-•01

■'O'

^y;:S;#»*w?fgc

X.\

1^ >^vH\W\\

>^/

r, 7i/

Ml / ■

///

i'^

'■m. ''

FREDERICK A. P. BARNARD.

THE

POPULAE SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

CONDUCTED BY E, L. AND W. J. YOUMANS.

VOL. XL

MAY TO OCTOBER, 1877.

NEW YORK :
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

549 & 551 BROADWAY,

1877.

COPTEIGHT BY

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1877.

/ 0 ^f 3 X

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

MAY, 1877.

GAE-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG.

By Professor BURT G. WILDER,

OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

SOME readers of The Popular Science Monthly may never have
seeu gar-pikes, or even heard of them. The word does not occur
in some of the dictionaries, and the animals themselves are found
alive only in certain parts of the world. So, before telling what gar-
pikes do, it is necessary to explain what they are.

^1 M ' I n I M 1 1 F

Fig. 1.— The Shokt-nosed Gar-Pike (Lepidosteus plaiysiomus).
Nearly adult, one-fourth natural length. O, the gill cover, or operculum. P, the pectoral, and Ve,
the ventral, fin of the left side. D and A, the dorsal and anal fins. DF and VF, the " fulcra "
which cover the dorsal and ventral borders of the root of the tail. X indicates the point where
the eection shown in Fig. 3 was made. The scales are shown in the next figure.

In the first place, the gar-pike is not a weapon, but a vertebrated
animal. The vertebrates include all animals having a spine or back-
bone made up of a series of segments or vertebrce. But this common
definition is not wholly accurate. For the very young of man and
monkeys, quadrupeds and birds, reptiles and fishes, have no skeleton
at all ; and some of the lowest fishes, the Amphioxus and the lam-
prey-eels, have no bones. So the vertebrates are now said to include
all animals having a longitudinal axis or spine (whether membrane,
cartilage, or bone) separating an upper or dorsal cavity, containing
the spinal cord and brain, from a lower or ventral cavity, containing

VOL. XI. — 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the stomach, intestine, heart, and other organs of vegetative life. This
is shown in Fig. 3.

Let us now go one step further and learn what kind of a verte-
brate is the gar-pike. At present the most natural primary subdivi-
sion of the branch seems to be into three great groups. The liighest

Fig. 2.— Part of the Side op the Body of Lepidosteus platystomus,

Natural size, showing the arrangement of the enameled scales. Below is an outline of a single

scale ; the point is covered by the scale in front.

is the Mammalia, comprising our common quadrupeds, also bats, mon-
keys and men, seals and whales. The females of all these bring forth
their young alive, and nourish them with milk.

Next come the Sauropsida, including birds, turtles, crocodiles,
lizards, and snakes. Lastly, the Ichthyopsida, embracing the Ba-
trachians (frogs, toads, and salamanders), and all other vertebrates.

Evidently, our gar-pike is neither a mammal nor a bird, a turtle,
a snake, nor a lizard. It does look a little like an alligator, but it has
not only fins and scales, but also gills ^ which are not known to exist
in any reptile ; while all the Ichthyopsida have gills during at least a
part of their lives. The gar-pike is neither a frog nor a toad; it has
scales and fin-rays unlike salamanders. Why, then, not call it a.Jish f

Fig. 3.— Cross-Section (Natural Size) of the Short-nosed GAE-riKE {Lepidosteus plafys-

tomvs),

Showlntr the general arrangement of the organs which is characteristic of vertebrates. The sec-
tion is made in front of the ventral flns at the point indicated by Xon Fig. 1. The cut sur-
face is looked at from beliind. Near the middle is the vertebral column or backbone (VC).
Above it i? the spinal cord (6'0, surrounded by bony walls. Below are the abdominal viscera.
A is the median aorta. T' V the lateral veins. J/A is the median channel of the air-bladder,
and LA, LA, are its lateral chambers. The cavity of the stomach (Al) is on the left, and the
liver (L). with two veins, on the ri^'ht. O, O are the two ovaries, of which tlie left lies far-
ther forward so that its section is smaller. The whole is surrounded by the muscular walls
of the body (M,M, M, M), and this again is covered by the plates of the skin.

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG. 3

Because, unfortunately, we are not sure that there are any "fish-
es." The terms "beast, bird, and fish," notwithstanding common
usage and the sanction of Scripture, are devoid of scientific accuracy.
For " beast " includes turtles and alligators, and excludes the aquatic
mammals, whales, porpoises, manatee, and dugong. "Bird" includes
bats and pterodactyls, and excludes the ostriches and penguins, which
cannot fly. So " fish " is not only held by some persons to embrace
the aquatic mammals, but also, when employed in a stricter sense, it
includes forms differing among themselves in many important points.

At any rate, the " fish-like vertebrates " present the following well-
marked groups :

1. Amphioxus lanceolatus ; the lancelet. A single genus with
perhaps a single species, but so peculiar as to have received the fol-
lowing appellations : Branchiostoma, Cirrostomi, Pharyngobranchii,
Leptocardia, Acrania, Entomocrania, Dermopteri.

2. Myzonts, or Marsipobranchii ; the hag-fishes and lamprey-eels.

3. Plagiostomes, or Elasmobranchii; sharks and skates.

4. Ilolocephala; the (7^^ma?/'a and Callorhynchus.

5. Ganoids ; the sturgeons (Acipenser and ScaphyrhyncMis) ; the
spoonbill [Polyodon) ; the mud-fish (Amia) ; the gar-pike {Lepidos-
teus) ; and the Polypterus and Galamoichthys of Africa, with many
fossil forms.

6. Dipnoans ; the mud-fishes of Africa, South America, and Aus-
tralia {Protopterus, Z/epidosiren, and Ceratodus).

All of the above were formerly, and are now popularly, regarded
as fishes.

But tlie fishes, proper, or ordinary fishes, are now called:

7. Teleosts ; the perch, salmon, cod, mackerel, and. all others not
included within the other six groups.

Some have included Amjyhioxus with the Myzonts ; others the
Plagiostomes with the Ganoids. The most natural combination
seems to be that of the Ganoids with the Teleosts ; and to this larger
group the term Pisces has been applied. But for the present it is
safer to recognize the distinctions, and to make our generalizations
more exact.

What, then, is a gar-pike ? Is it a Ganoid or a Teleost ? Curiously
enough, tlie prefix "gar" (signifying a dart or pointed weapon) is
employed to designate two fishes, of which one {Belone) is a marine
Teleost, and the other [Lejndosteus) is a fluviatile Ganoid. Both
have long jaws with sharp teeth, but in other respects they are very
unlike. It will be better to call Belone the " gar-fish " and Lepidos-
teus the gar-pike.^

The general appearance of the gar-pike is sufficiently indicated by

' These common names are very perplexing. Thus the true pike is Esox. The name
dog-fish is popularly applied to Menobranchus. a batrachian ; to Amia, a ganoid ; and to
Acanthias, a shark.

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the fio-ure. The body is an elongated cylinder covered with hard and
shining scales closely joined, and leaving as vulnerable points only
the throat and gills, the eyes, and the parts just under the pectoral
fins. The tail is moderate in size and rounded, the longest rays a
little above the middle, so that it is not quite symmetrical. Upon the
hinder part of the back is the dorsal fin, and below the dorsal an
anal fin, immediately in front of which is the vent or outlet of the
alimentary canal. The parired fins, pectoral and ventral, occupy the
places natural to them as representatives of the anterior and jjoste-
rior limbs of salamanders and alligators.

The length of the head varies in the difierent species, but, whether
longer or shorter, the jaws are furnished with rows of very sharj) and
closely-set teeth. The apparent form of these teeth is a simple elon-
gated cone ; but it has been shown by Prof. Jefliies Wyman that
their surface is really deeply folded, so that a cross-section resembles
that of the teeth of the curious fossil Batrachians, called, for that
reason, Labyrinthodonts. The eyes are of moderate size. As with
ordinary fishes, the ears do not appear externally. The nostrils are
two pair of small holes at the tip of the snout, communicating with an
olfactory sac on each side; the lining of this sac presents one median
longitudinal and many transverse folds.

The genus Lepidostetis, according to Huxley, has not been found
eai'lier than the Tertiary rocks ; although the family Lepidosteidm is
represented by more or less numerous genera as far back as the Car-
boniferous and perhaj^s (by Cheirolepis) in the Devonian.

True gar-pikes are not found in Europe, Asia, Africa, or Austra-
lia, or in South America ; while in North America they seem to be
nearly confined to the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and the
Gi'eat Lakes.'

Prof. Poey has also recorded the existence of a gar-pike in Cuba,
a fact which is interesting, not as an indication of "manifest destiny,"
but as a memorial of the supposed ancient connection between the
West India Islands and our continent. None have been found in salt-
water, and the writer has no knowledge as to how far they enter the
mixed water at the mouth of the Mississippi; but their tenacity of
life encourages the belief that they might possibly adapt themselves
to the ocean. Their introduction into New England waters would
afford to Eastern zoologists the much-desired opportunity of studying
their development, of which nothing whatever is known.

We must now inquire whether there are more than one species of
Le^ndosteus.

Unfortunately, this question involves several otliers. For the
genus Lepidosteus, established by Laccpede for the single species

' A few examples have been taken in Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, having
probably entered by the canal at iti3 northern end ; it is said to occur in the Susque-
hanna River, Pennsylvania. It is lately reported that a species has been found in China.

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG. 5

osseus, has since been subdivided by some authors into Lepidosteus,
Cylindrosteus, and Litholepis, or Atractosteus ; and nearly forty spe-
cific names have been applied. One of these, Sarchirus, merely de-
notes the lobed state of the pectoral fin of the young gar (as will be
shown further on), and most of the others seem to be based upon
individual or geographical variations. Much more remains to be
learned before the exact number of species can be ascertained; mean-
time, we may safely admit the three following :

L. osseus, the bony gar, having a long and narrow snout, and
rarely attaining five feet in length ; L. platystomus, the short-nosed
gar, with a short and broad snout, as the name implies ; and X. ada-
mantinus, the alligator-gar or diamond-gar, with a short and wide
snout, but attaining a greater size than the other two, and more com-
mon in the southern part of the Mississippi Valley. Probably the
careful comparison of many individuals will oblige us to admit one or
two additional species.

Notwithstanding, however, the peculiarities by which several of the
species of Ziepidosteus may be distinguished, so many and so obvious
are the features which unite them together, and separate them from
all other fishes, that they are recogtiized by all as belonging together,
just as are the catfishes, the suckers, or the sturgeons.

Moreover, their internal structure, so far as it has been ascer-
tained, presents a remarkable uniformity, whence we may infer that
there is no important difierence in their functions or habits, except-
ing in so far as may depend upon their circumstances, their food, etc.
It is desii'able to ascertain the extent of this variation, by accurate
observation of carefully-determined examples, but on the present
occasion we must be content, although unwillingly, with the assump-
tion that what one gar has done another gar can do.'

Like most other New England zoologists, the writer had been long
obliged to content himself with dead gar-pikes, and with the some-
what unsatisfactory figures and descriptions which occur in a few
zoological works. He had gained some more vivid impressions from
the words and blackboard sketches of him who regarded " the estab-
lishment of the order of Ganoids as the most important advance which
he had brought about in ichthyology." "^

But even these privileges only increased the desire to behold the
gar alive and active, and to realize the delight expressed by the great
teacher when first enabled to observe them ujDon his journey to Lake
Superior.

' Unwillingly, because all such assumptions are very undesirable. There have proved
to be exceptions to nearly all general rules, whether of structure or of functions, as is
shown in a paper by the writer, entitled " Is Nature inconsistent ? " — (The Galaxy, April,
1876.)

' Although most other zoologists have differed with Agassiz respecting the limits of
the group, the name has been generally retained.

6 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

When, therefore, the writer found himself upon the Illinois River
(at Peoria, Illinois), his steps almost instinctively sought the water, in
the somewhat uni-easonable expectation of being first greeted by a
majestic " gar," rather than by some of the many kinds of ordinary
fish so abundant in the Western rivers.

The first glance was disappointing. The river here widens into a
basin known as Peoria Lake ; and from the fishermen's pier, project-
ing some forty feet from the shore, could be seen no sign, near or
remote, of the hoped-for mail-clad fish. The fishermen, who had not
yet become acquainted with that unnatural perversity of naturalists
whicli causes them to prize some things inversely as their beauty,
their gentleness, and their commercial value, called attention to the
" cats," " buffaloes," and other marketable fish swarming in the sunken
pens, and promised to bring in some gars from their next haul ; add-
ing some emphatic statements as to the superabundance of these and
of ot!ier such trash.

Just then, gliding slowly about very near the surface, and ap-
parently undisturbed by the splashing of the bulky " cats " and " buf-
faloes," was seen a slender little fish less than three inches long. It
was a young gar-pike. It might easily have escaped between the bars
of the tanks, but instead remained within arm's-length of the edge
of the open trap, moving gently to and fro as if courting observation.

A tin cup was anxiously brought : it was dipped into the water,
slowly approached, and quickly lifted. The gar was there. But,
floating as usual at the surface, a slight tilting of the cup spilt it back
again into the water. To the astonishment of all, it soon reappeared
in its former place, seeming actually to welcome death for the sake of
(scientific) immortality.

By a second and more careful effort the young gar was secured,
and soon transferred to the basin of water which was destined to be
its home for three weeks.

During that time a part of each day was spent in observation of
its foi-m and its movements, and in comparing it with other gars, old
and young.

Their Habits. — None of the young gars observed by the writer
showed any disposition to attack each other or the small fishes placed
with them ; and the stomachs of the two adults examined with refer-
ence to this point contained only a few grasshoppers. But the many
and sharp teeth are evidently well fitted for seizing living and active
prey, and the fishermen accuse the gai'S of destroying large numbers
of food-fishes. On this account, as also in revenge for the damage
done by tliem when entangled in the nets, the fishermen are said to
throw them out upon the bank to die, or to i^lunge them forcibly head
first into the soft mud. More information is needed as to the food of
the gar.

The following brief account of their manner of feeding is from a

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG.

report of some remarks of Prof. Agassiz on young, living gar-pikes
from Lake Ontario, before the Boston Society of Natural History, in

1856:

" The manner of feeding also is unlike that of other fishes, and
resembles tliat of reptiles. Other fishes take their food and swallow
it at once, with open mouth. But this one (the young gar) approaches
its prey (in this case small minnows) slyly, sidewise, and, suddenly
seizing it, holds it in its jaws until, by a series of movements, it suc-
ceeds in getting it into a proper position for swallowing, as is the
habit with lizards and alligators."

Before attaching much importance to the reptilian analogies here
suo-o-ested, it should be ascertained whether the mode of swallowing
above described is not followed by certain long-billed Teleosts (as
Belone, etc.), and, on the other hand, discarded by the short-headed
gar, whose jaws have nearly the form of the pickerel. Upon the
whole, the gars and other typical Ganoids seem to haye affinities
with Batrachians rather than with scaly reptiles.

The flesh of the gar is soft, and speedily decays. In Wood's
" Natural History," it is stated that " the flesh of the bony pike is
said to be good ; " and Prof. W. S. Barnard informs me that the gars,
especially the young, are not infrequently used as food by whites in
Wisconsin, and by both whites and negroes in Mississippi. Still,
there is no reason for believing that the flesh is particularly desirable.

In this connection, it is worth noting that little use as food is
made by man of the representatives of the Ganoids and the Plagio-
stomes, which, as shown by fossil remains, were created before the
ordinary fishes. Some kinds of skates are eaten on the French "coast,
and sturgeons are known as " Albany beef," but no comparison can
be made between them and the salmon, the cod, or the mackerel.

While watching the living gar, w^hether old or young, one of the
first things noted is that it not only remains usually near the surface,
but, at short intervals, actually protrudes the head from the water.
In so doing, it turns partly over upon one side, emits a large bubble
of air, executes a slight gulj)ing movement of the jaws and throat,
and sinks again below the surface; immediately afterward a few
smaller bubbles escape from the gill-slit on each side of the neck.
The foregoing is a very bald and inadequate description of a curi-
ous and, when first observed, astonishing operation. The movements
are very rapid, and almost convulsive, as if the fish were suddenly
oppressed by something, and hastened to remove it. The little gar
first obtained almost invariably turned upon the left side, the air
escaping from the right ; this uniformity w^as not observed with the
others. Occasionally they would open the jaws widely, as if gaping;
and at other times the sides of the mouth were spread laterally.

With reference to the young gars from Lake Ontario already
mentioned. Prof. Agassiz is reported as follows: "This fish is re-

8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

markable for the large quantity of air which escapes from its mouth.
The source of this air he has not been able to determine. At certain
times it approaches the surface of the water, and seems to take in
air, but he could not think that so large a quantity as is seen adhering
in the form of bubbles to the sides of the gills could have been
swallowed, nor could he suppose that it could be secreted by the gills
themselves."

Since the exhalation of air from any source is evidently as easily
performed below the surface, the periodical ascent of the gars goes
far to show that there is likewise an inhalation. But as it was not
easy to determine this, on account of the small size of the young gars
and the difficulty of handling the older ones, the writer experimented
upon another Western Ganoid, the Amia, or " mud-fish," or " doo--
hsh."

When i^laced in a tank the Amia kept near the bottom, and
seemed to prefer the darker portions. But it came to the surface at
pretty regular intervals, emitting one or two large bubbles from the
mouth, and, on descending, several smaller ones from tlie opercular
orifice.

The fish was gradually accustomed to having the body gently em-
braced by the hand about the middle.

Fig. 4.— Vertical Longitudinal Section op the Head op Lepidosteus platystomus. One-
half Natural Diameter.

Br, the brain cut on the median line po as to show the ventricles of the two hinder lobei», the
cerebellum and optic lobes. SC, the spinal cord passino; backward into the canal of the ver-
tebral column ( Tx'). CT. a mass of connective tissue filling the hinder part of the brain-cav-
ity. HP. the right hyi)opharyngeal bone, just in front of the passage XCH) from the throat
{Al) upward and backward into the air-bladder {A). Ve is a valve which seems to guard_ the
opening from within ; a corresponding valve is on the left side. LA is one of the openings
from the median channel of the air-bladder into a lateral chamber. X is the liver, which ter-
minates forward in a large blood-vessel, BV- A and Fare the auricle and ventricle of the
heart ; BA, the branchial artery; and ba, the cut ends of the smaller arteries to the gills on the
right side. T is the tongue.

Having been thus prepared, the fish was permitted to swim to and
fro in the tank, but prevented from rising. It soon became uneasy,
and, after a few not very violent efforts to disengage itself, emitted a
large bubble of air.

Now, if this emission were all that was necessary we may suppose
that it would have remained quiet for another period. On the con-
trary, after a second or two of repose (perhaps resulting from the
habit of being satisfied after the respiratory act), the fish became more
and more uneasy, moved rapidly to and fro, turned and twisted and
lashed with its tail, and finally, by a violent effort, escaped from the
hand. It rose to the surface, and, withovt emitting any bubble, opened

GAR-PIKES, OLD A.VD TO DWG.

its Jaws widely and apparently gulped in a large volume of air,
then descended and remained quiet for the usual interval.

It

FiQ. 5 —View from below of the TJppeb or Dorsal Wall op the Throat of the Long-
nosed Gar {Lepidosteus osseus). One-half Natural Diameter.

The oesophai^us is removed exceptinsf that part of the dorsal wall (.4/) which is closely attached to
the air-bladder (.4). Its cut edges are indicated by x x. Ch is the opeuinij or •' chiuli " lead-
ing into the air-bladder, and V Cindicate projecting points at the sides of the chink. HP, hy-
popharyngeal bones armed with teeth.

The escaping air should be chemically examined. But, so far as
the experiments go, it seems probable that, with both Amia and
Lepldosteus, there occurs an inhalation as well as exhalation of air at
pretty regular intervals, the whole process resembling that of the
Menohranchus and other salamanders, and the tadpoles, which, as the
gills shrink and the lungs increase, come more frequently to the sur-
face for air.

But the reader may say : " These fishes have gills, of course ; but
have they also lungs ? " To this the answer is both yes and no ; for
there are at least two different ways of interpreting certain facts ;
and some definitions are not as yet wholly agreed upon.

Fig. 6.— Cross-Section of the Air-Bladder of L osseus. One-half Natural Diameter.
The central open space is the median channel; on each side is seen one of the numerous sabdi-
visions of the lateral portions of the air-bladder. Above are the median aorta and the two
lateral veins, as in fig. 3.

The facts are as follows : the Lepidostens and Amia, like many
other fishes, have an air-bladder — a sac lying under the spine and
above the alimentary canal, and communicating by a slit-like orifice
with the upper side of the throat. With sturgeons and catfishes and
most common fishes, the sac is nearly or quite simple, and the com-
munication with the throat may be very narrow or even closed Such
fishes are not known to swallow air, and there is need of further infor-
mation as to the composition and source of the contained gas. But
the air-bladder of A>>u'a 2A\^ Lepidosteus is divided into many cells,

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

so as to resemble a frog's iungs ; and the walls and partitions of these
cells have many blood-vessels. These air-bladders are, in fact, more
cellular and more vascular than the lungs of Menohranchus^ or the
hinder and larger portion of the lungs of serpents. And, in the light
of the observations already recorded, there seems good reason for be-
lieving that pure air is inhaled and vitiated air exhaled whenever the
fish rises to the surface.

It is worth noting, also, that both Amia and Lepidosteus are very
tenacious of life, and endure removal from the water for a time much
better than do the sturgeons, whose air-bladders are neither cellular
nor vascular. The latter, also, are bottom-feeders, while the gars seem
to keep near the surface of the water.

Why, then, are not these air-bladders lungs ?

The most obvious objection is, that their openings are into the
upper or dorsal side of the throat, while the glottis of batrachians,
reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, and ourselves, communicates with the
lower or ventral side.

This objection may be met in two ways. In the first place, if al-
lowed, we should have to admit that all the so-called air-breathing
vertebrates have organs (the lungs) which have no representative in
the fishes, and that most of the latter have an organ (the air-blad-
der) which has no representative in the former.

It is true that some fishes have no air-bladder ; but with some, as
Amphioxtis, the lamprey-eels, the sharks,* and the skates, we may in-
fer that it has not yet become developed ; while with others, as the
fiat fishes, the air-bladder may have been lost through what may be
called a local retrograde metamorphosis.

It is important to note, also, that an air-bladder and lungs have
never been found in one and the same animal ; and since arms, front-
legs, flippers, and wings, are all regarded as modifications of the same
organs, anterior limbs ; and since, in many other cases, organs of
very different size, form, complexity, and function, are considered as
homologous, we shall be following precedent in admitting a willing-
ness to regard air-bladders and lungs as modifications of the same
organ.

But the true argument against the objection is derived from the
existence of transition forms, or links, between air-bladders and lungs,
as to the position of the organs themselves, and their communications
with the alimentary canal.

"With Amia and Ijepidostetis the air-bladder and the opening of
the duct are both dorsal. With the Brazilian fish called £Jri/thrim(S
(as first stated by Johannes Milller, and lately verified by the writer),
the duct opens iipon one side of the throat. In the lately-discov-
ered Ceratodus of Australia, as described by Gtlnther, the sac and duct
are single, but the former is vascular, and the latter enters at the left

' Maclay has figured a rudimentary air-bladder in certain ehark-embryos.

GAR-PIKES, OLD AXD YOUNG.

11

of the ventral surface. With two African Ganoids, Polypterits and
Galamoichthys (as also stated by Miiller, and verified by the writer as
to the latter genus) the sac is double, and communicates with the ven-
tral side in the median line ; but it is slightly cellular, as in Meno-
branclius.

A. sturgeons and many Teleosts.

B. Amia and Lepidosteus.

C. ErythrinuK.

G. Ceratodus.

D. Polypterus, Calamokhihys.

E. Lepidosiren, Protopterus.

F. Eeptiles, birds, mammals.

Fig. 7.— Diagbams bepresenting the Con~nection' betwe'^n the Air-bi^adber or Lxing and
THE Alimentary Canal in Certain Vertebrates.

^/, the alimentary canal, vl, the air-bladder. J.Z>. the air-diict.

The flsjures at the right show the alimentary canal and air-bladder from the left side ; those at the
left represent cross-sectioiis more or less foreshortened in some cases.

A A' represent the simple condition-connections of the air-bladder in the stiirgeons {Acipen-
ser) and in most Teleosts where the air duct remains open. B B' represent the arrange-
ment in Amia and Lepidosteuf!. where the duct opens upon the dorsal side of the throat, but
the bladder is more or less cellular. The hinder end of the bladder is left open to indicate its
great length in Lettidoxteus. In C C is shown the arrangement in Ei-ythrinus. The bladder
is still upon the dorsal side, but the front part is separated from the hinder two-thirds by a
constriction, and the long duct passes f irward from just behind the constriction to enter the
left side of the throat. There are fibrous partitions in part of the bladder, but I do not know
that they are vascular. The condition in Ceratodus is shown at G ; the bladder is single but
vascular, and the duct opens on the ventral side, but not in the middle line.

In the remaining figures the air-duct opens on the lower or ventral surtoce of the throat, and
the air-bladder is in two parts, which unite at the duct, but separate backward and lie
upon the sides of the stomach, or even to gome extent upon its dorsal surface nest the back-
bone. In the side-views only the left sac is seen ; in the cross-sections the whole is fore-
shortened so as to bring it into one plane. In Polypterus and Calamoichthys the inner surface
of the sacs is nearly smooth, but in Lepidosiren, as in the salamanders, it is more or less
folded and vascular, and is also connected with the heart bv special vessels. In the reptiles,
birds, and mammals, the duct or trachea soon divides into the two bronchial tubes.

Finally, in the " mud-fishes " of Africa and South America (Pro-
topterus and Lepidosireii) the duct is ventral, and the air-bladder is a
double and lung-like sac with stiff walls.

This series seems to connect the air-bladder of the fishes with the
lungs of the true aerial vertebrates, and to remove the objection

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

based upon the different position of the communication between them
and the alimentary canal.*

But another and perhaps more weighty objection has been urged
by Prof. Huxley. He says: "But such air- sacs are air-bladders
and not lungs, because they receive their blood from the adjacent
arteries of the body, and not direct from the heart, while their
efferent vessels are connected only with the veins of the general cir-
culation."

According to this view, therefore, the Dipnoans {JProto2:itervs and
Lepidosireyi) have lungs, because the blood goes to the air-sacs by a
pulmonary artery, and returns by a pulmonary vein into a left auricle ;
while the cellular and vascular air-bladders of Amia and Leindostexis
are not lungs, because such an arrangement does not exist.

Yet Prof Huxley applies the name placenta to the vascular inter-
digitations by which the young of some sharks are connected with the
mother, although they are developed from the yolk and not, as in
mammals, from the chorion. It would be interesting to know whether
the nerves of the air-bladder are the same as those of the lungs.

The best test of the naturalness of the definition would be fur-
nished by the discovery of some form having the pulmonaiy vessels
connected with an air-bladder lying upon the dorsal side of the ali-
mentary canal. Meantime, since all are agreed upon the facts, the
question concerns interpretations and definitions.

Whether or not the air-bladder of the gar-pike is entitled to the
name of lung, we may admit that it corresponds with a lung in its
essential connection with the alimentary canal, and apparently in its
function as an organ for aiding the oxygenation of the blood.

-♦♦♦-

MESMEEISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TUENING, A^^D

SPIRITUALISM.*

By WILLIAM B. CAEFENTER, C. B., M. D., LL. D., F. E. S.

I.

THE aphorism that "history repeats itself" is in no case more true
than in regard to the subject on which I am now to address you.
For there has been a continuity from the very earliest times of a be-
lief, more or less general, in the existence of " occult " agencies, capable
of manifesting themselves in the production of mysterious phenomena,

' In fact, considering the resemblance of the brains and enameled scales of Lfpidosteus
and Pohiptcrns, and the differences of their air-bladders and ducts, one is inclined to re-
gard the latter as of slight taxonomic importance.

' This discussion, in which the subjects are considered historically and scientifically,
is an expansion of the lectures delivered at the London Institution.

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 13

of which ordinary experience does not furnish the rationale. And
while this very continuity is maintained by some to be an evidence of
the real existence of such agencies, it will be my purpose to show you
tliat it proves nothing more than the wide-spread diftusion, alike among
minds of the highest and of the lowest culture, of certain tendencies to
thought, which have either created ideal marvels possessing no foun-
dation whatever in fact, or have by exaggeration and distortion in-
vested with a preternatural character occurrences which ai-e perfectly
capable of a natural explanation. Thus, to go no further back than
the first century of the Christian era, we find the most wonderful nar-
rations, alike in the writings of pagan and Christian historians, of the
doings of the Eastern " sorcerers " and Jewish " exorcists " who had
spread themselves over the Roman Empire. Among these the Simon
Magus slightly mentioned in the book of Acts was one of the most
conspicuous, being recorded to have gained so great a repute for his
" ma^-ic arts " as to have been summoned to Rome by Nero to exhibit
them before him ; and a Christian father goes on to tell how, when
Simon was borne aloft through the air in a winged chariot in the sight
of the emperor, the united praters of the apostles Peter and Paul, pre-
vailing over the demoniacal agencies that sustained him, brought him
precipitately to the ground. In our own day, not only are we seri-
ously assured by a nobleman of high scientific attainments that he
himself saw Mr. Home sailing in the air, by moonlight, out of one
window and in at another, at a height of seventy feet from the ground ;
but eleven persons unite in declaring that Mrs. Guppy was not only
conveyed through the air in a trance all the way from Highbury Park
to Lamb's Conduit Street, but was brought by invisible agency into a
room of which the doors and windows were closed and fastened, com-
ing " plump down " in a state of complete unconsciousness and partial
deshabille upon a table, round which they were sitting in the dark,
shoulder to shoulder.

Of course, if you accept the testimony of these witnesses to the
aerial flights of Mr. Home and Mrs. Guppy, you can have no reason
whatever for refusing credit to the historic evidence of the demoniacal
elevation of Simon Magus, and the victory obtained over his demons
by the two apostles. And you are still more bound to accept the
solemnly-attested proofs recorded in the proceedings of our law courts
within the last two hundred years, of the aerial transport of witches
to attend their demoniacal festivities ; the belief in witchcraft being
then accepted not only by the ignorant vulgar, but by some of the
wisest men of the time, such as Lord Bacon and Sir Matthew Hale,
Bishop Jewell, Richard Baxter, Sir Thomas Browne, and Addison,
while the denial of it was considered as virtual atheism.

The general progress of rationalism, however, as Mr, Lecky has
well shown, has changed all this ; and to accept any of these marvels
we must place ourselves in the mental attitude of the narrator of Mrs.

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Guppy's flight, who glories in being so completely unfettered by
scientific prejudices as to be free to swallow anything, however pre-
posterous and impossible in the estimation of scientific men, that his
belief in " spiritual " agencies may lead him to expect as probable.

If time permitted, it w^ould be my endeavor to show you, by an his-
torical examination of these marvels, that there has been a long suc-
cession of ejiidemic delusions, the form of which has changed from
time to time, while their essential nature has remained the same
throughout ; and that the condition which underlies them all is tJie
subjection of the mind to a dominant idea. There is a constitutional
tendency in many minds to be seized by some strange notion which
takes entire possession of them ; so that all the actions of the individ-
ual thus " possessed " are results of its operation. This notion may
be of a nature purely intellectual, or it may be one that strongly inter-
ests the feelings. It may be confined to a small group of individuals,
or it may spread through vast multitudes. Such delusions are most
tyrannous and most liable to spread when connected with religious
enthusiasm: as we see in the dancing and flagellant manias of the
middle ages ; the supposed demoniacal possession that afterward be-
came common in the nunneries of France and Germany ; the ecstatic
revelations of Catholic and Protestant visionaries; the strange per-
formances of the Convulsionnaires of St.-Medard, which have been
since almost paralleled at Methodist " revivals " and camp-meetings ;
the preaching epidemic of Lutheran Sweden, and many other out-
breaks of a nature more or less similar. But it is characteristic of
some of the later forms of these epidemic delusions that they have
connected themselves rather with science than with religion. In fact,
just as the performances of Eastern magi took the strongest hold of
the Roman mind when its faith in its old religious beliefs was shaken
to its foundations, so did the grandiose pretensions of Mesmer — who
claimed the discovery of a new force in Nature, as universal as gravi-
tation, and more mysterious in its effects than electricity and magnet-
ism— find the most ready welcome among skeptical votaries of novelty
who paved the way for the French Revolution ; and this pseudo-scien-
tific idea gave the general direction to the doctrines taught by Mes-
mer's successors, until, in the supposed " spiritualistic " manifestations,
a recurrence to the religious form took place, which, I think, may be
mainly traced to the emotional longing for some assurance of the con-
tinued existence of departed friends, and hence of our own future ex-
istence, which the intellectual loosening of time-honored beliefs as to
the immortality of the soul has brought into doubt with many.

I must limit myself, however, to this later phase of the history, and
shall endeavor to show you how completely the extravagant preten-
sions of mesmerism and odylism have been disproved by scientific in-
vestigation ; all that is genuine in their phenomena having been ac-
counted for by well-ascertained physiological principles; while the

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 15

evidence of their higher marvels has invariably broken down when
submitted to the searching tests imposed by the trained experts whom
I maintain to be alone qualified to pronounce judgment upon the
matter.

Nothing is more common than to hear it asserted that these are
subjects which any person of ordinary intelligence can investigate for
himself. But the chemist and the physicist would most assuredly
demur to any such assumption in regard to a chemical or physical
inquiry; the physiologist and geologist would make the same protest
against the judgment of unskilled persons in questions of physiology
and geology; and a study of mesmerism, odylisra, and spiritualism,
extending over more than forty years, may be thought to justify me
in contending that a knowledge of the physiology and pathology of
the human mind, of its extraordinary tendency to self-deception in re-
gard to matters in which its feelings are interested, of its liability to
place undue confidence in persons having an interest in deceiving, and
of the modes in which fallacies are best to be detected and frauds ex-
posed, is an indispensable qualification both for the discrimination of
the genuine from the false, and for the reduction of the genuine to its
true shape and proportions.

And I further hold, not only that it is quite legitimate for the in-
quirer to enter upon this study with that " prepossession " in favor of
the ascertained and universally admitted laws of Nature which believ-
ers in spiritualism make it a reproach against men of science that they
entertain, but also that experience proves that a prepossession in favor
of some " occult " agency is almost sure to lead the investigator to the
too ready acceptance of evidence of its operation. I would be the last
to affirm that there is not " much more in heaven and earth than is
known to our philosophy ;" and would be among the first to welcome
any addition to our real knowledge of the great agencies of Nature.
But my contention is, that no new principle of action has any claim
to scientific acceptance, save upon evidence as complete and satisfac-
tory as that which would be required in any other scientific investi-
gation.

The recent history of Mr. Crookes's most admirable invention, the
radiometer, is pregnant with lessons on this point. When this was
first exliibited to the admiring gaze of the large body of scientific
men assembled at the soiree of the Royal Society, there was probably
no one who was not ready to believe with its inventor that the driving
round of its vanes was effected by light ; and the eminent physicists
in whose judgment the greatest confidence was placed, seemed to have
no doubt that this mechanical agency was something outside optics
properly so called, and was, in fact, if not a new force in Nature, a new
modus operandi of a force previously known under another form.
There was here, then, a perfect readiness to admit a novelty which
seemed so unmistakably demonstrated, though transcending all previ-

i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ous experience. But after some little time the question was raised
whether the effect was not really due to action of heat upon the
attenuated vapor of which it was impossible entirely to get rid; and
the result of a most careful and elaborate experimental inquiry, in
which Nature has been put to the question in every conceivable mode,
has been to make it, I believe, almost if not quite certain that the first
view was incorrect, and that heat is the real moving power, acting
under peculiar conditions, but in no new mode.

No examination of the phenomena of spiritualism can give the least
satisfaction to the mind trained in philosophical habits of thought,
unless it shall have been, in its way, as searching and complete as this.
And when scientific men are invited to dark seances, or admitted only
under the condition that they shall merely look on and not inquire
too closely, they feel that the matter is one with which they are en-
tirely precluded from dealing. When, again, having seen what ap-
pears to them to present the character of a very transparent conjuring
trick, they ask for a repetition of it under test-conditions admitted to
be fair, their usual experience is that they wait in vain (for hours it
may be) for such repetition, and are then told that they have brought
an "atmosphere of incredulity " with them, which prevents the mani-
festation. Now, I by no means affirm that the claims of spiritnalism
are c^/sproved by these failures; but I do contend that, until the evi-
dence advanced by believers in those claims has stood the test of the
same sifting and cross-examination by skeptical experts that would
be applied in the case of any other scientific inquiry, it has no claim
upon general acceptance; and I shall now proceed to justify that con-
tention by an appeal to the history of previous inquiries of the like
kind.

It was about the year 1772 that Mesmer, who had previously pub-
lished a dissertation " On the Influence of the Planets on the Human
Body," announced his discovery of a universal fluid, " the immediate
agent of all the phenomena of Nature, in which life originates, and by
which it is preserved ; " and asserted that he had further discovered
the power of regulating the operations of this fluid, to guide its cur-
rents in healthy channels, and to obliterate by its means the tracks of
disease. This power he in the first instance professed to guide by the
use of magnets; but having quarreled with Father Hell, a Professor
of Astronomy at Vienna, who had furnished him with the magnets
with which he made his experiments, and who then claimed the dis-
covery of their curative agency, Mesmer went on to assert that he
could concentrate the power in and liberate it from any substance he
])leascd, could charge jars with it (as with electricity) and discharge
them at his ])leasure, and could cure by its means the most intractable
diseases. Having created a gi'eat sensation in Bavaria and Switzer-
land by his mysterious manipulations, and by the novel eftects which
they often produced, Mesmer returned to Vienna, and undertook to cure

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 17

of complete blindness a celebrated singer, Mademoiselle Paradis, who
had been for ten years unsuccessfully treated by the court physician.
His claim to a partial success, however, which was in the first instance
supported by his patient, seemed to have been afterward so completely
disproved by careful trials of her visual powers, that he found himself
obliged to quit Vienna abruptly, and thence proceeded to Paris, where
he soon produced a great sensation. The state of French society at
that time, as I have already remarked, was peculiarly favorable to his
pretensions. A feverish excitability prevailed, which caused the pub-
lic mind to be violently agitated by every question which it took up.
And Mesmer soon found it advantageous to challenge the learned
societies of the capital to enter the lists against him ; the storm of op-
position which he thus provoked having the effect of bringing over
to his side a large number of devoted disciples and ardent partisans.
He professed to distribute the magnetic fluid to his congregated pa-
tients from a haquet or magnetic tub which he had impregnated with
it, each individual holding a rod which proceeded from the haquet ;
but when the case was particularly interesting, or likely to be par-
ticularly pi-ofitable, he took it in hand for personal magnetization.
All the surroundings were such as to favor, in the hysterical subjects
who constituted the great bulk of his patients, the nervous paroxysm
termed the " crisis," which was at once recognized by medical men as
only a modified form of what is commonly known as an " hysteric fit;"
the influence of the imitative tendency being manifested as it is in
cases where such tits run through a school, nunnery, factory, or revi-
valist-meeting, in which a number of suitable subjects are collected
together. And it was chiefly on account of the moral disorders to
which Mesmer's proceedings seemed likely to give rise that the French
Government directed a scientific commission, including the most emi-
nent savants of the time — such as Lavoisier, Bailly, and Benjamin
Franklin — to inquire into them. After careful investigation they came
to the conclusion that there was no evidence whatever of any special
agency proceeding from the haquet ; for not only were they unable to
detect the passage of any influence from it that was appreciable, either
by electric, magnetic, or chemical tests, or by the evidence of any of
their senses ; but, on blindfolding those who seemed to be most sus-
ceptible to its supposed influence, all its ordinary effects were pro-
duced when they were without any connection with it, hut believed
that it existed. And so, when in a garden of which certain trees had
been magnetized, the patients, either Avhen blindfolded, or when igno-
rant which trees had been magnetized, would be thrown into a convul-
sive fit if they believed themselves to be near a magnetized tree, but
were really at a distance from it ; while, conversely, no effect would fol-
low their close proximity to one of these trees when they believed them-
selves to be at a distance from any of them. Further, the commissioners
reported that, although some cures might be wrought by the mesmeric

VOL. XI. — 2

i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

treatment, it was not without danger, since the convulsions excited
were often violent and exceedingly apt to spread, especially among
men feeble in body and weak in mind, and almost universally among
w^omen ; and they dwelt strongly also on the moral dangers which, as
their inquiries showed, attended these practices.

Now, this report, although referring to a form of mesmeric pro-
cedure which has long since passed into disrepute, really deals with
what I hold to be an important principle of action, which, long vague-
ly recognized under the term " imagination," now takes a definite
rank in physiological science ; namely, that in individuals of that ex-
citable nervous temperament which is known as " hysterical " (a tem-
perament by no means confined to women, but rare in healthy and
vigorous men), the expectation of a certain result is often sufficient to
evoke it. Of the influence of this " expectancy " in producing most
remarkable changes in the bodily organism, either curative or morbid,
the history of medicine affords abundant and varied illustrations ; and
I shall presently show you that it operates no less remarkably in call-
ing forth movements which, not being consciously directed by the
person who executes them, have been attributed to hypothetical occult
agencies.

I shall not trace the further history of Mesmer, or of the system
advocated by himself; contenting myself with one ludicrous example
of the absurdity of his pretensions. When asked in his old age by one
of his disciples why he ordered his patients to bathe in river-water in
preference to well-water, he replied that it was because river-water is
exposed to the sun's rays ; and when further asked how these affected
it in any other way than by the warmth they excited, he replied,
" Dear doctor, the reason why all water exposed to the rays of the
sun is superior to all other water is because it is magnetized — since
twenty years ago I magnetized the sunf''

In the hands of some of his pupils, however, animal magnetism, or
• Mesmerism (as it gradually came to be generally called), assumed an
entirely new development. It was discovered by the Marquis de Puy-
segur, a great landed proprietor, who appears to have practised tlie
art most disinterestedly for the sole benefit of his tenantry and poor
neighbors, that a state of profound insensibility might be induced by
very simple methods in some individuals, and a state akin to somnam-
bulism in otiiers; and this discovery was taken up and brought into
vogue by numerous mesmerizers in France and Germany, while, dur-
ing the long Continental war, and for some time afterward, it remained
almost unknown in England. Attention seems to have been first
drawn to it in this country by the publication of the account of a
severe operaition performed in 1829, by M. Cloquet, one of the most
eminent surgeons of Paris, on a female patient who had been thrown
by mesmerism into the state of somnambulism; in which, though able
to converse with those around her, she showed herself entirely insen-

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 19

sible to pain, while of all that took place in it she had subsequently
no recollection whatever. About twelve years afterward, two ampu-
tations were performed in our own country — one in Nottinghamshire,
and the other in Leicestershire — upon mesmerized patients, who showed
no other sign of consciousness than an almost inaudible moaning ;
both of them exhibiting an uninterrupted placidity of countenance,
and declaring, when brought back to tlieir ordinary state, that they
were utterly unaware of what had been done to them during their
sleep. And not long afterward Dr. Esdaile, a surgeon in Calcutta,
gave details of numerous most severe and tedious operations per-
formed by him, without the infliction of pain, upon natives in whom
he had induced the mesmeric sleep — the rank of presidency surgeon
being conferred upon him by Lord Dalhousie (then Governor-General
of India), " in acknowledgment of the services he had rendered to
humanity." The results of minor experiments performed by various
persons, desirous of testing the reality of this state, were quite in har-
mony with these. Writing in 1845, Dr. Noble, of Manchester (with
whom I was early brought into association by Sir John Forbes in the
pursuit of this inquiry), said:

" We have seen a needle thrust deeply under the nail of a woman sleeping
mesmerically, without its exciting a quiver ; we have seen pungent snuff in large
quantities passed up the nostrils under the same circumstances, without any-
sneezing being produced until the patient was roused, many minutes afterward ;
we have noticed an immunity from all shock when percussion-caps have been
discharged suddenly and loudly close to the ear ; and we have observed a pa-
tient's little-finger in the flame of a candle, and yet no indication of pain. In
this latter case all idea of there having been courageous dissimulation was re-
moved from our mind in seeing the same patient afterward evince both surprise
and indignation at the treatment received ; as, from particular circumstances, a
substantial inconvenience was to result from the injury to the finger, which was
by no means slight." '

This " mesmeric sleep " corresponds precisely in character with
what is known in medicine as "hysteric coma;" the insensibility
being as profound, while it lasts, as in the coma of narcotic poisoning
or pressure on the brain; but coming on and passing ofi*with such
suddenness as to show that it is dependent upon some transient con-
dition of the sensorium, which, with our present knowledge, we can
pretty certainly assign to a reduction in the supply of blood caused
by a sort of spasmodic contraction of the blood-vessels. That there
is no adequate ground for regarding it as otherwise than real^ appears
further from the discovery made not long afterward by Mr. Braid, a
surgeon practising at Manchester, that he could induce it by a very
simple method, which is not only even more efiective than the "passes"
of the mesmerizer, but is, moreover, quite independent of any other
will than that of the person who subjects himself to it. He found that
^ British and Foreign Medical Review, April, 1845.

20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

this state (which he designated as hypnotism) could be induced in a
large proportion of individuals of either sex, and of all ranks, ages,
and temperaments, who determinately fix their gaze for several minutes
consecutively on an object brought so near to theii- eyes as to require
a degree of convergence of their axes that is maintainable only by a
strong effort.*

The first state thus induced is usually one of profound comatose
sleep ; the " subject " not being capable of being roused by sensory
impressions of any oi'dinary kind, and bearing without the least indi-
cation of consciousness what would ordinarily produce intolerable un-
easiness or even severe pain. But, after some little time, this state
very commonly passes into one of somnambulism, which again corre-
sponds closely on the one hand with natural, and on the other with
mesmeric, somnambulism. In fact, it has been by the study of the
somnambulism artificially induced by Mr. Braid's process that the
essential nature of this condition has been elucidated, and that a
scientific rationale can now be given of a large proportion of the
phenomena repoi'ted by mesmerizers as having been presented by
their somnambules.

It has been claimed for certain mesmeric somnambules, however,
that they occasionally possess an intelligence altogether superhuman
as to things present, past, and future, which has received the designa-
tion " lucidity ; " and it is contended that the testimony on which we
accept thereality of phenomena which are conformable to our scientific
experience ought to satisfy us equally as to the genuineness of those
designated as " the higher," which not only transcend but absolutely
contradict what the mass of enlightened men would regard as univer-
sal experience. This contention, however, seems to me to rest upon
an entirely incorrect appreciation of the probative force of evidence ;
for, as I shall endeavor to prove to you in my succeeding lecture, the
only secure basis for our belief on any subject is the confirmation
afforded to external testimony by our sense of the inherent probability
of the fact testified to; so that, as has been well remarked, " evidence
tendered in support of what is new must correspond in strength with
the degree of its incompatibility with doctrines generally admitted as
true; and, where statements obviously contravene all past experience

' Mr. Braid's peculiar success in inducing this state seemed to depend partly upon
his mode of working his method, and partly upon the " expectancy " of bis subjects.
Finding a bright object preferable, he usually employed his silver lancet-case, which he
held in the first place at ordinary reading-distance, rather above the plane of the eyes ;
he then slowly approximated it toward the middle point, a little above the bridge of
the nose, keeping his own eyes steadily fixed upon those of his " subject," and watch-
ing carefully the direction of their axes. If he perceived their convergence to be at all
relaxed, he withdrew the object until the axes were both again directed to it; and then
again approximated it as closely as was compatible with their continued convergence.
When this could be maintained for a sufficient length of time upon an object at no more
than about three inches' distance, the comatose state generally supervened.

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 21
«

and the universal consent of mankind, any evidence is inadequate to
the proof, which is not complete, beyond suspicion, and absohitely in-
capable of being explained away."

Putting aside for the present the discussion of these asserted mar-
vels, I shall try to set before you briefly the essential characters which
distinguish the state of somnambulism (whether natural or acquired)
on the one hand from dreaming, and on the other from the ordinary
waking condition. As in both these, the mind is in a state of activity;
but, as in dreaming, its activity is free from that controlling power of
the will by which it is directed in the waking state ; and is also re-
moved from this last by the complete ignorance of all that has passed
in it, which is manifested by the " subject " when called back to his
waking self, although the events of one access of this " second con-
sciousness " may vividly present themselves in the next, as if they had
happened only just before. Again, instead of all the senses beino-
shut up, as in ordinary dreaming sleep, some of them are not only
awake, but preternaturally impressible ; so that the course of the som-
nambulist's thought may be completely directed by suggestions of any
kind that can be conveyed from without through the sense-channels
which still remain open. But, further, while the mind of the ordinary
dreamer can no more produce movements in his body than his im-
pressions on sense-organs can affect his mind, that of the somnambulist
retains full direction of his body (in so far, at least, as his senses serve
to guide its movements) ; so that he acts his dreams as if they were
his waking thoughts. The mesmerized or hypnotized somnambule
may, in fact, be characterized as a conscious automaton, which, by
appropriate suggestions, may be made to think, feel, say, or do, almost
anything that its director wills it to think, feel, say, or do ; with this
remarkable peculiarity, that its whole power seems concentrated upon
the state of activity in which it is at each moment, so that every
faculty it is capable of exerting may become extraordinarily intensified.
Thus, while vision is usually suspended, the senses of hearing, smell,
and touch, with the muscular sense, are often preternaturally acute,
in consequence, it would seem, of the undistracted concentration of
the attention on their indications. I could give you many curious in-
stances of this, which I have myself witnessed, as also of the great ex-
ertion of muscular power by subjects of extremely feeble physique ;
but as they are all obviously referable to this one simple principle, I
need not dwell on their details, preferring to narrate one which I did
not myself witness, but which was reported to me on most trustworthy
authority, of a remarkable manifestation of a power of imitative vocal-
ization that is ordinarily attainable only after long practice. When
Jenny Lind was singing at Manchester, she was invited by Mr. Braid
to hear the performances of one of his hypnotized subjects, an illiterate
factory-girl, who had an excellent voice and ear, but whose musical
powers had received scarcely any cultivation. This girl, in the hyp-

2 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

notic state, followed the Swedish nightingale's songs in different lan-
guages both instantaneously and correctly ; and when, in order to test
her powers, Mademoiselle Lind extemporized a long and elaborate chro-
matic exercise, she imitated this with no less precision, though unable
in her waking state even to attempt anything of the sort. Now, I wish
you to compare this case with another, which was reported about the
same time upon what seemed equally unexceptionable testimony.
When Miss Martineau first avowed her conversion to mesmerism, the

extraordinary performances of her servant J were much talked of;

and, among other marvels, it was asserted tliat she could converse,
when in her mesmeric state, in languages she had never learned, and
of which she knew nothing when awake — the particular fact being ex-
plicitly stated that Lord Morpeth had tested this power and had found
it real. Now, you will readily perceive that, supposing the testimony
in these two cases to have been exactly the same, its probative force
would have been very different. For the first of them, though unpre-
cedented, presented no scientific improbability to those who were pre-
pared, by their careful study of the phenomena of hypnotism, to be-
lieve that the power of imitative vocalization, like any other, might
be intensified by the concentration of the " subject's" whole attention
upon the performance. But it seemed inconceivable that an unedu-
cated servant-girl could understand what was said to her in a lan-
guage she had never learned ; still more, that she should be able to
reply in the same language. And the only possible explanation of
the fact, if fact it was, short of a miracle, may have lain either in her
having learned the language long before and subsequently forgotten
it, or in her being able by "thought-reading" (which is maintained
by some, even at the present time, to be one of the attributes of the
mesmeric state) to divine and express the answer expected by Lord
Morpeth. But the marvel was entirely dissipated by the inquiries of
Dr. Noble, who, being very desirous of getting at the exact truth,
first applied for information to a near relative of Miss Martineau, and
was told by him that the report was not quite accurate ; for, on

Lord Morpeth putting a question to J in a foreign language,

J had replied appropriately in her own vernacular. Her compre-
hension of Lord Morpeth's question, however, appeared in itself suf-
ciently strange to be suggestive of some fallacy ; and having an op-
portunity not long afterward of asking Lord Morpeth himself what
was the real state of the case. Dr. Noble learned from him that when

he put a question to J in a foreign language she imitated his

speech after a fashion by an unmeaning articulation of sound.

On the lesson which this case affords as to the credibility of testi-
mony in regard to what are called the "higher phenomena " of mes-
merism, I shall enlarge in my succeeding lecture, and at present I
shall only remark that it was shown by careful comparison between
the phenomena displayed by the same individuals, when " mesmerized '*

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 23

in the ordinary way, and " hypnotized " by Mr. Braid's process, that
there was no other difference between the two states than that arising
from the special rapport between the mesmerizer and his subject ; and
that this was clearly explicable by the " expectancy " under which the
" subject " passed into the state of second consciousness. For Mr.
Braid found himself able, by assuring his " subjects " during the in-
duction of the coma, that they would hear the voice of one particular
person and no other, to establish this rapport with any person he
might choose ; the case being strictly analogous to the awaking of the
telegraph-clerk by the clicking of his needles, of the doctor by his
night-bell, or of the mother by her infant's cry, though all would sleep
soundly through far louder noises to which they felt no call to attend.
And thus, as was pointed out long since by Dr. Noble and myself,
not only may the general reality of the mesmeric somnambulism be
fully admitted, but a scientific rationale may be found for its supposed
distinctive peculiarities, without the assumption of any special "mag-
netic " or " mesmeric " agency.

It is affirmed, however, that proof of this agency is furnished by
the power of the "silent will" of the mesmerizer to induce the sleep
in " subjects " who are not in the least aware that it is being exerted;
and, further, to direct from a distance the actions of the somnambule.
Doubtless, if satisfactory proof of this assertion could be furnished, it
would go far to establish the claim. But nothing is more difficult
than to eliminate all sources of fallacy in this matter. For while it is
admitted by mesmerizers that the belief that the influence is being ex-
erted is quite sufficient in habitual somnambules to induce the result,
it is equally certain that such " sensitives " are raarvelously quick at
guessing from slight intimations what is expected to happen. And it
has been repeatedly found that mesmerizers who had no hesitation in
asserting that they could send particular " subjects " to sleep, or could
affect them in other ways, by an effort of silent will, have utterly failed
to do so when these subjects were carefully kept from any suspicion
that such will was being exerted. Thus, Dr. Noble has recorded the
case of a friend of his own, who, believing himself able thus to influence
a female servant whom he had repeatedly mesmerized, accepted with
the full assurance of confident faith a proposal to make this experi-
ment in Dr. Noble's house instead of his own. The girl, having been
sent thither with a note, was told to sit down in Dr. Noble's consult-
ing-room while the answer was being written ; her chair being close
to a partially-open door, on the other side of which her master, whom
she supposed to be elsewhere, had previously taken up his position.
Although this gentleman had usually found two or three minutes suf-
ficient to send the gii'l to sleep when he was in his own drawing-room
and she was in the kitchen, the two being separated by intervening
walls and flooring, yet when he put forth his whole force for a quarter
of an hour within two feet of her, with only a partially-closed door

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

between them, it was entirely without result ; and no other reason
for the failure could be assigned than her entire freedom from expect-
ancy. So, in another case, in which Mr. Lewis (accounted one of the
most powerful mesmerists of his time) undertook to direct the actions
of his somnambule in the next room, according to a programme agreed
on between himself and one set of witnesses, while the actions actually
performed were recorded and timed by another set, there was found
to be so complete a discordance between the programme "willed"
and the actions really executed as entirely to negative the idea of
any dependence of the latter upon the directing power of the mes-
merizer — the supposed relation having obviously grown up under the
habitual repetition of a certain succession of performances (such as I
had myself frequently witnessed), which the somnambule supposed
himself expected to go through in the same order.' A converse ex-
periment, performed by Dr. Elliotson himself, satisfied him that ex-
pectancy would take the place of what he maintained to be the real
mesmeric influence. Havins: told one of his liabitxi'ees that he would
go into the next room and mesmerize her through the door, he retired,
shut the door, performed no mesmeric passes, but tried to forget her,
walked away from the door, busied himself witli something else, and
even walked into a third room ; and, on returning in less than ten
minutes, found the girl in her usual sleep-waking condition. The ex-
treme susceptibility of many of these "sensitive" subjects further
accounts for their being afiected (without any intentional deceit) by
physical impressions which are quite imperceptible to others : such
as slight differences in temperature, when two coins are presented to
them, of which one has been held in the hand of the mesmerizcr ; or
two wineglasses of water, into one of which he has dipped his finger
for a short time. But the 5e?^V/'that he has transmitted his influence
in any mode is quite sufficient to produce the result, as was shown in
an amusing case recorded by M. Bertrand, whose treatise on " Animal
Magnetism" (Paris, 1826) is by far the most philosophical work ex-
tant on the subject. Having occasion to go a journey of a hundred
leagues, leaving a female somnambule under the treatment of one of
his friends, M. Bertrand sent him a magnetized letter, which he re-
quested him to place on the stomach of the patient, who had been led
to anticipate the expected results — mesmeric sleep, with the customary
phenomena, supervened. He then wrote another letter which he did
not magnetize, and sent it to her in the same manner, and with the
same intimation. She again fell into the mesmeric sleep, which was
attributed to the letter having been unintentionally impregnated by

' Mr. Lewis was challenged to this test-experiment, in consequence of his assertion
that he had repeatedly induced the mesmeric sleep, and had directed the operations of
his somnarabules, by the exertion of his "silent will," from a distance. His utter failure
to produce either result, however, under the scrutiny of skeptical inquirers, obviously
discredits all his previous statements, except to such as are ready to accept without
question the slenderest evidence of the greatest marvels.

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 25

M. Bertraud with the mesmeric fluid while he was writing it. Desir-
ing to test the matter still further, he caused one of his friends to
write a similar letter, imitating his handwriting so closely that those
who received it should believe it to be his — the same effect was once
more produced.

And so it was with the large number of expei'iments that were
made within my own knowledge during the twenty years' attention
that I gave to this subject, with a view to test the mesmerizer's power
of inducing any of the phenomena of this state without the patient's
consciousness. Successes, it is true, were not unfrequent ; but these
almost invariably occurred when the experiments were made under
conditions to which the parties had become habituated, as in the case
of Dr. Noble's friend. For his performances were so continually being
repeated to satisfy the curiosity of visitors, that Dr. Noble's call at
his house would have been sufficient to excite, on the part of the
" subject," the expectancy that would have thrown her into the sleep.
But when such expectancy was carefully guarded against, the result
was so constantly negative as — I will not say to disprove the existence
of any special mesmeric force, but to neutralize completely the affirm-
ative value of the evidence adduced to prove it. For I think you must
now agree with me that, if " expectancy " alone is competent to pro-
duce the results, as admitted by the most intelligent mesmerizers,
nothing but the most rigid exclusion of such expectancy can afford
the least ground for the assumption of any other agency. And my
own prolonged study of the subject further justifies me in taking the
position that it is only when the inquiry is directed, and its results
recorded, by skeptical experts, that such results have the least claim
to scientific value. The disposition to overlook sources of fallacy, to
magnify trivialities into marvels, to construct circumstantial myths

(as in the case of Miss Martineau's J and Lord Morpeth) on the

slightest foundation of fact, and to allow themselves to be imposed
upon by cunning cheats, has been so constantly exhibited by even
the most honest believers in the " occult " power of mesmerism, as,
not only in my own opinion, but in that of my very able allies in this
inquiry, to deprive the unconfirmed testimony of any number of such
believers, in regard to matters lying beyond scientific experience, of
all claim to acceptance. In fact, the positions taken in regard to mes-
merism by my friend Dr. Noble, as far back as 1845,* and more fully
developed by myself a few years later on the basis of Mr. Braid's ex-
periments, and of my own physiological and psychological studies,*
have not only in our own judgment, but by the general verdict of the
medical and scientific world, been fully confirmed by the subsequent
course of events, the history of which I shall next proceed to sketch.
— Fraserh Magazine.

' British and Foreign Medical Jievieio, vol. xix.

' " Principles of Human Physiology," fourth edition, 1853 ; and Quarterly Review, Oc-
tober, 1853.

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

AQUEDUCTS.

THE remains of the lofty arcades upon which the aqueducts of
ancient Rome were carried to the city have been justly classed
among the finest and most picturesque ruins of the Roman Empire.
Stretching across the plain eastward of the city, and towering high
above the landscape, they are the first objects to fix the gaze and
command the admiration of the stranger approaching the home of
the Cajsars, and to fill his mind with visions of the strength and grand-
eur of the nation which mastered the world two thousand years ago.
But these ruins speak not only of the mechanical skill and physi-
cal greatness of that vanished people, but also of their refinement
and their acquaintance with the deeply-hidden laws of hygiene ; for
they well knew what has become known to us only after a lapse of
twenty centuries, after the measurement of the heavens, and the dis-
covery of the steam-engine, that for every large city an abundant
supply of pure, fresh water is indispensable to the preservation of
health. At the zenith of her grandeur, Rome had eleven distinct
aqueducts, w^hose aggregate discharge was equivalent to a stream
twenty feet wide by six deep, with a fall six times as rapid as that
of the river Thames, The daily supply was in the proportion of
332 gallons to each inhabitant, and it was distributed to the palaces
and humbler dwellings in every part of the city, as well as to innumer-
able fountains, many public wells and large reservoirs, to the numer-
ous baths, and to several artificial lakes, where the emperors held
their naumachice, or sham naval battles. These eleven constituted
the most extensive and perfect system of aqueducts that has been pos-
sessed by any city even up to the present time. Their combined
length was over 300 miles, 50 of which were above-ground either upon
low substructures or more imposing arcades. The loftiest arcade was
that belonging to the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus ; it was in
one place 109 feet high.* In respect to height of arcades, however, the
aqueducts of Rome were less remarkable than several built by the
emperors, about the same time, for certain provincial cities of the em-
pire, and others of more recent times. Thus the Emperor Agrippa
built an aqueduct for the city of Nemausus (Nimes) in France, and
carried it across the river Gard upon an arcade 180 feet high, and
about 900 feet long. This splendid structure, still perfect, is now
called the Pont du Gard, and is an object of attraction and aston-
ishment to modern travelers. It consists of a triple row of arches,
which in the two lower tiers are of wide span, and in the upper one
narrow. This arcade "has no rival for lightness and boldness of

' The Roman foot was 11.6496 English inches ; 5 feet made one passus ; 1,000 passus
one mile, or 1,618 English yards.

AQUEDUCTS. 27

design among the existing remains of works of this class carried out
by the ancient Romans." It is constructed entirely of freestone, to
the covering of the upper row of arches. The stones were laid with-
out cement, and each was raised by the lewis, the holes in which it
was inserted being still visible exactly over the centre of gravity in
every stone. Still more remarkable for height is one of the bridges
of the aqueduct of Antioch, also built by the Romans. It is 700 feet
long and 200 feet high. The lower part consists of a solid wall
pierced by two arches, in the centre — one upon the ground, the other
directly above. Along the top is a row of narrow arches. The
design and workmanship of this structure are very rude. But in
later times arcades of even greater height have been built. The ar-
cade Delle Torri, near Spoleto, built in the seventh or eighth century
A. D., is about 300 feet high and over 700 long. It consists of ten
arches between lofty columns, and is remarkable as an early example
of the pointed arch, as well as for lightness of design. The arcade of
the Roquefavour Aqueduct across the river Arc is 262 feet high, and
1,287 feet long. This aqueduct supplies the city of Marseilles with
water from the river Durance, 51 miles distant. It was constructed
between 1839 and 1847, and has eight and a half miles of tunnels pass-
ing throucrh three chains of limestone mountains. But the most im-
posing arcade in the world, as regards the combined effect of height
and length, is that of Maintenon. It is about five-sixths of a mile long,
and over 200 feet high. Louis XIV. built it for an aqueduct he pro-
jected to convey the water of the Eure from Pont Gouin to Versailles, a
distance of about 33 miles. This great enterprise was abandoned in
1688, after an expenditure of four years and 22,000,000 francs. The
design contemplated one arcade over three miles long, which in its
highest part was to have been formed of three tiers of arches.

At the time that it was built, the Anio Novus, probably of all
aqueducts in the world, drew its water from the most distant source.
True, the conduit of the Aqua Marcia, one of the most important
'of the aqueducts of Rome, was longer, but its source was only 39
miles from the city, while that of the Anio was 42 ; the conduit of the
one was 61 miles and 710 paces long, of the other 58 miles and 700 paces.
There are at Carthage the remains of an aqueduct which is said to
have been over 50 miles long, but it is impossible to tell whether
it was built by the Carthaginians proper, or by the Romans who,
long after the destruction of the old city, founded a new one on its
ruins. The accompanying cut represents the remains, near TJndena, of
one of the arcades of this aqueduct. It comprised 1,000 arches, many
of which were over 100 feet high. The ancient Peruvians are said to
have built the most remarkable aqueducts in the world for length.
Garcilasso speaks of one that was 360 miles long, and another 450,
but these were for irrigating purposes, and they wound around the
mountains and followed the surface of the valleys instead of crossing

28

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

them on arcades, and therefore differed essentially from the aqueducts
that we have been considering. And, besides, the statements as to
their length should not be received without caution, for, at the time
that the Spaniards first visited the country, their belief in the marvel-
ous had been very greatly enlarged by the discovery of a new world.

Fia. 1.— The AqtrEDUCTS. The Crossing in the Canipagna near the Piscina; and Koma Vecchia.

The longest aqueduct proper is that now building to convey the waters
of the Somme-Soude, Soudon, and Dhuis, to Paris. It will be about 110
English miles long. The aqueduct of Roquefavour, already referred
to, is 60 miles long, the longest in actual use.

The Romans appear to have got their knowledge of aqueduct-'
building, like most of their other knowledge, from the Greeks ; for,
while their first aqueduct, the Aqua A2)pia, was not constructed until
441 years after the building of the city, or 312 b. c, the Greeks had
built aqueducts at Megara and Samos as early as 625 b. c, and at
Athens in 560 b. c. But there is this difference, that the Greeks did
not use arcades, which, however, were not rendered necessary by the
topography of the country. At Samos, a tunnel four-fifths of a mile
long, eight feet high and eight wide, was cut through a hill between
the city and the water-source. A channel three feet wide was built
within the tunnel, and an opening of the same width made to the sur-
face from end to end, so that the fresh air came in contact with the
water, which flowed into a conduit of masonry at the lower end, and
thence directly to the baths, fountains, etc., of the city. This work

AQUEDUCTS. 29

was constructed by Eupalinus, who had previously gained celebrity
by building the aqueduct at Megara. At Athens the water-supply
was drawn by subterranean conduits from Mounts Hymettus, Penteli-
cus, and Parnes, and received into reservoirs outside the city. Two
conduits came from Mount Hymettus, and passed under the bed of
the river Ilissus. Of course, it was necessary to supply fresh air to
the water flowing through these subterranean channels, and that
was done by piercing them with shafts at intervals of about fifty
yards. Subterranean channels were also used to distribute the water
through the city; they were of different forms, being round or square,
and in some of them pipes of baked clay were laid. It is somewhat
remarkable that these beneficent works were constructed by the wis-
dom of rulers who have come down to us branded as tyrants. The
tyrants Theagenes of Megara, Polycrates of Samos, and Pisistratus
of Athens, were the men who caused them to be built. Some of those
old aqueducts still continue to supply Athens with water. The aque-
duct of Syracuse which still supplies the city with an abundance of
water, and which is remarkable for having a tunnel under the sea,
between the city and the mainland, was built some time prior to the
Athenian invasion, 412 b. c, for Thucydides mentions that it was
partially destroyed by the invaders. But far more ancient than any
yet referred to is the one at Jerusalem, built by Solomon, to conduct
the water from the reservoirs, or " pools," that bear his name, to the
city, a distance of six miles. It was formed by an earthen pipe ten
inches in diameter, incased in stone and laid underground. It is still
in use.

The periodical overflow of the Nile, the Tigris, and Euphrates,
enabled the peoples of Egypt and Babylonia to store up vast quan-
tities of water in artificial lakes, of which the Mceris in Egypt is a
celebrated example, and the water was utilized as required, by sur-
face-conduits or canals.

Let us now turn back to the aqueducts of Rome, and examine
somewhat the details of construction. A recently-published work on
the aqueducts comprehetided in the archoeology of Rome, by John
Henry Parker, C. B., affords much interesting information in this con-
nection. The facts are ascertained partly from the work of Sextus
Julius Frontinus, who was superintendent of the aqueducts {curator
aquarum) under the Emperors Nerva and Trajan (a. d. 94-107), and
partly from explorations of the courses and remains of the aqueducts
made by Mr. Parker himself. Of the eleven aqueducts already
referred to, ten approached the city from the east and one fi'om the
west. Of the ten on the east, four had their sources near Subiaco, in
a spur of the Apennines beyond Tivoli ; the others took their rise in
the lower lands nearer Rome. Two of these, the Anio Vetus and
the Anio JVovus, were fed by the river Anio, as is indicated by their
names ; the others received their waters from springs or small lakes,

30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and were called after their builders or projectors. The waters of the
Marcian, the most prized for their purity and coldness, were collected
from several springs. For the Anio Novus, which was unfailing as
well as the most abundant of the aqueducts, the river Anio was
arrested near its source by three gigantic walls at different levels,
and formed into as many lakes, one below the other. Over these
walls the waste-water fell in magnificent cascades, one of them
over 150 feet high. The object of the lakes was to clarify the
water; for the Anio, though usually a limpid stream, is liable to
become muddy after a heavy rain. The sources of the Anio Novus
and the Aqua Claudia are over 2,000 feet above the level of the city,
and those of the Marcia and Anio Vetus are not very much lower.
Descending from such a height and for distances varying in direct
lines from 30 to 43 miles, the water would naturally acquire great
velocity and tremendous force, which it was necessary to dimin-
ish, and that was done by making numerous angles in the con-
duits. The angles were made generally at every half-mile, and were
points at whi$h reservoirs (castella), or filtering-places {piscinoi), or
both, with accompanying air - shafts, were built. These were sur-
mounted by small towers. As an additional means of breaking the
force of the water, the bottoms of the conduits were given a succes-
sion of short undulations. The conduits, reservoirs, and filtering-
places, were lined with a cement called ojms signinum, which is so
compact that it will resist a hard tool. The art of making it has been
lost. The conduits, always covered, were carried on arcades only
where it was necessary to cross a valley or a plain above its level ; for
the rest of their way they ran in places upon the surface of the
ground, but mostly below it. Thus of the 58 miles of the Anio
Novus, 49 were underground. No two aqueducts were on the same
level, and so, where their courses converged, it was both possible
and convenient to carry one conduit upon another, because it was
forbidden by law to erect a building within a certain number of
feet on either side of an aqueduct; hence Ave find the Aquae Mar-
cia, Tepula, and Julia, carried from their ^Doint of convergence one
above the other on one arcade, and the Aqua Claudia and Anio
Novus on another. Each of the conduits was differently shaped,
some having arched, others angular roofs. Besides the small reser-
voirs referred to as occurring at the angles of the conduits, there
were larger ones at longer intervals. The ruins of one of these,
belonging to the Aqua Marcia, are still to be seen near Carciano. It
is a huge subterranean chamber divided by an arcade in the middle.
Between five and seven miles from Rome were the great filtering-
places to which most of the aqueducts converged. The waters, how-
ever, were not mingled, for each aqueduct had its separate chambers,
thougli it was always within the power of the attendants (aquarii)
to turn the water from one aqueduct into another at will. Of these

A Q UED UCTS.

31

filtering-places, those of the Claudia and Anio Novus were under-
ground, and now appear simply as mounds. The others were above-
ground, but covered over. From this point two magnificent arcades,
the Marciau and the Claudian, extended to the city — the one carrying
three aqueducts, the other two. They were not more than 100 yards
apart, and the Marcian was 30 feet high, the Claudian 50. The filter-
ing-places were of peculiar construction and admirable design. They
consisted of four chambers, two on a level with the conduit, and two
directly below (Fig. 2). The water flowing into the first descended

Fig. 2.— Section op the Piscina op the Anio Novus, at the Entrance into Eome in a Tower
of the Wall of Aureliau and of the Gardens of the Sessorifin Palace.

through an opening in the floor to the second, whence it flowed on
through a perforated wall or grating to the third, ascending from that
through an opening in the roof to the fourth, where it found its origi-
nal level and reentered the conduit. A stairway descending to an
opening afforded access into the chambers beneath, and by the assist-
ance of sluice-gates the water could be turned directly from the
first chamber into the fourth, so that the mud could be cleaned out
of the chambers below. It is remarkable that this ingjenious device
for filtering has not occurred to modern aqueduct-builders, for its
simplicity and utility are conspicuous.

The details of distribution are interesting, but we have not space
to go far into them. There were 247 main reservoirs in the city, from
which the water was distributed to 19 barracks for the use of the
army, 95 public establishments, 39 theatres and places of amusement,
and 591 open reservoirs for the public. That was in the time of

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Frontinus. The number of open reservoirs was afterward increased.
Heavy penalties were inflicted for dipping a dirty vessel into one of
these reservoirs. Of the total supply, a little over one-third was
given to the public, and the remainder divided pretty evenly between
private and imperial purposes. The wealthy had water brought into
reservoirs within the courts of their residences, whence it was raised
to the upper stories in buckets worked by windlasses. This method
of supplying the upper stories is in use at the present time. The Ro-
mans had no pumps. Why the water was not conveyed upward in
pipes does not appear, except that in regard to the more elevated
parts of the city it was probably not brought in at a high enough
level. They possessed lead pipes of diflferent sizes, and stopcocks of
bronze and silver, for these have been found in various places; and
that they were perfectly familiar with the principle of liydraulics,
that water may be returned to its original level, is proved not only
by the construction of the filtering-places already described, but also
by the fact that they actually applied the principle on a stupendous
scale. Besides, there is a work of Vitruvius extant which recognizes
and gives directions for conveying water on this principle. An aque-
duct constructed by the Emperor Claudius, for the ancient city of
Lugdunum (now Lyons), possessed two inverted siphons, by which
the water was carried across deep valleys. There is no doubt that
they were acquainted, too, with the poisonous action of lead on water;
but, if that deterred them from raising the water, it shows they were
more careful in guarding against unhealthful influences than we mod-
erns are, for lead pipes are in general use to distribute water through
our houses to-day.

The aqueducts were placed under the care of a curator aqiiarum^
and afterward, in the time of Diocletian, under several magistrates,
called consulares aquarum. The actual attendants numbered 700, and
were divided into the familia publica and the familia Ccesaris. The
former, 240 in number, were paid by the state; the latter, 460, by the
emperor. With regard to the cost of building the aqueducts, it seems
to have been defrayed, in the majority of cases, out of government
funds ; but it is recorded in an inscription on the Porta Maggiore, a
gate of the city over which the conduits of the Claudia and Anio
Nevus were carried, that those two aqueducts were built by the Em-
peror Claudius at his own expense. Tliis gate affords a clew to the
reason why arcades instead of solid walls were used to cany the aque-
ducts across the plains : it was not solely for economy's sake, nor for
beauty's ; but while those considerations, no doubt, w^ere entertained,
the main object was, to avoid interference with the freedom of travel.

The aqueducts were all destroyed in the Gothic wars under Vitiges
and Totila, but the most important of them Avere restored either by
Belisarius or Narses. These, however, fell gradually into decay, and
ultimately became useless. Pope Paul III. (1540) restored to use the

AQUEDUCTS.

33

aqueduct on the west side of Rome ; and Sixtus V. (1585) restored
the aqueduct of Trajan by mistake for the Marcian. These two, the
former called Paola, and the latter Felice, continued to be the only
means of supply until 1870, when the real Marcian was restored by a
company of Englishmen and Romans. The water is brought as far as
Tivoli in a stone conduit, and the rest of the way in cast-iron pipes.
It has sufficient pressure to supply the tops of all the houses.

Fig. 3.— Eeservoik of Aqua Marcia. (Interior.)

Reference has been made to the aqueduct now building for Paris.
The supply of water required is 22,000,000 gallons per day, and the
aqueduct was designed to convey that quantity. It is intended for
household use only, the existing supply, which is abundant for other
purposes, having become somewhat polluted. It was calculated that
the aggregate yield of the three rivers which are to be turned to ac-
count would be 28,000,000 gallons per day ; but subsequent observa-
tion has shown that in very dry seasons it falls considerably below
the quantity required. It was therefore found necessary to sink wells
or shafts into the chalky formation in which the rivers have their rise,
to artificially increase the supply. The plan comprises conduits for
collecting the waters from the several soiirces called " conduits of
derivation," and a main aqueduct to which these converge. The
former are together about 50 English miles long, and the latter is 110.
The main aqueduct has a fall of 73f feet, and terminates in service-
reservoirs at Belleville 83f feet above the level of the city. Along

VOL. XI. 3

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the course of the main and subsidiary conduits are 17 bridges, 3f
miles of arcade, 4^ miles of siphon, and 17^ miles of tunnel. The
work is done under the direction and supervision and in accordance
with the designs of M. Belgrand. The total estimated cost, including
$900,000 paid for injury to riparian rights, is $5,200,000.

The aqueduct which supplies the city of Manchester (England)
with water is remarkable for its system of impounding reservoirs,
comprising seven, with dams varying from 70 to 100 feet in height.
The work was begun in 1848, and bad not been completed in 1874,
although it was far enough advanced to supply the city with water.
The city of Glasgow is supplied by the Loch Katrine Aqueduct, 35
miles long, which conveys the water of the famous lake of that name.
It consists of a conduit of masonry 8 feet deep, 8 wide, and 27 miles
long, and two lines of cast-iron pipes, between the city and the ser-
vice-reservoirs, 8 miles long. The conduit between Loch Katrhie and
the service-reservoirs is for the most part a timnel through solid rock.
It crosses some ravines on stone or iron arcades, and others by siphons.
It is capable of discharging 50,000,000 gallons per day. It was opened
by the queen with appropriate ceremonies in October, 1859. The work
was begun in 1855, and finished in 1860. The cost, exclusive of facili-
ties for distribution, was $3,340,000.

In the autumn of 1873 was finished the aqueduct designed by Herr
Carl Junker, of Vienna, and constructed by Mr. Antonio Gabrielli,
of London, to convey the water of two springs (the Kaiserbrunn and
Stixenstein), situated at the foot of the Styrinn Alps, to Vienna, a
distance of 56^ miles. The conduit, which varies in size from 44^ x 2^
feet to 6^ X 4 feet, and is faced with polished cement, to facilitate the
flow of the water, is always six feet below the surface of the earth or
embankment through which it is carried. The object aimed at is to
keep the water cold in summer and from freezing in winter. It has
several splendid arcades, chief among which are one at Baden, another
at Modling, and a third at Liesing. The former is 96 feet high, about
2,000 feet long, and comprises 43 arches. The aqueduct delivers about
20,000,000 gallons a day. It was begun in 1869, and its cost was
$10,000,000.

But, in regard to water-supply, the Roquefavour Aqueduct, referred
to previously, is by long odds the most remarkable. The conduit is
7 feet deep, 30 wide at the top, and 10 at the bottom. It discharges
11 tons of water per second, or about 285,000,000 gallons per day.
The water is used for the city of Marseilles, and to irrigate 25,000
acres around it.

In our own country there are several noted aqueducts — as the
Cochituate at Boston, the Washington Aqueduct, and Croton at New
York. The method employed by the cities of Chicago and Milwau-
kee to obtain their water-supply is unique. The Avater of Lake Michi-
gan is brought into the city by a tunnel from a sufficient distance off"

AQUEDUCTS. 35

to insure its being pure, and is then pumped up into service-reser-
voirs, whence it is distributed in the usual manner. The Chicago tun-
nel is three miles long, that of Milwaukee is shorter.

The Washington Aqueduct leads from a reservoir which impounds
the river-water at the Potomac Falls, is 16 miles long, and supplies
the cities of Washington and Georgetown. Its capacity is 70,000,000
gallons per day. The water is conveyed in a brick-and-rubble masonry
conduit, of circular form, to the service-reservoir five miles from the
city, and the rest of the way in three large cast-iron pipes capable of
delivering 30,000,000 gallons per day. This aqueduct was constructed
at the expense of the United States Government, and cost 13,000.000.
It has several fine bridges, of which the most notable is the one across
Cabin John Creek. This is a single granite arch, 100 feet high and
220 long. Another remarkable example of the wide, single arch oc-
curs on the Lisbon Aqueduct, finished in 1738. It is 115 feet wide
and 250 high.

By far the finest aqueduct in America is the Croton. This was
begun in 1837, and finished in 1842, at a cost of |8,575,000, with-
out the means of distribution, which cost $1,800,000 more. The
length of conduit from the impounding to the receiving-reservoirs in
Central Park is 38^ miles, for 33 of which the conduit is built of
stone, brick, and cement, arched above and below, 8 feet 5 inches
high, Q)\ feet wide at the bottom, and 7f at the top. The water
crosses Harlem River in two cast-iron pipes 3 feet in diameter, and
one wrought-iron pipe 7 feet 6 inches in diameter, laid upon High
Bridge, a magnificent granite arcade 1,460 feet long and 114 high.
It comprises 15 arches, 7 of which have 50 feet span, and 8, those over
the river, 80 feet. The fall is 1.10 foot per mile, the velocity of the
water 1^ mile an hour, and the possible discharge 115,000,000 gal-
lons per day.

For the first six years after the completion of the aqueduct, the
quantity of water used was only 18,000,000 gallons per day, but it has
now increased to over 88,000,000. The supply is drawn from Croton
River, a small stream that flows into the Hudson, a short distance
above Sing Sing. The river was arrested by a dam 40 feet high, and
made to form what is now called Croton Lake. The mouth of the
aqueduct is 12 feet below the surface of the lake, whereby it is pro-
tected from freezing up in winter, and the water is obtained pure
and cool in summer. The lake has an area of 400 acres, and usually
affords a daily supply of 50,000,000 gallons ; but this fell oflf, during a
severe drought seven or eight years ago, to only 27,000,000, and since
then another source has been added by damming up the western branch
of Croton River. The receiving-reservoirs, two in number, are located
in Central Park : the " old " covers 35 acres, and holds 150,000,000
gallons; the "new" covers 100 acres, and holds 1,030,000,000. The
distributing-reservoir is situated 2\ miles farther down, between Fifth

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and Sixth Avenues, Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. Its walls are
45 feet high, and they inclose a little more than 4 acres. The water
is brought down in five lines of iron pipe, two of which are 30 inches
in diameter, two three feet, and one four feet. The distributing-pipes,
ramifying throughout the city, are about 340 miles long. The " mains "
are laid near the sidewalks on either side of the streets, and at every
crossing are provided with branches for supplying the adjacent build-
ings. These branches are provided with stopcocks for turning off the
water when necessary. The higher parts of the city lying north of
Manhattan Valley are sujiplied from a tower and reservoir recently
built on high ground near One Hundred and Seventy-third Street and
Tenth Avenue, to which the water is raised by powerfid pumps. The
reader will have been struck with the similarity between this aqueduct
and those of ancient Rome ; it remains to be shown that there is one
other point of resemblance, in the air-shafts that are built at intervals
of a mile. They rise 14 feet above the ground, and, like the old
Roman ones, are in the form of towers. Every third one is provided
with a door and way of access into the conduit. But the conduit is
without the filtering-places and the angles. The condidt does, indeed,
make several curves of 500 feet radius, but these are for changing the
course of the aqueduct to avoid obstacles, instead of for breaking the
force of the water, which in fact is unnecessary, the inclination being,
as already shown, insignificant. The level of Croton Lake is about
115 feet above that of Manhattan Valley, and when the old reservoir in
Central Park was yet building, the citizens of New York were afibrded
the magnificent spectacle of a vertical column of water shooting up
over 100 feet from the bottom of the valley.

In connection with our subject, though not strictly belonging to
it, may be mentioned the fact that canals are in many places carried
across valleys and rivers upon bridges. Examples have long existed
on the Languedoc Canal in France. The first in England was the Bar-
ton Bridsce, which carries a canal across the river Irwell 39 feet above
the surface. It was constructed by Brindley, for the Duke of Bridge-
water. Says a contemporary English writer : " It was commenced in
September, 1760 ; and in July of the following year the spectacle was
first presented, in this country, of vessels floating and sailing across
the course of the i-iver, while others in the river itself were passing
under them." The Lancaster Canal has one of five arches of 72 feet
span each, and 65 feet high, across the river Lune. Later and more
celebrated examples, though, are those of Pont-y-Cysylte and Chirk
in Wales. The former, constructed by Mr. Telford, " is justly cele-
brated for its magnitude, simplicity of desgin, and skillful disposition
of parts, combining lightness with strength in a degree seldom at-
tempted. It consists of cast-iron arches resting on pillars of stone ;
the length is 1,000 feet, the number of arches 19, and the height
126 feet." In this country these bridges are numerous, there being

GRAVITATION, AND HOW IT WORKS. 37

no less than 32 on the Erie Canal. The finest of them are two across
the Mohawk River, a third at Richmond over the Seneca Rivej-, and a
fourth across the Genesee at Rochester. The latter is a splendid stone
arcade 920 feet long, having six cut-stone arches of 52 feet span. A
wire suspension-bridge of seven spans, each 160 feet long, conveys
the Pennsylvania Canal across the Alleghany River at Pittsburg.

GRAVITATION, AND HOW IT WORKS.

By GRANVILLE F. FOSTEE,

" The force of gravity acts on bodies directly in proportion to the quantity of matter
in each."

" The force of gravity decreases in the reciprocal proportion of the square of the dis-
tance."— (Orr's " Circle of the Sciences," vol. vi., p. 1.)

AMONG students of natural philosophy no facts are more fre-
quently misunderstood than those pertaining to the laws of
gravitation. It is readily admitted that if a body A exerts on B a
certain force of attraction, if A's mass be doubled, then will A's at-
tractive influence on B be doubled also, but the fact is not so apparent
that any two bodies, whatever their disparity of mass, or however
great their distance apart, will attract each other with precisely equal
forces ; and that if, for instance, the mass of A be doubled, not only
will''A's attraction for B be doubled, but at the same time B's attrac-
tion for A wnll be doubled also. The pen I hold in my hand attracts
the sun with precisely the same amount of force that the sun attracts
the pen, and, if either the mass of the pen or sun be doubled, the
mutual attraction will be doubled also. The first law of gravitation
most certainly teaches that the earth, so insignificantly small as com-
pared with the sun, both in volume and mass, attracts the sun with a
force exactly equal to tliat which, being by the sim exerted on itself,
reduces it to obedience, and compels it to make its annual revolution.
So, too, the moon and the earth mutually and equally attract each
other.

The fact that the forces of attraction between two bodies are equal
may be easily explained as follows : Let there be five bodies. A, B, C,
D, E, and let A be so situated as to be at equal distances from the
other four : then it is evident that the forces which measure the mu-
tual attractions of (A and B), (A and C), (A and D), and (A and E),
are equal. Calling the force which A exerts on B, or B exerts on A,
one, then will the sum of the forces which B, C, D, and E exert on A
be equal to foicr, but the sum of A's attractions for B, C, D, and E,
will also be equal to four, since A's attraction for B is in no way

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

either increased or diminished by the fact that at the same time it
also exerts an attraction on C, D, or E. Now, let B, C, D^ and E, be
united into one mass, F, and it will be readily perceived that the
truth of the foregoing statements cannot thereby be affected.

As a general formula the law of gravitation may be enunciated as
follows : " If one of the masses contain m units of mass, and the other
one unit, the force will be m times as great as though they were both
units of mass ; but if the second body contain n units of mass, the
attraction will be n times as great as before ; that is, m n divided by
the square of the distance between the bodies."

Now, suppose A and F fi-ee to move, then on meeting A will have
moved over four-fifths of the distance between A and F, and F during
the same time will have moved over one-fifth of the same distance ;
tiiat is tc say, the velocity of A has just been equal to four times that
of F, and this is just what might have been expected from what is
known of the laws of force. Suppose A and F to be placed where
friction and other obstacles to motion do not exist, the velocities of
the bodies will be indirectly as their masses, if the respective forces
exerted on the bodies be equal ; that is, a force which would propel a
body with a certain velocity would proj)el another body one-quarter
of the mass of the former with four times the velocity. In the case
sujjposedj since A is one-quarter of the mass of F, a given force must
necessarily move A over four times the space and with four times the
velocity that it is able to move F, and when A and F meet the mo-
menta of A and F will be respectively equal.

The truth that two bodies mutually and equally attract each other
is also abundantly proved in astronomy. Take the case of the earth
and moon. The earth by its attraction compels the moon to make
around it as a centre her monthly revolution ; but it is equally true
that the moon compels the earth to move around the centre of gravity
of the earth and moon, which centre, on account of the earth's mass
being over eighty times that of the moon, is distant from the earth's
centre a little pv^er 2,000 miles, and this motion of the earth is per-
formed in precisely the time of the lunar revolution, namely 27^
days. Now, it will require but little reflection to perceive that to
move the earth in a circle with a radius of a little more than 2,000
miles, and the moon in a circle with a radius of nearly 240,000 miles,
would requii-e equal forces. The same thing is true of the sun, which
is obliged by the combined forces of the planets to revolve around
the centre of gravity of the solar system, and on making the neces-
sary calculations we find that the force exerted on the planets by the
sun just equals the force exerted by the j^lanets on the sun.

Weight has been defined as the measure of the earth's attraction.
A body weighing one pound attracts the earth and is attracted by it
with a force of one pound, but the same body at the sun's surface
would attract the mass of the sun with a force of twenty-seven pounds.

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 39

since its weight has been increased twenty-seven times by the sun's
attraction.

We have hitherto considered the mutual attraction of two bodies,
but now let a third be introduced, as, for instance, in the case of A
and F, let G be placed at equal distances from A and F, and let the
relative masses of A and F be as stated before in this paper : then will
the force which measures the mutual attraction of F and G be equal
to four times the force which measures the mutual attraction of G
and A, or, in other words, F will attract G with four times the force
that A will attract G. Lastly, let G's mass equal A's mass, and let
G be placed at double the distance from F that A has been placed :
then, according to the second law of gravitation, the units of force
which measure the m^utual attraction of A and F will be four times
the force which measures the mutual attraction of G and F.

♦«»

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS.

By SIK JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart.

THE anthropoid apes no doubt approach nearer to man in bodily
structure than do any other animals ; but when we consider the
habits of ants, their social organization, their large communities,
elaborate habitations, their roadways, their possession of domestic
animals, and even in some cases of slaves, it must be admitted that
they have a fair claim to rank next to man in the scale of intelli-
gence. They present, moreover, not only a most interesting but also
a very extensive field of study. In this country we have nearly
thirty species ; but ants become more numerous, in species as well
as individuals, in warmer countries, and more than seven hundred
kinds are known. Even this large number certainly is far short
of those actually in existence.

I have kejDt in captivity nearly half of our British species of ants,
and at the present moment have in my room more than thirty nests,
belonging to about twenty species, some of which, however, are not
English. No two species are identical in habits, and on various
accoTints their mode of life is far from easy to unravel. In the first
place most of their time is passed underground ; all the education of
the young, for instance, is carried on in the dark. Again, ants are
essentially gregarious ; it is in some cases difficult to keep a few alive
by themselves in captivity, and at any rate their habits under such
circumstances are entirely altered. If, on the other hand, a whole
community is kept, then the greater number introduces a fresh element
of difficulty and complexity. Moreover, within the same species, the
individuals seem to differ in character, and even the same individual

40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

will behave very differently under different circumstances. Although,
then, ants have attracted the attention of many naturalists — Gould,
Ue Geer, Swammerdam, Latreille, Leeuwenhoeck, Huber — and have
recently been the object of interesting observations by Frederick
Smith, Belt, Moggridge, Bates, Mayr, Emery, Forel, and others, they
still present one of the most promising fields for observation and ex-
periment.

The larvse of ants, like those of bees and wasps, are small, white,
legless grubs, somewhat conical in form, being narrower toward the
head. They are carefully tended and fed, being carried about from
chamber to chamber by the workers, probably in order to secure the
most suitable amount of warmth and moisture. I have observed
also that they are very often sorted according to age. It is some-
times very curious in my nests to see them divided into groups ac-
cording to size, so that they remind one of a school divided into five
or six classes. When full grown they turn into pupre, sometimes
naked, sometimes covered with a silken cocoon, constituting the so-
called "ant-eggs." After remaining some days in this state, they
emerge as perfect insects. In many cases, however, they would per-
ish in the attempt, if they were not assisted, and it is very pretty
to see the older ants helping them to extricate themselves, carefully
unfolding their legs and smoothing out the wings, with truly femi-
nine tenderness and delicacy.

Under ordinary circumstances an ants' nest, like a beehive, consists
of three kinds of individuals : workers, or imperfect females (which
constitute the great majority), males, and perfect females. There
are, however, often several females in an ants' nest ; while, as we
all know, there is never more than one queen in a hive. The queens
have wings, but after a single flight they tear off their own wings,
and do not again quit the nest. In addition to the ordinary workers
there is in some species a second, or rather a third, form of female.
In almost any ants' nest we may see that the workers differ more or
less in size. The amount of difference, however, depends upon the
species. In Lasius tiiger, the small. brown garden ant, the workers
are, for instance, much more uniform than in the little yellow
meadow ant, or in Atta barbara, where some of them are more than
twice as large as others. But in certain ants there are differences
still more remarkable. Thus, in a Mexican species, besides the com-
mon workers, which have the form of ordinary neuter ants, there arc
certain others in which the abdomen is swollen into an immense sub-
diaphanous sphere. These individuals are very inactive, and prin-
cipally occupied in elaborating a kind of honey.' In the genus J'hei-
dole — very common in Southern Europe — there are also two dis-
tinct forms Avithout any intermediate gradations : one with heads of
the usual proportion, and a second with immense heads provided

* Westwood, " Modern Classification of Insects," vol. ii., p. 225.

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 41

with very large jaws. These latter are generally supposed to act as
soldiers, and the size of the head enables the muscles whicli move the
jaws to be of unusual dimensions, though the little ones are also very
pugnacious. Tiiis differentiation of certain individuals so as to adapt
them to special functions seems to me very remarkable ; for it must
be remembered that the difference is not one of age or sex.

The food of ants consists of insects — great numbers of which they
destroy — of honey, honey-dew, and fruit ; indeed, scarcely any animal
or sweet substance comes amiss to them. Some species — such, for
instance, as the small brown garden ant — ascend bushes in search of
aphides. The ant then taps the aphis gently with her antennas, and
the aphis emits a drop of sweet fluid, which the ant drinks. Some-
times the ants even build covered ways up to and over the aphides,
which, moreover, they protect from the attacks of other insects. Our
English ants do not collect provision for the winter — indeed, their
food is not of a nature which would admit of this. Some southern
species, however, collect grain, occasionally in considerable quantities.
Moreover, though our English ants cannot be said exactly to lay ujd
stores, some at least do take steps to provide themselves with food
in the future. The small yellow meadow ant {Lasius Jlavus), for
instance, lives principally on the honey-dew of certain aphides which
suck the roots of grass. The ants collect the aphides in the nest,
not only watching over them themselves, but, as I have been able
to satisfy myself, even over their eggs — an act which one is much
tempted to refer to forethought, and which in such a case implies a
degree of prudence superior to that of some savages. Besides these
aphides, many other insects live in ants' nests. If they are to be
regarded as domestic animals, then ants have more domestic animals
than we have. The majority of these ant-guests are beetles. Some
of them — as, for instance, the curious little Claviger — are quite blind,
and are only found in ants' nests, the ant taking just as much care
of them as of their own young. It is evident, therefore, that in
some way they are useful or agreeable to the ants. The subject,
however, is one as yet but little understood, and very difficult to
study. Grimm and Lespes consider that some of these beetles secrete
a sweet fluid like the aphides, and from analogy this seems probable.
Other creatures which habitually live in ants' nests, like the little
Beckia albinos or the blind woodlouse {Platyarthrus), perhaps make
themselves useful as scavengers.

Nor are ants without their enemies. In addition to birds and
other larger foes, if you disturb a nest of the brown ants at any time
during the summer, you will probably see some very small flies
hovering over them, and every now and then making a dash at
some particular ant. These flies belong to the genus Phora^ and to
a species hitherto unnamed, which Mr. Verrall has been good enough
to describe for me. They lay their eggs on the ants, inside which

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the larvae live. Other species of the genus are in the same way para-
sitic on bees. On the 14th of October last I observed that one of
my ants had a mite attached to the underside of its head. The mite,
which is still in the same position, is almost as large as the head.
The ant cannot remove it herself. She has never come out of the
nest, so that I could not do it for her, and none of her own com-
panions from that day to this have thought of performing this kind
office.

In character the different species of ants differ very much from
one another. F. fusca, the one which is preeminently the enslaved
ant, is, as might be expected, extremely timid ; while the nearly
allied F. cinerea has, on the conti'ary, a considerable amount of
individual audacity. F. rufa, the horse ant, according to M. Forel,
is especially characterized by the want of individual initiative, and
always moves in troops; he also regards the genus -Fonnzca as ^the
most brilliant, though some others excel it in other respects, as, for
instance, in the sharpness of their senses. F. jjratensis worries its slain
enemies ; F. sanguinea never does. The slave-making ant (P. intfescens)
is, perhaps, the bravest of all. If a single individual finds herself
surrounded by enemies, she never attempts to fly, as any other ant
would, but transfixes her opponents one after another, springing
right and left with great agility, till at length she succumbs, over-
powered by numbers. 31. scabrinodis is cowardly and thievish ;
during wars among the larger species they haunt the battle-fields
and devour the dead. Tetramorium is said to be very greedy ;
Myrmecina very phlegmatic.

In industry ants are not surpassed even by bees and wasps. They
work all day, and in warm Aveather, if need be, even at night too.
I once watched an ant from six in the morning, and she worked
without intermission till a quarter to ten at night. I had put her to
a saucer containing larvae, and in this time she carried off no less than
a hundred and eighty-seven to the nest. I once had another ant,
Avhich I employed in my experiments, under observation several
days. When I came up to London in the morning, and went to
bed at night, I used to put her in a small bottle, but the moment she
was let out she began to work again. On one occasion I was away
from home for a week. On my return I let her out of the bottle,
placing her on a little heap of larvae about three feet from the nest.
Under these circumstances I certainly did not expect her to return.
However, though she had tlius been six days in confinement, the
brave little creature immediately picked up a larva, carried it off
to the nest, and after half an hour's rest returned for another.

We have had hitherto very little information as to the length of
life in ants. So far, indeed, as the preparatory stages are concerned,
there is little difficulty in approximately ascertaining the facts —
namely, that while they take only a few weeks in summer, in some

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 43

species, as our small yellow meadow ants, the autumn larvae remain
with comparatively little change throughout the winter. It is much
more difficult to ascertain the length of life of the perfect insect, on
account of their gregarious habits, and the difficulty of recognizing
individual ants. It has, however, generally been supposed that
they live about a season, and this is probably the case ; but I have
still some workers of F. cinerea, which I captured at Castellamare
in November, 1875, and some of F. sanguinea and F. Jusca since
September in that year. They must now, therefore, be at least a
year and a half old. I have also some queens of F. fusca which
have been with me since December, 1874, and still seem in perfect
health. If they lived mucli longer, and could compare their ex-
periences, ants would, from their immense numbers, even in temper-
ate regions, contend with mankind on no such very unequal terms.

The behavior of ants to one another differs very much according
as they are alone or supported by numerous companions. An ant
which would run away in the first case, will fight bravely in the second.

It is hardly necessary to say that, as a general rule, each species
lives by itself. There are, however, some interesting exceptions.
The little Stenamma Westwoodii is found exclusively in the nests of
the much larger F. riifa and the allied F. pratensis. We do not
know what the relations between the two species are. The Stenammas,
however, follow the Formicas when they change their nest, running
about among them and between their legs, tapping them inquisi-
tively with their antennae, and even sometimes climbing on to their
backs, as if for a ride, while the large ants seem to take little notice
of them. They almost seem to be the dogs — or rather cats — of the
ants. Another small species, Solenopsis fugax, which makes its
chambers and galleries in the walls of the nests of larger species, is
the bitter enemy of its hosts. The latter cannot get at them,
because they are too large to enter the galleries. The little Sole-
7iopsis, therefore, are quite safe, and, as it appears, make incursions
into the nurseries of the larger ant, and carry ofi* the larvse as food.
It is as if we had small dwarfs, about eighteen inches to two feet
long, harboring in the walls of our houses, and every now and then
carrying otf some of our children into their hoi'rid dens.

Most ants, indeed, will carry oif the larviB and pupae of others if
they get a chance ; and this explains, or at any rate throws some light
upon, that most remarkable phenomenon, the existence of slavery
among ants. If you place a number of larvae and pupae in front of
a nest of the horse ant, for instance, they are soon carried off; and
those which are not immediately required for food remain alive for
some days, though I have never been able to satisfy myself whether
they are fed by their captors. Both the horse ant and the slave ant
{F. fusca) are abundant species, and it must not unfrequently occur
that the former, being pressed for food, attack the latter and carry off

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

some of their larvae and pupae. Under these circumstances it occa-
sionally hajjpens that the pupae come to maturity in the nests of the
horse ant, and nests are sometimes, though rarely, found in which
with the legitimate owners there are a few F. fuscas. "With the horse
ant this is, however, a very rare and exceptional phenomenon ; but
with an allied species, F. sanguinea, a species which exists in our
southern counties and throughout Europe, it has become an estab-
lished habit. The F. sanguineas make periodical expeditions, attack
neighboring nests of F. fusca, and carry oiF the pupae. When the
latter come to maturity, they find themselves in a nest consisting
partly of F. sanguineas^ partly of F. fuscas — the results of previous
expeditions. They adapt themselves to circumstances, assist in the
ordinary household duties, and, having no young of their own species,
feed and tend those of the F. sanguinea. But though the F. san-
guineas are thus aided by the F. fuscas, they have not themselves lost
the instinct of working. It seems not improbable that there is some
division of functions between the two species, but we have as yet
no distinct knowledge on this point, and at any rate the F. sangui-
neas can " do " for themselves, and carry on a nest, if necessary,
without slaves.

In another species, however, Polyergus rvfescens, which is not
British, this is not the case. They present a striking lesson of the
degrading tendency of slavery, for they have become entirely depend-
ent on their slaves. Even their bodily structure has vmdergone a
change : their mandibles have lost their teeth, and have become mere
nippers — deadly weapons, indeed, but useless except in war. They
have lost the greater part of their instincts : their art, that is, the
power of building ; their domestic habits, for they take no care of their
own young, all this being done by the slaves ; their industry — they
take no part in providing the daily supplies ; if the colony changes
the situation of its nest, the masters are all carried by the slaves to
the new one ; nay, they have even lost the habit of feeding. Huber
placed thirty of them, with some larvae and pupre, and a supply of
honey, in a box.

"At first," he says, " they appeared to pay some little attention to the
larvsB ; they carried them here and there, but presently replaced them. More
than one-half of the Amazons died of hunger in less than two days. They had
not even traced out a dwelling, and the few ants still in existence were languid
and without stren|plh. I commiserated their condition, and gave them one of
their black companions. This individual, unassisted, established order, formed a
chamber in the earth, gathering together the larvae, extricated several young
ants that were ready to quit the condition of pupas, and preserved the life of
the remaining Amazons." '

This observation has been fully confirmed by other naturalists.
However small the prison, liowever large the quantity of food, these

' Huber, " Natural History of Ants."

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 45

stupid creatures will starve in the midst of plenty rather than feed
themselves. I have had a nest of this species under observation for
a long time, but never saw one of the masters feeding, I have kept
isolated specimens for weeks by giving them a slave for an hour or
two a day to clean and feed them, and under these circumstances
they remained in perfect health, while but for the slaves they would
have perished in two or three days. I know no other case in Nature
of a species having lost the instinct of feeding.

In P. rufescens^ the so-called workers, though thus helpless and
stupid, are numerous, energetic, and in some respects even brilliant.
In another slave-making species, however, Strongylognathus, the
workers are much less numerous, and so weak that it is an unsolved
probtem how they contrive to make slaves.

Lastly, in a fourth species, Anergetes atratulus^ the workers are
absent, the males and females living in nests with workers belonging
to another ant, Tetraynoriutn ccespitum. In these cases the Tetra-
moriums, having no queen, and consequently no young of their own,
tend the young of the Anergetes. It is, therefore, a case analogous
to that of Polyergus, but it is one in which slave-owning has almost
degenerated into parasitism. It is not, however, a case of true para-
sitism, because the Tetramoriiims take great care of the Anergetes.^
and, if the nest is disturbed, carry them off to a place of safety.

M. Forel, in his excellent work on ants, has pointed out that very
young ants devote themselves at first to the care of the larvae and
pupae, and that they take no share in the defense of the nest or
other out-of-door work until they are some days old. This seems
natural, because at first their skin is comparatively soft ; and it
would clearly be undesirable to undertake rough work or run
into danger until their armor had had time to harden. There
are, however, reasons for thinking that the division of labor is
carried still further. I do not allude merely to those cases in which
there are completely different kinds of workers, but even to the
ordinary workers. In L. flavus, for instance, it seems probable that
the duties of the small workers are somewhat different from those
of the large ones, though no such division of labor has yet been
detected. In F. fusca I made an observation which surprised me
very much. In the autumn of 1875 I noticed an ant out feeding
alone. The next day the same ant was out by herself, and I could
easily recognize her because by some accident she had lost the
claws of one of her hind-feet. My attention being roused, I watched
the nest for some weeks, and saw this same ant out repeatedly, but
no other. This winter I have kept two nests under close observation
— that is, I arranged with my daughters and their governess. Miss
Wendland, most conscientious observers, that we should look at the
nest once every hour throughout the day, and this has been done
since the middle of November, with a few exceptions not enough

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to affect the conclusion. The former nest contains about two hun-
dred, the second about four hundred individuals ; but as they are
somewhat torpid, and there are no larvse to be fed, much food is
not required. In each case only two or three individuals came out
for food, each about twice a day, though some days they did not
come out at all. Thinking that possibly these specimens were un-
usually voracious, or in some other way abnormal, I imprisoned the
foragers belonging to one of the nests. The following day two
others came out for food, and continued coming for several days.
I then imprisoned them also, when two others came out — showing,
I think, that the community requires food, and that it was the
functions of certain individuals to obtain it.

One of the most interesting problems about ants is, of course, to
determine the amount of their intelligence. In order to test this,
it seemed to me that one way would be to ascertain some object
which they would clearly desire, and then to interpose some obstacle
which a little ingenuity would enable them to overcome. With
this object in view, I placed food in a porcelain cu^j on a slip of glass
surrounded by water, but accessible to the ants by a bridge, consist-
ing of a strip of paper two-thirds of an inch long and one-third wide.
Having then put a F. nigra from one of my nests to this food, she
began carrying it off, and by degrees a number of friends came to
help her. I then, when about twenty-five ants were so engaged,
moved the little paper bridge slightly, so as to leave a chasm just
so wide that the ants could not reach across. They came to the
edge and tried hard to get over, but it did not occur to them to push
the paper bridge, though the distance was only about one-third of
an inch, and they might easily have done so. After trying for about
a quarter of an hour they gave up the attempt, and returned home.
This I repeated several times. Then, thinking that paper was a
substance to which they were not accustomed, I tried the same with
a bit of straw one inch long and one-eighth of an inch wide. The
result was the same. I repeated this twice. Again I placed par-
ticles of food close to and directly over the nest, but connected with
it only by a passage several feet in length. Under these circumstances
it would be obviously a saving of time and labor to drop the food
on to the nest, or at any rate to spring down with it, so as to
save one journey. But, though I have frequently tried the experiment,
my ants never adopted either of these courses. I arranged matters
so that the glass on which the food was placed was only raised one-
third of an inch above the nest. The ants tried to reach down, and
the distance was so small that occasionally, if another ant passed
underneath just as one was reaching down, the upper one could step
on to its back, and so descend ; but this only happened acciden-
tally, and they did not think of throwing the particles down, nor,
which surprised me very much, would they jump down themselves.

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 47

I then placed a heap of fine moukl close to the grass, but just so far
that they could still not reach across. It would have been of course
quite easy for any ant, by moving a particle of earth for a quarter of
an inch, to have made a bridge by which the food might have been
reached, but this simple expedient did not occur to them. On the other
hand, I then put some provisions in a shallow box with a glass top,
and a single hole on one side, and put some specimens of Lasius
niger to the food. As soon as a stream of ants was at work, busily
carrying supplies off to the nest, and when they had got to know
the way thoroughly, I poured some fine mould in front of the hole
so as to cover it up to a depth of about half an inch. I then took
out the ants which were actually in the box. As soon as they
had recovered from the shock of this unexpected proceeding on my
part, they began to run all around and about the box, looking for
some other place of entrance. Finding none, however, they began
digging down into the earth just over the hole, carrying ofi" the
grains of earth one by one, and depositing them, without any order, all
round at a distance of from half an inch to six inches, until they had
excavated dov/n to the doorway, when they again began carrying oif
the food as before. This experiment I repeated on the following days
three or four times, always with the same result.

As evidence both of theiri intelligence and of their aifection for
their friends, it has been said by various observers that when ants
have been accidentally buried they have been very soon dug out
and rescued by their companions. Without for a moment doubting
the facts as stated, we must remember the habits which ants have of
burrowing in loose fresh soil, and especially their practice of digging
out fresh galleries when their nests are disturbed. It seemed to me,
however, that it would not be difiicult to test whether the exca-
vations made by ants under the circumstances were the result of this
general habit, or really due to a desire to extricate their friends.
With this view I tried (20th of August) the following experiments ^
I placed some honey near a nest of Lasius niger on a glass sui^
rounded with water, and so arranged that in reaching it the ants
passed over another glass covered with a layer of sifted earth about
one-third of an inch in thickness. I then put some ants to the
honey, and by degrees a considerable number collected round it.
Then, at 1.30 p. sr., I buried an ant from the same nest under the
earth, and left her there till 5 p. m., when I uncovered her. She
was none the worse, but during the whole time not one of her friends
had taken the least notice of her.

Again, September 1st, I arranged some honey in the same way.
At 5 p. M. about fifty ants were at the honey, and a considerable
number were passing to and fro. I then buried an ant as before, of
course taking one from the same nest. At 7 p. m. the number of
ants at the honey had nearly doubled. At 10 p. m. they were still

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

more numerous, and had carried off about two-thirds of the honey.
At V A. M. the next moi'ning the honey was all gone ; two or three
ants were still wandering about, but no notice had been taken of the
prisoner, whom I then let out. In this case I allowed the honey to
be finished, because I thought it might perhaps be alleged that the
excitement produced by such a treasure distracted their attention ;
or even, on the principle of doing the greatest good to the greatest
number, that they were intelligently wuse in securing a treasure of
food before they rescued their comrade, who, though in confinement,
was neither in pain nor danger. So far as the above ants, however,
are concerned, this cannot be urged. I may add that I repeated the
same experiment several times, in some cases with another species,
Myrmica ruginodis, and always with the same results.

Ants have been much praised on account of their affection for
their friends. In this respect, however, they seem to vary greatly.
At any rate, any one who has watched them much must have met
with very contradictory facts. I have often put ants which were
{Smeared with a sticky substance on the boards attached to my nests,
and very rarely indeed did their companions take any notice of or
seek to disentangle them.

I then tried the following experiment : A number of the small
yellow ants {L. fiavus) were out feeding on some honey. I took five
of them, and also five others of the same species, but from a different
nest, chloroformed them, and put them close to the honey, and on
the path which the ants took in going to and from the nest, so that
these could not but see them. The grass on which the honey was
placed was surrounded by a moat of water. This, then, gave me
an opportunity of testing both how far they would be disposed to as-
sist a helpless fellow-creature, and what difference they would make
between their nest-companions and strangers from a different com-
munity. The chloroformed ants were put down at ten in the
morning. For more than an hour, though many ants came up and
touched them with their antennae, none of them did more. At
length one of the strangers w^as picked up, cai-ried to the edge of the
glass, and quietly thrown, or rather dropped, into the water. Shortly
afterward a friend was taken up and treated the same way. By
degrees they were all picked up and thrown into the water. One of
the strangers was, indeed, taken into the nest, but in about half an
hour she was brought out again and thrown into the water like
the rest. I repeated this experiment with fifty ants, half friends
and half strangers. In each case twenty out of the twenty-five
ants were thrown into the water as described. A few were left
lying where they were placed, and these also, if we had watched
longer, would no doubt have been also treated in the same way.
One out of the twenty-five friends, and three out of the twenty-five
strangers, were carried into the nest, but they were all brought out

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 49

again and thrown away like the rest. Under such circumstances,
then, it seems that ants make no difference between friends and
strangers.

It may, however, be said in this experiment that, as ants do not
recover from chloroform, and these ants were therefore to all intents
and purposes dead, we should not expect that much difference would
be made between friends and strangers. I therefore tried the same
experiment, only, instead of chloroforming the ants, I made them in-
toxicated. This was a rather more difficult experiment. No ant would
voluntarily degrade herself by getting drunk, and it was not easy in
all cases to hit off the requisite degree of this compulsory intoxication.
In all cases they were made quite drunk, so that they lay helplessly
on their backs. The sober ants seemed much puzzled at finding their
friends in this helpless and discreditable condition. They took them
up and carried them about for a while in a sort of aimless way, as if
they did not know what to do with their drunkards, any more than
we do. Ultimately, however, the results were as follows : The ants
removed twenty-five fi-iends and tliirty strangers. Of the friends,
twenty were carried into the nest, where no doubt they slept ofi" the
effect of the spirit — at least, we saw no more of them — and five were
thrown into the water. Of the strangers, on the contrary, twenty-
four were thrown into the water; only six were taken into the nest,
and four of these were shortly afterward brought out again and thrown
away.

The difference in the treatment of friends and strangers was, there-
fore, most marked.

Dead ants, I may add, are always brought out of the nest, and I
have more than once found a little heap on one spot, giving it almost
the appearance of a burial-ground.

I have also made some experiments on the power possessed by
ants of remembering their friends. It will be recollected that Huber
gives a most interesting account of the behavior of some ants, which,
after being sepai-ated for four months, when brought together again,
immediately recognized one another, and "fell to mutual caresses
with their antenme." Forel, however, regards these movements as
having indicated fear and surprise rather than affection, though he
also is quite inclined to believe, from his own observation, that ants
would recognize one another after a separation of some months. The
observation recorded by Huber was made casually ; and neither he
nor any one else seems to have taken any steps to test it by subsequent
experiments. The fact is one, however, of so much interest, that it
seemed to me desirable to make further experiments on the subject.
On the 4th of August, 1875, therefore, I separated one of my nests of
F. fusca into two halves, which I kept entirely apart.

I then from time to time put an ant from one of these nests into
the othei', introducing also a stranger at the same time. The stranger

VOL. XI, — 4

50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was driven out, or sometimes even killed. The friend, on the con-
trary, was never attacked, though I am hound to say that I could see
no signs of any general welcome, or that she was taken any particular
notice of.

I will not trouble you with all the evidence, but will content my-
self with one case.

On the 12th November last — that is to say, after the ant had been
separated for a year and three months — I jnit a friend and a stranger
into one of the divisions. The friend seemed quite, at home. One of
the ants at once seized the stranger by an antenna, and began dragging
her about. At —

11.45. — The friend is quite at home with the rest. The stranger is
being dragged about.

12. — The friend is all right. Three ants now have hold of the
stranger by her legs and an antenna.

12.15.— Do. do.

12.30.— Do. do.

12.45.— Do. do.

1. — Do. do.

1.30. — Do. One now took hold of the friend, but soon seemed to
find out her mistake and let go again.

1.45. — The friend is all riajht. The stranger is beiuo: attacked.
The friend also has been almost cleaned; while on the stranger the
color has been scarcely touched.

2.15. — Two ants are licking the friend, while another pair are hold-
ing the stranger by her legs.

2.30. — The fi'iend is now almost clean, so that I could only just
perceive any color. The stranger, on the contrary, is almost as much
colored as ever. She is now near the door, and I think would have
come out, but two ants met her and seized her.

3. — Two ants are attacking tlie stranger. The friend was no
longer distinguishable from the rest.

3.30.— Do.

4.— Do.

5.— Do.

0. — The stranger now escaped from the nest, and I put her back
among her own friends.

The difference of behavior to these two ants was most marked.
The friend was gradually licked clean, and, except for a few moments,
and that evidently by mistake, was never attacked. The stranger,
on the contrary, was not cleaned, was at once seized, was dragged
about for hours with only a few minutes' interval, by one, two, or
three assailants, and at length made her escape from the nest at a time
when no other ant was out.

In most species of ants the power of smell is very keen. I placed
ants on a strip of paper, each end of which was supported on a pin.

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 51

the foot of which was immersed in water. They then ran backward
and forward along the paper, trying to escape. If a camel's-hair pen-
cil be suspended just over the paper, they pass under it without tak-
ing any notice of" it; but if it be scented, say with lavender-water,
they at once stop when they come near it, showing in the most unmis-
takable manner that they perceive the odor. This sense appears to
reside, though not perhaps exclusively, in the antennae. I tethered,
for instance, a large specimen of Formica ligniperda with a fine thread
to a board, and when she was quite quiet I approached a scented
camel's-hair pencil slowly to the tip of the antenna, which was at once
withdrawn, though the antenna took no notice of a similar pencil, if
not scented.

On the otlier hand, as regards their sense of hearing, the case is
very different. Approaching an ant which was standing quietly, I
have over and over again made the loudest and most shrill noises I
could, using a penny pipe, a dog-whistle, a violin, as well as the most
piercing and startling sounds I could produce with my own voice,
without effect. At the same time I by no means would infer from this
that they are really deaf, though it certainly seems that their range of
hearing is very different from ours. We know that certain allied
insects produce a noise by rubbing one of their abdominal rings
against another. Landois is of opinion that ants also make sounds in
the same way, though these sounds are inaudible to us. Our range
is, however, after all, very limited, and the universe is probably full
of music which we cannot perceive. There are, moreover, in the an-
tenuEe of ants certain curious organs which may perhaps be of an
auditory character. There are from ten to a dozen in the terminal
segment oi Lasiusflavus, the small meadow ant, and, indeed, in most
of the species which I have examined, and one or two in each of the
short intermediate segments. These organs consist of three parts : a
small, spherical cup opening to the outside, a long, narrow tube, and a
hollow body shaped like an elongated clock-weight. They may serve
to increase the resonance of sounds, acting, in fact, to use the words
of Prof. Tyndall, who was good enough to look at them with rae, like
microscopic stethoscopes.

The organs of vision are in most ants very complex and conspicu-
ous. There ai*e generally three eyes arranged in a triangle on the top
of their heads, and on each side a large compound eye containing
sometimes more than two thousand facets between them. Neverthe-
less, the sight of ants does not seem to be very good. In order to
test how far ants are guided by vision, I made the following experi-
ments : I placed a common lead-pencil on a board, fastening it up-
right, so as to serve as a landmark. At the base I then placed a glass
containing food, and then put a L. niger to the food ; when she knew
her way from the glass to the nest and back again perfectly well, she
went quite straight backward and forward, I then took an oppor-

52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tunity when the ant was on the glass, and moved the glass with the
ant on it about three inches. Now, under such circumstances, if she
had been much guided by sight, she could not of course have had any
difficulty in finding her way to the nest. As a matter of fact, however,
she was entirely at sea, and, after wandering about for some time, got
back to the nest by another and very round-about route, I then again
varied the experiment as follows : I placed the food in a small china
cup on the top of the pencil, which ihus formed a column seven and
a half inches high. When the ant once knew her way, she went very
straight to and from the nest. This puzzled her very much ; she went
over and over the spot where the pencil had previously stood, retraced
her steps several times almost to the nest, and then returned along
the old line, showing great ijerseverance, if not much power of vision.
I then moved the pencil six inches. She found the pencil at last, but
only after many meanderings.

I then repeated the observation on three other ants, with the same
result; the second was seven minutes before she found the pencil, and
at last seemed to do so accidentally; the third actually wandered
about for no less than half an hour, returning iip the paper bridge
several times.

Let us compare this relatively to man. An ant measuring say
one-sixth of an inch, the pencil, being seven inches high, is conse-
quently forty-two times as long as the ant. It bears, therefore, some-
what the same relation to the ant as a column two hundred and fifty
feet high does to a man. The pencil having been moved six inches,
it is as if a man in a country he knew well would be puzzled at being
moved a few hundred feet, or, if put down in a square containing less
than an acre, could not find a column two hundred and fifty feet high,
that is to say, higher than the Duke of York's column.

Another evidence of this consists in the fact that if, when my L.
nigers were carrying ofi" food placed in a cup on a piece of "board, I
turned the board round so that the side which had been turned tow-
ard the nest was away from it, and vice versa, the ants always re-
turned over the same track on the board, and consequently directly
away from home. If I moved the board to the other side of my arti-
ficial nest, the result was the same. Evidently they followed the road,
not the direction.

It is remarkable that we do not even now know exactly how an
ants' nest is begun. Whether they always commence as a colony
from some older establishment ; whether wandering workers w^io
chance to find a queen under certain circumstances remain with her
and begin a new nest ; or whether the queen ant, like the queen
wasp, forms a cell for herself, and then brings up a few workers, who
afterward take upon themselves the labors of the family, as yet we
know not. When once started, the communities last for years, being
kept up by a succession of individuals. The queens themselves

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 53

rarely or never quit the nest, but receive their food from the work-
ers, and indeed appear to do nothing except hxy eggs.

A nest of ants must not be confused with an ant-hill in the ordi-
nary sense. Very often, indeed, a nest has only one dwelling, and in
most species seldom more than three or four. Some, however, form
numerous colonies. M. Forel even found a case in which one nest of
F. exsecta had no less than two hundred colonies, and occupied a cir-
cular space with a radius of nearly two hundred yards. Within this
area they had exterminated all tlie other ants, except a few nests of
lapinoma erraticum^ which survived, thanks to their gi-eat agility.
In these cases the number of ants thus associated together must have
been enormous. Even in single nests Forel estimates the numbers at
from 5,000 to 500,000.

In their modes of fighting, different species of ants have their sev-
eral peculiarities. Some, also, are much less military than others.
Myrmecina Latreillii, for instance, never attack, and scarcely even
defend themselves. Their skin is very hard, and they roll themselves
into a ball, not defending themselves even if their nest is invaded :
to prevent which, however, they make the entrances small, and often
station at each a worker, who uses her head to stop the way. The
smell of this species is also, perhaps, a protection. Tetramorium cms-
pitum has the habit of feigning death. This species, however, does
not roll itself up, but merely applies its legs and antennse closely to
the body.

Formica rufa^ the common horse ant, attacks in serried masses,
seldom sending out detachments, while single ants scarcely ever make
individual attacks. They rarely pursue a flying foe, but give no quar-
tei", killing as many enemies as possible, and never hesitating, with
this object, to sacrifice themselves for the common good.

Formica sayiguinea, on the contrary, at least in their slave-making
expeditions, attempt rather to terrify than to kill. Indeed, when they
are invading a nest, they do not attack the flying inhabitants unless
they are attempting to carry off pupoe, in which case they ai'e forced
to abandon the pupae. When fighting, they attempt to crush their
enemies with their mandibles.

Formica exsecta is a delicate but very active species. They, also,
advance in serried masses, but in close quarters they bite right and
left, dancing about to avoid being bitten themselves. When fighting
with larger species they spring on to their backs, and then seize them
by the neck or by an antenna. They also have the instinct of com-
bining in small parties, three or four seizing an enemy at once, and
then pulling difierent ways, so that she, on her part, cannot get at any
one of her foes. One of them then jumps on her back and cuts, or
rather saws, ofi" her head. In battles between this ant and the much
larger F. pratensis, many of the latter may be seen, each with a little
F. exsecta on her back, sawing ofi" her head from behind.

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

One might, at first sight, be disposed to consider that the ants
with stings must have a great advantage over those with none. In
some cases, however, the poison is so strong that it is sufiicient for it
to touch the foes to place them hors de combat, or at least to render
them incapacitated, with every appearance of extreme pain. Such
species have the abdomen unusually mobile.

The species of Lasius make up in numbers what they want in
strength. Several of them seize an enemy at once, one by each of her
legs or antennae, and, when they have once taken hold, they will suf-
fer themselves to be cut in pieces rather than let go.

Polyergus rufescens, the celebrated slave-making or Amazon ant,
has a mode of combat almost peculiar to herself. The jaws are very
powerful and pointed. If attacked — if, for instance, another ant
seizes her by a leg — she at once takes her enemy's head into her jaws,
which generally makes her quit her hold. If she does not, the Polyer-
gus closes her mandibles, so that the points pierce the brain of her
enemy, paralyzing the nervous system. The victim falls in convul-
sions, setting free her terrible foe. In this manner a comparatively
small force of Polyergus will fearlessly attack much larger armies of
other species, and sufier themselves scarcely any loss.

Much of what has been said as to the powers of communication
possessed by bees and ants depends on the fact that, if one of them
in the course of her rambles has discovered a supply of food, a num-
ber of others soon find their way to the store. This, however, does not
necessarily imply any power of describing localities. If the bees or
ants merely follow their more fortunate companion, or if they hunt
her by scent, the matter is comparatively simple ; if, on the contrary,
the others have the route described to them, the case becomes very
difi"erent. To determine this, therefore, I have made a great number
of experiments, of which, however, I will here only mention a few.
Under ordinary circumstances, if an ant discovers a stock of food, she
carries as much as possible away to the nest, and then returns for
more, accompanied generally by several friends. On their return,
these bring others, and, in this way, a string of ants is soon estab-
lished. Unless, therefore, various precautions are taken — and this, so
far as I know, has never been done in any of the previous observa-
tions— the experiment really tells very little.

I therefore made the following arrangement : One of my nests
of the small brown garden ant, Lasius niger, was connected with a
board, on which I was in the habit of placing a supply of food and
water. At a short distance from the board I placed two glasses
{b b'), and on 5 I placed some food. I then connected the glass b
with the board a by three slips of paper, c, d, e, and put an ant to the
food. She carried off a supply to the nest, returning for more, and
so on. Several friends came with her, and I imprisoned them till the
experiment was over. When she had passed several times over the

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS.

55

paper bridges, I proceeded as follows : Any friends who came with
her were excluded from the bridges when she was on them. If she
was not there, as soon as a friend arrived at the bridge <?, I took up e
in my fingers and rubbed it lightly, with a view of removing or blur-
ring the scent ; and as soon as the ant arrived on d I took up the
bridge c, and put it across the chasm from d to h'. Now, if the ant
went by description, she would of course cross e to b. If, on the

(-)

other hand, she went by scent, then she would be at the least as
likely to go over c to b'. The results were that, out of about one hun-
dred and twenty friends who passed over J, only twenty went to the
food, while nearly one hundred passed over c to the empty glass.
In this case the friends generally came more or less in sight of one
another to the bridge c, and, once there, could hardly avoid arriving
either at b or b'. I therefore modified the experiment as follows : I
established and endowed an ant as before, imprisoning the friends
who came with her. When she got to know her way thoroughly,
I allowed her to return to the nest on her own legs, but as soon
as she emerged again I took her up and transferred her to the
food.

Under these circumstances, as will be seen, very few ants indeed
ever found their way to the food. I began this at 5.30, when she
retuimed to the nest. At 5.34 she came out with no less than ten
friends, and was then transferred to the food. The others wandered
about a little, but by degrees returned to the nest, not one of them
finding her way to the food. The first ant took some food, returned,
and again came out of the nest at 5.39 with eight friends, when ex-
actly the same happened. She again came out —

56 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

At 5.44 with 4 friends.

5.47

u

4

((

5.49

a

1

u

5.52

5.54

((

5

((

5.58

a

2

((

5.59

((

2

((

6,1

u

5

((

6.4

((

1

u

6.7

6.11

((

3

C(

6.14

;c

4

C(

6.17

ii.

6

u

6.20

6.23

a

5

((

6.25

a

6

u

6.29

u

8

<(.

6.32

((

2

li

6.35

6.42

a

4

ii

Al

-J 6.44 with 0 friends

((

6.46

((

3

a

((

6.49

((

2

a

((

6.56

(C

6.59

(C

7.2

((

2

a

a

7.4

((

7.6

a

3

a

a

7.8

a

3

a

a

7.10

a

5

a

a

7.13

a

7.17

a

3

a

a

7.19

a

7

a

((

7.21

a

5

a

a

7.24

a

7.26

a

3

a

11

7.29

a

1

a

a

7.31

a

2

a

a

7.35

(39 journeys : 11 alone, 28 with 120 friends.)

Thus, during these two hours, more than one hundred and twenty-
ants came out of the nest, in company with the one under observa-
tion. She knew her way perfectly, and it is clear that, if she had
been left alone, all these ants would have accompanied her to the store
of food. Three of them were accidentally allowed to do so, but of
the remainder only five found their way to the food; all the others,
after wandering about awhile, returned empty-handed to the nest.

I conclude, then, that when large numbers of ants come to food
they follow one another, being also to a certain extent guided by
scent. The fact, therefore, does not imply any considerable power
of intercommunication. There are, moreover, some circumstances
which seem to point in an opposite direction. For instance, I have
already mentioned that if a colony of Polyergus changes the situation
of its nest, the masters are all carried to the new one by the slaves.
Again, if a number of F. fusca are put in a box, and in one corner a
dark place of retreat is provided for them with some earth, one soon
finds her way to it. She then comes out again, and, going up to one
of the others, takes her by the jaws. The second ant then rolls her-
self into a heap, and is carried off" to the place of shelter. They then
both repeat the same manoeuvre with other ants, and so on until all
their companions are collected together. Now, it seems to me difli-
cult to imagine that so slow a course would be adopted if they pos-
sessed any power of communicating description.

On the other hand, they certainly can, I think, transmit simpler

ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. 57

ideas. In sui^port of this I may adduce the following experiment :
Two strips of paper were attached to the board just mentioned (p.
54), and parallel to one another, and at the other end of each I placed
a piece of glass. In the glass at the end of one tape I placed a con-
siderable number (three to six hundred) of larvae. In the second I
put two or three larvae only. I then took two ants, and placed one of
them to the glass with many larva?, the other to that with two or
three. Each of them took a larva and carried it to the nest, return-
ing for another, and so on. After each journey I put another larva in
the glass witli only two or three larvse, to replace that which had
been removed. Now, if other ants came under tlie above circum-
stances as a mere matter of accident, or accompanying one another
by chance, or if they simply saw the larvae which were being brought,
and consequently concluded that they might themselves also find
larvse in the same place, then the numbers going to the two glasses
ought to be approximately equal. In each case the number of jour-
neys made by the ants would be nearly the same ; consequently, if it
were a matter of smell, the two routes would be in the same condi-
tion. It would be impossible for an ant, seeing another in the act of
bringing a larva, to judge for itself whether there were few or many
larvae left behind. On the other hand, if the strangers were brought,
then it would be curious to see whether more were brought to the
glass with many larvae than to that which only contained two or
three. I should also mention that every stranger was imprisoned
until the end of the experiment. I will select a few of the results:

Experiment 1. — Time occupied, one hour. The ant with few
larvae made six visits, and brought no friends. The one with many
larvse made seven, and brought eleven friends.

ExPERiMEisT 3. — Time occupied, three hours. The ant with few
larvse made twenty-four journeys, and brought five friends. The one
with many larvae made thirty-eight journeys, and brought twenty-two
friends.

Experiment 5. — Time occupied, one hour. The ant with few
larvffi made ten journeys, and brought three friends. The other made
five journeys, and brought sixteen fiiends.

Experiment 9. — Time occupied, one hour. The ant with few
larvae made eleven journeys, and brought one friend. The one with
many larvae made fifteen journeys, and brought thirteen friends.

Experiment 10. — I now reversed the glasses, the same two ants
being under observation ; but the ant which in the previous observa-
tion had few larvae to carry off now consequently had many, and vice
versa. Time occupied, two hours. The ant with few larvae made
twenty-one journeys, and brought one friend. The one with many
larvae made twenty-two journeys, and brought twenty friends. These
two experiments are, I think, especially striking.

Taken as a whole, I found that in about fifty hours the ants which

58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

had access to many larvfe brought two hundred and fifty-seven friends,
while those visiting a glass with few larvse only brought eighty-two.
The result will appear still more striking if we remember that a cer-
tain number, say perhaps twenty-five, would have come to the larvae
anyhow, which would make the numbers two hundred and thirty-two
as against fifty-seven, a very striking difierence.

I have elsewhere discussed the relations of flowers to insects, and
especially with bees, and particularly the mode in which the flowers
wei-e modified so that the bees might transfer the pollen from one
flower to another. Ants are also of considerable importance to
plants, especially in keeping down the number of insects which feed
on them. So far as I know, however, there are no plants which are
specially modified in order to be fertilized by ants ; and, indeed, even
to those small flowers which any little insect might fertilize, the visits
of winged insects are much more advantageous, because, as Mr. Dar-
win has shown ia his excellent work on cross and self fertilization of
plants, it is important that the pollen should be brought, not only
from a difierent flower, but also from a difierent plant, while creeping
insects, such as ants, would naturally pass from flower to flower of
the same plant.

Under these circumstances it is important to plants that ants
should not obtain access to the flowers, for they would otherwise rob
them of their honey without conferring on them any compensating
advantage. Accordingly, we not only find in flowers various modes
of attracting bees, but also of excluding ants ; and in this way ants
have exercised more influence on the vegetable kingdom than might
be supposed. Sometimes, for instance, the flowers are protected by
chevaux-de-frise of spines and fine hairs pointing downward ( Carlitia,
Lmniicm) ; some have a number of glands secreting a glutinous
substance, over which the ants cannot pass [Linnma, gooseberry) ; in
others the tubff of the flower is itself very narrow, or is almost
closed either by hairs or by internal ridges, which just leave space
for the proboscis of a bee, but no more. Lastly, some, and especially
pendulous flowers {Cyclamen., snowdrop), are so smooth and slippery
that ants cannot easily enter them, but often slip ofl" in the attempt,
and thus are excluded, just as the pendulous nests of the weaver-birds
preclude the entrance of snakes. This, however, is a large subject,
into which I cannot now enter.

Let me, in conclusion, once more say that, as it seems to me, not-
withstanding the labors of those great naturalists to whom I grate-
fully referred in commencing, there are in natural history few more
promising or extensive fields for research than the habits of ants. —
Fortnightly Heview.

NEW STAR IN THE CONSTELLATION SWAN. 59

THE NEW STAK IN THE CONSTELLATION OF

THE SWAN/

By AMEDEE GUILLEMIN.

THE phenomenon of a new star appearing in the heavens is suf-
ficiently rare to strike the imagination of the public, as well as to
attract the attention of scientific men. On the one side, it possesses
all the interest which attaches to the unexpected, to the mysterious
unknown ; and, on the other, it raises some very important questions
as to the physical and chemical constitution of the stars, and as to the
likeness between those distant suns and our own. But now more
than ever before, more even than in the first moiety of the nineteenth
century, is such curiosity justified, inasmuch as the new means of
investigation in the hands of astronomers give promise of revealing,
at least in a great measure, the nature of the strange transformations
which give rise to these apparitions.

Before we consider the quite recent discovery made by Julius
Schmidt, diraotor of the observatory at Athens, let us make a brief
review of the apparitions which preceded it.

Every one has seen in works on astronomy the account of the
famous temporary star of 1572, which appeared during the month of
November in the constellation of Cassiopeia, all of whose phases were
observed by Tycho Brahe. Its extraordinary scintillation ; its bright-
ness, equaling and surpassing Vega, Jupiter, Sirius, and even Venus
when in quadrature, so that it was visible at high noon ; finally, its
sudden diminution and disappearance after seventeen months of visi-
bility, all conspired to give to this star an extraordinary celebrity.

In 1600 a new star appeared in the Swan, and was studied by
Kepler; then it disappeared in 1621, was again visible in 1655, and
at sundry times afterward ; it is still visible.

Thirty years after the disappearance of the new star in Cassiopeia
appeared the star in Serpentarius discovered by Brunowski in October,
1604, and which had for its observer and historian the great Kepler.
It was visible for eighteen months, and, while it did not equal in
brightness the star of 1572, it surpassed the stars of first magnitude,
and even Jupiter itself.

In 1670 a third temporary star was discovered by the Carthusian
Anthehne, in that part of the constellation of the Fox which is nearest
to /3 of the Swan. At the time of its apparition, or rather of its dis-
covery, June 20th, it was of the third magnitude. About August 10th
it was only of the fifth magnitude, and three months later it disap-
peared, reappearing on March 17, 1671, with the lustre of a star of

' Translated from the French by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the fourth magnitude. The temporary stars of 1572 and 1604 had
directed the attention of astronomers to the variableness of the light of
stars; and already, in 1050, Bouillaud had approximately determined
the period of Mira Ceti, or the star o in the constellation of the Whale.
Cassini, who observed sensible variations in the star of the Fox, sup-
posed that its period could be fixed at ten months ; but it was sought
for in vain in February, 1672; it did not reappear till the end of
March, being at that time of the sixth magnitude; then it disappeared
once more, and has since never been seen.

Between the star of the Fox and the star discovered on AjDril 28,
1848, by Hind in Ophiuchus (or Serpentarius), 177 years elapsed. The
star of 1848, which was of a dark yellow or reddish color, did not ex-
ceed the fifth magnitude, but the variations of its light were care-
fully studied during the whole period of its visibility. In 1850 it was
hardly of the eleventh magnitude, and this magnitude it has since
kept.

Here we may refer to the researches made since Cassini's time
into ancient writings, whether European or Chinese, which show that
many similar apparitions of new stars have been noted in chronicles
and afterward forgotten : for instance, the star of the year 125 b. c,
observed by Hipparchus, as we learn from Pliny ; another, which ap-
peared in the Emperor Hadrian's time ; the new st ar seen in the constel-
lation of the Eagle in the year 389, and which possessed a brilliancy
resembling that of Venus ; that seen in the Scorpion in the ninth cen-
tury; the new stars of the years 945 and 1264, both of which made
their appearance in very nearly the same j^art of the heavens between
Cepheus and Cassiopeia.

Before we come to the two latest temporary stars, which have
succeeded each other in an interval often and a half years, and which
are worthy of a detailed description, let us briefly state the questions
to which these apparitions have given rise among astronomers, and
the hypotheses which have been oifei*ed for their solution.

To what causes must we refer the nearly always sudden appari-
tions of these strange bodies, their variations of lustre, their inter-
mittence, as also their changes of color? Why is it that, after alter-
nations of great lustre and of paling, their light gradually faded
away, and what is the cause of their ultimate disappearance ?

A thousand conjectures have been made in the eflfort to answer
this question. Among the weightiest of these, the one which com-
pares temporary stars to variable periodic stars must be rejected at
once — not on the ground that these two classes of stars are absolutely
distinct, but because the periodicity being due, either to a movement
of rotation or to occultation on the one hand, or to a phenomenon
peculiar to the star itself on the other, the first hypothesis is clearly
inadmissible for the explanation of new stars, and the secT)nd is pre-
cisely the question to be solved.

NEW STAR IN THE CONSTELLATION SWAN, 61

Tycho Brahe, struck with the suddenness of the appearance of the
star of 1572, and its position on the edge of the Milky- Way, offered a
bold hypothesis which is now abandoned. He believed in a creation
or at least in the spontaneous incandescence of the nebulous matter
of which he supposed the Milky-Way to be composed : when the new
star vanished, the place it had occupied was void, or at least Brahe
saw, in the absence of nebulosity at that spot, the result of the con-
densation of the matter the combustion of which had produced an
appearance resembling a star. Humboldt justly compares this view,
w^hich at all events was an ingenious one, with the views held by W.
Herschel as to the transformation of nebulae into stellar masses. In
Tycho Brahe's time it was not known that the light of the Milky-
Way results from the aggregation of an indefinite number' of stars,
or stellar masses, and that it is within this immense agglomeration
and in its vicinity that tlie nebula? properly so called are rarest.

Besides, it has been proved that the stars known as " new " stars
are anything but new. In the spot where the star of 0])hiuchus made
its appearance in 1848, there had previously been a star, noted by
Lalande in Fortin's " Atlas Celeste " as a vanislied star. So, too, the
new star which appeared in May, 1866, in the Corona Borealis, and
which at the start reached the second magnitude, had been already set
down in catalogues as a star of tlie ninth magnitude ; it still possesses
the same lustre it had before it underwent, during the six months of its
apparition, the extraordinary augmentation which attracts to it the
attention of astronomers. Hence astronomers no longer believe in the
creation or in the destruction of these stars. Before the sudden in-
candescence which makes them visible, they occupied the same places,
and there they still remain after their more or less perfect extinction.
It remains to inquire into the physical causes which produce these
variations of lustre.'

Spectrum analysis has provided the first positive elements for the
solution of this problem. As late as the year 1848 this method was
as yet unknown ; but when in 1866 the variable star of the Northern
Crown [Corona Borealis) appeared, spectrum analysis was already so
developed as to be profitably applied to the observation of it. The
results obtained by Huggins and Miller in these researches were as
follows :

' It is worth while to observe the ease with which these knotty questions are dis-
posed of by persons who are wont to invoke supernatural agencies. Here is an instance
dating from the seventeenth century, but similar instances may be found in our own
time : Father Riccioli, as an explanation of the appearance of secondary stars, suggested
the idea that some stars are luminous on one side; and whenever God would "exhibit to
men some extraordinary sign, he turns toward them the luminous side (previously turned
away from the earth) by causing the star to revolve about suddenly, either by the agency
of some intelligent being, or in virtue of some faculty inherent in the star itself; then,
by making another similar revolution, it suddenly vanishes, or pales gradually, like the
moon iu its phases." The explanation offered by the learned Jesuit is both ingenious
and convenient. But, unfortunately, astronomers nowadays are not satisfied with it.

62

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

" The spectrum of the variable star of Corona Borealis is found to consist of
two superposed spectra, the one made up of four bright lines, and the other resem-
bling the solar spectrum, each resulting from the decomposition of a group of
luminous rays independent of the light which produces the other. The continuous
spectrum, furrowed with groups of dark rays, indicates the presence of a photo-
sphere of incandescent matter, almost certainly solid or liquid, and surrounded
by an atmosphere of cooler vapors, which produce by absorption the groups of
darker lines. So far the constitution of this star resembles that of the sun ; but
it offers an additional spectrum composed of bright lines. Here, then, is a second
source of special light, and this source must le a luminous gas. Furthermore,
the two principal bright lines of this spectrum show that this gas consisted
mainly of hydrogen ; and their great brightness proves that the temperature of
the luminous gas was higher than that of the photosphere. These facts, taken
in connection with the suddenness of the outburst of light in the star, its im-

FiG. 1.— Spectrum op the Variable Star in Corona Borealis. (From Euggins and Miller.)

mediate and rapid diminution of brightness, and its decline, in the course of
twelve days, from the second to the eighth magnitude, lead us to the conclusion
that the star was suddenly enveloped in hydrogen-flames. Possibly it was the
scene of some mighty convulsion, with disengagement of an enormous amount
of liberated gas. A great portion of this gas was hydrogen, which burned on
the surface of the star by combining with some other element. The light given
forth by this flaming gas was characterized by the spectrum with bright lines.
The spectrum of the other portion of the star's light probably showed that this
terrible conflagration of gas had surcharged and rendered more" vividly incan-
descent the solid matter of the photosphere. "When the free hydrogen had been
exhausted, the flame died away by degrees, the photosphere became less lumi-
nous, and the star returned to its former state. . . . We must not forget," adds
Mr. Huggins, " that light, though it travels with such great velocity, neverthe-
less requires a certain time to come to us from the star. Hence this grand physi-
cal convulsion, though new to us, was a thing of the past as regards the star it-
self. In 1866 the star had already for years been in the new conditions produced
by this violent catastrophe."

The solar protuberances had not as yet been directly analyzed in
1866 ; it was not yet known that a continuous stratum of incandescent
hydrogen envelops the bright photosphere of the sun, and that the
emission of this gas, in the form of irregular jets, undergoes in the
sun variations, phases, which are at least so far related to the sun-
spots as to be coincident with tliem. What mighty physical revolu-

NEW STAR IN THE CONSTELLATION SWAN. 63

tion was it that suddenly produced the incandescence of the sun of
the Corona, transforming it from a star of the ninth to one of the
second magnitude ?

What would become of our planet were such a revolution as this
to take place in the sun, and were the calorific and luminous radiation
to be suddenly increased a hundred-fold?

«sai«iiii

Fia. 2.— Spectrum of the New Stab in the Constellation op the Swan. (From Cornu.)

But let us come to the new star of the Swan, which is the main
object of this article. Here is a very brief narrative of its discovery.

Julius Schmidt, director of the observatory at Athens, recently
■wrote to M. Le Verrier the following letter :

" On November 11th, at S* 40" in the evening, I saw a star of the third
magnitude in the zenith, near p Cygni. Observations with the refractor of
the observatory, at Q"* SO", gave the position of the star as follows :

18Y6. 0 Right ascension 21'' 36™ 50.4'

North declination 42° 16' 30.5"

*' The position for the year 1855 would be :

Right ascension 21^ 36" 1.2'

Declination 42° 11' 1"

" It does not occur in the Bonn " Durchmusterung des Himmels." The
star is strongly yellow in color. At midnight it was more intense than ji Pegasi
(which is set down as of the third magnitude in Heis's catalogue). On Novem-
ber 20th the star was not visible. On the 21st, 22d, and 23d, the sky at Athens
was overcast. From November 24th out, it has steadily declined in brightness,
and on December 8th the star was a little below the sixth magnitude."

At Paris, too, the sky was almost constantly overcast for some
days after the reception of Schmidt's letter. By taking advantage
of infrequent and imperfect seasons of clear sky. Prosper Henry suc-
ceeded in observing the new star. Compared with the star 915 of
Weisse's catalogue (hour 21), it had this approximate position:

1876. O Right ascension 21" 36" 50'

Declination -H 42° 16' 34"

It was of the fifth magnitude, and appeared to be of a greenish
color, almost blue, as compared with a neighboring star (42,304 of
Lalande).

The new star was also observed at Vienna by Littrow. To him

64

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on December 1st, as to Schmidt on November 24th, it appeared to be
of from tlie third to the fourth magnitude ; on December 3d it had
fallen to the fourth magcnitude, and on December 4th to the fifth
magnitude. The right ascension was 24'' 36™ 50.4'; declination, +42°
16' 37. V" for 1886. O.

,...330°

320° . ■ ZXI= 310°

Yia. 3.— Map showing Portion of New Star in the Swan. Lezakd— the Lizard; Ctgne —
THE Swan ; Etoile Nouvelle— the New Star.

We may observe here that there is nothing in common between
this new star and those wliich made their appearance in 1600 in the
neck of the Swan, and in 1670 near /3 of the same constellation. The
onlj^ point of agreement between them is their nearness to the Milky-
Way.

In comparing Schmidt's observations with those of Prosper Henry,
we note two important facts : tlie first is, the diminution of lustre,
varying in eight days from the third to the fifth magnitude ; and,
second, the notable change of color, from a pronounced yellow to
greenish blue — a change so patent that it cannot be referred to in-
dividual differences of judgment, or to atmospheric influences.

The new star of the Swan has been made the subject of a very
interesting spectroscopical study. As early as December 2d, Coruu
applied a spectroscope to the great equatorial in the eastern tower of
the Paris Observatory. Cazin, too, employed for the same purpose
the nine-inch equatorial telescope (the object-glass of which is by Leon
Foucault). Both of these observers arrived at the same conclusion.
The spectrum of the star, observed during a brief interval of clear
sky, appeared to " consist in great part of bright lines, and hence

NEW STAR IN THE CONSTELLATION SWAN. 65

probably to be the result of an incandescent vapor or gas." Here it
will be seen, is a first point of resemblance to the variable star of
Corona Borealis.

A second study, made by Cornu on December 4th, enabled him to
define the bright lines of the spectrum. Three of them are the lines
C, F, and 434 of hydrogen ; a fourth line seemed to correspond to the
line D of sodium; another to the characteristic line b of magnesium.
Finally, two lines with the wave-lengths 531 and 451 seem to coincide,
the one with the famous line 1,474 (Kirchhoff's scale) observed in
the solar corona during eclipse, the other with a line of the chromo-
sphere. These results possess so high an interest that we will here
transcribe a portion of the text of M. Cornu's note :

"The spectrum of this star," he writes, "consists of a certain number of
detached bright lines on a sort of luminous ground, almost entirely interrupted
between the green and the indigo, so that the spectrum appears as though made
up of a number of separate parts. In order to study it quaUtatively, I adopted a
spectroscopic eye-piece of special construction, which utiUzes most of the light,
and allows the observer to vary its concentration. In measuring I used a direct-
vision Duboscq spectroscope. I observed only bright lines ; the dark lines, if
any there are, must be very minute, and escaped my observation, owing to the
faintness of the star's light."

In this respect the spectrum of the star in the Swan differs from
that of the star T of Corona Borealis, as may be seen from the figure
here copied from Huggins,

We omit the details of the measurements of the positions of the
lines, and pass to the results, which are stated in the following table.
The bright lines, ranged in the order of their brightness, a, ^, y, /3, ^,
?/, 0, e, are eight in number, and their wave-lengths are here given
in millionths of a millimetre :

a

S

7

iS

C

V

e

6

Lines observed

Hydrogen

661
665 (C)

588
589(2))

587*

531
532

517
....

&\h'ibMg.)

500

483
486 {F)

451

. •

447

435

4U

Sodium

.

Magnesium

Coi'ona line

Chromosphere line. . . .

• •

From this table it is seen that there is almost perfect coincidence
as regards the lines-a, ?/, and e, with three hydrogen-lines ; as regards
i3, with the line h of magnesium ; as regards 6, with the line of sodium,
or, perhaps, as Cornu suggests, with the bright line D3 of the chromo-
sphere. The y corresponds with a bright line also belonging to the
chromosphere and the solar corona; and, finally, 6 corresponds with
a line of the chromosphere. The line ^ alone stands unidentified with
any known line.

VOL. XI. — 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" If tliia interpretation were correct, the bright lines of the spectrum of the
star would comprise exclusively the brightest and most frequent lines, of the
chromosphere."

In the extreme violet tliere is a line, the fourth of hydrogen, also
noted by Dr. Young, as one of the naost frequent in the spectrum of
the chromosphere, the wave-length of which is 410. Cornu thinks he
has often perceived this line in the spectrum of the star, hut he has
not been able to measure it. The distinguished observer closes his
account of these interesting researches as follows :

" To sura up, the light of the star seems to have precisely the same composi-
tion as the light of the sun's envelope, the chromosphere. Though the tempta-
tion is strong to draw from this fact conclusions as to the physical condition of
this new star, its temperature, the chemical reactions it must exhibit, I will make
no comments, nor oflter any hypotheses. We lack, I think, the data necessary
for reaching a profitable conclusion, or at least a conclusion that can be verified.
However attractive such hypotheses may be, we must not forget that they He
outside of the domain of science, and that, instead of being of service to science,
they are likely to hinder its progress."

The readers of La Nature will permit us to add a few reflections
of our own to those offered by our learned fellow-countryman. His
reserve we acknowledge to be very wise, but he has expressed him-
self a little too strongly. Who, after perusing M. Cornu's analysis
and the conclusions he has drawn, would not make the short step that
here intervenes between fact and hypothesis, and assert the similarity,
if not the identity, of the light of the star with that of the chromo-
sphere? True, we cannot with certaintj^ affirm that tlie apparently
continuous faint spectrum in which are seen the bright lines was also
its spectrum before it became visible to us, but that such is the case
is highly probable. We cannot say what was the cause of this sudden
development of gases, whose existence and incandescence are revealed
by the star's spectrum, just as we are as yet unable to assign the
cause of the sun's hydrogen protuberances. But is it nothing to class
together phenomena, the only difference between which seems to be
one of degree alone ? The hypotheses of Huggins and Miller, as to
the causes of the apparition of the star in the Corona Borealis, can of
course never be verified ; but no more can we verify the current
hypotheses held by astronomers and physicists with regard to the
presence of various chemical elements in the sun; we have here only
probabilities. Such hypotheses, far from being of injury to science,
are indispensable for its progress: they stimulate the observer's mind,
constantly suggest to him fresh observations, and become a hinderance
only when they are held to be demonstrated truths, and when men
refuse to give them up after they have been proved to be erroneous,
or after they have served their purpose. — La Nature

ANTIQUE MARBLES. Sy

ANTIQUE MAEBLES.

