barometric minima over North-
western Europe on November 22, 1873 and 1854, at the period of the
lunistitia and of the new moon, might be merely accidental ; but that
it was not accidental is shown by sundry mutually corresponding
phenomena in the atmosphere, which were observed during these two

1 Translated from the German by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.

THE MOON'S INFLUENCE ON THE WEATHER. 57

years. Daring the month of October, 1873, the average height of
the barometric column was 757.1 millimetres, and for the same month
in 1854 it was 757.2 millimetres; the barometric mean for the five
days between the 22d and the 28th was, in 1873, 750.7 millimetres, and
in 1854, 748.7 millimetres; the minimum was reached, in 1873, on Oc-
tober 23d, and in 1854 on October 25th, being in the former case 734.9
millimetres, and in the latter, 734.5 millimetres. In 1873 the maxi-
mum was reached in the evening of October 28th — 773.7 millimetres,
and in 1854 at noon of the 28th — 774.9 millimetres. The weather
was also the same in both years from the 3d to the 7th, and from the
21st to the 27th of October. From the 5th to the 7th there were fre-
quent and heavy falls of rain ; on the 7th, in 1873, and on the 5th, in
1854, there were violent thunder-storms. On both years from the
21st to .the 25th the atmosphere was in a state of violent disturbance,
tne barometric column being very low. And here we may state that
there was new moon at 11 a. m. on October 21, 1873, and at 9 p. m.
on October 21, 1854; that in 1873 the southern lunistice occurred at
10 p. M. of the 26th, and in 1854 at 9 p. m. of the 26th; and that
the moon's declination at the time was about 27° south.

Further, from the 13th to the 16th of November, 1873, the distri-
bution of atmospheric pressure over Europe and the state of the
weather were similar to what they were on the same days in 1854.
The fearful ravages wrought by the storms in the Black Sea on the
days between the 13th and the 16th of November,1854 (the Crimean
War being then in progress), will render those days ever memorable.
The numerous shipwrecks in the sea of Azof, and the loss of English
and French war-ships in the Black Sea on the 13th and 14th, showed
how desirable and necessary a thing it was that there should be found
some means of warning seafarers of the approach of storms. It was
these disasters which gave occasion to the establishment of storm-
signals. From the 13th to the 15th of November, 1873, after a period
of calm, with high barometer over the greater part of Northwestern
Europe, we find succeeding a similar barometric minimum, and a
storm area advancing across the Mediterranean toward the Black
Sea.

At any given point of the earth's surface the state of the weather
always depends on the prevailing air-currents. The annual and the
secular periodic changes of the oceanic and the atmospheric currents
are repeated in the weather-changes. And on the phenomena which,
however imperfectly, establish this periodicity, is based the universal
belief that the moon has an influence on the weather. The researches
and calculations which have been made by meteorologists to deter-
mine the periodicity of weather phenomena, and the influence of the
moon upon the latter, have hitherto been fruitless, and this simply
because the observations of single stations only have been taken into
account. From observations made at one point it is impossible to

5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

obtain decisive results as to secular periodic weather-changes, even
though these observations were to be carried on for a hundred years
or more. The terrestrial atmospheric currents, in their passage over
the same portion of the earth's surface (whether this passage be peri-
odic or not periodic), never take the same route, or have the same
limits, and consequently the localities over which they pass on their
return will happen to be at one time in the centre of the current, at
another time more or less near to its northern or its southern edge.

Under these circumstances the state of barometer and of ther-
mometer, the amount of precipitation, the force of the wind, etc., upon
which these researches are based, must yield conflicting results. Some,
however, have supposed that- better results might be obtained by
combining these quantities, and taking the mean of all the readings.
This method quite does away with anomalies, it is true, but then the
result has no specific value whatever, though the aim of all such re-
searches must always be to determine the weather specifically. The
periodicity of weather phenomena can only be determined by means
of investigations carried on according to the geographical method, i. e.,
by studying these atmospheric phenomena in their continuity both as
regards time and space.

As has been already said, the track of the storm of November
l7th-23d layover nearly the same regions of the northern hemisphere
in 1873 and 1854. Had these air-currents taken a course only a few
degrees more to the north or to the south, their existence and their
identity would have been so ill determined by the barometer of a
single locality that they might easily have been overlooked.

On the 28th of November, 1873, at 10 p. m., the barometer at
Emden stood at 756.4 millimetres, and then kept on falling till the
30th, at 8 a. m., when it was 744.2 millimetres ; after this it rose till
at 10 p. m. it was 762.6 millimetres. This not very considerable fall of
the barometer would not have deserved special notice, were it not fol-
lowed on the evening of the 29th by a storm of some violence, which
through the night became a hurricane. In 1854, at the same period of
the year, the barometer underwent a similar change, only much greater.
On November 27th, at 10 p. m., the height of the barometric column
was 757 millimetres. It then fell, till on the 29th, at 2 p.m., it was 727.8
millimetres, when it began rising till it reached 757.9 millimetres at
8 a. m., on the 30th. The quantitative difference of barometric press-
ure at Emden on November 27th and 28th, between the years 1873
and 1854, is simply the result of the difference in the tracks of the
storms, and the consequent distance of the place of observation from
the storm-centre. At Thorshavn, between November 25th and 28th,
in 1873, the barometric changes were precisely the same as had been
observed at Emden on the same days in 1854. In 1873, at 9 p. m. of
the 25th, the mercurial column at Thorshavn was 757.3 millimetres;
on the 26th, at 8 a. m., it was 746.9 millimetres ; on the 26th at 9 p. m.,

THE MOON'S INFLUENCE ON THE WEATHER. 59

729.2 millimetres; on the 27th, at 8 a. m., 729.8 millimetres; on the
28th, at 8 a. m., 747.3 millimetres.

With the moon in a like position with respect to the earth, there
occurred, December 15-18, 1873 and 1854, just as on the 21st and 22d
of November, a sudden and great fall of the barometer, accompanied
by a fearful storm. In 1873, on the evening of the 13th, and in 1854,
on the morning of the 14th, the moon was in the descending node..
The moon's declination in 1873, at 3 p. m. of the 15th, and in 1854 at
7 a. M. of the 16th, was 12° south. At Emden, in 1873, the barometer
fell on the 15th and 16th, from 768 to 745 millimetres, or 23 millime-
tres. At Skudesnas the fall on the 15th and 16th December amounted
to 25 millimetres; at Stockholm, on the 16th, to 20 millimetres; at
St. Petersburg, from the 15th to the 17th, to 30 millimetres. The
track of the centre of this storm entirely agrees with that of the storm
of November 14th-22d. At 1 a. m. of December 14th, we find at Wash-
ington, North Carolina, a barometric minimum of 744.2 millimetres,
and by 7h- 35™- this had advanced as far as Halifax. Here, at the
time specified, the barometer had fallen to 735 millimetres. On the
14th, at 4h- 35m', the barometric minimum had passed in a northeast
direction over Newfoundland, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. At
Thorshavn, where, on the 14th, at 8 a. m., the barometer had stood
at 757.4 millimetres, it had on the morning of the 16th fallen to 731.9.
At Aberdeen, the barometer on the morning of the 16th stood at 735
millimetres.

In 1854, on the morning of December 17th, the barometer at Em-
den showed 752.2 millimetres ; it then fell till noon on the 18th, when
it was 731.1 millimetres, and then began to rise again. At the be-
ginning of the fall of the barometer, a storm from the southwest set
in, which increased in force till it became a hurricane. The rain which
fell during the storm amounted to 18.9 millimetres.

At Cologne, at 3h- 41m-, December 18, 1854, the barometer showed
726.6 millimetres — a barometric minimum never before observed there
since 1830.

In 1854 the track of the storm-centre traversed Northern France
and Germany : thus, as on November 22d,it was more southerly than
in 1873.

Such concordant atmospheric phenomena as these, when the moon
occupies the same position relating to the earth, might be quoted at
great length. The moon, as it governs ebb and flow, so too determines
oceanic currents, and, by means of these, atmospheric currents. From
this it follows that the influence of the moon upon that portion of the
atmosphere which overlies the continents must be less than that upon
the supra-oceanic atmosphere. — Gaea.

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT AS APPLIED TO

MAN.1

By ALFEED EUSSEL WALLACE, F. E. S.

AS my own knowledge of and interest in anthropology are con-
fined to the great outlines, rather than to the special details
of the science, I propose to give a very brief and general sketch of the
modern doctrine as to the Antiquity and Origin of Man, and to sug-
gest certain points of difficulty which have not, I think, yet received
sufficient attention.

Many now present remember the time (for it is little more than
twenty years ago) when the antiquity of man, as now understood, was
universally discredited. Not only theologians, but even geologists,
then taught us that man belonged altogether to the existing state of
things ; that the extinct animals of the Tertiary period had finally dis-
appeared, and that the earth's surface had assumed its present con-
dition, before the human race first came into existence. So prepos-
sessed were even scientific men with this idea — which yet rested on
purely negative evidence, and could not be supported by any argu-
ments of scientific value — that numerous facts which had been pre-
sented at intervals for half a century, all tending to prove the exist-
ence of man at very remote epochs, were silently ignored ; and, more
than this, the detailed statements of three distinct and careful observ-
ers were rejected by a great scientific society as too improbable for
publication, only because they proved (if they were true) the coexist-
ence of man with extinct animals ! 2

But this state of belief in opposition to facts could not long con-
tinue. In 1859 a few of our most eminent geologists examined for
themselves into the alleged occurrence of flint implements in the
gravels of the north of France, which had been made public fourteen
years before, and found them strictly correct. The caverns of Devon-
shire were about the same time carefully examined by equally eminent
observers, and were found fully to bear out the statements of those
who had published their results eighteen years before. Flint imple-
ments began to be found in all suitable localities in the south of Enej-
land, when carefully searched for, often in gravels of equal antiquity
with those of France. Caverns, giving evidence of human occupation

1 From the opening address of Mr. Wallace, as President of the Biological Section of
the British Association for the Advancement of Science, given at its recent meeting in
Glasgow.

8 In 1854 (?) a communication from the Torquay Natural History Society, confirming
previous accounts by Mr. Godwin-Austen, Mr. Vivian, and the Eev. Mr. McEnery, that
worked flints occurred in Kent's Hole, with remains of extinct species, was rejected as
too improbable for publication.-

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT, ETC. 61

at various remote periods, were explored in Belgium and the south
of France — lake-dwellings were examined in Switzerland — refuse-
heaps in Denmark — and thus a whole series of remains have "been dis-
covered, carrying back the history of mankind from the earliest his-
toric periods to a long-distant past. The antiquity of the races thus
discovered can only be generally determined by the successively ear-
lier and earlier stages through which we can trace them. As we go
back, metals soon disappear, and we find only tools and weapons of
stone and of bone. Tbe stone weapons get ruder and ruder ; pottery,
and then the bone implements, cease to occur ; and in the earliest
stage we find only chipped flints, of rude design, though still of un-
mistakably human workmanship. In like manner domestic animals
disappear as we go backward ; and, though the dog seems to have
been the earliest, it is doubtful whether the makers of the ruder flint
implements of the gravels possessed even this. Still more important
as a measure of time are the changes of the earth's surface — of the
distribution of animals — and of climate — which have occurred during
the human period. At a comparatively recent epoch in the record of
prehistoric times, we find that the Baltic was far salter than it is now,
and produced abundance of oysters ; and that Denmark was covered
with pine-forests inhabited by capercailzies, such as now only occur
farther north in Norway. A little earlier we find that reindeer were
common even in the south of France, and still earlier this animal was
accompanied by the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, by the arctic
glutton, and by huge bears and lions of extinct species. The presence
of such animals implies a change of climate, and both in the caves
and gravels we find proofs of a much colder climate than now prevails
in Western Europe. Still more remarkable are the changes of the
earth's surface which have been effected during man's occupation of
it. Many extensive valleys in England and France are believed by
the best observers to have been deepened at least a hundred feet;
caverns now far out of the reach of any stream must for a long suc-
cession of years have had streams flowing through them, at least in
times of floods — and this often implies that vast masses of solid rock
have since been worn away. In Sardinia land has risen at least three
hundred feet since men lived there who made pottery and probably
used fishing-nets ; ' while in Kent's Cavern remains of man are found
buried beneath two separate beds of stalagmite, each having a distinct
texture, and each covering a deposit of cave-earth having well-marked
differential characters, while each contains a distinct assemblage of
extinct animals.

Such, briefly, are the results of the evidence that has been rapidly

accumulating for about fifteen years as to the antiquity of man ; and

it has been confirmed by so many discoveries of a like nature in all

parts of the globe, and especially by the comparison of the tools and

1 Lyell's "Antiquity of Man," fourth edition, p. 115.

6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

weapons of prehistoric man with those of modern savages, so that the
use of even the rudest flint implements has become quite intelligible,
that we can hardly wonder at the vast revolution effected in public
opinion. Not only is the belief in man's vast and still unknown an-
tiquity universal among men of science, but it is hardly disputed by
any well-informed theologian; and the present generation of science-
students must, we should think, be somewhat puzzled to understand
what there was in the earliest discoveries that should have aroused
such general opposition and been met with such universal incredulity.

But the question of the mere "Antiquity of Man" almost sank
into insignificance at a very early period of the inquiry, in compari-
son with the far more momentous and more exciting problem of the
development of man from some lower animal form, which the the-
ories of Mr. Darwin and of Mr. Herbert Spencer soon showed to be
inseparably bound up with it. This has been, and to some extent
still is, the subject of fierce conflict ; but the controversy as to the
fact of such development is now almost at an end, since one of the
most talented representatives of Catholic theology, and an anatomist
of high standing — Prof. Mivart — fully adopts it as regards physical
structure, reserving his opposition for those parts of the theory which
would deduce man's whole intellectual and moral nature from the
same source, and by a similar mode of development.

Never, perhaps, in the whole history of science or philosophy has
so great a revolution in thought and opinion been effected as in the
twelve years from 1859 to 1871, the respective dates of publication of
Mr. Darwin's " Origin of Species" and " Descent of Man." Up to the
commencement of this period the belief in the independent creation or
origin of the species of animals and plants, and the belief in the very
recent appearance of man upon the earth, were, practically, universal.
Long before the end of it these two beliefs had utterly disappeared, not
only in the scientific world, but almost equally so among the literary and
educated classes generally. The belief in the independent origin of
man held its ground somewhat longer, but the publication of Mr.
Darwin's great work gave even that its death-blow, for hardly any
one capable of judging of the evidence now doubts the derivative na-
ture of man's bodily structure as a whole, although many believe that
his mind and even some of his physical characteristics may be due
to the action of other forces than have acted in the case of the lower
animals.

"We need hardly be surprised, under these circumstances, if there
has been a tendency among men of science to pass from one extreme
to the other, from a profession (so few years ago) of total ignorance
as to the mode of origin of all living things, to a claim to almost
complete knowledge of the whole progress of the universe from the
first speck of living protoplasm up to the highest development of the
human intellect. Yet this is really what we have seen in the last six-

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT, ETC. 63

teen years. Formerly difficulties were exaggerated, and it was as-
serted that we had not sufficient knowledge to venture on any gener-
alizations on the subject. Now difficulties are set aside, and it is held
that our theories are so well established and so far-reaching, that they
explain and comprehend all Nature. It is not long ago (as I have
already reminded you) since facts were contemptuously ignored, be-
cause they favored our now popular views ; at the present day it
seems to me that facts which oppose them hardly receive due consid-
eration. And, as opposition is the best incentive to progress, and it is
not well even for the best theories to have it all their own way, I
propose to direct your attention to a few such facts, and to the conclu-
sions that seem fairly deducible from them.

It is a curious circumstance that, notwithstanding the attention
that has been directed to the subject in every part of the world,
and the numerous excavations connected with railways and mines
which have offered such facilities for geological discovery, no ad-
vance whatever has been made for a considerable number of years,
in detecting the time or the mode of man's origin. The Palceolithic
flint weapons first discovered in the north of France more than
thirty years ago are still the oldest undisputed proofs of man's exist-
ence ; and, amid the countless relics of a former world that have been
brought to light, no evidence of any one of the links that must have
connected man with the lower animals has yet appeared.

It is, indeed, well known that negative evidence in geology is of
very slender value, and this is, no doubt, generally the case. The
circumstances here are, however, peculiar ; for many converging lines
of evidence show that, on the theory of development by the same laws
which have determined the development of the lower animals, man
must be immensely older than any traces of him yet discovered. As
this is a point of great interest, we must devote a few moments to its
consideration :

1. The most important difference between man and such of the
lower animals as most nearly approach him is undoubtedly in the
bulk and development of his brain, as indicated by the form and ca-
pacity of the cranium. We should therefore anticipate that these
earliest races, who were contemporary with the extinct animals and
used rude stone weapons, would show a marked deficiency in this
respect. Yet the oldest known crania — those of the Engis and Cro-
Magnon caves — show no marks of degradation. The former does not
present so low a type as that of most existing savages, but is — to use
the words of Prof. Huxley — " a fair average human skull, which might
have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thought-
less brains of a savage." The latter are still more remarkable, being
unusually large and well formed. Dr. Pruner-Bey states that they
surpass the average of modern European skulls in capacity, while
their symmetrical forms, without any trace of prognathism, compare

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

favorably not only with, the foremost savage races, but with many
civilized nations of modern times.

One or two other crania of much lower type, but of less antiquity
than this, have been discovered ; but they in no way invalidate the
conclusion which so highly developed a form at so early a period im
plies, viz., that we have as yet made a hardly perceptible step tow-
ard the discovery of any earlier stage in the development of man.

2. This conclusion is supported and enforced by the nature of
many of the works of art found even in the oldest cave-dwellings.
The flints are of the old chipped type, but they are formed into a large
variety of tools and weapons — such as scrapers, awls, hammers, saws,
lances, etc. — implying a variety of purposes for which these were used,
and a corresponding degree of mental activity and civilization. Nu-
merous articles of bone have also been found, including well-formed
needles, implying that skins were sewn together, and perhaps even
textile materials woven into cloth. Still more important are the nu-
merous carvings and drawings representing a variety of animals, in-
cluding horses, reindeer, and even a mammoth, executed with con-
siderable skill on bone, reindeer horns, and mammoth-tusks. Tliese,
taken together, indicate a state of civilization much higher than that
of the lowest of our modern savages, while it is quite compatible with
a considerable degree of mental advancement, and leads us to believe
that the crania of Engis and Cro-Magnon are not exceptional, but
fairly represent the characters of the race. If we further remember
that these people lived in Europe under the unfavorable conditions of
a sub-arctic climate, we shall be inclined to agree with Dr. Daniel
Wilson, that it is far easier to produce evidences of deterioration than
of progress in instituting a comparison between the contemporaries
of the mammoth and later prehistoric races of Europe or savage na-
tions of modern times.1

3. Yet another important line of evidence as to the extreme an-
tiquity of the human type has been brought prominently forward by
Prof. Mivart.2 He shows, by careful comparison of all parts of the
structure of the body, that man is related, not to any one, but almost
equally to many of the existing apes — to the orang, the chimpanzee,
the gorilla, and even to the gibbons — in a variety of ways ; and these
relations and differences are so numerous and so diverse that on the
theory of evolution the ancestral form which ultimately developed
into man must have diverged from the common stock whence all
these various forms and their extinct allies originated. But so far
back as the Miocene deposits of Europe, we find the remains of
apes allied to these various forms, and especially to the gibbons,
so that in all probability the special line of variation which led up to
man branched off at a still earlier period. And these early forms,
being the initiation of a far higher type, and having to develop by

1 "Prehistoric Man," third edition, vol. i., p: 117. a "Man and Apes," pp. 171-193.

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT, ETC. 65

natural selection into so specialized and altogether distinct a creature
as man, must have risen at a very early period into the position of a
dominant race, and spread in dense waves of population over all suit-
able portions of the great continent — for this, on Mr. Darwin's hy-
pothesis, is essential to rapid developmental progress through the
agency of natural selection.

Under these circumstances we might certainly expect to find some
relics of these earlier forms of man along with those of animals which
were presumably less abundant. Negative evidence of this kind is
not very weighty, but still it has some value. It has been suggested
that as apes are mostly tropical, and anthropoid apes are now confined
almost exclusively to the vicinity of the equator, we should expect the
ancestral forms also to have inhabited these same localities — West
Africa and the Malay Islands. But this objection is hardly valid,
because existing anthropoid apes are wholly dependent on a perennial
supply of easily-accessible fruits, which is only found near the equator,
while not only had the south of Europe an almost tropical climate in
Miocene times, but we must suppose even the earliest ancestors of
man to have been terrestrial and omnivorous, since it must have taken
ages of slow modification to have produced the perfectly erect form,
the short arms, and the wholly non-prehensile foot, which so strongly
differentiate man from the apes.

The conclusion which I think we must arrive at is, that if man
has been developed from a common ancestor with all existing apes,
and by no other agencies than such as have affected their development,
then he must have existed in something approaching his present form,
during the Tertiary period — and not merely existed, but predominated
in numbers, wherever suitable conditions prevailed. If, then, con-
tinued researches in all parts of Europe and Asia fail to bring to light
any proofs of his presence, it will be at least a presumption that he
came into existence at a much later date, and by a much more rapid
process of development. In that case it will be a fair argument that,
just as he is in his mental and moral nature, his capacities and aspira-
tions, so infinitely raised above the brutes, so his origin is due to
distinct and higher agencies than such as have aflected their develop-
ment.

There is yet another line of inquiry bearing upon this subject to
which I wish to call your attention. It is a somewhat curious fact
that, while all modern writers admit the great antiquity of man, most
of them maintain the very recent development of his intellect, and
will hardly contemplate the possibility of men, equal in mental ca-
pacity to ourselves, having existed in prehistoric times. This ques-
tion is generally assumed to be settled by such relics as have been
preserved of the manufactures of the older races, showing a lower and
lower state of the arts by the successive disappearance in early times
of iron, bronze, and pottery ; and by the ruder forms of the older flint

TOL. X. — 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

implements. The weakness of this argument has been well shown by
Mr. Albert Mott in his very original but little known presidential
address to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool in
1873. He maintains that "our most distant glimpses of the past are
still of a world peopled as now with men both civilized and savage ; "
and " that we have often entirely misread the past by supposing that
the outward signs of civilization must always be the same, and must
be such as are found among ourselves." In support of this view he
adduces a variety of striking facts and ingenious arguments, a few of
which I wTill briefly summarize.

On one of the most remote islands of the Pacific — Easter Island —
2,000 miles from South America, 2,000 from the Marquesas, and more
than 1,000 from the Gambler Islands, are found hundreds of gigantic
stone images, now mostly in ruins, often thirty or forty feet high,
while some seem to have been much larger, the crowns on their heads
cut out of a red stone, being sometimes ten feet in diameter, while
even the head and neck of one are said to have been twenty feet high.1
These once stood erect on extensive stone platforms, yet the island
has only an area of about thirty square miles, or considerably less than
Jersey. Now, as one of the smallest images eight feet high weighs
four tons, the largest must weigh over a hundred tons if not much more;
and the existence of such vast works implies a large population,
abundance of food, and an established government. Yet how could
these coexist in a mere speck of land wholly cut off from the rest of
the world ? Mr. Mott maintains that this necessarily implies the
power of regular communication with larger islands or a continent,
the arts of navigation, and a civilization much higher than now exists
in any part of the Pacific. Very similar remains in other islands
scattered widely over the Pacific add weight to this argument.

The next example is that of the ancient mounds and earthworks
of the North American Continent, the bearing of which is even more
significant. Over the greater part of the extensive Mississippi Val-
ley four well-marked classes of these earthworks occur. Some are
camps, or works of defense, situated on bluffs, promontories, or iso-
lated hills; others are vast inclosures in the plains and lowlands,
often of geometric forms, and having attached to them roadways or
avenues often miles in length ; a third are mounds corresponding to
our tumuli, often seventy to ninety feet high, and some of them cov-
ering acres of ground ; while a fourth group consist of representations
of various animals modeled in relief on a gigantic scale, and occur-
ring chiefly in an area somewhat to the northwest of the other classes,
in the plains of Wisconsin.

The first class — the camps or fortified inclosures — resemble in gen-
eral features the ancient camps of our own islands, but far surpass
them in extent. Fort Hill, in Ohio, is surrounded by a wall and ditch

1 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1870, pp. ]77, 178.

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT, ETC. 67

a mile and a half in length, part of the way cut through solid rock.
Artificial reservoirs for water were made within it, while at one ex-
tremity, on a more elevated point, a keep is constructed with its sep-
arate defenses and water-reservoirs. Another, called Clark's Work,
in the Scioto Valley, which seems to have been a fortified town, in-
closes an area of one hundred and twenty-seven acres, the embank-
ments measuring three miles in length, and containing not less than
three million cubic feet of earth. This area incloses numerous sacri-
ficial mounds and symmetrical earthworks in which many interesting
relics and works of art have been found.

The second class — the sacred inclosures — may be compared for ex
tent and arrangement with Avebury or Carnak — but are in some
respects even more remarkable. One of these, at Newark, Ohio, cov-
ers an area of several miles with its connected groups of circles, octa-
gons, squares, ellipses, and avenues, on a grand scale, and formed by
embankments from twenty to thirty feet in height. Other similar
works occur in different parts of Ohio, and by accurate survey it is
found not only that the circles are true, though some of them are
one-third of a mile in diameter, but that other figures are truly square,
each side being over one thousand feet long, and, what is still more
important, the dimensions of some of these geometrical figures in dif-
ferent parts of the country, and seventy miles apart, are identical.
Now, this proves the use, by the builders of these works, of some
standard measures of length, while the accuracy of the squares, cir-
cles, and, in a less degree, of the octagonal figures, shows a consid-
erable knowledge of rudimentary geometry, and some means of meas-
uring angles. The difficulty of drawing such figures on a large scale
is much greater than any one would imagine who has not tried it, and
the accuracy of these is far beyond what is necessary to satisfy the
eye. We must therefore impute to these people the wish to make
these figures as accurate as possible, and this wish is a greater proof
of habitual skill and intellectual advancement than even the ability
to draw such figures. If, then, we take into account this ability and
this love of geometric truth, and further consider the dense population
and civil organization implied by the construction of such extensive
systematic works, we must allow that these people had reached the
earlier stages of a civilization of which no traces existed among the
savage tribes who alone occupied the country when first visited by
Europeans.

The animal mounds are of comparatively less importance for our
present purpose, as they imply a somewhat lower grade of advance-
ment ; but the sepulchral and sacrificial mounds exist in vast num-
bers, and their partial exploration has yielded a quantity of articles
and works of art which throw some further light on the peculiarities
of this mysterious people. Most of these mounds contain a large
concave hearth or basin of burnt clay, of perfectly symmetrical

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

form, on which are found deposited more or less abundant relics, all
bearing traces of the action of fire. We are, therefore, only ac-
quainted with such articles as are practically fire-proof. These con-
sist of bone and copper implements and ornaments, disks, and tubes —
pearl, shell, and silver beads, more or less injured by the fire — ornaments
cut in mica, ornamental pottery, and numbers of elaborate carvings
in stone, mostly forming jfipes for smoking. The metallic articles are
all formed by hammering, but the execution is very good ; plates of
mica are found cut into scrolls and circles; the pottery, of which very
few remains have been found, is far superior to that of any of the In-
dian tribes, since Dr. Wilson is of opinion that they must have been
formed on a wheel, as they are often of uniform thickness throughout
(sometimes not more than one-sixth of an inch), polished and orna-
mented with scrolls and figures of birds and flowers in delicate relief.
But the most instructive objects are the sculptured stone pipes, repre-
senting not only various easily-recognizable animals, but also human
heads, so well executed that they appear to be portraits. Among the
animals, not only are such native forms as the panther, bear, otter,
wolf, beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, frog, rattlesnake, and many
others, well represented, but also the manatee, which perhaps then
ascended the Mississippi as it now does the Amazon, and the toucan,
which could hardly have been obtained nearer than Mexico. The
sculptured heads are especially remarkable, because they present to
us the features of an intellectual and civilized people. The nose in
some is perfectly straight, and neither prominent nor dilated, the
mouth is small, and the lips thin, the chin and upper lip are short,
contrasting with the ponderous jaw of the modern Indian, while the
cheek-bones present no marked prominence. Other examples . have
the nose somewhat projecting at the apex in a manner quite unlike
the features of any American indigenes, and, although there are some
which show a much coarser face, it is very difficult to see in any of
them that close resemblance to the Indian type which these sculptures
have been said to exhibit. The few authentic crania from the mounds
present corresponding features, being far more symmetrical and bet-
ter developed in the frontal region than those of any American tribes,
although somewhat resembling them in the occipital outline ; ' while
one was described by its discoverer (Mr. W. Marshall Anderson) as
" a beautiful skull worthy of a Greek."

The antiquity of this remarkable race may perhaps not be very
great, as compared with the prehistoric man of Europe, although the
opinions of some writers on the subject seem affected by that "par-
simony of time " on which the late Sir Charles Lyell so often dilated.
The mounds are all overgrown with dense forest, and one of the large
trees was estimated to be 800 years old, while other observers con-
sider the forest-growth to indicate an age of at least 1,000 years. But

1 Wilson's " Prehistoric Man," third edition, vol. ii., pp. 123-130.

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT, ETC. 69

it is well known -that it requires several generations of trees to pass
away before the growth on a deserted clearing comes to correspond
with that of the surrounding virgin forest, while this forest, once estab-
lished, may go on growing for an unknown number of thousands of
years. The 800 or 1,000 years estimate from the growth of existing
vegetation is a minimum which has no bearing whatever on the actual
age of these mounds, and we might almost as well attempt to deter-
mine, the time of the glacial epoch from the age of the pines or oaks
which now grow on the moraines.

The important thing for us, however, is, that when North America
was first settled by Europeans, the Indian tribes inhabiting it had no
knowledge or tradition of any preceding race of higher civilization
than themselves. Yet we find that such a race existed ; that they
must have been populous, and have lived under some established gov-
ernment; while there are signs that they practised agriculture largely,
as indeed they must have done to have supported a population capable
of executing such gigantic works in such vast profusion — for it is
stated that the mounds and earthworks of various kinds in the State
of Ohio alone amount to between eleven and twelve thousand. In
their habits, customs, religion, and arts, they differed strikingly from
all the Indian tribes ; while their love of art and geometric forms and
their capacity for executing the latter upon so gigantic a scale render
it probable that they were a really civilized people, although the form
their civilization took may have been very different from that of later
people subject to very different influences, and the inheritors of a
longer series of ancestral civilizations. We have here, at all events,
a striking example of the transition, over an extensive country, from
comparative civilization to comparative barbarism, the former having
left no tradition, and hardly any trace of influence on the latter.

As Mr. Mott well remarks: "Nothing can be more striking than
the fact that Easter Island and North America both give the same
testimony as to the origin of the savage life found in them, although
in all circumstances and surroundings the two cases are so different.
If no stone monuments had been constructed in Easter Island, or
mounds, containing a few relics saved from fire, in the United States,
we might never have suspected the existence of these ancient peo-
ples." He argues, therefore, that it is very easy for the records of an
ancient nation's life entirely to perish, or to be hidden from observa-
tion. Even the arts of Nineveh and Babylon were unknown only a
generation ago, and we have only jxtst discovered the facts about the
mound-builders of North America.

But other parts of the American Continent exhibit parallel phe-
nomena. Recent investigations show that in Mexico, Central Amer-
ica, and Peru, the existing race of Indians has been preceded by a
distinct and more civilized race. This is proved by the sculptures of
the ruined cities of Central America, by the more ancient terra- Cottas

7o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and paintings of Mexico, and by the oldest portrait-pottery of Peru.
All alike show markedly non-Indian features, while they often closely
resemble modern European types. Ancient crania, too, have been
found in all these countries, presenting very different characters from
those of any of the modern indigenous races of America.1

There is one other striking example of a higher being succeeded
by a lower degree of knowledge, which is in danger of being forgot-
ten because it has been made the foundation of theories which seem
wild and fantastic, and are probably in great part erroneous. I
allude to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, whose form, dimensions, struct-
ure, and uses, have recently been the subject of elaborate works by
Prof. Piazzi Smyth. Now, the admitted facts about this pyramid are
so interesting and so apposite to the subject we are considering, that I
beg to recall them to your attention. Most of you are aware that
this pyramid has been carefully explored and measured by successive
Egyptologists, and that the dimensions have lately become capable
of more accurate determination, owing to the discovery of some of
the original casing-stones and the clearing away of the earth from
the corners of the foundation, showing the sockets in which the cor-
ner-stones fitted. Prof. Smyth devoted many months of work with
the best instruments in order to fix the dimensions and angles of all
accessible parts of the structure ; and he has carefully determined
these by a comparison of his own and all previous measures, the best
of which agree pretty closely with each other. The results arrived
at are :

1. That the pyramid is truly square, the sides being equal and the
angles right angles.

2. That the four sockets on which the first four stones of the cor-
ners rested are truly on the same level.

3. That the directions of the sides are accurately to the four cardi-
nal points.

4. That the vertical height of the pyramid bears the same propor-
tion to its circumference at the base as the radius of a circle does to
its circumference.

Now all these measures, angles, and levels, are accurate, not as an
ordinary surveyor or builder could make them, but to such a degree
as requires the very best modern instruments and all the refinements
of geodetical science to discover any error at all. In addition to this
we have the wonderful perfection of the workmanship in the interior
of the pyramid, the passages and chambers being lined with huge
blocks of stones fitted with the utmost accuracy, while every part of
the building exhibits the highest structural science.

In all these respects this largest pyramid surpasses every other in
Egypt- Yet it is universally admitted to be the oldest, and also the
oldest historical building in the world.

1 Wilson's "Prehistoric Man," third edition, vol. ii., pp. 12:>, 144.

DIFFICULTIES OF DEVELOPMENT, ETC. 71

Now these admitted facts about the Great Pyramid are surely re-
markable, and worthy of the deepest consideration. They are facts
which, in the pregnant words of the late Sir John Herschel, "accord-
ing to received theories ought not to happen," and which, he tells us,
should therefore be kept ever present to our minds, since " they belong-
to the class of facts which serve as the clew to new discoveries." Ac-
cording to modern theories, the higher civilization is ever a growth
and an outcome from a preceding lower state ; and it is inferred that
this progress is visible to us throughout all history and in all the ma-
terial records of human intellect. But here we have a building which
marks the very dawn of history — which is the oldest authentic mon-
ument of man's genius and skill, and which, instead of being far infe-
rior, is very much superior to all which followed it. Great men are
the products of their age and country, and the designer and con-
structors of this wonderful monument could never have arisen among
an unintellectual and half-barbarous people. So perfect a work im-
plies many preceding less perfect works which have disappeared. It
marks the culminating point of an ancient civilization, of the early
stages of which we have no record whatever.

The three cases to which I have now adverted (and there are many
others) seem to require for their satisfactory interpretation a some-
what different view of human progress from that which is now gener-
ally accepted. Taken in connection with the great intellectual power
of the ancient Greeks — which Mr. Galton believes to have been far
above that of the average of any modern nation — and the elevation,
at once intellectual and moral, displayed in the writings of Confucius,
Zoroaster, and the Vedas, they point to the conclusion that, while in
material progress there has been a tolerably steady advance, man's
intellectual and moral development reached almost its highest level in
a very remote past. The lower, the more animal, but often the more
energetic types, have, however, always been far the more numerous ;
hence such established societies as have here and there arisen under
the guidance of higher minds have always been liable to be swept,
away by the incursions of barbarians. Thus, in almost every part of
the globe there may have been a long succession of partial civiliza-
tion, each in turn succeeded by a period of barbarism ; and this view
seems supported by the occurrence of degraded types of skull along
with such " as might have belonged to a philosopher "—at a time
when the mammoth and the reindeer inhabited Southern France.

Nor need we fear that there is not time enough for the rise and
decay of so many successive civilizations as this view would imply ;
for the opinion is now gaining ground among geologists that paleo-
lithic man was really preglacial, and that the great gap— marked
alike by a change of physical conditions, and of animal life— which in
Europe always separates him from his neolithic successor, was caused
by the coming on and passing away of the great Ice age.

7z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

If the views now advanced are correct, many, perhaps most, of
our existing savages are the successors of higher races ; and their
arts, often showing a wonderful similarity in distant continents, may
have been derived from a common source among more civilized peoples.

I must now conclude this very imperfect sketch of a few of the
offshoots from the great tree of biological study. It will, perhaps,
be thought by some that my remarks have tended to the depreciation
of our science, by hinting at imperfections in our knowledge and
errors in our theories, where more enthusiastic students see nothing
but established truths. But I trust that I may have conveyed to
many of my hearers a different impression. I have endeavored to
show that even in what are usually considered the more trivial and
superficial characters presented by natural objects, a whole field of
new inquiry is opened up to us by the study of distribution and local
conditions. And as regards man, I have endeavored to fix your at-
tention on a class of facts which indicate that the course of his devel-
opment has been far less direct and simple than has hitherto been
supposed ; and that, instead of resembling a single tide with its ad-
vancing and receding ripples, it must rather be compared to the prog-
ress from neap to spring tides, both the rise and the depression being
comparatively greater as the waters of true civilization slowly ad-
vance toward the highest level they can reach.

And if we are thus led to believe that our present knowledge of
Nature is somewhat less complete than we have been accustomed to
consider it, this is only what we might expect ; for, however great
may have been the intellectual triumphs of the nineteenth century,
we can hardly think so highly of its achievements as to imagine that,
in somewhat less than twenty years, we have passed from complete
ignorance to almost perfect knowledge on two such vast and complex
subjects as the origin of species and the antiquity of man.

-♦♦♦-

THE SO-CALLED "CONFLICT OF SCIENCE AND RE-
LIGION." \

By Principal J. W. DAWSON,

OF MOGILL UNIVERSITY.

IT may be objected that, by the introduction of a cosmogony, the
Bible exposes itself to a conflict with science, and that thereby
injury results both to science and to religion. This is a grave charge,
and one that evidently has had much weight with many minds, since
it has been the subject of entire treatises designed to illustrate the
history of this conflict or to explain its nature. The revelation of

1 Extract from a work preparing for publication.

« CONFLICT OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION." 73

God's will to man for his moral guidance, if necessary at all, was ne-
cessary before the rise of natural science. Men could not, more espe-
cially, do without some knowledge of the unity of God and the unity
of Nature until these great truths should be worked out by scientific
induction. Perhaps they might never have been so worked out ; there-
fore, a revealed " book of origins " has a right to precedence in this
matter. Nor need it in any way come into conflict with the science
subsequently to grow up. Science does not deal so much with the
origin of Nature as with its method and laws ; and all that is neces-
sary on the part of a revelation to avoid conflict with it is to confine
itself to the statement of phenomena and to avoid hypotheses. This
is eminently the course of the Bible. In its cosmogony it shuns all
embellishments and details, and contents itself with the fact of crea-
tion and a slight sketch of its order ; and the sacred writers in their
subsequent references to Nature are strictly phenomenal in their
statements, and refer everything directly to the will of God, without
any theory as to secondary causes or relations. They are thus de-
cided and positive on the points with reference to which it behooves
revelation to testify, and non-committal on the points which belong to
the exclusive domain of science.

What, then, are we to say of the imaginary " conflict of science
and religion " of which so much has been made ? Simply, that it re-
sults largely from misapprehension and misuse of terms. True relig-
ion, which consists in practical love to God and to our fellow-men, can
have no conflict with true science. They are fast allies. The Bible,
considered as a revelation of spiritual truth to man for his salvation
and enlightenment, can have no conflict with science. It promotes
the study of Nature, rendering it honorable by giving it the dignity
of an inquiry into the ways of God, and rendering it safe by separat-
ing it from all ideas of magic and necromancy. It gives a theological
sanction to the ideas of the unity of Nature and of natural law. The
actual conflict of science, when historically analyzed, is fourfold : 1.
With the Church; 2. With theology; 3. With superstition ; 4. With
false or imperfect science and philosophy. Religious men have, no
doubt, from time to time identified themselves with these opponents,
but that is all ; and much more frequently the opposition has been by
unwise or bad men, more or less, it may be, professing religious ob-
jects.

Organizations styling themselves " the Church," and whose war-
rant from the Bible is often of the slenderest, have denounced and
opposed new scientific truths, and persecuted their upholders ; but
they have just as often < en unced the Bible itself, and religious doc-
trines founded on it.

Theology claims to b If one of the sciences, and as such it is

necessarily imperfect an< <>;ressive, and may at any time be more

or less in conflict with < sciences. But theology is not religion,

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and may often have very little in common either with true religion
or with the Bible. When discussions arise between theology and
other sciences, it is only a pity that either side should indulge in what
has been termed the odium theolofficum, but which is unfortunately
not confined to divines.

Superstition, considered as the unreasonable fear of natural agen-
cies, is a passive rather than an active opponent of science, except
when it becomes affected with some cruel panic. But revelation
which affirms unity, law, and a Father's hand in Nature, is the deadly
foe of superstition ; and, as a matter of fact, no body of people who
have been readers of the Bible, and imbued with its spirit, have been
found ready to molest or persecute science. Work of this sort has
been done chiefly by the ignorant and superstitious votaries of sys-
tems which detest the Bible as much as they dislike science.

Perhaps the most troublesome opposition to science, or rather to
the progress of science, has sprung from the tenacity with which men
hold to old ideas. These, which may at one time have been the best
science attainable, root themselves in the general mind, in popular
literature, in learned bodies, and in educational books and institutions.
They become identified with men's conceptions both of Nature and
religion, and modify their interpretations of the Bible itself. It thus
becomes a most difficult matter to wrench them from their hold, and
their advocates are too apt to invoke in their defense political, social,
and ecclesiastical powers, and to seek to support them by the author-
ity of revelation, even when this, rightly understood, might be quite
as favorable to the newer views.

All these conflicts are, however, necessary incidents in human
progress, which comes only by conflict ; and there is reason to believe
that they would be as severe in the absence of revealed religion as in
its presence, were it not that the absence of revelation seems often to
produce a fixity and stagnation of thought, unfavorable to any new
views, and consequently to some extent to any intellectual conflict.
It has been, indeed, to the disinterment of the Bible, the Reforma-
tion of the fifteenth century, that the world owes, more than to any
other cause, the rapid growth of modern science, and the freedom of
discussion which now prevails. The Bible is surely to be regarded as
a religious book, and a very old one. Yet, its constant appeal to the
individual judgment in matters of religion exposes it quite as often as
science to the attacks of ecclesiastical power, and gives to those who
rely on it as a rule of faith a mental stimulus which is to this day the
strongest guarantee that we jiossess for intellectual liberty in other
matters.

ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 75

ASTRONOMY IN AMERIQA.

Bv EICHAED A. PEOCTOE.

DURING my visits to America in 1873-"74 and 1875-'76, 1 was led
from time to time to notice with interest the progress and prom-
ise of astronomical science in America. My own special purpose in
visiting America on these occasions partly brought these matters to
my attention. The circumstance that in a country so much more
thinly peopled than Great Britain it should be possible not only
to obtain audiences for lectures on such a subject as astronomy, but
to obtain more and better and larger audiences, by far than could be
obtained during a lecture-season in England for any single scientific
subject whatever, appeared to me in itself sufficiently remarkable.
At a first view this might have been referred simply to the fact that
the Americans are a lecture-loving people, preferring the quick and
ready method of learning the more striking facts of a subject from a
verbal exposition to close study and application. But I soon per-
ceived that something more than the mere desire for superficial knowl-
edge was in question. The number of persons making close inquiry
into the subject was nearly always greater (even in proportion to the
much greater audiences) than in England. That still more select
section of every audience, the actual workers and observers, I also
found to be correspondingly large ; while again and again I met with
what in England is certainly very unfrequent — cases, namely, in which
persons, not engaged professionally in the study or teaching of as-
tronomy, had privately worked so zealously and so ingeniously in
astronomical research as to have effected original discoveries of con-
siderable interest.

I do not propose, however, to enter here into an account of these
experiences of my own. To do so would indeed be a welcome task
to me, as enabling me in some degree to express not only my sense of
the interest taken by Americans in science, but also my recognition
of the unvarying kindness with which I was personally received. At
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, St. Louis,
Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus, Louisville, and Minneapo-
lis, and, in fact, at all the cities and towns which I visited, I received
a generous and kindly welcome from the community, accompanied by
acts of personal kindness from individuals, which I shall always hold
in grateful remembrance. But this would -not be the place to attempt
the task — in any case no easy one — of expressing my sense of Ameri-
can kindness and hospitality. My present purpose is to indicate
simply the remarkable progress made by Americans in astronomical
science during the last half-century.

Fifty years ago there were few telescopes and no observatories in

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

America. It was not greatly to be wondered at that the nation should
not up to that time have given any great degree of attention to scien-
tific matters. The proportion of the population having leisure for
scientific and especially for astronomical research was but small, and
the Government had matters of more vital importance than to attend
to the erection of observatories. For several years the attention
of Congress had been called to the necessity of a national observatory,
but when President Adams, in 1825, made a special appeal to this
effect, his proposal met with ridicule and disfavor.

The first action toward the initiation of astronomical research in
America bears date March, 1810, when it was proposed in Congress
(by Mr. William. Lambert, of Virginia) that a first meridian should
be established for the United States (the meridian of the Capitol at
Washington being selected), in order to obviate the " confusion already
existing in consequence of the assumption of different places within
the United States as first meridians, on the published maps and
charts " in the country. The proposition was at once acted upon.
In July, 1812, we find Mr. Monroe, then Secretary of State, in-
dicating; its astronomical bearing. " In admitting:," said he, " the
propriety of establishing a first meridian within the United States, it
follows that it ought to be done with the greatest mathematical pre-
cision. It is known that the best mode yet discovered for estab-
lishing the meridian of a place is by observations of the heavenly
bodies ; and that, to produce the greatest accuracy in the result, such
observations should be often repeated, at suitable ojjportunities
through a series of years, by means of the best instruments. For this
purpose an observatory would be of essential utility. It is only in.
such an institution, to be founded by the public, that all the necessary
implements are likely to be collected together, that systematic obser.
vations can be made for any great length of time, and that the public
can be made secure of the results of the labors of scientific men. In
favor of such an institution it is sufficient to remark that every nation
which has established a first meridian has also established an observa-
tory." Mr. Lambert brought in a bill proposing the erection of such
an observatory in 1813 ; but nothing more was done until 1815, when
the memorial on which the bill of 1831 had been based was referred
to a select committee. No steps were then taken, however, to carry
a bill. In November, 1818, a third memorial from Mr. Lambert was
presented, and referred to a select committee ; but the resolution
asked for was not finally passed until March 3, 1821, when Mr.
Lambert was appointed by the President "to make astronomical ob-
servations by lunar occultations of fixed stars, solar eclipses, or any
approved method adapted to ascertain the longitude of the Capitol
from Greenwich." In December, 1823, Mr. Lambert, in a report of
his labors, gave for the longitude of the Capitol 76° 55' 30".54, closing
his report with a strong appeal for the erection of an observatory.

ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 77

Two years later, President Adams urged on Congress the estab-
lishment of a national observatory as part of a wider scheme for the
advancement of knowledge. His remarks on the astronomical por-
tion of his scheme serve well to show the position of astronomy in
America half a century ago. " Connected with the establishment of
a university," he says, " or separate from it, might be undertaken the
erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the sup-
port of an astronomer to be in constant attendance on the phenomena
of the heavens, and for the periodical publication of his observations.
It is with no feeling of pride as an American that the remark may be
made that, on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe,
there are existing more than one hundred and thirty of these lighthouses
of the skies, while throughout the whole American Hemisphere there
is not one. If we reflect for a moment upon the discoveries which in
the last four centuries have been made in the physical constitution of
the universe by means of these buildings, and of observers stationed in
them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to everv nation ? And while
scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new as-
tronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second-
hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means
of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor
observer upon our half of the globe " (!) " and the earth revolves in
perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes ? "

In March, 1826, a bill "to establish an observatory in the District
of Columbia" was brought before Congress and read the first and sec-
ond time, but the House journals show no further trace of it. This
bill was due to the recommendations of Mr. Adams, who did not
relax in his efforts to secure the erection of a national observatory,
though delays and disappointments occurred which might well have
exhausted his energy, seeing that the dates of his renewed and for a
while useless appeals were 1836, 1838, 1840, and 1842.

Passing over many circumstances in the history of these transac-
tions, not as being without interest, but because space will not permit
of their being presented here, we may proceed to the time when the
actual erection of the buildings was commenced. This was in 1843.
or no less than thirty-three years after the plan for an observatory
was first proposed, so that fully one-half of the period which has
elapsed since Lambert, of Virginia, first called his countrymen's atten-
tion to the necessity of establishing a national observatory was lost
in discussions and delays. At the close of September, 1844, the new
building was ready for occupancy, and the instruments were adjusted.

From 1844 to 1861 the Washington Observatory was under the
superintendence of Lieutenant Maury. In September," 1846, the first
volume of "Observations" was issued. Its value has been thus de-
scribed by an impartial and competent judge : " Besides a fair amount
of observations with the two transit instruments in the meridian and

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the prime vertical, and those with the mural circle, it contained
various important investigations of the errors and corrections peculiar
to the instruments. Prof. Coffin's masterly discussion of the adjust-
ments of the mural circle, and his expansion of Bessel's Refraction
Tables, Walker's investigation of the latitude of the observatory, and
his comparison of the standard thermometers ; all of great value."

In the second volume reference was made to the discovery of Nep-
tune, and the success of Mr. Walker, one of the assistants, in detect-
ing, among Lalande's observations, two of Neptune, on May 8 and 10,
1795, when the planet was observed and recorded as a fixed star.
" Astronomers were thus furnished with an observation of Neptune
made fifty-two years before, which afforded the means of a most accu-
rate determination of the orbit, and enabled the superintendent of
the American Nautical Almanac to publish an ephemeris of the new
planet two years in advance of all other parts of the Almanac. The
observatory was first brought into prominence by these researches"
In October, 1849, Lieutenant (now Rear-Admiral) Davis wrote as fol-
lows to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy on this subject : " The theory
of Neptune belongs, by right of precedence, to American science. In
connection with its neighbor, Uranus, it constitutes an open field of
astronomical research, into which the astronomers and mathematicians
of the United States have been the first to enter, and to occupy dis-
tinguished places." Deprecating heartily though I do, all reference
to priority or nationality in such matters as opposed to the true scien-
tific spirit, I cannot but note how Prof. New comb, by his admirable
researches into the theory of Uranus and Neptune, has fulfilled the
hopes thus expressed nearly a quarter of a century before his labors
were brought to a successful termination.

The work of the obsei-vatory, thus happily inaugurated, was prose-
cuted steadily till 1861, when Commander Maury left Washington to
join the cause of the Confederate States. During the greater part of
the war the observatory was under the charge of Captain Gilliss,
who died on February 9, 1865. " It has been noted as a strange coin-
cidence of circumstances," says Prof. Nourse, in the memoir of the
observatory from which we have been quoting, "that the last morn-
ing of his life witnessed an announcement of results deduced at this
observatory which had fulfilled his long-deferred hope of determin-
ing the solar parallax by simultaneous observations in Chili and in '
the United States. This announcement would have been peculiarly
gratifying to him because these results were from the joint activity
of the two observatories, founded through his exertions, 5,000 miles
apart."

From 1865 to 1867 the observatory was under the superintendence
of Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis, and from 1867 to the present time it
has been under that of Rear-Admiral B. F. Sands. Without further
considering the work accomplished at the observatory itself, which

ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 79

has partaken of the general character of official astronomical research,,
we may consider here some of the special astronomical occasions at
which the observers trained at Washington have assisted.

The total eclipse of August 7, 1869, was closely observed by par-
ties from the observatory. Prof. Asaph Hall and Mr. J. A. Rogers
proceeded to Alaska ; Profs. Newcomb, Harkness, and Eastman, to
Iowa ; and Mr. F. W. Bardwell, to Tennessee. The observations made
on this occasion were of great value and interest. The solar promi-
nences had had their real nature determined during the eclipse of
August, 1868; and the American observers were not content to re-
peat the observations then made, but extended the method of spectro-
scopic analysis to the corona. They also obtained photographs of the
colored prominences. The work accomplished by the Washington
observers, together with the observations made by Dr. Curtis, Mr.
J. Homer Lane, of Washington City, Ind., and Mr. W. S. Gilman, Jr.,
of New York, and General Myer, U. S. A., form a quarto volume of
217 pages, with twelve illustrations. Of this valuable and inter-
esting volume, 3,500 copies were printed by joint resolution of Con-
gress.

The superintendent of the Washington Observatory was not con-
tent with this. " Believing that the experience of its officers in their
observations of the eclipse of 1869 should be availed of for the further
elucidation of the subjects involved in such phenomena, he addressed
the Navy Department upon the subject of their employment in Europe
in observing the eclipse of December, 1870; the department promptly
detailed the professors who had been the observers of the previous
year;" and it was doubtless through the energy thus displayed by
Rear-Admiral Sands that other skillful American astronomers were
enabled to cross the Atlantic for the purpose of observing that im-
portant eclipse. Unfavorable weather prevented observations of this
eclipse at some of the best stations, but the American observers suc-
ceeded in establishing the accuracy of the observations made in 1869,
and to them must be attributed in large part the definite demonstra-
tion of the fact, which though now admitted was then much disputed,
that the corona is a solar phenomenon, and not due to the illumination
of our own atmosphere only.

The part taken by the Washington Observatory in preparing for
and cooperating in the observation of the transit of Venus, on De-
ceinber 8, 1874, is too recent to need full description in this place. I
may be permitted, however, to dwell with special commendation on
the manner in which American astronomers devoted themselves at
that time to a task which they might fairly have thought the business
of their European brethren. A transit of Venus is to occur in 1882
which will be specially American, being visible wholly or in part from
every portion of the United States ; and, if America had reserved her
energies for that occasion, no complaint could reasonably have been

So THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made. It was indeed the prevalent idea in Europe that that would be
the course she would adopt. But, with singular generosity and scien-
tific zeal, she not only devoted to the work of observing the earlier
transit a sum largely exceeding the amount granted by any other gov-
ernment (and nearly twice as large as Great Britain j>aid), but under-
took some of the most difficult portions of the work, which otherwise
would have been left unprovided for. I cannot but recall with a feel-
ing of something like personal satisfaction (though conscious that
such a feeling ought to find no place in the mind of the true student
of science), the gratification with which I welcomed the announce-
ment, early in 1873, that America had undertaken to occupy positions,
the importance of which I had long pointed out, but which, but a
fortnight before that announcement reached Europe, had been confi-
dently described as astronomically inferior and geographically unsuit-
able. The pleasure I then felt was only surpassed by that wrhich I
experienced subsequently, wrhen news received from the various ob-
serving stations showed that at those just mentioned were achieved
some of the most important successes of the occasion.

Another noble contribution made to science at Washington has
been the erection of the splendid refractor 26 inches in aperture,
which is now the chief equatorial of the observatory. America is for-
tunate in possessing in Alvan Clark the greatest living master of the
art of constructing large object-glasses of good definition. He had
already constructed a telescope 18 inches in aperture for the observa-
tory at Chicago, but by the contract negotiated with him in August,
1870, by Prof. Newcomb, he was called on to achieve a far more diffi-
cult task in the construction of a telescope of 26 inches clear aperture.
He has successfully accomplished this task, and the telescope has
already obtained good results under Newcomb's skillful management.
The most important of these is an extensive series of observations of
the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, made with a view of determin-
ing the elements of their orbits and the masses of the planets round
which they circle. The observation of the two Uranian satellites,
Ariel and Umbriel, discovered by Lassell, and of the Neptunian satel-
lite also discovered by him, must be regarded, on account of the ex-
treme difficulty of observing these bodies, as a very valuable contri-
bution to astronomy. It is pleasant to notice that Newcomb has been
able most thoroughly to confirm the accuracy of Lassell's work in Mal-
ta, the mean motions of Ariel and Umbriel deduced from the Malta
observations being so accurate that, says Newcomb, " they will prob-
ably suffice for the identification of those objects during several cen-
turies." Although no systematic search has been made for new sat-
ellites of Uranus, yet enough has been done to show, "with consider-
able certainty," that at least the outer satellites supposed to have
been seen by Sir W. Herschel " can have had no real existence " (as
satellites, that is to say).

ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 81

Before passing to the brief consideration of the work accomplished
in some of the other American observatories, we must fully admit the
justice of the remarks made by Prof. Nourse in closing his memoir
relating to it. " The position now accorded to it," he says, " by the
free tributes of scientific men in the Old World as well as at home, is
not without honor to our country ; and this notwithstanding the com-
paratively recent founding of the institution, and the as yet limited
appropriations sustaining it. It may, therefore, justly claim a yet
more generous support ; and the pledge may be safely made that, if
thus supported and efficiently directed, it will make returns yet more
gratifying to national pride, and (which is a matter infinitely more
important) advancing the highest aims of scientific research. What
shall be its future records of success must remain with the support
extended by the government and the fidelity of those who are in-
trusted with its administration."

The actual commencement of astronomical observation in America
belongs to a much earlier period than that at which the Washington
Observatory was erected. The first telescope used for astronomical
purposes in America was set up at Tale College forty-six years ago.
The first observatory, however, properly so called, was erected at
Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1836. The next was the Hudson
Observatory, established in connection with the Western Reserve
College, Ohio, under the charge of Prof. Loomis (now of Yale), whose
works on astronomy are deservedly held in high esteem in this coun-
try as well as in America. The next in order of time came the Ob-
servatory of the High School at Philadelphia, which achieved distinc-
tion under the able management of Messrs. Walker and Kendall.
The West Point Observatory was next established, and placed under
the care of Prof. Bartlett. All these preceded the Washington Ob-
servatory.

Soon after the Washington Observatory had been erected, an ob-
servatory was built at Cincinnati. Its history illustrates well the way
of carrying out such work in America, when the Government does not
take the work in hand. The idea of erecting an important observa-
tory in Cincinnati was first entertained by Prof. Mitchel, then Pro-
fessor of Mathematics at Cincinnati College. He proposed to attempt
the task without any aid from the General or State Government, by
the voluntary contribution of all classes of citizens. To ascertain
whether any interest could be excited in the public mind in favor of
astronomy, he delivered, in the spring of 1842, a series of lectures in
the hall of the Cincinnati College. With truly American ingenuity
he devised a mechanical contrivance, by help of which telescopic
views in the heavens were presented with a brilliancy comparable
with that " displayed by powerful telescopes." These lectures were
attended by large audiences, and I may add, in passing, that the in-
terest which they excited is to this day well remembered in Cincin-
vol. x. — 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nati — no small proof of Prof. Mitchel's power as a lecturer.1 The last
lecture of the course was delivered in one of the great churches of the
city (a thorough American and sensible proceeding), and at the close
Prof. Mitchel submitted to the audience, consisting of more than two
thousand persons, his plan for erecting a first-class observatory, and
furnishing it with instruments of the highest order. He promised to
devote five years of faithful effort to accomplish this task. The fol-
lowing course was then suggested : " The entire amount required to
erect the buildings and purchase the instruments should be divided
into shares of twenty-five dollars ; every shareholder to be entitled to
the privileges of the observatory under the management of a board of
control, to be elected by the shareholders. Before any subscription
should become binding, the names of three hundred subscribers should
be first obtained. These three hundred should meet, organize and
elect a board, who should thenceforward manage the affairs of the as-
sociation." In three weeks the three hundred subscribers had been
obtained, without calling any public meeting, and merely by quiet
visits in which the nature of the scheme was described and explained.
Then officers were elected, a directory formed, and Mitchel was sent
" to visit Europe, procure instruments, examine observatories, and
obtain the requisite knowledge to erect and conduct the institution,
which it was now hoped would be one day reared."

When Mitchel returned, four months later, a great change had
occurred in the commercial affairs of America. " Everything was de-
pressed to the lowest point," and it was with great difficulty that a
sum of $3,000 was collected and remitted to meet the first payment
for the telescope of twelve inches aperture ordered of Merz. The
best place for the observatory was a hill-top rising 400 feet above the
level of the city. On offering to purchase this from Mr. Longworth,
to whom it belonged, Prof. Mitchel was directed to select and inclose
four acres, which Mr. Longworth presented to the association. On
November 9, 1843, the corner-stone of the pier which was to sustain
the great refracting telescope was laid by John Quincy Adams, who
undertook the long (and then difficult) journey from Washington to
give this proof of his interest in the cause of astronomy. When, in
May, 1844, the great telescope was paid for, the funds of the associa-
tion were exhausted, and the estimated cost of the building amounted
to more than $7,000. In this difficulty a simple but again perfectly
American plan was followed. Mechanics and others were invited to
subscribe for stock in the Astronomical Society, paying their sub-
scriptions with work. In six weeks not less than'one hundred hands
were at work on the hill-top and in the city. The stone of which the

1 The same remark applies to the lectures which he subsequently delivered in New
York, New Orleans, Boston, Brooklyn, and other large cities. It is almost impossible to
over-estimate the service thus rendered by Prof. Mitchel to astronomy in the United

States.

ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 83

building was erected was quarried from the grounds of the society.
The lime was burned on the hill, and every means was adopted to
reduce unnecessary expenditure. Payment for stock was received in
every possible article of trade ; due-bills were taken, and these were
converted into others which would serve in the payment of bills. In
this way the building was reared, and finally covered in, without in-
curring any debt. But the conditions of the bond by which the lot
of ground was held required the completion of the observatory in
June, 1845. It was seen to be impossible to carry forward the build-
ing fast enough to secure its completion by the required time without
incurring some debt. " My own private resources," proceeds Mitchel,
"were used in the hope that a short time after the finishing of the
observatory would be sufficient to furnish the funds to meet all en-
gagements. The work was pushed rapidly forward. In February,
1845, the great telescope safely reached the city ; and in March the
building was ready for its reception." Unfortunately, just at this
time, when his private means were exhausted, Prof. Mitchel's profess-
orship was brought, in a very summary manner, to a temporary close,
in consequence of the college edifice being burned to the ground. To
recruit his means without abandoning the cause of astronomy, he gave
courses of lectures in the chief cities of the United States, meeting
with well-deserved success.

The observatory thus erected achieved useful though not very
striking results. An observatory which was erected a year or two
later took so quickly the leading position, so far as the actual study
of the heavenly bodies was concerned, that the progress of the Cincin-
nati astronomers, as indeed of most of the astronomers of the United
States, received less attention than otherwise might have been the case.
I refer to the observatory at Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts).
Here one of the first equatorials ever made by Merz was erected ; and
by means of it W. C. Bond, and his son, George P. Bond, made highly-
interesting additions to astronomical knowledge. The seventh satel-
lite of Saturn (eighth and last in order of discovery) was detected,
the dark ring rediscovered and found to be transparent ; important
drawings of nebulas were made, and many other observations were
effected, under the administration of the Bonds. Later, under Prof.
Winlock, the Harvard Observatory has been distinguished by the ex-
cellence of the mechanical arrangements adopted there, and by M.
Trouvelot's admirable drawings of solar spots and prominences of the
planets Jupiter and Saturn, and of various details of lunar scenery.

In passing, I may note that at Harvard, as indeed elsewhere in
America, others than professed astronomers have achieved very use-
ful astronomical work. As Prof. Mayer, of the Stevens Institute,
Hoboken, has turned his marvelous ingenuity in devising new meth-
ods of physical research to astronomical inquiries, so Prof. Cooke, of
Harvard, whose special subject is chemistry, made a most important

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

astronomical discovery, which has since been ascribed to Janssen,
who, later (though independently and by another method), effected it.
Prof. Cooke made a series of observations on those bands in the solar
spectrum which are due to our own atmosphere, with the object of
ascertaining whether they are due to the constant constituents of the
air, Or to the aqueous vapor which is present in the air in variable
quantity. Combining hygrometric with spectroscopic observations,
he found that when the air is moist these bands are more clearly seen
than when the air is dry, and by systematic observations so definitely
ascertained this relation as to prove beyond all manner of doubt that
the bands are due to aqueous vapor. Unfortunately, though his re-
sults were published in America, they were not published in such a
way as to attract notice in Europe, and accordingly European as-
tronomers remained ignorant of the most important fact discovered
by Cooke until they had rediscovered it for themselves.

The observatory at Ann Arbor, Michigan, was erected in 1854,
chiefly through the exertions of Chancellor Tappan, of the Michigan
University. Dr. Brilnnow, our present Astronomer Royal for Ireland,
was for a long time director of this observatory. It is at present un-
der the able control of Prof. Watson, who has added nearly a score
of planetoids to the known members of the solar family.

The observatory of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire,
illustrates in a remarkable way the energy and zeal with which college-
observatories are managed in America. It would be difficult to name
any observatory in this country where observations of greater interest,
as respects the physics of astronomy, have been made than those
effected by Prof. Young with the nine-inch telescope constructed by
Alvan Clark for the Dartmouth College ; or than the supplementary
observations made by Young with a powerful telescope conveyed to
an elevated pass in the Rocky Mountains. Among his results may
be specially mentioned — first, the observations of the most remarkable
solar outburst yet witnessed, an outburst during which the glowing
hydrogen of the prominences was driven to a height of at least 200,000
miles from the surface of the sun; and, secondly, the identification
of more than 250 lines in the spectrum of the solar sierra.

And as the most interesting and characteristic observations yet
made upon solar prominences are due to Prof. Young, of Dartmouth
Observatory, so the most accurate and detailed drawings yet made
of sun-spots are those by Prof. S. Langley, of the Alleghany Observa-
tory, near Pittsburg.

At Chicago, a very fine telescope, eighteen inches in aperture, by
Alvan Clark, has been erected ; but, owing to pecuniary difficulties
consequent on the great fire (followed by the commercial depression
which has recently affected the United States), that observatory has
suffered considerably from the want of a properly remunerated direc-
tor. The Astronomical Society of Chicago has done its best to set

ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 85

matters straight, but differences have arisen which have marred their
efforts. In the mean time, Mr. S. W. Burnham, of Chicago, has shown
admirable zeal and skill in the systematic observation of double stars,
having discovered and measured more than 450 of these objects (all
of a delicate and difficult nature).

But, indeed, it would be hopeless to attempt, in the short space
available to me here, to give any sufficient account of the labors of
American astronomers, whether attached to Government or State ob-
servatories, or working independently. Of the latter, and in my
opinion not the least important class, I need cite only Drs. Ruther-
furd and H. Draper, the former of whom, besides making other ex-
tremely important contributions to astronomy and physics, has pro-
duced celestial photographs admittedly better than any obtained on
this side of the Atlantic ; while the latter at an earlier period achieved
results in celestial photography which were far superior to any ob-
tained at that time, or for many subsequent years. The advice and
assistance rendered by Dr. H. Draper to the astronomers to whom were
intrusted the preparations for the recent transit, were most deservedly
commemorated in a medal which the American Government honored
itself by awarding to him.

The most striking feature in the contributions made by Americans
to astronomy appears to me to be the skill shown in noting the essen-
tial points to be aimed at, and the fertility and readiness of resource
exhibited as the work proceeds. In England, students of astronomy
are too much in the habit of following conventional rules, and wasting
time over unnecessary preliminaries. An American astronomer notes
that some particular observation is wanted, and directs his efforts to
making that observation, not considering it necessary in the first
place to go over ground already repeatedly traversed by others.

I have been sometimes asked whether officialism is as rampant
in America as in England in matters scientific. American scientific
officials have assured me that it is, or rather (for they have not worded
the matter precisely in that way) they hold that official science is
properly (as they consider) paramount in their country. I was grave-
ly assured in Washington, for instance, that the course which I had
pursued in England, with reference to the suggested official schemes
for observing the transit of Venus in 1874, would never have been
tolerated in America, despite the fact that the course actually fol-
lowed by American official science was precisely that which I had ad-
vised. It was the principle, so an eminent American official scientist
assured me, which was in question, and no American would have been
suffered to oppose as I did the course advised by the chief official as-
tronomer. What would have happened to such an unfortunate was
not clearly indicated ; and I must confess that all I heard outside offi-
cial scientific circles in America suggested to me that any mistake
made by official science would be commented upon even more freely

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in America than in England, and quite as safely. In fact, I had
reason to believe that the warmth of my own welcome in America
was in no small degree due to the fact that, having first proved the
justice of my views, I had not been afraid to maintain them publicly
against the powers that were until the proper course was adopted.

One other point remains to be noticed, the influence, namely, of
religious scruples upon scientific progress and research in America.
Here I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed. I expected to
find America a long way in advance of England. But with some
noteworthy exceptions, especially in the West, America seems to me
to be behind England in this respect. It is only here and there, in
England — in the Boeotian corners, so to speak, of this country — that
the community opposes itself to advanced scientific ideas to the same
extent as in some of the leading cities of the United States. This is
partly due to two opposite influences : the Puritan element of the
American population on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic ele-
ment on the other. Progress, however, is being steadily made in this
as in other matters. Indeed, it has been rather because America began
later to bestir itself in the encouragement of free search after truth
that she is at present behind England in this respect. Judging from ex-
perience in other matters, she will move rapidly now her progress has
begun, and will soon occupy the position to be expected from the
natural freedom and independence of the American mind. It need
hardly be said that in America, as in Europe, such contest as arises
from time to time between religion and science has its origin entirely
from the side of religion. There as here religion (so called) attacks
and denounces discoveries inconsistent with the views which the
orthodox had been accustomed to advocate; and there as here, when
there as no longer any choice, the orthodox quietly accept these dis-
coveries as established facts, expressing a naive astonishment that
they should ever have been thought in the least degree inconsistent
with received opinions. — Advance-sheets of Popular Science Review.

♦»»

IS THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT?

By Dk. JAMES McCOSH,

PRESIDENT OF PEIKCETON OOtlEQE.

THIS paper has been occasioned by the lectures of a distinguished
Englishman who has visited this country; but I am to keep very
much to my general subject, and not enter upon a minute criticism of
Prof. Huxley. In these lectures he has abstained from entering on
those exciting topics bearing on materialism and religion, which he has
discussed so freely in Edinburgh and in Belfast, and in his published
writings. So far the hopes of unbelievers in Scripture, and the fears

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT? 87

of timid Christians, and the rising rage of polemic theologians, have
been disappointed. But an interest has been excited in the subject of
development. In the present state of the public mind, good may arise
from showing that when the doctrine of development is properly ex-
plained and understood, and kept within its legitimate sphere, there is
nothing in it inconsistent with natural or revealed religion ; and that
the scientific truths which Prof. Huxley has expounded in these lect-
ures do not entitle him to draw the consequences which he has done
in his " Lay Sermons " and other writings.

In his first lecture the professor had light work and an easy vic-
tory. He set up two targets and shot them down. He stated and
overwhelmed two hypotheses : the first, that Nature has been all along
very much in the same state as it now is ; and the second, the poeti-
cal account given by Milton in " Paradise Lost." It did not need
an Englishman to come 3,000 miles, it did not require a man of Prof.
Huxley's knowledge and dialectic skill, to demolish these fancies. I
cannot remember a single man eminent in science, philosophy, or
theology, defending either of these views during the last half-century.
The first hypothesis was never held by religious men, though it has
been defended by a few scientific men — who might have been kept
from error by looking to Scripture — such as Hutton, Playfair, and
Lyell in his earlier writings. The book of Genesis speaks of an order
and a progression in the origination of things and of a flood covering
the then peopled earth. I should not expect any one but a Don Quixote
to attack Milton's exposition of a popular belief. The view given in
" Paradise Lost " was not the one entertained by several of the most
eminent of the Christian fathers, such as Origen, and has not been
entertained by any theologian of ability and scholarship for the last
age or two. It must now be forty or fifty years since Chalmers and
Pye Smith and certain well-known divines of the Church of England,
and President Hitchcock of Amherst, adopted the discoveries of geol-
ogy and sought to reconcile them with Scripture. It is an instructive
circumstance that, while Milton's account cannot stand a moment's in-
vestigation, the record in Genesis is believed by many of our highest
men of science to be perfectly consistent with the latest science. I
name only Prof. Dana, Prof. Guyot, and Principal Dawson, the highest
authorities on this continent, and superior to Prof. Huxley, not cer-
tainly in zoology, but in geology. I am quite ready to give up these
two hypotheses to Prof. Huxley, to hew and hack them (to use one of
his own phrases) like Agag.

The second lecture is written in his best manner. There is scarce-
ly anything in it that I am inclined to object to. He is no longer kill-
ing hypotheses which died a natural death long ago. He is arranging
his materials for the defense of the theory of Evolution. He has as
yet only brought forward the cases which he acknowledges are not
demonstrative of the truth of evolution, but are such as must exist if

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

evolution be true, and which, therefore, are upon the whole strongly
in favor of the doctrine of development. He makes a number of ad-
missions. He allows that there are species which have continued un-
changed, not only throughout all historical years, but all geological
ages. Cuvier has shown that the ibises, dogs, and cats depicted 3,000
years ago or more on the monuments of Egypt are the same as those
found in that country in the present day. The professor mentions a fish
of the chalk formation named cericus, which is represented at the pres-
ent day by a very closely-allied species living in the Atlantic and Pa-
cific Oceans. He thence argues that there is no intrinsic necessity in
animal forms to change and to advance, as some sciolists assume. But
he labors to prove that there are cases in which varieties have be-
come species by reason of being suited to their surroundings. He gives
credit to Mr. Darwin for bringing in two great factors in the process
of evolution : " One of them is a tendency to vary, the existence of
which may be proved by observation in all living forms ; and the
other is the influence of surrounding conditions upon what I may call
the parent form, and the variations which are thus evolved." He
adds : " The production of variations is a matter not at all properly
understood at present. Whether it depends on some secret machinery
— if I may use the phrase — of the animal form itself, or whether it
arose from the influence of conditions upon that form, is not certainly
a matter for our present purpose.*' True, this may not be for the
purpose of his lecture, but it must be cleared up before we can clear
up the subject of development. The nature and laws of variations
and the peculiar laws of heredity are at present shrouded in mys-
tery. When we know more of them and of the forces at work, we
shall be in a better position to determine whether varieties ever do
become distinct species.

The professor acknowledges that geology does not furnish decisive
evidence of one form of life passing into another. But then he claims
that the geological record is not complete; that much of what is
written in stone has been effaced, and that if it were complete it
would show us the missing links. To equal him in candor I admit
that transitional forms are ever casting up. He shows that in cer-
tain fields we have those transitions already disclosed. He dwells on
the resemblances and the affinities between reptiles and birds, and
refers to animals which have some of the properties of both. Thus
there are birds that have teeth, and reptiles that have wings and can
stand on their two hind-legs, such as the hadrosaurus found in New
Jersey. His demonstration, as against Owen, seems to me complete
here. True, there are naturalists who maintain that the teethed bird
is still a bird, and the archeoptrix a reptile, a variety and not a tran-
sitional form. Still, such cases indicate a tendency on the part of the
reptile to rise to the bird, and of the bird to retain properties of the
reptile ; and natural selection and development alone can explain this.

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT f 89

In his third lecture he brings forward what he regards as a demon-
stration. In the case of Equus, embracing our horse, ass, and zebra
he is able, by means of the specimens gathered in the West by Prof.
Marsh, to discover the succession of horse-like forms which the hy-
pothesis of evolution supplies. He goes back from the living horse
through the like animals of the post-Tertiary in the Pliocene, middle
and earlier on to the older Eocene formation, where he finds the oro-
hippus. " There you have four toes on the front-limb complete, three
toes on the hind-limb, a complete and well-developed ulna getting
forward an equality of size with the radius, a complete and well-de-
veloped fibula apparently, though it is not quite certain, and then teeth
with their simple fangs. So that you are now able, thanks to these
researches, to show that, so far as our present knowledge extends, the
history of the horse-type is exactly and precisely that which could
have been predicted from a knowledge of the principles of evolu-
tion, and the knowledge we now possess justifies us completely in
the anticipation that, when the still older Eocene deposits and those
which belong to the Cretaceous epoch have yielded up their remains
of equine animals, we shall find first an equine creature with four toes
in front and a rudiment of the thumb, then probably a rudiment of
the fifth behind, and so, by gradual steps, until we come to that five-
toed animal in which most assuredly the whole series took its origin.
That is what I mean, ladies and gentlemen, by demonstrative evidence
of evolution."

Suppose that we admit all that the lecturer claims on this subject :
what then ? Have we thereby set aside any doctrine of philosophy
or religion? The Christian, even the Christian theologian, may say
wisely: "Let naturalists dispute as they may about the derivation of
plants and of the lower animals; their hypotheses, arguments, and
conclusions, do not interfere with our belief that God is to be seen
everywhere in his works and rules over all." It appears to me that the
whole doctrine of vegetable and animal species needs to be reviewed
and readjusted — and religion need not fear the result. I have been
convinced of this ever since I learned, when I was ardently studying
botany, that the number of species of plants had risen to two mill-
ions ! I was sure that all these are works of God ; but I was not
sure that each was a special creation.

When a new truth is discovered, especially when it is a reaction
against an old theory, it is apt to bulk so largely in the view of those
who hold it that they carry it to extreme lengths, and it requires time
and discussion to confine it to its own place. Thus, in old time,
Thales perceiving how much water could do, and' Anaximenes how
much air could accomplish, and Pythagoras how much numbers and
forms could account for, hastened to the conclusion that the whole
operations of Nature could be derived from them and explained by
them. I am old enough to remember that the brilliant discoveries of

9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Sir Humphry Davy led wandering lecturers and all sorts of sciolists
to affirm that they could explain all things, matter and mind itself, by
electricity. So, in these days, development, having furnished a key to
open so many of the secrets of Nature, has led some to imagine that
it can solve all the mysteries of the universe. Some of us may be
inclined to admit, and to use for scientific purposes, the doctrine of
development, and yet be prepared to deny that it can explain every-
thing. The fact is, it overlooks a great many more things than
it notices. There are signs of a reaction among scientific men against
its extreme positions ; and it is the work of the age now present to
show how much development can do, and how much it cannot do.
Even Darwin is obliged to call in a few germs created by God, and a
pangenesis in order to account for development. Herbert Spencer
acknowledges a great Unknown behind visible phenomena. Huxley
recommends a worship chiefly " of the silent sort." Religion comes
to them and says, " Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship him de-
clare I unto you."

In the common apprehension of those who hold the development
hypothesis, all that is necessary to account for the world in its pres-
ent state is to suppose that millions of years ago there appeared — no
one can tell how — a nebulous mass with an inconceivably high tem-
perature, but losing its heat and ready to condense ; that in the long
lapse of time it took the shape of planets, satellites, and sun ; and that
on one of these planets — that on which we dwell — it formed into
plants, animals, and finally man, all by its own power, according to
natural law, or, rather, the necessity of things, without it being neces-
sary to call in a God or a guiding providence, or to siippose that there
has been a plan in a designing mind. All the defenders of the theory
do not state this in express words, but it is the impression left by
their expositions, though some of them, such as Herbert Spencer and
Tyndall, would save themselves from the blank consequences by call-
ing in an unknown and unknowable power beyond the visible phe-
nomena, or by appealing to some religious feelings supposed to be
deep in our nature, but which the theory would soon undermine, as
being, in fact, unjustifiable and unreasonable. This is the view that
I mean to meet. In examining this hypothesis there are some things
which I am willing to admit as being established truths :

1. I hold the doctrine of the Conservation of Force — that is, that
the sum of energy, real and potential, in the universe is always one
and the same, and cannot be increased or diminished by human or
mundane action. I was prepared for this doctrine when it was an-
nounced by Mayer, of Heilbronn, and by Joule, of Manchester, and
expounded by Grove, of London. It seemed to me to follow from the
doctrine which I had laid down in my first work — " The Method of
Divine Government " — published twenty-six years ago : as to the ma-
terial universe being composed of substances with properties or pow-

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT? 91

era of which it cannot be deprived, and which cannot be added to nor
lessened. It is this that secures the permanence of Nature, keeping it
unchanged in its power or powers amid all changes of action. This
energy, disappearing in one form, appears necessarily in another, and
gives us what Spencer calls the " persistence of force." This ever-
enduring force gives rise to development. Going out from one body,
it is manifested in another. The fact is, all causation, all physical
action, is evolution. The substances and powers in the agents acting
as the cause are found, though in a modified form, in the effects. Pro-
ceeding on this very principle, Mayer says : " Forces are causes ; ac-
cordingly, we may in relation to them make full application of the
principle causa equat effectwn" and he thus elaborated the grand sci-
entific truth, the most important discovered in our day, that the sum
of energy in the universe is always the same.

2. I admit that this power becomes more and more differentiated,
that is, takes more and more diverse forms, and thus imparts an ever-
increasing multiplicity and variety to the universe, and will continue to
do so till the diversity breaks it up, and " the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the
earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Mr.
John S. Mill has been successful in showing that there is usually more
than one antecedent or agent in a cause. " A man takes mercury, goes
out-of-doors, and catches cold. We say, perhaps, that the cause of his
taking cold was exposure to the air. It is clear, however, that his
having taken mercury may have been a necessary condition of his
catching cold ; and though it might consist with usage to say that
the cause of his attack was exposure to the air, to be accurate we
ought to say that the cause was exposure to the air while under the
effect of mercury." He concludes, " The real cause is the whole of
these antecedents." Now, I hold that in physical Nature causes are
not only usually, but invariably, of this dual or plural nature. I go a
step farther, and have shown, I think, that the effects are also of the
same dual or plural character. The effect, in fact, consists of the
same agents or substances as the cause, but now in a new state. A
picture falls from a wall and breaks a table ; we say that the breaking
of the table was the effect of the fall of the picture. But the true
effect embraces both the picture and the table, the picture having lost
its momentum, and the table being broken. It follows from all this
that the new combination of agents, acting as the causes, must produce
more and more varied effects, as the effects joining with other effects
become causes, and ramify into branches and branchlets. The sum
of the powers is one and the same, but they appear in an ever-increas-
ing number and diversity of forms. The conservation of force thus
gives a unity to Nature, while the mutual action and interaction give
it its multiplicity. I remember how deeply I was interested in that
paper (I read it when it appeared) of Yon Baer, in which he shows

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that in the germs of animals, as in the history of the production of
animated Nature through long ages, there are first greater unity and
simplicity, and then specific varieties more and more divergent.

3. I have never set myself, as too many religious men unwisely
did, against the theory, first started, it would appear, hy Kant, then
elaborated by Sir William Herscbel and Laplace, and perfected, I be-
lieve, by a professor in Princeton College, that the mundane system
may have been formed out of original matter, evolved according to
the mechanical laws with which it is endowed — first the outer plan-
ets, then the inner, and finally the sun condensed into the centre.
This never appeared to me to be an irreligious doctrine, though La-
place was unhappily a man without religion.

4. Once more, I have ever stood up for a doctrine of Develop-
ment. There is a development of one form of matter from an-
other, of one force from another. There is, as every one allows,
a development of the plant and animal from the parent. I see
nothing irreligious in holding that the bird may have been evolved
by numerous transitions from the reptile, and the living horse
the old horse of the Eocene formation. An accumulation of powers,
new conditions and surroundings may, it is acknowledged, produce
a variety which may become hereditary. Let us suppose that they
can also, in rare cases of combination, produce species : religion is
not thereby undermined, either in its evidences or in its essential
doctrines.

The question now arises and presses itself upon us : Can we by
these acknowleged agencies explain the whole of the present state of
the universe, with all its fitnesses, its harmonies, its beauty, its utili-
ty, its beneficence ? The development theory, in the narrow and ex-
clusive form which it commonly takes, overlooks vastly more than it
notices. In particular, there are four grand truths kept out of sight.
Without these, we cannot understand the Cosmos. When these are
introduced, they bring God into his own universe, and fill it with life
and love.

1. God is present in all his Works, and acts in all their Actings.
— This is the religious doctrine. " By him all things consist." Paul,
addressing the men of Athens, said : " For in him we live, and move,
and have our being ; as certain also of your own poets have said,
For we are also his offspring." This doctrine may be so stated as to
make it pantheistic. It is the one grand truth contained in panthe-
ism, giving it all its plausibility, and making it superior to that bald
theism which makes God create the world at first, and then stand by
and see it go. The doctrine can be so stated as to free it from all
such tendencies on the one side or the other, so as to make God dis-
tinct from all his works, and yet acting in them. This is, I believe,
the philosophical doctrine. It has been held by the greatest thinkers
which our world has produced, such as Descartes, Leibnitz, Berkeley,

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT? 93

Herschel, Faraday, and multitudes of others. It seems to be required
by that deep law of causation which not only prompts us to seek for
a cause for everything, but an adequate cause, to be found only in an
intelligent mind. Our greatest American thinker, Jonathan Edwards
(whom I can claim as my predecessor), maintains that, as an image in
a mirror is kept up by a constant succession of rays of light, so Na-
ture is sustained by a constant forth-putting of the divine power. In
this view Nature is a perpetual creation. God is to be seen not only
in creation at first, but in the continuance of all things. "They con-
tinue'to this day according to thine ordinances." He is to be acknowl-
edged not only in the origination of matter, but in its developments ;
not only in the reptile and the bird, but it may be in the steps by
which the one has been derived from the other; not only in the oro-
hippus, but in the stages by which that animal has risen into the
horse so useful to man.

2. New Powers appearing in Nature. — Let us suppose that there
was an original matter. I regard it as most in accordance with the
principles of our reason to ascribe that matter to God. What prop-
erties had that matter at first ? Every man of ordinary wisdom and
modesty will be ready to answer, " I know not." If he does not know,
he is not entitled to say that all things have proceeded from it. I
suppose it will be allowed that it possessed gravitation. " This law
of the inverse square," says a writer in the last number of the Quar-
terly Review (London), " is but the mathematical expression of a
property which has been imposed on matter from the creation. It is
no inherent quality, so far as we know. It is quite conceivable that
the central law might have been different from what it is. There is
no reason why the mathematical law should be what it is, except the
will of the Being who imposed the law. Any other proportion would
equally well be expressed mathematically and its results calculated.
As an instance of what would occur if any other proportion than the
inverse square were substituted as the attractive force of gravity, sup-
pose, at distances 1, 2, 3, the attractive force had varied as 1,2, 3,
instead of the squares of those numbers. LTnder such a law any num-
ber of planets might revolve in the most regular and orderly manner.
But under this law the weight of bodies at the earth's surface would
cease to exist; nothing would fall or weigh downward. The greater
action of the distant sun and planets would exactly neutralize the
attractive force of the earth. A ball thrown from the hand, however
gently, would immediately become a satellite of the earth, and would
for the future accompany its course, revolving about it for the space
of one year. All terrestrial things would float about with no princi-
ple of coherence or stability — they would obey the general law of the
system, but would acknowledge no particular relation to the earth.
It is obvious that such a change would be subversive of the entire
structure and economy of the world."

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Much the same might be said of the chemical, the electric, and
magnetic properties of matter. If they were among the original
powers, there is proof of design in their adaptation to one another and
to the matter of the universe. If they were not, then we have traces
of a new power being introduced, and for this we must look for a
cause. We are not able to say how many the properties possessed by
the original matter ; whether they were few or many. But in either
case there is evidence of contrivance in their harmonious action and
results. We see that there is an end proposed in the music that
comes from a violin, and this whether it is brought forth from one
string, as was done by Paganini, or from four strings, as is done by
the ordinary performer. So in the orderly and beneficent action of
Nature there is proof of adaptation, whether we suppose the original
properties to be few or to be numerous.

Though preservation is in a sense a continued creation, yet preser-
vation differs from creation. In looking back on the histoi-y of the
world, it is often difficult to tell as to a certain work to which of these
two kinds of divine acts it belongs. We may not be sure, for example,
as to a new form of plant or animal, whether it is a creation or simply
a development according to law; and I am not sure that religion
gains by our taking one side or another. We cannot, we have seen,
determine for certain what were the powers of Nature that were
working from the very beginning. But it is clear and sure that
powers have appeared in Nature from time to time which did not
operate at first nor for long ages ; nay, if geology speaks truly, nor
for millions of years. There may be two suppositions in regard to
these powers. The one is, that they were all along in the original
matter ; that the star-dust had in it potentially not only gravitation
and chemical affinity, but life, sensation, consciousness, intelligence,
moral discernment, love. It is hard to believe that there was all this
in that dull, heated, nebulous matter from which our world sprang.
It is acknowledged that this mass must have existed for a long time
— for hundreds of thousands, probably for millions of years — before
life, and for a far longer time before intelligence, appeared. Whence
did these new powers come ? If they were in the original matter, how
did it come that they were so long dormant, how that they at last ap-
peared, it might be shown, at the appropriate time when surroundings
were prepared for them? Science can say nothing on this subject, and
may never be able to say anything. It is passing altogether beyond
its province, passing from inductive proof into speculation, when it
pretends to know anything one way or other. Philosophy feels itself
staggered when it would solve the problem. It does say, indeed,
that this new operation must have had a cause. It is one of the cer-
tain laws of intelligence, one of the universal laws of experience, that
everything that begins to be must have a cause. This law of causa-
tion takes several forms ; but every form will insist that these new

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT? 95

operations must have come from a causal power. " Ex nihilo nihil
fit " is a maxim going back farther than I am able to tell. The form
given it by the great atheistic poet Lucretius is :

"... Nihil posse creari.
De nihilo, neque quod, genitu est ad nihil revocari."

Persius puts it :

• " . . . Gigni
De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse reverti."

Take either of these forms, or any form, and it insists that we
seek a cause of the new kind of operation. It cannot discover that
there was anything in that heated, vaporous matter to produce life
and sensation, when they appeared millions of years after the world
had begun to be formed. I will not decide dogmatically whether the
causal action was natural or supernatural. Perhaps we are here come
to a place where the distinction between natural and supernatural is
lost in the dim distance. The cause may have acted according to a
law. But in that case I must hold it to be a divine law. Even in
the supposition that it has been brought about by a conjuncture of
circumstances, unknown for the indefinite period before, it must have
been a pi'ovidential juncture foreseen, nay, ordained by God.

Life appears ten thousand ages or more after the earth began to
form. Whence this life? Prof. Huxley seems to find it in some
protoplasm or gelatinous substance. Was this one of the original
elements of the nebulous matter? If so, how did it come through
that terribly heated temperature ? If it did not exist till after the
temperature had cooled, how did it come in ? Prof. Huxley has been
the most determined opponent in our day of the spontaneous gener-
ation of life, and is thereby left without a means of generating the
life of plants and animals. Darwin feels himself obliged, in order to
account for the phenomenon, to suppose that there were four or five
germs created by God. Tyndall thinks that Darwin has at this point
fallen into a weakness. But, meanwhile, Tyndall has no means what-
ever of accounting for the appearance of life. Mr. Darwin further
calls in a pangenesis — which is just another name for the vital force
of the older naturalists — in order to account for the generation of
new animals. But he does not tell us, and evidently cannot tell us,
whence this pangenesis, which cannot come from development, of
which it is the source, and not the product. Herbert Spencer prefers
to bring in physiological units.

Whence comes sensation ? There was a moment when sensation
pleasurable or painful was felt for the first time in the universe. Was
this at the beginning ? If so, one wonders how the sentient substance
came through the heat, where, so far as we can judge, it must have
been suffering intolerable anguish without the power of relieving
itself by self-destruction.

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Had this protoplasm self-consciousness ? I rather think that
neither Prof. Huxley nor Prof. Tyndall would say that it had. Ani-
mals from the very first have sensations, and also, at least the higher
ones, ideas and very curious instincts, by which they make provision
for coming evils of which they can have no conception. Finally, in
the last of the unnumbered ages we have man with his intelligence,
his conscience and free-will, all attested by consciousness. Will evo-
lutionists pretend that on any rational or inductive principle they can
tell Low these new powers came into being and into action ? When
the book of Genesis tells us how these agencies did come in, and in
particular how man appeared, science has and can have no facts to
lead us to discredit it.

3. There is Final Cause in Nature. — Laplace, a great mathema-
tician but not a great philosopher, imagined that, when we have dis-
covered an efficient, it is not necessary to seek for a final cause.
Aristotle, with a much more enlarged conception of the nature of
the universe, maintained that we are to seek for both these causes —
and for two others besides, the material and the formal. The fact
is, that final causes presuppose efficient causes ; and the efficient
causes effect, by their cooperation, the final cause. We argue final
cause, that is design, from the collocation of efficient causes to pro-
mote an evident end, say the ear to hear and the eye to see. The
doctrine of development does not undermine or in any way interfere
with the argument from design. This was asserted by Hugh Miller
when the "Vestiges of Creation" was published, and has been
gracefully illustrated and defended by Prof. Asa Gray in his pleasant
book, " Darwiniana." When we argue that a watch has had a maker,
we do not suppose it necessary that the watch should have been
made by an immediate fiat of the mechanic. We so infer, because
we discover agents combined to produce a particular effect, and the
combination of these may have taken days or weeks of patient labor.
So, the fact that the present adaptations and forms of the plant and
animal may have been produced by a great number of antecedents,
acting through ages, does not show that there is no design, but
rather proves that there has been a bountiful end contemplated all
along, and effected by a long process. Prof. Huxley, in the opening
of his last lecture, has expressed his admiration — an admiration with
which I thoroughly sympathize — of the structure of the horse : "The
horse is in many ways a most remarkable animal, inasmuch as it
presents us with an example of one of the most perfect pieces of
machinery in the animal kingdom. In fact, among mammalia it
cannot be said that there is any locomotive so perfectly adapted to
its purpose, doing so much work with so small a quantity of fuel, as
this animal, the horse." He speaks of the beauty of the animal aris-
ing " from the perfect balance of his parts and the rhythm and per-
fection of their action. Its locomotive apparatus is, as you are

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT? 97

aware, resident in its slender fore and hind legs, which are flexible and
elastic levers, capable of being moved by very heavy muscles. And
in order to supply the engines that work these levers — the muscles--
with the force they expend, the horse is provided with a very perfect
feeding apparatus and very perfect digestive apparatus." In all
these things being provided — the phrase used by Huxley, though he
has no right to use it — there is evidence of purpose, and this is
not diminished, but rather increased, by the fact that the animal
has been thus perfected by a long descent from an ancient progeni-
tor. The argument of Paley and of the Bridgewater Treatises,
derived from the bones and muscles of animals, and from the adjust-
ments in every part of Nature, is as valid and convincing as ever.
I believe Prof. Huxley admits this. I discover adaptation and con-
trivance, not only in the products but in the very process of devel-
opment. Viewed in this light, development may, in the hands of a
new Paley, furnish further and very striking cases of design. For, in
order to the success of the process, there is often need of coordinated
structure, that is, of a structure in which a number of parts are
adapted to each other. My friend Mr. Joseph J. Murphy has sup-
plied us with an instance in the case of the two nervous connections
of the iris of the eye. " One of its nerves has its root in the brain,
and contracts the pupil under the stimulus of light ; the other has its
root in the sympathetic ganglia, and opens the pupil again when the
intensity of light is diminished. It is obviously impossible that the
efficiency of either of these two nerves could be increased separately ;
they will not be improved at all unless they are improved together ;
and this, on Darwin's principles, can only be done by means of acci-
dental favorable circumstances occurring in both at once. But such
coincidences are so improbable that they may be left out of account
as if they were impossible." I do not agree with Mr. Murphy in
thinking that such an instance tells against Darwin ; but I think the
coincidence shows a preordained arrangement, and such coincidences
are found in nearly every case of development, thus showing the need
of cooperation and contrivance in the very developing process. It is
to be observed that evolution, vegetable and animal, and natural
selection, are not simple properties of matter like gravitation and
chemical affinity. They imply the concurrence of an immense number
of agents, mechanical, chemical, electric, galvanic ; and Darwin adds
pangenesis, and Spencer physiological units. In the concurrence
and cooperation of all these to develop the plant and animal, I see
proof of purpose ; and in the culmination of the whole in the perfect
forms of the higher animated beings, I discover a guiding intelligence
which designed the end from the beginning.

4. There are Typical Forms in Nature. — It is now twenty years
since, in conjunction with Dr. Dickie, I wrote "Typical Forms and
Special Ends in Creation," in which I showed that there was not
vol. x. — 7

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

only final cause, but a designed general order in Nature. When I
composed that work I was filled with admiration of the discoveries
made by Goethe and Oken, by Owen and Agassiz, as to the beautiful
" forms " in Nature. Some may think that the more recent doctrine
of development has made that treatise obsolete. I admit that these
late discoveries might require me in some places to change my mode
of expression ; and the time has scarcely arrived for rewriting that
book, and will not arrive till Darwin's doctrine and Owen's doctrine
are more thoroughly adjusted. But, meanwhile, the argument is as
valid as it ever was, and proves that there is a designed order and
beauty in Nature, the design being not less evident because the order
and beauty have been brought about by a process of development.
This has been shown fully and satisfactorily by St. George Mivart in
a recent article in the Contemporary lieview, entitled " Likenesses or
Philosophical Anatomy," in which he writes in the same way as I did
of homologies, and shows that many of these cannot be explained
by development or b}^ a descent from a common parentage. He
shows that " there are likenesses between different animals and dif-
ferent parts of the same animal which a theory of common descent
cannot explain." He specifies instances of lateral, vertical, and serial
homology, such as the vertebrae which make up the backbone, all simi-
lar, and the likeness between "the thigh, leg, and foot, of the lower
limb, evidently more or less repeating the upper arm, arm, and hand,
of the upper limb." I am inclined to argue that there is evidence of
design in homologies which may have been produced by descent, as
when we see the pectoral limb of the horse, the whale, and the bird —
whether fore-leg, paddle, or wing — formed on one type, though turned
to very different uses. All that Owen and Agassiz have said about
the anticipations and the prophecies in Nature may be acknowledged
as true, even by those who hold that they have been produced by
development, I do believe that these old horse-like forms were prep-
arations for the horse now living. The efficient cause may have
been development, but the formal cause (to use Aristotle's phrase) is
the perfected animal. We cannot allow this evolution doctrine to
shear Nature of its grandeurs, nor, we may add, morality of its bind-
ing obligations or the universe of its God. Mr. Mivart concludes:
" The teaching of what we believe to be true philosophy is that the
types shadowed forth to our intellects by material existences are co-
pies of divine originals, and correspond to prototypal ideas in God."

I close this article with remarking that these views bring Nature
and revelation, geology and genesis, into harmony.

The Book of God begins at the beginning — with Genesis, the gen-
eration of all things. Science does not seem to tell us of a beginning.
The Bible opens, "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." It tells us that there were an order and a progression in
the generation of our world. First, there is an original creation.

IS DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS SUFFICIENT?

99

Then the earth is " without form," without the order which it subse-
quently assumed; and "void," that is, without inhabitant. Light
appears, and an alternation of day and night. There is a separation
of the lighter matter from the grosser, of the aerial expanse from the
earth proper. Then a separation of the sea from the land. Life now
appears, and we have grass and trees. As yet the sun and moon have
not appeared as formed bodies. Now, on the fourth day, they might
be seen, and become dividers of times and regulators of seasons. All
this is in accordance with science, which says that the earth is older
than the sun ; that the earth was formed out of an original matter
and that there must have been light before the sun was condensed
into its present form. Animals now appear first in the waters, swarm-
ing creatures and'fishes, then reptiles and birds. On the sixth day
we have animals — herbivorous and carnivorous. Finally, we have
man. All this is very much the same order as is disclosed in geology,
and was written there in that volume three thousand years before
geology made its discoveries.

But we are most concerned with what, after all, is the most im-
portant to us, and that is the creation of man. There is a twofold
record, the parts not contradictory but supplementary the one of the
other. Chapter ii. V : " And the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
he became a living soul." This is expanded in a passage full of mean-
ing: Psalm cxxxix. 15, "My substance was not hid from thee when
I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the
earth," seeming to indicate a process and a preparation ; " thine eyes
did see my substance being yet imperfect, and in thy book all my
members were written while yet there was none of them." Such is
the one side, the animal side. But then we have the other side, chap-
ter i. 26 : " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God created he .them." All this corresponds to our ex-
perience. We feel that we have an animal part cleaving to the dust,
and allying lis to the brutes. But we feel also that we have a divine
nature, a power of distinguishing between good and evil, a longing
for something higher, a seeking after God. The Bible tells, thirdly,
that this image of God has been defaced. These truths have been
combined in an eloquent passage by the profound Pascal : " The great-
ness and the misery of man being alike conspicuous, religion, in order'
to be true, must necessarily teach us that he has in himself some noble
principles of greatness, and at the same time some profound source of
misery. . . . The philosophers never furnish men with sentiments suit-
able to these two states. They inculcated a notion either of absolute
grandeur or of hopeless degradation, neither of wdiich is the true con-
dition of man. ... So manifest is it that we were once in a state of
perfection from which we are now unhappily fallen. It is astonishing

ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that the mystery which is farthest removed from our knowledge — I
mean the transmission of original sin — should be that without which
we can have no true knowledge of ourselves. It is in this abyss that
the clew to our condition takes its turnings and windings, insomuch
that man is more incomprehensible without this mystery than this
mystery is incomprehensible to man."

SKETCH OF DE. AENOTT.

AMONG the agencies for the diffusion of the knowledge of phys-
ics and the taste for its study in the past generation, few were
more effective and successful than " The Elements of Physics," a
treatise for schools, by the author whose portrait will be found in the
present number of the Monthly. It was a work in many respects of
peculiar and remarkable excellence, from the felicitous treatment of
the subject, the fullness and aptness of illustration, the pleasant and
attractive style, and what may be called the practicalness of the
book, or the prominence it gave to the exposition of familiar phe-
nomena. Many students of both sexes in our higher schools received
a bent in the direction of scientific study from the use of this text-
book, which lasted through life; and, as a new edition of the volume
is about to appear, brought up to the time by judicious and able
editors, there are many who would like to know something about the
personal character and life of the author.

Neil Arnott was born on the loth of May, 1788, at Arbroath, in
Scotland. On his father's side he was descended from a Lowland
family, and his mother was the daughter of a Highland clan. His
youth was passed at Dysart, near Montrose. At the age of ten he
became a pupil in the Aberdeen Grammar-School, where he remained
the next three years.

In consequence of having been successful at the Bursary compe-.
tition at Marischal College, in 1801, he became a student there, and
completed the regular course, obtaining the degree of M. A. in his
seventeenth year. It was during his third year in college, under the
admirable instruction of Prof. Copland, that his mind was directed to
natural philosophy, which henceforth became his favorite study. He
chose medicine as his profession, and went through the medical course
at Aberdeen. For the purpose of completing his stirdies, he went to
London in 1806, and became a pupil in St. George's Hospital, under
Sir Everard Home. Through the influence of the latter, lie was ap-
pointed surgeon in the East India Company, where he gained valu-
able experience for his after-work. Having settled in London in 1811,
he not only obtained large success as a medical practitioner, but at the
same time was collecting materials for his future work on "Physics."
In 1815 he was appointed physician to the French embassy, and after-

SKETCH OF DR. ARNOTT. 101

ward to the Spanish embassy. In 1836 he became a member of the
Senate in the newly-founded University of London in 1837, one of
the physicians extraordinary to the queen, and in 1838 a member of
the Royal Society, and subsequently of the Geological Society.

Dr. Arnott gave two courses of lectures at different times on the
relation of natural philosophy to medicine. These were afterward
embodied in his " Physics." In 1837 appeared his well-known " Essay
on Warming and Ventilation," and, by the practical application of
the theories contained in it, there resulted the stoves and ventilators
which bear his name. For these and other inventions, including the
water-bed, he obtained from the Royal Society the Rumford medal.
On account of the assistance which he rendered to the practice of
medicine, and to the general public health, he received, at the Paris
Exposition in 1855, a gold medal, added to which by the emperor
was the cross of the Legion of Honor. During his connection with
the General Board of Health, he devoted much of his time to the
subjects relating either directly or indirectly to hygiene. Not only
here, but during his whole life, he had exercised and used his observ-
ing powers, so that each new experience added to his valuable stock
of facts, which bore especially upon natural philosophy.

Many traits of his character made him a social favorite, and his
interest in society at large has justly caused him to be ranked among
the chief promoters of human welfare. All his actions were char-
acterized in a remarkable degree by unselfishness. He used none
of his inventions in his own interest, and refused to have them pat-
ented, in order that their usefulness might be more wide-spread. As
Prof. Bain, one of the editors of his " Elements," remarks : " Through-
out his life, and by his various inventions and publications, Dr. Neil
Arnott manifested a purely philanthropic desire to extend to others
the benefits of that knowledge which, from his boyhood upward, he
had acquired by long and patient observation. His earnest wish was
to make the path of learning easy to all. We have now before us a
copy of 'The Elements of Physics' as it first appeared in 1827.
Within five years of its publication, five large editions of the wTork
were called for, and, although not then complete, it wras translated
into several foreign languages. It is not too much to say of this and
his other works that the learned and the unlearned, the student and the
philosopher, have equally benefited by his labors." In addition to
his general benevolence referred to above, he strove to promote the
advancement of jdiysical science by endowing scholarships in the
universities and public schools. In 1869 he gave $10,000 to the Uni-
versity of London, and $5,000 each to the universities of Aberdeen,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews. Not having accomplished a
design expressed by him of leaving $5,000 to each of the four Scotch
universities, his widow has carried out his plans since his death. He
died on the 2d of March, 1874.

102

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

GETTING EIGHT ON THE EECOED.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

DEAR SIR : It has always been a mat-
ter of surprise to me that some of
my contributions to botanical science should
be regarded as attacks on the doctrines of
Darwin, or as opposed to theories of evolu-
tion. At the conclusion of the reading of
my papers it is often a subject of argument
on which side I stand. So great is this ner-
vousness, that at Buffalo, because I showed
that the ova-pollen of a yucca-flower was as
potent as any that could be brought from
another flower by an insect, I had to endure
a sharp lecture from Prof. Riley, and even
Prof. Morse could only help me with the au-
dience by remarking, " We all know that
Mr. Meehan is a Darwinian and an evolu-
tionist, but must say that he has an odd
way of putting it." That my good friend
does not regard me as much of either is,
however, clear, from his making no refer-
ence to any of my labors in his "History
of Evolution."

For my own part I have not cared to be
classed nominally with any party in science,
but to let the facts I record speak for them-
selves. My ambition has been to be con-
sidered a worker in the field of original ob-
servation and research, and, if I know my-
self, am indifferent whether the facts help
my own or any other person's beliefs or
theories. Still, even an observer must have
some idea of the bearing of what he sees
on evolution and Darwinism, if he think at
all about these things. I have thought it
would do no harm if for once I entered the
speculative field and put my own interpreta-
tion on the facts as I have recorded them.

Instead of opposing evolution, I think
my Hartford paper was a contribution to its
cause. I not only showed that in plants
there is an evolution of form by slow and
gradual modifications through long series
of years, but also that evolution is often by
sudden leaps, and vthat these sudden en-
trances were just as permanent, when the
agents in natural selection favored, as any

new form gradually evolved could be. I
also showed the probability of whole dis-
tricts changing by the operation of some
inherent law, which would make the doc-
trine of evolution possible to those who
can hardly believe every individual in a
species came from one primordial form,
one exact mathematical centre. Of course,
so wide a generalization could not, ought
not, to rest on so small a number of facts ;
but surely any one can see that if there
be, and have been through all ages, change
by sudden introductions as well as by slow
modifications, there is no use in hunting in
all cases for "missing links" that never ex-
isted ; and I have found a plank on which
Agassiz and his friends might have stood
with Darwin ; and I could render no better
service to evolutionary views.

So in reference to cross-fertilization by
insect agency, I regard myself as saving
Darwinians from themselves. By cutting-
out a rotten branch the tree is made health-
ier, and the possibility of a fall prevented
to those who might crawl out on it. To my
mind, there is nothing more opposed to the
idea of natural selection than the modern
doctrines in relation to insects and fertiliza-
tion. Supposing that, in accordance with
the inherent tendency to variation, a new
form — a slight change — occurs that ren-
ders the plant better fitted to engage in the
" struggle for life " than its parent, and that
it is unable to make use of its own pollen,
but must have pollen by insect agency from
some other flower. The advantage it has
gained is at once lost, as the crossed prog-
eny of course is brought back to near its
grandparent, and these again crossed with
the foreign pollen are again reduced, till
in the course of a few generations the va-
riety is near enough to be the same. The
effect of continual adding of water to milk
is well known. In the supposed case of
our plant, it becomes " watered stock " with
a vengeance. If the new form could have
the power of reproducing itself exactly, aBd
thus continue to fix a habit, as we can un-

ED IT 'OR' S TABLE.

103

derstand it might do in using its own pol-
len, we can see how "natural selection"
could use " variation " to advantage. The
insect only interferes with the law.

There are some few plants which never
seem to fertilize except by insect or other
aid. In a large number of these cases their
own pollen is just as good as foreign pollen.
In a few instances foreign pollen alone
seems to be potent. Why must we believe,
in this latter case, that it is because their
own pollen is designed to be inferior, in or-
der that foreign pollen may be brought to
it '? There may be many other reasons.
At any rate, the creed presented to us is
inconsistent with a full idea of natural se-
lection. The survival of the fittest will be
most assured by an abundance of resources.
The little chickweed which flowers and
seeds with the thermometer at 35°, and the
common erophila at 40°, are much "fitter"
to fight their way through the world in the
wonderful way they do than if they waited

for the spring insect to bring them foreign
pollen. We can readily understand that if
a flower is diseased, the pollen of that flower
acting on itself would produce diseased off-
spring. Foreign pollen would bring back
the health. With the millions of healthy
flowers reproducing, the one flower diseased
seems but trifling ; but even so the insects
can carry bad pollen to good flowers, as
well as bring good pollen to diseased ones.
Only that I have heard the argument from
the highest in scientific standing, it would
seem too puerile to mention here.

Without going further into detail, I may
say that, as a matter of opinion, the obser-
vations I have placed on record aid evolu-
tionary views in some of their weakest
points, while I am really saving the doc-
trines of the survival of the fittest and of
natural selection from injuries dealt out to
them in the house of their friends.

Thomas Meehan.
Gekmantown, Pa., September 28, 1ST6.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

PROF. HUXLEY arrived in this
country tired out from prolonged
overwork, and greatly needing rest.
He did not wish to speak in public, but
could not escape it. He went to Nash-
ville to visit a sister whom he had not
seen in thirty years, and, being strongly
urged to make a public address there,
he reluctantly consented, and spoke to
a large concourse on an excessively hot
day. The effort prostrated him, and
his voice was so strained that he did
not recover his usual vocal power while
he remained with us. He had not ex-
pected to make a formal public dis-
course at Baltimore, and therefore had
to prepare one while here. His vaca-
tion thus turned out to be anything but
a season of repose and recuperation,
and he gave his lectures in New York
under the triple disadvantage of not
being up to his usual vigor, of a seri-
ous impairment of voice, and of having
to prepare them as he went along — for

the plan of the discussion was new, and
American materials had to be worked
up for its purpose. These difficulties
became serious in dealing with the
crowded audiences which attended his
lectures, many of whom heard him but
imperfectly.

His lectures were, however, well re-
ceived by those who heard them, and
quite as well received by the press as
we had any reason to expect. That
objections of all sorts should be raised
was inevitable ; for the doctrine of Evo-
lution, which he advocated, is too re-
cent, too comprehensive, too scientific,
and encounters too many prejudices, to
be generally or readily accepted merely
because it is proved. Only a very small
portion of human opinion is the prod-
uct of reason. Some thought his treat-
ment of the subject too elementary, and
some thought it too restricted and inad-
equate, hut nobody denied that it was
clear, forcible, and logical. We must
add that, in most cases, the pulpit has

104

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

treated Prof. Huxley with courtesy,
though it could be wished that the
clergy would inform themselves a little
more thoroughly upon the subject be-
fore answering him with such perfunc-
tory promptness.

In one thing both the professors,
auditors, and the public generally, have
been seriously disappointed. They have
been led to regard Huxley as a man of
pugnacious temper, a kind of contro-
versial bully, who is only happy when
in a fight. And so they expected to
see some brilliant aggressive work, and
that he would " polish off" his adversa-
ries in the most approved and exciting
style of polemical pugilism. But Prof.
Huxley indulged in nothing of the kind,
and so it was murmured round that the
lectures were disappointing, and not at
all up to what was expected from him.
That is, the man himself, when ob-
served, and heard, and known, con-
tradicted the preconceived theory of
the man. And here is the proper place
to say that this current theory of Prof.
Huxley's character is quite erroneous.
He has been a good deal in controver-
sy, no doubt, and has often hit hard ;
but it is a total mistake to suppose that
he has ever sought or provoked strife
because of combative propensities. His
dominant tastes and inclinations are all,
on the contrary, for quiet scientific in-
quiry. Controversy has, however, been
thrust upon him. Standing prominent-
ly as the exponent of a doctrine that
has been regarded with horror for the
last twenty years by all classes, high as
well as low, he has been misrepresent-
ed, and badgered, and vilified, with a
recklessness that would have aroused
vigorous resistance and sharp counter-
strokes in any man of spirit.

In his opening lecture Prof. Huxley
showed first that Nature, or the uni-
verse, has not always been what it is
now. To minds that seek for causes
it therefore presents the problem, How
did it come to be what it is now ? The
theoretical solution of this problem that
has prevailed in the past and is still

widely accepted is, that it was called
into existence a few thousand years ago
in much the condition that we now
know it. This is the Mosaic theory, in
its old and popular interpretation. But
as the Mosaic records have been rein-
terpreted in recent times, and as the
question whether or not the doctrine is
taught there is hotly disputed among
those who defer to Mosaic authority,
Prof. Huxley did not assume to settle
the question, and wisely let the Mosaic
account alone. Seme newspapers were
indignant at this, and charged him with
cowardice and evasion for not pitching
into Moses. But that was not his busi-
ness, and if he had done so he would
have been open to the charge of going
out of his way to drag in a foreign ques-
tion, and make an assault upon the
Christian religion — there is no pleasing
everybody. But, while keeping clear
of the Scriptures, he still had to deal
with the doctrine which has been uni-
versally believed for centuries to be
grounded in Scripture authority, and so
he took it as vividly and concretely de-
scribed by a classic Christian poet more
than two centuries ago. He called it
the "Miltonic hypothesis," and read a
graphic passage from " Paradise Lost "
describing the way the animal world
came into existence. Herbert Spencer
has been soundly belabored by various
critics for calling this view the "car-
penter theory" of creation, but the
great Christian poet certainly lends his
authority to this interpretation of the
case. He describes the creative work
with great literalness as a mechanical
operation, in the following lines :

" .... In his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things :
One foot he centred, and the other turned
Bound through the vast profundity obscure ;
And said, ' Thus far extend, thus far thy

bounds,
This be thy just circumference 0 world.' "

But further comment is unnecessary,
as the reader will find the full lecture
in our pages.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

10;

THE HELL-GATE EXPLOSION.

The series of operations which re-
sulted in the blowing up of the great
rocky reef at Hallett's Point on Sun-
day, September 24th, must be regarded
as the most brilliant piece of scientific
engineering that has yet been accom-
plished. General Newton formed his
plans, and entered upon the work in
July, 1869. For over seven years he has
been preparing for a grand experiment
to occupy but a few seconds, and so ac-
curately did he calculate, and so com-
plete was his command of the irresisti-
ble forces to be called into action, that
the experiment proved completely suc-
cessful, and affords an impressive illus-
tration of the prophetic power that is
conferred by a knowledge of the ele-
ments and forces of Nature. It was
the physicists and chemists who long
ago worked quietly and obscurely in
their laboratories, with little reference
to practical ends, and animated only by
the desire to acquaint themselves with
the laws of the natural world, that
paved the way for the great engineer
to do this important service for the in-
terests of New York and the commerce
of the world.

The reef at Hallett's Point, which
has formed such a dangerous obstruc-
tion in the Hell-Gate channel as greatly
to hinder navigation through Long Isl-
and Sound, was of an irregular crescent
shape (as shown in the figure), some

700 feet long, and extending out 300
feet into the channel, with an area of
about three acres. The rock is a tough,

hornblende gneiss, with veins of pure
quartz, and lies in strata of various de-
grees of inclination. The plan of opera-
tions was to build a coffer-dani on the
rock near the shore to bar out the
water, to sink a shaft to the requisite
depth, to honey-comb the whole rocky
mass by excavation, and then to blow
up the shell by charges of dynamite in
the roof and supporting columns, to be
fired by the agency of galvanic bat-
teries. The shaft was sunk to a depth
of 33 feet below the line of low water,
and ten tunnels were then opened to
distances varying from 31 to 126 feet.
The cubic contents of the rocky mass,
above the depth of 26 feet, at mean low
water, amounted to 51,000 yards. The
tunnels radiating from the shaft varied
from 7 to 22 feet in height, and from
9 to 12 feet in width, and, as they ad-
vanced, the height rapidly decreased,
owing to the downward slope of the
surface of the reef. As the main tun-
nels diverged from each other, sub-
sidiary tunnels were introduced, and a
system of transverse galleries was ex-
cavated (as shown in the figure), and
which left 172 supporting pillars of
variable dimensions. The total length
of tunnels was 4,857 feet, and the length
of galleries 2,568 feet, making the en-
tire length of passage excavated 7,425
feet. The excavations being completed,
so that the roof of rock above was re-
duced to a thickness of from 8 to 16
feet, the preparation for the explosion
began by drilling the rock for the
charges. The whole number of blast-
holes drilled into the roof and piers
was 4,427, varying from 7 to 10 feet
in depth, and from 2 to 3 inches in di-
ameter. Each one of these holes was
charged with three kinds of explosives,
all compounds of nitro-glycerine, viz.,
dynamite, rendrock, and vulcan-powder,
in separate cartridges or canisters.
Fifty thousand pounds of these explo-
sives were buried in the apertures.
Ninety-six galvanic batteries, of ten
cells each, were employed to ignite the
charges. The firing-point was 050

io6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

yards from the shaft, and the amount
of leading and connecting wire used to
bring all the charges into relation with
the batteries was 220,000 feet. The
charges in the different holes of the
same pier were connected so as to ex-
plode simultaneously, but a fuse com-
posed of a quick explosive was used
to connect the system of charges in
each pier with those of the neighbor-
ing piers. In this way the electric
spark, taking effect in a few centres,
the ignition was propagated through
the whole system, as the explosion of
the connecting fuse would advance
more rapidly than the destruction of
the rock. The several thousand charges
in the mine were connected in 23
groups, each with 160 fuses, and these
were acted upon simultaneously by 23
groups of batteries. These were ingen-
iously connected in a mechanical ar-
rangement so simple and perfect that
a child could operate it, and the whole
stupendous force that slumbered in the
charges was actually released by the
touch of a little daughter of General
Newton, two years and a half old. The
explosion was accompanied by no very
stunning effects to eye or ear, and the
demonstration was so moderate as to
produce great disappointment in the
multitudes who assembled to witness
it. There was a succession of shocks,
lasting a few seconds, with no great
noise, a mass of water and debris of the
coffer-dam thrown into the air, and
the great reef was shattered and de-
molished. Long experience in blast-
ing, and the close adaptation of explo-
sive material to the work done, had
enabled General Newton to graduate
the amount of power to be developed
to the total result ; and so accurate was
this adjustment that the explosives
spent themselves in breaking up the
reef, and no power was left to topple
down the houses in the vicinity. Ex-
aminations thus far show that the great
blast was most effectual, although con-
siderable time and much labor will

probably be required to clear away the
broken masses of rock, and gain the full
benefits aimed at by the enterprise.

DR. DRAPER'S BOOK AT ROME.

TnAT extensive division of the Chris-
tian Church which has its headquarters
at Rome has claimed and exercised for
more than 300 years the right of de-
ciding wrhat books its members shall
be allowed to read. This power resides
in a body of cardinals, designated by
the Pope, who issue an "Index" of
books containing a twofold catalogue,
one of which is of works absolutely
prohibited,, and the other of works that
are prohibited only until they are ex-
purgated, or so corrected by their au-
thors as to be acceptable to the Church
authorities. The first papal "Index"
was published in 1549, by Pope Paul
IV. It was made a part of the work
of the Inquisition, and this body had
charge of it until 158G, when a special
commission — " The Congregation of the
Index" — was created, and has been
maintained to the present time. Among
the early works prohibited by this con-
clave were those of Galileo, Coperni-
cus, and Kepler ; and, among those for-
bidden in more modern times, were
Locke's " Essay on the Human Under-
standing," and Mill's " Political Econ-
omy." Dr. Draper's " History of the
Conflict between Religion and Sci-
ence" has now the honor of being
added to the list of celebrated books
which Catholics cannot read without re-
belling against ecclesiastical authority.

This institution of the Catholic
Church is itself the most conspicuous
example we have of that great " con-
flict " which Dr. Draper has so vividly
delineated in his little volume. Its rise
was coincident with the general awak-
ening of thought in modern Europe,
which was manifested on the one hand
in the Protestant Reformation, and, on
the other, in that independent study of
Nature by which the sciences have been

EDITOR'S TABLE.

107

created. The Church took issue with
this spirit of free thought, which it
sought to repress by violence wherever
and as long as it had the power, and
which it still seeks to extinguish hy the
force of its claim to represent divine
authority. It is still as vicegerent of
God upon earth that the Pope inter-
poses to stop the circulation of scien-
tific books, and continues his warfare
with the tendency to independent in-
quiry.

We cannot but remark how greatly
the papal government mistakes the
times, and how utterly it fails to re-
alize the change that has taken place
since the sixteenth century. The time
has come when books are not to be
forbidden but answered, and the policy
of interdiction by the Vatican author-
ities is so futile that it becomes nothing-
short of a blunder. Dr. Draper's vol-
ume has been put under ban because it
is pervading all Europe — two editions
having been called for even in ultra-
Catholic Spain. Publicly thus to mark
a book for religious outlawry is simply
to give to it a prodigious advertise-
ment. Where before it had one reader
it will now have ten. Men will get it,
determined to find out for themselves
in what its offense consists ; and women
will do as Eve did — taste simply be-
cause it is a forbidden thing. The only
way to overcome the objectionable ten-
dencies of any work is to point them
out ; and the only way to deal with its
arguments is to refute them. To sup-
press such books in our time is out of
the question ; and if, in this special in-
stance, there are among the highly-edu-
cated ecclesiastics in Eome none who
can do this, the inference is that the
book is unanswerable. We have, cer-
tainly, no complaint to make of the
course adopted by the theological au-
thorities at Eome, and must, at any
rate, give them credit for consistency ;
but they forget that the world has
changed a good deal since the Inquisi-
tion was established.

AS BEG A BBS BISHOP COXE.

It is a great mistake to suppose that
bigotry and intolerance are altogether
confined to the Vatican ; we have ex-
cellent illustrations of this temper much
nearer home. While the Pope at Eome
is commanding the faithful not to ad-
mit Dr. Draper's book into their libra-
ries, Bishop Coxe, the little pontiff of
Western New York, is warning the good
Christians of Buffalo not to let Prof.
Huxley come into their houses ; while
both potentates put their intolerant
action on the same ground of divine
authorization. One would think that
in the nineteenth century, in an en-
lightened American city, in the year
of the nation's centennial, in the midst
of a presidential campaign, and at a
large convocation of the scientists of
this and foreign countries, Buffalo
Christians might have been left to
their own good sense and good taste
to entertain whom they pleased. More-
over, Prof. Huxley was the guest of
the American Scientific Association,
which was itself the guest of the city,
and this should have been sufficient to
protect him from insult from such a
quarter. It is well that the bishop's
type of Christianity does not prevail
in Buffalo, as, otherwise, the obnoxious
foreigner might have been left in the
streets to starve.

Some of the Buffalo papers, hold-
ing the bishop's utterance in regard to
Huxley to be nothing less than a public
affront and a disgrace to the town,
made it rather warm for him, and so
he has followed up the original man-
date by a defense of it in subsequent
letters to his organ, " The Orbit." The
faithful were admonished to withhold
their hospitalities from Prof. Huxley,
because he is an atheist. The bishop
charges him with "scientific atheism"
— whatever that may mean — and refers
to his admonition to his flock for " im-
porting atheism into their families under
color of science." He also accuses Prof.

io8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Huxley of being a "propagator of
atheism." Now, though these charges
are launched from the Episcopal throne
of Western New York, they are never-
theless not true. Bishop Coxe says,
"I bear a divine commission." Then
he has a divine commission to bear
false witness. His accusation is simply
a baseless calumny, and in none of his
communications does he offer a shadow
of proof to substantiate the charge.
Prof. Huxley has never avowed him-
self an atheist, and has never advo-
cated the doctrine, but on the contrary
he has distinctly condemned it and
declared it to be an absurd doctrine.
Bishop Coxe says he is " a propagator
of atheism," but where is the proof?
There are such people as avowed athe-
ists, and there is a party of them in
England that labors to propagate the
belief. Bradlaugh is one of their chiefs,
who boasted that he is the only man
who ever ran for Parliament on the
issue of being an atheist. Prof. Hux-
ley has never had anything to do with
this party, and is no more in sympathy
with it than is Bishop Coxe. If Prof.
Huxley has propagated atheism, lie
must have done it some time, some-
where, and somehow, and there must
be evidence of it. Has the bishop any
better source of information than other
people ? If not, then he has lent him-
self to a false accusation. He quotes
Scripture copiously in defense of his
course, and cites from St. John the fol-
lowing passage: "Many deceivers are
entering into the world. Look to your-
selves . . . receive them not into your
house." But, who are the deceivers, if
not those who mislead people by un-
truthful statements? The utmost de-
fense that Bishop Coxe can make is,
that he has heard Prof. Huxley called
an atheist, or that he infers from his
books that he holds atheistic opinions ;
but is a man to be stripped of his char-
acter, and loaded with opprobrious epi-
thets, and are all good Christians to be
invited to slam their doors in his face,

because of mere idle rumors and in-
ferential constructions of his writings,
both of which are contradicted by his
explicit averments? The Bishop of
Western New York should migrate to
Rome, where he properly belongs, at
the earliest opportunity.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Talks about Labor, and concerning the
Evolution of Justice between the
Laborers and the Capitalists. Bv
J. N. Larned. Pp. 150. Price, $1.5(5.
D. Appleton & Co., 1876.

This book is the result of an able effort
to analyze the present relations of capital
and labor, and to point out the directions
whence future improvement in those rela-
tions must come. It has not the preten-
sions of an exhaustive treatise ; neverthe-
less it is a study of the whole subject, and
reaches to large conclusions. It is con-
ceded on all sides tbat, as between labor-
ers and capitalists, grave problems have to
be settled before their relations can be ad-
justed to the higher notions of justice now
pressing on the minds of men. The men
with capital, and those without it, but with
capabilities for work, must be in constant
cooperation, the terms of which are deter-
mined by complex facts. The fairness or
unfairness of these terms bears closely on
our social life, and is an index to the qual-
ity of our civilization. We cannot turn
away from them, relying entirely for their
amelioration on the operation of forces be-
yond human control. The social philosophy
imbued with the spirit of science tells us
that the institutions of social life develop
only in obedience to irresistible currents of
educated feeling and opinion.

Without stopping to consider this
thorny question, it may safely be said that
prevailing mental and moral conceptions
are a factor of intense importance in deter-
mining the forms of social action, and, as
they pass from lower to higher states, a
corresponding improvement occurs in ev-
erything upon wbich they act. With equal
safety we may assume that this progress
in our conceptions is in no way more pro-
moted than by that activity of mind which

LITERARY NOTICES.

109

seeks to comprehend facts, and their rela-
tions to ethical truths.

The author of this work, profoundly im-
pressed with the importance of the ques-
tions he discusses, has devoted himself to
that consideration of his subject which in-
cludes a careful examination of existing
conditions, with an inquiry into possible
changes in the direction of a more complete
justice between capitalists and laborers.
It is a piece of good fortune that the task
has been taken up in this case by a writer
free from the eccentricities or narrowness-
es which too often beset those who discuss
social questions. The literature on the
subject of capital and labor is rapidly in-
creasing, and much of it is open to a com-
mon criticism. The range of view is either
too narrow, the formula? of political econ-
omy being accepted as final and complete ;
or we find ourselves at the mercy of a
being, utterly unscientific in his methods,
who proposes to set things right by means
little better than magic. Into neither mis-
take has Mr. Larned fallen ; for, on the one
hand, he has a correct appreciation of the
limits to the laws which the economists
have formulated, and, on the other hand,
his faith rests on means of attaining ends
which the most rigid scientific investigators
of society must commend. As conditions
change, economic science takes note and
sets about the explanation of the new facts.
The science is a growing one, and to take
its statements to-day as an approval of
existing forms of industrial life is to mis-
conceive its nature. As Prof. Cairnes has
clearly stated the point :

" It (economic science) belongs to the class
of sciences whose work can never be com-
pleted, never, at least, so long as human beings
continue to progress: for the most important
portion of the data from which it reasons is
human character and institutions, and every-
thing consequently which affects that character
or those institutions must create new problems
for economic science."

The perception of this fact leads to an
appreciation of our author's fundamental
views. He disputes no generally-accepted
economic conclusions, but gives due weight
to factors, at present excluded, which,
slowly gathering force, will raise new prob-
lems. He steps out into the broad field of
social inquiry, and seeks to bring into clear

view agencies which must in time affect hu-
man character, and modify the institutions
of the present. In addition to this, the
nature of those modifications is foreshad-
owed.

To show how clear and strong our au-
thor's position is in respect to social re-
forms, it is only necessary to glance for a
moment at his conception of the evolution
of justice in the department of human so-
ciety with which he is concerned. After
analyzing the function of capital, and de-
fining it with rare precision as being
"everything derived and accumulated from
past labor which enables present labor to
be employed in any such way that the ben-
eficial results from it have to be waited
for," two other facts of startling import are
brought into juxtaposition. They are, first,
that every kind of labor which does not
immediately produce for the man who
performs it the immediate satisfaction of
an immediate want is absolutely dependent
upon capital ; and, second, that this com-
plex social state which ive call civilization
has left no labor to be done by any man
that is not of that dependent kind. Here is
the dependence of labor upon capital
brought home to us by a mere statement
of facts. Pushing further the analysis of
the conditions upon which capital and labor
bargain together, and the reality of this de-
pendence is intensified. We are invited to
look at the man of capital and the man of
work in the concrete, in order to realize
the motives and necessities which to a large
extent determine their relations to each
other. The capitalist becomes an employer
mainly to increase his means ; the desire
of gain is the most powerful motive shaping
his conduct. As a bargainer, he therefore
occupies a position of comparative inde-
pendence. The empty-handed laborer is
very differently situated. He must live ;
the physical wants of himself and family
must be supplied ; he bargains with inex-
orable needs at his back. Given these con-
ditions, and human nature not apt to rise
to high motives, and it is palpable that
there is no limit to the possible oppres-
sion. No one claims that capital exercises
to-day all the advantages of its superior
position. The reasons that it does not are
found in prevailing moral ideas which have

1 10

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hold enough on society to restrain its con-
duct in some directions and elevate it in
others. But these advantages are still, to
an enormous extent, made use of in the
division of the products of labor between
the capitalists and the laborers, and, as a
result, there is deep injustice in the indus-
trial world. There has been some improve-
ment in the past; the hopeful man sees
reasons to believe in its continuance. Mr.
Larned has a large faith: perceiving that
this improvement has sprung from moral
sources, from the 'slow working of juster
ideas into juster conduct, he looks to the
same sources for the higher progress of the
future, and has been led to examine our
institutions, to find out what readjustments
are necessary.

Before we can follow an author, who
has such a position to maintain, into the
main body of his thesis, we are in self-
defense bound to assure ourselves that he
has an adequate conception of man's moral
nature, and the working of moral forces.
If he be defective here, his work must be
unfruitful. Mr. Larned has spoken plainly
and at length on the subject, and his views
are so broad as to inspire a full confidence
in his mental grasp and scientific culture.
His discussion of this point is an excellent
piece of exposition. The whole statement
is clear and incisive, and there is about it
that impressiveness which lodges a fact of
grave import firmly in the mind. It is
difficult to select any portion for quota-
tion, owing to the logical connection be-
tween all its parts. We merely give here
a conclusion that he arrives at, as it bears
on what we have to say : " There is this
order, as I believe, in the development of
humanity: 1. Toward objective or sensuous
intelligence; 2. Toward subjective or moral
intelligence ; 3. Toward the disciplining of
the animal man to act in accord with his
intelligence. The first of these will always
l>e far in advance of the second; the second
always in advance of the third; and yet the
first and the second contribute steadily to
the last, in which their whole divine pur-
pose would seem to be consummated."

With this key given us, it is- seen that
the evolution of that justice which is ulti-
mately to correct the most glaring iniqui-
ties in the relations of capitalists and labor-

ers proceeds from the application of the
accepted principles of morality to the facts
attending those relations, and the deduc-
tion therefrom of higher rules of conduct.
This means that the human mind has to
pass through a period of moral enlighten-
ment— a period marked by the extension
of simple notions of right to the relation-
ships in question. The average intellect
does not move swiftly of its own accord to
such a task, nor does it incline, by patient
efforts of its own, to penetrate the dark-
ness of a deep subject, for guidance to in-
telligent action. More courageous spirits
must sift and analyze the material ; must
place by the side of the conclusions gath-
ered together the teachings of the ethical
system which humanity has worked out —
and to time must be left the slow but in-
evitable adjustment of human conduct to
the dictates of the higher intelligence thus
spread abroad. The work before us is an
attempt to do for its subject what has been
hinted at as open to the investigator, adding
to this a brief but suggestive inquiry into
the changes in the machinery of industrial
life which will insure to the laborers a
larger share in the products of labor. In
a word, it may be said to be the bringing
together of the moral and economical
aspects of the labor-question. A mere
allusion to some of the various topics
examined is all that our space leaves us.

The subjects first treated are of a gen-
eral character, and are»taken up to enable
the author to elaborate the theoretic rela-
tion between capital and labor, deducible
from primary principles. Under this head
it is sought to roughly but fairly define the
extent to which the advantages flowing
from superior faculties may be legitimately
exercised. Leading out of this theme is the
allied one of the relative value of the facul-
ties which contribute to production. If a
fund is to be shared between the various
contributors to it, Justice says, Let the prin-
ciple of division be based on a comparison
of the used energies and capabilities of the
contributors. The products of labor are
not divided on this principle now, and never
will be until the millennium ; but it is the
ideal standard toward which we.must tend.
There is no justification in reason for the
giant's share going to one class, as it actual-

LITERARY NOTICES.

11 1

ly does. Mr. Lamed is particularly happy
in his estimate of the faculties which are
essential to the acquisition of wealth in the
business-world. His analysis, too, discloses
just grounds for raising the estimate usually
put upon the faculties which produce the
skillful mechanic, artisan, clerk, or other
efficient laborer. The comparison of these
two sets of faculties dispels the common
notion that, as agents in the work of pro-
duction, they are of widely different quality.
That there is a difference is conceded ; that
capital is entitled to by far the largest
share of remuneration is also conceded ; the
point is, that it exacts a larger share than
any equitable principle of division gives
to it.

This plea being made for labor, the
author's hard work begins in finding a
way to escape from the economical conclu-
sions about the " wages-fund," in showing
how that fund may be increased so that
labor may receive a larger hire, and in
shaping a practical plan for the accomplish-
ment of the desired end. We commend
this part of Mr. Larned's work for the
strong thought and practical sagacity be-
hind it. He is clear when he has hard
knots to untie. The " wages-fund " in the
hands of an economist has always appalled
us. The limits to it are sketched as inexo-
rably determined by conditions out of human
reach, and the only relief open is the rel-
ative lessening of the numbers of those
who share in it. Can any one wonder at
men shrinking from the gloom of such a
belief? Mr. Lamed holds by another and
more inspiring doctrine. His effort is to
prove that the enormously increased pro-
ductiveness of labor, through the operation
' of many causes which he enumerates, is
more than sufficient to supply the fullest
meed of legitimate human desires. If it is
not so now, it is because of unjustifiable
consumption and other wrongs. Let the
consumption which grows out of the low
desire to parade the possession of wealth be
restrained by the heavy hand of public
opinion, and let public-debt making be
kept within certain defined bounds, so that
this avenue of unproductive capital may be
practically closed — let this much be done,
and the result will be that those who com-
mand capital will be driven to devote more

and more of it to renewed production. To
such means does the author look for the
increase of the fund out of which labor is
paid. We have only indicated the drift of
the argument.

The practical plan, advocated tentatively
by the author, is a system of dividends to
labor, the basis of which is given at some
length. Other plans are subjected to criti-
cism, and their defects pointed out. The
system of some sort of a partnership be-
tween capitalists and laborers obviates
many of these defects, but is not without
its attendant difficulties. Mr. Lamed has
given cogent reasons for his preference,
and we hope they will be given the con-
sideration they deserve. His views are so
opposed to everything that is visionary, and
are kept in such a close relationship to the
facts, that his critics will find him no mean
antagonist.

We had marked for comment other
points in this original and interesting book,
which we have no space for. What has
been said falls short of doing the author
justice. Indeed, this book is so compacted,
and so brimful of suggestive lines of in-
quiry, that no summary of it can be ade-
quate. It is a calm presentation of a dif-
ficult subject, and the temper of its conclu-
sions will give it weight in the solution of
pending problems. It has a mission which
it is bound to serve worthily. The task
the author unpretentiously set himself has
been well done, and to other merits must
be added that of literary excellence. The
matter is presented in the shape of a series
of conversations, and they are conducted
with a skill which provokes a sharp inter-
est in the discussions from beginning to
end. The argument is carried on logically ;
each proposition is separated and clearly
put. Those who take up the book will lose
little time in finishing it, and they will find
in its pages much good and substantial
thought.

Correction. — It was erroneously stated
last month in the review of the "Scientific
Basis of Faith" that the book "is an at-
tempt to harmonize Scripture with science."
The reading should be " it is not an at-
tempt," etc., conveying just the opposite

1 12

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Theory of Color in its Relation to
Art and Art-Industry. By W. von Bezold.
Pp. 300. With Colored Plates. Boston :
L. Prang & Co. Price, $5.

Fifty Years of my Life. By George
Thomas, Earl of Albemarle. Pp. 430.
New York : H. Holt & Co. Price, $2.50.

Ivauhoe. Pp. 287. Our Mutual Friend.
Pp. 350. (Condensed Classics Series.) Same
publisher. Price, $1.

Elementary Biology. By Prof. Huxley
and H. X. Martin. Pp. 280. New York :
Macmillan. Price, $2.

A Song of America. By V. Voldo.
Pp. 206. New York : Hanscom & Co.

California Notes. By C. B. Turrill.
Pp. 242. San Francisco : Bosqui & Co.
print. Price, $1.50.

Theory and Calculation of Continuous
Bridges. By M. Merriman. Pp. 130.
New York : Van Nostrand. Price, 50
cents.

Goethe's ausgewiihlte Prosa. Edited
by J. M. Hart. Pp. 200. New York :
Putnams. Price, $1.

Die aromatischen Nitroverbindungen.
Von Peter Townsend Austen. Pp. 43.
Also, Ueber Dinitroparadibrombenzole imd
dereu Derivate. Pp. 3. Same author.

Proceedings of the American Chemical
Society. Vol. I., No. 1. Pp. 81. New
York: J. F. Trow print.

Papers on Building Associations. Fp.
29. Philadelphia : Social Science Associa-
tion.

Democracy: The First Century of the
National Life. By Josiah Riley. Pp. 55.
San Francisco : Carmany & Co. print.

Continuous Girders and Draw-Spans.
By A. J. Du Bois, C. E. Pp. 32. Phila-
delphia : Kildare print.

Determination of Secondary Meridians
by Electric Telegraph. Pp. 29. Washing-
ton: Hydrographic -Office.

Development and the Deity. By H.
FaukK Pp.41. Yokohama: F. R. Wet -
more & Co.

Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological
Club. September. Cambridge (Mass.) :
published by the Club.

Report of the Director of the Central
Park Menagerie. Pp. 57. New York :
The National Printing Co.

The Greenstones of New Hampshire.
By G. W. Hawes. Pp. 9. From American
Journal of Science and Arts.

Conflict between Darwinism and Spirit-
ualism. By J. M. Peebles. Pp. 34. Bos-
ton : Colby & Rich.

Researches in Telephony. By A. Gra-
ham Bell. Pp. 10. From " Proceedings
of the American Academy of Arts and Sci-
ences."

Seventh Catalogue of New Double Stars.
By S. W. Burnham. Pp. 4. From Ameri-
can Journal of Science and Arts.

Prehistoric Remains found at Cincin-
nati. By Robert Clarke. Pp. 34. Cin-
cinnati, 1876.

Nature of Diphtheritic Poison. By B.
Robinson, M. D. Pp. 15. New York : W.
Wood & Co.

Book of the Balance of Wisdom : ■ An
Essay. By H. C. Bolton, Ph. D. Pp. 30.
New York : J. F. Trow print.

Proceedings of the Davenport Academy
of Natural Sciences. Vol.1. Pp.293. With
numerous Plates.

MISCELLANY.

Supplement to the Glacial Theory.— At

the Buffalo meeting of the American Asso-
ciation Prof. W. C. Kerr, State Geologist of
North Carolina, read a paper accounting for
the presence and characteristics of the drift
or unstratified superficial deposits of North
Carolina, which cannot be attributed to
glacial action or the action of water, and
which has hitherto presented a somewhat
puzzling problem to geologists. He con-
siders it to be the result of land-slides, or,
as he terms them, earth -glaciers, formed
from the detritus of the stratified rocks of
the foot-hills mixed with water — the mass
throughout its whole depth, of from fifteen

MISCELLANY.

"3

to thirty feet, being penetrated by the
frosts of the glacial epoch, and subject to
the same laws of action as real glaciers.

The course of the fragments of differ-
ent strata, as shales, quartz-veins, etc., can
be traced down the slopes, showing unmis-
takably the mode of action; and the distri-
bution of bowlders and of gold throughout
this drift, though otherwise inexplicable, is
readily accounted for by this hypothesis.

A Note on the Radiometer, by Prof. T. C.
Mendenhall, of Columbus, Ohio, explained
his method of illuminating this instru-
ment for the purpose of projecting an en-
larged image of the arms or fans upon a
screen.

The radiometer being suspended ver-
tically, a beam of light is reflected upward
through it, and made to fall upon a mirror
above, which, with the aid of a projecting
lens, produces the image of the movable
fans upon the screen. As the beam of
light produces no motion when striking
these fans edgewise, the most delicate ex-
periments can be made, and their effects
seen, without any disturbance caused by the
light used in projection.

On cooling the Air of Bnildings dar-
ing Hot Weather, by Prof. Simon New-
comb, was a valuable paper, which was
practical enough to satisfy those who de-
mand that the value of all scientific labors
shall be tried by the test of utility. The
failure of the many plans which have been
suggested for cooling buildings in summer
has arisen from overlooking the fact that
the human body is a " wet-bulb thermome-
ter," and that the air needs not alone to
be cooled, but to be brought to a condition
which will allow speedy evaporation, and
that, therefore, contrivances for simply
cooling the air have not resulted in a de-
gree of comfort at all commensurate with
their trouble and expense. We have but
to remember the discomfort of a moist,
" muggy " day, even when the mercury
marks a moderately low temperature, to
see that the air needs not only to be cooled,
but to be dried. It will not answer to dry
the air by chemical absorption, as by sul-
phuric acid or lime, on account of the heat
of the chemical union.

vol. x. — 8

The only satisfactory way to remove
the moisture is by condensation and depo-
sition, and for the purpose of doing this
effectually and economically Prof. New-
comb suggests an apparatus. He proposes,
by passing the ordinary air of a summer
day through an ice-chest, to reduce it to a
point far below the dew-point — or, say, 35°
Fahr. Thence it should be passed through
a very large tin tube on its way to the out-
side air. Inclosing this cold-air tube, is to
be another, still larger, through which warm
air from the apartments is to be forced ;
the two streams passing in opposite direc-
tions, the readily conducting substance of
the tubes facilitating the vigorous efforts
of the hot and cold currents to reach an
equilibrium, the moisture being, meantime,
rapidly deposited on the large condensing
surfaces of the tubes. The outlets of the
tubes are to be together, and the resulting
mixture would be a volume of dry air at a
comparatively low temperature. If, for
example, the air in passing through the ice-
box was reduced to 35°, while the air ad-
mitted to the outer tubes was at 95°, the
result would be a mixture of dry air at
about 70°, which, if mingled in considerable
volume with the ordinary air of a room on
a hot summer day, would be greatly condu-
cive to comfort. The greatest value of
Prof. Newcomb's suggestion is in utilizing
the cold air on its passage for the purpose
of condensing moisture. As to the quan-
tity of ice needed to cool a given space,
Prof. Newcomb was not prepared to give
any exact figures., although he had made
some estimates. He thought, however,
that, at the price of ice in Washington, the
cost of cooling the Capitol would be forty
or fifty dollars per day.

Some New Points regarding the Tongue
of the Picus Viridis (green woodpecker)
was the title of a brief paper by Dr. Joshua
Lindahl, of Sweden, in which he pointed
out some errors in the common descrip-
tions of the remarkable extension of the
hyoid bones over the skull, which char-
acterizes the woodpecker family. Having
occasion to dissect the head of the green
woodpecker of Sweden, he observed that
the elongations of the posterior cornua of
the hyoids, instead of passing symmetrical-

iH

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ly over the skull and terminating at the
posterior end of the bill, as usually depict-
ed in the text-books, were both carried to
the right of the median line of the skull,
and extended along the right side of the
upper mandible, nearly or quite to its tip.
Subsequent examination of numerous speci-
mens showed this to be an accidental vari-
ation, but characteristic of the genus. A
few of the black and pied species were ex-
amined, showing the same lack of symme-
try, and differing only in the horns or mus-
cles terminating at the base of the bill.
Dr. Lindahl offered no explanation of these
peculiarities, but called attention to the fact
that the food of the green species varied
considerably from that of the others, being
sought deeper in the trees, and hoped that
ornithologists and entomologists would con-
sider the points of sufficient interest to
seek their explanation. In the brief dis-
cussion which followed, the asymmetry of
position and the extension of the muscles to
the end of the mandible were spoken of as
of interest, and as being new to ornitholo-
gists. While it is always important that er-
rors in our text-books should be pointed out
and corrected, the assumption that the facts
are wholly new would seem to be somewhat
hasty.

In this connection it may be sufficient
to point out that Huxley (" Anatomy of
Vertebrated Animals ") says: "The free
ends (of the posterior cornua) are inserted
between the ascending and maxillary pro-
cesses of the right pre-maxilla." In the
" American Cyclopaedia," the point of at-
tachment is stated to be " usually near the
opening of the right nostril ; " while Wil-
son, writing early in the century, describes
them as follows : " The os hyoides is di-
vided into two branches that pass, one on
each side of the neck, to the hind-head,
where they unite, and run up along the
skull in a groove ; descend into the upper
mandible by the right side of the right
nostril, and reach to within half an inch
of the point of the bill, to which they are
attached by another extremely elastic mem-
brane. In some species these cartilagi-
nous substances reach only to the top of
the cranium ; in other3 they reach to the
nostril ; and in one species they are wound
around the bone of the right eye, which

projects considerably more than the left
for their accommodation."

Bartlett's Ozone-Generator. — An appa-
ratus for the generation of ozone was ex-
hibited to the Association by the inventor,
Dr. F. W. Bartlett, of Buffalo.

The machine is divided into three parts,
each having a share in the process. The
base, or generator, is a glass vessel eight
inches high, with a projecting rim at either
end ; the interior space, four and a half
inches in diameter, being divided into eight
compartments by projections from the in-
ner wall, extending one and a quarter inch
toward the centre. This unoccupied cen-
tre has a movable cylinder which, when in
position, completes the walls of the sepa-
rate cavities. In each of these a tablet of
phosphorus, one by two inches, and one-
eighth of an inch thick, is suspended in
water by a fusible wire — the fusible wire
being used so that in cases of ignition,
which sometimes occurs, the phosphorus
may be completely submerged and the
flame extinguished. Resting upon the
base is a conical cylinder, eight inches
high, and with a diameter at the top of
five inches, composed of double walls of
wire-cloth, between which lies some po-
rous material saturated with a strong alka-
line solution. This presents an effectual
bar to the passage of phosphoric acids,
while it permits the free transit of the
ozone. Above this eliminating-chamber is
a second glass cylinder about eight inches
in height, with an aperture at the top
through which passes a glass rod carrying
a plunger for displacing the water in the
base, and by means of which the tablets of
phosphorus may be raised or lowered. The
space thus provided above the phosphorus
is about eighteen inches, and is considered
by the inventor indispensable to the full
utilization of the phosphoric vapor in the
production of ozone.

In its present form the machine is em-
ployed chiefly for disinfecting purposes, and
performs such work not only thoroughly
but very cheaply. For ozonizing the at-
mosphere of a house, the slow oxidation of
100 to 150 grains of phosphorus daily will
suffice. It is entirely manageable and with-
out any disagreeable odor.

MISCELLANY.

"5

Dr. Bartlett claims that ozone possesses
very important curative properties, has em-
ployed it successfully in numerous cases
of asthma, hay-fever, typhoid fever, scar-
latina, diphtheria, puerperal fever, erysipe-
las, etc. He predicts that its introduc-
tion will work great changes in the medical
treatment of zymotic or malarial diseases.
While making due allowance for the enthu-
siasm of an inventor, it must be admitted
that Dr. Bartlett has produced a machine
which does well the work for which it was
intended.

Science in the United States. — Sir Wil-
liam Thomson, in the presidential address
to the Physical Section of the British As-
sociation, spoke as follows of the work of
some of our American scientific men :

"I wish I could speak to you of the veteran
Henry, generous rival of Faraday in electro-
magnetic discovery; of Peirce, the founder of
high mathematics in America; of Bach e, and
of the splendid heritage he has left to America
and to the world in the United States Coast
Survey ; of the great school of astronomers
which followed— Newton, Newcomb, Watson,
Young, Alvan Clark, Eutherfurd, Draper, father
and son ; of Commander Belknap and his great
exploration of the Pacific depths by piano-forte
wire with imperfect apparatus supplied from
Glasgow, out of which he forced a success in
his own way ; and of Captain Sigsbee, who fol-
lowed with like fervor and resolution, and made
further improvements in the apparatus by which
he has done marvels of easy, quick, and sure
deep-sea sounding in his little surveying-ship
Blake; and of the admirable official spirit which
makes such men and such doings possible in the
United States naval service. I would like to
tell you, too, of my reasons for confidently ex-
pecting that American hydrography will soon
supply the data from tidal observations, long
ago asked of our own Government in vain by a
committee of the British Association, by which
the amount of the earth's elastic yielding to the
distorting influence of sun and moon will be
measured ; and of my strong hope that the Com-
pass Department of the American Navy will
repay the debt to Prance, England, and Ger-
many, so appreciatively acknowledged in their
reprint of the works of Poisson, Airy, Archi-
bald Smith, Evans, and the Liverpool Compass
Committee, by giving in return a fresh marine
survey of terrestrial magnetism to supply the
navigator with data for correcting his compass
without sights of sun or stars. I should tell
you also of 'Old Prob's' weather-warnings,
which cost the nation $250,000 a year, money
well spent, say the Western farmers, and not
they alone; in this the whole people of the
United States are agreed ; and though Demo-

crats or Republicans playing the ' economical
ticket' may for half a session stop the appro-
priations for even the United States Coast Sur-
vey, no one would for a moment think of starv-
ing ' Old Prob ; ' and now that 80 per cent, of
his probabilities have proved true, and General
Myer has for a mouth back ceased to call his
daily forecasts 'probabilities,' and has begun
to call them 'indications,' what will the West-
ern farmers call him this time next year ? "

The French Association.— The fifth ses-
sion of the French Association for the
Advancement of Science was opened at
Clermont-Ferrand, on the 18th of August.
In the opening address, the president, M. J.
Dumas, sketched the history of the British
Association, pointing out the great services
rendered by that body in popularizing
science. Similar results are to be expected
from the French Association. Of the place
occupied by science in modern life, he
said : " Natural science is no longer con-
tent with the contemplative attitude which
sufficed for Newton and Laplace. Science
is now mixed up with all the personal acts
of our existence ; she interferes in all meas-
ures of public interest; industry owes to
her its immense prosperity ; agriculture is
regenerated under her fostering care ; com-
merce is forced to take her discoveries into
account; the art of war has been trans-
formed by her ; politics is bound to admit
her into its councils for the government of
states. How could it be otherwise ? Have
not mechanics, physics, chemistry, the natu-
ral sciences, become intelligent and neces-
sary agents for the creation of wealth by
labor ? If comfort is more universal, the
life of man more prolonged, wealth better
distributed, houses more commodious, fur-
niture and clothing cheaper, the soldier bet-
ter armed, the finances of the state more
prosperous, is it not to the sciences that all
this progress is due ? . . . Whether we
wish it or not, we must needs accept Science
as a companion, to possess her or to be pos-
sessed by her. If you are ignorant, you are
her slave ; if you are skilled, she obeys you.
The future belongs to science ; unhappy
are they who shut their eyes to this truth."

Japanese Metallurgy. — A writer in the
Japan Mail describes as follows the Japan-
ese method of obtaining mercury from its
sulphide (cinnabar) : The cinnabar is first

u6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

powdered by means of an iron, boat-shaped
mortar, with a circular knife. It is then
washed to remove the foreign matter, and
to obtain the cinnabar in a finely -powdered
state. This is, after being dried, mixed
with an equal weight of half-burned char-
coal (half coal and half ashes), and the
whole is put into an iron pot, which is
carefully covered with a round iron cover.
This cover has in the middle a round open-
ing, into which a curved tube of iron is
fixed and cemented with a mixture of loam,
salt, and a little water, the other extremity
of the tube ending in a pot filled with cold
water. The whole tube is wrapped in some
fibrous substance, and kept cool by aid of
cold water. The whole is generally heated
on a small open charcoal furnace, the quick-
silver distilling into the pot of water. This
process is founded on the fact that the sul-
phur of the cinnabar is retained by the
ashes, and perhaps, also, by the iron of the
inner surface of the pot, the mercury evap-
orating by the heat. This quicksilver is,
however, not pure, but always contains a
small quantity of foreign metals (lead, cop-
per, etc.).

Action of Light on Selenium. — The ac-
tion of light in modifying the electrical con-
ducting power of selenium was first ob-
served by May, a telegraph -operator at Va-
lencia, Ireland, who communicated the facts
to Willoughby Jones in 1873. The latter
haviug fully confirmed the observations of
May, the attention of physicists, both in
England and Germany, was drawn to the
subject. Within the last twelve months it
has been made matter of special inquiry by
Prof. Adams and by Dr. Werner Siemens,
each carrying on his investigations inde-
pendently of the other. The results ob-
tained by Siemens are set forth in a lecture
delivered at the London Royal Institution
by his kinsman, C. W. Siemens. He ex-
hibited the action of light by a contrivance
of Dr. Werner Siemens, in which the sele-
nium was in a form in which the surface-
action of light can produce its maximum
effect. Two spirals of thin wire (iron or
platinum) are laid on a plate of mica in
such a way that the wires lie parallel with-
out touching. While in this position a drop
of fluid selenium is made to fall upon the

plate, filling the interstices between the
wires ; and, before the selenium has bad
time to harden, another thin plate of mica
is pressed down upon it so as to give firm-
ness to the whole. The two protruding
ends of the spirals serve to insert this sele-
nium element in a galvanic circuit. Mr.
Siemens calls this disk his " sensitive ele-
ment." The whole arrangement is no
larger than a sixpence. Its action was
shown in this way : It was placed in a gal-
vanic circuit, at one end being a Daniell
cell, and at the other a delicate index gal-
vanometer. The " disk " was first inclosed
in a dark box ; the circuit was " made,"
but no electricity passed through — no
movement of the index was seen. The
" disk " was then exposed to light ; still no
action was apparent. Another disk was
taken that had been kept in boiling water
for an hour, and gradually cooled. In the
dark box it gave a slight passage to elec-
tricity as indicated by the index, but as
soon as the light was admitted the index
registered a great passage of electricity.
Another disk heated to 210° C, and allowed
to cool, was then used, and a greater action
still was apparent with this. Dr. Werner
Siemens has worked at the meaning of this,
but without tables and diagrams it is not
possible to convey an adequate idea of his
results. The basis of the change in condi-
tion seems to lie in the fact of the extent to
which the selenium is heated, for, when
again allowed to cool, its behavior depends
on the extent to which it has been heated.
The experiment was shown of the effect of
different parts of the spectrum on a disk.
The actinic ray produces no effect, but the
influence increases as we approach the red
end. A selenium photometer was also
shown in action, the principle of which is
to compare the relative effects of two
lights in affecting the conditions for the
passage of electricity. At the end of the
lecture a most interesting little apparatus
was put at work, which Mr. Siemens calls a
selenium "eye." There is a small hollow
ball, with two apertures opposite to each
other. In one is placed a small lens, one
and a half inch diameter, and at the other a
" disk." The disk is connected with a
Daniell cell and a galvanometer, and this
represents the retina. There are two slides

MISCELLANY.

117

which represent the eyelids. The action
of light on the disk is indicated on the gal-
vanometer. Not only was this shown to
be sensitive to white light, but sensitive in
different degrees to different colors. Mr.
Siemens suggested it would not be difficult
to arrange a contact and electro-magnet in
connection with the galvanometer in such a
manner that a powerful action of light
would cause the automatic closing of the
eyelids, and thus imitate the spontaneous
brain-action of blinking the eyelids in con-
sequence of a flash of light. To physiol-
ogists this analogy may be suggestive re-
garding the important natural functions of
the human frame.

Effect of Alcohol on Brain-Substance. —

When brain-substance is placed in alcohol,
it loses its water and its mobility of parti-
cles, and becomes more solid and firm. The
question here arises, Is this thing possible
with the living brain ? Is it possible that,
in cases of delirium tremens, so much alco-
hol has been consumed as, by its diffusion
through the brain, it has robbed nerve-
matter of its mobile character, and conse-
quently of its power to throw off the prod-
ucts of its life-functions ? That alcohol
may, in this way, act upon the brain of the
inebriate, is an opinion which, as yet, can
hardly be demonstrated directly; but an
experiment made by Mr. Charles T. King-
zett seems to render it highly probable.
He places in a dilute solution of alcohol
pieces of brain-substance derived from the
ox, at the temperature of the blood, viz.,
100° Fahr. At this temperature it is di-
gested for some hours, and the liquid is
then filtered. On cooling, the filtrate throws
down a white deposit of matter which the
alcohol has dissolved — a phenomenon which
would seem to indicate some actual truth
in Shakespeare's words, " 0 that men should
put an enemy in their mouths to steal away
their brains ! "

Foray of an Army of Ants. — A writer
in Land and Water gives an interesting ac-
count of a foray by an army of ants, which
he witnessed in South Africa. This army,
estimated to number about 14,000 ants,
started from their home in the mud walls
of a hut, and marched out in the direction

of a small mound of fresh earth in the vi-
cinity. The head of the column halted on
reaching the foot of the mound, and the
remainder of the force did likewise till the
entire army was assembled. Then the forces
were divided : one part remained at the foot
of the mound and ran round and round it ;
the rest mounted to the top, and some of
them entered the loose earth and speedily
returned, each bearing a young grasshopper
or cricket, dead, which he deposited upon
the ground and returned for a fresh load.
Those who had remained on the outside of
the mound took up the crickets as they
were brought out of the earth, and bore
them down to the base of the hill, returning
for a fresh load. Soon the contents of the
mound seemed to be exhausted, and then
the whole force returned home, each carry-
ing his burden of food for the community.
Here was a regular foray, planned and exe-
cuted with military precision, the country
surveyed, and the depot of provisions known
accurately before the march was made ; at
the mound, prudential division of labor, and
care taken that none of the victims should
escape.

Remedy for Cold in the Head. — Dr.

David Ferrier, having used with great suc-
cess trisnitrate of bismuth to cure " cold in
the head," sends to the Lancet a communi-
cation in which he warmly commends the
employment of bismuth, either alone or in
conjunction with other drugs, in the treat-
ment of nasal catarrh. Bismuth of itself
being heavy, and difficult to inhale, it is ad-
visable, he writes, to combine it with aca-
cia-powder, which increases the bulk, and
renders the powder more easily inhaled,
while the secretion of the nostrils causes
the formation of an adherent mucilaginous
coating, of itself a great sedative of an
irritated surface. The sedative effect is
greatly strengthened by the addition of
hydrochlorate of morphia, which speedily
allays the feeling of irritation and aids in
stopping the reflex secretion of tears. He
proposes the following formula : Hydrochlo-
rate of morphia, two grains; acacia-pow-
der, two drachms ; trinitrate of bismuth,
six drachms. Of this powder one-quarter
or one-half may be taken as snuff in the
course of twenty-four hours. The inhala-
tions should be commenced as soon as the

n8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

symptoms of catarrh begin to show them-
selves, and should be used frequently at
first, so as to keep the interior of the nos-
trils constantly well coated. The powder
checks the flow of mucus, and stops the
sneezing. It causes scarcely any percep-
tible sensation. A slight smarting may oc-
cur if the mucous membrane is much irri-
tated and inflamed, but it rapidly disappears.
After a few sniffs of the powder, a percep-
tible amelioration of the symptoms ensues,
and in the course of a few hours, the pow-
der being inhaled from time to time, all
the symptoms may have disappeared.

Evolution of the Horse. — Prof. Huxley
devotes the sixth and last lecture of a course
upon the origin of existing vertebrate ani-
mals to considering the evidences of the
evolution of the horse. After tracing the
genealogy of the horse from Orohippus,
through Pakcotherium, Hipparion, etc., to
Equus, the author remarks as follows :
" The evidence is conclusive as far as the
fact of evolution is concerned, for it is pre-
posterous to assume that each^nember of
this perfect series of forms has been spe-
cially created ; and if it can be proved, as
the facts certainly do prove, that a compli-
cated animal like the horse may have arisen
by gradual modification of a lower and less
specialized form, there is surely no reason
to think that other animals have arisen in
a different way. This case, moreover, is
not isolated. Every new investigation into
the Tertiary mammalian fauna brings fresh
evidence, tending to show how the rhino-
ceros, the pigs, the ruminants, have come
about. Similar light is being thrown on
the origin of the carnivora, and also, in a
less degree, on that of all the other groups
of animals. It is not, however, to be ex-
pected that there should be, as yet, an an-
swer to every difficulty, for we are only just
beginning the study of biological facts from
the evolutionary point of view. Still, when
we look back twenty years to the publica-
tion of the ' Origin of Species,' we are
filled with astonishment at the progress of
our knowledge, and especially at the im-
mense strides it has made in the region of
paleontological research. The accurate in-
formation obtained in this department of
science has put the fact of evolution be-

yond a doubt; formerly the great reproach
to the theory was, that no support was lent
to it by the geological history of living
things ; now, whatever happens, the fact
remains that the hypothesis is founded on
the firm basis of paleontological evidence."

Wood Pavements. — After a very thor-
ough investigation of the advantages pos-
sessed by different kinds of pavements —
granite, asphalt, and wood — the corpora-
tion of London has decided in favor of the
last. The report of the city engineer shows
that a horse traveling on a granite pave-
ment may be expected to fall once for ev-
ery one hundred and thirty-two miles trav-
eled, on asphalt once in one hundred and
ninety-one miles, and on wood once in four
hundred and forty-six miles. The injury
sustained by the animal is also far less se-
rious from a fall upon wood than upon as-
phalt or upon granite. The mode of con-
structing wooden pavements in London ap-
pears to differ from that which has obtained
in this country. The surface-water is kept
out by means of a layer of asphalt, and
there is a flooring of planks as a super-
structure, which gives great elasticity, and
by distributing the weight equally over a
considerable area, adds to the power of en-
durance of the pavement. This decision of
the London Corporation will occasion sur-
prise on this side of the water, where wood-
en pavements have been pronounced an ut-
ter failure. It remains to be seen whether
good material and careful construction will
avail to remove the capital objection to
wood as a material for pavements — its lia-
bility to speedy decay.

The Ice Age in Great Britain. — In a pa-
per on the Ice age in Great Britain, R.
Richardson cites facts with regard to the
shallow depth of the ocean between Great
Britain and Iceland and Greenland on the
one side, and over the German Ocean on the
other, and adduces reasons for holding that
in the glacial era this region was terra
firma ; that the glaciers of Great Britain
came over this emerged land from the
north and west ; and that the cold of the
glacial era was due, in part at least, to the
closing thus of the Arctic and exclusion of
the Gulf Stream. The facts appear to war-

MISCELLANY.

119

rant these conclusions. We give them as
stated briefly in the American Journal of
Science :

" The depth between Britain and Iceland
mostly does not exceed 100 fathoms, and no-
where exceeds 1,000; one tract of sea, extend-
ing in a straight line from the eastern coast
of Greenland, via Iceland and Faroe, to Scot-
land, does not exceed 500 fathoms. The depth
of the sea in the English Channel is only about
20 fathoms, and the average depth of the Ger-
man Ocean is not over 40 fathoms. The depth
between Britain and Greenland is small com-
pared with the average depth of the Atlantic.
According to the author, one of the oscillations
of level, such as have occurred over the earth's
surface, had the effect to unite Britain and
Northern Europe with Greenland and the arc-
tic regions, to give the polar ioe-flelds access to
Europe, to divert the course of the Gulf Stream
and free Northwestern Europe from its influ-
ence, and, in conjunction probably with some
diminution in the influence of the sun, to pro-
duce a glacial epoch.1'

Pet Snakes.— Frank Buckland commu-
nicates to Land and Water a very interest-
ing notice of " Cleo," a pet boa-constrictor.
This animal was of the kind called " paint-
ed boa," and had come from Brazil. Its
length was seven feet five inches, and its
weight nine pounds. Cleo came into the
possession of Mr. Mann, a friend of Mr.
Buckland's, in 1870, and from that time till
its death was his constant companion. Her
food consisted of pigeons, of which she
took on the average one a week. If a
pigeon were offered to her when she was
not hungry, she would take but little notice
of it. If the two were left together for a
while, they became friends. Neither pigeons
nor any other animal ever showed any fear
of this serpent.

She always " killed her bird " instanta-
neously, seizing it by the beak, and break-
ing its neck by a rapid movement. She never
crushed her prey to death, but invariably
waited to see that it was motionless before
laying her coils upon it. The constricting
power was reserved for mastication, and
was very sufficient for that purpose.

" We have, in traveling," writes Mr. Mann,
" carried her about with us, both in railway-car-
riages and hotels, unsuspected by others, and
no amount of inconvenience or discomfort ap-
peared to distress her so long as we were near.
She thoroughly understood the joke of keeping
concealed when strangers were present. It
was only when we were alone, or with our own

family, that she came forth of her own accord
to join the conversation. She never avoided
children, but would allow them to take liberties
which she would never have borne from any
other stranger. When offended in any way, she
simply walked off to some inaccessible corner,
and waited the departure of the offender.

"I do not remember any young child show-
ing the slightest fear when Cleo came to make
acquaintance.

"The manner of Cleo' s death was so much
in accordance with her character that few of
her friends will be surprised at what I have to
tell.

"During last autumn I was laid up with a
very serious illness. At first Cleo appeared to
enjoy my being at home all day long, but- soon
began to understand, principally from my wife's
anxiety, that there was something the matter,
and she refused food. One night she came to
my bed to talk to me as usual, but I was too ill
to take any notice of her (indeed, I could neither
move nor speak). She tried in vain to make me
respond to her caresses, and, after a while, re-
turned to her own bed, refused not only food,
but water, and died within a day or two. To
any one that knew her it was visible that she was
suffering grief, as a dog is sometimes known to
do under similar circumstances."

The Northerly Winds of California.— In

a paper on the northerly winds of the great
central valley of California, Mr. J. H. C.
Bonte attributes to the prevalence of these
winds the peculiar dry and moderately ex-
hilarating climate of that region. Further,
he asserts that without the north winds,
and with the consequent increase of moist
heat, the vegetation now cultivated in the
valley would be crowded out by dense trop-
ical growths. It is reasonable to believe
that the desiccating power of the north
wind, by preventing and dissipating the
noxious exhalations of animal matter, acts
as a preventive of disease. The north
winds, following the rainy season, by dry-
ing and baking the soil, dissolve and pul-
verize its particles, thus freeing its produc-
tive powers. Fineness of fibre and con-
centrated nutriment are imparted to all the
vegetable growths of the valley by the
north wind, and it is possible that the
grapes and strawberries of California may
receive their delicate flavor from the same
source. Cereal grains are made solid and
flinty by this influence, and thus enabled to
resist the damaging effects of moisture.
The comparative exemption of the valley
of California from the ravages of the wee-
vil doubtless arises from the desiccating

120

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

power of the north wind ; and the same
cause checks the growth of fungi. The
economical value of the north wind is dis-
cernible in its power to preserve from rapid
decay houses, barns, fences, etc., and the
same influence must protect iron from de-
structive rusts.

Effects of Lightning on Different Species
of Trees. — The effects of lis>htning on vari-
ous species of trees have been made a sub-
ject of investigation by Daniel Colladon,
who communicates to the Geneva Society
of Natural History the results of his ob-
servations. He states that, when a poplar
is struck, all the upper part of the tree re-
mains perfectly sound and green. The
height above the ground at which the in-
juries appear does not, in large poplars, ex-
ceed the third of the tree's height. These
injuries commence immediately below the
junction of the strong branches with the
trunk. In general they do not reach quite
to the ground. It is always the tallest pop-
lar that is struck. In some cases the storm
will pass over trees of other species, and
will explode on poplars, though they be of
less height. M. Colladon has never met
with any traces of carbonization. The
cases in which several poplars have been
injured by a single discharge of lightning
are rare. One such case is recorded by the
author where three poplars were damaged
by the same stroke. These trees stood in
a straight line, and about twelve feet dis-
tant from each other.

How they teach Geology in Rome. — The

eminent archaeologist, G. Mortillet, gives
an amusing account of a class-lecture on
geology which he once attended in the Ro-
man University of the Sapienza. " I suc-
ceeded," he writes, "not without difficulty,
in getting leave to be present at a lecture
on geology. I was introduced into a large
hall ; in the middle stood a small table, at
which four persons were seated. On the
one side sat the professor in an arm-chair,
and on the other three students in common
chairs. Near the professor's seat was a
more comfortable arm-chair for the inspect-
ing prelate, who from time to time came to
see that the teaching went on aright. As a
stranger supposed to be well-disposed, I

was honored with a seat in the grand arm-
chair, I expected to listen to an interesting
lecture in good Italian ; the more, inasmuch
as the professor, Ponzi, now a Senator of
Italy, is a distinguished man, and a savant
of repute. But I was disappointed. The
professor, for upward of half the time of the
lesson, was obliged to dictate — for such was
the rule — his lecture, which had been writ-
ten in advance in Latin, and revised and
corrected by the censor. During the latter
half he was permitted to give in Italian ex-
planations of the dictated paragraphs; but
he was not at liberty to diverge from his
text, nor could the students take notes.
These things I have seen with my own eyes
at Rome under the reign of Pius IX., author
of the ' Syllabus.' "

Effects of Compressed Air on Animals.—

The mechanical effects of compressed air
upon the animal economy, as ascertained
by Bert, are to cause a lowering of the dia-
phragm and liver, and a consequent in-
creased pulmonary vital capacity ; this ef-
fect, while gradual in its production, lasts
long after the subject is withdrawn from
the compressed-air bath. Pravaz finds that
the heart's action is at first increased, and
then lessened, the pulse first becoming more
rapid, and then slower, but never falling be-
low the rate at normal pressure. The res-
pirations are diminished during immersion,
but on removal of the increased pressure
they rise in frequency and in direct propor-
tion to the degree of compression. There is
an increase in the amount of urea excreted,
but this increase diminishes the longer the
sojourn in the compressed air. There is at
the same time an increase in the amount of
carbonic acid expired. The temperature
of the body rises above the normal at first,
and then falls as the immersion is prolonged.
These varying effects are due, Pravaz thinks,
to the two influences of inward atmospheric
pressure and hyper-oxygenation, the former
tending to diminish the circulation and the
organic changes, and the other to increase
them.

Occurrence of Nickel- Ores. — Nickel-ores
occur in great abundance in New Caledonia,
and are being actively worked. These ores
in no way resemble those from which nickel

MISCELLANY.

121

has hitherto been extracted, being silicates
of nickel and magnesia, while the others are
arsenio-sulphurets. They are found in ser-
pentine rocks, which are very abundant in
various parts of the island, associated with
diorites, amphibolites, etc. Sometimes they
appear on the various rocks as a beautiful
green coating ; sometimes they penetrate
the rocks, giving them a more or less in-
tense color; sometimes they form therein
threads, which may assume the importance
and regularity of veins ; and sometimes,
again, they occur in pockets. As might
have been expected, the nickel is associ-
ated with iron, chrome, and cobalt, these
metals, especially the two former, being
very abundant ; their stratification is analo-
gous to that of nickel, except where cobalt
is met with. The latter metal is associated
with manganese, forming pure masses, of
greater or less extent, in the midst of fri-
able arenaceous rocks, composed of feld-
spathic and magnesian detritus.

Ige of Trees in Relation to Time of
Leafing. —In the course of a discussion, in
the Paris Academie des Sciences, of the
question whether the annual buds of a tree,
as it grows old, preserve the characters of
youth or share in the old age of the indi-
vidual which produces them, it was stated
that, according to observations made by
Prof. Decaisne on the JRobinia pscudacacia
(common locust) of the Museum d'Histoire
Naturelle, the time of leafing does not vary
with age. At Pisa, results a little different
were obtained ; there the gingko (Salisburia
adiantifolia) and the walnut have been
found to produce their leaves earlier in the
season from year to year as they have ad-
vanced in age. On the contrary, the vEs-
culus hippocastanum, or horse-chestnut, is
more tardy in proportion as it grows older.
M. de Candolle, who was present at the
meeting of the Academy, quoted observa-
tions carefully made every year since 1808
on two chestnut-trees at Geneva ; these
trees have leaved invariably between the
ninety-third and the ninety-sixth day of the
year. He further quoted the instance of a
vine growing at Ostend. This vine has
been observed during thirty-three years,
and during the first eleven years it leaved
on the one hundred and twenty-seventh day

of the year; in the second period of eleven
years, on the one hundred and twentieth ;
in the third, on the one hundred and sixth.
Thus there would 'seem to be a continuous
progression, the vine becoming more pre-
cocious in proportion to its advance in age.

Effects of Electricity on Particles sus-
pended in Liqnids. — Some interesting ob-
servations by Holtz on the effects of elec-
tricity on particles suspended in liquids are
recorded in Poggcndorff's Annalen. In
giving an account of these observations,
Holtz remarks that the " migration " of par-
ticles suspended in a liquid, subjected to
electric currents, has long been known, and
was thoroughly investigated by Quincke.
But in all cases of such motion Holtz finds
that there is, at the same time, a clinging
of particles to one of the poles. This is
sometimes so evident that one might con-
struct an electroscope on this principle for
ascertaining the polarity. Especially no-
table is the tendency of semen lycopodii
in insulating liquids, particularly sulphuric
ether, to cover the negative pole with a
thick coating; while sulphur, cinnabar, or
sulphide of antimony, in the same liquid,
only coats the positive pole. A simple
medicine-glass suffices for the experiment,
a conductor or half-conductor being intro-
duced through the stopper. The glass is held
in the hand, and the conductor brought to
an electric machine ; the phenomenon then
occurs. It is better, of course, to have the
bottom perforated for insertion of the sec-
ond pole, or to use an open glass, with the
two poles pushed down into it. Either a
frictional or an influence machine may be
used.

Have Bees a Sense of Hearing ?— Though
the best observers deny to bees the posses-
sion of a sense of hearing, a writer in
Newman's Entomologist relates an instance
in which a hive of bees appear to have
heard the summons of their queen. A
swarm of bees had been gathered into a
hive, which was allowed temporarily to rest
upon a table. On lifting the hive, in order
to set it upon the hive-board, the portion of
the table on which the hive had stood was
found to be covered with bees, which soon
began to run about, from their having been

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

suddenly disturbed. The hive was now
placed on the hive-board, with the entrance
toward the bees. For a little while they
continued to run about, as if bewildered,
but then was heard a peculiar vibrating and
buzzing sound proceeding from the hive.
In an instant all the bees faced about, with
their heads toward the hive, and all marched
into it in regular procession.

A New Respirator. — A new mask for fil-
tering dust out of the atmosphere, and in-
tended for use by workmen who follow
sundry unhealthy trades, has been devised
by Dr. B. W. Richardson. Having tried
various substances in order to find a good
filter, he gives the preference to feathers.
The advantages of feathers as filters of
dust are many : they are light, they sepa-
rate perfectly, admitting air in any quantity
while excluding dust, and they absorb water
less perhaps than any other porous flexible
substance. They have the further advan-
tage of being cheap, and of being easily
made up into filters. In constructing his
mask he connects the light feathers drawn
from the leg-plumage of the pheasant along
a line of tape. This band he wraps around
the perforated breathing-tube of the mask,
so that the feathers fall over the perfora-
tions. In inspiration the feathers come
down over the perforations, filtering the air
as it enters, while in expiration they are
blown out from the tube as feather-valves.

Bat-GnailO. — In reply to a circular of
inquiry addressed to numerous correspond-
ents in the Southern States, Mr. McMur-
trie, chemist to the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, received a number of
letters describing deposits of " bat-guano."
Near Georgetown, Williamson County, Tex-
as, there is a deposit supposed to amount
to hundreds of tons, many apartments in
the cave in which the excrement is found
being filled to the mouth. Near Tuscumbia,
Alabama, is a deposit estimated to be worth
$20,000. A cave near San Antonio, Texas,
is supposed to contain 15,000 or 20,000
tons of this guano, and the store is an-
nually increasing. Samples from these and
other deposits have been analyzed by Mr.
McMurtrie. Most of them he found to
contain both ammonia and nitrates. Un-

der the microscope the material is seen
to consist of the remains of the hard parts
of insects in a finely-comminuted condition,
which are the source of its nitrogenous
constituents. As a fertilizer this guano
compares favorably with the fish-products
manufactured in New England, and even
with Peruvian guano.

Prof. Marsh and his Paleontologteal
Work. — Prof. O. C. Marsh, in a lecture to
the graduating class of Yale College,
summed up the main results of his paleon-
tological researches in the Rocky Mountains.
A syllabus of the lecture is published in the
American Journal of Science. His conclu-
sions as to the size and growth of the brain
in mammals, from the beginning of the
Tertiary to the present time, may be briefly
stated thus: 1. All tertiary mammals had
small brains. 2. There was a gradual in-
crease in the size of the brain during this
period. 3. This increase was mainly con-
fined to the cerebral hemispheres. 4. In
some groups the convolutions of the braia
have gradually become more complicated.
5. In some the cerebellum and olfactory
lobes have even diminished in size. There
is some evidence that the same law of
brain-growth holds good for birds and rep-
tiles from the Cretaceous to the present
time. Some additional conclusions in re-
gard to American tertiary mammals as far
as now known are as follows: 1. All the
ungulata from the eocene and miocene had
upper and lower incisors. 2. All eocene
and miocene mammals had separate sca-
phoid and lunar bones. 3. All mammals
from these formations had separate meta-
podial bones. At the conclusion of the
lecture Prof. Marsh announced that his
work in the field was essentially completed,
and that all the fossil remains collected and
in part described were now in the Yale Col-
lege Museum. In future he should devote
himself to their study and full description,
and he hoped at no distant day to make
public the complete results.

Seed-Production of the Sngar-Beet. —

From experiments made by Corenwinder, it
appears that when beet-roots are planted
for the sake of seed, they, on first sprout-
ing, part with a certain quantity of their

MISCELLANY.

123

sugar, which goes to support the young
leaves. From this time forward until the
moment when the rudiments of the seeds
appear, the sugar remains in the root.
Hence it would appear that the carbon
requisite for the formation of the stems and
leaves, which during this period attain a
great development, comes mostly, if not en-
tirely, from the atmosphere. From the
time when the seeds appear, the sugar in
the root disappears rapidly, and when the
seed is fully ripe there is no more left.

The Kauri Pine. — The kauri pine is one
of the chief timber-trees of New Zealand.
These trees in some instances have been
found fifteen feet in diameter and one hun-
dred and fifty feet in height. In some kauri
trees the wood is prettily marked or mot-
tled, and is in great demand for cabinet-
making. The timber is also valuable for
ship-building. The kauri does not grow far-
ther south than latitude 37° 30'. The gum
which exudes from this tree is an article of
commerce. Over a large area of land which
has been exhausted by kauri forests in past
ages, and is now barren, the gum which has
exuded from the dead trees is found at a
depth of from two to three feet. This gum
is valuable in the manufacture of varnish.
During the years 1870, 1871, and 1872, no
less than 14,276 tons of the gum were ex-
ported, amounting in value to nearly half
a million pounds sterling. The Maoris
bring a considerable quantity to market,
and the proceeds thus obtained enable them
to procure the comforts of dress and living
to which they have now become accus-
tomed.

Au Important Sanitary Fact. — The fol-
lowing interesting statement is made by Dr.
Littlejohn, Medical Officer of Health for
Edinburgh : " Edinburgh consists of two
distinct towns, an old and a new, but with
very different populations. The new town
is inhabited by the better classes, and is
preeminently a water-closet town ; whereas
the old town consists for the most part of
overcrowded tenements, in which pails are
used for the reception of excreta. These
pails are brought to the street daily and
emptied into carts provided by the authori-
ties. Considering the low morality of the

population, the bad ventilation, the over-
crowding, and the retention of the filth in the
living-rooms for the greater part of the day,
it might naturally have been supposed that
typhoid and diphtheria would be endemic
in the old town. This is not the case, how-
ever, for, despite the surrounding conditions,
these diseases may be said to be practically
unknown. But in the new and water-closet-
ed town the case is quite different : typhoid
and diphtheria are never entirely absent,
are frequently epidemic, and it has been
noticed that the ravages of these diseases
have been greatest in the best houses. The
lesson which this teaches is, that any system
of removal cannot be sanitary unless all the
excremental produce of a population is so
promptly and so thoroughly removed that
the inhabited place, in its air and soil, shall
be absolutely without fecal impurities."

Utilization of Sewage in England. — Down

to the year 1874 the sewage of the English
town of Coventry (population 40,000) was
cast into the river Sherbourne in an undefe-
cated state. It rendered the stream black
and disgusting, and a terrible nuisance to
the neighborhood, as well as a great source
of danger to health, inasmuch as the sewage,
at a few miles distance, found its way into
the source of the water-supply of the town
of Warwick. But, by the erection of sewage-
works, all this has since been remedied, and
the river Sherbourne has been so purified
that fishes have returned to its waters. In
selecting a site for the works, advantage
was taken of a fall of six feet in the nature
of the ground, so as to avoid the costly ex-
pedient of pumping the sewage, and to work
it throughout by gravitation. A narrow
strip of comparatively valueless land along
the river-bank, about thirteen acres in ex-
tent, was thoroughly drained and embanked
against the rising of the river during floods.
The sewage is here subjected to four pro-
cesses, viz. : 1. Straining by means of
mechanical strainers, thus removing the
solids, which form a r:.ch manure. 2. Chem-
ical treatment by sulphate of alumina and
milk of lime, and precipitation. 3. Filter-
ing of the effluent water by percolation
through a depth of five feet of earth. 4.
Drying of the precipitate or sludge in the
precipitating tanks. The cost of purifying

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the entire sewage of Coventry in this way,
including rent of land and interest on capi-
tal, and without deducting receipts from the
sale of manure, is about Is. W. per head of
the population per year. But, taking into
account the chemical value of the manure,
the cost would be about twopence per
head.

Construction of Water-Tanks.— A water-
tank at the top of St. George's Hospital, in
London, recently burst, inundating the wards
and causing destruction of life and proper-
ty. This tank, which held about thirty-four
tons of water, was made of cast-iron plates
half an inch thick, bolted together in the
usual way ; in form it was a square of ten
feet on a side and the depth twelve feet.
The thickness of the iron plates was ade-
quate to resist the strain put upon them
only on the usual condition of the employ-
ment of tie-bars and nuts of the needed
strength. But, instead of adopting the
proper plan of bolting these tie-bars direct-
ly to the flanges by which the plates them-
selves were bolted together, thin plates of
wrought-iron, only one-quarter of an inch
thick, were bolted to these flanges, and the
tie-bars were attached to cross-pieces that
ran through holes in these plates. The
cross-pieces were so short that on the least
disturbance one end might slip out of its
place, leaving the entire stress on the other
end and on the thin plates in which it
rested. As was to be expected, the plates
gradually rusted, and, when the corrosion
had advanced so far as to allow the bolt to
be torn away by that strain on the sides of
the tank which the cross-bars were intended
to resist, the tank tore in two, and the water
made its escape.

Movements of "fold Waves." — Prof.

Loomis, of Yale College, contributes to the
American Journal of Science and Arts, for
July, the fifth of his valuable series of papers
on " Meteorology."

In a former paper he presented facts
showing the origin and probable cause of
extremely low temperatures. It was found
that they developed among the Rocky
Mountains, and moved thence, as " cold
waves," over the continent eastward. Since
the publication of that paper this phenome-

non has become well understood, and is
now sustained by further proof. It appears
that low temperatures follow in the wake
of storms ; or, in other words, areas of high
barometer follow those of low barometer.

By low temperature is understood a de-
gree of cold which is greatly below the
mean temperature of the place or area
where it prevails. Thus the cold wave of
December, 1872, started in Dakota on the
16th, and the temperature fell to 15°, 25°,
and finally 44°, below the mean of the month.
At the same time the barometer rose to
30.64.

The cold wave moved eastward and
southeastward, the barometer rising as the
cold came on. The cold was extreme from
the Rocky Mountains to Lake Michigan,
and from latitude 38° to the British posses-
sions.

In New York, during the last six days
of the month, the depression of temperature
ranged from 18° to 24° below the mean of
the month.

It is quite obvious, Prof. Loomis ob-
serves, that the cold experienced in Dakota
did not come from beyond the Rocky
Mountains, but on the easterly side, near
longitude 100°. The greatest observed cold
in the instance referred to was not at the
most northern stations, which strengthens
the conclusion expressed in a former paper
that there is a source of cold independent
of the transfer of air from a higher to lower
latitudes. As the cold wave moves east-
ward, the intensity of the cold is found to
diminish.

The professor calls attention to the very
interesting fact that, during the low temper-
ature of December, 1872, the stratum of
cold air was of no great thickness, probably
not more than 9,000 feet, as was shown at
Mount Washington. On the 26th of the
month, when the cold was at its maximum
over the region, it was found that the tem-
perature was higher by 20° Fahr. at the
summit of the mountain than at its base.

Further facts are presented in this paper,
showing the general form of areas of low
barometer and of high barometer. It was
previously shown that a storm area is more
or less oblong, and not in any observed
case entirely circular. The same appears
to be true of the cold areas.

MISCELLANY.

125

To illustrate this a chart is given, on
which lines of equal barometric pressure
are drawn, the lines of highest pressure be-
ing at and near the centre of the area, but
diminishing as the distance from the centre
is increased. These areas have a long and
a short diameter, the one being in some
cases twice or thrice that of the other.

The relation of barometric pressure to
rainfall receives further attention in the
present paper, and the conclusions previous-
ly arrived at are fully sustained.

The rainfall is greatest while the baro-
metric pressure at the centre of the storm
is diminishing, or the storm increases in
intensity while the barometer continues to
fall ; and, on the other hand, the storm di-
minishes in intensity while the barometer
at the centre of the storm is rising.

The progressive movement of storms
seems to be sometimes interrupted, and they
remain stationary over a section of country
for some days. This occurs off the coast
of Newfoundland, and the cause of it is at-
tributed to unusual precipitation of vapor.
In that region the rainfall is about fifty-six
inches in a year, while at two hundred miles
from the coast it is only forty inches.

Preservation of Entomological Speci-
mens.— M. Felix Plateau having recommend-
ed the use of yellow glass in the windows
of rooms containing entomological collec-
tions, as a means of preserving intact the
natural colors of the specimens, M. Capron-
nier, of the Entomological Society of Bel-
gium, made some experiments to determine
the value of this suggestion. He made five
small, square boxes, each covered with a
pane of yellow, violet, green, blue, or color-
less glass. He then fixed in the middle of
each box one of the inferior wings of Eu-
chelia Jacobece, which are of a deep carmine
color, uniform in tone. Each wing was
partly covered with a band of black paper,
and their position was so arranged as to
leave exposed successively each of the parts
during a period of fifteen, thirty, and ninety
days. The result was as follows : Colorless
Glass. — The carmine tint visibly attacked
after exposure of fifteen days ; alteration
more sensible after thirty days ; after ninety
days the carmine had passed into a yellow-
ish tint. Blue. — The same results as with

colorless glass. Green. — A change indi-
cated on the thirtieth day ; on the ninetieth
the alteration was marked. Yellow. — After
ninety days the carmine color almost intact.
M. Capronnier accordingly concludes that a
yellowish color should be preferred in every
arrangement of an entomological room.

Anti-Vivisection Legislation. — In com-
menting upon the bill for regulating the
practice of vivisection in England, Iron re-
marks upon the absurdity of a Parliament
of sportsmen, supported by a mob out-of-
doors, passing such a law. "Either of
them" (sportsmen or mob) "for the mere
pleasure of killing, or in the treatment of
domestic animals, inflicts more unnecessary
pain on the animal creation in one day than
the whole body of physiological inquirers
do in a year. The physiological worker
will, if this bill passes, have to pursue his
unrequited labors under the supervision of
a policeman, and with a ticket-of-leave ; and
the result will be that original, unremuuer-
ated research of a most important class will
not only continue to be pursued without
endowment, but under the risk of penal
servitude, the tournament of doves, pheas-
ant-battues, and horse-racing, being all the
while in full swing." A petition, signed by
all the leading members of the medical pro-
fession, has been presented to the House of
Lords, demanding certain modifications in
the bill.

Meats cooked by Cold. — It is a fact of
familiar experience that extreme cold pro-
duces in organic substances effects closely
resembling those of heat. Thus, contact
with frozen mercury gives the same sensa-
tion as contact with fire ; and meat that
has been exposed to a very low temperature
assumes a condition like that produced by
heat. This action of intense cold has been
turned to account for economical uses by
Dr. Sawiczevosky, an Hungarian chemist, as
we learn from La Nature. He subjects
flesh-meats to a temperature of minus 33°
Fahr., and having thus " cooked them by
cold," seals them hermetically in tin cans.
The results are represented as being entire-
ly satisfactory. The meat, when taken out
of the cans a long time afterward, is found
to be, as regards its appearance and its

.26

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

odor, in all respects as inviting as at first.
It is partially cooked, and needs but little
treatment more to prepare it for the table.
A German government commission has
made experiments with this process, and
two naval vessels dispatched on a voyage
of circumnavigation were provisioned with
this kind of meat. An establishment has
been set up in Hungary for preserving
meats in this way.

Causes of Putrefaction and Fermenta-
tion!— A year or two ago, Dr. J. Dougall,
of Glasgow, at the Social Science Congress,
held in that city, announced, as the result
of investigations made by himself, that the
presence of an alkali determines putrefac-
tion in organic matter, while the presence
of an acid determines fermentative changes.
The same line of inquiry has been taken up
since by Dr. John Day, of Victoria, Austra-
lia, who finds in Dougall's discovery an ex-
planation of the presence in hospitals of
septic poisons, giving rise to pyasmia, ery-
sipelas, and puerperal fever. The Sanitary
Journal, of Toronto, has a paper by Dr.
Day upon this subject, the purport of
which may be briefly stated as follows :

Hospitals, as usually constructed, have
alkaline ceilings, alkaline walls, alkaline
floors (owing to the use of soap in cleans-
ing them). Experience has shown that
pyasmia is of extremely infrequent occur-
rence in temporary hospitals consisting of
rough wooden sheds. The incessant gen-
eration of peroxide of hydrogen by the tur-
pentine of the wood doubtless prevents
putrefactive changes, but, as turpentine
always gives an acid reaction, this circum-
stance must greatly increase the disinfect-
ing power of the peroxide, by determining
the fermentative instead of the putrefactive
decomposition of the pus-cells and other
organic matter given off from the patient.

Dr. Day proposes the following method
of counteracting the evils of hospital-life:
The boards of the floor he would first cover
with a coat consisting of equal parts of gas-
oline and boiled linseed-oil, to which is
added a little benzoic acid. When dry, the
surface is polished with a paste of bees-
wax, turpentine, and benzoic acid. Boards
so prepared are, in his opinion, rendered
permanently disinfectant. The walls and

ceilings might be rubbed smooth, and coated
with a varnish of paraffine or oil of turpen-
tine ; or, better still, they might be coated
with silicate paint, then rubbed down and
varnished. For the purpose of keeping the
air pure, and destroying the pus-cells float-
ing in it, he recommends, in addition to
ventilation, the use of certain volatile sub-
stances, such as gasoline, benzine, and eu-
calyptus oil. The furniture should be oc-
casionally brushed over with either gasoline
or benzine, in which a little benzoic acid
has been dissolved.

Cnltivation of Caontchonc-yielding Trees.

— In 1870 Mr. Clements R. Markham advo-
cated the planting of caoutchouc-yielding
trees in India, and in 1873 the first at-
tempts were made, but without success, in
the Darjiling Terai and in the district of
Goalpara, Assam. In the following year
two plantations were made in the Kamrup
district of Assam and at Charduar, at the
foot of thus Himalayas, in the Durrung dis-
trict. The latter plantation now covers
180 acres, and in 1875 there were in it
16,401 live cuttings. The species here cul-
tivated is the native Ficus elastica. Sev-
eral plants of the caslilloa tree of South
America are now in a very flourishing con-
dition at Kew Gardens, and a good supply
of this species has been thence forwarded
to India, where they will form the nucleus
of extensive plantations. In June of the
present year an agent was to have been
sent out to Brazil to collect healthy young
plants of the hevea, the tree which yields
the famous Para India-rubber. Thus pro-
vision will be effectually made against the
extinction of these valuable species of
plants.

Inspecting Railways by Machinery. —

Attached to the rear of the paymaster's car
on the Pennsylvania Railroad, says the
American Manufacturer, is an apparatus
which it is thought will work much more
satisfactorily than the telegraphic instru-
ments formerly used by the officers while
making their tours of inspection. A roll of
white paper, 700 feet in length, encircles a
cylinder, from which it is paid out at the
rate of three feet to the mile run by the
car, its forward movement being regulated

NOTES.

127

by the revolutions of the nearest axle under
the car. A lead-pencil placed about the
centre of the paper indicates by its mark
the condition of the track. The more un-
even the track the longer will be the mark
made by the pencil. Another way of show-
ing the inspecting party that the track is
uneven is by an horizontal piece of iron or
steel, which oscillates like the pendulum of
a clock as the train moves. When a very
defective point is reached, the pendulum
comes in contact with a metal on each side,
circular in shape, which gives a sound like
a bell.

Physiological Action of Coca.— The phys-
iological action of the leaves of coca or
cuca {Eryihroxylon coca), a plant indige-
nous to Peru, has been the subject of much
discussion lately in England. Sir Robert
Christison, whose reference to the peculiar
properties of this plant, in his address to
the Edinburgh Botanical Society last No-
vember, gave rise to the discussion, has
since taken up the subject again, in a paper
read before the same society. The author
gives an account of experiments made by
himself and by fourteen other observers,
under his instructions, with a view to deter-
mine the physiological action of coca and
its principle, cocaine. His conclusions are
that — 1. When taken in quantities of two
drachms by healthy persons it has no un-
pleasant, injurious, or suspicious effect
whatever; 2. In a very few cases this dose
of an inferior sample had no effect at all ;
3. In by far the greater number of instances,
and with a fine sample, extreme fatigue was
removed and prevented from returning; 4.
It does not in the end impair the appetite
or digestion, although hunger, even after
long fasting, is taken away for an hour or
two ; 5. The use of it is incompatible with
the use of alcoholic liquors, except when
the latter are taken in very small quantities.

NOTES.

In a recent Miscellany article on the
cruise of the Challenger, it was stated that
4,9*73 fathoms, or five and a half miles, is
the deepest trustworthy sounding yet made,
excepting two by the Tuscarora, which
showed a depth 600 feet greater. A cor-
respondent has called our attention to a

statement in No. IV. of the "Science Prim-
er Series," to the effect that between the
Azores and Bermudas a sounding had been
obtained of seven and a half miles. This
sounding was made twenty years ago, by
Lieutenant Berryman. It was in latitude
32° 55' north, and longitude 47° 58' west,
but it is not now regarded as trustworthy.
A fruitful source of error, in this and other
early soundings, was the curving of the
line by currents, etc.

S. W. Burnham, Esq., of Chicago, has
been appointed director of the Dearborn
Observatory in that city. Mr. Burnham's
contributions to observational astronomy,
mostly published in the " Transactions " of
the Royal Astronomical Society of London,
have earned for him prominent rank amon^
astronomers, both at home and abroad.

In a recent Italian work, measurements
are given of the skulls of Dante, Petrarch,
Ugo Foscolo, and Volta. Volta's skull is
of extraordinary capacity. In the skull of
Petrarch the Etruscan type is evident, viz.,
a voluminous brain, strongly developed in
all its parts, and of superior psychological
power ; but the posterior predominates over
the anterior portion, leading to the conclu-
sion that the sentiments and instincts pre-
vailed over the intellect.

It is asserted, by Prof. Isidor Walz, that
vanadium is a general constituent of Ameri-
can magnetites. This conclusion is based
upon examination of twenty-seven speci-
mens of magnetites from different localities,
in the United States and Canada.

In Austria, according to the Moniteur
Industriel Beige, dynamite has been em-
ployed with success in vine-culture. In
order to loosen the soil and permit acces3
of air and moisture to the vines, cartridges
of dynamite were placed in holes three
metres deep, at such distances from the
plants as to obviate the danger of injury to
them from an explosion. The result of the
explosion was that the soil was perfectly
broken up to the depth of two and a half
metres. Furthermore, the phylloxera com-
pletely disappeared. Certainly a novel use
for explosive agents.

Died June 27th, at the age of eighty-two,
Christian Gottlieb Ehrenberg, the eminent
microscopist. In 1820 he was attached to
a scientific expedition into Egypt, and for
six years devoted himself to the microscopic
investigation of the lower animal forms of
that and the neighboring countries. On his
return home he was appointed a professor
in the medical faculty of the Berlin Univer-
sity. In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt
to Central Asia. He was the author of
numerous works upon microscopic organ-
isms.

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A company has been formed in Califor-
nia for the manufacture of sugar from the
juice of watermelons. The process is far
simpler and cheaper than that of making
sugar from beets. An excellent sirup is
also made from watermelon -juice. The
seeds yield a sweet-oil which serves as a
good substitute for olive-oil, and the residue
of the sugar-manufacture is used as food for
cattle.

The death is announced of Dr. Lonsdale,
the pupil and biographer of Dr. Knox, the
celebrated Edinburgh lecturer on anatomy.
Dr. Lonsdale was also the author of some
pleasant volumes on " Cumberland Wor-
thies."

A new geological map of Scotland, by
Prof. Geikie, is announced in Nature. The
scale is ten miles to the inch. In addition
to the older rocks, this map shows the posi-
tion of the more important raised beaches,
river alluvia, tracts of blown sand, and gla-
cier moraines.

On June 6th and 7th a cremation congress
met at Dresden. The attendance was not
large. Nearly all the German governments
are opposed to cremation of the dead, chief-
ly, as it would appear, because many of
the leading advocates of this substitute for
interment are pronounced radicals. The
Saxon Government has refused to accept,
for the benefit of the Dresden charitable
institutions, the legacy of Prof. Eberhard
Richter, simply because the testator had
coupled with the bequest the condition that
his body should be burned in a furnace at
Dresden.

It is stated by Prof, de Luca, of Naples,
that fruits or leaves kept in an atmosphere
of carbonic acid, or of pure hydrogen, after
a while begin to ferment. In the carbonic-
acid atmosphere, alcohol and acetic acid
are produced, and in the hydrogen mannite.
In neither case do any organic ferments ap-
pear. If this observation should prove to
be correct, it will lead to important conse-
quences.

Liquid mercury has been discovered in
the ground near Montpellier, and at many
points in the department of Herault, France.
It is especially found in decomposing schists,
but its appearance seems to be intermittent.
Its presence is marked by injurious effects
on the vegetation : the trees languish and
die, the pasturage is spoiled, and the sheep
grazing on such ground present the symp-
toms of mercurial poisoning.

Wire ropes of phosphor bronze are
much employed in the hoisting-apparatus of
mines in Europe. Such wire ropes are
much stronger and more durable than those
of iron or steel.

Silkworms hatched by electricity are
now being reared in Italy. The superin-
tendent of the experimental silkworm-farm
at Padua has found that the hatching of
silkworms may be accelerated ten or twelve
days, and a yield of forty per cent, of cater-
pillars secured, by exposing the eggs to a
current of negative electricity from a Holtz
machine for eight or ten minutes. It is
suggested to apply the same method to
hens'-eggs and to hastening the germination
of seeds.

Prof. T^it calls attention to a paper
by F. Mohr, published in Liebig's Annalen,
as early as 1837, which contains views
on the nature of heat similar to those pub-
lished later by Dr. Mayer. Mohr's essay is
said to contain about all that is correct in
Mayer, while avoiding some of his errors.

There are in Algeria 613 artesian wells,
representing a total depth of over 26 kil-
ometres (16.12 miles). The cost of these
wells, including one of exceptional depth
(596 metres, or about 2,000 feet), was
2,500,000 francs, or 95 francs per metre.

A living gorilla has been brought to
Europe from Africa, by the remnant of the
Giissfeldt expedition. The animal is in
good condition, and is to be placed in the
Zoological Gardens at Berlin. He is two
years old.

The Society of Medicine and Surgery,
of Bordeaux, offers a prize of 1,000 francs
for the best essay upon the following sub-
ject, viz.: microscopical examination of hu-
man blood, both in the flesh and in the dry
state, of the foetus and of the adult, as
compared with the blood of other mammals,
from the medico-legal point of view. The
essays offered must be written in either
Latin or French, and submitted to the sec-
retary of the society not later than August
31, 1879.

The " Cochin China diarrhoea " annu-
ally carries off about 1,000 men of the
French army and navy. According to Dr.
Normand, naval surgeon, this disease is
produced by the presence in the intestines
of an enormous number of entozoons, of the
new species Anguilhda stercoralis. This
entozoon is one-fourth of a millimetre in
length.

George Smith, of the British Museum,
famous for his Assyrian researches, died at
Aleppo, August 19th, at the early age of
thirty-seven years.

The Cologne Gazette says that Frau
Theresa Fiedler von Hiilsenstein, who late-
ly died at Prague, had attained the age of
one hundred and nineteen years. She was
born at Hamburg in 1757, and was in her
youth a maid-of-honor to the Empress Maria
Theresa.

/

T?. ■£/,'<■-.('/ < /

v/ y, v

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

DECEMBER, 1876.

FERMENTATION AND ITS BEARINGS ON THE PHE-
NOMENA OF DISEASE.1

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

IN a book with which we are all familiar, amid other wise utter-
ances, this one occurs : " Cast thy bread upon the waters ; for thou
shalt find it after many days." In more senses than one this precept
is illustrated by my presence here to-night. Firstly, in a general
sense, I stand indebted, morally and intellectually, to the poets, his-
torians, and philosophers, of Scotland. Secondly, in a special sense,
it so happens that one of the first rootlets of my scientific life derived
its nutriment from this city of Glasgow. In early youth it was my
ambition to qualify myself for the profession of a civil engineer, and
as I grew up one of my aids toward the attainment of this object was
the study of a periodical then published in Glasgow, and called The
Practical Mechanic's and Engineer's Magazine. In that journal I
read, with an interest unfelt before, a series of essays on various de-
partments of science — on anatomy and physiology, on geology, on
mechanics, on arithmetic, and on natural philosophy and chemistry.
Biography and history were also included, while in detached articles
various collateral subjects were discussed, such, for example, as the
difference between Newton and Leibnitz as to the measure of moving
force. It was there that I first learned what Leslie had done in Edin- ■
burgh, and what Davy had done in the Royal Institution. And I
can now call to mind the day and hour when the yearning to possess
such apparatus as Leslie and Davy possessed, and to institute with
it such inquiries as they had instituted, rose to a kind of prophetic
strength within me — prophetic, for it has come to pass that my own
studies as a scientific man have been in great part pursued in that
particular domain which had been enriched by the discoveries of Les-

1 A discourse delivered before the Glasgow Science Lectures Association, October
9, 18*76.

VOL. X. — 9

i3o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lie ; while the very instruments used by Davy, and which I first saw
figured in the pages of the journal just mentioned, are the identical
and familiar instruments with which my lectures in London are now
illustrated.

Another point brought more or less home to me in those early
days was the injury inflicted on the learner by bad scientific exposition.
It does more than the negative damage of withholding instruction.

CU if o

It daunts the young mind, and saps the motive power of self-reliance.
This I had experienced ; and the essays referred to had this special
value for me, that they not only instructed me, but gave me faith in
my own capacity to be instructed. Since those days I have written
books myself, and in doing so have tried to remember, and to act on
the remembrance, that the labor spent in logically ordering one's
thoughts, and in saying what one has to say clearly and correctly, is
labor well bestowed.

The position assumed at the outset has, I think, been now made
good. Glasgow in my case cast its bread iipon the waters, and lo !
it has returned after many days. Of the nutritive value of the return
it is not for me to speak; for it may well have been soured by for-
tuitous ferments, mixed by the world's tainted atmosphere with the
first pure leaven derived from the pages of The Practical Mechanics
and Engineer's Magazine.

The figure of speech here employed will become more intelligible
as we proceed; for it is my desire and intention to spend the com-
ing hour in speaking to you about ferments, not in a metaphorical, but
in a real sense. Proper treatment is, I am persuaded, the only thing
needed to make the subject both pleasant and profitable to you. For
our knowledge of fermentation, and of the ground it covers, has aug-
mented surprisingly of late, while every fresh accession to that knowl-
edge strengthens the hope that its final issues will be of incalculable
advantage to mankind.

One of the most remarkable characteristics of the age in which we
live is its desire and tendency to connect itself organically with pre-
ceding ages — to ascertain how the state of things that now is came to
be what it is. And the more earnestly and profoundly this problem
is studied, the more clearly comes into view the vast and varied debt
which the world of to-day owes to that fore-world in which man, by
skill, valor, and well-directed strength, first replenished and subdued
the earth. Our prehistoric fathers may have been savages, but they
were clever and observant ones. They founded agriculture by the
discovery and development of seeds whose origin is now unknown.
They tamed and harnessed their animal antagonists, and sent them
clown to us as ministers, instead of rivals, in the fight for life. Later
on, when the claims of luxury added themselves to those of necessity,
we find the same spirit of invention at work. We have no historic
account of the first brewer, but we glean from history that his art

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 131

was practised, and its produce relished, more than two thousand years
ago. Theophrastus, who was born nearly four hundred years before
Christ, described beer as the wine of barley. It is extremely difficult to
preserve beer in a hot country ; still, Egypt was the land in which it
was first brewed, the desire of man to quench his thirst with this ex-
hilarating beverage overcoming all the obstacles which a hot climate
threw in the way of its manufacture.

Our remote ancestors had also learned by experience that wine
maketh glad the heart of man. * Noah, we are informed, planted a
vineyard, drank of the wine, and experienced the consequences. But,
though wine and beer possess so old a history, a very few years ago
no man knew the secret of their formation. Indeed, it might be said
that until the present year no thorough and scientific account was ever
given of the agencies which come into play in the manufacture of beer,
of the conditions necessary to its health, and of the maladies and vicis-
situdes to which it is subject. Hitherto, indeed, the art and practice
of the brewer have resembled those of the physician, both being
founded on empirical observation. By this is meant the observation
of facts apart from the principles which explain them, and which
give the mind an intelligent mastery over them. The brewer
learned from long experience the conditions, not the reasons, of suc-
cess. But he had to contend, and he has still to contend, against un-
explained perplexities. Over and over again his care has been ren-
dered nugatory ; his beer has fallen into acidity or rottenness, and
disastrous losses have been sustained of which lie has been unable
to assign the cause. It is the hidden enemies against which the phy-
sician and the brewer have hitherto contended that recent researches
are dragging into the light of day, thus preparing the way for their
final extermination.

Let us glance for a moment at the outward and visible signs of
fermentation. A few weeks ago I paid a visit to a private still in a
Swiss chalet ; and this is what I saw : In the peasant's bedroom was
a cask with a very large bung-hole carefully closed. The cask con-
tained cherries which had lain in it for fourteen days. It was not en-
tirely filled with the fruit, an air-space being left above the cherries
when they were put in. I had the bung removed, and a small lamp
dipped into this space. Its flame was instantly extinguished. The
oxygen of the air had entirely disappeared, its place being taken by
carbonic-acid gas.1 I tasted the cherries ; they were very sour, though
when put into the cask they were sweet. The cherries and the liquid
associated with them were then placed in a copper boiler, to which a
copper head was closely fitted. From the head proceeded a copper
tube which passed straight through a vessel of cold water, and issued
at the other side. Under the open end of the tube was placed a bottle

1 The gas which is exhaled from the lungs after the oxygen of the air has done its duty
in purifying the blood, the same also which effervesces from soda-water and champagne.

i32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to receive the spirit distilled. The flame of small -wood-splinters being
applied to the boiler, after a time vapor rose into the head, passed
through the tube, was condensed by the cold of the water, and fell in
a liquid fillet into the bottle. On being tasted, it proved to be that
fiery and intoxicating spirit known in commerce as Kirsch or Kirsch-
wasser.

The cherries, it should be remembered, were here left to themselves,
no ferment of any kind being added to them. In this respect what
has been said of the cherry applies also to the grape. At the vintage
the fruit of the vine is placed in proper vessels, and abandoned to its
own action. It ferments, producing cai'bonic acid ; its sweetness dis-
appears, and at the end of a certain time the unintoxicating grape-
juice is converted into intoxicating wine. Here, as in the case of the
cherries, the fermentation is spontaneous — in what sense spontaneous
will appear more clearly by-and-by.

It is needless for me to tell a Glasgow audience that the beer-
brewer does not set to work in this way. In the first place the brewer
deals not with the juice of fruits, but with the juice of barley. The
barley having been steeped for a sufficient time in water, it is drained,
and subjected to a temperature sufficient to cause the moist grain to
germinate ; after which, it is completely dried upon a kiln. It then
receives the name of malt. The malt is crisp to the teeth, and de-
cidedly sweeter to the taste than the original barley. It is ground,
mashed up in warm water, then boiled with hops until all the soluble
j)ortions have been extracted; the infusion thus produced being called
the wort. This is drawn off, and cooled as rapidly as possible ; then,
instead of abandoning the infusion, as the wine-maker does, to its own
action, the brewer mixes yeast with his wort, and places it in vessels
each with only one aperture open to the air. Soon after the addition
of the yeast, a brownish froth, which is really new yeast, issues from
the aperture, and falls like a cataract into troughs prepared to receive
it. This frothing and foaming of the wort is a proof that the fermen-
tation is active.

"Whence comes the yeast which issues so copiously from the fer-
menting-tub ? What is this yeast, and how did the brewer become
in the first instance possessed of it ? Examine its quantity before and
after fermentation. The brewer introduces, say, 10 cwts. of yeast ; he
collects 40, or it may be 50 cwts. The yeast has, therefore, augmented
from four to five fold during the fermentation. Shall we conclude that
this additional yeast has been spontaneously generated by the wort ?
Are we not rather reminded of that seed which fell into good ground,
and brought forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, some a
hundred-fold ? On examination this notion of organic growth turns
out to be more than a mere surmise. In the year 1680, when the
microscope was still in its infancy, Leeuwenhoek turned the instru-
ment upon this substance, and found it composed of minute globules

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 133

suspended in a liquid. Thus knowledge rested until 1835, when Ca-
gniard de la Tour in France, and Schwann in Germany, independently,
but animated by a common thought, turned microscopes of improved
definition and heightened powers upon yeast, and found it budding
and sprouting before their eyes. The augmentation of the yeast al-
luded to above was thus proved to arise from the growth of a minute
plant, now called Torula (or Saccharomyces) cerevisice. Spontane-
ous generation is therefore out of the question. The brewer deliber-
ately sows the yeast-plant, which grows and multiplies in the wort as
its proper soil. This discovery marks an epoch in the history of fer-
mentation.

But where did the brewer find his yeast ? The reply to this ques-
tion is similar to that which must be given if the brewer were asked
where he fonnd his barley. He has received the seeds of both of them
from preceding generations. Could we connect without solution of
continuity the present with the past, we should probably be able to
trace back the yeast employed by my Mend Sir Fowell Buxton to-
day to that employed by some Egyptian brewer two thousand years
ago. But you may urge that there must have been a time when the
first yeast-cell was generated. Granted — exactly as there was a time
when the first barley-corn was generated. Let not the delusion lay
hold of you, that a living thing is easily generated, because it is
small. Both the yeast-plant and the barley-plant lose themselves in
the dim twilight of antiquity, and in this our day there is no more
proof of the spontaneous generation of the one than there is of the
spontaneous generation of the other.

I stated a moment ago that the fermentation of grape-juice was
spontaneous ; but I was careful to add, " in what sense spontaneous
will appear more clearly by-and-by." Now, this is the sense meant :
The wine-maker does not, like the brewer and distiller, deliberately
introduce either yeast, or any equivalent of yeast, into his vats ; he
does not consciously sow in them any plant, or the germ of any plant ;
indeed, he has been hitherto in ignorance whether plants or germs of
any kind have had anything to do with his operations. Still, when
the fermented grape-juice is examined, the living Torula concerned in
alcoholic fermentation never fails to make its appearance. How is
this ? If no living germ has been introduced into the wine-vat,
whence comes the life so invariably developed there ?

You may be disposed to reply, with Turpin and others, that, in vir-
tue of its own inherent powers, the grape-juice, when brought into con-
tact with the vivifying atmospheric oxygen, runs spontaneously and
of its own accord into these low forms of life. I have not the slight-
est objection to this explanation, provided proper evidence can be ad-
duced m support of it. But the evidence adduced in its favor, as far
as I am acquainted with it, snaps asunder under the least strain of
scientific criticism. It is, as far as I can see, the evidence of men

i34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

who, however keen and clever as observers, are not rigidly-trained ex-
perimenters. These alone are aware of the precautions necessary in
investigations of this delicate kind. In reference, then, to the life of
the wine-vat, what is the decision of experiment when carried out by
competent men ? Let a quantity of the clear, filtered " must " of the
grape be boiled, so as to destroy such germs as it may have contracted
from the air or otherwise. In contact with germless air the uncon-
taminated must never ferments. All the materials for spontaneous
generation are there, but so long as there is no seed sown there is no
life developed, and no sign of that fermentation which is the concomi-
tant of life. Nor need you resort to a boiled liquid. The grape is
sealed by its own skin against contamination from without. By an
ingenious device, Pasteur has extracted from the interior of the grape
its pure juice, and proved that in contact with pure air it never ac-
quires the power to ferment itself, nor to produce fermentation in
other liquids.1 It is not, therefore, in the interior of the grape that
the origin of the life observed in the vat is to be sought.

What, then, is its true origin ? This is Pasteur's answer, which his
well-proved accuracy renders worthy of all confidence : At the time
of the vintage little microscopic particles are observed adherent, both
to the outer surface of the grape and of the twigs which support the
grape. Brush these particles into a capsule of pure water. It is ren-
dered turbid by the dust. Examined by a microscope, these minute
particles are seen to present the appearance of organized cells. In-
stead of receiving them in water, let them be brushed into the pure
inert juice of the grape. Forty-eight hours after this is done, our
familiar Torula is observed budding and sprouting, the growth of the
plant being accompanied by all the other signs of active fermenta-
tion. "What is the inference to be drawn from this experiment ? Ob-
viously that the particles adherent to the external surface of the
grape are the veritable germs of that life which, after they have been
sown in the juice, ajjpears in such profusion. Wine is sometimes ob-
jected to on the ground that fermentation is "artificial;" but we no-
tice here the responsibility of Nature. The ferment of the grape is
in fact a parasite of the grape, and the art of the wine-maker from
time immemorial has consisted in bringing — and it may be added,
ignorantly bringing — two things thus closely associated by Nature
into actual contact with each other. For thousands of years, what
has been done consciously by the brewer has been done unconscious-
ly by the wine-grower. The one has sown his leaven just as much as
the other.

Nor is it necessary to impregnate the beer-wort with leaven to
provoke fermentation. Abandoned to the contact of our common air,

1 The liquids of the healthy animal body are also sealed from external contamination.
Neither pure urine, collected fresh from the bladder, nor pure blood, drawn with due
precautions from the veins, will ever putrefy in contact with pure air.

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 135

it sooner or later ferments ; but the chances are, that the produce of
that fermentation, instead of being agreeable, would be disgusting to
the taste. By a rare accident we might get the true alcoholic fer-
mentation, but the odds against obtaining it would be enormous.
Pure air acting upon a lifeless liquid will never provoke fermentation;
but our ordinary air is the vehicle of numberless germs which act as
ferments when they fall into appropriate infusions. Some of them pro-
duce acidity, some putrefaction. The germs of our yeast-plant are
also in the air ; but so sparingly distributed that an infusion like beer-
wort, exposed to the air, is almost sure to be taken j>ossession of by
foreign organisms. In fact, the maladies of beer are wholly due to
the admixture of these objectionable ferments, whose forms and modes
of nutrition differ materially from those of the true leaven of beer.

Working in an atmosphere charged with the germs of these organ-
isms, you can understand how easy it is to fall into error in studying
the action of any one of them. Indeed, it is only the most accom-
plished experimenter, who, moreover, avails himself of every means
of checking his conclusions, that can walk without tripping through
this land of pitfalls. Such a man is the French chemist Pasteur. He
has taught us how to separate the commingled ferments of our air, and
to study their pure individual action. Guided by him, let us fix our
attention more particularly upon the growth and action of the true
yeast-plant under different conditions. Let it be sown in a ferment-
able liquid, which is supplied with plenty of pure air. The plant
will nourish in the aerated infusion, and produce large quantities of
carbonic-acid gas — a compound, as you know, of carbon and oxygen.
The oxygen thus consumed by the plant is the free oxygen of the
air, which we suppose to be abundantly supplied to the liquid. The
action is so far similar to the respiration of animals, which inspire
oxygen and expire carbonic acid. If we examine the liquid even
when the vigor of the plant has reached its maximum, we hardly find
in it a trace of alcohol. The yeast has grown and flourished, but it
has almost ceased to act as a ferment. And could every individual
yeast-cell seize, without any impediment, free oxygen from the sur-
rounding liquid, it is certain that it would cease to act as a ferment
' altogether.

What, then, are the conditions under which the yeast-plant must
be placed so that it may display its characteristic quality? Reflec-
tion on the facts already referred to suggests a reply, and rigid ex-
periment confirms the suggestion. Consider the Alpine cherries in
their closed vessels. Consider the beer in its barrels, with a single
small aperture open to the air, through which it is observed not to
imbibe oxygen, but to pour forth carbonic acid. Whence come the
volumes of oxygen necessary to the production of this latter gas?
The small quantity of atmospheric air dissolved in the wort and over-
lying it wrould be totally incompetent to supply the necessary oxygen.

136 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In no other way can the yeast-plant obtain the gas necessary for its
respiration than by wrenching it from surrounding substances in which
the oxygen exists, not free, but in a state of combination. It decom-
poses the sugar of the solution in which it grows, produces heat,
breathes forth carbonic-acid gas, and one of the liquid products of
the decomposition is our familiar alcohol. The act of fermentation,
then, is a result of the effort of the little plant to maintain its respira-
tion by means of combined oxygen, when its supply of free oxygen is
cut off. As defined by Pasteur, fermentation is life without air.

But here the knowledge of that thorough investigator comes to
our aid to warn us against errors which have been committed over
and over again. It is not all veast-cells that can thus live without air
and provoke fermentation. They must be young cells which have
caught their vegetative vigor from contact with free oxygen. But,
once possessed of this vigor, the yeast may be transplanted into a
saccharine infusion absolutely purged of air, where it will continue to
live at the expense of the oxygen, carbon, and other constituents of
the infusion. Under these new conditions its lite, as a plant, will be
by no means so vigorous as when it had a supply of free oxygen, but
its action as a ferment will be indefinitely greater.

Does the yeast-plant stand alone in its power of provoking alco-
holic fermentation? It would be singular if amid the multitude of
low vegetable forms no other could be found capable of acting in a
similar way. And here, again, we have occasion to marvel at that sa-
gacity of observation among the ancients to which we owe so vast a
debt. Not only did they discover the alcoholic ferment of yeast, but
they had to exercise a wise selection in picking it out from others, and
giving it special prominence. Place an old boot in a moist place, or
expose common paste or a pot of jam to the air: it soon becomes
coated with a blue-green mould, which is nothing else than the fructi-
fication of a little plant called Penicillium glaucum. Do not imagine
that the mould has sprung spontaneously from boot, or paste, or jam ;
its germs, which are abundant in the air, have been sown, and have,
germinated, in as legal and legitimate a way as thistle-seeds wafted
by the wind to a proper soil. Let the minute spores of Penicillium
be sown in a fermentable liquid, which has been previously boiled in
order to kill all other s]:>ores or seeds which it may contain ; let pure
air have free access to the mixture : the Penicillium will grow rapidly,
striking long filaments into the liquid, and fructifying at its surface.
Test the infusion at various stages of the plant's growth: you will
never find in it a trace of alcohol. But forcibly submerge the little
plant, push it down deep into the liquid, where the quantity of free
oxygen that can reach it is insufficient for its needs : it immediately
begins to act as a ferment, supplying itself with oxygen by the decom-
position of the sugar, and producing alcohol as one of the results of
the decomposition. Many other low microscopic plants act in a similar

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 137

manner. In aerated liquids they flourish without any production of
alcohol, but cut off from free oxygen they act as ferments, producing
alcohol exactly as the real alcoholic leaven produces it, only less co-
piously. For all this knowledge we are indebted to Pasteur.

In the cases hitherto considered, the fermentation is proved to
be the invariable correlative of life, being produced by organisms
foreign to the fermentable substance. But the substance itself may
also have within it, to some extent, the motive power of fermenta-
tion. The yeast-plant, as we have learned, is an assemblage of liv-
ing cells; but so at bottom, as shown by Schleiden and Schwann,
are all living organisms. Cherries, apples, peaches, pears, plums,
and grapes, for example, are composed of cells, each of which is a
living unit. And here I have to direct your attention to a point of
extreme interest. In 1821, the celebrated French chemist, Berard,
established the important fact that all ripening fruit, exposed to the
free atmosphere, absorbed the oxygen of the atmosphere, and liber-
ated an approximately equal volume of carbonic acid. He also found
that, when ripe fruits were placed in a confined atmosphere, the oxy-
gen of the atmosphere was first absorbed, and an equal quantity of
carbonic acid given out. But the process did not end here. After
the oxygen had vanished, carbonic acid, in considerable quantities,
continued to be expired by the fruits, which at the same time lost a
portion of their sugar, becoming more aci-d to the taste, though the
absolute quantity of acid was not augmented. This was an observa-
tion of capital importance, and Berard had the sagacity to remark
that the process might be regarded as a kind of fermentation.

Thus the living cells of fruits can absorb oxygen and breathe out
carbonic acid, exactly like the living cells of the leaven of beer.
Supposing the access of oxygen suddenly cut off, will the living
fruit-cells as suddenly die, or will they continue to live as yeast lives,
by extracting oxygen from the saccharine juices round them ? This
is a question of extreme theoretic significance. It was first answered
affirmatively by the able and conclusive experiments of Lechartier
and Bellamy, and the answer was subsequently confirmed and ex-
plained by the experiments and the reasoning of Pasteur. Berard
only showed the absorption of oxygen and the production of car-
bonic acid; Lechartier and Bellamy proved the production of alco-
hol, thus completing the evidence that it was a case of real fermenta-
tion. Influenced by his theoretic views, so full was Pasteur of the
idea that the cells of a fruit would continue to live at the expense
of the sugar of the fruit, that once in his laboratory, while convers-
ing on these subjects with M. Dumas, he exclaimed, " I will wager
that if a grape be plunged into an atmosphere of carbonic acid, it
will produce alcohol and carbonic acid by the continued life of its
own cells — that they will act for a time like the cells of the true al-
coholic leaven." He made the experiment, and found the result to

138 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

be what he had foreseen. He then extended the inquiry. Placing
under a bell-jar twenty-four plums, he filled the jar with carbonic-
acid gas ; beside it he placed twenty-four similar plums uncovered.
At the end of eight days he removed the plums from the jar, and
compared them with the others. The difference was extraordinary.
The uncovered fruits had become soft, watery, -and very sweet; the
others were firm and hard, their fleshy portions being not at all
watery. They had, moreover, lost a considerable quantity of their
sugar. They were afterward bruised, and the juice distilled. It
yielded six and a half grammes of alcohol, or one per cent, of the
total weight of the plums. Neither in these plums, nor in the grapes
first experimented on by Pasteur, could any trace of the ordinary
alcoholic leaven be found. The fermentation was the work of the
living cells of the fruit itself, after air had been denied to them.
When, moreover, the cells were destroyed by bruising, no fermenta-
tion ensued. The fermentation was the correlative of a vital act,
and it ceased when life was extinguished.

Ltidersdorf was the first to show by this method that yeast acted,
not, as Liebig had assumed, in virtue of its organic, but in virtue of
its organized, character. He destroyed the cells of yeast by rubbing
them on a ground-glass plate, and found that with the destruction
of the organism, though its chemical constituents remained, the
power to act as a ferment totally disappeared.

One word more in reference to Liebig may find a place here. To
the philosophic chemist thoughtfully pondering these phenomena,
familiar with the conception of molecular motion, and the changes
produced by the interactions of purely chemical forces, nothing
could be more natural than to see in the process of fermentation a
simple illustration of molecular instability, the ferment propagating to
surrounding molecular groups the overthrow of its own tottering com-
binations. Broadly considered, indeed, there is a certain amount of
truth in this theory ; but Liebig, Avho propounded it, missed the very
kernel of the phenomena when he overlooked or contemned the part
played in fermentation by microscopic life. He looked at the matter
too little with the eye of the body, and too much with the spiritual
eye. He practically neglected the microscope, and was unmoved by
the knowledge which its revelations would have poured in upon his
mind. His hypothesis, as I have said, was natural — nay, it was a
striking illustration of Liebig's power to penetrate and unveil mo-
lecular actions ; but it wras an error, and as such has proved an ignis
fatuus instead of a ^>/i«ros to some of his followers.

I have said that our air is full of the germs of ferments differing
from the alcoholic leaven, and sometimes seriously interfering with
the latter. They are the weeds of this microscopic garden which
often overshadow and choke the flowers. Let us take an illustrative
case. Expose boiled milk to the air. It will cool, and then turn

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 139

sour, separating like blood into clot and serum. Place a drop of this
sour milk under a powerful microscope and watch it closely. You
see the minute butter-globules animated by that curious quivering
motion called the Brownian motion.1 But let not this attract your
attention too much, for it is another motion that we have now to seek.
Here and there you observe a greater disturbance than ordinary
among the globules ; keep your eye upon the place of tumult, and
you will probably see emerging from it a long, eel-like organism, toss-
ing the globules aside and wriggling more or less rapidly across the
held of the microscope. Familiar witli one sample of this organism,
which from its motions receives the name of vibrio, you soon detect
numbers of them. It is these organisms which, by decomposing the
milk, render it sour. This vibrio is in fact the butyric-acid ferment,
as the yeast-plant is the alcoholic ferment. Keep the vibrio and its
germs out of your milk and it will never turn sour. But, instead of
becoming sour, milk may become putrid. This is due to the action of
another living ferment. Examine your putrid milk microscopically,
and you find it swarming with organisms much shorter than the
vibrios, and manifesting sometimes a wonderful alacrity of motion.
Keep this smaller organism and its germs out of your milk and it will
never putrefy. Expose a mutton-chop to the air and keep it moist ; in
summer weather it soon stinks. Place a drop of the juice of the fetid
chop under a powerful microscope ; it is seen swarming witli organ-
isms resembling those in the putrid milk. These organisms, which
receive the common name of bacteria,2 are the agents of all putrefac-
tion. Keep them and their germs from your meat and it wall remain
forever sweet. Thus we begin to see that within the world of life to
which we ourselves belong there is another living world requiring
the microscope for its discernment, but which, nevertheless, has the
most important bearing on the welfare of the higher life-world.