By JOHN D. CHAMPLTN, Jr.

"^rOTHING more forcibly attests the imperial power and magnifi-
-LM cence of Rome, at the height of her glory, than the fragments
of precious marbles which almost every excavation among he^i- ruins
brings to light. Even if her history were lost to us, these varied bits
of stone would tell in language stronger than w^ords the story of her
universal dominion, when her ships sought every clime, and every
land paid tribute to her luxury. This piece reflects the glowing suns
of Numidia, that the green of Tempe's Vale; this was quarried on
Pentelicus, this in storied Chios, and these tell of Gallic and of His-
panic conquest. Many have a double history, having served to deco-
rate some forum or temple of the East before its spoliation by a
Mummius or a Sulla.

Toward the end of the second century b. c. the Romans, who had
become conversant with Greek art through their conquests, began to
appreciate sculptures and precious marbles, and from that time on-
ward almost every captured city was rifled of its treasures. Not only
were all the quarries of the world put under contribution, but statues,
columns, and capitals, slabs, pavements, and sometimes entire edifices,
were transported to Rome. Carthage, from the time of its destruc-
tion, furnislied an almost inexhaustible supply. Edrisi, the Arab
geographer of the twelfth century, says that marbles of so many dif-
ferent species were found among its ruins that it would be impossible
to describe them. Blocks thirty feet high and sixty-three inches in
diameter, and columns thirty feet in circumference, were taken out.

A large fleet of vessels was employed solely in transporting mar-
bles, and slaves or freedmen were stationed in the various ports from
which they were sent, who were charged with the duty of keeping
account of the number, quality, and date of shipment of all stones.
In 1868 excavations on the banks of the Tiber brought to light the
ancient marmorata^ or marble-wharf, where these vessels landed their
cargoes. Many blocks of precious colored marbles were exhumed
here, some of colossal proportions. One of yellow African marble
was twenty-seven feet long by five and a half feet wide, and weighed
thirty-four tons. Another, sent from a then newly-opened quarry in
the mountains north of the Adriatic, to the Emperor Nero, w^as marked
with the name of his freedman Carynthus.

So immense was the store of mjirbles amassed in Rome that for
centuries after her spoliation by the northern barbarians her ruined
edifices were regarded as the richest of quarries, from which pope,
nobles, and peasants, drew at will. Most of the medigeval churches
and other public edifices now extant are decorated with the spoils of

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

imperial palaces, basilicas, baths, and the temples of the gods. Vast
quantities of marble were even burned for lime ; and, as if in retribu-
tion, Rome was robbed to beautify other cities. Her sculptured mar-
bles were transported to Aix-la-Chai^elle to decorate the buildings
of Charlemagne, and the ancient capital of tlie world, Petrarch la-
ments, was forced to adorn from her own bowels the slothful luxury
of Naples.

Of the white marbles of antiquity the most important were the
Parian and the Pentelic, both the product of Greek quarries. The
Parian was obtained from Mount Marpessa, in the island of Paros,
one of the Cyclades, whence it was sometimes called Marpessian. It
was also called lyehnites^ because, says Pliny, the quarries were
worked by lamplight. Dodwell disputes this, averring that the quar-
ries are cut down the mountain-side and open to the light; and he
suggests that the marble was so called from its glittering fracture,
or its translucence. This leads one to doubt whether Dodwell ever
visited them, for Bory Saint- Vincent, of the French commission to the
Morea, expressly describes them as subterranean, and says the en-
trance of the principal one was so filled up at the time of his visit
that he was obliged to creep to enter it. There are three quarries on
the mountain, and the largest has several lateral cuttings. The marks
of the ancient wedges are everywhere visible, and it is evident from
the manner in which the blocks were taken out that the utmost care
was exercised to avoid waste. In consequence of the numerous fis-
sures through the beds, comparatively small blocks could be obtained,
generally not more than five feet in length.

Parian marble is of a yellowish white, very near the tint of white
wax. Theocritus compares it to the color of teeth. It was, therefore,
considered better adapted for the representation of human flesh than
any other material. Its grain is much coarser than that of the Pen-
telic marble, but it takes a most exquisite polish, and, as it gradually
hardens by exposure to atmospheric air, it resists decomposition for
ages. To this quality is attributable the fine state of preservation of
many of the most celebrated of the antique statues, such as the " Ve-
nus de' Medici," the "Diana Venatrix," the "Juno Capitolina," the
"Ariadne," and the colossal " Minerva " — otherwise called the " Pallas
of Velletri " — all of which are of Parian marble.

The neighboring island of Naxos produced a white marble scarcely
inferior to that of Paros, but exhibiting a little more advanced state
of crystallization. The marble, too, of Tenos, an island north of Pa-
ros, and of Thasos, the most northerly of the ^Egean group, was
considered nearly equal to that of Paros. Chios, Lesbos, Samos, and
several other islands of the archipelago, also produced white marbles,
generally of a more snowy white than the Parian. They are called
usually by the Italians marmo Greco.

In the palmy days of Greek art the Athenians gave the preference

ANTIQUE MARBLES.

69

to the Pentelic marble, rather than to that of Paros, probably because
it was more accessible to Athens, the quarries being on Mount Pen-
telicus,only about eight miles from the city. It is finer in grain than
the Parian, and is whiter, but it is less translucid, and it has a ten-
dency to exfoliate under atmospheric influence, so that it loses in time
its polished surface. It is marked, too, by occasional zones of greenish
talc, whence it is called by the Italian sculptors cipolino statuario,
from its resemblance to an onion (cipola). It is sometimes called also
marmo salino, from its salt-like grains. The Parthenon, the Propy-
Igea, the Erechtheum, and most of the other principal buildings of
Athens, were constructed of Pentelic marble, and it was also the ma-
terial of some of the most celebrated of the ancient statues, such as
the " Venus " of the Capitol, the " Pallas " of the Albani villa, the
"Indian Bacchus," and many portrait busts.

The Pentelic quarries, says Dodwell, are cut in perpendicxdar
precipices in the side of the mountain. The marks of the tools are
everywhere visible, and the tracks of the sledges on which the im-
mense masses were drawn down the declivity to the plain are still to
be seen. Several frusta of columns and other blocks lie at the base
of the excavation, just as they were left by the ancient quarrymen.
One of the larger excavations is worked now.

Tlie Hymettan marble, from Mount Hymettus on the southeast side
of Athens, was employed in Xenophon's time in the construction of
temples, altars, shrines, and statues, throughout Greece, but especially
in Athens. The Romans used it to a much greater extent than the
Pentelic, partly because the quarries were nearer the sea, and partly
because its peculiar tint became the fashion. It was of a much less
brilliant white tlian the Pentelic, in some places becoming almost
gray. It was used chiefly for buildings. According to Pliny, Lucius
Scaurus was the first in Rome to decorate his house with Hymettan
columns, 104 b. c. The statue of Meleager, in Paris, is made of this
marble.

In the time of Julius Coesar quarries of white marble were opened
at Luna, on the coast of Etruria, and thenceforth Rome drew her sup-
ply of building-marbles from this place, almost to the exclusion of
the Greek marbles. The Pantheon, and many other public buildings,
were constructed of it. It was soon found to be adapt>ed also for
statuary, and finally came to be preferred to the Parian. The " An-
tinous" of the Capitol, now in the Paris Museum, is of this marble,
and, according to some, the "Apollo Belvedere" also; but the Ro-
man sculptors think the latter is a Greek marble. The marble of
Luna, called by the ancients marmor Lunense, and which is the same
as the modern Carrara, is whiter than either the Parian or Pentelic,
and some of its veins are not inferior in beauty of grain and in soft-
ness to the former.

In 1847 a quarry of white marble was opened at Maremma, about

•JO THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

thirty-five miles from Leghorn, which bore many evidences of having
been worked in ancient times. It closely resembles the Pai-ian in
color and grain, works smoothly, and takes a high polish.

White marbles Avere also obtained by the ancients from Mount
Phelleus, Rhamnus, and Snninm, in Attica; Demetrias, in Thessaly;
on the river Sangarius, in Phrygia ; from near Alexandria Troas;
from Mount Prion, near Ephesus; from Cappadocia, and from Mount
Libanus, the modern Lebanon.

The marbles of Phelleus, Rhamnus, and Suniuin, were of good col-
or, but were coarse, and less homogeneous than the Pentelic. The
Sangarian marble was sometimes called Coralitic. The Cappado-
cian was called Phengites ($eyyof), on account of its translucence.
The temple of Fortuna Seia, built by Nero within the precincts of his
Golden House, was built of this stone ; and, although it had no win-
dows, it is said to have been perfectly light when the door was closed.
The marble of Mount Libanus, usually called Tyrian, was probably
the material of Solomon's Temple and of Herod's palace. The Scala
Santa in the Lateran Palace, Rome, said to have been brought from Pi-
late's house in Jerusalem, is of this marble, which is a clear blue-white.

The Proconnesian marble, a pure white with black veins, was quar-
ried in the island of Proconnesus, in the Propontis, The celebrity of
this stone has changed the name of the island to Marmora, and also
given its modern name (Sea of Marmora) to the Propontis. This
marble was also called Cyzican, because it was largely used in tlie
city of Cyzicus, opposite the island in Mysia, The palace of Mauso-
lus, at Halicarnassus, was built of it. It was also much used at Con-
stantinople, under Honorius and the younger Theodosius. Several
columns of it in the mosque of St. Sophia were spoils of the temple of
Cybele at Cyzicus.

A white marble, with yellow spots, was brought from Cappadocia,
and a similar marble from Rhodes, but the spots wei*e of a brighter,
more golden, yellow. White marble, with black spots, was quarried
in the Troad.

But the most beautiful of the antique variegated marbles, with a
white base, was the Synnadic, Docimasan, or Docimite, sometimes
called marmor Phrygium. It was quarried at the village of Docimia,
not far from Synnada, in Phrygia Major. The ancient authorities
generally describe it as pure white, marked with red or purple veins,
which the poets compared to the blood of Atys, slain at Synnada;
but Hamilton, who visited the quarries about 1835, says that they
yield several different kinds. He mentions white, bluish-white, white
with yellow veins, white with blue veins, and white with blue spots,
the latter having almost a brecciated appearance. He describes the
principal quarry as worked horizontally into the hill, the sides of
which are cut away perpendicularly to a great height to secure the
splendid columns for which it was famous. Strabo says that pillars

ANTIQUE MARBLES. 71

and slabs of siirprising magnitude and beauty, approaching the aha-
bastrite marble in variety of colors, were conveyed thence to Kome
notwithstanding the long land-carriage of more than 100 miles to the
place of shipment. The quarries are entirely surrounded by tracliytic
hills, to which, says Hamilton, the marble " owes its crystalline and
altered character, being to all appearance a portion of the older sec-
ondary limestone caught up and developed by the protruded volcanic
rocks, and crystallized by igneous action."

The alabastrites marble of the ancients, or onychites, was not a
marble proper, b»it a hard carbonate of lime, identical in composition
with stalagmite, the modern alabaster. It was quarried, says Piiny,
near Thebes, in Egypt, and Damascus. "When first brought to Eome
it was considered almost a precious stone, and was made into cups
and small ornaments, such as the feet of couches and chairs. When
Balbus decorated his theatre, in the time of Augustus, with four small
columns of this stone, it was noted as an unprecedented occurrence ;
but, in tlie reign of Claudius, Callistus, a freedman of that emperor,
adorned his banquet hall with thirty large columns of alabastrites.
The ancient quarries were reopened by Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of
Egypt, to obtain material to build his mausoleum at Cairo. The four
magnificent pillars of this marble that support the baldacchino over
the altar in the church of San Paolo fuori le Mura, in Rome, were
presented by him. Each is a monolith forty feet long.

Of the yellow marbles of antiquity, that called by the Italians
giallo antico is the rarest and most beautiful. There are several
varieties of it, varying in tint from a cream-yellow to the deepest
chrome-yellow, sometimes shading into red and purple hues. Some
is as bright as gold [giallo dorato), some of an orange-shade {gicdlo
capo), and some, extremely rare, of a canary-color {giallo paglia).
The ancient writers compared it to safiron, to sunlight, ^nnd to ivory
grown yellow with age. Some of it is variegated with black or dark-
yellow rings. The grain is exceedingly fine. Its colors are derived
entirely from carbonaceous matter. Among the finest existing speci-
mens of this marble are the large columns in the Pantheon at Rome,
and a single pair in the Arch of Constantine. The giallo antico was
called marnior Numidicum by the Romans, but the precise site of the
quarries is not yet ascertained. M. Fournel believes that the yellow
marble of Philippeville, Algeria, which closely resembles it in varying
tints, is identical with it. The island of Melos and Corinth also pro-
duced yellow marbles, and in the time of Justinian a marble of a
fiery yellow was quarried in the neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Among the most celebrated marbles of the ancient wo)-ld was the
rosso antico, or red antique. Its color passes from a red, almost scar-
let, to a wine-lees or blood-red, which is divided by parallel layers
of white, and sometimes also intersected by a network of delicate
black veins. Its variation in tint is probably according to the quan-

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tity of the oxide of iron contained in it. Until lately this marble was
known only through its remains, and it has generally been ascribed
to Egypt. The largest ancient specimens preserved are the fourteen
slabs composing the double flight of steps in the church of San Pras-
sede, Rome. Napoleon I. at oue time intended to carry these to Paris
to ornament his throne. There are several statues of rosso antico,
including the " Antinous " in Paris and the " Marcus Agrippa " in the
Grimani Palace, Venice, and many medallion portraits. It is now as-
certained that this beautiful marble was not Egyptian, but Greek. It
was quarried on the coast of the gulf of Laconia, near what is now
the bay of Scutari. The quarry lies near the sea, and large blocks
cut by the ancients are still to be seen there. In 1851 the Greek Gov-
ernment sent specimens from it to the London Exposition, and it was
fully recognized as the famous rosso mitico.

There are many varieties of the marble called red and white an-
tique, but they are so near alike that it is impossible to distinguish
them by description alone. They are variously called by the Italians
rosso annulato, serpentelo, vendurino^ fiorito, cotonello^ etc. They are
found only in the Roman ruins, and their quarries are unknown. The
marble called cervelas is of a deep red, with numerous gray and white
veins. It is supposed to have been brought from Africa.

The ancients were acquainted with many kinds of green marble,
one of the most noted of which was the marmor Atraciwn, called by
Julius Pollux Thessalian, and identical Avith the verde antico of the
Italians, The quarries were on Mount Ossa, near the entrance of the
vale of Tempe, and not far from Atrax in Thessaly, whence it de-
rived its name. It is a species of breccia, whose paste is a mixture
of talc and limestone, interspersed with fragments of white marble.
But the verde antique marbles differ from the modern breccias in that
the colors are, so blended that the line of demarkation is not percep-
tible. Tlie Erechtheum in Athens was adorned with columns of
verde antique, and it was one of the marbles selected by Justinian
for the decoration of St, Sophia, The eight splendid columns of it
still to be seen in the mosque are said to have been taken from the
temple of Diana at Ephesus,

Tlie celebrated Carystian marble, the cij)olmo verde of the Ital-
ians, derived its name from Carystus, a town at the foot of Mount
Oche, in the island of Euboea, where it was quarried. The temple of
Apollo Marmarinus of Carystus was named from this quarry. It is
a true steatitic limestone or cipolin, and is of a beautiful grayish
green, with white zones and spots, and sometimes sprinkled with dif-
ferent colors. It was easily obtained in very large blocks, suitable for
columns, and was largely used in the temples and other public build-
ings in Athens and Rome. An English traveler, who visited the
quarry lately, found seven entire columns on the site, about three miles
from the sea, just as they were left by the ancient workmen.

ANTIQUE MARBLES, 73

The rnarmor Lacedcemonimn^ Laconicum, or Spartum^ of the
Romans has always been regarded as a species of verde-antique niar-
ble. Clarke says that it differed from the Atracian only in being
variegated with black or dark -green serpentine instead of with white.
But M. Boblaye, the mineralogist of the French commission to the
Morea, has proved pretty conclusively that it was not a marble but a
true porphyry, and probably identical with the ophites of the ancients,
which Pliny says was so called from its resemblance to the skin of a
serpent (o^tf). Pausanias calls it Crocean stone (Kpo/ccwv XWog).
The French discovered the quarries near the ancient Croceae, on the
road from Sparta to Gythium, and about two miles from the mod-
ern village of Levetzova, in Laconia. The stone is of a dark grass-
green, strewed with little parallelograms of a lighter green, sometimes
approaching white and sometimes yellow. Procopius compares its
color to emerald, and Statius and Sidonius call it a grass-green.
Eurycles, the Spartan architect, used this stone in decorating the
baths of Neptune at Corinth ; and it was quarried to a large extent
by the Romans, who enriched the monuments of Greece, Italy, and
Gaul, with it.

The Auo-ustan and Tiberian marbles, so fashionable in Rome nn-
der those emperors, were obtained in Egypt. They are breccias com-
posed of fragments of greenstone, gneiss, and porphyry, cemented
with a calcareous paste. They are similar in color, a bright green,
spotted and streaked with dark green, reddish gray, and white; the
only difference being, according to Pliny, that in the Augustan the
figures undulate and curl to a point, while in the Tiberian the streaks
are not involved, but lie wide asunder. It is probable that these
marbles were quarried in the mountains between Thebes and the
Red Sea. Inscriptions in the ancient quarries there, near the well
of Haramamat, show that they were worked in the sixth dynasty of
Manetho. A green marble called Memphites was quarried near Mem-
phis in Egypt.

There were many other varieties of green marble known to the
ancients, such as the red-spotted green antique, having a dark-green
ground marked Avith small red and black spots and white fragments
of entrocM ; the marmo verde paglioco, yellowish green; and leek
marble, of the color of a leek; but they exist only in small fragments,
and their quarries are unknown. Another variety of green marble
was found in the island of Tenos.

A blue marble is said to have been obtained in Libya. The isl-
and of Naxos yields a dark blue elegantly striped with white, Tenos
a light blue veined with dark blue, and Scyros many kinds of blue
and violet breccias, with other colors variously disposed. Scyros
was one of the chief places whence the ancients derived their varie-
gated marbles, and its quarries furnished many varieties closely re-
sembling the famous marbles of other localities. Strabo says it pro-

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

duced the Carystian, Deucalian, Synnadic, and Hierapolitic marbles.
The quarries of Tenos are still worked to some extent, but those of
Scyros and Naxos remain almost as the ancients left them.

Of the black marbles of antiquity that now called nero antico, or
black antique, was the most celebrated. It is more intensely black
than any marble now quarried, the black marbles of France appear-
ing almost gray beside it. It occurs only in sculptured pieces, and
its origin is unknown ; but Faujas discovered a quarry which had
been worked by the ancients, about two leagues from Spa, not far
from Aix-la-Chapelle, the marble of which closely resembles the an-
cient specimens. The largest masses known of nero antico are two
columns in the church of Regina Coeli at Rome, but there are also
some fine specimens in the Museum of the Capitol and in other col-
lections. Some suppose it to be identical with the marmor Lucul-
lum^ which was introduced at Rome by Lucullus in the first century
B. c, according to Pliny from Melos (another reading is Chios), but
according to other authorities from Egypt or Libya, whence it is
sometimes called marmor Lihycum. Pliny says that Marcus Scaurus
had pillars of it thirty-eiglit feet high in the atrium of his house. The
Chian marble, a deep, transparent black, sometimes variegated with
other colors, was quarried on Mount Pelinaeus, in the island of Chios.
A fine black marble was quarried on Mount Taenarus, in Laconia, and
in the island of Lesbos, and a blue-black marble in Lydia. One of
the most beautiful of the antique breccias, the African breccia, has a
deep-black ground, variegated with fragments of grayish white and
deep red or purplish wine-color. The grand antique breccia consists
of large fragments of black marble united by veins of shining white.
Columns of this and of African breccia are in the Paris Museum, but
their quarries are unknown.

ON THE WOITDERFIJL DIYISIBILITY OF GOLD AND

OTHER METALS.

By ALEXANDER E. OUTERBRIDGE, Je.,

ASSAY LABOEATOKY, UNITED STATES MINT, PHILADELPHIA.

IT is both curious and interesting to notice how frequently original
investigators, working from different standpoints, and with en-
tirely dissimilar objects in view, will, independently of each other,
accumulate a mass of observations corroborative of some one phys-
ical law, but Avhich require to be collated in order to reveal their
mutual relations.

The motive of this paper is to collect together several observa-
tions illustrating the divisibility of gold (made either as the direct

DIVISIBILITY OF GOLD AND OTHER METALS. 75

object of experiment, or as incidental to other investigations), and
to present them in a condensed Ibrm to the readers of The Popular
Science Monthly.

Some of these experiments (notably those of Faraday) present
the curious anomaly of revealing to the physical sense of sight
particles of matter which are almost too infinitesimal for the mind's
eye to conceive, thus seeming to reverse the order of scientific inves-
tigation which usually prolongs the mental vision far beyond the region
of possible physical revelation.

The experiments to be described have been arranged in the fol-
lowing order:

1. On the natural dissemination of gold.

2. Beating into thin leaves. «

3. Faraday's researches.

4. Depositing by the galvanic battery.

5. Vaporization by the electric spark.

Some years since a very interesting series of experiments was
made by the late Mr. J. R. Eckfeldt, then chief-assayer of the mint
at Philadelphia, and his associate, Mr. W. E. DuBois (the present
incumbent), upon the "l^atural Dissemination of Gold." The results
were presented to the Amei'ican Philosophical Society, in the form
of a paper, by Mr. DuBois, and j)ublished in their " Proceedings "
of June 21, 1861.

The precious metal was found disseminated in marvelously fine
division through a number of substances where its existence had not
been previously suspected.

In the clay of which the Philadelphia bricks are made, gold was
found in the proportion of about forty cents' worth to the ton.
Each brick contains a sufficient amount of gold to make a glittering
show of two square inches, if brought to the surface in the form of
leaf.

An estimate of the thickness of the bed of clay under the city
revealed the startling fact that more gold lies securely locked up in
it than has been procured, according to the statistics, from Aus-
tralia and California. A specimen of galena fi'om Buck's County,
Pennsylvania, yielded gold in the proportion of one part of gold in
six million two hundred and twenty thousand (6,220,000) parts of ore ;
not quite ten cents to the ton. The report of these experiments
concludes as follows : " Of this we may be confident, that the atoms
of gold are homogeneously and equably dispersed through the clay,
or other matrix; but by what natural process or for what final cause
these fine particles should be thus diflused, seems quite beyond the
reach of human philosophy."

The remarkable malleability of fine gold was a property well
known to the ancients. Homer refers to the art of gold-beating,
and Pliny mentions that an ounce of gold was beaten into seven

^e THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hundred and fifty leaves, " each leaf being four fingers square," or
about three times thicker than our ordinary gold-leaf. On the cof-
fins of the Theban mummies, gold-foil has been discovered of extraor-
dinary thinness. The ancient Peruvians covered the walls of their
temples with very thin sheets of gold, and the rude specimens of gild-
ing on the palace of Tippo Saib, at Bungalore, prove that the art of
gold-beating was practised in India. We also have Biblical author-
ity for the antiquity of the art.'

Experiments made in modern times have shown that a single grain
of gold may be beaten out so as to cover a space of seventy-five
square inches ; the thickness of the leaf is then only the three hun-
dred and sixty-seven thousand six hundred and fiftieth (-j-btWo)
•part of an incli, or about twelve hundred times thinner than an ordi-
nary sheet of printing-paper.

Faraday states in his researches on " The Experimental Relations
of Gold (and otiier Metals) to Light " ^ that a leaf of beaten gold
occupies an average thickness of no more than \ to |- part of a single
wave of light. He reduced the thickness of gold-leaves at pleasure,
by spreading them upon glass plates and gradually dissolving the
metal by means of a weak solution of cyanide of potassium. "By
this means," he says, " I think fifty or even one hundred might be
included in a single progressive undulation of light." ^

Faraday's researches upon the nature of thin films of gold and
other metals, and upon the size of finely-divided particles of gold
diflfused through various liquids, are of a most interesting and refined
character. Availing himself of the well-known reducing power of
phosphorus, he floated small particles of it upon the surface of weak
solutions of chloride of gold. In the course of twenty-four hours
he found that the surfaces of the liquids were covered with films
of metallic gold, which were thicker near the pieces of phosphorus
" possessing tlie full golden reflective power of the metal," but
becoming so thin by gradations as to be scarcely perceptible. " They
acted as thin plates upon light, producing the concentric rings of
colors round the phosphorus at their first formation, though their
thickness then could scarcely be the ydt, perhaps not the ^-i^, of a
wave-undulation of light."

By treating very dilute solutions of gold with phosphorus he ob-
tained the metal diff"used through the liquid in extremely fine particles,
producing a beautiful ruby-color. These particles, " when in their
finest state, often remain unchanged for months, and have all the ap-
.pearance of solutions, but they never are such, containing, in fact, no
dissolved but only diffused gold. The particles are easily rendered evi-
dent by gathering the rays of the sun (or a lamp) into a cone by a lens,

"And they did boat the j:;old into thin plates" (Exodus xxxix. 3).
» " Philosophical Transactions," 1857.
2 Faraday's " Researches in Chemistry and Physics."

DIVISIBILITY OF GOLD AND OTHER METALS, yj

and sending the part of the cone near the focus into the fluid ; the cone
becomes visible, and though the illuminated particles cannot be dis-
tinguished, because of their minuteness, yet the light they reflect
is golden in character and seen to be abundant in proportion to the
quantity of gold present. Portions of gold so dilute as to show no
trace of gold by color or appearance can have the presence of the
difliised solid particles rendered evident by the sun in tliis way. . . .
The state of division of these particles must be extreme; they have
not as yet been seen by any power of the microscope."

Faraday further tells us that he endeavored to obtain an idea
of the quantity of gold in a given ruby fluid, and for this purpose
selected a plate of gold ruby glass, of good full color, to serve as a
standard, and he compared the different fluids with it, varying their
depth until the light from white paper, transmitted through them,
was apparently equal to that transmitted by the standard glass.
Then, known quantities of these ruby fluids were evaporated to dry-
ness, the gold converted into chloride, and compared, by reduction
on glass and otherwise, with solutions of gold of known strength.
"From these considerations it would appear that one volume of gold
is present in the ruby fluid in about "750,600 volumes of water; and
that, whatever the state of division to which the gold may be re-
duced, still the proportion of the solid particles to the amount of
space through which they are dispersed must be of this extreme pro-
portion. This accords perfectly with their invisibility in the micro-
scope ; with the manner of their separation from the dissolved state;
with the length of time during which they can remain diff'used ; and
with their appearance when illuminated by the cone of the sun's rays."

While all the statements of this profound investigator were so
carefully kept within the limit of actual observation, he tells us, in
conclusion, that he not only believed the gold to be diffused in solid
metallic particles, but that he also believed " there may be particles
so fine as to reflect very little light indeed, that function being almost
gone."

The art of gold-plating has become so extensive in its application
to a great variety of ornamental objects, that it seemed to the writer
an interesting question " How thick a film is required to produce a
fine gold-color? " He was unable to find, on inquiry, that any careful
notes to determine this point have been recorded,' and he recently
made some experiments with the following results : A sheet of copper
was rolled down to an average thickness of joVo ^^ ^^ inch. Two
plates were cut from this strip, 4 by 2^ inches, having a metallic sur-
face of twenty square inches each. These plates were boiled in
alkali, to remove grease, polished, and accurately weighed on a bal-

' It is stated that when a cylindrical bar of silver is coated with gold and drawn into
the fine wire used in embroidered housings, etc., a grain of gold will cover 345.6 feet
of wire.

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ance sensitive to the twentieth of a milligramme, or the yoVr of a

grain.

No. 1 weighed 126-j^fu% grains troy.

A gold "blush" of sufficient thickness to produce a fine gold-
color was then deposited by the battery. The plates were washed
in distilled Avater, dried, and reweighed without rubbing, and were
found to have each gained in weight exactly one-tenth (yL) of a grain.
It thus appears that one grain of gold may be distributed, by the
galvanic deposit, over the surface of two hundred square inches, as
contrasted with seventy-five square inches by beating. In other
words, the metal is more than two and a half times thinner in the
former case than in the latter, or 330^400 P^^^'*^ ^^ ^" ^"^'^^> ^^ compared
with -g- --f'eTo" ^^ ^'^ inch.

A still thinner deposit of gold could, of course, be detected on
the delicate assay-balance, but, owing to the transparency of the
film, it would not possess the true gold-color. It seemed important
to ascertain whether the gold was evenly distributed over the cop-
per surface, or whether it was deposited in spots. The strips were
accordingly examined under a microscope.

A careful examination showed that there were no exposed surfaces
of copper, and the gold appeared to have a fine, bright, smooth sur-
face. This, however, was not considered sufficient proof, and several
expedients were tried to obtain the gold films free from the copper
plate, in order tliat they might be examined by transmitted light.
Owing to their extreme thinness this was difficult to accomplish. One
method, which was partially successful, was to heat the copper plates
to a cherry red in the annealing muffle of an assay-furnace. On cool-
ing, the gold film peeled off in flakes with a thin backing of oxide of
copper ; these flakes were pressed between two plates of glass, and
nitric acid allowed to flow in by capillary action. The acid dissolved
the copper; leaving a film of free gold, Tlie difficulty was, tliat the
bubbles of gas formed perforated the film of gold. Another plan
was then tried. The gold-plating was removed from one surface of
the copper plates by means of fine emory-paper. Pieces about one
inch square were immersed for several days in very weak nitric acid.
The copper was entirely dissolved, and detached films of gold were
found floating intact on the surface of the liquid ; these were carefully
collected on strips of glass, washed with distilled water, and dried ;
they then firmly adhered to the glass.

When examined by reflected light they retain their brilliant gold
color and lustre, but when viewed by transmitted light they are
bright green and very transparent ; the color is an even shade, having
none of the mottled appearance of gold-leaf when seen by transmit-
ted light, caused by its very uneven thickness. This monotone ap-
pears to be a positive indication of uniform thickness, for, when two

DIVISIBILITY OF GOLD AND OTHER METALS. 79

films were superposed, one upon the other, the color was very per-
ceptibly darkened; even when subjected to a magnifying power of
1,000 diameters the films retain their continuous character, though
the brilliance of the green color is of course diffused. The dimensions
of the waves of light, when decomposed by the prism, have been care-
fully measured. There are 47,000 green waves in the space of an inch ;
dividing the estimated tliickness of our gold film by this number, we
find that the thickness of the film is less than gL part of a single undu-
lation of green light.

In the course of an examination made by the writer upon " The
Practicability of assaying Metals used in Coinage, by means of Spec-
trum Analysis, made in and for the Assay Department of the United
States Mint at Philadelphia," * it was noticed that a large number of
very powerful electric flashes might be passed between two slips of
metal without any apparent loss, and an important query suggested
itself, viz., whether the amount of metal vaporized by each spark was
not too infinitesimal to be determined. In order to ascertain this
p<nnt the following experiments were tried : Having weighed small
electrodes averaging 18 milligrammes each with the greatest possible
accuracy upon the gold assay-balance of the mint, which is sensitiA-e
to ^ of a milligramme, or y^Vr ^^ ^ grain troy, and having arranged
a spark- register, it was found that 1,000 sparks might be passed be-
tween these poles, each sjaark showing the spectrum of the metal dis-
tinctly, and yet the loss in weight was too small to be made the base
of calculation. Thus a gold pole lost in weight, after passing 1,000
sparks, yoVo ^^ ^ grain ; this gives for each spark yoTrJinro of a grain
of gold, producing a bright spectrum.

The number was then increased to 3,000 sparks as the test. The
loss of weight depends, of course, upon the electric volume, and in the
experiments tabulated an endeavor was made to keep the latter con-
stant. The tables (marked A and B) show that the loss in weight is
marvelously small, averaging less than -^ of a milligramme of gold
for 3,000 sparks. To give the amount for each spark, this must be
divided by the number of sparks ; thus, in round numbers, an elec-
trode loses YoVo of ^ grain after ])assing 3,000 sparks; or, for 1,000
sparks, y^Vo of a grain ; or, for each spark, yo-qwoo" of a grain. The
experiments made by M. Caj^pel to determine the minimum amount
of each element that would show a spectrum have been published in
tabular form. His method was to volatilize " solutions of the metallic
salts between the poles of a small induction-coil in Mitscherlich's glass
tubes with platinum wicks. A series of solutions, each one-half the
strength of the preceding one, was prepared from a number of metal-
lic chlorides. The spectrum in connection with the positive pole was
continually observed, while increasingly-concentrated solutions were

' Published in the " Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society," vol. xiv.,
p. 162.

8o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

brought in succession into the action of the spark until the lines of
the substance were clearly visible," If a skeptical person refuse to
believe the results of Cappel, who tells us that -^^ of a milligramme
(t5"8Fo o^ ^ grain) of nickel v^\S\.just write the signature of that metal,
what will he say when, glancing at Table B, appended hereto, he finds
the statement that g-ooTTo ^f a milligramme (xssootto ^^ ^ grain) will
sign its name in brilliant characters ! And yet the writer does not
hesitate to say that even a smaller amount of this metal will show a
spectrum, for in these experiments a much stronger spark was used
than was necessary to show a visible spectrum. When reduced to a
minimum, by means of a miniature Leyden jar, improvised out of a
test-tube, which still gave a distinct spectrum, the loss in weight,
after passing 3,000 sparks, was absolutely ina2^preciable on the balance.
The tables show another curious and unexpected result, viz., that the
loss in weight of the volatile metals very slightly exceeds, and in some
cases does not equal, the loss of the less volatile metals. Thus, in
three different experiments of 3,000 sparks each, copper loses but -^^
milligramme, while gold loses y^- milligramme." ^

In one experiment the number of sparks was increased to 10,000,
and the loss in weight was nearly proportioned to the increased num-
ber. In this case the sparks were passed at the rate of about 250 per
minute.

TABLES.

The first column shows weight of metallic electrodes (in milligrammes) before passing
the sparks.

The second column shows weight after passing 3,000 sparks.

The third column shows total weight of metal volatilized (in fractions of a milli
gramme).

The fourth column shows the amount of metal volatilized by each spark (in fractions
of a milligramme).

The fifth column shows the amount of metal volatilized by each spark (in fractions of
a grain troy).

TABLE A.

Upper pole, gold

Lower " "

Upper " copper

Lower " "

Upper " gold and copper
Lower " "

Upper " tin

Lower " "

Upper " silver

Lower " "

Averajre lead

1.

3.

3.

4.

16.6

15.9

.7

T^fF

16.7

16

.7

■j^Vk

18.5

18.4

.1

TnoDTT

18.5

18.4

.1

aTiiiTIu

24

23.4

.6

^OTT

24

23.4

.6

a IP 0 0

20

19.6

.4

TsTTU

20

19.4

.6

Tn'o-TT

24.8

24.6

.2

TS-OTTTT

25.1

25

.1

■Snofiu

91.6

90

1.6

TsVff

i^_

2 7 7 U(J 0

Tgrrnnnr

TS'TiiTToo
li?4 (/ITTT

TTBTfrnr
1

T5r4 0 u u

y 7 (i u u 0

19411 1) 0(T

' " The Spectroscope in its Application to Mint-Assaying." Journal of the Franklin
Institute, October, 1874. Eeprinted in the Quarterly Journal of Science, January, 1875.

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITER'S CLOUD-MASSES. 8

TABLE B.

Upper pole, gold

Lower " copper

Upper " gold and copper

Lower " copper

Upper " silver

Lower " tiu

Upper " nickel

Lower " "

1.

2.

3.

4.

20.5

20

.5

tjumr

10

9.9

.1

TiJoTnr

21

20.4

.6

S^TToff

20.2

20

2

TsouTT

6

5.8

.2

1
1 6UUU

20

19.4

.6

roW

12

11.95

.05

TiJoTTir

12

11.9

.1

UTjoinr

3s » Ul) I)

1 y 4 u u u 0

y 7 t) ii(ju
9" 7 6 CiJjT)

3"8!illU" U
T?4U0TT0

While it is probable that (with the exception, perhaps, of Fara-
day's researches) we have not here indicated the smallest particles of
metal which it would be possible to determine by the delicate means
at our disposal, it is thought that the experiments recorded may prove
interesting, as showing what has been, and what may be, accomplished
in this direction ; and, lest any incredulous reader should fancy that,
when we speak of weighing the three million eight hundred and
eighty-thousandth part of a grain of metal, we are toying with imagi-
nary fractions, we would refer him to Sir William Thomson's esti-
mate of the size of the final molecules ; ' compared with which this
unit is as large as the famous Philadelphia cobble-stones compared
with grains of sand upon the sea-shore. In conclusion, we are led to
appreciate the wisdom as well as the wit of the distich —

" E'en little fleas have lesser fleas upon their backs to bite 'em ;
And these again have lesser fleas, and so — ad infinilum.''''

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITEE'S CLOUD-MASSES.

By RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

IF Jupiter be regarded as a planet resembling our earth in condition,
we find ourselves compelled to believe that processes of a most
remarkable character are taking place on that remote world. It is
singular with what complacency the believers in the theory that all
the planets are very much alike accept the most startling evidence
respecting disturbances to which some among those brother worlds
of ours must needs on that hypothesis have been subjected. Mighty
masses of cloud, such as would suffice to enwrap the entire globe on
which we live, form over large regions of Jupiter or Saturn, change
rapidly in shape, and vanish, in the course of a few minutes ; and
many are content to believe that what has thus taken place resem-
bles the formation, motion, and dissipation, of our own small clouds,

' He fixes the limit between the gsooooooo and the TtrowinTTrfrTf of an inch, and says
that they are " pieces of matter of measurable dimensions, with shape, motion, and laws
of action ; intelligible subjects of scientific investigation."

VOL. XI. — 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

though the sun pours but about a twenty-seventh part of the heat on
Jupiter, and but about a hundredth part on Saturn, which we receive
from his rays. The outline of Jupiter, as indicated by the apparent
position of a satellite close to his disk, expands and contracts through
thousands of miles, yet the theory that Jupiter is still intensely hot
must not for a moment be entertained, though the expansion and con-
traction of the solid crust of a cool planet through so enormous a
range would vaporize a portion of its mass exceeding many times the
entire volume of our earth. Saturn is seen by Sir W. Herschel and
Sir J. Herschel, by Sir G. Airy, Cooliclge, the Bonds, and a host of
other observers, to assume from time to time the square-shouldered
aspect, a change which — to be discernible from our distant standpoint
— would imply the expansion and contraction of whole zones of Sat-
urn's surface through 4,000 or 5,000 miles at least ; yet it is better to
believe that these stupendous changes have affected the solid crust of
a planet like our earth than to admit the possibility that the outline
we measure is not that of the planet itself, but of layers of cloud
i-aised to a vast height in the deep atmosphere surrounding a planet
still glowing with its primeval fires.

The phenomena I am now about to consider belong to the same
category. They are utterly inexplicable, or only explicable by the
most sensational assumptions as to the processes taking place on Jupi-
ter, if we adopt the old theory of Jupiter's condition; while if we
regard Jupiter as an intensely-heated planet surrounded by and entirely
concealed within a cloud-laden atmosphere several thousand miles in
depth, they at once admit of the most simple and natural explanation.

It has, of course, long been known that the belts of Jupiter are
phenomena of his atmosphere, not of his surface. The belts of light-
est tint have been regarded as belts of cloud, and the darker belts as
either the real surface of the planet seen between the cloud-belts, or
else as lower cloud-layers, appearing darker because in shadow. Ac-
cordingly, when features of the belts have been watched in their rota-
tional circuit, it has been clearly recognized that the rotation deter-
mined in this way is not necessarily or probably the true rotation of
the planet itself. Further, it has been proved, beyond all possibility
of question, that some at least among the spots upon the planet's
belts have a motion of their own ; for whenever two spots in different
Jovian latitudes have been observed, it has been almost constantly
noticed that the one nearer the equator has had a greater rotation
rate than the other. Again, it has sometimes liappcned that instead
of two spots, in different latitudes, a well-defined dark streak or open-
ing, having its two extremities in different latitudes, has remained
long enough to be observed during several rotations of the planet.
In these cases it has been observed that the end of the streak nearest
the equator has traveled fastest, not only absolutely, but in longitude,
insomuch that the position of the streak has notably altered.

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITER'S CLOUD-MASSES. 83

Thus, in February, 1860, Mr. Long, of Manchester, noticed across
a bright belt an oblique dark streak. "Its position" ( I quote from
a paper of my own written six years ago, when as yet the theory now
before us was in its infancy) " might be compared to that of the Red
Sea on the globe of the earth, for it ran neither north and south nor
east and west, but rather nearer the former than the latter direction.
The length of this dark space — of this rift, that is, in the great cloud-
belt — was about 10,000 miles, and its width at least 500 miles; so
that its superficial extent was much greater than the whole area of
Europe." It remained as a rift certainly until April 10th, or for six
weeks, and probably much longer. It passed away to the dark side
of Jupiter, to return again after the Jovian night to the illuminated
hemisphere, during at least a hundred Jovian days ; and assuredly
nothing in the behavior of terrestrial clouds affords any analogue to
this remarkable fact. " This great rift grew, lengthening out until
it stretched across the whole face of the planet, and it grew in a very
strange way ; for its two ends remained at unchanged distances from
the planet's equator, but the one nearest to the equator traveled for-
ward (speaking with reference to the way in which the planet turns
on its axis), the rift thus approaching more and more nearly to an east
and west direction." The rate of this motion was perhaps the most
remarkable circumstance of all. Mr. Baxendell, one of the observers
of the rift, and one of our most experienced telescopists, thus de-
scribes the changes seen in the belt: " Since Mr. Long first observed
the oblique streak on February 29th, it has gradually extended itself
in the direction of the planet's rotation, at the average rate of 3,640
miles per day, or 151 miles per hour, the two extremities of the belt
remaining constantly on the same parallels of latitude. The belt also
became gradually darker and broader." '

Apart from the evidence afforded by this rift respecting the swift
motions of the cloud-masses enwrapping Jupiter (for a velocity of
151 miles per hour exceeds that of the most tremendous nurricanes on
our earth), it has always seemed to me that this one series of obser-
vations should suflfice of itself to show that the phenomena of Jupiter's
cloud-laden atmosphere are not due to solar action. For the rift itself
continued, and the changes affecting it continued whether Jovian day
was in progress or Jovian night. For one hundred Jovian days or
more, and for one hundred Jovian nights, the great cloud-masses on
either side of the rift remained in position opposite each other, slowly
wheeling, but still continuing face to face, as their equatorial ends
rushed onward at a rate fourfold that of a swift train, even measuring
their velocity only by reference to the ends remote from the equator,
and regarding these as fixed. Probably the cloud-masses were moving
still more swiftly with respect to the surface of the planet below.

' Two pictures of this belt, as seen March 12, 1860, and April 9, 1860, will be found
in my article on "Astronomy," in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. ii., p. 808.

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Of course, it is just possible that a great dark rift, such as I have
des«ribed, might appear tiius to change in position without any actual
transference of the bordering cloud-masses. Mr. Webb, speaking of
a number of phenomena, of which those presented by the great rift of
1860 are but a few, says that "they prove an envelope vaporous and
mutable like that of the earth, without, however, necessarily inferring"
(? implying) "the existence of tempestuous winds: even in our own
atmosphere, when near the dew-point, surprising changes sometimes
occur very quietly: a cloud-bank observed by Sir John Herschel,
April 19, 1827, was precipitated so rapidly that it crossed the whole
sky from east to west at the rate of at least 300 miles per hour; and
alterations far more sudden are conceivable where everything is on a
gigantic scale." It does not seem to me altogether probable that
more rapid alterations would affect cloud-banks covering millions of
square miles than occasionally affect terrestrial cloud-banks cover-
ing pei'liaps a few tens of thousands of square miles; on the con-
trary, as small terrestrial clouds change relatively in a far more rapid
way than large ones, and these than cloud-masses covering a county
or a country, so it would seem that the changes affecting our largest
cloud-layers would be relatively far more rapid than those affecting
cloud-masses which could (many times over) enwrap the whole frame
of this earth on which we live. But apart from that, and apart also
from the important consideration that all such processes as evapora-
tion and condensation, so far as the sun brings them about, should
proceed far more sluggishly in the case of a planet like Jupiter
than in that of our earth, which I'eceives some twenty-seven times
as much heat from the sun (mile for mile of surface), it is utterly
incredible that precipitation should have occurred so steadily and
swiftly along one edge of tlie great rift, and condensation — with such
exactly equal steadiness and swiftness — on the opposite edge, that,
while the rift as a whole shifted its position during a hundred Jovian
nights and days at the rate of 150 miles per hour, its sides should
nevertheless remain parallel all the time. Such processes may be
spoken of as possible, in the same sense that it is possible that a coin
tossed fifty times in succession should always show the same face ; but
we do not reckon such possibilities among scientific contingencies.

But the motion of great rounded masses in the atmosphere of Ju-
piter is still more decisive as to the existence not only of a very deep
atmosphere, but also as to the swift motions taking place in that atmos-
phere.

I would, in the first place, note that the very existence of belts in
the Jovian atmosphere, and especially of variable belts, implies the
great depth at which the real surface of the planet must lie below the
visible cloud-layers. Atmospheric belts can only be formed where
there are differences of rotational velocity. In the case of our own
earth we know that the trade-wind zone and the counter-trade zone

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITER'S CLOUD-MASSES. 85

owe their origin to the difference of absolute rotational velocity
between the equatorial parts of the earth and parts in high latitudes.
In the case of Jupiter the difference of this kind is not sufficient to
account for the observed belts — partly because there are many,
partly because they are variable, but principally because Jupiter is so
much larger than the earth that 'much greater distances must be trav-
ersed ia passing from any given latitude to another where the rota-
tional velocity is so many miles per hour more or less. Combining
with these considerations the circumstance that the solar action which
causes the atmospheric movements from one latitude to another in
the case of our earth is reduced to one twenty-seventh part only of
its terrestrial value in the case of Jupiter, we must clearly look to
some other cause for the difference of absolute rotational velocity
necessary to account for the belts of Jupiter.

Now, it seems to me that we are thus at once led to the conclu-
sion that the cloud-masses forming the belts of Jupiter are affected
by vertical currents, up-rushing motions carrying them from regions
nearer the axle, where the absolute motion due to rotation is slower,
to regions farther from the axis, where the motion due to rotation
is swifter, and motions of down-rush carrying them from regions «f
swifter to regions of slower rotational motion. This view seems cer-
tainly encouraged by what we find when we come to study more
closely the aspect of the Jovian belts. The white spots — some small,
some large — which are seen to form from time to time along the chief
belts present precisely the appearance which we should expect to find
in masses of vapor flung from far down below the visible cloud-sur-
face of Jupiter, breaking their way through the cloud-layers, and
becoming visible as they condense into the form of visible vapor in
the cooler upper regions of the planet's atmosijliere. Then, again,
the singular regularity with which in certain cases the great, rounded
white clouds are set side by side, like rows of eggs upon a string, is
much more readily explicable as due to a regular succession of up-
rushes of vapor, from the same region below, than as due to the simul-
taneous up-rush of several masses of vapor from regions set at uniform
distances along a b^lt of Jupiter's surface. The latter supposition is
indeed artificial and improbable in the highest degree, and in several
distinct respects. It is unlikely that several up-rushes should occur
simultaneously, unlikely that regions whence up-rush took place should
be set at equal distances from each other, unlikely that they should
lie along the same latitude parallel. On the other hand, the occur-
rence of up-rush after up-rush from the same region of disturbance, at
nearly uniform intervals of time, is not at all improbable. The
rhythmical succession of explosions is a phenomenon, indeed, alto-
gether likely to occur under certain not improbable conditions — as,
for instance, when each explosion affords an excess of relief, if one
may so speak, and is therefore followed by a reactionary process, in

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

its turn bringing on a fresh explosion. Now, a rhythmical succes-
sion of explosions from the same deep-rooted region of disturbance
would produce at the upper level, where we see the expelled vapor-
masses (after condensation), a series of rounded clouds lying side by
side. For each cloud-mass — after its expulsion from a region of slow,
absolute, rotational motion, to a region of swifter motion — would lag
behind with reference to the direction of rotational motion. The
earlier it was formed the farther back it would lie. Thus each new
cloud-mass would lie somewhat in advance of the one expelled next
before it ; and if the explosions occurred regularly, and with a suffi-
cient interval between each and the next to allow each expelled
cloud-mass to lag by its own full length before the next one appeared,
there would be seen precisely such a series of egg-shaped clouds, set
side by side, as every careful obseiwer of Jupiter with high tele-
scopic powers has from time to time perceived.'

That these egg-shaped clouds are really egg-shaped — not merely
oval in the sense in which a flat, elliptic surface is oval — is suggested
at once by their aspect. But it is more distinctly indicated when de-
tails are examined. It appears to me that considerable interest at-
taches to some observations which were made by Mr. Brett in April,
1874, upon some of the rounded spots then visible upon the planet's
equatorial zone. It will not be thought that I am disposed, as a rule,
to place too much reliance upon the observations and theories of Mr.
Brett, seeing that on more than one occasion I have had to call atten-
tion to errors into which, in my judgment, he has fallen. For in-
stance, I certainly do not think he has ever seen the solar coi'ona when
the sun was not eclipsed, though I have no doubt he saw what he de-
scribed, which he supposed to be the corona, but which was in reality
not the corona. Nor, again, do I accept (though I do not think it
worth while to discuss) his theory that Venus has a surface shining
with metallic lustre, and is surrounded by a glassy atmosphere ; though
in that case, again, his descrijition of what he saw may be accepted
as it stands, and all that we need reject is his interpretation thereof.
In the case of Jupiter's white spots, Mr. Brett's skill as an artist ena-
bles us to accept not only his observations, but his interpretation of
them, simply because the interpretation depends on artistic, not on
scientific, considerations.

" I wish," he says, " to call attention to a particular feature of Ju-
piter's disk, which" (the feature, probably) " appears to me very well

1 Webb thus describes the egg-shaped clouds : " Occasionally the belts throw out
dusky loops or festoons, whose elliptical interiors, arranged lengthways and sometimes
with great regularity, have the aspect of a girdle of luminous, egg-shaped clouds sur-
rounding the globe. These oval forms, which were very conspicuous in the equatorial
zone (as the interval of the belts may be termed) in 1 869-' 70, have been seen in other
regions of the planet, and arc probably of frequent occurrence. The earliest distinct
representation of them that I know of is by Dawes, March 8, 1851, but they are perhap?
indicated in drawings of the last century."

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITER'S CLOUD-MASSES. 87

defined at the present time, and which seems to aiford evidence re-
specting the physical condition of the phinet. The large, white
patches which occur on and about the equatorial zone, and interrupt
the continuity of the dark belts, are well known to all observers, and
the particular point in connection with them to which I beg leave to
call attention is, that they cast shadows — that is to say, the light
patches are bounded on the side farthest from the sun by a dark bor-
der shaded otf softly toward the light, and showing in a distinct
manner that the patches are projected or relieved from the body of
the planet. The evidence which this observation is calculated to
afford refers to the question whether the opaque body of the planet is
seen in the dark belts or the bright ones, and points to the conclusion
that it is not seen at all in either of them, but that all we see of Ju-
piter consists of semi-transparent materials. The particular fact from
which this inference would be drawn is, that the dark sides of the
suspended or projected masses are not sufficiently hard or sharply de-
fined for shadows falling upon an opaque surface ; neither are they
sharper upon the light background than upon the dark. The laws of
light and shade upon opaque bodies are very simple and very abso-
lute ; and one of the most rudimentary of them is that every body
has its light, its shade, and its shadowy the relations between which
are constant ; and that the most conspicuous and persistent edge or
limit in this association of elements is the boundary of the shadow —
the shadow being radically different from the shade in that its inten-
sity is uniform throughout in any given instance, and is not affected
by the foi-ra of the surface on which it is cast, whereas the shade is
distinguished by attributes of an opposite character. Now, if the
dark spaces adjoining the light patches on Jupiter, which I have called
shadows, are not shadows at all, but shades, it is obvious that the
opaque surface of the planet on which the shadows should fall is con-
cealed; whereas, if they are shadows, their boundaries are so soft and
undefined as to lead to the conclusion that they are cast upon a semi-
transparent body, which allows the shadow to be seen, indeed, but
with diminishing distinctness toward its edge, according to the acute-
ness of its angle of incidence. Either explanation of the phenomenon
may be the true one, but they both lead to the same conclusion, viz.,
that neither the dark belts nor the bright ones are opaque, and that,
if Jupiter has any nucleus at all, it is not visible to us. It is obvious
that the phenomena I have described would not be visible at the time
of the planet's opposition, and the first occasion on which I noticed it
was the niglit of the 16th of April last."

This reasoning, so far as it relates to the laws of light and shade
and shadow, is, of course, altogether sound. Nor are there any points
requiring correction which in any degree affect the astronomical in-
ferences deducible from what Mr. Brett actually saw. I may note
that somewhat later Mr. Knobel observed the shadow of white cloud-

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

masses, and, as the shadow had not so much greater a length at that
time, two months from opposition, as it had when the planet was much
nearer opposition, he infers that the true explanation of the appearance
has hardly been found. He appears to have overlooked the fact that
tlie assumption made in the explanation is not that Jupiter has a semi-
transparent atmosphere always equally translucent and penetrable to
the same depth by the solar rays. When the shadow was shorter
than it should have been, had the atmosphere been in the same condi-
tion as when Mr. Brett made his observation, it is probable that a
layer of clouds interrupted the rays, and thus the shadow was much
closer to the cloud-mass throwing it than it would have been had that
layer not been there, Mr, Knobel's paper contains very striking evi-
dence of the variability of Jupiter's atmosphere, or rather of the
clouds which float in it, " The greater distinctness of the satellites
when near the edge," he says, " is a curious phenomenon which has
been repeatedly observed by astronomers, but which seems to require
explanation." On an occasion described " the second satellite transited
a dark limb which was" (seemed) "most dark near the centre, and
fainter toward the edge, yet the satellite was almost invisible when
on the darkest part of the belt, and was bright and distinct when the
background of the belt was faintest." This practically proved that
on the occasion in question the dark, central part of the belt seemed
darker than it really was by contrast with the bright belts on either
side, while the edge seemed lighter than it really was by contrast
with the dark sky on which the planet was projected. In reality the
part near the edge must have been darker than the part near the
middle, or the satellite could not have appeared brighter when near
the edge. No doubt the darkness near the edge (which, by-the-way,
my friend Mr. Browning tested photometrically, and demonstrated,
at my suggestion, eight years ago) was due to transparency, the dark-
ness of the sky beyond being to some degree discernible througli the
edge. But this transparency is not always to be observed to the
same degree, or through the same extent of Jovian atmosphere as to
depth. Mr. Knobel proceeds, illustrating this the more effectively
that he does so unintentionally : "The third satellite, on March 25,
1874, appeared as a dark spot when in mid-transit, and on nearing the
edge appeared as a bright spot without trace of duskiness. But on
March 26, 1873" (observe the difference of years), "the fourth satel-
lite made the whole transit as a dark spot, and was not perceptibly
less dark at egress than in mid-transit."

It appears to me demonstrated by the evidence thus far noted
that in a semi-transparent atmosphere of enormous depth, surrounding
Jupiter, there float vast cloud-masses, sometimes in layers, at others
in irregular heaps, at others having well-rounded forms. These cloud-
masses undergo sometimes remarkable changes of shape, often form-
ing or disappearing in a very short time, and thus indicating the infe-

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITER'S CLOUD-MASSES. 89

rior activity of the forces at work below them — in other words, the in-
tense heat of Jupiter's real globe. As to the actual depth of the semi-
transparent atmosphere in which these cloud-layers and. cloud-masses
float, it would be difficult to express an opinion. We do not know
how many cloud-layers there are, how thick any cloud-layer may be,
how great may be the depth of the vast rounded masses of cloud
whose upper surface (that is, the surface remotest from Jupiter's true
surface) we can alone see under favorable conditions. But we can
indicate a minimum than which the atmosphere's depth is probably
not less ; and, from all the observations which I have examined as
bearing on this point, I should be disposed to assign for that mini-
mum at least 6,000 miles. I am strongly of opinion that in reality
the depth of the Jovian atmosphere is still greater. I cannot doubt
that Jupiter has a solid or liquid nucleus, though this nucleus — glow-
ing, as it must be, with a most intense heat — may be greatly ex-
panded ; yet I should conceive that, with the enormous attractive
power residing in it, containing as it must nearly the whole mass of
the planet, its mean density cannot be less than that of the earth.
Now, a globe of the mass of Jupiter, but of the same mean density as
our earth, would have one-fourth of Jupiter's volume — the mean den-
sity of Jupiter, as at present judged, being equal to one-fourth that
of the earth. The diameter, therefore, of such a globe would be less
than the present diameter of Jupiter, in the same ratio that the cube-
root of unity is less than the cube-root of 4, or as 1 is less than 1.58Y4.
Say, roughly (remembering that the atmosphere of Jupiter must have
a considerable mass), the diameter of Jupiter's nucleus would, on the
assumptions made, be equal to about five-eighths of his observed di-
ameter, or to about 53,000 miles. This is less than his observed diam-
eter by about 22,000 miles, so that the radius of his nucleus would be
less than his observed radius by about 11,000 miles — which, therefore,
would be the probable depth of his atmosphere.

But we have still to consider the velocities with which ronnded
masses of cloud travel in the very deep atmosphere of Jupiter.
"There is clear evidence," I have pointed out in the article "As-
tronomy" of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," "that spots on Jupiter
are subject to a proper motion like that which affects the spots on the
sun. Schmidt, in No. 1,973 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, gives
a number of cases of such proper movements of spots, ranging in
velocity from about seven miles to about 200 miles an hour. It may be
noted, also, that from a series of observations of one spot, made be-
tween March 13 and April 14, 1873, with the great Rosse reflector, a
period of 9 h. 55 m. 4 s. was deduced, while observations of another
spot in the same interval gave a rotation period of 9 h. 54 m. 55.4 s.
The actual difference of velocity would depend in this case on the
actual latitudes of the two spots, which were not micrometrically
measured. Taking 200,000 miles as about the circumference of a

90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

parallel of latitude passing midway between the spots (only a very
rough calculation need be made), we should find that in a period of
one rotation, or, roughly, of ten hours, one sppt gained on the other
about 51 seconds, or, roughly, about tj-^-jj- part of a rotation — that is,
in distance (dividing 200,000 by 700) about 286 miles in ten hours, or
nearly 29 miles an hour.

We have, however, instances of yet greater relative proper motion
amono- cloud-masses. One of these cases I proceed to consider at
leno;th :

In June, 1870, two spots were visible upon the disk of Jupiter, so
distinct and isolated as to be well adapted for measurement to deter-
mine the rate of the planet's rotation. Mr. Brett, observing them
first as illustrative of the phenomenon to which he had called atten-
tion in 1874, turned his attention afterward to their rate of motion.
He would seem not to have been aware of the fact that the proper
motion of bright spots and other markings on Jupiter was already a
recognized phenomenon ; for he asks whether his " observations of
these spots, forming a series extending over a period of 280 hours 20
minutes, afford evidence of proper motion, or whether, on the other
hand, they tend to cast any doubt on the accepted rotation of the
planet." However, his observations are all the freer from the bias
of preconceived opinions. " There wore several peculiai'ities about
these two spots," he says, " which seemed to me to give them an emi-
nent claim to attention. They occurred very near to the equator,
and were very Avell defined, and free from entanglement with other
markings — an advantage which they have maintained with singular
uniformity throughout the period mentioned ; bat the special pecu-
liarity to which attention is asked is, that during an interval of five
days they remained in the same relative position without any varia-
tion wliatever. Their stability in respect of latitude during those
five days is undoubted ; but the question is, whether or not they were
equally stable in longitude. This remark only applies to the first
five days of the series, because at the end of twelve days a certain
deviation was obvious. The distance between the two spots occu-
pied about 42° of Jovian longitude, or about -33,000 miles. Their
diameter is nearly equal, being estimated at about one-fourteenth
of the planet's diameter, or 6,310 miles." The interval of time be-
tween these first two observations "was 119 hours, that is to say^
twelve rotations of the planet according to Airy's determination, dur-
ing which time their distance apart and their latitude remained con-
stant." Between the first and second observations the two spots had
gained " 44 m. 6 s. in time. Assuming Airy's rotation, viz., 9 h. 55 m.
21 s., the spots have gained on the planet's surface at the rate of 4 m.
2 s. in each revolution."

Between the second observation and the third " there was an in-
terval of seven days, or seventeen rotations of the planet ; and the

MOVEMENTS OF JUPITER'S CLOUD-MASSES. 91

same two spots turn up again somewhat earlier than the calculated
time. It unfortunately happens," proceeds Mr, Brett, " that on this
occasion their configuration had undergone some cliange ; but their
dimensions and the distance between them remain very much as before.
The most important circumstance respecting them is, tliat their rate
of progress shows a certain acceleration." The change, however, in
these seven days, is not such as to permit us to believe that the same
pair of spots was under observation. If so, a change in latitude
much more remarkable than the change in longitude had taken place ;
for the one which was the most northerly by about 6,000 miles at the
beginning of the seven days was the most southerly by nearly the
same amount at the end of that period. Considering that in the five
days between the first and second observations no change of latitude
took place, it may fairly be doubted whether a change of the kind,
and so rapid, amounting, in fact, to nearly 900 miles per day, could
have taken place in the interval. Proper motions in latitude may
indeed be regarded as not less likely to occur in the case of Jupiter
than in that of the sun, where they certainly sometimes occur ; but
all the observations hitherto made on Jupiter assure us that, in his
case as in the sun's, proper motions in latitude would be very much
slower than proper motions in longitude. We must be content with
the evidence of jDroper motion afforded by the first five days of ob-
servation. (The fourth observation only followed the third by about

twenty minutes.)

Now, taking this evidence as it stands, and making fair allowance
for probable error in an observation of the sort, we may consider that
during the 119 hours the two spots were gaining on tlie estimated
rotation-period of the planet by about four minutes per rotation. As
they both lie on the equatorial belt, we may take the circuit accom-
plished by each at about 267,000 miles, or, say, their rate at about
270,000 in ten hours, or 27,000 miles per hour. Hence, the distance
traversed in four minutes would be about 1,800 miles, which would
be about the gain per rotation. One-tenth of this, or 180 miles, would
be the hourly gain, as compared with the estimated rotation-rate.
Mr. Brett takes the least proper motion at 165 miles per hour.

He points out justly that the rotation-rate has been derived from
observations of some such spots. So that in reality the only inference
we can form is, that the rotation-rate derived from some spots is dif-
ferent from the rotation-rate derived from others, and that soms spots
(if not all) are certainly not constant in position with respect to the
solid nucleus of the planet. That the spots observed by Airy, Mad-
ler, and others, should have indicated a slower rate of rotation than
those observed by Mr. Brett, may fairly be ascribed to the fact that
the former were at some distance from the equator, while the latter
were nearly equatorial. For matter thrown up from the equatorial
parts of the true surface of the concealed planet would manifestly

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

differ less in velocity from the superincumbent atmosphere into which
they were driven than would masses expelled from higher latitudes.
(It is probable that the same explanation applies also in the case of

the sun.)

This conclusion, that the spots of Jupiter have rapid rates of rela-
tive motion, would of itself be of singular interest, especially when
we remember that the larger white spots represent masses of cloud
5 000 or 6,000 miles in diameter. Tljat such masses should be carried
along with velocities so enormous as to change their po'sitions rela-
tively to each other, at a rate sometimes of more than 150 miles per
hour, is a startling and stupendous fact. But it appears to me that the
fact is still more interesting in what it suggests than in what it reveals.
The movements taking place in the deep atmosphere of Jupiter are
very wonderful, but the cause of these movements is yet better wor-
thy of study. We cannot doubt that deep down below the visible
surface of the planet — that is, the surface of its outermost cloud-
Ifiyers—lies the fiery mass of the real planet. Outbursts, compared
with which the most tremendous volcanic explosions on our earth are
utterly insignificant, are continually taking place beneath the seem-
ingly quiescent envelope of the giant planet. Mighty currents carry
aloft great masses of heated vapor, which, as they force their way
through the upper and cooler strata of the atmosphere, are converted
into visible cloud. Currents of cool vapor descend toward the sur-
face, after assuming, no doubt, vorticose motions, and sweeping away
over wide areas the brighter cloud-masses, so as to form dark spots
on the disk of the planet. And, owing to the various depths to which
the different cloud-masses belong, and whence the up-rushing currents
of heated vapor have had their origin, horizontal currents of tremen-
dous velocity exist, by which the cloud-masses of one belt or of one
layer are hurried swiftly past the cloud-masses of a neighboring belt,
or of higher or low cloud-layers. The planet Jupiter, in fact, may
justly be described as a miniature sun, vastly inferior in bulk to our
own sun, inferior to a greater degree in heat, and in a greater degree
yet in lustre, but to be compared with the sun — not with our earth — in
size, in heat, and in lustx'e, and, lastly, in the tremendous energy of
the processes which are at work throughout his cloud-laden atmos-
pheric envelope.

Since the above article was written, news has been received by
the Astronomical Society that Mr. Todd, a well-known observer of
Adelaide, New South Wales, has been able to trace the motions of
satellites behind the parts of the planet near the edge, or, in other
words, through those parts of the planet's atmosphere which have
hitherto been regarded as belonging to the mass of the planet itself.

TOADSTO OL-EA TIN G. 9 3

TOADSTOOL-EATING.

By JULIUS A. PALMEE, Je.

IDG not mean in this article to consider the origin, reproduction,
nature, and extent of the family of Cryptogamous plants called
Fungi ; for I do not claim the culture of the scientist, or the disin-
terested enthusiasm of the naturalist. "Art for art's sake" is not
my war-cry. I propose to detail in popular language the experiences
of an amateur toadstool-eater who desires to encourage personal in-
vestigation of a neglected subject.

Not long since, a course of lectures was announced on " Fungi."
My call for circulars and tickets revealed the fact that the lecturer
proposed to explain all about smut in distinction from potato-rot; the
difference between blue-mould, black-mould, and white-mould, was also
to be clearly defined, for which purpose a microscope of wonderful
power had been provided. It seemed to me that, after people were
able to tell healthful food from certain poison, it would be in place to
give them a popular course on microscopic organisms.

Three years ago, I was detaching a large fungus from the famous
Liberty-Tree on Boston Common. An over-cautious stranger tapped
my shoulder and said, "My friend, that is not a mushroom ! "

" Now that looks to me like a big toadstool," exclaimed another
by-stander.

"Every mushroom is a toadstool, and every toadstool is a mush-
room," I replied, and I repeat the answer here. You might as well
call a beet a " vegetable," and every other representative, from the
garden a " plant," as to consider one fungus a " mushroom," and all
others of a thousand species " toadstools."

Yet, people cannot be blamed for ignorance where there are so
few sources of information. The difficulties experienced by the
amateur can scarcely be overrated. Excepting the writings of Dr.
Curtis, of South Carolina, I have not seen an original contribution to
American literature on this obscure topic. Even Dr. Curtis (in a
very interesting correspondence with Charles James Spragiie, de-
posited at the rooms of the Boston Society of Natural History) gives
little information regarding toadstools, devoting most of his letters
to the revelations made by the microscope. I, however, procured
from London the works whose titles I give in the note at the end
of this paper, and began the study of fungology as a science.

Still, discrepancies and obscurities will confront the student. The
descriptions are by no means exact. All these authorities describe
fungi of foreign parts, i. e., not necessarily American species. The
classification is not even harmonious, as the generic names of the dif-
ferent species vary with leading authorities, from the time of Sow-

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

erby to the present. When you have placed a specimen in the proper
family, you have not in any way defined its quality, since one mush-
room may be esculent, and its twin brother poisonous. Yet, the work
of Berkeley is a book easily procured, and, having a number of colored
plates, is readily understood by persons with botanical tastes. Such
will find no study more fascinating. It is surprising how quickly the
hand and eye acquire a delicacy in analysis, impossible to communi-
cate in words. This talent is essential. No one should attempt to
gather mushrooms who has not the power to fix in his mind the exact
characteristics of any specimen, so as not to be in the least danger of
confounding it with its nearest neighbor.

The student must sweep the brain clear of various charms and tra-
ditional lore. There is no magical way of identifying good mush-
rooms; no infallible test for healthful varieties. Here are some speci-
mens of newspaper paragraphs :

"Every mushroom," says one (meaning every edible mushroom),
" should peel like a potato."

Agreed, but nearly all the fungi peel readily.

" But the stem ought to come out like an umbrella-handle."

Whole classes (many of them noxious) have free gills, which is the
only reason why the stem leaves the cap so easily.

Then, on the negative side, you will hear such attempts at classifi-
cation as the following, taken from a widely-circulated weekly:

" As a general rule, all found in damp, dark places, or on decaying
animal matter, are poisonous. Those that have a very thin cap, or the
stem growing from the side instead of the middle, should be avoided.
All milky mushrooms, with the single exception of the orange milk-
mushroom, ai'e extremely dangerous. So also are those which have
the gills of equal length, those which run speedily into a dark, watery
liquid, which taste bitter or burn the mouth, or have a fetid., sicMy
smell. If a mushroom turns a variety of colors when bruised, or is
marked by the trail of a snail, it can under no circumstances be
eaten."

Excepting, perhaps, the phrase I have italicized, the above is a
tissue of misapprehension. Damp, dark places produce the very best
mushrooms. The edible champignon (3Iarasmius oreades) has a very
thin cap. The elm-tree mushroom [Agaricus tdmarius) has an eccen-
tric stem. The brown milk-mushroom {Lactarius volenmm) is unques-
tioned, and several others are doubtless esculent. A whole family
[Mussulce) have equal gills. The maned mushroom ( Coprinus coma-
tus), most delicious, and easily recognized, turns to ink without the
addition of any fluid. The honey-colored mushroom [Agaricus mel-
leus) is very acrid raw, as are also others, equally harmless when
cooked. Several esculent Agarics turn red when bruised, and many
edible Boleti change color. I never saw a snail on a mushroom.
Presuming that the writer means to refer to slugs, I would add that

TOADSTOOL-EATING. 95

I have often cut them out of mushrooms, rejecting only the part
they had spoiled.

I have given but one example of each inconsistency, but they mifht
be multiplied almost indefinitely. Then comes your believer in
charms : dropping salt on the mushroom to see if it turns black or yel-
low, or stirring them with a coin spoon to watch for evidences of dis-
coloration. Another rejects all which grow from wood. But no test
of any kind, in form, color, or basis of growth, will distinguish health-
ful from harmful fungi.

"What, then?" despairingly asks an inquirer — "what, then, can be
done?"

Exactly what is done in every other department from domestic
economy to high art. How does Mr. Jarves tell the difference
between a painting by Leonardo da Vinci and one by Guide Reni ?
How could you explain (to one who had never seen either) the dif-
ference between a hyacinth-bulb and an onion? From essays on the
early painters, you draw conclusions which enable you to distinguish
at sight the works of two artists. In kitchen-lore, the child acquires
distinctions with its earliest lessons at the mother's apron-string.
Only by these two means can practical knowledge of the kingdom of
Fungi be increased : first, exact scientific analysis; second, the circu-
lation of arbitrary, traditional information, such as saying to igno-
ramus :

" There, sir, that is an elm-tree mushroom ; mark it well : whenever
you find one iust like it on your elm, eat it."

With a view of encouraging research, I shall make an attempt at
an original but very limited classification, and also describe a few
varieties of mushrooms. The first distinction is in the nature of the
surface bearing the reproductive bodies or spores. Pick the next
toadstool you find; look under the top or cap. You will observe
one of four things :

1. There is a series of thin i)lates set on their edges running in
to a common centre, like the spokes of a wheel. The spokes are called
the gills ; the stem corresponds to the hub. This is the largest family
of mushrooms, the Agaricini or Agarics.

2. In the place of gills, your specimen may have a substance
resembling fine sponge. It is then a pore-bearing mushroom, ge-
nerically a l^olyporus. Supposing the stem to be distinctly defined,
of ordinary length, and the pores or tubes easily separable from each
other, it is a Boletus.

3. Instead of the sponge, you may find a number of small points
or spines. It belongs then to the teeth-bearing fungi, generically
the Hydnei.

4. When you invert the mushroom, you may find neither gills,
pores, nor teeth. It may be globular. In the three other classes, the
spores are borne externally ; here they are inclosed. If young, the

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

skin is filled with a substance, white, yellowish, puq^le, or black. If
old, the contents are discharged in dust at a smart squeeze. It is a
Puff-ball.

As the object of this article is to interest thosd having no knoAvl-
edge whatever of the subject, I shall not allude to other families. It
is probable that your toadstool will come within one of these four
grand divisions. If not, select another at once.

The puff-balls are the safest mushrooms for the beginner. When
you find one, with a smooth skin, perfectly white inside, it is the giant
puff-ball {Ly coper dum giganteum) in an infantile state. The color of
the skin varies from pure white to a shade almost black. If the knife
leaves a stain of yellow, it is too old to eat. Otherwise, you may eat
it without fear. There are several smaller varieties, which my wife
and I eat indiscriminately.

I believe all white puff-balls may be safely used if cooked at once.
They change very rapidly after gathering, and should only be eaten
in their freshest state. There is no poisonous fungus resembling
them.

The teeth-bearing toadstools are also safe fungi for the experi-
ments of the amateur. I have found only one variety, but Smith says
all the species of any size enjoy a good character. The spreading
hydnum [Hydnum repandum) is usually yellow, sometimes reddish,
always firm-fleshed; stem deformed, indistinct, or eccentric; and one
side of the disk, or top, is frequently much higher than the point
diametrically opposite. The peculiarity of the teeth, or spines (which
in young specimens easily rub off), is enough to distinguish it.

The Holeti can only be confounded with their twin brothers, the
JPolyporei. The latter grow mostly on wood, with abortive stems,
while the boletus of the edible kind grows from the ground, has a
distinct stem, and the tubes of the sponge are easily separable from
each other. If these tubes or pores are brown, yellowish, or green-
ish, the top being russet-color, or any shade of brown, and on cutting
the flesh it remains white, it is an edible, or at least a harmless, variety.
If the plant is brilliant-colored, red or yellow, or turns blue when
bruised, it is best to reject it. If the tubes are red at the orifice, it is
doubtless poisonous.

The Agarlcini (those with gills) cannot be thus generalized, and I
regard them as the least safe for the amateur, although it is to this
class that the celebrated individual honored by English-speaking
people with the title of " a mushroom " belongs. How can I describe
this species, it varies so widely with its circumstances?

Two varieties, the meadow-mushroom [Agarimts campestris) and
the horse-mushroom [Agaricits arvensis), run into each other by inter-
mediate types so closely that professional cooks and gardeners may
be forgiven that they entirely ignore any difference between them.
There is a theory that the horse-mushroom is propagated from spores

TOADSTOOL-EATING.

of the meadow-mushroom after these latter have passed through the
system of the horse.

At first, this mushroom resembles a pufi'-ball, but it soon discloses
under the cap a veil or web, which ruptures and exposes the gills free
from the stem, with a faint shade of pink. This color deepens more
and more, passing through purple into black. When pink, the rino-
around the stem is quite perfect, but I have found older specimens
with not a trace of ring or veil. The top is every shade from pure
white to deep brown ; and, altogether, I can only advise the amateur
to have one identified by an expert, if possible. Though difiicult to
describe, the taste and smell are so peculiar to the species that there
is not much danger of deception when once you have made their ac-
quaintance.

The most easily-recognized agaric is the maned mushroom {Copri-
nus comatus). When fit for food, it is the shape of a turtle's eo-g ;
that is, ovate, but alike at each end. The top is brown and smooth
but toward the earth the outer skin ruflies up, making a white mane
or fringe of concentric layers around it. The stem is hollow, and on
being cut appears, as it cooks, like macaroni. There is a ring round
the stem, which is movable in the well-developed plant. Very soon
after acquiring its growth the points of the gills turn black, some-
times running into pink ; then it opens umbrella-like, and melts into
an inky fluid. This was the first fungus we dared to eat on our own
recognition, and has no poisonous counterpart. It should never be
eaten either stale or having black gills, or when found around dust-
heaps or other ofial.

The second experiment was made on the elm-tree mushroom
{Agaricus ulmarius). It grows only in fall on the elm, has a thick,
solid stem (sometimes set in the side), broad white gills, firm white
flesh, and a light-yellow top, at first smooth, finally spotted and
cracked. Older, the gills turn yellow and the top very leathery. I
know of no other large fungus with gills and white flesh growing
from the elm. It is most common in a cleft, or where a limb has been
sawed oflT, and often reappears yearly in the same spot.

The family of the Mussidce is quite safe for beginners. In the
common mushroom you will notice the gills are pliable ; the flesh
also can be bent without breaking. The milk-mushrooms and the
HussuloB are very brittle ; the gills do not mat down like the horse-
mushroom, or the elm-tree mushroom ; they break into small pieces,
while the whole fungus snaps suddenly on being bent. If milk or
juice comes, I advise the amateur to reject the specimens. A novice
should not attempt to cook them. If they are perfectly dry, taste a
small piece. If it is not an edible russula, it will be likely to bite
and sting the tongue, while all the esculent varieties of the genus are
tasteless, mild, or with the flavor of chestnuts. There is one very
common variety {Bussula alutacea) with a bright-red top, buflE'-colored

VOL. SI. — 7

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gills, and stout, short stem. But two others {Bussula emetica and
Itussula rosacea) resemble it so closely that, to this day, as I wash
them, I invariably put a little piece of the stem of each into my mouth,
in order to avoid all possibility of mistake.

I am in hopes to establish the truth of this theory: namely, that
no fungus which, unspiced, being plainly cooked with dry heat, com-
mends itself to the taste, can be dangerous to human life.

I advance this proposition with hesitation, because many people
have so little sense in such matters. Mushrooms are mixed with
gravies, fried in batter, simmered in fat, seasoned with black pepper
or parsley-leaves, and their delicate flavor destroyed by compounding
them with other food. The cook, thereby, disguises the very alarm
which Nature has placed at the gateway. One of the most common
signs of hurtful fungus is a stinging sensation affecting the tongue
but little, the throat and tonsils more, and probably having the most
effect upon the stomach and bowels. Let the mushroom absorb fat
enough to cover this, or disguise the taste either by spice or by mixing
one variety with another, and you may easily eat enough of a poison-
ous funo-us to cause death.

Julie and I have tested perhaps forty varieties of toadstools ; of
these, we eat regularly, whenever found, considerably more than one-
half, and are daily making additions to our bill of fare. Yet, I would
not have the reader infer that we act carelessly. In whatever cause,
reckless disregard of consequences is not bi'avery, although no two
elements are oftener confounded. After tracing a specimen to its
family, we broil it with the addition of salt and butter (no pepper),
and eat a small piece on an empty stomach. We then increase the
quantity in successive experiments until we feel perfectly safe, or
experience unpleasant sensations. Usually, the non-edible fungus
discloses its character over the charcoal: nauseous slime w^eeps from
the stem, a grassy and disagreeable odor arises as it heats, or, on
being tasted, there is no desire to take another mouthful. TJie intui-
tion of woman, the cleverness with which the feminine mind grasps
at an idea over which the stronger sex will reason mentally for hours,
is nowhere more valuable than in the pursuit of this study.

We have never yet been deceived into making a meal of poisonous
fungus. From the sparkling coprinus ( Coprinus micaceus), a little
toadstool very common about old stumps, and one or two other kinds,
we have received evidence that condemned them as esculents. But
we were once poisoned by some common mushroqpis contaminated
by being sent in a box containing a large number of another kind.
The latter ( Coprinus deliquescens) were in a state of decomposition.
They eventually turn to ink, independent of contact with any fluid
substance. In passing, I would say that the manuscript of this arti-
cle is written with the result of such deliquescence. We had scarcely
swallowed the edible ones before we felt the effects of the poison.

TOADSTO OL-EA TING. ^g

Our symptoms were not unlike those exhibited in g, person using
tobacco for the first time. Dizziness, nausea, purging, perspiration
with alternate cold spells, all passed over us within an hour, so rapid
is the effect of the mushroom-virus. Two wineglasses of whiskey and
sweet-oil (equal parts) neutralized the poison, and in a few hours we
were no worse for the experience.

I would prescribe this remedy in all cases rather than the use of
emetics. Omit the whiskey, if you please, or substitute vinegar for
spirits, but take sweet-oil liberally in case of a mistake. I believe
the Italians eat many dangerous fungi with impunity, because, when
fresh, their properties are changed by sweet-oil; preserved, they are
neutralized by pickle. Either of these elements renders harmless the
peculiar alkali, to a superfluity of which mushrooms owd their noxious
qualities.

We must use the same discretion daily employed in selecting other
food. Who would willingly eat tainted meat? Is it so very uncom-
mon to find a goose or duck too strong to be palatable ? Who has
not been poisoned by bad oysters, stale fish, or overripe fruit ?

Because many mushrooms do not agree with the human system,
it does not follow that they are deadly poisons. I have friends who
do not jn-etend to distinguish varieties, but eat whatever has an appe-
tizing flavor. (I do not consider this safe ground, because the inabil-
ity to identify any one variety is doubtless the cause of many cases of
poisoning.) Yet, although they claim to have made their breakfast
from such obscurely known kinds as that which I afterward classified
as the smeared cortinarius {Cortinarius collinitus), I have never
known them to acknowledge any other sensation than an intense
desire to hunt for more. Julie and I had one day eaten plentifully
of the honey-colored mushroom [Agarictis melleus). On looking it
up in Greville, a well-knoAvn Scotch authority, I found the following
notice: "This species is said to be freely eaten on tlie Continent; at
least Fries quotes the authority of Trattinick for the fact. But, on
the other hand, Persoon gives it a bad character. In this he is sup-
ported by Paulet, who tried its effect upon a dog. The poor animal
died twelve hours after receiving the poisonous fungus."

Notwithstanding such a warning, it continues to be a favorite
article of diet with us to-day. I think it may be noxious raw,«but
that the heat kills the virus. It must be remembered that toadstool-
eating is by no means an exact science. Fungus-eaters are daily
making discoveries. Twenty years ago the two leading authorities
of England and America, Berkeley and Curtis, considered the Copri-
nus comatus poisonous.

There are but two ways in which it is proper to cook mushrooms.
By far the majority are best broiled on a fine-wire gridiron. They
should be sprinkled with salt and (if the species is well known as an
esculent) red pepper, buttered as the fire browns them. Otherwise,

loo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stew tliem in milk, exactly as you would make an oyster-stew. The
elm-tree mushroom, the honey-colored mushroom, and any others tast-
ing raw of grass or trees, are only good broiled. The meadow-mush-
room, horse-mushroom, or coprinus, are excellent cooked either way.
There is no doubt of the wholesome character of esculent fungus.
During the season, we eat them at our table three times a day ; some-
times of a half-dozen kinds at a meal. We never enjoy better diges-
tion than during toadstool-time. They furnish a natural alkali which
in some systems is greatly needed.

"We also dry them for use in winter. The Chinese and Japanese
make dried fungus a very general article of diet. I speak here from
personal acquaintance with their habits, acquired by a residence in
San Francisco and Honolulu, as well as in their native land. No better
substitute for meat than fungus can be found. Neither its odor when
cooking, nor the gravy it makes, resembles any form of vegetable food.
This is but natural, since the plant absorbs oxygen from the air, after
the manner of animals.

Mushrooms grow above the ground, like any other plants. I have
carefully watched all kinds, both in a natural state and when raised in
my own closet. The common mushroom (supposed to spring up in a
night, and which, says vulgar error, miTst be gathered with the dew
on it) takes about ten days to mature from a button the size of a pin-
head to a disk three or four inches in diameter, although most of this
time the cap is just beneath the soil. This is the average period
needed in acquiring perfection by other kinds, although some, as the
Co2)rinarii, do not consume half that time.

Note. — Outlines of British Fungology, by Rev. M. J. Berkeley. Lonclon : L. Reeve &
Co., 1860.

Handbook of British Fungi, by M. C. Cooke. London: Macmillan & Co., 1871.

A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi, by M. C. Cooke. London: Robert Hard-
wicke, 1871.

Mushrooms and Toadstools. Illustrated with Two Large Charts. By "Worthington G.
Smith. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1867.

The Esculent Funguses of England, by C. D. Badham. London : L. Reeve & Co., 1870.

Fungi : their Nature and Uses, by M. C. Cooke. Edited by Rev. M. J. Berkeley.
New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1875.

-♦-•-♦-

SKETCH OF PEESIDENT BAENAED.

AMONG the promoters of science and liberal culture in our time,
few men have labored more efficiently and successfully than the
present versatile and accomplished President of Columbia College.
Although Dr. Barnard has done his share of original scientific work,
it is not claimed for him that he has made any great discoveries ;

SKETCH OF PRESIDENT BARNARD

101

nor could this be justly expected of a man whose life has been so
absorbed in the work of educational reform, the progress of scientific
culture, the organization and administration of collegiate institutions
and the furtherance of those higher measures and agencies of intel-
lectual improvement which are never carried out except throuo-h the
executive force and indomitable perseverance of a few men who are
specially constituted for such tasks. Dr. Barnard has been untirino-jy
busy in these important spheres of activity for nearly half a century,
and seems still in the prime and vigor of his powers, and the meridian
of his public influence.

Feedeeick Augustus Poetee Baenaed was born in Sheffield,
Massachusetts, in the year 1809. He was educated at Yale Col-
lege, where he graduated in 1828. He began his career as teacher
by taking the position of tutor in that institution in 1829. In
1831 he went to Hartford, and engaged as instructor in the Asy-
lum for the Deaf and Dumb ; and, becoming interested in this branch
of teaching, he subsequently pursued it in the Deaf and Dumb Asy-
lum of New York. He afterward published an "Analytic Grammar,
with Symbolic Illustrations," based upon a system he had origi-
nated for teaching the deaf and dumb, and which is still used in
institutions devoted to their education. Dr. Barnard early chose the
South as his field of labor, and in 1837 became Professor of Mathe-
matics and Natural Philosophy in the University of Alabama, at Tus-
caloosa, and subsequently took the chair of Chemistry in the same insti-
tution, which he lield until 1854. The same year he took orders in
the Protestant Episcopal Church. In 1854 he became Professor of
Mathematics, Astronomy, and Civil Engineering, in the University of
Mississippi, at Oxford, was elected its president in 1856, and promoted
to its chancellorship in 1858. During his long residence at the South,
Dr. Barnard devoted himself with great energy to the subject of edu-
cation, both primary and academic, and advocated liberal and ad-
vanced views regarding college polity in several able reports. Never
an opponent of classical culture, he freely criticised it, and strongly
urged the claims of science to a larger and higher place in modern
study than had been hitherto allowed. At the approach and out-
break of the civil war, President Barnard, remaining loyal to the
Union, found himself embarrassed in his Southern position, and in
1861 he resigned his chancellorship and his chair in the university,
and returned to his native North. In 1862 he was engaged in continu-
ing the reduction of Gilliss's observations of the stars in the south-
ern hemisphere. In 1863 he was connected with the United States
Coast Survey, and had charge of chart-printing and lithograpliy. Prof.
McCulloch, who occupied the chair of Physics in Columbia College,
New York, having left the institution and gone South to take his
chances with the Confederate cause. Dr. Barnard became an applicant
for the vacant position ; but, instead of accepting him for this place,

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the trustees of the institution elected him as its president in 1864,
which office he still holds. Coincident with his accession to the presi-
dency of Columbia College, an important step was taken by the man-
agers of the institution for the promotion of scientific education by
the establishment of the School of Mines, and the appointment of an
able faculty to carry it on. This branch of the college has been so
well administered as to become a great success. Its facilities for sci-
entific training are ample and well directed, and in the number of its
students it is already the rival of the classical department.

Di'. Barnard has written miich upon both scientific and educa-
tional topics, and done a good deal of important work in connection
with the various international expositions of industry, to which he
has been commissioned by our Government. His last important liter-
ary undertaking has been the editorship of Johnson's " New Illus-
trated Universal Cyclopaedia." He has received many honors from
institutions of learning and leading scientific societies, both in this
country and abroad, and has been President of the American Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Science, of the American Microscopical
Society, and of the American Institute, New York. The following
are President Barnard's most important publications :

In the Journal of Science.

1. Aurora Borealis, 1838.

2. Improvement in Photography, 1842. (This was one of the earliest pro-

cesses discovered for quickening the sensitiveness of Daguerre's iodized
plates.)

3. Theory of Hot-Air Engine, 1853.

4. Modification of Ericsson's Hot-Air Engine, 1853.

5. Elastic Force of Heated Air, 1854. (A series of papers.)

6. Comparative Expansion of Heat in Different Forms of Air-Engines, 1854.

7. Mechanical Theory of Heat, 1854.

8. Examination of the Theory which ascribes the Zodiacal Light to a Pdng sur-

rounding the Earth, 1856.

9. The Eclipse Expedition to Cape Chudleigh, Labrador, 1860.

10. Hydraulics of the Mississippi, 1863.

11. Explosive Force of Gunpowder, 1863.

In the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

12. On the Pendulum, with Description of an Electric Clock with Pendulum

perfectly free, 1858.

13. On the Means of preserving Electric Contacts from Vitiation by the Spark,

1859.

14. Extended Eeport on the History, Methods, and Results of the American

Coast Survey, 1859.

15. On the Assumed Identity of Mental and Physical Forces, 1868.

In the Reports of the Smithsonian Institution.

16. The Mathematical Prmciples of the Undulatory Theory of Light, Svo, pp.

133, 18G2.

SKETCH OF PRESIDENT BARNARD. 103

In the Transactions of the American Institute.

17. The Metric System— History of the Movement in its Favor, 1871.

18. Theory of the High-Speed, Heavy-Piston Steam-Engine, 1871,

In the American Naturalist.

19. Description of a New Form of Binocular Microscope, 1871.

Published ly the Trustees of Columbia College.

20. Essay on the Metric System— Examination of the Objections brought against

it, and Discussion of the Values of its Units, with an Appendix on tlie
Unification of Moneys, 8vo, pp. 194, 1872.

Published by the Senate of the United States.

21. Machinery, Processes, and Products of the Industrial Arts, and Apparatus

of the Exact Sciences — Report on the Exposition of 1867, 8vo, pp. 669
1868.

In '■'■ Field'' s Outlines of an International Code.''''

22. The chapters relating to Money, Weights and Measures, Longitude and

Time, and Sea-Signals, 8vo, pp. 86, 1870.

Published by the Public Health Association of the "Cfnited States.

23. On the Germ-Theory of Disease, 1874.

In the Journal of the General Convention of th,e Protestant E-pisco^al Church

for 1871 — Appendix.

24. On the Principles of the Ecclesiastical Calendar, with Concise Rules for

finding the Movable Feasts,- 1871.

In Johnson''s Cyclopaedia.

25. Numerous articles on topics in Mathematics, Mechanical and Physical Sci-

ence, and on miscellaneous subjects scattered through the published vol-
umes, 1874r-'75.

Among his educational papers may be mentioned : "Letters on College Gov-
ernment," 1854; "Report on Collegiate Education," 1854; "Art-Culture,"
1854; "Improvements practicable in American Colleges," 1855; "University
Education," 8vo, pp. 104, 1858 ; " Relation of University Education to Common
Schools," 1858 ; " Studies best adapted to Early Culture and Preparation for
College," 1866; "Elective Studies in College Education," 1872; "Analysis of
Statistics of Collegiate Education," 1870 ; Annual Reports to the Trustees of
Columbia College, 1865, et seq. — a series ; and numerous papers on Deaf-Mute
Instruction, 1832-'37.

104

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

INSECTS AND FLOWERS IN COLOEADO.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

UNDER the above heading, in the Jan-
uary number, Mr. Meehan calls for a
list of the Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera,
abundant enough to probably act as cross-
fertilizers of flowers iu the region observed
by him — namely, from Denver to Golden
City and Idaho Springs, through the South
Park to Pike's Peak, thence returning to
Denver direct.

In 1871 (the year of Mr. Meehan's ob-
servations) I spent the months of June,
July, August, and September, entirely in
the region mentioned, and devoted my time
almost exclusively to the collection and ob-
servation of Lepidoptera. In no place out-
side of the tropics have I found a better col-
lecting-ground, at least so far as diurnals
are concerned, both as to variety of species
and number of specimens. This abundance,
however, is chiefly noticeable early in the
season, as indicated by the number of speci-
mens I was able to secure in the different
months — namely, 1,792 in June, 1,483 in
July, 607 in August, and only 43 in Sep-
tember.

Of insects of other orders I collected
about 3,800 specimens ; but very few of
them were Hymenoptera, as I devoted only
rainy days to the collection of insects other
than butterflies. Several species of hum-
ble-bees were observed ; these did not seem
to confine their attention to any particular
kind of flower.

At Idaho Springs, about the middle of
August, I saw hundreds of Noctuidte at-
tracted by the lights of the hotel, and cap-
tured some sixty specimens. A notewor-
thy fact is that in the Alpine regions many
NoctuidcB were diurnal in their habits. The
most abundant species was Heliothis Meadii
(Grote) ; these moths were found flying
from flower to flower, or resting upon flow-
ers both above and below the timber-line.
The white-lined sphinx {Deilephila lineata)
was also quite plentiful in some spots, and
seemed quite partial to larkspur and similar
showy flowers.

Certain diurnals of arctic types positive-
ly swarmed on many of the peaks — for ex-
ample, Argynnis Helena (Edwards), and
lower down several species of IlelKcea, Phy-
ciodes, and Argynnis., were constantly to be
found at flowers.

I give a list of the more abundant but-
terflies, with the number of specimens of
each species or genus taken, classing those
occurring almost entirely at or above the

timber-line as Alpine ; those found mostly
below 11,000 feet elevation as valley species
— the species in the latter class which range
above the timber-line to any great extent
are designated by an asterisk (*).

Necessarily most of the collecting was
done below the timber-line ; hence the Al-
pine species were more abundant in individ-
uals than the recorded number of specimens
collected would indicate. None of the spe-
cies are likely to have been introduced by
the agency of man.

ALPINE SPECIKS.

Colias Meadii 65

Argynnis (5 species) 190

ChionobaB (2 epecies) 25

Erebia Tyndarus, variety Callias 62

Hesperia near Centaure» 16

VALLEY SPECIES.

Parnassius SmintheuB * 241

Pieris (3 species) 106

Anthocharis (2 specieB) 7ft

Colias (5 species) 339

Vanessa, Grapta, etc. (9 species) 138

Argynnis (8 species) 210

Euptoieta Claudia * (very abundant) 53

Melitaea and Phyciodes (8 species) 297

Satyridae * (7 species) 495

Lycasnidse * (21 epecies) 835

Hesperidse 219

Geometridae and Noctuidae * 318

Theodore L. Mead.

CoENELL TJniveesitt, January 20, 1877.

SINGING IN THE EAES.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Mr. Editor : Do the minute tones heard
in "singing" or "ringing in the ears"
have any musical relation to each other ?

" Singing in the ears " is a mingling of
minute tones, somewhat like the singing of
a tea-kettle, caused by undue pressure of
the circulation in the head, etc.

In my own case, the minute tones seem
to be octaves., and thirds, and fiftlis apart,
forming chords and progressive intervals.

In investigating the relation of music to
the physiology of audition, I find this a
very important question, demanding a mul-
tiplicity of evidence. Will those of your
readers who have information on this mat-
ter (positive or negative, but exact) write to
me? X. Y, Clark,

Box 2,260,
San Fkanoisoo, Califoenia.

FEEDING-HABITS OF WOOD-ANTS.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monihly.

In the March number of your journal,
page 634, is a notice of the " Singular Feed-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

^05

ing-IIabits of Wood-Ant s," wherein occurs
the statement that, if the ants were im-
mersed in water and placed on the ant-hills,
they were invariably attacked by other ants
as enemies, etc. This action is so at vari-
ance with what I have observed, that I will
mention an incident which occurred while I
was botanizing in Wisconsin last summer.
In passing by a large stump I observed that
the top was covered with large wood-ants.
They were feeding on crumbs of bread left
by some school-children. On the stump
was a depression, where the ants were in
large numbers. Procuring some water from
a lake close by, I poured it into the depres-
sion, submerging several dozen ants. The
most of them swam to the margin ; others
were in danger of drowning. What was

my astonishment to see those who had es-
caped riish into the water, seize their drown-
ing fellows, and drag them to the shore,
where they tenderly turned them over until
satisfied they were alive, when the rescuers
went back and tried to save others ! A few
were dragged out too late — they were dead.
These were turned over, felt of by the an-
tennai of the rescuers, and left for dead.
In no instance was there any appearance
of violence to the wet ants by the dry ones.
The intelligence shown by these ants was
greater than I had ever dreamed they pos-
sessed, and since that time I have had a
most sincere respect for my lowly fellow-
laborers.

E. M. Hale, M. D.
Chicago, February 24, 1877.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

MENTAL OVERWORK UNDER THE COM-
PETITIVE PRIZE SYSTEM.

THE death by suicide, not long ago,
of a brilliant student of Cornell
University, Eniil Schwerdtfeger, at the
age of nineteen, has a painful interest
in connection with the subject of edu-
cation. We are glad to see that the
case has elicited some wholesome com-
ment on the part of the press, in re-
gard to the influences to which he was
subjected, and the system of culture
that supplies them ; and we think the
lesson that has been drawn ought to be
enforced upon the public mind in the
most pointed and emphatic manner.

It seems that the yoimg man had
fallen into a state of hopeless depres-
sion, after a course of successful study,
in which he had made the most re-
markable proficiency in the languages.
His mental condition reminds us of
that through which John Stuart Mill
passed, when about the same age, after
being subjected by his father to that
long and terrible discipline of acquisi-
tion which is so fully described in his
autobiography and has been curiously
confirmed by a letter lately discovered,
written by young Mill at the age of
thirteen to Sir Samuel Bentham. Af-
ter being crammed with knowledge in

the most systematic way — dead lan-
guages, classical literature, history,
mathematics, and political economy —
from early childhood, by poring over
books, until he became a perfect prod-
igy of erudition, he passed into a cloud
of melancholy, in which his future life
seemed vacant and hopeless. All the
fountains of impulse that had previ-
ously incited him to effort seemed
dried up in his gloomy dejection. He
went on with his work mechanically,
but without interest, while this por-
tion of his life, or what he did in it,
was afterward hardly remembered. He
subsequently described his case in the
following lines from Coleridge :

"A grief without a pang, void, dark, and
drear,
A drowsy, stifled, unimpassioned grief,
Which finds no natural outlet or relief
In word, or sigh, or tear."

He was not free from suggestions
of self-destruction which arise in such
mental conditions, as we gather from
the following remarks : " I frequently
asked myself if I could, or if I was bound
to, go on living, when life must be
passed in this manner. I generally
answered to myself that I did not think
I could possibly bear it beyond a year."
It was unquestionably a case of brain-

io6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

exhaustion, brought on by steady, pro-
longed, and severe mental application,
and giving rise to the morbid condition
of melancholia. His vigorous consti-
tution, however, rallied and carried
him through, although he had several
relapses afterward. His education had
been conducted as if his mind was a
chamber to be packed with knowledge,
rather than a force or activity depend-
ent upon an organ of exquisite delicacy,
which is liable to be strained, over-
worked, impaired, and broken down.

The tragical result in the case of
Schwerdtfeger was due to two causes,
from the operation of which Mill was
comparatively exempt : he had slender
health, and he was exposed to the arti-
ficial, high - pressure competitive sye-
tem which is now so much in vogue
in the sphere of higher education. He
was a poor boy, of a highly-sensitive
nature, intellectually precocious, and
with an unhappy home, from the trou-
ble of which he had only been able
to escape through absorption in books
and study. At fourteen or fifteen he
was employed in an office to translate
German works, and displayed such re-
markable faculties that a wealthy gen-
tleman thought he would give him a
chance by sending him to college. He
went to Cornell, at the age of sixteen,
and, though not prepared to enter the
university, took up his residence with
one of the professors, and was quick-
ly qualified for admission. No sooner
had he got in than he began at once to
be plied with the dangerous stimulation
of the competitive prize system. A
pecuniary reward was offered for the
best essay on the " English verb."
Our slender lad went in for it and won
the prize and the honor, while yet a
freshman, with abundant plaudits for
his remarkable production. The distinc-
tion thus early achieved had of course
to be sustained, and an extrinsic and
artificial pressure was thus brought to
bear upon the young man, who was
thereafter expected to be an honor to

the institution. He threw himself with
all the premature ambition of a pre-
cocious nature into lingual studies — a
class of studies that stands highest in
the rank of collegiate scholarship, and
that, therefore, brings most applause.
It must be remembered, also, that the
ascendency of these studies has long
been defended on the ground that they
afford the most available standards of
acquisition, or the sharpest means of
marking the student's progress ; in oth-
er words, are best fitted of all subjects
for racing and winning honors. Lan-
guage after language was rapidly ac-
quired. Schwerdtfeger bought a Greek
grammar and stuck to it for ten hours a
day, as we are informed, getting on with
such proficiency that a distinguished
Greek professor, from another institu-
tion, happening to be there, was set to
examining him. After three or four
hours of it, the professor declared that
he was well prepared to enter the
classical course of any college in the
country, and was confounded when
told that Schwerdtfeger had only be-
gun Greek three weeks before. In lan-
guages he was ahead of any student who
had ever been in the university. He
gave lessons as tutor in Latin, Spanish,
German, Greek, French, and Portuguese.
Under this intense strain his health,
originally poor, grew worse, and he
ought then to have at once left the place.
There is a moral discipline in such in-
stitutions which, if violated, entails ex-
pulsion; and it is a serious question
whether there ought not to be a san-
itary discipline, equally stringent, for
the exclusion of students who damage
themselves by over-study. But when
the boy's health quite gave way under
the stimulation of college influence, in-
stead of being sent away, he was struck
by a baneful agency from without. The
Intercollegiate Literary Association of-
fered prizes before the whole country
for the best essay in Latin. The sick
boy of Cornell entered into the compe-
tition, beat aU his rivals, and won the

EDITOR'S TABLE.

107

highest prize. He then lapsed into
deeper morbid despondency, made his
will, and shot himself through the head
with a pistol.

We have here merely another in-
stance, of which there have been thou-
sands before, of the vicious working of
that competitive system in our higher
educational institutions, which should
receive the inexorable reprobation of
the community. Prof. Johannot writes
to the Tribune, in relation to Schwerdt-
feger's case, saying that Cornell Uni-
versity neither forces, crams, nor uses
class-markings, which is all very well ;
but how about competitive prizes ? Does
it forbid these to its students ? and, if not)
is there no " forcing " here ? Schwerdt-
feger began and ended at Cornell by
gaining prizes. If Schwerdtfeger " came
to the institution an exceptional stu-
dent, with a thirst for knowledge which
was an absorbing passion, and had mor-
bid fancies and an inherited tendency
toward insanity and suicide ; " if he
was " fascinated with the life and fate
of Chatterton," then the institution that
took charge of him is to be all the more
condemned for exposing him to the fatal
stimulus of competitive prizes.

It is forgotten that we live in an age
of excitement — a speculating, gambling,
horse-racing age, feverish with politi-
cal, religious, commercial, and sporting
rivalries. All grades of society are in-
fected by it, and the universal interest
in it is such that the newspapers are
crammed day by day with the details
of competitive conflicts in numberless
forms, from foot-races up to political
campaigns. Against all this our high-
er education ought to make a stand.
But, instead of doing so, the colleges,
in various degrees, yield to the general
tendency, and, in fact, avail themselves
of the competitive spirit in carrying
on their work. The pernicious effects
of artificial excitements and provoca-
tives are undeniable and notorious.
Many have been sacrificed to this for-
cing system, through constitutional en-

feeblement, prostration by disease, and
premature death. For the natures upon
which it takes effect are just those that
are most liable to become its victims.
Fatal results may not be produced, but
shattered nerves and broken constitu-
tions do follow everywhere upon the
competitive prize system, because it is
the readily impressible, the impulsive,
and the unregulated, that are taken by
its lures.

It is a physiological fact of the great-
est importance in education that, under
the stimulus of intense feeling and fac-
titious excitement, the brain is capable
of making rapid and extensive acquisi-
tions, which are, of course, correspond-
ingly transient. The cramming policy
rests upon this capability of the brain,
and it is this to which the competitive
prize system appeals. It bids for im-
mediate, striking, and showy results in
acquisition, to be gained by exhaustion
of the plastic power of this organ, and
that, too, during the period of its growth,
when the forces are required for en-
largement and advancing organization.
It violates this fundamental principle
of education : that intellectual acquire-
ment, to be permanent and valuable,
must be slow ; and that, for healthful
mental development, knowledge, like
food, must be taken as required by nor-
mal appetite, and become assimilated
into faculty by the quiet, unforced pro-
cesses of organic transformation. The
protests in recent years against this
policy have been many and emphatic,
and much has been done to check it ;
but it will undoubtedly continue so long
as partial parents continue to be im-
posed upon by the shallow parade of
examinations, exhibitions, and prize-
shows.

The Intercollegiate Literary Associ-
ation now appears as a new force well
calculated to thwart this beneficent ten-
dency. It works by prizes and honors
in their most mischievous forms, by bla-
zoning the victories of students through
all the newspapers in the land ; so that

io8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

one miglit almost infer that the very
object of its establishment is to encour-
age and strengthen the worst feature of
educational practice. It is not an organ-
ization to improve the colleges by giv-
ing encouragement to neglected studies,
or by bringing their schemes of instruc-
tion into completer harmony with the
claims of modern knowledge or the ne-
cessities of modern life; but it offers
its sensational rewards for proficiency
in just those subjects which have long
usurped undue attention in the collegiate
education. It applies increasing press-
ure in those directions in which press-
ure is already excessive. Hence, if there
are any students already shaken by strug-
gles to get the leading positions in the
colleges, the Association tempts them to
come forward and fight it out with each
other before the whole country. It will
remain true to the end of time that
those who sacrifice all the rest of their
nature to the attainment of any one
object will win it as against those who
regard the claims of their whole nature.
The Intercollegiate Association bids for
the best cases of one-sided development.
If a student has sacrificed his bodily
health to brilliant scholastic results, the
Association wants him for exhibition.
Johannot says that Schwerdtfeger, "in
preparing for the late intercollegiate
contest, made no extraordinary efl['ort ; "
yet he beat all the healthier fellows out
of sight, and the Association gave him
a prize for his disease. If it killed him,
no matter; that was but an incident.
Do not horses often die on the race-
course? and are not men often killed
in the prize-ring? Aspirants must take
their chances. To the earnest protest of
a correspondent to its encouragement
of the Intercollegiate Association the
editor of the Tribune replies, "Even if
young Schwerdtfeger's death could be
directly traced to overwork in connec-
tion with the recent competition in this
city, we should hesitate before condemn-
ing the intercollegiate literary contests."
This is a little startling as an illustra-
tion of the foothold that sporting ethics

has got in the field of education; but
we can admire that pluck of opinion
which does not recoil from its logical
consequences.

THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF IDEAS.

We picked up an educational paper
the other day, presenting a long list of
distinguished men as editors. This
promised well, as the field of American
education is not the place where the
editorial " dummy " humbug would be
tolerated. Albeit the wisdom of the
periodical did not seem to be of a very
solid sort, though we read on, hopefully
expecting to find it at every step. At
length we came upon the reviews of
periodicals, and thought perhaps here
we should discover the sound sense
promised by the import of the editorial
names. We found the story-telling mag-
azines dissected, weighed, and meas-
ured, with care and fullness. The writ-
er was here clearly interested in his
topic ; but when we came to The Popu-
lar Science Monthly it was different.
The writer said he never thought much
of it, and, though he had no doubt there
was some truth in Evolution, he did not
like to have it thrust in his face and be
bored with it perpetually in accordance
with the usage of this periodical. This
was the first time that he had broken
out into adverse criticism. He had been
hitherto much pleased ; the contents of
the story-telling magazines had not
bored him. Whereat we reflected upon
the different values assigned by differ-
ent minds to different orders of ideas.
We think the trashy love-sick stories,
the idle gossip about notorious persons,
and the dashing sensational criticism,
which make up the chief portion of our
literary periodicals, to be not very im-
portant ; and on the other hand we
think that Evolution, if true, is a very
important matter indeed, and as the
case stands it seems to i;s of very great
interest to know what the ablest men
of the age are thinking about it. Its
establishment and general acceptance

EDITOR'S TABLE.

109

must Tvork the deepest and most far-
reaching revolution in human thought
of any truth to which the human mind
has ever attained. Therefore we have
taken some pains to keep our readers
informed about it. And this was the
more necessary, as the literary periodi-
cals of large circulation pass the sub-
ject by, and the larger the circulation
the more carefully is it ignored. They
value, prefer, and select that which
will "pay," and in so doing they cater,
for mercenary purposes, to the caprice
frivolity, prejudice, and ignorance of
their readers, not troubling them much
with the great and serious truths which
science is working out for the world.
It is gratifying to find that we are not
singular in our estimate of the relative
moment and significance of these two
forms of intellectual occupation. A
writer who gives elaborate considera-
tion to President "White's " Warfare of
Science" in the Westminster Review
opens with the following pungent ob-
servations :

" It has always seemed to us a matter
for some wonder that people should take
such a deep interest in the peddling events
of poor individual human existences, and
so little in the dynasty of ideas ; that they
should be content to wear their eyes out
over the driveling three-volumed account
of the loves and hates of vapid men and
women, to indulge their finest emotions
over the fifth act of some puling melodrama,
and yet be altogether indifferent to the gi-
gantic drama of truth in which the unity
of place is the world, the unity of time the
centuries, and the actors are beneficent
truths or malevolent errors. Why men
should be indifierent to these momentous
events in the past which constituted the
history of science, the history of philoso-
phy, and, in the truest sense, the history
of religion, and yet should enter with such
eager zest into the gossip of the day and the
trivialities of personal reminiscence, it is
difficult to say. But, however hard it may
be to discover the meaning of, there is no
possibility of doubting, the fact. While the
personal histories of men who have very
small claims upon our better sympathies are
read with avidity, the impersonal narrative
of truths which have paramount claims upon
our hearts and our heads are treated with

the passive contempt of neglect. Men are
much to us, while doctr-nes are little. We
like to have our truths in the flesh ; and we
are too apt, when we find a doctrine incar-
nated, to neglect the sacred revelation and
worship the man, to transfer the reverence
which is due to an idea to the individual
who is, as it were, the bearer of it. Here we
have, in epitome, the history of many re-
ligions. Men will worship the truth with
startled reverence, then tliey will worship
the ti-uth-bearer and overlook the truth in
the symbol, and forget that of which it is
the sign."

CONCERNING ''BLUE GLASS:'

We are asked why we do not dis-
course of Pleasonton and " blue glass."
Why should we? Is it not abundantly
considered by the press already ? The
object of our pages is to treat of sub-
jects that are too generally neglected ;
to give expression to those great re-
sults of discovery and scientific thought
which get but a meagre share of atten-
tion from the popular press, and we
cannot find half room enough to do this
work as it should be done. "But,
really, what do you think of Pleasonton,
and the blue-glass cure ? " is now the
obtrusive question. Well, we think
that the man is a pestilent ignoramus,
and his book the ghastliest rubbish that
has been printed in a hundred years.
He may be entirely honest, but that
is no reason why we should give atten-
tion to his egregious folly. Pleason-
ton, however, it must be confessed,
serves one important function : he
gauges for us the depth and density of
American stupidity. De Morgan says,
somewhere, that certain men appear
occasionally to play the part of " fool-
ometers" in the community, that is, to
measure the number and quality of the
fools furnished by any given state of
society. Pleasonton has done this for
us with an accuracy that leaves nothing
to be desired. Our showing in this re-
spect is on a very handsome scale, fully
commensurate with the length of the
Mississippi, the sweep of the prairies,
the glory of the Centennial Exhibition,
the grandeur of the national debt, and

no

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the splendid proportions of our system
of education. He is a public benefac-
tor, in that he has given us another
"big thing." The interesting point
just now about " blue glass " is psycho-
logical. It is an exponent of popular
intelligence, an index of culture, a
register of common-school work, and
a test of the influence of colleges. Our
collective schools produce in the com-
munity a certain state of mind; " blue
glass" indicates it. There is evidently
a very close connection here, and the
problem deserves to be worked out.
If the Intercollegiate Literary Associa-
tion will offer an additional prize for
the best essay on the connection be-
tween the study of Latin and Greek
and the "blue-glass" mania, The Pop-
ular Science Monthly will furnish
the money for the purpose.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The English Constitution, and Other Es-
says. By Walter Bagehot, Author of
"Physics and Politics," Editor of the
Economist, etc. Pp. 468. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. Price, .$2.

As we sit down to write a notice of this
interesting volume, we are startled by the
painful intelligence of the sudden death of
its distinguished author. Mr. Bagehot was
in the prime of life and the full vigor of his
powers, as attested by the recent fertility
of his pen and the sustained character of
his intellectual work. His position as a
writer was quite unique in the literature of
our time. Strongly attracted to the study
of public affairs, and devoting himself spe-
cially in his weekly journal to the consid-
eration of economical and commercial sub-
jects, he always dealt with them in a broad,
philosophical spirit, and wrote upon them
in a style of peculiar literary excellence,
for which he was quite unsurpassed among
contemporary writers upon these topics.
Besides his contributions to the reviews,
embracing close discussions of government
policy and commercial economies, and his
admirable biographical sketches, Mr. Bage-
hot is chiefly known by his volumes on
" Physics and Politics," " Lombard Street,"

and "The English Constitution." This is
his most important work, and that by which
he will be best known in the future. The
book on "Lombard Street" is a special
study of the money question, but the " Phys-
ics and Politics," which was reproduced in
French under the happier title of " The De-
velopment of Nations," and " The English
Constitution," are of a wider interest, as
they treat, in a scientific spirit, of social
questions and phenomena that concern alike
people of all countries. Those who have
read the " Physics and Politics " will find
" The English Constitution " treated by the
same method ; the principles there devel-
oped being applied to English constitution-
al history and the structure of English so-
cial life. We cannot, perhaps, give a bet-
ter account of this work than by quoting
the preface to the new American edition :

" ' The English Constitution,' by Walter
Bagehot, has already attracted some atten-
tion in this country, but it is a work that
deserves to be much more widely and fa-
miliarly known. Its title, however, is so
little suggestive of its real character, and is
so certain to repel and mislead American
readers, that, in bringing out a new and
cheaper edition of it, at this time, some prefa-
tory words may be useful for the correction
of erroneous impressions.

" It is well known that the term ' Con-
stitution,' in its political sense, has very
different significations in England and in
this country. With us it means a written
instrument, decreed at a certain time to be
the supreme law of the land. Hence when
a book appears upon the American Constitu-
tion, if not a history of its adoption, it will
probably be a commentary upon its mean-
ings ; that is, some kind of a law-treatise,
dealing with the technical interpretations
of a legal instrument. The English, on the
contrary, have no such written document.
By the national Constitution they mean their
actual social and political order — the whole
body of laws, usages, and precedents, which
have been inherited from former genera-
tions, and by which the practice of govern-
ment is regulated. A work upon the Eng-
Ush Constitution, therefore, brings us natu-
rally to the direct consideration of the struct-
ure and practical working of English politi-
cal institutions and social life.

"The American Constitution was framed

LITERARY NOTICES.

Ill

by a convention; the English Constitution
is a growth of centuries. Books written
upon the two Constitutions are, therefore,
Ukely to differ, much as a manual of car-
pentry differs from a hand-book of physi-
ology ; the former belonging rather to the
province of constructive art, and the latter
to that of natural science. While in the
study of the American Constitution we are
occupied with the ' intentions of the fram-
ers,' the ' rules of construction,' and the
lore of lawyers, to get at the sense of a
printed tract, the study of the English
Constitution introduces us more directly
to facts and phenomena, or the laws of po-
litical activity, social change, and national
growth. These objects of inquiry obvious-
ly lend themselves to the scientific method
of treatment, which aims to trace out the
working of natural causes and inherent
principles, and hence has interest for all
' students of political philosophy. Mr. Bage-
hot's work is written virtually, if not formal-
ly, from this point of view ; it is pervaded
by the scientific spirit, without taking on
the technical forms of scientific exposition.
" With the author's inclination and ca-
pacity to regard public questions in their
scientific aspects, many readers are already
familiar through his suggestive volume en-
titled ' Physics and Politics.' ' The English
Constitution ' is a work of the same quality,
and treats its subjects very much with refer-
ence to the principles of human nature and
the natural laws of human society. It is a
free disquisition on English polititical ex-
perience ; an acute, critical, and dispassion-
ate discussion of English institutions, de-
signed to show how they operate, and to
point out their defects and advantages.
The writer is not so much a partisan or an
advocate as a cool, philosophical inquirer,
with large knowledge, clear insight, inde-
pendent opinions, and great freedom from
the bias of what he terms that ' territorial
sectarianism called patriotism.' His criti-
cism of the faults of the English system is
searching and trenchant, and his apprecia-
tion of its benefits and usefulness is cordial,
discriminating, and wise. He discusses old
traditions and modern innovations, aristo-
cratic privileges and democratic tendencies,
■with an absence of prejudice that comes
from a predominant scientific temper of
mind. Taking up in succession the Cabi-

net, the Monarchy, the House of Lords, and
the House of Commons, he considers them
in what may be called their dynamical in-
teractions, and in relation to the habits,
traditions, culture, and character, of the
English people. The book, indeed, is full
of instructive episodes, and sagacious re-
flections on the springs of action in human
nature, the exercise of power by individuals
or political bodies, the adaptation of insti-
tutions to the qualities and circumstances
of the different classes who live under them,
and numerous points of political philosophy,
which are applicable everywhere, and have
an interest for all students of political and
social affairs.

" There is much in Mr. Bagehot's volume
that bears very suggestively upon the state
of things in this country. His comparison,
in various points, of the working of cabinet
government with that of presidential gov-
ernment raises questions regarding our own
system which are forced into greater promi-
nence by every decade of our national ex-
perience. But the book should be read
by Americans not only for the interesting
information it contains, and the brilliant
light it throws upon the internal polity of a
great nation from which we have derived
so much of our own institutions, but be-
cause it will exert a widening and hberai-
izing influence upon the minds of our peo-
ple, who are too apt to look upon all other
governments with a kind of bigoted con-
tempt. Our intense politics, chiefly occu-
pied with selfish and sordid interests, and
bitter personal rivalries, tend to exclude
from this sphere of thought everything Uke
science, or the large and liberal study of
political principles. Narrow views lead to
a depreciation of everything foreign that
differs from our own system and practice.
A distinguished professor in one of our
leading colleges remarked that, when the
students come up in their last year to ac-
quire some notions of political science, their
want of information relating to everything
beyond the limits of their own country —
their ignorance of any thing like comparative
poUtics — is to the last degree discreditable.
Such narrowness is only to be corrected by
travel and extended observation, or by culti-
vating those studies and reading those books
that will give clear and just conceptions of
the policy of other leading nations. Mr.

112

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Bagehot's analysis of the English Constitu-
tion will be helpful to this end ; and we
doubt if there is any other volume so useful
to our countrymen to peruse before visiting
^England. It will enable Americans to under-
stand many things that at first perplex and
disgust them in an old historic country,
where all that most impresses the mind is
so different from what we are accustomed
to here.

" It remains further to say that Mr.
Bagehot's work has a charming readable-
ness that would not be suspected from its
title or subject. It is written with an easy
liveliness, a vivacious wit, and a felicity of
style, that place it high in the scale of lit-
erary excellence.

" The studies of character of Brougham
and Peel, that are appended to the present
edition, and have not before appeared in
this country, will be read with avidity, as
they not only serve to throw additional
light upon the modern politics of England,
but give us an interesting insight into the
intellectual life of two of the most conspicu-
ous men who have figured in public affairs
during the past generation."

THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY.

TnK Principles op Sociology. By Her-
bert Spencer, Author of " First Princi-
ples of Biology," "Principles of Psy-
chology," etc., etc. Vol. I., pp. 734.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Price,
$2.50.

The sixth volume of Spencer's " Synthet-
ic Philosophy " is now before us. This great
work was entered upon with many doubts
as to its merits if executed, and many more
as to whether it would ever get done at all.
It has, however, moved slowly forward for
the last fifteen years, against obstacles, both
internal and external, which would have
ordinarily brought such an enterprise to a
stand long ago. The author's imperfect
health has been a serious and constant im-
pediment; the expensiveness of the under-
taking has greatly imperiled its continu-
ance; and the carelessness, stupidity, and
downright perversity of reviewers, or those
who undertook to interpret the system to
the public, have been little calculated to
inspirit the author in the progress of his
work. Instead of welcoming with sympa-
thy and intelligent encouragement a great

effort like this to effect a higher unity of
the different departments of knowledge,
which modern science has begun to make
possible, Mr. Spencer has been treated
rather as if he had committed some grave
offense against the interests of mankind.
We have still large classes who look upon
science with jealousy, and especially resent
any effort to make it the basis of philoso-
phy, or to develop it into a comprehensive
and authoritative body of thought; and
these classes have opposed and vilified
from the commencement Spencer's work
without scruple or reserve. It is gratify-
ing to note that this unworthy feeling is
giving way in many quarters, and is re-
placed by a growing disposition to do jus-
tice to his views ; but in other quarters the
old tactics of depreciation and misrepre-
sentation are still pursued. We refer to
the latest example. Our readers will re-
member that a year or two since the British
Quarterly Review opened its columns to a
very unmanly and vindictive assault upon
Spencer, which had no excuse even under
the largest license of decent reviewing.
That there was some animus in the writer's
mind quite apart from the fair and legiti-
mate purpose of such work, was obvious
enough at the time ; but, if there could have
been any doubt about it, that doubt is dis-
pelled by the recent course of this Quaj-terly.
In its January issue it contained another
elaborate article professing to be a review
of Spencer's " Sociology ; " but the reader
will hardly credit the statement that this
work was not even referred to in the article.
It was nothing less than an attack upon
the old "Social Statics," a book published
twenty-six years ago, and having in its
preface to the later reprints an explicit
warning to all readers that it does not con-
tain a true representation of Mr. Spencer's
present views. T!ie course of the Quarterly
was all the more outrageous, when it is re-
membered that Mr. Spencer had stated in
this preface that the subject discussed in
"Social Statics" would be reconsidered and
placed upon a broader basis in the " System
of Philosophy" upon which he has been at
work since 1860. The writer in the Review
added, in a note at the end of his article,
that at the time it went to press the volume
of Spencer's "Principles of Sociology" was

LITERARY NOTICES.

113

not yet published — a false statement, as it
had been issued in quarterly parts during
the past two years by Williams & Norgate,
of London, the publishers of " Social Stat-
ics " and all the volumes of the " Philoso-
phy." Though we may not expect in Brit-
ish Quarterly Reviewers any very high sense
of honor, there is a barefaced recklessness
in this proceeding which well illustrates the
sort of treatment that Herbert Spencer has
been receiving ever since he published the
first volume of his "Philosophy" in 1862.

The readers of The Popular Science
Monthly will hardly need to be told that
the volume now published is the first of
three which are intended to work out sys-
tematically the principles of the science of
society. We have often explained the rela-
tion of these works to the philosophical
volumes that have preceded them, and to
the "Descriptive Sociology," which gives a
comprehensive account of different types
of the social state ; and we have published
various articles, from advance-sheets of the
work itself, illustrating the quality and
scope of the discussion contained in the
volume before us. The work differs widely
and profoundly from any that has ever ap-
peared professing to deal with the subject
of social science, and it is gratifying to see
at last some cordial recognition of its great
originality, value, and importance, from the
leading critics of the English press. This
is all the more satisfactoiy, that Mr. Spen-
cer has conquered it against the steady
pressure of a powerful and long-sustained
antagonism. Having commented freely
upon the work, and given illustrations of it,
in the course of its publication, we prefer
now to furnish our readers with the view
taken of the completed volume by an influ-
ential London journal. The following is
the notice that appeared in the Pall Mall
Gazette :

" Those who have followed the develop-
ment of Mr. Spencer's ' System ' will have
no difficulty in understanding the position
held in it by the present volume. ' Hitherto
he has been occupied in setting forth the
laws of organic evolution, the ' Principles
of Biology ' having dealt with the physical
aspect of that process, the 'Principles of
Psychology ' with its mental aspects. Both
these works treat of the individual life of

the organism ; but when organisms come
into relation to each other, form societies,
and produce results which could not be
achieved except by coordinated action, we
are confronted by a new set of phenomena.
We are in presence of what Mr. Spencer
calls super-organic evolution. The task of
sociology — it is now, we fear, too late to
protest against the use of one of the most
disagreeable words ever coined — is to in-
terpret these new facts, to classify them,
and to render intelligible the passage from
one stage of progress to another. Among
bees, wasps, and ants, we find the first indi-
cations of cooperation, associated with a
certain degree of division of labor ; and
some of the higher types of vertebrata,
such as rooks, combine in a still more
marked manner. These instances of co-
ordinated action are, however, of slight
moment compared with the phenomena pre-
sented by human societies ; it is, therefore,
with the latter alone that sociology is con-
cerned.

" The subject is so vast and complicated
that it is difficult to treat of it without
being either dull or superficial. Mr. Spen-
cer, as those who know his writings would
expect, escapes both dangers. As in his
previous expositions, he confines himself to
a few large principles ; and these are so
clearly expressed, so systematically ar-
ranged, and supported by so immense an
array of proofs and illustrations, that read-
ers "wholly unaccustomed to philosophical
inquiry may follow his argument with in-
terest. Not even a German professor could
have undertaken to bring together without
help the enormous mass of materials which
are here utilized. Mr. Spencer has had ex-
cellent assistance in collecting facts, and he
has woven them with the skill of a master
into a consistent and suggestive theory.

"In social evolution there are two fac-
tors : extrinsic and intrinsic. The former
include all those outward influences, such
as climate, surface, flora, and fauna, which
determine human action ; by the latter are
meant the qualities of the units that make
up society. Mr. Spencer devotes only one
chapter to the extrinsic factors; but this
suffices to indicate how many favorable
conditions are necessary to the formation
of a society, and how rarely these condi-

VOL. XI. — 8

114

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions occur. As regards the internal fac-
tors, it clearly would not be enough to pre-
sent the peculiarities of the civilized man,
who inherits acquired tendencies and is to
a large extent moulded by the society into
which he is born ; we must go back to the
time at which physical forces were not con-
trolled by intelligence, and when men lived
together only in loosely-formed groups. All
the world knows how Rousseau represented
to himself the primitive man, and there are
still, perhaps, people who affect to talk en-
thusiastically of the 'noble savage.' If we
compare this sentimental conception with
the picture drawn by Mr. Spencer, we are
furnished with a tolerably accurate measure
of the advance which has been made in the
methods of inve^'tigating such subjects.
The philosopher of to-day is not less fond
of theory than his predecessor of the eigh-
teenth century, but in his hands theory is
ne'ver divorced from fact ; it is incessantly
brought to the test of reality, and in reality
finds its only true starting-point. Hence,
while Rousseau's idea could give rise only
to a great many futile regrets and aspira-
tions, Mr. Spencer's is the basis of a thor-
oughly scientific description of the long
course through which mankind have passed
from tlie simplest to the most complex
forms of life. The primitive man is re-
garded in three different aspects : physical,
emotional, intellectual He is shown to
have been, on the average, smaller than
men now are, witli limbs inferior both in
size and structure, and a larger alimentary
system, ' adapted to a very irregular supply
of food, mostly inferior in quality, dirty,
and uncooked.' Arriving early at maturity,
he disliked change, and constitutional cal-
lousness made him insensible of evils which
at a later stage become intolerable. The
emotional characteristics of the savage are a
' wavering and inconstant disposition,' lead-
ing to an ' explosive, chaotic, incalculable
behavior, which makes combined action very
difficult,' extreme improvidence, selfishness
modified only by a desire of admiration and
by ' such fellow-feeling as results from that
instinctive love of the helpless which he
possesses in common with the inferior ani-
mals.' Intellectually the uncivilized man
is on a level with the children of civilized
parents. The perceptive faculties are keen,

the reflective scarcely at all developed ; like
children, he has a strong mimetic tendency ;
he cannot concentrate attention on anything
higher than simple facts ; he has few gen-
eral ideas, and being without any concep-
tion of natural order, he is incapable of
rational curiosity or surprise. The question
is sometimes asked, ' Why, if the human
species has been so long in existence as the
doctrine of evolution implies, did so many
ages elapse before civilization arose ? ' No
one who attentively considers these charac-
teristics of the savage, and takes into ac-
count the outward difficulties with which he
has to contend, will be surprised that man
so long remained a slave to circumstances.
The astonishing thing is, that any primitive
tribes ever lighted upon the happy combina-
tion of conditions which enabled them to
grow into progressive communities.

" In order to understand the institutions
of civilized and semi-civilized societies, we
must not satisfy ourselves with a general
description of the faculties of the primitive
man — we must investigate the ideas sug-
gested to him by his experience. The chap-
ters devoted to these are by far the most
original and valuable in the present vol-
ume. It is common to judge savage con-
ceptions by a reference to our more ad-
vanced knowledge, in the light of which
they, of course, excite only surprise or
amusement. Mr. Spencer, guided by the
statements and hints of travelers, puts him-
self as much as possible in the position of
primitive men, and looks at the world with
their eyes ; and the consequence is, that he
succeeds in proving almost that their ideas
were not only natural, but the sole ideas to
whicJi the evidence within their reach could
have conducted them. One of the earliest
of their theories is that of a second self.
This arises, in the first instance, from
dreams, the experiences of which the sav-
age regards as real. He has no notion cor-
responding to that of mind ; hence, when
he dreams that he has been hunting or en-
gaged in deadly conflict with an enemy, he
never doubts on awaking that the incidents
actually took place. Others testify that he
has not moved ; but this only shows that
there must be a double which is capable of
going away and having adventures of its
own. He is untroubled by incongruities

LITERARY NOTICES.

lis

that would perplex a more developed intel-
ligence, for the facts seem to him beyond
question, and he is familiar with many
changes in Nature — the appearance and
disappearance of clouds, the blowing of the
wind, the waxing and waning of the moon
— not at all less mysterious. His idea is
confirmed by occasional instances of som-
nambulism ; and the phenomena of swoon,
apoplexy, and other forms of insensibility,
are most readily explained by assuming that
the body has been temporarily deserted by
its ghost. In death the other self, which
is upbraided before its departure by the
friends of the dying man, says farewell ;
but it continues to exist, sometimes in its
old haunts, sometimes in the neighboring
woods, sometimes in the country whence
the tribe originally came. It may even re-
turn to the body, and with a view to this
contingency the latter is often carefully pro-
tected, and in many instances there are
elaborate processes for arresting decay ; if
revival is dreaded, an exactly opposite
course is pursued. In the earliest stages
of development the ghost is a copy of the
body, and may, like it, die ; but tribes a
little more advanced attenuate its substance
until at length it is completely etherealized.
It then has an enduring existence, and side
by side with the world of the living is the
more populous world of the dead. Ghosts
continue to act as ordinary men, and are
provided with food, weapons, canoes, horses,
dogs. They are the cause of every unusual
occurrence, and, entering bodies which they
find temporarily vacant, occasion epilepsy
and convulsions, delirium and insanity, dis-
ease and death. Every involuntary act,
like sneezing or yawning, is due to them ;
and the necessity of controlling them gives
rise to the class of exorcists and sorcerers.
If friendly, they inspire the possessed,
whose words are accepted as a revelation
of higher wisdom. They are, of course, re-
garded with intense awe, and worship of
them is, according to Mr. Spencer, the first
manifestation of the religious sentiment.
He goes much further than this, and finds
in ancestor-worship the origin of all wor-
ship whatever. Idols are simply rude im-
ages of the dead, which ghosts are in some
mysterious way believed to inhabit ; hence
food is given to them, and the family re-

spectfully waits — that is, fasts — until they
have eaten internally. A fetich is any ob-
ject in which a ghost is supposed to dwell;
and no object strikes the senses in a strange
manner without having its peculiarity at-
tributed to ghostly presence. This view
of the fetich is not' in accordance with cur-
rent ideas ; but it is confirmed by the fact
that in cases in which the ghost-theory has
not been evolved there is no fetich-worship,
whereas the latter abounds where the former
exists. But animals, plants, natural objects
and forces, are also worshiped : how can
these be in any way connected with ances-
tor-worship ? Mr. Spencer applies his prin-
ciple with unfaltering confidence even to
these phenomena. Serpent-worship is the
most general of all forms of animal-wor-
ship ; it originates in the haunting of
houses by certain kinds of snakes believed
to be possessed by the ghosts of departed
ancestors, who thus enter their old homes.
In India the cobra is a common intruder in
houses, and it is everywhere sculptured as
a god ; the Egyptian asp affords an instance
equally remarkable. Bats and owls, which
haunt caves and other burying-places, are
also taken for metamorphosed ancestors.
Some striking peculiarity will often secure
for a man the name of an animal whose
character his resembles. Unaccountable as
it seems to us, the savage who hears his an-
cestor talked of as ' The Tiger ' concludes
that he is descended from one of those
creatures ; so that the tiger naturally be-
comes an object of reverence. The like is
true of all animals, insignificant and strong
alike, the names of which are applied to
savages either in ridicule or respect by
their neighbors. In this misapprehension
of the meaning of words Mr. Spencer like-
wise finds the chief explanation of Nature-
worship and plant-worship. A man is called
Cotton or Tobacco, the Dawn, the Sea, the
Moon, or the Sun. His descendants, taking
the word literally, do not hesitate to regard
the natural power or plant, whichever it
may be, as their ancestor, and present it
with the usual ofierings. To civilized men
this seems almost incredible ; but it must
be remembered that to the savage nothing
seems impossible, because he has not at-
tained to the idea of regular sequence in
i the \\orld. And his language is so imper-

ii6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

feet that he has no. means of distinguishing
after a certain interval between the literal
and metaphorical application of words.
With respect to anthropomorphic deities,
Mr. Spencer argues that they are ancestors
whose qualities are idealized and expanded.

"Ancestor -worship has never before
been turned to such advantage in the inter-
pretation of so many facts ; and the ease
with which the theory works gives it a cer-
tain charm. We see no reason, however,
•why Mr. Spencer should exclude every oth-
er cause in the production of early mythol-
ogies. The influences he has defined may all
act as he describes ; but they do not neces-
sarily exhaust the sources of the religion
of savages. He is as nearly angry as it is
possible for so calm a thinker to be with
' the mythologists,' who represent uncivil-
ized man as mistaking the names given to
the forces and objects of Nature for the
names of living beings. But surely this is
not more strange than the process he him-
self has expounded, since in both cases the
savage ends by finding in the outward world
qualities which exist only in his own imagi-
nation. If he is unreasoning enough to
suppose that the sun is his ancestor be-
cause his grandfather was so called, we
need feel no surprise at his regarding the
sun as alive merely on account of the effects
it daily produces ; and so of the moon, the
dawn, or the wind. Mr. Spencer will not
admit that the savage has any tendency to
ascribe life to what is inanimate ; but chil-
dren constantly do so, and he insists that
children and savages have a strong intel-
lectual resemblance. We are not arguing
for the theory which has been so persistent-
ly, if not always judiciously, advocated by
Mr. Max Miiller and Mr. Cox ; we only say
that within certain limits it may also be
true. Religious phenomena are so compli-
cated that it is improbable we shall be able
to explain them by the modifications of any
single principle.

" In several very interesting chapters
Mr. Spencer uses the analogy between so-
cieties and organic bodies to illustrate the
truth that ' social evolution forms a part of
evolution at large.' He then passes to the
domestic relations, in connection with which
he discusses the many different forms of
marriage and of maniage-ceremonies. To

persons who believe that man has an intui-
tive perception of right and wrong in the
relations of the sexes there could be no
more suggestive study than that of exogamy
and endogamy, promiscuity, polyandry,
polygyny, and monogamy. Mr. Spencer
does not so much argue against the intui-
tive theory as oppose to it the process
by which, as a matter of fact, our present
moral conceptions have been produced.
This is, indeed, the characteristic of the
whole work. Its method is throughout
constructive ; but for that reason it is much
more effective in destroying popular doc-
trines regarding the origin and growth of
many vital ideas than any amount of mere-
ly negative argument."

Electricitt and the Electric Telegraph.
By George B. Prescott. 564 Illustra-
tions. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
Pp. 978. Price, $5.

In this elaborate volume we have the
detailed story of the telegraph, in a form
suitable both for the instruction of general
readers and for the guidance of those prac-
tically engaged in the art. The illustra-
tions are copious and well executed, and all
the curious complications of telegraphic
mechanism, and the mysterious ways of
electricity that are made available to the
great end of the rapid transmission of intel-
ligence, are described clearly and fully by
the author. Mr. Prescott has been at great
pains to bring forward the valuable contri-
butions of foreign nations, especially the
Germans, who have done more in teleg-
raphy than they have had credit for, and
his work may be commended for its com-
prehensiveness as well as that thorough-
ness of treatment which is indispensable to
a first-class manual upon the subject.

Lessons in Electricity. At the Royal
Institution. By John Ttndall, F. R. S.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp.
113. Price, $1.

For entering into physics through the
experimental gateway, and by the use of
simple apparatus, electricity has special ad-
vantages. Its experiments are simple, the
effects distinct and striking, and the theo-
retical pathway to principles not difficult
to follow, and well suited to exercise the
reasoning powers. Dr. Tyndall has there-

LITERARY NOTICES.

117

fore done a most valuable service to sci-
ence-teaching by preparing this little man-
ual, which is admirabij' fitted to lay the
foundation of an actual and thorough
knowledge of the science. His experiments
are ingeniously simple, and at the same
time telling — each one carrying the pupil
along a step further in his progress. The
text is clear, pointed, compressed, and at-
tractive, as Prof. Tyndall knows so well
how to make it. But it is almost super-
fluous to call the attention of our readers
to the excellences of this little work, as
several portions of the earher English edi-
tion have been already published in the
pages of this Monthly.

Philosophical Discussions. By Chauncey
Wright. With a Biographical Sketch
of the Author by Charles Eliot Nor-
ton. New York: Henry Holt & Co
Pp. 434. Price, $3.50.

This volume opens with a very pleasant
and appreciative sketch of Mr. Wright by
his friend Charles Eliot Norton, from which
we gather that he was a gentleman of ad-
mirable personal traits which strongly at-
tracted all who knew him. The book is
made up of his literary remains, consisting
of nearly a score of articles, contributed
chiefly to the pages of the North American
Review and to the Nation for the last fifteen
years. They evince the strength of an able
and independent thinker; but the style in
which they are written is somewhat heavy.
They are predominantly critical and contro-
versial, as the author does not seem to have
arrived at any constructive or systematic
views of his own. He highly appreciated
Mr. Darwin, and championed him against
the criticisms of Prof. St. George Mivart,
doing the work so well that it was thought
important to republish it in London. There
are many things in the articles of Mr.
Wright that are well worth preserving, and
his friends could in no way have better
honored his memory than by collecting and
publishing them in the elegant and sub-
stantial form which Mr. Holt has given to
the volume. It should be mentioned that
two of the papers, a fragment on " Cause
and Effect," and the beginning of the ar-
ticle on Lewes's "Problems of Life and
Mind," are published in this collection for
the first time.

Russia. By D. Mackenzie Wallace, M A
New York: Henry .Holt & Co. Pn'
620. Price, $4. ' '

As the eyes of observers of international
affiiirs are now turned upon Russia, there
will be an increasing interest in all that
relates to the domestic and social structure
of that powerful empire. It is very rare
that, at such a crisis of curiosity, there ap-
pears a work so eminently suited to satisfy
it as in the present issue of Mr. Wallace's
volume. It is a book that would make a
mark and a sensation at any time, but the
circumstances will now make it " the book
of the season." Its author for the past six
years has occupied himself with studying
the people, the resources, and the institu-
tions of Russia by personal observation
and careful inquiry, residing in various
cities and villages in different parts of the
country, most favorable to varied and en-
larged familiarity with the facts of which
he was in pursuit. Mr. Wallace's book is
written in good style, with no ambition for
mere effect, but in the direct, common-sense
way of a writer who has much to say, and
goes directly to the point. His descriptions
are graphic, without being wearisome, and
the treatment of his special topics, though
often full, occupies the reader closely to the
end. It is full of important information,
much of which is fresh and novel, in regard
to the condition of the country, its peasant-
life, the village communities, the larger
towns and mercantile classes, imperial ad-
ministration and local self-government, land
proprietorship, the nobility, education, reli-
gion, church and state, military character-
istics, emancipation of the serfs, the law-
courts, the railroad system, social classes,
industrial resources, the features of the
country, and lastly, in the thirty-fourth
chapter, the Eastern question, and the
problem of territorial expansion. All these
important subjects Mr. Wallace has handled
with skill, and with constant reference to
the great liberalizing tendencies of the age
which are displayed in Russia as well as
other leading countries, and under remark-
able and peculiar conditions. Prefixed to
the volume are two colored maps of Rus-
sia, one showing the density and distribu-
tion of the population, the railway system,
and the grade of cities in respect to the
number of their inhabitants ; tlie other ex-

ii8

THE POPULAR SCIJENCE MONTHLY.

hibiting the distribution of the principal
agricultural products. Any one who will
familiarize himself a little with these maps,
and then deliberately read the book, will
probably get a great deal more knowledge
than he could obtain by months of travel
in the Russian Empire.

Report of the Commissioners op Agri-
culture FOR THE Year 1875. Pp. 536.
Washington: Government Printing-Of-
fice.

Opr readers are not altogether unfamil-
iar with the matter contained in this " Re-
port," for we have from time to time dur-
ing the past year made selections from the
monthly reports, especially of observations
and experiments made by Mr. Glover and
Mr. McMurtrie, respectively the botanist
and the chemist of the department. These
are repeated in the annual report, or, rath-
er, they are bound up with it. The volume
also contains papers on the forest-trees of
the United States, varieties of fruits, alfalfa,
the French mode of curing forage, hog-
cholera, and several other subjects of in-
terest to the agriculturist.

Properties of Continuous Bridges. By
C. Bender, C. E. Pp. 150. Also, Boil-
er - Incrustation. By F. J. Rowan.
Pp. 88. New York : Van Nostrand.
Price, 50 cents each.

The series of handy volumes on applied
science to which these two treatises belong
needs no commendation from us. The
works are of a severely practical nature,
and their merits are well understood by the
engineers and mechanicians to whom they
are addressed.

Effects of Alcoholic Poison. By J. H.
Kellogg, M. D. Battle Creek, Michi-
gan : Health Reformer print. Pp. 1 24.
Price, 25 cents.

Dr. Kellogg attempts in this little
pamphlet to discuss the question of alco-
hol in "its physical, moral, and social ef-
fects," and yet he finds room for a long
chapter of twenty-seven pages on "Wine
and the Bible," in which he wrestles man-
fully with such contradictory texts as those
which call wine " cruel venom of asps,"
and those which say that " it maketh the
heart glad."

The Jukes : A Study in Crime, Pauperism,
Disease, and Heredity. Also, Further
Studies of Criminals. By R. L. Dug-
dale, Member of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Prison Association, New
York. With an Introduction by Elisha
Harris, M. D., Corresponding Secretary
Prison Association. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sous.

The title-page is itself a history of this
remarkable work. . To the student of the
social sciences this pamphlet is a valuable
contribution, giving as it does in tabulated
details the lives of a family of large num-
bers, whose condition had become so fixedly
criminal that harlotry, bastardy, and a ca-
reer of law-breaking, ever gravitating prison-
ward, had become the inevitable heirship of
the " Jukes," the word itself becoming a
synonym of evil.

Early Migrations. — Origin of the Chinese
Race. Philosophy of their Early De-
velopment, with an Inquiry into the Evi-
dences of their American Origin ; sug-
gesting the Great Antiquity of Races on
the Americi'i Continent.

Japanese Wrecks, stranded and picked up
adrift in the North Pacific Ocean, eth-
nologically considered.,,

Early Maritime Intercourse of Ancient
Western Nations, chronologically ar-
ranged and ethnologically considered.

The above are from the " Proceedings
of the California Academy of Sciences,"
1876 ; each has the common heading, "Early
Migrations," and their author is Charles
Wolcott Brooks. The pamphlets give evi-
dence of large research, and are at least in-
genious. The drift is toward the settlement
of China from the American Continent,
probably Peru. Is not the following state-
ment made carelessly? " North American
Indians have never been cannibals" (" Ori-
gin of the Chinese Race," p. 27). Do not
the discoveries of the late Prof. Wyman, in
the shell - heaps of Florida, speak to the
contrary ?

Address before the St. Louis Academy
OF Science, at its Annual Meeting for
1877, by the President, Charles V. Rei-
ley. St. Louis, Mo. : R. P. Studley &
Co.
An interesting resume of the year, in

matters pertaining to the biological sciences,

with, perhaps, a special attention to home

work.

LITERARY NOTICES.

119

A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the
Skin. By Louis A. Duhring, M. D.,
Professor of Diseases of the Skin in the
Hospital of the University of Pennsyl-
vania ; Physician to the Dispensary for
Skin-Diseases, Philadelphia; Author of
Atlas of Skin-Diseases, etc. Philadel-
phia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Pp. 000.
Price, $6.

As a manual of dermatology for the
medical practitioner this treatise will be
found valuable and satisfactory. It is prac-
tical, thorough, and systematic, without
claiming to be exhaustive, in the erudition
of the subject, or the details of its histori-
cal literature. It presents the elements
of the subject concisely, giving all the im-
portant facts in connection with each dis-
ease treated of. In classification Dr. Duh-
ring follows the authority of the celebrated
Prof. Hebra, of the University of Vienna,
his former teacher, and to whom the pres-
ent tvork is dedicated. A special and highly-
commendable feature of Dr. Duhring's work
is the definition of the various skin-diseases,
which he has made out from the standpoint
of clinical observation with a view to its
practical usefulness, and which consists
mainly of succinct descriptions of charac-
teristic lesions and symptoms, where the
cases were not too complex and obscure to
make clear definition possible. In the sec-
tions devoted to treatment, while the author
makes due reference to all those methods
that are favorably regarded by the pro-
fession, he has also brought distinctly for-
ward those remedies and modes of treat-
ment that he has found of greatest benefit
in his own medical experience.

Skin-diseases appear to undergo grave
modifications in different geographical cir-
cumstances, so that well-executed treatises
upon the subject in one country are liable
to lose their accuracy when applied to other
countries. On this point Dr. Duhring re-
marks : " I can but incidentally refer to the
fact that disorders of the skin manifest
more or less variation in type as they occur
in one or in another part of the world.
Having had some few years ago favorable
opportunities for observing a large number
of cutaneous affections in the various coun-
tries of Europe, and since then of studying
these diseases in the United States, I can
state that in many instances they differ
materially in type as they are seen on the

two continents. Without entering into this
interesting subject, it may be remarked
that the diseases met with here resemble
more closely those of Great Britain than
those of either France or Germany. A
recognition of this fact must, I think, go
far in accounting for the discrepancies
which exist in the descriptions of certain
diseases as given by trustworthy observ-
ers."

Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism. By Thomas Inman, M. D.
Pp. 174. With numerous Illustrations.
New York : Bouton. Price, $3.

The exceedingly curious figures which
abound in this volume give to it nearly all
the value which it possesses. The book
contains no less than 180 woodcut figures,
together with 19 lithograph plates of full-
page size. With hardly a single exception,
they are more or less plainly symbolical of
sexuality in religion. The author has un-
doubtedly rendered a great service to stu-
dents of that particular aspect of the re-
ligious idea, by bringing together so many
interesting memorials of the wide diffu-
sion of sex-worship. His own remarks and
speculations, however, do not carry much
weight.

We reproduce some of the tilings said
by the London Examiner in reference to
Arnott's " Physics," which, in its new form,
is attracting much attention :

" It was in 1827 that Dr. Arnott took
the world by storm. The publication, in
that year, of the first volume of the ' Ele-
ments of Physics ' was probably the great-
est ' sensation ' ever made by a scientific
work, purely as an exposition. The first
edition was sold in a few days ; a second
had to be followed by a third, a fourth, and
a fifth, in as many years. If the author had
devoted himself to keeping it up by the
necessary improvements, it would have long
continued to distance all competition in its
own walk. It had an equal run in America,
and was translated into nearly all the Con-
tinental languages. The popularity of the
book was not due to any meretricious qual-
ities. There was an extraordinary profusion
of interesting examples, but these interfered
less than in almost any other popular work
with the understanding of the doctrines —

120

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in fact, were, as they ought to be, aids to
the proper end of the teacher. The best
proof of this was the number of individual
minds that were stimulated to a scientific
or intellectual career by the study of the
work. The hearty testimony borne by
Herschel and Whewell to the merits of the
' Physics,' scientific as well as expository,
was incompatible with any infusion of clap-
trap.

"It would be easy to set forth the art,
or rather the genius, of Arnott, in the com-
position of his book. He had great liter-
ary power, in the mere command of expres-
sion, and in the composition of his sen-
tences, which are both lucid and flowing.
Many scientific writers have had this much.
But he had also a thorough and unfaltering
perception of the intellectual capabilities of
an average reader, and never for a moment
presumed too much upon these. He la-
bored, with no small success, to bring the
doctrines of natural philosophy down to a
level of mind that had never before been
permeated by them ; and, if any part of
the subject was hopelessly intractable, he
passed it by.

" Besides his amassed store of popular
illustrations, stated in easy language, the
work had the further charm of a species of
sentiment or eloquence, often enough at-
tempted in connection with science, but not
often so well kept up. The author fully
complied with Plato's condition of philo-
sophical teaching — to exhibit the goodness
of the divine plan of the Cosmos. His elo-
quent passages on this subject, together
with his choicest illustrations of physical
laws, were largely adopted into the com-
mon-school reading-books.

" The new editors have shown them-
selves aware of the backward state of the
exposition in many parts, and have freely
employed the power of excision and sub-
stitution. We should say, from a rough
estimate, that a full half of the work is
new. In the branches of Acoustics, Heat,
Light, and Electricity, many additions were
obviously necessary. In Mechanics, there
has been more permanence, and Arnott's
exposition is less interfered with ; but it
was essential to supplement his chapter on
Motion and Force with a view of the doc-
trine of conservation of energy, which the

author would have been delighted to han-
dle in his own peculiar way, but scarcely
touched upon even in his latest edition.
However the work of revision may have
been distributed among the three editors,
they have been successful in bringing up
the subjects to the most recent views, and"
in illustrating them by well-chosen examples
and diagrams. The work is one likely to
keep its place among treatises on a similar
scale. Extending to nearly 900 pages, it
comprises a tolerably full body of informa-
tion in all the branches, while the reader
has still the benefit of the expository genius
and eloquence that charmed and astonished
the world forty years ago, and has not yet
been superseded."

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual
MeetiDg of the New York State Teachers' Asso-
ciation. 187ti. School BuUeUii, Syracuse, N. Y.
Pp. 119.

On the Atmosphere of the Sun and Planets.
By David Trowbridge, A. M. 1876. Pp. 7.

The Relations of Medicine to Modem Unbe-
lief. By Richard O. Cowling, A. M., M. D. Lou-
isville ; John P. Morton & Co. print. 1876. Pp.
11.

Report of the Committee on Naval Affairs to
the House of Representaiives on a Bill to author-
ize and equip an Expedition to the Arctic Seas.
Pp. 13.

Proceedings of the American Chemical So-
ciety. Vol. I., No. 2. J. P. Trow & Sons print.

1876. Pp. 49.

The Western Revieiv of Science and Indus-
try. Edited by Theodore S. Case. February,

1877. Vol. I., No. 1. Kansas City, Mo. Sub-
scription, $2.50 per annum.

Milk- Sickness. By W. H. Philips, M. D.
Pp. 21.

Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Managers
of the House of Refuge, made to the Govern-
or of Maryland. Baltimore : Innes & Co. print.
1877. Pp. 28.

Check -List of the Fresh -Water Fishes of
North America. By David S. Jordan, M. S., M. D.,
and Herbert B. Copeland, M. S. Pp. 31.