And now let us reason together as regards the origin of these bac-
teria. A granular powder is placed in your hands, and you are asked
to state what it is. You examine it, and have, or have not, reason to
suspect that seeds of some kind are mixed up in it. But you prepare
a bed in your garden, sow in it the powder, and soon after find a
mixed crop of docks and thistles sprouting from your bed. Until this
powder was sown neither docks nor thistles ever made their appear-
ance in your garden. You repeat the experiment once, twice, ten
times, fifty times. From fifty different beds after the sowing of the
powder you obtain the same crop. What will be your response to
the question proposed to you ? "I am not in a condition," you would
say, " to aifirm that every grain of the powder is a dock-seed or a
thistle-seed; but I am in a condition to affirm that both dock and

1 Which I am inclined to regard as an effect of surface tension.

2 Doubtless organisms exhibiting grave specific differences are grouped together
under this common name.

140 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

thistle seeds form, at all events, part of the powder." Supposing a
succession of such powders to be placed in your hands with grains
becoming gradually smaller, until they dwindle to the size of impal-
pable dust-particles ; assuming that you treat them all in the same
way, and that from every one of them in a few days you obtain a
definite crop — it may be clover, it may be mustard, it may be migno-
nette, it may be a plant more minute than any of these — the smallness
of the particles, or of the plants that spring from them, does not affect
the validity of the conclusion. Without a shadow of misgiving you
would conclude that the powder must have contained the seeds or
germs of the life observed. There is not in the range of physical
science an experiment more conclusive nor an inference safer than
this one.

Supposing the powder to be light enough to float in the air, and
that you are enabled to see it there just as plainly as you saw the
heavier powder in the palm of your hand. If the dust sown by the
air instead of by the hand produce a definite living crop, with the
same logical rigor you would conclude that the germs of this crop
must be mixed with the dust. To take an illustration : The spores
of the little plant Penicillmm glaucum, to which I have already re-
ferred, are light enough to float in the air. A cut apple, a pear, a to-
mato, a slice of vegetable marrow, or, as already mentioned, an old
moist boot, a dish of paste, or a pot of jam, constitutes a proper soil
for the Pe?iicillium. Now, if it could be proved that the dust of the
air when sown in this soil produces this plant, while, wanting the
dust, neither the air nor the soil, nor both together, can produce it, it
would be obviously just as certain in this case that the floating dust
contains the germs of Penicillium as that the powders sown in your
garden contained the germs of the plants which sprung from them.

But how is the floating dust to be rendered visible ? In this way :
Build a little chamber and provide it with a door, windows, and win-
dow-shutters. Let an aperture be made in one of the shutters through
which a sunbeam can pass. Close the door and windows, so that no
light shall enter save through the hole in the shutter. The track of
the sunbeam is at first perfectly plain and vivid in the air of the room.
If all disturbance of the air of the chamber be avoided, the luminous
track will become fainter and fainter, until at last it disappears abso-
lutely, and no trace of the beam is to be seen. What rendered the
beam visible at first? The floating dust of the air, which, thus illu-
minated and observed, is as palpable to sense as any dust or powder
placed on the palm of the hand. In the still air the dust gradually
sinks to the floor, or sticks to the walls or ceiling, until, finally, by
this self-cleansing process, the air is entirely freed from mechanically
suspended matter.

Thus far, I think, we have made our footing sure. Let us proceed.
Chop up a beefsteak and allow it to remain for two or three hours

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 141

just covered with warm water; you thus extract the juice of the beef
in a concentrated form. By properly boiling the liquid and filtering
it you can obtain from it a perfectly transparent beef-tea. Expose a
number of vessels containing this tea to the moteless air of your cham-
ber, and expose a number of similar vessels containing precisely the
same liquid to the dust-laden air. In three days every one of the lat-
ter stinks, and, examined with the microscope, every one of them is
found swarming with the bacteria of putrefaction. After three months,
or three years, the beef-tea within the chamber is found in every case
as sweet and clear, and as free from bacteria, as it was at the moment
when it was first put in. There is absolutely no difference between
the air within and that without, save that the one is dustless and the
other dust-laden. Clinch the experiment thus : Open the door of your
chamber and allow the dust to enter it. In three days afterward you
have every vessel within the chamber swarming with bacteria, and in a
state of active putrefaction. Here, also, the inference is quite as certain
as in the case of the powder sown in your garden. Multiply your proofs
by building fifty chambers instead of one, and by employing every im-
aginable infusion of wild animals and tame ; of flesh, fish, fowl, and vis-
cera ; of vegetables of the most various kinds. If, in all these cases,
you find the dust infallibly producing its crop of bacteria, while neither
the dustless air nor the nutritive infusion, nor both together, are ever
aide to produce this crop, your conclusion is simply irresistible that
the dust of the air contains the germs of the crop which, has appeared
in your infusions. I repeat, there is no inference of experimental sci-
ence more certain than this one. In the presence of such facts, to use
the words of a paper lately published in the " Philosophical Transac-
tions," it would be simply monstrous to affirm that these swarming
crops of bacteria are spontaneously generated.

Is there, then, no experimental proof of spontaneous generation?
I answer without hesitation, none ! But to doubt the experimental
proof of a fact, and to deny its possibility, are two different things,
though some Avriters confuse matters by making them synonymous.
In fact, this doctrine of spontaneous generation, in one form or an-
other, falls in with the theoretic beliefs of some of the foremost work-
ers of this age ; but it is exactly these men who have the penetration
to see, and the honesty to expose, the weakness of the evidence ad-
duced in its support.

And here observe how these discoveries tally with the common
practices of life. Heat kills the bacteria, cold numbs them. When
my housekeeper has pheasants in charge which she wishes to keep
sweet, but which threaten to give way, she partially cooks the birds,
kills the infant bacteria, and thus postpones the evil day. By boiling
her milk she also extends its period of sweetness. Some weeks ago,
in the Alps, I made a few experiments on the influence of cold upon

142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ants. Though the sun was strong, patches of snow still maintained
themselves on the mountain-slopes. The ants were found in the warm
grass and on the warm rocks adjacent. Transferred to the snow, the
rapidity of their paralysis was surprising. In a few seconds a vigor-
ous ant, after a few languid struggles, would wholly lose its power of
locomotion, and lie practically dead upon the snow. Transferred to
the warm rock it would revive, to be again smitten with death-like
numbness when retransferred to the snow. What is true of the ant
is specially true of our bacteria. Their active life is suspended by
cold, and with it their power of producing or continuing putrefaction.
This is the whole philosophy of the preservation of meat by cold.
The fish-monger, for example, when he surrounds his very assailable
wares by lumps of ice, stays the process of putrefaction by reducing
to numbness and inaction the organisms which produce it, and in the
absence of which his fish would continue sweet and sound. It is the
astonishing activity into which these bacteria are pushed by warmth
that renders a single summer's day sometimes so disastrous to the
great butchers of London and Glasgow. The bodies of guides lost in
the crevices of Alpine glaciers have come to the surface forty years after
their interment without the flesh showing any sign of putrefaction.
But the most astonishing case of this kind is that of the hairy elephant
of Siberia which was found incased in ice. It had been buried for
ages, but when laid bare its flesh was sweet, and for some time afforded
copious nutriment to the wild beasts which fed upon it.

Beer is assailable by all the organisms here referred to, some of
which produce acetic, some lactic, and some butyric acid, while yeast
is open to attack from the bacteria of putrefaction. In relation to
the particular beverage the brewer wishes to produce, these foreign
ferments have been properly called ferments of disease. The cells of
the true leaven are globules, usually somewhat elongated. The other
organisms are more or less rod-like or eel-like in shape, some of them
being beaded so as to resemble necklaces. Each of these organisms
produces a fermentation and a flavor peculiar to itself. Keep them
out of your beer and it remains forever unaltered. Never without
them will your beer contract disease. But their germs are in the air,
in the vessels employed in the brewery, even in the yeast used to im-
pregnate the wort. Consciously or unconsciously, the whole art of the
brewer is directed against them. His aim is to paralyze if he cannot
annihilate them.

For beer, moreover, the question of temperature is one of supreme
importance; indeed, the recognized influence of temperature is caus-
ing on the Continent of Europe a complete revolution in the manu-
facture of beer. When I was a student in Berlin, in 1851, there were
certain places specially devoted to the sale of Bavarian beer, which
was then making its way into public favor. The beer is prepared by
what is called the process of low fermentation ; the name being

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 143

given partly because the yeast of this beer, instead of rising to the
top and issuing through the bung-hole, falls to the bottom of the
cask; but partly, also, because it is produced at a low temperature.
The other and older process, called high fermentation, is far more
handy, expeditious, and cheap. In high fermentation eight days suf-
fice for the production of the beer; in low fermentation, ten, fifteen,
even twenty days, are found necessary. Vast quantities of ice, more-
over, are consumed in the process of low fermentation. In the single
brewery of Dreher, of Vienna, 100,000,000 pounds of ice are con-
sumed annually in cooling the wort and beer. Notwithstanding
these obvious and weighty drawbacks, the low fermentation is rapidly
displacing the high upon the Continent. Here are some statistics
which show the number of breweries of both kinds existing in Bohe-
mia in 1860, 1865, and 1870 :

I860. 1865. 18T0.

281 81 18

Low fermentation . . 135 459 831

High fermentation 281 81 18

Thus in ten years the number of high-fermentation breweries fell
from 281 to 18, while the number of low-fermentation breweries rose
from 135 to 831. The sole reason for this vast change — a change
which involves a greater expenditure of time, labor, and money — is
the additional command which it gives the brewer over the fortuitous
ferments of disease. These ferments, which, it is to be remembered,
are living organisms, have their activity suspended by temperatures
below 10° C, and as long as they are reduced to torpor the beer re-
mains untainted either by acidity or putrefaction. The beer of low
fermentation is brewed in winter, and kept in cool cellars ; the
brewer being thus enabled to dispose of it at his leisure, instead of
forcing its consumption to avoid the loss involved in its alteration if
kept too long. Hops, it may be remarked, act to some extent as an
antiseptic to beer. The essential oil of the hop is bactericidal : hence
the strong impregnation with hop-juice of all beer intended for ex-
portation.

These low organisms, which one might be disposed to regard as
the beginnings of life, were we not warned that the microscope,
precious and perfect as it is, has no power to show us the real begin-
nings of life, are by no means purely useless or purely mischievous
in the economy of Nature. They are only noxious when out of their
proper place. They exercise a useful and valuable function as the
burners and consumers of dead matter, animal and vegetable, reducing
such matter, witli a rapidity otherwise unattainable, to innocent car-
bonic acid and water. Furthermore, they are not all alike, and it is
only restricted classes of them that are really dangerous to man.
One difference in their habits is worthy of special reference here.
Air, or rather the oxygen of the air, which is absolutely necessary to
the support of the bacteria of putrefaction, is absolutely deadly to

i44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the vibrios which provoke the butyric-acid fermentation. This is
most simply illustrated by the following beautiful observation of Pas-
teur : You know the way of looking at these small organisms through
the microscope. A drop of the liquid containing them is placed
upon glass, and on the drop is placed a circle of exceedingly thin
glass ; for, to magnify them sufficiently, it is necessary that the mi-
croscope should come very close to the organisms. Round the edge
of the circular plate of glass the liquid is in contact with the air,
and incessantly absorbs it, including the oxygen. Here, if the drop
be charged with bacteria, we have a zone of very lively ones. But
through this living zone, greedy of oxygen and appropriating it, the
vivifying gas cannot penetrate to the centre of the film. In the mid-
dle, therefore, the bacteria die, while their peripheral colleagues con-
tinue active. If a bubble of air chance to be inclosed in the film,
round it the bacteria will pirouette and wabble until its oxygen has
been absorbed, after which all their motions cease. Precisely the
reverse of all this occurs with the vibrios of butyric acid. In their
case it is the peripheral organisms that are first killed, the central
ones remaining vigorous while ringed by a zone of dead. Pasteur,
moreover, filled two vessels with a liquid containing these vibrios :
through one vessel he led air, and killed its vibrios in half an hour ;
through the other he led carbonic acid, and after three hours found
the vibrios fully active. It was while observing these differences of
deportment fifteen years ago that the thought of life without air, and
its bearing upon the theory of fermentation, flashed upon the mind of
this admirable investigator.

And here I am tempted to inquire how it is that during the last
five or six years so many of the cultivated English and American pub-
lic, including members of the medical profession and contributors to
some of our most intellectual journals, could be so turned aside as
they have been from the pure well-spring of scientific truth to be
found in the writings of Pasteur ? The reason I take to be, that,
while against unsound logic a healthy mind can always defend itself,
against unsound experiment without discipline it is defenseless. To
judge of the soundness of scientific data, and to reason from data
assumed to be sound, are two totally different things. The one
deals with the raw material of fact, the other with the logical text-
ures woven from that material. Now, the logical loom may go accu-
rately through all its motions, while the woven fibres may be all rot-
ten. It is this inability, through lack of education in experiment, to
judge of the soundness of experimental work, which lies at the root
of the defection from Pasteur.

I will cite an example of this mistake of judgment. Between the
large-type articles and the reviews of the Saturday Review essays on
various subjects are interpolated. On Alpine slopes and in the calm
of summer evenings, while reading these brief essays, I have been

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 145

many a time impressed, not only with their sparkling cleverness, but
with their deep-searching wisdom and their wealth of spiritual expe-
rience. In this central region of the Review the question of sponta-
neous generation has been taken up and discussed. The writer is not
a whit behind his colleagues in literary brilliancy and logical force.
But, having no touchstone in his own experience to enable him to dis-
tinguish a good experiment from a bad one, he has committed, on the
point of the gravest practical import, the influence of the powerful
journal in which he writes to the support of error. It is only, I
would repeat, by practice among facts that the intellect is prepared
to judge of facts, and no mere logical acuteness or literary skill can
atone for the want of this necessary education.

We now approach an aspect of this question which concerns us
still more closely, and which will be best illustrated by an actual fact.
A few years ago I was bathing in an Alpine stream, and, returning to
my clothes from the cascade which had been my shower-bath, I
slipped upon a block of granite, the sharp crystals of which stamped
themselves into my naked shin. The wound was an awkward one,
but, being in vigorous health at the time, I hoped for a speedy recov-
ery. Dipping a clean pocket-handkerchief into the stream, I wrapped
it round the wound, limped home, and remained for four or five days
quietly in bed. There was no pain, and at the end of this time I thought
myself quite fit to quit my room. The wound, when uncovered, was
found perfectly clean, uninflamed, and entirely free from pus. Placing
over it a bit of gold-beater's-skin, I walked about all day. Toward
evening itching and heat were felt ; a large accumulation of pus fol-
lowed, and I was forced to go to bed again. The water-bandage was
restored, but it was powerless to check the action now set up ; arnica
was applied, but it made matters worse. The inflammation increased
alarmingly, until finally I was ignobly carried on men's shoulders
down the mountain, and transported to Geneva, where, thanks to the
kindness of friends, I was immediately placed in the best medical
hands. On the morning after my arrival in Geneva, Dr. Gautier dis-
covered an abscess in my instep, at a distance of five inches from the
wound. The two were Connected by a channel, or sinus, as it is tech-
nically called, through which he was able to empty the abscess with-
out the application of the lance.

By what agency was that channel formed — what was it that thus
tore asunder the sound tissue of my instep, and kept me for six weeks
a prisoner in bed ? In the very room where the water-dressing had
been removed from my wound and the gold-beater's-skin applied to it,
I opened this year a number of tubes, containing perfectly clear and
sweet infusions of fish, flesh, and vegetable. These hermetically-
sealed infusions had been exposed for weeks, both to the sun of the
Alps and to the warmth of a kitchen, without showing the slightest
turbidity or sign of life. But two days after they were opened the
VOL. x. — 10

146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

greater number of them swarmed with the bacteria of putrefaction,
the germs of which had been contracted from the dust-laden air of the
room. And, had the pus from my abscess been examined, my memory
of its appearance leads me to infer that it would have been found
equally swarming with these bacteria — that it was their germs which
got into my incautiously-opened wound. They were the subtile work-
ers that burrowed down my shin, dug the abscess in my instep, and
produced effects which might well have proved fatal to me.

And here we come directly face to face with the labors of a man
who has established for himself an imperishable reputation in relation
to this subject, who combines the penetration of the true theorist with
the skill and conscientiousness of the true experimenter, and whose
practice is one continued demonstration of the theory that the putre-
faction of wounds is to be averted by the destruction of the germs
of bacteria. Not only from his own reports of his cases, but from
the reports of eminent men who have visited his hospital, and from
the opinions expressed to me by Continental surgeons, do I gather
that one of the greatest steps ever made in the art of surgery was
the introduction of the antiseptic system of treatment, practised first
in Glasgow and now in Edinburgh, by Prof. Lister.

The interest of this subject does not slacken as we proceed. We
began with the cherry-cask and beer-vat ; we end with the body of
man. There are persons born with the power of interpreting natural
facts, as there ai'e others smitten with everlasting incompetence in
regard to such interpretation. To the former class in an eminent
degree belonged the celebrated philosopher Robert Boyle, whose
words in relation to this subject have in them the forecast of prophecy.
"And let me add," writes Boyle in his "Essay on the Pathological
Part of Physik," " that he that thoroughly understands the nature of
ferments and fermentations shall probably be much better able than
he that ignores them to give a fair account of divers phenomena of
several diseases (as well fevers as others) which will perhaps be never
properly understood without an insight into the doctrine of fermen-
tations."

Two hundred years have passed since these pregnant words were
written, and it is only in this our day that men are beginning to fully
realize their truth. In the domain of surgery the justice of Boyle's
surmise has been most strictly demonstrated. Demonstration is in-
deed the only word wdiich fitly characterizes the evidence brought
forward by Prof. Lister. You will grasp in a moment his leading
idea. Take the extracted juice of beef or mutton, so prepared as to
be perfectly transparent, and entirely free from the living germs of
bacteria. Into the clear liquid let fall the tiniest drop of an infusion
charged with the bacteria of putrefaction. Twenty-four hours subse-
quently the clear extract will be found muddy throughout, the tur-
bidity being due to swarms of bacteria generated by the drop with

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 147

which the infusion was inoculated. At the same time the infusion
will have passed from a state of sweetness to a state of putridity. Let
a drop similar to that which has produced this effect fall into an open
wound: the juices of the living body nourish the bacteria as the beef
or mutton juice nourished them, and you have putrefaction produced
within the system. The air, as I have said, is laden with floating mat-
ter which, when it falls upon the wound, acts substantially like the
drop. Prof. Lister's aim is to destroy the life of that floating matter —
to kill such germs as it may contain. Had he, for example, dressed
my wound, instead of opening it incautiously in the midst of air laden
with the germs of bacteria, and instead of applying to it gold-beater's-
skin, which probably carried these germs upon its surface, he would
have showered upon the wound, during the time of dressing, the spray
of some liquid capable of killing the germs. The liquid usually em-
ployed for this purpose is dilute carbolic acid, which, in his skilled
hands, has become a specific against putrefaction and all its deadly
consequences.

We now pass the bounds of surgery proper, and enter the domain
of epidemic disease, including those fevers so sagaciously referred to
by Boyle. The most striking analogy between a contagium and a
ferment is to be found in the power of indefinite self-multiplication
possessed and exercised by both. You know the exquisitely truthful
figures regarding leaven employed in the New Testament. A particle
hid in three measures of meal leavens it all. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. In a similar manner a particle of contagium spreads
through the human body and may be so multiplied as to strike down
whole populations. Consider the effect produced upon the system by
a microscopic quantity of the virus of small-pox. That virus is to all
intents and purposes a seed. It is sown as leaven is sown, it grows and
multiplies as leaven grows and multiplies, and it always reproduces
itself. To Pasteur we are indebted for a series of masterly researches,
wherein he exposes the looseness and general baselessness of prevalent
notions regarding the transmutation of one ferment into another. He
guards himself against saying it is impossible. The true investigator
is sparing in the use of this word, though the use of it is unsparingly
ascribed to him ; but, as a matter of fact, Pasteur has never been able
to effect the alleged transmutation, while he has been always able to
point out the open doorways through which the affirmers of such trans-
mutations had allowed error to march in upon them.1

The great source of error here has been already alluded to in this
discourse. The observers worked in an atmosphere charged with the
germs of different organisms; the mere accident of first possession

1 Those who wish for an illustration of the care necessary in these researches, and of
the carelessness with which they have in some cases been conducted, will do well to con-
suit the Rev. W. H. Dallinger's excellent " Notes on Heterogenesis," in the October num-
ber of the Popular Science Review.

148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rendering now one organism, now another, triumphant. In different
stages, moreover, of its fermentative or putrefactive changes, the
same infusion may so alter as to be successively taken possession
of by different organisms. Such cases have been, adduced to show
that the earlier organisms must have been transformed into the later
ones, whereas they are simply cases in which different germs, because
of changes in the infusion, render themselves valid at different times.

By teaching us how to cultivate each ferment in its purity — in
other words, by teaching us how to rear the individual organism apart
from all others — Pasteur has enabled us to avoid all these errors.
And where this isolation of a particular organism has been duly effected
it grows and multiplies indefinitely, but no change of it into another
organism is ever observed. In Pasteur's researches the Bacterium
remained a Bacterium, the Vibrio a Vibrio, the Penicillium a Peni-
cillium, and the Torula a Torula. Sow any of these in a state of pu-
rity in an appropriate liquid, you get it, and it alone, in the subse-
quent crop. In like manner, sow small-pox in the human body, your
crop is small-pox. Sow there scarlatina, and your Crop is scarlatina.
Sow typhoid virus, your crop is typhoid — cholera, your crop is cholera.
The disease bears as constant a relation to its contagium as the mi-
croscopic organisms just enumerated do to their germs, or indeed as a
thistle does to its seed. No wonder, then, with analogies so obvious
and so striking, that the conviction is spreading and growing daily in
strength that reproductive parasitic life is at the root of epidemic dis-
ease— that living ferments finding lodgment in the body increase thei*e
and multiply, directly ruining the tissue on which they subsist, or
destroying life indirectly by the generation of poisonous compounds
within the body. This conclusion, which comes to us with a presump-
tion almost amounting to demonstration, is clinched by the fact that
virulently-infective diseases have been discovered with which living
organisms are as closely and as indissolubly associated as the growth
of Torula is with the fermentation of beer.

And here, if you will permit me, I would utter a word of warning
to Avell-meaning people. We have now reached a phase of this ques-
tion when it is of the very last importance that light should once for
all be thrown upon the manner in which contagious and infectious
diseases take root and spread. To this end the action of various
ferments upon the organs and tissues of the living body must be
studied; the habitat of each special organism concerned in the pro-
duction of each specific disease must be determined, and the mode
by which its germs are spread abroad as sources of further infection.
It is only by such rigidly accurate inquiries that we can obtain final
and complete mastery over these destroyers. Hence, while abhor-
ring cruelty of all kinds, while shrinking sympathetically from all
animal suffering — suffering which my own pursuits never call upon
me to inflict — an unbiased survey of the field of research now open-

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. i49

ing out before the physiologist causes me to conclude that no greater
calamity could befall the human race than the stoppage of experi-
mental inquiry in this direction. A lady whose philanthropy has ren-
dered her illustrious said to me, some time ago, that science was be-
coming immoral; that the researches of the past, unlike those of the
present, were carried on without cruelty. I replied to her that the
science of Kepler and Newton, to which she referred, dealt with the
laws and phenomena of inorganic Nature ; but that one great advance
made by modern science was in the direction of biology, or the sci-
ence of life ; and that in this new direction scientific inquiry, though
at the outset pursued at the cost of some temporary suffering, would
in the end prove a thousand times more beneficent than it had ever
hitherto been. I said this because I saw that the very researches
which the lady deprecated were leading us to such a knowledge of
epidemic diseases as will enable us finally to sweep these scourges of
the human race from the face of this fair earth.

This is a point of such special importance that I should like to
bring it home to your intelligence by a single trustworthy illustra-
tion. In 1850, two distinguished French observers, MM. Davainne
and Rayer, noticed, in the blood of animals which had died of the
virulent disease called splenic fever, small microscopic organisms
resembling transparent rods, but neither of them at that time at-
tached any significance to the observation. In 1861 Pasteur pub-
lished a memoir on the fermentation of butyric acid, wherein he de-
scribed the organism which provoked it; and, after reading this
memoir, it occurred to Davainne that splenic fever might be a case
of fermentation set up within the animal body by the organisms
which had been observed by him and Rayer. This idea has been
placed beyond all doubt by subsequent research.

Some years in advance of the labors undertaken by Davainne, ob-
servations of the highest importance had been made on splenic fever
by Pollender and Brauell. Two years ago, Dr. Burdon-Sanderson
gave us a very clear account of what was known up to that time of
this disorder. With regard to the permanence of the contagium, it
had been proved to hang for years about localities where it had once
prevailed ; and this seemed to show that the rod-like organisms could
not constitute the contagium, because their infective power was found
to vanish in a few weeks. But other facts established an intimate
connection between the organisms and the disease, so that a review
of all the facts caused Dr. Sanderson to conclude that the contagium
existed in two distinct forms : the one " fugitive," and visible as
transparent rods; the other permanent but "latent," and not yet
brought within the grasp of the microscope.

At the time that Dr. Sanderson was writing this report, a young
German physician, named Koch, occupied with the duties of his pro-
fession in an obscure country district, was already at work, applying,

i5o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

during his spare time, various original and ingenious devices to the
investigation of splenic fever. He studied the habits of the rod-like
organisms, and found the aqueous humor of an ox's eye to be particu-
larly suitable for their nutrition. With a drop of the aqueous humor
he mixed the tiniest speck of a liquid containing the rods, placed the
drop under his microscope, warmed it suitably, and observed the sub-
sequent action. During the first two hours hardly any change was
noticeable ; but at the end of this time the rods began to lengthen,
and the action was so rapid that at the end of three or four hours they
attained from ten to twenty times their original length. At the end of
a few additional hours they had formed filaments in many cases a hun-
dred times the length of the original rods. The same filament, in fact,
was frequently observed to stretch through several fields of the mi-
croscope. Sometimes they lay in straight lines parallel to each other;
in other cases they were bent, twisted,' and coiled, into the most grace-
ful figures ; while sometimes they formed knots of such bewildering
complexity that it was impossible for the eye to trace the individual
filaments through the confusion.

Had the observation ended here an interesting scientific fact would
have been added to our previous store, but the addition would have
been of little practical value. Koch, however, continued to watch the
filaments, and after a time noticed little dots appearing within them.
These dots became more and more distinct, until finally the whole
length of the organism was studded with minute ovoid bodies, which
lay within the outer integument like peas within their shell. By-and-
by the integument fell to pieces, the place of the organism being
taken by a long row of seeds or spores. These observations, which
were confirmed in all respects by the celebrated naturalist Cohn, of
Breslau, are of the first importance. They clear up the existing per-
plexity regarding the latent and visible contagia of splenic fever; for,
in the most conclusive manner, Koch proved the spores, as distin-
guished from the rods, to constitute the contagium of the fever in its
most deadly and persistent form.

How did he reach this important result ? Mark the answer. There
was but one way open to him to test the activity of the contagium,
and that was the inoculation with it of living animals. He operated
upon Guinea-pigs and rabbits, but the vast majority of his experiments
were made with mice. Inoculating them with the fresh blood of an
animal suffering from splenic fever, they invariably died of the same
disease within twenty or thirty hours after inoculation. He then
sought to determine how the contagium maintained its vitality. Dry-
ing the infectious blood containing the rod-like organisms, in which,
however, the spores were not developed, he found the contagium to
be that which Dr. Sanderson calls "fugitive." It maintained its
power of infection for five weeks at the farthest. He then dried-
blood containing the fully-developed spores, and exposed the sub-

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 151

stance to a variety of conditions. He permitted the dried blood to
assume the form of dust; wetted this dust, allowed it to dry again,
permitted it to remain for an indefinite time in the midst of putrefy-
ing matter, and subjected it to various other tests. After keeping
the spore-charged blood which had been treated in this fashion for
four years, he inoculated a number of mice with it, and found its
action as fatal as that of blood fresh from the veins of an animal suf-
fering from splenic fever. There was no single escape from death
after inoculation by this deadly contagium. Uncounted millions of
these spores are developed in the body of every animal which has
died of splenic fever, and every spore of these millions is competent
to produce the disease. The name of this formidable parasite is Ba-
cillus anthracis.1

Now, the very first step toward the extirpation of these contagia
is the knowledge of their nature ; and the knowledge brought to us
by Dr. Koch will render as certain the stamping out of splenic fever
as the stoppage of the plague of pebriae by the researches of Pasteur.
One small item of statistics will show what this implies. In the sin-
gle district of Novgorod in Russia, between the years 1867 and 1870,
over 56,000 cases of death by splenic fever, among horses, cows, and
sheep, were recorded. But its ravages did not confine themselves to
the animal world, for, daring the time and in the district referred to,
528 human beings perished in the agonies of the same disease.

A description of the fever will help you to come to a right decision
on the point which I wish to submit to your consideration. "An
animal," says Dr. Burdon-Sanderson, "which perhaps for the previous
day has declined food and shown, signs of general disturbance, begins
to shudder and to have twitches of the muscles of the back, and soon
after becomes weak and listless. In the mean time the respiration
becomes frequent and often difficult, and the temperature rises to
three or four degrees above the normal ; but soon convulsions,
affecting chiefly the muscles of the back and loins, usher in the final
collapse, of which the progress is marked by complete loss of power
of moving the trunk or extremities, diminution of temperature, mucous
and sanguinolent alvine evacuations, and similar discharges from the
mouth and nose." In a single district of Russia, as above remarked,
56,000 horses, cows, and sheep, and 528 men and women, perished in
this way during a period of two or three years. What the annual
fatality is throughout Europe I have no means of knowing. Doubt-
less it must be very- great.. The question, then, wrhich I wish to
submit to your judgment is this: Is the knowledge which reveals

1 To produce its characteristic effects the contagium of splenic fever must enter the
blood. The virulently-infective spleen of a diseased animal may be eaten with impunity
by mice. On the other hand, the disease refuses to be communicated by inoculation to
dogs, partridges, or sparrows. In their blood Bacillus anthracis ceases to act as a fer-
ment.

i52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to us the nature, and which assures the extirpation, of a disorder
so virulent and so vile, worth the price paid for it ? It is exceed-
ingly important that assemblies like the present should see clearly
the issues at stake in such questions as this, and that the properly-
informed common-sense of the community should temper, if not re-
strain, the rashness of those who, meaning to be tender, would vir-
tually enact the most hideous cruelty by the imposition of short-sighted
restrictions upon physiological investigation. It is a modern instance
of zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, and an instructed
public opinion must correct its excess.

And now let us cast a backward glance on the field we have
traversed, and try to extract from our labors such further profit as
they can yield. For more than two thousand years the attraction of
light bodies by amber was the sum of human knowledge regarding
electricity, and for more than two thousand years fermentation was
effected without any knowledge of its cause. In science one discovery
grows out of another, and cannot appear without its proper antece-
dent. Thus, before fermentation could be understood, the microscope
had to be invented and brought to a considerable degree of perfec-
tion. Note the growth of knowledge. Leeuwenhoek, in 1680, found
yeast to be a mass of floating globules, but he had no notion that the
globules were alive. This was proved in 1835 by Cagniard de la Tour
and Schwann. Then came the question as to the origin of such micro-
scopic organisms, and in this connection the memoir of Pasteur, pub-
lished in the "Annales de Chimie" for 1862, is epoch-making, proving
as it did to all competent minds spontaneous generation to be thus
far a chimera. On that investigation all Pasteur's subsequent labors
were based. Ravages had over and over again occurred among
French wines. There was no guarantee that they would not become
acid or bitter, particularly when exported. The commerce in wines
was thus restricted, and disastrous losses were often inflicted on the
wrine-grower. Every one of these diseases was traced to the life of
an organism. Pasteur ascertained the temperature which killed these
ferments of disease, proving it to be so low as to be perfectly harmless
to the wine. By the simple expedient of heating the wine to a tem-
perature of 50° centigrade, he rendered it unalterable, and thus saved
his country the loss of millions. He then went on to vinegar — vin
aiyre, acid wine — which he proved to be produced by a fermen-
tation set up by a little fungus called Mycoderma aceti. Torida,
in fact, converts the grape-juice into alcohol, and Mycoderma aceti
converts the alcohol into vinegar. Here also frequent failures oc-
curred and severe losses wrere sustained. Through the operation of
unknown causes, the vinegar often became unfit for use ; sometimes,
indeed, falling into utter putridity. It had been long known that mere
exposure to the air was sufficient to destroy it. Pasteur studied all

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 153

these changes, traced them to their living causes, and showed that the
permanent health of the vinegar was insured by the destruction of
this life. He passed from the diseases of vinegar to the study of a
malady which a dozen years ago had all but ruined the silk-husbandry
of France. This malady, which received the name of pebrine, was the
product of a parasite which first took possession of the intestinal canal
of the silkworm, spread throughout its body, and filled the sack which
ought to contain the viscid matter of the silk. Thus smitten, the
worm would go automatically through the process of spinning when
it had nothing to spin. Pasteur followed this parasitic destroyer from
year to year, and, led by his singular power of combining facts with
the logic of facts, discovered eventually the precise phase in the de-
velopment of the insect when the disease which assailed it conld with
certainty be stamped out. Pasteur's devotion to this inquiry cost him
dear. He restored to France her silk-husbandry, rescued thousands
of her population from ruin, set the looms of Italy also to work, but
emerged from his labors with one of his sides permanently paralyzed.
His last investigation is embodied in a work entitled " Studies on
Beer," in which he describes a method of rendering beer permanently
unchangeable. That method is not so simple as those found effectual
with wine and vinegar, but the principles which it involves are sure
to receive extensive application at some future day. Taking into
account all these labors of Pasteur, it is no exaggeration to state that
the money value of his work would go far to cover the indemnity
which France had to pay to Germany.

There are other reflections connected with this subject which, even
were I to pass them over without remark, would sooner or later occur
to every thoughtful mind in this assembly. I have spoken of the float-
ing dust of the air, of the means of rendering it visible, and of the
perfect immunity from putrefaction which accompanies the contact
of moteless air. Consider the woes which this wafted matter, during
historic and prehistoric ages, has inflicted on mankind ; consider the
loss of life in hospitals from putrefying wounds ; consider the loss in
places where there are plenty of wounds but no hospitals, and in the
ages before hospitals were anywhere founded; consider the slaughter
which has hitherto followed that of the battle-field, when those bacte-
rial destroyers are let loose, often producing a mortality far greater
than that of the battle itself; add to this the other conception- that
in times of epidemic disease the self-same floating matter has fre-
quently, if not always, mingled with it the special germs which pro-
duce the epidemic, being thus enabled to sow pestilence and death over
nations and continents — consider all this, and you will come with me
to the conclusion that all the havoc of war, ten times multiplied, would
be evanescent if compared to the ravages due to atmospheric dust.

This preventable destruction is going on to-day, and it has been
permitted to go on for ages, without a whisper of information regard-

i54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing its cause being vouchsafed to the suffering sentient world. We
have been scourged by invisible thongs, attacked from impenetrable
ambuscades, and it is only to-day that the light of science is being let
in upon the murderous dominion of our foes. Men of Glasgow, these
facts excite in me the thought that the rule and governance of this
universe are different from what we in our youth supposed them to
be — that the inscrutable Power, at once terrible and beneficent, in
whom we live and move and have our being and our end, is to be pro-
pitiated by means different from those usually resorted to. The first
requisite toward such propitiation is knoicledge ; the second is action,
shaped and illuminated by that knowledge. Of knowledge we already
see the dawn, which will open out by-and-by to perfect day, while the
action which is to follow has its unfailing source and stimulus in the
moral and emotional nature of man — in his desire for personal well-
being, in his sense of duty, in his compassionate sympathy with the
sufferings of his fellow-men. " How often," says Dr. William Budd, in
his celebrated work on " Typhoid Fever " — " how often have I seen in
past days, in the single narrow chamber of the day-laborer's cottage,
the father in the coffin, the mother in the sick-bed in muttering de-
lirium, and nothing to relieve the desolation of the children but the
devotion of some poor neighbor, who in too many cases paid the pen-
alty of her kindness in becoming herself the victim of the same dis-
order ! " From the vantage-ground already won I look forward with
confident hope to the triumph of medical art over scenes of misery
like that here described. The cause of the calamity being once clearly
revealed, not only to the physician, but to the public, whose intelligent
cooperation is absolutely essential to success, the final victory of hu-
manity is only a question of time. We have already a foretaste of
that victory in the triumphs of surgery as practised at your doors.

THE PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS FROM LIGHTNING.

By Peofessoe J. CLEEK MAXWELL,

MOST of those who have given directions for the construction of
lightning-conductors have paid great attention to the upper
and lower extremities of the conductor. They recommend that the
upper extremity of the conductor should extend somewhat above the
highest part of the building to be protected, and that it should ter-
minate in a sharp point, and that the lower extremity should be car-
ried as far as possible into the conducting strata of the ground, so as
to " make " what telegraph engineers call " a good earth."

The electrical effect of such an arrangement is to tap, as it were,
the gathering charge by facilitating a quiet discharge between the

PROTECTION OF BUILDINGS FROM LIGHTNING. 155

atmospheric accumulation and the earth. The erection of the conduct-
or will cause a somewhat greater number of discharges to occur at
the place than would have occurred if it had not been erected ; but
each of these discharges will be smaller than those which would have
occurred without the conductor. It is probable, also, that fewer dis-
charges will occur in the region surrounding the conductor.

It appears to me that these arrangements are calculated rather for
the benefit of the surrounding country, and for the relief of clouds
laboring under an accumulation of electricity, than for the protection
of the building on which the conductor is erected.

What we really wish is, to prevent the ^possibility of an electric
discharge taking place within a certain region, say in the inside of a
gunpowder-manufactory. If this is clearly laid down as our object,
the method of securing it is equally clear.

An electric discharge cannot occur between two bodies, unless the
difference of their potentials is sufficiently great, compared with the
distance between them. If, therefore, we can keep the potentials of
all bodies within a certain region equal, or nearly equal, no discharge
will take place between them. We may secure this by connecting
all these bodies by means of good conductors, such as copper-wife
ropes, but it is not necessary to do so, for it may be shown by experi-
ment that, if every part of the surface surrounding a certain region is
at the same potential, every point within that region must be at the
same potential, provided no charged body is placed, within the region.

It would, therefore, be sufficient to surround our powder-mill with
a conducting material, to sheathe its roof, walls, and ground-floor,
with thick sheet-copper, and then no electrical effect could occur within
it on account of any thunder-storm outside. There would be no need
of any earth-connection. We might even place a layer of asphalt be-
tween the copper floor and the ground, so as to insulate the building.
If the mill were then struck with lightning, it would remain charged
for some time, and a person standing on the ground outside and touch-
ing the wall might receive a shock, but no electrical effect would be
perceived inside, even on the most delicate electrometer. The poten-
tial of everything inside with respect to the earth wTould be suddenly
raised or lowered, as the case might be, but electric potential is not a
physical condition, but only a mathematical conception, so that no
physical effect would be perceived.

It is, therefore, not necessary to connect large masses of metal,
such as engines, tanks, etc., to the walls, if they are entirely within
the building. If, however, any conductor, such as a telegraph-wire
or a metallic supply-pipe for water or gas, comes into the building
from without, the potential of this conductor may be different from
that of the building, unless it is connected with the conducting-shell
of the building. Hence the water or gas, supply-pipes, if any enter
the building, must be connected to the system of lightning-conduct-

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ors, and, since to connect a telegraph-wire with the conductor would
render the telegraph useless, no telegraph from without should he
allowed to enter a powder-mill, though there may he electric bells
and other telegraphic apparatus entirely within the building.

I have supposed the powder-mill to be entirely sheathed in thick
sheet-copper. This, however, is by no means necessary in order to
prevent any sensible electrical effect taking place within it, supposing
it struck by lightning. It is quite sufficient to inclose the building
with a network of a good conducting substance. For instance, if a
copper wire, say No. 4, B. W. G. (0.238 inch diameter), were carried
round the foundation of the house, up each of the corners and gables
and along the ridges, this would probably be a sufficient protection
for an ordinary building against any thunder-storm in this climate.
The copper wire may be built into the wall to prevent theft, but
should be connected to any outside metal, such as lead or zinc on the
roof, and to metal rain-water pipes. In the case of a powder-mill it
might be advisable to make the network closer by carrying one or
two additional wires over the roof and down the walls to the wire at
the foundation. If there are water or gas pipes which enter the
building from without, these must be connected with the system of
conducting-wires, but, if there are no such metallic connections with
distant points, it is not necessary to take any pains to facilitate the
escape of the electricity into the earth.

Still less is it advisable to erect a tall conductor with a sharp
point in order to relieve the thunder-clouds of their charge.

It is hardly necessary to add that it is not advisable, during a
thunder-storm, to stand on the roof of a house so protected, or to
stand on the ground outside and lean against the wall. — Nature.

-♦♦♦-

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW.

By DANIEL WEDDEEBEEN.

DURING a recent visit to Salt Lake City I happened to ask one
of the leading Mormons what works, in addition to the Book
of Mormon, would give me a fair idea of the religious doctrines pro-
fessed by the Latter-day Saints and of their history, as they them-
selves desire to have it told. The gentleman addressed most kindly
offered for my acceptance several books, among which were pamphlets
by Orson Pratt, one of the twelve apostles of the church, the " Key
to the Science of Theology," by Parley P. Pratt, and the "Rise,
Progress, and Travels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints," by President George A. Smith.

So far as religious tenets are concerned, the authority of the works

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 157

mentioned may doubtless be accepted as final. With regard to the
historical portion of the subject it is different, and here a certain
allowance must be made for the bias of a religious partisan ; but it is
not the less interesting to read this brief but stirring history, as it is
told by those who played a prominent part in its events. Having
studied these books, I shall endeavor to give a short account of Mor-
monism, as it is described by the Mormons themselves, and as it ap-
pears to myself, being personally little predisposed to regard it favor-
ably, but convinced that its case has seldom been fairly stated to the
public.

A certain practical importance attaches at present to the subject,
for the future position of Mormonism in the Union is among the many
difficult political problems now offering themselves for solution in the
United States of America. It presents, indeed, upon a small scale, a
similar difficulty to that caused by the existence of slavery in the
Southern States : as to how far it is possible to maintain political fed-
eration between communities differing essentially in their social insti-
tutions. The American Constitution is wonderfully elastic, but it has
proved impossible to retain slaveholding States permanently within
its limits. Is its elasticity sufficient to admit into the Union a State
which would legalize polygamy ? Hitherto a negative answer has
been given by Congress to this question, and the claims of Utah Ter-
ritory to become a State have been urged in vain ; but the steady in-
crease of population and wealth is constantly strengthening those
claims, and they cannot much longer be ignored. The fourth unsuc-
cessful attempt to obtain admission as a State of the Union was made
in 1872, when the population of Utah already exceeded that of Ne-
vada and Nebraska combined (at the date of their admission), being
upward of 105,000 ; and a memorial to Congress was adopted, pray-
ing for admission into the Union as a sovereign State. The constitu-
tion then proposed for the State, which was to bear the name of Dese-
ret, was approved by the people of the Territory, with only 368 dis-
sentient votes ; it provided for women's suffrage, and minority repre-
sentation.

The admission of Nevada, Nebraska, and Colorado, all of them
neighboring Territories with inferior population to Utah, appears to
justify the assertion of the Mormons that the unpopularity of their
religion was the sole cause of their exclusion. Had Deseret been
created a sovereign State in 1872, the controversy as to polygamy
might have entered upon a new and critical phase, as the State Legis-
lature would doubtless have claimed the right to legalize plurality of
wives within its own jurisdiction. No such right can be claimed by
the existing Legislature of Utah, whose powers are restricted by the
provisions of the act of 1850, to which the Territory owes its politi-
cal existence. All laws of the Territorial Legislature must have the
sanction of the Governor (who is appointed by the President of the

iS8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

United States), and are passed subject to the approval of Congress.
The judges of the Territorial Supreme Court are also appointed by the
President, so that the control of the Federal authorities is complete
over all departments in the Territory, and it is natural that the Mor-
mon community should aspire to a more independent position. It is
questionable, however, whether independence would not prove a dis-
advantage to the Mormons, as tending to bring them into direct col-
lision with popular feeling, which has always been more or less hos-
tile to them throughout the Union, while the Federal authorities have
acted a friendly part. During seventeen sessions of the Utah Legis-'
lative Assembly, the power of disapproval has only once been exer-
cised by Congress, and then (as might have been expected) in rela-
tion to the law of marriage. The Washington Government has
afforded protection to the Mormons against local officers and judges,
President Grant, in particular, having recently braved considerable
unpopularity by removing the Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of
Utah for " arbitrary and illegal conduct " in his dealings with the
Latter-day Saints. Again, a few yeai-s ago the United States officials
in Utah set at naught the Territorial law under which jurors were se-
lected and summoned, rejecting those who professed their belief in
Mormon doctrines. Where the value at issue exceeds $1,000, an ap-
peal lies to the Supreme Court of the United States, and a case tried
by a packed jury, and given against the municipal officers of Salt
Lake City, was accordingly appealed. The unanimous decision of
the Supreme Court at Washington was, that the jury had not been
legally impaneled, and the judgment of the Utah court was reversed.
Great rejoicing was caused at Salt Lake City by this decision in the
Engelbrecht case, as proving that the inhabitants of Tei-ritories had
rights in common with their countrymen, and that there was justice
in the United States even for the professors of a very unpopular reli-
gion.

It may appear strange that in the freest of lands, and in the
latter half of the nineteenth century, a legal doubt should have ex-
isted as to whether civil disabilities were attached to any form of re-
ligious opinion ; but it must be remembered that the evidence of an
atheist was very recently rejected in English courts of justice, and
the Legislature of North Carolina expelled last year a member, be-
cause he conscientiously declared his disbelief in the existence of God.
The fact is that, even in Protestant countries, complete religious tol-
eration is limited to certain recognized persuasions, so that feeble
and unpopular sects have still to unite in claiming for themselves the
same liberty of conscience which has been conceded to all numerous
and powerful dissenting bodies. Science now demands from theology
absolute and unconditional freedom, and the clay can hardly be far
distant when theological heterodoxy will cease to involve any civil
penalties in a free country. At present the Mormon refugees of the

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 159

Rocky Mountains demand only that amount of civil and religious
liberty which the Constitution professes to guarantee to every Ameri-
can citizen, and which the Pilgrim Fathers found for themselves " on
the wild New England shore." They complain that their enemies
have told their story, that their own statements have been ignored,
and that no credit has been given to them for an honest attempt, in
these latter days, to put in practice the doctrines of the early Chris-
tian Church. Even their enemies will hardly deny that they dis-
played faith, courage, and endurance, when they resolved, after being
expelled from one settlement after another, to plunge into the un-
known wilderness, and to found a new Zion beyond the existing lim-
its of the United States. These qualities have triumphed over great
physical difficulties, and a stranger is astonished at the prosperity
which Mormon industry has produced. A carefully-organized system
of irrigation has converted a barren desert into a productive garden,
and has had the remarkable effect of raising the permanent level of
the lake ten feet higher than it was in 1850. Every requirement of
the religious community is abundantly supplied by contributions, as-
sessed and collected upon voluntary principles. Besides the immense
new Tabernacle, a temple is now in course of construction, almost
Egyptian in its massive grandeur, toward which all the faithful con-
tribute, those who cannot afford money giving their labor. The In-
dians in Utah have been conciliated by the humane policy of feeding,
clothing, and teaching, instead of fighting them. The old accusations
of violence and cruelty toward Gentile immigrants, or Mormon de-
serters, if not altogether disproved, have at least been lived down in
recent times, and the existence of a military camp near Salt Lake
City is now, probably, more unnecessary than it would be at any
other town west of the Rocky Mountains. In order to appreciate the
tranquillity, sobriety, and steady industry of Deseret (as the Mormons
prefer to name their country), it may be contrasted with Nevada, an
adjoining State almost identical with Deseret as to soil, climate, and
mineral products. The so-called Silver State stands now preeminent
in the Union for its turbulent manners, for the number of its liquor-
shops, and as being the only State which legalizes public gambling.-
Of course, Nevada is merely passing through a certain rude stage of
her existence, just as California had done before her, and she, too,
will one day set her house in order; the remarkable point is that
Utah should, alone among the young communities of the far West,
have altogether escaped such a condition of things. To many persons
this will appear to be sufficiently explained by the fact that the Mor-
mons both preach and practise habits of extreme temperance, almost
amounting to total abstinence from every sort of stimulant.

Considerable hostility undoubtedly exists between the Mormons
and some of their Gentile fellow-residents; this is greatly due to the
bitter attacks of certain local newspapers upon the Latter-day Saints,

160 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONT ELY.

and upon those who show them any favor. When I was in Salt Lake
City, the Governor of Utah Territory was very severely assailed for
his alleged partiality toward the Mormons, and a grim hope was at
the same time expressed that Mr. Brigham Young might shortly take
the place merited by him " at the only fireside, which we know of, large
enough to accommodate him and the whole of his family." That
such expressions are publicly used in speaking of a man whom the
great bulk of the community regard as an inspired prophet, is a suffi-
cient proof that no terrorism is now exercised against dissenters from
the dominant church of Utah. To a stranger like myself, desirous of
understanding as far as possible the tenets of their faith, a frank and
friendly reception was accorded by such of the Mormon leaders as I
had an opportunity of visiting. Every explanation asked for was at
once afforded, but I do not feel justified in mentioning names, or in
repeating any private conversation, although it was probably not in-
tended to be confidential. A passing stranger can only see the exter-
nal surface of society, and in this respect there is nothing very
remarkable in Salt Lake City. The parlor of a flourishing Mormon
householder does not differ much in appearance from that of an
Englishman who happens to have a numerous family, with a large
proportion of sisters or daughters. A new and somewhat startling
sensation is, however, experienced during the ceremony of introduc-
tion on first hearing the words, " Now, sir, let me introduce you to
another of my wives." The strangeness of these words mainly con-
sists in the very fact that they are uttered, not by a dark-skinned bar-
barian, but by a gentleman answering to the description of the English
soldiers given by "Le Conscrit de 1813 " — " blancs, bien rases, comme
de bons bourgeois " — and in a room with all the familiar surround-
ings of civilized domestic life. The public worship of the Church of .
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormons invariably designate
their own sect, is conducted with great simplicity, very much as it is
in an English dissenting chapel, and the preponderance of ladies is by
no means greater than that to which we are accustomed in places of
worship generally. The only marked peculiarity is the administra-
tion of the Lord's Supper in water instead of wine, and of this sacra-
ment it appears to be customary for all the faithful present to par-
take, old and young alike. The hymns are sung by a mixed choir of
young men and women, and addresses, are delivered by eminent Mor-
mon elders. When I was present, the speakers were Mr. Daniel H.
Wells, Mayor of Salt Lake City, and Mr. Cannon, brother of the
delegate from Utah Territory to Congress. All religious argument
was based upon the authority of the Bible, to which the Mormon
revelations claim to be additional, but in no sense contrary. Vari-
ous Mormon doctrines were touched upon, and special allusions were
made to the persecutions undergone by the Saints in past times, and
to those which appeared to menace them in the future. Although not

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 161

yet half a century old, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-clay
Saints has passed through a baptism of fire, and living men can speak
with mingled pride and sorrow of personal friends who died as mar-
tyrs to their religious faith. Thirty years ago Nauvoo, in Illinois,
was a Mormon settlement, almost equal in population and prosperity
to Salt Lake City at the present day ; those who witnessed its total
destruction can hardly be considered idle alarmists, when they allude
to the possibility of trials yet to come. The tone of the speakers
was thoroughly practical, exhorting to industry and sobriety, to
abstention from all stimulants, including tobacco, coffee, and tea, and
to the cultivation of all the useful arts, " even those of war, if neces-
sary to the safety of our community." These exhortations were
mainly addressed to the juniors present, a saving clause being in-
serted for those seniors who had borne the burden and heat of the
evil days, and who, having now established this mountain refuge for
the Saints, might require to " solace decaying nature " with an occa-
sional narcotic. The addresses breathed a tolerant and rational spirit,
the doctrines inculcated were simply those of a charitable form of
Christianity, and there was no mention of that peculiar domestic
institution which sums up in the minds of so many all notions con-
nected with Mormonism.

After all, it is upon " plural marriages " that the interest as well
as the hostility of the outer world has always been concentrated; a
Mormon is simply regarded as a man with a number of wives, and
beyond this most people know little, and care less, as to the doctrines
or customs of the Latter-day Saints. Were it not for their polygamy,
it seems probable that the Mormons might now enjoy the same per-
fect toleration which is extended in America to other forms of reli-
gious eccentricity, and that Deseret would long ere this have taken
her place among the States of the Union. On the other hand, it
must be borne in mind that polygamy is a comparatively recent
innovation, condemned by the Book of Mormon in the strongest pos-
sible terms :

" The word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes. For behold,
thus saith the Lord, this people' (the Nephites) begin to wax in iniquity; they
understand not the Scriptures ; for they seek to excuse themselves because of
the things which were written concerning David and Solomon his son. Behold,
David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which tbing was
abominable before me, saith the Loi;d ; wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have
led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm,
that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of
Joseph. Wherefore I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people shall do
like unto them of old. Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the
word of the Lord ; for there shall not any man among you have save it be one
wife, and concubines he shall have none ; for I, the Lord God, delighteth (sic)
in the chastity of women."

vol. x. — 11

i62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tliese are the words of " Jacob, the brother of Nephi," and words
could hardly be more distinct or emphatic ; but theologians can
generally manage to explain away inconvenient texts and hard say-
ings, while in this case it may be held by the Saints that the above
injunctions were repealed by the subsequent "Revelation on Celestial
Marriage." This tardy revelation, vouchsafed to Joseph Smith shortly
before the close of his career, is the sole warrant for plurality of wives
— a practice which is general among the Mormon leaders, but not
throughout the community at large. With them, as with Mohamme-
dans or Hindoos, polygamy is doubtless very much a question of ex-
pense, and I was informed on good authority that probably about one
in four of the Saints is the husband of more than one wife. The ma-
jority, therefore, adheres in practice to the " Doctrine and Covenants,"
which book is a recognized authority upon articles of Mormon faith,
and declares that " one man should have one wife, and one woman
but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to
marry again." The number of wives ascribed to eminent individuals
is usually exaggerated, sixteen being the largest number admittedly
married to one man, and six constituting the household of a wealthy
and influential elder.

The Mormons compare themselves to the Jews, as well as to the
early Christians ; they have been a persecuted people, driven forth to
wander through trackless deserts,, and are now living apart from their
neighbors in a theocratic commonwealth of their own. Their pre-
cedents on behalf of polygamy are mainly drawn from the Hebrew
Scriptures ; but they also assert that they have in their favor the ex-
ample of the primitive Christian Church. Without going into their
arguments, it may be at once conceded that polygamy was sanctioned
by the ancient Hebrew law ; but it is not the less out of date in the
new world of America, and is a standing peril to the Church of the
Latter-day Saints. By an act of the Utah Legislature, the right of
suffrage has been conferred on " all American women, native or nat-
uralized," and it hardly seems possible that polygamy can long sur-
vive such legislation. At present the extension of the franchise among
persons, few- of whom are " native " Americans, and many of whom
. are very imperfectly educated, probably strengthens the hands of the
Mormon leaders by swamping entirely the Gentile element. But such
an effect is not likely to be permanent, for the rising generation will
be educated; in 1871, just after the passing of the act above referred
to, sixty per cent, of the girls between four and sixteen years of age
were enrolled as scholars throughout Utah Territory, being slightly
in excess of the percentage among boys of the same age. Equality
between the sexes in education and in electoral privileges must tend
to bring about social and religious equality also, and the example of
their independent sisters in Wyoming Territory, where women enjoy
complete civil rights, will not be thrown away upon the ladies of Salt

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON' POINT OF VIEW. 163

Lake City. The tone of public feeling throughout the neighboring
States and Territories is more • favorable toward " woman's rights "
than it is in any other part of the world ; and, even if this be partly
due to a reaction produced by Mormcnism, it cannot fail in time to
influence the female electors of Utah. Thus it is possible that a peace-
able solution of the difficulty may be found, and polygamy may be
abolished, not by external force, but by constitutional action within
the Mormon communitj^ itself.

Meanwhile, this church of the nineteenth century possesses amaz-
ing vitality, and seems to carry us back to a by-gone era of belief,
exhibiting as it does the phenomenon of a religious sect heartily con-
vinced of its future mission and claiming the present for its own.
While other churches look to the past for all that is best and truest
in religion, the Latter-day Saints regard the present also as a period
of miracle and revelation. They expect, in the immediate future, the
conversion of all who inhabit their vast continent with as serene a con-
fidence as that with which the early Christians seem to have antici-
pated the evangelization of the Roman Empire. It may be said of
them that in theology they maintain the modern doctrine of continu-
ity, rather than ancient theories of convulsion and catastrophe. Ac-
cepting, in a literal sense, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, they
apparently entertain no fear lest scientific research should undermine
their faith, as they look for a continuous course of revelation, which
shall harmonize theology with the general advance in human knowl-
edge.

The title of Parley P. Pratt's recent work, " Key to the Science
of Theology," 1874, may seem almost to involve a contradiction in
terms ; but it indicates the desire of a distinguished Mormon theolo-
gian to keep abreast, if possible, of the scientific spirit of the age.
Whether the attempt to do this may have proved successful or not,
his policy is surely wiser than that which has frequently placed sci-
ence and theology in opposition so direct, that every conquest of
knowledge over ignorance has appeared to be also a victory over re-
ligion. Indeed, Mr. Parley Pratt is entitled to a welcome from the
lovers of free thought, considering how rarely theologians seek to iden-
tify the progress of their own tenets with that of humanity in every
department of science and art, and how seldom it is that they do not

" Grow pale
Lest their own judgments should become too bright,
And their free thoughts be crimes, and earth have too much light."

To quote his own words :

" The creeds of the Fathers seem to have been cast in the mould of other
ages, to be adapted to a more narrow sphere of intellectual development, and to
be composed of material too much resembling cast-iron ; or, at least, not suf-
ficiently elastic to expand with the expansion of mind, to grow with the growth,
and advance with the progressive principles of the age. For these reasons, per-

164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

haps more than any other, the master-spirits of the age are breaking loose from
the old moorings, and withdrawing from established and venerated systems."

Holding these views, Mr. Parley Pratt has aimed at embodying,
in his introductory key, a general view of what he calls the Science
of Theology, " in a concise and somewhat original manner and style,
as gathered from revelation, history, prophecy, reason, and analogy."
The revelation and prophecy referred to and founded upon are partly
those accepted by all orthodox Christians, partly those of recent
date (such as the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants)
peculiar to the followers of Joseph Smith. It is hard to reconcile
polygamy with " the progressive principles of the age," and with
modern ideas as to the social position and dignity of woman ; but
Mr. Parley Pratt is not without a scientific plea on behalf of his theo-
logical dogma. He maintains that —

" The principal object contemplated by this law is the multiplication of the
children of good and worthy fathers, who will teach them the truth, and this is
far preferable to sending them into the world in the lineage of an unworthy or

ignorant parentage A wise legislation, or the law of God, would punish

with just severity the crimes of adultery or fornication, and would not suffer
the idiot, the confirmed, irreclaimable drunkard, the man of hereditary disease,
or of vicious habits, to possess or retain a wife ; while at the same time it
would provide for a good and capable man to honorably receive and entertain
more wives than one. . . . The restoration of pure laws and practices has already
commenced to improve or regenerate a race. A holy and temperate life ; pure
morals and manners ; faith, hope, charity ; cheerfulness, gentleness, integrity ;
intellectual development, pure truth, and knowledge, will produce a race more
beautiful in form and features, stronger and more vigorous in constitution, hap-
pier in temperament and disposition, more intellectual, less vicious, and better
prepared for long life and good days in their mortal sojourn. Each generation
governed by the same laws will still improve."

This sounds plausible enough in theory, and perhaps the result of
polygamy as practised in Utah is, that a large proportion of offspring-
is born to the most energetic, intelligent, and industrious citizens.
In an age when there is reason to fear an increasing tendency to
"non-survival of the fittest," such a result may be admitted as tend-
ing to counterbalance some of the disadvantages attending plurality
of wives.

The highest types of domestic animals have been developed under
a system of breeding and selection, very similar to that which is ad-
vocated in the above quotations, and the burden of proof seems to
rest upon those who maintain that a high type of humanity cannot
be developed after a similar fashion. Should the Mormons succeed
in carrying out practically, for a few generations, any such ideas as
are above alleged to be the main objects contemplated in their law of
polygamy, they would have fair grounds for the belief that they are
destined to inherit the whole earth.

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 165

A race of human beings developed (if such a thing were feasible)
by strictly scientific selection and culture could not fail to gain the
upper hand in the general struggle for dominion, but it remains to be
seen whether any success in this direction will attend the system 01
the Mormons.

" Our physical organization, health, vigor, strength of body, intellectual fac-
ulties, inclinations, etc., are influenced very much by parentage. Hereditary
disease, idiocy, weakness of mind or of constitution, deformity, tendency to
violent and ungovernable passions, vicious appetites and desires, are engendered
by parents, and are bequeathed as a heritage from generation to generation."

These are the words of a leading apologist of polygamy, who founds
an argument in his own favor upon this truth, now generally admit-
ted, but almost as generally ignored. It is impossible here to discuss
so wide and so difficult a question, and I must limit myself to these
few brief quotations from the " Key to the Science of Theology,"
leaving the reader to judge of their worth.

The series of pamphlets by Orson Pratt contains discussions on a
great variety of questions connected with Mormohism. In particular
the " Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon " is considered at
great length, as well as the question, " Was Joseph Smith sent of
God ? "

Mr. Orson Pratt endeavors to show, in the first place, that to ex-
pect more revelation is not unscriptural / secondly, that it is not un-
reasonable ; and, thirdly, that it is indispensably necessary. He then
goes on to compare the evidences of the Book of Mormon and of the
Bible, alleging that both alike have been confirmed by miracles, and
that the prophecies of the Bible, especially those of Isaiah, have been
fulfilled in the Book of Mormon and in the history of Mormonism.
Throughout his elaborate arguments he assumes the genuineness and
authenticity of the Bible, an assumption which he is of course entitled
to make in arguing with orthodox Christians. His position is : The
truth of the Bible rests upon sufficient evidence, and this evidence is
in every way weaker than that which can be adduced for the Book
of Mormon — therefore, a fortiori, the Book of Mormon is true.
"Whatever may be the flaw in this syllogism, those whom Archdeacon
Paley satisfies cannot fail to have some trouble in disposing of Mr.
Orson Pratt. Toward other Christian sects, whose creeds " are an
abomination unto the Lord," the Mormon apostle displays but little
brotherly feeling. Upon papist and Protestant alike he pours out
the vial of his wrath and contempt in language almost too forcible
for quotation ; but he seeks to base every reproach directed against
them upon texts from the orthodox Scriptures. The pamphlet enti-
tled " The Bible and Tradition, without Further Revelation, an Insuf-
ficient Guide," is, in fact, a powerful onslaught upon modern Christen-
dom, perhaps as damaging as any that a professed unbeliever could

166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have made, although in this case the assailant accepts with reverence
the Christian Scriptures, seeking to found thereon a revelation newer
and more complete.

It is somewhat disappointing, if the Book of Mormon is to be ac-
cepted as the new revelation, to find it so very inferior, alike in matter
and in style, to its great predecessors. Nearly equal in hulk to the
Old Testament, it lacks altogether the jjoetic grandeur and the graph-
ic force of the Hebrew Scriptures, although the Biblical phraseology
has been laboriously imitated throughout. It is styled "An Account
written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates taken from the Plates
of Nephi. Translated by Joseph Smith, Jr. : "

" Wherefore it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and
also of the Lamanites ; written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the
house of Israel ; and also to Jew and Gentile ; written by way of command-
ment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation. Written and sealed
up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed ; to come forth
by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof: sealed by the
hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by the
hand of Gentile ; the interpretation thereof by the gift of God.

" An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also ; which is a record of
the people of Jared ; who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the
language of the people when they were building a tower to get to heaven ;
which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the
Lord hath done for their fathers ; and that they may know the covenants of the
Lord, that they are not cast off forever ; and also to the convincing of the Jew
and Gentile, that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself
unto all nations. And now if there are faults, they are the mistakes of men ;
wherefore condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the
judgment-seat of Christ."

The sacred volume is divided into thirteen books, bearing the names
of various prophets, one of whom is Mormon. The last book is that
of Moroni, who says :

" Behold I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon. Behold, I
have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my
father. And now it came to pass that, after the great and tremendous battle
at Cumorah, behold, the Kephites, who had escaped into the country southward,
were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed ; and my father
also was killed by them, and I even remained alone to write the sad tale of the
destruction of my people. But, behold, they are gone, and I fulfill the com-
mandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not ; there-
fore I will write and hide up the records in the earth, and whither I go it mat-
tereth not. Behold my father hath made this record, and he hath written the
intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also, if I had room upon the
plates ; but I have not ; and ore I have none, for I am alone ; my father hath
been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolks, and I have not friends, nor whither
to go ; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not. Behold,
four hundred years have passed away since the coming of our Lord and Saviour.

" And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 167

in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being
handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. And if
our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have written in Hebrew ; but
the Hebrew hath been altered by us also ; and if we could have written in
Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record. But the
Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other
people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the inter-
pretation thereof. And these things are written, that we may rid our garments
of the blood of our brethren, who have dwindled in unbelief. And behold,
these things which we have desired concerning our brethren, yea, even their
restoration to the knowledge of Christ, is according to the prayers of all the
saints who have dwelt in the land. And may the Lord Jesus Christ grant that
their prayers may be answered according to their faith; and may God the
Father remember the covenant which he hath made with the house of Israel ;
and may he bless them forever, through faith on the name of Jesus Christ!
Amen."

The record in question professes to contain a history of the Ameri-
can Continent from the date" of its first colonization by Jared and bis
brother at the time of the dispersion from Babel down to the year
a. d. 420, when Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, buried his
plates in the hill of Cumorah. This account of prehistoric America is
but a tedious composition, full of battles and slaughter, full of proper
names, of reiterations, and of unnecessary phrases. We are told how
the Jaredites, emigrants from the valley of Nimrod, who " did carry
with them Deseret, which by interpretation is a honey-bee," attained
to great civilization and prosperity in North America, and were ut-
terly destroyed by internecine warfare about the year 600 b. c. They
were succeeded by a " remnant of the house of Joseph," brought from
Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah to inherit the land. These appear
to have crossed the Pacific Ocean, landing on the west coast of South
America, whence they eventually overspread that continent. They
separated before long into two distinct nations, known as Nephites
and Lamanites, the former migrating from the persecutions of the lat-
ter, and sailing "forth into the west sea by the narrow neck which
led into the land northward." Through the personal ministry of
Jesus Christ, who visited them shortly after his ascension, the Ne-
phites were converted from the Mosaic to the Christian faith, which
was in time accepted by the Lamanites also ; and for two hundred
years they prospered and multiplied, and there was no contention in
the land, all things being common among them. This golden age was
succeeded by a period of apostasy ; " and from that time forth they
did have their goods and their substance no more common among
them, and they began to be divided into classes, and they began to
build up churches unto themselves, to get gain, and began to deny
the true church of Christ." A terrible war broke out between the
Nephites, now settled in North America (known as the land Desola-
tion), and the Lamanites, who invaded them from the land Bountiful,

168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lying southward of the Isthmus of Darien. This war ended in the an-
nihilation of the Nephites, " an exceeding fair and delightsome peo-
ple," while a degraded remnant of the Lamanites still survive, after
fifteen centuries of rapine and discord, under the name of American
Indians. " Now the heads of the Lamanites were shorn ; and the}'
were naked, save it were skin, which was girded about their loins ;
and the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark
which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them be-
cause of their transgression." Thus the term Gentile is properly used
to denote the white man, as distinguished from the copper-colored
house of Israel, and the Mormons themselves are expressly described
as the " Gentile Saints." For the remnant of Joseph a glorious future
is prophesied. They, the despised redskins, shall have the land for
their inheritance, and it shall be " a land of liberty unto the Gentiles,
and there shall be no kings upon the land." They are to be the chief
agents in building the New Jerusalem, and will be converted and re-
deemed before their brethren of Judah. "

The story of the plates, from which the sacred book is said to
have been translated, first into English, and subsequently into nearly
all the European languages, is of some interest from an archaeologi-
cal point of view, and may be told in a few words. They are de-
scribed as having been found by Joseph Smith in a cyst composed of
six stones, smooth on the inner surfaces, and firmly cemented together.
This stone box was buried in the side of a hill near Palmyra, in the
State of New York. The plates had the appearance of gold, were six
by eight inches in width and length, each plate being nearly as thick
as common tin. They were filled on both sides with small char-
acters beautifully engraved, and were fastened at one edge with
three rings running through the whole : thus bound together they
formed a volume about six inches in thickness, a part of which was
sealed. Various unsuccessful attempts were made by the enemies of
Joseph Smith to obtain possession of these plates, and they finally
disappeared, having been examined and described by eleven persons,
whose testimony, signed with their names, is added to the Book of
Mormon.

The evidence of these persons would have been more conclusive
had not all of them been believers in the new prophet ; moreover, the
disappearance of the plates is not quite satisfactorily explained by
the statement that they were restored to the charge of the angel
under whose guidance they were discovered. Still the actual exist-
ence, as well as the genuine antiquity, of plates such as Joseph Smith
is said to have brought to light in 1827, seems to have been sufficiently
verified elsewhere.

In 1843, near Kinderhook, Illinois, in excavating a large mound,
six brass plates were discovered, of a bell-shape, four inches in length,
and covered with ancient characters. They were fastened together

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 169

with two iron wires, almost entirely corroded, and were found, along
with charcoal, ashes, and human bones, more than twelve feet below
the surface of a mound of the sugar-loaf form common in the Mis-
sissippi Valley. Large trees growing upon these artificial mounds
attest their great antiquity, and doubtless they contain much that
will reward future investigation. No key has yet been discovered
for the interpretation of the engravings upon these brass plates, or of
the strange glyphs upon the ruins of Otolum, in Mexico ; but when
an amount of talent, learning, and labor, equal to that bestowed upon
Egyptian hieroglyphics or Assyrian cuneiform characters, has been
devoted to American antiquities, we may hope to learn something of
those mysterious races whose history the Book of Mormon professes
to tell.

But if we admit that the plates themselves may have been genu-
ine, our faith in the founder of Mormonism, as a sincere religious
enthusiast, is staggered by his mode of interpreting their contents.
He tells us that he found along with the records an instrument, called
by him the Urim and Thummim, and described as consisting of " two
transparent stones set in the rim of a bow." Through the medium of
this instrument, he says that he translated the unsealed portion of
these scanty records, the result being a bulky volume in English, but
he does not explain whether he aised it as a magnifier, nor how it
proved to be a Rosetta stone for his hieroglyphics, merely asserting
that it was " by the gift and power of God." That Joseph Smith
believed in his own mission, his character and career alike appear to
indicate, and the many ecstatic visions which he describes were prob-
ably real enough to him, but the compilation of the Book of Mormon
was an act involving much time and labor, and cannot be accounted
for by ecstasy.

In these days of La-Salette and Paray-le-Monial it is, perhaps,
too much to say that a miracle, in order to find acceptance among
educated persons, must be relegated to a remote age and country, and
must be invested with a certain amount of external dignity. It is,
however, a severe test of faith to be called upon to accept miracles
and revelations from a prophet well known to men yet living as " Joe
Smith," and referred to as " Mr. S." in the writings of so eminent a
disciple as Mr. Orson Pratt. A most remarkable man Mr. S. un-
doubtedly was, capable of inspiring alike inestinguibil odio, eel indo-
mato amor. The bitter hostility of his opponents was more than
equaled by the devoted zeal of his converts, and, although murdered
by mob violence at the early age of thirty-eight, he had already so
well accomplished his work that the new creed, instead of dying with
him, continued to spread with increasing rapidity, and was preached
by his apostles and elders in every quarter of the globe. He was a
New-Englauder, born a. d. 1805, in the State of Vermont, and began
to have visions when he was about fourteen years of age. In 1830

170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-clay Saints was first organized
at Fayette, in the State of New York, and its headquarters were
moved gradually westward, until a considerable settlement was formed
in Jackson County, Missouri. Here it was expected that the New
Jerusalem would be built, but an organized system of persecution
drove the Saints out of the State of Missouri, and in 1839 they took
refuge in Illinois, where they built the city of Nauvoo, in Hancock
County, on the banks of the Mississippi, and enjoyed a short respite
from persecution. But in 1844 popular hostility broke out with in-
creased violence, and Joseph Smith (who had been frequently brought
before judicial tribunals, and invariably acquitted) proceeded with
his brother Hyrum to Carthage, where they surrendered themselves
prisoners on a charge of treason, the Governor of Illinois having
promised them protection and a fair trial. On the 27th of June, 1844,
a large body of men, with their faces blackened, surrounded the
prison, and murdered the two brothers Smith. Several of these men
were indicted for murder, and were tried about a year later, but they
were acquitted. The persecution of the Mormons did not slacken
after the death of their prophet, and in September, 1845, an armed
mob commenced burning houses in Hancock County, while the au-
thorities declared that the State was unable to protect the Mormons,
and they must therefore go. Preparations were made by Brigham
Young, President of the Twelve Apostles, and the other leaders of
the church,«to explore the Rocky Mountains in accordance with an
expressed intention of the deceased prophet, and in February, 1846,
the exodus of the Mormons commenced. It was not, however, rapid
enough to satisfy their enemies, and in September the city of Nau-
voo was burned by an armed mob, after several days' siege, and the
remnant of the Mormons was driven across the Mississippi into
Iowa. In the spring of 1847 Brigham Young, with a party of pio-
neers, started from his wTinter-quarters on the Missouri in search of a%
place of settlement. On the 24th of July he reached the Great Salt
Lake Valley, after a laborious march of more than one thousand
miles through an unexplored country. After erecting a fort, and
hoisting the stars and stripes upon what was then Mexican territory,
President Young hastened back to the banks of the Missouri, and in
the fall of 1848 he arrived once more in Salt Lake Valley, with eight
hundred wagons, and the main body of the Mormons. The severest
hardships were undergone by these people, not only during their
march, but during the first two years after settling in this barren
valley, four thousand three hundred feet above the sea, but strict dis-
cipline was enforced in the camp, and a careful system of rationing
was maintained, until an abundant harvest at last put an end to the
necessity. In 1850 the Territorial government of Utah was organ-
ized by act of Congress, and Brigham Young was appointed Governor
by the President of the United States. From that time forward the

MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 171

new colony has continued to prosper and progress with almost unex-
ampled rapidity, in spite- of great disadvantages as to soil, climate,
and situation.

There are few countries on the face of the globe where the Lat-
ter-day Saints have not attempted to preach their gospel, but as a
rule their preaching has not been tolerated. The records of their
missionary efforts make it obvious enough why they obtain so large
a proportion of their converts from Great Britain and Denmark,
while so few come from the Roman Catholic countries of Europe;
except in Scandinavia and the British Empire, the foreign missions
of the Mormons have failed through the opposition of the powers
that be, who have not only prohibited the missionaries from preach-
ing, but in many cases have expelled them from the country. Even
in Norway, so bitterly hostile were the ecclesiastics as to decide that
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a Christian
sect, in order to deprive it of the protection guaranteed by Nor-
wegian law to all Christian dissenters. Three paragraphs from the
Mormon Creed, as stated by Joseph Smith himself, will showr the in-
justice of such a decision :

" We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and
in the Holy Ghost. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all man-
kind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. We
believe that these ordinances are: First, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; second,
Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth,
Laying on of bands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost."

It is supposed that a larger percentage of the Danes than of any
other nation has hitherto embraced Mormonism, and a Danish news-
paper is regularly published at Salt Lake City. Since the separation
of Schleswisr-Holstein from Denmark, the recruitinu-sround of the
Mormons has been reduced, as their preaching has been rigidly sup-
pressed in those duchies. Of late years the immigration into Utah
from the European missions has varied from one to four thousand per-
sons annually. The most active attempts at propagandism appear to
have been made about the years 1852-'53, but in this country a Mor-
mon mission was founded as early as 1837, six years before the "Reve-
lation on Celestial Marriage " had given its peculiar character to Mor-
monism.

It was not until 1843, thirteen years subsequent to the publication
of the Book of Mormon, and to the first organization of the Church of
Latter-day Saints, that Joseph Smith proclaimed this new and star-
tling revelation. The style of the document resembles that of the
Book of Mormon, but it reveals " a new and an everlasting covenant,"
distinctly at variance with the teachings of that book already quoted,
and justifies the patriarchs, and David and Solomon, " as touching the
principle and doctrine of their having many wives." It is addressed

172

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to " my servant Joseph," and confers upon him " the keys and power
of the priesthood : And verily, verily I say unto you, that whatsoever
you seal on earth, shall he sealed in heaven." Upon " mine hand-
maid, Emma Smith, your wife," on the other hand, obedience and
submission are inculcated in the strongest terms. She is required to
" receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph —
And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave
unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide
this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord." The
revelation contains twenty-five short paragraphs only ; it is some-
what apologetic in general tone, and is full of scriptural quotations
and precedents. A considerate stipulation is made for the consent of
the first bride, when another is to be espoused : " As pertaining to
the law of the priesthood : If any man espouse a virgin, and desire
to espouse another, and the first give her consent ; and if he espouse
the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man,
then is he justified." A marriage contracted under the new covenant,
and sealed by the appointed authority, is valid to all eternity, whereas
in the case of ordinary married persons death terminates the con-
tract, and for them in heaven there will be neither marrying nor giv-

ing m marriage.

Such are the terms of Joseph Smith's "Revelation of Celestial Mar-
riage," which reminds one of the convenient doctrines from time to
time revealed to Mohammed upon analogous subjects. One more reve-
lation and prophecy remains to be noticed ; it is said to have appeared
in the " Pearl of Great Price," published at Liverpool in 1851, and to
have been " given by the prophet, seer, and revelator, Joseph Smith,"
on Christmas-day, 1832. The date of publication is the point requir-
ing verification, and a genuine copy of the pamphlet above named
would be invaluable, as the language of the alleged prophecy has no
prophetic ambiguity, and the fulfillment has been complete. In a few
terse words are described the rebellion of South Carolina, and the
consequent civil war, the appeal of the Southern States to Great
Britain for aid, the arming of the slaves against their masters, and
the outbreak of hostilities with the Indians. If there is any accuracy
'in the dates as stated, Joseph Smith must have been a man of rare
political sagacity and foresight.

At the present day most of our religious creeds and systems re-
semble the great ecclesiastical edifices of the middle ages ; relics of
days when faith was stronger and zeal was warmer. These magnifi-
cent relics may indeed be renovated by modern hands, and upon a
humble scale they can be reproduced, but the power of originating
such buildings has passed away, and ecclesiastical architecture is 110
longer a living art. So is it with the chief accepted systems of re-
ligion ; they have come down to us in their existing form from periods
with which we have nothing else in common ; they are not in harmony

MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS. 173

with the tone of modern life and thought, and could not have been
established in modern times. Nevertheless, they stand firmly on their
ancient foundations, and will long continue to stand, more or less al-
tered and repaired in accordance with modern exigencies.

But the Mormon church is an exception ; it has been founded in
these latter days, and may be said to have introduced a new order
of ecclesiastical architecture, although ancient materials have been
largely employed. Hence the doctrines and history of this church
appear to deserve careful study, for it presents to us a living example
of what its mightier predecessors must have been in their early ca-
reer. The extinct dinornis may be studied in the existing apteryx,
and thus (borrowing a fresh metaphor) among the fossils of the past
we seem to find one recent specimen, still full of organic life, illustrat-
ing the laws of growth, the habits, and the constitution of those spe-
cies whose dry bones alone remain to us now. The living apteryx
seems to be doomed ere long to become like its fossil congeners ; if
so, the time for study and observation is short.

Even those who have least sympathy with the peculiar doctrines
of the Mormons may be willing to enter a protest in their favor, when
the issue really lies between religious liberty and persecution. They
are the only Christian sect that has suffered in our own days severe
persecution at the hands of professing Christians, and their cause on
that account demands especial sympathy from all who advocate ab-
solute religious toleration. — Fortnightly Review.

MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS.1

By Rev. ARTHUR RIGG, M. A.

CUTTING edges are sometimes doubled, and thus the chisel
passes into another group of tools— shears. The most common
of these is the ordinary household scissors opened and closed by
hand; when required for heavier work, then one handle is fixed in a .
vise, and both hands can be employed upon the other lengthened
arm (see Figs. 1 and 2). At other times this double chisel opens with
a spring, and then the workman only employs himself in closing such
upon their work (Fig. 3). Compound lever power is sometimes intro-
duced, and, as an example of this, here is a pair of very light shears
called the "little giant" (Fig. 4), the mechanical contrivances in which
are so adjusted that we can, smoothly and without jar, cut an iron rod
one inch wide by one-quarter inch thick. The lightness of the tool
and the ease in cutting are very noticeable. It is an American con-

1 From a lecture delivered before the London Society of Arts.

17+

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

trivance, and the bar of iron is cut with the same ease as though it
were of lead. This results to some extent from both jaws approach-
ing each other. The arrangement of levers, cams, and stays, is
worthy of examination after the lecture.

' Fig. 1.

The use of the chisel, however skillfully handled, is not satisfac-
tory over a surface wider than itself, although widened and made two-
handed, as Fig. 5, and although the gouge has succeeded, or rather
been planned to precede it, there is still a tendency almost uncon-
querable for the tool to follow the leadings of the fibres rather than
cut through them at a very slight obliquity.

D

Fig. 2.

The only guidance either the axe, the adze, the pick, the gouge,

or the chisel receives, is from the skill of the workman. Hence these

tools produce such different work in different hands. However much

it may be desirable to encourage skill in the workman, it is quite as

. desirable to furnish him with implements which shall make the least

Fig. 3.

demand upon the exercise of this skill — which shall, in fact, so assist
the skill in one or more directions as to permit all its care in some
other direction. The assistance which the chisel needs is such as
shall not only prevent it running deeper into the timber than is de-

MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS. 175

sired, but shall enable it to be used with equal facility upon a broad
as upon a narrow surface.

Given a rough piece of timber, nine inches wide and five feet long,
to be smoothed by tools guided only by the handicraft skill of the
workman, setting aside the adze as dangerous and unsuitable, the

Fig. 4.

probability is, that the tools selected would be gouges and chisels of
various breadths and curvatures. The order of use would probably
be, first, the narrow and deeply-curved gouges, ^^, these to be fol-
lowed by the .shallower and broader, , — N, these ngain to be followed

A B

by the chisels, using in the first place a chisel wider than a b.

Let us consider what these tools. would respectively accomplish
if the timber is rough, as from the axe or pit-saw. The small gouge
would corrugate the surface, ww ^--^- ■ • the second gouge would en-
large the corrugation to this, w^-ww ; and the chisel might render

Fig. 5.

these more irregular. Such considerations as these, combined doubt-
less with others, led to the designing of what may be generally called
the " guide principle," and this has been extended to various branches
of artisan labor. At present we are only concerned with the applica-
tion of this principle to gouges and chisels. This guide principle
may consist of a guide as to the deptli of cut, or as to the form of the

j76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

surface, or as to the direction of travel, or as to the correction of cross
or longitudinal irregularities of surface.

The guide as to depth of cut is that which probably first pre-
sented itself as an important appendage to a chisel, and it has led to
a form of tool of a very useful construction, although of limited range.
The instrument is called a " spoke-shave." In this case the tool is
that in Fig. 5 with the guide principle introduced, the depth of cut
being determined by the nearness of the edge to a parallel wooden
handle.

This tool, owing to the position of the application of the power,
viz., the hands, and the tendency of resistance by the work to turn
the whole tool in the hand, is not of general use ; where, however, the
curvature of surface varies, the parings to be removed are light, and
the workman can have convenient access, the tool is one capable of
doing good work, and, in some respects, possesses advantages over
the plane, to which it probably formed an introduction.

The plane, in its most simple form, consists of a chisel inserted at
an angle into a box, generally of wood, and with the cutting edge of
the chisel projecting through the bottom of the box. If the actions
of a workman be noted as he is smoothing wood with a chisel alone,
it will be seen that he holds the bevel edge on the wood, and so
elevates or lowers the handle as to secure a proper and efficient cut.
Then he advances the tool in a line at right angles to its cross-sec-
tion. If, now, instead of thus continuing to hold the tool, the chisel
was so fixed in a movable piece of wood as to be at the same angle
as the workman required, then, if the mouth were broad enough, and
the instrument were propelled along the wood, a shaving would be re-
moved very nearly the same as that obtained from the chisel alone.

In the arrangement thus sketched the workman would be relieved
from the care needed to keep the tool at a constant angle with the
surface of the timber. There is, however, a fixity of tool here, and
consequently an optional or needful adjustment called for by any
varying condition of the problem cannot be had. When operated
upon by hand alone, if an obstacle to the progress of the tool is pre-
sented, as, for instance, a twist or curl in the fibre or grain of the
plank — the presence of a knot — then the workman by hand can adjust
the handle, and so vary the inclination of the cutting edge as the cir-
cumstances of the case require. Not so if the tool is securely fixed
in a box as described.

While, therefore, one gain has been had, one loss has been encoun-
tered. Can the gain be made to more than counterbalance the loss?
This can only be answered by observing the defects of the primitive
plane, as hitherto described, and noting what hopeful elements it
contains.

The front of the sole of the box will clearly prevent the pene-
tration of the incased chisel into the wood, because it cannot now be

MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS. 177

drawn to follow the fibre, should it lead inward. Suppose, however,
that in the progress of the work such a place has been reached as
would have so drawn the chisel inward. What will happen ? Either
the strength of the indrawing fibre will be so great that the work-
man will be unable to propel the tool, or, if not thus impeded, he
must by extra effort separate the fibre and so release the tool. This
separation, however, will not be by the process of cutting, but by
that of tearing, and shavings so torn off will have left their marks
in the roughnesses which attend the tearing asunder of fibrous
woods. Thus the tool will defeat the very object for which it was
designed.

Now, what is it which so forcibly draws, or tends to draw, the tool
downward below the surface of the timber ? The forces in operation
are the hand of the workman and the tenacity of the fibre. If the
tenacity is greater than the power, the workman must stop. That
the tool cannot follow the direction of the fibre is clear, because the
front part of the wooden sole forbids the penetration ; but that it may
be brought to a standstill, or must tear off the fibre, is also very
clear. The mechanician has therefore to consider how to defeat these
tendencies, which, as now sketched, result from a collision between
the indrawing strength of the fibre and the power of the man to cross-
cut the fibre by the tool, or else to tear it asunder and leave the sur-
face rough.

Since the tool, as now contrived, cannot efficiently cross-cut the
resisting fibre, and since that fibre has to be removed, the object
must be either to prevent such an accumulation of fibres as will stop
the progress of the tool, or to destroy the fibre piecemeal as it is
operative for hinderance. Both plans have been adopted. A consid-
eration of the former may prove introductory to the latter, which ap-
pears in almost all attempts to perfect this tool and its appended
contrivance.

As the tool pi-ogresses, and the fibres become more and more im-
peding, it will be clear that a portion of this impediment results from
a condensation of the fibre in the mouth of the wooden box. The
more numerous the fibres admitted here, the greater will be the con-
densation. This state of affairs can be partially obviated by a nar-
rowing of the mouth of the plane ; such an act, of course, requires that
the introduced chisel should enter less deeply into the timber being
operated upon. Although thus abated, the cause is not removed, and
even if so far abated as to prove no real impediment to the workman,
yet the quantity of material removed on each occasion will be so
small that the tool becomes one for finishing work only, and not for
those various operations to which its present powers enable artisans
to apply it.

To be the useful tool it is, the mouth must not be so narrowed, nor
the inserted chisel so withdrawn, that the shaving is thus the thinnest

VOL. X. — 12

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

possible. This led to a contrivance now almost universal, that of
breaking the fibre so soon as it is separated from the piece of timber.
The designer seems to have considered that, as soon as a short length
of shaving had been removed, it would be well to destroy the continu-
ity of the fibre, and so prevent an accumulative resistance from this
cause. Hence, instead of allowing the cut-off fibres to slide up the in-
serted chisel, he bent them forward, in fact, cracked them, and so
broke the cumulative indrawing force of them. This he accomplished
by the use of what is now called the back-iron, and henceforth the
boxed-in chisel loses its identity, and must be regarded as part of an
independent tool.

The tool thus built up is called a plane, and from its general utili-
ty, and capability of adaptation to various forms and conditions, it is
well deserving of the high opinions entertained of its powers. Three
forms of this tool are in general use in English workshops, called the
"jack," the "trying," and the "smoothing" planes. These are on
the bench of all workers in smooth, straight-surface wood. Although
externally alike except in size, they are yet used for different purposes,
and each has a specialty met with in its construction. These special-
ties may now be considered.

After the wood has passed from the sawyer into the hands of the
carpenter, the surface undergoes those operations which render it
true and smooth. These three planes do this work. The "jack,"
usually about fifteen inches long, and the " trying " plane, ranging
from eighteen inches to twenty-four inches long, but, in exceptional
cases, far exceeding these dimensions, are to external appearances
alike ; indeed, some regard the different handles as the only distinc-
tions between them, and that these handles show which must be used
for rough work and which for smooth (see Fig. 8 as an example of the
handle of a "jack-plane," and Fig. 9 as an example of a " trying-plane
handle "). This is an error. There are other differences, but the main
and leading one is the different form given to the edge of the cutting-
iron.

Fig. 6. Fig. 7.

If the iron of the "jack" plane be looked at from the front end of
the plane, the form of the edge will be curved, as in Fig. 6 ; but the
iron of the " trying " plane is straight, as in Fig. V. Upon the curva-
ture of the edge depends the efficient action of the "jack."

Sufficient has been said of the tendency of the fibre to draw the
tool downward ; but it must not be forgotten that the same adhesion

MORE CONCERNING MECHANICAL TOOLS. 179

of fibre to fibre takes place between the surface-fibres as among those
below the surface. If tools excluded from this course of lectures had
entered, we should have found that these connecting surface-fibres
are separated by the addition of certain supplementary appendages to
the tools. The depth to which the plane penetrates has led to the
combination in one edge of such supplementary parts.

For the purpose of separating the surface connecting fibres, the
jack-iron is convex. Note now its action. The convex sharp edge
is pushed along an horizontal plank, penetrating to a depth determined
by the projection of each vertical section below the sole of the plane.
The ends of this convex edge are actually within the box of the plane ;
consequently (sideways) all the fibres are separated by cutting, and
are therefore smooth and not torn. The effect of this upon the entire
surface is to change the surface from the original section to a sec-
tion irregularly corrugated. The surface after using the "jack" is
ploughed, as it were, with a series of valleys and separating hillocks,
the valleys being arcs from the convexity of the tool, and the separat-
ing hillocks being the intersections of these arcs. All traces of the
tearing action of the saw have been removed, and from a roughened
but level surface a change has been made to a smooth but in cross-
section an undulating one.

The mechanician's next object is to remove these lines of separa-
tion between the valleys. For this, the trying-plane is required. The

Fig. 8.

trying-plane is longer than the jack, because the 6ole of the plane
which is level is, so far as its size goes, the counterpart of that which
the surface of the wood is to be ; further, the trying-plane should be
broader than the jack, because its object is to remove the valleys,
and not to interfere with the wood below the bottoms of the valleys.
If its action passes below the bottoms of the furrows, then occasion
arises for cutting the side-connection of the fibres, and, however a
workman may sharpen the edge of his trying-plane for this purpose,
he in one respect has destroyed one object of the plane, because, so
soon as the iron penetrates below the surface, so soon does the effect
of the jack-action begin to reappear, and the cutting edge should pass
from the shape shown in Fig. 8 to the shape in Fig. 7. The result of

180 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the trying-plane following the jack is to remove all the elevations of
wood above the valleys the jack left ; and, secondly, to compensate by
its great length for any want of lineal truth consequent upon the
depth of bite of the jack. Again, the mouth of the trying-plane is
much narrower than that of the jack ; hence the shavings removed
are finer; therefore the slope of the iron, or its inclination to the wood,
may be less than is the iron of the "jack" — hence the line of cut is
1more nearly accordant with that of the fibre, and by so much the sur-
face is left more smooth from the trying-plane than from the jack, as
there is more cutting and less tearing action than in the jack. The
reasoning hitherto pursued in reference to the purpose of this sequence
of a jack and trying plane might and does legitimately produce the
conclusion that, after the trying-plane has done its duty, the work is
as perfectly finished as it can be. Custom, and perhaps other con-
siderations, have established that after the long trying-plane must
follow the short and almost single-handed smoothing-plane. So far as
the form of the iron of the smoothing-plane is concerned, there is no
difference between it and the one used in the trying-plane ; each (as
across the plane) is straight, the corners being very slightly curved,
but only so much as to insure that they do not project below the line
of the cutting edge.

Fig. 9.

The facet edge and inclination of the cutter to the work, and the
position of the back-iron, are now under consideration.

It would seem that, while the trying-plane leveled down all the
elevations left by the jack, and brought the surface of the wood as a
counterpart of that of the plane, there might be, in the fibre or grain
of the wood, twists, curls, and other irregularities, which, while lev-
eled, were yet left rough in consequence of the direction in which the
cutting edge came upon them. Indeed, this cutting edge in a long
plane, which must advance in the direction of its length, must at times
come across a large number of surfaces where the fibre is in opposite
directions. The consequence is, that there will be various degrees
of smoothness ; for good work these must be brought to uniformity.
This is effected by passing a short-soled plane over the respective
parts of the surface in such directions as observation may suggest.
Hence the smoothing-plane is of use chiefly to compensate for such

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 181

changes in the direction of the fibres of the wood as the longer length
of the trying-plane could not conveniently deal with. Hitherto, we
have regarded the plane as arranged with a " guide principle " which
shall always repeat a straight, level surface. The guide may, how-
ever, be the counterpart of any required surface. The plane made of
iron, now in my hand, has an elastic steel sole, which, by means of
adjusting screws, enables a workman readily to convert a straight-
faced sole into one either concave or convex. This is an American
production {see Fig. 10).

Fig. 10.

There is also in this and other planes a mode of fixing the iron
which deserves more general adoption than it receives, viz., by a cam-
action. It will often be noticed that, where the holding-wedge binds
on the box of the plane in our ordinary planes, the wood has split.
This arises from a commendable but, in this case, too strict a care
for a good fit; hence the wedge is made tight where it should be
slack.

•♦«»

WHAT AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS HAVE DONE FOR

EVOLUTION.1

By Professor EDWAED S. MOESE,

II.

IN the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Sciences" may be
found a profound mathematical essay " On the Uses and Origin of
the Arrangement of Leaves and Plants," 2 by the lamented Chauncey
Wright. After discussing the laws of phyllotaxy, and showing that
the botanist is wrong in supposing this a law at the outset, Mr.
Wright states " one of the utilities, so to speak, in the apparently

1 An address delivered at the meeting of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Read at Buffalo, New York, August, 1876, by Edward S. Morse, Vice-
President of Biological Section.

* " Memoirs of the American Academy," vol. ix., p. 379.

i83 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

undeviating arrangement of leaves, to be the distributing of leaves
most rapidly" and thoroughly around the stem, exposed more com-
pletely to light and air, and provided with greater freedom for sym-
metrical expansion, together with more compact arrangement of
bud; " and he asks, " What has determined such an arrangement of
vital forces ? " Theory of types would say, their very nature, or an
ultimate creative power. Theory of adaptation would say, the ne-
cessity of their lives, both outward and inward ; or the conditions,
both past and present, of their existence.

Whatever tends to show modification in the markings, color, size,
food, or change in the variety of habits manifested by animals, fur-
nishes just so many indications of the unstable character of what had
before been considered stable, and gives an infinitely wider field for
those unconscious selections whose operations are coincident with
every change in the physical features of the earth. On the theory
of derivation additional confirmation is given to the deductions of
geologists based upon the stratigraphical and paleontological evi-
dences of the rocks. The survival of a marine crustacean in the deep-
er waters of Lake Michigan, as discovered by Stimpson, coupled with
similar occurrences in the lakes of Sweden, suggests the past connec-
tion of these waters with the ocean. In the same way the persistence
of arctic forms on high mountain-tops indicates the existence in past
times of wide-spread glacial fields. The interesting discoveries of Mr.
Ernest Ingersoll, in the Rocky Mountains, of the occurrence of two
species of marine mollusks and living crabs belonging to marine forms,
a*nd tiny air-breathing mollusks peculiar to the Gulf coast and West
Indies, point as distinctly to the past connection of that region with
the ocean as the records of marine life left in the rocks. And more
than this, the survival of these few forms gives us a conception of the
thousands of animals which have succumbed to the changed condi-
tions. Connected with the evidences of recent elevation of this re-
gion are the discoveries of Marsh in finding that, when the gill-bear-
ing salamander Siredon is brought down from the colder waters of
the Rocky Mountains to the warmer waters below, a complete change
takes place in a loss of the gills and the conversion of the animal
into the air-breathing genus Amblystoma.

This exhibits on a wider scale the experiments often performed in
keeping tadpoles in the dark and cold, and indefinitely retarding
their development, thus forcing them, as it were, to retain their ear-
lier condition. Among the many millions of individuals of Ambly-
stoma, some must have presented the anomaly of a premature devel-
opment of their ovaries before the larval stage had passed away
(similar cases being observed among insects), and thus it has been
possible for them to perpetuate their kind in this stage. The Axo-
lotl, having the longest persisted in this mode of growth, has be-
come, as it were, almost fixed in these retrograde characters, only a

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 183

few examples being known in which the creatures have lost their
gills and assumed the mature characters of Amblystoma, hut with
Siredon a change takes place with a proper change of surroundings.

To American students we are indebted for most valuable contri-
butions regarding the effect of cave influences on animals living
within their boundaries. Looking at the cave fauna with its pecul-
iar assemblage of animals, it would seem that here, at least, the
question as to the effects of certain external influences, or the absence
of others in modifying structure, might be found.

Many years ago the editors of Silliman's Journal addressed a
letter to Prof. Agassiz respecting the blind fishes of the Mammoth
Cave, and asked his opinion as to whether their peculiar structure
was due to their cave life, or whether they had been specially created.
Agassiz's ' reply is consistent with his belief. He says, " If physical
circumstances ever modified organized beings, it should be easily as-
certained here." He then expresses his conviction that " they were
created under the circumstances in which they now live, within the
limits over which they range, and with the structural peculiarities
which characterize them at the present day," adding frankly, how-
ever, that these opinions are mere inferences.

With the contributions on cave insects by the eminent zoologist
Schiodte, and our own naturalists as well, we have now overwhelm-
ing proof that the blind fishes and numerous other cave animals are
marked with peculiarities impressed upon them by the unusual envi-
ronments to which they have been subjected.

In a work on the animals of the Mammoth Cave, by Dr. A. S. Pack-
ard and Prof. Putnam, the first-named writer quotes the results of
Schiodte, wherein he shows the existence of twilight animals in which
but slight modification occurs, while in darker places the changes be-
come more profound.

Dr. Packard 2 sums up the results of his work as follows : " We
then see that these cave animals are modified in various ways, some
being blind, others very hairy, others with long appendages ; all are
not modified in the same way in homologous organs, another argu-
ment in proof of their descent from ancestors whose habits varied as
their out-of-door allies do at present."

Prof. E. D. Cope,3 in an article on the fauna of Wyandotte Cave,
in commenting on the loss of eyes in cave animals from absence of
light, and consequent disuse, says that, to prove it, " we need only to
establish two or three propositions: 1. That there are eyed genera
corresponding closely in other general characters with the blind ones.
2. The condition of the visual organs is in some cave type vari-
able. 3. If the abortion of the visual organs can be shown to take
place coincidently with general growth to maturity, an important

1 American Journal of Science, second series, vol. xi., p. 128.

2 " Life in the Mammoth Cave," p. 27. 3 American Naturalist, vol. vi., p. 415.

184 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

point is gained in explanation of the modus operandi of the process."
He then proceeds to point out a number of related genera in which
the external ones present eyes, while the cave forms are blind. As to
variability, he cites the blind siluroid fish from Conestoga, Pennsyl-
vania, showing that, while all of several specimens were blind, the
degree of atrophy was marked not only in different fishes, but even on
different sides of the same fish. In some the corium was perforate,
in others it was imperforate. In some the ball of the eye was oval,
in others collapsed.

We have in the meagre fauna of the caves convincing proof of the
gradual undoing of parts — so to speak — on the withdrawal of influ-
ences favorable to them ; even so exquisite a structure as the eye as
a result of selection almost inconceivable, yet not only becoming
rudimentary, but almost disappearing, by the withdrawal .of those
influences which were in part conducive to its building up. So dis-
tinct are these undoing stages that, were we sure of the stable vari-
ability of all of them, we could with certainty indicate the relative
age of each cave inhabitant.

Prof. Alpheus Hyatt and Prof. E. D. Cope almost simultaneously
established a number of propositions relating to certain large groups
of animals which had never been recognized before. The theory of
acceleration and retardation in which certain groups acquire rapidly
new characters, while corresponding groups acquire the same charac-
ters more slowly, forms a portion of the theory of these naturalists.
Prof. Hyatt has shown among Ammonites a parallel between the
life-stages of. the individual and similar stages in the group based
upon an examination of suites of specimens as studied by him in
Europe and America. It is utterly impossible to do the slightest
justice to the thoroughly original views of these gentlemen without
the aid of explanatory diagrams. While reluctantly abandoning the
attempt, I must at the same time express the regret that neither of
these investigators has seen fit to present to the public an illustrated
and simple outline of the main features of their theories and the facts :
Prof. Cope basing in part his propositions on groups of animals, many
of which comprise fossil forms brought to light in the West, of which
but few restorations have yet been made ; and Prof. Hyatt basing his
work on fossil Ammonites from the Jurassic and adjacent beds of
Europe, of which but one complete collection is to be found in this
country.

Surely, with this unfamiliar material, an excuse may be offered in
not attempting a popular presentation of propositions and laws, some
doctrinal and others theoretical, which must yet be looked upon as
profound and permanent additions to the philosophy of evolution. A
reference may be made to Prof. Cope's essays, entitled " Origin of
Genera," " On the Method of Creation of Organic Types," " Con-
sciousness in Evolution," " On the Theory of Evolution," and numer-

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 185

ous other memoirs from which may be gathered the author's views
on the subject. The essays of Prof. Hyatt, " On the Parallelism be-
tween the Different Stages of Life in the Individual and those in the
Entire Group of the Molluscan Order Tetrabranchiata," "Reversions
among Ammonites," " Evolution of the Arietidae," " Genetic Relations
of the Angulatidse," " Abstract of a Memoir on the Biological Rela-
tions of the Jurassic Ammonites," are altogether too technical to
condense into an address of this nature. It need hardly be mentioned
that in these memoirs invaluable contributions are made to the doc-
trines of natural selection. And now we come to the most difficult
part of our work : to compass within the limits of a few pages the mag-
nificent discoveries of Leidy, Marsh, and Cope, in the rich fossiliferous
beds of the West. The wonders are so unique and varied ; they have
been poured upon us with such prodigality of material and illustra-
tion, that one is baffled in an attempt to compass their characters, or
to picture them as realities. When Darwin offered the imperfection
of the geological record as possibly accounting for the absence of in-
termediate forms which might have existed, he was at once met by a
series of protests so strenuous, and at the same time so specious, that
they had their full weight in staying the force of that prophetic chap-
ter. Darwin, in this chapter, distinctly stated that n6t only were
there forms which had never yet been seen, owing to the imperfection
of the geological record, but that time might possibly bring them to
light, and, when discovered, we should have revealed to us interme-
diate characters which would connect widely-separated groups as
they are recognized to-day.

Behold the prophet ! Animals have been discovered, not only
showing the characters of two widely-separated groups, but in some
cases of three groups as they now appear. How distinct the hoofed
quadrupeds, the carnivora, and the rodents, appear to-day ! Yet here
are discovered ancestors of these widely-separate groups, in which
are contained in one individual the characters of all three ! Of the
ungulates with the perissodactyle foot, there have been discovered a
large number of tapiroid forms allied to Paleotherium ; others which,
like Anchitherium, wonderfully fill the gap between the horse and
forms lower down ; a large suite of rhinocerotic creatures of strange
character and enormous size ; a great number of species of three-
toed horse, some no larger than foxes, and with these a perplexing
maze of deer, antelopes, sheep, camels, hippopotami, and pig-like ani-
mals, ruminant-like beasts, some of them not larger than an ordinary
squirrel: a curious group, comprising a large number of species with
characters intermediate between the pigs and ruminants. Prof.
Flower, the great English osteologist, confesses that these forms
completely break down the line of demarkation between them, and
adds that " a gradual modification can be traced in the characters
of the animals of this group, corresponding with their chronological

186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

position, from the earlier more generalized to the latest comparatively
specialized forms, thus affording one of tbe most complete pieces of
evidence that are known in favor of a progressive alteration of form,
not only of specific, but even of generic importance through advanc-
ing ages." The probable home of tbe Camelida? has been revealed in
tbe discovery of llama-like creatures, gigantic mammals, in some cases
exceeding tbe elephant in size, but with a diversity of characters
hitherto unseen either in recent or fossil forms, combining as they did
the characters of perissodactyle and proboscidia*n.

A numberless variety of Carnivora, many of them embracing the
most generalized groups, have been brought to light, such as creat-
ures between the wolf and the opossum, generalized dogs, and sabre-
toothed cats.

A great many species belonging to the Rodentia, Insectivora, and
Chiroptera, have been identified ; still more wonderful is a group of
creatures so unlike any beast heretofore known that Prof. Marsh has
made a new order to include them under the name of Tillodontia.
They combine the characters of several distinct groups, namely, the
carnivores, ungulates, and rodents, and some of them in size equal-
ing the tapir. Of great interest also is the discovery of fifteen new
genera, belonging to low forms of primates. All of these creatures,
embracing hundreds of species, are generalized in a high degree.
New orders have been erected to embrace some of them. One has
only to understand the specialization of modern animals to appreciate
tbe generalized character of these early forms.

Prof. Marsh has shown that all the ungulates in the Eocene and
Miocene had upper and lower incisors ; and, again, that all the Eocene
and Miocene mammals, including the Carnivora, had two of the wrist-
bones, tbe scaphoid and lunar, as distinct bones.

The class of birds so long represented as a closed type can no
longer occupy that isolated position. Tbe proper interpretation of
archaeopteryx has, in the discoveries of Marsh, new interest. He has
discovered a number of species of birds, for which a new sub-class is
made. This sub-class will embrace two sub-orders, one in which the
creatures had teeth contained in grooves in the jaws ; the other bad
true teeth in the sockets. The first were swimming-birds of gigantic
size, with rudimentary wings ; the second embraced small birds, witb
powerful wings and bi-concave vertebra?.

Prof. Cope has also brought to light a remarkable gigantic bird
from tbe Eocene of New Mexico ; its size indicates a species with feet
twice as large as those of the ostrich. He shows it to be distinct from
any of tbe genera of Struthionidce or Dionornithidce. Besides all these
wonders, a host of new forms of reptiles and fishes have been discov-
ered by these indefatigable explorers — huge pterosauria discovered by
Marsh with a spread of wing of twenty-four feet ; and of more special
interest is the fact that no trace of teeth can be found in the jaws.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 187

It is impossible for me to more than allude to these remarkable
additions to our knowledge of these early forms, and until tbey have
all been figured with natural outlines, and perplexing questions as to
priority in discovery rectified, it will be difficult in some cases to ac-
credit individual work. But in the light of these profound revela-
tions, how blind seem the attempts to establish a classification on the
forms heretofore familiar to us, and to rear these into circumscribed
groups between which it was asserted no forms of intermediate kinds
were to be expected ! "With the twenty-five or thirty species of fossil
horses at our command, some with four toes, others with three, in
various stages of reduction, it is interesting to bring back to mind
the earnest Geoffroy St.-Hilaire painfully endeavoring to trace the
genealogy of the horse, with a few widely-separated forms of extinct
mammals as his only guide in the work.

The special investigations of Marsh and Leidy reveal an almost
unbroken line from our present horse with its simple toe, and two
rudimentary metatarsals in the shape of the splint-bones, to a creature
in which metatarsals support rudimentary toes, and still other forms
in which these rudimentary toes are working-toes, and below that
again another form in which a fourth toe is seen as a rudiment, till
forms are reached in which all the toes rest on the ground. It is still
more striking to study attentively those earlier generalized horses
with four toes, and follow the successive reduction in the number of
toes as the later formations are reached, till in the latest deposits and
at present we have the modern specialized horse with but a single
toe, the lost toes represented by two slender bones hidden beneath
the flesh. And now comes crowning proof that our modern horse has
been derived from some three-toed px-ogenitor, for in certain instances
horses have come into existence with splint-bones developed into sturdy
bones sustaining at the extremities phalangeal bones, and outside ac-
cessory hoofs ! Such freaks of Nature demand an explanation. They
receive a rational one through the theories of Darwin. Without the
law of reversion, we are left in blind bewilderment.

While all these facts in overwhelming array testify to the extreme
mutability of forms, induced oftentimes by apparently the most triv-
ial of causes, and set at rest the question as to the fixedness of spe-
cies, they show at the same time the richness of that store from which
by natural selection forms may be selected.

Realizing the uniformity of Nature's laws, the human mind
bravely asks, " Do these wonderful interpretations throw any light
upon the origin of man ? "

Rigidly adhering to the inductive method, science is prepared to
show that man did not appear suddenly and free from those animal
proclivities and passions which make him a sinful creature, but that
he has risen from a lowly origin, and his passions and desires, but
feebly repressed, may be as surely traced to ancestral traits, as the

i88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

aberrant muscles in his structure may be recognized in some degraded
progenitor. And in proof of this there is established a series of facts
of precisely the same nature as is seen in those discoveries which link
the horse in an almost unbroken line to earlier and more generalized
animals.

It is instructive to read the discussions in relation to man's posi-
tion in Nature as represented by Agassiz, Morton, and others.

The position that these eminent men were justified in taking
shocked the Church, and received from her the same vigorous denun-
ciations that Darwin was forced to bear at a later day.

The systematist, in formulating the separate species and genera
of the apes and monkeys, was early led to see that man also in vari-
ous parts of the world presented differences quite as striking, and
if it were assumed, as indeed it was, that the peculiarities among
men were only varietal, then it could be claimed with equal empha-
sis that the differences among apes were only varietal. Agassiz, in
his keen grasp of things, readily saw this, and, since the races of men
revealed differences just as specific in their characters as the animals
immediately below them, he was forced to admit the plurality of ori-
gin of the human race. He says :

"Unless we recognize the differences among men, and we recognize the
identity of these differences with the differences which exist among animals, w'o
are not true to our subject, and, whatever be the origin of these differences,
they are of some account ; and if it ever is proved that all men have a common
origin, then it will be at the same time proved that all monkeys have a common
origin, and it will by the same evidence be proved that man and monkeys can-
not have a different origin."

He confesses that he " saw the time coming when the position of
the origin of man would be mixed up with the question of the origin
of animals, and a community of origin might be affirmed for them
all." With these convictions it is not surprising that he should have
been led to express the opinions regarding the diversity of the human
race that we find recorded.

Agassiz, in the meetings of the American Academy, repeatedly and
in various ways illustrated the diversity of the human race. In one
place he alludes to the difficulty in defining the species of man, and
says the same difficulties occur in defining the species of anthropoid
apes. We quote from the records :

" The languages of different races of men were neither more different nor more
similar than the sounds characteristic of animals of the same genus ; and their
analogy can no more be fully accounted for on any hypothesis of transmission
or tradition than in the case of birds of the same genus uttering similar notes in
Europe and America." — (" Proceedings of the American Academy," vol. hi., p. 6.)

Again, in a later volume, he expresses a general disbelief in the
supposed derivation of later languages from earlier ones. He re-

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 189

garded each, language and each race as substantially primordial, and
ascribed their resemblances to a similarity iu the mental organization
of the races.

This extract illustrates the extremity to which one is logically
driven if he accepts the hypothesis of special creation, and these
words are quoted, not with the belief that at the present time they
would have been uttered, but as illustrating the necessary admissions
with the theory of plurality of origin. In precisely the same man-
ner that Whitney, Miiller, and other eminent philologists, have shown
the outgrowth of present existing languages from primitive forms
of language, so science is prepared to show the outgrowth of pres-
ent men from primitive forms of animals. Agassiz was bitterly as-
sailed by the Church for the bold attitude he assumed regarding the
plurality of origin of the human race, though now that science will
show that after all man has originated from a common centre, it seems
no better satisfied. The facts bearing on man's lowly origin have
been fully contributed by American students, and, as all intelligent
men understand the bearing of these facts on the question, it is only
necessary to allude to them here. If man has really been derived
from an ancestor in common with the ape, we must expect to show —
1. That in his earlier stages he recalls certain persistent characters
in the apes; 2. That the more ancient man will reveal more ape-like
features than the present existing man ; and, 3. That certain character-
istics pertaining to early men still persist in the inferior races of men.

Prof. Wyman l points out certain resemblances between the limbs
of the human embryo and the permanent condition of the limbs of
lower animals. In some human embryos about an inch in length he
found that the great-toe was shorter than the others, and, instead of
being parallel to them, projected at an angle from the side of the
foot, thus corresponding with the permanent condition of this part
in the Quadrumana.

In some observations made on the skeleton of a Hottentot, Prof.
Wyman2 calls attention to the complete ossification of the nasal
bones, no trace of a suture remaining. This was more noticeable as
the individual was young, and the other bones were immature, and
had an interest " in connection with the fact that the nasal bones are
coossified at an early period in the monkeys and before the completion
of the first dentition in gorillas and chimpanzees." Careful measure-
ments of the pelvis also revealed quadrumanous features, though " the
resemblance is trifling in comparison with the differences."

In a study of the crania, Wyman 3 found differences in the rela-
tive position of the foramen magnum. In the North American In-
dian this opening was farther back than in the negro, while some cra-
nia from Kauai presented this opening still farther back than in the

1 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. x., p. 185.
8 Ibid., vol. ix., p. 352. 3 Ibid., vol. xi., p. 447.

i9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ,

Indian ; and more than half the lot from Kauai had the peculiarity in
the nostrils first pointed out in the negro by Dr. John Neil, of Phila-
delphia, namely, the deficiency of the sharp ridge which forms the
lower border of the opening. In its jjlace is a rounded border, or an
inclined plane.

This feature occurs very frequently in different races, but more
rarely in Europeans. It is, however, never absent in the apes. Prof.
Wyman, in studying the characters of certain ancient crania from a
burial-place near Shell Mound, Florida, observed the foramen mag-
num quite far back, and remarks on the massive character of the bones
composing the skull, the parietal being nearly twice the thickness of
ordinary parietals, while the general roughness of the surfaces for
muscular attachments on the hinder part of the head is very strik-
ing.1

In certain measurements of synostotic crania, Prof. "Wyman
found that the length of the parietals was twenty-four millimetres
above the average, the parietals being lengthened from before back-
ward, the frontal and occipital being but slightly augmented. Now,
in the much-discussed Neanderthal skull, wherein it is urged by Dr.
Davis that it is a synostotic skull, though denied by Huxley, Wyman
shows that the parietals measure nine millimetres below the average,
which is certainly against the view that the Neanderthal skull is
synostotic.3

In an essay entitled " Observations on Crania and Other Parts of.
the Skeleton," Prof. Wyman shows that the relative capacity of the
skull " is to be considered merely as an anatomical and not as a
physiological characteristic," 3 a most important distinction certainly
in considering the large capacity of certain ancient skulls, since we
must know the quality as well as the quantity in order to assume the
intellectual position of the races. In this essay are also quoted the
results of a large series of measurements made by Dr. B. A. Gould,
in which it is shown that the arms of the blacks are relatively longer
as compared with the whites, in this respect approaching the higher
animals, a confirmation of the observations made by Broca, Pruner
Bey, Lawrence, and others.

The perforation of the humerus, which occurs in the apes quite
generally, was found to occur rarely in the white race. Of fifty
humeri, Wyman found but two perforated, while of Indian humeri
he found thirty-one per cent, perforated. In some of the remains of
ancient men there has been found a remarkable lateral flattening of
the tibia, unlike anything found at present, but always characteris-
tic of the earliest races. These tibiae have received the name of
platycnemic tibiae.

1 " Fourth Annual Report of the Peabody Archaeological Museum. Cambridge."

" Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xi., p. 455.
3 " Fourth Annual Report of the Peabody Archaeological Museum."

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 191

Wyman ' quotes Broca as saying that the measurements of these
tibiae resemble the ape, and, what is more striking, in a small number
of instances " the bone is bent aud is strongly convex forward, and
its angles so rounded as to present the nearly oval section seen in the
apes." The occurrence of these platycnemic tibiae has been noticed
by several investigators. They have been obtained from the mounds
of Kentucky by Mr. Carr, Mr. Lyon, and Prof. Putnam. Prof. Wyman
found them in Florida mounds. To Mr. Henry Gillman, of Detroit,
science is indebted for the discovery of the flattest tibiae ever recorded,
exceeding even those discovered in Europe. Mr. Gillman has opened
a number of mounds along the Detroit and Rouge Rivers in Michigan,
and assiduously studied the characters of these remains, which indi-
cate a very ancient race of men. Many of these tibia? he has sent
to the Peabody Archaeological Museum at Cambridge. Associated
with these remarkable tibia? he found large numbers of perforated
humeri.

At the Detroit meeting of the Association, Prof. W. S. Barnard
showed that the muscles which move the fingers and toes have been
developed from one common muscle, and, in studying the various de-
grees of specialization of the muscles which move the hand and foot
in the gorilla and lower apes, he finds that in the foot " man remains
a creature of the past not modified by that which makes him a man,
the brain. The hand has been modified and perfected by its services
to the brain." Prof. Barnard also contributed another essay, entitled
" Comparative Myology of Man and the Apes." From very careful
studies he is led to believe that the relative position of the origin of the
muscles is more constant than that of their insertions. In this ex-
amination he brings to light a muscle which Traill dissected in the
higher apes, and which he called the scansorius, and this was sup-
posed to have no representative in man.

Traill was followed by Wyman, Owen, Wilder, and Bischoff, who,
in a controversy with Huxley, argued from this muscle against the
simian origin of man. Mr. Barnard now shows that Traill was mis-
taken, and that other naturalists were misled by the weight of his
authority. What Traill interpreted as the gluteus minimus is the
piriformis, and what he figured as a new muscle separating the apes
from man, the scansorius, is the homologue of our gluteus minimus.

From gradually accumulating data, in regard to microcephalic
skulls, it would seem as if Carl Vogt were right in judging them to be
cases of reversion. Prof. Wyman says, in regard to a microcephalic
skull from Mauritius, that, " taking together the high temporal ridges,
the union of the temporals with the frontals, the projection of the
jaws, the narrow and retreating forehead, the small capacity, and the
form and proportions of the nasal openings, the general resemblance
to that of an ape is most striking, and seems to justify Vogt's expres-
1 " Fourth Annual Report of the Peabody Archaeological Museum."

i9z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sion of a man-ape, it being understood that the skull we are describing
is not a natural, but an anomalous formation." '

It would be difficult to imagine, indeed, that mere reduction in
the size of the brain, through arrest of development, should produce
a series of characters so closely resembling the apes as is found to be
the case in so many widely-separated examples. Thus, in the Mau-
ritius microcephalic skull the capacity is only twenty-five cubic inches.
The jaws are extremely prognathous, the zygomatic arches stand out
wide and free, and the temporal ridges approach within one and a
quarter inch. If such examples should prove to be veritable cases
of reversion, then we have a parallel in the startling appearance of
the long-lost rudimentary toes of the horse, traces of which are only
seen in the hidden splint-bones. In the " Seventh Annual Report of
the Archaeological Museum," Prof. Wynian describes a microcephalic
skull from the ancient huacals of Peru. Its capacity is only thirty-
three cubic inches ; " the frontal bone is much slanted backward, has
a decided ridge corresponding to the frontal suture, and is slightly
concave on each side of it."

Wyman states that the bones of the head are well formed, though,
from the diminutive size of the brain, idiocy must have existed.

Associated with the remarkable collection of platycnemic tibia?
and perforated humeri discovered by Mr. Henry Gillman, we should
have expected some anomalous forms of crania, and in this expecta-
tion we are not disappointed.

In company with two skulls which appear to be normal, Mr. Gill-
man discovered one of most remarkable proportions. Wyman con-
siders it a case of extreme individual variation, and not the result of
artificial deformity. The skull in question has only a capacity of
fifty-six cubic inches. The average capacity of Indian crania, accord-
ing to Morton's measurements, being eighty-four cubic inches, and
the minimum capacity being sixty-nine cubic inches, the skull of Gill-
man is therefore thirteen cubic inches less than the smallest Indian
skull heretofore described. But more extraordinary still is the ap-
proximation of the temporal ridges. While in ordinary crania the
separation of these ridges is usually from three to four inches, and
never less than two inches, in this unique skull from the Detroit River
mound the ridges in question approach within three-quarters of an
inch, in this respect, as Wyman says, presenting the same condition
as that of the chimpanzee. A rounded median crest can be distinctly
seen and felt between these ridges, and the skull is markedly depressed
on each side for the passage of the powerful mastoid muscles.

Is this, too, a case of partial reversion ? Such extraordinary forms
as the Neanderthal and Engis skulls, and the one above cited, with
the La Naulette and other lower jaws, could not have been un-
common in those early days, since the chances against finding them
1 " Seventh Annual Report of the Peabody Archaeological Museum."

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 193

would be simply enormous, unless, indeed, they were of common oc-
currence. Looking at these remains as at the remains of other mam-
mals, we must admit either that these low characters represent reten-
tion of ancestral peculiarities, or that they are cases of reversion.
In considering the Neanderthal skull, with its retreating frontal,
its enormous frontal crest, and other anthropoid characters, Huxley
is led to say that at most there is " demonsti'ated the existence of a
man whose skull may be said to revert somewhat toward the pithe-
coid type."

To a mind unbiased by preconceived opinions, and frankly will-
ing to interpret the facts as they stand revealed by the study of these
ancient remains the world over, the evidence of man's lowly origin
seems, indeed, overwhelming.

Looking at the whole question impartially, we find that among
recent men there are high types as well as low types, with a variation
so great as to have induced Agassiz, Morton, and others, to consider
them specific. And while, as Wyman asserts, no one race possesses
all the low characters, yet with the relatively long arms, the tendency
of the pelvis to depart from the normal proportion, and numerous
other facts of like significance, there are yet retained among some of
them more resemblances to the higher apes than can be found among
others.

Prof. Cope, not content with tracing man back to some ape-like
progenitor, has, in a suggestive way, considered man's relations to
the Tertiary mammalia. In a communication to the Association at
Detroit, on this subject, he prefaced his paper by saying that in the
doctrine of evolution two propositions must be established : 1. That
a relation of orderly succession of structure exists, which corresponds
with a succession in time; 2. That the terms (species, genera, etc.)
of this succession actually display transitions or connections by in-
termediate forms, whether observed to arise in descent, or to be of
such varietal character as to admit of no other explanation of their
origin." He shows that the primary forms of mammalia are strongly
indicated in the structure of the feet, and also in the character of the
teeth. In recent land-mammals there are several types of foot to be
recognized, the many-toed plantigrade, the carnivorous, the ox, and
the horse types. Among the earlier types of the Eocene, he finds the
most generalized type in the Coryphodon of Owen (Bathmodon of
Cope). This creature was plantigrade, with a short calcaneum, and
*an imperfect hinge for the foot. From this generalized form he traces
a line of succession of intermediate forms to the horse on the one
hand, and the ox on the other.

The Coryphodon was one of the earliest known mammals, while

the horse and the ox preceded man by a single geological period.

.Without entering into a technical description of the successive forms

presented by Prof. Cope, we may quote his words wherein he shows

vol. x. — 13

i94 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that " the mammals of the Lower Eocene exhibit a greater percentage
of types that walk on the soles of their feet, while the successive pe-
riods exhibit an increasing number of those that walk on the toes ;
while the hoofed animals and Carnivora of recent times nearly all
have the heel high in the air, the principal exceptions being the ele-
phant and bear families." After presenting the gradual osteological
changes of the foot, from the earlier types to the later ones, through
several lines of descent, considering also the teeth as well, he says :
" The relation of man to this history is highly interesting. Thus, in
all generalized points, his limbs are those of the primitive type, so
common in the Eocene. He is plantigrade, has five toes, separated
tarsals and carpals, short heel, rather flat astragalus, and neither hoofs
nor claws, but something between the two ; the bones of the foreai'm
and leg are not so unequal as in the higher types, and remain entirely
distinct from each other, and the ankle-joint is not so perfect as in
many of them. In his teeth his character is thoroughly primitive. . . .

"His structural superiority consists solely in the complexity and
size of his brain. A very important lesson is derived from these and
kindred facts. The monkeys were anticipated in the greater fields of
the world's activity by more powerful rivals. The ancestors of the
ungulates held the fields and the swamps, and the Carnivora, driven
by hunger, learned the arts and cruelties of the chase. The weaker
ancestors of the Quadrumana possessed neither speed nor weapons of
offense and defense, and nothing but an arboreal life was left them,
where they developed the prehensile powers of the feet. Their di-
gestive system unspecialized, their food various, their life the price of
ceaseless vigilance, no wonder that their inquisitiveness and wakeful-
ness were stimulated and developed, which is the condition of progres-
sive intelligence " — adding that " the race has not been to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong." Prof. Cope shows in this case that
" the survival of the fittest has been the survival of the most intelli-
gent, and natural selection proves to be, in its highest animal phase,
intelligent selection."

Prof. Fiske has in a clearer way shown that when variations in
intelligence became more important than variations in physical
structure, then they were seized upon, to the relative exclusion of the
latter.

It is intelligent strength, other things being equal, that conquers
the savage, and the gradual selection of the best and biggest brains
is not seen alone in man.

In one of the most significant discoveries of Prof. Marsh, the mam-
malia are found to show an increase in the size of the brain coincident
with their succession in the rocks.

One of the most extraordinary mammals from the Tertiary beds
of the West is the Dinoceras, with its rhinoceros and elephant char-
acters, its skull ornamented with prominent tubercles, its unique den-

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 195

tition, embracing large cutting tusks, and altogether forming a beast
like the fabled monsters of old.

A study of its cranial cavity, made by Prof. Marsh, shows that its
brain was proportionally smaller than that of any known mammal.
Indeed, it was almost reptilian, and of such diminutive size that it
could have been drawn through the neural canal of all the presacral
vertebrae. Prof. Marsh has followed up this discovery with the most
important results, and is now prepared to state the following con-
clusions :

1. That all the Tertiary mammals had small brains.

2. There is an increase in the size of the brain during this period.

3. This increase was mainly confined to the cerebral hemispheres
or higher portion of the brain.

4. In some groups the convolutions of the brain have gradually
become more complicated.

5. In some the cerebellum and olfactory lobes have even dimin-
ished in size.

He also finds some evidence that the same general law holds good
for birds and reptiles from the Cretaceous to the present time.1

Thus we have in other groups as well as man convincing proof
that, with successive survival of forms, there is a corresponding sur-
vival of larger brains.

Prof. Shaler2 has offered some suggestive thoughts in showing
the intense selective action which must have taken place in the shape
and character of the pelvis in man, on his assumption of the erect
position — the caudal vertebra? turning inward; the lower portion of
the pelvis drawing together to hold the viscera, which had before
rested on the elastic abdominal walls ; the attending difficulties of
parturition, and other troubles in those parts — all pointing to the
change which has taken place.

In this connection Prof. Shaler remarks that the question of labor
in woman must not be overlooked from this standpoint.

In a memoir on the shell-heaps of Florida, by Prof. Wyman,
wherein he describes a number of low characters in man already
alluded to, he gives the following conclusions : " The steady progress
of discovery justifies the inference that man in the earlier periods of
his existence, of which we have any knowledge, was at most a savage,
enjoying the advantage of a few rude inventions. According to the
theory of evolution, which has the merit of being based upon, and not
inconsistent with, the observed analogies and processes of Nature, he
must have gone through a period, when he was passing out of the
animal into the human state, when he was not yet provided with
tools of any sort, and when he lived the life of a brute.

•>■> 3

1 American Journal of Science, vol. xii., July, 18*76.

2 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xv., p. 188.

3 " Memoirs of the Peabody Academy of Sciences," vol. i., part iv.

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

These words have no obscure significance, and when we regard
the character of the one who wrote them, his cautious methods of
research, and the long deliberation he was wont to give to all such
questions, then they become doubly important.

Recognizing clearly the existence of these lower and earlier stages
in man, it has been one of the most difficult problems to solve the
first steps toward his society and family relations. Prof. John Fiske,
in his " Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy," Jias given for the first time a
rational explanation of the origin and persistence of family relations,
and thence communal relations, and, finally, society.

Never before has there been presented so clear an idea of man's
physical changes, and the effects of natural selection in seizing upon
attendant or correlated nervous changes, as in the work of this
author.

Prof. Fiske says: "Civilization originated when in the highest
mammals variations in intelligence became so much more important
than variations in physical structure that they began to be seized
upon by natural selection, to the relative exclusion of the latter." 1

Starting from the researches of Sir Henry Maine, Lubbock, and
others, he finds social evolution must have originated after families
temporarily organized among the higher mammals had become per-
manently organized. But how this step was effected has been an
insoluble problem. Bagehot, in his remarkable work on " Physics and
Politics," says : " It is almost beyond imagination how man, as we
know man, could by any sort of process have gained this step in
civilization." Darwin supposes that men were originally weak and
inoffensive creatures, like the chimpanzee, and were compelled to band
together to make up in combined strength what they lacked as in-
dividuals.

That man, for his age, is a weak animal physically, there can be
no doubt. Fiske shows that "increase of intelligence in complexity
and specialty involves a lengthening of the period during which the
nervous connections involved in ordinary adjustments are becoming or-
ganized." From these conditions arose the phenomena of infancy, and
he shows that with increase of intelligence infancy becomes longer.
In the human race it is longer than in any other mammal, and much
longer in civilized man than in the savage.

In the orang-outang the infant does not begin to walk till it is a
month old, and in performing this act it holds to various objects for
support, as in the human infant. Previous to that time it reposes
on its back, and becomes absorbed in gazing at its hands and feet.
Now, still lower down among the monkeys, at the age of one month
the young are fully matured so far as walking and prehension
are concerned. It is shown, furthermore, that where infancy is very
short, parental feeling maybe intense for a while, but soon dies out,

1 " Connie Philosophy," vol. ii., p. 340.

AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EVOLUTION. 197

and the offspring of one becomes of no greater interest than those
of a stranger, "and in general the duration of the feelings which in-
sure the protection of the offspring is determined by the duration of
the infancy. . . .

" Hence if long infancies could have suddenly come into existence
among a primitive race of ape-like men, the race would have quickly
perished from inadequate persistence of parental affection." Prof.
Fiske, in a most reasonable way, shows that " the prolonged helpless-
ness of the offspring must keep the parents together for longer and
longer periods in successive epochs ; and when at last the association
is so long kept up that the older children are growing mature while
the younger ones still need protection, the family relations begin to
become permanent. The parents have lived so long in company that
to seek new companionships involves some disturbance of ingrained
habits, and meanwhile the older sons are more likely to continue their
original association with each other than to establish associations
with strangers, since they have common objects to achieve, and com-
mon enmities bequeathed, inherited or acquired with neighboring
families."

In his chapter on the moral genesis of man Fiske maintains that
"the prolongation of human infancy accompanying the development
of intelligence, and the correlative extension of parental feeling, are
facts established by observation wherever observation is possible ;
and to maintain that the correlation of these phenomena was kept up
during an epoch which is hidden from observation, and can only be
known by inference, is to make a genuine induction, involving no
other assumption than that the operations of Nature are uniform. To
him who is still capable of believing that the human race was created
by miracle in a single day, with all its attributes, physical and psy-
chical, compounded and proportioned, just as they now are, the pres-
ent inquiry is of course devoid of significance. But for the evolu-
tionist there would seem to be no alternative but to accept, when
once propounded, the present series of inferences."

Recalling now the various evidences educed by Wyman, Giman,
and others, regarding the anomalous characters of the remains of
primitive man, it seems impossible that a mind unbiased by precon-
ceived opinion should be able to resist the conviction as to man's
lowly origin.

If we take into account the rapidly-accumulating data of European
naturalists concerning primitive man, with the mass of evidence re-
ceived in these notes, we find an array of facts which irresistibly
point to a common origin with animals directly below us, and these
evidences are found in the massive skulls with coarse ridges for mus-
cular attachments, the rounding of the base of the nostrils, the early
ossification of the nasal bones, the small cranial capacity in certain
forms, the prominence of the frontal crest, the posterior position of

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the foramen magnum, the approximation of the temporal ridges, the
lateral flattening of the tibia, the perforation of the humerus, the ten-
dency of the pelvis to depart from its usual proportions, and, associ-
ated with all these, a rudeness of culture and the evidence of the
manifestation of the coarsest instincts. He must be blind indeed
who cannot recognize the bearing of such grave and suggestive modi-
fications. But what application are we to make of such revelatious
if we vividly receive them as such ? We are no longer to rest with
the blind fatalism of the Turks, or listless resignation of the masses,
but are to. make a living use of them. We are to trace evil and cor-
rupt passions to their source. The dreadful outrages which shock
us from time to time in the public prints are not instigated by an
evil spirit, but are outbursts of the same savage nature which found
more frequent expression years ago, and which are still present with
the lower races of to-day. When the study of heredity reveals the
fact that even the nature of vagabondage is perpetuated ; when the
surprising revelations of Margaret, mother of criminals, from whose
loins nearly a thousand criminals have thus far been traced, are con-
sidered, common-sense will ultimately recognize that the imprison-
ment of a criminal for ten or twenty years is not simply to punish
him or relieve the public of his lawless acts, but to restrain him from
perpetuating his kind. No sudden revulsion of feelings and amended
ways is to purify the criminal taint, but he is to be quarantined in
just the same way that a case of the plague might be, that his kind
may not increase. With these plain facts thoroughly understood,
men high in authority must find some other excuse for the exercise
of their pardoning power, and other reasons be given for allowing so
large a proportion of criminals to go free. With the monstrous blot
of Mormonism and free-love in our country, the statute-books are
to be again revised from the standpoint of science, with its rigid moral
and physical laws, and not from the basis of established usage or
long-continued recognition.

THE LAWS OF HEALTH.

By THOMAS BOND, F. E. C. S.

ON an average, one-half of the number of out-patients treated by a
hospital-surgeon suffer from diseases due primarily to a want of
knowledge of the laws of health and cleanliness. 1. The ignorance of
hygienic laws, which affects so disastrously the health of the rich as
well as the poor, exists chiefly in regard to dress, ablution, and venti-
lation. This statement may, at first, appear startling, but an enu-
meration of the diseases that, can be constantly traced to the above
causes will show upon how sound a basis the statement rests. The

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 199

following are examples : Varicose ulcers from dress ; skin-diseases
from want of cleanliness ; chest-diseases and fevers from defective
ventilation. The vast number of ulcerated legs treated in the out-
patient department of hospitals, in workhouse infirmaries, and in
private practice, arise from varicose veins. Now, a varicose ulcer is
caused by a distended condition of the veins of the leg, which have
to sustain the pressure of the blood caused by gravitation. In vari-
cose veins, the valves which help to support the column of blood are
to a great extent destroyed, through the veins having been distended
by mechanical obstruction to the free return of the blood from the
extremities, thereby distending the lower 'veins and separating the
edges of the valves. Thus, the weight of an uninterrupted column
has to be borne by the veins. This, of course, causes further disten-
tion, giving rise to congestion of the capillaries of the skin, and caus-
ing swelling, eczema, and ultimately ulceration. This is the varicose
ulcer so common in the laboring-classes. It is always difficult to heal,
and often impossible, except by prolonged rest in bed. Hence it is
the dread of the surgeon, and the cause of misery to thousands. Vari-
cose ulcers are seldom admitted into general hospitals, so that hun-
dreds of poor families are driven to the workhouse, and such cases form
a majority in the workhouse infirmary. The most frequent and fla-
grant cause of obstruction is the ordinary elastic garter. Children
should never wear them at all, as the stockings can be perfectly well
kept up by attachment of elastic straps to the waistband. If garters
are worn, it is important to know how to apply them with the least
risk of harm ; at the bend of the knee the superficial veins of the leg
unite, and go deeply into the under part of the thigh beneath the
ham-string tendons. Thus a ligature below the knee obstructs all
the superficial veins, but if the constriction is above, the ham-string
tendons keep the pressure oft' the veins which return the blood from
the legs ; unfortunately, most people, in ignorance of the above facts,
apply the garter below the knee. Again, in nine out of ten laboring-
men, we find a piece of cord or a buckled strap tightly applied below
the knee, for what reason I could never learn. Elastic bands are the
most injurious. They follow the movements of the muscles, and never
relax their pressure on the veins. Non-elastic bands during muscular
exertion become considerably relaxed at intervals, and allow a freer
circulation of the blood.

2. The habit of tight lacing again predisposes to varicose veins,
in consequence of the abdominal viscera being pushed downward into
the pelvis, causing undue pressure on the veins of the lower extremi-
ties when they enter the pelvis. Physicians also have reported nu-
merous cases of heart and lung disease caused by this pernicious habit.

3. The use of dress is often misunderstood. Most persons evidently
study and practise it with regard to appearance, or only to keep out
wet and cold. The hygienic use of clothes, however, is not so much

200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to keep cold out as to keep heat in. The mistake is often made, of
taking great care to put on extra wraps and coats when preparing for
out-door exercise. This is not at all necessary in robust persons.
Sufficient heat to prevent all risk of chill is generated in the body by
exercise. The care should be taken to retain sufficient clothing after
exercise, and when at rest, to prevent the heat passing out of the body.
Indeed, persons very often catch chills from throwing off exti-a cloth-
ing after exercise, or from sitting about in garments, the material of
which is not adapted to prevent the radiation of heat from the body.
Linen and cotton under-clothing, when moistened by perspiration, parts
with heat very rapidly, whereas flannel and silk, being non-conductors,
prevent the rapid loss of heat.

4. The most recent offense against the laws of health is the habit
of wearing false hair. The perspiration of the scalp is prevented, by
the thick covering, from evaporating, thereby causing a sodden and
weakened condition of the skin, which predisposes to baldness and
other diseases of the scalp. Again, it produces headache and confu-
sion of the intellectual faculties. We all know what a relief it is, dur-
ing hard mental work, simply to raise one's hair by running the fin-
gers through it. I should think literary ladies either do n^t wear false
hair, or take it off when at work.

5. Ablution is another subject of paramount importance to health.
Mr. Urquhart, the introducer of the Turkish bath into this country, is
one of the benefactors of the age, and it is to be hoped some day there
will be a bath in every town and village in England. Doctors are
very much to be blamed for allowing themselves to be prejudiced
against it. The usual opinion given by medical men to their patients
is, that it is debilitating, and only to be borne by the robust. The
reverse is really the case: it is stimulating and strengthening, it is a
preventive as well as curative in disease. The effect of the Turkish
bath on the skin is to cause an active condition of its functions of
elimination, by removing the hardened epithelial scales, by removing
the fat from the pores, and by causing the sweat-glands to maintain
the activity of their functions, giving a general stimulus to the vital
power of the skin. Again, it keeps the body in a state of perfect
cleanliness, which is so essential to robust health ; but these are not
its only virtues — it promotes purity of mind and morals. The man
who is accustomed to be physically clean shrinks instinctively from
all contact with uncleanliness.

6. There are, however, certain precautions to be observed in the
use of the baths. Persons who are apoplectic, or suffering from fatty
degeneration of heart, should not venture to disturb the circulation by
the excitement of baths. The first effect of Turkish baths is to stimu-
late the circulation, the second to cause active congestion of the skin,
the third to produce profuse perspiration, the fourth to keep down
the temperature of the body by rapid evaporation. On leaving the

THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 201

Turkish bath the body should be douched with cold water; the cap-
illaries are thus emptied of their blood by contraction, but immedi-
ately after the stimulation causes them to resume a state of activity,
and produces vigorous circulation through the skin.

V. In taking a cold bath in the morning the same conditions should
be present. The surface of the body should be warm and moist;
therefore, the bath should be taken immediately on rising from the
bed, and before the surface of the body has had time to cool or the
capillaries to contract. The shock of the cold water should cause
them suddenly to contract ; then quick reaction will take place in the
same way as after a Turkish bath. Unless this reaction occurs after
the bath, there is great danger of getting a chill; at any rate, the full
benefit of the bath is not obtained. Persons with weak circulation,
who cannot take an ordinary morning bath, often derive great benefit
from the Turkish bath. It opens the pores and improves the circu-
lation of the skin, so that the shock of cold water can afterward be
borne. The same persons can generally bear a cold bath if they get
for a few minutes into a warm bath first, and then immediately plunge
into cold water. By these means an active reaction is brought about.
Warm baths should, in my opinion, never be taken on rising except
under the above conditions, but warm baths at night are often desir-
able. They should be taken just before going to bed, when they have
the effect of relaxing the muscular system and of promoting sleep by
soothing the activity of the brain by the withdrawal of blood from it.
I do not think warm baths at night are weakening, as the depression
of vital energy which may occur is recovered during sleep. In river
and sea bathing, persons should be careful not to remain in the water
too long, nor should they exert themselves sufficiently to cause ex-
haustion, as the power of reaction is much impaired thereby ; neither
should persons get into cold water when cooling. The old-fashioned
idea that persons should wait to cool before plunging into the water
is a fallacy. There is no danger in plunging into the coldest water in a
state of profuse perspiration, if the heart and arteries are in a healthy
state. Of course, it would be unwise to do so immediately after a full
meal, as the action of the heart might be impeded by the distended
stomach.

8. Many persons complain of always getting up tired in the morn-
ing. This is very often due to defective ventilation of the bedroom,
or from using an undue amount of bedclothes and bedding. Feather
beds are too soft and yielding, and partially envelop the sleeper, thus
producing profuse perspirations. The habit of lying too much under
blankets is also very pernicious, by reason of the carbonic acid ex-
haled by the sleeper being respired. Again, it is a common error to
suppose that, by simply opening a window a little at the top, a room
can be ventilated. People forget that for proper ventilation there
must be an inlet and outlet for the air. In bedrooms there is often

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

neither, and if there is a fireplace it is generally closed up. Again,
it is a mistake to suppose that foul air goes to the top of a room.
Certainly the heated air goes to the top, but the chief impurity, the
carbonic acid, falls to the bottom. There is nothing so efficacious in
removing the lower strata of air as the ordinary open fireplace, es-
pecially if there is a fire burning. The usual defect in ventilation is
the want of a proper inlet for the air. If the window be open, the cold
air, being heavier, pours down into the room, causing draughts ; if the
door be open or ajar, the same thing occurs. The perfection of ventila-
tion may be obtained in any room with a fireplace by simply providing
proper inlets for the air, and nothing answers so well for the purpose as
the upright tubes invented by Mr. Tobin. By this means the heavier
external atmosphere ascends vertically through the tubes like the jet of a
fountain, displacing the warmer and lighter atmosphere of the room,
which finds its exit up the chimney. The tubes should communicate
with the outer air on a level with the floor, and should be carried ver-
tically upward in the room for about four or five feet. A constant
supply of fresh air is thus insured without the slightest liability to
draught, as the current goes directly upward until it strikes the
ceiling. It is then diffused downward, mixed with the heated air of
the ceiling. The same principle can be carried out in any room with
a sash-window, by cutting out two or three holes an inch wide and
three inches long in the wood-work of the upper sash where it joins
the lower one. The columns of air ascend directly upward, just inside
the window, and mix with the heated air in the upper part of the
room. If this system were universally carried out, we should hear
less of rheumatism and chills caught by sitting in draughts.

9. Persons should cultivate the faculty of detecting sewer-gas in
houses. Typhoid fever is often caused by the escape of this gas into
the house through defect of the traps and drains. However bad the
drains may be outside of the house, there is little to fear, provided the
gas can escape externally. The following two very simple precau-
tions would naturally diminish the cases of typhoid fever: First, every
main drain should have a ventilating-pipe carried from it, directly
outside of the house, to the top of the highest chimney; secondly, the
soil-pipe inside the house should be carried up through the roof, and
be open at the top. — English Mechanic.

-+*+-

CANINE SAGACITY.

A CORRESPONDENT hands us the following anecdotes illustra-
tive of the remarkable reasoning powers of dogs :
The first case is one which occurred at a fashionable watering-place
on the east coast of Ireland, some twenty years ago, and exhibits the
remarkable sagacity displayed by a dog in carrying out the dictates

CANINE SAGACITY. 203

of the animal passion for revenge. The jetty which stretched along
the small harbor was at that time used as a promenade by the elite
among the sojourners on the coast, where, after the heat of the long
summer days, they regaled themselves with the fresh evening breezes
wafted in from the sea. Among the frequenters of this fashionable
resort was a gentleman of some position, who was the owner of a fine
Newfoundland dog, which inherited the time-honored possessions of
that noble breed — very great power and facility in swimming ; and,
at the period of the evening when the jetty was most crowded with
promenaders, his master delighted to put this animal through a series
of aquatic performances for the entertainment of the assembled spec-
tators. Amusement being at a premium on the coast, these nightly
performances grew into something like an " institution," and the brave
" Captain" — for such was his name — speedily became a universal fa-
vorite on the jetty. It happened, however, that among the new ar-
rivals on the coast there came a certain major in her majesty's army,
accompanied by two bull-dogs of unusual size and strength, and of
great value ; but, value in a bull-dog being inversely proportionate to
its beauty, the appearance of the major and his dogs excited no very
enthusiastic pleasure among the aesthetic strollers on the jetty. On
the first night on which the major presented himself, nothing unusual
occurred ; and Captain dived and swam as before. But on the second
evening the brave old favorite was walking quietly behind his master
down the jetty, when, as they were passing by the major and his dogs,
one of these ugly brutes flew at Captain, and caught him by the neck
in such a way as to render his great size utterly useless for his de-
fense. A violent struggle ensued, but the bull-dog came off the victor,
for he stuck to his foe like a leech, and coiild only be forced to release
his hold by the insertion of a bar of iron between his teeth. The in-
dignation of the by-standers against the major was, of course, very
great ; and its fervor was not a little increased when they saw the
poor Captain wending his way homeward, bleeding, and bearing all
the marks of defeat. Some two or three evenings after this occur-
rence, when Captain again made his appearance on the jetty, he looked
quite crestfallen, bore his tail between his legs, and stuck closely to
the heels of his master. That evening passed away quietly, and the
next, and the next, and so on for about a week — Captain still bearing
the aspect of mourning. But one evening about eight or ten days
after the above encounter, as the major was inarching in his usual
pompous manner along the jetty, accompanied by his dogs, something
attracted his attention in the water, and, walking to the very edge of
the jetty, he stood for a moment looking down into the sea. Scarcely
had the two bull-dogs taken up their stand beside their master when
Captain, seizing the opportunity for which he had so long looked,
rushed at his former conqueror, and, catching him by the back of the
neck, jumped off the jetty, with his foe in his mouth, down some twen-

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ty feet or more into the sea. Once in the water, the power of his
enemy was crippled, while Captain was altogether in his own element;
and, easily overcoming all efforts at resistance, he succeeded in reso-
lutely keeping the bull-dog's head under water. The excitement on
the shore was, of course, intense. The major shouted, and called out :
" My dog ! my beautiful dog ! Will no one save him ? " But no
one seemed at all inclined to interfere, or to risk his life for the ugly
dog. At length the major called out : " I'll give fifty pounds to any
one who will save my dog ;" and soon afterward a boat which lay at
some little distance pulled up to the rescue. Even then, however, it
was only by striking Captain on the head with the oars that he could
be forced to release his victim, which was taken into the' boat quite
senseless from exhaustion and suffocation, and was with difficulty
brought to itself again. Captain, on the other hand, swam in tri-
umph to the shore, amid the plaudits of the spectators, who shared, in
sympathy at least, his well-earned honors of revenge.

More remarkable than the sagacity in carrying out the desire for
revenge, displayed by the Newfoundland dog in the above case, is
that which the following narrative illustrates : A gentleman of wealth
and position in London had, some years ago, a country-house and farm
about sixty miles from the metropolis. At this country residence he
kept a number of dogs, and among them a very large mastiff and a
Scotch terrier ; and, at the close of one of his summer residences in
the country, he resolved to bring this terrier with him to London for
the winter season. There being no railway to that particular part of
the country, the dog traveled with the servants in a jiost-carriage, and
on his arrival at the town-house was brought out to the stable, where
a large Newfoundland dog was kept as a watch-dog. This latter in-
dividual looked with anything but pleasure on the arrival of the little
intruder from the country; and consequently the Scotch terrier had
not been verv longr in his new home when this canine master of the
stable attacked him, and, in the language of human beings, gave him
a sound thrashing. The little animal could, of course, never hope by
himself to chastise his host for this inhospitable welcome, but he de-
termined that by some agency chastisement should come. Accord-
ingly, he lay very quiet that night in a remote corner of the stable,
but when morning had fully shone forth he was nowhere to be found.
Search was made for him, as the phrase says, high and low, but with-
out success; and the conclusion reluctantly arrived at was, that he had
been stolen. On the third morning after his disappearance, however,
he again showed himself in London, but this time not alone ; for, to
the amazement of every one, he entered the stable attended by the big
mastiff from Kent. This great brute had no sooner arrived than he
flew at the Newfoundland dog, who had so badly treated his little ter-
rier friend, and a severe contest ensued, which the little terrier him-
self, seated at a short distance, viewed with the utmost dignity and

CANINE SAGACITY. 205

satisfaction. The result of the battle was, that the mastiff came off
the conqueror, and gave his opponent a tremendous beating. TV hen
he had quite satisfied himself as to the result, this great avenger from
Kent scarcely waited to receive the recognition of his master, who had
been sent for immediately on the dog's arrival, but at once marched
out of the stable, to the door of which the little terrier accompanied
him, and was seen no more. Some few days afterward, however, the
gentleman received a letter from his steward in the country, inform-
ing him of the sudden appearance of the terrier there, and his as sud-
den disappearance along with the large mastiff; and stating that the
latter had remained away three or four days, during which they had
searched in vain for him, but had just then returned home again. It
then, of course, became quite clear that the little dog, finding him-
self unable to punish the town bully, had thought of his " big broth-
er " in the country, had traveled over the sixty miles which separated
them, in order to gain his assistance, and had recounted to him his
grievance ; it was plain also that the mastiff had consented to come
and avenge his old friend, had traveled with him to London, and, hav-
ing fulfilled his promise, had returned home, leaving the little fellow
free from annoyance in the future.

The following well-known story is a strong example of the great
intelligence which may be developed in a dog by careful training :
A fashionably-dressed English gentleman was one day crossing one
of the bridges over the Seine at Paris, when he felt something knock
against his legs, and, looking down, he found that a small poodle-dog
had rubbed against him, and covered his boots with mud. He was,
of course, much annoyed, and execrated the little brute pretty freely ;
but when he got to the other side of the bridge, he had the boots
cleaned at a stand for the purpose, and thought no more about the
matter. Some days after this occurrence, however, he had occasion
again to cross that bridge, and the same little incident occurred.
Thinking this somewhat odd, he resolved to watch where the little
dog went to ; and, leaning against the side of the bridge, he followed
with his eye the movements of his dirty little friend. He saw him
rub against the feet of one gentleman after another, till he had ex-
hausted all the mud off his once white skin, then rush off down the
bank of the river, and there roll himself in the mud collected at the
side. Having thus got a new supply of dirt, the little animal ran up
to the bridge again, and proceeded to transfer it to the boots of the
passers-by, as before. Having watched his movements for some time,
the gentleman noticed that on one occasion, instead of running down
to the river, he went off to the proprietor of the stand for cleaning
boots, at the other end of the bridge, who received him very cordially.
The truth then for the first time dawned on him, that the little animal
belonged to the man who cleaned the boots, and was trained by him
to perform these mischievous deeds, for the purpose of bringing in

206 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

custom. Being very fond of clogs, the Englishman resolved to pur-
chase this clever little fellow, and bring him back to England with
him. When, however, he went to the dog's master, that person at
first denied any connection with him, and only admitted the owner-
ship when he was perfectly satisfied that his interrogator had no con-
nection with the police. For some time also he refused to part with
the little poodle, saying that no money could pay him for the loss of
his dog, who really made his living for him. Tempted, however, by a
very high price, he at last consented to sell the dog; and the gentle-
man, a few days afterward, brought him over to England, traveling
via Boulogne to Folkstone. His residence in England was some thirty
or forty miles from Folkstone, and to this place he brought his little
purchase. He had not been many days in his new home, however,
when the little French poodle suddenly disappeared. Search was made
for him everywhere, but to no effect. His new master offered a re-
ward for him, but with the same result ; and he had at last made up
his mind that the little fellow had been either poisoned or stolen, when
one morning, about six weeks after his mysterious disappearance, the
gentleman received a letter from a friend in Paris telling him that his
dog was back again there, and at his old trade of soiling boots in the
interest of his former master. The little fellow, not liking the dullness
of a country life, had resolved to return to his former home, and had
made his way to Folkstone ; there, as the gentleman afterward ascer-
tained, he had got on board a steamer going to Boulogne, and from
Boulogne had found his way back to Paris.

Of the foregoing three stories, the first two are probably even more
remarkable than the last. The last (except as to the dog's finding its
way back to Paris) illustrates only the possibility of developing in a
dog, by the training of its natural intelligence, an almost human in-
genuity. But it is by instilling into the dog the intelligence of a
higher being that this skill is engendered. The spring of the intelli-
gence is in the trainer, and it is to attain an object which the higher
being, and not the lower, has in view. But in the first two cases the
whole process is the dog's ; the object to be secured, namely, revenge,
is what the dog himself seeks, and the means by which that object is
to be attained are devised and carried out by the instinct of the dog.
That a dog should harbor revenge is, of course, not a very wonderful
fact ; but there is a calm reflection and a cool calculation displayed in
the first two cases above given, which make them somewhat peculiar.
If what we call instinct in these animals embi-aces powers so very like
reason ; if they are swayed by the same passions and affections which
move us, and they are able to communicate to their fellows the feel-
ings which stir them, and the external circumstances which bring those
feelings into play, the border-line between man's mental territory and
theirs becomes a little bit indefinite. — Chambers's Journal.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 207

PEOFESSOE HUXLEY'S LECTUEES.1

II.

THE NEGATIVE AND FAVORABLE EVIDENCE.

IN" my lecture on Monday night I pointed out that there are three
hypotheses which may be entertained, and which have been enter-
tained, respecting the past history of life upon the globe. According
to the first of these hypotheses, life, such as we now know it, has
existed from all eternity upon this earth. We tested that hypothesis
by the circumstantial evidence, as I called it, which is furnished by
the fossil remains contained in the earth's crust, and we found that it
was obviously untenable. I then proceeded to consider the second
hypothesis, which I termed the Miltonic hypothesis, not because it is
of any particular consequence to me whether John Milton seriously
entertained it or not, but because it is stated in a clear and unmistak-
able manner in- his great poem. I pointed out to you that the evi-
dence at our command as completely and fully negatives that hypoth-
esis as it did the preceding one. And I confess that I had too much
respect for your intelligence to think it necessary to add that that
negation was equally strong and equally valid whatever the source
from which that hypothesis might be derived, or whatever the author-
ity by which it might be supported.

I further stated that, according to the hypothesis of evolution, the
existing state of things was the last term of a long series of antecedent
states, which, when traced back, would be found to show no interrup-
tion and no breach of continuity. I propose in this and a following
lecture to test this hypothesis rigorously by the evidence at command,
and to inquire how far that evidence could be said to be indifferent
to it, how far it could be said to be favorable to it, and, finally, how
far it could be said to be demonstrative. From almost the origin of
these discussions upon the existing condition — and the causes which
have led to it — of the animal and vegetable worlds, an argument has
been put forward as an objection to evolution, which we shall have to
consider very seriously. I think that that argument was first clearly
stated by Cuvier in his criticism of the doctrines propounded by his
great contemporary, Lamarck. At that time the French expedition
to Egypt had called the attention of learned men to the wonderful
stores of antiquities in that country, and there had been brought back
to France numerous mummified corpses of animals which the ancient
Egyptians revered and preserved, the date of which, at a reasonable

1 The second of three lectures on " The Direct Evidence of Evolution," delivered at
Chickering Hall, New York, September 20th. From the report of the New York Trib-
une, carefully revised by Prof. Huxley.

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

computation, cannot be placed at less than 3,000 or 4,000 years before
the time at which they were thus brought to light. Cuvier endeav-
ored to ascertain, by a very just and proper method, what foundation
there was for the belief in a gradual and progressive change of ani-
mals, by comparing the skeletons and all accessible parts of these
animals, such as crocodiles, birds, dogs, cats, and the like, with those
which are now found living in Egypt, and he came to the conclusion
— a conclusion which has been verified by all subsequent research —
that no appreciable change had taken place in the animals which
inhabited Egypt. And he drew thence the conclusion, and a hasty
one, that this fact was altogether opposed to the doctrine of evolu-
tion. The progress of research since Cuvier's time has furnished far
stronger arguments than those which he drew from the mummified
bodies of Egyptian animals. A remarkable case is to be found in
your own country in the neighborhood of the magnificent falls of
Niagara. In the immediate vicinity of the whirlpool, and again upon
Goat Island, in the superficial deposits which cover the surface of the
soil of the rock in those regions, there are found remains of animals
in perfect preservation — shells belonging to exactly the same forms
as at present inhabit the still waters of Lake Erie. It is evident from
the formation of the country that these animal remains were deposited
in the beds in which they occur, at the time at which the lake extended
over the region in which they are found. This involves the necessity
that they lived and died before the falls had cut their wTay back
through the gorge of Niagara ; and, indeed, it is possible to deter-
mine that at that time the falls of Niagara must have been at least six
miles farther down the river than they are at present. Many compu-
tations have been made of the rate at which Niagara is thus cutting
its way back. Those computations have varied greatly, but I believe
I am speaking within the bounds of prudence if I assume that the
tails of Niagara have not retreated at a greater pace than about a foot
a year. Six miles, speaking roughly, are 30,000 feet ; 30,000 feet, at
a foot a year, are 30,000 years ; and we are fairly justified in conclud-
ing that no less a period than this has passed since these shell-fish,
whose remains are left in the beds to which we have referred, were
deposited. But there is even still stronger evidence of the long dura-
tion of certain types than this. As we work our way through the
great series of the Tertiary formations, we find species of animals iden-
tical with those which live at the present day, diminishing in num-
bers, it is true, but still existing in a certain number in the oldest of
the Tertiary rocks. And not only so, but when we examine the rocks
of the Cretaceous epoch itself, we find the remains of some animals
which the closest scrutiny cannot show to be in any respect different
from those which live at the present time. That is the case with one
of the lamp-shells, a Terebratula which is found in the chalk, and
which has continued as it was found, or with insignificant variation,

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 209

through to the present day. Such is the case with the Globigerince,
the skeletons of which, aggregated together, form the great mass of
our chalk in England. That Globigerina can be traced down to the
Globigerince which live at the surface of onr great oceans, and the
remains of which, falling to the bottom of the sea, give rise to a
chalky material. So that it must be admitted that certain species of
creatures living at the present day show no sign of modification or
transformation in the course of a lapse of time as great as that which
carries us back to the period of chalk. There are groups of species
so closely allied together that it needs the eye of a naturalist to dis-
tinguish them one from another. If we pay attention to these, we
find that a vastly greater period must be allotted, in some cases, to
these persistent forms. In the chalk itself, for example, there is the
fish belono-ing to the highest and the most differentiated of osseous
fishes, which go by the name of JBeryx. That fish is one of the most
beautiful of fossils found in our English chalk. It can be studied
anatomically, so far as the hard parts are concerned, almost as well as
if it were a recent fish. We find that that fish is represented at the
present day by very closely-allied species which are living in the
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. But we may go still farther back, and
we find, as I mentioned to you yesterday, that the Carboniferous for-
mations in Europe and in America contain the remains of scorpions
in an admirable state of preservation, and those scorpions are hardly
distinguishable from such ns now live. I do not mean to say that
they are not distinguishable, but they require close scrutiny to distin-
guish them from the scorpions which exist at the present day.

More than that. At the very bottom of the Silurian series, in
what is by some authorities termed the Cambrian formation, where
all signs of life appear to be dying out — even there, among the few
and scanty animal remains which exist, we find species of molluscous
animals which are so closely allied to existing forms that at one time
they were grouped under the same generic name. I refer to the well-
known Lingula of the Lingula flags, lately, in consequence of some
slight differences, placed in the new genus IAngulella. Practically it
belongs to the same great generic group as the Lingula, which you
will find at the present day upon the shores of Australia. And the
same thing is exemplified if we turn to certain great periods of the
earth's history — as, for example, throughout the whole of the Meso-
zoic period. There are groups of reptiles which begin shortly after
the commencement of this period, as the Ichthyosauria and the Ple-
siosauria, and they abound in vast numbers. They disappear with
the chalk, and throughout the whole of that great series of rocks they
present no important modifications. Facts of this kind are undoubt-
edly fatal to any form of the doctrine of evolution, which necessitates
the supposition that there is an intrinsic necessity on the part of
animal forms which once come into existence to undergo modifica-

VOL. X. 14

210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion ; and they are still more distinctly opposed to any view which
should lead to the belief that the modification in different types of
animal or vegetable life goes on equally and evenly. The facts, as I
have placed them before you, would obviously contradict directly any
such form of the hypothesis of evolution as laid clown in these two
postulates.

Now, the service that has been rendered by Mr. Darwin in the
doctrine of evolution in general is this : that he has shown that there
are two great factors in the process of evolution : one of them is the
tendency to vary, the existence of which may be proved by observa-
tion in all living forms; the other is the influence of surrounding
conditions upon what I may call the parent form and the variations
which are thus evolved from it. The cause of the production of vari-
ations is a matter not at all properly understood at present. Whether
it depends upon some intricate machinery — if I may use the phrase —
of the animal form itself, or whether it arises through the influence
of conditions upon that form, is not certain, and the question may for
the present be left open. But the important point is the tendency to
the production of variations ; then, whether the variations which are
produced shall survive and supplant the parent, or whether the parent
form shall survive and supplant the variations, is a matter which
depends entirely on surrounding conditions. If the surrounding con-
ditions are such that the parent form is more competent to deal with
them and flourish in them than the derived forms, then, in the strug-
gle for existence, the parent form will maintain itself and the derived
forms will be exterminated. But if, on the contrary, the conditions
are such as to be better for the derived than for the parent form, the
parent form will be extirpated and the derived form will take its
place.

In the first case, there will be no progression, no advance of type,
through any imaginable series of ages ; in the second place, there
will be modification and change of form. Thus the existence of these
persistent types of life is no obstacle in the way of the theory of evo-
lution at all. Take the case of the scorpions to which I have just
referred. No doubt, since the Carboniferous epoch conditions have
existed such as existed when the scorpions of that epoch flourished,
in which they find themselves better off, more competent to deal with
the difficulties in their way than any kind of variation from the scor-
pion type ; and for that reason the scorpion has persisted, and has not
been supplanted by any other form. And there is no reason in the
nature of things why, as long as this world exists, if there be condi-
tions more favorable to scorpions than any variation which may arise
from them, these forms of life should not persist.

Therefore, this objection is no objection at all. The facts of this
character — and they are numerous — belong to that class of evidence
which I have called indifferent. That is to say, they may afford no

. PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 211

direct support to the doctrine of evolution, but they are perfectly-
capable of being interpreted in consistency with it. There is another
order of facts of the same kind, and susceptible of the same interpre-
tation. The great group of Lizards, which abound so much at the
present day, extends through the whole series of formations as far
back as what is called the Permian epoch, which is represented by
the strata lying just above the coal. These Permian lizards differ
astonishingly little from the lizards which exist at the present day.
Comparing the amount of difference between these Permian lizards
and the lizards of the present day with the prodigious lapse of time
between the Permian epoch and the present age, it may be said that
there has been no appreciable change.

But when you carry your researches farther back in time you find
no trace whatever of lizards nor of any true reptile whatever in the
whole mass of formations beneath the Permian. Now, it is perfectly
clear that if our existing paleontological collections, our existing
species of stratified rock, exhaust the whole series of events which
have ever taken place upon the surface of the globe, such a fact as
this directly contravenes the whole theory of evolution, because this
theory postulates that the existence of every form must have been
preceded by that of some form comparatively little different from it.
Here, however, we have to take into consideration that important fact
so well insisted upon by Lyell and Darwin — the imperfection of the
geological record. It can be demonstrated as a matter of fact that
the geological record must be incomplete, that it can only preserve
remains found in certain favorable localities and under particular
conditions ; that it must be destroyed by processes of denudation,
and obliterated by processes of metamorphosis — by which I mean
that beds of rock of any thickness crammed full of organic remains
may yet, either by the percolation of water through them or the in-
fluence of subterranean heat (if they descend far enough toward the
centre of the earth), lose all trace of these remains, and present the
appearance of beds of rock formed under conditions in which there
was no trace of living forms. Such metamorphic rocks occur in for-
mations of all ages, and we know with perfect certainty when they
do appear that they have contained organic remains, and that those
remains have been absolutely obliterated.

I insist upon the defects of the geological record the more be-
cause those who have not attended to these matters are apt to say to
us, "It is all very well, but, when you get into difficulty with your
theory of evolution, you appeal to the incompleteness and the imper-
fection of the geological record ; " and I want to make it perfectly
clear to you that that imperfection is a vast fact which must be
taken into account in all our speculations, or we shall constantly be
going wrong.

You will all see that singular series of tracks which is copied of

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

its natural size in the large diagram hanging up here, which I owe to
the kindness of my friend Prof. Marsh, with whom I had the oppor-
tunity recently of visiting the precise locality in Massachusetts in
which these tracks occur. I am, therefore, able to give you my own
testimony, if needed, that they accurately represent the state of

Fig. 1.— Tracks of Brontozocm.

things which we saw. The valley of the Connecticut is classical
ground for the geologist. It contains great beds of sandstone, cover-
ing many square miles, and which present this peculiarity, that they
have evidently formed a part of an ancient sea-shore, or, it may be,
lake-shore, and that they have been sufficiently soft for a certain
period of time to receive the impressions of whatever animals walked
over them, and to preserve them afterward in exactly the same way,
as such impressions are at this very moment preserved on the shores
of the bay of Fundy and elsewhere. We have there the tracks of
some gigantic animal (pointing to the diagram), which walked on its
hind-legs. You see the series of marks made alternately by the right
foot and by the left foot ; so that from one impression to the other of
the three-toed foot on the same side is one stride, and that stride, as
we measured it, is six feet nine inches. I leave you, therefore, to
form an impression of the magnitude of the creature which must have
walked along the ancient shore, and which made these impressions.

Now, of such impressions there are untold thousands upon these
shores. Fifty or sixty different kinds have been discovered, and they
cover vast areas. But up to this present time not a bone, not a frag-
ment, of any one of the great creatures which certainly made these
impressions has been found ; and the only skeleton which has been
met with in all these deposits to the present day — though they have
been carefully hunted over — is one fragmentary skeleton of one of
the smaller forms. What has become of all these bones ? You see
we are not dealing with little creatures, but animals that make a step
of six feet nine inches; and their remains must have been left some-
where. The probability is, that they have been dissolved away, and
absolutely lost.

I have had occasion to work at scries of fossil remains of which
there was nothing whatever except the casts of the bones, the solid
material of the bone having been dissolved out by percolating water.
It was a chance in this case that the sandstone happened to be of
^uch a constitution as to set, and to allowr the bones to be afterward
dissolved out, leaving cavities of the exact shape of the bones.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 213

Had that constitution been other than what it was, the bones
would have been dissolved, the beds of sandstone would have fallen
together, become one mass, and not the slightest indication that the
animal had existed would have been discovered.

I know of no more striking evidence than this fact affords, of the
caution which should be used in drawing the conclusion, from the
absence of organic remains in a deposit, that animals did not exist at
the time it was formed. I believe that, having the right understand-
ing of the doctrine of evolution on the one hand, and having a just
estimation of the importance of the imperfection of the geological
record on the other, all difficulty from the kind of evidence to which
I have adverted is removed; and we are justified in believing that
all such cases are examples of what I have designated negative
or indifferent evidence — that is to say, they in no way directly ad-
vance the theory of evolution, but they are no obstacle in the way
of our belief in the doctrine.

I now pass on to the consideration of those cases which are not —
for reasons which I will point out to you by-and-by — demonstrative of
the truth of evolution, but which are such as must exist if evolution
be true, and which therefore are, upon the whole, strongly in favor of
the doctrine. If the doctrin-e of evolution be true, it follows that, how-
ever diverse the different groups of animals and of plants may be,
they must have all, at one time or other, been connected by gra-
dational forms ; so that, from the highest animals, whatever they
may be, down to the lowest speck of gelatinous matter in which life
can be manifested, there must be a sure and progressive body of evi-
dence— a series of gradations by which you could pass from one end
of the series to the other. Undoubtedly that is a necessary postulate
of the doctrine of evolution. But, when we look upon animated Na-
ture as it at present exists, we find something totally different from
this. We find that animals and plants fall into groups, the different
members of which are pretty closely allied together, but which are
separated by great breaks or intervals from other groups. And we
cannot at present find any intermediate forms which bridge over these
gaps or intervals. To illustrate what I mean: Let me call your at-
tention to those vertebrate animals which are most familiar to you,
such as mammals, and birds, and reptiles. At the present day these
groups of animals are perfectly well defined from one another. We
know of no animal now living which in any sense is intermediate
between the mammal and the bird, or between the bird and reptile;
but, on the contrary, there are actually some very distinct and ana-
tomical peculiarities, well-defined marks, by which the mammal is
sepai-ated from the bird, and the bird from the reptile. The dis-
tinctions are apparent and striking if you compare the definitions
of these great groups as they now exist. At the pi-esent day there
are numerous forms of what we may call broadly the pig tribe,

214 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and many varieties of ruminants. These latter have their definite
characteristics, and the former have their distinguishing peculiarities.
But there is nothing that fills up the gap between the ruminants and
the pig tribe. The two are distinct. So also is this the case between
the groups of another class — reptiles. We have crocodiles, lizards,
snakes, and tortoises, and yet there is nothing — no connecting link —
between the crocodile and lizard, or between the lizard and snake, or
between the snake and the crocodile, or between any two of these
groups. They are separated by absolute breaks. If, then, it could be
shown that this state of things was from the beginning — had always
existed — it would be fatal to the doctrine of evolution. If the inter-
mediate gradations which the doctrine of evolution postulates must
have existed between these groups — if they are not to be found any-
where in the records of the past history of the globe — all that is so
far a strong and weighty argument against evolution ; while, on the
other hand, if such intermediate forms are to be found, that is so
much to the good of evolution, although, for the reason which I will
put before you by-and-by, we must be cautious in assiaming such facts
as proofs of the theory.

It is a very remarkable fact that, from the commencement of the
serious study of paleontology, from the time in fact when Cuvier
made his brilliant researches upon the fossil remains of animals found
in the quarries of Montmartre, Paleontology has shown what she was
going to do in this matter, and what kind of evidence it lay in her
power to produce.

I said just now that at the present day the group of pig-like ani-
mals and the group of ruminants are entirely distinct ; but one of the
first of Cuvier's discoveries was an animal which he called the Ano-
plotherium, and which he showed to be, in a great many important
respects, intermediate in its character between the pigs on the one
hand and the ruminants on the other; that, in fact, research into the
history of the past did so far — and to the extent which Cuvier indi-
cated— tend to fill up the breach between the group of ruminants and
the group of pigs. All subsequent research has also tended in this
direction ; and at the present day the investigations of such men as
Rutimeyer and Gaudry have tended to fill up and connect, more and
more, the gaps in our existing series of mammals. But I think it may
have an especial interest if — instead of dealing with these cases, which
would require a great deal of tedious osteological detail — I take
the case of birds and reptiles — which groups, at the present day, are
so clearly distinguished from one another that there are perhaps no
classes of animals which in popular apprehension are more completely
separated. Birds, as you are aware, are covered with feathers ; they
are provided with wings ; they are specially and peculiarly modified
as to their anterior extremities; and they walk perpendicularly upon
two legs; and those limbs, when they are considered anatomically,

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

215

present a great number of exceedingly remarkable peculiarities, to
which I may have occasion to advert incidentally as I go on, but
which are not met with even approximately in any existing forms of
reptiles. On the other hand, reptiles, if they have a covering at all,
have a covering of scales or bony plates. They possess no wings ;
they are not volatile, and they have no such modification of the limbs
as we find in birds. It is impossible to imagine any two groups
apparently more definitely and distinctly separated. As we trace the
history of birds back in time, we find their remains abundant in the
tertiary rocks throughout their whole extent, but, so far as our pres-
ent knowledge goes, the birds of the tertiary rocks retain the same
essential character as the birds of the present day — that is to say, the
tertiary bird comes within the definition of our existing birds, and are
as much separated from reptiles as our existing birds are. A few
years ago no remains of birds had been found below the tertiary
rocks, and I am not sure but that some persons were prepared to

Fig. 2.— Hesperobnis Kegalis. (Marsh.)

demonstrate that they could not have existed at an earlier period.
But in the last few years such remains have been discovered in Eng-
land, though, unfortunately, in a very imperfect condition. In your

2l6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

country the development of cretaceous rocks is enormous; the condi-
tions under which the later cretaceous strata have been deposited are
highly favorable to the preservation of organic remains, and the
researches full of labor and toil, which have been carried on by Prof.
Marsh in these Western cretaceous rocks, have rewarded him with
the discovery of forms of birds of which we had hitherto no concep-
tion. By his kindness, I am enabled to place before you a restoration
of one of these extraordinary birds, every part of which can be thor-

tv

I A

Fig. 3.— Hesperornis Regalis. (Marsh.)

oughly justified. The remains exist in the greatest beauty in his col-
lection. This Hesperornis stood about six feet high, and in a great
many respects is astonishingly like an existing diver or grebe, so like

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

217

it indeed that, had this skeleton "been found in a museum, I suppose —
if the head had not been known — it would have been placed in the
same general group as the divers and grebes of the present day. But
this bird differs from all existing birds, and so far resembles reptiles
in one important particular that it is provided with teeth. These

■\ .:*

8 i Ik

p Us \

! Ill In*
jfiij: t ■

Mil r~

:t.::-:

/

Fig. 4.— Ichthtorkis Dispae. (Marsh.)

long jaws are beset by teeth, as in this diagram, in which one of the
teeth is represented separately. In possessing true teeth, the Hesper-
omis differs entirely from any existing bird, and in view of the char-
acteristics of this bird we are obliged to modify the definition of the
class of birds and reptiles. Before the discovery of a creature such

218 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as this, it might have been said that birds were characterized by the
absence of teeth ; but the discovery of a bird that had teeth shows at
once that there were ancient birds that, in that particular respect,
approached reptiles more nearly than any existing bird does.

The same rocks have yielded another bird (Ichtltyornis), which
also has teeth in its jaws, the teeth in this case being situated in dis-
tinct sockets, while those of JSesperornis were not so lodged. The
latter also had very small wings, while Ichthyornis has strong wings.
Ichthyornis also differed in the fact that the joints of its backbone —
its vertebrae — had not the peculiar character that the vertebrae of
existing birds have, but were concave at each end. This discovery
leads us to make another modification in the definition of the group
of birds, and to part with another of the characters by which they
are distinguished from reptiles. We know nothing whatever of birds
older than these until we come down to the Jurassic period, and from
rocks of that age we have a single bird which was first made known
by the finding of a fossil feather. It was thought wonderful that
such a perishable thing as a feather should be discovered and nothing
more, and so it was ; and for a long time nothing was known of this
bird except its feather. But, by-and-by one solitary specimen was
discovered, which is now in the British Museum. That solitary
specimen is unfortunately devoid of its head; but there is this
wonderful peculiarity about the creature that, so far as its feet
are known, it has all the characters of a bird, all those peculiari-
ties by which a bird is distinguished from a reptile. Neverthe-
less, in other respects, it is unlike a bird and like a reptile. There
is a long series of caudal vertebrae. The wing differs in some
very remarkable respects from the structure it presents in a true
bird. In a true bird the wing answers to these three fingers — the
thumb and two fingers of my hand — the metacarpal bones are fused
together into one mass — and the whole apparatus except the thumb
is bound up in a sheath of integument, and the edge of the hand
carries the principal quill-feathers. It is in that way that the bird's
wing becomes an instrument of flight. In the Archceopteryx, the up-
per-arm bone is like that of a bird ; these two forearm bones are more
or less like those of a bird, but the fingers are not bound together —
they are free, and they are all terminated by strong claws, not like
such as are sometimes found in birds, but by such as reptiles possess,
so that in the Archceopteryx you have an animal which, to a certain
extent, occupies a midway place between a bird and a reptile. It is
a bird so far as its foot and sundry other parts of its skeleton are
concerned ; it is essentially and thoroughly a bird in the fact that it
possesses feathers, but it is much more properly a reptile in the fact
that what represents the hand has separate bones resembling those
which terminate the fore-limb of a reptile. Moreover, it had a long
tail with a fringe of feathers on each side. All these cases, so far as

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

219

they go, you will observe are in favor of evolution to this extent, that
they show that in former periods of the world's history creatures ex-
isted which overstepped the bounds of all existing classes and groups,
and tended to fill up the intervals which at present exist between
them. But we can go further than this. It is possible to fill up
the interval between birds and reptiles in a much more striking
manner. I do not think that this is to be done by looking upon
what are called the Pterodactyls as the intermediate form between

Fig. 5.— Pterodactylus Spectabilis. (Von Meyer.)

birds and reptiles. Throughout the whole series of the mesozoic
rocks we meet with some exceedingly remarkable flying creatures,
some of which attain a great size, their wings having a span of
eighteen or twenty feet or more, and these are known as Ptero-
sauria, or Pterodactyls. We find these with a bird-like head and
neck, with a vertebral column sometimes terminated by a short and
sometimes by a long tail, and in which the bones of the skeleton
present one of the peculiarities which are often considered to be most
characteristic of birds — that of having pneumatic cavities, which make

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the creature specifically light in its flight. Like a bird, this creature
has a largish breastbone, but from that point onward, so far as I can
see, special, particular resemblances end, and a careful examination
of the fore-limbs shows you that they are not birds' wings ; they are
something totally different from a bird's wings. And then, again
(pointing to a chart), those are not a bird's posterior extremities, but
are rather a reptilian's hind-limbs. The vertebras present nothing
that I need dwell upon, but the bones of the hand are very won-
derful.

There are four fingers represented. These four fingers are large,
and three of them — these, which answer to these three in my hands —
are terminated by claws, while the fourth is enormously prolonged
into a great jointed style. You see at once from what I have stated
about a bird's wing that there could be nothing more unlike a bird's
wing than this is. It was concluded by general reasoning that this
finger was made to support a great web like a bat's wing. Speci-
mens now exist showing that this was really the case, that this creat-
ure was devoid of feathers, but the fingers supported a vast web like
a bat's wing, and there can be no doubt that this ancient reptile flew
after the fashion of a bat. Thus, though the pterodactyl is a flying
reptile, although it presents some points of similarity to birds, yet is
it so different from them that I do not think that we have any right to
regard it as one of the forms intermediate between the reptile and the
bird. Such intermediate forms are to be found, however, by looking
in a different direction. Through the whole series of mesozoic rocks
there occur reptiles, some of which are of gigantic dimensions ; in
fact, they are reckoned among the largest of terrestrial animals.
Some of them are forty and fifty, possibly more, feet long. Such are
the Iguanodon, the Megalosaurus, and a number of others, with the
names of which I will not trouble you. There are great diversities
of structure among these great reptiles. Some of them resemble liz-
ards in the proportions of their limbs, and have evidently walked on
all-fours, in that respect resembling the existing crocodile ; but in
others you can trace a series of modifications in virtue of which the
hind-limbs at length completely assumed the character of a bird's
hind-limbs. I here indicate (pointing to a diagram) the hind limb
of a crocodile, showing the bones of the hind-limbs and of the pelvis.
These are the haunch-bones ; these are the two leg-bones. Then
comes the division of the foot which we call the tarsus, in which the
component bones are separate and distinct from one another, from
the bones of the les: and from those of the metatarsus. Then come
the four toes, which alone exist in the hind-feet of the crocodile, and
which are separate and distinct. The foot is flat on the ground, so
that the legs spread out and the weight of the body hangs clumsily
between them. Contrast this with what we find in the bird — the
haunch -bone here is immensely elongated, and the joints of the

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

221

back-bone, between the two haunch -bones, are united so as to
form a solid support upon which the weight of the body rests. Then
the thigh-bone becomes very short, and has a back ridge upon its outer
articular surface. At the lower end the ridge tits in between the
upper extremity of the small bone of the leg, near to the great bone,

Fig. (J.— Bird.

Dinosaur.

Crocodile.

and makes a kind of spring-joint. The small bone of the leg is quite
large above, and becomes rudimentary below. It runs out into a
style, instead of being long and large, as it is in the case of the croco-
dile. Then, when you come to the bones of the foot, you find there
are no separate bones such as you have here, but the end of the tibia,
or large bone of the leg, appears to end in a kind of pulley, a sin-
gle bone follows the tibia and to the trifurcated extremity of this
bone. Upon the extremity of that bone are attached three toes. It
is obvious that the contrast between the crocodile's leg on the one
hand, and the bird's leg on the other, is very striking. But this in-
terval is completely filled up when you study the character of the
hinder extremities in those ancient reptiles which are called the Dino-
scmria. In some of these the bones of the pelvis, and those of the
hind-limb, become extraordinarily similar to those of birds, especially
to those of young or foetal birds. Furthermore, in some of these rep-
tiles, the fore-limbs become smaller and smaller, and thus the sus-
picion naturally arises that they may have assumed the erect posi-
tion. That view was entertained by Mantel, and was also demon-
strated to be probable by your own distinguished anatomist, Leidy,
but the discoveries of late years -show that in some of these forms the

222

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fact was actually so; that reptiles once existed which walked upon
their hind-legs as birds now do. The diagram is a faithful and accu-
rate representation of an existing fossil except for this, that, whereas
in the existing fossil the bones are twisted about and out of place, I

Fig. 7. — Compsognathus Longipes. (Wagner.)

have put them here in the position that they must have had in na-
ture. You see a creature with a long neck and bird-like head, with
very small anterior extremities, and that compsognathoits creature
must assuredly have walked about upon its hind-legs, bird-fashion.
Acid to this feathers, and the transition would be complete. Now
to define it : The possession of teeth would, as we see, not separate
this animal from the class of birds we have. We have had to stretch
the class of birds so as to include birds possessed of teeth, and, so far
as the character of the skeleton goes, we may fairly say that there
needs here little more than the addition of feathers— and whether this
creature had them or not we don't know — to convert it into a bird.

I have said that there can be no question, from their anatomical
structure, that these animals walked upon their hind-legs, and, in fact,
there are to be found in the Wealden strata of England gigantic foot-
steps arranged in order like these of the Brontozoum, and which there
can be no reasonable doubt were made by Dinosmiria, the remains
of which were found in the same rock. And, knowing that reptiles
that walked upon their legs and shared many of the anatomical char-
acters of birds did once exist, it becomes a very important question
whether those tracks in Massachusetts — to which I referred just now,
and which formerly used to be unhesitatingly ascribed to birds — may
not all have been made either by reptiles similar to the Dinosauria,
or whether, if we could get hold of the skeleton which made these

ON VARIATION IN THE MOTHS. 223

tracks, some of which are marvelously like bird's tracks, we should
not come upon exactly that series of transitions by which in former
days the reptile was connected with the bird.

I don't think, ladies and gentlemen, that I need insist upon the
value of evidence of this kiud. You will observe that, although it
does not prove that birds have originated from reptiles by the gradual
modification of the ordinary reptile into a dinosaurian form, and so
into a bird, yet it does show that such a process may possibly have
taken place, and it does show that, in former times, there existed
creatures which filled up one of the largest gaps in existing animate
nature, and that was exactly the kind of evidence which I stated to
you in starting we are bound to meet with in rocks if the hypothesis
of evolution be correct.

In my third and last lecture I will take up what I venture to call
the demonstrative evidence of evolution.

■♦ » »

ON VARIATION IN THE MOTHS.

By AUG. K. GROTE, A. M.

THERE are a large number of different kinds of moths, inhabiting
North America and Europe, which entomologists have classified
under the technical family term, Noctuce. Of this family, 1,028 differ-
ent species have been catalogued as European. There being very many
students, and a sufficient time having elapsed to secure a thorough col-
lecting throughout the territory, this number may be taken as suffi-
ciently corresponding with the actual representation of the family in
Europe. In North America nearly 1,200 species are now catalogued,1
but, since much of our territory remains to be explored in this re-
spect, we may expect considerable additions to the number of known
Noctuce inhabiting our continent. The greater number of the spe-
cies may be easily distinguished on comparison, the American from
the European. There are, however, certain American species which
differ but very slightly from certain European, and hence are generally
called " representative species," or " species of replacement." For
instance, Apatela occidentalis (G. and R.) " represents " the European
Apatela psi (Linn.) ; Agrotis Normanicma (Grote), the European
Agrotis triangulum ; Calocampa nupera (Lintner), the European
Calocampa vetusta ; Catocala relicta (Walk.), the European Cato-
cala fraxini, etc.

Although the number of such species appears relatively small,

" List of the Noctuidae of North America, 1875— '76." Buffalo, Reinecke & Zesch.

224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

it is probably in reality larger than as yet suspected. For even the
species acknowledged to occupy this relationship to each other ex-
hibit quite different degrees of resemblance. I say " relationship,"
for we must reasonably conclude that this resemblance is not acci-
dental or meaningless. It must indicate that both the European and
American species are derived from a common stock. More than two
years ago, I suggested that the faunae had become separated through
the physical action of the glacial epoch, showing that from the pres-
ent distribution of species, and their degree of resemblance, no other
hypothesis would explain all the facts in the case so satisfactorily.
For we have to account, first, for the occurrence of nearly-related
forms in localities as widely separated, geographically, as Texas and
Germany ; and then, again, for the occurrence, within our territory,
of nearly-related species on the Alpine summits of Mount Washington
and the distant arctic regions. The method of probable distribution
of these latter species, through the action of the retreating ice, I have
explained in the American Naturalist for March of this year.

In studying specimens of these related American and European
species of Noctum, some new light bearing upon the question of their
differences is attempted to be thrown in the present paper. I have
endeavored to localize these differences upon some portion of the
insect. In all the cases I have been able to investigate, these differ-
ences are expressed on the upper surface of the body and wings, and
principally on the upper surface of the front pair of wings. Here it
is that the first variations, which now have grown into specific differ-
ences, were probably expressed. And the reason for this seems to be,
that this portion of the body is that usually exposed to the light and
the action of external influences. The moths, during the daytime,
rest with the front-wings dependent over the hind-wings, and nearly
covering the body. While in the American and European related
species the differences which lead us to call them distinct " species "
are located on the front-wings chiefly, the under surfaces of both wings
remain exceedingly similar in the contrasted forms. This is the por-
tion which in the day time (the period of inaction for moths) is
applied to the surface against which the insect rests, and is entirely
shielded from exposure. Take, for instance, the European Catocala
fraxini and the American Catocala relicta. The ground-color of the
American species above and below is a bright, clear white. Now,
beneath, both species show this color, but the upper surface of
the fore-wings, in the European species, is obscured by an evenly-
distributed admixture of blackish scales, so that the wings appear of
a uniform obscure gray. The hind-wings, in the European species,
are crossed by a band of bluish scales ; in the American, this band is
white, while I have recently detected a slight powdered edging of
blue scales, difficult to perceive, and apparently hitherto unnoticed.
The principal difference in ornamentation is, again, to be found on the

THE CONSTANCY OF MOTION. 225

upper surface of the fore-wings. It lies in the course and shape of the
transverse posterior line — a line which is a general feature of orna-
mentation throughout this group of insects.

This position might be sustained by parallel facts, but the limit of
this ai'ticle does not allow of their being presented. It remains to
see what light these observations throw upon the origin of all these
different kinds of moths. They seem to me to point to a method of
variation in this group, and to a reason for its display. And, if we
can apply these observations to particular instances, they may lead to
a better understanding of the value of these specific forms, by allow-
ing us to appreciate with more exactness the amount of differentiation
they have undergone in the lapse of time. In a wider sense, we may
attempt a classification by the ornamentation and coloration in the
moths based on method, and such studies canuot fail to lend fresh
interest to the bai-ren but necessary work of describing the different
species or forms. It seems to me, also, that these observations vindi-
cate the importance of studying the characters of color and pattern in
the group, and are, perhaps, a criticism on the remarks of those writ-
ers who purposely allow these no higher value than the subordinate
one of dividing their material into " species " in their collections. In
fact, these characters may give us a clew to the genealogy of the group,
and seem to be of sufficient importance to be noted in descriptions of
genera.

+»»

THE CONSTANCY OF MOTION.

Br GEOEGE ILES.

THE conservation of energy, as treated in the most recent work of
authority on the subject, Prof. Balfour Stewart's, published in the
" International Scientific Series," regards energy as divisible into two
classes, actual and potential : actual energy, as in the case of a rush-
ing stream of water, or a radiant and contracting mass of molten
iron; and potential energy, where, for instance, a stone is at a height
and may fall, or where a spring is tightly coiled and may unwind.

Prof. Stewart speaks the general opinion of modern physicists,
Profs. Rankine, Tyndall, and others, when he states that, in cases of
potential energy, the bodies endowed with it are absolutely at rest,
and that the motion exhausted in storing up such energy is represent-
ed by a mere advantage of position, which, when utilized, yields in
actual, palpable motion the energy which has lain completely quies-
cent, as when the stone falls to the earth, or the freed spring un-
coils.

This division of energy into actual and potential seems to me to
VOL. x. — 15

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be defective. It prevents the direct comprehension in the mind of
energy as being motion and nothing else ; it leaves unexplained how
a body perfectly at rest can come to move ; and further implies the
dissipation of energy (which I have treated in a previous number of
this journal) in a new phase, for, if all the actual energy in the uni-
verse were to become potential, all the real and positive motions which
constitute life might indefinitely cease.

Let us examine, then, some cases of " potential " energy, and see
if they be not actual, although under a disguise ; so that the present
definition of the conservation of energy may be replaced by the more
intelligible statement that motion is constant ; that it is never abol-
ished for a time, nor absolutely suspended, all appearances to the con-
trary notwithstanding; and that so, all cases of energy are dynamic,
and no part of them static, as now currently held.

For matter seemingly at rest may contain within itself motions as
real as those to which at another time it openly gives rise, wThen it
radiates heat or attracts by magnetism.

First of all, then, let us consider the case of a stone at a height, say
on the brow of a cliff, capable of falling at any time when slightly
pushed.

Gravity is the one force, of all the forms of energy, whose relations
with others it is most difficult to imagine.

Other forces affect each other most palpably : magnetism forsakes
a magnet when it is made white hot ; chemical affinity is most sensi-
tive to variations of temperature, and even in some cases to mechani-
cal tremor ; the transmission of electricity is favored by the cooling
of a conductor, and so on.

Otherwise is it with gravity : a given mass of matter, however
mechanically moved, electrified, magnetized, heated, or subjected to
chemical changes, at the same point on the earth's surface, always
weighs the same.

The only force with which gravity has any analogy is magnetism;
and were magnetism always attractive, instead of polar, with equal
opposite manifestations of attraction and repulsion, the analogy would
be a strong one.

Let us, however, work out what analogy there is, and we may find
that as the subtile movements of light were made plain by the study
of the grosser movements of sound in air, so may the long-hidden
laws of gravity be revealed in part, by tracing the similitude existing
between their effects and those of common magnetism.

Both forces obey the law of squares: according to that law, they
diminish as we recede from their centres of attraction. And what is
very suggestive is, that, as their appetites are satisfied, they decrease
in exactly the same ratio.

Two small magnets at a great distance from each other (so as to
be practically out of the range of each other's influence), having each

THE CONSTANCY OF MOTION 227

a force equal to 1, when permitted to unite, have together a force less
than 2 ; and this because work can be done by their attraction me-
chanically, or may appear as heat ; and of course this must diminish
their original stock of energy.

Precisely so with gravity. Suppose, for simplicity's sake, the
radius of the earth to be 4,000 miles. Let us then imagine a stone of
four tons lifted from the earth's surface to a distance of 4,001 miles ;
it would there weigh one ton — very nearly. Were such a mass to fall
it would pass through 4,001 miles of space, and yield corresponding
work.

Now let us further imagine a world, concentric with our present
one, to be made up by the union of the earth with seven other such
planets, and let us leave out of the question any possible condensation
in the matter of this new world. Then supposing the stone to have
resumed its former position in space, if gravity were allowed to act
again, it could only do so through one mile, instead of 4,001 miles as
before.

And mark how the geometrical necessities of enlargement lessen
the working power of a mass attracting by gravity ; for a stone weigh-
ing four tons on our present globe would only weigh twice as much
on a sphere containing eight times the matter.

In the latter case, the surface would be twice as distant from the
centre as in the former ; for the attraction diminishes as the square
of the distance of surface from the centre. Therefore the 8 times in-
creased bulk has to be divided by 4, the square of the doubled radius.

Thus the weight of a definite mass on any celestial body varies as
the density of the body and as the radius of it.

One of our pound-weights taken to the sun would there weigh 27
pounds, the sun's radius being about 110 times that of the earth, but
its density only about one-fourth as great ; while its bulk exceeds
that of our planet by as much as 1,252,000 times.

If we now attentively observe the energy of a magnet in its usual
genesis, we may learn somewhat, not only of gravity, but of attrac-
tion in general. The most convenient way to make magnets is by the
use of an electric coil. A piece of properly-tempered steel is inserted
in a helix of copper wire, through which a current circulates proceed-
ing from the mechanical motion of a steam-engine, converted into
electricity by suitable apparatus.

Other methods of magnetization there are, but none so directly
instructive as this ; here we have the visible, palpable motion of
heavy wheels disappearing, and the chief result is the attractive force
developed in the steel. The conviction dawns upon us that the mo-
tion of the wheels has been taken up by the molecules of the bar,
that the steel has now internal movements which before it had not;
and that these movements of its particles exist in full actuality, ca-
pable of doing tangible work when fitly permitted. Let us bring

228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a piece of iron or steel near to the magnet, and instantly it leaps
toward it, confirming our conviction.

That a medium exists for the conveyance of such molecular mo-
tion, we are obliged to think ; but what it is, or how it is affected,
we cannot yet imagine. Thus much, however, is plain, that, as a me-
dium purely, it can be no source of motion, so that the mere fact of
distance between bodies can be no satisfactory explanation of attrac-
tion.

Attraction, then, wherever it appears, I believe to be due to con-
tained motion in the particles of the bodies presenting it ; which
molecular motion is the equivalent of, and convertible into, the move-
ment of masses as wholes.

Gravity, I venture to hold, is a force due to a distinct motion of
the ultimate parts of matter, which has not yet been formulated.
And, as the energy expended in sundering two united magnets reap-
pears in the increase of their attractive powers, or the acceleration of
such motion of their particles as constitutes magnetism, so the lifting
of a stone from the earth would imply that the force consumed in so
doing must take the form of a quickening in that motion of its parti-
cles which constitutes gravity. And we have seen how every succes-
sive act of obedience to both these forces of aggregation makes them
weaker and weaker, as it reasonably shoiild.

Therefore, I conclude that the energy of a stone at a height is not
potential, but actual; that its value as a source of work, at any time,
is represented, by the swifter motion of its molecules as compared
with those of a stone on the earth's surface; and that, as a stone falls,
its internal motion takes the phase of mass motion.

This theory would lead us to suppose that the onward momen-
tum of the planets, as they turn before the sun, is the expression of an
equal internal gravitive motion of their ultimate parts, which exactly
balances these mighty celestial revolutions.

The next case of " potential " energy to be inquired into is that of
a coiled spring, wdiich, in unwinding, may yield the force it took to
coil it.

This case may be intelligibly explained on the same principle of
the constancy of motion. The particles of a spring may be assumed
to have a definite plane of molecular motion, which motion we shall
presume is that due to temperature. In coiling, these planes are
changed, and energy is required to do it ; just as when a gyroscope-
top is rapidly revolving in a certain fixed plane, it may, by a measu-
rable effort, be made to revolve in a conical curve, with one end of its
axis stationary, and the other describing a circle in space. And, as
the gyroscope strongly tends to move in a uniform plane, and can do
work in resuming such a plane, so I assume that the particles in a
coiled spring have two similar motions, one of which is at any time
available for tangible work when the spring is freed.

THE CONSTANCY OF MOTION. 229

Yet another example. Let us take the case of a cylinder of com-
pressed air which for years, tightly sealed, may serve as a store of
force.

Prof. Clerk Maxwell explains how an ounce of air, in a closed and
fragile jar, sustains the outside pressure of the atmosphere amounting
to several tons ; this he does by the theory that the ounce of air is
made up of molecules which have so rapid a motion among themselves
that they collide on the inside of the jar with as great a force as that
of the atmospheric pressure externally.

This theory, now widely accepted, rests on the solid grounds of
the measured velocity of air rushing into a vacuum, which is the
same as that assumed for its internal motion ; and further, on some
observations of the diffusion of various gases into each other, which it
would be out of place to detail here.

On the basis, then, of Prof. Maxwell's theory, we can believe that,
in a cylinder of compressed air, the energy stored up exists in no
merely " potential " form, but in the full actuality of the rapid motion
of gaseous particles, which may take the shape of mass-motion when
the piston is allowed to move outward.

An extension of the hypothesis that motion is continuous would
lead to the inference that the so-called latent heat of water at 32°
Fahr., as compared with ice at the same temperature, is due to the
swifter movement of the molecules in the former case ; and no facts
are better known than that mechanical motion can become heat, and
that heat turns ice into water.

Another implication of this theory is that atoms, as free hydrogen,
oxygen, or carbon, are in exceedingly greater commotion than mole-
cules, such as those of water or carbonic-acid gas. For the decompo-
sition of such molecules may be effected by the exhaustion of mechani-
cal motion, and I take it that the dynamic state of the products must
balance this expenditure. What else can become of it ?

The measure of the contained motion in two different atoms can
be noted on their combining chemically, by the increase of tempera-
ture, which has its well-known mechanical equivalent.

The analogy between chemical units and small magnets is very
close: as a magnet decreases in size, so, relatively thereto, does its
attractive power increase ; and, were we able to go on dividing
until we came to a single atom of iron, we should doubtless have
the magnetism merge into the equivalent phase of intense chemical
affinity.

Without further illustration, then, of the principle set forth, I will
say that, as in recent years we have had to familiarize ourselves with
the idea that many forms of actual energy are impalpable, as the rays
of light and the waves of sound, so now I think there are good
grounds for extending our ideas so as to believe that all phases of
"potential" energy are really actual ; that, as -we cannot but think

230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that only motion can breed motion, energy means motion ; and that as
such its amount is constant, and its presence, behind whatever veil,
continuous ; so that it is only properly divisible into two kinds, per-
ceptible and imperceptible.

■♦«»

SKETCH OF PEOFESSOK MAYER.

AMONG the younger physicists of the country who have done
honor to American science by the interest and extent of their
original researches, the subject of the present sketch, and of whom
we give an excellent portrait this month, holds a distinguished place.
Though now only in the prime of his manhood, he has already made
many refined and elaborate experimental researches, by which he is
widely and favorably known to men of science both in this country
and in Europe.

Alfred Marshall Mayer was born in Baltimore, November 3,
1836. His grandfather, Christian Mayer, was descended from an ancient
family in the city of Ulm, Wttrteniberg, and came to Baltimore when
a young man. Here he made a large fortune in trade with India and
Mexico. He was well known in his day for his liberal and elegant
hospitality, his extensive reading, profound knowledge of mercantile
law, and those marked social and gentlemanly traits that made him
a delightful companion. His father was Charles F. Mayer, who was
distinguished for his learning, eloquence, and extensive literary cult-
ure. He is the nephew of Brantz Mayer, a prominent writer, who is
especially known by his various valuable works on Mexico, where he
resided for a time as secretary of legation.

Prof. Mayer was partly educated at St. Mary's College, in Balti-
more, which he left at the age of sixteen for a more practical sphere
of study. He entered the workshoj) and draughting-room of a me-
chanical engineer, where he remained two years, acquiring a knowl-
edge of the use of tools, mechanical drawing, the method of con-
structing machines, and careful mechanical manipulation. Subse-
quently, during two years, he cultivated analytical chemistry by
thorough laboratory practice.

Prof. Mayer has occupied the chair of Physics, with Chemistry
and Astronomy, in several colleges, as follows : University of Mary-
land, 1856-'58; Westminster College, Missouri, 1859-'61 ; Pennsyl-
vania College, Gettysburg, 1865-'67 ; Lehigh University, Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, 1867-"70; and the Stevens Institute of Technology
since 1871. In 1863-'64 he studied physics, mathematics, and physi-
ology, in the University of Paris.

Prof. Mayer's first contribution to science was made in 1855, and

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR MAYER. 231

described ia a paper in the American Journal of Science and Arts,
entitled "A New Apparatus for the Determination of Carbonic
Acid," which was republished in Germany. His second paper was
on the estimation of weights of very small portions of matter, in
which he showed that, by the deflections of fine glass fibres, we can
weigh a particle of matter as small as the TqV 0" °f a milligramme.
While at the Lehigh University, he designed and superintended the
erection of an astronomical observatory, put together and adjusted
the instruments, and made a series of observations on the planet
Jupiter, which were republished in England. He was in chai-ge of
the party sent by the United States Government to observe the
eclipse of the sun at Burlington, Iowa, August 7, 1869, and took
forty-one perfect photographs of the eclipse with exposures lasting
only the -g-JoOf a second.

While at the Lehigh University, Prof. Mayer contributed to the
American Journal of Science and Arts and the Journal of the Franklin
Institute various original contributions on the " Solar Protuberances,"
" Spectral Analysis of the Stars," " Physical Constitution of the Sun,"
" Electro-Magnetism," " Electric Conductivities," " On the Alleged
Electro - Tonic State," "Magnetic Declination in Connection with
the Aurora," " Photographing the Magnetic Spectra ; " and at the
Salem meeting of the American Association he read an instructive
paper " On the Thermo-Dynamics of Waterfalls." He had taken the
temperatures of the water at Trenton and Niagara before it leaps the
cataract and after it strikes below. According to theory, when the
falling motion is arrested, it is converted into heat, and should be
shown in a rising temperature below. The observations indicated
that the effects of evaporation and contact of the divided water with
the air were greater than the impact in changing the temperature
of the fallen water, so that it may be actually colder below than
above. But on days when the air is saturated with moisture, and the
temperatures of the water and air are about the same, results were
obtained which show that the warming of the falling water conforms
to Joule's law of the conversion of motion into heat.

Since entering upon his duties at the Stevens Institute of Tech-
nology, notwithstanding the labor of lecturing and teaching which
the position involves, Prof. Mayer has conducted elaborate investi-
gations in various branches of physics, which have given to science
many new and important results. Among these may be mentioned
researches in magnetism, heat, and especially " On the Effects of
Magnetization in changing the Dimensions of Iron and Steel Bars,"
and " On the Isothermals of the Solar Disk." We cannot here give
the particulars of these interesting inquiries, but must refer the reader
to the memoirs in the scientific journals.

The line of investigation, however, to which Prof. Mayer has
mainly devoted himself within the last few years is that of acoustics

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in its various physical connections, and especially in relation to the
theory of music. These researches are described in papers contained
in the American Journal of Science and Arts, and several of his impor-
tant conclusions have been incorporated in the English edition of
Helmholtz's " Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for a The-
ory of Music." Mr. Alexander J. Ellis, F. R. S. (the translator of
the above work), has also recently published a lecture which he deliv-
ered before the London Musical Association, on the application of
Prof. Mayer's discoveries to the elucidation of the fundamental prin-
ciples of musical harmony.

The chief claims of Prof. Mayer in regard to his recent acousti-
cal results may be concisely summed up as follows :

1. He discovered that, by using the phenomena of sympathetic
vibration, one can show that the translation of a vibrating body
causes it to give sonorous waves, differing in length from those pro-
duced by the same vibrating body when stationary.

2. He first succeeded in actually detecting the different phases of
vibration in the air surrounding a sounding body, and thereby meas-
ured the lengths of its waves ; and first experimentally explored in
the free air the exact form of any wave-surface ; and he has deter-
mined the forms of these envelopes around a sounding body with
as much facility as one can obtain the form of the surface of a pal-
pable body in the dark.

3. He devised a simple and accurate method of measuring the
wave-lengths of sound in air and in gases, and was the first to meas-
ure with precision the relative intensities of sounds by means of
manometric flames.

4. He first approximately determined the mechanical equivalent
of an aerial sonorous vibration.

5. He obtained in an experiment all the conditions required in
" Fourier's theorem," and thus first gave an exact experimental con-
firmation of it.

6. He has devised and used Jive new methods of sonorous analy-
sis for the decomposition of a compound sound into its elementary
simple tones. He also first, by means of a rotating disk, reproduced
the vibratory motions of a molecule of air, when it is animated with
the resultant action of the six elementary vibrations forming a musi-
cal note.

7. He first discovered, by delicate experiment, that the fibrils of
the antennae of the male mosquito vibrate sympathetically to notes
which have the range of pitch of the sounds given out by the female
mosquito. He also showed first how an insect may determine the
direction of sounds by means of his antenna?.

8. He discovered that the terminal auditory nerve-fibrils vibrate
half as often in a given time as the membrane of the tympanum and

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR MAYER. 233

the ossicles of the ear, and proposed on these facts a new hypothesis
of the mode of audition.

9. He first discovered the law connecting the pitch of a sound
with the time that the sensation of the sound endures after the air
has ceased to vibrate the tympanic membrane. This law rendered
the qualitative results of Ilelmholtz quantitative ; and in the third
edition of Helmholtz's " Tonempfindungen " Mr. Alexander J. Ellis,
as noted above, has extensively used this law as the only basis for
reaching exact quantitative results in the fundamental phenomena
of musical harmony. This law Prof. Mayer has applied extensively
to the elucidation of the fundamental facts of harmony, and to
the explanation of many obscure phenomena in the physiology of
hearing.

10. He discovered that sonorous sensations interfere with one
another, and that, although a low sound may entirely obliterate the
sensation of a sound higher in pitch, yet a sound cannot in the slight-
est obliterate the sensation of another sound lower than it in pitch.
He has made applications of these discoveries in showing that a radi-
cal change is required in the usual method of conducting orchestral
music, and in a new method of determining the relative intensities of
sounds.

11. He has determined with great precision the laws of the vibra-
tions of tuning-forks, especially in the direction of the bearing of these
laws on the action of chronoscopes used in determining the velocities
of projectiles. He first accurately gave the correction to be applied
in all such determination on account of the different temperatures of
the forks.

Besides these difficult and delicate original investigations, Prof.
Mayer has contributed numerous articles to Appletons' and Johnson's
" Cyclopaedias " in his more especial lines of inquiry, and has written
much for various popular publications. He was one of the editors
of the American Journal of Science and Arts, but reluctantly gave
up its duties in 1873 on account of weakness of sight. He then
suspended work, and went to England for a vacation, where he was
cordially received and kindly entertained by his brethren of the
various scientific societies.

234

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

FIGHT BETWEEN, A TROUT AND A WA-
TER-SNAKE.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

HAVING read in your July number Mr.
Buckland's account of a fight between
a scorpion and a mouse, I am induced to
give you an account of a remarkable con-
flict between a large water-snake and a trout,
witnessed by myself and one of my brother
officers in tbe survey in 1867, on the Pu-
rissima, a small trout-stream which empties
into the ocean about twenty-four miles south
of San Francisco. We had been fishing on
the stream, and came to a high bank which
overlooked a transparent pool of water
about ten feet in diameter and four feet in
depth. This pool was fringed with willows,
and had on one side a small gravel-bank.
The trout at first sight was lying in mid-
water, heading up-stream. It was, as after-
ward ascertained, fully nine inches in length,
a very desirable prize for an angler. While
studying how to cast our flies to secure him,
a novel fisherman appeared, and so quick
were his actions that we suspended our
own to witness them. This new enemy of
the trout was a large water-snake of the
common variety, striped black and yellow.
He swam up the pool on the surface until
over the trout, when he made a dive, and by
a dexterous movement seized the trout in
such a fashion that the jaws of the snake
closed its mouth. The fight then com-
menced. The trout had the use of its tail

and fins, and could drag the snake fiom the
surface ; when near the bottom, however,
the snake made use of its tail by winding
it around every stone or root that it could
reach. After securing this tail-hold it could
drag the trout toward the bank, but, on let-
ting go, the trout would have a new advan-
tage. This battle was continued for full
twenty minutes, when the snake managed to
get its tail out of the water and clasped
around the root of one of the willows men-
tioned as overhanging the pool. The battle
was then up, for the snake gradually put coil
after coil around the root, with each onedras-
ging the fish toward the land. When half
its body was coiled it unloosed the first hold
and stretched the end of its tail out in every
direction, and, finding another root, made
fast, and now using both dragged the trout
out on the gravel-bank. It now had it under
control, and, uncoiling, the snake dragged
the fish fully ten feet up on the bank, and
I suppose would have gorged him. We
killed the snake, and replaced the trout in
the water, as we thought that he deserved
liberty. He was apparently unhurt, and in
a few moments darted off. That the water-
snake of our California brooks will prey upon
the young of trout and also smaller and less
active fishes, I have noticed, but never have
seen an attack on a fish so large or one more
hotly contested. Yours respectfully,
A. W. Chase,
Assistant U. S. Coast Survey.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM.

THE devotees of rational amusement,
tbe lovers of natural history, and
the friends of scientific education, in
this city, are to he congratulated on the
establishment of the aquarium which
was recently completed and opened to
visitors. Undoubtedly the devotees of
rational amusement are not so nu-

merous as they might be, hut they will
increase in numbers as increasing fa-
cilities are afforded for combining agree-
able recreation with instructive obser-
vation in the acquisition of pleasant
knowledge without much trouble. As
a means of increasing the general taste
in natural history, and affording stu-
dents the opportunity of familiarizing

EDITOR'S TABLE.

n

themselves with forms of life hitherto
inaccessible and known chiefly in books,
the aquarium is invaluable, and will be
a great help in promoting the work of
science. The museum shows us dead
specimens, stuffed, dried, and variously-
preserved, and is of course not without
interest. But the aquarium opens to
us the living, moving curiosities and
wonders that are nowhere else to be
seen. What the menagerie is to the
creatures of the forest, the desert, and
the prairie, the aquarium is to the
tenants of the lake, the river, and the
ocean. But, while land-animals have
long been captured and collected for
inspection, the aquarium is a new and
recent affair, involving great difficulties
in its successful management. These
difficulties can only be overcome at large
expense, by persevering experience, and
through special and thorough knowl-
edge of the conditions of life of an im-
mense variety of aquatic creatures. The
opportunity such an establishment opens
to the scientific observer, investigator,
and experimenter, should be highly
prized, and we have no doubt it will
be well appreciated by this clas3 of
students.

In an educational point of view, or
as a means of popular instruction, a well-
stocked aquarium cannot fail to be of
the highest value. Natural history is a
growing subject in our schools, but is
so generally pursued merely from text-
books which give no real knowledge,
that a great available museum of living
objects is precisely what is wanted to
give reality and efficiency to this branch
of study. The New York Aquarium
should be brought into very close rela-
tions with the common-school system
of the city. We are glad to observe
that this element of its usefulness has
not been overlooked in the plan and
management of the enterprise. Pro-
visions for study, instruction, and sys-
tematic observation have been incor-
porated with it, and this feature has
been held so important as to be placed

in special charge of a cultivated natu-
ralist. Mr. W. S. Ward, who has been
abroad this season and visited the chief
aquariums of Europe, with a view of
acquiring information that will be valu-
able to the scientific management, will
devote himself to the educational ser-
vice of the institution.

It is a noteworthy fact that we are
indebted for the New York Aquarium
entirely to private enterprise. There
was talk that the city would establish
something of the kind in the Central
Park ; but it came to nothing, and, after
the municipal fizzle over the fossil resto-
rations undertaken by Mr. Waterhouse
Hawkins, we may conclude that it was
perhaps best that the city did not un-
dertake this work. But what it was
unable or disinclined to do has been
projected and carried out by the per-
severing enterprise of Mr. W. C. Coup,
who has devoted his energy to its or-
ganization, and risked his money upon
his chance of success. The aquarium
is an honor to this metropolis and
promises a large benefit to the public,
and it should be liberally patronized
and well sustained. We have no doubt
it will meet from all classes with the
encouragement it certainly deserves.

A CASE I2T MENTAL PHYSIOLOGY,

An account comes to us of an enter-
prising Englishwoman who was equal to
the following exploits in sharp prac-
tice : '• By a series of the most extraor-
dinary misrepresentations and cleverly
carried out impostures, she raised large
sums of money on no security whatev-
er, and spent them as recklessly; im-
posed on jewelers so that they trusted
her with goods worth many hundreds
of pounds ; furnished grand houses en-
tirely at the expense of trusting uphol-
sterers ; introduced herself by sheer im-
pudence to one great nobleman after
another, and then introduced her dupes,
who, on the faith of those distinguished

236

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

social connections, at once disgorged
more money. To one person she was
a great literary character ; to another,
of royal descent; to another she had
immense expectations ; to another, she
was a stern religionist."

This woman must have heen as
smart as she was unscrupulous. Her
capacity of imposture was as marked
as the deficiency of moral sense; she
was as shrewd and long-headed as she
was knavish. The art of her conduct,
the consummate calculation, and the
skillful adaptation of means to ends in
dealing with others, implicate the whole
intellectual sphere of action which was
at the same time exempt from the con-
trol of conscience. Yet the force of mor-
al considerations was implied through-
out as she had to deal with people who
were influenced by them, and to give
good reasons for her various claims and
representations. ■ It was a sufficiently
obvious case of cool criminal depravity,
and most people would have little diffi-
culty in deciding what was to be done
about it. But current theories of con-
duct stop with mental effects. Mind
being regarded as having a sphere of
its own, and the mental world being
held as an independent world, where all
that goes on is purely psychical, there
is no interest or requirement to look
beyond the open manifestations of mind
to their causes in another sphere. If
we should say that this woman had
something more than a mind, some-
thing more than an immaterial respon-
sible soul, that we must look deeper
than the mental manifestations dis-
played in conduct, that she had a brain
made up of cells, fibres, tissues, and
circulating blood, subject to the laws
of nutrition, waste, and repair, debil-
ity, degeneration, and disease, and that
all these things must be taken into
account as controlling conditions of
mental effects, we should be met imme-
diately by the cry of materialism ! And
if we should furthermore say that these
three or four pounds of nervous matter

must come into consideration before so-
ciety can proceed to decide upon such
a case, a cry of denunciation would be
raised against a destructive materialism
that threatens to subvert the order of
society.

Nevertheless, the question of mmd
in this case was an organic problem of
the brain, as the further facts will show.
This woman had lived a quiet but hon-
est and uneventful life up to the time
that she suddenly struck out into her
sensational career. A year of lying,
cheating, and scheming practices ended
in the development of marked insanity
and brain-disease, when she was taken
to the Eoyal Edinburgh Asylum for the
Insane, where she soon died. The vic-
tims of her cunning and mendacity
were simply the dupes of a lunatic, and
the question of her character and ac-
countability resolves itself into a prob-
lem of brain-derangement, of morbid
material conditions, and is therefore a
question of practical materialism which
the physician cannot escape.

EVOLUTION AXJ) THE COPERKICAN
THEORY.

It is significant that nearly all
the divines who have spoken, in reply
to Prof. Huxley, commit themselves to
some form of the doctrine of Evolu-
tion. .While, however, they admit that
there is some truth in it, there is a
common protest against the idea that
it contains much truth — not by any
means so much as is claimed by Prof.
Huxley. He said that the evidence for
it is demonstrative, and that it is as
well based in its proofs as the Coper-
nican theory of astronomy. This is
thought to be quite absurd. It is said
that Huxley may know a great deal
about animals and fossils, but that ob-
viously he knows very little about logic.
His facts being admitted, a great deal
of effort has been expended to show
that he does not understand how to
reason from them.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

237

The Kev. Dr. William M. Taylor, in
a letter to the Tribune, takes up Prof.
Huxley on this ground, and is quite
shocked at his logical incapacity. The
following is a sample passage from his
communication, and a very fair exam-
ple, besides, of the sort of comment
which his lectures have elicited :

" Indeed, to affirm, as he did, that evo-
lution stands exactly on the same basis as
the Copernican theory of the motions of the
heavenly bodies, is an assertion so astound-
ing that we can only ' stand by and admire '
the marvelous effrontery with which it was
made. That theory rests on facts, presently
occurring before our eyes, and treated in
the manner of mathematical precision. It
is not an inference made by somebody from
a record of facts, existing in far-off and pre-
historic, possibly also prehuman ages. It
is verified every day by occurrences which
happen according to its laws. But where
do we see evolution going on to-day? If
evolution rests upon a basis as sure as as-
tronomy, why do we not see one species
passing into another now, even as we see
the motions of the pl'anets through the
heavens? . . . We know that astronomy is
true, because we are verifying its conclu-
sions every day of our lives on land and on
sea. "We set our clocks according to its con-
clusions, and navigate our ships in accord-
ance with its predictions, but where have
we anything approaching even infinitesi-
mally to this, with evolution? "

The author of this passage is said to
be a man of eminence and ability. That
may be, but he certainly has not won
his distinction either in the fields of
logic, astronomy, or biology. When a
man undertakes to state the evidence
of a theory, and gives us proofs that
equally sustain an opposite theory, we
naturally conclude that he does not
know what he is talking about. This
is very much Dr. Taylor's predicament.
In trying to contrast the evidence for
evolution with the demonstrative proofs
of the Copernican theory, he cites facts
that are not only as good, but far bet-
ter, to prove the truth of its antagonist,
the Ptolemaic theory.

Dr. Taylor talks as if the Coperni-
can theory is something that anybody

can see by looking up into the sky, but
the case is far from being so simple.
The Copernican theory of the planetary
motions assumes that they take place
around the sun as their centre ; the
Ptolemaic theory taught that the earth
is the stationary centre of the system,
and that the sun, moon, and planets,
revolve around it. We must not forget
that the Ptolemaic theory was the fun-
damental conception of astronomy, and
guided its scientific development for
two thousand years. It was based on
extensive, prolonged, and accurate ob-
servations ; was elucidated and con-
firmed by mathematics — geometry, and
trigonometry ; and was verified by con-
firming the power of astronomic pre-
vision. The planetary motions were
traced and resolved on this theory with
great skill and correctness, elaborate
tables being constructed which repre-
sented their irregularities and inequali-
ties, so that their future positions could
be foretold, and conjunctions, opposi-
tions, and eclipses, predicted. It em-
bodied a great amount of exact knowl-
edge, and was capable of taking in
and preserving all the new results of
the labors of a long series of Greek,
Latin, Arabian, and modern European
astronomers. Dr. Whewell says of it :
" In this sense, therefore, the Hippar-
chian theory was a real and indestructi-
ble truth, which was not rejected, and
replaced by different truths, but was
adopted and incorporated into every
succeeding astronomical theory, and
which can never cease to be one of the
most important and fundamental parts
of our astronomical knowledge."

Copernicus, then, did not abolish
but rather revised the old astronomy.
He accepted the whole system of eccen-
trics and epicycles, and, so far as plan-
etary motions are concerned, he simply
recentred the solar system. He showed
that the evidence in favor of that view
preponderated, and his theory was a
victory of refined, remote, and indirect
investigation.

238

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Dr. Taylor tells us that the Coperni-
can theory "rests on facts presently
occurring before our eyes." So does
the Ptolemaic theory ; and not only
that, but, if the test is what occurs be-
fore our eyes, then the Ptolemaic theo-
ry is a thousand times stronger than the
Copernican. If the Copernican theory
is so obvious, if it " rests on facts pres-
ently occurring before our eyes," why
did the astronomers of twenty cen-
turies fail to discern it? Why could
not the divines of Copernicus's time
see it when it was pointed out to them?
And why could not Lord Bacon admit
it a hundred years after Copernicus ?
Dr. Taylor says, " It is verified every day
by occurrences that happen according
to its laws." So was its opposite, the
Ptolemaic theory. Our reverend logi-
cian says, furthermore: "We know that
astronomy is true, because we are veri-
fying its conclusions every day of our
lives, on land and on sea. We set our
clocks according to its conclusions, and
navigate our ships in accordance with
its predictions." And all this they did
with the astronomy that preceded Co-
pernicus. Yet the author of this rub-
bish airs his logical pretensions, and
talks about the "effrontery" of Prof.
Huxley. Where is his shame ?

The Copernican theory is held as
demonstrably true, but it is not because
everybody can see the demonstration.
There was demonstrated truth in the
opposite theory, though the proof was
not so complete. And in regard to this
matter of demonstration, of which so
much is said, we have to remember that
evidence is a thing of degrees. There
may be evidence for a proposition
which is so small that we hardly regard
its truth as possible — we do not believe
it. There is a grade of proof that amounts
to probability, but leaves us in uncer-
tainty. There are higher degrees of
proof that confer assured belief, and
leave little room for doubt. There is,
again, evidence so perfect and decisive
as to give certainty of conviction, and

this we call demonstration. And evi-
dence may have a yet higher shade of
intensity, as where we cannot even con-
ceive the opposite of a proposition to be
true, and this may be characterized by
the frequent expression, " absolute dem-
onstration." The best examples of
demonstration are furnished by mathe-
matics in consequence of the fewness
and simplicity of mathematical ideas,
but demonstration by no means neces-
sarily involves mathematics. There is
plenty of demonstrated truth that is
not mathematical. The anatomist de-
monstrates his science by observation,
and the chemist by experiment*. Fos-
sils found in the rocks demonstrate that
life existed upon the globe before the
rocks were formed; and the vestiges
of art found in Western mounds de-
monstrate that a race of men superior
to the savages formerly lived upon this
continent. A theory is said to be de-
monstrated when it brings all the known
facts into agreement, explains them,
excludes all other interpretations, and
is consistent with itself and all that is
understood of the ways of Nature.
Most theories of the operations of Na-
ture have about them traces of the
imperfection that belongs to all things
human, difficulties that are still unre-
solved, while yet the evidence for them
may be so overwhelming as to be held
demonstrative.

How is it, now, with the proof of
the theory of Evolution, which as-
sumes that the immense diversity of
living forms now scattered over the
earth has arisen through a long process
of gradual unfolding and derivation,
within the order of Nature, and by
the operation of natural laws ? It in-
volves and is built upon a series of
demonstrated truths. It is a fact ac-
cordant with all observation, and to
which there never has been known a
solitary exception, that the succession
of generations of living things upon
earth is by reproduction and genetio
connection in the regular order of Na-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

239

tnre. The stream of generations flows
on by this process, which is as much a
part of the settled, continuous economy
of the world as the steady action of
gravity or heat. It is demonstrated that
living forms are liable to variations
which accumulate through inheritance ;
that the ratio of multiplication in the
living world is out of all proportion to
the means of subsistence, so that only
comparatively few germs mature, while
myriads are destroyed ; that, in the
struggles of life, the fittest to the con-
ditions survive, and those least adapted
perish. It is a demonstrated fact that
life has existed on the globe during
periods of time so vast as to be incal-
culable ; that there has been an order
in its succession by which the lowest
appeared first, and the highest have
come last, while the intermediate forms
disclose a rising gradation. It is a de-
monstrated truth of Nature that matter
is indestructible, and that therefore all
the material changes and transforma-
tions of the world consist in using over
and over the. same stock of materials,
new forms being perpetually derived
from old ones; and it is a fact now
also held to be established, that force
obeys the same laws. All these great
truths harmonize with each other ; they
agree with all we know of the constitu-
tion of Nature; and they demonstrate
evolution as a fact, and go far toward
opening to us the secondary question
of its method.

The reverend writer, whom we have
quoted, asks, " If evolution rests on a
basis as sure as astronomy, why do we
not see one species passing into another
now, even as we see the motions of the
planets through the heavens ? " To this
foolish question, which has neverthe-
less been asked a dozen times by cleri-
cal critics of Huxley, the obvious an-
swer is, that what requires a very long
time to produce cannot be seen in a
very short time. Has the writer ever
seen the production of a geological for-
mation ? That he has not seen the evi-

dences that would have prevented him
from asking such a question is prob-
ably because he is not a student of
Nature, and has not looked for them.

There has been much complaint
that Prof. Huxley undertook to put the
demonstrative evidence of evolution on
so narrow a basis as the establishment
of the genealogy of the horse, but this
rather enhances than detracts from his
merit as a scientific thinker. It has
been well remarked that "the genius
of the discoverer appears in his per-
ceiving how small a number of facts,
rightly considered, are sufficient to form
a foundation for a theory." Kepler
had to fix but a few points in the path
of Mars, to demonstrate the ellipticity
of his orbit, and to subvert the theory
of circular planetary motions, by which
the way was paved to the Newtonian
astronomy. Prof. Huxley could have
accumulated a far more striking dis-
play of the proofs of evolution for a
popular audience, but he preferred to
rest the question on evidence that was
none the less decisive because it was
restricted. If the horse has been de-
rived from preceding forms in the way
he pointed out, then that is the method
of Nature — unless we deny the unity
of its order.

And here is the vital point between
Prof. Huxley and his antagonists. It
is a question of the validity of the con-
ception of the order and uniformity of
Nature. Prof. Huxley holds to it as a
first principle, a truth demonstrated by
all science, and just as fixed in biology
as in astronomy. His antagonists hold
that the inflexible order of Nature may
be asserted perhaps in astronomy, but
they deny it in biology. They here in-
voke supernatural intervention. Obvi-
ously there are but two hypotheses upon
the subject, that of the genetic derivation
of existing species, through the opera-
tion of natural law, and that of creation
by miraculous interference with the
course of Nature. If we assume the
orderly course of Nature, development

240

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is inevitable ; it is evolution or nothing.
If the order of Nature is put aside and
special creation appealed to, we have a
right to ask on what evidence? It
was long maintained that the universe
was made in a week, by a quick succes-
sion of divine fiats. This view is now
abandoned, and it is maintained, as a
new theory, that the millions of species
Avhich science has proved to have ap-
peared all along the course of geological
time were also the products of miracu-
lous agency. But, as logic has been ap-
pealed to, we again press the question,
on what evidence? There is no evi-
dence. There is not a scintilla' of
proof that can have a feather's weight
with any scientific mind. We are told
that each link in the chain of ancestry
of Prof. Huxley's horse was a special
creation. But who tells us this, and what
do they know about it ? Genetic deriva-
tion is in the field as a real and undeni-
able cause ; but what possible ground is
offered for the alternative supposition ?
Has anybody ever seen a special crea-
tion ? Do those who believe in it repre-
sent to themselves any possibility of how
it could have occurred ? Milton at -
tempted to form an image of the way
the thing was done, and says that the
animals burst up full-formed and per-
fect like plants out of the ground —
"the grassy clods now calved." But
clods can only calve miraculously. Na-
ture does not bring them into the world
now by this method, and science certain-
ly can know nothing of it. So far from
being possible, so far from being prob-
able, so far from being proved, this
hypothesis of the origin of animal forms
is simply unthinkable ; it is a violation
not only of the order of Nature, but of
the very conditions of thought. From
this point of view, therefore, the theory
of evolution differs from the Oopernican
theory by having no alternative possi-
bility. The Copernican theory was but
the revision and modification of a pre-
ceding theory which had evidence in its
favor, and could be rationally held by

scientific minds; the evolution theory
has a force of demonstration derived
from the fact that the only alternative
view cannot for a moment be enter-
tained by any mind that recognizes the
logical force of scientific evidence ; in
this respect, therefore, the evidence for
evolution is even stronger than that for
the Copernican theory.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Theory of Sound in its Relation to
Mrsic. By Pietro Blaserna, of the
Royal University of Rome. With nu-
merous Illustrations. Pp. 187. Price,
$1.50. International Scientific Series,
No. XXII.