Rate of Set of Metals subjected to Strain. By
Prof. Robert H. Thurston. Pp. 10.

Am I my Brother's Keeper ? Discourse be-
fore the American Public Health Association, at
the Annual.Meeting in Baltimore, November 11,
1875. By Lewis H.'Steiner, M. D. Cambridge:
Riverside Press print. Pp. 11.

Kindergarten Messenger. Published by Eliz-
abeth P. Peabody. Cambridge, 1877. Vol. I.,
Nos. 1 and 2. Pp. 32. Subscription, $1 a year.

Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural
History. Vol. XVIIL, Part IV., ApriWuly, 1876.
Boston. Pp. 103.

Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioners
of Fisheries of the State of New Jersey. Tren-
ton : J. L. Murphy print. Pp. 42.

Geocrraphical Surveys of the United States.
Remarks on Prof. J. D. Whitney's Article in
the North AmeHcan Review, July, 1875. By
Gouverneur K. Warren. Washington: Judd &
Detweiler print. 1877. Pp. 28.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

121

Local Deflections of the Plumb -Line near
the Forty-ninth Parallel. By Lieutenant F. V.
Greene. 1876. Pp. 13, with Diagram.

Geological Survey of Alabama, for 1876. By
Eugene A. Smith, Ph. D., State Geologist.
Montgomery. Pp. 100.

The Mechanical Engineer. An Address to
the Graduating Class of the Stevens Institute of
Technology. By R. H. Thurston, A. M., C. E.
New York : D. Van Nostrand. 1875. Pp. 34.

Notes on the Ancient Glaciers of New Zea-
land. With Map. By I. C. Russell. 1876. Pp. 12.

Bulletin of the American GeoCTaphical So-
ciety, No. 3. Containing Annual Address of
Chief-Justice Daily, delivered January 16, 1S77.
Pp. 70.

Science Lectures at South Kensington : Tech-
nical Chemistry. By Prof. Roscoe. London :
Macmillan & Co. 1877. Pp. 46. Price, sixpence.

Dynamics, or Theoretical Mechanics. By
J. T. Bottomlpy, M. A., F. R. S. E. New York :
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 142. Price, 75 cts.

Myelitis of the Anterior Horns, or Spinal
Paralysis of the Adult and Child. By E. C. Se-
guin, M. D. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons.
1877. Pp. 120. Price, $1.50.

Essays on Political Economy. By Frederick
Bastiat. English Translation, revised, with
Notes, by David A. Wells. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sous. 1877. Pp. 291. Price, $1.25.

The Cradle of Christ : A Study of Primitive
Christianity. By O. B. Frothingham. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1877. Pp. 233
Price, $1.75.

The Best Reading. Edited by Frederick B.
Perkins. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
1877. Pp. 343. Price, $1.25-$1.75

The Chemist's Manual ; A Practical Treatise
on Chemistry. Bv Henry A. Mott, Jr., E. M.,
Ph. D. New York: D. Van Nostraud. 1877.
Pp. 625. Price, $6.

Washington Astronomical and Meteorologi-
cal Observations, made during the Year 1874, at
the United States Naval Observatory. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Oflace. 1877.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Cotton-Cnitnre in Egypt, — While the
Khedive is taxing to the utmost the re-
sources of his dominions iit liis desire to
subjugate liis southern neiglibors, lie must
regard as little less than providential the re-
puted discovery of a new and extraordi-
narily-productive species of cotton-plant,
the general cultivation of which in the cot-
ton-fields of Egypt will, it is said, more
than double the present annual product.
According to a correspondent of the Lon-
don Times, in the autumn of 1873, a Copt
living in the upper part of the Delta, at a
place called Berket-el-Sab, a station of the
Cairo Railway, in the province of Menuf,
noticed a plant in a cotton-field wholly dif-
ferent from the rest. He collected the pods,
separated the seed, and planted it in secret
in an. isolated plot of ground. For three
years he has carried on the cultivation, and

now there are said to be from 800 to 1,000
pounds in the country, and the seed is sold
in the public market. This seed is sold at
a price twenty-five or thirty times higher
than the common kind.

Comparing the product of this plant
with that of the old, the Times correspond-
ent remarks :

"An ardeb (270 pounds) of ordinary cotton-
seed sows on an average eight /e(/ctan« (acres),
and produces four cantars (100 pounds) of cot-
ton in seed— that is to say, the cotton with the
seed inside it as it comes out of the cotton-pod.
Taking this yield as the average, every ardeb
planted produces 32 cantars of ginned cotton,
and about 24 ardebs of seed. An ardeb of seed
of the new species sows, like the other, eieht
feddans ; but its yield is more than treble, and
has even been stated at fivefold. But my most
trustworthy informant only gives ten cantars per
feddan, which I may add is the amount taken by
one of the leading firms as the basis of their cal-
culations as to the efl"ect of the new plant. They
add that it is difficult to say exactly what would
be the ordinary yield, as all returns hitherto
are the result of exceptional culture on a small
scale. On this calculation of ten cantars, each
ai deb of seed would produce 80 cantars of cot-
ton in seed— that is to say, over double the
amount produced by ordinary seed. At pres-
ent prices each ardeb would return about £240
in seed and cotton together, instead of £96 as
it does now. The new cotton, I am assnred on
the best authority, is of good appearance, com-
mercially speaking, and quite equal in quality
to the ordinary Egyptian cotton. The plant
grows in a different manner from the ordinary
cotton-plant. It grows to about the height of
ten feet, has a straight, vertical stem, without
branches, with very few leaves, and is thickly
studded with pods. Seventy are said to have
been gathered from the first plant discovered.
The ordinary cotton is found on a shrub some
four to five feet high, with spreading branches.
Nearly a yard must be left for air, light, and
growing-room between each shrub, whereas the
new plant, from the absence of branches, re-
quires only half the space."

Testimonials to Mr. Darwin.— On the

occasion of his sixty-ninth birthday, Mr.
Darwin was the recipient of two highly-
gratifying testimonials of esteem from sci-
entific men in Germany and iu the Nether-
lands. From Germany came an album con-
taining the photographs of 154 scientific
men ; it was inscribed, " Dam Rcformator
der Naturgeschichte " (To the Reformer
of Natural History). The offering of the
Dutch savants also consisted of an album,
with photographs of 21*7 of his admirers in
the Netherlands. Accompanying the latter

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

testimonial was a letter in which were set
forth in pretty full detail the labors of
Dutch naturalists before Darwin's time and
since in propagating views aliin to those
known as " Darwinian." The first name
mentioned in the letter is that of Dr. J. E.
Doornik, who in 1816 went out to Java,
and spent the remainder of his life in India.
In his published works he held that the
various modifications in which life was re-
vealed in consecutive times originated from
one another. Doornik had no influence on
the thought of his time, however, and his
theories were forgotten. In 1849 was pub-
lished a Dutch translation of the " Vestiges
of the Natural History of Creation." This
work was coldly received by the representa-
tives of natural science in the Netherlands,
but found favor with the general public,
and reached a third edition. Of the few
Dutch scientific men who early recognized
the importance of the theory of develop-
ment two are named — F. C. Donders and
P. Hartiug. The former in 1848 expressed
the opinion that in the gradual change of
form consequent upon change of circum-
stances may lie the cause of differences
which we are wont to designate as species ;
and the latter in 1856 expressed similar
views.

While visiting Utrecht in 1858, Sir
Charles Lyell called the attention of the
professors of the university to a paper by
Wallace, in the Journal of the Linncean So-
ciety, and announced as forthcoming a work
by Darwin (" The Origin of Species ") which
could not fail to make some noise. Har-
ting soon after declared himself a partisan
of the development hypothesis, and in this
he was followed by another professor in the
same university (Utrecht), Miguel, Profess-
or of Botany. In the mean time " The
Origin of Species" had been translated in-
to Dutch by F. C. Winkler. The Darwin-
ian views were now enthusiastically adopted
in the Netherlands, especially by the younger
scientific men, under the lead of Emil Se-
lenka, then Professor of Zoology at Ley-
den. Groningen and Amsterdam were not
tardy in following the lead of Utrecht and
Leyden ; in short, the Darwinian theory of
development was very generally accepted
throughout the Netherlands, and Dutch
translations were published of " The De-

scent of Man " and " The Expression of
the Emotions in Man and Animals," both
by Dr. Hartogh Heys van Zouteveen. In
his reply to this letter, Mr. Darwin express-
es his " obligation for the very interesting
history contained in it of the progress of
opinion in the Netherlands with respect to
evolution, the whole of which is quite new
to me."

Ignorant Enterprise. — Tlie black-slate
beds of Pennsylvania have again and again
lured sanguine coal-hunters to loss of time,
labor, and money. In that State it is the
black slate that plays the " will-o'-the-wisp "
to the eager searcher after hidden wealth ;
elsewhere it is iron pyrites being mistaken
for gold, or quartz for diamonds ; and where
natural deposits of wealth are out of the
question, men dig into the ground in search
of treasure supposed to have been buried
by famous buccaneers or noted misers.
Prof Persifer Frazer lately told, at a meeting
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila-
delphia, the story of one of these searchers
for mineral wealth. A farmer of Franklin
County, Pennsylvania, had a dream, in which
he became aware of the existence of a "treas-
ure " in a certain field. On repairing to the
spot he began to dig, and " at the first stroke
of the spade," as he says, " black dirt was
turned up, and at a short distance below the
surfiice coal was found equal," in the opin-
ion of persons supposed to be experts, " to
the best Lykens Valley coal." To work the
vein, a tunnel 330 feet long was cut at con-
siderable cost. The " coal " was sent to
Prof. Frazer for analysis ; it was pronounced
to be black slate, with a small percentage
of carbon, and that chiefly graphite. It is
one of the principal objects of a geological
survey to save people from making mistakes
like this of the Franklin County farmer.

Production of Near - Siglitedness in
Scbools. — The effects of school-life, in pro-
ducing near-sightedness in the pupils, have
for some time been made the subject of sys-
tematic study by Dr. C. R. Agnew, of New
York. In a recent address before the Med-
ico-Legal Society, he stated the results of
an investigation made in various schools of
Cincinnati, New York, and Brooklyn. The
number of students examined was 1,479, of

POPULAR MISCELLANY

123

whom 630 were iu Cincinnati, 549 in New
York, and SOO in Brooklyn. Of the 630
Cincinnati pupils, 209 were from the dis-
trict-schools, and of these 83 1 per cent,
had natural, or emmetropic eyes, while 10
per cent, were near-sighted. In the inter-
mediate schools, 210 scholars were exam-
ined, and of these 80 per cent, were natural,
and 14 per cent, near-sighted. In the nor-
mal high-schools, the eyes of 210 students
were examined, and of these 78 per cent,
were emmetropic, and 16 per cent, near-
sighted. All this goes to show that near-
sightedness is a progressive disease in the
schools. The results for the other two
cities teach the same lesson.

The 549 students mentioned above as
examined in New York belonged to the New
York College. Here, in the introductory
classes, SVi per cent, were found emme-
tropic, and 29 per cent, near-sighted. In
the freshman class 421 per cent, had natu-
ral eyes, and 40 per cent, were near-sighted.
In the sophomore class no very material
difference from what was observed in the
preceding classes ; but in the junior class
37 per cent, had natural eyes, and 56 per
cent, were near-sighted. In the senior class
50 per cent, had normal eyes, and 37 per
cent, were near-sighted. The Brooklyn
students examined belonged to the Poly-
technic Institute of that city. Here, in the
o.cademic department, 56 per cent, were
emmetropic, and 10 per cent, near-sighted.
In the collegiate department ( a higher
grade), 53 per cent, were emmetropic, and
28^ per cent, were near-sighted.

Astronomipal Observations on the Rocky
MoantainSi — It is stated by Prof Henry
Draper, in the February number of the
American Journal of Science, that, during
two years when he photographed the moon
every moonlight night at Hastings-on-the-
Hudson, there were only three occasions
when the air was still enough to give good
results. Out of 1,500 lunar negatives, only
one or two were really fine pictures.

Last summer, during a trip to the Rocky
Mountains, he took with him a small achro-
matic, hoping to find more steadiness of
the atmosphere at great elevations, but was
disappointed. At Salt Lake City, 4,650
feet above the sea, Capella twinkled as bad-

ly, both to the naked eye and in the tele-
scope, as he ever saw it at the sea-level.

At Fort Steele, near 7,000 feet eleva-
tion, Antares twinkled very much ; and at
Camp Douglas, 5,250 feet above the sea,
the twinkling of several stars examined
was surprisingly great.

At one point, however, he found the at-
mosphere without undulations, and the stars
shone through it with a steady light. The
central disk of Arcturus, he says, was hard
and sharply defined ; Antares near setting
hardly twinkled at all ; the moon was per-
fectly steady.

This point of observation was not far
from Fort Steele, in the main range of the
Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of 8,900
feet above the sea. Distant objects seemed
near in the transparent air. The sky was
not black, as he expected, but of a light
blue; the moon, however, was near its full.

Another trial was made at Trout Lake,
nearly 10,000 feet above the sea-level, and
the air was found to be unsteady but trans-
parent. At this point, however, intense cold,
fierce winds, and heavy snow-falls, occur,
making the location of an observatory here
undesirable.

Dr. Draper concludes that the atmos-
phere in these high regions, although more
transparent, is quite as tremulous as at the
ocean-level at New York.

luflaence of Heat on Galvanic Condnc-
tivityi — Till very recently it was held to be
a law of Nature that the galvanic conduc-
tivity of all metals and metalloids is dimin-
ished by rise of temperature. It has been
shown, however, that selenium is an ex-
ception to this rule, its conductivity being
increased by heating. And now a further
exception must be made in the case of
tellurium, a body closely allied to selenium.
We have already (in vol. x., p. 115) given
an account of Siemens's researches on the
action of light on selenium ; we now present
a synopsis of the results obtained by Franz
Exner in his experiments with tellurium.
Three bars of tellurium were prepared.
Bar 1 broke before its dimensions were
determined ; bar 2 was 54 millimetres in
length and 2.6 millimetres diameter; bar 3
was 153 millimetres in length and 3.73 mil-
limetres diameter. Bar 1 was heated to 200°

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Cent., and then slowly cooled. The resist-
ance increased up to 90°, and thenceforward
gradually decreased. In cooling, resistance
steadily increased from 200° down to the
room-temperature. This increase was so
great that at the end of the experiment the
resistance was six times what it was at the
beginning, temperatures being equal. The
same bar having been again heated from
20° to 200° Cent., there was no turning-
point, and the resistance decreased steadily
to the end, and increased continuously
throughout in the cooling ; but at the end
the resistance was less than at the begin-
ning.

Bar 2 behaved essentially like bar 1 ; the
turning-poiut, however, was much higher,
viz., 140°. With bar 3 five series of experi-
ments were made, and with quite similar re-
sults. With the first heating there was a
turning-point, which did not appear with
after-heatings. At the maximum temper-
ature, the resistance was pretty constant,
while the resistances at the beginning and
end of the experiments were very irregular.

Destrnetion of Germs at Low Tempera-
tures.— Prof Tyndall, in a communication to
the London Royal Society, shows how heat,
when diseontinuously applied, though the
temperature be below the boiling-point
of water, effectually sterilizes organic infu-
sions. In all such infusions, he observes,
there is a period of latency preceding their
clouding with visible bacteria. During this
period the germs are being prepared for
their emergence into the complete organ-
ism. They reach the end of this period
of preparation successively, the period of
latency of any germ depending on its con-
dition as regards dryness and induration.
The author's mode of proceeding is this :
Before the latent period of any of the
germs has been completed — say a few
hours after the preparation of the infusion
— he subjects it for a brief interval to a
temperature which may be under that of
boiling water. Such softened and vivified
germs as are on the point of passing into
active life are tliereby killed ; others not
yet softened remain intact. This process he
repeats well witliin the interval necessary
for the most advanced of those others to
finish their period of latency. The num-

ber of undestroyed germs is further dimin-
ished by this second heating. After a
number of repetitions, which varies with
the character of the germs, the infusion,
however obstinate, is completely sterilized.
The periods of heating need not exceed
a fraction of a minute in duration. Sum
them up in the case of an infusion which
they have perfectly sterilized : they amount
altogether to, say, five minutes. Boil an-
other sample of the same infusion continu-
ously for fifteen or even sixty minutes, and
yet it is not sterilized, although the tem-
perature is higher and its time of applica-
tion more than tenfold that which, diseon-
tinuously applied, infallibly produces bar-
renness.

Extiaction of a Prehistorie Race. — The

extinction of the partially civilized race who
once dwelt in the Rocky Mountain region
was probably the result of some great geo-
logical change. The country is naturally
arid, but doubtless when this nearly-for-
gotten people dwelt here in the numerous
cities whose ruins are still to be seen the
conditions of life were more favorable.
The annals of this interesting race have
perished with them, and the history of their
downfall is now matter for conjecture. Mr.
F. S. Dellenbaugh, of the Buffalo Society
of Natural Sciences, describes as follows
the course of events which resulted in the
extinction of the Shinunios : When the
change occurred, '• the inhabitants, not un-
derstanding the science of irrigation, be-
held their crops slowly but surely failing
every year. The inevitable result was fam-
ine. By this their hardy constitutions were
weakened, and the way was prepared for
some great epidemic that swept away thou-
sands, and left them in a melancholy con-
dition. Then the epidemic was, possibly,
soon followed by the appearance of the In-
dian, so entirely different from the Shinumo.
He was ferocious, treacherous, cunning.
Lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, were
his pastimes. Then, it is no wonder that
the Shinumo, in his emaciated condition,
was compelled to retreat before the impetu-
ous attack of such a foe. He was no war-
rior— no hunter. He had depended almost
entirely on his knowledge of agriculture for
his peaceful existence. It was impossible

POPULAR MIS CELL A NY

125

for him to act on the defensive, and at the
same time successfully till the soil. The
Indian was constantly oh the alert to sur-
prise him. He must fall back and yield
more territory to the exacting intruder.
Vanquished and discouraged, he fortified
himself in places extremely difficult of ac-
cess ; built cliff-houses ; lived in caves, and
finally became extinct. The divisions on
the south side of the Colorado fared some-
what better, for the stupendous chasms of
the river form a barrier that can only be
crossed with success at several widely-
separated points. C-onsequently, when the
Indian reached this obstacle, his easy
progress southward was interrupted. The
crossing-points, too, which of course were
well known to the Shinuraos, had been
strongly fortified by their soldiery, and
thus a double check was presented to the
invasion. The people then enjoyed com-
parative peace, till, in the course of their
nomadic wanderings, the Indians discov-
ered that there was an end to the canon
barrier, and were once more able to cope
with their antagonists under favorable au-
spices. The Shinumos were again slowly
driven back, and at the dawn of our knowl-
edge of the region we find surviving only a
mere handful of their kindred, in the Pue-
blo tribes, who were still defending their
fortress-homes, as they had been for cen-
turies."

Recent Outbreak of a Sandwieli Island
Volcano. — The volcano of Manna Loa, Ha-
waii, was lately active for a few days, com-
mencing on the evening of February 14th.
A correspondent of the San Francisco
Chronicle states that the outbreak was ex-
tremely sudden and violent :

" The point of activity was the old crater on the
top of the mountain. When the eruption com-
menced, the flames suddenly burst fi-om the moun-
tain and formed a magnificent column of fire to the
height of 16,000 feet above the summit. From the
deck of the steamer Kilauea, lying at anchor at Ka-
waihae, five distinct columns of fire could be seen
belching forth from the mountain, apparently not
from the great summit crater of Mokiiaweoweo, but
from a smaller crater situated some miles distant
from it, called Pohakuhanalei. A few days after in-
telligence reached Honolulu that the fire had disap-
peared, to the great disappointment of thousands
who were preparing to start for the scene. But
soon after news came that the great pyrotechnic ex-
hibition of Nature still continued, and that the ani-

mation of the spectacle was enhanced by frequent
earthquake-shocks. It is the general opinion that
the stream of lava is flowing rapidly down the
mountain-side toward Kahuku, in Kau. When last
seen it had progressed a number of miles from the
place of its first outbreak. The illumination was so
brilliant that all jiarts of the island were lighted up.
On the 2-lth the steamer Kilauea arrived with a
party of excursionists at Kealakeakua Bay, the place
where Captain Cook met his death. There they
found that a submarine volcano had broken out
near the entrance to the harbor the preceding night.
About a mile from shore jets of red, green, and yel-
low fire leaped from the waters, interspersed with
columns of steam and spray that glowed with innu-
merable rainbows, the spectacle being one of the
grandest sights conceivable. In this locality the
water is boihng and whirling like an immense cal-
dron. Thousands of fishes are seen floating on the
surface, ready cooked for the repast of swarms of
Kanakas engaged in gathering the dainty abundance
in their canoes. Large quantities of lava are also
thrown up and float for some time on the surface.
The matter is either buoyed by the intensely boiling
water, or sustained by gases that gradually ooze
from its pores. The submarine eruption is appar-
ently from a fissure in the bottom of the sea, about
a mile in length. It reaches the shore, and is traced
inland between two and three miles. The flames
on the water were first noticed by the natives at
three o'clock on the morning of the 24th, and
created much consternation. The depth of the
water here was formerly from thirty to sixty fath-
oms ; but, if the eruption continues, very likely a
reef will be formed, which would render this bay
one of the finest harbors on the Pacific. As far as
known, no damage has yet attended the eruption."

Dow Science is advanced in Norway.—

A correspondent of the London Times,
apropos of the recently-published "Life of
Thomas Edward," records an instance of
liberal encouragement extended to a Nor-
wedan naturalist. "Some years ago,"
says this correspondent, "there lived on
the wild northwest coast of Norway a cler-
gyman, with his wife, a large family, and a
small income. He possessed two great ad-
vantages over Edward— a good education,
and larger opportunities for observation.
He, too, had the seeing eye, without which
all opportunities are useless, and shortly it
was known that science was being enriched
by the hard-worked parish priest. The ac-
tion of the Storthing was prompt. Though
the majority of that body are poor peasants,
and hold the purse-strings with a firm grip,
they have the virtue of being liberal when
good cause can be shown for it. They cre-
ated a professorship of zoology in the
Chiistiania University, endowed it with a

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

salary equal to £1,000 in England, and ap-
pointed the clergyman to the professorship,
but without requiring either residence or
teaching. How the professor went on en-
riching science with his discoveries, how he
trained up his sons to follow in his foot-
steps, two of whom are now professors in
the Christiania University, all this is known
to scientific men, nor will they require to
be told that the name of the clergyman was
Sars."

Sir Wyviile Tlioaison on the Theory of
Evolntion. — Sir Wyville Thomson said, in a
lecture to the natural-history class at Edin-
burgh University, that the great stumbling-
block, from the natural-history side of the
question, in the way of an acceptance of
the evolution hypothesis, was that any such
passage from one species to another is en-
tirely outside our experience. The horse
had evidently been the horse since the ear-
liest hieroglyphs were engraved upon As-
syrian monuments and tombs ; and the same
held for all living creatures. There was
not a shadow of evidence of one species
having passed into another during the pe-
riod of human record or tradition. Nor is
this all. We have, in the fossil remains con-
tained in the rocks, a sculptured record of
the inhabitants of this world, running back
incalculably farther than the earliest chisel-
mark inscribed by man — incalculably far-
ther than man's existence on this planet;
and although we find from the record that
thousands of species have passed away, and
thousands have appeared, in no single case
have we yet found the series of transitional
forms imperceptibly gliding into one an-
other, and uniting two clearly distinct spe-
cies by a continuous bridge, which could be
cited as an undoubted instance of the ori-
gin of a species. Mr. Darwin's magnificent
theory of " natural selection " and " survi-
val of the fittest" has undoubtedly shaken
the veil by pointing out a path by which
such an end might be attained; but it has
by no means raised it. Still, even if we
never found out the precise mode in which
one species gave rise to another, there could
ba no further hesitation in accepting gen-
erally an hypothesis of evolution, and in re-
garding our present living races as the ulti-
mate twigs of a great genealogical tree
whose gradually coalescing branches we

could trace, if our information were com-
plete, to the dawn of geological time.

The Resources and Industries of Sudau^

— At a late meeting of the Egyptian Geo-
graphical Society a paper on the Sudan was
read, based on information collected by the
late Munzinger Pasha. It was stated that
there are few mountain-chains in the Sudan,
but that granite ridges divide the region into
well-defined districts, usually named after
the rivers which flow through them. The
country is, as a rule, fertile. The water-
courses are mere torrents, which in sum-
mer are almost dry. The centres of popu-
lation are few, and all the large towns are
on the banks of the two Niles. Gold and
copper are found, but the wealth of the
country depends on agriculture and cattle-
breeding. The population numbers about
5,000,000, consisting of Arabs and negroes.
Industry is very much developed, and only
articles of luxury need be imported. Stiitts,
sword-blades, and leather of a very superior
quality, are manufactured. The exports are
chiefly ivory, gums, skins, etc. The peo-
ple are nearly all Mohammedans, but their
religion is mixed with numerous heathenish
superstitions.

Extermination of the Grasshoppers. —

Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr., has written to the
Tribune a communication in whicli he ad-
vocates the project of affording Government
aid toward the extermination of the Rocky
Mountain locust. Locust years, he ob-
serves, are years of unusual drought, and
seasons of drought occur every seven or
eight years. In such summers the locust
breeds in untold millions, and, the supply
of food being short, they fly off hundreds
of miles. A swarm observed by Prof. Eob-
inson near Boulder City, Colorado, traveled
a distance of about GOO miles to Eastern
Kansas anti Missouri. When seen at Boulder
the swarm was on its way from the north,
and may have come from some part of Wyo-
ming. The general direction of the winds
in July and August, along the eastern slope
of the Rocky Mountains and on the Plains,'
coincides with the course of these swarms.
If we would intelligently study the causes
of the excessive increase and migrations of
the locust, we must examine the ineteoro-
losical features of the Western country, as-

NOTES.

127

certain the periods of drought and of un-
due rainfall, the average direction of the
wind for the different months, in order to
learn how far they coriespond with the
phenomena of locust-life. Tliat there are
cycles of dry and hot seasons recurring at
irregular intervals, while the general aver-
age may remain nearly the same, century
after century, is supported, though it may
be vaguely, by observed facts. The author
thinks that the remedy for locust visita-
tions can be discovered and applied by a
cooperation between the Signal Service and
skilled entomologists employed by the Gen-
eral Government and the States most direct-
ly concerned.

NOTES.

It is proposed to occasionally issue from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
a " Circular," containing notes and queries
on physical and chemical apparatus, pro-
cesses, etc. It will be printed by the papy-
rographic process, and will be sent free to
chemists and physicists, on condition that
they from time to time communicate to the
editors descriptions of apparatus and pro-
cesses which they may have found conven-
ient, and which are not in general use in
laboratories. Applications for the " Circu-
lar " must be addressed to Chas. H. Weng,
at the Institute of Technology, Boston.

A COMMITTEE of the New York Medico-
Legal Society, appointed to investigate the
subject of " School Hygiene," recommend
that the minimum age of admission to the
public schools be six years ; that the maxi-
mum attendance at school, for children un-
der eight years, be three hours ; that the
schools be under medical supervision ; and
that schoolhouses should be surrounded on
all sides with adequate open space, to se-
cure light, ventilation, and play-grounds.

Since 1821 twelve ships have been aban-
doned in the arctic regions by exploring
expeditions. Of these, but a single one,
the Resolute, sent out with others under
Sir Edward Belcher, in 1852, has been re-
covered.

There were three hundred competitors
for the Boylston prize of the Medical Facul-
ty of Harvard University for the best essay
on the question of " Rest for Women." Dr.
Mary Putnam-Jacobi, of New York, was the
successful competitor. Her essay is said
to possess extraordinary merit, and is to be
published.

The medium of light-vibrations in the
Torricellian vacuum is, according to Julius
R. Mayer, extremely rarefied air. Air ad-
heres to the glass and the mercury, and, on
production of the vacuum, expands, and fills
the space with a medium which conducts
light like the ether in cosmical space.

A BRONZE statue of Livingstone, the mis-
sionary and explorer of Central Africa, will
be erected in Glasgow during the present
year.

L\ San Pete County, Utah, the hills
abutting on Huntington Creek contain sev-
eral valuable veins of coal. Seven mines
have already been opened by drifts run from
the faces of the hills. The coal yields a
very fair quality of coke. These coal-fields
appear to be of very considerable extent.

A PIECE of coral five inches in height,
six inches in diameter at the top, and two
inches at the base, was taken off a submarine
cable at Port Darwin, North Australia. As
the cable had been laid only four years, the
coral must have grown to its present height
in that time.

Prof. Huxley, in a recent lecture at
the Royal Institution, on " The History of
Birds," said that, as they now exist, birds
constitute a perfectly well-defined group,
nobody mistaking the forms included there-
in. But, when we turn to the geologi-
cal record, the case is dift'erent. Fossil
forms are found that present definitions do
not embrace, indicating a wider range of
structure, and the existence of types inter-
mediate between birds and reptiles.

According to the Oardener^s Monthly,
the Eucalyptus globulus can hardly thrive
in any of our States on the Atlantic sea-
board, with the possible exception of Flori-
da; there it is barely possible that a few
Australian trees may live.

A correspondent of the Lancet writes
that, when traveling in the upper Sikkim
Himalaya, at elevations above 12,000 feet,
he toolc whiskey in small quantities, to
counteract the effects of strong exertion in
a cold, rare atmosphere. The consequence
was the reverse of what was expected, be-
ing drowsiness and lassitude, lasting an hour
or more. Cold tea, on the contrary, was
found to produce a feeling of exhilaration
and capacity for renewed efforts.

In Calcutta the general death-rate of in-
fants under one year among all classes
of the population — Hindoo, Mohammedan,
mixed race, and non-Asiatic — reaches the
annual average of 480 per 1,000, the rate
ranging from 184 among the non-Asiatics
to 598 among the Mohammedans. Of ev-
ery thousand Hindoo children born in 1875

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

there died 596 within the year, and of the
Mohammedans no less than 735. Thus, a
native child born in Calcutta has a chance
of life considerably less than that of a per-
son attacked by cholera.

Dr. a. McL. Hamilton recommends the
use of nitro-glycerine as a medicinal agent
in epilepsy. One-teuth of a drop on the
tongue at once produces cerebral hyperae-
mia? The face is flushed, the eyes become
bright, and the temporal vessels throb, and
there are marked sensations of fullness.
Diluted in alcohol in the proportion of 1 to
100, nitro-glycerine can be kept safely.

Some years ago a large tract of peat-bog
was drained at Grangemouth, Scotland, the
loose mud and moss being carried down
the drains to the estuary. The consequence
was, that the oyster-beds in the estuary
were covered over with mud, and the bi-
valves entirely destroyed. " Nothing,"
writes Frank Buckland, " is so fatal to oys-
ters as a mud-storm, except it be a sand-
storm. The mud and sand accumulate in
the oyster's delic.ite breathing-organs and
suffocate it."

The telephone appears to be well adapt-
ed for transmitting signals in mines ; in-
deed, according to the Alining Review^ tele-
phones are already employed with great ad-
vantage in many of the deep workings of
this country.

From soundings made by the U. S. sloop
Gettysburg, the Challenger, and the Ger-
man frigate Gazelle, a writer in Nature in-
fers the probable existence of a submarine
ridge or plateau connecting the island of
Madeira with the coast of Portugal, and the
possible subaerial connection, in prehistoric
times, of that island with the southwestern
extremity of Europe. A similar plateau
connects the Canary Islands with the Afri-
can Continent.

The electric light has been under trial
in English lighthouses nearly eighteen years.
It was first tried at the South Foreland
Lighthouse in 1858. An electric revolving
light has been exhibited at the Souter Point
Lighthouse, on the coast of Durham, for
the last five years. The flash of this light
has an intensity of about 392,000 candles.
With the improved electric machines of
Gramme or Siemens this enormous inten-
sity of light could probably be increased
five or six times.

SiDERAPHTHiTE is the name of a new
iron-alloy, compose! of 65 parts iron, 23
nickel, 4 tungsten, 5 aluminum, and 5 cop-
per. It is said to resist sulphnreted hy-
drogen, is not attacked by vegetable acids,
and only slightly by mineral acids. It is
really more useful than standard silver,
while it can be produced at a cost not ex-

ceeding that of german-silver. For alloys
that have to be silver-plated to prevent oxi-
dation, this material is a perfectly success-
ful substitute.

The two islands of New Britain and
New Ireland, lying east of New Guinea,
have been visited by a Wesleyan mission-
ary. Rev. George Brown, who has explored
150 miles of the coast of the former, and
100 miles of the latter. Mr. Brown also
crossed the latter island and made large
natural-history collections. No white man
had ever been seen inland before, but no
opposition was ottered to the explorers.
Abundant evidences of cannibalism were
found, but the natives live chiefly on bana-
nas, cocoanuts, and pork, and have large
plantations.

Intelligence has been received of the
death of two eminent German travelers in
Africa: Dr. Edward Mohr, author of "The
Victoria Falls of the Zambesi," and the
Baron Dr. Hermann von Barth-Harman-
ting. The latter died by his own hand at
Sao Paolo de Loanda, while sufl^ering from
an attack of fever, in the thirty-first year
of his age ; the former died at Malange, in
the same Portuguese colony of Angola.
Barth was, at the time of his death, en-
gaged in making a botanical and geologi-
cal survey of the Portuguese African pos-
sessions, under government auspices ; llohr
had but recently returned to Africa, sent
out by the German African Society to ex-
plore the country west of the great lakes.

Profs. C. V. Riley, Cyrus Thomas, and
A. S. Packard, have been appointed United
States Entomological Commissioners, with
headquarters at Washington. It is un-
derstood that the main olyect of this com-
mission is to thoroughly investigate the
haunts and habits of the Rocky Mountain
locust, and to devise means of exterminat-
ing that plague, or limiting its ravages.
Prof. Riley will occupy himself especially
with the whole country east of the moun-
tains and south of latitude 48°, together
with the west half of Iowa and the whole
of the British possessions. Minnesota, Ne-
braska, Southern Dakota, and Eastern Wyo-
ming, have been assigned to Prof. Thomiis ;
and Montana, Idaho, Western Wyoming,
and the Pacific slope, to Prof. Packard.

A REMARKABLE appcarancc on the plan-
et Saturn was observed by Prof. Hall, of the
Naval Observatory, Washington, on Decem-
ber 7th. A bright spot suddenly appeared
near the equator of the planet, spreading
gradually till it resembled a band extend-
ing over 90°. The phenomenon continued
to be visible for a month, but then the ap-
proach of the planet to the sun made fur-
ther accurate observation impossible.

'if // "^>J

ALFRED UUSSEL WALLACE.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1877.

OK THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY.

By HERBERT SPENCER.

LET US now look at the connections between types of family and
social types. Do societies of different degrees of composition
habitually present different forms of domestic arrangement? Are
different forms of domestic arrangement associated with the militant
system of organization and the industrial system of organization ?

To the first of these questions, no satisfactory answer can be given.
The same marital relation occurs in the simplest groups and in the
most compound groups. A strict monogamy is observed by the mis-
erable Wood Veddahs, living so widely scattered that they can scarce-
ly be said to have reached the social state ; and the wandering
Bushmen, similarly low, though not debarred polygyny, are usually
monogamic. Certain settled and slightly advanced tribes, too, are
monogamic ; as instance the New Guinea people, and as instance also
the Dyaks, who have reached a stage passing from simple into com-
pound. And then we have monogamy habitual with nations which
have become vast by aggregation and reaggregation. Polyandry,
again, is not restricted to societies of one order of composition. We
find it in simple groups, as among the Fuegians, the Aleutians, and
the Todas ; and we find it in compound groups in Ceylon, in Malabar,
in Thibet. Similarly with the distribution of polygyny. It is common
to simple, compound, doubly-compound, and even trebly-compound
societies.

• One kind of connection between the type of family and the degree
of social composition may, however, be alleged. Formation of com-
pound groups, implying greater coordination and the strengthening
of restraints, implies more settled arrangements, public and private.

VOL. XI. 9

130 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Increasing rigidity of custom and growth of it into law, which goes
along with the extending governmental organization jjolding larger
masses together, affects the domestic relations along with the j^olitical
relations ; and thus renders the family arrangements, be they polyan-
dric, polygynic, or monogamic, more definite.

Can we, then, allege special connections between the different types
of family and the different social types classed as militant and indus-
trial ? None are revealed by a cursory inspection. Looking first at
simple tribes, we find among the unwarlike Todas a mixed polyandry
and polygyny ; and among the Esquimaux, so peaceful as not even to
understand the meaning of war, we find, along with monogamic un-
ions, others that are polyandric and polygynic. At the same time,
the warlike Caribs show us a certain amount of polyandry and a
greater amount of polygyny. If, turning to the other extreme, we
compare with one another laige nations, ancient and modern, it seems
that the militant character in some cases coexists with a prevalent
polygyny and in other cases with a prevalent or universal monogamy.
Nevertheless, we shall, on examining the facts more closely, discern
general connections between the militant type and polygyny, and be-
tween the industrial type and monogamy.

But first we must recognize the truth that a predominant militancy
is not so much to be measured by armies and the conquests they
achieve, as by constancy of predatory activities. The contrast be-
tween the militant and the industrial is j^roperly between a state in
which life is occupied in conflict with other beings, brute and human,
and a state in which life is occupied in peaceful labor — energies spent
in destruction instead of energies sjient in production. So conceiving
militancy, we find polygyny to be its habitual accomj^animent. To
trace the coexistence of the two from Australians and Tasmanians
on through the more developed simple societies up to the compound
and doubly compound, would be tedious and is needless ; for observ-
ing, as we have already done, the prevalence of polygyny in the less
advanced societies, and admitting as we must their state of unceasing
hostility to their neighbors, the coexistence of these traits is a corol-
lary. That this coexistence results from causal connection is suggested
by certain converse cases. Among the Dorians, a division of the New
Guinea people, there is strict monogamy, with forbidding of divorce,
in a primitive community comparatively unwai'like and comparatively
industrial. Another instance is furnished by the Land Dyaks, who
are monogamic to the extent that pologyny is an offense, and who,
though given to tribal quarrels about their lands, and to the taking
of heads as trophies, have such degree of industrial development that
the men, instead of making war and the chase habitual occupations,
do all the heavy work, and some division of trades and commercial
intercourse exists. The Hill-tribes of India furnish other instances.
There are the amiable Bodo and Dliimals, without military arrange-

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 131

ments, and having no weapons but their agricultural inplements who
are industrially advanced to the extent that there is exchange of ser-
vices, and that the men do all the out-of-door work ; and they are
monogamous. Similarly the monogamous Lepchas are wholly un-
warlike. Such, too, is the relation of traits in certain societies of the
New World distinguished from the rest by being partially or entirely
industrial. Whereas most of the aborigines of North America
habitually polygynous, live solely to hunt and fight, the Iroquois had
permanent villages and cultivated lands, and each of them had but
one wife. More marked still is the case of the Pueblos, who, " walling
out barbarism " by their ingeniously-conglomerated houses, fight only
in self-defense, and when let alone engage exclusively in agricultural
and other industi'ies, and whose marital relations are strictly mono-
gamic.

This connection of traits in the simpler societies, where not trace-
able directly in the inadequate descriptions of travelers, is often trace-
able indirectly. We have seen that there is a natural relation be-
tween constant fighting and development of chiefly power: the impli-
cation being that where, in settled tribes, the chiefly power is small,
the militancy is not great. And this is the fact in those above-named
communities characterized by monogamy. In Dory there are no
chiefs ; among the Dyaks subordination to chiefs is feeble; the head-
man of each Bodo and Dhimals village has but nominal authority ;
the Lepcha flees from coerci(i^ ; and the governor of a Pueblo town is
annually elected. Conversely, we see that the polygyny which pre-
vails in simple predatory tribes persists in aggregates of them welded
together by war into small nations under established rulers, and fre-
quently acquires in them large extensions. In Polynesia it character-
izes in a marked way the warlike and tyrannically-governed Feejeeans ;
all through the African kingdoms there goes polygyny along with de-
veloped chieftainship, rising to great heights in Ashantee and Daho-
mey, where the governments are coercive in extreme degrees. The like
may be said of the extinct American societies : polygyny was an attri-
bute of dignity among the rigorously-ruled Peruvians, Mexicans,
Chibchas, Nicaraguans. And the old despotisms of the East were
also characterized by polygyny.

Allied with this evidence is the evidence that in a primitive pred-
atory ti'ibe, all the men of which are warriors, polygyny is generally
diff"used ; but in a society compounded of such tribes, polygyny con-
tinues to characterize the militant part, while monogamy begins to
characterize the industrial part. This diflferentiation is foreshadowed
even in the primitive predatory ti'ibes ; since the least militant men
fail to obtain more than one wife each. And it becomes marked
when, in the growing population, there arises a division between
warriors and workers.

Still more clearly shall we see the connection between militancy

132 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and polygyny on recalling two facts named in the chapter on " Exog-
amy and Endogamy." By members of savage communities, captured
women are habitually taken as additional wives or concubines, and
the reputations of warriors are enhanced in proportion to the numbers
thus obtained. As Mr. McLennan points out, certain early peoples
permitted foreign wives (presumably along with other wives) to the
military class, when wives from alien societies were forbidden to other
classes. Even among the Hebrews the laws authorized such appro-
priations of women taken in war. The further direct connection is,
that where loss of many men in frequent battles leaves a great surplus
of women, the possession of more wives than one by each man con-
duces to the maintenance of population and the preservation of the
society : continuance of polygyny being, under these circumstances,
insured by the conflicts between such societies, which, other things
equal, entail the disappearance of those not practising it. To which
must be added the converse fact that, in proportion as decreasing
militancy and increasing industrialness cause an approximate equali-
zation of the sexes in numbers, there results a growing resistance to
polygyny ; since it cannot be practised by many of the men without
leaving many of the rest wifeless, and causing an antagonism incon-
sistent with social stability. Hence monogamy is to a great extent
compelled by that balance of the sexes which industrialism brings
about.

Once more, the natural relation between polygyny and predomi-
nant militancy, and between monogamy and predominant industrial-
ness, is shown by the fact that these two domestic forms harmonize
in principle with the two associated political forms. We have seen
that the militant type of social structure is based on the principle of
compulsory cooperation, while the industrial type of social structure
is based on the principle of voluntary cooperation. Now, it is clear
that plurality of wives, whether the wives are captured in war or pur-
chased from their fathers regardless of their own wills, implies domes-
tic ruleof the compulsory type: the husband is despot and the wives
are slaves. Conversely, the establishment of monogamy where fewer
women are taken in war and fewer men lost in war is accompanied
by an increased value of the individual woman, who, even when pur-
chased, is therefore likely to be better treated. And when, with fur-
ther advance, some power of choice is acquired by the woman, there
is an approach to that voluntary cooperation which characterizes this
marital relation in its highest form. The domestic despotism which
polygyny involves is congruous with the political despotism proper
to predominant militancy; and the diminishing political coercion
which naturally follows development of the industrial type is congru-
ous with the diminishing domestic coercion which naturally follows
the accompanying development of monogamy.

Probably the histories of European peoples will be cited in evi-

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 133

dence against this view : the allegation being that, from Greek and
Roman times downward, these peoples, though militant, have been
monogamic. It may, however, be replied that ancient European so-
cieties, though often engaged in wars, had large parts of their popu-
lations otherwise engaged, and had industrial systems characterized
by considerable division of labor and commercial intercourse. Fur-
ther, there must be remembered the fact that in Northern Europe,
during and after Roman times, while warfare was constant, monogamy
was not universal. Tacitus admits the occurrence of polygyny among
the German chiefs. Already we have seen, too, that the Merovingian
kings were polygamists. Even in the Carlovingian period we read
that —

" The confidence of Conan 11. was kept up by the incredible number of men-
at-arms whicli his kingdom furnished ; for you must know that here, besides
that the kingdom is extensive as well, each warrior will beget fifty, since, bound
by the laws neither of decency nor of religion, each has ten wives or more
even." — (Ermold. Nigellus, iii., ap. Ser. £. Fr., vi., 52.)

And Koenigswarter says that " such was the persistence of legal con-
cubinage in the customs af the people that traces of it are found at
Toulouse even in the thirteenth century."

Thus considering the many factors that have cooperated in modi-
fying marital arrangements — considering also that some societies,
becoming relatively peaceful, have long retained in large measure the
structures acquired during previous greater militancy, while other
societies which have considerably developed their industrial struct-
ures have again become predominantly militant, causing mixtures of
traits — the alleged relations are, I think, as clear as can be expected.
That advance from the primitive predatory type to the highest indus-
trial type has gone along with advance from prevalent polygny to
exclusive monogamy, is unquestionable ; and that decrease of mili-
tancy and increase of industrialness have been the essential cause of
this change in the type of family, is shown by the fact that this
change has occurred where such other supposable causes as culture,
religious creed, etc., have not come into play.

The domestic relations, thus far dealt with mainly under their
private aspects, have now to be dealt with under their public aspects.
For, on the structure of the family, considered as a component of
a society, depend various social phenomena.

The multitudinous facts grouped in foregoing chapters show that
no true conception of the higher types of family, in their relations to
the higher social types, can be obtained without previous study of the
lower types of family in their relations to the lower social types. In
this case, as in all other cases, error results when conclusions are
drawn from the more complex products of evolution, in ignorance

134 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the simpler products from which they have been derived. Already
an instance has been furnished by the interpretations of primitive
religions given by the reigning school of mythologists. Possessed
by the ideas which civilization has evolved, and looking back on the
ideas which prevailed among the progenitors of the civilized i-aces,
they have used the more complex to interpret the less complex ; and
when forced to recognize the entire unlikeness between the iuferrcd
early religious ideas and the religious ideas found among the imcivil-
ized who now exist, have assumed a fundamental difference in mode
of action between the minds of the superior races and the minds of
tlie inferior races : classing with the inferior, in pursuance of this
assumption, certain ancient races to which the modern world is
indebted for its present advance. Though to the teachings of so-
called Turanians the Aryans and Semites owe their civilizations;
though the Accadians had great cities, settled laws, advanced indus-
tries, arts in which four metals were utilized, and writing that had
already reached the phonetic stage, while the Semites were still
nomadic hordes ; though the Egyptians had for mme thousands of
years lived as an elaborately-organized nation, approaching in many
of its appliances to modern nations, and producing monuments that
remain a wonder to mankind, while the Aryans were wandering with
their herds in scattered groups about the Hindoo Koosh — yet these
peoples are, in company with the lowest barbarians, cavalierly grouped
as having radically inferior intelligences, because they sliow in an
unmistakable way the genesis of religious ideas irreconcilable with
that genesis which mythologists are led by their method to ascribe
to the superior races.

All who accept the conclusions set forth in the first part of this
work, will see in this instance the misinterpretation caused by
analysis of the phenomena from above downward, instead of syn-
thesis of them from below upward. They will see that in search of
explanations we must go below the stage at which men had learned
to domesticate cattle and till the ground.

O'

I make these remarks by way of introduction to a criticism on the
doctrines of Sir Henry Maine. While valuing his works, and accept-
ing as true within limits the views he sets forth respecting the family
under its developed form, and respecting the part played by it in the
evolution of Em-opean nations, it is possible to dissent from his as-
sumptions concerning the earliest social states, and from the derived
conceptions.

As leading to error, Sir Henry Maine censures "the lofty contempt
which a civilized people entertains for barbarous neighbois," which,
he says, " has caused a remarkable negligence in observing them."
But he has not himself wholly escaped from the effects of this senti-
ment. While valuing the evidence furnished by barbarous peoples

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 135

belonging to higher types, and while in some cases citing confirmatory
evidence furnished by certain barbarous peoples of lower types, he
has practically disregarded the great mass of the uncivilized, and ig-
nored the vast array of facts they present at variance with his theory.
Though criticisms have led him somewhat to qualify the sweeping gen-
eralizations set forth in his "Ancient Law;" though, in the preface
to its later editions, he refers to his subsequent work on " Villasje
Communities " as indicating some qualifications — yet the qualifications
are but small, and in great measure hypothetical. He makes light of
9,ViCh. adverse evidence as Mr. McLennan and Sir John Lubbock give,
on the ground that the part of it he deems most trustworthy is sup-
plied by Indian Hill-tribes, which have, he thinks, been led into abnor-
mal usages by the influences invading races have subjected them to.
And, though in his " Early Institutions " he goes so far as to say that
" all branches of human society may or may not have been developed
from joint families which arose out of an original patriarchal cell," he
clearly, by this form of expression, declines to admit that in many
cases they have not been thus developed.

He rightly blames earlier writers for not exploring a sufficiently
wide area of induction. But he has himself not made the area of in-
duction wide enough ; and that substitution of hypothesis for observed
fact which he ascribes to his predecessors is, as a consequence, observ-
able in his own work. Respecting the evidence available for framing
generalizations, he says :

" The rudiments of the social state, so far as they are known to us at all, are
known through testimony of three sorts — accounts by contemporary observers
of civilizations less advanced than their own, the records which particular races
have preserved concerning their primitive history, and ancient law."

And since, as exemplifying the " accounts by contemporary ob-
servers of civilizations less advanced than their own," he names the
account TacituS gives of the Germans, and does not name the accounts
modern travelers give of uncivilized races at large, he clearly does
not include as evidence the statements made by these.* Let me name
here two instances of the way in which this limitation leads to the
substitution of hypothesis for observation.

Assuming that the patriarchal state is the earliest, Sir Henry
Maine says that " the implicit obedience of rude men to their parent

* He does, indeed, at page 17 of his " Village Communities," deliberately discredit
this evidence — speaking of it as " the slippery testimony concerning savages which is
gathered from travelers' tales." I am aware that, in the eyes of most, antiquity gives sa-
creduess to testimony ; and that so what were " travelers' tales " when they were written
in Roman days have come, in our days, to be regarded as of higher authority than like
tales written by recent or living travelers. I see, however, no reason to ascribe to Taci-
tus a trustworthiness which I do not ascribe to modern explorers, many of them scien-
tifically educated — Barrow, Barth, Galton, Burton, Livingstone, Seeman, Darwin, Wal-
lace, Humboldt, Burckhardt, and others too numerous to set down.

136 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is doubtless a primary fact." Now, though among lower races, sons,
while young, may be subordinate, from lack of ability to resist, yet
that they remain subordinate when they become men cannot be as-
serted as a uniform, and therefore as a primary, fact. In a former
paragraph it will be seen that obedience does not characterize all types
of men. When we read that the Mantra " lives as if there were no
other person in the world but himself;" that the Carib "is impatient
under the least infringement " of his independence ; that the Mapuche
"brooks no command;" that the Brazilian Indian begins to display
" impatience of all restraint at puberty " — we cannot conclude that
filial submission is an original trait. When we find that, by many
savages, parents, when they become burdensome in age, are killed or
left to starve; that by some, as the Gullinomeros, "old people are
treated with contumely, both men and women ;" and that by other
savages boys are not corrected for fear of destroying their spirit — we
cannot suppose that subjection of adult sons to their fathers charac-
terizes all types of men. When from Bancroft we learn that to the
Navajos of North America, " born and bred with the idea of perfect
personal freedom, all restraint is unendurable," and that among them
" every father holds undisputed sway over his children until the age
of puberty ; " when we learn that, among some Californians, children
after puberty " were subject only to the chief;" that among theLow-
er-Californians, " as soon as children are able to get food for them-
selves, they are left to their own devices ; " and that among the Co-
manches male children "are even privileged to rebel against their
parents, who are not entitled to chastise them but by consent of the
tribe " — we are shown that in some races the parental and filial rela-
tion early comes to an end. So far from supposing that filial obe-
dience is innate, and the patriarchal type a natural consequence, the
evidence points rather to the inference that the two have evolved
hand-in-hand under favoring conditions.

Again, referring to the way in which originally common ancestral
origin was the only ground for united social action. Sir Henry Maine
says :

*" Of this we may at least be certain, that all ancient societies regarded them-
selves as having proceeded from one original stock, and even labored under an
incapacity for comprehending any reason except this for their holding together
in political union. The history of political ideas begins, in fact, with the as-
sumption that kinship in blood is the sole possible ground of community in po-
litical functions."

Now, if by " ancient societies " are meant those only of which records
have come down to us, and if the "history of political ideas" is to
include only the ideas of such societies, this may be true ; but if we
are to take account of societies more archaic than these, and to in-
clude under political ideas those of other peoples than Aryans and

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 137

Semites, it cannot be sustained. Proof has been given that political
cooperation and the accompanying structures arise from the confliots
of social groups with one another. We have seen that this evolves
chieftainship, which becomes established when the military activity is
constant ; and we have seen that, having first politically oro-anized
simple groups, this process afterward politically organizes compound
groups, and again doubly-compound groups. Though it may be facili-
tated where " the commonwealth is a collection of persons united by
a common descent from the progenitor of an original family," yet,
in multitudinous cases, it takes place where no connection of this kind
exists among the persons. The members of an Australian tribe which,
under a temporary chief, join in battle against those of another tribe
have not a common descent, but are alien in blood. If it be said that
political functions can in this case scarcely be alleged, then take the
case of the Creeks of North America, whose men have various totems
implying various ancestries, and whose twenty thousand people, liv-
ing in seventy villages, have nevertheless evolved for themselves a
government of considerable complexity. Or, still better, take the
Iroquois, who, similar in their formation of tribes out of intermingled
clans of different stocks, were wielded by combined action in war into
a league of five (afterward six) nations under a permanent republican
government. Indeed, this system of kinship puts relations in politi-
cal antagonism ; so that, as we read in Bancroft of the Kutchins,
"there can never be intertribal war without rancjincy fathers and sons
against each other." Even apart from the results of mixed clanships,
that instability, which we have seen characterized primitive relations
of the sexes, negatives the belief that political cooperation every-
where originates from family cooperation. Instance the above-named
Creeks, of whom, according to Schoolcraft, " a large portion of the old
and middle-aged men, by frequently changing, have had many differ-
ent wives, and their children, scattered around the country, are un-
known to them."

Thus finding reason to suspect that Sir Henry Maine's theory of
the family is not applicable to all human societies, let us proceed to
consider it more closely ;

Pie implies that, in the earliest stages, there were definite marital
relations. That which he calls "the infancy of society " — "the situa-
tion in which mankind disclose themselves at the dawn of their his-
tory " — is a situation in which " ' every one exercises jurisdiction over
his wives and his children, and they pay no regard to one another.' "
But in foregoing chapters on "The Primitive Relations of the Sexes,"
on " Promiscuity," and on " Polyandry," numerous facts have been
given, showing that definite, coherent marital relations are preceded
by indefinite, incoherent ones ; and also that, among the marital rela-
tions evolving out of these, there are in many places types of family

138 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

composed not of a man with wife and children, but of a wife with men
and children — such family-forms being found not alone in societies of
embryonic and of infantine types, but also in considerably advanced
societies.

A further assumption is that descent has always and everywhere
been in the male line. That it has from the earliest recorded times
of those peoples with whom Sir Henry Maine deals, must be admit-
ted ; and it may be admitted tliat male descent occurs also among
some rude peoples of other types, as the Kukis of India, the Beloo-
ches, the New-Zealanders, the Hottentots. It is by no means the rule,
however, among the uncivilized. Mr, McLennan, who has pointed
out the incongruity between this assumption and a great mass of
evidence, shows that in all parts of the world descent in the female
line prevails ; and the abundant proofs given by him I might, were
it needful, enforce by many others. This system is not limited to
groups so little organized that they might be set aside as preinfantine
(were that permissible) ; nor to groups that stand on a level with the
patriarchal, or so-called infantine, societies in point of organization ;
but it occurs in groups, or rather nations, that have evolved complex
structures. Ellis says that kinship was through females in the two
higher ranks of the Tahitians ; and Erskine says the like of the Ton-
gans. It was so, accordiag to Piedrahita, with the ancient Chib-
chas, who had made no insignificant strides in civilization. Among
the Iroquois, again, " titles, as well as property, descended in the
female line, and were hereditary in the tribe; the son could never suc-
ceed to his father's title of sachem, nor inherit even his tomahaAvk ;"
and these Iroquois had advanced far beyond the infantine stage —
were governed by a representative assembly of fifty sachems, had a
separate military organization, a separate ecclesiastical organization,
definite laws, cultivated lands individually possessed, permanent for-
tified villages. So, too, in Africa, succession to rank and property
follows the female line among the coast-negroes, inland-negroes,
Congo people, etc., who have distinct industrial systems, four and five
gradations in rank, settled agricultures, considerable commerce, towns
in streets. How misleading is the limited observation of societies, is
shown by Marsden's remark respecting the Sumatrans of the Batta
district, that " the succession to the chiefships does not go, in the first
instance, to the son of the deceased, but to the nephew by a sister; "
and that "the same extraordinary rule, with respect to property in
general, prevails also among the Malays of that part of the island : "
the rule which he thus characterizes as " extraordinary " being really,
among the uncivilized and little civilized, the ordinary rule.

Again, Sir Henry Maine postulates the existence of government
from the beginning — patriarchal authority over wife, children, slaves,
and all who are included in the primitive social group. But those
who have read preceding chapters on " The Regulating System " and

OJV THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 139

" Social Types " will scarcely need reminding that in various parts
of the world we find social groups without heads, as the Fuegians,
some Australians, most Esquimaux, the Arafuras, the Land Dyaks of
the Upper Sarawak River ; others with headships that are but occa-
sional, as Tasmanians, some Australians, some Caribs, some Uaupes ;
and many others with vague and unstable headships, as the Andama-
nese, Abipones, Snakes, Chippewyans, Chinooks, Chippeways, some
Kamtchatdales, Guiana tribes, Mandans, Coroados, New Guinea peo-
ple, Tannese. Though it is true that in some of these cases tlie com-
munities are of the lowest, I see no adequate reason for excluding
them from our conception of " the infancy of society." And even
•saying nothing of these, we cannot regard as lower than infantine in
their stages those communities Avhicli, like the Upper Sarawak Dyaks,
the Arafuras, the New Guinea people, carry on their peaceful lives
without other government than that of public opinion and custom.
Moreover, as has been pointed out, what headship exists in many
simple groups is not patriarchal. Such chieftainship as arose among
the Tasmanians in time of war was determined by personal fitness.
So, too, according to Edwards, with the Caribs, and, according to
Swan, with the Creeks. Then, still further showing that political
authority does not always begin with patriarchal authority, we have
the Iroquois, whose system of kinship negatives the genesis of patri-
archs, and who yet have developed a complex republican government ;
and we have the Pueblos, who, living in well-organized communities
under elected governors and councils, show no signs of patriarchal
rule in the past.

Another component of the doctrine is that, originally, property is
held by the family as a corporate body. According to Sir Henry
Maine, "one peculiarity invariably distinguishing the infancy of
society " is that "men are regarded and treated not as individuals
but always as members of the particular group." The man was not
" regarded as himself, as a distinct individual. Ilis individuality was
swallowed up in his family." And this alleged primitive submergence
of the individual affects even the absolute ruler of the group.
"Though the patriarch, for we must not yet call him the pater-
familias, had rights thus extensive, it is impossible to doubt that he
lay under an equal amplitude of obligations. If he governed the
family it was for its behoof. If he was lord of its possessions, he
held them as trustee for his children and kindred . . . the family, in
fact, was a corporation ; and he was its representative." Here, after
expressing the doubt whether there can exist in the primitive mind
ideas so abstract as those of trusteeship and representation, I go on
to remark that this hypothesis involves a conception difficult to
frame. For while the patriarch is said to hold his possessions "m a
representative rather than a proprietary character," he is said to have
unqualified dominion over children, as over slaves, extending to life

140 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and death ; which implies that though he possesses the greater right
of owning subordinate individuals absolutely, he does not possess the
smaller right of owning absolutely the property used by them and
himself. I may add that besides being difficult to frame, this concep-
tion is not easily reconcilable with Sir Henry Maine's description of
the patria potestas of the Romans, which he says is " our type of the
primeval paternal authority," and of which he remarks that while,
during its decline, the father's power over the son's person became
nominal, his "rights over the son's property yv ere always exercised
without scrujjle," And I may also name its seeming incongruity with
the fact that political rulers who have absolute powers of life and
death over their subjects, are usually also regarded as in theory
owners of their property : instance at the present time the kings of
Dahomey, Ashantee, Congo, Cayor on the Gold Coast. Passing to
the essential question, however, I find myself here at issue not with
Sir Henry Maine only, but also with those writers on primitive social
states who hold that all ownership is originally tribal, that family
ownership comes afterward, and individual ownership last. As al-
ready implied, the evidence appears to me to show that from the be-
ginning there has been individual ownership of all such things as
could without difficulty be appropriated. True though it is that in
early stages rights of property have not acquired deiiniteness; certain
though it may be that among primitive men the moral sanction which
property equitably obtained has among ourselves is lacking ; obvious
as we find it that possession is often established by right of the
strongest — the evidence implies that in the rudest communities there
is a private holding of useful movables maintained by each man to
the best of his ability. A personal monopoly extends itself to such
things as can readily be monopolized — a proprietorship not yet made
definite by the growth of social regulations. The Tinne, Avho, "re-
garding all property, including wives, as belonging to the strongest,"
show us in a typical way the primitive form of appropriation, also
show us that this appropriation is completely personal, since they
"burn with the deceased all his effiicts." Indeed, even apart from
evidence, it seems to me an inadmissible supposition that in " the in-
fancy of society" the egoistic savage, utterly without idea of justice
or sense of responsibility, consciously held his belongings on behalf
of those depending upon him.

One more element, indirectly if not directly involved in the doc-
trine of Sir Henry Maine, is that " the infancy of society " is charac-
terized by the perpetual tutelage of women. While each male de-
scendant has a capacity " to become himself the hend of a new family
and the root of a new set of parental powers," " a woman of course
has no capacity of the kind, and no title accordingly to the liberation
which it confers. There is therefore a peculiar contrivance of archaic
jurisprudence for retaining her in the bondage of the family for life."

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 141

And the implication appears to be that this slavery of women, derived
from the patriarchal state, and naturally accompanied by inability to
hold property, has been slowly mitigated, and the right of private pos-
session acquired, as the primitive family has decayed. But when we
jiass from the progenitors of the civilized races to existing uncivilized
races, we meet with facts requiring us to qualify this proposition.
Though in tribes of primitive men, knowing no law but that of brute
force, entire subjection of women is tlie rule, yet there are exceptions,
both in societies lower than the patriarchal in organization, and in
higher societies whicli bear no traces of a past patriarchal state. We
learn from Hodgson that among the Kocch, who are mainly governed
by "juries of elders," " when a woman dies the family property goes
to her daughters." Mason tells us of the Karens, whose chiefs, of
little authority, are generally elective and often wanting, that " the
father wills his property to his children. . . . Nothing is given to the
widow, but she is entitled to the use of the property till her death."
Writing of the Khasias, Lieutenant Steel says that " the house belongs
to the woman ; and in case of the husband dying or being separated
from her, it remains her property." Among the Dyaks, whose law of
inheritance is not that of primogeniture, and whose chieftainships
where they exist are determined by merit, St. John tells us that as the
wife does an equal share of work with her husband, " at a divorce she
is entitled to half the wealth created by their mutual labprs;" and
Rajah Brooke writes, concerning certain Land Dyaks, that " the most
powerful of the people in the place were two old ladies, who often told
me that all the land and inhabitants belonged to them." North
America furnishes kindred facts. Of tlie Aleutian-Islanders, Bancroft,
in agreement with Bastian, tells us that " rich women are permitted
to indulge in two husbands " — ownership of property by females being
implied. Among the Nootkas, in case of divorce, there is " a strict
division of property " — the wife taking both what she brought and
what she has made ; and similarly among the Jpokanes, " all house-
hold goods are considered the wife's property," and there is an equi-
table division of property on dissolution of marriage. Again, of the
Iroquois, who, considerably advanced as we have seen, were shown, by
their still-surviving system of descent in the female line, never to have
passed through the patriarclial stage, we read that the proprietary
rights of husband and wife remained distinct; and, further, that in
case of separation the children went with the mother. Still more
striking is the instance supplied by the peaceable, industrious, freely-
governed Pueblos, whose women, otherwise occupying good posi-
tions, not only inherit property, but, in some cases, make exclusive
claims to it. Africa, too, where the condition of women is in most
respects low, but whei-e descent in the female line continues, furnishes
examples. Shabeeny tells us that in Timbuctoo a son's share of the
father's property is double that of a daughter. Describing the cus-

142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

toms of the people above the Yellala Falls on the Congo, Tuckey says
fowls, eggs, manioc, and fruits, " seem all to belong to the women, the
men never disposing of them without first consulting their waves, to
whom the beads are given."

Thus there are many things at variance with the theory which sets
out by assuming that " the infancy of society " is exhibited in the
patriarchal group. As was implied in the chapters on the " Primitive
Relations of the Sexes," on "Promiscuity," on "Polyandry," the
earliest social groups were without domestic organization as they
were without political organization. Instead of patriarchal cluster,
at once family and rudimentary state, there was at first an aggregate of
males and females without settled arrangements, and having no rela-
tions save those established by force and changed when the stronger
willed.

OUR AMERICAN OWLS.

By Professor SAMUEL LOCKWOOD.

THE owls are rapacious birds, and in company with all the true
birds of prey belong to the great order Haptores. The order
branches into two large groups, known respectively as the diurnal
and the nocturnal birds of prey. To the Dhirnes belong the vultures,
hawks, and eagles ; to the Nocturnes belong the owls.

If Mrs. Malaprop cannot see why the owl is a "rapturous bird,"
she can admit its claim to openness of countenance. Once seen, the
owl can never be mistaken ; its flat, pussy face, and large, brassy cat-
eyes, set square in front of the head, are so imbirdlike. It was a
London holiday ; a shop-woman and her daughter stood before the
cage of Nocturnal Raptores at the " Zoo." Said the elder, " See
these heagles ! " to which the younger replied, " Them isn't heagles,
they're 'awks." " If you please," interposed a servant standing
near, " them isn't heagles nor 'awks, they're howls. My maister's son
once kept one."

The owls are found nearly the whole world over. The books
mention about two hundred species, as species are yet understood,
and queer specimens are they every one. As a rule, how trim, spruce,
compact, and graceful are the falcons, the typical birds of prey !
How fluffy, squatty, and dowdyish is the typical owd ! Whether it
means little or much, it is thus with the Diurnal and the Nocturnal
Lepidoptera. As the elder naturalist said : " If any analogy is allow-
able between different tribes of animals, the owls might be said to re-
semble moths" (the night-fliers), " and to differ from tlie diurnal birds
of i^rey as these do from the butterflies " (the day-fliers). These birds

OUR AMERICAN OWLS.

'43

have been called " feathered cats," for the owl, cat-like, prowls at
night, and steals upon its victim by a quick, fluffy, still swoop or
spring. With the silent movements of a spirit, and a voice so super-
natural, and with certain associations of time and place, the effect is
appalling. As if burned into the brain-tissue with a hot iron, the
memory of a certain night experience when but a lad is still fresh
and vivid. It was a rural home ; sickness had entered at "the witch-
ing-time of night." No man around, and the well must stay by the ill ;
then who should go for the doctor, more than a mile away ? Impul-
sive and sympathetic, I was " the good and brave boy " to volunteer.
Not until after midnight was the doctor's house reached, and he was
out. Much disappointed that I must return alone, thinking to help
the matter, I ventured upon that country-boy expedient known as a
" short cut." So the open road was abandoned for a narrow path
which led to the old graveyard, which having reached, my timidity
began to increase. Cautiously I crossed the stile of the stone-wall,
and just as I had entered, the clock in tlie old church-tower struck
one ! There was first a startling shock, then a prolonged horror, for
the reverberations kept every fibre of my frame in a quivering thrill.

Fig. 1.— The White or Bakn Owl of Europe (Strix fiammea).

I think the moon was large, and running low, for my shadow which
preceded me was frightfully long, while parallel to it, in most forbid-
ding neighborship, lay the dark shadow of a tall Lombardy poplar,
as if reflecting some huge monumental shaft. The grave of a sainted
mother was near, and a certain sense of her nearness somewhat
soothed the fears of that little night waif. I had now got well be-
yond the saddening shadow of that shaft-like tree, and the exit from
the churchyard was but a few steps off, and my courage was begin-
ning to rise, when lo ! from out of that dark shaft behind me burst
a savage, piercing scream, as it might be of some goblin sentry :

14+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Who ! — who ! — who-o-o-oo are you ? " How that boy's heart did beat,
and how he ran, almost llew, cannot be told. It was still a long way
from home, but this was gained at last. He rushed into the house
(the folks were up-stairs), and, without reporting to them, he immedi-
ately threw himself face downward upon the lounge, and sobbed his
fright away, as little people often sensibly do. And now, if better
late than never, let it be honestly confessed : that boy for years enter-
tained a very owlish creed, built upon his own experience. He be-
lieved in a peculiar graveyard Strix. In fine, it may as well come
out — he was a spiritualist, in the strictest, spookiest sense.

The owls are intensely carnivorous. The diminutive ones will
feed largely upon insects, and some of the large kinds will eat them
occasionally. But Nature has made them for prowlers, and as such we
find them fond of flesh, fowl, and fish. So immense is their destruc-
tion of the smaller rodents, that they are worth millions to the agri-
culture of our country. They are the feathered Nimrods of the
night. Even the American hare, the rabbit wrongly called, falls an
easy victim. Some of the owls can fish, too. But whether hunting,
fowling, or fishing, they lack the style of doing it which belongs to
the falcon tribe ; and when out bugging it is but a bungling business

Pig. 2.— American Barn-Owl {Sti'ix flammea, Var. Americana).

compared with the professional role of the insectivorous birds. Their
angling, too, is simply upon quiet waters. They cannot brave " the
mutinous winds 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault." In com-
mon with all the Raptores^ they catch their prey with the talons, not
with the beak. In eating birds the owl prefers to tear his prey in
piecemeal, but a small rodent is swallowed entire, being usually tossed
into the air to adjust its position, so that it may fall head first into
the bird's mouth. It disappears in one astonishing gulp. A second
gulp is usually needed, as the tail is often after the first left hanging

OUR AMERICAN OWLS. 145

from one side of the mouth. The indigested mass forms a roundish
ball or pellet in the stomach, which the bird vomits up. These pel-
lets or castings indicate what enormous feeders the owls are. One
which I took out of the stomach of a little screech-owl was as big as
a walnut, and made up of hair and bones, and had in it the skulls of
six mice !

"While adopting Dr. Coues's specific nomenclature, let us follow
John Cassin's distribution of these birds. To aid both memory and
judgment, the following scheme is offered :

FAMILY.

Strigidce. — The Owls.

SUB-FAMILIES.

1. Striginoe. — The Typical Owls.

2. Bubonince. — The Horned-Owls.

3. Syrnince. — The Gray Owls.

4. AthenincB. — The Bird-Owls.

5. Nycteininm. — The Day-Owls.

1. Among the Striginm we find no large owls, but here are found
the typical birds of the family. Here is seen in its highest perfec-
tion of form that owlish peculiarity of the face known as the facial
disk; that circle of bristle-like, radiating feathers, which helps the
big round eyes to their cattish stare. Tiie eyes, however, of the birds
in this group, are not so large as are found in some species in the
other groups ; but the bills of the Striginm are somewhat longer.
Here we find the white or barn owl of the authors, which is in fact
the world's traditional owl. Its portrait is given in Fig. 1, which is
Strix flammea (Linn.), the barn-owl of Europe. This and the Ameri-
can barn-owl were long regarded as the same species ; but Cones
considers it a geographical variety, and, restoring Audubon's name,
makes a sub-species of it, thus: S. flammea, var, Americana (Fig. 2).
South of a certain latitude the bird is abundant on both sides of our
continent, chiefly near the sea. It is sometimes found in New York
and New Jersey, where it breeds in trees with the barest apology
for a nest, as the eggs are laid upon the debris or cast-up pellets of
the bird, which crumble and make a softish but filthy mess. Dr.
Newberry states that he saw this bird occupying holes in the perpen-
dicular cliffs on the shores of San Pablo Bay. Wood says the Euro-
pean barn-owl lives in trees and crevices of old buildings, laying its
white, rough-surfaced eggs upon a soft layer of its own castings. So
intensely pungent is the odor of the nest that it is with difficulty the
hand can be washed free of it after meddling with the eggs. The
young are described as curious little puffs of white down. The Eu-
ropean species is often found feeding a brood of young, while it is
hatching another set of eggs. The bird is often tamed, and sometimes

VOL. XI. — 10

146

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

makes a really intelligent pet. The American species is not common
in the Middle States. We saw one this spring, a gay, attractive bird,
in an hotel at Tom's River, New Jersey. It fairly glowed in a warm,
bright tawny hue. In reply to an inquiry, we promptly pronounced
it a young barn-owl ; but its owner was piqued at the idea that any-
body should have seen its like before.

2. The sub-family Subonince, the eared or horned owls, are so called
because of a pair of feathery, ear-like tufts, which are so set upon the
head as to have earned for these birds the general name, cat-owls.
Their facial disk is not quite perfect. The most famed bird of this
group is the great horned-owl {Bubo Virginianus, Bonap.) (see Fig.
3). This bird has usually a white collar round the neck. It is truly

_,-:j

Fig. 3.— Great Horned-Owl {Bubo Virginianus).

, a magnificent bird, of indomitable spirit and large size, being about
two feet in length. It does not migrate, and is found pretty much
all over North America. It breeds in winter and early spring, nest-
ing in hollow trees and crevices of rocks, and is said to build also on
some large branch, or in the crotch of a tree. Dr. Coues gives an in-
teresting account of two imfledged ones, which he captured in Da-
kota, in the month of June. They were his pets for the whole sum-
mer, and traveled with him several hundred miles. For a while they
had two different notes, the one of hunger or loneliness, a querulous,
explosive syllable, and the other a harsh cry of anger, or remon-
strance, when rudely handled. They did not begin to hoot until they
were about four months old, and then only while at liberty during the
night; for, says he, they became so thoroughly tame that, as their
wings grew, enabling them to take short flights, I used to release
them in the evening from the tether by which they were confined.
They enjoyed the liberty, and eventually would stay away all night.

OUR AMERICAN OWLS.

M7

doubtless foraging for themselves for their natural prey, and return-
ing to their shelter behind my tent in the morning.

The adult great horned-owl has considerable vocal ability. At
one time it will startle the hearer with a barking like that of a doo- •
at another time it will utter sounds much like half-suppressed screams,
as if of one who is getting throttled ; then it will break out into a
loud, wild, demoniacal yell of " Waugh O ! waugh O ! " startling the
woods, and almost terrifying every living thing.

I was myself greatly interested in a pair of these young owls,
taken from the nest early in March. Big, flufly things they were,
covered with thick, yellow down ; and such eaters, nay, gormandizers
is the word ! It really seemed as if nothing came amiss to their
appetites. The ojSal of chickens — heads, entrails, gizzards — all went
down in quick order. One thing surprised me. As we could not at
all times obtain animal food for them, my daughter thought of an
experiment. She made balls, as large as hickory-nuts, of moistened
meal, the outside being flavored with raw eggs. These they took
down quite greedily, and, when very hungry, took the meal-balls
without the flavoring. It was necessary to feed them with one's
fingers. It was amusing to hear them snap their bills when annoyed
or made afraid. The report thus made was pretty loud. They grew
finely ; but soon got killed, when off on a stray.

The little horned-owl is shown by Fig. 4. It is the Scops asio

Fig. 4.— The American Screech-Cwl {Scops asio).

(Bonap.), and is variously known as the American screech-owl, the red
owl, and the mottled owl. It is but ten inches long, though that is
even two inches longer than its European relative. It ranges through
all the Atlantic States, even, up to Greenland. Nor is it driven away
by the clearing off of the woods ; and now more than ever it seeks to
be a winter denizen of the city parks, attracted, doubtless, by the
abundance of English sparrows, which afford it food. This little

148

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

screech-owl, with its staring eyes and pert, ear-like tufts, has a de-
cidedly cattish look. In truth, it wears a grave, grimalkin cast of
countenance, which, in a bird, is quite uncanny and unnatural. A
mounted specimen in my parlor was an object of dread to a little girl
visiting us from the city. It availed nothing to tell the child that
little Motley would not hurt her, while the unbird-like little thing
would stare at her so.

To the naturalist Scops asio has been a provoking elf. It is to
be hoped that the sage-looking little fellow did not scoff behind his
gravity at these learned men, or count any of them asinine whom he
so misled by his eccentric freakiness in dress. Coming before a man
of science at one time wearing a suit of sober frieze, again appearing
in mottled gray, and anon clad gayly in tawny red, how ludicrously
easy and inviting was the trick of specie-making ! Well, that con-
troversy is over now, and to write the sti'ife down as history would be
enough to make Motley bristle to his toes.

The American long-eared owl ( Otus Wilsonianus, Less.) (Fig, 5),

Fig. 5.— American Long-eaked Owl {Otus Wilsonianus).

is a fine bird, some fifteen inches long, and is strictly nocturnal. It
often breeds in deserted nests of other large birds; but is not over-
scrupulous, as it will sometimes drive away the rightful occupant of
a nest, and take possession. The facial disk is perfect. Its home is
temperate America, up to Hudson's Bay. " Its cry is plaintive, con-
sisting of two or three prolonged notes repeated at intervals."

3. The Syrnince, or gray owls. In this sub-family is found the
largest bird of the species known in America ; also the smallest speci-
men east of the Mississippi. Their tails are large and round. Even
for owls, they have large heads, but smallish eyes, and no ear-tufts, or
these almost unnoticeable. One of these is represented by Fig. 6, the
barred owl {Syrnium nehulosum, Boie). The average size is twenty

OUR AMERICAN OWLS. 149

inches. It is common South. A quaint and lively bird, its actions
look like antics, for it is an oddity, even among its own folks. His
portrait is that of a gay, unsuspecting fellow. He has queer ways
for an owl ; he is not sedate enough. In the deep woods, and in broad
daylight, when all owldom is abed, he will set up his comical half-
laugh, half-cry, " Whah ! whah ! whah-a-a-aa ! " which has in it some-
thing of the affectation of an exquisite. He is the dandy-owl — as he
has been called the buffoon of the woods.

A much graver person, and the giant of American owls, is the
great gray owl {S. cinerium, Aud.). His length is thirty inches. The
cry is not unlike that of the mottled owl. The bird is common in
Canada, and has been shot in New Jersev.

Fig. 6.— The Barred Owl (Syrnium nebuloium).

As representing the gray owls well, we must instance the brown
or tawny owl, so called in England, although its upper parts are ashen
gray {see Fig. 7) {S. aluco, Linn.). This bird is found in Great Britain,
on the Continent, and in Japan. It is only some fifteen inches long,
and of retiring habits, as it loves the deep, dark woods, which it will
make ring with its dolorous, wolf-like cry of " Hoo ! hoo ! hoo ! " It
is an indiscriminate feeder, regaling itself on slugs, insects, small
quadrupeds, birds, and fish. And it is quite a clever fisherman in
its way, having been known to carry a pound-weight trout to its young.
Its mode of angling is to stand stock-still, and patiently, on a protrud-
ing stone in a rippling stream, and, when an unsuspicious swimmer
comes along, to invest five talons promptly, and take the venture out
in fish.

In this group belongs the genus Nyctale^ which contains the pretty
little saw-whet, or Acadian owl {Nyctale Acadice, Bonap.). This is the
smallest owl in the Eastern and Middle States, being but eight indies
long. Its cry is said to resemble the filing or whetting of the teeth

150

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of a saw, so that the traveler hearing it in the woods thinks he hears
the man at the saw-mill sharpening the saw. It is also said that its
notes resemble those of the little screech-owl of Europe, which would
seem to be indicated in the paronomasia., or alliteration of tlie an-
cient poet :

" Est illis strigihus nonien ; sed nominis hujus
Causa quod horrenda stridere nocte solent."

(" The screahers they are called ; the reason's found —
They make night hideous with their screaTcing sound.")

Nor is it all screaking with the saw-whet, for Audubon tells of an-
other note, which is musical, and like the tinkling of a bell. Weight
for weight, the robin would probably outdo our little Acadian owl.
Kor is it only wee and winsome, it seems to be gentle also. Coues

Fig. 7. — The Tawny Owl op Europe (Syrnium aluco).

records the interesting fact of one being found occupying peaceably,
with a chickaree-squirrel, the same hole in an oak.

Approaching the Western seaboard, we find, under the genus
Glaucidium, two diminutive owls, the sparrow-pygmy and the rusty
pygmy-owl. These birds are not so large as the thrush.

4. The Athenince, or bird-owls. Here is found that oddly-bird-
like owl, standing so un-owlishly high on its naked legs, the burrow-
ing owl [Athene cwiicularia, Bonap,), or Speotyto cunicularia, var.
Hypogma of Coues (Fig. 8). Very much nonsense has been written
of this bird. It is said to dwell in amity with the rattlesnake and

OUR AMERICAN OWLS.

151

prairie-dog, which generously shares its hole with bird and snake. The
American burrowing owl is essentially a prairie-bird. It occupies, no
doubt of choice, the deserted burrows of the Gynomys Ludoviciaims
(Baird). But if alarmed, as it would be by the presence of man, it would
betake itself to the nearest hole for a refuge. In other lands the bur-
rowing owl has no prairie-dogs to take advantage of, and in these
places the owls burrow for themselves. They are diurnal prowlers
feeding chiefly on grasshoppers, crickets, and field-mice, and not im-
probably an occasional prairie-dog puppy. One species lives entirely

Fig. 8.— The American Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia).

west of the Mississippi, on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. India
has a number of species, which do their own burrow-making, and are
an incessantly noisy crew.

We cannot pass by that little marvel, the Liliputian of them all,
named Whitney's owl {Micrathene Whitneyi, Coues), It was discov-
ered by Dr. Cooper at Fort Mojave in 1860. This owl is an arboreal
bird. It is partly diurnal in habit, and feeds on insects. The little
thing is hardly as large as the average sparrow.

5. The JVyctei7iince, or day-owls. This small group has but two
genera, with one species in each. But here occurs the very hand-
somest species of the American owls. Fig. 9 shows that splendid
bird known as the snowy owl, the arctic owl (Nyctea nivea, Gray). It
has been found with a length of twenty-seven inches. Some adults
are nearly all white — hence, as a show-bird, it is a favorite. We saw
not long since a fine mounted specimen in a New Jersey tavern.

152

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" What a splendid bird ! " was our remark to an individual who prac-
tised at the bar. " Yes, fine enough when stufied. But, you see, we
had to do it, he got so nasty." We observed tliat the plumage did
not indicate it. The man replied, quickly : " Oh, there was no rum-
mao-e in him. We kept him tethered. All the rats and mice we
ketched was given him — and the way he'd chuck 'em in wasn't slow !
But, as I said, he got so nasty." We asked for an explanation.
" Well, you see, he got so nasty that, just as lief as not, he'd put his
talents right into your hand when you was a-feeding him. You see,
the bird got so nasty that he was mean." We replied that it was the
first instance of that kind of misdirected " talents " that we had ever
heard of, and we agreed with him that it wasn't nice at all. " Nice '?

Fig. 9.— The Snowy Owl {Nyctea nivea).

Not much ! " he rejoined. " As I said, the bird got too nasty, so we
killed him, and had him stufied." He told me the bird was caught in
Warren County, and that they used to be plentiful a good many years

ago.

Probably, November, 1876, will go down in ornithological history
as the time of the famous southward raid of the snowy owls. Clad
as they are to resist the arctic cold, and such excellent hunters —
whether by day or by night — it would seem that want of food must
have started these birds on their journey. Could the severe arctic
winter, so disastrous to Captain Nare's expedition, have made this
scarcity ? It was during a pleasant autumn that these birds came
upon us. There must have been some sixty shot in my own vicinity.
A string of thirteen hung by a store in New York ; there were many
in the markets. One taxidermist in this city, it is said, had sixty left
with him to be stufied. Another in Philadelphia had about as many.
As early as September flocks of ten to fifteen were seen in difierent
places in Massachusetts. A number were shot in the city of Boston,

OUR AMERICAN OWLS. 153

and others were seen perched on the churches and house-tops. For
several days they were common in the city and vicinity of Portland
Maine, where not less than one hundred and fifty were shot. A
worthy farmer near my home was taking his family to church. A
snowy owl sat on a fence by the road, caring nothing for the passino-
wagon. The good man fretted, "If it wasn't Sunday, I'd bag that
chap ! " Probably the fellow in Washington Territory was less con-
scientious, for he filled two barrels with these noble birds ! Almost
everywhere the village taxidermists in the Eastern and Middle States
had a harvest of employment. Says Ruthven Deane : " Many of the
specimens were in exceedingly poor condition. Of some two hundred
examined by me, nearly all were in very dark plumage, and none
wore that almost spotless dress which we occasionally see."

One of these was brought by a pupil to my lecture-room in No-
vember. It was a fine fellow, but was badly hurt by the shot. It
was given in charge of a young friend, who, as bird-artist, knew the
worth of his prize. He kept it in his room, which served for studio
and sleep. The bird bad the freedom of the room, and became quite
gentle, permitting itself to be fondled. One night it persisted in get-
ting on its master's bed. This the jealousy of the hunting-dog could
not stand, and every time the bird flew on the bed the dog jumped on
and fought it off". At last the young man told the dog to keep quiet,
when the bird came again, and, squatting by the side of its owner,
kept still for the whole night. It was a great feeder. A weasel
which the youth had meant to mount was stolen and devoured by the
bird. Muskrats, rabbits, and birds, all went the same way ; and to
see him dine was a droll siglit. He would open wide his great brassy
optics, then insert his beak into his prey, then, shutting his eyes
excruciatingly tight, would lift his head high, and gulp clown what-
ever he had detached — all of which would be executed in the most
grotesque batrachian style : for, who ever saw a frog swallow an insect
biit that he went it blind? Occasionally it was let out upon the
snow. This was indeed a luxury, it was so like home; and the bird
would swallow the snow in mouthfuls. A fine owl is this arctic bird !
It will smite ducks and grouse on the wing, like a falcon ; will swoop
upon a hare on the ground, and dart at a fish in the shallows ; and
it does most of its hunting by day.

In this group occurs also that truly fine bird, the Canada or hawk
owl, which is some sixteen inches long. It is often called, from its
diurnal habit, the day-owl ; for, though an owl, no owler is he. His
work is done up clean by daylight, and it is extremely rare to hear
of his being abroad at night. Looking now at Fig. 10, the Canada
owl {Surnia ulula, Bonap.), how easily, upon a casual glance, might
one mistake it for a hawk ! Like some of the falcons, it will watch
from the top of a tree, and will swoop thence upon its prey. It is
also arboreal in its nesting, and, with its mate, is splendidly coura-

154

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

geoiis when the safety of person, or home, or young, is in danger.
There is not much of the owlish face in our Surnia. The facial disk,
so prominent an owlish trait, is by no means marked. Still, for all his
looks and ways, this same Surnia is a true owl. To an unusual degree
for his family, he is trim, compact, and graceful. Its favorite home is

Fio. 10.— The Hawk-Owl (Surnia ulnla).

in the arctic regions, where "it feeds chiefly on the field-mice {Aru-i-
culce) which swarm in the sphagnous vegetation of those boreal
lands ; also upon small birds, grasshoppers, and other insects." In
severe winters it comes southward, even to the Middle States.

The old philosophers said Nature abhorred a vacuum. Does it
not appear from our owlish restane that Nature has an aversion to the
abrupt and disconnected ? Is it not noticeable that, however natural
any two great related groups of animal forms may be, they are not
separated by sharp and wholly distinctive lines ? There is a shading
at the edges into each other. In Biblical speech, the progress of
the Divine scheme is literally " little by little," and the lower group
gives of the higher one, as Bishop Horseley in a different connection
has said, " elegant adumbrations of sacred truth." Only when the
extremes of the groups are set in contrast will the family differences
best appear. Let one but look a barn-owl and a bald-eagle full in
the face of each, and how clear their differentiation ! But these are
the typical representatives here brought face to face. Suppose we look
a moment at Fig. 11, of the marsh-hawk, or harrier [Circus cyaneus^
Linn.), and then recur to Fig. 10, of the day-owl, or Surnia. Now
the differentiation almost fades away. How very like they are ! But
Surnia belongs to a more lowly tribe than does Circtis. The marsh-
hawk is an unmistakable falcon, and the other is assuredly an owl.
But as respects this harrier, however clear as a whole the title to his

OUR AMERICAN OWLS.

155

rank may be, there is a strange mix-up in the chirography of the
instrument. As to wings and tail and beak and talons, he bears
the insignia of a grand connection. It needs an expert to read the
document, which, if it shows relation to a noble stock, shows also that
Sir Harrier has very ignoble ways. His very mode of hunting is a
disgrace to the name of falcon. He will course low in air like a base-
born buzzard, and will dog about a small area like a hound after a
rabbit, backward and forward, round and round, crossing and recross-
ing his course, literally scouring a patch of shrub or bush, or perhaps
tall reeds or dank meadow, and harrowing the poor occupant so vult-
ure-like, and so utterly unlike the decisiveness of action and brilliancy
of dash of the genuine falcon that, with the whir of a rifle-shot, swoops
from its observatory in the sky. Not one of these royal points can
the marsh-hawk claim. He harries or worries his victim, and so
comes honestly by his unenviable name. Although, as a high author-
ity declares, " he is no weakling nor coward," yet he is for his be-
longings a mean, bullying fellow. Let us watch him from this tree.

Fig. 11.— Marsh-Hawk, or Harkieb {Circus cyaneus).

He is harrowing a meadow-hen with her young. He has been at this
worriment full fifteen minutes. Now he makes a pounce for one of
the little ones. But the mother-bird proves herself a heroine on the
spur, and puts him to a mean retreat. And then what hawk but he,
sloven that he is, would nest upon the ground so vulture-like ? There
is also a tendency to fluffiness in his plumage, and a cattish noiseless-
ness in his movements, and his queer phiz has a little of the owlish
cast. Well, there is no use in denying it, it is true of him, and all
these harriers, as Dr. Coues observes, " They look like owls, behave
like buzzards, and nest like vultures." Hence, " the marsh-hawk com-
bines, in a notable degree, the characters of several raptorial types,
being, in particular, a link between hawks and owls."

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But we have not touched bottom ; and maybe these are some of His
ways which are past finding out. So, having reached the deep waters,
we will take that preacher's exordium to his knotty text, and make it
the peroration of our discourse : " Brethren, there is mighty deep
Scripture here ! "

-♦♦^—

INITIATORY FORCES.

By GEORGE ILES.

LAST September, when the operations for the removal of the ob-
structions at Hell-Gate, in the harbor of New York, had culmi-
nated in the completion of the great labyrinth of tunnels, and the
storing therein of a larger quantity of explosives than had ever been
used at once before. General Newton, the chief-engineer, at the ap-
pointed moment told his little child to gently push a telegraph-key.
She did so; her tiny impulse closed the circuit in many hundred gal-
vanic cells ; and these, by inflaming the metallic wires in contact with
the explosives, freed in an instant the tremendous power which had
been slumbering under the peaceful waters.

Perhaps in the whole realm of human achievement no more striking-
example of an initiatory force has ever been given than this. And if
it had not had an appearance of trifling, it would doubtless have been
quite possible for matters to have been so arranged that a fly impris-
oned in an inverted wineglass could by the vibration of its little wings
have brought two delicate electric conductors into contact — say two
moistened silken filaments — and have thus pulled the trigger which,
in the course of its efiects, would have made Hell-Gate navigable.

In Nature and art we find abundant examples of the same kind :
gigantic forces, perfectly quiescent and even useless, until some slight
additional force of the proper kind or intensity precipitates the most
violent changes. And this necessity for an outside initiatory force is
generally found with great power to maintain action once begun.
Carbon, and fuels of all kinds, are instances in point. As a rule, they
are but little altered by contact with the atmosphere, even for years ;
but a match has only to be applied to a few shavings, and a mine of
coal may be set on fire so thoroughly that it continues burning for
half a century. A prairie or forest may be dried up by drought until
leaves and twigs are brittle and dead, but all is calm until a chance
spark from a locomotive or a tobacco-pipe starts a fire that may de-
vastate square leagues of territory in its course.

In all cases of unstable equilibrium — and such abound in Nature —
a very small impetus may produce great consequences ; and this not
only in amount but direction. With an avalanche perched on a monn-

INITIATORY FORCES. 157

tain-peak, it has often been a very slight force that has determined
the patli it has taken, and which of two villages miles apart was to
be demolished by it. The fire-alarm system in our cities uses elec-
tricity as an initiatory motion : the hammers of the tower-bells are
worked by the descent of heavy weights — wound up by manual power
from time to time — and the store of energy contained in the elevated
masses is instantly made available by an electric current from the
central office simply freeing a detent and allowing the weight to fall.
Many other recent inventions for working railway-signals, looms, etc.,
embody this principle. The magneto-electric machines, which are ex-
tensively employed in lighthouses and electro-plating factories, yield
electricity from the mechanical motion of a steam-engine. A small
permanent steel magnet is indispensable in the apparatus ; it induces
magnetism in soft-iron cores, and these again in others in an increas-
ing series. The power may be gigantic, and the magnet, were it not
inconvenient, might be as small as a cambric needle: yet without it
neither electricity nor light can be had. A similar illustration occurs
in the development of a current in a common galvanic battery : the
two pieces of different metals used, as zinc and copper, when quite
dry before being placed in the bath, if simply brought into contact
for a moment show opposite electric polarities which, if given a me-
chanical expression, would be a very small amount indeed. This mi-
nute force, only to be detected by the most delicate means, is the
necessary opening of the flood-gate of energy in a working battery.
And when light is desired from a group of powerful cells, it is first
requisite to use a small effort in bringing the poles together, and then
separating them at a short distance apart. The brilliant arc of light,
once across the chasm, can continue to span it ; but its force, although
so great, is unequal to leaping over it without help. These examples
show the importance of knowing the fit initiatory forces in processes
whereby one form of energy is sought to be converted into another.
It is probably for lack of such knowledge that at present we waste so
lamentable a quantity of heat, our commonest force, in changing it
into the more desirable form of electricity, light, and mechanical mo-
tion. In exceptionally favorable circumstances, steam-engines of the
best kind give but a fourth in work of the theoretical value of the
heat applied, and in obtaining an electric current from an engine fur-
ther loss occurs ; while the production in a thermo-battery of a cur-
rent from heat directly has never yet yielded as much as one-hundredih
of the force employed.

A slight and well-aimed effort may not only free an immense mag-
azine of energy, but also give it a particular direction and pilot it into
one or. another of two entirely new seas. Hydrogen and oxygen gases
in separate receivers might remain tranquil and unchanged for ages,
and it depends upon the choice of the experimenter, when he wishes
to render their energy available, whether their intense chemical force

158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shall take the form of heat or give forth an electric current. In the
former case he shall connect the receivers together by suitable tubes,
apply a spark, and obtain a flame hot enough to fuse and vaporize
iron or platinum. In the other case he can use Grove's gas-battery,
and permit the elements to unite into water, producing an intense
electric curi'ent capable of working scores of miles of telegraph. The
realm of light yields us examples analogous to those given in the do-
mains of heat and electricity. In photography it has been discovered
that blue rays may begin an impression which red or yellow ones can
finish, and finish only. The power of continuance is diiferent from
the power of initiation, and depends upon it for its opportunity of use-
fulness.

The instability of equilibrium among forces brings in an element
of uncertainty, or rather incalculability, which renders prediction ex-
tremely difiicult in many fields of scientific investigation. Prof. Bal-
four Stewart, in a most instructive essay on " Solar Physics," gives us
some illustrations of this. He supposes a stratum of air in the earth's
atmosphere to be very nearly saturated with aqueous vapor ; that is
to say, just a little above the dew-point ; while at the same time it is
losing heat with extreme slowness, so that if left to itself it would be
a long time before moisture were deposited. Now, such a stratum is
in an extremely delicate state of molecular equilibrium, and the drop-
ping into it of a small crystal of snow would at once cause a remark-
able change of state. For what would happen ? The snow would cool
the air around it, and thus moisture would be deposited in the form
of fine mist or dew. Now, this deposited mist or dew, being a liquid,
and as such much more radiant than vapor, would send its heat into
empty space much more rapidly than the saturated air ; and therefore
it would become colder than the air around it. Thus, more air would
be cooled, and more mist or dew deposited ; and so on until a com-
plete change of condition should be brought about, resulting perhaps
in a shower of rain. Now, in this imaginary case, the tiniest possible
flake of snow has pulled the trigger, as it were, and made the gun go
oif — has changed completely the whole arrangement that might have
gone on for some time longer as it was, had it not been for the advent
of the snow-flake. Prof. Stewart thvis points out that the presence of
a condensable liquid in our atmosphere adds an element of violence,
and also of abruptness, amounting to incalculability, to the motions
which take place. Hence meteorology must long, if not ever, remain
an incomplete science, since in its problems so many variable and un-
stable factors occur. In the course of the same essay Prof. Stewart
tells us how parallelism has been observed between three very inter-
esting classes of phenomena, namely, the periods of maximum sun-
spots, of brilliant auroral displays, and of great disturbances in the
earth's magnetism. Extended observatory records show that all three
coincide in their fluctuations ; hence endeavors have been made to

INITIATORY FORCES. 15^

trace thera to a common source. Observations at Kew for a series of
years have detected that the proximity of Mercury and Venus to the
sun seems to control the size and direction of the solar spots ; and
therefore it appears that these planets mediately through the sun cause
our auroras and magnetic storms. There is also reason to believe
that the production of sun-spots diminishes by absorption the actinic
rays, while the thermal ones are not noticeably affected ; for to the
actinic rays the chemical or ripening effect is due. Years of minimum
sun-spots have been found to coincide very nearly witli the good wine-
years in Germany. At first sight we are startled by the supposi-
tion that a planet like Venus, which comes nearer to the earth than
it ever does to the sun, should in any way be accountable for such
enormous manifestations of energy as those which occur over the
sun's surface. But the wonder will disappear if we bear in mind that
there may be two kinds of causes or antecedents. Thus, we say that
the blacksmith is the cause of the blow which his hammer strikes the
anvil, and here the strength of the blow depends upon the strength
of the smith. But we may likewise say that the man who pulls the
trigger of a gun or cannon is the cause of the motion of the ball, and
here there is no relation between the strength of the effect and that
of its cause. Now, in whatever mysterious way Venus and Mercury
affect the sun, we may be sure it is not after the fashion of the black-
smith : they do not deal him a violent blow producing all this enor-
mous effect, but they rather pull the trigger, and immediately a very
great change takes place. And, in passing, we are here taught how
involved the relations of the parts of the universe may be. Two
planets whose direct influence on the earth by their gravitation and
light is quite inconsiderable, yet, by their indirect effects through their
action on the sun, produce very marked and varied results on the sur-
face of our globe. Many laboratory experiments, on a small scale,
illustrate the potency of initiatory forces. A pail of water, main-
tained in great stillness, may be gradually chilled several degrees be-
low the common freezing-point, when the formation of a cake of ice
instantly follows from a slight shake. A clean glass vessel may be
filled with water and slowly brought to a temperature in excess of
the ordinary boiling-point, and a feeble shock is all that is needed for
the prompt liberation of a large volume of steam. Crystallization
offers similar results. A supersaturated solution of a salt may long
remain in the liquid state until a crystalline fragment thrown in in-
stantly serves as a nucleus for extensive solidification. When such a
solution contains two salts, which begin to crystallize about the same
temperature, when a solid fragment of each kind is thrown into the
liquid, it picks out its kindred without the slightest error, and grows
thereby. A new surgical method for covering a wound with skin em-
ploys as centres of growth tiny morsels of skin supplied from else-
where. These gather together elements akin to themselves, and soon

i6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

repair the injury, otherwise very slow at healing. In some similar
way it must be that a small seed of a plant selects just such ingredi-
ents from the soil as shall make it thrive and increase. On these or-
ganic powei's of initiation and selection, Lucretius ponders in his great
poem, and wonders how it is that different animals — the pig, dog, and
fowl — eat the same food and yet make of it such diverse substance.
On a seed's peculiar nature it may follow whether a field shall give
its substance to maples or cabbages. Just so a volcanic island's pop-
ulation depends, to a large extent, on the first comers — on what human
tribe first lands there, what seeds and insects are first wafted upon it,
and what birds first alight on its shores. Once in possession, the pro-
cess of multiplication soon renders occupancy by stray creatures of
superior kinds impossible ; and so we have incidentally a case where
the best may not be the conquerors and survivors. Mere precedence
in time is often of much account. No man shall ever have as many
children as Adam. The first poets exhausted the most striking and
beautiful similes in Nature, such as now may independently but use-
lessly occur to every cultured imagination. The limits of choice in
the subjects for invention, authorship, and art, are constantly nar-
rowed by the occupation of territory by those who have gone before.
Of course, infinite additions to knowledge and achievement are pos-
sible, but many efforts suggested by the wants of the time, though
quite original, are fruitless simply because they do not happen to be
first.

With respect to the great effectiveness of force, when used largely
or totally in initiation, Pi'of. Stewart thinks that intelligence depends
on conditions in the organism of unstable equilibrium, and he draws
a parallel between the great powers of a human mind and the marked
decomposibility of its brain-substance. The particular supremacy of
man in Nature is thus traced to a principle which highly characterizes
his own frame, and of which he avails himself in his mastery of ex-
ternal Nature — delicacy of poise in construction rendering lai-ge pow-
ers obedient to slight ones.

Our subject further suggests the importance of leadership among
mankind. Heroes have been so unduly praised that a reaction has
set in with many thinkers, who would deti-act from their real value.
Popular discontent, or a wide-spread spirit of enterprise, often lingers
in useless agitation for want of some man a little bolder than the rest,
who shall make the first onslaught on tyranny, or captain the first
ship that shall set its prow toward the shores of a new world. To be
sure, a hero is no more than a representative of the strong feelings of
his land and time; yet, without his faith and enthusiasm, perhaps but
little more than that of many of his neighboi's, their desires and hopes
might never have fulfillment.

Finally, our theme shows us the immense difficulties in the way of
reducing some inquiries of deep interest to exact treatment. If the

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 161

problems of meteorology are of baffling intricacy, how mnch more so
are those of history, with their elements of ignorance, of passion, and
caprice — all controlling forces vastly greater than themselves! We
have recently seen a few votes among hundreds decide the adminis-
tration of the republic for years ; and, within a decade, have beheld a
single general's timidity or treachery betray a noble army into the
enemy's hands, involving wide-spread ruin and deep national disgrace.
And how often are our own individual lives utterly changed in pur-
pose by a mere word, a smile, or a tear !

■♦»»

I

MESMEKISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TUENING, AND

Si^IKITUALISM.

Br WILLIAM B. CAKl'ENTEE, C. B., M, D., LL. D., F. E. S.

II.

T was asserted, about thirty years ago, by Baron von Reichen-
bach, whose researches on the chemistry of the hydrocarbons con-
stitute the foundation of our present knowledge of f)araffin and its
allied products of the distillation of coal, that he had found certain
" sensitive " subjects so peculiarly affected by the neighborhood of
magnets or crystals as to justify the assumption of a special polar
force, which he termed Odyle, allied to, but not identical with, mag-
netism ; present in all material substances, though generally in a less
degree than in magnets and crystals; but called into energetic ac-
tivity by any kind of physical or chemical change, and therefore
especially abundant in the human body. Of the existence of this
odylic force, which he identified with the "animal magnetism" of
Mesmer, he found what he maintained to be adequate evidence in the
peculiar sensations and attractions experienced by his "sensitives"
when in the neighborhood either of magnets or crystals, or of human
beings specially charged with it. After a magnet had been repeat-
edly drawn along the arm of one of these subjects, she would feel a
pricking, streaming, or shooting sensation ; she would smell odors
proceeding from it ; or she would see a small volcano of flame issuing
from its poles when gazing at them, even in broad daylight. As in
the magnetic sleep light is often seen by the somnambule to issue
from the operator's fingers, so the odylic light was discerned in the
dark by Von Reichenbach's " sensitives," issuing not only from the
hands, but from the head, eyes, and mouth, of powerful generators of
this force. One individual in particular was so peculiarly sensitive,
that she saw (in the dark) sparks and flames issuing from ordinary
nails and hooks in a wall. It was further affirmed that certain of

VOL. XI. — 11

i62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

these "sensitives" found their hands so powerfully attracted by mag-
nets or crystals as to be irresistibly drawn toward them ; and thus
tliat if tlie attracting object were forcibly drawn away, not only the
hand, but the whole body of the "sensitive" was dragged after it.
Another set of facts was adduced to prove the special relation of
odyle to terrestrial magnetism — namely, that many " sensitives "
cannot sleep in beds which lie across the magnetic meridian ; a posi-
tion at right angles to it being to some quite intolerable.

Von Reichenbach's doctrine came before the British public under
tlie authority of the late Dr. Gregory, the Professor of Chemistry in
the University of Edinburgh ; who went so far as to affirm that, " by
a laborious and beautiful investigation, Reichenbach had demon-
strated the existence of a force, influence, or imponderable fluid —
whatever name be given to it — which is distinct from all the known
forces, influences, or imponderable fluids, such as heat, light, elec-
tricity, magnetism, and from the attractions, such as gravitation, or
chemical attraction." It at once became apparent, however, to expe-
rienced j^hysicians conversant with the proteiform manifestations of
that excitable, nervous temperament, of which I have already had to
speak, that all these sensations were of the kind which the physiolo-
gist terms "subjective;" the state of the sensorium on which they
immediately depend being the resultant, not of physical impressions
made by external agencies upon the organs of sense, but of cerebral
changes connected with the ideas with which the minds of the " sensi-
tives " had come to be " possessed." The very fact that no manifes-
tation of the supposed force could be obtained except through a con-
scious human organism should have been quite sufficient to suggest
to any philosophic investigator that he had to do not with a new
physical force, but with a peculiar phase of physical action, by no
means unfamiliar to those who had previously studied the influence
of the mind upon the body. And the fact which Von Reichenbach
himself was honest enough to admit — that when a magnet was poised
in a delicate balance, and the hand of a " sensitive " was placed above
or beneath it, the magnet was never drawn toward the hand — ought
to have convinced him that the force which attracted the "sensi-
tive's " hand to the magnet has nothing in common with physical
attractions, whose action is invariably reciprocal; but that it was the
product of her own conviction that she must thus approximate it. So
"possessed" was he, however, by his pseudo-scientific conception,
that the true significance of this fact entirely escaped him; and
althougli he considered that he had taken adequate precautions to
exclude the conveyance of any suggestion of which his " sensitives "
should be conscious, he never tried the one test which would have
been the experhnentum crucis in regard to all the supposed influences
of magnets — that of using electro-magnets, which could be " made "
and " unmade " by completing or breaking the electric circuit, with-

MESMERISM, OBYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 163

out any indication being given to the " sensitive " of this change of
its conditions. And tlie same remark ai:)plies to the more recent
statement of Lord Lindsay, as to Mr. Home's recognition of the posi-
tion of a permanent magnet in a totally-darkened room ; the value of
this solitary fact, for which there are plenty of ways of accounting,
never having been tested by the use of an electro-magnet, whose
active or passive condition should be entirely unknown, not only to
Mr. Home but to every person present.

That " sensitives " like Von Reichenbach's, in so far as they are
not intentional deceivers (which many hysterical subjects are consti-
tutionally prone to be), can feel, see, or smell, anything that they were
led to believe that they would feel, see, or smell, was soon proved by
the experimental inquiries of Mr. Braid, many of which I myself wit-
nessed. He found that not only in hysterical girls, but in many men
and women " of a highly-concentrative and imaginative turn of mind,"
though otherwise in ordinary health, it was sufficient to fix the atten-
tion on any particular form of e-xpectancy — such as pricking, stream-
ing, heat, cold, or other feelings, in any part of the body over which
a magnet was being drawn ; luminous emanations from the poles of a
magnet in the dark, in some cases even in full daylight ; or the attrac-
tion of a magnet or crystal held Avithin reach of the hand — for that
expectancy to be fully realized. And, conversely, the same sensations
were equally produced when the subjects of them were led to believe
that the same agency was being employed, although nothing what-
ever was really done ; the same flames being seen when the magnet
was concealed by shutting it in a box, or even when it was carried
out of the room, Avithout the knowledge of the subject; and the
attraction of the magnet for the hand being entirely governed by the
idea previously suggested, positive or negative results being thus
obtained with either pole, as Mr. Braid might direct. "I know," be
says of one of his subjects, " that this lady was incapable of trying to
deceive myself or others present ; but she was self-deceived and spell-
bound by the predominance of a preconceived idea, and was not less
surprised at the varying powers of the instrument than were others
who witnessed the results." '

One of Mr. Braid's best " subjects " was a gentleman residing in
Manchester, well known for his high intellectual culture, great general
ability, and strict probity. He had such a remarkable power of vol-
untary abstraction as to be able at any time to induce in himself a
state akin to profoimd reverie (corresponding to what has been since
most inappropriately called the "biological"), in which he became so
completely "possessed" by any idea strongly enforced upon him,
that his whole state of feeling and action was dominated by it. Thus
it was sufficient for him to place his hand upon the table and fix his
attention upon it for half a minute, to be entirely unable to withdraw
1 "The Power of the Mind over the Body," 1846, p. 20.

164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

it, if assured in a detei-mined tone that he could not do so. When his
gaze had been steadily directed for a short time to the poles of a mag-
net, he could be brought to see flames issuing from them of any form
or color that Mr. Braid chose to name. And when desired to place
his hand upon one of the poles, and to fix his attention for a brief
period upon it, the peremptory assurance that he could not detach it
was sufficient to hold it there with such tenacity that I saw Mr. Braid
drag him round the room in a way that reminded me of George
Cruikshank's amusing illustration of the German fairy-story of "The
Golden Goose." The attraction was dissolved by Mr. Braid's loud,
cheery " All right, man," which brought the subject back to his nor-
mal condition, as suddenly as the attraction of a powerful electro-
magnet for a heavy mass of iron ceases when the circuit is broken.

Similar experiments to these (which I first witnessed about thirty
years ago) have been since repeated over and over again upon great
numbers of persons, in whom a corresponding state can be induced
by prolonged fixation of the vision on a small object held in the hand.
It was in the year 1850 that a new manifestation of the supposed
" occult " power first attracted public attention, through the exhibi-
tion of it by a couple of itinerant Americans, who styled themselves
"professors," of a new art which they termed Electro-Biology ;
asserting that by an influence of which the secret was only known to
themselves, but which was partly derived from a little disk of zinc or
copper held in the hand of the " subject " and steadily gazed on by
him, they could subjugate the most determined will, paralyze the
strongest muscles, pervert the evidence of the senses, destroy the
memory of even the most familiar things or of the most recent occur-
rences, induce obedience to any command, or make the individual
believe himself transformed into any one else ; all this, and much more,
being done while he was still wide awake. They soon attracted large
assemblages to witness their performances, and seldom failed to elicit
some of the most remarkable phenomena from entire strangers to
them, whose honesty could not be reasonably called in question. In
place of a few peculiarly susceptible " subjects" not always to be met
with, and open to suspicion on various grounds, those who took up
this practice found in almost every circle some individuals in whom
the "biological" state could be self-induced by the steady direction
of their eyes to one point, at the ordinary reading-distance, for a
period usually varying from about five to twenty minutes; a much
shorter time generally sufficing in cases in which the practice had
been frequently repeated. In this condition, the whole course of
thought is directed by external suggestions, the subject's own control
over it being altogether suspended. Yet he differs from the somnam-
bulist, in being av;ake ; that is, he has generally the use of all* his
senses, and usually, though not always, preserves a distinct recol-
lection of all that has taken place. There is, in fact, a gradational

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC, 165

I

transition from the " biological " to the " mesmeric " state ; just as
there is a passage from tlie state of prol'ound reverie or " day-dream-
ing" to that of ordinary sleep. All its strange phenomena are
referable to one simple principle — the possession of the mind by a
doininant idea, from which, however absurd it may be, the subject
cannot free himself by bringing it to the test of actual experience,
because the suspension of his self-directing power prevents him from
correcting his ideational state by comparing it with external realities;
this suspension being often as complete as it is in dreaming, so that,
though the senses are awake, they cannot be turned to account. But
it may exist in regard to one sense only, the impressions made on
others being truly represented to the mind. Thus I have seen in-
stances in which a " biologized " sultject could be made to believe him-
self to be tasting anything which the operator might assure him that
he looidd taste — such as milk, coffee, wine, or porter — when drinking
a glass of pure water, though he was instantly disabused by looking
at tlie liquid ; while another would see milk or coffee, wine or porter,
as he was directed, but would instantly set himself right when he
tasted the liquid. Nothing can be more amusing than to experiment
ujjon a subject who has no misgivings of this kind, but whose percep-
tions are altogether under the direction of the ideas impressed upon
him. Pie may be made to exhibit all the manifestations of delight
which would be called forth by the viands or liquors of which he may
be most fond, and these may be turned in a moment into expressions
of the strongest disgust, by simply giving the word which shall
(ideally) change it into something he detests. Or if, when he believes
himself to be drinking a cup of tea or coffee, he be made to believe
that it is very hot, nothing will induce him to take more than a sip
at a time; yet a moment afterward he will be ready to swallow the
whole in gulps, if assured that the liquid is quite cool. Tell him,
again, that his seat is growing hot under him, and that he Avill not be
able to remain long upon it, and he will fidget uneasily for some time,
and at last start up with all the indications of having found the heat
no longer bearable. While he is firmly grasping a stick in his hand,
let him be assured that it will burn him if he continue to hold it, or
that it is becoming so heavy that he can no longer sustain it, and
he will presently drop it with gestures conformable in each case to
the idea.

It may, of course, be said that what I have presented to you as
real phenomena are only simulated ; and as there would be nothing
difficult in such simulation, the supposition is of course admissible.
But they are so perfectly conformable to the known principles of
Mental action, that there is no justification for the suspicion of deceit,
when they are presented by persons in whose good faith we have rea-
sonable grounds of confidence. For every one must be conscious of
occasional mistakes as to what he supposes himself to have seen or

i66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

heard, which he can trace to a previous expectancy. Of this I can
give you a very striking illustration in a case narrated by Dr. Tuke.
A lady, whose mind had been a good deal occupied on the subject
of drinking-fountains, was walking from Penrhyn to Falmouth, and
thought she saw in the road a newly-erected fountain, with the in-
scription, " If any man thirst, let him come hither and drink." Some
time afterward, on mentioning the fact with pleasure to the daughters
of a gentleman whom she supposed to have erected it, she was greatly
surprised to learn from them that no such drinking-fountain existed ;
and, on subsequently repairing to the spot, she found nothing but a
few stones, which constituted the foundation on which her exjiectant
imagination had built an ideal superstructure.

The same may be said Avith regard to the control exercised over
the muscular movements of the biologized " subject," by the persua-
sion that he must or that he cannot perform a particular action. His
hands being placed in contact with one another, he is assured that he
cannot separate them, and they remain as if firmly glued together,
in spite of all his apparent efforts to draw them apart. Or, a hand
being held up before him, he is assured that he cannot succeed in
striking it ; and not only does all his power seem inadequate to the
performance of this simple action, but it actually is so as long as he
remains convinced of its entire impossibility. So I have seen a strong
man chained down to his chair, prevented from stepping over a stick
on the floor, or obliged to remain almost doubled upon himself in a
stooping position, by the assurance that he could not move. On the
other hand, an extraordinary power may be called forth in any set of
muscles — as in hypnotized subjects — by the assurance that the action
to be performed by them may be executed with the greatest facility.
This, again, is quite conformable to ordinary experience ; the assur-
ance that we can perform some feat of strength or dexterity nerving
us to the eflbrt; while our power is weakened by our own doubts of
success, still more by the unfavorable impression produced by a con-
fident prediction of failure. It is only needed for the mind to become
completely " possessed" by the one or the other conviction for it to
produce the bodily results of this kind which I have over and over
again witnessed.

Now the phenomena of the " biological " condition seem to me of
peculiar significance, in relation to a large class of those which are
claimed as manifestations of a supposed "spiritual" agencj'. "When
a number of persons of that " concentrative and imaginative turn of
mind " which predisposes them to the "biological" condition sit for
a couple of hours (especially if in the dark) with the expectation of
some extraordinary occurrence — such as the rising and floating in the
air, either of the human body, or of chairs or tables, without any
physical agency; the crawling of live lobsters over their persons ; the
contact of the hands, the sound of the voices, or the visible luminous

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 167

shapes,* of their departed friends — it is perfectly conformable to sci-
entific probability that they should pass more or less completely (like
Reichenbach's " sensitives ") into a state which is neither waking nor
sleeping, but between the two, in which they see, hear, or feel, by
touch, anything they have been led to expect will present itself. And
the accordance of their testimony, in regard to such occurrences, is
only such as is produced by the community of the dominant idea
with which they are all " possessed," a community of which history
furnishes any amount of strangely-varied examples. And thus it
becomes obvious that the testimony of a single cool-headed skeptic,
who asserts that nothing extraordinary has really occurred, should
be accepted as more trustworthy than that of any number of believ-
ers, who have, as it were, created the sensorial result by their anticipa-
tion of it.

1 have now to show you that the like expectancy can also produce
movements of various kinds, through the instrumentality of the
nervo-muscular apparatus, without the least consciousness on the part
of its subject of his being himself the instrument of their perform-
ance ; a physiological fact which is the key to the whole mystery of
table-turning and table-talking. I very well remember the prevalence
in my schoolboy days of a belief that, when a ring, a button, or any
other small body, suspended by a string over the end of the finger,
was brought near the outside or inside of a glass tumbler, it would
strike the hour of the day against its surface ; and the experiment
certainly succeeded in the hands of several of my schoolfellows, who
tried it in all good faith, getting up in the middle of the night to test
it, in entire ignorance, as they declared, of the real time. But, as
was pointed out by M. Chevreul, who investigated this subject in a
truly scientific spirit more than forty years ago,' it is impossible by
any voluntary effort to keep the hand absolutely still for a length of
time in the position required ; an involuntary tremulousness is always
observable in the suspended body, and if the attention be fixed on it
with the expectation that its vibrations will take a definite direction,
they are very likely to do so. But their persistence in that direction
is found to last only so long as they are guided by the sight of the
operator, at once and entirely losing their constancy if he closes or
turns away his eyes. Thus it became obvious that, in the striking
of the hour, the influence which determines the number of strokes
is really the knowledge or suspicion present to the mind of the oper-
ator, which involuntarily and unconsciously directs the action of his
muscles ; and the same rationale was applied by M. Chevreul to other
cases in which this pendule explorateur (the use of which can be traced

' I put aside the question of fraud, to which recourse has doubtless often been had
for the production of these phenomena ; being satisfied that they are often genuinely
"subjective."

2 See his letters to M. Ampere, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, May, 1833.

i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

back to a very remote date) has been appealed to for answers to ques-
tions of very diverse character.

When, however, "Odyle" came to the front, and the world of
curious but unscientific inquirers was again "possessed" by the idea
of an unknown and mysterious agency, capable of manifesting itself
in an unlimited variety of ways, the j)e9idnle explorateur was brought
into vogue, under the name of odometer^ by Dr. Herbert Mayo,* who
investigated its action with a great show of scientific precision ; start-
ing, however with the foregone conclusion that its osciHations were
directed by tlie hypothetical " odyle," and altogether ignoring the
mental participation of the operator, whom he supposed to be as pas-
sive as a thermometer or a balance. By a series of elaborate experi-
ments, he convinced himself that the direction and extent of the
oscillations could be altered, either by a change in the nature of the
substances placed beneath the " odometer," or by the contact of the
hand of a person of the opposite sex, or even of the experimenter's
other hand, with that from which it was suspended. And he grad-
ually reduced his result to a series of definite laws, which he re-
garded as having the same constancy as those of physics or chemis-
try. Unfortunately, however, other experimenters, who worked out
the inquiry with similar perseverance and good faith, arrived at such
different results, that it soon came to be obvious that what astro-
nomical observers call the "personal equation" of the individual has
a very large share in detei'miniiig them. A very intelligent medical
friend of my own, then residing abroad, wrote me long letters full of
the detailed results of his own inquiries, on which he was anxious for
my opinion. My reply was simply : " Shut your eyes, or turn them
away, and let some one else watch the oscillations under tlie condi-
tions you have specified, and record their results ; you will find, if I
do not mistake, that they will then show an entire v:ant of the con-
stancy you have hitherto observed." His next letter informed me
that such proved to be the case; so that he had come entirely to
agree with me as to the dependence of the previous uniformity of his
results on his own expectancy.

A curious variation of the " odometer " was introduced by Mr.
Rutter, the manager of the gas-works at Brighton, under the name
of " magnetometer," which was simply a gallows-shaped frame,
mounted on a solid base, having a metallic ball suspended from its
free extremity. When the finger was kept for a short time in contact
with this frame, the ball began to oscillate, usually in some definite
direction, changing that direction with any change of circumstances,
after the manner of Dr. Mayo's " odometer." To many persons, as
to Mr. Kutter himself, it appeared impossible that these oscillations
could have their origin in any movement of the operator ; but every
one who knows how difficult it is to prevent vibrations in the sup-
1 "The Truths contained in Popular Superstitions," 1851.

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 169

porting framework of a microscope or telescope, and who recognizes
that the construction of the " magnetometer " is exactly such as will
enable the smallest amount of imparted motion to produce the great-
est sensible effect, will be prepared to expect that the oscillations
of the suspended ball are as much maintained and gnided by the
expectancy of the operator as they are when it is hung directly from
his own finger. Experiment soon proved this to be the case : for it
was found that the constancy of the vibrations entirely depended
upon the operator's watching their direction, either by his own eyes
or by those of some one else ; and, further, that when such a change
was made icithout his knoioledge in the conditions of the experiment,
as ought, theoretically, to alter the direction of the oscillations, no
such alteration took place.

A very amusing expose, of the mystery of the " magnetometer "
resulted from its application b)^ Dr. Madden, an homoeopathic phy-
sician at Brighton, to test the virtues of his "globules," as to which
he had, of course, some preformed conclusions of his own. The
results of his first experiments entirely corresponded with his ideas of
what they ought to be ; for when a globule of one medicine was taken
into his disengaged hand, the susj^ended ball oscillated longitudi-
nally ; and when this globule was changed for another of opposite
virtues, the direction of the oscillations became transverse. Another
homoeopathic physician, however, was going through a similar course
of experiments ; and his results, while conformable to his own no-
tions of the virtues of the globules, were by no means accordant with
those of Dr. Madden. The latter was thus led to reinvestigate the
matter with a precaution he had omitted in the first instance ; name-
ly, that the globules should be placed in his hand by another person,
without any hint being given him of their nature. From the moment
he began to work upon this plan, the whole aspect of the subject was
changed ; globules that produced longitudinal oscillations at one
time gave transverse at another, while globules of the most opposite
remedial virtues gave no sign of difference. And thus he was soon
led to the conviction, which he avowed with a candor very creditable
to him, that the system he had built up had no better foundation
than his own anticipation of what the results of each experiment
should be ; that anticipation expressing itself unconsciously in invol-
untary and imperceptible movements of his finger, which communi-
cated a rhythmical vibration to the framework when the oscillations
of the ball suspended from it were watched.

Thus, by the investigations of scientific experts who were alive to
the sources of fallacy which the introduction of the hmnan element
always brings into play, the hypothesis of odylic force was proved to
be completely baseless ; the phenomena which were supposed to mdi-
cate its existence being traceable to the physiological conditions of
the human organisms through whose instrumentality they Avere mani-

170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fested. The principle that the state of " expectant attention " is
capable of giving rise either to sensations or to involuntary move-
ments, according to the nature of the expectancy, had been previously
recognized in physiological science, and was not invented for the
occasion ; but the phenomena I have been describing to you are
among its most " pregnant instances."

The same principle furnishes what I believe to be the true scientific
explanation of the supposed mystery of the divining-rod, often used
where water is scarce for the discovery of springs, and in mining-dis-
stricts for the detection of metallic veins. This rod is a forked twig
shaped like the letter Y, hazel being usually preferred ; and the diviner
walks over the ground to be explored, firmly grasping its two prongs
with his hands, in such a position that its stem points forward.
After a time the end of the stem points downward, often, it is said,
with a sort of writhing or struggling motion, especially when the
fork is tightly grasped ; and sometimes it even turns backward, so as
to point toward instead of away from the body of the diviner. Now,
there is a very large body of apparently reliable testimony, that
when the ground has been opened in situations thus indicated, either
water-springs or metallic veins have been found beneath ; and it is
quite certain that the existence of such a power is a matter of unques-
tioning faith on the part of large numbers of intelligent persons who
have witnessed what they believe to be its genuine manifestations.^
This subject, however, was carefully inquired into more than forty
years ago by MM. Chevreul and Biot ; and their experimental conclu-
sions anticipated those to which I was myself led in ignorance of them
by physiological reasoning. They found that the forked twig cannot
be firmly grasped for a quarter of an liour or more in the regulation
position, without the induction of a state of muscular tension, which
at last discharges itself in movement ; and this acts on the prongs of
the fork in such a manner as to cause its stem to point, either upward,
downward, or to one side. The occasion of this discharge and the
direction of the movement are greatly influenced, like the oscillations
of bodies suspended from the finger, by expectancy on the part of the
operator ; so that if he has any suspicion or surmise as to the " where-
abouts " of the object of his search, an involuntary and unconscious
action of his muscles causes the point of the rod to dip over it.

Again, since not one individual in forty, in the localities in which
the virtues of the divining-rod are still held as an article of faith, is
found to obtain any results from its use, it becomes obvious that its
movements must be due, not to any physical agency directly affecting
the rod, but to some influence exerted through its holder. And that
this influence is his expectation of the result may, I tliink, be pretty
confidently aftirmed. For it has been clearly show'n, by careful and

' I have lately received a pamphlet from an engineer in the United States, giving
most circumstantial details of success thus obtained within his own experience.

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 171

repeated experiments, that, while the rod dips when the " diviner "
knows or believes he is over a water-spring or a metallic vein the
results are uncertain, contradictory, or simply negative, when he is
blindfolded, so as not to be aware precisely where he is. The follow-
ing is a striking case of this kind that has been lately brought to my
knowledge :

" A friend of mine," says Dr. Beard,' " an aged clergyman, of thorough in-
tegrity and fairness, has for many years— the larger part of his natural life, I
believe— enjoyed the reputation of being especially skilled in the finding of
places to dig wells, by means of a divining-rod of witch-hazel, or the fresh
branches of apple or other trees. His fame has spread far, and the accounts
that are given by him and of him are, to those who think human testimony is
worth anything, overwhelmingly convincing. He consented to allow me to ex-
periment with him. I found tliat only a few moments were required to prove
that his fancied gift was a delusion, and could be explained wholly by uncon-
scious muscular motion, the result of expectancy and coincidence. In his own
yard there was known to be a stream of water running through a small pipe a
few feet below the surface. Marching over and near this, the rod continually
pointed strongly downward, and several times turned clear over. These places
I marked, blindfolded him, marched him about until he knew not where he was,
and took him over the same ground over and over again ; and, although the rod
went down a number of times, it did not once point to or near the places j^revi-
ously indicated.''''

I very well remember having heard, some thirty-five years ago,
from Mr. Dilke (the grandfather of the present Sir Charles), of an
experiment of this kind which he had himself made upon a young-
Portuguese, who had come to him with a letter of introduction, de-
scribing the bearer of it as possessing a most remarkable power of
finding, by means of the divining-rod, metals concealed from view.
Mr. Dilke's family being at a summer residence in the country, his
plate had all been sent to his chambers in the Adelphi, where he was
visited by the Portuguese youth ; to whom he said, " Go about the
room with your rod, and try if you can find any mass of metal."
The youth did so ; and his rod dipped over a large standing desk, in
which Mr. Dilke's plate had -been temporarily lodged. Seeing, how-
ever, that there were circumstances which might reasonably suggest
this guess, Mr, Dilke asked the youth if he was willing to allow his
divining power to be tested under conditions which should exclude
all such suggestion ; and, having received a ready assent, he took his
measures accordingly. Taking his plate-box down to his countrj-
residence, he secretly buried it just beneath the soil in a newly-
ploughed field ; selecting a spot which he could identify by cross-
bearings of conspicuous trees, and getting a plough drawn again over
its surface, so as to make this correspond pi-ecisely with that of the
rest of the field. The young diviner was then summoned from Lon-

1 Review of Medicine and Pharmacy (New York), September, 1875.

172 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

don, and challenged to find beneath the soil of this field the very-
same plate which he had previously detected in Mr. Dilke's desk at
the Adelphi ; but, having nothing watever to guide him even to a
guess, he was completely at fault. Mr. Dilke's impression was that
he was not an impostor, but a sincere believer in his own power, as
the " dowsers " of mining-districts seem unquestionably to be. The
test of blindfolding the diviner, and then leading him about in difier-
ent directions, so as to put him comj^letely at fault in regard to his
locality, is one that can be very readily applied, when the diviner is
acting in good faith ; but, as I shall show you in the next lecture, it
requires very special precautions to blindfold a person who is deter-
mined to see ; and, in some of the cases which seem to have stood
this test, it seems not improbable that vision was not altogether pre-
cluded.

An additional reason for attributinor the action of the diviuino--rod
to the muscular movements called forth by a state of expectancy
(perhaps not always consciously entertained) on the part of the per-
former seems to me to be furnished by the diversity of the powers
that have been attributed to it ; such as that of identifying mur-
derers and indicating the direction of their flight, discovering the
lost boundaries of lands, detecting the birthplace and parentage of
foundlings, etc. The older writers do not in the least call in question
the reality of the powers of the hazel-fork, but learnedly discuss
whether they are due to natural or to diabolic agency. Wlien in the
last century the phenomena of electricity and magnetism became ob-
jects of scientific study, but had not yet been comprehended under
the grasp of law, it was natural that those of the divining-rod should
be referred to agencies so convenient, which seemed ready to account
for anything otherwise unaccountable. But, since physicists and phys-
iologists have come to agree that the moving power is furnished by
nothing else than the muscles of the diviner, the only question that re-
mains is. What calls forth its exercise? And the conclusive evidence
I have given you that the definite oscillations of susjiended bodies
depend on involuntary movements unconsciously determined by states
of expectancy^ clearly points to the conclusion that we have in the
supposed mystery of the divining-rod only another case of the same
kind. It is well known that persons who are conversant with the
geological structure of a district are often able to indicate with con-
siderable certainty in what spot, and at what depth, water will be
found ; and men of less scientific knowledge, but of considerable
practical experience, frequently arrive at a true conclusion on this
point, without being able to assign reasons for their opinions. Ex-
actly the same may be said in regard to the mineral structure of a
mining-district ; the course of a metallic vein being often correctly
indicated by the shrewd guess of an observant workman, 'where the
scientific reasoning of the mininw-ensjineor altosjether fails. It is an

MESMERISM, ODYLISM, TABLE-TURNING, ETC. 173

experience we are continually encountering in other walks of life, that
particular persons are guided, some apparently by an original and
othei-s by an acquired intuition, to conclusions for which they can
give no adequate reasons, but which subsequent events prove to have
been correct ; and I look upon the divining-rod in its various appli-
cations as only a peculiar method of giving expression to results
worked out by an automatic process of this kind, even before they
rise to .distinct mental consciousness. Various other methods of
divination that seem to be practised in perfectly good faith — such,
for example, as the Bible and key test, used for the discovery of stolen
property — are probably to be attributed to the same agency ; the
cerebral traces of past occurrences supplying materials for the auto-
matic evolution of a result (as they unquestionably do in dreams)
when the occurrences themselves have been forgotten.

Many of the cases of so-called thought-reading are clearly of the
same kind ; the communication being made by unconscious muscular
action on the part of one person, and automatically interpreted by
the other — as in the following instance : Several persons being as-
sembled, one of them leaves the room, and during his ^ absence
some object is hidden. On the absentee's reentrance, two persons,
who know the hiding-place, stand one on either side of him, and
establish some personal contact with him ; one method being for each
to place a finger on his shoulder, and another for each to place a hand
on his body, one on the front and the other on the back. He walks
about the room between the two, and generally succeeds before long
in finding the hidden object; being led toward it (as careful observa-
tion and experiment have fully proved) by the involuntary muscular
action of his unconscious guides, one or the other of them pressing
more heavily when the object is on his side, and the finder as involun-
tarily turning toward that side.

These and other curious results of recent inquiry, while strictly
conformable to physiological principles, greatly extend our knowledge
of the modes in which states of mind express themselves uncon-
sciously and involuntarily in muscular action: and I dwell on them
the more because they seem to me to afibrd the key (as I shall explain
in my next lecture) to some of these phenomena of spiritualistic
divination, which have been most perplexing to many who have come
in contact with them, without being disposed to accept the sim'itual-
istic interpretation of them. — Fraser's Magazine.

1 The experiment succeeds equally well, or perhaps better, with ladies.

174 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

OX THE DISTEIBUTION OF STAND AED TIME IE THE

UNITED STATES.

By EDWAED S. HOLDEN,
united states naval obsekvatory, washington.

FOR the ordinary purposes of life in a state of society which is
not yet complex, a very simple system of recording the lapse
of time is sufficient. Sunrise and sunset are local phenomena, which
from the earliest times forced themselves upon the attention of every
one, and which throughout the early centuries sufficed for the divi-
sion of time. A further division of the duration of the day (as
defined by the continuance of sunlight) was obtained by noting the
time of noon, and there is no historic period known in which the
method of obtaining a rough apjjroximation to this instant by means
of the shadow of a vertical rod or pillar was not understood. Prob-
ably the observation of such a gnomon or style constituted the first
step in astronomy of precision^ as distinguished from that astronomy
in which numbers do not play the most important part. The instant
so determined is technically called the instant of apparent noon at
any place, and it marks the moment when the sun is highest above the
horizon and on the meridian.'

Until within a hundred years this apparent time, that is the time
marked by the angular distance of the sun from the meridian of any
place, was the system universally adopted. A watch should mark
12'' 0" 0' when the sun was highest. But the lengths of apparent solar
days, or the time elapsed between two successive apparent noons, are
not equal at different parts of the year, since the true sun does not
move in a plane perpendicular to the earth's rotation axis (the equa-
tor), but in the ecliptic, a plane greatly inclined to the equator, and
since the sun's motion in the ecliptic is not uniform. Hence arises an
inequality in these apparent solar days, and a capital advance was
made by the adoption of mean solar time, which is now universal.
Local mean noon is the time when an imaginary sun supposed to
move uniformly in the equator is on the meridian of any place, as
New York, and a mean solar day is the interval between two suc-
cessive mean noons. This is divided into twenty-four hours, and
these again into minutes and seconds, and the length of these imits is
practically invariable.

The time of mean noon differs from the instant of apparent noon
no less than sixteen minutes at certain times in the year, being some-

' Rigorously, the sun may not have its maximum altitude on the meridian, but its
maximum altitude can never differ from its meridian altitude by more than half a second
of arc.

STANDARD TIME IN THE UNITED STATES. 175

times in advance of it, and sometimes later; so that the moment when
the sun was highest at a certain place does not mark a determinate
instant unless the day of the year is also given.

It is necessary to remember this, and to insist somewhat upon it,
as the idea that the local noon as determined by clocks and watches
is a sort of naturally determined epoch is widely spread, while the
fact is that it is an artificial epoch, w^hich can only be fixed by a
somewhat difiicult astronomical observation and a subsequent com-
putation. The farm-laborer who eats his dinner in the field at the
time that shadows cast by the sun point north and south is the
victim of his own ignorance, as he sometimes anticipates the noon of
watches and clocks by more than a quarter of an hour, and is some-
times equally in retard. The improvement of the balance-watch
upon the clepsydra or the hour-glass and other early time-keepers
caused the change to be made from apparent to mean time, and the
increasing requirements of a complex civilization demand more and
more attention to the keeping of accurate standard time. One of the
most important functions of observatories is the determination of such
a standard of time, and if this were their sole function the expense
of maintaining them would be fully repaid.

If the standard time is important to the man of business in mak-
ing his appointments and regulating his affairs, to the traveler in pro-
viding railways with a correct time by which to govern the move-
ments of trains, and in general to every citizen in his daily occupa-
tions on land, it is vital to the successful and safe navigation of the
ocean. Every ship that sails for a foreign port must before her
departure know the correction of her chronometers to Greenwich
time (that is, the number of seconds they are fast or slow on that
time), and besides this their rate (or the number of seconds they daily
gain or lose). Provided with good chronometers and with these data
well determined, a ship sails from her port with the power of deter-
mining on any day her position on the earth's surface.

A simple observation of the altitude of the sun at noon gives, by
a short computation, her latitude, and a determination of the angular
distance of the sun east or west of her meridian gives the local time.
The difierence of the local time of the ship and the Greenwich time,
as shown by her chronometers, gives her longitude. Latitude and
longitude being known, her place on the chart can be put down with
but little uncertainty. This is daily done, if possible, on every one
of the ships sailing out of New York City, and on the skill of her
officers, the goodness of her chronometers, and the accuracy of their
rates, depends the safety of her passengers and cargo. To all men of
business, then, in their appointments and affairs on shore and in their
commercial ventures by sea, the fact that a standard time is easily
attainable and perfectly correct is of no slight importance. To
travelers, whether by sea or land, it is truly a matter of life and

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

death. The watches of railway employes are usually set by one
clock, but a difference of one or two minutes on a crowded road may
briuo- about the most fatal results, as the reports of the various rail-
way commissions will show. If a ship leaves New York supposing
her chronometer which is regulated to Greenwich time to be losing
two seconds a day, while it is really losing six, every day she is really
about a mile farther west than her reckoning shows her to be, and in
a voyage of a month she will suppose herself to be too far west by
thirty miles. Such a result may be attended with the most disastrous
consequences, and that it does not oftener so result is due to the skill
and watchfulness of sea-captains, a class of men whose vigilance and
faithfulness are too little appreciated.

That such accidents do occur is brought constantly before us, in
the reports of marine disasters as given in the newspapers and else-
where, and every year a large volume is published by the English
Government — the "Report of Wrecks and Casualties," etc, — in which
the details are given. A simple inspection of the wreck-chart appended
to this bulky annual volume, where every vessel wrecked during the
year has the place of her loss indicated by a dot on the map, shows
how frequent such losses are. I know of no simpler way of presenting
the risks run, when the actual wreck is not incun-ed, than by giving the
following table from the report for 1863 of Mr. Hartnup, Director of
the Observatory of Liverpool, an observatory founded especially for
the care of the chronometers of merchant-ships.

The work of this observatory has been continued for many years,
and a large mass of statistics concerning the running of the chro-
nometers of ships sailing out of Liverpool has been accumxxlated and
partially discussed.

In the earlier history of the observatory, its attention was confined
to the rating of chronometers, and, when any chronometer was sent
to a ship with a given correction and rate^ a record was kept of the
fact.

On the return of the chronometer to Liverpool every effort was
made to find the correction and rate which were given at the foreign
port to which the ship was bound, and in this way a vast amount of
statistical information concerninof the runninsr of the chronometers of
merchant-ships out of Liverpool was accumulated.

In tbe following table, which summarizes these statistics, the^r^^
horizontal column contains the length of the voyage in months ; the
second^ the average error of longitude in geographical miles on the
equator, deduced from the means of 1,700 chronometers; and the re-
maining columns show the average error of the best ten instruments
in one hundred, of the second best ten, etc. I have only taken so
much of the table as would include a voyage of four months, since a
vessel could hardly be without means of correcting her chronometer
for a much longer time than this. We may fairly say that this table

STANDARD TIME IN THE UNITED STATES. 177

represents the danger which the merchant-ships of Liverpool actually
were subjected to for many years on account of erroneous running of
their chronometers, and because the sea-rates varied from the shore-
rates. It must also be remembered that from this table all cases of
vessels which were shipwrecked (on this and other accounts) are
omitted, so that, no matter how impossible it may at first sight seem
to be that such enormous errors existed, it is yet a matter of fact that
the errors are under and not over stated.

Table showing Error of Longitude in Geographical Miles on the
Equator, deduced from 1,700 Chronometers.

LENGTH OP VOYAGE.

Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average
Average

error from 1,700 chronometers

error from the best 10 in 100

error from the second best 10 in 100.
error from the third best 10 in 100 . .
error from the fourth best 10 in 100..
error from the fifth best 10 in 100. . .
error from the sixth best 10 in 100. .
error from the seventh best 10 in 100
error from the eighth best 10 in 100.
error from the ninth best 10 in 100. .
error from the worst 10 in 100

tn

rd

■B

5

a

a

o

S

CJ

o

(h

CI

fe

.a

O

H

H

6

14

23

0

0

1

1

2

3

1

4

6

2

5

9

S

7

12

• 4

9

15

5

11

18

7

15

25

9

24

41

25

C2

101

a
o

u

3

o

33

1

4

8

13

17

22

28

36

61

143

Examining the table in detail, it becomes necessary to recollect that
it is a matter of record that these actually were the errors of chro-
nometers carried on a large number of ships sailing out of Liverpool.
The average errors derived from no less than 1,700 chronometers
are enormous, being as great as thirty-three miles for a voyage of four
months.

Among the many vessels carrying these instruments were a large
number going on long voyages to India, Australia, and South America,
and in many cases these vessels would necessarily be between three
and four months or more on the voyage, often without sighting land.
It appears from this table that the average error to be expected on such
a voyage, and with such chronometers as they had (up to 18G3), was
no less than thirty-three miles ! It is plain that no such errors are to
be found in the chronometers used by our own naval vessels, nor were
American merchant-vessels during the same period so badly provided
for, but it is certain that English vessels were provided on the whole
with extremely poor instruments.

It is plain that several causes were here acting. The chronometers
furnished to these ships were on the average very poor. This fault

VOL. XI. — 12

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

could be remedied by a board of inspection appointed by the insurance
companies, which should refuse to insure the cargo or hull of any sea-
going ship unless her chronometers were found, after trial, to be satis-
factory. Part of the error is undoubtedly due to the bad navigation
of the captain, who, in distant ports not provided with time from an
astronomical observatory, determined the error of his chronometer
himself, and that not always correctly. But the great source of error
was the fact that the rate of the chronometer assigned at the port of
sailing did not serve throughout the voyage.

It will be then of some interest to describe the measures now tak-
ing in the United States to provide the sea-going ships sailing from
our various ports with an accurate standard time; and, further, to ex-
plain the facilities offered by the United States Naval Observatory to
railways, manufactories, and others, in the providing of a time by
which to reo;ulate their affairs.

The Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, the late Rear-Ad-
miral C. H. Davis, some time ago proposed to the authorities of the
Western Union Telegraph Company the erection of a large time-ball
upon their new building on Broadway, near the City Hall. This
time-ball it was proposed to drop daily by telegraph at New York
noon. It is to be dropped exactly at 11'' 47" 49.53' a. m. of Washing-
ton local time, which is New York noon, 12'' 0" 0.00^ or 4'' 56" 1.65'
of Greenwich time. It will thus be available both for the citizens,
railways, etc., of New York, and for the ships sailing from port It
is to be mounted upon the large iron flagstaff on top of the east tower
of the Western Union building, the base of the staff being about 230
feet above the street, and the ball being dropped from a part of the
staff about 25 feet above this. The whole expense of the apparatus,
which is considerable, and the management of it, which requires the
attention of a laborer and of a skilled electrician, have been assumed in
a public-spirited manner by the Western Union Telegraph Company,
for the benefit of the citizens and the shipping of New York City.

The apparatus employed may be briefly described as follows :

Around the iron mast, which is of great strength, is fastened an
iron jacket, sliding up and down freely iipon it. On this is fitted a
ball three feet six inches in diameter, made of copper-wire netting, and
painted black. The interstices of the netting allow of a free passage
of the wind through the ball, so that less strain is exerted upon the
mast,and a larger ball is permissible than there otherwise would be.

At the bottom of the jacket are a coiled spring and a buffer en-
circling the mast, which take the considerable blow of the falling
ball. At 11" 55" of New York time, the ball is hoisted half-way or
more up the mast, and at 11'' 58" it is hoisted completely up, and the
halliards are attached at 11'' 59" to a lever actuated by an electro-
magnet. At exactly noon an electric signal releases the lever, and
the ball falls by its own weight.

STANDARD TIME IN THE UNITED STATES. 179

If by any mischance the ball does not so fall at noon, it is kept up
to its place until IS*" 5° 0', when it is dropped. To signalize this pro-
gramme, which may occasionally be necessary, a small flag marked
12'' 5"" will be at once hoisted, and kept flying till the ball is dropped.
A ball of this size can be seen by every vessel lying at the wharves
of Brooklyn and New York, either in the North or East River, and
by every vessel in the bay, even beyond Quarantine, if the ordinary
night-glass is employed.

At the instant of the fall their chronometers should indicate
4'' 56" 1.65' (Greenwich time), and the difierence between this time
and what their chronometers really give is the correction to them.
Daily observations of the fall of this ball will give the daily gain or
loss of the chronometers ; that is, their rates,

A capital advantage will be that such corrections and rates can be
determined without removing the chronometer from the ship, so that
a fertile source of disturbance which accompanies the carriage of the
chronometer to and from the vessel is thus, in future, avoidable. To
the citizens of New York and Brooklyn the ball is widely visible. It
can be seen on Broadway from Grace Church nearly to the Battery,
and a suitable position can be found nearly anywhere in the city from
which its face can be observed.

Incidental to this programme, and as an immediate consequence of
it, the means of securing an accurate agreement of clocks throughout
the city is at hand. The Western Union Company will agree to con-
trol electrically other clocks in New York City and vicinity, so that
they shall constantly indicate the standard time. One means of
doing this is so simple that it deserves mention. Each clock to
be so controlled has an attachment contrived so that when its hands
arrive at the position 12'' 0" m., a small pin is thrown out through a
hole in the clock-face just in front of the minute-hand, which is thus
held fast at twelve o'clock. The outer end of the hand is held fast,
but the axis on which the inner end is placed keeps on turning, so that
the clock-train is not interfered with. This is the mechanical arrange-
ment. The practical working of the system is as follows : Each clock
is regulated so as to gain from ten to thirty seconds daily ; therefore,
when its hands reach noon, it is not really noon, but lacks from ten
to thirty seconds of it. The pin is protruded, and fastens the minute-
hand in its place till it is withdrawn by an electric signal from the
regulating or motor clock, and then all the hands start together, and
continue to move for twenty-four hours, gaining their ten or twenty
seconds in time for a repetition of the process on the next day. This
beautiful and simple device, invented by Bain, has another advantage
— that of cheapness — for it requires the use of the wire from the con-
trolling clock but for an instant each day, and, in a crowded city like
New York, the expense of erecting and maintaining the necessary tele-
graphic wire from each clock to the controlling clock is a minimum.

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Some similar system should be adopted by railways leading out of
New York, whose standard clocks could be connected at a trifling
expense with the main clock, and kept right to within less than thirty
seconds, which is near enough for most purposes. It should not be
forgotten that each clock so controlled has the same accuracy as if
it were directly controlled by the standard astronomical clock of
the Naval Observatory at Washington, since the time which is ob-
tained at that institution is directly distributed throughout the system.

For railways this system is peculiai'ly advantageous. Most rail-
ways adopt the time of one city as the standard time, by which all
trains are run, and to which the watches of all employes are adjusted.

Suppose this should not be New York time, but another, as Pough-
keepsie time, for example. A simple device, lately proposed by an
inofenious writer in the New York Tribune, enables the New York
clock to be controlled to both times. This consists of a double min-
ute-hand— that is, instead of making a single minute-hand, make it
double, with two pointers, so that when one points to New York
time, the other points to Poughkeepsie lime. The controlling stop,
or pin, acts upon the New York minute-hand, but the other hand ia
equally kept right.

Such a clock will serve to conti'ol in its turn all the clocks along
the line of the railway by a daily signal, so that at every railway-sta-
tion the station-master's clock indicates, say, Poughkeepsie time. If
required for the benefit of the citizens of each place, a second minute-
hand can be added to each of these secondary clocks, so that the local
time of each station can be indicated, while at the same time each
railway-clock affords the means to each railway-employe of correcting
his own watch. This system, so simple in theory, is equally simple
in practice, and requires nothing but the care and fidelity of the agents
to whom its execution is confided to make it eminently useful and
beneficial. It should be remembered, however, that to carry out its
pi'ovisions carelessly is to commit a positive crime, since so much
depends upon its results. Similar systems of control are now provided
in many places. The observatory at Washington controls several
clocks in the various departments; and in London, Edinburgh, Paris,
Vienna, Bern, and elsewhere, this work is successfully carried on.

The distribution of time-signals (either with or without controlled
clocks) to railways, etc., is a most important matter, in which the
United States is far behind England, for example, where about five
hundred railway-stations receive a signal daily. This is partly due
to the enormous extent of America in longitude, so that very different
local times are used at different places of the same continuous railway-
line, and partly to the fact that the telegraphs are owned by the Gov-
ernment in England, thus rendering the execution of a general system
of time-signals comparatively easy. In the opinion of many experi-
enced and prominent railway-officials in the United States, it is quite

STANDARD TIME IN THE UNITED STATES. 18 1

feasible and very desirable for all railways to be operated by one
common time, and the first step toward this is plainly the certainty
that the time-signals which are now regularly sent from the Naval
Qbservatory shall reach each railway-station once daily, at least.

It should be remarked that this change, as well as the changes it
would imply, and which would follow as natural consequences, is not
by any means so violent as the change from the English system of
measures (feet, pounds, bushels, etc.) to the metric system (metres,
grammes, litres, etc.) often proposed, and now partially adopted. In
the latter case, the units are altered, and for the first generation, at
least, continual reference will have to be made from the old system
to the new ; whereas, in the first case, the units remain the same, and
the point of reference only is changed. Once familiarize a citizen of
Detroit with the fact that his local mean noon is to be called 12'' 24™
instead of 12'' 0"", and the transition would hardly be noticed. If by
any chance all watches, clocks, and time-keepers in New York City
could simultaneously be turned back 12" 10.5' (i. e., to Washington
time) unknown to their owners, it is probable that the number of peo-
ple who would be aware of the change would be extremely small.

Besides sending the signals which regulate the New York clock of
the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Naval Observatory at
Washington has for several years sent daily (except Sundays) a tele^
graphic signal at Washington noon over the lines of the Western
Union, which signal is already widely distributed.

To increase the usefulness of this signal. Admiral Davis entered
into arrangements with the officials of the Western Union Telegraph
Company by which they will contract to deliver such a signal daily
to subscribers (for a year) at extremely low rates. The company
will connect the house, office, or manufactory of the subscriber with
its local oftice (for the present the arrangement is confined to offices in
towns having 20,000 inhabitants or over) in his town for a sum to be
settled according to the length of wire required, etc., and will fur-
nish him Avith a telegraphic sounder, or such other form of appa-
ratus as may be suitable.

The price of such a connection is to be settled according to the
various circumstances of each case, and each subscriber will of course
bear the necessary expense, which will be met in the form of an annual
rental. Besides this charge peculiar to each subscriber, the company
will chai-ge a certain small sum for transmitting the Washington noon
signal to its own office for distribution ; and this sum, if there is but
one subscriber in any town, must be paid by him. Two subscribers
halve the expense, for three each pays one-third, and so on. For
New York and other large cities this expense will be almost nothing,
so that the real cost of a transmission of the Washington noon signal
will practically be the annual rental of the wire used to connect the
subscriber's premises with the telegraph-office. By the method of

i82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

double hands before described, this Washington noon signal may be
used to control a clock by the Bain or some other system in a house,
or manufactory, or railway-station, and a general acceptance of Wash-
ington (or any other) standard time by which to regulate the running
of railway-trains or other affairs is rendered easy and safe if it is de-
sirable to make this change.

The advantages of a general use of this system are very great, and
will be evident on a slight considei-ation. The arrangements pro-
posed by the Naval Observatory are not intended to conilict, and
they do not conflict, with others more local adopted and success-
fully carried on by various observatories.

Among these, the more prominent are the Harvard College Obser-
vatory, which, under the direction of the late Prof. Winlock, insti-
tuted a system of time-distribution to the various railways of Boston
and vicinity, which has been for some years in successful operation :
the Allegheny Observatory, of Pittsburg, which, under its director,
Prof. Langley, has also for some years furnished standard time to the
Pennsylvania and other railways; as well as the observatories of Cin-
cinnati, Albany, and others.

The cooperation of all these institutions will undoubtedly result
in providing for a more extensive and better-organized system than
has hitherto been possible, and some of the benefits to be derived
from such a cooperation have been pointed out. The establishment
of time-balls at our various seaports, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia,
Norfolk,' Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, etc., is most important,
and insurance companies, shippers, and owners of vessels, could well
afford to bear the small necessary expense, which would be more than
repaid to them by the additional safety given to navigation.

The extension of a system such as exists in New York to the
various seaports of the country could not but secure a greater safety
to sea-going vessels and an increased security to the traveling public,
two objects worthy of all attention.

' Time guns or balls, at Hampton Roads and the Delaware Breakwater, are peculiarly
demanded by commerce, but would have to be supported by underwriters and shippers,
as there will be little demand for them from the neighboring population.

A time-gun at Hampton Roads would be used by all vessels proceeding on long voy-
ages from Baltimore, the Potomac, and Richmond, and by the large number of ships
calling at Hampton Roads for orders where to carry their cargoes. It would be particu-
larly valuable to ships using this roadstead as a harbor of refuge on their voyages, which
ships at present seldom or never wait for fair weather to rate their chronometers, but,
on the first appearance of settled weather, slip out to sea to continue their voyages.

MATTER AND MIND. 183

MATTER AND MIND.

By FRANCES EMILY WHITE, M. D.

~I TNDER cover of the wo«rds placed at the head of this paper, it is
v-J proposed to call attention to a few only of the more salient
points involved in the subject, and especially to those suggested in a
recent article in this journal,' in which the attempt is made to apply
the principle of correlation to certain forces (called indifferently men-
tal and spiritual), without recognizing that highly-important factor in
the manifestation of all known force, viz., matter.

In examining any subject from what claims to be a scientific point
of view, established facts must not be ignored; and in proportion to
the importance of the question which science is called upon to answer,
should be the exactness of the solution offered.

It has been conclusively shown, by experimental methods similar
to those employed in demonstrating other correlations, that emotion
and thought are correlated with heat and electricity;'' and the corre-
lation between thought and mass motion^ through the action of nerve
and muscle, is constantly exhibited in the human body. It must, then,
be admitted that these forces (thought, etc.), like those with which
they are correlated, are manifestations of matter.

The scientist knows of no mode of energy manifested in any other
way than through matter; and the supposed "cycle of operations in
which there is no annihilation of spiritual force" must be regarded,
Tiot as a cycle, but rather as a segment of the great cycle which in-
cludes all natural phenomena.

The idea of annihilation either of matter or of force is inadmis-
sible to science ; but there is a constant shilling — a disappearing and
reappearing — of different modes of energy, corresponding to the un-
ceasing mutations of matter; the special force manifested in any given
case depending on the kinds and conditions of the matter involved.

The supposition of other kinds of force, differing from those recog.
nized by the pliysicist, implies either different kinds of matter, or the
same kinds differently conditioned.

The relations of the different parts of an organism to each other,
and of the entire organism to its environment (the environment in-
cluding other organisms, as well as inorganic matter), must all be
scrutinized when we attempt to trace the source of the power mani-
fested by any organism, A symphony of Beethoven is made up of
bars and interludes — of points and rests — of quavers and semiquavers

' " On the Annihilation of the Mind," by Prof. John Trowbridge, Popular Science
Monthly, April, 1877.

2 University Series, No. 2, " Correlation of Vital and Physical Forces," by George F.
Barker, M. D.

i84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— like any other, even the simplest piece of" music. Hoav, then, does
it diiFer from every other musical composition? Among wliich of its
parts shall we look for the grandeur of movement, the rush of har-
monies, and the eloquence, more powerful than that of words, which,
as it thrills the metallic strings, awakens responsive vibrations
among those differently constituted and conditioned strings which
form the organ of liearing, and through this organ arouses emotions
among the deepest of which our natures are suscej^tible ? It is true,
the effects produced are but poorly represented in the symbols of the
musical score, or in the strings of the instrument which respond to the
performer's touch ; these elements are, however, not only important,
but absolutely essential to the production of tlie results, and they
must not be ignored in the statement of the problem with which we
have to deal. When, however, we attempt to follow the transforma-
tions of energy which have taken place between the first and last
links of the chain connecting the brain of the composer with that of
the listener, we are lost in a maze of hopeless intricacy — hopeless, be-
cause we are unable to include in our limited grasp the innumerable
threads which together constitute the clew to the labynnth.

Nevertheless, we are compelled to believe tliat a clew exists, and
that it depends on these twin principles — the correlation of forces ^
and the inseparahleness of force and matter — since each link in this
seemingly endless chain, when separately examined, is found to con-
nect with some form of matter and some kind of force, with both of
which we are more or less familiar.

Functions of mind cannot be formulated in terms of matter —
there is no correlation in the language employed; but this is equally
true of other phenomena — as, for example, of combustion. We know
that chemical reaction between carbon and oxygen results in heat-pro-
duction; and we know that certain combinations of vibrations oT
musical strings, communicated to the membrana tympani of the hu-
man ear, result in the production of emotions. It is safe to promise
an explanation of the latter phenomenon, whenever an explanation
of the former shall be forthcoming.

The phrase "principle of life" is deceptive; the expression
"manifestation of life " means sometliing definite, since life maybe
regarded as the sura of the forces manifested by certain forms of mat-
ter brought into certain relations with each other, and with the envi-
ronment; but a "principle of life," although it may be talked about,
cannot be located nor described ; it is a phrase, et praeterea nihil.

That which is called the ego — the sum of the various elements
which make up the character — cannot, from a scientific point of view,
be regarded as an entity, unless the combined forces and powers of
any machine may be so regarded.

When a machine is taken to pieces, or falls into decay, what be-
comes of the forces previously manifested by it ? Have they gone off,

MATTER AND MIND.

185

in some associated way, to manifest themselves elsewhere in manu-
facturing carpets, impelling railroad-trains, or printing newspapers as
determined by the original construction of the machine which they
have deserted? This question belongs as legitimately to science as
the one discussed in the article previously referred to ; for the scien-
tist iias no knowledge of mind apart from the brain which mani-
fests it.

The same writer attempts a projection, upon the screen of thought,
of "a great source of life and mind, the prototype of our physical
sun," which may be supposed to hold the same relation to the world
of human thought that the sun holds to our world of matter.

The relations of the sun's heat and light to the energies of our
planet (including the forces manifested by the organisms developed
from its crust and atmosphere) are correlations, in which the forces
concerned are mutually convertible ; moreover, the energies di<^plr.yed
by living bodies are of a higher order than are those of the sun
(heat, light, etc.) through whose influence these living energies are
developed.

Where, then, does such a simile lead? If the forces emanating
from this great source of life and mind are convertible into human
energies, then — according to the same law — human energies are con-
vertible into those of the prototype. No new principle is introduced
by such a conception, and, in oi'der to make the figure good, the forces
of the prototype must even be regarded as of a lower order than hu-

man energies.

The human brain presents the most complex and highly-organized
form of matter known. Its relations and means of communication
with the other less complex organs which make up the entire body
are most subtile and intimate; through the organs of the special
senses it is also brought into communication with an environment
limited only by the range of vision, which is extended, by telescope
and microscope, to the nebulosities which belong to immensity on the
one hand, and to the obscurities of the infinitesimal on the other.

The energies displayed by this remarkable organ hold a rank
among known forces comparable, in range and complexity, to its
structural superiority over other forms and combinations of matter.
These forces, so far as they come within the range of scientific obser-
vation, hold the same sort of relation to the material organism that
the force called magnetism bears to the magnet, or heat to the body
from v/hich it emanates.

Beyond this relation. Science has no testimony to offer.

i86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

GAE-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG.

By Professor BURT G. WILDER,

OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
II.

THE writer's opportunities for observing the motions of the adult
gar were too brief to enable him to describe them accurately.
It is to be hoped that this lish may soon be placed in some public
aquarium. But the motions of several young gars were carefully
watched daily during three weeks.

The movements of the little gars, even the smallest, were very
unlike those of the common little fishes, minnows or cattishes, which
were placed with them. These latter seemed agitated, and splashed
about in an indeterminate way. But the little gars, though they
went like arrows when disturbed, usually remained almost at rest, or
moved slowly about with a dignified, almost solemn air, as if con-
scious of very ancient and honorable lineage. They also have, as
was remarked by Prof. Agassiz, the power of moving the head upon
the neck ; and occasionally the whole body was thrown into two or
three undulations, resembling those of a short serpent ; and so im-
pressive is the air of supercilious self-possession that one might
almost imagine them shrugging their shoulders at other creatures,
including the bipeds of recent creation, who study their move-
ments.

To sounds in general they paid no attention. But a tap upon the
side of the vessel usually caused them to start and open the mouth,
sometimes two or three times in succession.

It has already been said that the little gar first taken was recog-
nized as such ; yet the resemblance to the adult was mostly in the gen-
eral elongated form of the body, and in several other respects there
were marked differences. First, in color. The old gar is a bluish ash-
color, or light gray ; darker above, and lighter below, but with no dis-
tinct patches. All of the young gars presented a distinct though ir-
regular dark stripe along the side of the body and head, crossing the
eye. The belly, too, -was almost white, and strongly contrasted with
the darker regions.

Second, the smallest ones had no scales at all; but with one, 108
millimetres (about four and a quarter inches) long, the hinder half
of the body showed outlines of the scales in process of formation,
and the larger ones had the armor more or less fully developed. At
about tlie same time the upper and lower borders of the tail become
protected by several pair of pointed plates, i\\Q fulcra.

The third and most striking peculiarity of the young gars con-

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG.

187

sisted in the existence of two tails, an upper and a lower. These are
shown in Fig. 8, JB.

The formation of these two tails, and their significance, will be
considered further on ; for the present, we are concerned with tlioir
Structure, their relative position, and their uses. Tlie lower tail was

Fig. 8. — Four Figures op the Tails op Lepidosteus at Different Stages.
.4, from a specimen t wen ly-twomillimetiYS or seveii-eip;hths inch Idiip;, enlarged four diameters.
The ventral fin (Fe) is just appearing. The median fin is being absorbed between thefourspots
referred to in Fig. 9. The lip of the tail is inclined upward, and the infra-caudal lobe is
larger. In B the primordial fin lias almost disappeared ; the dorsal (/>) and the anal (A) fins
are quite large. The infra-caudal lobe is nearly aslont' as the tip of the original tail, which has
been reduced to a slender vibratile filament. This specimen is forty-four mi'limetres or one
and three-foiiitlis inch lonsr, and the tail is enlarged two ciameterf?. C shows the tail of a
specimen three hundred millimetres or nearly twelve inches long, of natural size. The fila-
ment is still furlher reduced, nnd tbe ravs of the infra caudal lobe form the end ot the tail In
I) the fail is that of an adult, one-half natural diametei-. The filament, the oiisrinal end nf the
body, has wholly disappeared, and the infra-caud.nl lobe forms the fail. But dissection shows
the spinal axis extending along the dorsal border to a point corresponding with the previous
attachment of the filamenr. (Further description and discussion of these changes, with refer-
ences to author.^, may be found in a paper by the author, entitled "Notes on the North Ameri-
can Ganoids." "Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,"
1875, pp. 151-193.)

evidently the caudal fin. It had several rays, and a rounded hinder
border. But it was smaller in proportion than in the adult gar, and
the middle rays were directed obliquely downward, instead of hori-
zontally backward.

The upper tail is best described as a single fleshy filament, flat-

i88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tened from side to side, and tapering to a fine extremity. In the
smallest gars it was longer than the fin below, in the older it was
shorter, while in the adults no trace of it appears.

These two tails have very different movements. The lower, cor-
responding to the caudal fin of the ordinary fish, is used in three
ways. When the little gar is in a gentle current, and Avishes not to
be carried downward, the fin is made to execute a series of undula-
tory movements, such as have been described by Prof. Agassiz re-
specting the dorsal fins of young pipe-fishes, etc., and such as the
writer has observed with the long dorsal fin of Atnia.

This tail is also strongly flexed to one side, as with ordinary fishes,
in order to change the course. And it is rapidly moved from side to
side for all sudden and rapid locomotion, as when frightened.

The movements of the filament were first described by Prof.
Agassiz, and he called attention to them upon several occasions. But
his descriptions are very brief, and, upon one point, seem to require
modification.

The filament is in almost constant vibration. Occasionally, when
the gar is at rest, and perhaps also when it is turning, or rapidly
swimming, the filament is not used. But usually the vibrations are
so rapid that the tip of the filament is invisible, excepting as an in-
distinct blur. Generally, it is directed backward and slightly up-
ward, but at times it is bent to one side, or elevated to nearly a right
angle with the body, the tip all the while in constant vibration.
Those who have watched the tail of an irritated rattlesnake, or even
of a common striped snake, under strong excitement, may form a
pretty correct idea of the nature of this movement. It was charac-
tei-ized by Prof. Agassiz as " involuntary ; " and so it may be regarded,
since its rapidity is such as to preclude the idea of a separate volition
for each movement. But the gar, evidently, has entire control of the
vibrations; for they are more or less rapid at different times, and are
occasionally intermitted ; the position of the whole filament is changed
at will; finally, the muscular bands upon each side of the cartilagi-
nous rod, v/hich runs througli the filament, consist of the striped va-
riety of muscular fibre, as are the other voluntary muscles.

This is all the wi'iter has seen of living young gar-pikes. But the
explanation of the peculiar double tail is furnished by some still
younger specimens, the smallest of which is shown, enlarged, in
Fig. 9.

These little gars were scooped out of the Red River, near Shreve-
port, Louisiana, in the spring of 1871, by a lad only ten years old, who
had heard the writer say that he wished for very small fishes. At
that point these young gars were then as abundant as minnows, as
easy to catch, and commercially as worthless. All of them are less
than two inches long, and among them are two about three-fourths
of an inch in length. These last are not only much smaller than any

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG. 189

previously examined by naturalists (so far as known to the writer),
but tliey also fui-nish the clew to the double tail, and suggest some
important paleontological considerations.

While earnestly expressing his appreciation of the value of these
little gars, the writer tinds himself compelled to exemplify the pro-
verbially ungrateful and dissatisfied nature of zoologists by regretting
that there were not more of them, and that some were not very much
smaller, or even still within the egg.

In this connection one is reminded that now, as a rule, the smallest
rather than the largest are desired by naturalists. The giants are
curiosities, and interesting as showing the capacity for growth ; but
the mysteries of development, the relations of apparently diverse
forms, and the order of geological succession, are best revealed by
the apparently most insignificant.

A good illustration of this inverse ratio between size and value is
contained in the following passage from Prof, and Mrs. Agassiz's
" Journey in Brazil : "

"Mr. Agassiz has a corps of little boys, engaged in catching the tiniest fishes,
so insignificant in size that the regular fishermen, who can never be made to
understand that a fish which is not good to eat can serve any useful purpose,
always throw them away. Nevertheless, these are among the most instructive
specimens for tlie ichthyologist, because they often reveal the relations not only
between parent and offspring, but wider relations between groups."

Of the two smallest gars, one is nearly colorless, while the other
is marked very much as are the older ones. They are 18 millimetres
(a little less than three-fourths of an inch) in length. The head is
short and flattened, with slight indications of teeth on the edges of
the jaws. With one of them the ventral fins have not appeared ;
with the other they are represented by minute white elevations. Each
pectoral consists of a fleshy lobe, surrounded by a thin fringe or
border.

Fig. 9.— Smallest Gar-Pike tet obtained (Eighteen Millimetres or about Three-fourth

Inch long, enlarged Five Diameters).

The actual lon<;th is indicatecl by the line above the ficnre. There are no gcales. The head is
short. The pectoral fin (P) consists of a fleshy lobe: (i), with a thin fringe or border (F). The
ventral fins have not appeared. A median fin extends along the hinder third of the body above
aiKl the liinder half lielow. It is interrupted hy the vent (F), and presents lour darker
and more or less dilTerentiated spots. The anterior pair are evidently the beginninjis ot the
dorsal (D) and anal fins. The signification of the binder dorsal spot is nnceitam. But the
hinder spot below (C) presents rays, and is the commencement of the inlra-caudal lobe.

The hinder end of the body tapers to a point, as with Amjy/noxns,
the extremity being slightly bent downward. At the junction of the
middle with the hinder third of the body commences a delicate
median fin, colorless, and without rays for the most part, and extend-

190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing around the tip of the tail forward to the vent, thence forward ta
about the middle of the body. Such a primordial median tin exists
in the young of all fishes whose development has been studied. The
permanent fins seem to result from the formation of cartilaginous or
bony rays either througliout most or the whole of its length, as with
lampreys and common eels; or at several points, as with the macke-
rel and Polypterus ; or at three, or two, or only one, as with the cod,
the blue-fish, and the pickerel. The intervening portions disappear.
The hinder part of the primordial fin of the smallest gars presents
four points of darker coloration, two above and two below. The
posterior upper spot presents no rays, and later seems to disappeai-.'
The other three are evidently the beginnings of fins. The anterior
above and that below occupy the positions of the future dorsal and
anal fins. The destiny of the hinder lower spot is better seen by
comparison with larger examples.

The series given in Figs. 8 and 9 shows that, as the gar increases
in length, the primordial fin disappears, the dorsal and anal increase,
and the end of the tail becomes more slender and pointed. But the
most striking change consists in the enlargement of the hinder lower
spot into what may be called the infra-caudal lobe. The rays of this
become longer and more numerous. They project beyond the margin
of the primordial fin, so as to leave a decided notch, as in Fig. 8, A.

In Fig. 8, B, the end of the body merits the name of filament, and
the relative size of it and the lobe is reversed. Ai'terward, partly by
more rapid increase of the lobe, and partly by absorption of the fila-
ment, the latter seems smaller and smaller, and at last disappears; so
that the lobe, from having been at first an outgrowth from the fila-
ment, finally becomes the whole of the tail or caudal fin.

It appears, then, that the hinder end of the body undergoes con-
siderable change before reacliing the adult condition. Aside from the
partial disappearance of the primordial median fin and the gradual
development of the ventrals, the dorsals, and the anal, the caudal fin
assumes at least three distinct forms. The first is lance-shaped and
simple, like that of Amphioxits, the eel, the lamprey, salamanders, and
tadpoles. The second is compound, with a slender filament above and
a broader fin below, as with some sturgeons and sharks. The third
consists entirely of the lower fin, which is enlarged and brought into a
direct line with the body, the longest rays being a little above the
middle. Its upper and lower borders are now thicker and stronger
than the intermediate portions ; whereas in the first stage the carti-
lage and muscle are in the centre, the upper and lower borders being
very thin.

In short, the tail of the gar-pike undergoes a decided transforma-
tion. And one naturally inqnires, " What is the occas\on for it ? "

' It may have a morphological significance, as suggested further on respecting the fossil
Glyptolcemv^.

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG, 191

It is so recently that all structural differences and changes were
supposed to be readily explicable upon the doctrine of final causes,
that we naturally turn first in that direction. Some transformations
certainly seem to relate very distinctly to the welfare of the individ-
ual, as when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, and when the aquatic
larvas of mosquito and dragon-fly change their forms with their hab-
its and modes of life. So, among the vertebrates, it is obvious that
the tadpole is by no means adapted to the necessities of the frog and
the toad ; and the intermediate stages, resulting from the gradual loss
of the tail and the acquisition of legs, while perhaps not particularly
suited to either aquatic or terrestrial locomotion, seem to be required
in order to permit the development of the lungs and the accompany-
ing disappearance of the gills.

But can the transformations of the gar-pike's tail be thus accounted
for ? According to present knowledge and justifiable inference, the
Lepidosteus not only passes the whole of its life in the water, but is
also, from first to last, an active, predaceous fish, requiring all pos-
sible advantages of form and fin in order to overtake its prey.

Since no marked change occurs in the general form of the body,
we may perhaps assume that it is perfectly well adapted to the fish's
needs ; although this suggests the general inquiry as to the cui bono
of the almost infinite variations from the ideal form supposed to be
best suited to aquatic locomotion.

But do we know, or can we easily infer, any differences in the ne-
cessities or the manner of life of the Lepidosteus at different ages,
which may account for its having a tail first like a lamprey's, then
like a sturgeon's, and, finally, like that oi Amiaf

It may be suggested that the rapid and, at most, invisible vibra-
tions of the filament enable the young gar to glide stealthily upon its
prey. But the very young would seem to be even more in need of
such precaution, and with them the tail is relatively as large as in
the adult, although differently shaped. Finally, even if we conclude
that the three distinct stages of the tail are perfectly adapted to cer-
tain hypothetically unlike necessities, what shall be said of the inter-
mediate conditions? While growing, the infra-caudal lobe must be
rather a hinderance than a help to the movements of the primitive
tail; and while disappearing, the filament, being useless, must be, if
anything, an incumbrance.

Shall we, then, conclude that these changes in the appearance of a
single individual are for the sake of variety — as some would explain
the great diversity of specific form and coloration among animals and
plants ?

At the present day, neither of the explanations above given is like-
ly to wholly satisfy the large class of thinkers who, whether or not
they accept any particular evolution doctrine, are inclined to believe
that there is, in many cases, a more or less exact parallelism between

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the changes whicli occur in the development of an individual, the suc-
cessive forms of geological times, and the series of living forms, lower
and higher, or more generalized and more specialized.

In the smallest gar here described, and presumably in still younger
examples, the axis of tl)e body, represented by the notochord or primi-
tive vertebral column, is nearly horizontal, about midway between the
upper and the lower borders of the tail. This is likewise the case with
the lowest known vertebrate, Amphioxus ; with the forms next above,
the hag-fishes [Myxine and Bdellostoma) and lamprey-eels {Petrotny-
Z07i) ; with the larvoe (tadpoles) of frogs and toads ; and with the
adults of the aquatic and tadpole-like salamanders, Menopoma and
Menobranchus.

Finally, such a tail exists in the Dipnoans, or mud-fishes, of Africa,
South America, and Australia {Frotopterus^ Lepidosiren, and Cerato-
dus), which have some striking aflfinities with Batrachians, but are
usually regarded as fishes, and are, perhaps, the best illustration of
generalized forms.

To this variety of tail, Cope has applied the name isocercal ; Hux-
ley calls it diphycercal, and gives as an example Polyjyterus, where,
however (as in Oalamoichthys), the "end of the notochord is hardly
at all bent up." Wyman, finding this kind of tail in the embryo of a
skate, called \t protocercal, and, on some accounts, this seems the more
suitable name.

As the gars grow older, the relative length of the filament and the
infra-caudal lobe constantly changes. At first the former is the longer;
in a specimen 108 millimetres long, their tips coincide; in one 142
millimetres long, tlie lobe projects beyond the filament ; and in a
third, 300 millimetres long, the filament is much the shorter, is ragged
and attenuated, and during life was rarely employed. This second
stage, or rather series of stages, has several counterparts among liv-
ing Selachians and Ganoids. The most accurate resemblance is pre-
sented by the shovel-nosed sturgeon of the Mississippi River {Sca2:)hy-
rhynchus). The filament is excessively elongated in Chimera, and
exaggerated as to both length and breadth in the thrashing-shark
(Alopias). But, with many sliarks, the common sturgeons, and the
spoonbill {Polyod(m), the size of the infra-caudal lobe is so nearly
that of the filament as to give the whole tail a nearly symmetrical
outline, and lead zoologists to speak of the " uj^per lobe," whereas it
is really the bent-up end of the body. This kind of tail is called hete-
rocercal.

The gars above mentioned are supposed to be the young of the
Zepidosteus osseus. Just at what size the filament wholly disappears
in that species is not known. But with the smaller and proportionally
shorter species, i. platystomus, tliere is no sign of the filament when
eighteen inches in length. The tail might then be thought, at first
sight, to be symmetrical. But the longest rays are a little above the

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG.

193

middle, and dissection shows that the spinal axis is continued back-
ward and upward as a cartilaginous rod,' terminating at the upper
border, just under the hinder pair oi fulcra, and at the point where the
filament was attached. The raj^s are all attached to the lower border
of the spine ; and there is only a lower lobe of the tail.

A similar structure exists in the tail of Amia, which Prof. Huxley
gives as an example of heterocercal tail. It seems better, however, to
discriminate between it and the previous stage, where the upper lobe
(filament) exists, and it may, therefore, provisionally be called the
masked heterocercal, or perhaps the pseudo-homocercal.

Prof. Huxley has more recently given figures and descriptions of
the tail of embryo Teleosts (Gasterosteus), in which the structure is
nearly identical with that of the adult Amia and LepidGsteus.'^

A. Protocercal. First stage of Lepidosteus. Permanent in Am-
phioxus. Petromyzon. Lepidosiren, Polypterus. Also in some
ancient Ganoids, as Glyjjtolcemus.

B and G. Heterocercal. In the sturgeons, and most sharlis, and
many mesozoic fossils.

D. Not represented, so far as I know, among recent or fossil
fomiB.

E. Masked heterocercal. In adult Amia and Lepidosteus. In the
embryo of many Teleosts. In Megalurus and some other
fossils of Mesozoic and more recent epochs.

Fig. 10 —Diagrams intended to illustrate the Cokkespondence of the Successive
Stages op Transformation of the Tail of Lepidosteus, with the Tails of Certain
Living Forms more and less generalized, and op Certain Fossils more and less
ancient.

A, the first or »rotoc«rra/ stage, where the end of the vertebral column (Fc) is horizontal and di-
vides the tail into upper and lower lobes nearly equal in size. B and Cthe heterocercal stage,
where the original tail is more or less elevated by the lower or infra-caudal lobe (/C), and De-
comes the filament (Fi), usually called the "upper lobe." In D the infra^caudal lobe is longer
than the filament, and in ^-the latter has wholly disappeared, and the tail assumes the last or
'•masked heterocercal" condition.

The same author concludes that in many adult Teleosts the poste-
rior end of the spine is more or less strongly bent up, although the tail
is outwardly nearly or quite symmetrical.

1 This rod consists of the notochord, and a slender prolongation of the spinal cord,
surrounded by a cartilaginous sheath.

2 The writer has found the same condition in newly-hatched catfishes (Ammrus), and
it has been observed in the embryo of a species of Cottus, by Mr. S. H. Gage, a student of
natural history at Cornell University.

VOL. XI. — 13

194 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But when, as in the majority of species, the hinder border is emar-
ginate, so as to form an upper and a lower lobe, the former is never
known to contain any extension of the spine ; although some South
American Goniodonts have the upper ray prolonged into a sort of fil-
ament, yet in other forms the lower ray is similarly elongated, and
neither can be compared with the true filament of the young gar or
the upper lobe of sturgeons and sharks.

It may not be possible to draw a sharp line between the tail of
most adult Teleosts, and that of Amia and Lepidosteus, but perhaps
the old term homocercal can be employed for the former.

Upon the whole, it would appear that the tail of the youngest
Lepiclosteus is protocercal like those of the lowest vertebrates and the
generalized forms called Dipnoans ; that the second or obviously hete-
rocercal stage is comparable with the tails of sharks and sturgeons,
while the last stage seems to correspond quite closely with that of the
teleostean embryo. And, as the Teleosts are almost universally re-
garded as the most specialized group of fishes, there appears to be a
pretty close agreement between the successive stages of Lepiclosteus
and the rank of the forms or groups with which comparison has here
been made.

The corresponding geological series is less complete and satisfac-
tory. No forms resembling Amphioxus or the hag-fishes and lam-
preys have yet been found fossil, although all, excepting the former,
have horny teeth, of which, it would seem, some traces might well be
preserved.

But among the oldest fishes are some described by Huxley whose
tails are apparently protocercal. The resemblance to the earliest
stage of Liepidosteus is emphasized also by the existence of two dor-
sals and two anals.

Fossil species of Amia and JLepidosteus have recently been dis-
covered by Prof. Marsh in the Tertiaries of Western America. The
Megaluriis of the European rocks had a tail strongly resembling that
of Amia, but this kind of tail is not known among the palaeozoic rocks,
and Teleosts are first found in the Cretaceous, becoming more and more
numerous up to the present time.

But among the earliest known fossil fishes are some in which the
end of the spine is not at all bent up ; the tail is protocercal. And,
with two genera [Glyp)tolmmus and Gyroptychius) described by Prof.
Huxley, it may be possible to determine tlie correspondence between
the two dorsals and anals and the two pair of differentiated spots upon
the primordial median fin of the youngest Lepidosteus.

So far as the writer is able to ascertain, the protocercal tail is less
frequent in later geological epochs, while the obviously heterocercal
form, as with Palceoniscus, etc., becomes more and more abundant.

Apparently, therefore, the order of succession of the three or four
kinds of tails coincides, in the main, with the series seen in the grow-

GAR-PIKES, OLD AND YOUNG. 195

ing Lepidosteus ; and the geological, the zoological, and the embryo-
logical series, upon the whole, have a recognizable correspondence.

So far, the writer has endeavored to give an outline of the natural
history of the gar-pike as a peculiar American tish, concerning which
little has liitherto been published even in strictly scientific works,
and almost nothing in a form generally accessible.

In so doing he has purposely avoided the presentation of contro-
versial points, or, in reference to the nomenclature of the air-bladder
and of the tail, has presented opposing views, with an abstract of the
evidence, so far as known to him ; admitting his inability, as yet, to
form a definite conclusion.

But there is another and, in some respects, most interesting and
important light in which the gar-pike may be considered, namely, as
to its relations with other fish-like forms.

Is Lepidosteus merely a somewhat peculiar fish ? Or may it, with
Polypterus and some fossils, be separated as a distinct group ? Or
should there be added to this group Amia and the sturgeons ? Or
should the catfishes and their kindred, with the pipe-fishes, globe-
fishes, and others, be likewise included ?

Upon what grounds may this group be defined? What is its
grade, class, sub-class, or order ? And how may it be subdivided ?

Attempts have been made to find answers to these questions by
the study of the scales, the skeleton, the limbs, the gills, and various
internal organs. The embryology of the sturgeons is not fully known,
while notliing whatever has been observed of the earlier stages of the
so-called typical Ganoids.

It is probably within the truth to say that, from the time of Cuvier
down, no two authors upon fishes agree upon all the points, while any
contemporary discussion, whether verbal or in print, is almost certain
to be attended with a degree of heat quite incompatible with the ap-
parent importance of the subject.

The fact is, however, that the so-called Ganoids occupy a very
peculiar position. None of them can be touched witliout aiFecting the
entire series of fish-like forms. Ichthyology is in a state of instability,
and every important new fact, every decided expression of opinion
by high authority respecting the Ganoids is liable to require a revision
of all our ideas.

To present even an outline of the many views, and of the facts and
considerations upon which they are based, would require an entire
article, with many figures and some anatomical description.

To the reader who has become interested by the foregoing imper-
fect sketch of the gar-pike, and who has the good fortune to live within
reach of it, of Amia, and of the sturgeons, the writer would earnestly
recommend a careful and systematic investigation of their habits and
their structure— especially that of the brain — and of their develop-
ment, as likely to furnish the most reliable basis for their classification.

ig6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

RELATION OF THE AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN.*

By De. max von PETTENKOFEE,
professor of hygiene at tue university of munich.

WE shall devote this evening to the consideration of some hygi-
enic functions of tlie house.^ On the whole, the house has the
same hygienic object as our clothing : it has not only to keep up the
intercourse with the atmosphei-e surrounding us, but to regulate it
according to our wants. No more than our clothing ought the house
to be a contrivance for excluding us from the air outside. In some of
their forms we can also trace a certain mutual transition. The cloak
and the tent are cousins. The heavy circular cloak of former times
might well be styled a portable tent, and the tent a fixed cloak ; both
have their necessary openings. So the hat may be considered the
roof of our clothing, and the roof the head-gear of the house.

We may then naturally suppose that those materials which are
advantageous for the building of our habitations must stand in some-
what the same relations to air, water, and heat, as the materials we
use for our clothing. Walls allow air to pass through them, and they
must do so to a certain degree, if we are to preserve our health within
them with some comfort, and without injury. Current opinion
is certainly opposed to my assertion about the permeability of walls
to air, even more so than to that about the permeability of our
clothing ; but it is easy to show that current opinion labors under an
error w^hich has no other basis than the insensibility of our senses to
the movement of the air, if the same is less than nineteen inches per
second. This is the cause of the fallacy that no motion of the air
takes place. Just as well might we deny the earth's rotation round
its axis at the rate of more than a quarter of a mile per second, be-
cause we are not in the least aware of this tremendous velocity. Only
very late and slowly have our minds opened to the conviction that
after all the earth moves round the sun, and not the sun round the
earth, and that our eyes had all the while been mistaken. There
must exist something of a higher nature, of a greater power, than our
sensuous perceptions, and that is science, which examines and probes
our perceptions. Science has not the least power over Nature ; she
cannot command any alteration in Nature, cannot give it any laws —

' Abridged and translated by Augustus Hess, M. D., member of the Royal College of
Physicians, London, etc.

2 In England, owing to the manner of building, the smaller size of the houses, the
open fireplaces, and the badly-fitting windows and doors, we suffer less from defective
ventilation than in Germany ; and, although some other domestic arrangements, though
far from faultless, are superior to those usually met with in Germany, nevertheless, the
general laws are the same, and ought to be generally understood. — Translator.

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 197

she can only recognize the laws of Nature. But science changes the
notions of man, and often reverses them. Ideas and notions based on
science enrich us, partly directly, partly indirectly, with new means
of making use of natural laws. It was not till astronomy had found
and determined celestial mechanics that the human mind was enabled
to begin that development of the mechanical element which is the
pride and the power of our period as compared with former times.

If, then, we are hopefully satisfied with endeavoring to increase
our insight, our science of the things that are, the benefit will not fail
to come, and everything is beneficial of which man learns to make
use. This requires time — often a very long time — as old experience
teaches.

The task of science is to lay hold of everything perceptible, and
to penetrate it — the small as well as the great. The insect and its
life is just as interesting to science as the elephant, and therefore I
believe that I may occupy myself with that air which flows through
our walls, although its motion is not recognized by our sensations.

We may conclude from many facts that walls are permeable to
air. N"o one maintains that houses have water-tight walls, and every-
body knows that masonry is easily penetrated by water. Wherever
a wall is in perpetual contact with water, it becomes so soaked that
at last water comes out in drops on the other side. Certainly, where
water can pass, air must pass much more easily, because air is seven
hundred and seventy times more light and movable than water. It
is very easy to construct water-tight apparatuses and vessels, but
very difficult to make them air-tight. Still people are surprised when
they hear of a change of the air through a wall ; they see, of course,
and feel the water in the wall, but of the air in it their senses have no
direct perception.

But we have means to demonstrate to our senses the passage of
air through our building-materials ; we have only to lead the air
which comes against some large surface of wall into and through a
narrow tube. I will prove this to you by experiments ; but you have
often seen the same thing before, when you were looking at some
piece of water which had some small in- and outflow. These may be
in lively motion and driving mills, but on the whole surface the water
seems to be completely at rest. But, if we do not see any water run-
ning in and out, we declare the whole to be stagnant, and we may be
very much mistaken.

I have here a cylindrical piece of mortar, half lime, half sand, five
inches by one and two-thirds. The cylinder has been covered all over
with melted wax, which is inpermeable to air, with the exception of its
two circular ends. You see this glass funnel, with a tube. I fix it on
one circular end, where the mortar lies free, and make an air-tight
connection by wax with the waxen coat of the cylinder. If I blow
through the tube, the air must appear on the free mortar-end, pro-

ig8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

vided the mortar is permeable to air. It has as yet no effect on the
flame of this candle, because its velocity is not great enough. But if
I fix a funnel on the other end of the cylinder, the air which has passed
through the mortar can only escape through its narrow end, and there
you see the flame sensibly deviating. You may even succeed in ex-
tinguishing it altogether. The velocity of the air in going through
the tube must increase in proportion as the transverse section of the

tube is smaller than the mortar-surface, out of which the air escapes,
exactly as with the water of the pond and its in- and outflow. Now,
when I dip the end of one tube into water, you see and hear the air
which has passed through the mortar escape from the water. If you
make a similar arrangement with a piece of wood, or a brick, you will
see the same result.

Most kinds, also, of sandstone are so porous that water and air
easily pass through them. Solid or quarried limestones ai*e scarcely
permeable to air, but, as they are mostly of irregular shapes, they re-
quire more mortar, and that is the reason why such walls are, after
all, not so much more air-tight than walls made of regular bricks and
thin layers of mortar. Observations have been taken of the average
quantity of mortar used with different building-stones. We may sup-
pose that, taking the wall as a whole, it is one-third with quarried
lime, one-fourth with tufaceous lime, one-fifth to one-sixth with bricks,
one-sixth to one-eighth with cubes of sandstone. In practice, then,
the quantity of the mortar rises with the decrease of porosity in the
building-stones, and assists in keeping the walls pervious to air to a
certain degree.

It is self-evident that the quantity of air which passes through
building-materials of a certain thickness must increase in proportion
to the surface ; two square feet must give passage to twice as much
air as one square foot. I shall speak of ventilation in connection with
this later on.

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 199

The eftect of wetting porous materials is quite surprising. In pro-
portion as the pores fill with water, they become impervious to air.
The adhesion of water to stone and mortar is greater than that of air,
by as much as water is heavier than air. It is not difficult to blow
great volumes of air through dry mortar and dry bricks, but it requires
a great exertion to drive a few drops of water through the same mate-
rials. You know this cylinder of mortar {see above). Instead of
blowing air through it into water, I will suck the air out of it : you
see now the water rise in the tub and wet the surface of the mortar.
Now I'll try to blow again air through the mortar ; I cannot, with
all my exertions, because the pores of the mortar are filled with water.

This simple experiment lays bare the great hygienic disadvantage
of Wet walls ; they are air-tight, not to speak of other injurious efiects.

We all know that new houses are dreaded on account of their
humidity. In some countries there are regulations by law, and new
houses must be approved with respect to their dryness before they may
be let. But the notions about the causes of their humidity, and the
means of removing it, are very different and discordant. Allow me,
therefore, to explain how water gets into the new house, and how it is
to be got out of it.

I need not call to your mind the first steps in a building operation,
and how soon a connection is made with some abundant source of
water, and that a great deal of water is required for making the mor-
tar, etc. Let us now try to come to an estimate of this quantity of
water.

Suppose that 100,000 bricks were used for a building, each weigh-
ing ten pounds. A good brick can suck up more than ten per
cent, of its weight in water, but we will put down at five per cent,
what gets into it by the manipulations of the bricklayer. We will
assume that the same amount of water is contained in the mortar, a
quantity certainly much understated, although the mortar forms only
about one-fifth of the walls : we have thus 100,000 pounds of water,
equal to 10,000 gallons, which must have left the walls of the house
before it becomes habitable.

The two principal ways in which wet or damp walls are injurious
are : 1. By impeding ventilation and diffusion of gases, through their
pores being closed up or narrowed by water ; 2. By disturbing the
heat-economy of our bodies. Damp Avails act as bodies abstracting
heat in one direction ; they absorb heat by their evaporation, and act
like rooms which have not been warmed thoroughly ; they are bet-
ter conductors of heat than dry walls, just like wet garments, and
considerably raise our heat-losses by a one-sided and increased radia-
tion. Diseases which are known to be often caused by cold are par-
ticularly frequent in damp dwellings — rheumatism, catarrh, chronic
Bright's disease, etc.

What can we do to get rid of that immense quantity, of these

20 0 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

10,000 gallons of water, before we remove into the new house? All
this water — we cannot make it run off, we cannot squeeze it out, we
cannot boil it away — it must take its leave in one way, a very safe but
rather long one, that of spontaneous evaporation into and by the air.

The capacity of the air for receiving water depends on the different
tension of the vapor at different temperatures, on the quantity of water
already contained in the air flowing over a moist body, and finally on
the velocity of that air. For the first two moments let us assume the
average temperature of the year to be about 50° Fahr., and the average
hygrometric condition of the air to be seventy-five per cent, of its full
saturation. Under these conditions, one cubic foot of air can take up
four grains of water, in the shape of vapor, but as it contains already
seventy-five per cent, of these four grains, which amounts to three
grains, it can only take up one additional grain. As often, then, as
one grain is contained in the 10,000 gallons of water mentioned
above, as many cubic feet of air must come in contact with the new
walls, and become saturated with the water contained in them; or
about 700,000,000 cubic feet of air are required to dry the building
in question.

I will at once pass on to the consideration of a subject which some
of you may be acquainted with already by experience — I mean the re-
appearance of damp in new buildings, which had seemed quite dry,
after they had become inhabited. There appear damp spots on walls
and in corners, the panes in the windows sweat, and the air becomes
musty and oppressive. How does this water return, after the house
has been declared and considered dry ? Most people, because they
see it only then, suppose that there is a new formation of water in the
wall, or that it was set free by the presence of the new dwellers.
Here, again, our sensuous perceptions mislead our judgment, and give
us no clew as to the circumstances under which moisture in the walls
becomes visible to our eyes and humidity produces a damp spot. I
produce here a piece of brownish-yellow paper of somewhat indistinct
tint. Where I wet it with water, the color appears more intense,
darker even, just as if the water had been colored. Now the paper is,
getting dry again, and the former appearance comes back.

Some of you may laugh at me for making such a trivial experi-
ment, but I beg to ask. What is the reason of this action of the wa>
ter? It takes place only on porous colors or colored surfaces which
are porous, only on aquarelles or frescoes, scarcely on porcelain or
glass paintings. If the water cannot penetrate into the color it can-
not alter its appearance any more than that of a colorless, transparent

glass.

Oil-paintings, when they are new or lately varnished, are in this
respect like glass-paintings, but when they get older, some of the col-
ors, by the longer action of the air, get dull, and then water has the
same effect on them as on this paper. It gives them a fresher appear-

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 201

ance till it has dried away. This is because all oil-colors become po-
rous in the course of time.

For water to penetrate thus into the colors, we are entitled to as-
sume that there must be free spaces within them to receive it, pores
and interstices. These cannot have been vacua before, but must have
contained air. This air in the painted surface is displaced by the wa-
ter, and hence the difference in the optical effect. Air and water have
different optical properties. In the first instance our colors — dry and
dulled — are mixed with air ; in the second instance with water. Wa-
ter refracts, disperses, and reflects light quite differently from air ;
therefore it must have quite a different effect on colors when it gets
admixed with them instead of air. The whole question has been
more fully treated by me in a little treatise on oil-colors and the pres-
ervation of galleries ; it may suffice here, and for the present, to
know that damp spots on a wall can appear only when the pores are
filled with water or some other transparent liquid. Our sensations
have rightly taught us to associate the words dry and airy, damp and
confined.

If we have moved into a new building too soon, we may be de-
ceived by its appearance. It is quite possible that the walls have be-
come sufficiently free from water and full of air for the colors of the
papers and walls to appear mixed with air and free from all interstitial
water; still, we are not entitled to suppose that all water has left the
walls. A good deal may remain unnoticed, provided some air is
lodged in the pores of the surface sufficient to produce the optical
effect of real dryness.

How does it, then, happen that, on receiving their completoent of
inhabitants, the pores of the new walls become obstructed, partly or
locally, by water ? The ordinary explanation is completely erroneous,
although it sounds quite scientific and rational, and has its place in
books and lectures on chemistry. It is stated that it is the effect of
carbonic acid on the hydrate of lime which remained in the mortar.
Mortar is a very interesting object, and I regret that I cannot enter
more fully into its nature and process of hardening. I'll tell you so
much, that the burned and slaked lime used for its preparation is a
compound of lime (oxidized calcium) and water, the above-mentioned
hydrate of lime. This, by the action of the air, is changed into car-
bonate of lime. This change takes place at first very rapidly, and to
the extent of about one-half, but then slower and slower, so that in
very old masonry one finds frequently some of the original hydrate of
lime. This is a perfectly dry substance, which yields none of its wa-
ter to air which is dry and free from carbonic acid. When changed
into carbonate of lime, the water, which as a hydrate it contained,
chemically combined, is set free, while the lime and the carbonic acid
combine. This water is commonly considered to produce the damp
spots which appear here and there in new buildings. It has been im-

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

agined tliat the respiration of the new inmates increases the amount
of carbonic acid in the air, and accelerates the process, setting free
the water, which renders ihe wall damp and chokes up its pores.

This explanation is not based on any single direct observation
made on the wall itself; it is nothing but a specious conclusion. Al-
thouo-h hydrate of lime exposed to air which contains carbonic acid
chano-es into carbonate of lime, no one has ever found it becoming
moist. The liberation of the water, however much it may be acceler-
ated in the indicated way, is unable to refill the pores of the wall,
which were supposed to be already filled with air. To do this it would
be necessary that the water in the hydrate should not have occupied
any space, or that, when set free, it underwent such an expansion as
water becoming a gaseous substance. All scientific analogies and ob-
servations protest against this. Changes of solid into liquid bodies
take place without any considerable increase of volume ; it is different
with the transition of liquids into gases when the increase is very con-
siderable.

It is only by the complete choking up of the pores by water, and
the complete expulsion of the air from the sui'face of the wall, that
the damp spots can be formed ; and the freed water of the hydrate,
whicli cannot fill a space which it had not filled while in its former
combination, cannot do this. So the absorption of the carbonic acid
is unable to produce the required increase of volume.

The fresh spots in new buildings can only arise from the precipita-
tion of water from the air on the walls.

The inhabitants of a house give rise to a great amount of watery
vapor, not only by the functions of their lungs and skin, but also by
the nuraei'ous manipulations of the household, such as cooking, wash-
ing, cleaning, etc. If the air in the house is already saturated with
water in proportion to its temperature, a small degree of cold in the
wall is sufficient to produce a dew, a precipitation of water from the
vapor, just as one sees it on window-panes. But the porous wall can
imbibe a good deal, and in old buildings we may see the windows
sweating profusely while the walls seem to remain dry. It may last
a long time before a well-constructed wall or partition gives any sign.
They go on condensing water till their pores are filled and all the air
expelled — then, not slowly and gradually, but all at once, numerous
damp spots make their appearance.

It is, therefore, clear why those youngsters of houses are so much
more subject to damp spots than their brethren of more mature age.
Their walls have lost just enough of the building-water to allow the
air to occupy part of the pores ; optically, they seem dry, but still
very little water is required to choke up the pores here and there
anew, and wherever this takes place the spots break out. The effect
of a fire is very instructive ; notliing produces damp spots so easily in
a fresh building as the first fire, when doors and windows are well

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 203

closed. The heat from the fire begins by heating the places nearest
to it, and a good deal of water evaporates, so that the air in the room
must come nearer its point of saturation. But at a distance from the
fire, the walls being colder than the air, dew falls, and, if the pores
still contain great quantities of the building-water, they soon begin
to overflow.

Another proof that the water chemically combined with the hy-
drate of lime is not able to fill the pores when it becomes liquid lies
in its proportionately small quantity. A house built, let us say, with
100,000 bricks, contains, at most, about 33,000 pounds of burned lime.
This cannot combine with more than about 10,000 pounds of water in
becoming a hydrate. By the time the mortar is hard and set, and the
building becomes inhabited, probably one-half of the lime has become
a carbonate, and there remain only 5,000 pounds of water in the re-
maining hydrate, which is five per cent, of the whole mass of 100,000
pounds of water which got into the new building during its erection.
If, then, the other ninety-five per cent, of the building-water were
gone, the five per cent., or even ten per cent., remaining, or formed by
the change of hydrate into carbonate of lime, would not produce the
optical phenomenon of dampness.

I have dwelt somewhat longer on this subject because it is indis-
pensable for a correct view of the function of the wall : the removal
into the open air of a great part of that watery vapor which develops
itself in every human household. Our walls have to swallow a good
deal of that vapor as water, and to pass it on through their body that
it may evaporate on their outer surface. That is the reason why
localities looking to the north, or shaded from the sun, are so much
damper. This appears most clearly in unheated places, chiefly at the
transition from winter to spring, when it is warmer outside than in-
side. We are glad to have once more the windows open to let the
tepid spring air gladden the cold interior; but a good deal of water
will soon be seen deposited on the walls and the objects within the
rooms, which has to evaporate just as from a new building.

You are now well aware of the usefulness of porous building-ma-
terials ; they alone can make dry dwellings. I cannot help thinking
badly of all the substitutes for wood, brick, and mortar, which have
been proposed, as zinc, iron, putty, etc. Perhaps the natural functions
of the mortar-wall may one day be efficiently exercised by something
else ; for the present it has not been done, and will not be done as
easily as many so-called practical people suppose.

Let me just relate to you a case, which shows that, without a cor-
rect view of the functions of walls, an apparently excellent plan may
just produce the reverse of what was intended. In the neighborhood
of iron-smelting works, the slag is often used for building-purposes.
This material, associated with other stones, does very well. As it
exists only in very irregular shapes, it requires large masses of mortar.

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and in our case this was believed to be undesirable. So it was de-
cided to take only large regular pieces for the erection of a large
workmen's dwelling, by which means the application of mortar could
be reduced very much. It was a pleasure to see how quickly the
building proceeded, and how much more quickly it got dry and habi-
table than other buildings, where irregular pieces and much mortar
had been used. As soon as the workmen and their families began to
live in the new building, the traces of damp began to show, and at
last the house became the dampest in the whole establishment, and
remained so. The thin layers or bands of mortar could not dispose
well of the water which was deposited from the air in the house, and
this was the worse, as the slag is not like brick and mortar, which
suck the water up, but is a vitrified substance, ou which water pre-
cipitates as on a window-pane.

But how are we to judge, in a given case, whether a house is suf-
ficiently dry ? No doubt, in every locality a practical expei-ience
establishes itself, founded on the knowledge of the usual material, the
manner of building, and the climate. But if, as in some countries,
some authority has to declai'e a house dry and habitable before it is
to be let, there will be no end of disputes between this authority and
the proprietor, because, after all, apart from the age of the building,
the verdict of the experts will be given on their subjective view, not
on definite and palpable signs. You know, already, that the absence
of damp spots means very little. Feeling by the hand the temperature
of the walls, knocking at them with a little hammer, are all of not
much good. Not a bad plan is to get from difierent places in the
house small pieces of mortar, and to have them examined as to their
contents of evaporable water, which ought not to be more than five
per cent, of the weight. But we may have fallen just on dry places
only, and get considerably deceived. Direct and comparative hygro-
metric observations would be best, but the necessary preliminary re-
searches for this kind of examination are still to be made.

But what is to be done if a new building is to be brought quickly
and surely into a condition of dryness ? I have been obliged to shake
your belief in the one means which appeared to exist, the development
of carbonic acid by burning charcoal in basins or open stoves. But
I shall try to give you something in exchange for what I have taken
from you. This something is nothing but an appeal to what Ave have
learned above. There are no means of removing the water from a
fresh building but by letting it evaporate into the air. This evapora-
tion, you know, depends on the temperature, the humidity of the air,
and its velocity.

Imagine to yourselves a moderately-sized room of 3,530 cubic feet,
and the temperature and humidity of the air at the above given mean
averages. As one cubic foot of such air is capable of taking up one
additional grain of water, the air of the whole room will take up 3,530

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 205

grains, or about half a pound, of water. Should there be no change
of the air, matters would remain so. But by every fresh 3,530 feet
of air coming into the room another half-pound of water would be
taken up, and so on. Suppose the change amounts to 353 cubic feet
per hour : all the moisture we get rid of per hour would be only 353
grains per hour. But if we heat the room to 68° Fahr., for instance
we increase the tension of the vapor, i. «., the capacity of the air for tak-
ing up water, from four to seven grains per cubic foot, so that each cubic
foot of fresh air entering the room is capable of taking up seven instead
of four that means four grains in addition to its original humidity
In consequence of this increased capacity, the 353 cubic feet of air
take up 1,412 instead of 353 grains of water. But by the increased
difference of temperature between the room and the open air, ventila-
tion rises from 353 to 2,100 cubic feet per hour, and in this way we
get rid of more than twenty times as much water as if we left the
room unheated.

All kinds of stoves and charcoal-dishes act only as sources of heat,
and not as sources of carbonic acid. The only rational and efficient
way is the heating of all the chimneys and stoves, and the coiitinnal
ventilation of all the rooms. All other ways are of no use, or decep-
tive.

You have seen that the wall has its physiology, a life of its own.
Perhaps you will no longer find it so strange tbat Master Quince intro-
duces not only a pale moonshine and a rough lion, but also a " sweet
and lovely wall " as a living and talking person. I had many things
more to tell you about the wall, but I have still another subject of
special importance before me — the change of the air in the house, or
ventilation.

We have seen already, in speaking of our clothes, that the well-
being of our body requires a continuous current of air to flow round
us, and for the same reason a flow of air must take place continually
from the open air through our dwellings. It used to be a current be-
lief that in the still air of our houses we were separated and shut oft"
from the external air. You know that this error arises from our nerves
and senses believing the air to be quite calm and motionless, although
there may be some movement. We must be thankful to our Crt ator
for this our error, else we should probably have ceased to exist. How-
ever anxious we may have been to shut ourselves up from the external
air, we still remain in connection and intercourse with it. No house
can have an atmosphere of its own; it has that by which it is sur-
rounded, which travels and flows through it slower or quicker, while
the house, and whatever exists and goes on in it, have no other power
than to render this air more or less impure.

This pollution must not overstep a certain line, and this line de-
pends on the proportion between the pollution and the change and
volume of the air-current.

2o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

We change and pollute the air within our houses in two ways :
1. By admixture of siihstances which were not in the air when it
came to us ; and, 2. By changing its normal composition. Both
are unavoidable, but there are limits, which must not be overstepped.
The impurities may be in the nature of gases, or dust. We often be-
come aware of them by our senses, by sight, by taste, mostly by smell.
The last sense is exceedingly sensitive for many substances ; for in-
stance, traces of ethereal oils. Nothing is more wonderful than its
acuteness with some savages and animals. If we consider the minute-
ness of the substances left by hunted game on the soil, which it
scarcely touches in its flight, and how the dog detects them even a
long time after, we cannot sufficiently admire such a performance of
the sense of smell. Other substances make themselves known in other
ways, sometimes by some physiological effect. Oxide of carbon, for
instance — a gas which is generated from burning charcoal — is not
perceived by any of our senses, but if it is present in air to the extent
of a half per cent, only, it destroys human life after a while. A few
grains of veratria, rubbed down into a powder, will set all the persons
in the room sneezing. Other substances, as the products of distilla-
tion of fats, or the smoke of wood, irritate the membranes of the eyes.
Other vapors and kinds of dust act on the taste ; for instance, aloe-
powder.

We rightly consider all air, which acts on our senses or our feel-
ings differently from air in the ojjen, to be polluted.

The second way in which we render the air impure on its journey
through our houses is that of altering the quantities of its compo-
nents. We deprive it of oxygen by our respiration, by the burning
of lights and fires ; we increase its carbonic acid and its water by the
activity of our lungs and skin, and by numerous proceedings of the
household.

All tliese pollutions and alterations are partly avoidable, partly
unavoidable. Among the latter are those by our lungs and skin, be-
cause we cannot live without producing them. To the former belongs
everything that from want of cleanliness, careless treatment of waste
and refuse, passes into the air-current, the utilization of which ought
to be the privilege of our skin and lungs. It is an inexcusable waste
of ventilation, if it is directed against avoidable pollutions of the air,
besides its being generally of not much use for this purpose. If I had
a nuisance in my room, I should be a fool if I kept it there and trusted
to stronger ventilation. The rational way is to do away with the pol-
lutions, not to keep them and to fight them by ventilation. Without
strict cleanliness in a house or public institution, all contrivances for
ventilation will not do much good ; the proper domain of ventilation
begins where cleanliness, by rapid removal or careful shutting up of
air-polluting substances, has done its best. It is only against the de-
terioration of the air by respiration and perspiration, whicli is beyond

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 207

the control of cleanliness, that ventilation can direct its power and
against this deterioration this power must be chiefly directed.

Let us now consider the different causes of the motion of the air.
As air in motion is wind {ve?itus, Latin), ventilation is a better expres-
sion than " airing." Anything which disturbs the equilibrium of a
body of air, produces motion in it. Its immobility supposes equality
of temperature and specific gravity, and also of mixture in quantitv
and qviality. Such conditions, as you may suppose, are seldom present,
and absolute calmness is impossible. Different kinds of gases tend
to intermix in every direction, even contrary to their specific weight,
a process which is called diffusion ; but this kind of motion is not in
question when we s^Deak of ventilation. Ventilation means the setting
in motion of masses of air by mechanical pressure and the dislodging
of whole bodies of air similarly composed, which, for that reason, are
not subject to diffusion.

We produce ventilation by disturbing the equilibrium of the air
in two ways : 1. By producing differences of temperature between
two neighboring bodies of air, which are accessible to each other ;

2. By mechanical pressure on or driving off the air in a certain
direction. We cause the same motion in either way, but the first we
call draught, the second wind / we call forth a draught by a chimney,
we produce a wind by a fan, a fan-wheel, etc.

These two factors of change of the air are continually active in
our houses, but to a very different extent at different times. Our
houses stand in the open air, which is never quite calm ; even if it
appears so, there is still some imperceptible motion, some wind dis-
posable for ventilation. Then our houses are either colder or warmer
than the surrounding air. They act just like large chimneys. If they
are colder, the air which comes in contact with them gets colder, and
a downward air-current is produced ; if they are warmer, the air gets
warmer, and an ascending current is established.

It is evident that the intensity of the change must also depend on
the way in which the house is shut up, on the size and number of its
apertures, and the porosity of the materials it is built with.

For this reason a certain amount of ventilation is always taking
place wthout any special arrangement for it, but its strength depends
— 1. On the amount of difference of temperature between outside and
inside ; 2. On the strength of the wind or air-motion in the open ;

3. On the size of the apertures which are open to the change of the
air. We may call the first two the air-motors, the last the air-media-
tor or janitor, door-keeper ; to a certain degree, they can take each
other's place. If there is not enough difference of temperature, as,
for instance, in summer, the wind can act ; if both together are too
weak, opened doors and windows can help. In winter, when the dif-
ference of temperature between the in- and out-door air is consider-
able, small openings allow the passage of as much air as large open-

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ings during summer, because the difference of pressure is greater.
When, in winter, we stay in an unheated room, whose temperature is
only slightly above that of the outer air, ventilation is quite as weak
as in summer ; the air, if the windows remain closed, becomes quite
as bad by our presence, and we ought to air the room as in summer;
but we do not, because we want to protect ourselves against the
outside cold. The dwellings of the lower classes present frequently,
during the greater part of winter, this form of defective ventilation,
which gets worse with the length of the cold season. In the be-
ginning the walls are still dry and porous, and assist the ventila-
tion, so far as the wind helps them to do so ; but in proportion as
they get colder, they increasingly condense water from the air of the
house, and finally become so choked up with it that they allow no air
to pass, as you have seen in our moistened piece of mortar. Bad
doors and windows, unmended window-panes, remain often the only
routes of ventilation. Poor people, in complaining of them, are not
aware that they are the smaller of many evils, and a defect without
which they might suffer still more.

Many of you, on hearing this, may be gratified by an unexpected
personal satisfaction. Those who try to alleviate the poor man's win-
ter by gifts of fuel not only procure for him the benefit of a warm
room, but also of a better and purer air in this room. You may con-
sider this as a scientific parable, showing that in each benevolent
action there lies a further blessing, even if we had not intended it.

It follows, from these fundamental principles of ventilation, that
a great mistake is sometimes made in large dormitories. In the morn-
ing the custom is to open the windows, and to let them remain open
all day long, to be closed only just before bedtime. The poor sleepers
fancy that they are sleeping all night in a pure air. Whoever has oc-
casion to enter such a place in the morning, before rising-hour, starts
back before this "pure aii'," which had only been renewed during the
night partially and accidentally, and is so loaded with all kinds of
animal emanations that it presses with all its power on the fresh
comer. If there is no suflicient difference of temperature between
outside and inside, a partial opening of the windows during a winter
night is just as necessary as during a summer night, as far as regards
the change of the air.

The bodies of the sleepers are certainly a small source of heat,
and such large sleeping-places become somewhat warmed by the hu-
man heat flowing from the beds, but they can never be warmed through
and through, so that the walls could become warmer. The water-
vapor exhaled by the sleepers condenses against the walls, and goes
on obstructing their pores till morning. A part of this water ni.'],y
evaporate during the time that the windows are kept open, but it will
be only a part, and hence the frequent breaking out of damp spots in
such dormitories in the course of the winter.

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 209

There was a belief that sleeping in the cold was a good thing ; but
I cannot find any facts proving this theory, particularly no compara-
tive observations about the wholesonieness of heated and unheatcd
dormitories. It would be safer to say that experience proves that
sleeping in the cold does not, generally, do harm. If a single person
sleeps in a large cold room with shut doors and windows, it m ill do
him no harm when he has a good bed. One person cannot deteriorate
the air of an unventilated space as much as two or more. The bed is
a garment, an apparatus, which is of great use for our heat-economy;
it prevents our feeling cold even in tlie coldest dormitory, but the bed
is no ventilating apparatus, and ventilation must be provided for in
another way. He that wants to sleep safely in the cold must have a
good bed and a large space, or bad wandows and doors, or very porous
walls, or he must keep his windows partly open in winter as well as
in summer.

You have probably now the desire to hear from me how much air
or ventilation a person wants in a stated time. After you have all the
while heard from me that everything is full of air, that air penetrates
everywhere, and that it is extremely difficult to prevent its passage,
many among you will ask: "What need is there of special contrivances,
if the air passes through each brick, through mortar, through wood ?
Would it not be rather desirable to protect ourselves against this
universal aggression of the air ? "

It is with air as with all things which we must have — as with
money, of which we must not only have some, but sufficient — one must
have as much as one requires. Some money is, after all, in everybody's
possession, even that of the poorest beggar.

Till some time ago, ventilation was chiefly considered in its quali-
tative aspect: we wanted change of the air, and were satisfied if there
was one aperture for it to go out, and another to come in. The ques-
tion about the quantity of this air was never put ; if it had been
known how much was really w^anted, and how it was to be procured,
that amount of ventilation which was often paraded would have
appeared beggarly. It is only during the last twenty years that we
have acquired clear ideas on this subject.

We deteriorate the air of a closed space inevitably by using it for
the maintenance of our respiration and perspiration. To which de-
gree, then, may we alter or pollute by our emanations the air of a
closed space, without going so far as to injure our health ? This leads
us to another preliminary question: What standard have we for
measuring the deterioration of the air ?

At all times people have been in the habit of making some estimate
of the pollution of the air by the smell imparted to it by the respira-
tion and emanations of the persons staying in it. This estimate is of
the same value as that we have spoken of when on the subject of the
water in the walls. The smell of a certain air need not be in any kind

VOL. XI. — 14

210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of proportion to the use which has been made of it already for the
purposes of respiration and evaporation. Besides, smelling is a very
subjective sensation, of very ditterent excitability in different persons.
Although generally a certain rule for judging the air of a room may
be based on its smell, the decision, in doubtful cases, will always be a
subjective one. It would be a different thing if we could lay hold of
the smelling particles in the air of the room, and measure or weigh
them, and compare them with the volume of air they were taken from ;
but we have no method of doing this; everything is left to our
noses.

For this reason I considered it indispensable to look about for
some means wliich would make us independent of our subjective esti-
mate. I started from the excretion of carbonic acid, as it takes place
from the living human body ; its quantity in the air can be ascertained
easily and accurately. There is some in the open air, although very
little ; the question was, therefore, to find out its increase in a number
of inhabited rooms, with notoriously good and notoriously bad air,
and to draw a comparison. The correctness of this proceeding de-
pends on the supposition that there are no other sources of carbonic
acid but the inmates, that there are no burning flames, or tobacco-
smoking, etc. I will not say that I consider the detected carbonic acid
as the principal drawback to such air; it is, in my mind, the measure
only for all the other alterations which take place in the air simultane-
ously and proportionately, in consequence of respiration and perspi-
ration ; its increase shows to what degree the existing air has been
already in the lungs of the persons present. All other functions in
which the air participates keep in some proportion to the respiration.

A series of examinations have resulted in the conviction that one
volume of carbonic acid in 1,000 volumes of room-air indicates the
limits which divide good from bad air. This is now generally adopted
and practically proved, always provided that man is the only source
of carbonic acid in the space in question.

Suppose there is a known source of cai-bonic acid: the determining
the amount of it in a room can also be used for measuring another
element, which would otherwise defy calculation — I mean the amount
of ventilation of a closed space of definite construction. Imagine to
yourselves a room with its walls, windows, and doors, its numberless
penetrable places through which the air holds ingress and egress. It
is impossible to measure the velocity of the air at each crack, to meas-
ure each little hole, the diameter of each pore, even if one had the
means of measuring such minute velocities and sections; yet still we
should like to know how much air clianges in a given space, and under
different external circumstances. The only way appeared to me to be
to mix the air of the room in question with carbonic acid to a certain
degree, then to break off this mixing, and to observe the decrease of
the acid in proportion to the air in definite times. Knowing the

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 211

amount of the acid in the external atmosphere, we can calculate how
much of the latter must go on mixing itself with tlie room-air, to
which carbonic acid has been added, in order that the proportion of
the acid may decrease by so and so much in a definite time. The
action of diffusion or absorption may generally be left out of con-
sideration in this calculation. I do not consider this method to be
absolutely correct, but I have found it quite satisfactory when a
building was a few years old, and quite dry. At all events, until a
better method has been found, we must keep to this one, even if it
were still less complete than it is.

By researches which are too complicated to lie explained in a pop-
ular lecture, it has been found that the ventilation of the same room
or space, when the doors and windows are shut, undergoes considera-
ble and definite alterations under diflerent circumstances. Ventilation
has been found to be much greater than had been supposed before.
On an average, in spaces in which the air kept good, there existed a
ventilation of more than 2,100 cubic feet per head and hour. It is
known that a person does not inhale and exhale more tlian eighteen
cubic feet of air per hour, and so it was thought that 2,100 cubic feet
per hour was a ridiculously large quantity for one person.

But it has been shown, first in France, not by calculation, but
quite empirically by simple experimenting, that this quantity of ven-
tilation is not more than is absolutely indispensable. After the epi-
demic of cholera of 1848, the erection of a model hospital in the Fau-
bourg Poissonniere was decided upon, and the Hopital la Riboisiere
was erected, which was to be furnished with artificial ventilation.
The quantity of air which was required from the ventilating appara-
tus was stated in the plan. It was believed that the demands put
under Nos. 4, 5, and V, of the plan for ventilation, were extraordinarily
large :

4. Continuous ventilation of warm air in winter and cold air in
summer at least 700 cubic feet per hour and bed in the large wards.

5. Ventilation during the day only at 350 cubic feet per bed in the
rooms of the corresponding pavilion.

7. The ventilating apparatus must have a surplus of strength, in
order to be able to produce in all or some wards a ventilation double
that stated.

The air was partly propelled by fan-wheels, partly by ventilating-
flues. It flowed to and fro through pipes in the wards, and its veloc-
ity could be measured easily by anemometei-s.

In preliminary experiments, a ventilation of 350 cubic feet per bed
and hour was tried, but the air was found already by the smell to be
so bad that the authorities congratulated themselves in having pro-
vided for double the strength. This was now tried, but with the
same result, and it w^as a comfort to know that, for extraordinary
cases, another 700 cubic feet per bed and hour could be obtained ; but

212

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

then also the state of the air was anything but desirable. It was only
with 2,120 cubic feet that the medical and other authorities fourd
themselves satisfied.

At present the demands for ventilation in France sound very dif-
ferent from what they were about twenty years ago. They are now
per hour and person :

Hospitals for ordinary cases

" wounded

" epidemics .

Prisons ....
Workshops, ordinary

" unhealthy

BarracliS, day

" night .
Theatres ....

2,120-

-2,470

cubic feet

3,530

5,300

1,'766

2,120

3,530

1,060

1,410-

-1,765

i<

(1

2,120

1,060

424-

- 530

880-

-1,060

Large rooms for long meetings

" " shorter "

Schools for children .

" adults .

Such are the changes of times.

Now the many crevices, holes, and pores in our dwellings will no
longer be considered by you as unlimited means of change of the air,
since you know how large that change has to be ; you will rather feel
anxious whence to procure such enormous quantities when you sit
quietly within your four walls where you do not feel the least draught,
where no curtain moves, and a feather lies quietly on the floor. This
sensation of calm we owe to the insensibility of our nerves — and yet
the air moves.

In order to give you some idea of the influences of differences of
temperatm-e of more or less well-shutting doors and windows, of a fire
in a stove opening into the room, and of the partial opening of a win-
dow, I will give you shortly the results I obtained with the aid of the
carbonic-acid measurement. The room had brick walls, and its size
was 2,650 cubic feet.

With a difference of temperature of 34° Fahr. (66° in- and 32° out-
side), the contents of the room .changed once in one hour, equal to
2,650 cubic feet.

With the same difference, but a good fire in the stove, whose com-
munication with the chinmey was made as free as possible, the change
of the air rose to 3,320 cubic feet, or about twenty-five per cent. When
all openings, crevices in windows and doors, were thoroughly pasted
up, there was still a change of 1,060 cubic feet per hour, or a fall of
twenty-eight per cent. With a difference of temperature of 71° in- and
64° outside, the change amounted to 780 cubic feet only per hour.
When opening a window of eight square feet, the change rose to 1,060
cubic feet per hour. These quantities are instructive. They show
that a difference of temperature of 34° with carefully-shut openings

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 213

and crevices is of greater influence than large communications with
the outer air at a small difierence of temperature.

The roaring fire and tbe draught of the stove produced only an
increase of 700 cubic feet — one-third only of the necessary ventilation
per head. I have examined a number of stoves opening into the room
for the quantity of air which they abstract while the fire burns. The
anemometer showed that it was never more than 3,105 cubic feet.
Large wards in hospitals, schools, etc., heated by one open fireplace
or stove, are sometimes wrongly believed to be well ventilated, because
one perceives the air rushing into the same. But the main point is to
know the quantity of required air and the quantity of outgoing air.

The free wall of a room of mine has been examined for its venti-
lating power. The room contained 2,650 cubic feet, and at 9.5° Fahr.
difference of temperature between outside and inside, the spontaneous
ventilation through each square yard amounted to about seven cubic
feet, or forty-three gallons per hour.

Marker and Schultze, in their researches on the siDontaneous ven-
tilation of stables, have found for one square yard of a free wall, at
9.5" Fahr. difference of tempei-ature, that the spontaneous ventilation
amounted per hour —

With walls of sandstone
" " quarried limestone

" " brick

" " tufaceous limestone " 10.1

" " mud " 14.4 " "

Domestic animals, according to Marker, require a proportionately
smaller change of the air than man. Stable-air may contain up to
three per mil. carbonic acid. While man's ventilation requires 2,100
cubic feet per hour, 1,050 are sufiicient for full-grown cattle, although
their bodies and consumption of air are so much larger. The ven-
tilation of stables depends chiefly on the size and porosity of their
free walls. It has been found that the 1,050 cubic feet mentioned
above were furnished by —

21.16 square feet of a free wall of sandstone.

15.33 " " *' " quarried limestone.

12.6 " " " " brick.

9 Y '< " " " tufaceous limestone.

7 " « " " mud.

A stable built up of mud can therefore shelter many more animals
than one built of sandstone, etc. " As the strength of the natural
ventilation of a stable does not depend on the cubic space of the sta-
ble, but on the extent of its ventilating walls, it follows that in a
small stable a proportionately greater ventilation takes place than in
a greater one, because for each animal there is more ventilating sur-
face with equal cubic space."

to

4.7 cubic feet.

1(

6.5 " "

u

7.9 " "

i(

in 1 " "

2 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This proposition naturally applies also to human habitations. The
air will be better in a small family house than in large barracks ; bet-
ter in a cellular than in a common prison, where the day and night
wards are large but crowded.

The question arises, " What is to be done in all cases in which the
natural ventilation of the inhabited spaces proves insufficient, and
allows the carbonic acid to become more than one per 1,000?" I
might tell you now of the diflferent systems of ventilation, the contriv-
ances and apparatus belonging to them ; but this is not feasible with-
out models and designs. And, after all, there would be no new prin-
ciples or natural laws to acquaint you with. I believe I have made
you sufficiently aware of the fundamental facts and conditions as to
the change of the air in our dwellings, so far even that you are now
able to judge for yourselves whether a certain plan for ventilation is
rational or not. We have no other motors for changing the air, but
differences of temperature and motion of the air, which we can call
forth either by heat or by the motion of wind-fans — or which we must
make use of as far as they are preexisting in the atmosphere surround-
ing the house. By these two means we can produce certain perturba-
tions in the equilibrium of the aii'-colurnns, and through this certain
degrees of velocity in the motion of the air.

If we know the transverse section of the inlets and outlets, we
have only to multiply their surface by the' velocity of the air, and
this will give the cubic quantity of the air which flows through the
channels in a certain time. If we know the required quantity of air
and divide it by the transverse section of the channels, we get at the
velocity of the air in the channels. We ought not to establish a
greater velocity than nine feet per second ; it is better to enlarge the
channels. These quantities must then be compared with the air
required by each person, a quantity with which you are now ac-
quainted.

If you take up the question of artificial ventilation in its quanti-
tative aspect, you protect yourself at once against a series of errors
into which else you easily fall. Our ordinary dwelling-houses need
not be ventilated artificially ; we ought never so to crowd them that
the natural means of ventilation, as difference of temperature, motion
of the air in the open, dry and porous walls, and temporary assistance
by the architectural openings, are insufficient to keep undeteriorated
what is most essential for our health. With these means there must
go hand-in-hand the greatest cleanliness in all parts of the house, and
abstention from all superfluous and avoidable pollution of the air of
the house.

Before concluding, I am desirous of considering with you an ex-
pression which is in general use, but the frequent cause of wrong
views about the change of the air. I mean the word draught. All
kinds of complaints are habitually ascribed to it, and the danger of

RELATION OF AIR TO THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN. 215

draughts is one of the few hygienic principles which have become
thoroughly popular. Perhaps this was not all profit, because with
many people ventilation and draught are synonymous; they are
afraid of a draught coming from an open window, an open door, and
find themselves in collision with ventilation.

There is certainly and frequently danger in being exposed to a
draught — a danger which has, perhaps, been over-estimated, because
men have an irresistible desire to fix a certain cause for a certain evil.
All collision is avoided if the proper meanings of ventilation and
draught are thoroughly understood.

Ventilation is the necessary change of the air in a closed space,
at which the velocity of the air is still taken for a complete stillness,
and its motion takes place all round our body. It must not be more
than a little above nineteen inches per second.

Draught is a one-sided cooling of the body, or some part of it, fre-
quently caused by a corresponding motion of cold air, but also in
other ways, as by increased one-sided radiation. The danger is, in
the first instance, the local perturbation in our heat-economy, which
has partly local consequences, but also and chiefly disorders the
nerves, acting on the calibre of our blood-vessels, our vaso-motor
nerves, which have to regulate the outflow of our heat. When we
are in the open, and the air is in more motion than the air of a
draught, we speak of wind, etc., but seldom of draught, because the
whole air-current flows equally all round us, just as in a well-venti-
lated room, only with greater velocity.

The vaso-motor nerves, regulating the circulation in our skin, are
beyond our control, and we cannot bid them to defend us simply at
the place attacked by the draught. They know only how to serve
our heat-economy when the outflow of heat from our bodies is equal,
or nearly so, on all sides. They misunderstand the local irritation
for one spread over the whole surface, and act at once on this error.
If one perspires and goes to the window with bared neck or chest,
one feels a shiver not only there but all over the body, and the per-
spiration becomes suppressed accordingly. The blood which at the
time filled the blood-vessels of the glowing skin is displaced by the
contraction of its channels; but by the misunderstanding of the
vaso-motor nerves it is driven not only from the exposed parts but
from the whole surface toward the internal parts. If one or some of
them are in some state of weakness, danger or bad consequences
cannot fail. It is the same thing as with a large quantity of cold
water taken in too quickly when the body is heated. A draught, then,
is injurious only in so far as it causes perturbations in our heat-econ-
omy, and as these perturbations can be caused in different ways we
often accuse the draught wrongly.

We hear often, "I don't like sitting near this window, close to
this wall," and so on ; » there is always a slight draught coming from

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

there." We fancy that we feel the draught, the motion of a wind,
but it is mostly increase of one-sided heat-loss by radiation toward
the cold place. People generally believe, rather, that the wind comes
through the walL But the velocity of such a wind is too small to
be felt as air in motion^ and a piece of carpet fixed to the suspected
wall does away with the supposed draught. It could, therefore, not
be caused by the air-rush through the wall, because the carpet is
many times more permeable to air than the wall.

I hope, in future, ventilation and draught will be to your mind
two distinct things.

SPINOZA: 1677 AKD 1877.'

By ERNEST KENAN.

ON this day two hundred years, in the afternoon, and at about this
same hour, there lay dying, at the age of forty-three, on the quiet
quay of the Pavilioengragt a few paces hence, a poor man, whose life
had been so profoundly silent that his last sigh was scarcely heard.
He had occupied a retired room in the house of a worthy pair, who,
without understanding him, felt for him an instinctive veneration.
On the morning of his last day he had gone down as usual to join his
hosts ; there had been religious services that morning ; the gentle phi-
losopher conversed with the good folk about what the minister had
said, much approved it, and advised them to conform themselves there-
to. The host and hostess (let us name them ; their honest sincerity
entitles them to a place in this beautiful Idyl of the Hague related
by Colerus), the Van der Spycks, husband and wife, went back to
their devotions. On their return home, their peaceful lodger was dead.
The funeral, on the 25th of February, was conducted like that of a
Christian believer, in the new chui'ch on the Spuy. All the inhabitants
of the district greatly regretted the disappearance of the sage who
had lived among them as one of themselves. His hosts preserved his
memory like a religion, and none who had approached him ever spoke
of him without calling him, according to custom, " the blessed Spi-
noza."

About the same time, however, any one able to track the current
of opinion setting in among the professedly enlightened circles of the
Pharisaism of that day, would have seen, in singular contrast, the
much-loved philosopher of the simple and single-hearted become the
bugbear of the narrow orthodoxy which pretended to a monopoly of
the truth. A wretch, a pestilence, an imp of hell, the most wicked
atheist that ever lived, a man steeped in crime — this was what the

' Address delivered at the unveiling of the monument at the Hague, February 21,

18V7.

SPINOZA: 1677 AND 1877. 217

solitary of the Pavilioengragt grew to be in the opinion of right-
thinking theologians and philosophers !

Portraits were spread abroad exhibiting him as " bearing on his
face the signs of reprobation." A distinguished philosopher, bold as
he, but less consistent and less completely sincere, called him " a
wretch." But Justice was to have her day. The human mind, attaining,
in Germany especially, toward the end of the eighteenth century, to a
more enlightened theology and a wider philosophy, recognized in Spi-
noza the precursor of a new gospel. Jacobi took the public into his
confidence as to a conversation he had held with Lessing. He had
gone to Lessing in hopes of enlisting his aid against Spinoza. "What
was his astonishment on finding in Lessing an avowed Spinozist !
" "Ev KoX Tiav," said Lessing to him — this is the whole of philosophy.
Him whom a whole century had declared an atheist, Novalis pro-
nounced a " God-intoxicated man." His forgotten works were pub-
lished, and eagerly sought after. Schleiermacher, Goethe, Hegel,
Schelling, all with one voice proclaim Spinoza the father of modern
thought. Perhaps there may have been some exaggeration in this
first outburst of tardy reparation ; but time, which sets everj'thing in
its place, has substantially ratified Lessing's judgment ; and in the
present day there is no enlightened mind that does not acknowledge
Spinoza as the man who possessed the highest God-consciousness of
his day. It is this conviction that has made you decree that his pure
and lowly tomb should have its anniversary. It is the common asser-
tion of a free faith in the Infinite that on this day gathers together,
in the spot that witnessed so much virtue, the most select assembly
that a man of genius could group round him after his death. A sov-
ereign, as distinguished by intellectual as by moral gifts, is among us
in spirit. A prince who can justly appreciate merit of every kind, by
distinguishing this solemnity with his presence, desires to testify that,
of the glories of Holland, not one is alien to him, and that no lofty
thinking escapes his enlightened judgment and his philosophic admi-
ration.

I.

The illustrious Baruch de Spinoza was born at Amsterdam at the
time when your republic was attaining its highest degree of glory and
power. He belonged to that great race which, by the influence it has
exerted and the services it has rendered, occupies so exceptional a
place in the history of civilization. Miraculous in its own way, the
development of the Jewish people ranks side by side with that other
miracle — the development of the Greek zuind ; for if Greece, from
the first, realized the ideal of poetry, of science, of philosophy, of art,
of profane life, if I may so speak, the Jewish people has made the
religion of humanity. Its prophets inaugurated in the world the idea
of righteousness, the revindication of the rights of the weak— a re-
vindication so much the more violent that, all idea of future recom-

2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pense being unknowa to them, they dreamed of the realization of the
ideal upon this earth, and at no distant period. It was a Jew, Isaiah,
who, seven hundred and fifty years before Jesus Christ, dared affirm
that sacrifices are of little importance, and that one thing only is
needful : purity of heart and hands. Tlien, when earthly events seemed
irremediably to contradict such bright Utopias, Israel can change fi'ont
in a way unparalleled.

Transporting into the domain of pure idealism that kingdom of
God with which earth proves incompatible, one moiety of its children
founds Christianity, the other carries on, through the tortures of the
middle ages, that imperturbable protest : " Hear, O Israel ! the Lord
thy God is one ; holy is his name." This potent tradition of idealism
and hope against all hope — this religion, able to obtain from its ad-
herents the most heroic sacrifices, though it be not of its essence to
promise them any certainty beyond this life — this was the healthy and
bracing medium in which Spinoza developed himself. His education
was at first entirely Hebraic ; the great literature of Israel was his
earliest, and, in point of fact, his perpetual instructress — was the medi-
tation of all his life.

As generally happens, Hebrew literature, in assuming the char-
acter of a sacred book, had become the subject of a conventional exe-
gesis, much less intent upon explaining the old texts according to the
meaning in their authors' minds than on finding in them aliment for
the moral and religious wants of the day. The penetrating mind of
the young Spinoza soon discerned all the defects of the exegesis of the
synagogue ; the Bible, as taught him, was disfigured by the accumu-
lated perversions of more than 2,000 years. He determined to pierce
beyond these. He was, indeed, essentially at one with the true fathers
of Judaism, and especially with that great Maimonides, who found a
way of introducing into Judaism the most daring speculations of phi-
losophy. He foresaw with wondrous sagacity the great results of the
critical exegesis destined, 125 years later, to afibrd the true meaning
of the noblest productions of Hebrew genius. Was this to destroy
the Bible ? Has that admirable literature lost by being understood
in its real aspect rather than relegated outside of the common laws of
humanity? Certainly not. The truths revealed by science invariably
surpass the dreams that science dispels. The world of Laplace ex-
ceeds in beauty, I imagine, that of a Cosmas Indicopleustes, who
pictured the universe to himself as a casket, on the lid of which the
stars glide along in grooves at a few leagues from us. In the same
way, the Bible is more beautiful when we have learned to see therein
— ranged in order on a canvas of a thousand years — each aspiration,
each sigh, each prayer of the most exalted religious consciousness that
ever existed, than when we force ourselves to view it as a book unlike
any other, composed, preserved, interpreted in direct opposition to all
the ordinary rules of the human intellect.

SPINOZA: 1677 AND 1877. 219

But the persecutions of the middle ages had produced on Judaism
the usual eflect of all persecution '. they had rendered minds narrow
and timid. A few years previously, at Amsterdam, the unfortunate
Uriel Acosta liad cruelly expiated certain doubts that fanaticism finds
as culpable as avowed incredulity. The boldness of the youno- Spi-
noza was still worse received ; he was anathematized, and had to sub-
rait to an excommunication that Ijc had not courted. A very old his-
tory this ! Religious communions, beneficent cradles of so much ear-
nestness and so much virtue, do not allow of any refusal to be shut up
exclusively within their embrace ; they claim to imprison forever the
life that had its beginnings within them; they brand as apostasy the
lawful emancipation of the mind that seeks to take its flight alone.
It is as thougli the e<^g should reproach, as ungrateful, the biid that
had escaped therefrom. The egg was necessary in its time ; when it
became a bondage, it iiad to be broken. A great marvel, truly, that
Erasmus of Rotterdam should feel himself cramped in his cell ; that
Luther should not prefer his monkish vows to that far holier vow
which man, by the very fact of his being, contracts with truth ! Had
Erasmus persisted in his monastic routine, or Luther gone on distrib-
uting indulgences, they would have been apostates indeed ! Spinoza
was tlie greatest of modern Jews, and Judaism exiled him. Nothing
more simple; it must have been so, it must be so ever. Finite sym-
bols, prisons of the infinite spirit, will eternally ])rotest against the
eflbrt of idealism to enlarge them. The spirit, on its side, struggles
eternally for more air and more light. Eighteen hundred and fifty
years ago the synagogue denounced as a seducer the one who was to
raise the maxims of the synagogue to unequaled glory. And the
Christian Church, how often has she not driven from her breast those
who should have been her chiefest honor ! In cases like these, our
duty is fulfilled if we retain a pious memory of the education our child-
hood received. Let the old Churches be free to brand with criminal-
ity those who quit them ; they shall not succeed in obtaining from us
any but grateful feelings, since, after all, the harm they are able to
do us is as nothing compared to the good they have done.

II.

Here, then, we have the excommunicated of the synagogue of
Amsterdam forced to create for himself a spiritual abode outside of
the home which rejected him. He had great sympathy with Chris-
tianity, but he dreaded all chains ; he did not embrace it. Descartes
had just renewed philosophy by his firm and sober rationalism. Des-
cartes was his master. Spinoza took up the problems where they had
been left by that great mind, bvat saw that, through fear of the Sor-
bonne, his theology had always remained somewhat arid. Oldenburg
asking him one .day what fault he could find with the philosophy of
Descartes and of Bacon, Spinoza replied that their chief fault lay in

2 20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not sufficiently occupying themselves with the First Cause. Perhaps
his reminiscences of Jewish theology, that ancient wisdom of the
Hebrews before which he often bows, suggested to him higher views
and more sublime aspirations in this matter. Not only the ideas held
by the vulgar, but those even of thinkers on Divinity, appeared to
him inadequate. He saw plainly that there is no assigning a limited
part to the Infinite; that Divinity is all, or is nothing; that if the
Divine be a reality, it must pervade all. For twenty years he medi-
tated on these problems without for a moment averting his thoughts.
Our distaste nowadays for system and abstract formula no longer
permits us to accept absolutely the propositions within which he had
thought to confine the secrets of the Infinite. For Spinoza, as for
Descartes, the universe was only extension and thought ; chemistry
and physiology were lacking to that great school, which was too ex-
clusively geometrical and mechanical. A stranger to the idea of life,
and those notions as to the constitution of bodies that chemistry was
destined to reveal — too much attached still to the scholastic expres-
sions of substance and attribute — Spinoza did not attain to that living
and fertile Infinite shown us by the science of Nature and of history
as presiding in space unbounded, over a development more and more
intense ; but, making allowance for a certain dryness in expression,
what grandeur there is in that inflexible geometrical deduction lead-
ing up to the supreme proposition, " It is of the nature of the Sub-
stance to develop itself necessarily by an infinity of infinite attributes
infinitely modified ! " God is thus absolute thought, universal con-
sciousness. The ideal exists, nay, it is the true existence ; all else is
mere appearance and frivolity. Bodies and souls are mere modes of
which God is the substance : it is only the modes that fall within
duration; the substance is all in eternity. Thus, God does not prove
himself; his existence results from his sole idea; everything supposes
and contains him. God is the condition of all existence, all thotight.
If God did not exist, thought would be able to conceive more than
Nature could furnish — which is a contradiction.

Spinoza did not clearly discern universal progress ; the world, as
he conceives it, seems as it were crystallized in a matter which is
incorruptible extension, in a soul that is immutable thought; the sen-
timent of God deprives him of the sentiment of man ; forever face to
face with the Infinite, he did not sufficiently perceive what of the
Divine conceals itself in relative manifestations; but he, better than
any other, saw the eternal identity which constitutes the basis of all
transitory evolutions. Whatever is limited seems to him frivolous,
and unworthy to occupy a philosopher. Bold in flight, he soared
straight to the lofty, snow-covered summits, without casting a glance
on the rich display of life springing tip on the mountain's side. At
an altitude where every breast but his own pants hard, he lives, he
enjoys, he flourishes there, as men in general do in mild and temper-

SPINOZA: 1G77 AND 1877. 221

ate regions. What he for liis part needs is the glacier-air, keen ancl
penetrating. He does not ask to be followed ; he is like Tyloses to
whom secrets unknown to the crowd reveal themselves on the hei"-hts.
But be sure of this : he was the seer of his age ; he was in his own
day the one who saw deepest into God.

III.

It might have been supposed that, all alone on those snowy peaks
he would turn out in human affairs wrong-headed, Utopian, or scorn-
fully skeptical. Nothing of the kind. He was incessantly occupied
with the application of his principles to human society. The pessi-
mism of Hobbes and the dreams of Thomas More were equally repuo--
nant to him. One-half, at least, of the " Theologico-Political Trea-
tise" which appeared in 1670, might be reprinted to-day without
losing any of its ajjpropriateness. Listen to its admirable title:
" Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, continens dissertationes aliquot,
quibus ostenditur, libertatem philosophandi non tantum salva pietate
et reipublicte pace posse concedi, sed eamdera nisi cum pace reipu-
blicge ijjsaque pietate tolli non posse." For centuries past it had been
supposed that society rested on metaphysical dogmas. Spinoza dis-
cerns profoundly that these dogmas, assumed to be necessary to
humanity, yet cannot escape discussion ; that revelation itself, if there
be one, traversing, in order to reach us, the faculties of the human
mind, is no less than all else amenable to criticism. I wish I could
quote in its entirety that admirable Chapter XX., in which our great
publicist establishes with masterly skill that dogma — new then, and
still contested in our own day — which styles itself liberty of con-
science.

" The final end of the state," he says, " consists not in dominating over
men, restraining them by fears, subjecting them to the will of others, but, on
the contrary, in permitting each one to live in all possible security ; that is to
say, in preserving intact the natural right of each to live without injury to him-
self or others. No, I say, the state has not for its end the transformation of
men from reasonable beings into animals or automata; it has for end so to
act that its citizens should in security develop soul and body, and make free use
of their reason. Hence the true end of the state is liberty. Whosoever means
to respect the riglits of a sovereign should never act in opposition to his
decrees; but each has the right to think what he will, and to say what he thinks,
provided he content himself with speaking and teaching in the name of pure
reason, and do not attempt on his private authority to introduce innovations
into the state. For example: a citizen who demonstrates that a certain law is
repugnant to sound reason, and holds that for that cause it ought to be abro-
gated— if he submit his opinions to the judgment of the sovereign, to wliom
alone it belongs to establish and to abolish laws, and if meanwhile he acts in no
wise contrary to law — that man certainly deserves well of the state as the best
of citizens. ...

" Even if we admit the possibihty of so stifling men's liberty and laying
such a yoke upon them that they dare not even whisper without the approba-

2 22 THE POPULAR SCIEN-CE MONTHLY.

tion of the sovereign, never, most surely, can they be prevented from thinking
as they will. What, then, must ensue? That men will think one way and speak
another ; that, consequently, good faith — a virtue most necessary to the state —
will become corrupted ; that adulation — a detestable thing — and perfidy will be
Jiad in repute, entailing the decadence of all good and healthy morality. What
can be more disastrous to a state than to exile honest citizens as evil-doers,
because they do not share the opinions of the crowd and are ignorant of the
art of feigning? What more fatal than to treat as enemies and doom to death
men whose only crime is that of thinking independently ? The scaffold, which
should be the terror of the wicked, is thus turned into the glorious theatre
where virtue and toleration shine out in all their lustre, and publicly cover the
sovereign majesty with opprobrium. Beyond question there is only one thing
to be learned from such a spectacle : to imitate those noble martyrs ; or, if one
fears death, to become the cowardly flatterers of power. Nothing, then, is so
full of peril as to refer and submit to divine i-ights matters of pure speculation,
and to impose laws on opinions which are, or may be, subjects of discussion
among men. If the authority of the state limited itself to the repression of
actions while allowing impunity to words, controversies would less often turn
into seditions."

More sagacious than many so-called practical men, our speculator
sees perfectly well that the only durable governments are the reason-
able, and that the only reasonable governments are the constitutional.
Far from absorbing the individual in the state, he gives him solid guar-
antees against the state's omnipotence. He is no revolutionary, but a
moderate ; he transforms, explains, but does not destroy. His God
is not indeed one who takes pleasure in ceremonies, sacrifices, odor of
incense, yet Spinoza has no design whatever to overthrow religion ;
he entertains a profoimd veneration for Christianity, a tender and a
sincere respect. The supernatural, however, has no meaning in his
doctrine. According to his princijiles, anything out of Nature would
be out of being, and therefore inconceivable. Prophets, revealers,
have been men like others :

" It is not thinking, but dreaming," he says, " to hold that prophets have had
a human body and not a human soul, and that consequently their knowledge
and their sensations have been of a different nature from ours. . . . The pro-
phetic faculty has not been the dowry of one people only — the Jewish people.
The quality of Son of God hos not been the privilege of one man only. . . .
To state my views openly, I tell you that it is not absolutely necessary to know
Christ after the flesh ; but it is otherwise when we speak of that Son of God,
that is to say, that eternal Wisdom of God, which has manifested itself in all
things, and more fully in the human soul, and above all in Jesus Christ. With-
out this wisdom no one can attain the state of beatitude, since it alone teaches
us what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong. ... As to
what certain Churches have added, ... I have expressly warned you that I
do not know what they mean, and, to speak frankly, I may confess that they
seem to me to be using the same sort of language as if they spoke of a circle
assuming the nature of a square."

Was not this exactly what Schleiermacher said? And as to Spi-

SPINOZA: 1677 AND 1877. 223

noza, the fellow-founder with Richard Simon of Biblical exegesis, was
not he the precursor of those liberal theologians who have in our own
day shown that Christianity can retain all its glory without supei'-
naturalism? His letters to Oldenburg on the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, and of the manner in which St. Paul understood it, are mas-
terpieces which a hundred years later would have served as the mani-
festo of a whole school of critical theology.

In the eyes of Spinoza it signifies little whether mysteries be
understood this way or that, provided they be understood in a pious
sense. Religion has one aim only, piety ; and we are to appeal to it
not for metaphysics, but for practical guidance. At bottom there is
but one single thing in Scripture, as in all revelation : " Love your
neighbor." The fruit of religion is blessedness, each one participat-
ing in it according to his capacity and his efforts. The souls that are
governed by reason — the philosophic souls that have, even in this
world, their life in God — are safe from death; what death takes from
them is of no value ; but weak or passionate souls perish almost
entirely, and death, instead of being for them a simple accident,
involves the foundation of their being. . . . The ignorant man who
lets himself be swayed by blind passions is agitated in a thousand
different directions by external causes, and never enjoys true peace of
soul ; for him, ceasing to suffer means ceasing to be. The soul of the
wise man, on the other hand, can scarcely be troubled. Possessing
by a kind of eternal necessity the consciousness of itself and of God
and of things, he never ceases to be, and ever preserves the soul's
true peace.

Spinoza could not endure his system to be considered irreligious or
subversive. The timid Oldenburg did not conceal from him that some
of his opinions seemed to certain readers to tend to the overthrow of
piety. " Whatever accords with reason," replied Spinoza, " is in my
belief most favorable to the practice of virtue." The pretended supe-
riority of coarsely positive conceptions as to religion and a future life
found him intractable. *' Is it, I ask, to cast off religion," he was
wont to say, " to acknowledge God as the Supreme Good, and thence
to conclude that he must be loved with a free soul ? To maintain
that all our felicity and most perfect freedom consists in that love —
that tlie reward of virtue is virtue, and that a blind and impotent
soul finds its punishment in its blindness — is this a denial of all re-
ligion?" At the root of all such attacks he traced meanness of soul.
According to him, any one who felt irritated by a disinterested relig-
ion involuntarily confessed reason and virtue to have no charm in his
eyes, and that his pleasure would lie in living to indulge his passions
if he were not restrained by fear. "Thus, then," he would add,
" such a one only abstains from evil and obeys the Divine command-
ment regretfully as a slave, and in return for this slavery expects from
God rewards which have infinitely more value in his eyes than the

2 24 THi: POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Divine law. The more aversion and estrangement from good he may-
have felt, the more he hopes to be recomjDensed, and imagines that
they who are not restrained by the same fear as himself do what he
■would do in their case — that is to say, live lawlessly." Spinoza held
with reason that this manner of seeking heaven was contrary to rea-
son, and that there is an absurdity in pretending to gain God's favor
by owning to him that, did one not dread him, one would not love.

IV.

He was, however, well aware of the danger of interfering with
beliefs in which few admit these subtile distinctions. Caute was his
motto, and, his friends having made him aware of the explosion that
the " Ethica " would infallibly produce, he kept it unpublished till
his death. He had no literary vanity, nor did he seek celebrity —
possibly, indeed, because he was sure to obtain it without seeking.
He was perfectly happy — he has told us so ; let us take him at his
word. He has done still better : he has bequeathed us his secret.
Let all men listen to the recipe of the " Prince of Atheists " for the
discovery of happiness : it is the love of God. To love God is to live
in God. Life in God is the best and most perfect because it is the
reasonablest, happiest, fullest — in a word, because it gives us more
being than any other life, and satisfies most completely the funda-
mental desire that constitutes our essence.

Spinoza's whole practical lii'e was regulated according to these
maxims. That life was a masterpiece of good sense and judgment.
It was led with the profound skill of the wise man who desires one
thing only, and invariably ends by obtaining it. Never did policy
so well combine means and end. Had he been less reticent, he would
perhaps have met the same fate as the unfortunate Acosta. Loving
truth for its own sake, he was indifferent to the abuse that his con-
stancy in speaking it entailed, and answered never a woi'd to the
attacks made on him. For his i^art, he attacked no one. " It is for-
eign to my habits," he said, " to look out for the errors into which
authors have fallen." Had he desired to be an official personage, his
life would no doubt have been traversed by persecution, or at least
by disgrace. He w\as nothing, and desired to be nothing. Ama
nesciri was his desire, as well as that of the author of the " De Imita-
tione." He sacrificed everything to peace of mind, and in so doing
there was no selfishness, for his mind was of importance to the world.
He frequently refused wealth on its way to him, and desired only
what was absolutely necessary. The King of France ofiered him a
pension ; he declined. The Elector Palatine offered him a chair at
Heidelberg. " Your freedom shall be complete," he was told, " for
the prince is convinced that you will not abuse it to disturb the estab-
lished religion." " I do not very well understand," he replied, " within
what limits it would be necessary to confine that philosophical free-

SPINOZA: 1677 AND 1877. 225

dom granted me on condition of not disturbing the established re-
ligion ; and then, again, the instruction I bestowed on youth would
hinder my own advance in philosophy. I have only succeeded in
procuring for myself a tranquil life by the renunciation of all kinds
of public teaching." He felt that his duty was to think. He thou<rht,
in fact, for humanity, whose ideas he forestalled by more than two
centuries.

The same instinctive sagacity was carried by him into all the
relations of life : he felt that public opinion never permits a man to
be daring in two directions at once. Being a freethinker, he looked
upon himself as bound to live like a saint. But I am wrong in saying
this. Was not this pure and gentle life rather the direct expression of
his peaceful and lovable consciousness ? At that period the atheist
was pictured as a villain armed with daggers. Spinoza was through-
out his whole lifetime humble, meek, pious. His enemies w^ere ingenu-
ous enough to object to this : they would have liked him to live com-
formably to the conventional type, and, after the career of a demon in-
carnate, to die in despair. Spinoza smiled at this singular pretension,
and refused to oblige his enemies by changing his way of life. He
had warm friends; he showed himself courageous at need ; he protested
against popular indignation wherever he thought it unjust. Many
disappointments failed to shake his fidelity to the republican party ;
the liberality of his opinions w as never at the mercy of events. What,
perhaps, does him more honor still, he possessed the esteem and sincere
affection of the simple beings among whom he lived. Nothing is equal
in value to the esteem of the low^ly ; their judgment is almost always
that of God. To the w- orthy Van der Spycks he w^as evidently the very
ideal of a perfect lodger. " No one ever gave less trouble," was their
testimony given some years after his death to Colerus. " While in
the house he inconvenienced nobody ; he spent the best part of his
time quietly in his own room. If he chanced to tire himself by too
protracted meditation, he would come down-stairs and speak to the
family about any subject of common talk, even about trifles." In fact,
there could never have been a more affable inmate. He would often
hold conversations with his hostess, especially at the time of her con-
finements, as well as with the rest of the household when any sorrow
or sickness befell them. He would tell the children to go to divine
service, and, when they returned from the sermon, ask them how much
they remembered of it. He almost always strongly seconded what
the preacher had said. One of the persons he most esteemed was the
pastor Cordes, an excellent man and good expounder of the Script-
ures ; sometimes, indeed, he went to hear him, and he advised his
host never to miss the preaching of so able a man. One day his
hostess asked him if he thought she could be saved in the religion she
professed. "Your religion is a good one," he replied; "you shoxild
not seek any other, nor doubt that yours will procure salvation if, in

VOL. XI. — 15

2 26 THE POPULAR SCIJENCE MONTHLY.

attaching yourself to piety, you lead at the same time a peaceful and
tranquil life."

His temperance and good management were admirable. His daily
wants were provided for by a handicraft in which he became very
skillful — the polishing of lenses. The Van der Spycks made over to
Colerus scraps of paper on which Spinoza had noted down his ex-
penses ; these averaged about fourpence halfpenny a day. He was
very careful to settle his accounts every quarter, so as neither to spend
more nor less than his income. He dressed simply if not poorly, but
his aspect radiated serenity. It was evident that he had found out a
doctrine which gave him perfect content.

He was never elated, and never depressed ; the equability of his
moods seems wonderful. Perhaps, indeed, he may have felt some sad-
ness when the daughter of his professor, Van den Ende, preferred
Kerkering to him; but I suspect that he soon consoled himself.
"Reason is my enjoyment," he would say, "and the aim I have in
this life is joy and serenity." He objected to any praise of sadness.

" It is superstition," he maintained, " that sets up sadness as good, and all that
tends to joy as evil. God would show himself envious if he took pleasure in my
impotence and in the ills I suffer. Eather in proportion to the greatness of our
joy do we attain to a greater perfection and participate more fully in the divine
nature. . . . Joy, therefore, can never be evil so long as it be regulated by the
law of our true utility. A virtuous life is not a sad and sombre one, a life of
privations and austerity. How should the Divinity take pleasure in the spectacle
of my weakness, or impute to me, as meritorious, tears, sobs, terrors — signs all
of an impotent soul? Yes," he added, emphatically, "it is the part of a wise
man to use the things of this life, and enjoy them as much as possible ; to recruit
himself by a temperate and appetizing diet ; to charm his senses with the per-
fume and the brilliant verdure of plants ; to adorn his very attire ; to enjoy music,
games, spectacles, and every diversion that any one can bestow on himself with-
out detriment to character. . . . "We are incessantly spoken to of repentance,
humility, death ; but repentance is not a virtue, but the consequence of a weak-
ness. Nor is humility one, since it springs in man from the idea of his inferiority.
As to the thought of death, it is the daughter of fear, and it is in feeble souls
that it sets up its home. . . . The things of all others," he would say, " about
which a free man thinks least is deatli. Wisdom lies in the contemplation not
of death, but of life."

V.
Since the days of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, no life had been
witnessed so profoundly penetrated by the sentiment of the Divine.
In the twelfth, tliirteenth, sixteenth century, rationalistic philosophy
had numbered very great men in its ranks, but it had had no saints.
Occasionally a very repulsive and hard element had entered into the
finest characters among Italian freethinkers. Religion had been
utterly absent from those lives not less in revolt against human than
divine laws, of which the last example Avas that of poor Vanini. Here,
on the contrary, we have religion producing free thought as a part of

SPINOZA: 1G77 AND 1877. 227

piety. Religion in a system such as this is not a portion of life: it is
life itself. That which is seen to matter here is not the bein"- in pos-
session of some metaphysical phrases more or less correct : it is the
giving to one's life a sure pole, a supreme direction — the ideal.

It is by so doing that your illustrious countryman has lifted up a
banner which still avails to shelter beneath it all who think and -feel
nobly. Yes, religion is eternal ; it answers to the first need of primi-
tive as well as of civilized man; it will only perish with humanity it-
self— or, rather, its disappearance would be the proof that deo-enerate
humanity was about to reenter the mere animalism out of which it had
emerged. And yet no dogma, no worship, no formula, can in these
days of ours exhaust the religious sentiment. We must confront with
each other these seemingly contradictory assertions. Woe to him
who pretends that the era of religions is past ! Woe to him who
imagines it possible to restore to the old symbols the force they had
when they leaned upon the imperturbable dogmatism of other days !
With that dogmatism we, for our part, must needs dispense ; we must
dispense with those fixed creeds, sources of so many struggles and
divisions, but sources no less of such fervent convictions ; we must
give up believing that it is our part to hold down others in a faith we
no longer share. Spinoza was right in his horror of hypocrisy : hy-
pocrisyis cowardly and dishonest, but, above all, hypocrisy is useless.
Who is it, indeed, that is deceived here ? The persistency of the
higher classes in unqualifiedly jjatronizing, in sight of the uncultivated
classes, the religious reforms of other days, will have but one eifect :
that of impairing their own authority at those times of crisis when it
is important that the people should still believe in the reason and the
virtue of a few.

Honor, then, to Spinoza, who has dared to say : " Reason before all."
Reason can never be contrary to the well-understood" interests of hu-
manity. But we would remind those who are carried away by unre-
fleeting impatience, that Spinoza never conceived of religious revolu-
tion as being aught else than a transformation of formulas. Accord-
ing to him, what was fundamental went on subsisting under other
terms. If he, on one hand, energetically repudiated the theocratic
power of the clergy, as distinguished from civil society, or the ten-
dency of the state to occupy itself with metaphysics, on the other
hand, he never denied either the state or religion : he wished the state
tolerant and religion free. We wish for nothing more. One cannot
impose on others beliefs one does not possess. That the believers of
other days made themselves persecutors, proved them tyrannical, but
at least consistent; as for us, if we were to act as they did, Ave should
be simply absurd. Our religion is a sentiment capable of clothing
itself in numerous forms. These forms are free from being equally
good ; but not one of them has strength or authority to expel all
others. Freedom — this is the last word of Spinoza's religious policy.

2 28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Let it be the last word of ours ! It is the most honest course ; it
may, perhaps, also be the most efficacious and certain for the progress
of civilization.

Humanity, indeed, advances on the way of progress by prodigious-
ly unequal steps. The rude and violent Esau is out of patience with
the slow pace of Jacob's flock. Let us give time to all. We may
not, indeed, permit simplicity and ignorance to hinder the free move-
ments of the intellect, but let us not either interfere with the slow
evolution of less active intelligences. The liberty of absurdity in
these is the condition of the liberty of reason in those. Services ren-
dered to the human mind by violence are not services after all. That
such as lay no stress on truth should exercise constraint in order to
obtain outward submission, what can be more natural ? But we, who
believe that truth is something real, and deserving of supreme re-
spect, how can we dream of obtaining by force an adherence which is
valueless except as the fruit of free conviction? We no longer admit
sacramental formulas operating by their own virtue independently of
the mind of him to whom they are applied. In our eyes, a belief has
no worth if it be not gained by the reflection of the individual — if he
have not understood and assimilated it. A mental conviction brought
about by superior order is as absolute nonsense as loA^e obtained by
force or sympathy by command. Let us promise to ourselves not only
to defend our own liberty against all who seek to attack it, but, if
need be, to defend the liberty of those who have not always respected
ours, and who, it is probable, if they were the masters, would not re-
spect it.

It is Holland that had the glory, more than two hundred years
ago, to demonstrate the possibility of these theories by realizing
them.

" Must we prove," said Spinoza, "that this freedom of thought gives rise to
no serious inconvenience, and that it is competent to keep men, openly diverse
in their opinions, reciprocally respectful of each other's rights? Examples
abound, nor need we go far to seek them. Let us instance the town of Amster-
dam, whose considei-able growth — an object of admiration to other nations — is
simply the fruit of this freedom. In the midst of this flourishing repubhc, this
eminent city, men of all nations and all sects live together in most perfect con-
cord; . . . and there is no sect, however odious, whose adepts, provided they
do not oflFend against the rights of any, may not meet with public aid and pro-
tection before the magistrates."

"&'

Descartes was of the same opinion when he came to ask from this
country the calm essential to his thinking. Later — thanks to that
noble privilege of a free land so gloriously maintained by your fathers
against all opponents ! — your Holland became the asylum where the hu-
man intellect, sheltered from the tyrannies that overspread Europe,
found air to breathe, a public to comprehend it, organs to multiply its
voice, then gagged elsewhere.

SPINOZA : 1677 AND 1877. 229

Deep, assuredly, are the wounds of our age, and cruel are its per-
plexities. It can never be with impunity that so many problems pre-
sent themselves all at once before the elements for solving them are
in our possession. It is not we who have shattered that paradise of
crystal, with its silver and azure gleams, by which so many eyes have
been ravished and consoled. But there it is in fragments ; what is
shattered is shattered, and never will an earnest spirit undertake the
puerile task of bringing back ignorance destroyed or restoring illu-
sions dispelled. The populations of great towns have almost every-
where lost faith in the supernatural ; were we to sacrifice our convic-
tions and our sincerity in an attempt to give it them back, we shoidd
not succeed. But the supernatural, as formerly understood, is not the
ideal.

The cause of the supernatural is compromised, the cause of the
ideal is untouched ; it ever will be. The ideal remains the soid of the
world, the permanent God, the primordial, efficient, and Final Cause of
this universe. This is the basis of eternal religion. We, no more
than Spinoza, need, in order to adore God, miracles or self-interested
prayers. So long as there be in the human heart one fibre to vibrate
at the sound of what is true, just, and honest ; so long as the instinc-
tively pure prefer purity to life ; so long as there be found friends of
truth ready to sacrifice their repose to science ; friends of goodness to
devote themselves to useful and holy works of mercy; woman-hearts
to love whatever is worthy, beautiful, and pure ; artists to render it
by sound, and color, and inspired accents — so long will God live in
us. It could only be when egoism, meanness of soul, narrowness of
mind, indifierence to knowledge, contempt for human rights, oblivion
of what is great and noble, invaded the world — it could only be then
that God would cease to be in humanity. But far from us thoughts
like these !

Our aspirations, our sufferings, our very faults and rashness, are
the proof that the ideal lives in us. Yes, human life is still something
divine ! Our apparent negations are often merely the scruples of timid
minds that fear to overpass the limits of their knowledge. They are
a worthier homage to the Divinity than the hypocritical adoration of
a spirit of routine. God is still in us ; believe it. God is in us ! Est
Deus in vohis.

Let us all unite in bending before the great and illustrious thinker
who, two hundred years ago, proved better than any other, both by the
examples of his life and by the power, still fresh and young, of his
works, how much there is of spiritual joy and holy unction in thoughts
like these. Let us, with Schleiermacher, pay the homage of the best
we can do to the ashes of the holy and misunderstood Spinoza :

" The sublime spirit of the world penetrated him ; the infinite was his begin-
ning and bis end ; the universal his only and eternal love. Living in holy inno-
cence and profound humility, he contemplated himself in the eternal world, and

2 30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

saw that he, too, was for that world a mirror worthy of love. He was full of re-
ligion and full of the holy spirit ; and therefore he appears to us solitary and
uaequaled, master in his art, but lifted above the profane, without disciples, and
without right of citizenship anywhere."

That riglit of citizenship you are now about to confer on him.
Your monument will be the link between his genius and the earth.
His spirit will brood like a guardian angel over the spot where his
rapid journey among men came to its end. Woe to him who, in pass-
ino- by, should dare to level an insult at that gentle and pensive figure !
He would be punished as all vulgar hearts are punished — by his very
vulgarity and his impotence to comprehend the divine. Spinoza,
meanwhile, from his granite pedestal shall teach to all the way of hap-
piness he himself had found ; and for ages to come the cultivated man
who passes along the Pavilioengragt will inwardly say, " It is hence,
perhaps, that God has been seen most near ! " — Contemporary Review.

-♦-•♦-

TRANSMISSION OF EXCITATIONS IN SENSORY

NERVES.^

By PAUL BERT.

PHYSIOLOGISTS are as yet by no means agreed whether the
nerves which, from their special functions, have been termed
motor and sensor nerves, are in their essential properties identical or
different ; in other words, whether a sensor nerve can transmit excita-
tions whose result is motion, and vice versa. We do not even know
whether an excitation produced midway in the length of a nerve is
simultaneously j^ropagated in both directions, centrifugally and cen-
tripetally. The admirable experiments made by Pliilipeaux and Vul-
pian to determine these knotty questions are, as Vulpian was the first
to observe, susceptible of a different interpretation from that unani-
mously put upon them by the world of science.

Such being the state of the case, I thought it advisable to take up
again an experiment I had made in 1863,^ but which I had neglected
to prosecute, in view of the apparently far more conclusive and far
more general results obtained by the able experimenters just named.
This experiment I have now completed, and strengthened against any
objection that might have been raised against it.

If we pinch a sensor nerve at any point of its length, the pain that
is felt cleai'ly shows that the excitation is propagated in the centripe-
tal direction ; but of a centrifugal propagation we know nothing, for
the very simple reason that at the terminal extremity of the nerve

' Translated from the French by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.
"^ Comptes rendns de la Sociele de Biologie (1863), p. 179.

EXCITATIONS IN SENSORY NERVES.

231

there is no nervous apparatus of perception. But if we can brino- this
extremity into relation with the perceptive centre, the brain we sliall
see whether there is sensation, which would imply centrifuo-al propa-
gation.

The means employed in bringing about this condition of things is
very simple indeed. I remove, for the length of two or three centi-
metres, the skin from the tip of a young rat's tail, and insert the flayed
part into the subcutaneous cellular tissue through an oi^enino- made
in the skin of the animal's back. A few stitches suffice to hold the
parts in place, and soon they adhere firmly, the rat's tail then havinw
the ansate form.

Fig. 1. — Eat with Tip op Tail insektbd into the Dorsal Tissues.

Eight months later I cut the tail in two, thus leaving two caudal
stubs. Immediately after section, the doi'sal stub was manifestly sen-
sitive; and when it was pinched vigorously, the rat would squeal and
run oiF. Hence it plainly appears that, in this fragment of a tail, the
excitation of the sensor nerves is propagated from the tiiick to the
slender end, or in a direction inverse to what is held to be the normal
course. The process was about as follows : the sensor nerves distrib-
uted to the extremity of the tail, on being wounded by the removal
of the skin, united with the sensor nerves of the dorsal region, which
in like manner had been cut into. In due coiirse of time the nerve-
cicatrix became able to transmit the shocks (whatever their nature)
which an excitation produces in a nerve. When, now, we pinch the
extremity of the dorsal stub, tlie shock is transmitted along the ex-
cited caudal nerve, passes through the cicatrix, and follows the dorso-
cutaneous nerve into the spinal marrow, which carries it to the brain,
where it results in a sensation of pain.

The history of the case will be readily understood on examining
the following diagram, in which, for simplicity's sake, I have repre-
sented only one of the nerve-filaments of the tail {N C) and one of
the nerve-filaments of the back {D N).

But this sensibility of the dorsal fragment begins to grow less on

232

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the second day after section, and soon it is gone. If, some days later,
we examine the nerves of this fragment with a microscope, we shall
find that they liave undergone the changes usual in nerves that have
been cut off from their trophic centres ; and this is true no less of the
portion concealed under the skin than of the free (and certainly liv-
ing) portion hanging from the animal's back : not a single sound nerve-

FiG. 2.— .¥ E, spinal marrow. N C, nerve-fllaraent distributed to the end of the tail. <?, its tro-
phic ganiflion. D N, a, nerve-fllament distributed to the skin of the back, lacerated in the
operation. G, its trophic j^anglion. C, the cicatrix which united the two nerves, and which
is now permeable to nervous shocks. S, point where the tail was cut in two ; a, b, arrows
showing the two directions in which sensory excitations are transmitted.

tube is to be seen in it. On the contrary, the stump of the tail, which
has retained its natural position, has every nerve sound, with not a
single diseased tube.

Thus, then, physiological facts are in agreement with histological
observations, and they both prove conclusively that the sensor nerves
which transmitted the centrifugal excitation were the normal nerves
of the dorsal stub, and that here we have neither new-formed nerves
nor nerve-fibres with ansate terminations. It is further demonstrated
— and this is a fact not without interest — that the relations with the
nerve-centres of perception, from which results sensation, are more
easily established than those with the trophic ganglionic centres, which
nourish the sensor nerves. Who knows but that, had I waited longer
before I cut the tail in two, the influence of the new trophic centres
would have become sufficient to maintain the nerves of the dorsal frag-
ment in their integrity, and that sensibility would have persisted after
section? Some months after the dorsal stub had become insensible, it
again regained sensibility, the diseased nerves having been regener-
ated. At first, just as I had observed in 1863, the animal refers the
impression it receives to the region of the back where the nerve-cica-
trix is : this is the reverse of the illusion observed in cases of ampu-
tation. By little and little the rat is educated, and at last recognizes
the exact point that is excited ; thus showing that our so-called innate
knowledge of the place occupied in space by every point of our bodies
is, like all our knowledge, merely the result of repeated experiences.

PHYSICAL CONDITION OF JUPITER AND SATURN. 233

To conclude, the experiment I have just recounted shows that ex-
citation of a sensor nerve at any point of its length is propagated in
two directions, both centrifugally and centripetally. The same is
doubtless true of a motor nerve. Consequently, it is highly probable
that, as Vulpian has held, the nerves are simple conductors, differen-
tiated only by their functions, which latter depend upon the kind of
apparatus at their two extremities : for motor nerves there is a motor
nerve-cell and muscular fibre, and for sensor nerves a receiving nerve-
cell and an impressionable termination. — La Nature.

-♦♦♦-

O^ THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF JUPITEK AND

SATURN.

By DAVID TEOWBEIDGE, Esq.

""VyOT many years ago the planets Jupiter and Saturn were re-
-L^ garded as solid bodies, their small relative density being sup-
posed to be due either to the peculiar arrangement of the materials
which compose them, or to the small specific gravity of the materials
themselves. Within a few years, however, the nebular hypothesis has
gained so strong a hold on the minds of astronomers, that the larger
planets are regarded in a very different light as respects their physical
condition from what they were a few years ago. It is now thouglit
that at least Jupiter and Saturn, and probably Uranus and Neptune,
have not yet cooled down from their heated and nebulous condition
sufficiently to be habitable globes, and that, owing to their relatively
high temperature, they have very extensive atmospheres.

It is quite possible for us to guess at the extent and density of
their atmospheres, but, unless we subject our guesses to calculation, it
cannot be said that they are of much use to us, since the planets are
too far from us to allow direct observations to settle any points in dis-
pute. Let us, therefore, assume Jupiter and Saturn to be globes of
much higher temperature than the earth's, and that this temperature
varies from the surface upward inversely as the square of the distance
from the centre of the planet. Let us further assume that gases there
follow the same law of expansion as terrestrial gases, and that this law
holds for all temperatures above 32° Fahr. With these assumptions,
it is possible for us to subject onv guesses to calculation, and thus learn
how far they are admissible.

As respects the telescopic appearance of those planets, it is plain
that we have but little evidence of an atmosphere outside the highest
cloud-layers. That their atmospheres extend above the highest clouds
is perhaps certain ; but if we attempt to explain the physical appear-

234 T^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ance of those planets, the condition of the atmosphere above the
clouds may be left out of the consideration. Let us assume the den-
sity of the atmosphere at the upper surface of the clouds to be equal
to that of our atmosphere at the height of about fifteen miles, and we
shall perhaps regard it as sufficiently rare. The height of the upper
cloud-layers above the surface proper of the planets will now depend
on the surface-temperature and on the mass of the atmosphere. The
Ixw of density for different heights above the surface of the planets is
almost independent of the mass of the atmosphere, unless we consider
the mass as very great in comparison with that of the planet which it
surrounds.

Let us suppose the density of the atmosphere at the surface of the
planet to be equal to that of water — and such a density is certainly
too great for either Jupiter or Saturn — it is then possible for us to cal-
culate the height of the cloud-layers to which we have already re-
ferred, if the temperature be given ; or, if the height be given, to cal-
culate the temperature of the surface of the planet. We have seen it
suggested that, if this height be assumed equal to 2,000 miles, it will
enable us to explain the telescopic appearances of Jupiter and Saturn.
This height for the former planet requires a surface-temperature of
45,000*^, and for the latter 20,000° Fahr. It seems to be quite evident
that these temperatures are much too high. That Jupiter and Saturn
give out more light than they receive from the sun, seems nearly cer-
tain; but a temperature of 20,000° would seem to imply a much greater
intrinsic splendor than either Jupiter or Saturn possesses.*

Prof. Proctor, in one of his articles, assumes the height of the
highest cloud-layers to be 100 miles above the surface of the planet.
This implies a temperature of 1,800° for the surface of Jupiter, and
of 600° for that of Saturn. We must now conclude that the cloud-
layers which form the outlines of the disks of Jupiter and Saturn are
scarcely 100 miles high on Saturn, and considerably less on Jupiter;
for we have assumed the surface-density much too high, and probably
the density of the upper cloud-layers much too small. We cannot
certainly consider the temperature of either planet above 2,000°
Fahr.

The Herschelian figure of Saturn can probably be explained by the
surface cloud-layers in its atmosphere. We need a greater number
of and more careful observations on Jupiter and Saturn.

* These calculations are based on a mathematical paper read before the American
Philosophical Society, November 3, 1876.

SKETCH OF ALFRED BUSS EL WALLACE. 235

SKETCH OF ALFKED EUSSEL WALLACE.

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, an English naturalist, was born
at Usk, Monmouthshire, January 8, 1822. He was employed for
several years in the architectural office of his brother, and then de-
voted himself to natural liistory. In 1848 he accompanied Mr. IL W.
Bates in a scientific expedition to Brazil, where, after a protracted
sojourn in Para, he explored the primeval forests of the Amazon and
Rio Negro, returning to England in 1852. His valuable collections,
especially rich in the departments of ornithology and botany, were in
great part destroyed by shipwreck. In 1853 he published "Travels
on the Amazon and Rio Negro" and "Palm-Trees of the Amazon
and their Uses," and in 1854 undei'took a journey to the East Indies,
where for a period of nearly eight years he explored the greater part
of the islands constituting the Malay Archipelago, and portions of
Papua. While pursuing his researches relative to the fauna and flora
of these regions, Mr. Wallace, unaware of Darwin's previous labors
in the same direction, attempted the solution of the problem of the
origin of species, and arrived at almost the same general conclusions
which were simultaneously reached by that naturalist. His paper
" On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Origi-
nal Type," transmitted through Sir Charles Lyell to the Linntean So-
ciety, was read before that body on July 1, 1858, coincidently with
the reading of Mr, Darwin's paper " On the Tendency of Species to
form Varieties, and on the Perpetuation of Species and Varieties by
means of Natural Selection." Though recognizing the efficacy of
natural selection in producing most of the changes attributed to its
action by Mr. Darwin, he denies its competence to effect, without the
joint agency of some higher cause, the transition to man from the
anthropoid apes. In 1862 Mr. Wallace returned to England, where
for several years he was mainly engaged in the classification of his
vast collection, which embraced upward of 100,000 entomological
specimens, and more than 8,000 birds. The results of his Eastern ex-
plorations were partially embodied in " The Malay Archipelago : the
Land of the Orang-utan and the Bird-of-Paradise" (1869). Mr. Wal-
lace has of late been prominently associated with the believers in the
so-called spiritualistic phenomena, to the examination of which he has
devoted special attention. His observations w-ere published in a se-
ries of essays in the Fortnightly Review for 1874, reprinted as "Mir-
acles and Modern Spiritualism" (1875).- In 1868 he received the
royal medal from the Royal Society, and in 1870 the gold medal from
the Geographical Society of Paris. In 1870 he published " Contribu-
tions to the Theory of Natural Selection." His elaborate work "On
the Geographical Distribution of Animals" (2 vols.) appeared in 187G
in English, French, and German.

236

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

CORIIESPONDENCE.

A CUEIOUS SALINE DEPOSIT.
7b the Editor of the Popular Science Monihly.

SIR : A singular natural phenomenon has
recently come under my observation.
As I have never heard of it before, and as
it appears almost incredible to all who have
heard me speak of it, I thought it well to
give it publicity through the columns of
your monthly.

During tlie present month, while out on
a scouting expedition, I spent three days in
Deep Spring Valley, a lonely place in the
White Mountains in Inyo County, Califor-
nia. During one day of my stay, the 5th
of March, I found that the Indians were
catching wild aquatic birds of all sorts in
Deep Spring Lake by simply wading into
the water and seizing them with the hands.
The birds, at that time, had their plumage
so heavily coated with a saline compound
that they were totally unable to fly, and thus
fell an easy prey to the savages. On inquiry,
I was told that this salt formed on the birds'
breasts and wings, so as to prevent flight,
only during a very short season of the year,
and then under a peculiar combination of
circumstances. The season lasts from about
the first of March to the middle of April,
and the birds can only be caught from dawn
until about nine o'clock in the day, when
the previous night has been j)erfectiy clear,
with a gentle wind from the north. The
birds are then found in the southern part of
the lake, incrusted with the salt. On the
first night that I spent there the sky was
cloudy and the wind was from the north ;
on the third night the sky was clear and the
wind was from the south, and no ducks
were caught on the following morning; and
from my own observation I can say that
none were incrusted. But during the sec-
ond night of my stay the conditions were
exactly favorable, and ducks WL-re caught in
abundance next day. In 1875 I visited the
same locality in the month of December,
and neither heard nor saw anything of this
mode of catching water-fowl.

I weighed one duck immediately after it
was caught, with all the incrustation intact,
and again when the salts were cleaned off,
and found that the latter weighed six pounds.
The duck seemed to have been drowned by
its burden ; its eyes and bill were complete-
ly closed by a large lump of the salt.

Some small fresh streams enter the lake
at the northern end ; and on the favorable
nights the Indians take the precaution to
build fires and hang out cloths at the mouths
of these streams, to prevent any of the ducks
from entering the fresher water and thus

having the salty incrustation dissolved or
washed off. During these favorable nights,
also, the Indians collect on the southeast-
ern shore of the lake and perform a duck-
dance, in which they artistically imitate the
motions, habits, and calls, of different kinds
of water-fowl. Throughout my entire so-
journ on the shores of the lake, its shallow
waters were rendered turbid by the wind ;
but they were equally turbid with a south
as with a north wind.

As the lake of which I speak is the only
one known to these Indians where ducks
may be caught in this manner, it may be
well to describe it more particularly. It
lies in a desert valley, 6,200 feet above
the sea. It is about one mile in length
from north to south, and about three-quar-
ters of a mile wide from east to west. Its
average depth does not exceed three feet,
although there are a few deeper holes in it.
The land around is sandy, and covered with
" sage-brush." During the past summer
the Indians took from the bottom of the
lake several tons of salt, which was sold to
quartz-mills in this neighborhood as chloride
of sodium, sufficiently pure to be used in the
reduction of ores. It is said that the amount
obtained in two days was fourteen tons ; but
this estimate may be taken, in more senses
than one, cum grano salts.

I send you a specimen of the salt, which
I gathered myself from one of the ducks,
and am very anxious that you would have
it analyzed. W. W. Wotherspoon,

Lieutenant Twelfth U. S. Infantry.
Camp Independence, Into Co., Cal., I
March 15, 1877. j

The following analysis, made by Dr. El-
wyn Waller, of the School of Mines, Colum-
bia College, gives the composition of the
deposit above referred to :

♦Sulphate of soda 57.37 per cent.

♦Sulphate of potash 8.09 "

Chloride of potassium 0.82 "

Carbonate of lime iM "

Carbonate of magnesia 2.50 "

Sand and clay 10.41 "

Moisture 16.30 "

Bicarbonate of soda (trace) "

Organic matter 2.32 "

100.05

FERMENTATION AND DISEASE.

To the Editor of the Popular Seience Montldij.

Prof. Tyndall's lecture on " The Re-
lation of Fermentation to Putrefaction and

* Calculated from the data afforded by the
weight of the combined sulphates, and a deter-
mination of the sulphuric acid present.

CORRESP ONBENCE.

237

Disease" explains so many plienomena
which I have noticed, tliat I am disposed
to accept it with avidity. Nevertheless,
there seem to be some contradicting facts.
Once, when serving with a troop of cavalry,
a young and apparently healthy beef was
brought to us, which we slaughtered, and
set about cooking immediately. To our
surprise, the flesh was tainted. To the
senses of taste and smell the taint could
not be distinguished from incipient putres-
cence. A careful examination failed to de-
tect any signs of disease in the entrails or
any part of the animal. The time which
elapsed from the killing of the beef until
the flesh was tasted was only a few minutes,
certainly not half an hour. It was in Lou-
isiana, in the month of April, late in the
evening, and in cool weather ; notwithstand-
ing unprejudiced stomachs and resolute
appetites, we were obliged to desist, and
make a hungry camp.

Another instance, and much more in-
compatible with the bacterial theory of pu-
trefaction as set forth by Prof. Tyndall, I
find in Dr. Kane's narrative of his Arctic
expedition. 1 have not the work at hand
to refer to the page, but it is where, in
the early dawn of the arctic morning, he
watched several times for a reindeer which
had been indistinctly seen, in the faint light,
haunting a valley about a mile or two from
the ice-bound ship. He finally succeeded
in killing it, and his men ate one meal ; but
the carcass putrefied before they could eat
again. This, and the temperature of the
air many degrees below zero ! He goes on
to say that the sudden putrefaction of meat
in the arctics is common ; that sometimes
a bear or a deer would spoil before it could
be flayed. Can it be that there are arctic
bacteria? — that in warmer countries there
are exceptional kinds which hasten putre-
faction at such a rate ? Can it be that the
cells of the flesh in certain circumstances
produce putrefaction, somewhat as the cells
of fruit produce fermentation? Or, finally,
is it so that, both in the case of Dr. Kane's
reindeer and in that of my beef, the animal
had eaten something which gave the flesh
a bad flavor, and our imagination supplied
much more than we supposed ? The facts
need some explanation, and, in the case of
Dr. Kane, are of such weight as should
challenge the general attention of observers.

M. M. Kenney.
Beenham, Texas, March 25, 18T7.

THE ORIGIN OF HONEY-DEW.

To the Editor of the Popular Science 3Io7ithli/.

Dear Sir : Mr. Darwin says, in his last
work, " Cross and Self Fertilization in the
Vegetable Kingdom," page 402 : " Many
years ago I suggested that, primarily, the

saccharine matter in nectar was excreted as
a waste product of chemical changes in the
sap ; and that, when the excretion happened
to occur within the envelopes of a flower, it
was utilized for the important object of
cross-fertilization, being subsequently much
increased in quantity and stored in various
ways. This view is rendered probable by
the leaves of some trees excreting, under
certain cUmatic conditions, without the aid
of special glands, a saccharine fluid, often
called honey-dew." In the mountains of
North Carolina there is a species of honey-
dew eagerly sought for by bees, which is
rarely seen by persons who have written of
it, and is by many supposed to be a myth ;
but Mr. Kufus Morgan, one of the best in-
formed and most successful apiarians of
that section, who has for several years ex-
amined it in all its stages, is convinced that
it is an animal, not a vegetable exudation.
In reply to my questions respecting it, he
writes :

" The phenomenon is not only well known
in my section of the State, but is of annual
recurrence. I have frequently studied it on
green leaves, generally in the month of June
or July, and invariably found it in close
vicinity to the well-known aphides, or plant-
lice, always below them, whence I concluded
they wounded the leaves and caused this
sap or ' honey ' to flow. But, on further
examination, I was fortunate enough to wit-
ness an actual shower of dew, in almost
infinitesimal globules ; and, on getting the
sunlight at the right angle, these particles
could be traced to these little creatures.

" It was a perfectly quiet day, and they
seemed to eject the globules with some
force, making them fly clear of the leaf and
fall on the leaves below. Of course, such
small particles would be wafted away by
even a gentle wind, and, not being accom-
panied by their cause, their origin would
necessarily be obscure.

" Last spring, before any leaves were
out, I witnessed a most extraordinary yield
of it on the pines. It hung in great drops,
and fell off like real dew when the branches
were shaken. At first I was mystified as
to its origin, as I could find no aphides,
which, according to my theory, ought to be
present; but on a closer inspection I found
them in abundance, not on the green, but
on the dark or woody part of the twig. As
these little insects are of the same color as
the substance on which they are found, they
are noticed only by close observers ; but
there is no doubt in my mind that the honey-
dew is an exudation from them. These in-
sects are also called ' ant-cows,' from the
fact of ants seeming to suck them, when
they are only gathering this sweet secretion.
It will be hard to convince the public of this
simple origin of the honey-dew, as, of the
hundreds with whom I conversed respecting
it last year, none would accept my views,

238

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

except the few whom I took to the trees
and showed the philosophy of it, and even
they seemed to regret that I had spoiled a
pet delusion."

In his " Origin of Species," page 97, Mr.
Darwin, in speaking of the inability of the
hive-bee to suck nectar from the red-clover
flowers, says : " I have been assured that
when red clover has been mown, the flowers
of the second crop are somewhat smaller,
and that these are visited by many hive-
bees. I do not know whether this state-
ment is accurate, nor whether another pub-
lished statement can be trusted, namely,
that the Ligurian bee, which is generally
considered a mere variety, and which freely
crosses with the common hive-bee, is able

to reach and suck the nectar of the common
red clover."

Both of these statements Mr. Morgan con-
firms, and, acting on the fact that the Ligu-
rian or Italian bee can procure honey not
only from the red clover but other flowers
of his section, in which the nectar is inac-
cessible to the common or black bee, he has
Italianized his whole apiary by crossing the
black and Ligurian bees, and finds the cross
stronger and better honey-gatherers than
the common bee. These facts, as coming
from a practical apiarian, may be interest-
ing to the readers of Thk Popular Science
Monthly, and therefore I have ventured to
send them to you. M. B. C.

New Bebne, Nokth Cakolina.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE SUPPLEMENTS.

TWO grecit tendencies of modern
thouglit are every year more and
more marked : one relating to its char-
acter, and the other to the form of its
expression. The thinking of the age
is taking a scientific direction, and be-
coming more profoundly imbaed with
the scientific spirit, while the leading
minds of all nations are contributing
their choicest work for periodical pub-
lication. Not only are old sciences
perfecting and new ones arising with
a rapid development of positive knowl-
edge, but the method of the movement
is steadily extendiiig to all spheres of
opinion, and influencing important ques-
tions with which it was long supposed
that science had nothing to do. It is
one of the marked efli"ects of the recent
growth and diffusion of the scientific
spirit that it is giving a new earnest-
ness and seriousness to literary effort,
bringing forward questions of univer-
sal interest into greater prominence,
and inducing in the most eminent
minds a desire to communicate more
directly and immediately with the peo-
ple, by the readiest modes of pub-
lication. Hence, in England, France,
and Germany, as well as in this coun-
try, the best thought appears in the

popular magazines. A further result
of this tendency to earnestness, in re-
cent periodical writing, is that authors
are taking the responsibility of their
work before the public, by attaching
their names to their magazine contribu-
tions. The old and vicious system of
anonymous writing in the reviews is
declining, and giving place to the open,
manly, and honest expression of the
writer's convictions. Through the op-
eration of such causes, periodical litera-
ture is acquiring a weight and influence
in our time much greater than it has
ever had before.

The Popular Science Monthly was
established in recognition of these ten-
dencies, and to make the vigorous, valu-
able, and independent intellectual work
of the age, wherever done, more ac-
cessible to American readers. "We have
drawn, for our articles, from foreign
sources, because science is of no na-
tionality, and it is an obvious dictate
of common-sense to get the best things
wherever they are to be had. This
policy has been approved by the public,
and now, after ten volumes have ap-
peared, we find our limits so inade-
quate that an increase of facilities be-
comes necessary to secure the object
for which the magazine was started.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

239

So many excellent things have been
constantly slipping by us for which
there was no room in the pages of The
Monthly — so many sterling papers
which our readers would prize, and
have often called for — that we find our-
selves now compelled to resort to the
issue of supplements in order to ac-
complish the purpose at first had in
view. The volumes that we have thus
far furnished undoubtedly contain the
largest amount of varied and valuable
mental work to be found within equal
limits in any periodical of any country,
and we now intend to increase its scope
and influence by the help of these sup-
plementary issues, so as to meet the
augmenting requirements of the times,
and make this publication the com-
pletest reflection of the scientific and
philosophic progress of the age that can
be anywhere obtained. It will represent
the course of contemporary thought
on subjects of leading interest, preserve
its most permanent elements, and form
a comprehensive and independent sci-
entific library, well suited to the wants
of non-scientific people.

During the ensuing year The Popu-
lar Science Supplements will appear
once a month, containing, each, ninety-
six pages, price twenty-five cents ; and
they will contain the freshest and most
important articles that appear abroad,
of the same general character as the
past contents of The Populap. Science
Monthly. Objection has sometimes
been made that The Monthly is high-
priced, but it has been furnished as
cheaply as the nature of the enterprise
would allow. There is no maxim of
trade more sound and practical than
that value must be paid for, and that
the lowest-priced goods are always the
poorest, and but rarely the cheapest.
Quality should certainly be taken into
account in our mental nutriment if
anywhere, and The Popular Science
Monthly and its Supplements will
furnish the cheapest first-class reading
in the United States.

JEVONS OK "-CRAM."

Prof. Jevons has contributed an
article to Mind (copied into The Pop-
ular Science Supplement, No. 1), in
which he attempts a defense of " cram "
in connection with the system of com-
petitive examinations. Such is the
w'orking of that system, and so inevita-
bly does it lead to cramming, that it is
not difficult to see either that the sys-
tem must be abandoned or " cram "
defended ; and Prof. Jevons intrepidly
takes the latter alternative. We ad-
mire his pluck but condemn his logic.
Clear thinker as he is, in this brilliant
and specious paper he has simply con-
fused an important subject in tlie inter-
est of a questionable cause.

He makes his case by drawing a dis-
tinction between two sorts of "cram,"
which he calls " good cram " and " bad
cram." He says : " A candidate, pre-
paring for an important competitive
examination, may put himself under a
tutor well skilled in preparing for that
examination. The tutor looks for suc-
cess by carefully directing the candi-
date's studies into the most 'paying'
lines, and restricting them rigorously to
those lines. The training given may
be of an arduous, thorough character,
so that the faculties of the pupil are
stretched and exercised to their utmost
in those lines. This would be called
'cram,' because it involves exclusive
devotion to the answering of certain
examination-papers. I call it 'good
cram,'

" ' Bad cram,' on the other hand, con-
sists in temporarily impressing upon
the candidate's mind a collection of
facts, dateSj or formula, held in a wholly
undigested state, and ready to be dis-
gorged in the examination-room by an
act of mere memory. A candidate un-
able to appreciate the bearing of Eu-
clid's reasoning in the first book of
his 'Elements,' may learn the propo-
sitions off by heart — diagrams, letters,
and all — like a Sunday-scholar learning

240

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the collects and gospels. Dates, rules
of grammar, and the like, may be
' crammed ' by mnemonic lines," etc.

"We object to this distinction. " Bad
cram" means a great deal more than
Prof. Jevons here indicates ; and his
" good cram " is either " bad cram " or
no " cram " at all. He is mistaken in
limiting what he calls " bad cram " to
loading the memory with formula with-
out understanding principles, as in the
illustration he offers of Euclid's " Ele-
ments." It is possible to "cram" the
apprehension of a subject as well as its
verbal forms. We knew a young lady
in one of our leading academies, the
only female student in a geometry-class
of twenty, who, under the spur of fem-
inine vanity, kept her position at the
head of the class for the whole term,
giving the demonstrations every time
when the gentlemen broke down, and
having the clearest understanding of
the subject which such a prolonged
ordeal compelled, while the whole ex-
perience amounted to nothing for per-
manent effect. The boasted discipline
was a pure illusion. She lived for a
whole term in a sort of atmosphere of
geometrical excitement, and upon leav-
ing the school the mathematical fever
subsided and the geometry disappeared
like a dream. It was a case of pure
"cram." Time was not taken for di-
gestion— for the deepening of acquisi-
tion and the consolidation of mental
habits. " Cram " refers not so much
to any form or kind of acquisition (al-
though some favor it more than others),
but rather to the rate of any acquisi-
tion. Its essential element is excessive
and unnatural forcing — a stuffing of
mental aliment, that may be excellent
in itself, but out of relation to natural
appetite or healthy assimilation. Prof.
Jevons says that the epithet "cram"
affords an admirable " cry " for the
opponents of the examination-system;
that " it is short, emphatic, and happily
derived from a disagreeable physical
metaphor;" by Avhich he probably

means that its metaphorical use in ed-
ucation is derived from a disagreeable
physiological experience. But is its
mental application really so metaphori-
cal, after all ? One may eat so as to
keep pace with the digestive and assim-
ilative processes of the system, or he
may exceed that rate in taking food,
which is cramming. But is not mental
acquirement also based on physiological
activity, and subject to a time-rate de-
pending upon cerebral assimilation?
The " cram " of the dining-room and
the " cram " of the school-room are, at
bottom, the same thing, merely involv-
ing different physiological organs.

Prof. Jevons, indeed, yields this
point explicitly. He concedes the
physiological basis of mental culture, in
saying: "It is the very purpose of a
liberal education^ as it is correctly
called, to develop and train the plastic
fibres of the youthful brain so as to pre-
vent them taking too early a definite
'set,' which will afterward narrow and
restrict the range of acquisition and
judgment." But if it is plastic fibres
and cells that we have at last to deal
with, what escape is there from the
conclusion that true education — the
leading out of the faculties — must take
its rate from the measured processes
of nervous growth ?

Prof. Jevons's " good cram " is de-
fined as arduous and thorough study
directed to the winning of honors at a
competitive examination. But thorough
study, carried on under the conditions
favorable to enduring acquisition, is not
" cram " of any sort, because the term in
its essential meaning excludes thorough-
ness. We shall not deny that much
vigorous, persistent intellectual work
may be accomplished under competi-
tive inspiration, in which no " cram " is
involved; and we think Prof. Jevons
commits a harmful error in applying
the term "cram" to such study, and
undertaking to qualify it by an adjec-
tive that simply neutralizes it. Under
such an authoritative sanction, all

EDITOR'S TABLE.

241

"cram" will become "good cram,"
and a plausible excuse be thrown over
one of the most extensive vices of edu-
cation.

Prof. Jfcvons's object is to defend
competitive examinations ; and there is
a painful significance in the fact that
he admits the system to be so involved
and bound up with the practice of
"cram," that nothing remains but to
w^est the word from its established
meaning, and give it a new and re-
spectable meaning. His tactics are in-
genious, but nothing is gained by them.
However the words are altered, the facts
will remain.

Prof. Jevons strives to strengthen
his view by carrying it out into the ap-
plication of practical life, which he
maintains to be little else than a sphere
of incessant "cram." He says: "The
actual facts which a man deals with in
life are infinite in number, and cannot

be remembered in a finite brain

In some cases we require to remember
a thing only a few moments or a few
minutes; in other cases a few hours or
days ; in yet other cases a few weeks or
months; it is an infinitesiraally small
part of all our mental impressions
which can be profitably remembered
for years. Memory may be too reten-
tive, and facility of forgetting and of
driving out one train of ideas by a new
train is almost as essential to a well-
trained intellect as faculty of retention."
He then goes on to say that the lawyer,
the physician, the merchant, " deal every
day with various combinations of facts
which cannot all be stored up in the
cerebral framework, and certainly need
not be so The practical barris-
ter 'crams 'his brief;" and "what is
' cram ' but the rapid acquisition of a
series of facts, the vigorous getting up
of a case?"

Now the upshot of all this is, that in
life we have constantly to make tempo-
rary acquisitions, and which often re-
quire vigorous exertion. But will it be
pretended that the making of temporary

acquisitions is the legitimate work of
education ? A lawyer may " cram " his
case, but if he succeeds with it he must
not have crammed his law. There is
undoubtedly a varying value in mental
acquisitions ; some are not worth retain-
ing, and others are of lasting impor-
tance. But there are facts, truths, prin-
ciples, that should be indelibly engraved
upon the minds of students: these
should be the staple of education, and
be the means of that deliberate dis-
cipline which it is the chief object of
education to impart. Our educational
system is virtually at fault in not having
yet organized a curriculum in which ac-
quisitions of permanent value are made
fundamental. Prof. Jevons says: "If
things taught at school and college are to
stay in the mind, to serve us in the busi-
ness of life, then almost all the higher
education yet given in this kingdom has
missed its mark." Exactly; and for
this reason the system is under sharp
arraignment, and a " new education " is
demanded. Prof. Jevons's assertion that
many things are not worth retaining in
the mind, naturally leads to the vital
question, "What knowledge is of most
worth ? " To make his argument good,
that knowledge may be crammed be-
cause of its worthlessness, he must
show that no knowledge is worth re-
taining, and all is to be stuffed with
a view to getting rid of it.

A BASELESS RUMOR.

The Rev. Moncure D. Conway writes
gossipy letters from London to the Cin-
cinnati Commercial, and in his eager-
ness for sensational statements, as is
usually the case with gossips, is quite
too careless of their truth. He has
started the story tliat the closing por-
tions of Mr. Herbert Spencer's " Prin-
ciples of Sociology " are so loosely and
badly written as to indicate that Spen-
cer is showing a decline of his mental
powers. This has created anxiety in
the minds of many, and we have re-

VOL. XI. 16

242

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ceived various inquiries as to wliat
ground there is for Mr. Conway's state-
ment.

It is true that Mr. Spencer has not
been in good health, and has been com-
pelled recently to desist from labor, and
it is this circumstance that just now
operates to give point to Conway's opin-
ion; but it is to be remembered that
Mr. Spencer's health was not so good
when he began his philosophical system
in 1860 as it has been since ; while in
writing "First Principles" he was often
compelled to stop work, and go to the
country for rest and reinvigoration.

As to the evidence of mental failure
to be gathered from the work on Soci-
ology Just published, we do not observe
that anybody else besides Conway has
found it. The volume has been widely
reviewed by leading English periodicals,
and none of them, that we have seen,
share the discernment of the corre-
spondent of the Cincinnati Commercial.
On the contrary, they testify to the sus-
tained power and originality of his work,
and are more concurrent and emphatic
than ever before as to Mr. Spencer's
capacity to carry forward the gravest
and profoundest intellectual undertak-
ing of the age. It is, moreover, the
views developed toward the close of the
volume that have made the strongest
impression upon the minds of the critics.
Tliey see, in his treatment of the ques-
tions there discussed, especial indica-
tions of that wide grasp and subtile
analysis which have been so marked a
characteristic of his previous philosoph-
ical volumes. "We print elsewhere a
portion of the notice of " The Principles
of Sociology " that appeared in the Lon-
don Examiner^ and it will be seen that,
in referring to these very views, brought
out at the close of the book, the writer
remarks, " It strikes us tliat Mr. Spen-
cer here exhibits an increased power of
seizing the many influences Avhich con-
tribute to a complex result." To do
this in a vast field of comparatively un-
explored phenomena is certainly the

highest test of intellectual vigor. It is
admitted by those who have reviewed
the book most thoughtfully, that the
ideas reached and developed by Spencer
in its concluding portions are certain to
exert a powerful influence in modifying
the course of current opinion, and that
they will give a new direction to con-
troversies that will call out the best
effort of the leading thinkers of our
time.

Mr. Spencer has continued his ex-
position in a chapter to be appended to
the volume of Sociology, of which we
give in the present number of the
Monthly tlie first installment. To those
who are solicitous about his breaking
down mentally, we commend the pe-
rusal of this paper, and the conclusion
of it, which will appear next month.
Having disposed in the volume of Mr.
Max Miiller and his followers, who
were overdoing the myth-business, he
now takes up the social doctrines of
Sir Henry Sumner Maine. This able
writer maintains a theory of social de-
velopment in which the starting-point
is the patriarchal system. Mr. Spencer
holds that this view is philosophically
defective, as it assumes a certain social
condition without accounting for it, by
investigating the anterior and still low-
er conditions of social relation. Each
one will be his own judge, after reading
the argument, as to its validity against
Sir Henry Maine's view ; we call atten-
tion to it here only for the benefit of
those who are concerned about the
truth of Mr. Conway's statement.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Six Lectures on Light. Delivered in
America in 18Y2-'73. By John Tyn-
DALL, D. C. L., LL. D., F. R. S. Second
edition. New York : D. Applcton & Co.
Pp. 264. Price, $1.50.

Various opinions were passed at the
time upon Prof. Tyndall's choice of a sub-
ject for his American lectures, and also
upon his treatment of it. Some complained

LITERARY NOTICES.

243

that he had chosen a branch of physics so
well settled as that of light, and thought
that he ought rather to have entered into
some of the exciting phases of modern sci-
entific controversy. Others complained that
he dealt with the subject in so elementary
a manner, and thought he ought to go into
it with a profundity commensurate with his
reputation, and such as would afford an
adequate excuse for his leaving home and
going so far away to instruct a foreign peo-
ple. For we may just as well acknowledge
that there was a great deal of narrowness
and illiberality in the view taken of Tyn-
dall's errand, and which was by no means
confined to the laity. There was an ill-
suppressed jealousy on the part of some of
our scientific men, which made them cap-
tious in regard to the lectures, and which
gave freight and currency to objections that
from other sources would have been regard-
ed as frivolous and unworthy of notice. It
would have been far easier for Prof. Tyndall
to have taken up some of the recent contro-
versial topics, in which the public takes so
deep an interest, and read a series of dis-
courses that would have drawn crowds to
his lecture-room, instead of encumbering
himself with tons of apparatus, and bring-
ing along experienced assistants to make
his lectures thoroughly experimental and
demonstrative for large popular audiences.
But his choice of a subject, and his method
of treating it, have been abundantly vindi-
cated. He presented the leading principles
of optics in a striking and impressive man-
ner, and as connected and interpreted by
the undulatory theory of light, with various
lessons and applications in regard to the
uses of scientific theory, and the motives of
scientific research, which the topic was so
well suited to enforce. Tyndall's American
lectures form incomparably the best popu-
lar exposition of the wave-theory of light to
be found in any language, and for this pur-
pose it will long hold its place as a standard
book. Accepting the public approval of the
work for this purpose, as evinced by the
several editions that have been called for.
Prof. Tyndall has carefully revised it, made
some important additions, and substituted
new and superior illustrations, so that the
edition which now appears, although faith-
fully presenting the lectures as they were

delivered, has very much the aspect of a
new work. He has prefixed to the volume
a fine steel engraving, by Mr. Adlard, of Dr.
Thomas Young, whose position in modern
physics he holds to be only second to that
of Newton, and in a full appendix of instruc-
tive notes and extracts he has incorporated
the addresses of President Barnard, Dr.
Draper, President White, and his own re-
marks, at the Tyndall banquet which fol-
lowed the close of his lectures in New York.
In his preface to the second English edition,
now republished here, Prof. Tyndall remarks
as follows of the object he had in view in
preparing the American lectures : " I have
sought to raise the wave-theory of light to
adequate clearness in the reader's mind, and
to show its power as an organizer of optical
phenomena. From what has been recently ,
written on such questions, it is to be inferred
that the origin, scope, and warrant of physi-
cal theories generally, constitute a theme of
considerable interest to thoughtful minds.
On these points I have ventured, particular-
ly in the second and third lectures, to state
the views which my own I'eflections have
suggested to me. To produce a systematic
treatise on light was, of course, quite wide
of my aim. My desire, rather, was to throw
into a small compass an exposition for
which I should have been grateful at a cer-
tain period of my own studies. I wished,
in the first place, as the prime condition of
all satisfactory progress, to clear the reader's
mind of all indistinctness regarding element-
ary facts and conceptions, and to whet in-
cidentally the desire for further knowledge.
I wished, moreover, for the sake of that
numerous portion of the community who
are interested in the material results of
science, to trace effects to their causes, by
showing how such results receive their
primary vitalization from the thoughts of
men with no material end in view. The
' Summary and Conclusion,' which might be
read as an introduction, is for the most part
devoted to this object."