Nothing could be more appropriate
than that the first Italian contribution to
the "International Scientific Series " should
take up one of the most interesting relations
of science to art. Italy has been long pre-
eminent as the land of artistic genius, al-
though her distinction has been chiefly
won by cultivating the arts that appeal to
the eye — painting, sculpture, and architect-
ure. Germany leads in the modern devel-
opment of musical art, and her great physi-
cist, Helmholtz, stands first as the elucidator
of the laws of sound applied to musical sci-
ence. But the great work of Helmholtz is
a sealed book to the people. Prof. Blaser-
na has been first to take the brilliant re-
sults of recent acoustical progress and ap-
ply them to musical art and theory in so
clear and familiar a manner that common
readers will follow him with ease and pleas-
ure.

The work is addressed both to scientific
students and to musicians, but it is proper-
ly a contribution to the science of music.
It does not at all cover the ground of Prof.
Tyndall's volume on "Sound," which is
strictly a text-book of acoustics, but, start-
ing with so much of acoustical principles as
is necessary for his purpose, Prof. Blaser-
na devotes the work to those scientific
elucidations of musical art and practice
which will have the greatest interest to
those concerned in musical study. We
cannot better give account of the volume
than by quoting freely from the admira-

LITERARY NOTICES.

241

ble review of it that has just appeared
in the London Lancet, The writer says :
" This work is an attempt to popularize the
theory of music, and so to combine the the-
oretical with the practical study of this
art that instrumentalists may obtain some
knowledge of those fundamental laws of
sound on which music is based. With this
object in view Prof. Blaserna commences
his treatise by explaining the laws of vibra-
tions of strings and pipes, and shows how
such vibrations may be measured ; he then
explains the theory of music in reference
to the consonant and dissonant intervals,
pointing out how the various ratios in the
octave have been introduced, together with
the nature of the perfect major and mi-
nor chords, the inversion of which, he ob-
serves, constituted the principal resource
of Palestrina and of the composers of his
school. This leads him to speak of dis-
sonances, and of the nature of the musi-
cal scales. An exceedingly interesting re-
sume is then given of the history of music
from the earliest period to the present day.
In the music of all nations, Prof. Blaserna
remarks, two unfailing characters are found
— rhythmic movement and procedure by
determinate intervals. The former apper-
tains to many of the actions of man, but
the second belongs exclusively to music.
The instrument of Orpheus, however pow-
erful its effects may have been in rendering
inanimate objects ' sequacious of the lyre,'
was but a poor instrument, consisting only
of the following four notes : C, F, G, and
the octave C. It is remarkable that this
scale contains the most important musical
intervals of declamation, the voice rising a
fourth in making an interrogation, another
a fifth higher in emphasizing a word, while
in ending a story it falls a fifth. In speak-
ing of Greek music he explains the differ-
ence between the Pythagorean and the
modern scale. The ancient Scotch and Chi-
nese scale, in which an enormous number
of popular songs are written, consists of a
succession of fifths, P>/, F, C, G, D.

" The inventor of the modern system
of musical notation was Guido d'Arezzo,
and by him and Josquino and Orlando Tas-
so polyphonic music underwent great de-
velopment. Then came the Reformation,
and church music was greatly simplified to

enable the whole congregation to join in it.
An elaborate discussion of the characters
of the major and minor scales succeeds,
with an account of the effects of transpo-
sition. The temperate scale in common
use is then explained, and its imperfections
are declared to be so manifest that the au-
thor expresses a hope it will eventually be
abolished. It is, in fact, only maintained
by the piano-forte, which is essentially the
instrument of the temperate scale, and the
defects of which have greatly tended to
obscure pure melody. The quality or timbre
of musical sounds, both vocal and instru-
mental, is then referred to, and the methods
of investigating the vibrations are given,
as well as the laws of harmonics and
chords. Finally, Italian and German music
are compared. The influence of Paris on
music, though the French have never been
creators, is defined as insisting on the crea-
tion of a type of music which should con-
tain the good points of the German and
Italian schools without their exaggeration.
It has maintained the Italian melody and
song, but has also adopted the grand choral
and orchestral movements of Germany."

The Races of Man and their Geographi-
cal Distribution. By Oscar Peschel.
Translated from the revised German edi-
tion. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
Pp. 528. Price, $2.25.
The students of ethnology are to be con-
gratulated on the appearance in English of
this admirable manual of ethnological and
ethnographical science, which has for some
years and in its successive editions been a
standard in Germany. While the work is
full and systematic, it is at the same time
compact and convenient for reading, be-
ing a happy medium between the bulky
and formidable treatise, and the deficient
and unsatisfying compend. Dr. Peschel's
work has the great merit of being up to
date in the presentation of an extensive
and rapidly-developing branch of science,
and of dealing fully with those recent and
highly-important questions concerning the
science of man which have come forward
into such prominence in our own generation.
The book is exactly what readers of general
cultivation require to inform themselves
upon a subject of great moment, and which
is occupying the close attention of thinkers

vol. x. — 16

242

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in all nations ; and it will also be of a special
value to the scientific students of ethnology,
not only for the breadth and care of its
discussions, and the immense amount of in-
formation condensed in its text, but also
for the copious wealth of its references to
the literature and authorities of the sub-
ject.

No just idea of its broad range of inter-
esting topics pertaining to the nature, char-
acters, habits, and diversities of man, can
be conveyed in a brief notice of the work.
But, as its materials are derived from the
most instructive portions of history, from
the descriptions of races furnished by trav-
elers, from wide geographical observation,
and from the various sciences which illus-
trate the constitution of man and his inter-
course with surrounding Nature, the facts
brought forward have a very wide diversity
of interest, so that we cannot dip into the
volume anywhere without becoming quickly
absorbed in the question under consideration.
The book is divided into two parts. In
the introduction to the first part the author
devotes himself to the question of man's
place in creation, of the unity or plurality
of the human race, of the place of its origin
and the problem of its antiquity ; then fol-
lows a series of disquisitions on the physi-
cal characters and the linguistic characters
of man, and the industrial, social, and re-
ligious phases of his development. The
second part is descriptive of the races of
maukind, which are taken up in their lead-
ing divisions, and in their geographical dis-
tribution, and considered with as much de-
tail as the limits of the work will allow. The
book, of course, has nothing like the com-
prehensiveness or strictness of method and
classification that characterizes Mr. Spencer's
great work, " Descriptive Sociology ; " nor
has it the depth and completeness of analysis
of social phenomena that mark the " Prin-
ciples of Sociology" by the same author;
but, as a resicme of the subject in a single
handy volume, we have probably nothing
so good in the language.

Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio.
Published by authority of the Legisla-
ture of Ohio. 4 vols. Columbus : Nev-
ins & Myers, State Printers.

The first geological information obtained
concerning the State of Ohio was derived

from a report made by a committee which
took its observations in the summer of
1836. Geology was then a science in a
preliminary stage of development, and the
application of the existing knowledge was
impeded by ignorance of the general out-
lines of the country. Paleontology was in
much greater obscurity, and it is natural
that the report of that period should seem
imperfect at the present time.

In March, 1869, the Legislature passed
a bill authorizing a complete survey of the
State by a committee of competent men.
In addition to a minute geological investi-
gation, they were to make a careful chemi-
cal analysis, including a classification of
the various soils, and the best means for
promoting their utility ; and were to take
observations to determine the local causes
producing variations of climate, etc.

The officers appointed were Prof. J. S.
Newberry, chief geologist ; Edward Orton
and E. B. Andrews, assistant geologists ; T.
G. Wormley, chemist ; F. B. Meek, paleon-
tologist, besides a number of local assist-
ants. They entered upon their work June
1, 1869, and finished it June 1, 1874, at a
cost of $256,000, including the publication
of four volumes of reports. For rapidity
of action, thoroughness of results, and
moderation in the expense, this survey con-
trasts most favorably with those made in
other States. Thus far there have been
published two volumes on geology and two
on paleontology, with maps of some of the
counties. In the volumes on paleontology
there are a large number of plates and il-
lustrations, which are admirable specimens
of careful work and beauty. Ohio is rich in
fossil remains, having contributed largely
to the cabinets of other States, and this is
the first occasion on which they have been
presented to the public. The plan of the
corps was to publish six volumes, two on '
geology, two on paleontology, one on eco-
nomic geology, and one on zoology, botany,
and agriculture. The last two volumes
have not yet been published, though the
work of composition is far advanced.

Surveys had been made previous to this
one in many of the other States, which
presented discrepancies that had given rise
to much bitter discussion. It was, there-
fore, of importance that Ohio should be
thoroughly explored, as it formed the key-

LITERARY NOTICES.

243

stone in the arch reaching from the Allc-
ghanies to the Mississippi, and offered the
probable means of solving the perplexing
difficulties.

According to Prof. Newberry, " the to-
pographical features may be described as
those of a plain slightly raised along a line
traversing it from northeast to southwest,
aud worn in the lapse of time by the drain-
ing streams into broad valleys, which im-
part a pleasing variety to the surface, af-
ford free and healthful drainage, and yet
leave unimpaired all the productiveness of
its original monotony ; in fact, exhibiting
perhaps the most perfect adaptation to the
wants of man which any surface affected
by such climatic influences can present."
The climate is one of extremes. The soil
over much more than half the State is of
foreign origin,- being transported by Drift
agencies frequently from a great distance.
The physical substructure is not simple like
the surface, but is diversified in different
places, both as to the number, character,
and thickness of the strata, and the position
which they occupy relative to each other
and to the horizon. The coal-measures
underlie the surface of the southeastern
third of the State, there being an aggregate
of about 12,000 square miles over which
the coal is unequally distributed. All the
coals are classed as bituminous, and are
divided into dry or furnace coals, coking-
coals, and cannel-coals, by far the greater
portion being of the coking variety. It is
proposed to discuss the distribution, quali-
ties, and uses of the coals in the volume on
economic geology.

Manual of the Vertebrates op the North-
ern United States, including the Dis-
trict east of the Mississippi River and
north of North Carolina and Tennessee,
exclusive of Marine Species. By David
Starr Jordan, M. S., M. D., Professor of
Natural History in N. W. C. University,
and in Indiana State Medical College.
Chicago: Jansen, McClurg&Co. 12mo,
pp. 342. Price, $2.00.

The object of this work is to facilitate
the classification of vertebrate animals by
means of artificial keys, such as have
been used in the study of botany. It has
been prepared for the use of collectors and
students who are not specialists, and has
been compressed within the narrowest lim-

its in order to render it as cheap a hand-
book as possible. There are descriptions
of 817 species, representing 116 families.
It is the only work containing arranged de-
scriptions of the reptiles and fresh-water
fishes of this country.

The Centennial Situation of Woman. A
Commencement Address at Mount Hol-
yoke Seminary, by Hon. Alexander
Bullock. Charles Hamilton, Worces-
ter, Massachusetts. Pp. 45.

Governor Bullock made an eloquent
speech to the South Hadley ladies, but
whether he was quite equal to the occasion
may be a question depending upon the view
taken of the duties of such an opportunity.
Some may think that, in reviewing a hundred
years of progress in public or social affairs,
it is most suitable to take note of what has
been gained ; to dwell upon the triumphs,
the causes of congratulation, and give in-
dulgence to the more complacent feelings.
Others may regard it as the most fitting
time to be on our guard against this ever-
besetting tendency, the time to survey close-
ly and critically the position that has been
reached, to sift current claims, to look sharp-
ly after mistakes, and utilize an impressive
occasion to forecast the best course of action
for the future. Governor Bullock took the
most agreeable alternative, and discoursed
pleasantly, and with commendable gallantry,
of what woman has done to improve her
condition in various ways, and what civiliza-
tion has accomplished for her in further-
ance of the same end. He points out the
progress that woman has made toward the
independence of self-dependence through
the opening to her of modern industries ;
sketches the changes that have taken place
in the recognition of her civil rights ; and
dwells upon the great advance that has
been made in the work of female elevation,
and in opening to woman a wide opportuni-
ty in the vocation of teaching. He touches
lightly the vexed question of the intellect-
ual equality of the sexes, saying it has been
settled that there is no question at all
about it, and deftly quotes a woman — Mrs.
Jameson — as expressing the opinion that
" the intellect of woman bears the same rela-
tion to that of man as her physical organi-
zation ; it is inferior in power and differ-
ent in kind. In men the intellectual facul-

244-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ties exist more self- poised and self-di-
rected, more independent of the rest of the
character, than Ave find them in women,
with whom talent, however predominant,
is in much greater degree modified by the
sympathies and by moral causes." The
Governor evades the question of suffrage
for woman, but is adverse to her participa-
tion in public affairs. He cites Franklin as
saying that " women should not meddle
with party politics, except in the endeav-
or to reconcile their husbands, brothers,
and friends, who happen to be of contrary
sides ; " and he reminds the listening la-
dies of the pleasantry of Addison, who re-
marked : " There is nothing so bad for the
face as party zeal. It gives an ill-natured
cast to the eye, and a disagreeable sourness
to the look ; besides that, it makes the lines
too strong, and flushes them more than
brandy."

The Kinematics of Machinery : Outlines
of a Theory of Machines. By F. Reu-
leacx, Member of the Royal Trade
Commission. Translated and edited by
Alexander B. W. Kennedy, C. E., Pro-
fessor of Civil and Mechanical Engi-
neering in University College, London.
With numerous Illustrations. London :
Macmillan & Co. Pp.622. Price, $7. 50.

The number of inventions during re-
cent years has been so great that it is
almost impossible to classify the different
machines, or to observe any regular sys-
tem connecting them. This country pos-
sesses no systematized instruction or ex-
tended literature in regard to machin-
ery, and, although it has been peculiarly
rich in inventions, the' results would un-
doubtedly have been more satisfactory if
they had been effected according to an ar-
ranged method. In this book the theoreti-
cal part of machinery alone is treated. The
author attempts to give a thorough under-
standing of its essential nature, by which
problems previously unsolvable may be made
clear, and by which greater practical results
may be reached. In his own words, his
purpose is " to determine the conditions
which are common to all machines in order
to decide what it is, among its great variety
of forms, that essentially constitutes a ma-
chine. . . . The book is intended, not so
much to add to the positive knowledge of

the mechanician, as to increase his under-
standing of what he already knows, so that
it may become more ' thoroughly his own
property.' " In the old books, each ma-
chine was taken up as a whole, and treated
by itself. But, as it was discovered that
similar parts occur in different machines,
the method continually grew more simple.
Prof. Reuleaux endeavors to place the sci-
ence in a position in which it may become
deductive, and in which the study may de-
pend upon a few fundamental truths. With
him, motion is but a change of position,
and the changes are conditioned simply by
the geometric form of the moving bodies.

In this volume fluids also take their
place as forming a part of machinery, and
instances are given in what forms engineers
may use them to the greatest advantage.
The work, which was written in German,
has been published in Italian, and is now
being translated into French.

The Ethics of Benedict de Spinoza. From
the Latin, with an Introductory Sketch
of his Life and Writings. New York :
Van Nostrand. Pp. 375. Price, $3.00.

This volume has a peculiar interest in
being the first American translation of the
" Ethics " offered to the public. As it has
been preceded by only one English transla-
tion, the book will supply a want in this
country, and meet the demand of those who
desire to obtain a clear idea of Spinoza's
philosophy. The object which Spinoza had,
in developing his system, was to discover
certain rules by which be might govern his
own actions. To accomplish this, he be-
gins with a number of definitions and axioms
from which his principles are evolved in
regular geometrical order. The work is
divided into five parts. In the first part is
set forth his conception of God — an ab-
solutely Infinite Being or substance, without
beginning or end, and causa sui. Nothing
can be thought of outside of God, and
everything which exists does so through
God. In the second part are treated the
origin and nature of the human mind and
soul. In the third, fourth, and fifth parts,
an investigation is made of the passions,
their causes and effects, their force and the
manner in which they should be governed.
The end arrived at is, that the pleasures of

LITERAR Y N 0 TICES.

245

sense and intellect should balance each
other, and in this manner the greatest hap-
piness be secured. Thus, by a different
process of reasoning, he arrives at a result
similar to that reached by the Christian re-
ligion. Whatever may be thought of this
as a religious or logical system, yet, taken as
a whole, it is a work of the purest morality.
The " Ethics " is the product of the reason-
ing powers and not of the imagination. Its
general style and literary character are at
great variance with the smooth disquisitions
of modern times, but, if these mechanical
effects are overlooked, the thoughtful read-
er will find the truths as new and striking
as when they were first written.

In the preface is given an outline of the
author's life, with the effect produced by
his writings. The translation has been
made with care and skill, and differs from
the English translation in being somewhat
more concise, while it is at the same time
equally clear.

Comparative Zoology, Structural and
Systematic. For Use in Schools and
Colleges. By James Orton, A. M., Pro-
fessor of Natural History in Vassar Col-
lege ; Corresponding Member of the
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadel-
phia, and of the Lyceum of Natural
History, New York ; author of " The
Andes and the Amazon," etc. New
York : Harper & Brothers, 1876. Price,
$3.00.

This volume, as we are informed by
the author in the preface, is " designed
solely as a manual for instruction, and to
present clearly, and in a somewhat new
form, the established facts and principles
of zoology." It is claimed for it " that the
selection and arrangement of essential
principles and typical illustrations are from
the standpoint of the teacher. . . . and
that a distinctive character of the work
consists in treating of the whole animal
kingdom as a unit, and in the comparative
study of the development and variation of
organs and functions from the simplest to
the most complex state."

The work is divided into two parts, the
first of which treats of structure, the sec-
ond of systematic zoology, the plan of the
author being to withhold from students
the study of the classification of animals
until " they have mastered those structural

affinities upon which true classification is
founded."

In both divisions of the work the syn-
thetic method is employed, as being the
most natural one, a study of simple struct-
ures and forms being first introduced.

The plan of the work is comprehensive,
and claims to represent the latest phases
of the science of zoology. Comparative
zoology is defined as " the comparison of
the anatomy and physiology of all animals
existing and extiuct, to discover the funda-
mental likeness underneath the superficial
differences, and to trace the adaptation of
organs to the habits and spheres of life."

The style is usually clear and attrac-
tive, and the book may be read with in-
terest and profit by others than teachers
and students. But we notice some passages
which are obscure from brevity, others
from inadvertence ; and there are several
inaccuracies, all of which it will be found
more easy to correct in a second edition
than it was to avoid in the first.

One feature of the work will neither be
overlooked nor excused by naturalists. Of
about 350 illustrations, a very large num-
ber, probably 300, are old, and have done
service several times before. If some of
these cuts are excellent and appropriate,
others could have been omitted without
detriment, while new ones illustrating
American types are needed.

The value of the work is enhanced by
copious notes, 220 in number, at the close
of the volume.

What Young People should know. The
Reproductive Function in Man and the
Lower Animals. By Burt G. Wilder.
With Twenty-six Illustrations. Boston :
Estes & Lauriat. Pp. 212. Price,
$1.50.

Prof. Wilder, being convinced that
there are greater evils caused by ignorance
of the legitimate and illegitimate uses of
the reproductive organs than by the per-
version of any other human propensity, has
written this book to dispel the ignorance.
If there were real knowledge upon such
subjects, he thinks there would be no ex-
ercise of the imagination in regard to them.
Few will agree with him in this idea, how-
ever excellent his work may be as a physio-
logical treatise for the young in this special
branch.

246

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Practical Botany, Structural and Sys-
tematic, etc. By August Koehler,
M. D., Professor of Botany in the College
of Pharmacy of the City of New York.
Copiously illustrated. New York: Hen-
ry Holt & Co. 12mo, pp. 400. Price,
$3.00.

The author, believing that "the study
of botany cannot become truly profitable
until a number of plants have been identi-
fied by the student, and their images re-
ceived into his memory," has constructed
a book which is an artificial key to "stimu-
late the unlearned," and act as a labor-saver
to those already somewhat acquainted with
the science. It departs from the ordinary
system of classification, in being arranged
according to the old dichotomal method.
The natural tendency of this might, perhaps,
be to suggest names rather than the asso-
ciation of principles. Those, however, who
are desirous of rapid action, and speedy re-
sults, will find here a book for their pur-
pose in a neat and convenient form.

Theory op Medical Science : The Doctrine
of an Inherent Power in Medicine a
Fallacy. The Ultimate Special Proper-
ties of Vitality and the Laws of Vital
Force constitute the Fundamental Basis
of Medical Philosophy and Science. By
William R. Dunham, M. D. Boston :
James Campbell. Pp.150. Price, $1.25.

The title-page speaks for itself, and in-
dicates the theory on which this book was
written. The work was published with the
hope that it might recover the " funda-
mental principles involved in a correct the-
ory of medical science," assist the profes-
sion in the details of practice, and enable
the non-professional to distinguish between
quackery and rational practice. The au-
thor finds fault with the medical profession
because it continues to follow the ancient
interpretations of the science, but seems
unwilling himself to adopt the results of
those who are doing most for the further-
ance of correct principles in regard to
mind and body.

California Notes. By Charles B. Tur-
kill. San Francisco : Bosqui & Co.
Price, $1.50.

The " Notes " is a description or guide
through different sections of California, in
which the author conducts his readers to
the places visited by him. Among the

subjects represented in the book are, " San
Francisco," " Into the Heart of the Foot-
Hills," " Calaveras County," " Gold-Mines,"
" The Yosemite Valley," etc. This volume
is the initial number of a series.

Elements of Physical Manipulation. By
Edward C. Pickering, Thayer Profess-
or of Physics in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Part II.,
pp. 316. Price, both parts, $4.00.

This second volume, like the first, is
designed as a special text-book for the lab-
oratory. The text is made up principally
of experiments, giving a description of the
instruments to be used, and a plan of what
is to be done. Among the subjects dis-
cussed are " Electricity," " Meteorology,"
and " Astronomy." The latter is a new
feature in laboratory practice, but there is
no reason why it should not be taught
practically, as well as chemistry or physics.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

The Religion of Evolution. By M. J.
Savage. Pp. 253. Boston : Lockwood,
Brooks & Co. Price, $1.50.

The Symbolical Langunge of Art and
Mythology. By R. P. Knight. Pp. 26V.
New York : J. W. Bouton. Price, $3.00.

Essays on Mind, Matter, Forces, etc.
By Charles E. Townsend. Pp. 404. New
York : Somerby.

Chemia Coarctata. By A. H. Kollmyer.
Pp. 111. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Bla-
kiston. Price, $2.25.

Matter and Force. By J. K. Macomber.
Pp. 100. Ames, Iowa : Agricultural Col-
lege print.

Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism. By Thomas Inman, M. D. Pp.
187. New York : Bouton. Price, $3.00.

Elementary Hand-book of Applied Me-
chanics. By W. Rossiter. Pp. 150. New
York : Putnams. Price, 75 cents.

Elementary nand-book of Theoretical
Mechanics. Pp. 146. Same author and
publisher. Price, 75 cents.

Geological Survey of Indiana (1875).

MISCELLANY

247

By E. T. Cox. Pp. COO. Indianapolis
Sentinel print.

Public Libraries in the United States.
Part I., pp. 1222; Part II., pp. 89. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Office.

Essays in Literary Criticism. By R. H.
Hutton. Pp. 344. Philadelphia: J. H.
Coates. Price, $1.50.

Vaccination as a Preventive of Small-
pox. By W. C. Chapman, M. D. Pp. 91.
Toledo, Ohio : Brown & Faunce.

German and American Brewers' Journal.
Semi-monthly. $5.00 per year. Brewers'
Publishing Company, 20 Park Place, New
York.

On Cephalization. By James D. Dana.
Part V., pp. Y. From American Journal of
Science and Arts.

Report of the Condition of the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. By
W. S. W. Russhenberger. Pp. 56. Phila-
delphia : Collins print.

Essential Piety of Modern Science : a
Sermon. By J. W. Chadwick. Pp. 31.
New York : Somerby.

Surface Drainage of the Metropolitan
(Boston) District. By C. W. Folsom, C. E.
Pp. 4. From Report of Massachusetts
Board of Health.

A List of Orthoptera. By Dr. Cyrus
Thomas. Pp. 20. From Proc. D. A. N. S.,
vol. i.

American Library Journal. Monthly.
Pp. 2Y. $5.00 per year. New York : Ley-
poldt.

MISCELLANY.

Distribution of Plain, Prairie, and For-
est.— In the American Naturalist for Octo-
ber, Prof. J. D. Whitney gives a very elab-
orate critique of the various hypotheses
which have been put forth to account for
the distribution of plain, prairie, and forest,
over the North American Continent. The
author has no theory of his own to offer,
but he appears to show conclusively that
none of the accepted theories can be re-
garded as satisfactory. One of the theories
examined by Prof. Whitney is that which

attributes the existence of forest, prairie, or
plain, to the distribution of rainfall through-
out the year, or from season to season. As
stated by the late J. W. Foster, this theory
holds that " wherever the moisture is equa-
ble and abundant, we have the densely-
clothed forest ; wherever it is unequally dis-
tributed, we have the grassy plain (prairie) ;
and where it is mostly withheld, we have
the inhospitable desert." This last propo-
sition Prof. Whitney admits, the other two
he pronounces erroneous. He cites the
vicinity of Chicago, where Mr. Foster lived,
in proof of the incorrectness of that author's
views. " Here," says Prof. Whitney, " we
have the finest prairie-regions in the world,
absolutely destitute of trees, and yet in the
full enjoyment of an abundant precipitation,
and in the immediate vicinity of an immense
sheet of water. For Chicago itself, indeed,
the statistics of rainfall are very defective,
but, such as they are, they are entirely un-
favorable to Mr. Foster's hypothesis. Points
in the immediate vicinity of that city, where
observations have been taken for a series
of years, show an average rainfall of thirty-
six to fifty inches, pretty uniformly distrib-
uted through the year. An excellent in-
stance, on the other hand, of a dense growth
of trees combined with the most unequally-
distributed rainfall which is possible, is
furnished by the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada, in California, whose magnificent
forests are well known, as also is the fact
that there is no precipitation there at all
for six months of the year, nearly the
whole of the rainfall being limited to three
months. And, lest it may be thought that
melting snow keeps the ground moist during
the summer, it may be added that the heavi-
est forest-belt of the Sierra is quite below
the line above which snow rests for any
considerable time, and that the soil in that
belt is usually perfectly dry at the surface,
and even dusty, for six months of the year,
and often much more."

Electrical Phenomena exhibited by Ve-
nus's Fly-Trap. — The electrical phenom-
ena exhibited by Dioncea muscipula have
been investigated by Dr. Burdon-Sander-
son, who finds that normally the whole leaf
with the petiole is somewhat negative, but,
when excited by a stimulus, an electrical

248

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

change takes place throughout, making
every part more negative. The greatest
change is on the external surface of the
leaf, immediately opposite to the three sen-
sitive hairs. There is no relation between
the preexisting currents and the electrical
disturbance consequent on stimulation. The
period of latent stimulation (i. e., the space
of time occupied by the primary action of
the stimulus) is about one-sixth of a sec-
ond. The period during which the disturb-
ance lasts is about one second. As the
leaf becomes fatigued, the period of latency
increases to one second and three-quarters,
and then most likely the next stimulation
produces no effect. The change appears to
be a function of the protoplasm of the paren-
chyma of the region out of which the sensi-
tive hairs arise. Certain of the characters
of the change are similar to those presented
by muscle and nerve. Why the variation
should be a negative one, Dr. Sanderson is
unable to determine.

New Shells from Colorado. — In the

extensive and remarkable display of nat-
ural-history objects brought to the Centen-
nial Exhibition by Mrs. M. H. Maxwell, of
Boulder, Colorado, was a box of land and
fresh-water shells. These have been ex-
amined by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, who made
careful studies of the Rocky Mountain mol-
lusks in connection with the United States
Geological Survey in 1874, and summarized
his results in an article printed in this
magazine for May, 1876. Boulder is at the
mouth of Boulder Cation, several miles
northeast of Denver, at an altitude of about
5,530 feet above the sea, and on the east-
ern slope of the main range, where hereto-
fore no shells had been found. The list
includes Zoniles arboreus, Z. fulvns, Patula
Cooperi (living, and very dark and fine), P.
striatella, Helix pulchella, Cionella subcylin-

drica, Vertigo ? (very minute), Suc-

cinea lincata, S. Nuttalliana, Lirnnea palus-
tris, L. desidiosa, L. humilis, Physa hetero-
stropha, P/anorbis bicarinatus, P. lumens,
Helisoma plexata, Gyranlus parvus, Ancy-

lus ?, Goniabasis liveseens, G. pulchella,

Sphcerium striatinum, Pis-idium abditum,
and an anodon hardly identifiable.

The collection is remarkable, as coming
from the eastern slope of the range, and

embracing some unexpected species from
east and west. As usual, the Physas are
Protean in form, and one can make half a
dozen "species" out of them, if disposed.
Some of them are well-marked " Inflata."
Both the planorbs are reported for the first
time from Colorado. P. bicarinatus is a
well-known Eastern shell ; P. lumens has
hitherto been supposed to be confined to
Northern Mexico and Southern California.
The Helisoma is a new form, discovered by
Mr. Ingersoll in an isolated mountain-lake
in the southern part of the State, and Mrs.
Maxwell finds it at Boulder in a similar sit-
uation. Both the Melanians and the Spha-
rium are additions to the fauna of the
State, and the Anodonta will probably
prove to be undescribed. Mrs. Maxwell
proposes to search still more carefully when
she returns, and further information on the
geographical distribution of our mollusks
in the mountainous territories may be ex-
pected from various other quarters where
research has been stimulated by the curious
results already brought out. Colorado seems
to be a meeting-ground for mollusks from
all directions, and is a promising field for
the collector and student.

Marey's Experiments on the Action of
the Heart. — Experiments made by Marey
show that a diminution of excitability and
a rise of temperature in the muscular tissue
of the heart invariably coincide with the
cardiac systole, while the opposite phe-
nomena are manifested during diastole.
The same author has recently attempted to
ascertain whether any corresponding varia-
tions of the cardiac muscle could be made
out. The galvanometer, owing to the iner-
tia of its needle, is unsuitable for the obser-
vation of sudden changes in the intensity
of currents. Hence, in Marey's experi-
ments, Lippmann's electrometer was em-
ployed. The heart of a frog was placed on
two unpolarizable electrodes, one support-
ing the apex of the ventricle, while the
auricles rested on the other. Two succes-
sive negative variations of the current were
indicated by the electrometer during each
cardiac systole ; one of these was sudden,
and corresponded with the abrupt contrac-
tion of the auricles ; the other was more
gradual, and coincided with the slower

MISCELLANY.

249

movement of the ventricle. The phases of
electrical variation are thus seen to be simi-
lar to those of the work done by the mus-
cle.

College Exploring Expeditions. — We

learn from the Tribune that the present
Senior Class of Princeton College has or-
ganized a scientific exploring expedition to
the West. An association has been formed
to train men in scientific studies, and fit
them as far as possible for the work to be
done. The plan of the association's work
is as follows : A knowledge of geology, as
good as can be obtained, is required of each
man. Then the work is mapped out into
subdivisions of natural history and paleon-
tology, and from these each one selects a
specialty for himself. The meetings are
held fortnightly. At these, the association
generally receives an address from some
scientific member of the faculty. After
this, scientific papers are read by the mem-
bers, in alphabetical order, four each even-
iug. A question chosen at the previous
meeting is then discussed. The faculty
have given a room, have arranged the stud-
ies to help the association as much as pos-
sible, and given facilities for special and
outside work. The association is forming
a working collection of fossils and minerals,
not intended to be complete, but typical.
In the mean time the executive committee
are taking steps to secure government aid
in the shape of wagons, mules, etc., and to
get the most favorable possible terms from
the railroad companies. If, as is hoped,
the committee is successful in obtaining
free passes, the expenses will probably not
exceed $100 per man. It is not yet fully
determined what portion of the West will
be explored — probably, however, the Green
River, in Wyoming Territory, and Yellow-
stone National Park, or else the Wahsatch
Mountains, will be selected. The member-
ship is limited to thirty regular and ten al-
ternate members. Vacancies occurring in
the regular membership are filled from the
alternates, who attend all meetings, and
perform regular duties.

Eucalyptus as an Anti-Periodic— Two

instances are cited by Dr. Curnow, of Lon-
don, of the cure of intermittent fever by the

use of tincture of Eucalyptus globulus. We
give in full the author's account of one of
these cases, as sufficiently illustrating the

action of the drug : S. S , aged eighteen, a

Norwegian, was admitted to King's College
Hospital, May 23, 1876. He had been suf-
fering from intermittent fever for four or
five weeks. The attacks were moderately
severe and of a well-marked tertian type.
An expectant plan of treatment was pursued
until June 9th, and during this period the
paroxysms recurred on alternate, days with
the utmost regularity. They began at 10
a. m., reached their acme between 1.30 and
3 p. m., and passed off about 6 p. m. The
highest temperatures varied from 104.8° to
105.6°. On June 9th the tincture of the
Eucalyptus globulus was given in one-drachm
doses three times daily. Tlie next day, on
which another attack was due, his tem-
perature rose to 100°, and on the 12th to
100.4° ; and after this date no further parox-
ysm occurred during the remainder of his
stay in the hospital.

improvements in Iron-Manufacture. — Dr.

Andrews, in his inaugural address at the
Glasgow meeting of the British Association,
referred to the many improvements recently
introduced in iron-manufacture. But there
yet remains, he said, ample work to be
done. The fuel consumed in the manufact-
ure of iron, as indeed in every furnace in
which coal is used, is greatly in excess of
what theory indicates, and the clouds of
smoke which darken the atmosphere of
English manufacturing towns, and even of
whole districts of country, are a clear indi-
cation of the waste, but only of a small por-
tion of the waste, arising from imperfect
combustion. The depressing effect of this
atmosphere upon the working-population
can scarcely be overrated. At some future
day the efforts of science to isolate, by a
cheap and available process, the oxygen of
the air for industrial purposes, may be re-
warded with success. The effect of such
a discovery would be to reduce the con-
sumption of fuel to a fraction of its pres-
ent amount ; and, though the carbonic acid
would remain, the smoke and carbonic
oxide would disappear. In the mean time,
Dr. Andrews suggests that in many locali-
ties the waste products of the furnace might

250

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be carried to a distance by a few horizontal
flues of large dimensions, terminating in
lofty chimneys on a hillside or distant plain,
as is done at the mercury-mines of Idria
and some other places. With a little care
in the arrangements, the smoke would be
wholly deposited in the horizontal flues,
and would be available for agricultural uses.

The Tomato - Plant as a Protection
against Insects. — In a peach-orchard plant-
ed by M. Siroy, a member of the Valparaiso
Society of Horticulture, the trees at first
grew well and strongly. But, on commen-
cing to bud, they were invaded by the cur-
culio ; and this insect was followed, as fre-
quently happens, by ants. While the trees
were thus infested, the idea occurred to M.
Siroy that by placing leaves around the
trunks and branches he might ward off the
rays of the sun, which were very powerful.
For this purpose he happened to choose
tomato-leaves. On the following day he
found the trees entirely free from their ene-
mies, not one remaining, except here and
there where a curled leaf prevented the to-
mato from exercising its influence. These
leaves he carefully unrolled, placing upon
them fresh ones from the tomato-vine, with
the result of banishing the last insect, and
enabling the trees to grow with luxuriance.
Wishing to carry the experiment still fur-
ther, he steeped in water some fresh leaves
of the tomato, and sprinkled with this in-
fusion other plants, roses and oranges. In
two days these were also free from the in-
numerable insects which covered them.

The Age of Paleolithic Man.— Dr. R. H.
Tiddeman contributes to Nature for Octo-
ber 5th a paper in which he reaffirms the
inter-glacial age of paleolithic man and of
the fauna with which he is associated. The
position not only of human but of animal
remains points clearly to the fact of their
existence subsequent to a deposit of glacial
drift, but previous to another deposit of
similar material. The facts may be taken
as part of the evidence which proves the
disappearance of a great ice-sheet which
covered Scotland, England, and portions of
the Continent, and the return of it after a
period of temperate climate during which
man and animals inhabited the region.

The direct evidences of the inter-glacial
age of paleolithic man from the actual iu-
fraposition of his bones or implements are
stated as follows :

1. Victoria Cave, Settle : a human
fibula under glacial till, and associated with
bones of Eltphas antiquus, Rhinoceros lep-
torhinus, hyena, hippopotamus, etc.

2. At Wetzikon, Canton Zurich, a piece
of lignite containing basket-work lying be-
neath glacial deposits, and associated with
Elcphas antiquus and Rhinoceros lepiorhi-
nus.

3. Near Brandon, Suffolk, implements
with bones not yet determined in brick-
earth beneath the great chalky bowlder-
clay of East Anglia.

Dr. Tiddeman says the " Settle till is
undoubtedly of the age of the ice-sheet.
The Wetzikon lignite lies upon a glacial till
beneath a river-gravel on which are great
erratic blocks clearly indicating the pres-
ence of a great glacier posterior in date to
the organic remains. The Brandon imple-
ments are beneath the chalky bowlder-
clay."

Inequality of the Oeean-Bed.— In opening
the Geographical Section of the British As-
sociation at Glasgow, CaptainEvans said that
it was learned for the first time by the Chal-
lenger's results — ably supplemented as they
had recently been by the action of the
United States Government in the Pacific,
and by an admirable series of soundings
made in the exploratory German ship-of-war
Gazelle — that the unbroken range of ocean
in the southern hemisphere was much shal-
lower than the northern seas ; that it had
no features approaching in character those
grand abysmal depths of 2*7,000 and 23,500
feet found respectively in the North Pacific
and North Atlantic Oceans, as the greatest
reliable depths recorded did not exceed 17,-
000 feet. The general surface of the sea-
bed presented in general to the eye, when
graphically rendered on charts by contour
lines of equal soundings, extensive plateaux
varied with the gentlest of undulations.
There was one great feature common to all
oceans, and which may have some signifi-
cance in the consideration of ocean circula-
tion, and as affecting the genesis and trans-
lation of the great tidal wave and other tidal

MISCELLANY.

25i

phenomena, of which they knew so little —
namely, that the fringe of the seaboard of
the great continents and islands, from the
depth of a few hundred feet below the sea-
level, was, as a rule, abruptly precipitous
to depths of 10,000 and 12,000 feet. This
grand escarpment was typically illustrated
at the entrance of the British Channel, where
the distance between a depth of 600 feet
and 12,000 feet was in places only ten miles.
Imagination could scarcely realize the stu-
pendous marginal features of this common
surface depression.

Purification and Deodorization of Pe-
troleum Products. — Mr. S. E. Johnson, of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England, has discovered
a method of treating petroleum and other
mineral oils, by which those useful hydro-
carbon liquids are not only purified, but
also deodorized ; and that in a simple and
inexpensive manner. Chloride of lime is
first introduced into the cask or other re-
ceptacle containing mineral oil or spirit, in
the proportion of about three ounces of
chloride, more or less, to each gallon of the
liquid, according to the degree of its im-
purity, and thus chlorine-gas is evolved in
the oil or spirit. If necessary, the evolu-
tion of the gas may be assisted by pouring
in hydrochloric acid, agitating the contents
of the receptacle so as to bring the whole
of the liquid into intimate contact with the
chlorine - gas. The oil or spirit is then
passed into another inclosed vessel contain-
ing slaked lime, which, having an affinity
for the chlorine, absorbs the same, leaving
the liquid sufficiently deodorized and puri-
fied.

Physiological Effects of Coca. — A cor-
respondent of the Lancet, a physician, states
that the use of the tincture of coca, in
a two-ounce dose, corrected the " unruly
throbbing " of his heart, which had been
wont to interfere with his accuracy of aim
in fowling. This writer had previously taken
the tincture in doses of one-half ounce and
one ounce without perceptible effect ; but,
having on the third day increased the dose
to two ounces, his composure was perfect
at the critical moment. " As soon as the
dogs pointed," he writes, " I expected the
usual inward commotion, with its usual re-
sults ; but, to my surprise, nothing of the

kind happened. ' Eureka ! ' I said to myself;
' the coca has made me a steady shot.' So
in fact it subsequently proved. Judged by
the effects described," he continues, " coca
would seem to be inhibitory as regards the
action of the heart. Whether this result is
produced by indirect action through the
mental functions upon which the drug is
said to act remains to be proved." Another
correspondent of the same journal, not a
physician, states that while traveling in Bo-
livia at great altitudes, such as from 13,000
to 14,000 feet above the sea-level, he ex-
perienced marked benefit from eating the
leaves. Nearly all travelers on the Peruvian
and Bolivian Andes use the drug as a rem-
edy for that effect on the brain and lungs,
produced by rarefied air, which in South
America is called zorroche. One use to
which it is put by the Indians is that of a
"pick-me-up " after a debauch on alcoholic
fluids. In Bolivia it is generally eaten with
a paste made of wood-ashes and potato.
The writer propounds th.e belief that the
leaf loses its virtue in transmission. This
is quite possible. It is an undoubted fact
that the Cannabis Indica, for instance, loses
its potency in crossing the sea. It would
seem desirable that a certain quantity of the
coca-leaves should if possible be packed in
an air-tight case. The price of coca at La
Paz, where the best is procured, was last
year sixteen dollars per packet of twenty-
five pounds.

The American Forestry Association. — The

American Forestry Association held its first
meeting at Philadelphia in September. Ad-
dresses were delivered by Dr. Franklin B.
Hough, of Lowville, New York, Mr. McAfee,
and Mr. Meehan. Dr. Hough gave an ac-
count of the efforts made by various Euro-
pean governments to preserve forests and
to promote timber-culture, and showed that
the Constitution of the United States, and
those of most of the States, give the right to
interfere for the preservation of our forests.
Mr. McAfee reported on the condition of
forest-culture in the West, showing how the
planting of trees had been going on to an
immense extent, and that it was found that
the old notions about the slowness of timber-
growth had been derived from the hard
struggle with Nature that wild timber had

252

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to make. Cultivated trees had grown so
much faster than was expected that peo-
ple had been surprised at the growth, and
it was now becoming generally known that
wood came into profit much sooner than
was thought possible years ago, and forest-
culture was much more popular in conse-
quence. In his State at least 80,000 acres
of timber had been planted during the past
few years, and the work was still going on.
He gave figures as to the growth of indi-
vidual species, chiefly from facts within his
own observation. Mr. Meehan, from whose
Gardener's Monthly we take this account of
the meeting, thought that the people, with-
out government interference, can be safely
trusted with the care of our forests, and the
work of reforestation. Individual effort, en-
couraged by State laws and agricultural and
horticultural societies, would soon replace
the decaying forests of our land.

How the Menopoma casts its Skin. — Since
reading his " Preliminary Note on the Me-
noponia Allecfhaniense of Harlan," before
the American Association, Grote has ob-
served in the aquarium of the Buffalo So-
ciety of Natural Sciences the process by
which the menopoma rids itself of its outer
skin. This thin and transparent membrane
is first seen to loosen and separate from the
entire surface of the body, appearing at
this stage like an envelope or glove in which
the animal is contained. By a number of
wide gapings, during which the mouth
is opened to the fullest extent, the skin is
parted about the lips, and then commences
to fold backward from the head. Convul-
sive and undulating movements with the
body and fore-legs are employed to extract
these from the loose skin. The skin then
readily falls backward, as the animal crawls
forward and out of it, until the hind-legs
are reached, when the menopoma turns
round upon itself, and, taking the skin in its
mouth, pulls it over the legs and tail. The
operation reminds one of taking off clothes.
The cast-off skin is retained in the mouth
and finally swallowed. The operation is
quickly performed.

Poisonous Cooking-Utensils. — The dan-
ger attending the use of porcelain-lined
cooking-vessels was pointed out at a meeting

of the British Society of Public Analysts, by
Mr. Robert R. Tatlock. He stated that the
milk-white porcelain enamel with which cast-
iron cooking-vessels are now so commonly
coated is in the highest degree objection-
able, on account of the easy action on it 'of
acid fruits, common salt, and other sub-
stances, by means of which lead and even
arsenic are dissolved out in large quantity
during the process of cooking. It was
shown that it is not so much on account of
the presence of large proportions of lead
and arsenic that these enamels are danger-
ous, but because they are so highly basic
in their character, and are so readily acted
on by feebly-acid solutions. He thought
that no enamel should be admitted to use
unless it was totally unaffected by boiling
with a one-per-cent. solution of citric acid,
which was a very moderate test. Further,
he gave it as his opinion that either the use
of such poisonous ingredients as lead and
arsenic in large quantity should be entirely
discontinued, or that the composition other-
wise should be of such a character as to
insure that none of the poisonous sub-
stances could be dissolved out under ordi-
nary circumstances.

Agencies that formed the Colorado Ca-
nons.—The great canon of the Colorado is
from 3,000 to 6,000 feet deep, through a
distance of 200 miles. All the side-streams
reach it through profound canons, and each
stream has done, and is still doing, its own
work of erosion. The process by which
these results are brought about is consid-
ered by Prof. G. R, Gilbert, in the Ameri-
can Journal of Science and Arts, under three
principal heads : 1. Weathering ; 2. Trans-
portation; 3. Corrasion.

By weathering, the writer means the dis-
integration of rock by the action of tem-
perature— beating of rain and changes of
vegetation. The process, however, would
be greatly delayed if the loosened material
was allowed to remain and cover the sur-
face. Hence transportation becomes a
powerful agent in erosion, not only by ex-
posing the disintegrating surfaces, but by
mechanical wear in the act of removal.

All rocks are more or less soluble in
water, and impurities in the water intensify
solvent action. But it usually happens that

MISCELLANY.

253

rocks disintegrated in this way merely fall
to pieces, the hard portion remaining in the
shape of sand or pebbles. The transporta-
tion of this by streams produces what the
author calls corrasion. In this way the bed
of a stream is widened and deepened, but
the work is also facilitated by the ceaseless
action of water in dissolving the rocks.

The mechanical wear or erosion by a
stream depends largely on its velocity. " A
stream of water flowing down its bed ex-
pends an amount of energy that may be
measured by the quantity of water and the
vertical distance through which it de-
scends."

The velocity of a stream would continu-
ally increase if none of its energy was con-
sumed in friction, but very much of it is so
consumed, and reappears in innumerable
forms of movement or subsidiary currents.
It is by some of these that the work of
transportation and erosion is largely done.
Bat a stream may be overloaded with detri-
tus, and its corrading power correspond-
ingly diminished. " Only with a partial
load does a stream wear its bottom." Of
the Colorado plateau the author says that
the erosion which began with the first lift-
ing of a part above the ocean has progressed
continually to the present time. The total
uplift has been about 12,000 feet ; only
7,000 feet remains, that being the present
altitude above the level of the sea. Five
thousand feet of the general surface has
been removed, and an amount greater by
several thousand feet has been corraded by
the rivers.

Improved Railway-Signal. — A simple and
effective railroad-signal, in use on the Bos-
ton, Lowell & Nashua Railroad, is described
in the Scientific American. A single-cell Cal-
laud battery is connected to the two rails at
one end of a given section of the line — say,
two miles in length — each section being in-
sulated from adjoining sections. At the
other end the signal has an electro-magnet
similarly connected to the two rails. When
the circuit is closed, as is normally the case,
the magnet is excited and the signal con-
trolled thereby so as to show that the line
is clear. But, when a train runs on the
section, then a shorter circuit is made by
the wheels and axles, and the current re-

turns to the battery by this course, instead
of passing through the signals. The mag-
net ceases to attract, and the signal by me-
chanical means is at once turned, to indi-
cate danger. It is obvious that this must
occur as long as a single car remains on the
track, or when the circuit is broken by a
displaced or ruptured rail or any other
cause. Hence the device may be applied
over an entire line, and will indicate the
condition of every section to a train about
to enter on the same. It is found to be
operative in all weathers.

Powder-Paper. — A substitute for gun-
powder has been invented in England, called
" powder-paper," viz., paper impregnated
with a mixture of potassic chlorate, nitrate,
prussiate, and chromate, powdered wood-
charcoal, and a little starch. The powder-
paper is rolled into the shape of a cartridge
of any required length or diameter. The
manufacture involves no danger, it is said ;
no explosion can take place except by way
of contact with fire. The powder-paper
leaves no greasy residue on the inside of the
gun ; it also produces less smoke, gives a
less violent recoil, and is less impaired by
humidity than gunpowder. With equal
charges, by weight, of gunpowder and pow-
der-paper, the penetrating power of the lat-
ter is Tsg greater than that of the former.

October Meteor-Shower. — In a letter to
the Tribune, dated October 19th, Mr. Dan-
iel Kirkwood states that shooting-stars in
unusual abundance were observed by sev-
eral trustworthy witnesses at Bloomington,
Indiana, on the evening of the 18th, from six
hours forty -five minutes to nine hours. The
meteors appeared to radiate from Auriga,
or rather from a point between Taurus and
Auriga. Most of the meteors were small,
though two of them possessed extraordina-
ry brilliancy. In a small work on cometa
and meteors, published three years ago,
Mr. Kirkwood called attention to the fact
that meteoric showers had been observed
at the same period of the year in 1436,
1439, 1743, and 1798. Returns of the
shower were observed in 1838 and 1841.
He recommends that a careful watch be
kept in future about the same period — say,
from the 16th to the 20th of October.

254

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Do Plants absorb Diatoms ? — Prof. John
Phin, in the American Journal of Mi-
croscopy, criticises the results of Wilson's
microscopic examination of wheat-straw
grown on land which had been treated with
infusorial earth. The substance of Prof.
Wilson's paper we gave in the September
number of the Monthly. Prof. Phin repro-
duces Wilson's engraved representation of
the diatom forms said to have been found
in the remains of the straw after treatment
with nitric acid, and says: " A single glance
at the engraving is sufficient to convince any
microscopist that Prof. P. B. Wilson never

saw ' upon the field of his microscope,'
under the circumstances which he has de-
scribed, the objects which he has delineated.
. . . Bearing in mind that these organisms,
as figured, have been obtained by destroy-
ing the organic matter with nitric acid, we
find Bac'dlaria figured as it exists only in
the living condition — the frustules being
joined together in the peculiar way which
has given to this form the specific name
paradoxa. For this diatom to have passed
through a bath of nitric acid, and come out
in the condition figured, would have been
almost as great a miracle as the passing
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, un-
scathed through the fiery furnace of Nebu-
chadnezzar. So, too, we find a calcareous
foraminifer figured under the same circum-
stances. After such instances, the numer-
ous minor features which are utterly irrec-
oncilable with facts may be safely passed
over."

Another Way of securing the Chest-
nuts.— The following narrative is taken
from the Chronique de la Societe d1 Acclima-
tion ; we give it for what it is worth : " A
Frenchman, fifteen years resident in the
Transvaal Republic, where he has estab-
lished a number of plantations, recounts to
us the following fact, which no naturalist
has as yet reported : The coffee-plantations
are much exposed to the ravages of the
great cynocephalous monkeys. Among the
coffee-plants there grows a shrub, the scien-
tific name of which I have not been able to
ascertain, which has its fruit growing very
near the trunk. Some wasps, of a kind

whose sting is very painful, had chosen sev-
eral of these bushes for attaching to them
their eggs, and the cynocephali were often
seen eying the fruit very eagerly, but they
dared not touch them for fear of the wasps.
One morning, the planter heard terrible
cries, and with the aid of a good opera-glass
was enabled to witness an interesting spec-
tacle. A fat old monkey, the leader of the
troop, would take hold of the young ones,
and pitch them repeatedly into the middle
of the bush, despite their cries and groans.
The shock brought down the wasps' nests,
and the irate insects attacked the victims ;
meanwhile the old rogue quietly ate the
fruit, throwing down the remnants of the
meal to the females and young ones on the
ground."

Taking Impressions of Plants.— -M. Ber-
tot, of the Paris Academy of Sciences, offers
a simple method of* taking impressions of
plants. A sheet of paper is first lightly
oiled on one side, then folded in four, so
that the oil may filter through the pores,
and the plant may not come into direct
contact with the liquid. The plant is placed
between the leaves of the second folding,
and in this position pressed (through other
paper) all over with the hand, so as to make
a small quantity of oil adhere to its surface.
Then it is taken out and placed carefully on
white paper ; another sheet is placed above,
as two impressions can be taken at once,
and the plant is pressed as before. On
now removing it, an invisible image re-
mains on the paper. Over this you sprin-
kle powdered black-lead, which causes the
image to appear. With an assortment of
colors, the natural colors of plants may be
reproduced. To obtain fixity, resin is mixed
with the black-lead in small quantity ; the
impression is fixed when it is exposed to a
heat sufficient to melt the resin.

Ancient Weapons. — Among the Michigan
exhibits of ancient stone and copper im-
plements at the Philadelphia Fxposition is
a weapon fashioned after the model of the
" patu-patu " of New Zealand. It is de-
scribed by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in the Ameri-
can Naturalist. The patu - patu of New
Zealand is, according to Tylor, quoted by
Dr. Abbott, " an edged club of bone or

NOTES.

255

stone," in shape " like a soda-water bottle
with the bulb flattened. It is a very effec-
tive weapon,'' he adds, " in a hand-to-hand
fight, being so sharp that a man's skull
may be split at one blow with it." The
Michigan specimen is 1(5^- inches long. It
is 2f- inches wide for 11 inches ; then it ta-
pers to 1^- inch, but again widens to 2 inch-
es at the end, thus forming a terminal knob.
The edges are beautifully wrought, and are
as sharp now as most of the polished stone
axes and celts. In the vast collection of
relics of American aborigines at Philadel-
phia Dr. Abbott finds no other specimen of
the form here described, and it is pre-
sumable that this weapon was one seldom
fashioned in North America.

NOTES.

A meeting of persons interested in the
formation of a Metrological Society was
lately held in Boston, which resulted in the
organization of the "American Metric Bu-
reau." Arrangements were made to secure
a large list ol' honorary or life members,
and to solicit subscriptions to supply teach-
ers with metric apparatus at half-price.
The assessment for 1876 was fixed at $2.50.
The list of directors is as follows : Samuel
W. Mason, J. P. Putnam, Prof. W. F.
Bradbury, Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, Mel-
vil Dewey, Prof. William Watson, Dr. H.
P. Bowditch, S. S. Greene, Nathan Apple-
ton, and Prof. K. S. Pennell.

In the Paris School of Mines is a labo-
ratory, founded in 1845, for analyzing gra-
tuitously any substances presented. Last
year 767 analyses were made at this labo-
ratory, chiefly of minerals and manures. A
laboratory for the gratuitous analysis of
medicines and articles of food would be a
very useful institution in our American
cities.

Cremation of the dead is now fairly
established in Saxe-Gotha. In a recent sit-
ting of the town council, it was decided to
erect the necessary apparatus in the new
cemetery. Cremation is to take place only
in accordance with the clearly expressed
wish of the deceased, and under permit from
the proper medical officer. The ashes are
to be gathered in urns, to be preserved by
the family of the deceased, or set up in a
hall in the cemetery.

In one of the monthly reports of the
Department of Agriculture, it is stated that

in Livingston County, Illinois, the planting
of trees in groves and shelter-belts, and for
ornamental purposes, is now very general.
The black-walnut is the favorite tree for
profit and ease of cultivation ; but elm, soft
maple, willow, Cottonwood, European larch,
and ash, are common, while evergreens are
popular for ornamental purposes, and occa-
sionally are planted in groves and shelter-
belts.

At the Agricultural Congress in Phila-
delphia, resolutions were ottered by Prof.
C. V. Riley, and unanimously adopted, in
favor of government action for the sup-
pression of the Rocky Mountains locust-
plague. In the opinion of the Congress, the
national Legislature owes it to the people
of the West to take this matter into con-
sideration, and the United States are called
upon to follow the example of other nations
under like circumstances, and appoint a
special commission for the thorough inves-
tigation of the subject.

In a work on the "Voices of Animals,"
by Landois, additional evidence is collected
of the universality of vocal sounds among
the lower animals, including the Mollusca.
The author considers it to be indisputable
that ants possess a vocal speech, by which
they are enabled to exercise those higher
mental faculties to which they owe their
high social organization.

The University of Michigan had last
year 101 female students, distributed as fol-
lows : Medicine, 37 ; law, 2 ; homoeopathy,
2 ; literature, 60. " The experience of the
past year," writes the president of the uni-
versity in his annual report, " confirms the
opinion we have been led to form by the
experience of former years, that women
who come here in good health are able to
complete our collegiate or professional
course of study without detriment to their
health."

Prof. Maurice Schiff, of Florence, has
demonstrated that the non-edible mush-
rooms, " toadstools," contain a common
poison, muscarine, and that its effects are
counteracted by either atropine or daturine.
Italian apothecaries now keep these drugs
in the rural districts, where the consump-
tion of the non-edible fungi is apt to occur.
The hint is worthy of attention every-
where.

It has been affirmed that not less than
four per cent, of all the coal-laden vessels
that have left English ports during the last
five years, for destinations south of the
equator, have suffered either total or partial
loss by the spontaneous ignition of their
cargoes.

256

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

At the recent meeting of the British
Association, Mr. Garner stated that he had
found from measurements of brain capacity,
and from casts of the interiors of skulls,
that the size of the brain in the dog does
not correspond very closely with the size
of the animal. No dog has so large a brain
as the wolf, nor one so small as the jackal.
The brain of a Newfoundland dog is very
little larger than that of a terrier. Prof.
Macalister, of Dublin, gave an account of
the brain of the celebrated greyhound
" Master Macgrath." He had weighed the
brain of many other dogs, but Master Mac-
grath's was the heaviest of all, and the con-
volutions were much more complex.

In a balloon-voyage from Cherbourg, in
August, two French aeronauts, Moret and
Durnof, observed with surprise, at a height
of 1,700 metres, that the bottom of the sea
was visible in detail, though that part of the
British Channel must have a depth of 60 to
80 metres. The rocks and submarine cur-
rents appeared with great distinctness. It is
suggested that this fact might be utilized, a
means being afforded of giving accurate
representations of the bottom for the bene-
fit of navigators.

In the Scientific Farmer we find re-
corded the death of Prof. Dimond, of the
New Hampshire Agricultural College. He,
no doubt, died of overwork. In the Agri-
cultural College lie was Professor of Agri-
culture, Botany, and Chemistry, farm-super-
intendent and steward, and at the same
time was Professor of Botany and Chemistry
in Dartmouth College. It is stated that
three men will be appointed to perform
the duties recently performed by Prof. Di-
mond.

During the past year the French Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science
expended the sum of 7,000 francs in aid of
scientific research. Of this sum, 5,000
francs was granted to the astronomer Jans-
sen, to help defray his expenses as a mem-
ber of the expedition to observe the transit
of Venus ; and 2,000 francs to M. Chapelas-
Coulvier-Gravier, to enable him to continue
his observations of shooting-stars.

At one point on the margin of Lake
Tanganyika (Central Africa), Captain Came-
ron saw large masses of coal. In the dis-
trict adjoining Manyuema iron is plenti-
ful : the people manufacture large quanti-
ties of iron, and many of the articles they
make are beautifully finished.

Prof. H. N. Martin will lecture on ani-
mal physiology, in the John Hopkins Uni-
versityf Baltimore, on Tuesdays and Fridays
during the winter. The lectures will be

accompanied by instruction in the labo-
ratory. After the spring vacation, Prof
Martin will deliver a course of lectures on
general biology, intended for elementary
students. There will also be organized,
during the latter part of the session 1876-
'77, a short course of more advanced lect-
ures on embryology.

The formation of nickel-ore near Lan-
caster, Pennsylvania, is pronounced by the
American Manufacturer to be the heaviest
so far discovered in any part of the globe.
The ore is exceedingly rich, of a grayish
tint, very heavy, and so hard and closely
united to the surrounding substances that
it has to be got out by blasting. As soon
as the ore is mined, it is crushed into
small pieces, and then transferred to kilns
of a capacity of from eighty to ninety tons
each. It is then subjected to heat obtained
at first by burning wood, and which is con-
tinued by the conversion of the evaporating
fumes. The manipulation is concluded by
the fused metal being placed in a smelting-
furnace, and undergoing a process similar
to that adopted in the treatment of iron-
ore.

A Berlin machinist has invented a
steam-velocipede. The boiler is heated
by means of a petroleum-lamp, and rests
on the axle of the hind-wheels.

The Paris correspondent of the London
Times states that, in digging the new basin
at St.-Nazaire, animal remains, tools, weap-
ons, and utensils, have been found in a
sandy stratum 20 feet below the surface.
Last year a dolichocephalous skull was
found near the same spot.

The Registrar-General of Great Britain
and Ireland, in his quarterly return, states
that the births of 296,350 children, and the
deaths of 171,082 persons of both sexes,
were registered in the United Kingdom in
the three months ending June 30, 1876.
The recorded natural increase of population
was thus 125,268. The registered number
of persons married in the quarter ending
March 31, 1876, was 117,760. The resident
population of the United Kingdom in the
middle of 1876 is estimated at 33,093,439 ;
that of England and Wales at 24,244,010,
of Scotland at 3,527,811, and of Ireland at
5,321,618.

Dr. Magnus condemns the use of blue
glasses as a protection for the eyes, and
prefers the gray and smoky glasses used in.
England. He considers blue glass specially
irritating to the eye, and says that many
birds, reptiles, and amphibians, have yellow
or reddish oil-drops in the eye to neutral-
ize this blue color and protect the eyes.

SIR WTLLIAM THOMSON.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JANUARY, 1877

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE.

By Professor C. II. HITCHCOCK,

STATE GEOLOGIST OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

rr^HE surmises and discoveries of the past twenty years have estab-
-J- lished the fact of the existence of life throughout the entire se-
ries of stratified rocks known to geologists, both sedimentary and
metamorphic. When Principal Dawson published his description of
the EozoOn in the Laurentian foundations, he was led to suggest the
adoption of the term Eozoic in place of Azoic for all the ages older
than Paleozoic, since, if life existed in the oldest formation, it must
have continued to flourish in the following seons, even though evi-
dences of its presence had not then been accumulated. Time has ap
proved of this sagacious anticipation, and we can now maintain with
serene confidence that the four great Eozoic periods — Laurentian,
Labrador, Atlantic or Montalban, and Huronian — were all enlivened
by the existence of both vegetable and animal life. And Eozoic life had
its peculiar characteristics just as much as the Silurian or Carboniferous.
This life has appeared in consonance with the general principles of
evolution as announced by our most learned sages. The earliest or-
ganic forms were the simplest in their structural relations ; and they
flourished through untold ages. The world was no longer young
when the organic scheme permitted the growth of Cambrian trilobites
and mollusca. More than half of geological time had passed away
during the reign of protozoans and fungi. This suggests the enun-
ciation of a general principle, in perfect agreement with the doctrines
of evolution : the simpler the predominating forms of life the longer
the period. In the beginning of Nature's operations, time was the
element of which lavish use was made. It has grown more valuable
as the ages ha,ve passed on, and the perfected type of organic develop-
ment in our period grudges the loss of a single moment of it.

The evidences of the earlier forms of life naturally divide them-
VOL. x. — 17

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. .

selves into two groups, or those relating to plants and animals, which
we will consider in their natural order:

Evidences of Plant-Life. — An interesting evidence of the exist-
ence of vegetation in Eozoic times is derived from the presence of
iron-ores, an argument first set forth by S terry Hunt. The ores are
first formed in the hydrated condition, and then lose their water by
metamorphic agencies, becoming specular and magnetic, or the state
in whi^h the Laurentian irons are now known. Ores of iron are con-
ceived to have been formed under similar conditions in all ages. At
the present day they accumulate in swamps and low grounds in the
condition of the hydrated peroxide (ferric), or bog-ore, oftentimes in
company with manganese. The presence of orgauic vegetable matter
is requisite in order to extract the iron from the rock or soil and effect
its deposition. The metal present in slight amount in the soil is the
insoluble ferric oxide, or the familiar condition of iron-rust. Water
charged with soluble vegetable infusions, like that in swamps too full
of the disagreeable extract of leaves, etc., to be palatable, has the
power of dissolving ferric oxide. The process consists in the removal
of a part of the oxygen by the vegetable compound, or deoxidation,
when the compound becomes changed into the readily-soluble ferreous
oxide. But this is not a stable compound in the presence of our at-
mosphere. The rejected oxygen is brought back again, and in its
recombination takes water with it, producing the hydrated ferric ox-
ide, which, being insoluble, is precipitated, and covers the ground on
the bottom of the pool. On visiting almost any swamp at the pres-
ent day, this reddish-brown coating of hydrated iron-rust may be
seen abundantly. Where streams of water cause the swampy water
to flow to lower regions, the iron compound is also conveyed in sus-
pension, and in the course of a few years a thick deposit of ore is ac-
cumulated. Our New England ancestors used these beds for the
manufacture of their pig-iron in localities where only the name now
exists for the village, such as the Tamworth or Gilmanton Iron-Works.
All tradition of the manufacture there has disappeared. The Katah-
din Company, in Maine, however, and some others, still derive their
ore-supplies from this bog-compound.

Our theory supposes that the principal iron-ores in every age of
the world had their origin in this way. There is no other agent
save this organic extract which produces iron-ore on a large scale at
the present day ; hence it is rational to explain the origin of ancient
ferruginous beds in the same way. If we examine the formations in
order, we find the very ores themselves obviously thus accumulated :
1. There are the early Tertiary limonite beds of Western New Eng-
land, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, still scarcely removed from the
bog form, with the accompanying clays. 2. There are the older Car-
boniferous nodules and the celebrated Clinton hematites, differing
from the litnoniles only by the absence of water. 3. The specular

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE. 259

Huronian ores of Lake Superior have the same composition as the
Silurian deposits. Lastly, the Laurentian magnetites constitute the
other extreme of the ferruginous series. Both the water and a part
of the oxygen have disappeared, leaving a compound richer in metal,
and therefore more highly prized by the smelter. The application of
a gentle, continuous heat is adequate to explain the change of the
limonites into hematites and magnetites.

The process of change may be seen in the manufacture of common
bi'icks, or the purification of quartz for the production of glass. The
blue clay becomes red when burned, because it parts with its water
of composition ; and likewise the small percentage of hematite in the
quartz becomes magnetic on the application of heat, and, after pulver-
ization, has the iron removed by magnets, soHhat the silica-flour may
be perfectly pure, and not impart a green tint to the glass. It is not
maintained that the native limonites have been converted into mag-
netites in precisely the way in which the same results have been ac-
complished artificially ; but the manipulation of the manufactured
products shows that the metamorphosis is a feasible process, and by
no means of difficult accomplishment in Nature.

In a review of a report by the author, in which this theory of iron-
ore origin is elucidated, Prof. Dana objects 1 to its value, because
" carbonic acid, which does now some of the work of iron-transporta-
tion, may have done far more then," on account of its presence in the
atmosphere in great abundance. No doubt exists as to the assistance
afforded by carbonic acid in this work, but this fact only confirms the
truth of our argument, since no chemist will allow that carbonic acid
can remove the iron-rust from the soil without the help of some deox-
idating agent, such as vegetation. The chemical change for which we
require the presence of vegetation is the same, whether carbonic acid
be involved or not. Indeed, an excellent authority for the form in
which this change is effected is the professor's own treatise on miner-
alogy,2 where he says, "The iron is transported in solution as a, protox-
ide carbonate in cai'bonated waters, a sulphate, or as a salt of an organ-
ic acid." Each of these methods requires the presence of a deoxidat-
ing agent like vegetation ; and nothing better has yet been suggested.
The iron-ores produced by volcanic ejections are of very limited
amount, and mingled with too much dead rock to be capable of utili-
zation. Nor does the suggestion of the decomposition of pyrites by
atmospheric agents to form limonite necessitate the origin of all iron-
ores in that way.

Accepting the validity of the argument, it follows that vegetation
must have been extremely abundant in the Laurentian and Huronian
ages on account of the presence in them of enormous deposits of iron-
ores, as on Lake Superior, in the Adirondacks, Missouri, etc. Some
of the beds are hundreds of feet in thickness.

1 American Journal of Science, iii., vol. ix., p. 223. 2 Fifth edition, p. 1*73.

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The presence of graphite, or plumbago, in the Eozoic rocks is by
many regarded as a still stronger argument for the former existence
of vegetation. As graphite is nearly pure carbon, it is easy to be-
lieve that it has accumulated from the remains of plants. Greater
changes have been effected in its mass through metamorphism than
in the alterations of the ore-beds. No traces of vegetable structure
have yet been detected in graphite, so that no evidence as to the na-
ture of the earliest plants can be afforded from morphology.

Nature of the Eozoic Floka. — What species of vegetation can
we imagine to have existed in these early periods ? Possibly we may
derive a hint as to its nature from the general course of plant-devel-
opment in later ages, aud assume that there has been a correspondence
between the order in which the different classes have appeared and
their successive stages of complexity of structure. The simpler forms
should appear first ; or, reversing the statement, if we find a succession
of all the higher forms of growth in later times, it is reasonable to
expect in the still earlier periods larger developments of the inferior
cryptogams, such as now play a comparatively insignificant part in
the economy of Nature. Their easy decomposition would prevent
the preservation of their specific shapes as fossils.

To particularize, we have among the lower orders of terrestrial
vegetation the lichens, by some thought to be the parent of the fungi
and algae, since they can be resolved into two different plants, a fun-
gus parasitic upon an alga ; the mushrooms, puff-balls, mildews, blight,
or fungi ; the hepaticae, and mosses. Of aquatic vegetation there are
the numerous protophytes, the diatoms, with their siliceous shells ;
the desmids, the coccoliths, with their lenticular calcareous disks ;
the nullipores and corallines, making calcareous incrustations; and
the great family of Algse, simple, branched, and confluent. These
afford us abundant material from which we may reconstruct the
Eozoic meadows, forests, and submarine carpets.

The present system of plants seems to have originated in the Cre-
taceous period. The older Mesozoic gives us the cycads and tree-
ferns, like those of the Asiatic tropics. The Paleozoic formations
furnish a unique assemblage of combined cryptogamous and pheno-
gamic nature of types not now existing. Granting that the two
divisions of the plant kingdom are of equal importance in the line
of development, we find ourselves in Silurian times only half-way
back to the starting-point. If the Cambrian should furnish us
with representations of the mosses and lichens, we might expect in
Eozoic times some of these, together with the protophytes, etc., in
order to complete the systematic and orderly development of the
plant kingdom in time. Furthermore, the later ages have afforded
gigantic representations of the higher orders. Why, then, should not
the Eozoic land have had its forests of mushrooms and arborescent
lichens; its swamps of diatoms, conferva3, the chara? and desmids,

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE. 261

and enormous aquatic growth of algoe, coccoliths, nullipores, and cor-
allines ? If we grant that the parasitic fungi could not exist for want
of their proper organic food of higher organization, there are still
enough forms remaining to take their place, and thus afford us a
symmetrical development of all the phases of vegetable growth in the
enormous periods when the simplest organic structures ruled the
world.

Evidences of Animal Life. — It has been argued by high au-
thority that the existence of carbonate and phosphate of lime suggests
the presence of animal life in the Laurentian seas, because at the
present day these mineral substances are principally derived from
organic secretions. The graphite may also have been partly of ani-
mal derivation. There is as much carbon in the Laurentian as in the
Paleozoic Carboniferous. But these indications need not be dwelt
upon, since recent discoveries have brought to light the actual relics
of protozoans preserved in stones of Laurentian age. These are so
convincing that the discussion of probabilities derived from rocks of
supposed organic origin need not be dwelt upon. The organism has
the name Eozoon Canadense, the dawn-animal, inhabiting the Cana-
dian district.

Several names are connected with the discovery of this Eozoon
from Ontario and elsewhere. Dr. Wilson, of Perth, sent specimens of it
many years since to Sir William E. Logan, Director of Canadian Geo-
logical Survey, in which Dr. Sterry Hunt found a new hydrous sili-
cate, which he called Loganite. In 1858 J. McMullen brought speci-
mens which reminded Logan of the Stromatopora of the Silurian.
They were examined by various scientists, and in 1865 a composite
paper upon the geology, paleontology, and mineralogy of the fossil
appeared in the journal of the Geological Society of London, prepared
by Messrs. Logan, Dawson, Carpenter, and Hunt. Soon after Ven-
nor discovered other specimens in the Montalban of Tudor, Ontario;
Giimbel recognized it in both the Laurentian and Huronian in Bava-
ria; Bicknell and Burbank discovered it in Laurentian limestones at
Newbury and Chelmsford, Massachusetts ; and Edwards described it
from the Adirondacks in New York. Scientists have not universally
accepted the genuineness of this fossil. I will endeavor to present a
brief sketch of the nature of the organism before stating their objec-
tions.

This animal structure belungs to the subkingdom Protozoa, a
unique and inferior group of organisms. These animals are distin-
guished by possessing no alimentary cavity, or, if a stomach be pres-
ent, it is not bounded by any walls. The three divisions, using the
classification adopted by Dawson, are: the Rhizopods, Sponges, and
Infusoria. The first is the lowest, including all the sarcodous ani-
mals whose only external organs are pseudopodia. The rhizopods
are divided into the Reticularia or Foraminifera, possessing thread-

262

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

like and reticulating pseudopodia with granular matter instead of a
nucleus, and with calcareous, membranous, or arenaceous skeletons ;
the Radiolaria and Lobosa, the first being the lowest, and embracing
Eozoon. The reticularis, may be still further divided into two sub-
orders, Perforata and Imperforata, the first having calcareous skele-
tons penetrated with pores. This is the higher one, and holds Eozoon.
Of the three families JNummulinidce, Globigerinidai,- and Lagundai,
Eozoon belongs to the first and the highest in rank. It is not strictly,
then, the lowest of the animal kingdom, though very near to it.
Fig. 1 shows several species of the foraminifera.

Fig. 1. — Rhizopods.
a, Orbulina universa; 6, Globigerina rubra; c, Chrysalidina gradata ; d, Cuneolina pavonia;
e, Grammostomiim phyllodes; /, Rotalia globosa ; g, Fiabellina rugosa ; h, Frondicularia
annularis ; i, Nummulitea nummularia.

The animal part of the rhizopods is a gelatinous body called sar-
code, a bit of scarcely-organized protoplasm. Food is taken iu through
the outer wall, and is made into small pellets, which are surrounded
by a digestive fluid in extemporized stomachs. Minute granules move
about the interior, perhaps the substitute for a circulating fluid ; and
the outer wall can be moulded into the long processes called pseudo-
podia, used for locomotion and prehension. When these rhizopods
secrete stony matter for a covering, the interior is the same structure-
less mass ; but the shells assume characteristic forms for the different
varieties. The Orbulina consists of a single cell with one orifice,
but permeated by numerous microscopic pores, through which the
protoplasmic material can ooze and form the pseudopodia. In the
Globigerina and other genera there are several cells agglutinated
together, all communicating with one another. In many species the
thin cell-wall is inadequate for the wants of the structure, and an ad-
ditional growth or "supplementary skeleton " is added, traversed by
tubes larger, longer, and more branched, than in the first. In the
ocean these minute creatures swarm in astonishing numbers, and
their remains accumulate at the bottom, commingled with a paste
of still more minute coccoliths and calcareous debris to form the ooze
brought up in the sounding-lead from the telegraphed plateau. When

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE.

263

this calcareous mixture becomes solidified it is the chalk which
abounds in the Cretaceous formation of Europe, and makes up the
nummulitic and orbitoidal limestones.

Fig. 2 is a close copy of a small slab of Eozoon, showing what are
called the laminated, acervuline, and fragmental portions. The
diagonal white line represents the course of a vein of calcite. The
dark lines and marks correspond to the sarcode or animal matter of
the animal, now consisting of serpentine. Calling the base of the

Fig. 2.— Natuke-Print op Eozoon. (Dawson.)

*figure the ocean-floor, there may be said to grow upon it the gelatinous
sarcode or dark mass. Upon it grew first the delicate calcareous shell,
penetrated by the numerous minute orifices or tubuli, larger pores,
and occasionally supports of perpendicular plates. Added to this is
the supplemental skeleton without the minute tubuli, but traversed
by branching canals. This whole skeleton is represented by the
white mass next the dark base, consisting of calcite. These two lay-
ers or laminae constitute the. essential part of the structure, and all the
numerous layers above are but repetitions of them. Each lamina may
cover several inches square of surface at the bottom of the ocean, and
perhaps diminish in size as the organism grew upward. In the sketch
the layers are seen to grow thinner toward the top, as if the vital
energy became exhausted by the demands made upon it, and the sup-
plemental skeleton first disappears. Finally, we have a mass of
rounded chambers irregularly piled up near the top, constituting the
" acervuline " structure. We may suppose the growth arrested at
this stage, and the sending forth of reproductive germs to found new
colonies in the adjacent ground.

264

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In Fig. 3 we have an enlarged restoration, after Dawson, of a por-
tion of the EozoOn structure, which will enable us to better appre-
ciate the several parts of the organism. The dark, granulated layers
at the base and at intervals higher up constitute the chambers, and con-
tain the sarcode or gelatinous animal matter. Immediately above and
below each dark layer is the thin calcareous shell penetrated by the
minute orifices or tubuli. The white spaces represent the supple-
mentary skeletons traversed by the larger canals. At the summit the
sarcode is developed into several pseudopodia or cilia, by means of
which food is brought to be assimilated.

if! j

< Jfil I / X

Clc W 1 J

i - — * - ii.iliiin iiiilirv- J" -T»i^;^ >/■■ ..v>v~'i'SSJ.iuu.i 111] |i

Fig. 3.— Eozoon restored. (After Dawson.)

In Fig. 4 we have a portion of Eozoon magnified one hundred diam-
eters, drawn by Carpenter. The upper covering (a a) represents the
original cell-wall penetrated by the tubuli or pores in great abun-
dance. A bit of this is still more magnified in 2, by the side of the
first, seemingly consisting of an upper and lower part. The greater
part of the sketch consists of the supplemental or intermediate skele-
ton, traversed by two kinds of canals (b, c), of much larger size and
greater irregularity than the tubulation of the cell-wall.

The arrangement and composition of the mineral matter of the
Eozoon is quite interesting, and the more remarkable since it has

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE.

265

awakened hostile criticism and resulted in illustrating the presence of
silicates in organisms in every age of the world. Formerly it was
believed that carbonate of lime was the principal mineral found replac-
ing organic substances, thus producing petrifactions. Now we have
iron oxide, silica, clay, sand, sulphuret of iron, ores of copper, lead,
etc., fluor-spar, heavy spar, phosphate of lime, all unmistakably occu-

%,

Fig. 4.— Portion op Eozoon magnified 100 Diameters. (After Carpenter.)
a o, Original cell-wall with tubulation ; b c, Supplementary skeleton, with canals ; 2. Portion of

a a magnified.

pying the place of decomposable organic material. And the discus-
sions about Eozoon recall and enforce facts about the employment of
silicates by Nature to preserve her structures, especially in foraminif-
eral forms. In New Jersey there are beds of green-sand of Cretaceous
and Tertiary ages full of concretions composed of a silicate of iron and
potash called glauconite. Owing to its value as a fertilizer, thousands
of tons of it are annually employed by the farmers to enrich their
lands. This silicate has replaced modern organic structures of various
kinds, but noticeably corals, echinoderms, nummulites, and other rhi-
zopods. The fine tubulation and pores of these microscopic structures
have been penetrated by the silicates, so that, when the calcareous
parts have been removed by acid, the insoluble glauconite residue
shows us the forms of the chambers and cavities. This process of the
infiltration of organisms by glauconite was known long before the dis-
covery of Eozoon. It goes on at the present day at the bottoms of
the warmer seas, as evidenced in the facts discovered by the numerous
deep-sea dredgings recently undertaken in the interests of science.
Dr. Hunt suggests that the mineral is developed through chemical
reactions in the ooze at the sea-bottom, a combination of dissolved
silica with iron put into the ferrous soluble condition by means of or-
ganic matter.

266 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Hydrous silicates act as mineralizers elsewhere than in the green-
sand. Crinoidal joints from the Silurian limestones of New Brunswick
have been saturated by it, filling all the interstices, and smell mollusks
from Wales have had their interior permeated by it. There is much
variation in the composition of these infiltrating silicates. Some from
the calcaire grassier, near Paris, approach serpentine. Others carry
magnesia. Those from the Lower Silurian of the Upper Mississippi
Valley are like glauconite. In the Eozoon, as described above, ser-
pentine, which is a hydrous silicate of magnesia, replaces the supposed
sarcodous or animal part of the structure. It has thus (jorresponded
to the glauconite of the present day filling the canals of the supple-
mentary skeleton, the tubuli of the shell, and replacing the softer ani-
mal portions. Pyroxene and Loganite also replace the animal matter
in the Canadian Laurentian fossils, and in the Eozoon discovered in
the supposed Montalban series of Ontario carbonate of lime is the min-
eralizer. These last-named specimens were not described till 1867;
and, as they exhibit the foraminiferal structure without the presence
of any form of silicate, they completely establish the genuineness of
the fossil. In Bavaria Giimbel states that chondrodite, hornblende,
and scapolite, and perhaps other minerals, should be added to the list
of silicates petrifying the Eozoon.

The objections that have been made to the organic character of
Eozoon relate chiefly to the close resemblances between mineral and
organic replacement, or between pseudomorphs and petrifactions.
Other resemblances are to dendritic and concretionary structures. In-
asmuch as these structures represent the higher efforts of the mineral
kingdom in crystallization and the nearest approach to the inorganic
world allowed by animal forms, it is not strange that the two extremes
should resemble each other sufficiently to deceive practical observers.
The canal system maybe almost the very picture of certain dendrites.
The latter, however, usually occupy a flat surface like moss-agates ;
whereas the former branch out in every direction, as appears in Fig.
5, projecting upward and downward, as well as sideways.

Organisms are preserved because of the more or less complete sub-
stitution of mineral for animal matter. Pieces of coal or wood that
have been deposited in clay may be washed out, but the small pores
and interstices will be seen to be filled with the matrix. When the
burial has been in a solution capable of precipitating solid matter, the
wood will be found more or less changed according to the nature of
the solution and its capacity for alteration. Some specimens become
nearly pure agate in consequence of the gradual substitution, particle
by particle, of the organic matter by silica. Fig. 6 shows different
stages of petrifaction in coniferous wood: a is a small fragment where
the pores have been filled with silica, assuming a somewhat rhomboidal
appearance, and the black parts represent the woody substance, still
intact ; in b the vegetable matter is wanting, having rotted away,

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE.

267

and only silica remains, the rhomboidal pieces being the only remnants
of the original structure. The Eozoon has not been so completely
fossilized «as in the example of coniferous wood. The cell-wall and
supplementary skeleton still retain much of the original lime, while
the animal part has been entirely replaced by serpentine or some other
mineral. Subsequent pressure or desiocation has produced cracks in
the mass, which have been filled with an asbestus-like mineral of silky
lustre, and this has sometimes been confounded with some part of the
animal by objectors. a l

A ^

1 s*» »<>*?*

^>2?:s

rc\^Qi\i:

£^

■"i.

V _:■■■£#■

Ml

Mjmn

wmM^

M* o

-^iipgp

Fig. 5.— Canals of Eozoon, highly
magnified.

^*iS£!5

Fig. 6.— Coniferous Wood, illustrating Fossil-
ization.

a, Partially mineralized, the white spaces being sil-
ica, the black vegetable matter ; b. Vegetable
matter removed by decomposition, leaving out-
line of the forms of the original pores.

Few special subjects have been so carefully studied as the genuine-
ness of Eozoon. The treatises of Logan, Dawson, Carpenter, and
Hunt, admirably set forth every possible phase of geological position,
intimate zoological structure and affinity, mineral character both ori-
ginal and derived, and the conditions of origination. The elaborate
papers of the objectors, Messrs. King, Kowney, Carter, Burbank, and
others, show what the weaker positions are, and have enabled the advo-
cates to satisfactorily fortify the less defensible points of their argu-
ments. Every new discovery seems to aid the defenders, while the
philosophy of evolution is in harmony with the existence of a long
Eozooic age where the predominant life is scarcely elevated above the
working of crystalline forces.

HuEOisriAisr Life. — Gilmbel has described a species of Eozoon from
the supposed Huronian rocks of Bavaria. In this country Billings
has mentioned the occurrence of an Aspidella and Arenicolites from a
series of Newfoundland rocks called " Intermediate," most probably
of this age. The Aspidella bears some resemblance to the limpet-shell
or Patella, while it may have been some variety of crustacean. The
Arenicolites is a petrified worm-burrow.

But the specimens of greatest interest are those brought to light
the present year by Mr. George W. Hawes from the Huronian of

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

New Hampshire.1 The rocks have been carefully studied stratigraphi-
cally and lithologically, so that their place in the column is well under-
stood, and the fossil is so allied to the Eozoon as to abundantly con-
firm all that has been held for it by its warmest advocates.

As a matter of convenience Mr. Hawes proposes to call the group
of rocks affording these organisms greenstones, in allusion to their
color. They have not been melted like a certain class of traps once
called by this name, but have been metamorphosed somewhat; they
embrace most of the chloritic and talcose schists, or, technically, " all
basic metamorphic rocks whose predominant coloring ingredient is
either hornblende, pyroxene, or chlorite." Those of special interest to
us now are varieties of diorite and diabase, the first consisting mainly
of hornblende and feldspar, the second adding labradorite to the con-
stituents of the first-named rock. These rocks by many authors are
regarded as of igneous origin.

Fig. 7.— Protozoan Fossil, proeablt Stromatopora, from Connecticut Lake, N. II.

The method of examination employed in determining the composi-
tion of these greenstones is of some interest. A bit of the specimen
is carefully ground to the thinnest dimensions possible, so that it can
be examined optically under the microscope. With common and
polarized light it is possible to understand the nature of the minutest
minerals present, as well as the cavities contained in them. The study
of rocks in this way has been prosecuted so energetically of late, that
it is common to speak of the sub-sciences micro-lithology, micro-
petrology, etc., and the appearances ol every mineral are now well
understood by those skilled in observation, so that the conclusions are
often more reliable than those obtained by ultimate chemical analysis.
Mr. Hawes combines in his studies the use of the microscope and chem-

1 American Journal of Science, iii., vol. sii., p. 134.

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE.

269

ical analysis, so that whatever cannot be determined in the one will be
ascertained by the other method.

He was accordingly gratified to recognize in one of his rock-sec-
tions the fragment of a rhizopod. The structure has some resem-
blance to the acaleph Chcetetes, but on account of the minuteness of
the layers it should be classed with the rhizopods, reminding one very
much of the Stromatopora. Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate these organisms
magnified thirty-five diameters, thus making the breadth of the cells
only y^o °f an incn- The smaller figure is probably a section of the

Fig. 8.— Protozoan Fossil, from Hanover, N. EL

same rhizopod, cut in a different direction. The rock holding these
fossiliferous bits is diabase, a variety common between Connecticut
Lake and Bellows Falls, both in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Since the naming of Stromatopora by Goldfuss fifty years since,
naturalists have separated the acaleph structures from the true corals,
but this genus is generally regarded as different from either of them.
Prof. Hall described it as a polyp-coral in his "Paleontology of New
York," but would not so regard it now. The most common form of
it, as figured by him, is herewith presented (Fig. 9), from the Niagara
limestone of Lockport, occurring in masses one or two feet in diam-
eter. It is a protozoan coral, assisting in the work of reef-building,
however, as much as the polyp-structures. By way of comparison
we add a figure of a bryozoan mollusk (Lichenalia concentrica),
from the same formation and locality with the Stromatopora (Fig.
10). The relations of our new specimens are rather with the first of
these forms, and will probably be described hereafter as species of
Stromatopora.

It is an interesting fact that these " layer corals " have impressed
the minds of all students of the Eozoon by their resemblances to the

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dawn-animal. Logan speaks of it in his first remarks upon them,
referring more particularly to their weathered outcrops and somewhat
concentric structure ; while Dawson sees much in their internal organi-
zation suggestive of a fitness for foraminiferal requirement. The
layer seems better arranged for sheltering a gelatinous body, throwing
out pseudopodia reaching after food, than for accommodating the

1

Fig. 9.— Stromatopoea Concentbica. (Goldf.)

1. Surface of a small hemispheric mass, showing the edges of the thin laminae unequally weathered,

natural size.

2. Magnified portion, showing weathered edges of successive lamina?, which are indented by pores.

3. More highly-magnified portion of the specimen, showing the walls and tubulation.

sponge animals, subsisting through the passage of currents of water.
The canal system, with the supplemental skeleton, is wanting in this
genus, but appears in the allied forms of the Devonian.

A very important feature of the greenstone fossils is their mineral
composition. They are composed of silicates, very probably of feld-
spar. Mr. Hawes has not been able yet to satisfy himself fully as to
the nature of the silicate, because of the smallness of the particles
obtained. A drop of acid placed upon one of the specimens exhibited
a slight effervescence, indicating the traces of carbonate of lime —
perhaps part of the original foraminifer before its fracture and disper-
sion in the mud. He suggests that the presence of these lime-struct-
ures afforded the material for the manufacture of so much labradorite
in the diabases containing the fossils.

THE EARLIER FORMS OF LIFE,

271

I cannot forbear alluding to the interesting confirmation of the
genuineness of Eozoon afforded by the discovery of these Huronian
fossils in New Hampshire : 1. Eozoon sprung upon us with affinities
rather remote from existing forms, but the Stromatopora has been
known for fifty years as a veritable organism. 2. The latter has the
same silicated condition with the former ; hence we cannot set aside
Eozoon merely because the supposed animal parts have been infiltrated

1

Fig. 10.— Lichenalia Concentbica. (Hall.)

1. A nearly perfect frond.

2, 3. Enlargements of the non-celluliferous side, showing the form and arrangement of the

stigmata.

by a silicate. A well-known organism is proved to be silicated ; hence
all presumption against the existence of the same mineral condition in
a related animal is removed. 3. Stromatopora is zoologically allied
to Eozoon. 4. It appears in a subsequent period, showing a natural
order of development. 5. Stratigraphical and petrographical studies
prove the greenstones to satisfactorily belong to the true Huronian
formation, and thus make the sequence of life free from ambiguity.

Eozoic Geography. — Such vast periods are necessarily involved
in those early stages of the earth's growth, that we cannot portray

2 72 % THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Eozoic scenery as a whole ; while an artist would find material for
only gne sketch. At the first we must conceive of an earth with a
larger diameter than is now accepted as the standard for the metric
system of measures ; of a shallow ocean covering the greater portion
of the surface, interspersed with numerous islands, scattered every-
where without any method of arrangement that' we understand. In
the areas marked as Eozoic upon our maps, accumulations of strata
were going on, of enormous thickness. We cannot recognize now
the original land which supported the primeval vegetation, but can
conjecture the boundaries of the contiguous oceans. In the latter
part of the period the areas of deposition occupied basins situated
within the limits of the earlier-formed rocks, being usually the deeper
portions of the original oceans. Ridges between the water-basins
resulted from the slow elevation of the land, the nuclei of great
mountain-ranges, and there were ejections of melted matter, with
marvelous alterations of sediments deep down beneath the surface.

Respecting the age as a whole, we may say that the waters were
probably somewhat thermal, still simmering from the proximity of
the heated interior ; the air was thick and moist, partly composed of
carbonic-acid gas ; the sky was filled with dense clouds, marking the
transition of day and night by periods of total darkness and seasons
of feeble illumination, not permitting sunshine to cheer the vegeta-
tion. The life was characterized by its lowness of grade ; the terres-
trial plants hardly suitable for the food of air-breathing animals ; the
marine largely of the lime-secreting varieties and unicellular diatoms.
The animals colonized the bottoms of the oceans, building up enor-
mous reefs, but invisible to sight, if any one could have been per-
mitted to look upon the infant world.

-♦*♦-

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE.1

By HERBERT SPENCER.

IN his ingenious and interesting work on "Primitive Marriage,"
the words " exogamy " and " endogamy " are used by Mr.
McLennan to distinguish the two practices of taking to wife women
belonging to other tribes, and taking to wife women belonging to the
same tribe. As explained in his preface, his attention was drawn to
these diverse customs by an inquiry into "the meaning and origin of
the form of capture in marriage ceremonies;" an inquiry which led
him to a general theory of early sexual relations. The following out-

1 From advance-sheets of Spencer's " Principles of Sociology," Part "The Domestic
Relations," chap, iv., " Exogamy and Endogamy."

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 273

line of his theory I disentangle, as well as I can, from statements
that are not altogether consistent.

Scarcity of food led groups of primitive men to destroy female
infants ; because, " as braves and hunters were required and valued,
it would be the interest of every horde to rear, when possible, its
healthy male children. It would be less its interest to rear females,
as they would be less capable of self-support, and of contributing, by
their exertions, to the common good" (p. 165).

Mr. McLennan next alleges that " the practice in early times of
female infanticide," " rendering women scarce, led at once to poly-
andry within the tribe, and the capturing of women from without"
(p. 138).

Joined with a restatement of the causes we come upon an inferred
result, as follows : " The scarcity of women within the group led to a
practice of stealing the women of other groups, and in time it came
to be considered improper, because it was unusual, for a man to marry
a woman of his own group" (p. 289). Or, as he says on p. 140,
"usage, induced by necessity, would in time establish a prejudice
among the tribes observing it (exogamy) — a prejudice, strong as a
principle of religion, as every prejudice relating to marriage is apt
to be — against marrying women of their own stock."

To this habitual stealing of wives, and restealing of them, as
among the Australians (p. 16), he ascribes that doubtful paternity
which led to the recognition of kinship through females only.
Though elsewhere admitting a more general cause for this primitive
form of kinship (p. 159), he regards wife-stealing as its most certain
cause , saying that " it must have prevailed wherever exogamy pre-
vailed— exogamy and the consequent practice of capturing wives.
Certainty as to fathers is impossible where mothers are stolen from
their first lords, and liable to be restolen before the birth of children "
(p. 226).

Assuming the tribes which thus grew into the practice of wife-
stealing to have been originally homogeneous in blood, or at least to
have supposed themselves so, Mr. McLennan argues that the introduc-
tion of wives who were foreigners in blood, joined with the rise of
the first definite conception of relationship (that between mother and
child) and consequent system of kinship exclusively in the female
line, led to recognized heterogeneity within the tribe : there came to
exist, within the tribe, children regarded as belonging by blood to
the tribes of their mothers. Hence arose another form of exogamy.
The primitive requirement that a wife should be stolen from another
tribe, naturally became confounded with the requirement that a wife
should be of the blood of another tribe; and hence girls born within
the tribe, from mothers belonging to other tribes, became eligible as
wives. The original exogamy, carried out only by robbing other
tribes of their women, gave place, in part, or wholly, to the modified
vol. x. — 18

274 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

exogamy carried out by marrying, from within the tribe, women bear-
ing family names which implied that they were foreign in blood.

In tracing the development of higher forms of the domestic rela-
tions, Mr. McLennan postulates, as we have seen, that the scarcity of
-women " led at once to polyandry within the tribe, and the capturing
of women from without." Describing and illustrating the different
forms of polyandry, ending in that highest form in which the hus-
bands are brothers, he points out that at this stage there arose recog-
nition not only of descent in the female line, but also of descent in
the male line ; since the father's blood was known, if not the father.

Then through gradually-established priority of the elder brother,
as being the first of the group to marry, and the first likely to have
children, it became an accepted fiction that all the children were his:
"the elder brother was a sort of paterfamilias /" and "the idea of
fatherhood " thus caused was a step toward kinship through males,
and " a step away from kinship through females " (pp. 243, 244).

Pointing out that among some polyandrous peoples, as the Kan-
dians, the chiefs have become monogamists, Mr. McLennan argues
(p. 245) that their example would be followed, and "thus would arise
a practice of monogamy or of polygamy." And he thence traces the
genesis of the patriarchal form, the system of agnation, the institu-
tion of caste.

Though this outline of Mr. McLennan's theory is expressed, where-
ever regard for brevity permits, in his own words, yet possibly he
may take exception to it , for, as already hinted, there are incongru-
ities in his statements, and the order in wdiieh they are placed is in-
volved. That many of the phenomena he describes exist, is beyond
question. It is undeniable that the stealing of women, still habitual
with sundry low races, was practised in the past by races now higher;
and that the form of capture in marriage ceremonies prevails in so-
cieties where no real capture occurs at present. It is undeniable that
kinship through females is, among various primitive peoples, the only
kinship avowedly recognized; and that it leads to the descent of
name, rank, and property, in the female line. It is undeniable that in
many places where wife-stealing is, or has been, the practice, marriage
is forbidden between those of the same family name, who are assumed
to be of the same stock. But while admitting much of the evidence,
and while accepting some of the inferences, we shall find reason for
doubting Mr. McLennan's theory taken as a whole. Let us consider,
first, the minor objections.

Sundry facts inconsistent with his conclusion, though referred to
by Mr. McLennan, he passes over as of no weight. He thinks there
is warrant for the belief that exogamy and wife-capture have "been
practised at a certain stage among every race of mankind" (p. 138) :
this stage being the one now exemplified by sundry low races. Nev-

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 275

ertheless, he admits that " the separate endogamous trihes are nearly
as numerous, and they are in some respects as rude, as the separate
exogamous tribes" (p. 145). Now, if, as he believes, exogamy and
wife-stealipg have " been practised at a certain stage ainong every
race of mankind" — that stage being the primitive one — and if, as he
seeks to prove, endogamy is a form reached through a long series of
social developments, it is difficult to understand how the endogamous
tribes can be as rude as the exogamous ones.

Again, he names the fact that " in some districts — as in the hills
on the northeastern frontier of India, in the Caucasus, and the hill-
ranges of Syria — we find a variety of tribes, proved, by physical char-
acteristics and the affinities of language, of one and the same original
stock, yet in this particular differing toto ccelo from one another —
some forbidding marriage within the tribe, and some prescribing mar-
riage without it" (pp. 147, 148) : a fact by no means congruous with
his hypothesis.

Should Mr. McLennan reply that on pp. 4V, 48, he has recognized
the possibility, or probability, that there were tribes primordially
endogamous — should he say that on pp. 144, 145, will be found the
admission that, perhaps, exogamy and endogamy " may be equally
archaic," the rejoinder is that, besides being inconsistent with his
belief that exogamy has "been practised at a certain stage among
every race of mankind," this possibility is one which he practically
rejects. On pp. 148-150, he sketches out a series of changes by which
exogamous tribes may eventually become endogamous ; and in sub-
sequent sections on the " Growth of Agnation," and " The Rise of
Endogamy," he tacitly asserts that endogamy has thus developed : if
not without exception, still, generally. Indeed, the title of one of his
chapters — "The Decay of Exogamy in Advancing Communities " —
clearly implies the belief that exogamy was general, if not universal,
with the uncivilized ; and that endogamy grew up along with civili-
zation. Thus the incongruity between the propositions quoted in the
last paragraph cannot be escaped.

Sundry other of Mr. McLennan's statements and inferences con-
flict with one another. Assuming that, in the earliest state, tribes
were stock-groups " organized on the principle of exogamy," he speaks
of them as having " the primitive instinct of the race against marriage
between members of the same stock" (p. 118). Yet, as we have seen
above, he elsewhere speaks of wife-capture as caused by scarcity of
women within the tribe ; and attributes to this " usage, induced by
necessity," the prejudice against " marrying women of their own
stock." Moreover, if, as he says (and I believe rightly says) on p.
145, "men must originally have been free of any prejudice against
marriage between relations," it seems inconsistent to allege that there
was a "primitive instinct" "against marriage between members of
the same stock."

276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Again, while in some places the establishment of the exogamous
prejudice is ascribed to the practice of wife-stealing (pp. 53, 54, and
136), it is elsewhere made the antecedent of wife-stealing : interdict
against marriage within the tribe was primordial. Now, if this last is
Mr. McLennan's view, I agree with Sir J. Lubbock in thinking that
it is untenable. It cannot be assumed that in these earliest groups of
men, with which Mr. McLennan commences, there were anv estab-
lished rules of marriage. Unions of the sexes must have preceded all
social laws. The rise of a social law implies a certain preceding con-
tinuity of social existence ; and this preceding continuity of social
existence implies the reproduction of successive generations. Hence
reproduction, entirely unregulated by interdicts, must be taken as
initial.

Assuming, however, that of his two views Mr. McLennan will abide
by the moi-e tenable one, that wife-stealing led to exogamy, let us ask
how far he is justified in alleging that female infanticide, and con-
sequent scarcity of women, led to wife-stealing. At first sight it
appears undeniable that destruction of infant girls, if frequent, must
have been accompanied by a deficiency of adult females ; and it seems
strange to call in question the legitimacy of this inference. But Mr.
McLennan has overlooked a concomitant. Tribes in a state of chronic
hostility are constantly losing their adult males, and the male mor-
tality so caused is usually considerable. Hence the killing many
female infants does not necessitate paucity of women : it may merely
prevent excess. Excess must, indeed, be inevitable if, equal numbers
of males and females being reared, some of the males are from time
to time slain. The assumption from which Mr. McLennan's argument
sets out is, therefore, inadmissible.

How inadmissible it is, becomes conspicuous on finding that, where •
wife-stealing is now practised, it is commonly associated with polygyny.
The Fuegians, named by Mr. McLennan among wife-stealing peoples,
are polygynists. According to Dove, the Tasmanians were polygy-
nists, and Lloyd says that polygyny was universal among tbem ; yet
the Tasmanians were wife-stealers. The Australians furnish Mr.
McLennan with a typical instance of wife-stealing and exogamy ; and
though Mr. Oldfield alleges scarcity of women among them, yet other
testimony is quite at variance with his. Mitchell says : " Most of the
men appeared to possess two [females], the pair in general consisting
of a fat plump gin, and one much younger;" and, according to the
Frenchman Peltier, named in the last chapter as having lived seven-
teen years with the Macadama tribe in Queensland, the women were
" more numerous than the men, every man having from two to five
women in his suite." In North America the Dakotas are at once
wife-stealers and polygynists, Burton tells us. In South America the
Brazilians similarly unite these two traits; and among the Caribs
they are especially associated. Writing of polygyny as practised on

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 277

the Orinoco, Humboldt says: "It is most considerable among the
Caribs, and all the nations that have preserved the custom of carry-
ing off young girls from the neighboring tribes." How, then, can
wife-stealing be ascribed to scarcity of women ?

A converse incongruity also militates against Mr. McLennan's
theory. His position is that female infanticide, "rendering women
scarce, led at once to polyandry within the tribe, and the capturing of
women from without." But polyandry does not, so far as I see, dis-
tinguish wife-stealing tribes. We do not find it among the above-
named Tasmanians, Austi*alians, Dakotas, Brazilians; and although
it is said to occur among the Fuegians, and characterizes some of the
Caribs, it is much less marked than their polygyny. Contrariwise,
though it is not a trait of peoples who rob one another of their women
it is a trait of certain rude peoples who are habitually peaceful.
There is polyandry among the Esquimaux, who do not even know
what war is ; there is polyandry among the Todas, who in no way
aggress upon their neighbors

Other minor difficulties might be dwelt upon. There is the fact
that in many cases exogamy and endogamy coexist, as among the
Comanches, the New-Zealanders, the Lepchas, the Californians. There
is the fact that in sundry cases polygyny and polyandry coexist, as
among the Fuegians, the Caribs, the Esquimaux, the Warans, the
Hottentots, the ancient Britons. There is the fact that there are some
exogamous tribes who have not the form of capture in marriage, as
the Iroquois and the Chippewas. But, not dwelling on these, I turn
to certain cardinal difficulties, obvious a priori, which appear to me
insuperable.

Setting out with primitive homogeneous groups, Mr. McLennan
contends that the scarcity of women caused by destruction of female
infants compelled wife-stealing ; and he thinks that this happened
"at a certain stage among every race of mankind" (p. 138). The
implication is, therefore, that a number of adjacent tribes, usually be-
longing to the same variety of .man in the same stage of progress, were
simultaneously thus led to rob one another. But immediately we think
of wife-stealing as a practice not of one tribe only, but of many tribes
forming a cluster, there presents itself the question, How was the
scarcity of women thus remedied ? If each tribe had fewer women
than men, how could the tribes get wived by robbing one another ?
The scarcity remained the same : what one tribe got another lost.
Bearing in mind the low fertility and great infant mortality among
savages, if there is a chronic deficiency of women and the tribes rob
one another equally, the result must be diminished population in all
the tribes. If some, robbing others in excess, get enough wives, and
leave certain of the rest with very few, these must tend toward ex-
tinction. And if the surviving tribes carry on the process, there

278 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

appears no limit until the strongest tribe, continuing to supply itself
with women from the less strong, finally alone survives and has no
tribes to rob.

Should it be replied that female infanticide is, on the average of
cases, not carried so far as to make the number of wives insufficient
to maintain the aggregate population — should it be said that only
exceptional tribes rear so few women as not to have mothers enough to
produce the next generation — then we are met by a still greater diffi-
culty. If in each of the exogamous tribes forming the supposed cluster
the men are forbidden to marry women of their own tribe, and must
steal women from other tribes, the implication is that each tribe
knowingly rears wives for neighboring tribes, but not for itself.
Though each tribe kills many of its female infants that it may not be
at the cost of rearing them for its own benefit, yet it deliberately rears
the remainder for the benefit of its enemies. Surely this is an inad-
missible supposition. In proportion as the interdict against marry-
ing women within the tribe is peremptory, the preservation of girls
will be useless — worse than useless, indeed, since adjacent hostile
tribes, to whom they must go as wives, will be thereby strengthened.
And as all the tribes, living under like interdicts, will have like mo-
tives, they will all of them cease to rear female infants.

Manifestly, then, exogamy in its original form can never have
been anything like absolute among the tribes forming a cluster, but
can have been the law among some of them only.

In his concluding chapter Mr. McLennan says that, "on the whole,
the account which we have given of , the origin of exogamy appears
the only one which will bear examination " (p. 289). It seems to me,
however, that setting out with the postulate laid down by him, that
primitive groups of men are habitually hostile, we may, on asking
what are the concomitants of war, be led to a different theory, open to
none of the objections above raised.

In all times and places, among savage and civilized, victory is fol-
lowed by pillage. Whatever portable things of worth the conquerors
find, they take. The enemies of the Fuegians plunder them of their
dogs and arms ; pastoral tribes in Africa have their cattle driven away
by conquering marauders ; and peoples more advanced are robbed of
their money, ornaments, and all valuable things that are not too heavy.
The taking of women is manifestly but a part of this process of spoil-
ing the vanquished. Women are prized as wives, as concubines, as
drudges ; and, the men having been killed, the women are carried off
along with the other movables. Everywhere among the uncivilized
we find this. Turner tells us that " in Samoa, in dividing the spoil of
a conquered people, the women were not killed, but taken as wives."
We learn from Mitchell that in Australia, u on some whites telling a
native that they had shot a man of another tribe, his only remark

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 279

was : ' Stupid white fellows ! why did you not bring away the gins ? ' "
And P. Martyr says that among the cannibal Caribs in his day "to
eat women was considered unlawful. . . . Those who were captured
young were kept for breeding, as we keep fowl, etc." . Early legends
of the semi-civilized show us the same thing ; as when in the "Iliad" we
read that tbe Greeks plundered "the sacred city of Eetion," and that
part of the spoils " they divided among themselves " were the women.
And there need no examples to recall the fact that in later and more
civilized times successes in battle have been followed by transactions
allied in character, if not the same in form. Hence it is obvious that,
from the beginning down to comparatively late stages, women-stealing
has been an incident of successful war.

Observe, next, that the spoils' of conquest, some of them prized
for themselves, are some of them prized as trophies. Proofs of prow-
ess are above all things treasured by the savage. He brings back his
enemy's scalp, like the North American Indian. He dries and pre-
serves his enemy's head, like the New-Zealander. He fringes his robe
with locks of hair cut from his slain foe. Among other signs of suc-
cess in battle is return with a woman of the vanquished tribe. Be-
yond her intrinsic value she has an extrinsic value. Like a native
wife, she serves as a slave ; but, unlike a native wife, she serves also
as a trophy. As, then, among savages, warriors are the honored
members of the tribe — as among warriors the most honored are those
whose bravery is best shown by achievements — the possession of a
wife taken in war becomes a badge of social distinction. Hence mem-
bers of the tribe thus married to foreign women are held to be more
honorably married than those married to native women. What must
result ?

In a tribe not habitually at wrar, or not habitually successful in
war, no decided effect is likely to be produced on the marriage cus-
toms. If the great majority of the men have native wives, the pres-
ence of a few whose superiority is shown by having foreign wives
will fail to change the practice of taking native wives : the majority
will keep one another in countenance. But if the tribe, becoming
more successful in war, robs adjacent tribes of their women more fre-
quently, there will grow up the idea that the now-considerable class
having foreign wives form the honorable class, and that those who
have not proved their bravery by bringing back these living trophies
are dishonorable: non-possession of a foreign wife will come to be
regarded as a proof of cowardice. An increasing ambition to get
foreign wives will therefore arise ; and as the number of those who
are without them decreases, the brand of disgrace attaching to them
will grow more decided ; until, in the most warlike tribes, it becomes
an imperative requirement that a wife shall be obtained from another
tribe — if not in open war, then by private abduction.

A few facts showing that by savages proofs of .courage are often

28o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

required as qualifications for marriage, will carry home this conclu-
sion. Herndon tells us that among the Mahues a man cannot take a
wife until he has submitted to severe torture. Bates, speaking of the
Passes on the Upper Amazons, says that formerly " the young men
earned their brides by valiant deeds in war." Before he is allowed
to marry, a young Dyak must prove his bravery by bringing back
the head of an enemy. Bancroft quotes Colonel Cremony as saying
that when the Apache warriors return unsuccessful, " the women
turn away from them with assured indifference and contempt. They
are upbraided as cowards, or for want of skill and tact, and are told
that such men should not have wives." That, among other results of
sentiments thus exemplified, abduction of women will be one, is ob-
vious ; for a man who, denied a wife till he has proved his courage,
steals one, satisfies his want and achieves reputation at the same time.
If, as we see, the test of deserving a wife is in some cases obtainment
of a trophy, what more natural than that the trophy should often be
the stolen wife herself? What more natural than that where many
warriors of the tribe are distinguished by stolen wives, the stealing
of a wife should become the required proof of fitness to have one?
Hence would follow a peremptory law of exogamy.

In so far as it implies that usage grows into law, this interpre-
tation agrees with that of Mr. McLennan. It does not, however, like
his, assume either that this usage originated in a primordial instinct,
or that it resulted from scarcity of women caused by infanticide.
Moreover, unlike Mr. McLennan's, the explanation so reached is con-
sistent with the fact that exogamy and endogamy in many cases exist ;
and with the fact that exogamy often coexists with polygyny.
Further, it does not involve us in the difficulty raised by supposing a
peremptory law of exogamy to be obeyed throughout a cluster of
tribes.

But can the great prevalence of the form of capture in marriage
ceremonies be thus accounted for? Mr. McLennan believes that,
wherever this form is now found, complete exogamy once prevailed.
Examination will, I think, show that the implication is not necessary.
There are several ways in which the form of capture naturally arises ;
or rather, let us say, it has several conspiring causes.

If, as we have seen, there still exist rude tribes in which men fight
for possession of women, the taking possession of a woman naturally
comes as a sequence to an act of capture. That monopoly which con-
stitutes her a wife in the only sense known by the primitive man is a
result of successful violence. Thus the form may originate from act-
ual capture within the tribe instead of originating from actual capt-
ure without it.

Beyond that resistance to a man's seizure of a woman apt to be
made by other men within the tribe, there is the resistance of the

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 281

woman herself. Sir John Lubbock expresses the opinion that female
coyness is not an adequate cause for the establishment of the form of
capture ; and it may be that, taken alone, it does not suffice to ac-
count for everything. But there are reasons for thinking it an impor-
tant factor. Here are some of them. Crantz tells us concerning: the
Esquimaux that, when a damsel is asked in marriage, she —

"directly falls into the greatest apparent consternation, and runs out-of-doors
tearing her hunch of hair ; for single women always affect the utmost hashful-
ness and aversion to any proposal of marriage, lest they should lose their repu-
tation for modesty."

Like behavior is shown by- Bushmen girls. When —

" a girl has grown up to womanhood without having previously heen hetrothed,
her lover must gain her own approbation, as well as that of the parents ; and on
this occasion his attentions are received with an affectation of great alarm and
disinclination on her part, and with some squabbling on the part of her friends."

Again, among the Sinai Arabs, says Burckhardt, a bride —

"defends herself with stones, and often inflicts wounds on the young men,
even though she does not dislike the lover ; for, according to custom, the more
she struggles, bites, kicks, cries, and strikes, the more she is applauded ever after
by her own companions." During the procession to the husband's camp, " de-
cency obliges her to cry and sob most bitterly."

Of the Muzos, Piedrahita narrates that after agreement with the par-
ents was made —

"the bridegroom came to see the bride, and staid three days caressing her,
while she replied by beating him with her fists and with sticks. After these
three days she got tamer, and cooked his meals."

In these cases, then, coyness, either real or affected for reputation's
sake, causes resistance of the woman herself. In other cases there is
joined with this the resistance of her female friends. We read of the
Sumatran women that " both the bride and her female relatives make it
a point of honor to prevent (or appear to prevent) the bridegroom from
obtaining his bride." On the occasion of a marriage among the
Araucanians, Smith tells us that "the women spring up en masse, and
arming themselves with clubs, stones, and missiles of all kinds, rush to
the defense of the distressed maiden. . . . It is a point of honor with the
bride to resist and struggle, however willing she may be." And once
more we learn from Grieve that when a Kamtchatkan " bridegroom
obtains the liberty of seizing his bride, he seeks every opportunity of
finding her alone, or in company of a few people, for during this time
all the women in the village are obliged to protect her."

Here we have, I think, proof that one origin of the form of capture
is feminine opposition — primarily of the woman herself, and second-
arily of female friends who naturally sympathize with her. Though
the manners of the inferior races do not imply much coyness, yet we

282 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cannot suppose coyness to be wholly absent. Hence that amount of
it which really exists, joined with that further amount simulated for
reputation's sake, will make resistance, and consequently capture, nat-
ural phenomena. Moreover, since a savage makes his wife a slave,
and usually treats her brutally, she has an additional motive for re-
sistance.

Nor does forcible opposition pix>ceed only from the girl and her
female friends : the male members of her family also are likely to be
opponents. A woman is of value not only as a wife, but also as a
daughter; and all through, from the lowest to the highest stages of
social progress, we find a tacit or avowed claim to her services by her
father. It is so even with the degraded Fuegians : an equivalent in
the shape of service rendered has to be given for her by the youth,
" such as helping to make a canoe." It is so with numerous more ad-
vanced savages all over the world : there is either the like giving of
stipulated work, or the giving of a price. And we have evidence that
it was originally so among ourselves : in an action for seduction the
deprivation of a daughter's services is the injury alleged. Hence it is
inferable that in the rudest states, where claims, parental or other,
are but little regarded, the taking away of a daughter is likely to
become the occasion of a fight. Facts support this conclusion. Of the
Araucanians Smith tells us that, when there is opposition of the parents,
" the neighbors are immediately summoned by blowing the horn, and
chase is given." " Among the Gandors, a tribe on the southern shores of
the Caspian Sea, the bridegroom must run away with his bride, although
he thereby exposes himself to the vengeance of her parents, who, if
they find him within three days, can lawfully put him to death." And
we read concerning the Gonds that " a suitor usually carries off the
girl that is refused to him by the parents." Thus we find a further
natural cause for the practice of capture — a cause which must have
been common before social usages were well established. Indeed, on
reading that among the Mapuches the man sometimes "lays violent
hands upon the damsel, and carries her off, " and that " in all such
cases the, visual equivalent is afterward paid to the girl's father," we
may suspect that abduction, spite of parents, was the primary form ;
that there came next the making of compensation to escape vengeance ;
that this grew into the making of presents beforehand; and that so
resulted eventually the system of purchase.

If, then, within a tribe there are three sources of opposition to the
appropriation of a woman by a man, it does not seem that the form
of capture is inexplicable unless we assume the abduction of women
from other tribes.

But even supposing it to have originated in the capture of foreign
women, its survival as a form of marriage would not prove exogamy
to have been the law. In a tribe whose warriors had many of them
wives taken from enemies, and who, as having captured their wives,

THEORIES OF PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. 283

were regarded as more honorably married than the rest, there would
result an ambition, if not to capture a wife, still to seem to capture a
wife. In every society the inferior ape the superior ; and customs thus
spread among classes, the ancestors of which did not observe them.
The antique-looking portraits that decorate many a modern, large
house, by no means demonstrate the distinguished ancestry of the
owner; but may merely simulate a distinguished ancestry. The coat
of arms a wealthy mah bears does not necessarily imply descent from
men who once had their shields and flags covered by such marks of
identity. The plumes borne on a hearse do not prove that the dead
occupant had forefathers who wore knightly decorations. And, simi-
larly, it does not follow that all the members of tribes who go through
the form of capturing their wives at marriage are descendants of men
who in earlier days actually captured their wives. Mr. McLennan
himself points out that, among sundry ancient peoples, captured wives
were permitted to the military class, though not to other classes. If
we suppose a society formed of a dominant military class, originally
the conquerors, who practised wife-capture, and a subject class who
could not practise it — and if we ask what would happen when such a
society fell into more peaceful relations with adjacent like societies,
and obtained wives from them no longer by force, but by purchase or
other friendly arrangement — we may see that, in the first place, the
form of capture would replace the actuality of capture in the mar-
riages of this dominant class ; for, as Mr. McLennan contends, con-
formity to ancestral usage would necessitate the simulation of capture
after actual capture has ceased. And when, in the dominant class,
wife-capture had thus passed into a form, it would be imitated by the
subject class as being the most honorable form. Such among the
inferior as had risen to superior social positions would first adopt it;
and they would gradually be followed by those below them. So that,
even were there none of the other probable origins named above, a
surviving form of capture in any society would not necessarily show
that society to have been exogamous, but would merely show that
wife-capture was in early times practised by its leading men.

And now, pursuing the argument, let us see whether exogamy and
endogamy are not simultaneously accounted for as correlative results
of the same differentiating process. Setting out with a state in which
the relations of the sexes were indefinite, variable, and determined by
the passions and circumstances of the occasion, we have to explain
how exogamy and endogamy became established, the one here, the
other there, as consequences of surrounding conditions. The efficient
conditions were the relations to other tribes, now peaceful but mostly
hostile, some of them strong, and some of them weak.

Necessarily, a primitive group not commonly at war with neigh-
boring groups must be endogamous ; for the taking of women from

284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

other tribes is either a sequence of open war, or is an act of private
war which brings on open war. Pure endogamy, however, resulting
in this manner, is probably rare, since the hostility of tribes is almost
universal. But endogamy is likely to characterize not peaceful groups
alone, but also groups habitually worsted in war. An occasional ab-
ducted woman taken in reprisal will not suffice to establish in a weak
tribe any precedent for wife.-capture ; but, contrariwise, a member of
such a tribe who carries off a woman, and so provokes vengeance by
the stronger tribe robbed, is likely to meet with general reprobation.1
Hence marrying in the tribe will not only be habitual, but there will
arise a prejudice, and eventually a law, against taking wives from
other tribes ; the needs of self-preservation will make the tribe endog-
arnous. This interpretation harmonizes with the fact, admitted by
Mr. McLennan, that the endogamous tribes are as numerous as the
exogamous ; and also with the fact he admits, that in sundry cases
clusters of tribes allied by blood and language are some of them ex-
ogamous and some endogamous.

It is to be inferred that, among tribes not differing much from one
another in strength, there will be continual aggressions and reprisals,
accompanied by mutual robberies of women. No one of them will be
able to supply itself with wives entirely at the expense of adjacent
tribes, and hence, in each of them, there will be both native wives,
and wives taken from other tribes — there will be both exogamy and
endogamy. Stealing of wives will not be reprobated, because the
tribes robbed are not too strong to be defied ; and it will not be in-
sisted on, because the men who have stolen wives will not be numer-
ous enough to determine the average opinion.

If, however, in a cluster of tribes, one gains predominance by fre-
quent successes in war — if the men in it who have stolen wives come to
form the larger number — if the possession of a stolen wife becomes a
mark of that bravery without which a man is not worthy of a wife —
then the discreditableness of marrying within the tribe, growing into
disgraceful ness, will end in a peremptory requirement to get a wife
from another tribe — if not in open war, then by private theft : the
tribe will become exogamous. A sequence may be traced. The ex-
ogamous tribe thus arising, and growing while it causes adjacent tribes
to dwindle by robbing them, will presently divide ; and its sections,
usurping the habitats of adjacent tribes, will carry with them the es-
tablished exogamous habit. When, presently becoming hostile, these
diverging sub-tribes begin to rob one another of women, there will

1 Since the above sentence was written, I have, by a happy coincidence, come upon a
verifying fact, in the just-published "Life in the Southern Isles," by the Rev. Mr. Gill
(p. 47). A man, belonging to one of the tribes in Mangaia, stole food from an adjacent
tribe. This adjacent tribe avenged itself by destroying the houses, etc., of the thief s
tribe. Thereupon the thief s tribe, angry because of the mischief thus brought upon
them, killed the thief. If this happened with a stealer of food, still more would it be
likely to happen with a stealer of women, when the tribe robbed was the more powerful.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 285

arise conditions conducive to that internal exogamy which Mr. Mc-
Lennan supposes, rightly I think, to replace external exogamy. For,
unless we assume that, in a cluster of tribes, each will undertake to
rear women for adjacent tribes to steal, we must conclude that the
exogamous requirement will be met in a qualified manner. Wives
born within the tribe, but foreign by blood, will, under pressure of the
difficulty, be considered allowable, instead of actually stolen wives.
And thus, indeed, that kinship in the female line, which primitive
irregularity in the relations of the sexes originates, will become estab-
lished, even though male parenthood is known ; since this interpreta-
tion of kinship will make possible conformity to a law of connubium
that could not otherwise be obeyed.

Nothing of much importance is to be said respecting exogamy and
endogamy in their general bearings on social life.

Exogamy in its primitive form is clearly an accompaniment of the
lowest barbarism ; and it decreases as the hostility of societies becomes
less constant, and the usages of war mitigated. That the implied
crossing of tribal stocks, where these tribal stocks are very small,
may be advantageous, physiologically, is true ; and exogamy may so
secure a benefit which at a later stage is secured by the mingling of
conquering and conquered tribes ; though none who bear in mind the
thoughtlessness of savages will suppose such a benefit to have been
contemplated. But the exogamous custom, as at first established,
implies an extremely abject condition of women; a brutal treatment
of them ; an entire absence of the higher sentiments that accompany
the relation of the sexes. Associated with the lowest type of political
life, it is also associated with the lowest type of domestic life.

Evidently endogamy, which at the outset must have characterized
the more peaceful groups, and which has prevailed as societies have
become less hostile, is a concomitant of the higher forms of the family.

-+*+-

PKOFESSOK HUXLEY'S LECTUKES.1

III.

THE DEMONSTRATIVE EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION.

IN my last lecture, I had occasion to place before you evidence de-
rived from fossil remains, which, as I stated, was perfectly con-
sistent with the doctrine of evolution, in fact, was favorable to it, but
could not be regarded as the highest kind of evidence, or as that sort
of evidence that we call demonstrative.

1 The last of three lectures on " The Direct Evidence of Evolution," delivered at
Chickering Hall, New York, September 20th. From the report of the New York Tribune,
carefully revised by Prof. Huxley.

286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I pointed out, in fact, that, as we go back in time, the great inter-
vals which at present separate some of the larger divisions of ani-
mals become more or less completely obliterated by the appearance
of intermediate forms, so that if we take the particular case of reptiles
and birds, upon which I dwelt at length, we find in the mesozoic rocks
animals which, if ranged in series, would so completely bridge over
the interval between the reptile and the bird that it would be very
hard to say where the reptile ends and where the bird begins. Evi-
dence so distinctly favorable to evolution as this is far weightier than
that upon which men undertake to say that they believe many im-
portant propositions ; but it is not the highest kind of evidence at-
tainable for this reason, that, as it happens, the intermediate forms
to which I have referred do not occur in the exact order in which
they ought to occur, if they really had formed steps in the progression
from the reptile to the bird ; that is to say, we find these forms in
contemporaneous deposits, whereas the requirements of the demon-
strative evidence of evolution demand that we should find the series
of gradations between one group of animals and another in such order
as they must have followed if they had constituted a succession of
stages, in time, of the development of the form at which they ulti-
mately arrive. In other words, the complete evidence of the evolu-
tion of the bird from the reptile — what I call the demonstrative
evidence, because it is the highest form of this class of evidence ; that
evidence should be of this character, that in some ancient formation
reptiles alone should be found ; in some later formations birds should
first be met with ; and in the intermediate strata we should discover
in regular succession those forms which I pointed out to you which
are intermediate between reptiles and birds.

The proof of evolution cannot be complete until we have obtained
evidence of this character, and that evidence has of late years been
forthcoming in considerable and continually increasing quantity.
Indeed, it is somewhat surprising how large is the quantity of that
evidence, and how satisfactory is its nature, if we consider that our
obtaining such evidence depends upon the occurrence in a particular
locality of an undisturbed series deposited through a long period of
time, which requires the further condition* that each of these deposits
should be such that the animal remains imbedded in them are not
much disturbed, and are imbedded in a state of great preservation.
Evidence of this kind, as I have said, has of late years been accumu-
lating largely, and in respect to many divisions of the animal king-
dom. But I will select for my present purpose only one particular
case, which is more adapted to the object I have in view, as it relates
to the origin, to what we may call the pedigree, of one of our most
familiar domestic animals — the horse. But I may say that in speak-
ing of the origin of the horse I shall use that term in a general sense
as equivalent to the technical term HJquus, and meaning not what you

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 287

ordinarily understand as such, but also asses and their modifications,
zebras, etc. The horse is in many ways a most remarkable animal,
inasmuch as it presents us with an example of one of the most perfect
pieces of machinery in the animal kingdom. In fact, among mammals
it cannot be said that there is any locomotive so perfectly adapted to
its purposes, doing so much work with so small a quantity of fuel, as
this animal — the horse. And, as a necessary consequence of any sort
of perfection, of mechanical perfection as of others, you find that the
horse is a beautiful creature, one of the most beautiful of all land-
animals. Look at the perfect balance of its form, and the rhythm
and perfection of its action. The locomotive apparatus is, as you are
aware, resident in its slender fore and hind limbs ; they are flexible
and elastic levers, capable of being moved by very powerful muscles ;
and, in order to supply the engines which work these levers with the
force which they expend, the horse is provided with a very perfect
feeding apparatus, a very perfect digestive apparatus.

Without attempting to take you very far into the region of osteo-
logical detail, I must nevertheless — for this question depends upon
the comparison of such details — trouble you with some points respect-
ing the anatomical structure of the horse, and more especially with
those which refer to the structure of its fore and hind limbs. But I
shall only touch upon those points which are absolutely essential to
the inquiry that we have at present put. Heie is the fore-leg of a
horse : The bone which is cut across at this point is that which
answers to the upper-arm bone in my arm, what you would call the
humerus. This bone corresponds with my forearm. What Ave com-
monly term the knee of the horse is the wrist ; it answers to the wrist
in man. This part of the horse's leg answers to one of the human
fingers, and the hoof which covers this extended joint answers to one
of my nails.

You observe that, to all appearance, there is only one bone in the
forearm. Nevertheless, at the upper end I can trace two separate
portions ; this part of the limb, and the one I am now touching. But
as I go farther down it runs at the back part into the general bone,
and I cease to be able to trace it" beyond a certain point. This large
bone is what is termed the radius, and answers to the bone I am touch-
ing in my arm, and this other portion of bone corresponds to what is
called the ulna. To all appearance in the forearm of the horse the
ulna is rudimentary, and seems to be fused into one bone with the
radius.

It looks thus as if the ulna, running off below, came to an end
and it very often happens in works on the anatomy of the horse that
vou find these facts are referred to, and a horse is said to have an im-
perfect ulna. But a careful examination shows you that the lower
extremity of the ulna is not wanting in the horse. If you examine a
yery young horse's limb you will find that this portion of the bone I

288 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

am now showing you is separable from the rest, and only unites as
the animal becomes older, and this is, in point of fact, the lower ex-
tremity of the ulna ; so that we may say that in the horse the middle
pai*t of the ulna becomes rudimentary and unites with the radius, and
that the lower extremity of the ulna is so early united with the lower
extremity of the radius that every distinct trace of separation has
vanished in the adult.

I need not trouble you with the structure of this portion that
answers to the wrist, nor with a more full description of the singular
peculiarities of the part, because we can do without them for the
present, but I will go on to a consideration of the remarkable series
of bones which terminates the fore-limb. We have one continuous
series in the middle line which terminates in the coffin-bone of the
horse upon which the weight of the fore-part of the body is sup-
ported. This series answers to a finger of my hand, and there are
good reasons — perfectly valid and convincing reasons, which I need
not stay to trouble you with — which prove that this answers to the
third finger of my hand enormously enlarged.

And it looks at first as if there were only this one finger in the
horse's foot. But, if I turn the skeleton round, I find on each side a
bone shaped like a splint, broad at the upper and narrow at the lower
end, one on each side. And those bones are obviously and plainly
and can be readily shown to be the rudiments of the bones which I
am now touching in my own hand — the metacarpal bones of the sec-
ond and of the fourth finger — so that we may say that in the horse's
fore-limb the radius and ulna are fused together, that the middle part
of the ulna is excessively narrow, and that the foot is reduced to the
single middle fingei*, with rudiments of the two other fingers, one on
each side of it. Those facts are represented in the diagram I now
show you of the recent horse. Here is the fore-limb (pointing to the
diagram), with the metacarpal bones and the little splint-bones, one
on each side. It sometimes happens that by way of a monstrosity
you may have an existing horse with one or other of these toes — that
is, provided with its terminal joints.

Let me now point out to you what are the characteristics of the
hind-limb. This (pointing to the diagram) is the shin-bone of the
horse, and it appears at first to constitute the whole of the leg. But
there is a little splint at this point which is the rudiment of the small
bone of the leg — what is called the fibula — and then there is con-
nected with the lower end of the tibia a little nodule which represents
the lower end of the fibula, in just the same way as that little nodule
in the fore-limb represents the lower end of the ulna. So that in the
leg we have a modification of the same character as that which exists
in the fore-limb — the suppression of the greater part of the small
bone of the leg and the union of its lower end with the tibia. So,
again, we find the same thing if we turn to the remainder of the leg.

• PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 289

This (showing) is the heel of the horse, and here is the great median
toe, answering to the third toe in our own foot ; and here we have
upon each side two little splint-bones, just as in the fore-limb, which
represent the rudiments of the second and the fourth toes — rudiments,
that is to say, of the metatarsal bones, the remaining bones having
altogether vanished. Let me beg your attention to these peculiar-
ities, because I shall have to refer to them by-and-by. The result of
this modification is, that the fore and hind limbs are converted into
long, solid, springy, elastic levers, which are the great instruments
of locomotion of the horse.

As might be expected, and as I have already said, the apparatus
for providing this machine with the fuel which it requires is also of a
very highly differentiated character. A horse has, or rather may
have, forty-four teeth, but it rarely happens that in our existing horses
you find more than forty — for a reason which I will communicate di-
rectly— and in a mare it commonly happens that you find no more than
thirty-six, because the " tushes," or canine teeth, of the mare are rarely
developed. Then there are some curious peculiarities about these teeth.
As every one who has had to do with horses knows, the cutting
teeth — the incisors — are six above and six below, and those incisors
present what is called a "mark;" at least, that mark is usually pres-
ent in horses up to a certain age. It is a sort of dark patch across
the middle of the tooth. The presence of that dark patch arises from
a great peculiarity in the structure of the horse's incisor tooth. It is
in fact considerably curved, witli a deep pit in the middle of the
crown, and then a long fang. In the young foal this pit is very deep.
As the animal feeds, this pit becomes filled up wTitk its fodder, that
fodder becomes more or less carbonized, and then you have the dark
mark, and the reason the dark mark serves as an indication of age,
for, as the horse feeds, this is more and more worn down, until at last,
in an aged horse, the tooth is worn beyond the bottom of the pit, and
the mark disappears. Then, as I said, the male horse generally has
canine teeth. We need not notice their structure particularly. Fol-
lowing that, you may occasionally notice a very small and rudimen-
tary tooth, but it is very often absent. It really represents the first
tooth of the grinding series. Then there follow six great teeth, with
exceedingly long crowns. The crowns, in fact, are so long that the
teeth take a very long time to wear down, whence arises the possi-
bility of the great age to which horses sometimes attain. This is
shown in the side diagram. Then the pattern and structure of a
horse's tooth are very curious. The crown of the horse's tooth pre-
sents a very complicated pattern ; that is to say, supposing this to be
one of the grinders of the left side (illustrating) above, there is a kind
of wall like a double crescent. Then there are two other crescents,
which fall in that direction, and these are complicated by folds, and
all the spaces between these crescentic ridges are filled up by a kind
vor,. x. — 19

z9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY. •

of bony matter which is called cement. Consequently the surface of
the tooth is composed of very uneven materials — of the hard mass of
the tooth, which is called dentine, then a very much harder enamel,
and a softer cement between, the practical effect of which is the same
as the lamination of the millstone. In consequence of the lamination
of the millstone the ridges wear less swiftly than 1^ie intermediate
substance, and therefore the surface always keeps rough and exerts
a crushing effect upon the grain. The same is true of the horse's
tooth, and consequently the grinding of the teeth one against the
other, instead of flattening the surface of the teeth, tends to keep
them always irregular, and that has a very great influence upon the
rapid mastication of the hard grain or the hay upon which the
horse subsists.

I think that will suffice as a brief indication of some of the most
important peculiarities and characteristics of the horse. If the hy-
pothesis of evolution is true, what ought to happen when we investi-
gate the history of this animal? We know that the mammalian type,
as a whole — that mammalian animals — are characterized by the pos-
session of a perfectly distinct radius and ulna, two separate and dis-
tinct movable bones. We know, further, that mammals in general
possess five toes, often unequal, but still as completely developed as
the five digits of my hand. We know further that the general type
of mammal possesses in the leg, not only a complete tibia, but a com-
plete fibula — a complete, distinct, separable bone. Moreover, in the
hind-foot we find, in animals in general, five distinct toes, just as we
do iu the fore-foot. Hence it follows a differentiated animal like the
horse must have proceeded by way of evolution or gradual modifica-
tion from a form possessing all the characteristics we find in mam-
mals in general. If that be true, it follows that if there be anywhere
preserved in the series of rocks a complete history of the horse, that
is to say of the various stages through which he has passed, those
stages ought gradually to lead us back to some sort of animal which
possessed a radius, and an ulna, and distinct complete tibia and fibula,
and in which there were five toes upon the fore-limb, no less than
upon the hind-limb. Moreover, in the average general mammalian
type, the higher mammalian, we find, as a constant rule, an approxi-
mation to the number of forty-four complete teeth, of which twelve
are cutting teeth, four are canine, and the others are grinders. In
unmodified mammals we find the incisors have no pit, and that the
grinding teeth, as a rule, increase in size from that which lies in front
toward those which lie in the middle or at the hinder part of the series.
Consequently, if the theory of evolution be correct, if that hypothe-
sis of the origin of living things have a foundation, we ought to find
in the series the forms which have preceded the horse, animals in
which the mark upon the incisor gradually more and more disappears,
animals in which the canine teeth are present in both sexes, and ani-

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 291

ruals in which the teeth gradually lose the complications of their
crowns and have a simpler and shorter crown, while at the same time
they gradually increase in size from the anterior end of the series
toward the posterior. Let us turn to the facts and see how they bear
upon the requirements of this doctrine of evolution.

In what is called here the Pliocene formation, that which consti-
tutes almost the uppermost division of the tertiary series, we find the
remains of horses. We also find in Europe abundant remains of horses
in the most superficial of all these formations — that is, the post-ter-
tiary, which immediately lies above the Pliocene. But these horses,
which are abundant in the cave-deposits and in the gravels of Eng-
land and Europe — these horses, of which we know the anatomical
structure to perfection — are in all essential respects like existing horses.
And that is true of all the horses of the latter part of the Pliocene
epoch. But in the earlier Pliocene and later Miocene epoch, in depos-
its which belong to that age, and which occur in Germany and in
Greece, in India, in Bi'itain, and in France, we find animals which are
like horses in all the essential particulars which I have just described,
and the general character of which is so entirely like that of the horse
that you may follow descriptions given in works upon the anatomy of
the horse upon the skeletons of these animals. But they differ in
some important particulars. There is a difference in the structure of
the fore and hind limb, and that difference consists in this, that the
bones which are here represented by two splints, imperfect below, are
as long as the middle metacarpal bone, and that attached to the ex-
tremity of each is a small toe with its three joints of the same general
character as the middle toe, only very much smaller, and so disposed
that they could have had but very little functional importance, and
that they must have been rather of the nature of the dew-claws such
as are to be found in many ruminant animals. This Hipparion, or
European three-toed horse, in fact presents a foot similar to that which
you see here represented, except that in the European. Hipparion
these smaller fingers are farther back, and these lateral toes are of
smaller proportional size.

But nevertheless we have here a horse in which the lateral toes,
almost abortive in the existing horse, are fully developed. On care-
ful investigation you find in these animals that also in the foredimb
the ulna is very thin, yet is traceable down to the extremity. In the
hind-limb you find that the fibula is pretty much as in the existing
horse. That is the kind of equine animal which you meet with in
these older Pliocene and later Miocene formations, in which the mod-
ern horse is no longer met with. So you see that the Hipparion is
the form that immediately preceded the horse. Now let us go a step
farther back to the middle and older parts of which are called the
Miocene formation. There you find in some parts of Europe the
equine animals which differ essentially from the modern horse, though

29 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they resemble the horse in the broad features of their organization.
They differ in the characters of their fore and hind limbs, and present
important features of difference in the teeth. The forms to which I
now refer are what constitute the genus Anchitherium. We have
three complete toes ; the middle toe is smaller in proportion, the inner
and outer toes are larger, and in fact large enough to rest upon the
ground, and to have functional importance — not an animal with two
dew-claws, but an animal with three functional toes. And in the fore-
arm you find the ulna a very distinct bone, quite readily distinguisha-
ble in its whole length from the radius, but still pretty closely united
with it. In the hind-limb you also meet with three functional toes.
The structure of the hind-foot corresponds with that of the fore-foot;
but in the hind-leg the fibula is better developed. In some cases I
have reason to think that it is complete ; at any rate this lower end
of it is quite distinctly recognizable. But the most curious change
is that which is to be found in the character of the teeth. The teeth
of the Anchitherium have, in the first place, so far as the incisors are
concerned, a rudimentary pit. The canine teeth are present in both
sexes. The molars are short; there is no cement, and the pattern is
somewhat like this (drawing on the blackboard). In the upper jaw,
there are two crescents and two oblique ridges, while in the lower
jaw you have the double crescent. It is quite obvious that this (illus-
trating from drawing) is a simpler form than that. By increasing the
complexity of those teeth there, we have the horse's teeth. These are
all the forms with which we are acquainted respecting the past his-
tory of the horse in Europe. When I happened to occupy myself
with this subject some years ago, notwithstanding certain difficulties,
the facts left no doubt whatever in my mind that we had here a gen-
eral record of the history of the evolution of the horse. You must
understand that every one of these forms has undoubtedly become
modified into various species, and we cannot be absolutely certain
that we have found those species which constitute the exact line of
mollification, but it was perfectly obvious that we had here in suc-
cession, in time, three forms of the horse-type, of which the oldest
came nearest to the general mammal. We saw that the forms which
had existed afterward had undergone a reduction of the number of
their toes, a reduction of the fibula, a more complete coalescence of
the ulna with the radius. The pattern of the molar teeth had become
more complicated and the interspaces of their ridges had become filled
with cement. In this succession of forms you have exactly that which
the hypothesis of evolution demands. The history corresponds ex-
actly with that which you would construct a priori from the princi-
ples of evolution. An alternative hypothesis is hardly conceivable,
but the only one that could be framed would be this, that the Anchi-
therium. the Hipparion, and the horse, had been created separately
and at separate epochs of time. For that hypothesis there could be

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 293

no scientific evidence, and it is not pretended that there is the slight-
est evidence of any other kind that such successive creation has ever
taken place. When I was investigating this subject only the collec-
tions in Europe were accessible to me, but the materials they yielded
led me to think that the horse must have descended from an Anchi-
theriu?7i-like ancestor, and I may say, as I happen to know by cor-
respondence with him, that very eminent anatomist, the late Prof,
Lartet, of Paris, had arrived independently at the same conclusion.
Indeed, the story is so plain that no one deserves any particular credit
for drawing so obvious a conclusion. And since then paleontological
inquiry has not only given us greater and greater knowledge of the
series of horse-like forms, but enabled us to fill up the gaps in the
series, aud to extend that series farther back in time.

That knowledge has recently come to us, and assuredly from a
most unexpected quarter. You are all aware that when this country
was first discovered by Europeans there were no traces of the exist-
ence of the horse in any part of the American Continent. And, as is
well known, the accounts of the earlier discoveries dwell upon the
astonishment of the natives when they first became acquainted with
that astounding phenomenon — a man seated upon a horse. Never-
theless, as soon as geology began to be pursued in this country, it was
found that remains of horses — horses like our European horses — like
the horses which exist at the present day — are to be found in abun-
dance in the most superficial deposits in this country, just as they are
in Europe. For some reason or other — no feasible suggestion on that
subject, so far as I know, has been made — but for some reason or other
the horse must have died out on this continent at some period pre-
ceding— how long we cannot say — the discovery of America by the
Europeans. Of late years there have been discovered on this conti-
nent— in your Western Territories — that marvelous thickness of ter-
tiary deposits to which I referred the other evening, which gives us a
thickness and a consecutive order of older tertiary rocks admirably cal-
culated for the preservation of organic remains, such as we had hith-
erto no conception of in Europe. They have yielded fossils in a state
of preservation and in number perfectly unexampled. And with re-
spect to the horse, the researches of Leidy and others have shown
that numerous forms of that type are to be found among these remains.
But it is only recently that the very admirably contrived and most
thoroughly and patiently worked-out investigations of Prof. Marsh
have given us a just idea of the enormous wealth and scientific im-
portance of these deposits. I have had the advantage of glancing
over his collections at New Haven, and I can truly and emphatically
say that, so far as my knowledge extends, there is nothing in any way
comparable, for extent, or for the care with which the remains have
been got together, or for their scientific importance, to the series of
fossils which he has brought together. (Applause.) This enormous

294. THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

collection has yielded evidence of the most striking character in regard
to this question of the. pedigree of the horse. Indeed, the evidence
which Prof. Marsh has collected tends to show that you have in Amer-
ica the true original seat of the equine type — the country in which the
evidence of the primitive form and successive modifications of the horse
series is far better preserved than in Europe ; and Prof. Marsh's kindness
has enabled me to put before you the following diagram, every figure in
which is an actual representation of the specimen which is preserved in
New Haven at this present time. The succession of forms which he has
brought together shows, in the first place, the great care and patience
to which I have referred. Secondly, there is this Pliocene form of the
horse (Pliohippus) ; the conformation of its limbs presents some very
slight deviations from the ordinary horse, and with shorter crown of
the grinding teeth. Then comes the form which represents the Euro-
pean JTipparion, which is the JProtohippus, having three toes and the
forearm and leg and teeth to which I have referred, and which is more
valuable than the European Hipparion for this reason : it is devoid
of some of the peculiarities of that form — peculiarities which tend to
show that the European Hipparion is rather a side branch than one
in the direct line of succession. Next comes the Jfiohippus, which
corresponds pretty nearly with what I spoke of as the Anchitherium
of Europe, but which lias some interesting peculiarities. It presents
three toes — one large median and two lateral ones ; of the toe which
answers to the little finger of the human hand, there is only a rudi-
ment. This is, however, as far as European deposits have been ena-
bled to carry us with any degree of certainty in the history of the
horse. In the American tertiaries, on the contrary, the series of
equine forms is continued down to the bottom of the Eocene. The
older Miocene form, termed Mesohippus, has three toes in front and
a large splint-like rudiment representing the little finger, and three
toes behind. The radius and ulna are entire, and the tibia and fibula
distinct, and the teeth are anchitheroid with short crowns.

But the most important discovery of all is the Orohippus —
which comes from the lower part of the Eocene formation, and is
the oldest member of the equine series known. Here we have four
complete toes on the front-limb, three toes on the hind-limb, a well-
developed ulna, a well-developed fibula, and the teeth of simple pat-
tern. So you are able, thanks to these great researches, to show that,
so far as present knowledge extends, the history of the horse-type is
exactly and precisely that which could have been predicted from a
knowledge of the principles of evolution. And the knowledge we
now possess justifies us completely in the anticipation that when the
still lower Eocene' deposits and those which belong to the Cretaceous
epoch have yielded up their remains of equine animals, we shall find
first an equine creature with four complete toes and a rudiment of the
innermost toe in front, and probably a rudiment of the fifth toe in the

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES.

295

Fore Foot. Hind Foot. Fore-arm. Leg. Upper Molar. Lower Molar.

RECENT.

EQUUS.

o

PLIOCENE.

PLIOHIPPUS.

PROTOniPPTJS ill 1

(Hipparion). ]

MIOCENE.

MIOHIPPUS

{Anchitherium).

MESOHIPPUS.

EOCENE.

OBomppus.

bJ

296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hind-foot.1 la still older forms the series of the dibits will be more
and more complete, until we come to the five-toed animals, in which
most assuredly the whole series took its origin.

That is what I mean, ladies and gentlemen, by demonstrative evi-
dence of evolution. An inductive hypothesis is said to be demon-
strated when the facts are shown to be in entire accordance with it.
If that is not scientific proof, there are no inductive conclusions which
can be said to be scientific. And the doctrine of evolution at the
present time rests upon exactly as secure a foundation as the Coper-
nican theory of the motions of the heavenly bodies. Its basis is pre-
cisely of the same character — the coincidence of the observed facts
with theoretical requirements. As I mentioned just now, the only
way of escape, if it be a way of escape, from the conclusions which I
have just indicated, is the supposition that all these different forms
have been created separately at separate epochs of time, and I repeat
that of such an hypothesis as this there neither is nor can be any sci-
entific evidence, and assuredly, so far as I know, there is none which
is supported, or pretends to be supported, by evidence or authority
of any other kind. I can but think that the time will come when
such suggestions as these, such obvious attempts to escape the force
of demonstration, will be put upon the same footing as the supposi-
tion made by some writers, who are, I believe, not completely extinct
at present, that fossils are not real existences, are no indications of
the existence of the animals to which they seem to belong ; but that
they are either sports of Nature or special creations, intended — as I
heard suggested the other day — to test our faith. In fact, the whole
evidence is in favor of evolution, and there is none against it. And I
say this, although perfectly well aware of the seeming difficulties which
have been adduced from what appeal's to the uninformed to be a scien-
tific foundation. I meet constantly with the argument that this doc-
trine of evolution cannot be correct, because it requires the Lapse of a
very vast period of time, and that the duration of life upon the earth
thus implied is inconsistent with the conclusions arrived at by the as-
tronomer and the physicist. I may venture to say that I am familiar
with those conclusions, inasmuch as some years ago, when President
of the Geological Society of London, I took the liberty of criticising
them, and of showing in what respects, as it appeared to me, they
lacked complete and thorough demonstration. But, putting that
point aside altogether, suppose that, as the astronomers, or some of
them, and some physical philosophers, tell us, it is impossible that
life could have endured upon the earth for as long a period as is re-
quired by the doctrine of evolution- — supposing that to be proved,
what I want to know is, what is the foundation for the statement that

1 Since this lecture was delivered, Prof. Marsh has discovered in the lowest Eocene
deposits of the West a new genus of equine mammals (Eohippits), which corresponds
very nearly to this description. — American Journal of Science, November, 1876.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 297

evolution does require so great a time ? The biologist knows nothing
whatever of the amount of time which may be required for the pro-
cess of evolution. It is a matter of fact that those forms which I
have described to you occur in the order which I have described in
the tertiary formation. But I have not the slightest means of guess-
inn- whether it took a million of years, or ten millions, or a hundred
millions, or a thousand millions of years, to give rise to that series of
changes. As a matter of fact, the biologist has no means of arriving
at any conclusion as to the amount of time which may be needed for
a certain quantity of organic change. He takes his facts as to time
from the geologist. The geologist, taking into consideration the rate
at which deposits are formed and the rate at which denudation goes
on upon the surface of the earth, arrives at certain more or less justi-
fiable conclusions as to the time which is required for the deposit of a
certain amount of rocks, and if he tells me that the tertiary forma-
tions required 500,000,000 years for their deposit, I suppose he has
good ground for what he says, and I take that as the measure of the
duration of the evolution of the horse from the Orohippus up to its
present condition. And, if he is right, undoubtedly evolution is a
very slow process, and requires a great deal of time. But suppose,
now, that an astronomer or a physicist — for instance, my friend Sir
William Thomson — comes to me and tells me that my geological
friend is quite wrong, and that he has capital evidence to show that
life could not possibly have existed upon the surface of the earth
500,000,000 of years ago, because the earth would have been too hot
to allow of life, my reply is: " That is not my affair; settle that with
the geologist, and when you have come to an agreement between
yourselves I will adopt your conclusion." We take our time from
the geologist, and it is monstrous that, having taken our time from
the physical philosopher's clock, the physical philosopher should turn
round upon us, and say we are going too fast. What we desire to
prove is, is it a fact that evolution took place ? As to the amount of
time it took, we are in the hands of the physicist and the astronomer,
whose business it is to deal with those questions.

I think, ladies and gentlemen, that I have now arrived at the con- '
elusion of the task which I set before myself when I undertook to de-
liver these lectures before you. My purpose has been, not to enable
those of you who have not paid attention to these subjects before to
leave this room in a condition to decide upon the validity or the in-
validity of the hypothesis of evolution, but to put before you the
principles by which all such hypotheses must be judged; and, further-
more, to make apparent to you the nature of the evidence and the
sort of cogency which is to be expected and may be obtained from it.
To this end I have not hesitated to regard you as genuine students
and persons desirous of knowing the truth. I have not hesitated to
take you through arguments, even long chains of arguments, that I

z98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fear may have sometimes tried your patience, or to have inflicted
upon you details which could not possibly he escaped, but which may
well have been wearisome. But I shall rejoice — I shall consider I
have done you the greatest service which it was in my power in such
a way to do — if I have thus convinced you that this great question
which we are discussing is not one to be dealt with by rhetorical
flourishes or by loose and superficial talk, but that it requires the
keenest attention of the trained intellect and the patience of the most
accurate observer. When I commenced this series of lectures, I did
not think it necessary to preface them with a prologue, such as might
be expected from a stranger and a foreigner ; for, during my brief
stay in your country, I have found it very hard to believe that a
stranger could be possessed of so many friends, and almost harder to
imagine that a foreigner could express himself in your language in such
a way as, to all appearances, to be so readily intelligible ; for, so far
as I can judge, that most intelligent, and, perhaps, I may add most
singularly active and enterprising body, your press reporters, do not
seem to have been deterred by my accent from giving the fullest ac-
count of everything that I happen to have said. But the vessel in
which I take my departure to-morrow morning is even now ready to
slip her moorings ; I awake from my delusion that I am other than a
stranger and a foreigner. I am ready to go back to my place and
country, but, before doing so, let me, by way of epilogue, tender to
you my most hearty thanks for the kind and cordial reception which
you have accorded to me ; and let me thank you still more for that
which is the greatest compliment which can be afforded to any person
in my position — the continuous and undisturbed attention which you
have bestowed upon the long argument which I have had the honor
to lay before you.

-♦»»>-

THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY.8

By Peofessob H. NEWELL MAETIN, D. So., M. B., B. A.

TTTE meet to-morrow to formally begin the biological work of this
V V University — to commence that systematic study of animal and
vegetable form and function, relationship and distribution, which we
include under the names of Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, Physi-
ology and Botany, or in the general terms Biology or Natural His-
tory. I have thought that it might be well to-day to take an oppor-
tunity of laying before you what seem to be the ends which we
should hold in view, and the methods on which we should work, if we
are to attain or to deserve a permanent success. I am further induced

1 An introductory lecture delivered at the Johns Hopkins University, October 23,
1876.

THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY. 299

to take this course by the fact that our present year's work is confess-
edly of a tentative nature : one main object of it being to enable us to
decide upon what lines we are to go forwai-d in the future ; and I be-
lieve it may facilitate decision on some points if we have before us,
as a sort of basis for discussion, a definite statement of views on the
subject, no matter how imperfect such statement may be in itself, or
how much the opinions expressed in it may afterward be found to re-
quire modification. What I propose, therefore, is not simply to tell
you what are our arrangements for this year, but also to put before
you some thoughts as to what I think we ought to do in the time to
come. It is, I am sure, unnecessary for me to dilate at any length,
before this audience, upon the interest and importance of biological
studies. However contributory to our culture and welfare other studies
may be, biology has, and ever must have, a very special interest of its
own: it alone deals with the living organisms which surround us, and
which are the only things that share with us that wonderful collo-
cation and interaction of natural forces which we call life. Biology,
too, includes within its range the study of man himself, so far as
one side of his nature is concerned; and, as regards his mental and
moral qualities, the psychologist and sociologist have already begun
to recognize that the progress of their sciences is closely bound up
with the development of certain branches of biology. As regards its
practical value I might set forth at length the indebtedness of scien-
tific medicine and of sanitary science to biology; but I prefer not to
recommend the study to you by such considerations. This is a univer-
sity: and the object of a university, I take it, is directly to promote
liberality of thought and culture, and only indirectly to concern
itself witli the practical advancement of material welfare. It is con-
cerned rather with the acquirement of a knowledge of principles than
with their practical applications; although, in connection with it, it
may have subsidiary schools whei'e those who have already learned
the principles may acquire a practical knowledge of various arts.
Nevertheless it is true that, if we devote ourselves to the higher ob-
jects, the rest will be added unto us ; for it is one of the great glories
of all the physical sciences that, while second to none in the training
which a study of them gives to all the faculties of the mind — in the
promotion of large and liberal ideas, and in the gratification of that
longing to "know," which is the noblest characteristic of the human
intellect — they at the same time, as a by-thing, but constantly, con-
tribute to the increase of man's comfort, and to the material pros-
perity and happiness of his race. Those who advance our knowledge
of the laws of animal and vegetable life may work without any imme-
diate outlook to the advancement of medicine, hygiene, and agri-
culture, but such advancement constantly follows and springs from
their work, and will ever do so.

To those who are in any degree acquainted with the state

3oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the scientific world, the present must seem a specially opportune
time for founding a biological school. At no previous period has
such an interest been taken in biological problems, or have so many
earnest workers been in the field — never before lias so rich a harvest
been in view. This is mainly owing to the promulgation of two
great ideas within the last few years. On the morphological side we
have the doctrine of evolution applied to living forms, and especially
as definitely put forward by the theory of the origin of species by
natural selection ; while on the physiological side we have the doctrine
of the conservation of energy, and its extension to the play of forces
in living organisms. It matters not whether these theories be correct
representations of the facts or not, or whether increase of knowledge
confirms or upsets them — in any case they have been of incalculable
importance in stimulating work and in giving a present and direct
significance to its results. I can imagine no time for the biologist to
live in which would be more interesting than the coming half-century,
,or none in which he will have a greater incentive to study; he seems
to have almost within his grasp the solution of problems of the widest
significance.

'»*

Those of us directly concerned in the administration of the bio-
logical laboratory here, are charged with the fulfillment of two
duties : we have to make provision for the advancement of knowl-
edge, and for its diffusion: we are to find accommodation and assist-
ance for both investigators and students ; while we must not suffer
those engaged in research to be crowded out by beginners, neither
must the beginners be overlooked in providing for those to whom
they are one day to succeed. The liberal space at our disposal will
permit us, at any rate for the present, to accommodate both classes
of workers, without risk of the extermination of either. Meanwhile I
have, then, to occupy your time with a few words on two subjects : on
biological research, and on biological teaching.

One hears a good deal talked nowadays of scientific research, and
amomr it a good deal of what I cannot but think mischievous nonsense
about the peculiar powers required by scientific investigators. To
listen to many, one would suppose that the faculty of adding any-
thing whatever to natural knowledge was one possessed by extremely
few persons. I believe, on the contrary, that any man possessed of
average ability and somewhat more than average perseverance, is
capable, if he will, of doing good original scientific work. Any hard-
working and commonly intelligent man, who likes his profession, will
make a good soldier, or lawyer, or doctor, though that combination
of powers which makes the great general, or the great jurist, or the
great physician, is given to but few.

So it is with the pursuit of Science : assuredly not every one of
her followers, very probably not one among us now present, will be-

THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY. 301

come a Linnaeus, or a Cuvier, or an Agassiz. It may not be given to
any of us to make some brilliant discovery, or to first expound some
illuminating generalization ; but we can, each and all, if we will, do
good and valuable work in elucidating the details of various branches
of knowledge. All that is needed for such work, besides some leisure,
intelligence, and common-sense (and the more of each the better), is
undaunted perseverance and absolute truthfulness ; a perseverance
unabated by failure after failure, and a truthfulness incapable of the
least perversion (either by way of omission or commission) in the
description of an observation or of an experiment, or of the least
reluctance to acknowledge an error once it is found to have been
made. Moreover, this love of truth must extend to a constant
searching and inquisition of the mind, with the perpetual endeavor
to keep inferences from observation or experiment unbiased, so far
as may be, by natural predilections or favorite theories. Perfect suc-
cess in such an endeavor is, perhaps, unattainable, but the scientific
worker must ever strive after it ; theories are necessary to guide and
systematize his work, and to lead to its prosecution in new directions ,
but they must be servants, and not masters. I may, perhaps, seem to
be insisting at too great length on a self-evident point ; but the more
one knows of scientific work and workers, the more does one realize
the importance and the difficulty of attaining a perfectly-balanced
mind and of arriving at an unprejudiced deduction from observation.

I believe, then, that the only absolutely necessary faculties for
the scientific investigator are love of his work, perseverance, and
truthfulness ; to make the great leader and master in science, one of
those who cast a new ray of light on our conceptions of the universe,
other and far rarer powers are, of course, needed — the most essen-
tial being originality of thought ; and, as that cannot be either
self-taught or taught from outside but must be born in the bone,
all that the rest of us can do when we meet such men is to snve them
a free course and ungrudging help. That an army may attain its
best success, needs indeed that every man be brave and loyal, but it
is by no means requisite that every soldier be a brigadier-general ;
so in the army of Science there is place for soldiers of all ranks and
capabilities — and, at any rate, we know this, that Nature reveals her
secrets, which are her rewards, on no system of purchase or favor-
itism— what a man deserves that he gets, every drummer-boy who
enters her service carries the marshal's bdton in his pocket. His re-
ward will be proportionate to the amount of time and intelligence he
devotes to his work ; given, in addition, certain opportunities which
every one has not for himself, but which it is one great object of such
institutions as this to provide for all.

If what I have just stated be the general requisites of the scientific
investigator, we have next to inquire what special needs has the biolo-
gist: these may all be ground under the head of preliminary train-

302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing. He must have a fair knowledge of mechanics, experimental
physics, and chemistry ; he ought to (I would almost again say he
must) be able, besides English, to read at least French and German
with facility — assuredly, if he cannot, he will labor with much toil
and sorrow — and the more mathematics he knows, with the present
rapid importation of quantitative ideas into biological science, the
better for him ; and for certain special branches of biological work
there are other special needs. No mistake is more disastrous than
the idea that a man can be a botanist and nothing more ; a zoologist,
and nothing more ; a physiologist, and nothing more. It is true that
no one can be master of all the physical sciences, but it is none the
less true that hardly one of them can be entirely neglected by the
biologist. Animals and plants are, after all, material objects, and live
in accordance with the laws that govern matter; but the manifesta-
tions of these laws are so often obscured and complicated by the con-
ditions in which they occur in living things, that the understanding
of them is only to be got at by approaching them through their sim-
pler manifestations in inorganic bodies. But, apart from that, definite
knowledge of various sciences is constantly required by the biologist.
How can one ignorant of physics have any real appreciation of the
statement that the transmission of a nervous impulse is accompanied
by a molecular alteration in the structure of a nerve-fibre, one sign of
which is a certain very definite and peculiar alteration in its electrical
properties ; or how can one ignorant of chemistry grasp the funda-
mental statement that muscular work is in the long-run dependent
on the breaking down of complex chemical molecules into simpler
and more stable ones? How can the zoologist or botanist scientifically
study the distribution of animals and plants in space, unless he has a
knowledge of physical geography ; or in time, unless he knows some-
thing of geology ? I need not prolong the list.

Furthermore, no one can properly study any branch of biology
without some knowledge of its other divisions. The fundamental
laws of animal and vegetable life are identical, and only fully realized
by comparison ; so, while the scientific botanist, to fully appreciate the
facts of his own science, must be something of a zoologist, so must
the zoologist know something of plants : no one living being or group
of living beings can be properly understood by itself. To take other
examples: how is the morphologist to deal with such problems
as those presented to him by rudimentary organs, unless he know
something of the functions of parts, which is the special domain of
physiology ; or, how is he to understand the influence of external
conditions in the production and preservation of variations in force,
without, again, this knowledge of function ? And, as regards the physi-
ologist, he has frequently to search the whole animal and vegetable
kingdoms not only to discover those forms which give him the best
opportunity of studying certain phenomena, but also to get at those

THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY. 303

fundamental ideas which lie at the base of his whole science. What
general and broad ideas should we have of the contractility of proto-
plasm if we only knew it in the highly-specialized form of a muscular
contraction ; or of its irritability, if we only knew it as exhibited in
the nervous apparatus of one of the higher animals ? It is quite true
that, without any breadth of knowledge, a man may collect, label, and
store away thousands of plants ; he may macerate and articulate the
most beautiful skeletons ; he may cut, stain, and mount, the most ex-
quisite microscopic preparations : but assuredly he is not likely to
do any work entitled to the name scientific ; such mechanical work has
its value, no doubt, but it is only preliminary to real scientific work —
which latter requires wide knowledge and extended views, and is more
valuable the broader the foundation on which it has been built up.

It is this mutual dependence of biological studies which appears
to me the justification of grouping together, as we do here, the study
of such a number of vast subjects in a single laboratory. By that
means each investigator will receive knowledge and assistance ^from
the other ; under such a system the desirable intercommunication of
ideas is rendered most easy ; and we are most likely to escape that
narrow specialism which every laboratory in the long-run has a ten-
dency to get into. Of course, no one person is capable of giving de-
tailed assistance in investigations in all the branches of biology ; but
our staff" of professors will doubtless grow, and meantime we shall,
I trust, by the associate and fellowship system of the university, have
at all times among us well-qualified men in every branch of biology ;
so that no one fitted for the task, and earnest and willing in its prose-
cution, who may come here to undertake any special research, will
fail to find some one able and willing to advise bim when he needs
advice, and to assist him when he needs assistance.

What we want here, then, is men with the requisite zeal and train-
ing for investigation — we care not whether classification, or morphol-
ogy, or physiology, or any other branch of biology is their specialty ;
all we claim is that they shall be able to work, shall mean to work,
and shall work — we shall give no quarter to the indolent or ignorant :
the former we will not have on any terms, and the latter must enter
for the preparatory courses, and will not be allowed to occupy tables
set apart for research. Surely, if we select wisely, and find men to
work faithfully, we may look forward with confidence to the time
when we shall find ourselves in the condition of such laboratories as
those of some of the German universities, where, on account of the
high class of work, done in them, the ablest young men from all over
the world beg for admission ; where one finds, working side by side,
men from every civilized nation, and where, in the presence of the
great demand for admission, entry is esteemed a precious privilege.

As to the special aid which we can offer to those who come among
us to engage in investigation, it will, of course, depend on two factors,

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon the natural gifts of those charged with the supervision of the
laboratory, and the amount of money which those whose duty it is to
decide on such matters see right to place at their disposal : for, how-
ever important we biologists may think ourselves, the fact remains
that there are other studies to be provided for, and studies just as
important as our own. For the present I can say, however, that we
have at our disposal one large and well-lighted room for general
work — a room fitted up for physiologieo-chemieal investigations — and
several smaller rooms for physiological and histological research. As
regards instruments we have ordered, and in part received, a very
excellent stock, including the most essential ones for every branch of
physiological research — and I have no doubt that every year we shall
receive grants to add to our stock, and keep up witli the times.

The zoological and comparative anatomy departments differ from
the physiological in not needing so many special instruments ; what
they mainly need are (besides work-rooms) material for examination
and dissection, and books, especially monographs, and those we shall
make it a point, to the best of our power, to obtain from time to time
as they are wanted. It seems to me that it is not our duty to provide
vast herbaria and museums containing every plant and animal under
the sun — to provide such collections is the duty rather of the nation
than of a university — nor do I think we should be wise to collect and
store away things promiscuously, in the hope that some one will want
them some time. "We should rather concentrate our force on getting
what is wanted for the time being. If some one wants to elucidate
any point in the structure of the Echinoderms, for example, we should
do our best to obtain specimens for him — even from all parts of the
world ; if some one else wants to work at the embryology of any fish
or amphibian, we should again endeavor to get him the eggs in va-
rious stages of development, and so on ; but I doubt the wisdom of
sending out collectors with orders to store away everything they can
catch, fish, flesh, and fowl, in spirit, and send it to us. "VVe have no-
where to display such collections if we got them — the vastly greater
part of them would never be used — and when reference to extensive
collections is necessary, we have always at hand the admirable mu-
seum illustrating the fauna and flora of this State which is being
brought together by the Academy of Sciences in this city, and the
national collections at Washington are within an hour's journey of us.
Bringing together from time to time such materials for special re-
searches as I have indicated above, will naturally entail considerable
expenditure, but I am sure that the trustees, if they see we mean
work, will do all they can to supply our needs.

Now let us turn to the other part of our subject, biological teach-
ing : from part of what I have already said you have doubtless gath-
ered something of my views on this matter. If biology be the com-
plicated study that I have endeavored to indicate, it is in the first

THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY. 305

place clear that, in justice both to the student and his teachers, a cer-
tain pi*eliminary training must be insisted upon as a preparation for
his admission to a biological laboratory ; at least the student must
have a fair knowledge of physics and chemistry before he comes
there ; and, when he gets there, the thing next to insist upon is, that
his teaching be as largely demonstrative and practical as possible,
lectures being made of secondary and laboratory-work of primary
importance.

It matters not to me where the student gets this preparatory
knowledge : whether here or at some other institution. I believe he
ought to acquire it largely at school, as a part of general education ;
but, as that seems in the present condition of primary education almost
impossible, I shall perhaps best make clear my ideas on the matter
if I endeavor to sketch out what I think should be the course gone
through by a youth fresh from some high-school or college, where
he has got an otherwise sound general education, but without any-
thing more than a sham knowledge of physics, and who enters this
university with the intention of qualifying himself for biological re-
search or teaching hereafter ; and you will, I hope, forgive me if,
with the same object of obtaining clearness, I put what I have to
say into a somewhat dogmatic form.

Such a person ought to enter at once upon courses of instruction
in experimental physics and chemistry, and devote almost wholly his
first year to them ; but during the latter part of that year, say be-
tween the spring vacation and the end of the session, he would, in
addition, go through a course of instruction in what we may call gen-
eral biology. By that I mean a course of instruction in which he
would acquire some knowledge of how to use his microscope and how
to dissect, and thus gain a certain amount of that special manipula-
tive dexterity which he will require afterward. He would also gain
a general acquaintance with biological ideas, and with the meaning of
the more important technical terms : he would gain, for example, a
real, because a practical, knowledge of what we mean by classifica-
tion, and of the principles on which classifications are founded; he
would learn similarly, with his eyes as well as his ears, what we
mean by morphology, and homology, and a host of similar terms ;
and he would, in addition, acquire a special acquaintance with the
structure and actions of certain selected typical animal and vege-
table forms. This, then, would finish the first year's work, unless our
student should be ignorant of French and German. If so, he ought
also to acquire, what is really very easily got, at least a fair reading
knowledge of those languages.

At the commencement of his second year the student should enter

for two elementary practical courses, one on comparative anatomy

and zoology, the other on animal physiology. These courses would,

I imagine, last about six months each, and they should be taken pari

VOL. x. — 20

3o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

passu. Each would consist, say, of two lectures a week, and the
rest of the time would be filled up with the dissection of typical
animals, the performance of the simpler physiological experiments,
and the preparation and examination of microscopic specimens of
animal tissues, all illustrative of the main points put forward in the
lectures. The student would also be made to draw sketches of his
dissections and microscopic preparations, and to describe them and
the results of his experiments briefly in writing, and so while learn-
ing thoroughly how to dissect and use his microscope, and the con-
ditions of success in physiological experiment, he would also have his
powers of observation regularly trained and tested.

In connection with these courses there should be a museum, con-
taining not a bewildering multitude of specimens, but a small num-
ber of dissections and skeletons of typical animals, especially of
those which it is important for the student to know, but which are
too rare to be obtained in quantities allowing each to dissect one for
himself; and these specimens should be so placed that they may be
freely accessible to those desiring to study them. It is far better to
have to replace an injured specimen occasionally than to have the
things locked up behind glass doors, so as to render their thorough
examination impracticable to those for whose examination they are
placed there. Moreover, especially in connection with the physiologi-
cal course, there would be needed from time to time, according to the
subject-matter of the lectures, demonstrations of certain points; in
cases, for instance, needing the employment of the more delicate in-
struments, or wThere niceties of manipulation were required, such as a
beginner could not be fairly expected to overcome.

I ought perhaps here to refer to the subject of vivisection. Phys-
iology is concerned with the phenomena going on in living things,
and vital processes cannot be observed in dead bodies ; and from
what I have said you will have gathered that I intend to employ
vivisections in teaching. I want, however, to say, once for all, that
here, for teachiug purposes, no painful experiment will be performed.
Fortunately, the vast majority of physiological experiments can now-
adays be performed without the infliction of pain, either by the ad-
ministration of some of the many anaesthetics known, or by previous
removal of parts of the central nervous system ; and such experiments
alone will be used here for teaching. With regard to physiological
research the case is different : happily here too the number of neces-
sarily painful experiments is very small indeed ; but in any case where
the furtherance of physiological knowledge is at stake — where the
progress of that science is concerned, on which all medicine is based,
so far as it is not a mere empiricism — I cannot doubt that we
have a right to inflict suffering upon the lower animals, always pro-
vided that it be reduced to the minimum possible, and that none but
competent persons be allowed to undertake such experiments. Placed,

THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY. 307

•

moreover, as we shall be here, in more or less close connection with a
splendidly-equipped hospital, so that we shall be able constantly to
combine skilled pathological observation with physiological experi-
ment in an excellent laboratory, we have duties to perform toward
the advancement of scientific medicine, from whose performance I
believe it would be criminal in us, as it would be shameful, to flinch
in any way.

But to return to our special subject : the last three months of the
student's second year should be occupied with a laboratory course
of instruction in vegetable morphology and physiology, and with a
course of lectures on embryology, accompanied with a full practical
study of the development of the chick from the earliest stages of in-
cubation.

The student will have now got an extensive acquaintance with
biological facts and methods, and henceforth he should be allowed and
encouraged to specialize his work. He would be permitted to select
for, more detailed study in his third year either animal morphology, or
botany, or physiology, and the best men in each subject would be
picked out and allowed to act as demonstrators to the second-year
students, and so be given the opportunity of acquiring a far more
accurate knowledge than they could attain in any other way. For
these third-year men, too, short advanced courses of lectures would
be given from time to time, such as on the physiology of nutrition,
the physiology of the senses, the geographical distribution of animals,
on special morphological points, and so on, and also on the more im-
portant recent discoveries in various branches ; and the best of them
might be put on some easy bit of original work, to try their metal
and whet their appetites.

After all this has been gone through, I think we can do no more
in the way of teaching for our typical student ; he has now advanced
enough to teach himself, and, if he is good for anything, will do it
better than others can do it for him. I think that among students
so taught, as I have endeavored to indicate, we should be certain
to meet with a large number of well-qualified men from among whom
to select some of our fellows and associates, and would be justified in
expecting from them work of the highest quality. As regards the
remainder, those who display no special aptitude for scientific investi-
gation, or no desire to devote themselves to science as a profession,
they will at least have had the opportunity of acquiring a very thor-
ough and practical knowledge of what modern biology means.

It now remains for me to give a sketch of what our work for the
present year will be, so far as I see my way at present. To-morrow
I commence a course of lectures on animal physiology, which I pro-
pose to deliver twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, at 1.15 p. m. I
have been induced to select this hour on account of special circum-
stances affecting many of those who wish to attend this year, though as

3o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

*

a general rule I should like an earlier hour, nine or ten in the morning,
which definitely brings a man early in the day to the laboratory, and
gives me a better chance of getting a good day's work out of him.
These lectures will be designed rather for those who have already some
know.ledge of physiology than for beginners ; for so many instruments
have not yet arrived, and so many arrangements are necessarily as yet
imperfect, that it seems better for the present only to invite men who
are more or less fitted by previous training to overcome such occa-
sional difficulties and inconveniences as may from time to time arise
from such causes. When I say that the lectures will be rather
adapted for advanced students than beginners, I do not mean, how-
ever, that I shall omit elementary but important facts, but that, in
addition to those, I shall from time to time discuss at more or less
length points which are still sub judice. The lectures will be illus-
trated by no experiments : partly because, on account of the rapid
changes which go on in living tissues, physiological-lecture experi-
ments are likely to be the reverse of successful (a frog's muscle
which has been lying on the table since the commencement of a lecture
is very apt to contract abnormally when the lecturer wants it) ; but
mainly because I want each student to make the illustrative observa-
tions and experiments for himself — except in cases of unusual dif-
ficulty, when demonstrations will be given at such hours as may be
found most convenient to the majority. In the, lectures I shall pre-
suppose the possession by each present of such a knowledge of anat-
omy as is necessary for physiological work, and, starting with the
structure of blood, go regularly on through the histology and physi-
ology of the tissues and organs of the animal body. These lectures
will continue until the spring vacation, and then I mean to set to work
specially for more elementary students, and put them through such a
course of general biology as I have already described ; but possibly
either Dr. Brooks or myself will give at that time some instruction in
embryology of a more advanced character.

As regards physiological research, several gentlemen have already
consulted me with reference to undertaking investigations in different
directions, and of course there is plenty of work to be done should
others qualified for it present themselves. One difficulty which I
have met with is that many seem to consider that a physiological
investigation can be carried on by devoting to it an hour or two at
irregular intervals : I feel quite sure that no good work is likely to
be done in that way, and am not inclined to encourage such workers.
Some, at least, of those engaged in investigation will be able to have
accommodation in the special rooms, apart from the general labora-
tory, which have been provided for that purpose.

On the zoological and morphological side no arrangements have
as yet been made for a lecture and laboratory course this year, nor so
far as I know has any such demand as would render it advisable

THE PARALLEL ROADS OF GLEN ROY. 309

shown itself. Should it do so, however, we may, perhaps, make ar-
rangements for elementary instruction in those subjects, under the
more immediate superintendence of Dr. Brooks, our associate in biol-
ogy, upon whose shoulders I must throw most of the burden of that
side of the work. We shall, at any rate, collect material and make
other preparations for such a course next year. After Christmas Dr.
Brooks will give a course of lectures on "Morphological Theories."

For the present, too, we shall have in the laboratory several well-
trained zoologists and morphologists ; some engaged in prosecuting
advanced studies, others in research. I fancy all of them are (as they
ought to be) pretty well qualified to take care of themselves ; but Dr.
Brooks and myself will do our best to give them such assistance as
they may need, and to make arrangements by which they can be sup-
plied with such material as they require.

In conclusion, let me say a word to those of you here present who
are to be the first workers with me in this laboratory. It behooves
you as well as me to recognize what a heavy responsibility lies upon
us. Upon the work that we do and the spirit in which we do it, upon
the character we give our laboratory at its start, much of its future
success or failure depends. If we all work honestly and thoroughly,
it will win esteem and reputation ; if we are careless and half-hearted,
it will become of low repute. Let us, then, each work loyally, ear-
nestly, truthfully, so that when the time comes, as it will come sooner
or later, in one way or another, to each of us, to depart hence, we
may carry with us a good conscience, and be able to say that in
our time no slipshod piece of work ever left the laboratory; that no
error we knew of was persisted in ; that our only desire was to know
the truth. Let us leave a record which, if it perchance contain the
history of no great feat in the memory of which our successors will
glory, will at least contain not one jot or one tittle of which they can
be ashamed.

THE PAKALLEL ROADS OF GLEN" ROY.

FROM a lecture recently delivered by Prof. Tyndall before the
Royal Institution, we gather the following facts in regard to
that natural wonder in Scotland, which for so long remained a puzzle
to all investigators. There is an unusual interest centred around its
history, from the time when the country-people explained it by their
crude and half-mythical theories, to the time when it became a labor
of love for the untiring efforts and acute observations of scientists.

The earliest published allusion to these roads was made in a work
brought before the public a century ago, but no systematic descrip-
tion of them appeared before 1817. They are found in the district of

3io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Lochaber, Inverness-shire. On both, sides of tbe steep, narrow glen
through which the Roy runs, there are three perfectly horizontal and
parallel roads, directly opposite on each side, those on one side corre-
sponding exactly in elevation to those on the other. They are re-
spectively 1,150, 1,070, and 860 feet above the sea, and are formed as
shelves in the yielding drift which covers the sides of the mountains.
They usually slope somewhat from the hill, and vary in width from
one to twenty yards. The two highest stop abruptly at different
points near the mouth of Glen Roy, although no barrier now remains
to show any reason for it. At some points the grass on the shelves
differs from that which is above and below, and, as the roads lie in the
midst of heather-covered hills, the absence of the dark shrub from
them adds greatly to their conspicuousness.

The terraces were originally supposed to have been made for the
heroes whose deeds have been sung by Ossian. A less romantic view
was that " they were designed for the chase, and were made after the
spots were cleared in lines from wood, in order to tempt the animals
into the open paths after they were roused, in order that they might
come within the reach of the bowmen who miffht conceal themselves
in the woods above and below." In 1816 Playfair believed them to be
aqueducts for artificial irrigation. In 1817 Dr. MacCulloch discussed
the probability of there having been lakes embosomed in Glen Roy
at one time, and supposed that these roads were the margins of the
lakes. It remained, however, for Sir Thomas Dick-Lander to bring
forward the facts of the subject, and place them in a scientific light.
Adjacent to Glen Roy is Glen Gluoy, along the sides of which there
is a single terrace or road, having the same elevation on each side of
the valley, and similar in all respects to the roads of Glen Roy.
Wishing to see whether these two sides would be united at the head
of the glen, and in what manner, he followed them into the mountains.
As the valley gradually rose, he observed the shelves approaching
each other more nearly; and finally, at the head of Glen Gluoy, he
discovered a water-shed of exactly the same elevation as the road
which swept around the glen. This height was found to be 1,170 feet,
or 20 feet higher than the upper road of Glen Roy. From this water-
shed he passed through a lateral branch-valley to Glen Roy, de-
scended to the highest road, and followed it up the glen as he had
pursued the previous road. In the same manner he came upon a
water-shed looking into Glen Spey, and of precisely the same eleva-
tion as the road. After this he dropped clown to the lowest shelf,
and followed it to the mouth of the glen. It did not end here, how-
ever, but doubled around the hills, and ran along the sides of the
mountains which flank Glen Spean. Continuing eastward, he observed
the Spean Valley gradually approaching the road until the two were
on a level, when, as in the other cases, he discovered a water-shed.

From these facts, convinced that water alone could have produced

THE PARALLEL ROADS OF GLEN ROY. 311

the terraces, he saw that if the mouth of Glen Gluoy were stopped by
a barrier the waters from the surrounding mountains would be col-
lected in the valley until they had reached the water-shed, when any
further rise would be prevented by the branch-valley, which would
carry the additional water off to Glen Roy. As long, then, as the
barrier remained, there would be a lake in Glen Gluoy, at the exact
level of the road, which, by constant action upon the loose drift,

Parallel Roads op Glen Roy.

would be sufficient to produce the road. Now, if the mouth of Glen
Roy should also be barred at the same time by a sufficiently high bar-
rier, the waters would be collected behind it, the surface of the lake
would rise till it reached the water-shed dividing Glen Roy from Glen
Spey, when the superabundant water would flow into the latter val-
ley. In this way the highest shelf of Glen Roy would be formed. If
its barrier were now to be partly removed, so as to establish a connec-
tion between it and the upper part of Glen Spean, while the lower
part remained blocked up, upper Glen Spean and Glen Roy would
then be occupied by a continuous lake, the level of which would be
determined by the water-shed discovered in Glen Spean. The water
in Glen Roy would take a level corresponding to its new pbice of es-
cape, and the lowest parallel road would be formed. The conclusions
thus drawn would be strictly logical, if proof could be offered as to
the existence of the barriers.

In Glen Spean there is a large quantity of detritus, and Sir Thomas
Dick-Lander supposed that this had at one time been heaped up by
some unknown convulsion. As he could not account for the middle

312

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

road of Glen Roy in the same manner, he assumed that at a certain
point — the level of this road — the barrier which had been wasting
away held its ground for a sufficiently long time to form the road.
But, on the same principle, there would naturally have been a greater
number of roads in this glen, and additional roads in the other glens.
A weakness was thus admitted into the theory which was immediately
attacked by Mr. Darwin. He believed that the whole region had once
been covered by the sea, and that, in the upheaval of the earth, there
were pauses during which these roads were formed. But this would
not account for the sea being higher in one of the glens than in an-
other, nor for the unequal number of terraces by which the mountains
are belted. As soon as Mr. Darwin detected these fallible points, he
abandoned his theory.

In 1847 the Dick-Lander hypothesis received new strength from a
discovery made by Mr. Milne-Home. There is a lateral glen, called
Glen Glaster, running eastward from Glen Roy, which had escaped
the notice of Sir Thomas Dick-Lander. Mr. Milne-Home entered this
glen, pursued a branch of it extending to the southeast, and came
upon a water-shed exactly level with the second Glen Roy road. On
the same theory as before, when the barrier should be properly re-
moved, the water in Glen Roy would sink to the second road, and the
surplus water would escape over the Glen Glaster water-shed into
Glen Spean. But this mode of explanation could not yet be accepted,
for there is scarcely a trace left of the immense quantity of detritus
that would have been necessary to form the barriers. Nor could the
detritus have been swept away by glaciers, for there have been no
glaciers in these valleys since the retreat of the lakes.

At the time when Sir Thomas Dick-Lander was making his inves-
tigations, the action of ancient glaciers was not understood. The
subject had been pursued in Switzerland, but it was not till 1840 that
unmistakable marks of glacier-action were pointed out in Great Britain
by Agassiz. He visited'Glen Roy, and, having detected the traces of
glaciers, pronounced these to have been the barriers blocking up the
glens. This theory was afterward examined and confirmed by Mr.
Jamieson. " It was their ascription to glacier-action," says Prof.
Tyndall, " that first gave the parallel roads of Glen Roy an interest
in my eyes; and in 1867, with a view to self-instruction, I made a sol-
itary pilgrimage to the place, and explored pretty thoroughly the roads
of the principal glen." At different places he found that the effects of
the lapping of the water on the more friable portions of the rock are
still perfectly distinct. Several months ago he again visited the
place, prior to delivering a lecture upon the subject. The entire
ground was thoroughly explored, and the principal hills were found
to be intensely glaciated. The collecting-ground of these glaciers,
which blocked up the valleys, were the mountains south and west of
Glen Spean — among others, Ben Nevis. These lofty mountains en-

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 313

counter the southwestern Atlantic winds, and deprive them of their
vapor. During the glacial epoch this vapor was precipitated as snow,
which slid down the slopes, while every valley and recess kept up a
constant supply of glaciers into Glen Spean, tilling it to an ever-
increasing height. There would of course be ice in Glen Spean, and
water to the north of it, as the winds in passing north would be partly
dried and warmed by the liberation of their latent heat. As long
as the supply was in excess of the consumption, the dams closing the
glens would increase in height. As the weather grew warmer, the
opposite would be true. For a long time the conflict would continue,
retarding indefinitely the disappearance of the barriers, but the ice in
the end would have to give way. " The dam at the mouth of Glen
Roy, which probably entered the glen sufficiently far to block up Glen
Glaster, wTOuld gradually retreat. Glen Glaster and its water-shed
being opened, the subsidence of the lake 80 feet, from the level of the
highest to that of the second parallel road, would follow as a conse-
quence." " In presence, then, of the fact that the barriers which stopped
these glens to a height, it may be, of 1,500 feet above the bottom of
Glen Spean, have dissolved, and left not a wreck behind; in presence
of the fact insisted on by Prof. Geikie, that barriers of detritus would
undoubtedly have been able to maintain themselves had they ever
been there; in presence of the fact that great glaciers once most cer-
tainly filled these valleys — that the whole region, as proved by Mr.
Jamieson, is filled with the traces of their action — the theory which
ascribes the parallel roads to lakes dammed by barriers of ice has, in
my opinion, an amount of probability on its side which amounts to a
practical demonstration of its truth."

-♦♦♦"

SCIENCE IN AMERICA.1

By Peoitessob JOHN W. DEAFER, M. D., LL. D.

GENTLEMEN, Members and Associates of the American-
Chemical Society : In accordance with the plan of the Ameri-
can Chemical Society, I am called upon to address you this evening.
I have to congratulate you on its successful establishment, and its
prospect of permanent success.

Let us consider some of the reasons which would lead us to expect
that success, not only for our own, but also for other kindred societies.
The field' of Nature is ever widening before us, the harvest is becom-
ing more abundant and tempting, the reapers are more numerous.
Each year the produce that is garnered exceeds that of the preceding.

1 Inaugural address before the American Chemical Society, delivered at dickering
Hall, New York, November 16, 1876.

314 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In all directions there is good hope for the future. Perhaps, then,
you will listen without impatience for a few minutes this evening to
one of the laborers who has taken part in the toil of the generation
now finishing its work, who looks back, not without a seutiment of
pride, on what that generation has done, who points out to you the
duties and rewards that are awaiting you, and welcomes you to your
task. Let us look at the prospect before us.

The progress of science among us very largely depends on two
elements : hirst, on our educational establishments ; second, on our
scientific societies. To each of these I propose to direct your atten-
tion ; and, first, of our colleges :

Prof. Silliman, in his address delivered on the occasion of the cen-
tennial of chemistry, at the grave of Priestley, in commemoration of
the discovery of oxygen, makes this remark : "The year 1845 marks
the beginning: of a new era in the scientific life of America, which is
still in active progress, and chemistry has had its full share in this
advance." He then enumerates the causes which, in his opinion, had
brought about this increased activity. Among them are the centen-
nial celebration of the American Philosophical Society, in Philadel-
phia, in 1843; the reorganization of the United States Coast Survey,
in 1845; the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution at Wash-
ington, in 1846; the enlargement of the American Journal of Sci-
ence, in the same year; the contemporaneous foundation of the Astro-
nomical Observatory at Cincinnati ; the institution of the Analytical
Laboratory at Yale College, in 1847; and, simultaneously, the Law-
rence Scientific School at Harvard. To these he adds especially the
establishment of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, in 1848. Coinciding with him fully as to the character and
power of these and other local causes which he mentions, I cannot but
regard them as being themselves the issues of influences of a much
more general kind.

A revolution had been taking place in Europe — a revolution not
so much political as industrial or social, though it was followed by
political consequences of the most important nature. Its commence-
ments may be seen in the preceding century, in the canal-engineering
of Brindley; in the improvements of iron-manufacture; in the con-
struction of all kinds of machinery, which reached its acme when the
hand of man was deposed from its office, and, through the slide-rest
and planing-machine, engines were made by themselves. Then came
the exquisite contrivances for the manufacture of textile fabrics, so
that a man could do as much work in a day as he had formerly done
in a year, the movement in that direction culminating in the two
steam-engines, the condenser and non-condenser. The demand for
cotton rose ; the value of the slave, its cultivator, was enhanced ; and
the negro question became the paramount political question in the
United States. See how scientific discoveries and inventions lead to

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 315

political results ! Herein, among other great events, we find the
origin of the American civil war !

In Europe, the social effect of the use of steam was strikingly
marked. Performing mechanical drudgery, it relieved vast numbers
of the laboring-class, and gave them time to think. It concentrated
them in factories and mills. Those industrial hives were pervaded by
literary influences, perhaps not always of a kind that we should ap-
prove of. They became the seats of agitation in politics and theology,
and, while this was the effect on the laboring mass, the owners or capi-
talists were accumulating enormous fortunes.

We may excuse the enthusiastic literature of the cotton-manu-
facture its boasting, for men had accomplished works that were nearly
godlike. Mr. Baines, writing in 1833, states that " the length of cot-
ton-yarn spun in one year was nearly five thousand millions of miles
— sufficient to pass round the earth's circumference more than two
hundred thousand times, sufficient to reach fifty-one times from the
earth to the sun. It would encircle the earth's orbit eight and a half
times. The wrought fabrics of cotton exported in one year would
form a girdle for the globe, passing eleven times round the equator,
and more than sufficient to form a continuous sheet from the earth to
the moon." And let us not forget that, to give commercial value to
this vast result, the capital chemical discovery of bleaching by chlo-
rine was essential. Such was the condition of things in England just
previously to the epoch in question. Necessarily, it was followed by
great social results.

But there was something more. The locomotive absolutely revo-
lutionized society. A man could now travel farther in an hour than
he had previously done in a day. Again, it was clear that important
political results were occurring. The effect of the railroad was to
render nations more homogeneous, to destroy provincialism. It is
actually true that language underwent a change. No one who has
remarked the various dialects of the English counties prior to the
opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, and the homogene-
ousness of speech which is fast displacing them, can be blind to this.
Simultaneously, a redistribution of the population took place. It was
largely withdrawn from the open country, and concentrated in the
towns.

In this statement I am recalling facts so common that they are
familiar to us all. We all appreciate the immense social changes
that took place just before 1845. Who in those times could fail to
perceive that grand consequences must follow the expenditure of
thousands of millions of dollars in the building of railroads, who,
when he saw the labor of a year shrinking into the compass of a day,
the travel of a day into the compass of an hour, the thought of man
outstripping the velocity of light — who could be so obtuse as not to
discern that a new agency had taken possession of the earth, that it

3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was agitating the nations to their very foundations, that it was ameli-
orating the lot of man, increasing hi,s power, and dealing remorse-
lessly with old ideas, the fictions and fallacies of the past !

Can we wonder, then, that those who were growing up in the
midst of these marvels should not only contrast the activity by which
they were surrounded with the stagnation of preceding centuries, but
should demand to be made acquainted with the power that was thus
opening a new world before their eyes ? Very soon it became appar-
ent that there was no provision in the existing educational establish-
ments, the universities and colleges, for this unexpected state of
things. These were, to be sure, good enough to initiate a bench of
boys into the method of translating an ode of Horace or a few
lines of Sophocles, but something more substantial than that was
wanted now.

This was the true cause of that influence which began to be felt in
America about 1840. Every reflecting person saw that a change in
public education was imperative ; nay, more was impending. Con-
fronted by the vigor of modern ideas, the system that had come down
from the dark ages was seen to have become obsolete.

In addition to these influences, there was another at which we must
for a moment glance. Let me, in a few words, sketch its history.

The peninsula of Italy was separated from the rule of the Greek
emperors in the eighth century, mainly in consequence of the icono-
clastic dispute. Partly through the stress of circumstances, and
partly as a matter of policy, the Latin language was brought into
such prominence that it was supposed to contain all the useful knowl-
edge in the world. In "Western Europe, at the close of the fourteenth
century, Greek was totally forgotten.

But when it became clear that Constantinople would be taken by
the Turks, many learned men fled to the West, bringing with their
language precious classical manuscripts. As it was feared, however,
by the dominant authority that knowledge and opinions of an un-
suitable kind might thus be introduced, Greek obtained a foothold
with much difficulty, and it was only by the aid of Florence, Venice,
and other commercial towns of Upper Italy, that after a struggle it
made good its ground. The Latin had now a successful rival.

A century later brings us to the culmination of the Reformation.
Its literary issue was an admiration of the language of that much-
enduring, that immortal race to whom the Old Testament is so largely
due. As had been the case with Greek, so now Hebrew passed from
a condition of neglect to one of extravagant exaltation. It was be-
lieved to have been the original language of the human race, a con-
viction that proved to be a great stumbling-block to the progress of
learning. There were thus three classical languages, each having its
own paramount claim.

In 1784 the Royal Asiatic Society was instituted in Bengal, One

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 317

of its earliest and most important services was that it brought the
Sanskrit language emphatically to the knowledge of Europe. The
similarity of this to Latin and Greek, especially in the grammatical
forms, struck every one with surprise. At first the old literary party
resisted its claims, some of them even affirming that it never had been
a spoken tongue, but that it had been fictitiously constructed out of
Latin and Greek. The creation of comparative grammar by the
great German scholar Bopp, in 1816, threw a flood of light on the sub-
ject; and the discovery in 1828, by Hodgson, of the Buddhistic sacred
writings in Nepaul, revealed to astonished Europe a literature of
grand antiquity and prodigious extent, in which is contained the reli-
gious belief of 400,000,000 men — ten times the present population of
the United States. Greek and Latin had now to descend from the
imperial thrones on which they had been seated, and take their places
as later and less perfect forms of this wonderful Oriental tongue.

In the higher regions of literature all over Europe, these discover-
ies made a profound impression. It was at once seen by the great
scholars of the times that the existing educational system, founded,
as it so largely was, on the languages of the Mediterranean peninsu-
las, was altogether on an imperfect basis. They saw that philology
was about to occupy a higher platform, and that, though it might cost
a struggle with present interests, a change in public education was
necessary. But though these languages have suffered an eclipse,
there still remains that priceless heritage which they have trans-
mitted to us — immortal examples in national life, in patriotism, in
statesmanship, in jurisprudence, in philosophy, in poetry. Still there
remain the ruins of the Parthenon, the relics of those statues which
have no rival elsewhere in the world — embodiments of the beautiful,
before which, even at the risk of being denounced as a pagan, a man
might fall down and worship. Still there remains the history of that
awful empire which once bore sway around the Mediterranean Sea,
an empire to which we owe our civilization, our religious convictions,
and even our modes of thought.

I add this great discovery in letters to the scientific and industrial
movement I have described as bringing on the epoch of 1840.

Educational institutions are in their nature very much under the
influence of the past. They are guided by men of the parting gener-
ation, and are essentially conservative. The changes they began to
manifest did not originate within them, but were forced upon them
from without. They clung to the mediaeval as long as they could, and
only accepted the modern when they were compelled.

Among American colleges which are emancipating themselves
from the mediaeval, we may number Columbia, Cornell, Harvard,
Prindeton, University of Virginia, Yale. Doubtless there are many
others that would follow the example if they could, but they are fet-
tered with the gyves of sectarian or local restraint. They march

3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

along, daintily and grotesquely, in the pointed shoes of the four-
teenth century.

I linger on this subject of colleges because the example of other
countries, and especially of Germany, proves to us that on them our
hopes for the development of science must very largely rest. The
scientific glory of Germany, not inferior in brilliancy to its military
glory, is the creation of its university professors. Among them we
find the great chemists and physicists, whose works we study with
delight.

Our colleges must separate themselves from the mediaeval, and
assume thoroughly and sincerely the modern cast. Sincerely, I say,
for not a few of them indulge in deception. They would have us
believe that they teach physics when they have no modern appara-
tus ; chemistry, when they have no laboratory ; botany, without any
garden, herbarium, or even drawings ; geology, mineralogy, natural
history, without any cabinets. So ignorant are some boards of trus-
tees and faculties, that they hold such equipments as luxuries easily
dispensed with. I have known some go so far as to affirm that as
much money ought to be expended in teaching a few boys Latin
and Greek as in giving a demonstrative and illustrated course of sci-
ence, and even to act on that principle. In institutions under this
kind of influence, you will always find that their whole weight is
thrown toward the aesthetic. Whatever college honors there may be,
whatever emoluments, pass in that direction ; and, though through fear
of public opinion science cannot be ignored, it is simply tolerated, not
cultivated.

From our colleges we may in the second place turn to our scientific
societies.

I have referred to the period at which the Greek language be-
came cultivated in Western Europe. The first societies were those
established in Florence by its admirers. In the Medicean gardens the
lovers of Plato assembled to restore, under an Italian sky, the phi-
losophy that had been extinguished in Athens, and to commemorate
by a symposium the birthday of that illustrious man. There is a
pleasure in associating with those whose thoughts are congenial to
our own, in breathing an atmosphere in which the intellectual makes
itself felt.

Very soon the example was imitated. Persons who had a love for
science followed the example of those who had a love for letters.
The Accidentia Secretorum Naturce was instituted at Naples in 1560,
by Baptista Porta, the inventor of the camera which photographers
now so much use ; the Lyncean Academy for the Promotion of Nat-
ural Philosophy, in 1603 ; the Royal Society of London, 1645 ; the
Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, 1666 ; the Berlin Academy of
Arts and Sciences, in 1700. Leibnitz, the rival of Newton, was its
first president.

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 319

When the Royal Society of Loudon was founded it encountered a
bitter opposition. Had it not been for the " merry monarch," Charles
II., it must have succumbed beneath the fierce maledictions launched
against it.

As in Italy, when the opportunity was offered, men of the same
inclination of thinking sought each other, so here, to the surprise of
the most enthusiastic chemists, when such an association was pro-
posed, persons seeking membership came crowding in. The society
I have the honor of addressing this evening was the result. Already
it has completely organized itself; already it has published the first
number of its "Proceedings," a publication which lam sure will pro-
cure for it approval and respect.

In these organizations of scientific effort, an opportunity of assist-
ing is given to those who, not having dedicated themselves to philo-
sophical pursuits, have yet achieved success in other walks of life, and
who, recognizing that the progress of civilization very largely de-
pends on the increase of knowledge, may desire to aid in promoting
that great result by the application of their means. See what im-
mense benefits have arisen from the money grants that foreign gov-
ernments have placed at the disposal of their scientific bodies ; see
what a stimulus there has been in the award of medals of honor,
and, if you desire to witness the effect of a well-judged benefaction,
look at the Smithsonian Institution. I would not say one word in
disparagement of gifts to colleges and universities, for it is indeed a
noble purpose ; but endowments for the promotion of a knowledge of
Nature conferred on scientific societies for the good of all men, no
matter what their country or color, no matter what their religious
profession or political condition, are still nobler. The one is a local
and transitory benefaction, the other an enduring and universal be-
nevolence.

In our own special science, chemistry, all that has been done has
only served to extend the boundary of what remains. The thousands
of analyses that have been made have brought us into a wilderness
of results. We have not been able to rise to a point of view suffi-
ciently high to discover what is the true place of those results in Na-
ture. We try to represent on the pages of our books and on our
black-boards formulas of the constitution of things, conscious all the
time that these are at the best only convenient fictions, which must
necessarily change as we gain a more perfect insight into that grand-
est of all problems, the distribution of Force in Space, and the varia-
tions to which it is liable. The geometry of chemistry is that of three
dimensions, not of two. We have to consider the relation of points
not situated on one plane, and hence it is necessary to employ three
axes of reference ; nay, even more, we cannot avoid the conception of
the mathematical method of quaternions. Our inadequate information
respecting the real grouping of atoms is followed as a necessary con-

320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sequence by imperfection in our methods of nomenclature, the confu-
sion in this respect becoming, as we all too well know, every day
worse and worse.

And now, while we have accomplished only a most imperfect ex-
amination of objects that we find on the earth, see how, on a sudden,
through the vista that has been opened by the spectroscope, what a
prospect lies beyond us in the heavens ! I often look at the bright-
yellow ray emitted from the chromosphere of the sun, by that unknown
element, Helium, as the astronomers have ventured to call it. It
seems trembling with excitement to tell its story, and how many un-
seen companions it has. And if this be the case with the sun, what
shall we say of the magnificent hosts of the stars ? May not every
one of them have special elements of its own ? Is not each a chemical
laboratory in itself? Look at the cluster in the sword-handle of Per-
seus; in Cassiopeia, a universe of stars on a ground of star-dust; in
Hercules — of which, as astronomers say, no one can look at for the first
time through a great telescope without a shout of wonder — the most
superb spectacle that the eye of man can witness ! Look at the double
stars of which so many are now known, emitting their contrasting
rays, garnet, or ruby, or emerald, or sapphire. Each is in accordance
with its own special physical conditions, though all are under the
same universal ordinance.

Now, here a fact of surpassing importance presses itself on our
attention. The movements taking place in those distant bodies are
taking place under the same laws that prevail here on earth, and in
our solar system. The law of gravitation, as developed by Newton,
bears sway in all those distant worlds. In them bodies attract each
other with forces directly as their masses and inversely as the squares
of their distances. There the laws of the emission, absorption, and
transmission of light are the same as they are with us. There ignited
hydrogen gives forth its three rays, the same rays that it gives forth
to us. In the uttermost parts of the universe the law of definite com-
bination, the numerical law, and the multiple law, stand good. So-
dium absorbs its two waves of definite refrangibility, and iron gives
in the spectra its #more than a hundred lines, more than a hundred
silent but convincing witnesses of the uniformity of the constitution
of the universe. There the number of vibrations that constitute a ray
of definite refrangibility is the same we have found it to be here. In
the enormous heat of those central suns the dissociation of molecules
may be of a higher order than we can reach artificially, but the law
under which it takes place is a continuation of the law here. There,
though the weight of a given mass of matter is different from what it is
with us, it is nevertheless determined by the law that determines here —
the law of gravitation. There energy is indestructible, and is measured
as it is measured among us, by work. Then is there any boundary
that we can assign to natural law — is it not omnipresent, universal ?

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 321

Perhaps there is no exaggeration in the assertion — for there seems
abundant proof of its truth — that the light by which we see some of
those distant orbs has crossed through such a prodigious space that
millions of years have transpired during the journey. Then the phe-
nomena it brings to us are those that were engendered in the begin-
ning of the vast time so passed. Whatever there is that is in harmony
with facts now happening here, is to us an unimpeachable evidence
that the laws which were governing in those old ages have undergone
no depreciation, but are active as ever until now. Then shall I exag-
gerate if I say that those laws are eternal in duration ?

Infinite in influence, eternal in duration, what a magnificent spec-
tacle ! In the resistless energy of the motions of the universe is there
not omnipotence ? The Omnipotent, the Infinite, the Eternal, to what
do these attributes belong ?

Shall a man who stands forth to vindicate the majesty of such
laws be blamable in your sight ? Rather shall you not with him be
overwhelmed with a conception so stupendous ? And yet let us not
forget that these eternal laws of Nature are only the passing thoughts
of God.

But, grand as this is, there is something still grander. There is
another temple into which we have to pass, not that of the visible but
that of the invisible. We must persist in the invasion we have made,
in the revolution we have brought about in physiology. We have to
determine the laws which preside in the nervous system of man, and
discover the nature of the principle that animates it. Is there not
something profoundly impressive in this, that the human mind can
look from without upon itself, as one looks at his phantom image in a
mirror, and discern its own lineaments and admire its own move-
ments ? My own thoughts have of late years been forcibly drawn to
this, from a recognition that the interpretation by the mind of im-
pressions from without takes place under mathematical laws, as, for
instance, that when external ethereal vibrations create in the mind a
certain idea, that same idea will arise when the vibrations are doubled,
or tripled, or quadrupled in frequency; but other ideas will be engen-
dered by vibrations of an intermediate rate. Yet what these ideas
will be may be predicted. It is true that this is only an optical case,
but it extends the view that has been offered to us by a study of the
structure of the ear. In the labyrinthine compartment of that organ
the ultimate fibres of the auditory nerve are laid on the winding
plane of the spiral lamina, in ever-decreasing lengths, each capable of
trembling to the sound which is in unison with it — a mechanical action
truly, answering to the sympathetic vibration with which the strings
of a piano will respond to the corresponding notes of a flute — and
these are translated by the mind into all the utterances of articulate
speech, all the harmonies of music — speech that engenders new ideas
within us, strains which, though they may die away in the air, live
vol. x. — 21

322

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

forever in the memory. The exquisite delight we experience in listen-
ing to the works of our great composers arises thus in mechanical
movements, which are the issue of mathematical combinations. The
flnseen world is under the influence of number !

But what is number except there be one who numbers ? When
Pompey, in his Syrian war, broke into the holy of holies at Jerusalem,
he expressed, as Tacitus tells us, his astonishment that there was no
image of a divinity within; the shrine was silent and empty. And
so, though after death we may anatomize and explore the inmost re-
cesses of the brain, the veiled Genius that once presided there has
eluded us, and has not left so much as a phantom-trace, a shadow of
himself.

The experiments of Galvani and Volta have not yet reached their
conclusion ; those of Faraday and Du Bois-Reymond have only yielded
a preliminary suggestion as to the nervous force. Excepting the
great sympathetic nerve, the nervous fibres themselves are, as is well
known, of two classes — those that gather the impressions of external
things and convey them to the nerve-centres, and those that transmit
the dictates of the will from within outwardly. The capabilities of
one of the former — the apparatus for sight — have been greatly im-
proved by various optical contrivances, such as microscopes and tele-
scopes, an earnest of what may hereafter be done as respects the four
other special organs of sense ; and, as concerns the second class, the
result of mental operations, the resolves of the will, may be transmit-
ted with greater velocity than even in the living system itself, and
that across vast terrestrial distances, or even beneath the sea. Tele-
graphic wires are, strictly speaking, continuations of the centrifugal
nerves, and we are not without reason for believing that it is the same
influence which is active in both cases.

In a scientific point of view, such improvements in the capabilities
of the organs for receiving external impressions, such extensions to
the distances to which the results of intellectual acts and the dictates
of the will may be conveyed, constitute a true development, an evo-
lution, none the less real though it may be of an artificial kind. If
we reflect carefully on these things, bearing in mind what is now
known of the course of development in the animal series, we shall not
fail to remark what a singular interest gathers round these artificial
developments — artificial they can scarcely be called, since they them-
selves have arisen interiorly. They are the result of intellectual acts.
Man has been developing himself. He, so far as the earth is con-
cerned, is becoming omnipresent. The electrical nerves of society are
spread in a plexus all over Europe and America ; their commissural
strands run under the Atlantic and the Pacific.

In many of the addresses that have been made during the past
-summer, on the Centennial occasion, the shortcomings of the United

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 323

States in extending the boundaries of scientific knowledge, especially
in the physical and chemical departments, have been set forth. " "We
must acknowledge with shame our inferiority to other people," says
one. " We have done nothing," says another. Well, if all this be
true, we ought perhaps to look to the condition of our colleges for an
explanation. But we must not forget that many of these humiliating
accusations are made by persons who are not of authority in the matter ;
who, because they are ignorant of what has beeu done, think that
nothing has been done. They mistake what is merely a blank in their
own information for a blank in reality. In their alacrity to depreciate
the merit of their own country, a most unpatriotic alacrity, they would
have us confess that for the last century we have been living on the
reputation of Franklin and his thunder-rod.

Perhaps, then, we may without vanity recall some facts that may
relieve us in a measure from the weight of this heavy accusation. We
have sent out expeditions of exploration both to the Arctic and Antarc-
tic seas. We have submitted our own coast to an hydrographic and
geodesic survey, not excelled in exactness and extent by any similar
works elsewhere. In the accomplishment of this we have been com-
pelled to solve many physical problems of the greatest delicacy and
highest importance, and we have done it successfully. The measuring-
rods with which the three great base-lines of Maine, Long Island,
Georgia, were determined, and their beautiful mechanical appliances,
have exacted the publicly-expressed admiration of some of the greatest
European philosophers, and the conduct of that survey their unstinted
applause. We have instituted geological surveys of many of our
States and much of our Territories, and have been rewarded not merely
by manifold local benefits, but also by the higher honor of extending
very greatly the boundaries of that noble science. At an enormous
annual cost we have maintained a meteorological-signal system, which
I think is not equaled and certainly is not surpassed in the world.
Should it be said that selfish interests have been mixed up with some
of these undertakings, we may demand whether there was any selfish-
ness in the survey of the Dead Sea? Was there any selfishness in
that mission which a citizen of New York sent to equatorial Africa
for the finding and relief of Livingstone, any in the astronomical ex-
pedition to South America, any in that to the valley of the Amazon ?
Was there any in the sending out of parties for the observation of the
total eclipses of the sun ? It was by American astronomers that the
true character of his corona was first determined. Was there any in
the seven expeditions that were dispatched for observing the transit
of Venus ? Was it not here that the bi-partition of Bela's comet was
first detected, here that the eighth satellite of Saturn was discovered,
here that the dusky ring of that planet, which had escaped the pene-
trating eye of Herschel and all the great European astronomers, was
first seen ? Was it not by an American telescope that the companion

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, was revealed, and the
mathematical prediction of the cause of his perturbations verified ?
Was it not by a Yale College professor that the showers of shooting-
stars were first scientifically discussed, on the occasion of the grand
American display of that meteoric phenomenon in 1833 ? Did we not
join in the investigations respecting terrestrial magnetism instituted
by European governments at the suggestion of Humboldt, and con-
tribute our quota to the results obtained? Did not the Congress of
the United States vote a money-grant to carry into effect the inven-
tion of the electric telegraph ? Does not the published flora of the
United States show that something has been done in botany ? Have
not very important investigations been made here on the induction of
magnetism in iron, the effect of magnetic currents on one another, the
translation of quantity into intensity, and the converse? Was it not
here that the radiations of incandescence were first investigated, the
connection of increasing temperature with increasing refrangibility
shown, the distribution of light, heat, and chemical activity in the so-
lar spectrum ascertained, and some of the fundamental facts in spec-
trum analysis developed long before general attention was given to
that subject in Europe? Here the first photograph of the moon was
taken, here the first of the diffraction spectrums was produced, here
the first portraits of the human face were made — an experiment that
has given rise to an important industrial art !

Of our own special science, chemistry, it may truly be affirmed that
nowhere are its most advanced ideas, its new conceptions, better under-
stood or more eagerly received. But how useless would it be for me
to attempt a description in these few moments of what Prof. Silliman,
in the work to which I have already referred, found that he could not
include on more than 100 closely-printed pages, though he proposed
merely to give the names of American chemists and the titles of their
works! It would be equally useless and indeed an invidious task to
offer a selection ; but this may be said, that among the more promi-
nent memoirs there are many not inferior to the foremost that the
chemical literature of Europe can present. How unsatisfactory, then,
is this brief statement I have made of what might be justly claimed
for American science ! Had it been ten times as long, and far more
forcibly offered, it would still have fallen short of completeness. I
still should have been open to the accusation of not having done jus-
tice to the subject.

Have those who gloat over the shortcomings of American science
ever examined the Coast Survey reports, those of the Naval Observa-
tory, the Smithsonian contributions, those of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, the proceedings of the American
Academy of Arts and Science, those of the American Philosophical
Society, the Lyceum of Natural History, and our leading scientific
periodicals ? Have they ever looked at the numerous reports pub-

SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 325

lished by the authority of Congress on geographical, geological, engi-
neering, and other subjects — reports often in imposing quartos mag-
nificently illustrated.

Not without interest may we explore the origin of the depreciation
of which we thus complain. In other countries it is commonly the
case that each claims for itself all that it can, and often more than is
its due. Each labors to bring its conspicuous men and its public acts
into the most favorable point of view ; each goes upon the maxim
that a man is usually valued at the value he puts upon himself. But
how is it with us ? Can any impartial person read without pain the
characters we so often attribute to our most illustrious citizens in po-
litical and, what is worse, in social life ? Can we complain if strangers
accept us at our own depreciation, whether of men or things ?

We need not go far to detect the origin of all this — it is in our
political condition. Here wealth, power, preferment — preferment even
to the highest position of the nation — are seemingly within the reach
of all, and in the internecine struggle that takes place every man is
occupied in pushing some other man into the background.

I fear that in political life there is no remedy for this, such is the
violence of the competition, so great are the prizes at stake. But in
the less turbulent domain of science and letters we may hope for
better things. And those who make it their practice to decry the
contributions of their own country to the stock of knowledge may
perhaps stand rebuked by the expressions that sometimes fall from
her generous rivals. How can they read without blushing at their
own conduct such declarations as that recently uttered by the great
organ of English opinion, the foremost of English journals ? The
Times, which no one will accuse of partiality in this instance, says:
"In the natural distribution of subjects, the history of enterprise, dis-
covery, and conquest, and the growth of republics, fell to America,
and she has dealt nobly with them. In the wider and multifarious
provinces of art and science she runs neck and neck with the mother-
country, and is never left behind ! "

There are among us some persons who depreciate science merely
through illiterate arrogance ; there are some who, incited by super-
ficiality, dislike it ; there are some who regard it with an evil eye, be-
cause they think it is undermining the placid tranquillity they find in
life-long cherished opinions. There are some who hate it because they
fear it, and many because they find that it is in conflict with their in-
terests.

But let us who are the servants of Science, who have dedicated
ourselves to her, take courage. Day by day the number of those who
hold her in disfavor is diminishing. We can disregard their misrep-
resentations and maledictions. Mankind has made the great dis-
covery that she is the long-hoped-for civilizing agent of the world.
Let us continue our labor unobtrusively, conscious of the integrity of

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

our motives, conscious of the portentous change which is taking place
in the thought of the world, conscious of the irresistible power which
is behind us ! Let us not return railing for railing, but, above all, let
us deliver unflinchingly to others the truths that Nature has delivered
to us!

The book of Nature ! shall not we chemists, and all our brother-
students, whether they be naturalists, astronomers, mathematicians,
geologists, shall we not all humbly and earnestly read it ? Nature,
the mother of us all, has inscribed her unfading, her eternal record on
the canopy of the skies, she has put it all around us on the platform
of the earth ! No man can tamper with it, no man can interpolate or
falsify it for his own ends. She does not command us what to do, nor
order us what to think. She only invites us to look around. For
those who reject her she has in reserve no revenges, no social ostra-
cism, no index expurgatoHus, no auto-da-fe ! To those who in purity of
spirit worship in her heaven-pavilioned temple, she offers her guidance
to that cloudy shrine on which Truth sits enthroned, " dark with the
excess of light ! " Thither are repairing, not driven by tyranny, but
of their own accord, increasing crowds from all countries of the earth,
conscious that, whatever their dissensions of opinion may heretofore
have been, in her presence they will find intellectual concord and
unity.

♦»»

MENTAL OVERWORK.

By EOBEET FAEQUHAESON, M.D.

TO hit off the happy medium between over- and under-work is no
easy task even to those who have the necessary knowledge, on
the one hand, and the liberty to arrange their own scheme of occupa-
tion, on the other. But, for one person who is injured by doing too
much, I quite believe with Dr. Wilkes that many may be found who
are sustaining serious damage from not having enough mental stimu-
lus. The listless vacuity in which so many of the well-to-do classes
spend their lives, the want of any incentive to exertion, and the ab-
sence of any attempt at real thought which the wide-spread prevalence
of ready-made opinions in our periodical literature directly encour-
ages, must cause more or less degeneration of intellectual power. Un-
der these conditions the brain gradually loses its healthy tone, and,
although quite equal to the daily calls of a routine and uneventful ex-
istence, it is unable to withstand the strain of special sudden emer-
gency, and, when a heavy load of work is unexpectedly thrown upon
it in its unprepared state, then we see all the worst consequences of
what may be called overwork develop themselves. It is no uncom-

MENTAL OVERWORK. 327

mon experience to meet with cases in which damage has been done to
the bodily constitution by indulging too recklessly in athletic exer-
cises and active physical exertion when the muscles have become
flabby and feeble from disuse. A man accustomed to sedentary pur-
suits takes suddenly to boating or running, or the horizontal bar, and,
if he escapes straining his heart, he is certain to make himself stiff
and uncomfortable. Or he has been told that there is nothing like
Switzerland for reviving the faded Londoner, so, without the slightest
attempt at preparation, he dovotes himself enthusiastically to climb-
ing ice-peaks and traversing snow-passes; and, when his brief holiday
is over, he comes back, worn and jaded, and astonished to find that
the glacial air, which has proved so beneficial to many, has done
nothing for him. *

Now, the fault here lies in the want of proper preliminary training.
Even as we do not prescribe quinine as a tonic until we have ascer-
tained that the digestive functions of our patient are in good working
order, so it is most improper for any one to attempt active muscular
exertion without bracing up the previously-unused muscles by care-
fully-graduated exercise. And in mental operations the same analogy
holds good. If the brain is not habituated to the constant gymnastic
influence of steady work, it is liable to give way or suffer more or less
injury from any sudden and spasmodic effort. If, on the other hand,
however, its healthy nutrition is insured by the free supply of pure
blood and the true balance between destruction and repair, we shall
find ourselves in possession of an organ which will bear almost any
amount of steady strain, so long as certain conditions are fulfilled.
So long as a brain-worker is able to sleep wrell, to eat well, and to take
a fair proportion of out-door exercise, it may safely be said that it is
not necessary to impose any special limits on the actual number of
hours which he devotes to his labors. But when what is generally
known as worry steps in to complicate matters, when cares connected
with family arrangements, or with those numerous personal details
which we can seldom escape, intervene, or when the daily occupation
of life is in itself a fertile source of anxiety, then we find one or
other of these three safeguards broken down. Probably the man of
business or the successful advocate cannot shake himself free from his
business thoughts at night. Slumber becomes fitful and disturbed.
The sympathetic system, unsettled by the mental strain, brings about
various defects in nutrition ; the appetite fails, and the vigor of the
nervous tissues is no longer able to withstand the endless round; and
then we meet with the sleeplessness, the dyspepsia, the irresolution,,
the irritability, and the depression, which are among the chief mis-
eries of those who we are in the habit of saying are overworked.

Now, the Lancet has lately laid before its readers some interest-
ing statements which would lead us to believe that damage is being
done to many boys in preparatory schools by the strong competition

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

imposed upon them by the entrance-examination to the larger institu-
tions, and by the ambition of their masters, who hope to derive profit
and honor from their success. This is indeed a serious consideration,
and the possibility of a large section of our most promising lads being
thus mentally stunted in early life would demand instant interference
did we deem the charge fully proved. Now, with all deference, I
would venture to express my opinion, based on some experience, that,
although we must not neglect so timely a warning of probable rocks
ahead, there is no specific evidence of present injury. During my
residence at Rugby I was in medical charge of several preparatory
schools where the educational standard was very high, and where the
success was proportionate when the boys came to be drafted off into
the big school. I may truly say that no case was brought under my
notice during the space of three years which I could in any way trace
to overwork. And this I attribute to the perfect manner in which the
counterbalancing conditions of health were sustained, the good food,
satisfactory hygienic conditions, ample time for recreation and active
sports, and frequent holidays. Boys of that age do not fret or worry
over their work — they throw it off in their intervals of repose, sleep
well, eat well, play well, and so do not suffer. Depend upon it, it
would be little to the credit of any proprietor of a private educational
establishment were he to neglect the laws of health, and send his boys
home enfeebled and worn out from too heavy mental strain.

As regards the larger public schools the same remarks apply, and
I met with very few instances at Rugby of any bad consequences from
overwork ; and in the three or four well-marked cases which came
under my care I was enabled to detect some other equally operative
cause which predisposed to the seizure. Thus one lad, ambitious of
distinction both at classics and foot-ball, had undergone violent phys-
ical exertion while exhausted by study, and the supply of nerve-
force, not being available for this double strain, gave way, and a sharp,
feverish attack ushered in long-continued mental prostration. A
second boy, who suffered from a precisely similar attack, had been sit-
ting up late at night, and felt some anxiety about a future prize ;
and the third lad, who completes the catalogue, ha'd also consumed the
midnight oil to an undue extent. But, as a general rule, the typically
healthy life and surroundings of our great public schools enable their
inmatt.3 to withstand a much greater amount of work than lads
brought up at home, who are often unduly spurred on, and who have
not the healthful stimulus of enforced active exercise. Among this
class I have seen a much greater proportionate extent of temporary
break-down from the effects of mental exertion too long sustained and
too little relieved.

Although the standard of the School Board is not very high, we
may foresee a possible source of danger in forcing the minds of
wretchedly feeble, ill-fed, and ill-housed children suddenly into edu-

MENTAL OVERWORK, 329

cational grooves. I think I have seen an increase of headaches and
nervous complaints among the children of the poor since compulsory
attendance has been enforced, and would only wish to record the
warning against attempts to make bricks too rapidly out of the straw
which has fallen into our hands to mould for good or evil.

Coming to the universities, cases of overwork are, I imagine, more
common there, for not only are the young men at a more sensitive
period of life, but they naturally feel that to many of them this is
their great opportunity — the great crisis of their existence— and that
their success or failure will now effectually make or mar their career.
Here the element of anxiety comes into play, sleep is disturbed, exer-
cise neglected, digestion suffers, and the inevitable result follows, of
total collapse, from which recovery is slow, and perhaps never com-
plete. Others, again, endeavor in their last year to make up for the
frivolities of the first two; but when Dr. Morgan takes up for us the
history of the intellectual life of the universities in the same exhaus-
tive way in which he has traced the statistics of their leading oars, I
doubt not that we shall find that the indictment of overwork brought
against them has also been much exaggerated.

But, although less common than is generally supposed, instances
of this class of break-down do occur from time to time, and I should
like to ask those who have devoted special attention to nervous dis-
eases what is their view of the pathology of such cases as the fol-
lowing :

A student, or an artist, or the master of a public school, after a
very heavy mental strain, suddenly gives way, and is seized with
sharp illness, comparable in some degree to the old-fashioned brain -
fever. On his recovery he takes a prolonged rest, and his general
health is perfectly restored ; he looks strong and hearty, and has
even gained flesh, and so at last he thinks himself well enough to re-
sume his duties. But it is found that, although he can do a little, any-
thing like his old power of concentrated attention and steady appli-
cation is gone, and if he tries to do a full day's work, he breaks down
again in minor degree, and at last is obliged to content himself with
taking only a very slight share in those occupations in which he used
specially to excel, and in many cases his powers are never fully re-
gained. With all the outward appearances of health, he well knows
the very narrow limits within which he is now' compelled to restrict
his intellectual exercise. What, then, is the precise pathological con-
dition here ? Various diseases are also known to weaken the mental
powers for long periods after convalescence is established, and of these
scarlet and enteric fevers rank among the principal. — Lancet.

33o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT.1

By HENEY MAUDSLEY, M. D.,

PROFESSOR OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.

/""i ENTLEMEN : It has devolved upon me this year to deliver, in
\JT accordance with prescribed custom, the introductory lecture to
the course of systematic instruction upon which you are about to
enter. At the outset I am free to confess that I have been not a lit-
tle perplexed and troubled about what I ought most fitly to say; like
many of my predecessors in the office, I have found the choice of
subject beset with difficulties, and I have small hope that I can say
anything to redeem the usual barrenness of the occasion. It is just
twenty-five years since I, sitting where one of you now sits, listened
to my first introductory lecture from the lips — mute, alas ! now for-
ever— of one whose pure and gentle nature attracted in no common
measure the esteem, the respect, and the affection, of all who knew
him. I mean the late Dr. Parkes. It is an extraordinary, almost an
unparalleled, thing to say of any man, that no one who heard men-
tion made of his name ever heard an ill word said of him ; but I be-
lieve that this was strictly true of Parkes. His life, lovely and of
good report throughout, was indeed a practical refutation of the say-
ing, " Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you." If I
could sketch in striking outline the features of his character, and set
forth justly the pure course of his life — showing with what patient
industry and entire sincerity of insight he worked in scientific in-
quiries, how upright he was in all his ways, and how kindly consid-
erate to others : how he lived, and how, his work faithfully done, he
died — I should probably give you an inspiring and most useful in-
troductory lecture ; for I should present to you a noble example, the
labor to imitate which would be an excellent scientific and moral
training. But that has been done with more or less completeness
by various persons, though not always, perhaps, with the discrimina-
tion which one would wish to see shown in the appreciation of such a
character. It is a very amiable wish to say everything good of a man
when he is silent forever, and the vocabulary of flattering words is
apt to be exhausted in the endeavor to gratify this feeling, the effect
sometimes being that the actual features of the character are blurred,
and something which is intended to be very perfect, but which is
very unreal, is produced. It seems to me that the distinguishing
characteristic of Parkes, that by which mainly he was what he was,
was not so much originality or height of intellect (in this others have
equaled or surpassed him) as the height of his moral stature — in this

1 Introductory lecture delivered at University College, London, October 2, 1876.

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 331

perhaps he has hardly ever been surpassed ; and that the grand les-
son to be learned from the extraordinary esteem and affection which
he inspired, from the infection of earnestness and sincerity which
spi-ead from him, and from the elevating influence which he exerted
upon those who were brought into close converse with him, is a les-
son which the history of human progress through the ages teaches
too, and which needs much to be had in remembrance in these days
of the glorification of science. It is this : that great as is knowledge,
the moral nature is greater still ; that the impulses of evolution which
move the world come not from the intellect, but from the heart ;
that he who would work upon the hearts of others must speak to
them from the heart ; that everywhere and always we have to recog-
nize the predominance of the heart over the intellect.

Perhaps if I could recall vividly the thoughts and feelings of my
mind when sitting there twenty-five years ago, and compare, or rather
contrast, them with my thoughts and feelings now, I might extract
from the comparison the essence of a quarter of a century's experi-
ence of life, and impart to you what it will probably take you a quar-
ter of a century to acquire. But I am doubtful whether that would
not be to do you a great disservice, for I could hardly fail thereby
to take much heart out of your hopes, much ardor out of your enthu-
siasm, much energy out of your exertions. Moreover, I feel pretty
sure that what I could say, however wisely it might be said, would
not be of the least use to you. Neither nations nor individuals profit
much by the experience of other nations or of other individuals ;
they must go through their experience for themselves, learning
through suffering, succeeding through blundering, attaining to the
calmness of wisdom through the fevers of passion ; and many times
only when opportunities are gone, and their consequences in irrevo-
cable operation, is it seen perhaps how much better use might have
been made of them. No doubt there is wise purpose in this inability
of the young to take home and assimilate the experience of those
who are older ; for I know not how they could preserve that enthu-
siasm and freshness of spirit which make life itself a joy, and beguile
them to pursue with eagerness its aims, were their illusions destroyed,
as illusions one after another are destroyed by experience. In the
full stream of its young energy life is too little conscious for reflec-
tion ; to live is happiness enough ; in its later stages more and more,
as the heart is applied to know wisdom, is it felt to be vanity and
vexation of spirit. This may seem a hard doctrine, but it is true ; it
has been the experience of the greatest sages of all times ; it is the
central thought of the great religious systems of the world.

Let me pass, however, from reflections which, if pursued, might
tend to dishearten rather than to hearten you, and endeavor to show
you that, as things go, you have made a good choice of a profession
for your life's work. I should be thought to have ill discharged the

332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

function of introductory lecturer by preaching a gospel of pessimism,
and inoculating you at the outset of your career with a despair of the
littleness of life. Whatever the motive which has made you choose
the medical profession as your life-career — and I suppose this has in
most cases been the advice or example of others, or perhaps some
quite accidental influence ; for it is a startling consideration on what
little circumstances the great issues of life often turn — you will not,
I think, ever have cause to regret your choice if you look to the higher
aim of it, and to that which is the proper end of human life. But on
that condition only. It is not a profession which one who is ambi-
tious of worldly distinction, or eager to accumulate much riches,
should choose. You might, with prudence and industry, get vastly
richer on the Stock Exchange or in commerce in a short time than
you will probably after the labor of a long life in medical practice ;
and if you would aspire to gain a peerage or other ornamental thing of
that kind, you would have done better to have gone into the army, and
to have set before you as an aim, not the saving but the destruction of
life ; or to the bar, and have sold the highest exertions of your intel-
lect to advocate the cause, whether the cause of the oppressor or of
the oppressed, for which you were i-etained. Peerages don't come our
way, and I am heartily glad they do not, for I much fear that there
would not be the strength of mind to reject them ; that a pitiful social
ambition might tempt us to spoil the simple intrinsic nobility of our
vocation with the outworn decorations of a childish stage of human
progress. If medical practice be pursued as a mere means of money-
getting, assuredly it causes the deepest demoralization of him who so
uses it, as best things turned to basest ends breed the greatest cor-
ruption. He who deliberately applies himself to take the utmost ad-
vantage of the suffering and the feebleness of humanity, coming to
him for aid in its anguish and its utter helplessness, in order to make
his profit — and we may hope there are not many creatures of that
vileness in the profession — may have large success in his low aim, but
he discovers a meanness and a degradation of nature which are a
grievous shame to his kind, and which devils might almost disdain.

But if you look to what is the true end of knowledge and work —
to relieve the suffering and to minister to the comfort of man's estate,
to lessen the sum of human sorrow on earth — you have chosen a
profession which yields the fullest satisfaction to your aim and the
largest scope to your work. We learn in order to act, the end of all
knowledge being action ; and the end of all action is to promote the
welfare and the progress of mankind upon earth. In no profession
are the opportunities of doing this good work -so great and constant
as in ours ; to the least of us, as to the greatest, occasions of tender
sympathy and patient help occur every hovu1 in the daily routine of our
work; and no profession, therefore, rests so little for appreciation
upon any adventitious circumstance of time or place, or so little needs

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 333

extraneous titles of honor to give it dignity and respect. Put a doc-
tor in the midst of the wildest savages, and they will respect the
" medicine-man," when the lawyer's fluent sophistry and the preacher's
pathetic eloquence would not gain them consideration, or even save
them from death. Livingstone passed unharmed and esteemed among
the savage tribes of Africa under the protection of his medical skill ;
and Christ himself cultivated the character and functions of a healer
of disease, not only because in that capacity he went about doing good,
but probably also, as De Quincey surmised, for the secret reason that he
thus disarmed the jealousy and suspicion which the ruling authorities
might otherwise have felt of the crowds which he drew about him.
When the mighty fabric of the Roman Empire, penetrated by internal
decay, at last fell to pieces under the successive assaults of the Goths,
and the Vandals, and the Huns, many thousand persons were, as Gibbon
tells us, taken captive and distributed through the deserts of Scythia ;
and it is interesting to note what was the relative value of persons under
these circumstances. " The skill of an eminent lawyer would excite
only their contempt or their abhorrence. The vain sophist or grave
philosopher who had enjoyed the flattering applause of the schools
was mortified to find that his robust servant was a captive of more
value and importance than himself. But the merit of the physician
was received with universal favor and respect ; the barbarians who
despised death might be apprehensive of disease." So long as man
deems it the most important thing in the world to him that he should
go on living — and he does that commonly as long as he is alive — so
long will he hold in favor and esteem him whom he believes able to
prevent or to mitigate the suffering of disease, and to keep at bay
" the last enemy," death. It has always been so. " Honor a physi-
cian with the honor due unto him for the uses which ye may have of
him ; for the Lord hath created him."

Having seen how good a thing is the direct work of relieving suf-
fering by medical art, let me now go on to point out that the training
through which you go in order to lit yourselves to do this is excel-
lently well adapted to make the most of your intellect as an instru-
ment of knowledge. It seems to me that no education which is given
anywhere, taking it all in all, is better than that through which it is
necessary to go in order to become a thoroughly accomplished physi-
cian. You are brought into direct contact with the facts of Nature,
face to face with them from the beginning of your course ; step by
step you advance in the practice of observation and reflection, from
more simple to more complex phenomena, and so you learn to make
the order of your ideas conform gradually to the order of Nature.
That is real instruction ; moreover, it is instruction at first hand. In
intercourse with Nature, sophistry and pretense avail nothing ; sin-
cerity, and humility, and veracity of mind, are essential ; we must learn
patiently her laws, and, learning, obey them, or we ourselves, our con-

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

temporaries, or our posterity, will suffer infallibly from their viola-
tion. There is no possibility of hoodwinking those eternal laws which,
in our dealings with them, never make a mistake and never overlook
one, never forego au advantage, never shrink to exact retribution,
never feel remorse. When a person leaves college with a very respect-
able knowledge of Greek and Latin authors, and with little or noth-
ing more than that, it seems preposterous that he should think him-
self an educated person. If he has learned nothing about the stars
above his head and the earth beneath his feet; nothing about the na-
ture of the air which he breathes, of the water which he drinks, of the
food which he eats ; cannot tell why water rises in a pump, or how a
man breathes, and why he dies if he cannot get air to breathe ; knows
nothing whatever of the laws of the world in which he lives and oi
which he is a part, he is surely a profound ignoramus, notwithstand-
ing that he may be able to make indifferent Greek or Latin verses.
I would not for a moment undervalue the priceless benefits of a knowl-
edge of Greek and Latin authors ; on the contrary, I am sure that a
study of the works of these great minds of antiquity, full as they are
of the rich stores of human observation and thought, expressed in the
most chaste, concise, and finished language, produces a discipline of
intellect and a refinement of culture which can be got in no other
way, and the loss of which in youth nothing gained afterward will
ever entirely compensate for ; but I am sure also that if Plato or Aris-
totle, or any of those great thinkers of antiquity, were to live again
now, he would look with amazement and compassion, if not with con-
tempt, on men who are content that education should consist in study-
ing only the writings of the past, in utter neglect of the wonderful
works of Nature to which the later ages of mankind have gained access,
and of the vast stores of knowledge which have been gradually ac-
cumulated by the patient labors of successive generations of men.
He would be apt, I think, to say something of this sort: "Good Heav-
ens! we lived more than two thousand years ago; have you in all
that time gained no new experience of men and things which it would
be well to make an essential part of the intellectual culture of your
children? is it education enough for life now to let them learn from
us what we thought of men and things more than two thousand years
ago, and to train them in a study of the structure of our dead lan-
guage ? " To state the matter so, sufficeth to expose its absurdity.

Now, the training of a medical man, when thorough, is admirable
in this respect, that it follows the order of Nature, beginning with
the less complex and rising to the more complex sciences, using the
lower as a ladder by which to mount up to the higher. Coming to
his work, as he certainly should do, with a fair knowledge of mathe-
matics and physics, he proceeds to the study of chemistry, and passes
on thence to the study of physiology ; so he lays deep and firm the
scientific groundwork for the study of the disorders of the structure

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 335

and functions of the body, which is to be his ultimate special work.
Without the foundations of the prerequisite studies he will not be a
thoroughly well-grounded and cultivated physician, who may be re-
lied upon to perfect his knowledge by experience through life, al-
though he may no doubt be a fair practitioner in the routine which
he has been taught, or, if he devotes himself to surgery, skillful as a
mere operator. A knowledge of the simpler and more general sci-
ence is an essential prerequisite to the study of the more complex
and special science. Physics lie beneath chemistry ; in physics and in
chemistry we search for those intimate operations of matter which
lie at the foundation of physiology ; and physiology in its turn is
essential to the construction of the more complex science which is
concerned with man in his social relations — that is, sociology. And
I may observe, by-the-way, that psychology, Avhich is an important
study for the man who has to put right the disorders of the minds
and bodies of his kind, demands not only a thorough knowledge of
physiology, but observation, also, of man in his social relations.
Each science rests upon the one below it, but reflecting the increasing
complexity of Nature as we rise from the movements of masses to
the movements of molecules of matter, and to the combinations and
relations of atoms, from dead again to living matter, from the sim-
plest forms of life to complex organisms, and from organisms to the
social union of organisms, contains in ascending scale something
more than the science below it — something which constitutes its au-
tonomy as a science. Physiology being placed in this scale, as you
perceive, between chemistry and sociology, is on that account a most
instructive study at the present time, when chemistry has made great
progress toward scientific exactitude, and when the cultivation of
the new field of social science is just being entered upon ; there is no
science, in fact, which yields such rich promise of large discoveries
in the immediate future, and no science the discoveries of which,
when applied to human needs, will do so much to lessen physical suf-
fering. Fortunate are you, then, in the training which prepares you
for the study, and in the lot which at this particular era has fixed
your work in the pursuit, of a science which promises so great an
abundance of good fruit.

One warning I would stop a moment here to urge. "While recog-
nizing the subordination of the sciences, we ought not to overlook
the fact that all the sciences are at bottom artificial divisions; that
the world is not divided rigorously into those different domains which
wre call physics, chemistry, physiology, and the like ; that we make
the divisions for our convenience according to the complexity of the
phenomena, not because we discover them in Nature. Nature is one
and continuous, and takes not the least notice of the arbitrary divi-
sions which we find it necessary to make. It would seem a very ob-
vious distinction between plant and animal; and yet if we push our

336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

investigations into that border-territory of Nature where animal and
vegetable life touch, we meet with so-called monads — the Heteromita,
for example — which may be referred with equal justice to either king-
dom ; there are organisms which we think vegetable, having charac-
ters which we call animal, and organisms which we call animal, hav-
ing characters which we think vegetable ; there is, in truth, no line
of demarkation, but instead an insensible series of gradations, and no
man can say where the one kingdom ends and the other begins. In
like manner, notwithstanding the seemingly gross and palpable dis-
tinction between living and dead matter, any one who sets himself to
work to find out where life begins will be hard put to it to draw a
line of separation, and more hard put to it when called upon to make
good his division. Man himself, much as he makes of himself, is not
separated from the rest of Nature by an impassable gulf; he modifies
Nature largely, it is true, but the art by which he does that is Nature ;
he is a part of the order thereof — the latest product of the evolution
which went on for countless ages before he appeared upon earth,
which is going on now in his progress, his knowledge and his moral
feelings being agencies in the process, and which, for anything we
know, will go on for countless ages after the earth, which he has
ceased to replenish and subdue, has fallen into the condition in which
the moon now is, and rolls on its solitary way through space, a cold
and desert globe, the tomb of all human aspirations, sorrows, sins,
and achievements. In making use, then, of the arbitrary divisions
of our sciences, we ought never to lose hold of the actual unity and
continuity of Nature ; never to overlook the fact that there is not a
single truth in any science which has not its essential relations with
the truths of all sciences ; never to forget that the least things and
the greatest are indissolubly bound together as equally essential ele-
ments of the intimately conuected and mysterious whole which we call
the universe. It may seem a fanciful saying, but there is a truth in it,
that you cannot utter an exclamation, strike a note on a piano, move
a grain of sand from its place, without affecting the entire universe.

Now the systematic training of the mind in conformity with the
order of Nature, through patient observation and careful induction,
the knowledge of Nature which is got by becoming, as Bacon says,
her servant and interpreter, is a tedious business. Men, therefore,
have gladly shirked it ; they have found it much easier to attribute
phenomena to some metaphysical entity which they have created out
of a mental abstraction, or to invoke a supernatural cause to account
for them, than to find out the explanation. In consequence of this
habit of mind, which has had large operation in the past, a body of
doctrine has grown up which, having had its day, is now fast becoming
effete, but which men will not willingly part with — doctrine com-
parable, if I may use a physiological comparison, with those organs
which, like the thymus gland, have their uses at a certain stage of

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 337

the body's development, but afterward, having no longer any func-
tion, undergo atrophy. Moreover, men have not only shirked positive
inquiry from indolence, but have hated it from hostility. They dread
the thought of being shown to be one with Nature, and repudiate
with abhorrence the suggestion that their bodies and minds will ever
receive scientific explanation ; as if their bodies and minds would be
degraded to something quite different from what they are by being
understood like other natural phenomena and described in terms of
scientific thought. The supposition strikes them as something like a
blasphemy against the nobility of their nature. Hence there is a
deep-rooted instinctive hostility to the science that has to do with
man, which you will have to take account of in your careers — an hos-
tility whicii has found partial expression, I think, in the anti-vivisec-
tion agitation. There was more in the fierceness of that agitation
than a laudable feeling of compassion for the animals — an intensity
of acridity betraying another origin. There was the energy of fear
and hatred — fear and hatred of the science which threatens the de-
thronement of man from the pedestal of conceit upon which he has
placed himself, and the destruction of some of his traditional beliefs.
But a little reflection might serve to prove to those who are moved
by these hostile apprehensions that they are possessed with an unrea-
soning fear, and are disquieting themselves in vain. Let them look
beyond the dark circle of their self-love, and they will see that what
is good in old creeds does not peri'sh ; that, although old forms vanish,
as generations and nations pass away, that in them which gave life to
them does not pass away, but puts on new forms and survives, as new
generations and nations follow and carry onward the work of progress.
Better would it be for them to seek for and foster the good which
survives than to lament and defend the old which is corrupt.

Certainly science has not been careful to avoid occasions of offense
in its progress, and of its method and pretensions its votaries have
sometimes written in a strain which justly provokes scorn. While
proclaiming, then, the praises of observation and induction, and en-
forcing the value of a mental training which is obtained by studying
Nature after that method, let me interpose a few words of qualifica-
tion, in order that I may not be misunderstood. I cannot help feeling
that a great deal of questionable doctrine has been propounded con-
cerning the so-called method of induction which science is enjoined
rigidly to pursue, and that Bacon would have been aghast had he seen,
the absurdity which some persons in these days describe as his method,,
and the imbecile procedures of some of those who believe that they
are following it. They talk, in fact, of the method of observation
and induction as if it were something to conjure by; a mechanical,
process of knowledge-getting which rendered superior mental capacity
unnecessary ; a sort of intellectual ladder by which the most stupid
beings, if they only planted it properly, might mount up into the
VOL. x. — 22

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

highest places of knowledge. That was not Bacon's notion of it : he
perceived clearly enough that a man does not see with his eye, but
through it ; that seeing in the sense of observation is impossible unless
there be behind the eye the intelligence to interpret what is presented
to it. The simplest act of perception is indeed more than a mere
matter of sense ; it is an actual induction or inference in which an
important element is contributed by the mind ; you cannot look at an
ox or an ass, and know either of them to be what it is, without making
an induction — can't see, in fact, until you are trained to see. Scientific
observation and experimentation — and experiment is only observation
aided by artificial means — may be carried on to the last hour of your
lives without any result of the least value if you have not a mind
trained to interpret. Of what use is it to torture Nature by strange
experiments if you don't understand her language ? You might sacri-
fice a hundred dogs or cats in cruel experiments, and be not a whit
wiser at the end of your awful labors. Nature does not vouchsafe an
answer to a scientific inquiry unless the intelligent question be put,
and the precise experiment made, as Bacon insisted, ad intentionem
ejus quod quceritur; ' and it is impossible to put the definite question,
or to make the precise experiment, unless there be a prudently-formed
hypothesis in the mind — that is to say, an hypothesis based upon pre-
vious careful training in observation of Nature's processes and sound
reflection upon them. The mind must be informed by patient and
sympathetic intercourse with Nature ; it is enabled then to make new
adjustments by means of the knowledge which it has gained through
past adjustments — to frame a new and true theory applicable to new
experiences by reason of being stored with sound theories derived
from past experiences. We shall do well, then, not to be too much
intimidated by what is sometimes said or written in praise of mere
observation of so-called facts, and in dispraise of theory, or imagine
that any facts can be truly observed, or any science prosecuted with
success, unless the well-trained mind cooperates with the senses. As
I have said elsewhere, " That some declaim so virulently against
theory is as though the eunuch should declaim against lechery ; it is
the chastity of impotence." Happy is the observer who, when he sets
to work, has a good theory in his mind. The mischief is when men
theorize who have not been trained in habits of accurate observation,
or, I might go a step further and say, who have not inherited from
father or grandfather in the foundations of their nature the lines of
veracity of observation and thought on which to develop ; for when
one notices how persons of a certain eager temperament go on dis-
covering facts which are no facts, and, notwithstanding that they are
brayed in the mortar of an annihilating criticism, are not in the least
benefited by the discipline, one cannot help feeling that the observer,
like the poet, is born, not made.

1 With special reference to the point under investigation.

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 339

But it is time to return to the direct line of my argument. From
what has gone before, it should appear at what an excellent place of
advantage the order of studies for the medical profession is adapted
to place you ; how wisely it is arranged to train the mind for sound
reflection upon those most complex phenomena of Nature with which
the medical man has to deal — the phenomena of life in health and in
disease ; and how sadly wrong in theory and mischievous in practice
he is likely to be who neglects to lay well the foundations of his men-
tal training. If no practical result were to follow a medical education,
if it were not pursued, as it is, for the purposes of the medical art, I
believe that one who aspired to fit himself best to understand the
world in which he lives, and the men with whom he has to do, could
not do better than go through it ; for it would be an excellent founda-
tion on which to build afterward. The study of man cannot be under-
taken with any satisfaction, or carried out with any completeness,
except through a previous study of the nature of which he is the
present culmination ; it is certainly not possible to enter the chamber
of the mind without passing through the antechamber of the body ;
and we cannot understand the body unless we understand a good deal
of the processes and laws of Nature which lie beneath biology. So
far, then, Mr. Lowe appears to be right when he regrets, as he is in
the habit of doing, that he was taught so much classical knowledge
and no science when he was educated, and contrasts the disadvantages
under which he labored with the advantages which each student at a
middle-class school now enjoys. Newspaper critics think that he is
making jokes or firing off paradoxes, and would seemingly rather have
Mr. Lowe as he is than Mr. Lowe as he might or would have been ;
but I am disposed to think that Mr. Lowe's insight has enabled him
to see what his critics quite fail to see — that the statesman who has
to deal with the relations of men to one another in the world would
be better qualified for his work if he had a good fundamental knowl-
edge of the laws of man's nature and constitution, and of the laws of
the world in which he lives. The scientific statesman — when we get
him — will hardly deem it his highest achievement to shrink scared
from the grasp of a principle, or his supreme privilege and merit to
wait patiently to catch the fitful gusts of an ignorant public opinion.
The application of the principle which I have been enforcing, of
learning to know man through Nature, the thorough knowledge of his
environment, and of those of his relations to it which constitute his
life, must clearly be the foundation of a scientific medicine. Here, as
elsewhere, prevision for the purposes of action is our aim ; we observe
and infer in order to foresee, and, foreseeing, to modify and direct ;
we conquer by obeying, gaining a knowledge of the phenomena of
living beings in order to make ourselves masters of them, just as by a
knowledge of physics and chemistry we gain a mastery over the phe-
nomena of physical Nature. It is impossible to treat a 6ick person,

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except in the most lamely empirical fashion, without a knowledge of
the properties of the organism and of its relations to its environment ;
for our medical function is to remove the disorder of these relations,
which is disease, and to restore the harmony, which is health. In past
times it has been too much the practice to treat the body as if it were
an entirely independent kingdom, without regard to its essential rela-
tions with surrounding Nature, and to try to drive out the enemy
which was supposed to have taken possession of it, by pills and po-
tions, as barbarous nations try to drive him out by charms and cere-
monies. Now, however, in the recognition of the intimate and con-
stant relations between the organism and its surroundings, we are
awaking to juster views of 'our duties as observers, and of our work
as curers of disease ; but it is because of the absence yet of anything
like exact knowledge in this respect that medical practice is defec-
tive, tentative, empirical, often mere guess-work, and that the most
experienced physicians, waiting patiently on Nature, aim to do the
least harm by the drugs which they employ.

But we are perceiving more clearly, day by day, a larger applica-
tion of this principle of looking to the relations of man, to what is
around him as well as to what is within him, in the fulfillment of the
great purpose of preventing disease. It is in this direction that the
future course of medicine lies clearly open, and to this end that we
must work ; it will rise to the true height of its great vocation when
it watches over communities, and ministers to the welfare and devel-
opment of the race. I am apt to think that we shall attain to earlier
and larger success in preventing the diseases of communities than in
curing the diseases of the individual, as men who had been seeing
heavy bodies fall to the earth every moment of their lives discovered
the law of gravitation for the first time when they began to observe
the grand general motions of the heavenly bodies. Indeed, we have
already had encouraging success. Look through the yearly death-
list of this great city two hundred years ago, and you will find a large
proportion of deaths asciibed to diseases which have now been robbed
of their sting, if they are not quite extinct. Many persons died then,
as "that chief of men," Cromwell, did, from ague. Where is the
mortality of ague now? Ague has disappeared Avith the disappeai--
ance, through better drainage, of the damp fogs which occasioned it,
as ghosts and other superstitions haAre vanished with the disappear-
ance, before the light of knowledge, of the fogs of ignorance in which
they were engendered. Bloody-flux or dysentery seldom occurs now
in England, and is more seldom fatal, but it caused many deaths two
hundred years ago. The ravages of small-pox were then terrible,
hosts of victims being carried off by it, and many persons who escaped
death bearing its marks in blind eyes and hideously-scarred features ;
but I think we may foresee a time when,Keighley guardians notwith-
standing, small-pox will no more afflict a prudent people. Plague,

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 341

scurvy, and spotted fever, each of which then claimed regularly its
yearly tribute of victims, are becoming almost diseases of the past,
and one needs not a prophet's imagination to foresee a time when
cholera, scarlatina, fever, phthisis perhaps, and other diseases, will be
no more; when preventive medicine shall have reached such a degree
of perfection that the occurrence of epidemic disease will be felt as a
gross reproach to the community, and when there will be compara-
tively little for the practitioner to do in the treatment of particular
disease. It is unfortunate truly, as it is sadly unseasonable, that just
when we see before us this fairer prospect, and when an encouraging
beginning of progress has been made under the auspices of Mr. Simon
and his well-organized staff, he should have been driven from office
and his office abolished. But one instance more of the difficulties with
which progress has to contend from the selfish intrigues and obstruc-
tive apathy of mankind !

You may be disposed perhaps to smile at my outlook as fancifully
bright, and befitting only the imaginative flights of an introductory
lecture. From the beginning, it may be said, men have, through
unrestrained indulgence of their passions, generated disease, and how-
ever pure their surroundings may be made, they will go on doing the
same thing : were a clean sweep made of all disease from the face of
the earth to-morrow, they would breed it afresh before to-morrow's
morrow. No doubt, as they are constituted and trained at present,
they would be apt to do so ; but one may hope that the medical
science of the future — and here I would carry your imaginations a
little way with me — will have a great deal to say in the way of in-
struction respecting the highest concerns of man's nature, and the
conduct of his life ; that it will enter a domain which has hitherto
been given up exclusively to the moral philosopher and the preacher.
I don't propose or suppose that we shall ask these gentlemen to step
down from their platform, saying to them something of this kind:
" You have been preaching wisdom and goodness of conduct for
some thousands of years, and you haven't made much of it. Certainly
one result thus far is striking enough : that men are devoting their
eagerest energies to making the most destructive guns, and are con-
ferring their greatest honors and applause on those who use them
with the most destructive effects. For months, until quite lately, the
soil of Eastern Europe was deluged with blood, shed amid unspeak-
able atrocities, in an entirely needless war, which your statesmen,
presumably the highest products of the culture of your epoch, could
or would do nothing to check. Stand aside, then, and let us try our
method." To speak so would be as foolish as it would be arrogant ;
but we may perhaps, without undue presumption, promise them that,
if they will learn and use the results of our method, they will have a
deeper and more stable foundation in the constitution of human nature
for their teaching than they have now, and will add much to the effi-

3+2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cacy of it by enforcing motives which will touch more keenly the
springs of human conduct than those which they present. Now let me
indicate very briefly, as must needs be, the method by which medical
science is to advance to take possession of this higher ground.

Starting with the trite maxim that before we can act we must
learn, it is obvious that, before we can teach men to act with more
wisdom than they have done in the past, we must give them a better
knowledge of their own nature and relations than they have had.
This we propose to do by the patient and steadfast application of
the method of observation and induction, which has served us so well
in the subordinate branches of science, to the highest phenomena of
man's being — his thoughts, feelings, and conduct. The problem is the
same here, in fact, as in the lower sciences — to observe in order to
foresee, and to foresee in order to modify and direct ; and the method
is the same. Admitting, as I see not how we can help doing scien-
tifically, that a process of evolution has gone on in Nature, and that
man, as he now is, is a product of the past carrying on this process
in his progress to a higher purpose in the future, it is a natural con-
clusion that he must, as a part of Nature, be studied by the same
method as the rest of Nature. We have to search back and find out
how he came to be what he is by looking to the historical evolution
of the race from its earliest known conditions, and by tracing in the
development of the organism the operation of laws which we discover
at work under less complex conditions in the rest of Nature. When
we do that, we find the best reason to believe that the highest facul-
ties of his mind, his intellect, and his moral feelings, have not been
implanted ready-made in his nature at any period of its history, but
have been the slowly-won results of the accumulated experiences of
the race transmitted by hereditary action : that is the lesson which
observation and induction, applied to the investigation of the origin
and development of man's higher nature, teach with an authority
which cannot be gainsaid from any standpoint of positive knowledge.
I could have wished, had I had time, to have shown you how some
phenomena of mental disease, which may be looked upon in this rela-
tion as instructive expei'iments of Nature made for us in a domain
where we cannot make them for ourselves, confirm the induction
which has been reached by observation of human development, both
in the individual and in the race. But I must leave that unsaid, and
restrict myself to the conclusion as regards conduct which results
from the acknowledgment that the latest and best acquisitions of man
have come to him by a pi*ocess of ordinary development through the
ages. For the problem of to-day is truly no longer the schoolmen's
much-vexed question of the origin of evil, but the question of the
origin and growth of good. Our plain duty is to find out the laws
which have been at work in that process, and to continue it — to carry
on, by deliberate method, with conscious purpose, the development

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 343

which has been going on through past ages irregularly and blindly.
The time, in fact, has come when mankind should awake to the mo-
mentous reflection how great is the power which it may exert over its
own destiny, and to the resolution methodically to use it. In ful-
filling this paramount duty, upon whom will the function of inquiry
and instruction immediately rest, but upon those who make the laws
of vital development and function their study, and the application of
the knowledge to further the well-being and development of the or-
ganism their work? Clearly, the medical investigator need not lapse
into despair because he has no new conquests to make.

You will not be long in practice before you will have many occa-
sions to take notice how little people ever think of the power which
they have over their own destiny and over the destiny of those who
spring from them — how amazingly reckless they show themselves in
that respect. They have continually before their eyes the fact that
by care and attention the most important modifications may be pro-
duced in the constitution and character of the animals over which
they have dominion — that by selective breeding an animal may almost
be transformed in the course of generations; they perceive the strik-
ing contrast between the low savage with whom they shrink almost
from confessing kinship and the best specimens of civilized culture,
and know well that such as he is now such were their ancestors at one
time; they may easily, if they will, discover examples which show
that by ill living peoples may degenerate until they revert to a de-
graded state of barbarism, disclosing their former greatness only in
the magnitude of their moral ruins ; — and yet, seeing these things,
they never seriously take account of them, and apply to themselves
the lessons which lie on the surface. They behave in relation to the
occult laws which govern human evolution very much as primeval
savages behaved in relation to the laws of physical Nature of which
they were entirely ignorant — are content with superstitions where
they should strive to get understanding, and put up prayers where
they should exert intelligent will. They act altogether as if the
responsibility for human progress upon earth belonged entirely to
higher powers, and not at all to themselves. How much keener sense
of responsibility and stronger sentiment of duty they would have if
they only conceived vividly the eternity of action, good or ill ; if they
realized that under the reign of law on earth sin and error are inexo-
rably avenged, as virtue is vindicated, in its consequences; if they
could be brought to feel heartily that they are actually determining
by their conduct in their generation what shall be predetermined in
the constitution of the generation after them ! For assuredly the cir-
cumstances of one generation make much of the fate of the next.

In the department of medical practice in which my work mainly
lies I have this amazing recklessness strongly impressed upon me ; for
it occurs to me, from time to time, to be consulted about the propri-

344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ety of marriage by persons who have themselves suffered from insan-
ity, or whose families are strongly tainted with insanity. You will
not be surprised to hear, I dare say, that I don't think any one who
consults me under such circumstances ever takes my advice except
when it happens to accord with his inclination. The anxious inquirer
comes to get, if he can, the opinion which he wishes for, and, if he
does not get that, he goes away sorrowful, and does just what his
feelings prompt — that is, gets married when he has fallen in love, per-
suading himself that Nature will somehow make an exception to in-
exorable law in his favor, or that his love is sufficient justification of
a union in scorn of consequences. Certainly, I have never met with
so extreme a case as I chanced to light upon in a book a short time
ago. " I actually know a man," says the author, " who is so deeply
interested in the doctrine of crossing that every hour of his life is
devoted to the improvement of a race of bantam fowls and curious
pigeons, and who yet married a mad woman, whom he confines in a
garret, and by whom he has insane progeny." But I have met with
many instances which prove how little people are disposed to look
beyond their immediate gratification in the matter. If it were put to
two persons passionately in love with one another that they wyould
have children, one of whom would certainly die prematurely of con-
sumption, another become insane, and a third, perhaps, commit sui-
cide, or end his days in wrorkhouse or jail, I am afraid that in three
cases out of four they would not practise self-denial and prevent so
great calamities, but self-gratification, and vaguely trust "the uni-
versal plan will all protect ! "

Those who pay no regard in marriage to the evils which they
bring upon their children, or in their lives to the sins by which the
curse of a bad inheritance is visited upon them, may plead in excuse
or extenuation of themselves the vagueness and uncertainty of medi-
cal knowledge of the laws of hereditary action. We are unable to
give them exact and positive information when they apply to us, and
they naturally shelter themselves under the uncertainty. Were oui
knowledge exact, as we hope it will some day be, we could foretell
the result with positive certainty in each case, and so speak with more
weight of authority. It is one of the first and most pressing tasks
■of medical inquiry to search and find out the laws of heredity, mental
:and bodily, in health and in disease, and, having discovered exactly
what they are, to apply the knowledge purposely to the improvement
of the race — that is, to prevent its retrogression and to promote its
progress through the ages. I see no reason to doubt that by discov-
ery of these laws and intelligent practical use of our discoveries we
might in the fullness of time produce, if not a higher species of beings
than we are, a race of beings, at any rate, as superior to us as we are
superior to our primeval ancestors ; the imagination of men seems,
indeed, in the gods which they have created for themselves, to have

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 345

given form to a forefeeling of this higher development. But I will
not pursue this pregnant matter further now ; I have touched upon it
only for the purpose of illustrating the large scope of the medical
work of the future, which is to discover those laws which have heen
in operation through the past to make man the superior heing which
he is, and to determine his future action in intelligent conformity
with them ; not only to cure disease of body and mind, as it has
aimed to do in the past, and to prevent disease, as its larger aim now
is, but to carry on the development of his nature, moral, intellectual,
and physical, to its highest reach.

So much, then, concerning the three topics on which I have pro-
posed to myself to discourse in this lecture — namely, the nobility of
your direct function as healers of disease, the excellence of the method
of medical study as a means of intellectual and moral training, and
its fruitfulness in benefits to mankind, and the grandeur and the
reach of its aspirations for the future. Let me hope that I have, in
fulfillment of my design, said enough to satisfy you that you have
made a good choice of a profession for your life's work. Having
chosen, it remains only that you should justify your choice by your
work, so that it may be said of each of you, when his long day's task
is over and the night has come, that he was in his right position in
the world, and made a right good use of it. Life has its three stages
— youth, manhood, and old age ; let it be your anxious care now, in
the first stage of joy and hope, so to pass the second stage of work
and duty that the last stage may not be a long regret.

I will ask your indulgence only for a few minutes more, while I
detain you for one or two final reflections of what I may call an
inhibitory character. In pursuing resolutely the course of scientific
inquiry which I have indicated, it must needs be that offenses some-
times occur, for we can hardly fail to come into collision with some
of the prejudices and traditions of mankind. I do not know how it
is possible, for instance, to prosecute the physiological investigation
of mind to its farthest reach without shaking the foundations of the
metaphysical notions which have been held concerning it and its
functions ; and with the fall of these notions, long cherished of man-
kind, other notions that are bound up with them may totter to their
fall. But, if this must be, we shall do well to acknowledge it more
in sorrow than in anger. Let us not rush with eager fury and exult-
ant clamor to the work of destruction ; it behooves us, as products of
the past, who will one day ourselves constitute the past, to deal gen-
tly and even reverently with it. We cannot break with it if we
would, nor should we if we could. The very language which we use
we owe to the slow acquisitions of generations which have preceded
us ; we cannot compassionate or contemn them except in words for
which we are indebted to them. There is hardly a word I have used
in this lecture which, were its history searched out, does not mean

346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

generations of human culture to which we are heirs. Seems it not,
then, a wicked, almost a sacrilegious, thing to hasten with eager glad-
ness to repudiate the past to which we owe everything, and to exult
over the ruins of its beliefs ? It is as if a son should rejoice over his
father's feebleness, uncover his nakedness, and make scorn of his in-
firmities. As he who has been the best son is in turn the best father,
so the generation which guards with respect the good which there is
in the past, and puts gently aside that which is effete, will make the
most stable progress in its day, and transmit the best inheritance to
the generation which follows it. No doubt in the future, as in the
past, the knowledge of one period will sometimes appear foolishness
at a more advanced period of human evolution — the truth of one age
become the laughing-stock of the next ; but we may profitably reflect
that decaying doctrine had its use in its day, and it may teach us mod-
esty to consider that much which has its place in our mental organi-
zation now, and is serving its proper end in the development thereof,
will one day probably be put aside as obsolete belief. Let it be
our prayer that when that day comes, and this generation comes up
for critical judgment as an historical study before the tribunal of pos-
terity, it may be justly said of it that it has done as much for the
progress of mankind as some of the generations upon which the wisest
of us look back, perhaps, with indulgent compassion, and the unwise
anions: us with foolish scorn.

There is nothing in the attitude of modern society toward science,
cold and suspicious as it may sometimes be, which necessitates or
warrants an arrogant, defiant, and aggressive spirit of hostility on its
side. No great courage is required nowadays to declare a new truth,
however hostile it may be to received belief, nor is any serious suffer-
ing entailed by the declaration ; there is no need, therefore, for a sci-
entific man to put on the airs of a martyr. He is a very little mar-
tyr who is persecuted only by the pens of unfriendly critics, and
rather a pitiful object when he sits down by the wayside, and calls
upon all them that pass by to behold and see how hardly he is used.
It was very different when Science first made its voice heard ; when,
under the cruel persecutions of the Inquisition, Galileo unsaid with
his tongue truths which his heart could not unsay, and that grand
figure in the noble army of scientific martyrs, Giordano Bruno, went
calmly and resolutely to the stake rather than utter one word of re-
tractation. The saddest contemplation in the world, perhaps, is that
of the brave who, like him, have died fighting in the battle for the
cause that seemed to perish with them ; whose lives of suffering and
sore travail have set, often through cruel tortures, in black clouds of
gloom which no ray of hope could penetrate. Theirs was not the
laurel crown of victory after the agony of the struggle ; no popular
applause, no encouraging shout, greeted their ears as they sank down
exhausted in death ; the shouts which they heard were shouts of exe-

MEDICAL PROFESSION IN MODERN THOUGHT. 347

cration, and their crown was the martyr's crown of thorns. We have,
happily, fallen on better days ; the secrets which we win from Na-
ture Ave may proclaim without fear, and in the confident assurance
that, after being proved and tried, they will be accepted ; we are
fighting a winning fight, and the stars in their courses are with us.
What cause, then, for arrogant self-assertion, overbearing aggression,
and willful determination to seek occasions of offense ? The advan-
tages of our position and strength entail the responsibility of mod-
eration and forbearance, for the strength is not our own — it is the
power of the universe working in us to its higher ends.

One may esteem science duly, then, without feeling sympathy with
the aggressive delight with which some persons accentuate its hostil-
ity to expiring doctrines, and exult in the overthrow of articles of
faith which have sustained and solaced multitudes of men in. the dark
hours of life and in the darker hour of death. It can be no pleasure
to a generous nature, inevitable though it be, to shatter the faith of
even the poor Indian, who, driven from his hunting-grounds by the
inexorable fate of a stronger race, looks upward with feeble faith to a
Great Spirit, and forward with dim hope to the happy hunting-grounds
far away where the sun goes down. To aspire to be the first to pro-
claim the downfall of a position of refuge to which men have clung
with passionate earnestness for many generations seems to show " a
pitiful ambition in the fool who uses it," a singular blindness to the
essential continuity of development, a strange ignorance of what is
the final end of all science. A scientific discovery is a very good
thing in its way, but it is only a means to an end, after all — the im-
provement of man's estate — that is to say, his moral and intellectual
as well as his material state ; and when he who has been happy enough
to discover a new metal or a new star or a new cell or a new salt
magnifies himself mightily, and fondly dreams of an immortal fame,
one cannot help some such feeling of the ludicrous as would be raised
by the spectacle of a hodman who, having carried his brick to the
building in course of construction, should call upon all the world to
take notice of the wonderful work which he had done in architecture.
Science has yet to realize, at any rate its cultivators seem oftentimes
to forget, that its end must be constructive ; that after analysis must
come synthesis ; that all the analytical work in the world will leave
matters in a chaotic state until the constructive spirit, moving over
their surface, shall organize the incoherent results, and make them
serve for a higher social development. The problem is to make
straight in the future a highway over which mankind may pass to a
higher life. The philosopher who, with far-reaching eye, overlooks
the relations of sciences ; the poet who reveals subtilties of human
feeling, gives lofty utterance to human sympathies with Nature, and
infuses nobler aspirations into men ; the preacher of human brotherhood
who, inspired with strong moral feeling, proclaims the lessons of self-

348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

renunciation and of duty to neighbor — these are brighter stars in the
firmament of human genius than the scientific discoverer. The dis-
covery of the law of gravitation is the grandest attainment of scientific
thought ; but can we justly compare the effects of that generaliza-
tion upon human interests and happiness with the elevating influence
which is exerted by the poetry of Isaiah or of Shakespeare upon mul-
titudes throughout the world ; which is perhaps being felt at this very
moment by fireside or on sick-bed in distant lands — by the solitary
dweller on the skirts of the vast forests of Western America, in the
great lone land of Canada, in the farthest depths of the Australian
bush ? Science has not rendered the philosopher, the poet, and the
moral teacher superfluous, nor will it ever supersede them ; on the
contrary, it will have need of them to attain to its own perfect work-
ing to the bettering of man's estate ; and it may well seem to some
that the time lias come when its manifold scattered and somewhat
anarchical results should be penetrated by the synthetic insight of the
philosopher, be embodied in forms of beauty by the poet's imagina-
tion, and utilized by the moral teacher to guide and promote the
progress of mankind. So long as man sees splendor in the starry
heavens, beauty in the aspects of Nature, grandeur and glory in self-
sacrifice, so long will he feel that his brief conscious life is but a mo-
mentary wavelet on the vast ocean of the unconscious ; that there is
in him the yearning of something deeper than knowledge, which
" cometh from afar," and which the labored acquisitions of science
will ever fail to satisfy.

♦*•

ABOUT SHARKS.

SHARKS are usually spoken of as the most rapacious and abhorrent
of sea-animals. That they are rapacious is undeniable, but why
they are so is not generally considered. We will go a little into the
matter. The shark, a fish of the family Sqitalidce, when quite in his
infant state, and only a few inches in length, exhibits a pugnacity al-
most without parallel for his age. He will attack fish two or three
times larger than himself; or, if caught, and placed for observation
on the deck of a vessel, he resents handling, and, with unerring pre-
cision, strikes a finger placed on almost any part of his body.

Two things contribute to the shark's determinate fierceness. In
the first place, we may refer to his teeth, for of these engines of de-
struction Nature has been to him particularly bountiful ; and this
species of bounty he has a peculiar pleasure in exercising. If he
could speak, he would probably tell us that, besides being troubled
with his teeth, which he could not help keeping in use, lie had been
gifted with enormous abdominal viscera, and that, more particularly,

ABOUT SHARKS. 349

a third of his body is occupied by spleen and liver. The bile and
other digestive juices which are secreted from such an immense appa-
ratus, and poured coutinually into the stomach, tend to stimulate
appetite prodigiously — and what hungry animal with good teeth was
ever tender-hearted ? In truth, a shark's appetite can never be
appeased ; for, in addition to this bilious diathesis, he is not a careful
masticator, but, hastily bolting his food, produces thereby not only
the moroseness of indigestion, but a whole host of parasites, which
goad as well as irritate the intestines to that degree that the poor
squalus is sometimes quite beside himself for the torment, and rushes,
like a blind Polyphemus, through the waves in search of anything to
cram down his maw that may allay such urgent distress. He does
not seek to be cruel, but is cruelly famished. " It is not I," expostu-
lates the man in the crowd, "that is pushing; it is others behind me."
The poor wretch must satisfy, not only his own ravenous appetite,
but the constant demand of these internal parasites, either with dead
or living food ; and therefore it is that, sped as from a catapult, he
pounces on a quarry, and sometimes gorges himself beyond what he
is able to contain.

Having said thus much of the rapacious habits of the Squalidce,
we would have it remembered that every man's hand is against them,
and that no tortures are considered too severe to inflict upon them
when caught. If they are relentless to man and every living thing
around them, their insatiable appetite renders them equally destruc-
tive to their own species, and we of the white population of this
globe ought to recollect, with some show of gratitude, that they al-
ways prefer an African to a European ; for, although they are fond of
men of any color, a negro is to them as the choicest venison. Com-
merson tells us that one of the atrocious amusements practised on
board slave-ships was to suspend a dead negro from the bowsprit, in
order to watch the efforts of the sharks to reach him, and this they
would sometimes effect»at a height of more than twenty feet above
the level of the sea. Wonderful are the tales that sailors tell of the
various things that have been found in a shark's stomach, and it was
thought that any substance that would enter its mouth was at all
times acceptable. The following, which details a cruel trick, as de-
scribed in the Glasgoio Observer, dispels this illusion : " Looking
over the bulwarks of the schooner," writes a correspondent to this
journal, " I saw one of these watchful monsters winding lazily back-
ward and forward like a long meteor ; sometimes rising till his nose
disturbed the surface, and a gushing sound like a deep breath rose
through the breakers ; at others, resting motionless on the water, as
if listening to our voices, and thirsting for our blood. As we were
watching the motions of this monster, Bruce (a little lively negro,
and my cook) suggested the possibility of destroying it. This was
briefly to heat a fire-brick in the stove, wrap it up hastily in some old

350 THE POPULAR SCIENGE MONTHLY.

greasy cloths, as a sort of disguise, and then to heave it overboard.
This was the work of a few minutes; and the effect was triumphant.
The monster followed after the hissing prey. We saw it dart at the
brick like a flash of lightning, and gorge it instanter. The shark rose
to the surface almost immediately, and his uneasy motions soon
betrayed the success of the manoeuvre. His agonies became terrible ;
the waters appeared as if disturbed by a violent squall, and the spray
was driven over the taffrail where we stood, while the gleaming body
of the fish repeatedly burst through the dark waves, as if writhing
with fierce and terrible convulsions. Sometimes we thought we heard
a shrill, bellowing cry, as if indicative of anguish and rage, rising
through the gurgling waters. His fury, however, was soon ex-
hausted ; in a short time the sounds broke away into distance, and
the agitation of the sea subsided. The shark had given himself up
to the tides, as unable to struggle against the approach of death, and
they were carrying his body unresistingly to the beach."

Crouch, in his "Fishes of the British Islands," would indirectly
claim some apology for the habits of the shark tribe ; in reference to
which he asks why the lion and the eagle should occupy the elevated
places they do in popular estimation, as the king of beasts and mon-
arch of the air. They live by the exercise of powers similar to those
of the sharks, and if insatiable appetites are to take precedence,
sharks ought to stand in the foremost rank.

The appearance of sharks occasionally upon our coast naturally
creates a certain panic among bathers ; and we may trace the break-
age of the nets of our fishermen to their presence, among other
causes. The six-gilled shark, or gray shark, is sometimes eleven or
twelve feet in length, and is very destructive among the pilchards on
the Cornish coast. The white shark is a formidable fellow ; but al-
though his class occasionally send over to our isles deputations of one
or two, we have, fortunately, not had to record of late years such a
visitation as that of 1785, when hundreds appeared in the British
Channel. This individual is, perhaps, the most formidable of all the
inhabitants of the ocean. Ruysch says that the whole body of a
man, and even a man in armor, has been found in the body of a white
shark. Captain King, in his " Survey of Australia," says he caught one
which could have swallowed a man with the greatest ease. Blumen-
bach says a whole horse has been found in it ; and Captain Basil Hall
reports the taking of one, in which, besides other things, he found
the whole skin of a buffalo, which a short time before had been
thrown overboard from his ship. The blue shark is a horrible nui-
sance to the fishermen, but, fortunately, it is with us only in summer,
when it makes itself known by hunting after the fish entangled in the
nets, which it does by seizing both fish and net with its keen and ser-
rated teeth, and swallowing fish and mesh together. As it is not
always pleasant to have sharks following a ship, it cannot be too well

ABOUT SHARKS. 35i

known that a bucket or two of bilge-water has been known to drive
them off.

The shark tribe are remarkably retentive of life, and instances are
related which would be almost beyond belief, if not vouched for by
numbers of witnesses. For instance, an individual was caught with a
line ; its liver was cut out, and the bowels left hanging from the body,
in which state the sailors, as an object of abhorrence, threw it into the
sea. But it continued near the boat ; and not long afterward it pur-
sued and attempted to devour a mackerel that had escaped from the
net. In another instance, a shark was thrown overboard after the
head had been severed from the body ; after which, for a couple of
hours, the body continued to use the efforts of swimming in various
directions — to employ the conjecture of a boy among the crew — as it
it were looking for its head. Next, we have the thrasher, which has
obtained the name of fox-shark, because of the shape of its tail. The
title of thrasher, however, is most appropriate, from its habit of lash-
ing the sea with its tail, by which it has been known to put to flight a
herd of sportive dolphins, and even to fill the whale with terror. The
porbeagle is another of the shark tribe, and is a common visitor on
the western coasts in summer. Then follows that too plentiful and
rapacious fish, the toper, known likewise as the white-hound, penny-
dog, or miller-dog. However, as it swims deep, it does not do so
much injury to the fishermen's nets as some of its congeners. Then
we have the smooth-hound, or ray-mouthed dog, or skate-toothed
shark, which are presumed to come from considerable distances^ from
the kind of hooks sometimes found in them, which resemble those used
on the coast of Spain. They feed upon crustaceous animals, but will
take a bait. The picked-dog, spur-dog, or bone-dog, but commonly
known as the dog-fish, is the smallest, but unquestionably the most
numerous of the shark tribe. It frequents our coasts all the year
round, and even in the severest weather. Then there are the spinous
shark, and Greenland shark, which will not be driven away from feed-
ing upon the blubber of a stranded, half-immersed whale, although
pierced with spears, but come again to the oleaginous banquet while
a spark of life exists. The basking-shark also, occasionally, casts up
on our coasts. It is of a large size, is capable of breaking a six-inch
hawser, and is only taken with considerable difficulty. Then we have
the rashleigh shark, the broad-headed gazer, and the hammer-head or
balance-fish, which may be said to complete the list of these occasional
unwelcome visitors to our shores.

And now that we have said so much that is prejudicial to the
Squalidce or shark community, let us see what we have as a set-off in
their favor. As a food for man, the toper is found exposed for sale
in the markets at Rome ; and in Paris, that city of gastronomy, the
small kinds of shark, when divested of their tantalizing titles, are to
be detected as entries in the menu of many of the most distinguished

352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

families. For some years, the dog-fish has afforded lucrative employ-
ment during the whole of the summer to the fishermen from the Naze
to the Cape. It is, however, mostly smoked, and in this way is con-
sidered rather a delicacy. It is also dried and split as stock-fish for
consumption in the country, as well as for export to Sweden, where it
is greatly appreciated. It is likewise elsewhere a common article of
food, amid the choice of a variety of other fish, especially in the west
of England, and, indeed, is valued by some who are far above the
necessity of classing it with their ordinary articles of subsistence. It
is used both fresh and salted, but, when eaten fresh, it is skinned before
being cooked. Lacipede, who speaks slightingly of its flesh, informs
us that, in the north of Europe, the eggs, which are about the size of
a small orange, and consist solely of a pale-colored yolk, are in high
esteem. If prejudice could be got over, there is no doubt they would
form an agreeable as well as a nourishing article of food, as a substitute
for other eggs in our domestic economy.

The shark-fishery is carried on in many parts of the Indian Ocean,
and on the eastern coast of Africa, and recently it has been pursued
on the coast of Norway. About Kurrachee, in India, as many as
40,000 sharks are taken in the year. The back-fins are much es-
teemed as a food delicacy in China, from 7,000 to 10,000 of these being
shipped to that empire annually from Bombay. In Norway and Ice-
land the inhabitants make indiscriminate use of every species capt-
ured, hanging up the carcasses for a whole year, like hams, that the
flesh.may become mellow. The liver, however, appears to be strictly
prohibited everywhere, as a dangerous article of food.

Mr. N. Brabazon, in his " Fisheries of Ireland," in allusion to the
large shoals of sharks which pass annually along the west coast, on
their way from the southern to the northern seas, speaks particularly
of the basking shark : " These fish are worth from £35 to £50 each ;
and when so many as five hundred have been killed in one season, this
class of fishing should be well attended to for the short season it lasts,
if the weather is favorable to it, especially as it is at a time when other
fish are out of season. The fishermen have a superstition that the fish
will leave the coast if the bodies of those caught were brought to the
shore." Mr. P. L. Simmons, in his " Waste Products and Undevel-
oped Substances," gives almost incredible statistics of the vast amount
of fish-refuse which is either left to rot on the coasts and putrefy the
air, or thrown back into the sea unutilized, both on our own and on
foreign shores ; and he significantly points to its value as a manure
not far inferior to guano, of which this country alone requires 200,000
tons a year, and pays upward of £22,000,000. Would it not, there-
fore, be wise for enterprise and capital to begin to turn more at-
tention to the manufacture of fish-guano, of which the debris of the
North American fisheries, and those of the North Sea, would furnish
ample material ? — Chambers^ Journal.

SETTLEMENTS OF THE PACIFIC CO A ST. 353
ABORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST.

Br PAUL SCHUMACHER.

IF we investigate the condition of the ground ivpon which we now
find the ruined settlements of a former people on this coast, it can-
not fail to convince us either that all such stations had been established
on sandy ground, or that the ground had been artificially changed bv
sand carried thither when it was rocky or hard. Sandy soil wras a
necessity, that they might employ their rude and imperfect tools in
the erection of houses partially dug in the ground and surrounded by
embankments. It was also a requirement for cleanliness and health,
owing to its absorption of moisture in the rainy season. Overgrown
or firm sandy ground was preferable to bare, loose sand ; but even the
drifting dunes offered them a better choice than the dark humus in-
termixed with rock. Other requirements of a well-located rancheria
were : proximity of potable water, a commanding view, the outlying

Fig. 1.

rocks bearing eatable mollusks, fish in the adjoining kelpy wraters,
and game in the neighboring country. Water in small rivulets and
springs was preferable to larger streams and rivers, unless these were
stocked with fish. A commanding view was subordinate to the con-
dition of the soil and the proximity of water, especially on the islands
in Santa Barbara Channel, where no surprising enemy was to be
guarded against; there a small boat-landing was one of the main con-
siderations, because the islander's sustenance was mainly derived from
vol. x. — 23

354

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fishing, hunting: on the water, and barter with the dwellers on the
mainland. To gather shell-fish the aborigines often went long dis-
tances, which called into existence temporary camps wherein we
hardly find anything but layers of shells and some burned beach-
rocks, indicating former fireplaces, scattered in small clusters over
their surface. The mollusks, after their shells had been removed,
were dried in such temporary camps for easier transportation to dis-
tant villages.

But let us examine one of the sites of such aboriginal villages,
commonly termed " shell-heaps " or " shell-mounds," bleached shells
being by far the larger and more conspicuous part of their remains.
I will select one of the many stations which I have investigated for
the Smithsonian Institution during recent years. Its location is near
a narrow inlet, called Tinker's Cove, on the island of Santa Cruz, one
of the group in the Santa Barbara Channel {see Fig. 1). It possesses
all the requirements of an aboriginal settlement, only the game-ground

Height 100 Ft. To I Inch. Distance 200. Ft Toil nch

// ' j? -^t^ " I- -/•:■ vz/i.- VH---:i^<>/ --/■:^'\//'//M'<-

100

zoo

300 ■ AGO

Fig. 2.

soo

600

700 FEET S0-<

is wanting, as no animals save a small gray fox, and several species
of land-birds, exist on the islands. The ground upon which the station
is located is of a rocky, irregular structure, mostly bare and destitute
of vegetation ; a cove, affording an excellent boat-landing, adjoins to
the westward of it ; outlying rocks, of which but few appear in the
sketch, are covered with edible shell-fish ; a mass of kelp and sea-
weed grows in the adjoining waters, and is thickly stocked with fish ;
a spring of potable water is found in the deepest part of the cove.
Sand is found only at a distance of between four and five hundred
yards to the eastward, in a small hidden beach of the narrow fiord
of Tinker's Cove, which is of very difficult access by land, as the sides
of the inlet form walls of over one hundred feet in height, and in
larger quantities farther away to the westward of the station. It is,

SETTLEMENTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 355

therefore, evident that the layer of sand covering its rocky ground is
artificial, and placed there by the aborigines, not a natural deposit
accumulated by drifts, etc. The mound begins at the brink of the
bluff, some thirty feet above high-water mark, and extends back over
a flat of a little more than one hundred yards, toward the ascending
hill, diminishing gradually in height, and ceasing' entirely before the
rocky outcroppings are reached, whence the ground rises rapidly into
a ridge, forming a spur of the backbone of the island {see Fig. 2). In-
vestigation revealed the artificial formation to consist of a layer of
shells, most of which are still found among the living species on the
island, bones of fish, sea-fowl, seal, and sea-lions, and whales, dogs and
foxes, and a great mass of cobble-stones of all sizes, especially of the
size of a fist as used for fireplaces, and chippings of different varieties
of chert, chalcedony, jasper, quartz, etc. — rocks suitable for the manu-
facture of knives, arrow-heads, spear-points, and other cutting tools,
which do not occur in situ on the island and had to be imported. The
whole is mixed with a large quantity of sand, reaching to a depth of
about five feet at its deepest part, where formerly the dwellings stood.
Underneath the layer of animal remains, the kjokken muddings — kitch-
en-middens or cooking debris — of a former people, pure sand is met
in which we find but few valves of an edible shell-fish, or beach-rocks
showing marks of fire, or such marks as are made by human hands, and
were probably introduced while the dwelling-mound was raised pre-

FlG. 3

paratory to the erection of the hut. The sand — which was either car-
ried there overland, or in canoes from some neighboring sand-bank —
attains a depth of about three to four feet, and is deepest around the
circular depressions of the house-sites, indicating the embankments
which had been raised around the huts. The section, Fig. 3, repre-
sents a site of a former dwelling as now found, and its original depth,
as indicated by broken lines, may occasionally be traced by still re-
maining upright boards of the former subterranean inclosure. After
the erection of the dwellings, the accumulation of the kjokken mod-
dings began to spread all over the town-site, but was kept imbedded
in sand by fresh supplies, thus raising the level of the village gradu-
ally, and increasing the depth of the subterranean part of the hut
until the latter was deserted, or built over with a new structure.

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Near the houses, where in all probability the cooking debris had
first been deposited, it is now and then found in heaps almost desti-
tute of sand ; but, no doubt, after a large quantity had thus been ac-
cumulated, it was spread over the ground of the town, evened, and
smoothed by layers of sand. The proportion of sand mixed with the
cooking debris is about one-half the weight of the whole mass. The
size of a town-site varies from about 100 metres in length and width,
like the one illustrated in the figure, to 1,200 metres, or three-quarters
of a mile, in length, and from 100 to 300 metres in width, the extent
of Os-bi, a rancheria in Santa Barbara County, about five miles south
of Point Sal, which is the largest shell-mound derived from permanent
habitation thus far explored on this coast.

The same features of an aboriginal settlement we observe in Ore-
gon, 1,000 miles to the north. If we take, for instance, the ruined
settlement of the Chetl-e-shin, situated on the commanding elevation of
the north bank, and near the mouth of Pistol River : in front the
wide ocean expands, with a number of large outlying rocks; Pistol
River washes the base of the bluff upon which the station is situated ;
its waters are stocked with trout, and, in certain seasons, abundantly
with salmon ; to the left, or eastward, a mountain-brook empties into
the river at the foot of the rancheria, and a spring issues between the
upper and lower town-sites ; back of the coast the country extends in
a gradual rise toward a steep and heavily-timbered ridge, beyond
which it becomes almost impenetrable, owing to thick forests and
their undergrowth, and vines, the safe home of elk and bear. The
rocky ground upon which the town was located is covered with a
deposit of sand, of Which the neighboring beach offers an abundance,
and kjokken moddings of great age in its lower layers, with that
peculiar mouldy, ash-like appearance, sprinkled with particles of de-
cayed shells, so characteristic of an aboriginal settlement.

It is evident that such a ground, needing artificial foundation for
the establishment of a town, was not suitable either for a burying-
ground site; we must, therefore, look for the graves of these people
within the artificial mounds. There is an exception to this when the
ground is naturally sandy, or soft ; then we must look for the graves
within an easy distance, say about 150 metres, in some prominent
place and in sight of the rancheria. The graves consist of a pit vary-
ing between two and fifteen metres square, and not over two metres
in depth, partitioned into smaller spaces by whales' bones and slabs
of stone, or by wood. On the islands the gigantic bones of the whale
are almost exclusively used; while, on the neighboring mainland,
limestone, which splits board-like into slabs, and also whales' bones,
and pine and red-wood, are used. Graves of this description have
been found in California south of San Francisco, while in Oregon the
mode of burial is different, the interment being either made in de-
tached graves, or in houses previously demolished by fire.

SKETCH OF SIR WILLIAM THOMSON. 357

SKETCH OF SIR WILLIAM THOMSON.

rriHIS distinguished physicist and mathematician was born in Bel-
-L fast, in June, 1824. His father, Dr. James Thomson, was a
man of large capacity and culture, who studied in the Glasgow Uni-
versity, became head-master of the Belfast Academical Institution,
and in 1832 was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the University
of Glasgow. He made various improvements in mathematics, and
wrote books upon education. William passed through the Glasgow
University early, and then entei-ed St. Peter's College, Cambridge,
from which he graduated as second wrangler in 1845, and he was im-
mediately elected Fellow of his college. He afterward went to Paris,
and worked in the laboratory of Regnault. In 1846, at the early age
of twenty-two, he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in
the University of Glasgow, a position which he has filled with dis-
tinction, and still occupies.

Sir William Thomson's earliest contributions to physical science
were on the subject of heat, the laws of its motions being treated
mathematically. A remarkable paper on "The Uniform Motion of
Heat in Homogeneous Solid Bodies," written at the age of seventeen,
was full of original conceptions, but it was afterward found that Thom-
son had been anticipated in his ideas by Gauss, Chasles, and George
Green, of Nottingham. In 1842 he published an important paper on
" The Linear Motion of Heat," which contained a method of deriving
% geological dates from underground temperatures, a subject which he
treated in his inaugural address, in entering upon his professorship
at the university.

It will be impossible here to give any account of the numerous
contributions to science made, by Sir William Thomson, as they were
generally of so mathematical a cast as to be unintelligible to ordinary
readers. His papers on " Electro-Statics " and on " Magnetism " were
collected and published in 1872, in a valuable volume of six hundred
pages. The more interesting aspects of his work have been well de-
scribed by a writer in Nature, and we cannot do better than to quote
some passages from his notice :

"His electrostatic researches led Thomson to the invention of very beautiful
instruments for electrostatic measurement. The subject of electrostatic meas-
urement occupied much of his attention from the very earliest, when he was
obliged to call attention to the defects of the electrometers of Snow Harris.
Hi3 labors in this direction have produced the quadrant electrometer, which is
employed for all kinds of electric testing in telegraph construction, and for the
registration of atmospheric electricity at Kew Observatory ; the portable elec-
trometer, for atmospheric electricity and for other purposes, in which the
extreme sensitiveness of the quadrant-electrometer is not required ; and the abso-

358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lute electrometer, which serves for reducing the scale-readings of other instru-
ments to absolute measure, and which was used by Thomson in his measurement
of the electrostatic force producible by a Daniell's battery and in many other
investigations. Those who have seen the collection of electrometers in the Loan
Collection at South Kensington will not think it too much to say that to Sir "W.
Thomson is due our present system of practical electrometry.

" But while thus engaged in investigations in electrostatics and magnetism,
there were many other branches of science that were receiving from him
advancement in a not less remarkable way. There is no part of his work of
higher importance than his investigations on the Dynamical Theory of Heat.
These were communicated in a series of papers to the Eoyal Society of Edin-
burgh, the first of which was given in 1849. It was a critical account of Car-
not's memoir of 1824, 'Eeflexions sur la Fuissance Motrice du Feu.' Though
Eumford and Davy had, in the beginning of this century, experimentally dis-
proved the material theory of heat, their experiments and arguments were un-
heeded and nearly unknown; and it was only after 1843, when Joule actually
determined the dynamical equivalent of heat, that the great truth that heat is a
mode of motion was admitted and appreciated. Thus Carnot, although dissatis-
fied with it, was obliged to adopt the material theory of heat in 1824; and, re-
garding heat as indestructible, spoke of the letting down of the heat from a
higher to a lower temperature, and looked on the production of work by the
heat-engine as a phenomenon analogous to that in which water, descending from
a higher to a lower level, does work by means of a water-wheel. Thomson,
among the first to appreciate the importance of Joule's results, set himself to
alter the theory given by Carnot into agreement with the true theory ; and in
the series of papers referred to, placed the whole science of thermodynamics
on a thoroughly scientific basis. In 1846 he first suggested the reckoning of
temperature on an absolute thermodynamic scale independent of the properties
of any particular substance. Subsequently, in consequence of experimental in-
vestigations of the thermodynamic properties of air, and other gases, made in
conjunction with Joule, he showed how to define a thermodynamic scale of tem-
perature having the convenient property that air-thermometers and other gas-
thermometers agree with it as closely as they agree with one another. This
system of reckoning temperature gives great facility for the simple expression
of thermodynamic principles and results.

"Having here mentioned Joule and Thomson together, we cannot omit to
remark that somo of the most admirable researches in thermodynamics were
those undertaken in conjunction by these two attached friends.

"Among the many important results of Sir W. Thomson's investigations in
thermodynamics, one of the most remarkable was his discovery of the principle
of dissipation of energy, announced by him in 1852. During any transforma-
tion of energy of one form into energy of another form there is always a certain
amount of energy rendered unavailable for further useful application. No known
process in Nature is exactly reversible, that is to say, there is no known process
by which we can convert a given amount of energy of one form into energy of
another form, and then, reversing the process, reconvert the energy of the sec-
ond form thus obtained into the original quantity of energy of the first form.
In fact, during any transformation of energy from one form into another, there
is always a certain portion of the energy changed into heat iu the process of
conversion; and the heat thus produced becomes dissipated and diffused by ra-
diation and conduction.

SKETCH OF SIR WILLIAM THOMSON. 359

" Consequently, there is a tendency in Nature for. all the energy in the uni-
verse, of whatever kind it be, gradually to assume the form of heat, and, having
done so, to become equally diffused. Now, were all the energy of the universe
converted into uniformly-diffused heat, it would cease to be available for pro-
ducing mechanical effect, since for that purpose we must have a hot source and
a cooler condenser. This gradual degradation of energy is perpetually going on ;
and sooner or later, unless there be some restorative power, of which we at
present have no knowledge whatever, the present state of things must come to
an end.

"In 1854 Faraday, with an experimental cable, investigated the cause of the
retardation of signals first observed in the working of the cable between Har-
wich and the Hague. Thomson, taking up the question, published an investiga-
tion of the nature of the phenomenon, one practical result of which was that
with cables similar in lateral dimensions the retardations are proportional to
the squares of the lengths. This law is now commonly referred to as the ' law of
squares.' About this time it was proposed to construct a cable to connect Eng-
land with America ; and it became obvious that the discovery of the retardation
of signals raised a question whether the transatlantic cable would not prove a
commercial failure. Whitehouse, experimenting with 1,125 miles of cable,
found the transmission of an instantaneous signal to the farther end of the
cable to occupy one second and a half. The length of a cable required to con-
nect Ireland with Newfoundland is twice that of the experimental cable of
"Whitehouse; and thus, according to the law of squares, the time taken to trans-
mit an instantaneous signal through a cable similar in lateral dimensions to
that of Whitehouse, and joining those two places, would be no less than six sec-
onds. In 1856 Whitehouse read a paper before the British Association, in which
he described experiments by which he hoped to disprove the law of squares.
Thomson replied in the Athenceum (November 1, 1856); and subsequent experi-
ments have established the correctness of his law.

"Fortunately a true understanding of the nature of the phenomenon of re-
tardation led Prof. Thomson to the method of overcoming the difficulties pre-
sented. The disturbance produced at the extremity of a long submarine cable
by the application for an instant of electromotive force at the other end is not,
as in the case of a signal through an overhead land-line, a pulse, practically in-
finitely short, and received only a minute fraction of a second after it was com-
municated. Instead of this, a long wave is observed at the farther extremity,
gradually swelling in intensity, and as gradually dying away. Its duration for
such a cable as we have been speaking of would be the whole six seconds, cal-
culated from the experiments of Whitehouse. Prof. Thomson perceived that an
instrument was required which should give an indication of a signal received
long before the wave has acquired its maximum intensity, and in which the sub-
sequent rising to maximum intensity should not render unreadable a fresh signal
sent quickly after the previous one. This was effected by his ' mirror galva-
nometer ; ' and it was by means of it that the messages transmitted through the
1858 Atlantic cable were read.

" The 1858 cable, submerged under difficulties that many times threatened to
be insurmountable, soon failed. Several important messages were, however,
transmitted through it ; and it served to prove the feasibility of the project
which many eminent engineers up till that time regarded as chimerical. Before
another attempt was made tbe labors of Prof. Thomson and others,, to all of
whom the world owes a deep debt of gratitude, had so improved the construe-

360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion of the cables and the mechanical arrangements for submersion, that though
many difficulties presented themselves they were all, in 1866, triumphantly
overcome. It was on his return from the submersion of the 1866 cable,
and the raising and the completion of the 1865 cable, that the honor of knight-
hood was conferred on him along with others of his distinguished fellow-
workers.

•''Recently Sir William Thomson has invented a new and very beautiful
instrument, the 'siphon recorder,' for recording signals on long submarine
lines. It is in use at all the telegraph-stations along the submarine line con-
necting England with India. It is also used on the French Atlantic Cable,
and on the direct United States line. Sir W. Thomson, Mr. Varley, and
Prof. Jenkin, combining their inventions together, have given the only system
by which submarine telegraphy on long lines has been carried on up to the
present time.

" Sir William Thomson is an enthusiastic yachtsman and a skillful navigator.
His recently-published popular lecture on ' Navigation ' proves this ; and, with
that bright genius which enriches all with which it comes in contact, his im-
provements in navigation are of very high importance. The general adoption
of Sumner's method, now made simple for the navigator, would be a reform
in navigation almost amounting to a revolution, and is one most highly to be
desired. Sir William Thomson has also invented a new form of mariner's com-
pass of exquisite construction. It possesses many advantages over the best of
those in general use, not excluding the Standard Admiralty Compass ; but its
special feature is that it permits of the practical application of Sir George Airy's
method of correcting compasses for the permanent and temporary magnetism
of iron ships. He has also invented an apparatus for deep-sea sounding by
piano-forte wire. This apparatus is so simple and easily managed that he has
brought up ' bottom ' from a depth of nearly three nautical miles, sounding from
his own yacht, without aid of steam or any of the ordinary requisites for such
depths. His method was much employed in taking rapid soundings during the
laying of telegraph-cables along the Brazilian coast to the West Indies. It has
also been used with great success on the United States Submarine Survey. Ee-
cently, while on his way to Philadelphia, Sir W. Thomson himself was able to
take flying soundings, reaching the bottom in sixty-eight fathoms, from a
Cunard Line steamship going at full speed.

" Sir William Thomson is a Fellow of the Eoyal Society of London and of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has received the Eoyal Medal of the
former and the Keith Medal of the latter. He is also an honorary member of
several foreign societies. The Universities of Dublin, of Cambridge, and of
Edinburgh, have each conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D., and
that of Oxford the honorary degree of D. C. L. On his marriage in 1852 he gave
up his fellowship at St. Peter's College, Cambridge; but in 1871 his college
again elected him to a fellowship, which he now holds."

CORRESP ONDENCE.

361

CORRESPONDENCE.

INSECTS AND FLOWERS IN COLORADO.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

IN my paper on " The Fertilization of
Flowers by Insect Agency " (" Proceed-
ings of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science," 1875, pp. 244,
245), I say : " On my first visit to the Rocky
Mountain region, the absence of insects
proved very annoying to the entomologists
■who accompanied me. Indeed, the paucity
of animal life of all kinds in the Rocky
Mountains is well known ; but there is no
more scarcity of seed in the colored flower-
ing plants than in similar ones elsewhere."
At the conclusion of my address, Prof. Riley
objected to the accuracy of this statement —
not from his own personal experience, as I
believe, and from overlooking, as I sup-
posed, that I was referring to insects relat-
ing to the cross-fertilization of flowers —
chiefly Jli/menoplera and Lepidoptera. Mr.
Charles R. Dodge, editor of Field and For-
est, was one of the entomologists I referred
to. In vol. i., No. 12, page 89, he describes
that expedition in the summer of 1871 :
" The route carried us through Golden City
and Idaho Springs to South Park, thence to
Pike's Peak and the Garden of the Gods,
where we emerged from the mountains and
returned to Denver over the level plateau
known as the ' Divide ; ' and, from the time
we passed the foot-hills near Golden City,
and entered the first canon in the moun-
tains, we were struck with the comparative
paucity of the insect fauna. ... In the
mountains', the marked absence of insect-
life in variety, except in favorable locali-
ties, was the rule, and not the exception."
Traveling was not so easy then as now, and
I think it took us nearly three weeks. The
party comprised thirty persons, all of whom
were interested in aiding the collectors.
Mr. Dodge sums up his remarks by espe-
cially noting that " the entire mountain-trip
yielded so small a number of nocturnal
Lepidoptera that they are hardly worth
mentioning." He adds, "I have conversed
with a few other entomologists on this sub-
ject, and they agree with me perfectly."

Now, if we turn to Hayden's " Report
of the Survey of Colorado," for 1873, we
find Lieutenant Carpenter substantially re-
cording the same thing. Here are the doings
of a whole season, and not for three weeks
merely, and only five species of butterflies
are found; and, indeed, he remarks that
" Lepidoptera are undoubtedly peculiar to
high latitudes and great elevations." This
leaves us with scarcely anything but bees
to do the whole work of flower-fertilization
in the Rocky Mountain region. But even
these seem to be confined to some consider-
able elevation. In an expedition in 1873 I
saw Bombus termarius in abundance, but on
no other flowers than Polygonum bistorta,
on Gray's Peak, on the flats near the tim-
ber-line. I was struck by the fact that
they seemed to visit only this species, evi-
dently getting all they required from it, and
neglecting everything else. I did not see
bees anywhere in our expedition of 1871 in
lower altitudes, nor do I think there were
any in 1873, except in this high region near
the timber-line. Of course, there might
have been, but, if so, they were so scarce
as to attract little attention. This seems to
have been the experience of Lieutenant Car-
penter. He says, " The humble-bee was
always to be seen in midsummer .at the
verge of the Alpine flora, busily engaged in
collecting its store of pollen from the few
flowers to be found." This does not cer-
tainly say they might not be found lower
down, but it is a fair inference. My collec-
tions in this district embraced over seven
hundred species of flowering plants and
ferns. I can say that among these were
quite as large a proportion of colored flow-
ers as in an equal number gathered East,
where insects are conceded to be numer-
ous.

But just here Prof. Gray steps in with
the following note : " A propos to Mr. Mee-
ban's suggestion that, although the Alpine
plants of the Colorado Rocky Mountains
are mostly high colored, insects are there
so rare that they can be of no material aid
to fertilization, and therefore these plants

362

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

must self-fertilize, it may not be amiss to
introduce testimony. An entomologist now
at my side, who has passed four summers
among these mountains, and made frequent
visits to the Alpine regions, informs me
that ' he has always found insects of all
orders quite abundant in the Rocky
Mountains ' " (Silliman's Journal, 1876, pp.
39V, 398). The route which I have de-
scribed can hardly be called the " Alpine "
region, unless it be in so far as it relates to
Pike's Peak, which, however, I did not join
my companions in ascending, having chosen
in preference to explore alone what was
then an unknown canon, and which I named
after my good friend Dr. Engelmann, whose
name it still bears. There is nothing in
my paper, as referred to by Prof. Asa Gray,
to warrant the statement that I was confin-
ing myself to "Alpine" regions. Indeed,
the " suggestion," so far as it relates to the
paucity of insects, should refer to the " en-
tomologists who accompanied me," and not
to myself. All I claim is that the " ento-
mologists " found no insects, while I found
colored flowers seeding abundantly.

In view of the testimony of the ento-
mologist at Dr. Asa Gray's side, that insects
of all orders are quite abundant in the
Rocky Mountains, I should be glad to have,
through The Popular Science Monthly, a
list of the Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera
that are abundant enough, in the particular
part of the Rocky Mountain region covered
by my experience, to probably act as cross-
fertilizers of flowers, noting those which
may perhaps be introduced since 1S71, as
it is well known that, with the introduction
of agriculture and horticulture, insects often
follow.

I do not suppose that, in the large num-
ber of observations I have placed on rec-
ord, there will not be now and then one
fouud " imperfect." Not one of us who
are working in this field but, with all our
care, must expect such annoyances. As
the relation of insects to plants in the
flora of Colorado is an important one, and
I never heard the view I have taken of it
questioned except as now stated, I think it
important to science to know exactly how
far my statement is imperfect, if imperfect
at all. Thomas Meehan.

Germantown, Pa., November 2T, 1876.

THOMAS CAELYLE AND THE DAEWINS.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

There are floating in the American
press some ill-natured remarks of the oc-
togenarian, Carlyle, that merit a little atten-
tion. The remarks reported are as follows :
" I have known three generations of the
Darwins — grandfather, father, and son :
atheists all. ... I saw the naturalist not
many months ago ; I told him that I had
read his ' Origin of Species ' and other
books ; that he had by no means satisfied
me that men were descended from monkeys,
but had gone far toward persuading me
that he and his so-called scientific brethren
had brought the present generation of Eng-
lishmen very Dear to monkeys. A good sort
of a man is this Darwin, and well-meaning,
but with very little intellect."

Remark 1. If a "very little intellect"
can change the present generation of Eng-
lishmen to monkeys, what are those Eng-
lishmen made of?

Remark 2. Carlyle has known the three
generations of .the Darwins, beginning with
the grandfather. Erasmus Darwin, the
grandfather, died in 1802, about six or seven
years after Carlyle was born ! Is it exact-
ly the right thing for the old gentleman to
say he knew him ?

Remark 3. " They are atheists all." Now,
two years before Mr. Carlyle was born, to
wit, 1794, the grandfather, Erasmus Darwin,
published the great work of his life, " The
Zoonomia, or Laws of Organic Life," and on
the first page he says : " The great Creator
of all things has infinitely diversified the
works of his hands, but has, at the same
time, stamped a certain similitude on the
features of Nature, that demonstrates to us
that the ivhole is one family of one parent."
And, on page 77, he says expressly : "I do
not wish to dispute about words, and am
ready to allow . . . and to believe that the
ultimate cause of all motion is immaterial,
that is, God." Mr. Carlyle may be a well-
meaning man, but his knowledge of that
grandfather, although at the ripe age of
six years, must have been rather imperfect.
But the charge of atheism includes the
naturalist, Charles Darwin. The candid
readers of Charles Darwin's works know
better. Many people, on reading the books
of Genesis and Job, grow skeptical ; but no

EDITOR'S TABLE.

363

one who reads the marvelous revelations
of the works of God which this learned
naturalist has published can for a moment
doubt the existence of the divine wisdom
which pervades the realms of Nature.

R. M. K. Ormsby.
Chester Hill, N. T., November 27, 1876.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Dear Sir : In a letter addressed to you,
and published in your columns, from the
pen of Thomas Meehau, Esq., in which he
is " getting right on the record," I am dis-
turbed by the following expression in refer-
ence to my Buffalo a'ddress : " Prof. Morse
could only help me with the audience by
remarking, ' We all know that Mr. Meehan
is a Darwinian, and an evolutionist, but
must say he has an odd way of putting it.'
That my good friend does not regard me as
much of either is, however, clear, from his
making no reference to any of my labors in
his ' History of Evolution.' "

The reader of this might think that I had
either overlooked the interesting contribu-

tions of Mr. Meehan in the " Proceedings "
of the Philadelphia Academy, and his own
journal, or else had done him a manifest
injustice. That I am not guilty, either of
oversight or injustice in this matter, the
following lines from my Buffalo address will
prove : " A review of the work accomplished
by American students, bearing upon the
doctrine of descent, must of necessity be
brief. Even a review of a moiety of the
work is beyond the limits of an address of
this nature. And for obvious reasons I
must needs here restrict it to one branch of
biology, namely, zoology.'''' The obvious rea-
son is that I am not a botanist, therefore no
reference is made to the works of Dr. Gray,
Mr. Meehan, Prof. Beal, and others, who
have made valuable contributions to the
subject. In the solitary case where I al-
luded to the fertilization of yucca, it was
to show the curious moth Pronuba, so ad-
mirably described by Prof. Riley, as an in-
sect showing peculiar adaptations for the
work in hand. Edward S. Morse.

Salem, Massachusetts, November 4, 1876.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

PHILANTHROPIC FAN A TICISM AGAINST )
SCIENCE.

EEFEEENCE has been repeatedly
made in our pages to an English
Parliamentary Commission, appointed
to inquire into the practice of vivisec-
tion, or experiments upon living ani-
mals, made for scientific purposes by
the physiologists of that country. The
inquiry was the consequence of a pro-
longed and intense public agitation, in
which the sympathies of the people
were excited, and their indignation
aroused, by frightful stories of cruelty
deliberately and wantonly perpetrated
upon innocent animals under the pre-
text of advancing scientific knowledge.
The movement was systematically and
skillfully engineered by those who make
philanthropy a business. Money was
plentifully contributed by the rich to
carry it on, and with plenty of money
there is never any difficulty in engaging

the press in a good work. Appealing
to the sensibilities by exaggerated ac-
counts of the way poor animals were
tortured, the subject naturally took a
deep hold of the sympathies of women,
and its measures were promoted and
sustained by many ladies of wealth and
high social position, and were under-
stood to be warmly encouraged by the
queen herself. But the humane feelings
of both sexes were profoundly stirred
by the tales of atrocity that were cir-
culated, so that the scientific physiol-
ogists of the country began to be looked
upon as fiends, reveling in the infliction
of agony upon helpless animals. The
stories, of course, were unscrupulous
exaggerations, or arrant lies, but the
public is a great believer and fond of
pungent sensations, while fervid phi-
lanthropy is not apt to trouble itself
much about cool matters of evidence.
The Parliamentary Commission, con-

364

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stituted of both the enemies and the
friends of vivisection, at length took the
matter up, and, as is customary with
English commissions, it made a thorough
investigation. Witnesses on both sides
gave voluminous testimony on all as-
pects of the subject, and after patient
and impartial consideration the body
made a report which was designed to
be preliminary to legislation upon the
question. As regards the merits of the
controversy, it was agreed that vivisec-
tion, or operations upon living animals,
is a necessary and a proper thing, and,
as practised by scientific men, has been
of great use to the world. The com-
mission, moreover, entirely acquitted
the physiologists of the charge of cru-
elty. It commended the humanity of
the medical profession in England, and
testified that medical students were ex-
tremely sensitive in regard to the inflic-
tion of pain on animals.

One would think that with this de-
cisive expression on the general subject,
and with this complete vindication of
the aspersed parties, the agitators would
have been rebuked, and the case at
once dismissed. But the anti-vivisec-
tion movement was quite too formida-
ble to allow of this. That hysterical
rampage of British philanthropy was
strong enough to coerce the Govern-
ment against its own protestations, and
to extort from it a law that was alike
an insult to science and a disgrace to
the country. The physiologists were
expressly acquitted of all improper prac-
tices when left free as they had always
been to pursue inquiries in their own
way, and they were then handed over to
the future control of the police. They
were vindicated from all imputation of
cruelty, and then subjected to the opera-
tion of a statute against cruelty to ani-
mals. Though their experiments had
for their object the ultimate mitigation
of pain to the higher creatures most
susceptible of pain — though their inves-
tigations were of so beneficent an influ-
ence that, as Prof. Tyndall justly says,

" no greater calamity could befall the
human race than the stoppage of experi-
ments in this direction " — yet the physi-
ologists were classed by law with those
cold-blooded brutes who cruelly over-
drive, abuse, and torture domestic ani-
mals. Though the necessity, and form,
and extent of his experiments on ani-
mals were, in the nature of the case,
matters of which the operator alone
could judge, as their essential object is
the elucidation of undetermined prob-
lems, yet it was legislated that he should
not pursue his work except by a license
from a political office-holder, and the
making of any experiment calculated to
give pain to an animal was declared an
offense punishable in the first instance
by fine, and in the second by fine and
imprisonment, unless certain conditions
were complied with to the satisfaction
of the said political functionary who
was put in control of the whole business.
In short, legislative wisdom, stimulated
by philanthropic zeal, outlawed vivi-
section as a crime, and then provided for
its perpetration by leave of the Secre-
tary of State.

Let us now see how much there
was of real philanthropy or of hearty
sympathy for the sufferings of the low-
er animals at the bottom of this move-
ment. Had it been sincere, or based
upon principle, it would have undoubt-
edly aimed to be effectual, and to have
inflicted the penalties for cruelty alike
upon all delinquents. But the law was
so framed as to bear hard only upon
the poor, and to give a virtual license
to the rich, who could easily pay the
fines prescribed for inflicting whatever
cruelties they chose. Again, the law
passed was intended, by the terms of
its title, to prevent "cruelty to ani-
mals ; " but a clause was quietly intro-
duced at the end limiting it to the pro-
tection of domestic animals only — a
clause wdiich stultified the enactment,
and showed the emptiness of its pur-
pose by exposing immensely the great-
er portion of the inferior animate ere-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

365

ation to all the wantonness of torture ;
and not only that, but to tortures that
were sure to be inflicted, and were pro-
vided for by the limitations of the stat-
ute. Of the sufferings to which cer-
tain of the lower animals are subjected
by the favorite English pastime of hunt-
ing them with hounds, which is free-
ly permitted by law, we do not speak,
but will only refer to some facts regard-
ing the universal English sport of
" shooting." It is well known that the
British Parliament generally adjourns
about the time that the partridges and
grouse cease to be protected by the
game-laws of the country ; and no one
who knows anything of the strength
of British instincts for destructive field-
sports will consider the connection, in
this case, as altogether fortuitous.
Lords, Commoners, and everybody that
can afford it, then seize their guns, and
betake themselves to the fields and
mountains wherever there is anything
to be killed. It is the fashionable and
the national thing. Those who own
grounds range over them with their
guests in quest of beasts and birds, and
others hire the privilege of doing it for
longer or shorter times. The whole
matter is legally regulated. Licenses
are issued to keep guns, and licenses to
kill game. A few of all the multitudes
who enter upon the sport are good
shots, and kill a large portion of the
creatures fired at. But the most of
them are bad shots, and wound many
more than they kill. When hit, if not
captured, they escape with their bodies
penetrated with leaden pellets — some
of them to die ; some to sutler miser-
ably ; and others to recover after expe-
riencing various degrees of pain. A
writer in Nature has gone into the sta-
tistics of shooting, with a view to esti-
mate the probable numbers of creat-
ures that thus suffer by wounding. He
adopts as his basis the number of those
who take out licenses, the duration of
the season, and the days given to sport,
and, by reckoning the number wounded

per day that are not killed, he arrives
at a proximate conclusion regarding the
aggregate of animals that yearly suffer
from this cause. The number of li-
censes issued is taken from government
reports, which indicate, for example,
that in the year 1873-74 there were
132,036 holders of gun-licenses, and
65,846 holders of licenses to kill game.
Assuming that each sportsman wounds
three head of game per day, which are
not taken, he finds that the total num-
ber of animals upon which pain is thus
inflicted amounts to many millions an-
nually. We cannot go into the details
of his calculation, which is carefully
and fairly made out, but will quote the
concluding passage of his article :

" If we may trust our figures, here are
the plain facts that acute pain of uncertain
duration was, iu the year ending March 31,
1874, inflicted upon over twenty-two million
animals, and in the following year upon
over twenty-three million and a half, in the
British Islands. We are not aware that we
possess any bias that would make us exag-
gerate our estimates to produce these results.
Our only object is to attempt as near an ap-
proximation to the truth as we can. The
figures stand for themselves, and if any one
thinks he can furnish fairer averages let him
give his data for them. We are, as it is,
willing to guard against any unconscious
exaggeration, and to knock off more than
ten per cent, of our grand totals, so as to
say roundly that only twenty millions have
suffered in each year. But we would invito
our readers to reflect on the proportion which
even that number bears to the number of
animals which during the same time have
been subjected to experiment by the physi-
ologists of this country. The latter have
been by many excellent persons held up to
obloquy as monsters of cruelty. If this
has been done justly, what must they think
of those who use the gun?"

From the point of view here pre-
sented, the state of the case has been
pithily summed up by Mr. Lowe, in a
recent able article in the Contemporary
Review :

" According to present British law, as re-
vised under the spur of the latest philan-
thropy, it appears that, while the man of

366

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

science must not inflict the least pain on any
animal for the most beneficent object, any
one else may inflict the most exquisite tor-
tures on any non-domestic animal — that is,
on ninety-nine hundredths of the brute crea-
tion— without any punishment at all. If he
can show that the torture was inflicted from
cruelty, from gluttony, for money, for amuse-
ment— for any motive, in fact, except a de-
sire to do good by extending knowledge— he
enjoys the most perfect impunity ; but woe
to him if in his infliction of pain there is
any alloy of science ! "

An attempt was made to protect
animals from pain against the sports-
man as well as the man of science, by
putting both upon the same footing as
regards penalties, but it failed. Mr.
Lowe says :

" A motion to extend the law which for-
bade the cruelly abusing or torturing any
domestic animal, to animals non-domestic,
and to increase the penalty to a level with
the penalty imposed for performing a pain-
ful experiment, was lost by a large majority,
the Government voting against it. . . . The
efforts, therefore, of the two Houses of Par-
liament to introduce humanity into our laws,
as regards animals, stands thus :

" 1. Absolute liberty to torture all non-
domestic animals except by way of scientific
experiment.

" 2. Practical liberty for any one who can
afford to pay five pounds to torture domestic
animals except by way of scientific experi-
ment.

"3. No punishment for painful experi-
ment except by leave of the Secretary of
State."

Now, politicians are not partial to
science, but the British Government
would never have committed itself to
such ridiculous legislation except for the
pressure of a fanatical agitation which
grew out of no real sympathy with the
sufferings of the lower animals. Had
it been so, the crusade would have been
directed against.sportsmen for their ex-
tensive and selfish infliction of cruelty,
rather than against the physiologists
for the small amount of pain which
they caused, and that, too, in the
unselfish and beneficent pursuit of'
knowledge which is designed to miti-
gate human suffering and save human

life. The agitation was incited by fic-
titious horrors, and was worked up and
sustained in a business way by prac-
tised manipulators of popular passion
and prejudice. It was directed against
a certain class of scientific men, and had
its chief root in those narrow preju-
dices against science which the press
and the pulpit have recently done so
much to nourish and sustain. There
has been an especial dread of biological
science, because it meddles with the
mysteries of life, and aims to explain
things which ignorance and supersti-
tion would rather not have explained.
Experiments upon animals are looked
upon with abhorrence, not solely be-
cause of the creatures' suffering, but
also because the knowledge thus de-
duced and applied to man is held to be
derogatory and degrading to his nobler
nature. The anti-vivisection move-
ment, in short, was very much a result
of that feeling of jealousy and hostility
toward science which is by no means
confined to the ignorant classes, and
which it was not difficult to inflame into
the fanatical intensity of an aggressive
and intolerant popular movement.

POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE UNITED

STATES.

The hundredth anniversary of Adam
Smith's " Wealth of Nations " has been
the occasion in England of a pretty
careful review of the science which he
founded — its methods, its province, its
achievements, and its prospect of fu-
ture usefulness — with the result, not of
reaching definite conclusions, but of
revealing very wide differences of opin-
ion as to what political economy really
is. The general tone of the discussion
is decidedly doleful ; dissatisfaction with
the present and doubt as to the future
being the only points upon which there
is unanimity. Politicians and newspa-
pers alike declare that the centennial
marks the decline and not the con-
summation of the "dismal science;"

EDITOR'S TABLE.

367

that the points of the present contro-
versies are not of the same importance
as those of earlier days ; that there re-
mains not much to he done in the way
of direct legislation ; in short, that its
great work is done.

In a sense this may be said to be
true. The repeal of usury and corn
laws, and the establishment of free
trade, was a great work; and in many
minds this practical application of prin-
ciples stood for the science. Being ac-
complished, it forms so essential a part
of the commercial policy of the country,
and has become so rooted in the minds
of the present generation, that the value
of the benefits derived is not duly ap-
preciated, nor the importance of ex-
tending this work to other countries
sufficiently recognized.

Economical reform in England has
reached that critical period, which
comes in the history of all reforms,
when effort has been crowned with
success. Its old rallying -cries have
lost their potency because the ideas
which they represented have become
universally -accepted axioms; the evils
which it labored to correct no longer
exist ; its champions find their old weap-
ons useless, and no new ones are, as
yet, fitted to their hands.

Naturally, this chaotic condition
has begotten dissension and revolt,
even among those who are by no means
willing to admit that the functions of
the science have become unimportant ;
the ranks of the faithful have fallen
into disorder ; rival sects have arisen,
and the validity of time-honored ten-
ets is discussed with earnestness if not
with heat. The orthodox school still
holds in the main to the old creed ;
while the dissenters, styling themselves
the Historical School — a name the fit-
ness whereof their opponents decline
to allow — denounce this creed as being
based upon rude generalizations, ob-
tained by a superficial and unphilosoph-
ical process of abstraction.

We shall not, at this time, attempt

any discussion of these questions. We
have faith in political economy as a
science, and a perfect assurance that,
whatever subdivision or specialization
it may undergo, its vitality will remain
unimpaired. We could, therefore, look
upon the present contention with equa-
nimity were it not for the reflection
that, here in America, we are still
disputing over those economical prin-
ciples which in England are irrevocably
settled.

However true the statements that the
science has outlived its usefulness may
be with regard to that nation, they have
no application to the condition of Ithe
United States. Here its most funda-
mental propositions are matters for
discussion and legislation, and the prob-
lems involved imperatively demand so-
lution. We who, this year, are cele-
brating the hundredth anniversary, not
of a book, but of %the nation's birth,
have still to decide whether the prog-
ress over which we are prone, rightly
enough, to indulge in a good deal of self-
glorification, has been helped or hin-
dered by the policy of protection which
has ruled hitherto; whether, had an
opposite course been pursued, our in-
ternal resources might not have been
quite as fully developed, and at the same
time our external commerce have re-
ceived a commensurate impetus instead
of being at its present low ebb. This,
and the condition of our curreney, are
very real questions with us ; the way
in which they are answered may make
all the difference between continued
progress and comparative immobility ;
and yet, while the country is in a fer-
ment from shore to shore over the most
inconsequential of elections, these im-
portant matters lie apparently dead in
the public mind.

The profound stagnation of the
commercial world has brought us near-
ly to a stand. Old combinations are
disturbed and broken up. In the lull
some of the hallucinations of specula-
tive fever are disappearing, but the

368

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

state of our finances is notoriously un.
satisfactory, and that which Mr. Lowe
is pleased to call the " great work " of
political economy, the establishment of
free-trade principles, with us remains
undone. Is it not time seriously to
consider what can be done to make the
readjustment of the social elements a
favorable one for us — one more ade-
quate to the exigencies of the time ?

Prolonged immunity from wars, the
sway of sound commercial doctrines,
the absence of the element of uncer-
tainty in her finances, has enabled Eng-
land to absorb a great part of the ex-
change business of the world. Conti-
nental disturbances made her oppor-
tunity, and she was ready to improve
it. London is a vast clearing-house,
while the United States do not act as
middle-man between any two nations.

It is almost universally admitted that
there can be no peaceful settlement of
the Eastern question which can be last-
ing. Sooner or later it must be sub-
mitted to the arbitrament of war, and
when that comes England cannot stand
aloof. Engaged in such a struggle, she
can no longer offer so secure a refuge
as formerly to capital seeking a place
of safety and stability. She must re-
linquish, in part at least, this function,
and there is nothing mercenary in the
suggestion that that would be our op-
portunity. But, however favorable for
our aggrandizement foreign complica-
tions might become, they would now
find us unprepared to take our rightful
place in the world's commerce — unable
to arrest the hour. Economical reform
is an essential preliminary to success
in such an endeavor. Our distance
from Old-World centres finds compensa-
tion in our freedom from European en-
tanglements ; but the obstacles present-
ed by a cumbrous and oppressive tariff,
and a depreciated, fluctuating currency
— compared with which three thousand
miles of ocean are as nothing — would
be simply insurmountable. And what
is the prospect of their removal'?

The answer which must be given is
not satisfactory.

There is reason to believe that the
vagaries of inflationists are giving place
to sounder financial views. There is
warrant for the hope that the friends
of free trade are increasing in numbers,
and that its principles are slowly gain-
ing ground, but no demonstration of
this by legislation has yet appeared —
nor are there any signs of it. Neither
set of politicians seems to consider
them worthy of consideration. Mean-
time the forces of protection are in
close order, well appointed and alert —
they will make a stout fight, and that
there should, at this critical period, be
a disaffection anywhere in the ranks of
sound political economy, must be re-
garded as a matter of the gravest con-
cern.

PROFESSOR MARTIN OX SCIENTIFIC
EDUCATION.

Lady Buedett Coutts, who, having
much money to give away, patronizes
numerous charities and receives great
applause, has come to be a kind of au-
thority in the sphere of philanthropy,
duty, ethics, etc. Hearing much said
against science, on account of the ex-
perimental study of animals, she sought
Prof. Tyndall, to inform him that sci-
ence was growing immoral, because it
did not formerly do such dreadful things
as it is in the habit of doing now. Prof.
Tyndall replied that it was rather grow-
ing biological, or passing into a new
sphere to explore the laws of life, to
which experimental investigations on
organisms in life are indispensable.

This comparatively new subject, bi-
ology, which, after three centuries of
preparation in physics and chemistry,
lias only been fully reached by the sci-
entific mind of the world during the
last fifty years, is now beginning to be
recognized in its full import in our sys-
tem of higher education. Biological
chairs have been founded, and labora-
tories and schools of biological research

EDITOR'S TABLE.

369

have been established in connection
with various of the old European uni-
versities ; and although we, in this coun-
try, have had chairs, and schools, and
museums of natural history, connected
with our colleges, or apart from them,
yet the provision made for biological
study in the organization of the Johns
Hopkins University at Baltimore marks
a decisive step forward in the educa-
tional treatment of this important sub-
ject.

We give our readers the able inau-
gural address of Prof. Martin in enter-
ing upon his work at Baltimore, and
they will be repaid by a careful perusal
of it. The statement of principles, pur-
poses, and plans, is excellent; and if
they are carried out intelligently and
perseveringly, as there is no reason to
doubt they will be. the results cannot
fail to be in a high degree advantageous.
The proposed mode of combining origi-
nal work with practical teaching is full
of promise. Prof. Martin dispels the
erroneous and injurious notion, too cur-
rent, that original work means great
discoveries. He points out how stu-
dents of but ordinary capacity may yet
do something to extend the boundaries
of knowledge, while at the same time
the important ends will be secured of
mastering the true methods of inquiry,
of making solid acquisitions, and of
being able to teach from an actual un-
derstanding of the subject. What he
says of the influence of scientific study,
when conducted by proper methods,
and in its genuine spirit, in cultivating
the love of strict truth, and the mental
habit of seeking it as the supreme thing,
deserves the most serious attention.
How to include a thorough discipline
in truth-seeking, in our systems of edu-
cation, is the problem of problems yet
to be solved. No one who goes to
church, or drops into the court-room,
or visits our halls of legislation, or reads
the newspapers, can fail to see that,
with all their learning and volubility,
our cultivated men are still very much

vol. x. — 24

in Pilate's state of mind in regard to
truth. It may not be possible for all
educated people to get the benefits of
biological training as a part of culture,
but the most salutary results will come
from making scientific training an inte-
gral and established part of higher edu-
cation. When thorough scientific cult-
ure once gets a fair foothold in our
colleges and universities, so that its re-
sults can be compared with the purely
literary training that now prevails, its
influence will soon be felt, and we may
safely leave the rival methods to the
operation of natural selection. Mean-
time, our teachers will do well to con-
sider carefully Prof. Martin's sugges-
tions, and set themselves to the inqui-
ry, how far it may be in tbeir power to
make application of them, in modified
ways, in their own sphere of activity.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON THE HORSE.

We publish this month the third
lecture of Prof, nuxley, as corrected
by himself for The Popular Science
Monthly, and accurately illustrated
under the supervision of Prof. Marsh,
of New Haven. The lecture deals
mainly with the genealogy of the horse
as traced far back into geological an-
tiquity, by the discovery of successive
fossil forms in successive strata or de-
posits. These forms are so closely re-
lated, and exhibit so graduated a series
of modifications, as to establish the
fact of a genetic and derivative relation
from the lowest to the highest. The
fossil terms of this series were already
so far made out in Europe as to satisfy
paleontologists there that the pedigree
of the horse is established ; but, by re-
cent discoveries on this continent, the
ancestral chain has been traced still
farther back, so as greatly to strengthen
the conclusion reached by foreign in-
vestigators. To the three ancestral
forms found in Europe, which go back
to what the geologists call the Miocene,
Prof. Marsh had added two others, car-

3 7°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rying the line back to the Eocene for-
mations, and connecting the present
Equus or horse-tribe with an early Eo-
cene animal known as the Orohippus.
In his lecture Prof. Huxley traced the
relationship of these six ancestral forms
of the existing horse, and based his argu-
ment for the demonstrative evidence of
evolution on the continuity and extent
of the series. But he went further, and
stated what the characteristics of a still
earlier form would be if it were ever
discovered ; and, within a month from
his departure from the country, Prof.
Marsh announces that fossils of the
predicted animal have been actually
found in the lowest Tertiary deposits
of the West, giving the Eohippus as the
seventh term of paleontological ances-
try of the Equine group.

We pointed out last month that
proof is a thing of degrees, and that
demonstration may be cumulative ; and
the very case we were considering now
furnishes further illustration of it.
Prof. Huxley says that the doctrine of
evolution and the Copernican theory
of the motions of the heavenly bodies
have precisely the same basis, that is,
" the coincidence of observed facts
with theoretical requirements ; " and
that " an inductive hypothesis is said
to be demonstrated when the facts are
shown to be in entire accordance with
it." But the demonstration becomes
still stronger when the requirements of
theory lead to the prediction of what
must follow from it, and Nature sub-
sequently furnishes the facts that vin-
dicate the prophecy. It is one of the
highest tests of the truth of a theory,
that it leads to new discoveries, as was
conspicuously the case with the wave-
theory, of light. A scientific professor
is reported to have said that the proof
of the evolution theory is far less strong
than that of the undulatory theory,
while nobody regards that as demon-
strated. On the contrary, it is so re-
garded, and with abundant reason. The
objective existence of the ether may

not be proved, but this conception is
not essential to the theory, and is held
by many as nothing more than a con-
venient assumption or hypothetical ar-
tifice to aid the imagination in picturing
wave-actions. The essence of the the-
ory, whether the medium assumed be
ethereal or material, is that light origi-
nates in some kind of undulatory mo-
tion, and a rational optical science is
now only possible on this view. In the
sense in which Huxley uses the term
demonstration, as " the coincidence of
observed facts with theoretical require-
ments," it is an established demonstra-
tion, and evolution stands exactly on
the same ground. The facts are what
the theory requires them to be, and
what it predicts them to be ; it explains
them by the operations of real causes,
and offers the only explanation we can
have without going outside of Nature
to get it.

Prof. Huxley has done us great ser-
vice by going over the question of evi-
dence in his three lectures, and bring-
ing out the full force of the proof for
this doctrine, and to make any less
claim than he has made is to be want-
ing in fidelity to the truth.

And from this point of view we
must think that Prof. Martin, in his
admirable introductory discourse, did
not fairly represent the case in giving
the scientific status of the principles of
the conservation of energy and of natu-
ral selection. He said : " These ideas
may or may not be true ; increase of
knowledge may confirm or may pos-
sibly upset them." So sharp an alter-
native as true or false, determinable
only in a contingency of the future,
certainly does injustice to the logical
validity of these great ideas. They can
no more be subverted or abandoned in
the future than any other truths of ex-
periment and observation. They may
disappear by absorption into larger
truths, may change aspects, but they
are basal and permanent factors of sci-
ence, and we see not why the professors

EDITOR'S TABLE.

371

of physics and mathematics might not
open their courses by conceding the in-
security of the fundamental principles
of their sciences with just as much
propriety as the professor of biology.

COMMERCIAL MANIAS.

Recent writers upon the subject
of commercial manias usually indulge
in congratulations over the fact that
the world is grown more wise; that
the mental aberrations of our day are
less marked than those of earlier times ;
that, for example, the absurd Dutch
tulip-mania, Law's wild Mississippi
scheme in France, and the South-Sea
bubble iu England, find no parallel in
these days of greater intelligence and
self-control ; that the time has gone by
when a sharper could clear $10,000 in
five hours by selling shares in " a com-
pany for carrying on an undertaking of
great advantage, but nobody to know
what it is ! "

It is probably true that our tenden-
cies are not quite so rabid as those of
our fathers, but we hold on bravely to
some of their worst follies. It was only
at the last session of Congress that the
advocates of an unlimited issue of irre-
deemable paper were strong enough to
prevent any steps being taken toward
resumption. It was but the other day
that the progressive Commonwealth of
Massachusetts chose as a representative
B. F. Butler, who declares that the
"progressive" dollar is a paper dollar
so issued that it can never be redeemed.
The absorbing interest of a presidential
election has hushed somewhat the clam-
or for the interconvertible note scheme
— which is to pay all debts, public and
private, and make everybody easy with-
out costing anybody anything — but, had
all those who still fully sympathize with
the financial imbecility of Mr. Peter
Cooper voted for him, the old gentle-
man would have had a very different
showing in the official count. Nor are
there lacking concrete examples of cre-

dulity which rival any of the exhibitions
of former generations. A case in point
is now running its course in Spain.

A woman has opened a bank in
Madrid for deposits in sums of a hun-
dred dollars and upward, on which she
pays interest as follows: twenty per
cent on receiving the deposit, twenty
per cent, at the end of the first, sec-
ond, and third months, and then at the
expiration of the fourth month, when
eighty per cent, has been already paid,
she reimburses the entire sum lent.
The payments thus far have been regu-
larly made, and the public are flocking
in crowds with their money, the depos-
its now amounting to several millions
of francs. The bankers and savings-
banks are being drained of their de-
posits by this extraordinary traffic.
Hours before the bank opens in the
morning hundreds of depositors col-
lect, and the presence of the police is
necessary to preserve order. In this
case " nobody is to know " how the
money is employed, and on that point
contrary rumors prevail ; some assert
that the capital is used in working
mines of fabulous wealth ; others, that
the woman is an agent of the Govern-
ment, adding that it is thus procuring
money on more advantageous terms
than with its regular bankers! The
true explanation will not be long with-
held, unless the police interfere to pre-
vent her running off with her plunder.
This is almost a precise repetition of a
case which took place in enlightened
Germany four years ago — the Spitze-
der affair of Munich. In this case
enormous sums were confided to a
woman banker, who lived in opulence,
squandering the money of her deposit-
ors, and, as she could not repay them,
she was sentenced to three years' im-
prisonment. Her time expired some
months ago, and the likeness of the
transactions at Madrid to her opera-
tions at Munich is strong enough to
suggest a common origin.

These cases appear still more re-

372

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

markable when we recall the fact that
in Continental Europe the confidence
in banks of deposit has never attained
the strength that it has in this coun-
try and in England. Outside of strictly
commercial circles and people of large
means the practice of depositing money
with a banker is comparatively un-
known. Small dealers, mechanics, and
farmers, still adhere, in the main, to
the old custom of hoarding, in feather-
beds or underground, that has descend-
ed from the troublous days of the mid-
dle ages. That men should go from
the extreme of unfounded distrust of
stable and well-managed institutions
into the incredible folly of pouring
their money like water into the tills of
a barefaced swindler, would seem to
show that the springs of human action
have not been raised very much ; that
a love of great gains, a desire to get
more than our money's worth, a credu-
lous faith in the performance of impos-
sible promises are still deeply rooted,
and need but the stimulus of some new
and untried humbug to develop an
amazing number of credulous fools.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Knight's American Mechanical Diction-
ary. A Description of Tools, Instru-
ments, Machines, Processes, and Engi-
neering ; History of Inventions ; Gener-
al Technological Vocabulary ; and Di-
gest of Mechanical Appliances in Science
and the Arts. By Edward H. Knight,
Civil and Mechanical Engineer. 3 vols.
Pp. 2831 ; 7395 cuts. New York: Hurd
& Houghton. Price (cloth), $8 per vol.

This comprehensive and valuable work
belongs in the rank of the cyclopaedias, al-
though its author has seen fit to choose for
it the less ambitious title of a dictionary.
It is qualified as mechanical, and answers
to this description, but mechanics goes deep
and sweeps wide in the field of Nature and
art. Indeed, philosophers are split into fac-
tions over the question how far mechan-
ics actually extends in the economy of the
world, some maintaining that even cerebral
action in processes of thought is resolvable
into mechanical elements and conditions.

But, without going so far as this, it is indis-
putable that mechanical changes are exten-
sively and profoundly involved in the ongo-
ings of the material universe. It is a vul-
gar notion that the term mechanics is re-
stricted to cog-work and belting, wheels,
levers, and pulleys, and a glauce at Mr.
Knight's voluminous exposition of the pres-
ent state of knowledge on mechanical sub-
jects will quickly dispel the narrow notions
that may have hitherto prevailed regarding
it. As stated in his prospectus, " the work
deals with the mechanical side of every sub-
ject that can be known or mentioned, and,
as almost everything in the universe has a
mechanical side, the work becomes encyclo-
pedical."

Mr. Knight seems to be a man cut out
for such an enterprise. He began it twenty-
five years ago, and as the volumes, in their
vast and accurate detail, abundantly show,
he must have had an enthusiasm for the
work that kept him at it with untiring pa-
tience and perseverance ; but as mere indus-
try, although a prime factor in the result,
must have been insufficient unless acting in
the most favorable circumstances, he went
to the headquarters of opportunity in this
country, the Patent-Office at Washington.
He was here " engaged in the editing the
Patent-Office Report " and classifying pat-
ents ; and subsequently editing the Offi-
cial Gazette and systematizing for examina-
tion the twenty thousand applications for
patents which are yearly presented at the
office. Sitting at the very centre and focus
of the mechanical thought of the country,
he had both the stimulus and the facilities
for carrying out his long-cherished purpose,
and the " Dictionary " no doubt owes its ex-
haustive completeness to the free command
of facilities afforded by his position.

We know of nothing that more impres-
sively illustrates both the great advance of
knowledge in this sphere of science and
art, and the great activity with which it is
at present cultivated in all civilized coun-
tries, than a critical glance at the pages of
this elaborate work. And its statements
are so presented as to bring out this view
most impressively. Mr. Knight has intro-
duced a subsidiary feature of " special in-
dexes," which is not only very useful to
those who consult his work, but shows in a
striking way the extent to which inventive

LITERARY XOTICES.

373

construction has been carried in special
lines of inquiry. For example, under the
term " metre," we have a list of 218 instru-
ments or machines for measurement, the
description of each being found under its
proper alphabetical heading. " These spe-
cific indexes afford the reader an excellent
opportunity for investigating thoroughly
all that pertains directly or indirectly to
any special subject, by using the index
under the title of that subject as a sort of
head-centre, and following out its various
branches through all their ramifications."

The work includes about 20,000 titles,
and gives an exhaustive vocabulary of the
technical terms that are employed in vari-
ous trades and manufactures, and many of
which are not to be found in the current
large dictionaries. The work is, in fact,
little less than a mechanical library, sum-
marizing an endless multitude of books, and
bringing up its accurate information to the
present time. Of people who read and think
at all, it is hard to think of any class that
will not find it serviceable.

A Course of Elementary Practical Phys-
iology. By M. Foster, M. D., F. R. S.,
Fellow of, and Prtelector in, Physiology
in Trinity College, Cambridge. Assist-
ed by J. N. Laxgley, B. A., St. John's
College, Cambridge. Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 244. Price, $2.00.

As the sciences come to be more and
more studied, directly and practically, there
arises the necessity for books of special
guidance in laboratory-work. In chemistry,
treatises upon manipulation are as old as
the science, and in recent years various
works have been published, instructing the
student in physical manipulations. The
same necessity is now beginning to be felt
in physiological study, and Prof. Foster's
little hand-book now appears to supply this
want for English-speaking students. The
book has grown out of Dr. Foster's prac-
tice as a teacher. When in University
College, London, he was in the habit of dis-
tributing among his students a syllabus to
guide them in their work. This became
extended, by the introduction of details, into
a practical course, which is now published
for general use wherever physiology is pur-
sued, experimentally, or by the observation
and verification of its facts.

Dr. Foster recognizes that the intro-
duction of the microscope has given a direc-
tion to manipulative activity that is not al-
together favorable to broad physiological
study. The importance of histology is not
questioned, but the tendency has been to
pursue it separately, and to a certain extent
to accept it as a substitute for physiological
work on a large scale. Dr. Foster thinks
that microscopical investigation can only
be best pursued in combination with a full
scheme of physiological work. He says :
" Histological work, unless it be salted with
the salt, either of physiological or of mor-
phological ideas, is apt to degenerate into a
learned trifling of the very worst descrip-
tion ; and students are generally only too
ready to spend far too much of their time
in the fascinating drudgery of cutting sec-
tions and mounting stained specimens."
And again : " The student who has mounted
an exquisitely and beautifully stained sec-
tion is only just so much the worse for his
pains (as far as physiology is concerned) if
he docs not understand what the section
means. Hence, when the features of some
of the fundamental tissues and the general
working of the more important mechanisms
have been really learned, and the student
has got, by doing things for himself, to
know the value of a physiological experi-
ment, and the pitfalls that are hidden under
carmine and Canada balsam, he may be
safely trusted to fill in the details of his
study by means of reference to mounted
specimens and to mere demonstrations, or
even to descriptions of experiments."

Though the work is elementary, and is
designed to be introductory to the author's
" Hand-book for the Physiological Labora-
tory," it is, nevertheless, comprehensive, and
covers the ground that should be passed
over practically by every well-educated med-
ical man. When our medical institutions
provide better for this form of study, we can
trust ourselves more safely in the hands of
their graduates.

The Eeligion of Evolution. By M. J.
Savage, Author of "Christianity the
Science of Manhood." Boston: Lock-
wood, Brooks & Co. Pp. 253. Price,
$1.50.

The multiplication of works on the re-
ligious bearings of Evolution, against it and

374

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

for it, attests the strong interest that is taken
in this aspect of the doctrine, and, as interest
is ever the first condition of active inquiry,
this deep concern about the religious im-
port of the theory is of great advantage, no
matter what the basis may be. Probably
nine-tenths of the opposition to the doc-
trine is theological in its inspiration and its
form, there being no end to the books which
have been issued during the last dozen years
to prove that it is anti-religious and athe-
istic. But the discussion has already led
to a reaction, or to a modification of ex-
treme views ; that is, it is admitted, even by
those who rank themselves as opponents of
the doctrine, that it is not necessarily either
atheistic or irreligious. But these assaults
upon Evolution have, moreover, called out
defenses of it on the part of the religious,
which have not only been useful in concen-
trating attention upon the subject, but have
been very valuable in their liberalizing in-
fluence, and the light they have thrown
upon the problem of religion itself.

To those who care for the religious as-
pects of the question, whether as involving
the religious sentiments to which the doc-
trine is claimed to be favorable, or the influ-
ence it is exerting upon theological belief,
the present work may be decisively com-
mended. Its author is a liberal Unitarian
clergyman, who took up the subject in a
aeries of Sunday discourses, which were sub-
sequently revised for publication in their
present form. His treatment of the subject,
which is entirely in its theological relations,
is able and independent, and is presented
in a clear, spirited, and eminently readable
style. He aims to show that Evolution is
not destructive of the religious sentiment ;
that it favors the most exalted conception
of God ; that it brings Nature into harmony
with elevated religious feeling, aud must be
of great service to humanity in sweeping
away many superstitions that have grown
up in times of ignorance and become asso-
ciated and deeply involved with religious
emotions. Mr. Savage is at no pains to
conceal the fact that he is not orthodox,
and avails himself of many opportunities to
hit his theological opponents, but he can
hardly be expected to start new fashions
in the pulpit, and the 'opportunity of posi-
tion in the argument is too tempting to be
resisted. There are numerous passages in

this volume that we should be glad to quote,
as where he treats of the practical charac
ter of the discussion, the immense influ
ence on the thought of Christendom of the
Mosaic cosmogony, and his chapter on the
"Evolution of Conscience," but our space
will not allow of quotations. We must re-
fer the reader to the volume, which he will
find fresh, piquant, and instructive.

Public Libraries in the United States
of America: Their History, Condition,
and Management. Special Export. De-
partment of the Interior: Bureau of Ed-
ucation. Part I. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 1187.

This huge volume, which is the expo-
nent of the public reading in this country,
is an extensive cyclopaedia on the subject
of libraries. The statistics which have
been published annually by the United
States Commissioner of Education have
been too limited to satisfy an inquisitive
public, which wanted to know everything
relating to books, from the arrangements
necessary for organization to*the best man-
ner of preventing the volumes from being
soiled.

This centennial offering will give much
gratifying information to the true Ameri-
can, showing him that a great advancement
has been made in the intellectual as well as
in the material resources of the country.
Thus, in 1*776, there were twenty-nine pub-
lic libraries in the colonies, containing
45,623 volumes. Now there are reported
to be 3,682 libraries, numbering from 12,-
000,000 to 15,000,000 volumes, including
pamphlets. Started in connection with the
district-schools in New York and Massa-
chusetts, free public libraries in some form
have been established in the majority of
the States of the Union ; and it is believed
that in no other country do so many libra-
ries publish catalogues and reports.

The report is occupied with giving, first,
the history of public libraries in the United
States ; second, their present condition and
extent; third, a discussion of the various
questions pertaining to library economy and
management; fourth, extended statistical
information of all classes of public libraries
Subjects comparatively new are introduced
such, for example, as the advisability of
establishing professorships of books and

LITERARY XOTICES.

375

reading in connection with college libraries ;
or the beneficial results that would be pro-
duced by the employment of art-museums
in free public libraries. The report has
been well managed and is well arranged.
The literature is especially good, as the great-
er part of the writing has been done by the
various librarians throughout the country.

The Theory of Color in its Relation to
Art and Art-Industry. By Dr. Wilhelm
von Bezold, Professor of Physics at the
Royal Polytechnic School of Munich,
and Member of the Royal Bavarian
Academy of Sciences. Translated from
the German by S. R. Koehler, with an
Introductory Sketch by Edward C.
Pickering. Illustrated by Chromolitho-
graphic Plates and Woodcuts. Price,
$5.

The advantages of this work over oth-
ers of a similar nature are derived from
the fact that recognition is made of the
recent progress in physiological optics. In
the first part of the volume the theory of
color is placed upon its proper basis in re-
lation to science, showing the aid which
the latter gives in the perception of colors,
their system, and the law of mixtures. One
of the leading features claimed for the book
is its purpose to serve as a guide to the
pictorial and decorative artist, giving him
hints in regard to the color of leaves, of the
sky, and of water ; the use of Claude glasses;
the effectiveness of small differences ; the
laws regulating the combination of colors,
etc.

While the signature of the author is a
good recommendation for the book, the
names of Prof. Pickering and Mr. Koehler
will greatly assist in the extension of its in-
fluence.

Chemia Coartata; or, The Key to Mod-
ern Chemistry. By A. H. Kollmeyer,
A. M., M.D., Professor of Materia Med-
ica and Therapeutics at the University
of Bishop's College ; Professor of Mate-
ria Medica and Pharmacy at the Mon-
treal College of Pharmacy; and Late
Professor of Chemistry, etc. Philadel-
phia : Lindsay & Blakiston. Pp. 111.
Price, $2.25.

The author has prepared this work " in
the hope that it will prove useful to all
who, from business occupation or from any
other circumstance, may not have sufficient

time at their disposal to consult the more
voluminous works " which have been writ-
ten. With the exception of brief intro-
ductory remarks to the different subjects,
the book is composed of tables. The work
is valuable merely from the convenience
of referring to it, but could not be recom-
mended to those who are beginning the study
of chemistry, as there are many simpler and
more comprehensive treatises on the subject.

Notes on Building Construction. Ar-
ranged to meet the Requirements of the
Syllabus of the Science and Art Depart-
ment of the Committee of Council on
Education, South Kensington. Part II.
Commencement of Second Stage or Ad-
vanced Course. London, Oxford, and
Cambridge : Rivingtons.

This second part is in no respect infe-
rior to the first, and the interesting manner
in which difficult subjects are discussed
tends to fulfill the prediction that the differ-
ent parts, when united, would make up a
" body of principles on the subject of great
value to practical men." Some of the sub-
jects which appeared in the first part are
here treated more minutely, and others of
a more involved nature are introduced.
Among the latter are " Centres," " Stairs,"
" Riveting," " Fireproof-Floors," " Paint-
ing," " Paper-hanging," and " Glazing." A
third part is to follow soon, completing the
work.

Twenty -first Annual Report of the
Board of Directors of the St. Louis
Public Schools, for the Year ending
August 1, 1875.

From this report it appears that the
number of pupils in the day-schools during
lSH-'VS was 35,941 ; in the evening-
schools, 5,751 — showing a large increase in
the latter. Of the day-school teachers, the
males form but ten per cent. No discrimi-
nation is made in the salaries in favor of
male teachers, and a competent woman, in
the position of " supervising principal " ob-
tains a salary of $2,200 per annum. The
salaries distributed in the year reported
amounted to, $531,850. All departments
of the public-school system are said to be
in the most flourishing condition. In con-
nection with the schools there is a public
library which gives gratifying results of its
usefulness.

376

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

By

Prehistoric Remains at Cincinnati
Robert Clarke.

This is valuable as a memorandum of
the prehistoric remains found on the site of
the city of Cincinnati, which have already
been obliterated, or are fast becoming so,
by the extension of the city. It shows
careful research. The main object of the
pamphlet, however, is the vindication of
the claims to importance of the " Cin-
cinnati tablet " (engravings of which are
given) found in a mound on Fifth Street,
in 1841, by Mr. E. Gest. One face is
sculptured, in low-relief, with hieroglyph-
ics, which, from their siugular resemblance
to Egyptian carvings, excited much atten-
tion. It was accepted as genuine for thirty
years, when doubt was thrown upon it by
several writers, and since then it has been
by many considered as a fraud. Mr. Clarke
now brings forward a mass of direct evi-
dence to show its genuine character as a
true relic of the mound-builders, which it
would seem hard to contradict ; and adds
that many who for a time believed the tab-
let an imposture are now convinced of its
genuineness. No explanation of its signifi-
cance or use, however, is attempted, except
incidentally. Arclneologists will be glad to
read this paper.

The Greenstones of New Hampshire, and
their Organic Remains. By George W.
Hawes.

This is reprinted with a colored plate
from the American Journal of Science and
Arts. The greenstones referred to cover
the upper end of the Connecticut Valley,
and belong to the Huronian age, but the
author considers them to have been formed
from fine sedimentary deposits accumulated
in still waters ; that the metamorphic action
under which they were consolidated was
quiet or gentle in degree, far different from
that which in the adjoining regions formed
mountain-masses of granite and gneiss, and
hence that their special location, in connec-
tion with the nature of the sediments, has
determined the characters of the greenstone
series. In certain of these rocks silicated
remains of rhizopods and foraminifers are
found, and Mr. Hawes figures some as seen
under the microscope, with their natural
colors. The pamphlet is an instructive one
to geologists and mineralogists.

FiLTn - Diseases and their Prevention.
By John Simon, M. D., F. R. C. S., Chief
Medical Officer of the Privy Council, and
of the Local Government Board of Great
Britain. Printed under the Direction of
the State Board of Health of Massachu-
setts. Boston : James Campbell. Pp.
96. Price, $1.

This book is well recommended by the
Board of Health of Massachusetts, as it be-
lieves that, " if the practical suggestions
made in it were acted on by all citizens,
hundreds of lives now annually doomed to
destruction would be saved, and the health
and comfort of the people greatly increased."
The work was originally published in Eng-
land as a preface to a volume of excellent
reports made by Government inspectors.
The author first traces the characteristic
diseases due to filth, such as diarrhoea, ty-
phoid fever, cholera, etc. ; next, the vari-
ous forms under which filth operates ; and,
finally, the means to be taken to do away
with its effects. He also discusses at some
length the different closet-systems.

Fifty Years of my Life. By George
Thomas, Earl of Albemarle. New
York: Holt & Co. Pp. 420. Price,

$2.50.

The Earl of Albemarle was born in the
last year of the last century, and his recol-
lections cover much interesting historical
ground. The position of his family brought
him in contact with royalty from his early
youth, and many illustrious persons, civil
and military, figure in these pages* The
narrative is written in a gossipy and con-
tented manner, characteristic of a man who
has lived a long and enjoyable life.

Seventh Annual Report of the State
Board of Health of Massachusetts.

This report is the careful compilation
of an able committee, and the popularity
which it has obtained is justly deserved.
The authors emphasize the fact that " it is
expedient to keep practical questions of
sanitary law and work constantly before
the people ; " and they have accordingly
presented the matter very forcibly. Such
subjects as " Rivers Pollution " and " The
Disposal of Sewage " are treated in their
relations to disease. Aside from its local
worth, the report is valuable on account of
the general principles discussed.

LITERARY NOTICES.

in

The Davenport (Iowa) Academy of Sci-
ences has sent us its first volume of " Pro-
ceedings," forming a neatly-printed book
of 285 pages and 86 plates. Besides the
records of meetings, catalogues of cabinet,
etc., a large number of papers are included,
which, although local in their nature, are
yet of much general interest. Davenport is
so situated as to afford many advantages to
the student of Nature. The underlying
limestone abounds in fossils of the Hamil-
ton and Upper Helderberg groups ; the riv-
ers and ponds produce a remarkably fine
development of molluscan life ; while the
close proximity of the prairies to the wood-
ed bottom-lands affords a rich field for the
botanist and the entomologist. This region
was once the residence of a prehistoric
people, who have left many obscure traces
behind them, furnishing an abundance of
material for the arehasologist to ponder
over. Among the essays are several re-
ports of explorations of mounds at Albany,
Illinois, and in the vicinity of Davenport,
by Dr. R. J. Farquharson, and other archae-
ological papers by C. Lindley, A. S. Tiffany,
and J. D. Putnam ; geological papers by
W. H. Piatt ; botanical matter by Dr. C. C.
Parry, J. G. Ilaupt, and J. J. Nagel ; lists
of insects of Iowa and Utah, by J. D. Put-
nam ; and studies upon land and fiesh-wa-
ter shells, by W. H. Pratt. This first vol-
ume is very creditable to the young Acad-
emy, and it is to be hoped a second similar
publication may soon follow. We observe,
by the-way, that it is published " for the
Academy by the Women's Centennial Asso-
ciation, and suggest that this would be
an excellent way for our many societies of
zealous women to spend their money in
oilier cities than Davenport.

An Elementary Hand-book of Theoreti-
cal Mechanics, with One Hundred and
Forty-five Diagrams. Pp. 146. Price 15
cents. — An Elementary Hand-book of
Applied Mechanics, with Eighty-eight
Diagrams. By William Rossiter, F.
R. A. S., F. C. S., F. R. G. S. New York :
Putnams.

These two volumes form a mean be-
tween the commonly-received elementary
treatises on the subject and the more ad-
vanced works. While they are simple
enough for easy comprehension, they con-
tain many of the data necessary for an ad-
vanced student.

Henry Holt & Co. are just putting to
press, in hope of having it ready by the end
of the year, a "Classical Literature" by C.
A. White, whose " Mythology " has been
received with much favor. The book will
contain biographical and critical notices of
the leading writers in Sanskrit, Greek, and
Latin, with specimens of their works, and
some account of the relations of the lan-
guages.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.,

The Germ-Theory of Disease. By J.
Maclagan, M. D. Pp. 266. London : Mac-
millan.

The Functions of the Brain. By D.
Ferrier, M. D. Pp. 838. New York : Tut-
nams. Price, $3.50.

The Carlyle Anthology. Selected by E.
Barrett. Pp. 396. New York: Holt &
Co. Price, $2.

David and Anna Matson. By Abigail
Scott Duniway. Pp. 194. With Illustra-
tions. New York : S. R. Wells & Co.
Price, $2.

Octavius B. Frothingham and the New
Faith. By E. C. Stedman. Pp. 50. New
York : Putnams. Price, 75 cents.

An Alphabet in Finance. By Graham
McAdam. Pp. 230. Same publishers.
Price, $1.25.

Modern Physical Fatalism. By T. R.
Birks. Pp. 311. London: Macmillan.
Price, $2.25.

Geographical Surveys west of the One
Hundredth Meridian (Wheeler). III. Pp.
681. With Plates. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office.

Chemistry Theoretical and Practical.
Parts X. to XIV. Philadelphia: Lippin-
cott & Co. Price, 50 cents each.

Proceedings of the Poughkeepsie Soci-
ety of Natural Sciences. Vol. I., Part I.,
Pp. 150,

Prometheus. Weekly Magazine. Vol.
I., No. 1. Pp. 28. New York: Charles
P. Somerby. Price, $3 per year.

Proceeding's of the American Chemical
Society. Vol. I., No. 1. Pp. 80. NeT?
York : Trow & Co., printers.

378

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Valedictory Address at the Indianapolis
College of Medicine. By E. D. Foree, M. D.
Pp. 19. Indianapolis : Journal print.

Report of the New York Meteorological
Observatory. By D. Draper. Pp. 48.
New York : Evening Post print.

Report of the Commissioner of Agricult-
ure. Pp. 19. Washington: Government
Printing-Office.

Field and Forest. Monthly. Vol. II.,
No. 5. Pp. 8. With Plate. Washington :
The Columbia Press.

Mayer's Ontogeny and Phylogeny of In-
sects. Also, A Century's Progress in
American Zoology. By A. S. Packard, Jr.
Pp. 4 and 8.

Immediate Preparation and Early Re-
sumption. By R. T. Paine, Jr. Pp. 31.
Boston : A. Williams & Co.

A System of Marine Signals. By S. P.
Griffin. Pp. 13. New York : Vau Nos-
trand.

Appalachia. Organ of the Appalachian
Mountain Club. Pp. 62. With Maps.
Boston : A. Williams & Co.

Education and Progress : an Address
by General T. M. Logan, of Virginia. Pp. 16.

Relations of Physical Health to Moral-
ity and Religion. By Rev. G. W. Cooke.
From the Herald of Health. Pp. 8.

Death-Rate of each Sex in Michigan.
By H. B. Baker, M. D. Pp. 16. Cam-
bridge, Mass. : Riverside Press.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Deep-Sea Bottom Deposits.— The deep-
sea bottom deposits found by the Challenger
expedition are classified as follows by Mr.
Murray, naturalist on the scientific staff:

1. Shore-deposits, aud these are mud of
a variety of colors, as blue, gray, green, red,
also coral-mud and sands ; 2. Globigerina
ooze ; 3. Radiolarian ooze; 4. Diatomaceous
ooze; 5. Red and gray clays. To these
may be added peroxide of manganese in
nodules and grains widely diffused.

The character of the sea-bottom contig-
uous to the shores is determined largely by
that of the adjacent lands. Thus coral-

mud occurs in the vicinity of coral-islands,
and volcanic products near volcanic dis-
tricts.

This general feature of the coast ex-
tends in some cases 150 miles seaward; an
exception was found, however, among the
coral-islands of the Pacific, where the coral-
mud occurs as a narrow band around the
islands.

Globigerina ooze is the most abundant
deep-sea deposit next to the clays. It does
not occur in the inclosed seas in the Pacific
north of latitude 10° north, nor south of
latitude 50° south.

Radiolarians occur in most seas, but
only in limited areas are they sufficiently
abundant to give a distinctive character to
the ooze. In the Antarctic Ocean a diatom
ooze is found, and radiolarian ooze was
brought up from the great depth of 4,475
fathoms — nearly four and three-quarter
miles. The skeletons of these minute or-
ganisms are siliceous.

The red clay is the most abundant de-
posit, and below depths of 2,000 fathoms is
very widely diffused. The skeletons of si-
liceous organisms are abundant in it, but
calcareous shells are few, and in some speci-
mens wholly wanting. The author seems
to refer the origin of the red and gray
clays to lavas, scoria?, pumice, volcanic
ashes, and possibly meteoric or cosmic
dust ; and adds, " If there be an ash after
the carbonate of lime is removed by acid
or other agent, this will be another source."
But Prof. Wyville Thomson distinctly states
that the red clay is essentially the insoluble
ash or residue of calcareous organisms
which form the globigerina ooze, after the
calcareous matter has been removed ; and
this conclusion is confirmed by the very
careful experiments made by Mr. Buchanan,
who treated the ooze with dilute acids.

The author states that efforts to detect
free protoplasm in the dredgings was at-
tended by no definite result. Some speci-
mens, however, assumed a jelly-like aspect,
with fiocculent matter when in spirits.
This fiocculent matter was found by Mr.
Buchanan to be " sulphate of lime precipi-
tated from sea-water, and the author in-
fers that the so-called 'Bathybius ' and the
amorphous sulphate of lime are identical."
In this connection he quotes a report on
the subject by Mr. Buchanan which states

P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY.

379

that "the substance when analyzed consist-
ed of sulphuric acid and lime, and, when
dissolved in water and the solution allowed
to evaporate, it crystallized in the well-
known form of gypsum ; the crystals being
all alike, there being no amorphous matter
among them." Mr. Murray's conclusion is
that in "placing Bafthybius among living
things the describers of it committed an
error."

Eccentricity iu Wood-Growth. — Mr. T.

S. Gold writes as follows, in the Gardener's
Monthly, concerning the unequal deposi-
tion of wood in growing trees but partially
exposed to the action of the wind : " A choke-
cherry sprang from seed in front of my pi-
azza, close to it, and could only be moved
by the winds laterally. The section of the
trunk was elliptical, the longer diameter
being nearly double the shorter. Since the
tree has grown above the roof of the piazza
the trunk is becoming less elliptical. A
young plum-tree standing close by the side
of an out-miilding was killed by mice, and
the sprouts were allowed to grow. These
were all elliptical like the cherry, and made
most wood on the two sides. It appeared
to me that the trees made wood where it
was most needed, on the sides where the
strain of the wind came. Sometimes the
eccentricity is produced by large branches
or large roots on one side of the stem, and
in other cases these seem to have little in-
fluence." This accords with the view of
Mr. Herbert Spencer, who, in the appendix
to his second volume of "Biology," gives
the history of an interesting course of ex-
periments " On Circulation and the Forma-
tion of Wood in Plants."

Notes on the British Arctic Expedition.

— Of the two ships constituting the British
Polar Expedition, the Discovery, Captain
Stephenson, wintered at Cape Baird, lati-
tude 81° 40' ; and the Alert, Captain Nares,
at Cape Union, latitude 82° 30'. The site
of the supposed " Open Polar Sea " was
found to be occupied by a rigid sea of ice,
called the Paleocrystic Sea, or Sea of An-
cient Ice. The thickness of this ice is
enormous, varying from 80 to 120 feet.
This Paleocrystic Sea is no doubt the accu-
mulation of many years, or even of centu-
ries. The lowest temperature experienced

by the expedition was 104° Fahr. below
freezing, which is 20° below the minimum
observed by the Polaris Expedition. The
sun was absent 142 days. A sled-party
from the Alert planted the British flag in
latitude 83° 20' 26" ; but, as they had to hew
a track through the exceedingly rough sur-
face of this frozen sea, seventy-two days
were spent in accomplishing the journey.
Another party explored the coast-line west-
ward for a distance of 220 miles. The
most northerly point of the coast of Grant
Land was found by this party to be Cape
Columbia — latitude 83° 7', west longitude
70° 30'. The Greenland coast was explored
by a party from the Discovery, and its most
northerly point found to be in latitude 82°
50', west longitude 43° 30' ; thence the coast
trends in a southeastern direction. A good
seam of coal was discovered near the win-
ter-quarters of the Discovery. A brass tab-
let with the following appropriate inscrip-
tion was fixed on the grave of the gallant
American explorer, Captain Charles Francis
Hall : " Sacred to the memory of Captain
C. F. Hall, of the U. S. ship Polaris, who
sacrificed his life in the advancement of
science on November 8, 1871. This tablet
has been erected by the British Polar Ex-
pedition of 1875, who, following in his foot-
steps, have profited by his experience."

Sexnal Selecticn among the Monkeys. —

Mr. Darwin, in his " Descent of Man," holds
that the brilliant coloring of the face in the
male mandrill, and of the posterior callosi-
ties in that and sundry other species of
monkeys, is the result of sexual selection.
He now, in a communication to Nature^
brings forward some new observations on
this subject made by Joh. von Fischer, of
Gotha. Von Fischer finds that not only the
mandrill, but the drill and three other kinds
of baboons, which he names, also Cynopithe-
cus niger, Macacus rhesus, and M. nem.es-
trlnus turn the hind-parts of their bodies,
which in all these species is more or less
highly colored, toward him when they are
pleased, and toward other persons as a kind
of greeting. Many other facts of a like
nature are mentioned by Mr. Darwin, and
then he expresses the opinion that "the
bright colors, whether on the face or hinder
end, or, as in the mandrill, on both, serve
as a sexual ornament and attraction. Any-

38o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

how," he continues, " as we now know that
monkeys have the habit of turning their
hinder ends toward other monkeys, it ceases
to be at all surprising that it should have
been this part of their bodies that has been
more or less decorated. The fact that it is
only the monkeys thus characterized which,
as far as at present known, act in this man-
ner as a greeting toward other monkeys,
renders it doubtful whether the habit was
first acquired from some independent cause,
and that afterward the parts in question
were colored as a sexual ornament; or
whether the coloring and habit of turning
round were first acquired through variation
and sexual selection, and that afterward the
habit was retained as a sign of pleasure or
as a greeting, through the principle of in-
herited association."

The Transmission of Habit. — A corre-
spondent of Xalure, resident in New Zea-
land, communicates to that journal several
instances of the transmission of habits to
offspring in animals. One instance is that
of a mare which would wander away from
the " mob " of horses to which she belonged
— always seeking one particular creek.
When released from work she would make
off to her favorite feeding-ground by her-
self. One of her progeny some years after
showed a similar liking for solitude. Again,
a valuable mare was an incorrigible kicker;
she transmitted her special vice to her off-
spring. Peculiarity in the form of the hoof
has been transmitted to generation after
generation. The same writer states that a
particular strain of Dorking fowls which he
has had in his possession for thirty years
always show a restless desire for rambling,
and this, too, under the difficulty of meeting
with much persecution when straying be-
yond their range.

Effjrts to stop tie Loeust-Plagnc.— In
Octobi-r a convention of the Governors of
several Western States aiid Territories was
held at Omaha, to devise means of with-
standing the plague of locusts. Besides
the Governors, there were present at the
meeting a number of prominent farmers and
scientific men. A memorial to Congress
was adopted, setting forth the serious in-
jury done to agriculture by the locust, and

asking for the appointment of a commission
to investigate the " history and haunts of
this insect ; also all possible means of its
extermination, and remedial agencies which
may be used against it." Prof. Riley, of
St. Louis, delivered an address, in which he
briefly narrated the habits and history of
the Rocky Mountain locust. He considered
that there were two main questions before
the conference : 1. How best to deal with
the young insects that threaten to hatch out
over a vast extent of the country next spring ;
and, 2. The investigation of the insect in its
native home, with a view of preventing its
migrations into the country to the south-
east. Prof. C. D. Wilber, of Nebraska,
gave an account of the various means adopt-
ed in different parts of the West to counter-
act this plague. Governor Pillsbury, of
Minnesota, gave a history of locust-ravages
in various countries. Governor Pennington,
of Dakota, offered a series of resolutions
"respectfully but earnestly urging that all
our people in the States and Territories
afflicted by the locust-plague, of all denomi-
nations and sects, offer up special prayers
in their respective churches for deliverance
from this great enemy."

Insect Fertilization of Plants. — For a

year Mr. Thomas Meehan has been making
observations and experiments to determine
whether insects are of material aid to plants
in fertilization. His results, which are pub-
lished in the Perm Monthly, appear to favor
a decision of the question in the negative.
That insects sometimes fertilize and cross-
fertilize flowers, he admits, but he holds that
these cases are less frequent than they are
supposed to be, and that, when they do oc-
cur, they have no bearing on the general
welfare of the race. The chief arguments
for the necessity of insect fertilization, says
Mr. Meehan, are drawn from structure and
not from facts of observation. Thus it is
stated that Iris, Campanula, dandelion, ox-
eye daisy, garden pea, Lobelia, clover,
and many other plants, are so arranged
that they cannot fertilize themselves with-
out insect aid. But the author has inclosed
flowers of all of these in fine gauze bags,
and found that they produced seeds as well
as other flowers that were exposed. And yet
Iris Virginica and Campanula are common

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

381

illustrations of the supposed necessity of
insect fertilization. In one plant experi-
mented with in this way (Bapiisia), seeds
were not formed. This plant, in the author's
opinion, may possibly require insect agency
for its fertilization. He does not deny that
flowers are sometimes fertilized by the aid
of insects ; but he does not admit that this
mode of fertilization is very common. His
conclusions may be stated as follows: 1.
That cross-fertilization by insect agency
does not exist nearly to the extent claimed
for it ; 2. That, where it does exist, there is
no evidence that it is of any material bene-
fit to the race, but contrariwise ; 3. That
difficulties in self-fertilization result from
physiological disturbances that have no
relation to the general welfare of plants as
species.

Proposed {international Geological Con-
gress.— A committee appointed by the
American Association has issued a circular
addressed to geologists, announcing the
proposed convocation of an International
Geological Congress, to be held at Paris
some time during the Exposition of 1878.
It is proposed to make the Congress an
occasion for considering many disputed
points in geology, and to this end it is de-
sirable that the Geological Department of
the Exhibition should embrace — 1. Collec-
tions of crystalline rocks, both crystalline
schists and massive or eruptive rocks, in-
cluding the so-called contact - formations
and the results of the local alteration of un-
crystalline sediments by eruptive masses.
In this connection are to be desired all ex-
amples of organic remains found in crystal-
line rocks, including Eozoon and related
forms. These collections should, moreover,
comprehend all rare and unusual rocks of
special lithological, mineralogical, and chem-
ical interest, examples of ore-deposits and
of vein-stones of all kinds, with their in-
casing rocks. As far as possible these col-
lections should be limited to specimens of a
size convenient for examination, and be ac-
companied with sections prepared for mi-
croscopic study.

2. Collections illustrating the fauna and
the flora of the Palaeozoic and more recent
periods, particularly of such horizons as pre-
sent a more critical interest to paleontolo-

gists from the first appearance or the dis-
appearance of important groups of organic
forms. It has appeared to the committee
that the organic remains of the Cambrian,
Taconic, or so-called Primordial strata merit
especial attention in this connection.

These various collections should be ex-
plained as fully as possible by labels, cata-
logues, monographs, and maps.

3. Collections of geological maps, and
also of sections and models, especially such
as serve to illustrate the laws of mountain-
structure. In the geological maps, regard
should be had to various questions which
deserve the special consideration of the
Congress, such as the scales best adapted
for different purposes, the colors and sym-
bols to be used, and the proper mode of
representing superficial deposits conjointly
with the underlying formations. The sec-
retary of the committee is Dr. T. Sterry
Hunt, of Boston.

Comparative Dietetic Valne of Meat and
Eggs. — A writer in the Scientific Farmer
estimates the food-value of one pound of
eggs as a producer of force, i. e., the amount
of work the pound oxidized in the body is
theoretically capable of producing, at 1,584
foot-tons, and the value of one pound of
lean beef, from the same point of view, at
990 foot-tons. As a flesh-producer, one
pound of eggs is about equal to one pound
of beef, as is shown by the following analy-
sis quoted by the author :

ONE POUND OF EGGS.

Water 12 oz., 36 grs.

A Ibumen 2 oz.

Extractive 130 grs.

Oil or fat 1 oz., 214 grs.

Ash 28 grs.

Will produce at the maximum 2 oz. of dry muscle
or flesh.

ONE POUND OF BEEF.

Water 8 oz.

Fibrine and albumen 1 oz., 122 grs.

Gelatine 1 oz., 62 grs.

Fat 4 oz., 340 grs.

Mineral 350 grs.

The author hereupon remarks as fol-
lows :

" A hen may be calculated to consume 1
bushel of corn yearly, and to lay 12 dozen or
18 pounds of eggs. This is equivalent to
saying that 3.1 pounds of corn will produce,
when fed to this hen, 1 pound of eggs. A

382

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pound of pork, on the contrary, requires
about 5r pounds of corn for its production.
"When eggs are 24 cents a dozen, and pork
is 10 cents a pound, we have the bushel of
corn fed producing $2.88 worth of eggs, and
but $1.05 worth of pork.

" Judging from these facts, eggs must be
economical in their production and in their
eating, and especially fitted for the laboring-
man in replacing meat."

Qualifications of Medical Students.— At

the opening of the medical session of Glas-
gow University, last week, Prof. McCall An-
derson said few could doubt that a prelimi-
nary examination of candidates for admis-
sion to the classes was called for, but if
proof were required it might be found in
the answers given to the following questions
submitted to candidates by one of the ex-
amining boards : " What is meant by the an-
tiquity of man ? " Answer : " The wicked-
ness of man." " The Letters of Junius? "
" Letters written in the month of June."
" The Crusades ? " "A war against the Ro-
man Catholics during the last century."
" The first meridian ? " " The first hour of
the day." "To speak ironically?" "To
speak about iron." "A Gordian knot?"
" The arms of the Gordon family." " The
Star-chamber?" "Place for viewing the
stars." " To sit on the woolsack ? " " To
be seated on a sack of wool." "A sole-
cism?" "A book on the sun." "The year
of jubilee?" "Leap-year." They could,
the professor added, have appreciated this
last answer all the more heartily had it em-
anated from one of the female medical stu-
dents. It is, however, only just on women
to admit that they are, as a rule, serious in
their studies, and are not in the habit of
joking examiners. There is, indeed, an
earnestness of purpose in their efforts to
compete with man which entitles them to
respect, and even imitation. — Pall Mall Ga-
zette.

The Strn??le for Existence.— Prof. Al-
fred Newton, in his address to the Biologi-
cal Section of the British Association, de-
scribed as follows the effects consequent
upon the introduction by man of foreign
species of animals into newly-discovered
regions : " Set face to face with unlooked-

for invaders, and forced into a contest with
them from which there is no retreat, it is
not in the least surprising that the natives
should succumb. They have hitherto only
had to struggle for existence with creatures
of a like organization ; and the issue of the
conflict which has been going on for ages is
that, a3apted to the conditions under which
they find themselves, they maintain their
footing on grounds of equality among one
another, and so for centuries they may have
'kept the noiseless tenor of their way.'
Suddenly man interferes, and lets loose up-
on them an entirely new race of animals,
which act and react in a thousand different
fashions on their circumstances. It is not
necessary that the new-comers should be
predacious ; they may be so far void of of-
fense as to abstain from assaulting the
aboriginal population ; but they occupy the
same haunts and consume the same food.
The fruits, the herbage, and the other sup-
plies that sufficed to support the ancient
fauna, now have to furnish forage for the in-
vaders as well. The new-comers are creatures
whose organization has been prepared by
and for combat throughout generations in-
numerable. Their ancestors have been ele-
vated in the scale of being by the discipline
of strife. Their descendants inherit the
developed qualities that enabled those an-
cestors to win a hard-fought existence when
the animals around them were no higher in
grade than those among which the descend-
ants are now thrown. The struggle is like
one between an army of veterans and a
population unused to warfare."

Economy in the Use of Steam. — A series
of experiments has been made, as we learn
from Iran, upon the 80-horse-power engine
at Portsmouth dock-yard, for the purpose of
testing the value of a process, the invention
of Mr. Marchant, of London, whereby steam,
after having done its work in the cylinder,
is pumped back into the boiler, to be re-
utilized for steam-power. The advantage
which the inventor claims for his invention
is a considerable saving of fuel, because,
inasmuch as it is economical to keep the
boilers supplied with hot water from the
condensers instead of cold water, it follows
that to keep them supplied with steam di-
rect from the cylinders must prove still

NOTES.

383

more economical of fuel. The experiments
appear to have been successful. The en-
gine one day was worked as an ordinary
condensing engine, when it was found that
the consumption was 1,116 pounds of coal
in six hours, producing an indicated horse-
power of 84.747. The next day the en-
gine was driven with Marchant's steam-
pumps connected with the low-pressure cyl-
inder ; the consumption of coal was now
1,158 pounds, while the indicated horse-
power was 104.123. The ascertained work
on the steam-pumps was six indicated horse-
power.

Gathering Rock-Crystals. — Searching for
rock-crystals is one of the recognized in-
dustries of the Swiss Alps, and the men __
who follow this vocation are known as
Strahlers. The following notes upon the
search for these crystals we take from the
Moniteur Industriel Beige : The outfit of a
Strahler consists of a bar of iron four feet
long and bent at one end, a shovel, a pick-
axe, a hammer, a stout cord, and a leathern
sack. Thus equipped, he goes out to his
work in the morning. He nearly always
goes alone, so as to have all he may find for
himself. For hours and hours he creeps
along the sides of the rock, on projections
of a few inches, over yawning chasms.
When he descries a vein of quartz, he
strives to reach it, but oftentimes this is
a matter of extreme peril, and involving
much labor ; he must be very careful where
he steps, and not seldom he must hew out
a resting-place for his foot in the rock.
Having reached the vein, he follows it and
strikes it with his hammer. His practised
ear tells him whether he has to deal with
a " cavern," a " druse," a " pocket," or a
" kiln," as the various kinds of cavities are
called in which are found the crystals —
whether attached to the walls or loose and
mixed with sand. The most famous dis.
covery ever made of monster crystals is of
very recent date. Some hundred feet above
the snow-line an apothecary of Bern saw a
vein of quartz 60 feet long and from 4 to
1.2 feet wide. On working the vein, four
hundred-weight of crystals were taken out ;
the larger masses were purchased for mu-
seums, while the smaller pieces were sold
to opticians.

NOTES.

The chemical laboratory for female Btu-
dents, in the new building adjoining the
Massachusetts Technological Institute, has
been thoroughly fitted up, and was occupied
for the first time early in November.

Five specimens of ground coffee, chemi-
cally examined by C. H. Eddy, of Michigan
University, were found to be adulterated to
the extent of from 22 to 39 per cent, with
chiccory. One package, labeled " Pure Mo-
cha and Java," contained 23 per cent. ;
"Pure Rio," 25 per cent. ; " Pure Java," 22
per cent.; "Royal Java," 31 per cent.;
" Warranted pure government Java," 39
percent. Besides chiccory, these prepared
coffees consisted chiefly of peas, oats, starch,
carrots, etc. In three of the five specimens
no caffeine could be discovered.

White-lead, as a pigment, is chiefly
valued for its " body," and for the ease with
which it is laid on ; but it produces lead-
poisoning, and also tends to lose its white-
ness. Zinc-white is not open to these ob-
jections. Properly prepared, it has as good
covering properties as white-lead, and the
addition of magnesia in the manufacture
makes it as easy to work ; besides, it has no
injurious effects on the health of those who
manufacture or use it.

An extensive deposit of plumbago has
been discovered in Longswamp Township,
Berks County, Pennsylvania. "The de-
posit," says the American Manufacturer, " is
between seven and eight feet in depth, and
the mineral is of the best quality. Similar
deposits are supposed to exist elsewhere in
the same region, and persons are now en-
gaged in prospecting, but as yet no new dis-
coveries have been made."

The Library Table for November con-
tains a good sketch of the life and works
of Mr. Darwin, with portrait. A valuable
feature of this periodical is its classified
index to current periodical literature.

The death is announced of the eminent
French geologist, Charles Sainte-Claire De-
ville, at the age of sixty-two years. He
was a native of the island of St. Thomas,
graduated from the Paris School of Mines,
studied the geology of the Antilles, and
published the results of his investigations
in 1856. Later he was Professor of Geol-
ogy in the College de France. For many
years he devoted himself to the study of me-
teorology, and to him in great measure is
due the foundation of the Montsouris Me-
teorological Observatory.

No publications by professors or other
attaches (quare: officers, students, resident

384

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

graduates?) of the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity are permitted to be issued in the name
of, or dated from, the university, without
the consent of the professor to whose de-
partment the subject-matter belongs, or, in
defect of such professor, ot the head of the
university.

The Engineering and Mining Journal
proposes to its readers the following prob-
lem in proportion : If the German Conti-
nental Gas-Light Company is able to declare
13 percent, dividends on its capital of nearly
$3,000,000, when paying §5.75 per ton for
its coal, and charging $1.01 and $1.35 per
thousand feet for its 15.9 candle-gas, what
are the profits of the New York gas com-
panies, which pay $6 per ton for their coal,
and charge $2.50 per thousand feet for a
poorer gas ?

In the School of Anthropology lately
opened under the auspices of the Paris Fac-
ulty of Medicine, Prof. Paul Broca lectures
ou anatomical anthropology, M. F. Topinard
on biological anthropology, M. Dally on
ethnology, M. de Mortillet on prehistoric
anthropology, and M. Hovelacque on lin-
guistic anthropology. The course is open
to the public.

Several members of the Paris Anthro-
pological Society have promised each to
write a will directing that his brain be sent
to the society, for inspection and dissection.
It is thought that, by procuring the thinking
organ of persons whose habits and works
are perfectly known, some light might be
thrown on the laws of physico-mental organ-
ization. The scheme is anathematized by
the leading religious newspaper of France,
the Univers.

On and about pistons and journals which
have been lubricated with animal and vege-
table oils, lumps of dirty matter are found,
consisting of iron oxide and fatty acids.
Dr. Schondorff has found that the oil is de-
composed by steam into glycerine and fatty
acid, and that the latter attacks the iron,
causing enlargement of the cylinder. He
therefore recommends the use of heavy min-
eral oils as lubricators.

An association has been formed and an
estate purchased on the Sussex (Fngland)
coast, for building houses of a superior char-
acter, and on the most approved principles,
so as to secure all the advantages depicted
by Dr. Richardson as belonging to his "Hy-
geia," or City of Health.

The great maritime canal connecting
Amsterdam with the German Ocean was
opened November 1st, with imposing cere-
mony. The canal is sixteen miles in length,
and has at the sea-end a harbor covering
250 acres, which, however, is not quite com-
pleted.

It is stated in Land and Water, as a fact
bevond contradiction, that the choice Ensr-
lish breeds of cattle have for some years
not only tended to djminish in size, but also
'in robustness of constitution. The milk-
yielding qualities of English cattle, too, are
declining, so that the importation of cheese
and butter is increasing enormously. This
is strikingly the case with the Durhams, in
which everything is sacrificed to form. In
the finest strains of Durham cattle fecundity
has been seriously affected, and the uiilk-
secretion has become next to nothing.

The loss, in 18*75, to Russia, from the
ravages of wolves, amounted to about 15,-
000,000 rubles. The number of cattle
killed was 179,000; of sheep, etc., 562,900.
In the government of Kalouga alone the
wolves killed 8,200 geese and 2,000 dogs.
The human lives destroyed by the wolves
are estimated at 200 per year.

At the fifth meeting of Russian natural-
ists, held at Warsaw, September 12th, propo-
sals were favorably received to establish a
zoological station on the Solovetzky Islands,
and to request the aid of the Naval Depart-
ment for dredgings in the Black Sea. Messrs.
Grimm and Bogdanoff informed the meeting
that they had undertaken two publications, a
popular periodical, Herald of Natural Sci-
ence, and a periodical in French or German,
which would give to foreign readers brief
notices of scientific work in Russia.

A miner at Nitshill, in Scotland, lately
committed suicide by blowing himself up
with dynamite. He procured a parcel of
the explosive, went into the middle of the
street, lighted the fuse, and leaned over the
dynamite. The man was blown to atoms,
and, on the spot where the dynamite had
been laid, a hole was made about three feet
deep by two and a half wide.

A commission appointed by the Govern-
ment of Prussia to ascertain sundry anthro-
pological data, has reported that of 4,127,776
pupils in schools, 42.97 per cent, had blue
eyes, and 24.31 per cent, brown; 72 per
cent, had blond hair, 26 per cent, brown,
and 1.21 per cent, black. With regard to
the color of the skin, only 6.53 had brunette
complexion.

In a letter addressed to M. Dumas, of the
Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Gachez as-
serts that vines may be protected from the
ravages of the Phylloxera by planting "red
maize " between the rows. The insect quits
the vine and attacks the roots of the maize.

In 1849, out of every sixteen men, wom-
en, and children, in England ar,d Wales,
one was a pauper maintained by the charity
of the remaining fifteen. In 1852 one in
twenty was a pauper, and in 1875 only one
in thirty.

JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE, Jk.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

FEBRUARY, 1877.

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO.1

By A. MEZIERES,

OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY.

MANY points have been left obscure in the history of the double
trial of Galileo, the details of which till lately were but imper-
fectly known. The important work published by Domenico Berti 2
fills up some of these gaps, by placing before our eyes a collection of
authentic documents taken from the secret archives of the Vatican.
We have here no work of partisanship, undertaken in the interest of
religious controversy, but an historical work executed with all the
scrupulous care that is nowadays exacted in all historical researches.
In France the question had already been handled by Libri, Biot,
Joseph Bertrand, Trouessart, and Th. Henri Martin, the first two ap-
proaching it with preconceived opinions that aided but little in the
discovery of the truth, while the others brought to the discussion a
remarkable spirit of impartiality. But all of these writers lacked the
indispensable elements of information which now, thanks to the labors
of Domenico Berti, are at the disposal of the future biographers of
Galileo. If we have suffered ourselves to be anticipated by an Italian
in the publication of the documents relating to this famous case, we
must attribute the fact either to the negligence or to the prudence of
the French Government, for we were in possession, for nearly half a
century, of the valuable manuscript the full text of which is now
published by Berti. Having been taken out of the Vatican archives
during the first empire and carried to Paris, this original collection
was there seen by the historian Denina, but he thought it to be of no
importance. Nevertheless Napoleon I. ordered it to be published,
with a translation facing the text ; but the publication, though begun,

1 Translated from the Revue des Deux Mondes by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.

2 " II Processo Originate di Galileo Galilei, pubblicato per la prima volta," Roma,
1876.

vol. x. — 25

3 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was not continued : only the beginning of the work was then known,
and of this Delambre, the astronomer, gave an account to the Italian
Venturi.

In December, 1814, according to the Duke de Blacas, the private
library of Louis XVIII. received the entire MS. in the same condition
in which it had been found by the imperial government in Italy, and
thence carried to France. During the early years of the Restoration,
active negotiations were carried on by the court of Rome with the
French Government, to secure the return of these important docu-
ments. The Government, though it did not positively refuse to comply,
nevertheless delayed and procrastinated. It was not until 1846, after
thirty-two years of negotiation, that the MS. was sent back to Rome,
at the instance, no doubt, of Rossi, who himself presented it to Pius
IX., in behalf of Louis Philippe. By the pope it was restored in
December, 1848, to the secret archives of the Vatican, and there it still
remains.

All that was known of this MS. before the publication of Berti's
work rested upon a selection of documents published at Rome in
1850, with many precautions, by Monsignore Marino Marini, sometime
Prefect of the Secret Archives of the Holy See, and upon a larger
work, in some respects inexact, and in others imperfect, published in
Paris in 1867, by Henri de l'Epinois. Both of these writers take
special points of view : they appear to be more intent upon justifying
the judges that condemned Galileo than upon laying bare the whole
truth with the boldness and freedom of an historian. Hence we can
appreciate the motives which led them to publish only a portion of
the MS. though the whole of it was in their hands. Did the court of
Rome really suppose that these two publications contained all the
documents pertaining to the double trial of Galileo, or did it think that
the time had come for no longer hiding anything from the public ?
However that may be, at all events Domenico Berti, in February,
1870, was permitted to examine the MS., and even to copy it at his
leisure in the room of Father Theiner, who had been officially author-
ized to intrust it to him. The present publication, therefore, was not
procured by fraud, and, if the Holy See should have any occasion to
regret it, at least it could neither dispute its authenticity, nor complain
that the work was done without its consent.

I.

The interesting history of the travels and of the final destiny of
the Vatican MS. is merely the preface of a far more important history,
whose events we will endeavor to record impartially, with the sole
purpose of unveiling and bringing to light the truth. Galileo, cele-
brated from his early years for the value of his discoveries and the
brilliancy of his lectures at the University of Padua, loaded with
honors at Venice and at Florence, and admired throughout all Italy,

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 387

was pursuing the course of his great researches with the boldness of
a man confident of his strength and of his fame, when certain slight
indications no doubt warned him that it would not be disadvantageous,
if he would carry on his researches in safety, to win the favor of the
Sacred College. Accordingly he set out in 1611 for the Eternal City,
without confessed misgiving, but with the ambition and expectation
of interesting the most influential personages of the Roman court in
his discoveries. He was nearing the decisive moment of his career.
He had not as yet been disquieted by the objections of the theolo-
gians, though in prosecuting his studies of the constitution of the
universe he was touching upon delicate questions which he could not
expect to be permitted to discuss freely, without having first gained
the sympathy, or at least the neutrality, of the Church. The court of
Rome at that time exercised such moral authority in Italy, and es-
pecially at Florence, where Galileo resided, that people in some sense
waited for her decision before they would accept the best-established
conclusions in astronomy. The Grand-duke of Tuscany could not
but be pleased at the discovery of Jupiter's satellites, announced in
the " Sidereus Nuncius ; " and he was all the more ready to believe,
because these new heavenly bodies had received his family name : yet
his own secretary had to admit that the discovery would never receive
the unanimous assent of the learned world until it was approved and
verified at Rome. There sat the Roman College, a regular tribunal,
scientific as well as theological, whose decrees were law in Catholic
countries.

Galileo, who was a man of rare good sense, and perfectly con-
versant with the ways of the world, had in advance formed at Rome
the best and the most powerful of relations. Besides, he came there
in a sort of official capacity, at the grand-duke's charges, and he was
entertained there by the Tuscan embassador. Prelates, cardinals,
princes, vied with one another for the honor of offering fetes and ban-
quets to the most illustrious representative of Italian science. At the
palace of Cardinal Bandini, in the beautiful gardens of the Quirinal,
in the villa of the Marquis Cesi on the summit of the Janiculan,
Galileo delighted a society of elite by having them contemplate,
during the serene nights of April, the vault of heaven through the
telescope which he had recently invented, and which bears his name.
He awakened a genuine enthusiasm one day when, after dinner, he
pointed his telescope toward St. John of Lateran, three miles distant,
and enabled the guests to read the inscription upon the facade of
that basilica.

His arguments did not equally convince all of those who were pres-
ent at his astronomical observations, and who listened to the explana-
tion he gave of the movement of Jupiter's four satellites, the inequali-
ties of the moon's surface, and the phases of Venus and Saturn, and to
the discussions he carried on with those who opposed his views. His

3 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

doctrine implied the confirmation of the system of Copernicus and
the demonstration of the earth's motion, which were no longer re-
served for mathematicians only, but made intelligible to all by a
series of experiments. Here was an innovation calculated to alarm
the theologians. A system that might be regarded as inoffensive so
long as it was only a mathematical hypothesis, useful to men of science
in their researches, became a very different thing on being transformed
into a physical truth accessible to the senses and pregnant with conse-
quences touching the plurality of worlds and the aim of creation.
Hence the apparent triumph of Galileo hid from view perils the mag-
nitude of which at first eluded his penetrating mind. While he was
giving himself up, with perhaps over-much confidence, to the pleasure
of success, and was yielding too easily to his habitual temptation to
answer objections with sarcasm, the ecclesiastical authority quietly
set ou foot an inquiry into the orthodoxy of his opinions. Cardinal
Bellarmin, probably in the name of his colleagues of the Inquisition,
asked of the members of the Roman College (without mentioning
Galileo's name) what was to be thought of the astronomical observa-
tions that had recently been promulgated by a distinguished mathe-
matician.

This is the first symptom that we have been able to discover of the
intervention of theology in the examination of Galileo's scientific opin-
ions. The response of the Roman College was favorable to him ; but,
from that moment forward, the alarm was sounded, and the Inquisition
never lost sight of him. Though the sovereign pontiff, to whom he was
presented by the Tuscan embassador, received him with great cour-
tesy, not allowing him to utter even a word on bended knees,' yet the
Holy Office, even before he had quitted Rome, inquired of the tribunal
at Padua whether, in the action brought against Cesare Cremonini for
certain philosophical indiscretions, there might not be something to
compromise Galileo. A direct personal attack, inspired by an over-
weening zeal, quickly followed these early suspicions. On his return
to Florence, Galileo took up his labors afresh in the pleasant solitudes
of the Belvedere, placed at his service by the kind hospitality of the
grand-duke ; there he received his friends and pupils, who, on depart-
ing from these conversaziones, propagated his doctrines. At this a
Dominican friar, Thomas Caccini, took umbrage, and, in a sermon
delivered at Santa Maria Nuova on the miracle of Joshua, he suddenly
exclaimed, " Viri Galilcei, quid statis aspicientes in ccelum ? " The
friar doubtless had heard of a conversation held at the court in pres-
ence of the grand-duchess dowager Christine of Lorraine, and the
Archduchess Madeleine of Austria, in the course of which Father Cas-
telli, a pupil of Galileo, had endeavored to prove, to the great satis-
faction of his hearers, that one might believe in the earth's motion
without questioning the authenticity of Joshua's miracle. Upon this
subject Galileo addressed to his pupil a famous letter, in which he

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 389

precisely set forth the rights of science, at the same time asserting for
religion its own. Here, according to him, are two separate domains,
which are not rashly to be confounded.

" The Holy Scripture," said he, " can neither lie nor err, but it
needs to be interpreted ; for, were we to insist upon the literal sense
of the words, we should find not only contradictions, but heresies and
blasphemies ; we should have to give to God hands, feet, ears, to sup-
pose him subject to like passions with men — to anger, remorse, hatred ;
and, again, to hold that he forgets the past and is ignorant of the
future. . . . Inasmuch as the Bible constantly requires interpretation
to explain how very different the true sense of the words is from their
apparent signification, it appears to me that it should be quoted in sci-
entific discussions only as the last resort. In truth, Holy Scripture and
Nature both come from the Divine Word, the one being the dictation
of the Holy Ghost, while the other is the executor of God's decrees ;
but it was fitting that, in the Scriptures, the language should be
adapted to the people's understanding in many things where the
appearance differs widely from the reality. Nature, on the other
hand, is inexorable and immutable ; she is not at all concerned
whether the hidden reasons and means through which she works are
or are not intelligible to man, because she never oversteps the limit
of the laws imposed upon her. Hence it appears that when we have
to do with natural effects brought under our eyes by the experience
of our senses, or deduced from absolute demonstrations, these can in
no wise be called in question on the strength of Scripture texts that
are susceptible of a thousand different interpretations, for the words
of Scripture are not so strictly limited in their significance as the phe-
nomena of Nature. ... I therefore think it would be wise to forbid
persons from using texts of Holy Scripture, and from forcing them,
as it were, to support as true certain propositions in natural science,
whereof the contrary may to-morrow be demonstrated by the senses
or by mathematical reasoning."

This noble letter, the moderation of which would nowadays be ad-
mitted by every theologian, but which then gave out a dangerous odor
of novelty, no doubt passed from hand to hand, was read by ill-dis-
posed persons, perhaps fomented the agitation produced by Caccini's
vehement assault, and furnished to another Dominican, Niccola Lorini,
an opportunity of denouncing Galileo to the Congregation of the Holy
Office. " Here," said the informer, " are propositions that seem to be
suspect and rash, opinions that contradict the text of the Holy Script-
ure. Besides," he added, " Galileo and his disciples speak with little
respect of the fathers of the Church, of St. Thomas of Aquino, and of
Aristotle, whose philosophy has rendered so much service to the
scholastic theology." The Inquisition, though search was made, was
unable to procure the original of the. letter, for Castelli had given it
back to his master, and he prudently refused to part with it. The

39o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

inquisitors contented themselves with an examination of the copy sent
by Lorini, in which they discovered a few ill-sounding phrases, but, on
the whole, nothing clearly contradictory of the language of Scripture.
Still they continued to note the words of Galileo ; they questioned
two Tuscan ecclesiastics about the speeches that he might have uttered
in their hearing; they scrutinized the letters he had published on the
subject of observing sun-spots.

Galileo, though quite ignorant of the strict watch kept on him by
the Inquisition, had a vague apprehension of imminent danger. To
ward it off, he adopted the expedient of going again to Rome in 1615,
and of pleading his cause in person in the quarter where a successful
defense was most to be desired. It has been asserted that Galileo
was summoned before the bar of the Holy Office, but they who so assert
are in error as to the date ; it was not till a much later period, viz.,
the beginning of his second trial, that he was ordered to appear in
Rome. On the present occasion he went of his own accord, no longer
possessed of the fearless assurance with which he made his first jour-
ney, yet confidently hoping that he would disarm his opponents by
the clearness of his explanations. Perchance he rested his expecta-
tion of convincing them as much upon the graces and charms of his
wit, and the personal attractiveness which won for him all hearts, as
upon the strength of his arguments.

Besides, he had taken more pains than even he did in 1611 to pre-
pare the ground : he had, in urgent letters, rekindled the zeal of his
friends, and had again obtained for himself all the external tokens of
the official protection of the grand-duke. As before, he went down to
the embassador's palace, the villa of the Trinita, de' Monti, where
now the Academy of France has its seat, and, the day after his arrival,
went into the country. What with detailed explanations made in the
presence of numerous auditors, keen and lively disputations in which
he plainly showed the weakness of his opponents, frequent visits to
distinguished personages, brief tractates in which he demonstrated
the truth of the Copernican system, he omitted nothing that could
influence in his own favor those currents of opinion which judges
themselves cannot withstand.

Unfortunately for Galileo, the tribunal of the Inquisition was but
little affected by external influences ; it imposed laws on opinion, and
took no advice from it. The members of the Holy Office, heedless of
the steps taken by the illustrious astronomer, and of the ardor with
which his ideas were espoused by a portion of Roman society, went
on quietly with their work. In examining the letters on the sun-spots,
they found therein two propositions worthy of censure. On the 24th
of February, 1616, they unanimously pronounced it absurd and hereti-
cal to assert that the sun is motionless, and that the earth revolves.
The sovereign pontiff immediately ordered Cardinal Bellarmin to sum-
mon Galileo, and to have him promise that he would no longer uphold

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 391

a proposition condemned by the Church. " If he refuses to obey,"
said the pontifical letter, "the Father Commissary, in the presence of
a notary and witnesses, shall enjoin him absolutely to abstain from
teaching that doctrine and that opinion, from upholding it or even
speaking of it; in case he does not comply, he shall be cast into jail."
Accordingly, on the 26th of February, 1616, Cardinal Bellarmin, in
the presence of the commissary-general of the Holy Office and two wit-
nesses, invited Galileo to renounce the two condemned propositions.
After Bellarmin, the commissary-general again intimated to him, on
behalf of the pope and the entire Congregation of the Holy Office,
the formal order no longer to uphold, teach, and defend this opinion,
whether by writing, by word of mouth, or in any manner whatso-
ever ; if he failed to comply, he was to be prosecuted by the Holy
Office. Galileo promised to obey.1 On the 5th of March following,
the Congregation of the Index condemned the work of Copeimicus
until it should be corrected.

From these authentic facts it results that a certain number of
modern historians are deceived themselves, or Avould deceive us,
when they insinuate that the Holy Office meant to condemn, not the
system of Copernicus, but Galileo's theological interpretations of it.
There was no question whatever about theological interpretations.
In neither Copernicus's book, nor in the letters on the sun-spots, is
there a word, a single phrase, in which the Holy Scriptures are
interpreted. If here and there in his correspondence Galileo, out of
respect to religion, endeavored to reconcile the data of science with
the text of the Bible, he never published these explanations. It was
not upon these private manuscript documents that he was tried, and
the only document that furnished a basis for the charge was a printed
work, purely scientific in character, and having nothing whatever to
do with theology. By no manner of argumentation can the fact be
negatived that a tribunal of theologians constituted itself a judge in
a question of science, and decided it as an authority decides. The
Holy Office did not forbid receiving and teaching the doctrine of
Copernicus, on the ground that it was not yet demonstrated, as some
of the apologists of the Holy See would have us believe ; they would
not permit it to be demonstrated ; they pronounced it in advance
to be "absurd, heretical, contrary to the text of the Scripture." Such
is the whole truth about Galileo's first trial, and Domenico Berti sets

it forth with much dialectic vigor.

II.

Galileo once reduced to silence by the act of submission to which
he had subscribed, the object of the Inquisition was attained. No

1 In a work entitled "Galileo Galilei und die Romische Curie" (Stuttgart, 1876), Heir
von Gebler disputes the authenticity of the document which states these facts. Berti
makes a victorious reply to him.

392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

useless rigor followed the first procedure. Provided that the culprit
spoke no more about the motion of the earth, the court of Rome
would like nothing better than to make the most of a great mind that
for a moment had gone astray, but whose genius and whose scientific
fame were intact. After the trial, Galileo remained* three months in
Rome, and was kindly received by the sovereign pontiff. In fact,
the rumor having spread that he had been punished by the Holy
Office and obliged to retract and to do penance, he obtained from
Cardinal Bellarmin a certificate to the contrary effect. All that was
done, said the cardinal, was to forbid him defending or upholding the
system of Copernicus. What advantage could it have been to drag
Galileo down from the high position he occupied in the world's
opinion ? It was enough, for the purposes of his judges, if they could
shut his mouth.

In this they supposed they had succeeded, but here they failed to
take account of the overmastering impulse to propagate truth, which
is the very essence of scientific genius. Galileo could neither erase
from his mind a belief that rested on a demonstration, nor refuse to
employ it in advancing to fresh discoveries, nor abstain from speaking
of it with those who consulted him with regard to their own astro-
nomical labors, or took an interest in his. In his retirement at the
Belvedere, where, since his return from Rome, he led a more secluded
life than ever, he received, as in former times, numerous visits, nearly
all prompted by the love of science. He was still the recognized and
admired head of the scientific movement in Italy. Why should he
not converse about the cardinal proposition of the earth's motion with
the young savants who came to ask his advice and to receive his
instruction ? A distinguished Italian narrates how, having spent a
few days with him, after the . close of his first trial, he heard from
Galileo's mouth the exposition of the Copernican system, was con-
verted to his ideas, and himself then converted Campanella to that
doctrine.

Hence the submission of Galileo was only apparent. Later he was
justly charged with having broken his promise. Still, he avoided
compromising himself publicly, and in his first work, "II Saggiatore,"
which is a model of keen, clever irony, he hardly ventured to write
anything touching on the system of Copernicus. Presently the elec-
tion of a new pontiff inspired him with the hope that the court of
Rome might relax its rigor. Urban VIII., of the family of Barberrni,
was a Florentine, a lover of letters, well disposed toward the Academy
of the Lincei, and especially friendly to Galileo, to whom he had
addressed, while yet a cardinal, some verses conceived in a vein of
eulogy. Galileo went to Rome to see him, had six long audiences
with him, was presented by him with a picture, medals, agnus deis,
and a pension for his son, and doubtless talked with him about the
great subject which filled his mind. We can only guess at what was

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 393

said by the two friends : some authors assert that Urban VIII. then
inclined toward the Copernican system ; others, on the contrary, say
that he demonstrated to Galileo the impossibility of maintaining the
theory of the earth's motion. The truth is, that we know nothing
about the matter ; neither the pope nor the astronomer has given out
anything about the nature of their conversations. Perhaps even, as
we shall shortly see, they believed that they could agree, while differ-
ing from one another widely.

At all events, it seems that, dating from the accession of Urban
VIII. to the pontifical throne, Galileo felt more free to touch anew
upon the forbidden subject, under a different form. Was this the
result of an overweening confidence in the friendship of the sovereign
pontiff, of a too favorable interpretation of some friendly speeches, or
of the impossibility of being silent while Kepler was speaking boldly
outside of Italy, while on Italian soil one was constantly harassed by
ignorant opponents, and, though one's hand were full of truths, one
durst not open it and rout them. The " Dialogues on the Two Great
Systems of the Universe," which were destined to bring Galileo into
so much trouble, show that, in writing them, he stood between the
conflicting influences of a strong desire to speak and the fear of com-
promising himself. He rather insinuates his ideas with true Italian
finesse than puts them forth boldly. He does not defend the Coperni-
can system, but expounds it. He even takes the precaution of stating,
in a preface, the rough draft of which had been sent to him from
Rome, that the true aim of his work is to show that in Italy ideas are
not condemned unknown, and that nowhere is this delicate matter
better understood than in Italy. He carefully avoids drawing con-
clusions : the personage whom he introduces as the representative of
the doctrine of Ptolemy and as the defender of the belief in the
earth's immobility, though clad in the strongest dialectical coat of
mail, and though driven to his last ditch by the keen raillery and the
copious logic of his interlocutors, replies to them unmoved : " Your
arguments are the most ingenious that can be conceived, but I con-
sider them to be neither true nor conclusive." Father Riccardi,
Master of the Sacred Palace, whose business it was to examine
Galileo's manuscript, suffered himself to be half-way won by these
exhibitions of innocence, and gave a permit for the work to be
printed, though not without resistance. He afterward protested that
he had been deceived by the author, and that some of the conditions
on which he had granted the imprimatur were not fulfilled. At
first it was agreed that the "Dialogues" should be printed at Rome;
but at the earnest entreaty of Galileo leave was granted to have the
work done at Florence, where it would involve less trouble and
cost to him, and where, above all, he could more easily evade the
surveillance of the Sacred Palace. In this negotiation Galileo dis-
played a fecundity of resource and a force of will that show how

394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

important be considered the publication of his work to be. The chief
fruit of his address was that he escaped a second revision of the text,
which would have been made at Rome had the work been printed
there. Galileo chose rather to deal with the inquisitor at Florence,
to whom Father Riccardi had delegated his powers, but who, doubt-
less at the solicitation of the grand-duke, exercised these powers
with less rigor than would have been used at the Sacred Palace. We
can imagine the wrath manifested by the court of Rome ; in fact,
despite all its finesse, it had been outwitted by an Italian shrewder
even than itself, by a fellow-countryman of Macchiavelli.

Would Galileo have been so eager for the publication of his work,
if he had foreseen the dangers to which he exposed himself by pub
lishing it ? The sovereign pontiff, immediately upon receipt of the
book, in the beginning of August, 1632, was highly incensed, charged
Galileo with having made an unhandsome return for his kindness, and
would on the spot have referred the author and the book to the tri-
bunal of the Holy Office, had he not been restrained by the importu
nities of the embassador Niccolini, and his fear of offending the
Grand-duke of Tuscany. "Galileo," said Urban, "has not acted with
out deliberation, has not sinned through ignorance ; he was perfectly
well aware of the difficulties of the case, for I myself have made them
clear to him." These expressions of dissatisfaction on the part of the
sovereign pontiff would seem to show that, in the interviews of which
we have spoken, the two friends had touched on the delicate question
of the earth's motion, and that, by a process of self-illusion quite nat-
ural under the circumstances, each had supposed he had convinced the
other. The pope was angry at Galileo, as at one in whom he had for
a long time mistakenly reposed confidence — as though a fraud had
been practised upon him ; this feeling, wrhich had broken the bond of
their old friendship, explains the harshness with which Urban treated
the friend of his youth. Nor had Galileo been less mistaken with
regard to the disposition of the pope's mind. He flattered himself
that he should find in him an indulgent judge of his astronomical
theories, while in point of fact he was wounding Urban in his most
sacred convictions. Had he known that the pope was so opposed to
the system of Copernicus, doubtless he never would have braved the
wrath of one whose power was unlimited, or affronted a tribunal from
which there was no appeal.

On receipt of the "Dialogues," Urban instructed a commission to
examine the book and report to him. As soon as the report came into
his hands, he commanded the inquisitor at Florence to communicate
to Galileo a formal summons to appear in October before the commis-
sary-general of the Holy Office in Rome. Galileo, then seventy years
of age, and suffering from hernia, asked the authorities to take into
consideration his age and his malady, and to dispense him from the
journey. The Grand-duke of Tuscany interceded for him. But

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 395

Urban would listen to nothing ; fearing lest he should be deceived,
as he believed he had been before, he would permit no delay. He
would not even believe the testimony of three physicians who attested
the reality of Galileo's malady ; he sent the inquisitor in person to
him, with orders to arrest and bring him in irons to Rome, if he was
found to be in a condition to bear the journey. Poor Galileo had taken
to his bed, and, as was said by one of his friends, "he was more in
danger of going to the other world than to Rome." He was not in a
condition to be removed until January, 1633. The good offices of the
Grand-duke of Tuscany attended him to the presence of his judges,
and there the friendship of Niccolini accompanied him — weak succors
these in the face of such powerful adversaries. At first the embas-
sador's palace was appointed as his place of confinement, and he was
commanded not to leave it ; he went out only in order to submit to
the interrogatories proposed to him by the Holy Office.

On the 12th of April he was interrogated for the first time. To
begin with, he was asked if he remembered what took place in 1616,
when he had to appear before Cardinal Bellarmin and the commissary-
general of the Holy Office. Galileo admitted having heard it declared
on that day that the system of Copernicus could not be maintained
or defended, as being contrary to the Holy Scriptures. " It may be,"
he added, "that at the same time I myself was forbidden to maintain
or defend that opinion, but I do not recollect, it is now so long ago."
Whatever may be the interest now taken in a case so bound up with
the question of the freedom of thought, it is not easy to believe with
Berti that Galileo replied to this first interrogatory with entirely good
faith. When a prohibition is issued in terms so formal as those we
have given, upon so definite a point, neither the form nor the sub-
stance is ever forgotten. Ambiguity was out of the question after
Bellarmin's warning, and still more after the solemn injunction of the
commissary-general. Domenico Berti is in error with regard to the
psychological conditions of memory where he says that it must have
been easier for Galileo to recollect the conciliatory words of Cardinal
Bellarmin than the threats of the commissary-general. On the con-
trary, what strikes one most under such circumstances, what impresses
itself deepest in the memory, is the threats. How could any one for-
get words so simple, so clear, so menacing, as these : " You are for-
bidden to maintain this opinion, to teach or to defend it, whether by
writing or by word of mouth, or in any other manner whatsoever, else
the Holy Office will take information against you ! " These last words
in particular must have buried themselves like an arrow in the memory
of Galileo, nevermore to come out. He knew all too well what he
had to fear from the Inquisition ever to forget on what conditions that
tribunal agreed to take no further cognizance of him. The silence he
kept in public for sixteen years upon the forbidden subject, and even
the care he took in his " Dialogues " to give to his thoughts an in-

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

offensive turn, might serve as evidence of the faithfulness of his
memory.

The fact is, that the reason of Galileo's taking up his pen again
to treat a forbidden subject was not that he had forgotten the formal
prohibition. He might have made answer, with great frankness, that,
though he had been ordered to hold his peace, yet he had not been
convinced, and that, after so many years of silence, the need of pro-
claiming the truth had more power over him than the fear of disobey
ing. But it was not for a mind so subtile, nor for a character so wary
as that of Galileo, to be tied down to a categorical declaration, and so
to shut every portal of escape. He chose rather to use evasions with
his judges, to plead extenuating circumstances, to produce the impres
sion that he might have misunderstood, but that he had not acted
with evil intent and with his eyes open. Even while undergoing the
first interrogatory, he was still in hopes of finding in the sovereign
pontiff some remnant of friendship, or, at least, of good-will ; and this
was another reason why he made an evasive reply, and did not com
promise himself by an explicit admission of his offenses. He appears
to have believed, at this first session, that it would be possible for him
to have a private interview with the holy father. Being questioned
as to what had been said to him by Cardinal Bellarmin in 161.6, he
replied that some of the details of their conversation he could intrust
only to the ear of the sovereign pontiff. This plainly was a request
for an interview with Urban. His judges seemed not to understand
him, or, if they carried his words to the holy father, they obtained
from him no favorable answer ; but, in the course of the trial, it be-
came evident that Galileo could expect neither indulgence nor com-
miseration from his old friend.

All of Galileo's answers at the first interrogatory present the same
character of ambiguity. On being asked whether, before he begged
of Father Riccardi license to print his "Dialogues," he had informed
the master of the Sacred Palace of his having previously been for-
bidden to treat certain subjects, his reply was that he had not men-
tioned that to Father Riccardi, " for he did not think it necessary to
do so, having no scruples, nor having supported or defended in his
book the opinion of the earth's motion and the stability of the sun."
It is not altogether certain that, by thus altering the truth, Galileo
chose the best line of defense; probably a little more of frankness
would have served him better. He was simply trifling with his judges
and taking them for fools, when he tried to make them believe that,
in his " Dialogues," his purpose had been to demonstrate the "weak-
ness and insufficiency " of Copernicus's arguments. The disguises in
which the author clothes his thoughts fail to deceive the thoughtful
reader. Throughout the work, the defender of Ptolemy's theory,
Simplicio (in whom it has been wrongfully supposed that some of the
traits of Urban VIII. may be found), is overthrown by his opponents'

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 397

arguments, and made an object of ridicule by their irony. Surely, it
was imprudent on the part of Galileo to deny the evidence, thus giv-
ing to his defense the appearance of double-dealing.

Nor did the resort to this course deceive any one. The three
judges who had questioned him unanimously declared that in his book
he had contravened the injunctions of Cardinal Bellarmin, and the
decree of the Congregation of the Index. Two of them added that he
was gravely suspect of adhering to the doctrine of Copei'nicus. After
the close of his first interrogatory, he was removed to the palace of
the Holy Office, and there he occupied a chamber in the sleeping-apart-
ments of the wardens, with an express prohibition of going out with-
out leave. Here he had long and frequent interviews with Father Vin-
cenzo Macolano, commissary of the Holy Office, an educated man of
kindly disposition, and a friend of the grand-duke and of the Tuscan
embassador; Father Macolano took it upon himself to warn Galileo
of the dangers of the situation, and to aid him with his counsels.
First of all, he induced Galileo to submit without reserve, to admit
his offenses, and to repent. " I made his error patent to him," wrote
the father commissary, at the close of one of their interviews ; " he
clearly saw that he had made a mistake, that in his book he had gone
too far, and he expressed to me his regret in words full of feeling, as
though he drew comfort from the knowledge of his error, and was
thinking of confessing it judicially ; he only asked of me a little time
to consider how he might best word his confession." Father Maco-
lano then looked for a speedy ending of the trial, and a less severe
sentence. " When once we have Galileo's confession," said he, " the
reputation of the tribunal will be safe, and the accused can be treated
with indulgence." Evidently he expected that the case would not be
carried beyond the first stage of inquisition, and that it would termi-
nate by a special form of interrogatory, known as the " interrogatory
with regard to the intention."

If things were pushed further than the commissary of the Holy
Office either wished or expected, the blame does not rest with the
accused, who, once warned, immediately resolved to submit. On
being interrogated again on the 30th of April, Galileo confessed that,
without meaning it, he had presented too forcibly the arguments in
favor of the system of Copernicus, his intention all the while being to
refute them, and that thus he might have led the public into error.
He declared that he was " ready to refute the opinion of Copernicus
by all the most efficacious methods that God might place within his
power." These words, no doubt dictated to him by the humanity of
the father commissary, had the effect of procuring for him some measure
of liberty. That very evening he was sent back to the palace of the
Tuscan embassador, so that there he might receive such care as the
state of his health required.

We must not forget that to the humiliation of repudiating his

398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

most cherished opinions, of belying bis own thoughts, and of seeing
himself treated as a criminal after he had, by his labors, done
honor to his country and to mankind, were added physical sufferings
of the most grievous kind. It is impossible to read without emotion
the appeal he addressed to his judges at the end of his written defense :
" It remains for me to urge one final consideration, viz., the pitiable
state of bodily indisposition to which I have been reduced by inces-
sant mental agony during ten whole months, together with the hard-
ships of a long and toilsome journey, in the most inclement weather,
at the age of threescore years and nine. ... I confide in the mercy
and goodness of the most eminent seigniors who are my judges, and I
hope that if, in the integrity of their justice, they think that so great
sufferings lack anything to make them equal to the punishment that
my offenses deserve, they will be pleased, at my entreaty, to remit
the difference in consideration of the failing strength of my old age,
which I humbly commend to them."

Among the hitherto unpublished documents contained in Berti's
work there is one that is of the highest importance. This is a sum-
mary of the case, giving an enumeration not only of what was decreed
but also of what was done. After reading a text so clear and so unam-
biguous on all points save one, while on that one it agrees perfectly with
other authentic documents, we no longer find ground for supposing it
was only on paper that Galileo was threatened with the torture, and
forced to make abjuration. A decree of the pope, dated June 16th,
ordains that instead of a simple " examination as to intention," such
as the commissary of the Holy Office had expected, an interrogatory *
should be had with the threat of torture, if the accused could stand it;
he is ordered to make abjuration, and condemned to imprisonment
according to the good pleasure of the congregation. This decree was
not, as has been supposed, a simple declaration designed to sustain the
reputation of the tribunal for severity, while the culprit was treated
leniently ; on the contrary, it was executed literally, as is shown by
the agreement of the documents concerning this portion of the trial.

On being interrogated for the last time on the 21st of June, Gal-
ileo was ordered to state whether he then held or ever had held the
opinion that the sun is the centre of the world and that the earth
moves. He humbly replied that ever since the decree of the Congrega-
tion of the Index, in 1616, he had always held and still did hold the
opinion of Ptolemy to be " most true and unquestionable." This reply
not appearing to be satisfactory, the father commissary insisted on
knowing the truth, and wound up by declaring that, if the whole truth
were not stated, recourse would be had to torture. "I am herein

1 Author's Note. — We interpret three obscure words in the pontifical decree, ac si
sustinueril, in the sense given to them by Berti. Th. Henri Martin gives a different
translation, not without good reasons. The matter is one that will bear discussion. It
is still undecided, even after the publication of the documents.

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. Z99

order to obey," replied Galileo, with some show of terror. The text
of the sentence shows that he was treated more rigorously yet. "In-
asmuch as it appears to us that you have not told the whole truth as
touching your intention, we have deemed it necessary to resort to
the examen rigorosum." Now, in the language of the Inquisition,
examen rigorosum means just the torture and that alone: it is the law-
term approved by jurists and regularly employed in sentences which
condemn the accused to the cruel punishment of the strappado. " In
case the accused," say the treatises on inquisitorial law, " does not clear
himself of the charges, recourse is to be had to the examen rigorosum,
torture having been devised to supply the want of witnesses." In
two manuscripts of the first half of the seventeenth century, both of
them relating to the forms of procedure of the Holy Office, the ex-
pression examen rigorosum is pointed out as the formula to be em-
ployed by judges in ordering the application of torture.

From the text of the sentence, from the pontifical decree already
quoted, and from the summary of the acts of the trial, we might infer
that Galileo was actually subjected to torture, if among the documents
we found the official record [proch-verbal) of the examen rigorosum,
as we find the official record of the previous examinations. The rule
of the Inquisition was ever the same : the notary or registrar of the
Holy Office was present at all interrogatories, and took down carefully
the words of the sufferer ; all the details of the examen rigorosum
were recorded in a register, from the first intimation to the accused
that he was to be taken to the place of punishment, down to the
moment when he was released from the torture. On looking over the
records of these dread sessions, we find all the words spoken by the
sufferer while his clothes are being taken off and while he is being tied
to the instrument of torture; all the replies he makes to his judges,
all his pleas ; every movement he makes is noted with cold precision,
nay, even his sighs, his groans, while under the torture. " He was
hoisted by the rope," calmly writes the notary, " and while sus-
pended he would cry out in a loud voice, 'O Lord God, have pity !
O Our Lady, help me ! ' repeating these words again and again. Then
he was silent, and having for a little while thus held his peace, he
began again to cry out, ' O God, O God ! ' "

If Galileo had been subjected to this mode of trial, the proc&s-ver-
bal of the proceedings would certainly have been preserved along
with the other records of the case. But, then, might not the examen
rigorosum have taken place in the absence of the registrar; or might
not the registrar, though he was present, have omitted to make a rec-
ord ? Both of these suppositions appear to be equally inadmissible,
for they are in flat contradiction to all the precedents and all the
rules of the tribunal. Neither can we suppose that the agent of the
Holy Office suppressed the prods-verbal of the torture in order that
both he and his principals might escape the indignation of posterity.

4oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This were gratuitously to transform an obscure, an irresponsible per-
sonage into an humanitarian philosopher who is ages ahead of the
thought of his time and who purposely destroys a sorrowful page of
history. The most probable account of what took place would be this :
According to all the treatises on inquisitorial law, the commissary was
authorized not to inflict torture on aged men, or on persons suffering
from disease, who might die under the punishment. The advanced
age of Galileo, and his infirmities, aggravated as they were by so much
mental suffering, naturally placed him in the category of culprits who
were not subjected to torture. If he was spared that dreadful inflic-
tion, Berti gives all the credit to the humanity of the father commis-
sary ; he even appears to think that, but for the kindly intervention
of Father Macolano, the sovereign pontiff and the Congregation of
the Holy Office would have given over Galileo to the executioner.

Let us be more fair. It would be a libel on Urban VIII. to rep-
resent him as thirsting for the blood and pleased with the sufferings
of his old friend. The pontifical decree of June 16th has this important
proviso regarding the employment of torture, that it should not be
used unless the accused could endure it. When he expressed himself
thus, the sovereign pontiff was perfectly well aware that Galileo
could not stand such a trial, and he consented beforehand, without
needing to be entreated by the commissary, to the omission of the
torture. What, indeed, would have been the use of such extreme
rigor? Urban did not desire the death of the culprit; he wanted to
make certain that Galileo would never more speak or write about the
question of the earth's motion ; and it was in order to so strike him
with terror as to insure his silence that of all the agonies of the trial
he saved him only from the last — the only one that would have been
of no use. The pope was not so cruel as Berti thinks, but neither did
he give any sign of that compassion and indulgence toward the ac-
cused with which he is too often credited. This point is worth repeat-
ing, inasmuch as it'is the clearest result of Berti's publication: the va-
rious phases of the trial of Galileo wrere not arranged with a view to
theatrical effect, and to make an outward show of great severity, so
as to intimidate the adherents of Galileo's doctrine, while, behind the
scenes, the culprit was treated with kindness. The threat of torture,
the abjuration, the sequestration, were realities, and not, as has been
supposed, simply monitions addressed to overbold men of science. At
first, the court of Rome did not concern itself so much about impress-
ing the imagination of the public as about striking Galileo. Here
was a rebellious subject who had once before been treated with the
greatest lenience, but who repaid the indulgence of the Holy Office
with the transparent irony of his "Dialogues;" who had set snares
for the person appointed to examine his manuscript ; who, at his first
interrogatory, had made sport of his judges, nay, perhaps of the
sovereign pontiff himself: he must now be reduced to silence for

THE TRIAL OF GALILEO. 401

good and all, by conducting him, through a series of moral tortures,
to the uttermost limits of terror.

At the same time the solemn form of his abjuration was calculated
to prevent him from ever again inclining toward the Copernican
doctrine. How could he embrace that doctrine again after he had
openly pronounced it heretical, and promised, as he was compelled to
do, to inform upon all persons suspected of this heresy? His judges,
however, were not yet satisfied ; he was feared even after his abjuration.
He was confined at first in the palace of the Archbishop Piccolomini,
at Siena, then at his own villa of Arcetri, near Florence, with leave to
receive a few visits of relatives and friends, but on condition that
several persons should never meet there to hold conversation. It was
particularly feared that he would communicate with learned men
abroad and in Italy. Father Castelli, his old pupil, in vain begged
leave to see him, though he promised not to talk with him about the
earth's motion. In order to protect all other Catholic countries
against the contagion of his ideas, the pope dispatched to all apos-
tolic nuncios and to all inquisitors copies of the sentence pronounced
on Galileo, and of his act of abjuration. At Florence his chief dis-
ciples and friends, especially the professors of mathematics, were
summoned by name to listen to the reading of these two documents.

In shutting the mouth of a writer so gifted, so full of resources, so
admired by the public, it was hoped that an end was made of the
doctrine of Copernicus — that dangerous doctrine which alarmed the
theologians by displacing the centre of the universe, ousting the earth
from its primacy and substituting the sun, and opening the way for
hypotheses of the plurality of worlds and the end of creation. But
the effort was vain. The theory of the earth's motion has survived
all condemnations. It was not Galileo, as tradition would have it,
that uttered the famous saying, " Eppur si muove" but the general
voice of mankind who, after his death, thus proclaimed the undying
truth of his belief.

Here we will stop. "We would not weaken, by any comments of
ours, the importance of the documents we have been examining. It
is a fixed historical fact that in the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury the Roman congregations, assuming to represent the Church,
and not disavowed by her, made themselves the judges of a scientific
question, and decided it in a way contrary to the conclusions of
soience. The splendor of Galileo's genius and the commiseration
inspired by his sufferings impress upon this discussion a tragical and
popular character ; but the emotion produced by his cruel fate must
not blind us to the gravity of the problem. The great question was
whether, in countries that were then Catholic and destined so to remain,
Science could free herself from the dominion of Faith. The trial of
Galileo, so far from retarding this conclusion, as is commonly sup-
posed, on the contrary made it inevitable and urgent. So soon as the
vol. x. — 26

4o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

court of Rome saw how unwisely she had acted in deciding a question
beyond her competence, thus laying herself open to the danger of
being the next day convicted of error, it became her interest, no less
than the interest of Science, to distinguish clearly between the two
domains, Science and Faith. If, nowadays, she avoids entering into
scientific controversies, it is because she has been taught by experience
that a decision might compromise her. Her authority could hardly
stand after a second edition of the sentence in which she once forbade
the sun to stand still and the earth to revolve.

-+•+-

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN.

By Professor C. A. YOUNG,

OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.

THE problem of finding the distance of the sun is one of the most
important and difficult presented by astronomy. Its importance
lies in this, that this distance — the radius of the earth's orbit — is
the base-line by means of which we measure every other celestial dis-
tance, excepting only that of the moon ; so that error in this base
propagates itself in all directions through all space, affecting with a
corresponding proportion of falsehood every measured line — the dis-
tance of every star, the radius of every orbit, the diameter of every
planet.

Our estimates of the masses of the heavenly bodies also depend
upon a knowledge of the sun's distance from the earth. The quan-
tity of matter in a star or planet is determined by calculations whose
fundamental data include the distance between the investigated body
and some other body whose motion is controlled or modified by it ;
and this distance generally enters into the computation by its cube,
so that any error in it involves a more than threefold error in the re-
sulting mass. An uncertainty of one per cent, in the sun's distance
implies an uncertainty of more than three per cent, in every celestial
mass and every cosmical force.

Error in this fundamental element propagates itself in time also,
as well as in space and mass. That is to say, our calculations of the
mutual effects of the planets upon each other's motions depend upon
an accurate knowledge of their masses and distances. By these cal-
culations, were our data perfect, we could predict for all futurity, or
reproduce for any given epoch of the past, the configurations of the
planets and the conditions of their orbits, and many interesting prob-
lems in geology and natural history seem to require for their solution
just such determinations of the form and position of the earth's orbit
in by-gone ages.

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN. 403

Now, the slightest error in the data, though hardly affecting the
result for epochs near the present, leads to uncertainty which accumu-
lates with extreme rapidity in the lapse of time ; so that even the
present uncertainty of the sun's distance, small as it is, renders pre-
carious all conclusions from such computations when the period is ex-
tended more than a few hundred thousand years from the present
time. If, for instance, we should find as the result of calculation
with the received data that two millions of years ago the eccen-
tricity of the earth's orbit was at a maximum, and the perihelion so
placed that the sun was nearest during the northern winter (a condi-
tion of affairs which it is thought would produce a glacial epoch in
the southern hemisphere), it might easily happen that our results
would be exactly contrary to the truth, and that the state of affairs
indicated did not occur within half a million years of the specified
date — and all because in our calculation the sun's distance, or solar
parallax by which it is measured, was assumed half of one per cent,
too great or too small. In fact, this solar parallax enters into almost
every kind of astronomical computations, from those which deal with
stellar systems and the constitution of the universe to those which
have for their object nothing higher than the prediction of the moon's
place as a means of finding the longitude at sea.

Of course, it hardly need be said that its determination is the first
step to any knowledge of the dimensions and constitution of the sun
itself.

This parallax of the sun is simply the angular semi-diameter of
the earth as seen from the sun ; or, it may be defined in another way
as the angle between the direction of the sun ideally observed from
the centre of the earth, and its actual direction as seen from a station
where it is just rising above the horizon.

We know with great accuracy the dimensions of the earth. Its
mean equatorial radius, according to the latest and most reliable de-
termination (agreeing, however, very closely with previous ones), is
3962.720 English miles [6377.323 kilometres], and the error can hardly
amount to more than To 0V0T °f tne whole — perhaps, 200 feet one way
or the other. Accordingly, if we know how large the earth looks
from any point, or, to speak technically, if we know the parallax of
the point, its distance can at once be found by a very easy calcula-
tion : it equals simply [206,265 * X the radius of the earth] -*- [the
parallax in seconds of arc].

Now, in the case of the sun it is very difficult to find the parallax
with sufficient precision on account of its smallness — it is less than
9", almost certainly between 8.8" and 8.9". But this tenth of a second

1 This number 206,265 is the length of the radius of a circle expressed in seconds of
its circumference. A ball one foot in actual diameter would have an apparent diameter
of one second at a distance of 206,265 feet, or a little more than 39 miles. If its appar-
ent diameter were 10", its distance would, of course, be only fe as great.

404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of doubtfulness is more than yi-j- of the whole, although it is no more
than the angle subtended by a single hair at a distance of nearly 800
feet. If we call the parallax 8.86", which is probably very near the
truth, the distance of the sun will come out 92,254,000 miles, while a
variation of ^ of a second either way will change it nearly half a
million of miles.

When a surveyor has to find the distance of an inaccessible object,
he lays off a convenient base-line, and from its extremities observes
the directions of the object, considering himself very unfortunate if he
cannot get a base whose length is at least ^ of the distance to be meas-
ured. But the whole diameter of the earth is less than 1Xooo of the
distance of the sun, and the astronomer is in the predicament of a sur-
veyor who, having to measure the distance of an object ten miles off,
finds himself restricted to a base of less than five feet, and herein lies
the difficulty of the problem.

Of course, it would be hopeless to attempt this problem by direct
observations, such as answer perfectly in the case of the moon, whose
distance is only thirty times the earth's diameter. In her case, obser-
vations taken from stations widely separated in latitude, like Berlin
and the Cape of Good Hope, or Washington and Santiago, determine
her parallax and distance with yery satisfactory precision ; but if ob-
servations of the same accuracy could be made upon the sun (which
is not the case, since its heat disturbs the adjustments of an instru-
ment), they would only show the parallax to be somewhere between
8" and 10", its distance between 126,000,000 and 82,000,000 miles.

Astronomers, therefore, have been driven to employ indirect meth-
ods based on various principles : some on observations of the nearer
planets, some on calculations founded upon the irregularities — the so-
called perturbations — of lunar and planetary movements, and some
upon observations of the velocity of light. Indeed, before the Chris-
tian era, Aristarchus of Samos had devised a method so ingenious and
pretty in theory that it really deserved success, and would have at-
tained it were the necessary observations susceptible of sufficient ac-
curacy. Hipparchus also devised another founded on observations
of lunar eclipses, which also failed for much the same reasons as the
plan of Aristarchus.

The idea of Aristarchus was to observe carefully the number of
hours between new moon and the first quarter, and also between the
quarter and the full. The first interval should be shorter than the
second, and the difference would determine how many times the dis-
tance of the sun from the earth exceeds that of the moon, as will
be clear from the accompanying figure. The moon reaches its quar-
ter, or appears as a half-moon, when it arrives at the point Q, where
the lines drawn from it to the sun and earth are perpendicular to each
other. Since the angle H E Q = E S Q, it will follow that H Q is the
same fraction of H E as Q E is of E S ; so that, if H Q can be found,

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN 405

we shall at once have the ratio of Q E and E S. Aristarchus thought
he had ascertained that the first quarter of the month (from N to Q)
was about 12 hours shorter than the second, from which he computed
the sun to be about 19 times as distant as the moon. The difficulty

Fig. 1.

lies in the impossibility of determining the precise moment when the
disk of the moon is an exact semicircle. The real difference between
the first and second quarters is really not quite 36 minutes, and the
sun's distance is about 400 times the moon's.

The different methods upon which our present knowledge of the
sun's distance depends may be classified as follows :

1. Observations upon the planet Mars near opposition, in two distinct ways :

(a) Observations of the planet's declination made from stations widely sep-

arated in latitude.

(b) Observations from a single station of the planet's right ascension when

near the eastern and western horizons — known as Flamsteed's
method.

2. Observations of Venus at or near inferior conjunctions :

(a) Observations of her distance from small stars measured at stations wide-

ly different in latitude.

(b) Observations of the transits of the planet: 1. By noting the duration

of the transit at widely-separated stations ; 2. By noting the true
Greenwich time of contact of the planet with the sun's limb ; 3. By
measuring the distance of the planet from the sun's limb with suit-
able micrometric apparatus ; 4. By photographing the transit, and
subsequently measuring the pictures.

3. By observing the oppositions of the nearer asteroids in the same manner as

those of Mars.

4. By means of the so-called parallactic inequality of the moon.

5. By means of the monthly equation of the sun's motion.

6. By means of the perturbations of the planets, which furnish us the means of

computing the ratios between the masses of the planets and the sun, and
consequently their distances— known as Leverrier's method.

7. By measuring the velocity of light, and combining the result (a) with equa-

tion of light between the earth and sun, and (b) with the constant of ab-
erration.

Our scope and limits do not, of course, require or allow any ex-
haustive discussion of these different methods and their results, but
some of them will repay a few moments' consideration :

The first three methods are all based upon the same general idea,
that of finding the actual distance of one of the nearer planets by ob-

406

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

serving its displacement in the sky as seen from remote points on the
earth. The relative distances of the planets are easily found in sev-
eral different ways,1 and are known with very great accuracy — the
possible error hardly reaching the ten-thousandth in even the most
unfavorable cases. In other words, we are able to draw for any mo-
ment an exceedingly accurate map of the solar system — the only ques-
tion being as to the scale. Of course, the determination of any line
in the map will fix this scale ; and for this purpose one line is as good
as another, so that the measurement of the distance from the earth to
the planet Mars, for instance, will settle all the dimensions of the
system.

Fig. 2.

The figure illustrates the method of observation. Suppose two
observers, situated one near the north pole of the earth, the other
near the south. Looking at the planet, the northern observer will see
it at JV (in the upper figure), while the other will see it at /S, farther
north in the sky. If the northern observer sees it as at A (in the
lower part of the figure), the southern will at the same time see it as at
B ; and, by measuring carefully at each station the apparent distance
of the planet from several of the little stars (a, 5, c) which appear in
the field of view, the amount of the displacement can be accurately as-
certained. The figure is drawn to scale. The circle E being taken
to represent the size of the earth as seen from Mars when nearest us,
the black disk represents the apparent size of the planet on the same
scale, and the distance between the points JVand S, in either figure A
or £, represents, on the same scale also, the displacement which would

1 One method of determining the relative distances of a planet and the sun from each
other and from the earth is the following, known since the days of Hipparchus : First,
observe the date when the planet comes to its opposition — i. e., when sun, earth, and
planet, are in line, as in the figure, where the planet and earth are represented by M a,nd
R Next, after a known number of days, say one hundred, when the planet has advanced

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN. 4.07

be produced in the planet's position by a transference of the observer
from Washington to Santiago, or vice versa.

The first modern attempt to determine the sun's parallax was
made by this method in 1670, when the French Academy of Sciences
sent Richer to Cayenne to observe the opposition of Mars, while Cas-
sini (who proposed the expedition), Roemer, and Picard, observed it
from different stations in France. When the results came to be com-
pared, however, it was found that the planet's displacement was im-
perceptible by their existing means of observation : from this they
inferred that the planet's parallax could not exceed half a minute of
arc, and that the sun's could not be more than 10".

In 1752 Lacaille at the Cape of Good Hope made similar observa-
tions, and their comparison with corresponding observations in Europe
showed that instruments had so far improved as to make the displace-
ment quite sensible. He fixed the sun's parallax at 10", correspond-
ing to a distance of about 82,000,000 miles.

In more recent times the method has been frequently applied, and
with results on the whole satisfactory. In 1849-'52 Lieutenant Gilliss
was sent by the United States Government to Santiago, in Chili, to
observe both Mars and Venus in connection with northern observa-
tories. In 1862 a still more extended campaign was organized, in
which a great number of observatories in both hemispheres partici-
pated. Prof. Newcomb's careful reduction of the work puts the
resulting parallax at 8.855". The method can be used to the best
advantage, of course, when at the time of opposition the planet is near
its perihelion and the earth near its aphelion ; these favorable oppo-
sitions occur about once in fifteen years, and the one which is next
to occur, in September, 1877, is so exceptionally advantageous that
already somewhat extensive preparations are on foot to secure its
careful and general observation.

to M and the earth to E,' observe the planet's elongation from the sun, i. e., the angle
M' E' 8. Now, since we know the periodic times of both the earth and planet, we shall
know both the angle M 8 M1 moved over by the planet in one hundred days, and also E 8
E described in the same time by the earth, the difference is M' 8 E,' called by some

Fig. 3.

■writers the synodic angle. We have, therefore, in the triangle M' 8 E,' the angle at W
measured, and the angle M' 8 E known as stated above ; this of course gives the third
angle at M,' and hence we know the shape of the triangle, and by the ordinary processes
of trigonometry can find the relative values of its three sides.

4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In observations of this sort upon Mars or the asteroids, the position
and displacement of the planet, as seen from different stations, are de-
termined by comparing it with neighboring stars. When Venus, how-
ever, is nearest us, she can be observed only by day, so that in her case
star comparisons are as a general thing out of the question. But
occasionally at her inferior conjunction she passes directly across the
disk of the sun, and her parallactic displacement from different sta-
tions can then be determined by making any such observations as will
enable the computer to ascertain accurately her apparent distance and
direction from the sun's centre at some given moment. Gregory in
1663 first pointed out the utility of such observations for ascertaining
the parallax, but it was not until some fifteen years later that the at-
tention of astronomers was secured to the subject by Halley, who dis-
cussed the matter thoroughly, and showed how the problem might be
solved with accuracy by observations such as were entirely practicable
even by the instruments and with the knowledge then at command.
In 1761 and 1769 two transits occurred which were observed in all
accessible quarters of the globe by expeditions sent out by the differ-
ent governments. From different sets of these observations variously
combined by different computers, values of the solar parallax were
obtained ranging all the way from 7.5" to 9.2". A general discussion
of all the materials afforded by the two transits was first made by
Encke in 1822, and he obtained, as the most probable result, the value
8."5776, which from that time for more than thirty years was accepted
by all astronomers as the best attainable approximation to the truth.
In order to harmonize the results, however, he thought himself obliged
to reject the observations of several stations. In 185-1 Hansen, in
publishing some of his results respecting the motion of the moon,
announced that Encke's value of the solar parallax could not be rec-
onciled with his investigations ; within the next six or seven years
several independent researches by other astronomers confirmed his
conclusions, and the most recent recomputations show that the ob-
servations rejected by Encke are as trustworthy as any, and that the
errors of observation were so considerable in 1769 that nothing more
can be fairly deduced from that transit than that the solar parallax is
probably somewhere between 8.7" and 8.9".

The method of observation then used consisted simply in noting
the moment when the limb of the planet came in contact with that of
the sun — an observation which is attended with much more difficulty
and uncertainty than would at first be supposed. The difficulties
depend in part upon the imperfections of optical instruments and the
human eye, partly upon the essential nature of light, leading to what
is known as diffraction, and partly upon the action of the planet's
atmosphere. The two first named causes produce what is called irra-
diation, and operate to make the apparent diameter of the planet, a&
seen on the solar disk, smaller than it really is — smaller, too, by an

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN. 409.

amount which varies with the size of the telescope, the perfection of
its lenses, and the tint and brightness of the sun's image. The edge
of the planet's image is also rendered slightly hazy and indistinct.

The planet's atmosphere also causes its disk to be surrounded by a
narrow ring of light, which becomes visible long before the planet
touches the sun, and at the moment of internal contact produces an
appearance of which the accompanying figure is intended to give an

Fig. 4.

idea though on an exaggerated scale. The planet moves so slowly as.
to occupy more than twenty minutes in crossing the sun's limb ; so
that, even if the planet's edge were perfectly sharp and definite, and the
sun's limb undistorted, it would be very difficult to determine the pre-
cise second at which contact occurs ; but as things are, observers, writh
precisely similar telescopes, and side by side, often differ from each
other five or six seconds ; and where the telescopes are not similar the
differences and uncertainties are much greater. The contact observa-
tions of the last transit in 1874 do not appear to be much more accord-
ant than those of 1769, notwithstanding the great improvement in
telescopes ; and astronomers at present are pretty much agreed that
such observations can be of little value in removing the remaining
uncertainty of the solar parallax, and are disposed to put more reli-
ance upon the micrometric and photographic methods, which are free
from these peculiar difficulties, though of course beset with others;
which, however, it is hoped will prove less formidable.

The micrometric method requires the use of a peculiar instrument
known as the heliometer, an instrument common only in Germany,
and requiring much skill and practice in its use in order to obtain
with it accurate measures. At the late transit a single English party,
two or three of the Russian parties, and all five of the German, were
equipped with these instruments, and at some of the stations exten-
sive series of measures were made. None of the results, however, have
appeared as yet, so that it is impossible to say how greatly, if at all,
this method will have the advantage in precision over the contact
observations.

The Americans and French placed their main reliance upon the
photographic method, while the English and Germans also provided

4io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for its use to a certain extent. The great advantage of this method is
that it makes it possible to perform the necessary measurements, upon
whose accuracy everything depends, at leisure after the transit, with-
out hurry, and with all possible precautions. The field-work consists
merely in obtaining as many and as good pictures as possible. The
only objection to the method lies in the difficulty of obtaining good
pictures, i. e., pictures free from distortion, and so distinct and sharp
as to bear high magnifying power in the microscopic apparatus used
for their measurement. It is necessary also that the exact scale of
the pictures, or the number of seconds of arc to the linear inch, be
known, as well as the precise Greenwich time at which each picture
is taken, and it is also extremely desirable that the orientation of the
picture should be accurately determined, that is, the north and south,
east and west points of the solar image on the finished plate. There
has been a good deal of anxiety lest the image, however accurate and
sharp when first produced, should alter in course of time through the
-contraction of the collodion film on the glass plate, but the experiments
of Rutherfurd, Huggins, and Paschen, seem to show that this danger
is imaginary; that if a plate is properly prepared the collodion film
never creeps at all, but remains firmly attached to the glass. It re-
quires but a very trifling amount of distortion or inaccuracy of the
image to render it useless. The uncertainty in our present knowledge
■of the sun's parallax is so small that it would only involve an error of
about one-quarter of a second in the calculated position of Venus on
the sun's disk as seen from any station at any given time during the
transit, and this would be about ao*00 of an inch on a four-inch picture
•of the sun. Unless, then, the picture is so distinct and free from dis-
tortion that the relative positions of Venus and the sun's centre can
be determined from it within it)i00 of an inch, it is worthless as a means
•of correcting the received determination of the parallax.

But it is to be noted that any mere enlargement or diminution of
the diameter of sun or planet will do no harm, provided it is alike all
around the circumference of the disk, since the measurement is not
from the edge of Venus to the edge of the sun, but between their
centres. Photographic determinations of contact, on the contrary
(such as Janssen and some of the English parties attempted by a pe-
culiar and complicated apparatus), are affected with all the uncertain-
ties of the old-fashioned observations of the eye alone, and with oth-
ers in addition; so that, astronomically considered, they are entirely
worthless, although interesting from a chemical and physical point of
view.

Two essentially different lines of proceeding were adopted, at the
last transit, in the photographic observations. The English and Ger-
mans attached a camera to the eye-end of an ordinary telescope, which
was pointed directly at the sun ; the image formed at the focus of the
telescope was enlarged to the proper size by a combination of lenses

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN. 411

in the camera; and a small plate of glass ruled with squares was
placed at the focus of the telescope and photographed with the sun's
image, furnishing a set of reference-lines, which give the means of de-
tecting and allowing for any distortion caused by the enlarging lenses.

The Americans and French, on the other hand, preferred to make
the picture of full size, without the intervention of any enlarging
lens : as this requires an object-glass with a focal length of thirty or
forty feet, which could not be easily pointed at the sun, a plan proposed
first, I believe, by M. Laussedat, but also independently by our own
Prof. Winlock, was adopted. The telescope is placed horizontal, and
the rays are reflected into the object-glass by a plane mirror suitably
mounted. The French used mirrors of silvered glass, and took their
pictures (about two and a half inches in diameter) by the old daguerre-
otype process on silvered plates of copper, in order to avoid the risk
of collodion-contraction. With the silvered mirror the time of ex-
posure is so short that no clock-work is required. The Americans
used unsilvered mirrors, in order to avoid any distorting action of the
sun's rays upon the form of the mirror. This, of course, made the
light feebler, and the time of exposure longer, so that a clock-work
movement of the mirror was needed to keep the image from changing
its place on the plate during the exposure, which, however, never ex-
ceeded half a second. The American pictures were taken by the or-
dinary wet process on glass, and were about four inches in diameter.
Just in front of the sensitive plate, at a distance of about one-eighth
of an inch, was placed a reticle, or a plate of glass ruled in squares,
and between this and the collodion-plate hung a fine silver wire sus-
pending a plumb-bob. Thus the finished negative was marked into
squares, and also bore the image of the plumb-line, which, of course,
indicated precisely the direction of the vertical. The Americans also
placed the photographic telescope exactly in line with a meridian
instrument, and so determined, with the extremest precision, the
direction in which it was pointed. Knowing this, and the time at
which any picture was taken, it becomes possible, with the help of the
plumb-line image, to determine precisely the orientation of the picture
— an advantage possessed by the American pictures alone, and making
their value nearly twice as great as otherwise it would have been.

The following figure is a representation of one of the American pho-
tographs reduced about one-half. V is the image of Venus, which on
the actual plate is about one-seventh of an inch in diameter ; a a' is the
image of the plumb-line. The centre of the reticle is marked by the
little cross, and the word " China," written on the reticle-plate with a
diamond — and, of course, copied on the photograph — indicates that it
is one of the Peking pictures. Its number in the series is given in the
right-hand upper corner. About 90 such pictures were obtained at
Peking during the transit, and about 350 at all the eight American
stations, the work being much interfered with by unfavorable weather

412

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

at most of them. If we add those obtained by the French, Germans,
and English, the total number available reaches nearly 1,200, accord-
ing to the best estimates.

:

■HP

«■

QV

vm

lt\

ma

s

»

CHIK

k

L

'--

B^-

Jm

a

■■*»,

*WM

HvMI

Fig. 5.

After the pictures are made and safely brought home, they have
next to be measured — i. e., the distance (and in the American pictures
the direction also) between the centre of Venus and the centre of the
sun must be determined in each picture. This is an exceedingly deli-
cate and tedious operation, rendered more difficult by the fact that
the image of the sun is never truly circular; but, even supposing the
instrument to be perfect in all its adjustments, is somewhat distorted
by the effect of atmospheric refraction ; so that the true position of
the sun's centre with reference to the squares of the reticle is deter-
mined only by an intricate calculation from measurements made with
a microscopic apparatus on a great number of points suitably chosen
on the circumference of the image. The final result of the measure-
ment would come out something in this form : Peking, No. 32, time,
14h 08' 20.2" (Greenwich mean time) ; Venus north of sun's centre,
735.32"; east of centre, 441.63"; distance from centre of sun, 857.75".
(The numbers given are only imaginary.) It is this process of meas-
urement which has required so long a time since the transit, and is not
yet completed. When it is finished, and the results published in the
form indicated, then will come the work of combining all the data thus
obtained at all the stations, and from them deducing the true value
of the solar parallax. Since, however, another transit is to occur so
soon (in 1882), it is not unlikely that astronomers may defer the final
grand combination until the observations of that transit also are
ready to be included. It is very confidently hoped by most of those
who have studied the subject that the remaining uncertainty in the

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE, SUN. 413

sun's distance will be greatly reduced as the result of this work; and
yet there are some grounds for anxiety lest the photographic data
prove as intractable and inconsistent as those derived from contact-
observations. Time only can positively settle the question.

One of the best methods of determining the solar parallax is based
upon the careful observation of the motions of the moon. It will be
recollected that the first suspicion as to the correctness of the then
received distance of the sun was raised in 1854 by Hansen's an-
nouncement that the moon's parallactic inequality led to a smaller
value than that deduced from the transit of Venus — a conclusion cor-
roborated by Leverrier four years later. It seems at first sight
strange, but it is true, as Laplace long since pointed out, that the
skillful astronomer, by merely watching the movements of our satel-
lite, and without leaving his observatory, can obtain the solution of
problems which, attacked by other methods, require tedious and ex-
pensive expeditions to remote corners of the earth. Our scope and
object do not require us to enter into detail respecting this lunar
method of finding the sun's parallax ; it must suffice to say that the
disturbing action of the sun makes the interval from new moon to
full a little longer than that from full to new ; and this difference de-
pends upon the ratio between the diameter of the moon's orbit and the
distance of the sun, in such a manner that, if the inequality is accu-
rately observed, the ratio can be calculated. Since we know the dis-
tance of the moon, this will give that of the sun. The results ob-
tained in this way, according to the most recent investigations, fix the
solar parallax between 8.83" and 8.92".

There is still another lunar method, mentioned in the synopsis ;
but its results are much less reliable — subject, that is, to a much larger
probable error, though not at all contradictory to those just given.

But the method by which ultimately we shall obtain the most ac-
curate determination of the dimensions of our system is that pro-
posed by Leverrier, making use of the secular perturbations produced
by the earth upon her neighboring planets, especially in causing the
motions of their nodes and perihelia. These motions are very slow,
but continuous ; and hence, as time goes on, they will become known
with ever-inci'easing accuracy. If they were known with absolute
precision, they would enable us to compute, with absolute precision
also, the ratio between the masses of the sun and earth, and from this
ratio we can calculate ' the distance of the sun by either of two or
three different methods.

1 One method of proceeding is as follows : Let M be the mass of the sun, and m that
of the earth ; let R be the distance of the sun from the earth, and r that of the moon ;
finally, let T be the number of days in a sidereal year, and t the number in a sidereal month.
Then, by elementary astronomy,

M : m = - : Tl; whence R3 = r3 f1-) (-) •
T3 t2' VtV w

or, in words, the cube of the sun's distance equals the cube of the moon's distance, multiplied

4i 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As matters stand at present, the majority of astronomers would
probably consider that these secular perturbations are not yet known
with an exactness sufficient to render this method superior to the
others that have been named — perhaps as yet not even their rival.
Leverrier, on the other hand, himself puts such confidence in it that
he declined to sanction or cooperate in the operations for observing
the recent transit of Venus, considering all labor and expense in that
direction as merely so much waste.

But, however the case may be now, there is no question that as
time goes on, and our knowledge of the planetary motions becomes
more minutely precise, this method will become continually and cumu-
latively more exact, until finally, and not many centuries hence, it will
supersede all the others that have been described. The parallax of
the sun, determined by Leverrier in this method, in 1872, comes out
8.86".

The last of the methods mentioned in the synopsis given on page
405 is interesting as an example of the manner in which the sciences
are mutually connected and dependent. Before the experiments of
Fizeau in 1849, and of Foucault a few years later, our knowledge of
the velocity of light depended on our knowledge of the dimensions
of the earth's orbit : it had been found by astronomical observations
upon the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites that light occupied a little
more than 16 minutes in crossing the orbit of the earth, or about 8
minutes in coming from the sun ; and hence, supposing the sun's dis-
tance to be 95,600,000 miles, as was long believed, the velocity of
light must be about 192,000 miles per second; thus optics was in-
debted to astronomy for this fundamental element. But when Fou-
cault in 1862 announced that, according to his unquestionably accu-
rate experiments, the velocity of light could not be much more than
186,000 miles per second, the obligation was returned, and the suspi-
cions as to the received value of the sun's parallax, which had been
raised by the lunar researches of Hansen and Leverrier, were changed
into certainty. The most recent experimental determinations of the
velocity of light by Cornu in lS73-'74 fix the solar parallax between
8.80" and 8.85", according as we use Peters's " constant of aberration "
or Delambre's value of the " equation of light," which is the name
given to the time required for light to traverse the interval between
the sun and the earth.

Collecting all the evidence at present attainable, it would seem
that the solar parallax cannot differ much from 8.86", though it may
be as much as 0.04" greater or smaller; this would correspond, as has

by the square of the number of sidereal montlis in a year, and by the ratio between the masses
of the sun and earth. It is to be noted, however, that T and t are the periods of the earth
and moon, as they would be if wholly undisturbed in their motions, and hence differ
slightly from the periods actually observed-— the differences are small, but somewhat
troublesome to calculate with precision.

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN. 415

already been said, to a distance of 92,250,000 miles, with a probable
error of about one-half per cent., or 450,000 miles.

But, though the distance can thus easily be stated in figures, it is
not so easy to give any real idea of a space so enormous ; it is quite
beyond our power of conception. If one were to try to walk such a,
distance, supposing even that he could walk 4 miles an hour, and
keep it up for 10 hours every day, it would take 68^ years to make a
single million of miles, and more than* 6,300 years to traverse the
whole.

If some celestial railway could be imagined, the journey to the sun,
even if our trains ran 60 miles an hour, day and night and without a
stop, would require over 175 years. Sensation, even, would not travel
so far in a human lifetime. To borrow the curious illustration of
Prof. Mendenhall, if we could imagine an infant with an arm long
enough to enable him to touch the sun and burn himself, he would die
of old age before the pain could reach him, since, according to the
experiments of Helmholtz and others, a nervous shock is communi-
cated only at the rate of about 100 feet per second, or 1,637 miles a
day, and would need more than 150 years to make the journey. Sound
would do it in about 14 years if it could be transmitted through ce-
lestial space, and a cannon-ball in about 9, if it were to move uni-
formly with the same speed as when it left the muzzle of the gun. If
the earth could be suddenly stopped in her orbit, and allowed to fall
unobstructed toward the sun under the accelerating influence of his
attraction, she would reach the central fire in about four months. I
have said if she could be stopped, but such is the compass of her
orbit that, to make its circuit in a year, she has to move nearly
19 miles a second, or more than fifty times faster than the swiftest
rifie-ball ; and in moving 20 miles her path deviates from perfect
straightness by less than one-eighth of an inch. And yet, over all
the circumference of this tremendous orbit, the sun exercises his do-
minion, and every pulsation of his surface receives its response from
the subject earth.

By observing the slight changes in the sun's apparent diameter,
we find that its distance varies somewhat at different times of the
year, about 3,000,000 miles in all ; and minute investigation shows
that the earth's orbit is almost an exact ellipse, whose nearest point
to the sun, or perihelion, is passed by the earth about the 1st of Jan-
uary, at which time she is 90,750,000 miles distant.

The distance of the sun being once known, its dimensions are easi-
ly ascertained — at least, within certain narrow limits of accuracy.
The angular semi-diameter of the sun when at the mean distance is
almost exactly 962", the uncertainty not exceeding 2o100 of the whole.
The result of twelve years' observations at Greenwich (1836 to 1847)
gives 961.82", and other determinations oscillate around the value
first mentioned, which is that adopted in the " Amei'ican Nautical Al-

4i 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

inanac." Taking the distance as 92,250,000 miles, this makes the
sun's diameter 860,500 ; and the probable error of this quantity, de-
pending as it does both on the error of the measured diameter and of
the distance, is some 4,000 or 5,000 miles; in other words, the chances
are strong that the actual diameter is between 855,000 and 865,000
miles.

Measurements made by the same person, however, and with the
same instrument, but at different times, sometimes differ enough to
raise a suspicion that the diameter is slightly variable, which would be
nothing surprising considering the nature of the solar surface. There
is no sensible difference between the equatorial and polar diameters,
the rotation of the sun on its axis not being sufficiently rapid to make
the polar compression (which must, of course, necessarily result from
the rotation) marked enough to be perceived by our present means
of observation.

It is not easy to obtain any real conception of the vastness of this
enormous sphere. Its diameter is 108.7 times that of the earth, and its
circumference proportional, so that the traveler who could make the
circuit of the world in 80 days would need nearly 24 years for his jour-
ney around the sun. Since the surfaces of spheres vary as the squares,
and bulks as the cubes, of their diameters, it follows that the sun's
surface is nearly 12,000 times, and its volume, or bulk, more than
1,280,000 times, greater than that of the earth. If the earth be rep-
resented by one of the little three-inch globes common in school ap-
paratus, the sun on the same scale will be more than 27 feet in diam-
eter, and its distance nearly 3,000 feet. Imagine the sun to be hollowed
out and the earth placed in the centre of the shell thus formed, it
would be like a sky to us, and the moon would have scope for all her
motions far within the inclosing surface; indeed, since she is only
240,000 miles away, while the sun's radius is more than 430,000, there
would be room for a second satellite 190,000 miles beyond her.

The mass of the sun, or quantity of matter contained in it, can also
I>e computed when we know its distance, and comes out 325,600 times
as great as the earth. The calculation may be made either by means
of the proportion given in the note to page 413, or by comparing the
attracting force of the sun upon the earth, as indicated by the curva-
ture of her orbit (about 0.119 inch per second), with the distance a
body at the surface of the earth falls in the same time under the action
of gravity, a quantity which has been determined with great accuracy
by experiments with the pendulum. Of course, the fact that the sun
produces its effect upon the earth at a distance of 92,250,000 miles,
while a falling body at the level of the sea is only about 4,000 miles
from the centre of the attraction which produces its motion, must also
enter into the reckoning.1

1 The calculation of the sun's mass, from the data given, proceeds as follows : Let M =
the sun's mass, and m that of the earth ; R = the distance from the earth to the sun,

DISTANCE AND DIMENSIONS OF THE SUN. 417

This mass, if we express it in pounds or tons, is too enormous to
be conceived : it is 2 octillions of tons — that is, 2 with 27 ciphers
annexed; it is nearly 750 times as great as the combined masses of
all the planets and satellites of the solar system — and Jupiter alone
is more than 300 times as massive as the earth. The sun's attractive
power is such that it dominates all surrounding space, even to the
fixed stars, so that a body at the distance of our nearest stellar neigh-
bor, a Centauri, which is more than 200,000 times remoter than the
sun, could free itself from the solar attraction only by darting away
with a velocity of more than 300 feet per second, or over 200 miles
an hour ; unless animated by a greater velocity than this, it would
move around the sun in a closed orbit — an ellipse of some shape, or
a circle, with a period of revolution which, in the smallest possible
orbit, would be about 31,600,000 years, and if the orbit were circular,
would be nearly 90,000,000. We say it would revolve thus — that is,
of course, unless intercepted or diverted from its course by the influ-
ence of some other sun, as it probably would be. And we may notice
here that in many cases certainly, and in most cases probably, the
stars are flying through space at a far swifter rate, with velocities of
many miles per second.