Facts and Fancies about Fish : The New
York Aquarium. New York : D. Ap-
pleton & Co. Pp. 15.

This little pamphlet is Part I., No. 1, of
a series of popular natural history mono-
graphs by Mr. W. S. Ward, naturalist of

244

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the New York Aquarium, and contaius a
very readable and instructive account of
the natural objects that are to be seen at
that meritorious institution. It is profuse-
ly illustrated with capital cuts by Beard,
Church, Kelley, and others. It is Mr. Ward's
purpose to publish these parts from time to
time, as circumstances warrant, with the
hope that they will meet with such a de-
mand as will lead to a periodical issue — a
hope which will soon be realized if his en-
deavor meets with the success it deserves.

Essays on Political Economy. By Fre-
deric BiSTiAT. English translation re-
vised by David A. Wells. New York :
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 291. Price,

$1.25.

Among the modern political writers who
have labored to vindicate liberty of trade
and to expose the fallacies and economical
failures of protection, Bastiat in many re-
spects stands unrivaled. Other men may
perhaps have gone deeper into the philoso-
phy of the subject, or contributed more
toward the establishment of political econ-
omy as a body of scientific principles, but
no man has done so much as Frederic
Bastiat to explain and illustrate its truths,
and enforce them upon the popular mind.
A thorough master not only of the subject
but of the art of lucid, attractive, and tell-
ing statement, his economical essays are
well worth reading, if only for their literary
effect. Many writers can make reading
pleasant if allowed to choose their themes.
Political economy has long been proverbial
for its dry, statistical repulsiveness — has
long been known as " the dismal science ; "
but in the hands of Bastiat it is as far as
possible from being either dry or dismal.
Mr. Wells, the editor of the present work,
gives the following account of it in his
preface to the American edition :

" This little volume is made np of a selection
from the essays of M. Bastiat, that have in a
high degree these popular and attractive charac-
teristics ; such as a presentation of the nature
of capital and interest, and the relation of the
two; a discussion, under the title, 'That
which is seen and that which is not seen,' of
the evils that always result from limiting con-
sideration of the effect of an economic law, tax,
or institution, to its immediate visible influence,
and ignoring its ultimate consequences, intro-
ducing, in so doing, the illustration which has
passed into many languages, of ' The Broken

Window ; ' also the questions of ' What is Gov-
ernment?' 'What is Money?' and the nature,
object, and function of what is popularly and
generally termed ' the law,' without reference
to any particular code or statute. So accept-
able, indeed, have these short, selected essays
proved to the public, that repeated editions of
them have been published in France, Bel;,'ium,
Uermany, Italy, England, and the United States;
and all that the editor has had to do with the
present American edition has been to revise
the previous English translation, which was ex-
ceedingly imperfect, and in some instances ab-
solutely without meaning. Where the text —
which was originally written to meet the con-
dition of aflairs in France at the time of the
overthrow of the monarchy and the establish-
ment of the republic in 1848— could be changed
verbally with advantage to meet the ditferent
condition of men, laws, and things, at present
existing in the United States, such changes have
been made, English names being substituted for
French ones, dollars and cents in place of francs
and sous, and the like. A few notes pertinent
to the subject-matter of the text, and drawn
mainly from the recent economic experience of
the United States, have also been added."

The Effects of Cross and Self Fertiliza-
tion IN the Vegetable Kingdom. By
Charles Darwin, M. A., F. R. S. New
York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 482.
Price, $2.

The name of the author upon this title-
page is an assurance that the book is a
solid contribution to the advance of that
branch of biology which may be named
philosophical botany. It is the result of a
long series of elaborate, painstaking in-
quiries into that curious and mysterious
field of organic activity, the process of fer-
tilization in plants. The inquiry is hardly
popular, and will only have its deepest in-
terest to those who know something of the
technicalities of botany. Yet Mr. Darwin
has prefixed to the volume an excellent
chapter of introductory remarks, which will
prove generally intelligible and instructive ;
and there are but few who will read this
chapter and not be lured forward by the at-
tractive and fascinating import of the dis-
cussion. The author also adds a very im-
portant chapter of general results, in which
he states the practical bearing of the in-
quiry as respects the art of the agriculturist
and horticulturist. Ilis discussion is at the
basis of the problem and the intelligent
practice of breeding. He furthermore
points out its great theoretical significance
to the scientific inquirer, who aims to go as

LITERARY NOTICES.

245

deep as possible into tlie question of Na-
ture's economy iu continuing, diversifj'iu^,
and giving stability to tlie course of life
upon our globe.

An Alphabet in Finance. A Simple State-
ment of Permanent Principles and their
Application to Questions of the Day.
By Graham McAdam. New York : G.
P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 210. Price,
$1.25.

" This little book," we are told in the
preface, " was written as a political duty;"
and it would be a blessing to long-suffering
listeners and readers if every one who feels
a " call " to preach or to write was as well
fitted for the task he undertakes as Mr.
3IcAdam. He has succeeded in treating
the elementary principles of finance briefly
and at the same time clearly, simply, and
effectively ; and his discussion of the com-
moner fallacies and often-repeated stock
arguments of the inflationists is so good,
that it is to be hoped tlie book will find a
circulation among them. The chapters on
*' Money a Creation of Government," •' Pure
Credit Money," " What is a Specie Basis ? "
" Banking " — all briefs — are models of state-
ment in their way. Although the author
apparently accepts Mr. Jevons's views as to
the word value, the somewhat ambiguous
way in which he uses that term makes the
chapter on " The Qualities of Gold for
Money " slightly obscure, which is to be
regretted, for much of the success of infla-
tion arguments is rooted in the hazy notions
concerning what is called the value of gold.
We would call the author's attention to the
statement on page 130, that "$4,444 still
remains by custom the nominal par " (of
exchange), the fact being that the nominal
and real par have been in agreement, at
$4,866, both by usage and United States
statute for two years or more.

Report of the Geological Survey of
iNniANA, 1875. By E. T. Cox, State
Geologist. Pp. 599. With Maps and
Plates.

During the year 1875 the general work
of the survey of Indiana was carried on in
nine counties : Vigo, Huntington, Jennings,
Ripley, Orange, Vanderburgh, Owen, Mont-
gomery, and the southeastern part of Clay.
A special reconnaissance was made of the
coal-measure rocks of Putnam County ; also

a special hydrographic survey of some of
the lakes in the northern portion of the
State. Besides the results of these re-
searches, the report contains observations
on fossil marine plants from the coal-meas-
ures, by Mr. L. Lesquereux, and a catalogue
of the Wabash Valley flora, by Dr. J.
Schenck.

IvANHOE. By Sir Walter Scott. Also
Our Mutual Friend. By Charles
Dickens. New York : Holt"& Co. Pp.
350. Price, $1.

These little volumes belong to the
" Condensed Classics " .series. The text is
absolutely identical with the original works,
except that much of the le.«s essential mat-
ter of the latter has been omitted. If any
one thinks an acquaintance with all the
leading writers of his language to be neces-
sary, he must resort to condensations like
this. Life is not long enough to enable a
man to read our entire " polite literature "
through.

Annual Reports of the Zoological Socie-
ty OF Cincinnati, for the years 1874-
'75-'76. Cincinnati : printed for the
Societ}'.

It is to be regretted that an enterprise
containing so nmch spirit should not as yet
have proved a pecuniary success. The fol-
lowing is interesting : " In Europe there are
now [1874] in operation, or in process of
construction, more than eighty zoological
gardens, and, almost without exception, they
are profitable, and in some cases largely so.
The experience in Philadelphia is encourag-
ing, while that of the garden in San Fran-
cisco is ... . marvelous." Strange that
the last report contains no list or statement
of the animals !

David and Anna Matson. By Abigail
Scott Duniway. Pp. 194. With Illus-
trations. New York : S. R. Wells & Co.
Price, $2.

Inasmuch as it does not lie within our
proviuce to estimate the value of works of
the imagination, we will only say of this
volume that its theme is the " tender pas-
sion," in one of its many phases ; that the
verses are smooth and musical enough, and
that the mechanical make-up of the book
is admirable as regards print, paper, and
binding.

246

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Qualitative Chemical Analysis. A Guide
to the Practical Study of Chemistry and
of the Work of Analysis. By Silas H.
Douglas and Albert B. Prescott, of
the University of Michigan. New York :
D. Van Nostrand. Second edition, re-
vised. Pp. 254. Price, $3.50.
Tiiis excellent work has grown out of
the exigencies of chemical teaching. In its
earliest form it appeared in 1864, and passed
through several editions. It was intended
to be used, with Fresenius's " Manual of
Qualitative Analysis," as a guide to the ex-
perimental study of substances to be made
in connection with analysis, but beyond its
immediate requirements. It is now revised
and enlarged so as of itself to answer the
needs of the student, and relieve him from
the necessity of obtaining more than one
text-book for inorganic qualitative work.
Its aim is stated to be, " to aid the student
in gaining an accurate acquaintance with
the facts whereby analyses are made ; and a
clear understanding of the coordination of
these facts — the principles of analysis — has
been the chief object of this work. It is
the result of experience in the constant en-
deavor to prevent habits of automatic op-
eration and of superficial observation in
analysis." Various improvements in the
work are pointed out in the preface to the
new edition, which have been arrived at by
the experience of the last ten years, and
which bring the volume up to the require-
ments of the times.

The Chemist's Manual. A Practical Trea-
tise on Chemistry, Quantitative and Qual-
itative Analysis, Stoichiometry, Blowpipe
Analysis, Mineralogy, Assaying, Toxi-
cology, etc. By Henry A. Mott, Jr.,
E. M., Ph. D. New York : D. Van Nos-
trand. Pp. 625. Price, $6.

This work is designed not for popular
reading, bi»t for practical students of chem-
istry, and will answer the purpose of a kind
of condensed library of technical informa-
tion, in which the ordinary text-books are
deficient. Compiled by a working student,
from the needs of his own experience, it
cannot fail to be useful to others in similar
circumstances, who will find the labor here
done to their hand which they would other-
wise have to do for themselves. The au-
thor has prepared the work on the principle
that every scientific man " should compile

his own pocket-book, as he proceeds in
study and practice, to suit his particular
business." Having accumulated from time
to time a large number of valuable notes,
tables, and chemical data, which became too
voluminous to be carried in the pocket, he
then decided to extend, systematize, and
publish them. Dr. Charles F. Chandler,
Professor of Chemistry in the Columbia Col-
lege School of Mines, introduces the work
by a brief preface, in which he says :

"This carefully-prepared 'Manual' of Dr.
Mott will prove especially valuable as contain-
ing a judicious selection of the most important
methods, most of which have been tested by lab-
oratory experience, and found to give satisfac-
tory results. These are presented in a concise
form, with reference to original authors. The
numerous tables of constants will also be found
of great value. This work will possess a special
value for the student and laboratory-worker, and
will serve as a useful reference-book for the gen-
eral scientific reader."

Mr. Van Nostrand has got the work out
in excellent style, and we have only to make
a small complaint of the inartistic monotony
of the page-headings, which simply repro-
duce the title of the book, without giving
any guidance to its successive subjects and
the variety of its contents.

The Microscopist. A Manual of Micro-
scopy and Compendium of the Micro-
scopic Sciences, with 205 Illustrations.
By J. H. Wythe, A. M., M. D., Professor
of Microscopy and Biology in the Medi-
cal College of the Pacific, San Francisco.
Philadelphia : Lindsay & Blakiston. Pp.
259. Price, |4.50.

Dr. Wythe's manual first appeared twen-
ty-five years ago, and he now issues the
third edition, rewritten and greatly en-
larged. In regard to his object in prepar-
ing the volume, the author says : " It is
proposed in this treatise to give such a
resume of microscopy as shall enable the
student in any department to pursue origi-
nal investigations with a general knowledge
of what has been accomplished by others.
To this end a comprehensive view of the
necessary instruments and details of the
art, cr what the Germans call technology,
is first given, and then a brief account of
the application of the microscope to various
branches of science, especially considering
the needs of physicians and students of medi-
cine." The sciences here referred to are

LITERARY NOTICES.

247

micro-mineralogy, micro-chemistry, biology,
histology, and pathological histology. The
work is clearly written, and its matter pre-
sented systematically and in very judicious
proportions. It contains a great number
of beautifully - colored plates, which will
prove helpful to the student. In an intro-
ductory chapter on the history and impor-
tance of microscopy. Dr. Wythe points out
the many ways in which this art has proved
useful to man in recent times. The follow-
ing suggestion, however, we had not met
with before, and we trust it will incite re-
ligious people to buy microscopes and learn
to use them : " Even theology has its con-
tribution from microscopy. The teleologi-
cal view of Nature, which traces design, re-
ceives from it a multitude of illustrations.
In this department the war between skep-
tical Philosophy and Theology has waged
most fiercely ; and if the difference be-
tween living and non-living matter may be
demonstrated by the microscope, as argued
by Dr. Beale and others, Theology sends
forth a pcean of victory from the battle-
ments of this science."

Michigan Board of Health. Fourth An-
nual Report (1876). Pp. 250. Lan-
sing : W. S. George & Co. print.

Ix addition to the journal of the proceed-
ings of the board, and sundry details of ad-
ministration, we have here a great deal of
matter of general interest : such as statis-
tics of diseases, remarks on illuminating
oils, studies of typhoid fever, etc. Among the
more voluminous essays, we may mention
papers on means of escaping from public
buildings in case of fire, vaccination, scar-
let fever, criminal abortion, water and wa-
ter-supply, ventilation of railroad-cars, etc.

Report of the Commissioners of Education
FOR THE Year 18*75. Pp. 1,189. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-OfiSce.

In the personal report of Commissioner
Eaton, which occupies the first lYO pages
of this volume, is found an instructive ret-
rospect of the history of popular education
in this country, together with a general re-
view of the present status of primary and
superior instruction, both in the United
States and in other countries ; then follow
voluminous abstracts of the reports of school

officers throughout the States and Territo-
ries of the Union ; and, finally, we have 22
tables of school statistics, giving informa-
tion with regard to such matters as normal
schools, higher schools for women, colleges,
scientific schools, public libraries, museums
of art and natural history, institutions for
the blind, deaf and dumb, and idiots, edu-
cational benefactions, etc. The value of
the information here conveyed is no doubt
very considerable, and it is much enhanced
by the addition of a good index.

How TO Camp Out. By John M. Gould.
New York : Scribner, Armstrong & Co.
Price, $1.

This is the best work of tlte kind ever
published. Mr. Gould is the author of a
" Regimental History of the War," which
received the highest commendation from the
New York Nation and Evening Post. He
has camped in every way, and, being a man
of the keenest observation and possessed
with the orderly faculty of noting down ev-
erything, has given in this book advice and
suggestion of the greatest value to those
who go on camping or tramping expedi-
tions. Sound information is given regard-
ing food, clothing, boots and shoes, knap-
sacks, tents, and huts of various kinds,
with valuable hygienic advice from Dr. El-
liott Coues's writings. A pleasant vein of
humor runs through its pages ; and to those
who never stir out of the city, the book will
be found entertaining as well as camp-pro-
voking.

SPENCER'S PKINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY.

The following notice of this important
work is from the review in the London
Examiner : " The appearance of Mr. Spen-
cer's first volume on ' The Principles of So-
ciology ' will be a matter of rejoicing to
that large and growing number of readers
whose minds have been deeply impressed
and roused to new reflection by the writer's
masterly exposition of the philosophy of
evolution. This feeling of joy will only be
tempered by the regret which Mr. Spencer's
readers will certainly experience on learn-
ing, from a notice appended to the volume,
that disturbed health has obliged him to
desist when about to write certain conclud-

248

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing chapters to this present volume, and
that, in his opinion, ' it may be some time —
possibly months — before he is able to re-
sume work at his ordinary, slow rate.' Still,
this regret should not unduly depress us,
seeing that we have now in our hands a
bulky volume of over 700 pages, in which
the author lays down the principal founda-
tion-lines of his scientific structure. Most
of Mr. Spencer's admirers, perhaps, have
looked forward to the doctrine of social evo-
lution as the most valuable and interesting
result of the author's labors. It is quite
natural, indeed, that many, to whom the un-
familiar conceptions of biology and the ab-
struse subtilties of psychology are some-
what repellent, should look forward to the
promised exposition of sociology, with its
more familiar ideas of industry, religion,
government, etc. To this it may be added
that, just now, there is a large concentra-
tion of scientific interest on all historical
problems, and many who were indifferent to
the first principles of matter and motion
will look with eagerness into the present
volume for its theory of social progress. It
may at once be said that all who have an-
ticipated this work will find in it ample in-
tellectual material of the most interesting
sort. The author here takes us far enough
to enable us to see how his previous vol-
umes have been leading up to a clear and
scientific conception of society and its laws
— far enough, too, for us to discern the rev-
olution which the theory of evolution is to
effect in many current notions respecting
social phenomena. . . .

"Mr. Spencer's theory of primitive ideas
seems to us so much the most important
element in the volume that we have dwelt
on it at length, to the neglect of the other
parts. Of what remains, only a very few words
can be said. After completing his account
of the data of psychology, the author passes
to liis Second Part, which has for its theme
' The Inductions of Sociology.' Under this
head Mr. Spencer discusses the nature of
society as an organism, the ideas of social
growth, social structures and functions,
and the division of the social organism into
three systems of organs, namely, the sus-
taining, tlie distributing, and the regulat-
ing, answering to those of digestion, circu-
lation, and nervous coordination, in the in-

dividual organism. The analogy between a
society and a bodily organism is worked out
with remarkable ingenuity, according to the
sketch given by the author in the popular
introduction to sociology already alluded to.
Mr. Spencer succeeds, we think, in estab-
lishing the closeness of this similarity, and,
what is more, in showing how it arises from
the fundamental similarity of the processes
of evolution underlying individual and so-
cial growth. Thus, for example, the curious
analogy in the distributing systems of the
two kinds of organism between the up and
down lines of railway and the veins and
arteries, is seen, on reflection, to be some-
thing more than an accidental coincidence.
At the same time, Mr. Spencer appears to
us to have become more clearly aware of
the limits of this analogy, and of the cir-
cumstances which mark off social aggre-
gates from single, living organisms.

" After thus determining the data and
leading principles of sociology, Mr. Spencer
proceeds, in his Third Part, to deal with
social phenomena themselves — that is to
say, the movements or processes which
make up social development. He begins
with the domestic relations, the account of
which brings the volume to a close. We
have no space left to follow the author in
his interesting review of the gradual devel-
opment of monogamy out of the primitive
relations of the sexes. His views on the
nature of marriaire without the tribe and
marriage within the trilje (exogamy and
endogamy), of polyandry, and polygamy,
and of their relations of coexistence Jind
sequence, rest in part on the researches and
conclusions of writers like Mr. McLennan,
while in some important particulars they
deviate from this writer's theories. It
strikes us that Mr. Spencer here exhibits an
increased power of seizing the many influ-
ences which contribute to a complex result.
The highly-interesting character of this part,
as of the whole volume, makes us look for-
ward to the continuation of this work on
' Sociology,' which, we strongly suspect, to
judge by the little progress already made,
is going to be much more voluminous than
the works on ' Biology ' and ' Psychology.'
May the author's health speedily allow
him to carry forward his great enter-
prise ! "

P OP ULAR MISCELLANY.

249

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Poultry Yard and Market: a Practical
Treatise on Galliuocultuie, and Description of
a New Process for hatchinc: E^ss and raisini^
Poultry. By Prof. A. Corbetf. New Yorli: Or-
ange J udd & Co. 1877. Pp. 96. Price, 50 cents.

Shade-Trees, Indigenous Slirubs, and Vines.
By J. T. Stewart, M. D. And Insects that infest
them. By Miss Emma A. Smith. Peoria:
Tramcript Co. yx'ml. 1877. Pp.55.

The People vs. Daniel Schrumpf; Misde-
meanor, Adulteration of Milk; Argument of
W. P. Prentice, Counsel to the Board of Health,
for the Prosecution. New York: J. F. Trow
& Sou print. 1877. Pp. Si.

Coordinate Surveying. By Henry F. Walling,
C. E. Published bv the American Society of
Civil Engineers. 1877. Pp. 19, Three Plates.

Religion and Science ; The Psychological Ba-
sis of Rehsjion considered from the Standpoint
of Phrenology. A Prize Essay. New York:
S.R. Wells &Co. 1877. Pp.35. Price, 20 cents.

On Some Derivatives of Diphenylamine. By
Dr. P. Townsend Austen. Reprint from Amer-
ican Journal of Science and Arts. Pp. 11.

Second Annual Report of the Inspector and
Assayer of Liquors to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. Bv Prof. J. P. Babcoek. Bos-
ton : Albert J. Wright priut. 1877. Pp. 39.

On the Elhers of Uric Acid; Contril)ution8
from the Lalioratory of Harvard College. By
H. B. Hill. Reprinted from American Journal
of Science and Arts. Pp.11.

Lubrication. By Prof. R. H. Thnrston. Re-
printed from the Polytechnic Review. Pp. 4.

Note on the Sensation of Color. By C. S.
Peirce. Reprint from American Journal of
Science and Arts. Pp. 5.

Publications of the Cincinnati Observatory,
Nos. 2, 3. Jlitcliers Micrometrical Measure-
ments of Double Stars. Pp. 18 and 34.

Laboratory Notes from the Universily of Cin-
cinnati. By F. W. Clarke. Reprint from ^»ier-
ican Journal of Science and Arts. Pp. 6.

Historv of the Di^'eoverv of the Circulation
of the Blood. By W. J. Conklin, M. D. Re-
printed from Ohio Medical and Surgical Jour-
nal. Pp. 14.

On Puerperal Septicemia. By J. W. Under-
hill, M.D. Cincinnati: Aldine Printing-Works.
1877.

Field and Forest ; a IMont hly Jon rnal devoted
to the Natural Sciences. Edited by Charles R.
Dodge. Vol. IL, Nos. 7, 8, 9, and 10. Price $1
a year.

The Dovelopment of the Animal Kincdom ;
a Paper read at the Fourth Meeting of the As-
sociation for tlie Advancement of Women. By
Graceanna Lewis. Nantucket: Hussey & Rob-
inson print. 1877. Pp. 21.

Monthly Reports of the Kansas State Board
of Airricuiture for February and March, 1877.
By Alfred Gray, Secretary. Topeka.

Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of
Sciences, Arts, and Letters. Vol. III. lS75-'76.
Madison : E. B. Bolen print. Pp. 2(i9.

Van Nostranrl's Science Series. No. 28:
Transmission of Power by Wire Ropes. By Al-
bert W. Stahl. M. E. Pp". 121. No. 29: Sieam
Injectors, their Theory and Use. By M. Leon
Pochet. Pp. 79. New York. 1877. Price, 50
cents each.

Strenirth and Calculation of Dimensions of
Iron and Steel Constructions. By J. J. Wey-
ranch. Ph.D. New York. 1877. Pp. 113, with
Pour Folding Plates. Price, $1.

Linear Perspective. Part I. ByF. R.Honev.
New Haven, Conn. : Judd & White. 1877. Pp.
35, Nine Plates. Price, $1.25.

Report of the Board of Health of the City and
Port of Philadelphia tor the Year 1875. Pp. 351.

United States Geographical Surveys west of
the One Hundredth Meridian. Appendix JJ of
the Annual Report of the Cliief of Engineers for
1876. By Lieut. George M. Wheeler. Wash-
ington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. .343,
accompanied by Seven Topographical Atlas
Sheets.

Report of the Secretary of the Navy. 1876.
Pp. 336.

Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer to
the Secretary of War, for 1876. Pp. 509, with
numerous Weather Maps.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Proposed Scientific Expedition around
tlic World. — For some months Mr. James
0. Woodruff", of Indianapolis, has been busi-
ly engaged in organizing a " scientific ex-
pedition around the world," the object of
which is to visit points of general and spe-
cial interest, to study architecture, archcEol-
ogy, geology, and the fauna and flora of
new or little known localities, and to make
collections and studies in natural history
generally.

It is proposed to start from New York
some time next fall, in a steamship of a
thousand tons, officered by experienced men
from our navy, and fitted with all the ap-
pliances necessary for such an expedition.
Ten scientific professors, selected from the
faculties of our leadiug universities, are to
go along in the capacity of teachers, giving
lectures and instruction in the various sub-
jects of study.

The island of Marajo, at the mouth of
the Amazon, Valparaiso, some of the less
known islands of the Central Pacific, New
Guinea, Borneo, Ceylon, and Alexandria,
are a few of the more prominent points it
is proposed to visit; the ship returning by
the way of France and England. Inland
excursions, for the purposes of exploration
and the collection of .specimens, will be a
feature of the expedition. Eighty students
can be accommodated. The trip is expected
to consume two years, and will cost each
student, according to published estimates,
about $5,000.

Fruit-Farming in England.— The home-
supply of fruit in England being very in-
adequate to the demand, foreign fruit has to
be imported in enormous quantity. Hence
the price of fruit is very high, and the great

2:;o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mass of the population have to deny them-
selves this wholesome form of nutriment.
The London Society of Arts has under-
taken the investigation of the question of
fruit-growing, and is laboring to awaken a
popular interest in the matter. In this
country fruit is cheap and abundant, yet
many of the suggestions made on the other
side of the Atlantic would not be out of
place even here. In one of the papers read
before the Society of Arts, it is stated that
only 40,000 acres of land are set apart in
England for market-gardens. Considering
what enormous crops of fruit are obtained
from this inconsiderable acreage, how shall
we estimate the product of waste lands
were they to be cultivated ? The market-
gardens, as we have seen, cover less than 60
square miles ; but the railway embankments
represent about 200 square miles of land,
one-third of which, at least, could be used
for the cultivation of fruit. The little plots
of ground attached to cottages in the country
and in villages and suburban districts might
also be utilized for fruit-growing. Road-
sides in the country might also be cultivated
profitably. The prospect of success in this
effort at enlarging the area of fruit-culture
in England is not very encouraging, owing
to the unthriftiness of the people. In this
respect they compare very unfavorably with
their neighbors, the French.

Frequency of Color-Blindness. — There is
some reason for believing that writers on
" color-blindness " have in many instances
exaggerated with regard to the frequency
of its occurrence. Thus it has been stated
as a fact that no less than ten per cent, of
the railroad engine-drivers in Sweden are
unable to announce properly the color of
the signal-lamps, owing to color-blindness.
Mr. Herbert W. Page, surgeon to the Lon-
don and Northwestern Railway, is of the opin-
ion that, so far from being common, this af-
fection is extremely rare. He cites the tes-
timony of three railway examining surgeons
in support of his views. One of these, who
in the course of twenty-five years had exam-
ined many hundreds of men, writes that
color-blindness " is of excessive rarity ; " an-
other " has not found it common ; " while a
third, a surgeon of long experience, writes
that he has met with " oulv three cases of

well-marked color-blindness " among many
hundreds examined by him. In 800 men
examined by Mr. Page himself, not one in-
stance of true color-blindness was found.
Similar testimony is given by Dr. Macaldin,
of the Midland Railway.

How, then, are we to account for the
positive statements of other writers who
assert the extreme frequency of this affec-
tion ? In very many cases ignorance of
the names of colors is, doubtless, mistaken
for inability to distinguish between colors
themselves. Then, many persons are hesi-
tating and slow in their recognition of col-
ors. " Green may be spoken of as blue by
one, red as green by another, and the name
persisted in till the man be asked to com-
pare the one before him with some familiar
color, as the grass or sky, when his mis-
take will be recognized at once. I cannot
help thinking," adds Mr. Page, " that such
cases as these have often been mistaken as
instances of color-blindness. It certainly
is within my own experience, that errors of
this kind may creep in unawares unless time
and care he given to the examination of those
who are ignorant^ stupid, or nervous."

Marsh-Fevers. — A substantial addition
to our knowledge of the true nature of pa-
ludic fevers appears to have been made by
Messrs. Lanzi and Terrigi, of Rome. Lanzi
has found in the cells of microscopic algae
from the Roman marshes certain dark-green
granules, which are most numerous when
the plants are farthest gone in decomposi-
tion. At length these granules fill the cells,
are black under the microscope, and the
algae emit an offensive odor. In the Cam-
pagna marshes are formed in winter, which
in spring develop algae abundantly. In
summer the water disappears, and the algae
then putrefy, the ground afterward growing
phanerogamous plants. Toward the fall of
the year the algae in the parts still covered
with water also die, and the slime at the
bottom of the marshes contains quantities
of the dark granules. The latter may also
arise from other plants in the state of decay,
even where there are no marshes. Lanzi
regards these granules as a sort of ferments.
Now, the pigment-granules found in the liv-
er and spleen of individuals suffering from
malaria have quite similar properties to

P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY

251

those ferment-granules, and they can be
developed quite similarly. M. Terrigi has
specially devoted himself to the means of
disinfection, which may prevent the decaying
process and development of the granules ;
he found chloride of lime, lime, and chlo-
ral, the most efficacious. With aspirators
and air-filtering apparatus he ascertained
that the germs rose to a height of fifty cen-
timetres (about twenty inches) above the
marsh-bottom, where they could easily be
carried away by the winds. M. Terrigi
found the " malaria-melanin " (as they call
it) abundant in the liver and spleen of
Guinea-pigs that had breathed the marsh-
air for some time.

How the Chinese go a-Fisbing, — Under
the title "Fishing Extraordinary" a writer
in Chambers's Journal describes various
singular devices used in different countries
for catching fish. Some portions of the
narrative are calculated to put a strain upon
the credulity of the reader, as, for instance,
when we are informed that " the lakes and
rivers of China, and especially of the north,
are so abundantly stocked with fish, that in
some places the men called fish-catchers
make their living by actually seizing and
drawing them out with their hands." If
any of our readers should happen to dwell
in the vicinity of such fish-abounding
streams, they will be pleased to learn how
these fish-catchers set about their work.
Here is the modus operandi : The man goes
into the water, and proceeds, half walking,
half swimming, raising his arms above his
head and letting them drop, striking the
surface with his hands. Meanwhile his feet
^are moving on the muddy bottom. Pres-
ently he stoops with a rapid dive and brings
up a fish in his hand. His object in striking
the surface is to frighten the fish, which,
when alarmed, sink to the bottom; then
the naked feet feel them in the mud, and,
once felt, the practised hand secures them
in a moment.

Another Chinese method of fishing de-
scribed by this writer is very ingenious. It
is usually practised at night, and depends
upon a peculiar power which a white screen,
stretched under the water, seems to possess
over the fishes, decoying them to it and
making them leap. A man sitting in the

stern of a long, narrow boat, steers her with
a paddle to the middle of a river, and there
stops. Along the right-hand side of his
boat a narrow sheet of white canvas is
stretched; when he leans to that side it dips
under the surface, and, if it be a moonlight
night, gleams through the water. Along
the other side of the boat a net is fastened,
so as to form a barrier two or three feet
high. The boatman keeping perfectly still,
the fish, attracted by the white canvas, ap-
proach and leap, and would go over the nar-
row boat and be free in their native waters
on the other side, but for the screen of net-
ing, which stops them and throws them
down before the man's feet.

The rse of Anti-Ferments.— To prevent
fermentation, a wine-grower in New Jersey
added to a twelve-gallon keg of new wine
about one gramme (loi grains) of salicylic
acid, or a very little more than the minimum
quantity as given by Neubauer. Soon the
wine lost its natural flavor, and acquired a
flavor something like that of camphor. A
sample of this altered nine having been sub-
mitted to Dr. Endemann for examination, he
at once referred the new flavor to the pres-
ence of salicylic ether. In a communication
to the American Chemical Society, Dr. Ende-
mann writes : " The formation of this ether
may be understood if we regard the cir-
cumstances. The wine was only one year
old, and could not be considered ripe
and ready for sale, and should therefore
have received not the minimum quantity
but rather more salicylic acid, to entirely
prevent after-fermentation. The quantity,
therefore, being insufficient, salicylic acid
came in contact with alcohol in statu nas-
cendi, which caused this abnormal action.
Wine-growers are naturally very suspicious
of chemicals, and are therefore very apt to
make the same mistake — that is, they prefer
to use the minimum quantity; and I should
not be surprised if similar experiences had
followed the application of this substance
in other places."

Determination of Copper. — Mr. J. M. Mer-
rick, of Boston, proposes a new method of
determining very small quantities of copper.
It is intended as a supplement to Bergeron
and I'Hote's colorimetric test, which fails to

252

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

indicate a quantity of copper less than 0.5
milligramme. Mr. Merrick's method con-
sists simply in concentrating to a very small
bulk the solution suspected to contain cop-
per, and then depositing the copper, if pres-
ent, upon platinum, by the battery. He uses
for a depositing-cell a very small test-tube,
on a foot cut off, so as to give a vessel about
one and a half inch deep. Into this is intro-
duced the solution acidified with sulphuric
acid, and a platinum anode and cathode —
each about an inch long and one-eighth inch
or less wide — are hung face to face, and
very close together ; and, the circuit being
completed, very satisfactory deposits of
copper are obtained with incredibly minute
quantities of the metal. The amounts are
determined by the increased weight of the
cathode (which is provided with a platinum
wire soldered on with gold, by which it can
be hooked to a balance) and on the loss of
weight of the same after washing with ni-
tric acid. The platinum is polished and
heated red-hot before the first weighing,
and then gently heated before hanging in
the solution. The contrast in color between
deposited copper and bright platinum is, of
course, striking and characteristic. In this
way, 0:1 milligramme of copper may be,
the author thinks, safely determined ; while
for mere qualitative analysis this method
may be employed where the amount is even
smaller.

Award of the Blgsby Medal to Prof. 0.
C. Marsb. — Prof. P. Martin Duncan, Presi-
dent of the Geological Society of London,
in announcing the award of the Bigsby
Medal to Prof. 0. C. Marsh for his services
in investigating the paleontology of the
Vertebrata, paid a high but well-merited
compliment to the learned Yale professor.
Said Prof. Duncan : " He has distinguished
himself by studying the fossil remains of
nearly every great group of the vertebrata
from the palaeozoic, cretaceous, and caino-
zoic strata of the New World. The field
of his research has been immense, but
it has been very correct ; and his descrip-
tive and classificatory palcontological work
indicates his effective grasp of anatomical
details, and his great power as a compara-
tive osteologist." Prof. Duncan then enu-
merated in some details the chief lines of

research pursued by Prof. Marsh, and was
followed by Mr. Hulke, himself a paleon-
tologist, who heartily approved all that had
been said by the president with respect
to the value of Prof. Marsh's services to
paleontology. " These," he said, " are so nu-
merous and important as to mark an epoch
in this line of research. The present rec-
ognition of the value of his labors will
doubtless prove an incentive to fresh work."

What is Moderate Drinking.?— The ad-
vocates of total abstinence from intoxi-
cating liquors are wont to condemn even
a moderate use of stimulating drinks, on
the ground that "moderate drinking is the
parent of excessive drinking." The Lancet
questions the correctness of this proposi-
tion, but in its negative definition of what
is meant by " moderate " drinking the vota-
ries of Bacchus will find very little comfort.
" The man," says the Lancet, " who begins
the day with a ' soda-and-brandy,' has very
little respect for his constitution, and if he
does not alter his habits, they will alter his
health. Odd glasses of beer and glasses of
spirit in a forenoon do not come within the
range of moderate drinking. That is not
moderate drinking which adds fifteen or
twenty beats to the pulse, or which flushes
the face. Finally, all casual drinking is bad,
presumably, and not moderate drinking.
The system will not receive food merely as
a matter of conviviality, at all sorts of odd
hours. Still less will it receive with impu-
nity drink in this way. Drinking which
disturbs sleep, either by making it heavy
or by driving it away, is not moderate.
Moderate drinking is that which consists
with a clean tongue, a good appetite, a slow
pulse, a cool skin, a clear head, a steady
hand, good walking-power, and light, re-
freshing sleep. It is associated with meals,
and is entirely subordinated to more con-
venient and less objectionable forms of food.
That such drinking produces drunkenness,
has yet to be proved, as it has yet to be
proved to be essential to health."

Retention of Impressions by tlie Retina.

— Does the retina retain in death the image
last impressed upon it? That such is the
case has been asserted, but hitherto the
evidence has not been satisfactory, to say

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

253

the least. But recent experiments made by
Prof. Kiihne, of Heidelberg, appear to show
that the image does remain. He took a
rabbit and fixed its head and one of its eye-
balls at a distance of about five feet from a
small opening in a window-shutter. The
head was covered for five minutes with a
black cloth and then exposed for three min-
utes to a somewhat clouded mid-day sky.
The rabbit was then instantly decapitated ;
the eyeball which had been exposed was
extirpated in yellow light, then opened
and instantly plunged into a weak solution
of alum. Two minutes after death the sec-
ond eyeball, without removal from the head,
was subjected to exactly the same processes.
On the following morning the retinae of both
eyes were carefully isolated, separated from
the optic nerve, and turned. They exhib-
ited a nearly square, sharp image, with
sharply-defined edges.

Extirpation of onr Larger Mammals. —

In a paper on the extirpation of our larger
indigenous mammals, published in the Penn
Monihhi^ Mr. J. A. Allen remarks that the
larger, the less sagacious, or the otherwise
more easily-captured species, have always
been the first to be destroyed. The walrus,
being hunted for its ivory and its oil, soon be-
came extinct in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ;
the bison wholly disappeared east of the Mis-
sissippi (south of Wisconsin) prior to the
year 1800 ; the moose and the caribou were
early pressed back into the remoter north-
ern forests ; and the elk everywhere quickly
disappeared before the advancing settle-
ments. Formerly abundant from the Great
Lakes nearly to the Gulf coast, its sole sur-
vivors east of the Mississippi for the last
few decades have been confined to the least
frequented parts of the Alleghanies, where
few, if any, still survive. Thirty years ago
it was abundant over nearly all of the prai-
ries, plains, and mountain valleys of the
Great West, where it is now confined within
comparatively narrow boundaries, and its
present rapid rate of decrease portends its
speedy total extirpation south of the forty-
ninth parallel. The Virginia deer, once a
common denizen of the whole eastern half
of the United States, now scarcely exists in
New England south of the forests of Maine
and Northern New Hampshire, or in New

York south or west of the great Adiron-
dack Wilderness, or anywhere in the Middle
States away from the mountains. It has
also disappeared from a large part of the
Atlantic coast-region farther southward,
and from the greater part of the area be-
tween the Great Lakes and the Tennessee
river. The bear, the panther, the gray wolf,
and the lynx, have become similarly re-
stricted. The fisher, the marten, and the
Canada porcupine, former inhabitants of
the northern parts of the northern tier of
States, as well as of the Appalachian high-
lands to or beyond Virginia, have only here
and there a few lingering representatives
in the least frequented parts of the moun-
tains, and are much more rare than formerly
in the forests of Northern New England and
the great unsettled region north of the St.
Lawrence. The same is true of the beaver,
except that it had a much more extended
range to the southward, being a former in-
habitant of Northern Florida and the mid-
dle and northern portions of the Gulf States,
and of all the intervening region thence
northward.

Psytliic Flionomcna. — Mr. Sergeant Cox,
in a letter to the London Spectator, made
the assertion that no one who had inves-
tigated " psychic phenomena " ever had
"come to any other conclusion than that
they were real." To this Moncure D. Con-
way replies as follows :

" I beg to inform that gentleman that I
have for more than twenty years, both in the
United States and in England, and in the pres-
ence of well-known mediums as well as pri-
vate circles, diligently investigated the sub-
ject, and I have never seen any phenomena at
all worthy of notice, except such as indicate
the audacity of some persons and the weak-
ness of others."

Extending the Meat-Supply. — One of the

most enthusiastic hippophagists of Paris,
M. Decroix, not content with advocating
the use of horse-flesh for food, now would
have people eat the flesh of diseased ani-
mals. He has made it a practice to cat
the flesh of horses killed in his service,
which had glanders or farcy, and, wheth-
er thoroughly or partially cooked, he found
no evil results to his health. Further,

^54

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ever since 1861 he has eaten the flesh
of all animals that have died within his
reach, no matter from what disease. He
affirms that one may eat with impunity the
flesh, cooked (not putrid), of any of the
domesticated animals, no matter what they
died of— glanders, typhus, hydrophobia,
etc. So far from the flesh of animals which
have died naturally having a repugnant ap-
pearance or a peculiar flavor, he states that
he has placed the two kinds side by side in
the same pan and with the same sauce, and,
in serving to diff'erent persons, many of them
connoisseurs, the meat of animals that have
died a natural death has invariably been
pronounced superior to that from the slaugh-
ter-house !

New Test of Death. — The importance of
having some readily-appUed and indisputa-
ble test of the fact of death is apparent,
and many are the processes that have been
ofi"ered to determine it. Nevertheless, such
a test appears to be still a desideratum —
unless, indeed, we accept that offered by
Kappeler. In the course of his researches
on the electrical stimulation of dead mus-
cles, Kappeler subjected twenty corpses to
the action of various electric currents, not-
ing the times of disappearance of contrac-
tility. In persons emaciated by chronic
maladies, it disappeared much more rap-
idly than in well-nourished individuals, or
those who had had acute disease. It dis-
appeared seventy-five minutes after death
at the quickest, and six and a half hours
at the slowest. In cases where a rise of
temperature is observed after death electric
contractility persists longest. So long as
there remains the least flicker of life the
contractions continue intact. In the most
prolonged faints, in the deepest lethargies,
in poisoning by carbonic oxide, chloroform,
etc., there is contraction so long as life
lasts. But if the muscles make no response
to the electrical stimulation, Kappeler pro-
nounces life to be extinct.

Voracity of the Tront — A correspond-
ent writing from Au Sable Forks, New York,
communicates to The Monthly the follow-
ing very remarkable instance of voracity in
a trout : While he and another gentleman
were fishing in a stream near the place of

his residence, they came to a "long still
hole," into which his companion dropped a
hook and line, and immediately after pulled
up a trout measuring about nine inches.
The trout had swallowed the hook, and, in
trying to extricate it, the fish's mouth,
throat, and stomach, were found to be
almost filled with a snake. They pulled
the animal out and threw it on the bank ;
it had evidently been recently killed. " We
did not measure the snake," writes our cor-
respondent, " but each of us estimated its
length at fourteen inches. We took," he
adds, " about a dozen more trout from the
same hole, which seemed to show that this
enormous meal had not made the trout in
the least sluggish, or dulled the edge of his
appetite ; for if it had, some of the smaller
fish would have taken the bait before him."

Deaths from Inhalation of Chloroform.—

In communicating to the Cincinnati Acade-
my of Medicine a list of deaths by chloro-
form occurring in that city and its vicinity,
Dr. Charles Anderson recognizes a" strange
fatality " attending the use of the drug in
Cincinnati. No other city in the United
States numbers so many deaths from this
cause ; yet, perhaps, if all the chloroform
casualties of other cities had been duly re-
corded, Cincinnati would no longer hold
this bad preeminence. The author calls at-
tention to a singular anomaly observed in
the action of this anaesthetic, viz., that
many of those who have died from chloro-
form have taken it repeatedly, and often for
a considerable lime, without any unpleasant
symptoms, whereas an attempt to give it a
short time afterward has proved fatal. Thus
one patient, who had taken it frequently
during ten years, died from forty drops ;
another had taken it a hundred times, and
had once been under its influence fcr five
hours ; the last dose, which was fatal, con-
sisted of an inhalation or two from a chlo-
roformed handkerchief. After citing other
similar instances. Dr. Anderson, whose com-
munication we find in the Clinic, express-
es the opinion that in these cases there
exists a sort of floating idiosyncrasy — one
that may have hold of a man for an hour or
an instant. " It may be on him to-day," adds
the author, " and off" to-morrow ; but if, while
under its influence, he inhale the vapor of

NOTES.

255

chloroform, he is almost sure to die. I
was on the point of saying, if he inhale the
slightest quantity of the vapor of chloroform,
it will prove fatal. I am almost convinced
that that would not be putting it too forci-
bly. When you consider the remarkably
small quantity given in all the cases, I
think you will be inclined to say that there
is something in the theory."

NOTES.

Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. Army, the distin-
guished naturalist of the Hayden Surveys,
and one of the most eminent ornithologists
in the country, has just been elected Pro-
fessor of Anatomy in the National Medical
College in Washington, fie entered upon
its duties in April, and chose for the sub-
ject of his inaugural lecture, " Anatomical
Science in its Bearings on the Origin of
Species and Man's Place in Nature." He
took strong grounds for the truth of evolu-
tion, and claimed the right to seek and state
" the truth of Nature as existing in matter,
with no heed to possible results, and with-
out regard to the dictation of dogma, the
sensibilities of prejudice, or the fears of
ignorance."

The Summer School of Science, inaugu-
rated last year at Bowdoin College, is to be
continued this season, the term to com-
mence July 16th and last six weeks. The
studies this year will be chemistry, miner-
alogy, and zoology, practical instruction to
be given in each, books being employed
solely for purposes of reference. The fee
for a full course, consisting of any two
studies, is $20 ; for a single study, $12.
Neither entrance examination nor recita-
tions will be required.

J. Scott Bowerbank, well known for ,
his studies of the lower forms of marine
life, especially the sponges, died at Hastings
(England) on the 9th of March, in his
eightieth year.

An observed increase of temperature at
the Greenwich Observatory during recent
years is attributed, by Mr. H. S. Eaton,
President of the London Meteorological So-
ciety, to the heat imparted to the air by the
city of London. He estimates that the heat
developed from the present annual con-
sumption of 5,000,000 tons of coal, on the
118 square miles covered by the city, and
from all other artificial sources, would suf-
fice to raise the temperature of a stratum
of air 100 feet in depth, resting on that
area, 2.5° every hour. On account of this
influence, he considers the location a bad
one for a first-class observatory.

JOHANN C. PoGGENDORFF, for Upward of
fifty years editor of the Aiinahn dir I'lnimk
und Chemie, died in Berlin, January 2'4th,
aged eighty years. His scientific studies were
mostly concerned with the phenomena of
electricity and magnetism. In 1834 he was
appointed Professor Extraordinary of Phys-
ics in the University of Berlin, which po-
sition he held till his death. His contri-
butions to science are chiefly to be found
in the " Transactions " of the Berlin Eoyal
Academy of Sciences.

We learn from the Milwaukee Sentinel
that the theologians of that locality have
arranged a concerted assault upon the con-
clusions of the biologists, and that paper
remarks concerning it, that " the systematic
attack arranged by the orthodox preachers
of this city on the modern scientific theory
of life indicates alarm, and is the first evi-
dence that the evolution theory has met, or
is likely to meet, with popular favor." It
admonishes them to beware lest they create
an interest in the subject, and set people to
reading and thinking about it, who, if let
alone, would probably pay little attention
to it. The chances are that these gentle-
men, who have combined to fight biological
doctrines from their pulpits, will be the
loudest to protest that there is no possible
conflict between religion and science.

According to an obituary notice in the
Bulletin, of Baltimore, the late Boss Winans
was the first to prove the feasibility of using
anthracite coal as fuel on locomotive-en-
gines. He was also the inventor of the
eight-wheel railroad-car.

Mr. John Y. Culter, in a recent paper
read at a meeting of the Association of
School Commissioners and City Superin-
tendents held in Albany, advocates the
study of industrial and inventive drawing
in our public schools, on the ground that,
as a large majority of the pupils in these
schools are destined for industrial occupa-
tions, their studies should be adapted to im-
provement in this direction. " Upon what,"
he asks, " does a man's advancement as a
workman depend ? L'pon three things : his
readiness in reading the designs of others,
his skill with his tools in fashioning the
designs of others, and his skill with his
tools in fashioning designs of his own. His
greatest advancement comes when he is
able to do the latter."

A committee of the Ohio College Asso-
ciation has reported in favor of a State
Board of Examiners, whose duty it shall be
to examine all candidates for college degrees
and have the exclusive power of granting
the same. This is an important step, and
nowhere is such a system more needed than
in connection with our medical schools.

256

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Scientific Farmer states that a fac-
tory— the first in this country — for making
sugar from corn is now in operation at
Davenport, Iowa. The product is known as
grape or stare li sugar, or glucose, and dif-
fers from common or cane sugar in contain-
ing more oxygen and hydrogen, and in being
less sweet and less crystallizable. It is con-
sumed in large quantities by confectioners,
■who have hitherto been supplied mainly
froui France and Germany, where it is man-
ufactured from potatoes.

The low-lying coast country of the Afri-
can Continent bears an evil reputation for
unhealthiness, and this reputation is, no
doul)t, iii part well deserved. But the hab-
its of the European residents and tiaders
are to blame for no small portion of the ex-
cessive mortality. There is a great deal of
truth and good sense in the observation of
a recent traveler, that even in the deadly
atmosphere of the western coast the chances
of ill health might be materially reduced, if
Europeans would make only a judicious use
of stimulants, eat good, well-cooked food,
avoid undue exposure to the weather, and
shun idleness.

Dr. Edward Rae, a veteran arctic ex-
plorer, complains that the pemmican pre-
pared for the sled-parties of the British
Polar Expedition was salted, and that their
stores included salt bacon ; while the stock
of preserved potatoes was insufficient, and
condensed milk, an excellent antiscorbutic,
was not even thought of. The experience
of this expedition goes to show that alcohol
furnishes no protection against the effects
of excessive cold, but, on the contrary, in-
creases the liability to frost-bite.

From interesting statistics concerning
suicide in London and New York, given in
a late number of the Lancet, we learn that
self-murder is more frequent in winter than
in summer ; that, in proportion to popula-
tion, nearly twice as many kill themselves
in New York as in London, the excess being
mainly due to the large number of suicides
among the Germans; and that drowning,
hanging, and cut-throat, are the favorite
methods of taking off in London, while
poison and the pistol are preferred in New
York.

The Fish Commissioners of Pennsylva-
nia state in their report that the Susque-
hanna River, from its mouth to the head-
waters of both the Juniatas, is now full of
black bass. The same may be said of both
the West and North Branches for consider-
able distances above their confluences. The
Delaware, too, along the entire State bor-
der, is equally supplied, while several of
its Pennsylvania branches are filling by de-
grees.

The Commission appointed to inquire
into the workings of the English Meteoro-
logical Department have recommended an
increase of nearly one-third in the annual
grant for meteorological purposes, and the
appointment of a Meteorological Council, to
administer the grant in place of the com-
mittee of the Royal Society that has hereto-
fore had it in charge.

The common article beeswax, according
to the American Journal of Pharmacy, is
frequently much adulterated ; pai-affine, res-
in, stearine, Japan wax, or mixtures of two
or more of these, being the substances usu-
ally employed.

According to the " Seventh Annual Re-
port of the Fish Commissioners of New
Jersey," the yield of fish from the waters of
the State was last year much below the aver-
age of previous years. This was notably
the case with shad-fishing in the Delaware.
One of the causes given for this decrease is
the introduction of black bass into the river,
where they have multiplied immensely, and
are believed to devour large numbers of the
young shad.

Dr. C. W. Siemens, President of the
Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, in
his recent inaugural address, strongly urged
the necessity for a more extended system
of technical education, as the only true
basis for national prosperity in the indus-
trial arts. The nations of the Continent of
Europe, he declared, were ahead of Eng-
land in this respect; what little the latter
had done having been more a measure of
self-defense made necessary by the increas-
ing competition from abroad, rather than
the growth of an enlightened public policy,
of which the country stands greatly in need.

An interesting discovery of animal re-
mains was recently made in a cave near
Santandcr, in Northern Spain. The dis-
coverers, Messrs. O'Reilly and Sullivan, de-
scribe the cavern as an enlarged joint or
rock-fissure, into which the entiie carcasses,
or else the living animals, had been pre-
cipitated. Prof A. Leith Adams has identi-
fied among these remains numerous portions,
including teeth, of Elcphas primiffcnhts,
which is important as furnishing the first
instance of the occurrence of that animal
in Spain.

If the mirror of a laryngoscope be
moistened with glycerine, the water-vapor
in the air expired by the subject under ex-
amination will not dim its surface, being
dissolved in the glycerine. The rolytechnic
Review points out the benefit to be derived
from a similar application of glycerine to
the lenses of astronomical telescopes, by
preventing the formation on them of dew,
which often disturbs observations.

BALFOUR STEWART

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JULY, 1877.
ON THE EYOLUTION OF THE FAMILY.

By HEEBEET SFENCEE.
11.

AND here we come in face of the fact before obliquely glanced at,
that Sir Henry Maine's hypothesis takes account of no stages
in human progress earlier than the pastoral or agricultural. The
groups he describes as severally formed of the patriarch, his wife,
descendants, slaves, flocks, and herds, are groups implying that
animals of several kinds have been domesticated. But before the
domestication of animals was achieved, there passed long stages
stretching back through prehistoric times. To understand the patri-
archal group, we must inquire how it grew out of the less-organized
groups that preceded it.

The answer is not difficult to find if we ask what kind of life the
domestication of herbivorous animals entailed. Where pasture is
abundant and covers large areas, the keeping of flocks and herds does
not necessitate separation into very small clusters : instance the Co-
manches, who, with their hunting, join the keeping of cattle, which
the members of the tribe combine to guard. But where pasture is
not abundant, or is distributed in patches, cattle cannot be kept to-
gether in great numbers; and their owners consequently have to part.
Naturally, the division of the owners will be into such clusters as are
already vaguely marked off" in the original aggregate: individual men
with such women as they have taken possession of, such animals as
they have acquired by force or otherwise, and all their other belong-
ings, will wander hither and thither in search of food for their sheep
and oxen. As already pointed out, we have, in prepastoral stages,
as among the Bushmen, cases where scarcity of wild food necessitates
parting into very small groups ; and clearly when, instead of game

VOL. XI. — 17

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and vermin to be caught, cattle have to be fed, the distribution of
pasturage, here in larger, there in smaller oases, will determine the
numbers of animals, and consequently of human beings, which can
keep together. In the separation of Abraham and Lot we have a tra-
ditional illustration.

Thus recognizing the natural origin of the wandering family-
group, let us ask what are likely to become its traits. We have seen
that the regulating system of a society is evolved in the course of
conflicts with environing societies. Between jDastoral hordes which
have become separate, and in course of time alien, there must arise,
as between other groups, antagonisms : caused sometimes by appro-
priation of strayed cattle, sometimes by encroachments upon grazing
areas monopolized. But now mark a difference. In a tribe of archaic
type, such ascendency as war from time to time gives to a man who
is superior in strength, will, or cunning, commonly fails to become a
permanent headship, since his power is regarded with jealousy by
men who are in other respects his equals. It is otherwise in the
pastoral horde. The tendency which war between groujis has to
evolve a head in each group, here finds a member prepared for the
place. Already there is the father, who at the outset was, by right
of the strong hand, leader, owner, master, of wife, children, and all he
carried with him. In the preceding stage his actions were to some
extent under check by other men of the tribe ; now they are not.
His sons could early become hunters and carry on their lives inde-
pendently ; now they cannot.

Note a second difference. Separation from other men brings into
greater clearness the fact that the children are not only the Avife's
children, but his children ; and further, since among its neighbors his
group is naturally distinguished by his name, the children spoken of
as members of his group are otherwise spoken of as his children. The
establishment of male descent is thus facilitated. Simultaneously
there is apt to come acknowledged supremacy of the eldest son : the
first to give efficient aid to the father, the first to reach manhood, the
first likely to marry and have children, he is usually the one on whom
the powers of the father devolve as he declines and dies. Thus the
average tendency through successive generations will be for the eldest
male to become head of the increasing group, alike as family ruler
and political ruler — the patriarch.

At the same time industrial cooperation is fostered. Savages of
the lowest types get roots and berries, shell-fish, vermin, small ani-
mals, etc., without joint action. Among those who, having reached
the advanced hunting stage, capture large animals, a considerable
combination is implied, though of an irregular kind. But on rising
to th€ stage in which flocks and herds have to be daily pastured and
guarded, and thoir products daily utilized, combined actions of many
kinds are necessitated ; and under the patriarchal rule these become

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 259

regularized by apportionment of duties. This coordination of func-
tions, and consequent mutual dependence of parts, conduce to con-
solidation of the group as an organic whole. Gradually it becomes
impracticable for any member to carry on his life by himself, de-
prived not only of the family aid and protection, but of the food and
clothing yielded by the domesticated animals. So that the industrial
arrangements conspire with the governmental arrangements to pro-
duce a well-compacted aggregate, internally coherent and externally
marked oif definitely from other aggregates.

This process is furthered by disappearance of the less developed.
Other things equal, those groups which are most subordinate to their
leaders will succeed best in battle. Other things equal, those which,
submitting to commands longer, have grown into larger groups, will
thus benefit. And other things equal, advantages will be gained by
those in which, under dictation of the patriarch, the industrial coop-
eration has been rendered efficient. So that, by survival of the fittest
among pastoral groups struggling for existence with one another,
those which obedience to their heads and mutual dependence of parts
have made the strongest will be those to spread ; and in course of
time the patriarchal type will thus become well marked. Not, in-
deed, that entire disappearance of less-organized groups must result ;
since regions favorable to the process described facilitate the sur-
vival of smaller hordes, pursuing lives more predatory and less
pastoral. So that there may simultaneously grow up larger clusters
which develop into pastoral tribes, and smaller clusters which subsist
mainly by robbing them.

Mark next how, under these circumstances, there arise certain
arrangements respecting ownership. The division presupposed by
individualization of property cannot be carried far without appliances
which savage life does not furnish. Measures of time, measures of
quantity, measures of value, are required. When from the primitive
appropriation of things found, caught, or made, we pass to the acqui-
sition of things by barter and by service, we see that approximate
equality of value between the exchanged things is implied ; and in
the absence of recognized equivalence, which must be exceptional,
there will be great resistance to barter. Among savages, therefore,
property extends but little beyond the things a man can procure for
himself. Kindred obstacles occur in the pastoral group. How can
the value of the labor contributed by each to the common weal be
measured? To-day the cowherd can feed his cattle close at hand ; to-
morrow he must drive them far and get back late. Here the shepherd
tends his flock in rich pasture; and in a region next visited the sheep
disperse in search of scanty food, and he has great trouble in getting
in the strayed ones. No accounts of labor spent by either can be
kept, and thei-e are no current rates of wages to give ideas of their
respective claims to shares of produce. The work of the daughter or

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tlie bondwoman, who milks and who fetches water, now from a well
.at hand and now Irom one farther off, varies from day to day ; and
its worth, as compared with the worths of other works, cannot be
known. So with the preparation of skins, the making of clothing, the
setting up of the tents. All these miscellaneous services, differing in
arduousness, duration, skill, cannot be paid for in money or produce
while there exists neither currency nor market in which the relative
values of articles and labors may be established by competition.
Doubtless a bargain for services rudely estimated as worth so many
cattle or sheep may be entered into. But beyond the fact that this
form of payment, admitting of but very rough equivalence, cannot
conveniently be carried out with all members of the group, there is
the fact that, even supposing it to be carried out, the members of the
group cannot separately utilize their respective portions. The sheep
have to be herded together; it would never do to send them out in
small divisions, each requiring its attendant. The milk which cows
yield must be dealt with in the mass — could not without great loss of
labor be taken by so many separate milk-maids and treated afterward
in separate portions. So is it throughout. The members of the group
are naturally led into the system of giving their respective labors
and satisfying from the produce their respective wants : they have to
live as a corjjorate body. The patriarch, at once family-head, director
of industry, owner of all members of the group and its belongings,
regulates the labor of his dependents ; and, maintaining them out
of the common stock that results, is restrained in his distribution, as
in his conduct at large, only by traditional custom and by the pros-
pect of resistance and secession if he disregards too far the average
opinion.

The mention of secession introduces a remaining trait of the patri-
archal group. Small societies, mostly at enmity with surrounding so-
cieties, are anxious to increase the numbers of their men that they
may be stronger for war. Hence sometimes female infanticide, that
the rearing of males may be facilitated ; hence in some places, as parts
of Africa, a woman is forgiven any amount of irregularity if she bears
many children ; hence the fact that among the Hebrews barrenness
was so great a reproach. This wish to strengthen itself by adding to
its fighting-men leads each grouj) to welcome fugitives from other
groups. Everywhere, and in all times, there goes on desertion — some-
times of rebels, sometimes of criminals. Stories of feudal ages, tell-
ing of knights and men-at-arms who, being ill-treated or in danger of
punishment, escape and take service with other princes or nobles, re-
mind us of what goes on at the present day in varioiis j^arts of Africa,
where the dependents of a chief who treats t])em too harshly leave
him and join some neighboring chief, and of what goes on among
such wandering South American tribes as the Coroados, members of
which join now one horde and now another, as impulse prompts. And

ox THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 261

that with pastoral peoples the like occurs, we have direct evidence :
Pallas tells us of the Calmucks and Mongols that men oppressed by a
chief desert and go over to other chiefs. Occasionally occurring eve-
rywhere, this fleeing from tribe to tribe entails ceremonies of incor-
poration if the stranger is of fit rank and worth — exchange of names,
mingling of portions of blood, etc. — by which he is supposed to be
made one in nature with those he has joined. What happens when
the gi'oup, instead of being of the hunting type, is of the patriai--
chal type ? Adoption into the tribe now becomes adoption into the
family. The tw^o being one — the family being otherwise called, as in
Hebrew, " the tent " — political incorporation is the same as domestic
incorporation. And adoption into the family, thus established as a
sequence of primitive adoption into the tribe, long persists in the de-
rived societies Avhen its original meaning is lost.

And now to test this interpretation. Distinct in nature as are
sundry races leading pastoral lives, we find that they have evolved
this social type when subject to these particular conditions. That it
was the type among early Semites does not need saying : they, in fact,
having largely served to exemplify its traits. That the Aryans during
their nomadic stage displayed it is implied by the account given above
of Sir Henry Maine's investigations and inferences. We find it again
among the Mongolian peoples of Asia ; and again among wholly alien
peoples inhabiting South Africa. Of the Hottentots, w'ho, exclusively
pastoral, differ from the neighboring Bechuanas and Caffres in not
cultivating the soil at all, we learn from Kolben that all estates " de-
scend to the eldest son, or, where a son is wanting, to the next male
relation;" and " an eldest son may after his father's death retain his
brothers and sisters in a sort of slavery." Let us note, too, that
among the neighboring Damaras, who, also exclusively pastoral, are
unlike in the respect that kinship in the female line still partially sur-
vives, patriarchal organization, whether of the family or the tribe, is
but little developed, and the subordination small ; and further, that
among the Caffres, who, though in large measure pastoral, are partly
agricultural, patriarchal rule, private and public, is qualified.

It would doubtless be unsafe to say that under no other conditions
than those furnished by pastoral life does there arise this family type.
We have no proof that it may not arise along with direct transition from
the hunting life to the agricultural life. But it would appear that usu-
ally this direct transition is accompanied by a different set of changes.
Where, as in Polynesia, pastoral life has been impossible, or where,
as in Peru and Mexico, we have no reason to suppose that it ever ex-
isted, the political and domestic arrangements, still characterized much
or little by the primitive system of descent in the female line, have
acquired qualified forms of male descent and its concomitant arrange-
ments ; but they appear to have done so under pressure of the influ-
ences which habitual militancy maintains. We have an indication of

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this in the statement of Gomara respecting the Peruvians that " neph-
ews inherit, and not sons, except in the case of the Incas." Still
better are we shown it by sundry African states. Among the coast
negroes, whose kinships are ordinarily through females, whose various
societies ai-e variously governed and most of them very unstable, male
descent has been established in some of the kingdoms. The inland
negroes, too, similarly retaining as a rule descent in the female line,
alike in the state and in the family, have acquired in their public and
private arrangements some traits akin to those derived from the patri-
archal system ; and the like is the case in Congo. Further, in the
powerful kingdom of Dahomey, where the monarchy has become
stable and absolute, male succession and jDrimogeniture are completely
established, and in the less desjjotically governed Ashantee partially
established.

But whether the patriarchal type of family may or may not arise
under other conditions, Ave may safely say that the pastoral life is most
favorable to development of it. From the general laws of evolution
it is a corollary that there goes on integration of any group of like
units simultaneously exposed to forces that are like in kind, amount,
and direction ; and obviously the members of a wandering family,
kept together by joint interests and jointly in antagonism with other
such families, wall become more integrated than the members of
a family associated with other families in a primitive tribe, all the
members of which have certain joint interests, and are jointly in
antagonism with external tribes. Just as we have seen that larger
social aggregates become coherent by the cooperation of their mem-
bers in conflict with neighboring like aggregates, so with this
smallest social aggregate constituted by the nomadic family. Of
the differentiations that simultaneously arise, the same may be said.
As the government of a larger society is evolved during its struggles
with other such societies, so is the government of this smallest society.
And as here the society and the family are one, the development of
the regulative structure of the society becomes the development of
the regulative family structure. Moreover, analogy suggests that the
higher organization given by this discipline to the family group makes
it a better component of societies afterward formed than are family
groups which have not passed through this discipline. Already we
have seen that great nations arise only by aggregation and reaggre-
gation : small communities have first to acquire some consolidation
and structure ; then they admit of union into compound communities,
which, when well integrated, may again be compounded into still
larger communities ; and so on. It now appears that social evolution
is most favored when this process begins with the smallest groups —
the families : such groups, made coherent and definite in the way de-
scribed, and afterward compounded and recompounded, having origi-
nated the highest societies.

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 263

An instructive analogy between social organisms and individual
organisms supports this inference. In a passage from which I have
already quoted a clause, Sir Henry Maine, using a metaphor which
biology furnishes, says : " All the branches of human society may or
may not have been developed from joint families which arose out of
an original patriarchal cell ; but, wherever the joint family is an in-
stitution of an Ayran race, we see it springing from such a cell, and,
when it dissolves, we see it dissolving into a number of such cells : "
thus implying that, as the cell is the proximate component of the in-
dividual organism, so the family is the proximate component of the
social organism. But in either case this, though generally true, is not
entirely true ; and the qualification required is extremely suggestive.
Low down in the animal kingdom exist ci-eatures not possessing the
definite cell-structure — small portions of living protoplasm without
limiting membranes, and even without nuclei. There are also certain
types produced by aggregation of such Protozoa ; and, though it is
now alleged that the individual components of one of these compound
Foramlnifera have nuclei, yet they have none of the defiuiteness of
developed cells. In types above these, however, it is otherwise :
every coelentei'ate, molluscous, annidose, or vertebrate animal begins
as a cluster of distinct, nucleated cells. Whence it would seem that
the unorganized portion of protoplasm constituting the lowest animal
cannot, by union with others such, furnish the basis for a higher ani-
mal ; and that the simplest aggregates have to become definitely de-
veloped before they can form larger aggregates capable of much de-
velopment. Similarly with societies. The tribes in which the family
is vague and unsettled remain politically unorganized. Sundry jjar-
tially-civilized peoples characterized by some defiuiteness and co-
herence of family structure have attained corresponding heigJits of
social structure. And the highest organizations have been reached
by nations compounded out of family groups which had previously
become highly organized.

And now, limiting our attention to these highest societies, we
have to thank Sir Henry Maine for showing us the ways in which
many of their ideas, customs, laws, and arrangements, have been de-
lived from those which characterized the patriarchal group.

In all cases, habits of life, when continued for many generations,
mould the nature ; and the resulting traditional beliefs and usages,
with the accompanying sentiments, become difiicult to change.
Hence, on passing from the wandering pastoral life to the settled
agricultural life, the patriarchal type of family, with its established
traits, persisted, and gave its stamp to the social structures which
gradually arose. As Sir Henry Maine says : " All the larger groups
which make up the primitive societies in which the patriarchal family
occurs, are seen to be multiplications of it, and to be, in fact, them-

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

selves more or less formed on its model." The divisions whicli grow
up as the family multiplies become distinct in various degrees. "In
the joint undivided family of the Hindoos, the stripes, or stocks,
which are only known to European law as branches of inheritors, are
actual divisions of the family, and live together in distinct parts of
the common dwelling;" and similarly in some parts of Europe. In
the words of another writer: " The Bulgarians, like the Russian peas-
antry, adhere to the old patriarchal method, and fathers and married .
sons, with their children and children's children, live under the same
roof until the grandfather dies. As each son in his turn gets married,
a new room is added to the old building, until with the new genera-
tion there will often be twenty or thirty people living under the same
roof, all paying obedience and respect to the head of the family."
From further multiplication results the village community ; in which
the households, and in part the landed properties, have become dis-
tinct. And then, where larger populations arise, and different stocks
are locally mingled, there are formed such groups within groups as
those constituting, among the Romans, the family, the house, and the
tribe : common ancestry being in all cases the bond.

Along with persistence of patriarchal structures under new con-
ditions naturally goes persistence of patriarchal princiisles. There is
sujDreraacy of the eldest male ; sometimes continuing, as in Roman
law, to the extent of life-and -death power over wife and children.
There long survives, too, the general idea that the offenses of the in-
dividual are the offenses of the group to which he belongs ; and, as a
consequence, there survives the practice of holding the group respon-
sible and inflicting punishment upon it. There come the system of
agnatic kinship, and the resulting laws of inheritance. And there
develops the ancestor-worship in which there join groups of family,
house, tribe, etc., that are large in proportion as the ancestor is
remote. These results, however, here briefly indicated, do not now
concern us ; they have to be treated of more as social than as domes-
tic phenomena.

But with one further general truth which Sir Henry Maine brings
into view, we are concerned — the disintegration of the family. " The
unit of an ancient society was the family," he says, and " of a mod-
ern society the individual." Now, excluding those archaic types of
society in which, as we have seen, the family is undeveloped, this
generalization appears to be amply supported by facts ; and it is one
of profound importance. If, recalling the above suggestions respect-
ing the genesis of the patriarchal family, we ask what must happen
when the causes which joined in forming it are removed, and replaced
by antagonistic causes, we shall understand why this change has
taken place. In the lowest groups, while there continues cooperation
in war and the chase among individuals belonging to different stocks,
the family remains vague and incoherent, and the individual is the

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 265

unit. But Avhen the imperfectly-formed families with their domesti-
cated animals, and the family and the society, are thus separate into
distinct groups, made identical — when the cooperations carried on
are between individuals domestically related as well as socially re-
lated, then the family becomes defined, compact, organized ; and its
controlling agency gains strength because it is at once parental and
political. This organization which the pastoral group gets by being
at once family and society, and which is gradually perfected by con-
flict and survival of the fittest, it carries into settled life. But set-
tled life entails multiplication into numerous siich groups adjacent to
one another ; and in these changed circumstances each of the groups
is sheltered from some of the actions which originated its organiza-
tion and exposed to other actions which tend to disorganize it.
Though there still arise quarrels among the multiplying families, yet,
as their blood-relationship is now a familiar thought, which persists
longer than it would have done had they wandered away from one
another generation after generation, the check to antagonism is
greater. Further, the worship of a common ancestor, in which they
can now more readily join at settled intervals, acts as a restraint on
their hatreds, and so holds them together. Again, the family is no
longer liable to be separately attacked by enemies ; but a number of
the adjacent families are simultaneously invaded and simultaneously
resist : cooperation among them is induced. Throughout subsequent
stages of social growth this cooperation increases ; and the families
jointly exposed to like external forces tend to integrate. Already we
have seen that by a kindred process such communities as tribes, as
feudal lordships, as small kingdoms, become consolidated into larger
communities; and that along with the consolidation caused by coop-
eration, primarily for offense and defense, and subsequently for other
purposes, there goes a gradual obliteration of the divisions between
them, and a substantial fusion. Here we recognize the like process
as taking place with these smallest groups. Quite hai-rnonizing with
this general interpretation are the special interpretations which Sir
Henry Maine gives of the decline of the patria potestas among the
Romans. He points out how father and son had to perform their
civil and military functions on a footing of equality wholly unlike their
domestic footing ; and how the consequent separate acquisition of
authority, power, spoils, etc., by the son, gradually undermined the
paternal despotism. Individuals of the family ceasing to work to-
gether exclusively in their unlike relations to one another, and com-
ing to work together under like relations to state authority and to
enemies, the public cooperation and subordination grew at the expense
of the family cooperation and subordination. Not only militant activ-
ities, but also industrial activities in the large aggregates eventually
formed, conduced to this result. In a recent work on " Bosnia and
Herzegovina," Mr. Arthur J. Evans, describing the Slavonic house-

266 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

communities, which are dissolving under the stress of industrial com-
petition, says, " The truth is, that the incentives to labor and economy
are weakened by the sense of personal interest in their results being
subdivided."

And now let us note the marvelous parallel between this change
in the structure of the social organism and a change in the structui-e
of the individual organism. We saw that definite nucleated cells are
the components which, by aggregation, lay the foundations of the
higher organisms ; in the same way that the well-developed simple
social groups are those out of which, by composition, the higher
societies are eventually evolved. Here let me add that as, in the
higher individual organisms, the aggregated cells which form the
embryo, and for some time retain their separateness, gradually give
place to structures in which the cell-form is greatly masked and
almost lost, so in the social organism the family groups and com-
pound family groups, which were the original components eventually
lose their distinguishableness, and there arise structures formed of
mingled individuals belonging to many different stocks.

A question of great interest, which has immediate bearings on
policy, remains : " Is there any limit to this disintegration of the
family ? "

Already in the more advanced nations, that process which dis-
solved the larger family aggregates, dissipating the tribe and the
gens and leaving only the family proper, has long been completed ;
and ah-eady there have taken place partial disintegrations of the family
proper. Along with changes which for family responsibility substi-
tuted individual responsibility in respect of offenses, have gone changes
which, in some degree, have absolved the family from responsibility
for its members in other respects. When by poor-laws public provision
was made for children whom their parents did not or could not ade-
quately support, society in so far assumed family functions ; as also
when undertaking, in a .measure, the charge of parents not supported
by their children. Legislation has of late further relaxed family bonds
by relieving parents from the care of their children's minds, and in
place of education under parental direction establishing education
tinder state direction ; and where the appointed authorities have found
it needful partially to clothe neglected children before they could be
taught, and even to whip children by police agency for not going to
school,' they have still further substituted for the responsibility of
parents a national reponsibility. This recognition of the individual,
even when a child, as the social unit, rather than the family, has indeed
now gone so far that by many the paternal duty of the state is as-
sumed as self-evident ; and criminals are called " our failures."

Are these disintegrations of the family parts of a normal prog-

> See Times, February 28, 187V.

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 267

ress ? Are we on our way to a condition like that reached by sundry
communistic aggregates in America and elsewhere ? In these, along
with community of property, and along with something approaching
to community of wives, there goes community in the care of offspring :
the family is entirely disintegrated, and individuals are alone the units
recognized. We have made sundry steps toward such an organiza-
tion. Is the taking of those which remain only a matter of time?

To this question a distinct answer is furnished by those biological
generalizations with which we set out. In Chapter II. were indicated
the facts that, with advance toward the highest animal types, there
goes increase of the period during which offspring are cared for by
parents ; that in the human race parental care, extending throughout
infancy and childhood, becomes elaborate as well as prolonged; and
that in the highest members of the highest races it continues into
early manhood : providing numerous aids to material welfare, taking
precautions for moral discipline, and employing complex agencies for
intellectual culture. Moreover, we saw that, along with this length-
ening and strengthening of the solicitude of pai'ent for child, there
grew up a reciprocal solicitude of child for parent. Among even the
highest animals, of sub-human types, this aid and protection of parents
by offspring is absolutely wanting. In the lower human races it is
but feebly marked : aged fathers and mothers being here killed and
there left to die of starvation ; and it becomes gradually more marked
as we advance to the hio;hest civilized races. Are we in the course
of further evolution to reverse all this ? Have those parental and
filial bonds, which have been growing closer and stronger during the
latter stages of organic development, suddenly become untrustworthy ?
and is the social bond to be trusted in place of them? Are the in-
tense feelings which have made the fulfillment of parental duties a
source of high pleasure, to be now regarded as valueless ? and is the
sense of public duty to children at large to be cultivated by each man
and woman as a sentiment better and more efficient than the parental
instincts and sympathies? Possibly Father Noyes and his disciples,
at Oneida Creek, will say Yes to each of these questions ; but prob-
ably few others will join in the Yes — even of the many who are in
consistency bound to join.

So far from expecting disintegi-ation of the family to go further,
we have reason to suspect that it has already gone too far. Probably
the rhythm of change, conforming to the usual law, has carried us
from the one extreme a long waj^ toward the other extreme ; and a
I'eturn-movement is to be looked for. A suggestive parallel may be
named. In early stages the only parental and filial kinship formally
recognized was that of mother and child ; after which, in the slow
course of progress, was reached the doctrine of exclusive male kin-
ship— the kinship of child to mother being ignored; after which thei-e
came in another long period the establishment of kinship to both.

268 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Similarly, from a state in which family groups were alone recognized,
and individuals ignored, we are moving toward an opposite state, in
which ignoring of the family and. recognition of the individual go
to the extreme of making not only the mature individual the social
unit, hut also the immature individual ; from which extreme we may
expect a recoil toward that medium state in which has been finally
lost the compound family group, while there is a reinstitution, and
even further integration, of the family group proper, composed of
parents and offspring.

And here we come in sight of a truth on which politicians and
philanthropists would do well to ponder. The salvation of every
society, as of every species, depends on the maintenance of an abso-
lute opposition between the regime of the family and the regime of
the state.

To survive, every species of creature must fulfill two conflicting
requirements. During a certain period each member must receive
benefits in proportion to its incapacity. After that period, it must
receive benefits in proportion to its capacity. Observe the bird fos-
tering its young, or the mammal rearing its litter, and you see that
imperfection and inability are rew^ai'ded ; and that, as ability increases,
the aid given in food and warmth becomes less. Obviously this law,
that the least worthy shall receive most, is essential as a law for the
immature : the sj^ecies would disappear in a generation did not par-
ents conform to it. Now mark what is, contrariwise, the laAv for the
mature. Here individuals gain rewards proportionate to their merits.
The strong, the swift, the keen-sighted, the sagacious, profit by their
respective superiorities — catch prey or escape enemies, as the case
may be. The less capable thrive less, and on the average of cases
rear fewer offspring. The least capable disappear by failure to get
prey, or from inability to escape. And by this process is maintained
that average quality of the species which enables it to survive in the
struggle for existence with other species. There is thus, during ma-
ture life, an absolute reversal of the principle that ruled during im-
mature life.

Already we have seen that a society stands to its citizens in the
same relation as a species to its members ; and the truth which
we have just seen holds of the one holds of the other. The law for
the undeveloped is that there shall be most aid where there is least
merit. The helpless, useless infant, extremely exigeant, must from
hour to liour be fed, kept warm, amused, exercised ; as during child-
hood and boyhood the powers of self-preservation increase, the atten-
tions required and given become less perpetual, but still need to be
great ; and only with approach to maturity, when some value and
efficiency have been required, is this policy considerably qualified.
But when the young man enters into the battle of life he is dealt with

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY. 269

after a contrary system. The general principle now is, that the bene-
fits which come to him shall be proportioned to his merits. Though
parental aid, not abruptly ending, may still sometimes soften the
eifects of this social law, yet the mitigation of them is but partial ;
and, apart from parental aid, this social law is but in a small degree
traversed by private generosity. Then, when middle life has been
reached, and parental aid has ceased, the stress of the struggle be-
comes o-reater, and the adjustment of payment to service more rigor-
ous. Cleai-ly with a society, as with a species, survival depends on
conformity to both of these antagonist principles. Import into the
family the law of the society, and let children from infancy upward
have life-sustaining supplies proportioned to their life-sustaining
labors, and the society disappears forthwith by death of all its young.
Import into the society the law of the family, and let the life-sustain-
iufj- supplies be inversely proportioned to the life-sustaining labors,
and the society decays from the increase of its least worthy members,
and disappearance of its most worthy members : it must fail to hold
its own in the struggle with other societies, Avhich allow play to the
natural law that prosperity shall vary as efficiency.

Hence the necessity of maintaining this cardinal distinction be-
tween the ethics of the family and the ethics of the state — hence the
fatal result if family disintegration goes so far that family policy and
state policy become confused. Unqualified generosity must remain
tlie principle of the family while ofispring are passing through their
earliest stages ; and generosity, more and more qualified by justice,
must remain its principle as ofispring are approaching maturity.
Conversely, the principle of the society must ever be, justice qualified
by generosity in private actions, as far as the individual natures of
citizens prompt; and unqualified justice in the corporate acts of the
society to its members. However fitly in the battle of life among
adults, the strict proportioning of rewards to merits may be tempered
by private sympathy in favor of the inferior ; nothing but evil can
result if this strict proportioning is so interfered with by public ar-
rangements that demerit profits at the expense of merit.

And now to sum up the several conclusions, connected though
heterogeneous, to which our survey of the family has brought us.

That there are connections between polygyny and tlie militant type,
and between monogamy and the industrial type, we found good evi-
dence. Partly the relation between militancy and polygyny is entailed
by the stealing of women in war; and partly it is entailed by the mor-
tality of males and resulting surplus of females where war is constant.
In societies advanced enough to have some industrial organization,
the militant classes remain polygynous, while the industrial classes
become generally monogamous ; and an ordinary trait of the despotic
ruler, evolved by habitual militancy, is the possession of niimerous

270 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wives. Further, we found that even in European history this rela-
tion, at first not manifest, is to be traced. Conversely, it was shown
that with increase of industrialness and consequent approach to equal-
ity of the sexes in numbers, monogamy becomes more general, be-
cause extensive polygyny is rendered impracticable. We saw, too,
that there is a congruity between that compulsory coujieralion which
is the organizing principle of the militant type of society, and that
compulsory cooperation characterizing the polygynous household ;
while with the industrial type of society, organized on the principle
of voluntary cooperation, there harmonizes tliat monogamic union
which is an essential condition to voluntary domestic cooperation.
Lastly, these relationships w^ere clearly shown by the remarkable fact
that, in diiferent parts of the world, among different races, there are
primitive societies in other respects unatlvanced, Avhich, exceptional
in being peaceful and industrial, are also exceptional in being mono-
gamic.

Passing to the consideration of the family nnder its social as-
pects, we examined certain current theories. These imply that in
the beginning there were settled marital relations, which we have
seen is not the fact ; that there was at first descent in the male line,
which the evidence disproves ; that in the earliest groups there was
definite subordination to a head, which is not a sustainable proposi-
tion. Further, the contained assumptions that originally there was
an innate sentiment of filial obedience, giving a root for patriarchal
authority, and that originally family connection afibrded the only
reason for political combination, are at variance with accounts given
us of the uncivilized. Recognizing the fact that if we are fully to
understand the higher forms of the family we must trace them up
from those lowest forms accompanying the lowest social state, we saw
how, in a small separated group of persons old and young, held
together by some kinship, there was, under the circumstances of pas-
toral life, an establishing of male descent, an increasing of cohesion,
of subordination, of cooperation, industrial and defensive; and that
acquirement of structure became relatively easy because domestic
government and social government became identical : the influences
favoring each conspiring instead of conflicting. Hence the genesis
of a simple society more developed than all preceding simple socie-
ties, and better fitted for the composition of higher societies.

Thus naturally originating under special conditions, the patri-
archal group with its adapted ideas, sentiments, customs, arrange-
ments, dividing in successive generations into sub-groups holding
together in larger or smaller clusters according as the environment
favored, carried its organization with it into the settled state ; and
the efficient coordination evolved within it favored efficient coordina-
tion of the larger societies formed by aggregation. Though, as we
are shown by partially-civilized kingdoms existing in Africa, and by

THE TIDES. 271

extinct American kingdoms, primitiv^e groups of less evolved struct-
ures and characterized by another type of family may form compound
societies of considerable size and complexity, yet the patriarchal
group with its higher family type is inductively proved to be that out
of which the largest and most advanced societies arise.

Into communities produced by multiplication of it, the patriarchal
group, carrying its supremacy of the eldest male, its system of inher-
itance, its laws of property, its joint worship of the common ancestor,
its blood-feud, its complete subjection of women and childi-en, long
retains its individuality. But with these communities, as with com-
munities otherwise constituted, combined action slowly leads to fu-
sion ; the lines of division become gradually less marked ; and, at
lenoth, as Sir Heniy Maine shows, societies which have the family for
their unit of composition pass into societies which have the individual
for their unit of composition.

This disintegration, first separating compound family groups into
simpler ones, eventually aifects the simplest: the members of the
family proper more and more acquire individual claims and individ-
ual responsibilities. And the wave of change, conforming to the
general law of rhythm, has among ourselves partially dissolved the
relations of domestic life, and substituted for them the relations of
social life. Not simply have the individual claims and responsibili-
ties of young adults in each family come to be recognized by the
state ; but the state has, to a considerable degree, usurped the pa-
rental functions in respect of children, and, assuming their claims upon
it, exercises coercion over them.

On looking back to the general laws of life, however, and observ-
ing the essential contrast between the principle of family life and the
principle of social life, we conclude that this degree of family disinte-
gration is in excess, and will hereafter be followed by partial reinte-
gration.

■♦»♦■

THE TIDES.

By Pkofessob ELIAS SCHNEIDEE.

THERE has always been a difficulty in the minds of teachers, as
well as in the minds of learners, to comprehend the theory of
the tides as presented in our text-books. This theory fails to give a
satisfactory account of the cause of the tides on the side of the earth
most remote from the sun and the moon. According to this theory,
at that part of the earth's surface which is turned away from the moon
or from the sun, a less amount of attraction is felt by her waters than
anywhere else on her surface ; and the whole earth is therefore, in

2 72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

effect, drawn away from the waters on the far side of her, and thus,
the water being left behind, a tide is produced on this side, as well as
on the side at which the force of gravity acts directly. That so great
an absurdity could have been accepted so long by our writers of text-
books, is truly marvelous. It is, indeed, so contrary to all known
facts and laws of physics that, if no other influence were felt by the
waters at the far side of the earth than attraction, there would be
just the opposite effect produced to that alleged by this absurd
hypothesis. This can be demonstrated by actual experiment, and as
conclusively as any other fact coming within the reach of experimen-
tal philosophy. It has been proved experimentally that all bodies ou
the surface of the earth at midnight are heavier than at any other
hour of the twenty-four; and that when new moon occurs at midnight,
this increase of weight or gravity felt by matter on this part of the
surface of the earth is still greater. Now, if this theory were correct,
attraction would produce just the opposite effect; that is, matter
would weigh less at midnight than at other hours of the twenty-four.
On the side of the earth facing the sun and moon, the weight of bodies
is diminished, as it should be, according to the theory which I propose
to establish in this article.

The truth of this fact is very easily accounted for. Suppose the
earth were placed in such a position, in space, that she could not
feel any of the sun's attraction, nor that of any other body. Then
gravity would be equal on all parts of the earth's surface, on the sup-
position of its being a perfect sphere and at rest. But now bring her
within the attractive influence of the sun. Then all particles of mat-
ter on the earth's surface most remote from the sun would feel the
force of gravity of both the sun and the earth ; and these two forces
would act in the same direction and in the same straight line, directed
through the centre of the earth to the centre of the sun. On the side
facing the sun, these two forces would also act in the same straight
line, but in opposite directions. Hence a decrease of Aveight on one
side and an increase thereof on the opposite side of the earth. The
same result follows between the earth and moon under a similar suppo-
sition. It is therefore not true that the least amount of attraction is
felt by the waters of the earth at that part of her surface most remote
from the sun or from the moon. It is indeed true that the sun and
moon have less power of attraction on the particles of matter at this
pai't of the earth's surface than they have on particles of matter facing
them. But, as attraction diminishes as the square of the distance in-
creases, this attractive force of these two bodies on any part of the
earth's surface is not near so great as that of the earth herself on such
part of her surface. Therefore, as these remote particles feel the
attraction of sun and moon plus the attraction of the earth herself,
they are drawn with greater force toward the centre of the earth than
any other particles. Consequently, it cannot be true that the whole

THE TIDES. 273

earth is dra\vn a^vay from the waters, and that any tide is produced
by the waters being left behind.

How, then, can we account for tides occurring on opposite sides
of the earth at the same time ? Let us see. In the first place, sup-
pose the earth to occupy some place in space, and to be in a state of
perfect rest. Then suppose the sun to come into position, and the
earth to start on her journey of 68,000 miles an hour in her orbit
around the sun ; and suppose, too, that the earth rotates only once on
her axis during one revolution around the sun. Then will the same
side of her surface face the sun in every pai't of her orbit. Conse-
quently, there will be a solar tide perpetually at a part of her surface,
produced by centrifugal force, and at that part farthest from the sun.
Night and solar tide will reign with unceasing steadiness at that one
place ; but there will be no motion of these piled-up waters. There
they will stay, in a steady equilibrium, by the unceasing effect of cen-
trifugal force, in the same manner as can be illustrated by swinging a
hollow globe, partially filled with Avater, around the hand by means
of a cord, or by swinging a bucket filled with the same liquid, and
having for its bottom a piece of India-rubber, which bottom will bulge
out when the bucket is swung around a centre, in the same manner as
do the waters of the far side of the earth when she swings or sweeps
around the central sun with a velocity of 68,000 miles an hour.

But there are always two solar tides occurring on opposite sides
of the earth. The above explanation accounts only for the solar tide
on the side of the earth farthest from the sun. How must we account
for the fact that there is also one on her side facing the sun and occur-
ring near noon? It is a well-known law of planetary motion that
centrifugal and centripetal forces are precisely equal. By virtue of
the first the earth seeks to fly from her centre of motion ; by virtue
of the second she has a tendency to fall into the central luminary ;
and everything on her surface is operated on in like manner. The
■particles of her water, moving very easily among one another, are
therefore drawn readily away from her solid portions in opposite
directions. On the one side the bulging out is caused by centrif-
ugal, on the other by centripetal force. But, as these two forces
are nearly equal in all parts of the earth's orbit, the tide-waves on
opposite sides of her surface must also be nearly equal. The centrifu-
gal force is produced by the revolution of the earth around the sun ;
the centripetal force is caused by the force of gravity lodged in the
great central orb.

It must not be understood, however, that the earth in her orbital
motion feels the effect of these two forces at her surface only. Every
particle of the matter composing the earth feels both a centrifugal and
a centripetal force w^hile this planet moves around the central orb,
and these two forces are precisely equal only at the centre of the
earth. But the matter of her surface most remote from the sun feels

VOL. XI, 18

?74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a centrifugal force that is in excess of the centripetal force felt at this
same point ; and the matter of her surface facing the sun, l^eing near-
est to it, feels a centripetal force that is in excess of the centrifugal
force felt at this same point. But these two excesses are equal ; hence
there are equal solar tides at these points, while at the eartli's centre
there is an exact balancing of the two forces.

Suppose the matter of the earth were all condensed into the vol-
ume of a cubic inch, and that this small volume were jjlaced at the
eartli's present centre ; then suppose it received an impulse carrying
it forward with a velocity equal to that which moves the centre of the
earth, and that it were influenced by the sun, according to the law of
gravity. This small volume, though equal in mass to the entire mass
of the earth, would then move in the same curve in which the centre
of the earth moves, and with the same velocity. But suppose this
solid inch of matter were to be placed 4,000 miles farther from the
sun, namely, at that point in space where the earth's surface is most
remote from tlie sun. This solid inch, or whole mass of the earth,
would then move in a longer curve than it would when at her present
centre, as under the first supposition. But completing, nevertheless,
in this longer curve, one revolution in the same time in which one
revolution is completed in the shorter curve, at the earth's centre, the
centrifugal force would be much increased ; and, the centripetal force
being also diminished in tlie same ratio, this cubic inch of matter would
either abandon the sun's companionship entirely or make a new orbit
of motion. In like manner are the waters of the earth operated on by
centrifugal force at this point of the earth's surface. They have a ten-
dency to fly off" in a line tangent to the earth's orbit.

Now, suppose again that this condensed matter of the earth were
placed at that point in space where the earth's surface is nearest the
sun, namely, 4,000 miles nearer the sun than the centre of the earth
is : then the whole mass of the earth's matter woidd move in a
shorter curve than when placed at the centre, but, completing one
revolution in no shorter period, the centrifugal force would be dimin-
ished ; and, being also nearer to the sim, the centripetal force would
be much increased by the central power of attraction. Therefore, this
body of matter would, under this supposition, also leave its orbit, but
it w^ould be drawn toward the sun, and probably plunge into it. In
the one case, the centrifugal being greater than the centripetal force,
the body would fly/rom its centre of controlling power; in the other
case, the centripetal being equally superior to the centrifugal force,
the body would also be drawn out of its orbit, but dragged to the
centre of controlling power. These suppositions are made to show,
by w^ay of illustration, the excessive force of each kind over its oppo-
site, at opposite sides of the earth. And these equally excessive
forces, acting in such opposite directions, cause the opposite solar
tides. The particles of water, moving easily among one another, are

THE TIDES. 275

readily driven in opposite directions by these opposite forces. If the
earth were entirely solid, then there could be no sucli bulging out of
any of its matter, and therefore no tides.

A few words here in regard to the law of gravitation are in place.
Every body of matter attracts every other body of matter, and with
a force equal to the amount of matter each body contains ; and this
force diminishes as the square of the distance increases. Two bodies of
equal mass approach each other equally ; but, if one body contains
four times as much matter as another, the smaller approaches the
larger with a velocity four times as great as the larger does the
smaller. Suppose two such bodies, beiug separated at a distance of
100,000 miles, attract each other \vith a certain known force : if this
distance be increased to 200,000 miles, the force of attraction between
these two bodies will be only one-fourth as great. In like manner,
the earth, at the point farthest from the sun, feels a smaller degree
of attraction than the matter at the centre. And, as the centrifugal
force is also greater at this point than at the centre, there is here an
excess of centrifugal over centripetal force, and sufficient, as can be
ascertained by exact mathematical calculation, to produce a solar
tide. And at that part of the earth's surface which is nearest the
sun, or facing it, there is, according to the same law of gravity, an
excess of centi*ipetal over centrifugal force. Hence we have also a
solar tide at this part of the surface of the earth.

I give one more illustration. Suppose the earth, at E (F\g. 1), is
moving in a straight line toward E^ and with a velocity of 68,000
miles an hour; and suppose when she reaches E' she comes under the

\

attractive influence of the sun. She will then be deflected from her
rectilineal course and move in a curvilineal orbit around the sun.
That part of her surface turned away from the sun will be 8,000 miles
farther from the attractive influence of the central orb than that part
of her surface facing the sun. Hence this remote part will have a
greater tendency to continue moving on in a straight line than any
other part ; and this tendency will show itself in the motion of its
waters, by producing a tide. The waters will have a tendency to
move in a line tangent to the orbit of the earth. The part of the

276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

earth's surface nearest the sun, beicg acted upon more powerfully by
the gravitating influence of this central force than the remote part,
will show a less tendency to move on in a line tangent to the earth's
orbit. Hence there will be another tide produced by gravity di-
rectly.

I have thus far spoken only of the solar tides. It will be necessary
also to say something of lunar tides, or what influence the moon has
on the phenomena of the tides.

It is a well-known fact that there is a jioint between the earth and
her moon called their centre of gravity. The distance between the
centres of these two bodies is about 240,000 miles. A rough calcula-
tion brings the centre of gravity of these bodies about 2,687 miles
from the centre of the earth, and 237,313 miles from the centre of the
moon. This point describes the curve of an ellipse around the sun ;
and the earth and moon revolve around this point, while they both
sweep through space in their majestic journey around the sun. It is
therefore evident that the earth, in her ceaseless motions, is influenced
by three different centrifugal forces. The one is produced by rotation
on her axis ; the other by her revolution around the sun ; and the third
by her revolution around the centre of gravity between herself and
the moon.

Let us suppose that the earth and moon have no other motion in
space than that of revolving around their common centre of gravity,
and that the same side of the earth is always facing the moon. The
earth will then feel a centrifugal force on her side farthest from the
moon, and equal to the centripetal force felt on her side facing the
moon. These two equal forces, acting in opposite directions, will
cause tide-waves on opposite sides of the earth ; and they will be pro-
duced in the same manner as the opposite ones, spoken of already, are
produced by centrifugal and centripetal forces felt by the earth in her
orbital motion around the sun.

Let us now place the earth and moon in their proper position with
respect to the sun ; and let us suppose the moon to be in conjunction
with the sun, as at A^ Fig, 2. It is then new moon, and the moon's
centre is 237,313 miles within and the earth's centre 2,687 miles out-
side the elliptic orb described by their centre of gravity. At this
point of her path the earth feels, therefore, the greatest amount of
centrifugal force on the side of her surface farthest from the sun. This
large amount of centrifugal force is produced by axial rotation, by
revolution around the sun, and by i-evolution around the centre of
gravity already named. The direction of these three forces is in the
same line. The motion of this part of her surface, which is in this
line of direction, is therefore the most rapid ; consequently, the cen-
trifugal force felt here is also the greatest. Therefore^ we have one of
the highest tides when the moon is in conjunction with the sun ; and,
since centripetal is always equal to centrifugal force, the side of the

THE TIDES.

277

earth facing the sun and moon at this point of hor orbit must have an
equally high tide at this time. The centripetal force here is produced
by the gravity of both sun and moon acting jointly.

Let us now suppose the moon to be in quadrature, as at B. Then
the two centrifugal forces, the one produced by revolution around the
sun, the other by revolution around the centre of gravity of these two

Mf) B

O

Fig. 2.

bodies, do not act in the same line of direction, but at right angles
with each other. The phenomena of solar and lunar tides are then
about 90° apart ; the solar being the smaller and the lunar the larger.
Here the centres of both earth and moon are in the path described
by their centre of gra-vity.

In the last place, let us suppose the moon and sun to be in oppo-
sition, as at C. Then, according to my theory, the earth feels, on
her side farthest from the sun, an influence which diminishes the
centrifugal force produced by her orbital revolution. For at this
point the earth's centre is icithin and the moon's centre is without the
elliptic path described by their centre of gravity. Here the revolu-
tion of the earth around this centre of gravity is contrary to her gen-
eral motion around the sun. But what is thus lost in centrifugal force
on her side turned away from the sun is more than made up by the

2 78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gravity exerted directly on her by the moon. And, on the side of
the earth facing the sun, she feels a centrifugal force produced hy
revolution around the centre of gravity of herself and the moon, and
also a centripetal force produced by the gravitating influence of the
sun. Hence there must be high tide also when sun and moon are in
opposition.

It is a known fact that the solar are less than the lunar tides.
How must we account for this fact ? The sun is a body so large that
the mass of the moon is not much more than a grain of sand in com-
parison with it. But it must also be remembered that gravity dimin-
ishes as the square of the distance increases ; and as the moon is very
near the earth, and the sun a great way ofl\, the lunar influence is
much more strongly felt in tlie phenomena of tides than the solar in-
fluence.

The amount of centrifugal force felt by a body moving in space
around a centre depends, not only on the velocity with which it moves,
but also upon the size of the curve in which it moves. If the circum-
ference of the curve is very large, it differs not much from a straight
line. If a body moves in space in the direction of a straight line, it
feels no centrifugal force at all. If it is deflected from the direction
of this straight line, only a very little, the circumference of the curve
will be very long, and the centrifugal force will be small. But, if it
is very much deflected, the curve becomes very small, and the body,
turning around very " short corners," has a strong tendency to fly
"off" the track." In other words, in a short curve the centrifugal force
is very great.

Now, let us make an examination of the orbital curve of the earth
made in its motion around the sun. The length of tlie circumference
of this curve is, in round numbers, about 5*70,000,000 miles. A
straight line, 10,000 miles in length, tangent to this curve at one end,
is only about .526 of a mile distant from the circumference at its other
end. Therefore, the earth, moving in this orbital curve, feels rather
a small amount of centrifugal force. But, in her motion around the
centre of gravity between herself and the moon, she turns very " short
corners," and hence under this influence she experiences a greater
amount of centrifugal force than in her motion around the sun. For
this reason, also, the lunar are greater than the solar tides.

If the earth had only one rotation in one revolution around the
sun, there would be, as already stated, one solar tide by virtue of cen-
trifugal force occurring at midnight, and another by virtue of centrip-
etal force occurring at noon. That is, perpetual night and high tide
would occur at one side, and perpetual day and liigh tide at precisely
the opposite side of the earth. But now let us suppose the earth ro-
tates on her axis once every twenty-four hours, and from west to east,
as she actually does rotate : then there wnll be motion of the waters ;
but this motion will be only apparent motion, and from east to west.

THE TIDES. 279

The real motion will be that of the solid portion of the earth that
moves from Avest to east, and underneatli these waves, though these
waves do also acquire, by means of friction, n, part of this motion ; yet
the centrifugal and centripetal forces are so much superior as to mas-
ter the effect of this friction. This fri(;tional force carries also these
tide-waves so far eastward that they occur always several hours east
of the meridian ; tliat is, several hours q/i5er noon, and several hours
after midnight.

It is a known fact that the waters of the tides rush up the rivers
and small bays on the east coasts of all countries with great violence,
but not up those on the west coasts. The reason of tliis is very evi-
dent. The west coasts turn away from the tide-waves ; while the east
coasts, moving with a velocity of nearly 1,000 miles an hour, in rota-
tion, within all parts of the tropics, dash violently eastward against
these waves. For this reason the waters, by resistance or inertia, a/j-
pear to be driven violently westward up the streams and bays, while
it is the mouths of these channels ploughing with violence into the
tide-waves themselves.

It has been stated in this article that gravity is greater at that
part of the earth's surface turned away from sun and moon than any-
where else. It may be asked, "How then can centrifugal force drive
out the water above the usual level when its weight is increased?"
Tliis force acts in a line tangent to the earth's orbit, which tangent
line, being perpendicular to the radius vector at perihelion and aphe-
lion, and at all other points in the earth's orbit very nearly so, may
be said to be at right angles with a line extending from this point of
tangency through the centre of tlie earth to the centre of the sun.
Therefore, the attractive power of the sun acts on matter, at the part
of the earth most remote from it, in the direction of the radius vector ;
and centrifugal force acts on this same matter in a direction at right
angles with the radius vector. Now, as was first demonstrated by
Galileo, the motion of a body, produced by one force, is not destroyed
by another force acting on this same body at right angles with it.
The result of these two combined forces is only a change in the direc-
tion of motion. But, as has already been shown, centrifugal is always
in excess of centripetal force at the place of the earth now under con-
sideration. Hence this tide-wave at this side.

I conclude by saying that the great motions of the waters of the
mighty deep are most assuredly the grandest ocular demonstrations
of the rotation of the earth upon her axis, and of her revolution around
the sun, that can be witnessed by the eyes of man.

28o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ON GEOUND-AIR m ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS.'

Br De. ALtVX von PETTENKOFER,

PEOFESSOK OF HYGIE>'E IN TUE LTSlVEESITy OF MUNICH.

IF in the two preceding lectures I have tried to draw your attention
to the penetration of the air into our clotliing and our dwellings,
I shall try in this last lecture to do the same in reference to the air
which is in the ground, and to its connection and intercourse with the
air above the ground. The air in the ground has been somewhat a
stranger to our minds; the terms air and earth, just like air and
water, implied to our mind things contrary, and exclusive of each
other. The earth seemed to have its limit where the air began.
Common-sense seems inclined to believe that there can be no air in
that whereon we walk and stand. If we say of the surface of the
earth that it is the limit of the earth and the beginning of the atmos-
phere, we are not correct in reference to the latter. The air begins
much below the ground, and we ought to say that where the ground,
which is a mixture of earth, water, and air, ends, from there the at-
mosphere exists alone. It is no wonder that no particular attention
was paid to the air in the soil ; its presence there does not make any
direct impression on anyone of our senses; we infer its presence
more from otlier experiences and consequent conclusions. The human
mind formerly looked upon the air as something unsubstantial, spir-
itual, although men saw the effect of hurricanes ; no wonder, then,
that no one thought of the air hidden in the ground, which cannot
even blow the hat from our head.

We again meet here with the fact that, originally, only that calls
forth ideas which impresses our senses directly. No one doubts that
water penetrates the soil, and moves there according to hydrostatic
laws, because we see it run, vanish into the soil, collect and run out
again, or we pump it up ; but hitherto not many have clearly undei*-
stood that the whole surface of the earth, as far as it is porous and
its pores are not filled with -water, contains air, which is also subject
to aerostatic laws. And why so ? One feels nothing of that air ; it is
always calm, it has no color, no smell, no taste, in fact we take it for
nothing, I have shown you already how great an error we commit
when we suppose a calm air to be motionless. This applies just as
much to the air in the soil, wliich, if its motion were even snail-like,
would still travel from a good depth to the surface in one day.

Perhaps I shall succeed in giving you a better idea of the change
of the air in the ground than of that in walls. To have a correct idea

' Abridged and translated by Augustus Hess, M. D., member of the Royal College of
Physicians, London.

GROUND-AIR IN ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 281

of tliut air and its relations, we must know, in the first instance, its
quantity in proportion to the different kinds of soil. Let us first take
rubhle-soil, gravel, or sand, which support the largest and heaviest
edifices. Here is a bottle which holds exactly one litre (ly^ pint) up
to that mark on its neck. I have filled it slowly with gravel, shaking
it all the while, so that the gravel settled completely. The gravel
reaches up to the mark. This high cylinder contains just one litre of
water, and is graduated into one hundred parts. Now I pour the
water into the gravel, till I find it just coming up to its surfixce, and I
see that of the water in the cylinder thirty-five parts have entered
the gravel and driven out the air, which before had therefore taken
up thirty-five per cent, of the whole mass. This is certainly a great
quantity of air, and if we build a house on such a ground its weight
rests, no doubt, on the gi-avel alone, and not on the air ; but for all
that, this ground, as far as it is dry, consists to the extent of one-
third of air. In building on gravel, we build as well on air, just as
we build on water when we build on piles driven into a swampy soil
and cut off under the water. We know well that a house standing
on piles stands with its foot in water, that this water is drawn up
by the walls till beyond the water-mark, that the water of the ground
has a good deal to do with the house ; why should we, then, refuse to
acknowledge that the foot of a house built on dry gravel, stands also
on the air, and that the air in the ground is in intimate relation with
the house?

What I have shown you in regard to gravel, can, in a similar way,
be proved in regard to sand, clay, and even more solid stony and
rocky soils.

Most kinds of sandstone are nearly as porous as loose sand. The
rock of Malta has been pi'oved by Leath Adams to suck up water on
an average to one-third of its volume ; consequently, when dry it
must contain air to the same extent. One would not think that this
was the case with the rugged cliffs and shores of that remarkable
island, which look as if they were built up from the granite of the
Swiss Alps. Most buildings in Malta ai-e built with this Maltese
rock, which is much used also throughout Italy. It is not less porous
than the Berlin sands ; their penetrability for air and water is the
same, but the grains of the Maltese rock are connected by some solid
medium, while the grains of the sand are loose. In respect to their
poi'osity they stand relatively as frozen and not frozen soil.

Many ships of the English navy have filters made of a certain kind
of Maltese rock. I have tested one, and I have found that the filter-
ing basin swallows up forty-seven per cent, of its whole contents,
when used for the first time.

A soil whose pores are filled partly by air and partly by water is
called damp. It can take up more water till all its pores are filled
with it, when all passage of air is stopped, just as we have seen

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

with regard to the mortnr of the house. That degree of humidity of
the soil is called ground-water y it begins at the lowest limit of the
air in the soil.

It is well known that water becomes solid at a temperature below
freezing-point. In becoming ice it changes its consistency totally,
but its volume not very much, increasing it by about six per cent.,
one hundi-ed volumes of water becoming one hundred and six of ice.
In a frozen soil there must have been a certain quantity of water.
This water in freezing has become a kind of cement for the particles
of the soil, and gives it a solidity which the liquid water could not

Fig. 1.

impart. Although such frozen soil is as hard to work as stone, we
have no right to assume that it is impermeable to air or gases of any
kind.

Those pores of the soil which were free from water cannot be nar-
rowed much by the expansion of the neighboring pores through the

GROUND-AIR IN ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 283

freezing of their wiater. It would be just as incorrect to deny the
IDermeability to air of the frozen soil as that of the Maltese rock.
Still, the most erroneous views have been formed on this subject, even
by men distinguislied in other branches of science.

Having given you an idea of the quantity of air in a porous soil,
I have to give you a correct idea of the mobility of tliis air and of
its change, and I shall try to do this in a roundabout way, as I can-
not do it by direct impression on your senses.

There are things of whose existence we become only aware Avhcn
they are absent. Probably the fish is as little aware of the water he
lives in as we of the air, till he finds himself on the dry land. The
creatures living in the air know nothing of its oxygen, but, wlien
we place them in an atmosphere wliich has none or too little of it,
or too much carbonic acid, they will feel and behave like the fish out
of water. There is a difference in the want of oxygen between dif-
ferent animals ; birds want a good deal proportionately, A canary-
bird takes about one and a third cubic inch of oxygen fi-om the air in
one hour. In one litre of air there are about thirteen cubic inches of
oxygen, which the bird would have consumed in ten hours. But he
would be dead long before, as he could not live in an air deprived of
one-half of its oxygen. The bird in this glass cylinder has been shut
up between gravel for the last ten hours, and you see he is quite well.
The cylinder is shut at its lower end by a wire netting, on which
a stratum of gravel rests. The bird stands on the gravel, and
above him there is another wire netting, which supports a stratum
of gravel. The free space for the bird contains about one litre of air.

This bird is shut up in the same way as workmen sometimes
are, digging at a well or at some kind of shaft. If accident does
not kill them at once, they seldom die from want of air, even if it
takes some days to dig them out, although man's consumption of
oxygen is about a thousand times as great as that of the canary-bird.
Some years ago, in Saxony, two men who were shut up in the shaft
of a well for ten days kept alive, and were not much the worse for it
when they came out again. I may mention here that the celebrated
Fraunhofer, when still apprenticed to a glazier at Munich, w^as bur-
ied for several days under the ruins of his master's house, which had
fallen in.

I expect "Fraunhofei-'s luck will be shared by this bird, whom I
intend removing to-morrow to his old cage.

You cannot longer have any doubt about the motion of the air
through gravel : but I want to convince your senses ; I want you to
see the motion of the air, and to see that motion taking place through
a much thicker stratum of gravel than the strata shutting in the bird.

You see this high glass cylinder (Fig. 2), with a smaller glass tube
inside, open at both ends. The cylinder is filled with gravel, and the
glass tube connected with a manometer by some India-rubber tubing.

284

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As soon as I blow gently on the upper surface of the gravel, yovi see
the liquid in tlie manometer moving. The motion of the air which I
produce acts in the first instance on the surface of the gravel, jDropa-
gates itself through the same to the bottom of the cylinder, enters

Fig. 2.

the lower end of the tube, rises through it and through the tubing
into the manometer, where it presses on the column of liquid, and sets
it in motion.

Wliy does the liquid move in the manometer ? Because the air,
after the migration just described, presses with greater weight on the

GROUND-AIR IN ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 285

surface of the column it arrives at than the outer air on the surface
of the other columu. If tliere were no liquid in the manometer, the
moved air would finally flow out of the manometer, and, as you see,
now that I have emptied the manometer, nearly blow out this candle.

In this way I believe that I liave convinced your senses that the
air can move through porous soils.

If the air in the ground can be set in motion by the pressure of
air or wind against its surface, there can be no doubt that the same
can be effected by differences of temperature, and by diffusion, and
generally by all causes which can produce movement of gases. As
long as the air in the ground is of a different temperature or compo-
sition from the free atmosphere, there must be exchange and motion.
I will only, in order to leave no doubt on your mind, direct your
attention to several well-known facts, which can only be explained
by the change of the ground-air.

All Christian nations bury their dead in the earth, to give back to
dust what came from dust. There are burial-grounds in which a
corpse decays completely in six to seven years, and others in which it
takes twenty-five to thirty years. The regulations about a second
occupation of a ground depend on this difference, and therefore towns
with an equal population may be obliged to have burial-grounds of
very different sizes. There are other circumstances of some influence
on the process of decay, but the principal one is the amount of, and
the facility for, the change of the air in the soil. Rubble and sandy
soils do the work much quicker than marl and clay soils. Striking
experiences in this respect have been made on the French battle-
fields, chiefly near Sedan, where a Belgian chemist, Louis Creteur,
had to disinfect the large dead-pits. The bodies were buried in
chalk, quarry, rubble, sand, argillite, slate, marl, or clay soils, and
the sad work lasted from the beginning of March to the end of June.
In rubble the decay had taken place fully, but in clay the bodies were
surprisingly well kept, even after a very long time, and even the
features could be identified.

As the processes of putrefaction and decay are intimately con-
nected with the activity of certain lower organisms, which prey upon
the dead, it is sufficiently clear that these organisms must thrive dif-
ferently in different kinds of soil. A lively change of air and water
in the ground appears to be of great influence in this respect ; the
more air in the ground the richer the underground life.

Remarkable testimony as to the permeability of the ground, and
of the foundations of our houses, has been given by gas emanations
into houses which had no gas laid on. I know cases where persons
were poisoned and killed by gas which had to travel for twenty feet
under the street, and then through the foundations, cellar-vaults, and
flooring of the ground-floor rooms. As these kinds of accidents hap-
pened only in winter, they have been brought forward as a proof that

286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the frozen soil did not allow the gas to escape straight upward, but
drove it into the house. I have told you already why I take the
frozen soil to be not more air-tight than when not frozen. In such
cases the penetration of gas into the houses is facilitated by the cur-
rent in the ground-air caused by the house. The house, being warmer
inside than the external air, acts like a heated cliimney on its sur-
roundings, and chiefly on the ground upon which it stands, and the
air therein, which we will call the ground-air. The warm air in the
chimney is pressed into and up the chimney by the cold air surround-
ing the same. The chimney cannot act without heat, and the heat is
only the means of disturbing tlie equilibrium of the columns of air
inside and outside the chimney. The warm air inside is lighter than
the cold air outside ; and this being so, the former must float upward
thi'ough the chimney, just like oil in water. It continues to do so as
long as fresh cold air comes into its neighborhood from outside. As
soon as we interruj^t this arrival, the draught into tlie chimney is at
an end. Any other way of looking at the action of chimneys leads to
erroneous views, which have many times stopped the progress of the
art of heating and ventilating.

Thus our lieated houses ventilate themselves not only through the
walls but also through the ground on which the house stands. If
there is any gas or other smelling substance in the surrounding
ground-air, they will enter the current of this ventilation. I have
witnessed a case in Munich, where not the least smell of gas could be
detected in the street, but a great quantity of gas found its way into
the c;i'ound-floor room of a house where no gas Avas laid on. In
another case the gas always penetrated into the best heated room
and produced an illness of its inmates, which was taken for typhoid
fever.

The movement of gas through the ground into the house may give
us warning tliat the ground-air is in continual intercourse with our
houses, and may become the introducer of many kinds of lodgers.
These lodgers may either be found out, or cause injury at once, like
gas ; or they may, without betraying their presence in any way, be-
come enemies, or associate themselves with other injurious elements,
and increase their activity. The evil resulting therefrom continues
till the store of these creatures of the ground-air is consumed. Our
senses may remain unaAvare of noxious things, which we take in, in
one shape or another, through air, water, or food.

"We took rather a short-sighted view all the while, when we be-
lieved that the nuisances of our neighbors could only jooison the water
in our pumps ; they can also poison the ground-air for us, and I see
more danger in this, as air is more universally present, and more
movable, than water. T should feel quite satisfied if, by my lectures,
you were convinced of this important fact, if of none other.

England has given proof how the public health can be improved,

GROUND-AIR IN ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 287

by keeping the soil clean through good drainage, abolition of cess-
pools, and abundant water-supply. It would carry me too far if 1
were to analyze now to which of these measures the lion's part be-
longs ; I should have to enter upon many controversies, whicli I have
no time to fight out in this place ; but this is my conviction, which I
want to impress upon you, that cleanliness of the soil and diminution
of organic processes in the ground of dwelling-houses are most es-
sential.

Many have considered these processes, and their effects on the
o-round-air, to be a mere hypothesis. This view lies now behind us,
and facts have been found proving their reality. Stimulated by the
investigations of Huxley and Haeckel, further researches have followed,
and shown that not only at the greatest depth of the sea, but also in
every porous soil, there are everywhere those beginnings of organic
life, belonofinsf neither to the animal nor vegetable kini>dom, mucous
formations, which are called Moneras and Protistes. Wlien I wrote
my part of the report on the cholera in Bavaria, in 1854, I pointed
out already that the air, not less than the water in the soil, ought to
be drawn into the circle of experimental investigations. Neither
others nor myself acted at once upon my suggestion, and it is only
during the last eighteen months that I have examined the ground-air
in the rubble-soil of Munich, regularly twice a week, for its vaiying
amount of carbonic acid. The results are surprising, and for the
future I shall have to trouble others and myself, not only with ground-
water, but also with ground-aii\

The place where the examination of the ground-air of Munich is
being carried on is rubble, without any vegetation, and the carbonic
acid increases with tlie distance from the surface. Agricultural chem-
istry has been aware, for a long time, that a clod of arable earth
which is rich in humus is a source of carbonic acid, but no one ex-
pected that, at times, so much carbonic acid should be met with in
sterile lime-rubble. A few feet under the surface there is already
as much carbonic acid as in the worst ventilated human dwelling-
places.

I have found that the quantity of carbonic acid is smaller at fifty-
eight inches than at one hundred and fifty-six inches throughout the
year, the months of June and July excepted, when an inverse propor-
tion arises. But then there begins also, in the lower stratum, a con-
siderable increase, so that the upper stratum soon finds itself behind
again. This large quantity of carbonic acid in the ground-air of
Munich has been far surpassed in Dresden. Examinations have taken
place in that town under the authority of the Central Board of Public
Health. Prof. Fleck's diary proves that, at least at that spot where
his examinations took place, the quantity of carbonic acid was in
winter already nearly twice as great as in Munich in the month of
August. I might become jealous of Dresden, but we must often,

288 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in life, put up Avith being left behind, although we had the first
start, and I have no choice left but to resign myself.

Tlie presence of carbonic acid in the soil and its periodical motion
are for the present a bare fact. Other places, with difierent soils,
must be examined under varying circumstances, and for longer pe-
riods, before an explanation can be attempted.

The first question which naturally meets us is that about the origin
of this gas. It cannot spring from the humus of the surface, because
at Munich and Dresden its quantity is smallest in the immediate
neighborhood of the surface, where the humus lies, and increases in
proportion to the distance thence. As the amount of carbonic
acid in the ground-air generally increases the nearer this is to the
ground-water, we should be at first sight inclined to assume that it
evaporates from it. Is it not a fact that the ground-water which
feeds wells and sources contains this gas ? And is it not well known
that many a well's shaft contains so much carbonic acid as to extin-
guish a burning candle at the distance of a few feet only from its
o23ening ? This assumption, however, is not justified for several rea-
sons, according to the researches and exjDeriments made at Munich :
1. There are two months in the year when the amount contained
in the upper stratiim, which is at the greatest distance from the
ground-water, is larger than in the lower. 2. I have examined simul-
taneously, at given places, the amount of the gas both in the ground-
water and in the ground-air, and have investigated whethej-, accord-
ing to the laws of diffusion and absorption, either had a suri:)lus of
the gas, and was accordingly in a condition to receive or yield some
of it. In every case the amount of carbonic acid in the ground-air
was larger by fifty per cent, than in the ground-water, so it is clear
that it is the water which receives its carbonic acid from the air, and
not vice versa.

Hereby the question about the origin of the gas is certainly not yet
answered, and would have been left equally unsettled if we had to
ask, Whence comes all the carbonic acid which is found in the ground-
water? All this water is precipitated from the atmosphere, from rain
or snow. In entering the soil as meteoric water its amount of car-
bonic acid is exceedingly small. By help of Bunsen's analytical tables
it is easy to calculate, from the quantity of carbonic acid in the at-
mosphere, and the absoi-bing power of water for this gas, that one
pint of rain-water at the average temperature and barometrical press-
ure can only contain a very small fraction of a grain of carbonic acid,
and this has been proved further by analytical experience. But the anal-
ysis of the pump-water in Munich which was poorest in carbonic acid
showed that it contained on an average l|^to \-^ grain of the free gas.
The ground-water at the places of examination stands about sixteen
feet from the surface. It is therefore evident that the meteoric water,
which is the sole source of the ground-water, must more than centuple

GROUND-AIR IN ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 289

its original jimount of carbonic acid before it reaches the wells. Thus
mucli is certain, that the source of the carbonic acid must be sought
for in the soil, and for this reason the more natural supposition is,
that the soil yields the gas and gives it to the water and to the air
simultaneously, but naturally with greater facility and in greater
quantity to the air than to the water. The sources of the carbonic
acid in the soil have now to undergo a stricter investigation ; tlie
probability is, they owe their origin to organic processes in the soil.

Allow me, now, a few more concluding and valedictory words.

In the introduction to my lectures I thought it incumbent upon
me to give you my views about popular lectures in general. Those
views necessarily excluded the possibility of disposing, in a few hours,
of any one subject of hygiene in such a manner as to impart to my
audience a thorough theoretical and practical knowledge. My hesita-
tion in selection lasted some time. I might have collected and de-
scribed the last works and tendencies in the field of hygiene, pointing
out what had practically succeeded, and what ought to be aimed at
further — and there is a series of interesting points and facts, forming
a most grateful subject for lecturing ; or I might have attempted to
give you a survey, a kind of bird's-eye view of the whole domain of
hygienic science. There is a charm, in the contemplation of a grand
and beautiful distant landscape, in marking, first, the more interesting
points ; then to let the eye wander round them till it comes to the next
striking point, and to enjoy to the utmost the sight of the rich view.

I might, perhaps, have succeeded in satisfying your expectations
up to a certain point, but I thought it preferable to direct and to con-
centrate your attention mainly upon one single object which is known
to every one, and which seems to be so thorouglily examined that
many believe that there is very little to say about it — the air, in its
hygienic relations to man's clothing, to his dwelling-place, and to the
soil on which he builds.

It is such a natural error to imagine that we cannot but understand
everything with which we are in continual intercourse; but, if we
take the trouble of looking a little more closely into everything of
which we make daily use, we shall soon make tlie humiliating dis-
covery that we are acting preeminently according to instinct and tra-
dition, and much less by personal understanding. Each period has its
own task, to contribute and to create something by which civilization
gains materially or ideally. But if at any one period we examine
into the daily life of its generation, we shall find a great deal more
that is inherited than self-acquired. This fact ought to make us mod-
est and zealous, but also just and thankful toward our forefathers, who
did not possess or know many things which we possess and know now.

As animals make use of Nature and her laws in a multifarious and
surprisingly appropriate manner, so does man also. Each carrier on
the road makes use of the laws of motion and friction, and of those

VOL. XI. — 19

290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of living force and its preservation, but he does so for the most part
quite mechanically, so that he appears to think no more about it than
the beaver when he builds his hut. Man also does most things long
before he understands them, and this is part of his nature. If he
could make use of things only after having thoroughly investigated
them, his life would be a poor one, and barely possible. If we had to
study the functions of our clothing and its material before we could
put it on, we should be frozen to death long before, and no carrier
would have attempted to horse his cart before the time of Galileo and
Newton,

Here I find myself drawing a dangerous parallel. You may ask
me at once whether I believe a carrier will be a better carrier for un-
derstanding the laws of motion, and whether our clothing and our
dwellings will one day be superior to what they are now, because we
shall then have learned to understand their functions better. I leave
the answer to the future with the utmost confidence. The experience
of the past sets me completely at ease. At all times and everywhere
it has been the case that each progress in the recognition of laws, that
each new fact established, and each new method applied by science,
each new way on which science has directed us, has finally had its
practical and useful consequences. Excuse me if I continue to dwell
on this favorite subject of mine.

What men call useful is quite a relative term ; they call a thing so
as soon as they find out what use they can make of it. Of course, a
thing must exist before we recognize it, and we must become aware
of certain of its properties and relations before we can make use of
them for any practical purpose. Certainly the recognition of the laws
of motion by Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Laplace, and others, has not
brought about a revolution, or made a sensation among the carriers,
but from these recognized laws sprang and were evolved new ideas,
purified from the gross pi-imitive slag, and they led on to the railway,
etc. Other examples demonstrate still more clearly the connection
betAveen theory and practice.

Electric telegraphy, which is not only practical and useful, but al-
ready indispensable to us, had its first origin in the observations of
the anatomist Galvani, who saw the legs of frogs quiver when they
came in contact with different metals. Imagine to yourself great
practical men of the time, whether statesmen, or divines, or soldiers,
or physicians, witnessing Galvani's experiments going on year after
year ; certainly every one of them would have thought that the man
could apply himself to something more useful. But from that form
of electricity which Galvani detected there sj^rung the researches and
works of Volta, Summering, Stcinheil, Morse, and Wheatstone, to
whom we owe the whole of our telegraphic system. Place together
in your mind the quivering leg of the frog and the transatlantic cable.

After the- discovery of Columbus the Spaniards found in the sand

GROUND-AIR IN ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 291

of a river grains of a white metal, whicli was not affected by fire, and
appeared, therefore, to be a noble metal. Quantities were brought to
Europe, and the new metal received the modest name of platina (low
silver), this being a diminutive of la plata (silver). The masters of
the Mint, the gold and silver smiths, had soon formed their ideas
about the new metal ; it could neither be melted by itself, nor ham-
mered, nor rolled, nor dissolved in aqua-fortis. It was only soluble
in aqua-regia and other melted metals, but the combinations were all
brittle and discolored ; in short, it came to be considered a perfectly
useless metal, practically worth less than lead and iron. Its importa-
tion was prohibited by the Spanish Government, because there was
danger of its high specific gravity leading to its use for the adul-
teration of gold. What platina there was in the country already was
thrown into the sea by order. But Science, who makes no difference
between the useful and useless, and considers everything useful which
increases our insight into the things that are, has quietly held inter-
course with the outcast metal ; she learned how to tame the shrew,
and since Wollaston platina is considered to be one of the most pliable
and useful of metals; just what were originally considered its vices
have enhanced its value so raitch in the course of time that weight for
weight the " low silver " is paid seven times as much for as the " high
silver."

Modern times have not ceased furnishing numerous examples of
the same kind, showing that it is not the business of science to ask
for the immediate profit, for the immediate practical use. They do
not fail to come forth in time.

Science may point to the words of the Bible : " But seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you." All sciences are provinces of God's infinite
kingdom, and in them, as everywhere in God's kingdom. Justice is
dealt by Truth alone. This was my standpoint, which helped me
over the doubts I might have had concerning the utiUty of these
lectures. It seemed to me that the principal thing was not to present
to you a series of practical applications and contrivances, but a series
of truths, which carry in themselves their use and applicability, and
impose their authority in proportion as they are talked over more fre-
quently, understood more clearly, and felt more vividly.

But I wanted to tell you the whole truth about the things which
formed the subject of my lectures, and it became my duty to draw
your attention not only to what is positively known, what is com-
plete, what requires no further investigation, but also to point out
to you much greater fields of hygiene, Avhere scarcely a seed has
been sown. Otherwise I should probably have jeopardized the only
and immediate practical use which my lectures can have here, and
which I believe to be this: that the conviction may spread and take
root everywhere, that hygiene has been neglected until now, prac-

292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tically as well as theoretically, and that this neglect is a dark spot on
our civilization, which has to be removed by this generation This
conviction begins just now to lay hold of ever- widening circles of
society, and a certain sympathy is stirring for the interests of public
health, much more than formerly. The weather seems suitable for
ploughing fields which have remained untouched, and for sowing
good seeds where a rank vegetation has been growing.

"When a current, a general motion of men's minds, sets in toward
some definite goal, then it becomes the duty of all those who are
their leaders to choose the proper routes with earnestness and con-
scientiousness. If a good intention in behalf of some object is
wrongly directed, it soon turns against the object itself; all those
who allowed themselves to become interested therein turn away
discouraged as soon as they believe that their good intention has been
wasted to no purjDose, and hence those unlimited reactions and re-
bounds in public opinion. I believe that I am under a moral obliga-
tion to speak out in this place. I do it here, perhaps, more confi-
dently than anywhere else, because I feel that here I am understood.
I feel it, through the very fact that I have been requested to give
my lectures before this audience. The request came to me from the
Committee of the Albert Society, from its exalted Lady President.
The existence of the Albert Society, its organization, its functions,
its efficiency, and its authority, are ample proofs that the value of
hygiene is understood here.

In this place I must also acknowledge that the Saxon Govern-
ment was the first in Germany to establish a Central Board of Public
Health ; it has also included the teaching of hygiene in the teaching
of military medical science. Such arrangements appear to me to be
types of the two directions which must now be taken and followed
out : on the one hand, investigation, observation, and experiment ;
on the other, systematic personal teaching. These are the only two
ways which lead to the goal.

You have been enabled to see, from that single subject I have
treated, how much remains to be done and created ; everything is
still insufficient and incomplete, and has to be developed and deter-
mined. Think of the great chapters — air, clothing, dwelling, ven-
tilation, heating, lighting, building-places, and soil — their relation to
air and water, and their influence on the course of disease ; epidemics,
and protection against them ; drinking-w^afer, and its distribution
among the population ; alimentations and articles of food ; the main-
taining of diSerent classes of men under different circumstances ;
dietaries; public baths; gymnastics; collection and removal of ex-
crementitious matters and refuse from households and trades ; drain-
age ; disinfection ; inspection of dead bodies and their interment ;
unhealthy trades and manufactories, schools, barracks, asylums, hos-
pitals and nursing, prisons, health statistics, etc.

GROUND-AIR IX ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS. 293

There is not one among these departments of hygiene in which
nothing is left to be done; in most of them the work has scarcely-
begun. There has always been a desire for and an aiming at health ;
but ideas about it have changed completely. The former supports
of hygiene have crumbled away in the powerful analytical solvents
of modern physiology; very little has remained; everywhere new
foundations are necessary. This requires workmen ; the season ap-
pears favorable — do not let it pass unemployed.

It is not sufficient to build up correctly a series of hygienic truths,
which might be the work of a few ; these truths must be brought to
bear upon life, and this requires instruments. Three professions are
in real life the natural trustees and representatives of the hygienic
interests of the community — physicians, architects, and engineers,
and also the public administration. There must be harmonious
action between them; good intentions are not sufficient; there must
be knowledge and power. Only good musicians can make good
music, and they must be well taught and practised. The institutions
at which the members of these professions have received their educa-
tion have all the while generally ignored hygiene as an independent
branch of study. A vague supposition left it to the individuals con-
cerned to take the ti'ouble of gathering for themselves whatever was
known or would be made public about matters of hygiene. Lectures
on forensic medicine were supposed to be sufficient, but they have to
consider facts and evidence only with regard to penal laws, which
themselves result from the old and highly-cultivated science of juris-
prudence. Hygienic laws must spring from hygienic science, and
there was none.

Many of the existing hygienic laws and regulations cannot be
kept up if examined by the light of hygienic science as it is now.
It is no good going on issuing public regulations, demonstrative of
good intentions, for the public health ; the right thing is to create
a firm basis for practical purposes and public measures. Hygiene
must become an independent branch of study, to be taught by special
teachers at universities, medical and polytechnic schools, not without
the help of proper laboratories. Systematic instruction must be
offered to students and practitioners of medicine, to members of the
civil or municipal service, to architects and engineers. Books and
reading can as little occupy the place of personal teaching and ex-
perimental investigation as a medical book in the library that of the
physician, or a hand-book that of the public chair. The self-taught
hygienist has frequently to look out for principles on which to act,
while he is called upon to act at once, and routine alone is a danger-
ous and unreliable assistant. There are exceptions — brilliant ones
even — but exceptions prove the rule.

The increasing interest taken by the intelligent and well-meaning
members of society in matters of public health, which have also an

294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

intimate connection with the j^iiblic purse, cannot fail to assist the
whole movement which is taking place in favor of hygienic science
and its independent and well-endowed instruction.

The whole movement is still going on, but not without resistance
here and there. This resistance shields itself, sometimes, behind the
pretext that there are at present not enough well-qualified teacliers.
Certainly the beginning has its difiiculties, but everything must have
its beginnings. This was the case with the first periodical in Ger-
many for public hygiene, founded by Dr. Varrentrapp, which has
achieved an entire success, in spite of all misgivings and discouraging
vaticinations before it was started. Worthy representatives of the
neglected science will be found for teaching it, as soon as a serious
demand manifests itself. A certain species of medical men will be
quite made for it, after some preparation. Hygiene is, after all,
nothing but applied physiology, with particular reference to the phys-
ical well-being of mankind. According to my experience, men of
science and physicians, who are specially grounded in the practical
and theoretical study of physiology, chemistry, and natural philoso-
phy, are those who can most easily fit themselves for the special
work of hygienic science. It is true, physiology includes the most
essential points of hygiene, and physiology is an application of nat-
ural philosophy, chemistry, and anatomy. But as the votaries of the
latter sciences have never done the work of pure pliysiologists, so
these would never have done, and never will do, the work of pure
hygienists. England has preceded other countries in the creation
of professorships for hygiene, I confidently believe that the proper
men, in sufficient number, will also be met with in Germany in a short
time.

Should my lectures in Dresden have had the efiect, in some de-
gree, of turning your hearts and minds toward the most pressing
tasks of hygiene, so that every one of you may do his best for them
in his own sphere, then I am sure I have done something practically
useful, and have not spoken in vain.

■♦«»

A BPJEF HISTOKICAL SKETCH OF THE DISCOYEKY
OF THE CIECULATIOK OF THE BLOOD.

By GEORGE JACKSON FISHER, M. D.

AMONG the great discoveries which the genius and patient re-
search of man have developed, none lay us under more grateful
obligations, in view of its practical value and admirable simplicity,
than that of the circulation of the blood. Historians record the rise,
progress, and decline of nations, the discovery of new countries, and

DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 295

the exploits of conquering heroes, and yet pass almost unnoticed the
achievements of men of science. Few persons are at all acquainted
with the history of when and how, through a series of successive
revelations, this truly wonderful function came to be thoroughly
understood. It is a long and delightful story if followed through all
its details, which I shall, however, endeavor to cut short in relating
it to persons outside of the medical profession. We are obliged to
glance back through several centuries and make the acquaintance of
nearly a score of anatomical celebrities, who have each contributed
some observation or discovery leading to the final comprehension and
complete interpretation of God's beautiful but simple method of cir-
culating the vital fluid and keeping it ever replenished and pure.

The pathway to the climax of this discovery was not only long
but rugged, hedged in by deeply-rooted errors, and obscured by rank
prejudices ancient and wide-spread. The errors must be destroyed,
the clouds dispelled, parts carefully observed; the explorers must
work slowly and cautiously, and what is discovered must be explained.
Thus it came to pass that anatomists discovered one thing after an-
other, and little by little the light of truth dawned upon their minds,
wherewith they saw and gave the world sensible ideas of the uses of
parts, when eventually " the immortal Harvey," the crowning light,
the clear-headed philosopher, the Newton of physiology, drew the
simple chart of the double circulation. This event took place two
hundred and fifty-seven years ago, for it was in 1619 that Harvey
completed the discovery. He made no haste to tell the world what
he had done, except what the individuals of his classes learned from
his lectures, for he taught his discoveries ten full years before he pub-
lished his modest but wonderful little book " Concerning the Motion
of the Heart and Blood in Living Creatures," printed in Latin at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, in a thin quarto of only seventy-two pages, in
the year of grace 1628.

I propose to give a brief account of the antecedent errors and
discoveries to the time of Harvey — that of Erasistratus, who taught
that the arteries were air-vessels ; of Galen, who demonstrated that
they are blood-vessels as well as the veins ; of Vesalius, who convinced
the world that Galen erred in declaring that holes existed in the par-
tition between the two sides of the heart; of Servetus, Columbus, and
Caesalpinus, who, quite independently of each other, discovered the
circulation through the lungs ; of Fabricius, who discovered the valves
in the veins ; of Harvey, who first comprehended the entire circula-
tion; of Asellius,who discovered the lacteals ; Pecquet, the receptacle
of the chyle ; Rudbeck, the lymphatics of the liver ; and, lastly, of
Thomas Bartholin, who discovered the lymphatics of the whole
body.

Erasistratus (300-260 b. c), a Greek physician and anatomist, of
lulis (the modern Zea), in the island of Ceos, was the grandson of the

296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

illustrious Aristotle, being the son of one of his daughters. It is said
that he was so fond of anatomical pursuits that he retired from his prac-
tice in Alexandria, where he had settled, the better to gratify his taste.
He wrote several treatises which are lost, and all we possess of his
writings are a few fragments preserved in the works of Galen. From
these we learn that he gave names to the auricles of the heart. He
declared that the veins only were blood-vessels, and that the arteries,
as their name implies, were air-vessels. The sole purpose of breath-
ing was to fill the artei-ies with air; the air distended the arteries
and made them beat, the air caused the pulse. The air, once in
the left ventricle of the heart, became the vital spirits. The office
of the veins was to convey blood to the extremities. Wlien the
veins carried blood only and the arteries were filled with vital spirits,
then perfect health was maintained ; but the entrance of blood into
the arteries, which he admitted to sometimes occur, was abnormal
and the source of disease — fevers when it entered some noble part or
into a great artery, and inflammations when it was found in the less
noble parts or in the extremities of the arteries. Thus it is seen that
a stupendous error was established on a mighty authority. This error
Avas destroyed by Galen four hundred years subsequently to the time
of Erasistratus.

Claudius Galen (a. d. 131), next to Hippocrates the most cele-
brated physician the world ever produced, was born at Pergamus, in
Asia Minor, about the year of our Lord 131, and educated in anatomy
and medicine at Alexandria, then the most famous school in the world.
At the age of thirty-four he settled at Rome, where he distinguished
himself as a skillful practitioner, and became the physician to the Em-
peror Marcus Aurelius. The period of his death is not known, but it is
stated that he was still living in the reign of Septimius Severus. Galen
was a voluminous writer. A considerable number of his works are
lost, and yet eighty-two treatises, more or less complete, survive and
are in print. Tlie writer of this sketch felicitates himself in the pos-
session of a fine copy of the " Editio Princeps," in five ponderous folios,
printed in Greek, by the celebrated Aldine press, at Venice, 1525.
For a period of nearly fourteen centuries this vast mass — more volu-
minous than the entire Bible — was copied and recopied with the pens
of scribes ! Who can duly appreciate the value of the press ? Galen
proved that the arteries are blood-vessels, and thus destroyed the error
of Erasistratus. He said, when an artery is opened, blood alone
gushes out and no air. He tied an artery at two places a little distance
apart, and on opening the vessel found it filled with blood only. The
followers of Erasistratus wanted to know how the air from the lungs
entered all parts of the body, to whom Galen replied that the air
entered the lungs to cool the blood, after which it was expelled. This
theory was held so late as the last century, even by the renowned
physiologist Albrecht von Haller. Galen declared the pulse to be the

DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 297

dilatation of the artery by the contraction of the heart, which is the
truth.

Galen also taught that there are two kinds of blood, the sjnritual
blood of the arteries and left ventricle, and the venous blood of the
right side of the heart and veins, the red and the black blood. These
were great strides in the right direction, and yet this wonderful genius
was the author of some grave errors. He believed it necessary that a
certain portion of spirit should be mixed with the venous blood to
render it fit for nutrition, and this he conceived took place by the
transmission of arterial blood through little holes in the ventricular
septum which he called " foramina." He taught that the arterial
blood nourished organs of a light and delicate texture such as the
lungs, while the venous blood nourished the grosser organs, such as
the liver.

The early modern anatomists believed the septum was perforated,
and saw with the eyes of faith the " foramina " on account of their un-
questioning confidence in the infallibility of Galen as an authority.
Mondinus, who flourished in the fourteenth century, the first anatomi-
cal writer after Galen, said the septum was perforated, and twenty
others reiterated it.

Berrenger de Carpi, who wrote and published his anatomical work
in 1521, was the first to waver, and say that the openings in the sep-
tum loere oyily to he seen with difficulty.

That I may pass no one who has been credited by any writer with
even the least knowledge of the circulation, or who has even hinted a
better understanding of it than those already mentioned, I come next
in the order of time to Nemesius, who was Bishop of Emissa, a city
of Phoenicia, at the latter end of the fourth century. He was not
properly a medical writer, though he wrote a treatise concerning the
" Nature of Man." The editor of the Oxford edition of this work
(1671) contends that Nemesius understood and described the circula-
tion of the blood in plain terms ; while Dr. Freind, in his " History of
Physic," denies that he had anything more than a vague notion of this
function. I copy the words of Nemesius as translated by Freind for
the benefit of the curious :

" The motion of the pulse takes its rise from the heart, and chiefly from the
left ventricle of it ; the artery is with great vehemence dilated and contracted,
by a sort of constant harmony and order. "While it is dilated, it draws the
thinner part of the blood from the next veins, tlie exhalation or vapor of which
blood is made the aliment for the vital spirit. But, while it is contracted, it ex-
hales whatever fumes it has through the whole body, and by secret passages.
So that the heart throws out whatever is fuliginous, through the mouth and the
nose by expiration."

Thus it appears that Nemesius had a little insight of the circula-
tion 1,500 years ago, yet so imperfect that he neither comprehended it
himself nor made it understood by any who followed him.

298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Andreas Vesalius, of Brussels. — The next great actor on the
stage, comes the renowned Vesalius, the Lnther of anatomy, the bold
and defiant reformei", who, by persevering diligence and pains-tak-
ing observation, corrected the numerous errors of all his predecess-
ors, and notably those of Galen. This wonderful young man, before
he attained the age of thirty, published the most extensive, accurate,
and in every sense the most magnificent work on human anatomy the
-world ever saw ; wealth was lavished on its illustration and sumjitu-
ous publication. Jan Stephan van Calcar, the favorite pupil and
-wonderful imitator of the world-renowned Titian (not Titian himself,
as some have declared), was employed to design anatomical figures,
and the best engravers cut them in wood to adorn that massive and
splendid old folio — that opus magnum, which was published in Basel,
in the year 1543, three and a third centuries ago.

It is the delight of the medical bibliomaniac to procure a good copy
of this rare book. The writer of this essay sought vigilantly for a
score of years, failing to secure it until quite recently, and then from
the library of a deceased friend, who was an ardent lover of the
medical classics. He too had sought in vain for this book, and at last,
after long rummaging the dusty and mouldy antiquarian book-stalls'
of many an ancient city in Europe, laid his hands upon a fine copy of
the "Corporis Humani Fabrica," which he ever after regarded as the
gem of his collection, as it certainly now is (almost sacred by melan-
choly association) the greatest treasure of my own. I wish we had
time to stop just here, that I might give you a sketch of the life of
Vesalius. Henry Morley, Professor of English Literature in the Uni-
versity of London, has written a lively and lovely little biography
of this great anatomist, Avhich is far more fascinating than any ro-
mance.

The great Vesalius, justly styled "the father of modern anatomy,"
subjected the septum, between the right and left cavities of the heart,
to a thorough scrutiny, and found tliat no holes existed in it, and then
had the boldness to declare the truth in spite of the previously un-
questioned authority of Galen, whose writings were sacred in the esti-
mation of all physicians. Thenceforth anatomists ceased to believe
and teach this great error which Vesalius dispelled and sw^ept away,
and thus it came to pass that the second great step was taken toward
the discovery of the circulation of the blood.

On the 27th day of October, in the year 1553, on a hill not
far from the old SavIss city of Geneva, could be seen a motley
gathering of anxious and excited men, women, and children, and
among them a goodly number of learned doctors of divinity, chiefly
Protestants, conspicuous among whom was John Calvin, all assem-
bled to witness a scene of extrem.e horror. There stood, lashed to
a post, a scholar past forty years of age, who in his time had im-
bued himself in the learning of three professions — law^, divinity.

DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 299

and medicine. Of his attainments in jurisprudence I know nothing ;
of his anatomical and physiological knowledge I will say more
anon, merely premising that it was truly marvelous and in advance
of the times; in theology, according to the opinion of Calvin and
others, he was a heretic, since he entertained antitrinitarian notions.
He had written two books, the respective titles of which are, "De
TrinitatisErrorihus" (1531) and" DeChristianismi Restitutio" (1533),
which latter he had the frankness to send to Calvin for corrections
and suggestions. Calvin denounced it promptly to Cardinal Tonron
as heretical, whereupon the cardinal laughed heartily at one heretic
accusinsT another. It has been said, and it is to be feared with too
much truth, that John Calvin was stirred not so much with holy zeal
or fanaticism as by hate, as he had received a letter from this medico-
lesral theologrian, now tied to the stake, awaiting the horrid tort-
ures, and death, by slow fires about to be kindled at his feet, which
letter animadverted, perhaps not very sweetly, upon the errors and
absurdities of Calvin's " Institutes." This letter, be it understood, was
in reply to a violent one which Calvin had written to this poor victim
concerning his opinions. Time will not allow me to tell the whole
story of how Calvin vindictively threatened him, and drew up thirty-
eight articles of accusation against him, and how the poor, unfortunate
man fled and disguised himself, and was subsequently arrested and
tried by a grave council of sixty, who, after deliberating three full
days on his heresy and the degree of punishment to be inflicted, fixed
upon a heavy fine, and death by slow, torturing fires ; and that all his
manuscripts and copies of his works were to be burned witli him and
to furnish a part of the fuel with which to execute this fiendish sen-
tence. Yet so it came to pass that this unfortunate scholar expiated
his crime of heterodoxy in this tragical manner, and so effectually was
the order for the burning of his works carried out, that only a single
copy of one of his books is now believed to be in existence, and that
is not a little scorched by fire.

You may wonder wlio this ))Oor victim was, and why he is intro-
duced here in a sketch of the history of the discovery of the circula-
tion of the blood.

It was Michael Servetus, whose Spanish name was Miguel Ser-
vede, born in the year 1509, at Villanneva, in Aragon near Saragossa,
in Spain. He was educated, as before hinted, in three professions, in
jurisprudence and theology in the University of Toulouse, in medicine
at Paris. He practised as a physician, and wrote at least one medical
treatise. He also wrote, most unfortunately, two theological books, one
an abstruse metaphysical work, already alluded to, " The Restitution
of Christianity," which, though it ended in his ruin, contained words
and ideas which have immortalized his name. Of this wonderful book
a copy exists in the Bibliothuque Imperiale at Paris, of which M. Flou-
rens. Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, proudly says,

300 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"I have seen, I have touched, the book of Servetus ! " He then goes
on to state that it is perhaps the only copy now in existence ; that it
belonged to Colladon, one of the accusers raised uj) by the pitiless
Calvin against the unfortunate Servetus ; that this copy formerly
belonged to the celebrated English physician Dr, Richard Mead, and
was afterward purchased by the Royal Library of France at a very
high price. In it, says Flourens, Colladon has underscored the pas-
sages upon which he accused Servetus ; and that, finally, as a last
mark of undeniable authority, several pages of this unlucky volume
are scorched and blackened by fire. It was not saved from the pile
where author and work were burned together until after the confla-
gration had commenced.

In this rare book is contained the first account ever written of the
pulmonary circulation. I will not stop to quote the exact words as I
have them in translation, but will briefly state that, in plain and un-
mistakable language, he declares that all the blood is sent by the con-
traction of the heart from the right ventricle through the pulmonary
artery into the lungs, where it is changed from dark to red in color by
the atmospheric air, and thence returned to the left side of the heart
through the j^ulmonary veins — which is strictly true. Servetus denied
the old doctrine of Galen, that the liver was the seat of sanguifica-
tion, and declared it to be the lungs.

Thus it is seen that, long before the day of Harvey, there was a
man of genius occupied with this great subject of the circulation of
the blood, and that man was Michael Servetus.

I will add but a word to this sketch, already too long, in explana-
tion of the occurrence of these physiological considerations in a meta-
physical treatise of this kind. Servetus was discussing the Scriptural
assertion that the soul is in the blood, that the soul is the blood
itself; and hence, as Flourens states the case, "' Since the soul is in
the blood,' says Servetus, 'to know how the soul is formed it is
necessary to know how the blood is formed ; and, to leaini this, we
must see how it moves. ' "

But Servetus was not equally clear in his views of the general or
systemic circulation. " He speaks confidently of the nerves being
continuations of the arteries, and describes, with grave precision, how
the air passes from the nose into the ventricles of the brain, and how
the devil takes the same route to lay siege to the soul." '

Realdo Columbus (1544-"77). — This celebrated anatomist, one of
the best of that illustrious line which gave glory to the medical school
of Padua in the sixteenth century, was a native of the city of Cre-
mona, which is about fifty miles from Milan, in Italy. He flourished
about the year 1544, and was a pupil of the renowned Vesalius. Co-
lumbus made several important discoveries and improvements in the
knowledge of anatomy. He rediscovered the pulmonary circulation

' " Blackwood's Edlnhurgh Magazine, August, 1858, p. 151.

DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 301

six yeai's after Servetus's ill-fated book was printed, and unquestiona-
bly without any knowledge of what was in it ; for it does not appear
that the discovery by Servetus was known to the world, or produced
any influence whatever upon any individual, OAving to the character
of the work in which it appeared, and to its thorough destruction by
fire.

The description which Columbus gives of the circulation of the
blood through the lungs is very complete, clear, and concise. " Be-
tween the two ventricles is the septum through which it is believed
the blood passes from the right to the left ; but this is a great mistake,
for the blood is carried by the arterial vein into the Ivmgs ; thence it
passes, with the air, by the venous artery, into the left ventricle of the
heart, which no one has yet seen."

His work, " De Re Anatomica," was published in 1559. Columbus
died in 1577.

Andreas C^salpinus (1519-1603). — This third aspirant for the
glory of discovering the pulmonary circulation was born at Arezzo,
thirty-eight miles from Florence, Italy, about the year 1519. He was
an eminent philosopher, a celebrated botanist, and a distinguished
physiologist. He was for many years a professor at Pisa, and subse-
quently called to Rome, where he also jirofessed, and received the
appointment of first physician to Pope Clement VHI. He spent the
last years of his life in Rome, where he died February 23, 1603.

The great naturalist Linnaeus styled Ctesalpinus the first systematic
writer on botany, and followed his classification in many particulars,
making it the basis of his own. The history of the physical sciences
gives more than one example of the discovery of an important fact
by two or more persons, in different places and at difierent dates, each
without previous knowledge of what the other had observed. So do
we find it in this instance, Csesalpinus rediscovered the jiulmonary
circulation without knowing that both Servetus and Columbus had
each previously and independently discovered the same, for he no-
where alludes to them ; and he was too noble and honorable a man to
bedeck himself with glories not his own.

Moreover, this man was the first who ever employed the felicitous
and expressive words, " the circulation of the blood."

"This circulation,^'' said he, " which carries the blood from the
right heart through the lung into the left, corresponds perfectly with
the disposition of the parts. For each ventricle has two vessels : one
by which the blood arrives, and the other by which it departs. The
vessel by which the blood arrives at the right ventricle is the vena
cava ; that by which it leaves is the pulmonary artery. The vessels
which pour the blood into the left ventricle are the pulmonary veins ;
the vessel which affords it exit is the aorta.''''

No man can describe it more accurately. But Cnesalpinus did not
stop here. He was the first and only one before Harvey who gave the

302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

world any idea of the circulation of the blood through the entire body.
He pointed out the familiar fact that the veins swell below and not
above the bandage tied around a limb, which demonstrated that veins
return the blood to the heart and not toward the external parts of the
body. He also says, " The blood conducted to the heart by the veins
receives there its jjerfection, and, this perfection acquired, it is carried
by the arteries to all parts of the body."

Certainly no man can describe the general circulation more con-
cisely or better than this.

Thus it appears in evidence that, over half a century before Har-
vey's discovery, Andreas Coesalpinus lifted the veil Avhich concealed
the mysteries of Nature, suflSciently to obtain quite a clear under-
standing of both the lesser and the greater circulation of the blood.

His countrymen are determined to proclaim his priority, and con-
test the claims of Harvey for the right to wear the laurels, as will
appear from the following extract taken from a recent medical
journal : ^

" A monument in honor of Andrea Cesalpino was unveiled in the University
of Eome, October 80, 1876, with imposing ceremonies. The Italians claim
for Cesalpino the merit of having discovered the circulation of the blood more
than fifty years prior to Harvey's discovery. Dr. Giulio Ceradini, Professor of
Physiology in the University of Genoa, seems to have been the orator of the
day, and he recommends that over the entrance of the Pisa school, where Ce-
salpino first taught his discovery, there be placed the following inscription:
' Andrea Cesalpino, of Arezzo, Lecturer on Medicine in the University of Pisa,
after the correction of Galen's errors as to the function of the liver and the
veins, discovered the circulation of the blood through the whole body, which
circulation he made manifest by vivisections after ligatures had been applied to
the veins, and which in his " Quistioni Peripatetiche " and " Quistioni Mediche,"
pubhshed in 1569 or 1593, using the word " circulation " itself, he fully described.
Ill-advised was the English Harvey, who, in 1628, dared to arrogate to himself
the discovery of this mighty truth.' "

HiERONYMus Fabeicius ab Aquapendente (1537-1603). — Jerome
Fabricius was very celebrated in his day. The republic of Venice
settled upon him a yearly stipend of a thousand crowns in gold, and
honored him with a statue and a golden chain ; but his immortal honor
consists in having discovered tlie valves of the veins, the anatomical
proof of the circulation, and in having been the teacher of Harvey.

He discovered the valves of the veins in 1574. He saw that they
open toward the heart, and that the blood could only move in that
direction, the reverse of what takes place in the arteries, which have
no valves. Fabricius saw the fact, but did not understand the proof
it furnished that the blood moved in a continuous circuit.

The March and April numbers of the American reprint of the
London Lancet, of 1877, contain two little articles, by Sampson

' New York Medical Journal, December, 1876, p. 667.

DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 303

Garagee, entitled " Harvey and Cgesalpinus : an Historical Fragment,"
from which I learn that Prof. Ercolani, of Bologna, has brought for-
ward another claim for the great honor of discovering the circulation,
and has urged with so much erudition and persistence, on behalf of
Carlo Ruini, that, in memoriam^ a marble tablet adorns one of the
halls of that ancient seat of learning. It would appear that Senator
Ruini's work, "Anatomia del Cavallo," published at Bologna, in
quarto, 1598, and at Venice, in folio, 1599, had but a limited cir-
culation, and remained comparatively unknown. Dr. Gamgee says :
"This marvelous passage, so far as I know, never attracted attention
until my friend Prof. Ercolani set it forth, with justifiable national
pride." I regret that Dr. Gamgee has not copied " this marvelous
passage."

I will pass Fra Paolo Sarpi, theologian and anatomist, born at
Venice in 1552; and La Vasseur, a disciple of James Sylvius, the
very worthy master of Vesalius, and in turn his fiercest adversary — to
both of whom has been attributed the honor of having^ discovered
the circulation of the blood. Their claims rest on uncertain data, a
critical examination of which would be out of place in an essay of so
brief and popular a character as this ; hence, having alluded to them,
I will proceed to the so-called "immortal Harvey," on whom all Eng-
lish writers bestow the glory of having first discovered the circulation,
and first published to the world the demonstrations of the great fact.

William Harvey (1578-1657). — I will be brief in my sketch of the
crowning hero of the story of the circulation of the blood. William
Harvey was born of a highly-respectable Kentish family, April 1,
1578 — wanting one year of three centuries ago. Great men have
chiefly come of superior and noble-minded mothers. I cannot pass
the quaint and lovely moral portrait inscribed on the monumental
tablet, in Folkestone Church, believed to have been written by Dr.
Harvey himself:

"A. D. 1605, Nov. 8th, dyed in y'= 50th yeere of her age, Joan, wife of Tho. Harvey.
Mother of 7 Sones and 2 Daughters.

A Godly harmless Woman : A chaste loveing Wife :

A charitable quiet Neighbour : A co'fortable friendly Matron :

A p'ovident diligent Huswyfe : A careful te'der-hearted Mother.

Deere to her Husband : Reverensed of her Children:

Beloved of her Neighbours: Elected of God.

Whose Soule Rest in Heaven : her Body in this Grave:

To Her a Happy Advantage : to Hers an Unhappy Loss."

This man, so noted in physiological science as to be generally
spoken of as the immortal or the divine Harvey, occupied in his time
many positions of trust and honor. He was physician to St. Barthol-
omew's Hospital, London ; Professor of Anatomy to the College of
Physicians ; one of the physicians of King James L, and subsequently
physician in ordinary to "the most illustrious and indomitable Prince

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Charles I., King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender
of the Faith," He was with this king at the battle of Edgehill.
Much of his time was occupied in attendance at the royal court, and
yet he found opportunity to follow the bent of his genius in anatomi-
cal and physiological researches.

Being wealthy, he remembered the necessities of his profession, and
munificently bestowed money in the erection of a fine edifice for the
College of Physicians, enriched it with a fine pathological museum and
library, and endowed it with funds, wherewith, as a part of the
bestowment, an annual oration is delivered for the advancement of
medical science.

But to return to the subject under consideration : methinks I hear
you ask, after the foregoing recital of what so many observers have
discovered, "What remained for this great man Harvey to discover
or explain ? "

Dr. Rolleston * answers : " Nothing less than the circulation itself.
His predecessors had but impinged, and that by guess-work, upon dif-
ferent segments of the circle, and then gone off at a tangent into outer
darkness, while he worked, and proved, and demonstrated, round its
entire periphery."

True, as Flourens says, when Harvey appeared, everything relative
to the circulation of the blood had been indicated or suspected; noth-
ing had been established. Servetus knew nothing of the general cir-
culation ; Columbus adhered to the Galenic error of the origin of the
veins in the liver; Coesalpinus, who perceived the two circidations,
and came so near to comprehending them, still held belief in the error
of perforations in the ventricular septum; and, lastly, Fabricius — who,
by-the-way, was not the very first to discover valves in the blood-
vessels, but who discovered more of them than any other observer,
and wrote more and better than any of his. predecessors — Fabricius, I
say, did not understand the use of the valves, supposing them to be
for the purpose of strengthening the veins and checking the too rapid
flux of blood through them.

The medical historian Sprengel has cunningly remarked that
nothing explains Harvey better than "his education at Padua," under
the teachings of Fabricius.

If it was a piece of good fortune for Harvey to enjoy the teachings
of Fabricius, it was a happy thing, and a thrice fortunate thing, for
the world, that the study of the circulation should have fallen into
the hands of a man so avoII fitted to investigate it and to elaborate the
true theory of the motion of the heart and blood.

Before Harvey, it was not known that the heart is the motive
power — it was presumed to be the lungs ; he it was who demonstrated
every step in the progress of the blood in its double circuit, stilled
all clamor of disputants, and convinced the world that he was right.

' " Harveian Oration " for ISYS.

DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 305

Let every man who has in any manner contributed to the final
discovery have his just proportion of credit for what he has done, but
let no man try to rob Harvey of the glory, which is rightfully his, of
having perfected our knowledge of this wonderfvil function, modestly,
lucidly, and with great forbearance and dignity, in view of the unkind
opposition and even vindictive hatred which his teachings engendered.

John Aubrey,' who was at Harvey's funeral, and " helpt to carry
him into the vault," tells us he had heard him (Harvey) say " that
after his booke of the circulation of the blood came out, he fell mightily
in his practice ; 'twas believed by the vulgar that he was crack-
brained, and all the physitians were against his opinion and envyed
him."

I cannot follow the history of the opponents to Harvey's new
doctrines. I will mention a few of the most potent, beginning with
Primrose, of Scotland ; Parisanus, of Venice ; Caspar Hpifmann, the
learned and laborious professor of Nuremberg ; Joannes Veslingius,
professor at Padua ; and end with Riolanus and Guy Patin, of Paris.
Neither will time permit me to more than mention a few of the
powerful defenders and promulgators of this new doctrine, as it was
always called, among whom were Roger Drake, his own countryman ;
Werner Rolfink, professor at Jena ; Renatus Descartes ; Sir George
Ent, his biographer; and Peter Dionis, who taught it in the Jardin
du Roi by order of Louis XIV. — all praise be to this King of France.

Dionis says, " I was chosen to demonstrate in your royal garden
the circulation of the blood and the new discoveries, and I acquitted
myself of this duty with all the ardor and the exactitude which the
orders of your majestic deserve."

All this looks as if the predecessors of Harvey had failed to dis-
cover or to teach the true motion of the heart and blood. It was
twenty-three years after Harvey's publication that Italy, which now
claims the entire credit of the discovery, admitted the truth of the
new doctrine ; and about the same time John Pecquet, of Dieppe, and
Thomas Bartholin, the Dane, gave in their adhesion to the new doc-
trine, and spread it far and near in their writings. The victoiy was
complete when Plempius, of Louvain, who had fought Descartes so
valiantly, made the following retraction :

" This discovery did not please me at all at first, as I publicly testified both
by word of mouth and in my writings ; but, by-and-by, when I gave myself up
with firmer purpose to refute and expose it, lo ! I refute and expose myself, so
convincing, not to say merely persuasive, are the arguments of the author ; I
examine the whole thing anew and with greater care, and, having at length
made the dissection of a few live dogs, I find that all his statements are most
true."

Harvey knew nothing of the capillary vessels ; these were demon-

' Aubrey, " Lives of Eminent Persons," 8vo, London, 1813.
VOL. XI. — 20

3o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

strated l>y Marcellus Malpighius, who was born the very year that
Harvey's work was published, 1628.

I will conclude my long story by merely mentioning the discov-
eries of the lacteals, the receptacle of the chyle, and the lymphatics.

Harvey discovered the circulation in 1619, and published it in 1628.
Aselli discovered the lacteals in 1622 ; Pecquet the receptacle of the
chyle in 1648; Rudbeck and Thomas Bartholin the lymphatics be-
tween 1650 and 1652. This was a glorious period indeed !

Thus it came to pass that the united labors of all these worthy
men — and labors they were, and worthy men were they — resulted in
giving the world a simple, clear, and satisfactory solution of the
manner of the circulation of the nutrient fluids of the body.

Next all-fools-day will be the tercentenary of Harvey, when all
Christendom ought to be interested in the justice of bis claims to the
glory of consummating a discovery of so much consequence to man-
kind. No mere national pride should bias the minds of men whereby
memorials may be placed at Rome, Pisa, and Bologna, in rivalry with
that which is to be erected at Folkestone, in England, to commem-
orate the time and place of Harvey's birth.

-♦♦♦>-

OYER-CONSUMPTION OR OYER-PRODUCTION ?

By 0. B. BUNCE.

WHY does the prevailing business depression continue ? Why
are the times so " hard ? " Why is the long-hoped-for revival
of trade so backward ? What is it that has put the times so disas-
trously out of joint ?

Every one is asking these questions, and nearly every one is ready
with an answer. Some will declare that the trouble is all of the green-
backs ; others will go so far as to affirm that the lack of greenbacks is
the cause. Almost every one will assert that over-speculation has
something to do with it : some will attribute the whole mischief to
the intense railway "craze" of a few years ago, and the consequent
losses. Not a few are confident that extravagance and over-trading
are the explanation. There seems to be no general agreement of
opinion ; even men of equal business knowledge and experience dif-
fer essentially in their views as to the genesis and remedy of the
evil, and the professors of political science are scarcely nearer of
accord.

There has recently come from an eminent English authority in
political economy an authoritative declaration in the matter. No one
will deny that Prof. Bonamy Price's essay denominated " One per

OVER-CONSUMPTION OR OVER-PRODUCTION ? 307

Cent." ' is eminently readable ; the professor knows how to give lit-
erary grace and vivid interest to a theme commonly considered
u (jj.y . •>•> \^ jg further true that anything he may utter on the topic is
entitled to great respect and. consideration. At the same time there
is no reputation so exalted that the assertions and arguments made
public under its sanction should not be and may not be examined and
tested. Now, to our mind Prof. Price is often logically wrong in his
essay referred to ; we can but think that many of the reasons he as-
signs for the great business depression — which now prevails in Amer-
ica, England, and Germany — are fallacious and misleading, and, with
all modesty, it is our present purpose to give the reasons why.

The title of" One per Cent." is given to Prof. Price's article be-
cause one per cent, has been for some time the ruling rate of discount
in the London money-market (just as from two to three per cent, has
been for many months the quotation for call loans in Wall Street),
funds in the hands of bankers being in excess of the needs of borrow-
ers and traders. Trade is curtailed, production restricted, stagnation
is evident in every branch of industry, and this general paralysis
causes in the financial centres such a flow of money that it is offered
to loan at an almost nominal discount.

The cause of this wide-spread depression, according to Prof. Price,
is one, and one only — " over-spending, over-consuming, destroying
more wealth than is produced. This," he says, " is the real fons
mail, the root of all the disorder and the suffering, the creator of the
inevitable sequence of cause and effect. Men have acted as a man
who farmed his own land and had consumed not only the portion of
the crops which were his true income . . . but had himself and his
dependents devoured a portion of the seed-corn and the breeding-
stock, had exchanged a portion of the produce which was required
for wages in the coming year for foreign luxuries, or had consumed
these necessary reserves on an excess of drainage, however valuable
in itself and ultimately enriching."

This is the core of Prof. Price's argument. The prostration of
trade has arisen from extravagance, he repeatedly declares. " The
commercial depression, so long, so monotonous, so heavy, and so dull,
came from the excessive consumption of English capital in unwar-
ranted constructions beyond savings, and unwarranted expenditure in
living by all classes, which destroyed wealth without repairing it
with new productions."

But elsewhere he says : "Up to the extent of the savings of the
nation, expenditure on railways can do no economical or financial
harm ; and these invaluable developers of wealth may on such a basis
be rationally acquired for the public good. Any outlay made out of
savings, be what it may, is innocent of mischief; it may do no good,

1 Contemporary Review, London, and reprinted here in The Popular Science Month-
ly SCPPLEMENT, No. 1.

3oS THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

but it does not impoverish. But what are savings ? The surplus of
wealth made over wealth consumed. If it is turned into capital and
applied to increased production, the nation becomes richer ; if it is
expended on any luxury or any folly, the nation is where it is." These
declarations no one, we imagine, will dispute.

But Prof. Price, in attributing business stagnation to extrava-
gance, to " over-spending and over-consuming," assumes the whole
question. He produces no evidence whatever in support of the attes-
tation. He does not show that consumption and expenditure have
exceeded production; he declares that capital has been impaired, but
gives no facts nor tigures in support of the affirmation. The whole
groundwork of his theory is boldly and flatly assumed, without the
slightest regard whether there is evidence to support it or not. It is
grossly illogical to assume that there is over-spending simply because
to casual observation there is high and extravagant living. A clasrs
may be extravagant ; a group of people may be impairing their
capital; but where are the figures to show that the English people as
a whole have been indulging in undue excesses, have reduced the suni
of their savings, " by which the means of producing are diminished ? "
There is absolutely nothing whatever upon which to base these as-
sumptions ! Prof. Price tells us in another place that "her (England's)
producing power, her fixed capital, her machinery, remain unchanged,"
and that " she is compelled to shut up many of her factories, to dis-
miss or put on half-time immense numbers of her working-people,
because there are fewer buyers of the articles they manufacture."
This, he declares, is the very pinch of the matter. Indisputably it is,
but whether fewer buyers is the consequence of over-consumption or
of some other cause is also the pinch of the philosophy of the matter
— and this let us ascertain, if it is possible to do so.

How is it, if the savings of a country have been really impaired,
that capital at the same moment should be seeking investment at any
rate of interest it can command — that all the financial centres are
choked with an excess of money, for which it is impossible to find
borrowers? Assuredly, loans at a low rate of interest imply an excess
of capital over the needs of trade or production; it shows that busi-
ness operations are restricted, for whatever reason, and have released
capital from its ordinary uses to such an extent that it accumulates
in trade-centres, seeking for borrowers that do not come. It can
make no difference whether we call money capital or not ; it cannot
afiect the heart of the question what it is that is oifered at one per
cent. — gold, notes, assets of any kind — whatever money may really
be, it would seem clear that, if over-consumption had impaired the
capital of the country, those individuals who could come into the
field as lenders would be enabled to dictate terms to the needy bor-
rowers. Over-consumption means a destruction of food, clothing,
coals, metals, etc., to an extent that impairs the reserves of these

OVER-CONSUMPTION OR OVER-PRODUCTION ? 309

products ; but it must be a marvelously extensive over-consumption
that impairs the means for restoring them — that renders it impossible
for fixed capital — machinery, furnaces, shafts — to be set in productive
operation.

Can Prof. Price give an instance where any civilized nation, unless
at war, or suffering from some great calamity, has impaired its capi-
tal by over-consumption ? Can he name a period when, at the end of
any year, with the exceptions mentioned, England has possessed less
wealth than at the beginning of that year ? When, in modern times,
have a people impaired their capital by over-consumption ? When
and where has extravagance brought a community to ruin ? Where
are the instances? What are the occasions? Who can produce the
statistics that will establish this theory ? Not but what there may be,
and often are, hurtful extravagance and speculative excesses ; but these
are usually special to a class. The great bocly of a people are rarely
consumers to the extent they are producers ; quietly, in a million of
minor ways, the wealth of a country increases even in times of de-
pression. We find current in the journals a paragraph which affirms
that last year the valuation of property in England, exclusive of Lon-
don, increased $14,335,000 — too little, no doubt, but something differ-
ent from the destruction of more wealth than is produced. Very
rarely, indeed, if ever, has the capital of a country in normal periods
of peace been really impaired, however much distress an imperfect
distribution of labor and of profits may have caused.

Let us say here that the ordinary idea of national extravagance —
meaning excessive expenditure by the people, and not governmental
expenses — is peculiarly erroneous ; an assertion we confidently make,
notwithstanding the fact that Prof. Price accepts the usual theory.
He declares that " a nation is only an aggregate of individuals," that
" analysis will always resolve the action of the single man, and the
combined cooperation of a host, etc., into the same constituent parts ;"
that is to say, over-spending and over-consumption are of the same
nature, whether exhibited by an individual or a community.

Now, we think it can be shown that expenditure in the case of an
individual and expenditure in case of a large group of individuals
have certain very essential differences. When a community ex-
changes its goods for foreign luxuries to an extent to impair its pro-
ductive capital, or has invested in railways or similar enterprises so
as to reduce its working capital, it is in the position of an individual
who has lived beyond his income. But the difference between an in-
dividual and a community is, that the income of the former is abso-
lutely fixed, that of the other is wholly expansive. In truth, in an
immense number of things, a community is rich because it consumes^
abundance being the product and consequence of extensive destruction.

It is evident that the immense consumption of coal has made
coal cheap and abundant. It has rendered possible the employment

310 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of vast capital in the erection of costly niacLinery for the working of
the mines, for tlie construction of adequate means of transportation,
thereby making remote deposits accessible, and enabling capitalists
to work the mines at the minimum of cost, which never would have
been done had not the vast consumption of coal rendered it wise and
practicable to do so. It is true the consumption of coal is increased by
cheapness ; but it is only by extravagance, so to speak, by free and
extensive use of coal, that the machinery by which it is made cheap is
put in operation. We have an immense wealth of coal because we
consume coal so extensively ; if we used but little we should have
little, and this little would be dear.

This rule works in all or nearly all our staples. Cotton fabrics
are a marvel of cheapness and abundance. The consumption and
the possibilities of extended consumption have stimulated invention
and industry so greatly that the world has become wealthy in its
supply of this staple alone. Rarely, indeed, is there a woman so
jjoor that she cannot own a calico gown ; few are the men so destitute
as to be without cotton shirts. We have this staple in almost un-
limited abundance, as the direct result of the most extended con-
sumption. It is the same thing with wool, with flax, with paper,
Avith iron, with brick, with many other things.

So peculiarly different is the operation of expenditure with a com-
munity from that of an individual, that it is worth while to trace it
still further. Let us suppose a town about to erect a grand cathedral,
or some other public structure that requires a very large quantity of
stone. At first flush it would seem as if a great deal of valuable
material would be used in a purpose unnecessary and unproductive ;
but, as a practical fact, the building-material is likely to become more
abundant and cheaper than it ever was before. The unusually large
consumption of stone would lead either to the opening of new quar-
ries or the erection of improved machinery for working the stone, and
to the construction of railways, boats, etc., for facilitating its transpor-
tation ; so that stone for building purposes would thereafter be
cheaper and more abundant as the consequence of what at first sight
appeared a wasteful consumption. In all staple things, at least, a
nation is richer because it consumes, while a man is richer by what
he saves. We are better housed, better fed, better clothed, we have
a thousand things of taste and pleasure, because our eager and de-
vouring appetites have stimulated energy, skill, invention, to their
utmost to cater for us.

We say nothing as to which is the wisest direction for consumption
to take, with all it stimulating power ; we do not deny that consump-
tion may make champagne, diamonds, silks, broadcloth, fine furniture
abundant, at the cost of more useful and desirable things. The thing
is simply that the energy, the zeal, the exertion of men are so expan-
sive, that great demand compels to great production ; and, of course,

OVER-CONSUMPTION OR OVER-PRODUCTION ? 311

we understand the economic principle that there can be no production
without capital; that if the working reserves of a community are
really impaired, the productive force is also straitened.

It will be said that consumption is rather the product than the
cause of abundance. Undoubtedly, use is greatly increased by abun-
dance ; there is, in fact, action and reaction, the one stimulating the
other. It will also be adhered to by some that capital is the sole
source of production. Assuredly capital is not fixed in activity, nor
are human energies rigidly limited ; and as the resources of Nature
are fairly boundless, wealth is wrought out of her bowels in our mines,
and extracted from her chemistry in our fields, to an extent immensely
determined by the demands of consumers. In the old fable of the
purse of Fortunatus a gold j^iece appeared as rapidly as the contents
were withdrawn ; in the new purse of Fortunatus, called production,
two or more pieces appear as rapidly as one is withdrawn ; but we
must not lose the purse, which let us consider as capital.

There is something more to be said about national extravagance.
What is it that railways, and bridges, and canals, and fine buildings,
cost ? We hear continually the money-price mentioned. This is most
misleading. The price paid is simply a sum of money that has changed
hands ; it represents the cost of the structures to those who built
them, but not the cost to the community. What is this cost ? What
does a church or a railway cost the people as a whole ? Some have
paid wages, and some have received wages. This is only diffusion.
Some money has gone for stone, iron, and timber, but this is only dif-
fusion. The community is less this iron, stone, and timber,* but we
have already seen that, as the production of this material is unlimited,
no practical loss is inflicted here. It is asserted by all economists
that food and clothing for the laborers are part of the cost. But the
laborers would have been fed in any case, although they might have
held on to their old clothes longer, had not the wage-fund been dis-
tributed among them. Now, to our mind, the real cost of this church
or railway is the cost of the energy that might have been more profit-
ably employed elsewhere. If all the productive industries are in full
operation ; if it is released labor, and the material is not required for
more necessary purposes, then it cannot be shown that the church and
railway have impaired the wealth of the community at all — that is, it
cannot be shown that they have fundamentally cost the community
anything. They were erected by released energies, by labor not
otherwise required, and the community is not the poorer by a mite in
consequence of their construction. A church may be a very ex-
travagant undertaking for those who pay the money-price for it; the

' An exception must be made with timber. We are, in America, encroaching upon
the forests, and hence consumption is now making this staple dearer; but, when all our
hill-sides are covered -w'lih. planted forests, the normal rule will operate in this product as
in others.

312 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

railway may be a foolish and unremnnerative enterprise ; but this has
to do with the individuals concerned; the community, in the supposi-
titious cases we have made, mighty let us suppose, have been better off
had the expenditures of those individuals taken some other form, if
the material and the labor had gone into something productive (let us
believe there are other good things in the world than economic pro-
duction) ; but no injury, no loss, no diminution of wealth has oc-
curred— and this is the main thing. A passage quoted from Prof.
Price in the earlier part of our article affirms this.

We hear a great deal about the railroad " craze " of a few years
ago, and of the immense sums sunk in those foolish and extravagant
ventures. But the sums of money commonly mentioned are mislead-
ing. As we have fully explained, the money simply changed hands;
what was really lost by those enterprises was the goods and bullion
exported to pay for the iron purchased abroad, and the food and
clothing consumed by the laborers, over and above what their con-
sumption would otherwise have been ; in addition to which is the loss
of the misdirected energy. This was all very large, no doubt ; but far
from being what the figures commonly quoted represent it to be.
There is, moreover, no evidence that this loss was anything more than
a part of our surplus ; the assumption that it impaired our capital,
and depleted our productive resources, is wholly groundless. No
one can say, we imagine, that capital was withdrawn from any other
pursuit ; that productive industry in any direction was weakened by a
secession of its resources by this " craze." The nation was much in
the position of a merchant who has many ventures abroad, some of
which have proved disastrous. His jirofits are reduced, but his ability
to keep his numerous ships afloat is not impaired. Even had the rail-
road investments partially reduced our capital, it is really monstrous
to assume that we could not have recovered from the blow in much
less than four years of time. Whatever the cause of the business
prostration may be, it evidently is something that lies deep, some-
thing far more serious than the loss of a part of our wealth. A mer-
chant who loses all his profits is still enabled to go on ; a merchant
who loses even half of his capital is still enabled to go on : how is it,
then, that the community is so nearly at a standstill because a por-
tion of its surplus was lost ? Distinctly the railway over-specula-
tion, hurtful as it was, cannot account for the paralysis in industry
which now, four years afterward, so generally exists.

Not a few people are convinced that paper-money is the cause of
the difficulty. " Only return to specie payments," they say, " and all will
be right." All the inflation and unhealthful stimulation caused by the
greenbacks has ceased to be. It was predicted that a reaction must
come upon the return to specie payments. It has come long before.
It has come without contraction of the currency, the volume of which
has ceased to exercise that hurtful influence that was supposed to

OVER-CONSUMPTION OR OVER-PRODUCTION ? 313

be inseparable from it. It may be asked, moreover, if the currency
is the cause of our suiFering here, how is it that a similar condition
of business affairs exists in England, where the currency has remained
unchanged ? There is no doubt in the world that an inflated currency
does have a hot-house effect upon trade and production, and, as with
all forced things, a corresponding reaction follows ; but it is wholly
inadequate to account for the present difficulty, although it has doubt-
less contributed toward it.

What, then, is the real cause of the evil? In endeavoring to
answer this question, we shall probably startle not a few well-estab-
lished convictions ; but we bespeak a fair and patient hearing.

Almost any practical man of business, upon being asked what the
trouble is, would attribute it to over-production. To this the econo-
mist promptly exclaims that there can be no such thing. " What," he
would say, "over-production! too much wealth ! an excess of pros-
perity ! The thing is impossible. No people ever yet was made poor
by an excess of wealth, by a superfluity of goods." This seems very
plausible ; but, if the economist is pressed, he will admit that there
may be, and often is, over-production in certain thuigs — that more
may be produced of special articles than there are goods of other
kinds to exchange for them — but general over-production is, he will
reaffirm, impossible. Inasmuuch, however, as production is fairly never
general, never uniformly active, there is always over-production in
some branches of trade ; and it so happens that this over-production
is commonly coupled with great centralization of wealth and enor-
mous appliances of machinery.

We must not be understood to utter a word against the power,
the advantages, the immense boon of machinery ; but, as all things
have their compensations and their penalties, so machinery, benefi-
cent and marvelous as it is, is one means of bringing about certain
unfortunate consequences, as we think may be demonstrated.

Production and consumption do not have that intimate relation to
each other they once had. In old times the weaver, for instance, was
in contact with his customers : he wove cloth as he discovered the
need; he cautiously set up a second loom when it became fully evi-
dent that it could be kept employed ; and thus supply and demand
went, as it were, hand-in-hand. But now gigantic mills filled with
many spindles have little accurate relation to consumption. The
power of production by means of improved machinery is something
immense, and it is exercised with no very watchful or cautious regard
to the immediate needs of the community. Goods are piled up in
vast quantities in waiting for a future market, or for an anticipated
change in price ; or they are pressed upon the market at such low
rates or on such long credits that buyers are seduced into over-
purchases. In favorable times these establishments are run at high
pressure. The old-fashioned nice relation between producer and

314 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

consumer disappears. Speculation takes the helm. Much more is
produced than there is corn, leather, or other goods, to exchange for
it. The resources of the mills are great ; they can borrow from the
banks while they pile up their fabrics in their ware-rooms; they can
by means of their concentrated capital keep their machinery running,
even at a loss, if by so doing they can crush out a rival or manipulate
the market.

But in the height of this prosperous run there is a check — no
matter for Avhat cause — and suddenly the work stops. There is little
sale for goods produced ; the fires must be put out, the doors closed,
and thousands of operatives are deprived of employment. This
would not be so unfortunate if tljis over-production had been diffused
among the work-people. But it had not. Notwithstanding the high
pressure and the excessive manufacture, wages have been kept down ;
while producing in six months as much as could be exchanged in a
year, the workmen have not been paid in this way — their wages have
been upon the basis of the whole year's work — as a result, they are
turned empty-handed upon the street. And, what is particularly un-
fortunate, tliey are reduced as consumers to the minimum point.
Here the evil works both ways. The excessive production which has
shut up the mill has weakened the power of the community to absorb
this production — the goose that laid the egg has been slain.

Inevitably the recovery from hard times brought about in this
way must be slow. The spindles cannot be set in motion until the
stock of goods on hand is reduced and a fresh demand revives; this
demand cannot revive because the great body of consumers are in a
state of impoverishment. This condition of things is entirely suffi-
cient to explain the genesis and the prolongation of business prostra-
tion. Capital is not impaired: it is locked up in machinery that is
silent, in goods that cannot be exchanged, in money that has no bor-
rowers. It is the paralysis of consumption that is the cause ; and this
paralysis has been brought about by an unregulated production, by
an excess that is not diffused, by the stoppage of wages, by tlie idle-
ness enforced upon those who would be consumers, by the absence of
an adjustment of production to consumption. Is it not clear that we
must have a regulated production ; that machinery with its magical
facility must be put in check ; that we must restore the old cautious
and intelligent relation between the two factors of supply and
demand ?

We read lately a very angry denunciation of a combination be-
tween certain mine-owners in Pennsylvania to limit the production of
coal. Why? If these men are attempting to make an artificial
scarcity, it is wrong, and all attempts of this kind fail ; but if they
mean simply to regulate the marketing of coal — of cooperating so
that an excess of the article shall not be thrown upon the market,
and prices forced below cost — they are right. It is better for them to

OVER-CONSUMPTION OR OVER-PRODUCTION ? 315

do this tlian in the heat of competition overstock the market, and
then be forced to stop the works altogether, throwing all the miners
out of employment. We should say that combination is just what is
needed — so that the supply of material may be kept nearly on a par
with the demand, and the mines uniformly worked at a sustained
rate from one season to another. Spasmodic production is a dread-
ful evil. It is unfortunate for the consumer because it makes prices
uneven, and it inflicts cruel injury upon laborers and operatives, and
through them upon the whole community.

Here, then, is the evil. Speculation inflames it ; currency inflation
stimulates it ; but undilFused, unregulated, and unrestrained produc-
tion throws the whole complex machinery of trade out of order; it
stirs the whole energies of the people into producing at one pei'iod,
and arrests energies at another ; in suddenly stopping production, it
reduces consumption, and hence renders recovery the very labor
indeed of Sisyphus. The only remedy we can discover is the wise
cooperation of producers, the determination to put the production of
goods in careful and just relation to the means possessed by the
community for exchanging for them.

We hear recently a great deal of the example of France, and
Prof. Price is among those who point admiringly to her in this crisis.
Now, as every one knows, the savings of people in England, Ger-
many, and America, are deposited in banks, whence they are loaned and
become utilized as capital; in France the peasants hoard their sav-
ings in old stockings and secret corners. To withdraw from either of
the former countries so large an amount as that of the indemnity jDaid
Germany would greatly disturb trade ; but the peasants, patriotically
unearthing their hoardings of secret gold in exchange for govern-
ment bonds, enabled the state, to the surprise of all, to pay her
heavy penalty without distress or financial disturbance. But this
was an exceptional position. We are scarcely to argue therefrom that
hoarding is the true principle ; that a nation is better off" because its
work-people hide their savings, withdrawing them from public use,
rather than placing them in banks where they may become active
capital. Prof. Price attributes the successful payment by France of
the German indemnity to " the practice of one of the very greatest of
economical virtues — she had saved." N"ow it was solely due to the
manner in which her savinjxs had been held. The fact seems to have
dazzled everybody. The example of the French peasant is now held
up on all sides — that he lives the narrowest and most restricted of
lives; that his excessive economical spirit not only limits his comforts,
but keeps him ignorant, superstitious, dull, spiritless, hopeless (the
tragedy of the French peasant-life is only too well told in the pict-
ures of Millet) ; that he has neither intellectual life nor any grace of
art or refined civilization — these facts are nothing to the economist ;
the peasant has drudged and hoarded ; he has refused himself and

3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his family ease and comfort, and hoarded ; he knows neither art, nor
literature, nor science, but he has hoarded ; he lives a life scarcely
better than that of the beast of the field, but he has hoarded ; his
savings have nourished no industries, nor rewarded any art, nor pro-
moted any intellectual end, and he himself has done his best by mere
restriction to limit the productive resources of his land — but having
saved and hoarded with the instinct with which a dog hides a bone
he is held up for admiration ! This sort of thing fully explains the
shudder with which people generally hear the name of political econ-
omy. It is true, there must be economy ; there must be saving; but
there is economy and economy. The real cause of the more prosper-
ous condition of France is not starved existence but sustained and
unspeculative production. Tliere is less concentration there, less wild
overtrading ; there are more difiiision and old-fashioned relation of
production to consumption.

This equable and uniform production is like a stream that is fed
by ten thousand springs and many affluents ; it flows steadily on, calm,
perennial, beneficent : but our speculative and spasmodic production
is too much like a mountain-river, that at one season comes down in a
flood and deluges the land, at another subsides into a rivulet, and all
the land is parched.

ATMOSPHEEIC PKESSUEE AND LIFE.'

Bt Dr. PAUL BERT,

PEOFESSOE IN THE PAEIS FACULTY OF SCIENCES.

THE great influence that may be exerted upon living beings by
atmospheric pressure is now questioned by none, and there is
even a disposition to exaggerate its importance. If the barometric
column rises or falls a few millimetres, nervous people afiected with
the asthma perceive phenomena, whether of a beneficial or of a
noxious kind, which they do not hesitate to attribute to the weight
or to the lightness of the atmosphere. But if this were the only
cause of their sensations, then they should experience the same symp-
toms whenever they subject themselves to equal variations of pressure,
as in passing from the level of the sea to a point only a few feet above

"i

Rarefied Air. — As every one knows, in propoilion as we ascend
from the sea-level, the barometric pressure diminishes at the rate of
about one centimetre per 100 metres of vertical ascent. And this dim-
inution is progressive : suppose that at the sea-level the pressure is 76
centimetres, then it will be 66 centimetres at the height of 1,123 metres

' Translated from the French by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE-. 317

(summit of Vesuvius), 56 centimetres at 2,432 metres (pass of the
Great St. Bernard), 46 at 3,998 metres (Mont Pelvoux), 39 at 5,920
metres (the height of the highest pass of the Himalaya is 5,835 metres).
The greatest height attained by man was reached by Glaisher in
a balloon — 8,840 metres, pressure 24. 76 centimetres — and by the
brothers Schlagintweit on foot, in the Himalaya, 6,882 metres, press-
ure 32 centimetres. The highest mountain on the globe, Gaurisankar,
measures precisely 8,840 metres — the elevation at which Mr. Glaisher
fell fainting to the floor of his car.

Such modifications of pressure cannot be endured with impunity
by the human organism. Though life in moderately elevated regions,
as the Jura and Auvergne, seems to be so beneficial to those who
dwell there constantly, that multitudes come thither from afar in
pursuit of health ; and though in regions situated at a greater alti-
tude, as the admirable plateau on which the city of Mexico stands,
the sum of the climatic conditions seems to oifer hygienic advantages :
still all are agreed that at very great elevations there always super-
vene, with more or less intensity according to persons and circum-
stances, certain characteristic perturbations and discomforts described
by travelers in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Andes, and the Himalaya.

These are, first, a sense of fatigue out of proportion to the amount
of walking or of work performed. The legs appear to become leaden,
and one feels a weakness in the knees. Then the breath becomes
short, diflicult, labored ; the pulse is quickened ; the heart-beats occur
isolatedly, and reverberate in the head. Next come singing in the
ears, dimness of sight, and vertigo. The general sense of malaise,
the feebleness, become such that the traveler must rest, else he will
fall to the ground. Simultaneously there occur other symptoms hav-
ing their seat in the digestive organs, such as nausea and vomiting.
Tiiese various symptoms, taken together, constitute mountain-sickness
{mal des montagnes) , which bears a resemblance to sea-sickness.

When they first appear, a few moments' rest suftices to banish
them; this instantaneous restoration of strength and vigor sharply
distinguishes mountain-sickness from ordinary fatigue. But at greater
elevations, where graver symptoms appear, such as bleeding from the
nose or from the lungs, repose cannot bring back the condition of per-
fect health, though it always afibrds some relief. Travelers agree in
saying that a person on horseback suffers far less than one on foot.
On the high plains of the northern Himalaya, a rather brisk pace in
walking, the ascent of a hill however low, the carrying of a moderate-
ly heavy load, sufiice to exhaust one's strength, to cause him to faint,
and in some cases even to produce death.

This is the reason why aeronauts are attacked much later than
those who ascend the mountain-side. Ever since the day when Mont-
golfier, realizing the immemorial aspirations of the human race, gave
to man the means of overcoming the gravity which ties him to the

3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

earth, many a bold aeronaut has gone above the clouds. Only after
they have reached the height of 6,000 metres do they usually expe-
rience symptoms resembling those of mountain-sickness.

But on land these symptoms make their appearance at elevations
far lower, and differing according to locality. In the Alps, definite
symptoms first appear at 3,000 metres; in the Bolivian and Peruvian
Andes, at 4,000 metres ; higher still, in the equatorial Cordillera and
on the Himalaya. In general, the elevation at which they first appear
depends upon that of the line of everlasting snow, the lower limit of
mountain-sickness being situated a little above the snow-line. The
influence of the temperature is very evident. As for anomalies spe-
cial to circumscribed localities or to individuals, the consideration of
them would take us beyond the bounds we have set for ourselves here.

These grave and curious symptoms have been explained in many
different ways by travelers, physicians, and experimenters. As for
the native mountaineers, they solve the problem of their origin by
referring them either to supernatural intervention or to the influence
of noxious efliuvia. In the Ancles these efiluvia are reputed to be
of an antimonial nature ; in the Himalaya the cause is supposed to
be vegetal poisons given forth from flowers, mosses, etc. These hy-
potheses need not detain us.

Among the many theories more or less tenable a priori^ but none
of which will stand the test of experiment, there is one which is al-
most universally accepted, and which reckons De Saussure among its
distinguished supporters. It is known that the atmospheric pressure
on a square centimetre of surface is 1.03 kilogramme. If we multiply
this by the number of square centimetres of surface in a man's body,
the product is something enormous. Take an average case, a pressure
of say 15,000 kilogrammes. We are in equilibrium with this great
pressure, they say ; lessen the pressure, and the result is like the ap-
plication of an immense cupping-glass over the entire surface of the
body. The heart's action is now no longer sufficiently counterbal-
anced, and hence congestion and hseraoi-rhage of the mucous mem-
branes and of the skin, engorgement of the blood-vessels of the face,
cerebral troubles, and the rest.

It is amazing to find a theory so plainly at variance with element-
ary physical laws accepted by eminent men. What would be the
result if we had to bear upon the surface of the body a pressure of
15,000 kilogrammes, and if every variation of the barometer added
or subtracted from this sum one or two hundred kilogrammes ?

Another theory, first offered by De Saussure, is far more worthy
of attention. " On the top of Mont Blanc (4,810 metres)," says he, " the
air is nearly one-half less heavy than at the sea-level ; hence it results
that if, in a given time, we pass through our lungs a given volume of
air, that volume will represent only about one-half the weight of the
same volume of the air to which we are accustomed. Hence there

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE. 319

must result insufficient respiration, or, more accurately sjjeaking, in-
sufficient absorption of oxygen." " The quickening of the respiration,
which tends to offset the evil, is insufficient," says Martins, " for it
would have to be twice as frequent, and have double amplitude, in
order to compensate the diminution in the quantity of air inspired."
Finally, Dr. Jourdanet adds that, " the pressure being reduced, tlie
oxygen must be dissolved in the blood in a less proportion : " hence a
pathological state analogous to anjemia, and which he calls anoxy-
hoemia.

These ideas have been met with many objections. In reply to De
Saussure it was said that the atmosphere, even at half-pressure, con-
tains a great deal more oxygen than is needed for respiration ; and in
reply to Jourdanet that, according to the researches of Fernet, oxy-
gen in the blood being in the state of combination, and not of solu-
tion, its quantity does not depend on barometric pressure.

My own experiments show that De Saussure and Jourdanet are
right. They further prove the sagacity of Jourdanet in recognizing
in the inhabitants of the Anahuac plateau the injurious influence of
low pressure which, thougli not perceptible in the state of health, re-
veals itself on the slightest attack of disease. I need not detail here
the long series of experiments which have led me to conclude that
the symptoms following diminished pressure, whether slowly or rapid-
ly applied, are simply the result of a diminution of the oxygen in the
blood ; in a word, that they are nothing but a sort of asphyxia in the
midst of the " pure and invigorating mountain-air."

Still I may repeat here an experiment which can be performed
wherever we have a pneumatic apparatus; this experiment clearly
proves that the lessening of the barometric pressure is of no account,
mechanically, in the production of the phenomena. These are the re-
sult rather of chemico-physical action, the blood not being sufficiently
charged with oxygen.

We place a sparrow in the pneumatic bell-glass A (Fig. 1), which
communicates with the manometric tube C E, The pressure is gradu.-
ally lessened by means of the tube B. WJien the manometer shows
only 30 centimetres' pressure in the bell-glass, the bird gives pretty
serious evidence of suflfering ; at 20 centimetres it totters, reels, and
falls upon its side ; at 18 centimetres it struggles violently, and would
die in a few seconds, were I to leave it in this situation. So I quickly
place at a an indicator, to show the height attained by the mercurial
column, and, opening the cock Z>, I introduce into the bell-glass not
air, but oxygen from the India-rubber bag 0. At once the bird be-
comes himself again. I let it breathe a little while, and again I
diminish the pressure as before. But now we reach 30 centimetres,
25 centimetres, without difficulty ; not till we reach 20 centimetres
does the bird appear to show some little signs of discomfort; Ave
reach 13 centimetres, a', a pressure much less than before, and yet the

320

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

life of the bird is plainly not at all endangered. If I were to admit
oxygen once again, I might diminish the pressure still more.

Hence it appears that it is not the lowering of mechanical pressure
that produces the symptoms, but the low tension of the oxygen of the

Fig. 1.

dilated air, which low tension prevents the oxygen from entering the
blood in sufficient quantity.

This experiment I have made not only with sparrows, but also on
my own person ; and in the latter case the results are quite as strik-
ing as in the former, and I dare affirm, without vanity, no less inter-
esting.

By the kindness and liberality of Dr. Jourdanet, I have been en-
abled to set up in the jDhysiological laboratory of the Sorbonne great
apparatus, by the aid of which I have studied the effects of compressed
and dilated air. The dilated air-chamber consists of two cylinders of
riveted sheet-iron, from which the air is gradually exhausted by means
of a steam-pump (Fig. 2).

This apparatus I have entered, taking with me a large India-rubber
bag filled with oxygen. As the pump began to work, I experienced
all the well-known symptoms of mountain-sickness, viz., quickening of
respiration and pulse, which was considerably augmented by the least
movement ; sense of loathing, nausea, sensorial and intellectual pertur-
bation. I felt indifferent to everything and incapable of action. On
one occasion, having counted my pulse-beats for one-third of a minute,
I tried to multiply the number of beats by three, but could not do it,
and so was obliged to write on my bit of paper, " It is too difficult."

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE.

321

But all these symptoms disappeared as by enchantment so soon as I
respired some of the oxygen in the bag ; returning, however, when I
again breathed the air of the cylinder.

S

Fig. 3 gives the details of one of these experiments. In this figure
the times of the different stages of the experiment are given at the
foot : just above this is seen the curve which represents the rate of
pulsation ; and above this another curve, showing the barometric press-
ure in centimetres : the figures in the left-hand margin represent the
changes of pressure and pulsation. It will be seen that, as the pressure
is diminished, the pulse is accelerated. Thus, the pressure being 42
centimetres (answering to the elevation of Mont Blanc), the pulse-
jate, which at the beginning of the experiment was 60, rose to 84.

VOL. XI. — 21

322

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

At this moment I took two or three inhalations of oxygen, and at
once the pulse fell to 71. Then I omitted the oxygen, and moved a
little, when the pulse rose to 100, falling again to VO when I returned
to the oxygen. Ten times during an interval of one hour and twenty
minutes, and with the pressure ranging between 40 and 50 centimetres,
I at will produced these sudden oscillations, causing my pulse instant-

ly to rise or fall 20 beats. I may add that this is an experiment which
I do not mean to repeat, having suffered during that evening slight
congestive symptoms, which I attributed to these sudden changes of
cerebral circulation.

On the other hand, those experiments in which oxygen is respired
continuously are not followed by any injurious effects. Fig. 4 states

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE.

323

the results of that one of my experiments in which I reached the low-
est degree of pressure. My pulse had grown more frequent, having
risen from 60 to 85 ; the pressure was then only 40 centimetres. I
now began to inhale oxygen from the bag, and at once the pulse fell
to 65, at which point it stood during the remainder of the experi-
ment, and at last even fell to 48. In the mean while the pressure had
fallen to 246 millimetres. This is exactly the pressure on the highest

summit of the Himalaya — the same degree of pressure which was so
near proving fatal to Glaisher and Coxwell ; I reached this point
without the slightest sense of discomfort, or, to speak more accurately,
the unpleasant sensations I felt at the beginning had entirely disap-
peared, A bird in the cylinder with me was leaning on one side, and
very sick. It was my wish to continue the experiment till the bird
died, but the steam-pump, conspiring, as I suspect, with the people

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

who were watching me through glass peep-holes, would not work, and
so I had to return to normal pressure, I placed, for a moment, the
oxygen-tube under the beak of the bird, and at once he recovered.

Two other persons have, like myself, entered these cylinders, ex-
periencing the same symptoms, and deriving the same benefit from
the use of oxygen : these are Messrs. Croce-Spinelli and Sivel, Croce,
who was very sensitive to reduced pressure, had turned black at the
lips and on the ears, and could hardly see his paper, when he decided
to have recourse to the oxygen. The efiect was instantaneous, both
upon him, who at once was able to write, and upon me, who observed
with some anxiety the purple color of his ear, and was about to let
in air.

Fresh from these experiments, Croce-Spinelli and Sivel made their
ascension of March 22, 18V4, during which they rose to the height of
7,500 metres (a pressure of 30 centimetres). The faintness, the dis-
ordered vision, and the nausea, disappeared every time they "drank a
little oxygen," as Sivel would say.

On the 15th of April, 1875, they made another ascension, in com-
pany with Gaston Tissandier. I was not then in Paris, and hence
could not, as on the former occasion, superintend the making of the
oxygen-bags. I would surely have made them larger, but prob-
ably I should no more than any of you have dreamed of what was
the true cause of the catastrophe which followed. The oxygen-tube
hung at a certain height above their heads, and, knowing that they
had but very little of that gaseous cordial, they economized it against
the moment when they should be more seriously attacked by
sickness. But, when they wanted to take hold of the tube and to
apply it to their mouths, their arms were paralyzed.

This terrible occurrence ought to be a lesson of prudence, but it
must not serve as a pretext for discouragement. Croce-Spinelli and
Sivel died at 8,600 metres, with a pressure no greater than that reached
by me without the slightest shadow of unfavorable symptoms, and it
will be easy to devise measures whicb will insure the aeronaut against
an attack of sudden paralysis. As for the value of ascensions to great
heights, I am surprised to see it questioned by eminent men. What
could be a more curious object of inquiry, from the point of view of
the meteorologist, than that aerial zone, 10 or 12 kilometres in depth,
in which are developed rain, hail, and snow storms ? It is not wise to
assign limits either to human activity or to the usefulness of scientific
researches.

But to return to the theory of the symptoms produced by decom-
pressioti. The experiments made in the cylinders demonstrate, be-
yond the possibility of doubt, that these symptoms depend solely on
the tension of the oxygen in the air respired ; an aeronaut breathing
common air (21 per cent, oxygen) at one-half common atmospheric
pressure is precisely in the same condition as a man who, at normal

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE. 325

pressure, breathes air that holds only one-half the normal proportion
of oxygen. Consequently, he is subject to conditions of insufficient
oxidation, and threatened with asphyxia. Hence his rapid respiration,
in the effort to introduce into the blood the oxygen which is lacking ;
hence, too, the accelerated palpitation of the heart, and nervous and
muscular debility.

But if the traveler whose blood is thus impoverished keeps per-
fectly still, he will not suffer much, for it needs very little oxygen
to support the body in the state of immobility. But if he stirs about,
if he tries to lift the weight of his body by climbing, then he has need
of more oxygen than is contained in the blood ; and, as this is not to
be had, the symptoms of mountain-sickness make their appearance,
and the only hope of relief is in repose. This is the reason why
aeronauts, who perform no work, experience " balloon-sickness " at a
far greater elevation than mountain-climbers experience the symptoms
to which they are liable.

The cooler the air, the earlier the appearance of the symptoms.
When it is warm, the traveler needs only a small quantity of oxygen
to keep up the bodily temperature. But, when the air is cold, the loss
of bodily heat increases, and hence the need of a more intense calorific
oxygenation. But how can this be attained if the blood does not
contain enough oxygen ? This is the reason why, as I have already
stated, mountain-sickness makes its appearance much earlier in the
Alps than in the Himalaya.

Compressed Air. — For thirty years, physicians, following the foot-
steps of Junod, Pravaz, and Tabarie, have made use of compressed
air in the treatment of sundry diseases, and they have produced re-
markable results in cases of anaemia, passive hsemorrhage, chronic
bronchitis, and emphysematous asthma. This I merely note in pass-
ing. Among the physiological phenomena, all observers have noted
a diminution in the number of the heart-beats and of the respirations,
and an increased amplitude of the latter. Physicians commonly em-
ploy a pressure of only one-third or one-half of an atmosphere, while
I have specially studied pressures of several atmospheres.

These great pressures have been employed in various industries for
a few years past, but more especially in submarine diving and in sink-
ing piers for bridges.

In submarine diving, the diver incloses his head in a metal helmet
with glass eye-pieces. Into this helmet, by means of a pump, com-
pressed air is driven with force sufficient to expel it again through
special orifices. Thus there is established an equality of pressure be-
tween the water around the diver and the air he breathes, and this is
the conditio sine qua non of his being able to live beneath the water.
Lead-weighted shoes and a water-proof dress complete the outfit.
Messrs. Rouquayrol and Denayrouse have made the diver inde-
pendent of the lighter or vessel from which, prior to their improve-

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ments, he could not wander away, and this they have done by strap-
ping upon his back a compressed-air receiver which works very
ingeniously. Divers who fish in this way for coral, pearls, sponges,
etc., descend to the depth of forty metres, and the air they breathe is
under a pressure of five atmospheres.

The apparatus used in erecting bridge-piers is a great improvement
on the old diving-bell. The discovery of the principle involved in
these is due to M, Triger, who, in 1841, applied it to the construction
of mine-galleries under the Loire. Nothing can be simpler than this
principle : it is employed by children when they amuse themselves by
blowing into a half-submerged tube, and causing the air to issue in
bubbles. The apparatus, reduced to its simplest expression, may be
described as follows : A tube of the length proposed for the pier is let
down to the bottom of the river. It is capped with a chamber, into
which is forced compressed air. This air expels the water from the
lower end of the tube, and passes out just as in the child's play. The
workmen can then, by means of a system of doors, as seen in Fig. 5,
descend to the bottom, and there dig for the foundation of the pier.
As the soil is removed, the tube descends by its own weight ; it is
lengthened by the addition of successive sections, till the solid rock
is reached. The cylinder is now filled with beton and the pier is
complete.

In these apparatus workmen have also been subjected to pressures
as high as five atmospheres.

Now, both among divers and workmen in these tubes, symptoms
have been noted often so serious as to terminate fatally. First there
is an intolerable itching, called by the workmen " the fleas " {puces) ;
then violent pains in the muscles and joints which have done most
work ; paralytic symptoms, particularly in the lower limbs, which
often are persistent and fatal; finally, sudden death. Of 160 men em-
ployed on the foundations of the St. Louis (Missouri) Bridge, thirty
were seriously attacked, and twelve died.

You are welcome to all the hypotheses invented by the fertile
minds of physicians to explain these redoubtable troubles. Quite as
a matter of course, we find here, first of all, the njechanical explana-
tion: "When a man enters the tube," says one author, "he \& flat-
tened out!"" {aplati). Very likely, indeed, if we admit that at the
pressure of three atmospheres 4,500 kilometres more weighs upon
our body. But, happily, we are saved from this fate by elementary
physics.

The workmen in the tube at Kehl had a saying, as is usual among
workmen everywhere; it is one full of acuteness and depth: "You
pay wlien you leave." It is decompression and not compression that
does the mischief.

But how does decompression act? Very simply indeed. Herein
this glass jar is a rat subjected to ten atmosphei'es. I now turn a

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AND LIFE.

327

cock, and in a moment bring the animal back to normal pressure ; he
turns around two or three times and drops dead. Were I to make an
autopsy now, I should find the heart and the great vessels full of gas ;
so great is the amount, that once I drew off fifty cubic centimetres of

Fig. 5.

gas from the vessels of a cat decompressed in this way. This gas is
nitrogen with a little carbonic acid.

The process is as follows : The animal by breathing compressed
air charges its blood with air in the proportions indicated by physical

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

law; on the normal pressure being restord, the gases with which it was
supersaturated pass into the free state. It is like drawing the cork of
a bottle of beer. The oxygen combines on the spot, but the nitrogeii
is at once set free, and carries with it carbonic acid in becoming dis-
engaged. Death is explained by the arrest of the circulation.

But it must not be supposed that the action of compressed air is
harmless. If we subject a sparrow to a pressure of twenty atmos-
pheres, it will, after a few minutes, be seized with tremors, increasing
to most violent convulsions — convulsions stronger than those of teta-
nus or of strychnine-poisoning — and the bird soon dies. These terrible
symptoms are not the result of compression, as I have been able to
prove by two experiments. In the first place, they can be produced
at the pressure of five atmospheres, provided pure oxygen be used
instead of air, which latter has no special efiect at this pressure.
Secondly, they do not make their appearance if the air subjected to
twenty atmospheres' pressure is very poor in oxygen.

Thus it is the oxygen that is to blame. Oxygen at too high a
degree of tension destroys animal life. Long I hesitated to character-
ize as a poison the " nursing father " of everything that lives, but
there was no help for it. Oxygen, which gives us life, slays also,
when administered in too strong a dose. I have had to study thor-
oughly this paradoxal poison to determine the difierent efiects of
varying doses, and its action upon our tissues.

Here a new surprise awaited me. Having seen a sparrow killed
by oxygen, I supposed that this agent must have accelerated organic
combustion, thus consuming all the material which goes to maintain
the animal heat. But great was my astonishment when the ther-
mometer indicated in animals laboring under strong convulsions a fall
of several degrees in the temperature. The analysis of other phe-
nomena confirmed this first observation, and led me to the strange
conclusion that oxygen in excess kills by interfering with, arresting,
the intra-organic oxydation.

The effects of this powerful agent begin to be distinctly felt at the
pressure of about five atmospheres. Perhaps they might be noticed
at a lower pressure, and I am inclined to attribute to this cause the
unfavorable symptoms presented by workmen who have spent several
months in compressed air ; but this is a complex problem. In any
case, if the necessities of industry subject men to pressures higher than
six atmospheres, they will be in danger not only at the instant of de-
compression, but even from the effects of the compression.

Oxygen at a high tension kills not only the higher animals : it
acts alike on vertebrates and invertebrates, animals aerial and aquatic,,
plants and animals, big and little, even microscopic organisms. Its.
effects upon the latter are highly interesting.

From the admirable researches of Pasteur it appears that the
phenomena of fermentation are of two kinds. One set of phenomena

HEAT AND MOTION, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 329

are correlated with the development of microscopic organisms; this is
fermentation proper. The other set are dependent upon the action of
amorphous sohible substances ; this is diastasic fermentation. Now,
oxyo"en in a state of tension arrests the former class of phenomena^
but in the latter class it is without any action.

Thus we can entirely prevent the fermentation of must, the sour-
ino- of wine, the putrefaction of meat, etc., by means of oxygen in the
state of tension. This work once done, we may restore the normal
pressure, and then, provided germs from without are excluded, no
true fermentation will occur.

I once hoped to be able in this way to preserve meats, eggs, etc.,
but this was an illusion. The substances do not become putrid, but,
in consequence of a pseudo-fermentation, which sours them, they ac-
quire a disagreeable taste, which takes from the process all its indus-
trial value.

At the close of this long discourse I would call attention simply to
one consideration. Atmospheric pressure acts a far more important
part in the life-conditions of organisms than is commonly supposed.
If we go back to the primordial geological ages, we may regard aa
highly probable the hypothesis that the pressure was then much higher
than now. This must be taken into account when we investigate the
origin of life. But, if we look to the future, it is plain that the press-
ure will go on steadily diminishing, just as the amount of water on
the earth's surface diminishes; and hence all living things are doomed
—after the lapse of countless ages, it is true— to perish by asphyxia
from the lessening of the atmospheric pressure. Hence the limits of
life upon the globe are fixed on the one hand by an excess, and on the
other by a lack, of pressure. — Hevtie Scientijique.

4»»

HEAT AND MOTION, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

THE law of the mechanical equivalent of heat may be summed
up in the following propositions, viz. :

The heat required in order to raise a given weight of water one
centigrade degree of temperature can also lift the same weight 1,300
feet, or, more exactly, 424 metres. Thus to the unit of heat there
corresponds a definite amount of work.

Conversely, a given amount of work produces also a definite
amount of heat ; in other words, there is required an amount of work
equal to 1,300 foot-pounds, in order to raise the temperature of one
pound of water one centigrade degree.

Heat and motion, therefore, are convertible.

Chemical processes are, in the last resort, the true sources of heat.

330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Here only a certain portion of the heat reappears in the shape of
available mechanical work, the proportion for the steam-engine being
one-twentieth of the heat produced by combustion of coal, and in the
human body one-sixth of the heat developed by the conversion of the
bodily constituents.

Every one knows what a revolution this law has brought about in
physics and mechanics : it has added a new chapter to physiology.

There is only one science which, so far, has drawn no advantage
from the discovery of the source of force and work, and that is no
other than the very science of work, or political economy — in Ger-
man, Volkswirthschaftslelire.

The grandest discovery in the doctrine of forces is as yet not even
mentioned, far less turned to account, in a science whose object, never-
theless, is simply force — work.

But, then, this science is called Wirthschaftslehre. Surely no
other name could so ill denote the thing as this, and I confess that I
have always had an aversion against calling honest work by such
a name. Wirthschaftslehre suggests ideas as remote as possible from
economy — taverns and tavern-keeping. Far better is the Anglo-
French term of political economy. If we must have a German name
for the idea, let it be simply Arheitswissenschaft — the science of
work — for political economy, from first to last, has to do with nothing
but human labor and its relations.'

But if we call this science no longer Volksvnrthschaft, or political
economy, but the science of labor, the very name will clearly show
that it can rest on no other basis save the law of energy, of motion —
the great law of the mechanical equivalent of heat. For work, includ-
ing human work, is motion, and motion is heat. Of course, political
economy does not touch on the laws of nutrition, the laws of food-
substances or their transformation, for that is the province of chemis-
try and physiology. Political economy has to do only with the value
of work, its price, and thence explains the phenomena of the market.
Labor is the natural process whose social relations are known as
political economy. The fundamental idea Avhicli jjolitical economy
derives from labor is that of value. The production, the consump-
tion, and the exchange of values ( Werthschaffung , Werthverhrauch,
Werthtausch), are the three principal divisions of the science of po-
litical economy.

In science there is no question that the value of a thing must ex-
press only the human labor expended on it. Price is the sum of the
values that are given in order to move the will of the owner to re-
nouncement of his right in the thing, liis possession and his enjoyment
of the work embodied in the thing. The idea of value requires deter-

' For the benefit of the reader who is not acquainted with German, it may be well to
explain that in that language the ordinary meaning of the word Wirth is host, innkeeper;
and of Wirthschaft, innkeeping, tavern, public-house.

HEAT AND MOTION, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 331

mination of a value unit, for only thus can we know the value ; or,
to speak more exactly, only thus can we conceive the labor expended
on the thing. We must be able to say, not only that labor has been
expended on the thing, but also how much.

Marx was the first to essay the determination of a value-unit. This
he found in a fixed term of " labor-time," usefully expended in the
work. But time is no measure. The measure must be a thmg, if it
is to be cognizable at all, and such a measure is presented to us only
in Mayer's law.

For, if work be equal to motion, and motion to heat, then a given
amount of work (task) can also be regarded as equal to the amount
of materials expended in producing the heat required for such work
(motion). And hence, just as we compare a given net amount of efi'ect
from a steam-engine with the coal expended, so may we compare a
certain amount of work with the amount of food expended in produc-
ing it ; and since wheat contains all the essential elements of nutrition,
we may compare a task with the quantity of wheat expended in per-
forming it. Where a day's wages is paid in the shape of a day's
provisions we have a crude example of the application of this theory.

Hence, as natural forces are gratuitous, the value of a thing ex-
presses the amount of food expended in its production ; and the value-
unit is a fixed quantity of this food, say so much as is won by a day's
work.

Exchange of values is effected with the aid of a thing in which are
expressed the food-units required for its production; this is metal
coin. Hence exchange-metal is both value and an index of value.

Mayer's law furthermore gives the law of wages. The workman
must get back what he has expended in his labor in the shape of food ;
and this expenditure must be supposed to cover the cost of his bring-
ing up and development, as also provision against old age when he can
no longer work.

The idea of capital, too, and especially of the justification {Berech-
tigung) of capital, falls under Mayer's law. Experience teaches that
the amount of food-material gained by labor is in excess of that
expended in labor. This excess is capital in the strict sense, perfectly
justified capital.

In virtue of the law of equal wages for equal work, every one, even
though he does not produce (if we may so speak) food-stufis, is enti-
tled to the same surplus in recompense (food-stuffs) that he would
have earned by work expended in the production of food-stuffs.

Perhaps it will be objected that Mayer's law applies to bodily
labor, not to mental ; but here, too, it holds good. The natural forces
are gratuitous : it is only human labor that produces value. Now to
natural forces belong not only the materials of the animal, vegetable,
and mineral kingdoms, but also intellectual qualities, even genius
itself.

332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Genius is a natural force which possesses a value only in so far as
work has been expended in developing and applying it ; this work
produces values by consuming values.

All mental labor is at the same time brain-labor. The brain con-
sumes a certain amount of food-material. Of course, all the other
involuntary bodily movements which go on simultaneously with the
brain-movements, as also the necessary periods of rest, must be taken
into account in estimating the value of the products of mental labor.

Here, too, a definite amount of food-substances gives a definite
quantity of (mental) work. — Das Ausland.

♦»»

ON HEEEDITY IN NERVOUS DISEASES.

By EUGENE DUPUY, M. D.

THE facts which I propose to consider in this paper have been
brought to light by means of the experimental method. They
are very interesting, both physiologically and psychologically viewed.
I shall occupy myself with the physiological aspects only, and their
bearing on human pathology. Psychology is beyond my province.
Moreover, I conform myself to the saying of Montaigne, that deduc-
tions are very difficult to draw in psychological science, for '•'' comtnent
cognoit on la semblance de ce de quoi on ne cognoit point Vessence? " ^

Most of the facts observed, of hereditary transmission of nervous
disorders, were put on record many years ago by my eminent friend
and teacher Dr. Brown-Sequard. Some I have observed, together
with him, during the years that I was his assistant, and others I have
discovered quite lately.

The disorders which were inherited had all been artificially in-
duced in animals for the sake of experimentation. Very great care
was taken in all cases to avoid causes of error, and I am positive that
they were got rid of completely.

It will be seen that lesions which affect not onlv nutrition of
parts, but also the higher functions of the nervous system, can be de-
veloped by hereditary tendencies, when artificially provoked, through
those nerves which minister to organic functions — belonging to the
so-called sympathetic system.

It is well known that a system of nerves exists in all animals
which have a circulation, and which apparently has no other functions
but to control the blood-vessels, to regulate the flow of the blood
through them. This nervous system is called, therefore, the vaso-
motor system; it is also termed the sympathetic.

' How can one know the like of that of which one knows not the essence ?

ON HEREDITY IN NERVOUS DISEASES. 333

It has been discovered that when a branch of that nervous system
is sectioned, is separated from its centre, the blood-vessel with which
it is connected almost at once enlarges: its calibre increases, more
blood passes through it during a given time, etc. But if, now, this
separated end of the nerve is irritated, the reverse phenomena are
seen: the blood-vessel contracts, its calibre diminishes. When small
arteries are experimented upon, the calibre becomes so small that
blood-corpuscles no longer succeed in passing through it. So that it
becomes evident that that nervous system has a great function to per-
form with regard to the nutrition of all the parts, or rather of every
organ in the body, including, of course, the central, i. e., the spino-
cerebral nervous system, for the "blood is the life of the anatomical
elements." The materials which compose animal bodies are endowed
with properties which differ in every different tissue : for instance, we
say that the muscular tissue has the property of contracting. These
properties of tissues develop functions: for example, the contraction
of the ciliary muscle permits correct vision ; but it is evident that if
the tissue does not keep up the process of nutrition, i. e., assimilation
and disassimilation, which it can only do by the agency of the blood
which carries to it new materials, and removes effete elements, its
properties are impaired and its functions are consequently perverted.
This point being understood, I proceed to relate the experiments :

If in a Guinea-pig, for instance, that portion of the vaso-motor
branch which is in connection with the carotid artery in the neck,
— which, therefore, regulates the blood-supply of some part of the
brain, of the ear, of the face, and of the eye — be divided, or, better
still, if the ganglion from which that branch springs be removed, we
see that the entire half of the head of the animal, on the side on
which the operation has been performed, becomes hotter, and on ex-
amining more closely we discover that the increase of heat is due to
the fact that the blood-vessels allow more blood to pass through them,
that the nutrition of the parts is increased, and therefore the heat also
increases ; and we see that the upper eyelid of the animal drops a little,
being in a state of hypersemia — that is, its capillaries are distended —
that the secretion of tears is increased so that the eye is wet, that the
pupil of the eye is contracted because of more blood in the ciliary
system, etc. The ear also becomes hotter, and, if the animal is white,
we can see that the ear which before was white, with some blood-
vessels stretching across, is now become red, and presents a very
rich network of capillaries, which have become apparent, being of
enlarged calibre.

Now, all these phenomena may disappear after a while, except a
few. The eye always remains smaller, although the blood-supply of
the eyelid is more regulated; the pupil remains a little contracted, and
the secretion of tears continues, and also the nictitant membrane re-
mains in a congested state. No matter how long the animal lives,

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that state of the eye persists, and when the animal dies, or is sacrificed,
it is seen that this eyeball is smaller than its fellow.

If, now, such an animal were allowed to breed witli another —
whether operated upon in the same manner or not — it would be seen
that young which are born, apparently perfectly healthy, present a few
days after birth all the phenomena observed in their changed parent
or parents. They have the same smaller eyes, but on both sides ; the
same ear thickened and enlarged, etc. The only phenomena which
they do not show are those which have been transient, the increased
heat and the increased sensation which depended upon the increased
amount of blood present, etc.

Those young can be made to breed in-and-in for several genera-
tions— I have watched them for five generations — and always the same
characteristics will be discovered in the young.

If, now, an examination is made of the parent, the first one, it will
be seen that the nerve which had been sectioned, or its ganglion
which had been extirpated, is not regenerated ; while, if an autopsy
is made of one of the offspring of any of the subsequent generations,
it is seen that they all possess the nerve and the ganglion intact. The
acutest or most minute microscopic examinations do not discover any
difierence between their structure and those of other animals of the
same family and species.

If a puncture be made into that portion of the upper part of the
spinal cord which anatomists call the restiform body, in Guinea-pigs,
it will be seen that the animal presents at once an increased vascular-
ity of the ear on the corresponding side ; the ear becomes gorged with
blood, chiefly toward the periphery: sometimes in a very short time,
indeed, that portion of the ear falls off, destroyed by dry gangrene.
I have the record of a case in which the ear was thus partially de-
stroyed in less than nine hours. The eye on the same side becomes
larger and protrudes ; it protrudes first, and becomes larger in the
course of time.

If a pair of Guinea-pigs thus operated upon be allowed to breed,
and even if only one parent is thus diseased, the other being healthy,
when young are born, these young always present the phenomena
observed in the parents; but the phenomena just described only
come shortly after their birth. It is seen that their eyeballs increase
in size and protrude from their sockets, their ears after a few days be-
come diseased, just like those of the parents, the subjects of experi-
mentation, and drop off, eaten by dry gangrene.

When the parent or parents are sacrificed, and their restiform
bodies are examined microscopically, nothing is detected but a cicatrix
in the envelopes of the spinal cord, which appear a little thickened at
that point, but the nervous tissue itself does not differ apparently from
surrounding elements of the same nature and structure. If an exam-
ination is also made of one of the young, nothing at all is discovered.

ON HEREDITY IN NERVOUS DISEASES. 335

Those young can be allowed to breed in-and-in, and always the
same phenomena will be observed in each subsequent generation. I
have sometimes noticed that if a male or a female belonging to any
one of tlie successive generations is allowed to breed with another
healthy animal, very generally some of the young present the same
hereditary peculiarities. I have followed animals thus operated upon
through seven generations.

But what is still more remarkable is the transmission of an epilep-
tic malady artificially induced. Dr. Brown-Sequard, as is well known,
has for nearly thirty years made experiments on this subject of epi-
lepsy, and his researches have discovered an array of facts of the high-
est value, to lighten the obscurity which has at all times rendered
the true causes of that disease unattainable. He has made the like
of what renders illustrious the names of the foster-fathers of experi-
mental physiology — a synthesis : he has produced an epileptic malady
in the Guinea-pig, which presents all the characteristics observed in
tliat disease in the human species.

Dr. Brown-Sequard found that when the spinal cord of a Guinea-
pig is pricked, or a portion of it is destroyed, or one of the sciatic
nerves — that is, one of the largest nerves of the hind-leg — is either
sectioned or torn off from the spinal cord, the animal in the course
of a few weeks develops the epileptic malady. First, after a week
or a little more, all traces of the operation have disappeared, as far as
the wound is concerned. When the spinal cord has been operated
upon, sometimes the feeling of pain is found lacking to a slight de-
gree on the opposite side, and exaggerated below the point of the
body at which the wound has been made ; but most generally no such
symptoms at all exist.

When the sciatic nerve has been cut or torn away, the greater
portion of the leg is paralyzed as to motion and sensation, which
is natural enough, because the muscles can no longer obey the man-
dates of the will, being deprived of the nerves which carry them,
and also the centres no longer receive impressions which formerly
came from those muscles and the skin covering them, because the
nerves which carry the impressions have been destroyed.

It happens, also, in this case, that those parts which are thus de-
prived of motion and of sensation are dragged on the ground, are
easily hurt, and become inflamed and enlarged. As soon as the skin
has been broken, the animal begins to eat away all the parts of its
leg which it does not feel ; but it cautiously stops at the very
limit where sensation still persists, so that, as, out of its three toes
which terminate its posterior limb, the inner one is animated by
nerves which do not come from the sciatic, that one toe has pre-
served sensation and motion. Therefore, when all the insensible tis-
sues have disappeared, the wound heals very rapidly, and the animal
has a limb which terminates by one toe only, the inner.

336- THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But another specially interesting fact with regard to epilepsy is
this, tliat, a few days after the operation, whether made on the spinal
cord or the sciatic nerve, it is found that an area of skin on the same
side with the nerve destroyed or the spinal cord injured, which is
limited by the line extending from the anterior extremity of the
eye to the end of the nose, thence, comprising the upper lip, running
along the neck to the shoulder, and then in a straight line to the
posterior extremity of the ear, and, lastly, to the posterior angle
of the eye, by degrees loses certain faculties and acquires new
ones. The sensation of pressure, of squeezing, of heat, cold, or elec-
tricity, of pain in a word, all disappear ; only the faculty of feeling
tickling persists, and that appears exaggerated. In an experiment
which I made some years ago, this effect followed within two hours
of the operation on the upper spinal cord.

It is seen at the same time that tickling this zone gives rise at
first to involuntary twitchings in the muscles of the jaw, of the eyes,
and of the nose, on the same side ; by degrees those twitchings be-
come more strong and more general, then they manifest themselves on
the other side also, and after a few weeks the animal has regular con-
vulsions after each tickling of the zone, which lastly culminate in a
regular attack of epilepsy, of which the features are the following:
When the attack begins, the head is drawn first, and with great vio-
lence, at times toward one shoulder, at times toward the other. This
has been explained by the contraction of the muscles of the neck.
The mouth is drawn open by the same cause, and the muscles of the
face and of the eyes, which had twitchings, now contract violently
also. At this period it would appear that the muscles of the larynx
are contracted to some extent. At all events, it appears that the vo-
cal cords are contracted, for not unfrequently the animal utters an
inarticulated, unnatiiral, sharp cry, which may be taken for the pas-
sage of air through the obstructed larynx. It then falls. The mus-
cles of the legs are contracted stifi*, those of the chest are thoroughly
so ; very soon all the muscles are the seat of convulsions. Respira-
tion, which was in no little degree impeded during the time that
the muscles of the chest were rigid, now becomes more frequent but
very irregular. After a while the animal recovers, and remains in
a state of stupidity for some time. It "is not unfrequent to observe
in these epileptic seizures fits of insanity — if I may use such a term
when speaking of Guinea-pigs, but that word only will make my
meaning understood. When these animals have been su..ering for
some months, it is seen that they have fits without apparent provoca-
tion ; that is to say, spontaneously.

When they recover from the epileptic taint, all the phenomena
observed about the zone of skin in the neck and face recur in the re-
verse order ; that is to say, all the different sensations return by de-
grees, at the same time that the hair of that region falls, and new

ON HEREDITY IN NERVOUS DISEASES. 337

hair grows gradually. The fits become shnple convulsions, then mere
twitchings, and lastly the animal can no longer be distinguished from
another healthy one but by the fact that it has only one toe at one of
its hind-legs, when the operation has been performed on the sciatic
nerve ; and nothing whatever remains when the origin of the disease
was a prick in the spinal cord.

All these different facts, of which I have just spoken, are the
characteristics of an epileptic seizure in our own species. That zone
of skin about the neck and face is the analogue of those areas of the
body of the epileptic from which sensations of all possible natures
and kinds arise a short time before the attacks, and which are called
by the general name of " aura."

To make the analogy greater, let me say that, just as in man,
when such an " aura " is discovered to start from such a part of the
body that it can be acted upon directly, so as to be removed, the dis-
ease is cured, so also, if that zone, of which I have spoken, in the
Guinea-pig be cauterized, the fits do not occur — the animal is cured.

I have given these details with some minuteness, because they
show still more strongly the eflfects of hereditary transmission of
the disease. All the young of Guinea-pigs thus made the subject
of experiment do not become epileptic; Dr. Brown -Sequard has
observed several. I have had occasion to observe only a very few,
and I have been able to learn that the young are born healthy,
apparently. Sometimes — almost always, in fact — they are born with
only one toe in the hind-leg ; that is the case when the parent had
lost its toes in the manner that I have already stated. Perhaps
two months or more after their birth — they become adult very rapid-
ly— the same phenomena develop in those young as in their par-
ents ; to use the words of Dr. Brown-Sequard himself, "we see the
gradual increase of the aiFection, the diminution of the sensibility in
the zone, just as with the parent, the coming of a period of complete
attacks of epilepsy, and then the loss of hair, and the gradual diminu-
tion of the nervous complaint." Now, it is to be observed — and this is
the important feature in this transmission of disease — that in the
parent operated upon the cure, when it is spontaneous (that is, when
it does occur without any treatment, which is the case when the
sciatic nerve and not the spinal cord has been divided), only super-
venes because the alteration in the nerve is- cured : if it has been sec-
tioned, the two ends meet again and are reunited after a few weeks ;
if it has been torn away, the parts still remaining attached to the outer
heal together; we can therefore understand how, the cause of the dis-
ease, i. e., the alteration of a nerve, being removed, the disease, i. e.,
epilepsy, also disappears. But in the young which have inherited the
taint no such explanation obtains. Their nerves have not been oper-
ated upon, not torn nor cut. How are we to explain their cure,
and this fact, which is, as I have said, the peculiar feature of this
VOL. XI. — 22

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

heredity, that the cure in the parent which has so characteristic
stages should have exactly the same stages in the young as to cir-
cumstances and time?

I have said that I would only deal with this subject of heredity in
its physiological aspects, but I cannot refrain from recalling to the
attention of the reader that such facts in the human species need to
be studied by psychological physicians, because they occur in insane
patients, as is well known. Those alterations of the ears of which I
have spoken at first are frequently met with in the ears of demented
patients ; physicians call them baematoma. I have satisfied myself that
it is even more frequent than suspected in the inmates of asylums.
That state of stupor, or stupidity, and of insanity, in the Guinea-pig,
is of very frequent occurrence in the human epileptic. I could tell a
long story of similar phenomena observed in our own species.

I believe that, if any conclusion can at present be drawn from those
facts, a physiologist or a physician will state that it is not a disease
which is inherited, which is transmitted, but the power to develop
such a disease. On the one hand, a physiologist is bound to ac-
cept that the disease was originally developed as a consequence of
an anatomical alteration of a certain organ or nerve-cell or fibre ; and
on the other he is bound to consider that the same disease or conse-
quence develops itself in a young one which has no such circumstances
of anatomical alteration of a certain organ or nerve-cell or fibre — at
least detectable by any means of investigation at present employed.

This question of heredity is one of the most vexed, and I shall not
say much more about it at present ; but as I have stated that I am
sure that there were no causes of eiTor in the facts themselves or the
deductions drawn from them, I take this opportvmity to say that
Mr. Galton has committed a grave error, in his very remarkable
paper on "Heredity" published not very long ago, in which he
stated that the Guinea-pigs which had epilepsy without alteration
induced in their nervous system may have acquired the disease by
imitation, just as, it is well known, is too frequently the case in the
human species.

First, all the children or adults who happen to live with epileptic
patients and witness their paroxysms do not develop epilei^sy ; only a
very few do so. This fact would show, therefore, that those who do
develop epilepsy have some tendency ; but the argument of Mr. Galton
does not hold good with regard to the first two series of facts wliich I
have reported, and specially in the case of the Guinea-pigs which in-
herit epilepsy. How will he account, on the strength of his hypothesis,
for the fact that, out of a couple of hundreds of young which were
born from epileptic parents during the lapse of several winters in Dr.
Brown-Sequard's laboratory in Paris, and which I have very studi-
ously watched, only three became epileptic, although all lived to-
gether and all witnessed the fits of their parents, and only those three

THE MATERIAL RESOURCES OF LIFE. 339

developed the malady which were born toeless ? I regret, on closing
this pajDer, not to be able to take the psychological aspect of the ques-
tion, because it is very interesting in a forensic point of view, and as
bearing on the question of responsibility.

♦»»

THE MATEEIAL EESOUECES OF LIFE.'

By albert B. PRESCOTT.

TO be able to live, in any way known to us, it is indispensable to
have a body. And, as living bodies come by growth and con-
tinue by nourishment, it is first necessary to have materials whei*eof
bodies can be made — and renewed and kept in warmth and strength.
Just these materials, with permission of the reader, we will try to take
account of, as resources of life. Life is not maintained " by bread
alone ; " other needful resources being known to physical science, and
still other resources greater than all being recognized by their results
in life ; but we have the bread alone, as enough, certainly, to be con-
sidered in the present article.

Living things are in very deed made of "the dust of the earth ;"
but it is by no means all of the dust of the earth that serves this
purpose. We have to distinguish between substances out of which
organized instruments of life can be made, and a much larger number
of substances never used in the making of these instruments.

We have it in mind that matter is made up of sixty-three simples.
At all events, the earth's crust and air are constituted, substantially,
of these sixty-three sorts of atoms, and, as a good many of the same
are already revealed in the sun and stars by the spectroscope, it is
likely that they are the chief elements in the universe of matter. Of
the sixty-three, certain elements, found only in very small quantities,
appear to be of subordinate importance in that part of the universe
under our immediate observation, Avhatever purposes they may fulfill in
other earths or in the centre of our own, or at other epochs. Others
of the elements bear an important part in the structure of the globe
or in the uses of mankind, but are not organizable materials, and they
are not in our present consideration. Of the sixty-three, only four-
teen or fifteen swij^les, about one-fourth of those known to us, are used
in the construction of plants and animals. These, then, are before us,
as the elemental resources of life.

It will be understood that the tissues are not built directly of these.

fourteen elements, but of their chemical compounds. Each one of

these compounds is a definite substance in external character distinct

from its constituents, as, in a familiar example, water is distinct from

1 An address given before the Detroit Scientific Association, December 13, 1876.

340 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the hydrogen and oxygen of which it is composed. The number of
these chemical compounds built into living tissues is very great, a
number uncounted. It is of these compound substances — of their
molecules — that the cells are builded ; builded by an action very un-
like chemical action and into shapes very unlike chemical results.
Also, it is by the consumption of these compounds of the fourteen
elements that animal warmth and activity are sustained. But, not
turning aside here to question the chemistry (the making of molecules)
going on in cells, or the vital organization (the building together of
molecules) going on in cells, not once lifting our eyes toward any of
the dynamical sources of life, we bend our attention to find out, if we
can, the raw material for cells, the inorganic resources of the organic
world.

It is the organic world together, to be sure, that is able to subsist
on the fourteen elements as these are given by the earth, the animal
kingdom obtaining most of its material at second hand, as elaborated
by the vegetable. The two kingdoms are, in the end, mutually de-
pendent on each other in gaining siistenance from the earth's supplies.

The fourteen indispensable simples may be classified, in different
ways for different ends. There is a privilege of provisional classifica-
tion, for the sake of comparison and of acquaintance ; and, with the
promise not to impose our arrangement upon any other occasion, we
would like, for the purposes of our present quest, to divide the ele-
mental resources of life into two categories, as follows : 1. Those svp-
pliecl so abundantly on the earth that all individuals share them alike,
without favor of fortune or forethought of mind. We may name them
redundant resources. 2. Those provided so sjKiringly that individuals
do not share them alike, but secure them by effort and by opportunity.
They may be termed adequate resources.

From the provision of the first class of materials, it results that, in
cei'tain great essentials of organization, all individuals are placed on
a footing of equality with their fellows. It results from the provision
of the second class of materials, that unequal qualities and quantities
of organization are derived by different individuals of the same spe-
cies. Through our redundant resources we are taught the common
brotherhood of tlie created. Through our adequate resources come
the assurances of our responsibility — our commissions as stewards of
the earth. Materials given in a superabundance that cannot be wasted
constitute a dispensation of mercy; its benefits falling alike on the
just and on the unjust, the lazy and the diligent, the foolish and the
prudent. Materials given in a competence that must be guarded con-
stitute a dispensation of compensation ; inciting to exertion, reward-
ing for attainment, and training the powers of volition. By the first,
the democracy of equal privileges and inalienable possessions is main-
tained ; by the second, the aristocracy of merit is preserved.

The redundant resources so abound that they can have no value,

THE MATERIAL RESOURCES OF LIFE. 341

in the sense of exchangeable value, in society ; even though needed as
they are in more constant supply than those of the other class. The
resources which are barely adequate are those which come to be objects
of personal possession ; they are the things of which mine and thine
are declared, and it is because of them that title-deeds are drawn and
prices-current established. The substrata of jjoverty and of riches
rest in the chemical elements.

With the detinition of each class in mind, let us now consider the
supply of some of the more important of the elemental resources.
From the fourteen, let us take at least three elements of each class,
as representatives. For the redundant resources, we will take carbon,
oxygen, and hydrogen. Then, for the adequate resources, we will
examine nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Carbon is the one element never left out of an organic compound.
Its atoms are not only constituents, they are corner-stones of all the
organic molecules. In the human body, thirteen parts in a hundred,
or forty per cent, of the solids, are carbon. Looking for its supply, we
see that it is obtained for the organic world by the plants, and from
the carbonic-acid gas of the air. It is taken from the air chiefly by
the leaf of the plant. How much carbon is taken from the organic
mould of the soil and from acid carbonates, through the roots, is pei*-
haps not fully settled ; but we are well assured that the main and sure
resource of the plant for this element is the air. The sifp2)li/, then, is
as abundant and impartial as the open air itself. The carbon-material
forms but a small part of the air, it is true, only about five parts in
10,000; nevertheless, it is enough, at least for the average rate of
vegetable nutrition. Carried around the globe in the viewless air to
every plant alike, the carbon-atoms are supplied for the framework of
every cell in plant and animal. A dwarfed shrub or rootless lichen,
clinofing to the crevices of a naked rock on a frigid shoi*e, has at hand
a good supply of the same resource that is furnished to a luxuriant
palm spreading from a tropic soil.

And the carbon-supply in the air is not a reservoir diminishing,
however slowly, from age to age ; biit, to be sure, it is a returning
fountain, replenished from the exhalations of animals and the decom-
posing remains of all organized bodies. In Nature's economy, the
same carbon-atoms are used over and over again as material for or-
ganization. This perpetual replenishment, a thrifty provision against
future exhaustion, is one not peculiar to carbon, but it is a provision
made in good degree for every one of the elemental resources of life,
whether redundant or only adequate in its immediate supply.

That plants feed upon the carbonic acid of the air is known to the
school-children, and has been known to men for a hundred and one years
at least. Priestley, whose discoveries were celebrated in the chemical
centennial at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, two years ago, placed it
on record very clearly that " air vitiated by animal respiration is a pab-

342 THU POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ulum to vegetable life." This was but the next year after Priestley's
discovery of oxygen itself; yet to this day there lingers in our com-
mon thought an undefined impression that the carbonic acid of the
air is just an impurity, tolerated because there is only a little of it,
but an impurity that it were as well to be rid of altogether. Now, if
the redundant resources of life were at our human disposal, we might
be in danger, some day, in the sheer forgetfulness of self-regard, of
throwing away as an impurity the very foundations of sustenance.
Some one, perhaps, would set forth that this gas when not diluted is
immediately fatal to human life ; another woixld declare, " Once a poi-
son, always a poison ; " and another would ask why we should imperil
our own health for the sake of the plants.

Oxygen was named next, among the primary resources, redundant
in supply. It is a prominent constituent of all living tissues, forming
seventy-two parts in a hundred of the human body with its fluids. It.
is taken in two conditions : first, in combination, chiefly by the j^lants ;
second, iu the elemental state, by animals. In combination, it is taken
by the plants from carbonic-acid gas, just noticed as a source of car-
bon ; from Avater, to be considered as a source of hydrogen ; and, in
smaller quantities, from a considerable number of other substances.
The greater part of the oxygen in animal tissues is obtained in the
products elaborated by the plants.

But for all animal life the most imperative demand is for oxygen
in the elemental state.

The other elemental resources are available only in their com-
pounds; oxygen does its best service when alone. The others serve
life as materials for its bodily tissues ; oxygen has an additional duty,
the maintenance of operations giving warmth and strength. The
activities of life consume various materials, but most constantly of all
they demand a raw material of inorganic nature, a simple material in
its primitive condition. This supply of elemental oxygen, a necessity
for all animal life, is a necessity that is imminent in direct proportion
to vital activity, and for man is absolutely imperative. When supplied
with oxygen, we can subsist days without other food ; when deprived
of oxygen, life fails in a few minutes. It is scarcely a figure of speech
to say that the breath is the life. The energy of oxygenation is told
in every stroke of the heart. The food that is eaten does not raise an
iota of bodily strength without the help of the pound and a quarter
of pure oxygen that is daily inhaled. To breathe poorly is to faint ;
to eat richly and breathe poorly is to sufibcate and perish.

The supply of elemental oxygen is certainly impartial and bountiful
without reservation. It is more than given — it is pressed upon us ; to
escape from it is a work of toil and difiiculty. No one is poor from
want of it, or rich from gain of it. Were it furnished for pay, all
that a man hath would he give for an hour's supply of it. The poor,
taken together, fare best in its use; while the wealthy, in their elabo-

THE MATERIAL RESOURCES OF LIFE. 343

rate contrivances to exclude the cold and wet and wind and glare of
the weather, can make but slight impediments to its distribution.

One other element we were to inquire of, among the redundant
materials : the unit of chemical measures, hydrogen. As light as it
is, it makes over nine weights in a hundred of the body of man. It is
obtained chiefly by the plants ; mostly from water, but to some extent
from ammonia, the latter being more notable as a source of another
element.

Water is not quite always as free as air — failing the needs of the
stationary bodies of plants more often than it does the wants of ani-
mals, and in the quantities taken as food by man hardly liable to a
notable value in exchange. As a substance not wholly gaseous, it is
not easy to conceive how water could be more abundantly supplied
than it is, without being a burden and a hinderance to life. It is doubt-
ful whether mankind would vote for any uniform increase in the quan-
tity of water on the planet. If water was supplied in vapor more
abundantly than it is, by having a lower vaporizing-point, the con-
ditions of all life would be changed — the atmosphere would be put
out of its adjustment with the organic creations.

Some of the simpler forms of life subsist almost wholly upon the
three elemental materials we have had in consideration, with a few
others of the plentiful resources ; and living beings taken together
use much larger quantities of these than of the substances more spar-
ingly supplied. But, as to the relative importance of the two classes
of resources, it can only be said that the higher forms of life can no
more exist without the one than without the other.

Of the adequate resources, nitrogen is needed by the largest num-
ber of living bodies and used in the largest quantities. It enters into
most animal tissues and the more complex of the vegetable products ;
being two and a half parts in a hundred of the body of man, or eight
per cent, of its solids. It is obtained for the organic world solely by
the plants, and obtained only from combinations of nitrogen, the am-
monia and nitrates of the air and the soil.

The supply of this combined or available nitrogen in the air is
limited — enough for a measure of vegetation, but not near enough for
the greatest growth of food-plants and grains. The quantity of com-
bined nitrogen carried by the rain from the air to the plant-roots was
found to be, in the rainfall of a year in Great Britain, equal to seven
pounds of ammonia on an acre ; another year it equaled nine and
a half pounds per acre. The constituents of wheat are such that
twenty-four bushels require the nitrogen of forty-five pounds of am-
monia ; that is, for the crop on a given surface, about five times as
much as the rain furnishes. Plants dovibtless gather directly from
the nitrogen compounds of the air without help of the rain, and
obtain a larger supply from the organic mould of good soils; but that
all these sources together provide hardly enough is pretty clearly

344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

proved by feeding the roots of the plant with additional nitrogen
compounds. On all but the richest soils, the suitable application of
ammonia or nitrates causes a notable increase in the quantity of food-
plants, and also causes au increased proportion of the nitrogenous
constituents of plants. If nitrogen compounds could be laid down
cheaply enough, it would augment the supplies of food and raiment,
and the comfort of man, in no small degree.

Right here it comes to mind that uncombined nitrogen forms ovej-
three-fourths of the weight of the air — a provision of about eleven
pounds on every horizontal square inch — and a question rises, "Why
cannot the vital forces take hold on the pure element and use freely
from its most lavish supply ? " Well, because the universe exists. The
stomach does not digest the carbon of charcoal ; nor do the lungs
take oxygen from water. To propose any alteration in the character
of one of the sixty-three elements is to undertake the reconstruction
of the universe. It is the character of nitrogen to refuse chemical
combinations. Uncombined nitrogen is nowhere available for vital
uses, to any appreciable extent. Filling perfectly its humble service
in Nature as a diluent in the air, its qualification is to be inert and to
remain changeless. Among the resources of life and in the marts of
subsistence Avhere its compounds rank high in value, nitrogen as a
simple has no place at all.

This barrier between nitrogen and its compounds seems to hold
firm from age to age. Out of the ocean of atmospheric nitrogen the
plant selects the scattering molecules of nitrogen compounds and
elaborates therefrom many nitrogenous substances. The animal elab-
orates some of these into other compounds. But in the final decay
of products and tissues, and food not assimilated, the nitrogen of all
returns again to ammonia — again in the aerial ocean, and again the
resource of plants. If ammonia is oxidized in the air to nitric acid,
the latter is deoxidized in the soil to nitrous acid and then to ammonia.
All these compounds are very frail, and change most constantly, but
together they hold the little stock of united nitrogen, losing little of
it and gaining little for it, from epoch to epoch.

There are leakages, to and fro through this remarkable barrier, it
is true, but they are so small that little is known of them, except that
they show tlie strength of the barrier that limits them. On the one
side, there is a little loss, by the liberation of traces of nitrogen in
certain organic decompositions. Also, the explosive agents used by
man in warfare and the arts result in the liberation of nitrogen — an
expenditure of life-resources. On the other side, by the electrical
disturbances of the atmosphere, traces of nitrogen are brought into
union. Tlie roll of thunder indicates the restoration of a modicum of
that good material which was Avasted for the roll of artillery. Again,
it is believed that in organic decay under restricted conditions some
measure of nitrogen is brought into union with nascent hydrogen.

THE MATERIAL RESOURCES OF LIFE. 345

Chemical art has not done anything toward the appropriation of
this obstinate element. Nothing nitrogenous can be made of nitrogen.
The manufacturers depend on gatherings from tlie sparingly distrib-
uted nitrates of the earth. As machinists have dreamed of perpetual
motion, sleeping chemists may dream of an invention to bring atmos-
pheric nitrogen into use, that all the barren places may be made fertile,
and the whole earth flourish as a garden of fatness. But for this
dream to realize the proportions of a fair probability it is quite essen-
tial that chemistry should be well asleep.

The chief commodities bearing nitrogen are nitre or saltpetre
(potassium or sodium nitrate), and ammonia. In Hindostan, the rich
soil-mould, warm and alkaline, becomes thinly crusted with nitrate,
which is gathered and brought to market as East India nitre. Gun-
powder, gun-cotton, and nitro-glycerine, as well as chemical products,
are made with it. In the War of 1812, America was thrown upon her
own sources for gunpowder-material, and enough nitre was found in
the cave-deposits of the Southwestern States. Then France was
hemmed in by hostile armies, and had neither nitre nor cave-deposits,
but it was after the work of "Lavoisier of immortal memory," and
the government put trust in chemistry. Berthollet and the rest soori
justified the trust in the perfection of the "nitre-plantations" — beds
of farm-refuse with wood-ashes exposed to the air.

These products, soil-nitre and compost-nitre, and the ammonia
obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of illuminating gas,
serve their several purposes in the arts and applications of man, but
their limited quantities do not warrant their addition to the soil for
the increased growth of food. Now, unlike these common supplies,
the earth possesses a special resource for nitrogen in combination,
anomalous in being fully mineralized and remarkable in being both
concentrated and extensive, a chain of mines full of nitre. On the
Pacific coast of South America, extending from the fourth to the
fortieth degree of south latitude, about 2,400 miles along the slope
of the Andes to the sea, in Bolivia, Peru, and part of Chili, there has
been found a line of deposits of sodium nitrate, the "Peruvian nitre."
The beds are of variable thickness, covered by one to ten yards' depth
of earth and half-formed sandstone. The dry soil of the most of this
rainless country is pervaded, in some degree, with this deposit. The
mummied remains of the old Peruvian people are embalmed with it
by the earth in which they were buried ; and its crystals glisten on
those ghastly relicts which were jjresented in the Peruvian depart-
ment of the Centennial Exhibition, and those brought to this country
by Dr. Steere. It has been estimated that in the province of Tarapa-
ca, within fifty square leagues, the quantity of the nitre is not less
than 63,000,090 tons. The appi'opriation of this vast resource has
been taken up rather slowly, but has much increased for ten or
twelve years past. Vessels laden with it go to the coasts of manu-

346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

facturiug countries. At Glasgow the works devoted to the produc-
tion of ordinary saltpetre from the nitre of Peru extend over acres of
ground. In 1868, 100,000,000 pounds were used in Great Britain.
As yet, it has been ajjplied to the nourishment of crops only to a
limited extent. But this seems to be its chief destination, and for
this use it lies in tlie earth, a vast mine of wealth, for the disposal of
coming generations. When multiplied population puts the sustaining-
power of the earth really to the test, this fund of sustenance on the
Peruvian coast must come to outweigh in value the gold and silver
mines of the Californian coast.

Of the several nitrogen compounds which nourish plants, ammonia
yields the most immediately satisfactory results. And, of this fertil-
izing material, some wellnigh mineralized deposits must be counted
in with the earth's possessions. To take note of these ammoniacal
materials, we have again to begin at Peru. Standing on the shores
which front the nitre-beds, and looking westward upon the Pacific,
there are seen, as we are told, the low patches of the Cincha Islands
— islands which shine with the whiteness of a powdery covering, a
loose deposit of considerable dejith. A cargo of this substance was
first taken to London in 1840, stored and advertised for sale, and after
a while thrown into the Thames. A second cargo was tried as a fer-
tilizer by an English farmer, and found to give such marvelous results
that the shipping company made good haste to contract with the Peru-
vian Government for the entire deposit. This article, well known as
guano, has held a settled value ever since its introduction, and, had it
come into the hands of the alchemists, it would, very likely, have been
presented as an elixir of vegetable life. Now, its worth is graded by
analysis, and is indicated chiefly by the proportion of ammonia it
contains.

The absence of rain will account, perhaps correctly, for the un-
usual retention of the soluble material characteristic of the guano of
Peru ; but the formation of the nitre-heds of that region is a problem
in geological chemistry more difficult to determine. There are evi-
dences of volcanic overflow and of marine dej^osition, and the alkali in
the compound may have originated in either of these or other sources,
but neither the volcano nor the sea could furnish the nitrogen of the
compound. If not from organic accumulations, we seem to be referred
to the air as the source of nitrogen, and left to conjecture the condi-
tions and forces which could bring elemental nitrogen into union in
so great a quantity. Without pursuing these inquiries, it may be
permitted to cite a fact which seems entitled to consideration in the
case, namel}^, the conditions for an unusual overflow of atmospheric
ammonia in this region. It is fed by perpetual trade-winds — winds
coming from the southeast across a wide continent of soil that is rich
to rankness, and warmed under a vertical sun. Coming from the
Atlantic and saturated with water, these winds gather the exhalations

THE MATERIAL RESOURCES OF LIFE, 347

of a continent, and then, shedding their water on the Andes, leave
their ammonia (it may be supposed) to find its way by some means
to the valleys of the western slope.

Again, these same mountain-valleys of Peru may claim to have
given the world still another token of unexampled sources of nourish-
ment, in the growth of the cinchona-tree^ bearing the richest stock of
nitrogenous bases in the vegetable world. It seems, indeed, more
than a coincidence that this narrow, rainless, wind-nurtured slope of
land should send to all the earth three such eminent resources as
Peruvian nitre, Peruvian guano, and Peruvian bark.

Another of the materials adequate for no more than the needs of
life is phosphorus. This element so far differs from nitrogen that it
is not found uncombined in Nature, and if separated by art it immedi-
ately enters into combination on exposure to the air. It occurs chiefly
as phosphate of lime, taken from the mineral kingdom by plants and
also by animals. The hard part of bone is about nine-tenths phos-
phate, and phosphorus is an element of molecules organized into mus-
cle and nerve.

The proportion of phosphates in the crust of the earth below
organic remains is very slight, insufiicient for the support of the
higher forms of vegetable or animal life. It has been concentrated
and gathered into the soil by the selective agency of the organic
world, as it continues to be concentrated from the soil by each indi-
vidual plant, and from vegetable products by each individual animal.
Nearly all the phosphorus accessible on the planet has been a constit-
uent of living bodies. Its proportion in the soil is a main factor in
the growth of cereal grains. Ah-eady, and with the stretch of land
to the westward, bone-earth and phosi^hatic guanos are well known in
American markets. When phosphates fail at the root of the plant,
grain fails at the mill ; and when, from waste at the mill, phosphates
fail in the bread, the bones and the teeth fail in growing bodies. The
improvidence that leaves excretory phosphates to be washed away to
the salt sea, farther from the reach of life than they were in the primi-
tive rocks, is an improvidence that prepares an inheritance of poverty
for after-generations. And the ruthlessness that permits the j)urvey-
ors of food to sift phosphates from the food of men does its part to
enfeeble the present generation.

There remains to notice another representative of the adequate
resources, potassium. The statements made as to the supply of phos-
phorus, with some reservation, become true for potassium. Certain
of the rocks contain a proportion of it, but from insolubility this is
slowly available, and is insufficient for the needs of higher organic life.
The soils contain more, because the organic world has gleaned for
the soil. Potassa and soda are two alkalies which replace each other
in the laboratory at theconvenience of the chemist, but, in the choos-
ing of the living cell, one of these is always taken and the other left.

348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

We get potassa free from soda in the ash of a tree which grew in a
soil having more soda than potassa. From sea-water, containing
near 200 parts of soda to one of potassa, the sea-weeds furnish an asli
having two to twenty times more potassa than soda. From the blood
of man, having ten to fifteen times more soda than potassa, the
muscles obtain a composition of six or seven times more potassa than
soda.

This gleaning is good proof of the value of more, and the evidence
is confirmed by the application of potassa as a fertilizer. The stock
of potassa — which is used somewhat in the arts — is derived mainly
from the gatherings of the organic world. The ash-wagon takes up
the savings of the hearth. In France the washings of sheep's-wool
are saved, and 160 pounds of good potassium carbonate are obtained
from a ton of the wool. In the pioneer life of this country, the house-
wives have burned corn-cobs and taken the ash for baking-powder,
eighty per cent, potassium carbonate, and preferable to the " dietetic
saleratus" npw used. Should the ash of the entire corn-crops of the
United States be taken without loss, it is estimated that over 100,-
000,000 pounds of jDotassium carbonate would be obtained. In the
salt-beds of Stassfurt, Germany, there is a good proportion of potas-
sa, and the use of this supply has been steadily increasing, both as
material in manufactures and as a fertilizer.

At the present time, the market value of the resources of life
engages little general attention. There is a narrow branch of com-
merce, wherein the prices-current of the three elemental materials
which we have taken as "adequate resources" are the values con-
stantly under calculation in daily business. In this guild, one sells
nitrogen at thirty cents, another offers phosphoric acid at five cents;
and all parties have a tacit understanding that the values of nitrogen,
phosphoric acid, and potassa, are to each other about as six, one and
a half, and one, and that these are the only values to be considered.
The technical terms of any profession or pursuit are jargon to the
general ear. But hearing a man say that he " sold a hundred tons
of rectified Peruvian at thirty-one cents for nitrogen, this morning,"
it is not so much as understood in what sort of business such jargon
belongs.

Thinking of the multiplication of life and the waste of its resources,
it seems that, in the time coming, the phrases that tell the rise and
fall of value in commercial fertilizers may find some general recogni-
tion— may even have as much meaning for everybody as the terms
of the gold-market and the silver-stocks.

It is only about a hundred years since man began to attain such
definite knowledge of the components of matter as enables him to
trace (we by no means say to understand) the transmutations of earth
and air into tissues fit for life. Thirty-six years ago, Liebig com-
menced giving the people the first really systematic lessons upon the

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. 349

material resources of life. Seeing the value of a knowledge that
goes below the surface of things, in 1852 he wrote his conviction that,
" ere long, a knowledge of the principal truth of chemistry will be ex-
pected in the political economist and statesman, as it already is held
indispensable to the manufacturer and physician." And, seeing the
meanings and the mysteries that cluster around the primary forms of
matter, he wrote at another time : " It is not the mere practical utility
of these truths which is of importance. Their influence upon mental
culture is most beneficial; and the views acquired by knowledge of
them enable the mind to trace, in the phenomena of Nature, proofs
of an infinite wisdom — for the unfathomable depths of which language
has no expression."

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT.*

By Pbofessor C. E. BRAME, A. M.

THE purpose of this contribution is to draw attention to a phe-
nomenon which has received too little notice, and has been
strangely neglected by astronomers, but wiiich, in fact, if the conclu-
sions of the author of the work under review are coi-rect, is to the
inhabitants of the earth one which emanates from a very near and
remarkable cosmical body.

The third volume of "The United States Japan Expedition"
records a series of observations on the zodiacal light, which were made
by Rev. George Jones, A. M., chaplain in the United States Navy,
from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, during which time he accom-
panied that expedition sent out by the United States Government,
under the command of Commodore M. C, Perry. It also contains the
observations and theories of other astronomers, particularly those
made by the celebrated Dorainicus Cassini, a distinguished savant of
the seventeenth century, attached to the Royal Observatory at Paris,
who was the greatest cosmologist of that age.

The deductions of our author are — 1. That the zodiacal light is
emitted by a nebulous ring, with the earth for its centre; that is, there
is a ring of nebulous matter around the earth ; 2. That 00° is the full
width of the stronger light, and 90" its full width including the dif-
fused light; 3. That it is on both sides of the ecliptic; 4. That it may
be seen in some latitudes under favorable circumstances, forming a
continuous arch across the heavens; 5. That it must rotate on a com-

> Third volume, United States Japan Expedition. " Observations on the Zodiacal Light
from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855 ; made chiefly on board the United States Steam-
frigate Mississippi, during her Cruise in the Eastern Seas and her Voyage homeward ; with
Conclusions from the Data thus obtained." By Rev. George Jones, A. M., Chaplain, U. S.
Navy.

350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mon centre, and seems full of commotion within itself; 6. From ob-
servations made then and afterward at Quito, in South America, that
it is not entirely dependent on light reflected from the sun, but must
shine partly by its own light.

These conclusions are given to the public with much diflidence,
and with strong arguments to support them, based on a large accumu-
lation of facts ascertained by the most careful observation.

Our chaplain became intensely interested in this investigation, and
has recorded three hundred and twenty-eight observations on stereo-
typed star-charts, published with the volume. Sometimes, when un-
able from sickness to go upon deck, he was carried in his cot, that he
might have an opportunity of noticing this intensely interesting phe-
nomenon. As the voyage was one which circumnavigated the globe,
he had a most favorable opportunity to prosecute his examination ;
and his recorded statement embraces a most minute and faithful ac-
count of his observations in neai'ly every longitude, and over a tract
extending from 41° 49' north to 53° 48' south latitude.

After the return of the expedition he sought the earliest occasion
to go to Quito, in South America, which is directly on the equator,
where he saw the light extending in one continuous arch across the
heavens. During his residence there he published several articles in
Silliman''s Journal on " The Zodiacal Light," which gave additional
interest to the subject.

If anything since then of importance has appeared in any scientific
journal on this subject, we have not met with it. Having for over
twenty years considered it, and being anxious that more information
and more confirmed conclusions should be arrived at concerning it,
we invite the attention of the learned and observing to the considera-
tion of this subject. We believe that there is no physical truth which
stands isolated, but every new discovery in physical science opens the
way for other truths and discoveries. If naturalists can spend days
and weeks in examining and commenting on a new discovery in
botany or zoology ; if foreign countries are visited, forests and moun-
tains traversed, to bring to light some hitherto unknown plant ; if it
is a triumph for a naturalist to discover a new species of microscopic
animalcula — surely it is not time wasted to direct attention to a cos-
mical body so interesting as the zodiacal light.

Astronomical science is full of attractive interest to every lover of
Nature. It is not astonishing that the study of the heavens is the
oldest natural science. At an early period of the world's history the
human eye and intellect were directed, with absorbing interest, to the
azure arch above us, amid whose vast expanse orbs of grandeur are
unceasingly running their wonderful courses. The stars, beaming
with inextinguishable brilliancy, are known to be oceans of flames and
centres of worlds, though apparently but points of light. The planets
were known to the ancients to be more identified with our world than

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. ' 351

other stellar bodies. Traversing space with inestimable velocity and
performing their revolutions with unvaried regularity, they have long
been known as part of our solar system. It seems sti'ange that a cos-
mical body so near the earth as the zodiacal light should have re-
ceived comparatively so little attention.

As many who read this article have never seen this light, it is
necessary that it be described.

It is defined, in the work under review, to be " a brightness that
appears in the western sky after sunset, and in the east before sun-
rise ; following nearly or quite the line of the ecliptic in the heavens,
and stretching upward to various elevations according to the season
of the year." Tliere is a slight objection to this definition, by which
inexperienced observers maybe led astray. It is spoken of as appear-
ing after sunset, by which some would be led to suppose that it is
visible immediately after sunset ; whereas it is never to be seen until
after the night has fully set in, and the sun's rays are some distance
below the horizon. Its varied elevation, indeed its appearance, is also
dependent upon the latitude of the observer as well as the season, so
much so, that in very high latitudes it is but seldom seen to advantage.
It has also been seen at almost every hour of the night, but is usually
more distinctly seen in the temperate zones, when observed between
dark and nine o'clock, as after that hour its light frequently becomes
dim and diffuse.

" It appears to best advantage when the ecliptic makes its highest angle with
the spectator's horizon, at which time, in moderate latitudes, it reaches to the
zenith or beyond it, liaving near the horizon a striking brilliancy, and thence
fading upward, mostly by imperceptible degrees, till at its vertex it can be made
out only by a careful and experienced eye. As the seasons advance, when the
ecliptic is declining gradually toward the horizon, the zodiacal light fades away
till it is perhaps entirely lost to view, or can be seen only by those who have
followed it in its changes, night after night, and are thus able, by famihar ac-
quaintance, to detect and trace its dim markings in the sky."

Humboldt, in " The Cosmos," vol, i., remarks :

" Those who have been for many years in the zone of palms must retain a
pleasing impression of the mild radiance with which the zodiacal light, shoot-
ing pyramidically upward, illumines a part of the uniform length of tropical
nights. I have seen it sliine with an intensity of light equal to the milky- way
in Sagittarius, and that not only in the rare and dry atmosphere of the summit
of the Andes, at an elevation of from 13,000 to 15,000 feet, but even on the
boundless grassy plains, the llanos of Venezuela, and on the sea-shore beneath
the ever-clear sky of Cumana."

Prof. Olmsted, in his " Astronomy," describes it as follows :

" Its form is that of a luminous pyramid, having its base toward the sun. It
reaches to an immense distance from the sun, sometimes even beyond the orbit
of the earth. It is brighter in the parts nearest the sun than in those that are
more remote, and terminates in an obtuse apex, its light fading away by insen-

352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sible gradations until it becomes too feeble for distinct vision. Its aspects vary
very much with the season of the year."

The crepuscles, or streaks of light from the sun, must not be mis-
taken for the zodiacal light ; the former are sometimes visible between
twilight and dark, the latter not until the shades of night have fully
set in. Neither must the milky-way be mistaken for it by inexpe-
rienced observers, as the zodiacal light has a warm yellowish tinge
unlike the cold white light of the milky-way.

Having endeavored to open the way for a consideration of the
subject, we will now proceed to give a history of former observations.

There is no mention of any appearance of this light by very early
writers. There is mention of Arcturus and the bands of Orion in the
book of Job, and the constellations of the zodiac were assigned names
at a very early date. The zodiacal belt was in use among the ancient
Egyptians and Hindoos. If this light had been visible, it is highly
probable some ancient writer would have spoken of it. Our author
observes :

"It is scarcely probable that a phenomenon so striking in southern latitudes
should have escaped the attention of early astronomers in those countries, but
we meet with nothing in tlieir works (referring to it) of a fully definite and re-
liable charactei*."

He is, however, of the opinion that it may have been overlooked
or mistaken for the crepuscle at early dawn or twilight.

It has been supposed that Pliny, who wrote in the first century
of the Christian era, alludes to it under the name of trabes or the doKovg
of the Greeks, but Humboldt thinks that Pliny refers to another mat-
ter.

Ammonius, in his life of Charlemagne, a. d. 807, mentions an ap-
pearance somewhat like the zodiacal light, but there was no reliable
notice of it before it was described in Childrey's " Britannia Baco-
nica " in 1661, which gives a brief description of its appearance and
shape. The reference to it may be found in that work, at page 183.

It was reserved for Cassini to direct attention to its examination
for the first time with earnest inquiry and interest. His first notice
of it was on the evening of tlie 18th of March, 1683, He was watching
in the west for other things, but was struck with the appearance of this
luminous streak reaching far up in the sky. Like most discoverers,
Cassini immediately formed a theory in regard to it after making but
ten observations. This hypothesis, based on very insufficient data,
has continued to the present time to influence the opinions of astrono-
mers, and has retarded interest in observing its phenomena. Like
most theories of the heavenly bodies in their first origin, it was doubt-
less erroneous, and, like the Ptolemaic theory of the solar system, it
has materially interfered with the establishment of a correct knowl-
edge of what is the truth.

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. 353

Cassini discovered very soon that as time advanced through March
and April, the upper or northern edge of this light inclined more and
more from the ecliptic, and stretched farther to the northward ; and
knowing that the sun's equator, as shown by his spots, was also then
stretching off from the ecliptic in a similar way, he came to the con-
clusion that the substance giving this light was closely connected
with the sun's equator, and was consequently changing its position
with regard to that equator.

He argued, further, that as the sun has an atmosphere, and is there-
fore capable of emitting dense vapors, and is continually sending out
matter of exceeding fineness which we call light, consequently this
luminary might also, by its motion on its axis, send out a substance
intermediate in character between the two ; which substance, either
self-luminous or by reflection, might give us the zodiacal light. To
support this theory, he gives to this body a lenticular shape, about
twice the thickness of the sun as seen in March, but only of the sun's
thickness when seen in June. Whether he meant to have this len-
ticular-shaped medium to be attached to the sun, and revolving with
it at the same time, is not apparent. He devoted a part of his time
for about eleven years, in a very desultory manner, to observing this
light.

Cassini's labors led other observers to direct their attention to the
zodiacal light. Fabio de Duillier, who was his colleague for a while
at Paris, is worthy of particular notice, as having conceived the idea
that it consisted of particles of matter distinct from the sun, and
arranged in shape like a solid zodiac; which body of uneven sur-
faces, and rotating round the sun, he supposed, gave us the zodiacal
light.

In 1731 Mairan gave considerable attention to this subject in a
work on "The Aui'ora Borealis." He advanced the theory that this
light is reflected from the sun's atmosphere, stretched out into a flat-
tened spheroid or lenticular-shaped body, revolving with the sun — an
idea which Laplace has forever set at rest by demonstrating that the
sun's atmosphere can extend no farther than to the orbit of a planet
whose periodical revolution is performed in the same time as the sun's
rotary motion about its axis, or in twenty-five days and a half; that
is, only so far as nine-twentieths of Mercury's distance from the sun.

Since the time of Mairan, until 1853, but little attention appears to
have been given to this subject. In 1833, however, Biot, in order to
account for the meteor-shower of that year, attempted to show that
the shower was owing to the earth's passing at that time near the
node of the zodiacal light. But calculations were made by J. C.
Housseau in order to see whether the nodes of the sun and the zo-
diacal light do actually correspond. After careful observations and
calculations, in which he was assisted by nine diligent observers,
Housseau thinks he has shown that these nodes are diflerent, and that
VOL. XI. — 23

354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

therefore " the supposition of the existence of this liglit in the plane
of the sun's equator does not satisfy the observations made." The
closing sentence of his very interesting article gives the first intima-
tion that the zodiacal light has a near connection with our globe.
Housseau says:

" One is struck, wittiout doubt, with the near approach, which our elements
show, between the line of nodes of the zodiacal light and that of the nodes of
the terrestrial equator upon the ecliptic. This circumstance, as far as it is veri-
fied, may help to explain the causes of this luminous phenomenon — causes which
are, it may be, more local than has hitherto been supposed."

This notice is the only one, of any importance whatever, that was
taken of the zodiacal light for many years, with the exception of
some experiments made to ascertain whether there is any heat con-
nected with it — experiments which we think resulted in establishing
the fact that it is near enough to emit heat sufficient to affect a ther-
mo-electric pile of twenty-five pairs, causing the needle of the galva-
nometer to indicate 12° when the pile was directed toward the base
of the zodiacal light.

We come now to a consideration of the observations taken dur-
ing the cruise of the Japan Expedition, and we hope our readers
are not weary of the subject ; for, if it can be demonstrated that
we have a ring of nebulous matter around our globe at a distance of
150,000 to 200,000 miles, there are many inquiries growing out of
that fact full of interest, and yet to be answered by experiment
and induction. It will be a matter, then, to be considered whether
it is self-luminous — that is, of the nature of the sun's photosphere —
or whether it shines only by reflected light, like the rings of Sat-
urn ; whether it is increasing or diminishing in magnitude and ex-
tent. If it is shown to be self-luminous, we will then wish to know
whether it may not be widening and extending itself, at the same time
increasing in its capacity to emit both light and heat, until it envelops
the entire globe, modifies climate, melts the icebergs and snows of
northern latitudes, and dispels darkness from our globe. We may
inquire, too, whether it may not be used as a grand instrument in the
hands of the Creator for the future development of his purposes in
regard to our globe. It may also be an inquiry whether it does not
already influence the magnetic state of the earth, and play an impor-
tant part in the cal^ses producing the aurora borealis. These and
many more similar questions will arise from the establishment of the
fact that the zodiacal light emanates from a ring of nebulous matter
so near our earth. Let us, then, give our author a close examination
and a patient hearing, that we may be enabled to form a correct judg-
ment as to the truth of his deductions.

We have not space to present all the reasoning by which our author
shows that the zodiacal light cannot be produced by a ring of nebu-

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. 355

lous matter revolving round the sun, either within or beyond the orbit
of the earth.

He starts with the proposition that such a ring must be either 1.

Within the earth's orbit; 2. Surrounding the earth; or, 3. Without
the orbit of the earth.

It cannot be xoithin the earth's orbit; if so, we could never have it
at any great altitude at any period of the night, and we could never
have the zodiacal light at midnight on both horizons simultaneously.

We omit the diagram constructed for the consideration of the
theory which supposes this ring to be around the sun and beyond the
orbit of the earthy by which he shows that this sujoposition will not
account for the lateral changes observed in the zodiacal light. He
says :

" Tlie query arises, ' Can such lateral changes, so uniformly observed, as the
evening or morning advances, agree at all with the idea of a nebulous ring
giving us this light at a distance from the spectator of 160,000,000 or 180,000,000
miles ? ' A ring of the character supposed, it seems to me, could give us a zodi-
acal light only of one uniform shape, namely, with the opposite borders receding
from each other for a short distance from the apex, and then running parallel,
one to the other, the whole way down to the base. Nor could the hourly
changes of time produce any other changes in these boundaries than a rising or
sinking of the apex of the light ; the boundaries, say at nine o'clock p. m., ex-
tending a little higher in the sky than at eight, and so continued, with a parallel-
ism of the opposite sides, down to the horizon. How different this from the
true facts of the case !

"The evident and most decided connection between these boundary -lines
and the spectator's place, as regards the ecliptic, is also a matter of the greatest
significance in drawing our conclusions in regard to the origin of this light.
Now, supposing the base of the zodiacal light to be at a distance of 200,000,-
000 miles, how is it possible that the fact that the spectator is a short distance
north or south of the ecliptic can govern the reflection from the nebulous
ring at that immense distance, and place it on his side of the ecliptic ? If he is
on the north side of the ecliptic, not only is the main body of the light down to
its base on that side, but the lateral changes of the boundaries, as the hours pass,
are altogether or chiefly on that side ; and so equally with the south. If he is
on the ecliptic or near it, the zodiacal light stretches equally, or nearly so, on
each side of that line. Also, if he changes rapidly during the night to or from
the ecliptic (as was the case on shipboard) the boundaries of this light also
change, being regulated by his motion (from one place to another). That the
apex of the zodiacal light, from such a ring around the sun, might be so affected
by the spectator's position is not unreasonable, but that the boundary-lines should
be so affected seems to be utterly inadmissible.

''It is w^ortljy of remark, also, how even and uniform, from apex to base, the
change in the boundary-hnes is as the hours change ; as if the substance giving
the zodiacal light were not only near, but also at one uniform distance from
the spectator; the portions of it at the apex and base of the light all equally
affected by his changes on the earth."

He shows by Bouguer's law of reflected light that the zodiacal
light, if from a ring of nebulous matter beyond the earth's orbit,

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

would emit a light of the same intensity the whole way from the base
to the apex. But another law of optics, that the strength of light is
inversely as the squares of the distances of the object affording the
light, would here make its application ; and this ring, at our zenith,
being by that supposition about 140,000,000 miles nearer to us, than
at the base, we should then have the zodiacal light far more intense
at the apex than at the base ; all of which is entirely opposite to the
facts of the case.

He offers, now, as a last conclusion, the hypothesis of a nebulous
ring with the earth for a centre. He makes certain deductions from
the examination of the preceding theories.

"They are — 1. That the substance giving us the zodiacal light must be
equally near to us in all its parts, inasmuch as the lateral changes of the light,
i. e., the changes of boundaries, have a uniform character and mostly a parallel-
ism in their whole extent from apex to base ; 2. That no part of this substance
can be very remote from us, inasmuch as the outlines of the Mght were clearly
and sensibly affected by my own position on the globe, and even by my change
of position in a single night ; and, 3. That the laws of reflected light require an
arrangement or a shape of this nebulous matter which will give us, at the base
of the zodiacal light, larger angles between the lines of the incident and re-
flected light than at other portions, and also a regular decrease of such angles
from the base to the apex of the light, as produced by such a shape. These
three requirements appear to.be fully met by an hypothesis which, if the theo-
ries examined are untenable, is now the only one remaining to us.

" The hypothesis is that the zodiacal light is a ring around the earth.

" The thought is a somewhat startling one, yet startling only from its novelty ;
for it is entirely in accordance with what we know of our sister planet (Saturn),
and also with the whole of Laplace's celebrated theory of the formation of
globes."

We will not take up time and space with quoting his application
of that theory in explaining some of the phenomena of this light.

Avoiding the consideration of these topics, we will proceed to apj^ly
the result of Bouguer's experiments on reflected light to this case.

In the annexed diagram he takes an observation made on the 4th
of September, 1854, as an example, for the reason that it is a simple
one, and one also in which the spectator is near the plane of the eclip-
tic. It was made in latitude 22° 18' north, longitude 114° 10' east.
The sun rose at 5^ 48". The stronger light was at S'' SO'" to 4'' SO"",
the diffuse light at S*" 45'°. Sun's longitude 161° 35'. The horizons at
4'' 30", S*" 30", 2'' 30", and l*" 30", and at midnight, are given, together
with the line of the spectator's vertices, as well as his positions O, o, etc.,
at 4^ 30" and S** 30". A, B, C, F, are the boundaries of the zodiacal light
at 4'' 30", and E, F, G, at S*" 30" ; the apices C and G are carried a lit-
tle above the more condensed portions of the ring; but the reader is
at liberty to suppose them to be at any other part, as he may think
best. The direction of the sun is given ; and S', S", S'", S"", S'"", are
supposed to be rays of light proceeding from that luminary.

THE ZODIACAL LIGHT.

357

In this diagram, the sun's rays being S', S", etc., BO, FO, etc.
will be the reflected rays ; and the several angles between these lines
of incidence and reflection, together with the number of rays reflected

^"-^«^IW§^.

NEBtTLOus Ring, ■with the Earth fob its Centre.
[The relative proportions of tiie earth and the ring, and also its distance, are of course not given
in this diagram with any etibrt at certainty ; the upward extent of the ring is probably far
greater than can be here represented. The diagram is, however, sufficiently correct for our
present purposes of elucidation.]

to the eye, out of every 1,000 incident rays, according to Bouguer, are
in the followins; table :

ANGLE.

S', BO 161°.

S", FO 146°.

S"',DO 131°.

S"",HO 116°.

S'"", at midnight... 90°.

S""',CO 67°.

Rays reflected from
Smooth Water.

Rays reflected from
Plate-glass not quick-

suvereu.

343

422

184

270

101

162

59

105

18

25

18

25

358 THi; POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" We find in the above table a strong argument for such a ring around the
earth. The figures, taking either of the two columns, for water or for glass,
correspond in a very striking degree with the varying intensity of the zodiacal
light from the base upwai'd, as we have it on any clear morning or evening when
the ecliptic is at a high angle with the horizon, and when, consequently, the
nebulous figure is not brought angularly to our eye. They also correspond to
what is, indeed, almost synonymous with what has been stated — namely, to the
fact that at 4" 30" the zodiacal light at the horizon is far greater at its base than
it is at 3" 30" ; at 3" 30"" than it is at 2" 30"°, etc., back to midnight. Any person
who has ever looked attentively at tbis light when making a high angle with the
horizon will see at once the coincidence between the proportions of the figures
in the above table, showing the number of reflected rays, and what has been
always presented to the eye. If the reader will also carry these lines of incident
and reflected light beyond the midnight horizou-line, to any point there of the
nebulous ring, he will see how we may easily get what is referred to in my
charts under the German name of Gegensdtein, i. e., dim light seen, when the
circumstances are favorable for it, in those portions of the sky opposed to the
sun. This hypothesis shows also very clearly how I could have the zodiacal
light above both horizons at the midnight hours, as I was often able to do, and
it harmonizes fully with the strength of the light as then presented to the eye.
While there are some things still left unexplained, I have yet not been able to
see anything in this hypothesis antagonistic to the facts of the zodiacal light.
On the contrary, almost all of them are explained by it; and they all, as I can
perceive, fully harmonize with it through the whole of the manifold change
which the light underwent, either from the changes of the ecliptic toward any
fixed point, or from my numerous and great changes of latitude during our
cruise.

" If we could have a zodiacal light of an undoubted character produced by
t\iQfull moon, not only would the question before us be set at rest, but the ring
would be shown to be within the orbit of the moon, and how near we came to
a case of the kind on the evening of February 14, 1854, the reader will decide
for himself. . . .

" This ring must, according to the laws of matter, rotate on its centre ; and
it must be full of commotion within itself. The existence of j)uIsations seems
scarcely to admit of a doubt, recorded as they have been by observers in such
distant quarters of the globe."

In conclusion, we would say that two simultaneous observations,
made in equatorial regions — for instance, one by an observer at Quito,
and another by an observer on the island of Sumatra, iu which both
observations presented the zodiacal light stretching as an arch across
the heavens from east to west — would, it seems to us, demonstrate
the fact that it is a ring around the earth. Now, if observations taken
in almost every space of 15° of longitude have been made and its
existence demonstrated, does not that amount to about the same
thing ?

We leave the subject, inviting information and discussion from all
who are informed in regard to this long-neglected phenomenon.

DR. BALFOUR STEWART. 359-

DE. BALFOUR STEWAET.

AMONG English physicists Dr. Balfour Stewart holds a dis-
tinguished place for the originality and extent of his experi-
mental researches, the grasp of his subtile and comprehensive inqui-
ries, and the boldness and freedom of many of his speculations.

He was the son of a merchant, and was born in Edinburgh,
November 1, 1828. At the age of fourteen he went to the University
of St. Andrews, and afterward to that of Edinburgh, from which he
graduated. During his college course he paid a great deal of atten-
tion to pure mathematics, and is credited with having rediscovered,
independently of books. La Grange's method of deaUng with the dif-
ferential calculus. After leaving college he spent four years in a mer-
cantile house, and was for two or three years in Australia ; but his
father's preference that he should be a merchant did not coincide with
his own inclinations, and he at length determined to devote his life to
physical science.

On his return from Australia, he was so fortunate as to secure the
friendship of the late Principal Forbes, and became his assistant in
Edinburgh for three years, 1856-'57-'58.

Dr. Stewart has been Director of the Magnetic Observatory at
Kew, where he has made numerous and important magnetical observa-
tions in connection with the eminent physicist, Mr. Warren De la Rue,
He is Professor of Physics in Owens College, Manchester, a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Great Britain, of the Astronomical and Meteoro-
los:ical Societies of London, and of various learned bodies on the
Continent and in the United States. He received the degree of
LL. D. from Edinburgh University, and in 1868 the Rumford Medal
of the Royal Society for his researches in light and heat.

Dr. Stewart has been a very active worker in the scientific field,
and is the author of many publications, especially in the branches of
meteorology, magnetism, and solar physics, of which the following
are the most important :

Papers connected with Heat and Light. — 1. An Account of Some
Experiments on Radiant Heat, involving an Extension of Prevost's
Theory of Exchanges (Transactions of Royal Society, Edinburgh,
1858). 2. Researches on Radiant Heat, Second Series (Transactions
of Royal Society, Edinburgh, 1859). 3. On the Light radiated by
Heated Bodies (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1860). 4. On
the Nature of the Light emitted by Heated Tourmaline (Proceedings
of Royal Society, London, 1860). 5. Internal Radiation in Uniaxal
Crystals (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1861). 6. Report
on the Theory of Exchanges (British Association, 1862).

Papers connected with Meteorology., Magnetism^ and Sun-spots..

360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— 1. On an Instrument for measuring Fluctuations of Temperature
(Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1856). 2. Reduction of
Makerstown Magnetical and Meteorological Observations, from 1847
to 1855 (Transactions of Royal Society, Edinburgh, 1860). 3. On the
Magnetical Survey of Scotland undertaken "by the late Mr. Welsh
(Report of British Association, 1859). 4. An Account of the Self-
recording Magnetographs erected at the Kew Observatory by the late
Mr. Welsh (Report of British Association, 1859), 5. On the Great
Magnetic Disturbance, August to September, 1859 (Transactions of
Royal Society, London, 1861). 6. On the Nature of the Forces con-
cerned in producing the Greater Magnetic Disturbances (Transactions
of Royal Society, London, 1862). 7. A Comparison of the Kew Curves
with the Earth-Currents registered at Greenwich during the Magnetic
Storm of December 14, 1862 (Proceedings of Royal Society, London,
1863). 8. On Earth-Currents during Magnetic Calms, and their Con-
nection with Magnetic Changes (Transactions of Royal Society, Edin-
burgh, 1863). 9. An Account of Some Experiments with an Air-Ther-
mometer (Transactions of Royal Society, London, 1863). 10. Results
of a Comparison of Simultaneous Traces of Self-recording Magneto-
gra^jhs at Kew and Lisbon — in conjunction with Senhor Capello (Pro-
ceedings of Royal Society, London, 1864). 11. On the Sudden Squalls
of October 30 and. November 21, 1863 (Proceedings of Royal So-
ciety, London, 1863). 12. Note on the Secular Change of Magnetic
Dip at the Kew Observatory (Proceedings of Royal Society, London,
1866). 13. A Description of the Self-recording Instruments of the
Meteorological Committee (Report of the Meteorological Committee for
1867). 14. A Comparison between the Records of the Barographs at
Oxford and Kew (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1867). 15.
An Account of Experiments on Aneroid Barometers (Proceedings of
Royal Society, London, 1868). 16. On the Laws regulating Magnetic
Peaks and Hollows (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1869).
17. Results of a Preliminary Comparison of the Kew and Stonyhurst
Declination Curves — in conjunction with the Rev. W. Sedgreaves (Pro-
ceedings of Royal Society, London, 1869). 18. Remarks on Meteoro-
logical Reductions (British Association, 1869). 19. Results of Ob-
servations of Dip and Horizontal Force made at Kew from April,
1863, to April, 1869 (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1870).
20. On the Variations of the Daily Range of Atmospheric Tempera-
ture as recorded at the Kew Observatory (Proceedings of Royal So-
ciety, London, February, 1877). In this paper the author shows that
in the daily range of temperature there is immistakable reference to
the moon. 21. On the Variations of the Daily Range of Magnetic
Declination, as recorded at the Kew Observatory (Proceedings of
Royal Society, London, 1877). In this paper Prof. Stewart establishes
the opinions previously held by Mr. De la Rue, Mr. Loewy, and him-
self, clearly showing that in the variations of declination range at Kew

DR. BALFOUR STEWART. 361

there are inequalities having reference to planetary configurations.
He also shows that there is a great likeness between meteorological
and raagnetical phenomena, and suggests that a further study of sun-
spots may ultimately enable us to predict longer and longer meteoro-
loijical occurrences.

Papers on the Heating of a DisTc hy Rapid Rotation in Vacuo. — 1.
On the Heating of a Disk by Rotation in Vacuo — in conjunction with
Prof. Tait (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1865). 2. On the
same subject — in conjunction with Prof. Tait (Proceedings of Royal
Society, London, 1866). 3. On the same subject — in conjunction Avith
Prof. Tait (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1873). 4. (A Pos-
sible Explanation of its Effect ?) On the Temperature Equilibrium of
an Liclosure containing a Body in Visible Motion (Literary and Phil-
osophical Society, Manchester, November, 1870). Dr. Stewart en-
deavors to explain the heating of a disk of rotation i7i vacuo by an
extension of the theory of exchanges.

Papers on Solar Physics hy 3Iessrs. Warren De la Rue, JB. Stew-
art, and B. Loeviy (Preliminary Researches — printed for private cir-
culation by Mr. De la Rue). — First Series: On the Nature of Sun-spots
(1865). Second Series: Area Measurements of Carrington Observatory,
and Deductions therefrom (1866). Third Series: On the Distribution
of Spots in Heliographic Latitude.

Keio Researches. — 1. Heliographic Positions and Areas of Sun-
spots observed with the Photoheliograph during the Years 1862 and
1863 (Transactions of Royal Society, London, 1869). 2. Positions and
Areas of Sun-spots observed at Kew during the Three Years 1864
-'66, as well as Fortnightly Values of Spotted Solar Area from 1832 to
1868 (Transactions of Royal Society, London, 1870). 3. On Some Re-
cent Researches in Solar Physics, and a Law regulating the Time of
Duration of the Sun-spot Period (Proceedings of Royal Society, Lon-
don, 1871). 4. Further Investigations on Planetary Influence upon
Solar Activity (Proceedings of Royal Society, London, 1872). 5. On
a Tendency observed in Sun-spots to change alternately from the one
Solar Hemisphere to the other (Proceedings of Royal Society, Lon-
don, 1873).

Besides various miscellaneous papers, not mentioned here. Dr.
Stewart is the author of the following woi-ks :

An Elementary Treatise on Heat ; Lessons in Elementary Physics ;
Conservation of Energy ("International Scientific Series"); and The
Unseen Universe (in conjunction with Prof. Tait).

362

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

MIND-EEADING BY THE EAR.
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

SINCE the publication of my article on
" Physiology of Mind-Reading," in the
February number of your Monthly, I have
received the following, which, as presenting
a new phase of the subject, is of much in-
terest.

There are three general methods of mind-
reading — by the touch, by the eye, and by
the ear. My article was devoted only to the
method and modifications of the method in-
troduced by Brown — by the touch. Mind-
reading by the eye — that is, watching the
movements and changes of the features, or
of the hand or fingers — is done every day
by all of us, and is frequently utilized with
great success by mediums. Mind-reading
by the eav, as described in the first experi-
ment noted in the following letter, is not so
well known. The author of the letter, who
does not wish to have his name used, is also
an expert in the art of mind-reading by the
eye or by the touch.

The "general physiological principle is
the same in all these methods of mind-
reading — namely, the detecting by the op-
erator, through some one of the senses, of
the unconscious muscular or bodily move-
ments of the subject, through mind acting
on body. Gkorge M. Beard, M. D.

Dr. George 31. Beard —

Dear Sir : I was much interested in
your article on the "Physiology of Mind-
JReading," as I have paid more or less at-
tention to the subject, in an amateur way,
for eight or ten years past, and I think that
I can give you some new "developments."

While your theory is undoubtedly cor-
rect, you describe certain conditions as
"essential" which I have found by fre-
quent successful practice to be unnecessary.
Thus you say that the connection between
the subject or subjects must be such "as
easily to allow the sense of muscular tension
to be communicated." The operator or
medium " must be in physical connection
with the subject." Again, "where the con-
nection of the operator with the subject
is made by a wire, so arranged that mass-
motion cannot be communicated, . . . the
operator does just what he would do by
pure chance and no more." In reply to this,
I would say that I am in the habit of re-
peating Brown's tricks of finding hidden
objects, designating persons and things
thought of, etc., without any physical con-

tact whatever, while I am blindfolded, pre-
cisely as Brown was in his public perform-
ances. »
The only condition I require of the
subject is, that he shall follow me at a
distance of about three or four feet, as I
grope my way apparently at random, keep-
ing his mind fixed upon the object. I am
able to tell, by close attention, when he fol-
lows me readily, and when reluctantly ; in
this way I cautiously map out the direction
in which he tends to follow me most readily.
When I approach the vicinity of the object
thought of, he shows no inclination to move
in any one direction. There is, of course,
a certain element of uncertainty in the find-
ing of a small object under these circum-
stances, but the proportion of failures is as-
tonishingly small. I reached this result by
a succession of experiments, first through
a rigid rod, then through a wire, then a
stretched string, then a string with a loop.
I then worked without contact not blind-
folded. I would walk backward, holding
out my right forefinger, and directing the
"subject" to hold his right forefinger, at a
distance of six inches (this would convey to
most people the impression of two terminal
poles of a battery or electrical machine),
and he would often have an imaginary
pricking, as of sparks at the finger-tip. I
would then proceed around the room, and
when moving in the right direction the
hiatus would be rapidly closed between the
two fingers.

I can almost invariably distinguish an
intentional or accidental indication from an
involuntary one, and I do not find that
keeping the "arm perfectly stiff" interferes
very seriously. The indications are not con-
fined to muscular contractions or relaxations
of the arm, but it is a sympathetic move-
ment of the whole body.

It is a curious fact that subjects who
naturally work well will be very slightly
influenced by the explanation of the ap-
parent mystery. You may assure them that
every correct movement you make is only a
translation of their own, and they will de-
clare positively that they are trying to move
in the opptmte direction, and, in fact, they
often do hold back with their feet, while
giving the most positive indications with
their arms.

I have found that a large majority of
well-educated people have an innate bias
for mysteries, and prefer to refer these
" phenomena " to animal magnetism, auras,
psychic or odic force, or any incompre-

CORRESP ONDENCE.

363

hensible cause, rather than to the rational
explanation of unconscious movement.
Some time since, I had a curious illustration
of this f-ict, and at the same time an admi-
rable proof of the physical theory (if any
were required), in an experiment suggested
by a gentleman of this city. I had con-
cluded a successful exhibition at an evening
company, and described the precise method
by which the experiments had been per-
formed. This gentleman said to me pri-
vately that he could suggest an experiment
which, if successful, would disprove my
theory of muscular or physical movement.
I retired from the room, ar.d was brought in
blindfolded. Meanwhile he had requested a
very good subject with whom I had done a
number of complicated things to hide an
article. The gentleman then took the towel
from my head and blindfolded the " sub-
ject " — turned him rapidly round several
times, and told him to think of the object.
He said, " Now you will find it by mental
communication only." I started off rapidly,
but, of course, received no indications. I
then purposely touched his hand to the
niautel-piece in the back-parlor. Instantly
he unconsciously calculated the position of
the hidden article and directed (not led, for
I always go in advance of the "subject")
me toward the front-room ; then he was
lost, until I again touched his hand to
some object, when I received a fresh indica-
tion. In this way I finally found a ten-cent
note, rolled into a little ball, and attached
to the lower knot of a cord running through
the handle of a small feather-duster, which
was hanging from the bell-handle on the
wall. I did not, however, immediately pro-
duce it, as I wished to experiment further.
I led the "subject" off to another part of
the room, and he immediately brought me
back to the duster. Again I led him away
to the same place, and turned him round so
as to confuse him. All indications ceased,
even when I held his hand within an inch
of the duster.

In regard to finding small objects, I
have no difficulty in picking out any letter
on a page of a book or newspaper, and I
frequently spell out abstract thoughts or
names of people, places, etc., thought of, in
this way: I hold a sharp-pointed stick or
pen-handle in my left hand, pointing down-
ward, with the same hand grasping the left
hand of the " subject." I thus pick out
letters on the page which spell the thought
in the mind of the " subject."

The power of perception of these minute
indications is capable of being developed
to an astonishing degree, and I have often
been amazed at the curious effects pro-
duced, a few of which I have indicated to
you.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

In Tyndall's discourse on " Fermenta-
tion and its Bearings on the Phenomena of
Disease," as published in the December
number of The Popular Science Monthly,
he describes an injury he met with in fall-
ing upon some sharp rocks. He limped to
his hotel, and remained quietly in bed for
four or five days, and, having quite recov-
ered, removed the bandages, and found the
wound " perfectly clean, uninflamed, and
entirely free from pus." This slight expos-
ure led to inflammation, an accumulation
of pus, and, finally, to an abscess several
inches below the wound, and might have
led to fatal results. A year after, Tyndall
exposed in the same room tubes containing
organic infusions, and in two days the infu-
sions were swarming with the bacteria of
putrefaction with wliich the dust-laden at-
mosphere was charged.

I have lately been reading General Ha-
zen's interesting book entitled "The School
and the Army," and in it find the following
testimony regarding the treatment of wounds
in in - door and out - door hospitals, which,
taken in connection with Dr. Canniff's cor-
respondence in the April number of your
magazine concerning Dr. Lister's antiseptic
treatment of wounds, may be of interest to
your readers. General Hazen says :

" The Germans have fallen into the same
error that we committed — that of using
buildings for hospitals instead of tents, or
field - hospitals ; and there is scarcely a
doubt that the French will do likewise. It
is unaccountable that scientific and prac-
tical medical men do not appreciate and
advocate the advantages of out-door over
in - door hospitals. It is a matter of the
gravest importance, and the humane societies
of Christendom can in no way do more good
than by thoroughly investigating and mak-
ing generally known the facts relating to
permanent hospitals in time of war. Tlie
seeds of disease cling to the walls, ceilings,
and floors, and the death-rate of the wounded
is often greatly increased by putting them
in these places. So strongly was I impressed
with this in our war that, as far as was in
my power, I kept my wounded out of them.
At the battle of Mission Ridge, the colonel
of the Forty-first Ohio lost his leg above the
knee by a musket-shot I forbade his going
to hospital, and caused him to be treated in
his rude, split-shingle cabin, and his recov-
ery was remarkably rapid. Officers of my
command who were grazed by musket-shot
upon the arms were put into the hospital,
and died from gangrene. At that battle the
wounded of General Thomas's army were
treated in fixed hospitals, or buildings fitted
up beforehand at Chattanooga, with many
comforts and good care. The proportion of
deaths among the wounded was frightful ;
and we were told that it was due to the low

364

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vital condition of our men, resulting from
short rations. The fact was, they died from
hospital diseases. General Sherman's army,
just arrived from Mississippi, without hos-
pitals, treated their wounded in the field,
and the proportion of recoveries was aston-
ishingly great. They were cured by fresh
air. At the battle of Peach-Tree Creek, a
very worthy staff- officer of mine was se-
riously, although not dangerously, wounded
in the abdomen. The medical rules were
very strict, but, by sending messengers all
night, I got authority to send him home to
the North, without his going to the hospital.
Arriving at Nashville, and being unable to
proceed without further medical authoiity,
he was taken charge of, and put into one
of their comfortable hospitals. In a few
days he became terribly afliicted with gan-
grene, and only escaped with his life after a
perilous and racking illness."

These observations are doubtless familiar
to surgeons ; but if, with Tyndall's experi-
ments, they are found to be absolutely cor-
rect, does it not become necessary to exam-
ine into the condition of the various hospi-
tals throughout the country, and to provide
at least some special conditions for the treat-
ment of flesh-wounds — an apartment, for
example, separated from the main building,
which may be deluged at intervals with su-
perheated steam to destroy the germs, or
such other precaution as shall insure an
atmosphere of absolute purity during the
dressing of wounds ?

We would commend this subject to the
State Boards of Health.

Edward S. Morse.
Salem, Massachusetts, April 26, 1877.

THE NEW IDEAS ABOUT SPACE.

To the EdUor of the Popular Science Monthly.

The great attention now given to this
subject in Europe seems to render appro-
priate a short communication to bring it
more directly before Americans. In point
of fact, the mathematicians have been
making a conquering migration into the
fair fields of philosophy, and instead of any
longer being content to receive from Meta-
physics her definitions of space, they have
for themselves attacked the question by
the methods furnished by two thousand
years of advance in their own science. Al-
ready they have made some wonderful
strides toward the solution, and the new
notions are very fascinating.

It is, perhaps, daring to attempt to give
an adequate idea of some of these without
the use of mathematical symbols and ana-
lytic geometry ; still it seems desirable for
each of the special sciences to be able to
express results in untechnical language, and
we will try.

Every schoolboy knows that what is
called multiplying a linear inch by a linear
inch gives a square inch, and that again
multiplying this square inch by a linear
inch gives a cubic inch. Now, I suppose,
many of the most original boys may have
asked themselves, "What would be the re-
sult of multiplying this cubic inch again by a
linear inch ? " Up to this nineteenth century
the answer has probably always been, that
the thing was unthinkable and inexpressible,
and that, although by analogy we see no
reason for being stopped so abruptly, yet
such is our invariable experience.

Now, the two men who first and inde-
pendently stepped over this mental fence
were the great Gauss whom Germany is now
celebrating, and a Russian named Lobat-
chewsky. They both said that the space
with which we are familiar is only one kind
of space out of a number of possible spaces,
each logically self-consistent ; but that, from
the fact of all our ages of experience being
in this particular space, we cannot perfectly
picture to ourselves any one of the other
kinds, though they are entirely expressible
in analytic geometry.

Now, it has often been remarked that
in things very familiar to us we see nothing
noteworthy. So we see nothing strange in
our conception of a straight line and a plane,
yet we may think it strange when we are
told that this peculiar notion of straight-
ness, smoothness, or flatness, is also inherent
in our ideas of our space. This was dis-
covered many years ago by Prof Sylvester,
and, to denote it, he called our space a hom-
aloid, or a homaloidal space. To us it al-
ways has three dimensions, and no more;
and, just here, all readers may be advised
not to try to jndure to themselves any
higher kind of space, since they must fail
as utterly as they fail to see the ultra-violet
rays of the spectrum. Moreover, it has not
yet been demonstrated that any other kind
of space actually exists in the physical
world. This is a matter which can only be
settled by physical experiments ; and per-
haps it is to be hoped that our old space
will stand all tests, for, should it not, then
all our science would have to be put on a
new basis, at least in so far as related to
space. So, you see, no one need be dis-
couraged at his inability to perfectly con-
ceive any other space than our common one.
But, as the others are logically possible and
mathematically true, and are necessary to
get a complete knowledge of our own space,
we will attempt to convey some notion of
them. In our space we have length, breadth,
and height, and to each of these corre-
sponds a coordinate in analytic geometry.
This is why we call ours a space of three
dimensions, and we cannot picture any other
dimension. But we find analytic geometry
just as ready to deal with a space which

CORRESP ONDENCE.

365

should be like ours in every other way, but
should have another or fourth dimension ;
and this led to the question, " May not our
space have a fourth dimension '? "

Now, our only way of reasoning about
the matter is to take analogous cases in the
picturable spaces of two dimensions, and
carry the analogies up from two to three,
from three to four dimensions.

Let us take the easiest illustration.
Suppose beings not living on the surface of
a sphere, but in the surface of a sphere, and
so having no conception of the third dimen-
sion of space.

Now, if they were so small as only to per-
ceive a small portion of their surface, they
might easily think it a plane, as the ancients
thought our earth, and so their geometry
would be the same as Euclid's.

But, if they were originally created so
large in proportion to their spherical sur-
face as to be immediately affected by its
positive curvature, then they would never
gather any experience of parallel lines, or
of geometrical similarity between figures of
different sizes. A straight line being the
shortest distance between two points, then
all their straight lines or geodesic lines
would return upon themselves ; and as also
any two straightest lines on a sphere must
meet somewhere, our imaginary surface
men could never learn our theory of paral-
lels and geometry, unless, as has been sug-
gested, they should produce mathematicians
sufficiently powerful first to imagine and in-
vestigate a surface in which two straight
lines might be drawn so as to remain at the
same distance apart to infinity ; that is, if they
could in any way be supposed to have the
idea of infinity. Then, as Land says: " Rea-
soning on this, and a few more suppositions,
they might discover the analytical geometry
of the plane. Combining this with their
original spherical theorems, some genius
among them might conceive the bold hy-
pothesis of a third dimension in space,
and demonstrate that actual observations
are perfectly explained by it. Henceforth
there would be a double set of geometrical
axioms ; one the same as ours, belonging to
science, and another resulting from experi-
ence in a spherical surface only, belonging
to daily life."

In reference to our own science of to-
day, the two analogous questions are :

1. May we not be drawing wrong con-
clusions about space from our limited ex-
perience of space, just as the Greeks con-
cluded that the earth was flat ?

2. If our conclusions so far are true, yet
may there not be, in addition to the three
dimensions we know, still another or fourth
dimension in space?

The idea of space of four dimensions
has been successfully used by Salmon, Clif-
ford, and Sylvester, in their researches, and

Cayley has published " Chapters in the Ana-
lytical Geometry of n Dimensions." Spaces
of two and three dimensions with constant
curvature have been carefully investigated
by Beltrami, Helmholtz, and now Frankland.
I mention these as among the most impor-
tant and easily procurable writings on the
subject. In reality there have been about
a hundred books and memoirs treating of
new or non-Euclidean space.

Of that kind of non-Euclidean surface
now being discussed in Nature, a very
pretty idea may be obtained by likening it
to a hemisphere on which, when any moving
point has reached the edge, it is supposed,
without any jump or any further motion, to
have reached the corresponding point on
the ojiposite edge, so that the meridians,
great circles, shortest lines, instead of inter-
secting twice, as they do on the earth, only
intersect once and yet return upon them-
selves. This, like the sphere, is called a
surface of positive curvature, in reference
to the plane, which has no curvature.

Now, just as to the plane corresponds an
uncurved or homaloidal space, so to a sur-
face of positive curvature corresponds a
space of positive curvature ; and if the space
in which we live can be proved to have the
slightest positive curvature, it instantly fol-
lows that the universe is only finite in
extent, and that every physical straight
line, for example, every ray of light, if suf-
ficiently produced, returns into itself.

Yours very truly,

George Bruce Halsted.

Johns Hopkins University, )
Baltimore, 3Iay 20, 18T7. j

"THE EARLY MAN OF NOETH AMERICA."

To the Editor of the Popular Science Mordhly.

In an article in your March number,
upon " The Early Man of North America,"
the writer says of the Esquimaux, " They are
from their speech a branch of the Turanian
family, and allied to the Hungarian, Turkish,
Lapp, and Basque races." Whitney, in his
work on " Life and Growth of Language,"
says of the Basque : " It stands entirely
alone ; no kindred having been found for it
in any part of the world." He further says :
"Attempts have been made to connect them "
(the American languages) " with some dia-
lect or family in the Old World, but with
obviously unavoidable ill success. . . . There
appears to be no tolerable prospect that,
even supposing the American languages de-
rived from the Old World, they can ever
be proved so, or traced to their parentage."
In the same article thei"e is the statement
that the Esquimaux " extend in scattered
companies for nearly five hundred miles on
the coast of Asia beyond Beliring's Straits,"
while other writers assert that the Esqui-

366

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

maux have no kindred on the Eastern Con-
tinent.

As the philosopher of the nineteenth
century claims that " in his hands theory
is never divorced from fact," we who are
not philosophers complain, as we have the
right to do, when they fiatly contradict each
other and furnish no evidence to fortify
their statements. We accept their dicta so
long as they agree, but we object to a dic-
tum which contradicts another dictum equal-
ly respectable. D. A. Hdlett.

New Toek, May 12, 187T.

EDIBLE MUSHROOMS.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Sir : In the paper on " Mushrooms," etc.,
in the last number of your Monthly, I think
Mr. Julius A. Palmer, Jr., uses the name of
*' Dr. Curtis, of South Carolina," for that of
the great mycologist, Dr. Moses A. Curtis,
of North Carolina, in connection with let-
ters written to Mr. Sprague on " Mush-
rooms." Whether that is so or not, I am
safe in saying that during our late war Dr.
Moses A. Curtis wrote a work on "The
Edible Fungi of North Carolina," illu.«trated
with colored drawings by his son (I believe
the Rev. Charles Curtis), and this manu-
script work is still in existence. It is the
result of Dr. Curtis's botanical investiga-
tions, as well as of his personal experience,
as to which of the mushrooms are fit to eat.
Many times, I am told, the good doctor had
uncomfortable symptoms after trying a new
mushroom, but you may be sure he did not
stop until he learned more about it. His re-
searches were begun in the war with a view
to furnish such information to his people as
would enable them to recognize edible
mushrooms, and so supplement the poor
diet so universal among even the better
classes, but I believe he never cared to pub-
lish the work. I deem it but justice to
the memory of Dr. Curtis to make this
statement. Thomas F. Wood.