If we calculate the force of gravity at the sun's surface, which is
easily done by dividing its mass, 325,600, by the square of 108f (the
number of times the sun's diameter exceeds the earth's), we find it
to be 27-^ times as great as on the earth; a man who on the earth
would weigh 150 pounds, would there weigh nearly two tons ; and,
even if the footing were good, would be unable to stir. A body
which at the earth falls a little more than 16 feet in a second would
there fall 443. A pendulum which here swings once a second would
there oscillate more than five times as rapidly, like the balance-wheel
of a watch — quivering rather than swinging.

Since the sun's volume is 1,280,000 times that of the earth, while
its mass is only 325,600 times as great, it follows at once that the
sun's average density (found by dividing the mass by the volume) is
only about one-quartet- that of the earth. This is a fact of the utmost
importance in its bearing upon the constitution of this body. As we
shall see hereafter, we know that certain heavy metals, with which
we are familiar on the earth, enter largely into the composition of the

and r the mean radius of the earth ; T, the length of the sidereal year, reduced to seconds ;
and \ g the distance a body falls in a second at the earth's surface. Now, the distance
the earth falls toward the sun in a second, or the curvature of her orbit in a second, is

2:r2R 2*-'2R m M

equal to -^ — (about 0.119 inch). Hence, by the law of gravitation, £ g : - „a — H '■ -oi

( 47r'2Ra ^
\ T2r*g /'

whence, M = m

- ,,g

In this formula make it = 3.14159 ; R, 92,250,000 miles ; T = 31,558,149.3 seconds ;
r = 3,956.179 miles ; and g = 0.0061035 mile (16.113 feet), and we shall. get the result
given m the text, viz., M = 325,600 m.
vol. x. — 27

4i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sun, so that, if the principal portion of the solar mass were either solid
or liquid, its mean density ought to be at least as great as the earth's,
especially since the enormous force of solar gravity would tend most
powerfully to compress the materials. The low density can only he
accounted for on the supposition, which seems fairly to accord also
with all other facts, that the sun is mainly a ball of gas, or vapor,
powerfully condensed, of course, in the central portion by the super-
incumbent weight, but prevented from liquefaction by an exceed-
ly high temperature. And, on the other hand, it could be safely pre-
dicted on physical principles that so huge a ball of fiery vapor, ex-
posed to the cold of space, would present precisely such phenomena
as we find by observation of the solar surface and surroundings.

-♦•♦-

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE.

By ALEXANDER BAIN, LL.D.,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
I.

THE scientific treatment of any art consists partly in applying the
principles furnished by the several sciences involved — as chemi-
cal laws to agriculture — and partly in enforcing, throughout the dis-
cussion, the utmost precision and rigor in the statement, deduction
and proof of the various maxims or rules that make up the art.

Both fecundity in the thoughts and clearness in the directions
should attest the worth of the scientific method.

Definitions of the Scope of Education. — First, let me quote the
definition embodied in the ideal of the founders of the Prussian Na-
tional System. It is given shoi'tly as "the harmonious and equable
evolution of the human powers;" at more length, in the words of
Stein, " by a method based on the nature of the mind, every power of
the soul to be unfolded, every crude principle of life stirred up and
nourished, all one-sided culture avoided, and the impulses on which
the strength and worth of men rest carefully attended to." — (Donald-
son's " Lectures on Education," p. 38.) This definition, which is pointed
against narrowness generally, may have had special reference to the
many omissions in the schooling of the foregone times: the leaving
out of such things as bodily or muscular training ; training in the
senses or observation ; training in art or refinement. It further in-
sinuates that hitherto the professed teacher may not have done much
even for the intellect, for the higher moral training, nor for the train-
ing with a view to happiness or enjoyment.

Acting on this ideal, not only would the educator put more press-

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 41 g

ure altogether on the susceptibilities of his pupils : he would also
avoid overdoing any one branch ; he would consider proportion in
the things to be taught. To be all language, all observation, all ab-
stract science, all fine art, all bodily expertness, all lofty sentiment,
all theology — would not be accepted as a proper outcome of any
trainer's work.

The Prussian definition, good so far, does not readily accommodate
itself to such circumstances as these — namely, the superior aptitude
of individuals for some things rather than for others ; the advantage
to society of preeminent fitness for special functions, although gained
by a one-sided development; the difficulty of reconciling the "whole
man " with himself; the limited means of the educator, which imposes
the necessity of selection according to relative importance.

Although by no means easy, it is yet possible to make allowance
for these various considerations, under the theory of harmonious de-
velopment ; but, after the operation is accomplished, the doubt will
arise whether much is gained by using that theory as the defining fact
of education.

In the very remarkable article on education contributed by James
Mill to the " Encyclopedia Britannica," the end of education is stated
to be " to render the individual, as much as possible, an instrument
of happiness, first to himself, and next to other beings." This, how-
ever, should be given as an amended answer to the first question of
the Westminster Catechism — "What is the chief end of man?" The
utmost that we could, expect of the educator, who is not everybody,
is to contribute his part to the promotion of human happiness in the
order stated. No doubt the definition goes more completely to the
root of the matter than the German formula. It does not trouble
itself with the harmony, the many-sidedness, the wholeness, of the
individual development ; it would admit these just as might be requi-
site for seeming the final end.

James Mill is not singular in his over-grasping view of the sub-
ject. The most usual subdivision of education is into physical, intel-
lectual, moral, religious, technical. Now, when we inquire into the
meaning of physical education, we find it to mean the rearing of a
healthy human being, by all the arts and devices of nursing, feeding,
clothing, and general regimen. Mill includes this subject in his arti-
cle, and Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes a very interesting chapter to it
in his work on Education. It seems to me, however, that this depart-
ment may be kept quite separate, important though it be. It does
not at all depend upon the principles and considerations that the edu-
cator, properly so called, has in view in the carrying out of his work.
The discussion of the subject does not in any way help us in educa-
tional matters, as most commonly understood ; nor does it derive any
illumination from being placed side by side with the arts of the recog-
nized teacher. The fact of bodily health or vigor is a leading postu-

420 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

late in bodily or mental training, but the trainer does not take upon
himself to lay down the rules of hygiene.

The inadvertence, for so I regard it, of coupling the art of health
with education is easily disposed of, and does not land us in any
arduous controversies. Very different is another aspect of these defi-
nitions : that wherein the end of education is propounded as the pro-
motion of human happiness, human virtue, human perfection. Prob-
ably the qualification will at once be conceded, that education is but
one of the means, a single contributing agency, to the all-including
end. Nevertheless, the openings for difference of opinion as to what
constitutes happiness, virtue, or perfection, are very wide. Moreover,
the discussion has its proper place in ethics and in theology, and, if
brought into the field of education, should be received under protest.

Before entering upon the consideration of this difficulty, the
greatest of all, I will advert to some of the other views of education
that seem to err on the side of taking in too much. Here, I may quote
from the younger Mill, who, like his father, and unlike the generality
of theorists, starts more scientifico with a definition. Education,
according to him, "includes whatever we do for ourselves, and what-
ever is done for us by others, for the express purpose of bringing us
nearer to the perfection of our nature ; in its largest acceptation, it
comprehends even the indirect effects produced on character and on
the human faculties by things of which the direct purposes are differ-
ent; by laws, by forms of government, by the industrial arts, by
modes of social life ; nay, even by physical facts not dependent on
the human will ; by climate, soil, and local position." He admits,
however, that this is a very wide view of the subject, and for his own
immediate purpose advances a narrower view, namely : "the culture
which each generation purposely gives to those who are to be its suc-
cessors, in order to qualify them for at least keeping up, and, if pos-
sible, for raising, the improvement which has been attained." — ("In-
augural Address at St. Andrews," p. 4.)

Besides involving the dispute as to what constitutes " perfection,"
the first and larger statement is, I think, too wide for the most com-
prehensive philosophy of education. The influences exerted on the
human character by climate and geographical position, by arts, laws,
government, and modes of social life, constitute a very interesting
department of sociology, and have their place there and nowhere else.
What we do for ourselves, and what others do for us, to bring; us
nearer to the perfection of our nature, may be education in the pre-
cise sense of the word, and it may not. I do not see the propriety of
including under the subject the direct operation of rewards and pun-
ishments. No doubt we do something to educate ourselves, and soci-
ety does something to educate us, in a sufficiently proper acceptation
of the word ; but the ordinary influence of society, in the dispensing
of punishment and reward, is not the essential fact of education, as I

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 421

propose to regard it*, although an adjunct to some of its legitimate
functions.

Mill's narrower expression of the scope of the subject is not ex-
actly erroneous ; the moulding of each generation by the one pre-
ceding is not improperly described as an education. It is, however,
grandiose rather than scientific. Nothing is to be got out of it. It
does not give the lead to the subsequent exposition.

I find in the article "Education," in " Chambers's Encyclopaedia,"
a definition to the following effect : " In the widest sense of the word
a man is educated, either for good or for evil, by everything that he
experiences from the cradle to the grave [say, rather, ' formed,' ' made,'
' influenced ']. But, in the more limited and usual sense, the term edu-
cation is confined to the efforts made, of set purpose, to train men in
a particular way — the efforts of the grown-up part of the community
to inform the intellect and mould the character of the young [rather
too much stress on the fact of influence from without] ; and more
especially to the labors of professional educators or schoolmasters."
The concluding clause is the nearest to the point — the arts and
methods employed by the schoolmaster; for, although he is not alone
in the work that he is expressly devoted to, yet he it is that typifies
the process in its greatest singleness and purity. If by any investi
gations, inventions, or discussions, we can improve his art to the ideal
pitch, we shall have done nearly all that can be required of a science
and art of education.

I return to the greater difficulty — namely, the question, what is the
end of all teaching ; or, if the end be human happiness and perfection,
what definite guidance does this furnish to the educator ? I have
already remarked that the inquiry is acknowledged to belong to other
departments ; and, if in these departments clear and unanimous an-
swers have not been arrived at, the educationist is not bound to make
good the deficiency.

For this emergency, there is one thing obvious, another less obvi-
ous ; the two together exhausting the resources of the educator.

The obvious thing is to fix upon whatever matters people are
agreed upon. Of such the number is considerable, and the instances
important. They make the universal topics of the schools.

The less obvious thing is, with reference to matters not agreed
upon, that the educator should set forth at what cost these doubtful
acquisitions would have to be made; for the cost must be at least one
element in the decision respecting them. Whoever knows most about
education is best able to say how far its appliances can cope with
such aims as softening the manners, securing self-renunciation, bring
ing about the balanced action of all the powers, training the whole
man, etc.

We shall see that one part of the science of education consists in
giving the ultimate analysis of all complex growths. It is on such

422

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

an analysis that the cost can be calculated ; and, by means of this, we
can best observe whether contradictory demands are made upon the
educator.

What we have been drifting to, in our search for an aim, is the
work of the school. This may want a little more paring and rounding
to give it scientific form, but it is the thing most calculated to fix and
steady our vision at the outset.

Now, in the success of the schoolmaster's work, the first and
central fact is the plastic property of the mind itself. On this de-
pends the acquisition not simply of knowledge but of everything that
can be called an acquisition. The most patent display of the power
consists in memory for knowledge imparted. In this view the leading
inquiry in the art of education is how to strengthen memory. We
are, therefore, led to take account of the several mental aptitudes that
either directly or indirectly enter into the retentive function. In other
words, we must draw upon the science of the human mind for what-
ever that science contains respecting the conditions of memory.

Although memory, acquisition, retentiveness, depends mainly
upon one unique property of the intellect, which accordingly demands
to be scrutinized with the utmost care, there ai*e various other prop-
erties, intellectual and emotional, that aid in the general result, and
to each of these regard must be had, in a science of education.

We have thus obtained the clew to one prime division of the sub-
ject— the purely psychological part. Of no less consequence is an-
other department, at present without a name — an inquiry into the
proper or natural order of the different subjects, grounded on their
relative simplicity or complexity, and their mutual dependence. It is
necessary to success in education that a subject should not be pre-
sented to the pupil until all the preparatory subjects have been mas-
tered. This is obvious enough in certain cases : arithmetic is taken
before algebra, geometry before trigonometry, inorganic chemistry
before organic ; but in many cases the proper order is obscured by
circumstances, and is an affair of very delicate consideration. I may
call this the analytic, or logical, department of the theory of edu-
cation.

It is a part of scientific method to take strict account of leading
terms, by a thorough and exhaustive inquiry into the meanings of
all such. The settlement of many questions relating to education is
embarrassed by th,e vagueness of the single term " discipline."

Further, it ought to be pointed out, as specially applicable to our
present subject, that the best attainable knowledge on anything is
due to a combination of general principles obtained from the sciences,
with well-conducted observations and experiments made in actual
practice. On every great question there should be a convergence of
both lights. The technical expression for this is the union of the
deductive and inductive methods. The deductions are to be obtained

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 423

apart, in their own way, and with all attainable precision. The induc-
tions are the maxims of practice, purified, in the first instance, by
wide comparison and by the requisite precautions.

I thus projDOse to remove from the science of education matters
belonging to much wider departments of human conduct, and to con-
centrate the view upon what exclusively pertains to education — the
means of building up the acquired powers of human beings. The
communication of knowledge is the ready type of the process, but the
training operation enters into parts of the mind not intellectual — the
activities, and the emotions; the same forces, however, being at work.

Education does not embrace the employment of all our intellectual
functions. There is a different art for directing the faculties in pro-
ductive labor, as in the professions, in the original investigations of
the man of science, or the creations of the artist. The principles of
the human mind are applicable to both departments, but, although the
two come into occasional contact, they are so far distinct that there is
an advantage in viewing them separately. In the practical treatise of
Locke, entitled " The Conduct of the Understanding," acquisition, pro-
duction, and invention, are handled promiscuously.

Bearings of Physiology. — The science of physiology, coupled
with the accumulated empirical observations of past ages, is the ref-
erence in finding out how to rear living beings to the full maturity
of their physical powers. This, as we have said, is quite distinct
from the process of education.

The art of education assumes a certain average physical health,
and does not inquire into the means of keeping up or increasing that
average. Its point of contact with physiology and hygiene is nar
l-owed to the plastic or acquisitive function of the brain — the property
of fixing or connecting the nervous connections that underlie mem-
ory, habit and acquired power.

But as physiology now stands, we soon come to the end of its
applications to the husbanding of the plastic faculty. The inquiry
must proceed upon our direct experience in the work of education,
with an occasional check or caution from the established physiologi
cal laws. Still, it would be a forgetting of mercies to undervalue the
results accruing to education from the physiological doctrine of the
physical basis of memory.

On this subject, physiology teaches the general fact that memory
reposes upon a nervous property or power, sustained, like every othei
physical power, by nutrition, and having its alternations of exercise
and rest. It also informs us that, like every other function, the plas-
ticity may be stunted by inaction, and impaired by over-exertion.

As far as pure physiology is concerned, I invite everybody to
reflect on one circumstance in particular. The human body is a great
aggregate of organs or interests — muscles, digestion, respiration,
senses, brain. When fatigue overtakes it the organs generally suffer ;

424 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

when renovation has set in, the organs generally are invigorated.
This is the first and most obvious consequence. It has next to be
qualified by the remark that human beings are unequally constituted
as regards the various functions; some being strong in muscle, others
in stomach, others in brain. In all such persons the general invigo-
ration is unequally shown; the favored organs receive a share pro-
portioned to their resjDective capitals : to him that hath shall be given.
Still more pertinent is the further qualification, that the organ that
happens to be most active at the time receives more than its share;
to exercise the several organs unequally is to nourish them unequally.

To come to the point as regards our immediate object. To increase
the plastic projDerty of the mind you must nourish the brain. You
naturally expect that this result will ensue when the body generally
is nourished : and so it will, if there be no exorbitant demands on the
part of other organs, giving them such a preference as to leave very
little for the organ of the mind. If the digestion or the muscles are
unduly drawn upen, the brain will not respond to the drafts made
upon it. Obversely, if the brain is so constituted by nature, or so ex-
cited by stimulation, as to absorb the lion's share of the nutriment,
the opposite results will appear; the mental functions will be exalted,
and the other interests more or less impoverished. This is the situa-
tion for an abundant display of mental force.

But we must further distinguish the mental functions themselves;
for these are very different and mutually exclusive. Great refinement
in the subdivisions is not necessary for the illustration. The broadest
contrast is the emotional and the intellectual — feeling as pleasure,
pain, or excitement, and feeling as knowledge. These two in extreme
manifestation are hostile to each other: under extreme emotional
excitement the intellect suffers ; under great intellectual exertion the
emotions subside (with limitations unnecessary for our purpose).

But intellect in the largest sense is not identical with the reten-
tive or plastic operation. The laws of this peculiar phase of our in-
telligence are best obtained by studying it as a purely mental fact.
Yet there is a physiological way of looking at it that is strongly con-
firmative of our psychological observations. On the physical or
physiological side, memory or acquisition is a series of new nervous
growths, the establishment of a number of beaten tracks in certain
lines of the cerebral substance. Now, the presumption is that, as
regards the claim for nourishment, this is the most costly of all the
processes 'of the intelligence. To exercise a power once acquired
should be a far easier thing, much less expensive, than to build up a
new acquirement. We may be in sufficiently good condition for the
one, while wholly out of condition for the other. Indeed, success in
acquirement, looking at it from the physiological probabilities, should
be the work of rare, choice, and happy moments ; times when cerebral
vi<jor is both abundant and well-directed.

EDUCATION AS' A SCIENCE. 425

Bearings of Psychology. — The largest chapter in the science of
education must be the following out of all the psychological laws
that bear directly or indirectly upon the process of mental acquire-
ment. Every branch of psychology will be found available ; but
more especially the psychology of the intellect. Of the three great
functions of the intellect, in the ultimate analysis — discrimination,-
agreement, retentiveness — the last is the most completely identified
with the education process ; but the others enter in as constituents in
a way peculiar to each. I will select for my present paper, Discrimi-
nation and Retentiveness ; and will endeavor to extract, from the
discussion of these great intellectual functions, everything that they
appear to yield for the ends of the educator. Although I can impart
no novelty to the general statement of these functions, it is possi-
ble to make some unhackneyed remarks on their educational conse-
quences.

Discrimination. — Mind starts from discrimination. The conscious-
ness of difference is the beginning of every intellectual exercise. To
encounter a new impression is to be aware of change : if the heat of
a room increases ten degrees, we are awakened to the circumstance
by a change of feeling ; if we have no change of feeling, no altered
consciousness, the outward fact is lost upon us ; we take no notice of
it, we are said not to know it.

Our intelligence is, therefore, absolutely limited by our power of
discrimination. The other functions of intellect, the retentive power,
for example, are not called into play, until wTe have first discrimi-
nated a number of things. If we did not originally feel the difference
between light and dark, black and white, red and yellow, there would
be no visible scenes for us to remember : with the amplest endowment
of retentiveness, the outer world could not enter into our recollection;
the blank of sensation is a blank of memory.

Yet further. The minuteness or delicacy of the feeling of differ-
ence is the measure of the variety and multitude of our primary
impressions, and therefore of our stirred-up recollections. He that
hears only twelve discriminated notes 011 the musical scale has his
remembrances of sounds bounded by these; he that feels a. hundred
sensible differences has his ideas or recollections of sounds multiplied
in the same proportion. The retentive power works up to the height
of the discriminative power ; it can do no more. Things are not re-
membered if they have not first been discriminated.

We have by nature a certain power of discrimination in each de-
partment of our sensibility. "We can from the outset discriminate,
more or less delicately, sights, sounds, touches, smells, tastes; and, in
each sense, some persons much more than others. This is the deepest
foundation of disparity of intellectual character, as well as of variety
in likings and pursuits. If, from the beginning, one man can interpo-
late five shades of discrimination of color where another can feel but

426 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

one transition, the careers of the two men are foreshadowed and will
be widely apart.

To observe this native inequality is important in predestining the
child to this or that line of special training. For the actual work of
teaching, it is of more consequence to note the ways and means of
quickening and increasing the discriminating aptitude. Bearing in
mind the fact that until a difference is felt between two things intelli-
gence has not yet made the first step, the teacher is bound to consider
the circumstances or conditions favorable and unfavorable to the
exercise.

1. It is not peculiar to discrimination, but is common to every
mental function, to lay down, as a first condition, mental vigor, fresh-
ness, and wakefulness. In a low state of the mental forces, in languor,
or drowsiness, differences cannot be felt. That the mind should be
alive, awake, in full force and exercise, is necessary for every kind of
mental work. The teacher needs to quicken the mental alertness by
artificial means, when there is a dormancy of mere indolence. He has
to waken the pupil from the state significantly named indifference, the
state where differing impressions fail to be recognized as distinct.

2. The mind may be fresh and alive, but its energies may be
taking the wrong direction. There is a well-known antithesis or op-
position between the emotional and the intellectual activities, leading
to a certain incompatibility of the two. Under emotional excitement
the intellectual energies are enfeebled in amount, and enslaved to the
reigning emotion. It is in the quieter states of mind that discrimi-
nation, in common with other intellectual powers, works to advan-
tage. I will afterward discuss more minutely the very delicate
matter of the management of the various emotions in the work of
teaching.

3. It must not be forgotten that intellectual exercises are in
themselves essentially insipid, unattractive, indifferent. As exertion,
they impart a certain small degree of the delight that always attends
the healthy action of an exuberant faculty; but this supposes their
later developments, and is not a marked peculiarity in the child's
commencing career. The first circumstance that gives an interest to
discrimination is pleasurable or painful stimulus. Something must
hang on a difference before the mind is made energetically awake to
it. A thoroughly disinterested difference is not an object of atten-
tion to any one.

The transitions from cold to hot, dark to light, strain to relief, hun-
ger to repletion, silence to sound, are all more or less interesting, and
all more or less impressive. But then they are vehement and sensa-
tional. It is necessary, in order to the furnishing of the intelligence,
that smaller and less sensational transitions should be felt ; the intel-
lectual nature is characterized by requiring the least amount of emo-
tional flash in order to impress a difference. A loud and furious

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 427

demonstration will certainly compel attention and end in the feeling
of difference, but the cost is too great to be often repeated.

4. The great practical aid to the discovery and the retention of
difference is immediate succession or, what comes to the same thing,
close juxtaposition. A rapid transition makes evident a difference
that would not be felt after an interval, still less if anything else
were allowed to occupy the mind in the mean time. This fact is suffi-
ciently obvious, and is turned to account in easy cases, but is far
from thoroughly worked out by the teacher and the expositor. Any
trifling diversion will suffice to blind us to its importance.

We compare two notes by sounding them in close succession ; two
shades of color by placing them side by side ; two weights by hold-
ing them in the two hands, and attending to the two feelings by
turns. These are the plain instances. The comparison of forms leads
to complications, and we cease to attempt the same kind of compari-
son. For mere length we lay the two things alongside ; so for an
angle. For nuitibei*, we can place two groups in contiguous rows —
three by the side of four or five — and observe the surplus.

Mere size is an affair of simple juxtaposition. Form, irrespective
of size, is less approachable. A triangle and a quadrangle are com-
pared by counting the sides, and resolving the difference of form
into the simpler element of difference of number. A right-angled,
an acute-angled, an isosceles triangle, must be compared by the juxta
position of angles. A circle and an oval are represented by the alter-
natives of curvature and diameters : in the one, the curvature uni-
form and the diameters equal ; in the other, the curvature varying
and the diameters unequal. The difference between a close and an
open curve is palpable enough.

The geometrical forms are thus resolvable into very simple bases
of comparison ; and the teacher must analyze them in the manner now
stated. For the irregular and capricious forms, the elementary con-
ceptions are still the same — lineal size, number, angular size, curva-
ture— but the mode of guiding the attention may be various. Some-
times there is a strong and overpowering similarity, with a small and
unconspicuous diflerence; as in our ciphers (compare 3 and 5), and in
the letters of our alphabet (C, G), and still more in the Hebrew alpha-
bet. For such comparisons, the difference, such as it is, needs to be
very clearly drawn or even exaggerated. Another method is to have
models of the same size to lay over one another, so as to bring out
the difference through the juxtaposition. By an express effort, the
teacher calls on the learner to view, with single-minded attention, the
differing circumstance, and afterward to reproduce it by his own
hand. An express lesson consists in asking the pupil what are the
ciphers, or the letters, that are nearly alike, and what are the points
of difference.

The higher arts of comparison to impress difference are best illus-

428 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

trated when both differences and agreements Lave to be noted. They
would have to be resumed after the discussion of the intellectual force
of agreement or similarity. The chief stress of the present explana-
tion lies in regarding discrimination as the necessary prelude of every
intellectual impression, as the basis of our stored-up knowledge, or
memory. Agreement is presupposed likewise; but there is not the
same necessity, nor' is it expedient, to follow out the workings of
agreement, before considering the plastic power of the intellect.

-♦♦♦-

THE PRODUCTION OF COGNAC BRANDY.

T F^HERE is a small district in the south of France known as the
-*- Deux Charentes, which has a commercial centre called Cognac.
From the grapes of this district there comes a wine, and from this
wine there is distilled a celebrated liquor which is named after the
place, and called Cognac brandy. This spirit, eau de vie superie'ure,
as the French call it, is liked by a great many people, and hated by a
great many more, so that it may fairly be assumed as an object of
general interest. A writer in the Pall Mall Gazette has been at the
pains to collect a large amount of information concerning it, to which
we are indebted for the substance of the following statements.

England consumes by far the greater part of the supply ; English
firms practically control the export trade ; and English influence is
so potent in Cognac, that the rural population of the department
speak jocularly of the place as the " little English town on the river
Charente."

The Cognac-brandy district begins at Angouleme, about three
hundred miles south of Paris, and comprises from fifty to sixty square
miles. It is divided into five parts, and is cut in two from east
to west by the river Charente. The parts are, in the order of their
importance as established by the quality of the brandy they produce,
though in the inverse order as to size, as follows : the Grande Cham-
pagne ; the Petite Champagne ; the Borderies, a strip of land along
the banks of the Charente opposite the Grande Champagne ; the Fins
Bois ; and the Bon Bois. The country is undulating. The surface,
dotted with towns and villages, and diversified by occasional tracts of
woodland between bright-green pastures on either bank of the river,
is divided into fields spotted with walnut-trees and vineyards, with
red-roofed farm-houses, and traversed by broad roads lined with rows
of tall elms and poplars. The soil is principally clayey and flinty
rock, supported by a bed of chalk or limestone, and occasionally of
marl, that in the Grande and Petit Champagnes being of the best
quality.

THE PRODUCTION OF COGNAC BRANDY. 429

Eau de vie is a French term equivalent to the English word spirits,
and hence is applicable to alcohols derived from any source. But the
eau de vie de Cognac is the spirits obtained by distillation of the fer
mented juice of a few varieties of grape, chief among which is la
folle blanche as it is called. This is a white grape. The name, which
means literally " the white fool" is probably due to the fact that the
folle blanche produces only a very inferior wine, which commands
but eight cents a gallon, while a common red wine brings sixteen.

In the Deux Charentes there are three kinds of vineyards, called
" vignes pleines" " vignes en allees" and " vignes d boeitfs" In each
the vines are planted in rows, which in the first are five feet apart.
Hand-labor is generally employed in the cultivation, though the
plough is used to loosen the ground where the rows are wide enough
apart. The vignes en allees consist of long, narrow strips of land
planted with vines in rows, every fourth or fifth row or so having a
slip of ground sown with grain or vegetables in between. In these
vineyards, which are more common in the Grande Champagne, the
vines as a rule are planted rather wide apart. The vignes d boeufs are
so termed from the rows being wide enough apart (from five to six feet)
to admit of oxen and a plough passing between. The vines, as a rule,
are left without supports. The producers are mostly small farmers,
who cultivate their own vineyards, with little if any help. When help
is employed, the wages vary from two to three francs a day, according
to whether meals are furnished or not. These peasant proprietors are
a frugal, saving class, and are not uncommonly rich.

It is unpleasant to relate that a speedy and almost complete sus-
pension of this important industry is threatened in the ravages of
the Phylloxera vastatrix, a minute and (to the naked eye) invisible
insect, that preys on the roots and leaves of the vine, to the unfailing
destruction of the plant. Large rewards offered by the French Gov-
ernment have had the effect of calling forth a number of remedies,
but none of them have proved efficacious. During the year just past
the insect spread nearly all over the Deux Charentes and reduced the
vintage, so that it nowhere amounted to more than one-half a crop,
and in some places not more than a tenth, the average being about
one-sixth. Many farmers, in despair, actually cleared their fields and
sowed them in grain. In many places a large part of the vines have
been killed and the influence of the scourge was to cause a general
neglect of the vineyards.

The grapes are picked, for the most part, by women wearing high-
crowned fluted caps, who use a hook-shaped knife to sever the stems.
Each carries with her a small wooden box with sloping sides, into
which the fruit is thrown. When these boxes become full they are
emptied into the baskets of the men who carry the grapes to the cart
at the edge of the vineyard. The carts have long bodies and very
high wheels, and a huge tub, fixed between four upright stakes. The

430 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

carriers, bending' beneath their heavy loads, mount a ladder to the
top of the tub, and by a peculiar twist of the body empty their
baskets of grapes into it. Within the tub is a lad, who treads upon
the grapes to reduce their bulk, and, in a measure, press out their
juice. The cart being loaded, is drawn off by a yoke of oxen to the
neighboring press-house. The grapes are next emptied, through an
opening in the wall, upon a sloping stone floor, where they are crushed
by an ordinary grape-mill, which, however, forces out only a portion
of their juice. Formerly the juice was trodden out by the feet of the
laborers. It runs down the sloping floor into a covered trough at
the lower end, by which it is led into a tank — whence it is emptied
into the casks, and then left to ferment.

As already said, the mill does not express all the juice from the
grapes, and so the " must " is shoveled through an opening in the wall
into a large, shallow trough at the foot of the press. Then it is
heaped up in the centre of the trough, into what is called the motte,
a form like a millstone, and subjected to powerful pressure. The
sides of the motte are now trimmed, the screw loosened, and the trim-
mings piled on the top, when the pressure is again applied. This
process is repeated until the must has been subjected to four press-
ures. Each pressure lasts about two hours, except the last, which,
being generally put on in the evening, continues all night. Next
day the must is spread out in the trough, watered from a watering-
pot, and raked about in the water for an hour. The water being
drawn off, the must is again put under pressure, and the juice ob-
tained is mixed wTith the water, and the whole put into a cask to fer-
ment.

The must, or juice, obtained from the milling and four previous
pressures is put in casks, vats, or cisterns, to ferment, and it is from
it that the eau de vie superieure is obtained. The yield of fermented
liquor in good seasons is, in the Grand Champagne, about 900 gallons
to the acre; in the Deux Charentes, as a whole, about 500 gallons ;
and in some parts of the Bon Bois as low as 200 gallons. And, al-
though, as already stated, the vineyards are generally small, crops of
20,000 to 50.000 gallons from particular ones were formerly known.

It is to be observed that the method of fermenting the wine in-
tended for the distillation of brandy differs a little from that pursued
with the red wine of the district : the murk being allowed to remain
in the juice in the last case, while it is not allowed to do so in the first.

The still comprises a reservoir, with a pump for supplying it from
a large stone tank below, and the usual furnace and retort, with head
and worm. The average capacity of the stills throughout the Grand
Champagne is only about fifty-five gallons at a single operation. The
wine to be distilled having been emptied into a square stone tank,
already referred to, is pumped into the reservoir, whence, through a
tap, it is conveyed into the retort, which is heated with coal, at first

THE PRODUCTION OF COGNAC BRANDY. 431

to a high degree, and afterward to a lower. At the end of several
minutes a few drops of white, translucent liquid issue from the pipe
of the worm, increasing soon to a little streamlet, which falls into a
small cask. This liquid contains about half its weight of water, and
is called the broulllis. It continues to flow until it becomes gradu-
ally less alcoholic, wdien a momentary pause occurs in the operation.
A tap at the bottom of the retort is opened and the boiled wrine, a
brownish liquid, is either put back into the reservoir or allowed to
run away. The wine from the reservoir is then turned into the
retort until the latter is about two-thirds full. The same process is
repeated, day and night, until all the wine has been converted into
brouUlis, which, being rectified, is then ready for delivery to the
Cognac-brandy shippers as eau de vie. The proportion of brandy
yielded by the wine is not fixed, but variable with certain circum-
stances. In a vintage of good quality it is one gallon of brandy to
six or eight of wine ; but in unfavorable seasons it is not more than
one to seven and a half or twelve. Newly-made wine furnishes more
spirit than wine twelve months old; and wine fermented in large bulk
more, in proportion, than that fermented in small casks.

Cognac brandy is at first a colorless liquid, but it gradually ac-
quires a pale yellow or amber color from the cask in which it is kept
for ageing. With its natural appearance, however, it never appears
to the consumer ; public taste having become vitiated to the extent
of requiring a rich brown or brandy color, which is imparted 'by a
mixture of caramel or burnt sugar. Occasionally, too, a little red
sanders-wood is used for coloring. The constituents are alcohol and
water and small quantities of volatile oil, acetic acid, acetic ether,
cenanthic ether, tannin, etc., and, as it reaches the consumer, col-
oring matter. The quantity of alcohol varies from 48 to 55 per
cent. ; the latter being the standard strength, or " proof." It is
generally imported into England at 1 to 3 over proof, but the
strength is lessened by age, so that, when taken from bond for sale,
it seldom exceeds 3 or 4 under proof. The quality of the brandy
depends not, as may be generally supposed, on the quantity of
alcohol it contains, so much as on the minor constituents, notably the
cenanthic ether, from which it derives its distinguishing smell and
flavor. This fact becomes apparent when it is reflected that, while
brandy, as is well known, improves with age, it loses thereby a part
of its alcoholic strength. The very finest brandies, in fact, average
from 5 to 10 under proof, and never rise above 2 under proof. In
this connection, one or two interesting facts may be noted. It has
already been stated that the grape from which the finest Cognac
brandy is obtained yields at best an inferior wine. Now, the best
wine-making grapes contain a comparatively large proportion of
sugar, which varies from 12 to 20 and 30 per cent., and it is the
sugar that in fermentation is converted into alcohol. The fotte

432 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

blanche, however, contains a relatively small quantity of sugar, or
only about 7 to 8 per cent. Again, the riper the grape the more
sugar it will contain, but experience has taught the vine-dressers
of the Deux Charentes that, if their grapes are allowed to thoroughly
ripen, the brandy produced is stronger, but proportionally inferior in
quality. So that all the facts lend confirmation to the statement just
made.

It was remarked, a little while ago, that the quality, or " bouquet,"
of the brandy — that is, its peculiar odor — was derived from cenanthic
ether. This ether is obtained from the seed of the grape, and, accord-
ing to Neubauer, is a combination of various substances, of which
caprylic and caproic acid ethers are the most important part.

The sti'ength at which Cognac brandy is sold in England to con-
sumers is from 11 to 12 under proof, to which it is lowered by
the addition of water, after, it is said, it has passed into the hands of
wholesale and retail dealers. The standard recognized in the bran-
dy-trade is 10 under proof, and it is never lowered beyond 12 under
proof, except by special agreement. Below 11 under proof it is seiz-
able by the English excise.

It is the opinion of those, who have investigated the matter, that
very little, if any, adulteration is practised before the brandy is
shipped from France. Heavy penalties, imposed by the tribunals on
certain Charente farmers, who some years ago were detected in the
practice of doubling the quantity of their brandy by sophistication,
have operated to prevent other farmers from falling into like prac-
tices ; and a still more powerful deterrent is that no farmer can adul-
terate his brandy without making it known to his neighbors. In
France no wine or spirit can be moved about without an official per-
mit, and a distiller in the Charente could not receive a cask without
everybody knowing it ; so that any one who procured a raw spirit
would at once become a marked man, and excluded from doing business
with shippers. It is said that the farmers now confine their attempts
to cheat to overstating the age of the brandy they offer for sale.

Besides water, the adulteration is chiefly made with inferior spirit.
In addition to the dishonesty, there is much injury to health and life
involved in the practice. There is a kind of alcohol known as amylic,
or fusel-oil, contained in the spirits obtained from every substance
except the grape, but in particularly large quantities in the spirits of
potatoes, beet-root, and Jerusalem artichoke, which, being inferior,
are those chiefly used for adulteration. This fusel-oil is a deadly
poison. -Says Dr. G. O. Drewry, "The public would not drink such a
poison at any price if they were once awakened to a sense of its ter-
rible nature." It is never formed in the presence of tartaric acid,
which, as is well known, abounds in grape-juice; hence, spirits dis-
tilled from the pure juice of the grape contain no fusel-oil whatever.

It remains, before closing this paper, to speak of the manner of

THE PRODUCTION OF COGNAC BRANDY. 433

collecting the brandy into the shipping-houses in Cognac, and of the
treatment it receives therein. It is bought up from the distillers by
commission-merchants, or shippers, who have large storehouses, sup-
plied with facilities for filtering, mixing, ageing, etc. The two
largest houses in the trade are those of the celebrated English firms,
Martel & Co. and Hennessy & Co. ; next to these are Otard, Dupuy
& Co., and Augier Freres, the oldest house in Cognac ; and besides
these are many smaller ones. The farmers generally sell their spirit
while it is new, or immediately after distillation. In the second year
it is classed " stale," and in the fourth " old." On its arrival at the
magazine it is tested by a sampler, to see that it corresponds with
the representations made for it. It is measured in large depotoirs,
about 265 gallons capacity, which have glass tubes on the outside to
indicate the quantity of spirit within. This is said to give a fairer
measurement than smaller vessels. The price depends on the strength.
For the English market this is classed at 58° of Gay Lussac's scale,
or about 1° above English proof. For the French market it is 60°,
and for the American 61°. It may as well be stated in this connec-
tion that England takes nearly the whole supply — her portion in 1875
amounting to 4,500,000 gallons. A small part is consumed in France,
and other small parts go direct to the north of Europe, South Amer-
ica, and the United States.

Sales of spirits are based on the French scale — or 60°. For each
degree above that standard the shipper pays the producer 5 per cent,
extra; while for each degree under he deducts 10 percent. After
measurement the spirit is placed in new oaken casks, of the proper
seasoning, and its age, quality, and origin, are indicated thereon. The
casks are stored in a series of chambers threaded with tramways for
moving them about ; and in a vast gallery, beneath, stand long rows
of conical-shaped colossal white vats, each more than twelve feet high
and nine feet in diameter at its base. These are for use in mixing.
By mixing, the peculiarities of the different varieties of spirit are
blended, and so the "brands" are multiplied. In this process the
various kinds are emptied, first, into a copper-plated trough on the
floor above the vats, and at the same time passed through a filter ot
flannel; then it is drawn off into the vat below, passing in its course
through a second filter of white blotting-paper, surrotmded by flan-
nel. In the vats it is stirred by paddles — in some houses worked by
hand and in others by machinery. This completes the mixing, and
the spirit is drawn oif into casks or bottles and stored for shipment.
A part of the alcohol, estimated at 7 to 10 per cent., is lost by evap-
oration in the first year of ageing, and a considerably smaller part in
subsequent years. The visible effect of this evaporation is displayed
in the carbonized appearance of the walls and roofs of the older stone
houses — a sootiness which the stranger is sure to attribute to the
smoke of the distilleries, of which, however, there are none in Cognac.
vol. x. — 28

434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

UPS AND DOWNS OF THE LONG ISLAND COAST.

By E. LEWIS, Jk.

" Daily it is forced home on the mind of the geologist that nothing, not even the wind
that blows, is so unstable as the crust of this earth." — Dakwin, in 1835.

OBSERVATIONS made around the shores of Long Island justify
the conclusion that they have undergone important changes in
time geologically recent. These changes appear to have arisen from
a series of vertical movements, by which the coast has been alter-
nately elevated and depressed.

In consequence of these movements the shore-line of the island
has advanced and again receded, perhaps, in repeated instances :
being at one time, upon the ocean-side, from fifty to seventy miles
southward of where the waves now break; while at another period
the highest hills of the island were largely if not wholly submerged.
The persistence and extent of these movements are interesting and
important questions in geology. We do not know at present how
great the oscillations of the coast may have been, but enough is
obvious, in the records they have left in the contour and structure
of the island, to show that they have been much greater than is
indicated on the adjacent mainland of Southern New England. We
shall endeavor to follow these records, obscure and perplexing though
they sometimes are, back to the period in which Long Island may be
said to have had its origin — a period which witnessed the approach
and presence of a great ice-sheet upon this coast.

It is not questioned, we believe, that Long Island is a terminal
glacial moraine, and that the material of which it is composed is the
debris of regions over which the ice moved in its progress toward the
sea. Its underlying portions are beds of laminated sands and clays
which have been referred to periods antecedent to the advent of the
ice, and which constitute in one sense a part of the island. Its
great mass, however, overlies these beds, and presents two general
forms of structure. One is known as the " unmodified bowlder-drift,"
in which there are no stratified beds; the other is the "modified
drift," or that in which the material has been distributed in layers
chiefly by the action of waves. Much of the hill-region of the island
presents the peculiar pell-mell structure of the one — the stratified
gravels and sands of Southern Long Island are typical of the other.
These differences in structure, and other facts to be mentioned, imply
great changes in the relative level of land and sea upon the coast.

In considering these movements of oscillation it will be convenient
to notice the latest first, and others in their order. A persistent
invasion of the ocean upon the shores of the island has taken place

THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 435

in recent time, in consequence of which its bluffs have been under-
rained by waves, and the lowlands submerged. Immense bowlders
lie upon some portions of the shores, which indicate the sites of recent
banks and headlands.

The wearing away of an exposed coast, like that of the east end
of Long Island, suggests a subsidence, by which it is continually
being: brought under dominion of the waves. Did no such change
occur, the abrasion would be retarded, or might finally cease, unless,
indeed, the falling material be removed by a coastwise drift of the
.water. The tendency of wave-motion is to throw upon shore the
waste of the cliffs, thus raising a breakwater on which the waves
expend their force. But, where low grounds along the ocean-margin
become permanently overflowed, the proof is conclusive that a change
of relative level has taken place. There has been no abrasion by
waves, but silently and imperceptibly the tides have advanced upon
the uplands.

Around the shores of Long Island are large areas of recent forest,
swamp, and meadow, with remains of their peculiar forms of vegeta-
tion in many cases undecayed, covered by water to depths of from one
to sixteen or more feet. Some facts illustrating this were presented
to the Natural History Section of the Long Island Historical Society,
in May, 1868, a synopsis of which was published in the American
Naturalist for August of that year. A few of these, with others of
importance since discovered, are offered in this paper:

The movement under consideration is by no means a local one,
but occurs along the Atlantic border from Labrador to the Capes of
Delaware, and in a lesser degree to Florida. Prof. G. H. Cook, in his
admirable " Report on the Geology of New Jersey," cites many in-
stances along the coast of that State where swamps of cedar and
other forms of vegetation are now submerged, or covered with salt
meadow.

On the south side of Long Island are about 40,000 acres of salt
marsh and meadow. Their vast stretches of level surface, fringed by
the Great South Bay and the beach on the one side, and by uplands
on the other, present a scene of rare and surpassing beauty. The
meadow rests upon a floor of gravel and sand. It varies in thickness
from a few inches at the uplands to eight or ten feet near the beach,
and is filled with the roots of grasses throughout. It has been formed
by growth and accumulation at the surface, for the meadow-grasses
thrive only at or near high-tide level where rainfall and sunshine can
reach them. The increase of the meadow in thickness has, therefore,
just kept pace with the deepening of the water, or in other words,
with the sinking of the coast.

Beneath the meadows remains of swamp and forest are found.
These are fast rooted, and often six feet beneath the surface. At
Islip a great number of stumps are found in the salt meadow of Wil-

436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

liam Nicol, Esq., remains of a forest, portions of which are still flour-
ishing on the adjacent uplands. These, Mr. Nicol writes, "are of
oak, and are from twelve to twenty-four inches in diameter." Similar
ones, he is informed, occur on the north side of the beach close to the
ocean, which are covered by three feet of water at low tide. East-
ward from this point the bay is broad and shallow for upward of
twenty miles. The depth of water in it is from three to eight feet,
with from two to three feet more in some parts of the channel. A
tradition of the early settlers, which appears to have been received
from the aborigines, is, that the whole area was once a fresh-water
swamp, portions of which were so nearly dry at certain seasons of
the year, that the Indians passed over it dry-footed to the beach.

A hundred and fifty years ago the bottom of this bay was covered
in many places with remains of swamp vegetation, and stumps of
trees, to the " great annoyance and astonishment of fishermen."

It is probable that this section of the bay was at one time a
swamp or series of swamps like many now found on the contiguous up-
lands, and sufficiently above the level of the sea to admit of their free
drainage into it, for it is certain that they were supplied by the same
copious streams from the island which now empty into the bay.

The character of these swamps changed when the tides overflowed
them. That the bay is comparatively modern is suggested by the
fact that no great mounds of shells ' occur near it, such as were left
by the aborigines along other parts of the coast. Yet it is certain
that the country was thickly settled by Indians. Mr. Nicol writes,
" There are fields known as old Indian fields which abound in shells,
but they nowhere take the form of mounds."

A few miles eastAvard is the beautiful but shallow sheet of water
known as Tiana Bay. It fills a depression in the almost level sands
along this part of the coast, and is upon the site of a pine-forest. W. S.
Pelletreau, Esq., of Southampton, informed us that he saw in it about
three hundred stumps covered at low tide. They are of the same
species of pine which now grows on the adjacent uplands.2

In Peconic Bay, which divides the eastern part of Long Island
into two very long necks of land, the submergence' of the shores has
been extensive. Mr. E. F. Squires, of Riverhead, noticed not only
areas of swamp, but of former cedar-forests, now permanently over-
flowed by the tides. One point is known as " Stump Landing."

On the north shore of the island are several tracts of " sunken
meadow," over which the water at low tide is from ten to fifteen feet

1 Westward of this portion of the shore of the " Great South Bay " are many " In-
dian shell-heaps," all of them now surrounded by meadows. Some of them, six or more
feet deep, near the margin of the ocean, are covered by every tide. These are probably
very old, and were formed originally at the uplands.

2 The pitch-pine (Pinus rigida). This tree almost rivals the maritime pine of Eu-
rope in flourishing at the verge of salt-water. Emerson states that it is not killed by oc-
casional overflow of the tides.

THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 437

deep. These dead and submerged meadows are but little decayed,
and are usually continuous with those now growing upon the shores.

On the flat shores of the south side of the island the encroachment
of meadow upon the uplands is attended with interesting results. It
forms first in depressions where the tides overflow. In this way knolls
of upland, cultivated or perhaps covered with trees, become islands,
which are in turn overflowed and covered by meadow, but some of the
more elevated ones remain almost at the verge of the ocean. Bar-
num's, formerly Hog Island, in East Rockaway Bay, now being con-
verted into an asylum for the paupers of Queen's County, is one
of these.

It is well known that the beach ' on which the ocean breaks is
gradually thrown inland upon the meadows. By this means old
meadows are sometimes laid bare. It is stated, in Furman's " An-
tiquities of Long Island," that when Jones's Inlet was opened through
the beach during a storm, it was found that the " bottom, laid bare,
was solid meadow, in which were tracks of cattle, or of cloven-footed
beasts."

The old meadow-bottoms, and sometimes masses of the tangled
roots of upland vegetation, are torn up by waves during storms and
thrown upon the beach. We have seen this turfy matter lying like
windrows along the surf. Mr. Pelletreau informs us that just oppo-
site the east end of Shinecock Bay "there was washed out by waves
a large quantity of what is called meadow-bottom, partially decom-
posed vegetable matter, remains of fresh-water plants. ... A few
years since a violent storm washed away the sea-beach near South-
ampton, exposing at low tide, nearly at the brink of the ocean, a row
of fence-posts that were put down by the first settlers." From these
and other facts this careful observer concludes that the ocean, in that
vicinity, has encroached upon the land about half a mile in two hun-
dred years.

At Montauk Point, north of the lighthouse, is a low, swampy
place, over which the tides sometimes rise. We are informed by Mr.
J. F. Gould, who was for many years keeper of the lighthouse, that
stumps are laid bare in front of this swamp, at the sea-margin, when
the tide is extremely low. A similar phenomenon occurs at the ex-
treme westerly end of the island. A few rods south of Fort Hamil-
ton, at the entrance of New York Harbor, are the well-known Dyker
Meadows (Fig^! 1). They occupy the site of a swamp which is filled
with the remains of upland and fresh-water vegetation.

The swamp was originally about a mile long, and was in one of
the valley-shaped depressions common on the surface of the Long
Island drift. It lost its character as a swamp by encroachment of
the tides upon it, and was finally converted into a salt-marsh. This

1 This breakwater of sand extends from Coney Island to the bills of Montauk, a dis-
tance of nearly one hundred miles.

43§

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

marsh abounds in stumps ; a great number of large size, some of them
three feet in diameter, have been seen by the writer at the verge of
low water, and we have found them many rods from the shore where
the water was ten feet deep.1 This area was certainly a portion of
the original swamp when the land was sufficiently elevated to lift it
above the level of the sea.

It is not necessary to further illustrate the present subsidence of
this coast, but evidence of the extent of the movement will be of
interest.

SFACH

VHIGH WATEF!

Fig. 1.— Section through the Dtker Meadows.
Horizontal scale, four inches to the mile ; vertical scale, twenty feet to the inch.

Iu constructing the Erie Basin at Brooklyn in New York Harbor,
Mr. George B. Brainerd, engineer, found the following sei-ies of depos-
its, the water being ten feet deep at low tide: Three and a half feet
of mud, sand, etc. ; ten feet compact peaty meadow. This gives
twenty-three and a half feet of depression since the bottom of that
meadow was the surface, and covered with vegetation at the level of
the sea.

In 1867 John Nadir, Esq., United States Engineer at Fort Hamil-
ton, carefully examined, by boring, the underlying formation around
Fort Lafayette. The earth was penetrated to a depth of 53 feet at
points between 800 and 1,000 feet from the shore, where the water at
low tide was ten feet deep. The deposits passed through were as fol-
lows : twenty feet coarse sand and gravel, with few broken shells ;
three feet decayed meadow, with shells and, Diatomaceaa ; seventeen
feet gravel and sand, with broken shells; thirteen feet mud, quite
compact, which appears to have been a marsh with scanty vegetation,
and shells.2 This indicates a subsidence of the coast of at least sixty-
three feet, or, in other words, the land of the coast was that number
of feet higher than it now is, when the subsidence began. But there
is reason to conclude that the elevation was much greater than sixty-
three feet. If we take a step backward in the order of events, we find
that, immediately previous to the elevation mentioned, there occurred
a great depression of the coast. Possibly the highest hills of the

1 " Cedar-swamps, buried beneath the meadows on the New Jersey coast, have yielded
logs six feet in diameter, and some with 1,000 rings of growth." — Prof. Cook's Report.

2 The shells were identified by Mr. A. R. Young, of Brooklyn, as follows: Nassa
obxoleta, Anomia ephippium, Mya arenaria, Crepidula fornicata, Solen ensis, and Mytilus
edulis.

THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 439

island were carried under water. The evidences of this depression
are found in the numerous beds of stratified sand and gravel — ele-
vated beaches and other shore-formations — which lie along the cen-
tral ridge of hills,1 and fronting the ocean from 100 to 260 or more feet
above the level of the sea. At whatever heights these deposits occur,
they suggest, if they do not prove, submergence of the coast to that
extent.

From observations, made by the writer and others, it is ascer-
tained that the summit of Hempstead Harbor Hill, which is 384 feet
above tide, and the highest land upon Long Island, is a mass of
stratified sand and gravel. The same is true of Janes Hill, in the
West Hill group, said to be 383 feet high, and of Osborn's Hill,
southwest of Riverhead, the height of which, according the United
States Coast Survey, is 293 feet. In these instances, and in others
similar, the layers are distinct and well defined. The stratification
of this material was evidently the work of waves, but, whether of the
ocean, or of a glacial lake or sea, admits of doubt. At present we
cannot determine what the extent, contour, or elevation of the surface
around these dome-like hills may have been ; nor can we tell the
original extent of the beds of assorted material, remains of which
now cap the hills. That the denudation has been immense, is every-
where evident.

From the summits of the hills mentioned one overlooks southward
a vast plain which extends to the ocean, ten miles distant ; and the
conclusion seems irresistible that every rood of that distance has been
the shore-line of first an invading, afterward of a receding ocean, and
the scene of those great coast-changes which waves produce. We
may restore, in imagination, the hills of glacial rubbish crumbling
before the stroke of waves, as during an immense period of time the
subsidence of the land went on. So complete was the work of dis-
integration, that scai-cely a bowlder remains in the low tracts fronting
the ocean, but are numerous along the margin of the hills, and abound
in the undisturbed drift2 which constitutes much of the hill-region.

The period of subsidence we are considering is referred to the
" Champlain " of the geologists, so called by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock
from the abundance of its peculiar deposits near that lake. It is a
marked one in geological history. During its progress the deposits

1 A ridge of hills, varying in height from one hundred and fifty to three hundred and
eighty-four feet above tide, extends, with some interruptions, through Central Long Isl-
and. They are drift with bowlders ; but nowhere show rock in place, as some have
supposed.

2 Many bowlders on Long Island are of immense size ; one, at Manhassett, contains
upward of 20,000 cubic feet. Two others now or recently in the same valley are, in cir-
cuit, 108 and 126 feet respectively. One, on Strong's Neck, in Suffolk county, has a
content of 14,000 cubic feet. Bowlders are found on the tops of the highest hills,
and form an enormous rip-raps in some places where they have fallen as the banks were
undermined by waves.

44o i THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which the glaciers had left were altered in their contour, and redis-
tributed by waters which encroached upon and finally covered them.
The material thus redistributed would be left in layers, chiefly of
gravels, sands, and clayey sands, if upon the ocean-margin, as is the
case in Long Island.

In sinking wells into the beds formed during this period of sub-
sidence, wood and shells have been found in a great number of in-
stances. The wood sometimes occurs in logs of large size; oak and
pine have been identified. We have a record of sixteen instances
where wood has recently been found, and many others are mentioned
by Thompson in his history, and by Mather in his excellent report on
the geology of the island. These facts seem to imply that forests
were upon the adjacent lands, which was not the case during the
presence of glaciers upon the coast.

The shells found are at various depths — in one case at Gravesend
100 feet below the surface — and occur in all parts of the island where
the stratified drift abounds. They have been found at Flatbush,
Prospect Park, Bath, East New York, Farmingdale, Amagansett,
and elsewhere.

The beds in which they occur are not of the low plains only, but
many feet above tide. At Manhassett, as we are informed by John
M. Clark, Esq., of that place, a well was dug, and at several feet below
the surface-rubbish a layer of what appeared to be " creek-mud " was
found, in which were a great number of shells of the oyster, clam, and
scallop, many of them unbroken. The layer was about five feet
thick, and throughout contained not only shells, but leaves, pine-
cones, also wood of pine and other species. This interesting deposit
is about 200 feet above tide ; but the contour of the present surface
indicates plainly enough that an arm of a bay (Little Neck Bay)
contiguous extended over this area when the land was sufficiently
submerged to admit of it.

It is obvious that only the portion of Long Island which is more
than 200 feet above tide was at that time dry land.

But the subsidence was greater than is indicated by this elevated
deposit. The peculiar beds of stratified sands and gravels on the low
plains already referred to, and which prove the former presence of the
sea, are found at elevations of from 200 to 260 feet along the margins
of the hills, and against or upon the unmodified bowlder-drift (Fig. 2).
Beach-sands occur at 230 feet elevation, having the well-known struct-
ure of such beds. We have, too, the further fact, already noticed,
that the tops of some of the highest hills of our island are composed
of stratified gravel and sand.

AVithout insisting further on, this fact, however, we think a move-
ment of subsidence is shown thus far of at least 260 feet ; but facts of
a most interesting and important character now being brought to
light show that this is but part of the great movement of depression

THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 441

of the period we are considering. An artesian well is being bored
on Barnum's Island, already mentioned, within two miles of the ocean.
The island is but a knoll of tillable upland, surrounded by meadows
and the waters of the bay.

The boring has reached a depth of 368 feet, or about 358 feet below

Jig. 2. — Section prom Hills at Centre op the Island, near Wheatly, to the Ocean,

showing Stratified Beds overlying the Unmodified Drift.

Vertical section, one inch to five hundred feet. Horizontal section, one inch to three miles.

tide-level, and is still in progress. We present below a statement
of the series of deposits penetrated. Our table is prepared from
the record of Theodore F. Carman, Esq., of Hempstead, Long Island,
engineer of the work, and from eighty specimens of the layers passed
through, furnished by that gentleman :

1. — *70 feet. Yellowish gravel and sand.

2. — 56 " Clay. Upper portions with decayed vegetation, wood, and lignite.

3. — 3 " Coarse gravel and sand.

4. — 46 " Sands, with clayey crusts and pyrites.

5. — 25 " Sands, with some lignite.

0. — 54 " Clayey sands.

7. — 94 " Fine sand, sandy clay, with much lignite in the more clayey portions.

8. — 4 " Fine sand.

9. — 1 " Very firm bed of lignite, in fine decayed vegetable matter and clay.

10.— 10 " Clay, with lignite.

11. — 3 " Clay, very fine, without lignite.

12.— 2 " Sandy clay.
Total, • 368

Our grouping of the deposits may suggest transitions more sharp
than the specimens warrant. About *70 feet of the surface is of yellow
or orange colored sand and gravel. Then occurs a bed of clay 56
feet thick, on the surface of which was found decayed vegetable mat-
ter having a strong odor of carbolic acid. Wood and lignite occurred
in this bed. Beneath was found a layer of coarse gravel and sand.

None of the layers penetrated are of the unmodified drift. No
shells have been found, nor other remains of animal life, excepting a
very small fragment of a crinoidal stem which occurred in a thick
bed of coarse silicious sand 160 feet below the surface. This speci-
men, which is much water-worn, Prof. Dana suggests may be of cre-
taceous species, but it affords little or no evidence that the deposit in
which it was found is of Cretaceous age. The Silurian and Devonian
fossils, which occur frequently in the drift of Long Island, cannot be
considered as proof that the deposits are Silurian or Devonian.

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

With the specimens before us, we think these surface-beds, to a
depth of about 180 feet, are post-glacial, and are formed from glacial
drift.. Below this depth the beds are of dark clay and clayey silt-
like sand, alternating with deposits of sand similar to that of the
beaches upon the coast. Lignite occurs throughout, and a layer of it
at 353 feet was penetrated with difficulty by the»implements employed
in boring the well.

The lignite found throws little light on the age of the beds. It is
brought to the surface in small pieces, and that from the surface of
the clay bed at 353 feet was formed from small stems of exogenous
structure. The same is true of that found on the bed at 70 feet. This
deposit of clay, 56 feet in thickness, seems closely analogous to many
clays now upon, and at various depths beneath, the siirface of the island.
It is evidently a local deposit, such as might occur in a depression of
the surface. Two tube-wells have been driven at no great distance
from Barnum's Island, one 97, the other 194 feet, in which no similar
layer of clay was detected. No green sand or marl deposits have
been found. It seems probable that the beds below a depth of 180
feet were formed in tranquil waters of no great depth, possibly in an
estuary sheltered by a beach of sand from the waves, into which
streams discharged the waste of what was evidently a forested region.
That they are preglacial, is, we think, quite certain. The period
of transition between the Tertiary and the Drift, when the distant
but advancing ice-sheet sent on its swollen streams, best answers the
conditions. The existence of beds of stratified gravel and sand at 260
feet above the level of the ocean, and of similar beds at 180 feet below
it, which we refer to the period of the Champlain subsidence, proves
that a depression took place of at least 440 feet, and further that the
coast was at least 180 feet higher than now when the depression be-
gan. That the elevation was much greater than that will be obvious
as we proceed.

The glacial drift of Long Island, of which the Champlain deposits
were formed, is without fossils, excepting such as occur in bowlders
from older beds. But underneath it is a deep deposit of sands, grav-
els, and clayey sands, in which fossils have been found. Shells of the
clam and oyster were taken from sands beneath the bowlder-drift at
Lakeville, at a depth of 140 feet, by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., Esq., and
a mass of shells, chiefly oyster, were found in sinking the well of the
Nassau Gas-Light Company in Brooklyn, 127 feet below the surface,
beneath a layer of unmodified drift, 70 feet thick. In this drift were
many bowlders. A section of this well is shown in Fig. 3.

In digging wells these sandy and gravelly layers are generally
found beneath the bowlder-drift; and the shells, wood, and lignite,
evidently represent a period of milder climate than prevailed during
the Ice period. Possibly they were deposited on the coast by the
floods and swollen streams of the approaching glacier, and the coarse-

THE LONG ISLAND COAST.

443

ness of the upper portions may suggest a shoaling of the coast from
an upward movement of the land as the Ice period came on.

That an elevation occurred during the progress of the Ice period
is evident from the contour, as well as structure, of the drift of Long-
Island. On the north side of the island are numerous fiord valleys,
constituting a series of harbors of unsurpassed beauty. They extend

I" ■"■' -'■ ■■WnliHi VI ' 'L"

1. Surface gravel, 30 feet.
b- 2. Quicksand.

3. Bowlder-drift, 70 feet.

4. Clay, 27 feet.

5. Oyster-shells, i foot.

6. Coarse sand.
Fig. 3.— Section of the Nassau Gas-Light Company's Well in Beookltn.

into the island from two to six miles, having depths of wTater from
tan to thirty, and in some instances fifty feet. Beneath the water is
a deep deposit of ooze or sediment, known to be in one case forty
feet thick. The banks on either side are from a few feet to 200 feet
hifWi.

It is apparent that these enormous valleys were not wholly cut
into the drift after it was deposited, but rather were maintained
while the deposit of drift was in progress, as valleys or water-courses,
through which glacial streams may have been discharged into the
ocean. These became filled, however, by an excessive accumulation
of drift, as from rapid wasting of the ice, causing the outflowing
streams to be arrested, and the waters to be discharged eastward or
westward from Long Island Sound. But whether they were formed as
we suggest, or were cut into the drift after it was deposited, it is quite
certain that the coast was sufficiently elevated to permit the glacial
floods to sweep the bottom of those valleys.

The 70 feet of drift of the Nassau Gas-Light Company's well is
wholly below tide, and its unmodified structure shows that it was de-
posited above the sea-level, or out of the reach of waves, and further
confirms the elevation of the coast in the glacial period.

But evidence of the elevation of the coast during the progress of

444

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Ice age is shown in the interesting fact revealed by the United
States Coast Survey, and noticed by Prof. Dana, that the* old valley
of the Hudson River exists a well-defined depression in the bed of the
ocean through a distance of 89 miles southeastward from Sandy
Hook. It is termed on the Coast Survey chart " a remarkable
gorge." The soundings show that it comprises a continuous series
of deep depressions in the ocean's bottom. Some of these are eight
miles long and from one and a half to two and a half miles wide. The
map (Fig. 4), kindly furnished by the publishers of Prof. Dana's
" Manual of Geology," shows how the dotted lines of equal depths
bend toward Sandy Hook, indicating the line of deepest water, or
the old river-valley in question.

Fis. 4.— Map of the Submerged Border op the Continent off Long Island and New Jersey, with
Lines of Equal Soundings in Fathoms. (From Dana's " Manual of Geology," p. 422.)

The Coast Survey chart shows us that at 28 miles from Sandy
Hook the depression is 90 feet below the banks or ocean-bottom on
either side. At 39 miles and at 51 miles the depression is 60 feet,
and at 74 miles it is 72 feet, and at 89 miles it is 492 feet.

The average depth of the ocean over this depression is about one-
third greater than on either side.

THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 445

Through this valley, probably much deeper than now, during the
period of elevation the Hudson flowed on its way to the ocean. Had
it been, as it now is, deeply submerged, no river could have flowed in
it, nor could it have been maintained as a valley while the deposit of
drift was going on. The facts imply elevation of the region to an
extent of from 300 to 400 feet above the present level of the sea.
This would change in a marked manner the aspect of the coast. The
site of the city of New York would be inland and greatly elevated,
while the gorges of the Hudson and East Rivers would be deepened
and widened by glacial torrents and ice. The ocean-border would be
from 70 to 80 miles southward from the present shore of Long Island,
and the deepest point attained in the artesian well on Barnum's Island
would be .above the level of the sea.

There is reason to conclude that the entire subsidence of our coast,
from its greatest elevation in the glacial age to the greatest depres-
sion of the Champlain period which followed it, was from 600 to 700
feet, possibly much more than that. The elevation which followed
carried its stratified deposits not only to their present height above
tide, which, as we have seen, is about 260 feet, but at least 63 feet
more than that when the buried marsh at Fort Lafayette was formed
at the surface. By the present subsidence it is submerged or buried
to that depth.

Here we pause. Further observations may confirm or correct our
conclusions. Geology has not a more tangled skein than is presented
in the structure of Long Island. There is evidence of minor oscilla-
tions, and pauses of movement, during which great clay deposits
formed in depressions upon the surface, now deeply covered with drift
or stratified sands, affording also some evidence that interglacial
periods, perhaps of mild climate, occurred, but more observations and
more facts ar.e needed to justify a definite judgment on the subject.

Underneath the glacial drift, and underneath the sands which we
refer to the advent of the ice, are beds of clay and colored sands
which appear to be independent of the drift, and are referred to Ter-
tiary or Cretaceous periods. They appear at the surface along the
north side of the island, and are found buried by both unmodified
drift and by coarse glacial rubble.

We present in tabular form the series of deposits which seem well
defined on Long Island, and which represent the probable order of
events, but they are fragmental, and perhaps do not occur anywhere
in a continuous vertical series :

1. Shore and other surface formations.

2. Stratified gravels and sands of the Champlain subsidence — with fossil
shells of clam, oyster, and scallop ; also wood and lignite.

3. Coarse glacial rubble in deep beds without fossils, representing floods at
the close of the Ice period, chiefly on the north side of the island.

4. Unmodified bowlder-drift without fossils.

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

5. Stratified gravels and sands with fossil shells of the oyster, also wood
and lignite underneath the bowlder-drift.

6. Laminated sands and clays with decayed vegetation and lignite have been
found; also one shark's tooth (C. angustidens).

7. The above beds seem to merge into more clayey sands, and in the deeper
portions tine dark-colored plastic clay.

The period we have considered is one of immense duration, but
throughout there is no evidence of sudden or violent changes. No
catastrophe has " set Long Island off from the mainland." In its
wonderfully complex structure it is a monument of a state of things
which has passed away, but also of a series of movements of oscilla-
tion which has continued to the present time.

But it is only after long periods of time that these become obvious,
and we realize how completely old landmarks have disappeared.

The tourist in Italy lingers with astonishment before the erect
columns of the temple at Pozzuoli in the bay of Baise, and sees, at a
height of twenty feet above their base, proof of their long sub-
mergence in the waters. Moore said of them:

. " These lonely columns stand sublime,

Flinging their shadows from on high,
Like dials which the wizard Time
Has raised to count his ages by."

But, on our own shores, beneath the clear waters, and on the hills
we cultivate, are records of similar movements, vastly greater in ex-
tent, and running Avith marvelous continuity through periods so vast
that all the centuries which have passed since the Pozzuoli marbles
were erected seem but as yesterday.

AN AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL ACHIEVEMENT.

Br RICHARD A. PROCTOK.

AN" American astronomer, Prof. Young, of Dartmouth College,
Hanover, New Hampshire, has recently achieved a victory over
a problem which has for many years foiled the skill of the best Euro-
pean observers; and, in so doing, he may be said to have added the
keystone to an arch of no small importance in the edifice of modern
astronomical science. It will be in the knowledge of most of my
readers that astronomers have succeeded, during the last eight years,
in measuring the rate at which some of the stars travel from or tow-
ard us, employing for the purpose what is called the spectroscopic
method. I do not mean here spectroscopic analysis simply, but a
special application of this now familiar analysis to measure the rate
at which luminous bodies are approaching us or receding from us.

AN AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL ACHIEVEMENT. 447

The principle of the method is very readily explained. Light comes
to us from the heavenly bodies, as from other luminous bodies, in
waves, which sweep through the ether of space at the rate of about
185,000 miles per second. The whole of that region over which as-
tronomers have extended their survey, and doubtless a region many
millions of millions of times more extended, may be compared to a
wave-tossed sea, only that instead of a wave-tossed surface there is
wave-tossed space. At every point, through every point, along every
line, athwart every line, myriads of light-waves are at all times rush-
ing with the inconceivable velocity just mentioned. It is from such
waves that we have learned all we know about the universe outside
our own earth. They bring to our shores news from other worlds,
though the news is not always easy to decipher.

All the celestial bodies are in motion amid the multitudinous
waves of space. Something can be learned respecting their motions
by studying the waves. If a strong swimmer were stemming a series
of long, rolling waves, their crests would pass him in more rapid suc-
cession than if he were at rest ; if, on the other hand, he reversed his
course, so that waves overtook instead of meeting him, their crests
would pass in slower succession. One can easily conceive how, if he
knew the exact rate at which the crests would pass him — so many
exactly per minute — were he at rest, their slower or more rapid suc-
cession might indicate how fast he himself was moving, either from
or toward them. If he were quite unconscious of his own motion, the
effect would be simply that the distance from crest to crest would
seem to be diminished in one case, lengthened in the other — that is,
the waves narrowed or widened. Similarly with the aerial waves
which produce sound. They are seemingly shortened when the source
of sound is approaching, whether by its own motion or the hearer's,
and lengthened when the source of sound is receding. In the former
case the tone of the sound is made more acute, in the latter graver
than it really is. This is strikingly illustrated Avhen a swift train
rushes past a station, the whistle sounding all the time, for there is a
perceptible lowering of the whistle's note as the. engine passes a
nearer on the platform. While the train is appproaching him, he
hears a note somewhat sharper than the true note of the whistle;
after it has passed he hears a note somewhat flatter than the true
note. Still more obvious, even to non-musical ears, is the correspond-
ing chansre when two trains pass each other. In America, where a
hideously-clanging engine-bell is used, the change is very remarkable,
insomuch that a person unfamiliar with the arrangement actually
adopted would suppose a different bell was rung the moment the
engine passed the hearer.

Light traveling also in waves, it is obvious that a similar effect
must be produced by approach or recession, if only the rate of motion
is sufficiently rapid. The swimmer of my first illustration must have

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a velocity comparable with that of the water-waves, or no change
will be observed. The trains of the second illustration must have
a velocity comparable with that of the aerial waves producing sound,
or no change of tone will be j^roduced. And in like manner a star or
other celestial body must be approaching us, or receding from us,
with a velocity comparable with that of the ethereal waves producing
light, or no change of color will be produced, the color of light cor-
responding with the tone of sound. Unfortunately for this purpose,
though most fortunately in other respects, light travels at so enor-
mous a rate that even the swiftest motions of the heavenly bodies
seem rest by comparison. What, for instance, is the rush of even
Newton's comet past its point of nearest approach to the sun, though
at the rate of more than 300 miles per second, to the flight of light
over nearly 200,000 miles in the same time? "Very much as the
movement of a person taking only six steps a minute, each less than
half a yard long, to the rush of the swiftest express=train. Yet as-
tronomers have undertaken to measure the approach and recession of
stars, moving — in some cases — with less than a tenth part of that
comet's motion, and whose velocity, therefore, sinks into still more
utter insignificance by comparison with that of light.

Secchi claims (but not justly) to have first invented and applied
the method used for this purpose, which consists in noting whether
some known line of the spectrum of a heavenly body changes in
position — either by moving toward the violet end of the spectrum,
which would imply approach, or by moving toward the red end,
which would imply recession. Of course, the method is exceedingly
delicate and difficult, involving a number of details which would be
quite unsuited to these pages ; but that, in principle, is its nature.
Secchi tried the method, and failed to get any results from it, an-
nouncing his unsuccessful attempt in March, 1868. " Then," he says,
"Mr. Huggins retried (reprit) the method, announcing in April, 1868,
the discovery that Sirius is receding at the rate of twenty miles per
second." Secchi should know well, however, that our great spectro-
scopist did not achieve this success in the few weeks between Sec-
chi's announcement of failure and Huggins's announcement of suc-
cess. Months had elapsed, during which Huggins had been strug-
gling with this difficult problem. Tf the enunciation of the method
gave claim to the credit of its successful application, I myself could
advance a stronger claim than Secchi's, for in an essay in Fraser')s
Magazine for January, 1868, I definitely indicated the nature and
value of the method. But I would rather refer to the circumstance
as enabling me to support Huggins's assertion that he was observing
by this method for months before Secchi announced his own failure,
for immediately on the appearance of my essay I received a letter
from Dr. Huggins, mentioning (in confidence, until his paper should
be published) that he had been for some time striving for success

AN AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL ACHIEVEMENT. 449

by the method I had described. This was nearly three months before
Secchi's paper appeared. Subsequently Huggins observed by this
method a number of stars, some of which he found to be receding
from us, others approaching us.

Recently, however, the method itself has been called in question
— first, by Van der Willigen, for reasons professedly mathematical,
but unsound ; secondly, by Secchi, because of his failure to see what
Huoforins has observed. Secchi had once based his attack on his fail-
ure to detect by this method the effects of the sun's rotation. As the
sun's equator is spinning swiftly round, it is necessarily approaching
on one side and receding on the other. By some amazing miscalcula-
tion, never yet explained, Secchi made the rate of this motion many
times larger than it really is — so large, in fact, that the method we
have described should have exhibited the sun's whirling motion.
Small as the effect really is — amounting, in fact, only to a relative
motion of about two and a half miles per second — Huggins did not
despair of recognizing it ; but he failed, though he used a double and
twice-acting battery of prisms (the invention of the present writer —
so far, at least, as its duplex character was concerned) made by Mr.
Browning. Mr. Christie, of Greenwich, after resolutely grappling
with the work of determining star-motions by this method, and in the
main confirming Huggins's results, succeeded in recognizing by its
means the known motions of Venus toward or from the earth, in vari-
ous parts of their respective orbits. This was a great triumph, and
more than met Secchi's objections. But Prof. Young has gone, for
the present, ahead of all other observers by this method. Availing
himself of a beautiful extension of spectroscopic powers, due to Dr.
Rutherfurd, of New York, he has succeeded in unmistakably recog-
nizing the effects of the sun's motion of rotation by the spectroscopic
method. Young has made the observations so satisfactorily that he
relies even upon the difference between his results and the measured
rate of the sun's rotation. He finds the sun's atmosphere (whence, of
course, the spectral lines come) to be traveling faster than the sun's
visible surface. To use his own words, "The solar atmosphere really
sweeps forward over the underlying surface, in the same way that the
equatorial regions outstrip the other parts of the sun's surface." The
difference of rate is about ten miles per minute. For my own part,
I doubt very much whether so small a difference can be indicated by
this method. But even if we regard this part of Young's work as
not yet proved — nay, even if we go further, and accept nothing more
than the bare recognition of the sun's rotation by the new method —
he must be congratulated on having effected the most delicate piece
of spectroscopic observation yet achieved by man. He has placed
beyond doubt or cavil a method of motion-measuring the most re-
markable yet invented, and likely, as instrumental means improve, to
be most fruitful in results of astronomical interest and importance.
vol. x. — 29

45o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND.1

By C. CHAMBERLAIN.

~^T~ONE who have had experience of travel in Swedish Lapland are
-1-N likely to deny to it the charms of perfect freshness and origi-
nality. The almost primitive character and habits of the people, the
singular conditions of their life, the unique splendor of the scenery,
the bright intoxication of the air, and the glory of the arctic sunsets,
are all a constant source of pleasure and surprise. For the angler
there is almost unlimited trout and grayling fishing, with possibilities '
of salmon ; and for the sportsman abundance of ptarmigan, willow
grouse, hares, and wild-fowl of all descriptions ; while the cost of liv-
ing, not indeed sumptuously, but sufficiently well, may be covered by
two or three shillings a day. Unfortunately, these advantages can
only be reached by routes so little tempting to the ordinary tourist
that it appears from the visitor's book at Quickjock that only three
hundred persons in twenty years have braved the discomforts of the
approach. Now, however, that Norway is becoming hackneyed
ground, and that all its available streams are rented and preserved, it
is possible that the attractions of Lapland may yet counterbalance
the well-founded objections to the gulf of Bothnia. At the present
time the trip cannot be recommended to ladies, unless they are will-
ing to put up with more than the usual inconvenience and discomfort
of out-of-the-way travel; but for men, willing to rough it a little,
there is no hardship or difficulty greater than those with which most
sportsmen must be already familiar.

Stockholm, the starting-point of the expedition, may be reached
direct by Hull and Gothenburg ; or, if the land-route be preferred,
through Calais, Cologne, and Hamburg, and thence, either through
Jutland to Friedrickshavn, and across the Cattegat to Gothenburg,
or by Kiel and Ivorsoer to Copenhagen, and thence by Malmo to
Stockholm. For bad sailors the last route is to be preferred, as in
the other cases the traveler must make the acquaintance of either the
Skaggerack or the Cattegat, or of both ; and he will probably find
that their names are not rougher than their waters, and that they are
in fact the most diabolical cross-seas on the face of the globe. The
captain of the little steamer which plies between Gothenburg and
Friedrickshavn, who has spent the greater portion of his life in ocean-
ships, informed us that he never dared to go below when the Catte-
gat was rough, but found his only safety from sickness in the fresh
breeze on deck.

1 From an article entitled " A Visit to Lapland, with Notes on Swedish Licensing,"
Fortnightly Revieiv, December, 18*76.

NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 451

The distinctive beauty of Stockholm is in its situation. Built
partly on islands in Lake Malar, it is intersected in every direction by
the waters of the lake and of the Baltic, and, with its busy quays,
broad streets, handsome buildings, pleasant gardens, and clear atmos-
phere, is certainly one of the brightest and most charming capitals in
Europe. The streets are still enlivened by the gay costumes of the
peasants, especially those of the nearest provinces ; it is said, how-
ever, that their use is gradually dying out before the advance of rail-
roads and other enemies of the picturesque.

The Swedes are undoubtedly a fine race ; many of the men are
very tall, and the women are almost universally refined-looking and
graceful in their carriage. A crowd of Swedes might at any time be
mistaken by an Englishman for a crowd of the better sort in his own
country ; and in character there is the same resemblance to a high
average English standard. The middle and trading classes have
great sympathy with the English nation and its institutions, and are
ready at all times to express and prove it; the aristocracy and higher
ranks of society are more inclined to favor French manners and cus-
toms, but this is due to the influence of the court and to the origin
of the royal family. Every educated Swede reads and probably
speaks English well, and with very slight, if airy, foreign accent.
English newspapers and books of all kinds are largely read, and Eng-
lish literature is a prominent branch of study at the high or middle-
class schools, of which, as of all other educational institutions, there
is an ample supply in Sweden. All along the coast of the gulf of
Bothnia, in every little town of a few hundred, or at most of two
or three thousand, inhabitants, there is a large school of this descrip-
tion, with a full staff of masters, lektors, and assistants, provided ac-
cording to a fixed scale, and forming part of the general organization
for national instruction. We met several of these teachers, and
found them extremely well-informed and intelligent men, speaking
English, French, and German, and accepting for the communication
of these acquirements salaries which would be deemed totally inade-
quate in any other and richer country. They were all home-taught,
by books and not viva voce, and hence, though well qualified to trans-
late English into Swedish, they found it more difficult to reverse the
process and to interpret their thoughts into elegant English. " The
weather is deplorable," said one of these gentlemen ; " it makes for
the melancholy, and influences on the humors."

The fees charged in the schools are moderate, and such as to induce
a general acceptance of the educational advantages offered by the
class for whom they are intended. Primary education in Sweden is
free and compulsory, though it is seldom necessary to recur to the
interference of the magistrates. The Swedes cannot be made to
understand the beauty of our English system, by which a national
service, undertaken on the distinct ground of its importance to the

452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

whole community, is made unpopular by a charge extorted from the
persons whose ready and voluntary acceptance of the service is the
object desired. They argue that the state, as a whole, is bound
to secure to all its citizens the opportunity of acquiring at least the
elementary knowledge which is requisite for its security and general
well-being, and that it is the function of the state to offer this
instruction free of charge before it attempts to compel any individual
to avail himself of it. They attribute the almost universal prevalence
of primary instruction in their country to the existence of these free
schools, and point to their wide popularity as sufficient evidence of
the fallacy of the proposition, so often taken for granted in England,
that the poor do not value education which is paid for out of the
general taxation of the community.

Steamers leave Stockholm for Haparanda, at the head of the gulf
of Bothnia, two or three times a week, calling on the way at the
ports on the west coast. Against a head-wind these boats roll and
pitch in an extremely provoking fashion ; but, during the summer
months, the voyage is generally a smooth one. The boats carry stores
to the towns on the route, and bring back tar, which, with wood, and
iron from the mines of the great Gellivara Company — now the sole
property of an English merchant — constitute the chief trade of the
gulf. The coast navigation is extremely intricate and difficult, the
steamer winding its way for hours through the fiords and among
innumerable rocky islets. On one occasion we bumped over a sunken
rock, and, if one may judge by the composure of the captain, this
must be no infrequent occurrence, though it smashed all the crockery
laid out in the saloon and greatly alarmed the passengers. At night,
and on the occasion of a fog, progress is impossible, and the steamer
is brought-to and anchored till daylight or clear weather.

Our destination was Lulea, which is reached in about seventy-two
hours from Stockholm, and is a town of some 2,000 inhabitants,
situated at the mouth of the great river of the same name. The
harbor, after the difficulties of the entrance are surmounted, is a fine
one, and many English and other ships lie here, loading timber; it is
floated down the river from the forests, and cut into planks or made
up into frames for doors and windows at the saw-mills in the town
and neighborhood.

The houses are almost entirely built of wood, and are in many
cases shops and warehouses, as well as dwelling-houses, although
there is little display of goods in the windows. There is a large
school, attended by the youths from all the surrounding district, as
well as by those resident in the town itself. Lulea. is the seat of the
government of the province of Norbotten, which includes the whole
of Lapland, and has a population of 80,000, scattered over 1,932
square miles of country. The governor, who has no sinecure, being
required to visit personally his immense district several times a year,

NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 453

is provided with an official residence and a salary of 12,000 Swedish
crowns, or about £650 per annum.

On arriving at the inn, which is good and clean, and makes up
some forty beds, one is struck with a peculiarity of all similar places
in Sweden, namely, the apparent indifference to visitors exhibited by
the proprietor. No head-waiter, with attendant circle of porters and
chambermaids, awaits the arrival of the guest. The luggage is put
down at the entrance, and the traveler must seek for himself his
rooms and the information lie requires ; while the landlord, with his
hands in his pockets, regards his efforts from a window with languid
curiosity. There is no intentional incivility, but it appears not to be
the custom to welcome the coming guest, although to speed the part-
ing guest there is abundance of hand-shaking and hearty good wishes.
The curious custom of the Smorgos prevails at these inns, and indeed
everywhere throughout Sweden; it consists in a standing refreshment
' provided at a side-table free of charge, and comprising bread and
butter, cheese, caviare, dried fish and reindeer-flesh, sausages, and
other similar delicacies, to be taken immediately before each regular
meal, and washed down with branvin and other neat spirits. In con-
nection with this performance the Swredes have an objectionable habit,
which may be called the community of forks, as the same implement
passes rapidly from mouth to mouth and from dish to dish ; the rights
of private property are flagrantly disregarded.

From Lulea a succession of three small steamers, each making its
passage to the bottom of considerable rapids, carry the traveler some
ninety miles up the Lulea, River to its junction with the Little Luleii
at Storbachen, and across the frontier of Sweden into Lapland, which
commences about ten miles below the confluence. The scenery is
extremely striking, especially toward the end of the road. The river
is a noble stream, never narrower than the Thames at Westminster,
and expanding at intervals into broad stretches of water which, shut
in by the windings of the river, present the appearance of consid-
erable lakes. The banks are lined w7ith the pine-forests for many
miles, and the dark green of the firs and larches is varied by the
brighter foliage and silver bark of the birches, which grow in consid-
erable numbers among the other trees. At intervals, gradually
getting longer as the distance from Luleii increases, the villages or
settlements of the Swedish farmers break the uniformity of the scene,
and the wooden houses and out-buildings, painted bright red, with the
windows and doors picked out in white, and surrounded by small
clearings with patches of yellow barley and green pasture, stand out
brightly against the sombre background of the forests, and give
animation and warmth to the landscape. It is difficult to convey the
peculiar fascination of this scenery. It is due especially to the
sharpness and contrast of color, the bright clear blue of the sky
giving definiteness to the outlines of the trees and hills, and bringing

454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

into marked relief all the incidents of the view. There is something
bracing in the very appearance of the landscape, to which the noble
river is an ever-fitting foreground.

At Storbachen the river has to be exchanged for the road, and a
country cart holding two persons, and with or without an apology
for springs as chance may determine, carries the tourist along the
banks of the Little LuleJi to Jockmock, a distance of some thirty
miles. This drive is in itself a unique experience. The road after
wet weather is cut up into deep ruts, in and out of which the cart
plunges with a violence most discomforting to its occupants, who are
bruised and pounded without the possibility of resistance. It must
be admitted that the process detracts from the pleasure of the excur-
sion, which in other respects is extremely interesting. The route
lies for the whole day through the almost trackless forests. Hardly
a human being is to be met in these immense solitudes, and the si-
lence is only broken occasionally by the note of some strange bird
or the movement of the wind through the trees. In many places
forest-fires have ravaged the country for great distances, and every-
where there is a vista of blackened stems or falling trunks. In con-
trast to this desolation, where the fire has not passed, the ground is
carpeted with the most luxuriant mosses and lichens in all the tints
of green and red and yellow, while an occasional clearing, though at
very rare intervals, relieves from time to time a sense of utter loneli-
ness by the evidence it gives of the neighborhood of human beings.

The forests cover nearly one-half of the whole surface of Sweden,
and constitute an important part of the wealth of the country and
the revenue of the Government. In past times they were very care-
lessly managed, and in many cases were sold outright and without
conditions to merchants, who ruthlessly cut down the timber with
sole regard to their immediate interests. The pine is of very slow
growth, increasing only one inch in diameter in ten years, and reach-
ing twelve to fourteen inches in a century; and the wholesale destruc-
tion of young wood has left large tracts desolate and unprofitable for
an indefinite period. The soil is excessively poor, consisting of sand
with the thinnest possible coating of vegetable mould, so that no or-
dinary cultivation is possible.

Now the forests are strictly looked after, and no land is sold ; but
the right of cutting wood, limited to trees of ten inches and upward
in diameter, is let for a term of years and by tender, at so much per
tree. In the remote districts the royalty is about Is. 3d. per tree,
and the lessees have in addition to carry out works for deepening the
rivers and keeping them clear of all obstructions. Twenty years ago
the value of trees on the ground was not more than threepence or
fourpence apiece.

From Jockmock to the end of the journey at Quickjock the mode
of traveling and the scenery are again changed. The head-waters of

NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 455

the Little Luleii are a series of large lakes, from six to thirty miles
long, and varying in breadth from two miles to seven or eight. These
in turn are fed by two mountain-rivers, which join their floods at
Quickjock, and pour the united stream into the uppermost lake. They
are traversed in long, open boats made of very thin wood, and rowed
by two or three men, according to the weight of luggage and the
length of the journey. These boats are unprovided with seats, and
the passengers have to squat at the bottom back to back, or crowded
side by side ; and, as very little movement would be sufficient to
swamp so frail a craft, the limbs get cramped and stiffened, and the
journey becomes very fatiguing. With a high wind the broadest
lakes become rough and dangerous, and on one occasion we shipped
so much water that it seemed doubtful whether our expedition would
not come to an untimely end. Each lake is connected with the next
by strong rapids, in some cases rising into small waterfalls, and to
avoid these it is necessary to disembark, when the luggage is carried
on the shoulders of the rowers through the pine-forests to the next
lake. Throughout this part of the trip the silence can almost be felt,
and becomes at last oppressive. No living thing is seen for hours ex-
cept occasional flights of wild birds, or a solitary heron disturbed by
the passage of the boat. Hills, gradually developing into mountains,
and finally covered with snow as the neighborhood of Quickjock is
reached, shut in the scene, and the slopes of these are covered almost
entirely writh stunted pine, the birch having nearly disappeared.
There is, however, no lack of color, as the firs in the sunlight present
many shades of the darker greens intermingled with a rich brown
where some disease appears to have attacked the trees. A large
sweep of pine-forest thus spread out in an amphitheatre of hills, and
seen from a great distance, might be mistaken for an expanse of heather
and fern, browned by the autumn rains and sun, though of course the
brighter purples are absent from the Lapland view.

In the summer months there is perpetual daylight in all these
regions, and the midnight sun is visible for some time in June. When
we were there, in September, it was light till nine or ten o'clock, and
never absolutely dark. The sunsets were most gorgeous, dark masses
of purple clouds being lit up with the intensest hues of gold and crim-
son as .the sun went down behind them, a glowing ball of fire. On
one occasion the effect was heightened by the appearance of the east-
ern sky, which shaded off from deepest rose at the zenith, through
delicate gradations of pinks and purples, into a lovely pale, pure blue,
in the midst of which the full autumnal moon shone gloriously.

The fishing in the lakes is exceedingly good, and very large trout,
and even salmon, may be caught with the minnow and other spinning
bait. For fly-fishing the best places are the rapids between the lakes,
through which the boat is screwed in and out in an extremely clever
and dexterous way by the boatman, who takes advantage of the shel-

45 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ter of every rock and stone as he passes from one to the other, while
the stream shoots by. In favorable weather an angler may easily
land a hundred-weight of trout and grayling in a day's sport, the fish
running from half a pound to two pounds in weight. The flies sold
by the London makers should be supplemented by some of a smaller
size for bright weather and clear water; one with a body of yellov
silk and grayish-brown wings is said to be very killing.

The distance from Jockmock to Quickjock, the two principal vil-
lages on the route, is about ninety miles, and is performed in three days.
Each of these places has a church, a school, and a post-office, and
Jockmock is said to have a shop, though we could not find it. They
are really collections of small wooden huts, vacant during the summer
months, but occupied in the long winter by the Lapps, who then come
down from the mountains with their reindeer. Quickjock especially
is in a delightful situation, facing a beautiful lake, and sheltered by
mountains of noble outlines and grand proportions. At Jockmock
there are some fine falls, not unlike the Rheinfalls at Schaffhausen,
though in a very different setting. The resting-places or stations
between these two villages are not inns in the usual sense of the word,
but the houses of the Swedish settlers or immigrants into Lapland,
one of which at each settlement is destined for the reception of the
occasional guests.

These settlements consist of two or perhaps four houses, with the
necessary out-buildings, and seem generally inhabited by the several
members of the same family. Some of them have existed a consid-
erable time, and are occupied now by the grandchildren or great-
grandchildren of the original settlers. Originally the Government
granted free gifts of land, but they have now ceased to do this, and
the number of the settlers does not appear to be receiving many addi-
tions from outside. The houses usually consist of two or more large
rooms on the ground-floor with lofts above, and vast chimney-hearths
in one corner, in which the logs of pine, some two or three feet in
length, are piled upright when a fire is wanted; being lit, they burn
\ip in a few minutes into a roaring' fire which gives out an intense
heat. The family live chiefly in the kitchen, and this and the guest-
chamber are about twenty or thirty feet square, and furnished with a
kind of sofa-bedstead which pulls out so as to afford a sleeping-accom-
modation of about five feet six inches by three feet. The kitchen it-
self is not over-clean, nor are the personal habits of the people with-
out reproach in this respect ; yet the guest-chamber, the linen, and
the crockery, leave nothing to be desired.

The houses are surrounded by a small clearing, where the settlers '
cultivate for their own consumption sufficient oats and other grain,
hay, and potatoes. They sow their corn in June, and so rapid is the
gi*owth under the influence of the lengthened days that they reap the
harvest in six or seven weeks afterward, and sometimes get two crops

NATURE AND LIFE IN LAPLAND. 457

in their short season. The cultivation is restricted to the actual wants
of the settlement, as the difficulty of transit precludes the possibility
of a market for the surplus. Cattle and ponies, and sometimes sheep
and poultry, are kept at each station, but the food of the family is
limited to fish — which is dried for winter use — milk, black or rather
brown fiat bread, and dried reinflesh, with an occasional change in the
shape of game or wild-fowl killed on the hills or lakes. Everywhere,
even in the poorest houses, the most excellent coffee is obtainable ; the
green berries being roasted over the fire and ground whenever a cup-
ful or more is wanted.

In the winter, when the lakes and rivers are all frozen, and the
ground is covered three or four feet deep with hard snow, the settlers
go long distances on snow-shoes and in sledges, and bring up from
Lulea what stores they may require. The money for such purchases
is gained by winter labor in the forests, where the trees are felled
and dragged to the water's edge, to be thrown in and floated down to
Lulea when the ice breaks up. At this work a team of one horse and
two men can earn about 40s. a week, which is considered large wages
in this part of the world. The legal tariff for a boat in summer is one
kronor (Is. l^d. English) for each man for seven miles, with no allow-
ance for back fare ; and a small dricks penning ar. or pour-boire, added
to this will make them supremely grateful, and insure the generous
donor many hearty shakes of the hand.

The settlers cannot afford to be ill, as the nearest doctor lives at
Lulea, almost a week's journey from Quickjock. In ordinary cases
they depend on their own resources, but in any serious illness the Lu-
lea medico is sent for and is obliged to attend, being paid a small sal-
ary of £200 a year by the Government on this condition. Midwifery
is performed by women. Crimes of any kind seem to be very rare ;
and though every settler carries a most ugly-looking dagger-knife
suspended from his belt, its use appears to be confined to purely pa-
cific purposes. The most common offenses are against the forest regu-
lations, and the observance of these is superintended by an officer
who has his headquarters at Jockmock. On fete days, at this latter
village, a patrol is selected by the Governor of Lulea from among
the steadiest of the settlers, and to him the preservation of order is
intrusted.

The men are physically a fine race, and are generally honest and
industrious, with an air of independence and straightforwardness.
Like the poorer Swedes elsewhere, they are greatly given to the use
of tobacco in all forms ; and besides smoking and chewing in the usu-
al approved methods, they actually eat large quantities of snuff, help-
ing themselves, as the Highlanders do, with a horn spoon from a box.
The women have pleasant faces, with rather refined expression. There
is a strong family resemblance among them, and the type consists in
large gray eyes, brown hair, rather fair complexions, a free carriage,

458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and not ungraceful figure, though with full waists and large hands
and feet. The older women look worn, but never have the haggish
and almost brutalized look which is not uncommon in old women in
other countries who have led hard, out-door lives. The general expres-
sion of countenance is somewhat pathetic, though they seem contented
with their strange, solitary, and joyless life ; and we could never get
any of them to confess that they would care to change it, nor even to
complain of what, as it appeared to us, must be the terrible monotony
and hardship of the long, dark winter. In looking at these settlements
and considering the nature of the life we seemed to understand more
clearly the position and circumstances of the immigrants who are grad-
ually pushing farther and farther along the shores of the great rivers
of the American Continent, and carrying into the solitudes of the im-
mense forests of the West the proofs of Anglo-Saxon courage, endur-
ance, and pertinacity.

At some of the stations we saw specimens of the original inhabit-
ants of the lands within the arctic circle, in the persons of Lapp men
and women of uncertain age, about four feet high, and dressed in
skins, with blue conical caps on their heads. In Norway it is said
that the Lapps are looked upon and treated as an inferior race, the
pariahs of the North; but in Swedish Lapland there is no appearance
of such distinctions. The comfort and even safety of the settlers de-
pend so much on their good relations with their neighbors that they
have remained on terms of equality and friendship. Intermarriages
are not uncommon, and many of the present settlers show signs of the
mixture of the races.

The population of Swedish Lapland is said to include 4,000 per-
sons of true Lapp race, and in some districts this number is increasing.
The children born in the mountains die fast, but those who remain in
the villages are healthy. Provision is made for their instruction, and
in common with the children of the Swedes they all learn to read and
write, though, judging by the absence of books at the settlements,
they reap little advantage from their instruction. The Lapps were
converted to Lutheranism some hundred years ago, and are said to be
strict religionists. At the present time some kind of revival is going
on among them, a faint reflex of the Moody and Sankey movement in
this country and America.

They depend for their living entirely upon their reindeer, which
they take up into the mountains all the summer, feeding them in the
villages during the winter, when the rein-moss, which is their ordi-
nary food, is no longer obtainable in the woods. This migration is
rendered necessary by the habits of the reindeer, which must be near
snow to keep in health. When on their summer excursions, the Lapps
live in tents made of rein-skins, lying at night round a fire in the cen-
tre, a hole being left in the roof for the passage of the smoke. Their
food consists of rein-flesh, fish, and game, and they keep a pot, like

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 459

the gypsies, constantly on the fire, into which are thrown all contri-
butions in the way of edibles, which are thus stewed down together
into a thick rich soup. In the winter they move about on their snow-
shoes, in the management of which they are extremely adroit, shoot-
ins down the hills and in and out of the trees with immense swiftness
and precision. On these shoes they hunt down both wolves and bears
when these animals, which are now getting scarce, cross their path ;
they kill them with their spears and knives, getting a reward of
fifty kronor from the Government for each head killed. The sale of
spirits is strictly prohibited in Lapland, as some years ago their im-
moderate use was decimating the population ; but kegs of branvin are
still occasionally smuggled across the borders, and produced on the
occasion of fetes and holidays. The Lapps have shrewd, almost cun-
ning faces, and, though small in stature, possess great bodily strength
and endurance. Their habits are extremely dirty, and they appear
never to change their clothes till they fall to pieces.

-♦♦♦-

PHYSIOLOGY OF MLTO-KEADING.

By GEOEGE M. BEAED, M. D.

IN the history of science, and notably in the history of physiology
and medicine, it has often happened that the ignorant and obscure
have stumbled upon facts and phenomena which, though wrongly
interpreted by themselves, yet, when investigated and explained, have
proved to be of the highest interest. The phenomena of the emo-
tional trance, for example, had been known for ages, but not until
Mesmer forced them on the scientific world, by his public exhibitions
and his ilbfounded theory of animal magnetism, did they receive any
serious and intelligent study. Similarly the general fact that mind
may so act on body as to produce involuntary and unconscious mus-
cular motion was by no means unrecognized by physiologists, and yet
not until the "mind-reading" excitement two" years ago was it
demonstrated that this principle could be utilized for the finding of
any object or limited locality on which a subject, with whom an oper-
ator is in physical connection, concentrates his mind.

Although, as I have since ascertained, experiments of this kind
had been previously performed in a quiet, limited way in private
circles, and mostly by ladies, yet very few had heard of or witnessed
them; they were associated in the popular mind very naturally with
" mesmerism " or " animal magnetism, " and bv some were called
" mesmeric games." The physiological explanation had never been
even suggested; hence the first public exhibitions of Brown, with his
brilliantly successful demonstrations of his skill in this direction, were

460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a new revelation to physiologists as well as to the scientific world in
general.

The method of mind-reading introduced by Brown, which is but
one of many methods that have been or may be used, is as follows :

The operator, usually blindfolded, firmly applies the back of the
hand of the subject to be operated on against his own forehead, and
with his other hand presses lightly upon the palm and fingers of the
subject's hand. In this position he can detect, if sufficiently expert, the
slightest movement, impulse, tremor, tension, or relaxation, in the arm
of the subject. He then requests the subject to concentrate his mind
on some locality in the room, or on some hidden object, or on some one
of the letters of the alphabet suspended along the wall. The operator,
blindfolded, marches sometimes very rapidly with the subject up and
down the room or rooms, up and down stairways, or out-of-doors
through the streets, and, when he comes near the locality on which
the subject is concentrating his mind, a slight impulse or movement
is communicated to his hand by the hand of the subject. This impulse
is both involuntary and unconscious on the part of the subject. He
is not aware, and is unwilling, at first, to believe, that he gives any
such impulse; and yet it is sufficient to .indicate to the expert and
practised operator that he has arrived near the hidden object, and
then, by a close study and careful trials in different directions, up-
ward, downward, and at various points of the compass, he ascertains
precisely the locality, and is, in many cases, as confident as though
he had received verbal communication from the subject. Even though
the article on which the subject concentrates his mind be very small,
it can quite frequently be picked out from a large number, provided
the subject be a good one, and the operator sufficiently skillful. The
article is sometimes found at once, with scarcely any searching, the
operator going to it directly, without hesitation, and with a celerity
and precision that, at first sight, and until the physiological explana-
tion is understood, justly astonish even the most thoughtful and skep-
tical.1 These experiments, it should be added, are performed in public
or private, and on subjects of unquestioned integrity, in the presence
of experts, and under a combination of circumstances and conditions
for the elimination of sources of error that make it necessary to rule
out at once the possibility of collusion.

The alternative is, therefore, between the actual transfer of thought
from subject to operator, as has been claimed, and the theory of un-
conscious muscular motion and relaxation on the part of the subject,
the truth of which I have demonstrated by numerous experiments.

One of the gentlemen with whom I have experimented, Judge
Blydenberg, who began to test his powers directly after I first called

1 la New Haven I saw Brown, before a large audience, march off rapidly through the
aisle and find at once the person on whom the subject was concentrating his mind,
although there was the privilege of selecting any one out of a thousand or more present.

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 461

public attention to the subject in New Haven, claims to succeed, even
with the nlost intellectual persons, provided they fully comply with
the conditions, and honestly and persistently concentrate their minds.
One fact of interest, with regard to bis experiments, is the exceeding
minuteness of the objects that he finds. A large number of the
audience empty their pockets on the table, until it is covered with a
medley of keys, knives, trinkets, and miscellaneous small objects.
Out of them the subject selects a small seed a little lai'ger than a
pea, and even this the operator, after some searching, bits precisely.

One may take a large bunch of keys, throw them on the table, and
he picks out the very one on which the subject concentrates his mind.

Another fact of interest in his experiments is that, if the subject
thinks over a number of articles in different parts of the room, and,
after some doubt and hesitation, finally selects some one, the oper-
ator will lead him, sometimes successively, to the different objects on
which he has thought, and will wind up with the one that he finally
selected. He also j3erforms what is known as the " double test," which
consists in taking the hand of a third party, who knows nothing of
the hidden object, but who is connected with another party who does
know, and who concentrates his mind upon it. The connection of
these two persons is made at the wrist, and the motion is communi-
cated from one to the other through the arms and hands. The
" double test " has been regarded by some as an argument against the
theory that this form of mind-reading was simply the utilizing of un-
conscious muscular motion on the part of the person operated upon.

This gentleman represents that the sensation of muscular thrill is
very slight indeed, even with good subjects ; and, in order to detect
it, he directs his own mind as closely as possible to the hand of the
subject.

In all these experiments, with all mind-readers the requirement for
the subject to concentrate the mind on the locality agreed upon is
absolute ; if that condition is not fulfilled, nothing can be done, for the
very excellent reason that, without such mental concentration, there
will be no unconscious muscular tension or relaxation to guide the
operator.

Experiments of the following kind I have made repeatedly with
the above-named gentleman :

A dozen or more pins may be stuck about one inch or half an inch
apart into the edge of a table : I concentrate my mind on any one of
these pins, telling no one. The operator enters the room, gets the
general direction of the object in the usual way (d la Brown), and,
when he has come near to the row of pins, he will limit the physical
connection to one of his index-fingers, pressing firmly against one of
mine, and in this way he soon finds the head of the pin on which my
mind has been concentrated. The only limitation of area in the local-
ty that can be found by a good mind-reader with a good subject is,

462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that two objects should not be so near to each other that the finger of
the operator strikes on both at once. When I began the study of this
subject, I supposed, even after the true theory of the matter had be-
come clear to me, that very small objects and narrow areas could not
be found in this way. Subsequent experiments showed that this sup-
position was erroneous. In a wide hall, in the presence of a large
audience, where the subject had the right to think of any object he
chose, Brown once found, after considerable searching, so limited an
area as a capital letter in the title of a newspaper pinned up on the
wall and barely within reach. About an hour after, in the same place,
he found a very small vial out of quite a large number ranged in a
row. Although reasoning deductively from the known relations of
mind to body, I had established conclusively to my own mind that the
so-called mind-reading was really muscle-reading, yet I could not be-
lieve, until the above-named experiments had been made, and frequent-
ly repeated, that it was possible for even the most expert operator to
find such small objects ; and no physiologist, I am sure, would have
believed such precision in these experiments conceivable until his
general deductions had been many times verified, and supplemented
by observations in which every source of error was guarded against.

As already remarked, there are a variety of ways of making the
physical connection between subject and operator. A lady with
whom I am acquainted goes out of the room, and while she is absent
an object is hidden. She returns, and two ladies, who know where the
object is stand up beside her in the middle of the room and place both
of their hands upon her body, one hand in front, the other behind; all
three stand there for a moment, the two subjects who know where the
object is, keeping their minds intensely concentrated on that locality.
In a moment or so this lady who is to find the object moves off in the
direction where it is, the other ladies with her still keeping their
hands upon her, and in nearly all cases she finds it. This is accom-
plished by the unconscious muscular tension of the two ladies who
know where the object is, acting upon the person of the lady who is
seeking it.

This experiment I have repeated with a number of amateur per-
formers, and in all cases with pretty uniform success. This method
is easier, both to learn and to practise, than some of the others ; it is
also far less artistic, and is not at all adapted for the finding of very
small localities. It illustrates, however, the general pi'inciple of mind
acting on body producing muscular tension in the direction of the
locality on which the thoughts are concentrated.

The relaxation, when the locality or its neighborhood is reached, is
not so distinctly appreciated in this method of experimenting, which
is sufficient, however, to enable the operator to get the right direc-
tion and to proceed until the corner or side of the room is reached ;
then, by a combination of manipulation and guess-work, she will, after

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 463

a few trials, get hold of the precise object hidden, or locality thought
of. When the operator and subject are connected by the methods
practised by Brown, it is possible to detect also the relaxation when
the locality is reached, and, guided by this, the master in the art
knows just when and where to stop, and, in very many cases, feels
absolutely sure that he is right, and with a good subject is no more
liable to error than he would be to hear wrongly or imperfectly if
directed by word of mouth.

The special methods of muscle-reading here described may be va-
ried almost indefinitely, the only essential condition being, that the
connection between the subject or subjects is of such a nature as to
easily allow the sense of muscular tension or relaxation to be commu-
nicated. Instead of two subjects, there may be three, four, or half a
dozen, or but one. With a number of subjects the chances of success
are greater than with one, for the twofold reason that the united mus-
cular tension of all will be more readily felt than that of but one, and
because any single subject may be a bad one — that is one who is capa-
ble of muscular control — while among a number there will be very
likely one or more good ones. For these two reasons, amateurs suc-
ceed in this latter method when they fail or succeed but imperfectly
after the method of Brown.

A method frequently used, although it is not very artistic, consists
in simply taking the hand of the subject and leading him directly, or,
as is more likely to be the case, indirectly to the locality on which his
mind is concentrated.

J. Stanley Grimes1 thus describes the performance of a mind-reader
in Chicago: "I repeatedly witnessed similar performances with differ-
ent experts in this branch and under circumstances where every ele-
ment of error from intentional or unintentional collusion was rigidly
excluded. At the request of the company the same young lady was
again sent from the room and blindfolded, as on previous occasions.
The gentleman requested the company to suggest anything they de-
sired the subject should be willed to do, thus removing any possibility
of a secret agreement to deceive between the parties. It was suggested
that the young lady should be brought into the room and placed in a
position with her face toward the north ; that the gentleman should
then place his fingers upon her shoulder, as before ; that she should
turn immediately to the right, facing the south, and proceed to a cer-
tain figure in the parlor-carpet ; then turning to the west, she was to
approach a sofa in a remote corner of the room, from which she should
remove a small tidy, which she should take to the opposite side of the
room, and place it upon the head of a certain young gentleman in the
company ; she was then to proceed to the extreme end of the parlor,
and take a coin from the right vest-pocket of a gentleman, and return
to the opposite side of the room, and place the coin in the left vest-
1 " Mysteries of the Head and Heart," p. 29Y.

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pocket of another gentleman named ; she was then to remove the tidy
from the head of the gentleman upon whom it had been placed, and
return it to the tete-a-tete where she originally found it.

" I must confess to no little surprise when I saw the young lady per-
form, with the most perfect precision, every minute detail, as above
described, and with the most surprising alacrity; in fact, so quick
were her motions that it was with the greatest difficulty that the gen-
tleman could keep pace with the young lady's movements."

I have seen a performer — who, though one of the pioneers in this
art, is far less skillful than many with whom I have experimented —
take a hat from the head of a gentleman in a small private circle, and
carry it across the room and put it on the head of another gentleman ;
take a book or any other object from one person to another ; or go in
succession to different pictures hanging on the wall, and perform other
feats of a similar character, while simply taking hold of the wrist of the
subject. In the experiment described by Mr. Grimes the subject placed
three fingers of his right hand on the shoulder of the operator. Note
the fact that in all these experiments direction and locality are all that
the mind-reader finds ; the quality of the object found, or indeed
whether it be a movable object at all, or merely a limited locality, as
a figure in the carj>et or on the wall, is not known to the mind-reader
until he picks it up or handles it : then if it be a small object, as a hat,
a book, or coin, or tidy, he very naturally takes it and moves off with
it in the direction indicated by the unconscious muscular tension of
the subject, and leaves it where he is ordered by unconscious muscu-
lar relaxation. In the great excitement that attends these novel and
most remarkable experiments the entranced audience fail to notice
that the operator really finds nothing but direction and locality.

I have said that various errors of inference, as well as of observation,
have been associated with these experiments. A young lady who had
been quite successful as an amateur in this art was subjected by me to
a critical analysis of her powers before a large private audience. She
supposed that it was necessary for all the persons in the audience to
concentrate their minds on the object as well as those whose hands
were upon her. I proved by some decisive experiments, in which a
comparison was made with what could be done by chance alone, that
this was not necessary, and that the silent, unexpressed will of the
audience had no effect on the operator, save certain nervous sensations
created by the emotion of expectancy. Similarly, I proved that, when
connected with the subjects by a wire, she could find nothing, although
she experienced various subjective sensations, which she attributed to
" magnetism," but which were familiar results of mind acting on
body.

Another lady, who is quite successful in these experiments, thought
it was necessary to hide keys, and supposed that "magnetism" had
something to do with it. I told her that that was not probable, and

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 465

tried another object, and found that it made no difference what the
object was. She supposed that it was necessary that the object
should be secreted on some person. I found that this also was not
necessary. She does not always succeed in finding the exact local-
ity at once, but in some cases she goes directly to it: she very rarely
fails.

In order to settle the question beyond dispute whether unconscious
muscular action was the sole cause of this success in finding objects, I
made the following crucial experiments with this lady : Ten letters of
the alphabet were placed on a piano, the letters being written on large
pieces of paper. I directed her to see how many times she would get
a letter which was in the mind of one of the observers in the room
correctly by chance purely, without any physical touch. She tried ten
times, and got it right twice. I then had her try ten experiments with
the hand of the person operated on against the forehead of the opera-
tor, the hand of the operator lightly touching against the fingers of this
hand, and the person operated on concentrating her mind all the while
on the object, and looking at it. In ten experiments, tried this day,
with the same letters, she was successful six times. I then tried the
same number of experiments with a wire, one end being attached to
the head or hand of the subject, and the other end to the head or hand
of the operator. The wire was about ten feet long, and was so ar-
ranged— being made fast at the middle to a chair — that no uncon-
scious muscular motion could be communicated through it from the
person on whom she was operating. She was successful but once out
of ten times. Thus we see that by pure chance she was successful
twice out of ten times; by utilizing unconscious muscular action in
the method of Brown she was successful six times out of ten. When
connected by a wire she was less successful than when she depended
on pure chance without any physical connection. In order still fur-
ther to confirm this, I suggested to this lady to find objects with two
persons touching her body in the manner we have above described.
I told these two to deceive her, concentrating their minds on the ob-
ject hidden, at the same time using conscious motion toward some
other part of the room. These experiments, several times repeated,
showed that it was possible to deceive her, just as we had found it
possible to deceive other muscle-readers.

The question whether it is possible for one to be a good muscle-
reader and pretty uniformly successful, and yet not know just how the ^
trick is done, must be answered in the affirmative. It is possible to
become quite an adept in this art without suspecting, even remotely,
the physiological explanation. The muscular tension necessary to
guide the operator is but slight, and the sensation it produces may be
very easily referred by credulous, uninformed operators to the passage
of "magnetism;" and I am sure that with a number of operators on
whom I have experimented this mistake is made. Some operators
vol. x. — 30

466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

declare that they cannot tell how they find the locality, that their
success is to them a mystery ; these declarations are made by private,
amateur performers who have no motive to deceive me, and whose
whole conduct during the experiments confirms their statements.
Other operators speak of thrills or vibrations which they feel, auras
and all sorts of indefinable sensations. These manifold symptoms are
purely subjective, the result of mind acting on the body, the emotions
of wonder and expectancy developing various phenomena that are at-
tributed to "animal magnetism," "mesmerism" or "electricity" —
in short, to everything but the real cause. I have seen amateurs who
declared that they experienced these sensations when trying without
success to " read mind" through the wires, or perhaps without any
connection with the subject whatever. Persons who are in the vicin-
ity of galvanic batteries, even though not in the circuit, very often
report similar experiences.

The facts which sustain the theory that the so-called mind-reading
is really muscle-reading — that is, unconscious muscular tension and
relaxation on the part of the subject — may be thus summarized :

1. Mind-readers are only able to find direction and locality, and,
in order to find even these, they must be in physical connection
with the subject, who must move his body or some portion of it — as
the fingers, hand, or arm. If the subject sits perfectly still, and keeps
his fingers, hand, and arm, perfectly quiet, so far as it is possible for him
to do so by conscious effort, the mind-reader can never find even the
locality on which the subject's mind is concentrated; he can only find
the direction where the locality is. Mind-readers never tell what an
object is, nor can they describe its color or appearance ; locality, and
nothing more definite than locality, is all they find. The object hidden
may be a coin or a corn-cob, a pin or a pen-holder, an elephant's tusk
or a diamond-pin — it is all the same. Again, where connection of the
operator with the subject is made by a wire, so arranged that mass-
motion cannot be communicated, and the subject concentrates his mind
ever so steadily, the operator does just what he would do by pure
chance, and no more. This I have proved repeatedly with good sub-
jects and expert performers.

2. The subject can successfully deceive the operator in various
ways — first of all, by using muscular tension in the wrong direction,
and muscular relaxation at the wrong locality, while at the same time
the mind is concentrated in the right direction. To deceive a good
operator in this way is not always easy, but after some practice the
art can be acquired, and it is a perfectly fair test in all experiments of
this nature.

Yet another way to deceive the mind-reader is, to think of some
object or locality at a great distance from the room in which the ex-
periments are made, and, if there be no ready means of exit, the per-
former will be entirely baffled. I am aware that some very surprising

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 467

feats have been done in the way of finding distant out-of-door localities
by muscle-readers, but in these cases there has usually been an implied
understanding that the search was to be made out-of-doors; muscle-
readers have thus taken their subject up and down stairs or from one
room or hall into another, and out-of-doors until the house or locality
was reached.1

Another way in which deception may by practised is for the sub-
ject to select some object or locality on the person of the muscle-reader.
This object may be a watch, or a pocket-book, or a pencil-case, or any
limited region of his clothing, as a button, a cravat, or wristband. If
such a selection be made, and the method of physical connection above
described be used, the experiment will be a failure, provided the
muscle-reader does not know or suspect that an object on his own per-
son is to be chosen. Similarly, if the subject selects a locality on his
own person, as one of the fingers or finger-nails of the hand that con-
nects with the muscle-reader. When such tests are used, there is not,
so to speak, any leverage for the tension of the arm toward the local-
ity on which the mind is concentrated, and the muscle-reader either
gets no clew, or else one that misleads him.

3. When a subject, who has good control over his mental and
muscular movements, keeps the arm connected with the operator
perfectly stiff, even though his mind be well concentrated on the hid-
den object, the operator cannot find either the direction or the local-
ity. This is a test which those who have the requisite physical quali-
fications can sometimes fulfill without difficulty.

Here I may remark that the requirement to concentrate the mind
on the locality and direction sought for all the time the search is be-
ing made is one that few, if any, can perfectly fulfill. Any number
of distracting thoughts will go through the best-trained mind of one
who, in company with a blindfolded operator, is being led furiously
up and down aisles, halls, streets, and stairways, fearful each moment
of stumbling or striking his head, and followed, it may be, by aston-
ished and eager investigators. And yet these mental distractions
do not seem to interfere with the success of the experiment unless the
arm is kept studiously rigid, in which case nothing is found save by
pure chance. The best subjects would appear to be those who have
moderate power of mental concentration and slight control over their
muscular movements. Credulous, wonder-loving subjects are some-
times partially entranced through the emotions of reverence and
expectation ; with subjects in this state, operators are quite sure to
succeed.

1 In Danielsonville, Connecticut, Brown, after an evening's exhibition in which his fail-
ures had been greater than usual (the intelligent committee having the matter in charge
being prepared by previous discussion of the theory of unconscious muscular motion),
took a subject, and led him from the hotel in the darkness through the streets, to some
rather out-of-the-way building on which the subject had fixed his mind. A somewhat
similar exploit is recorded of Corey, a performer in Detroit.

468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

4. The uncertainty and capriciousness of these experiments,
even with expert operators, harmonize with the explanation here
given. Even with good subjects all mind-readers do not uniformly
succeed ; there is but little certainty or precision to the average
results of experiments, however skillfully performed. An evening's
exhibition may be a series of successes or a series of failures according
to the character of the subjects ; and even in the successful tests the
operator usually must try various directions and many localities,
sometimes for ten or fifteen minutes, before he finds the locality
sought for; cases where the operator goes at once in the right direc-
tion, stops at the right locality, and knoics when he has reached it,
are exceptional.1

5. Many of those who become expert in this art are aware that
they succeed by detecting slight muscular tension and relaxation on
the part of the subject.

Some operators have studied the subject scientifically, and are
able to analyze with considerable precision the different steps in the
process. In the minds of many this fact alone is evidence adequate
to settle the question beyond doubt.

6. A theoretical and explanatory argument js derived from the
recent discovery of motor centres in the cortex of the brain.

I was repeating the experiments of Fritsch and Hitzig at the time
when my attention was first directed to the remarkable exhibitions
of Brown, and the results of my studies in the electrical irritation of
the brains of dogs and rabbits suggested to me the true explanation
of mind-reading before any opportunity had been allowed for satis-
factory experiments.

The motto " when we think we move," which I have sometimes
used to illustrate the close and constant connection of mind and body,
seems to be justified by these experiments on the brain, and may
assist those who wish to obtain a condensed statement of the physi-
ology of mind-reading. Taking into full consideration the fact that
all physiologists are not in full accord as to the interpretation to be
given to these experiments, whether, for example, the phenomena are
due to direct or reflex action, still it must be allowed, by all who
study this subject experimentally, that thought-centres and muscle-
centres are near neighbors, if not identical."

1 The popular theory to account for these failures is the weariness or exhaustion of
the operator ; but both in New York and in New Haven it was observed that Brown met
with his most brilliant successes in the latter part of the evening, the reason being that
he happened then to have better subjects.

2 From an editorial in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (September 23, 1875),
referring to the mind-reading exhibitions, and accepting the explanation here given, I
make the following extract :

" The whole performance seems to us to furnish good illustrations of one or two well-
known principles of great physiological interest. Of these the most important is one
that finds at once support and application in the modern doctrine of the nature of aphasia

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 469

In all these experiments it should be observed there is no one
muscle, there is no single group of muscles, through which this tension
and relaxation are developed ; it is the finger, the hand, the arm, or
the whole body, according to the method employed. Among the
various methods of making connection between the subject and
operator are the following:

1. The back of the subject's hand is held firmly against the fore-
head of the operator, who, with his other hand, lightly touches the
fingers of the subject's hand. (Brown.)

This is, undoubtedly, the most artistic of all known methods.

2. The hand of the operator loosely grasps the wrist of the subject.
This is a very inartistic method, and yet great success is oftentimes

attained by it.

3. One finger of the operator is applied to one finger of the
subject, papilla? touching papilla?.

This is a modification of the first method ; by it exceedingly small
objects or localities are found.

4. The operator is connected in the usual way with a third party
who does not know the locality thought of by the subject, but is
connected with the subject by the wrist ("double test").

In this experiment, which astounded even the best observers, the
unconscious muscular motion was communicated from the subject to
the arm of the third party, and through the arm of the third party to
the operator.

5. Two, three, or more subjects, who agree on the locality to be
thought of, apply their hands to the body of the operator in front
and behind.

This method is excellent for beginners, and the direction is easily
found by it ; but it is obviously not adapted for the speedy finding of
small objects; it is frequently used by ladies.

6. The hand of the subject lightly rests on the shoulder of the
operator.

and kindred disorders ; namely, that the thought, the conscious mental conception, of an
act, differs from the voluntary impulse necessary to the performance of that act only in
that it corresponds to a fainter excitation of nervous centres in the cortex cerebri, which
in both cases are anatomically identical.

" Thus, in certain forms of aphasia the power to think in words is lost at the same time
with the power of speech. Some persons tbink definitely only when they think aloud,
and it would readily be believed in the case of children and uneducated persons that the
ability to read would often be seriously interfered with if they were not permitted to read
aloud. Similarly, a half-premeditated act of any kind slips often into performance before
its author is aware of the fact. Further, there is reason to think, from the experiments
of Hitzig, that these same centres may be excited by the stimulus of electricity so as to
call out some of the simpler coordinated movements of the muscles on the opposite side
of the body.

"Applying, now, this principle to the case in hand, it will be evident that for the per-
son experimented with to avoid giving 'muscular hints,' of either a positive or a negative
kind, would be nearly impossible."

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In all these methods the operator is usually blindfolded, so that
he may get no assistance from any other source than the unconscious
muscular action of the subject.

The movements of the operator in these experiments may be
either very slow, cautious, and deliberate, or rapid and reckless.
Brown, in his public exhibitions, was very careful about getting the
physical connection right, and then moved off very rapidly, sometimes
in the right direction, sometimes in the wrong one, but frequently
with such speed as to inconvenience the subject on whom he was
operating. These rapid movements give greater brilliancy to public
experiments and serve to entrance audiences, but they are not essen-
tial to success. They serve, no doubt, in many cases, to bewilder or
•partially entrance the subject, and thus to render him far more likely
to be unconscious of his own muscular tension and relaxation
through which the operator is guided.

The power of muscle-reading depends mainly, if not entirely, on
some phase of the sense of touch. Dr. Hanbury Smith tells me that
a certain maker of lancets in London had acquired great reputation
for the superiority of his workmanship. Suddenly, there was a falling
off in the character of the instrument that he sent out, and it was
found that his wife, on whom he had depended to test the sharpness
of the edo;e on her finder or thumb, had recentlv died.

That the blind acquire great delicacy of touch has long been
known ; Laura Bridgman is a familiar illustration. Dr. Carpenter
states (although there are always elements of error through the
unconscious assistance of other senses in cases of this kind) that Miss
Bridgman recognized his brother, whom she had not met for a year,
by the touch of the hand alone.

Every physician recognizes the fact of this difference of suscepti-
bility to touch; and, in the diagnosis of certain conditions of disease,
much depends on the tactas eruclitus. I am not sure whether this
delicacy of perception, by which muscle-reading is accomplished, is
the ordinary sense of touch, that of contact, or of some of the special
modifications of this sense. It is to physiologists and students of
diseases of the neiwous system a well-known fact that there are
several varieties of sensibility — to touch, to temperature, to pressure
or weight, and to pain — which, possibly, represent different rates or
modes of vibration of the nerve-force.

The proportion of persons who can succeed in muscle-reading, by
the methods here described, is likewise a natural subject of inquiry.
Judging from the fact that, out of the comparatively few who have
made any efforts in this direction, a large number have succeeded
after very little practice, and some few, who have given the matter
close attention, have acquired great proficiency, it is probable that
the majority of people of either sex, between the ages of fifteen and
fifty, could attain, if they chose to labor for it, under suitable

PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 47 1

instruction, a certain grade of skill as muscle-readers, provided, of
course, good subjects were experimented with. It is estimated that
about one in five or ten persons can be put into the mesmeric trance
by the ordinaiy processes ; and, under extraordinary circumstances,
while under great excitement, and by different causes, every one is
liable to be thrown into certain stages or forms of trance ; the ca-
pacity for the trance-state is not exceptional ; it is not the peculiar
property of a few individuals — it belongs to the human race ; similarly
with the capacity for muscle-reading. The age at which this delicacy
of touch is most marked is an inquiry of interest ; experience, up to
date, would show that the very young or the very old are not good
muscle-readers. I have never known of one under fifteen years of
age to study this subject; although it is conceivable that bright
children, younger than that age, might have sufficient power of
attention to acquire the art, certainly if they had good instruction
in it.

In these mind-reading experiments, as indeed in all similar or
allied experiments with living human beings, there are six sources of
error, all of which must be absolutely guarded against if the results
are to have any precise and authoritative value in science.

1. The involuntary and unconscious action of brain and muscle,
including trance, in which the subject becomes a pure automaton. 1
have used the phrase " involuntary life " to cover all these phenomena
of the system that appear independently of the will. The majority
of those who studied the subject of mind-reading — even physicians
and physiologists — failed through want of a proper understanding or
appreciation of this side of physiology.

2. Chance and coincidences. Neglect of this source of error was
the main cause of the unfortunate results of the wire and chain experi-
ments with mind-readers.

3. Intentional deception on the part of the subject.

4. Unintentional deception on the part of the subject.

5. Collusion of confederates. To guard against all the above sources
of error it is necessary for the experimenter himself to use deception.

6. Unintentional assistance of audience or bystanders.

"When the muscle-reader performs before an enthusiastic audience,
he is likely to be loudly applauded after each success; and, if the ex-
citement be great, the applause, with shuffling and rustling, may begin
before he reaches the right locality, while he is approaching it ; when,
on the other hand, he is far away from the locality, the audience will
inform him by ominous silence. The performance thus becomes like
the hide-and-seek games of children, where they cry " Warm ! " as the
blindfolded operator approaches the hidden object; "Hot!" as he
comes close to it; and "Cold!" when he wanders far from it. Some
of the apparent successes with the wire-test may be thus explained.

In regard to all the public exhibitions of muscle-readers, it should

472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be considered that the excitement and eclat of the occasion contribute
not a little to the success of the operator; the subjects grow enthusias-
tic— are partly entranced, it may be — become partners in the cause of
the performer — and unconsciously aid him far more than they would do
in a similar entertainment that was purely private. In a private enter-
tainment of muscle-reading at which I was present, one of the sub-
jects, while standing still, with his hands on the operator, actually
took a step forward toward the locality on which his mind wa*s con-
centrated, thus illustrating in a visible manner the process by which
muscle-reading is made possible.

The subject under discussion, it will be observed, is to be studied
both inductively and deductively. The general claim of mind or
thought reading is disproved not by any such experiments as are here
detailed, no matter how accurate or numerous they may be, but by
reasoning deductively from the broad principle of physiology, that no
human being has or can have any qualities different in kind from those
that belong to the race in general. The advantage which one human
being has over another — not excepting the greatest geniuses and the
greatest monsters — is, and must be, of degree only. Mind-reading, in
the usual meaning of the term, is a faculty that in any degree does
not belong — indeed, it is never claimed that it belongs — to the human
race ; it cannot, therefore, belong to any individual. For one person
to read the thoughts of another would be as much a violation or
apparent violation of the laws of Nature as the demonstration of per-
petual motion, the turning of iron into gold, or the rising of the sun
in the west. Experiments such as here recorded, if made for the pur-
pose of ascertaining whether certain persons have the power of read-
ing thoughts, would be more than unnecessary; they would be exceed-
ingly unscientific. Reasoning deductively also from the known laws
of the involuntary life, the power to read muscles, in the method here
described, is not only possible and probable, but inevitable. Every-
body is a muscle-reader, although all are not capable of attaining the
highest degrees of skill in the art.1

The one fact, the only fact brought out by these experiments that
could not be predicted from known laws of physiology, is the exceed-
ing refinement to which muscle-reading can be carried, the minute-
ness of the localities that are found, and the rapidity with which,
oftentimes, the results are obtained. This fact is of permanent value
to science, a new and positive addition to the physiology of the invol-
untary life, and of vast suggestion in relation to the general subject
of the interactions of mind and body in health and in disease.

An incidental fact impressed on my mind during these researches

1 Every horse that is good for anything is a muscle-reader; he reads the mind of his
driver through the pressure on the bit, and by detecting tension and relaxation knows
when to go ahead, when to stop, and when and which way to turn, though not a word
of command is uttered.

COMPRESSED-AIR LOCOMOTIVE. 473

was the prevalence and the power of the belief in animal magnetism.
This delusion may well he regarded as the witchcraft of the nine-
teenth century ; its hand is everywhere — on the press and the pulpit,
on all our literature, on science itself, even on physiology, to which
its phenomena rightly belong, and by which they can be and are
fully explained. It is a tyrant that rules over the whole realm of the
seemingly mysterious ; the success of the orator on the platform, and
of the physician at the bedside, is attributed to its aid, as of old supe-
rior learning and skill were attributed to the occult forces of magic.
It may be doubted whether any other false belief of our time has had
a more serious influence in retarding the progress of right reasoning
than this, since it blocks the doors of investigation and prejudges the
case when investigations are made, stimulates the too common habit
of making the emotions do the work of the intellect, and becomes a
sort of foster-mother to other and allied delusions.

It was the universality of this belief in animal magnetism that
made mind-reading popular, since it furnished a basis as broad as the
wildest theorizer could wish, on which could be erected a limitless
variety of hypotheses ; and many who rejected intuitively the claim
of direct supernatural aid were made happy by the equally false and
untenable claim of literal conveyance of thought from subject to
operator through the agency of a supposed magnetic fluid.

-*♦♦-

COMPRESSED-AIB LOCOMOTIVE IN ST. GOTHAED

TUNNEL.1

By C. M. GAEIEL.

THE boring of a tunnel of any importance presents difficulties
of various kinds, among which may be mentioned the clearing
away of the rubbish arising from the excavation of the gallery, when-
ever that reaches any considerable length, and the wrork is carried on
with activity. Such were the conditions under which the boring of
the Mont Cenis Tunnel was carried on, and M. Fabre, the able con-
tractor, has met with similar difficulties in the boring of the St.
Gothard Tunnel, now being carried out.

The work was begun from two points, Airolo and Goeschenen, the
two extremities of the future tunnel. The advance of the gallery,
which is pushed on with activity, produces about 400 cubic metres of
rubbish a day at each of the two faces of attack. To carry away this
mass of rubbish, which is thrown regularly into trucks running on
rails, it is impossible to employ locomotives, as the cul-de-sac nature

1 Translated from La Nature.

474

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of the galleries prevents effectual ventilation. The high price of
horses and the large number required prevent their use. The idea
suggested itself of making use for St. Gothard of machines moved by-
compressed air, which would have many advantages. First, it is well
known that compressed air is used to work the perforating machines
used in boring the tunnel ; then, by the employment of compressed-air
locomotives, ventilation of the galleries would be produced, as these
machines would allow only pure air to escape ; and then these motors
would be more powerful than horses, and effect more rapidly the clear-
ing away of the debris.

Fig. i.

A first attempt was made in which two ordinary locomotives were
employed, one at each side of the tunnel; the boilers, in which, of
course, there was no water, were filled with condensed air under a
pressure of four atmospheres. This air played the part usually done
by steam, passed into slide-valves, entered the cylinders alternately
on each face of the pistons, which it set in motion, and then escaped
into the atmosphere.

It is easily seen that, if compressed air were to be employed, it
would be indispensable to have a very considerable quantity of it; the
boiler of a locomotive, sufficient when it is worked by means of steam
constantly produced under the action of heat, was too small to con-
tain a quantity of air sufficient for use without being filled. This led
to adding to each locomotive a special reservoir for compressed air;
each locomotive was accompanied, as a kind of tender, by a long
sheet-iron cylinder, eight metres long and one and a half metre di-
ameter, supported toward its extremities by two trucks, which, on
starting, were filled with condensed air, and which communicated by
a tube with the distributing apparatus of the cylinders. The loco-
motive then worked as before, except that compressed air came from
the reservoirs instead of from the boiler. The two locomotives, the
Reuss and the Tessin, worked economically for about two years, in
spite of the awkwardness of the long cylinders that accompanied
them. We can give some interesting figm'es resulting from the mean
of a certain number of observations. At departure the pressure in

COMPRESSED-AIR LOCOMOTIVE.

475

the reservoir was about seven kilogrammes per square centimetre ;
the locomotive having drawn a train of twelve loaded wagons along
a course of about 600 metres, the pressure was found to fall to four
and a half kilogrammes ; the train then returned empty to the point
of departure, and the final pressure was found to be two and a half
kilogrammes.

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In spite of the relatively advantageous results which were ob-
tained, the employment of compressed air in a steam-locomotive pre-
sented a certain number of drawbacks. It is expedient that the air

476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

should issue from the cylinder under the least possible pressure, in
order that refrigeration may he reduced to a minimum ; for it is
known that the expansion of gas is accompanied by a loss of heat
which increases with the pressure. This condition was satisfied by
causing the air to act under restraint; that is, by allowing the com-
pressed air coming from the reservoir to enter during only a part of
the course of the piston. But the admission of the air ought to vary
if it is desired to obtain the same final effect, since the pressure in the
reservoir diminishes continuously ; and as the apparatus which regu-
lates the admission was arranged to correspond only to determined
fractions, but not to vary in a continuous manner, it followed that
there was a greater expenditure of air than was necessary, and con-
sequently a diminution in the length of the course over which the
locomotive could run.

On the other hand, it is necessary that the air should arrive in the
distributing apparatus with the least possible pressure, for it is in this
apparatus, in the slide-valve, that the greatest losses take place, and
these losses increase in proportion to the pressure. No means could,
however, be thought of for diminishing the pressure in the reservoirs,
which would have reduced considerably the work which the machines
were capable of doing, unless by augmenting considerably the volume
of the reservoirs, the dimensions of which were already unusually
large.

At this stage M. Ribourt, the engineer of the tunnel, devised an
arrangement which allows the compressed gas to flow at a fixed press-
ure, whatever may be the pressure in the reservoir. The gas in es-
caping from the reservoir enters a cylinder B (Fig. 1), over a certain
extent of the walls of which are openings m m, that communicate
with another cylinder C, which surrounds it to the same extent, and
which is connected with the slide-valve by which the air is distributed,
or, more generally, with the space in which this air is to be utilized.
On one side moves a piston £J, which shuts the cylinder ai d hinders
the esoape of the air. This piston carries externally a shaft F, which
supports externally a spiral spring JET, the force of which is regulated
by means of a screw. Internally it is connected by another shaft L
with a second piston N, which bears a cylinder M, movable in the in-
terior of the principal pump, and forming thus a sort of internal
sheath. This sheath presents openings n n, which may coincide ex-
actly with those already referred to, and in that case the gas passes
without difficulty from the reservoir at the point where it is to be
employed. But if the sheath is displaced, the openings no longer
correspond, there is resistance to the passage, and consequently dimi-
nution of the quantity of gas which flows out, and hence lowering of
pressure in the exterior cylinder. By making the position of the
sheath to vary continuously we may make the pressure of exit con-
stant, notwithstanding the continuous variation at entry. But the

COMPRESSED-AIR LOCOMOTIVE. 477

apparatus is automatic. In fact the part of the cylinder jy comprised
between the b< i m and the piston JV communicates by openings p
(which are ne1 . covered with the escape-tube of the gas), in such a
manner that vpon its posterior face the piston JV receives the pressure
of the gas at the moment when it flows, a pressure which it is sought
to render con tant. The piston E receives on its anterior face the
action of the spring which can be regulated at pleasure. As to the
other faces of the two pistons, they are subjected to equal actions
proceeding from the pressure of the gas at its entry, actions which
thus cou. '-a-'t each other; so that the forces which determine the
position 0 movable system are, on the one hand, the tension of the

spring, a °tant and determined force, and, on the other hand, the
pressure o '•' • flowing gas ; and thus equilibrium cannot occur unless
the two forces are equal. If the gas should flow in too great a quan-
tity, the pressure increases on the posterior face of the piston A7", the
spring is overcome, and the movable system advances a little toward
the left ; but then the orifices are partly covered and the flow dimin-
ishes. If the pressure then becomes too weak at the exit, the spring
in its turn prevails, pushes the sheath toward the right, uncovers the
orifices, and consequently a greater quantity of air may enter.

The machines which are now used at the St. Gothard Tunnel, gen-
uine com) 'fesed-air locomotives, are furnished with M. Ribourt's ap-
paratus. They consist of the following parts : A sheet-iron reservoir
to contai ' the compressed air is mounted on a framework quite like
that of s ■ 'ocomotives, and carrying glasses, cylinders, distribut-
ing appa . , etc. The tube for receiving the air possesses, within
reach of t e driver, the automatic valve of M. liibourt. The screw
being eaj ' gulated, the air can with certainty be made to issue
from the -atus at a determined pressure. This air then passes

into a sm ervoir (about one-third metre cube), intended to deaden

the shod sh are always produced when the machine is set agoing

or stopj: . stly, this small reservoir communicates with the cylin-

ders, an t r which reaches them acts in the same manner as steam

in ordina Dmotives.

The 1 e in the principal reservoir at the point of exit depends

on the pi f the compressing apparatus; at St. Gothard it may

attain fo • feen kilogrammes per square centimetre, but is ordinarily
about 1A > kilogrammes. The pressure in the small reservoir is arbi-
trary, depending on the regulation of the screw; at St. Gothard it
has a mean of 4.20 kilogrammes. The entire machine weighs about
seven tons. — Nature.

473 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES.

By WILLIAM E. SIMMONS.

THERE are three kinds of gas, named after the substances from
which they are obtained, as coal, petroleum (or naphtha), and
water gas. The first two are produced by destructive distillation of
coal and petroleum, or naphtha, the last by passing a curi'ent of
steam over a bed of incandescent anthracite. Coal-gas is the kind in
general use, petroleum or naphtha gas being used chiefly as an
enrichef ; and water-gas, used in only a few places and for a compar-
atively short time, is as yet on its trial. The general principles
involved in the manufacture of each kind of gas will first be noticed;
then the relative merits of the products will be considered in regard
to quality, cost of manufacture, and respective peculiarities ; and,
finally, a comparative view will be taken of several leading com-
panies; after which the relationship of gas companies to municipali--
ties, and the subject of competition, will be examined.

When coal is subjected to high heat in a closed vessel, certain
gases and vapors are evolved, some of which are combustible, and
some, like steam, condensible, a residue of charcoal or coke being left
behind. This process is termed destructive distillation, and the
property displayed by coal is common to all vegetable and animal
substances; but only coal and petroleum have been used economically
in the production of illuminating gas on an extensive scale. The
distillation is the most important operation in the manufacture, but it
is necessary to remove from the gas, before it is fit for burning, the
condensible vapors, as tar, water, etc. ; and those non-condensible
gases, as carbonic anhydride (carbonic acid), which either largely
diminish the. illuminating power, or which give rise, in the burning of
the gas, to injurious products of combustion, such as sulphuretted
hydrogen and ammonia. The removing of these very materially
affects the cost of production. The distillation is effected in iron or clay

1 Abstract of a Report to the City of Boston, a. d. 18*76, by the Gas Commissioners,
Messrs. Charles F. Choate, John Felt Osgood, and Edward S. Wood, appointed in
January, 1875, who were instructed " to investigate and report — 1. On the quality and-
price of the gas furnished in Boston, as compared with that of other large cities in this
country and Europe; 2. Whether any improvements can be made in the present
methods of manufacturing gas by the different companies in this city; 3. Whether it
would be expedient for the city to undertake the manufacture and supplying of gas for
public and private lighting; and, 4. Whether any further legislation is desirable to enable
gas-consumers, or the municipal authorities, to secure a prompt and impartial investiga-
tion of complaints against private companies, and an efficient remedy for any abuses of
which they may be found guilty."

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES. 479

retorts, from three to seven of which, according to circumstances, are
heated with one fire of coke to a cherry-red (1,478° to 1,830° Fahr.) for
iron, or to an orange or white heat (2,000° to 2,300° Fahr.) for clay-
retorts ; 160 to 260 pounds of coal constitute the charge for a single
retort, and the distillation continues uninterruptedly for four to four
and a half hours. The outer layers of the charge, being suddenly
raised to a high temperature, evolve vapors which contain a large
amount of carbon. These, in passing through the retort, are converted
into fixed gases of a high illuminating power. The inner parts of the
charge, undergoing distillation more slowly, give out vapors which,
in passing through the highly-heated coke on the surface, are more
completely decomposed than the first evolved, and are, therefore, of
a lower illuminating power. It has been shown, for example, by Mr.
C. D. Lamson, of the Boston Gas-Works, that the illuminating (or
candle) power of the gas diminishes in a rapidly-increasing ratio with
each half-hour of the distillation ; and also that, after the third half-
hour, the quantity of gas produced similarly decreases. The largest
quantity, as well as the richest gas, is, therefore, obtained in the first
part of the distillation. By candle-poicer is meant that the gas, burn-
ing at the rate of five cubic feet per hour, will give as much light as
the stated number of standard sperm-candles burning at the rate of
120 grains per hour, or two grains per minute.

The gas passes next into the hydraulic main, where it is made to
bubble up through a half-inch to an inch of water, and thus some of
its vapors are condensed. It then goes to the condenser, a series of
iron tubes surrounded by water, to be cooled and more completely
rid of its tar and other vapors, which are precipitated and led
away. Going to the washers, a series of chambers where it is brought
in contact with jets of water, and to the scrubbers, where it passes
through a collection of coke, fire-brick, etc., moistened with water,
it is relieved of the rest of the tar and also of the ammonia.

The third step in the manufacture is purification, which removes
from the gas the noxious elements, chiefly carbonic acid and sul-
phuretted hydrogen. The first lowers the illuminating power very
greatly : one per cent, being sufficient, it is said, to diminish it five per
cent. The sulphuretted hydrogen and other sulphurous compounds
give rise in burning to sulphurous and sulphuric acids which may
injure, by their corrosive action, delicate structures, such as books,
gilding, silks, etc., that are exposed to the air of the room in which
the gas is burned. Lime and oxide of iron are used in various meth-
ods to purify the gas. Lime is used both wet and dry. In the
wet-lime process the gas is passed through the milk of lime, which,
uniting with the carbonic acid to form a chalk, effectually removes it,
and takes, away most of the sulphur compounds too, by uniting with
them to form calcic sulphide or calcic sulpho-carbonate.

The use of this process has generally been abandoned, however,

+8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on account of the foul odor evolved from the lime when it is taken
fro,ni the purifier. The dry-lime process consists in passing the gas
through moistened slacked lime placed upon trays. This is about as
effective as the other, and has generally superseded it. The iron pro-
cess consists in passing the gas through some form of the hydrated
sesquioxide of iron mixed with other substances. The great advan-
tage of this process is its economy, it being practicable to use the
same mixtures over and over almost indefinitely. The New York Mu-
tual Company, for instance, have used one mixture satisfactorily for
three years.

Either petroleum or some of the products of its distillation at a
low temperature, as naphtha, rhigolene, gasolene, etc., may be used
in the manufacture of gas. These products are of little commercial
value as compared with those, like kerosene, which are produced at a
higher temperature, but for this reason they are of especial value for
the manufacture of gas. The principles on which the manufacture of
petroleum-gas depends do not differ much from those involved in the
making of coal-gas. In both cases, as already stated, the material is
subjected to destructive distillation in a retort ; but in this the
material may either be introduced dire,ctly into the retort, or first
converted into a vapor, and conducted into it in that state. The first
step, however, is to vaporize the liquid either in the retort or before
it reaches there ; and the second, to decompose the vapor, and convert
it into a fixed gas, which is carried into an hydraulic main and con-
denser in the same way as coal-gas. One great advantage of the
naphtha-gas is that, containing neither sulphur compounds nor am-
monia, it needs no purification, and therefore saves one item in the
expense of manufacture. Moreover, a loss of some of the luminifer-
ous hydrocarbons is avoided, a certain amount of them being neces-
sarily condensed in the passage through the washers, scrubbers, and
purifiers.

The manufacture of water-gas differs entirely from that of coal or
naphtha gas. It involves the production, first, of a non-illuminating
gas from steam, and, second, of petroleum, naphtha, or cannel gas, to
furnish the illuminating power. The great advantage of it is, that
very large volumes of non-luminous combustible gas can be made
very cheaply. This is done by passing steam over incandescent car-
bon, which, having a very powerful attraction for oxygen, abstracts
it from the steam (water being a compound of hydrogen and oxy-
gen), and unites with it, forming, at first, carbonic acid. This, in
passing over another bed of coal, is deprived in turn of one-half its
oxygen, and converted into carbonic oxide. Hydrogen, the other
constituent of the steam, being set free, mixes with the carbonic ox-
ide. The resultant is a mixture of hydrogen and carbonic oxide,
which gases are both combustible but non-illuminating. In some pro-
cesses for the manufacture of this gas, the petroleum or naphtha gas

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES. 481

is not mixed with the water-gas until the latter has been purified ; in
others the petroleum is added directly to the coal. Anthracite coal,
only, is used in the manufacture of water-gas, and great care is neces-
sary to keep the temperature up to a white heat, since, if it falls too
low, a large proportion of carbonic acid will be formed, and will
injure the illuminating power of the gas unless it is removed by
purification. Anthracite coal contains sulphur, and yields ammonia
when distilled, so that purification is as necessary for water as for
coal-gas, and therefore no saving is made in this respect. The real
saving is in coal, since a large volume of steam can be decomposed by
one ton.

It is necessary now to make a more particular inquiry into the
nature of the different gases and compare them with each other. Coal-
gas in its salable condition is composed about as follows :

NAMES.

Hydrogen

Marsh-gas

Carbonic oxide

Olefiant and other hydrocarbons

Nitrogen

Oxygen

Carbonic anhydride

Steam

Heidel-
berg.

44.00

38.00

5.73

7.27
4.23

0.37

Bonn. Chemnitz.

39.80

43.12

4.66

4.75

4.65

3.02

51.29
36.45
4.45
4.91
1.41
0.41
1.08

London,
Common.

46.00

39.50

7.50

3.80

0.50

0.70
2.00

London,
Cannel.

27.70
50.00

6.80
13.00

0.40

0.10
2.00

The hydrogen and carbonic oxide burn with anon-luminous flame,
and marsh-gas burns with only a slightly-luminous one, the illuminat-
ing power coming almost entirely from the olefiant gas and other
hydrocarbons. The oxygen, carbonic acid, and nitrogen, being in-
combustible, injure the illuminating power very greatly. The oxy-
gen and nitrogen are admitted accidentally by the introduction of a
little air in charging the retorts. Hence, other things being equal
the illuminating power of the gas increases with the proportion of
olefiant and other hydrocarbons, and these depend chiefly on the kind
of coal used and the temperature at which it is carbonized. The gas-
coals are the bituminous caking coals and cannel. The bituminous
shales, like the boghead mineral of Scotland, and asphalt mine'rals, like
the Albertite of Nova Scotia and the Grahamite of West Virginia,
are used in small quantities for enriching. The yield of good gas-
coal, like the Penn, is about 10,000 cubic feet of 15 to 16 candle-
power gas to the ton (2,240 lbs.). The enriching coals yield a larger
amount of richer gas, and the asphalt minerals from 13,000 to 15,000
cubic feet of 30 to 50 candle-power. The relative cost of enriching with
these or with naphtha is a very important question. In a number of
experiments made at the Boston Gaslight Works, for the purpose of
testing the value of Albertite as an enricher, it was found that the

VOL. x. — 31

482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

yield varied from 13,440 to 16,016 cubic feet of 36.08 to 54.45 candle-
power gas per ton (6 to 7.15 feet per pound). Experiments on cannel
of different kinds have given various yields, from 3.8 feet of 20.52
candle-power gas per pound to 4.74 feet of 30.40 candle-power.

The principal impurities in coal-gas are, as already indicated, sul-
phuretted hydrogen and other gases containing sulphur and ammonia.
The presence of a small amount of these cannot be avoided, and is
not injurious, since the sum of the products of the combustion of these
substances, formed by the burning of the gas from a single burner
during an entire evening, is very small. In fact, the presence of a
slight amount of ammonia is beneficial, in tending to neutralize the
sulphurous and sulphuric acids formed by that portion of the sulphur
which cannot be renewed. The limit prescribed by law for the Lon-
don companies is 20 grains of sulphur and 2f grains of ammonia per
100 cubic feet. The specific gravity of illuminating gas is an impor-
tant quality, since it increases in a nearly constant ratio with the can-
dle-power, so that, knowing the one, the other can be told pretty near-
ly, and vice versa. It varies usually from 0.400 to 0.500; the specific
gravity of air, 1.000, being taken for the unit. The denser the gas the
more slowly it will pass through a given orifice, and so on this quality
depends in great measure the quantity which passes through the con-
sumer's meter and burner.

In regard to petroleum as a gas-making material experiments made
by Prof. A. Wagner show that naphtha is better and more economi-
cal than it or any of the heavy oils. Fifty kilogrammes of petroleum
produced 1,547 cubic feet of gas, while the same amount of naphtha
produced 1,619 cubic feet. Both petroleum and naphtha produce a
large amount of acetylene, a gas which contains a large proportion of
carbon. In the experiments referred to, five per cent, of acetylene was
evolved, 35.96 per cent, of other heavy (rich) hydrocarbons, and 59
per cent, of light (poor) hydrocarbon gas ; the petroleum being split
up, with deposition of carbon, into a mixture of acetylene, heavy and
light hydrocarbon gas, and hydrogen. In this country, where petro-
leum and its products are much cheaper than they are in Europe, it
has been found that on a large scale 60 to 80 cubic feet of 50 to 70
candle-power gas can be made from one gallon. In a series of thirteen
experiments on crude petroleum made by Mr. C. D. Lamson, of the
Boston Gaslight Company, the average yield per gallon was 72.71
cubic feet, and the average of six tests of candle-power was 45.73. In
seven experiments on naphtha the average yield was 79 cubic feet,
candle-power 53.48. This is equivalent to a yield per barrel respective-
ly of 3,053.82 and 3,338.58 cubic feet. According to Mr. J. ~D. Patton,
about 70 cubic feet of 80 candle gas, or 80 feet of 70 candle gas to
the gallon, is the maximum yield of petroleum or naphtha. A much
smaller burner than the ordinary must be used for gas obtained from
pure Albertite, petroleum, or naphtha ; otherwise the flame will smoke,

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES. 483

and much light be lost, although, on account of their greater specific
gravity, less of any of such gases would pass through the same burner
in a given time.

Reference has been made to the large quantity of water-gas that
is made by one ton of coal. In one of the processes employed, the
average result of four months' working was 1,000 cubic feet of gas to
67.71 pounds of coal and 3.22 gallons of crude petroleum, or 33,082 cubic
feet of about 19 candle gas to one ton of coal and 106.5 gallons petro-
leum : allowing 70 cubic feet for each gallon of petroleum, or 7,335 feet
for the whole, there remains 25,745 feet for the one ton of coal. It
will be remembered that the amount of gas obtained by distillation,
from the very best coal, ranged between 10,000 and 16,000 cubic feet.
Water-gas contains as a rule 40 to 50 per cent, of hydrogen, 30 to 40
per cent, of carbonic oxide, 10 per cent, of naphtha or petroleum
gas, and a few per cent, of carbonic acid. The large proportion of
heavy petroleum-gas (sp. gr. 0.600 to 0.700) and carbonic oxide (sp.
gr. 0.967) makes its specific gravity much heavier than that of coal-
gas ; but the hydrogen, which is the lightest known gas (sp. gr. 0.067),
brings it down to between 0.500 and 0.600.

It has been seen that the gas of common coal is of comparatively
poor illuminating power, unless enriched by the gas of other coals or
of petroleum, and that water-gas of itself possesses no illuminating
power whatever. Although, in considering the nature of the different
gases, their relative values were incidentally compared, it is necessary
to speak of them now more pai'ticularly. In regard to quality, it has
been shown that naphtha-gas is the purest, since it contains no sulphur
or ammonia, and that it is the richest, being from 60 to 80 candle-pow-
er, while common coal-gas is only from 15 to 20 candle-power. It is
also the most economical, alike for producer and consumer : for the
consumer, because, owing to its higher specific gravity, it burns much
more slowly than the coal-gas, while it also gives a better light. The
higher the specific gravity of the gas, the longer it will take to pass
through a given orifice, and therefore the more slowly it will con-
sume ; and the higher the candle-power, the less gas is burned in giv-
ing the same amount of light. It is more economical for the producer,
because, in the first place, there is a great saving in its manufacture,
in the handling of the material. The retorts can be supplied continu-
ously, and the frequent interruptions for recharging necessary, in the
use of coal, are avoided. Each retort, too, can be made to produce a
much larger amount of gas in the one case than in the other. About
10,000 feet of petroleum-gas can be made daily with a single retort,
against about 5,000 feet of coal-gas ; and 60,000 to 70,000 cubic feet
per day, per stoker, against 25,000 to 30,000. Hence there is a saving
both of labor and wear and tear of works. The cost of works for mak-
ing pure petroleum-gas is also much less than that of coal-gas works.
Notwithstanding these facts, the commissioners, whose report we have

4S4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been considering, did not deem it practicable to change at once to the
use of pure petroleum or naphtha gas in Boston, as the burners in use
are, for reasons already given, not suitable ; the works employed to
produce coal-gas are not adapted to this, and as the flame of petro-
leum-gas " burning in an appropriate burner is a very small flame," it
would not in their opinion prove satisfactory to consumers, although
the amount of light would be the same if not greater. The objection
that petroleum-gas in any form injures the metres was found to be
without warrant.

The practice which obtains with the Detroit Mutual Company and
others, of adding air to naphtha-gas to reduce its illuminating power
so that it can be burned in an ordinary burner, was judged by the com-
missioners to be the reverse of economical, to both the company and
consumer, because the deterioration of the gas by this means is in
greater ratio than the increase of its volume. It is said that one per
cent, of air will reduce the illuminating power six per cent., or more
than carbonic acid, the removal of which is considered necessary
by all gas-engineers for the sake of economy. It was for this reason
that the first attempt to make illuminating gas from petroleum (that
at Saratoga by the Gale and Rand process) failed.

What is true of the value of naphtha as a gas-making material used
alone, is also true of its value as an enricher. Experiments already
here referred to, although not expressed in terms of equality, imply
the superiority of naphtha to Albertite, which is about the best
of the enriching coals. The yield from a ton of the latter, which costs
about $25, was, on the average of a number of experiments made by
the Boston Gaslight Company, only 14,694.4 cubic feet of 55 candle
gas; while the yield of $25 worth of naphtha (valuing it at ten
cents a gallon, which is rather high) would be 19,872.5 cubic feet
of 64.5 candle gas, or 5,178.1 cubic feet more gas of richer quality
than a ton of Albertite. By the use of naphtha, too, a larger amount
of gas is obtained from the ordinary caking coal. In enriching with
Albertite the coal with which it is mixed is distilled in an iron retort
at a comparatively low temperature; while, if naphtha be used, all of
the common coal can be carbonized in a clay retort, which is acknowl-
edged by all to be more economical, and all of the gas in the coal
can be exhausted, so that about 1,000 cubic feet more can be obtained
per ton. The iron retorts are more expensive than the clay, because
their first cost is greater, and they do not last as long. In making
gas on a large scale, about one-half the number of retorts can be dis-
pensed with, in the use of naphtha as an enricher. The New York
Mutual Gas Company, for example, in this way, make as much gas
with forty retorts as can be made in the other with eighty ; and with
the disuse of the extra forty retorts the labor necessary to tend them is
dispensed with. The increased yield of the coal by the use of naphtha,
referred to just now, is demonstrated by practical experience to be

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES. 485

very considerable. Comparison of the result of a year's work obtained
by the New York Mutual Company, which uses naphtha for an enrich-
er, and the Boston Gaslight Company, which uses Albertite, shows
that the former obtained 10,975 cubic feet of 19 to 20 candle-power
gas per ton of coal used, while the latter obtained only 8,7*79 cubic
feet of 18 to 19 candle gas, a difference of 2,196 cubic feet per ton in
favor of the naphtha.

In regard to the alleged danger in keeping large quantities of
naphtha in store, the commissioners say : " There is no doubt that it
is more difficult to extinguish burning naphtha than, burning coal;
but the statements that naphtha is like gunpowder (explosive), and
dangerous to store, are erroneous. In fact, it is almost impossible to
mix naphtha-vapor and air so as to make an explosive mixture, for
the reason that, when the proper amount of oxygen is present, the
mixture is diluted with so large a bulk of inert nitrogen that it can-
not be ignited." In regard to the supply, they see no reason to fear
that it will be inadequate to " any demand which may exist in the fu-
ture." The oil-region extends over a wide expanse of country, em-
bracing large districts in Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Indiana, and Western Canada. The production in 1874
was 10,910,303 barrels — larger than ever before by more than 1,000,-
000 barrels; the average price was 2.8 cents per gallon, or $1.17 per
barrel.

The objections urged against water-gas are, that its specific grav-
ity is too high ; that it contains a large proportion of the extremely
poisonous gas, carbonic oxide ; and that the manufacture, being in its
infancy, is not yet proved to be a success. The first is of no impor-
tance, since the specific gravity, unless it is caused by the presence of
a large amount of carbonic anhydride, is high in almost exact propor-
tion as the illumination power is great.

The commissioners say of the second objection that it is, in their
opinion, "sufficient to entirely prevent the use of the mixed hydrogen
and carbonic oxide" (unenriched water-gas) "alone for heating pur-
poses, for the reason that, since it is devoid of odor, its escape from
pipes and diffusion through the air of an inhabited room, in dangerous
amount, could not be detected. The addition to it of petroleum-gas
as an enricher, for illuminating purposes, at once imparts to it a pecul-
iar odor, as strong as that of coal-gas, which would lead to the im-
mediate detection of a leak." Carbonic oxide is one of the most active
poisons, producing, when inhaled, speedy death. Unlike carbonic
acid, which, when it poisons, does so by merely preventing the
entrance of air or oxygen into the lungs, as water does in case of
drowning, so that persons affected can be readily resuscitated, it is a
true physiological poison. And while the first can be rendered harm-
less by a moderate dilution with atmospheric air, the last produces
death almost as readily when diluted as when pure. It forms a com-

486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pound with the red coloring-matter of the blood, which is more
stable than that formed by carbonic anhydride, and cannot be readily
decomposed by oxygen. According to Leblanc, one volume of it
diffused through one hundred volumes of air totally unfits it to sus-
tain life ; and it appears that the lamentable accidents which too fre-
quently occur from burning charcoal or coke, in braziers and chafing-
dishes, in close rooms, result from the poisonous effects of the small
amount of carbonic oxide which is produced and escapes combustion,
since the quantity of carbonic anhydride thus diffused through the air
is not sufficient in many cases to account for the fatal result. The
commissioners, therefore, do not consider the use of water-gas as safe
as that of coal or naphtha gas, but they say that the addition to it of
petroleum-gas greatly diminishes the danger. So far as they are aware,
no accidents have occurred from its use in this country, although
there have been several in Europe. The third objection, that the
manufacture of water-gas is yet in its infancy, is to a certain extent
true, as, although it has been in use in Utica, New York, wrhere the
works were recently burned, and is in use in one or two small places,
as Pougbkeepsie, New York, and the Manayunk District of Philadel-
phia, it has not been adopted by any of the large companies of Eu-
rope or America.

By a comparison of the results obtained by the leading companies
in this country and Europe, some interesting facts are shown concern-
ing the cost of production, which, in the United States, has been
shrouded until now in mystery — the value of the different processes,
the prices charged, etc. The accounts of the London companies, and
of the companies of several other large European cities, are published,
and therefore open to examination ; but, with one or two exceptions,
notably of the Philadelphia works, which are controlled by the city,
this is not the case with American companies, which are, on the con-
trary, careful in guarding the secrets of their business. From most
of them, certain items of information could be obtained by the com-
missioners only Tinder the promise of secrecy. The prices charged
consumers in Europe are generally much lower than those charged in
this country, and it seems that, owing to cheaper labor and better
prices obtained for the residuals (coke, tar, and ammoniacal liquor),
the cost of manufacture is considerably less. The average price varies
with companies and places, from $0,827 per 1,000 cubic feet at London
to $1.51 at Paris. The lower price given, however, is charged by only
one London company, the S. Metropolitan ; the prices of the other
companies are much higher, varying from $1.09 to $1,367. The low-
est cost of production, 59 cents per 1,000 feet, is readied by the
London company just named, and the highest, $1.21, by the Hamburg
company. The high cost in Hamburg is to be partly accounted for
by the fact that the price of labor is higher there than in any other
European city. In 1875 the lowest price in any of the large cities

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES. 487

of this country was in Philadelphia — $2.30. In Boston the price was
$2.50, and in New York $2.75 ; these prices were, however, reduced,
in the early part of 1876, to $2.25 and $2.50, respectively. The prices
charged in the smaller cities are, as a rule, much higher, being in
some cases — Ashland and Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, for example —
as high as $10 per 1,000. In Detroit, Michigan, owing to a tem-
porary war between an old and a new company, the price was as low
as 50 cents per 1,000 in one part of the city, and $1 in another ;
while in a third, supplied only by the pipes of the old company, it
was $3.

With regard to the Philadelphia company, which, as before stated,
is under control of the municipal authorities, it was found that, while
the price charged was the lowest, the cost of the gas was the highest.
It had been alleged that the authorities were in the habit of giving
employment to laborers for political purposes about election-time, and
it was found that the cost of labor was ten cents per 1,000 feet greater
than in other works. The proportion of capital to business done
varies very greatly with different companies. In Washington, D. C,
it was $1.46 per 1,000 cubic feet of gas sold, and in Brookline, Massa-
chusetts, $17.50. " This," remark the commissioners, " must be due, to
a great extent, to improper investments or expenditures, and is the
great argument against any monopoly being in the hands of a private
corporation, and in favor of its management by municipal authorities,
since a corporation, having a monopoly, has the power to charge such
a price as may be necessary to pay its dividends, and has, therefore,
no inducement to diminish its capital, but, on the contrary, one to
increase it." The average capital and borrowed money of the London
companies, in 1874, wras $4.54 per 1,000 cubic feet of gas sold.

As information given them touching the net cost of manufacture
was confidential, the commissioners were deterred from publishing the
facts as they found them, and forced to resort to giving an approxi-
mation. For this purpose, they compare the New York Mutual Com-
pany and the Boston Gaslight Company, as being more nearly on an
equality, with respect to business done and capital employed, than
any others, and deduct the " amount of dividends and taxes pro rata
per 1,000 cubic feet sold from the average price of gas to the con-
sumer." Each of these companies has an actual paid-in capital of
$2,500,000, and bonds to the amount of $500,000. The first paid, in
1875, twenty per cent, dividends on the capital, six per cent, interest
on the bonds, and $50,000 taxes, making, in all, $580,000, which,
divided among 509,000,000 cubic feet of gas sold, gives $1.14 for each
1,000 feet; this amount, deducted from the net price per 1,000 feet,
$2.65, leaves $1.51, which is supposed to be the cost of the gas ; and
that, the commissioners assure us, is even more than the actual cost.
In the same manner the cost of the Boston gas is ascertained to be
$1.85 per 1,000 feet, or thirty-four cents more. This difference is

488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

partly due to the use of Albertite instead of naphtha as an enricher,
which, as already shown, is more expensive, and partly to greater
cost of common coal, labor, and distribution, and smaller receipts for
residuals. The leakage, for instance, is only seven per cent, with tlie
New York Mutual, while it is eight and one-half per cent, with the
Boston company. The commissioners, however, believe that the gas
of this company ought not to cost the consumers more than $2 or
$2.10 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Examination of the gas of the New York Mutual showed it to be
very pure, and of a high illuminating power. It contained of ammonia
about one-quarter of a grain in 100 cubic feet, and less than nine
grains of sulphur. Its specific gravity averaged 0.129, and its
illuminating power between 20 and 21 candles. The London com-
panies, as before stated, are prohibited by law from allowing the
amount of ammonia in each 100 feet to exceed two and one-half
grains, and of sulphur twenty grains, and from permitting the candle-
power to fall below 16. The amount of ammonia in the Philadel-
phia gas was found to be 52 grains per 100 cubic feet. " The can-
dle-power," say the commissioners, " is always within the control
of the company, and it ought in no case to be allowed to fall below
the London standard." In regard to the charges of smokiness made
against the gas of the New York Mutual Company, the commission-
ers, after a thorough investigation, ascertained that where smoke
occurred it was due to the ignorance or carelessness of consumers in
using unsuitable burners.

All the principal water-gas works were visited, and found to be
producing gas of good quality. The cost by the Harkness process*
used at New London, Connecticut, exclusive of the cost of labor,
purifying, and fuel for the petroleum-retort, which, by this process,
requires a separate fire, was found to be about 75 cents per 1,200 feet.
The Lowe process, in use in Utica until the works were burned,
requires but one fire for decomposing both steam and petroleum, so
that it possesses an advantage over the other in regard to the cost of
production. The friends of this process claim that, manufacturing at
the rate of 200,000 cubic feet per day, the gas can be made (coal being
at seven dollars a ton, and petroleum at twelve and one-half cents a
gallon) at a cost of 53 cents per 1,000 feet, exclusive of labor, fuel,
and purifying. For the Gwynne-Harris process, in use at Poughkeep-
sie, New York, it is claimed that the cost, under like conditions, is
only 37.3 cents per 1,000 feet.

The relation of a gas company to a municipality, the commission-
ers say, is a peculiar one in many respects, and the company ought
not, therefore, to be viewed in the same light with other manufactur-
ing corporations. It supplies a commodity which is not a luxury but
a necessity ; the sale of its product is a limited one, being confined to
the city or district which it supplies ; and it is expected to lay its

GAS MANUFACTURE AND GAS COMPANIES. 489

pipes so that all who desire to burn gas may do so, which entails an
expenditure in distribution that is not, perhaps, repaid by the sale of
gas in the particular locality for many years ; and a very large part
of its first investment is in material that would not give any return
in case it became bankrupt, or desirous of withdrawing from the busi-
ness. Therefore it is entitled to a great deal of consideration, pro-
vided it performs "its duty to its customers, and is honorable in all
its transactions.1' A general view is then taken of the London com-
panies, the result of their competition, and the efforts which have
been made to control them by parliamentary enactments. In the
efforts that were made from time to time, between 1820 and 1857,
to reduce the price of gas, a number of new companies w^ere char-
tered and established, until at length thirteen existed, and in some
of the streets the mains of three or four companies lay almost in
contact with each other. When a leak occurred it was impossible
to tell from which main the gas escaped — it was, in some places,
impossible to tell with certainty to what company a particular main
belonged, and it sometimes happened that a consumer would use the
gas of one company and pay for it to another. These circumstances,
of course, did not tend to lessen the cost of gas, and so the com-
panies finally agreed to district the city off and abandon competi-
tion. Then followed a consolidation of five companies with others,
so that only eight remained, and latterly three of these consoli-
dated into one, whereby the number is reduced to six — which re-
sult, corresponding as it does with the history of gas companies else-
where, proves that competition does not operate to reduce the price
of gas. It only illustrates the truth of the remark made by John
Stuart Mill, and accepted by other political economists, that "where
the competitors are so few (as in the case of gas companies), they
always end by agreeing not to compete. They may run a race of
cheapness to ruin a new candidate, but as soon as he has established
his footing they come to terms with him." It eventually ends by the
public having to pay the profits on two or more capitals instead
of one.

As early as 1820 a committee of Parliament, of which Sir William
Congreve was chairman, reported in favor of granting a monopoly
under eertain restrictions to each company in its own district ; but the
recommendation was not adopted. As the matter now stauds the com-
panies are restricted by law from charging more than 3s. 9d. per 1,000
cubic feet, and from paying more than ten per cent, dividends on stocks.
The law also compels the companies to submit their accounts to the
inspection of an auditor, at his pleasure ; to publish annual statements
of the cost of mauufacture, profits, etc. ; and it empowers the local
municipal authorities to erect works and supply gas if the companies
will not agree to sell gas for 3s. 9d, ; and the same authorities may, if
they think that ten per cent, dividends can be paid at a less price

49o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

than 35. 9d., call for the appointment of three commissioners to reduce
the price. And a company may call for a like commission to raise the
price if 3s. 9d. will not pay its allotted dividend.

"With regard to the manufacture of gas by municipalities, the com-
missioners say that the best argument in its favor is, that about fifty
cents per 1,000 feet of the gas sold must be applied to the payment
of dividends to stockholders, while " a much smaller amount than
this, at the low rate at which money could be hired by the city, would
be sufficient to pay interest on the capital, and at the same time allow
a sufficient amount to be laid aside, in the form of a sinking-fund, to
entirely liquidate the debt in a few years." However, " as a rule a city
cannot manufacture gas as cheaply as a private corporation, since it
is almost impossible to avoid the influence of politics on any city
undertaking." Concerning the Philadelphia works, which is the most
notable example of municipal manufacture in this country, the com-
missioners speak as follows: "Notwithstanding all the disadvantages
arising from political influence in the management of these works, we
find the profits for the year 1875 to have been $793,244.12 ; and after
deducting for interest on the bonds, etc., the sum of $302,986.21 went
toward the increase of the sinking-fund, which, on December 31,
1875, amounted to $2,470,193.93, while the whole amount of outstand
ing bonds is $5,400,000 ; thus leaving only $2,929,806.07 to be pro-
vided for, when the whole works, costing nearly $14,000,000, will
become the unencumbered property of the city."

The conclusions arrived at by the committee may be summarized
as follows: That although Boston is supplied with gas of excel-
lent quality, at a lower price than most other cities of the United
States, the same could be made much cheaper than it is, by the
use of naphtha or petroleum as an enricher, but it is doubtful whether
the appliances for using that substance could be employed by the
Boston company without paying a considerable royalty, or becom-
ing involved in lawsuits for alleged infringement of patents, which
are, however, of doubtful validity ; that the " Gwynne-Harris " and
" Lowe " water-gas processes offer fair prospects of success, and
should be carefully watched and studied ; that the existing compa-
nies in Boston, and other cities in Massachusetts, should be granted
monopolies in their several districts, suhject, however, to the super-
vision of a permanent Board of State Commissioners, similar to the
Railroad Commissioners, and to a full annual publication of their entire
business, and be required to keep their gas at all times up to an
illuminating power of sixteen candles, free from sulphuretted hydro-
gen, and from more than twenty grains of sulphur and five of am-
monia, per 100 cubic feet; and, finally, that the authorities of the
city of Boston should be empowered by the Legislature to erect
works and manufacture and supply gas to the citizens in case any
company which, by the terms of its charter, is not subject to legisla-

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR J. P. COOKE, Jr. 491

tive control, should refuse to comply with such reasonable sugges-
tions as may be deemed necessary to insure publicity in regard to
its business, proper inspection of its gas, and a limitation of its
earnings.

■♦»»

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR J. P. COOKE, Jb.

ryiHE position occupied by this gentleman in American science is
J- one of marked distinction as a successful original investigator,
and also as an efficient reformer in the work of scientific education.
He is known at home and abroad both by the extent and importance
of his experimental researches, and by the high-toned and thorough-
going character of his expository works on chemistry and physics.
It is a fact of no little significance that, although Prof. Cooke had the
advantage of a university training, he was self-taught in chemistry,
as his collegiate culture afforded no special preparation for his chosen
field of labor, while the impulse which started him in a scientific
career came from popular lectures outside the university. Yet he
has probably done more than any other man to give chemical science
its proper status in the collegiate curriculum as a valuable discipli-
nary study entitled to a leading place in an effective system of liberal
culture.

Josiah Pabsons Cooke, Jr., was born in Boston, October 12, 1827,
and is a descendant of Major Aaron Cooke, who emigrated from
England in 1630, and became one of the first settlers of Dorchester,
and afterward of Northampton, Massachusetts. His father, a lawyer,
is still living, at the advanced age of ninety, the oldest member
of the Suffolk Bar.

Young Cooke received his early education at the Boston Latin
School, and entered Harvard College in 1844, where he graduated in
1848. After passing a year in Europe for the recovery of his health,
he returned to the university in 1849, as Tutor in Mathematics. He
was soon afterward appointed Instructor in Chemistry, and at the
close of the following year he succeeded to the Erving Professorship
of Chemistry and Mineralogy, which he has held ever since.

Prof. Cooke never had the advantages of a European education,
or indeed of any systematic teaching in science. He acquired his
taste for chemistry at the early lectures of the Lowell Institute, in
Boston, given by the elder Silliman, and, with the apparatus he had
collected in a little laboratory in his father's house while a boy, he
began his first course of lectures at Cambridge. For several years
preceding his appointment no regular instruction in chemistry had
been given to the undergraduates, and he had, therefore, the whole
labor of developing this department of the college from the begin-

492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ning. Although scientific schools had been previously established,
both at Cambridge and at New Haven, yet Prof. Cooke was probably
the first to introduce into our American colleges the experimental
method of teaching physical science.' He was, at first, greatly
hampered by the inflexible recitation system, then universal, and
success was only gained after many trials ; but Harvard College
may now claim to offer its undergraduates as broad and thorough
instruction in the various departments of chemistry, including min-
eralogy, as any similiar institution in the world. Like most American
men of science, Prof. Cooke's first duty was to teach, and his time
and energy have accordingly been chiefly spent in developing methods
of science-teaching, in building laboratories, in making collections,
and in providing the various means of scientific instruction.

In connection with his teaching Prof. Cooke has published the fol-
lowing books:

" Chemical Problems and Reactions, to accompany Stockhardt's
Elements of Chemistry," in 1857 ; "Elements of Chemical Physics,"
in 1860; "Principles of Chemical Philosophy," in 1869.

In a notice of the last book the London Chemical News says : " So
far as our recollection goes, we do not think that there exists in any
language a book on so difficult a subject as this, so carefully, clearly,
and lucidly written;" and in noticing the same book the American
Journal of Science says: "To Prof. Cooke, more than to any Ameri-
can, is due the credit of having made chemistry an exact and dis-
ciplinary study in our colleges."

Prof. Cooke has given many courses of popular lectures in different
cities — Lowell, Worcester, Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Washington — be-
sides five courses at the Lowell Institute in Boston. His course of
lectures at the Brooklyn Institute, in 1860, was subsequently published
under the title of " Religion and Chemistry ; or, Proofs of God's Plan
in the Atmosphere and its Elements" (1864). In these discourses he
aimed to show that the argument for design is not invalidated by the
theories of evolution.

A course of lectures on electricity at the Lowell Institute, Boston,
in the winter of 1868-'69, was followed by the publication, in the
Journal of the Franklin Institute, of a series of papers on the " Abso-
lute System of Electrical Measurements " and on the " Theory of the
Voltaic Battery." In the last he developed a new theory of elec-
tricity, which has also been embodied in the later editions of his
"Chemical Philosophy." This theory, like that of Dufay, admits
two electrical fluids ; but it regards these as separable constituents
of the ether of space. These ethereal fluids, more or less blended,
form an atmosphere around every molecule held in place by the im-
mense force of molecular attraction; and when, by the various causes
of electrical disturbance, the electrical ethers become more or less
isolated on the same or on different molecules the two tend to flow

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR J. P. COOK, Jr. 493

together with great rapidity in virtue of their wonderful elasticity.
If we assume that this motion takes place in accordance with the
well-known laws of the diffusion of gases, the theory gives a satis-
factory explanation of all well-established electrical phenomena.

In the autumn of 1872 Prof. Cooke delivered an interesting and
important course of lectures on the "New Chemistry," which was
subsequently published in the "International Scientific Series." His
volume is one of the best and most successful of these books, and has
been very highly appreciated both in this country and abroad, having
been translated into most of the languages of Europe.

Among Prof. Cooke's lesser scientific publications may be men-
tioned the following::

»

1. " On the Relation between the Atomic Weights of the Chemical Ele-
ments " (" Memoirs of the American Academy," vol. v., 1854).

It was first shown in this paper that when the elementary substances are
classified in natural groups, their atomic weights and other physical qualities are
related by regular differences.

2. " On Two New Crystalline Compounds of Zinc and Antimony, and on the
Cause of the Variation of Composition observed in their Crystals" ("Memoirs
of the American Academy," vol. v., 1855).

This investigation proved that the crystalline form of these compounds was
preserved under very considerable variations of composition, and indicated that
the excess of one or the other constituent depended not solely on the composi-
tion of the menstruum in which the crystals were formed, but also on the chemi-
cal force which determines the union of the elements in definite proportions.
The subject was still further discussed in the following paper, published during a
visit to England.

3. " Crystalline Form not necessarily an Indication of Definite Chemical
Composition, or on the Possible Variations of Composition in a Mineral Species
independent of the Phenomena of Isomorphism" {Philosophical Magazine for
June, 1860).

4. "On the Dimorphism of Arsenic, Antimony, and Zinc " {American Journal
of Science for March, 1861).

It was here proved that all three of these elements are capable of crystallizing
in octahedrons of the regular system.

5. " On Octahedral Galena " {American Journal of Science for January,

1863).

In this it was shown that the octahedral cleavage in this singular variety
of galena from Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, is merely an unusual develop-
ment of a constant condition.

6. " Crystallographic Examination of the Hebron Childrenite, and Compari-
son of this Variety with the Childrenite of Tavistock " {American Journal of
Science for September, 1863).

7. "Crystallographic Examination of the Acid Tartrates of Csesia and
Eubidia" (American Journal of Science for January, 1864).

494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

8. " On the Projection of the Spectra of the Metals" {American Journal of
Science for September, 1865).

9. " On the Construction of a Spectroscope with a Number of Prisms by
which the Angle of Minimum Deviation for any Pay may be accurately
measured " {American Journal of Science for November, 1865).

10. " On the Heat of Friction" ("Proceedings of the American Academy,"
1865).

11. "On the Aqueous Lines of the Solar Spectrum" ("Proceedings of the
American Academy," 1866).

By comparing observations with the spectroscope and the hygrometer, it was
in this paper first shown that a large part of the air-lines in the solar spectrum
are due to aqueous vapor.

12. " On Danalite, a New Mineral Species from the Granite of Rockport,
Massachusetts " {American Journal of Science for July, 1866).

This is a well-marked species allied to Helvin, but containing zinc in place
of manganese.

»!- '

13. " On Cryophyllite, a New Mineral Species of the Mica Family, with Some
Associated Minerals in the Granite of Eockport, Massachusetts" {American
Journal of Science for March, 1867).

Besides establishing a new species, this paper shows that in the veins of the
Rockport granite there are closely associated a unicilicate and a bisilicate mica,
which are isomorphous with each other, a circumstance which renders probable
the theory that the wide variations in the composition of the micas may result
from an isomorphous mixture of two similar types.

14. " On Certain Lecture Experiments, and on a New Form of Endiometer "
{American Journal of Science for September, 1867).

15. " A Method of determining the Amounts of Protoxide of Iron in Sili-
cates not soluble in the Ordinary Mineral Acids " {American Journal of Science
for November, 1867).

16. " Crystallographic Determination of Some American Chlorites" {Ameri-
can Journal of Science for September, 1867).

The paper gives some new measurements of angles, and shows that there
are two crystallographic types of chlorites corresponding to the well-known
types of micas. It is further shown that tbere is a variation of optical angles
in the chlorites, even on the same specimens, like that observed with the micas,
and the inference is drawn that the variation is due to a similar cause.

17. "Atomic Ratios" {American Journal of Science for May, 1869).

It was for the first time pointed out in this paper that what mineralogists
have long called the oxygen ratio of a silicate is really the ratio between the
atomicities of the acid and basic radicals in these salts.

18. " The Vermiculites — their Crystallographic and Cnemical Relations to the
Micas, together with a Discussion of the Cause of the Variation of the Optical
Angle in these Minerals " ("Proceedings of the American Academy," 1873).

This monograph contains the chemical analyses and crystallographic descrip-

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR J. P. COOKE, Jr. 495

tions of several micaceous minerals which are here classified together, and
shows that the variations of the optical angle in the micaceous species is clue
to the interfoliation of the different members of a made. It also points out
the close relation between hexagonal and trimetric crystals by showing that a
hexagonal form and structure may result from a similar macling of trimetric
crystals the prismatic angle of which is 120°.

19. " Melanosiderite, a New Mineral Species from Mineral Hill, Delaware
County, Pennsylvania" ("Proceedings of the American Academy," 1875).

20. " On Two New Varieties of Vermiculites, with a Eevision of Other
Members of this Group," published in connection with F. A. Gooch (" Proceed-
ings of the American Academy," 1875).

21. " On a New Mode of manipulating Hydric Sulphide" (" Proceedings of
the American Academy," 1876).

This in application of the soda-water fountain, by which hydric sulphide is
dissolved in water under pressure, and the magnet readily applied in a concen-
trated form.

22. " On the Process of Reverse Filtering, and its Application to Large
Masses of Material" ("Proceedings of the American Academy," 1876).

This enumeration occupies but a small space ; but when it is con-
sidered that each paper only states the results of elaborate and pro-
tracted original and experimental investigation, where the unverified
guesses and the trials that go for nothing do not appear, we can form
some idea of the amount of labor involved in the quiet life of a true
scientific man.

Prof. Cooke has also written various articles for encyclopaedias and
reviews, and published several addresses. His discourse on " Sci-
entific Culture," delivered at the opening of the summer courses of in-
struction in chemistry, at Harvard University, July 7, 1875, printed
in The Popular Science Monthly for September, 1875, and repub-
lished in London, was one of the ablest contributions to the literature
of scientific education that have appeared in a long time. Prof.
Cooke's life has been one of valuable scientific service, which has,
moreover, met with wide and cordial appreciation. He has been hon-
ored by the membership of many learned societies in this country
and in Europe, and was quite recently elected foreign honorary mem-
ber of the Chemical Society of London.

496

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

HONOB TO ADAM SMITH.

ABOUT a hundred gentlemen sat
down to dinner at Delmonico's,
December 12th, in commemoration of
the centennial anniversary of the publi-
cation of Adam Smith's "Wealth of
Nations." The occasion was an inter-
esting one, and the various topics sug-
gested were treated with an earnest-
ness and ability of which the public
got but a very imperfect idea through
the newspaper reports. Mr. Parke
Godwin presided with efficiency, and
made a very instructive opening speech,
which was followed by addresses from
Mr. Bigelow, Mr. Atkinson, Mr. D.
A. "Wells, Prof. Sumner, and Dr. An-
derson, of the Eochester University,
each of which brought out an impor-
tant aspect of the great subject of free-
trade. While Adam Smith was hon-
ored as the chief historic representa-
tive of rational and liberal views in
regard to the liberty of commerce, it
was pointed out that his position may
be easily misconceived, and his claims
exaggerated. Without denying the
proposition of Mr. Buckle, that Smith's
"Inquiry into the Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations " is probably
the most important book in its influ-
ence upon the policy of states and the
economical welfare of mankind that
was ever written, it was shown also
that Adam Smith was but the mouth-
piece of his age ; that a preceding gen-
eration of inquirers had prepared for
him ; that the French economists were
in advance of Europe in their economic
views ; and that an elaborate French
work appeared in 1778, simultaneously
with the " Wealth of Nations," in which
the same conclusions were reached, and
enforced with great clearness and pow-
er. As stated by Mr. Bigelow, it was
but another case so common in the

progress of scientific investigation,
where the ideas reached belong rather
to the epoch than to any individual
exponent of them.

Mr. Wells gave an admirable ac-
count of the workings of the restric-
tive system, which burdened the indus-
tries of Europe from the middle ages
down to the time of Adam Smith. He
showed that the fundamental idea in
all business transactions, whether be-
tween nations or individuals, was that
parties trading were in necessary rela-
tions of enmity, and that what one man
or one nation gained the other party
inevitably lost. So radical was this
antagonism regarded between men,
guilds, and different countries, as to
find expression in Hobbes's theory that
the state of man in society is one of
necessary and perpetual war. The
merit of Adam Smith was, that he
demonstrated the utter fallacy of this
view, and proved that by the natural
laws of trade the advantages of ex-
change are mutual, and that in its
largest possible freedom there will
accrue the largest possible benefits to
all. Christianity had been trying for
many centuries to enforce the golden
rule of mutual justice as a matter of
duty, to be carried out even though it
involve suffering and loss ; Adam Smith
showed that the rule of right in human
intercourse, so far as trade is concerned,
produces reciprocal good, and is for the
pecuniary interest of both parties.

Dr. Anderson maintained forcibly
and impressively that free-trade is to
be placed on the broadest grounds of
morality. The liberty of commerce he
held to be a God-given right as much
as any other kind of liberty ; and the
restrictions upon trade to be just as
immoral and vicious as interference
with other forms of freedom. A man

EDITOR'S TABLE.

497

has a natural and inalienable right to
his personal freedom of action, to the
use of his muscles, and the employment
of his powers, in any manner and direc-
tion that he chooses ; to contravene
this is slavery. A man has a right to
the use of his mind, to freedom of
thought and speech ; and to interfere
with this is. tyranny. A man also has
a natural right to freedom of exchange
of the products of labor, to buy and to
sell, as he pleases and where he pleases ;
and every arbitrary impediment to this
liberty is despotism. In the advance of
civilization, and through the struggles
of ages, personal liberty of action and
thought has been secured ; but it still
remains to extort from governments
absolute freedom of commercial inter-
course, whether on a small scale or
large. Dr. Anderson paid a compli-
ment to the great abstract thinkers —
Grotius, Smith, and Bentham — who,
although only scholars and philoso-
phers, have exerted a powerful influ-
ence upon the modern world ; and he
stated that free-trade doctrines are now
taught in all our best colleges so effi-
ciently that this influence will be cer-
tain to tell in the future settlement of
the question.

Prof. Sumner took up, briefly, the
present state of political economy,
and remarked upou its incompleteness
and the conflict of views that has
recently sprung up in regard to its
scope, its validity, and its permanence.
While many of its questions will have
to be further elucidated, while much
that was at first laid down as true has
required revision, and while other forms
of knowledge are reacting upon and
modifying it, Prof. Sumner is of the
opinion that political economy must
stand in the future as an established
division in the classified hierarchy of
the sciences.

Mr. Sanborn, of Boston, followed
this line of thought in some remarks on
the relation of political economy to so-
cial science. In that closer interdepen-

vol. x.— 32

dence of the various forms of knowl-
edge which has resulted from scientific
investigation our views become en-
larged, and it is apparent that these
subjects must more and more be con-
sidered together. Political economy
will suffer if studied exclusively, or
with no reference to that philosophy
of man and society of which it is but
a part.

Dr. Leverson closed the speech-
making by an appeal to introduce the
study of the rudiments of political
economy in our schools. He testified,
from his own large experience as a
lecturer, both in England and in this
country, that pupils in schools may be
very early interested in an elementary
knowledge of economics, or of the
sources of familiar things and the busi-
ness operations by which they are
procured. He thought this was the
proper place to begin the study of so-
cial science.

SOCIETIES FOB TEE DIFFUSION OF
SCIENCE.

The necessity of associated action
for the attainment of desirable and
important public objects is generally
understood, as is shown by the numer-
ous societies and organizations for the
promotion of religious, political, phil-
anthropic, literary, historical, and sci-
entific objects. The directions taken
by such associations in respect to the
interests to be promoted are, of course,
various, and well represent the state of
intelligence, the culture, the mental
preoccupations and aspirations, of the
community in which such societies are
formed. As regards science, the or-
ganization of societies for its promo-
tion has mainly had for its object
the encouragement and aid of original
observation and research ; and, as men
devoted to independent inquiry are not
numerous, and are widely scattered,
such associations are neither large in
number nor strong in their member-

498

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ship and support. Moreover, from the
nature of their objects they are more
completely cut off from public interest,
sympathy, and patronage, tuan any
other societies. In speaking of the
meeting of the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science,
held at Buffalo last August, we called
attention to the duty of scientific men
to take the public more into the ac-
count in the organization of their
-work, and we showed how that might
be done without any detriment to the
proper objects which the convention
had before it. Of all the subjects that
are now promoted by social combina-
tions, that of the diffusion of science
owes the least to such agencies. The
work of disseminating scientific knowl-
* edge among the people goes slowly on,
by means of the press, by schools, and
by lectures; but it would be much
more vigorously prosecuted if it were
made a distinctive and prominent ob-
ject, either in associations expressly
formed for the purpose, or in societies
that combine different lines of effort
in the general purpose of popular in-
struction. It is gratifying to note the
multiplication of scientific academies
in the leading cities of the country,
which bring together observers and in-
vestigators, and call out original con-
tributions that prove to be valuable
and worthy of publication in an annual
volume of "Transactions." But such
associations can only be sustained at
the larger centres of population, and
even there they must struggle hard to
maintain their existence. But if these
, bodies embraced within their plans, as
a leading ana permanent object, the
diffusion of science through the com-
munity and the scattering of valuable
information upon practical subjects,
there can be little doubt that they
would be better sustained, both by at-
tendance at their meetings and by the
contribution of funds to carry on their
operations. Moreover, in the smaller
cities and towns, where the higher

work of science is impracticable from
the fewness of its cultivators, societies
promotive of popular scientific educa-
tion might be created that would do
efficient and valuable service. Scien-
tific libraries might be collected, scien-
tific essays contributed, and followed
by instructive discussions, and courses
of lectures secured from competent
men on subjects that would enlist the
attention and secure the liberal patron-
age of the public. In every town of
five or ten thousand inhabitants a
dozen active, thoughtful, and spirited
men might be found, competent to or-
ganize and manage such a society, that
would effect much good in the local-
ity ; and, if adjacent towns did the
same thing, much might be gained in
various ways by cooperation. Only
one thing is needed to achieve this re-
sult, and that is, a hearty interest and
some enthusiasm in the enterprise on
the part of a few individuals to carry
it on.

"We by no means claim that such an
association should be exclusively scien-
tific in its aims. It might embrace lit-
erature, local history, political econo-
my, and various social questions, among
its objects. We only urge that the
popular diffusion of scientific informa-
tion should be an essential element
and a clearly-recognized object. From
such modest and perhaps ill-defined be-
ginnings valuable and lasting institu-
tions have often arisen. We have met
with some remarks in a paper on the
" Historical Societies of the United
States," contributed to the Report of
the Bureau of Education in Washing-
ton by Dr. Henry II. Holmes, Libra-
rian of the New York State Library at
Albany, which are so suggestive in re-
lation to this subject that we take the
liberty of quoting them :

" To these observations on the question
of enlarged plans for local societies, we vent-
ure to subjoin the further inquiry, whether
most county and town societies might not,
with incalculable advantage, combine with

EDITOR'S TABLE.

499

historical research the study of science, art,
and natural history ? Every locality already
has its military, fire, debating, literary, so-
cial, or charitable society. It is incredible
that there should be so few simply for the
pursuit of knowledge to the acquisition of
which ail men are so naturally impelled and
in which they manifest so deep an interest.
The same motives, which dispose some of
the leading minds of a place to associate for
the sake of preserving its history, must be
operating in the minds of others, their
neighbors, to desire to acquire and commu-
nicate knowledge in other forms. On the
part of those interested in history it should
be regarded as a strong reason for extend-
ing the scope of their society, the consider-
ation that when confined to a single subject
it will depend for its permanence on the ac-
tivity of two or three members. It does not
afford a basis sufficient for the active co-
operation of more than a small portion of
the cultivated minds of the place ; the topics
either soon become exhausted as matters
of continual research, or the information
is meagre and accumulates slowly, and the
popular interest diminishes ; the meetings
cease to be attended, and the society either
dies of inanition or languishes while stand-
ing in the way of a new organization on a
more comprehensive plan.

" It may be urged as an objection that
some of our societies have commenced with
the title of ' historical and philosophical,'
and have not been remarkably successful.
Others, however, have tried the plan of
conjoined aims, and congratulate themselves
on the result. The Essex Institute of Sa-
lem, Massachusetts, was formed in 1848
from the union of a county historical and a
county natural history society, and organ-
ized on a popular basis of large member-
ship, having at the present time four hun-
dred and eighty members. With the aid
of historical and scientific workers it is
prosecuting both branches with an efficien-
cy, as shown by its publications, which
must compel imitation. The Albany Insti-
tute, New York, has been perpetuated with
varying fortunes for forty-six years, and
has four departments of research — physical
science and the arts, natural history, his-
tory, and general literature. It has at no
time been so promising an organization as
at the present, when it has been extended
to a membership of two hundred and four.
A similar successful society is the Literary
and Philosophical Society of Liverpool,
England, founded in 1846, which has over
two hundred members, and has published

twenty-eight volumes of its ' Transactions.'
The subjects treated of in these conform,
in fair proportion of literature, history, and
science, to the name of the society. One
motive assigned in its constitution for or-
ganizing the society, ' to modify the local
tendency to the pursuit of commerce,' is
capable of receiving a wider application.

" We have purposely alluded to the large
membership in these three societies, be-
cause a late scientific writer, speaking of
the frequent failures of the learned socie-
ties of the United States, declares that they
have died from ' a constant enlargement of
the range of membership, and consequent
lowering of the tone of the society ' {North
American Review, October, 1874). And yet
we draw from this same writer the two
facts that the membership of the leading
English societies ranges from four hundred
to one thousand or several thousand mem-
bers, and that the annual tax on each mem-
ber is from two to four guineas. We should
infer from these facts that, by a large mem-
bership, an abundant income is secured for
the purposes of a society, and that the
original papers of the men of science who
are joined with them can be published, and
the expense of their investigations pro-
vided for. A large membership secures
friends, an audience, an income, and ele-
vates the purposes and aims of all. Some
aid by active efforts, some by pecuniary
help, and all by the sympathy of a common
purpose. Membership is not a reward of
merit, acquired for achievements in litera-
ture or science, but an encouragement and a
stimulus both to the less learned and the
most learned. It ought not to be difficult
to combine the man of research with the
intelligent aspirant for knowledge, who ed-
ucates himself for similar researches by
means of the companionship. To the man
of science or invention it must be desirable
that he should have the encouragement of a
listening audience, and be brought in con-
tact with men of varied pursuits, outside
of his specialty. It affords him an opportu-
nity at least to utter his words of scientific
truth before his fellow-citizens. To make
an addition to the sum of human knowl-
edge, or to diffuse and inspire a love of it,
may be of equal importance to humanity.

" In suggesting this combination of varied
objects of pursuit, we are not, of course,
supposing that academies of scientists can
be founded everywhere ; but we cannot re-
sist the belief that in most counties and
towns there will be found a sufficient number
of men of education, of all professions, occu-

500

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pations, and opinions, disposed to unite for
the mutual pursuit of history, science, and
the arts ; and that they will engage in it,
not in a spirit of exclusiveness, hut of be-
nevolence, aiming to develop a love for the
most elevated and accurate forms of knowl-
edge. It should be easy, in a multitude of
places, for associations formed with these
blended purposes to sustain twice a month,
or even weekly, during a large part of the
year, meetings for the purpose of listening
to papers, original or compiled, from mem-
bers or invited speakers, or for the discus-
sion of any topic introduced. By some such
method as this, local societies would be-
come schools of thought and learning for
the active members of the community in
hundreds of our towns and cities. There
might naturally follow a union of the socie-
ties of a State under a general society, for
the publication of such papers as might be
deemed suitable.

" The extensive formation of such socie-
ties throughout the land seems so full of
promise and so potent for good as to justify
the establishment of a national society for
the organization of associations for the pur-
suit of knowledge. Such a society might
initiate efforts which would have the cordial
support of co-workers in every State of the
Union. The original name of our oldest
learned society, the American Philosophi-
cal, of which Franklin was the first presi^
dent, was 4 The American Society for Pro-
moting and Propagating Useful Knowl-
edge.' The title is an indication of the ex-
panded and benevolent designs of its found-
ers. This society had, also, its standing
committee on history and commerce. If the
Smithsonian Institution, founded ' for the
increase and diffusion of knowledge among
men,' should be able to incorporate, with
its present benefactions to science, the sup-
port of an agency for encouraging such so-
cieties as have been described, it might be
hoped it would not be a departure from the
spirit of its founder. It would be an agen-
cy, by whatever association it should be
controlled, for introducing and promoting a
plan for enlisting tens of thousands in the
direct study of science, art, and history.
Such societies would be the means of edu-
cating many communities to a loving appre-
ciation of scientific investigations, and of
correct views of human history. They
would contribute incalculably to the prog-
ress of American society and to the hap-
piness of millions."

LITERARY NOTICES.

Elements of Physics, or Natural Philos-
ophy. By Neil Arnott, M. D., LL. D.,
F. R. S. Seventh edition, edited by Alex-
ander Bain, LL. D., and Alfred Swaine
Taylor, M. D., F. R. S. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. Pp. 873. Price, $3.

We are glad to see this sterling and fa-
vorite work brought up to date, as it is in
the edition now issued. A generation ago
Arnott's "Physics" was the leading text-
book on natural philosophy both in Eng-
land and this country, and we much ques-
tion if for educational purposes anything
equal to it has appeared since. We have
physical text-books with finer pictures, but
we have gone to an excess in this direction,
and greatly overdone the pictorial element.
It is an objection to large, elaborate, and
profuse illustrations, that they are costly,
that they trench upon the text, and often
give prominence to trivialities, simply be-
cause they afford an opportunity for a
showy engraving. The illustrations of a
high-grade scientific book should be simple,
and severely subordinated to the ideas they
exemplify. The cuts in Dr. Arnott's book,
while having no merit as mere pictures, are
perfectly sufficient for their purpose of illus-
tration.

There is another objection to our recent
text-books of physics in the want of balance
or proportion in treating of subjects. The
rage for the new, and what is called keep-
ing up with the times, has led to undue
prominence in representing the last results
of science, and to a corresponding neglect
of those established facts and principles
which have lost their novelty because they
are old and well-settled. A book filled with
the recent wonders of research may be ex-
citing, and full of interesting information,
but these qualities cannot commend it to
students whose object is to acquire the body
of principles that constitute a science. In
this respect, and in physics especially, the
value of the old greatly preponderates over
that of the new. No doubt such works
should be up to date, and represent " the
present state of science," but facts discov-
ered a great while ago, and long-determined
laws, are quite as much parts of the present
state of science as the last results of in-

LITERARY NOTICES.

501

quiry. In this respect, also, Arnott's " Ele-
ments of Physics " is more harmonious and
well-proportioned than many of the later
works upon the subject. Its careful editors
have brought it up to date by introducing
clear accounts of the various advances in
physics that have been made during the
last twenty years. The modern doctrines
of Energy, Correlation of Forces, the Me-
chanical Theory of Heat, the Kinetic Theory
of Gases, Barometric Gradients, Weather
Areas, and Storm - signals, TyndalFs and
Helmholtz's Acoustical Investigations, Spec-
trum Analysis, the Radiometer, and many
other results of research in recent years, are
all introduced in their appropriate places,
and briefly and succinctly explained. But
they fall into their proper relation as but a
small part of the great system of truths that
must now be comprised in any standard trea-
tise upon the science of physics. The editors,
we observe, have caught the spirit of the
work, and assimilated the new matter to the
method of exposition adopted by the author.
And it is in this that the unrivaled merit
of Dr. Arnott's work chiefly consists. The
style in which it is written, as is well known,
is a model of easy simplicity. It is the most
readable book on natural philosophy that
we have in the language. Another adr
rable feature is the copiousness and diver-
sity of its illustrations and concrete appli-
cations of physical principles. These are
mainly drawn from the familiar field of
every-day life, and, notwithstanding the
numerous books that have appeared on com-
mon things, familiar science, etc., Arnott's
" Physics," is still our best book of this
kind. He has been much copied, but his
statements have not been improved upon.
The new edition of this work may therefore
be strongly recommended to schools as a
text-book, a reference-book, or a reading-
book, and, however used, it will be pretty
sure to do good service.

Modern Physical Fatalism, and the Doc-
trine of Evolution, including an Ex-
amination op Mr. Herbert Spencer's
" First Principles." By Thomas Raw-
son Birks, M. A., Knightbridge Pro-
fessor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge.
New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 311.
Price, $2.25.

We have here another attempt to de-
molish Herbert Spencer, and it is note-

worthy chiefly as emanating from a digni-
tary of the University of Cambridge. Those
in quest of objections to Spencer's system,
and not very particular about their quality,
will find in this volume a great deal of ma-
terial adapted to their purpose. But as a
polemic it is by no means equal in subtilty,
force, or originality, to various replies to
Spencer that have previously appeared. In
our judgment, it is quite inferior in logical
acuteness to Prof. Bascom's criticism in the
Bibliotheca Sacra of last October, while in
candor, courtesy, and philosophic liberality,
the English author is not for a moment to be
compared to the American reviewer. The
book is dominated by an intense theologi-
cal bias, and is written from the stand-
point and in the interest of the most un-
modified type of orthodoxy. The author
writes in behalf of such vast interests that
he cannot be trusted. Absorbed in the
interests of the eternal world, he is lax and
careless about the things of this world —
does not represent them as they are. In
the first chapter, and on the very first
page, he says that in Spencer's system of
thought " science is identified with phys-
ics," and that this is the way he reconciles
religion and. science. This, of course, is
absolutely false, and not only so, but it is a
misrepresentation so fundamental as to
taint the work through and through. A
writer who would commit so flagrant a mis-
representation at the threshold of his work
forfeits at once his claim to the confidence
of intelligent readers, who will see that a
discussion so vitiated and loosely carried
on is not worth pursuing.

Dr. Birks makes wholesale objections
to the doctrines of the Unknowable, the
Relativity of Knowledge, the Indestructi-
bility of Matter, the Conservation of Force,
Evolution and Natural Selection, and closes
his book by saying: "The doctrine of the
Unknowable is a lower depth in the scale of
intellectual and spiritual darkness than the
old Athenian idolatry. The Persistence of
Force, and the Indestructibility of Motion,
when set up to replace the true and living
God of the Bible, the Almighty Creator of
heaven and earth, will be found on inquiry
to be still meaner and more worthless than
the old heathen idols of wood and stone.
One sentence of the Word of God, in the
song of the heavenly elders, lays the foun-

502

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dation of a philosophy nobler and deeper
than all the human counterfeits ot these lat-
ter days."

Winds of Doctrine : being an Examination
of the Modern Theories of Automatism
and Evolution. By Charles Elam, M. D.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. Pp. 163.

This is a work of a similar stripe to
that just noticed. The contents of the vol-
ume first appeared in the Contemporary Re-
view, in three articles, and coming from a
medical man, the presumption should be
that it is a scientific discussion, but it is
rather a piece of violent rhetorical denun-
ciation. The author contributes nothing to
the scientific illumination of the subject,
and takes his cue from some of the outgiv-
ings of Prof. Mivart in his recent criticisms
of Darwinism. But while Mr. Mivart, like
most of the eminent biologists of the time,
admits evolution as a great historic fact of
Nature, however deficient may as yet be its
explanation, Dr. Elam scouts it in every
form and degree as a pure figment of the
imagination, and an idle absurdity. His
virtual position is, that the naturalists are
under an hallucination, and that Darwin,
Huxley, Tyndall, and Spencer especially,
to whom he gives his main attention, are
little better than fools so far as this subject
is concerned. Like Prof. Birks, Dr. Elam
writes in the interest of popular traditions
and for miscellaneous readers, and has no
scruple about his course so he can make
out a specious case. He quotes Huxley
copiously, but prefers to use his cautious
statements, made twelve or fifteen years
ago, rather than his later utterances which
represent the progress that has been made
within that time. With equal unfairness
he goes back to Spencer's " Social Statics,"
published twenty-six years ago, and quotes
opinions which Mr. Spencer has stated that
he now holds only with important qualifica-
tions, instead of judging him by the work
upon the same general subject that he is
now elaborating.

The spirit here evinced is that of the
advocate and partisan, rather than of the
candid and earnest inquirer after truth.

There are difficulties with evolution,
many, and various, and formidable ; and
none better understand this, or more freely
acknowledge it, than those who have studied

the subject most profoundly. There are not
only inherent difficulties in the discussion
from imperfect knowledge, but there are
extrinsic difficulties in bringing before the
general mind the nature and force of its
proofs, and from its conflict with long-es-
tablished and widely-cherished beliefs. It
is therefore a perfectly easy thing to make
objections to the doctrine which many will
think annihilating. It is an easy thing to
accumulate and ring rhetorical changes on
old objections, and with a little license of
misrepresentation, and a fresh battery of
depreciatory adjectives, to make out a kill-
ing case in the estimation of those whose
minds are made up beforehand, and who
know little of the real issues of the subject.
If, on any plain and simple question, aris-
ing out of an open transaction between two
neighbors who have become involved in
law, the hireling attorneys can so confuse
and confound all common-sense that a jury
is as likely to give a wrong verdict as a
right one, what may we not expect when a
great, complex, wide-reaching, and newly-
presented scientific question becomes a
matter of controversy before ill-instructed
people, with loud and angry protestations
that it involves the very existence of moral-
ity, religion, and God? The skillful coun-
selor, who cares only to produce an impres-
sion, has obviously a great advantage here.
But while the pert and supercilious critic
is carrying all before him, and proving to
those who knew it all before that evolu-
tion is a baseless fancy, a mere transient
gust of wild and absurd speculation, the
disciplined, sober-minded, and thoroughly-
instructed naturalists, guided by the light
it affords, are penetrating deeper into the
secrets of phenomena, making further dis-
coveries, and rapidly extending the bounds
of our knowledge of Nature,

Inventional Geometry. A Series of Prob-
lems intended to familiarize the Pupil
with Geometrical Conceptions, and to
exercise his Inventive Faculty. By
William George Spencer. With a
Prefatory Note by Herbert Spencer.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 100.
Price, 50 cents.

This is a small and a modest book, but
a very important one for all who have a
concern about the quality and character of
education. It is not a book that will work

LITERARY NOTICES.

5°3

well in our smooth-running educational sys-
tem— not a machine that can be belted on
in some convenient corner of our education-
al cotton-mills. In the objects it aims to
secure, and in the method of attaining
them, it is outside of the customary school
routine. It is a contribution to the momen-
tous and much-neglected work of self-educa-
tion to which the school-room, as common-
ly managed, is not very favorable.

The author of this little work, the late
W. G. Spencer, of Derby, England, was a
mathematical teacher, and a gentleman of
wide cultivation and independent opinions.
He had been for many years an instructor,
and entertained quite unconventional views
on the subject of education. He maintained
that, of all that passes under the name, only
that is truly education which calls out men-
tal exertion, trains the pupil to the exer-
cise of his own faculties, develops the judg-
ment, and gives the student the ready use
and command of his own mind. It is, there-
fore, necessary constantly to throw the pu-
pil back upon himself, and, while encour-
aging and guiding him, leave him at the
same time to do his own work. For the
•usual occupations of the school-room, explan-
atory instruction, loading the memory with
the contents of books, and helping the pupil
rapidly along by all kinds of facilities and
devices, Mr. Spencer had but little respect ;
and he measured the excellence of the teach-
er by his faculty and resources for awaken-
ing the pupil's interest, keeping him judi-
ciously occupied, and inciting him to use,
cultivate, and strengthen his own powers.

In the later years of his teaching, Mr.
Spencer was much occupied in giving pri-
vate instruction in mathematics, and he was
therefore brought into constant contact
with individual minds, and enabled to study
them much more critically than if he had
been dealing with classes in the usual way.
In these circumstances he devised a course
of exercises in elementary geometry for the
use of beginners, designed to lay the foun-
dation for mathematical study, and at the
same time to cultivate the faculties of in-
vention and construction, which are of the
highest importance, and almost totally neg-
lected in the common methods of the schools.
As this course of exercises began with the
simplest problems, and was skillfully graded

so that the pupil could do the whole work
himself, there seemed to be no reason why
the benefits of the method should not be
extended to all who might wish to avail
themselves of it, and it was so highly ap-
preciated by those who had used it that the
author was at length induced to print it,
although he had no such intention at the
time of its preparation. The " Inventional
Geometry" is now republished, and being a
very suitable book for companionship with
the " Science Primers," now being issued
from time to time, the publishers have
thrown it into the same form, and included
it among the reprints in this elementary
series. But in one respect the "Inventional
Geometry " differs from the little books with
which it is associated. The Science Prim-
ers are highly estimated. They fall in with
the stereotyped habits of the class-room, and
may be easily learned by heart like histo-
ry, grammar, or the catechism. This book
will, however, enforce a different treatment,
and if the object of education be the disci-
pline of the mental faculties through honest
effort, and if thorough familiarity with geo-
metrical conceptions be desirable, and the
training of the inventive and constructive
faculties be valuable and important, the
Primer of Geometry will be worth more
than all its associates put together. We
recommend it to those who are thoughtful
and conscientious in educational matters.
Any fair-minded boy or girl cf twelve or
fourteen years of age can go through it
without difficulty, and cannot get through
it without gaining the advantages it aims to
secure. Those who work their way through
it will be certain to know one thing thor-
oughly, and, as Goethe said to Eckermann,
" It is always an advantage to have any
clear bit of knowledge."

The author of this book was the father
of Herbert Spencer, who testifies from ob-
servation and experience to the excellence
of the method, as will be seen by the fol-
lowing note to the publishers :

" London, June 3, 1876.
"Messes. D. Appleton & Co.: I am glad that
you are ahout to republish, in the United States,
my father's little work on ' Inventional Geom-
etry.' Though it received but little notice when
first issued here, recognition of its usefulness
has been gradually spreading, and it has been
adopted by some of the more rational science-

504

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

teachers in schools. Several years ago I heard
of its introduction at Rugby.

" To its great efficiency, both as a means of
producing interest in geometry and as a mental
discipline, I can give personal testimony. I
have seen it create in a class of boys so much
enthusiasm that they looked forward to their
geometry-lesson as a chief event in the week.
And girls initiated in the system by my father
have frequently begged of him for problems to
solve during their holidays.

" Though I did not myself pass through it —
for I commenced mathematics with my uncle
before this method had been elaborated by my
father — yet I had experience of its effects in a
higher division of geometry. When about fif-
teen, [ was carried through the study of per-
spective entirely after this same method: my
father giving me the successive problems in
such order that I was enabled to solve every
one of them, up to the most complex, without
assistance.

" Of course, the use of the method implies ca-
pacity in the teacher, and real interest in the
intellectual welfare of his pupils. But given the
competent man, and he may produce in them a
knowledge and an insight far beyond any that
can be given by mechanical lesson-learning.
"Very truly yours,

" Herbert Spenceb."

The Geographical Distribution of Ani-
mals, with a Study of the Relations of
Living and Extinct Faunas as elucidat-
ing the Past Changes of the Earth's
Surface. By Alfred Russell Wallace.
Two vols. With Maps and Illustrations.
New York : Harper & Brothers. Pp.
1110. Price, $10.

This work has grown out of the recent
progress of biological science, and could
neither have been produced earlier than it
has been, nor probably by any other living
author. To those who regard the evolution
hypothesis as a piece of mere useless specu-
lation, it may be replied that it is the most
powerful stimulus to investigation in the
higher science of living things that has yet
been known, of which the noble work be-
fore us is incontestable proof. The problem
of animal distribution is here so conceived
and presented as to give it very much the
character of a new subject.

Up to this time, a naturalist has only
needed to try to learn about the fauna of
any country to be made aware of our lack
of knowledge in this field. Much has been
learned, of course,, but the records were frag-
mentary and scattered, and it was only on
the shelves of the best zoological libraries
that anything approaching completeness

was to be found, so that practically such
information has been inaccessible. But
with the growing interest in Darwinism
there came an appreciation of the value of
the study of distribution, and a demand
arose which made itself felt. As is always
the case, the demand only needed to be-
come urgent to insure a supply. And it
was to meet this want, growing daily more
pressing, that Mr. Wallace put forth this
work — and the task could not have fallen
into better hands. His life has been one
of preparation for it. As early as 1848 he
embarked with Mr. H. W. Bates for the
Amazons, and in that region — the richest
in animal life — and later in the Malay Ar-
chipelago, the best years of his life were
given to the study of zoology. Few of our
readers need to be reminded that in those
far-away lands he independently worked
out the theory of "natural selection." The
more difficult work of establishing the
validity of the " doctrine of descent" fell
into other and, as Mr. Wallace modestly and
gracefully says, abler hands ; but he has not
ceased to work in that field, and has given
great aid in searching out relevant facts
and showing their bearings. This work is
certainly one of the most valuable of these
contributions. From the scattered sources
he has, with infinite pains, collected the
details of that which was known, and, ar-
ranging them with a skill and method which
leave little to be desired, has put them
within the reach of all.

The book sets out with an introductory
chapter, showing the inadequacy of the
popular notion that the manner in which
animals are dispersed over the globe is due
to diversities of climate and vegetation.
Much as there undoubtedly is to give rise
to this belief, a little examination shows
that no such off-hand treatment will do.
That South Africa has lions and giraffes, and
Australia kangaroos and other marsupials,
finds no explanation in differences of soil
and climate, because no marked differences
exist. So, too, the theory fails when we
find Europe destitute of raccoons, opos-
sums, and humming - birds, and North
America without hedgehogs or true fly-
catchers, although the conditions of life are
in all essentials similar in the two regions.
Assuming the view that each species

LITERARY NOTICES.

5°5

has had one birthplace, and only one, the
second and third chapters discuss the
means by which dispersal has been effected,
and what bearing the surface-changes of
the earth have had on distribution. They
are of great interest, and admirable exam-
ples of the efficiency of scientific induction
when applied by able hands to the solution
of perplexing problems.

The principles upon which zoological
regions should be formed are next consid-
ered, and the reasons given which led the
author to adopt, with little change, the di-
visions proposed by Mr. P. L. Sclater in
1857, which maps the globe into six great
primary regions, the Paliearctic, Ethiopian,
Oriental, Australian, Neotropical, and Ne-
arctic.

Zoological classification receives, as of
course it should, due consideration. Mr.
Wallace attempts no reconciliation of the
disputed points of classification, but selects
and tabulates for his uses a few of the best-
known classes. As the title-page indicates,
the relation and distribution of extinct
faunas have an important place. The re-
cent lectures of Prof. Huxley are too fresh
in the minds of our readers for it to be
necessary to emphasize the value of the
study of fossil forms in connection with the
general doctrine of evolution. In the
hands of Mr. Wallace its application to the
question of distribution is full of suggestion
and interest. We may add that, in this
connection, due acknowledgment is made
of the successful and important labors of
American paleontologists.

In Parts IV. and V. are treated, first,
the forms of life as seen in the different
zoological regions, their differences and
resemblances being pointed out ; with, last-
ly, a systematic, tabular arrangement of
the families of the animals considered, and
sketches of their geographical distribution.
The value and interest of these volumes are
enhanced by a series of twenty plates
showing the physical aspect and special
zoological character of the different sub-
regions, and by a set of excellent maps on
which are shown the outlines of the regions
and sub-regions, the belts of altitude, the
forests, pastures, deserts, and snow-lines, to-
gether with the contours of the beds of the
great oceans as determined by the most re-
cent soundings.

Further Notes on "Inclusions" in Gems,
etc. By Isaac Lea. Philadelphia :
Collins.

Continuing a communication made in
1869 to the Philadelphia Academy of Sci-
ences, Dr. Lea, in this pamphlet, gives the
results of further examination of the crys-
tals and cavities to be found in gems and
minerals. His special researches are illus-
trated by a plate in which are represented
cavities of all shapes, with and without
fluid contents, crystals of various shapes
and maculations in corundum, sapphire of
different shades, zircon, moonstone, emerald,
where the cavities contained cubic crystals
surrounded by a fluid, and beryl with irregu-
lar imperfections. The microscopic study
of gems must possess great interest to any
one whose opportunities allow it.

Essays on Mind, Matter, Forces, Theol-
ogy, etc. By Charles E. Townsend.
New York : Charles P. Somerby. Pp.
404. Price, $2.

The papers which make up this book
originally appeared in the Phrenological
Journal and other publications, and em-
brace discussions on subjects relating to
physics, astronomy, biology, social science,
religion, etc. "The essays are chiefly in-
tended to uphold the theory of the stabil-
ity of matter and forces, and the perpetuity
of all minds, as material forces, on a new
basis of reasoning, in opposition to the
many present vague theories of spirit-minds.
Also, as opposed to the assumed origin of
matter from nothing, and its inevitable ex-
tinguishment in time — not mere change of
form and action, but utter annihilation being
claimed by some." The author vehemently
opposes the " debasing, stagnant theology
of over eighteen centuries," deprecates the
" folly of Biblical cant," and believes that
the " Christian religion is an old-times crude
theology and false cosmogony, that ought
to be replaced by a more rational and enno-
bling conception and worship of an infinitely
intelligent great First Cause, who is known
to us through his creations, and thus in-
ferred attributes of infinite goodness, wis-
dom, and power."

Various theories are presented in regard
to different subjects, which are not wonder-
ful so much for their novelty as for the
obscure manner in which they are stated.

506

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

There is an air of ultimate truth assumed
throughout the essays, which the conclu-
sions hardly warrant ; and the author would
probably write a better book if he exercised
his dogmatic tendencies less and cultivated
a clearer style more.

Report of the Condition of the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,
on moving into its New Edifice, South-
west Corner of Race and Nineteenth
Streets. By W. S. W. Ruschenberger.
Philadelphia: Collins, Printer. Pp.56.

The Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia dates from the year 1812, and,
at the close of that year, consisted of four-
teen members, who assembled on the second
floor of a house devoted to millinery pur-
poses. Although their progress was slow,
yet, in 1817, the publication of their Jour-
nal was commenced, and in 1820 they
sought more spacious accommodations in
a Swedenborgian church. Twenty years
later a new building was erected, more
space was given to the collections, and an
increased number of visitors continued to
be attracted. It again outgrew its quar-
ters, and ten years ago a movement was
started which resulted in the present edi-
fice. The Academy is now free from debt ;
it possesses a building constructed with
reference to architectural beauty and to the
ends for which it was designed, and is ap-
parently in a very flourishing condition.
Its cabinets of birds and shells of inollusks
are nowhere surpassed in extent and com-
pleteness, and in other departments the col-
lections are valuable, though, as yet, com-
paratively small.

The Structure and Relations of Dinich-
thys ; with Descriptions of Some Other
Fossil Fishes. By J. S. Newberry.
Columbus : Nevins & Meyers.

Dr,. Newberry has reprinted this me-
moir from Vol. II. of the " Report of the
Geological Survey of Ohio," of which we
gave a notice last month, and it is accom-
panied by seven lithographic plates and
many woodcut figures. The Diniehthys,
to which the body of the pamphlet is de-
voted, is a huge ganoid fish, occurring
along the Lake Erie shore in the Huronian
shales, and peculiar among its allies in its
massive mandibles and in its dentition,
which closely resembles that of living Lcpi-

dosiren. Other resemblances between the-m
are so close as to warrant the belief that
in the LepiJosiren we have a dwarfed repre-
sentative of the great fishes which popu-
lated the Devonian seas. Dr. Newberry
discusses minutely the anatomy and rela-
tionships, homologically and generally, of
these monarchs among ancient fishes, and
describes several additional species. The
latter half of the book is occupied with de-
scriptions of new fossil fishes' from the car-
boniferous rocks of Ohio, belonging to vari-
ous orders and families, all the points of
which are elaborated with the close atten-
tion characteristic of this distinguished ge-
ologist.

In a paper read before the Detroit meet-
ing of the American Association, and now-
reprinted, Prof. Aug. R. Grote explained
the effect of the glacial epoch on the distri-
bution of insects in North America. He
endeavors — successfully, we think — to show-
that arctic forms of insects, the White Moun-
tain butterfly, for example, came southward
with the gradual extension of the ice-sheet,
and, when the ice-sheet retreated, followed
it backward ; but some, straying away, or
lingering about the local glaciers of high
mountain-ranges, gradually followed the de-
clining cold to the high summits, where only
could they find a congenial climate. Mean-
while, the surrounding lowlands having be-
come warm, they could not follow their con-
geners to the arctic zone, but were impris-
oned, as it were, on their mountain-tops,
and have there remained, undergoing modi-
fications caused by the exigencies of their
surroundings. Some such process, Prof.
Grote judges, has determined the distribu-
tion of most of our Alpine insects.

The Report of the Director of the Cen-
tral Park Menagerie, Mr. W. A. Conklin,
for the past two years, shows that, in spite
of the lack of encouragement afforded it by
the Park Commissioners, that commendable
institution continues prosperous, and is vis-
ited by increasing crowds of spectators —
among others whole schools, with their
teachers, attesting its educational value.
The appropriations for it allow of little
more than the care of the inmates, but
many animals are received on deposit from
their owners, and births are constantly oc-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

507

curring. The mortality is low, and becom-
ing less so, owing to improved arrange-
ments and more commodious quarters.
The Report contains the usual details of
expense and management, and a long list
of accessions, which might be of use to vis-
itors in lieu of a guide to the menagerie.

The Textile Colourist : A Monthly Jour-
nal of Bleaching, Printing, Dyeing, and
Finishing Textile Fabrics, and tlie Man-
ufacture and Application of Colouring
Matters. Edited by Charles O'Neill;
F. C. S. Price, $12 per annum.

"The Textile Colourist" was desigued
by its present editor to bring before the
dyers and printers of the different countries
such matter as will be of a permanently
interesting character to all in the trade.
There are embodied in it the results of the
most recent investigations and discoveries,
arranged in such a manner as to make it a
valuable work of reference.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Tolhausen's Technological Dictionary,
French, German, and English. 3 vols., 900
pages each. New York : H. Holt & Co.
Price, $3.50 per vol.

The Electric Bath. By George M.
Schweig, M. D. Pp. 134. New York : Put-
nam's Sons. Price, $1.

Improvements of the Fox and Wiscon-
sin Rivers. By G. K. Warren, Brevet Major-
General. Pp. 114, with Plates.

Qualitative Chemical Analysis. By
Douglas and Prescott. Pp. 254. New
York : Van Nostrand. Price, $3.50.

Geological Survey of the Territories.
Vol. X. F. V. Hayden, Geologist in Charge.
Pp. 607, with plates. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office.

Department of Agriculture. Report of
1875. Pp. 536, with plates. Washington:
Government Printing-Office.

Calendar of the Tokio Imperial Univer-
sity (1876). Pp. 165.

Preventing the Extension of Syphilis.
By J. R. Black, M. D. Newark, Ohio. Pp.7.

Memorial of Increase A. Lapham. By
C. Mann. Pp. 21.

Topographical Surveys and the Public
Health. By J. T. Gardner. Pp. 10. Al-
bany : Argits print.

Needs of the South educationally. By
A. Hogg, M. A. Pp. 24. Salem, Ohio :
W. D. Henkle print.

Quarterly Journal of Inebriety. Vol. I.,
No. 1. Pp. 64. Hartford : Case, Lockwood
& Brainard.

History of Spontaneous Generation. By
E. S. Dunster, M. D. Pp. 30. Ann Arbor,
Michigan: Courier print.

Reason and Progress. By J. T. Stew-
art, M. D. Pp. 18. Peoria, Illinois: Tran-
script print.

Treatment of Eczema. By R. W. Taylor,
M. D. Pp. 37. New York : Putnam's Sons.

Hydroadipsia. Pp. 9. Also, The Fever
Process in Human Bodies. Pp. 7. By Z.
C. McElroy, M. D. Zanesville, Ohio.

Disinfection in Yellow Fever. By C. B.
White, M. D. Pp. 16. New Orleans: J.
W. Madden print.

Rocky Mountain Locust. Pp. 58. St.
Louis : R. P. Studley Company print.

Specialism in Medicine. By E. D. Foree,
M. D. Pp. 10. Indianapolis : Journal print.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Talking by Telegraph. — On Sunday, No-
vember 26th, Prof. A. Graham Bell experi-
mented with the " telephone " on the wires of
the Eastern Railroad Company between Bos-
ton and Salem. Prof. Bell was assisted at
the Boston end of the line by two operators,
and Mr. Thomas A. Watson by one operator
at the Salem end. According to the ac-
count published in the Commonwealth of
Boston, conversation was carried on with
Mr. Watson at Salem, by all those present,
in turn, without any difficulty, even the
voices of the speakers being easily recog-
nized. Whispering was found to be perfect-
ly audible, but was unintelligible. After a
time, instead of grounding the wire at
Salem, it was connected with North Con-
way, a distance of one hundred and forty-
three miles from Boston, thus leaving Salem
as a way-station. After this change had been

508

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made there was a slight diminution in the
loudness of the tones, but no difficulty was
experienced in carrying on conversation.
Another change was made, whereby the
electrical current was sent to Portland and
back by another line to Salem, thus making
Salem a terminal station at the end of
nearly two hundred miles of wire. The re-
sult of this change was, that the tones of
the speakers could be heard, but so faintly
as to be unintelligible. With electro-mag-
nets of a higher resistance, Prof. Bell is
confident that the sounds would have been
perfectly intelligible, the magnets used, it
must be recollected, being only intended
for a twenty-mile circuit.

How to reach the Pole. — Captain H.
W. Howgate, of the Signal-Office, sees no
grounds of discouragement in the failure of
Nares's expedition to reach the north-
pole. The seasons, he remarks, vary in
the arctic circle as markedly as in more
temperate latitudes, and in a favorable
year the ice of the so-called "Palaeocrys-
tic Sea" might be broken up. Captain
Howgate would have a party of at least
twenty hardy, resolute, and experienced
men, with provisions for three years, sta-
tioned at some point near the borders of
the Polar Sea — for instance, where the Dis-
covery wintered last year. These men
would seize the occasion of the opening of
the frozen sea to push on to the pole. At
the end of three years the party should be
visited, and, if unsuccessful in accomplish-
ing the object, should be revictualed and
again left to their work. With a good, sub-
stantial building, such as could easily be
carried on shipboard, they would be as
comfortable and safe from atmospheric
danger as the men of the Signal Service on
the summit of Mount Washington. " A
good supply of medicine," adds Captain
Howgate, "a skillful surgeon, and such
fresh provision as could be found by hunt-
ing-parties, would enable them to keep off
scurvy, and to maintain as good a sanitary
condition as the inhabitants of Godhaven
in Greenland. Game was found in fair quan-
tities by the Polaris party on the Green-
land coast, and by those from the Alert
and Discovery on the mainland to the west,
especially in the vicinity of the last-named

vessel, where fifty-four musk-oxen were
killed during the season, with quantities of
other and smaller game. A seam of good
coal was also found by the Discovery's
party, which would render the question of
fuel a light one, and thus remove one of the
greatest difficulties hitherto found by arctic
voyagers. Let an expedition be organized
to start in the spring of 187*7, and I firmly
believe that by 1880 the geography of the
polar circle would be definitely settled, and
that without loss of life."

Classification of the Races of Man. — The

distinguished Italian ethnologist, Prof. Man-
tegazza, of Florence, in his introduction
to Enrico Giglioli's narrative of a voyage
round the Globe in the corvette Magenta,
learnedly discusses the question of the clas-
sification of the races of man. His princi-
pal conclusions are that — 1. Man is one of
the most cosmopolitan and most variable
of animals, and hence presents an infinite
variety of races, sub-races, and peoples. 2.
The number of races is indefinite ; many
races are extinct, others are now forming,
still others will yet be produced. 3. The
farther back we go in history, the larger is
the number of races and sub-races, for in
early times men less frequently moved away
from their native localities and were more
isolated from one another than now. 4. At
the top and at the bottom of the human
genealogical tree the branches and twigs
approach one another, so that the most
highly -cultured and the least developed
races come into mutual contact. The negro
developed into a Kaffre approximates to the
European, and the European, degraded by
cretinism or by hunger, to the Australian or
the negro. 5. In general the lowest races
are black or dark brown, the middle races
somewhat less dark-skinned, and the high-
est white or nearly so. 6. In classifying
the races of man we must, as far as pos-
sible, omit the question of their origin, for
the investigation of this origin is the most
fruitful source of ethnological errors.

The American Geographical Society. —

The American Geographical Society was
formally installed in its new quarters, No.
11 West Twenty-ninth Street, New York, No-
vember 28th. For many years this Society

P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY.

5°9

had rooms in the Cooper Union Building,
but from the beginning it has been the in-
tention of the leading members to secure
possession of a building large enough to re-
ceive their valuable collection and library.
The new headquarters is a large four-story
and basement brown-stone front house on
Twenty- ninth Street, near Fifth Avenue. On
the first floor is a spacious reception-room,
extending the entire depth of the house ; its
walls are covered with maps and charts.
One of the curiosities of this room is the
large map of South America once used by
Humboldt. On this floor is also the room
of the president of the Society. The second
floor is devoted to the library and the sec-
retary's room. Iu the library are 20,000
volumes, classified according to countries.
The third floor contains the collection of
maps and atlases. On the fourth floor is
the Council's room, and in the basement
are the offices for the clerical force.

On the evening of November 29th a sec-
ond reception was held by the Society, and
a paper on a journey to the Spitzbergen
Sea was read by A. H. v. d. Hoeck. The
author took occasion to expatiate upon the
value of arctic research, pointing out the
important results thence to be derived for
anthropology, zoology, geology and paleon-
tology, physics, and meteorology. Manuel
M. Pereira, minister resident of Costa Rica,
read a short paper on the projected canal
across the Isthmus of Darien.

Hygrometers. — An hygrometer is an in-
strument for measuring the moisture of the
atmosphere. It is often useful for gauging
the dryness of rooms. It may not be gen-
erally known how simply such an instru-
ment may be constructed.

When water, by means of a moist rag
(whose moisture may be kept up by contact
with water in a saucer or teacup), is spread
over the surface of the bulb of a thermom-
eter, the mercury in the latter falls, generally
several degrees. The reason is, that the
water evaporates and cools the bulb. The
evaporation which takes place is, of course,
produced by the absorption of heat from
surrounding objects, the bulb included. The
thermometer is affectsd in proportion to the
reduction of temperature caused by the
evaporation. It is evident that just as much

heat as is required to convert water into va-
por, just so much cold (or deprivation of
heat) will be required to convert the vapor
back again into water. When vapor begins
to condense into water the temperature is
at what is called the dew-point. It is evi-
dent, therefore, that theoretically the dew-
point is twice as far as the vapor-point be-
low the normal temperature of the atmos-
phere. Experiments show that it is a lit-
tle more; a constant quantity of 1|° Fahr.
having to be added for heat lost and dissi-
pated in the process.

These facts may be exemplified as fol-
lows : Hang two thermometers in a room of
equable temperature, and suspend a third
in a tin or glass vessel containing some
tepid water. Wet the bulb of thermometer
No. 2 as suggested above, and the evapora-
tion will show the vapor-point. Pour ice-
water gradually and slowly into the vessel
containing No. 3, and mingle it well with
the water already there until the whole be-
comes so cold that the exterior of the ves-
sel begins to contract moisture. It is then
at the dew-point, and the thermometer in
the vessel will be found to have fallen twice
as much as No. 2, and l{j-° more.

No. 2 is a perfect hygrometer, as it
shows the relative dampness of the atmos-
phere. When the latter is very dry, as in a
room warmed by a hot-air furnace, evapo-
ration takes place rapidly, and a large quan-
tity of heat is abstracted from the bulb.
When moist, as during a shower, very little
evaporation takes place, and there is but a
slight fall of the hygrometer. When the at-
mosphere is too dry the lungs suffer. It
is in a wholesome condition when the hy-
grometer does not fall more than 7° Fahr.
below the normal temperature. A hot-air
furnace often sends it down 10° or 12° be-
low.

The Studies of an Engineer. — Prof. Rey-
nolds, of Owens College, Manchester, in an
address on " Engineering as a Profession,"
proposes the following course of prepara-
tion for the student who aims to be an en-
gineer : Up to the age of sixtean or seven-
teen he should devote himself to acquiring
a " general education." Then he enters on
his special course. In this he must learn
something of science and something of art ;

5io

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

but his main object should be to learn how
the one can be brought to bear upon the
other. Mathematics and natural science
are indispensable, but he must not expect
to become a master of either. Only a com-
paratively small portion of these wide sub-
jects can be usefully brought to bear on
engineering, and to these he must restrict
himself. The methods of applying these
sciences to engineering problems consti-
tute a large subject, aud one that is neces-
sary for him to study. Then there are
those manual operations which are essen-
tial to bring his knowledge to a practical
issue, and in which a long course of train-
ing is necessary to acquire the requisite
skill, such as mechanical drawing, and the
use of measuring and surveying instruments.
To acquire a useful knowledge of these
various branches will require three or at
least two years. The student will then pro-
ceed with his practical training, which should
include as great a range of work as possible.
In this he will find the knowledge he has
acquired of very great help ; he will recog-
nize much that he sees, and be able to judge
of the most important things to which to
direct his attention.

Absorption of Nitrogen by Plants. — The

chemist Berthelot has submitted to the Par-
is Academy of Sciences the results of a new
series of experiments which prove that, un-
der the influence of atmospheric electrici-
ty, free nitrogen is absorbed by the proxi-
mate principles of plants. The apparatus
used in these experiments consists of a
system of tubes in which the organic sub-
stances come into contact either with pure
nitrogen or with atmospheric air, the whole
communicating with a source of electricity
at a tension precisely the same as that of
atmospheric electricity. Under these con-
ditions pure nitrogen, or the nitrogen of the
atmosphere, is invariably fixed by the or-
ganic matter employed, viz., wet filtering-
paper or a solution of dextrine. The amount
of nitrogen that is thus fixed is consider-
able. Tims these experiments bring to light
a natural cause, hitherto overlooked, in con-
sidering the question of the fixation of ni-
trogen by vegetable tissues. It is now de-
monstrated that this fixation is brought
about by the incessant action of the electrici-
ty of the atmosphere.

Development of Electricity by Light. —

To determine experimentally the action of
light in the development of electricity, Han-
kel took two bright strips of copper, one
of which he fixed in a porous clay cell by
means of a cork stopper. The cell was filled
with water, and placed in a larger glass ves-
sel containing the same water, in which was
immersed the other strip, so that one of its
surfaces was turned toward the source of
light. The two strips were connected with
the wire of a galvanometer. The glass with
its contents was now placed in a black case
having a slide, by means of which direct
sunlight or colored light could be admitted
to the outer strip of copper. The results
were as follows : On access of free sunlight
the illuminated strip was negative to the one
in darkness, but only moderately so ; behind
a red glass the action was extremely small ;
behind yellow, a little stronger ; behind
green and dark blue successively, still
stronger; behind dark violet it became less
again.

The copper strips were now oxidized by
moderate heating, and the following results
were obtained : In free sunlight the illumi-
nated strip was strongly negative ; on dark-
ening again, the deflection gradually disap-
peared ; behind red glass the action was
less ; behind light-yellow glass the plate
was first positive, then negative ; on dark-
ening, it first became still more negative,
and then the action disappeared ; behind
dark-green glass the behavior was similar,
but the first positive deflection was less;
behind bright-blue, dark-blue, and violet
glass, the plate was equally negative.

Strongly oxidized copper strips were
next tested. In free sunlight the illumi-
nated strip was first strongly positive, then
weakly negative ; on darkening, it was first
strongly negative, then the action ceased.
Behind red glass the plate was pretty strong-
ly positive, but the deflection of the needle
soon fell off" considerably ; behind bright-
yellow glass the strip was very strongly
positive, but very soon the action dimin-
ished ; on darkening, a strong negative de-
flection occurred. Behind dark-green glass
the plate was first weakly positive, and then
negative; behind dark-blue glass the cop
per was also negative, and this change was
more considerable than with free sunlight ;
behind violet glass, the action was similar.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

5"

The author describes also the behavior of
copper in sulphate-of-copper solution, and
the behavior of silver, tin, brass, zinc, pla-
tinum ; which metals were examined in the
same way.

American Vine-Stocks and the Phyllox-
era.— In a communication to the Paris
Academy of Sciences, M. Boutin gives an
account of researches made by him to as-
certain the reason why some American vine-
stocks resist the attacks of the Phylloxera
vaslatrix, while others succumb. The au-
thor has discovered in the resistant stocks
a certain resinoid principle in proportion
about a third greater than that in which it
occurs in American non-resistant stocks,
and in about double the proportion found
in French stocks. M. Boutin considers it
essential for resistance that the resinoid
principle should occur in the proportion of
8 per cent, for the entire root, and 14 to 15
per cent, in the bark alone. He says that
the incision made by the insect, while pro-
ducing nodosities in the root, is cicatrized
by the exudation of the resinous product,
and this prevents the escape or loss of the
nutritive sap of the plant. In non-resist-
ant stocks, on the other hand, there is no
cicatrization, as the resinoid principle is not
in sufficient quantity to produce this effect.

Naturalists' Report of the British Arctic
Expedition.— The results obtained by the
naturalists attached to the British North-
Polar Expedition may be briefly summed up
as follows: The mammals found farthest
north, on the shore of the great Polar Basin,
were the arctic fox, wolf, ermine, polar
hare, lemming, and musk-ox. Bird-life was
present as far as the land extended, the out-
lying species being the snowy owl, snow-
bunting, and ptarmigan. Of fishes few ma-
rine species were procured, but an interest-
ing small salmonoid was found in fresh-
water lakes up to about latitude 82° 35'.
Insect-life was more abundant than could
have been expected, and a goodly number
of species were obtained. Over twenty
species of phasnogamic plants were discov-
ered between latitudes 82° and 83°, and the
cryptogamic flora was of course much
more varied and abundant. The whole
west coast, of Smith's Sound, from Cape
Isabella to *Cape Union, was fully surveyed

and mapped, and large collections made
of both fossils and rock-specimens; while
.the sled-parties, which explored the shores
of the Polar Basin both to east and west,
brought back sufficient material to de-
termine the geological character of the
country. Silurian limestones, richly fossi-
liferous, were the prevailing rocks along
Smith's Sound. From the shales and sand-
stones of this formation a beautiful series
of leaf-impressions were collected, illustrat-
ing the characteristic flora of the epoch,
and presenting a remarkable demonstration
of the existence of a temperate climate
within 500 miles of the present pole, at a
comparatively recent geological time. Last-
ly, very interesting and suggestive observa-
tions were made on glaciation and on ice-
action in general.

The Berlin Gorilla. — At the recent meet-
ins of the German Association of Natural-
ists, Dr. Hermes, as we are informed by
Nature, described some interesting charac-
teristics of the young gorilla in the Berlin
Aquarium. He nods and claps his hands to
visitors ; wakes up like a man and stretches
himself. His keeper must always be beside"
him and eat with him ; he eats what his
keeper eats ; they share dinner and supper ;
the keeper must remain by him till he goes
to sleep, his sleep lasting eight hours. His
easy life has increased his weight in a few
months from thirty-one to thirty-seven
pounds. For some weeks he had inflamma-
tion of the lungs, when his old friend Dr.
Falkenstein was fetched, who treated him
with quinine and Ems-water, which made
him better. When Dr. Hermes left the
gorilla on the previous Sunday, the latter
showed the doctor his tongue, clapped his
hands, and squeezed the hand of the doctor
as an indication, the latter believed, of his
recovery. For Pungu, as the gorilla is
called, a large plate-glass palace has been
erected in the aquarium in connection with
the palm-house.

Lightning in a Telegraph-Office.— A tel-
egraph-operator, in an office on the Boston
and Providence Railroad, was lately killed by
lightning. This is said to be the only case
on record of an operator killed by lightning
while in the office. Remarking upon this
casualty, the Telegraphic Journal says that,

512

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

"so far from being a source of danger, the
electric telegraph must be regarded rather
as a cause of safety, as a network of lines
spread over a country tends to prevent an
accumulation of electricity at any partic-
ular point, by continually and silently dis-
charging it to the earth. This is particularly
the case in districts where every pole has
an earth-wire fixed to it, running from the
top to the bottom. That these wires effect-
ually discharge a lightning-flash has been
seen in cases where the wires have been ter-
minated within a few inches of the top of
the pole : a lightning-flash striking one of
these destroyed the portion of pole above
the wire, but at the point where the wire
commenced all damage ceased."

NOTES.

Under the head of " Commercial MaDias,"
we referred last month to the banking en-
terprise of a lady at Madrid. The Econo-
mist of December, 187(5, reports further on
the case, as follows : " The extraordinary
banking at Madrid, by a lady who paid
twenty per cent, interest monthly on de-
posits, has ended in a manner which has
long been expected. She disappeared a few
days back with a sum of three million and a
half of francs ($700,000), out of five million
and a half ($900,000) she had received from
6,700 depositors. The difference had been
returned in interests."

Recent additions to the museum of the
Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences embrace
a small collection of European Lepidoptera,
presented by Prof. Zeller, of Stettin ; a few
rare specimens from the Museum of Com-
parative Zoology, and a collection of Cal-
ifornia Geometrce from Prof. Behrens, of
San Francisco ; also a collection of butter-
flies and moths from Mr. John D. Shepard,
taken on the Wahsatch Mountains, twenty-
five miles south of Salt Lake City.

An association of ladies has been formed
in Boston, entitled the Boston University
"Women's Educational' Society, for the pur-
pose of promoting the higher education of
women. The Society proposes to aid needy
students by gifts and loans, and also to
found resident and traveling fellowships, to
encourage original research, and in general
to afford to young women all the educational
facilities now accessible only to young men.
A fund amounting to $40,000 has already
been accumulated.

A small coleopterous insect (Anthrenus
scrophvlarice) common in Europe, but hith-
erto unknown in the United States, has

made its appearance in the neighborhood
of Albany. The larva of this insect is a
great destroyer of clothes, furs, natural-his-
tory collections, etc., and at Albany much
damage has been done by it to carpets.

The Litchfield Astronomical Observa-
tory, of Hamilton College, of which Prof.
C. H. F. Peters has been for nearly twenty
years the very efficient director, has lately
been enlarged. Efforts are being made to
retain the services of Prof. Porter as as-
sistant astronomer.

Died, October 19th, at the age of fifty-
four years, Carl Jelinek, for thirteen years
director of the Vienna Central Institute for
Meteorology and Magnetism. His papers
on Austrian meteorology are held in verv
high esteem, and his " Introduction to Me-
teorological Observations" has reached the
third edition.

The American Chemist for September
announces the discovery of a new element
by Dr. George A. Koenig, of the University
of Pennsylvania. From a mineral resem-
bling schorlamite, occurring at Magnet
Cove, Arkansas, he obtained, in the place
of titanic acid, a white oxide, which differs
from the former very materially, and he re-
gards the existence in it of a new metal as
highly probable.

The subscription for a monument to
Liebig in Germany has reached the sum of
140,000 marks, and the lists are now closed.
Giessen and Munich claim the statue each
for itself. It has been decided that both
towns shall have the same memorial, which
will be cast in bronze, the sum collected
being sufficient to cover the double ex-
pense.

Williams College will next summer
send an exploring party to the Rocky Moun-
tains, under the lead of Prof. Sanborn Ten-
ney, Professor of Natural History. The party
will consist of fifteen students, who, during
the remainder of the college year, will re-
ceive special instruction to fit them for the
performance of their respective duties.

The statue of Faraday, the commission
for which was placed in the hands of the
late sculptor Foley, and which was far ad-
vanced by him in the full-sized model at the
time of his death, has been completed in
marble by one of the disciples of the de-
ceased artist, and is now awraiting arrange-
ments for erection.

In an article on the scurvy which broke
out among the sled-parties of the British
Polar Expedition, the Sanitary Record says
that never were the plainest results of past
experience and the best-established rules of
naval hygiene more recklessly and disas-
trously set at naught than in these sled-ex-
peditions.

avD

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

MARCH, 1877.

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE.

By ALEXANDER BAIN, LL. D.,

PBOFESSOE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
II.

The Retentive Faculty.

THIS is the faculty that most of all concerns us in the work of
education. On it rests the possibility of mental growths or
capabilities not given by Nature.

Every impression made upon us, if sufficient to awaken conscious-
ness at the time, has a certain permanence; it can persist after the
original ceases to work ; and it can be restored afterward as an idea
or remembered impression. The bursting out of a flame arouses our
attention, gives a strong visible impression, and becomes an idea or
deposit of memory. It is thought of afterward without being actually
seen.

It is not often that one single occurrence leaves a permanent and
recoverable idea ; usually, we need several repetitions for the purpose.
The process of fixing the impression occupies a certain length of time ;
either we must prolong the first shock, or renew it on several suc-
cessive occasions. This is the first law of memory, Retention or Ac-
quisition : " Practice makes perfect ; " " exercise is the means of
strengthening a faculty," etc. The good old rule of the schoolmaster
is simply to make the pupil repeat, rehearse, or persist at a lesson
until it is learned.

All improvement in the art of teaching consists in having regard
to the various circumstances that facilitate acquirement, or lessen the
number of repetitions for a given effect. Much is possible in the way
of economizing the plastic power of the lmman system ; and when we
have pushed this economy to the utmost, we have made perfect the
Art of Education in one leading department. It is thus necessary
vol. x. — 33

5 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that the consideration of all the known conditions that favor or
impede the plastic growth of the system should be searching and
minute.

Although some philosophers have taught that all minds are nearly-
equal in regard to facility of acquirement, a schoolmaster that would
say so must be of the very rudest type. The inequality of different
minds in imbibing lessons, under the very same circumstances, is a
glaring fact; and is one of the obstacles encountered in teaching
numbers together, that is, classes. . It is a difficulty that needs a great
deal of practical tact or management, and is not met by any educa-
tional theory.

The different kinds of acquirements vary in minor circumstances
which are important to be noticed after exhausting the general or
pervading conditions. The greatest contrast is betwTeen what belongs
to intelligence, and what belongs to the feelings and the will. The
more strictly intellectual department comprises Mechanical Art, Lan-
guage, the Sensible World, the Sciences, Fine Art; and to each -of
these heads may attach specialties not hard to assign.

General Circumstances favoring Hetentiveness. — 1. The physical
condition. This has been already touched ivpon, both in the review
of physiology, and in the remarks on discrimination. It includes
general health, vigor and freshness at the moment, together with the
further indispensable proviso that the nutrition, instead of being
drafted off to strengthen the mere physical functions, is allowed to
run in good measure to the brain.

In the view of mental efficiency, the muscular system, the digestive
system, and the various organic interests, are to be exercised up to
the point that conduces to the maximum of general vigor in the sys-
tem, and no farther. They may be carried further in the interest of
sensual enjoyment, but that is not now before us. Hence a man must
exercise his muscles, must feed himself liberally and give time to
digestion to do its work, must rest adequately — all for the greatest
energy of the mind, and for the trying wrork of education in particu-
lar. Nor is it so very difficult, in the present state of physiological
and medical knowledge, to assign the reasonable proportions in all
these matters, for a given case.

Everything tends to show that, in the mere physical point of view,
the making of impressions on the brain, although never remitted dur-
ing all our waking moments, is exceedingly unequal at different times.
We must be well aware that there are moments w7hen we are incapable
of receiving any lasting impressions, and there are moments when we
are unusually susceptible. The difference is not one wholly resolvable
into mere mental energy on the whole ; wre may have a considerable
reserve of force for other mental acts, as the performance of routine
offices, and not much for retaining new impressions ; we are capable
of reading, talking, writing, and for taking an interest in the exer

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 515

cises ; we may indulge emotions, and carry out pursuits, and yet not
be in a state for storing the memory, or amassing knowledge. Even
the incidents that we take part in sometimes fail to be remembered
beyond a very short time.

What, then, is there so very remarkable and unique in the physical
support of the plastic property of the brain ? What are the moments
when it is at the plenitude of its efficiency ? What are the things
that especially nourish and conserve it ?

Although there is still wanting a careful study of this whole sub-
ject, the patent facts appear to justify us in asserting that the plastic
or retentive function is the very highest energy of the brain, the con-
summation of nervous activity. To drive home a new experience, to
make an impression self-sustaining and recoverable, uses up (we are
to suppose) more brain-force than any other kind of mental exercise.
The moments of susceptibility to the storing up of knowledge, the en-
graving of habits and acquisitions, are thus the moments of the maxi-
mum of unexpended force. The circumstances need to be such as to
prepare the way for the highest manifestation of cerebral energy ; in-
cluding the perfect freshness of the system, and the absence of every-
thing that would speedily impair it.

To illustrate this position, I may refer to the kind of mental work
that appears to be second in its demand on the energy of the brain.
The exercise of mental constructiveness — the solving of new prob-
lems, the applying of rules to new cases, the intellectual labor of the
more arduous professions, as the law, where a certain amount of nov-
elty attends every case that occurs — demands no little mental strain,
and is easy according to the brain-vigor of the moment. Still, these
are exercises that can be performed with lower degrees of power ; we
are capable of such professional work in moments when our memory
would not take in new and lasting impressions. In old age, when we
cease to be educable in any fresh endowment, we can still perform
these constructive exercises ; we can grapple with new questions,
invent new arguments and illustrations, decide what should be done
in original emergencies.

The constructive energy has all degrees, from the highest flights
of invention and imagination down to the point where construction
shades off into literal repetition of what has formerly been done. The
preacher in composing a fresh discourse puts forth more or less of
constructiveness; in repeating prayers and formularies, in reading
from book, there is only reminiscence. This is the third and least
exigent form of mental energy; it is possible in the very lowest states
of cerebral vigor. When acquisition is fruitless, construction is pos-
sible ; when a slight departure from the old routine passes the might
of the intelligence, literal reminiscence may operate.

Another mode of mental energy that we are equal to, when the
freshness of our susceptibility to new growths has gone off, is search-

5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing and noting. This needs a certain strain of attention ; it is not
possible in the very lowest tide of the nervous flow ; but it may be
carried on with all but the smallest degrees of brain-power. When
the scholar or the man of science ceases to trust his memory implicitly
for retaining new facts that occur in his reading, observation, or re-
flection, he can still keep a wratch for them, and enter them in his
notes. So in the hours of the day when memory is less to be trusted,
useful study may still be maintained by the help of the memorandum
and the note-book.

The indulgence of the emotions (when not violent or excessive) is
about the least expensive of our mental exercises, and may go on when
we are unfit for any of the higher intellectual moods, least of all for
the crowning work of storing up new knowledge or new aptitudes.
There are degrees here also; but, speaking generally, to love or to
hate, to dominate or to worship, although impossible in the lowest
depths of debility, are within the scope of the inferior grades of ner-
vous power.

From this estimate of comparative outlay, we may judge what are
the times and seasons and circumstances most favorable to acquire-
ment. It may be assumed that in the early part of the day the total
energy of the system is at its height, and that toward evening it flags;
hence morning is the season of improvement. For two or three hours
after the first meal, the strength is probably at the highest; total re-
mission for another hour or two, and a second meal (with physical
exercise when the labor has been sedentary), prepares for a second
display of vigor, although presumably not equal to the first; when the
edge of this is worn off, there may, after a pause, be another bout of
application, but far inferior in result to the first or even to the second.
No severe strain should be attempted in this last stage; not much
stress should be placed on the available plasticity of the system, al-
though the constructive and routine efforts may still be kept up.

The regular course of the day may be interfered with by excep-
tional circumstances, but these only confirm the rule. If we have lain
idle or inactive for the early hours, we may of course be fresher in the
evening, but the late application will not make up for the loss of the
early hours; the nervous energy will gradually subside as the day ad-
vances, however little exertion we may make. Again, we may at any
time determine an outburst of nervous energy by persistent exercise
and by stimulation, which draws blood to the brain, without regard
to circumstances and seasons, but this is wasteful in itself and disturb-
ing to the healthy functions.

As a general rule, the system is at its greatest vigor in the cold
season of the year; and most work is done in winter. Summer studies
are comparatively unproductive.

The review of the varying plasticity in the different stages of life
might be conducted on the same plan of estimating the collective

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 517

forces of the system, and the share of these available for brain-work,
but other circumstances have to be taken into the account, and I do
not enter upon the question here.

There are many details in the economy of the plastic power that
have a physical as well as a mental aspect. Such are those relating
to the strain and remission of the attention, to the pauses and alterna-
tions during the times of drill, to the moderating of the nervous ex-
citement, and other matters. These should all find a place under the
head of the Retentive function. It is expedient now to take up the
consideration of the subject from the purely mental side.

2. The one circumstance that sums up all the mental aids to
plasticity is Concentration. A certain expenditure of nervous power
is involved in every adhesion, every act of impressing the memory,
every communicated bias; and the more the better. This supposes,
however, that we should withdraw the forces, for the time, from every
other competing exercise ; and, especially, that we should redeem all
wasting expenditure for the purpose in view.

It is requisite, therefore, that the circumstances leading to the con-
centration of the mind should be well understood. We assume that
there is power available for the occasion, and we seek to turn it into
the proper channel. Now, there is no doubt that the will is the chief
intervening influence, and the chief stimulants of the will are, as we
know, pleasure and pain. This is the rough view of the case. A
little more precision is attainable through our psychological knowl-
edge.

And first, the will itself as an operating or directing power, that
is to say, the moving of the organs in a given way under a motive, is
a growth or culture ; it is very imperfect at first, and improves by
usage. A child of twelve months cannot by any inducement be
prompted readily to clap its hands, to point with its forefinger, to
touch the tip of its nose, to move its left shoulder forward. The most
elementary acts of the will, the alphabet of all the higher acquisitions,
have first to be learned in a way of their own ; and until they have
attained a sufficient advancement, so as to be amenable to the spur of
a motive, the teacher has nothing to go upon.

I have elsewhere described this early process, as I conceive it,
in giving an account of the development of the will. In the prac-
tice of education, it is a matter of importance as showing at what
time mechanical instruction is possible, and what impedes its j)i*ogress
at the outset, notwithstanding the abundance of plasticity in the
brain itself. The disciplining of the organs to follow directions would
seem to be the proper province of the infant school.

Coming now to the influences of concentration, we assign the first
place to intrinsic charm, ox pleasure in the act itself. The law of the
will, in its side of greatest potency, is that pleasure sustains the
movement that brings it. The whole force of the mind at the moment

5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

goes with the pleasure-giving exercise. The harvest of immediate
pleasure stimulates our most intense exertions, if exertion serves to
prolong the blessing. So it is with the deepening of an impression,
the confirming of a bent or bias, the associating of a couple or a
sequence of acts; a coinciding burst of joy awakens the attention,
and thus leads to an enduring stamp on the mental framework.

The ingraining efficiency of the pleasurable motive requires not
only that we should not be carried off into an accustomed routine of
voluntary activities, such as to give to the forces another direction,
as when we pace to and fro in a flower-garden ; but also that the
pleasure should not be intense or tumultuous. The law of the mutual
exclusion of great pleasure and great intellectual exertion forbids the
employment of too much excitement of any kind, when we aim at the
most exacting of all mental results — the forming of new adhesive
growths. A gentle pleasure that for the time contents us, there being
no great temptation at hand, is the best foster-mother of our efforts at
learning. Still better, if it be a growing pleasure; a small beginning,
with steady increase, never too absorbing, is the best of all stimulants
to mental power. In order to have a yet wider compass of stimula-
tion, without objectionable extremes, we might begin on the negative
side, that is, in pain or privation, to be gradually remitted in the
course of the studious exercise, giving place at last to the exhilara-
tion of a waxing pleasure. All the great teachers, from Socrates
downward, seem to recognize the necessity of putting the learner into
a state of pain to begin with ; a fact that we are by no means to exult
over, although we may have to admit the stern truth that is in it.
The influence of pain, however, takes a wider range than here sup-
posed, as will be seen under our next head.

A moderate exhilaration and cheerfulness, growing out of the act
of learning itself, is certainly the most genial, the most effectual
means of cementing the unions that we desire to form in the mind.
This is meant when we speak of the learner having a taste far his
pursuit, having the heart in it, learning con amove. The fact is per-
fectly well known ; the error, in connection with it, lies in dictating
or enjoining this state of mind on everybody in every situation, as if
it could be commanded by a wish, or as if it were not itself an ex-
pensive endowrment. The brain cannot yield an exceptional pleasure
without charging for it.

Next to pleasure in the actual, as a concentrating motive, is
pleasure in prospect, as in learning what is to bring us some future
gratification. The stimulus has the inferiority attaching to the idea
of pleasure as compared with the reality. Still it may be of various
degrees, and may rise to a considerable pitch of force. Parents often
reward their children with coins for success in their lessons ; the con-
ception of the pleasure in this case is nearly equal to a present tremor
of sense-delight. On the other hand, the promises of fortune and

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 519

distinction, after a long interval of years, have seldom much influence
in concentrating the mind toward a particular study.

Let us now view the operation of pain. By the law of the will,
pain repels us from the thing that causes it. A painful study repels
us, just as an agreeable one attracts and detains us. The only way
that pain can operate is when it is attached to neglect, or to the want
of mental concentration in a given subject; we then find pleasure, by
comparison, in sticking to our task. This is the theory of punishing
the want of application. It is in every way inferior to the other
motives; and this inferiority should be always kept in view in em-
ploying it, as every teacher often must with the generality of scholars.
Pain is a waste of brain-power; while the work of the learner needs
the very highest form of this power. Punishment works at a heavy
percentage of deduction, which is still greater as it passes into the
well-defined form of terror. Every one has experienced cases where
severity has rendered a pupil utterly incapable of the work prescribed.

Discarding all a priori theories as to whether the human mind can
be led on to study by an ingenious system of pleasurable attractions,
we are safe in affirming that if the physical conditions are properly re-
garded, if the work is within the compass of the pupil's faculties, and
if a fair amount of assistance is rendered in the way of intelligible
direction, althdugh some sort of pain will frequently be necessary, it
ought not to be so great as to damp the spirits and waste the plastic
energy.

The line of remark is exactly the same for pain in prospect, with
allowance for the difference between reality and the idea. It is well
when prospective pain has the power of a motive, because the future
bad consequences of neglect are so various and so considerable as to
save the resort to any other. But since the young mind in general is
weak in the sense of futurity, whether for good or for evil, only very
near, very intelligible, and very certain pains, can take the place of
presently-acting deterrents.

In the study of the human mind, we need, for many purposes, to
draw a subtile distinction between feeling as pleasure or pain, and
feeling as excitement not necessarily pleasurable or painful. This
subtilty cannot be dispensed with in our present subject. There is a
form of mental concentration that is properly termed excitement, and
is not properly termed pleasurable or painful excitement. A loud or
sudden shock, a rapid whirling movement, stirs, wakens, or excites
us ; it may also give us pleasure or pain, but it may be perfectly neu-
tral ; and even when there is pleasure or pain, there is an influence
apart from what would belong to pleasure or pain, as such. A state
of excitement seizes hold of the mind for the time beingr and shuts out
other mental occupations ; we are engrossed with the subject that
brought on the state, and are not amenable to extraneous influences,
until that has subsided. Hence, excitement is preeminently a means

520 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of making an impression, of stamping an idea in the mind ; it is
strictly an intellectual stimulus. There is still the proviso (under the
general law of incompatibility of the two opposite moods) that the
excitement must not be violent and wasting. In well-understood
moderation, excitement is identical with attention, mental engross-
ment, the concentration of the forces upon the plastic or cementing
operation, the rendering permanent as a recollection what lies in the
focus of the blaze. Excitement, so defined, is worthless as an end,
but is valuable as a means ; and that means is the furtherance of our
mental improvement by driving home some useful concatenation of
ideas.

Another subtilty remains — a distinction within a distinction.
After contrasting feeling as excitement with feeling as pleasure or
pain, we must separate the useful from the useless or even pernicious
modes of excitement. The useful excitement is what is narrowed and
confined to the subject to be impressed ; the useless, and worse than
useless, excitement is what spreads far and wide, and embraces noth-
ing in particular. It is easy to get up the last species of excitement —
the vague, scattered, and tumultuous mode — but this is not of avail
for any set purpose; it may be counted rather as a distracting agency
than as a means of calling forth and concentratingthe attention upon
an exercise.

The true excitement for the purpose in view is what grows out of
the very subject itself, surrounding and adhering to that subject.
Now, for this kind of excitement, the recipe is continuous application
of the mind in perfect surrounding stillness. Restrain all other solicita-
tion of the senses ; keep the attention upon the one act to be learned ;
and, by the law of nervous and mental persistence, the currents of the
brain will become gradually stronger and stronger, until they have
reached the point when they do no more good for the time. This is .
the ideal of concentration by neutral excitement.

The enemy of such happy neutrality is pleasure from without ;
and the youthful mind cannot resist the distraction of a present pleas-
ure, or even the scent of a far-off pleasure. The schoolroom is pur-
posely screened off from the view of what is going on outside ; while
all internal incidents that hold out pleasurable diversion are carefully
restrained, at least during the crisis of a difficult lesson. A touch of
pain, or apprehension, if only slight, is not unfavorable to the concen-
tration.

A very important observation remains, namely, that relationship
of retention to discrimination which was stated in introducing the
function of discrimination. The consideration of this relationship
illustrates with still greater point the true character of the excite-
ment that concentrates and does not distract nor dissipate the ener-
gies. The moment of a delicate discrimination is the moment when
the intellectual force is dominant; emotion spurns nice distinctions,

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 521

and incapacitates the mind for feeling them. The quiescence and still-
ness of the emotions enables the mind to give its full energies to the
intellectual processes generally ; and of these, the fundamental is
perception of difference. Now, the more mental force we can throw
into the act of noting a difference, the better is that difference felt,
and the better it is impressed. The same act that favors discrimina-
tion favors retention. The two cannot be kept separate. No law of
the intellect appears to be more certain than the law that connects
our discriminating power with our retentive power. In whatever
class of subjects our discrimination is great — colors, forms, tunes,
tastes — in that class our retention is great. Whenever the attention
can be concentrated on a subject in such a way as to make us feel all
its delicate lineaments, which is another way of stating the sense of
differences, through that very circumstance a great impression is
made on the memory ; there is no more favorable moment for engrav-
ing a recollection.

The perfection of neutral excitement, therefore, is typified by the
intense rousing of the forces in an act or a series of acts of discrimi-
nation. If by any means we can succeed in this, we are sure that the
other intellectual consequences will follow. It is a rare and difficult
attainment in volatile years ; the conditions, positive and negative,
for its highest consummation cannot readily be commanded. Yet we
should clearly compi'ehend what these conditions are ; and the fore-
going attempt has been made to seize and embody them.

Pleasure and pain, besides acting in their own character — that is,
directing the voluntary actions, have a power as mere excitement, or
as wakening up the mental blaze, during which all mental acts, in-
cluding the impressing of the memory, are more effective. The dis-
tinction must still be drawn between concentrated and diffused excite-
ment, between excitement in, and excitement away from, the work
to be done. Pleasure is the most favorable adjunct, if not too great.
Pain is the more stimulating or exciting ; under a painful smart the
forces are very rapidly quickened for all purposes, until we reach the
point of wasteful dissipation. This brings us round again to the
Socratic position, the preparing of the learner's mind by the torpedo
or the gad-fly.

The full compass of the operation of the painful stimulant is well
shown in some of our most familiar experiences as learners. In
committing a lesson to memory, we con it a number of times by the
book : we then try without the book. We fail utterly, and are
slightly pained by the failure. We go back to the book, and try
once more without it. We still fail, but strain the memory to re-
cover the lost trains. The pains of failure and the act of straining
stimulate the forces ; the attention is aroused seriously and energeti-
cally. The next reference to the book finds us far more receptive of
the impression to be made; the weak links are now reenforced with

522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

avidity, and the next trial shows the value of the discipline that has
been undergone.

One remark more will close the view of the conditions of plas-
ticity. It is, that discrimination and retentiveuess have a common
support in rapidity and sharpness of transition. A sharp and sudden
change is commonly said to make a strong impression : the fact im-
plied concerns discrimination and retention alike. Vague, shadowy,
ill-defined boundaries fail to be discriminated, and the subjects of
them are not remembered. The educator finds great scope for his art
in this consideration also.

FORMATION OF RAINDROPS AND HAILSTONES.1

WHEN" the particles of water or ice which constitute a cloud or
fog are all of the same size, and the air in which they are sus-
tained is at rest or is moving uniformly in one direction, then these
particles can have no motion relatively to each other. The weight
of the particles will cause them to descend through the air with
velocities which depend on their diameters, and, since they are all of
the same size, they will all move with the same velocity.

Fig. 1. — Perfect Hailstone.

Under these circumstances,. therefore, the particles will not trav-
erse the spaces which separate them, and there can be no aggrega-
tion so as to form raindrops or hailstones.

If, however, from circumstances to be presently considered, some
of the particles of the cloud or fog attain a larger size than others,
these will descend faster than the others, and will consequently over-
take those immediately beneath them ; with these they may combine

i Abstract of pnper " On the Manner in which Raindrops and Hailstones are formed,"
by Prof. Osborne Reynolds, M. A., read at the Literary and Philosophical Society, Man-
chester.

FORMATION OF RAINDROPS AND HAILSTONES. 523

so as to form still larger particles which will move with greater
velocity, and more quickly overtaking the particles in front of them
will add to their size at an increasing rate.

Under such circumstances, therefore, the cloud would be converted
into rain or hail according as the particles were water or ice.

The size of the drops from such a cloud would depend simply on
the quantity of water suspended in the space swept through by the
drop in its descent, that is to say, on the density and thickness of the
cloud below the point from which the drops started.

The author's object is to suggest that this is the actual way in
which raindrops and hailstones are formed. He was first led to this
conclusion from observing closely the structure of ordinary hailstones.
Although to the casual observer hailstones may appear to have no
particular shape except that of more or less imperfect spheres, on
closer inspection they are seen all to partake more or less of a conical

Pig. 2. — Broken Hailstone.

form with a rounded base like the sector of a sphere. In texture they
have the appearance of an aggregation of minute particles of ice fitting
closely together, but without any crystallization such as that seen in
the snow-flake, although the surface of the cone is striated, the strice
radiating from the vertex. Such a form and texture as this is exactly
what would result if the stones were formed in the manner described
above. When a particle which ultimately formed the vertex of the
cone started on its downward descent and encountered other particles
on its lower face, they would adhere to it, however slightly. The
mass, therefore, would grow in thickness downward ; and as some of
the particles would strike the face so close to the edge that they would
overhang, the lower face would continually grow broader, and a coni-
cal form be given to the mass above.

When found on the ground the hailstones are generally imperfect;
and besides such bruises as may be accounted for by the fall, many
of them appear to have been imperfect before reaching the ground.
Such deformities, however, may be easily accounted for. The larger
stones fall faster than those which are smaller, and consequently may

524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

overtake them in their descent ; and then the smaller stones will stick
to the larger and at once deform them. But besides the deformation
caused by the presence of the smaller stone, the effect of the impact
may be to impart a rotary motion to the stone, so that now it will no
longer continue to grow in the same manner as before. Hence we
have causes for almost any irregularities of form in the ordinary hail-
stone.

Fig. S.— Imitation in Plaster of Paris.

•

It appears, from the numerous accounts which have been pub-
lished, that occasionally hailstones are found whose form is altogether
different from that described above. These, however, are exceptional,
and, to whatever causes they may owe their peculiarities, these causes
cannot affect the stones to which reference is here made.

Again, on careful examination, it is seen that the ordinary hail-
stones are denser and firmer toward their bases or spherical sides than
near the vertex of the cone, which latter often appears to have broken
off in the descent. This, also, is exactly what would result from the
manner of formation described above. When the particle first starts
it will be moving slowly, and the force with which the particles im-
pinge upon it will be slight, and consequently its texture loose ; as,
however, it grows in size and its velocity increases, it will strike the
particles it overtakes with greater force and so drive them into a
more compact mass. If the velocity were sufficient, the particles
would strike with sufficient force to adhere as solid ice, and this ap-
pears to be the case when the stones become large, as large as a wal-
nut, for instance.

An idea of the effect of the suspended particles, on being overtaken

FORMATION OF RAINDROPS AND HAILSTONES. 525

by the stone, may be formed from the action of the particles of sand
in Mr. Tilghman's sand-blast, used for cutting glass. The two cases
are essentially the same, the only difference being that the hailstone
is moving through the air, whereas, in the case of the sand-blast, the
object which corresponds to the stone is fixed, and the sand is blown

against it.

By this sand-blast the finest particles of sand are made to indent
the hardest material, such as quartz or hard steel ; so that the actual
intensity of the pressure between the surface of the particles of sand
and that of the object they strike must be enormous. And yet the
velocity of the blast is not so much greater than that at which a good-
sized hailstone descends. It is easy to conceive, therefore, that the
force of the impact of the suspended particles of ice, if not much be-
low the temperature of freezing, on a large hailstone, would drive them
together so as to form solid ice. For the effect of squeezing two
particles of ice together is to cause them to thaw at the surface of
contact, and as soon as the pressure is relieved they freeze again, and
hence their adhesion.

It is then shown that hailstones, such as those described, can
neither be formed by the freezing of raindrops, nor by the condensa-
tion of vapor on a nucleus of ice; and that it is impossible that the
particles of ice can have been drawn together by electrical attraction

Fig. 4.— Imitation in Plaster of Paris.

— their conical shape, and the increase in their density toward iheir
thicker sides, clearly showing that the particles have aggregated from
one direction, and with an increasing force as the size of the stone has
increased.

The possibility of making artificial stones is thus considered : If a
stream of frozen fog were driven against any small object, then the
frozen particles should accumulate on the object in a mass resembling
a hailstone. Not seeing his way to obtain such a stream of frozen
fog, the author thought it might be worth while to try the effect of
blowing very finely-powdered plaster of Paris. He therefore intro-
duced a stream of this material into a jet of steam, issuing freely into

526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the air (which he hoped would moisten the powdered plaster suf-
ficiently to cause it to set firmly into whatever form it collected).
The jet was directed against a splinter of wood.

In this way masses of plaster very closely resembling hailstones
were obtained. They were all more or less conical, wTith their bases
facing the jet. But, as might be expected, the angles of the cones
were all smaller than those of the hailstones. Two of these figures are
shown in the sketches annexed.

The strias were strongly marked, and exactly resembled those of
the hailstone. The bases also were rounded. They were somewhat
steeper than those of the hailstone; but this was clearly due to the
want of sufficient cohesive power on the part of the plaster. It was
not sufficiently wet. Owing to this cause also it was not possible to
preserve the lumps when they wTere formed, as the least shake caused
them to tumble in pieces.

Similar masses were also obtained by blowing the vapor of naph-
thaline, but these were also very fragile. Whereupon it is remarked :
At ordinary temperatures the powdered naphthaline does not adhere
like ice when pressed into a lump. No doubt at very low temperatures
ice would behave in the same way, that is to say, the particles would
not adhere from the force of impact. Hence it would seem probable
that, for hailstones to be formed, the temperature of the cloud must
not be much below the freezing-point.

That the effect of the temperature of the cloud exercises great
influence on the character of the hailstones cannot be doubted. And
if, as has been suggested by M. L. Dufour, the particles will sometimes
remain fluid, even when the temperature is as low as 0° Fahr., it is
clear that, as they are swept up by a falling stone, they may freeze
into homogeneous ice either in a laminated or crystalline form.

The author then proceeds to show that raindrops are probably
formed in the same way as hailstones ; that, although the raindrops
have no structural peculiarities like the hailstones, the aggregation of
the particles of water by the descent of the drop through the cloud is
the only explanation which will account for them. He shows that, as
Mr. Baxendell had previously pointed out, the amount of vapor which
a cold drop could condense before it becomes as warm as the vapor
would be inappreciable when compared with the size of the drop; and
since, in order that there might be condensation, the air must be
warmer than the drop, the drop could not part with its heat to the
air. He also shows that during the time of descent of a large drop
the heat lost by radiation would not account for the condensation of
sufficient vapor to make any appreciable difference in the size of the
drop. Whereas, if we suppose all the vapor wThich a body of saturated
air at G0° Fahr. would contain over and above what it wrould contain
at 32° to be changed into a fog or cloud, then if a particle, after
commencing to descend, aggregated to itself all the water suspended

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 527

in the volume of air through which it swept, the diameter of the drop
after passing through 2,000 feet would be more than an eighth of an
inch, and after passing through 4,000 feet a quarter of an inch, and so
on. So that, in passing through 8,000 feet of such cloud, it would ac-
quire a diameter of half an inch.

The fact that raindrops never attain the size of large hailstones is
explained as being due to the mobility in the case of large drops of
the surface tension of the water, by which alone the drop retains its
form, to withstand the disturbing force of the air rushing past ; when
the drop reaches a certain size, therefore, it is blown in pieces like the
water from a fountain.

The origin of stones and drops is then discussed — why some of the
particles in a cloud should be larger than the others, as it is necessary
for them to be in order that they may commence a more rapid descent.
A cloud does not always rain ; and hence it would seem that in their
normal condition the particles of a cloud are all of the same size and
have no internal motion, and that the variation of size is due to some
irregularity or disturbance in the cloud.

Such irregularity would result when a cloud is cooling by radiation
from its upper surface. The particles on the top of the cloud being
more exposed would radiate faster than those below them, and hence
they would condense more vapor and grow more rapidly in size.
They would therefore descend and leave other particles to form the
top of the cloud. In this way we should have in embryo a continuous
succession of drops.

Eddies in the cloud also form another possible cause of the origin
of drops and stones. — Nature.

OX THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY.1

Br Pbofessoe T. H. HUXLEY.

IT is my duty to-night to speak about the study of biology, and
while it may be that there are many among you who are quite
familiar with that study, yet, as a lecturer of some standing, it would,
I know by experience, be very bad policy on my part to suppose such
to be extensively the case. On the contrary, I must imagine that
there are many of you who would like to know what biology is ; that
there will be others who have that amount of information, but would
nevertheless gladly learn why it should be worth their while to study
biology; and jet others, again, to whom these two points are clear,
but who desire to learn how they had best study it, and, finally, when

1 A lecture by Prof. Huxley, delivered at the South Kensington Museum, on Saturday,
December 16, 1876.

5 23 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they had best study it ; and I shall address myself to the endeavor to
give you some answer to these four questions — what biology is ; why
it should be studied ; how it should be studied ; and when it should
be studied.

In the first place, in respect to what biology is, there are, I believe,
some persons who imagine that the term " biology " is simply a new-
fangled denomination, a neologism, in short, for what used to be
known under the title of "natural history;" but I shall try to show
you, on the contrary, that the word is the expression of the growth
of science during the last two hundred years, anS came into existence
half a century ago.

At the revival of learning, knowledge was divided into two kinds
— the knowledge of Nature, and the knowledge of man ; for it was the
current idea then (and a great deal of that ancient concejDtion still
remains) that there was a sort of essential antithesis, not to say an-
tagonism, between Nature and man; and that the two had not very
much to do with one another, except that the one was oftentimes ex-
ceedingly troublesome to the other. Though it is one of the salient
merits of our great philosophers of the seventeenth century that they
recognize but one scientific method, applicable alike to man and to
Nature, we find this notion of the existence of a broad distinction be-
tween Nature and man in the writings of Bacon and Hobbes of
Malmesbury ; and I have brought with me that famous work which is
now so little known, greatly as it deserves to be studied, " The Levi-
athan," in order that I may put to you, in the wonderfully terse and
clear language of Thomas Hobbes, what was his view of the matter.
He says :

" The register of knowledge of fact is called history. Whereof
there be two sorts: one called natural history; which is the history
of such facts or effects of Nature as have no dependence on man's
will ; such as are the histories of metals, plants, animals, regions, and
the like. The other is civil history ; wdiich is the history of the volun-
tary actions of men in commonwealths."

So that all history of fact was divided into these two great groups
of natural and of civil history. The Royal Society was in course of
foundation about the time that Hobbes was writing this book, wThich
was published in 1651, and that Society is termed a "Society for the
Advancement of Natural Knowledge," which is nearly the same thing
as a "Society for the Advancement of Natural History." As time
went on, and the various branches of human knowledge became more
distinctly developed and separated from one another, it was found
that some were much more susceptible of precise mathematical treat-
ment than others. , The publication of the "Principia" of Newton,
which probably gave a greater stimulus to physical science than any
work ever published before, or which is likely to be published here-
after, showed that precise mathematical methods were applicable to

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 529

those branches of science, such as astronomy, and what we now call
physics, which occupy a very large portion of the domain of what the
older writers understood by natural history. And inasmuch as the
partly deductive and partly experimental methods of treatment, to
which Newton and others subjected these branches of human knowl-
edge, showed that the phenomena of Nature which belonged to them
were susceptible of explanation, and thereby came within the reach
of what was called "philosophy" in those days, so much of this kind
of knowledge as was not included under astronomy came to be spoken
of as " natural philosophy " — a term which Bacon had employed in a
much wider sense. Time went on, and yet other branches of science
developed themselves. Chemistry took a definite shape, and as all
these sciences, such as astronomy, natural philosophy, and chemistry,
were susceptible either of mathematical treatment or of experimental
treatment, or of both, a great distinction was drawn between the ex-
perimental branches of what had previously been called natural his-
tory and the observational branches— those in which experiment was
(or appeared to be) of doubtful use, and where, at that time, mathe-
matical methods were inapplicable. Under these circumstances the
old name of " natural history " stuck by the residuum, by those phe-
nomena which were not, at that time, susceptible of mathematical or
experimental treatment ; that is to say, those phenomena of Nature
which come now under the general heads of physical geography,
geology, mineralogy, the history of plants, and the history of animals.
It was in this sense that the term was understood by the great writers
of the middle of the last century — Buffon and Linnaeus — by Buffon
in his great work, the " Histoire Naturelle Generale," and by Linnseus
in his splendid achievement, the " Systema Natui'se." The subjects
they deal with are spoken of as " natural history," and they called
themselves, and were called, naturalists. But you will observe that
this was not the original meaning of these terms; but that they had,
by this time, acquired a signification widely different from that which
they possessed primitively.

The sense in which " natural history " was used at the time I am
now speaking of has, to a certain extent, endured to the present clay.
There are now in existence, in some of our northern universities, chairs
of Civil and Natural History, in which the term " natural history " is
used to indicate exactly what Hobbes and Bacon meant by that term.
There are others in which the unhappy incumbent of the chair of
Natural History is, or was, still supposed to cover the whole ground
of geology and mineralogy, zoology, perhaps even botany, in his lect-
ures. But as science made the marvelous progress which it did make
at the end of the last and the beginning of (he present century,
thinking men bes;an to discern that under this title of " natural his-
tory" there were included very heterogeneous constituents — that,
for example, geology and mineralogy were, in many respects, very
vol. x. — 34

53°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

different from botany and zoology ; that a man might obtain an ex-
tensive knowledge of the structure and functions of plants and ani-
mals, without having need to enter upon the study of geology and
mineralogy, and vice versa ; and, further, as knowledge advanced, it
became clear that there was a great analogy, a very close alliance,
between those two sciences of botany and zoology which deal with
living beings, while they are much more widely separated from all
other studies. It is due to Buffon to remark that he clearly recog-
nized, this great fact. He says : " Ces deux genres d'etres organises
(les animaux et les vegetaux) ont beaucoup plus de proprietes com-
munes que de differences reelles." Therefore it is not wonderful that
at the beginning of the present century, and oddly enough in two
different countries, and, so far as I know, without any intercom-
munication between the respective writers, two famous men clearly
conceived the notion of uniting the whole of the sciences which
deal with living matter into one whole, and of dealing with them as
one discipline. In fact, I may say there were three men to whom this
idea occurred contemporaneously, although there were but two who
carried it into effect, and only one who worked it out completely. The
persons to whom I refer were the eminent physiologist Bichat,1 the
great naturalist Lamarck, in France ; and a distinguished German,
Treviranus. Bichat assumed the existence of a special group of
" physiological" sciences. Lamarck, in a work published in 1801,2 for
the first time made use of the name " biologie," from the two Greek
words which signify a discourse upon life and living things. About
the same time it occurred to Treviranus that all those sciences which
deal with living matter are essentially and fundamentally one, and
ought to be treated as a whole, and in the year 1802 he published
the first volume of what he also called " Biologie." Treviranus's
great merit consists in this, that he worked out his idea, and that he
published the very remarkable book to which I refer, which consists
of six volumes, and which occupied him for twenty years — from 1802
to 1822.

That is the origin of the term " biology," and that is how it has
come about that all clear thinkers and lovers of consistent nomenclat-
ure have substituted for the old confusing name of " natural history,"
which has conveyed so many meanings, the term " biology " to de-
note the whole of the sciences which deal with living things, whether
they be animals or whether they be plants. Some little time ago — in
the course of this year, I think — I was favored by a^ learned classic,
Dr. Field, of Norwich, with a disquisition, in which he endeavored to
prove that from a philological point of view neither Treviranus nor
Lamarck had any right to coin this new word "biology" for his

1 See the distinction between the " sciences physiques " and the " sciences physiolo-
giques " in the " Anatomie Generale," 1801.

2 " Hydrogeologie," an. x. (1801).

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 531

purpose; that, in fact, the Greek word " bios " had relation only to
human life and human affairs, and that a different word was employed
when they wished to speak of the life of animals and plants. So Dr.
Field tells us we are all wrong in using the term biology, and that we
ouo-ht to employ another — only, unluckily, he is not quite sure about
the propriety of that which he proposes as a substitute. It is a some-
what hard one — zootocology. I am sorry we are wrong, because
we are likely to continue so. In these matters we must have
some sort of " statute of limitations." When a name has been em-
ployed for half a century, persons of authority ' have been using it,
and its sense has become well understood, I am afraid that people
will go on using it, whatever the weight of philological objection.

Now that we have arrived at the origin of this word " biology,"
the next point to consider is, What ground does it cover? I have said
that in its strict technical sense it covers all the phenomena that are
exhibited by living things, as distinguished from those which are not
living ; but while that is all very well so long as we confine ourselves
to the lower animals and to plants, it lands us in a very considerable
difficulty when we reach the higher forms of living things. For, what-
ever view we may entertain about the nature of man, one thing is per-
fectly certain, that he is a living creature. Hence, if our definition is to
be interpreted strictly, we must include man and all his ways and works
under the head of biology ; in which case we should find that psy-
chology, politics, and political economy, would all be absorbed into
the province of biology. In fact, civil history would be merged in
natural history. In strict logic it may be hard to object to this
course, because no one can doubt that the rudiments and outlines of
our own mental phenomena are traceable among the lower animals.
They have their economy and their polity ; and if, as is always ad-
mitted, the polity of bees and the commonwealth of wolves fall within
the purview of the biologist proper, it becomes hard to say why we
should not include therein human affairs, which in so many cases re-
semble those of bees in zealous getting, and are not without a certain
parity in the proceedings of wolves. The real fact is, that we biolo-
gists are a self-sacrificing people ; and inasmuch as, on a moderate
estimate, there are about a quarter of a million different species of
animals and plants to know about already, we feel that we have
more than sufficient territory. There has been a sort of practical con-
vention by which we give up to a different branch of science what
Bacon and Hobbes would have called " civil history." That branch
of science has constituted itself under the head of sociology. I may
use phraseology which at present will be well understood, and say
that we have allowed that province of biology to become autono-

1 " The term biology, which means exactly what we wish to express, the science of
life, has often been used and has of late become not uncommon among good writers."
— Whewell, "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," vol. i., p. 544 (edition of 184*7).

532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mous ; but I should like you to recollect that that is a sacrifice, and
that you should not he surprised if it occasionally happens that you
see a biologist trespassing upon questions of philosophy or politics,
or meddling with human education, because, after all, that is a part
of his kingdom which he has only voluntarily forsaken.

Having now defined the meaning of the word "biology," and
having indicated the general scope of biological science, I turn to my
second question, which is, Why should we study biology ? Possi-
bly the time may come when that will seem a very odd question.
That we, living creatures, should not feel a certain amount of inter-
est in what it is that constitutes our life, will eventually, under altered
ideas of the fittest objects of human inquiry, seem to be a singular phe-
nomenon ; but at present, judging by the practice of teachers and
educators, this would seem to be a matter that does not concern us at
all. I propose to put before you a few considerations which I dare
say many of you will be familiar with already, but which will suffice
to show — not fully, because to demonstrate this point fully would take
a great many lectures — that there are some very good and substantial
reasons why it may be advisable that we should know something
about this branch of human learning. I myself entirely agree with
another sentiment of the philosopher of Malmesbury, that " the scope
of all speculation is the performance of some action or thing to be
done," and I have not any very great respect for or interest in mere
knowing as such. I judge of the value of human pursuits by their
bearing upon human interests — in other words, by their utility ; but I
should like that we should quite clearly understand what it is that
we mean by this word " utility." Now, in an Englishman's mouth,
it generally means that by which we get pudding or praise, or both.
I have no doubt that is one meaning of the word utility, but it by no
means includes all I mean by utility. I think that knowledge of every
kind is useful in proportion as it tends to give people right ideas,
which are essential to the foundation of right practice, and to re-
move wrong ideas, which are the no less essential foundations and
fertile mothers of every description of error in practice. And, upon
the whole, inasmuch as this world is, after all, whatever practical peo-
ple may say, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by the
wildest and most hypothetical ideas, it is a matter of the very great-
est importance that our theories of things, and even of things that
seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as pos-
sible true, and as far as possible removed from error. It is not only in
the coarser practical sense of the word " utility," but in this higher
and broader sense, that I measure the value of the study of biology
by its utility, and I shall try to point out to you that you will feel
the need of some knowledge of biology at a great many turns of this
present nineteenth-century life of ours. For example, most of us lay
great and very just stress upon the conception which is entertained

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 533

of the position of man in this universe, and his relation to the rest of
Nature. We have almost all of us been told, and most of us hold
by the tradition, that man occupies an isolated and peculiar position
in Nature ; that though he is in the world he is not of the world ;
that his relations to things about him are of a remote character, that
his origin is recent, his duration likely to be short, and that he is the
great central figure round which other things in this world revolve.
But this is not what the biologists tell us. At the present moment
you will be kind enough to separate me from them, because it is in
no way essential to my argument just now that I should advocate
their views. Don't suppose that I am saying this for the purpose of
escaping the responsibility of their beliefs, because at other times and
in other places I do not think that point has been left doubtful ; but I
want clearly to point out to you that for my present argument they
may all be wrong ; nevertheless, my argument will hold good. The
biologists tell us that all this is an entire mistake. They turn to the
physical organization of man. They examine his whole structure, his
bony frame, and all that clothes it. They resolve him into the finest
particles into which the microscope will enable them to break him up.
They consider the performance of his various functions and activities,
and they look at the manner in which he occurs on the surface of the
world. Then they turn to other animals, and, taking the first handy
domestic animal — say a dog — they profess to be able to demonstrate
that the analysis of the dog leads them in gross to precisely the same
results as the analysis of the man; that they find almost identically
the same bones, having the same relations ; that they can name the
muscles of the dog by the names of the muscles of the man, and the
nerves of the dog by those of the nerves of the man, and that such
structures and organs of sense as we find in the man such also we find
in the dog ; they analyze the brain and spinal cord, and find the no-
menclature which does for the one answer for the other. They carry
their microscopic inquiries in the case of the dog as far as they can,
and they find that his body is resolvable into the same elements as
those of the man. Moreover, they trace back the dog's and the man's
development, and they find that at a certain stage of their existence
the two creatures are not distinguishable the one from the other ; they
find that the dog and his kind have a certain distribution over the
surface of the world comparable in its way to the distribution of the
human species. What is true of the dog they tell us is true of all
the higher animals; and they find that for the whole of these creat-
ui'es they can lay down a common plan, and regard the man and the
dog, the horse and the ox, as minor modifications of one great funda-
mental unity. Moreover, the investigations of the last three-quarters
of a century have proved, they tell us, that similar inquiries carried
out through all the different kinds of animals which are met with in
Nature will lead us, not in one straight series, but by many roads,

534 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

step by step, gradation by gradation, from man at the summit to
specks of animated jelly at the bottom of the series ; so that the idea
of Leibnitz and of Bonnet that animals form a srreat scale of being-
in which there is a series of gradations from the most complicated
form to the lowest and simplest — that idea, though not exactly in the
form in which it was propounded by those philosophers, turns out to
be substantially correct. More than this, when biologists pursue
their investigations into the vegetable world, they find that they can
in the same way follow out the structure of the plant from the most
gigantic and complicated trees through a similar series of gradations
until they arrive at similar specks of animated jelly, which they are
puzzled to distinguish from those which they reached by the animal
road.

Thus they have arrived at the conclusion that a fundamental uni-
formity of structure pervades the animal and vegetable worlds, and
that plants and animals differ from one another simply as modifica-
tions of the same great general plan.

Again, they tell us the same story in regard to the study of func-
tion. They admit the large and important interval which, at the
present time, separates the manifestations of the mental faculties ob-
servable in the higher forms of mankind, and even in the lower forms,
such as we know them, mentally from those exhibited by other ani-
mals ; but, at the same time, they tell us that the foundations or rudi-
ments of almost all the faculties of man are to be met with in the
lower animals ; that there is a unity of mental faculty as well as of
bodily structure, and that here also the difference is a difference of
degree and not of kind. I said "almost all" for a reason. Among
the many distinctions which have been drawn between the lower creat-
ures and ourselves, there is one which is hardly ever insisted on,1 but
which may be fitly spoken of in a place so largely devoted to art as
that in which we are assembled. It is this, that, while among various
kinds of animals it is possible to discover traces of all the other facul-
ties of man, especially the faculty of mimicry, yet that particular
form of mimicry which shows itself in the imitation of form, either
by modeling or by drawing, is not to be met with. As far as I know,
there is no sculpture or modeling, and decidedly no painting or draw-
ing, of animal orio-in. I mention the fact in order that such comfort
may be derived therefrom as artists may feel inclined to take.

If what the biologists tell us is true, it will be needful for us to
get rid of our erroneous conceptions of man and of his place in Na-
ture, and substitute for them right ones. But it is impossible to form
any judgment as to whether the biologists are right or wrong unless
we are able to appreciate the nature of the arguments which they
have to offer.

One would almost think that this was a self-evident proposition. I

1 1 think that Prof. Allman was the first to draw attention to it.

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 535

wonder what a scholar would say to the man who should undertake
to criticise a difficult passage in a Greek play, but who obviously had
not acquainted himself with the rudiments of the Greek grammar.
And, before giving a positive opinion about these high questions of
biology, people not only don't seem to think it necessary to be ac-
quainted with the grammar of the subject, but they have not even
mastered the alphabet. You find criticism and denunciation showTered
about by persons who not only have not attempted to go through the
discipline necessary to enable them to be judges, but have not even
reached that stage of emergence from ignorance in which the knowl-
edge that such a discipline is necessary dawns upon the mind. I have
had to watch with some attention — in fact, I have been favored with
a good deal of it myself — the sort of criticism with which biologists
and biological doctrines are visited. I am told every now and then
that there is a " brilliant article " ' in so-and-so, in which we are all
demolished. I used to read these things once, but I am getting old,
and I have ceased to attend very much to this cry of " wolf! " When
one does read one of these productions, what one finds generally, on
the face of it, is, that the brilliant critic is devoid of even the ele-
ments of knowledge in the matter, and that his brilliancy is like the
light given out by the crackling of thorns under a pot of which Solo-
mon speaks. So far as I recollect, Solomon makes use of that image
for purposes of comparison ; but I won't proceed into that matter
further.

Two things must be obvious : in the first place, that every man
who has the interests of truth at heart must earnestly desire that every
well-founded and just criticism that can be made should be made ; but
it is essential to anybody's being able to benefit by criticism that the
critic should know what he is talking about and be in a position to
form a mental image of the facts symbolized by the word he uses. If
not, it is as obvious in the case of a biological argument as it is in
that of an historical or philological discussion, that such criticism is
a mere waste of time on the part of the author, and wholly undeserv-
ing of attention on the part of those who are criticised. Take it,
then, as an illustration of the importance of biological study that
thereby alone are men able to form something like a rational concep-
tion of what constitutes valuable criticism of the teachings of biolo-
gists.3

1 Galileo was troubled by a sort of people whom he called " paper-philosophers," be-
cause they fancied that the true reading of Nature was to be detected by the collation of
texts. The race is not extinct, but, as of old, brings forth its " winds of doctrine " by
which the weathercock-heads among us are much exercised.

5 Some critics do not even take the trouble to read. I have recently been adjured
with much solemnity to state publicly why I have " changed " my opinion as to the value
of the paleontological evidence of the occurrence of evolution.

To this my reply is, Why should I, when that statement was made seven years ago ?
An address delivered from the presidential chair of the Geological Society in 1870 may

536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Next, I may mention another bearing of biological knowledge — a
more practical »ne in the ordinary sense of the word. Consider the
theory of infectious disease. Surely that is of interest to all of us.
Now, the theory of infectious disease is rapidly being elucidated by
biological study. It is possible to produce from among the lower
animals cases of devastating diseases which have all the appearance
of our infectious diseases, and which are certainly and unmistakably
caused by living organisms. This fact renders it possible, at any
rate, that that doctrine of the causation of infectious disease which is
known under the name of "the germ-theory" may be well-founded;
and, if so, it must needs lead to the most important practical measures
in dealing with those most terrible visitations. It may be well that
the general as well as the professional public should have a sufficient
knowledge of biological truths to be able to take a rational interest
in the discussion of such problems, and to see, what I think they may
hope to see, that to those who possess a sufficient elementary knowl-
edge of biology they are not all quite open questions.

Let me mention another important practical illustration of the
value of biological study. Within the last forty years the theory of
agriculture has been revolutionized. The researches of Liebig, and
those of our own Lawes and Gilbert, have had a bearing upon that
branch of industry, the importance of which cannot be over-estimated ;
but the whole of these new views have grown out of the better expla-
nation of certain processes which go on in plants, and which, of course,
form a part of the subject-matter of biology.

I might go on multiplying these examples, but I see that the clock
won't wait for me, and I must, therefore, pass to the third question to
which I referred: Granted that biology is something worth stiidying,
what is the best way of studying it? Here I must point out that,
since biology is a physical science, the method of studying it must
needs be analogous to that which is followed in the other physical
sciences. It has now long been recognized that if a man wishes to be
a chemist it is not only necessary that he should read chemical books
and attend chemical lectures, but that he should actually himself per-
form the fundamental experiments in the laboratory, and know exactly
what the words which he finds in his books and hears from his teach-

be said to be a public document, inasmuch as it not only appeared in the journal of that
learned body, but was republished in 1873 in a volume of " Critiques and Addresses," to
which my name is attached. Therein will be found a pretty full statement of my reasons
for enunciating two propositions : 1. That, " when we turn to the higher Verlebrata, the
results of recent investigations, however we may sift and criticise them, seem to me to
leave a clear balance in favor of the evolution of living forms one from another ; " and
2. That the case of the horse is one which " will stand rigorous criticism."

Thus I do not see clearly in what way I can be said to have changed my opinion, ex-
cept in the way of intensifying it, when in consequence of the accumulation of similar
evidence since 1810 I recently spoke of the denial of evolution as not worth serious con-
sideration.

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 537

ers, mean. If he does not do that, he may read till the crack of doom,
hut he will never know much about chemistry. That is what every
chemist will tell you, and the physicist will do the same for his branch
of science. The great changes and improvements in physical and
chemical scientific education which have taken place of late have all
resulted from the combination of practical teaching with the reading
of books and with the hearing of lectures. The same thing is true in
biology. Nobody will ever know anything about biology, except in a
dilettant " paper-philosopher " way, who contents himself with read-
ing books on botany, zoology, and the like ; and the reason of this is
simple and easy to understand. It is, that all language is merely
symbolical of the things of which it treats ; the more complicated the
tilings, the more bare is the symbol, and the more its verbal definition
requires to be supplemented by the information derived directly from
the handling, and the seeing, and the touching of the thing symbol-
ized : that is really what is at the bottom of the whole matter. It
is plain common-sense, as all truth in the long-run is, only common
sense clarified. If you want a man to be a tea-merchant, you don't
tell him to read books about China or about tea, but you put him into
a tea-merchant's office, where he has the handling, the smelling, and
the tasting of tea. Without the sort of knowledge which can he
gained only in this practical way, his exploits as a tea-merchant will
soon come to a bankrupt termination. The u paper-philosophers " are
under the delusion that physical science can be mastered as literary
accomplishments are acquired, but unfortunately it is not so. You
may read any quantity of books, and you may be almost as ignorant
as you were at starting, if you don't have, at the back of your minds,
the change for words in definite images which can only he acquired
through the operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena
of Nature.

It may be said : "That is all very well, but you told us just now
that there are probably something like a quarter of a million different
kinds of living and extinct animals and plants, and a human life could
not suffice for the examination of one-fiftieth part of all this." That
is true, but then comes the great convenience of the way things are
arranged ; which is, that, although there are these immense numbers
of different kinds of living things in existence, yet they are built up,
after all, upon marvelously few plans.

, There are, I suppose, about 100,000 species of insects, if not more,
and yet anybody who knows one insect — if a properly-chosen one —
will be able to have a very fair conception of the structure of the
whole. I do not mean to say he will know that structure thoroughly,
or as well as it is desirable he should know it, but he will have enough
real knowledge to enable him to understand what he reads, to have
genuine images in his mind of those structures which become so vari-
ously modified in all the forms of insects he has not seen. In fact,

538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

there are such things as types of form among animals and vegetables,
and for the purpose of getting a definite knowledge of what constitutes
the leading modifications of animal and plant life it is not needful
to examine more than a comparatively small number of animals and
plants.

Let me tell you what we do in the biological laboratory in the
building adjacent to this. There I^ecture to a class of students daily
for about four and a half months, and my class have, of course, their
text-books ; but the essential part of the whole teaching, and that
which I regard as really the most important part of it, is a laboratory
for practical work, which is simply a room with all the materials ar-
ranged for ordinary dissection. We have tables properly arranged
in regard to light, microscopes, and dissecting-instruments, and we
work through the structure of a certain number of animals and plants.
As, for example, among the plants we take a yeast-plant, a Protococcus,
a common mould, a Chara, a fern, and some flowering plant ; among
the animals, we examine such things as an amoeba, a Vorticella, and
a fresh-water polyp. We dissect a star-fish, an earth-worm, a snail,
a squid, and a fresh-water mussel. We examine a lobster and a craw-
fish, and a black-beetle. We go on to a common skate, a codfish, a
frog, a tortoise, a pigeon, and a rabbit, and that takes us about all the
time we have to give. The purpose of this course is not to make
skilled dissectors, but to give every student a clear and definite con-
ception, by means of sense-images, of the characteristic structure of
each of the leading modifications of the animal kingdom ; and that is
perfectly possible, by going no further than the length of that list of
forms which I have enumerated. If a man knows the structure of the
animals I have mentioned, he has a clear and exact, however limited,
apprehension of the essential features of the organization of all those
great divisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms to which the
forms I have mentioned severally belong. And it then becomes pos-
sible for him to read with profit, because, every time he meets with
the name of a structure, he has a definite image in his mind of what
the name means in the particular creature he is reading about, and
therefore the reading is not mere reading. It is not mere repetition
of words ; but every term employed in the description, we will say,
of a horse or of an elephant, will call up the image of the things he
had seen in the rabbit, and he is able to form a distinct conception of
that which he has not seen as a modification of that which he has
seen.

I find this system to yield excellent results, and I have no hesita-
tion whatever in saying that any one who has gone through such a
course attentively is in a better position to form a conception of the
great truths of biology, especially of morphology (which is what we
chiefly deal with), than if he had merely read all the books on that
topic put together.

ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 539

The connection of this discourse with the Loan Collection of Scien-
tific Apparatus arises out of the exhibition in that collection of aids
to our laboratory-work. Such of you as have visited that very inter-
esting collection may have noticed a series of diagrams and of prepa-
rations illustrating the structure of a frog. Those diagrams and prepa-
rations have been made for the use of the students in the biological
laboratory. Similar diagrams and preparations, illustrating the struct-
ure of all the other forms of life we examine, are either made or in
course of preparation. Thus the student has before him, first, a pict-
ure of the structure he ought to see ; secondly, the structure itself
worked out ; and if, with these aids, and such needful explanations
and practical hints as a demonstrator can supply, he cannot make out
the facts for himself in the materials supplied to him, he had better
take to some other pursuit than that of biological science.

I should have been glad to have said a few words about the use
of museums in the study of biology, but I see that my time is becom-
ing short, and I have yet another question to answer. Nevertheless,
I must, at the risk of wearying you, say a word or two upon that im-
portant subject of museums. Without doubt, there are no helps to
the study of biology, or rather to some branches of it, which are, or
may be, more important than natural-history museums ; but, in order
to take this place in regard to biology, they must be museums of the
future. The museums of the present do not do by any means so much
for us as they might do. I do not wish to particularize, but I dare
say many of you seeking knowledge, or in the laudable desire to em-
ploy a holiday usefully, have visited some great natural-history mu-
seum. You have walked through a quarter of a mile of animals well
stuffed, with their long names written out underneath them ; and, un-
less your experience is very different from that of most people, the
upshot of it all is that you leave that splendid pile with sore feet,
a bad headache, and a general idea that the animal kingdom is a
mighty maze without a plan. I do not think that a museum which
brings about this result has done all that may reasonably be expected
of such an institution. What is needed in a collection of natural his-
tory is, that it should be made as accessible and as useful as possible
on the one hand to the general public, and on the other to scientific
workers. That need is not met by constructing a sort of happy hunt-
ing-ground of miles of glass cases, and, under the pretense of exhib-
iting everything, putting the maximum amount of obstacles in the
way of those who wish properly to see anything.

What the public want is easy and unhindered access to such a col-
lection as they can understand and appreciate ; and what the men of
science want is similar access to the materials of science. To this end
the vast mass of objects of natural history should be divided into two
parts — one open to the public, the other to men of science, every day,
and all day long. The former division should exemplify all the more

54o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

important and interesting forms of life. Explanatory tablets should
be attached to them, and catalogues, containing clearly-written expo-
sitions of the general significance of the objects exhibited, should be
provided. The latter division should contain, packed into a compara-
tively small space, the objects of purely scientific interest. For ex-
ample, we will say I am an ornithologist. I go to see a collection of
birds. It is a positive nuisance to have them stuffed. It is not only
sheer waste, but I have to reckon with the ideas of the bird-stuffer,
while, if I have the skin, and nobody has interfered with it, I can
form my own judgment as to what the bird was like. For ornitho-
logical purposes, what is needed is not glass cases full of stuffed birds
on perches, but convenient drawers, into each of which a great quan-
tity of skins will go. They occupy no great space, and do not require
any expenditure beyond their original cost. But, for the purpose of
the public, who want to learn, indeed, but do not seek for minute and
technical knowledge, the case is different. What one of the general
public, walking into a collection of birds, desires to see, is not all the
birds that can be got together ; he does not want to compare a hun-
dred species of the sparrow-tribe side by side ; but he wishes to know
what a bird is, and what are the great modifications of bird-structure;
and to be able to get at that knowledge easily. What will best serve
his purpose is a comparatively small number of birds, carefully se-
lected, and artistically as well as accurately set up, with their differ-
ent ages, their nests, their young, their eggs, and their skeletons, side
by side, and, in accordance with the admirable plan which is pursued
in this museum, a tablet, telling the spectator, in legible characters,
what they are and what they mean. For the instruction and recrea-
tion of the public, such a typical collection would be of far greater
value than any many-acred imitation of Noah's ark.

Lastly comes the question as to when biological study may best
be pursued. I do not see any valid reason why it should not be
made, to a certain extent, a part of ordinary school-training. I have
long advocated this view, and I am perfectly certain that it can be
carried out with ease, and not only with ease, but with very consider-
able profit to those who are taught ; but then such instruction must
be adapted to the minds and needs of the scholars. They used to
have a very odd way of teaching the classical languages when I was
a boy. The first task set you was to learn the rules of the Latin
grammar in the Latin language — that being the language you were
going to learn. I thought then that this was an odd way of learning
a language, but did not venture to rebel against the judgment of my
superiors. Now, perhaps, I am not so modest as I was then, and I
allow myself to think it was a very absurd fashion. But it would be
no less absurd if we were to set about teaching biology by putting
into the hands of boys a series of definitions of the classes and orders
of the animal kingdom, and making them repeat them by heart.

OJST THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 541

That is a very favorite method o'f teaching, so that I sometimes fancy
the spirit of the old classical system has entered into the new scien-
tific system, in which case I would much rather that any pretense at
scientific teaching were abolished altogether. What really has to be
done is to get into the young mind some notion of what animal and
vegetable life is. You have to consider in this matter practical con-
venience as well as other things. There are difficulties in the way of
a lot of boys making messes wTith slugs and snails ; it might not
work in practice. But there is a very convenient and handy animal
which everybody has at hand, and that is himself; and it is a very
easy and simple matter to obtain common plants. Hence, the broader
facts of anatomy and physiology can be taught to young people in a very
real fashion by dealing with the broad facts of human structure, such
as hearts, langs, and livers. Such viscera as they cannot very well ex-
amine in themselves maybe obtained from the nearest butcher's shop.
In respect to teaching them something about the biology of plants, there
is no practical difficulty, because almost any of the common plants
will do, and plants do not make a mess — at least they do not make an
unpleasant mess ; so that, in my judgment, the best form of biology
for teaching to very young people is elementary human physiology on
the one hand, and the elements of botany on the other ; beyond that
I do not think it will be feasible to advance for some time to come.
But then I see no reason why in secondary schools, and in the science
classes, which are under the control of the Science and Art Depart-
ment— and which, I may say, in passing, have, in my judgment, done
so very much for the diffusion of a knowledge over the country — I
think that, in those cases, we may go further, and we may hope to
see instruction in the elements of biology carried out, not, perhaps,
to the same extent, but still upon somewhat the same principle, as we
do here. There is no difficulty, when you have to deal with students
of the ages of fifteen or sixteen, in practising a little dissection and
getting a notion, at any rate, of the four or five great modifications
of the animal form, and the like is true in regard to plants.

AVhile, lastly, to all those who are studying biological science
with a view to their own edification, or with the intention of becom-
ing zoologists or botanists ; to all those who intend to pursue physi-
ology— and especially to those who propose to employ the working-
years of their lives in the practice of medicine — I say that there is no
training so fitted, or which may be of such important service to them,
as the thorough discipline in practical biological work which I have
sketched out as being pursued in the laboratory hard by.

I may add that, beyond all these different classes of persons who
may profit by the study of biology, there is yet one other. I remem-
ber, a number of years ago, that a gentleman who was a vehement
opponent of Mr. Darwin's views, and had written some terrible articles
against them, applied to me to know what was the best way in which

542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

he could acquaint himself with the- strongest arguments in favor of
evolution. I wrote back in all good faith and simplicity, recommend-
ing him to go through a course of comparative anatomy and physi-
ology, and then to study development. I am sorry to say he was
very much displeased, as people often are with good advice. Not-
withstanding this discouraging result, I venture, as a parting word,
to repeat the suggestion, and to say to all the more or less acute
lay and clerical " paper-philosophers " ' who venture into the regions
of biological controversy — Get a little sound, thorough, practical,
elementary instruction in biology.

-♦-»♦-

HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED IN OLD TIMES.2

FROM THE FRENCH OF FLAMMARION.

WE are too apt in these times of popular education, and the cheap
diffusion of knowledge, to forget the cost of scientific truth.
We formulate a fact or principle, and administer it in the school-room,
with but little regard to the circumstance that it may have cost
thousands of years of toil to discover and establish it. We have
found out, for example, a great deal about the figure, motions, and
astronomical relations of the earth, with such exactness that, as Prof.
Young tells us, we know the semi-diameter of our globe at the
equator within two hundred feet — while to go "around the world"
is now a mere frolic ; and all this knowledge is given to children in

7 DO

an hour's lesson. But how few appreciate the long struggle of the
human intellect in arriving at these simple results ! Let us hastily
glance at the early efforts of the human mind in trying to find out
what sort of thing this earth is, in its form, extent, and relation to
the heavenly bodies that surround it.

The history of the growth of any branch of knowledge has a
double interest : that which comes from the knowledge itself, and its
relation to the history of the operations of the human mind. Men
think under the limitations of their times both as regards the extent

1 Writers of this stamp are fond of talking about the Baconian method. T beg them,
therefore, to lay to heart these two weighty sayings of the herald of Modern Science:

" Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, propositiones ex verbis, verba notionum tes-
serae sunt. Itaque si notiones ipsae (id quod bask rei est) confusse sint et temere a rebus
abstracts?, nihil in iis quae superstruuntur est firmitudinis." — (" Novum Organon," ii., 14.)

" Huic auteni vanitati nonnulli ex modernis summa levitate ita indulserunt, ut in
primo capitulo Geneseos et in libro Job et aliis scripturis sacris, philosophiam naturalcm
fundare conati sint ; inter vivos quarentes mortna." — (Hid., 65.)

2 The cuts of this article are from Flammarion's "History of the Heavens," and we
have made free use of the text of Blake's " Astronomical Myths," which is based on
Flammarion's work.

HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED.

543

of knowledge and the intellectual processes to which they are habitu-
ated. They reason as they can on such materials as they have. If
they have not learned to observe, they come to conclusions without
observations. If they do not know that there are such things as laws
of Nature, their inquiries are not directed to find them. If they

Pig. 1.— The Eakth floating.

think that the mind is the measure of Nature, they will search in
their own reflections for the explanations of Nature; and when they
have got out plausible results, or which agree with logic, they will im-
pose their conclusions upon Nature as if they represented the truth.
The human mind is essentially active and will make theories; and the

Fig. 2.— The Earth with Roots.

less its knowledge the feebler are the restraints of reason and the
bolder the spirit of speculation. We must therefore expect that, in
regard to the knowledge of the earth Avhen nothing was actually
known about it in early times, there must have been an enormous
amount of crude conjecture, futile reasoning, and absurd fancy, or
rather much that so appears to us now, although it may have been
put forth at first as sober and honest belief.

Aristotle, who lived in the fourth century B. c, and studied Na-

544

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ture with great earnestness and assiduity, held many views concern-
ing the earth that were very reasonable for his time. Yet, in the ab-
sence of facts, nothing was left for him but to rely upon logic. He
had certain ideas of what is natural and what is perfect, and from

Fig. 3.— The Earth of the Veda Priests.

these he reasoned as to what must be and therefore what is. To the
question whether the earth turns or the heavens turn, he replies that
the earth is evidently in repose, not only because we see it to be so,
but because it is a necessity that it should be, that is, because repose
is natural to the earth. If it be ashed why the stars must move around

Fig. 4.— The Hindoo Earth.

the earth, he replies, it is natural that they should, because a circle is
the most perfect line, because it has no ends, and it must therefore
be described by the perfect stars. That the eai-th is the centre of the
universe, and is at rest, is furthermore proved by Aristotle from theo-

HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED.

54-5

logical considerations : thus, everything which performs any act has
been made for the purpose of that act. Now, the work of God is im-
mortality, from which it follows that all that is divine must have an
eternal motion. The heavens have a divine quality, and for this rea-
son they have a spherical shape and move eternally in a circle. Now,

Fig. 5.— Anaximandeb's Cylindbical Earth.

when a body has a circular motion, one part of it must remain at rest
in the centre ; the earth is in the centre, and therefore motionless.

Aristotle, however, entertained many sensible views regarding the
earth which were of course greatly " in advance of his times," and,
among others, that the earth was spherical, for which he offered rea-

Fig. 6.— Plato's Cubical Eabth.

sons that are valid now. But how it could remain suspended in one
place without any foundation to rest upon, puzzled him.

Among the various causes which in the absence of facts deter-
mined men's geographical opinions, one was the patriotic sentiment
by which ignorant people were led to magnify their native country.
According to the prepossessions of race, each one thought his own
country to be located at the centre of the earth. Thus the Hin-
doos, who lived near the equator, and the Scandinavians, who lived
nearer the pole, apply each a term to their own country which means

VOL. x. — 35

;46

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

"the central habitation." The Greeks made Olympus the centre ; the
Egyptians, Thebes ; the Assyrians, Babylon ; the Hebrews, Jerusa-
lem ; while the Chinese always called their country the central empire.
This is natural enough (as Aristotle would say), because most people
regard their neighborhood as the centre of the universe, and the num-
ber of central railroads shows the continued force of this geometric
idea.

One of the most primitive ideas concerning the earth represented
it as a vast plain or flat island, surrounded on all sides by an inacces-
sible and interminable ocean. At the extremities and around the bor-
ders were placed the " fortunate isles," or imaginary regions, peopled
by giants, pygmies, and extraordinary beings. The circumscribing

iiiniiiniiiiiiniiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiitiiiniiiiiitiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiM^

K . mI h< i:.i,!lli 'i.JliliilillliiUli., illM!lHlliliriiiH|.|il IHIililuilil ■ ;n 'ii: .il'iini , in |~:~TT I, ' ■". ■ in ii'.l i .111

Fig. 7.— Egyptian Representation or the Heavens and Earth.

water surrounding the irregular outlines of the land led to the idea of
a universal ocean. But, when men began to have experience of the
sea by early navigation, the idea of a circular horizon always observed
led to the notion that the ocean was bounded, and the whole earth
came to be represented as contained in a circle, beneath which were
roots reaching downward without end.

The priests of Veda, the scriptures of Buddhism, asserted that the
earth was supported on twelve columns, which they very ingeniously
turned to their own account by asserting that these columns were sus-
tained by virtue of the sacrifices that were made to the gods, so that
if these were not made the earth would collapse.

" These pillars were invented in order to account for the passing
of the sun beneath the earth after his setting, for which at first they

HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED.

547

were obliged to imagine a system of tunnels that gradually became
enlarged to the intervals between the pillars."

The Hindoos held the earth to be hemispherical, and to be sup-
ported like a boat turned upside down upon the heads of four ele-
phants, which stood on the back of an immense tortoise. It is usually
said that the tortoise rested on nothing, but the Hindoos maintained
that it floated on the surface of the universal ocean. The learned
Hindoos, however, say that these animals were merely symbolical,
the four elephants meaning the four directions of the compass, and
the tortoise meaning eternity. The idea that the earth floated long
prevailed, and was adopted by Thales, the early Greek philosopher,
and by Seneca several centuries later.

Anaximander, a philosopher of the sixth century before Christ,
represented the earth as a cylinder, the upper face alone of which is
inhabited. He computed its proportions, and stated that it is one-
third as high as its diameter ; and he declared that it floats freely in

Fig. 8. — The Earth of the Later Greeks.

the centre of the celestial vault, because there is no reason why it
should move to one side rather than to the other. Leucippus, De-
mocritus, Heraclitus, and Anaxagoras, all agreed with him, and Anax-
imenes added the opinion, in consequence of the importance of air in
the world, that the earth is supported on compressed air.

Plato was a mathematician, and excogitated the universe out of
the depths of his geometrical consciousness. In explaining how
things came about, he said that matter in itself had no form or proper-
ties, but God in the beginning invested it with a sort of triangular
constitution. Afterward, taking a certain number of these primitive
triangles, be composed the four primary elements. Fire, the most
subtile, is made up of the smallest number of triangles, and has the
figure of a pyramid. Water-particles are solids of twenty faces,
while the earth-element is cubical or bounded by right-angled tri-
angles. The cube with its six equal faces appeared to Plato to be
the most perfect of solids, and therefore most suitable for the earth,
which was to stand in the centre of the universe.

548

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

How the earth is supported was ever a perplexing question
among ignorant nations. Thus, in the opinion of the old Greenland-
ers, as handed down from antiquity, the earth is upheld by pillars,
which are so consumed by time that they often crack, and, were it not
that they are sustained by the incantations of the magicians, the earth
would long since have broken down.

It is hardly possible for us now to enter into that gross anthropo-
morphic state of mind by which, in primitive times, the phenomena
of the universe were all represented in terms of human personality ;
nor can we even say how literally such views were held. But cer-

Fig. 9 —The Cosmography of Cosmas.

tainly some of the representations are funny and fantastic. Thus,
" an ancient Egyptian papyrus in the Library of Paris gives a very
curious hieroglyphical representation of the universe. The earth is
here imaged under the form of a reclining figure, and is covered with
leaves. The heavens are personified by a goddess, who forms the
vault by her star-bespangled body, which is elongated in a very pe-
culiar manner. Two boats, carrying one the rising sun and the other
the setting sun, are represented as moving along the heavens over the
body of the goddess. In the centre of the picture is the god Maon,
a divine intelligence, which presides over the equilibrium of the uni-
verse."

Strabo, one of the greatest geographers of antiquity — born a. d.
19 — held to the sphericity of the earth, but of course regarded it as
the motionless centre of the universe. He considered the moon and
stars as only meteors, nourished by the exhalations of the ocean, and
firmly maintained that no part of the earth can be inhabited save
that which was known to the ancients. The form of the habitable
world he held to be like that of a cloak, measuring in length from
east to west 70,000 stadia (about 8,000 miles), while its breadth is
less than 30,000 stadia (3,600 miles). It is bounded by regions unin-

HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED.

549

habitable, on the one side from excessive heat and on the other from
excessive cold. " The habitable world was thus much longer from
east to west than it was broad from north to south : whence come our
terms longitude, whose degrees are counted in the former direction,
and latitude, reckoned in the latter direction."

In the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries of the Christian era sci-
ence made little progress in any direction, and, in regard to the ideas
of the earth, the fathers of the Church contented themselves with
pouring out their invective upon the idea that it is a globe, employ-
ing Scriptural reasons, which continued to be used even in the fifteenth
century by the monks of Salamanca. In the year a. d. 535, Cosmas,
surnamed Indicopleustes, after his voyage to India, wrote a work en-
titled " Christian Topography," in which he propounded the system
of a square earth, with solid walls for supporting the heavens. He
undertook to bring the opinions of the fathers into a methodical

Fig. 10.— The Earth and Firmament.

shape, and to explain the heavens and the earth in accordance with
Scripture. We quote M. Flammarion's description of his system :

" According to Cosmas and his map of the world, the habitable earth is a
plane surface. But, instead of being supposed, as in the time of Thales, to be
a disk, he represented it in the form of a parallelogram, whose long sides are
twice the shorter ones, so that man is on the earth like a bird in a cage. This
parallelogram is surrounded by the ocean, which breaks in in four great gulfs,
namely, the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, and the Persian and Arabian
Gulfs.

" Beyond the ocean in every direction there exists another continent, which
cannot be reached by man, but of which one part was once inhabited by him
before the deluge. To the last, just as in other maps of the world and in later
systems, he placed the Terrestrial Paradise and the four rivers that watered
Eden, which come by subterranean channels to water the post-diluvian earth.

55°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" After the fall, Adam was driven from paradise, but he and his descendants
remained on the coasts until the deluge carried the ark of Noah to our present
earth.

" On the four outsides of the earth rise four perpendicular walls which sur-
round it and join together at the top in a vault, the heavens forming the cupola
of this singular edifice.

" The world according to Oosmas was, therefore, a large oblong box, and jt
was divided into two parts. The first, the abode of men, reaches from the earth

Fig. 11.— The Earth as an Egg.

to the firmament, above which the stars accomplish their revolutions ; there
dwell the angels, who cannot go any higher. The second reaches upward from
the firmament to the upper vault, which crowns and terminates the world. On
this firmament rest the waters of the heavens.

" Cosmas justifies this system by declaring that, according to the doctrine of
the fathers and the commentators on the Bible, the earth has the form of the
tabernacle that Moses erected in the desert ; which was like an oblong box,
twice as long as broad. But we may find other similarities — for this land be-
yond the ocean recalls the Atlantic of the ancients, and the Mohammedans, and
Orientals in general, say that the earth is surrounded by a high mountain, which
is a similar idea to the walls of Cosmas.

" God, he says, in creating the earth, rested it on nothing. The earth is,
therefore, sustained by the power of God, creator of all things, supporting all
things by the word of his power. If below the earth or outside of it anything
existed, it would fall of its own accord. So God made the earth the base of
the universe, and ordained that it should sustain itself by its own proper
gravity."

Cosmas says that the earth, a sort of great square box circum-
scribed on all sides by high walls, is divided into three parts : first, the
habitable earth, which occupies the middle ; secondly, the ocean, which
surrounds this on all sides ; and, thirdly, another dry land, which sur-
rounds the ocean, terminated itself by these high walls, on which the
firmament rests. The habitable earth is always higher as we go
north, and the southern countries much lower, so that the Tigris and
the Euphrates, which run south, are more rapid than the Nile, which
runs northward. The sun, moon, planets, and comets, all set behind

HOW THE EARTH WAS REGARDED.

551

a laro-e conical mountain ; and accordingly as the sun disappears and
emerges at points higher or lower is the varying length of day and
night. On his view the stars were impelled by angels, who either
carried them on their shoulders, rolled them in front of them, or drew
them behind, it being remarked that "each angel that pushes a star
takes great care to observe what the others are doing, so that the
relative distances between the stars may always remain what they
ought to be."

The learned Bede, known as the Venerable, who lived in the eighth
century, regarded the earth as formed upon the model of an egg.
He says:

Fig. 12.— The Eabth as a Floating Egg.

"The earth is an element placed in the middle of the world, as the yolk is in
the middle of an egg; around it is the water, like the white surrounding the
yolk ; outside that is the air, like the membrane of the egg ; and round all is the
fire, which closes it in as the shell does. The earth, being thus in the centre,
receives every weight upon itself ; and, though by its nature it is cold and dry in
its different parts, it acquires, accidentally, different qualities; for the portion
which is exposed to the torrid action of the air is burned by the sun, and is un-
inhabitable ; its two extremities are too cold to be inhabited ; but the portion
that lies in the temperate region of the atmosphere is habitable. The ocean,
which surrounds it by its waves as far as the horizon, divides it into two parts,
the upper of which is inhabited by us, while the lower is inhabited by our an-
tipodes ; although not one of them can come to us, nor one of us to them."

It is said that a great number of the maps of the world, at the
period of Bede, followed this idea, although the necessity was per-

552

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ceived that the great earth-egg should not be left without some kind
of support. To meet this requirement Edrisi, an Arabian geographer
of the eleventh century, broached the idea that the earth is like an
egg, with one-half plunged in water. According to him, the known
world forms only a single half of the egg, which floats in the great
ocean like an egg in a basin. This notion got currency with artists
and map-makers, and continued, it is said, as a mode of representing
the earth for many centuries.

Fig. 13. — Eighth-Century Map of the World.

"In a manuscript commentary on the Apocalypse, which is in the library
of Turin, is a very curious chart, referred to the tenth, but belonging possibly to
the eighth century. It represents the earth as a circular planisphere. The four
sides of the earth are each accompanied by a figure of a wind, as a horse on a
bellows, from which air is poured out, as well as from a shell in his mouth.
Above, or to the east, are Adam and Eve, with the serpent. To their right is
Asia, with two very elevated mountains — Cappadocia and Caucasus. Thence
comes the river Eusis, and the sea into which it falls forms an arm of the
ocean which surrounds the earth. This arm joins the Mediterranean, and sepa-
rates Europe from Asia. Toward the middle is Jerusalem, with two curious
arms of the sea running past it ; while to the south there is a long and straight
sea in an east and west direction. The various islands of the Mediterranean are
put in a square patch, and Rome, France, and Germany, are indicated, while
Thula, Britannia, and Scotia, are marked as islands in the northwest of the ocean
that surrounds the whole world."

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 553

And so the history goes on, geographical facts being mingled with
fable, superstition, ancient mythology, and modern theology, until the
era of maritime discovery, inaugurated by adventurers like Columbus,
who discovered a new continent, and Magalhaens, who first circum-
navigated the globe. From that period the advance of geographical
knowledge has been in a great measure freed from the embarrassments
of superstition, and has been steady and rapid in all the various fields
of exploration.

-♦♦♦-

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876.1

FROM JUDGE DALY'S ADDRESS.

FROM the mode of regarding the earth entertained in old times,
let us now pass to the modern method, and what has been accom-
plished by geographical investigation in a single year. No better
illustration can be found of the great change which science has
wrought in the mental habits of man than the contrast between the
empty speculations of the olden time, and the immense and positive
results of observation and exploration by which our geographical
knowledge has been augmented, in even a single year. Judge Daly's
annual resume of the previous year's work in geographical inquiry,
given before the society of which he is president, is so careful, so
ti*ust worthy, and so complete, that it is looked for with eagerness
by many readers. By his kind permission, we avail ourselves of the
discourse, condensing some parts and quoting others. Those who do
not like this mangling of an author's work had better get the dis-
course in its full text, which will be issued in pamphlet form.

We are informed that the past year has been marked, not only by
investigations and discourses, but by the establishment of several new
geographical societies, and a large increase in the membership of the
old. Having their origin in the " Society of the Argonauts" founded
in Venice in 1688, there are now thirty-eight such societies in exist-
ence. Physical geography, to which I shall first refer, is a line of
inquiry in which there has been great activity during the past year,
as shown by the number of works that have been published, and the
papers that have been read upon the various branches of this great
subject.

"At a meeting of the British Association at Glasgow, last Septem-
ber, Sir William Thomson considered the subject of the interior of
the earth. He said that the greatest depth that had been reached in
observations of underground temperature was scarcely one kilometre

1 Condensed from the annual address of Chief-Justice Charles P. Daly, President of
the American Geographical Society, delivered January, 1877.

55+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

(which is less than a mile) ; that, whatever might he the age of the
earth, we might he sure that it was solid in the interior — not through
its whole volume, as there were spaces in volcanic regions occupied
by liquid lava, hut that this portion was small in comparison to the
whole — and that any geological hypothesis must he rejected which
assumes that the earth is a shell resting on a liquid mass. He also
considered the question, first, of the accuracy of the earth as a time-
keeper; and, second, the permanence of its axes of rotation. Since the
first known observation of an eclipse of the moon at Babylon, on the
19th of March, 721 b. c, the earth has lost a portion of its velocity,
and is now, as a timekeeper, going slower; and his observation upon
the question of the earth's axis was, in effect, that if causes existed
adequate to produce a change in the position of the axis by the up-
heaving of the surface, or otherwise, the result, even if sudden, would
not be very great, or produce any extraordinary effect. Many impor-
tant observations were made, at the same meeting, upon the tides,
ocean temperature, and currents, and upon the physical geography of
the sea, founded upon the results of the voyage of the Challenger."

Of this expedition Sir Wyville Thomson has given the general
results. The superficial area of the world is 197,000,000 square miles,
of which 140,000,000 are covered by the sea at an average depth of
15,000 feet. The floor of this region is, to a certain degree, compar-
able to the land. It has its hills, valleys, and great plains; its vari-
ous soils; its climates, and its special races of inhabitants, depending
on the conditions of climate and soil for their distribution.

"The vessel % departed from England in December, 1872. She
crossed the Atlantic four times in 1873, in a course of nearly 20,000
miles. In 1874 she went southward from the Cape of Good Hope, dip-
ping within the antarctic circle as far as she could, and then traversed
the Australian and New Zealand seas and the interior of the Malay
Archipelago, arriving at Hong-Kong on November 10, 1874, after a
run in that year of 17,000 miles. In 1875 she traversed the Pacific, in
a course of about 20,000 miles, and then crossed the Atlantic for the
fifth time, reaching England May 24, 1876. The three general results
are — 1. The knowledge obtained of the contour of the bottom, and
the nature of the deposits now being formed. 2. The distribution of
deep-sea climate. 3. The nature and distribution of the peculiar race
of animals now found at the bottom of the sea. In the Pacific there
is an enormous extension of water of great depth — in many cases
beyond 18,000 feet. In the North Atlantic the greater portion has a
depth of 12,000 feet; and in the South Atlantic, on each side of what
is known as the Dolphin rise, there are troughs usually 18,000 feet
deep, which form marked depressions roughly parallel with the arc
of the South American and African Continents. The whole bottom of
the sea is gradually receiving accumulations, giving rise to formations
which must be regarded as the rocks of the future. The debris of

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 555

the land was found to be carried out into the sea some hundreds of
miles, and clays were being formed, mixed up with the dkbris of ani-
mals. Within a certain distance of the land the deposits, to a great
extent, were formed of this material. Over a great part of the North
Atlantic there is being deposited the Globigerina ooze — composed,
principally, of small chambered shells, extremely minute; and these
shells were found in enormous quantities. This deposit is almost
entirely of carbonate of lime, and the only rock it could form would
be limestone; therefore, over a large part of the North Atlantic, and
over many other parts of the world, this limestone is being laid
down." These creatures live at and near the surface, and thence the
whole of this sort of material at the bottom is derived. "It might be
supposed that this formation ought to be as universal as is the distri-
bution of these animals on the surface. Singularly enough, this is not
the case. At the depth of 12,000 feet the shells become rotten and
yellow; at 13,000 feet there are no shells, and the bottom is one of
homogeneous red mud, which, instead of consisting of carbonate of
lime, is ordinary clay. I may here interpolate a fact to show how
abundant animal life is at or very near the surface of the ocean. The
steamer Great Eastern was lately in dock at Milford Haven for the
examination of her bottom, which had not been scraped since 1867.
Her bottom was found covered with an enormous multitude of mussels,
clustered together in one dense and continuous deposit, extending
over 52,000 square feet, and which, upon a calculation made, amounted
to not less than three hundred tons' weight, or enough to load with a
full cargo two ordinary collier brigs.

" Another curious fact observed in the voyage of the Challenger
was, that all over the bottom of the sea there is a large quantity of
pumice, showing that there are volcanoes, either below the water or
otherwise, that are constantly throwing out material. This pumice,
which is the froth of lava, is frequently so light as to float on the water,
and wherever they were, in any part of the world, they saw it moved
about by the current over the surface of the sea. They found living
in the sea, on the surface, or just below, a great quantity of beautiful
organisms called Madiolarians. They increase with the depth, and
many occur at great depths that are not found on the surface at all.
The impression formed was that they lived all through the sea, and
down to the greatest depths.

"The whole bottom of the Pacific, or the greater part of it, is red
clay. The temperature of the ocean at 13,000 feet is very low. It is
usually but a little above the freezing-point at the bottom of the Pa-
cific and the Atlantic, and portions of the Southern Sea. The general
temperature gradually falls from the surface until the depth of 13,000
feet, below which there is, throughout the sea, a uniform temperature
of 37° or 34°, or a little below the freezing-point. The question arose,
Whence does the ocean derive this low and uniform temperature? It

556 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is a question of great difficulty ; and the conjecture made is, that it is
an inflow of the cold water from the vast area of the antarctic."

The geographical work of the United States has been more limited
than usual, owing to delay and smallness of appropriations. The
Coast Survey continues its work : in the Gulf of Mexico careful sound-
ings have been made, and observations on the temperature of the
water and the flow of currents, which will throw light on the Gulf
Stream. Triangulations were pushed eastward from the Pacific Coast
Range to the Sierra Nevada, some of the triangles observed having
sides over 150 miles long; a series of telegraphic determinations of
longitude have been made for the purpose of correcting our charts of
the West India Islands, one point at least having been located on
eacli island. Triangulation along Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Michigan,
has been continued, the topography of Niagara River completed,
many points determined for the State survey of Michigan, and the ele-
vation of the Great Lakes newly determined. Lake Ontario is found
to be 247.25 feet and Lake Erie 573.58 feet above mean tide at New
York. Reports of geographical and topographical work in Montana,
the Yellowstone Park, Southern Colorado, Northern New Mexico,
and Arizona, have been issued. The geographical surveys west of
the 100th meridian, under Lieutenant Wheeler, have been continued.
About 25,000 square miles were traversed by the various parties.
Some interesting Spanish mines were found in New Mexico. A sur-
vey was carried on in the neighborhood of Lake Tahoe, in California.
The depth of the lake was found to exceed 2,200 feet. The examina-
tion of the Colorado River, with reference to determining the practi-
cability of diverting it from its channel to irrigate the deserts of
Southeastern California, has been completed. The lowest part of the
desert is 200 feet below the sea, and it was found that an area of 1,600
square miles could be flooded; but constantly-shifting sands would
make it a continual expense, and the evaporation from the surface of
such a lake would exceed the water flowing in the Colorado in a dry
season. Thirteen atlas sheets of Lieutenant Wheeler's survey have
been issued ; they are upon a scale of eight miles to the inch, and cover
a large part of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.
The survey of the Territories under Profs. Hayden and Powell was
carried on, and much has been learned of the region embracing Colo-
rado, Utah, and Southeastern Nevada. A triangulation party climbed
and measured Blanco Peak, near Fort Garland, in Colorado, which, if
not the highest, is next to the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains.
It is 14,464 feet high. Over fifty of the most elevated peaks in that
range are in the State of Colorado, running from 14,000 to 14,500 feet,
so close that the utmost care has been required to determine which is
the highest.

Eastern Utah was surveyed from the Colorado River to and over
the Wahsatch Mountains between parallels 38° and 39° 15'. The region

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 557

is cbaiacterized by great plateaus bounded by lines of cliffs from 1,000
to 2,000 feet in height, varying from 20 to 200 miles in length, the
whole intersected with a network of deep and narrow caiions, present-
ing nearly impassable barriers. Of one section of about 7,000 square
miles, only about one per cent, is available for agriculture ; about five
j)er cent, is covered by pine and spruce, the remainder being a desert
waste. There are large quantities of excellent coal, but no precious
metals were discovered. The average elevation of this region is about
7,000 feet. Another section in Southwestern Utah and Southeastern
Nevada of about 4,000 square miles was found one of the most barren
regions of the whole Great Basin. It is marked by ranges rising to
9,000 feet, with broad desert valleys between. Little timber-land or
land fit for cultivation was found, the pasturage being of the poorest
quality. The climate is milder than that of Eastern Utah, and very
dry, the annual rainfall not exceeding four inches. " There is no coal
in this region, but it is known to contain large amounts of silver.
The well-developed mining district of Pioche was within the region
examined, and also a newly-organized district at Leeds, on the Virgin
River, Utah, where silver, instead of occurring in veins, is dissemi-
nated in the form of horn-silver, through a stratum of sandstone be-
longing to the Jura Trias. Between 4,000 and 5,000 men have gath-
ered at this last-named district (Leeds) within the past few months."
Extensive collections have been made illustrative of the arts and
industries of the Indian tribes, embracing totemic carvings, stone
implements, clothing, ornaments, furniture, and manufactures, of the
Pueblo race; heraldic columns from Vancouver's Island, of painted
wood from 25 to 40 feet high, erected in front of their dwellings,
which are communal, holding from 100 to 300 people. These houses
are made from slabs rived out of great tree-trunks with wooden
wedges and stone mallets. Canoes were obtained 60 feet in length,
dug from single logs ; many tons of ancient stone implements, said to
surpass in beauty of finish any aboriginal remains of like nature
hitherto discovered, together with pottery, have been forwarded to
the Smithsonian Institution from Southern California. The United
States Signal Service Corps " is making rapid advances toward a com-
plete knowledge of the conditions and causes of the American climate.
They have nearly completed the most extensive collection of altitudes
of places in North America which has ever been gathered. The list
includes several thousand profiles, representing almost every railroad
and canal. From this and other data they are making a relief model
of North America on a large scale. A telegraph-line has been built
by them from Central Texas across the Llano Estacado, that dreaded
waterless desert, and one across the high and arid plateaus and
ranges of Southern New Mexico and Arizona to San Diego, on the Pa-
cific. This gives an unbroken line from Savannah along the southern
border of the United States, stretching from ocean to ocean. Thirty

558 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

meteorological stations are placed along the line, the highest being
6,800 feet above the sea. Another line of stations follows the Rio
Grande River from its month to the elevated plateau of Colorado.

" The Mexican telegraph-lines now extend from the mouth of the
Rio Grande River to San Luis, thence to Tampico, and thence through
Vera Cruz along the coast nearly to the extremity of Yucatan. The
Signal Service are preparing to place stations down even to Yucatan.
The Gulf of Mexico has been nearly encircled with a telegraph-line,
along which meteorological stations will be placed at such short
intervals that no hurricane or storm can move from the Gulf without
notice of its escape and the direction of its flight being given at once
to the whole country.

"Arrangements have been made for a chain of stations to the ex-
treme eastern end of the West Indies, all connected by telegraph with
the Washington office. If Congress is wise enough to give sufficient
appropriation to carry out these excellent plans, it wrill be impossible
for any hurricane to enter the United States from the south un-
heralded, for hourly bulletins of its progress can be posted in every
seaport. Who can estimate the lives and treasure that such an ar-
rangement may save? Congress cannot be too generous to the Sig-
nal Service.

"To show the power of the telegraph in this connection, I may
mention that General Myer recently sent, at twelve o'clock at night,
an order to each meteorological station in this country. It was unex-
pected by the corps, but so perfect is the discipline that within ninety
minutes the Washington office received answers from every station,
even including that on the lofty elevation of Pike's Peak, and the
lonely desert of Fort Yuma.

"At General Myer's suggestion, an international meteorological
organization was effected in \&13. Observations are now taken
once a day, simultaneously, at every meteorological station in the
world, and the results forwarded to the Signal Service Office at
Washing-ton.

"Every day this office publishes a bulletin, giving the record of
these simultaneous observations from all stations. The date of the
bulletin is necessai'ily long enough after the observations to admit of
their reaching Washington. The climate of the world is thus placed
under our eyes at once. When this is carried to perfection, the laws
that govern climate may be determined."

The petrified forest in the desert of Humboldt County, North-
western Nevada, has been examined. The stumps of the trees now
transformed into rock are found in an upright position, with their
roots imbedded in the soil as when growing — many of the stumps
measuring from fifteen to twenty feet in circumference; and the
ground was found strewed with trunks and limbs in the same petri-
fied state, retaining their natural shape and size. There were no liv-

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 559

ing trees, nor any trace of vegetation, in the vicinity, except a growth
of stunted sage-brush.

" The largest tree yet found in California was discovered during
the year in King's River Valley, Fresno County. Measured from the
highest point to which a man could reach, it was found to be 150 feet
in circumference, within a few inches, and its height was estimated
at 160 feet. It is probably the largest tree in the world."

A report of the international commission for the survey of the
boundary-line between the United States and British North America,
from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, has been pub-
lished. The region was one hitherto unexplored by whites, and was
found, as represented by the Indians, to consist mainly of swamps,
making the survey a difficult one. To this were added the rigors of
the climate, as the work had to be conducted chiefly in the winter,
when the swamps were frozen and with the mercury at 45° below zero.
The country west of the Red River would be a fine grazing-ground
but for the myriad mosquitoes which drive domestic cattle almost wild
and keep them from gaining flesh. In one direction the boundary-line,
in the course of thirty-five miles, crossed sixty-five pieces of water,
twenty-five of which were lakes, requiring a survey by triangulation.
Beyond Turtle Mountain the survey was extended over the Great
Plains, the Great Coteau of the Missouri, and the Salt Lakes, and the
arid, desolate country known as Les Mauvaises Terres. Beginning in
1872, the survey was completed in 1874 to the base of the Rocky
Mountains, where they rise from the plain in precipitous peaks 10,000
feet high. The whole boundary from the Lake of the Woods to
this point is now marked by stone cairns or earthen mounds, and
by iron pillars at intervals of a mile for 135 miles along the boundary
of Manitoba in British America, which, it is said, "is destined to
become the great granary of the Dominion." There are, however,
the drawbacks of the want of markets, the ravages of grasshoppers,
and the scarcity of fuel. The latter difficulty may be obviated by
developing the great bituminous coal-fields of the Saskatchewan.
Immigration in this direction is going on ; 4,000 Mennonites from
Odessa, in Russia, have settled there, and also a colony of 300 Ice-
landers on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg.

The arctic event of the year has been the return of the English
expedition of the Alert and Discovery, under Sir George Nares, from
an attempt to reach the pole by way of Smith's Sound. The vessels
had great difficulty in forcing their way through Smith's Sound and
Kennedy's and Robeson's Channels. They were twenty-five days mak-
ing their way from Cape Sabine to Discovery Bay, a distance of only
250 miles, beset with all the perils of arctic navigation.

" Regarded from a geographical and scientific point of view, the
expedition was a success. I said in my annual address, several years
ago, that to reach the pole was not the main object in an arctic ex-

560 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pedition ; that that was a mere geographical feat, to which necessarily
great eclat would be attached ; but that the real object of such an
expedition was to explore the arctic region in every direction as far
as possible, to obtain scientific information in a quarter of the globe
where it was of the highest interest — not only as respects the past
physical history of the earth, but to enable us to unravel phenomena
and obtain a knowledge of physical laws affecting its present condi-
tion which are of high scientific value, or, to express it in a popidar
form, of the greatest practical importance. This object has been to
a considerable degree advanced by the English expedition. The
Alert not only attained the highest latitude — 82° 24' — ever reached
by a vessel, and the sledge-expeditions the farthest northern point
attained by man — 83° 20' 26" north latitude — but the expedition, in
an unknown region, discovered and traced a line of coast extend-
ing over nearly fifty degrees of longitude, ascertained to a consider-
able extent the nature of the Polar Sea bordering this newly-discov-
ered coast, and collected a large amount of scientific information
in the examination of both land and sea. A line of coast was ex-
plored 230 miles west of the spot where the Alert wintered — 90 miles
of which trends northwesterly to Cape Columbia, the extreme northern
cape, 83° 7' north latitude, 70° 30' west longitude ; thence westward
for 60 miles to 79° west longitude, and from there gradually south to
82° 16' north latitude and 83° 33' west longitude, with no indication
of land extending from there either westward or northward. The
northeast and northern coast of Greenland was traced from Polaris
Bay to a point east of Mount May in 80° 40' west longitude, the far-
thest northern land seen in the expedition being in 82° 54' north lati-
tude and 48° 33' west longitude (Cape Britannia and Mount Albert),
and the Greenland coast was found to run from Mount May, in a
southeasterly direction, to below the eighty-second parallel of north
latitude ; Lady Franklin's Bay, and Petermann's Fiord and its vicinity,
were explored, to which must be added magnetic and meteorological
and other scientific observations, and the labors of the naturalist,
carried on in the winter, with the thermometer ranging at one time
at 73° below zero.

"Being farther north than any former expedition, they passed an
unparalleled arctic winter of one hundred and forty-two days — nearly
five months — without the light and heat of the sun, and in the severest
cold yet known. In the sledge-expedition of Commander Markham,
in the autumn of 1875, to Cape Joseph Henry, the fall of snow was
so enormous that the men had to draw their sledges through it up to
their knees, and frequently up to their waists, so that, out of a party
of twenty-four, twelve were severely frost-bitten, and three suffered
amputation.

"In an attempt to communicate by a sledge-party with the Discov-
ery, that vessel having wintered below in Robeson Channel, Christian

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 561

Peterson, the Danish interpreter from Upernavik, who had been Dr.
Hayes's sledge-driver, became so exhausted that nothing would keep
him warm. They were consequently compelled to go back with him ;
and the poor fellow died shortly after his return to the vessel.

"In an expedition in the following April across the Polar Sea,
north in the direction of the pole, the men had not only to draw their
sledges, but two heavy boats fifteen and twenty feet long, over rugged
floes of ice, separated by ridges sometimes thirty feet high — to make
their way over the debris of the pack-ice broken up by the previous
summer, and refrozen during the winter into chaotic, rugged masses
of angular blocks, of every possible shape. They had frequently to
cut their way with picks through the hummocks ; and such were the
contortions and checks, that they had frequently to go five times over
the same ground ; so that in making a distance of 76 miles toward the
pole they actually traveled over 276. miles. Each man had to drag 236
pounds, and to work from ten to twelve hours a day. They could pull
but a few feet at a time, and make but from one mile and a quarter to
two miles and three-quarters a day. They were absent on this sledge-
expedition, engaged in this incessant labor, for two months and a half;
and, to add to their trials, the scurvy broke out among them, so that,
when relief reached them, out of the seventeen of the party only five
were able to drag the sledges. The sledge-party along the north coast
of Greenland were beset with like difficulties. Enormous blocks of polar
ice had been pressed against the shore, making the traveling one of in-
cessant labor, so that seven days were occupied in moving only twenty
miles. The scurvy also broke out with them ; and, when they came
in, two only were able to draw the sledges. The western sledge-
party found the same heavy ice extending along the whole coast.
They were also attacked by the scurvy, Lieutenant Aldrich being the
only one who escaped ; and relief fortunately reached them the last
day that most of them were able to travel. . . .

"The return of the expedition, and its results, have given rise to a
great deal of discussion, both in this country and in England. Sir
George Nares is of opinion, and Dr. Petermann in a recent letter con-
curs with him, that any further attempt to reach a higher latitude by
the way of Smith's Sound is hopeless, and that any future effort must
be by the route between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. I fully agree
in the correctness of this judgment, so far as respects any attempt to
get farther north by the way of Smith's Sound in a vessel. I have
never found sufficient facts to lead me to believe that there is an open
polar sea that can be reached by a vessel, nor any physical reasons
why there should be a great space of open water at the pole, or in its
vicinity. This belief is a very old one. The supposed sea is to be
found represented upon a map published 268 years ago. There may
be such a sea. The knowledge we possess will not warrant the as-
sumption that it does not exist ; but it will warrant this statement —
vol. x.— 36

5 62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that the more we become acquainted with the area of the polar basin,
and the nearer we get to the pole, the fewer indications there are of the
existence of such a sea. I am not, therefore, very hopeful that any ves-
sel will be able to get much farther north than vessels have already at-
tained ; but I do believe, notwithstanding the result of the English expe-
dition, that the polar area can be traversed much farther north in that
direction by sledging, and that it can be done by the way of Smith's
Sound as effectually as between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. The
plan which Dr. Hayes laid before this Society eight years ago, of estab-
lishing a station at Fort Foulke, where subsistence can be easily ob-
tained, and with which communication can be regularly kept up by sea,
as a base from which expeditions may be directed to the north as favor-
able opportunities offer, I have always thought the best plan of polar
exploration, and for many reasons preferable to sending out large expe-
ditions. It would not require a large force, would afford opportunity
for the training and experience in the arctic regions, which is requi-
site, and could be kept up at a comparatively small expense. Captain
H. W. Howgate, of the United States Signal Service, has recently
called public attention to a plan substantially of this character, and a
bill embodying his suggestion is now before Congress, to establish a
temporary station for the purpose of exploration at some point north
of 81° north latitude, on or near the shore of Lady Franklin's Bay ;
and Captain I. L. Norton, a shipmaster, who has had some experience
in the Antarctic, is maturing a like plan, which, he advises me, he will
lay before this Society."

The several surveys instituted by our Government across the
American Isthmus to ascertain the most feasible route for the con-
struction of an interoceanic ship-canal have been completed, the result
showing that the Nicaragua route is the most practicable. It will
take ten years, at least, to construct it, and the cost is estimated at
about $10,000,000.

"A cavern has been found in Cuba containing Carib remains, indi-
cating that the whole of that island was formerly inhabited by the
Caribs.

" Prof. Weiner has been occupied during the year in ethnological
researches in South America, and reports from Pacha Camac that he
has discovered glaciers in the Andes and Chili, which had been ques-
tioned by Agassiz ; and Prof. Hartt, chief of the Brazilian survey, is
reported to have recently made important geological discoveries in
Brazil. The Government of Brazil has undertaken the measurement
of an arc on the parallel of 23° south latitude, extending over nine or
ten degrees of longitude, connecting the capital of the country with
the great meridian of Brazil.

"The Amazon is now navigated by steamers 3,000 miles from its
mouth, and several of its tributary rivers have been opened up to
steam-navigation. I would especially call attention to the great com-

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 563

mercial importance to the United States of direct and regular commu-
nication from this country by steam with the mouth of the Amazon,
in view of the importance of the regions of the Upper Amazon and its
tributaries, which are now made accessible by steamers."

In Europe initiatory steps have been taken for the measurement
of an arc of the meridian parallel with Algeria. The surveys in Aus-
tria have been actively prosecuted ; 2,066 square miles have been sur-
veyed in Galicia and Hungary, and 200,000 altitudes determined. The
whole of the Tyrol, the greater part of Transylvania, and parts of
Lower Austria and Bukowina, have been mapped. Surveys in Turkey
and Greece promise at an early day a good map of the Balkan Penin-
sula. Deep-sea soundings have been made between Norway, the Shet-
lands, the Faroes, Iceland, and East Greenland.

The Russians and others have been active during the year in Asia,
in the regions around the White Sea, in the country of the Caspian,
the Altai and trans-Altai Mountains, the northern part of Pamir, in the
lower part of the river Obi, upon the Irkoort River, from Wjernga to
Kashgar, in the valley of Fergani, of the Shueli, and in the western
part of the Chinese province of Yunnan ; also in East and North-
west Mongolia, between the Himalayas and the Tian-shan, China, and
Turkistan, in Japan and Siam, and the river Mekong in Cochin-China.
The Siberian coast has been surveyed between parallels 45° and 52°
north latitude ; the soil is good, vegetation luxurious; lead, copper,
gold, silver, and coal, were found.

The German Arctic Society, in pursuance of a plan for polar re-
search, "dispatched an expedition which last July reached Obdorsk,
the most northern settlement on the river Obi, where they met the
Russian expedition, organized for the survey of the rivers Bar and
Chuca, that flow into the sea of Kara, and the course of the river Obi,
to determine the possibility of connecting these rivers with a canal.
Thence the party made their way to the Kara Sea, a very difficult
route ; and, upon their return last autumn, they passed through the
Kara Sea and the strait without any impediment from the ice, and
have transmitted a very interesting account of their journey in Si-
beria. Prof. Nordenskiold has again passed safely into the Kara Sea
and to the mouth of the Yenisei, and has already returned. He found
the Kara Sea free from ice in September, and declares that the navi-
gability of the Yenisei is now ascertained, and is confident that
a trade-route may be established to that river through the Kara
Sea."

In Thibet, in Japan, in Siam, and in Persia, extensive explorations
have been made. The great survey of India is going on at the rate
of 40,000 square miles per annum. The American Palestine Explo-
ration Society has suspended work, in accordance with the advice of
the advisory committee in Beyrout, partly because of the disturbed
condition of Turkey, and the continued commercial depression at

564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

home. The engineers have, however, made a rapid reconnoissance
of nearly the whole territory east of the Jordan.

" I have frequently called your attention to the remarkable remains
that are found in the country east of the Jordan — the Moab Bashan
Gilead of the Bible — of which, until the recent explorations, nothing
comparatively was known. Though this part of Syria may be reached
in a few days from the northern part of the Dead Sea, or from the sea
of Galilee, it was not visited by travelers, in consequence of the rugged
nature of the country and the hostile tribes of Bedouins that inhabit
it. It has now been ascertained to abound in architectural and archae-
ological remains of the greatest interest. It is literallv strewed with
the remains of towns and of structures, many of them remarkable for
their massiveness, which belong to a past civilization, of which we
know nothing. You will remember that some years ago, from the in-
dications which then existed, I expressed the opinion that this must
have been, at an early period, one of the chief routes between Asia
and Africa, and the ruins which have since been found in the explora-
tions carried on by the American society, and their extent, confirm
that impression.

"Dr. William Thompson, the veteran American missionary and
explorer in Syria, in a recent letter says that, in making a tour through
this region, nothing ever impressed him so much as the richness of
this field in the remains of ancient civilization. He says that there
are not only acres on acres of splendid ruins, but fortifications, temples,
baths, and theatres, the best preserved in existence, and which have
evidently stood undisturbed for ages. While on the west side of the
Jordan, he remarks, cities have been robbed to build other cities — just
as the ruins of Tyre are now contributing ship-loads of stone toward
building the present city of Beyrout — the east side of the. Jordan has
remained unmolested for 1,500 years ; and that there exists there an
unequaled combination of art and Nature in an untouched condition
of splendor and ruin."

The work of exploration and investigation in respect to the un-
known parts of Africa has been vigorously followed up during the
year. The Niger, Volta, Ogowe, and Congo Rivers have been explored
more or less fully. The source of Guango River has been reached by
penetrating the interior across the Talamunga Mountains, which are
from 4,000 to 5,000 feet high.

"When our fellow, M. du Chailln, several years ago laid before
us the account of the pygmies he had found in Western Africa, near
the equator, it was received in certain parts of Europe with incre-
dulity; but these pygmies of the western coast have since been seen
by others, and the existence of races of pygmies is now established by
the facts gathered by Schweinfurth, Miani, and others in Africa, and
by recent researches in India. Mr. Marcette says that these pygmies
were well known to the ancient Egyptians, and that there is a bass-

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 565

relief, in the sepulchre of the Necropolis of Saggarale, of the fifth
dynasty, upon which two pygmies are represented, having the features
of Dr. Schweinfurth's Akka. He says the pygmies of antiquity were
natives of Pun, which he indentifies with the modern Somali country.
The Phoenicians came from Pun, and were not an Asiatic race, and
near them dwelt a race of dwarfs called Bess, who still exist in the
Somali country."

The district of Akem, in the north portion of Ashantee, has recently
been visited. The country is fertile, heavily wooded, well watered,
and highly auriferous. "The climate is humid throughout the year;
the men are capable of undergoing great fatigue, but are incorrigibly
idle, and the women do all the work. Among the men he found an
extraordinary growth or enlargement of the cheek-bones under the
eyes. It is in the form of horns on each side of the nose, and so long
that in some instances the man had to squint violently to see at all.
The growth begins in childhood. The skin is not broken, but stretches
over the horns like a glove. This phenomenon he thought peculiar to
the tribe in Akem, as he did not find it in any other. Photographs
of these horned men, it is said, have recently been received in Eng-
land."

The circumnavigation of the Mwutan Nizigi (Albei-t Nyanza) is
the important event of the year in Africa, establishing the connection
between this lake and the Nile. It appears that the White Nile is
navigable the whole way from Dufli to the lake, a distance of 164
miles. About 100 miles from Dufli there is a large branch of the
river, extending north-northeast in the direction of the Nyam-Ny-
ams. The country east of the lake has also been explored, and a
chain of military posts established from Gondokoro to both Mwutan
Nizigi and the Ukerewe (Victoria Nyanza). The Somerset River
was reached, and a station established at Masuidi, the capital of
Unyora. The Somerset Nile, which connects the two lakes, is navi-
gable from Mwutan Nizigi to Murchison's Falls ; but from there to
the Karuma Rapids it abounds in swift water, having a fall of 700
feet between Murchison's Falls and Foueira.

Mr. Stanley, after exploring Lake Ukerewe, crossed the country
of Unyora to the Mwutan Nizigi, reaching that lake at a point where a
deep gulf (Beatrice Gulf), formed by a promontory called Unsongora,
runs out for thirty miles in a southwesterly direction. The posi-
tion of his camp on the lake is 31° 24' 30" east longitude, and 25'
north latitude. The country of Unyora extends along the eastern
shore ; that on the south shore is called Ruanda. On the west, oppo-
site Gulf Beatrice, is Ukonju, peopled by cannibals, and the farther
western shore to the north is the country of Ulegga. The people of
the south and southwestern shores were very hostile. Stanley followed
up the course of the Kitangule River, the main feeder of Lake Ukerewe,
and circumnavigated Lake Windermere of Speke ; and afterward, on

5 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the frontiers of Karewega, found Lake Akengara, noted in Speke's
map. When last heard from, in July, he was on his way to TJnam-
yembi, intending to explore Lake Tanganyika, and then strike north-
ward to the Mwutan Nizigi. Commander Cameron's journey is claimed
to have settled the line of the Central African lake-sources. The chief
products of Central Africa are ivory and* slaves. Westward from
Katanga there are large copper-mines ; coal, cinnabar, and tin, were
found ; sugar-cane, rice, wheat, cotton, and hemp, grow well ; the
vegetable and mineral products would make the people of Africa in-
dustrious and prosperous, were they not ruined by the slave-trade.
The way to stop this traffic is to open up the rivers Congo and Zam-
besi, for there is a way across the continent by a system of water
navigation second to none in the world. A missionary station has
been established on Lake Nyassa, in memory of Livingstone, with a
view to the suppression of slavery, and every friend of humanity will
unite in wishing success to this philanthropic endeavor which Living-
stone had so deeply at heart. A way has been found from Zanzibar to
the interior highlands which is free from the fever-swamps of the old
route, and also from that great scourge of East Africa, the tsetse-fly,
a fact of great importance in opening up Central Africa.

An Italian expedition started last February, for the exploration
of the country on the east coast between Shoa and Lake Ukerewe.
After many hardships, Liece, the capital of Shoa, has been reached,
which will be made the base of a scientific exploration of the lakes.
The expedition is to be absent four years.

"I regret exceedingly to hear of the recent death of Mr. Rebrnan,
the well-known missionary, who first suggested the existence of a
system of lakes in Central Africa, which was verified by the dis-
coveries of Burton, Speke, Grant, Baker, Livingstone, Long, and
Stanley."

There is little to record in regard to South Africa. The diamond-
fields of the Orange Free State and the gold-fields of the Transvaal
Republic have not only attracted the enterprising and industrious,
but have also excited the cupidity of their English colonial neighbors,
in a way which it is feared will prove anything but beneficial to the
rising African republics.

During the last five years the great island of New Guinea, which
thirty years ago was put down as an unknown land, lias been the
scene of active explorations. The country has been penetrated by
way of Baxter and Fly Rivers for 90 and 150 miles respectively. It
is peopled by a mixed race, Malayan and Papuan, brave and ener-
getic, speaking different dialects, and at war with each other.

The country watered by the Baxter River is low, swampy, covered
with forests of mango-trees and thinly populated, contrasting in this
respect with the Fly River, which swarms with human beings. The
Malayan population of the eastern shore are far above the savage,

HOW THE EARTH WAS EXPLORED IN 1876. 567

and are opposed to the polygamy and cannibalism which exist among
the Papuans. The southern peninsula of New Guinea was explored ;
a range of mountains forms the backbone, running north and south ;
at a height of 4,000 feet were found dense forests of tropical vegeta-
tion, covering the whole northern range except the top of Mount
Owen Stanley, which rises in a double peak 13,205 feet. The soil of
this region is very rich; sugar-cane, yams, sweet-potatoes, and
tobacco, are cultivated ; bread-fruit and mango are indigenous. The
people have frizzled hair, and are darker than the Malays, differing
from them also in disposition, being inoffensive and friendly. " The
women take an active part in any disturbance, and were found more
capable of making a hard bargain than the men. None of the tribes
believe in a God, and attribute everything extraordinary to some
supernatural agency.

" The climate of this part of the peninsula is relaxing. It is impos-
sible to live in the valleys without impairing the constitution, from
the excessive moisture ; but in the interior it is more salubrious.
Birds are very numerous, conspicuous among which is the bird-of-
paradise, but flowei-s are scarce. Miclucho Maclay, who has made
extensive explorations in New Guinea, was engaged last July in ex-
plorations on the northeast side of the island, about Astrolabe Bay,
the part of the coast which has been named after him ; and he reports
that in April an earthquake occurred in the highlands in that vicinity,
which destroyed many villages."

The island is 1,400 miles long, and from twenty to 450 miles
wide; it possesses great vegetable and mineral wealth, and large
portions of it are suitable to European colonization. It may in the
future become the seat of an important civilization.

"The islands of the northeast coast of New Guinea have been visit-
ed. The natives are nude savages of the Oriental negro type, who live
more like beasts than human beings. Cannibalism prevails through-
out the islands, not as a religious rite, but as a means of subsistence.
The details of this horrible practice are too revolting to repeat. The
natives say that there is in the islands a race of human beings with
tails, who are not monkeys ; that the tail is bony and inflexible,~so that
those with this caudal appendage have to dig a hole in the sand before
they can sit down, as they die if the tail is broken. We have thus
revived the account of the men with tails heretofore reported to exist
in Borneo and the interior of Africa, but always upon native informa-
tion, with the exception of hearsay information alleged to have been
given by a sailor cast away on the coast of Borneo, and, like all such,
of little value."

Exploration has been made of that portion of the Australian Con-
tinent lying between Murchison and the Overland Telegraph line.
The Ashburton River was traced to its source, thus defining the
extent and position of the western water-shed which abuts on the

5 68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

desert in 120° 20' east longitude. No water-courses were found flow-
ing to the eastward ; along the twenty-fourth parallel to 127° east
longitude, the country was found to be an open desert.

" This very imperfect survey of the geographical work of the world,
when regarded as the work of a single year, justifies, I think, what
I said in ray last address — that we are living in a great geographical
age."

■♦«»

IS THE MOON A DEAD PLANET?1

IT is not a little curious that the great body which for ages has been
proverbial for its changeableness should have at last come to be
looked upon as the most unchangeable of bodies. When the earth
was regarded as constituting the universe, and the heavenly bodies
as mere exhalations from it, the moon was, of course, believed to be
nothing but a meteor — a great lantern hung in the sky to illuminate
and rule the terrestrial night ; but, when modern astronomy had
established the idea that the earth is but a moving planet, and the
planets themselves great orbs like our own globe, speculation inevita-
bly arose in regard to their condition. It was then concluded that
the moon may be like the earth, with its oceans, plains, mountains,
atmosphere, vegetation, and inhabitants ; and this idea long prevailed
as a part of the great doctrine of the plurality of worlds. But an
opposite opinion at length grew up among astronomers, wdiich has
been greatly strengthened in recent years. This change of view has
been largely ascribed to the celebrated astronomer Madler, who made
a very forcible statement of the differences and contrasts between the
condition of the moon and that of the earth, and pointed out that the
current view that the moon may be a copy of the earth is impossible.
These views crept into astronomical text-books, and gradually led to
the conviction that the moon is a sort of played-out or defunct planet,
destitute of air and life — a mere mass of rocks and cinders, cold, life-
less, and unchangeable.

But although this view is still current among astronomers in gen-
eral, there is a class of astronomers (selenographers, as they are called)
who have studied the lunar surface with long and profound attention,
and to whom we are indebted for our present knowledge of our satel-
lite, who hold a different view. They agree in the belief that many
processes of actual lunar change are in progress, and they have de-
tected the existence of a lunar atmosphere. This conflict of opinion
is said to be due to the fact that the labors of selenographers are in-

1 Abridged from an article in the Quarterly Journal of Science, entitled "Physical
Changes upon the Surface of the Moon," by Edmund Neisan, F. R. A. S., author of
" The Moon, and the Condition and Configuration of its Surface."

IS THE MOON A DEAD PLANET? 569

accessible to most astronomers, and are hence but imperfectly known.
The inquiry, we are told, is one of great difficulty, requiring a thor-
ough acquaintance with several branches of science. The results ar-
rived at by prolonged, minute, and careful observation of the details
of the lunar formation are rejected because the proofs on which they
rest are not well understood.

The most prominent instance of supposed lunar change on the sur-
face of the moon is that of the crater Linne. On the northwest quad-
rant of the moon, near the centre of a level tract about 430 miles in
diameter, there is a bright crater called Bessel, nearly 14 miles in di-
ameter, with a circular wall rising 4,000 feet above the interior, and
about 1,600 feet above the surrounding plain. Scattered over this plain
are a few small craters, some 2^ miles in diameter, with walls about
300 feet high. Near its eastern centre an eminent selenographer
named Lohrman placed a distinct, bright crater about five miles in diam-
eter, which he described as being, after Bessel, the most conspicuous
object on this great tract of level ground. Ten years later, our great-
est selenographer, Baron von Madler, confirmed Lohrman's observa-
tions, and made this crater a subject of special study, naming it
Linne. In the drawings of Schmidt, who was about this time making
lunar observations of this particular part of the moon, Linne is shown
as a deep crater corresponding with the descriptions of Lohrman and
Madler.

In October, 1866, when Linne was in a position to be most con-
spicuous, Schmidt was startled by finding no trace of the deep, wide
crater, but only a faint cloud marking about five miles in diameter.
Schmidt at once announced the circumstance, and nearly every astron-
omer in Europe turned his attention to the spot. But Linne has never
since been seen of the size and character given it by Lohrman, Mad-
ler, and Schmidt. This large crater unquestionably no longer exists.
Powerful telescopes reveal, in its place, a white, cloudy marking con-
taining a small crater-cone with an opening scarcely one-twentieth the
size of the former crater.

The reason why astronomers will not admit the reality of any
change in Linne* is, first, a strong prejudice against the possibility of
such change ; and, second, the fact that Schroter, of Lillienthal, the
earliest of the great selenographers, in one of his first drawings,
made November 5, 1788, with low powers, does not draw Linne as a
crater. Near its place he draws a white spot on a ridge marked V,
and a larger spot marked G. Schmidt took this white spot to be
Linne, a view strongly urged by Huggins, and accepted as correct by
astronomers. They say, as Schroter's drawing is not unlike the pres-
ent appearance of Linne, Lohrman, Madler, and Schmidt, must have
been mistaken as to what they thought they saw. Again, in a map
made by Lahire in the seventeenth century, no trace of Linne can be
found. It may be said, however, that all the maps of this period

57o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

omit numerous craters far larger than Linne. They were principally
full-moon drawings, where Linne would not be visible as a crater.
Kiccioli's map, however, shows Linne as a distinct crater. But the
present crater on the site of Linne could not possibly have been seen
by Riccioli with the optical means at his command.

In every other instance of discrepancy between the drawings of
Schroter, and Beer, and Madler, Schroter's are rejected, while in this
particular case one of Schroter's earliest drawings, made with imper-
fect instruments, is brought forward to prove the incorrectness of his
great successors.

It will require long study of this region with powerful telescopes
to determine the nature of the change undergone by Linne. From
numerous observations the explanation agreeing best with the present
condition of the surface is, that the walls of the old crater have col-
lapsed and fallen into the interior. In this way the interior would be
almost entirely filled up, leaving a rough, cone-like crater in the centre.
Under favorable conditions, with a powerful telescope, the surface im-
mediately around the small crater appears rough and irregular.
Round the border of the old crater are numerous mounds and blocks,
and on the east, one or two peaks or low hills, seeming like portions
of the old wall. The difficulty of making these observations is very
great, and they are only possible in the finest atmospheric con-
ditions.

Proctor has tried to show that the changes in Linnu are variations
of tint due to differences of illumination. But no selenographer will
admit that any alteration whatever in illumination could make an ob-
ject where Linne is placed, look at one period like a considerable and
deep crater, and at another as a small, scarcely visible crater.

The facts about Linne may be therefore summed uj) very briefly.
According to three or more independent selenographers, the most ex-
pei'ienced that science has seen, the object named Linne was a con-
spicuous crater of large diameter and great depth. Now, in its place
all that exists is a tract of uneven ground, containing a small, scarcely
visible, insignificant, crater-like object, It is impossible that one
could ever be systematically taken for the other. It is inconceivable
how our three greatest selenographers could have systematically and
independently made the same blunder, and that one blunder only.
For in no other case do we find any error of this nature. Their de-
scription must, therefore, be held to truly describe the nature of the
formation at their epoch (1820-45). The object is no longer of the
same size and description. A real physical change on the moon's sur-
face must therefore have occurred at this point. This, then, is the
conclusion that selenographers as a body have arrived at; yet, despite
the strong evidence on which it rests, it is not generally recognized
by astronomers.

The next instance of change on the surface of the moon is that of

IS THE MOON A DEAD PLANET?, 571

the crater named Messier by Beer and Madler. In its equatorial re-
gion, on the westernmost of the great lunar plains, close to one an-
other, are two small crater-plains about nine miles in diameter, sur-
rounded by very low ridges and mounds and crater-like depressions.
These two formations, named Messier and Messier A, were discovered
and described by Schroter, who regarded Messier as slightly the larger.
Beer and Madler examined these formations most carefully on more
than three hundred distinct occasions between 1829 and 1837. They
declared that the two crater-plains were exactly alike in every par-
ticular. Both were circular and of the same size, with bright, grayish-
white walls and a yellowish-gray interior. The walls were of the
same height, with wall-peaks situated in the same relative position.
In diameter, form, height of walls above the surrounding surface, and
depth and color of the interior of the walls, Beer and Madler declared
that they were completely alike. Some years after this, a slight dis-
similarity between the forms of the two craters was noticed, and in
November, 1855, the Rev. T. W. Webb, one of the best living lunar
observers, discovered that the eastern crater-plain, Messier A, ap-
peared the larger of the two.

In March of the following year he observed that not only was
Messier the smaller, but that it was elliptical. He confirmed these
observations on repeated occasions, and in 1857 made drawings show-
ing Messier A unchanged, while Messier had an elliptical form, with a
long diameter of about 10 or 11 miles and a short diameter of about
7| to 8 miles. The matter attracted little further attention until 1870
to 1875. During these vears Messier and Messier A were studied with
the aid of powerful telescopes, and during the past year the long
diameter of Messier appears to be 12.2 miles and the short diameter
6.9. The difference between the form and dimensions of these two
formations is now obvious in the smallest astronomical telescope. It
is inconceivable that Beer and Madler could have failed to recognize
these differences with their fine Frauuhofer equatorial, with which, on
hundreds of different occasions, they carefully scrutinized them in
search of differences.

This slow squeezing out of shape of an immense crater-plain is a
change that seems to defy explanation. Nothing analogous now
exists on the surface of the earth, and it is not surprising that there
should be a strong reluctance to admit that such a change has oc-
curred. A careful examination of Messier and its neighborhood, how-
ever, suggests that, instead of a bodily compression of the entire
crater, 'Miere has been a gradual sliding of the north and south walls
into the interior, and a pushing of the entire western wall outward
and westward down an incline existing there. Stenographers could
point to a hundred cases where a like circumstance has occurred. As
far as is at present known, this explanation accords with the condi-
tion of the formations around Messier, but further observations with

572 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

powerful telescopes are indispensable. Unfortunately, it is a difficult
matter to study, for on only one or two days in the year is Messier
likely to be found in a proper condition to be observed.

Other instances of change in the lunar surface have been detected
by selenographers, but the evidence on which they rest is not so over-
powering as is needed to induce their acceptance.

Periodical variations in the color and brightness of lunar regions,
such as would result from processes of vegetation, were first noticed
by Beer and Madler, but they regarded the absence of masses of water
upon the moon as a fatal objection to this explanation. The variation
in the floor of Plato is one of the most interesting of these changes.
Plato is a circular plain 60 miles in diameter, surrounded by a belt of
highlands from 3,000 to 3,500 feet in height. These highlands at sun-
rise are a pale yellowish gray, gradually changing to grayish white.
At sunrise the interior of Plato appears of a cold gray, but, as the
sun rises higher above the horizon of Plato, and the solar rays fall
more perpendicularly on this region, the whole surface grows rapidly
brighter, until, about two days after sunrise, the interior of the for-
mation attains its brightest tint. It is then a cold, light yellow gray,
often approaching a pale yellow, in fact, and brighter than the sur-
face of the Mare Imbrium on the north, while the surrounding high-
lands are a bright grayish white, tinted here and there with gray.
Judging from what occurs in any of the numerous other formations
resembling Plato, this may be considered the normal tint, inasmuch
as those other formations which present exactly the same phenomena
up to this time, and which, under similar conditions, present exactly
the same appearance, retain this tint unaltered until near sunset. Af-
ter, however, the second day, the floor of Plato commences to under-
go a most extraordinary and anomalous change, which renders it unique
on the moon, for, instead of growing lighter, the interior commences
to become darker. Four days after sunrise it is materially darker
than the northern Mare, and a cold gray in tint, while the surround-
ing highlands are a bright white in color, tinted with gray ; the ap-
pearance they retain until the thirteenth day after sunrise, growing a
little, though not very much, brighter toward full moon. Two days
later the floor of Plato has become a dark gray; at full moon it is
deep steel-gray ; and, about two days after full, reaches its darkest
tint, a very deep steel-gray, almost approaching a black color. Under
these conditions, it is one of the very darkest portions of the entire
lunar surface, though, seven days prior, it was one of the lightest por-
tions of the surface of its kind. After this, it gradually lightens in
tint, but much slower, and never reaches so light a tint.

This extraordinary periodical change in the tint of the floor of
Plato has hitherto received no explanation, but its existence has been
put beyond the pale of doubt, and Mr. Birt has, at the instance of a
British Association Committee, carefully discussed a numerous series

IS THE MOON A DEAD PLANET ? 573

of observations, made in the years 1869, 1870, and 1871, by six or
seven independent observers.

Proctor has attempted to show that these appearances are the
effect of contrast. Thus, at sunrise, the floor of Plato is thrown against
a dark background, due to the sombre, barely-illuminated surround-
ing regions; while at full moon it has for a background the brilliantly-
illuminated surrounding highlands, and should look much darker.
But if the great darkening observed to occur in the tint of the interior
of Plato is merely apparent, and only what must occur when a dark-
ish walled plain is surrounded by a bright background, or, rather,
bright environs — and this is all Mr. Proctor ascribes to it — it must be
a perfectly normal occurrence, and the same must take place in every
similarly-placed formation, unless that has something anomalous about
it to prevent this taking place. All selenographers could instance a
number of such walled plains where no such darkening occurs. Are
we, then, to assume that these plains possess anomalously constituted
interiors, and that only Plato, of all the lunar formations, exhibits the
normal phenomena ? This is, of course, entirely inadmissible, and
selenographers are thoroughly aware that the effects of contrast al-
luded to by Mr. Proctor are entirely incapable of bringing about such
an immense darkening in tint as is apparent in the case of the floor
of Plato.

The reason of this singular darkening in the floor of Plato is not
yet understood. Selenographers believe that it results from an actual
change due to the heating action of the solar rays. But the further
elucidation of the subject requires special observations with special
appliances. Thus, as in so many selenographical problems, patient
observation establishes the existence of certain phenomena, but the
elucidation of the meaning of the phenomena established is checked
for want of special observations that are never made. For these,
selenographers have to appeal to those astronomers devoted to what
has been termed astronomical physics, but they are too much engaged
on more fascinating subjects to give attention to such inquiries.

The instances here dealt with will show that selenographers are
not without strong evidence in favor of the opinion that has long been
unanimously held by them, that processes of change are still actively
at work upon the moon. It must not, however, be supposed that the
above are the sole instances which they have recognized, because this
is by no means true, only the difficulties in establishing others have
led to their omission here. Dealing with a subject such as selenogra-
phy, it is only those who are familiar with all its details who properly
appreciate the evidence in favor of or against its problems. The
difficulties in the way of making the true bearings of selenographical
questions properly understood are greater than might be imagined ;
for even the very elementary fact that volcanic changes such as are
now active on the earth would not be recognizable on the moon, in

574

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the present state of our acquaintance with the configuration of its sur-
face, is not generally understood. When, however, the attention of
astronomers is more generally directed to the study of the lunar sur-
face, Science will he greatly the gainer, as it is there that the past
and future of our earth is to be learned.

-♦*♦-

SIZE OF THE PRINCIPAL TELESCOPES IN THE WORLD.

IN Les Moncles, January 20, 1876, appeared a list of the principal
telescopes of the world, with their apertures and focal lengths.
It was defective in regard to its enumeration of American telescopes,
and in other respects, as all such lists must be. We have compiled
from it, and from other sources available, a larger list, which is itself
manifestly incomplete, but which will give a better idea of the num-
ber of telescopes available, or soon to be available, for astronomical
purposes. It is a melancholy fact that the return from so many in-
struments, that is, the interest from so much astronomical capital, is
not so great as it should be, and it suggests the question as to whether
future benefactors of American colleges, for example, will not do bet-
ter to provide astronomers to use the telescopes already constructed
than observatories in which to put new ones. In the second column,
the first name is that of the maker of the objective or speculum, the
second that of the engineer who mounted the telescope.

I. Reflectors.
One French inch = 12 Paris lines ; one English inch = 11.26 Taris lines ; one metre = 443.30 Paris lines.

OWNER OR DIRECTOR,
AND OBSERVATORY.

Lord Posse, Birr Castle.
Wm. Herschel, Slough ..
Lassell, Liverpool, etc...

Ellery, Melbourne

Le Verrier, Paris

Lord Kosse, Birr Castle..

Tisserand, Toulouse

Stephan, Marseilles

II. Draper, near N. York

Lassell, Maidenhead

W.&J. Herschel, Slough,

and Cape Good Hope.

H, Draper, near N. York.

Maclean, Tunbridgc Wells

Pritoliard, Oxford

Worthlnaton and Baxen-
dell, Manchester

Hirst, New Zealand.

APERTURE.

FOCAL LENGTH.

Constructed by

English

iDches,

etc.

French
Inches.

Metres.

English
Feet,
etc.

French
Feet,
etc.

Metres.

Eosse

6 ft.
4 "

4 "
4 "

55 ft.
4(1 "
37 "
32 "

Grubb

1.20

7

0.80
0.80

Foucault, Ei-

4. SO

11. Draper . ...

28 in.

13 ft.
20 "

20 "

24 "

is "
15 "

15 "
13 "

13 "

Si "

W &J Herschel

With & Brown-

10 ft.

With & Brown-
ing 1

REMARKS.

Out of use.
Destroyed.

Silvered glass.

Silvered glass.

Silvered glass.
Silvered glass.
Metal.

Several mirrors.

Silvered glass.

and many others.

SIZE OF THE PRINCIPAL TELESCOPES. 575

II. Refractors.

Constructed by

APERTURE.

FOCAL LENGTH.

OWNER OR DIRECTOR,
AND OBSERVATORY.

English
Inches.

French
laches.

Metres.

|
English
Ft. and

Inches.

French
Ft. and
Inches.

Metres.

REMARKS.

Lyman, Tale College-. •

A. Clark & Sons.

Grubb

A. Clark & Sons.
A. Clark & Sons.

2S

2T

26&

26

25

21

18.5

Constructing.

Constructing.

C. H. Davis, Washington.

Buckingham, London . . .
University of Chicago. . .

Winnecke, Strasburg

Pickering, Harvard Coll..

Lord Lindsay, Dun Echt.

Downsede College, Bath .

Cooper, Markree Castle . .

33 ft.

29 ft.

Buckingham . . .

A. Clark & Sons.

23 ft.

18

Constructing.

15

23 ft.

14 93

270.6
15 ft.

Grubb

15
15
14.5

14

Grubb

Destroved by fire

c>\

25 ft.

in 1867.

14

C. H. F. Peters, Clinton.
Rutherford, New York. .

Fitz

13.5

13

13

13

12.5

12.5

12.33

16 ft.
182 in.

Kutherfurd

Photographic.

Airy, Greenwich

Mitchell, Vassar College .

Fitz

lift.
16.6

Merz & Simms..
Fitz, reworked

by Clark . .
Grubb

Pritchett, Glasgow, U. S.

A. Clark & Sons.
Secretan & Ei-

12.25

17 ft.

12

5

Ball, Dublin

11. Draper, near N. York.

Pritchard, Oxford

A. Clark & Sons.

A. Clark & Sons.
Grubb

12

12

12?

12

12?

12

20 ft.

12?

12?

0.32

White, Brooklyn

Fitz, reworked

11%
11.5

Stone, Cincinnati

V. Biilow, Bothkamp. . . .

Lamont, Munich

Sehjellerup, Copenhagen .

17 ft.

11

10.5

10
15
15

Fitz

11.25

„

14 ft.

Photographic.

Van Vleck, Middletown,

U S

A.Clark & Sons.

Kutherfurd, New York. .

11

A. Clark & Sons.
Rutherfurd and
Fitz

H

Photographic.
Photographic.

10.5
10

10

Bredichin, Moscow

Merz, reworked

1G

Fitz, reworked
by Clark . .

10

14 ft.

Barclay, Leyton

0.25

3

10

10

9.62
9.62
9.62
9.62
9.62

9.62
9.62

9
9

9.38
9

12 ft.
12 "

Merz

14
14
14
14
14

Merz

(J. 11. Davis, Washington.

Merz, reworked
by Clark

Lerebours and
Secretan

A. Clark & Sons.

Pogson, Madras

9?
9?

Buckingham, London. . . .
Young, Dartmouth

12 ft.

Crossley, Halifax-.

A. Clark & Sons

9.4

9

9

8
9

12

117

576

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

II. Refractors — ( Continued).

Constructed by

APERTURE.

FOCAL LENGTH.

OWNER OR DIRECTOR,
AND OBSERVATORY.

English
Inches.

French
Inches.

Metres.

English | French
Ft. and Ft. and
Inches. Inches.

Metres.

REMARKS.

8
8.25

A. Clark & Sons.

8

A. Clark & Sons.
A. Clark & Sons.

6

8

8

8.25

7.75

7.25

7

7.33

7.5

7

7

7.5

1H

75 in.

9 ft.

12 ft.

U. S. Naval Academy

Esty, Amherst College..

A. Clark & Sons.
A. 1 'lark & Sons.

Dollond

A. Clark & Sons.

101 in.

lift.
9.4

Knott,

Tulley..

12 ft.
9.66
10.5

A. Clark & Sons.
Fraunhofer

Heliometer.

Williams College, U. S...

7
7
7

7
7
7
7

70.2 1.
6 5

Merz

Heliometer.

(Cofge), Shelbyville, U.S.

Merz

10 ft.

Merz

Merz

Merz

Merz

Luther, KGnigsberg

Fraunhofer and
Merz

1,1341.

Heliometer.

Wendell, Bates College,
TJ. S

A. Clark & Sons.
A. Clark & Sons.
A. Clark & Sons.
Tulley

6.25

6.25

6

6

6.25

6

6

0?

6

6

Moore, Lynn. TJ. 8

Lee, Hartwell

8.5
7.5
6
5

Monekhoven, Genth

Lord Lindsay, Dun Echt.
, Madras. . . .

Dollond

Dollond

Dollond

Wolf, Zurich

6?

6?

6

6.4

6

6

8

Heliometer.

ios.7 !

8 ft. 1
8.5? !

High School, Philadelphia

Peek, Columbia College. .
Durham University

A. Clark & Sons.

6

5

5.5

5

5

5

5

Dollond

A. Clark & Sons.
Dollond

Broun, Trevandrum

5 ft.
10 "
SO in

5 ft.

U. S. Transit Venus Com.

8 instruments.

Loomis, Yale College

Pickering. Harvard Coll.

4
4

Luther, Bilk

Tebbutt, New S. Wales. .

4.5

Bruhns, Leipsic. . .

0.117

1.96

Lord Lindsay, Dun Echt.

4

Heliometer.

Carrington, Bed Hill

4.5

4.3

and many others.

THE JOURNEYINGS AND DISPEBSAL OF ANIMALS.

IN his recent elaborate work on the " Geographical Distribution
of Animals," Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace gives much attention
to the subject of migrations as among the means of dispersion, and from
his copious treatment of the subject, and various other sources, we
glean the following brief particulars upon this subject :

JOURNEYINGS AND DISPERSAL OF ANIMALS. S77

Winged insects are perhaps, of all, most admirably adapted for
the special conditions found in one locality, and the barriers against
their permanent displacement are numerous. Thus many insects re-
quire for their subsistence succulent vegetable food during the entire
year, which, of course, confines them to tropical regions ; some are
dependent on mountain-vegetation ; some subsist on water-plants ;
and yet others, as the Lepidoptera, in the larva state, are limited to a
single species of plant. Insects have enemies in every stage of their
existence ; foes are at hand ready to destroy not only the perfect
form, but the pupa, the larva, and the egg; and any one of these
enemies may prove so formidable, in a country otherwise well adapted
to them, as to render their survival impossible. But, on the other
hand, most varied means of dispersal carry insects from their natural
habitats to distant regions. They are often met far from land, carried
t hence by storm or hurricane. Hawk-moths are sometimes captured
hundreds of miles from shore, having taken passage on ships which
neared tropical countries, and Mr. Darwin narrates that he caught in
the open sea, seventeen miles from the coast of South America, beetles,
some aquatic and some terrestrial, belonging to seven genera, and
they seemed uninjured by the salt-water. Insects, in their undevel-
oped states, make their abodes in solid timber, which, transported by
winds and waves, may carry its undeveloped, winged freight great
distances. Tropical insects are not unfrequently captured in the
London docks, where they have been carried in furniture or foreign
timber. Insects are very tenacious of life, and nearly all can exist
for a long time without food. Some beetles bear immersion in
strong spirit for hours, and are not destroyed by water almost at
the boiling-point. These facts enable us to tmderstand how not
only by means of its delicate wings, but by winds, waves, volcanic
dust, and a thousand other agencies, insects may be carried to re-
mote regions.

Mollusca, which are less highly organized than insects, have, of
course, limited appliances for journeying, and their dispersal and dis-
tribution may involve long periods of time. Fresh-water mollusks are
very widely distributed, and this is accounted for by Mr. Darwin by
the fact that ponds and marshes are frequented by wading and swim-
ming birds. These carry away with them the seeds of plants and the
eggs of mollusks. True land-shells are exceedingly sensitive to salt-
water, and yet they are found all over the globe. Experiments on
their power to resist sea-water show that a membranous diaphragm,
which they sometimes form over the mouth of the shell, enables them
to survive many days' immersion in it. They may lie dormant for a
long time, some having lived between two and three years shut up in
boxes ; and one snail, from the Egyptian Desert, was found to be alive
after having been glued for four years to a tablet in the British Mu-
seum. These facts render it quite possible that they may cross the
vol. x. — 37

578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sea in the chinks of drift-wood, and this is probably the means of
their dispersal.

The inhabitants of the sea seem to have unlimited facilities for
journeying, but when we remember that cold water is essential to
many fishes, tropical warmth to others, and the deep sea an effectual
barrier to a large number of species, it is apparent that the Atlantic
may be as impassable a gulf to fishes as to land-animals. Distinct
river systems are sometimes inhabited by the same species of fresh-
water fish, which indicates that they have some means of dispersal
over land. This may be accomplished by changes of level giving rise
to altered river-courses and new water-basins, to transportation of the
eggs by ducks, geese, aquatic birds, and even water-beetles, and to
the agency of whirlwinds and hurricanes, which carry np considerable
quantities of water, and with it small fishes.

Reptiles have very limited means of dispersal. Snakes are de^
pendent on climate, being comparatively scarce in temperate and cold
regions. They entirely cease in 62° north latitude, and are not found
above 6,000 feet on the Alps. They swim rivers easily, but, since they
are rarely met on oceanic islands, it is inferred that they have no
means of crossing the sea. Lizards are also tropical animals, though
they are found higher on the mountains and farther north than are
snakes. They possess some means of crossing oceans, and frequently
inhabit islands where there are neither snakes nor mammalia. The
amphibia extend farther north than true reptiles, frogs being found,
sometimes, beyond the arctic circle. Salt-water is fatal to them, and
they are probably effectually limited by deserts and oceans.

It would seem, at first, that birds are limited by no barriers, and
that a study of their habits could scarcely throw any light upon the
causes of animal distribution ; but remarkable contrasts in the extent
of their range are presented by different groups of birds. Thus, the
gulls (Laridce) and petrels (Procellaridce) are great wanderers, a few
being found, with scarcely any variation, over almost the entire globe ;
other species being restricted to one of the great oceans ; while par-
rots, pigeons, and many small perching birds, are confined to islands
of limited extent, or to single valleys or mountains. Some birds, such
as the apteryx, ostrich, and cassowary, have no power of flight, and,
of course, limited means of dispersal. The short-winged birds, such
as wrens and toucans, are able to fly but a short distance, and only
species endowed with great powers of flight can cross extended widths
of sea. Violent gales sometimes carry small birds accidentally to
foreign countries, as is shown by the large numbers of North Ameri-
can stragglers which reach the Bermudas. Inadequate supply of food,
afforded by the vegetation of a country, oceans, and even large rivers,
may serve as effectual barriers to the dispersal of birds. The presence
of enemies, of either the young, the eggs, or the parent-birds, may
limit the range of a species. In the Malay Archipelago pigeons are

JOURNEYINGS AND DISPERSAL OF ANIMALS. 579

said to " abound most where monkeys do not occur, and in South
America the same birds are comparatively scarce, in the forest-plains,
where monkeys are very abundant, while they are plentiful on the
open plains and carnpos, and on the mountain plateaux, where these
nest-hunting quadrupeds are rarely found." When we consider that
the pigeon is the most careless and awkward of birds in the construc-
tion of its nest, it is not difficult to understand how formidable an
enemy it must have in the artful and wary monkey.

The term migration is strictly applied to the annual movements
of birds and fishes, which take place in large bodies, and are imme-
diately connected with the process of reproduction. In all temperate
regions a large number of birds reside temporarily. Some arrive in
spring, and leave in autumn ; others arrive in autumn, remain during
the winter, but depart in spring ; and yet others, birds of passage, pass
through the country twice a year, without long delay. The species
which winter here are those which build their nests and rear their
young farther north, and in returning, on the appearance of spring,
they simply act as do those whose homes are nearer the equator. The
birds of passage, like our winter-birds, have their breeding-quarters
nearer the poles, but, like our summer-birds, seek a warmer climate
for the winter. The arrival of migratory birds from warmer regions
seldom varies more than a week or two, though their departure is
more dependent on the weather, and consequently less constant.

The migratory birds of Europe seem to have a definite route :
they " go southward to the Mediterranean, move along its coasts east
or west, and cross over in three places only — either from the south of
Spain, in the neighborhood of Gibraltar, from Sicily, over Malta, or
to the east by Greece and Cyprus." The passage is mostly accom-
plished by night, and is undertaken only when there is a steady wind
from the east or west, and when there is moonlight. It is an interest-
ing fact that the males often leave before the females, and both parents
before their offspring; the latter, however, rarely go so far as do the
old ones. On returning they vary their course, some following the
old, others adopting a new line of travel. In connection with the
routes taken by European birds, it is suggestive and interesting to
note that fossil remains of huge animals, and the shallow waters in
this part of the Mediterranean, indicate that Gibraltar, Sicily, and
Malta, must have been at no very distant date united with Africa ; the
submersion of this land involved considerable time, and the change
could hardly have been perceptible from one year to another. It is
natural to conclude. that the migration, which wras at first a land-
passage, would be kept up over marshes, then over a channel, and
finally over the sea. The sea-passage is a dangerous one for birds,
and, from the immense flocks of quails which annually undertake it,
large numbers are drowned when the weather proves unfavorable for
the passage.

58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The migratory movement of the North American birds is almost
wholly limited to the Atlantic coast, a smaller number being perma-
nent residents than on the Pacific coast, or in corresponding European
localities. In Massachusetts the regular number of summer visitors is
106, while there are only 30 species which remain all the year. The
number of permanent residents increases as we go southward, but
during the breeding-season in any single locality it increases as we go
northward until we reach Canada, where more species rear their young
than in the Southern States. The extent of the migration of certain
birds has greatly altered within a limited period of observation. A
Mexican swallow {Hirundo lunifrons) first appeared in Ohio in 1815 ;
its yearly range increased, until in 1845 it had reached Maine and
Canada, and now its annual migrations extend to Hudson's Bay. The
rice-bird, or " bobolink," enters the Southern States in April, passes
northward until in June it reaches Canada, and stops in its westerly
course at the Saskatchewan River, in 54° north latitude, having
widened its range continually as wheat and rice were cultivated over
more extensive areas.

A nocturnal concourse of birds sometimes occurs in the neighbor-
hood of large towns near the end of summer, in still, cloudy weather.
The notes of well-known birds may be recognized by the skillful or-
nithologist, at one time faint in the distance, at another near by, while
occasionally the stroke of a wing gives a sense of nearness to these
remarkable visitors. It is supposed that these noises proceed from
migratory birds which, having lost their way, are attracted by the
light from street-lamps.

It is thus obvious that the migration of birds is no mere arbitrary
matter, but is governed by laws susceptible of intelligent interpreta-
tion. Want of food is the most evident cause of their journeyings.
As it becomes scarce near the end of summer in the extreme northern
limits, those individuals which feel the pressure of want seek it else-
where, and, in doing so, they press upon the haunts of other birds,
until the movement which began in the north has extended to the
southern limit. The power of flight in birds makes it possible for
them to cross a moderate breadth of sea and unlimited extent of
country, and, traveling as they do, mostly at night and high in the
air, their movements seem mysterious, simply because they are diffi-
cult to observe. But, let us map their comings and goings faithfully
as we may, there yet remains the unanswered question, How do these
little visitants find their way so unerringly from one place to another,
over great distances and apparently unexplored routes ?

Some of the large'st Mammalia are not stopped by any physical
obstacle in their journeys over whole continents. The rhinoceros, the
lion, and the tiger, have great powers of dispersal, and their possible
range is unlimited wherever there are land and sufficient food. The
elephant climbs to mountain-tops, difficult of ascent for man, crosses

JOURNEYINGS AND DISPERSAL OF ANIMALS. 581

rivers, and finds its way through the densest jungles. Other groups
are much more limited in their wanderings, as witness the monkeys,
lemurs, and apes, animals so strictly adapted to an arboreal life that
they cannot roam far beyond forest limits. Equally essential to the
existence of others is the desert or open country. The range of many
mammals appears to be limited by climate, or by its resulting vege-
tation. Thus the Quadrumana are chiefly found within an equatorial
belt of 30° wide, but these animals live almost exclusively on fruit,
which is the abundant product of the tropics. The polar bear and
walrus, which, in a natural state, are limited by the frozen ocean, in
confinement may live in temperate regions ; the tiger, once regarded as
a purely tropical animal, now has his permanent home in Mantchooria,
a country of almost arctic climate ; and, in post-Tertiary times, the
elephant and rhinoceros roamed over the northern continents, even
to regions beyond the arctic circle. Hence it does not follow that
animals, which we now see inhabiting extremely warm or extremely
cold climates, may not, under changed conditions, thrive equally well
elsewhere.

Valleys and rivers often prove effectual barriers to mammals.
Thus, in the plains along the Amazon, many species of insects, birds,
and monkeys, are found extending to the river -bank on one side,
which do not cross to the other. And on the northern bank of the
Rio Negro there are found two monkeys, the Brachiurus couxion and
the Jacchus bicolor, which are never seen on its southern bank. Many
mammals can swim well for short distances, but none over any great
extent of sea. It is not unusual for the bear and bison to swim across
the Mississippi, and from Lyell's " Principles of Geology " we learn
that in 1829, during the floods in Scotland, pigs six months old, which
were carried to sea, swam five miles back to shore ; and it seems en-
tirely probable that wild-pigs, from their greater activity and power
of endurance, might cross arms of the sea twenty or thirty miles
wide, and facts in the distribution of these animals lead us to infer
that they have sometimes done so. Lemmings, rats, and squirrels,
often migrate in enormous bands, but they generally perish in the
sea-water. And, admitting that many mammals have power to swim
considerable distances, it remains true that a channel ten or twenty
miles wide would, in most cases, prove an effectual barrier to them.
The bats, provided as they are with wings, and the Cetacea, which
swim, -have exceptional powers of dispersal. In the arctic regions
glaciers give rise to icebergs; these descend to the sea, often carrying
with them masses of earth and some vegetation. Such arctic quad-
rupeds as frequent the ice, as well as occasionally true land-animals,
might often be carried from place to place in this way. But the up-
rooted trees and rafts of drift-wood which float down large rivers and
out to sea, are more effectual agents in the dispersal of animals. Such
islands or rafts are sometimes seen drifting hundreds of miles from

58z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the mouth of the Ganges, bearing upon their surfaces erect, living-
trees. And the Amazon, Orinoco, and in fact most large rivers, pre-
sent at times similar spectacles. Here, then, is most ample opportunity
for carrying all small arboreal animals out to sea, and, although they
are liable to perish, unusual tidal currents may bear them great dis-
tances safely from their native country.

THE EAKLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA.1

By A. E. GROTE,

DIRECTOR OF THE BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES.

A CHILD is not fully formed in body or developed in mind when
it is born. It behaves at first without experience. That is the
reason we do not always understand baby when it " acts so." Our
own behavior is the result of our experience. Baby moves its hands
and twists its legs without knowing why. But it gradually selects
from among these movements those which are found to satisfy its
wants, and in the future performs such actions only. It uses its voice
in the same way, as shown by Taine and other writers, gradually
picking up such words as it finds are answered. Again it acquires,
always by experience, the idea of distance. The moon seems so near
that the child wants it taken down to play with ; while the position
of objects close at hand is equally misjudged. And so with the
senses of hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling.

It does not know at first where the pin is that pricks it ; and, even
if we slap it on the very part recommended by Dr. John Brown for
the purpose, baby will not be able to locate the injuries, though it
may have a general sense of discomfort, and resent the injustice in its
feeble little way. Just as it passes through a process of self-educa-
tion by experience, its mind receives constant correction as to the
nature of surrounding objects. Baby's principal opinion at one time
is, that inanimate things possess like feelings and properties with
itself. This idea of baby's we sympathize with when we pick up a
chair over which it has stumbled in its efforts to walk, and pretend to
whip " that naughty chair," until baby stops its crying and is pro-
pitiated by the supposititious sufferings of the chair. This personifi-
cation of objects is less and less obtruded as the baby grows and be-
comes better acquainted with the nature of its surroundings. But it
is hardly ever entirely dropped, even in after-life, when it becomes in
us transferred to matters beyond the reach of our knowledge. These
observations on our children become important when we study the
actions of races of men less cultured than our own. We find such

1 A lecture delivered under the auspices of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.

THE EARLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 583

races using their hands to less advantage, as well as other bodily
orsrans, the seats of the senses.

Savages exercise their minds less, and personify more than we do.
Like children, they say more readily no than yes to all questions
affecting their bodily advantage. They are afraid of change. All
children and all savages are conservative. The savage has not passed
the mental state of our own children. It is impossible for a child to
conceive of any change in the world outside until it has had some expe-
rience of such changes and has reflected upon them. Even then it is
hard for the child to understand the appearance of this city of Buffalo,
for instance, ten years before the time when its mind first received
permanent impressions. It is from this fact that youth appears so
long when we look back upon it, as well as from the fact that our
early impressions made upon the " clean slate " of the brain are more
enduring, underlying and peering through our subsequent experiences.
Even to ourselves, sensible to the hope of change, and therefore of
a bettered condition of things, it is difficult and even distasteful to
turn to the record of the past and make it give up its dead. It is
hard for us to make a mental picture of the site of this city when
Red Jacket lived hereabouts ; scarcely possible, when, farther back
still, in 1687, La Hontan traversed this place. But in the history of
North America we can go back by the light of creditable documents
to the year 986, when Biarne, the son of Bard son, set sail from Ice-
land, and, losing his way, came in sight of Newfoundland. Back of
the earliest discovery by our race of this continent of North America
must lie the history of the Indian. In Mexico traditional historic
accounts take us back as far as the sixth century. And, for a still
earlier time and its events, we have to penetrate the surface of this
continent itself. The earth holds the further answers to these ques-
tions. In a story of ancient Greece, we read that there was a dispute
as to whether Salamis had formerly belonged to the Athenians or the
Megarians. When it was referred to Solon, he caused the graves to
be opened. It was found then that their occupants were buried accord-
ing to the custom of the Athenians, and not of the Megarians. The
dead men settled that question. The testimony of the dead Athenians
dispensed with the formula of an oath, and was yet accepted. No
appeal was necessary after such evidence, just as no statute of limita-
tion could bar a trial of such importance. It was a case of supple-
mentary proceedings that commanded respect.

The earth of this continent shows us that before the Indians there
has been a people whom we call Mound-builders — that is, mounds
were thrown up here by men whose bones we find in them, lying
among rough tools and utensils, and after the mounds we name the
race, who, perhaps, were not a different people from the Indians.

But for these mounds we would not know of the men who built
them. They are mentioned in no history, human or divine. "What

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was there before the Mound-builder ? I would speak to-night of
what must have been long before his time — of early, though perhaps
not earliest, man in North America. We must know this early man
by our experience of his traces. New observations of fact and the
ideas they have awakened in myself are put forward, so that you may
judge of the reasonableness of the conclusions. And here any boy
-will afford a competent illustration of the evidence. Almost the first
thing that our boys do is to throw stones. It is one of their ways
of saying No. There is more than one parallel between savages and
our boys to be maintained. Just as the state of mind of the adult
savage is paralleled by that of our children, so we must expect that
so common a weapon as a stone is to our boys must be extensively
used by savages. And this, in fact, is what we do find. There was
also a time when this stone-throwing was the occupation of grown
men of our own race. Stones were used in the warfare of the Celt
and the Roman. We remember that David, a Semite, used a pebble
from the brook. And we shall find that men of other races, and
before David, resorted to the same weapon for all the purposes which
in David's time, and with his race, were partly served by metals.
There is, then, not only a parallel to be drawn between our boys and
savages in certain ways, but there exists one between these boys of
the present and our own men of the past. Just as, when cutting into
the crust of the earth, we find the remains of animals and plants which
once inhabited its former surfaces, the simpler forms below, the more
complex above, so we find the remains of man's tools and implements
in the clays and gravels of the last geological period of the globe,
and with a like sequence in their character. The oldest and lowest
forms of tools are simplest ; the newer and nearer to the present sur-
face, the more varied and complex. We have seen that the simplest
weapon man could use would be a stone. Even now a wagoner with
broken cart looks around naturally for a stone to pound with, and so
mend his ways. He picks up a stone on occasion as his ancestors did
on most occasions. For the moment he is in the Stone age. And he
uses what the earliest man must have undoubtedly used, a stone just
as it is. There must have been a time when men picked up such
stones as came in their way at the moment with which to throw at
animals, to break their food, to injure their fellow-men. Such stones,
unaltered by use, can no longer be identified.

It is easy to see how, through long lapses of time, men continued
to select stones, with an ever-increasing care as to their shape and
size. The best to fling, the surest to hit, the sharpest to cut, were
picked out, assorted in leisure moments, stored for future use. The
hunter, meeting with game, could find no stone suited to bring it
down at the moment, and so came at last to carry this primitive shot
about with him in his hunting. The way from such a process, and
a mode of improving the best of these stones by an artificial changing

THE EARLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 585

of their shape and size, were clearly pointed out by experience. And
there must have been a gain in the process to such an inventive tribe.
No more were long searches for properly-sized stones necessary. By
means of harder stones others were chipped and shaped, and so much
time was gained from looking for stones and devoted to obtaining
food. And tribes using artificially-shaped stones must have had a
superiority over those who relied on what natural stones they found
at the moment. They stood in less danger of starvation. In the
absence of other remains, the presence of roughly-fashioned stones
will be the earliest reliable trace we shall find of the existence of
men. In Europe such stones have been found and described by sev-
eral observers. In North America we owe their discovery to the zeal
of Dr. C. C. Abbott, aided in funds for excavation by the Peabody
Museum of Archaeology, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The rough-
stone implements discovered by Dr. Abbott in New Jersey are chipped
so as to form an irregular cutting edge. They are flattened on the un-
der side and broken to an edge from the upper. The material itself
is basalt, a common kind of mixed rock of compact texture. As we
find them, the surface is slightly rusted, from the particles of iron in
the stone. This kind of rock is common, and the tunnel of the Erie
Railway at Jersey City is cut through stone of this kind. North
American rough-stone implements vary little in size and pattern,
although, when we examine all the kindred rough-stone implements
of the world yet known, we see that, as a class, they become grad-
ually more determinate in their shape and the chipping more regular ;
they come more into the shape of spear-heads, and, perhaps, large
arrow-points. Above the rough-stone implements we find those of
polished stone ; a departure showing that man was no longer satis-
fied with his first rude fashioning of his implements. Then we find
the metals ; and of these copper, being more pliable, is first beaten
cold and worked into shape for use. Then the process of smelting
and mixing with harder metals, such as iron, came to be employed;
and to-day we are doing just what man has always done, impi'oving
our tools so that we may better our condition.

Surveying the whole field gone over by scientific men in recent
times, we must say that these different ages have merged gradually
into one another. The age of rough-stone implements or paleolithic,
the age of polished-stone implements, or neolithic, the ages of cop-
per, bronze, and iron, have succeeded each other without the possibil-
ity of our drawing the dividing line, any more than we can say exactly
when what we call the middle ages ceased and modern time came in.

Certain implements are, indeed, rough stone, and others polished,
but between them are intermediate specimens, and both kinds seem
to have been sometimes in use at the same moment with the same
people. Again, the introduction of bits of copper in some of the
earlier graves precedes the fashioning of copper axes. It is a similar

586

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

question to that as to species. It is not necessarily each time a
different people, but sometimes the same, at first using a more simple
and then a more complex implement. All mankind have not pro-
gressed equally. Some are in the Stone age now. There have been
arrests in development, and a comparison of the points which the
different races have reached will show the differences in standing
between them. In Europe, Lyell has given a very complete account
of the different kinds of implements found in one locality, the valley
of the Somme. In the peat-bogs on either side of the river are found
Roman weapons, belonging to the age of metals. In the gravel and
clay-beds below, polished and rough stone implements are found. In
North America the iron tools are wanting. The Indian was in the
Stone age at the advent of Europeans. The Mound-builders had used
copper, but the process of smelting and the use of iron had not been
reached by them.1

QU ATERNARY.

AGE OF MAN.

Autocene.

Holocene.

Pleistocene.

Ice-Period.

Alluvium. Peat-beds.

Age of Metals. Neolithic implements.
Mastodon.

Gravel-beds. Unstratified drift.

Paleolithic implements. Paleolithic implements.
Horse. Reindeer.

TERTIARY.

AGE OF MAMMALS.

Pliocene.

Miocene.

* ...

Eocene. •

Horse.

Pliohippus.

Protohippus.

Mioliippus.

Mesohippus.

Brontotherium.

f "- s

Orohippus.

Eohippus.

Coryphodon.

Tillotherium.

Dinoceras.

In the accompanying diagram, while I have indicated the geologi-
cal succession of the implements of man, you must bear in mind
that, since stone implements are yet used in some parts of the world,
they are there found in surface or alluvial deposits. But for our race
the Stone age has passed, and, to find in Europe the implements our
forefathers used, we must go in most cases into lower than surface-
beds. And Dr. Abbott has drawn attention to the fact that there
is a great similarity between the North American and European
rough-stone implements. This does not indicate so much identity of

1 The difficulty of supposing man to have been originally introduced into North
America during the Quaternary lies in the fact that he was most probably in the Paleo-
lithic age when the migration was made. This difficulty vanishes, if, as I suppose, man
entered upon possession of this continent during the Pliocene, before the Ice period had
interfered with a passage from the north by land. This will leave us free to consider
the American civilizations indigenous.

THE EARLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 587

race as identity of culture, while there is- great probability that botli
are implied. We must remember that as we go back in time we
should find the races of men less numerous than at present — the
nearer we get to the common stock from which it is believed all man-
kind must have sprung. The survival of stone implements is not
unlike the persistence of older forms of life. The gai--pike [Lepidos-
teus bison) still inhabits our lakes, but the age when the ganoid type
of fishes prevailed has long gone by. In order to make the age of
the North American rough-stone implements clear, we must study the
geological evidence.

Clay and gravel are made, we know, from the primitive rocks.
The atmosphere and the rain loosen lai'ge pieces of rock from the
mountains, and they are broken in the beds of streams by the action
of the water. The fine particles are produced by the rubbing of the
stones together ; the water grinds the broken rocks down smooth,
and makes pebbles of them. Gravel, sand, and clay, produced in this
manner, become sorted out by the action of the water, or stratified.
From a study of the action of existing glaciers or ice-masses on the
Alps, or in the North, it is seen that clay and gravel are also made
from the primitive rock, ground out by the slow movement of the ice.
The mass of dirt and stones is discharged at the edge of the glacier
much as a bar is formed by a river.

But there is this difference, that the bar made by the glacier, and
which we call a moraine, contains its gravel and clay and bowlders, in
a confused mass, with little sorting, and thus xinstratified. Now, these
rough-stone implements have been found in New Jersey by Dr. Ab-
bott, in unstratified beds of material, which are evidently, from their
composition, ancient moraines. There are, we know, different degrees
of evidence. A fact may be either demonstrated, or shown to be prob-
able, or possible. I leave it to you to judge whether these circum-
stances do not demonstrate that North American rough-stone imple-
ments are as old as the beds in which they are found. To me, it
seems clear that the men who used these rough tools dwelt on the
edge of the glacier, and their implements have become buried in the
moraines which were forming at many different points during the ice-
period. Nor can we refuse to admit what this demonstrated fact
implies, the great age of man in North America. I have taken, on
a former occasion, the sum of 100,000 years as the time that has
probably elapsed since the retiring of the glacier from the valleys
of the White Mountains, in New Hampshire. This figure was ar-
rived at after a calculation based on the ratio of movement of bodies
of ice, and the round number may be considered as an under rather
than over estimate. But, at whatever time during the glacial epoch
the moraine was formed, in which Dr. Abbott found these implements
of early man, it is quite clear that this knowledge alone will not give
us the duration of man's existence in North America ; for it is certain

5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that man could not have originated at the foot of the glacier. The ice
must have met him toward the close of the Tertiary period in the
northern parts of Asia and America, and forced him southward ; or,
at a later time, it must have found him on the main belt of this conti-
nent. The Tertiary origin of man is presupposed, from the fact that
he had submitted to a race-modification fitting him to endure the
cold.

Let us consider for a moment what this glacial epoch really was.
As to its occurrence, the ice has left its mark on the rocks, and we see
its moraines and transported bowlders over a vast portion of this con-
tinent from Virginia to the Pacific. There is no doubt that a vast
ice-sheet, a continental system of glaciers, was here at a distant time.
It has transported masses of rock, and left them on the summit of
Mount Washington, where they still remain, and to do this it must at
one time have overtopped the mountain. The ice gradually spread
from the north, and its progress was slow, as we judge of time — so
slow that it must have seemed immovable and unchanging from year
to year, to the man of the epoch, just as it seems to us now ; and just
as slowly as it advanced it retired again to where it is to-day.

The glacial epoch comes in between the present or Quaternary
division of time and the Tertiary. In order to estimate its effects,
we must briefly consider the aspect of the earth before its advent and
in the preceding epochs.

There are two principal conclusions to be drawn from an examina-
tion of the fossil remains of plants and animals during the Tertiary.
The first is, that the climate over the largest portion of the globe
was then equable. There were then apparently no seasons — the sum-
mer seems to have been perpetual. The proof of this lies in the fact
that there was a general distribution of plants and animals over the
whole surface. In Greenland and Arctic America there were forests
of trees, as attested by the remains of their trunks, stumps, and
leaves. The same regions reveal to us coal-fields, and the fossil re-
mains of reptiles like those we find in beds of the now temperate
zone. We find beds of coal on desolate islands in the Southern
Pacific Ocean, islands so cold and barren as to afford now but weak
and little plants ; whereas these beds of coal attest the presence once
of a luxurious vegetation, of which they are the remains.

The second conclusion is, that the Tertiary was the richest in the
number and kinds of the higher animals as compared with the present
or any preceding geological period in the earth's history. Then our
Territories supported all the various kinds of animals, for instance,
which culminated in the horse. The remains of hundreds of species
of animals have been collected by Prof. Marsh from a region which
now supports but very few.

Prof. Huxley has, by his now famous lectures in New York City
the past year, made popularly known the discoveries of fossils by

THE EARLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 589

Prof. Marsh in the Western cretaceous and tertiary beds. It remains
but to add a link to the genealogy of the horse, discovered by Prof.
Marsh since the time when Prof. Huxley lectured. You will remem-
ber that Prof. Huxley showed that there was a regular series of pro-
gressive forms from the Eocene Orohippus to the recent horse, in the
character of the teeth, and in the structure of the fore and hind feet.
There was more than that, perhaps, when we consider that there was
an increase in size, in length of limb, and consequent activity, of the
animal. In the Orohippus we have four toes on the front and three
on the hind limbs, and so far Prof. Huxley was able to trace the
genealogy of the horse with its single toe down toward the type of
mammals with five toes. But we can now go a little further in the
process of the evolution of the horse. In New Mexico, in a fossil
bed, the horizon of which is below that in which the Orohippus oc-
curs, Prof. Marsh has found the remains of an animal which he calls
the Eohippus. The feet, which are very much like those of the Oro-
hippus with their well-developed four toes in front and three behind,
show a rudiment of the outer or fifth toe. The Eohippus was an ani-
mal as large only as a fox, though perhaps a little stouter, and, from
the structure of its limbs, is the nearest yet discovered progenitor of the
horse to the usual five-toed mammalian type. And in his lecture Prof.
Huxley anticipated the actual discovery of the Eohippus by showing
that such a form must have existed as the progenitor of the four-toed
horse. Animals, also, which were the prototypes of the camel, have
been there discovered by Prof. Cope. Strange if, at the time when
the whole earth presented such a profusion of vertebrate life, man
should not also have appeared upon the scene ! The conditions were
never so perfect, either before or since. Over this field of luxu-
riant life, the cold broke in. The ice commenced to form, and then
to move in masses, scattering or extirpating the plants and animals.
There were migration and adaptations. Such animals and plants as
could adapt themselves to the cold persisted. To probably smooth-
skinned elephantoid types, the woolly mammoth succeeded in the
northern regions. Stunted willows replaced tree-like plants of the
same botanical family. If it met man, it must equally have modified
his habits of life and his physical characteristics. It must have made
something like an Esquimaux of him. As to the cause of the glacial
epoch itself, from a study of all that has as yet been said on the sub-
ject, we must ascribe it to upheavals of land in the north, and a
change, perhaps a consequent change, in the earth's position toward
the sun. There was, it seems, an elevation of the earth's crust and a
variation in the earth's axis; which latter, in order to have produced
the climatic effects of former geological periods, must apparently have
been more nearly perpendicular than it now is. It is probable that
oscillations then set in, which may make a second glacial epoch prob-
able, although of this we cannot speak with certainty. Evidence is

59o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

already at hand, collected by European observers, that tie glacial
epoch itself was not continuous, but intermitted by a warmer time
during which the ice retreated to reoccupy that portion of its former
territory from which it has now finally retired. Prof. Dana has con-
tributed some evidence of a similar action on North American terri-
tory. But for our present purpose a general view of the Ice period is
all that we need. Evidence is at hand that the glacier, at the time
it traversed our territory, was accompanied by plants and animals
different from those now inhabiting the Atlantic States.

Remains of the reindeer have been discovered by Prof. Dana in
clay-beds thrown together by the action of ice. This animal is now,
as we know, confined to arctic regions, but then ranged the valley of
the Connecticut. And there has been a sort of natural trap set for
the animals and plants of that time, which caged a part of them, so
that we may examine some of their live descendants.

It has been found that the condition of the tops of high moun-
tains, such as Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and that of
high northern regions, are very similar. It is calculated that a change
of one degree Fahrenheit takes place in the temperature for every
three hundred feet of vertical height. On a level the same change
occurs for every sixty miles as we journey northward. We should have
to travel, for instance, from Boston to Hudson's Bay, as Agassiz has
shown, before passing over the same range of climatic changes as we
do in one day in the Alps, thus causing a narrow strip of Alpine flora
to correspond to a broad zone of northern vegetation. The moun-
tains are thus compressed models of the physical conditions of the
latitudes of the surface.

In the tropics we have mountains crowned with ice, whose summits
reproduce the condition of the north-pole ; and, as we descend their
sides, we pass through belts of climate ever increasing in warmth, to
the plain beneath, where we meet with the condition of the torrid
zone. Now, during the glacial epoch, when the surface of our Middle
States was covered with a coat of ice, the plants and animals had
been swept southward of the White Mountains. They bloomed and
lived in the spring-tides that softened the edge of the glacier, and
enjoyed the short summer that there ensued at the source of streams
fed from the melting ice. But, when the glacier retired, the summers
over this region becoming longer, and the winters shorter, plants and
animals followed the ice and their congenial climate northward to the
valleys of New Hampshire. Out of these valleys the glacier finally
departed also, but not without" leaving some of its retinue behind.
Alter the main glacier had left the valley, Mount Washington and
Mount Adams still remained largely covered with ice, and a system
of local glaciers filled the clefts and gorges of the hills. Allured by
these, some of the plants and insects were retained and did not follow
the bulk of their companions who were on their long march to the

THE EARLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 591

north. But year after year it got warmer, and the local glaciers
shortened, extending less and less into the valleys. The trapped
insects could not then rejoin their mates, but instead climbed the
mountain, dwelling farther and farther up as time progressed and the
climate changed. At length they reached the summit of Mount Wash-
ington, where we still find some of them, and whence there is no
escape. The plants formed patches in congenial spots on the sides
of the mountain, driven upward by the new flora filling the valley
from the southward. Now, in examining these colonists, we find
among them the herb-like willow (Salix herbacea), its short stems
hardly rising above an inch from the ground, and other species of
plants which we have to go far north to meet again. There, too,
the White Mountain butterfly (CEneis semidea) appears year by year,
swaying in feeble flight over its narrow range, while its congeners are
found one thousand miles to the northward in Labrador. These ex-
amples could be easily multiplied.

But this sort of mountain-trap was not large enough to hold such
game as men and reindeer. These both went northward, and are not
to be found alive with us ; but the one left his implements, and the
other its bones, to tell of their presence at that time, and in these
latitudes.

When we come to the question as to the descendants of this early
North American man, we cannot avoid studying for a moment the
movements or migrations of man over the surface of the earth gener-
ally. I think we may divide his migrations into two main classes
from their motives :

A primitive migration — one influenced solely by physical causes
affecting his existence, and which must have been in more extended
operation in early times when he was unprovided with means of his
own invention against a change in his surroundings. Such migra-
tions are operative now among certain of our Indians, who move from
place to place with the game upon which they subsist and with the
season.

A culture migration — one arising from a certain stage of intellect-
ual advancement when the movements of man are determined by
ultimate and not immediate considerations. The movements of the
Indo-European races fall within this category. Besides these, there
are to be distinguished accidental migrations, which man submitted
to against his will. We know that insects and plants are so trans-
ported. Birds and ocean-currents carry seeds from land to land; In-
sects on a blade of grass or a fallen bough are carried down a river by
the current to found colonies of their race far from their place of ori-
gin. And such circumstances give rise to races and varieties among
species modifiable by the peculiarities of their new localities. The
accidental migrations of man may be considered as belonging to the
epoch of culture-migration, since they must more usually have oc-

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

curred with a race advanced in the art of navigation. A sejjaration
of communities under the pressure of storms, earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions, may have naturally happened, however, in the earliest
times. Neither the man of primitive nor of culture epochs is exempt
from the control of the elements on all occasions. We must agree
that we may account in great part, and reasonably, for the variation
of man by the difference in his present physical surroundings.

The essential unity of origin of all the races of mankind is believed
by the great majority of scientific men.

The study of the migration of mankind shows us that there has
been replacement everywhere; that people now inhabiting any known
country have not always inhabited the same tract of land. At the
same time suppose our race to vanish entirely from this continent,
leaving only ruined cities and implements behind, how difficult would
it be to get a true history of our migration hither ! Suppose again
we had no certain account of how our forefathers crossed the At-
lantic, how diverse would be our traditions ! Europeans have no
authentic account of how they came to be in Europe. A great
deal of our American dogmatism and Philistinism is to be ascribed
to the fact that we know our origin. We came from England or
Germany, and that answers such questions sufficiently. It is as
far as we usually think. But now we see that we cannot speak
of autocthones, or people sprung from the soil they now cultivate.
Such a boast has been made by more than one race, indeed by people
of such different culture as the ancient Athenians and the modern
Esquimaux. So that we may not conclude too rashly that the
people who have left only traces in any country are extinct, because
they have been replaced by a different population, just as we have
replaced in the eastern portion of North America the Indians. Their
descendants may exist elsewhere. This seems to be the case in the
present instance, and just as the same kinds of reindeer, butterflies,
and plants, of the time when the ice covered these States, no longer
live here, but in a far north, so the man of the glacial epoch of the
present United States has in all probability wandered after the ice
— a primitive and unconscious migration determined by the shift-
ing of his congenial physical surroundings. And the Esquimaux,
as of old skirting the glaciers, the only inhabitants of the shores of
Arctic America, and extending in scattered companies for nearly five
hundred miles on the coast of Asia beyond Behring's Straits, may
well be the modern representatives in a direct line of descent of early
man in North America. They were found inhabiting this territory
by Europeans first in 1616; and since that time they have been found
as far north as we have been able to penetrate. The limit of their
range to the southward seems to be about the fiftieth degree of north
latitude on the eastern, the sixtieth on the western side of America
and the shores of Hudson's Bay.

THE EARLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 593

Our knowledge of the Esquimaux is far from complete. They call
themselves Jnnuit, not Esquimaux, and the name signifies the peo-
ple. Although divided into tribes and smaller companies, they are
very uniform in their physical appearance and customs. A tribe met
with by Sir John Ross about 77° north latitude believed themselves
to be not only the only Esquimaux, but the only people in the world.
As their numbers are comparatively small, and they have a total
ranee of about 5,000 miles of coast-line, it is evident how a tribe
might exist for centuries without meeting any competitors for seal
and bear meat in its range. The different tribes practise a sort
of communism with regard to their possessions. Different families
dwell together in one house, and rely upon each other for mutual sup-
port. So much, in brief, we may say here of this people. With
regard to their affinities, they are from their speech a branch of the
Turanian family, and allied to the Hungarian, Turkish, Lapp, and
Basque races. As to their habits, while their morals seem to be good,
they are most voracious eaters, from the fact that they cannot always
depend on their supply of food, and so gorge themselves when they
get a quantity. Parry tells of an Esquimaux boy who ate eight and a
half pounds of seal-meat, one and a half pound of bread, one and a
half pint of soup, and drank three wineglasses of gin, a tumbler of
hot whiskey-and-water, and five pints of water, consuming the whole,
between intervals of rest, in one day. They seldom wash except in
summer, in which I think they are excusable to some degree, in the
absence of proper heating apparatus in their huts.

As usual, travelers and scientists speak badly of boys. It is
always the boys who are doing the worst actions, be they Esqui-
maux or New-Englanders. While I myself, in the present lecture,
am guilty of this unavoidable presentation of the facts, I yet believe
that the most of the wrongs of this world are committed by grown-
up persons, and I look to the growing generation of boys to make
better and wiser men than their fathers. They have the benefit of a
greater amount of experimental information stored up for them in
books from which they can take fresh departures in knowledge and
happiness.

It has been my aim in the present lecture to give you the result
of latest information on the earlier man of North America, and at the
same time to indicate some of the different branches of science which
it is necessary for us to pursue in order to understand anthropology or
the study of man. We have called upon geology to describe the strata
in which we find the relics of man, and to explain their probable age and
the manner of their deposition. Archaeology has shown the progress
from the simple to the complex in the various implements used by
man, and has classified them. Ethnology has allowed us to discrimi-
nate between the different races of mankind, to study their habits
and migrations, and classify their religions. Biology has enabled us
vol. x. — 38

594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to study the different stages through which man as an individual
passes from infancy to maturity. Psychology, finally, has taken cog-
nizance of the various facts supplied by the other sciences, and has
led us to understand, how, man being knoAvn, and his environment
being comprehended, we are to interpret their interaction.

There are two conclusions which I think we are warranted in
drawing from the facts here presented. The first refers to the actual
relation between time and development. Just as geology teaches
us that the simpler organisms have existed on the earth through
vastly longer periods than the more complex, so it shows us that
the ages during which man used, simpler and stone implements
were greater in duration than those in which he has used more com-
plex and metal tools. Let us compare what we are doing now with
metals, and. what we did with them during the miserable epoch we
call the " age of chivalry," of which sentimentalism still gives us false
and fanciful pictures. The second conclusion springs from the first.
As the true history of our own race shows that we came from a low
and brutal state, common once to all mankind, so the facts of our
present condition give us reasonable hope for a better future. Let
us, then, stand, on the highest points of knowledge in all its depart-
ments, for these are touched with light. We must reach these heights
by continual reading, observation, and experiment. The result of
these is culture. All thought has an added, beauty as it approaches
the truth, but what is needed is to attain to clear conceptions. Our
impressions are blurred because we do not see facts clearly in all their
relations, and such impressions are ugly because they are imperfect.
We are yet in the morning of culture. We are only becoming sweet.
as wild-apple trees grafted on single boughs. It is not so much that
we are sinners as that we are sluggish and stupid that is the matter
with us. It is certain that there is a better time yet to come for our
race upon this earth than the present. It will be reached by a con-
tinuous exercise of our brain-power, giving us right reason at last, the
permanent correction for faults of conduct and for errors in our ideas.
Sir Henry Maine has said that "conceit and skepticism are the prod-
ucts of an arrested development of knowledge."

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWAED.

MANY of our readers, as their attention is arrested by the por-
trait we furnish this month, will glance at the name beneath it,
and musingly ask themselves whether they have ever seen or heard it
before. They will say, perhaps: "There were several Edwards, who
were Kings of England, and there was Edwards, who made a book
upon the will ; and there is Milne-Edwards, the great naturalist of

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 595

the French Academy; but — Thomas Edward — Tom Edward — who
is he ? and what business has his portrait in The Popular Science
Monthly, where we expect to tind likenesses of only eminent scien-
tific men ? "

Well, the Thomas Edward whom we represent is in his proper
place; and, if he has not been heard of before, he ought to have been.
He was certainly not a King of England, but he has been a king and
a hero in his own way ; and we are glad to note that the Queen of
England and Empress of India has recently honored herself by hon
oring him. Nor has Thomas Edward, like the great Jonathan, ever
written on the will; but he is one of Nature's illustrations of it,
and is himself a living treatise on the force of the will. And, although
he is not a rich Anglo-French naturalist, the pet of the Academy, and
applauded through Europe, he is nevertheless an eminent naturalist,
who in an obscure Scotch town, without education, without means,
without books, without encouragement, and without the acquaintance
of men of science — a poor, day-laboring mechanic, with a large fam-
ily— has done original work in science, of a quality and extent that
would have carried half a dozen common men into the American
Academy of Sciences, or the Royal Society of England. Thomas Ed-
ward fought his way alone, inspired and sustained by a love of Na-
ture which with him was nothing less than an ungovernable passion ;
and, although working in long obscurity and bitter privation, and under
difficulties that would have crushed the spirit of ordinary men, he has
at length met the reward he so richly deserves, by falling into the
hands of a gifted and admiring biographer. Well can he have waited,
and much can he have suffered, who secures the genius of Mr. Smiles
to wTrite his life while he is yet living, the skillful pencil of Reid to
illustrate it, the aristocratic house of Murray to publish it in his
native country, and the enterprise of the Harpers to reprint it in
the United States. We make free use of Mr. Smiles's work ' in the
following pages.

Thomas Edward was the son of a hand-loom weaver, and was
born near Aberdeen, in Scotland, in 1814. From his birth he was dif-
ficult to manage. His mother said of him that he was the worst child
she had ever nursed. He was never a moment at rest, his feet and
legs seemed to be set on springs. In babyhood he showed an impulse
to leap from his mother's arms after flies. As soon as he began to
walk he made friends with the cats and doo;s, and would toddle out
into the streets to cultivate the acquaintance of the hens, ducks, and
geese, and would watch the pigs in a pen for hours. As he grew
older he became a desperate rambler and runaway, and developed a

1 " Life of a Scotch Naturalist : Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnrean Society."
By Samuel Smiles, author of "Lives of the Engineers/' "Self-Help," "Character,"
"Thrift," etc. Portrait and Illustrations by George Reid, A. R. S. A. Harper &
Brothers.

596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

passion for collecting all sorts of natural objects, crabs, worms, bee-
tles, rats, tadpoles, frogs, snails, leeches, mice, birds, and birds'-nests,
which he would bring home, and which were the nuisance and pest of
the house. His mother protested and forbade, and threw his " ven-
omous beasts " away, but it was of no use. He was threatened with
punishment, and the same night brought in a nest of young rats,
when, of course, he was flogged. But blows did no more good than
words. When sent to carry his father's breakfast, he cut for the sea-
shore. One morning his mother tied him up firmly to a table to pre-
vent his going out, and set his little sister to watch him. As soon as
his mother was absent, with a mixture of promises and threats he
made his sister help him, when they pushed the table so close to the
grate that he was able to burn off the rope and get away. Tom got
at liberty and had a good time that day in the fields. One morning
his father hid his clothes, so that when the boy got up he had " noth-
ing to wear." His mother tied a bit of old petticoat around his neck,
saying, " I'm sure you'll be a prisoner this day." He tied a string
around his middle, hid himself awhile in the entry, and at an oppor-
tune moment bolted into the street, and was soon at the shore hunt-
ing for crabs, horse-leeches, puddocks, and sticklebacks. But the
exposure was too much for him, and he had a long fever, with delir-
ium, hanging between death and life for several weeks. When he
recovered, the first thing was to inquire after his beasts. When but
four years old he was thrashed and starved and shut up to keep him
at home, but he was self-willed, determined, stubborn, and thoroughly
incoi'rigible. He wandered about the beach, rambled over the coun-
try, learning all the best nesting-places of the birds — in the woods,
plantations, hedges, streams, and mill-dams. He was inquisitive and
thoughtful, often asking for information, but rarely getting it. He
knew how birds made their nests, and how the flowers grew out of the
ground, but he did not know how the rocks grew. He asked his
parents, and they told him the rocks had existed from the beginning.
This did not satisfy him, so he went to the quarrymen. " How do
the rocks grow?" asked he. "Fat say ye?" Tom repeated the
question. " To the deil wi' ye, ye impudent brat, or I'll toss ye owre
the head o' the quarry ! " Once he saw a paper-like something up in a
tree, with lots of yellowish bees about it. This started his curiosity,
and he tried to get the other boys to join him in securing it. They
refused and ran home, leaving him alone. He climbed up near the
limb where it was suspended, and was met by a sting which he thought
was more painful than any he had ever had before. He sucked and
blew the wound, but there hung the wasp's nest, and he could not
leave it. It wras growing dark, he could not put it in his bonnet nor
in his stockings, so he stripped off his shirt, and, though getting
numerous stings, wrapped it around the nest, detached it, and car-
ried it home. His father, seeiug him shirtless, threatened him with

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 597

the strap, sent him to bed, and the shirt, with its contents, was soon
put in a bowl, and covered with boiling water.

The time at length came when Tom Edward must be educated.
To be sure, he had been educating himself pretty rapidly, but he must
be sent to school. This he hated. He could not bear the confine-
ment. When between four and five years old he was sent to a dame's
school, kept by an old woman called Bell Hill in the garret of an ordinary
dwelling-house. But he often played the truant, and would rather be
in the fish-market than the school-room. His truancy soon became
known to his mother, who then employed her mother, Tom's granny,
to take him to school. But Tom rebelled against his granny's super-
vision, and got away from her so often that she had to drag him "by
the scruff o' the neck." Once he slipped away from her, and ran
for the water, and was in the act of getting a lot of horse-leeches,
when his granny, who had pursued him, caught him by the neck.
He let go of the stone, and, making a sudden bound, upset the old
woman in the water. His comrades called out, " Tarn, lam, your
granny's droonin' ! " Tom was off, and did not get home till night,
when his mother abused him for a ragamuffin who tried to drown his
granny. For once his father was in good-humor, and remarked to his
wife that " granny should beware of going so near the edge of such a
dirty place." The scapegrace returned to school, but did not learn
much. The education that Bell Hill gave was rather theological ;
she prayed, or, as Tom called it, " groaned," with the children twice
a day, and in one of these devotional exercises Tom came to grief.
She forbade him to bring his " nasty and dangerous things " to the
school, but it made no difference. He had a noisy jackdaw at home,
of which he was very fond, and one day he stuffed it inside of his
trousers, and took it to school. While Mother Bell was at prayer
the daw became restless, got its head ou*, and began to scream.
" The Lord preserv's a' ! Fat's this noo ? " cried Bell, starting to
her feet. "It's Tam Edward again!" shouted the scholars, " wi' a
craw stickin' oot o' his breeks ! " Bell went up to him, pulled him
up by his collar, dragged him to the door, thrust him out, and locked
the door after him, and Edward never saw Bell Hill's school again.

Tom was next sent to a school governed by a master who had
great faith in what is called the "taws"1 as a means of education.
But the boy's old habits followed him, and one day he smuggled into
the school a broken bottle, containing horse-leeches and the grubs of
water-flies. Mr. Smiles relates that "all passed on smoothly for
about half an hour, when one of the scholars gave a loud scream, and
started from his seat. The master's attention was instantly attracted,
and he came down from the desk, taws in hand. " What's this?" he
cried. " It's a horse-leech crawlin' up my leg !" "A horse-leech ?"
"Yes, sir; and see," pointing to the corner in which Tom kept his
1 " Taws," a leather strap, about three feet long, cut into tails at the end.

598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

treasure, " there's a bottle fu' o' them ! " " Give me the bottle," said
the master; and, looking at the culprit, he said, "You come this
way, Master Edward ! " Edward followed him quaking. On reach-
ing the desk he stopped, and, holding out the bottle, said, " That's
yours, is it not ? " " Yes." " Take it, then — that is the way out,"
pointing to the door ; "go as fast as you can, and never come back;
and take that, too ! " bringing the taws down heavily upon his back.
Tom thought that his back was broken, and that he should never get
his breath again. Tom's mother took him back to the school-room
door, but before she could open her mouth the master abruptly be-
gan : " Don't bring that boy here ! I'll not take him back — not though
you were to give me twenty pounds ! Neither I nor my scholars have
had a day's peace since he came here."

Tom was now sent to a third school, where he staid eighteen
months, but did not learn very much. The Bible was the reading-
book, and he got so that he could read it, and also repeat the Shorter
Catechism. But he knew very little of arithmetic and nothing of
grammar. He could add up two lines of figures, but could not man-
age the multiplication-table. He could only multiply by means of
his fingers, and knew nothing of writing. He had given up bringing
beasts with him to school, but he had got a bad name. One morn-
ing, when the boys were at their lessons, the master gave a loud
scream, and, jumping to his feet, shook a big worm from his arm ;
then, turning in Tom's direction, he exclaimed, "This is some more
of your work, Master Edward." Edward was then called to the floor.
"You've been at your old trade, Edward, I see; but I'll now take it
out of you. I have warned you not to bring any of your infernal
beasts here, and now I have just found one creeping up my arm and
biting me. Hold up ! " Edward here ventured to say that he had
not brought the beast, and he had not brought anything for a long
while past. " What ! a lie, too ? " said the master. " A lie added to
the crime makes it doubly criminal. Hold up, sir ! " Tom held up
his hand, and the master came down upon it very heavily with the
taws. " The other! " The other hand was then held up, and when
Tom had got his two hot hands the master exclaimed, " That's for the
lie, and this for the offense ! " and then he proceeded to bring the taws
heavily down upon his back. The boy, however, did not cry.

" Now, sir," said the master, when almost out of breath, " will you
say now that you did not bring it ? " "I did not ; indeed, sir, I did
not ! " "Well, then, take that," giving him a number of tremendous
lashes along his back. "Well, now?" "I did not!" The master
went on again: "It's your own fault," he said, " for not confessing
your crime." " But I did not bring it," replied Edward. " I'll flog
you until you confess." And then he repeated his lashes upon his
hands, his shoulders, and his back. Edward was a mere mite of a
boy, so that the taws reached down to his legs, and smote him there.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 599

" Well, now," said the master, after he was reduced to his last effort,
" did you bring it ? " " No, sir, I did not ! " The master sat down ex-
hausted. " Well," said lie, " you are certainly a most provoking and
incorrigible devil." He ordered Tom to get his slate and books and
quit the school. And with this third expulsion Thomas Edward fin-
ished his "education" at the age of about seven years.

And let us not be hard on the Scotch system of education. To be
sure, the schools did but little to encourage a taste for natural history,
but we have a great many pretentious educational establishments now
that are not a whit in advance of them. And our state system has no
place for little enthusiastic nuisances like Tom Edward. A teacher
in a Brooklyn institution of high claims, thinking, not long ago, that
the book " natural history " might be somewhat alleviated by a little
acquaintance with the real objects about which the pupils were learn-
ing lessons, encouraged them to collect some natural-history speci-
mens. A few cocoons were accordingly brought in, and hung up in
the class-room, and watched with much eagerness until the pupils
began to fear nothing would ever come of them. But one morning it
was observed that a large and beautiful moth was emerging from a
chrysalis, and the class became much excited with interest at the novel
and curious spectacle. But for such excitement, from so strange a
cause, there was no provision in the order of the school. And when
the grammarian came in to take the class, they did not enter into his
stupefying processes with the customary facility, at which he was so
shocked that he reported his difficulty to the governing authority, and
a score of the children were kept after school as a punishment for the
interest they had taken in an insect metamorphosis !

School being done, young Edward went to work. He first got a
place in a tobacco-factory at fourteen pence a week. Here he staid
two years, having risen through the grades of responsibility until he
got eighteen pence a week, but his master happened to be a bird-fan-
cier, and favored Tom's tastes in catching animals. Leaving this place,
he got a situation in a woolen-factory, at some distance from home,
receiving at first three and at last six shillings a week. Besides, he
got on as a night-hand, and thus had much of the day to himself for
rambling in the woods, and getting acquainted with the flowers,
insects, and birds. These were happy times. Tom was at the factory
two years, and was then taken away that he might be bound as an
apprentice to a trade. The happy genius of his father selected for him
as a life-occupation the intellectual and ennobling craft of the shoe-
maker. He was indentured at the age of eleven to Charles Begg, who
was to teach him for six years the art and mystery of making shoes,
at eighteen pence a week for the first year, with sixpence a week ad-
vance each succeeding year — aprons and shoes to be supplied — time,
six in the morning until nine at night ; specialty, pump-making, in
which Begg excelled.

600 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Charles Begg was a low-class London cockney, and an ignorant,
brutal vagabond, who had a habit of coming home drunk, of thrashing
his apprentice, and then going up-stairs and beating his wife. His
relation to natural history was the same as that of Tom's teachers.
He had no love whatever for the works of Nature, and very naturally
detested those who had. Tom had a love of birds and living creat-
ures, and Begg hated him accordingly. If Tom brought any curiosi-
ties, Begg threw them into the street — his little boxes, with butterflies,
birds'-eggs, etc. One afternoon, when Edward had finished his work,
he was sitting with a young sparrow on his knee which he had trained
and taught to do a number of little tricks. It was his pet, and he
loved it dearly. While thus occupied the master came in drunk, and,
seeing what he was doing, knocked him down, while the bird fluttered
to the ground, was trampled on, and died. In this way three years
passed, when one day Edward brought three young moles to the shop,
in his bonnet. When Begg found them, he killed them at once,
knocked down Edward with a last, seized him by the neck and breast,
dragged him to the door, and with a horrible imprecation threw him
iato the street. Tom did not return. He wanted to be a sailor, but
his father opposed it. He then ran away from home to see an uncle
a long way off, who kept him all night, gave him eighteen pence, and
sent him back. He had various adventures in this excursion, such as
the following : He came up to three men standing in the road ; two of
them were gentlemen, and the third seemed to be a gamekeeper.
He was showing them something which he had shot in the adjoining
wood. Edward went forward, and saw that it was a bird with blue
wings, and a large, variegated head. "What do you want?" said
the gamekeeper to Edward. "To have a sight of the bird, if you
please." "There, then ! " said the gamekeeper, and thrust the bird in
his face, nearly blinding him. When he got home, he tried the ships
again, to go to sea, and attempted to get on board of a vessel as a
"stow-away" to go to America, but could not accomplish it. So he
resumed shoemaking with another and kinder employer, who did not
persecute him for his love of natural things. He now started a little
garden for wild-flowers, and began to prepare places for his various
creatures, but his resources were too rude, and his knowledge not suf-
ficient to succeed very well. He made tours among the booksellers
to inspect the pictures in the windows, and now and then was able to
buy a cheap book. He took the Penny Magazine and the Weekly
Visitor, which cost but a half-penny. He was now about eighteen
years old, and, the shoe-business growing flat, he enlisted in the militia
for a short time, and one day, when on drill, a large, brown butterfly
flitted past, such as he had never seen before, and in an instant he
was off after it. After chasing it awhile, he (not the butterfly) was
captured by the corporal and four militiamen, who marched him to
the guard-house. The high functionaries were astounded, and pro-

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 601

nounced that lie must be either mad or drunk. At the intercession
of some ladies, the punishment of his heinous offense against the mili-
tary majesty of his country was remitted.

When about twenty years of age Edward left Aberdeen, and went
to Banff (a pleasant country town about fifty miles away, standing
upon a gentle slope inclining to the sea), to work at his trade. Wages
were low, and he was confined many hours in the shop, but he con-
tinued to make his natural-history collections. When twenty-three
years old he married, and was fortunate in finding a woman of com-
mon-sense, who sympathized with his peculiar tastes. She had noth-
ing, and they began to keep house on his earnings, which were 9s. 6d.
per week. But he now, for the first time, had a place and room for
his specimens. His education had been very limited, he could hardly
write, he knew next to nothing of books, did not possess a single work
on natural history, or know the names of the birds and animals
that he caught. He also knew little of the nature and habits of the
creatures he went to seek, or where or how to find them But he had
this great advantage, that he was compelled to observe for himself, to
think for himself, so that the knowledge he acquired was his own.
He was modest, self-depreciating, and shy, and as his fellow-mechanics
were an ignorant and brutal lot, with whom he associated very little,
he was alone and friendless, which again favored the absorption of his
mind in natural objects. He got compensation, for he was an in-
tense lover of Nature, and to be in the fields, the woods, the moors,
was always a great delight. When he had been married about a
year, he began to make a collection of natural objects. He bought
an old gun for 4s. Gd., but it was so rickety that he had to tie the
barrel to the stock with twine. This, with his powder-horn and shot-
bag, a few insect-bottles, some boxes for moths and butterflies, and a
book for putting plants in, constituted his equipment. He had a two-
story hat, the upper chamber of which was a useful receptacle, while
the crown served for sticking in and carrying his entomological pins.
He carried no cloak or umbrella, and his food was a bit of bread, or a
little oatmeal, which he washed down with water from the nearest
spring. He never rambled on Sunday, but made it a day of rest,
which was fortunate, as, without this break, he could hardly have con-
tinued his overstrained and exhausting life.

Mr. Edward had to support his family by piece-work, which occu-
pied him from six in the morning to nine at night, and his wages were
so small that he could not abridge his working-hours. But he was a
man of invincible determination, and he resolved never to spend a
moment idly, or a penny uselessly. Closely occupied during the day,
the night was all that remained for " leisure," and that he divided be-
tween sleep and night-wanderings after animals. On returning home
from his work at night, his usual course was to equip himself with his
tools, and start for some one of his locations for observing. It mat-

602 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tered little about the weather. His neighbors used to say, " It is a
stormy night that keeps that man Edward in the house." He went
out in fine, starlit nights, in moonlight nights, and in cold, drizzling
nights. When it rained, he would look out for some hole in which he
could get partial protection, and then watch for night-moving ani-
mals, insects, and birds : foxes, badgers, rats, weasels, polecats, mice,
bats, owls, moths, and a host of other creatures of nocturnal habits,
were the objects which he sought to observe in their ways or to obtain
for his collections. It is comparatively easy to observe the habits of
animals by day, but very difficult in the obscurity and darkness of
night. Edward's circumstances drove him to this night-work, and
soon made him expert in this peculiar line of observation. He often
went out in winter, but his principal night-work was by moonlight,
from spring to autumn. Seeing was of course difficult, but was greatly
helped by the sounds of the midnight prowlers. In the course of a
few years he learned to know all the beasts and birds of the district
frequented by him. He knew the former by their barkings, gruntings,
and various cries, and the latter he could identify even by the sounds
of their wings when flying. He could tell the species and families of
birds by their calbnotes as they flew by. He would watch the fights,
greetings, pranks, predacious assaults, and peculiar ways, of the mid-
night roamers, between snatches of sleep, and thus extended and
made much more accurate one of the obscurest branches of natural
history. Mr. Edward had numerous adventures in these nocturnal
excursions, which are vividly related by Mr. Smiles, who also goes
into much detail to illustrate the perils, exposures, and privations, of
this mode of life.

Mr. Edward continued his night-researches for about fifteen years,
his excursions extending- for six or eight miles in different directions.
He found many new specimens, and was particularly persistent in
working at the birds which greatly abound in that region. He thus
rapidly accumulated the objects for a collection, and after eight years
had preserved nearly 2,000 specimens of living creatures found in the
neighborhood of Banff, most of which consisted of quadrupeds, birds,
reptiles, fishes, Crustacea, star-fish, zoophytes, corals, sponges, and
other objects, together with an immense number of plants. He
placed these in cases, which he made himself by the aid of a shoe-
maker's knife, a saw, and a hammer. He stuffed his own birds, and
mounted all his own objects. Of course, he was not exempt from the
accidents to which such material is exposed. He had deposited twenty
boxes, containing 916 insects, in his garret, and when he went to fetch
them he found they had been all eaten by the mice, the pins only re-
maining, with here and there a head, leg, or wing. On another occasion,
having put 2,000 preserved plants in a box which was carefully placed
out of harm's way, when he went to overhaul them he found that the
cats had made their lair in the box and ruined the whole collection.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 603

There was an annual fair at Banff, and in 1845 Edward resolved
to exhibit his collection. So he brushed up his specimens, cleaned his
cases, of which he had about 300, and exhibited them, or rather had
them placed on exhibition, at Trades Hall. He made a small charge
for admission, and received quite a number of visitors. It took the in-
habitants by surprise, and they began to understand him; his strange
night-wanderings having been a matter of much wonderment and mys-
tification to the people of the town. He got a little money and with-
out much expense by showing his collection, and, being very anxious
to turn himself in some way so as to get relief from the drudgery of
the shop, and acquire time and means for more devotion to his favor-
ite pursuits, he formed the perilous resolution of trying Aberdeen as
a place of exhibition. This city was the old centre of northern intel-
lect, cultivation, wealth, and business, with two universities, filled with
professors and students, and a large, intelligent, and thrifty popula-
tion. Edward sot his collection into six carrier's carts — there beincr
no railroads — and started out with his wife and five children July 31,
1846, reaching Aberdeen on the evening of the following day. He
took a shop, advertised, and scattered handbills. Terms of admis-
sion, " Ladies and gentlemen, 6(7. ; tradespeople, 3d. ; children, half
price." The Aberdeen Journal thus noticed the collection : " We have
been particularly struck with the very natural attitudes in which the
birds and beasts of prey are placed; some being represented as tear-
ing their victims, others feeding their young, and some looking side-
ward or backward, with an expression of the eye which indicates the
fear of interruption. The birds are very beautiful, and the entomo-
logical specimens will be found exceedingly interesting." Edward ex-
pected a rush, but he was disappointed. But very few persons called
to see the collection, and these were chiefly stuffed-bird dealers, who
wanted to sell him specimens, or knaves with counterfeit monstrosi-
ties to dispose of. Some ladies called, to consult him about sick lap-
dogs, diseased cats, and a broken legged pig. One gentleman wished
him to come and cut off the front teeth of an old and favorite rabbit,
as they had grown so long that he could not eat; but only very few
came to see the collection, and of those who did come none could be
made to believe that the specimens were all collected and prepared by
a man who had to work all day to support his family. Professors of
the university came and told him that the inhabitants of Aberdeen
were not yet prepared for an exhibition of this kind, though the read-
er will observe that the incorporated town was seven hundred years
old and contained sixty churches, while its university had been operat-
ing on the Aberdonian mind for two centuries and a half! The fact is
that, notwithstanding all its "culture," Aberdeen was no more ap-
preciative of a true lover of Nature than Tom Edward's teachers had
been ; and he went out of Aberdeen in much the same way that Begg
pitched him out of his shop. He got in debt, became discouraged and

604 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

half distracted at his situation. More advertising only aggravated
his trouble. After a month he had lost hope, and, what was worse, his
master at Banff wrote him that if he did not immediately return he
would lose his place. He became despairing, and started for the sea-
shore with a view of putting an end to his troubles. He had thrown
off his hat, coat, and waistcoat, before plunging into the sea, when a
flock of sanderlings lit upon the sands near him, and among them a
larger and darker bird, that he was not acquainted with. They flew,
and he followed them, again and again, until he exhausted himself, and
worked off his misery. Nothing remained but to sell his collection,
which he did for twenty pounds to a gentleman who wanted it for his
boy. These specimens were stored in a damp room, and eventually
perished; but the exhibitor got out of debt, and went back with his
family to Banff.

Edward felt crushed and ruined when he got back to his home.
He had not only lost the precious fruits of many years of loving
labor, but his hopes of anything for the future but slavery in the
shop were blighted, and his life looked dark and desolate. He re-
sumed work, but at first had little spirit to begin replacing his lost
specimens. Yet, as spring advanced, his passion again took posses-
sion of him, and he girded himself with his gun and insect-boxes and
various appendages, and again sought his old haunts of observation.
His zeal and perseverance were now greater than before. His friends
protested that his exposures were wearing him out, but he says: " One
look at my cobbler's stool dispelled every consideration. My wish was,
at some time or other, to wrench myself free from my trade." He
now improved his outfit by getting a coat with eight large pockets,
and had four ample receptacles in his waistcoat ; besides, he had a
number of bags and wallets geared for convenient carrying, and all
were stocked with facilities for advancing his work. On one occa-
sion, after a prolonged tour, and when all his boxes and cases were
filled with insects and worms of every sort, he was caught in a ter-
rific thunder-storm, and soaked through and through by the rain.
He reached a house at length and sought shelter, but the glue of
his boxes had softened by the water, and, coming apart, let out the
ants, worms, slugs, spiders, and caterpillars, so that he was com-
pletely covered with miscellaneous vermin. The woman of the house
yelled at him : " Man, fat the sorra brocht ye in here, an' you in
siccan a mess ? Gang oot o' my hoose, I tell ye, this verra minit !
Gang oot ! " On looking at his clothes he found that he was a mov-
ing mass of insect-life and creeping things, and he cleared the room
at a bound and took refuge in an old shed.

After his exhibition at Banff, he became a sort of general referee
in regard to all curious objects found in the district, and got a great
deal of advice as to what he ought to do, but nobody offered to help
him. He had a family of eight, and his wages, even with extra work,

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 605

were but fifteen or sixteen shillings per week. His wife helped him
efficiently ; she bound shoes, and received separate pay for it, but she
would often with her own earnings buy bottles for his insects, wood
for his bird-cases, powder and shot for his gun. None of his advising
friends ever helped him in this way.

His expeditions were often accompanied by dangerous advent-
ures. On one occasion, as he was coming home in the morning, he
shot a martin, which fell upon the edge of a cliff. He clambered to
the spot, and, just as he was seizing it, it fluttered over, and in trying
to grasp it he went over himself. His gun fell out of his hand, and
lodged across two rocks. Edward came clown upon the gun, smash-
ing it to pieces, but it broke the force of the blow, and probably saved
his life. He had descended forty feet, and was wedged in between
two rocks, where he remained senseless until with great difficulty he
was extricated by two ploughmen and a fisherman, terribly sore and
bruised. He got home, but was unable to work, and had to sell more
of his collections to meet family expenses.

Shortly after his return from Aberdeen, Edward made the ac-
quaintance of the Rev. James Smith, who lived about eight miles
from Banff, and who lent him some books that helped him to ascer-
tain the names of birds, and Mr. Smith also urged him to publish the
results of his observations. Edward replied, "I cannot write correct-
ly enough for the publishers." " But you must write," said Smith.
" You must note down your observations." Edward objected much,
but he nevertheless took to the work, and soon developed unusual
descriptive power. He wrote articles, from time to time, for the
Banffshire Journal, on various interesting objects, which had the effect
of directing general attention to natural-history subjects. Further
encouraged by his friend Smith, he began to write for the Zoologist,
giving an account of his discoveries, and of those habits and pecu-
liarities of animals which he had closely observed. At the end of
1855 we find an article of his in the Zoologist, entitled "Moth-
hunting, or an Evening in the Wood," and in the following year he
commenced in the same periodical a " List of the Birds of Banffshire,
accompanied with Anecdotes." This list comprised eight articles,
which were received with much favor, yet he never got a farthing for
any of his literary contributions !

It is worth while to note how he could write. Pie printed in the
Banffshire Journal an account of a very dangerous adventure he had
by getting trapped in the recess of a cliff from which there seemed to
be no possibility of escape in any direction. He says : " I sat down
to consider what was next to be done. While thus resting, I ob-
served a falcon (Falco peregrinus) sailing slowly and steadily along,
bearing something large in his talons. On he came, seemingly un-
conscious of my presence, and alighted on a ledge only a few yards
from where I sat. I now saw that the object he carried was a par-.

606 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tridge. Plaving fairly settled down -with his quarry on the rock, I
could not help wondering at and admiring the collected ease and
cool composure with which he held his struggling captive (for it was
still alive) until death put an end to its sufferings. There was no
lacerating with its beak at the body of the poor and unfortunate pris-
oner, in order, as it were, to hasten its termination; no expanding
of the wing to maintain his equilibrium, although the last and dying
struggle of the bird caused him to quiver a little. All being over
now, with one foot resting upon his game and the other on the rock,
silent and motionless as a statue, the noble captor stood, with an in-
quiring eye, gazing at the now lifeless form of his reeking prey, seem-
ing to doubt the fact that it was already dead. But there was no
mistake. The blood, oozing from its mouth and Wounds, its body
doubtless pierced by the talons of the conqueror, already began to
trickle down the sides of the dark cliffs, dyeing the rocks in its
course. Satisfied at last that life was fairly extinct, an incision was
then made in the neck or shoulder of the victim, and into this the
falcon thrust his bill several times, and each time that it was with-
drawn it was covered with blood. This being done, and having
wrenched off the head, which he dropped, he then began not only to
pluck but to skin his food from the neck downward ; and, having
bared the breast, commenced a hearty meal by separating the flebh
from the sternum into portions, with as much apparent ease as if he
had been operating with the sharpest surgical instrument. I should
have liked well to have seen the end of the work thus begun ; but,
unfortunately, a slight movement on my part was detected by the
quick eye of the falcon, and my nearness was discovered. Having
gazed at me for a few, and only for a few, seconds, with an angry and
piercing scowl, mingled with surprise, he then rose, uttering a scream
so wild and so loud as to waken the echoes of the surrounding rocks;
while he himself with the remains of his feast, which he bore along
with him, rounded a point of the cliff and disappeared ; and there is
no doubt that he ended his repast in unmolested security."

In 1854 Edward lost his valued friend Smith, by death, and he
mourned for him very deeply, as he was a man of wide culture, and
with a thorough appreciation of the character of Edward. Mr.
Edward was under the impression that people looked down upon
him and his work, because he was a poor shoemaker, and in this, of
course, he was right. But the clergyman treated him as one intelli-
gent man treats another. His loss, however, was greatly repaired
by the acquaintance of the Rev. Mr. Boyd, of Crimond, a few miles
off, also a naturalist, who had a high and appreciative regard for
him. The two clergymen had made various efforts to secure for
Edward some position in which he could live and give freer play to
the bent of his genius. But they failed. Mr. Boyd once proposed
that Edward should get up a series of rudimentary lectures on natu-

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 607

ral history, illustrated by specimens of birds and other objects. They
were to be given first in Banff, and then in other places. Edward
got his illustrations ready, and the project looked feasible. There
existed in the town of Banff an institution which had been formed,
among other purposes, "for the discovery and encouragement of na-
tive genius and talent." What could be more promising ? Mr. Boyd
believed that they would heartily cooperate in the lectures, because
it would be in accordance with the avowed purpose of the institution.
Several members were applied to, to give their assistance, but they
politely declined, and the scheme fell through. Shortly afterward
Mr. Boyd died, and Edward was deprived of another efficient friend.
" Another of my best friends is gone," exclaimed he. " Cruel Death !
if thy hand continues to strip me thus, thou wilt soon, very soon,
leave me desolate ; and then who will take notice of the poor natu-
ralist ? "

At last, his health gave way altogether, and he had a long attack
of rheumatic fever ; and again his collections had to be sold, to'pro-
tect the family from want. He now lost all hope of ever being able
to replenish them. He had to abandon his night-wanderings, but he
turned to the natural history of the sea-shore. Here he had a new
field, and worked with great success. He discovered many new species
of marine creatures, and greatly extended the knowledge of the habits
and history of those already known. His daughters gave him very
valuable assistance in many ways, especially in searching the fish-
markets along the shore. Mr. Edward was, moreover, now beginning
to be better known to naturalists, who sought his correspondence and
his aid, and among these were Spence Bate, Westwood, Couch, and
Gwin Jeffreys. Bate tried to get a place for him in a scientific insti-
tution, at thirty shillings per week, but it turned out to be a fourth
portership at one pound per week, and could not be got even at that.
Edward's hoi)es Avere once more blighted, and nothing remained for
him but the cobbler's stool. He tried photography as a means of
living, but was not able to provide a glass-window department, and
failed in that also. The fact is, he was simply a born naturalist, made
for the discovery of the things of Nature, and, if his Christian country
had been half civilized, he would have been kept at that priceless
work for which so few men are gifted by rare original endowments.