"Wilmington, North Carolina, April 80, 1877.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Sir : Will you permit a suggestion as to
Mr. Herbert Spencer's descriptive term
"negatively quantitative," and his specifi-
cations under it ? It appears to me to be-
long to an undesirable class of definitions,
because its defining part consists not only
in asserting the absence of something, but
in so asserting it as to require just as much
the assertion of all the other absences that
exist. That is to say, Mr. Spencer's defi-

nition, and his explanations of it, as cited
in the Monthly of March, page 611, appear to
me to necessarily imply the following pre-
liminary proposition (which I do not think
Mr. Spencer meant to imply) : "A definition
may consist of a statement that a single
quality or characteristic is excluded from
the thing defined." Now, of course, a defi-
nition, to be a good one, must accomplish
two things, neither of which the above is :
it must specify the qualities which the thing
defined does possess ; and it must exclude —
not some one other, but — all others..

Further : is not the term " negatively
quantitative " liable to be misunderstood
from ambiguity? It seems to me that it
may honestly be taken to mean either of
the two following :

1. Being such as to exclude deahng with
quantity or quantities.

2. Being such as to include, so far as it
does deal with quantities, only what are
called "negative quantities."

These are, of course, quite different
meanings. It appears to me that Mr. Spen-
cer applied the former, and that Mr. Halsted.
in his communication to you, had in his
mind the latter. If so, a misunderstanding
was pretty likely.

I need not explain the benefit of avoid-
ing the use for one purpose of terms already
employed for another. And as I am a sin-
cere admirer of Mr. Spencer, and of his great
contributions to the advancement of sound
thought, I hope you will not suppose I want
to do anything in the way of attacking or
fault-finding. F. B. P.

Boston, April 8, 1877.

THE HABITAT OF THE GAR-PIKE.

To the Editor of the Popular Scienpe Monthly.

Sir : Since the publication, in the May
number, of the first part of my article " Gar-
Pikes, Old and Young," I have had informa-
tion as to the occurrence of Lepidosttus in
Black Lake, near Ogdensburg, New York ;
in the Patapsco River, Maryland, and in the
Edisto, Ashepoo, and Combahee Rivers,
South Carolina.

It being commonly supposed that Lrpi-
dosteus is rarely found outside of the Great
Lakes or the Mississippi River and its tribu-
taries, I shall be much obliged to your
readers for any information as to its occur-
rence elsewhere. Particularly valuable
would be facts as to the time and place of
spawning; and the eggs or newly-hatched
young are greatly desired.

B0RT G. Wilder.

Ithaca, New York, May 10, 1877.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

367

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE STUDY OF NATURE /JV SCHOOLS.

THE progress of scientific education
is slow, but the evidences of its
reality are unmistakable. Among the
recent and most encouraging illustra-
tions of it, we note the various arrange-
ments in different colleges for making
excursions and expeditions for observa-
tion and the collection of specimens by
students who are sufficiently interested
to extend their studies in these direc-
tions. The excursions are to be in
charge of competent professors, and the
time of vacation is to be devoted to the
work. The idea is excellent, as it will
combine the pleasure of travel and out-
of-door activity with valuable mental
acquisition, which need not be so close
or severe as to neutralize the advan-
tages of vacation. It is especially in
geology and natural history that the
benefits of such excursions will be most
obvious. In the former of these sci-
ences, field-observation and the inspec-
tion of rocks, minerals, and landscape
features in different localities, are re-
quisite to give reality to knowledge
and redeem the study from the illusive-
ness and unreality of its pursuit in mere
text-books. Botany and zoology also
are subjects which call their devotees
into field and forest, mountain and val-
ley, and require a kind of peripatetic
cultivation. These vacation excursions,
half for pleasure and half for profit, are
valuable indications both of the in-
creasing interest of this class of mental
pursuits, and of an increasing appreci-
ation of the only proper method of car-
rying them forward ; while the friends
of science have reason for congratula-
tion at these signs of improvement in
rational scientific culture.

But the obverse of this picture
should not be overlooked. We cannot

conceal from ourselves that these ex-
cursions are things to be thankful for,
very much because of the defects of
normal study throughout the year. Of
course the vacation is a season of lib-
erty, and allows a range of wandering
which school confinement does not per-
mit; and it is possible that excursion-
work may be nothing more than a freer
extension of the habitual practice in
the school — which, of course, is the way
it should be. Yet the open study of
Nature, in her living objects, is undoubt-
edly, in most cases, rather a contrast to
college experience than a continuation
of it. It is to be remembered that the
college has still a definite somewhere
in Nature, from which the student can
have an outlook upon realities, although
the traditional scholarship makes little
account of this circumstance. There
are natural objects enough at hand,
and crowding the collegiate environ-
ment, to illustrate a wide range of scien-
tific study, if it were the policy of these
institutions to make such objects avail-
able for this purpose. It is well to go
away to find and examine new things,
where that is convenient, or where it
may be specially necessitated; but it
should not be held to imply that there
are not abundant facilities all around
and everywhere for securing the same
general object. The study of Nature
is beginning to be recognized as an im-
portant part of common education, but
it remains yet to be organized for this
end.

THE ACCUSATION OF ATHEISM.

It has been suggested that, if Dr.
Draper had entitled his book " A His-
tory of the Conflict between Ecclesiasti-
cism and Science," instead of "between

368

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Keligion and Science," he would have
disarmed criticism, and saved himself
from a great deal of theological abuse ;
but he preferred to credit people who
profess religion with having it and
being influenced by it, in their treat-
ment of science. There is, indeed, no
ground for impeaching the general
sincerity of religious people who are
alarmed at the advancement of science,
and denounce it as subversive of faith.
Their difficulty is simply that of nar-
rowness and ignorance, inspired by a
fanatical earnestness. Atheism has now
come to be a familiar and stereotyped
charge against men of science, both on
the part of the pulpit and the religious
press. Not that they accuse all sci-
entific men of atheism, but they al-
lege this to be the tendency of scien-
tific thought, and the outcome of scien-
tific philosophy. It matters nothing
that this imputation is denied ; it mat-
ters nothing that scientific men claim
that their studies lead them to higher
and more worthy conceptions of the
Divine power, manifested through the
order of Nature, than the conceptions
offered by theology. It is enough that
they disagree with current notions upon
this subject, and any diflference of view
is here held as atheism.

In this, as we have said, the theo-
logians may be honest, but they are
narrow and bigoted ; and it is surpris-
ing that they cannot see that, in ar-
raigning scientific thinkers for atheism,
they are simply doing what stupid
fanatics the world over are always
doing when ideas of the Deity differ-
ent from their own are maintained.
And it is the more surprising that
Christian teachers should indulge in
this intolerant practice, when it is re-
membered that their own faith was
blackened with this opprobrium at its
first promulgation. In a very able
article by Prof. Zeller, of Berlin, on
" The Contest of Heathenism with
Christianity," reprinted in The Poptj-
LAB Science Supplement, No. II., tliis

interesting subject is taken up, and
the writer remarks upon it as follows :

" To the heathen nations, the Christians
were in the first place atheists ; for in every
age this name has been given to those wlio
did not agree with tlie j)revailing conceptions
of the Deity ; not only when they denied liis
existence, but when they sought to instill a
more just and worthy idea of God. ' Down
with the atheists ! ' this was the war-crj' of
the heathen mob against the Christians.
It was with this cry, for example, that in
A. D. 156 the venerable Bishop Polycarp was
received on the race-course at Smyrna.
The only gods the people knew anything
about, whose temples they frequented,
whose statues they worshiped, to whom
they offered sacrifices and prayers, were
denied by the Christians; they were de-
clared to be the inventions of man's super-
stition, and sometimes to be evil spirits,
devils. Can we wonder that the people
who were still devoted to these gods felt
the attack upon them to be an attack upon
themselves, their most sacred and cherished
possessions ; that they were the more deep-
ly incensed at it the more seriously they
feared by toleration of it to lose the favor of
the gods on wliom their welfare depended ?
The reproach of atheism was therefore the
most dangerous that could be brought
against the Christians. In that 'Down
with the atheists ! ' with which the yells
of the mob greeted Polycarp at Smyrna,
was included the sentence of death, which
they at once proceeded to execute by pre-
paring tlie stake. And the cry was fol-
lowed in numberless cases by the same
results. If any public misfortune, any
alarming event occurred, which seemed to
indicate the displeasure of the gods — a pes-
tilence, a dearth, a flood, an eclipse, an
earthquake — superstition was always ready
to make the Christians responsible for it,
as enemies of the gods ; the exclamation
was sure to be heard, ' The Christians to
the lions ! ' Both the educated and uned-
ucated have always attributed every other
wickedness to the enemies of the gods, and
so it was with the Christians. Being athe-
ists, they were also criminals, and all man-
ner of horrible stories were told of them.
It was not enough that they were said to
worship a god with the head of an ass,
which we see represented to this day in
a caricature of that period, the well-known
mock crucifix in the Kircher Museum at
Kome ; it was said, also, that in their se-
cret assemblies they practised all sorts of

EDITOR'S TABLE.

369

horrors, killed and devoured children, and
gave themselves up to frightful excesses.
Scarcely any evils were attributed to the
Jews in the middle ages by Christian fti-
natics which had not been before attributed
to the Christians by heathen superstition."

It would be well if our theologians
would remember these things when
tempted to deal out their m'iledictions
upon scientific men as propagators of
atheism. For the history of their own
faith attests that religious ideas are a
growth, and that they pass from lower
states to higher unfoldings through
processes of inevitable suffering. It
was undoubtedly a great step of prog-
ress from polytheism to monotheism ;
as it was cartainly a most painful tran-
sition to lose the idea of a social hier-
archy of human or superhuman im-
mortals constantly mixed up with hu-
man affairs and the working of Nature,
and to substitute the idea of a solitary
divine personality, related to mankind
chiefly through a special theological
scheme. But this was neither the final
step in the advancement of the human
mind toward the highest conception of
the Deity, nor the last experience of
disquiet and grief at sundering the ties
of old religious associations. But if
this be a great normal process in the
development of the religious feeling
and aspiration of humanity, why should
the Christians of to-day adopt the
bigoted tactics of heathenism, first ap-
plied to themselves, to use against those
who would still further ennoble and
purify the ideal of the Divinity ? It
cannot be rationally questioned that
the world has come to another impor-
tant stage in this line of its progres-
sion. The knowledge of the universe,
its action, its harmony, its unity, its
boundlessness and grandeur, is com-
paratively a recent thing ; and is it to
be for a moment supposed that so vast
a revolution as this is to be without
effect upon our conceptions of its Di-
vine control? Is it rational to expect
that the man of developed intellect,

VOL. XI. — 24

whose life is spent in the all-absorbing
study of that mighty and ever-expand-
ing system of truth that is embodied
in the method of Nature, will form
the same idea of God as the ignorant
blockhead who knows and cares noth-
ing for these things, who is incapable
of reflection or insight, and who pas-
sively accepts the narrow notions upon
this subject that other people put into
his head ? As regards the Divine gov-
ernment of the world, two such con-
trasted minds can hardly have anything
in common. "As a man think eth, so is
he ; " and as a man is, so will he think.
If he is ignorant and stupid, his con-
templation of divine things will reflect
his own low limitations. He will cling
to a grovehng anthropomorphism and
conceive of the Deity as a man like
himself, only greater and more powerful,
and as chiefly interested in the things
that he is interested in. If he delights
in the pious excitement of "revivals,"
he will think of the Almighty as the
patron of camp-meetings, and as watch-
ing from on high with special solicitude
the doings of Moody and Sankey in
Boston. It is superfluous to say that
men who look upon the universe as
science has disclosed it cannot much
sympathize with this view of the Deity
and all that it implies. The profound
student of science will rise to a more
spiritualized and abstract ideal of the
Divine nature, or will be so oppressed
with a consciousness of the Infinity as
to reverently refrain from all attempts
to grasp, and formulate, and limit the
nature of that which is " past finding
out," which is unspeakable and unthink-
able. Eeligious feeling may be awak-
ened in both those minds ; but its in-
spirations and its accompaniments will
be as wide asunder as the poles. Our
religious teachers ought in these days
to have liberality enough to recognize
this serious fact, and remembering that
human nature is religiously progressive,
as well as progressive in its other capa-
cities, should abstain from copying the

37°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bad example of narrow-minded heathen
thousands of years ago, who treated
the Christians very much as many
Christians now treat those who are
devoted to the gospel of science.

THE FAMILY AND THE STATE.

Wk commend to those students of
social questions who are interested in
their scientific aspects the essay " On
the Evolution of the Family," by Mr.
Herbert Spencer, which was begun in
the June Monthly, and is concluded in
our present number. The article is an
instructive illustration of what is prop-
erly meant by social science, and it also
shows what is gained for the subject by
investigating its phenomena from the
standpoint of evolution. It is obvious
that we can know little of the nature
of the family until we have a right idea
of its origin ; and it is equally evident
that it cannot be intelligently and wise-
ly dealt with, either by social or politi-
cal arrangements, on a false theory of
its derivation and consequent erroneous
views of its constitution. It is a cur-
rent belief that the family is as old as
humanity, and is an indestructible ele-
ment of human society, and much the
same thing everywhere. Even such in-
quirers into the philosophy of political
history as Mr. Maine commence their
researches by assuming the family or
patriarchal group as a starting point.
But on the theory of evolution this form
of the domestic relations must be ac-
counted for. The patriarchal condition
was an outgrowth of earlier conditions,
the complex resultant of a preexisting
state which there is reason to believe
was far more prolonged than the period
that has elapsed since the family was
instituted. Be that as it may, the point
of view now gained is that of the family
as a growth, a product of the slow inter-
action of various natural agencies, and
an institution therefore that is liable to
impairment, disintegration, and decay.

This conception of the family gives
an interest to the question of its relation
to the state that no other hypothesis
enforces. The family is older than the
state, and grew up without it by nat-
ural laws and through long domestic
experience and social discipline. The
state is a subsequent development, a
new direction of the power of society
which is liable to be so exercised as to
disturb and modify in serious ways the
domestic relations. A child cannot
build a house, but it can burn it down ;
the state did not make the family, but
it can mar and destroy it. If, as Mr.
Spencer alleges, "the salvation of every
society depends on the maintenance of
an absolute opposition between the re-
gime of the family and the regime of the
state," governmental tendencies become
a matter of the gravest social concern.
And tliese considerations acquire addi-
tional force in a country like this, where
the whole people are given over to poli-
tics, and where there is a universal pas-
sion for experimenting with society un-
der a superstitious delusion in regard to
the omnipotence of legislation. If the
principle laid down by Spencer be a
true one, then are the functions of gov-
ernment sharply limited, and, by tran-
scending them, the state to that extent
usurps domestic functions, and becomes
destructive of the family. The family
grew up and became consolidated, as we
may say, under pressure of necessities
and responsibilities that could not be
escaped, as there was no state upon
which parents could roll off their bur-
dens. But the state has come, and be-
sides its essential duty of protecting the
common rights, it is becoming more and
more called upon to take care of tlie
people, to improve the condition of the
people, to take charge of their children,
in short to assume the " parental " func-
tion. We have already gone so far in
our state meddling with the work of ed-
ucation and relieving parents from the
responsible care of their children, that
the demand is now urgently made by

LITERARY NOTICES.

371

progressive teachers and advanced edu-
cational reformers that the government
shall follow out the policy to its logical
and consistent consequences, and assume
the complete educational control of the
young. From the time of weaning to
graduation, the state (that is, the politi-
cians who at any time happen to be in
office) will hire the teachers and pay
them, prescribe the studies, furnish the
books, build the schoolhouses, and ad-
minister the discipline by which charac-
ter is to be formed. This is an invasion
of the domestic sphere, and an abroga-
tion of those domestic functions by
which the family was called into exist-
ence and has ever been maintained. Our
school system is applauded on account
of its imposing parade of statistics, its
profuse expense, and the millions of
children that the state has got charge
of; but, when its indirect influences are
taken into account, it may be found
that, like most other human contriv-
ances, it entails evil as well as good.
Which shall preponderate, it remains
for time to tell.

LITERARY NOTICES.

New Lands within the Arctic Circle.
Xarrative of the Discoveries of the
Austrian Ship Tegetthoff, in the Years
1872-1874. By Julius Payer, one of
the Commanders of the Expedition.
With Maps and numerous Illustrations,
from Drawings by the Author. Pp.
399. New York : " D. Appleton & Co.
Price, $3.50.

The honor will be unhesitatingly accord-
ed to Lieutenant Payer of having written
the most deeply-interesting volume that has
yet appeared on arctic adventure and ex-
ploration. We have rarely been so fasci-
nated by a book of any kind, upon any
subject. The experiences of the party were
tragic and of thrilling intensity, and the
narrative of them is in a remarkable degree
vivid and graphic ; so that, with the numer-
ous and admirable illustrations, all drawn
on the spot from Nature, we are made deep-
ly to participate in the feelings of the he-
roic group of adventurers who were so long

locked up amid the terrible desolations of
Nature in the arctic region.

In a preliminary notice by the transla-
tor, the leading features of the expedition
are thus summarized :

"The interest which will be excited afresh
in arctic discovery and adventure will doubtless
sharpen the interest in the volumes which re-
cord the fortunes of the Austrian Expedition;
and we venture to affirm — without undue par-
tiality—that, though the history of arctic ex-
ploration and discovery abounds in records of
lofty resolution and patient endurance of almost
incredible hardships, the narrativeof the voyage
of the Tegetthoff will be found to fall below none
in these high qualities. The mere destiny of
the vessel itself equals, if it does not exceed, in
the element of the marvelous, anything which
has before been recorded. Surely this is borne
out when we think that, on August 20, 1873, the
Tegetthoff was beset off the coast of Nova Zem-
bla; remained a fast prisoner in the ice, spite of
all the efforts made by her officers and crew to
release her; drifted, during the autumn and the
terrible winter of 18T2— amid profound darkness
—whither they knew not; drifted to the :iOth of
August in the following year (1873), till, as if by
magic, the mists lifted, and, lo I a high, bold,
rocky coast— latitude 79° 43' north, longitude 59°
33'— loomed out of the fog, straight ahead of
them. Close to this land— which could be visit-
ed with safety only twice, on the 1st and 3d of
November of that year — the ship remained still
fast bound in the ice. Not till the winter of
18(3 had passed, and the sun had again returned,
was it possible to explore the land which had
been so marvelously discovered. On the 10th
of March, 1874, the sledge-journeys commenced,
and terminated May 3d, after 450 miles had been
passed over, and the surveys and explorations
completed, which enabled Payer to write the
description of Kaiser Franz-Josef Land (pp.
258-270), which shows that other still undefined
lands, with an archipelago of islands, have been
added to the geography of the earth."

For more than two years the party were
prisoners in their ship, of which they had
lost all control, and, after passing two hor-
rible winters in this distressing helplessness,
it became clear that they must quit the
ship or perish, and, in fact, there was small
hope of saving their lives even by leaving
it. Three boats were loaded with neces-
saries, and thpy started, May 20th, to dig
their way through the deep snows and amid
the mountainous ice-hummocks to open wa-
ter. We extract from Payer's diary :

" The first day's work for twenty-three men,
harnessed to boat or sledge, was the advance of
one mile; and even this rate of progress, small
as it was, was not constant. Many days it did
not amount to half a mile. The sledges sank

372

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

deep and stuck fast in the snow. We had to
pass three times heavily laden, and twice emp-
ty, over every bit of the road, and half our num-
ber were scarcely able to move a sledge or boat.
After the exertion of some days, raw wounds
appeared on the shoulders of several, and, to
add to our trials, we suffered intensely from
thirst. Nine men were sent back to the ship to
bring away the jolly-boat and more stores, and
it took just three hours to do the distance which
it had cost the advance party eight days to ac-
complish. On onr return to the boats, we found
their crews were sitting up, and looking out like
young birds in a nest, to see what we had
brought from the ship. . . . Happy the man who
has any tobacco; happy he who after smoking
his pipe does not fall into a faint; happy, too,
the man who finds a fragment of a newspaper in
some corner or other, even if there should be
nothing contained in it but the money-market
intelligence, or, perhaps, directions to be fol-
lowed in the preparation of pease-sausage. En-
viable is he who discovers a hole in his fur coat
which he can mend; but happiest of all are those
who can sleep day and night. Of these latter,
tome have stowed themselves away under row-
ing-seats, and above them reposes a second lay-
er of sleepers; but nothing is visible of either
party but the soles of their feet. . . . The end
of the Franklin Expedition, and the history of
the two skeletons which were found in the boat,
is told again for the twentieth time — a story
which never fails to produce a harrowing effect,
and to rouse the firm and resolute to yet greater
efforts and self-command. . . . One solace is left
us— the solace of smoking. Some, indeed, have
exhausted their whole stock of tobacco. He
who has half a pouch of it at his disposal is the
object of general respect, and the man who can
invite his neighbor to a pipe of tobacco and a
pot of water is considered to do an act of pro-
fuse liberality. Tobacco becomes a medium of
exchange among us, and provisions are bought
and paid for with it, its value rising every day.
There is no difference between day and night,
and Sundays are only distinguished by dressing
the boat with flags. In this enforced idleness
passed away the days between the 9th and 15th
of June, save that on the 14th we changed our
place by three hundred yards, in order to select
a more convenient spot for seal-hunting, and to
keep up the appearance of traveling."

The unparalleled hardships of this strug-
gle raay be inferred from Lieutenant Payer's
remark, page 364, that, " after the lapse of
two months of indescribable efforts, the dis-
tance between us and the ship was not more
tluin nine English miles.''''

But the open sea was at length reached,
and on the 15th of August the boats were
dressed with flags, ballasted, the sledges
left behind, and the expedition put off. The
party had passed ninety-six days in the
open air after leaving the Tegetthoff, when

a small boat was descried, with two men in
it, apparently engaged in bird-catching ;
and, upon turning the corner of a rock, two
ships were discovered, within a few hundred
yards. They were Russian vessels, engaged
in salmon-fishing ; and the strangers were
received on board with mingled feelings of
wonder and sympathy. Lieutenant Payer
remarks :

" No grandees could have been received with
more dignity than we were. At the sight of the
two ukases which we had received from St.
Petersburg, and which required all inhabitants
of the Russian Empire to furnish us with all the
help we needed, these humble seamen bared
their heads and bowed themselves to the earth.
We had an example before us to show how or-
ders are obeyed by the subjects of that empire
a thousand miles from the place where they were
issued. But we were received not only in this
reverential manner, but were welcomed with
the greatest heartiness, and the best of every-
thing on board was spread before us— salmon,
reindeer-flesh, eider-geese, eggs, tea, bread,
butler, brandy. The second skipper then came
on board, and invited us to visit him— the first
of a series of invitations. Dr. Kepes was very
pressingly invited, for he had a sick man on
board his vessel, and our doctor returned with
an honorarium of tobacco in his hand. These
simple Russian seamen of the arctic seas freely
produced their little stock of good thiuf^s to give
us pleasure; and one of them, after observing
me for a long time, and thinking that I did not
express myself suflSciently strongly for a happy
man, persuaded himself that something was the
matter with me, and that I wanted something.
Forthwith he went to his chest, and brought me
all the white bread he had, and the whole re-
maining stock of his tobacco. Though I did not
imderstand a word he said, his address was full
of unmistakable heartiness, and so far needed no
interpreter."

We have preferred to let the author of
this work speak for himself rather than to
attempt any description of it, which would
certainly be unsatisfactory within our nar-
row limits. But we may add that it is a
volume of great scientific interest. For
half a century arctic adventure has been
inspired by a sentiment of rivalry to reach
the pole, although more and more it has
been recognized that its real object should
be the extension of our knowledge of Na-
ture under its remarkable arctic aspects.
Lieutenant Payer has entered fully into this
view ; and his volume is not only charming
as a narrative, but contains a great deal of
important scientific information.

LITERARY NOTICES.

373

The Cooking Manual ; or, Practical Direc-
tions for Economical Every Day Cook-
ery. By Juliet Corson, Superintendent
of the New York Cooking School. New
York : Dodd, Mead & Co. Pp. 144.
Price, 50 cents.

easily read. We believe it will be found
eminently trustworthy as a kitchen hand-
book.

Miss Corson has done well to give the
public this result of her experience in culi-
nary teaching, in a form so cheap that it
may have the widest possible usefulness.
She is a common-sense woman, and takes
up the subject from a point of view that is
thoroughly practical. The motto of her
book is the following significant question,
" How well can we live if we are moderately
poor ? " and it is the object of her little vol-
ume, as it has been the object of her school,
so to present the subject of cooking and
household management as to answer this
question. Her object in preparing it is
thus stated : " This book is intended for the
use of those housekeepers and cooks who
wish to know how to make the most whole-
some and palatable dishes, at the least pos-
sible cost. In cookery, this fact should be
remembered above all others— a good cook
never wastes. It is her pride to make the
most of everything in the shape of food
intrusted to her care, and her pleasure to
serve it in the most appetizing form. In no
other way can she prove her excellence, for
poor cooks are always wasteful and extrava-
gant." To the prejudice against foreign
ways of cooking Miss Corson replies very
effectually, pointing out that the two great
objects to be ever secured in the kitchen—
the art of utilizing every part of food, and
of making food the most palatable and en-
joyable— are eminently French.

Miss Corson says, " The day has passed
for regarding cooking as a menial and vul-
gar labor." She is very sanguine ; we wish
we could believe it. We wish we could see
some more decisive signs that it is passing
away ; we wish we could see some faint in-
dications that it will have passed away in a
hundred years! Our school system stands
in the way of it, and where are the symp-
toms of its decline?

Miss Corson's book is full of excellent
information, scientific hints, practical sug-
gestions, and plain receipts, descriptive of
the preparation of many important dishes,
and the publishers have got it up. in a neat
form, with good, clear type, that can be

The Best Reading : Hints on the Selection
of Books ; on the Formation of Libra-
ries, Public and Private ; on Courses of
Reading, etc., with a Classified Bibliog-
raphy for Easy Reference. Fourth re-
vised and enlarged edition, continued to
August, 18V6, with the Addition of Se-
lect Lists of the best French, German,
Spanish, and Italian Literature. Edited
by Frederick Beecher Perkins. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 343.
Price, $1.75.

This guide will be valuable to all who
buy books for private libraries or public
collections. It has been tried and found
successful. It names the best books now
usually in the market in the chief depart-
ments, and on the leading topics of current
and general literature, with their editions
and retail prices. It is conveniently ar-
ranged for ready use, and will give the book-
buyer a large amount of valuable informa-
tion, that will help him in making judicious
selections, either on the small or the large
scale.

The Milton Anthology : Selected from the
Prose Writings. New York : Henry Holt
& Co. Pp. 486. Price, $2.
Milton's prose works have been so
eclipsed by his poetry that they are popu-
larly known only by hearsay ; yet so great
is their merit, both in a literary point of
view and as containing the most able and
eloquent defense of civil and religious lib-
erty which had been given to the world up
to his time, that the plan of collecting some
of his best papers in a handy volume like
this deserves to be commended, and will
no doubt be well appreciated. Though
there is much in these writings that reflects
the spirit and circumstances of the times
which produced them, there is much also
of permanent interest, and which will have
an enduring place in English literature.

The Geometrid Moths of the United
States. By A. S. Packard, Jr., M. D.
Pp. 607. With numerous Plates. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Ofiice.

This elaborate work forms Volume X.
of Dr. Hayden's "Report of the Geological
Survey of the Territories." The author

374

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

notes a striking and unexpected similarity
between the insect fauna of Colorado and
the Ural and Altai Mountains. He believes
that a careful examination of the existing
insects of the Western country will throw
light on the extinct forms which abound in
the Tertiary of that region. From an eco-
nomic point of view, he is of the opinion
that a systematic account of the insect
family which embraces the measuring-
worms — so many of which are injurious to
vegetation — cannot but be useful to agri-
culturists.

Moral Maxims for Schools and Families.
By 0. C. Baldwin. Third edition. Pp.
16. Price 10 cents. Petersburg, Va. :
Darcy, Paul & Co.

This little pamphlet raises no questions
of ethics, but, assuming the fundamental
canons of morality and rules of conduct, it
aims to drive them home into the minds of
the young by brevity and sharpness of
statement, so as to make the most indelible
impression. It is interspersed with inter-
esting illustrations of the sayings and do-
ings of great men, which serve to give in-
terest to the work. The idea is a good one,
and well carried out within its compass ; it
is used in the public free schools of Vir-
ginia, and is a candidate for adoption in
primary schools everywhere.

The Symbolical Language of Ancient
Art and Mythology. By R. P. Knight.
Pp. 267. New York: J. \V. Bouton.
Price, $3.

The so-called " pagan " religions of an-
tiquity— the religions of Greece and Home,
of Babylonia and Assyria— so far as we
get a knowledge of them from a superficial
reading of ancient authors, appear to rest
on a basis of childish imaginations, for
their dogmatic side, while on their moral
(or rather immoral) side they seem to have
their roots in unbridled lust and debauch-
ery. This view of pagan religions is still
held by the vulgar, and not very long ago
was current even among the learned. The
author of the present work rendered valu-
able service to the philosophy of religion
when, amid much obloquy, he devoted him-
self to a patient and dispassionate study
of this subject, and showed that, like all
other religions, those of antiquity were in

their origin the expression of man's highest
aspirations. Among the topics learnedly
discussed by the author are the mysteries
and orgies, phallic worship, the sacred em-
blems of the various gods, etc. The pres-
ent edition of Knight's work is edited by
Dr. Alexander Wilder, who adds an intro-
duction, some notes, and a complete index.
Further, the notes, which in the original
edition are mostly in foreign languages, are
here translated into English.

An Analysis of Religious Belief. By
Viscount Ambekly. From the late
London edition. Complete. Pp. 726.
New York : D. M. Bennett. Price, §3.

The chief interest of this formidable
volume lies in the fact that it is the produc-
tion of a young English nobleman, who,
notwithstanding the powerful influences
brought to bear upon him to maintain his
reputable position, chose to be free in the
matter of thought, and had the courage to
express and the determination to publish his
opinions, regardless of their unpopularity.
The volume indicates extensive and sys-
tematic reading, rather than much depth or
originality of thought, and to persons who
have a taste for skeptical literature it will
have the freshness of an elaborate restate-
ment of objections to religious dogma.
Lord Amberly believes in the universality
of the religious sentiment, as a part of the
mental constitution of human nature — as a
natural and not a supernatural thing — but
he discredits its intellectual accompani-
ments as embodied in the doctrines and
creeds of all religions. He professes to
take the scientific standpoint, and to write
in the scientific spirit, but we question if
his book would take any rank as a scien-
tific or authoritative contribution to the sub-
ject. Its scheme was too large, the man
was too young, and had done no prelimina-
ry work in any of the special departments
of science, to give him the power and ma-
turity necessary to deal with so important
a theme at the present time. Vv'ithout com-
paring his work with that of Mr. Buckle,
his position as regards science is not unlike
that of the author of the " History of Civil-
ization in England," who knew a great deal
about scientific literature, and was much in-
fluenced_ by its method, but was not strong
and thorough and well grounded in the

LITERARY NOTICES.

375

sciences which had a vital bearing upon the
course of his large discussion. If Lord
Amberly had concentrated himself upon
some minor branch of his broad inquiry,
and worked it out with deliberation, his
cliances of recognition in the future would
probably have been much more promising
than they will be with his more ambitious
undertaking.

The Radical Review. Issued quarterly.
Edited by Benjamin R. Tucker. Pp.
204. Price, $5 per year. New Bedford,
Mass.

The first number of this periodical vin-
dicates its radical and independent charac-
ter. Its object is stated to be " the thor-
ough, fearless, and impartial discussion of
all sides of all subjects pertaining to human
welfare, whether social, economic, scien-
tific, literary, esthetic, or religious." It will
show no partiality to any particular school
or special system of belief, but the labor
question and the organization of industry
will receive a prominent share of attention.
It opens with an able paper, by W. J. Pot-
ter, on "The Two Traditions, Ecclesiasti-
cal and Scientific," of which the following
passage is a good example :

" But this scientific view of tradition— now
commonly styled the doctrine of evolution —
starts questions that concern religious and moral
faith more vitally than any we have yet consid-
ered. The objection that the dignity of the hu-
man race is assailed, if man be thus linked in
natural kinship with the brute animals, is be-
coming antiquated, and needs no consideration.
To ridicule the theory, and oppose those who
hold it with theological abuse, neither intimi-
dates scientific men nor abolishes the facts upon
which they claim that the theory rests. To ask
if you want a monkey for an ancestor may raise a
laugh among the bystanders ; but Science is not
answered by a laugh, and does not consult the
caprice of human wishes so much as the pur-
port of Nature's facts. But even if it were a
question of the dignity of the human race, it
might be replied that it is better to have risen
from an ape than, according to the popular the-
ological theory, to have fallen from an angel.
It is more honorable to be climbing up than
slipping down. And there are species of ani-
mals with whom we might more proudly claim
cousinship than with some specimens of man-
kind. But this concern lest human dignity is to
8ufi"er from any earnestly advocated theory of
scieDce is puerile."

Lysander Spooner furnishes a very in-
cisive and unsparing article entitled " Our

Financiers: their Ignorance, Usurpations,
and Frauds," which cleaves the question
through to first principles. A fine poem is
contributed by Mr. E. C. Stedman ; and the
department of current literature is ably
treated. It contains a discriminating re-
view of Mr. J. N. Larned's " Talks about
Labor, and concerning the Evolution of
Justice between the Laborers and the Cap-
italists." We like this periodical, all ex-
cept its dismal pall of a cover.

Dynamics. By J. T. Bottomley. Pp. 140.
New York : Putnaras. Price, 75 cents.

The fundamental principles of " Dynam-
ics," or theoretical mechanics, are here set
forth and demonstrated as satisfactorily
as it is possible to do so for the tyro in
mathematical science. In cases where the
subject-matter requires a higher degree of
mathematical knowledge, the author con-
tents himself with giving clear statements
of propositions and of the meanings of
formulas, reserving demonstrations for a
time when the pupil will be better able to
appi'eciate them.

Smithsonian Report. 1875. Pp. 422.
Washington : Government Printing-of-
fice.

Besides the special annual report of the
Secretary, Prof. Joseph Henry, this volume
contains a number of memoirs and treatises
on scientific subjects, both original and
selected. Among the translated pieces are
a "Eulogy on Alexander Volta," and De
Candolle's " Report on the Transactions of
the Geneva Physical and Natural History
Society." Among the original contribu-
tions is a paper by Mr. Henry Oilman on
"Ancient Man in Michigan;" and one by
Dr. C. C. Abbott, on " The Stone Age in
New Jersey." Both of these memoirs, and
more especially the latter, are illustrated
with numerous woodcuts.

Vegetable and Animal Cellitlose. By
Thomas Taylor. Pp. 8. From Field
and Forest.

The author describes the method by
which he detects the presence of cellulose
in its various forms. This substance is,
according to him, a constant ingredient in
the organs and blood even of the higher
animals, man included.

376

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Acoustics, Light, and Heat. By W. Lees.

Pp. 300. New York : Putnams. Price,

$1.50.

The student wlio is acquainted with the
elements of mathematical and physical sci-
ence will find this little work a very con-
venient manual for self-instruction in the
branches of science of which it treats. The
illustrations are very numerous, and greatly
facilitate the understanding of the text.

Proceedings of the Poughkeepsie Society
OF Natural Science. Vol. L, Part L
Pp. 150.

This work contains a number of very
valuable memoirs, among which may be
named the following : " White Mildews,"
by W. R. Gerard, who also has a learned
paper on " Insects as Food ; " two papers
on the " Thermoscope," by Prof. L. R.
Cooley ; " Habits of the Wasp, Polisks
fucatus,'" by Rev. H. T. Hickok ; "Fun-
gus-Eating," by Dr. E. H. Parker; and
" Inclination of the Earth's Axis," by C. B.
Warring.

Western Review of Science and Industry.
Monthly. Pp. G4. Kansas City, Mo. :
Journal of Commerce print. Price,
$2.50 per annum.

We have received the first number of
the above-named periodical, which we cor-
dially welcome to the field of scientific
journalism. It contains articles, original
and selected, on topics connected with
archaeology, pliysiology, engineering, me-
teorology, and agriculture. The editor
aims at filling his pages with useful and
practical information for the people, con-
veyed in plain and simple language. This
enterprise deserves, and we hope will re-
ceive, liberal support from the public.

Analysis of Milk. By E. H. von Baum-
HAUER. Pp. 34. New York : Trow &
Son print.

We have here, reprinted from the Ameri-
can Chemist, Dr. Carrington Bolton's trans-
lation of a paper read by Mr. Baumhauer
at the Buffiilo meeting of the American
Association. It contains a description of
a new method for determining the essential
constituents of milk, especially designed
for the use of chemists who may be called
on to testify as experts in courts of justice.

Myelitis of the Anterior Horns. By E.

C. Seguin, M. D. Pp. 120. New York:
Putnams. Price, $1.50.

This monograph is of interest only to
medical men. The substance of it was
contained in a lecture by the author, printed
for private circulation only. In the present
volume a number of new cases of the dis-
ease are cited.

The Metric System. Pp. 12. Boston:
Press of Rockwell & Churchill.

This is the report of a standing commit-
tee of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers,
favoring the adoption of the metric system
of weights and measures. The committee
first report on the growth of this system
in public favor ; then they state the result
of invitations to united action addressed
by the Society to kindred organizations
throughout the country ; next follows the
text of the Society's memorial to Congress
praying for the enactment of laws estab-
lishing the metric system.

The Ancient Glaciers of New Zealand.
By I. C. Russell. Pp. 13. With Map.

This is a paper reprinted from the
" Annals " of the New York Lyceum of
Natural History. The facts noted by the
author seem to point to a time of extreme
cold in the southern hemisphere, answering
to the glacial epoch of the northern.

Natural History of Illinois. Pp. IC.
With Plates. Bloomington, 111. : Panta-
graph Printing-House.

We have here Bulletin No. 1 of the
Illinois Museum of Natural History, con-
taining papers on " Illinois Crustacea,"
" The Tree in Winter," " Sodic Pinate as
a Test for Lime," a " Partial Catalogue of
the Fishes of Hlinois," " Parasitic Fungi,"
and " The Orthoptera of Illinois."

Topographical Surveys and the Public
Health. By J. T. Gardner. Pp. 10.
Albany : Argus print.

The thesis here defended by Mr. Gard-
ner is, that the sources of many prevailing
diseases are to be found in various natui'al
conditions of the earth's form and substance,
as well as in soils polluted by man. The
geographer and the physician must work
together in the study of the public health.

LITERARY NOTICES.

m

Geographical Surveys in the United
States. By G. K. Warren. Pp. 28.
Washington : Judd & Detvveiler.

General Warren here undertakes to
" correct the erroneous estimate of the
geographical work of officers of the United
States, made by one of our countrymen,"
viz., Prof. J. D. Whitney, in his article on
" Geographical Surveys," which was pub-
lished iu the North American Review for
July, 1875.

Report of the New York Meteorological
Observatory (1S74-'75.) By D. Draper.

Mr. Draper gives a description of an
improvement iu the rain-gauge, and of a
self-recording pencil thermometer — both
being the fruits of his own researches and
mechanical ingenuity. The report further
contains the usual annual and monthly
tables of meteorological phenomena.

A Century's Progress in American Zo-
ology. By A. S. Packard, Jr. Pp. 8.

Prof. Packard, within the narrow limits
of this too brief essay, contrives to give a
very readable account of the progress of
zoology in the United States. To Barton
he assigns the honor of being the first
American zoologist whose works have been
published here. Barton's memoir on the
" Fascination of the Rattlesnake," and on
the " Generation of the Opossum," ap-
peared, the first in 1796, and the second
in 1801. At present zoology in the United
States is, according to Prof. Packard, very
backward as compared with Germany,
France, and England. We are about on
a level with the Scandinavians and the
Dutch ; but, with our energy and native
ability, and the aid of well-endowed col-
leges and museums, we may hope hereafter
to compete even with Germany.

Kindergarten Messenger. Cambridge :
Elizabeth P. Peabody. Pp. 32. Six
numbers a year. Subscription price,
$1 per annum.

It is to be hoped that the energetic edi-
tor and publisher of this useful magazine
will receive such encouragement from the
public as will warrant her in continuing its
publication. The Kindergarten system has
no more able exponent in the United States
than Miss Peabody.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

Gold and Debt. Bv W. L. Fawcett. Chicago :
S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 270. Price, $1.73.

Handbook of Ilygieue. By Q. Wilson, M. I>.
Philadelphia: LiuVisay & Blaliiston. Pp. 520.
Price, $3.50.

Turkey. By J. Baker. New York : Holt &
Co. Pp.515, wUh Two Colored Maps. Price, $4.

Annual Record of Science and Industry. By
S. F. Baird. New York: Harpers. Pp. 845.
Price, $2.

Lightning Protection. By II. W. Spang.
Philadelphia: Ciastou, Rouisen & Hafielfluger.
Pp. 180. Price, $1.50.

Ancient Society. By L. H. Morgan, LL. D.
New York: Holt & Co. Pp. 576. Price, $4.

Anonymous Hypothesis of Creation. By J.
J. Furniss. New York : C. P. Somerby. Pp. 54.

Personal Immortality. Bv J. Oppeuheim.
New \ork: C.P. Somerby. Pp. 98.

Theoretical Chemistry. By Dr. Ira Remsen.
Philadelphia: H. C. Lea. Pp.232. Price, $1.25.

Primer of Chemistry. By A. Vacher. Phil-
adelphia : Lindsay & Blakisiou. Pp. UG. Price, ■
50 cents.

Forces of Nature. Part I. By A. Guille-
min. New York: Mncniillan. Pp. 40, with
Illustrations. Price, 40 cents.

Atlas of the Geology of a Portion of the Uinta
Mountains. By J. W. Powell. New York: Ju-
lius Bieu, lithographer.

Report of Ohio State Fish Commission. Co-
lumbus: Nevins & flyers print. Pp. 90.
* Ages of Sun and Fixed Stars. Pp.4. Mete-
oric Fireballs. Pp. 7. By D. Kirkwood.

Utah Dialects. By E. A. Barber. Extracted
from Hayden's Reports. Pp. 13.

Physiology of the Brain. Pp.15. Reflex Mo-
tor Syoiptoms. Pp. 16. By Dr. E. Dupuy. New
York: Appletons.

Errors of Refraction. By Dr. F. A. Muuson.
Albany : Riggs print. Pp.il.

Valuation of Fertilizers. By A. R. Ledoux.
Raleigh, N. C. : Obstrvtr print. Pp. 15.

Western Diptera. By C. R. Osteu-Sacken.
From Hayden's Reports. Pp. 163.

Report of the Directors of the Philadelphia
Zoological Society. Pp. 36.

Growth of Children. By Dr. H. P. Bowditch.
From Massachusetts Health Board Report. Pp.
51.

Kings County Medical Society Proceedings.
Pp. 18.

Eruptive Mountains in Colorado. By Dr. A.
C. Peale. From Hayden's Reports. Pp. 14.

Bulletin of the Geosraphical and Geological
Survey of the Territories. T. V. Hayden in
cbarge. Vol. III., No. 1, pp. 185 ; No. 2, pp.
3.39. Washington: Government Printing-Offlce.

Bulletin I. of United States Entomological
Commission. Washington: Government Print-
ing-Offlce. Pp. 12.

Quadrature of Circle. By R. K. Carter.
Chester, Pa. : Spencer print. Pp. 12.

Rules of English Conversation Club at Ko-
lozsvar. Pp. 19.

Johns Hopkins University Second Annual
Report. Pp. 50.

Blue-Glass Cure. By Dr. E. B. Foote. Pp.
63. Price, 10 cents.

Overturning the World. By Dr. G. M. Ram-
sey. New York : McBreen print. Pp. 27.

Dakota Calendar. By Lientenant-Colonel
G. Mallery. From Hayden's Reports. Pp 25.

Paleontolocrical Paper. Bv Dr. C. A. White.
From Hayden's Reports. Pp.' 30.

378

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Sugar -Eeflnery of Havemeyers & Elder.
From "ludustrial America." Pp. 18.

Report on the Retreat for the Insane. Hart-
ford, Conn. : Case, Lockwood & Braiuard Co.
print. Pp.3(i.

Steam-Engine. By F. J. Bramwell. Lon-
don : Macmillan. Pp". %l. Price, M.

Distilled Water from Service-Steam. By C.
E. Munroe. From American Chemist. Pp. 12.

Superficial Deposits of Nebraska. By Dr.
S. Augliey. From Hayden's Reports. Pp. 31.

Self and Cross Fertilization of Flowers. By
T. Meehan. Pp. 8.

Circular Eight of Johns Hopkins University.
Pp.12

The New Century. Pp. 46. $1 a year.

Natural Resources of the Black Hills. By
W. P. Jenney. Washington: Government
Printing-Oflice. Pp. 71.

Proceedings of ATuericau Chemical Society.
Vol. I., No.^. Pj). 77.

Pennsylvania College Monthly. Gettysburg:
Wible print. Pp. 28.

Vick's Floral Guide, Rochester, N. Y. Pp. 30.

Poisonous Mushrooms. By Dr. I. Ott. Pp. 6.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Reopening of au Old Route into Sibcriat

— Fully three hundred years ago the Rus-
sians carried on an extensive trade between
Archangel and the settlements on the Obi
and Yenisei. About the . same period the
Kara Sea was navigated by English and
Dutch mariner.^, in search of a northeast
passage to Japan. The Russians employed
wretched flat-bottomed boats, called kotch-
kies, and in these they braved all the dan-
gers of navigating the stormy Kara Sea.
But, till quite lately, this route to the in-
terior of Siberia was abandoned, and the
belief was generally entertained that the
existence of ice in the Kara Sea presented
an insuperable obstacle to navigation. Re-
cent expeditions to the mouths of the Obi
and Yenisei, and up those rivers for hun-
dreds of miles, have demonstrated the entire
feasibility of this route to the interior of Si-
beria. The influence of the Gulf Stream and
equatorial currents on the temperature of
the Kara Sea is apparent from the fact that
its waters are as much as 18° or 20° warmer
than the waters in the same latitudes off
the east coast of Greenland or in Davis's
Strait. Of Siberia, the country to be opened
up to commerce by the navigation of the
Kara Sea, M. de Lesseps declares that it is
the richest country in the whole world as
regards its vegetable, mineral, and animal
products. The great rivers of Siberia flow

from the south to the north, forming a vast
fan which -widens in the interior of the
country, to the great advantage both of
vegetation and of commerce. The Obi, with
its confluent the Irtish, affords a navigable
highway into China.

The Art of tlie Tarrier.— It is with
regret that we are forced by want of space
to present to our readers, in the unsatis-
factory shape of a synopsis, a valuable
article on " The Art of the Farrier," by Dr.
D. D. Slade, published in the Bulletin of the
Bussy Institution, vol. ii., Part I. In the
state of Nature, we are there told, the growth
and wear of the horse's hoof are in perfect
equilibrium ; in the domesticated state wear
exceeds growth, and some means of pro-
tection must be devised. But this again
destroys the balance, and growth is in ex-
cess. This excess must be removed either
by natural wear of the bare hoof or by
artificial means. The farrier's art consists
'in removing this excessive growth. The
hoof of the young animal, before it has
been shod, needs little or no preparation
from the farrier's hands. The foot that
has already been shod must have the nails
extracted, and its ground surface cut down
to the proper level. The growth is greatest
at the toe; in leveling the wall, reduce the
hoof at the toe to a level with the unpared
heel. The shoe must not remain on the
hoof more than one month at a time.

The heel seldom needs paring away, be-
ing usually worn away by the motion be-
tween the iron of the shoe and the horn.
The process of " opening up " the heel de-
stroys that portion of the foot which was
designed by Nature as a defense against its
contraction ; this defense should never be
mutilated. The practice of paring the sole
and destroying the bars is to be condemned
so long as the parts are healthy ; it exposes
the sensitive portions beneath to injury.
The frog should be retained in its integrity.
Rasping the wall after the application of
the shoe cannot be too strongly condemned ;
it destroys the polish of the external layer
of horn which protects the layers beneath,
rendering the crust brittle.

The shoe ought to present a concave
surface to the ground, and a plane surface to
the foot. But, where the sole has been mu-

POPULAR MISCELLANY

119

tilated by unskillful shoeing, the concave
and plane surfaces have to be reversed.
Whatever form is adopted, the shoe must
fit the foot, its outline corresponding exact-
ly to its ground -surface. The shoe must be
of the same thickness throughout ; where
calks are required, they should be of equal
height, at heel and toe. The number of
nails to each shoe, for a saddle or light-
draught horse, need not be more than five
or six in the fore and seven in the hind, but
more widely distributed than they usually
are. Tlie hold of the nails should be short.
The slight scorching of the horn-fibres by
the application of a hot shoe has rather the
effect of preserving them against untoward
influences than of inflicting injury.

Disease often produces changes which
require a modification of the system advo-
cated above. In caring for the feet all that
is needed is strict attention to cleanliness.
They should be daily sponged with clear
water, and afterward the parts above the
hoof rubbed dry. Tlie unmutilated sole
forms in itself the best defense against the
extremes of dryness or moisture, and
"stuffing" and other artificial measures are
worse than useless if the natural sole has
been preserved. Placing the animal on a
perfectly level floor will promote a sound
condition of the feet, and conduce to the
general health of the horse.

A PJiigne of Rabbits ia New Zea-
land.— Some years ago rabbits were intro-
duced into South Australia from England;
later, a like importation was made into New
Zealand. Now these rodents are a formi-
dable pest in those countries, and it has be-
come a question of extreme urgency how
they can be exterminated. In New Zea-
land a commission has been instituted by
the Government to inquire into the subject,
and devise a remedy. Already, though only
a few years have passed since the introduc-
tion of the rabbits, large tracts of rich past-
ure-land have been converted into wilder-
ness, and sheep-farming and cattle-raising
are becoming impossible. Farmers that
used to keep 15,000 or 16,000 sheep can
now hardly keep as many hundred. Land-
owners employ men and dogs to destroy
the rabbits, but, though the number killed
is enormous, the evil continues without se-

rious abatement. One land-owner inclosed
with a stone-wall an area of 10,000 acres,
the work taking seven years to complete,
and involving an expenditure of £35,000.
About 500,000 rabbit-skins were exported
from Hobart Town in 1874. It is proposed
to introduce from England, if possible, sev-
eral natural enemies of the rabbit, such as
stoats, weasels, ferrets, and hawks.

Metric Weiglits and Measures in Massa-
chusetts.— Below we give the main provi-
sions of a law recently enacted by the Le-
gislature of Massachusetts, legalizing the
metric system of weights and n'leasures, in
conformity with the laws of the United
States. Other States, in legislating upon
this subject, will doubtless frame their laws
according to the model here set before them
by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts :

Section 1. From and after the passage of
this act, it shall be lawful, throughout the Com-
monwealth of Massachusetts, to employ the
weights and measures of the metric system, and
no contract or dealing or pleading in any court
shall be deemed invalid or liable to objection
because the weights or measures expressed or
referred to therein are weights or measures of
the metric system; and the metric weights and
measures received from the United States, and
now in the Treasury of the Commonwealth, may
be used and taken as authorized public stand-
ards of weights and measures; and these au-
thorized standards shall in no case be removed
from the Treasury, except under necessity for
their preservation or repair.

Sec 3. The following tables shall be recog-
nized in the construction of contracts, and in all
legal proceedings, as establishing, in terms of
the weights and measures now in use in the
State of Massachusetts, the equivalents of the
weights and measures expressed therein in
terms of the metric system ; and said tables
may be lawfully used for computing, determin-
ing, and expressing, in customary weights and
measures, the weights and measures of the met-
ric system. (Here follow the tables.)

Sec. 3. The Treasurer is hereby authorized
and directed to procure duplicate sets of the
metric weights and measures, conformable to
the standards now in the Treasury ; of which two
sets shall be retained for the use of the Treas-
urer and his deputy, and from which there shall
be furnished one set to the treasurer of each
shire town in the several counties of the Com-
monwealth, and each city not a shire town.

Sec. 4. The duties of the Treasurer of the
Commonwealth and his deputy, and the duties
and responsibilities of the treasurer of each
town, with respect to the keeping, care, verifi-
cation, and use of the standard weights and
measures so furnished, shall be the same with

38o

THE' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

those established by existing statutes with re-
spect to the staudard weij;bts and measures
heretofore provided. And it is hereby provided
that no shire town in which there may be two
or more sealers of weights and measures shall
for that reason be required to procure additional
sets of the metric weights and measures.

Sec. 5. The deputy and Treasurer shall verify,
adjust, and seal all metric weights and meas-
ures that may be brought to him for that pur-
pose, and he shall receive a reasonable compen-
sation therefor; and the sealer of weights and
measures in each town that shall receive the
standard metric weights and measures, as here-
inbefore provided, shall verify, adjust, and seal
all metric weights and measures that may be
brought to him for that purpose from within the
county in which such town is situated, and he
shall receive a reasonable compensation there-
for; but he shall claim no fees for any sealing,
verification, or adjustment, for the performance
of which he may otherwise receive compensa-
tion by salary paid by the town.

Sec. 6. All persons using weights or meas-
ures of the metric system for the purpose of
selling any goods, wares, merchandise, or other
commodities, shall have them adjusted, sealed,
and recorded, by some authorized sealer of
weights and measures, and shall thereafter be
responsible for the correctness and exactness
of the same ; and no person using illegally or
fraudulently the metric weights and measures
shall thereby be freed from any liabilities or
penalties to which he would have been exposed
in case the weights and measures employed had
been the ordinary weights and measures hereto-
fore and BOW in use in this Commonwealth.

Cleopatra's Noodle. — This obelisk, of Sy-
enitic granite, sixty-eight and one-half feet
long, six feet eleven inches wide on each
side of the base, tapering to four feet nine
inches near the summit, is 3,300 years old,
and was set up by Sesostris in front of the
temple at Heliopolis. It was brought to
Alexandria by Cleopatra about the year 40,
and has keen there, standing or lying, up-
ward of 1,800 years. It is of rose-colored
Stonc, and is covered with hieroglyphics.
It was presented many years ago by the
Pasha of Egypt to the Prince Regent of Eng-
land, and the British Government accepted
the gift, but have never been able to get
it transported to London. At length Dr.
Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished surgeon of
that metropolis, and known as the author of
books on skin-diseases, concluded to pay
the expenses himself of transporting the
great monolith, and bargained with a Mr.
Dixon to bring it to England and erect it on
the Thames Embankment for £10,000.

The plan proposed for transporting the
" Needle " to England is described as fol-
lows in Chambers's Journal: " The obelisk
is to be fixed by cross-divisions or dia-
phragms of wood in a cylindrical vessel
formed of wrought-iion plates. There will
be seven diaphragms, and consequently
nine water-tight compartments. For safe-
ty, the obelisk will be inclosed in wood and
well packed, a little below the central level
of the vessel, which will be closed at both
ends. When completed, with the obelisk
inside, the vessel will be about ninety-five
feet in length and fifteen feet across. After
being rolled into the sea and towed to the
harbor, it will be ballasted and be provided
with a keel, deck, sail, and rudder. For
these operations, man-holes will have been
left in the cylinder. These holes will be
opened, so that access may be had to all
the compartments. There will be no part
into which a man may not enter if neces-
sary until the cylinder is finally sealed up
for floating. The vessel will be in charge
of two or three skilled mariners, for whom
a small cabin on deck will be provided. It
will be towed the whole way by a steam-
tug, the sail being simply for steadying the
cylinder." There is likely to be some de-
lay in executing this project, for it is now
reported that the Egyptian who owns the
sand around the obeH|k objects to the re-
moval of the shaft, claiming it as his prop-
erty.

Edneation and Crime. — In a recent num-
ber of the Pohitechnic Review is an abstract
of a paper on " Useful Education," by Mr.
R. Bingham, containing many facts and ob-
servations that are worthy of notice in these
times of " forcing " in education. Mr.
Bingham does not believe that school-edu-
cation tends to diminish crime. He says
that the ratio of crime to population is less
in Ireland than in Massachusetts, and that
property is more secure in Italy, with its
many millions of illiterates, than in the Old
Bay State with all its schools. Of the 373
prisoners received last year into the West-
ern Penitentiary of the State of Pennsyl-
vania, 285 had attended public schools, 19
private schools, and 69 had never gone to
school. Of the 2,383 prisoners received
into the Eastern Penitentiary of the same

POPULAR MISCELLANY

381

State during the ten years ending with
1869, 17.21 per cent, were iUiterate, and
81.83 per cent, had never been apprenticed.
"All observers will admit," remarks the
author, " that there is not as much intelli-
gence and skill working on the farms now
as there was twenty years ago. The fears
of the farmers were not that their sons
would know too much, but that they would
do too little. It was not book-farming, or
wisdom with work, they feared ; but mak-
ing hay in the shade, or farming by the
fireside ; plucking geese in the courts,
preaching for practice, pills for pumpkins,
the pen and yard-stick for the plough and
harvest-fork. The change has not been
from prison to school so much as from hon-
est labor to idleness and crime. Everything
else being equal, mental culture raises the
standard of morality ; but we would choose
a community of industrious and illiterate
members, rather than one of idle and liter-
ary habits, for a high standard of mo-
rality."

Latest Phase of the Spontancons-Gea-
cration ControTcrsyt — Dr. Bastian, of Lon-
don, having submitted to the Paris Acad-
emy of Sciences the results of certain ex-
periments which, as he maintains, decisive-
ly confirm his theory of spontaneous gen-
eration, Pasteur criticised the English in-
vestigator's methods and conclusions, and
asked for the appointment of a commission
to determine on which side the truth lies.
At the same time he expressed a wish that
Dr. Bastian should in like manner ask the
London Royal Society to appoint a similar
commission. According to the terms of
M. Pasteur's challenge, Dr. Bastian must
obtain, in the presence of competent judges,
bacteria in sterile urine on the addition of liq-
uor potasScB in suitable quantities, the liquor
potassse being prepared from pure potash
with pure water; or, if made from impure
materials, it must be submitted to a tem-
perature of 230° for twenty minutes. Dr.
Bastian has accepted the challenge, and
has applied to the Royal Society for the ap-
pointment of the commission. The French
commission is already constituted : it con-
sists of Milne-Edwards, Dumas, and Bous-
singault. The Lancet justly complains
against this selection, on the ground that

all of the three commissioners are more or
less strong supporters of Pasteur's view.
Their bias must inevitably indispose them
toward Bastian's arguments. The Lancet
asks why Fremy or Trccul, or some other
man without bias either way, was not placed
on the commission. The Academy has ap-
parently made a mistake in this matter ;
perhaps when the comments of the Lancet
are brought to the notice of the members,
a change will be made in the commission.
The Royal Society has not yet named the
members of the English commission.

Action of the Retinal Nerves. — Some
years ago, while suffering from indisposition,
Prof. Tait observed that, whenever he awoke
from a feverish sleep, the flame of a lamp,
seen through a ground-glass shade, assumed
a deep-red color, the effect lasting about a
second. He supposes that the nerve fibrils
of the retina also slept, and that, on awak-
ing, the green and violet nerves resumed
their functions a little later than the red.
This observation of Tait's is recalled by
Prof. Ogden N. Rood, in the A^nej-ican
Joiirnal of Science, who adds an analogous
observation of his own, going to show that
after nervous shock the green nerves (to
adopt the theory of Young) receive their
activity later than the red, and probably
later than the violet nerves. Having taken
chloroform at the hands of a dentist, he
observed with surprise, on regaining con-
sciousness, that the operator's face was
very red, and the next instant that his hair
was of a purplish-red hue. The illusion per-
sisted for a second or two. Prof. Rood
then gives an instance of chronic effects of
similar character which were observed for a
couple of weeks continuously, during con-
valescence from typhoid fever. In this case
white objects appeared of a not very intense
orange-yellow ; here the activity of the
green and yellow nerves was diminished
relatively to that of the red.

Though

Food of the Water-Tortoise.

proverbial for its sluggishness, the water-
tortoise, according to a writer in Science Gos-
sip, appears to have a special relish for the
natural food of the cat. Keeping a couple
of them in an aquarium, but uncertain as to
the kind of food best suited to their needs.

382

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

this gentleman fed them at first with worms,
slugs, and flies, and of the latter they
seemed very fond; yet they did not thrive.
One morning on entering the room in
which their tanlc was placed, he discovered
a sparrow which had got in through an
open window, and which in its efforts to
escape had fallen into the tank, when the
larger tortoise quickly seized it by the leg
and drew its head under the water until it
was drowned. Two hours afterward noth-
ing remained of the bird but the wing-
feathers, and cleanly-picked bones ; all the
rest of it having been devoured. After this
the animals would not touch even flies for
nearly a week ; but then, on offering them a
dead gold-fish about five inches long, they
ate it eagerly, leaving nothing but the head
and backbone. A week or ten days later,
a live mouse was dropped into the tank,
and, like the sparrow, this was soon seized
by the larger tortoise — by the head instead
of the legs — and pulled under the water
until drowned. The head was then torn off,
the skin turned inside out and rejected, and
all the other parts devoured except the
bones. This food appeared to agree with
them perfectly, and they were afterward
supplied with mice, on which they grew
rapidly and kept in excellent condition.

Fielding Bradford Meek. — The Ameri-
can Journal of Science and Arts for March
contains an obituary notice of Fielding
Bradford Meek, whose death occurred on
December 21st. From it we gather the fol-
lowing particulars relating to the life and
labors of that distinguished paleontologist:
He was born in Madison, Indiana, on De-
cember 10, 1817, and in early manhood
chose a mercantile career. Here he was
imsuccessful, and in 1848 he became an
assistant in the United States Geological
Survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minneso-
ta. In 1852 he was assistant to Prof. Hall,
at Albany, in the paleontological work of
the State of New York. Here he remained
until 1858, with the exception of three
summers spent on geological surveys of
"Western States and Territories. In 1858
he went to Washington, and there remained
till his death, except while in the field.
The invertebrate paleontology of the Rocky
Mountain region, as developed by Dr. Hay-

den's survey, was intrusted to Meek. He
also helped to work up the invertebrate
paleontology of Illinois, Ohio, California,
and sundry Territories surveyed by other
expeditions besides Hayden's. Thorough-
ness, scrupulous exactness, and nice powers
of discrimination, are manifested in all his
labors. " No one in America," says Dr. C.
A. White, the author of the obituary notice
from which we quote, "has done more than
he to systematize and advance the science
to M'hich he devoted his life." His health
was always precarious, and for several years
before his death he was entirely deaf. He
never married, and left no near relatives.

The Electrical Plienomena of the Torpe-
do.— Marey has lately been engaged in
studying the electrical discharges of the
torpedo, with the aid of a very delicate
electrometer and an inscribing apparatus.
His experiments show that, on exciting a
nerve of the animal's electrical apparatus, a
flow of electricity follows in about one-
eightieth of a second, lasting about one-
fortieth of a second. The voluntary dis-
charge of the torpedo consists of successive
flows of currents, varying, according to tem-
perature, from twenty to one hundred and
forty shocks per second ; the direction of
the currents being from the back to the
belly. As the currents continue to flow for
a longer time than the intervals between
the times of their commencement, it hap-
pens that several currents flow simulta-
neously, and thus the intensity of the dis-
charge is increased by accumulation. The
phenomena correspond closely to those of
muscular work.

The Appalacliian-Monntain CInb.— Prof

E. C. Pickering, President of the Appala-
chian-Mountain Club, in his annual address,
congratulates the club on the large attend-
ance of members at the ten meetings so far
held, and the interest manifested in the la-
bors of the club. The principal scientific
work of the club for the past season was in
the direction of topography — collecting all
the available measurements from the works
of Bond, Lock, Vose, and Hitchcock. A
complete map of the White Mountains has
been made by Mr. Henck. One of the great-
est achievements of the club is the introduc-

NOTES.

383

tion of Edmands's Topographical Camera,
an instrument by means of which mountain
profiles may be drawn with great accuracy.
The work done by the president himself
includes between 6,000 and 7,000 measure-
ments of the horizontal and vertical posi-
tions of the mountains. The " Department
of Improvements " has constructed a sub-
stantial path which makes the peak of Mount
Adams easily accessible to any good pedes-
trian. An excellent camp has been estab-
lished on Mount Adams, which will doubtless
soon be followed by others. The club at
present has its headquarters in the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, but this
arrangement is only temporary, and it is
the intention of the Council, as soon as pos-
sible, to hire a room in which to collect a
library of books, maps, photographs, and
paintings of the mountains. A summer
school of topography, under the auspices
of the club, and with special reference to
State surveys, is in contemplation.

Economy in Stock-Feeding. — We com-
mend to the attention of such of our readers
as are farmers a paper by Prof. Samuel W.
Johnson, in the American Journal of Science
and Arts for March, on " The Composition
of Maize-Fodder." The paper is extreme-
ly valuable, and abounds in practical obser-
vations, for two or three of which we make
room here. Regarding the influence of age
upon the content of albuminoids in forage
plants, the author states that quite young
meadow-grass as it is found in pasturage
contains in its dry matter twenty-four per
cent, of albuminoids, cut just before bloom
twelve per cent., and at the end of blossoming
eight per cent. In case both of maize-fod-
der and meadow-grass the inferior quality
of the older vegetation is compensated by
the superior quantity. The author holds
that in New England the farmers can raise
or buy Indian corn, cotton-seed, meal, and
other concentrated foods, and conibine them
with coarse fodder to make a cattle food
equal or superior to the best of hay, at less
cost than is involved in feeding the latter.
But to throw cured maize-fodder out in the
cattle yard, or to feed it in the stall as hay
is fed, is highly wasteful. It cannot be fed
alone or as an adjunct to hay : to use it pro-
fitably it must be finely cut and well mixed

or alternated with maize or cotton-seed meal,
bran, or some similar material. Maize meal
and similar articles contain too much albu-
minoids, fat, and starch, for healthy and
economical cattle food ; maize-fodder con-
tains too little of these and too much coarse
fibre ; the two should be mixed.

Where the Ancients got tlicir Tin. —

Shortly before his death, Karl Ernst von
Baer contributed to the Archiv fiir Anihro-
pologie a paper entitled " Whence came the
Tin for Ancient Bronze ? " The subject is
one that has long engaged the attention of
archaeologists, but hitherto the only sources
assigned for this tin have been Cornwall
and the straits of Malacca. There has, how-
ever, been a vague notion that tin may also
have been derived from Georgia, Armenia,
or Persia. To decide this question, Von
Baer addressed an inquiry to M. Semenow,
Vice-President of the Russian Geographical
Society, who obtained the desired informa-
tion from a traveler named Ogorodinkow.
According to his report, tin occurs and has
been worked in two localities in Khorassan.
It was the opinion of Von Baer that many
of the bronzes of Assyria and Babylonia
were made from tin obtained in this region.

NOTES.

The Christian Union has begun the
publication of a series of articles, by dis-
tinguished writers, on " How to spend the
Summer." Each writer will speak from
personal expei'ience, and, if the articles we
have seen are a fair sample of those to
come, everybody seeking health or pleas-
ure, either at home or abroad, will be prof-
ited by reading them.

Admission to hospital for purposes of
clinical instruction has at last been granted
to female medical students in London. This
removes the only remaining obstacle to a
complete medical course for women in Eng-
land ; and the concession came just in time
to prevent the break-up of their leading
medical school.

During the coming summer a limited
number of teachers of mathematics or as-
tronomy will be permitted to spend a por-
tion of their vacation at the Cincinnati Ob-
servatory, in the pursuit of studies con-
nected with their special departments of in-
struction. Particular attention will be paid
to the art of computing, in order to give an

3^4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

insight into the practical application of
mathematics to astronomy. Opportunity
will also be afforded to learn the use of in-
struments.

Siegfried Stein advocates the employ-
ment of rock-crystal for making normal
standards of weight and measure, and other
instruments of precision. The advantages
of rock-crystal for these purposes consist
in its indift'erence, at common temperature,
to the action of acids and bases, or of at-
mospheric gases or moisture.

A NEW method of cleaning the skele-
tons of small animals, by utilizing the enor-
mous appetites of tadpoles, is described in
the English Meclianic. M. Lareste, the dis-
coverer, has found that the tadpoles may
be quickly habituated to a meat-diet, and
that they rapidly denude the bones, when
the carcass, previously skinned, is presented
to them in water, kept in a warm and some-
what darkened place.

The syllabus of a course of lectures on
American prehistoric archeology, to be de-
livered before the College of Fine Arts of
Syracuse University, during the spring
term of 187*7, by Di-. Wills DeHass, com-
prises such topics as " Discovery and Set-
tlement of the Atlantic Coast," " Lost Semi-
Civilization of the Mississippi Valley,"
"Tumular Monuments," "Mural AVorks,"
"Art-Remains in Stone," "Rock Sculpt-
ure," " Art - Remains in Pottery, also in
Bone, Shell, and Metal," " Monumental and
Art Remains found in the Lake-Regions,"
"Origin and Antiquity of tlie Mound-Build-
ers," etc.

A PREPARATION of tungstatc of soda and
starch has been highly recommended for
rendering muslin dresses uninflammable.
At a recent trial of it in London, the dress
fortunately being placed on a dummy, the
saturated fabric readily took fire, blazed up,
and was quickly consumed.

The Sanitarj/ Record laments that they
have no cremation-furnace in London, con-
sidering it a breach of hospitality that they
cannot offer the facilities for fire-burial to
their Indian guests who are so unfortunate
as to die in England.

A COURSE of lectures on the elementary
principles of stock-breeding was delivered
during the spring by Prof William H.
Brewer, at the Scientific School of Yale
College, which it is to be hoped will be-
fore long appear in book-form. The topics
discussed in these lectures are : " Heredity,"
"Atavism," "Close-Breeding," "Crossing,"
" Relations of Animals to their Surround-
ings," "Variation," "Relations between
Heredity and Variation," " Breeding to
Points," " Limitations of Breeding to

Points," " Prenatal Lifluences," " Relative
Influence of Sire and Dam," " Crossing for
Immediate Special Uses," and " Profitable
Adaptation of Breeds to Special Localities
and Conditions."

Dr. Philip P. Carpenter, brother of the
celebrated physiologist, William B. Carpen-
ter, died ill Montreal, May 24th. He was
born in Bristol, England, in 1819, was edu-
cated at the University of Edinburgh, studied
theology first, and preached awhile, and then
gave himself up to natural history. He de-
voted himself to the mollusca, and gave a
magnificent collection of shells to the Brit-
rsh Museum. In 1859 he came to this coun-
try, and, selecting Montreal as his place of
residence, went on with his scientific work
till the failure of an English bank swept
away his property, and he then took to
teaching and sanitary reform. He gave a
large collection of shells to McGill College,
and was known as one of the best author-
ities on the classification of mollusca. He
was a clever writer, a forcible speaker, and
a man of refined Christian character.

Prof. E. S. Morse, of Salem, sailed from
San Francisco, June 1st, for Japan, whither
he goes on a scientific mission of his own.
He will spend the summer months in pur-
suing his favorite studies of natural history
amid Japanese resources, and will devote es-
pecial attention to the animals of the coast,
dredging a good deal, and carrying on the
investigation of the Braehiopoda, which has
long been his favorite line of inquiry. He
will also make the trip subservient to gath-
ering fresh materials for illustrating the
"Second Book of Zoology," a text-book
which he has begun to prepare. Prof.
Morse will also, no doubt, gain much curi-
ous and interesting information to enrich
the lectures which he M'ill return in time to
deliver before the lyceums next season.

Broca assigns to the terms anthropol-
ogy, ellinologrj, and ethnography, the follow-
ing distinctive significations : anthropology
is the general study of man or of the entire
human species ; ethnology is the study of
the natural divisions of this group, which
are generally known as the races of man;
ethnography is the artificial subdivision of
races into peoples.

Twenty years ago, according to Di*. Sie-
mens, it required over five tons of coal to
make a ton of iron rails. Now, a ton of
steel rails may be produced from the ore
with half that quantity of coal.

The Pharmacid quotes the statement
from a foreign journal that chemically pure
glycerine, when taken in large quantities,
exerts a poisonous effect on the system,
comparable, within certain limits, to that
produced by alcohol.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

AUGUST, 1877.

THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OF VEGETATION.— A
PLEA FOR OUE FOEESTS.

By F. L. OSWALD, M. U.

" A S a fellow-Unitarian, I feel sorry for the Turks," Dr. Schlie-
JOJl. mann writes from Salon ica, " but, as a respecter of God's
physical laws, I must own that they deserve their fate. Men who
for twenty generations have proved themselves tree-destroyers on
principle, have no right to complain if the world rises against them."

It would be well for the world if for the last twenty generations
the Turks had been the only " tree-destroyers on principle." Since
the advent of the Christian religion, the physical history of our planet
records the steady growth of a desert, which made its first appear-
ance on the dry table-land of Southern Syria, and gradually spreading
eastward down the Euphrates toward Afghanistan, and westward
along both shores of the Mediterranean, now extends from Eastern
Persia to the western extremity of Portugal, and sends its harbingers
into Southern France and the southeastern provinces of European
Russia. Like a virulent cancer, the azoic sand-drifts of the Moab
Desert have eaten their way into Southern Europe and Northern
Africa, and dried up the life-springs of districts which beyond all dis-
pute were once the garden-regions of this earth.

Prince de Ligne, countryman and contemporary of Maria Theresa,
wrote an essay "On the Location of the Earthly Paradise," and, after
some reflections on the hygienic influence of different climates, calls
attention to the fact that " pnradise-traditions, in locatinjr the garden
of Eden, differ only in regard to longitude, but not to latitude. The
latitude keeps always near the snow-houndary, a line just south of the
regions where snow may fall, but will not stay on the ground. It
passes through Thibet, Cashmere, Northern Persia, and Asia Minor,
VOL. XI. — 25

386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and reaches the meridian of Eiiiope near the centre of the Mediter-
ranean." The nations that " celebrated life as a festival " have lived
along this line, and we may doubt if in the most favored regions of
the New World human industi'v, with all the aids of modern science,
Avill ever reunite the opportunities of happiness which Nature once
lavished on lands that now entail only misery on their cultivators.
All over Spain and Portugal, Southern Italy, Greece, Turkey, Asia
Minor, Persia, and Western Afghanistan, and throughout Northern
Africa, from Morocco to the valley of the Nile, the aridity of the soil
makes the struggle for existence so hard that to the vast majority of
the inhabitants life from a blessing has been converted into a curse.

Southern Spain, from Gibraltar to the head-waters of the Tagus,
maintains now only about one-tenth of its former population, Greece
about one-twentieth. As late as a. d. 670, a good while after the rise
of the Mohammedan power, the country now known as Tripoli, and
distinct from the Sahara only through the elevation of its mountains,
was the seat of eighty-five Christian bishops, and had a population of
6,000,000, of which number three-quarters of one per cent, are now left !
The climate which, according to authentic description, must once
have resembled that of our Soutliern Alleghanies, is now so nearly in-
tolerable that even the inhumanity of an African despot forbears to
exact open-air labor from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Steamboats that pass near
the Tripolitan coast in summer, on their way from Genoa to Cairo,
have to keep up a continual shower of artificial rain to save their
deck-hands from being overcome by the furnace-air that breathes from
the ban-en hills of the opposite coast. The rivers of some of these
countries have shrunk to the size of their former tributaries, and from
Gibraltar to Samarcand the annual rainfall has decreased till failure
of crops has become a chronic complaint.

And all this change is due to the insane destruction of forests.
The great Caucasian sylvania that once adorned the birth-land of the
white race from the Western Pyrenees to the foot-hills of the Hima-
layas has disappeared ; of the forest-area of Italy and Spain, in the
days of the elder Pliny, about two acres in a hundred are left ; in
Greece, hardly one. But even the nakedness of the most sterile tracts
of Southern Europe is exceeded by the utter desolation of the Otto-
man provinces. If there was not evidence that a gi-eat part of the
ruin had been accomplished before the fall of the Byzantine Empire,
the Turks would really seem to have been " tree-destroyers on princi-
ple." In the recesses of the Taurus range and the inaccessible heights

of those

" . . . . mountains that distill
Indus and Oxiis from their icy caves " —

a few remnants of wood have survived the general devastation, but
throughout the lowlands, from Bokhara to the Golden Horn, not a
stick or bush can grow up before the wood-famine of the wretched

THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OF VEGETATION. 387

population lays violent hands upon it. In Northern Africa, Dalmatia,
and the larger islands of the Grecian Archipelago, the same evil has
made terrible advances. The Mediterranean Sea, once a forest-lake
of paradise, is now a dead sea, surrounded by dusty and burning
coasts, often for hundreds of miles withovit a vestige of organic life.

The present appearance of the Troad, the neighborhood of Lake
Tiberias, the valley of the Euphrates, and other districts tliat were
once teeming with population, can actually make us doubt if there
ever was such a thing as an original desert. On the plateau of Sidi-
Belbez, in the very centre of the Sahara, Champollion traced the
course of former rivers and creeks by the depressions in the soil and
the shape of the smooth-washed pebbles. He also found tree-stumps,
now almost petrified, and covered by a six-foot stratum of burning sand.

"And so the astounding truth dawns upon us," he says, "that this
desert may once have been a region of groves and fountains, and the
abode of happy millions. Is there any crime against Nature which
draws down a more terrible curse than that of stripping our Mother
Earth of her sylvan covering ? The hand of man has j)roduced this
desert, and I verily believe every other desert on the surface of this
earth. Earth was Eden once, and our misery is the punishment of
our sins against the world of plants. I'he burning sun of the desert is
the angel with the flaming sword xcho stands betioeen us and paradise.''^

That the inhabitants of these artificial deserts have failed to rec-
ognize the cause of their misery implies a degree of infatuation and
mental blindness which may appear even more incredible to future
generations than the thousand years' belief in witchcraft and the pa-
tient submission of 80,000,000 able-bodied men to a iuo-ffler-wuild of
priests. Even frogs and fishes become uneasy if the plug-hole of their
tank is opened and their life-element begins to ebb away; and it
should be supposed that, without any scientific aids to reflection, the
sheer instinct of self-preservation could have suggested the simple
remedy before the evil attained its present j>roportions.

But this blindness of the Latin races and the devotees of Islam, if
not justified, is at least partly explained by the fatalism of their reli-
gion. Their belief in supernatural agencies, and a meddlesome Provi-
dence that ruled the world in spite of man, naturally produced indif-
ference to all physical sciences whatever. The three Semitic religions
have done more to divorce man from Nature than all his inborn vices
and the "necessary decay of civilized races" that is so often preferred
as an explanation. "Though our mortal eyes have failed to penetrate
the depths of heaven," says Erasmus, " we have succeeded in losing
sight of our own earth." If this earth was a vale of tears, and heaven
our proper home, all attention to earthly affairs seemed so much lost
time, and in the souls of men who were taught to consider their nat-
ural feelings as antagonistic to tlie will of God the warning voice of
instinct was raised in vain.

388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Much more unaccountable seems our own indifierence to the disap-
pearance of our forests, since our science Las demonstrated to the sat-
isfaction of all rational and semi-rational beings — including seme very
conservative rulers of Western Europe — that an animal flayed, or a
tree stripped of its bark, does not perish more surely than a land de-
prived of its trees.

The Duke of Burgundy's rule, " One-third to the hunter, two-
thirds to the husbandman," expresses about the most desirable pro-
portion of woodlands and cultivated fields. In a country blessed with
such a plethora of Avoods as the United Stales between the Atlantic
and the valley of the Mississippi could boast of less than a hundred
years ago, the work of " clearing " could therefore be pursued within
very liberal limits, not only without injury, but with positive benefit to
the climate, inasmuch as it would counteract excess of moisture and mi-
asmatic tendencies. But in some of our Southern and Central States this
limit has already been passed. The State's of Ohio and Indiana, and the
southern parts of Kentucky and Michigan, so recently a part of the
great East-American forest, have even now a greater percentage of tree-
less area than Austria and the North-German Empire, that have been
settled and cultivated for upward of a thousand years. The northern
borders of Ohio are kept comparatively fertile by the neighborhood of
the great lakes, but the central regions, and many of the river-counties,
begin to suffer from drought, and see their springs fail in every sum-
mer. The " Blue-Grass " region of Kentucky, once the pride of the
West, has now districts of such a barren and arid nature that their
stock-farmers are moving toward the Cumberland Mountains, because
the creeks and old springs dried up, and their wells became too low
to furijish water for tlieir cattle.

Wherever tobacco and cotton are cultivated, the work of ruin has
made rapid advances, and in all the southeastern counties of Virginia
and North Carolina, and throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
and South Carolina, the traveler may ride for hours without seeing
more than four or five trees in a group; droughts are becoming more
and more frequent, and the locust, that ominous pioneer of the desert,
has made its appearance.

The climatic influence of arboreal vegetation must be more gener-
ally understood, before siich legislative measures as the importance of
the subject demands, can be hoped for. In the economy of Nature
forests perform innumerable functions which no artificial contrivance
can imitate, and of which the following are only the most important:

Woods, in the first place, are the water-reservoirs of Nature, and
hold in the network of their roots and their moss-carpet the moisture
which is intended to supply our water-courses in the season of mid-
summer heat. One acre of full-grown beech-trees absorbs and dis-
penses as much humidity as twenty acres of grape-vines and tobacco,
and more than two hundred acres of cereals.

THE CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OF VEGETATION. 389

Forests produce rain. Under the influence of vertical sun-rays trees
exhale the aqueous vapors which their leaves linve absorhed from the
atmosphere, and in contact with tlie night-air or any stray current of
lower temperature, these vapors discharge rain-showers even in mid-
summer, and at a great distance from the sea.

By moistening the air woodlands also moderate the extremes of
heat and cold. It is seen on the sea-shore how beneficently humidity
operates in allaying the severity of winter, and in summer the evap-
oration of dew and rain gives us cool breezes when they are most
needed. By the extirpation of forests the climate of the entire OrMs
Homaniis has been changed from the summer temperature of West
Virginia to the furnace-heat of New Mexico and Arizona.

Besides this, the forest by shade in summer and fuel in winter
protects us directly against the vicissitudes of temjierature, and at the
foot of high mountains interposes a mechanical barrier between the
valleys and avalanches in the north, and floods in the south. The
water-torrents, which not only flood and damage the lowlands, but
carry their fertile soil away, are imbibed or detained by extensive
forests. Joseph II. of Austria was right to attach heavy penalties
to the destruction of the " Bannwalder," the woods on the Alpine
slopes, that protect the valleys from avalanches, and to propose that
in wars, even d Poutrance, the trees of a country should be spared by
international agreement.

Our woods are also the home and shelter of those best friends of
man, the insectivorous birds. A country destitute of trees is avoided
by birds, and left to the ravages of locusts and other insects, which,
as we saw on our own continent, always attack the barren and naked
districts. Our locust-swarms devastated the " Great "West," i. e., the
treeless expanse between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains,
but spared the woodlands of the Alleghanies and the timber-regions
of the Pacific slope.

The exhilarating influence of a woodland excursion is not alto-
gether due to scenic effects and imagination. Forests exhale oxygen,
the life-air of flames and animal lungs, and absorb or neutralize a
variety of noxious gases. Scirrhous affections of the skin and other
diseases disappear under tlie disinfecting influence of forest-air. Dr.
Brehm observes that ophthalmia and leprosy, which have become
hereditary diseases, not only in the valley of the Nile, bvit also on the
table-lands of Barca and Tripoli, are utterly unknown in the well-tim-
bered valley of Abyssinia, though the Abyssinians live more than a
hundred geographical miles nearer to the equator than their afflicted
neighbors.

The traditions of the "blessed islands of the West," the " Garden
of the Hesperides," probably referred to Madeira and the Cape- Verde
Archipelago, which, according to De Gama's description, must have
come nearer to our idea of terrestrial paradise than any other region

390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of this earth. " The ills that flesh here is heir to," he says, " are only
thi-ee: wounds, the efiects of poison, and decrepitude — the latter
rarely makes its appearance before the completion of the ninetieth
year." Since the Portuguese have felled their glorious forests for the
sake of madeira (building-material), these islands have become hot-
beds of disease.

The valley of the Guadalquivir, us late as a century before the dis-
covery of America, supported a population of 7,000,000 of probably
the healthiest and happiest men of Southern Europe. Since the live-
oak and chestnut groves of the surrounding heights have disappeared
this population has shrunk to a million and a quarter of sickly wretches,
who depend for their sustenance on the scant produce of sandy barrens
that become sandier and drier from year to year.

It would be exaggeration to say that the barrenness of a treeless
country is an evil without remedy. Nature is always ready to assist
in any work of regeneration, and there is no desert so void and naked
that it might not be reclaimed in the course of half a century. The
Khedive of Egypt has wrested land from the sand-wastes as the Hol-
landers win it from the sea, and by a cheaper process than the build-
ing of extensive dikes. By planting date-palms and olive-trees, Egypt
has added many hundred square miles to her arable surface, and, as
Baker-Pasha assures us, her annual rainfall has almost doubled.
Between Karnak and Soodan the rain-gauge shows now a yearly aver-
age of sixteen inches, where nine inches was the maximum before
1820. And not only the limits of these tree-plantations, but also
the adjoining districts, have been benefited ; on the table-land of
Wady-Halfa the present temperature is not nearly as oppressive as it
was within the memory of men now living, and currant-bushes and
wild-mulberries have sprung up where they never grew before. In
France, too, the Government has reclaimed the Landes^ a sandy steppe
on the southwestern coast, by planting willows and bay-trees ; and
even Algeria has been improved by the persistent tree-culture of the
French colonists.

But how slow and laborious is this work of restoration, and how
easily might we forestall its necessity if we would begin in time ! A
legislative act to jDrotect the woods of all the upper ridges in hill-
countries, and of a certain percentage of acres, say fifteen in a hun-
dred, in the plains, would be an effectual guarantee against evils which
otherwise will assuredly overtake us, and speedier than Europe, on
account of the compact shape of our continent, that deprives us of the
advantages of a marine climate.

Let us remember that the aphorism of the greatest physician of
modern times applies to other organisms as well as to the human body.
" Timely prevention," said Dr. Radcliffe, " not only saves us from dis-
eases, but from those greater evils — the remedies.''''

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 391

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE.

Br ALEXANDER BAIN, LL. D.,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
III.

IN preceding articles/ the psychological bearings of Education
were entered upon ; and two out of the three primary functions
of the intellect were considered. There remained the power named —

Similarity or Agreement. — It is neither an inapt nor a strained
comparison to call this power the law of gravitation of the intellectual
world. As regards education, it has an importance coequal with the
plastic force that is expressed by retentiveness or memory. The
methods to be pursued in attaining the commanding heights of gen-
eral knowledge arc framed by tlie circumstances attending the detec-
tion of like in the midst of unlike.

With all the variety that there is in the world of our experience,
a variety appealing to our consciousness of difference, there is also
great repetition, sameness, or unity. There are many shades of color,
as distinguished by the discriminative sensibility of the eye ; yet the
same shade often recurs. There are many varieties of form — the
round, the square, the spiral, etc. — and we discriminate them when
they are contrasted; while the same form starts up again and again.
At first sight, this would appear to mean nothing at all ; the great
m.atter would appear to be to avoid confounding differences — blue
with violet, a circle with an oval ; when blue recurs, we simply treat
it as we did at first.

The remark is too hasty, and overlooks a vital consideration.
What raises the principle of similarity to its commanding height is
the accompaniment of diversity. The round form first discerned in
a ring or halfpenny recurs in the full moon, where the adjuncts are
totally different and need to be felt as different. In sjDite of these dis-
turbing accompaniments, it is important to feel the agreement on the
single circumstance called the round form.

When an impression made in one situation is repeated in an al-
tered situation, the new experience reminds us of the old, notwith-
standing the diversity; this reminder may be described as anew kind
of shock, or awakened consciousness, called the shock or flash of iden-
tity in the midst of difference. A piece of coal and a piece of wood
differ, and are at first looked upon as differing, Put into the fire,
they both blaze up, give heat, and are consumed : here is a shock of
agreement which becomes an abiding impression in connection with

' See Popular Science Monthly for February and March, \%1^.

392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

these two things. Of such shocks is made up one-half of what we
term knowledge.

Whenever there is a difference it should be felt by us ; and so
wherever there is an agreement it should be felt. To overlook either
the one or the other is stupidity of mind. Our education marches in
both lines ; and, in so far as we are helped by the schoolmaster, we
should be helped in both. The artifices that promote discrimination,
and the influences that thwart it, have been already considered; and
many of the observations apply also to agreement. In the identify-
ing of like in the midst of unlike, there are cases that are easy ; and
there are cases that the unassisted mind fails to perceive.

1. We must repeat, with reference to the delicate perception of
Agreements, the antithesis of the intellectual and the emotional out-
goings. It is in the stillness of the emotions that the higher intel-
lectual exercises are possible. This circumstance should operate as a
warning against the too frequent recourse to pains and penalties, as
well as against pleasurable and other excitement. But a more spe-
cific application remains.

We may at once face the problem of general knowledge. The
most troublesome half of the education of the intellect is the getting
possession of generalities. A general fact, notion, or truth, is a fact
recurring under various circumstances or accompaniments : " heat "
is the name for such a generality ; there are many individual facts
greatly differing among themselves, but all agreeing in the impression
called heat — the sun, a fire, a lamp, a living animal. The intellect
discerns, or is struck with, the agreement, notwithstanding the differ-
ences; and in this discernment arrives at a general idea.

Now the grand stumbling-block in the way of the generalizing
impetus is the presence of the individual differences. These may
be small and insignificant ; in comparing fires with one another, the
agreement is striking, while the difierences between one fire and an-
other, in size, or intensity, or fuel, do not divert the attention from
their agreement. But the discerning of sameness in the sun's ray
and in a fermenting dung-heap is thwarted by the extraordinary
disparity; and this conflict between the sameness and the differ-
ence operates widely and retards the discovery of the most important
truths.

2. The device of juxtcqjosition applies to the expounding of
agreement, no less than of difTerence. We can arrange the several
agreeing facts in such a way that the agreement is more easily seen.
The efiect is gained partly by closeness, as in the case of difierences,
and partly by a symmetrical contact, as when we compare the two
hands by placing them finger to finger, and thumb to thumb. Such
symmetrical comparisons bring to view, in the same act, agreement
and difierence. The method reaches far and wide, and is one of the
most powerful artificial aids to the imparting knowledge.

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 393

3. The cumulation of the instances is essential to the driving home
of a generality. A continuous, undistracted iteration of the point of
agreement is the only way to produce an adequate impression of a
great general idea. I cannot now consider the various ol)Stacles en-
countered in this attempt, nor explain how seldom it can he adhered
to in the highest examples. It must suffice to remark that tlie inter-
est special to tlie individual examples is perpetually carrying off tiie
attention ; and pupil and master aie both liable to be turned aside by
the seduction.

There is another aspect of the power of similarity, under which it
is a valuable aid to memory or retention. Wlien we have to learn
an exercise absolutely new, we must ingrain every step by the plastic
adhesiveness of the brain, and must give time and oj^portunity for the
adhesive links to be matured. But wlien we come to an exercise con-
taining parts already acquired by the plastic operation, w^e are saved
the labor of forging fresh links as regards these, and need only to
master what is new to us. When we have knoAvn all about one plant,
we can easily learn the other plants of the same species or genus; we
need only to master the points of variety.

The bearing of this circumstance on mental groAvth nnist be ap-
parent at once. After a certain number of acquirements in the various
regions of study — manual art, language, visible pictures — nothing that
occurs is absolutely new ; the amount of novel matter is continually
decreasing as oar knowledge increases. Our adhesive faculty is not
improving as we grow in years ; very much the contrary : but our
facility in taking in new knowledge improves steadily; the fact being
that the knowledge is so little new that the forging of fresh adhesions
is reduced to a very limited compass. The most original air of music
that the most original genius could compose would be very soon
learned by an instructed musician.

In the practice of the schoolmaster's art, this great fact will be
perpetually manifesting itself. The operation can be aided and
guided in those cases where the agreement really existing is not felt.
It is one of the teaching arts to make the pupils see the old in the
new, as far as the agreement reaches ; and to pose them upon this
very circumstance. The obstacles are the very same as already de-
sci-ibed, and the means of overcoming them the same. Orderly juxta-
position is requsite for matters of comidexity ; and we may have also
to counterwork the attractions of individuality,

CoNSTRUCTivEXEss. — In many parts of our education, the stress lies
not in simple memory, or the tenacious holding of what has been pre-
sented to the mind, but in making us perform some new operation,
something that we were previously unable to do. Such are the first
stages of our instruction in speaking, in writing, and in all the me-
chanical or manual arts. So also in the higlier intellectual processes,
as in the imagining of wdiat we have not seen. I do not go so far as

394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

to include invention or discovery ; tlie culture of the creative faculty
is not comprised in the present discussion.

Tlie psychology of constructiveness is remarkably simple. There
are certain primary conditions that run through all the cases ; and it
is by paying due respect to these conditions that we can, as teachers,
render every possible assistance to the struggling pupils.

1. The constructive process supposes sotmething to construct from ^
some powers already possessed that can be exerci^<ed, directed, and
combined, in a new manner. We must walk before beginning to
dance ; we must articulate simple sounds before we can articulate
words ; we must draw straight strokes and pot-hooks before we can
form letters ; we must conceive trees and shrubs, flowers and grassy
plots, before we can conceive a garden.

The practical inference is no less obvious and iri-esistible ; it is
one that covers the whole field of education, and could never be en-
tirely neglected, although it has certainly never been fully carried
out. Before entering on a new exercise, we must first be led up to it
by mastering the preliminary or preparatory exercises. Teachers are
compelled by tljeir failures to attend to this fact in the more palpable
exercises, as speaking and writing. They lose sight of it, when the
succession of stages is too subtile for their apprehension, as in the un-
derstanding of scientific doctiines.

2. In aiming at a new construction, v)e must clearly conceive what
is aimed at ; we must have the means of judging whether or not our
tentatives are successful. The child in writing has the copy-lines
before it ; the man in the ranks sees the fugleman, or hears the ap-
proving or disapproving voice of the drill-sergeant. Where we have
a very distinct and intelligible model before us, we are in a fair way
to succeed; in proportion as the ideal is dim and wavering, we stag-
ger and miscarry. When we depend upon a teacher's expressed ap-
proval of our efibrt, it behooves him to be very consistent, as well as
veiy sound, in his judgment; should he be one thing to-day, and
another thing to-morrow, we are unhinged and undone.

It is a defect pertaining to all models that they contain individual
pecviliarities mixed up with the ideal intention. We carry away with
us from every instructor touches of mannerism, and tlie worst of it is
that some learners catch nothing but the mannerism; this being gen-
erally easier to fall into than the essential merits of the teaching.
There is no remedy here except the comparison of several good mod-
els; as the ship-captain carries with him a number of chronometers.

In following an unapproachable original, as in learning to write
from copperplate lines, we need a second judgment to inform us
whether our deviations are serious and fundamental, or are venial and
unavoidable. The good tact of our instructor is here put to tlie test ;
he may make our path like the shining light that shineth more and
more, or he may leave us in hopeless perplexity. To point out to us

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 395

where, how, and wliy, we are wrong, is the teacher's most indispen-
sable function.

3. The only mode of arriving at a new constructive combination is
to try and try again. The will initiates some movements ; these are
found not to answer, and are suppressed ; others are tried, and so on,
until the requisite combination has been struck out. The way to new
powers is by trial and error. According as the first and second con-
ditions above given are realized, the unsuccessful trials are fewer. If
we have been well led up to the combination required, and if we have
before us a very clear idea of what is to be done, we do not need
many tentatives; the prompt suppression of the wrong movements
ultimately lands us in the right.

The mastei-ing of a new manual combination — as in writing, in
learning to swim, in the mechanical arts — is a very trying moment
to the human powers; success involves all those favorable circum-
stances indicated in discussing the retentive or receptive faculty.
Vigor, freshness, freedom from distraction, no strong or extraneous
emotions, motives to succeed— are all most desirable in realizing a
difficult combination. Fatigue, fear, flurry, or other w^asting excite-
ment, does away with the chances of success.

Very often we have to give up the attempt for a time ; yet the
ineffectual struggles are not entirely lost. We have at least learned
to avoid a certain number of positions, and have narrowed the round
of tentatives for the next occasion. If, after two or three repetitions,
with rest-intervals, the desired combination does not emerge, it is
a proof that some preparatory movement is wanting, and we should
be made to retrace the approaches. Perhaps we may have learned
the prerequisite movements in a way, but not with sufficient firmness
and certainty for securing their being performed in combination.

Alternation^ and Remission of Activity. — In the accustomed
routine of education, a number of separate studies and acquirements
are prosecuted together ; so that, for each day, a pupil may have to
engage in as many as three, four, or more, different kinds of lessons.

The principles that guide the alternation and remission of our modes
of exercise and application are apparently these :

1. Sleep is the only entire and absolute cessation of the mental
and bodily expenditure ; and perfect or dreamless sleep is the greatest
cessation of all. Whatever shortens the due allowance of sleep, renders
it fitful and disturbed, or promotes dreaming, is so much force wasted.

In the waking hours, there may be cessation from a given exer-
cise, with more or less of inaction over the whole system. The greatest
diversion of the working forces is made by our meals ; during these
the trains of thought are changed, while the body is rested.

Bodily or muscular exercise, when alternated with sedentary men-
tal labor, is really a mode of remission accompanied with an expendi-
ture requisite to redress the balance of the physical functions. The

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

blood has unduly flowed to the brain ; muscular exei'cise draws it oiF.
The oxidation of the tissues has been retarded ; muscular exercise is
the most direct mode of increasing it. But definite observations teach
us that these two beneficial effects are arrested at the fatigue-point ;
so that the exercise at last contributes not to the refreshment, but to
the further exhaustion of the system.

2. The real point before us is, What do we gain by dropping one
form of activity and taking up another? This involves a variety
of considerations.

It is clear that the first exercise must not have been pushed so far
as to induce general exhaustion. The raw recruit, at the end of his
morning drill, is not in a good state to improve his arithmetic in the
military schoolroom. The musical training for the stage is at times
so severe as to preclude every other study. The importance of a par-
ticular training may be such that we desire for it the whole available
plasticity of the system.

It is only another form of exhaustion when the currents of the
brain continue in their set channels and refuse any proposed diversion.

There are certain stages in every new and difficult study, wherein
it might be well to concentrate for a time the highest energy of the
day. Generally, it is at the commencement ; but whatever be the
point of special difficulty, there might be a remission of all other
serious or arduous studies, till this is got over. Not that we need
actually to hny aside everything else ; but there are, in most studies,
many long tracts where we seem in point of form to be moving on,
but arc really repeating substantially the same familiar efforts. It
would be a felicitous ideal adjustment, if the moments of strain in one
of the parallel courses were to coincide with the moments of ease in
the rest.

Hardly any hind of study or exercise is so complicated and many-
sided as to press alike upon all the energies of the system ; hence
there is an obvious propriety in making such Aariations as would
leave unused as few of our faculties as possible. This principle neces-
sarily applies to every mental process — acquirement, ])roduction, and
enjoyment. The working out of the principle supposes that we are
not led away by the mere semblance of variety.

Let us endeavor to assign the difi"erences of subject that afford
relief by transition.

There are many kinds of change that are merely another name for
simple remission of the intellectual sti-ain. When a severe and diffi-
cult exercise is exchanged for an easy one, the agreeable effect is due
not to what we engage in, but to what mo are relieved from. For
letting down the strain of the faculties, it is sometimes better to take
up a light occupation for a time than to be totally idle.

The exchange of study for sport has the twofold adA-antage of
muscular exercise and agreeable play. To pass from anything that

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 397

is simply laborious to the indulgence of a taste or liking, is the fruition
of life. To emerge from constraint to liberty, from the dark to the
light, from monotony to variety, from giving to receiving, is the ex-
changing of pain for pleasure. This, which is the substantial reward
of labor, is also the condition of renovating the powers for further
labor and endurance.

To come closer to the difficulty in hand. The kind of change that
may take place within tlie field of study itself, and that may operate
both as a relief from strain and as the reclamation of waste ground,
is best exemplified in such matters as these : In the act of leai'ning
generally tliere is a twofold attitude — observing what is to be done,
and doing it. In verbal exercises, we first listen and then repeat ; in
handicraft, we look at the model, and then reproduce it. Now, the
proportioning of the two attitudes is a matter of economical adjust-
ment. If we are kept too long on the observing stretch, we lose the
energy for acting ; not to mention that more has been given us than
we are able to realize. On the other hand, we should observe long
enough to be quite saturated with the impression; we should have
enough given us to be worthy of our reproducing energy. Any one
working from a model at command learns the suitable proportion be-
tween observing and doing. The living teacher may err on either
side. He may give too much at one dose ; this is the common error.
He may also dole out insignificantly small portions, which do not
evoke the sense of power in the pupils.

When an arduous combination is once struck out, the worst is over,
but the acquisition is not completed. There is the further stage of
repetition and practice, to give facility, and insure permanence. This
is comparatively easy. It is the occupation of the soldier after his
first year. There is a plastic process still going on, but it is not the
same draft upon the forces as the original struggles. At this stage,
other acquirements are possible, and should be made. Now, in the
course of training, it is a relief to pass from the exercises tliat are en-
tirely new and strange, to those that have been practised and need
only to be continued and confirmed.

Before considering the alternations of departments of acquisition,
we may advei't to the two different intellectual energies called, re-
spectively, Memory and Judgment. These are in every way distinct,
and in passing from the one to the other there is a real, and not
merely an apparent, transition. Memory is nearly identical with the
retentive, adhesive, or plastic faculty, which I have assumed to be
perhaps the most costly employment of the powers of the mind and
brain. Judgment, again, may be simply an exercise of discrimination ;
it may also involve similarity and identification ; it may further con-
tain a constructive operation. It is the aspect of our intellectual
power that turns to account our existing impressions, as contrasted
with the power that adds to our accumulated stores. The most de-

398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lightful and fructifying of all the intellectual energies is the power of
similarity and agreement, by which we rise from the individual to the
general, trace sameness in diversity, and master, instead of being mas-
tered by, the multiplicity of Nature.

Much more would be necessary to exhaust the nature of the op-
position between exercises of memory and exercises of judgment.
Language and science approximately represent the contrast, although
language does not exclude judgment, and science demands memory.
But, in the one region, mere adhesion is in the ascendant, and, in tlie
other, the detection of similarity in diversity is the leading circum-
stance. There is thus a real transition, and change of strain, in pass-
ing from the one class of studies to the other; the only qualiiying cir-
cumstance is that in early years, routine adhesion plays the greatest
part — being, in fact, easier than the other line of exertion, for reasons
that can be divined.

We can now see what are the departments that constitute the most
effective transitions or diversions, whereby relief maybe gained at one
point, and acquirement pushed at some other. In the muscular ac-
quirements, we have several distinct regions — the body generally, the
hand in particular, the voice (articulate), and the voice (musical). To
pass from one of these to the other is almost a total change. Then,
as to the sense engaged, we may alternate between the eye and the
ear, making another complete transition. Further, each of the sense-
organs has distinguishable susceptibilities, as color and form to the
eye, articulation and music to the ear.

Another effective transition is from books or spoken teaching to
concrete objects as set forth in the sciences of observation and exper-
iment. The change is nearly the same as from an abstract subject
like mathematics to one of the concrete and experimental sciences, as
botany and chemistry. A still further change is from the world of
matter to the world of mind, but this is liable to assume false and de-
lusive appearances.

It has been well remarked that arithmetic is an effective transition
from reading: and writing. The whole strain and attitude of the mind
are entirely different, when the pupil sets to perform sums after a read-
ing-lesson. The mathematical sciences are naturally deemed the
driest and hardest of occupations to the average mind ; yet there may
be occupations such as to make tliem an acceptable diversion. I have
known clergymen whose relaxation from clerical duty consisted in
algebraical and geometrical problems.

The fine-art acquisitions introduce an agreeable variety, partly
by bringing distinctive organs into play, and partly by evoking a
pleasurable interest that enters little, if at all, into other studies. The
more genial part of moral training has a relationship to art. The
severer exercises are a painful necessity, and not an agreeable transi-
tion from anything.

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 399

The introduction of narratives, stirring incidents, and topics of
human interest generally, is cliiefly a mode of pleasurable recreation.
If taken in any other view, it falls under some of the leading studies,
and engages the memory, the judgment, or the constructive power,
and must be estimated accordingly.

Bodily training, fine art (itself an aggregate of alternations),
language, science, do not exhaust all the varieties of acquirement,
but they indicate the chief departments whose alternation gives re-
lief to the mental strain, and economizes power in the whole. Under
these, as already hinted, there are variations of attitude and exercise;
from listening to repeating, from learning a rule, to the application
of it in new cases, from knowledge generally to practice.

The ti-ansition from one language to another, being a variation in
the nature of the impressions, is a relief of an inferior kind, yet real.
It is the more so, if we are not engaged in parallel exercises ; learning
strings of Latin words in the morning, and of German in the evening,
does not constitute any relief.

From one science to another, tlie transition may be great, as al-
ready shown, or it may be small. From botany to zoology afibrds a
transition of material, with similarity in form. Pure and mixed
mathematics are the very same thing. The change from algebra to
geometry is but slightly refreshing; from geometry to ti-igonometry,
and geometrical conic sections, is no relief to any iaculty.

There are minor incidents of relief and alternation that are not
to be despised. Passing from one master to another (both being
supposed competent) is a very sensible and grateful change ; even
the change of room, of seat, of posture, is an antidote against weari-
ness, and helps us in making a fresh start. The jaded student relishes
a change of books even in the same subject, the alteration from soli-
tude to company.

Some subjects are in themselves so mixed, that they would appear
to contain the elements of a sufficiently various occupation of the
mind; such are geography, history, and Avhat is called literature,
when studied both for expression and for subject-matter. This vari-
ety, however, is not altogether a desirable thing. The analytic
branch of the science of education would have to resolve those ao-ore-
gates into their constituent parts, and consider not only their respec-
tive contributions to our mental culture, but also the advantages and
disadvantaoes attendincr the mixture.

Culture of the Ejiotions. — The laws attainable in the depart-
ments of emotion and volition are the immediate prelude to moral
education, in which all the highest difficulties culminate. There are
emotional and volitional forces prior to any cultivation, and there are
new forces that arise through cultivation; yet from the vagueness
attaching to the measured intensity of feelings and emotions, it is not
easy to value the separate results.

400 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The general laws of retentiveness equally apply to emotional
growths. There must be repetition and concentration of mind to
bring about a mental association of pleasure or of pain with any ob-
ject. But there are peculiarities in the case such as to demand for it
a supplementary treatment. Perhaps the best way of bringing out
the points is to indicate the modes or species of growths, coming
under emotion and volition, that most obtrude themselves upon the'
notice of the educationist.

I. We may quote first the associations of pleasure and pain with
the various things that have been present to us, dui'ing our experiences
of delight and suffering. It is well known that we contract pleasur-
able regards toward things originally indifferent that have been often
present to us in happy moments. Local associations are among the
most iamiliar examples ; if our life is joyous, we go on increasing our
attachments to our permanent home and neighborhood; we are
severely tried when we have to migrate ; and one of our holiday de-
lights is to revisit the scenes of former pleasures. A second class of
acquired feelings includes the associations with such objects as have
been the instruments of our avocations, tastes, and pursuits. The fur-
nishings of our home, our tools, weapons, curiosities, collections, books,
pictures — all contract a glow of associated feeling, that helps to pal-
liate the dullness of life. The essence of affection, as distinguished
from emotion, is understood to be the confirming and strengthening
of some primary object of our regards. As our knowledge extends,
we contract numerous associations with things purely ideal, as with
historic places, persons, and incidents. I need only allude to the large
field of ceremonies, rites, and formalities, which are cherished as en-
larging the surface of emotional growths. The fine-art problem of
distinguishing between original and derived effects consists in more
precisely estimating these acquired pleasures.

The educationist could not but cast a longing eye over the wide
region here opened up, as a grand opportunity for his art. It is the
realm of vague possibility, peculiarly suited to sanguine estimates. An
education in happiness pure and simple, by w^ell-placed joyous asso-
ciations, is a dazzling prospect. One of Sydney Smith's pithy sayings
was, " If you make children hnppy now, you make them happy twenty
years hence, by the memory of it." This referred, no doubt, to the
home-life. It may, however, be carried out also in the school-life;
and enthusiasm has gone the length of supposing that the school mny
be so w^ell constituted as to efface the stamp of an unhappy home.

The growth of such happy associations is not the work of days ; it
demands years. I have endeavored to set forth the psychology of the
case ("The Emotions and the Will," third edition, p. 89), and do not
here repeat the principles and conditions that seem to be involved.
But the thread of the present exposition would be snapped, if I were
not to ask attention to the difference in the rate of growth when the

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 401

feelings are painful ; the progress here is not so tedious nor so liable
to thwarting and interruption.

With understood exceptions, pleasure is related physically with
vitality, health, vigor, harmonious adjustment of all the parts of the
system ; it needs sufficiency of nutriment or support, excitement with-
in due limits, the absence of everything that could mar or irritate any
organ. Pain comes of the deficiency in any of these conditions, and
is therefore as easy to bring about and maintain as the other is diffi-
cult. To evoke an echo or recollection of pleasure, is to secure, or at
least to simulate, the copiousness, the due adjustment and harmony
of the powers. Tliis may be easy enough when such is the actual state
at the time, but that is no test. What we need is to induce a pleasui*-
able tone, when the actuality is no more than indifferent or neutral,
and even, in the midst of actual pain, to restore pleasure by force of
mental adhesiveness. A growth of this description is, on a priori
grounds, not likely to be very soon reached.

On the other hand, pain is easy in the actual, and easy in the ideal.
It is easy to burn one's fingers, and easy to associate pain with a flame,
a cinder, a hot iron. Going as spectators to visit a fine mansion, we
feel in some degree elated by the associations of enjoyment ; but we
are apt to be in a still greater degree depressed by entering the
abodes of wretchedness, or visiting the gloomy chambers of a prison.

II. The facility of painful growths is not fully comprehended, un-
til we advert to the case of passionate outbursts or the modes of feel-
ing whose characteristic is explosiveness. These costly discharges
of vital energy are easy to induce at first hand, and easy to attach to
indifferent things, so as to be induced at second hand likewise. Very
rarely are they desirable in themselves ; our study is to check and
control them in their original operation, and to hinder the rise of new
occasions for their display. One of the best examples is terror, an
explosive and wasteful manifestation of energy under certain forms
of pain. If it is frequently stimulated by its proper causes, it attaches
itself to by-standing circumstances with fatal readiness, and proceeds
with no tardy steps. Next is irascibility, also an explosive emotion.
It too, if ready to burst out by its primary causes, soon enlarges its
borders by new associations. It is in every way more dangerous
than terror. The state of fear is so miserable that we would restrain
it if we could ; the state of anger, although containing painful ele-
ments, is in its nature a luxurious mood ; and we may not wish either
to check it in the first instance, or to prevent it from spreading over
collateral things. When any one has stirred our irascibility to its
depths, the feeling overflows upon all that relates to him. If this be
pleasure, it is a pleasure of rapid growth ; even in tender years we
may be advanced in hatreds. That combination of terror and iras-
cibility giving rise to what is named antipathy is (unless strongly re-
sisted) a state easy to assume and easy to cultivate, and is in wide

VOL. XI, — 26

402 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

contrast with the slow growth of the pleasures typified under the
foregoing head. A signal illustration of explosiveness is furnished
by laughter, which has both its original causes, and also its factitious
or borrowed stimulants. This is an instance where the severity of
the agitation provokes self-control, and where advancing years con-
tract rather than enlarge the sphere. As the expression of dispar-
aging and scornful emotions, its cultivation has the facility of the
generic passion of malevolence. We may refer, next, to the explosive
emotion of grief, which is in itself seductive, and, if uncontrolled,
adds to its primary urgency the force of a habit all too readily ac-
quired. There is, moreovei', in connection with the tender emotion,
an explosive mode of genuine affection, of which the only defect is its
being too strong to last : it prompts to a degree of momentary ardor
that is compatible with a relapse into coldness and neglect. This,
too, will spontaneously extend itself, and will exemijlify the growth
of emotional association with undesirable rapidity.

What has now been said is but a summary and representation of
familiar emotional facts. Familiar also is the remark that explosive-
ness is the weakness of early life, and is surmounted to a great de-
gree by the lapse of time and the strengthening of the energies. The
encounter with others in every-day life begets restraint and control ;
and one's own prudential reflections stimulate a further repression of
the original outbursts, by which also their growth into habits is re-
tarded. In so far as they are repressed by influence from without,
and counter-habits established, as a part of moral education, I have
elsewhere stated what I consider the two main conditions of such a
result — a powerful initiative, and an unbroken series of conquests.
When these conditions are exemplified through all the emotions in
detail, the specialties of the difierent genera — fear, anger, love, and
the rest — are sufficiently obvious.

III. The chief interest always centres in those associations that,
from their bearing on right and wrong condi;ct, receive the name
" Moral." The class just described have this bearing in a very direct
form ; while the first class indirectly subserves moral ends. But
when we approach the subject with an express view to moral culture,
we must cross the field of emotional association in general by a new
track.

The newly-appointed professors of the theory of education are per-
haps not yet fully aware that, when they venture upon the troubled
arena of moral education, they will not be able to evade the long-
standing question. What is the moral faculty ? A very short argu-
ment will prove the point. Moral improvement is obviously a
strengthening of this so-called moral faculty, or conscience — increas-
ing its might (in Butler's phrase) to the level of its right. But in
order to strengthen an energy we must know what it is : if it is a sim-
ple, we must define it in its simplicity ; if it is a compound, we must

EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 403

assign its elements, with a view to define them. The iinconventional
liandling of moral culture by Bentham and James Mill is strongly
illustrative of this part of the case. Mill's view of the moral sense
is the theory of thorough-going derivation ; and, in delineating the
process of moral education, he naturally follows out that view. He
takes the cardinal virtues piecemeal ; for example : " Temperance
bears a reference to pain and pleasure. The object is, to connect with
each pain and pleasure those trains of ideas which, according to the
order established among events, tend most effectually to increase the
sum of pleasures upon the whole, and diminish that of pains." The
advocates of a moral faculty would have a different way of inculcating
temperance — which, however, I will not undertake to reproduce.

It will not be denied, as a matter of fact, that tlie perennial mode
of insuring the moral conduct of mankind has been punishment and
reward — pain and pleasure. This method has been found, generally
speaking, to answer the purpose ; it has reached the springs of action
of human beings of every hue. No special endowment has been needed
to make man dread the pains of the civil authority. Constituted as
we are to flee all sorts of pain, we are necessarily urged to avoid pain
when it comes as punishment. Education is not essential to tliis effect
any more than it is essential to our avoiding the pains of hunger, cold,
or fatigue.

Those Avho demur to the existence of a special faculty, different
from all the other recognized constituents of mind — feeling, will, or
intellect — are not to be held as declaring that conscience is entirely a
matter of education ; for, without any education at all, man may be,
to all intents and purposes, moral. What is meant by the derivative
theory of conscience is, that everything that it includes is traceable
to some one or other of the leading factors of our nature : first of all to
will or volition, motived by pain and pleasure, and next to the social
and sympathetic impulses. The cooperation of these factoi's supplies
a nearly all-powerful impetus to right conduct, wherever there is the
external machinery of law and authority. Education, as a third fac-
tor, plays a part, no doubt, but we may overrate as well as imder-
rate its influence. I should not be far out in saying that seventy-five
per cent, of the average moral faculty is the rough and ready response
of the will to the constituted penalties and rewards of society.

At the risk of embroiling the theory of education in a controversy
that would seem to be alien to it, I conceive it to be necessary to make
these broad statements, as a prelude to inquiring what are the emo-
tional and volitional associations that constitute the made-up or ac-
quired portion of our moral nature. That education is a considerable
factor is shown by the difference between the children that are neg-
lected and such as ai-e carefully tended ; a difference, however, that
means a good deal more than education.

When the terrors of the law are once thoroughly understood, it

404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

does not seem as if any education could add to the mind's own origi-
nal repugnance to incur them; and, on the other hand, when some-
thins: in the nature of reward is held forth to encourage certain kinds
of conduct, we do not need special instruction to prompt us to secure
it. There is, indeed, one obvious weakness that often nullifies the
operation of these motives, namely, the giving way to some present
and pressing solicitation, a weakness that education might do some-
thing foi", but rarely does. The instructor that could reform a victim
to this frailty would effect something much wider than moral im-
provement properly includes.

Going in search of some distinct lines of emotional association that
enhance the original impulses coincident with moral duty, I think I
may cite the growth of an immediate, independent, and disinterested
repugnance to what is uniformly denounced and punished as being
Avrong. This is a state or disposition of mind forming part of a well-
developed conscience ; it may grow up spontaneously under the ex-
perience of social authority, and it may be aided by inculcation ; it
may, however, also fail to show itself. This is the parallel of the
much-quoted love of money for itself; but is not so facile in its
growth. For one thing, the mind must not treat authority as an
enemy to be counted with, and to be obeyed only when we can't do
better. There must be a cordial acquiescence in the social system as
working by penalties ; and this needs the concurrence of good im-
pulses together with reflection on the evils that mankind are saved
from. It is by being favorably situated in the world, as well as by
being sympathetically disposed, that we contract this repugnance to
immoral acts in themselves, and without reference to the penalties
that are behind; and thus perform our duties when out of sight, and
not in the narrowness of the letter, but in the fullness of the spirit. It
would take a good deal of consideration to show how the schoolmaster
might cooperate in furthering this special growth.

-♦•♦-

THE NORWEGIAN LEMMING AND ITS MIGRATIONS.

By W. DUPPA CEOTCII, M. A., F. L. S.

AMONG the many marvelous stories w^hich are told of the Nor-
wegian lemming (3Iyodes lemmus, Linn.), there is one which
seems so directly to point to a lost page in the history of the world,
that it is worth a consideration which it appears hitherto to have es-
caped. I allude to the remarkable fact that every member of the vast
swarms which periodically almost devastate Norway perishes volun-
tarily, or at least instinctively, in the ocean. But as among my
readers some may not be familiar with the lemming, a brief descrip-

THE NORWEGIAN- LEMMING.

405

tion of the animal itself will not be out of place. It is a vole, like our
short-tailed field-mouse, very variable in size and color, but the figures
(Fig. 1), which are about half the natural size, will be found to resem-
ble the majority in the latter respect. The claws, especially on the
fore-foot, are strong and curved ; the tail is very short, the ears scarcely
visible, and the bead-like, black eyes seem always to notice objects
above them rather than those in any other direction. During the
summer these animals form their nests under stones, usually betray-
ing their habitations by the very care which they take to keep them

Fig. 1. — Geoup op Lemmings.

sweet and clean. In winter, however, they form long galleries through
the turf and under the snow in search of their food, which is exclu-
sively vegetable; and it is at this time that those ravages are caused
which have led the Norwegians in former times to institute a special
form of prayer against their invasions. There are several species
of lemming, easily recognizable, and with well-marked geographical
range ; but it is to the Scandinavian species only that the following
old description applies: "It lives on the shoots of the dwarf-b^rcli,
reindeer lichens, and other mosses ; it hisses and bites; in winter it
runs under the snow ; and about every tenth year, especially before
an extremely severe winter, the whole army of animals, in the a\itumn
and at night, migrates in a direct line." According to Olaus Magnus
they fall from the clouds ; and Pennant narrates that " they descend
from the Kjolen, marching in parallel lines three feet apart; they trav-

4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

erse Nordland and Finmark, cross lakes and rivers, and gnaw through
hay and corn stacks rather than go round. They infect the ground, and
the cattle perish which taste of the grass they have touched ; nothing
stops them — neither fire, torrents, lakes, nor morasses. The greatest
rock gives them but a slight check ; they go round it, and then
resume their march directly without the least division. If they meet
a peasant they persist in their course, and jump as high as his knees
in defense of their progress. They are so fierce as to lay hold of a
stick and sufi"er themselves to be swung about before they quit their
hold. If struck they turn about and bite, and will make a noise like
a dog. Foxes, lynxes, and ermines, follow them in great numbers,
and at length they perish, either through want of food or by destroy-
ing one another, or in some great water, or in the sea. They are the
dread of the country, and in former times spiritual weapons were ex-
erted against them ; the priest exorcised them, and had a long foim
of prayer to arrest the evil. Happily it does not occur frequently
— once or twice only in twenty years. It seems like a vast colony
of emigrants from a nation overstocked, a discharge of animals from
the northern hive which once poured forth its myriads of human
beings upon Southern Europe. They do not form any magazine for
winter provision, by which improvidence, it seems, they are compelled
to make their summer migration in certain years, urged by hunger.
They are not poisonous, as vulgarly reported, for they are often eaten
by the Laplanders, who compare their flesh to that of squirrels."

M. Guyon disposes of the theory that these migrations are influ-
enced by approaching, severe weather, since the one witnessed by
himself took place in the spring; also the superabundance of food
during the previous autumn precluded all idea of starvation. He
therefore adopts a third view, that excessive multiplication in certain
years necessitates emigration, and that this follows a descending
course, like the mountain-streams, till at length the ocean is reached.
Mr. R. Collett, a Norwegian naturalist, writes that in November,
1868, a ship sailed for fifteen hours through a swarm of lemmings,
which extended as far over the Trondhjems-fjord as the eye could
reach.

I will now relate my own experience of the lemming during three
migrations in Norway, and in a state of captivity in England. The
situation of Heimdalen, where I reside during the summer months, is
peculiarly well suited for observation of their migrations, lying as it
does at an elevation of 3,000 feet, and immediately imder the highest
mountains in Scandinavia; and yet, excepting during migration, I
have never seen or been able to procure a specimen. It was in the
autumn of 1867 that I first heard the peculiar cry of the lemming,
guided by which I soon found the pretty animal backed up by a stone,
against which it incessantly jerked its body in passionate leaps of
rage, all the while uttering a shrill note of defiance. Tlie black, bead-

TEE NORWEGIAN LEMMING. 407

like eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and tbe teeth shone
wliite in the sunliglit. I hastily snatched at the savage little creat-
ure, but it sprang completely round, fastened its teeth sharply in my
hand, and taking advantage of my surprise escaped under a large
stone, whence I could not dislodge it. A Norwegian friend who ac-
companied me by no means shared my feelings of satisfaction at the
sight of a lemming. " We shall have a severe winter and no grass
next spring, owing to those children of Satan ! "■ was his comment on
the event. However, it was many a month before I saw another;
then, on lifting a flat stone, I found six in a nest of dried grass, blind,
and apparently but just born. In a few days the whole fjeld became
swarming with these pretty voles ; at the same time white and blue
foxes made their appearance, and snowy owls and many species of
hawks became abundant. My dogs, too, were annoyed by the rash
courage of the new-comers, which would jump at their noses even
when slowly drawing on game, so that they never spared a lemming,
though they never ate them till last year, when I observed that they
would eat their heads only, rejecting the body, although they de-
voured the common field-mouse to the end of his tail. As the season
advanced and snow covered the gi'ound, the footprints and headless
carcasses told plainly how hard it must be for a lemming to preserve
its life, although there can be no doubt that its inherent pugnacity is
its worst enemy. In this country we fail to conceive how much active
life goes on beneath the snow, which in more northern latitudes forms
a warm roof to numerous birds, quadrupeds, and insects, which are
thus enabled to secure an otherwise impossible sustenance. At the
same time, as I have already noticed, a fearful struggle for existence
is carried on during the long autumnal nights, before the snow has be-
come a protection rather than a new source of danger to all save pre-
daceous animals. It was a curious sight, when the whole visible
landscape was an unbroken whiteness, to see a dark form suddenly
spring from the surface and scurry over the snow, and again vanish.
I found that some of the holes by means of which this feat was exe-
cuted were at least five feet in depth, yet even here was no safety, for
the reindeer often kill the lemmings by stamping on them, though I
do not believe their bodies are ever eaten.

During the autumn I noticed no migration, or rather there was
only an immigration from some point to the eastward, and in the sub-
sequent migrations of 1870-'7l, and 1875-"76, I still found the same
state of things. The animals arrived during early autumn, and im-
mediately began to breed ; there was no procession, no serried
bands undeterred by obstacles, but there was an invasion of tem-
porary settlers, which were speedily shut out from human view
by the snow, and it was not till the following summer that the
army, reenforced by five or six generations, went out to perish like
the hosts of Pharaoh. On calm mornings my lake, which is a mile

4o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in width, was often thickly studded with swimming lemmings, every
head pointing westward ; but I observed that when my boat came near
enough to frighten them they would lose all idea of direction, and
frequently swim back to tlie bank they had left. When the least
wind ruftied the water every swimmer was drowned ; and never did
frailer barks tempt a more treacherous sea, as the wind swept daily
down the valley, and wi*ecked all who were then afloat. It is impos-
sible not to feel pity for these self-haunted fugitives. A mere cloud
passing over the sun affrighted them ; the approach of horse, cow,
doo-, or man, alike roused their impotent anger, and their little bodies
were convulsively pressed against the never-failing stone of vantage
{see Fig. 1), while they uttered cries of rage. I collected 500 skins,
with the idea of making a rug, but was surprised to find that a por-
tion of the rump was nearly always denuded of hair, and it was long
before I discovered that this was caused by the habit of nervously
backing up against a stone, of which I have just spoken. As this
action is excited by every appearance of an enemy, it seems surpris-
ing that a natural callosity should not take the place of so constant a
lesion ; possibly, however, the time during which this lesion occurs is
too short to cause constitutional change.

Early in the autumn, and just a year after their arrival at Heim-
dalen, the western migration commenced anew. Every morning I
found swarms of lemmings swimming the lake diagonally, instead of
diverging from their course so as to go round it, and mounting the
steep slopes of Heimdals-lio (Figs. 2 and 3) on their way to the coast,

Fig. 2.— Plan of Heimdalen drawn to scale, in which the course of the Lemrainge, indicated by
the arrow*:, is seen to crops Lake Heimdalsvand and the Fwift river Leirungen, both of wliicli
might be avoided by a slight dUour. The river is of glacier origin, very cold and very rapid.

where the harassed crowd, thinned by the unceasing attacks of the
wolf, the fox, and the dog, and even the reindeer, pursued by eagle,
hawk, and owl {see frontispiece), and never spared by man himself,
yet still a vast multitude, plunges into the Atlantic Ocean on the first

THE NORWEGIAN LEMMING.

409

calm day, and perishes with its front still pointing westward. No
faint heart lingers on the way ; and no survivor returns to the moun-
tains.

There appears to have been a difficulty in keeping these restless
creatures in captivity, both because they escape through incredibly-
small apertures (generally, however, dying from internal injuries thus
caused), and because they will gnaw through a stout wooden cage in
one night, and devote every spare moment to this one purpose, with
a pertinacity worthy of Baron Trenck. At all events, few have been
brought alive to this country, and none have survived. At present
(February, 1877) I have one which I have preserved since September
last, defeating his attempts at escape by lining the cage with tin, and
allowing him a plentiful supply of fresh water, in which he is always
dabbling. With the approach of winter all his attempts to escape
ceased, and I now always take the little stranger for an airing in my
closed hands while his bed is being made and his room cleaned out.
He seems to like this, but after a few minutes a gentle nibble at my
finger testifies to his impatience; and if tliis be not attended to, the

Feat.

Pig. 3.-

-Section of Heimdalen showing the Leimnings' track, which ooes uoi loliow tho water-
shed.

biting progresses in a crescendo scale until it becomes unbearable,
although it has never under these circumstances drawn blood. My
little prisoner shows few other signs of tameness, but the fits of jump-
ing, biting, and snarling rage have almost ceased. I expect, how-
ever, that, with the return of spring, the migratory impulse will be
i-enewed, and that he will kill himself against the wires of his cage
like a swallow.

The reader is now in a position to consider the three questions
raised by the above facts, and those questions are as follow : 1.
Whence do the lemmings come ? 2. Whither do they go ? 3. Why
do they migrate at all ? With regard to the first, no one has yet sup-
plied an answer. They certainly do not exist in my neighborhood

410

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

during the intervals of migrations ; and the Kjulen range was prob-
ably selected as their habitat, not because it was proved to be so, but
because so little is known about it at all. The answer to the second
question is certain : They go to the sea. Those on the east of tlie
backbone of Norway go to the Gulf of Bothnia, and those on the west
to the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 4), and out of eighteen migrations which
have been investigated, one only, and that very doubtful, is reported

Fig. 4. — Ot'TLTNE Map of Scaxdin'avia. TIip two main valleyB. Giulbraixlsdalon riid tlie valley
of the Glommen, run nearly iioitli and Boulh. The course of the Lemmiugg crosses tbLbe at
right angles, as indicated by the arrows.

to have been directed southward. The question as to the cause of
these migrations remains, and is a very difficult one to answer. "We
have been told that the foreknowledge of approaching scAcre weather
predetermines the exodus : my experience, however, contradicts this,
and it may be dismissed as merely a popular superstition. Unusual
reproduction and consequent deficiency of food is a more plausible
theory ; but I have always noticed that, just as with the swallow, a

THE NORWEGIAN LEMMING.

411

few individuals have preceded the main body, and that during the
first autumn the numbers are never large, but, after a winter spent be-
neath the snow, they begin to breed with the first days of summer,
and thus develop the extraordinary multitude which is, as it well may
be, the astonishment and terror of the country. It appears, then, that
excessive reproduction is rather the result than the cause of migra-
tion. It has also been suggested that the course taken by the lem-
mings follows the natural declivities of the country, but a reference to
the maps will show that in that case nearly all the Norwegian migra-
tions should take a sovitherly route, which is by no means the case.
On the contrary, westward at lieimdalen means across a rapid river,
over a wide lake, and up a steep, rocky, and snowy mountain, and
this is the course which is followed. Now, this ends eventually in the
ocean, and thus we are again landed at the question from which we
set out. After all, it is not the power of direction which is so remark-
able ; this is a faculty possessed by many animals, and by man him-
self in a savage state. A young dog which I took from England, and
then from my home in Yaage by a path to Heimdalen, a distance of
forty-six miles, ran back the next morning by a direct route of his
own, crossing three rapid rivers and much snow, and accomplishing the
distance in six hours, without the vestige of a path. This same dog
afterward repeated the feat, but followed the path, and took two days
in reaching his destination, hindered and not aided, as I believe, by
his experience. Herr Palmen, indeed, says, " Experience guides mi-
gration, and the older migrants guide the younger," like one of Mr.
Cook's personally-conducted tours. This obviously cannot be the
case with the lemmings.

It is now generally admitted that instinct is merely inherited ex-
perience, and is, therefore, primarily calculated to benefit the species,
unless, indeed, circumstances have changed meanwhile more rapidly
than the structures to which the phenomena of instinct are due. Now,
the lemmings during their wanderings pass through a land of milk
and honey, where, if their instincts could be appeased, they might
well take up a permanent abode ; and yet they pass on, while their
congener, the field-vole, remains in quiet possession of the quarters
from which he was temporarily ousted. It is, indeed, almost as
strange a sight to see the holes, the deeply-grooved runs, and the
heaps of refuse, of these restless creatures, which have passed away
but yesterday, as it is to see the fjelds suddenly become alive with a
new and boisterous tenant, who, like another Ishmael, has the hand
of all men against him.

Now, if we compare the migration of the lemmings with that of
our more familiar swallows, we find that the latter obviously seek a
more genial climate and more abundant food, returning to us as surely
as summer itself; nor do they ever, so far as I know, breed on their
passage. The swifts, which stay but a short time with us, remain in

412 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Norway barely long enough to rear their young before returning to
Africa. It is difficult, in fact, to find a parallel case to that of the
lemmings. The nearest approach, perhaps, is afforded by the strange
immigration of Pallas's sand-grouse in 1863, when a species whose
home is on the Tartar steppes journeyed on in considerable numbers
to the most westei-n shores of Europe, and very probably many per-
ished, like the lemmings, in the waves of the Atlantic. But to revert
to the swallows, which annually desert Europe to visit Africa. Let
us suppose that these birds were partial migrants only — that is, that
a remnant remained with us after the departure of the main body —
and further suppose that the continent of Africa were to become sub-
merged, would not many generations of swallows still follow their
inherited migratory instincts, and seek the land of their ancestors
through the new waste of waters, while the remaining stock, unim-
peded by competition, would sooner or later, according to the seasons,
recruit the ranks for a new exodus ? It appears quite as probable
that the impetus of migration toward this lost continent should be re-
tained as that a dog should turn round before lying down on a rug,
merely because his ancestors found it necessary thus to hollow out a
couch in the long gi-ass.

Well, then, is it probable that land could have existed where now
the broad Atlantic rolls ? All tradition says so ; old Egyptian records
speak of Atlantis, as Strabo and others have told us. The Sahara
itself is the sand of an ancient sea, and the shells which are found
npon its surface prove that no longer ago than the Miocene period a
sea rolled over what now is desert. The voyage of the Challenger
has proved the existence of three long ridges in the Atlantic Ocean,
one extending for more than 3,000 miles ; and lateral spurs may, by
connecting these ridges, account for the marvelous similarity in
the fauna of all the Atlantic islands. However, I do not suppose
that the lemmings ever went so far south, though they are found as
fossils in England; but it is a remarkable fact that, while the sound-
ings off Norway are comparatively shallow for many miles, we find a
narrow but deep channel near Iceland, which probably lias prevented
the lemming from becoming indigenous there, although an American
species was found in Greenland during the late arctic expedition. If,
as is probable, the Gulf Stream formerly followed this deep channel,
its beneficent influence would only extend a few miles from the coast,
which would also have reached to a great distance beyond the present
shores of Norway, and thus the lemmings would have acquired the
habit of traveling westward in search of better climate and more
abundant food ; and, as little by little the ocean encroached on the
land, the same advantages would still be attained. And thus, too,
we find an explanation of the fate which befalls the adventurous wan-
derers ; for we have already seen that no lake deters them, and that
they frequently cross the fjords, or arms of the sea, in safety. No

MATCHES. 413

doubt, thei-efore, they commit themselves to the Atlantic in the belief
that it is as passable as those lakes and Ijoixls which they have already
successfully dared, and that beyond its waves lies a land which they
are never destined to reach.

The submerged continent of Lemuria, in what is now the Indian
Ocean, is considered to afibrd an explanation of many difficulties in
the distribution of organic life, and I think the existence of a Miocene
Atlantis will be found to have a strong elucidative bearing on subjects
of greater interest than the migration of the lemming. At all events,
if it can be shown that land existed in former ages where the North
Atlantic now rolls, not only is a motive found for these apparently
suicidal migrations, but also a strong collateral proof that what we
call instincts are but the blind and sometimes even prejudicial inheri-
tance of previously-acquired experience. — Popular Science Review.

-♦^♦-

MATCHES.

By JOHN A. GARVER, A.B.

AN article in The Popular Science Monthly of last November
gave an interesting account of the early history of fire, showing
how that important element was obtained in primitive times. We will
now consider the development of the modern art of extemporizing
fire. In a match-making age those crude and ancient processes are
regarded with curiosity, but that they ever possessed any practical
value is scarcely realized ; while the use of our prompt and cheap
devices for producing combustion has grown to be such a matter of
course that a thought is hardly given to the time when they did not
exist. During the whole of the last century, however, and in the early
part of the present century, the invention of a safe and trustworthy
agent for furnishing fire was regarded as one of the great wants of
the age ; and fifty years ago a tinder-box was as much an indispen-
sable article of household economy as is the well-filled match-safe to-
day. The sulphur-match now in use is not so old as our railroads, and
but a few years ago there occurred frequent examples of burns caused
by the explosion of the match and the projection of its burning pieces.

Among the more civilized nations, the tinder-box, with the flint
and steel, became known in the fourteenth century, and continued to
be used, notwithstanding the other methods, down to the invention
of the lucifer-match. The tinder was formed by the partial combus-
tion of a linen or cotton rag, and, being ignited by striking a spark
upon it from the flint and steel, communicated its fire in turn to the
match.

When phosphorus was first discovered, two hundred years ago, it

414 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was utilized in London by rubbing it between two pieces of brown
paper. A tire was produced in this way, which lighted a splint tipped
with sulphur. Another early method was to put a piece of phospho-
rus in a vial and stir it with a hot iron wire, after which the vial was
corked tightly for use. As the phosphorus was partially burned in
the contined portion of the air, the interior of the vial became covered
with oxide of phosphorus. When a light was desired, a sulphur-
tipped splint was dipped into the bottle, a portion of the phosphorus
adhered to it, and, being brought into the air, the chemical action
between the two substances caused a flame which lighted the splint.

When chlorate of potash is mixed with loaf-sugar, a drop of sul-
phuric acid let fall on the compound will produce a brilliant flame.
This principle involved the next stage in the development of the
match. The end of the splint was tipped with the mixture, colored
with vermilion, and ignited in a little bottle containing asbestus and
sulphuric acid. The various ingredients were then put into a hand-
some metal case, and the patent was ready to take its place among the
wealthy; for, at first, a single case of a hundred sold for four dollars
and seventy-five cents. There were certain drawbacks to the practical
use of this invention, as the acid would become weak by absorbing
moisture from the air, and the match, instead of producing the brilliant
flame expected, merely smouldered and spurted the acid about, to the
detriment of good clothes and a peaceful disposition. As a stroke of
economy, such a wetted match was occasionally put back among the
rest for future use ; but, coming in contact with one more energetic,
it ignited the latter, and thus the whole collection was lighted at once
and shot out in all directions. From this dip-splint, oxymuriate match,
or instantaneous light-box, as it was variously termed, lucifers trace
their lineal descent.

John Walker, an Englishman, is generally supposed to have in-
vented lucifer-matches in 1829. The first real friction-match was
made in England in 1832, and was a compound of chlorate of potash
and sulphuret of antimony. It was ignited by strong compression
between two pieces of sand-paper, and, as a natural consequence, the
heads frequently flew ofl"in all directions. A year or two later, phos-
phoi'us was substituted for the antimony; the matches were called
"congreves," and the composition continued to be improved by using
other constituents for part of the chlorate of potash.

The ease with which phosphorus is ignited by friction has caused it
to be employed universally in the manufacture of matches. The partic-
ular proportions and the exact ingredients which make x;p the head
of the match are jealously guarded by the manufactui'ers, each one
claiming some advantage over the others. From one-twelfth to one-
tenth is laid down as the best proportion of phosphorus to be em-
ployed. Glue, gum, or similar substances, are used for causing the com-
position to adhere to the splint. The use of glue is objectionable, as it

MATCHES. 415

carbonizes and prevents combustion. In preparing the compound, the
muciko-inous substance is dissolved in water till it assumes the consist-
ency of thin sirup. After it is heated, the phosphorus is added in
small pieces, and thoroughly incorporated by rubbing till cold. If it
were left in this condition, however, the mass, upon becoming cold,
would prevent the admission of air and hinder combustion. Some
additional substance is necessary to supply the oxygen to it, such as
red-lead, saltpetre, or chlorate of potash. ' Coloring-matter is also
usually put into the solution : vermilion, if the tips are to be red ;
Prussian blue, if they are to be blue, etc. In making sulphur-matches,
the ends of the splints are first dipped into melted sulphur, and after-
ward touched to the surface of the phosphorus-paste. In lighting such
a match, the process is as follows : the coating of the head is broken
by friction, the phosphorus is kindled, and the heat of its combustion
decomposes the salts ; these, in their decomposition, evolve oxygen,
which provides the fuel, increases the heat, and causes the ignition of
the sulphur, which in turn inflames the wood. The temperature re-
quired for kindling matches varies from 150° to 160° Fahr. The
sulphur is what causes the peculiar brimstone-odor. Instead of sul-
phur, stearin, stearic acid, or paraffin, is used in the better kinds of
matches. They burn more readily than the sulphur-matches, as the
fatty matter and wood take fire together, while in the others the sul-
phur must first be consumed before the wood is ignited. The matches
soaked in fatty matter also burn with a clearer and brighter light, and
are free from the disagreeable odor due to the sulphur. A coating of
varnish is sometimes employed to protect the head from moisture.

Before a box of matches can be sold, it has passed through about
forty diftereat processes, twenty for the matches and as many for the
box. The wood used for the splints is commonly white-pine, free from
knots. Other woods are also occasionally employed, as beech, birch,
willow, poplar, and cedar. Much of the wood for this purpose is
brought from Canada, and the match-manufacture is assuming such
large proportions that it is making serious inroads into the supply of
clear white-pine timber needed for other purposes. Formerly, the
splints were cut by hand, and the composition was applied by the
same means. Separate factories are now commonly employed for mak-
ing the splints, and the entire labor is performed by machinery. As
the manufacturers do not allow visitors in their buildings, it is impos-
sible to describe exactly the machinery or the methods employed. By
one process, the pine-wood is reduced to two-inch planks, which are
cut into blocks the length of the ordinary match. These are put into
a small machine, which at each stroke cuts ofi" twelve splints, and at
the following stroke delivers them upon an endless chain, which car-
ries them to a sulphui--bath, where a wheel, revolving in the sulphur,
coats their ends as they pass ; farther on, a similar wheel applies the
phosphorus. In this condition the matches are brought back across

41 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the room, delivered in trays near the cutting-machine, and thence sent
to the packing-room. In wax-matches, or vestas, the composition is
attached to a fcAV cotton-threads immersed in a mixture of paraffin
and stearin. One or two himdred of these wicks are rolled around a
cylinder and separated by a comb. They pass through a bath of
melted wax and are afterward drawn through holes in a metal frame,
which renders the tapers smooth, cylindrical, and of the proper size
and shape. A mechanical knife cuts, at one time, all the wicks accord-
inf to the determined length, from one to one and a quarter inch,
after which the paste is applied to their ends with great rapidity.

In the manufacture of matches much trouble has been occasioned
by the use of phosphorus, as its fumes attack the teeth of the work-
men, and sfive rise to a disease known as caries of the iaw-bones.
In some of the small and poorly-managed factories the men and chil-
dren are never free from the fumes ; their clothes and breath are lu-
minous in the dark, and in the daytime "white fumes may be seen
escaping from them whenever they are seated by the fire. The phos-
phorus first attacks a decayed tooth, causing pain which constantly
becomes greater. The gums are sore, the face swollen, and the teeth
finally drop out. The suffering is excruciating, the patient finds little
relief for months or years, and, in a severe case, there is loss of one
or both jaw-bones, hindering mastication and ending in death. So
alarming did this disease become in Germany at one time that it at-
tracted the attention of the Government. No antidote has yet been
discovered ; but it can be prevented to a great extent by ventilation
and cleanliness. We have inquired of several of the leading American
manufacturers in regard to the subject, and all say that their work-
men are not troubled in this manner. No examination of their teeth is
enforced, the men being merely warned as to the consequences before
they begin their work.

Partly as a remedy for this evil, the red or amorphous i^hosphorus
was substituted for the ordinary variety. This possesses neither odor
nor taste, is not poisonous, and can be handled with safety. The dan-
ger arising from the use of matches was magnified, bacause they could
sometimes be seen in the dark, were liable to ignite on a warm shelf,
and were poisonous to such an extent that children had been killed by
using them as playthings. From red phosphorus resulted the safety-
match. Many attempts were made to form a paste with red phos-
phorus and chlorate of potash without success, and finally the paste
and phospliorus were separated. The heads now consist of a pasty
mass composed mainly of sulphuret of antimony and chlorate of pot-
ash. The red phosphorus, mixed with very fine sand or other sub-
stance, is glued to the box in which the matches are contained. It is
impossible to light such matches by friction upon any common rough
surface, though they at once burst into flame when rubbed upon the
phosphorus composition on the box. They can sometimes be lighted

MATCHES. 417

without application to the jjhosphorns on the box, by drawing them
several times with long sweeps over such surfaces as glass, ebony,
etc. When they were first introduced into England the use of any
other kind in the public buildings was forbidden by a special act of
Parliament. Their manufacture has been encouraged in several Euro-
pean countries, and in times past their use has by some governments
been enjoined by law. These matches are also called " hygienic," be-
cause they can be put into the mouth without danger.

Another kind of safety-match, which has never come into general
use, contained the phosphorus at one end and the chlorate of potash
at the other. The match is lighted by breaking it in halves and rub-
bing the two ends together.

In Switzerland, safety-matches are almost the only ones in the
market, and in Sweden they are largely manufactured for exporta-
tion. A firm in New York imported the latter for many years, but
the customs-duty was so high, and the demand so slight, that the busi-
ness was abandoned. One of the former partners stated that, if the
American people would show any desire for the matches, he could
furnish them much cheaper than the matches produced in this coun-
try, as in Sweden the materials are provided at a very trifling ex-
pense. But, as he expressed it, " an American prefers to put his hand
into his pocket, take out a match, and strike it on his pantaloons or
shoe, to economizing by carrying them around in the box in which he
buys them. And you could never get the Irish servants here to use
safety-matches unless you had the priest on your side."

Factories for the production of safety-matches were established in
New York, Boston, and other places, but they have all failed with the
exception of one in Erie, Pennsylvania, which, with the assistance of
some of the wax and parlor manufacturers, easily supplies the demand
created in this country. Those made by Bryant & May, in England,
are also found in the shops here. The great objection to safety-
matches seems to be due to the fact that they are so difiicult to carry
about. In France they are regarded with great disfavor by the popu-
lation. No one cares to be troubled with an angular box wliich he
must hold in his hand till he has lighted his match ; and it is impossi-
ble to put the phosphorus compound on a small pocket match-safe, as
the surface is not sufticiently great, and the phosphorus soon rubs ofi".

A gentleman who has been employed in the manufacture of safety-
matches expressed it as his opinion that they are the most dangerous
matches made. For in the majority of cases, when a match is struck,
some of the phosphorus on the box flies ofi", and, being highly inflam-
mable, if it meets with any combustible substance, it always gives
rise to a danger of fire. If lighted where the phosphorus can fall
upon the carpet, the result is the same as though the carpet were ex-
posed to the sparks of a fire. There is also a certain degree of temp-
tation offered to those who manufacture these matches. This consists
VOL. XI. — 27

41 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in putting a small quantity of phosphorus into the heads to make
them ignite more easily when brought into contact with the phos-
phorus on the box. This fraud has actually been carried into eftect
in Northern Germany, and, although nothing of the kind has been
discovered in this country, the fact that it may be will probably in-
crease their unpopularity. The safety-match has certainly had time to
win its way, as an old variety of it existed in Switzerland at a period
when other parts of the world wei-e still occupied with the flint and
steel. It has been claimed for these matches that they are better able
to resist moisture than other vai'ieties. The reason, however, is not
apparent, as the heads are composed of salts, which are afiected by
water in the manner of all saline substances. It may be stated as a
general rule that those matches are safest which require considerable
friction for ignition, and which, when lighted, furnish merely heat
enough to kindle the splints. The safest, probably, are those in which
a considerable part of the compound is formed of sulphur, as it re-
quires more than usual friction to light them. They are also a quiet
match, and in lighting do not scatter any part of the head about.
But they kindle slowly, and the sulphurous fumes always render them
objectionable. They can also be lighted so conveniently by rubbing
them on the Avail that a great temptation is held out to servants to
disfigure the appearance of a room in this way.

About twenty years ago parlor-matches began to be manufactui-ed
and have ever since been growing in favor. No sulphur is used in
tliem, and in their freedom from odor, their convenience and rapidity
in lighting, they have a decided advantage over all others. Their
noisy explosion is occasioned by chlorate of potash, and may be pre-
vented by substituting nitrate of potash. They are said to be superior
to the German match, owing, perhaps, to the fact that they are not
coated with varnish. They seem to have attained their greatest pop-
ularity in the Western and Southern States, and are used pretty gen-
erally among the wealthier classes. Swift & Courtney, who have
factories in four diiferent cities, manufacture about 1,500 gross of
these daily, and state that the deniand for them is constantly in-
creasing. They are nearly half again as expensive as the sulphur-
match, and grocers and retail jobbers are inclined to increase their
price. There is, however, but a small diffei-ence between the cost of
matches with sulphur and those in which stearic acid is used, as much
more sulphur is required than stearic acid. They partake of the same
danger that attends the employment of the safety-match, for if they
are tipped too profusely the burning material will scatter to some dis-
tance. They take fire easily if any one happens to step upon them,
and require to be guarded carefully where there are children. But
the danger from tlieir use is not alarming, and insurance companies
make but little distinction in their rates between these and others. It
is a mistaken idea that the invention of matches has caused much dif-

MATCHES.

419

ference in the number of fires ; and, if a certain kind of match is pre-
ferred for its convenience, it will not be abandoned because it has an
extra element of danger. Fires may result from the overturning of a
box by a cat or dog, or by the gnawing of the ends of matches by rats
or mice ; but these occurrences are exceptional, and rarely happen.

There is said to be only one factory in America where wax-matches
are now produced. This has been established within the last few
years, is running altogether with French machinery, and is supplying
a growing demand. The makers of wax-matches do not come into
competition with other manufacturers, but find their custom among
those who are attracted especially by the novelty and pleasing ap-
pearance of the matches. Their higher cost prevents them from com-
ing into general use, and the fact that there is a monopoly in their
manufacture exerts some influence in regard to the price. Great care
is taken in the designs for the boxes, and no pains are spared to make
them ornamental and attractive. Improvements and new patents are
constantly being made in them. The most recent variety has a small
hole in the lid which acts as a candlestick. As soon as the match is
lighted, the unburned end is inserted in the lid of the box, and an
illumination is provided which lasts according to the length of the
taper. The usual wax-match gives a fine light, which continues one
or two minutes — that is, four or five times as long as wooden matches.
This can be increased with their length, and a very respectable im-
promptu candle may be obtained by the contrivance referred to. Fur-
ther attractions are provided by arranging the difierently-colored
heads according to curious and artistic devices. They can be pur-
chased, having a composition resembling the parlor-match, or in the
form of safety-matches. All wax-matches must be made so that they
•will take fire upon slight friction on account of the less resistance
afibrded by the body of the match ; but they are not on this account
any more dangerous than the parlor-match. Though sometimes used
by smokers, they are not well suited to this purpose, as in lighting a
cigar the fatty matter can be detected by the taste.

The Japanese have contributed their stock of curiosities to this
department also. They have a variety of paper matches, w^hich burn
Avith a small, scarcely luminous flame, forming, as the combustion ad-
vances, a red-hot ball of glowing saline matter. When the match has
been partly consumed, a succession of bright sparks shoots out from
the head, and gradually a brilliant scintillation is formed similar to
that observed in burning a steel spring in oxygen, only much more
delicate, the separate sparks branching out in beautiful forms. TJiese
matches are composed of carbon, nitre, and sulphur, and there has
been no difliculty in imitating them.

Many efforts have been made to construct the heads of matches
without phosphorus. There is a match in Germany at the present
time in which this '">inlt has been reached, but none of the cases dis-

420 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

covered seem to be perfectly satisfactory. Dr. Jettel has made a
careful examination of the subject, and has arrived at the conclusion
that the ingredients prepared to take the place of phosphorus render
the match more difficult to ignite, while they are not perfectly harm-
less, but merely less dangerous. They are more sensitive to moisture ;
it is more difficult for the maker to secure a satisfactory result ; and
hence more expensive for the buyer. The Germans in nearly all their
matches use a much smaller proportion of phosphorus than is done
elsewhere, but the material must yet be found which will take its
place entirely.

Accidents may be occasioned by throwing half-burned. matches
carelessly aside, and allowing them to smoulder near combustible sub-
stances. Various chemical solutions have been compounded in which
the match is to be soaked, so that, as soon as it is blown out, the fiery
mass of carbon will become black. Solutions of this kind are alum,
borax, Glauber salts, or Epsom salts. Matches thus prepared are, of
course, rendered more expensive.

While so much has been accomplished in the way of getting a
quick fire without exertion, there is still room for considerable im-
provement. A safety-match has yet to be invented which will con-
tain the entire composition on its own head. A water-proof match is
desired, but has never been invented. There are firms M'hioh repre-
sent that they make water-proof matches, and the scientific journals
contain from time to time receipts to effect this purpose. But they
are not proof to water in the sense in which that is generally under-
stood. Most matches may be put into the mouth or dipped into water
for an instant, but none of them will bear a drenching or continued
exposure to a moist atmosphere. The safety-match is objectionable
for several reasons, the parlor-match from its tendency to scatter
about bits of the head, and the sulphur-match from its brimstone-odor.