We can hardly refer to, much less enumerate, the achievements
of Edward in many departments of observation, which are described
with great felicity by Mr. Smiles. At the close of his volume he gives
selections from the mammals, birds, fishes, and Crustacea, with which
this man enriched the fauna of Banffshire ; but while the list comprises
many hundred, in a long appendix, the author states that, if all were
given, they would fill a volume. Among the crustaceans alone, of
two hundred and ninety-four, found in the Moray Firth, not fewer
than twenty-six new species were added by Edward himself.

6o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But Edward's scientific labors drew toward a close. He had
fought the fight of science on the one hand, and of poverty on the
other, until his constitution, strained by exposure and battered by
accidents, was no longer equal to the double struggle. In 1866 he
was elected an associate to the Linnsean Society, one of the highest
honors that science could confer upon him, and he. was shortly after
also made a member of the Societies of Natural History at both Aber-
deen and Glasgow. His biographer states that since then he has been
able to do comparatively little for the advancement of his favorite
study.

In June, 1875, Edward remarked: "As a last and only remaining
source" (of subsistence), "I betook myself to my old and time-honored
friend, a friend of fifty years' standing, who has never yet forsaken
me, nor refused help to my body when weary, nor rest to my limbs

"And here I am still."

when tired — my well-worn cobbler's stool. And here I am still on the
old boards, doing what little I can, with the aid of my well-worn kit,
to maintain myself and my family ; with the certainty that instead of
my getting the better of the lapstone and leather, they will very soon
get the better of me."

It remains only to add that, since the publication of Mr. Smiles's
book, the queen has been moved to grant Thomas Edward a pension
of fifty pounds a year. All will be glad of this ; but we cannot forget
that if this man had directed his genius to the work of war, with a
tithe of the success he has achieved in enlarging our knowledge of
Nature, his reward would have been far greater than it is now !

CORRESP ONDENCE.

609

CORRESPONDENCE.

SPENCER'S CLASSIFICATION OF THE
ABSTRACT SCIENCES.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

I AM a great admirer of Herbert Spen-
cer, and especially of his wonderful
"Answers to Criticisms " in your journal.
When he seems entirely caught and inwoven
by his adversaries, with one blow of his
trenchant blade he cuts the net, and is free.
He is one of the highest of living au-
thorities, and I read with deep attention
his two editions of " The Classification of
the Sciences," being particularly interested
in Table I., " The Abstract Sciences." All
of it but two divisions he devotes ta mathe-
matics as exactly equivalent to quantitative
relations; still, at the present day, it seems
an untenable cramping of mathematics to
define it as the science of quantity.

_ A candid note in Mr. Spencer's first
edition shows that it was not till after he
had actually drawn up this table that he
became aware of one of the most impor-
tant points in the question to be solved.

It is a note to his first great division
of mathematics, and says : " I was igno-
rant of the existence of this as a separate
division of mathematics, until it was de-
scribed to me by Mr. Hirst, whom I have
also to thank for pointing out the omission
of the subdivision 4 Kinematics.' It was
only when seeking to affiliate and define
1 Descriptive Geometry ' that I reached the
conclusion that there is a negatively-quan-
titative mathematics as well as a positively-
quantitative mathematics."

All this confession is omitted in the
second edition, where, however, the much
superior expression "Geometry of Posi-
tion "is substituted in the table for " De-
scriptive Geometry," which latter was very
apt to be misleading, especially to engi-
neers, from its technical sense, in which
sense, of course, Spencer did not mean it.

Now let us try to explain, in few words,
what the problem was that Hirst so unex-
pectedly put before Spencer's mind, that
you may judge whether "seeking to affili-
ate " it to a scheme already drawn up was
a proper mental condition in which to deal
with a question so important, so subtile, so
profound.

Geometry, as the abstract science of
space, naturally resolves itself into two
great divisions, geometry of measurement
and geometry of position— geometry quan-
titative or metrical, and geometry morpho-,
logical or positional.

As an example of the first, we may take
vol. x —39

the most ordinary illustration, that of
equivalent triangles. Any two triangles
having the same base, and their vertices in
a line parallel to that base, will be of equal
or "equivalent"" superficial magnitude.
Although the sum of the three sides of the
one triangle might be a thousand times as
great as the sum of the three sides of the
other, they will contain the same number
of square inches or square feet. This is a
metrical or quantitative proposition ; but,
on the other hand, many propositions are
known which are purely descriptive or
morphological. Take the one, perhaps, best
known, the celebrated hexagram.

In any circle join any six points of the
circumference by consecutive straight lines
in any order: the intersections of the three
pairs of opposite sides are in a straight line.
Or, take any two straight lines in a plane,
and draw at random other straight lines
traversing in a zigzag fashion between them,
so as to obtain a twisted hexagon or sort
of cat's-cradle figure : if you consider the
six lines so drawn symmetrically in couples,
then, no matter how the points have been
selected on the given lines, the three points
through which these three couples of lines
respectively pass will lie all in one and the
same straight line. So great an authority
as Prof. Sylvester has stated that this prop-
osition " refers solely to position, and nei-
ther invokes nor involves the idea of quan-
tity or magnitude." Take another : If any
pencil of four rays is cut by a transversal,
any anharmonic ratio of the four points of
intersection is constant for all positions of
the transversal.

Now, Carnot in his splendid " Geometry
of Position," and many before and after
him, have laid open a whole world of truths
of this kind, truths undeniably geometrical
in their nature, but founded on the primi-
tive idea of position, and bringing in any
idea of quantity only incidentally and after-
ward. Now, this was evidently a branch of
mathematics, but, having made his scheme
mathematics only coextensive with quanti-
tative relations, Herbert Spencer must force
this under the quantitative rubric, and thus
was betrayed into error. Seeing that it was
not really positively quantitative, he could
only call it negatively quantitative, but in
doing this entirely misrepresents it. In
Table I. he has, under " Abstract Science: "

"Laws of Relations

that are Quantitative (Mathematics).

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"Negatively: the terms of the relations
being definitely-related sets of positions in
space, and the facts predicated being the
absence of certain quantities (' Geometry
of Position')."

Now, we contend that there is naturally
nothing negative about the matter, and to
call it negative is unfairly to wrest it from
its proper simplicity in order to force it
under a preconceived classification. The
primitive and natural idea of position is
of any portion of space, as distinct from
space in general, and does not depend at
all upon any quantitative relations, either
positive or negative. But, after this, if we
wish to define any position with reference
to any other definite known position, we
use quantities, coordinates, and by this
means we can, by using only positive quan-
tities, e. g., a positive straight line and a
positive angle, accurately refer any one
point in any plane to any other point in
the same plane.

So " the proposition that certain three
lines vvill meet in a point " is not " a nega-
tively-quantitative proposition," as Spencer
asserts in his note. It is primarily not
quantitative at all, but positional ; and, sec-
ondarily, if one wishes to look at it in a
quantitative light, it is then very positively
quantitative, since it asserts that the three
lines will run together on a point which
may be exactly fixed by positive quantities
— its polar coordinates ; or, having the
point fixed by the intersection of either two
of the lines, it asserts, directionally, that
the third line must go directly through that
point. In the same way, the assertion that
"certain three points will always fall in
a straight line " is primarily an assertion
of relative position, in which the relation
is defined in the simplest manner by a sin-
gle positive straight line. The whole ques-
tion is this : Is not position as simple and
primitive an idea as quantity ? and is not
Spencer in error when he gives its abstract
science no separate place, but ranges it
under, and tries to make it depend upon,
quantity?

George Bruce Halsted, A. B.,
Mathematical Fellow of Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, late Mathematical Fellow of Princeton
College, Intercollegiate Prizeman.

P. S. — Since the above was in print, I
have noticed that Arthur Cayley holds views
on this subject very much opposed to those
of Mr. Spencer. (See Cayley's " Sixth Me-
moir on Quantics," in the " Philosophical
Transactions.") G. B. H.

It has been remarked of Mr. Herbert
Spencer that he does not stand well with
the experts — men trained in specialties, and
who know their subjects at first hand, and
through and through. This is thought to

be a formidable charge, and it would be
formidable if it were true, and the experts
agreed among themselves. But when they
coincide in nothing but in differing from
Mr. Spencer, we may be moderately reas-
sured, and venture to think upon the ques-
tions they raise, without the sense of being
crushed to the dust by the weight of au-
thority.

This is not the first time that Mr. Spen-
cer's note, or, as our contributor calls it,
his " confession," has been attacked by
mathematicians, and in such a way as to ad-
monish him that, as this world is constituted,
it is not always wisest to be very candid.
It has ever been a rule with him carefully
to acknowledge the aid he has received
from others — a practice which, as in the pres-
ent instance, has exposed him to misunder-
standing and misrepresentation. Mr. Hal-
sted recognizes that, by " Descriptive Ge-
ometry," Mr. Spencer did not mean those
technical methods of geometrical construc-
tion to which engineers apply the name;
yet no less a mathematical expert than Mr.
Chauncey Wright — the pride of Cambridge,
and whose biography we are soon to have — ■
attacked hi in a dozen years ago, in the
North American Review, on the very pas-
sage here dealt with by Mr. Halsted, but on
the opposite ground that such was Mr.
Spencer's meaning of Descriptive Geometry.
And having assumed that Spencer meant a
mathematical art which he was trying to
classify as abstract science, Wright insinu-
ated that by his acknowledgment to Hirst
he was ignorant even of this. It was a
disingenuous piece of work. Mr. Wright
was then hunting through Spencer's various
books in search of flaws to work up into a
sensational article, and he was not very par-
ticular how he did it, so he could make a
telling point. As his note was liable to
such misconstruction, Mr. Spencer very
naturally withdrew it in a second edition,
and substituted for the title first used one
less liable to be misunderstood.

And now has not Mr. Halsted also some-
what misapprehended this memorable note?
If Mr. Spencer was not referring to the art
of Descriptive Geometry, as Mr. Halsted
admits he was not, then he must have been
referring to the system of theorems in the
science of pure mathematics which has

CORRESP ONDENCE.

61:

grown up under the name of " Descriptive
Geometry." But where is the evidence that
he was ignorant of these theorems ? He
certainly does not say that he was made ac-
quainted with tbem by Mr. Hirst, but sim-
ply that he was first informed by him that
they had been grouped into " a separate
division of mathematics." Why he did not
know of this is readily explained, as the title
Descriptive Geometry had never been adopt-
ed in England for the subject to which it had
been applied, from Monge, to Reye on the
Continent; and its modern restricted use
was very naturally known only to professed
mathematicians. What Prof. Hirst put be-
fore Mr. Spencer was, therefore, not any
new mathematical problems or principles
which he found it necessary as an after-
thought to thrust into a previously-formed
mathematical philosophy, but only the rec-
ognized differentiation of a certain mathe-
matical province.

As for the non-quantitative mathematics,
we fail to see that Mr. Halsted gets up much
of a difference with Spencer. Mr. Halsted
thinks that the " Geometry of Position "
does not involve the notion of quantity,
and Mr. Spencer thinks the same. But the
experts of "Harvard" and of "Johns
Hopkins " are squarely at issue on this
point. After making his case against Mr.
Spencer on a fabe interpretation of what
he said, Mr. Wright admitted that, perhaps,
after all, he did not mean that — possibly, in-
stead of a branch of the engineer's art,
Spencer was referring to " certain proposi-
tions in the higher geometry concerning the
relations of position and direction in points
and lines." But he opens a battery of sar-
casms upon the idea of non-quantitative
mathematics, and says of these geometrical
propositions that they " cannot be made to
stand alone, or independently of dimensional
properties." Spencer was thus attacked by a
skilled mathematician a dozen years ago for
taking substantially the same ground that
Mr. Halsted now advocates.

In regard to the terminology of the
subject, Mr. Halsted encounters the diffi-
culty which always arises when knowledge
outgrows old definitions. No doubt, if
positional geometry is non-quantitative, and
is still a branch of mathematics, we should
have a new definition of mathematics ; but

it is much easier to discredit the old one
than to replace it by a better. Why does
Mr. Halsted continue to apply the term
geometry, which, by its very structure and
etymology, implies measure and quantity,
to that which has no quantity I Mr. Spen-
cer evidently saw the difficulty; but, rather
than attempt to redefine mathematical sci-
ence, he preferred the alternative of mark-
ing off the newly-recognized province by
a title that excluded the element of quan-
tity— that is, he called it negatively quan-
titative. Mr. Halsted docs not like this
term. Speaking of a certain proposition
given as an illustration by Spencer, he
says : " It is not ' a negatively quantita-
tive proposition,' as Spencer asserts in his
note. It is, primarily, not quantitative
at all." But what does Mr. Halsted sup-
pose Mr. Spencer means by " negatively
quantitative," unless he means not quanti-
tative at all, or the denial and exclusion of
quantity ? Let us observe exactlv whit Spen-
cer says : " In explanation of the term
'negatively quantitative,' it will be sufficient
to instance the proposition that certain
three lines will meet in a point, as a nega-
tively-quantitative proposition, since it as-
serts the absence of any quantity of space
between their intersections. Similarly, the
assertion that certain three points would
always fall in a straight line is ' negatively
quantitative,' since the conception of a
straight line implies the negation of any
lateral quantity or deviation." The italics
are ours, but the statement is sufficiently
explicit. The absence or negation of quan-
tity is as strong an expression as could be
used for no quantity at all, or that which
Spencer calls negatively quantitative. Mr.
Spencer designates the " Geometry of Po-
sition " as of this kind, and yet Mr. Hal-
sted imputes to him the error of ranging it
under and trying to make it depend upon
quantity.

Mr. Halsted reports that, in his last bul-
letin, Cayley stands opposed to Spencer's
views. It is to be* hoped that he under-
stands him ; but what is his relation to
Wright and Halsted ?

And now, apologizing to our readers for
introducing this remote discussion, and
passing it off under the head of popular
science, we call upon the heirs and repre-

6l2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sentatives of Johns Hopkins to hurry up
their proposed Mathematical Journal, that
there may be a proper place for the con-
sideration of questions like this.

INSECTS AND FLOWERS IN COLORADO.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Mordhly

The communication of Mr. Meehan, in
your January number, and the request at
its close, are herewith responded to by the
entomologist in question — one to whom we
may fairly apply the line —
" [Though] young in years, in sage experience old."

As the letter supplies the information called
for, you will, doubtless, wish to print it in
full, and I inclose it for that purpose.

Very truly yours, Asa Gray.

Cambridge, Mass., January 22, 1877.

Dear Dr. Gray : In the January num-
ber of The Popular Science Monthly,
Mr. Meehan takes some exception to your
note in the American Journal of Science
for November in regard to the comparative
abundance of insects and flowers in the
Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He asks
particularly for a " list of the Hymenoptera
and Lepidoptera that are abundant enough
in the particular part of the Rocky Moun-
tain region covered by [his] experience, to
probably act as cross-fertilizers of flowers,
noting those which may perhaps be intro-
duced since 1871." The route referred to
is " through Golden City and Idaho Springs
to South Park, thence to Pike's Peak and
the Garden of the Gods. ... to Denver over
the level plateau known as the ' Divide.' "
In 1873 he speaks of having visited Gray's
Peak, and must, therefore, have passed up
Clear Creek and through Georgetown. In
1872 I spent three months in the moun-
tains of Colorado in company with Dr. C. C.
Parry. We walked up through the canon
of Clear Creek to Idaho Springs, George-
town, and Empire City. At the latter place
we established our headquarters, and there
most of my collecting was done. Frequent
trips were made to the neighboring moun-
tains and canons, including the ascent of
Gray's Peak. In the fall a trip was made
to Middle Park. The summer of 1873 I
spent in Western Wyoming with Captain

Jones's exploring party. In 1874 I again
visited Colorado, but spent most of my time
on the plains at the base of the mountains
between Boulder City and Canon City,
though I made several trips into the moun-
tains up Boulder, Left Hand, and Clear
Creeks. In 1875 I spent some time in Utah
among the Wahsatch Mountains. It has
always been my experience that, wherever
flowers were plenty, so were insects. Con-
sequently, I have always found a botanist
to be most excellent company on a collect-
ing-trip. As my opportunities were better
in 1872, my remarks refer mostly to that
year, and it is not at all likely that any of
the species I then noticed had been intro-
duced. Lists of the Coleoptera, Lipidopltra,
Hymenoptera, and Orthopiera, collected on
this trip, have been published in the "Pro-
ceedings of the Davenport Academy of Nat-
ural Sciences," vol. i. ; but I will here call
attention to such of the species as seem to
be most useful in the fertilization of plants :

Hymenoptera. — Bomhus Jtavifrons (Cr.)
was perhaps the most common and gener-
ally distributed of the bees, though it seems
to be quite a mountain species. I always
found it wherever there was a patch of flow-
ers in an opening in the timber, or at the
timber-line. I did not notice that it con-
fined itself to any particular kind of flower.
It may have done so, but I do not remember
it. In company with the above, though
somewhat less abundant, I found B. tcrma-
rius, the species mentioned by Mr. Meehan
as confining its attention to Polygonum bis-
iorta, but I did not notice this peculiaiity.
Both of these species were found abundant-
ly at Empire City and on the surrounding
mountains. Besides these, Bombus boroilis
(Kirbv), Apalhus insularis, Anihophora tcr-
?ninalis, Megachile gentilis, Menumetha bo-
realis, were found in abundance in the dis-
trict referred to by Mr. Meehan. Of other
Hymenoptera collected in this district, I men-
tion the following, which probably were of
more or less assistance in the fertilization
of plants : Calliopsis (sp. V), Prosopis affinis^
Agapostemen texanus, Collctes consorx, Ves-
pa diabolica, AmmopMla luctuosa, A. com-
munis, etc., besides a considerable number
of smaller species as yet undetermined.
For a more complete enumeration, I must
refer you to the list above mentioned. To

CORRESP ONDENCE.

613

show that I am not the only one who has
noticed an abundance of Hymenoptera in
Colorado, I would call your attention to the
papers of Mr. E. T. Cressen in the " Pro-
ceedings of the Entomological Society of
Philadelphia," and particularly to a " Cata-
logue of Hymenoptera from Colorado Ter-
ritory," published in vol. iv. of those "Pro-
ceedings."

Lepidoptep.a. — In the list referred to
I have enumerated forty-seven species of
butterflies, which I collected, with but one
exception, in the mountains. I have never
anywhere seen butterflies so abundant as
they were in the valley of Clear Creek, be-
tween Golden City and Idaho Springs, on
July 1, 1872. The air seemed literally to
swarm with them. I cannot imagine how
the entomologists of Mr. Meehan's party
found them so scarce. Wherever there
were flowers, I was sure to find butterflies,
though, of course, they showed a prefer-
ence to some kinds. Of the Heterocera I
brought home over sixty species, mostly
undetermined; but this is no indication of
the actual number occurring, for I took no
pains to hunt them, and only preserved
what came to me.

The common morning lined sphinx
{Deilephila lineatd) was frequently seen at
dusk, hovering about various flowers, being
especially fond of the yellow thistles. I do
not now recall any peculiarity regarding
the other species, except that they were
Cjirite plenty. Perhaps 1872 was an unusu-
ally favorable season ; but Mr. Theodore
L. Mead writes that in 1871 he spent four
months in Colorado, mostly in the South
Park region, where he collected over 100
species and 3,000 specimens of butterflies,
and 4,000 specimens of beetles, etc. I
believe Mr. Mead has published an account
of his observations on Colorado butterflies
in the zoological report of Lieutenant
Wheeler's explorations west of the 100th
meridian. I would also refer you to an
article on Coloradian butterflies, by Tryon
Reakirt, in the " Proceedings of the Ento-
mological Society of Philadelphia," vol. vi.,
1866, and to the more recent works of W.

ft

H. Edwards, and others.

Although Mr. Meehan does not mention
them, I have an idea that the Coleoplera

and Hemiptera are often quite active agents
in the fertilization of plants. Certainly the
number of species of these orders found in
flowers was very great, and it is more than
likely that in 'going from flower to flower
they carry some of the pollen with them.
The Meloidce, Chrysomelidce, Cerambycidw,
Cleridce, Malachidce, Mordellidcs, etc., were
especially noticeable by the large number
of species and individuals. Trichodes or-
natus (Say) was exceedingly abundant in
the flowers of Potentilla Jtssa, and, after that
had generally gone out of flower, on the
flowers of the white and red geraniums and
other plants. Owing to the fact that at the
time I made these collections I knew the
names of neither the plants nor insects, I
cannot now remark more definitely on their
habits. A full list of the species collected
will be found in the "Proceedings of the
Davenport Academy," vol. i.

I think what I have said shows that
there is no unusual scarcity of insects in
the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, at least
wherever there are flowers. It should not
be overlooked, however, that within the
Rocky Mountain regions there are arid
districts where neither insects nor flowers
are particularly abundant ; and also that a
similar state of affairs exists in a dense pine
or spruce forest. Wherever flowers are
plenty in the Rocky Mountains, so are in-
sects always ; but the reverse is often not
true, for I have frequently known certain
insects to be exceedingly plentiful where
there were no flowers. The "entcmolo-
gista " of Mr. Meehan's party were certain-
ly very unfortunate in finding so few insects.
I believe Mr. Morrison, of Cambridge, an
excellent collector, intends spending next
summer collecting the insects of Colorado,
and he will be able to add his testimony to
the case.

Mr. Meehan has certainly read Lieu-
tenant Carpenter's paper in Hayden's Re-
port for 1873 very carelessly, or he would
have seen that the five species of butterflies
he speaks of as being the " doings of a
whole season " were all Alpine, and collect-
ed above the timber-line, a region which a
little further on he rules out of the discus-
sion. It is certainly true that these Alpine
" Lepidoptera are undoubtedly peculiar to
high latitudes and great elevations ; " but

6i4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the species found lower down in the canons
often show a greater affinity to Mexican and
Californian types. I was more fortunate
than Lieutenant Carpenter, and took over
twenty species of butterflies above the tim-
ber-line.

I have endeavored to show that some-
times at least insects are quite plentiful in
the Colorado mountains. They are cer-
tainly more plentiful in the mountain-re-
gions than on the plains.

Yours very truly,

J. Duncan Putnam.
Davenport, Iowa, January 10, 1ST7.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON THE INCREASE
OF POPULATION IN THE LAST DECADE.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

The Superintendent of the Ninth Cen-
sus, while showing the causes of loss in
population produced by the late war, neg-
lected to point out the actual decrease inci-
dent to this cause, as shown by the State
censuses of 1SG5.

The retarding influence may be seen by
reference to the States of New York and
Massachusetts.

In the former State, whereas the regular
increase for each period of five years had
been nearly 500,000, from 1860 to 1865
there was a decrease of 29,000. From 1865
to 1870 there was an increase of 529,000.
— (" Manual " for 1870.)

In Massachusetts the increase of popu-
lation from 1850 to 1855 was 138,000;
from 1855 to 1860 it was 90,000; from
1860 to 1865, 36,000; from 1865 to 1870,
190,000; and from 1870 to 1875, 194,000.
The regularity of increase in the State is
shown bythe fact that the difference be-
tween the actual population in 1870 and
that computed on the supposition that the
increase was in arithmetical progression
was only 2,120. — ("Massachusetts State
Census " for 1875, vol. i., p. xxxii.)

Ii\ these two States, therefore, the in-
crease of population during the war-period
was only 7,000, while in the next five-year

period it was fully a hundred times as
great. The population of these two States
was over 6,000,000, or more than fifteen
per cent, of the total population of the
United States.

As it may be urged that these States
suffered heavily in loss of immigration, we
will attempt to estimate their actual loss in
this respect. The total loss of immigration
is estimated (" Ninth Census," vol. i., p.
xix.) at 350,000. If we suppose the immi-
gration into a State to be proportionate to
the foreign population of that State, the
proportion of loss in immigration for these
two States will be 27 per cent, of the whole
loss, or about 94,500. Omitting the loss in
immigration, therefore, the total gain of
these two States will be 101,500. Even if
we further suppose that these States suf-
fered another special loss of 48,500, the
total gain would still be only 150,000.
Multiplying this by 8, the ratio between the
increase of population in these States (700,-
000) from 1865 to 1870, and the estimated
increase of the United States for the same
time, we get for the total gain of the coun-
try, without considering the loss in immi-
gration, 1,200,000. Deducting this loss, we
have for the entire gain 850,000.

We have no reason to suppose that-
New York and Massachusetts were especial
sufferers during this period. Many of the
Southern States probably suffered more, es-
pecially in loss of negro population, which
amounted to half a million during this pe-
riod (" Ninth Census," vol. i., p. xviii.).
There is, then, no reason to suppose that
the above estimate falls far short of the
truth. Even if the estimate is increased to
1,500,000, which seems improbable, the
population of the country in 1865 would
still fall short of 33,000,000. This would
indicate for the succeeding period of five
years an increase of 5,500,000, which is
somewhat above the average. That this
large increase is actual is rendered proba-
ble by the corresponding large increase in
Massachusetts and New York for the same
time.

Alexander Duane, Union College.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

615

EDITOR'S TABLE.

BIOLOGY IN COMMON SCHOOLS.

TTTE call attention to the important
VV paper sent to us by Prof. Hux-
ley, on the study of biology. Science,
as the highest expression, and the most
accurate and methodical form of knowl-
edge, is pressing its educational claims ;
and Prof. Huxley here offers us some
very important considerations on the
nature of biological science, and why
and how it should be taken up in insti-
tutions devoted to mental culture. Per-
haps no living man can speak with more
authority upon this subject than Prof.
Huxley, not only from his profound
familiarity with this branch of knowl-
edge, and his recognition of the de-
mands of scientific education, but be-
cause of his own broad and liberal cult-
ure, which protects him from narrow
views, and enables him to assign their
relative values to different branches of
study.

Nevertheless, when he comes to his
fourth and final question as to " token
biological study may be best pursued,"
we think he is less satisfactory than in
dealing with his previous questions.
This, as we look at it, is much the
most important inquiry, and deserves a
fuller investigation than Prof. Huxley
had time to give it ; while what he did
say, from the use that will inevitably be
made of it, will be liable to do more
harm than good. Prof. Huxley is de-
cided in the conviction that biological
study should be made a part of ordinary
school -training, and that it can be car-
ried out with ease and profit to those
who are taught. But he anticipates
and yields to an objection which, as
things are, will be certain to work the
utter defeat of the study in " ordinary
schools," and an objection, to the force
of which, we think, he should not have

made the slightest concession. He
says, " There are difficulties in the way
of a lot of boys making messes with
slugs and snails." Prof. Huxley has
here put his finger upon what is the
formidable obstacle we have to en-
counter in the study of the real ob-
jects of Nature in common schools.
Books, lessons, and recitations, are
cleanly, and give no trouble ; objects
as matters of observation and study by
individual pupils are dirty, cluttering,
and untidy, if not messy, sloppy, and
nasty. Experiments are tolerated, now
and then, for an hour, when carried on
by the teacher at one side, behind ta-
bles, or where assistants can clean up ;
and minerals and specimens are also
allowed when they can make a show
in inaccessible cabinets ; but apparatus
and objects of any sort, for the use of
individual pupils — even microscopes,
minerals, or plants — are the bore of the
•school-room, and the torment of tidy,
methodical, and routine teachers. The
superstition that education is purely a
matter of books. is profound and invet-
erate— so much so, that even the em-
ployment of blackboards, maps, and
globes, is looked upon as something in
the way of concession to the spirit of
modern innovation. The ideal of the
school is pure wordiness, with a mini-
mum of bother from anything not in-
cluded in the text-books.

As regards biology, of course, the
difficulty takes its most aggravated
form. There is a deeply-rooted and
universal prejudice against the whole
tribe of lower creatures, typified by
Prof. Huxley's " slugs and snails."
Our readers who have glanced at the
biographical sketch, in the preceding
pages, of an eminent Scotch naturalist,
who has done noble work for science
in his locality, will remember that he

6i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was turned out of three schools hefore
he was seven years old, in consequence
of his irrepressible passion for collect-
ing the curious natural objects which
fell in his boyish way. But the feeling
which led to the treatment of little
Tom Edward is far enough from heing
confined to his brutal and besotted
teachers. We have seen cultivated,
high-school instructors, and parents
claiming to be liberal and intelligent,
who would cry out with horror to see
their children touch such repulsive
things as worms and frogs, and threat-
en them with a thrashing if they
brought them in or around the house.
It is this vulgar and absurd prejudice
that stands in the way of anything like
rational biological study in our schools.
Undoubtedly, it is very nice and pleas-
ant to learn natural history out of text-
books full of pictures, and abounding
in pretty anecdotes about animals ; but
we can only get the study, in place of
this, of actual living creatures by bat-
tling with and conquering the foolish
infatuation of people in regard to the
repulsiveness of the inferior forms of
life. Unperverted children are fond
of them, and this feeling should be
cherished and encouraged, and made
available as an impulse in early study.
Prof. Huxley knows how to deal tell-
ing blows at the various pestilent big-
otries of society that stand in the way
of its intellectual progress ; and we
should have been better pleased if he
had denounced this prejudice as it de-
serves, rather than make tacit terms
with it, as a " difficulty," because prog-
ress is only made as difficulties are over-
come and got out of the way.

As to human physiology, we doubt
if it is the proper door to biology,
either for young or old — it is putting
the complex before the simple ; and,
although viscera may be had at the
butcher-shops, we fail to see what is
gained on the score of "messiness" by
substituting them for "slugs or snails,"
or the simpler forms of life that can be

procured anywhere. Prof. Huxley says
that " plants do not make a mess — at
least, they do not make an unpleasant
mess," but the quality of the mess is
not the important thing. The study of
plants is resisted in schools, and, when
attempted, is often abandoned, simply
because of this circumstance ; and, when
the principle has been once conceded,
as in the case of plants, the difficulty
practically disappears in regard to ani-
mate things. If there is the slight-
est interest in the subject, there need
be no trouble. Classes of children a
dozen years old can go through Prof.
Morse's admirable " First Book of Zo-
ology," collecting numerous specimens
of insects, shells, and creatures found
in ponds and puddles, and, if his direc-
tions are followed, which may be easily
done, there will actually be less litter
and inconvenience than is usual with
the study of plants. The " difficulty,"
in fact, is not real or intrinsic in the
conditions of the case, but, as Ave have
had occasion to notice again and again,
it comes from the stupid ignorance and
fussy meddlesomeness of parents, who
bully the teachers at every deviation
from the "horrid demnition grind" of
book-lessons and recitations in the
schools. The fact is, if we ever get
the study of Nature into the schools, it
can only be by breaking down the su-
perstitions by which they are domi-
nated ; the deadly order, by which Na-
ture is kept out ; and by a larger recog-
nition of individual aptitudes, and much
freer opportunity for the observation
and study of natural objects.

SOME QUESTIONS A XS WE RED.

A public appeal was made, through
the Tribune, by Rev. Dr. Deems, to the
editor of The Popular Science Month-
ly, to make good certain statements
contained in the criticism of Dr. Tay-
lor's letter. Dr. Deems avows that
his " questions are submitted for infor-
mation," but we suspect he is not half

EDITOR'S TABLE.

6\j

so ignorant as he pretends ; as others,
however, are also asking for explana-
tions, we will consider his most impor-
tant points.

We had. remarked: "A theory is
said to be demonstrated when it brings
all the known facts into agreement, ex-
plains them, excludes all other interpre-
tations, and is consistent with itself and.
all that is understood, of the ways of
Nature." Dr. Deems asks: "Did Prof.
Huxley 'bring all the known facts into
agreement ? ' Did he show that his
theory was ' consistent with all that is
understood, of the ways of Nature ? '
Did he not tacitly admit that he was
not able to show that his theory was
'in agreement' with what physical as-
tronomy teaches us of the ' ways of Na-
ture ? ' "

Prof. Huxley certainly made no such
admission in any form or degree, and
we are at a loss to see how his utterance
or the report of it can be so construed.
Possibly it is because he dismissed the
subject somewhat curtly, which was in-
terpreted into an unwillingness to face
it, accompanied by the further infer-
ence that he was unable to do so. But
it is to be remembered that the ques-
tion was thrust upon him by editorials
in leading newspapers and by private
communications, and was not embraced
in the plan of his argument, to which
he had not half time enough to do jus-
tice. He was, therefore, compelled, to
be brief; but the case was squarely
met. It had been objected that evolu-
tion cannot be true because physical
astronomy proves that there has not
been time enough since the cooling of
the earth for the slow processes of life-
unfolding to have taken place. To this
Prof. Huxley replied, first, that he had.
already considered the subject in an
address before the Geological Society
of which he was president, and had
showed that the "teachings of physical
astronomy " as against geological time
are not sound ; and he, moreover, knew
that this address was accessible to all

interested, as it had been circulated by
thousands in this country in his vol-
ume of " Lay Sermons." Is this to be
construed into inability to maintain his
theory against the objections raised in
the name of physical astronomy ?

Secondly, Prof. Huxley replied that,
granting the validity of the case made
out by the " physical astronomers "
(which, of course, he did not grant),
even then the biologist has little reason
to trouble himself about the result.
His proof of evolution comes from an-
other source, and demonstrates to him
that there must assuredly have been
time enough for its occurrence. It has
been customary to affirm that the evo-
lution of life has proceeded at a very
slow rate, and required vast periods of
time; but what is the basis of the as-
sumption ? It is that the series of liv-
ing forms is distributed through exten-
sive deposits of stratified rocks which
the geologist says it has taken vast pe-
riods of time to make, and, as the course
of life-changes has been coeval with the
course of strata-deposition, if the geolo-
gist is right, evolution must have been
slow. But, if the geologist revises his
data either way, the biologist will sim-
ply accept the result, and occupy the
time. He only says: "There, in the
vast succession of rocks, is our proof
of evolution as a matter of fact ; the
geologist and the physicist may set-
tle the question of time between them,
and inform us, if they can, how long
it has taken." And what is there
here of tacit concession that his case
was weak as against the " teachings of
physical astronomy ? "

Let us now briefly examine that
case, and see how much occasion for
anxiety it gives to the adherents of the
doctrine of evolution. "The teachings
of physical astronomy " here referred
to mean the mathematical and physical
speculations of Sir "William Thomson
in regard to the rate of cooling of the
sun and of the earth, the retardation
of the earth's rotation by the drag and

6i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

friction of the tides, the influence of
melting polar ice, etc., speculations that
have by no means taken their place
among the established principles of
physical astronomy. But Sir William
Thomson concludes that a limit is to
be put to the time during which life
can have existed upon the earth. Yet
it must not be supposed from this that
his chronology at all approximates to
that of Archbishop Usher. He assumes,
and draws his arguments from, the neb-
ular hypothesis, and, instead of starving
the geologists in their allowance of
time, it must be confessed that he deals
with them very liberally. He says he
believes that " the existing state of
things on the earth, life on the earth —
all geological history showing continuity
of life — must be limited within some
such period of time as one hundred
million years.'1 " Some such period of
time ! " This is sufficiently vague, and
raises the query, " Does it mean that
the time may have been two, three, or
four hundred million years?" Prof.
Thomson himself puts this interpreta-
tion upon it when he says elsewhere of
the high surface - temperature which
made life impossible : " We must still
admit some limit, such as fifty million
years, one hundred million years, or two
or three hundred million years ago. Be-
yond that we cannot go." And, again,
he expresses the opinion that the sun
has not really illuminated the earth for
a period of five hundred million years.
But are the geologists so very badly
cramped by these limitations — even as-
suming them to be established? The
total thickness of stratified rocks con-
taining traces of life may be taken, on
the best geological authority, as one
hundred thousand feet, or nearly twen-
ty miles. The deposit of one hundred
thousand feet of stratified rock, in one
hundred million years, implies that the
deposit has taken place at the rate of
about one-eighty-third (■^s) of an inch
per year. If the " some such period "
was double that time, then a hundred

and sixty years would be allowed for the
accumulation of an inch of sedementary
rock ; or, if three hundred million years
are taken, the rate of stratified growth
would be one-two-hundred-and-forty-
ninth (-^fy) of an inch annually. This
is a very moderate pace, and certainly
affords little ground of complaint on
the part of the biologist that he is
pinched for time by the geologist and
physicist. Prof. Huxley, therefore, had
not the slightest reason for admitting
that his theory was not " in agreement "
with what physical astronomy teaches
us of the " ways of Nature."

Continuing the same line of thought,
Dr. Deems quotes our remark that " it
is a demonstrated fact that life has ex-
isted on the globe through periods so
vast as to be incalculable," and asks :
" Where, when, and how, was this ever
' demonstrated ? ' Has it not been
shown that within a period not ' incal-
culable ' life could not have existed on
this globe ? " We certainly did not mean
that the resources of arithmetic are in-
sufficient to express the time during
which life has existed upon earth, but we
did mean that the periods are so vast
and obscure as not to be brought with-
in definite estimate or " calculation."
And of this the whole science of geol-
ogy affords the demonstration. If the
rocks have been formed in succession,
as geology has proved, and twenty miles
of strata have been piled over the ear-
liest-appearing forms of life, then the
time since living creatures came has
been indefinitely vast, and that the pe-
riods are not amenable to anything like
" calculation " or trustworthy estimate
is shown by the way the subject is dealt
with in our most authoritative geologi-
cal works. Where uncertainty enters
largely, positive calculation is excluded,
and accordingly we find that when the
ablest geologists approach this subject
they either abstain from any attempt at
calcidation, or they refuse to deal with
it, in terms of years and talk of eras,
epochs, and cycles. Prof. Dana speaks

EDITOR'S TABLE.

619

" of the relative lengths of the ages
and periods, or their time-ratios," and
says " future discovery will probably
enable the geologist to determine these
ratios with far greater certainty and
precision. Although geology has no
means of substituting positive lengths
of time in place of such ratios, it af-
fords facts sufficient to prove the gen-
eral proposition that Time is long."
This " proof " we hold as demonstra-
tion; and the substitution of " relative
lengths of ages and periods " for " posi-
tive lengths of time " certainly justifies
the use of the term "incalculable" as
applied to them.

We had said that "it is a demon-
strated truth of Nature that matter is
indestructible," and Dr. Deems asks:
" When, where, and how, was this ever
' demonstrated ? ' Even if it be true that
matter is indestructible, can it be dem-
onstrated? Dare any but an infinite in-
tellect make such an assertion ? " It
was a theory held for thousands of years
that, in the workings of Nature, matter
is constantly created and destroyed —
comes out of nothing and goes back to
nothing. Modern science brought this
theory to the test of experiment, and
showed that it was erroneous. No facts
were found to sustain it, but, on the
contrary, all the facts prove the truth
of the opposite theory, that the changes
of matter are changes of form, and that
matter itself is indestructible. A the-
ory is demonstrated when all the facts
verify it. Every experiment and ob-
servation in the whole body of sci-
ence, physical and chemical ; every fact,
induction, and deduction, reached by
the human mind, confirms the truth of
the indestructibility of matter, and
there is no shadow of evidence against
it. What is this but a demonstration?
And, if the proposition is sustained by
this high degree of proof, we fail to see
what there is of " daring " in giving it
a label that expresses the fact.

There remains another important
point suggested by a question of Dr.

Deems, which, for want of space, wo
put over to next month.

PROFESSOR MORSE'S LECTURES.

Prof. Moese has been quietly de-
livering a course of four lectures, in the
large hall of the Cooper Institute in
this city, on "Evolution." We say
quietly, because there has not been
much said about them by the press, as
they have been given in the admirable
series of free Saturday evening lectures
that run through the season, and have
become matters of course with the lect-
ure-going public. Yet these lectures
of Morse's might well have attracted
the prominent attention of our news-
papers, as they were unequaled in the
skillful presentation of biological facts
and principles commonly dry and for-
bidding, so as to be perfectly understood
and intensely relished by large audi-
ences of non-scientific people. Prof.
Morse has remarkable gifts as a lectur-
er, and in the field of science is without
a peer on the American platform. In
the first place, he knows his subject
thoroughly, and is charged to overflow-
ing with its latest and freshest facts
and illustrations. In the second place,
he has a faculty of rapid and accurate
delineation of the forms and structures
of life that he is dealing with, that is
unique and unapproachable by any
other man that we ever saw work with
the blackboard. He chalks as fast as
he talks, and while he talks,, and with-
out spoiling his talking; and by his
marvelous creations he holds his audi-
tors as closely through their eyes as
their ears. His manner as a speaker is,
moreover, free, colloquial, spirited, and
impressive, and his utterances vigorous,
pointed, and racy. These arts are,
however, all subordinate to the solid
work of instruction. The last lecture
of his course, although dealing appar-
ently with technical and formidable sci-
entific facts concerning the relations of

620

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

organized creatures, living and extinct,
was yet nothing less than a delightful
entertainment. His vast audience of
three thousand people were held spell-
bound and so closely occupied with the
interest of the discussion that the at-
tempt at cheering was repressed as an
interruption. Something, however, was
due in this remarkable effect to the in-
terest of the theme, and the rapid lib-
eralization of public opinion that has
latterly taken place; for fifteen years
ago it would neither have been possible
to get such a multitude together to lis-
ten to the uncompromising defense of
evolutionary doctrines, nor could Prof.
Morse have kept such a crowd in con-
trol even if they could have been got
together.

BAIN ON EDUCATION.

TnE readers of the Monthly will
hardly need any reminder as to the
importance of carefully perusing the
first article in our present number,
concluded from last month, on "Edu-
cation as a Science," Every art, when
science comes to be applied to it, un-
dergoes something like a revolution,
as the principles which control it are
gradually working out into such clear-
ness that they can be followed in prac-
tice. And however important this fact
may be in relation to the industrial arts,
it becomes of infinitely greater moment
when the object to be attained is the
cultivation of the human mind. It is
difficult to exaggerate the benefits
which must follow the establishment
of scientific principles for regulating
the work of education, and every valu-
able contribution to this end is entitled
to the most serious and sympathetic
consideration.

Hitherto the dictators of education-
al method have been metaphysicians.
Having taken possession of the prov-
ince of mind, they have claimed to be
law-givers in all that pertains to its
management. But their method is vi-

cious and misleading, from its incom-
pleteness and want of a secure scientific
basis. It has neglected the corporeal
side of human nature. As mind is
never manifested except by and through
a material substratum, no analysis of
it, no statement of its modes and con-
ditions of working, can be scientifically
grounded, or true to Nature, or full and
trustworthy in its elements, that does
not take into constant and essential ac-
count the organic concomitants of in-
tellect and feeling, or the bodily organ-
ism. By doing this, mental science has
not only been widened and deepened,
but placed upon a positive foundation.
Prof. Bain is a pioneer, and an eminent
authority, in this great reform of men-
tal philosophy. His principal works
upon the human mind, "The Senses
and the Intellect," and " The Emo-
tions and the Will," are comprehensive
expositions of mental science from this
point of view, and have thoroughly pre-
pared their author for treating the ap-
plications of scientific psychology to
the practical business of culture. In-
deed, no better vindication of this
method of treating the subject of mind
can be furnished than that which the
reader will gather from his last essay
on the conditions of mental acquisition
in the paper herewith published. The
vagueness of metaphysics here disap-
pears, and the various forms of mental
effort are graded, not with reference to
abstract considerations, but with refer-
ence to the variable vigor and unequal
plastic power of the corporeal system.
The most important questions of prac-
tical education can only be resolved
from this point of view, and from this
point of view they are capable of being
resolved in a way to command the con-
fidence of teachers, and guide the opera-
tions of the school-room. Prof. Bain,
is expected to pursue the subject in
future into the details of educational
practice, and the readers of the Month-
ly will probably hear from him again
before very long.

LITERARY NOTICES.

621

LITERARY NOTICES.

Fragments of Science : A Series of De-
tached Essays, Addresses, and Re-
views. By John Tyndall, F. R. S.
Fifth edition. New York : D. Apple-
ton & Co. Pp. 625. Price, $2.50.

Prof. Tyndall's position in the world
of thought, at the present time, is one of
very marked individuality, and there go
several strong factors into the composition
of that wide and powerful influence as a
thinker which he has exerted upon the
mind of the period. In the first place, the
age is scientific to so great a degree that
all human interests are more disturbed by
this agency than ever before. Prof. Tyn-
dall's scientific acquirements and training
are therefore in harmony with the great in-
tellectual movement of which he has be-
come a leader and representative. His
chosen field of labor, moreover, that of
physics, is the one which people generally
are best prepared to appreciate, while his
ingenuity and fertility in devising new and
striking experiments for the illustration of
facts, and the proof of principles, always
compel attention to what he lias to offer.
Again, his consummate mastery of the arts
of exposition, the clearness and beauty of
his statements, and the high literary finish
of all his work, give him the command of
cultivated minds wherever English is read.
Equally important, also, in any estimate of
Prof. TyndalFs power, is that fearlessness
of spirit, and unflinching allegiance to what
he considers the truth, that give boldness
to his utterances, and carry him to the front
of the conflict, in which science struggles
with the forces of ignorance, prejudice, and
superstition. These elements, of course,
are not equally combined in all his produc-
tions. In his scientific memoirs we have
only the record of laborious and painstak-
ing researches, but they are always elegantly
written. In his volumes upon " Heat " and
" Sound " we are chiefly struck by the lu-
cid and methodical exposition, interspersed
with poetic touches and expressions of fine
feeling, awakened by the study of Nature's
deeper harmonies, and which are a con-
stant source of pleasure to the student.
But it is in his various miscellaneous pa-
pers, some of them didactic, some contro-

versial, and others devoted to the develop-
ment of advanced opinions in which he is
deeply interested, and all of them with a
scientific substratum, and exhibiting the
best excellences of his eloquent style, that
we shall find the chief secret of the hold he
has obtained upon all classes of readers.
These papers were collected, a few years
ago, in a volume entitled " Fragments of
Science," which proved one of the most
popular of his works. It passed through
four editions, and the fifth now appears,
greatly enlarged by recently-published arti-
cles, and containing one hundred and nine-
ty-three pages of matter not found in the
former American edition. Prof. Tyndall
has rearranged the work, grouping together
the more scientific articles in Part I., and
the controversial discussions in Part II., to
which there is a special and able intro-
duction. All the articles have been care-
fully revised, with a view to making them,
in the highest degree, clear and accurate.
Commendation of this work is superfluous,
but it is one of the volumes that wide-
awake readers cannot well do without, and
which is always ready to furnish instruc-
tion and entertainment for an odd hour.

Tollhausen's Technological Dictionary.
Part L, French-German-English ; Part
II., English-German-French ; Part III.,
German -English -French. New York:
Holt & Co. Price, $3.50 per vol.

The compilers of general dictionaries of
two or more languages have hitherto given
but little thought to secure either fullness
or accuracy in their vocabularies of techni-
cal terms, especially those employed in the
useful arts. Such terms having no place in
literature proper, and the existing diction-
aries being designed mainly as keys to the
literature of the various languages, the defect
of which we speak becomes, under the cir-
cumstances, venial. But we are from day to
day coming into closer industrial relations
with the outer world, and the need of such
a work as that before us has long been felt.
The author of this work has spared no
pains to make his dictionary complete and
accurate, and he is to be congratulated upon
the success with which he has performed
his very difficult task. The first part of
the work (French-German-English) em-
braces some 65,000 technical terms and

622

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

phrases, the second part (English-German-
French) about 76,000, and the third (Ger-
man-English-French) over 90,000. As was
inevitable in a work involving so much re-
search, errors are not wanting, and a mul-
titude of technical terms have been omit-
ted. Nevertheless, the author has rendered
an inestimable service to the world of let-
ters in the compilation of this dictionary ;
its defects will disappear under revision, as
new editions are called for. In the mean
time we are very well satisfied with the
work as it stands, and can heartily com-
mend it as a trustworthy guide to the sy-
nonomies of technical terms in the three
foremost languages of modern industrial
life.

Peincipia, or Basis of Social Science:
Being a Survey of the Subject from
the Moral and Theological, yet Liberal
and Progressive Standpoint. By R. J.
Wkight. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippin-
cott & Co. Pp. 524. Price, $3.50.
The activity of modern speculation on
social subjects, while yet there are so few
principles established for the guidance of
thought, has led to the widest and wildest
diversity in the treatment of this class of
questions. This is perhaps the highest
sphere of intellectual liberty, for in most
other departments of thought there are re-
straints which come from more or less set-
tled ideas. Thus in religion there are es-
tablished creeds; in practical politics, con-
stitutions, precedents, and the body of
laws ; in history, canons of interpretation ;
in science, facts, generalizations, and de-
termined methods— rail of which exert a
regulative and controlling influence over the
speculative tendency. But in the social
field very little help comes from any such
sources, and the fertile thinker is as free to
spin theories and excogitate a philosophy
as if he had been the first to start inquiry
in this domain. That principles will at
length be established to direct the course
of investigation, we are not permitted to
doubt ; but, thus far, the chaos of social
philosophy, and the conflict of social doc-
trines, are the most striking facts in regard
to them.

Mr. Wright has made an earnest book,
which is pervaded by an excellent spirit
and noble aspirations, but his views are

original and independent, and he has done
his own thinking throughout, from his ex-
position of a radical and thorough-going
socialism down to the punctuation of his
volume, which he has carried out according
to his own rules. So full a freedom of
treatment ought to favor originality of sug-
gestion and freshness of opinion, and the
book will accordingly be found to contain
many ingenious ideas, and to abound in
hints and statements which will find a use-
ful place in the future development of the
subject. The author makes no large claims
for his work, but simply submits it to the
common-sense of his readers for what it
may be worth in helping them to the study
and understanding of social questions ; and
"hopes that, if the public cannot tolerate
these writings as a work of science, they
will, at any rate, tolerate them as a kind of
sermon to politicians and statesmen."

Mr. Wright classes the elements or ac-
tivities of man's social life in six categories
or units, as follows: There is, first, the indi-
vidual ; second, the family ; third, the so-
cial circle — by which he means groups of
affiliated or closely-connected families ; and,
fourth, the precinct — by which he means to
designate the neighborhood principle. The
precinct is a fundamental idea in the social
series which the author develops with spe-
cial prominence. "Precincts," he says,
"are neighborhoods organized into civil
governments ; they are territories within
territories ; they are parts of a tribe or na-
tion, and are not self-existent. In other
words, precincts arc the organizations of
the neighborhood principle in civil govern-
ment. They might be compared with the
' States ' of the American Union by calling
them very small and reformed 'states.'
The precinct is the fourth fundamental ele-
ment or ' personality ' of society as deter-
mined in our analytics." The precinct is dis-
tinguished from the corporation, and is the
smallest political group, but in Mr. Wright's
scheme it is endowed with many of the
most important functions of government.

The fifth unit is the nation, which is-
political on the larger scale ; and the sixth
unit of society is mankind, or the human
race, the aggregate of all nationalities.
Under this classification the author dis-
cusses a wide range of questions — in fact,

LITERARY NOTICES.

623

everything that belongs to government,
reform, philanthropy, education, social prog-
ress, communism, etc. The present volume
is the first of a series to be carried out as
the leisure or opportunity of the author
may allow.

The Problem of Problems, and its Va-
rious Solutions ; or, Atheism, Darwin-
ism, and Theism. By Clark Braden,
President of Abingdon College, Illinois.
Cincinnati : Chace & Hall. Pp. 480.

In a note prefixed to this volume, and
addressed to reviewers and critics, the au-
thor requests these parties to " carefully
read the book before they review it."
This is only fair, and we undertook to
comply with the writer's wish, but failed
to get through with it either carefully,
hastily, or in any other way. For life is
short at the best, and is rapidly shorten-
ing, while work multiplies, and but little
time is left for reading. Moreover, Presi-
dent Braden's volume is very substantial,
and contains a good deal of printed matter
on a page, which increases alarmingly after
the 342d. Beyond doubt, if the depth of
the work is in proportion to its length, it
must be valuable. Not having carefully
read it, we shall not venture to review it,
but we quite agree with the author as to the
importance of the discussion ; and, as in
his title he has sandwiched Darwinism be-
tween Theism and Atheism, our readers will
infer his point of view to be that of the
theologian. The book is a theological on-
slaught upon the school of thinkers of
which Mr. Darwin is now the most con-
spicuous representative. We gather from
the introduction that the author formerly
did vigorous service, and probably won his
theological spurs, as a fighter of infidels in
public debates and written discussions.
He considers that this has afforded him a
valuable " training " as a champion of re-
ligion against the new phase of scientific
infidelity, and which enables him to deal
very decisively with Darwin, Mill, Huxley,
Spencer, Draper, Tyndall, and the like,
whom he cuff's and mauls about, in his book,
without the slightest mercy. The " Prob-
lem of Problems " is obviously a good deal
such a work as " Modern Physical Fatal-
ism," which we noticed last month, but is
much longer.

Aerial Navigation. By the Late Charles
Blatchfield Mansfield, M. A. Edited
by his Brother, with a Preface by J. M.
Ludlow. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 513.
Price, $5.

The author of this book, who wrote
also " Travels in Paraguay and Brazil," and
a "Theory of Salts," is said by Mr. Lud-
low, in his preface, to have been a man of
great fertility and originality of mind. He
says :

"Those who knew him intimately — a now
fast-narrowing circle — recollect well how there
would come upon him occasionally, after inter-
vals of quiescence, a kind of divine afflatus, and
for n time his mind would bring forth one device
after the other in rapid succession, as those to
whom the world restricts the name of poets
multiply their works during periods of creative
energy. The present volume is the fruit of
one of these periods, and the words at the close
of the author's preface, ' My object in writing it
will he simply to deliver my brain of a burden
which came upon it uninvited,' express, I be-
lieve, the strictest truth as to his meutal ex-
perience. . . .

" If it be asked why, after the lapse of a full
quarter of a century, an unfinished work by one
who is no more on earth is presented to the
public, the answer is— 1. That the author him-
self wished to have so presented it when per-
fect, and that he was one of those whose wishes
have a right to be carried out as far as may
be practicable. 2. That although the fact
that he never completed it might militate
against its publication unfinished, yet it does
not appear that any publication issued since
his death has in any wise taken the place which
this volume was meant to occupy. 3. That
during the same intervil events of high grav-
ity in the world's history have shown that
the question of aerial navigation may be one of
life and death to a nation. For we have lived
to see, what Charles Mansfield did not, Fiance
governed through balloons from besipfred Paris,
and a dictator, who refused to despair of his
country, cross the air over the heads of hostile
armies."

Mr. Mansfield believed in the prac-
ticability of aerial navigation, and that the
problem will at length be solved, and the
work is a close and searching inquiry into
the principles upon which such solution
must depend. It will, therefore, be impor-
tant to the students of aerostation.

The following passage from that witty
philosopher, Hans Christian Andersen,
when treating of the " ugly duckling,"
serves as a motto for the volume : " ' What
next, I wonder ? ' said the hen. ' You have
nothing to do, and so you sit brooding over

624

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

suck fancies. Lay eggs or pur, and you'll
forget them.'

" ' But it is so delightful to swim on the
water,' said the duck ; ' so delightful when
it dashes over one's head, and one dives
down to the very bottom.'

" ' Well, that must be a fine pleasure,'
said the hen. ' You are crazy, I think :
ask the cat, who is the cleverest man I
know, if he would like to swim on the
water, and perhaps to dive, to say nothing
of myself. Ask our mistress, the old lady,
and there is no one in the world cleverer
than she is : do you think that she would
like to swim on the water, and for the water
to dash over her head ? '

" ' You don't understand me,' said the
duck."

Twelve Idioms spoken in the Southwest
of the United States : Pueblo and
Apache Dialects, Tonto, Tonkawa,
Digger, Utah. Vocabularies, pub-
lished and commented upon by Prof.
Albert S. Gatschet. Weimar, 1876.
8vo, pp. 150. (In the German language.)
Westermann & Co.

In this volume a series of vocabularies
and phraseology, collected by members of
Lieutenant George M. Wheeler's survey-
parties, were made the object of a compara-
tive investigation by the author, a resident
of New York City, who is already known to
the scientific world by various treatises on
Indian languages, and on European dialects
found in the Alpine valleys. Oscar Loew,
chemist of one of Lieutenant Wheeler's
parties, collected the main portion of these
vocabularies, adopting for them the alpha-
betical notation recommended by the Smith-
sonian Institution. To solve the long-
standing problem of the primordial habitat
of the Aztec tribe, which forms a portion
of the far-stretching Nahua race of na-
tives, the author has united all the lin-
guistic information which can at the pres-
ent time be derived from the study of the
Pueblo languages, and has also illustrated
the radical affinities of the other language-
stocks, which form the object of the pub-
lication. In addition to this, the volume
contains one of the most exhaustive enu-
merations of American language-stccks and
dialects ever attempted from the genea-
logical standpoint, embracing North, Cen-

tral, and South America, and gives a trans-
parent synopsis of the plan of thought
and the morphological processes observed
in various idioms of the Western Hemi-
sphere. From a separate chapter, the con-
tents of which are novel to science, and
of the highest linguistic interest, we be-
come enabled to follow Indian thought and
Indian combinatory powers to the very
abysses and mysteries of primeval word-
formation and word-composition.

A short appendix compares and ana-
lyzes numerous terms embodied in the
large word-table on pages €7 to 117, and
classifies the numeral adjectives according
to the various systems of numeration in
use all over the divers parts of the globe
(binary, quinary, etc.). On the last pages
two curious Southern rock-inscriptions are
figured and their interpretation attempted.

The Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New
England, with Descriptions of their
Habits, and Notes. By H. D. Minot.
Salem : Naturalists' Agency, 1876.
Pp. 350. Price, $3.

This book is likely to attract the atten-
tion of ornithologists on account of both its
good and bad qualities. It is restricted in
its scope to New England, and intended
chiefly to report what the author has him-
self observed in the neighborhood of Bos-
ton, but the biographies are extended by
copious quotations. Mr. Minot seems to
regard the subject from the standpoint of
an oologist, and makes the breeding habits
of birds the most prominent feature of his
history. The long introduction is especial-
ly addressed to egg-collectors or students,
and contains minute information upon
forming oological cabinets. This portion
of the book should have been revised by
the author, and cut down at least one-third.
As to the long appendix, embracing keys
by which to identify the eggs of the birds,
and the birds themselves mentioned in the
volume, it is practically useless ; while the
construction of the two indexes is foolish.
This misfortune arises frcm the method
of the book, which — its character and ob-
ject considered — is altogether bad. The
arrangement of his subject-matter, under
various signs and paragraph-marks, is only
an obstruction, and we are sure the really
great value of the work, as a whole, would

LITERARY NOTICES.

625

be much more striking if this complicated,
cross-reference catalogue arrangement had
been dispensed with.

Although the information conveyed is
local, the accounts of the habits of the
birds contain many new and valuable facts,
stated in a way to inspire confidence in the
reader. Mr. Minot's style, though often
somewhat crude, and showing marked de-
fects, is pleasant and strong. He has paid
particular attention to the notes and songs
of birds, and describes their music felici-
tously. Evidently he has had a sharp eye
upon them everywhere, and under all sorts
of circumstances, for his delineations abound
in minute touches, which show close obser-
vation.

The Andes and the Amazon ; or, Across
the Continent of South America. By
James Orton, A. M. Third edition, re-
vised and enlarged, containing Notes of
a Second Journey across the Continent
from Para to Lima and Lake Titicaca.
With two Maps and numerous Illustra-
tions. New York : Harper & Brothers,
1876. Price, $3.

In popular interest and in general sci-
entific value this volume by Prof. Orton will
occupy a favorable position among the many
excellent books of South American travel
that have appeared since the great work
of Darwin in 1835, and to whom the vol-
ume before us is fittingly dedicated.

The account of the first journey, made
in 1867, was published soon after, and was
favorably received. The route on that oc-
casion was from Guayaquil to Para, at the
mouth of the Amazon, by way of Quito.

The second journey was made in 1873,
and commenced where the first one termi-
nated.

By aid of two excellent maps, the route
of the traveler can be followed from Para
up the Amazon, thence through forests, and
over horrible roads upon the eastern slope
of the Andes, to the great plateau and city
of Cajamarca, " the most beautiful plain in
all the Andes." The city is 9,400 feet
above the Pacific. In it are the remains
of Atahuallpa's palace and other memorials
of the struggles of the Peruvians with the
Spaniards.

"Two days from Cajamarca, the party
shouted for joy at the sight and sound of a
locomotive," a sign that their hardships were
vol. x. — 40

over. The Andes of Peru are being trav-
ersed by roads grander than those of the
Aztecs.

Having arrived at the Pacific coast, a
half-hour's ride by rail took the travelers to
the city of Lima. Arriving at Mollendo, a
new village, " with the ocean on one side
and a vast desert on the other," Prof. Orton
took the train for Lake Titicaca, a distance
of 325 miles. He was the first passenger
over the newly-finished road to the lake
from the Pacific. The route is over des-
erts and apparent solitudes, on which look
down some of the snowy giants of the Andes
18,000 feet high. At 107 miles the train
stopped at Arequipa, a city in a valley of
green verdure ; and, finally, at Puno, an In-
dian village, 12,547 feet above the ocean.
Before reaching it the waters of Lake Titi-
caca were seen.

The highest point on the route was 14,-
660 feet, where snow lay on the hills, and
where there was no sound of life. " So
profound was the stillness that the buzzing
of an insect would have been painful."

"I gazed," says the author, "rapt in
thought, upon the lake, brimful of history.
Its surface, at a height of 12,493 feet, lies
level with the tops of lofty mountains, and
it has an area of 2,500 square miles."

Everywhere around it are monuments
of a civilization which has passed away.

Of the railroads of Peru, the Oroya,
which was being built, will attain at its
greatest elevation a height of 15,645 feet
above the level of the sea.

The geology and natural history of the
Amazon region- and the Andes, their re-
sources and inhabitants, make several chap-
ters of great interest. Besides two maps,
the volume contains 80 illustrations.

Science Lectures at South Kensington :

1. "Photography," by Captain Abnf.y.

2. " Sound and Music," by Dr. Stone.

3. " Kinematic Models," by Prof. Ken-
nedy. Manchester Science Lectures
for the People: 1. "What the Earth
is composed of," by Prof. Roscoe. Mac-
millan & Co.

These are all excellent addresses by
able men, and as popular as the nature of
the subjects will allow. They are illus-
trated, and on good paper, and the pub-
lishers furnish them at 20 cents apiece.

626

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Practical Cookery and Dinner -giving.
A Treatise containing Practical Instruc-
tions in Cooking ; in the Combination
and serving of Dishes ; and in the Fash-
ionable Modes of entertaining, at Break-
last, Lunch, and Dinner. Illustrated.
By Mrs. Mary F. Henderson. Harper
&"Brothers. Pp. 376. Price, $1.50.

Notwithstanding the multitude of
books, good, bad, and indifferent, that treat
of cooking and eating in all their aspects,
the subject is yet far enough from being
exhausted — the plenitude of its literature
serving chiefly to convince us of the impor-
tance of the subject. But there is evidently
an awakening in the culinary world, and a
growing sense that, although it may have
rained cook-books for a century, the work
of reforming the kitchen and dining-room,
and bringing them into some rational method
of management, remains still to be accom-
plished. The dissatisfaction with bad cook-
ing and barbarous eating is steadily spread-
ing, cooking-schools are multiplying, and
many are asking anxiously what can be
done to amend our imperfect and evil ways
in the preparation and serving of food.

Mrs. Henderson has therefore chosen a
fitting time to put forth the results of her.
study, observation, and experience, on these
important matters, and her volume, we
think, will be widely welcomed and appre-
ciated, as an excellent contribution to the
literature of domestic economy, at the
present time. It is comprehensive and
practical, and meets the general wants
of families in a satisfactory way. It con-
tains much information in regard to culi-
nary implements, processes of cooking, and
the methodical operations of the kitchen,
which if made available will be certain in
most cases to improve that branch of the
domestic establishment. It is the merit of
Mrs. Henderson's book that it is something
more than a compilation ; it has grown out
of her own practical interest in kitchen-
work, much observation and correspond-
ence, and an enthusiasm for housekeeping
which ought to be more frequent among
ladies. She gives an excellent array of
selected receipts, many tested by herself,
and others by competent friends, while the
choice seems to have been made with dis-
crimination, such only being offered as have
" stood the test of time and experience."

An important portion of Mrs. Hender-

son's book, and which will meet a want in
many families, is the prominent attention
she gives to the art of serving meals. She
says, in her preface : " Care has been taken
to show how it is possible with moderate
means to keep a hospitable table, leaving
each reader for herself to consider the
manifold advantages of making home, so
far as good living is concerned, comfortable
and happy." Mrs. Henderson expatiates
on " the fashionable modes of entertaining
at breakfast, luncheon, and dinner," but
insists that, in this case, fashion is not the
equivalent of folly. There is a general im-
pression that the genteel mode of doing the
thing is expensive and extravagant. This
would, of course, be so in many cases
where ostentation is the object, but accord-
ing to Mrs. Henderson it is not necessarily
so. "Fortunately," she says, " the fashion-
able mode is the one calculated to give the
least anxiety and trouble to a hostess."
People will no doubt continue to dispense
breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, on a scale
proportioned to their means, but the author
of this book aims to point out how a fam-
ily can live well and in good style, and at
the same time with reasonable economy.
The book is written in a simple, direct, and
common-sense manner, that leaves nothing
wanting in the way of clearness.

A Course of Practical Instruction in
Elementary Biology. By T. H. Hux-
ley, LL. D., etc., assisted by H. N.
Martin, B. A., etc. Macmillan & Co.,
1876. Second edition, revised.

Prof. Huxley has made himself remark-
able among the leading scientific lights of
the day, quite as much by the ease and as-
siduity with which he has simplified and
expounded to the unlearned the mysteries
of natural history as by the mental acu-
men and power which have enabled him to
discover so many of those mysteries. He
is known better, perhaps, in England to-day
as a teacher than as an investigator ; hence
it is not surprising that he has undertaken
to sketch out and supervise the little book,
costing only two dollars, of elementary bio-
logical lessons, which has been written by
Prof. Martin, his former assistant and now
Professor of Zoology at Hopkins University
in Baltimore. It has grown out of Prof. Hux-
ley's own experience as a teacher, and hence

LITERARY NOTICES.

627

is a thoroughly practical guide for progres-
sive laboratory-practice, approaching the
study through morphology and botany,
which the professor considers the only safe
road to a sound knowledge. " The study
of living bodies," the author tells us, "is
really our discipline, which is divided into
zoology and botany simply as a matter of
convenience, and the scientific zoologist
should no more be ignorant of the funda-
mental phenomena of vegetable life than
the scientific botanist of those of animal
existence."

The object of the book being to make it
a laboratory-guide, a number of common
and readily-obtainable plants and animals
have been selected in such a manner as to
exemplify the leading modifications of struct-
ure which are met with in the vegetable and
animal worlds. A brief description of each
is given ; and the description is followed by
such detailed instructions as will enable the
student to know, of his own knowledge, the
chief facts mentioned in the account of the
animal or plant. " The terms used in biol-
ogy will thus be represented by clear and
definite images of the things to which they
apply ; a comprehensive and yet not vague
conception of the phenomena of life will be
obtained ; and a firm foundation upon which
to build up special knowledge will be laid."
Beginning with yeast, gradual advance is
made to successive studies of protococcus,
proteus animalcule, colorless blood-corpus-
cles, bacteria, moulds, stoneworts, ferns, the
bean-plant, the bell animalcule, fresh-water
polyps (hi/dra, etc.), the fresh-water mussel,
the crawfish and lobster, and lastly the frog.
A sketch of the habitat and general charac-
ters, the development, mode of growth and
microscopic structure, anatomy, modes of
movement, etc., etc., of each is given, fol-
lowed by a schedule of laboratory-work,
directing the student, with the aid of excel-
lent figures, to the recognition of all the
parts of the animal or plant studied, not
only in their shape and position, but in their
relation to other parts, their functions and
their development. The chief labor in
drawing up these instructions has fallen
upon Dr. Martin ; but for the general plan
used, and the descriptions of the several
plants and animals, Prof. Huxley holds him-
self responsible. The result is a book of
the greatest value for beginners in the study

of biology; supplement it by Rolleston's
"Forms of Animal Life," and we have a
whole library. Students who wish to " know
of their own knowledge " can certainly find

no better guide than this.

Lectures on Some Recent Advances in
Physical Science. With a Special
Lecture on "Force." By G. P. Tait,
M. A. Second edition, revised. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 363. Price, $2.50.

Of this new edition we can only repeat
what we said at the appearance of the first,
that it will be found an instructive discus-
sion of modern dynamical problems, well
worth the perusal of all who are interested
in this class of questions. The pugnacious
temper of the author, or rather perhaps
the facility with which he gets into hot
water with other scientific men, is illus-
trated by the preface to the new edition,
which is chiefly devoted to his quarrel with
the German physicist, Prof. Clausius. In
his additional lecture on "Force" he dis-
cusses the different meanings that are given
to the term, and the confusion that results.
His conclusion is, that " there is probably
no such thing as force at all ! that it is in
fact merely a convenient expression for a
certain ' rate.' " We suspect that more
work will have to be done here before the
matter will be finally cleared up.

Essays in Literary Criticism. By Rich-
ard Holt Hutton. Philadelphia : Coates
& Co. Pp. 355. Price, $1.50.

It is one of the great defects in literary
criticism that a person who admires certain
books or authors cannot detect their faults,
and that he who is prejudiced against them
is unable to see their excellences. Mr. Hut-
ton is, in a remarkable degree, free from
this deficiency, and points out failings in
his favorite authors which even a hostile
critic might not have observed. His great
power is in being able to get at the funda-
mental thoughts of the men whom he criti-
cises. He is apparently more concerned in
expressing with careful minuteness all his
ideas on a given subject than in elaborating
them into an elegant style. The essays
which make up this volume are on " Goe-
the," " Nathaniel Hawthorne," " Arthur
Hugh Clough," " Wordsworth," " George
Eliot," and " Matthew Arnold."

6zS

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Life-History of Our Planet. By
William D. Gunning. Illustrated by
Mary Gunning. Chicago : W. B. Keen,
Cooke k Co. Pp. 368. Price, $2.

To the obvious criticism that so large a
subject as " The Life-History of Our Planet "
cannot very well be compressed within the
limits of a handy volume like the present,
it may be fairly replied that an outliue of
such a history, giving its leading features
and more impressive aspects, is altogether
a practicable thing. Prof. Gunning has
shown this in the preparation of the vol-
ume before us, which certainly presents
the leading historic aspects of terrestrial
life in a manner that is highly instructive.
The book is a successful attempt to popu-
larize a great branch of science without
sacrificing or cheapening it. Although the
author deals with many new facts which
are usually wrapped in an obscure termi-
nology, he yet presents them in such a plain,
familiar, direct, common-sense manner as
to be understood by all readers who have
the slightest interest in the subject. Well
experienced in public teaching, he neither
overshoots the average capacity nor wearies
it by dwelling too long upon the minu-
tia? of his topics. He, moreover, gains
much in compression of statement by giving
prominent attention to the general views
and truths of his subject, rather than to its
interminable particulars. His mode of ex-
position is indicated in the following prefa-
tory passage: "Facts do not enlarge the
mind unless they are fertilized by princi-
ples. Our aim in the preparation of this
volume has been to conduct the reader
through methods to results. The leading
types of life which have possessed the earth
from age to age, he will find described and
delineated. He will find the more signifi-
cant types reconstructed, part by part, with
so little of the phraseology of comparative
anatomy that his mind, it is hoped, will
traverse the methods and make them his
own." The aim here proposed has been
well attained, and, by treating his subject
in the light of the great principles of unity,
correlation, progressive unfolding, and in-
terconnection with the course of physical
Nature, the author has invested the great
historical problem of the earth's past life
with unusual interest and attractiveness.
We should like to quote copiously from

" The Life-History of Our Planet," but have
not room to do so. The following passage
is representative, and illustrates the writ-
er's clear and pointed way of picturing
phenomena before the minds of his readers :
" In 1818 Traill dissected one of the higher apes,
and found in the region of the thigh a muscle which
he thought had no representative in man. He named
it the scansorius, or ' climbing ' muscle. Late dis-
sections have shown Traill to have been in error.
Its homologue in man is found to be the little mus-
cle called gluteus minimus. What is the meaning
of this little useless muscle in man, unless it is the
atrophied descendant of a real scansorius ? In that
man-like ape, the orang, Dr. Barnard, of Cornell,
has found a muscle whose homologue has never
been found in man. In the orang it occurs as a ves-
tige. It has almost faded out. It occurs in the
lower apes and in the half-apes, but always as a ves-
tige, having no functional value. It appears again
in the opossum, but no longer as a vestige. Thus,
a muscle which is obsolete in man, almost obsolete
in the higher apes, less aborted in the lower apes,
still less aborted in the half-apes, is found in the
opossum with its functional value."

The first chapter of the book is devoted
to what may be called the preliminary phys-
ics and geology of the subject. The second,
third, and fourth, treat of the rise and evo-
lution of organic types, and the fifth is de-
voted to the question of glaciers and the
part they have played in the history of the
earth's surface. This is an excellent chap-
ter and gives a very clear account of that
most difficult matter for popular explana-
tion—the relation of the precession of the
equinoxes, and the secular variations of the
earth's orbit to the glacial periods. The
development of animals, the appearance
upon earth of man, his antiquity and mi-
grations, and the origin and derivation of
races, occupy the remaining four chapters
of the work, which may be regarded as a
kind of preliminary text-book of philosoph-
ical biology. It is neatly and fully illus-
trated, and deserves to have a wide circula-
tion.

The American Library Journal. (Month-
ly.) Managing Editor, Melvil Dewey.
New York: F. Leypoldt. Yearly sub-
scription, $5.

More than usual interest has been taken
in the public libraries during the last year.
The recent conference at Philadelphia, and
the Report of the Educational Bureau at
Washington, have now been supplemented
by the Library Journal. Its plan is to
cover the entire field of library and biblio-

LITERARY NOTICES.

629

graphical interests, to answer, by leading
articles, communications, notes, etc., all the
questions which come up in the experience
of librarians, and to form " an inspiration
that will keep them up to their profes-
sion."

The cooperative system ought to work
with as much benefit in libraries as it does
in other cases ; and if, by mutual assistance,
their condition can be improved, the good
influence will extend to the people who use
them. It was for the purpose of helping on
in this good work that the Library Journal
was undertaken. There is a large band of
associate editors, representing the leading
libraries of the country, who should be able
to make this periodical valuable to all in-
terested in the subject.

Report of the Exploring Expedition from
Santa Fe to the Junction of the Grand
and Green Rivers in 1859, under the
Command of Captain J. N. Macomb ;
with Geological Report by Prof. J.
S. Newberry. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office. Pp. 152.

The larger part of this work is occu-
pied with Prof. Newberry's geological re-
port. This was originally written and pre-
pared for publication in 1860, but did not
appear on account of the rebellion. Ac-
companying it is a map of the region, with
eleven water-color sketches, showing the
characteristic scenery, and eleven drawings,
three of scenery and eight of fossils. The
report concludes with descriptions of the
cretaceous, carboniferous, and triassic fos-
sils collected on the expedition.

Forest - Culture and Eucalyptus - Trees.
By Ellwood Cooper. San Francisco :
Cubery & Co. Pp. 238. Price, $1.50.

A lecture by the author on " Forest-
Culture and Australian Gum-Trees " occu-
pies the first part of this little book. To it
are appended four essays by Frederick von
Miiller, of Austria, discussing various sub-
jects relating to forest-culture, the desira-
bleness of planting trees, etc. The culti-
vation of trees is a matter of considerable
importance, and this work is intended to
impress it upon the public attention.

The "Fifth Annual Catalogue of the
Santa Barbara College " takes up the last
thirty pages of the book.

Vaccination as a Preventive of Small-
pox. By W. C. Chapman, M. D. To-
ledo: Brown & Faunce. Pp. 91.

There is found to be an inverse ratio
between vaccination and small -pox, and
the average amount of deaths from small-
pox has been only two in a thousand in
those countries where vaccination has been
rendered compulsory. Its importance is
now universally admitted, though it is not
so generally acted upon, and for this rea-
son any fresh reminders cannot fail to be
beneficial. While advancing nothing ab-
solutely new, Dr. Chapman presents the
existing knowledge in a manner which af-
fords a full understanding of the subject.
After giving a history of its earliest appli-
cation and development, he discusses the
following questions : " Does vaccination
protect the system from contagion of small-
pox ? Why does the protective power of
vaccination become so impaired as to ren-
der revaccination advisable ? What causes
have prejudiced the public against the op-
eration of vaccination ? What measures
should be instituted to enforce a due appre-
ciation of the benefits of vaccination ? "

Rules for a Printed Dictionary Cata-
logue. By Charles A. Cutter, Libra-
rian of the Boston Athenaeum. Wash-
ington : Government Printing - Office.
Pp. 89.

This pamphlet forms the second part of
the United States Government report on
the public libraries. In many of our smaller
cities and towns the value of the libraries
is greatly impaired, since there is no direct
way of discovering their contents, or of
being able to find a book on a given sub-
ject. As the libraries enlarge and outgrow
their catalogues, these difficulties increase.
Mr. Cutter goes into the minutest details of
classification in this essay, laying down
203 rules which he expands and illus-
trates. The work is, perhaps, a little too
thorough to be altogether practical in
the hands of many librarians. If the
directions were not quite so numerous, and
some of the details had been suppressed,
it might have been more effective. A libra-
rian will, however, be better able to utilize
the books under his charge if he make
himself familiar with the rules given by
Mr. Cutter.

630

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The Popular Health Almanac, for 1877.
Edited by Frederick Hoffmann. New-
York : E. Steiger. Pp. 40. Price, 10
cents.

This is a valuable and most useful com-
pilation of applied health-knowledge, such
as should be found in every family. The
first number was issued last year, and was
so well appreciated that it is followed by
another this year, and we hope the series
will be continued. One of its most im-
portant features is to expose the traffic in
patent medicines, and, to show their fraud
and worthlessness, the chemical composi-
tion of many popular nostrums is given.
We fully agree with the following estimate
of this almanac, given by Dr. Elisha Har-
ris: "Accept my thanks and very hearty
congratulations for the admirable little
manual which you have justly entitled ' Pop-
ular Health Almanac.' It certainly is the
most acceptable and well-arranged compila-
tion for public instruction on sanitary mat-
ters I ever saw ; indeed, it is far more and
better than a compilation, so happily has
Dr. Hoffmann studied and crystallized the
limits and substance of sanitary knowledge
in the modest and beautiful little Health
Mentor which, in all particulars, has been
so wonderfully well designed and executed
that thousands of families will sincer/iy
thank its editor and publisher."

The First Fonakigrafik Teacher : A
Guide to a Practical Acquaintance with
the Literary Style of the Art of Phona-
chygraphy. An Improved Substitute
for Long-Hand Script, etc., etc. Am-
herst, Mass., U. S. A.: John Brown
Smith, Author and Publisher. Pp. 24.
Price, 25 cents.

For such a humble little print as this
the pretensions are very lofty, as it aims to
make a revolution in the future modes of
printing and writing. Following out the
idea that " to save time is to lengthen life,"
the author remarks : " The saving of time
in acquiring an education would be almost
one-half if fonakigrafi (?) was exclusively
used for both print and script, thus doing
away with the absurdity of having half a
dozen different alphabets for print and
script as in use at present." Mr. Smith
will, however, probably have to rack his
brain again before he can invent a svstem

that will completely set aside Pitman and
his imitators or improvers. Undoubtedly,
improvements will be made in the art of
short-hand writing, but what direction they
will take is not determined by this tract.

Matter and Force : A Course of Lectures
on Physics. By J. K. Macomber.
Ames, Iowa : Agricultural Steam-print.
Pp. 95.

During the past few years Prof. Macom-
ber has delivered the contents of this book,
as a series of nine lectures, to his classes
in Natural Philosophy. They are adapted
to persons who have completed the element-
ary study of physics, and include the more
recent views respecting matter and force.
He treats, among other subjects, of " Poten-
tial Energy," and the " Correlation of Vital
and Physical Forces," and gives the modern
speculations in regard to the " Sun as a
Centre of Force," with its relation to the
existence of the solar svstem.

The Surface-Drainage of the Metropol-
itan District. By C. W. Folsom, C. E.,
of Cambridge. Boston : Wright & Pot-
ter, State Printers.

Mr. Folsom discussed this subject in the
" Seventh Report of the Massachusetts State
Board of Health," but its importance has
warranted its separate publication. He
does not attempt to treat surface-drainage
exhaustively, but rather suggests its neces-
sity, and the diseases to which its neglect
gives rise, pointing out the particular dis-
tricts in the neighborhood of Boston which
are in greatest need of treatment.

TnE Essential Piety of Modern Science.
A Sermon. By John W. Chadwick,
Minister of the Second Unitarian Soci-
ety in Brooklvn. For sale by Charles
P. Somerby, 139 Eighth Street, N. Y.

Mr. Chadwick read this sermon or ad-
dress before the National Conference of
Unitarian and other Christian Churches,
held at Saratoga in September. He shows
a decided liking for modern scientific ten-
dencies, and believes that there is that in
scientific thought which directly fosters all
those sentiments which are the life-blood of
religion.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

631

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Applications of Physical Forces. By
Aruedee Guilleinin. Edited by J. N. Lock-
yer. New York: Macmillan. Pp. 770;
with colored Plates and Illustrations. Price,
$12.50.

Notes on Life Insurance. By Gustavus
W. Smith. New York : Van Nostrand.
Pp. 204. Price, $2.

Report of the Commissioner of Educa-
tion. Washington : Government Printing-
Office. Pp. 1,189.

National Quarterly Review. New York,
658 Broadway. Pp. 192. $5 a year.

European Surveys. By Major C. B.
Comstock, of the Engineers. Washington :
Government Printing-Office. Pp. 101.

Transactions of the Asiatic Society of
Japan (1876). Yokohama: Japan Mail
office. Pp. 178.

Celestial Dynamics. Ey J. W.
The author, Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Price, 35 cents.

National History of Illinois. Bulletin
No. 1. With Plates. Bloomington : Panto-
graph Printing-House. Pp. 76.

Survey of the Northern and North-
western Lakes. Major C. B. Comstock in
charge. With Plates. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 84.

Catalogue of Swarthmore College, Penn-
sylvania. Pp. 55.

Effects of Alcoholic

Hanna.
Pp. 32.

Kellogg, M. D. Battle

Poison. By J. II.
Creek, Michigan :
Pp. 125.

Royal Cooper, edi-

16. Washington :

Health Reformer print.

The Mathematician.
tor. Vol. I., No. 1. Pp.
National Republican print. $1.50 a year.

Giant Birds of New Zealand. By J. C.
Russell. From American Naturalist. Pp.
11.

Biographical Notice of A. R. Marvine.
By J. W. Powell. From the Bulletin of
the Washington Philosophical Society.
Pp. 8.

American Annals of the Deaf and
Dumb. E. A. Fay, editor. Vol. XXII.,
No. 1. Pp. 64. Washington : Gibson
Brothers print.

Climato-therapy of Consumption. By
Dr. S. E. Chaille. From the New Orleans
Medical and Surgical Journal. Pp. 12.

Corundum. By C. W. Jenks. Boston:
J. Wilson & Son, printers. Pp. 17.

Ueber die Darstellung und Eigenschaf-
ten des Trijodresorcius. Von Arthur
Michael und Thomas H. Norton. Berlin :
F. Dummler. Pp. 2.

Intimidation and the Number of White
aud Colored Voters in Louisiana. By S.
E. Chaille, M. D. New Orleans Picayune
print. Pp. 36.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Antarctic Icebergs. — Sir C. Wyville
Thomson, in a lecture reported in Nature
for November 30th and December 7th, pre-
sents facts of interest obtained during the
cruise of the Challenger, concerning the
antarctic regions visited.

The expedition met with its first ice five
days' sail southward of the desolate, rocky
group known as the Pleard Islands. In a
short time the ship was in the midst of
bergs of exquisite beauty of both form and
color.

The most southerly point reached was
latitude 66° 40' south, longitude 78° 22'
east, when they were exactly 1,400 miles
from the south pole. The icebergs, some
of them of immense size, were tabular in
form, " the surface being level, and parallel
with the surface of the sea ... a cliff, on
an average 200 feet high, bounding the
berg. The cliffs were marked with deli-
cately pale blue lines a foot apart near the
top, closer together near the bottom ; the
intervening bands were white, probably
from containing some air. . . . The strati-
fications of the bergs being originally hori-
zontal, they were believed to be blocks
riven from the edge of the great antarctic
ice-sheet."

A further conclusion was that the strati-
fication was due to successive accumula-
tions of snow upon a nearly level surface.
There was no evidence that the ice had
passed over uneven surfaces, nor was there
upon the bergs any trace of debris, such as
might fall from elevated cliffs. The snow

632

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon the surface of the bergs was of daz-
zling whiteness, but, in places, faint discol-
orations, due not to earthy matter, but to
the presence of birds, were observed. . Prof.
Thomson concludes that the ice from which
the bergs were broken was found upon low,
level land that was surrounded by shallow
water.

Although no debris were seen upon the
bergs, it is quite certain that large quantities
of them were held in their under portions,
whence they dropped into the sea, as such
deposits were continually brought up by
the dredge.

Prof. Thomson suggests that the in-
crease of glaciers in thickness may be lim-
ited by melting at their under surface from
pressure of the mass. A column of ice,
1,400 feet high, he estimates to lie upon the
ground with a pressure of nearly a quarter
of a ton to each square inch of surface, nor
does he find reason to doubt that the tem-
perature of the earth's surface beneath the
glacier is about 32°. He cites the fact that
from beneath glaciers in Greenland muddy
streams are continually discharged. It is
possible, therefore, that the antarctic gla-
ciers, covering vast level tracts, are pre-
vented from accumulating to a thickness
much exceeding 1,400 feet, by waste in the
bottom portions, where constant melting
and regelation are going on.

On the chart of the American explorer,
Lieutenant Wilkes, a position is given for
what he called Termination Land. On close-
ly approaching the spot, no land was found,
and Prof. Thomson was " forced to the con-
clusion that Lieutenant Wilkes was in error."

The interesting fact was revealed by
soundings that a layer of water 300 fathoms
below the surface was warmer by several
degrees than water at the surface, and it
was ascertained that the heat increased
northward. Hence it was concluded that
the source of the warm water was north-
ward, and that it may have been deflected
by the southward projection of continental
lands, turning southward currents which
have their origin in the " great drift-cur-
rent which sweeps round the globe."

Animals and Steam-Engiues. — A writer
in Dinglev^s Polytechnisches Journal, in not-
ing the behavior of different animals tow-

ard the steam-engine, remarks upon the
dexterity with which dogs run about among
the wheels of a departing railway-train with-
out suffering the least injury, whereas a
host of railway workmen annually lose their
lives. On the other hand, the ox, a pro-
verbially stupid animal, continues standing
composedly on the rails, having no idea of
the danger which threatens him, and is run
over. Many kinds of birds seem to have a
peculiar delight in the steam-engine. It
has often happened that larks have built
their nests and reared their young under
the switches of a much -traveled railway.
In engine-houses the swallow is a frequent
guest. In a certain mill, where a noisy,
three hundred horse-power engine works
night and day, two pairs of swallows have
built their nests for years, and rear their
young there regularly. A case of almost
incredible trustfulness on the part of swal-
lows occurred in the early part of last year,
when a pair of these birds built in the pad-
dle-box of a steamer, and regularly made
the journeys from Pesth to Semlin. The
author concludes with this caustic remark :
" I have never yet found any animal at home
in the boiler-house. Even the dog steers
clear of boilers. It is almost as if the low-
er animals knew what an amount of stu-
pidity and folly appears in our construction
of boilers."

Prof. Dana on Cephalization. — The fifth
of Prof. Dana's interesting papers on" Ceph-
alization " is published in the American
Journal of Science and Arts for October.
The author's thesis here is that cephalization
is a fundamental principle in the develop-
ment of the system of animal life. As the
animal grade rises, there is a compacting of
structure in both the fore and hinder parts
of the body. Of mammals the lowest forms
are those having their locomotive functions
in the posterior parts of the body, while in
the higher forms the forces or force-organs
are more and more forward in the structure.
There are large size and strength behind in
low forms, but a compacting of these and a
better head in the higher.

The head becomes more and more the
centre of nervous energy or force as devel-
opment goes on, and this is to be seen in
the specific forms of Nature. "Here form,"

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

633

says the author, " is with some limitations
an expression of force."

Cephalization is shown both in embryon-
ic development and in the progress of life
in geological history. The law is fur-
ther illustrated by the discoveries of Prof.
Marsh, from which it appears that the
brains of the great mammals of the early
Tertiary were very much smaller than those
of allied species of recent time. Thus the
brain of the dinoceras, of the Eocene, was
not more than one-eighth the size of that
of the modern rhinoceros, showing an im-
mense development of the brain, while the
bulk of the animals has decreased. We
have also a development of those features
of both form and capacity which are char-
acteristic of brain-power.

The increase of the brain and nervous
system may arise, the author suggests, from
the fact that this part of the structure comes
in contact with outside and inside Nature,
and is the means by which the animal has
communication with the outer and inner
world, and with its own inner workings and
appetites. This constant and energetic use
of the brain may have given to it its won-
derful growth and strength since Eocene
times.

But brain-progress could not have tak-
en place without structural progress, and
structural changes have been determined
by it. Brain-force reacts upon and modi-
fies both form and structure.

It is not claimed by the author that the
theory of cephalization accounts for all the
types of structure found in the animal
world, but only that whatever these types
may have been in course of development
they were in general subordination to the
principle of cephalization. " The origin of
the grander types of structure," writes
Prof. Dana, " must be connected with the
profoundest of molecular laws ; and how
connected man may never know. These
views may hold, whatever be the true meth-
od of evolution. The method by repeated
creations should be subordinated, as much
as any other, to molecular law and all laws
of growth; for molecular law is the pro-
foundest expression of the Divine will.
But the present state of science favors the
view of progress through the derivation of
species from species, with few occasions
for Divine intervention. If, then, there has

been derivation of species from species,
we may believe that all actual struggles and
rivalries among animals leading to 'sur-
vival of the fittest ' must tend, as in man,
to progress in cephalization and dependent
structural changes."

On the Origin of Prairies. — Having
shown, in an article which we noticed in the
December number of the Monthly, the
untenableness of the current hypotheses
with regard to the origin of prairies, Prof.
J. D. Whitney now presents, in the Amer-
ican Naturalist, a theory of his own. He
finds, as the result of a great number of
observations made over all the prairie States,
that almost without exception absence of
forests is connected with extreme fineness
of soil, and that this fine material usually
occurs in heavy deposits. " No person,"
he remarks, " can have traveled through
Southern Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, or Mis-
souri, without having had everywhere occa-
sion to observe that the prairie-soil is ex-
ceedingly fine and deep ; there are whole
counties in Iowa in which not a single peb-
ble can be found." The distribution of the
timbered and prairie tracts in Wisconsin
affords a good test of the correctness of the
author's hypothesis. In the northern part
of the State is a region of dense forest,
though this is not a region of large precipi-
tation. It is, however, heavily covered
with coarse dettital materials, plentifully
distributed from the headquarters of the
drift on Lake Superior. The rocks under-
lying the drift-deposits are crystalline, be-
longing to the Azoic series, and the surface
is rough and broken, being intersected with
low ridges and knobs of granite and trap.
South of this is a large area, occupying the
central portion of the State, and extending
as far as the Wisconsin River, almost ex-
clusively occupied by a very pure siliceous
sandstone, which is wrapped about the
Azoic region, extending in a northeasterly
direction to the Menomonee River, and
northwest to the falls of the St. Croix.
This great sandstone-covered area is the
pine-district of the State, while south of
the Wisconsin is the region of oak-open-
ings and prairies. When we reach these
treeless tracts we have got entirely beyond
the drift-covered area, and are upon a soil
made up of the insoluble residuum left from

634

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the disintegration of several feet in thick-
ness of limestone and dolomite, which have
been dissolved out and carried away by the
rain.

Albertite. — This substance, now largely
consumed as an enricher of illuminating
gas, is thus described in a recent number
of the Iron Age :

" A very curious mineral known as albertite
is found in New Brunswick. It occurs in con-
nection with calcareo-bituniinous shales, and
has been by some regarded as true coal, by oth-
ers as a variety of jet, and by others again as
more nearly related to asphaltum. The true na-
ture of the mineral was made the basis of a law-
suit in Scotland a few years ago, in which the
amount involved was something more than a
million pounds sterling, as the decision settled
the question of the liability to pay a royalty. It
resembles asphaltum very closely, being very
black, brittle, and lustrous, and, like asphaltum,
is destitute of structure, but differs from it in
fusibility and in its relation to various solvents.
It differs from true coal in being of one quality
throughout, in containing no traces of vegeta-
ble tissues, and in its mode of occurrence as a
vein and not as a bed. The vein occupies an ir-
regular and nearly vertical fissure, and varies
from one inch to 17 feet in thickness. It has
been mined to the depth of 1,162 feet. The ac-
companying shales are abundantly filled with
the remains of fossil fishes, and it is not im-
probable that from these, in part at least, the
mineral was derived, existing at first in a fluid
or semi-fluid state. Vegetable remains are al-
most entirely wanting in the shales. During
twelve years since the discovery there have been
shipped 154,800 tons of albertite, chiefly to the
United States, where it has been used for the
manufacture of oil, and for the admixture with
bituminous coal in the manufacture of illuminat-
ing gas. It is admirably adapted for either of
these purposes, yielding lOO-pallons of crude oil,
or 14,500 cubic feet of gas of superior illuminat-
ing power per ton."

Singular Feeding Habits of Wood-Ants.

— Mr. McCook, of the Academy of Nat-
ural Sciences of Philadelphia, has pub-
lished in, the " Proceedings " of that body
some highly-interesting observations on the
habits of Formica rufa, from which it ap-
pears that these ants have in their separate
communities regular provision made where-
by the workers are fed without having to quit
the scene of their labors. The foragers of
a community, as they come down the tree-
paths, their abdomens swollen with honey-
dew — in which condition they are called by
the author rcplctcs — are arrested near the

foot by workers from the hill seeking food.
The replete rears upon her hind-legs, and
places her mouth to the mouth of the hun-
gry worker, or " pensioner," as the author
calls him, who assumes the same posture.
Often two, sometimes three pensioners are
thus fed at once by one replete. The latter
commonly yields the honey-dew complacent-
ly, but sometimes she is seized and arrested
by the pensioner, occasionally with great
vigor. The author described a number of
experiments leading to the conclusion that
there was complete amity between the ants
of a district embracing some 1,600 hills
and countless millions of creatures. Insects
from hills widely separated always frater-
nized completely when transferred. It was
found, however, that ants immersed in water,
when replaced upon the hills, are invariably
attacked as enemies ; the assailants being
immersed were themselves in turn assaulted.
Experiments indicate that the bath tempo-
rarily destroys the peculiar odor or other
property by which the insects recognize
their fellows.

How Meteorites were regarded in Olden
Times. — There was a noteworthy fall of me-
teorites in Berkshire, England, in the year
1628, and devout persons with one accord
seem to have looked on the phenomenon as
a special act of Divine Providence. The
meteorites are " the arrows of God's indig-
nation," and he is entreated " to shoote them
some other way, upon the bosomes of those
that would confound his Gospell." One
Mistress Green had the courage to order
one of these heaven-sent " thunder-stones"
to be dug out of the ground, and a chroni-
cler of the time gives a description of it.
The chronicler himself had little sympathy
with the curiosity of Mrs. Green, for he
warns his readers against being " so daring
as to pry into the closet of God's determina-
tions. His workes are full of wonders, and
not to be examined." A letter written by an
eye-witness of this fall of meteorites well
illustrates the devout credulity of the time.
It opens with the following passage : " The
cause of my writing to you at this time is
by reason of an accident that the Lord sent
among us. I have heard of the Lord by
the hearing of the ear, as the prophet speak-
eth, but now mine eyes hath seen him. You

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

635

will marvel that I write thus, for no man
hath seen God at any time, yet in his works
we see him daily, but now after a more spe-
cial manner." Then, after giving a clear
account of the whole occurrence, the writer
concludes with an exhortation to unbeliev-
ers : " Now let the atheist stand amazed at
this work of the Lord." In certain districts
of Berkshire there is still a tradition of the
fall of these meteorites, and old people
speak of it as such an event as to have
created a belief at the time that " the world
was coming to an end."

Education in the Pnblic Schools of Mas-
sachusetts.— Mr. Wendell Phillips recent-
ly delivered an address on the subject of
education, in which occurred the follow-
ing remarks upon the value of the intel-
lectual training a girl receives in the pub-
lic schools of Massachusetts : " The public
schools teach her arithmetic, philosophy,
trigonometry, geometry, music, botany, and
history, and all that class of knowledge.
Seven out of ten of them, remember, are to
earn their bread by the labor of their hands.
Well, at fifteen, we give that child back to
her parents utterly unfitted for any kind of
work that is worth a morsel of bread. If
the pupil could only read the ordinary news-
paper to three auditors it would be some-
thing, but this the scholar so educated, so
produced, cannot do. I repeat it : four-
fifths of the girls you present to society at
fifteen cannot read a page intelligibly." But
the current system of school-education is
faulty and defective no less with regard to
boys than with regard to girls, for, as Mr.
Phillips further observes, "we produce only
the superficial result of the culture we strive
for. Now, I claim that this kind of educa-
tion injures the boy or girl in at least three
ways : first, they are able, only by forget-
ting what they have learned and beginning
again, to earn their day's bread; in the
second place, it is earned reluctantly ; third,
there is no ambition for perfection aroused.
It seems to be a fact, which many of the
public educators of to-day overlook, that
seven-tenths of the people born into this
world earn their living on matter and not
on mind. Now, friends, I protest against
this whole system of common schools in
Massachusetts. It lacks the first element

of preparation for life. We take the young
girl or the young boy whose parents are
able to lift them into an intellectual profes-
sion ; we keep them until they are eighteen
years old in the high schools ; we teach them
the sciences; they go to the academy or the
college to pursue some course of prepara-
tion for their presumed course through life.
Why not keep them a little longer and give
them other than intellectual training for the
business of life ? "

Influence of Color of Soil on Potatoes. —

Having observed that potatoes grown in
dark-colored soil are less subject to disease
than those grown in soil of lighter color,
Mr. J. B. Hannay, member of the Edinburgh
Royal Society, conjectured that the dif-
ference must be due to the greater absorp-
tion of heat by the darker soil. He ac-
cordingly made the following experiment :
A piece of ground, consisting of a kind of
blue till, was divided into two parts, both
being planted with potatoes in the ordinary
way. One of the parts was then covered
with soot, which had been carefully washed
till no soluble matter remained in it ; the
other part was left as planted. The pota-
toes in the soot-covered portion sprouted
first, and throughout were much healthier
than the others. The temperature of both
portions was from time to time noted on
sunny days with the following result :

From this table it clearly appears that
the potatoes grown in dark soil have a
warmer climate, so to speak, than those in
a light one. The tubers with no soot were
weak, and had a great deal of disease among
them, while the other lot were nearly all
healthy.

Chemical examination showed the prin-

636

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cipal inorganic constituents to be present
in both in about the same proportions.
There was a marked difference, however,
between the two in the development of the
starch- granules. In the potatoes grown
under soot there was 22.5 per cent, of
starch, but in the others only 17.5 per cent.
— a difference of 5 per cent. Then, as for
the size of the starch-granules in the good
potatoes, the average was 0.175 millimetre ;
but in the diseased tubers it was only 0.155
millimetre. Thus it is seen that not only
were the granules smaller, but their number
was less. The inference is, that increase
of temperature gives a great impetus to
the growth of starch-granules both in size
and number.

Asymmetry of the Eyes in Flounders. —

The American Naturalist for December con-
tains a singularly interesting paper by Prof.
Alexander Agassiz on flounders, in which the
author recounts his observations upon the
manner in which the eyes, in that family of
fishes, become placed on one side of the
body. In five species of flounders he found
that the eye on the blind side travels from
its original place (symmetrical with the eye
of the opposite side) frontward and upward
on the blind side, resorbing the tissues in
its way, and new tissues forming behind.
This movement of translation is followed by
a certain amount of torsion of the whole
frontal part of the head, which, however,
commences only after the eye of the blind
side has nearly reached the upper edge of
that side, quite a distance in advance of its
original position. So far, Agassiz's observa-
tions concur, in the main, with the received
theory. Further research, however, showed
that the process of translation of the eye is
not the same in all species of flounders.
Having captured specimens about one inch
in length, symmetrical and perfectly trans-
parent, of the species Bascania, the author
noticed after a few days that " one eye, the
right, moved its place somewhat toward the
upper part of the body, so that when the
young fish was laid on its side the upper
half of the right eye could be plainly seen,
through the perfectly transparent body, to
project above the left eve The right eye (as
is the case with the eyes of all flounders), be-
ing capable of very extensive vertical move-

ments through an arc of 180°, could thus
readily turn to look through the body,
above the left eye, and see what was pass-
ing on the left side, the right eye being, of
course, useless on its own side as long as
the fish lay on its side. This slight upward
tendency of the right eye was continued in
connection with a motion of translation
toward the anterior part of the head till the
eye, when seen through the body from the
left side, was entirely clear of the left eye,
and was thus placed somewhat in advance
and above it, but still entirely in the rear
of the base of the dorsal fin, extending to
the end of the snout.

" What was my astonishment on the
following day," continues Prof. Agassiz,
" on turning over the young flounder on its
left side, to find that the right eye had
actually sunk into the tissues of the head,
penetrating into the space between the base
of the dorsal fin and the frontal bone to
such an extent that the tissues adjoining
the orbit had slowly closed over a part of
the eye, leaving only a small elliptical open-
ing smaller than the pupil, through which
the right eye could look when the fish was
swimming vertically ! On the following day
the eye had pushed its way still farther
through, so that a small opening now ap-
peared opposite it on the left side, through
which the right eye could now see directly,
the original opening on the right side be-
ing almost entirely closed. Soon after, this
new opening on the left increased gradually
in size, the right eye pushing its way more
and more to the surface, and finally looking
outward on the left side with as much free-
dom as the eye originally on the left, the
opening of the right side having perma-
nently closed."

Destruction of Birds in the Tutted States.

— In the course of an article in the Perm
Monthly on the decrease of birds in the
United States, Mr. J. A. Allen says of the
heron that, though nearly useless as food,
it has been enormously diminished in num-
bers, mostly through natural causes, but in
part by the wanton act of man. " Many,"
he writes, " have of late been destroyed for
their feathers in Florida especially ; the
havoc made with these poor defenseless
birds is a subject of painful contemplation

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

637

and a disgrace to the age. The poor birds
are attacked at their breeding-grounds, and
hundreds are slain in a few hours by single
parties, whose only use of them is to secure
the beautiful plumes with which Nature has
unfortunately adorned them. In this way
colony after colony is broken up, the great-
er part of the birds being actually killed
on the spot, often leaving nestlings to suffer
a lingering death by starvation. The few
old birds that survive usually abandon the
locality where for generations their progeni-
tors had lived and reared their young undis-
turbed, only to be attacked at some new
point the following year. The habit most
of the species of herons have of breeding
together in communities renders their de-
struction during nesting-time an easy mat-
ter, their strong parental affection leading
them to be neglectful of their own safety
when their young are in danger. Disgrace-
ful and inhuman as the act may seem, many
a heronry of the qua-bird, or night-heron,
is annually destroyed in mere wantonness,
in order that the perpetrator may boast of
the ' cart-load' of birds he shot in a single
day ! "

The Plasticity of Ice. — Experiments
made in 1871 by Prof. Bianconi, of Bo-
logna, showed that slow changes of form
in ice may be produced without any crush-
ing or regelation, and that ice is, to a cer-
tain extent, plastic. He has lately pub-
lished the results of further experiments on
this subject, a brief notice of which is giv-
en in Nature as follows : " Granite pebbles
and iron plates are slowly pressed into ice
at the same temperatures, and not only do
they penetrate into it as they would pene-
trate into a fluid or semi-fluid, but also the
particles of ice are laterally repulsed from
beneath the intruding body, and form around
it a rising fringe. Moreover, when a flat
piece of iron is pressed into the ice, the
fringe rising around it expands laterally
upon the borders of the piece, and tends
thus, as in fluids, to fill up the cavity made
by the body driven in. These experiments
tend greatly to illustrate the plasticity of
ice, but it would be very desirable that some
measurements should be given, so as to ob-
tain numerical values of the plasticity of
ice under various circumstances."

Perils of Arctic Exploration. — Lieutenant
Payer, one of the commanders of the Aus-
trian Polar Expedition of 1872-74, in his
published narrative gives a graphic account
of the perilous situation in which the expe-
dition found itself on Sunday, October 13,
1872. "In the morning of that day," he
writes, " as we sat at breakfast, our floe
burst across immediately under the ship.
Rushing on deck, we discovered that we
were surrounded and squeezed by the ice ;
the after-part of the ship was already nipped
and pressed, and the rudder, which was the
first to encounter its assault, shook and
groaned ; but, as its great weight did not
admit of its being shipped, we were content
to lash it firmly. We next sprang on the
ice, the tossing, tremulous motion of which
literally filled the air with noises as of
shrieks and howls, and we quietly got on
board all the materials which were lying on
the floe, and bound the fissures of the ice
hastily together by ice-anchors and cables,
filling them up with snow, in the hope that
frost would complete our work, though we
felt that a single heave might shatter our
labors. . . . Mountains threateningly reared
themselves from out the level fields of ice,
and the low groan which issued from its
depths grew into a deep, rumbling sound,
and at last rose into a furious howl as of
myriads of voices. Noise and confusion
reigned supreme, and step by step destruc-
tion drew nigh in the crashing together of
the fields of ice. Our floe was now crushed,
and its blocks, piled up into mountains,
drove hither and thither. Here they tow-
ered fathoms high above the ship ; there
masses of ice fell down as into an abyss
under the ship, to be ingulfed in the rush-
ing waters, so that the quantity of ice be-
neath the ship was continually increased,
and at last it began to raise her quite above
the level of the sea."

The Coal and Iron Resources of Ala-
bama.— The coal and iron resources of Ala-
bama were the subject of a recent interest-
ing communication by Mr. William Gesner
to the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia. According to the author, the
coal-measures of the Warrior and Cahawba
coal-fields consist severally of 172 and 173
strata. The coal-seams, which range from

633

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

one inch to six feet six inches in thickness,
number 46 in the Warrior and 51 in the
Cahawba field. Two beds of black-band ore
characterize the Warrior measures, one of
them showing 43 per cent, of metallic iron ;
clay iron-stone is abundant, and is found in
all the Alabama coal-fields. In one instance
it forms the roof of a 28-inch bed of coal
in the Warrior measures. Immediately un-
der the mountain limestone of the car-
boniferous formation in the Upper Silurian,
a bed of fossiliferous hematite occurs. It
extends in a northern direction over 120
miles into Tennessee. In Jefferson County,
Alabama, its thickness is 28 feet. About
two or three miles east and west of this ore-
bed lie the coal-fields. For its entire ex-
tent throughout the State, and immediately
under it, are the limestones of the Silurian
formation, among which are many of the
purest and those best adapted for fluxing
iron from its ores. Geologically, in de-
scending order, next come the immense beds
of brown ore, comprising manganiferous
and fibrous limonite and mamillary and crys-
tallized hematite, from which hitherto nearly
all of the iron of Alabama has been pro-
duced.

The Physical Properties of Gallium.—

The physical properties of gallium, as as-
certained by its discoverer, Lecoq de Bois-
baudran, who has prepared a decigramme
of nearly pure metal, are summed up as fol-
lows in the American Journal of Science:
Its fusing-point is about 29.5 Cent., so that
the heat of the hand liquefies it. When
liquid, it exhibits the phenomena of sur-
fusion to a remarkable degree. It has re-
mained liquid for more than a month, the
globule being frequently broken and re-
united by a steel blade in a room the
temperature of which often fell below the
freezing-point, Contact with a bit of solid
gallium, however, solidified it at once. Li-
quid gallium is very mobile, appears cov-
ered with a pellicle when exposed to the
air, and adheres strongly to glass. Only a
few degrees below its fusing-point the metal
is hard and remarkably tenacious ; but, like
aluminum, it may be cut with a knife. It
crystallizes with facility, crystal facets be-
ingdevelopedbytreatment with hydrochloric
acid. It does not oxidize at a red heat except
upon the surface, and does not volatilize.

Its spark-spectrum gives the two well-known
bright lines of wave-length 417 and 403.1 ;
its flame-spectrum only the 417 line, and
this difficultly. Its density approximately
is 4.7, thus placing it, like its other physical
properties, between aluminum and indium.
Its atomic weight places it there probably
also.

Death of Karl Ernst von Baer.— The
eminent Russian zoologist, Karl Ernst von
Baer, died at Dorpat, November 28th, in
the eighty-fifth year of his age. He was
born at Piep, in Esthonia, in 1792 ; at the
age of eighteen he entered the University
of Dorpat, graduating four years later as
doctor of medicine. He then went to Ger-
many, and, at Wurzburg, became a pupil of
Dollinger, the eminent professor of physi-
ology and anatomy. This was the turning-
point in Yon Baer's career, and determined
the course of his future studies. In 1817
he became prosector at Konigsberg, and,
four years later, professor of zoology. In
1830 he returned home, having been elected
a member of the St. Petersburg Imperial
Academy. He conducted a scientific ex-
ploration of the northern shores of Russia
in 1837. Of his most celebrated work,
" The Development History of Animals,"
the first volume appeared in 1828 and the
second ten years later. He was also the
author of numerous treatises on the zoolosv

On

and botany of Russia. His latest work was
an adverse criticism on the Darwinian the-
ory.

The death of Alexander Bain, which
took place at Glasgow, January 2d, was
cabled to this country, and at once in-
terpreted as applying to the eminent Pro-
fessor of Logic in Aberdeen University,
who bears that name, and who is much
more widely known here than Alexan-
der Bain, the electrician, to whom the
dispatch referred. He was an inventor,
and made various important improvements
in telegraphy. He invented, or reinvented,
the method of making use of " bodies of
natural waters to complete the electric cir-
cuit by laying a single insulated wire be-
tween the given stations, having at each end
a metallic brush immersed in the water."
This principle was promulgated in a patent
of 1841. In 1846 he patented the electro-

NOTES.

639

chemical telegraph, and soon found his sys-
tem capable of great speed ; he was thus
led to the invention of automatic methods
of transmitting signals, of which one is the
basis of the most important process now
used. He invented electrical clocks, and
in 1843 constructed the earth-battery. In
1844 he patented ingenious apparatus for
registering the progress of ships, and he
also devised electrical methods of playing
keyed instruments at a distance. He was
struck down with paralysis some years
ago, and died, at the age of sixty-six, in a
" Home for Incurables." A Government
pension of eighty pounds a year was all
that saved him from pauperism.

NOTES.

Mr. Seth Green, of Rochester, Fish-
eries Commissioner, announces that he is
ready to supply brook and salmon trout to
persons who desire the same for the pur-
pose of restocking the waters of the State
of New York. Applicants must remit to
Mr. Green money to pay the traveling ex-
penses of a messenger, and full directions as
to the route to oe tasen.

Benjamin It. Tucker, of New Bedford,
Massachusetts, proposes to issue, early in
the present year, the first number of a
quarterly periodical, to be known as the
Radical Review, and modeled after the
Fortnightly and the Contemporary Review
of London. The list of contributors in-
cludes the names of many of the foremost
American radicals. The subscription price
will be $5 per annum.

In an address before the Illinois Wool-
Growers' Association, Mr. George Lawrence,
Jr., of Wisconsin, asserted that merino
sheep, taken from Vermont to Wisconsin,
show a marked improvement in many re-
spects when bred in the latter State. They
have a larger carcass, are heavier boned,
quality and quantity of fleece are equal if not
superior, and they are more hardy, than
their Vermont ancestors.

The Bulgarian Turk of the lower class
believes that a railway-engine is driven,
not by steam-power, but by a devil. A
young devil is trapped in England, shut up
in the " fire-box on wheels," and bribed to
work the crank by the occasional gift of a
little cold water to mitigate his torture.

M. Drouyn de Lhuys, President of the
French Agricultural Society, has issued a
circular to similar bodies in foreign coun-
tries, announcing that the society intends to

organize an International Agricultural Con-
gress to assemble at Paris during the Expo-
sition of 1878.

The award of the London Royal Soci-
ety's medals for 18*76 was as follows: To
Claude Bernard, the Copley Medal for phys-
iological researches ; a Royal Medal to Wil-
liam Froude, for researches on the behavior
of ships ; Royal Medal to Sir C. Wyville
Thomson, for services on board the Chal-
lenger ; Rumford Medal to P. J. C. Janssen,
for researches in the radiation and absorp-
tion of light.

Prof. Osborne Reynolds, in reply to
some newspapers which have pronounced
the British Arctic Expedition a failure,
calls attention to the fact that, since Hud-
son's time, arctic navigators had penetrated
60 or 70 miles of the 540 to be passed on
the route to the pole. But Captain Nares
has in one year carried the British flag 60
miles nearer, so that "nearly one-half, and
this by far the most difficult half, of the en-
tire results of all expeditions since Hud-
son's time, has been accomplished by the
last." Further, Captain (now Sir George)
Nares seems to have pursued his journey
to its endr at least by that route ; and in
coming back can say that he did not leave
a single uncertainty behind him.

A very valuable mine of silver has re-
cently been discovered at Harbor Island,
Newfoundland, near the public wharf.

An act of the Parliament of the Do-
minion of Canada grants an additional
quarter-section of land, on payment of a
trifling fee, to every settler on Dominion
lands who plants with trees thirty-two
acres in successive annual installments.

Dr. A. E. Foote has established at
3725 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, an
agency for the sale and exchange of nat-
ural-history specimens, including minerals,
botanical and zoological forms, fossils, pre-
historic relics, etc. He issues a monthly
bulletin containing the needed pai'ticulais,
and which may be obtained on application.

An eminent scientific professor, inter-
ested in the state of science-education in
our colleges, has been looking into the
subjects of their use of text-books. He
collected catalogues from 187 colleges, and
gleaned from them the following statistics
regarding the physical and chemical text-
books employed. For physics, the text-
books ran thus : Olmsted in 48 colleges,
Ganot in 33, Silliman in 16, Steele in 15,
Deschanel in 12, Rolfe and Gillette in 11,
Wells in 8, Norton in 8 ; the others scat-
tering. The preferences for chemistry ran
as follows : Youmans in 37 colleges, Eliot
and Storer in 28, Barker in 24, Roscoe in
18, Steele in 18,Fownes in 13, Wells in 10;
others scattering.

640

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A tame crow, in the possession of a
writer in the Nuttall Ornithological Club
Bulletin, rids himself of parasites in a very
ingenious way. He takes his stand on an
ant-hill, and permits the ants to crawl over
him and carry away the troublesome ver-
min. The same habit was observed in an-
other tame crow formerly in the author's
possession.

Died in Indianapolis, December 12,
1876, Prof. Herbert E. Copeland, aged
twenty-seven years. His scientific studies
were commenced at Cornell University,
where he devoted himself chiefly to nat-
ural history, graduating Ph. B. in 1872.
He then became, successively, principal of
an academy at Ravenswood, Illinois, and
Professor of Natural Sciences in the nor-
mal school at Whitewater Wisconsin, and
in the high-school at Indianapolis. His
premature death was the result of exposure
while studying the ichthyology of the State
of Indiana in company with Prof. Jordan.

It is proposed in California to establish
at numerous points in the State experiment-
stations for the purpose of accurately de-
termining sundry agricultural problems,
such as the nature of the soils of different
localities, the best mode of maintaining and
restoring productiveness, etc.

A fearful epizootic prevailed last fall
among the horses of Egypt. On the 18th
of September 200 horses died in Cairo
alone. The army-horses were specially
afflicted, and 50 per cent, of them had died
before the end of September. The carcasses
were transported into the desert and thrown
into those enormous bone-quarries of which
we can have no idea here. But many were
cast into the canals, and the consequences
may be disastrous. It is supposed that
this equine plague came from Abyssinia.

Prof. Leidy, in dredging the bottom of
the Schuylkill near its mouth, was surprised
to observe that no living thing whatever
was brought up, the mud and sand being
black and saturated with bituminous oil.
The refuse of the city gas-works and proba-
bly of some coal-oil refineries run into the
river. The oils appear to have an affinity
for the suspended particles of clay, and the
result is a bituminous sediment. In the
same manner oils from decomposing ani
mals, and also from certain plants, may have
supplied the sedimentary muds of ancient
shales.

A radiometer, in the shop of a Paris
optician, during the first two weeks of De-
cember, twice stopped entirely in the daytime
— viz., on the 8th, during a thunder-storm,
and on the 13th, during a fog. The instru-
ment varied considerably as to the moment
of daily commencing to revolve— the ex-
tremes being 8.15 and 10.25 a. m. The

time of stopping was far less irregular — the
variation being only from 3.30 to 4 p. m.

Most of the monthly educational jour-
nals in the Western States have been con-
solidated to form one strong weekly — the
National Journal of Education, published
in Chicago. The editors are W. F. Phelps,
editor-in-chief, Prof. E. Olney, and others.
Special editors will be employed to conduct
special departments. The subscription price
of the Journal is $2.50 per year.

In the hope of eliciting further informa-
tion concerning the breeding-habits of the
American kinglets (Regulus), or at least of
putting observers upon the alert for further
information, Mr. Ernest Ingersoll publishes,
in the November number of the Bulletin of
the Nuttall Ornithological Club, a paper in
which is brought together whatever is at
present known respecting the nidification
of these birds.

In consequence of the extraordinary pre-
cautions taken last Fourth of July, the losses
by fire from the use of fire-works were less
than usual on that anniversary ; but the
losses so caused were nevertheless enor-
mous. In the report of the National Board
of Underwriters it is stated that the invoice
value of all fire-crackers imported since
January 1, 1875, is less than $1,500,000,
and that the loss by two conflagrations
traceable directly to them amounts to up-
ward of $15,000,000 ! It is considered to
be not an extravagant statement that every
dollar's worth of fire-crackers imported into
this country occasions a direct loss by fire
of more than $100.

In order to reduce to the minimum the
danger to health incurred by workmen em-
ployed in the manufacture cf white-lead,
the British Inspector of Factories recom-
mends that clothes, gloves, and caps, should
be provided for the employes to be worn in
the works ; water-proof boots for those
working with the moist white-lead, and res-
pirators for those working with the dry
white-lead. Besides, no workman should
be allowed to leave the works unwashed, or
in the factory-dress.

There appears to be at present a con-
siderable degree of religious fermentation
in Russia, and sects of all kinds are daily
springing up. One of these new sects, the
Philipovtzi preach suicide by fire and star-
vation as the greatest of Christian virtues.
The " Child-Murderers " think it their duty
to people paradise with the souls of inno-
cent children. The " Stranglers " believe
that people can only enter paradise by a
violent death. Other sects are the " Flag-
ellants " and the " Skoptzi," or mutilates.
The Skoptzi number about 100,000 persons
of both sexes.

WILLIAM CROOKED F. R. S.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

APRIL, 1877.

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE.1

By Peofessoe JOHN TYNDALL, F. E. S.

A

YEAR ago I had the honor of bringing; before the members of
the Royal Institution some account of an investigation in which
an attempt was made to show that the power of atmospheric air to
develop life in organic infusions — infusions, for instance, extracted
from meat or vegetables — and its power to scatter light went hand-in-
hand. I then endeavored to show you that atmospheric air, when
left to itself, exercised a power of self-purification ; that the dust and
floating matter that we ordinarily see in it disappeared when the air
was left perfectly tranquil; and that, when the air had thus purified
itself, the power of scattering light and the power of generating life
had disappeared together. For the sake of reminding you of this
matter, we will now cause a beam of the lamp to pass through the
air. You see the track of the beam vividly in the air. You know
that the visibility of the track is not due to the air itself. If the
floating matter were removed from the air, you would not be able to
track the beam through the room at all. You see the track in conse-
quence of the floating dust suspended in the air. If the air be inclosed
in a place free from agitation the dust subsides, and then, as I en-
deavored to show you a year ago, the air possesses no power of gener-
ating life in organic infusions. The nature of the argument is this :
You see the dust as plainly as if it were placed upon your hand, and
you could feel it with your fingers. You found that the dust, when
it sowed itself in organic infusions, produced a definite crop in those
infusions ; and you are equally justified in inferring that the crop thus
produced is due to the germs in the dust, as a gardener would be in
believing that a certain crop is produced from the seeds which he

1 A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, on Friday, January 19, 187*7.
vol. x. — 41

642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sows. I say that the inference that his crop is the product of the
seeds that he sows is not more certain than the inference that those
crops produced in the organic infusions are due to the seeds contained
in them.

You know the method that we resorted to for the purpose of
enabling us to get rid of this dust. The object was, to allow the air
to purify itself, and it was done in this way : I have here the first
chamber that was used in these experiments. You see at the bottom
a series of test-tubes entering the chamber; they are air-tight, and
they open into it. There are windows at the sides, and here is a
pipette through which the liquids can be introduced. Behind we
have a door which opens upon its hinges. Now, imagine this per-
fectly closed ; imagine it abandoned entirely to itself, left perfectly
quiet. In a few days, the floating dust of the air contained in the
chamber entirely disappears — it has removed itself by its own subsi-
dence— and then, when you send a beam of light such as we have
here through these windows, you see no track of the beam within the
chamber. When the air is in this condition, you pour through this
pipette infusions of beef, mutton, or vegetables, into these tubes, and
allow them to be acted upon by the air. Last year, between fifty
and sixty of these chambers were constructed, and the invariable
result was that these infusions never putrefied, never showed any
change, were perfectly sweet months after they were placed there, as
long as the air had this floating matter removed. You had nothing
to do but to open the back-door and allow the dust-laden air to enter
the chamber to cause these infusions to fall into a state of putrefaction,
and swarm with microscopic life, in three days after opening the door.
I have a smaller chamber here — for we use chambers of different sizes
— and it will enable you to understand our exact process. (See Fig.
1.) You see here the stand on which the chamber rests. There are
two bent tubes that communicate with the outer atmosphere, for I
wish to have a free communication between the air outside and the
air within. You see the pipette through which the tube is filled.
When the infusion is poured in, you place it in an oil-bath contained
in a copper vessel, such as we have here, in which you boil it for five
minutes. Now, that boiling for five minutes was found capable of
sterilizing every germ contained in the infusions placed in these cham-
bers. This year our experiments began by a continuation of those
that we made last year. In' order to enable you to judge of the
severity of the results obtained last year, I have here five cases belong-
ing to the experiments then made. You will see that the infusions
are vastly concentrated because of their slow evaporation. The
quantity of liquid is reduced to one-fifth of its primitive volume, but
this one-fifth is as clear as rock-crystal; whereas, the tubes exposed
to the ordinary air outside fell long ago into utter putrefaction. They
became turbid and covered with scum, and when you examine these

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE. 643

infusions to ascertain the cause of that turbidity, you find it to be
produced by swarms of small active organisms.

This year our inquiries began in the month of September. But
we will pass over these inquiries for the moment and go to those of
October. On October 29th, two members of the Royal Institution
collected a quantity of fungi in Heathfield Park, Sussex. These were

Fig. 1.

brought to London on the 30th. They were placed for three hours
in warm water, and, whatever juices they possessed, were thus ex-
tracted from them. They were placed in chambers and digested sep-
arately. There were three kinds of fungi ; we will call them red,
yellow, and black. Now, I confess that, thinking I had secured a
perfect freedom from any invasion of those contaminating organisms
that produce putrefaction, I expected that we should find that these
infusions of fungus would maintain themselves perfectly clear. To
my surprise, in three days the whole of them broke down ; they be-
came turbid, and covered by a peculiar fatty, deeply indented, corru-
gated scum. Well, that was a result not expected, but I pursued the
matter further. I got another supply of fungi. Even in this first
experiment, I had used care at least as great as that which I adopted
last year, and which led to a perfect immunity from the invasion of
putrefaction. With the fresh supply of fungi, I operated with still
more scrupulous care. The infusions were placed as before in three
chambers. In one of these, the infusion remained perfectly pellucid;

644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

there was no trace of any organism to be seen. In each of the other
chambers one of the three tubes gave way. Each chamber contained
three tubes; so that, out of nine tubes containing an infusion of fun-
gus, seven proved to be intact, entirely uninvaded. Therefore, what-
ever argument or presumption was raised by the first chamber in
regard to the idea that life was spontaneously generated in it, was
entirely destroyed by the deportment of the other chambers. Seven
out of the nine remaining intact, was sufficient to show that it was
some defect in the experiment that caused the first chambers to give
way so utterly. I continued the experiments, and, inasmuch as fungi
disappeared on the approach of winter, other substances were chosen.
I took cucumber and beet-root, having special theoretical reasons for
doing so, and prepared infusions of them with the aid of my excellent
assistant Mr. Cotterell. We placed these in our chambers as before,
boiled them for five minutes, and abandoned them to what I supposed
to be the moteless air within. Again, to my surprise, an infusion of
beet-root in one chamber, and an infusion of cucumber in another,
broke down. All the tubes became turbid and covered with this
peculiar fatty scum. Other chambers were then tried. I had begun
to suspect that we were operating in a contaminated atmosphere ;
that my infusions were in the midst of a pestilence which it was hardly
possible to avoid. The consequence was, that I withdrew the prepa-
ration of the infusions from the laboratory down-stairs, and I went to
one of the highest rooms in the Royal Institution, had the infusions
prepared there, and introduced into the cases, which were afterward
boiled in the laboratory below. There were a great number of these
cases. The substances chosen were cucumber, beet-root, turnip, and
parsnip. Great care was taken to have the infusions properly pre-
pared, and to have them rendered as clear as possible. To give you
an idea of the care taken, I may mention that the infusions of turnip
and beet-root were passed through 24 layers of filtering-paper, and
were thereby rendered clear; that the infusion of cucumber was
passed through 120 layers of filtering-paper, and thereby rendered
clear; and that the infusion of parsnip was passed through 300 layers
of filtering-paper, and it was still opalescent. The suspended particles
were so small that the filtering-paper had no power whatever to arrest
them, and the finest microscope ever made would have proved power-
less to exhibit the individual particles that produced this opalescence.
Notwithstanding all this care, the chambers containing these infusions
in three days became filled with bacterial life. They were turbid,
covered with scum, and showed all evidences of putrefaction. This
was on November 20th. On November 25th we went up-stairs and
prepared another chamber, or a series of chambers. When the tubes
containing the infusions were placed in the oil-bath, the liquids within
the tubes opening into the case of course boiled, steam was discharged
into the case, the air of the case being thereby rendered warm. It

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE. 645

was found that on the cessation of the ebullition, although the pipette
was immediately plugged with cotton-wool, and the bent tubes also
plugged with cotton-wool, still, in consequence of the contraction of
the air within, there was a considerable indraught. Last year, we
found invariably that the interposition of the cotton-wool entirely
sifted this entering air so as to arrest any germs or seeds that it might
contain. I thought, however, in this case, that the germs might be
carried in by the suction when the air of the chamber contracted. In
the former case, we operated after having filled the chamber with the
infusion and boiled it in the laboratory; in this case, we took the
additional precaution of boiling the infusion up-stairs, and taking care
that it was properly plugged with cotton-wool. But here, again, not-
withstanding this augmented care, the infusion utterly gave way, and
showed those evidences of life that had distracted me previously.
When I say distracted, it is not meant that I was in the least degree
daunted or perplexed about it. I knew perfectly well that the matter
would be probed by-and-by. On November 27th a new chamber
was constructed containing cucumber and turnip. Particular care
was taken with the stopping of the pipette, and also the bent tubes
opening into the atmosphere. In one instance, about this time, it was
noticed that the infusions in the tubes within the chamber opening
into the moteless air, or at least what I supposed to be the moteless
air, fell more rapidly into a state of putrefaction, became more rapidly
covered with scum, than the tubes exposed in the air outside. When
the tubes containing precisely the same infusion were exposed to the
air outside, they were perfectly clear, while those within were turbid
and covered with scum. This brought to my mind an experiment
made the previous year with trays placed one above the other.

It was found that, when two trays were placed one above the other,
although the upper tray had the whole air of the room for its germs
to deposit themselves, the under tray was always in advance of the
upper in the development of life. The reason was simply this : The
air in the under tray was less agitated, and this floating matter had
time slowly to sink in the infusions. There was no other solution
possible than that, by some means or other, the germs had insinuated
themselves into my chamber, and that these germs, sinking slowly
through the unagitated air of the chamber, were able to produce the
effect within in advance of the effect produced upon the openly-exposed
tubes without. On November 27th I had a similar case, and also on
November 30th, and on December 1st. The chambers were prepared
and rilled with all care, and yet the infusions broke down, became
turbid, and were covered with scum. I then had a number of tubes
filled with infusions, and sealed them hermetically. They were ex-
posed in an oil-bath, and heated for a quarter of an hour to a tempera-
ture of 230° Fahr., for I wanted to see whether these effects were due
to any germs of life in the infusions themselves. This superheated

6+6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cucuinber-infusion was introduced into tlie chamber, and it was found
that the superheating of the infusion did not even retard the develoj)-
nient of life. In two days every tube of the chamber was swarming
with bacteria. I then passed on to another system of experiment
pursued last year, that is, the exposure- of the infusions to air calcined
by passing a voltaic current through platina-wire, so as to raise the
wire to a state of incandescence. Such arrangements are here. We
have underneath this shade two wires, and stretching from wire to
wire we have a spiral of platinum. Passing a voltaic current through
the spiral, it was found last year that five minutes of incandescence
were sufficient entirely to sterilize and destroy all germs contained in
this air, and to protect the infusions underneath from all contamina-
tion; the time of incandescence was doubled this year. The wire
was raised as close to the point of fusion as possible; still, notwith-
standing all this additional care, the infusions one and all gave way.
I thought that there might be some defect in the construction of the
apparatus. Here, you see, is an old broken apparatus containing in-
fusions that have remained perfectly good since last year ; but great
pains were taken in having the apparatus of the most improved form.
Still, notwithstanding all my efforts, the infusions broke clown and
became swarming with life. My attention was now very keenly
arrested, and on December 1st I scrutinized more closely than ever
I had done previously the entry of the infusions through the pipette-
tube into the tubes opening into the chamber, and I noticed, at all
events, a danger of minute air-bubbles being carried down along with
the descending infusion. That caused me to adoj)t another mode of
experiment; but, previously to this, I fell back upon some of the in-
fusions found so easy to sterilize the previous year. I operated upon
beef, mutton, pork, and herring infusions, and found that even such
infusions, which with the most ordinary care were completely sterilized
last year, and are preserved to the present hour intact like the others,
all gave wray.

How, then, are we to look at these things? Here are results
totally different from those that wTe obtained last year. You may ask
me, perhaps : " Why do you not loyally bow to the logic of facts and
accept the conclusion to which those experiments apparently so clearly
point? Why do you not regard them as a demonstration of the doc-
trine of spontaneous generation? Is there any other way of account-
ing for it than by a reference to this doctrine?" You may ask
whether I was held back by prejudice from accepting this conclusion,
whether I was held back by a love of consistency, or by the fear, of
being turned into ridicule and sneered at by those whom I ventured
to oppose on a former occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a
title which I believe, as the generations pass, will, if the owners of
the title arc true to themselves, become more and more a title of
honor— that is, the title of a man of science — and of that title I should

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE. 647

be utterly unworthy were I not prepared to trample all influences and
motives such as those mentioned under foot, and were I not ready,
did I conceive myself to be in error in what was brought before you
last year, to avow here frankly and fully in your presence that error.
I should be unworthy of the title of a scientific man if my spirit had
not been so brought into this state of discipline as to be able to make
such an avowal. Why, then, do I not accept those results as proving
the doctrine of spontaneous generation ? The celebrated argument
of Hume comes into play here. When I looked into all my antecedent
experience, and into the experience of other men for whoin I have the
greatest esteem as investigators, it was more easy for me to believe
the error of my manipulation, to believe that I had adopted defective
modes of experiment, than to believe that all this antecedent experi-
ence was untrue. It was my own work that was thus brought to the
bar of judgment, and my conclusion was, that I was far more likely
to be in error than that the great amount of evidence already brought
to bear upon the subject should be invalid and futile. Hence, instead
of jumping to the conclusion that these were cases of spontaneous
generation, I simply redoubled my efforts to exclude every possible
cause of external contamination. This was done by means of doing
away with the pipette altogether and using what we call a separation-
funnel. Here you have a chamber with a pipette entering. This
pipette-tube has not a bulb or mouth such as you have here ; it is
simply closed by a tube of India-rubber, and that again is closed by
a pinchcock. Now, here we have an infusion of hay. At present
this stopcock stops it. I turn it on ; it goes down ; I turn it off, and
this liquid column is now held by atmospheric pressure. This was
introduced into the India-rubber tube, the India-rubber tube being
first filled with the infusion, so that no bubble of air could get in.
When the separation-funnel was placed thus and the cock was turned
on, the liquid was introduced into the chamber without an associated
air-bubble. Mr. Cotterell will show you the result of this severe ex-
periment. Here is an infusion of cucumber, the most refractory of all
infusions that I have dealt with. It was prepared on December 8,
1876, so that it is between six and seven weeks old. Two days were
sufficient to break down this infusion when contamination attacked it;
but, by this more severe experiment, it is enabled to maintain itself
as clear as crystal, although it has been there for six or seven weeks.
You will see by the light behind that it is, as I have described imper-
fectly clear. You will observe that the infusion is diminished by
evaporation, but it is as clear as distilled water, and there it remains
as the result of this severe experiment.

Let us now ask how it is that these curious results that I have
brought before you were possible ; how it is that the results of this
year differ so much from those obtained previously. The investiga-
tion of this point is worthy of your gravest attention. I am now

648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

called back to the experiments with which the inquiry this year began.
As already stated, it was begun in September, and, leaving out the
earlier experiments, I passed on to October 30th. I have now to bring
your attention back to the earlier experiments performed in the labo-
ratory. They were suggested by the ingenious investigations of Dr.
William Roberts, of Manchester, and by the subsequent investigations
of a man to whom we are indebted more than to any other for the
knowledge we possess of the different species of those small organisms
that we call bacteria ; I refer to Prof. Cohn, of Breslau. Let me say
that I entertain the very highest opinion of the intelligence and ability
with which Dr. Roberts has earned out these experiments; they are
in the highest degree creditable to him. This is the experiment to
which I refer : Some chopped hay is put into a little can ; it is raised
to a temperature of 100° to 120°; it is kept for three hours, then
poured off and filtered. Last year, we found that hay thus treated
was sterilized by five minutes' boiling. I mean that, wdien it is ex-
posed to the air that has this floating matter removed from it, it
never shows any sign of microscopic life. Now, if you examine this
natural hay-infusion with litmus-paper, you will find that it turns the
litmus-paper red, showing that it is an acid infusion. Dr. Roberts
found that acid infusions could be easily sterilized, and his mode of
proceeding will be evident from the figure that I have here drawn.
He took a vessel with an open neck at the top {A, Fig. 2), and filled
it two-thirds full with the infusion he wanted to operate upon ; he
then stuffed the neck with cotton-wool, and sealed it hermetically
with a spirit-lamp above the plug of cotton-wool (B, Fig. 2) ; he then
placed it in a vessel containing cold water, and he gradually raised
the water to a state of ebullition and maintained the boiling tempera-
ture for any required time. In that way he avoided all commotion,
all evaporation, all ebullition in the infusion. After he had placed the
tube in this condition in the water, and subjected it to a boiling tem-
perature for any required time, he took it out and simply filed across
the neck and broke it off, as I do with this one (C, Fig. 2). Here you
have the infusion practically exposed to the atmosphere. The plug
intervenes to prevent the entrance of dust, and still allows an inter-
change between the air of the bulb and the air outside. When Dr.
Roberts took this acid infusion and neutralized it by the addition of
caustic potash, he found it to possess the most extraordinary power
of resistance to heat ; he found that, in some cases, it required more
than two hours to reduce this infusion to sterility ; he also found that,
in a particular case, it actually required no less than three hours' boil-
ing to produce this effect. This was very different indeed from the
results that I had obtained last year. I made many experiments with
hay-infusion, and in every case we sterilized it by five minutes' boil-
ing. I was led to take up the subject this year through the emphatic
manner in which Prof. Cohn corroborated the results of Dr. Roberts.

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE. 649

I operated sometimes with tubes like those of Dr. Roberts, and some-
times with those which I call Cohn's tubes. These are formed by-
heating a certain portion of a test-tube and drawing it out so as to
leave an open funnel above, a bulb below, and a narrow tube between
both. These are Cohn's tubes. His method was this : He placed
the tubes, as they are placed here, in boiling water, and, when they
had been subjected to a boiling temperature for a sufficient time, he

! 'I

simply lifted them out. He found a certain amount of water con-
densed upon the neck of the bulb; he waited one or two minutes until
that evaporated, and then quietly plugged his tube with cotton-wool,
and he thought that this was perfect immunity against the entrance
of contamination; and Prof. Colm is very emphatic in saying that
there is no thought of contamination from without in pursuing this
method of experiment. I operated upon a great variety of hay-in-
fusions, and after a time, by pursuing with the most scrupulous exact-
ness the method laid down by Dr. Roberts and Prof. Cohn, it was
possible for me, by practice, now to corroborate and now to contra-
dict them. It is perfectly useless to bring forward before public as-
semblies merely opposing assertions, so that I did not really content
myself with falling back upon the results I obtained last year, but
tried to get some knowledge as to whence the differences arose which
showed themselves between me and these distinguished men. Here

650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are tubes of alkalized hay, some of them subjected to a boiling tem-
perature, not for three hours, but for ten minutes, and they are per-
fectly brilliant ; there is not the slightest evidence of life in them ;
they have been entirely sterilized by an exposure to a boiling tempera-
ture for ten minutes. If I illuminate them, you will find that these
infusions are perfectly brilliant ; there is no turbidity that gives any
sign of the production of animalcular life. These tubes have remained
there for three months perfectly intact, uninvaded by those organisms
which were invariably found both by Dr. Roberts and by Prof. Cohn.
Again, we turn to another series of tubes, and find that every one of
them has given way. Thus I went on ringing the changes, until, as
I have said, it was in my power, by pursuing with undeviating fidelity
the mode of experiment laid down by Dr. Roberts and Prof. Cohn, to
get at one time a contradiction, and at another time a corroboration
of their results.

And what was the meaning of these irreconcilable contradictions?
The meaning was this : when we came to analyze these various in-
fusions, we found that those that were sterilized by a boiling of from
five to ten minutes were invariably infusions of hay mown in the year
1876, whereas the others were infusions of hay mown in 1875 or some
previous year. The most refractory hay-infusion that I have ever
found was in the case of some Colchester hay five years old. Now,
what do these experiments point to ? The answer may be in part
gathered from an observation described in the volume of the Comptes
Hendus for 1863, by one of the greatest supporters of the so-called
doctrine of spontaneous generation. A description is here given of
an experiment that was made by the wool-staplers of Elbceuf. They
were accustomed to receive fleeces from Brazil, which were very dirty,
and had, among other things, certain seeds entangled in them. These
fleeces were boiled at Elboeuf sometimes for four hours ; and the seeds
were afterward sown by some of these expert fellows that had to deal
with the fleeces, and were found capable of germination. The thing was
taken up by Pouchet. He gathered these seeds, exposed them to the
temperature of boiling water for four hours, and then examined them
closely ; and he found (and I recently made an experiment which
showed the same thins: to be true with regard to dried and undried
peas) that the great majority of the seeds were swollen and disorgan-
ized, while the others were scarcely changed ; they were so indurated,
and perhaps altered in the surface, as to prevent the liquid from wet-
ting them. At all events, a number of them appeared to be quite
unchanged. He separated these two classes of seeds and sowed them
side by side in the same kind of earth. The swollen seeds were all
destroyed; there was no germination; but in the case of the others
there .was copious germination. Here, then, you have these seeds
proved to be capable, by virtue of their dryness and induration, of
resisting the temperature of boiling water for four hours. There is

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE. 651

not the slightest doubt that, if time permitted, I could heap up evi-
dence of this fact, that the wonderful sterility of this old hay is clue
to the induration and desiccation of the germs associated with it.
Here you have three tubes containing cucumber-infusion of crystalline
clearness ; they have been simply subjected to a boiling temperature
for ten minutes ; they have been completely sterilized, and they are
as clear as when the infusions were first introduced into the tubes.
On the other hand, here are tubes that have been subjected to a boil-
ing temperature for five hours and a half, showing a swarming de-
velopment of life. What is the reason of this difference ? The reason
depends entirely upon the method of experiment. When Dr. Roberts
filled his bulbs, he simply poured in his infusion, plugged his tube,
sealed it, and subjected it to a boiling temperature. Not only did
the liquid contain germs, there was a quantity of air above the liquid,
and the germs were diffused in the air. Germs thus diffused in the
air are very differently circumstanced from germs diffused in a liquid ;

Fig. 3.

they can withstand for hours a boiling temperature; whereas that
selfsame temperature, brought to bear upon germs immersed in liquid,
destroys them in a few minutes. And why do these tubes differ?
The reason is to be sought entirely in the method of filling the tubes
containing the clear infusions. Here is a diagram (Fig. 3), represent-
ing one of Dr. Roberts's bulbs. You see that the top is united to a
T-piece with a collar of India-rubber. This comes down and ends in

652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the neck of the bulb. Here is an air-pump, and here is the end of the
T-piece surrounded by a tube of India-rubber, and here is a pinchcock
to close that tube of India-rubber. If you open the pinchcock and
work the air-pump with which this end is connected, it is completely
exhausted. You may allow it to be filled with air ; you may then
open the pinchcock : the air will enter through the cotton-wool, and
will fill the bulb. In this way you get the bulb filled, not with com-
mon air, but with filtered air. This process is carried on three or four
times, so as to make sure that the common air has been displaced by
the filtered air. We will suppose that I detach the tube from the air-
pump, and other precautions taken. At present, you see the bulb is
empty. Taking an infusion of hay, I put the end of the T-piece into
the infusion to be introduced into the bulb. The bulb is dipped into
hot water; the air expands, and it is driven out. Simply introducing
our bulb into cold water, the air shrinks, and by atmospheric pressure
the liquid is driven into the bulb. Again we drive the air out, and,
by a few operations of this kind, we find that we can charge our bulb
with a very great degree of accuracy. You can see the liquid in the
bulb at the present time. In this way we charge a bulb which has
had its common air and floating matter removed with our infusion.
When it is charged, it is very carefully removed, and great precautions
are taken so as to prevent any indraught of air. For instance, it is al-
ways removed from the cold water, so that, when it is lifted up into the
air of the laboratory, a slight expansion shall take place, so that the
motion of the air shall be from within outward, instead of from with-
out inward. In that way we can, by careful manipulation, obtain
bulbs devoid of this floating matter. These are the bulbs you now
see before you showing this beautifully pellucid infusion.

Were this a biological investigation, and not a physical one, I
should feel myself out of my element in dealing with it. I leave the
determination of the species of bacteria to others far more competent
than I am. I can see these organisms and wonder at them when I see
them through the microscope; but I have no ability or knowledge to
classify them and divide them into species, genera, etc. But these
are purely physical experiments, and it is only by such severe experi-
ments that this question can be freed from the haze and confusion in
which it has been hitherto involved. Even the celebrated Prof. Cohn
— I say it with the greatest regard and respect for him — appears to
have no adequate notion of the care necessary to be taken in experi-
ments of this kind. To lift a tube out of the boiling liquid and allow
it to remain quietly in the air, the entry of the air taking place from
without inward, and then, after one or two minutes' exposure, to plug
it with cotton-wool, and say that no contamination can reach it, is in
my opinion a great mistake. He could not, but by the merest acci-
d( nt, get an infusion free from contamination by operating in this
way. I have here tubes prepared according to this method. Here

A COMBAT WITH AN INFECTIVE ATMOSPHERE. 653

are some melon-tubes all putrid, all gone into a state of fermentation.
I ask you to compare those with some other melon-tubes that I have
operated upon in a different way and that are as clear as crystal.
The others are all gone, simply through a defect in the mode of ma-
nipulation.

The defeats that I at first described to you were due entirely to
the contaminated atmosphere in which we worked. It ought to be
noted that, in the earlier experiments in this inquiry, the results were
always in accordance with those brought before you last year. By
degrees, however, masses of hay were introduced into the laboratory
— old hay and new hay from various places ; and they ended by ren-
dering the atmosphere so virulently infective that everything was
contaminated by the germs set afloat. It resembled the case of a sur-
gical ward of a hospital, where gangrene and putrefaction have at-
tained such a predominance that the surgeon has, in despair, to shut
up his ward and abandon it to disinfection. Desiring to free myself
from this pestilential atmosphere, I wrote to my friend the President
of the Royal Society, Dr. Hooker, and I found that he was able to fur-
nish me with a means of getting away from it. In Kew Gardens,
there is a beautiful new laboratory, erected by the munificence of that
most intelligent supporter of science, Mr. Thomas Phillips Jodrell.
He, at his own expense, has had this beautiful laboratory built — being
designed, I believe, by Dr. Thiselton Dyer. It is one of the neatest
things I have ever seen, and it is to me a great gratification that the
first experiments made in that laboratory were those to which I have
now to refer. I broke away from the contaminated air of the Royal
Institution. It is very well for you that I can tell you that all the
germs referred to are perfectly innocuous to human beings, for I have
no doubt the air of this room is contaminated with them. A series of
chambers was made — not of wood, for I wanted to get rid even of
that, bat of tin — and I would not allow Mr. Cotterell to carry those
chambers into the Royal Institution at all. They were carried from
the tinman's where they were made to the laboratory at Kew. There,
with the greatest care, the tubes were treated first with carbolic acid
and then washed with water, and then with caustic potash to get rid
of all traces of carbolic acid, and finally drenched with distilled water.
Carbolic acid, as you know, is a deadly foe to these germs. In this
way I hoped that every contamination that might be adhering to the
tubes would be destroyed, and that, having got clear of an infected
atmosphere, we might get the same results as we invariably obtained
last year. The temperature was raised to between 80° and 90°, and
once a little above 90°, so that the warmth was all that could be de-
sired for the development of those organisms. It gives me the deepest
gratification to find that what was foreseen has occurred, and that this
very day these chambers have come back from Kew perfectly intact.
They comprise the most refractory substances that I had experimented

6 5 4 T7^ ^ 0P ULAR S CIENCE MONTHL Y.

upon here. It was almost impossible to save a cucumber; I never
did succeed in saving a melon infusion from contamination, and from
this so-called spontaneous generation. But here, when the air had
been allowed to deposit all its motes, and when we were withdrawn
from an infected atmosphere, as I have said, the chambers were re-
turned with their infusions as clear as crystal. Mr. Cotterell will
show you some of them. You will see that one of these is muddy
and turbid, and it has a deposit at the bottom. These are all dead
bacteria, and the muddiness is due to swarming bacterial life. Here
you have two infusions perfectly clear. Why does the other tube give
way ? When we came to examine it, a little pinhole was found at
the bottom of the chamber, and through that pinhole the germs got
in. Here is a melon-infusion ; and, in order to show you what would
have occurred if the infusions had not been protected from the float-
ing dust of the atmosphere, we have hung beside this case two tubes
that have been exposed to the common air and have fallen into a state
of utter rottenness. In this way, from the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew,
we have had these cases returned with their infusions perfectly intact.
Even in our infected atmosphere, when we subject our infusions to
experimental conditions sufficiently stringent, we are able entirely to
shut out contamination, and to show that spontaneous generation
never occurs. When we get clear of our 'atmosphere altogether,
this is a matter of perfect ease ; and we find in Kew Gardens that
Nature runs her normal course.

-♦+♦-

RELATIONS OF THE AIE TO OUR CLOTHING.1

By Dr. MAX VO N PETTENKOFFEE,

PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH.

THE committee of the Albert Society has honored me by an invi-
tation to give a few popular lectures at Dresden, on subjects of
public hygiene. Let me state to you at once what I think of popular
lectures in general.

What ought they to be, and what can we expect from them ? I
am not one of those who, in all their work and aim, look out directly
for the practical use, for the return on the capital, immediate or pro-
spective ; but, on the other hand, I feel myself bound, in a certain
degree, to inquire into the object of much that may appear to be
cither unprofitable or useless.

There is no doubt that popular lectures on scientific subjects will
not impart really competent knowledge, and will not form experts.

1 Abridged and translated by Augustus Hess, M. D., member of the Royal College of
Physicians, London, etc.

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 655

Therefore it will be maintained by many that such lectures produce
more evil than good, creating as they do, and augmenting, that dilet-
tanteism from which our period is already suffering. In our schools
also this dilettanteism is gaining such dimensions, that one might get
thoroughly frightened at the immoderate expansion of young people's
knowledge, were it not for its small depth, which lessens the danger,
and for the fact that the forgetting keeps pace with the learning.
Accept my open avowal, that I also am unable to invalidate the ob-
jection that popular lectures on scientific subjects are not able to im-
part a really competent knowledge, and do not form experts.

But I believe that this does not matter, and that they have no
such purpose. They are neither an exhaustive, scientific, nor a prac-
tical instruction, but a scientific edification and elevation, which are
to raise our minds and hearts, and to affect us like listening to good
music — to a symphony, the purpose of which is certainly not to make
musicians of all the listeners. It is sufficient to feel the harmony
which lies in the nature of good music. There is harmony in all our
knowing and doing, our aiming and striving, as far as there is truth
in them, and fortunately the sense for perceiving this harmony is as
widely spread among mankind as the sense for music. This harmony,
which pervades every truth, ought to be brought home to the con-
sciousness and feelings of everybody, so that the greatest number
may rejoice and become interested in it, that we may approach new
subjects, and perhaps make them our study, or that, at all events,
knowledge and resulting sympathy may induce us to lend our help to
those men whose profession and calling require them to enter more
minutely and exactly into the subjects in question. In this respect
popular lectures have a high and serious mission. It is their mission
to create correct general ideas, to facilitate our grasp of them, to
awaken and spread a certain love for different tasks of mankind and
ol the period, to form ties of friendship between things, ideas, and
men. Sympathy and sacrifices cannot be expected or asked from us,
if their objects are unknown to or badly understood by us.

For these reasons it is my desire to awaken your interest for some
subjects relating to hygiene, and particularly to impress upon you
most vividly how much in this respect remains to be done and created,
a work we all ought to take our share in.

One of the incessant wants of man is air.

We want air mainly to nourish us and to keep us cool. The quan-
tity of air inhaled and exhaled by an adult in twenty-four hours
amounts on an average to about 360 cubic feet, or 2,000 gallons.
What we take in and give out during twenty-four hours, in the shape
of solid and liquid food, occupies on an average the space of 5^ pints,
which is equal to -30V0 °f the volume of the air passing through our
lungs. It will astonish you to hear, perhaps, for the first time that
this amounts to 730,000 gallons in one year, and to be reminded of

656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that continuous work, which goes on day and night — a never-ceasing
bellows-blowing, by which the organ of our life is kept in play. Of
course, the quantity of air flowing round the surface of the human
body is much greater thanr that. Do not object, that air is something
so light that it need not be taken into account. It has some weight ;
water, certainly, is 770 times heavier, but our daily 2,000 gallons have
for all that a weight of 25 pounds avoirdupois. Still, as it is not my
intention to dwell here upon the subject of our oxygen-alimentation,
I will to-day consider only the second use we make of the air, the cool-
ing of our working machine.

You all know that life is bound up with chemical processes, kept
in continual activity through the ingestion of solid and liquid food,
and of oxygen from the ah*. One of the conditions for the normal per-
formance of these processes is a definite temperature, above and below
which they (although not brought to a standstill) go on differently —
they leave off performing the functions of normal life — they lead to dis-
ease or death. With man this uniform temperature of his organs is
one of the most essential conditions of his life. The blood of the negro
living in the torrid zone of the equator is not by one-fifth degree warmer
than that of the Esquimaux in the highest north at the coldest time
of the year — it is always 99|° Fahr. The extremes of temperature
under which human life exists are 95° to 104° Fain*, in the tropics,
and 57° to 84° under freezing-point in the polar regions. There are
even differences of 72° in the mean monthly temperatures of some
countries, and yet the organs of man are everywhere of the same tem-
perature.

By what means is man enabled to meet such colossal differences ?
What are his weapons for sustaining this gigantic struggle ?

Let us look a little nearer into the absolute quantities of heat the
living organism has to manage. The chemical processes going on in
an adult person, within the space of twenty-four hours, produce about
12,000 caloric units. By caloric unit natural philoso]}hy designates that
quantity of heat which is necessary to raise the temperature of one
pound avoirdupois of water by one degree of Fahrenheit.1 By the
heat produced by one person during one day about GC0 gallons of
water could be made warmer by nearly two degrees, or 7^ gallons
could be heated from freezing to boiling point, from 32° to 212° Fahr.

Under certain conditions man produces more or less heat ; for in-
stance, according to the quantity of food he takes, or the degree of
muscular exertion he undergoes, such deviations from the mean
amounting at times to 50 per cent, of the whole quantity ; but it is
always the task of the body, and a strict condition for the mainte-
nance of health, to keep the heat of the blood substantially the same,
or at least within two degrees.

We have to look upon ourselves as warm and humid bodies placed
1 Rankine's caloric units are used by the translator.

RELATIONS OF THE AIR %0 OUR CLOTHING. 657

within a cooler atmosphere. Such bodies lose their heat in three
different ways: 1. Radiation. 2. Evaporation. 3. Conduction. This
triple arrangement is of great advantage for the heat-department of
our organism, inasmuch as the existence of these different routes
allows of a delicate regulation — that, for instance, which we lose in a
given case by radiation can be made up by diminution of loss through
the other routes, and vice versa. The losses by radiation and by con-
duction are the most constant under equal conditions, and evaporation
of water is the principal means for equalizing differences resulting
from varying production of heat or from difficulties of the two other
routes. Allow me to illustrate this by drawing your attention to
some every-day phenomena.

You arrive, for instance, in an hotel after a journey during a cold
winter's day, and have at once a fire lit in your room. Let the fire
be ever so bright, the thermometer even rise to a reassuring degree —
you must stick to the fireplace ; the room does not get warm. If you
continue to live in the same room and have the tire kept in, it will by-
and-by get comfortable even if the thermometer in the room should
stand lower than on the first day, and you will think quite correctly
that the room wanted time to get warmed through and through.
Before that had taken place, the loss of heat by increased radiation
into the incompletely warmed space made itself sensibly felt in the
heating department of your body. Radiation is the stronger the
greater the difference of temperature between the two bodies. Sur-
rounded as you are in a room not only by air, say of 68° Fahr., but
also by walls, furniture, etc., which stand, perhaps, at 38° to 40°, your
body radiates its heat particularly toward these colder objects, till
they also get warmer. For a room to be warm, it must get warmed
with all which it contains.

Let us now look at the contrary case, when our loss by radiation
is uncommonly limited ; for instance, in a thronged room on a warm
and moist day. You feel an oppressive heat, and scarcely trust the
thermometer, which marks only 68°, perhaps your favorite tem-
perature. Quite correctly, you accuse the throng of people, and
retire into an adjoining room, where you find the air delicious, and
seem to receive new life ; there, again, the thermometer is suspected
by you, as it is scarcely different from its colleague inside ; and if the
air in the two rooms were to be examined eudiometrically, the differ-
ence would be so small as to leave unexplained the difference in your
sensations. What, then, causes this difference ? It is the suppression
of your lateral radiation of heat, when you are in the midst of other
equally warm bodies ; your receipts and expenditure by radiation
cover each other, and the cooling of the individual limits itself to the
two other routes, conduction by the air moving round him, and evap-
oration of water from his surface. On such occasions the pores of
your skin pour forth a quantity of water, and, at the same time, you
vol. x. — 42

658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

instinctively try to increase the movement of the air — that means, its
quantity in proportion to your surface ; you want to increase your
loss by conduction, and, if possible, by evaporation, and take to fan-
ning, in order to facilitate the dej^arture of your rising heat by the
two open routes.

The loss by radiation can be very considerable under certain cir-
cumstances ; 50 per cent, of the whole quantity of heat generally go-
ing that way, it is obvious that radiation deserves our full consider-
ation. Particularly, an unequal radiation may be very injurious, such
as takes place when a person is sitting or lying near a cold wall which
is not covered by some bad heat-conductor, or near a window, etc.

On school-forms, the exposed sides of the first and last pupils are
always more cooled than the sides directed toward their neighbors.
In this respect there are numbers of practical points which are far
from being sufficiently taken into consideration.

Let us now consider some instances in which the abstraction of
heat by evaporation is predominant, or preeminently felt. The best
known is that experiment by which one tries to learn the direction
of the wind when the air appears calm and the sky cloudless. The
moistened forefinger feels colder on that side which looks toward the
wind, because more evaporation takes place there. The experiment
does not succeed so well when the air is moist, because the moisture
in the air prevents further reception of moisture by it ; in our case,
preventing the evaporation from the moistened finger.

Our organism acts similarly in all cases where there is an increased
production of heat in our body, or where less heat is sent away by the
two other routes. It has the power of dilating or narrowing the small
blood-vessels in our skin and internal organs. The blood-vessel nerves
which govern this motion are not subject to our will, but liable to be
excited by external causes. When a person blushes, he gives off heat,
because more blood rushes into the dilated blood-vessels of his cheeks
and periphery generally, and more heat leaves the body. Under
similar circumstances the whole surface of our body becomes fuller
of blood and warmer, there is more heat to radiate and to be con-
ducted away, and to be consumed by increased evaporation of the
watery part of the blood.

The great value of evaporation for the cooling of our body can be
estimated by calculating that as little as fifteen drops of water re-
quires 2^ caloric units to be changed into vapor.

We have at Munich a great apparatus for studying the process of
respiration. It was given by the late King of Bavaria, Maximilian
II., to the hygienic department of the university. Prof. Voit and my-
self have, by aid of this apparatus, investigated the quantity of water
evaporated by men and animals during twenty-four hours. The con-
stant result was that, under other similar circumstances, the quantity
of evaporated water always rose in proportion to an increased meta-

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 659

morphosis of tissue, whether this increase was the consequence of
increased nutrition, or of muscular exertion. We have experimented
upon men at rest and at work, and we have found that on a day of
rest they usually evaporated through lungs and skin about two
pounds only during twenty-four hours, and on a day of hard work 4£
pounds of water. In the first instance, about 2,016 caloric units, in
the second, 4,480 had to leave the body in consequence of evaporation.

This explains to you how it can be that even with the hardest
work our blood will not become warmer, but sometimes even cooler.
The last observation has been made quite recently in mountaineering
expeditions. Prof. Lortet, of Lyons, found, when he made an ascent
of Mont Blanc, that the temperature in his mouth and armpit was
less than normal, and became normal only when he was at rest. On
such high mountains the lessened pressure of the atmosphere favors
the peripheric circulation, there is a rush of water to the surface,
and its evaporation takes place more readily, and increases with the
altitude. At great heights persons in a balloon constantly complain
of great dryness in the mouth.

Profs. Voit, Recknagel, and myself, are just now occupied in
investigating the economy of animal heat, and we have found that
after six hours' hard work the person leaves the apparatus in a cooler
condition than when he went in, or after he had been at rest in the
apparatus for the same space of time. Of course, the ventilation of
the apparatus must work well, and send per hour about 11,100 gallons
or 1,800 cubic feet of air through the chamber, else less water and less
heat depart by evaporation.

You see what powerful means of cooling our body we have in the
increase of our peripheric circulation, and consequent evaporation, at
a time when the other routes are not open sufficiently — but you see
also how dangerous this means can become, if it is employed at a
time when considerable quantities of heat depart on the other routes.
If, heated and damp, you enter suddenly a cold space, where radia-
tion increases at once, and a good deal of heat is also yielded by con-
duction to the cold air, you are in great danger of contracting an
illness by the abnormal losses of heat, and the violent and sudden
changes in the circulation. But if you undergo such changes slowly
and gently, the three routes open themselves harmoniously. Our or-
ganism is a faithful and clever servant, who helps himself and his
master-, provided he is not hurried and ill-treated. When I come to
speak of ventilation, I shall not forget to tell you of currents of air,
called draughts.

The third route, that of conduction, by which we give up heat to
the air, is also of great importance, and must in some circumstances
replace the two others to a considerable degree. As long as our body
is warmer than the surrounding air, this air gets warmer at every
point of contact with our body, but at the same time lighter, and as

660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

such it is displaced by colder and heavier air, which in its turn gets
warmer and lighter, and so on.

Each person standing in the still air of a room causes in this way
an ascending current of air, just like a heated stove. A very sensitive
anemometer, placed between coat and waistcoat, shows the existence
of this current, which is strong enough to set the little wings of the
instrument in play. The air in this room appears quite still, and yet
it is in thousand-fold motion and ceaseless restlessness ; but, happily,
our nerves are not aware of this, just as a short-sighted person may
deny the existence of some object, till his eyes get the assistance of a
glass. Whoever of you would be able to feel or see all the move-
ments of the air in this room would probably not be able to stand it.
A correct idea may be formed about it by the action of smelling sub-
stances. If, for instance, an escape of gas were to take place in a re-
mote corner of this large room, you would become aware of it almost
immediately all over the room. Our nerves are happily so organized
that they begin to feel the motion of the air only when it amounts to
about 3^ feet per second.

You may have some doubt about this ignorance of your nerves,
because the proof lies not in our immediate perception, but in con-
clusions from other observations ; but you may easily convince your-
self that it is so. It is the same thing whether you move your hand
at a certain rate through a still air, or whether air moves at the same
rate round your hand. You will find that you do not feel anything,
no resistance, no coolness, if you move your hand at less than 19
inches per second.

I take this opportunity to draw your attention at once to the
average movement of air out-of-doors, a subject very imperfectly
known to most people, but which you must understand well in order >
to have a correct idea of the real difference between being in a room
and in the open air. The velocity of the air is measured by an instru-
ment called an anemometer, a description of which you can easily get
at. In our temperate climate this velocity amounts on an average to
about 10 feet per second. This would make about *7 miles per hour.
Imagine a frame ajbout the height and width of a human body; let us
say it measures about 6 feet by 1|, or 9 square feet. If you multiply
this by the average velocity of the air, you will find that in one second
90 cubic feet, in one minute 5,400 cubic feet, in one hour 324,000 cubic
feet of air flow over one person in the open. I shall come back again
to these numbers when we have to consider the subject of the venti-
lation of dwellings, but you will already understand that it is not too
much if 2,100 cubic feet of new air per hour and per bed are con-
sidered necessary in the ventilating arrangements of hospitals, etc.
This quantity, which appears large, is after all only about -^ of the
quantity of air which comes in .contact with a person in the open at
the above stated average velocity of the air.

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 661

You see, therefore, that we give off more heat by conduction in
the open air than in a room, and in the latter proportionately more
by radiation and evaporation.

The power of conduction is best appreciated when we change the
air for some other fluid medium, which is a better conductor than air,
and more capable of absorbing heat, I mean water. In air of a few
degrees of heat, we can feel pretty comfortable with moderately
warm clothes ; but, if with the same amount of clothing we were to
get into water of the same temperature, we should feel painfully cold,
and should probably be frozen to death in a few hours, although our
loss by evaporation would have ceased entirely, and that by radiation
nearly so. In hot climates, therefore, a daily bath is of great service
for the necessary cooling of our body, even if the water is not cooler
than the atmosphere.

In the air also the loss of heat by conduction is the greater the
lower the temperature, and the greater the velocity of the air which
flows around us. This explains on the one side why it appears super-
fluous in a calm and cool air to make use of a fan, while this expedient
acts so beneficially at higher temperatures; and on the other why, as
a rule, a warm air in motion appears much cooler than a calm one of
equal temperature. Think of the sultriness before a thunder-storm, as
long as the air is at rest, and how differently we feel as soon as the first
wind rises. The air is not yet cooler, not less saturated with vapor
than before, and still it deprives us of so much more heat that we
deem it less sultry, even cool, only because it travels over us faster.

When we fan ourselves in a hot and damp air, the same thing takes
place — then, also, a greater amount of air passes over us in a given
time than if we leave the air to its own motions. The fan changes
nothing in the temperature and moistness of the air, it only increases
its velocity, and in consequence the abstraction of heat, and thus
affords us coolness chiefly on the uncovered or only slightly covered
parts of our bodies ; therefore, ladies have more reason for using it
than the stronger sex.

As long as the air is our surrounding medium, an increased evap-
oration associates itself with the increased loss by conduction, at least
as long as the circulation of the blood in the skin remains active and
the air is not saturated with moisture. The fan scarcely ever cools by
increased conduction alone, but also by increased evaporation. There-
fore, fanning with dry air is much more cooling than fanning with a
moist air of equal temperature. We all know how much quicker wet
roads and wet clothes dry when there is a good wTind. However
rapid the motion of moist air may be, it does not dry. When our body
is bathed in perspiration the fuller condition of the skin occasions an
increased transfer of heat from the dilated blood-vessels to the sur-
rounding air by conduction, but generally also by evaporation.

In southern climes, at the hottest and moist time of the year, when

66z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the body cannot lose much heat by radiation toward colder objects,
when the temperature of the air approaches and even surpasses at
times that of our blood, the European often feels the heat to suffoca-
tion, and besides the use of the bath he has no other practical remedy
than the fan and the shade.

In the shade the air is not only cooler, but also more in motion.
The difference of temperature between a place sheltered from the rays
of the sun and a neighboring one exposed to them, produces a motion,
a current, because bodies of air of unequal temperature are also of
unequal weight. They are not in equilibrium, and seek to reestablish
it by motion. Any one may easily convince himself thereof who, on
a hot day with calm air, walks alternately over places exposed to the
sun and sheltered from it. As soon as he comes into the shade of a
cloud, a house, or a tree, he feels at once a soft wind rising. The
shade not only protects us against the direct solar rays, but it in-
creases also the ventilation of the shady place.

The fan acts on the same principle. Thepankha in the bungalow,
by increased conduction and evaporation, keeps the blood of the Eu-
ropean at its normal temperature of 99|°. When the temperature of
the air rises to 140°, when the walls of the house or bungalow are no
longer cool enough to provoke radiation from the heated human body,
man is reduced to cooling by evaporation. It greatly depends upon
the state of dryness of the air how far he succeeds. The drier the
hot air is, the better is it able to withdraw water from the skin, from
the respiratory organs, from the wetted floors, and consequently the
more heat from the human body. The moister it is the less it is able
to act thus.

In order to give you an idea of the quantitative differences in play,
we will consider the losses of heat by respiration as they take place
at different temperatures and different conditions of moisture of the
air we draw in. In twenty-four hours the quantity of this air is on an
average 2,000 gallons. It has been calculated that by the process of
respiration a person loses 1,1 72 caloric units when the air is at 32° and
quite dry, 1,116 when it is half saturated by water, 1,060 when it is
completely so. The difference between the two extremes is only a
small percentage of the whole loss. But, when the temperature is 86°,
the above numbers would be respectively 1,096, 760, and 420.

A comparison of the losses of heat by the respiration of an abso-
lutely dry and an absolutely saturated air at 32° and 86° Fahr. is
highly instructive. We lose :

at 32° and dry _ 1,172 caloric units.

"86° " ' "" ' 1,096

difference only 76

at 32° and saturated 1,060

"86° " « 420

difference as much as 640 caloric units.

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 663

The different state of dryness of the air appears thus to be of a
greater moment than the difference of temperature, and this is the
reason why our sensations do not always coincide with the thermome-
ter. You readily understand how much more difficult it is to manage
one's heat-household in a hot than in a cold climate. Our means for
warming ourselves are better than those for carrying off our heat.
Therefore the European race has a hard fight under the equator.
The working power of the body depends on a certain amount of con-
sumption, by which a certain amount of heat is necessarily created,
which has to leave the body in a regular way. The Hindoo who has
to draw the European's pankha, bears the heat better in proportion as
he takes less food and creates less heat in himself, but then his work-
ing-power is also quite proportionate to the total of his consumption.

The European's struggle in a hot climate and his dangers of de-
generacy will remain the same as long as he has no better means of
cooling himself by some or all of the known three routes. Houses
with thick stone-walls are tolerably efficacious. These walls rarely
get warmer than the average temperature of the year. They cool the
air which comes into the house, and act on the inmates in the way we
have seen when speaking of the room which is not warmed through.
A good means would be some contrivance by which the air in the
house could be deprived of its water.

I could not help inflicting upon you this rather long introduction,
nor could I possibly abbreviate it, as, without the little knowledge
which I have tried to impart to you about the cooling of the human
body, you would not be enabled to obtain a proper insight into the
functions of our clothing and our dwellings. Therefore I believe my-
self to have had a good claim on your patience and indulgence.

One of man's principal defensive weapons in his struggle for exist-
ence is his clothing. The place it takes in the history of civilization
and its connection with physiology are not often thought of. People
speak about it generally from a moral and aesthetic point of view, but
the main purpose of clothing is seldom approached in conversation —
I mean the purely hygienic one. I deem this to be a misfortune, be-
cause this forgetting of the chief point has subjected mankind to the
rule of small and frivolous considerations, and the manners and fash-
ions of the period get frequently the better of the hygienic fitness of
the clothing. Morality and beauty do not depend on dress. They
cannot be created or preserved by it. These great qualities could
even exist without it, but the human body as it is could not, or only
barely and imperfectly, exist in our climate without the protection
of clothing, which is more indispensable for our health than for our
beauty and morality.

So manifold are the changes brought about in our system by cloth-
ing ourselves, that I am unable to give you more than some incom-
plete parts of the subject.

664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When I cover one part of my body I change the degree of ab-
straction of heat by all three routes known to you, but without
obstructing any one of them entirely.

To speak in the first instance of radiation, it will be clear to you
that our surface is prevented from radiating heat directly toward the
colder objects in our neighborhood, and that it can only radiate toward
the covering materials, which receive this heat. By the laws of con-
duction and radiation the heat, which has radiated from the body into
the clothes, has to travel through them by radiation and conduc-
tion, till, arrived at their outer surface, it can radiate thence toward
colder objects, just as it would from the naked surface of the body.
Thus by our clothes we keep the heat radiating from us somewhat
longer in the immediate neighborhood of our surface. The lightest
covering even makes itself perceptible by impeding radiation, the
thinnest veil keeps warm in some degree. It is just the same with
the earth itself. On a calm, clear night the earth's surface becomes
so chilled by radiation into the colder space, that the moisture of
the air precipitates itself on it as dew, and at times as hoar-frost, and
even as ice, just as the moisture in a warm room does on a window-
pane cooled from the outside ; but, when a veil of clouds overhangs
the earth during the night, the earth never cools itself so much as to
allow of any dew forming.

There are substances, called diathermal, which allow the rays of
heat to go straight through them without any absorption, for instance,
the crystals of common salt, but all the materials of our clothes are
such as absorb the rays of heat which come to them from one side,
and only part with them after they have reached the outer surface.
The transit of heat through what we may call our artificial surface
depends essentially on the conductive power of the material and its
thickness, i. e., on the length of time and way which the heat has to
go through in order to travel from our surface to the outer surface
of the garment.

Thus the whole immediate neighborhood of our body is continually
warmed in an even degree by our radiating heat, and our sensitive
skin is spared the numerous disagreeable or injurious effects of a rap-
idly-changing temperature.

The heat does not remain in our clothes, it is continually on an
outward move, faster or slower, and, to a certain degree, also warms
the stratum of air between our clothing and our skin, so rich in nerves
and blood-vessels'. This air, as we shall see presently, continually
changes, and must change if we are to feel comfortable. In the cold
of winter, and in the open air, we lose our bodily heat out of our well-
selected garments without any sensation of cold, only because we
have removed the place of exchange between the temperature of our
warm blood and the cold winter air from our sensitive surface to a
substance without life and sensation ; instead of our skin, our dress

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 665

feels the cold. It is the same with the hair of animals, and the feath-
ers of birds, they are also without nerves.

Id pi-oportion as our heat-losses increase, while the creation of heat
in our interior remains about the same, we feel the necessity of dimin-
ishing the rate at which the heat leaves our immediate neighborhood.
This kind of regulation is somewhat taken care of involuntarily even
by the naked body. In consequence of the cold, the nerves which
act on the calibre of the blood-vessels of our surface contract them,
and lessen the quantity of blood in them, so that less heat comes to
the surface, and we need not be afraid of becoming also inwardly
colder if we feel cold, even very cold.

The sensation of cold on the skin does not necessarily give the
measure of our internal temperature. In the cold stage of ague, for
instance, the temperature of the internal organs rises considerably,
while by a kind of spasmodic contraction of the superficial blood-
vessels the flow of heat toward the skin is less than normal. The
above-mentioned regulation of heat-loss by the capillary system of
our skin is not all-sufficient either in point of time or degree. The
cold may be too strong, and the regulator get overworked and para-
lyzed, so that additional clothing is required to delay the departure
of our heat, and to spare the nerves of the blood-vessels. We help our-
selves by additional clothing, and the underlying article of clothing
stands in the same relation to the outer one as the skin to its first
covering. From this point of view you have to consider the sequence
of shirt, under-clothing, coat, overcoat, etc., etc., an arrangement by
which we save the vasomotor nerves the greater part of their work.

It is an open question, which the incompleteness of our hygienic
knowledge prevents us from answering quite satisfactorily, how far
we ought to hand over the regulation of our heat-loss to our dress, or
how far we should go in deputing it to our organism, and its capabil-
ity of transferring more or less heat from the centres to the surface of
our bodies. This self-help of the organism and the readiness for it re-
sulting from frequent exercise of this function are generally called hard-
ening one's self; the contrary, making one's self tender. The former we
can never quite dispense with, but I believe that too high a value is
sometimes put and too large claims made on it. One ought to possess the
capability and the readiness, but not to make use of them continually.

All human aim must be to obtain the greatest effect at the smallest
expense. We ought to choose those means which attain the end with-
out exhausting our power, which should be preserved for higher pur-
poses. These principles ought to guide us in approaching the question.
It is not only superfluous, but positively injurious, to use one's self up.

I believe that it is now evident to you that a part of the heat of
our body radiates from the surface of our clothing ; but we must now
consider whether this radiation does not vary according to the nature,
quality, or color, of the material. Experiments which have been

666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made by Dr. Krieger on wool, wash-leather, silk, cotton, linen, and
India-rubber, have not shown any important difference. Krieger cov-
ered cylinders made of tin and filled with warm water with different
and differently-arranged materials, and noted the decrease of tempera-
ture in stated periods. He used layers of two different materials, but
it made no great difference what the outer layer was. Still, I will
mention that silk and cotton allowed more heat to radiate than
wool. The color also of the material has been shown to have no
great influence on the radiation of heat, which remains the same,
whether we have a black or a white garment on.

But it is quite another case when we receive luminous heat, rays of
heat proceeding from luminous bodies, such as the sun, or some flame ;
then differences result, which certainly are not very great with differ-
ent materials of the same color, but become great indeed when the
colors are different. For white textures the following proportions
are found :

When cotton received 100

Linen received 98

Flannel " 102

Silk " 108

With shirtings of different colors the proportions were :

White 100

Pale straw-color 102

Dark yellow 140

Light green 155

Dark green 168

Turkish red 165

Light blue 198

Black 208

Of course, you all know by experience that, when dressed in black,
you feel much hotter in the sun than when dressed in white. It is
remarkable that, pale straw excepted, each color heightens consider-
ably the absorption of luminous heat-rays, and that blue does so
nearly as much as black. But, as soon as we are in the shade, the
differences nearly vanish.

If we continue to consider our loss of heat by radiation through
and from our clothing (omitting for the present conduction and evap-
oration), we come at once to the practical question, how much this
loss is retarded by interposing several strata of material between our
surface and the air, or in fact to the question about the heat-conduct-
ing power of materials and textures. Very few experiments have
been made in this respect. We know, with respect to this point, the
properties of metals, of minerals, of chemical compounds, but not of
wool, linen, or leather. This shows, by-the-by, how little hygiene
has been treated until now in an exact and scientific way. We talk
in a general way about the use of garments as bad conductors of heat,

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 667

but the few experiments known to me entirely run counter to our ac-
cepted ideas.

Krieger experimented on cylinders filled with warm water, by sur-
rounding them tightly with single or double textures. As the loss by
radiation is the same in both cases, any difference must result from
difference of conductive power in the coverings of the cylinders; but
the results were, for the most part, surprisingly small. The following
numbers represent the proportions of loss of heat through double
tight-fitting coverings in comparison to single ones ; the losses through
the single ones being taken as 100, they were, through-
Double thin silk 9^

" Gutta-percha 96

" Shirtings 95

" Fine linen 95

" Stoutsilk 94

" Thick home-spun linen 91

" Chamois-leather 88-90

" Flannel 86

" Summer buckskin 88

" Winter buckskin 74-84

" Double stuffs 69-75

The whole question is certainly not exhausted by these experiments,
but one thing becomes evident by them, that it is not the substance
and its weight, but the texture and the volume, which are the principal
causes of the difference. Thin and stout silks, fine and stout linen, are
nearly equal in substance, and equal sizes of them are not so very
different in weight ; it is their different heat-conducting power which
causes the difference of the loss, and this is, even through two layers of
them, not as much as ten per cent, smaller than through a single one.

By other experiments one can demonstrate that, by changing the
shape and volume of the same substance, great changes of heat-loss
can be produced, although the substance and its weight remain the
same. If you cover the tin cylinder, previously filled with warm
water, with common wadding, and observe the falling of the im-
mersed thermometer, you will be astonished to see how rapidly the
fall goes on, as soon as you compress the wadding firmly and diminish
its volume : the outward flow of the heat increases by forty per cent..
The same, you know, is the case, when a wadded garment is worn out ;
the quantity of the wadding is the same, but its volume and its elas-
ticity have undergone a change, and you will find it considerably less
protecting.

This observation leads to another instructive experiment, relating
to the influence of double layers of material. If the first layer only
is tightly drawn over the warm cylinder, and a free space of one-third
to one-half an inch between it and the second, which may be compared
to a comfortably-fitting garment, the second layer very considerably
lessens the outward flow of the heat. The amount due to conduction

668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

being deducted, the impediment by the second layer is about the
same for different materials, but very considerable for each of them :

For Linen 32$

" Shirting 33 "

" Silk 32 "

" Flannel 29 "

" Wash-leather 30 "

" Gutta-percha sheeting 36 "

From this follows the practical truth, that we can produce a very
different effect on our body by the same number of clothes, according
to the tightness and looseness in the make. Just call to mind tight
shoes and gloves in winter-time !

This fact leads to a series of other facts, which contain the explana-
tion why wadding, as long as it is loose and elastic, keeps you warmer
than when it is once flattened. This is the air contained within the
clothes.

One generally considers clothing as an apparatus for keeping the
air from us. This conception is utterly erroneous ; quite the reverse,
we can bear no garments which do not allow of a continual ventilation
of our surface. Just those textures which are most permeable to the
air keep us warmest. I have examined different materials for their
permeability to air, which can be easily ascertained. One closes a
series of perfectly equal glass tubes with different textures, and ob-
serves how much air passes through the clothing substances at the
same pressure during the same time. Taking the quantity of air pass-
ing through flannel as 100 —

Linen allowed 58

Silk " 40

Buckskin " 58

Kid " 1

Chamois " 51 parts of air

to pass through them.

If our clothing kept us warm in proportion to its power of exclud-
ing the air from our body, kid would keep us a hundred times, and
chamois warmer by one-half than flannel, and so on, while every one
knows by experience that it is quite the reverse.

If there are several layers of the same material, ventilation loses
but very little at the second layer, because the velocity of the air in
its passage through the first layer remains about the same on its fur-
ther progress, the following layers being like a continuation of the
preceding ones, as if they were tubes of the same calibre, retarding
the original velocity of a fluid by the amount only of unavoidable
friction.

Thus, a current of air travels incessantly through our clothing.
Its force, as in ventilation generally, depends on the size of the open-
ings, the difference between the outside and inside temperature, and

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 669

the velocity of the surrounding air. We need not be anxious to make
our clothes prevent the access of air to our skin ; they have only to
regulate and moderate it to such a degree that our nerves may not
feel the air as something in motion. This degree is far from immo-
bility. When in the open air we believe it to be quite calm, there is
still a velocity in it of at least one foot and a half per second, or about
one mile per hour, as you heard before.

Our clothing not only renders the air still around us, but it also
regulates its temperature by the heat which leaves our body ; we
heat our garments, and they continually heat the air passing through
the meshes and pores of the texture. We may compare our clothing
to a calorifer or stove, warmed by the heat emanating from our body's
engine for the purpose of warming the air round our surface.

We do not feel the loss of heat which our clothing undergoes as
we should if the air were to strike our surface without having been
previously prepared by our dress ; the differences of temperature bal-
ance themselves within the material we are clothed in, and of which
the ends of our cutaneous nerves form no part. Inside our dress we
carry the air of the South wherever we may be. Its temperature
averages about 75° to 94° Fahr. We live in our dress like an unclothed
tribe in a paradisian country, where the air is constantly calm and
the temperature 75° to 94°. It will be easily understood now why
rough, loose textures keep us so warm, while newly-carded cotton-
wool does so more than when old and compi-essed ; why tissues of fine
tibres and threads make the best material. Fur, of which you know
so well the properties, consists of hair and skin. Chemically speak-
ing, there is not much difference between skin and hair. In fur the
weight or body of the skin is much greater than that of the hair, and
still it is essentially the light hair to which the fur owes its warming
properties.

There are some interesting experiments on this point. Krieger
observed the flow of heat after covering his cylinders with unshorn
and shorn fur. Putting down the loss of heat through the entire fur
as 100, he found that it rose to 190 when the same piece of fur was
used shorn. A dried skin, you know, is always somewhat porous.
When he altered this by giving it a coat of linseed-oil varnish, the
loss of heat rose to 258 ; and, when he took a solution of gum-arabic
instead, it rose even to 296.

It has been proved that the living organism, in parting with its
heat by radiation and conduction, behaves just like a tin cylinder filled
with warm water. It is a yet older observation that furred animals,
such as dogs, rabbits, etc., cannot live when they are shorn and their
skin varnished or oiled. One used to explain their death by the sup-
pression of the evaporation from their skin, but it can be proved that
even in a comfortably-warm room these animals literally freeze to
death. Krieger sheared a rabbit, after having noted its temperature

670 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and frequency of respiration ; they were 102° and 100 per minute.
He did not use any varnish, to avoid any possible suppression of
evaporation from the skin, but enveloped the shorn animal in a wet
cloth. The temperature of the room being at 66°, the animal lost so
much heat that, after five hours, its interior temperature had fallen to
75°, and its respiration to 50 per minute.

A fur is so arranged that its fine hair, projecting into the air, in-
tercepts all the heat, which flows from the surface by radiation and
conduction, and distributes this heat through the air, which circulates
between the single hair-cylinders ; the finer the hair of the fur, the
more of the outgoing heat is taken up by the air, which, however cold
the temperature may be, reaches the nerves of the skin as a warmed
air. Furred animals, in winter, when touched superficially, give a
very cold sensation; it is only near the skin that their hair feels warm.
In severe cold, certainly little of our animal heat comes as far as the
points of the hair, from which it would radiate or be conducted into
the air ; the current of air in the fur cools the hair from its point tow-
ard its roots, and a severer cold penetrates only a little farther into
the fur, without necessarily reaching the skin of the same. This takes
place only when the temperature is uncommonly low, and the air in
violent motion. Travelers in high latitudes all agree that extreme de-
grees of cold can be borne very well when the air is calm, but scarce-
ly so when there is a brisk wind.

This tends to show that in very severe cold the outflow of heat, by
the skin into the air contained in the fur or within the dress, takes
place through one route only — that of conduction ; when a fur is
worn, no heat comes to the surface for radiation, as soon as the jioints
of the hair have the temperature of the sm-rounding air. Evapora-
tion also sinks to a minimum, because at 68° Fahr. under freezing-
point all formation of aqueous vapor already ceases, and nearly all
the heat in the fur and the dress is employed to heat the arriving air,
whose velocity increases according to the difference of temperature.
In a well-furred animal the changes of temperature in the surround-
ing air only change, if I inay say so, the latitudes of the cold and
warm zones in the fur; the place where the temperature of the body
and the air equalize each other moves between the roots and points
of the hair, and for this reason such a well-furred animal is not warm-
er in summer than in winter. Its blood keeps always at the same
temperature, because in summer a great part of its heat leaves at the
points only of the hair by radiation and conduction, while in winter
the heat departs already near the roots of the hair.

Air-proof fabrics ought to have only a very limited use. In India-
rubber or gutta-percha textures we feel highly uncomfortable when
we have to undergo much exercise, or have to give off more heat than
usual. They become inconvenient, not because they stop the change
of air entirely — which they cannot do in fact, on account of the neces-

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 671

sary openings in them — but only because they limit the universal ex-
change of air in the underlying garments. For protection against
the wet from without they are well suited, but they produce another
wet on our skin by impeding evaporation. They may be used in wet
weather, when accompanied with cold or wind, but never, though
wet, when it is warm or calm.

Finally, I have to draw your attention to the relations which the
materials of our clothes have to water, by which their functions are
considerably altered. They are all hygroscopic ; that means that they
condense from the atmosphere a certain amount of water. This hy-
droscopic property, very different in different bodies, increases with
the decrease in the temperature of the air, so that all of them con-
dense more water at freezing-point than at higher temperatures.
Partly, also, the relative, moisture of the air is of some influence, so
that at 68° the hygroscopic body absorbs more water from an air
nearly saturated than from a less moist air. As yet we do not know
much abont our clothing materials in this respect. I have made some
preliminary researches, and have found unexpectedly great differences.

I took two equal pieces of flannel and of linen, as representatives
of the two most important fabrics made of vegetable and animal
fibres, and dried them at 212°, a temperature at which they lose all
their hygroscopic water. I put them into well-closed boxes of known
weight, and noted the weight of the two together. They were then
exposed to the air in places of different temperature, and from time
to time put back into the tin boxes, and the weights taken again.
By this method it was not difficult to ascertain the relative quantities
of hygroscopic water which the flannel and the linen had absorbed.
These quantities are tabulated below, as they resulted from different
localities, temperatures, and lengths of time, the weight of the linen
and flannel being 1,000 grammes each :

HYGROSCOPIC

OBSERVA-

LOCALITY.

TEMPERATURE.

TIME.

WATER IN

TIONS

Linen.

Flannel.

1

Cellar.

37.58° Fahr.

1 2 hours.

77

157

2

Lecture-room.

34.16

1' a

74

143

3

Room.

64.25

11 11

41

75

4

Laboratory.

53.96

11 u

63

105

5

Cellar.

39.92

u u

111

175

6

Lecture-room.

40.1

4 hours.

93

160

7

it

40.1

3 "

91

148

8

u

41.9

15 "

85

146

9

Room.

69.8

10 minutes.

73

113

10

it

69.8

u u

52

96

11

1/

70.7

U .1

45

87

12

it

70.7

11 It

43

82

13

u

68.9

15

42

78

14

((

68

U U

42

77

15

11

64.25

30

41

75

16

!<

62.6

1 hour.

48

76

17

11

61.7

2 hours.

45

77

18

11

59.9

..

46

78

672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

What most strikes one is the invariably greater hygroscopic
power of wool than of linen; the maxima and minima of flannel and
linen being respectively 175 and 111, 75 and 41.

Observations 5 to 8 show that linen changes the quantity of its hy-
groscopic water at a proportionately quicker rate than flannel. The
two pieces were for twelve hours in the cellar, when linen absorbed
111, flannel 175; immediately after, for four hours, in a cold place,
where linen lost 18 per 1,000 of its absolutely smaller amount of
water, while the flannel lost only 15 per 1,000; but during the next
three hours linen lost only 2, but flannel 12 per 1,000.

When (Obss. 9 to 15) the pieces had come from the cold lecture-
room into a warmed room, linen again ceased giving off water at a
much quicker rate than flannel.

The accelerated rate, only in an opposite direction, took place
again (Obss. 15 to 18) when the temperature in the room sunk from
65° to 59°.

All bodies become more hygroscopic with a sinking temperature,
but the absorption of water and increase of weight, as well as the
contrary process, take place proportionately quicker with linen than
with flannel.

The more the air in any material is displaced by water, the less it
keeps us warm, the quicker it conducts the heat ; hence the frequent
injury resulting from wet clothes, and the striking discomfort pro-
duced by a damp cold. You all know how comfortable we can feel
in a walk, when the air is cold and dry, and how differently we feel
when it is damp, although not colder. Then our clothes also get
much damper, and conduct more of our heat away.

This is not to be underrated. We have seen in the table that
1,000 parts of flannel took up in the cellar 157 parts of water. Take
the weight of a whole woolen clothing as ten pounds, and you see
that it may absorb one and a half pound of hygroscopic water,
which requires about 1,680 caloric units from our body to be evap-
orated.

Linen and flannel bear the same relation toward water they are
wetted with as toward their hygroscopic water. Linen is quickly
wetted and soaked, wool more slowly, but linen cannot take up the
same quantity. Spilled water has certainly taught you this many
times, when you wanted to take it up. It is the same in evaporation,
which is also much quicker from linen. Two equal pieces of linen
and flannel, weighing each 1,000 grammes, put into water and wrung
out till they no longer yield a drop of water, keep back respectively
740 and 913 per 1,000.

But a much greater difference exists in the intensity of evapora-
tion from wet linen and from wet flannel, during equal periods, in a
heated room.

RELATIONS OF THE AIR TO OUR CLOTHING. 673

OBSERVATIONS.

TEMPERATURE.

MINUTES.

WATER TO 1,000 GRAMMES OF

Linen.

Flannel.

1

70° Fahr.

740

913

2

68

15

521

701

3

<;8

30

380

603

4

67

30

229

457

5

66

30

99

309

6

66

30

55

194

It is easy to see from this table how much quicker linen works
than wool in every direction.

During the first 75 minutes there evaporated from 1,000 parts of
linen 511, from 1,000 parts of flannel 456 water; afterward the re-
verse took place: in the following 30 minutes 130 evaporated from
linen, 148 from flannel, and in the last 30 minutes only 44 per 1,000
from linen, but 115 from flannel.

It is also evident how much more evenly the drying proceeds in
wool: in the first 15 of the whole 135 minutes 219 evaporated from
linen, in the last 15 minutes 28 per 1,000, while with wrool it was re-
spectively 212 and 97 per 1,000. I must not forget to mention that
all these experiments were made with pieces of nearly equal size and
shape.

It is self-evident that all textiu*es lose their permeability to the
air in proportion to their state of humidity, the water partly at least
obstructing the pores. Coarser stuffs with larger pores will keep
their permeability longer; if the pores are equal, the difference in the
adhesion of the water to the substances will come into play. Linen,
cotton, and silk are very different in this respect from sheep's-wool.
The former become very quickly air-tight by wetting, the latter
scarcely so, or only after a longer soaking. Soldiers can tell how
damp and vaporous the air becomes under a wet tent, and how quick-
ly the tent becomes airy when it begins to dry.

As the porosity of all fabrics depends chiefly on the elasticity of
the fibres of their material, it must be of great importance how far
that elasticity keeps under wet and dry. There, again, wool stands
apart ; its fibres do not lose much elasticity when they get wet : it is
not so with other fibres. Wet linen and silk are just like Krieger's
shorn fur, when it was coated with varnish or gum-arabic. The
greater facility of catching cold in wet linen or silk than in wet wool
is in exact proportion to the greater facility with which water expels
the«air contained in their fibres. Many of you may have learned a
lesson from a wet linen or cotton and a wet woolen sock.

On the other hand, there is an advantage in these materials if we
want to keep ourselves cool and dry. By means of them we part
with heat and moisture from our surface much quicker, and hand them
over to other layers for further removal.

To be quite methodical I ought now to treat of the different parts
vol. x. — 43

674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of our clothing and of the fitness of different materials for special
purposes. But, to say the truth, Science has not yet done much in
this direction.

There is still one of our garments to be considered which generally
is not regarded as such. I mean the bed — that piece of clothing in
which we spend such a great part of our time. It is equally indis-
pensable to the sick and to the healthy, and at all times it was con-
sidered as a sign of bitterest want if a man had no place to lay his
head.

The bed is not only a place of rest, it is especially our sleeping-
garment, and has often to make up for privations endured during the
day and the day's work, and to give us strength for to-morrow.
You know all the different substances and materials used for it.
They are the same as our garments are made from. Like them, the
bed must be airy and warm at the same time. We warm the bed by
our body just as we warm our clothes, and the bed warms the air
which is continually flowing through it from below upward. The regu-
lating strata must be more powerful in their action than in our day-
clothes, because during rest and sleep the metamorphosis of our tis-
sues and resulting heat become less, and because in an horizontal posK
tion we lose more heat by an ascending current of air than in a ver-
tical position, where the warm ascending current is in more complete
and longer contact with our upright body.

The warmth of the bed sustains the circulation in our surface to
a certain degree for the benefit of our internal organs at a time
when our production of heat is at the lowest ebb. Hence the iim
portance of the bed for our heat and blood economy. Several days
without rest in a bed not only make us sensible of a deficiency in the
recruiting of our strength, but very often produce quite noticeable
perturbations in our bodily economy which the bed would have pro-
tected us from.

I wish, therefore, to impress upon you that your charitable exer-
tions for the poor may become extended to the bed, that kind of gar-
ment which can make up to a great degree for other lamentable defi-
ciencies, as in food, dwellings, clothing, toward which you are in the
habit of directing your efforts.

I am quite aware that I have anything but exhausted the subject
of the functions of our clothes, but still I believe that I have directed
your attention to such essential points as to convince you of the
importance which a scientific consideration of the subject possesses
in the interest of the heat-economy of the human body.

As our health is so intimately connected with this economy, a
better insight into the laws and proceedings of the same must in the
end turn out profitable to health in general.

Thus we have learned in our last glorious war how important it is
to provide well for the soldiers' clothing, and that a few days' want

AUDUBON'S LILY REDISCOVERED. 675

of provisions is less injurious to the health of the soldier than per-
turbations of heat-economy through want of suitable pieces of cloth-
ing. Our clothes are weapons with which civilized man fights against
the atmosphere as far as it is inimical, the means by which he subju-
gates this his element. It lies in our nature, in our instinct, in our
self-respect, to have good clothes, which ought to be also pleasing to
the eye ; but we ought to become more conscious of their purpose.
Ornament must be the minor consideration, and the tailor ought not
to hold his scissors as a sceptre over the hygienic purposes of all
dress.

Our period strives after novelty in all directions, also after new
forms and styles in dress, architecture, and so on ; but nothing new
will be created with our old points of view remaining. New points
of view can only be gained by new and increased insight into the
functions of the dress and the house. This function must determine
the form, and will not be ascertained without theoretical study. It
was not till we had mastered the theory of the overshot and under-
shot water-wheel that the turbine could be invented.

The influence of theory on practical development is much greater
than is usually supposed and conceded. The discovery and settle-
ment of the laws of mechanics had to precede their application to
engines, railways, steamboats, and so on. There would be no diffi-
culty in showing why the great inventions of Watt and Stephenson
were not made at an earlier period, and that they were the fruit of
seeds which were buried in the theoretical investigations of Coperni-
cus, Kepler, and Newton.

Perhaps our future means for keeping our heatdiousehold will be
as different in style and appearance from our present ones as a turbine
from an old mill-wheel, or a steam-engine from a horse-wheel.

AUDUBON'S LILY REDISCOVERED.

Br Professor SAMUEL LOCK WOOD.

DISCUSSING the varied exhibits made of the natural sciences in
the late Exposition at Philadelphia, Forest and Stream pays a
high compliment to a collection of water-color paintings of "The
Birds of New Jersey." These paintings are the work of G. B. Hard-
enbergh, a youth in New Bi-unswick, who, having heard, in the Rut-
gers College Grammar-School, a course of lectures on birds, by the
writer of this, became at once an enthusiast, and, with the spirit
of a devotee, gave himself up to the study of birds in their native
haunts. By wood and stream, in all seasons, the young artist natu-
ralist watches his subject, learns its habits, gets its attitudes, then

676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shoots it, and, in his study, with a knowledge of all its positurce, pro-
duces a portrait that sparkles with active life. The figures are Audu-
bon-like, of life-size, and every one is strikingly natural. And the
trees and plants, too, are so accurate that any botanist can, at a
glance, identify the species. Each picture has the Flemish peculiarity
of scrupulous attention to details, being, in its own way, a bit of
rigidly realistic art. All this commends the work especially to the
naturalist, and is much in the spirit of the famous Audubon. And,
joined to the youthfulness of the artist, it was just this realistic truth-
fnlness which made these simple bird-pictures of New Jersey so at-
tractive at the great Centennial show.

But, can we not see an intimate relation between this cesthetical
outcome of the artist and his own ethical inwardness? All this ten-
der care for the details, this high regard for the truthful narration of
the pictorial story, comes of the scientific conscience. Its processes
are directed by the religiosity of good, honest work ; and thus form
is given to what may be called, as its resultant, the conscientiousness
of art.

And yet, strange to say, this charming naturalist and artist, this,
so to speak, consecrated student of Nature in her own haunts, whom
so long every one, both at home and abroad, lauded for his fidelity to
Nature, has of late been under a cloud. Yes, the truthfulness of even
Audubon stands under attaint of both ornithologists and botanists.
Let us adduce the specifications.

Our boyish delight still lingers in memory over the reading of
this wonderful man's account of his first sight of that bird whose
celebrity, unhappily, has given place of late to an undesirable no-
toriety. In a burst of enthusiasm, in which the love of Nature and
of country mingled, he called it " the bird of Washington," and that
Science, to the end of time, should do the same, he named it Haliaetus
Washingtonii. Thus stands his behest to science in his "Ornitho-
logical Biography," vol. i., p. 58 :

"He first saw it on the Upper Mississippi, in February, 1814. A few years
after, he met with a pair near the Ohio River, in Kentucky, which had built
their nest on a range of high cliffs. Two years after the discovery of the nest,
he killed a male, which was the subject of Ins description. After this he saw
two other pairs near the Ohio River. It seems not to have been seen by any
other ornithologist. Though this bird is admitted as a species on the authority
of Audubon, many ornithologists do not regard it as such ; and, from Audubon's
own testimony, there seems sufficient ground for doubting the validity of the
species." — ("American Cyclopaedia," revised edition, article "Eagle.")

In one of those delightful " Letters on Ornithology," by Dr. Coues,
now appearing in the Chicago Field (Letter IX., on the " Hawks "),
occur these words :

" While we have gray eagles, and black eagles, and eagles without stint, my
word for it, reader, this eagle business is about done to death. Let me beg you

AUDUBON'S LILY REDISCOVERED. 677

not to publish the next eagle you kill. Eagle-stories are almost always ' fishy.'
As to the number of different kinds of eagles in this country, believe me when I
assure you that there never have been but two species discovered in all the length
and breadth of this country. That famous ' bird of Washington ' was a myth.
Either Audubon was mistaken, or else, as some do not hesitate to affirm roundly,
he lied about it. The two species are, the golden eagle (Aquila chrysa'etos), and
the bald eagle {Haliaetus leucocephalus).

This, surely, is somewhat terrific, and would indicate, in this in-
stance, that truthfulness, the bright particular flower in a man's char-
acter, was badly wilted. As Patrick would say, " it does'n't become
the loikes of us to talk back ; and maybe it cowes us, just, to be found
in disagramint with the great bird-doctor, who is possissed of the
aridition of all the fowls that iver was, sure." So we will not openly
differ with this accomplished man ; and will even, like a devout Mos-
lem, leave Audubon to those stern ladies known as the Fates, and
thus will hasten to another instance in which, perhaps, even a lady may
come to the rescue of the reputation of this remarkable naturalist.

If possible, Audubon has suffered worse at the hands of the bota-
nists. From these gentlemen the famous student of the woods and
fields has received a snub of the shabby-genteel sort, and of the most
persistent character. In his " Birds of the South," and with his usual
love of fidelity to particulars, as indicating the plant habitat, or sur-
rounding, Audubon figured a yellow water-lily — not that very ordi-
nary flower, the Nuphar advena, the spatter-dock, or yellow pond-lily,
so common from Canada to Florida, but a real close cousin to
Nymphc&a odorata, our delightful, sweet-scented water-lily. Be-
holding it with his own eyes, the great painter put it into one of his
glorious bird-pictures, and, having given the portrait of his floral
beauty, he also named it N~ymphwa lutea, or, in plain English, the
yellow water-lily. But this pretty flower had nev< r been seen by the
botanists ; and so, forsooth, the thing was absolutely ignored — treated
as a pretty fable, a bit of art extravagance. Art, like history, may
have its anachronisms, but the real artist, though he err, cannot
lie. So thoroughly was that N'ymphcea lutea snubbed, that it would
have been as much as a poor mortal's reputation was worth to have
mentioned credence in the thing in the hearing of sober Science. One
might look in vain in any botany of the South for Audubon's yellow
water-lily. Not a word can you find in Darbey's " Botany of the
Southern States ; " and the same ominous silence pervades that later
and more pretentious work, Chapman's " Flora of the Southern States."
This luckless lily of Audubon is scientifically tabooed. Luckless,
was it said ? Well, this abjured beauty of the good man has fallen
into luck at last. When neither sought nor expected, a species of
poetic justice has lately been reached ; for, in the person of a lady,
learned in such lore, we have" a Daniel come to judgment." Last
summer, in Florida, Mrs. Mary Treat rediscovered the long-lost flower

678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of Audubon. Yes, there it was blooming in those semi-tropical waters,
and, from its golden chalice, this excellent lady drank the exquisite
pleasure of a scientific discovery, and, sweeter still, the privilege that
she could bid pass away that cloud of incredulity of over a genera-
tion of years. In fact, it was communicated to that Nestor of Ameri-
can botanists, Prof. Gray, and was duly acknowledged. It was truly
the long-ignored Nymphma lutea — Audubon's yellow water-lily. And,
more than this, this deported beauty, through our modern Portia's
zeal, is to be introduced to the best botanic circles of the world. Mrs.
Treat has provided a liberal stock for the botanic garden at Harvard ;
and the curator, Prof. Sargent, is giving them careful and skilled cult-
ure, and is also supplying the gardens of Europe with specimens.
Among the botanists, then, Audubon and his beautiful water-lily to-
day stand quoted above par. Whether the " bird of Washington "
is to reappear, and set this early ornithologist right with the modern
bird-men, perhaps may hardly admit of a hope. That Audubon, like
Wilson and the rest, did sometimes err in the diagnosis of his species,
was easily possible ; that he could lie, we think, was impossible.
Much work of these earlier students has had to be done over again,
and, as Dr. Coues has shown, this is emphatically true of the Falcomdoe,
or diurnal birds of prey. Very radical undoing has been needed of the
work done on the eagles. Lately, we had at our very doors not less
than three notable eagles — the black eagle, the gray eagle, and the bald
eagle. But more thorough and skillful work has eliminated two out
of these three species by showing that the black was the young, the
gray the middle-aged, and the bald the mature, or adult stage, all
of one and the same species, namely, the Haliaetus leucocephalus — the
bald eagle. We would like to see some condonement for the long
ignoring of that Southern lily. If it were scientifically orthodox to
rechristen that rediscovered flower, we would have its history crystal-
lized in a new specific name, Nymphaia Audubonii, which, after so
long incredulity, would be doing the bonny thing ; and thus the yel-
low water-lily would dot, with golden memories of the gentle enthu-
siast, Audubon, the wraters of the river of time.

-*»•♦-

THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA.

By Professor SANBOEN TENNEY.

THERE may, perhaps, be a question in the minds of some, or even
of many, as to what animals are absolutely the most useful to
man ; but there can be no question that those which furnish him with
milk and flesh for food, wool and leather for clothing, and which bear
his burdens and draw his loads, have very high claims to this rank.

THE PLANT-EATERS OE NORTH AMERICA. 679

The deer, the antelopes, the sheep and goats, and the oxen, are
indeed very intimately connected with our comforts, and even with
our luxuries. And the North American representatives of these
useful animals deserve our careful attention and consideration ; for
they are more intimately connected with our welfare as a nation
than Ave yet fully appreciate or even understand. As all of our
domestic sheep and cattle have come from wild species, so in the
future we are to draw from the same sources some of the most
valuable grazing animals that are to stock the pastures and farm-
yards of the great farming-regions of this vast country. And we
have several kinds of these animals now wild on the plains and in the
forests that ought to be added to our domestic flocks and herds ; and
intelligent legislation should at once be inaugurated to secure this
result, which is intimately connected with the welfare of every person
-on this continent.

Of deer there are in North America perhaps eight species : the
black-tailed deer of the Pacific coast ; the mule-deer, and the white-
tailed deer, of the Upper Missouri region and westward; the common
deer of the United States east of the Missouri ; the wapiti of the
northern and northwestern portions of the United States; one or two
species of reindeer ; and the moose of the northern portion of the con-
tinent.

The moose [Alee Americamis, Fig. 1) is the largest member of
the deer family, equaling a good-sized horse in bulk, and having very
long legs ; and the male has very long and broad antlers, which in
some instances weigh as much as seventy pounds or more. Its muzzle
is exceedingly large and long, its ears long and hairy, its neck short
and thick, and the latter and the shoulders covered by a mane, and the
throat with long hair. The general color is a grayish brown, and the
hair is very coarse and brittle. In its movements the moose appears
quite awkward, but it is able to make very great speed, striding along
without apparent effort over fallen trees, fences, and other obstruc-
tions, which would be serious obstacles in the way of most, if not all,
of our domestic animals. The moose is still common in the unset-
tled parts of Maine and Northern New York, and thence northward
toward the frozen regions. In the winter it keeps mainly on the
wooded hill-sides ; and at this time many of them stay in what the
hunters term " yards." These are large tracts of ground over which
the snow has been trodden hard by the moose, the lighter and un-
trodden snow forming a wall around the yard. There are generally
in each of these yards one male and one female, and one or two
fawns. They feed upon the bushes and the saplings that may be
growing in the yard, and even peel off and eat all the bark from
the hard-wood trees up as high as they can reach. They are espe-
cially fond of the birch, the moose-wood, and the poplar.

In the summer the moose frequents lakes and rivers. Here, by

68o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

o-oino- into the water, it escapes the attacks of the troublesome flies,
and avoids injuring Its antlers, which at this time are growing, and
are very tender.

Fig. 1. — The Moose (Alee Americanus).

The antlers are the most curious things, perhaps, in the structure
of these animals. As already stated, they are found only on the
males. They are shed annually, in the month of December; in some
cases, however, they are carried till the following March. The first
year the antlers are merely short knobs ; the second year they are
four or five inches long, with a single point ; the third year about
nine inches long ; the fourth year they become broad with a brow-
antler and several points, and about the fifth year they reach their
maximum size. It is a matter of wonder that the enormous horns of
these animals grow in about two months ! They begin to appear
about the latter part of March, or eai'ly in April, and in June or July
they are full-grown for the season. While growing, they are invested
with a skin which is covered with a sort of velvet-like pile ; and this
skin is nourished by a system of blood-vessels. When they have
attained their full growth for the season, the skin peels off, and leaves
the antlers at first perfectly white, but exposure soon turns them
brown.

The female produces her young in May ; at the first birth there is

THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 681

only one fawn, but afterward two, and it is believed by the hunters
that these twins are always one male and one female. The moose is
hunted at the yards, and also pursued with dogs until it is fatigued
and overtaken ; and it is also shot on the lake-shores and river-mar-
gins, in the early autumn, by moonlight. The flesh of the moose,
though rather coarse, is highly prized as food by many, and is a very
good substitute for beef. The nose and the tongue are regarded as
great delicacies. The marrow from the shank-bones is used by the
hunters to spread upon their bread and eaten as butter.

It may be stated here that our moose is so nearly like the great
elk of the northern part of Europe, that there is still perhaps a
question whether the two are of one species. A fossil elk has been
found in the marl beneath the peat-bogs of Ireland, which is of an
entirely different species from any now living. This fossil elk was
ten feet high to the top of the horns, whose tips are ten feet apart !

People generally think of the reindeer only as an inhabitant of
the cold portions of Europe. But North America has at least one
species of reindeer, although it is more generally called caribou. The
woodland caribou, or reindeer {Rang if er caribou), of New Bruns-
wick, Maine, and westward to Lake Superior, is thought by some to
be identical with the reindeer of Lapland. The barren-ground cari-
bou, or reindeer {R. Groenlandicus), is found in the arctic regions
beyond the limits of trees, and may be only a variety of the former.

Unlike the other deer, the reindeer have the horns present on both
sexes. The horns are palmated only at the tip, but, like those of
all other deer, are shed and renewed periodically. The history of the
reindeer of Lapland is well known, and from that history we learn
how useful our own species may yet be made. As is well known, the
Laplanders have large herds of these animals, and use them for
beasts of burden and for draught, their milk and flesh for food, their
skins for clothing and for covering their sledges. The reindeer is a
very hardy animal, and draws the sledge of its owner with great
speed. In one of the palaces in Sweden there is a picture of one of
these animals, which is preserved with great care, from the fact that
the animal from which it was painted drew the sledge of an officer,
with important dispatches, the distance of eight hundred miles in
forty-eight hours !

The caribou or American reindeer (Fig. 2) is considerably larger
than the common deer, now so often seen in our parks. Its color is
deep brown in summer and grayish in winter. In the winter this
animal stays in the swamps, much of the time, and feeds mainly on
the mosses and lichens that hang from the trees and bushes, but in
early spring it retires to the hill-sides and feeds upon the buds and
twigs. Like its European r-elation, it is very fleet of foot, trotting, or
galloping, or leaping, with the greatest ease ; and it is also capable
of great endurance. For more than a week hunters have followed a

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

caribou before they could get near enough to shoot it. When attacked
by dogs it stands at bay, and then falls an easy victim to the hunters.
In the regions far to the north, where the caribou is plentiful, these
animals move in herds from ten to a hundred or more. When in good
condition the male caribou has a layer of fat on the back and rump
two or three inches in thickness. The flesh is an excellent article of
food, being tender and of good flavor. The skin when properly

Pig. 2.— The American Reindeek, or Caribou (Hanrjifer caribou).

dressed forms one of the best articles for clothing to be worn in the
cold regions. A suit made of the dressed skins of the caribou is so
warm that it is said that the person wearing one of these suits and
also provided with a blanket of the same material, may bivouac on the
snow not only with safety but with comfort even in the intense cold
of an arctic winter's night.

The common deer of Eastern North America, generally known as
the Virginia deer (Cervits Virginianus, Fig. 3), is one of the most
graceful and one of the most beautiful of all the deer family. It is
now so common in parks that almost every one is familiar with it as
it appears in this state of semi-domestication. But no one gets the
best idea of this splendid animal who does not see it as it appears in
the wild state, either in the forest or on the plains. Here when star-
tled it bounds away with the most incredible velocity, and he who
would bring it down must have a quick hand and steady nerve. This
• her attains a weight of about two hundred pounds. The color is
light brown in summer and grayish in winter, the under part of the
throat and tail being always white. The food of this animal is exceed-
ingly various. The tender grasses constitute its principal food in

THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 683

summer, except in those regions, as in many parts of the South, where
the deer can gain access to the fields of young wheat, oats, or other
grain. In the early autumn it adds berries of various sorts to its bill
of fare, and later still nuts and acorns ; and in winter it feeds upon
almost all kinds of buds and tender twigs, as well as upon various
kinds of the more hardy herbs. The males are in excellent condition
from August to November, and the females from November to Janu-
ary. The antlers are fully grown in July or August, and remain till
the next January, when they are shed. The males engage in severe

Fig. 3.— The Virginia Deer (Cervus Yirginianus).

contests with one another, and in some of these contests they get their
horns or antlers interlocked, so that they cannot separate them, and
the combatants at length perish from starvation and exhaustion. In
some cases the antlers are interlocked so firmly that even a strong
man cannot separate them, and Audubon mentions one case where
three pairs of antlers were thus united. The flesh of this deer, as is
well known, is tender and juicy, and has an excellent flavor. This
fact, and the love of the excitement of the chase, have caused this ani-
mal to be extensively hunted. At the same time our forests have been
disappearing, thus affording them less protection, so that the numbers
of the common deer are far less than twenty-five years ago. It will
require rigid legislation to keep these animals from entirely disap-
pearing from many parts of our country where a deer-hunt is still pos-
sible.

Next to the moose, the wapiti or American elk ( Cervus Canaden-
sis) is the largest deer in North America. It is nearly as large as a
horse, and its horns are the most magnificent to be found in the whole
deer family, being five or six feet long and much branched. In some
cases antlers of this species have been secured which were so long
that when standing on their tips a man could walk upright through

684

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the arch thus formed. Although this deer still lingers in the moun-
tainous regions of Pennsylvania, and perhaps in a few other places
in the eastern part of our country, it is confined mainly to the western
and northwestern portions of North America, and south of the fifty-
seventh parallel of latitude. In some cases it is found in large herds,

Fig. 4.— The Elk, or Wapiti {Cervus Canadensis).

all the members of which follow one of the males which is their leader,
and whose movements they more or less closely imitate. The color
of the wapiti is grayish in winter, and chestnut-red in summer. This
deer is the analogue of the stag or red deer (C. elephas) of Europe,
and was formerly regarded as identical with the latter ; but it is a
very much larger animal than its European relation, and is in every
way a distinct species.

The antelopes differ from all the deer in having their horns per-
manent and hollow, and, like a sheath, covering a conical process of
the frontal bone. In this respect the antelopes are like sheep, goats,
and oxen. The antelopes have the horns round, curved, ringed, or
wrinkled, and always black. There are many species of antelopes, no
less than ninety having been described. Of these, two are found in
North America, two in Europe, and all the rest in Asia and Africa.-

Our most interesting species of antelope is the prong-horn (Antilo-
capra Americana, Fig. 5) of the western portions of North America.
It is about the size of the Virginia deer, and is covered with coarse,

THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 685

thick hair. Its color above is yellowish-brown ; the rump and under
parts white ; the horns, hoofs, and the naked part of the nose, black.
The white hair covering the rump is very long, and seems to be under
the perfect control of the animal, and is at once made to stand erect
when he is in the least excited ; and it is wonderful to see this patch
of hair rise and fall with his varying emotions. About half-way up
the horns of the adult there is a branch or prong, and from this fact
the animal gets its popular name.

The prong-horn is often seen alone, more frequently perhaps there
are several together, and in some cases herds of one or two hundred

I

Fig. 5.— The Prong-horn Antelope (Antilocapra Americana).

are seen. It is not an uncommon thing for the traveler on the Pacific
Railway to see several of these beautiful animals while he is crossing
the Plains. One has been seen to run along for a mile or two parallel
with the moving train, as if determined to keep up with it. Its speed
is very great, and is only equaled by that of the fleetest of the deer;
and hence it is almost useless to pursue it. It is not, however, diffi-
cult to secure these animals. They have great curiosity in regard to
any objects which they are not accustomed to. The hunters well
know this fact, and turn it to their own advantage. "When the ex-
perienced hunter sees a prong-horn, or a herd of them, he does not
pursue them, but keeps his ground, or little by little advances very
slowly. The antelope soon advances a little toward him. The hunter
waves his handkerchief, or a rag ; the animal approaches still nearer
and nearer ; and in this manner he is soon within easy range of the
hunter's rifle. It is stated that the Indians have the habit of lying
flat upon their backs, and kicking up their heels with a rag or some-
thing fastened to them ; and that by this process they entice the
prong-horn to within such a distance that they kill it with their bow

686

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and arrow. The flesh of the prong-horn in autumn, when it is in the
best condition, is good food, especially if the animal be young.

In May and June the prong-horn brings forth two fawns, which
are of a dun-color, and not spotted like the fawns of the deer. For
these the mother displays great affection, and defends them with vigor
aeainst the attacks of enemies. She is sometimes able to beat off
even the wolf; but not always, and hence many of these little creatures
are annually destroyed by this hungry animal. The prong-horn, when
taken young, is easily tamed. The writer has seen a tame one. It
was thoroughly domesticated, and, whatever its wanderings during the
day, it returned to the farm-house at night. It allowed itself to be
freely handled, even by strangers. It followed the children as they
went to school, and then returned to its home again, alone ; all show-
ing how easily it can be added to the stock of domestic animals of the

farm.

Our other species of antelope looks so much like a goat that it has

been named the mountain-goat [Aplocerus montamts, Fig. 6). It is

about the size of the domestic sheep, and has small, round, slightly

Fig. 6.— Mountain-Goat (Aplocerus montanus).

recurved horns, which are ringed at the base, and which are jet-black
in color, and polished, and are much like those of the chamois; the
body is covered with long, white hair, and there is a long pendent
tuft of hair under the chin. This antelope lives on the rugged por-
tions of the Rocky Mountains, and seldom descends into the plains.
It leaps from crag to crag, much after the manner of the chamois of
the Alps, and in many portions of the mountains is secured with great
difficulty. The flesh of this species is rather dry, and is not so highly
prized as that of the other animals described in this article. It may
be added here that the hair, or covering of the body, is of two kinds,
the one being long and straight, and the other, which forms a thick,
close under-coat, being a sort of fine silk-like wool.

THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 687

Of sheep there is only one wild species in North America, the
Rocky-Mountain sheep, or big-horn (Ovis montana, Fig. 7). This
animal is of a much larger size than the ordinary domestic sheep, and
its horns are of enormous size. A large animal of this species weighs
about three hundred pounds. In Siberia there is a wild-sheep, called
the argali, which Cuvier believed to be the same as our big-horn.
It is certainly very remarkable that there should be only one species

Fig. 7.— The Mountain-Sheep (Ovis montana).

of wild-sheep on this continent, and that that one should be confined
to our highest system of mountains. The inquiring mind naturally
asks, "Whence has this sheep come?" But this question is not easily
answered. It may, however, be stated here that Cuvier was inclined
to believe that it came from Siberia, and crossed Bekring's Straits on
the ice.

The Rocky-Mountain sheep lives in flocks, and is exceedingly wild,
especially in regions that have been frequented by the hunters; and
he who would get a shot at one of these animals has often to make
wide detours, and always to proceed with the greatest caution. The
flesh of this animal is very highly prized, being regarded by some as
even better than venison, or ordinary mutton. The hunters tell re-
markable stories of the big-horn. They assert that this animal will
leap sometimes from high precipices, head foremost, and, striking
upon the tips of its enormous horns, bound away on its course as if
nothing had happened !

Characteristics belon<nn<r to different kinds of animals are some-

688

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

times combined in one and the same animal. The musk-ox (Fig.
8) furnishes us with an example of this sort. This animal is in some
respects so much like a sheep, and in others so much like an ox,
that naturalists have named its genus Ovibos, the first part of the
word meaning sheep, and the latter part meaning ox. The musk-ox
( Ovibos moschatus) inhabits the barren ground of North America,
and is about the size of a two-years-old heifer. Its horns are close
together on the top of the head, whence they curve outward, down-
ward, and thence upward. The body is covered with long pendent
hair, and the color is brownish-black. This hair or wool might be
made very serviceable in the manufacture of useful fabrics, if it could
be obtained in sufficient quantity. The musk-ox lives mostly in herds
of a score or more, and, contrary to what we would naturally suppose,
it runs with great speed, and climbs rocky hills with facility. The
flesh of the young animals is very good, but that of the older ones is
too strongly impregnated with musk to be palatable to white men,
although the Indians and Esquimaux may not seriously object to it.

Fig. 8.— The Musk-Ox {Ovibos moschatvs).

It is much to be regretted that the musk-ox is so rarely preserved
in our museums. It is exceeding difficult to secure a specimen, as
almost every one which is killed by the natives is immediately de-
voured by them. The food of this animal consists of grasses in the
summer. and lichens in the winter, the latter being obtained by scrap-
ing the snow from the ground. On this food they keep in remarkably
good condition. It may be added here that only one species of musk-
ox is now living ; although their fossil remains show us that in the
past there have been other species of this animal, and in other parts
of the world than America.

It is interesting to see how the same idea under specifically dif-
ferent forms is represented in the animal kingdom in the different por-
tions of the earth. Take the idea which finds its expression in the ox,
for example. In the southern part of Africa we find the ox in the

THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 689

form of the Cape buffalo, a very ferocious animal, with horns so wide
that they nearly cover the forehead ; in India, the ami, whose enor-
mous horns are ten feet apart from tip to tip ; in the forests of Lithu-
ania and of the Caucasus, the aurochs, an ox related more or less
closely to our wild species ; in Tartary, the grunting cow or yak,
which is smaller than any of the preceding, and which has a long
mane upon the hack, whose tail much resembles that of a horse,
and whose grunting is similar to that of a hog. And in North
America we find the American buffalo {Bos Americanus, Fig. 9),

>e>S=i

Fig. 9.— The Bison or Buffalo (Bos Americanus).

the largest quadruped on this continent. This animal once inhab-
ited nearly all of North America, except the cold regions of the
north ; but it is now confined mainly to the great Western plains,
where, notwithstanding the immense havoc made among their num-
bers, both by Indians and white men, they still exist in numbers
that almost defy computation, in some places covering the plains in
every direction as far as the eye can reach. The buffalo is as large as
a good-sized domestic ox, and has a large head which is carried close
to the ground, a broad forehead, a broad, full chest, a large hump be-
tween the shoulders, narrow loins, and rather slender legs. The
horns are set far apart, are large at the base, and taper suddenly to a
sharp point. The buffalo is covered with a thick coat of hair, that
upon the head, neck, and shoulders, being very long and shaggy.
The horns and hoofs are black. Perhaps there is no grander sight to
be witnessed amon? the larsrer animals than to see one of the immense
herds of these animals, when under good headway, sweep by — if only
the observer has a safe standing-place.

When the buffalo is moving rapidly, it progresses by an awkward
canter or gallop, and it requires a good horse and an expert rider to
keep up with it. The hunting of the buffalo is one of the most ex-
citing and at times one of the most dangerous sports, if such it may
vol. x. — 44

690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be called, in which the visitor to the great Western plains can engage.
Unless shot through the heart or some other vital part, this ani-
mal is not easily brought down. When the animal is only wounded
it becomes very furious, and, if its pursuer be on foot, it at once at-
tacks him, and the hunter has all he can do to save himself from
destruction. Nor is he always safe even if he be mounted, unless he
can manage to keep out of the way of the infuriated animal, for he
ferociously attacks both horse and rider.

Buffaloes wander much from one region to another in search of
the best pasturage, and of water, salt, or saline springs. In the
winter they move southward, and in spring return again to the north.
Their deep and well-trodden paths traverse the plains for hundreds
of miles. Vast numbers are destroyed during their spring and au-
tumnal migrations. Many perish from starvation ; those that get weak
and are left behind, are harassed and at length devoured by wolves.
Sometimes the vast herds attempt to cross the rivers upon the ice,
and, when they are crowded together, the ice gives way and they
perish in the cold waters.

The male buffaloes have terrible combats. The young are born
in April and May, and there is generally only one at a birth. The
young are in constant danger from the wolves.

The buffalo is easily domesticated, and should be added to our
stock of domestic cattle. The flesh of the wild ones is extensively
used for food, and is regarded with much favor ; and we already
know enough to convince us that the flavor of their flesh would be
improved when they are fully under the dominion of man. Experi-
ments show that the males make excellent oxen, and that they are
stronger and swifter of foot than the ordinary oxen ; and, when we
consider that it takes the milk of two domestic cows to properly
nourish one buffalo-calf, we may safely conclude that the females will
make excellent domestic cows.

The buffalo was once common over most of North America west
of the Hudson River. In the Carolinas they were found even on the
seaboard. But, like the red man, they have fled westward, before
the advance of civilization, and are still fleeing. Their natural feed-
ing-grounds become cultivated fields. Enemies are constantly on
their track. Man hunts them for their valuable skin and for their
flesh. Vast numbers are killed yearly that civilized man may feed
upon their tongues. Wolves and bears lurk in ambush to snatch
away the young, and more openly to wage a constant warfare against
the sick and disabled members of the herd. So that, notwithstanding
their vast numbers, the day is not far distant when the buffalo will be
as rare a sight on the Plains as the wapiti and the moose are now in
our Northern forests.

THE SCIENCE vs. THE ART OF CHEMISTRY. 691
THE SCIENCE vs. THE AET OF CHEMISTKY.

By IKA KEMSEN.

THE attitude of the world in general toward chemistry is peculiar,
and, as this paper is intended to show, it is not what it ought to
be. This is due in turn to a peculiarity of the science itself, which
distinguishes it from most other sciences. We refer to its close con-
nection with matters of every-day experience, and of practical impor-
tance. It is unnecessary to dilate here upon this close connection.
Every one who has any conception whatever of chemistry recognizes
it to a greater or less extent. But, owing to this close connection, the
unscientific world has grown into the habit of considering the practi-
cal problems as the problems par excellence of chemistry, and, hav-
ing once recognized some object of the science, they inquire no further,
and hence they fail to recognize its most important and only legiti-
mate object.

In this respect chemistry as well as physics is unfortunate ; though
at the present day physics has an advantage over chemistry. Time
was when the world looked upon physics also as mainly a practical
science; but, of late, by the efforts of gentlemen of high standing, the
attention of the people has been drawn to some of the higher prob-
lems of the science, and these have been rendered intensely interest-
ing to every thinking being. Some of the grander results of physical
investigation have also become familiar to the world, and have served
to increase the respect for the science. The great truths of the con-
servation of energy and the transformations of energy ; the applica-
tion of the spectroscope to the investigation of heavenly as well as
earthly bodies ; the undulatory theory of heat ; the nature of sound,
and the beautiful relations of sounds to each other — these are all mat-
ters with which the world is fast growing familiar; and the popular
discussion of these subjects is doing something, perhaps a great deal,
to elevate mankind above that condition of superstition and darkness
which still is the portion of most of the world. The great generaliza-
tions of science are ennobling, and, in the exercise which they afford
the intellect, are productive of happiness of a very high order. What-
ever good we may recognize, as having been effected by the practical
application of electricity, heat, and other natural agents, to the satis-
faction of the wants of man — and the good is xindoubtedly great — an
infinitely greater good springs from the dissemination of the immor-
tal truths of physics. But the latter good is quietly effected; it con-
sists in a growth of the ideas of the world, and thus contributes to
the growth of manhood. We do not always recognize it, but it is
ever present. With the growth of ideas concerning the physical uni-
verse, the ideas concerning the Creator of the universe must grow

692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

larger, broader, grander, and we must worship with a truer adoration,
and a feeling of more perfect reverence.

If we turn again to chemistry, we shall see that while its impor-
tance is almost universally recognized ; while the number of those
who devote themselves to its study is increasing every year ; while
immense sums of money are yearly spent for the building and support
of palatial laboratories ; while the press, recognizing the popular
appreciation of the science, furnishes, in its own peculiar way, brief
records of its advance — still we can point to very little connected with
chemistry which, for its elevating influence upon mankind, can be com-
pared with the great physical truths above referred to. That which
is caught at and served up for the public is taken from the lower por-
tions of the science, while the higher portions pass on, scarcely if ever
coming in contact with the populace. The public knows when a new
dye is discovered ; it knows when the poison has been found in some
strange stomach ; it knows when a new milk for babes has been con-
cocted ; it knows when precious metals have been detected in the
depths of the earth ; it knows all these things because it is promptly
informed in regard to them; and it is right and good that the infor-
mation should be given, and that these things should be known. It
is plain, however, that a thousand dyes might be discovered ; that a
thousand murderers might be brought to justice through the aid of
the chemist ; that varieties innumerable of milk for babes might be
concocted ; or that mines upon mines of gold might be unearthed with-
out the slightest ennobling or elevating influence being exerted upon
the mass of mankind. All of these things would be valuable — un-
doubtedly— but their value would be of a very material kind. It is
certain that this material value is that which is most easily recog-
nized, which appeals most directly to the public ; and hence plainly,
in the public mind, the. importance of chemistry is measured by the
standards of this value. The reputations of chemists, too, depend upon
the greater or less extent to which they devote themselves to practi-
cal questions. He who is frequently on the stand to testify in regard
to cases of poisoning ; he who succeeds in presenting to the wrorld
some new compound which can be used practically; he who detects
impurities in our food or tells us of poisons where their presence must
be of importance to us — this man is, to the public, the chemist. Ask
ninety-nine men out of a hundred what a chemist is, and they will give
a definition of one who practises the art of chemistry, rather than of
one who is devoted to the science of chemistry.

This statement is true, whether we speak of the mass of mankind,
or of educated and even professional men. The reputation of the
science, at the present time, is such that few men conceive of the true
science independently of the art of chemistry. This is true, further,
not alone in this country, but in Germany, which may rightly be called
the seat of chemistry — with this difference, however: In Germany

THE SCIENCE vs. THE ART OF CHEMISTRY. 693

the true scientific spirit is so deeply imbedded in the educated mind,
that a subject which has a practical side is apt to be looked upon in a
disrespectful manner ; and so it happens that those who ought to know
better are inclined to speak contemptuously of chemistry, simply be-
cause they accept the popular idea of the science as the true one, not
stopping to ask whether there is anything higher in the subject than
that which the public recognizes. An anecdote which illustrates this
matter clearly may not be out of place here. Two students at a Ger-
man university, one a philologist, the other a chemist, were conversing,
on the eve of their examination for the degree of doctor of philosophy.
The philologist asked, "What is the subject of your thesis?" The
chemist answered : " Piperic acid ; I have been working on the subject
for a year and a half." When it was further stated, in reply to in-
quiries, that this acid could not, so far as was known, be used for any
practical purpose, the philologist was loud in his expressions of pity
for one who could work a year and a half without accomplishing some-
thing which would tend directly to improve the material condition of
our race. A counter-question in regard to the subject of the thesis of
the philologist elicited the answer: "My subject is an exceedingly in-
teresting one ; I have already written nearly a hundred pages on it
and have not yet finished : it is the preposition ad in Tacitus" It is
needless to add that he was unable to state to what practical use the
preposition ad could be put. The condition of mind toward chemis-
try which this young man thus betrayed is that which we should most
frequently find in educated as well as uneducated men in this and
other countries. We would not throw ridicule upon the enthusiasm
displayed — we admire it; but we ask to be allowed to have a similar
enthusiasm for our prepositions.

We have thus found the chief cause for the idea commonly held in
regard to the nature of chemistry to be that peculiarity of chemistry
among the sciences which gives it its close connection with practical
matters. It has already been remarked that it is right that this por-
tion of chemistry should be recognized and appreciated. This recog-
nition and appreciation should be encouraged, but not to such an
extent as to sacrifice any appreciation which it is possible to awaken
for the higher portions of the science.

There is another direct cause for the popular conception of chemis-
try, growing out of the more general and indirect cause already con-
sidered. This consists in bad attempts to present the truths of the
science to the people. The popular lectures on chemistry which are
usually delivered are not scientific lectures ; they are frequently ut-
terly lacking in everything that characterizes scientific method ; and
they leave no further impression on the minds of the hearers than that
chemistry is a subject which enables men with the requisite degree
of skill to become successful showmen. Though the lecturer is per-
haps more respected, still the character of the respect which he has

694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

called forth is akin to that called forth by any clever trickster. It is
unfortunate that experiments, originally devised for the purpose of
teaching facts, should have come to be employed simply for the sake
of their aesthetic effects. There can certainly be no harm in making
an experiment a thing of beauty, so long as its real object is not by
this means interfered with ; indeed, this may be advisable, in order
more strongly to impress upon the minds of the hearers the facts
which are to be taught, but the tendency is very strong toward the
condition above described : the science is made to serve the purposes
of showmen, and the rabble shout the more, the greater the display.
Those who serve up this class of lectures are doing positive harm by
belittling the science whose name they profane ; and they are also
doing negative harm by failing to make use of the opportunities
afforded them to draw the minds of men upward to higher concep-
tions, and thus of elevating mankind. They neither recognize the
science nor the art of chemistry, but by their actions teach that it is
a pastime of no particular value.

In the foregoing we have drawn a line between the science and
the art of chemistry. The character of the art is perfectly plain to
every one. He who analyzes substances in order to decide questions
solely of practical importance ; who examines the properties of sub-
stances solely with a view of determining the practical uses to which
these substances can be put ; whose only problem relates to the appli-
cations of the truths of chemistry to the uses of man — he practises the
art of chemistry.

But it is time to inquire what the science is, and what its relation
to the art is. A science is a collection of principles, well established,
applying to a certain class of phenomena. The science, of chemistry
is that particular science which treats of the action of bodies upon
each other, in so far as this action causes a change in the composition
of the bodies. All the so-called natural laws which govern this kind
of action belong legitimately to the field of chemistry. The science
is, strictly speaking, a part of that broader science which treats of
the action of matter upon matter, viz., physics ; but it is usual to
consider the two as separate sciences. Its first object is to determine
the laws of combination and decomposition of bodies, and its state of
perfection will be reached when so much is known concerning these
laws that we shall be able in every case to foretell what changes will
ensue when two or more bodies are brought together, or when certain
influences are brought to bear upon a body. We are so very far from
this perfect state at present that we cannot even say what kind of
reasoning processes will be necessary to enable us to draw the proper
conclusions from given facts. It appears probable, however, that
chemistry will gradually develop into a true mathematical science,
and that, having reached this state, chemists will determine the orbits
of atoms, their rates of motion, their perturbations by methods similar

THE SCIENCE vs. THE ART OF CHEMISTRY. 695

to those so long employed in studying the problems of astronomy.
Although we are far from the perfect state of the science, still every
advance made in it is a step toward the end. From time to time ma-
terial enough is collected to enable some one to make a comprehensive
generalization. These generalizations we admire, but we sometimes
forget that they never could have been made had not a myriad of
workers from day to day furnished the material ; themselves often
unconscious of the importance of the real work they were doing, but
believing that every fact established, however insignificant in itself,
every error of previous observers, however slight, corrected, would at
some time serve a purpose in the growth of the science. Dalton's law
of multiple proportions ; the law of Dulong and Petit connecting the
specific heat and the atomic weight of the elements ; Avogadro's hy-
pothesis relating to the connection between molecular weights and the
volumes of gaseous compounds, would still have been of the future,
had it not been for the efforts of a great many scientific workers, con-
tributing their mites day by day.

Though we thus recognize a growth of the science of chemistry,
entirely independent of any practical applications of its facts, it is of
course true that the latter follow closely in the footsteps of the former.
When, then, we rejoice in any useful application, let us remember that
it could never have been made had the science itself, as a science, not
advanced.

It happens in this country particularly that a man may both prac-
tise the art of chemistry and at the same time be a worker in the field
of scientific chemistry. This is due to the fact that it is necessary for
the men to live, and there are very few positions in the country which
enable their incumbents to devote themselves to the pure science of
chemistry without obliging them at the same time to look for addi-
tional means of support to that furnished by the positions themselves.
This additional means of support can usually be found most readily
in the practice of the art of chemistry. Too often, time that could
and would be devoted to grappling with the problems of the science
is given up to the art in order to keep the purse supplied. Every
properly-constituted scientific man, however, who is obliged to so
apply his powers as to bring himself immediate and material rewards,
feels that he is doing something which he would rather not do, and
that, by applying himself to his science proper, he could in the end
be of much more service to the world. It is apt to be the case, too,
that he who begins to slight the science and to favor the art will at
last entirely sacrifice the former for the latter, and we see too many
teachers of chemistry in this country at the present day who are de-
voting their time to the art rather than to the science of chemistry ;
a circumstance which has the most pernicious effect upon the growth
of the science among us, for the students who ai-e placed under the
influences mentioned are not stimulated, as they should be, to con-

6g6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sider the higher questions of the science, but go out into the world
only to keep alive the popular and erroneous idea concerning the
nature of chemistry.

Finally, if we have correctly represented the attitude of the world
toward chemistry, and correctly stated the causes of this attitude, it
is plain that the world is not to be blamed, but rather, if fault is to
be found, it must be with the chemists themselves. To them we must
look for deliverance. They may by united efforts bring about the
desired changes. But how ?

Two o-eneral methods may be indicated. In the first place, the
teaching of chemistry must be of a higher order than it is at present.
In some of the higher institutions of learning students must be carried
through strictly scientific courses ; they must be brought face to face
with the great questions of the science, and shown how to work at
the solution of existing problems ; and they must go forth with high
and true conceptions concerning their science, prepared to influence
those with whom they come in contact, and to give them, too, correct
ideas. A great deal can thus be done in the right direction by a
single strong man teaching properly, and the influence is very quickly
felt. We need only refer to the influence of Agassiz on the science
of zoology in this country, to show what results may be reached by
a single man who is working in the proper way. A change in the
methods of teaching in our higher institutions of learning, then, is the
chief thing to which we are to look for an improvement in the popu-
lar conception of our science. But there is another means at our
command which is very rarely taken advantage of by scientific chem-
ists. This consists in popular presentations of the higher truths of
the science, either in the form of lectures or of articles in magazines
which are read by the public. A great deal of good can be accom-
plished in this way, if the work is properly done. There are chapters
of great inherent interest treating of matter which belongs in the do-
main of the science of chemistry, and these are rarely alluded to in
popular lectures or articles. If more stress were laid upon such sub-
jects, and less upon the merely practical portions of the science, some-
thing would be done in the way of drawing the attention of the public
toward the higher questions, and thus that good influence which was
above referred to as resulting from popular discussions of the great
truths of physics would also be felt, to some extent, in connection
with chemistry. Thus, too, there would gradually grow up a respect
for the science as well as for the art of chemistry.

VITAL STATISTICS. 697

YITAL STATISTICS.

By CIIAELES P. EUSSEL, M. D.

^\~T0 subject of scientific research has within the present century
JLN received more earnest attention from thoughtful minds than
that of statistics. None, moreover, is more worthy of investigation
or fruitful of more satisfactory practical results to humanity. It must
he confessed that careless or dishonest observers occasionally mis-
construe or misinterpret the significance of statistics ; but the same is
equally the case with all facts. There can be no doubt that certain
truths are demonstrable by figures, and that we must accept almost
without qualification the old adage that " figures cannot lie." We
should not confound with statistics themselves the erroneous deduc-
tions drawn from them so frequently.

Among the various divisions of statistics the one which relates
more particularly to birth, marriage, and death, must always occupy
the most prominent place in human interest. It is this to which the
expression vital statistics has appropriately been applied, and as "self-
preservation is the first law of Nature," so if by a study of this science
we can, so to speak, grapple with Death himself and retard his course
even for a time, we may assuredly congratulate mankind. This sci-
ence, as its name implies, takes cognizance of the essential circum-
stances of human existence, while it must obviously possess inherent
and intimate relations with other branches of statistical inquiry, viz.,
those of morals, industrial pursuits, customs and modes of life, mate-
rial prosperity, peculiarities of soil and climate, domestic economy,
and even political tendencies and events.

If the deductions gained from vital statistics are to be of value
in the preservation of life, those facts which bear particularly upon
the preventable causes of death must naturally claim our more im-
mediate consideration. The subject of mortuary statistics is, indeed,
one of profound interest. All civilized nations have finally recognized
its importance, and have by more or less stringent legislative enact-
ments enforced the collection, preservation, and proper arrangement
and analysis, of those data which constitute its foundation. It must
be acknowledged that even exact figures of mortality do not always
indicate with positive accuracy prevailing conditions of the public
health, especially in the case of affections subject to constant fluctua-
tions of type. They are, however, indices which point unerringly
in the right direction, and, as such, they are entitled to our most
careful consideration. Moreover, they are our sole means at present
for approximate investigation of national disease. We may trust that
ere long the concerted action of the entire medical profession will
furnish us with a constant knowledge of the comparative prevalence

698 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of all disease. In the United States the want of such a system is in
a manner compensated for by the periodical enumeration of causes of
death at each national census. Although for obvious reasons such
enumeration must be defective, both as regards the actual causes
themselves and the number dying within the census year (the returns
of 1870 being computed as forty-one per cent, less than the true num-
ber), still, the same sources of error and the same elements of truth
obtaining, as a rule, in every section, the results of comparisons be-
tween different portions of the country contain much less of fallacy
and more of fact than might be anticipated. For the last census
year, ending June 1, 1870, nearly half a million deaths were collated
and appropriately arranged by the Census Bureau, in tables referring
both to the country as a whole and to separate States and Territories.

Among our English kinsmen across the Atlantic there has existed
for many years a uniform and comprehensive system of death-regis-
ti*ation. Thus, within a brief period of the outbreak after an epidemic,
its mortuary figures from every quarter reach the central bureau in
London, where they are at once systematically tabulated and pub-
lished. The character of the morbific storm is studied, and its course
predicted with almost as much certainty and promptness as each ap-
proaching disturbance of the elements is foretold and described in '
Washington from a comparison of manifold meteorological phenomena.
In the same manner, whatever peculiarities may characterize the
mortality by sporadic and endemic affections at different seasons, in
various portions of the country, are observed and converted into
numerical expressions for analytical study.

It is unfortunate for the cause of medical and sanitary science that
no similar system has yet been established in this country. In our
population of forty-odd millions over seven hundred thousand deaths
must have occurred within the last twelve months ; and yet, except
in the case of our large cities, we are almost as ignorant of our causes
of mortality as we are of those which cut off the population of China.

'She British system, one applicable to the peculiarities of different
populations, was devised by Dr. William Farr, the distinguished medi-
cal director of the English Registrar-General's office. A statistical
congress, under the auspices of the French Government, was convened
in Paris in September, 1855, to consider this subject, and it agreed
upon a nomenclature of the causes of death substantially the same as
that proposed by Dr. Farr. At another congress held in Vienna, in
1857, a uniform nomenclature and plan of registration for all the
European states was determined upon. Dr. Farr's classification of
diseases was not so generally adopted ; but it has since been making
its way in Germany and other portions of Europe. This nosological
classification, though by no means perfect, doubtless possesses, in its
practical relations to public health, advantages over every system
that has preceded it. Its divisions are founded upon the manner in

VITAL STATISTICS. 699

which diseases of similar type or character affect the population. It
will be sufficient to mention its first great class — that of zymotic dis-
eases. This term zymotic is derived from a Greek word meaning
ferment, and has reference to a change analogous to that of fermenta-
tion occurring in the blood by the infinite multiplication of disease-
germs. Such affections chiefly comprise fevers par excellence — the
epidemic, endemic, and contagious or infectious disorders — which
suddenly attack masses of people, which spring from different sorts
of malaria, or from specific communicable poisons ; contaminate the
atmosphere and water, and decimate in a brief time civil and military
communities. We read in sacred history of whole armies having
been suddenly swept away, as that of Sennacherib, which, while be-
sieging Jerusalem, lost 185,000 men in a single night under the deadly
breath of the destroying angel — a beautiful metaphor, probably, for
the swift and invisible blow of the pestilence. It has been well re-
marked that these diseases distinguish one country from another, one
year from another. They have formed epochs in chronology, and, as
Niebuhr has shown, " have influenced not only the fall of cities, such
as Athens and Florence, but of empires."

This great class of maladies is the index of salubrity ; it is this
class which varies to the greatest extent in different climates and
seasons, which modifies the fatality of other kinds of disease, and
which constitutes the principal difference between the health of differ-
ent peoples and periods.

A general and uniform system of death-registration among nations
renders easy what would otherwise be impracticable, viz., constant
international exchanges and comparisons, not simply confined to in-
dividual affections, but applicable as well to immense groups of cog-
nate diseases. In this manner statistics of mortality assume vast im-
portance, and present for our consideration manifold questions of a
physical, social, and political character. They determine the laws
which regulate the duration of life ; they indicate in what manner
those laws have been or are being infringed, and afford bases for cal-
culations materially affecting the interests of mankind. Statistics are
far from being the barren array of figures ingeniously and laboriously
combined into columns and tables, which some persons are apt to
consider them. They constitute rather the ledger of the people, in
which, as the merchant in his books, the citizen can read at once all
the results of a week, a month, a year, or series of years, and can de-
duce the profit or the loss which has accrued to the account of vitality,
morals, education, wealth, power. And it has been well said that
" science has nothing to offer more inviting in speculation than the
laws of vitality, the variations of those laws in the two sexes at dif-
ferent ages, and the influence of civilization, occupation, locality, sea-
sons, and other physical agencies, either in generating diseases or in
improving the public health."

7oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But, putting aside this broad and philosophic view of the impor-
tance of mortuary statistics, it is evident that the application of their
deductions must be of great benefit to the physician as a practitioner
alone. This was perceived even as far back as the time of Sydenham,
who inculcated the doctrine that the treatment of all disease should
have a reference not only to the immediate symptoms and to the sea-
son, but also to the epidemic constitution of the year and the locality.
It lias been remarked by a distinguished author that "man is not
born, does not live, does not suffer, does not die, in the same manner
on all points of the earth. Birth, life, disease, and death, all change
with the climate and soil — all are modified by race and nationality."
Medicine, with the other natural sciences, has now been obliged to
abandon vague hypotheses for truths determined by observation.
Numerical expressions are substituted for uncertain and conjectural
assertions. Only a limited number of facts are, however, contained
within the horizon of a few observers. The determination of the
laws of mortality requires a very wide range of observation, and a
considerable space of time, in order to eliminate accidental pertur-
bations.

The next important element of vital statistics is that of birth.
Man is ushered into existence under natural circumstances almost as
impressive as those which circumscribe his duration of life, and which
attend its surrender. While tens of thousands are divesting their
being of earthly garb, and entering upon their eternal inheritance, still
greater numbers are assuming the heritage of life in forms moulded
by antecedent events, and stamped with ancestral peculiarities. If,
therefore, it be profoundly interesting to contemplate, arrange, and
study the multitude of agencies which impel this innumerable caravan
of pilgrims toward their destination, it is almost equally instructive
to analyze the manifold causes which have contributed to their as-
sembling together. Such particulars, when massed into statistics, be-
come of acknowledged importance to medical and social science. The
disparity in the sexes born at different periods, the average number
of women bearing twins, triplets, etc., the proportion of offspring
from native or foreign progenitors, the ages and occupations of par-
ents, the average number of children produced at different periods of
female life and in different seasons, the influence upon reproduction
of the relative ages of parents, the reciprocal relations between il-
legitimacy and modes of living — these and other kindred questions
are of deep concern to the human race, and the source of their solution
lies in the largest accumulation of facts.

Moreover, the actual number of births occurring in any community
each year is indispensable, in conjunction with other factors, for com-
puting the increment of population during years intervening between
those of official enumerations, and consequently for the determination
of the true death-rate. The remarkable precision with which this

WORLD- ORE A TIONS. 70 1

increase may be approximated is exhibited by the London tables,
according to which the estimated population of that city on April 2,
1871, was 3,247,631 ; while the decennial census completed on the same
night gave the number of the inhabitants as 3,251,80-1 — a difference of
only about four thousand in three and a quarter millions — one almost
inappreciable in the calculation of percentages.

To the casual thinker, statistics of marriage might seem of little
consequence. But, in fact, the deductions from a review of marriage-
returns are of positive value not only to the moral philosopher, but
to the political economist as well. The relations of marriage to vari-
ous industries — to mining, agriculture, trade, commerce — in a word,
to the material prosperity of a people — have been well established by
statistics. A decided diminution in the marriage-rate of a community
within a given period of time is an unerring indication that war or
pestilence, or commei*cial crisis, or other great disturbing force, has
rendered the necessaries of life clear, and occupation difficult to pro-
cure. The various forms of marriage — the numbers of bachelors,
widowers, spinsters, and widows, united in wedlock ; the tendency to
early or late marriages among certain classes and peoples ; the con-
dition of elementary education as indicated by the proportion of men
and women capable of signing their names to marriage-documents ;
the effect of a demand for skilled labor upon the proportion of early
marriages ; the relations between waste of life and proportions of
marriages and births in towns as contrasted with rural districts ; the
influence of the marriage-rate on morality ; the ratio of marriages to
births, and its conformity to density and character of population, and
to industrial pursuits — all of these considerations furnish assuredly
social problems of deep and constantly - increasing importance to
civilization.

WOELD-CEEATIONS.

By C. C. MEEEIMAN.

THE New-World pioneers of the sixteenth century, when they
first looked on the sea-worn shores and giant forests of New
England, had in reality no compelling reason for believing in the
veritable old age of this new-found land. They had no " first order
of proof" that the shores were not recently upheaved there for them
to land upon, and with the growth of the centuries on them for the
trial of the manhood that was soon to reclaim them. But I think
those sturdy adventurers, if they stopped at all to consider of scien-
tific doubts, were not long in deciding that the scene before them was
conformable to the laws and processes of Nature, and therefore must
have been the slow growth of time.

702 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In like manner, the geologist, looking into the bowels of the
earth, and finding here and there the remains of a tree or a saurian,
presumes that they once lived and grew in the same localities, and
were buried and petrified under the rock-grindings of after-ages.
But he really has no absolute proof of any such thing. They may
have been created in the fossil state and laid away in the strata on
the same day the earth was made. But I think the scientist, know-
ing laws of Nature by which, with sufficiently long periods of time,
all these geologic results might have been gradually brought about,
is justified in believing that they too were the slow product of Nature
and of time.

So we, finding that the world has certainly at some time been
subjected to a heat at least sufficient to volatilize nearly every known
substance, and that there are laws of Nature by which, through
periods of time immensely long, the earth and the planets might
have been rolled up from a gaseous nebula and bowled off in their
mighty revolutions, have just as much right to say that it was so, as
we have to say that the American forests grew, or that the Triassic
beds were deposited.

Geology has proved that the earth, up to the primary rocks, was
once a molten mass. The crystalline structure of the unstratified
rocks compels to this conclusion ; for minerals insoluble in water can
only become crystallized in large masses by cooling from a state of
fusion. If, then, the earth was once an incandescent globe of melted
rocks — for everything above the granite beds must then have been in
a state of vapor — it is not unreasonable to suppose that it may have
existed prior to that time in a still more highly-heated condition —
even volatilized, and diffused through space as rare and attenuated
gases ; for this is the condition which all matter assumes under
sufficient degrees of heat. In fact, we must either suppose that the
earth was created as a fiery liquid globe, for which we have no war-
rant, or we must follow back to the time when its vapors were scat-
tered in space, unreflecting and impenetrable to light — when the earth
was " without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the
deep."

Let us start, then, with that condition of things which it is now
very generally conceded must once have existed — the diffusion of
matter in a nebulous form throughout all space. Calculations easily
made show that the nebula must have been of extreme tenuity —
such that the few grains taken up on the point of a knife-blade must
have been expanded to fill several cubic miles. A heat so powerful —
for we know of no other force which could thus hold apart the atoms
of matter — would doubtless be sufficient to resolve every known sub-
stance into its simplest elementary constituents, perhaps into a very
few primordial elements ; for chemists are far from being satisfied
that they have arrived at the ultimate forms of matter in their list of

WORLD- CREA TIONS. 703

sixty-five elements. But, however this may be, we know that the
atoms, whatever they were, must have been held so far apart that no
combinations could possibly have existed. Neither were they drawn
more in one direction than another by their mutual attractions, for
they are equally diffused through all space. Therefore, heat, the
great repulsive force, has overcome all the forces of attraction —
cohesion, chemical affinity, and gravity.

Between such mighty contending forces we can hardly imagine
a state of perfect equilibrium. Immense currents and world-wide
surgings must be the long-continued if not the permanent condition
of this state of things, especially if we conceive it brought about by
natural causes. More condensed portions of nebulous matter would
be formed — sections of space larger or smaller, in which the forces
of attraction counterbalanced those of repulsion. Each such section
would then have its centre of gravity, around which all the currents
within its influence, by the law of the composition of forces, must
eventually unite in one. This one flowing ever around and slowly
toward the centre, like a ball rolling down an inclined plane, goes
faster and faster, until the centrifugal overbalances the centripetal
force, and it separates completely from the inner mass. Thus a ring
is formed revolving around a central nucleus. Unless perfectly equi-
posed, and of homogeneous material, this ring would sooner or later
break up into a number of globes, which, by the superior attraction
of the largest, would ultimately coalesce into one. This globe, still
contracting, and the nucleus also contracting, would throw off satel-
lites and other planets, all revolving in nearly the same plane and
in the same direction. All these processes are in perfect accord, not
only with the conditions of the heavenly bodies so far as discovered,
but with known natural laws. Many of them have been successfully
imitated on a small scale in experimental illustrations, as in the rapid
rotation of oil suspended in water.

We have here given only the simple outlines of the famous
"nebular hypothesis" of Laplace. In later years, the discovery of
nebulae in the heavens in all stages of world-formation, the evidence
of the spectroscope on the unformed material of the universe, and
other proofs, have compelled for the proscribed hypothesis a recog-
nized place in science. We do not stop to consider these subjects
more fully, because it is the purpose of this article to inquire chiefly
concerning the forces that would be engaged in such a process of
evolution ; and, firstly, how from the preponderance of the repellent
forces holding matter in universal diffusion there came the final mas-
tery of the aggregating forces ever concentrating, combining, and
working up the materials of the universe.

The first of the operations which have come to our notice in the
progress of this evolution is the condensation of the gases. This,
according to all experience, ought to evolve heat ; but, instead, we

7o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

find only that the flow of the currents — the motion of the masses —
is proportionately increased. Is there a connection of cause and
effect between these phenomena ?

All motion that we are familiar with requires the expenditure of
heat. The combustion of coal supplies motion to the steam-engine.
The evaporation of water by the sun's heat causes the rain-clouds and
the mill-streams. The oxidation of certain elements in the food we
eat is the combustion which supplies our bodies with powers of
motion. Recent discoveries have shown not only that motion is heat
transformed, but that to produce a certain quantity of motion an
invariable certain quantity of heat is required.

Again, the cessation of motion evolves heat. It is well known
that by skillful blows with the hammer a cold iron bar can be made
red-hot. Two wheels revolving in opposite directions, and touching
at the circumference, become highly heated ; and factories have been
warmed solely by this transfer of motion into heat. Friction is but
another name for the arresting of motion, and, as we well know,
always produces heat. There is also here the same equivalence as in
the other case. The stoppage of motion evolves just the amount of
heat that was required to produce that motion.

The greatest triumph of modern science is the splendid induction
that all the forces are correlative and indestructible. Not an impulse
of motion, of light or heat, or any force, is ever lost. It may be com-
municated from one body to another, or transmuted into some other
form of force, or become for a time latent or imperceptible ; but it
always exists, and is reclaimable back again into the same, in mode
and quantity, from which it started.

The grandest exemplification of these truths will be found in what
we are now considering, the origin of the celestial revolutions. The
condensation of gases gives out heat in direct proportion to the con-
traction of volume. The attraction of gravitation, not only between
masses but between all the particles of matter, increases in the
inverse square of the diminishing distance. From these two princi-
ples it can be mathematically shown that in the contraction of each
great world-nebula heat would be set free in the precise proportion
of the increase of atomic attraction ; or, in other words, that it would
take the exact amount of heat-force that had been released, to separate
the atoms again to their original distance apart. But in this instance
the heat-force is not really set free ; it is transformed into the mo-
tion of the mass from which it came. Instead of holding the atoms
apart, the work which it now has to do under the form of motion is,
to prevent the masses from falling into each other. It is this motion
— the celestial revolutions — which keeps the worlds apart, and allows
each to work out its destiny under the aggregating forces, without
interference from any other. Up to a certain point of condensation,
which is previous to the radiation of heat into space, if this motion

WORLD-CREATIONS. 705

were at any time stopped, it would be resolved into just the amount
of heat necessary to expand the mass again to its original dimensions.

The attractive forces, gravity, chemical affinity, and cohesion,
whether these forces are many or one, are inherent properties of mat-
ter. Every atom has its definite capacity of attraction, which may be
exercised or not according to circumstances. For it is evident that
an attracting body may be at the same time drawing toward itself a
million other like bodies, or none at all, without change of its power of
attraction. In like manner the magnet has a definite lifting power
whether it is actually holding up a weight or not. If this attribute
of matter is not operative, or but partially so, it is because heat, or
motion, or some repellent force, is holding the atoms or the masses at
a distance from each other, and thus opposing the exercise of it. The
sum, however, of the attracting power belonging to the world of mat-
ter is as fixed as the quantity of matter itself. And I think it is in
the highest degree probable that there is in the universe precisely
enough repulsive force or heat to overcome all this inherent power of
attraction. When all motion of the masses and of the atoms is re-
solved into repulsive energy, and brought to bear on the elements of
matter, I imagine that they must completely fill the bounds or the
infinity of space. Then, if there were perfect equilibrium or rest, no
further changes or effects could ever be manifested. Such a condition,
however, could probably never result from natural causes, for the time
necessary to the perfect balance of the forces must be as infinite as the
space through which they extend, and to " set bounds to space" has
puzzled philosophy from a very ancient date. If, on the other hand,
the universe of matter was created in a state of absolute rest, we have
the further and necessary provision that the Spirit of God moved on
the face of his creation, and thus unbalanced the forces. But the equi-
librium once broken, in whatever manner, from that moment evolution
must inevitably proceed. For, let there be an overbalancing of the
aggregating force in ever so little or much, an equivalent of the op-
posing force must thereafter find some other work to do, and the field
is effectually given up to the mighty agency that combines, and con-
structs, and brings order out of chaos.

So long and in proportion as the forming worlds continue to con-
tract their dimensions, the rotations and revolutions increase in their
velocity. Thus in the rapid and ever-speeding movements of the heav-
enly bodies there is stored up the ever-increasing reserve of heat that
is liberated from the great contest with gravity- But in the progress
of concentration there comes a time when the atoms of matter have
approached each other sufficiently near for other forces of attraction,
equally correlative of heat, to come into play — chemical affinity be-
tween molecules of unlike nature, and cohesion between those of like
kind. Under the latter term are included all the changes of state
which are the result of cooling. By these attractions heat is set free

TOL. x. — 45

7o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in such abundance and under such conditions that it cannot be stored
away in the motion of the masses. It is then, probably for the first
time, that heat becomes a wave-force, and is radiated into space as
light and radiant heat — not, however, lost, for that is impossible, but
moving ever onward and outward to the day and the place of its final
reclamation.

Our own solar system has already progressed far in this stage of
aggregation. All the planets and satellites have become crusted over,
and have ceased almost entirely to radiate heat. But the sun, the
great central body, the one which should last of all become cold, is
still in active combustion or chemical combination. Immense quanti-
ties of light and heat are still radiating from its surface — so immense
that the little fraction which our earth catches as it flies through space
gives us all the motion, and life, and beauty, which we enjoy. But
the sun is not even now the glowing orb that once it was, as the rock-
records of our globe testify. Its bright radiance is slowly but surely
fading. Those huge, black incrustations, often twice as large as the
whole surface of the earth, that float awhile on its photosphere, and
then are suddenly broken up — they were not always there. And, if
they have grown upon it, the uncomfortable conviction arises that
they will continue to grow and darken more and more its life-giving
face. Old age is certainly being written on the solar brow. It may
be millions of years hence — for time is not one of the economies of
Nature — but the period will surely come when light and heat will all
have departed from the sun, as they once ceased to be radiated from
the earth and the planets and the numerous stars that have gone out
writhin the records of astronomy. A pall of darkness will gradually
overspread the universe as one by one the stars of the firmament shall
fade away and sink into gloomy, lifeless sleep. A day in the mighty
calendar of creation has passed, and a night has followed, cold and
dark as the tomb of expiring Nature.

But is there no awakening, no morrow to this night of the uni-
verse ? Is the contest over, and never to be renewed '? For answer,
let us seek out in this case, as we did once before, the condition and
movements of the great contending forces. Those of attraction have
now in each world expended their utmost possible energy, and are
holding all the forms of matter combined and compacted in a cold
and rigid embrace. The forces of repulsion have entirely abandoned
the contest, and are either vibrating through the unknown realms of
space, or are locked up in the swift and complicated motions of the
heavenly bodies. It is probable that by far the greater part of the
repulsive forces thus exists in the form of motion. It has been esti-
mated, no doubt with a near approximation to truth, that, if by any
means the earth co\dd be suddenly arrested in its rapid course, its
mass would thereby be raised to the enormous temperature of 23,360°
Fahr. — a heat sufficient to vaporize and dissipate every known sub-

WORLD-CREATIONS. 707

stance. If then, as would be the case, it should fall into the sun, this
heat would be increased by the fall four-hundred-fold. Now, it makes
no difference in the aggregate evolution of heat whether this cessation
of motion is sudden or gradual ; and if we can find in Nature any
agencies tending to retard the revolutions of the planetary bodies,
they must inevitably sooner or later fall into the sun. In such a case
it can hardly be doubted that we have found a cause sufficient to pro-
duce again the disintegration and diffusion of matter.

The wave-theory of light and radiant heat presupposes the exist-
ence of an ethereal medium pervading all space. It must be a me-
dium of material atoms held in equipoise by a balance of forces, for
it is evident there could be no wave-motion unless there was some-
thing to move, and something, too, having the attributes of matter in
a state of extreme mobility or fluidity. There is no other conceiv-
able way by which light could reach us from the sun and stars except
through this all-pervading form of matter. And if there is a material
medium, of whatsoever exceeding tenuity it may be, still it must pre -
sent something of resistance to everything passing through it. It
resists the passage of light eight minutes in 90,000,000 miles, thus
proving its materiality by its resistance to force, which is one of the
definitions Of matter. If one could conceive of any force passing
through an absolute vacuum, it could only be conceived of as passing
instantaneously — there is absolutely nothing to detain it. Again, heat
and its allied forces are only effects, and the subject is and can be only
matter. There is no physical truth better established than that the
forces can exist only where matter is in some form. It is not essential
that this form of matter be subject to the ordinary laws of gravitation.
The probability is,:that it differs entirely from anything that we have
experience of. It would seem that the atoms composing the ether of
space, instead of attracting each other like those of ordinary matter,
must repel each other. At least this supposition would account for
what there is remarkable in connection with the ethereal medium.
But, whatever theories we may adopt in regard to it, this is certainly-
true, that the revolutions of the heavenly bodies must be continually
opening passages through it, and that a certain part of the force of
those revolutions must be expended in pushing it aside. The centrif-
ugal force is thus lessened, and the bodies are drawn nearer to the
sun. In consequence, the periods of their revolutions are shortened.
This has not as yet become noticeable in the case of the planets, from
the fact that the slow contraction of their bulk by the loss of internal
heat through volcanoes, thermal springs, and other sources, has the
contrary effect of increasing the velocity of revolution, and thus coun-
terbalancing the retardation of friction. The fact that the two effects
are thus nearly counterbalanced proves the retardation, for otherwise
we know that the acceleration would be observable. In the case, how-
ever, of the light cometary bodies, it has been shown that they suf-

7o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fer a very considerable retardation in their passage through space.
Encke's comet formerly came regularly back into the field of the
earth's orbit once in every three years, but with a period shortened
six hours each time. The whole planetary regions seem to be filled
with collections of matter — star-dust and meteorites. They are all
revolving about the sun in eccentric orbits, and are doubtless slowly
circling toward it. The zodiacal light is supposed to be only an im-
mense aggregation of this material. Thus the thickening stratum as
these strange bodies draw near to the sun shows that they are all
slowly gathering to that great centre of attraction.

The evident effect of the fall of any of the planets into the sun
would be the diffusion of highly-heated vapors far out into the spaces
that surround it — probably far enough to reach the next outlying
planet, and thereby to increase its retardation and hasten its fall into
the mighty caldron. So one by one the planets dissolve and their ele-
ments fill the void of space. The expanding gases catch up the waves
of radiant heat that have long been wandering from planets and suns;
and the nebula is again seething and surging with its mighty contend-
ing forces. Sun-system reaches out to sun-system, and star-galaxy
mingles with star-galaxy, till through all the abysmal depths matter
is again " without form and void, and darkness is upon the face of the
deep." Chaos has returned once more, again to be breathed upon by
the Omnipotent Spirit that reforms and recreates.

-♦♦♦-

ACCOUTREMENT OF A FIELD-GEOLOGIST.

By Professor GEIKIE, F. B. S.,

DIRECTOR OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF SCOTLAND.

FIELD-GEOLOGY does not mean and need not include the col-
lecting of specimens. Consequently a formidable series cf ham-
mers and chisels, a capacious wallet with stores of wrapping-paper
and pill-boxes, are not absolutely and always required. Rock-speci-
mens and fossils are best collected after the field-geologist has made
some progress with his examination of a district. He can then begin
to see what rocks really deserve to be illustrated by sj^ecimens, and
in what strata the search for fossils may be most advantageously con-
ducted. He may have to do the collecting himself, or he may be able
to employ a trained assistant, and direct him to the localities whence
specimens are to be taken. But, in the first instance, his own efforts
must be directed to the investigation of the geological structure of
the region. The specimens required for his purpose in the early
stages of his work do not involve much trouble. He can detach
them and carry them off as he goes, while he leaves the full collection
to be made afterward.

♦

ACCOUTREMENT OF A FIELD-GEOLOGIST. yog

It is of paramount importance that the field-geologist should go
to his work as lightly equipped as possible. His accoutrements
should be sufficient for their purpose, and eminently portable. You
may judge of the portability which may be secured when I tell you
that I have on my person at this moment all the instruments necessary
for carrying on a geological survey, even in the detailed manner adopt-
ed in the Geological Survey of this country. You observe, therefore,
that a fully-equipped field-geologist need not betray his occupation
by any visible implement. The want of such tokens of his craft
often greatly perplexes rustic observers, to whom his movements
are a fruitful source of speculation. I shall divest myself of my
accoutrements one by one as I have occasion to refer to them, and
describe their uses.

The hammer is the chief instrument of the field-geologist. He
ought at first to use it constantly, and seldom trust himself to name
a rock until he has broken a fragment from it and compared the fresh
with the weathered surface. Most rocks yield so much to the action
of the weather as to acquire a decomposed, crumbling crust, by
which the true color, texture, and composition of the rock itself, may
be entirely concealed. Two rocks, of which the outer crusts are simi-
lar, may differ greatly from each other in essential characters. Again,
two rocks may assume a very different aspect externally, and yet
may show an identity of composition on a freshly-fractured internal
surface. The hammer, therefore, is required to detach this outer de-
ceptive crust. If heavy enough to do this it is sufficient for your pur-
pose ; any additional weight is unnecessary and burdensome. A
hammer, of which the head weighs one pound or a few ounces more
is quite massive enough for all the ordinary requirements of the
field-geologist. When he proceeds to collect specimens he needs a
hammer of two or three pounds, or even more, in weight, and a small,
light chipping-hammer to trim the specimens and reduce them in bulk
without running a too frequent risk of shattering them to pieces.

Hardly any two geologists agree as to the best shape of hammer;
much evidently depending upon the individual style in which each
observer wields his tool. This (Fig. 1.) is the form which, after long
experience, we have found in the Geological Survey to be on the
whole the best. A hammer formed after this pattern combines, as
you observe, the uses both of a hammer and a chisel. With the
broad, heavy, or square end, you can break off a fragment large
enough to show the internal grain of a rock. With the thin, wedge-
shaped, or chisel-like end, you can split open shales, sandstones, schists,
and other fissile rocks. This cutting or splitting edge should be at
a right angle to the axis of the shaft. If placed upright or in the
same line with the shaft, much of its efficiency is lost, especially in
wedging off plates of shale or other fissile rocks.

A hammer shaped as I recommend serves at times for other than

7io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

purely geological purposes. On steep, grassy slopes, where the foot-
ing is precarious, and where there is no available hold for the hand,
the wedge-like end of the hammer may be driven firmly into the turf,
and the geologist may thereby let himself securely down or pull
himself up.

Fig. 1.— Geological Hammer, Compass-Case, and Belt.

The most generally convenient way of carrying the hammer is to
have it in a leather sheath suspended from a waist-belt. The hammer
hangs at the left side under the coat, the inside of which is kept from
being cut or soiled by the protecting outer flap of the sheath. Some
geologists prefer to carry the belt across the shoulders outside, and
the hammer suspended at the back. Others provide themselves with
strong canvas coat-pockets and carry the hammer there.

Even the most sharp-sighted observer is the better for the aid sup-
plied to him by a good magnifying-glass. For field-work a pocket
lens with two powers is usually sufficient. One glass should have a
large fisld for showing the general texture of a rock, its component
grains or crystals, and the manner of their arrangement ; the other
glass should be capable of making visible the fine striae on a crystal,
and the minute ornament on the surface of a fish-scale or other fossil
organism. Applied to the weathered crust of a rock, the lens often
enables the observer to detect indications of composition and texture
which the fresh fracture of the rock does not reveal. It sometimes
suffices to decide whether a puzzling fine-grained rock should be re-
ferred to the igneous or the aqueous series, and consequently how
that rock is to be colored on the map.

Any ordinary pocket-compass will suffice for most of the require-
ments of the field-geologist. Should he need to take accurate bear-
ings, however, a small portable azimuth compass will be found useful.

ACCOUTREMENT OF A FIELD-GEOLOGIST. 711

This is the instrument employed in the Geological Survey. It is car-
ried in a leather case, or pocket, hung from the waist-belt on the side
of the body, opposite to the hammer (Fig. 1). The directions of the
dip and strike of rocks, the trend of dislocations and dikes, the line
of boundaries, escarpments, and other geological features, are observed
accurately, and noted on the spot at the time of observation, either
on the map or in the note-book. A convenient instrument for light
and rapid surveys, or reconnaissances, combines the compass and the
next instrument I have to describe — the clinometer. I shall refer to
it again.

The clinometer, or dip-measurer, is employed to find the angle at
which strata are placed to the horizon — an important observation in
the investigation of the geological structure of a country, and one
having frequently a special economic value — as, for instance, when it
points out the depth to which a well or mine must be sunk. Various
patterns have been proposed and used for this instrument. Formerly
a spirit-level was commonly employed. But, apart from the difficulty
of rapid adjustment for the requirements of the field, the spirit-levels
in the clinometers were apt to get broken. A much more portable and
serviceable form of clinometer may be made by the geologist himself.
It consists of two thin leaves of wood, each two inches broad and six
inches long, neatly hinged together, so as to open out and form a foot-
rule when required (Fig. 2). On the inside of one of these leaves a small
brass pendulum is so fixed that when it swings freely and hangs verti-
cally it forms an angle of 90° with the upper edge of the leaf to which

Fig. 2.— The Clinometer.

it is attached. An arc, graduated to 90° on each side of the vertical,
is drawn on the wood, or on paper or brass fastened to the wood, so
that when the leaf is moved on either side the exact number of de-
grees of inclination is shown by the pendulum on the graduated arc.
The corresponding face of the opposite leaf is hollowed out just
enough to let the two leaves fit closely, and keep the pendulum in its
place when the instrument is not in use. This form of clinometer,
made of boxwood and bound with brass, may be obtained of instru-
ment-makers. It is light and strong, and its durability may be under-
stood from the appearance of the instrument which I hold in my hand,

7i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and which, though it has been in constant daily use for more than
twenty years, is as true and serviceable as ever.

If at any time the geologist has occasion to lighten his equipment
for some long mountain-expedition, where every additional ounce of
weight begins to tell by the end of the day, and where, therefore, for
the sake of doing as much and holding out as long as possible, he
should carry nothing that is not absolutely needful for his purpose,
he may advantageously combine the pocket-compass and clinometer
in the one instrument to which I have already alluded. This con-
venient instrument is about the size of an ordinary gold watch. It
consists of a thin, round, flat, metal case, shaped like that of a watch,
and covered either with a common watch-glass, or, still better, with a
flat disk of strong glass. Instead of figures for the hours and min-
utes, the white enameled face of this geological watch is that of a
common pocket-compass. But the interval between each of the four
cardinal points is divided into 90°. On the central pivot, just under-
neath the needle, a small brass pendulum is placed, and a straight-
edge of metal is soldered on one side of the outer rim of the watch-
case in such a position that the instrument will stand on it if need be,
and the pendulum will then point to zero. A simple piece of mechan-
ism passing through the handle enables the observer to throw the nee-
dle off the pivot, or let it down, as he may require.

As it is impossible for a field-geologist to remember the details of
all the observations he makes on the ground, or to insert them on a
map, he regards a good note-book as an essential part of his appara-
tus. From the nature of his work, he has frequently occasion to make
rough sections, or diagrams, and, if possessed of the power of sketch-
ing, he has abundant opportunity of aiding the progress of his re-
searches by jotting down the outlines of some cliff", mountain, or land-
scape. Hence, his note-book should not be a mere pocket memoran-
dum-book. A convenient size, uniting the uses of a common note-book
and a sketch-book, is seven inches long by four and a quarter inches
broad. Let me remark, in passing, that perhaps no accomplishment
will be found so xiseful by the field-geologist as a power of rapid and
effective sketching from Nature. If he has this power in any degree,
he ought sedulously to cultivate it. Even though he may never pro-
duce a picture, he can catch and store up in his note-book impressions
and outlines which no mere descriptions could recall, and which may
be of the highest value in his subsequent field-work. This is true of
ordinary detailed surveys, and still more of rapid reconnaissances,
which may have their ultimate usefulness enormously increased if the
observer can seize with his pencil and carry away the forms of surface
as well as the geological relations of the region through which his
traverse lies.

As every device which saves labor and time in the field, or which
adds to the clearness of the work, is deserving of attention, I would

ACCOUTREMENT OF A FIELD-GEOLOGIST. 713

an

Horizontal strata.

Inclined

refer here to the use of variously-colored pencils for expressing at once,
upon map or note-book, the different rock-masses which may occur in
a district. Water-colors are, of coui'se, ultimately employed for rep-
resenting the geological formations on the finished map. But a few
bits of colored pencils carried in his pocket save the geologist much
needless writing in the field. To a red dot or line he attaches a par-
ticular meaning, and he places it on his map without further explana-
tion than the local peculiarities of the place may require.

This leads me to remark, also, that he necessarily adopts a system
of signs and contractions on his map, not only to save writing, but to
prevent the map from being so overcrowded with notes as to become
hopelessly confused. Every field-geologist insensibly adopts contrac-
tions of his own. For the fundamental facts of geological structure,
however, it is eminently desirable that the same signs and symbols
should be used with the same meaning on all published geological maps.
The subjoined diagram (Fig. 3) shows some of the signs used on the
maps of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland.

Such are the few prime instruments required in field-geology. We
may add others from time to time, according to the nature of the
work, which in each region will naturally sug-
gest the changes that may be most advanta-
geously made. A small bottle of weak hydro-
chloric acid, carried in a protecting wooden
box, or case, is sometimes of use in testing for
carbonates, particularly in regions where rocks
of different characters come to resemble each
other on their weathered surfaces. When Sir
William Logan was carrying on the survey
of the Lauren tian limestones of Canada, he re-
ceived much help from what he called his "lime-
stone spear." This was a sharp-pointed bit of
iron fixed to the end of a pole or a walking-
stick. He enlisted farmers and others in his
operations, instructed them in the use of the
spear, and obtained information which gave
him a good general notion of the distribution
of the limestone. The spear was thrust down
through the soil until it struck the rock below.
It was then pulled up, and the powder of stone
adhering to the iron point was tested with acid.

If, after trying a number of places all round, the observer uniformly
obtained a brisk effervescence when the acid drop fell on the point of
his spear, he inferred that the solid limestone existed below, and
noted the fact on his map accordingly.

When the Geological Survey was busy with the great Wealden
area of the southeast of England, my colleagues used what they nick-

Undulating

Contorted

-e>

5
9

Vertical

Anticlinal axis.

Synclinal

Strike of cleavage.

Direction of gla-
cial striae.

Lead.

Iron.

Copper.

Fig. 3.— Some Useful Signs
in Geological Surveying.

7i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

named a " geological cheese-taster." It was, indeed, a kind of large
cheese-taster, fixed to the end of a long stick. This implement was
thrust down, and portions of the subsoil and of the clays or sands
beneath were pulled up and examined. Similar devices must obvious-
ly suggest themselves according to the nature of the work in different
districts and countries.

In the course of his observations in the field, the geologist will
meet with rocks as to the true nature of which he may not be able to
satisfy himself at the time. He should in such cases detach a fresh
chip from some less weathered part of the mass and examine it fur-
ther at home. The detailed methods of investigation, which may be
pursued with all the conveniences of a laboratory in town, are not
possible to him in the country. But he may subject his specimens to
analysis in two cases, and obtain valuable, and perhaps sufficient, in-
formation as to their characters. He can easily fit up for himself a
small and portable blowpipe-box, a machine for slicing and preparing
rocks, minerals, and fossils, for examination under the microscope,
and a microscope.

The blowpipe-box should contain a common blowpipe, platinum-
tipped forceps, platinum wire, small bottles with the ordinary re-
agents, and as many of the most useful parts of blowpipe apparatus
as the space will admit, consistently with the whole box being easily
packed into a portmanteau. By means of the blowpipe, it is often
possible to determine the nature of a doubtful rock or mineral, and to
ascertain the proportion of metal in an ore. A young geologist should
take with him to the field only the most essential apparatus and re-
agents; he will gradually come to see by practice what additions he
may best make to his equipment.

A convenient and portable form of the rock-slicing machine is sold
by Fuess, of Berlin. Where it cannot be obtained, the field-geologist
may succeed in preparing his slices by chipping thin splinters from
the rock and reducing them upon a grindstone or whetstone. One
side of the splinter is to be made as smooth and free from scratches
as possible, which can be effected by polishing on a water-of-Ayr stone.
This polished side is then cemented with Canada balsam to a piece of
plate-glass. When quite firm, the upper side of the stone is ground
down until the requisite degree of transparency is obtained. Con-
siderable practice may be required, and many preparations may be
spoiled, before the observer becomes proficient. But the labor is well
bestowed, for in no other way can he obtain the same insight into
the internal texture and arrangement of the rocks with which he is
dealing. He sees what are the component minerals of a rock, and
how they are built up to form the mass in which they occur. He
likewise can detect many of the changes which these minerals have
undergone, and he thus obtains a clew to some of the metamorphic
processes by which the rocks of the earth's crust have been altered.

ON THE ANNIHILATION OF THE MIND. 715

The microscope should be, like the rest, as portable as possible.
For most geological purposes high powers are not required, conse-
quently a small microscope is sufficient.

It is sometimes of service, when working in a district where micro-
scopic rock-sections are required, to carry a small collection of micro-
scopic slices of selected or typical rocks or minerals for purposes of
comparison. A series of fifty or one hundred slices can be packed in
a box a few inches square. — Outlines of Field- Geology.

-♦♦♦-

ON THE ANNIHILATION OF THE MIND.

By JOHN TEOWBRIDGE,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS, HARVARD COLLEGE.

fT^HERE are some subjects which are unapproachable by any of
J- the present methods of scientific investigation, yet the human
mind, especially that form of it which is utterly untrained in scien-
tific methods of thought, loves to ponder over the profoundest mys-
teries, and calls upon Science with an almost imperative tone to solve
moral doubts and fears. One of the greatest questions which one
finds is perplexing the general reader of popular science, who is also
an independent thinker on religious questions, is that of the survival,
so to speak, of the human mind and all that betokens the mental and
moral power of man after death. The alarming doctrine that the
mind and soul are the result of a process of growth in the individual,
like physical growth of bone and muscle, and that body and mind
increase and decrease together, and are resolved into the elements
again at the close of life, is not infrequently put forward by material-
ists. It is maintained, further, that the belief in immortality is
largely a matter of education, notwithstanding the evidence which
is brought forward to prove that even uncivilized nations have a
belief in deities and a future life. To the materialist, the picture
presented by the unwrapping of a Peruvian family burial-sack, with
its young and old mummies, and its collection of pottery and bag of
grain to help the disembodied spirits on their wray to a happier hunt-
ing-ground, is pathetic only because it seems a hopeless superstition.
What kind of a soul, it is asked, has the Digger Indian who is hardly
more intelligent than a wild animal? If he has a mind and soul, so
has my dog. No; what we call the soul is a cultivated state or con-
dition which perishes like a highly-disciplined adaptation of the mus-
cles of the body which a gymnast possesses. It is a state of crys-
tallization ; it is a reaction or interaction of atoms consequent upon
physical growth. AVhen the body dies, the mind and its attributes
perish. Such utter disbelief in the great doctrine of the resurrec-

7i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion is hard to combat; for, even among scientific thinkers, the class
of men who do not become attached to the cast-iron ways down
which thought has traveled to them is small. A logician who sets
his mental machinery in motion, and then steps to one side to scru-
tinize its defects and limitations, is rare. To hint that there may be
higher processes of logic than those generally accepted, implies the
possession of a scientific mind, to say the least, not of a quantitative
cast. It has seemed to the writer that a discussion of the idea of
the degradation of spiritual energy, so to speak, would not be an
unprofitable or irreverent subject from the purely scientific point of
view. A little thought will convince one that no transformation of
energy can take place in Nature without degradation or dissipation
of it. In order to generate steam we must expend the energy stored
up in the coal ; and in its turn the steam in doing work passes from a
hotter state to a colder one. A fresh supply of energy is needed in
order to enable the cold body to do work again. There is a tendency
to a uniform diffusion of heat, or to a degradation of energy.

In the process of physical growth and decay, the doctrine of the
conservation of force, and the degradation of energy, is clearly
exemplified. What the body receives from the sun in the process of
growth is given back, transformed, to the earth. At death'the physi-
cal being undergoes a chemical change ; and the earth and air recall
to themselves their respective portions. Here there is an equivalent
rendering: of matter. If the soul and mind have been the result of a

CD

process of growth, the entire potential energy of the living unit has
not been accounted for in the final dissolution. The song of a bird
can be resolved into waves of motion which, although they cease after
a moment, and the consequent vibrations of the human ear die away,
are still exerting an influence upon matter. Babbage, in his " Bridge-
water Treatise," has drawn a powerful picture of the possible perma-
nence of the motion which has been communicated to the ether by
the tones of a human voice, and shows that it may not be impossible
to believe that the eloquence of Demosthenes still continues in some
form of motion. So we can believe that the physical effects of a
bird's song can remain forever impressing some form of motion upon
matter. Besides the physical vibrations which the song communi-
cated to the human ear, it has so impressed the mind that, after the
lapse of years, the repetition of the same notes can call up innumer-
able memories of deeds and a thousand pictures of the past. In the
mind of the poet it may be the one detached note from which he can
construct a song of home which can serve to arouse the ardor of the
Christian Slav against the Turk, and store up a fearful potential energy
which by its fall can destroy entire nations. Here we have, in the
transformation of the vibrations of sound to another form of enei'gy,
a continual degradation of energy ; but we may have by the same
means an exaltation of spiritual potential energy which is unexplained

ON THE ANNIHILATION OF THE MIND. 717

by our doctrine of the conservation of force, and seems to require
the incoming of another element in our calculations. Where does
appear the force of mind, the high courage, which can enable a feeble
body to maintain a high potential energy out of the same physical
materials which contribute to the formation of the sluggishness of
others ? It may be answered : What makes the difference between the
energy of the blooded hunter and that of the dray-horse ? Where
does the difference appear in the final dissolution ? With this latter
question we immediately perceive the difference between the degrada-
tion of energy which accompanies that which recalls life, and that
which is manifested in the combinations of matter. Gunpowder,
fired by the concentrated rays of the sun, leaves only ashes and a
rapidly-disappearing veil of smoke. It has impressed upon the ether
vibrations which are forever undergoing rapid transformations. In
regard to its physical nature it goes from inertness to inertness. A
current of electricity is maintained by chemical action which takes
place in a voltaic cell. As long as this action continues, the current
can exercise its functions. When the potential energy of the chemi-
cal activity falls, the current dies away. From the earth the gun-
powder can be reconstructed with exactly the same characteristics.
From the earth beings endowed with life can be created by a process
which is far beyond our ken, yet the new creations are never exact
reproductions. We are forced to acknowledge that there must be
something which is called the principle of life. If there is such a
principle, does it die at the physical death of each individual ? If so,
we must modify the all-embracing scope of the doctrine of the con-
servation of force and its non-annihilation. When a body loses its
heat, or its electrical charge, we can readily form the equation of
transformation. With matter endowed with life we must join, by an
additive or subtractive sign, an unknown function which we may
term the life-function. In discussing such an equation of transforma-
tion of energy, Ave must refuse to admit such a term depending on
the life-function, on the ground that we are dealing with matter and
material forces, and that there is no energy distinct from that com-
municated by chemical processes. Or we must admit it ; and make
some assumption which can just as well be made in reference to its
spiritual or non-physical nature as in regard to the peculiar relations
which different organic compounds may maintain toward each other.
The first step leaves an hiatus in our expression for the transforma-
tion of energy, and the second gives a choice of belief.

It may seem to some that the doctrine of Darwin is capable of
being extended to intellectual philosophy ; and, as certain animal
types fail to flourish and perpetuate themselves because the condi-
tions are not propitious, so we can admit the possibility that the
South-Sea cannibal is endowed with a mind or soul crerm which could
be developed if the right conditions were at hand. In chemistry we

7i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

find many substances which are apparently identical in composition,
but which possess diverse qualities. Certain conditions are requisite
to produce different states of the same compound. If these condi-
tions are not fulfilled, the required combination is not made. With
the cannibal our equation of the conservation of force would require
a small term to represent the mind and soul, but a comparatively
large one, it may be, to account for that stress of the particles, so to
speak, which manifests itself as life. The source of the physical
energy is the sun's heat. Looking, therefore, at the problem of life
and mind from a' purely scientific point of view, we seem to require
a source from which can come the principle of life, and which can
create moral and intellectual growth in suitable soil and under fit-
ting conditions. In the case of the energy derived from the sun's
heat we have a cycle of operations in which there is no annihilation
of force. If we grant that there is a source of life and mind inde-
pendent of mere chemical change produced by the sun's heat, and
if we adhere to the notion of the conservation of force applied to this
principle of life and mind, we are led to adopt the idea of a cycle of
operations in which there is no annihilation of spiritual force. The
doctrine of the existence of the spirit after physical death seems to
me not to be foreign to the scientific ideas of the conservation of
force, which have now obtained such complete supremacy in the sci-
ence of physics ; or to the doctrines of Darwin, which are accepted by
so large a body of eminent naturalists. Without the sun there would
be an annihilation of force. When energy is dissipated, we find the
sun exalting it again by processes which we cannot completely fol-
low. The idea of a great source of life and mind, the prototype of
our physical sun, which sets in motion a vast scheme for the survival
of the fittest, and the exaltation of energy in vast cycles, is not
inconsistent with the doctrine of the New Testament, and seems to
be required in a philosophical theory which shall endeavor to account
for the differences in that great spiritual world which are continually
suggested to the human mind by the various types of mental growth.

THE FIEST "POPULAR SCIENTIFIC TEEATISE."

By Professor S. P. LANGLEY,

OF THE ALLEGHENY OBSERVATORY.

QfOME one" has said that there is nothing in all the world of com-
^ mon places which was not once a novelty, and born from the
conception of an original mind. The idea that science is not for the
professional student only, but that every one will take an interest in
Us results if they are only put before the world in the right way —
this notion which has now produced a literature of its own — even

THE FIRST "POPULAR SCIENTIFIC TREATISE." 719

•

this idea was once brand-new. At the present time, when the most rec-
ondite investigation is summarized and explained for the unscientific,
so that what is capable of translation into common speech is discussed
at tea-tables within a week after presentation, it is not easy to go
back in imagination to a day when the student of Nature worked only
for, and was judged only by, a narrow circle of his own, and most
gentlemen and gentlewomen were not only completely ignorant of
scientific thought and method, but would have felt in danger of ac-
quiring pedantry in learning them. Such, however, was the state of
things two hundred years ago in the then most cultivated society of
Europe ; and it was to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle that first pre-
sented itself the audaciously novel conception of writing a .book
which should render some of the results of science into a language
comprehensible by the most fashionably ignorant, and in a style which
should make science itself recognized as a permissible topic of dis-
cussion in the salons.

His happy thought was executed with a cleverness akin to genius :
the book went into all languages, -and is said to have been reprinted a
hundred times during the last century. " Conversations on the Plu-
rality of Worlds " was its title ; and though it is by no means rare, and
indeed remains a classic in its kind, it is probably nowadays known
only by name to the majority of English readers. Yet, in its way,
nothing better has been done since, or rather its way is one which has
had no entirely successful imitator among all its numerous progeny.
It will be interesting, then, to look at this original in a path since so
well trodden, and in doing so it may be premised that the book ap-
peared in 1686, and was addressed to such a circle of readers as then
only French society and the court of Louis XIV. could furnish. The
age of Corneille, Moliere, and Racine, La Bruyere, La Rochefoucauld ^
and St.-Simon, Bossuet, Massillon, and Bourdaloue (and it might be
added of Fontenelle himself), was certainly not devoid of literary
culture, and yet that very culture had so completely excluded science
that we shall presently see the marchioness, wTho is presented to us as
a type of accomplished elegance, expressing complete astonishment
at hearing that the earth turns round, and the most naive wonder at
the idea that her park and castle, and she herself, are actually turning
too !

The " Conversations "are introduced with a description of a moon-
light night in the park, where the author is walking with the mar-
chioness, to whom he is paying his court, with the accompaniment of
perpetual and somewhat insipid compliment, which seems to have been
a part of the conversational dress of the time, and to have belonged
to the fashion of the period as much as its lace-covered waistcoats.

The talk is first of the beauty of the night, and moves on in an
easy and natural tone, till the author casually speaks of the stars they
are contemplating as "these worlds." The lady asks for an explana-

72o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion, and, on being told that it is likely to prove too learned to amuse
her, only insists the more on the perfect capacity of her sex for the
reception of the most philosophic ideas, and demands a lesson on the
stars at once.

"No!" replies Fontenelle, "never shall it he said of me that in a
wood, at ten o'clock at night, I talked philosophy to the most charm-
ing person of my acquaintance. Seek your philosophers elsewhere ! "

But it is vain for him to try to bring the conversation back to its
former channel, and to represent how much better it would be to talk
nonsense, " as any reasonable people would do in our place" — he has
to yield ; but the dialogue, often very lively, is represented through
the book as carried on by the gentleman with the wish to pay his
court under cover of talking science ; while the lady is ever on the
alert to call him back to his ostensible theme when she finds him
trying to wander from it. We must perforce omit this in giving only
a part, and that chiefly Fontenelle's ; but even in teaching he will be
found anything but dull. As his pupil is as ignorant as she is intel-
ligent, he begins at the beginning :

" All philosophy, I said, is founded on two facts, that we have
curious minds and poor eyes, for if your eyes were better you might see
for yourself if the stars were suns lighting other worlds, or if, on the
other hand, you felt less curiosity, you would not care to learn, which
would come to the same thing ; but everybody wants to know more
than he can see, and there is the difficulty. If we could even see un-
mistakably what we see at all, that would be something gained, but
we see quite wrongly, and so your true philosophers pass their lives
in the unenviable condition of doubting what they do see, and trying
to divine what they cannot. I always think of Nature as a great
spectacle, something like the opera. From your opera-box you do
not see the theatre quite as it really is, for the scenes and stage-appa-
ratus are arranged for effect at a distance, and they keep the weights
and wheels which put all in motion out of your sight. Naturally, you
do not pay much attention to the principle on which all this works.
But then, again, there may be a machinist down by the orchestra,
who is puzzled by some stage-flight, which is unaccountable to him,
and who feels that he must find out how it was done.

"The machinist, you observe, is something like the philosophers;
but what makes the difficulty worse for them is, that in Nature's ma-
chines the cords are all hidden — hidden so neatly that people were a
long time conjecturing as to what caused the movements of the uni-
verse. Just imagine, for instance, Pythagoras, and your Platos and
Aristotles, at the opera — they and all their kind whose names are
in such reputation. Suppose that they saw the representation of
Phaethon borne off by the winds, that they could not discover the
cords, and did not know what lay behind the scenes. One of them "
(the author is here giving us samples of the philosophy still current

THE FIRST "POPULAR SCIENTIFIC TREATISE." 721

in his time) " says, ' Phaethon is carried up by a hidden principle y '
another, ' Phaethon is composed of certain numbers which make him
rise ; ' another, ' Phaethon has a certain attraction toward the top of
the theatre ; ' and a hundred such vagaries, which I should have sup-
posed would have cost antiquity all its credit. Finally, Descartes "
(an Englishman would have said Bacon), "and some other moderns,
have said, ''Phaethon rises because he is drawn up by cords, and because
a heavier weight descends.'' So now we have come to believe that, if
a body move, it is because it is pushed or pulled, and one who could
see Nature as it is Avould simply be seeing what is behind the scenes
at the opera."

After this, Fontenelle goes on to sketch the history of his science,
and thence to give an account of the Ptolemaic and other systems,
which preceded the Copernican. Here, again, a happy image reminds
us of a danger all system-makers share, as common partners in a
weakness which is as universal as humanity :

" Before I explain the first of these systems, I beg you to remem-
ber that we — all of us — are like a certain madman at Athens you may
have heard of, who took it into his head that all the ships which came
into the harbor belonged to him. Our common failing is to believe
all Nature created for our own use, and when you ask our philosophers
what end is served by that host of stars, they will calmly tell you, It
is there for us to look at.' In this way they could not fail to suppose
that the earth was fixed in the centre of the universe, and that all the
heavenly bodies were set to revolve about her, and give her light ;
the same propensity which leads one to desire the most honorable
seat at a ceremony makes the philosopher in his system put himself
at the centre of the universe if he can."

It will be seen, as Sainte-Beuve remarks, that Fontenelle possesses
the art of scientific insinuation in the highest- degree ; in addressing
his marchioness, he is here appealing to the intelligence of every igno-
rant person who, rather than resemble the Athenian madman, is cajoled
into truth, and disposed in advance to reject Ptolemy's system, in
favor of the Copernican.

The account of the Copernican system involves the (to the mar-
chioness) entirely novel idea of the earth's rotation. This is present-
ed to us in a lively picture of the scene which would be offered to a
spectator suspended above the surface as the speaker imagines him-
self to be : " ' Passing under my eyes I see all sorts of faces, white,
black, and brown. First come hats, and then turbans, and then
shaven crowns ; now towns with church-spires, now cities with slen-
der, crescent-tipped minarets, now porcelain towers, and then again
wide oceans and dreadful deserts.' 'What,' she cries, 'then in the
place where we are — I don't mean this park, but this very place in the
air — there are people continually passing by, wdio come where we are
now, and at the end of twenty-four hours we get back again our-
vol. x. — 46

:22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

i »

selves ! ' ' Copernicus,' I replied, ' could not understand it better
This novel theme continues to occupy them during their return to the
house, and the first evening secures her belief for the new system.

The next morning, on Fontenelle's sending to ask how the lady
has passed the night, and to politely inquire whether she has been
able to sleep while turning, he is assured that she has already got
used to the motion, and was able to rest as soundly as Copernicus
himself could have done. With so apt a scholar, progress is rapid,
and, by evening, we find them discussing the habitability of the
moon, and the cause of the sun's light and heat. What is the view
of our author (the subsequent secretary of the Academie des Sciences,
and an authority in his day) on the source of supply for this immense
expenditure of the solar energy V What theory does he adopt — how
was it accounted for in his time ? Listen to the explanation of the
man who has just satirized so happily the fallacies of the schoolmen.
It shines because " it is self-luminous in its nature." And this is
given in good faith by Fontenelle as a reason !

Clever as he is, he is here in the bondage of his age ; but he might
yet have taken a lesson from a contemporary, who, though pretending
to no * philosophy," had seen and laughed at the weakness of the
learned of his time in thus making words do duty for facts. We
remember how the candidate for medical honors in the " Malade Ima-
ginaire," on being asked why opium induces sleep, replies to the de-
lighted satisfaction of the examining Faculty that it is because it
possesses a soporific quality ! W'hen we see a man so acute as Fonte-
nelle giving a precisely similar answer, with an obtuseness so plain
to us, so imperceptible to him, can anything suggest more pertinently
the need of watchfulness for traces of this legacy of ancient fallacies
of thinking in our own modes of thought ?

The third evening is occupied with a further discussion of the
moon, and of Venus ; on the fourth the other planets are considered,
and reasons given for their possible habitability, some of which would
hardly satisfy a more modern philosopher. Thus, the ingenious but
scarcely satisfactory suggestion is made that, in spite of the neigh-
borhood of Mercury to the sun, that planet may be a comfortable
residence, owing to the presence there of large quantities of saltpetre,
a substance which (according to our author) gives out "cold exhala-
tions " in the sunshine. Lest this idea be unacceptable to our skeptical
age, it should be added that Fontenelle takes care to fortify his posi-
tion by citing the case of China, large portions of which, it appears,
in spite of a southern latitude, experience extreme cold, even to the
freezing up of their rivers in July, on account of the existence of this
ingredient in their soil !

The " vortices" of Descartes are here introduced and offered as an
explanation of the motions of the Jovian satellites about their pri-
maries, and of the principal planets about the sun ; and, in the next

THE FIRST "POPULAR SCIENTIFIC TREATISE." 723

evening, are applied to elucidate the constitution of the milky-way, in
which worlds are, it seems, so thick that the plausible suggestion is
made that their birds may fly from one to the other !

The remainder of the work is chiefly occupied with a description
of the heavenly bodies considered with reference to their possible
habitants, and here Fontenelle is not likely to be found tripping, for
as to the nature, ways, and modes of living, of the inhabitants of the
other planets, he is quite as well informed as we are. We shall find
here nearly all that can be said, in the simple absence of any knowl-
edge whatever on the point in question, but we may be more reason-
ably interested in the happiness of some conjectures offered, where
he incidentally speaks of the physical constitution of the bodies he
is considering. He tells us, for instance, that the rings of Saturn
are supposed to be composed of numberless little moons, close to-
gether, and moving in the same orbit ; an explanation which appears
to have been lost sight of till modern analysis showed that they
could not be continuous solids, and modern observation that they
could hardly be liquid or gaseous. We have passed over too readily,
perhaps, the purely speculative portion of the work, which, if not very
instructive, is certainly entertaining, and filled with felicitous illus-
trations, such as that (too long for quotation) of the citizen of Pans,
who maintains that St. -Denis, whose houses he can just distinguish
from the towers of Notre-Dame, is uninhabited, because he can see
no inhabitants. Or, for still another instance of this art of "scientific
insinuation " already referred to, take the passage where the mar-
chioness, after declaring herself dissatisfied with extravagant specu-
lations about the inhabitants of the planets, is told that something
positive is, after all, really known about a race on one of them, and
which appears from his description to be remarkable indeed. He
gives a minute, and, as he asserts, a trustworthy, account of these ex-
traordinary beings, who he would have us believe are most laborious
and skillful, yet live by pillage; who have no sex, yet increase as a
nation; who subsist in the happiest concord, yet periodically put to
death a portion of their innocent fellow-citizens ; and so on, until the
lady, who finds the story more incredible than any of the preceding
speculations, on learning what the race is, and on what planet they
exist, is forced to admit that truth may be stranger than fiction, and
that no extravagance of his fancies about the possible commonwealths
of other worlds surpasses what she has just been entrapped into lis-
tening to about that of the bees on our own.

Fontenelle, with all his abundant ingenuity, has one radical defect
as a literary artist, and perhaps some will be disposed to add, as a
student of Nature. He appears to have no power of moving or being
moved by anything like emotion, or of perceiving anything not com-
prehensible to an intellect divorced from sympathetic intuition. The
gallantry which he introduces as an element in the dialogue, and

7 24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which our citations do not undertake to illustrate, is filled, for in-
stance, with ingenious conceits which, though falling coldly on mod-
ern ears, were considered in the happiest taste by the audience to
whom the book was addressed. But they are of an artificial clever-
ness, and precisely what we might expect from the man who was said
to have " as good a heart as could be made of brains."

Sainte-Beuve has well indicated our author's strength and weakness
by comparing his clever opera-box view of Nature with that of Pascal
in the majestic movement of the awe-inspired passage at the begin-
ing of the " Pensees." ! While agreeing to the judgment of the great
critic, it may be observed, however, that, if Fontenelle be devoid of
poetry, he has at least one image of a grace nearly allied to it. He
has been speaking of the chances of the sun's light failing us wholly,
as it is said to have partially done in the year following the death of
Caesar, and pointing out, with what seems justice, the imperfect
grounds for the confidence of mankind in the constancy of Nature's
action here in the future as in the past, founded as that confidence
is on an experience of the human race — so long, judged by its life, so
short in comparison with Nature's own. With a sort of pathetic
sense of the fallacy, he compares this little accumulated experience
of the generations of man to the traditions of some roses of a day,
leaving each to its successor an account of the gardener in whom suc-
cessive ages of these ephemeral flowers have seen no change. " We
have always seen the same gardener ; in the memory of roses none has
been seen but him ; ichat he has ever been, that he is now: surely he does
not die as we, or change."

Fontenelle, throughout the "Conversations," adopts the Cartesian
hypothesis of "vortices" in accounting for the planetary movements,
and this, indeed, he continued to cling to long after. The true theory
of gravitation had been given by Newton, and obtained complete ac-
ceptance in England. His more serious work is to be found chiefly
in the well-known "Eloges," which, as perpetual secretary of the
French Academy of Sciences, he pronounced on its deceased asso-
ciates ; but it is probable that he will, nevertheless, be remembered as
much by these " Conversations," which, had they no other merit,
would always possess an historical interest, as opening the way to
our present popular scientific literature.

We should not close this imperfect notice of them without again
reminding the reader that the form of a dialogue gives the original
an attraction which is necessarily missed in brief extracts, and that
the plan on which they thus rest for uniting instruction and amuse-
ment (a plan which obliges the imaginary speaker to be paying his
court and talking science at the same time) would have been a failure
in almost any hands but those which could manage so difficult a
blending, and keep as far from pedantry as from ridicule. Fontenelle's

" Que l'homme contemple done la nature entiere dans sa haute et pleine rnajeste," etc.

THE BALL-PARADOX.

725

gallantry, like his science, may be now a little out of date, but he
manages at least to unite these two most opposite conversational
ingredients in chemical union. When the lady would send him back
from love-making to astronomy, he contrives to give both together,
and, consistent to the close, takes leave of his charming scholar with
the modest request that, as sole reward for his pains in teaching her
the heavens, she will never again look on sun, moon, or stars, without
thinking of him.

THE BALL-PARADOX.

By THOMAS S. CRANE, Mechanical Engineeb.

THE exhibitors of the atmospheric air-brake, at the Centennial,
attached a tube to the air-reservoir for the purpose of showing
the immense pressure employed.

The current rushing from the small orifice of the tube sustains
balls of varying gravities, according to the pressure applied.

Once, on accidentally resting the base from which the tube springs
upon something lying on the table, it was found that, although no
longer vertical, the current of air still held the ball in suspension, the
ball revolving rapidly, and apparently hanging to the jet of air, which
strikes the sphere at its upper side.

Fig. 1.

It also makes little difference in the result whether the ball be a
solid glass one an inch and a half in diameter, or a hollow rubber
ball, or a solid wooden one three or four inches in diameter, the only
variation being the distance at which the spherical body is held from
the orifice.

"When a glass ball with interior colored lines, such as children
play with, is gently held in the current until the air has the sphere
well in its power, it will rotate partly back and forth at first, and,

'26

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

when really revolved by the force of the air, has an uncertain axis of
rotation until it has been turning for some time. The jet of air will
also sustain a larger ball of lighter gravity behind the glass one, the
former hanging on the lower side of the jet behind the heavier and
smaller one.

These phenomena have excited so much attention that the follow-
ing is offered as an illustration of the principles involved, and in ex-
planation of the various points noted above:

The current of air sustains the ball by removing the atmospheric
pressure from the ball where it strikes it ; the unbalanced pressure
of the air on the opposite side then forcing the ball toward the cur-
rent, as shown by the arrow marked D in Fig. 1. The friction of the
jet J" against the ball tends to throw it in the direction indicated by
C. To balance these two forces, we have the action of gravity, shown
at G, which, being a constant factor, must be exactly neutralized by
the forces named for the ball to remain suspended.

This adjustment, nice as it is, can be easily effected by placing
the ball near enough to the jet at first ; for, the pressure D being
ample to sustain the ball in any position (else the experiment cannot
be performed), the force of the jet will inevitably drive the ball awTay
to a point where the power in that direction is just able to balance
the force of gravity — the ball being evidently lifted, in spite of gravity,
so long as it moves in the direction of the jet, and the force C natu-
rally diminishing as the distance from the orifice J increases.

Fig. 2.

To make it clear that it is the ordinary atmospheric pressure that
supports the ball, let us imagine it exposed to two forces (as shown
in Fig. 2), acting on opposite sides of the sphere. The atmospheric
pressures that act on all other sides of the sphere are ignored, as
they perfectly balance one another.

If a ball B (Fig. 2) is secured to the top of a spiral spring S, at-
tached to a platform JP, and a jet of water V projected vertically
upon it, the spring will be compressed until its resistance is equal to

THE BALL-PARADOX. 727

the force of the jet. In that position the ball resembles a sphere ex-
posed to atmospheric pressure above and below.

Now, let an horizontal jet of water II be thrown against the ver-
tical jet V, as shown in Fig. 3, and its action, opposed to the spring S,
must cease at once, and the unbalanced pressure of the spring raise
the ball into the position shown in Fig. 3.

The situation of the ball in Fig. 3 is now equivalent to that in
Fig. 1, where the air-jet J, passing over one side of the ball, calls
into action the pressure D at right angles to the jet. Were the
sphere B in Fig. 1 placed in the centre of the jet, no such action could
result ; and, if the ball were placed there, its gravity would be un-
balanced until the ball fell to one side of the jet, and the supporting
power of the air evoked.

Fig. 3.

To prove that a current of air moving parallel with any surface
destroys the atmospheric pressure at that point, take a visiting-card
and bend the ends at right angles with the card, so as to turn up one
quarter of an inch at each end. Now place the card near the edge of
a smooth table, supported by the two ends like a little bench, and
try the effect of blowing violently between the card and the table in
a direction parallel to both. The current will destroy the atmospheric
pressure beneath the card, and the unbalanced pressure above will
force the middle of the card downward. Or, take another card and fit
a quill or straw tightly into a hole cut in the centre. Try to displace
another card laid loosely over the first by blowing upward against it.
If a pin is stuck through the centre of the second card, into the open-
ing of the quill, to keep it from sliding off, it will be found that no
effort will blow the upper card from the first, as the current of air
passing out between the cards destroys the atmospheric pressure be-
tween them, calling into play a force upon their outside surfaces that
presses them tightly together. The arrangement of the cards is
shown in Fig. 4.

It is thus evident that a pressure perpendicular to any surface can
be displaced by one acting parallel to it.

728

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

An experiment illustrated in Fig. 5, and successfully performed
while writing these lines, will settle all doubts, if any remain, upon
this puzzling point.

Attach a pith-ball to a short piece of thread, and, knotting the
other end, slip the knot in a slit in one end of a quill so as to secure
it firmly, and retain the ball about an inch from the other end of the

Fig. 4.

quill, as shown in Fig. 5. Now blow through the quill Q steadily,
and the ball B can be made to hang from or upon the under side of
the jet J", being prevented by the string S from blowing away, and
the atmospheric pressure A balancing the gravity G of the light ball.
As the atmosphere presses nearly fifteen pounds upon a square
inch, a ball one-quarter of a pound in weight would be balanced by
the full pressure of the air upon a surface only -fa of an inch in area.
It remains to notice the rapid revolutions of the ball and its uncertain
axis of rotation when first suspended in the jet.

Fig. 5.

Few balls being perfectly round, or of uniform density, will revolve
on their own centres under such conditions, but on the shortest axis
passing through their centre of gravity (seldom the centre of form).

It is easy to show that all bodies freely suspended tend to revolve
on their shortest axis, by tying a string a yard long to a door-key,
just under the head, so that it will hang nearly vertical. If the string

LABORATORY ENDOWMENT. 729

be now rapidly twisted by the thumbs and forefingers of both hands,
the key wiil assume an horizontal position, and the string revolve in
the form of a cone.

The friction of the jet must, therefore, tend to rotate a ball on an
axis at right angles to the path of the jet, and, if this axis is not the
shortest one passing through its centre of gravity, several oscillations,
back and forth, must occur before the necessary adjustment is made.

When two balls of different densities are sustained by the same
jet, it seems plain that each is sustained by the pressure of the air on
the side opposite to the contact of the jet, for it is evident that, farther
from the orifice, the jet has less power to displace the atmospheric
pressure, and at that point the lighter ball only can be sustained.

In its rapid revolutions in such a jet of air as we have described,
a light and hollow India-rubber ball affords a beautiful illustration of
the flattening of the earth's poles by its revolutions on a free axis.

•»»»

LABORATORY ENDOWMENT.

By F. W. CLAEKE,

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI.

THE advancement of science is at once a glory and a disgrace to
our modern civilization. It is glorious that so much has been
done, but disgraceful that the public should be so often indifferent to
the doing. In view of the benefits derived from scientific research,
it would seem as if governments and communities ought to vie with
one another in its encouragement. But, as a matter of fact, this assist-
ance has in every country been unsystematic, meagre, partial, and
infrequent. A museum may be equipped, perhaps, an exploring
expedition fitted out, a geological survey established, or a party of
astronomers sent forth to observe an eclipse or transit. Even these
things are too often done grudgingly, and on a basis of false econ-
omy. Physics and chemistry, the two sciences most immediately
bound up with modern progress, have received little or no public aid.
No laboratory exclusively for research has yet been endowed either
by national or private enterprise. Colleges enough have been
founded, with laboratories more or less fitted for the work of routine
instruction ; but these are manifestly unsuited to the production of
remarkably far-reaching results. Every great industry in America
has been directly benefited either by one or the other of the two sci-
ences in question ; fortunes have been made from practical applica-
tions of their principles, and yet scarcely anything has been done for
them in return. It would seem as if our manufacturers expected to
get applications of science without any science to apply. Nearly all

73o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the research accomplished, either in our own country or in Europe,
has been clone by university or college professors, in the intervals
between their regular duties, as an incidental matter, and usually
with meagre appliances. Two results have followed: first, much
wasting of individual energy ; and, secondly, a lack of coherence in
the knowledge won. The data of science become unsystematic, scat-
tered, full of gaps and breaks, more like an archipelago than a conti-
nent. A thousand investigators, working independently and with
but casual reference to each other, may discover a vast number of
important facts, advance many useful arts, and yet accomplish but
little for definite, exact, systematic, coherent science. The world
gains much by their labors, but only a tithe of what it might gain
were those labors wisely aided and fostered. For the present state
of affairs, however, nobody is to blame. It is probably an unavoid-
able incident of scientific growth. A wider public culture and a
deeper public appreciation will undoubtedly correct it. Looking
forward hopefully, then, we may ask how the greatest good is to be
done.

That the two sciences already mentioned are much in need of
material encouragement, there can be but little doubt. They are
experimental sciences, requiring for their advancement expensive ap-
paratus and materials, such as individual students cannot provide for
themselves, or few universities supply. Other branches of knowl-
edge have been better provided for. Every observatory is to a cer-
tain degree a laboratory for astronomical research ; every well-
arranged museum affords opportunities for the scientific naturalist ;
every geological survey is ostensibly an organization of investigators.
But a college laboratory, full of elementary students, each calling
for personal attention from the professor, can hardly supply the best
means for really advanced work. To be sure, every professor ought
to do something, if only to discover a single small fact a year. Even
though that fact be a hopeless negative, it will still have a true sci-
entific value. When we question Nature, every answer, whether yes
or no, counts for something in the upbuilding of science. Every
man who is fit to teach science at all is competent to do at least a
little in this direction. A little also may be accomplished by stu-
dents; such work, for example, as the determination of densities, or
completing the description of simple compounds. In one laboratory
special attention might be paid each year to a single class of not
over-complicated substances ; and the advanced students could for
that class fill up some of the gaps in our knowledge. But this
work, although of immense value to science, is not of the very high-
est order. The most important labors can scarcely be undertaken
save in laboratories specially and liberally endowed for purely scien-
tific research.

The objections which are frequently urged against the endowment

LABORATORY ENDOWMENT. 731

of research arise from a misconception of what is really intended.
It is ordinarily assumed that such endowments would merely pro-
vide large salaries and abundant leisure for certain scientific men,
who, with no clearly-defined duties, and no distinct relation to each
other, should try experiments at their own sweet will, and make dis-
coveries whenever luck and chance were favorable. Such a vague
plan for aiding science would of course be objectionable. Not only
might the so-called "young men of promise" become deprived of
energy by the ease of such positions, but even experienced workers
would be liable to regard their salaries as the means of comfort with-
out hard labor, or as a reward for past achievements. The money
thus expended might advance science a little, but probably not so much
as if it were paid over to some first-rate college or scientific school.
Science is not to be truly encouraged by the creation of mere sine-
cures for scientific men. To construct an argument, however, against
such a plan as the one mentioned, would only be to demolish a very
clumsy man of very coarse straw. A true laboratory for research is
something quite different from the feather-bed institution commonly
objected to.

That there should be facilities for research, and that the investi-
gator deserves a livelihood, nobody will deny. Indeed, these two
points form an almost conclusive argument in favor of the endow-
ment of laboratories. There is yet another consideration of very
great force with which the public mind is less familiar. Both in
chemistry and in physics there are many unsolved problems too great
for individual students to grapple. Their solution can be effected
ouly by the cooperation of many trained specialists, working harmo-
niously together upon the basis of some definite plan. The funda-
mental principles of physical science, principles upon which rest many
applications important in the arts, and in which every manufacturer
has a direct although too frequently unconscious interest, are to be
eventually based upon the answers to these problems. In many a
branch of industry thousands of dollars have been spent upon sci-
entific experiments, which, for want of fundamental principles, have
been aimless and unsystematic. Mere tentative trials, costly and
laborious, with almost even chances for and against success, have
taken the place of rigorous, careful, strictly scientific work, based
upon definite and certain foundations. In short, the arts have suf-
fered from the fact. that neither chemistry nor physics can yet claim
to be really an exact science. The question of the endowment of
research, then, may well be put in this shape. Laboratories should
be established in which adequate corps of thorough specialists shall
cooperate in those investigations which individuals cannot undertake.

In a laboratory organized upon this idea, every worker should be
assigned to definite, positive duties, the accurate and careful perform-
ance of which would eventually be sure to advance exact knowledge.

73 z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Here there is nothing speculative or doubtful. Here are certain
tilings to be done, which can be done only by men of the most thor-
ough training, equipped with the best appliances. In such a labora-
tory, chance would have but little place. The work would run to
hard routine, to the solid establishment of accurate scientific data, to
the systematic determination of substantial facts. Precise physical
measurements would precede generalization, just as the labor of the
quarryman goes before that of the builder. Startling and brilliant
discoveries might possibly be made, but incidentally rather than as
the result of special effort. The real value of the institution would
be independent of anything sensational, and would rest upon consid-
erations of the most severely practical kind.

Examples of the sort of work appropriate to an endowed labora-
tory may easily be found. For instance, one of the greatest of all
scientific problems is that of the connection between the composition
of a substance and its physical properties. Suppose this question
were to be taken up systematically by a well-organized body of in-
vestigators. The first step in the research would manifestly be to
determine, carefully and with the utmost rigor, the physical proper-
ties of the so-called chemical elements. At the outset each one of
these substances would have to be isolated in quantity, and in a chemi-
cally pure condition — a labor which of itself would involve a great
amount of research. Some of the elements have never yet been seen
in a state of absolute purity, or have been obtained only in very
minute portions, and accordingly new methods of treatment would
need to be devised. Then would come the measurement of physical
relations, thermal, electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, and so on.
For each element, as far as possible, should be determined the melt-
ing-point, the boiling- j)oint, the density, the coefficient of expansion,
the specific and latent heat, thermal and electrical conductivity, the
thermo-chemical constants, and many other data of much importance
and value. Furthermore, these constants should be determined under
widely-varied conditions, notably of pressure and temperature. For
example, it would be necessary to ascertain the coeificient of expan-
sion, and also the specific heat of a body at every degree, through a
wide range of temperatures, and in not merely one, but in several
series of observations. Thus, and thus only, could we attain to the
exactness which science rigidly demands. Besides the actual meas-
urements, this great labor would in many cases involve the compara-
tive testing of various methods of research, and in some instances the
invention of new experimental processes.

Years could be spent upon the metals alone, and the work done
would add not only to our knowledge of their properties, but also
much to science as regards variety and precision of methods. In
connection with these researches would naturally arise an investiga-
tion of metallic alloys — a subject of which true science knows as yet

LABORATORY ENDOWMENT. 733

very little. The material accumulated would undoubtedly so system-
atize and extend our knowledge of these important substances, that
we should soon be able to determine in advance all the properties of
a proposed alloy, and even to ascertain by calculation what alloys
could or could not be formed. The extent of research here suggested
may be realized when we remember that, out of the sixty-five ele-
ments now known, not one has been thoroughly described, or de-
scribed with even a moderate approximation to thoroughness. These
investigations upon the elements would be for chemistry and phys-
ics what the preparation of star-maps and planetary tables is for
astronomy, or the dissection of the human frame for medicine. They
would certainly furnish a foundation for exact physical science such
at at present is scarcely even begun.

After the examination of the elements would come the consider-
ation of compounds. These should be taken up, series by series, in
some regular order, and at least every typical body carefully de-
scribed. Thus, step by step, the lines of assault would be drawn
around the besieged problems, until at length the citadel would
yield, exactness would replace the present chaos, and definite laws
would stand where now are speculations. Could any branch of
applied science fail to reap a benefit from this result ? Would not
every industry in any way dependent upon either chemistry or phys-
ics be helped ? Apart from direct applications of science to the
arts, the mere substitution of accuracy for inaccuracy in questions of
scientific principle ought greatly to facilitate technological investiga-
tions, put new weapons into the hands of the artisan, and so add
immensely to the resources of civilized life.

The investigations here indicated are not by any means the only
researches proper for an endowed laboratory. They are merely types,
to illustrate the general character of work which such an institution
should do. It is true that, although individuals cannot deal with these
greater problems in their entirety, individuals may, woiking separate-
ly and disconnectedly, contribute much toward their solution. But,
unfortunately, researches of this kind are among the most difficult and
arduous. They savor much of hard routine and yield no quick return
of glory to the investigator, who, already familiar with monotony in
his ordinary duties, natm-ally prefers to undertake labors producing
with less effort a more immediate reputation. The discovery of new
compounds is less troublesome, and brings speedier celebrity ; hence
the more solid work of establishing accurate numerical data is very
little done. When done, it is done piecemeal. Garden flowers are so
much easier to raise than oaks.

Now, assuming that a laboratory for research ought to be established,
let us consider some of the leading questions as to its arrangement
and organization. First, with regard to the building. This need not
be very expensive, since architectural experiments have no necessary

734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

connection with the purposes in view. It should be plain and substan-
tial outwardly, sufficiently spacious within, accessible to much sun-
light and away from the heavier jar of traffic. The suburbs of a great
city would be perhaps the most advantageous position for it to occupy.
The most serious considerations, however, would concern its interior
arrangements. It should, of course, contain a sufficient number of
rooms for the accommodation of different branches of research ; for ex-
ample, a photometric room, another for gas analysis, a third for elec-
tric measurement, a fourth for calorimetric work, and so on. In the
basement, connecting with the solid earth, might be placed a number
of heavy stone piers for the support of very delicate instruments.
One important item of apparatus would be a steam-engine. This,
together with the chemical furnaces and a small machine-shop, might
be provided for in a cheap out-building apart from the main structure.
Steam, gas, and water, should of course be available in all parts of the
laboratory.

But although expense could be avoided in the building, it ought not
to be dodged in the purchase of instruments. These would necessa-
rily be of the most costly character. Mere models, such as are com-
monly used for class instruction, would not suffice. Every instrument
of precision used in the laboratory should be a standard of its kind,
the best which could be made ; otherwise the work of the institution
might fall short of the high character intended for it. So also with
the chemicals : only the best should be tolerated. As for a library,
fitted for scientific reference-work, the cost would depend much upon
locality. In a country town, away from other collections of books,
the expense would be considerable ; but near a city provided with
libraries the outlay need not be very great. Still, some money would
have to be expended in this very important direction.

Next as regards the working-staff. Since the researches to be
undertaken are mainly those which involve the cooperation of special-
ists, we must start with a sufficiently large and varied body of men.
At the head of the institution there ought to be a man of thorough
training, proved ability, broad general ideas, and great executive
capacity. He should guide and systematize all the work of the labo-
ratory, and to him, as to the director of an observatory, the others
should be subordinate. Under him should be at least the following
corps of principals : one chemist, one electrician, a specialist in heat,
another in optics, a mathematician, and an expert mechanic. Upon
the last-named individual would devolve the duty of constructing,
altering, or repairing apparatus. To this main staff might be added
assistants, as many as the means of the laboratory would allow. Some
of these minor positions could perhaps be filled by means of fellow-
ships, analogous to those recently established by the Johns Hopkins
University. It might be feasible also to admit private investigators
and post-graduate students to the advantages for research afforded

LABORATORY ENDOWMENT. 735

by the laboratory, with the understanding that, in return for favors"
received, they should contribute a certain amount of labor toward the
main purposes of the institution. Such volunteers, if I may call them
so, could give, say, one-third of their time to this general work, and
have the remaining two-thirds for their own investigations. Thus the
laboratory might often aid young men of promise and ability, and
derive real benefit from them in return. This power of encouraging
and directing the beginner in research would not be least among the
merits of the institution. For want of just such encouragement many
and many a young enthusiast is driven out of scientific work into some
field of labor less congenial and often less important. How much the
world has lost in this way, how much science has been retarded, no
one can ever estimate.

But how much money is needed for all this ? That depends partly
upon locality, partly upon other circumstances. In a place* where
building is cheap, real estate low, and living inexpensive, a moderate
endowment would go much farther than in a eity like Boston or New
York. Under the most favorable conditions perhaps half a million
dollars would suffice. Such a sum is by no means extravagant.
Single individuals have given us much and sometimes a great deal
more toward the establishment of a college, school, art-gallery, ob-
servatory, library, or hospital. Why not, then, half a million for a
laboratory, three-tenths or less to go for building and equipment,
and the remainder for permanently endowing the institution? Even
a million would not be too much by any means. There are in our
country a good many men able to give as much as this, whose fortunes
have been made from applications of science to the arts. Here, then,
is a chance for them to reciprocate a little, and at the same time to
cover themselves with at least posthumous glory. Or, the expense
might be borne by Government. A hundred and fifty thousand dol-
lars down for building and outfit, with twenty-five or thirty thousand
dollars annually for sustenance, would do very well. If it is right
for Congress to equip transit expeditions in the interest of astronomy,
it would certainly be right thus to assist the two sciences to which
our greater industries are so deeply indebted. In fact, the United
States can better afford to incur this very moderate expense than not
to incur it. In the long-run the laboratory would be worth as much
to the country as either the Naval Observatory, the Coast Survey, or
the geological expeditions — all, by-the-way, excellent enterprises,
which have received, if anything, less encouragement than they have
deserved. The development of science in a nation means eventually
the discovery of new resources and the creation of new wealth. Who-
ever doubts this statement needs only to look at the past achievements
of physical science in order to be fully convinced of its truth. What
national investment ever brought in richer returns than that famous
grant made by Congress to S. F. B. Morse ?

736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Should the proposed laboratory, if established, be independent, or
connected with some other institution ? That would depend upon a
variety of circumstances. If endowed by the United States Govern-
ment, it surely ought to be connected with and controlled by the
Smithsonian Institution. Even an endowment contributed from pri-
vate sources might well be placed under that management. For the
Smithsonian Institution is really a magnificent example of a great
trust splendidly administered. Both financially and as regards the
interests of science the managers of this institution have done admi-
rably. Money placed in their hands would certainly be well spent.
Every dollar would be so handled as to produce the maximum good
effect. A laboratory under this control, whether publicly or privately
endowed, would assume a national character, and might serve as a
centre of cooperation for investigators in all parts of our country.

Leading Washington out of account, a laboratory for research
might perhaps be best established in connection with some good uni-
versity— like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Michigan, or Cornell. It
would then be already provided with a library and a building-lot,
some apparatus at least would be ready to hand, and a strong social
element would aid in the attraction of scientific men. Moreover, with
such affiliations, the laboratory would often be able to secure good
volunteer work from advanced or post-graduate students ; an advan-
tage by no means to be despised.

But it is hardly worth while to multiply suggestions. Enough has
been said to show distinctly the main points in favor of a laboratory
specially endowed for research, and some of the chief considerations
which must arise in its establishment. Such a laboratory as is here
indicated, a laboratory in which many specialists could combine forces
in the more difficult fundamental investigations of physical science,
surely ought not to remain long a mere fabric of the imagination, a
misty dream of the future. It should be founded — whether by an in-
dividual or by the nation it matters little. Let us hope that, before
many years pass by, the dream may become a reality.

-♦*♦-

THE ORIGIN" AND CURIOSITIES OF THE ARABIC NU-
MERALS.

By D. V. T. QUA.

N an article on the " Origin of the Numerals," published in The
-L Popular Science Monthly for January, 1876, the writer re-
marks : " Having never met with any explanation of the origin of
(he numerals, or rather of the figures symbolizing them, perhaps I
am right in supposing that nothing satisfactory is known of it."

ORIGIN OF THE ARABIC NUMERALS. 737

The history of the Arabic or decimal notation is somewhat as
follows : The characters of this notation were introduced into Europe,
during the tenth century, by the Crusades. From the Arabic, these
characters have been traced to the sacred books of the Brahmans
of India. It was long supposed that for our modern arithmetic we
were indebted to the Arabians. But this, as we have seen, is not the
case. The Hindoos communicated a knowledge of it to the Arabi-
ans, and we have been unable to trace it beyond the Hindoos: hence
we must concede the honor to them of its invention.

To the Arabians, however, belongs the honor of introducing arith-
metic into Europe. It was the Arabians who took the torch from
the Orient and passed it along toward the Occident, when "westward
the star of empire took its way."

The origin of the characters came, undoubtedly, from the fact that
the Orientals first learned to count on their fingers and thumbs, and
from this originated the ten characters employed, and originally called
digits, from the Latin word digitus, signifying finger. In keeping
accounts among the Orientals, one mark represented one finger, or

number, thus : /. Two horizontal marks, with a connecting line,
stood for two, thus : X . Three horizontal marks, with connect-
ing lines, would stand for three, thus : ■ J; and four marks in the
form of a square, or a triangle, would stand for four, thus : / m.

Five marks in this form, *— 1 , was the original figure -five in this

notation ; six marks, thus, I ■, the original figure six. The
figure seven was made by marks representing two squares with one

of the lines wanting, thus: ' The figure eight was made by

placing two squares near each other, thus : ; and nine by adding

----•—5 — ^

The zero, or cipher, was originally a circle, and seems to have come
from counting around the fingers and thumbs. Hence, once around
was denoted by one finger, or character, representing one, thus :

/ and J J; twice around, by ^r and f V

^^ TOT T 1*7 ^KmOB ^^

j. From this last ar-

TOL. X. 47

738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rano-ement seems to have come the fundamental law of tbe decimal
notation in which its superior utility consists, and upon which quite
recently has been based the metric system of weights and measures.
By placing any of the digits in the place of the zero to make the
numbers between ten and twenty, we have the law established. The
science of arithmetic, like all other sciences, was very limited and
imperfect at the beginning, and the successive steps by which it has
reached its present extension and perfection have been taken at
long intervals, and among different nations. It has been developed
by the necessities of business, by the strong love for mathematical
science, and by the call for its higher offices by other sciences, espe-
cially that of astronomy. In its progress, we find that the Arabians
discovered the method of proof by casting out the 9's, and that the
Italians early adopted the practice of separating numbers into periods
of six figures, for the purpose of enumerating them. The property
of the number 9 affords an ingenious method of proving each of the
fundamental operations in arithmetic, and it seems to be an incidental
attribute of this number. It arises from the law of increase in the
decimal notation. It universally belongs to the number that is one
less than the radix of the system of notation. And in this connec-
tion it may not be irrelevant to state some facts or curiosities with
regard to this number 9. It cannot be multiplied away, or got rid
of in any manner. Whatever we do, it is sure to turn up again, as
was the body of Eugene Aram's victim. One remarkable property
of this figure (said to have been discovered by W. Green, who died
in 1*794) is, that all through the multiplication-table the product of 9
comes to 9. Multiply any number by 9, as 9 x 2 = 18, add the digits
together, 1+8 = 9. So it goes on until we reach 9 x 11 = 99.
Very well — add the digits 9 + 9 = 18, and 1 + 8 = 9. Going on to
any extent it is impossible to get rid of the figure 9. Take any num-
ber of examples at random, and we have the same result. For in-
stance, 339 x 9 = 3,051. Add the digits 3 + 0 + 5 + 1=9. Take
one more, 5,071 x 9 = 45,639, and the sum of the digits, 4 + 5 + 0
+ 3 + 9 = 27, and 2 + 7 = 9.

The French mathematicians found out another queer thing about
this number, namely: if we take any row of figures, and, reversing
their order, make a subtraction, and add the digits, the final sum
is sure to be 9. For example, 5,071 — 1,705 = 3,366 ; add these
digits 3 + 3 + 6 + 6 = 18, and 1 + 8 = 9. The same result is ob-
tained if we raise the numbers so changed to their squares or cubes.
Starting with 62, and reversing the digits, we have 26, then 62 — 26
= 36, and 3 + 6 = 9. The squares of 26 and 62 are respectively
676 and 3,844, and 3,844 — 676 = 3,168; add 3 + 1 + 6 + 8 = 18,
■'""I 1 +8 = 9. This may be exemplified in another way. Write
down any number, as, for example, 7,549,132, subtract the sum
of its digits 7 + 5+4 + 9+1 + 3 + 2 = 31, and 7,549,132 — 31 =

THE SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF WILLIAM CROOKES. 739

7,549,101. Add these digits, 7 + 5 + 4 + 9 + 1+0 + 1= 27, and
2 + 7 = 9.

But we have extended already this article to a greater length than
we intended, simply wishing to give the origin and history of the
decimal notation as far as it can be traced, and will close by stating
that this notation is every way adapted to the practical operations of
business, as well as the most abstruse mathematical investigations.
In whatever light it is viewed, the decimal notation rnnst be regarded
as one of the most striking monuments of human ingenuity, and its
beneficial influence on the progress of science and the arts, on com-
merce and civilization, must win for its unknown author the everlast-
ing admiration and gratitude of mankind.

-♦♦♦-

THE SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF WILLIAM CROOKES.

AMONG the active and successful scientific workers of England,
at the present time, the gentleman whose portrait we give this
month is one of the foremost. Though only in the meridian of his
manhood, he has made two discoveries — those of the metal thal-
lium and of the radiometer — which will immortalize his name; while
his minor labors in the field of science, both in the laboratory and
in the editorial office, are in an unusual degree important and
valuable.

William Ckookes was born in London, in 1832. His scientific ca-
reer commenced in 1848, when he entered the Royal College of Chem-
istry as a pupil of the distinguished chemist Dr. Hoffmann, now of
the University of Berlin. He had gained the Ashburton scholarship
at the age of seventeen. After two years of study, Dr. Hoffmann
appointed him, first, his junior, and then his senior assistant, which
post he held until 1854, when he went to Oxford to superintend the
meteorological department of the Radcliffe*Observatory. In 1855 he
was appointed Teacher of Chemistry at the Science College, Chester.
In 1859 he founded the Chemical News, and in 1864 he became editor
of the Quarterly Journal of Science.

Mr. Crookes's researches were begun while at the Royal College
of Chemistry, his first paper, " On the Seleno-Cyanides," being pub-
lished in the Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society, in 1851.
Since then he has been almost uninterruptedly engaged in private re-
search on subjects connected with chemistry and physics.

In 1861 Mr. Crookes discovered, by means of spectral observa-
tions and chemical reactions, the metal thallium; and in June, 1862,
and February, 1873, he laid before the Royal Society an account of

74o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

its occurrence, distribution, and the method of extraction from the
ore, together with its physical characteristics and chemical proper-
ties. He also discussed the position of thallium among elementary
bodies, and gave a series of analytical notes on the new metal. In
the Journal of the Chemical Society for April, 1864, he collated all
the information then extant, both from his own researches and from
those of others, introducing qualitative and quantitative descriptions
of an extended series of the salts of the metal. In June, 1872, he
laid before the Royal Society the details and results of experiments
which had occupied much of his time during the previous eight years,
and which consisted of laborious researches on the atomic weight of
thallium.

In 1863 Mr. Crookes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1865 he discovered the sodium amalgamation process for separat-
ing gold and silver from their ores. (This process was discovered in-
dependently, and at about the same time, by Prof. Henry Wurtz, of
New York.) In 1866 he was appointed by the English Government
to inquire into and report upon the application of disinfectants in ar-
resting the spread of the cattle-plague then prevalent in England. In
1871 he was selected as a member of the English expedition to Oran
for observing the total phase of the solar eclipse which occurred in
December of that year.

Mr. Crookes commenced his research on "Repulsion resulting
from Radiation" in 1872. These experiments were suggested by
some observations made when weighing heavy pieces of glass ap-
paratus in a vacuum balance during his researches on the atomic
weight of thallium. His first paper on the subject was read before
the Royal Society on December 11, 1873, and during the last three
years Mr. Crookes has sent six other communications to the society
on the same subject. The construction of the radiometer is one re-
sult of his investigation. At first it was thought that the movement
of the vanes in the exhausted bulb was due to radiation, for no move-
ment took place until the vacuum was so good as to be almost beyond
the powers of an ordinary air-pump to produce, and as the vacuum
got more and more absolute, so the force increased in power ; but Mr.
Crookes soon found that at a rarefaction so high that the residual gas
was a non-conductor of an induction-current, there was enough matter
present to produce motion, and therefore to offer resistance to mo-
tion. That this residual gas was not a mere accidental accompani-
ment of the phenomena was rendered probable both by the experi-
ments of Dr. Schuster and by that of Mr. Crookes, on the movement
of the floating glass case of a radiometer when the arms are fixed by
a magnet, which was demonstrated to the Royal Society on March
30, 1876. Mr. Crookes has since constructed a special apparatus for
measuring the vacuum. A vertical plate, instead of continuously ro-

THE SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF WILLIAM CROOKES. 74 1

tating in one direction, as in the ordinary radiometer, is suspended by
a glass fibre, which it twists in opposite directions alternately. The
movement is started by rotating the whole apparatus through a small
angle, and the observation consists in noting the successive ampli-
tudes of vibration when the instrument is left to itself, a mirror and
spot of light being employed for this purpose. The results of these
experiments leave no reasonable doubt that the repulsion is due to
the internal movement of the molecules of the residual gas.

In 1875 Mr. Crookes received the award of a Royal medal from
the Royal Society for his various chemical and physical researches;
and in 1876 he was elected a Vice-President of the Chemical So-
ciety.

Previous to his researches on " Repulsion," Mr. Crookes began to
investigate so-called spiritualism. As far as it extended, his inquiry
into the subject convinced him that certain phenomena obtained
under test conditions in his own house were due neither to tricks,
mechanical arrangements, nor to legerdemain. He inclined to the
opinion that the " medium " possessed what Mr. Sergeant Cox calls
psychic force, but he had arrived at no definite conclusions as to the
cause of the phenomena when he decided to discontinue their in-
vestigation.

Mr. Crookes is the author of " Select Methods in Chemical Analy-
sis," of " The Manufacture of Beet-Root Sugar in England," and of
a " Handbook of Dyeing and Calico Printing." He is also joint
author of the English adaptation of Kerl's " Treatise on Metallurgy."
He has edited and enlarged the last two editions of Mitchell's " Manual
of Practical Assaying," and translated into English and edited Rei-
mann's " Aniline and its Derivatives," Wagner's " Chemical Tech-
nology," and Auerbach's " Anthracen and its Derivatives."

It is claimed that Mr. Crookes was the first to apply photography
to the investigation of the solar spectrum, but his earlier researches
were so numerous that it is impossible to refer to them all. We may,
however, mention his papers " On the Opacity of the Yellow-Soda
Flame to Light of its own Color," " On the Measurement of the
Luminous Intensity of Light," " On a New Binocular Spectrum Mi-
croscope," and " On the Optical Phenomena of Opals."

742

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF FERMEN-
TATION AND PUTREFACTION.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

I HAVE read with no ordinary interest
the lecture by Prof. Tyndall, published
in your issue of December, upon the sub-
ject of " Fermentation and its Bearings
upon the Phenomena of Disease;" and I
desire, with your permission, to submit
some points suggested to my mind upon
which, according to my own conception,
there remains some doubt, and which I
should like to see explained. It is not my
intention to dwell upon the general subject
of the nature and causes of fermentation,
but merely to touch upon it, confining my-
self rather to the question of the causes of
putrefaction.

In fermentation and the production of
alcohol, the presence of bacteria seems to
be constant. Prof. Tyndall holds that the
changes resulting in the formation of beer
and the production of alcohol are due to
the action of these microscopic germs,
which, seizing upon the grain, or fruit,
elaborate the spirit. Now, it does not seem
to me perfectly clear that the changes
which take place in the fruit may not be
purely chemical, and that a portion of the
component elements of the fruit, not requi-
site to form the chemical combination of
alcohol, becomes a suitable soil in which
the air-germs can take root and grow. It
is a question of cause and effect.

Again, a certain amount of moisture is
necessary to the production of mould. It
may be asked : Is it quite certain that the
moisture is not the agent of a chemical de-
composition, and that the growth of mould
is due to the deposit of seed in soil fur-
nished by this decomposition ? May it not
be that a dry and cold atmosphere pre-
vents or retards chemical decomposition in
devitalized organic matter, while heat and
moisture cause or facilitate it ? Why
should we disregard the chemical forces in
the decomposition of organic matter de-
prived of vitality ? Or, does Prof. Tyndall
wish us to regard all organic matter as
possessed of vitality until it is decomposed ?
Indeed, he says : " Cherries, apples, peaches,
etc., are composed of cells, each of which
is a living unit ; " and " the living cells of
fruit can absorb oxygen and breathe out
carbonic acid, exactly like the living cells
of the leaven of beer." We know that the
seed of fruit possesses vitality; but is it
proof of vitality in the cells, that certain

changes take place between the constitu-
ents of the cells and the external air, and
that other changes take place when the
fruit is excluded from the air ? Granting
it is, then shall we say that all vegetable
products, although long since uprooted but
undecomposed, are possessed of life ? Are
the cells which compose the well-worn oak-
beams of the few remaining wooden walls
of Old England still endowed with vitality,
and constantly engaged in a struggle for
life with the low forms of animated Na-
ture ? Then, if this be conceded, might
we not assume that fructification of germs
is likewise essential to the decomposition
of minerals ? If the decay of an old boot
is dependent upon the growth of mould,
may we not suppose that the rusting of an
old axe is due to similar influences ; and that
the erosion of rock, which in time forms
abundant soil for vegetation, is the work of
microscopic germs, although commonly sup-
posed to be due to physical forces ?

Prof. Tyndall says that " some of the
numberless air-germs produce acidity, some
putrefaction." But when acidity takes place
rapidly, as in a frozen apple just thawed,
and with an unbroken skin, are we still to
regard it as the result of bacteria ? With
regard to putrefaction, Prof. Tyndall cites
a number of experiments with beef-tea.
Now, to make these perfectly satisfactory, it
seems to me that the fluid ought to be ex-
posed to not a limited quantity of pure air,
but a free change of air from which all
motes had been removed.

I now come to the subject of putrefac-
tion in connection with the living body, and
the antiseptic treatment of wounds as
taught by Prof. Lister, of Edinburgh.
Prof. Tyndall says that he has obtained "a
specific against putrefaction and all its
deadly consequences." This statement
might lead the public to believe that the
teachings of Prof. Lister were generally
accepted by the medical profession. Such,
however, is by no means the case, notwith-
standing his practice has been thoroughly
tried in most if not all the principal hos-
pitals of Europe and America. While a
certain number have adopted his method,
the majority have rejected it, with the con-
viction that other treatment less trouble-
some is quite as, if not more, successful.
That Prof. Lister's theories and practice are
not believed in by the representative sur-
geons of the United States, was clearly de.
monstrated at the late International Medical
Congress, at Philadelphia. Prof. Lister was

CORRESP ONDENCE.

743

chairman of the surgical section, and he was
courteously allowed all the time and oppor-
tunity he desired, which was a good deal, to
fully explain his views. But, after all, the
section refused to indorse his mode of
treating wounds. The presence of germs in
the air was not denied ; the views of Pasteur
were not disputed ; but the question was,
Have these theories, facts if you please, any
necessary connection with putrefaction ?
The question was and is : Is it true, or not
true, that putrefaction cannot take place
without the presence of air-gems ? Is it
true that animal organic matter, when de-
prived of vitality, will remain undecom-
posed for an unlimited time unless bacteria
seize upon it ; or will it not, by a purely
chemical process, decompose ? Decompos-
ing organic matter, we know by daily ob-
servation, is the abode of low, degraded
animal life, and the soil in which low forms
of vegetable life take root and grow; but
are we to regard this as the cause or the re-
sult of putrefaction ? If it be admitted that
putrefaction may, under any circumstances,
in the absolute absence of bacteria, take
place as a chemical process, is it not beg-
ging the question to assert that their pres-
ence is ever necessary ? Every surgeon
knows that putrefaction does often take
place in the body beneath an impervious
skin. This fact was accounted for by Prof.
John T. Hodgen, of the St. Louis Medical
College, who was the surgical reporter at
the recent congress, upon the subject of
antiseptic surgery, on the supposition that
the bacteria reached the place of putrefac-
tion through the lungs, or stomach, and the
blood. He also declared that bacteria had
been found in wounds beneath Prof. Lister's
most elaborate and carefully - prepared
dressings ; and that they must have found
their way there through the blood. But
Prof. Lister took occasion to repudiate this
doctrine. He did not believe the germs
arrived at the wound by way of the blood-
vessels ; and we can understand why he
should reject this theory. The writer of
this communication then pointed out the
uselessness of Prof. Lister's antiseptic
dressing externally, if bacteria could enter
by another way. Prof. Lister not only de-
nied this theory, but admitted that putre-
faction did sometimes take place indepen-
dently of bacteria as a chemical process.
The writer then submitted, and it is sub-
mitted now, that if putrefaction ever takes
place without the influence of bacteria, it
is impossible to prove that it, in any case,
depends upon their presence.

It is no uncommon experience of sur-
geons to see wounds heal rapidly without
putrefaction, although no steps are taken
to place a barrier to the entrance of air-
germs, or to destroy those which may have
lodged in the part. Undoubtedly the air is,

sometimes, especially in badly-ventilated
hospitals, loaded with germs of a specific
and poisonous nature, which will contami-
nate any wound, as the poison of erysipe-
las4 but that common unadulterated air is in-
habited by organisms whose existence and
operation are essential for putrefaction, re-
mains unproved. The value of carbolic
acid and similar agents is generally ac-
knowledged by the medical profession.
They are in constant use, but not with the
view of destroying germs. They are found
to possess the property of arresting or
preventing putrefactive chemical decompo-
sition — just as common salt has in pre-,
serving meat — and hence their usefulness
in the treatment of wounds.

When Prof. Tyndall " passes the bounds
of surgery and enters the domain of epi-
demic disease," and points out the analogy
between contagium and fermentation, he
gives utterance to views long held by the
medical profession. That small-pox, scar-
let fever, etc., are developed in the system
by " indefinite self-multiplication of germs
(zymosis) introduced from without," is a
commonly-accepted doctrine.

In support of the statement that Prof.
Lister's antiseptic method is not regarded
as essential to the successful treatment of
wounds, one fact may be given, although
more might be furnished. Prof. Spencer,
who occupies the chair of surgery in the
Edinburgh University, and who is therefore
a colleague of Prof. Lister's, and likewise
the author of a highly-esteemed work on
surgery, continues to treat wounds without
reference to Lister's theories, with results
quite as satisfactory as any claimed by
Prof. Lister. William Canniff, M. D.

Toronto, December 12, 1S76.

INSECTS AND FLOWEKS IN COLORADO.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Allow me to express my thanks to Prof.
Gray, and Mr. Putnam, in so kindly fur-
nishing the facts I asked for in regard
to the insects of Colorado. Since my in-
quiry was written, Prof. Gray has defined
his position in the January number of
the American Agriculturist. He does not
contend for the general necessity of cross-
fertilization as Lubbock, Wallace, and oth-
ers have done, but simply that an occasional
cross is beneficial. When flowers are not
visited by insects, they generally self-ferti-
lize. " ' Cross-fertilize if you can, self-ferti-
lize if you must,' is Nature's golden rule for
flowers." Of course this narrows the ques-
tion to the benefits of an occasional cross, and
renders much that I have written no longer
of account. Of this character is this ques-
tion of the quantity of insects in Colorado.

744

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

If plants can "generally" fertilize them-
selves without insect aid, simply preferring
cross -fertilization through insect agency
when they can get it, the abundance or par-
tial absence of insects there is of little con-
sequence in the argument.

The question being purely entomological,
and no longer of importance to the botanist,
I should feel sorry for having put Mr. Put-
nam to the trouble of writing his letter, only
that I know facts are always welcome to the
lover of science, though they may have no
immediate bearing on questions under dis-
cussion. Thomas Meehan.

Germantown, Pa., February 22, 18TT.

THE MATHEMATICAL CONTEOVEESY.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Sir: You will doubtless be gratified to
find that the premise upon which you have
rested a charge of disingenuousness against
a gentleman no longer living is mistaken.
The case is this : You find that the nega-
tively-quantitative geometry of Spencer's
first edition of his " Classification of the
Sciences " must have been that branch of
mathematics which has grown up under the
name of " Descriptive Geometry ; " and you
find the late Mr. Chauncey Wright disin-
genuous in representing that' Spencer had
reference to those technical methods of geo-
metrical construction to which engineers ap-
ply the name. But Wright, like you, under-
stood Spencer to refer to Monge's descriptive
geometry ; and it was just that which he
characterized as a mathematical art having
no place among the abstract sciences.

Permit me to add that I used to talk
with Wright, daily, while he was writing the
article in which this matter is discussed ;
and I declare that nothing could less de-
scribe his method than to say that he " was
hunting through Spencer's various books in
search of flaws." On the contrary, no critic
ever studied his author more conscientious-
ly ; and very few have succeeded as well as
he did in comprehending thought remote
from the channel of their own. The pres-
ent case illustrates this, for Wright seemed
to detect that Spencer had two very differ-
ent things confounded together in his mind,
viz., descriptive geometry and positional
geometry. The second edition of Spencer's
book makes it pretty clear that this is so ;
for some of his warm disciples maintain
that he still means the former, while to the
mathematician his present words describe
with tolerable accuracy the latter.

No doubt, Wright greatly under-esti-
mated the importance of Herbert Spencer's
philosophy. This was natural, because he
found in Spencer's fundamental doctrine of
the universality of evolution a proposition
radically opposed to his own theory that

there is only an ebb and flow, in this re-
spect, and no unending progress. But such
sharp antagonism only serves to make his
criticisms all the more instructive. What-
ever there may be of extravagance in the
claims which are made for Spencer will be
overthrown in the course of the discussion
which is sure to go on, and which he him-
self would be among the very last of men
to deprecate. It would be strange, indeed,
if it were to turn out that an encyclopedic
system of philosophy had been produced,
so perfect in its details as to satisfy special-
ists. But disputation clears the philosophic
air, and can only serve to bring into the
light and to sharpen the outline of all that
is to abide in Spencer's system. In this
point of view, I cannot agree with you that
Mr. Spencer's distinguished candor has done
him any harm, or has postponed the knowl-
edge of the truth for which he is striving.

Mr. Wright occupied a position opposed
to that of most modern mathematicians, in
maintaining that positional geometry is not
quantitative. This, however, is not a ques-
tion of mathematics, but of logic : and it
goes very deep into the theory of logic, too.
But, while it does not concern the " mathe-
matical expert," as such, one does not per-
ceive that Mr. Spencer has proved himself
so supremely the master of the philosophy
of mathematics that we need be greatly
anxious lest Mr. Cayley should have vent-
ured to express himself on the subject, with-
out proper study of what Spencer has said.

You well say that we here " encounter
a difficulty which always arises when knowl-
edge outgrows old definitions." Prof.
Peirce, in his "Linear Associative Algebra,"
offers a definition of mathematics, the ac-
ceptance of which would not necessarily in-
volve any decision of the question whether
that geometry which is not metrical is quan-
titative or not. Although linear associa-
tive algebra is certainly not popular sci-
ence, perhaps you will find his remarks of
sufficient general interest for insertion. He
says:

" Mathematics is the science which draws
necessary conclusions.

" This definition of mathematics is wider
than that which is ordinarily given, and by
which its range is limited to quantitative
research. The ordinary definition, like those
of other sciences, is objective ; whereas this
is subjective. Recent investigations, of
which quaternions is the most noteworthy
instance, make it manifest that the old defi-
nition is too restricted. The sphere of
mathematics is here extended, in accord-
ance with the derivation of its name, to all
demonstrative research ; so as to include
all knowledge strictly capable of dogmatic
teaching. Mathematics is not the discov-
erer of laws, for it is not induction ; neither
is it the framer of theories, for it is not hy-

CORRESP ONDENCE.

745

pothesis ; but it is the judge over both, and
it is the arbiter to which either must refer
its claims ; and neither law can rule, nor
theory explain, without the sanction of
mathematics. It deduces from a law all its
consequences, and develops them into the
suitable form for comparison with observa-
tion ; and thereby measures the strength of
the argument from observation in favor of
a proposed law, or of a proposed form of
application of a law.

" Mathematics, under this definition, be-
longs to every inquiry, moral as well as
physical. Even the rules of logic, by which
it is rigidly bound, could not be deduced
without its aid. The laws of argument ad-
mit of simple statement ; but they must be
curiously transposed before they can be ap-
plied to the living speech and verified by
observation. In its pure and simple form,
the syllogism cannot be directly compared
with all experience, or it would not have
required an Aristotle to discover it. It
must be transmuted into all the possible
shapes in which reasoning loves to clothe
itself. The transmutation is the mathemat-
ical process in the establishment of the law.
Of some sciences it is so large a portion
that they have been quite abandoned to the
mathematician, perhaps not altogether to
the advantage of philosophy. Such is the
case with geometry and analytic mechanics.
But in many other sciences, as in all those
of mental philosophy and most of the
branches of natural history, the deductions
are so immediate, and of such simple con-
struction, that it is of no practical value to
separate the mathematical portion and sub-
ject it to isolated discussion.

" The branches of mathematics are as
various as the sciences to which they be-
long, and each subject of physical inquiry
has its appropriate mathematics. In every
form of material manifestation there is a
corresponding form of human thought, so
that the human mind is as wide in its range
of thought as the physical universe in which
it thinks. The two are wonderfully matched.
But where there is a great diversity of phys-
ical appearance, there is often a close re-
semblance in the processes of deduction.
It is important, therefore, to separate the
intellectual work from the external form.
Symbols must be adopted which may serve
for the embodiment of forms of argument,
without being trammeled by the conditions
of external representation or special inter-
pretation. The words of common language
are usually unfit for this purpose, so that
other symbols must be adopted, and mathe-
matics treated by such symbols is called
algebra. Algebra is, then, formal mathe-
matics." I am, etc., C. S. P.

We cheerfully give place to the fore-
going, prompted as it is by the generous

desire of the writer to speak for one who
can no longer speak for himself. Yet it
hardly appears how our correspondent has
much improved his friend's case. He ob-
jects, on the strength of intimate acquaint-
ance with Mr. Wright and the spirit of his
work, to our remark that he " was hunting
through Spencer's various books in search
of flaws." We certainly are not entitled to
speak of Mr. Wright's motives, any further
than they can be fairly gathered from his
writings. No fair-minded person, acquaint-
ed with Herbert Spencer's labors, can deny
that Mr. Wright's criticism upon him, in the
North American Review of 1865, was a very
prejudiced piece of work. C. S. P. admits
that he greatly under-estimated the imporT
tance of Spencer's philosophy, which he ac-
counts for by the natural bias of one who
entertains rival views in the same field.
Yet the article was far less a judgment of
the philosophy, of which but a single volume
had then appeared, than an estimate, gath-
ered from an examination of Spencer's
various productions, of his competency to
produce a philosophy. He undertook to
measure the man, and, as we now under-
stand, with a predisposition to underrate
him. He, therefore, could not have ap-
proached his works in an impartial or judi-
cial temper, but rather in a state of feeling
which interested him in their defects. At
any rate, if he was not in quest of flaws, it
is difficult to see how it was that he found
nothing else. Six years before Mr. Wright
wrote, and before Mr. Spencer had pub-
lished a word of his philosophy, several of
the ablest men in England joined in an ap-
peal to the Government to secure for him a
position of trust, on the ground that he was
eminently the man to do a great and special
work for the advancement and organization
of knowledge that should be a national
honor; and now, a dozen years after Mr.
Wright wrote, the sixth volume of his philo-
sophical system is awaited with eagerness
by the leading minds of the foremost coun-
tries in the world. That is to say, he is
doing the work that English philosophers
predicted long ago (on the basis of what he
had already published) that he would do.
His works must, therefore, have had some
excellences, some elements of strength,
which it was the duty of candid criticism to
recognize. But Mr. Wright seems to have

746

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

seen in them little except evidences of " ig-
norance," " incompetency," " confusion,"
" inconsistency," " perverted terminology,"
" fanciful discriminations," and, massing
together these faults, he winds up his arti-
cle with the inference of Spencer's " incom-
petency for the further development of his
encyclopedic abstractions." This looks very
much to us like " picking flaws," under the
inspiration of a not very creditable purpose.
As to the special case there can be no
doubt that Mr. Wright made a charge of
ignorance against Mr. Spencer, founded on
misrepresentation. He says that in his
mathematical classification Spencer " has
given a prominence to descriptive geometry
which might be regarded as arising from
the partiality of the civil engineer for a
branch of his own art, were it not that he
says, ' I was ignorant of the existence of
this, as a separate division of mathematics,
until it was described to me by Mr. Hirst.' "
The insinuation is that Spencer, though
educated as a civil engineer, was unac-
quainted with the branch of mathematical
art that is especially familiar to engineers.
That this imputation was groundless may
be proved by referring to the Civil Engineer
and Architects' Journal for 1839-40, where
will be found conclusive evidence of Mr.
Spencer's early and thorough familiarity
with the subject. Among other original
papers in the field of descriptive geometry
there published will be found a beautiful
original theorem which dates back to the
time when Spencer was but seventeen. He
was not, then, so ignorant as Mr. Wright in-
timated, and certainly not so grossly igno-
rant as to confound a practical art with an
abstract science, as erroneously represented
by his critic. Although the arts grow into

the sciences, so that both often pass under
the same name, it requires no great discrimi-
nation to separate them ; and if a question
could arise as to which is meant, the charac-
ter of the discussion would sufficiently deter-
mine it. Mr. Wright was no more justified
in assuming that, by " Descriptive Geome-
try," as he was dealing with it, Mr. Spencer
meant " certain methods of geometric con-
struction, useful in engineering," than that
by " geometry " he meant the art of earth-
measuring instead of the science, or by
" chemistry " the art of manufacturing paints
and dyes, instead of its scientific principles.
By the term " descriptive geometry," em-
ployed, as it was, in its scientific signifi-
cance, Mr. Spencer did not mean Monge's
" Geometrie Descriptive " of a hundred years
ago, in which theorems and their applica-
tions to drawing were mingled together, but
he meant the branch of mathematical sci-
ence which has since grown up under this
title, while omitting all mention of the prac-
tice that gave it the name of Descriptive Ge-
ometry, and for which the title Geometry of
Position is now substituted. As Mr. Wright
suggests the alternative that Mr. Spencer
may have meant something else than what
he imputed to him as the basis of a charge
of ignorance, it is fair to infer that he did
not know what he meant ; and if he had not
been animated by a predisposition to make
out a bad case, he would have abstained from
taking up the point, or would have dealt
with it in a different spirit. We desire to do
no injustice to the memory of Mr. Wright,
but, as his works are now brought forward
in a collective and permanent form, they are
the proper objects of criticism, and we have
commented upon one part of them, solely in
what we consider the interest of truth.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

INTERNA TIONAL COP YRIGET.

DR. C. E. APPLETON", of London,
has an article in the February
Fortnightly on " American Efforts af-
ter International Copyright," which
gives a generally correct account of,
what has been done here within the
last few years to promote that object,

but which places us in a false position,
which we do not care to 'occupy. The
interest of the topic is such that a few
remarks of correction and reminiscence
are here proper.

There was a revival of interest in
the subject in 1871, which began in an
English discussion, when Mr. W. II.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

1M

Appleton, of Now York, wrote to the
London Times that he did not think
the American people were opposed to
a copyright which had no other object
than to secure the recognition of the
rights of property of foreign authors in
American editions of their works. He
said that such a copyright had never
been asked for by England, but only an
arrangement to protect English printed
books, by which the foreign manufact-
urer could get protection on his stock
of paper, printing, and binding, in the
American market under cover of his
authors' copyright. The publisher's
share in the production of a book — in
materials and labor, which have a cash
value in the market — may be assumed
as at least ten times greater than the
share contributed by the author, and
which is represented by his customary
ten per' cent, royalty. Such interna-
tional copyright laws as have been de-
manded are, therefore, ten times more
for the protection of foreign book-man-
ufacturers than for foreign authors.
" Disentangle your author from the
publisher," said Mr. Appleton, " and
let him present his own claims, and my
opinion is the American people will
not deny them." The fairness of this
position was acknowledged by the
English press, but the English pub-
lishers were silent. The English au-
thors, on the other hand, or a large
proportion of the most influential of
them, conceded the justice of the case,
and drew up a memorial asking for ne-
gotiations on the new basis.

This stirring up of the subject led to
some efforts on this side, to carry out
the fundamental idea which Mr. Ap-
pleton had presented, and which had
been previously urged in this country.
There was at first but very little objec-
tion to the plan, and there was a gen-
eral expression of favorable feeling
toward an adjustment on the basis pro-
posed. But opposition was quickly and
vigorously developed, because the par-
ties interested in the frustration of the

measure were few and powerful, deeply
concerned, and able to concentrate a
prompt and efficient opposition. This
fact we think was not sufficiently cal-
culated upon, and the practical issue
was brought before Congress prema-
turely, in the shape of a bill embodying
a copyright in behalf of foreign authors.
More time should have been allowed,
and systematic measures adopted to
sift the question thoroughly before the
American people. We had a society
organized for the promotion of interna-
tional copyright, but it was committed
to the old plan, and threw the weight of
its influence against the new measure.

In this unfavorable state of things,
when the opportunity had been adroit-
ly seized by the tacticians opposed to
copyright to confuse and befog the
public mind by proposing all sorts of
projects, a congressional committee was
appointed, who called a meeting on
February 12, 1872, for the hearing of
all parties interested. "We attended it,
and it was certainly a very funny affair.
We had not been accustomed to the
atmosphere of Washington, and were,
therefore, but poorly prepared for the
sarcastic intimations of parties who
lived there, as to the greenness of the
gentlemen who came to the national
Capitol expecting to interest Congress
on such a question as this in a presi-
dential year. The subject was dis-
cussed by various speakers, and in his
account of it Dr. Appleton says, " Prof.
Youmans followed, urging the claims
of British authors upon the singular
ground that they were very badly paid
in their own country, and desired
American sympathy." This is a total
mistake; we argued the question on no
such grounds, and offered no hint of
any such reason why international copy-
right should be secured.

We demanded it of Congress solely
as a measure of justice, and there was
need enough that this view of the case
should be urged; for the discussion be-
fore the committee was in the last de-

748

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gree wild and discordant. All sorts of
projects and crotchets were thrust for-
ward on all sorts of pretexts. A law-
yer was there to represent the Harpers,
who opposed international copyright,
but for reasons which he admitted would
carry with them the destruction of all
copyright. He presented a letter from
the publishers for whom he was argu-
ing, in which they said the claims of au-
thors were not to be considered, but
only the interests of the people at large.
But why the people, having taken the
communistic hint, and plundered the
authors for their own benefit, might not
go through the Franklin Square estab-
lishment and help themselves, in the
interest of cheap knowledge, was not
stated. The idea that there was any
principle of right in the matter, which
it was the duty of Congress to recog-
nize, seemed to be quite lost sight of.
The game of defeating the measure for
an author's copyright (which it was
feared at first might succeed) consisted
in bringing up a great number of rival
projects to bewilder the question, and
the game succeeded. The committee re-
ported against any congressional action,
on the ground that it was not called for
by equity, while those who professed to
be in favor of the measure could come
to no agreement in regard to a plan.

It may be added that, while we
made no statement before the com-
mittee as to English authors being poor-
ly paid, there was a comparison of the
American method of payment by a per-
centage on the sales, with the English
system of giving the author half-profits.
The American method was commend-
ed and the English declared to be one
from which their authors suffered ; for,
while by the percentage plan the author
always gets something if there are any
sales, on the English plan he gets noth-
ing unless there are profits. And as,
first, on the great mass of books there
are no profits, and as, second, the
making up of the " cost " is entirely in
the hands of the publisher, the authors

are liable to be victimized by the policy.
In proof of this, and in explanation of
how badly the half-profit system works
for authors, we read from a pamphlet
by James Spedding, an English author,
in which the whole thing is exposed.
He wrote it as two magazine articles,
and could not get them published, be-
cause the editors said they should there-
by make enemies of the publishers. So
Spedding published the papers himself.
We, however, made no absurd attempt
to get up sympathy for English authors
because they may be badly used by
some of their publishers at home.

TEE ORDER OF NATURE.

Some of the questions propound-
ed to us through the columns of the
Tribune by the Rev. Dr. Deems we an-
swered in the preceding nufnber of
the Monthly, and postponed, for lack
of space, the consideration of the fol-
lowing:

" The professor says that ' Prof.
Huxley's antagonists hold that the in-
flexible order of Nature may be as-
serted, perhaps, in astronomy, but they
deny it in biology.' Will he be good
enough to refer me to one of the pro-
fessor's antagonists who 'holds' that
opinion ? "

We here made an affirmation con-
cerning a class, and Dr. Deems chal-
lenges us to produce a single instance
in which it is true, which may be taken
as an emphatic way of expressing his
disbelief in what we said. Recurrence
to the matter satisfies us that, besides
being true, the proposition is more
broadly true than we affirmed it to be.
That the order of Nature is a principle
accepted only in part, is a view held,
not only by those who are ranked as
antagonists of Huxley, but by the great
mass of people, including even the
largest proportion of scientific men.
We have received, from Mr. W. H.
Walworth, of Monticello, Iowa, a letter
of inquiry that so clearly brings out the

EDITOR'S TABLE.

749

attitude of mind to which we referred,
that an extract from it will be here use-
ful. Mr. Walworth remarks:

" You say (in your critique of Dr. Wil-
liam M. Taylor) : ' And here is the vital
point between Prof. Huxley and his antago-
nists. It is a question of the validity of
the conception of the order and uniformity
of Nature. Prof. Huxley holds to it as a
first principle, a truth demonstrated by all
science, and just as fixed in biology as in
astronomy. His antagonists hold that the
inflexible order of Nature may be assorted,
perhaps, in astronomy, but they deny it in
biology. They here invoke supernatural in-
tervention. Obviously there are but two hy-
potheses upon the subject: that of genetic
derivation of existing species, through the
operation of natural law, and that of crea-
tion by miraculous interference with the
course of Nature. If we assume the orderly
course of Nature, development is inevitable ;
it is evolution or nothing.'

" Very well ; it is evolution or nothing.
Now, if evolution is true in biology, as Prof.
Huxley maintains, my inquiry relates to the
matter of the beginning of that evolution,
and the beginning of life. Scientists do
speak of the beginning of life. Is there a
new force or a new principle introduced at
this point that scientists have in mind when
they say ' the beginning of life ? '

" If so, does that new force or principle
come through a miraculous interference with
the course of Nature ? If not, is life in its
beginning other or more than a fact, and
its appearance a phenomenon both to be ac-
counted for by evolution in conjunction with
matter and its inherent forces and princi-
ples?

" Given : First, the planet without life
(so called) ; afterward, the planet with life.

" Then, if evolution is the law of ' dead
matter,' and at the same time the law of
' living matter,' is there any chasm between
that evolution does not bridge over?

" In other words, if evolution is the law,
is there any escape from the conclusion
that the beginning of life (so called) is a
product of it, unless we accept the hy-
pothesis of miraculous intervention ? And
why is any scientist permitted to entertain
that hypothesis (miraculous intervention),
at this particular point in the course of
Nature (the point of the beginning of life),
while he claims the right to reject it at all
the other points along the line ? "

This last question implies, what is

perfectly well known, that many scien-
tific men, naturalists, and even ad-
vanced biologists like Mr. Darwin, do
invoke miraculous agency to explain
the origin of life upon earth ; that is,
after admitting generally the great
principle of natural causation, at a cer-
tain point they throw it up as insuffi-
cient, and appeal to supernatural causa-
tion.

It is surely unnecessary to waste
words here in showing that the con-
ception of the order of Nature has had
an historic growth ; that in the early
times all the operations of the world
were explained on the hypothesis of
supernatural agents which science has
so far' dispelled as imaginary that the
great phenomena of the heavens, the
changes of the crust of the earth, and
even atmospheric disturbances, are now
referred for explanation to the opera-
tion of inflexible and universal physical
laws. "Where explanation breaks down
and difficulties remain, in these branches
of inquiry, the course pursued is to at-
tribute the unexplained effects to lack
of knowledge, and to wait for further
light from the sources that have already
afforded it. Nor can it be necessary to
multiply words in showing that it is
not so in biology, the science which
deals with the phenomena of life. When
a formidable difficulty occurs here, such
as explaining the origin of species or
the first advent of living things upon
the earth, there is no waiting, but the
knot is cut at once by appealing to
miraculous intervention — to causes that
are above Nature and out of Nature,
"and which cannot be investigated.
There are, indeed, but few, even in the
circles of science, who avowedly main-
tain the inviolable supremacy of natural
causes, here as elsewhere, in Nature.
They assume it generally, but affirm its
inadequacy to explain all efforts. How
many are there who recognize man, in
his origin, to be as strictly and essen-
tially a part and result of the order of
Nature as any other creature? Like

75°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"Wallace and Dana, they go nine-tenths
of the way, and then fly the track.
Nature may do a large amount of the
lower work; hut for the origination of
the higher part of man we must appeal
to agencies higher than Nature.

Our correspondent does not see the
reason of this. He asks why scientists
are to be permitted to invoke miraculous
agency at the point of the introduction
of life, while they reject it at all others
along the line of its development. They
can only do this at the expense of logi-
cal consistency, and, so far as they do
it, are unscientific. If a scientist does
not know how life began, he should say
so ; and if he cannot find out himself, he
has only to leave the inquiry to others.
He is bound to explain it rationally, as
he explains other effects in Nature, or
to suspend his judgment. It is futile
for him to resort to any short-and-easy
methods of solving the problem, for it
still remains to be worked by the scien-
tific method. The whole history of our
knowledge of Nature reveals an im-
mutable order, an invariable and in-
dissoluble chain of causation; and this
principle a scientific man is never at
liberty to discard because a serious
difficulty is encountered ; and, as a
scientific man, he is never at liberty
to discard it at all. Men talk light-
ly of breaks and supernatural intru-
sions in the course of Nature, which
was well enough ages ago, but is now-
forbidden by the very conception of
what Nature is. For thousands of years
nothing was known of natural laws;
now they form the basal idea of its
constitution. The innermost texture, the
essence and spirit, and the very defi-
nition of Nature, are unbroken, con-
tinuous order. It is by this alone that
we know it. It is not enough to say
that law is universal. It pervades all
Nature, and constitutes the very idea
of it. Our intelligence is bound up
with it, is a part of it, and we neither
know nor can know of any exception
or limit to the principle. Men under-

take to say where the natural order
stops, and the supernatural is reached,
but they juggle with words; for, the
moment the so-called supernatural is
brought within the cognizance of rea-
son, it ceases to be supernatural. The
alternative and antithesis of natural
order is not the supernatural, but dis-
order. As the Rev. Baden Powell well
remarks, "If Nature could really ter-
minate anywhere, there we should find
not the supernatural, but a chaos, a blank
— total darkness — anarchy — atheism."

As to the chasm of which Mr. "Wal-
worth speaks between dead and living
matter, it is, of course, nothing more
than a chasm in our knowledge, and
none the less a chasm when bridged
over by the hypothesis of miraculous
interference. The lowest form of life,
the material basis from which all living
things are spun, is protoplasm ; but if
Nature can produce a Newton or a
Shakespeare in a few years from a
formless protoplasmic germ, and by the
course of natural causation, why should
we say that it is past her power to pro-
duce the raw material itself, and fly to
the supernatural to account for its earli-
est appearance ? Science cannot take the
theological explanation here, any more
than elsewhere in Nature, for, if these
explanations had been accepted as satis-
factory, there never would have been
any science. The scientific problem of
the origin of life is a recent one. It has
not been solved, but what has been
already done, so far from dishearten-
ing inquirers, only stimulates them to
greater effort. Chemistry already be-
gins to build up organic substances arti-
ficially in the laboratory, although such
an idea was long scouted as hopelessly
impossible. A few generations more
of work may put a very different aspect
upon this profound inquiry ; but, even
if it takes centuries, the question must
be held as belonging solely to the prov-
ince of reason, and to be solved in ac-
cordance with the natural laws of cause
and effect.

LITERARY NOTICES.

751

TOM EDWARD'S BIOGRAPHY.

Our notice of the career of Thomas
Edward, printed last month, has elicit-
ed much interesting and sympathetic
comment from the press, accompanied
in repeated instances with something
like skepticism as to its verity, or the
possibility that a man of such genius
could have been so long neglected in a
community claiming the slightest de-
gree of civilized intelligence. The story
will appear more incredible in this
country, where we can hardly appre-
ciate the intensity of the class-feeling
that pervades British society. The
open secret of the case is, that Edward
was a laborer, and not a gentleman,
and, belonging to the servile class, he
was not recognized or aided by the
people around him. Scientific men
corresponded with him, but they were
at a distance, and probably neither
knew nor inquired anything about his
personal circumstances. And so he
was left to fight his course alone, which
he did manfully and bravely, contented
if he could only work. The world
never heard of Banff before, and it will
be now known more for its meanness
toward a poor shoemaker than for any
other cause. But what shall we say
of the meanness of the reviewer who
thinks that the world should not have
been apprised of the career of this re-
markable naturalist until after his
death ? The Banff people, it is to be
presumed, will not offer much excuse
for their neglect, but a reviewer can
express regret that justice has been
done him by a distinguished biogra-
pher, as if he grudged the man the sat-
isfaction of being justly recognized in
his declining years. It was not enough
that he should never have been the re-
cipient of any aid to facilitate his sci-
entific studies, but he must be refused
also that reward which is the spur of
ambition to the highest natures, the
sympathy and approbation of their fel-
low-men ! And if there be a lower depth

of meanness yet, a reviewer can find it.
Although Edward had been battered
through a career that would have killed
most men, enduring privation and ex-
posure until health gave way with the
approach of old age, yet the critic of
the London Academy fears that the
effect of publishing this premature bi-
ography will be, that no more work
can be got out of the old man. This is
what he says :

" Interesting and valuable though this
memoir of a self-helpful and a self-denying
life undoubtedly is, we are not sure that Mr.
Smiles would not have acted a wiser part in
deferring its publication'. For it is rather
bold to assert of one who is but threescore
and two, and has shown but few signs of
mental decline, that '•hie jacet is all that re-
mains to be added.' Bather we would hope
that the downward course of Edward's life,
smoothed by the queen's recognition of his
services, may be a long and useful one, and
that, having survived the danger of unmer-
ited neglect, he may be spared the harder
trial of intrusive patronage, to which this
premature biography is likely enough to ex-
pose him. It is a perilous precedent for a
successful author to have set, and we could
have wished, for the sake of others, that
Mr. Smiles had denied himself the pleasure
of forestalling the verdict of posterity, and
had culled his last example of self-help
from a career already concluded."

LITERARY NOTICES.

Notes on Life-Ixsurance. Third edition.
Revised, enlarged, and rearranged. By
Gustavus W. Smith. New York : D.
Van Nostrand. Pp. 204. Price, $2.

Tins bonk is an attempt to unfold the
" mystery and art" of life-insurance, to the
general reader; to put before him in simple
form, rid, as far as may be, of technicali-
ties, a statement of the data upon which
life-insurance problems are based, and the
methods by which they are solved. For
fifty years and more the business has been
prominently before the public. It has been
urged and expounded with a zeal and per-
sistency that have become proverbial, and
the inference is natural that there ought,
by this time, to be among the people at

75 2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

large a respectable amount of acquired in-
formation about it. Such, however, is not
the case. The savings of the frugal have
been embarked to the extent of $2,000,-
000,000 in schemes which claim to be de-
signed for their mutual protection, not upon
informed and deliberate judgment, but in
great part as the simple result of yielding
to the blandishments of the canvasser, com-
bined with a sublime faith in the efficacy of
statistical tables and mathematical formulae
which were not understood. Recognizing
the extent of this ignorance, and the dis-
comfort and distrust to which it is likely to
give rise, the author has tried to make the
road to knowledge in this direction easier.
He has put into reasonable limits, and into
logical and accessible shape, the more es-
sential information pertaining to the theory
of life-insurance, which heretofore was only
to be gleaned from rare and expensive
books, which were quite out of the reach
of the non-professional reader. That this
was no easy task is a fact which should be
taken into account when measuring the de-
gree of his success.

The book is divided into two parts.
Part I. is theoretical. The tables of mor-
tality are given, and we are shown how
from these are obtained the expectation
of life, and — assuming a given rate of in-
terest— the net premium and the reserve —
or, as the author prefers to call it, the
trust-fund deposit. The theory of annu-
ities is discussed in a series of problems ;
and the mechanism of the commutation-
tables — those working-tools of the actuary
— is explained.

Part II. is devoted to the discussion of
such practical considerations as : the gen-
eral management of companies ; stock and
mutual rates ; the various plans of insur-
ance ; gross and net valuations, which in-
volve the relation of the companies to the
State ; surrender values ; annual statements,
etc. The views under these heads are
sound and well put, and, if they were widely
circulated and read, would contribute to
the welfare of both managers and the in-
sured, and help to put their relations upon a
surer footing. Algebraical discussions and
formulae and tables are relegated to an ap-
pendix, where they can be mastered or
omitted, as the reader may choose.

We warmly second the author's hope
that this little volume will be widely dis-
tributed and carefully studied, but must
confess we are not very sanguine about the
latter. It is true, as he says, that it con-
tains no science that is very abstruse ; there
is nothing which a man with a little arith-
metic and less algebra may not master, but
it does imply that he should put himself to
the strain of a little application and study,
and this is just what the majority of men
are unwilling to undertake. To average an
interest account is a very simple matter,
but most men who have never learned or
have forgotten how to do it will, when one
is rendered to them, take the chances on
its correctness rather than take the trouble
to verify it, and insure themselves against
loss.

The issue of this third edition is timely.
The management of insurance companies is
a matter over which the public mind is just
now very properly exercised. We know of
no other attempt to give the information
required for its intelligent consideration,
and, so far as Mr. Smith's book succeeds
in throwing light upon the subject, it will
be doing a good work.

The Functions of the Brain. By David
Ferrier, M. D., F. R. S. With" numer-
ous Illustrations. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 323. Price, $3.50.

This work embodies the last consider-
able effort, made by experimental physi-
ology, to unravel and explain the mode of
action of that most complex and obscure
of all mechanisms — the brain of animals
and of man. The author wisely says :
" We are still only on the threshold of the
inquiry, and it may be questioned whether
the time has even yet arrived for an at-
tempt to explain the mechanism of the
brain and its functions." Much, however,
has undoubtedly been accomplished toward
the attainment of this end, though the steps
forward are slow, uncertain, and difficult.
What can be positively gained by any spe-
cial research seems so small in comparison
with the complete problem to be solved as
to be hardly worth the immense labor in-
volved ; yet there is a fascination in the in-
quiry, and a grandeur in the result aimed
at which awakens the enthusiasm of inves-

LITERARY NOTICES.

753

tigators, and assures the continuance of in-
defatigable research. Dr. Ferrier's inves-
tigations led him to certain important con-
clusions regarding the localization of func-
tions in the brain, which have been approved
by some physiologists, and criticised by
others, although all agree as to the value
of his skillful and well-directed experi-
ments. The chief object of this volume is
to present the author's views of the bear-
ing of his experiments, although it contains
a concise and well-digested account of the
functions of the cerebro-spinal system in
general, with the view more especially of
pointing out the mutual relations between
the higher and the lower nerve-centres. Dr.
Ferrier's work was elaborately reviewed
and in some respects adversely criticised
by Mr. George Henry Lewes in two num-
bers of Nature. We have no space to state
the points in issue, but will give his esti-
mate of the work as presented in the clos-
ing passage :

"My space is exhausted, and I have not been
able to do more than criticise the main topic of
Dr. Ferrier's book— and this not with the full-
ness which its importance demands. But if I
have shown grounds for regarding the hypothe-
sis of voluntary centres in the cortex as at any
rate far from proved, and in doing so have had
to adopt an antagonistic attitude throughout my
review, I should not be just to him, nor to my
own feelings of gratitude, if I did not, in con-
cluding, express a high sense of the value of his
work, full as it is of suggestions, and rich in
facts, which no counter-facts can set aside. It
will long remain a storehouse to which all stu-
dents must go for material. It may be the start-
ing-point of a new anatomy of the brain."

Thk Carlyle Anthology. Selected and
arranged with the Author's Sanction.
By Edward Barrktt. New York :
Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 386. Price, $2.

It was an excellent idea to get together
in one compact volume the best thoughts
of Carlyle, for there is a better and worse
in his writings, as well as in "those of all
other authors. He has produced a lot of
books in his day, unequal among them-
selves, but all containing, here and there,
brilliant and powerful passages, well de-
serving to be thus separated and brought
together for entertainment and edification
at odd hours. We suspect, indeed, that
Carlyle will be longer remembered for these
strokes of extraordinary insight than on ac-
vol. x. — 48

count of his elaborate works, in the great
bulk of which there is a prodigious amount
of wordiness — a fault which he so hated in
other people. His works are mountainous,
brilliant with gilded peaks, 'but with great
stretches of valley between. It was not a
bad idea of Barrett's to truncate the upper
cones, and get the peaks all together in a
single book, and, if Carlyle approves of it,
as he says he does, and must do, all read-
ers will be pleased.

New Encyclopedia of Chemistry. Chem-
istry, Theoretical, Practical, and Ana-
lytical, as applied to Arts and Manu-
factures. On the Basis of Dr. Mus-
pratt'sWork. Parts XV. to XX. Phil-
adelphia : Lippincott & Co. Price, 50
cents per number.

We have already referred to this impor-
tant work in very commendatory terms,
and we may add that its character is well
sustained to the later issues. It is not so
much a dictionary of chemistry, in which
the science is pulverized into a great num-
ber of fragments, and each placed under
its alphabetical head, as a work in which
the great leading subjects of chemical
manufacture are taken up in succession,
and treated in elaborate and exhaustive es-
says. The work is hence in no sense a
rival of Watt's " Dictionary of Chemis-
try," which deals with the pure science
rather than its practical applications to art
and manufacture. The last installments
treat of the subjects of dyeing and calico-
printing, electro-metallurgy, enamels, ether,
explosives, preservation of food, fuel, and
gas. These topics are considered with full-
ness, and brought up to the latest results of
scientific investigation.

Archology; or, the Science of Govern-
ment. By S. V. Blakeslee, Oakland,
California. New York and San Fran-
cisco: A. Roman & Co. Pp. 164.
Price $1.25.

This is a very good little essay on gov-
ernment, but there is hardly enough sci-
ence in it to justify the author in inventing
a new term to describe it. He points out
the great strides of the modern physical sci-
ences, and contrasts with them the little
that has been done of this kind in the
fields of abstract thought, " especially in
the all-important science of government."

75+

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

He says, " This failure of a scientific treat-
ment has been most remarkable; " and, as
an attempt to remedy this defect by the de-
velopment of a distinct science of govern-
ment, the following treatise has been pre-
pared. The little book is systematic and
suggestive, and its matter is well presented ;
but the writer, in our opinion, has very
little true conception of what science is in
its applications to this subject.

The Plains op the Great West, and
their Inhabitants. Being a Descrip-
tion of the Plains, Game, Indians, etc.,
of the Great North American Desert.
By Richard Irving Dodge, Lieutenant-
Colonel United States Army. With an
Introduction by William Blackmore.
Illustrated. New York: G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. Pp. 448. Price $4.

Tnis is a lively, entertaining, and with-
al a very instructive volume on the Indi-
ans and Western life. Its author writes
from observation and experience, and has a
happy faculty of seizing the most striking
and significant features in description, and
representing them in vivid and forcible lan-
guage. The work abounds in sketches of
travel, delineations of camp-life, pictures of
scenery, accounts of game, and episodes
of sporting adventure. But its main and
most important portion is that which is
devoted to the religion, social life, habits,
amusements, occupations, and what we may
call the general natural history of the
Indians. Appended to the volume is an
instructive table of Indians living in the
United States, omitting those in Alaska,
with the numbers and locations of the
tribes and fragments of tribes that still
survive. The introduction by Mr. Black-
more gives some striking facts in regard to
the destruction of the buffalo. He says
that during the three years 1872-'74 four
and a half million of these animals were
destroyed, of which three million were
killed merely for their hides. This is equal
to the destruction of all the cattle in Hol-
land and Belgium, and is as if in three
years half the cattle of Texas, or all the
cattle in Canada, had been carried off by a
plague!

Mr. Blackmore quotes a passage from
Bishop Whipple, on " Our Indian Policy,"
that furnishes an excellent example of

the working of "American politics," and
gives data by which we can compare the
fruits of administration of the " best gov-
ernment on earth " with the miserable mon-
archy that rules on the other side of the
St. Lawrence :

" One one side of the line is a nation that
has spent $500,000,000 in Indian wars ; a
people who have not one hundred miles
between the Atlantic and the Pacific which
has not been the scene of an Indian mas-
sacre ; a government which has not passed
twenty years without an Indian war ; not
one Indian tribe to whom it has given
Christian civilization ; and which celebrates
its centenary by another bloody Indian
war. On the other side of the line are the
same greedy, dominant, Anglo-Saxon race,
and the same heathen. They have not
spent one dollar in Indian wars, and have
had no Indian massacres. Why ? In
Canada the Indian treaties call these men
' the Indian subjects of her majesty.' When
civilization approaches them they are placed
on ample reservations, receive aid in civ-
ilization, have personal rights in property,
are amenable to law and protected by law,
have schools, and Christian teachers send
them the best teachers. We expend more
than one hundred dollars to their one in
carinjr for Indian wards."

TnE Applications of Physical Forces.
By Amedee Guillemin. Translated
from the French by Mrs. Norman Lock-
yer, and edited, with Additions and
Notes, by J. Norman Lockyer, F. R. S.
With Colored Plates and Illustrations.
London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 741.
Price $12.

Five years ago a sumptuous volume
appeared in Paris, by Amedee Guillemin,
which was translated into English by the
Lockyers, and republished by Macmillan,
under the title of "The Forces of Nature."
It aimed to be a popular account of the
great physical forces, gravity, heat, light,
and electricity. By the aid of numerous
and finely-executed engravings, it attempt-
ed to make clear the principles of pure
science with no reference to their uses or
applications to the practical arts. A com-
panion volume has now appeared by the
same author, editor, and publishers, which
supplements the first, by taking up the ap-

LITERARY NOTICES.

755

plications of physical forces. The book is
done in the same splendid style, and we
should wonder where so expensive and
luxurious a scientific book could find buy-
ers, did we not remember that the two edi-
tions in French and English make it acces-
sible to the largest portion of the readers
of the civilized world. It is difficult to
convey a just idea of the scope and detail
of this work, with its thirty-eight elaborate
chapters and its four hundred and sixty-
seven admirable illustrations, and we can
only say that it is the most elegant and ex-
haustive pictorial work on the applications
of science in its great leading departments
that has yet appeared.

The Bench and Bar of Saratoga County ;
or, Reminiscences of the Judiciary and
Scenes in the Court-room from the Or-
ganization of the County to the Pres-
ent Time. By E. R. Mann. Ballston,
New York : Waterbury & Innman. Pp.
391. Price, $2.

Besides its waters, which are of interest
to chemists, geologists, and invalids, and
its gay summer life, so dear to the devotees
of fashion, which combine to make Sara-
toga famous, the place is also celebrated
for its lawyers. A county which has given
to the bench such men as Cowen, Wal-
worth, Willard, Bockes, and Spear, and to
the bar such pleaders as Hill, Reynolds,
Porter, and Beach, certainly deserves to
have its legal history written out, and Mr.
Mann has accordingly done it in a very
creditable manner. In giving a sketch of
the legal profession of the county, which
has of course been closely associated with
the growth of its population, the author
has brought out various points of incidental
interest. It appears that about 1790, be-
fore Saratoga Springs or Ballston Spa had
yet been heard of, the town of Ballston in-
cluded all the western and northern por-
tions of the county, stretching away tow-
ard the Adirondacks. In that year two
man, named Palmer and Gorden, were can.
didates for the supervisorship of this ex-
tensive region. The election for that spring
was called to be held in the Milton Hill
meeting-house. The day was bright and
balmy, and so it was suggested that the
election take place outside the church, and
one of the justices, taking a suitable posi-

tion, declared the polls open. The votes
were taken viva voce, and " the people "
went strongly for Gorden, who had been
supervisor for several years before. Palm-
er, seeing he had no chance, drew off one
of the justices, quietly went into the church
and opened another poll, where thirteen
men voted for him. The town-meeting had
been appointed to be held in the church,
and so Palmer was proclaimed unanimously
elected by the citizens of Ballston. Gor-
den protested, but Palmer was " counted
in," the same as nowadays. A feud fol-
lowed between these office-seekers, the pub-
lic espousing the causes of the rivals, and
promoting their ambition. The knavish
trick of the town-meeting ended in making
both men county judges, and in sending
each for two terms to the National House
of Representatives. It is evident that Sara-
toga early furnished an excellent soil for
the production of lawyers.

The first court - house and jail were
erected at Ballston Centre, at a cost of
$6,500, and were ready for use in 1*796.
Justice was dispensed there for twenty
years, when it was burned down, with the
following accompanying circumstances :
Raymond Taylor, the jailer, was a man very
full of the dignity and importance of his
position, and would tolerate nothing that
derogated from it in the prisoners under
his charge. One named Billings had ruffled
the jailer's complacency by some disre-
spectful words, and so Taylor had him se-
curely fastened to the floor by a large ox-
chain, riveted round his body by a black-
smith, and riveted also to the sill of the
floor. Another prisoner set fire to the
wall of his cell to burn his way out, and, as
the flames rapidly extended, efforts were
made to rescue Billings, but they could not
lQOsen the chain, and so he was consumed
with the burning court-house. As a fur-
ther illustration of how modern politics is
developed from its early germs, it may be
stated that there was a law forbidding the
jailer to furnish the prisoners with lights,
so Taylor arranged with another man to
furnish them, and divided the profits.

In a history of nearly a hundred years,
only two men have been publicly strangled
in Saratoga County in the interest of jus-
tice, and the first of them, hanged in 1820,

756

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is said by the author of this work to have
been insane.

The chief contents of the volume, con-
sisting of personal sketches, anecdotes, and
accounts of lawsuits, are, as might be ex-
pected, only of local interest.

The Art of Projecting. A Manual of
Experimentation in Physics, Chemistry,
and Natural History, with the Porte-
Lumiere and Magic Lantern. By Prof.
A. E. Dolbear, Tufts College. Illus-
trated. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp.
158. Price $1.50.

This is a valuable little volume for all
teachers and professors who desire to cul-
tivate the art of illustrating their numerous
scientific subjects by the projection of op-
tical images of objects upon screens for the
inspection of classes, or lecture-room au-
ditories. Full attention is first given to
the construction of apparatus, much of
which, the author says, can be extempo-
rized ; and the author then points out how
a surprisingly large number of experiments
can be performed with these instruments
in numerous departments of science and
art. The book is full of neat woodcuts
which aid the text in the description of
operations, and it seems a thoroughly well-
executed manual for helping on the work
of scientific instruction.

A Text-Book of Physiology. By M. Fos-
ter, M. A., M. D., F. R. S., Prelector of
Physiology, and Fellow of Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge. New York : Macmil-
lan & Co. Pp. 559. Price, $6.

Dr. Michael Foster has here given to
the world a first-rate book on physiology.
He is a good investigator, and a clear,
pointed, and vigorous writer, and, with ex-
cellent scientific judgment in presenting the
proportions of a subject, he has prepared a
volume trustworthy in exposition and agree-
able in its style. It is designed for medi-
cal students, and does not aim to be ele-
mentary, as the author proposes to begin
about where Prof. Huxley's physiology
leaves off. In fact, he hopes his book may
come to be considered as a kind of ad-
vanced companion to Huxley's smaller vol-
ume.

The work contains a few simple dia-
grams, but it cannot be said to be illus-

trated, and herein we are inclined to think
the author has made a serious mistake.
His reasons for it are as follows : " I have,
moreover, given neither figures nor elabo-
rate descriptions of physiological instru-
ments and apparatus. These must be seen,
not read about ; the student can learn more
by five minutes' inspection of a piece appa-
ratus, especially one at work, than by hours
of study of even the most expensive and
finished pictures, and most detailed verbal
descriptions." True, but shall we therefore
give up illustrations ? It is always better
to see the thing itself, and it should be the
first law of education to get at the thing
itself, and not take a picture in place of it,
wherever that can be done. But then figures
do no harm ; they may be still helpful to
those who have had the opportunity of in-
spection, while in the case of multitudes
who have no such chance the pictures are
much better than nothing. No one can look
over the fine and accurate illustrations of
such a work as Flint's " Manual of Phys-
iology," for example, without recognizing
the great advantage that most students will
gain by referring to them.

The Fleets of the World. The Galley
Period. By Foxall A. Parker, Com-
modore of U. S. Navy. New York : D.
Van Nostrand. Pp. 235. Price, $5.
This neat and elegantly-illustrated vol-
ume is a kind of introduction to the history
of naval warfare. It is devoted to an ac-
count of sea-fights in old times, and it can-
not fail to be very interesting to all who
have a concern in the subject. We have
greatly admired the finely-executed illustra-
tions of the lubberly old ships that were
employed before the improved modern craft
came into use.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Microscopist : A Manual of Micro-
scopy By J. H. Wythe. Third edition,
rewritten and enlarged. Pp. 259. With
Plates. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakis-
ton. Price, $4.50.

Michigan State Board of Health, 18/6.
Pp. 254. Lansing: W. S. George & Co.

print- ^ ttt.it

Acoustics, Light, and Heat. By William

Lees, A. M. Pp. 299. New York : Put-

nams. Price, $1.50.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

757

Smithsonian Report, 1875. Pp. 422.
Washington : Government Printing-office.

Properties of Continuous Bridges. By
C. Bender, 0. E. Pp. 150. Boiler Incrus-
tation. By F. J. Rowan. Pp. 88. New-
York : Van Nostrand. Price, 50 cents.

"The Jukes:" A Study in Crime, Pau-
perism, etc. By R. J. Dugdale. Pp. 118.
New York : Putnams. Price, 50 cents.

Origin of the Chinese Race. Pp. 30.
Japanese Wrecks in the North Pacific.
Pp. 23. Early Maritime Intercourse of
Ancient Western Nations. Pp. 13. By
diaries Wolcott Brooks. San Francisco :
Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Cali-
fornia Academy of Sciences.

The Stone Age in New Jersey. By Dr.
C. C. Abbott. Pp. 134. With numerous
Plates. Washington : Government Print-
ing-Office.

The Science of Astronomy. Lecture by
A. K. Bartlett. Pp. 36. Battle Creek,
Mich. : The Author. Price, 50 cents.

Analysis of Milk. By E. von Baum-
hauer. Pp. 34. New York : J. F. Trow
& Son print.

Wisconsin Geological Survey for 1876.
By T. C. Chamberlin. Pp.40. Madison:
S. D. Carpenter print.

The Chinese Scientific Magazine. Month-
ly. Vol. I., No* 10. John Fryer, Editor,
Shanghai (printed in Chinese). Price, 50
cents per annum.

Addresses before the St. Louis Acad-
emy of Science. By C. V. Riley. Pp. 16.
St. Louis : R. R. Studley & Co. print.

The Index. Containing classified Index
of Periodical Literature. Monthly. Pp.
16. New York : William Erving. Price,
§1.00 a year.

Theory of the Radiometer. By William
Crookes, F. R. S. Pp. 16. London, 1877.

Minnesota Normal School Board for
1876. Pp. 40. ,St. Paul: Pioneer Press
print.

Polar Colonization. By H. W. Howgate.
Pp. 40. With Chart. Washington • Beres-
ford print.

Zoological Society of Cincinnati. First,
Second, and Third Annual Reports. Cin-
cinnati, O. : Printed for the Society.

Common-School Education. By B. A.
Hinsdale, A. M. Pp. 38. Cleveland, 0. :
Robinson, Savage & Co. print.

Metric System of Weights and Meas-
ures. Pp. 12. Boston : The Society of
Civil Engineers.

Vitality of Certain Land-Mollusks. By
R. E. C. Stearns. Pp. 2. With Plates.
From the Proceedings of the California
Academy of Sciences.

Report of the Commissioners of the
State Survey for 1877. Albany : Parmen-
ter print.

Outlines of Field Geology. By Prof.
Geikie. Pp. 61. Price, 25 cents. Ab-

sorption of Light. By Prof. Stokes. Pp.
43. Price, 20 cents. London and New
York : Macmillan.

Excrescences and Eccentric Wood-
Growths in the Trunks of Trees. By Thom-
as Meehan. Pp. 6. From the Proceed-
ings of the Philadelphia Academy of Nat-
ural Sciences.

Milk-Adulteration in the New York
Courts. Pp. 32. New York : J. F. Trow
& Son print.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Tyndall and Roberts on Spontaneous Gen-
eration.— Dr. Bastian, in a communication
to the Royal Society of London, last June,
cited some experiments to show that, while
an acid urine usually remains barren after
being boiled a few minutes, it becomes fertile
when similarly treated if previously neutral-
ized by liquor potassae, especially if it be
afterward maintained at a temperature of
115° or 120° Fahr. But the significance
of these results for the doctrine of spon-
taneous generation is proved to be very
little indeed by Dr. William Roberts and
Prof. Tyndall, both of whom show that
Bastian's experiments only confirm the ob-
servation made by Pasteur more than four-
teen years ago, that alkaline liquids are
more difficult to sterilize than acid ones.
They further show that such liquids, once
effectually sterilized, according to methods
which they describe, remain perfectly ster-
ile w7hen the access of life-germs from with-
out is precluded. The addition of the al-
kali appears to enable the preexisting germs
in the urine to survive the process of ebul-
lition. To prevent this conservative action
of the liquor potassae, and at the same time
to have a mixture precisely the same as that
experimented on by Bastian, Tyndall adopt-
ed the following mode of procedure, which
is substantially identical with that adopted
by Dr. Roberts : Small tubes, with their
ends finely drawn out, were charged with a
definite amount of caustic potash, and sub-
jected for a quarter of an hour to a tempera-
ture of 220° Fahr. They were then intro-
duced into flasks containing measured quan-
tities of urine. The urine being boiled for
five minutes, the flasks were hermetically
sealed during ebullition. They were sub-
sequently permitted to remain in a warm

753

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

place sufficiently long to prove that the
urine had been perfectly sterilized by the
boiling. The flasks were then rudely shak-
en, so us to break the capillary ends of the
potash-tubes and permit the liquor potassae
to mingle with the slightly acid liquid. The
urine thus neutralized was subsequently ex-
posed to a constant temperature of 122°
Fahr., which is pronounced by Dr. Bastian
to be specially potent as regards the gen-
eration of organisms.

Ten flasks, prepared as above described
toward the end of last September, remained
perfectly sterile for more than two months.
There is no doubt that they would have re-
mained so indefinitely.

Three retorts, moreover, similar to those
employed by Dr. Bastian, and provided with
potash-tubes, had fresh urine boiled in them
on the 29th of September, the retorts being
sealed during ebullition. Several days sub-
sequently, the potash-tubes were broken,
and the urine neutralized. Subjected for
more than two months to a temperature of
122° Fahr., they failed to show any signs
of life.

The Phenomena of Hypnotism. — Dr.

Heubel, in Pfii'igei-'s Archiv, rejects Czer-
mak's explanation of hypnotism (see The
Popular Science Monthly, vol. iii., p. 618,
vol. iv., p. 75), as also the explanation of-
fered by Kircher and Preyer, and thinks
that all previous investigators of this phe-
nomenon have witnessed only its first stage
— that which is most easily induced in ani-
mals of relatively high organization. Cold-
blooded vertebrates, such as the frog, may be
reduced to a state of complete immobility at
will ; they will remain in a constrained posi-
tion for hours, instead of seconds or minutes.
This abolition of voluntary movement and
of consciousness is, according to the author,
nothing but ordinary sleep. He holds that
the waking state requires for its mainte-
nance a continual stimulation of the higher
nervous centres by impressions conveyed to
them along the various centripetal nerve-
fibres. By forcing an animal to remain mo-
tionless for a brief interval (without inflicting
pain), and simultaneously excluding visual
and auditory sensations from its brain, we
suddenly deprive its nerve-centres of a large
proportion of their accustomed stimuli. Ac-

cordingly, they are unable to remain awake,
and their functional activity is only restored
to them when they are roused by some im-
pulse from without. Having satisfied him-
self in a variety of ways of the correctness
of this explanation as applied to the phe-
nomena exhibited by the frog, Heubel pro-
ceeds to extend his results to birds and
mammals, and arrives at the conclusion that
" forced sleep " will account for all the facts
hitherto observed.

Further Experiments with Pntreseible
Fluids. — Mr. Dallinger has communicated
to the Royal Microscopical Society of Lon-
don some further results of his experiments
with sterile putrescible fluids. In these ex-
periments, an air-chamber after Tyndall's
plan was used, and it was tested for motes
by a beam of oxyhydrogen-light. The
germs were obtained from a maceration of
haddock's head that had been kept for fif-
teen months, and found to contain numbers
of the " springing and calycine monads " of
former papers, many of the/n in a condition
for emitting spores. A portion of this ma-
terial was evaporated at the temperature of
150°. Dust from it was diffused through
the Tyndall chamber, and, after the heavier
particles had settled, in the course of four
and a half hours, ten small glass basins
filled with Cohn's nutritive fluid, freshly
prepared, were introduced, six being open
and four covered with glass lids. In this
condition they were left for twenty-four
hours, and then the lids were removed from
the four covered vessels. After four days,
" calycine " monads were found in all the
first six vessels, and, in smaller numbers,
the " springing " sort. Two days later the
four vessels were examined ; in three there
were no calycine monads, and very few in
the fourth ; all exhibited the springing
monads. The reason of this is probably to
be found in the fact that the germs of the
calycine monads are larger than those of
the springing sort, and settled down first
from their state of suspension in the air.

A Solar Distillery.— M. Mouchot lately
described, at a meeting of the Paris Acad-
emy of Sciences, a very convenient solar
alembic. The mirror is fifty centimetres in
diameter, and the kettle holds one litre of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

759

wine, which begins to boil on being exposed
to the sun for not over half an hour. The
vapor of alcohol is then condensed in a
worm. The brandy thus obtained is very
agreeable in flavor, no matter what kind
of wine is used. It possesses an aroma
resembling that of Kirschwasser. " It suf-
fices," adds M. Mouchot, " to till the kettle
with water, and then to interpose between
it and the worm a receptacle containing
sweet-smelling leaves and flowers, in order
to obtain all the essences yielded by distil-
lation."

The Florida Cockroach new to Ameri-
can Science. — It is somewhat remarkable
that, in certain parts of Florida, living is
made almost impossible from the presence,
in amazing numbers, of a cockroach not
known North. The queer thing is that,
while this pest has been long known in
Florida, the fact has escaped the knowl-
edge of scientific men. Mrs. Treat lately
sent specimens to Prof. S. H. Scudder, the
orlhopterist, who was surprised to see
them, and pronounces them the Peripla-
neta Australasia of Fabricius.

Meteorological. — A sixth paper by Prof.
Loomis is published in the American Jour-
nal of Science for January, giving " results
derived from an examination of the obser-
vations of the United States Signal Ser-
vice." The object of this important series
of papers is to generalize results, using as
data the vast amount of observations made
in all parts of the United States.

In this paper, Prof. Loomis considers
first the period of unusual heat which oc-
curred in June, 1873. The thermometer
rose to 108° at one point — Fort Sully — and
to 95° and 100° at other points, for several
days in succession, indicating a temperature
20° above the mean for the month. The
heated area was north of latitude 39°, and
east of the Rocky Mountains, and advanced
slowly eastward to Western New York.

It appears that the heat was over a
well-defined area, which was also an area of
depressed barometer. There was also a
gentle movement of air from the south
into that area, which accounts for some of
the excess of heat ; but the region where it
arose — Colorado, Montana, and contiguous

districts — was excessively dry. No north-
ern winds occurred to cool the air, and
Prof. Loomis thinks the great excess of
heat may be attributed to the hot south
winds already referred to, aud, secondly, to
the accumulated effects of the sun's radia-
tion.

In the second part of the paper the
movements, form, and distribution of rain
areas south of latitude 36° are considered.
When two or more inches of rain falls with-
in eight continuous hours, we have a "great
rainfall." It appears that such rainfalls do
not usually coutinue more than eight hours,
and only very rarely do they continue twen-
ty-four hours, either at one station or at
successive stations.

It is shown that, on the Gulf and Atlan-
tic border, the great rainfalls are twice as
frequent on the coast as at 200 miles
inland from it. A cause assigned is the
rising of the air from the ocean as it im-
pinges upon the land, and the consequent
condensation of its vapor. This movement
of the air assumes a cycloidal direction, as
was found to be the case in a great number
of instances, the motion being from right
to left, in the direction contrary to that of
'the hands of a watch. " Hence, every great
rain-storm should be accompanied by an
inward and cycloidal motion of the air."

In the distribution of fifty-two cases of
great rainfall by seasons, it was found that
forty occurred in summer and autumn to
twelve in winter and spring. Northward of
latitude 36° the difference was still greater,
being as five to one. It is thus shown that
great rainfalls are most frequent when the
sun's heat is greatest, and the air contains
most vapor.

The hours of the day have a direct rela-
tion to great rainfalls. Thus, they most fre-
quently occur before 4.35 p. m., and sel-
domest at 1 1 p. m. ; only eight out of fifty-
two instances are reported by the night ob-
servations made at 11 p. m.

The area of greatest rainfall is found to
be within that of the cycloidal movement
of air, but not at the centre of low pressure.
It is almost invariably eastward from it,
sometimes more than 250 miles. Thus, a
storm-area, as previously shown by Prof.
Loomis, usually assumes an oblong shape,
the long radius of which is ahead of the

760

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

storm, in or near the general direction of
its motion.

At stations northward of latitude 36°,
observations show that great rains are ac-
companied by easterly winds ; but, at the
more southern stations of the district, the
winds are north of east ; while, at the north-
ern stations, the winds are from south of
east. When the wind blows from any other
quarter, it is usually light.

This paper, like others previously pub-
lished, presents, with the diagrams which
have been published with them, the general
phenomena of atmospheric movements with
clearness and precision, and will speedily
supersede the vague speculations concern-
ing them which have so much occupied the
public mind.

A Eapacions Fish. — The Serrasalmo
piraya, found in all the rivers of Guiana,
is doubtless one of the most voracious of
fishes. The genus Serrasalmo (literally
" seriated salmon," because of the double
row of serratures on the belly) can hardly
be classed with Salmonidce, from which they
differ both in general appearance and in
habits. The S. piraya is a small fish, sel-
dom exceeding one foot in length, but yet
there is no animal that it will not attack,
man not excepted. Alligators, horses, as
well as fishes oftentimes ten times their own
weight, are preyed upon by the pirayas.
In attacking a fish they begin at the caudal
fin, and the victim, being thus left without
the principal organ of motion, is devoured
with ease, several pirayas sharing in the
meal. They often bite a piece out of a
horse's leg when passing through the wa-
ter. The feet of ducks and geese which
are kept in the neighborhood where pirayas
are plentiful, are almost invariably cut off,
and the young ones devoured. In such lo-
calities it is unsafe to bathe, or even to
wash clothes, in the river, many cases hav-
ing occurred of fingers and toes being cut
off by them. Schomburgck, in his " Trav-
els in South America," from which most of
these particulars have been derived, states
that these fishes are " caught with hook
and line, and their greediness is so great
that no art is necessary to conceal the bait.
The hook may be baited with a piece of
fish, bird, or animal, or merely their en-

trails ; the piraya will dart at it the instant
it is thrown into the water, and seize it with
eagerness, but it frequently happens that
with its sharp teeth it bites the line, and
escapes with the hook in its mouth. We,
therefore, surrounded the line where it was
fixed to the hook, the length of two or
three inches, with tin or lead, and though
it had a clumsy appearance we were not
less successful. Some precaution is neces-
sary even after the fish has been lifted out
of the water, or it will inflict in its strug-
gles serious wounds ; the angler has, there-
fore, a small bludgeon ready, wherewith its
skull is broken."

Science and Ventilation. — Sundry mem-
bers of the Paris Academy of Sciences, at a
recent session, expressed themselves very
strongly as to the defective ventilation of
the hall in which their meetings are held.
Said M. Bouley : " The air here is unfit to
breathe ; the thing admits of no excuse ;
instead of gas, I wish we had again can-
dles, as in former times." M. Leverrier :
" I asked for lighting with gas, but I had
also asked for another mode of ventilation ;
but, with regard to this, there has been no
change. However, General Morin is a mem-
ber of the Academy, and, in eight days,
proper apparatus for ventilation might be
set up, if we so wished." General Morin :
" Eight days ! Ten years ago, the setting
up of such apparatus was in principle de-
cided on." Leverrier : " The present con-
dition of things is simply disgraceful ; no
other hall is so badly ventilated as the hall
of the Institute." The eminent astrono-
mer, were he to inspect critically the as-
sembly halls of scientific and legislative
bodies in other countries, would doubtless
find abundant reason for retracting this se-
vere judgment.

Intestinal Calculi in Horse?.— In Eng-
land and Continental Europe large num-
bers of horses die annually from the effects
of calculi in the large intestine or in the
caecum. Of these calculi, Dr. T. L. Phip-
son writes in the Chemical News that they
often begin by being triangular, or some-
times perfectly square, with rounded edges
and corners, and become finally circular.
In all cases they are formed of highly-crys-

P OP TJLAR MIS CELL ANY.

761

talline concentric layers, and attain to eigh-
teen or twenty inches in diameter. This,
he thinks, is the greatest size they can at-
tain. When so large as this, they press
out the sides of the intestine, producing in-
flammation and violent pain, which causes
the animal to roll about in agony, and, soon-
er or later, kills him. They consist mostly
of phosphate of ammonia and magnesia,
and the amount of organic matter is not
great. This salt the author refers to the
grain fed to the animals, and he raises the
question whether grain is not for the horse
a highly-artificial food. He is of the opin-
ion that repeated doses of very dilute hy-
drochloric acid, say two to five per cent., in
water or spirit, if it can be made to reach
them, would quickly destroy the largest of
these calculi. The lime in the water drunk
by horses has nothing to do with the pro-
duction of these concretions. It originates
in the food, and is, in a large measure, due
to a want of salt in the grain. Hence,
working-horses that are highly fed should
have lumps of salt to lick, and have salt in
their food, and plenty of water to drink.
The ventilation and drainage of stables is
another important consideration. Many
valuable beasts, after a hard day's work,
pass the night in an atmosphere loaded
with fumes of ammonia.

Abnormal Fruits. — Some abnormal fruits
of the pear-tree, in appearance like very
large acorns, having been exhibited at a
meeting of the Academy of Natural Sci-
ences of Philadelphia, Mr. Meehan took
occasion to explain that a fruit is a modifi-
cation of both leaves and branch. When
a bud, he said, is being formed in the
apple, pear, or similar trees, it may finally
be either a flower-bud or a bud producing
a new branch. Varying phases of nutrition
decide this question. Exactly the nature
of this variation we do not know ; but we
do know that the growth-force in the bud
is arrested by some law of nutrition, and,
instead of an elongated branch, what would
be its series of spirals are drawn together
closely, and the whole modified and made
to form a flower. Thus, in the pear, it
takes five buds to form one full cycle on a
branch. When growth is arrested to form
a flower, this first cycle is transformed into

a five-lobed calyx, and generally this be-
comes much enlarged and fleshy, and cov-
ers all the other cycles of buds, which go
to make up the inner layer of flesh termi-
nating in the petals, carpels, or core, and
so on. In the case under consideration the
arresting force was imperfect. It had suc-
ceeded in forming the outer or calycine
verticillate series of buds into a fleshy mat-
ter, giving what here might be called the
cup of the "acorn ;" but then the acceler-
ating or branch-producing force gained a
temporary advantage, and pushed on, form-
ing the acorn-like centre, but only to be
soon again arrested. This abnormal pear
was, indeed, nothing more than an effort of
the tree to produce a branch after a fruit
had been decided on — a struggle which was
finally decided in favor of the fruit.

Explanation of the Ball-Paradox.— Reu-

leaux offers the following explanation of the
curious phenomenon of a ball being sup
ported in air by a strong air-current di-
rected obliquely upon it at an angle of 35°
to 40° from the vertical : The pretty thin
air-current, on reaching the ball, is deflect-
ed on all sides, and therefore more or less
rarefied in its interior. Accordingly, the
atmosphere presses the ball in the direction
of greatest rarefaction, or the mean force
of the rarefactions, toward the orifice. The
weight of the ball acts vertically downward.
Equilibrium occurs between the obliquely
acting force of the current and the two
forces just named, when the mean force of
the latter is parallel to the action of the
current. This can only take place when
the ball ha§ its centre under the axis of the
current. There are then two forces which
put the ball in rotation. If the finger or a
rod be brought to the place of supposed
minimum pressure on the ball, the latter is
forthwith driven off (the vacuum being de-
stroyed), or falls down.

Successful Case of Transfusion of Blood.

— A case of successful transfusion of blood
is recorded in the Lancet. The patient, a
clerk, twenty years of age, was completely
demented, hypersemic, anaesthetic, and cata-
leptic ; refused all food ; dribbled constant-
ly. The pulse was very feeble, rate *70, res-
piration 24. His state was one of profound

762

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

anaemia. A student in St. Thomas's Hos-
pital volunteered to supply the blood for
the operation. The patient received 200
grammes of blood without showing any bad
symptoms ; he even gave evidence of be-
ing roused from his habitual torpor. Three
hours after the operation, the patient, who1
had, in the mean time, been placed in a
warm bed, and had taken doses of tea and
brandy, had a full pulse, rate 90, respira-
tion 28. He answered to his name and
spoke a few words, rubbed his face with
one of his hands, opened his eyes, and
swallowed voluntarily. Five hours later
the pulse was 100, strong, respiration 30.
The following day the pulse was 96 and
respiration 28, and the patient ate and
drank well and often. Toward evening the
pulse was 90, respiration 28, and he spoke
and answered slowly when spoken to ; said
he had no pain. Four days later the symp-
toms still continued to be favorable. The
process of transfusion was to be repeated
by the physicians, the results being so en-

Prodnction of Solpharons Acid for Use
as a Disinfectant. — Sulphur-fumes (sulphur-
ous acid) have from time immemorial been
employed to fumigate and purify infected
air, but the ordinary method of producing
the fumes by burning sulphur is cumbrous
and very uncertain. Mr. T. W. Keates of-
fers in the Lancet a ready and simple means
of effecting this object. Instead of sulphur,
he proposes to use bisulphide of carbon, a
compound consisting of two atoms of sul-
phur and one of carbon. It is a dense, mo-
bile liquid, heavier than water, aHH intensely
inflammable. During combustion the con-
stituents of the bisulphide combine with
the oxygen of the air, producing sulphurous
and carbonic-acid gases, the former greatly
exceeding the latter in quantity. The bi-
sulphide can be burned in a common spirit-
lamp, or it may be mixed with oils and
burned in an oil or kerosene lamp. Any
proportionate quantity of sulphurous acid
can in this way be thrown into an atmos-
phere, and the action may be continued for
any length of time. As bisulphide of car-
bon is extremely volatile, the lamp should
be furnished with a well-fitting screw-cap,
to prevent loss by evaporation.

A Fishing -Spider. — " Just before the
late war," writes the author of a communi-
cation in the American Naturalist, " I was
at Colonel Oakley Bynum's spring, in Law-
rence County, Alabama, near the town of
Courtland, where I saw a school of min-
nows playing in the sunshine near the edge
of the water. All at once, a spider, as
large as the end of my finger, dropped
down among them from a tree hanging over
the spring. The spider seized one of the
minnows near the head. The fish thus
seized was about three inches long. As
soon as it was seized by its captor, it swam
round swiftly in the water, and frequently
dived to the bottom, yet the spider held on
to it ; finally, it came to the top, turned
upon its back, and died. It seemed to
have been bitten or wounded on the back
of the neck near where the head joins.
When the fish was dead, the spider moved
off with it to the shore. The limb of the
tree from which the spider must have fallen
was between ten and fifteen feet above the
water. Its success shows that it had the
judgment of a practical engineer."

Qualitative Determination of Potassa. —

Carnot offers a new and simple process for
the qualitative detection and the determi-
nation of potassa, hitherto one of the most
delicate operations in analytical chemistry.
It is as follows : In a few drops of hydro-
chloric acid, one part of the subnitrate of
bismuth, say half a gramme, is dissolved,
and then, in a few cubic centimetres of
water, are dissolved about two parts (one
gramme to one and a quarter) of crystal-
lized hyposulphite of soda. The second
solution is poured into the first, and con-
centrated alcohol added in large excess.
This mixture is the reagent. If brought in
contact with a few drops of the solution of
a potash salt, it at once gives a yellow pre-
cipitate. With an undissolved potassic salt
it produces a decidedly yellow coloration,
easily recognized. All potassic salts with
mineral acids are susceptible of this reac-
tion ; it is also very sensitive with the or-
ganic salts — tartrates, citrates, etc. The
reaction is not interfered with by the pres-
ence of other bases, with which nothing
analogous is produced. The character is
therefore perfectly distinct. Baryta and

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

763

strontia alone may occasion some difficulty
by reason of the white precipitates of double
hyposulphites, which they form with the
same reagent ; but it is very rare to meet
them along with potassa, and they are very
easily detected and removed.

Prevention of Fires in Coal-Mines.— In

an address on fires in mines, Mr. Richard P.
Rothwell affirms tbat the most efficient pre-
ventives of such fires, from whatever cause
they may come, are to be found in educa-
tion, in increased knowledge of the causes
of fires, and a better appreciation of the
working of these causes. Mine-managers
he would compel to undergo strict examina-
tions, nor would he allow any one to under-
take the responsible duties of this place
without a certificate of competency from a
qualified board of examiners. He would
not, however, stop here, but would have the
miners themselves instructed as to the causes
and preventives of the dangers they meet
with in their work. Special free instruction
upon these points might be furnished at
every colliery ; and this could doubtless be
accomplished by encouraging the giving of
popular lectures, by practical miners and
engineers, on subjects of interest to the
miner, and by giving small prizes to those
who pass the best examination on subjects
of daily practical application in their call-
ing. Greater knowledge always makes bet-
ter workers, and mine-owners would find in
this a good return for the expense incurred.

Economy of the Electric Light.— In a se-
ries of experiments on electric light, Prof.
W. A. Anthony used an electro-magnetic
machine of the Gramme pattern, driven by
a five-horse Brayton petroleum-engine. The
engine consumed a little over 6$ pounds of
crude petroleum per hour. The lamp u<-d
in the engine, by which the explosive mixt-
ure is fired, had a one-inch flat wick, and
consumed 29.8 grammes (459 grains) of oil
per hour. The power resulting from the
motion of the engine, when applied to the
electric machine, produced a stream of elec-
tricity or electric light having an illuminat-
ing power equal to that of 234 of the lamps
mentioned, showing that three times more
light may be produced from a given quan-
tity of oil, if its energy is converted first
into mechanical power and then into elec-

tricity, than if the oil is directly burned in
a lamp.

Southern Illinois Academy of Science.—

The Southern Illinois Academy of Science,
a newly founded scientific association, with
its seat at Carbondale, has for its objects
the investigation— 1. Of the ethnology and
history of Southern Illinois, including its
antiquities and aboriginal remains ; 2. The
geology, botany, and zoology, of that sec-
tion ; and, 3. To encourage the production
of original papers on the above, and on
special mathematical, astronomical, and me-
teorological subjects, as well as on the origin
and meaning of the names given to localities
by the Indians and the first white settlers
of the country. The Academy is engaged
in making a collection of materials illustra-
tive of the field of research to which it has
devoted itself, and has issued a circular
calling for contributions of archaeological
and aboriginal remains, historical notes,
maps, sketches of mounds, natural history
specimens, etc. The Secretary of the Acad-
emy is Prof. Granville F. Foster, Carbon-
dale, Illinois.

Threatened Eruption of Blount Vesu-
vius.— For many weeks Mount Vesuvius has
been threatening an eruption. Prof. Boyd
Dawkins, who visited the volcano in January,
found, on arriving at the mouth of the cra-
ter, that it was filled with dense vapor like
a fog. A low, roaring noise could be heard,
and occasionally there was a flash of light,
probably the reflected glare of the lava surg-
ing about in the volcano. Undismayed by
these symptoms of internal disturbance,
Prof. Dawkins went down seven or eight
feet below the crater's edge, and found that
he could light pieces of paper in holes which
he dug with his hammer in the black ash on
the inside. He is of the opinion that Ve-
suvius performs the duty of a safety-valve
to a very large portion of the earth. At pres-
ent the mountain is in a very restless state,
and there may be an outbreak at any mo-
ment. The event is looked for with great
interest by the inhabitants of Naples, as it
will bring sight-seers from all parts of the
world to their city.

The Challenger Collection.— The collec-
tions of marine animals made by the Chal-
lenger Expedition are declared by Prof.

764

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Agassiz to be in a better state of preserva-
tion, and their localities more accurately
noted, than is the Case with any similar
collection he has seen. To give an idea
of the magnitude of the Challenger collec-
tions, he says that if a single individual,
possessing the knowledge of the eighteen or
twenty specialists in whose hands they are
to be placed, were to work them up, he
would require from seventy to seventy-five
years of hard work to bring out the results
which the careful study of the different de-
partments ought to yield. At the same time
Prof. Agassiz observes that little that is
new has been added by the Challenger Ex-
pedition to the deep-sea fauna as developed
by the American and English Expeditions
of 1866 and 1869. Seasoning from these
premises, "we may safely say that while
any new expeditions will undoubtedly clear
up many of the points left doubtful by the
Challenger, and may carry out special lines
of investigation only partly sketched out,
yet we can hardly expect them to do more
than fill out the grand outlines laid down
by the great English Expedition."

Preservation of lee in the Siek-Room.—

Dr. Gamgee, in the Lancet, suggests a good
method of preserving ice in small quantity
for a considerable time at the bedside of a
sick person. His practice is to cut a piece
of flannel about nine inches square, and se-
cure it by ligature round the mouth of an or-
dinary tumbler, so as to leave a cup-shaped
depression of flannel within the tumbler to
about half its depth. In the flannel cup
so constructed pieces of ice may be pre-
served many hours, all the longer if a piece
of flannel from four to five inches square
be used as a loose cover to the iee-cups.
Cheap flannel, with comparatively open
meshes, is preferable, as the water easily
drains through it, and the ice is thus kept
quite dry. When good flannel with close
texture is employed, a small hole must be
made iu the bottom of the flannel cup, other-
wise it holds the water, and facilitates the
melting of the ice. In a room with a tem-
perature of 60° Eahr., Dr. Gamgee made the
following experiments with four tumblers,
placing in each two ounces of ice broken
into small pieces. In tumbler No. 1 the
ice was loose. It had all melted in two
hours and fifty-five minutes. In tumbler

No. 2 the ice was suspended in the tumbler
in a cup made, as above described, of good
Welsh flannel. In five hours and a quar-
ter the flannel cup was more than half filled
with water, with some pieces of ice floating
in it; in another hour and a quarter the
flannel cup was nearly filled with water, and
no ice remained. In tumbler No. 3 the ice
was suspended in a flannel cup made in the
same manner and of the same material as
in No. 2 ; but in No. 3 a hole capable of
admitting a quill pen had been made in the
bottom of the flannel cup, with the effect
of protracting the total liquefaction of the
ice to a period of eight hours and three-
quarters. In tumbler No. 4 the ice was
placed in a flannel cup made, as above de-
scribed, of cheap, open flannel, which al-
lowed the water to drain through very read-
ily. Ten hours and ten minutes elapsed
before all this ice had melted.

Grote's Theory of the Peopling of Amer-
iea. — Prof. Grote's theory of the original
peopling of America, as stated in recent
papers, is that the original inhabitants
came from Asia by way of the north dur-
ing the latter part of the Miocene or ear-
lier part of the Pliocene, and that this Ter-
tiary population spread to the south along
the mountainous backbone of the two
Americas ; that, on the advent of the
Glacial epoch, the people then living in
the extreme north were modified by the
change in climate and were brought down
by the ice and followed it back again to the
arctic circle, and that the present repre-
sentatives of glacial man are the Esqui-
maux. Through a study of migrations
Prof. Grote comes to the conclusion that
the ice must have acted as a barrier to
further communication between the two
continents of Asia and North America, and
consequently that the civilizations of Cen-
tral America and of the mound-builders are
indigenous. Grote concludes that the the-
ory of an accidental migration from Asia
during the Quaternary cannot be supported
in view of recently-ascertained facts. In a
letter dated February 11, 187*7, Captain E.
L. Berthoud (of the School of Mines at
Golden, Colorado), who has studied the ge-
ology and archaeology of the West since
1859, writes that Grote's theory "solves
many knotty points in the antiquities and

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

765

prehistoric vestiges of Colorado." Captain
Berthoud believes, from his observations,
that man existed in the Rocky Mountain
region prior to the deposit of gold in the
Colorado mountain-slopes, Creek, Bar, and
Placer diggings, about latitude 39° 30' to
41° north. Captain Berthoud has not only
found flint tools and chips in the gold-bear-
ing glacial drift, with remains of fossil
elephants, but also in the drift of older
date below this gold-bearing drift. Flint
tools have been also found in company with
estuary shells of not later age than older
Pliocene as determined by Prof. Conrad.

The Decline of Savage Races.— Virchow,
in an address upon the present position of
anthropology, makes a few very just obser-
vations upon the subject of the decline of
savage races in the presence of civilized
man. Thus he remarks that we must not,
in the case of an entirely isolated people,
judge of their capacity for culture from the
signs of it which exist. The extinction of
uncultured races, he thinks, is rather to be
ascribed to the barbarousness of Euro-
peans, and to their incapacity to educate
savages. There is no evidence that un-
civilized races must become extinct — in-
deed, the contrary is proved by the history
of Europeans themselves. If the civilized
people of the present day are the product
of a higher development, we cannot regard
the possibility of such a development as a
cause of the extinction of races in the same
stage of culture once occupied by ourselves.

Estimation of Alcohol in a Watery Mixt-
ure.— Dr. Werner Siemens has designed
an ingenious apparatus, by which a stream
composed of alcohol and water, mixed in
any proportion, is so measured that one
train of counter-wheels records the volume
of the mixture, while a second counter
gives a true record of the amount of abso-
lute alcohol contained in it. The principle
is described as follows : The volume of
liquid is passed through a revolving drum,
divided into three compartments by ra-
dial divisions, and not dissimilar in ap-
pearance to an ordinary wet gas-meter.
The revolutions of this drum produce a
record of the total volume of passing

liquid. The liquid on its way to the meas-
uring-drum passes through a receiver con-
taining a float 'Of thin metal filled with
proof-spirit, which float is partially sup-
ported by means of a carefully-adjusted
spring, and its position determines that of
a lever, the angular position of which
causes the alcohol-counter to rotate more
or less for every revolution of the meas-
uring-drum. Thus, if water only passes
through the apparatus, the lever stands at
its lowest position, and then the rotative
motion is not communicated to the alcohol-
counter, and this motion is rendered strictly
proportionate to the alcohol contained in
the liquid, allowance being made in the in-
strument for the change of volume due to
chemical affinity between the two liquids.

Preservation of Iron against Rust. — We

find in Van Nostrand's Engineering Maga-
zine an account of Dr. William H. Sterling's
process for preventing the rusting of iron.
The principle of this system, we are in-
formed, consists in the saturation of the
iron with a non-oxidizing or non-oxidizable
substance while the iron is in a properly
heated and expanded condition, produced
by heating in a vacuum or in a simple
chamber. One method of applying this
system is given as follows by the inventor :
" A vessel of iron, or any suitable material
of sufficient strength, is made in the form
and size best adapted to the shape and di-
mensions of the iron which is to be treated,
with the lid so constructed that the vessel
may be closed hermetically, and at the bot-
tom suitable pipes are arranged for convey-
ing steam and water alternately, for the
purpose of heating and cooling the inte-
rior." Suitably connected with this vessel
is a power-pump to produce the necessary
pressure, also appliances for obtaining a
vacuum. The iron is now heated to the
desired degree and placed in the vessel,
the top closed hermetically and superheated
steam turned into the pipes at the bottom,
to keep the metal at the required tempera-
ture ; at the same time an atmospheric
vacuum is produced by an ordinary air-
pump connected with the chamber ; the
proper quantity of pure paraffine, having
been also previously heated, is now let into
this chamber and forced under pressure into

766

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the interstices of the iron, saturating it.
When the iron has remained under this
liquid pressure a sufficient time, it is grad-
ually cooled by turning cold water instead
of steam into the pipes, the pressure being
kept up, however, until the iron is cool.

Destruction of Birds by Telegraph-
Wires. — It is the opinion of Dr. Elliott
Coues that in the United States many hun-
dred thousands of birds are yearly killed
by telegraph-wires. To show that this es-
timate is not extravagant, he cites his own
observation while journeying on horseback
from Denver, Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyo-
ming, the road for a considerable part of
the way coinciding with the line of the tele-
graph. The most abundant birds of that
region at the time (October) were horned
larks and Maccown's bunting. "Almost
immediately upon riding by the telegraph-
wire," writes Dr. Coues in the American
Naturalist, " I noticed a dead lark ; and as
I passed several more in quick succession,
my attention was aroused. The position
of the dead birds enabled me to trace cause
and effect before I actually witnessed a case
of the killing. The bodies lay in evei*y
instance nearly or directly beneath the
wire. A crippled bird was occasionally
seen fluttering along the road. Becoming
interested in the matter, I began to count,
and desisted only after actually counting
one hundred in the course of one hour's
leisurely riding — representing perhaps a
distance of three miles." During the hour
he saw three birds strike the wire ; of
these one had a wing broken, and another
was dying in convulsions.

Natural Histary on the Great Lakes. —

Prof. Comstock, of Cornell University, pro-
poses to organize an aquatic school of nat-
ural history for work during the summer
along the shores of Lakes Erie, Huron, and
Superior. A steamer is to be chartered for
the use of the school, and inland excur-
sions are to be made to the mining regions
and other points of scientific interest. A
strong corps of instructors for zoology,
botany, geology, etc., will be engaged, and
collections will be made illustrative of the
work done in these various departments.
A portion of the collection will be the prop-

erty of the students, while the remainder
will be disposed of to such local societies,
colleges, and schools, as may desire to pur-
chase them in advance by taking shares at
$10 each. The terms for admission to the
school are very reasonable, viz., not to ex-
ceed $125 for thirty days, and $3.50 for
each additional day. This, however, does
not include the expenses of inland trips :
such trips will only be made by such pupils
as desire to take part in them, and will be
so arranged as to require the least possible
expenditure.

Winter-Quarters ia the Arctic Region*?.

— The ship Discovery, of last year's Brit-
ish Arctic Expedition, wintered in latitude
81° 40' north, longitude 64° 30' west, in a
well-sheltered inlet directly opposite to the
winter-quarters of the Polaris. Here she
lay imbedded in the ice for ten months and
a half. In preparation for the long winter,
a layer of snow ten or twelve inches thick
was laid on the deck, but as it was found
not to bind, it was mixed with ashes and
water, and soon made a good macadamized
road. Then snow was piled up outside the
ship about fifteen or twenty feet thick. This
and the layer on deck kept the warmth in
the ship, and the temperature in the lower
deck ranged from 48° to 56°. Between
April 26th and October 16th the ship's
company shot thirty-two musk-oxen, thirty-
six hares, six seals, and five eider-duck —
about four months' rations of fresh meat.
Captain Stevenson, commander of the Dis-
covery, considers the long winter the most
enjoyable time of the whole period spent in
the arctic regions, the ship being very
warm and comfortable, and all hands em-
ployed in the work most interesting to
themselves.

Voice of the Elephant. — According to
Major Leveson, author of "Sport in Many
Lands," elephants utter four distinct sounds,
each of which is indicative of a certain
meaning. The first is a shrill whistling
noise, produced by blowing through the
trunk ; this denotes satisfaction. The sec-
ond is the note of alarm or surprise, a sound
made by the mouth ; it may be represented
thus : pr-rut, pr-rut ! The third is a trump-
eting noise indicative of anger; when the

NOTES.

767

animals are very much enraged, or when
they are charging an assailant, this sound
changes into a hoarse roar or terrific
scream. The fourth sound betokens dis-
satisfaction or distress ; it is repeated fre-
quently when an elephant is separated from
the herd, or is tired, hungry, or overloaded ;
it may be thus imitated : urmph, urmph.

NOTES.

Written, as the little sketch of " Audu-
bon's Flower" was, where access to books
was impossible, and upon the memory of a
reading of twenty years ago, I fear that, in
the closing part, I may have overstated.
It is not meant that Audubon named the
flower, except conceptionally, or mentally,
but that he did name it so far as a truthful
bit of art could do, subordinated to a scien-
tific conscience. S. L.

Dr. Lawson Tait finds that, as a rule,
the ear in women can perceive higher notes
(i.e., sounds with a larger number of vibra-
tions per second) than the ear in men.
The highest limit of and ability for the
human ear is somewhere between 41,000
and 42,000 vibrations per second. Very
few of the persons experimented on by Dr.
Tait had equal sensibility to acute sounds
in both ears the right ear usually hearing
a higher note than the left. The sense of
direction of the sound in the human ear
seems to be lost at a very much lower point
than appreciation of the note. This, how-
ever, is not the case with cats.

On January 1 1th died Mr. Alfred Smee,
aged about sixty years. He was elected
Fellow of the London Royal Society at the
early age of twenty-one. Among his pub-
lished works were the following : " Ele-
ments of Electro-Metallurgy," " Elements
of Electro-Biology," " Monogenesis of Phys-
ical Forces," " The Mind of Man," etc.

Karl Ernst von Baer, the eminent
biologist, whose death occurred in Novem-
ber, was born in Esthonia, February 12,
1792. In 1819 he became Professor of
Zoology in the Konigsberg University. He
was called to St. Petersburg in 1834, and
was appointed librarian of the Academy.
He led a scientific expedition to the north-
ern shores of Russia in 1837. He wrote
several works on zoology and botany, es-
pecially those of Northern Russia.

Wilhelm F. B. Hofmeister, Professor
of Botany in the University of Tubingen,
and author of several works on plant phys-
iology and embryology, died on January
12th, at the age of fifty-two years.

The world of science has recently suf-
fered another loss in the death of David
Forbes, F. R. S., the geologist, at the early
age of forty-eight years. He was a great
traveler, and among his published papers
may be named those on the " Relation of
the Silurian and Metamorphic Rocks in the
South of Norway," and on the " Geology of
Bolivia and South Peru."

Blanca Peak, in Colorado, the elevation
of which was determined last year by Hay-
den's survey, is probably the highest point
within the limits of the United States. Its
height is 14,464 feet ahj>ve the level of the
sea. There are in Colorado over fifty other
peaks which rise more than 14,000 feet
above sea-level.

Mr. Robert E. C. Stearns mentions, in
the American Naturalist, two remarkable
instances of vitality in snails. One snail,
of the species Bulimus pallidior, lived for
two years, two months, and sixteen days,
without food, and at the end of that pe-
riod appeared to be in pretty good health.
Another, Helix Veatchii, lived without food
from 1859 till 1865. Both of these species
of snails are indigenous to nearly rainless
regions.

There is a pretty constant increase in
the decennial number of plural childbirths
in the kingdom of Prussia. In the period
between 1824 and 1834 this class of births
amounted to 112 per 10,000 births, and the
same proportion was repeated in the suc-
ceeding decennium. From 1844 to 1854
the proportion was 114 to 10,000; from
1854 to 1864, 123 ; from 1864 to 1874, 128.
Of these plural births, the immense majority,
nearly 99 per cent., were twins. Triplets
were somewhat less than 1 per cent. In
over 6,000,000 births there were only 79
cases of four at a birth, and one case of
five at a birth.

The Atamasco Lilt. — A new form of
this favorite amaryllis, A. Atamasco, has
been found in Florida by Mrs. Mary Treat.
It is an earlier flower than the old form,
and is larger and handsomer.

It was stated by Mr. Sidebotham, at a
meeting of the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society, that aniline colors
are now much used by artists both for paint-
ings and water-color drawings. But, as
nearly all of these colors fade under the
action of light, no artist who wishes his
work or fame to endure can afford to em-
ploy them.

Years distinguished by a maximum of
sun-spots coincide very closely, according
to Prof. Fritz, of Zurich, with years of ex-
traordinary hail-fall, or unusual average
height of the great rivers.

768

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A short time ago a number of fossil
footprints, supposed to be human, were dis-
covered iu the carboniferous sandstone near
Metropolis, Illinois. A physician living in
that locality, Dr. Gebhart, took plaster casts
of these footprints and sent a description
of them, together with full details as to site,
to Mr. Darwin and other naturalists. The
almost unanimous verdict was, that the
tracks were those of a species of Labyrin-
thodon. According to Dr. Gebhart, the ani-
mals which made these fossil tracks were
most certainly bipeds.

In countries where the coffee-tree is
cultivated the leaves are used to make an
infusion which by many persons is held to
be superior to the infusion from the berry.
Hitherto they have not been an article of
commerce, and the planter has studied to
obtain as large a crop as possible of the
berry, neglecting the leaves. But if a de-
mand for the latter should spring up in
foreign countries, the planter would find
it as profitable to cultivate the coffee-tree
for its leaves as for its fruit. The berry
would first be secured, with a sparing use
of the pruning knife, and then the leaves
would be carefully gathered and cured for
exportation. The result would be in a
great measure to drive out of the market
the spurious compounds that now too often
are sold as coffee.

It was in 1865 that the phylloxera ap-
peared in the vineyards of the south of
France ; its ravages have been continued
ever since. The department of Gard,
which used to produce 126,000,000 gallons
of wine, now yields not one-fourth as much.
One commune, Castries, in the Department
of Herault, annually produced, before the
appearance of the phylloxera, 3,000,000
gallons ; one year later the product was
250,000 gallons ; three years later the vine-
yards had been entirely destroyed !

A scientific journal of Paris notes the
occurrence of a peculiar phase of insanity
among French cooks. It is called folic des
cuisiniers (cooks' insanity), and is due to
the carbonic oxide given off by charcoal-
stoves. The principal symptoms are hallu-
cinations of sight and hearing, vertigo, op-
pression, and syncope. The patient gener-
ally believes himself to be the victim of
persecution.

The efficacy of the alkaline sulpho-car-
bonates as a means of exterminating the
phylloxera appears to have been demon-
strated by experiments made by Mouillefert,
at the instance of the Paris Academy of
Sciences. It still remains, however, to de-
vise suitable methods of employing this in-
secticide. " Science," says M. Mouillefert,
" has accomplished its mission, and it is now
for agriculture to perform its part."

Early in the present year a State Zo-
ological Society was organized in San Fran-
cisco, with the object of collecting material
for a public museum of Pacific coast rocks,
fossils, ores, and all inorganic substances
having a bearing on practical geology. An-
other purpose of the society is to promote
geological research. The cooperation of
mine-owners and mining-engineers on the
Pacific slope is solicited by the president
of the society, so as to make the proposed
collection fully representative of the geolo-
gy of that portion of the United States.

Between Nice and Monaco is a locality
so unhealthy that the Paris, Lyons & Mediter-
ranean Railway Company have been obliged
to change every two or three months the
watchman at the crossing there. Planta-
tions of the eucalyptus have been formed at
this place, and at present the same watch-
man has resided there for several months
with his family without experiencing the
least inconvenience.

On investigation, in Paris, of a case of
lead-poisoning, no lead could be found in
the cooking-utensils or in the food and drink
of the patient. Lead was discovered, how-
ever, in a piece of a Roquefort cheese,
which was enveloped in a metallic sheet,
composed of 12 parts of tin, 85 of lead, and
3 of undefined matter. The conclusion
drawn was, that the lead contained in the
cheese was imparted to it by the envelope.

Trials have been made in Rome of a
solution of chloride of calcium as a substi-
tute for water in laying dust in streets.
The results are said to be highly satisfac-
tory. The dampness communicated to the
road, instead of disappearing quickly, as is
the case when water alone is used, remains
for a whole week. The road continues to
be damp without being muddy, and presents
a hard surface, on which neither the wind
nor the passing of pedestrians or horses has
any effect.

Some fifty years ago two gangs of work-
ers in a Belgian coal-mine were at variance,
and one party made a fire so as to smoke
out the other. The coal in the mine be-
came ignited, and it continues to burn down
to the present day. Efforts have been made
again and again to extinguish the fire, but
in vain. Mr. Richard P. Rothwell, editor
of the Engineering and Mining Journal,
who mentions this case in a paper on fires
in mines, cites a few similar instances from
the history of mining in the United States
of seams of coal burning for several years
— as the Summit Hill Mine, near Mauch
Chunk ; the Greenwood Company's mine,
near Tamaqua ; and others in Schuylkill,
Carbon, and adjoining counties of Pennsyl-
vania. Some of these mines have been
burning upward of twenty years.

INDEX.

PAGE

Abnormal Fkuits 761

Aboriginal Settlements of the Pacific Coast. (Illustrated.) 353

Accoutrement of a Field-Geologist. (Illustrated.) 708

Age of Trees, and their Period of Leafing 121

Air, Compressed, Effects of, on Animals 120

Air and Clothing 654

Alabama, Coal and Iron in 637

Albertite 634

Alcohol, Estimation of 765

" its Effects on Brain-Substance 17

America, Science in 319

" Astronomy in 75

American Astronomical Achievement 446

" Forestry, Association 251

" Geographical Society 508

" Zoologists, what they have done for Evolution 1, 181

Animals and Steam-Engines 631

" Journeyings and Dispersal of. 576

Annihilation of the Mind 715

Antarctic Icebergs 631

Ants, Foray of an Army of. 117

Aquarium, The New York ! 234

Arctic Expedition, The British 511, 379

" Regions, Winter-Quarters in 766

Arnott, Dr., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 100

As regards Bishop Coxe 107

Astronomy in America 75

Atmosphere, Combat with an Infective 641

Audubon's Lily rediscovered 675

Baer, K. E. von 638

Bain, Alexander , 638

Education 418, 513, 620

Ball-Paradox. (Illustrated.) 725

" " Explanation of 761

Bartlett's Ozone Generator 114

Bastian, H. C, The Invertebrate Brain. (Illustrated.) 27

Bat-Guano 122

Beard, G. M., Mind-Reading 459

vol. x. — 49

77o INDEX.

PAGE

Bees, do they hear ? 121

Biology in Common Schools , 615

" Study and Teaching of. 298

" The Study of 527

Birds, Destruction of, by Telegraph-Wires 766

" Destruction of, in the United States 636

Bond, Thomas, Laws of Health 198

Books noticed :

" Talks about Labor " (Larned) 108

" Sound " (Blaserna) 240

" Races of Man " (Peschel) 241

" Geology of Ohio " (Newberry) 242

" Vertebrates of Northern United States " (Jordan) 243

" Centennial Situation of Woman " (Bullock) 243

" Kinematics of Machinery " (Reuleaux) 244

" Ethics of Spinoza " 244

" Comparative Zoology " (Orton) 245

" What Young People should know " (Wilder) 245

" Practical Botany " (Koehler) 246

" Theory of Medical Science " (Dunham) 246

" California Notes " (Turrill) 246

" Elements of Physical Manipulation " (Pickering) 246

" Knight's Mechanical Dictionary " 372

" Elementary Practical Physiology " (Foster) 373

" The Religion of Evolution " (Savage) 373

" Public Libraries in the United States " 374

" Theory of Color " (Von Bezold) 375

" Chemia Coartata " (Kollmeyer) 375

" Building Construction " 375

" St. Louis Public Schools " 375

" Prehistoric Remains at Cincinnati " (Clarke) 376

" The Greenstones of New Hampshire " (Hawes) 376

" Filth-Diseases " (Simon) 376

" Fifty Years of my Life " (Albemarle) 376

" Massachusetts Health Report " 376

" Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences " 377

" Physics " (Arnott) 500

" Physical Fatalism" (Birks) 501

" Winds of Doctrine " (Elam) 502

" Inventional Geometry " (Spencer) 502

" Geographical Distribution of Animals " (Wallace) 504

" Inclusions in Gems " (Lea) 505

" Essays on Mind, Matter," etc. (Townsend) 505

Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia " (Ruschenberger) 506

• Dinychthys " (Newberry) 506

Textile Colorist 507

" Mechanics " (Rossiter) 377

" Fragments of Science" (Tyndall) 621

" Technological Dictionary " (Tolhausen) 621

" Principia " (Wright) 622

' The Problem of Problems " (Braden) ... 623

u

INDEX. 771

Books noticed : PAGE

" Aerial Navigation " (Mansfield) 623

" Idioms spoken in the Southwest " (Gatschet) 624

" Land-Birds of New England " (Minot) 624

" The Andes and the Amazon " (Orton) 625

" Science Lectures " 625

" Practical Cookery " (Henderson) 626

" Elementary Biology " (Huxley and Martin) 626

" Recent Advances in Science " (Tait) 627

" Essays in Literary Criticism " (Hutton) 627

" Life-History of our Planet " (Gunning) 628

American Library Journal 628

" Report of an Exploring Expedition " (Newberry) 629

" Forest-Culture " (Cooper) 629

" Vaccination " (Chapman) 629

" Rules for Dictionary Catalogue " (Cutter) 629

" Popular Health Almanac " 630

" Fonakigrafik Teacher " (Smith) 630

" Matter and Force " (Macomber) 630

" Surface-Drainage " (Folsom) 630

" Essential Piety of Modern Science " (Chadwick) 630

" Notes on Life-Insurance " (Smith) 751

" Functions of the Brain " (Ferrier) 752

" Carlyle Anthology " (Barrett) 753

" New Encyclopaedia of Chemistry " 753

" Archology " (Blakeslee) 753

" Plains of the Great West " (Dodge) 754

" Applications of Physical Forces " Guillemin) 754

" Bench and Bar of Saratoga County " (Mann) 755

" Art of Projecting " (Dolbear) 756

" Text-Book of Physiology " (Foster) 756

" Fleets of the World " (Parker) 756

Brandy, Cognac 428

British Arctic Expedition 379

Calculi, Intestinal, in Horses 760

Canine Sagacity 202

Canniff, W., Communication from 742

Canons of the Colorado 252

Caoutchouc-yielding Trees 126

Carlyle and the Darwins. 362

Cephalization 632

Chamberlain, C, Life in Lapland 450

Chemistry, The Science vs. the Art 691

Clarke, S. W., Laboratory Endowment 729

Clothing and Air 654

Coal and Iron in Alabama 637

Coal-Mines, Fires in 763

Coca, its Physiological Action 127, 251

Cognac Brandy, Production of 428

Cold in the Head, Remedy for 117

Cold, Meats cooked by 125

7?2 INDEX.

PAGB

" Cold Waves," Movements of 124

College Exploring Expeditions 249

Colorado, Insects and Flowers in 743

Combat with an Infective Atmosphere 641

Commercial Manias 371

Compressed- Air Locomotive. (Illustrated.) 473

" Conflict of Science and Religion," The So-called 72

Constancy of Motion 225

Cooke, Prof. J. P., Jr., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 491

Cooking-Utensils, Poisonous 252

Cooling the Air in Buildings 113

Copernican Theory, Evolution and the 236

Copyright, International 746

Crane, T. S., Ball-Paradox 725

Crookes, "William, his Scientific Labors. (Portrait.) 739

Daly, Charles P., Geographical Research in 1876 553

Dana on Cephalization 632

Darwins, Carlyle and the 362

Dawson, J. W., The Conflict of Science and Religion : 72

Deep-Sea Bottom Deposits .... , 378

Deodorization of Petroleum-Products . 251

Development, Difficulties of, as applied to Man 60

" Hypothesis, is it sufficient ? 86

Diatoms, are they absorbed by Plants ? 253

Disinfectant, Sulphurous Acid as a 762

Distance and Dimensions of the Sun. (Illustrated.) 402

Distribution of Plain, Prairie, and Forest 247

Draper, J. W., Science in America 319

Draper's Book at Rome 106

Earlier Forms of Life. (Illustrated.) 257

Early History of Fire. (Illustrated.) 17

" Man of North America 582

Earth, The, how it was regarded in Old Times. (Illustrated.) 542

" The, how it was explored in 1876 553

Eccentricity in Wood-Growth 379

Education, Bain on 620

u

" as a

in Massachusetts 635

Science 418, 513

Scientific, Prof. Martin on 368

Edward, Thomas, Sketch of. (Portrait.) 594

Edward, Thomas, his Biography 751

Electrical Phenomena of Dioncea muscipula 247

Electricity, Development of, by Light 510

" Effects of 121

Electric Light, its Economy • • • 763

Elephant, Voice of the 766

Entomological Specimens, Preservation of 125

Eucalyptus as an Anti-Periodic 249

Evolution and the Copernican Theory 236

INDEX. 773

PAGE

Evolution of the Horse 118

Evolution, What American Zoologists have done for 1, 181

Farquharson, R., Mental Overwork 326

Fermentation and Disease 129

Fermentation and Putrefaction 742

Fight between a Trout and a Water-Snake 234

Fire, Early History of. (Illustrated.) 17

Fires in Coal-Mines 763

First Popular Scientific Treatise 718

Fish, A Rapacious 760

Florida Cockroach 759

Flounders, Asymmetry of the Eyes in 636

Flowers, Insects, etc., in Colorado 361

Foray of Ants 117

Forestry Association, American 251

Formation of Raindrops and Hailstones. (Illustrated.) 522

French Association, The 115

Fruits, Abnormal 761

Galileo, Trial of. 385

Gallium 638

Gariel, C. M., Compressed- Air Locomotive 473

Gas Manufacture and Gas Companies 478

Geikie, Prof., Field-Geologist's Accoutrement 708

Geological Congress, International 381

Geology, How they teach, in Rome 120

Geographical Society, The American 508

" Getting right on the Record " 102, 363

Glacial Theory, Supplement to the 112

Glen Roy, Parallel Roads of. (Illustrated.) 309

Gorilla, The Berlin 511

Grote, A. R., Early Man in North America 582

Grote on the Peopling of America 764

Habit, Transmission of. 380

Hailstones, Formation of. (Illustrated.) 522

Health, The Laws of 198

Heart's Action, Experiments on 248

Hell-Gate Explosion - 105

Hitchcock, C. H., Earlier Forms of Life , 257

Horse, Prof. Huxley on the 369

Horses, Intestinal Calculi in 760

How to reach the Pole 508

Huxley's Lectures. (Illustrated.) 43, 103, 207, 285

Huxley, Biology 527

" Prof., on the Horse 369

Hygrometers 509

Hypnotism, Phenomena of 758

Ice Age in Great Britain 118

774

INDEX.

PAGE

Ice, Plasticity of. 637

Ice, Preservation of 764

lies, George, Constancy of Motion 225

Illinois (Southern) Academy of Science 763

Inequality of the Ocean-Bed ; 250

Infantile Culture ... 38

Insect Fertilization of Plants 380

Insects and Flowers in Colorado 361

" in Colorado 612

International Copyright 746

Intestinal Calculi in Horses 760

Invertebrate Brain, Nature of. (Illustrated.) 27

Iron Manufacture, Improvements in 249

Iron, Preservation of, against Rust 765

Is the Development Hypothesis sufficient ? 86

Is the Moon a Dead Planet ? 568

Japanese Metallurgy 115

Joly, Prof. N., History of Fire 17

Journeyings and Dispersal of Animals 576

Kauri Pine 123

Laboratory Endowment • 728

Langley, S. P., First Popular Scientific Treatise 719

Lapland, Nature and Life in 450

Laws of Health, The 198

Lectures of Prof. Huxley 103

Lewis E., Long Island Coast 434

Life, The Earlier Forms of. (Illustrated.) 257

Light, Electricity developed by 510

Lightning, Effects of, on Trees 120

Protection of Buildings from 154

" in a Telegraph-Office 511

Lily, Audubon's, rediscovered 675

Lockwood, Samuel, Audubon's Lily 675

Locomotive, Compressed-Air. (Illustrated.) 473

Locust-Plague, Efforts to stop the 380

Long Island Coast, Hps and Downs of. (Illustrated.) 434

McCosh, Dr. James, The Development Hypothesis 86

Man, Early, in North America 582

" Paleolithic , 250

" The Races of 508

Manias, Commercial 371

Marey's Experiments on the Heart's Action 248

Marriage, Primitive Theories of 272

Marsh, Prof., and his work 122

Martin, H. N, Biology 298

on Scientific Education 368

Mathematical Controversy 744

INDEX. 775

PAQR

Maudsley, H., The Medical Profession 330

Maxwell, Prof. J. Clerk, Protection from Lightning 154

Mayer, Prof. A. M., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 230

Meat and Eggs, Dietetic Value of. 381

Meats cooked by Cold 125

Mechanical Tools. (Illustrated.) 173

Medical Profession in Modern Thought 330

" Students, Qualifications of • 382

Meehan, Thomas, Communication from 102

Meehan, T., Insects, etc 743

Menopoma, how it casts its Skin 252

Mental Overwork 326

" Physiology, A Case in 235

Merriman, C. C, World-Creations 701

Meteorites, how regarded in Former Times 634

Meteorological 759

Meteor-Shower in October 253

Mezieres, A., Trial of Galileo 385

Mind, Annihilation of the 715

Mind-Reading 459

Monkey Astuteness 254

Monkeys, Sexual Selection among the 379

Moon, The, is it a Dead Planet ? 568

Moon's Influence on the "Weather 56

Mormonism 156

Morse, E. S., American Zoologists and Evolution 1, 181

Morse's Lectures 619

Motion, The Constancy of 225

Nature and Life in Lapland 450

Nature of the Invertebrate Brain. (Illustrated.) 27

Nature, The Order of the 748

Nickel-Ores in New Caledonia 120

Nitrogen, Absorption of, by Plants 510

Northerly Winds of California 119

Notes 127, 255, 383, 512, 639, 736

Numerals, Arabic, their Origin. (Illustrated.) 736

Ocean-Bed, Inequality of the 250

Order of Nature 748

Origin of the Arabic Numerals. (Illustrated.) 736

Overwork, Mental 326

Ozone-Generator 114

Paleolithic Man 250

Parallel Roads of Glen Roy. (Illustrated.) 309

Pavements, Wooden 118

Petroleum Products, Deodorization of 251

Pet Snakes 119

Pettenkofer, Max von, Air and Clothing 684

Philanthropic Fanaticism and Science 363

776 INDEX.

PAGE

Phylloxera, The, and American Vine-Stocks 511

Physical Science in English Schools 23

Physiological Action of Coca 251

Physiology of Mind-Reading 459

Picus Viridis, The Tongue of 113

Plain, Prairie, and Forest 247

Plant-Eaters of North America. (Illustrated.) , 678

Plants, Insect Fertilization of 380

" Taking Impressions of 254

Plasticity of Ice 637

Pole, How to reach the 508

Political Economy in the United States 367

Potassa, Qualitative Determination of 762

Potatoes, Influence of Color of Soil on 635

Powder-Paper ... 253

Prairies, Origin of. 633

Prenatal and Infantile Culture 38

Prestel, M. A. F., The Moon's Influence on the Weather 56

Proctor, R. A., Astronomical Achievement 446

* " " " Astronomy in America 75

Production of Cognac Brandy 428

Protection of Buildings from Lightning 154

Psychic Phenomena 763

Putrefaction and Fermentation 126

Putrescible Fluids, Experiments with 758

Qua, D. V. T., Arabic Numerals ' 736

Qualifications of Medical Students 382

Races of Man 508

Radiometer, Note on the 113

Railway-Signal, An Improved 253

Railways, Inspecting, by Machinery 126

Raindrops, Formation of. (Illustrated.) 522

Relations of the Air to our Clothing , 654

Remsen, Ira, Chemistry 691

Respirator, A New 122

Rigg, Rev. A., Tools 173

Rock-Crystals, Gathering of 383

Russel, C. P., Vital Statistics 697

Rust, Prevention of 765

Sagacity, Canine 202

Sanitary Fact, An Important 123

Savage Races, Decline of 765

Schumacher, P., Aboriginal Settlements 353

Science and Religion 72

" in America 313

" English Schools 23

" " the United States 115

" and Ventilation 760

INDEX. 777

PAGE

Science vs. Art of Chemistry 691

" Philanthropic Fanaticism and 363

" The Diffusion of 497

Scientific Education, Prof. Martin on 368

Seed-Production in the Sugar-Beet 122

Seguin, Dr. E., Prenatal and Infantile Culture 38

Selenium, Action of Light on 116

Settlements, Aboriginal, of the Pacific Coast'. (Illustrated.) 353

Sewage Utilization 123

Sexual Selection among the Monkeys 379

Sharks 348

Shells from Colorado 248

Signal, An Improved, for Railroads 253

Simmons, "W. E., Gas-Manufacture 478

Size of the Principal Telescopes in the World 574

Smith, Adam, Honor to .' 496

Societies for the Diffusion of Science 497

Soil, Color of, its Influence 635

Solar Distillery 758

Some Questions answered 616

Spencer, Herbert, Primitive Marriage 272

Spencer's Classification of Sciences 609

Spider, A Fishing 762

Spontaneous Generation 757

Statistics, Vital ' 697

Steam, Economy in Use of. 382

Struggle for Existence 382

Studies of an Engineer 509

Study and Teaching of Biology 298

Study of Biology 527

Sugar-Beet, Seed-Production in 122

Sulphurous Acid as a Disinfectant 762

Summer School of Natural History 766

Sun, Distance and Dimensions of the. (Illustrated.) 402

Supplement to the Glacial Theory 112

Talking by Telegraph 507

Telescopes, Size of the Principal 574

Tenney, S., Plant-Eaters 678

Theories of Primitive Marrriage 272

Thomson, Sir W., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 357

Tomato-Plant, The, as a Protection against Insects 250

Tools, Mechanical. (Illustrated.) 173

Transfusion of Blood 761

Transmission of Habit •* 380

Trial of Galileo 385

Trowbridge, J., Annihilation of the Mind 715

Tyndall and Roberts on Abiogenesis 757

Tyndall, John, Fermentation 129

" " Infective Atmosphere 641

" " Glen Roy 309

778 INDEX.

PAGE

Ups and Downs of the Long Island Coast. (Illustrated.) 434

Ventilation, Science and 760

Venus's Fly-Trap, Electrical Phenomena of 247

Vesuvius, Threatened Eruption of 763

Vines, American, and the Phylloxera 511

Vital Statistics < 697

Vivisection, Legislation about. 125

Wallace, A. R., Difficulties of Development 60

Water-Snake and Trout, Fight between 234

Water-Tanks 124

Weapons, Ancient 255

Weather, The Moon's Influence on the 56

Wedderburn, D., Mormonism .....' 156

Winds, Northerly, of California '. 119

Wood- Ants, Habits of. 634

Wood-Growth, Eccentricity in 379

Wood Pavements , 118

World-Creations 701

Young, C. A., The Sun 402

END OF VOL. X.

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