Matches have been made in which camphor and frankincense were
mixed with the paste, and the wood of the match was of cedar, so
that an agreeable odor was difiiised in getting a light. So the time
may come when the fashionable match, in addition to its other excel-
lent qualities, will have such a delicate fragrance that it will be a
pleasure merely to light it.

In 1864 the Government required a one-cent stamp to be placed on
every package of matches. In anticipation of the tax a large quan-
tity had been manufactured, so that for the first two years the legiti-
mate revenue was not derived. In 1865 the receipts obtained in
this manner amounted to about $1,000,000, but since then they have
greatly increased, so that the stamp-tax now forms a large part of the
cost. In comparison with other branches of business this product of
industry probably affords the largest revenue accruing under the ex-
cise. Owing to this tax several large firms either failed or retired;
and at the present time the manufacturer of sulphur-matches, by the

MATCHES. 421

greatest care and economy, secures but a small margin on his sales.
A heavy tax of this kind is liable to defeat its own object, as is exem-
plified by numerous facts. Thus, in 1865, matches were imported into
the United States from New Brunswick, and sold in packages suitable
for the retail trade without paying any tax under the internal-revenue
law. When, a few years ago in England, a stamp-duty was put upon
matches, the opposition was so violent that the attempt had to be
abandoned.

In 1872 the French Government, desiring an additional source of
revenue, determined to extract it from their matches. They therefore
let to a single great company the sole right of making them for
twenty years, and agreed to buy up all the old factories and furnish
the company with new ones. In return the latter was to pay a fixed
rent of $3,200,000 per annum. It was furthermore stipulated that the
price of the matches should not be raised, but the company is already
accused of treating this as a dead letter. The matches are said to be
so bad that they will hardly light, and the peasants, instead of buying
them, use a match of home-manufacture, made by steeping hemp in
sulphur. Great trouble and expense have been incurred by the state;
the company has been despotic and unable to fulfill its obligations ; a
proposition has been made and rejected on the part of the Government
to reduce the rent one-half ; and the probabilities are, that the lease
will expire before the time agreed upon.

The extent to which the manufacture of matches is carried can be
but faintly indicated by means of figures. The demand for them in
Great Britain is, on an average, eight daily for each individual ; in
Belgium, nine per head; and, for Europe and North America, the en-
tire average is six for every inhabitant. To meet this demand matches
are produced by the million, and the waxed taper, before division into
small pieces, is measured by the mile. It is stated that one pound of
phosphorus is sufficient for 1,000,000 matches, though the proportion
varies greatly. In France there are consumed for this purpose 70,000
pounds of phosphorus every year. The largest makers are in Austria,
two of whom use twenty tons of phosphorus per annum, and produce
nearly 45,000,000,000 matches. One firm in New York uses annually
700,000 feet of choice white-pine timber, 100,000 pounds of sulphur,
and 150 tons of straw-board for their boxes. Large quantities are ex-
ported from the United States to the East and West Indies, China,
South America, and other countries. At the census taken here in
1870 there were found to be 75 establishments engaged in the busi-
ness, and the value of the products for that year was $3,540,000.

422 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

THE IMPOET OF PKOTOPLASM.^

By MICHAEL TOSTEE, M. D., F. E. S.

AMONG the simpler organisms known to biologists, perhaps the
most simple as well as the most common is that which lias re-
ceived the name of Amoeba. There are many varieties of amoeba,
and probably many of the forms which have been described ai-e, in
reality, merely amoebiform phases in the lives of certain animals or
plants ; but they all possess the same general characters. Closely
resembling the white corpuscles of vertebrate blood, they are wholly
or almost wholly composed of iindiflerentiated protoplasm, in the
midst of which lies a nucleus, though this is sometimes absent. In
many a distinction may be observed between a more solid external
layer, or ectosarc^ and a more fluid granular interior, or endosare ; but
in others even this primary differentiation is wanting. By means of a
continually occurring flux of its protoplasmic substance, the amoeba
is enabled from moment to moment not only to change its foim, but
also to shift its position. By flowing round the substances which it
meets, it, in a way, swallows them; and, having digested and absorbed
such parts as are suitable for food, ejects or rather flows away from
the useless remnants. It thus lives, moves, eats, grows, and after a
time dies, having been during its whole life hardly anything more
than a minute lump of protoplasm. Hence to the physiologist it is
of the greatest interest, since in its life the problems of physiology
are reduced to their simplest forms.

Now, the study of an amoeba, with the helja of knowledge gained
by the examination of more complex bodies, enables us to state that
the undifierentiated protoplasm, of which its body is so largely com-
posed possesses certain fundamental vital properties :

1. It IS CONTRACTILE. — There can be little doubt that the changes
in the protoplasm of an amoeba, which bring about its peculiar " amoe-
boid " movements, are identical in their fundamental nature with those
which, occurring in a muscle, cause a contraction ; a muscular con-
traction is essentially a regular, an amoeboid movement an irregular
flow of protoplasm. The body of the amoeba may therefore be said
to be contractile.

2. It is irritable and automatic. — "When any disturbance, such as
contact with a foreign body, is brought to bear ©n the amoeba at rest,
movements result. These are not passive movements, the effects of
the push or pull of the disturbing body, and therefore proportionate
to the force employed to cause them, but active manifestations of the
contractility of the protoplasm ; that is to say, the disturbing cause or

' From the introduction to M. Foster's *' Text-Book of Fhysiology."

THE IMPORT OF PROTOPLASM. 423

stimulus sets free a certain amount of energy previously latent in the
protoplasm, and the energy set free takes on the form of movement.
Any living matter which, when acted on by a stimulus, thus suffers
an explosion of energy, is said to be " irritable," The irritability
may, as in the amoeba, lead to movement ; but in some cases no move-
ment follows the application of the stimulus to irritable matter, the
energy set free by the explosion taking on some other form (heat,
etc.) than movement. Thus a substance may be irritable and yet not
contractile, though contractility is the most common manifestation of
irritability.

The amoeba (except in its prolonged quiescent stage) is rarely at
rest. It is almost continually in motion. The movements cannot al-
ways be referred to changes in surrounding circumstances acting as
stimuli ; in many cases the energy is set free in consequence of in-
ternal changes, and the movements which result are called sponta-
neous or automatic ' movements. We may, therefore, speak of the
protoplasm of the amoeba as being irritable and automatic.

3. It is eeceptive and assimilative. — Certain substances serv-
ing as food are received into the body of the amoeba, and, being there
in large measure dissolved, become part and parcel of the body of the
amoeba — become, in fact, fresh protoplasm.

4. It is metabolic and secretoet. — Pari passu with the recep-
tion of new material, there is going on an ejection of old material, for
the. increase of the amoeba by the addition of food is not indefinite.
In other words, the protoplasm is continually undergoing chemical
change (metabolism), room being made for the new protoplasm by the
breaking up of the old protoplasm into products which are cast out
of the body and got rid of. These products of metabolic action have,
in all probability, subsidiary uses. Some of them, for instance, we
have reason to think, are of value in the solution and preliminary
changes of the raw food mechanically introduced into the body of the
amoeba ; and hence are retained within the protoplasm for some little
time. Such products are generally sj^oken of as "secretions." Others,
which pass more rapidly away, are generally called " excretions." The
distinction between the two is an unimportant and frequently acci-
dental one. The energy expended in the movements of the amoeba is
supplied by the chemical changes going on in the protoplasm by the
breaking up of bodies possessing much latent energy into bodies pos-
sessing less. Thus the metabolic changes which the food undergoes
in passing through the protoplasm of the amoeba (as distinguished

' This word has recently acquired a meaning almost exactly opposite to that which it
originally bore, and an automatic action is now by many understood to mean nothing
more than an action produced by some machinery or other. In this work I use it in the
older sense, as denoting an action of a body, the causes of which appear to lie in the
body itself. It seems preferable to " spontaneous," inasmuch as it does not necessarily
carry with it the idea of irregularity, and bears no reference to a "will."

424 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from the undigested stuff mechanically lodged for a while in the body)
are of three classes : those preparatory to and culminating in the con-
version of the food into protoplasm ; those concerned in the dis-
charge of energy ; and those tending to economize the immediate prod-
ucts of the second class of changes by rendering them more or less
useful for tlie first.

5. It is respikatoey. — Taken as a whole, the metabolic changes
are preeminently j^rocesses of oxidation. One article of food — i. e., one
substance taken into the body, viz., oxygen — stands apart from all
the rest ; and one product of metabolism peculiarly associated with
oxidation — viz., carbonic acid — stands also somewhat apart from all
the rest. Hence, the assumption of oxygen and the excretion of car-
bonic acid, together with such of the metabolic processes as are more
especially oxidative, are frequently spoken of together as constituting
the respiratory processes.

6. It is reproductive. — The individual amoeba represents a unit.
This unit, after a longer or shorter life, having increased in size by
the addition of new protoplasm in excess of that which it is contin-
ually using up, may by fission (or by other means) resolve itself into
two (or moi'e) parts, each of which is capable of living as a fresh unit
or individual.

Such are the fundamental vital qualities of the protoplasm of an
amoeba ; all the facts of the life of an amoeba are manifestations of
these protoplasmic qualities in varied sequence and subordination.
The higher animals, we learn from morphological studies, are in real-
ity groups of amoebae peculiarly associated together. All the physio-
logical phenomena of the higher animals are similarly the results of
these fundamental qualities of protoplasm peculiarly associated to-
getlier. The dominant principle of this association is the physiologi-
cal division of labor corresponding to the morj^hological differentia-
tion of structure. Were a larger or " higher " animal to consist sim-
ply of a colony of undifferentiated amoeba?, one animal differing from
another merely in the number of units making up the mass of its
body, without any differences between the individual units, progress
of function would be an impossibility. The accumulation of units
would be a hindrance to welfare rather than a help. Hence, in the
evolution of living beings through past times, it has come about that
in the higher animals (and plants) certain groups of the constituent
amoebiform units or cells have, in company with a change in structure,
been set apart for the manifestation of certain only of the fundamen-
tal properties of protoplasm, to the exclusion or at least to the com-
plete subordination of the other properties.

These groups of cells, thus distinguished from each other, at once
by the differentiation of structure and by the more or less marked ex-
clusiveness of structure, receive the name of "tissues." Thus, the
units of one class are characterized by the exaltation of the contrac-

THE IMPORT OF PROTOPLASM. 425

tility of their protoplasm, their automatism, metabolism, and repro-
duction, being kept in marked abeyance. These units constitute the
so-called muscular tissue. Of another tissue — viz., the nervous — the
marked features are irritability and automatism, with an almost com-
plete absence of contractility and a great restriction of the other
qualities. In a third group of units, the activity of the protoplasm is
largely confined to the chemical changes of secretion, contractility
and automatism (as manifested by movement) being either absent or
existing to a very slight degree. Such a secreting tissue, consisting
of epithelium-cells, forms the basis of the mucous membrane of the
alimentary canal. In the kidney, the substances secreted by the cells,
being of no farther use, are at once ejected from the body. Hence
the renal tissue may be spoken of as excretory. In the epithelium-
cells of the lungs, the protoplasm plays an altogether subordinate
part in the assumption of oxygen and the excretion of carbonic acid.
Still, we may, perhaps, be permitted to speak of the pulmonary epi-
thelium as a respiratory tissue.

In addition to these distinctly secretory or excretory tissues, there
exist groups of cells specially reserved for the carrying on of chemi-
cal changes, the products of which are neither cast out of the body
nor collected in cavities for digestive or other uses. The work of
these cells seems to be of an intermediate character : they are engaged
either in elaborating the material of food that it may be the more
easily assimilated, or in preparing used-up material for final excretion.
They receive their material from the blood, and return their products
back to the blood. They may be called the metabolic tissues joar ex-
cellence. Such are the fat-cells of adipose tissue, the hepatic cells (as
far as the work of the liver other than the secretion of bile is con-
cerned), and, in general, the blood.

Each of the various units retains, to a greater or less degree, the
power of reproducing itself, and the tissues generally are capable of
regeneration in kind. But neither units nor tissues can reproduce
other parts of the organism than themselves, much less the entire
organism. For the reproduction of the complex individual, certain
units are set apart in the form of ovary and testis. In these, all the
properties of protoplasm are distinctly subordinated to the work of
growth.

Lastly, there are certain groups of units — certain tissues which are
of use in the body of which they form a part, not by reason of their
manifesting any of the fundamental qualities of protoplasm, but on
account of the physical and mechanical properties of certain sub-
stances which their protoplasm has been able, by virtue of its metab-
olism, to manufacture and to deposit. Such tissues are bone, carti-
lage, connective tissue in large part, and the greater portion of the
skin.

We may, therefore, consider the complex body of a higher animal

426 THE POPULAR SCIUNCU MONTHLY.

as a compound of so many tissues, each tissue corresponding to one
of the fundamental qualities of j^rotoplasm, to the development of
which it is specially devoted by the division of labor. It must, how-
ever, be remembered, that there is a distinct limit to the division of
labor. In each and every tissue, in addition to its leading quality,
there are more or less pronounced remnants of all the other proto-
plasmic qualities. Thus, though we may call one tissue joar excellence
metabolic, all the tissues are, to a greater or less extent, metabolic.
The energy of each, whatever be its particular mode, has its source
in the breaking up of the protoplasm. Chemical changes, including
the assumption of oxygen and the production, complete or partial, of
carbonic acid, and therefore also entailing a certain amount of se-
cretion and excretion, must take place in each and every tissue. And
so witli all the other fundamental properties of protoplasm ; even con-
tractility, which, for obvious mechanical reasons, is soonest reduced
where not wanted, is present in many other tissues besides muscle.
And it need hardly be said that each tissue retains the power of as-
similation. However thoroughly the material of food be prepared by
digestion and subsequent metabolic action, the last stages of its con-
version into living protoplasm are effected directly and alone by the
tissue of which it is about to form a part.

Bearing this qualification in mind, we may draw up a physiologi-
cal classification of the body into the following fundamental tissues :

1. The eminently contractile : the muscles.

2. The eminently irritable and automatic : the nervous system.

3. The eminently secretory or excretory : digestive, urinary, and
pulmonary, etc., epithelium.

4. The eminently metabolic: fat-cells, hepatic cells, lymphatic and
ductless glands.

5. The reproductive : ovary, testis.

6. The indiffei'ent or mechanical : cartilage, bone, etc.

All these separate tissues, with their individual characters, are,
however, but parts of one body ; and in order that they may be true
members working harmoniously for the good of the whole, and not
isolated masses, each serving its ow^n ends only, they need to be bound
together by coordinating bonds. Some means of communication must
necessarily exist between them. In the mobile, homogeneous body of
the amoeba, no special means of communication are required. Simple
diffusion is sufficient to make the material gained by one part common
to the whole mass, and the native protoplasm is physiologically con-
tinuous, so that an explosion set up at any one point is immediately
pi'opagated throughout the whole irritable substance. In the higher
animals the several tissues are separated by distances far too great
for the slow process of diffusion to serve as a sufficient means of com-
munication, and their primary physiological continuity is broken by
their being imbedded in masses of formed material, the product of

THE IMPORT OF PROTOPLASM. 427

the indiflerent tissues, which, being devoid of irritability, present an
eliectual barrier to the propagation of molecuhir explosions. It thus
becomes necessary that, in the increasing complexity of animal forms,
the process of differentiation should be accompanied by a correspond-
ing iutegration, that the isolated tissues should be made a whole by
bonds uniting them together. These bonds, moreover, must be of two
kinds.

In the first place, there must be a ready and rapid distribution and
interchange of material. The contractile tissues must be abundantly
supplied with material best adapted by previous elaboration for direct
assimilation, and the waste products arising from their activity must
be at once carried away to the metabolic or excretory tissues. And
so with all the other tissues. There must be a free and speedy inter-
course of material between eacli and all. This is at once and most
easily effected by the regular circulation of a common fluid, the blood,
into which all the elaborated food is discharged, from which each tissue
seeks what it needs, and to which each returns that for which it has
no longer any use. Such a circulation of fluid being in large measure
a mechanical matter, needs a machinery, and calls forth an expendi-
ture of energy. The machinery is supplied by a special construction
of the primary tissues, and the energy is arranged for by the presence'
among these of contractile and irritable matter. Thus, to the funda-
mental tissues there is added, in the higher animals, a vascular bond
in the shape of a mechanism of circulation.

In the second place, no less important than the interchange of
material is the interchange of energy. In the amoeba, the irritable
surface is physiologically continuous with the more internal proto-
plasm, while each and every part of the body has automatic powers.
In the higher animals portions only of the skin remain as eminently
irritable or sensitive structures, while automatic actions are chiefly
confined to a central mass of irritable or nervous matter. Both forms
of irritable matter are separated by long tracts of indifferent mate-
rial from those contractile tissues through which they chiefly manifest
the changes going on in themselves. Hence the necessity for long
strands of eminently irritable tissue to connect the skin and contrac-
tile tissues, as well with each other as with the automatic centres.
Similar strands are also needed, though perhaps less urgently, to con-
nect the other tissues with these and with each other. To tlie vascu-
lar bond there must be added an irritable bond, along the strands of
which impulses, set up by changes in one or another part, may travel
in determinate courses for the regulation of the energy of distant
spots. In other words, part of the irritable tissues must be specially
arranged to form a coordinating nervous system.

Still further complications have yet to be considered. In the life
of a minute homogeneous amoeba, possessing no special form or struct-
ure, there is little scope for purely mechanical operations. As, how-

428 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ever, we trace out the gradual development of the more complex ani-
mal forms, we see coming forward into greater and greater prominence
the arrangement of the tissues in definite ways to secure mechanical
ends. Thus the entire body acquires particular shapes, and parts of
the body are built up into mechanisms, the actions of which are to the
advantage of the individual. Into the composition of these mechan-
isms, or " organs," the active, fundamental tissues, as well as the pas-
sive or indifferent tissues, enter ; and the working of each mechanism,
the function of each organ is dependent partly on the mechanical con-
ditions offered by the passive elements, partly on the activity of the
active elements. The vascular mechanism, of which we have just
spoken, is such a mechanism. Similarly, the urgent necessity for the
access of oxygen to all parts of the body has given rise to a compli-
cated respiratory mechanism ; and the needs of copious alimenta-
tion, to an alimentary or digestive meclianism.

Further, inasmuch as muscular movement is one of the chief ends,
or the most important means to the chief ends of animal life, we find
the animal body abounding in motor mechanisms, in which the prime
mover is muscular contraction, while the machinery is supplied by
complicated arrangements of muscles with such indifferent tissues as
bone, cartilage, and tendon. In fact, the greater part of the animal
body is a collection of muscular machines, some serving for locomo-
tion, others for special manoeuvres of particular members and parts,
others as an assistance to the senses, and yet others for the produc-
tion of voice, and, in man, of speech.

Lastly, the simple automatism of the amoeba, with its simple re-
sponses to external stimuli, is replaced in the higher animals by an
exceedingly complex volition, affected in multitudinous ways by in-
fluences from the world without ; and there is a correspondingly com-
plex central nervous system. And here we meet with a new form of
differentiation unknown elsewhere. While the contractility of the
amoebal protoplasm differs at the most but slightly from the contrac-
tility of the vertebrate striated muscle, there is an enormous differ-
ence between the simple irritability of the amoeba and the complex
action of the vertebrate nervous system. Excepting the nervous or
irritable tissues, the fundamental tissues have in all animals exactly
the same properties, being, it is true, more acute and perfect in one
than in another, but remaining fundamentally the same. The ele-
mentary muscular fibre of a mammal is at most a mass of but slightly
differentiated protoplasm, forming a whole physiologically continuous,
and in no way constituting a mechanism. Each fibre is a counterpart
of all others ; and the muscle of one animal differs from that of anoth-
er in such particulars only as are wholly subordinate. In the nervous
tissues of the higher animal, on the contrary, we find properties un-
known to those of the lower ones ; and, in proportion as we ascend
the scale, avc observe an increasing differentiation of the nervous sys-

THE ELECTRIC CANDLE. 429

tern into unlike parts. Thus we have what does not exist in auy other
tissue — a mechanism of nervous tissue itself, a central nervous mechan-
ism of complex structure and complex function, the complexity of
which is due not primarily to any mechanical arrangement of its parts,
but to the further differentiation of that fundamental quality of irrita-
bility and spontaneity which belongs to all irritable tissues and to all
native protoplasm.

In the following pages I propose to consider the facts of physi-
ology very much according to the views which have been just sketched
out. Tlie fundamental properties of most of the elementary tissues
will first be reviewed, and then the various special mechanisms. It
will be found convenient to introduce early the account of the vascu-
lar mechanism, and of its nervous, coordinating mechanism, while the
mechanisms of respiration and alimentation will be best considered
in connection with the respiratory and secretory tissues. The descrip-
tion of the purely motor mechanisms will be brief, and, save in a few
instances, confined to a statement of general principles. The special
functions of the central nervous system, including the senses, must of
necessity be considered by themselves. The tissues and mechanism
of reproduction naturally form the subject of the closing chapter.

♦«♦

THE ELECTRIC CANDLE.'

By ALFEED NIAUDET.

PUBLIC attention has been directed to Jabloshkoff's system of
electrical lighting by the use that has been made of it at the
Magasins du Louvre, in illuminating a hall recently opened. During
the past year this invention was brought under the notice of the pub-
lic by a communication addressed to the Paris Academy of Sciences,
and by an experiment made before the Physical Society. The readers
of La Nature are acquainted with the usual methods of producing
electrical light, and we here again explain their general principles,
with a view to render more intelligible the comparisons we propose
to make.

Two carbon-points, borne on suitable metallic supports, are ar-
ranged in one line, with their tips in contact. An electric current of
high intensity is made to pass into them; they may become heated,
but they will not give out light unless they be separated by a little
distance from each other. On separating them, by the hand or other-
wise, the voltaic arc appears and gives out a very strong light. This
light persists, provided the carbons are a few millimetres apart ; but,

' Translated from the French by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.

430 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as the carbons waste away, the distance between their tips becomes
greater, the voltaic arc is lengtliened, and soon the light goes out,
unless the points are again brought near to each other. Hence it is
seen that this rudimentary apparatus cannot support the electric light
for over a few minutes, and some contrivance had to be devised for
approximating the carbons in proportion as they waste away, and for
keeping them a very small distance apart. This is done in the lamps
devised by Serrin, Foucault, and others.

When the source of electricity is a pile or a magneto-electric ma-
chine with continuous currents, like Gramme's machine, a new dilficulty
is met with ; for here the two carbons are consumed unequally, the
positive one wasting about twice as fast as the negative. On the other
hand, machines with alternately reversed currents present this peculi-
arity, that in them the waste of the two carbons is equal.

To whatever grade of perfection such lamps may have attained,
they undoubtedly labor under sundry disadvantages. Their mechan-
ism is delicate, and necessitates very great care on the part of those
who operate them. It is not very easy to regulate them. Their main
bulk, being situated beneath the luminous point, casts an objectionable
shadow. As usually constructed, their size is such that they cannot
work over three hours without having fresh carbons put in, and this
renewal of the carbons necessitates either a temporary interruption of
the lighting or else the keeping of an extra machine, which involves
an increased outlay of money. Finally, the price of such machines is
pretty high, and can hardly be reduced.

The very great progress made during the last few years in the
construction of masrneto-electric machines has made more evident the
imperfections of the regulating apparatus.

Such was the condition of things when a Russian engineer, M.
Jabloshkoff, succeeded in dispensing altogether with the mechanism
of electrical lamps. Let us see how this lucky inventor has suc-
ceeded in overcoming the diiRculties that successively arose before
him.

First of all, he sets out with the idea that the carbons must be
placed side by side, so as to consume them simultaneously without
having continually to regulate their respective positions, just as in
stearine-candlcs the wick is consumed in proportion to the consump-
tion of stearine. The first requisite is, that the voltaic arc shall be
produced only at the tips of the carbons. For this purpose it is suf-
ficient to place between the two carbons a strip of glass, kaolin, or
any other insulating substance, somewhat wider than the carbons,
and not reaching to their tips. It might be supposed that this in-
sulating substance, while separating the two carbons, would soon
form an impassable barrier between the one and the other, and ex-
tinguish the voltaic arc by requiring it to make too great a span.
But such is not the case ; the high temperature of the voltaic arc is

THE ELECTRIC CANDLE.

431

sufficient to melt and even to vaporize glass or kaolin, and thus the
insulating septum between the carbons wears away simultaneously
with them.

If the source of electricity gives con-
stant currents, then, inasmuch as the car-
bons wear unequally, one wasting more
rapidly than the other, the distance be-
tween the points will become too great,
and the light will be extinguished. To
overcome this difficulty, we have only to
make the carbon that burns most rapidly
twice as thick as the other.

It is true that hitherto the electric
candle has worked better with magneto-
electric machines giving alternating cur-
rents, than with piles or Gramme ma-
chines ; in the former case the carbons
wear away equally, and are of the same
thickness.

To complete the description of Jab-
loshkoff's apparatus, we have to add that
each carbon is socketed in a brass tube,
connected with a wire coming from the
source of electricity. These two tubes
are attached to each other in various
ways, according to the applications had
in view ; the one essential precaution is,
to take care that they do not come into
contact with each other.

The name candle has been very hap-
pily applied to this simple apparatus ;
it is, indeed, a candle with two wicks
burning side by side, and which lower
their luminous point as combustion goes
on. One interesting peculiarity it pos-
sesses, namely, that the luminous point
can be turned downward, so that there
is nothino; to throw a shadow. Its light
may be modified by the use of opal or
ground-glass shades.

How THE Candle is lighted. — One
of the principal advantages of Serrin's
lamp is, that it can be lighted from a
distance. The lamp is made ready, say,
in the morning, and, when night comes,
all that is required is to admit the elec-

Jabloshkoff's Electric Candle (act-
ual size). — C C\ carbon-points of
gas-coke \ 1 1 1 1, Insulating sub-
stance ; T T, tubes holding the car-
bon-points ; A, socket of asbestos
holding the system together ; F F,
copper wires conveying the electric
current.

432 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

trie cuiTent, and light is instantaneously produced. At first Jablosh-
koff lighted his candle directly by supporting on the tips of the two
wicks a piece of charcoal which he soon afterwai'd removed ; thus
the voltaic arc was produced as in electric lamps, by beginning with
contact, and then placing the two carbons at the required distance
from each other. But it was necessary to devise some method for
lighting the candle from a distance, and this fresh diificulty M.
Jabloshkoif has overcome by a very simple device. He places be-
tween the two carbons a little bit of graphite, of the diameter used
in lead-pencils; this acts as a conductor between the two wicks of the
candle. On the current entering it, the bit of graphite soon becomes
red-hot, and is burned up ; there is then a break of continuity be-
tween the wicks, and the electric arc is produced. Instead of graphite,
a fine metallic wire, or a bit of lead, can be used.

Relighting. — As we have stated, the insulating strip between the
wicks is fused at the points near the voltaic arc, and so disappears
gradually in proportion to the waste of the carbon-points. But this
fusion of the insulator is attended with another consequence that but
few of our readers would have anticipated. That which in its solid
state is an insulator becomes in its liquid state a conductor, and allows
of a longer span of the electric arc than could be had in the free air.
Owing to this conductivity of the strip of kaolin, the circuit may be
opened for a moment and the candle lighted again without any need
of resorting to any of the contrivances already described under the
head of " Lighting." But after a certain length of time, as the sub-
stance cools, it loses its conductivity, and then the candle cannot be
relighted by simply closing the circuit again. We may extinguish
the candle for nearly two seconds, and relight it by simply closing the
circuit. Hence the electric candle may be used for transmitting tele-
graphic signals according to the Morse alphabet, by means of flashes
of greater or less duration, divided by longer or shorter periods of
eclipse. For such use the candle is better adapted than the electric
lamp, as it is more readily relighted, producing at once a perfect vol-
taic arc, whereas in the lamp the arc is produced gradually.

Division of the Light. — Hitherto a separate pile, or a separate
machine, has been necessary for the production of each electric light,
and it has been found impossible to place two lamps in one circuit.
This is readily understood when we consider the mechanism of the
regulating apparatus. In electric lamps the approximation and the
separating of tlie carbons are controlled by an electro-magnet, which
itself follows the variations of resistance in the circuit produced by
changes in the length of the voltaic arc. As the arc lengthens the re-
sistance of the circuit is increased, and the electro-magnet is weakened,
and allows the carbons to approximate. It is easily understood that
if there are two lamps and two voltaic arcs in one circuit, and if only
one of these arcs is lengthened, both electro-magnets will act and

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 433

shorten the two voltaic arcs. The cousequence is, that the second
lamp will have its proper working interfered with, while the first alone
ehould have been regulated. In other words, the solidarity of the two
apparatuses will tend to produce in each unnecessary changes of regu-
lation that will constantly result in causing the system of lamps to
work badly. But with the candle there is nothing of this kind, and,
provided that the source of electricity possesses sufl&cient tension
to produce the voltaic arcs, many may stand in the same circuit. In
the Magasins du Louvre we have seen in some instances four lights,
in others three, produced by a single machine. The sequel will show
whether we can reasonably expect to see "even a greater division of
the electric light, and whether this invention may not have still fur-
ther applications. — La Nature.

<»»

THE STATUS OF WOME^ Al^D CHILDREN.

Br HERBEET SPENCER.

I.

PERHAPS in no way is the moral progress of mankind more
clearly shown than by contrasting the position of women
among savages with their position among the most advanced of the
civilized: at the one extreme a treatment of them cruel to the ut-
most degree bearable ; and at the other extreme a treatment which,
in certain directions, gives them precedence over men.

The only limit to the brutality women are subjected to by men
of the lowest races is the inability to live and propagate under
greater. Clearly, ill-usage, under-feeding, and overworking, may be
pushed to an extent which, if not immediately fatal to the women, in-
capacitates them for rearing children enough to maintain the jjopu-
lation ; and disappearance of the society follows. Both directly and
indirectly such excess of harshness disables a tribe from holding its
own against other tribes ; since, besides greatly augmenting the mor-
tality of children, it causes inadequate nutrition, and therefore imper-
fect development, of those which suiwive. But, short of this, there is
at first no check to the tyranny which the stronger sex exercises over
the weaker. Stolen from another tribe, and perhaps made insensible
by a blow that she may not resist ; not simply beaten, but speared
about the limbs, when she displeases her savage owner ; forced to do
all the drudgery and bear all the burdens, while she has to care for
and carry about her children ; and feeding on what is left after the
man has done : the woman's sufferings are carried as far as consists
with survival of herself and her offspring.

It seems not improbable that, by its actions and reactions, this
VOL. XI. — 28

434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

treatment makes these relations of the sexes difficult to chanfre; since
chronic ill-usage produces physical inferiority, and physical inferiority
tends to exclude those feelings which might check ill-usage. Very
generally among the lower races the females are even more unattrac-
tive in aspect than the males. It is remarked of the Puttooahs, whose
men are diminutive and whose women are still more so, that "the
men are far from being handsome, hut the palm of ugliness must he
awarded to the women. The latter are hard-worked and apparently
ill-fed." Again, of the inhabitants of the Corea, Gutzlaff says: "The
females are very ugly, while the male sex is one of the best formed of
Asia .... women are treated like beasts of burden ; wives may be
divorced under the slightest pretense." And for the kindred contrast
habitually found, a kindred cause may habitually be assigned ; the
antithetical cases furnished by such uncivilized peoples as the Cal-
mucks and Kirghiz, whose women, less hardly used, are better look-
ing, yielding additional evidence.

We must not, however, conclude, as at first sight seems proper,
that this low statics of women among the rudest peoples is caused by
a callous selfishness existing in the males and not equally present in
the females. When we learn that where torture of enemies is the
custom, the women outdo the men — when we read of the cruelties
perpetrated by the two female Dyak chiefs described by Kajah
Brooke, or of the horrible deeds which Winwood Reade narrates of a
bloodthirsty African queen — we are shown that it is not lack of will
but lack of power which prevents primitive women from displaying
natures equally brutal with those of primitive men. A savageness
common to the two necessai-ily works out the results we see under
the conditions. Let us look at these results more closely.

Certain anomalies may first be noticed. Even among the rudest
men, whose ordinary behavior to their women is of the worst, pre-
dominance of women is not unknown. Snow says of the Fuegians
that he has " seen one of the oldest women exercising authority over
the rest of her people ; " and Mitchell says of the Australians that old
men and even old women exercise great authority. Then we have
the fact that among various peoples who hold their women in de-
graded positions, there nevertheless occur female rulers ; as among
the Batta people in Sumatra, as in Madagascar, and as in the above-
named African kingdom. Possibly this anomaly results from the
system of descent in the female line. For though, under that system,
property and power usually devolve upon a sister's male childi'en,
yet as, occasionally, there is only one sister, and she has no male chil-
di'en, the elevation of a daughter may sometimes result. Even as I
write, I find, on looking into the evidence, a significant example.
Describing the Haidahs of the Pacific States, Bancroft says: "Among
nearly all of them rank is nominally hereditary, for the most part by
the female line. . . . Females often possess the right of chieftainship."

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 435

But leaving these exceptional facts, and looking at the average
facts, we find these to be just such as the greater strength of men
must produce, during stages in which the race has not yet acquired
the higher sentiments. Numerous examples, already cited, show that
at first women are regarded by men simply as property, and continue
to be so regarded through several later stages : they are valued as
domestic cattle. A Chippewayan chief said to Hearne :

" "Women were made for labor ; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as
two men can do. They also pitch our tents, make and mend our clothing, keep
us warm at night ; and, in fact, there is no such thing as traveling any consid-
erable distance, in this country, without their assistance."

And this is the conception usual not only among peoples so low as
these, but among peoples considerably advanced. To repeat an illus-
tration quoted from Barrow, the woman " is her husband's ox, as a
CafFre once said to me — she has been bought, he argued, and must
therefore labor;" and to the like effect is Shooter's statement that a
Caffre who kills his wife " can defend himself by saying, ' I have
bought her once for all.' "

As implied in such a defense, the obtainment of wives by abduc-
tion or by purchase maintains this relation of the sexes. A woman of
a conquered tribe, not killed but brought back alive, is naturally re-
garded as an absolute possession ; as is also one for whom a price
has been paid. Commenting on the position of women among the
Chibchas, Simon writes, " I think the fact that the Indians treat their
wives so badly and like slaves is to be explained by their having
bought them." Fully to express the truth, however, we must rather
say that the state of things, moral and social, implied by the traffic
in women, is the original cause ; since the will and welfare of a
daughter are as much disregarded by the father who sells her as by
the husband who buys her. The accounts of these transactions, in
whatever society occurring, show this. Describing the sale of his
daughter by a Mandan, Catlin says it is " conducted on his part as a
mercenary contract entirely, where he stands out for the highest price
he can possibly command for her." Of the ancient Yucatanese we
read that " if a wife had no children, the husband might sell her,
unless her father agreed to return the price he had paid." In East
Africa, a girl's " father demands for her as many cows, cloths, and
brass-wire bracelets, as the suitor can afford. . . . The husband may
sell his wife, or, if she be taken from him by another man, he claims
her value, which is ruled by what she would fetch in the slave-
market." Of course, where women are exchangeable for oxen or other
beasts, they are regarded as equally without personal rights.

The degradation they are subject to during phases of human evo-
lution in which egoism is unchecked by altruism, is, however, most
vividly shown by the transfer of a deceased man's wives to his rela-

436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tives along with other property. Sundry examples of this have been
given; and many others might be added. Smith says of the Mapu-
ches that " a widow by the death of her husband becomes her own
mistress, unless he may have left grown-up sons by another wife, in
which case she becomes their common concubine, being regarded as a
chattel naturally belonging to the heirs of the estate."

Thus recognizing the truth that as long as women continue to be
stolen or bought, their human individualities are ignored, let us ob-
serve the division of labor that resvdts between the sexes; determined
partly by this unqualified despotism of men and partly by the limita-
tions which certain incapacities of women entail.

The slave-class in a primitive society consists of the women ; aiid
the earliest division of labor is that which arises between them and
their masters. For a long time no other division of labor exists. Of
course nothing more is to be expected among such low, wandering
groups as Tasmanians, Australians, Fuegians, Andamanese, Bushmen.
Nor do we find any adv^ance in this resjject made by the higher hunt-
ing races, such as the Comanches, Chippewas, Dakotas, etc.

Of the occupations thus divided, the males put upon the females
whatever these are not disabled from doing by inadequate strength,
or agility, or skill. While the men among the now-extinct Tasma-
nians added to the food only that furnished by the kangaroos they
chased, the women climbed trees for opossums, dug up roots with
sticks, groped for shell-fish, dived for oysters, and fished, in addition
to looking after their children ; and there now exists a kindred appor-
tionment among the Fuegians, Andamanese, Australians. Where the
food consists wholly or mainly of the greater mammals, the men catch
and the women carry. We read of the Chippewas that " when the
men kill any large beast, the women are always sent to bring it to the
tent;" of the Comanches, that the women "often accompany their
husbands in hunting — he kills the game, they butcher and transport
the meat, dress the skins, etc,;" of the Esquimaux, that when the
man has "brought his booty to land, he troubles himself no further
about it ; for it would be a stigma on his character, if he so much as
drew a seal out of the water." Though, in these cases, an excuse
made is that the exhaustion caused by the chase is great, yet, when
we read that the Esquimaux women, excepting the woodwork, "build
the houses and tents, and though they have to carry stones almost
heavy enough to break their backs, the men look on with the greatest
insensibility, not stirring a finger to assist them," we cannot accept
the excuse as adequate. Further, it is the custom with these low
races, nomadic or semi-nomadic in their habits, to give the females the
task of transporting the baggage. A Tasmanian woman often had
piled on all the other burdens she carried when tramping, "sundry
spears and waddies not required for present service ; " and the like

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 437

happens witli races considerably higher, both semi-agricultural and
pastoral. A Daraara's wife " carries his things when he moves from
place to place." When the Tupis migrate, all the household stock is
taken to the new abode by the females : " The husband only took his
weapons, and the wife," says Marcgraff", " is loaded like a mule."
Similarly, enumerating the labors of wives among the aborigines of
South Brazil, Spix and Martins say, " They are also the beasts of bur-
den;" and iu like manner DobrizhoiJer writes, " The luggage being
all committed to the women, the Abipoues travel armed with a spear
alone, that they may be disengaged to fight or hunt, if occasion re-
quires." Doubtless the reason indicated in the last extract is a par-
tial defense for this practice, so general with savages when traveling ;
since, liable as they are to be at any moment surprised by ambushed
enemies, fatal results would happen were the men not ready to fight on
the instant. And possibly knowledge of this may join the force of cus-
tom iu making the women themselves uphold the practice, as they do.

On ascending to societies partially or wholly settled, and a little
more complex, we begin to find considerable diversities in the division
of labor between the sexes. Usually the men are the builders, but not
always : the women erect the huts among the Bechuanas, Cafi'res,
Damaras, as also do the women of the Outanatas, New Guinea ; and
sometimes it is the task of women to cut dowm trees, though nearly
always this business falls to the men. Anomalous as it seems, we are
told of the Coroados that " the cooking of the dinner, as well as keep-
ing in the fire, is the business of the men ; " and the like happens in
Samoa : " The duties of cooking devolve on the men " — not excepting
the chiefs. Mostly among the uncivilized and semi-civilized, trading
is done by the men, but not always. In Java, according to Raffles,
" the women alone attend the markets and conduct all the business of
buying and selling." So, too, according to Astley, in Angola the
women " buy, sell, and do all other things which the men do in other
countries, while their husbands stay at home, and employ themselves
in spinning, weaving cotton, and such like effeminate business." In
ancient Peru there was a like division : men did the spinning and
weaving, and women the field-work. Again, according to Bruce, in
Abyssinia " it is infamy for a man to go to market to buy anything.
He cannot carry water or bake bread ; but he must wash the clothes
belonging to both sexes, and, in this function, the women cannot help
him." And Petherick says that among the Arabs " the females repu-
diate needlework entirely, the little tliey require being performed by
their husbands and brothers."

From a general survey of the facts, multitudinous and heterogene-
ous, thus briefly indicated, the only definite conclusion appears to be
that men monopolize the occupations requiring both strength and
agility always available — war and the chase. Leaving undiscussed
the relative fitness of women at other times for fiofhtine: enemies and

438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pursuing wild animals, it is clear that during the child-bearing period
their ability to do either of these things is so far interfered with, both
by pregnancy and by the suckling of infants, that they are practically
excluded from them. Though the Dahomans, with their army of
amazons, show us that women may be warriors, yet the instance
proves that women can become warriors only by being practically un-
sexed ; for, nominally wives of the king, they are celibate, and any
unchastity is fatal. But omitting those activities for which women
are, during large parts of their lives, physically incapacitated, or into
which they cannot enter in considerable numbers without fatally
diminishing population, we cannot define the division of labor between
the sexes, further than by saying that, before civilization begins, the
stronger sex forces the weaker to do all the drudgery ; and that along
with social advance the apportionment, somewhat mitigated in char-
acter, becomes variously specialized under varying conditions.

As bearing on the causes of the mitigation, jjresently to be dealt
with, we may here note that women are better treated where circum-
stances lead to likeness of occupations between the sexes. Schoolcraft
remarks of the Chippewayans that " they are not remarkable for their
activity as hunters, which is owing to the ease with which they snare
deer and spear fish, and these occupations are not beyond the strength
of their old men, women, and boys;" and then he also says that
" though the women are as much in the power of the men as other
articles of their property, they are always consulted, and possess a
very considerable influence in the trafiic with Europeans, and other
important concerns." We read, too, in Lewis and Clarke, that " among
the Clatsops and Chinnooks, who live upon fish and roots, which the
women are equally expert with the men in procuring, the former have
a rank and influence very rarely found among Indians. The females
are permitted to speak freely before the men, to whom, indeed, they
sometimes address themselves in a tone of authority." Then, again,
Bancroft tells us that "in the province of Cueba women accompany
the men, fighting by their side and sometimes even leading the van ; "
and of this same people he also quotes Wafer as saying that " their
husbands are very kind and loving to them. I never knew an Indian
to beat his wife, or give her any hard words," A kindred meaning ap-
pears traceable in a fact supplied by the Dahomans, among whom,
sanguinary and utterly unfeeling as they are, the participation of
women with men in war goes along with a social status much higher
than usual ; for Burton tells us that in Dahomey " the woman is offi-
cially superior, but under other conditions she still suffers from male
arrogance."

A probable farther cause of improvement in the treatment of
women may here be noted : I refer to the obtaining of wives by ser-
vices rendered, instead of by property paid. The practice which He-
brew tradition acquaints us wuth in the case of Jacob, proves to be a

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 439

wiflely-difFused practice. It is general with the Bhils, Gonds, and
Hill-tribes of Nepaul ; it obtained in Java before Mohammedanism
was introduced ; it was common in ancient Peru and Central Ameri-
ca; and among sundry existing American races it still occurs. Obvi-
ously, a wife long labored for is likely to be more valued than one
stolen or bought. Obviously, too, the period of service, during which
the betrothed girl is looked upon as a future spouse, affords room for
the growth of some feeling higher than the merely instinctive — initi-
ates something approaching to the courtship and engagement of civil-
ized peoples. But the facts chiefly to be noted are — 1. That this
modiftcation, practicable with difficulty among the rudest predatory
tribes, becomes gradually more practicable as there arise established
industries aifording spheres in which services may be rendered ; and,
2. That it is the poorer members of the community, occupied in labor
and unable to buy their wives, among whom the substitution of ser-
vice for purchase will most prevail ; the implication being that this
hioher form of marriage into which the industrial class is led, develops
along with the industrial type.

And now we are introduced to the general question, "What con-
nection is there between the status of women and the type of social
organization ? "

A partial answer to this question was reached when we concluded
that thei-e are natural associations between militancy and polygyny,
and between industrialness and monogamy. For, as polygyny implies
a low position of women, while monogamy is a prerequisite to a high
position of women, it follows that decrease of militancy and increase
of industrialness are general concomitants of a rise in their position.
This conclusion appears also to be congruous with the fact just ob-
served. The truth that, among peoples otherwise inferior, the posi-
tion of women is relatively good where their occupations are nearly
the same as those of men, seems allied to the wider truth that their
position becomes good in proportian as warlike activities are replaced
by industrial activities ; since, when the men fight while the women
work, the difference of occupation is greater than when both are en-
gaged in productive labors, however unlike such labors may be in
kind. From general reasons for alleging this connection, let us now
pass to more special reasons.

As it needed no marshaling of evidence to prove that the chronic
militancy characterizing low, simple tribes, habitually goes with po-
lygyny, so it needs no marshaling of evidence to prove that along
with this chronic militancy there goes a brutal treatment of women.
It will suffice if we here glance at the converse cases of simple tribes
which are exceptional in their industrialness, and at the same time ex-
ceptional in the higher positions held by women among them. Even
the rude Todas, low as are the sexual relations implied by their com-

440 * THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bined polyandry and polygyny, and little developed as is the industry
implied by their semi-settled cow-keeping life, furnish evidence : to
the men and boys are left all the harder kinds of work, and the wives
" do not even step out-of-doors to fetch water or wood, which ....
is brought to them by one of their husbands ; " and this trait goes
along with the trait of peacefulness and entire absence of the militant
type of social structure. Striking evidence is furnished by another of
the Hill-tribes — the Bodo and Dhimals. We have seen that, among
peoples in low stages of culture, these furnish a marked case of non-
militancy, absence of the political organization which militancy de-
velops, absence of class-distinctions, and presence of that voluntary
exchange of services implied by industrialism; and of them, monog-
amous as already shown, we read: "The Bodo and Dhim^ils use
their wives and daughters well ; treating them with confidence and
kindness. They are free from all out-door work whatever." Take,
again, the Dyaks, who, though not without tribal feuds and their con-
sequences, are yet without stable chieftainships and military organiza-
tion, are predominantly industrial, and have rights of individual prop-
erty well developed. Though among the varieties of them the customs
differ somewhat, yet the general fact is that the heavy out-door work
is mainly done by the men, while the women are generally well treated,
and have considerable privileges. With their monogamy goes regular
courtship, and the girls choose their mates ; St. John says of the Sea
Dyaks tliat " husbands and wives appear to pass their lives very
agreeably together ; " and Rajah Brooke names Mukah as a part of
Borneo where the wives close their doors, and will not receive their
husbands unless they procure fish. Then, as a marked case of a simple
community having relatively high industi'ial organization, with elective
head, representative council, and the other concomitants of the type,
and who are described as " industrious, honest, and peace-loving," we
have the Pueblos, who, with that monogamy which characterizes their
family relations, also show us a remarkably high status of women.
For among them not simply is there courtship, and choice exercised
by girls ; not simply do we read that " no girl is forced to marry
against her will, however eligible her parents may consider the
match;" bixt sometimes, according to Bancroft, "the usual order of
courtship is reversed ; when a girl is disposed to marry she does not
wait for a young man to propose to her, but selects one to her own
liking and consults her father, who visits the parents of the youth and
acquaints them with his daughter's wishes."

On turning from simple societies to compound societies, we find
two adjacent ones in Polynesia exhibiting a strong contrast between
their social types as militant and industrial, and an equally strong
contrast between the positions they respectively give to women: I
refer to Feejeeans and Samoans. The Feejeeans show us the militant
structure, actions, and sentiments, in extreme forms. Under an un-

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 441

mitigated despotism there are fixed ranks, obedience the most pro-
found, marks of subordination amounting to worship; there is an
organized military system with its grades of officers ; the lower
classes exist only to supply necessaries to the warrior-classes, whose
sole business is war, merciless in its character and accompanied by
cannibalism. And here, along with prevalent polygyny, carried
among the chiefs to the extent of from ten to a hundred wives, we
find the position of women such that, not only are they, as among the
lowest savages, "little better than beasts of burden," and not only
may tliey be sold at pleasure, but a man may kill and eat his wife if
he pleases. Contrariwise, in Samoa the type of the regulating sys-
tem has become in a considerable degree industrial. There is repre-
sentative government, and chieftains, exercising authority under con-
siderable restraint, are i^artly elective ; while the industrial organiza-
tion is so far developed that there are journeymen and apprentices,
there is payment for labor, and there are even strikes, with a rudi-
mentary trades-unionism. And here, beyond that improvement of
women's status implied by limitation of their labors to the lighter
kinds while men take the heavier, there is the improvement implied
by the fact that " the husband has to provide a dowry, as well as
the wife, and the dowry of each must be pretty nearly of equal value,"
and by the fact that a couple who have lived together for years make,
at separation, a fair division of the property. Of other compound
societies fit for comparison, I may name two in America, North and
South, the Iroquois and the Araucanians. Though these, alike in
degree of composition, were both formed by combination in war
against civilized invaders, yet, in their social structures, they differed
in the respect that the Araucanians became decidedly militant in
their regulative organization, while the Iroquois did not give their
regulative organization the militant form; for the govei-ning agen-
cies, general and local, were in the one personal and hereditary and in
the other representative. Now, though these two peoples were much
upon a par in the division of labor between the sexes — the men
limiting themselves to war, the chase, and fishing, leaving to the
women the labors of the field and the house — yet along with the freer
political type of the Iroquois there went a freer domestic type; as
shown by the facts that the women had separate proprietary rights,
that they took with them the children in cases of separation, and that
marriages were arranged by the mothers. No definite evidence either
way is furnished by the doubly-compound societies of ancient Amei--
ica. The political organization of Mexico was in a high degree mili-
tant in type; but along with it there went an elaborate industrial
organization, with extensive division of labor and considerable com-
mercial intercourse ; and, excepting in the polygyny and concubinage
of the upper classes, and occasional inheritance of wives as property,
the position of women appears to have been not bad. The Peruvian

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nation, which, though less sanguinary in its observances, had the mili-
tant structure carried out far more completely, so that its industrial
organization formed j^ai't of the political organization, gave a lower
status to women, who did the hard work, and who, in the upper ranks
at least, had to sacrifice themselves on the deaths of their husbands.

The highest societies, ancient and modern, are many of them ren-
dered in one way or other unfit for comparisons. In some cases the
evidence is inadequate ; in some cases we know not what the antece-
dents have been ; in some cases the facts have been confused by
agglomeration of different societies ; and in all cases the coojierating
influences have increased in number. Concerning the most ancient
ones, of which we know least, we can do no more than say that the
traits presented by them are not inconsistent with the view here set
forth. The Accadians, who before reaching that height of civiliza-
tion at which phonetic writing was achieved, must have existed in a
settled populous state for a vast period, must have therefore had for a
vast period a considerable industrial organization ; and it seems not
improbable that during such period, being powerful in comparison
with wandering tribes aroimd, their social life, little perturbed by
enemies, was substantially peaceful. Hence there is no incongruity
in the fact that tliey are shown by their records to have given their
women a relatively high status : wives owned property, and the hon-
oring of mothers was especially enjoined by their law^s. Of the Egyp-
tians something similar may be said. Their earliest wall-paintings
show us a people far advanced in arts, industry, observances, mode
of life. The implication is irresistible that, before the stage thus de-
picted, there must have been a long era of rising civilization ; and
since this era was passed in an isolated fertile tract, mostly surrounded
by such nomadic hordes only as the deserts could suj^port, the Egyp-
tians were relatively strong, and may not improbably have long led a
life largely industrial. So that, though the militant type of social
structure evolved during the time of their consolidation, and made
sacred by their form of religion, continued, yet industrialism must
have become an important factor, influencing greatly their social
arrangements, and diffusing its appropriate sentiments and ideas.
And the position of woman was relatively good. Though polygyny
existed, it was unusual ; matrimonial regulations were strict, and
divorce difficult ; " married couples lived in full community ; " women
shared in social gatherings as they do in our own societies ; in sundry
respects they had precedence given to them; and, in the words of
Ebers, " many other facts might be added to prove tlie high state of
married life."

Ancient Aryan societies illustrate well the relationship between
the domestic regime and the political regime. The despotism of an
irresponsible head, which characterizes the militant type of structure,
characterized alike the original patriarchal family, the cluster of fami-

THE STATUS OF WQMEiV AND CHILDREN. 443

lies having a common ancestor, and the united clusters of families form-
ing the early Aryan community. As Mommsen describes him, the
early Roman ruler, once in office, stood toward citizens in the same
relation that the father of the family did to wife, children, and slaves :
" The regal power had not, and could not have, any external checks
imposed upon it by law : the master of the community had no judge
of his acts within the community, any more than the house-father had
a judge within his household. Death alone terminated his power."
From this first stage, in which the political head was absolute, and
absoluteness of the domestic head went to the extent of life and death
power over his wife, the advance toward a higher status of women
was doubtless, as Sir Henry Maine contends, largely caused by that dis-
integration of the family which went along with the progressing union
of smaller societies into larger ones eifected by conquest. But though
successful militancy thus furthered female emancipation, it did so
only by thereafter reducing the relative amount of militancy ; and the
emancipation was really associated with an average increase of indus-
trial structures and activities. As before pointed out, militancy is to
be measured not so ranch by success in war as by the extent to which
it occupies the male population. Where all men are warriors, and the
work is done entirely by women, militancy is the greatest. The in-
troduction of a class of males who, joining in productive labor, lay
the basis for an industrial organization, qualifies the militancy. And
as the industrial class, at first consisting though it does Avholly of
slaves, increases in proportion to the militant class, the total activi-
ties of the society must be regarded as more industrial and less mili-
tant. In another way the same ti'uth is implied, if we consider that
when a number of small hostile societies are consolidated by triumph
of the stronger, the amount of fighting throughout the area occupied
becomes less, although the conflicts now from time to time arising
with neighboring larger aggregates may be on a greater scale. This
is clearly seen on comparing the ratio of fighting-men to population
among the early Romans with the ratio between the armies of the
empire and the number of people included in the empire. And there
is the further fact that the holding together of these compound and
doubly-compound societies eventually formed by conquest, and the
efficient cooperation of their parts for military purposes, itself im-
plies an increased development of the industrial organization. Great
armies carrying on operations at the periphery of a great territory,
imply a numerous working population, a considerable division of
labor, and good appliances for transferring supplies : the sustaining
and distributing systems must be well developed before large mili-
tant structures can be worked. So that this disintegration of the
patriarchal family, and consequent emancipation of women, whicli
went along with growth of the Roman Empire, really had for its con-
comitant a development of the industrial organization.

444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In other ways a like relation of cause and eiFect is shown us during
the progress of European societies since Roman times.

Respecting the status of women in mediaeval Europe, Sir Henry
Maine says :

" There can be no serious question that, in its ultimate result, the disruption
of the Eoman Empire was very unfavorable to the personal and proprietary lib-
erty of women. I purposely say ' in its ultimate result,' in order to avoid a
learned controversy as to their position under purely Teutonic custom."

Now, leaving open the question whether this conclusion applies beyond
those parts of Europe in which institutions of Roman origin were least
affected by those of Germanic origin, we may, I think, on contrasting
the condition of things before the fall of tlie empire and tlie condition
after, infer a connection between tliis decline in the status of women and
a return to greater militancy. For while Roman power held together
the populations of large areas, tliere existed throughout them a state of
comparative internal peace ; whereas its failure to maintain subordina-
tion was followed by universal warfare : producing from time to time
larger aggregates and again dissolutions of them, until the disintegra-
tion had reached the stage in which tJjere existed numerous feudal gov-
ernments mutually hostile. And then, after that decline in the position
of women which accompanied this retrograde increase of militancy,
the subsequent improvement in their position went along with aggre-
gation of smaller feudal governments into larger ones, which had the
result that within the consolidated territories the amoimt of diffused
fighting deci'eased.

Comparisons between the chief civilized nations as now existing,
yield vei'ilications. Note, first, the fact, significant of the relation
between political despotism and domestic despotism, that, according
to Legouve, Napoleon I. said to the Council of State, "Un mari doit
avoir un empire absolu sur les actions de sa femme ;" and that sundry
provisions of the Code, as interpreted by Pothier, carry out this dic-
tum. Further, note that, according to De Segur, the position of women
in France declined under the empire ; and that " it was not only in
the higher ranks that this nullity of women existed. . . . The habit
of fighting filled men with a kind of contempt and asperity which
made them often forget even the regard which they owed to weak-
ness." Passing over less essential contrasts now presented by the
leading European peoples, and considei'ing chiefly the status as dis-
played in the daily lives of the poorer rather than the richer, it is
manifest that the mass of women have harder lots where militant or-
ganization and activity predominate, than they have where there is a
predominance of industrial organization and activity. The sequence
observed by travelers in Africa, that in proportion as the men are
occupied in war more labor falls on the women, is a sequence which
both France and Germany show us. Social sustentation has to be

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 445

carried on ; and necessarily the more males are drafted off for military
service, the more females must be called on to fill their places as work-
ers. Hence the extent to which in Germany women are occupied in
rough, out-of-door tasks — digging, wheeling, carrying burdens ; hence
the extent to which in France heavy field-operations are shared in by
women. That the English housewife is less a drudge than her Ger-
man sister, that among shopkeepers in England she is not required to
take so large a share in the business as she is among shoj^keepers in
France, and tjiat in England the out-of-door work done by women is
both smaller in quantity and lighter in kind, is clear; as it is clear
that this difierence is associated with a lessened demand on the male
population for purposes of offense and defense. And then there may
be added the fact of kindred meaning, that in the United States, where
till the late war the degree of militancy had been so small, and the
industrial type of social structure and action so predominant, women
have reached a higher status than anywhere else.

Evidence furnished by existing Eastern nations, so far as it can
be disentangled, supports this view. China, with its long history of
wars causing consolidations, dissolutions, reconsolidations, etc., going
back more than 2,000 years b, c, and continuing during Tartar and
Mongol conquests to be militant in its activities and arrangementSj
has, notwithstanding industrial growth, retained the militant type of
Structure ; and absolutism in the state has been accompanied by ab-
solutism in the family, qualified in the one as in the other only by the
customs and sentiments which industrialism has fostered : wives are
bought ; concubinage is common among those adequately well off;
widows are sometimes sold as concubines by fahters-in-law ; and
women join in hard work, sometimes to the extent of being harnessed
to the plough ; while, nevertheless, this low status is practically raised
by a public opinion that checks the harsh treatment legally allowable.
Similarly Japan, which, passing through long periods of internal con-
flict ending in integration, acquired an organization completely mili-
tant, under which political freedom was unknown, showed a simul-
taneous absence of freedom in the household — buying of wives, concu-
binage, divorce at mere will of husband, crucifixion or decapitation
for wife's adulteiy ; while, along with the growth of industrialism
characterizing the later days of Japan, there went such improvement
in the legal status of women that the husband was no longer allowed
to take the law into his own hands in case of adultery ; and now,
though women are occasionally seen using the flail, yet mostly the
men, according to Sir Rutherford Alcock, " leave their women to the
lighter work of the house, and perform themselves the harder out-door
labor."

It is, of course, difficult to generalize phenomena into the genesis
of which there enter factors so numerous and involved — character of

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

race, religious beliefs, surviving customs and traditions, degree of
culture, etc. ; and doubtless the many cooperating causes give rise to
incongruities which qualify somewhat the conclusion drawn. But, on
summing up the several arguments, we shall, I think, see that conclu-
sion to be substantially true.

The least entangled evidence is that which most distinctly forces
this conclusion upon us. Remembering that nearly all simple un-
civilized societies, having chronic feuds with their neighbors, are mili-
tant in their activities, and that their women are extremely degraded
in position, the fact that in the exceptional simple societies which are
peaceful and industrial there is an exceptional elevation of women
almost alone suffices as proof: neither race, nor creed, nor culture,
being in these cases an assignable cause.

The connections which we have seen exist between militancy and
polygyny, and between industrialness and monogamy, present the
same truth under another aspect ; since polygyny necessarily implies
a low status of women, and monogamy, if it does not necessarily im-
ply a high status, is an essential condition to a high status.

Further, that approximate equalization of the sexes in numbers
which results from diminishing militancy and increasing industrial-
ness, conduces to the elevation of women ; since, in proportion as the
supply of males available for carrying on social sustentation increases,
the labor of social sustentation falls less heavily on the females. And
it may be added that the societies in which the surplus of males thus
made available undertakes the harder labors, and so, relieving the
females from undue physical tax, enables them to produce more and
better offspring, will, other things equal, gain in the sti'uggle for ex-
istence with societies in which the women are not thus relieved by the
men : whence an average tendency to the spread of societies in which
the status of w^omen is improved.

There is the fact, too, that the despotism distinguishing a com-
munity organized for war, is essentially connected with despotism in
the household ; while, conversely, the freedom which characterizes pub-
lic life in an industrial community, naturally characterizes also the ac-
companying private life. In the one case compulsory cooperation pre-
vails in both ; in the other case voluntary cooperation prevails in both.

By the moral contrast we are shown another face of the same fact.
Habitual antagonism with, and destruction of, foes, sears the sym-
pathies ; while daily exchange of products and services among citi-
zens, puts no obstacle to increase of fellow-feeling. And the altruism
which grows with peaceful cooperation, ameliorates at once the life
without the household and the life within the household.'

' Too late to be inserted in its proper place, and so late that I have canceled stereo-
type plates to bring it in, I have met vrith a striking verification in the just-issued work
of Mr. W. Mattieu Williams, F. R. A. S., F. C. S., "Through Norway with Ladies." He
~ says, " There are no people in the world, however refined, among whom the relative posi-

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 447

II.

That brutes, however ferocious, treat their offspring tenderly, is a
familiar fact ; and that tenderness to offspring is shown by the most
brutal of mankind, is a fact qiiite congruous with it. An obvious ex-
planation of this seeming anomaly exists. As we saw that the treat-
ment of women by men cannot pass a certain degree of harshness
without causing extinction of the tribe, so, here, we may see that the
tribe must disappear unless the love of progeny is strong. Hence we
need not be surprised when Mouat tells us that the Andaman-Islanders
" show tlielr children the utmost tenderness and affection ;" or when
we read in Snow's account of the Fuegians that both sexes are much
attached to their offspring ; or when Sturt describes Australian fathers
and mothers as behaving to their little ones with much fondness.
Affection intense enough to prompt great self-sacrifice is, indeed,
especially requisite under the conditions of savage life, which render
the rearing of young difficult; and maintenance of svich affection is
insured by the dying out of families in which it is deficient.

But this strong parental love is, like the parental love of animals,
very irregularly displayed. As among brutes the philoprogenitive
instinct is occasionally suppressed by the desire to kill, and even to
devour, their young ones, so, among primitive men, this instinct is
now and again overridden by impulses temporarily excited. Thus,
though attaclied to their offspring, Australian mothers, when in dan-
ger, will sometimes desert them ; and, if we may believe Angas, men
have been known to bait their hooks with the flesh of boys they have
killed. Thus, notwithstanding their marked parental affection, Fuegi-
ans sell their children for slaves; thus, among the Chonos Indians, a
father, though doting on his boy, will kill him in a fit of anger for an
accidental offense. Evervwhere among the lower races we meet with
like incongruities. Falkner, while describing the paternal feelings of
Patagonians as very strong, says they often pawn and sell their wives
and little ones to the Spaniards for brandy. Speaking of the children
of the Sound Indians, Bancroft says they " sell or gamble them away."
According to Simpson, the Pi-Edes " barter their children to the Utes
proper, for a few trinkets or bits of clothing." And of the Macusi,
Schomburgk writes, " The price of a child is the same as the Indian
asks for his dog."

This seemingly-heartless conduct to children often arises from the

tion of man and woman is more favorable to the latter than among the Lapps." After
giving evidence from personal observation, he asks the reason, saying : " Is it because
the men are not warriors ? . . . They have no soldiers, fight no battles, either with out-
side foreigners, or between the various tribes and families among themselves. ... In
spite of their wretched huts, their dirty faces, their primitive clothing, their ignorance
of literature, art, and science, they rank above us in the highest element of true civiliza-
tion, the moral element; and all the military nations of the world may stand uncovered
before them " (pp. 162, 163).

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

difficulty experienced in rearing tbem. To it the infanticide so com-
mon among the uncivilized and semi-civilized is, of course, mainly due
— the burial of living infants with mothers who have died in child-
birth ; the putting to death one out of twins ; the destruction of
younger children when there are already several For these acts
there is an excuse like that commonly to be made for killing the sick
and old. When, concerning the desertion of aged people by wander-
ing prairie tribes, Catlin says, " It often becomes absolutely necessary
in such cases that they should be left, and they uniformly insist upon
it, saying, as this old man did, that they are old and of no further use,
that they left their fathers in the same manner, that they wish to die,
and their children must not mourn for them " — when, of the Nascopies,
Heriot tells us that in his old age " the father usually employed as his
executioner the son who is most dear to him " — when, in Kane, we
read of the Assiuiboin chief who " killed his own mother," because,
being " old and feeble," she " asked him to take pity on her and end
her misery" — there is suggested the conclusion that, as destruction of
the ill and infirm may lessen the total amount of suffering to be borne
under the conditions of savage life, so may the destruction of infants,
when the region is barren or the mode of life so hard that the rearing
of many is impracticable. And a like plea may be urged in mitigation
of judgment on savages who sell or barter away their children : the
needs of the younger ones possibly, in some cases, prompting this
saci'ifice of the elder.

Generally, then, among uncivilized peoples, as among animals,
instincts and impulses are the sole incentives and deterrents. The
status of a primitive man's child is like that of a bear's cub. There is
neither moral obligation nor moral restraint ; but there exists the
unchecked power to foster, to desert, to destroy, as love or anger
moves.

To the yearnings of natural affection are added in early stages of
progress certain motives, partly personal, partly social, which help to
secure the lives of children ; but which, at the same time, initiate dif-
ferences of status between children of different sexes. There is the
desire to strengthen the tribe in war ; there is the wish to have a
future avenger on individual enemies ; there is the anxiety to leave
behind one who shall perform the funeral rites and continue oblations
at the grave.

Inevitably, the urgent need to augment tlie number of warriors
leads to preference for male children. On reading of such a militant
race as the Chechemecas, that they " like much their male children, who
are brought up by their fathers, but they despise and hate the daugh-
ters;" or of the Panches, that, when " a wife bore her first girl-child,
they killed tl)e child, and thus they did with all the girls born before
a male child," Ave are shown the effect of this desii'e for sons ; and

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 449

everywhere we find it leading either to destruction of daughters, or to
low estimation and ill-treatment of them. Throuojh lono: ascendina:
stages of social life the desire thus arising persists ; as instance the
statement of Herodotus, that every Persian prided himself on the
number of his sons, and it is even said that an annual prize was given
by the monarch to the Persian who could show most sons living.
Obviously the social motive, thus coming in aid of the parental
motive, served to raise the status of male children above that of
female.

A reason for the care of sons implied in the passage of Ecclesias-
ticus which says, " He left behind him an avenger against his ene-
mies," is a reason which has weighed with all races in barbarous and
semi-civilized states. The sacred duty of blood-revenge, earliest of
recognized obligations among men, survives so long as societies
remain predominantly warlike ; and it generates an anxiety to have a
male representative who shall retaliate upon those from whom injuries
have been received. This bequest of quarrels to be fought out, trace-
able down to recent times among so-called Christians, as in the will
of Brantome, has, of course, all along raised the value of sons, and has
so put upon the harsh treatment of them a check not put upon the
harsh treatment of daughters — whence a further differentiation of
status.

The development of ancestor-worship, which, enjoining sacrifices
to be made by each man at the tombs of his immediate and more
remote male progenitors, implies anticipation of like sacrifices to his
own ghost by his son, initiates yet another motive for cherishing sons
— adds to the parental regard for children a feeling which tells in favor
of males rather than of females. The effects of this motive are at the
present time shown us by the Chinese, among whom the death of an
only son is especially lamented, because there will be no one to make
offerings at the grave, and among whom the peremptory need for a
son hence ai'ising is held to justify the taking of a concubine, though,
"if a person has sons by his wife (for daughters never enter into the
account), it is considered derogatory to take a handmaid at all." On
recalling Egyptian wall-paintings and papyri, and the like evidence
furnished by Assyrian records, showing that sacrifices to ancestors
were performed by their male descendant — on remembering, too, that
among ancient Aryans, Hindoo, Greek, Roman, the daughter was inca-
pable of this function, and that sons were, therefore, required for main-
taining the family-cult — we are shown how this developed form of
the primitive religion, while it strengthened filial subordination,
added an incentive to parental care — of sons, but not of daughters.

In brief, then, the relations of adults to young among human

beings, originally like those among animals, began to assume higher

forms under the influence of the several desires — to obtain an aider in

fighting enemies, to provide an avenger for injuries received, and to

VOL. XI. — 29

450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

leave behind one who should administer to welfare after death : mo-
tives which, strengthening as societies passed through their early-
stages, gradually gave a certain authority to the claims of male chil-
dren, thouofh not to those of females. And thus we again see how
intimate is the connection between militancy of the men and degrada-
tion of the women.

Here we are introduced to the question, " What relation exists be-
tween the status of children and the form of social organization ? " To
this the reply is akin to one given in the last chapter; namely, that
mitigation of the treatment of children accompanies transition from
the militant type to the industrial type.

Those lowest social states in which offsj)ring are now idolized, now
killed, now sold, as the dominant feeling prompts, are everywhere the
states in which hostilities with surrounding tribes are chronic. This
absolute dependence of progeny on pai'ental will is shown whether
the militancy is that of archaic groups, or that of groups higher in
structure. In tlie latter as in the former, there exists that life and
death power over children which is the negation of all rights and
claims. On comparing children's status in the rudest militant tribes
with their status in militant tribes which are patriarchal and com-
pounded of the patriarchal, all we can say is, that in these last the
still-surviving theory becomes qualified in practice ; and that qualifi-
cation of it increases as industrialism grows.

The Feejeeans, intensely despotic in government, and ferocious in
war, furnish an instance of extreme abjectness in the position of chil-
dren. Infanticide, especially of females, reaches nearer two-thirds
than one-half; they " destroy their infants from mere whim, expediency,
anger, or indolence ; " and, according to Erskine, " children have been
offered by the people of their own tribe to propitiate a powerful chief,"
not for slaves but for food. A sanguinary warrior race of Mexico — the
Chechemecas — yield another example of excessive parental power :
sons " cannot marry without the consent of parents ; if a young man
violates this law .... the penalty is death." By this instance we
are reminded of the domestic condition among the ancient Mexicans
(largely composed of conquering cannibal Chechemecas), whose social
organization was highly militant in type, and of whom Clavigero says,
" Their children were bred to stand so much in awe of their parents,
that even when grown up and married, they hardly durst speak befoi'e
them." In ancient Central America family rule was similar ; and in
ancient Peru it was the law that " sons should obey and serve their
fathers until they reached the age of twenty-five."

If we now turn to the few cases of uncivilized and semi-civilized
societies that are wholly industrial, or predominantly industrial, we
find children, as wo found women, occupying much higher positions.
Among the peaceful Bodo and Dhimals, " infanticide is utterly un-

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 451

known ; " daughters are treated " with confidence and kindness ; " and
when marriages are being arranged, " there is a consulting the des-
tined bride ; " to which add the reciprocal trait that " it is deemed
shameful to leave old parents entirely alone." The Dyaks, again,
largely industrial, and having an unmilitant social structure, yield the
fact stated by Brooke, that " the practice of infanticide is rare," as
well as the facts before named under another head, that children have
the freedom implied by regular courtship, and that girls choose their
mates. We are told of the Samoans, who are more industrial in social
structure and habit than neighboring Malayo-Polynesians, that infan-
ticide after birth is unknown, and that children have the degree of in-
dependence implied by elopements when they cannot obtain parental
assent to their marriage. Similarly with the Negritos inhabiting the
island of Tanna, where militancy is slight and there are no pronounced
chieftainships: of them we read in Turner that "the Tannese are
fond of their children. No infanticide there. They allow them every
indulgence, girls as well as boys." Lastly, there is the case of the in-
dustrious Pueblos, whose children were unrestrained in marriage, and
by whom, as we have seen, daughters were especially privileged.

Thus with a highly-militant type there goes extreme subjection of
children, and the status of girls is still lower than that of boys ; while
in proportion as the type becomes non-militant, there is not only more
recognition of children's claims, but the recognized claims of boys and
girls approach toward equality.

Kindred evidence is supplied by those societies which, passing
through the patriarchal forms of domestic and political government,
have evolved into large nations. Be the race Turanian, Semitic, or
Aryan, it shows us the same connection between political absolutism
over subjects and domestic absolutism over childi*en.

In China the destruction of female infants is common ; " parents
sell their children to be slaves ; " in marriage " the parents of the girl
always demand for their child a price ; " and " forced marriages often
produce the most tragic results. ... A union prompted solely by love
would be a monstrous infraction of the duty of filial obedience, and a
predilection on the f)art of a female as heinous a crime as infidelity.
. . . Their maxim is, that, as the emperor should have the care of a
father for his people, a father should have the power of a sovereign
over his family." Meanwhile it is observable that this legally-unlim-
ited paternal power descending from militant times, and persisting
along with the militant type of social structure, has come to be quali-
fied in practice by sentiments which the industrial type fosters : in-
fanticide, reprobated by proclamation, is excused only on the plea of
poverty, joined with the need for rearing a male child ; and public
opinion puts checks on the actions of those who purchase children.
With that militant type of social structure which, during early wars.

452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

became highly developed among the Japanese, similarly goes great
filial subjection. Mitford, qualifying previous statements, admits tliat
needy people " sell their children to be waitresses, singers, or prosti-
tutes; " and Sir Rutherford Alcock says that "parents, too, have
undoubtedly in some cases, if not in all, the power to sell their chil-
dren." It may be added that the subordination of young to old, ii-re-
spective of sex, is greater than the subordination of females to males;
for abject as is the slavery of wife to husband, yet, after his death,
the widow's power "over the son restores the balance and redresses
the wrong, by placing woman, as the mother, far above man, as the
son, whatever his age or rank." And the like holds among the Chinese.

How among the primitive Semites the father exercised capital
jurisdiction, and how along with this there went a lower status of
girls than of boys, needs no proof. But, as further indicating the
parental and filial relation, I may name the fact that children were
considered so much the property of the father, that they were seized
for his debts (2 Kings iv. 1 ; Job xxiv. 9) ; also the fact that selling of
daughters was authorized (Exodus xxi. 7) ; also the fact that injunc-
tions respecting the treatment of children referred exclusively to
paternal benefit : as instance the reasons given in Ecclesiasticus, chap-
ter XXX., for chastisement of sons; and the further fact that in Deu-
teronomy, xxi. 18, stoning to death is the appointed punishment of a
rebellious son. Though some qualification of paternal absolutism
arose during the later settled stages of the Hebrews, yet along with
persistence of the militant type of government there continued ex-
treme filial subordination.

Already in the chapter on the Family, when treating of the Ro-
mans as illustrating both the social and domestic oi-ganization pos-
sessed by the conquering Aryans during their spread into Europe, some-
thing has been implied respecting the status of children among them.
In the words of Mommsen, relatively to the father, " all in the house-
hold were destitute of legal rights — the wife and child no less than
the bullock or the slave." He might expose his children : the religious
prohibition which forbade it " so far as concerned all the sons — de-
formed births excepted — and at least the first daughter," was without
civil sanction. He " had the right and duty of exercising over them
judicial powers, and of punishing them as he deemed fit, in life and
limb." He might also sell his child. It remains to say that the same
implied development of industrialness which we saw went along with
improvement in the position of women during the growth of the Ro-
man Empire, went along with improvement in the position of children.
I may add that in Greece there Avere allied manifestations of paternal
absolutism : a man could bequeath his daughter, as he could also his
wife.

If, again, we compare the early states of existing European peo-

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 453

pies, characterized by chronic militancy, with their later states,
characterized by a militancy that had become less constant and dif-
fused, while industrialism had grown, difierences of like significance
meet us.

We have the statement of Caesar concerning the Celts of Gaul, that
fathers " do not permit their children to approach them openly until
they have grown to manhood." In the Merovingian period a father
could sell his child, as could also a widowed mother — a power which
continued down to the ninth century or later. Under the decayed
feudal state which preceded the French Revolution domestic subordi-
nation, especially among the aristocracy, was still such that Chateau-
briand says, " My mother, my sister, and myself, transformed into
statues by my father's presence, only recover ourselves after he leaves
t,he room ; " and Taiue, quoting Beaumarchais and Bretonne, indicates
that this rigidity of paternal authority was general. Then, after the
Revolution, De Segur writes, " Among our good forefathers a man
of thirty was more in subjection to the head of the family than a child
of eighteen is now."

Our own histoiy furnishes kindred evidence. Describing the man-
ners of the fifteenth century, Wright says : " Young ladies, even of
great families, were brought up not only strictly, but even tyrannical-
ly. .. . The parental authority was indeed carried to an almost ex-
travagant extent." Down to the seventeenth century, " children stood
or knelt in trembling silence in the presence of theii- fathers and
mothers, and might not sit without permission." The literature of
even the last century, alike by the deferential use of "sir" and
^' madam" in addressing parents, by the authority parents assumed
in arranging marriages for their children, and by the extent to which
sons, and still more daughters, recognized the duty of accepting the
spouses chosen, shows us a persistence of filial subordination propor-
tionate to the political subordination. And then, since the beginning
of this century, along with the immense development of industrialism
and the correlative progress toward a freer type of social organiza-
tion, there has gone a marked increase of juvenile freedom ; as shown
by a greatly moderated parental dictation, by a mitigation of punish-
ments, and by that decreased formality of domestic intercourse which
has accompanied the changing of fathers from masters into friends.

Differences having like meanings are traceable between the more
militant and the less militant European societies as now existing.
Along with the relatively-developed industrial type of political organi-
zation in England, there goes a less coercive treatment of children
than in France and Germany, where industrialism has modified the
political organizations less. Joined with great fondness for, and much
indulgence of, the young, there is in France a closer supervision of
them, and the restraints on their actions are both stronger and more
rmraerous: girls at home are never from under maternal control, and

454 'J^HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

boys at school are subject to military discipline. Add to which that
parental oversight of marriageable children still goes so far that little
oj^jDortunity is afforded ior choice by the young people themselves.
In Germany, again, there is a stringency of rule in education allied to
the political stringency of rule. As writes a German lady long resi-
dent in England, and experienced as a teacher : " English children
are not tyraunized over — they are guided by their parents. The spirit
of independence and personal rights is fostered. I can therefore un-
derstand the teacher who said he would rather teacli twenty German
[children] than one English child — I understand him, but I do not
sympathize with him. The German child is nearly a slave compared
to the English child ; it is, therefore, more easily subdued by the one
in authority."

Lastly come the facts that in the United States, long characterized
by great development of the industrial organization little qualified by
the militant, parental government has become extremely lax, and
girls and boys are nearly on a par in their positions : the independence
reached being such that young ladies often form their own circles of
acquaintance and carry on their intimacies without let or hinderance
from their fathers and mothers.

As was to be anticipated, we thus find a series of changes in the
status of children parallel to the series of changes in the status of
women.

In archaic societies, without law and having customs extending
over but some parts of life, there are no limits to the powers of
parents ; and the passions, daily exercised in conflict with brutes or
men, are restrained in the relations to offspring only by the philopro-
genitive instinct.

Early the needs for a companion in arms, for an avenger, and pres-
ently for a performer of sacrifices, add to the fatherly feeling other
motives, personal and social, tending to give something like a status
to male children; but leaving female children still in the same posi-
tion as are the young of brutes.

These relations of father to son and daughter, arising in advanced
groups of the archaic type, and becoming more settled where pastoral
life originates the patriarchal group, continue to characterize societies
that remain predominantly militant, whether evolved from the patri-
ai'chal group or otherwise: victory and defeat, which express the out-
come of militant activity, having for their correlatives despotism and
slavery in military organization, in political organization, and in
domestic organization.

The status of children, in common with that ol women, rises in pro-
portion as the compulsory cooperation characterizing militant activi-
ties becomes qualified by the voluntary cooperation characterizing
industrial activities. We see this on comparing the most militant un-

IMA GIN A TION. 4 5 5

civilized peoples with others that are less militant ; we see it on com-
paring the early militant states of existing nations with their later
more industrial states ; we see it on comparing nations that are now
relatively militant with those that are now relatively industrial. And
we are especially shown it by the fact that in primitive uncultured
societies which are exceptionally peaceful the status of children is
exceptionally high.

Most conclusively, however, is this connection shown on grouping
the facts antithetically thus: On the one hand, savage tribes in gen-
eral, chronically militant, have, in common with the predominantly
militant great nations of antiquity, the trait that a father has life and
death power over his children. On the other hand, the few uncivil-
ized tribes which are peaceful and industrial have, in common with
the most advanced civilized nations, the trait that children's lives are
sacred, and that large measures of freedom are accorded to both boys
and girls.

-♦♦♦-

IMAGINATION.'

Bt Dr. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : Amid the asperities of the great
political crisis which has convulsed a nation, it is pleasant to
find the elegant repose of a salon where culture and refinement stand
like sleepless sentinels on guard against dissension ; and in the Len-
ten season — when the fugitive madrigal of society is hushed in the
measured cadence of the penitential psalm, and the brilliant poppies
of fashion grow pale in the shadow of the palm — it is meet that
thought should turn from outward things to the contemplation of
those within.

The few moments during which an unworthy member of the
Society is indulged to-night will be devoted to the consideration of
Imagination as one of the intellectual faculties which, if common in
some degree to all, is nevertheless, in its highest development, the
rarest, most precious, and most splendid, of human endowments. I
need not — I shall not — be coldly critical now, nor seek to bend your
judgment to my will ; for I must speak my aspirations, not my per-
sonal experiences, and move you from the heart, or not at all. The
subject bids defiance to the trammels of custom or precedent, and
will be bound by no conventionality.

¥ov facts, as simply such, I dare say I have a great and growing
contempt, perhaps less due to any familiarity I may have acquired,
than to my habitual contemplation of structures without reference to

' Read before the Literary Society of Washington, D. C, March IV, ISVY.

456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the materials of which they are coinjDOsed, The architect, not his
workmen — the plan, not the details of its execution — the design, not
the methods of its accomplishment — these are within the higher view
to which intellectual insight may aspire. Let us pay tribute to the
gifted poet who taught us to contrast the insigniiicance of a fact with
the sublime signification of a truth. No one may imagine for a
moment that the imaginative faculty is an imaginary thing, or doubt
the reality of imagination, because it is immaterial and immeasurable,
inscrutable to the physical senses, unsusceptible of analysis or sjn-
thesis, triable by no test, overriding logic, outwitting piiilosophy,
laughing at science — this imperious mistress of mind, tliis fertile
mother of all art !

This, that, and the other, of things unnumbered, material and
immaterial, wise and otherwise, make up the marvelous microcosm
we call Self — the world where, like the sun of the planetary system,
shines the intellect with j)erfect splendor. But, as the spectrum has
dissected the solar ray, so has the understanding, by a process of self-
inflicted vivisection that seems scarcely less than divine in its insight,
pierced and resolved the mysteries of its own composition. We
know that the mind is a bundle of many fagots, the united strength
of which can never be broken, though racked on doubt and 'put to the
wheel of despair — though cast beneath the car of superstition, or
consigned to the nether millstone of inhuman persecution. We know
that these mental fagots are of many kinds — sturdy oak of the
scientist, pliable ash of the schoolman, sail-bearing pine of the posi-
tivist, cypress of pessimist, rose-wood of optimist, heart-wood, it may
be, for all of us ; and the one mysterious piece, so like and yet so
unlike them all. Let the rest season, nay, even blacken : this one is
changeless and ever-enduring, as fresh and as green as if cut but
to-day from the parent stem ; it buds on forever, like a wonderful air-
plant whose tendrils find nourishment wherever there is sensitized
atmosphere, and needs the grosser nurture of no vulgar mould ; this
veritable Hamamelis, witch-hazel of the mental sheaf, fitly styled the
*' divining-rod ; " for this is the magic wand of the sculptor, the
painter, the poet, the singer, the seer alike !

Technical definition of the imagination may be found in the dic-
tionaries of all civilized languages — those monuments of learning and
labor which compel the most profound respect, while they excite the
liveliest emotions of gratitude and sympathy for the men who were
born to erect them. But the conventional label of the imaginative
faculty need not be recited before this Society ; nor need I enlarge
upon its manifest inadequacy beyond the requirements of formalism.
Definition is, or should be, diagnostic description ; but in what terms
may that be described which exists only in imagination ? Definition
implies limitation and boundary ; the gist of the term is the setting
of corner-stones ; but how measure off and survey that which is

IMAGINATION.

457

boundless ? No syllogism is competent here. Let imagination seek
its own conclusions, with strong white wings that melt not even
in the dazzling light and heat of its own glorious achievements.
What care I for the crutch of logic here, or any Ariadne's thread in
a labyrinth of verbal niceties ! Enthusiasm bears too hard upon the
check-rein of sober reflection ; fancy leaps lightly ; ecstasy beckons,
and the lotos is waving over the still, cool waters of my judgment.
But expression may lawfully seek even tlie pinnacle of rhapsody, for
naught but superlatives are fitting for that which is beyond com-
parison.

We can but imagine the possibilities of this attribute of intellect ;
as its peculiarities deny comparison, and its processes scrutiny, so do
its powers defy comprehension. But what of its eflective operation
and manifest results ? What of its purposes and pleasures — of its
pangs and penalties ? And what, alas ! of its perversions ? Of these
we know something, if not from our own experience, then from the
teachings of the consummate masters of expression whose thought-
laden voices strike home — or, should they pass over our heads, leave
us, at least, in no doubt that something has gone over.

To a practical point first : one excellent and most useful purpose
which the imagination subserves at the hands of the gifted few whom
the higher development of this faculty makes leaders of thought and
watchful guardians of human progress, is, to put men of science on
their proper level, and to teach them to know their place.

As this may possibly be considered — by some of my friends whose
generous appreciation of my efibrts in scientific lines of inquiry may
blind them to the slightness of my acquirements — to be rather a
ticklish position for me to assume, let me fortify with authority as
well recognized in literature as is that of the sinewy, daring, and
brilliant gladiator of the scientific arena who stigmatized poetry as
" sensuous caterwauling." ' It has been perceived and said, in sub-

■ Although, in the sphere of imagination, " facts " are apt to be regarded as trouble-
some and impertinent, and looseness of statement as only a very venial transgression,
yet, for the benefit of those readers who care for accuracy, it may be stated that the
author of this celebrated phrase, that has given so much offense to artistic and poetic
minds, did not use it in the manner here stated. Prof. Huxley has never, as we are
aware, " stigmatized poetry as sensuous caterwauling." It was not poetry itself, but
only some poetry, to which he applied this eminently felicitous epithet ; and if Words-
worth were living, he would no doubt cordially indorse it. We give the memorable
passage, as it will bear frequent repeating. — (Ed.)

" In these times the educational tree seems to have its roots in the air, its leaves and flowers
in the ground ; and I confess I should very much like to turn it upside down, so that its roots
might be solidly imbedded among the facts of Nature, and draw thence a sound nutriment for the
foliage and fruit of literature and of art. No educational system can have a claim to permanence
unless it recognizes the truth that education has two great ends to which everything else must be
subordinated. The one of these is, to increase knowledge ; the other is, to develop the love of
right and the hatred of wrong.

" With wisdom and uprightness a nation can make its way worthily, and Beauty will follow in
the footsteps of the two, even if she be not specially invited ; while there is, perhaps, no sight in

458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stance, that the gi-eat scientists and the great artists are in really-
closer brotherhood than many suppose — they hold divided sway over
much common ground ; it is only a seeming paradox, that few dis-
coveries in science, perhaps no great ones, have been made without
the exercise of the imagination, or of some faculty so nearly like it
that distinction between them is difficult; for the line which separates
the operations and results of imagination from those of induction is
obscure. Katiocination is the twin-brother of imagination. The
apple that Eve plucked, and the apple that Newton saw fall, grew
on the same tree.

But to my iutrencbment : " Poetry," says one who understood it,
" is the first and last of all knowledge — it is immortal as the heart
of man. If the labors of the men of science should ever create any
material revolution, direct or indirect, in our condition, and in the
impressions which we habitually receive, the poet will sleep then no
more than at present ; he will be at the side of the man of science,
carrying sensation into the midst of the objects of science itself.
The remotest discoveries of the chemist, the botanist, the mineralo-
gist, will be as proper objects of the poet's art as any upon which
it can be employed, if the time should ever come when these things
shall be familiar to us, and the relations under which they are con-
templated by the followers of the respective sciences shall be mani-
festly and palpably material to us as enjoying and suffering beings.
If the time should ever come when what is now called science, thus
familiarized to men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of
flesh and blood, then the poet will lend his divine spirit to aid the
transfiguration, and will welcome the being thus produced as a dear
and genuine inmate of the household of men." '

This utterance of half a century ago seems like prophecy now
when the presaged changes are imminent. The conflict may never-
theless be protracted as long as either contestant is blinded to the
real strength of his antagonist — senseless though it be to attempt the
impossible divorce of the material from the immaterial, of matter
from force, of the body from the spirit — that would be death. And
it is the physicist himself who is loudest to proclaim that, without the
force which gives motion to material particles, there is no light, no
heat, no life.

the whole world more saddening and more revolting than is offered by men sunk in ignorance of
everything but vphat other men have written— seemingly devoid of moral belief or guidance, but
with the sense of beauty so keen, and the power of expression so cultivated, that their sensuous
catorwauling may be almost mistaken for the music of the spheres.

" At present, education is almost entirely devoted to the cultivation of the power of expression
and of the sense of literary beauty. The matter of having anything to say beyond a hash of other
people's opinions, or of possessing any criterion of beauty, so that we may distinguish between
the godlike and the devilish, is left aside as of no moment. I think I do not err in saying that,
if science were made the foundation of education, instead of being, at most, stuck on as a cornice
to the edifice, this state of things could not exist."

' Quoted from E. C. Stednaan's " Victorian Poets," the page where Wordsworth is
thus reproduced being further laid under contribution.

IMA OnVA TION. 459

Here I would repeat with emphasis, what I intimated in the
beginning, that the microscopic eye which peers too long and too
intently upon the motes of facts which play in the sunbeam, will be
blinded to the force and beauty of the truths which both the motes
and the beam conspire to announce.

In thus insisting upon the intimate relationships which I believe
subsist between the offices of the imaginative and those of the reason-
ing faculty, I must not be misunderstood to depreciate or disparage
the mighty prowess of the latter, which I love to contemplate. Pure
reason, as expressed — I had nearly said symbolized — in the simple,
faultless syllogism, has nothing to fear from the sovereignty of the
imagination. It is beautiful and fearful to see that clear, cold, naked
blade, gleaming with steel-blue temper, resistlessly incisive— to see
it cleave with equal ease the solid ingot of ignorance and the gossa-
mer web of illusion — to see it w^ork like a giant steam-hammer,
smoothly, noiselessly, and irresistibly, whether its power be adjusted
to the cracking of an egg-shell of superfine subtilties, or the forging
of the massive links by which it is anchored secure in a storm of
error. Yet this Titan is not omnipotent ; its powers are limited; and
it is precisely at the point w^here reason hesitates that the ofiice of
imagination begins. The higher faculty takes up the story when
reason omits to point the moral, and adorns the tale that Nature tells
to man. It brings her seeming discords into one grand harmony,
and crowns the noble shaft of Science with the immortal wreath of
Art.

I speak of imagination in its full development, and in the truest,
highest, and best sense that the term can bear; and I am reminded
here to draw a broad, even if a devious and uncertain, line of dis-
tinction between this splendid faculty and mere Fancy — a pert Miss,
whose wills-o'-the-wisp are too often mistaken for the head-light of the
imagination. I will not weary you with over-nice formalities of defi-
nition in a case where shades of difierence blend. Know, by their
fruits, that fancy is a parody on imagination. The play of fancy is
quips and quirks and airy nothings, and the whole mob of littlenesses
we call smart and clever. The working of imagination breathes life
into marble and canvas, inspires the drama, the poem, the symphony,
and vivifies systems of religion.

What faculty but the imaginative can conceive, what but the
power of the imagination itself can convey, the full meaning of this
soul of genius? It is creative; and, when this is said, expression
falters by the wayside of anticlimax. If there be within us one single
spark of the divine fire, this spark it is that sends " the long light
shaking" from pillar to pillar of the temple that the lesser god of the
imasfination rears to a God eternal, till it irradiates the shrine where
all men sooner or later must kneel in devotion ; and we, who now
gaze wistfully at the veil which screens the inner sanctuary from eyes

460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

profane, may yet be permitted to kiss the hem of a seamless garment.
Oh, the searching, the far-reaching insight of the epigram, " If there
be no God, man must invent one ! " Invention, conception, imagina-
tion, creation, are synonymous, and in one sense convertible terms.'

The pleasures of the imagination — if so slight an expression may
hint at a meaning, the fullness of which is rapture or transport — are
manifold, and too manifest to require subtilty of discrimination for
their recognition and explanation. These are among the things of
blessed memory, of blissful hope, and among those the reality and
universality of which are confirmed by all experience. Even those
who cuddle the bantlings of their fancy, in the fond delusion that
they nurture the offspring of the fertile mother, feel somewhat of the
charm indescribable. What, then, the serenity, what the majestic
repose, of the creators of thought after their labor, we may only
faintly imagine.

What of the pangs and penalties now — what of the price to be
paid for this power ? To bring forth in travail was not the sentence
of one-half the human race alone. There have been those, indeed,
like Raphael, who have wrought the miracles of imagination in the
sunshine of the heart, to sweet music of the soul ; but oh, so few
escape the throes of thought-birth ! Physiologists tell us of a certain
mental process they call " unconscious cerebration." The operation
of the imagination unconscious of labor is better known by another
name — inspii-ation ; its expression is revelation ; its mouth-piece the
seer. But rare clay, and only the finest, incases such spirits ; men
must work in the storm, in sorrow and suffering, each to his measure
of creative ability. Let us never forget, in the terrible struggle for
expression, that it is given to lips which press the sword of pain to
speak to fellow-men the words " Go thou up higher ! "

I crave your indulgence for one other thought. Authority and
responsibility go hand-in-hand with equal pace. The measure of
creative ability is the measure of accountability for its exercise, and
the measure of the penalty which perversion of the godlike faculty
entails. Like every other energy in Nature, the imagination is equally
potent for good and for evil. Let the bravest man tell me he never
shudders when he looks within, at the possibilities there disclosed.
There is power to make this earth seem nearer heaven or hell.
Whose rebellious imagination conceived it were better to reign below
than to serve above ? Sound is as full of discord as of harmony.
Light may blind us, or guide us on our way. Heat constructs and
heat destroys. The dual nature of every force wars with its opposite.
The imagination is equally potent to sanctify and to pollute. Guard,
then, this gift with fear and trembling ; gi-eat issues depend upon this
most powerful, most perilous, and most precious endowment of the
intellect. Not like the victor in history need we sigh for other

' " In seinen Gottern malet sich der Menscli." — Goethe.

A PHILOSOPHICAL EMPEROR. 461

worlds to conquer, if we move tlie world of the imagination to the
ends of truth and beauty; for a greater triumph is ours then, and the
soul may leap at the inward shout, " Victory ! victory ! conquest of
self!"

A PHILOSOPHICAL EMPEROR.'

By CALVEKT VAUX.

AT our last meeting we listened with keen interest to all Mr.
Lewis had to say about the Emperor Justinian ; and his dra-
matic presentation of the subject cannot fail to leave a permanent
impression on our minds, in regard to the life of this conspicuous
example of a bad type of Roman. Selfish and sensuous, remorseless,
bloodthirsty, energetic, full of vitality, a barbarian at heart; repulsive
in his theories, odious in his practices, true to the woman he chose
with an accurate instinct as his mate — not as wife or mother, or with
any respect for the sex to which she belonged, but rather as an ex-
aggerated exception to every idea that was then, and is now, current
in regard to what a woman ought to be. There was nothing attrac-
tive or genial in the life of either Justinian or Theodora ; and, so far
as this forcible sketch allowed us to form an opinion, we were unable
to discover any suggestion in the so-called civilization of the period
that would be likely to help us in these times.

Imperial Rome, at the beginning of the Christian era, may of
course be viewed from a different standpoint ; and it seems to me
worth while to-night to follow the clew that is given us by the writ-
ings of another Roman emperor, Marcus Antoninus, who began his
reign in the middle of the second century,.

We do not depend here on any exaggerated history, or on a nar-
rative full of misstatements, of the biased and interested kind, that
appertain to the work of a contemporary reporter ; but we have the
clean words of the man himself, " published, and not published," as
Aristotle said of liis own writings to Alexander, who expressed a
distaste to having such exquisitely subtile brain-work scattered broad-
cast in the common highway, where it might be picked up by any-
body. The volume seems to be a commonplace book, made up of
notes that have no special connection with each other in the pages on
which they happen to stand, but are very definitely related in the
sequence of moods that occur to the writer. It would, indeed, be
interesting to collate the scattered beads of similar color, and group
them together.

'O

' " Marcus Aurelius Antoninus," a paper read before the New York " Fraternity
Club."

462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When the Japanese embassadors visited the United States, it was
remarked that the manners of the most refined men among them were
essentially European or American, if we choose so to state it ; not
that they were in the smallest particular borrowed or assumed, but
because there is a logic in the culture of the human being, that brings
about the same results all the world over, so far as manners are con-
cerned. The style of Marcus Antoninus has this cosmopolitan air.
He seems to have been the really complete ideal of a cultivated man ;
and his ways of thinking, his methods of expression, his social views,
his manners, in fact, are correspondingly broad.

He would be at home in any century; but in none so completely,
it seems to me, as in the nineteenth. You long to hear of his intro-
duction to Darwin and Sjjencer, and feel that the conversation would
grow interesting at once. The deeply-rooted doctrine of special cre-
ation is, we know, now losing force day by day, for all who have the
opportunity to become acquainted with the current results of scientific
investigation, even in a superficial, popular way. The invention of a
matured animal is seen to be inconceivable, because all the facts that
appertain to the idea of maturity are so definitely associated with the
recognition of advancing age, that the conceptions are found to be
inseparable. One of the scientific puzzles has therefore been to ac-
count in an intelligent manner for the different phases of life that
occur from age to age ; to suggest, as it were, some positive vehicle
whose duty it has been to carry along the sequence of influences from
generation to generation. Draper makes a suggestion in this direc-
tion, and points out that the air xoe hreathe is the grand receptacle
from which all living things come, and to which they all return. It
is, he says, the cradle of vegetable, the coffin of animal life : made up
of atoms that have once lived, and that have run through innumer-
able cycles of change, its particles await their turn for further re-
organization. A corresponding thought also appears to have passed
through the mind of Antoninus ; not, of course, precisely in the same
form, but there is an intelligible hint of the idea in the following sen-
tence: " If souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from
eternity ? "

Every era has what may be called its fashionable real problem for
discussion. Sometimes it is ethical ; at others, mechanical ; or it may
be artistic.

The recognition of a process of development in all things — or, as
it is well termed, " evohition " — is the essential natural law which
seems just now to be the important centre of scientific interest; and
it may almost be said to be an outgrowth of the present decade. Yet
in our author we see the same kind of yeast fermenting, and becoming
an incisive statement in appropriate words. " Observe constantly
that all things take ])lace by change. Accustom yourself to consider
that the nature of the universe loves nothins; so much as to chano-e

A PHILOSOPHICAL EMPEROR. 463

the things which are, nnd to make new things like them. . . , For
everything tliat exists is, in a manner, the seed of tliat which will be,
and to tliink only of seeds that are cast into the earth, or into a
womb, is a very vulgar notion. ... In the series of things, those
which follow are always aptly fitted to those which have gone before;
and the thinscs which come into existence exhibit no mere succession,
but a certain wonderful relationshiiD. . . . You exist as a part ; you
will disappear in that which produced you ; or, rather, you will be
received back into its seminal principle by transmutation. And, by
consequence of such a change, I too exist, and those who begat me,
and so on forever in the direction of the past ; for nothing hinders us
from saying so, even if the universe is administered according to defi-
nite periods of revolution."

Although habitually thoughtful and theoretical, his main desire is
to be equal to the work of the day, whatever it may be. He expects
to meet with opj)osition, as a matter of course, and tries to be always
light-armed, cheerful, and ready for a run to the nearest summit, from
which a new view may be obtained.

His experience shows the immense advantage of good fortune,
when ci-ystallized in the form of a liberal, far-reaching education ; and
one feels that to produce a man so cool, complete, and many-sided,
none of his advantages were less than he required. The instinct that
suggests the possession of wealth as a desideratum to nine-tenths of
the race, finds here a sufticient defense. We want to have leisure,
opportunity, plenty of right to occupy other people's time, and plenty
of time to exercise our rights. In Antoninus we find a man, an em-
peror, who has been liberally brought up from the first ; who con-
fesses to having always had everything good under the sun ; who
complains of nothing in his personal experience ; and who is as far as
possible from repeating the words of his Oriental predecessor, " Van-
ity of vanities, all is vanity%" Nothing of the kind appears in his
notes. He is a shrewd, busy, responsible man of the world ; always
giving orders and attending to the details of his position. He is, of
course, never fi-ee from the influence of flatterers, hypocrites, and
time-servers. He is exposed to selfish, baneful influences, as every
emperor must be, but he is equal to the emergency ; his self-respect
encourages him constantly to draw the line between his own and other
people's experiences, and to keep his own unconfused. He is temper-
ate and simple in his personal habits from taste and from principle.

When the Russian Emperor Nicholas, who was a military chief in
the fullest sense, visited England, he took his iron camp-bedstead
into every palace that was placed at his service. The Duke of Wel-
lington had the same habit to his dying day, his bedroom being a
bare and almost unfurnished apartment. Antoninus had this soldier's
custom, but " he loved temperance for its elegance, not for its auster-
ity." It is possible, he says, for a man to live in a palace without

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wanting either guards or embroidered dresses, or torches and statues,
and such-like show. It is, in fact, in such a man's power to bring
himself very nearly to the fashion of a private person, without being
for this reason either meaner in thought or more remiss in action wilh
respect to the things which must be done for the public interest in a
manner that befits a ruler. He doubtless received a forcible influence
in this direction from his xincle, the emperor who preceded him, in
regard to Avhom he says : " The things which conduce in any way to
the commodity of life, and of which fortune gives an abundant sup-
ply, he used without annoyance, so that when he had them he enjoyed
them without afiectation, and, when he had them not, he did not want
them."

He appears to have been himself at an early age a hard student,
to have adopted a plain, coarse dress, and to have lived a laborious,
abstemious life. He was of a winning nature, and had a great afifec-
tion for his teachers, who were numerous, and all eminent in their
several professions. His uncle and adoptive father, Antoninus Pius,
a truly noble man, gave by his example the key-note to many points
in the character and taste of Marcus. He studied law carefully to fit
himself for the high place he was destined to fill, and of course
learned the Roman discipline of arms. He abandoned the studies of
poetry and rhetoric advisedly ; not from any lack of appreciation, but
partly because he was made aware that his gift did not lie in that
direction, and partly because he found these studies too fascinating
for a young man with the responsibilities before him that he expected
to assume.

Although he began his reign a century and a half after the birth of
Jesus, it is evident that he is unaware of any influence that has been
brought to bear on his own mind that may be traced to this source.
" A soul," he says, " should be ready at any moment to be separated
from the body, to be extinguished, or to continue to exist ; but this
readiness should come from a man's own judgment, not from mere
obstinacy, as with the Christians."

There is, according to Leslie, sufficient evidence that he did not
prevent, as he might have done by direct edict, a persecution of
Attains and other Gallic Christians in the year 177. In his time the
opposition between the old and the new belief was continually grow-
ing stronger, and the adherents of the heathen religion urged those in
authority to a more regular resistance to the invasions of the Christian
faith. It must of course be remembered that the Christians them-
selves maintained that all heathen religions were false, and openl)'
opposed the heathen rites ; thus making a declaration of hostility
against the Roman Government, which tolerated all the various forms
of superstitious worship that existed in the empire, and that could
not consistently leave unrebuked an intolerant religion, which declared
that all the rest were false. The rules against the Christians were

A PHILOSOPHICAL EMPEROR. 465

made in the time of his predecessor, Trajan ; and his own powers
were, doubtless, limited by constitutional forms.

Among his acknowledgments to his teachers and friends, he men-
tions that he learned from his governor to be neither of the green nor
the blue party at the games in the circus (showing that the feud was
in active force at the time) ; also endurance of labor, to want little,
to work with his own hands, not to meddle with other people's affairs,
and not to be ready to listen to slander, " From Rusticus," he says,
" I learned not to be led away to sophistic emulation, nor to be writ-
ing on speculative matters, nor to deliver little hortatory orations,
nor to be showing myself off as a man who practises much discipline."
From the same teacher he also learned not to walk about the house in
his out-door dress, and, as he says, " to write my letters with sim-
plicity, like the letter Rusticus himself wrote from Sinuessa to my
mother."

He appears to have been a Stoic, and thanks one of his tutors for
introducing him to Epictetus ; but he had none of the harshness, in-
difference, or self-assertion, that has become associated with the idea
of Stoicism — perhaps a little unjustly, although there is always some
ground for a good, -wholesome prejudice against such a representative
word.

For his wife, Faustina, he expresses great admiration. Neither
she, however, nor her mother, who had the same name, succeeded in
preserving a character unspotted from attack by the historians ; and
if his wife deserves the criticisms that are extant (of second-rate au-
thority, however, Leslie says), even the Theodora that Prof. Lewis
has given us so vivid an account of was hardly more vicious m
taste, or reckless in practice. Swinburne has chosen her name as the
key-note for a tour de force^ and makes it the lay-figure on which to
drape forty verses, in each of which the second line rhymes with
Faustine. She seems in the poem to be closely related to Poe's Leo-
nore, who was eliminated (the author tells us) out of his personal con-
sciousness in accordance with the logical rules of imaginative and
rhythmic art.

" You have the face that suits a woman for her soul's screen,
The sort of beauty that's called huinan in hell, Faustine.
You could do all things but be good or chaste of mien,
And that you would not if you could. We know Faustine."

His individual view of domestic life must, however, count for
much, even in opposition to Swinburne. He says: " I thank the gods
that, though it was my mother's fate to die young, she spent the last
years of her life with me ; that I have such a wife, so obedient, so af-
fectionate, and so simple ; and that I had abundance of good nurture
for my children."

It is, perhaps, fair enough for the teacher to say that faith is best

VOL. XI. — 30

466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shown by works ; but the interesting aspect of any faith is best
shown by the theory involved, the intellectual ideal, the point aimed
at, the sweep of the curve ; and we are at no loss for information of
this kind with i-egard to Antoninus, although there is but little record
of his personal practice. His faith, as a man of the world, was in a
good, social habit of life ; in active, industrious, kindly cooperation.
He believed in the present opportunity, in its duties especially. Enjoy
life (he says) by joining one good thing to another, so as not to leave
even the smallest interval between ; and make your acts refer to noth-
ing else than to a social end — not forgetting that the kinship is close
between every man and the whole human race, which is not a com-
munity of a little blood or seed, but of intelligence.

Although an emperor, he was, therefore, in a certain sense, a very
good republican ; and he argues that we ought to propose to our-
selves an object in life that shall be of a socially political kind, and
actually stigmatizes any thought that tends to destroy social union as
one of four j^rincipal aberrations of the superior faculty. He has an
appreciative sense of humor that would easily become grim, if the
whole soul of the man were not basked in sunshine, and full of good-
tempered acquiescence in the mysterious chances (as they seem to be)
of Providence. Heraclitus, he says (after so many speculations on the
conflagrations of the universe), was filled with water internally, and
died smeared over with mud.

He then gives several other equally untoward illustrations, and
proceeds quite cheerfully to draw his moral and urge a constant
readiness to close the voyage of life.

The defect in his range of ideas is in the direction that might be
anticipated — in the too great detachment and isolation of the purely
mental capacity. We do not find a comprehension of the close and
intimate connection between material and immaterial (amounting to
identity so far as personal experience is concerned), which has been
established by modern scientific research. An undue prominence is
given to the power of individual will in the direction of self-control
and the avoidance of evil; sufficient allowance is not made for human
nature — that is, the exaggerations of passion, appetite, or, in general
terms, of temperament. There is, however, no suggestion of pre-
judice, no shallow closing of the avenues through which fresh infor-
mation may come, and one feels that when with our modern oppor-
tunities for investisration it does come, the fresh statement is in
harmony with what has preceded it in the definitions of Antoninus,
which prove to be right as far as they go, but are incomplete.

Although a logician on principle, by natural gifts, and by con-
stant practice, there is nothing pitiless in his logic. It would almost
seem that he had been aware of the hardness that so easily accom-
panies the power to state with precision a sequence of cause and effect,
and he chooses rather to show how easy it is to prove logically that

A PHILOSOPHICAL EMPEROR. 467

a charitable view may be taken of the evil doings of others. He says,
for example : " When a man has presented the appearance of having
done wrong, say, how can I be certain that this is a wrongful act ?
And even if he has done wrong, how do I know that he has not con-
demned himself?"

His definition of the way in which injuries should be met shows
the true Christian spirit. He urges as invincible the continuance
of a benevolent disposition toward even the most violent, and rec-
ommends that you "quietly admonish him and calmly correct his
errors at the very time when he is trying to do you harm ; saying,
'Not so, my child, we are constituted by Nature for something else;'
and show him his error, with gentle tact, not with any double mean-
ing or in the way of reproaeh, but affectionately and without any ran-
cor in your soul, not as if you were lecturing him, nor yet that any
by-stander may admire, but either when he is alone, or with caution
as if he were alone."

His style is not particularly elegant, certainly not poetic or imagi-
native, but it has an intensely masculine quality, and its virile power
of grasp is sufficient to insure to the thoughts of Marcus Antoninus
a long future.

When an ethical principle is to be inculcated about which (we
will assume) there is no difference of opinion, the appeal will be
made to one kind of intelligence by thinkers of the calibre of (let us
say) George Herbert, and to another kind by studious inquirers of a
type which may be represented by Emerson and Antoninus, about
whom all that one can say in the way of definition is that his appeal
in each separate instance seems to be directly made without quali-
fication or limitation, to himself, to you, to me, to every being ca-
pable of imderstanding the meaning of ordinary words. It is never
special, but always general and in the direction of character which
belongs, like the air, to every human being, and not in the direction
of genius or acquirement, which is owned like the earth by human
beings very unequally. Take, for instance, the following quotations:
" You say, men cannot admire the sharpness of your wit. Be it so.
But there are many other things of which you can hardly say you are
not formed for them by Nature. Show those qualities then which are
altogether in your power, sincerity, gravity, endurance of labor, con-
tentment with your portion, benevolence, frankness, freedom from
trifling, magnanimity. Do you not see how many qualities you are
immediately able to exhibit in which there is no excuse for natural in-
capacity and unfitness ? "

The most potent charm of the Christian doctrine is in this direc-
tion. It is adapted to the rich and poor, but chiefly to the poor; to
the educated and uneducated, but very decidedly to the uneducated.
Probably the philosophy of Antoninus, emanating, as it does, from a
rich, unhampered experience, bears the marks of the habitual sur-

468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

roundings, and is more polished and metaphysical than it would have
been if its author had been born in a hut; but it is nevertheless al-
ways practical, and while clearly recognizing that there are inevitable
limitations of human power, it makes a grand claim for the possible
capacity of human intelligence ; it is not a system of in-door ethics
that fails of efficiency when taken into the open air and exposed to the
weather. Take, for example, what he says of religion : " To those
who ask, ' Where have you seen the gods ? how do you comprehend
that they exist? why do you worship them?' I reply, in the first
place, that they may be seen even with the eyes. In the second place,
1 have not seen my own soul, yet I honor it ; and in respect to the
gods, from what I constantly experience of their power, I compre-
hend that they exist, and I venerate them."

Of immortality he says : " It hardly seems possible that men who
through pious acts have been most intimate with the Divinity, when
they die should be completely extinguished. But if this is so, rest
assured that it ought not to have been otherwise ; for, you see, in this
inquiry you are disputing with the Deity, who would not have al-
lowed anything in the order of the universe to be neglected unjustly
and irrationally. . . .

"Wait for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than
a dissolution of the elements of which every human being is com-
pounded. But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each
continually changing into another, why should a man have any appre-
hension about the change and dissolution of all the elements ; for it is
according to Nature, and nothing is evil that is according to Nature."
It may, of course, be claimed that he is an altogether exceptional
man, and that his lofty views were unshared by his contemporaries.
This, however, is not a sufficient explanation.

In a note to one of Moore's songs we are told that it was founded
on this anecdote in Warren's " History of Ireland : " " The people were
inspired with such a spirit of honor, virtue, and religion, by the great
example of Brien, and by his excellent administration, that as a proof
of it we are informed that a young lady of great beauty, adorned with
jewels and a costly dress, undertook a journey alone from one end of
the kingdom to the othei", with a wand only in her hand, on the top
of which was a ring of great value ; and such an impression had the
laws and government of this monarch made on the minds of all the
people that no attempt was made upon lier honor, nor was she robbed
of her clothes and jewels." Whether this history is true or not, there
is no gainsaying the fact that it existed in the popular Irish thought,
or it would never have found expression. It requires a delicate and
chaste imagination to conceive of such a legend, and the character of
the people to-day seems to justify us in admitting its essential proba-
bility.

These writings of Antoninus may be accepted in a similar sense as

BAD ODORS IN EESERVOIRED WATER. 469

proof positive in regard to the good type of an imperial Roman. The
ideas could not have grown in an isolated way on uncongenial soil ;
there must have been other good, imperial Romans, and many of
them. He is a noble exemplar of his own age, and we learn through
him to respect his contemporaries. He is also interesting as a repre-
sentative man in a more extended sense. He combines the cool, un-
biased, intrepid spirit of modern scientific inquiry with the earnest
veneration of the moralist, and the speculative curiosity and audacity
of the metaphysician. To-day we find the scholars and poets a little
out of sympathy with the scientific men, and the men of science
declaring war against such doctors of orthodoxy as persist in stand-
ing aloof on (what they think) intrenched ground.

Antoninus seems to be habitually clear from prejudice or super-
stition. When he makes a statement it is evident tliat he is giving
us his views as fully and freely as possible, without let or hinderance,
and this absence of partisanship constitutes the special charm that
seems destined to give a freeh perennial interest to his monograph.
The subjects he touches on are of universal value to all human beings
when in a thoughtful mood, and it seems very doubtful whether his
pure and forcible statements will ever lose their power, because they
have been from the outset so thoroughly refined from all dross in the
literary method of their presentation that it is hardly possible to
conceive of any advance in culture that will leave them behind the
age in this respect.

■»»»

BAD ODORS m RESERYOIRED DRINKING-WATER.^

Feom Professor S. A. LATTIMOEE'S Eeport.

THE citizens of Rochester were much inclined to congratulate
themselves — and certainly on excellent grounds — when they
had brought water thirty miles from the crystal depths of Hemlock
Lake for the use of the city. But last year, to the astonishment and
disgust of the people, their water became so offensive as to give rise
to grave apprehensions respecting its effect on public health. In
October it suddenly began to emit a peculiar fish-like odor, which
continued until the following December. It was a very natural sug-
gestion that tliis odor must be due to the presence of fish, which had
somehow found their way from the lake into the main pipes, and
thence into the smaller service-pipes, where their progress had been
arrested, and tliey were undergoing slow decomposition. It is well
known to those familiar with the experience of other large cities, that

' Abstract of a Report to the Executive Board of the City of Rochester, N. Y., on
the Recent Peculiar Condition of the Hemlock Lake Water-Supply. By S. A. Lattimorej
Ph. D., LL. D., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Rochester.

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

similar annoyances are by no means uncommon elsewhere. Regard-
ino- this we learn that " not loner after the introduction of the Croton
water into New York, and of the Cochituate water into Boston, the
fish-like odor prevailed for some time to a most disagreeable extent.
While this odor is of most frequent occurrence, others of very differ-
ent character are occasionally reported. Last year the Bradlee Basin,
which supplies a part of the water for Boston, became affected with an
odor described as closely resembling cucumbers. None of the other
ponds in the neighborhood were similarly affected. About the same
time the water of Springfield, Mass., exhaled the odor of green corn.
In 1874 the water of Cherbourg, France, became intolerable from
an odor undistinguishable from tliat of a pig-sty. This same odor
occurred last summer in Horn Pond, from which East Boston and
Charlestown are in part supplied. The odor of decaying wood is
not uncommon, especially in early summer." And, in response to a
circular letter sent to the various cities of the United States and
Canada, the author learned that the fish-like odor was far more preva-
lent than he had previously supposed, it having occurred in all the
following cities : Concord, N. H. ; Keene, N. H. ; Burlington, Vt. ;
Boston, Mass. ; Lowell, Mass. ; Holyoke, Mass. ; Brookline, Mass. ;
Springfield, Mass. ; New Haven, Conn. ; West Meriden, Conn. ; New
Britain, Conn. ; Hartford, Conn. ; Auburn, N. Y. ; Newburg, N. Y. ;
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; Trenton, N. J. ; York, Pa. ; Baltimore, Md. ;
Norfolk, Va. ; Nashville, Tenn. ; and St. Paul, Minn.

In these letters reference is made to the cucumber-odor, as having
been observed at Boston, Springfield, Holyoke, Mass., and at Pough-
keepsie, N. Y. In the majority of cases the odor was coimected with
the increase of temperature in the beginning of summer, and con-
tinued only for a week or two. In other cases it began in the autumn,
and continued into the winter or early spring. The supply of the
cities named is derived from ponds, lakes, and rivers ; but it is inter-
esting to note that there is no report of any fish-like odor in the water
of any city supplied from the Great Lakes. These odors are ex-
tremely volatile; boiling readily expels them, and they gradually es-
cape when the water is exposed to the air.

Hemlock Lake, in Livingston County, New York, situated thirty
miles south of the city of Rochester, is about seven miles in length,
and has an elevation of about 400 feet above the level of the city.
The water is taken from the northern end of the lake, and conveyed
in a large conduit-pipe a distance of nearly twenty miles to the main
stoi-age-reservoir in the town of West Rush ; from here it is carried to
the reservoir at Mount Hope, whence it is distributed to all parts
of the city. " The difference of elevation between the storage and
tlie distributing reservoirs is 115 feet, and renders it possible, ex-
cept in winter, to throw up the whole volume of water, as it enters
the Mount Hope Reservoir, to a height of about eighty feet, thus

BAD ODORS IN BESERVOIRED WATER. 471

producing a magnificent fountain, which is visible from all elevated
points throughout the city. By this means the whole body of water
is thoroughly aerated before it enters the distributing mains."

The investigation, which consisted of chemical analysis and micro-
scopical examination, began December 14th. Samples of water were
taken from Hemlock Lake, from the chief storage-reservoir, and from
the city mains. The analysis, which was conducted with great care,
indicated remarkable purity of the water. It should, however, be
noted that earlier experiments might have shown a diiferent result.
The microscopical investigation was also conducted with scrupulous
care, and with such precautions as to preclude the possibility of the
escape of any important organism. The total quantity of foreign
matter obtained was in each case surprisingly small — " a thousand
gallons of water yielding not more than one or two grains of residue,
a large proportion of which consisted of minute particles of clay and
sand," The facts obtained regarding the fish-like odor were of curious
interest. The samples of water taken from the lake and from the
reservoirs were found to be entirely free from unpleasant odor, while
the fish-like peculiarity was plainly perceptible in the water drawn
from the main just before it entered the Mount Hope Reservoir. The
odor increased in intensity the farther the water flowed through
these mains ; so that, in the northern portions of the city, it was
very offensive. It is noteworthy that all the water which reached the
city had passed through not less than four wire screens with meslies
a quarter of an inch in diameter, and in no case had a service-pipe
been known to be obstructed by any portion of the body of a fish.
" In filtering many thousands of gallons of water, at different times,
and under such conditions as to arrest multitudes of the minutest
organisms, not the smallest fragment of a bone, or fin, or scale, of a
fish — parts which would longest resist decomposition, and float away
in the water — has ever been detected."

In answer to the question, " What cause, then, can be assigned for
this most peculiar odor?" Prof. Lattimore asserts that it must be
due to the decomposition of some form of fresh-water algse. He
draws his conclusions partly from the investigations of others, and
partly from his own observation and experiment. After the dis-
appearance of the odor from the water, he observed that microscopic
algae, which had collected on the filters through which water had
been flowing for twenty-four hours, exhaled an odor strikingly like
that given off by a blade of early spring grass, when crushed by the
fingers. A minute quantity of these algoe put into distilled water, and
kept covered for a few hours, revealed an odor which was distinctly
recognized as that which had recently affected the water from the lake.

This experiment, with others pointing in the same direction, leads
to the conclusion that the fish-like odor must be due to some obscure
condition of the algse — most likely to their decay and decomposition.

472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Concerning the possibility of communicating so powerful an odor to
a vast quantity of water by means of an almost infinitesimal amount
of algge, the author says : " That this odorous material was extremely
volatile, was obvious. It soon vanished from water left at repose in
the open air. Heat expelled it still more i^apidly. It was for this
reason that no trace of it could be perceived in the open reservoirs
where it could escape as rapidly as it was generated, while in the
closed conduit from the West Rush Reservoir to the Mount Hope
Reservoir, and in the street mains of the city, it was prevented from
escaping except Avhen a faucet was opened. Again, in its extreme
volatility we have the clearest explanation of the fact that so minute
a quantity of odorous material could infect so large a quantity of
water. A single flower will instantly communicate its perfume to
every particle of the air in a large room. A grain of musk, or a shred
of scorched animal tissue, will taint a vast volume of air with no loss
of substance appreciable to the most delicate balance."

Regarding the public health, there is no evidence furnished that
warrants even a suspicion of any deleterious effect, and this is strictly
in accordance with what would be expected if the above explanation
is correct.

To the question, " Can any measures be taken to prevent a recur-
rence of this trouble ?" the following answer is made : " It is useless to
attempt a reply until we come to understand the causes and conditions
precedent to such results. This knowledge can evidently be acquired
only by long and patient observation, if obtained at all; and, if ob-
tained at last, it might be only like our knowledge of the laws of
meteorology, which indeed enables us to predict the coming changes
of the weather with great certainty, but which confers on us no
power whatever to control it. On the other hand, it is at least con-
ceivable that, if we understood the life-history of these oflensive alga?,
and the conditions favorable or unfavorable to their growth and
multiplication, we might possibly be able to prevent or favor their
growth, or to hasten or retard their destruction in such manner as to
prevent the recurrence of the trouble."

-***-

A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE.

Bt THOMAS M. BREWEE.

N 1875-'76 the writer, having a general interest in the science of
ornithology, and making a special study of that somewhat neg-
lected branch which relates to the peculiarities of birds' nests and
eggs, devoted, at intervals, more than a year to visiting some of the
principal museums of the Continent of Europe, and afterward of

I

A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE. 473

England. Naturally, in these somewliat hasty observations, his favor-
ite departments received the larger proportion of his attention.

It was his fortune to first i^lace his foot on the Old-World soil in
the quiet and lovely, the very quaint and very old-fashioned, little
city of Bremen, and there to make the acquaintance of two ornithol-
ogists whose reputation is world-wide, and who, among the followers
of this science, stand in tlie front ranks — Dr. Georg Hartlaub and
Dr. Otto Finsch.

Dr. Hartlaub is a physician, in full practice, standing at the head
of his profession, but finding ample time, without neglecting his pro-
fessional duties, to devote to the study of his favorite science, and to
favor the world with valuable contributions, the results of his careful
and exhaustive researches. A little past the prime of life, he is still
in full and vigorous health. He has made the birds of Africa his
principal study. As incidentally attesting Dr. Hartlaub's popularity
and high standing among his brother ornithologists, it may be here
mentioned that in Gray's " Hand-List of Birds " are no less than twen-
ty-six different species, and one genus, upon which has been bestowed
the name of Hartlaub — a compliment that has been paid to no other
naturalist, living or dead, not even to the great Linnaeus or to the
illustrious Cuvier.

Dr. Finsch, though a much younger man, is fully the peer of his
distinguislied townsman in his reputation in ornithological science.
He is the Director-in-Chief of the Natural History Museum of Bremen,
which, though by no means among tlie largest, enjoys the reputation
of being one of the most excellent in its arrangement, in Europe. In
regard to this, unfortunately, I had not complete opportunity to
judge. A new building was in the course of erection on the site of
the old museum, and most of the collections, being packed aAvay, were
inaccessible. A portion of the birds were open to inspection, and
well attested the taxidermic excellence of their preparation, which
is said to characterize not only this department, but the whole mu-
seum. Dr. Finsch is author of an excellent and, to the student,
invaluable monograph on the pan-ots ; and, although he has large-
ly contributed, with Dr. Hartlaub, to investigate the ornithology
of Africa, probably there is no one living more generally familiar
than he with the ornithological forms of the world. Since I met him
he has been absent from home, in charge of an important exploring
expedition to the arctic islands, north of Eastern Asia, from which he
has recently returned.

Passing from Bremen to Dtlsseldorf, on the Rhine, our way took
us through the old capital of Westphalia, that quaintest of quaint
places, Mtinster ; one, too, made so painfully memorable in history by
the Vandal acts of the fanatical Anabaptists, and the even more ter-
rible retribution that was visited upon their leaders. There we made
a pause, in order to examine a very remarkable private collection of

474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nests and eggs. It was in the dwelling of one of the prosperous fur-
merchants of that city, a gentleman of culture, who, without making
any pretensions to scientific attainments, had got together one of the
largest and richest local collections in oology on the Continent of
Europe. It contained between seven and eight thousand specimens,
well prepared, carefully arranged, and wonderfully rich in suites and
varying sets, of the eggs of European (chiefly Prussian) birds. While
I afterward saw other private collections that may contain the eggs
of more species, I saw none that so fully presented, in series of sets,
the eggs of the birds of any one locality. It was an interesting
peculiarity that this collection had been commenced by its owner's
grandfather, and three generations had made its increase the amuse-
ment and study of their leisure moments. Pains had been taken to
note the date of each separate acquisition, and such a collection is
thus rendered peculiarly interesting to the student of the local orni-
thology, on account of the light it cannot fail to throw upon the rela-
tive abundance and distribution of the birds of the region. Unfortu-
nately for the student of science, such collections as this are rare and
exceptional.

In Berne, the capital of Switzerland, is the National Museum of
that republic. This contains an immense mass of materials, illustra-
tive of various departments, some of them in good preservation, but
others quite the reverse. A commendable effort had been begun to
exhibit all the species of the animal kingdom found in Switzerland,
but the space allotted is insufficient ; the show-cases are ill arranged,
and betray an evident want of funds sufficient to keep up to the high-
est standard what might have been made one of the finest collections
of its kind in the world. One contributor had given to the museum
what must have been in its day a very fine collection of the nests and
eggs of the birds of Switzerland, including sev^eral eggs of that now
nearly extinct bird, the lammergeyer of the Alps. Long exposure to
the light and dust had rendered the whole valueless.

The geological and mineralogical collections have fared better,
and are really veiy fine. The pure crystals of black quartz are of
immense size, and those of clouded topaz are truly magnificent. One
cannot doubt the correctness of their claim to be the finest in the
world. Crowded into the small apartments of an irregular building,
though well worth a noble hall, devoted exclusively to their exhibi-
tion and preservation, are some of the most interesting historical col-
lections anywhere to be met with. Besides the relics of the ancient
Lake-dwellers, which seem almost to unite the two departments of
ethnology and geology, may be seen the remarkable tropljies captured
by the Swiss in their memorable war with the Burgundians, under
Duke Charles the Bold, four centuries ago last summer (in 1476), in-
cluding a rich altar-piece, and the tapestries and other costly trap-
pings of his regal tent, which are among the most interesting relics to

A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE. 475

be found. The wealth of these collections is in painful contrast with
the poverty of their surroundings.

Though a little out of the order of our visit, we will now turn to
Geneva, where, in the Natural History Museum, we find everything
in agreeable contrast with the shortcomings of the National Museum
at Berne. The spacious and elegant building is comparatively new,
is well arranged for light and the exhibition of specimens, and is
pleasantly situated in the midst of a large, open park. Here may be
studied the famous conchological collections that once belonged to
the Duke of Massena, and which, to the student of this department of
science, alFord added interest as having been the types for Lamarck's
great work. Here, too, is an immensely rich and very interesting
collection of fossils, systematically arranged by the distinguished
Pictet, and, among them, all the geological types of De Saussure.
There is also an immense collection of coleopterous insects. The
ornithological collection of this museum is not large, but exception-
ally good. The specimens are all excellent, are well mounted, and
present several commendable features, rare in Continental collec-
tions. The exact locality where each specimen was obtained is care-
fully recorded, and the local group of the birds of Switzerland forms
an interesting and instructive feature. Another not common feature
is an excellent, systematically-arranged collection of the eggs of birds.
Though, comparatively speaking, not a large one, it is quite respect-
able even in point of numbers ; and, in the care given to its preser-
vation and in its arrangement, it is a model, and almost unique.
This department is under the charge of M. Alois Humbert, an excel-
lent ornithologist, whose explorations in Asia have contributed many
specimens of great rarity, one of tlie most interesting being a veri-
table nest of one of the tailor-birds, so long the subject of unverified
description.

In Stuttgart, the capital of Wiirtemberg, is a very large and valu-
able Museum of Natural History, that fills twenty spacious rooms in the
Building of the Archives. To geologists, and to students of zoology
and comparative anatomy, its collections in these departments are
replete with interest. The collection of birds is very rich in rare
African types, but, in the absence of Prof. Krauss, the director, these
could not be inspected to advantage. The museum has no collection
of eggs, but there is in the little kingdom of Wiirtemberg probably
the largest oiJlogical collection in the world; the richest in its number
of species, and excelling in the rarity and beauty of specimens, and
in the extent and fullness of series, exhibiting variations in eggs of the
same species. It belongs to Baron von Warthausen, and is preserved
in his castle near Biberach. Unfortunately, I cannot speak of it from
my own observation, as I had gone far beyond it before my invitation
to visit and examine it overtook me in Dresden. It is, however, well
known to be of great and constantly-increasing value, containing one-

476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sixth of all the known species. It is esjjecially rich in African and
South American kinds, collected, at great expense, by expeditions
sent out by the baron at his sole charge.

In Dresden, world-renowned for its galleries of art, and for
museums illustrative of kindred departments, one would naturally
look for a correspondingly ricli Natural History Museum, Still, small
and disappointing as the Di-esden Museum of Natural History is, it
contains the typical collections in oology of the late Dr. Thienemann,
and therefore cannot be passed by in total silence. This museum
has been recently placed under the charge of Dr. Adolf B. Meyer, a
distinguished ornithological explorer in New Zealand, and his acces-
sion has already been followed by reconstructions full of promise.
The Thienemann oological collection is an immense one, has been
gathered from all parts of the world, and contains all the types of liis
illustrated work on oology. Unfortunately, in the latter part of his
life he suffered his vast collection to lapse into great disorder. He
ceased to continue a systematic arrangement; successive additions
were but partially unpacked, and the identifications of many forever
lost, or rendered doubtful. After Dr. Thienemann's death his family
presented his collection, in this chaotic condition, to the Royal Mu-
seum, and time has but added to the confusion. Labels have been
misplaced, and the best of experts cannot always restore them with
certainty. Nevertheless there are still materials for creating by far
the largest and richest public oological collection in Europe. It
abounds in very rare and choice kinds; among others, no less than
seven eggs of the ivory gull — an ^^^ so rare that only two others are
known to be in any museums, one in Dublin and one in Copenhagen.

The extensive museum of Berlin, owing to the inclemency of the
weather and the rooms not being heated, could only be partially and
hastily examined. The general plan of arrangement was simple and
good, and the specimens appeared to be in excellent condition. It
possesses a small but valuable and well-arranged collection of eggs,
in which the great point of interest is a series of nests and eggs from
Siberia, collected by a man of science exiled to that desolate region ;
many of these are very rare and unknown to other collections. The
mineralogical collection is one of the most extensive on the Continent,
and is especially rich in meteorolites. Its great interest centres in the
collections brought by Humboldt from Central and South America.
Dr. William Peters, a distinguished naturalist, is at the head of this
museum, and the ornithology is under the charge of the venerable
John Cabanis, who ranks high in his department, and is well known
as the editor of the Journal of Ornithology.

The Imperial Cabinet of Natural History of Vienna deserves
fuller mention than our space permits. Its vast collections would
require almost a lifetime to examine exhaustively, and no single vol-
ume could do justice to all their various points of interest. Indeed, a

A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE. 477

good-sized and condensed volume has been devoted to its collec-
tions of birds only and from Brazil alone ; and when it is remembered
that this collection possesses specimens of 1,200 species exclusively
from that region, besides all the collections of the Novara Expedition,
and that these are but a portion of the immense whole, some idea may
be formed of its magnitude. The museum is also rich in its collections
of nests and eggs. Many of these ai'e uniques, and were procured by
the Novara and other exploring expeditions. These will remain for
the present unarranged, awaiting tljeir transfer to new quarters in an
immense building which the Government is now constructing, and
which in size and position promises to be one capable of doing ample
jusice to this noble collection. In charge of the ornithology is Dr.
A. von Pelzeln, a naturalist of high repute, and a most courteous and
obliging gentleman. At the time of our visit, the fishes and reptiles
were in charge of Curator Dr. Franz Steindachner, a pupil of Prof.
Agassiz, and for a while his assistant in the Museum of Comparative
Zoology at Cambridge. He has more recently been promoted to the
post of director-in-chief, a position for which he is most admirably
qualified.

The natural history museums of Southern Italy, from Naples to
Florence, are almost exclusively devoted to human and comparative
anatomy. In the lovely City of Flowers we find, in her Royal Muse-
um of Physical and Natural Science, an institution under the royal
patronage, and unique in its character. It is a univei'sity for teaching
natural history and the physical sciences. Here in the home of Gali-
leo, and where his memory is deservedly held in high honor, astron-
omy receives its full share of attention. Dr. Parlatore, an excellent
botanist and an eloquent lecturer, instructs in botany ; and the direc-
tor of the museum is Dr. Henry H. Giglioli, well known to scientific
men as the naturalist of the Magenta Exploring Expedition. This in-
stitution is fortunate in having at its head so accomplished a gentle-
man and so enthusiastic a naturalist, and under his judicious efforts
to advance its interests it bids fair to become in all its departments
well worthy of the Tuscan capital. Its anatomical collections are al-
ready deserving of the highest commendation.

In the little city of Pisa, so attractive to strangers for its archi-
tectural peculiarities, is a museum well worthy of attention. To the
student of ornithology it is interesting as the home of Suvi, the pio-
neer ornithologist of Italy. Here is a local collection of birds made
by him of exemplary merit. The specimens are arranged in family
groups, in small, air-tight glass cases, in each of which is presented a
single species in all its varied forms, as modified by age, sex, or sea-
son. This includes the nest and eggs, the young chick, the summer
and the winter plumage, and all the variations of the sexes — at once a
novel, instructive, and interesting feature.

In Genoa the Civic Museum, under the patronage and general di-

478 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rection of the Marchese Giacomo Doria, is a model institution, in view
of the general excellence of the plan on which it is conducted. Placed
on a high position, commanding a magnificent view over a most love-
ly landscape, surrounded by beautiful grounds, it is a jewel well wor-
thy of such exquisite setting. The building is large and convenient, the
collection one of recent date and well arranged. Its most noteworthy
feature is that nearly or quite all the specimens have been obtained by
Italian explorers, and all have been precisely determined as to their
original locality. The museum possesses very many special rarities,
in some instances the only known perfect specimens in existence, as a
new and undescribed specimen of a cassowary from the Arroo Islands.
Its publications are eminently first class, creditable alike to the liber-
ality of the patrons and the scientific merits of the members of this
institution. The director of this museum is a young nobleman of sci-
entific tastes and acquirements, using an ample fortune with liberality
and good judgment. He is a direct lineal descendant of the historic
Doge of Genoa, a first-cousin to the late Prince Pamphili Doria, of
Rome, and a near kinsman of another great benefactor of Genoa, the
Duke of Galliera, who signalized the last year of a useful life by the
gift of 30,000,000 francs to improve the harbor of Genoa.

Milan is rich in museums and collections of various kinds, both pub-
lic and private. Its Museo Civico, largely devoted to collections of
natural history, and under the direction of Dr. Cornalia, is especially
rich in its collection of reptiles, claimed to be the finest in Europe^ — in
that of paleontology, and in its collection of skulls. Its director is a
gentleman of high scientific attainment, and has largely contributed
to the growth and development of the institution over which he has
presided so many years. But to an ornithologist the great attraction
of Milan is the unequaled private collection of Count Hercules Turati.
His cabinet of mounted birds is the finest, as it is also one of the
largest, in the world, and, though there may be several public collec-
tions both in America and in Europe that outnumber his in species,
there is probably not one that approaches it in the uniform excellence,
beauty, and perfection of plumage. There are superb specimens of
every known species of the birds-of-paradise, very rare and very cost-
ly, and all in exquisite plumage. No expense is spared in procuring
additions to this collection. Liberality, courtesy, and devotion to sci-
ence, confirm this gentleman of rank as one of Nature's true noble-
men, and unite with him to render his collection a great attraction to
the ornithologists of all Europe.

The Museum of Natural History of Turin was commenced under
the patronage of the royal house of Savoy, and is still aided by the
Italian Government. But just at present Italy is called upon to ex-
pend so much upon her armies and her navies, her railroads and her
public schools, that she has but little money to devote even to the favor-
ite museum of her kino;. Nevertheless, tliis museum contains much

O 7

A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE. 479

that is worthy of consideration. The construction of the national rail-
roads of Piedmont enriched its paleontological department with many
unique and wonderful relics of the dark ages of geology ; and, above
all, in its director, Count Tommaso Salvadori, the Museum of Turin pos-
sesses one who is conceded to be, par excellence, the ornithologist of
Italy, and who enjoys a world-wide reputation as among the first in
this department of science. The collection of birds is, of course, well
arranged and especially interesting in types. At the time of our visit,
Salvadori's private room was literally strewed with many hundred spe-
cimens of birds-of-paradise, representing all but two or three species
of this family, with series by the hundred of several species. These
had been recently collected by two Italian travelers, one set belong-
ing to the Italian Government, the other to the Civic Museum of Gen-
oa, and referred to Salvadori for examination, and to aid him in his
monograph of this family.

The Garden of Plants, in Paris, is an institution too generally fa-
miliar to require more than a passing mention. The new houses for the
protection of the living animals are models in their contrivance, more
es^jecially the one for the reptiles and batrachians. The Ornithologi-
cal Museum, though not of itself very extensive, is particularly inter-
esting to scientific students as the depository of collections made by
the several national exploring expeditious of France. Among these
are many unique and typical specimens, not known to exist else-
where in museums. The collection of eggs is also wonderfully in-
teresting, is very large and well preserved, and contains not only
many very rare kinds, but is especially noteworthy as possessing a
large number of species not to be found in any other public collection,
some of them laid by birds in confinement.

Leyden, in Holland, could not be passed by without at least a
brief visit to the venerable Dr. Schlegel, and the far-famed museum
under his charge. The time was, and that not immemorial, when this
museum contained the largest collection of birds in the world. Even
now it is surpassed by very few, and is still superior to all others in
its representations of East Indian species. Its strongest point is its
collection of monkeys, to which class of animals Dr. Schlegel has
given great attention, and of this our ancestral family — according
to Darwin — it possesses the surprising number of 1,500 different spe-
cies. Dr. Schlegel, though of mature years, is still in vigorous health,
a most charming old man, bright, cheerful, and affable, possessing an
inexhaustible fund of conversation and knowledge, enriched by the
careful observation of a long and well-spent life. His museum pos-
sesses a very rich collection of the eggs of the birds of Java and other
East Indian possessions of the Dutch.

Of the British Museum, as a whole, it would be impossible to speak
from competent knowledge, except with much more time than we
could give to so endless a task. The writer will say that all he did or

480 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

could see was very disappointing. Its collection of mounted birds,
though containing much that was typical, rare, and interesting, was
in the individual defects of a large proportion of its specimens in
painful contrast to the private one of the Milanese banker. The col-
lections of eggs were not arranged, and had not been procured with
any special care. They seemed to have been all accumulated by
chance donations, and required an immediate and very careful revi-
sion. It is, however, but justice to say that, since the zoological ]Dor-
tion of the museum has been under the charge of Mr. Sharpe, a sys-
tematic rearrangement has been begun, and, so far as it has proceeded,
is a great improvement. When the natural history portion of tlie
museum is removed to Kensington, and rearranged in the new build-
ing in the course of construction, it is to be hoped that the managers
of this institution Vill avail themselves of their great opportunities,
now so strangely neglected, and render this branch of the British
Museum better worthy of being the one national museum of a great
empire. The contrast between the Museum of London and that of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, or that of Liverpool, cannot but be painful to
tlie national pride of a true English naturalist.

For popular attractions, for general excellence of arrangement, and
expedients for the instruction and education of the people in natural
history, the Derby Museum, or, as it is now called, the Free Public Mu-
seum of Liverpool, far surpasses anything of its kind. It was founded
by an ancestor of the present Lord Derby, and is under the admira-
ble direction of Mr. Thomas J. Moore; but it would extend this paper
too far to point out the excellence of its various devices for popular
instruction. Here you can see the external form of bird or animal,
and next to it its own skeleton, so that the bony frame and the out-
ward appearance may be studied at the same moment. In one com-
partment are a full-grown lion and lioness, and with them young lions
of various ages, from the tender nursling to the nearly full-grown
whelp. In another compai'tment is well represented water in which
appear disporting various forms of swimming-birds, old and young,
demonstrating to the observer their position, when swimming, both
above and below the surface. The collections are large and varied,
and so arranged as to atti'act and educate the visitors.

In conclusion, only brief mention can be made of a few of the private
collections of natural history in which England abounds. In his private
apartments in Hanover Square, London, Prof. Osbert Salvin, of Cam-
bridge University, stores his rich collections of birds, and eggs, and
insects, gathered by himself in Central America. They are especially
abounding in specimens from Guatemala, are admirably arranged, and
well worthy of careful study. Howard Saunders, Esq., who makes the
families of gulls and terns his especial study, possesses collections that
are indescribably interesting. They consist of the birds (with their
eggs) of Europe, together with exotic representatives of the two fam-

THE SEWING-MACHINE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY. 481

lies in which he is chiefly interested. He has been an active explorer
in Spain, and the collections made there by himself are the chief at-
tractions of his cabinet. Henry E. Dresser, Esq., a London merchant,
and author of a magnificent work on the birds of Europe, now in
course of publication, possesses, at his residence on South Norwood
Hill, the most complete collection of the eggs of the birds of Europe
probably in existence. It is admirably arranged, containing many fine
suites of the least common kinds, and very many species not in any
other collection.

The collections in oology, made by the late Mr. Jol)n WoUey, the
indefatigable explorer of the ornithology of the arctic regions of Eu-
rope, were bequeathed to Prof. Alfred Newton, of Cambridge, who
has illustrated them in a publication of great elegance. This collec-
tion is of great scientific as well as pecuniary value. Its series of
specimens of some of the rarest arctic eggs are immense. The mar-
ket money-value of one of these series — that of the waxwing — at its
lowest computation, is not less than £100.

Within the close of the venerable Cathedral of Durham, the
writer was privileged to examine, in the cabinet of Rev. Canon Tris-
tram, the largest collection of eggs it was his good fortune to see in Eu-
rope. This gentleman is an excellent ornithologist, has been a great
traveler and explorer in America, North Africa, Palestine, Syria,
and elsewhere, and his collections, which number over IjVOO species,
have been largely taken by his own hand.

And here our space compels us to close our narrative, leaving much
that was to us exceedingly attractive unsaid and undescribed. Though
disappointing in certain instances, our study of European collections,
as a whole, incomplete as it too often was, and all too hurried as to
the time allotted, was ever full of instruction, interest, and enjoyment.

■♦»»

THE SEWING-MACHINE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY.

IT is very probable that as we obtain a fuller and more accurate
command of facts relating to the production of wealth under per-
fectly free conditions in countries like our own, where intelligence is
widely diffused, it will be found that the methods of most efficient
production are those which necessarily contain within themselves the
methods of most effectual distribution. It has been customary to as-
sume, or infer, that the laws regulating the production of wealth were
one thin Of, and the laws reojulating its distribution were another; so
much so, indeed, that while legislation could not interfere with pro-
duction without doing harm, it might and ought, on grounds of justice
and duty, to regulate distribution. There is strong reason to believe

VOL. XI. — 31

482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that interference is just as undesirable and pernicious in the latter case
as in the former. Given the most efficient production, that is to say,
articles produced in the cheapest, swiftest, and most skillful manner
by the free competition of invention, capital, intelligence, and indus-
try, and it is true, as a necessary condition of production so sustained,
that the wealth created by and arising from it is distributed step by
step, as the process goes on, in the most equitable manner among all
the parties engaged in the enterprise.

This is a proposition to be tested by facts, carefully put together,
not by ingenious argumentation on hypothetical cases ; and it fortu-
nately happens that a paper of great ability on "The Sewing-Machine
and its Results," contributed by Mr. John Plummer (well known as a
high authority on industrial topics) to the " Companion to the Alma-
nac" for the present year (1877), furnishes the precise sort of evidence
required.

The sewing-machine first appeared as a practical invention about
thirty years ago. Thimonnier, the real originator of the idea, was a
Frenchman, and, like too many great inventors, he did not live to en-
joy any part of the fruits of his genius. Elias Howe, who followed
Thimonnier, was an American working artisan, and found his first real
support in England about 1847. At the present time, that is, about
thirty years after the establishment of the invention, there are upward
of 4,000,000 sewing-machines in use in various parts of the world ;
and the annual number of new machines produced in this country is
estimated at 80,000, employing about 100,000 persons. In France,
Germany, and Belgium, the production of machines is very large, and
in the United States the annual out-turn of machines is perhaps great-
er than in the whole of Europe. In 1862 it was estimated that in the
United States each machine saved to its owner 505. a week, or say
£130 per annum, in wages alone; or an aggregate saving in wages, for
the whole country, of about £30,000,000. In 1875, that aggregate
saving had risen to £100,000,000.

The facts, therefore, to be considered are imposing by their mag-
nitude, and of high value, by reason of the diversity of the countries
and populations by which they are supplied.

Mr. Plummer says : " In England the sewing-machine was first
employed in the manufacture of common stays and corsets, of which
several million pairs are annually produced. In earlier days the ma-
terials were sewed together by needlewomen of the poorest class, prin-
cipally the wives of seamen and dock-laborers, whose earnings seldom
averaged more than 3s. or 4s. a week. . . . From the stay-trade the
sewing-machine found its way into the trades connected with the pro-
duction of shirts, mantles, dresses, trousers, coats, and other articles
of male and female clothing. In some of these trades the needlewom-
en could not, even by working very long hoi;rs, obtain more than 3s.
or 4s. a week, and the public were continually shocked by painful rev-

THE SEWING-MACHINE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY. 483

elations of destitution and misery among seamstresses. Hood's ' Song
of the Sliirt ' expressed the public feeling. Needlewomen's Aid Asso-
ciations were started, but wliolly failed to lessen the evil. , . . The
appearance of the seioing-machine changed all this. Shirts were made
more rapidly and more cheaply than before, but the workwomen were
better paid and did not work so many hours. The hours of labor fell,
indeed, from eighteen hours a day to eleven or twelve."

The demand for hand-labor increased, because, while the machine
did the heavy mechanical part of the work, the cutting out and prepa-
ration of the materials rendered necessary more " hands," and a su-
perior aptitude and intelligence. The workers also became to a large
extent the owners of the machines worked by them at home; and as
the slavery and degradation of the needle became almost abolished,
crowds of young women were attached to machine-working by the
short hours and the high wages. It is this diversion of female labor
which lies at the root of the scarcity of domestic servants, and the ex-
traordinary rise in the wages given to such servants.

Improvements in the machine enabled it to be applied to boots,
shoes, harness, and most articles made of leather. In November,
1857, a machine of this kind was introduced at Northampton, and im-
mediately led to organized opposition by the Crispins of that centre
of the shoe-trade. This opposition was more or less successful until
February, 1859, when the manufacturers of Northampton and Stafford
formed themselves into a league, and announced that they were pre-
pared to compel the use of the machines in spite of the opposition of
the men. A strike ensued. The men were defeated; and the ma-
chines very rapidly revolutionized the whole industry of boot and
shoe making. Mr. Plummer says : " With the termination of the strike
the operatives became eager to possess machines of their own, and in
a short time there were few of the better class of workmen who were
not proprietors of one machine or more. These were worked by the
female members of their own families, or by women engaged for the
purpose." The machines put an end to the more dangerous and un-
healthy process of the work. Employers fitted up commodious fac-
tories supplied with machines, and hence has arisen the present factory
system in the boot and shoe trade, a system as beneficial to the male
and female workers as to the capitalists. It is estimated that now at
least one-half of the Northampton employers have risen by means of
machine-industry from the position of workmen.

Cheapness, rapidity of production, and excellence, led to a vastly
increased demand for boots and shoes. Wages were raised ; the work
was easier; and the buildings in which it was carried on were vastly
improved. In Leicester, in 1820, there were 150 operative shoe-
makers; in 1851 there were 1,3*75; in 1861, the machine having ap-
peared, there were 2,315 ; and in 1871 there were 5,703, or nearly four
times as many as at the ante-machine date of 1851,

484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In 1852, says Mr. Plummer, " tbe average amount of wages ob-
tainable by an experienced female operator was 8s. to lOs. per week ;
now the earnings of the female machine-workers are 14s. to 16s. per
week — slower hands get 10s., and the best workers 20s. to 24s. The
female ' preparers ' of work get 10s. . . . The machine has Avithin a
few years been applied to the straw hat and bonnet industry of Bed-
fordshire, and with the best results. Many of the plaiters who now
suffer from Chinese competition, will, as machinists, obtain good
wages. ... In the mantle-trade in London, the wages of machinists
are high, say, 14s. to 20s. for middling hands, and 23s., 29s., and even
335., for superier workwomen."

As the general result, Mr. Plummer says that, " taking all the vari-
ous industries in which the machine is used, the w^ages of the ma-
chinists may be estimated as being from 50 to 100 per cent. Jiigher
than the w^ages received by hand-workers before tlje machines ap-
peared in the several industries." And he goes on to add : " The
changes introduced by the machine have been attended with consider-
able advantages as regards the physical and social condition of the
workers. There is a great improvement in their health and in the
comfort of their homes. As regards the shoemaking population, both
male and female, the change amounts to an absolute revolution, and
decidedly for the better."

The sewing-machine has most effectually stimulated invention in
other directions. In all leather manufactures, for example, the old,
painful, unhealthy processes are now nearly all done by machinery
driven by steam. In the stay and clothing trades the severe labor of
using heavy shears by hand is superseded by steam-driven cutters,
by the aid of which one man does the work of twenty. The cheap-
ness arising from these appliances has so enlarged the demand that
the quantity of labor employed in the trades is far greater than
before.

This is the statement of the facts, and there is no reason to dispute
it in any essential particular. The outline amounts to this : About
twenty-five years ago the articles produced in all the industries con-
nected with the fabrication of sewed, or " made-up," woven, and leather
materials, were dear, and, except in the best instances, of inferior
quality ; and the laborers, male and female, but especially the latter,
were among the worst paid, the hardest worked, and the most un-
healthy, in the country. A mechanical invention, called the sewing-
machine, of moderate cost and simplicity, was then introduced, the
objects of which were, by the application of ordinary labor in private
houses or factories, to get rid of nearly all the irksome, slow, and un-
healthy processes of hand-stitching, and so by reason of swiftness, ex-
actness, and superiority of manufacture, greatly to reduce the selling-
price of the articles offered to the public. The effect of this invention
was in a few years to establish two radical improvements throughout

THE SEWING-MACHINE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY. 48^

the industries in which it was most successful, namely : 1. The less-
ened price of the commodities to the consumer, their superior quality,
and the circumstance that they were articles required by all, but es-
pecially by the middle and humbler classes, at once created an en-
largement of demand so rapid and strong that it fully kept pace with
the more efficient and swifter means of production ; 2. The augmented
gross produce arising from the decided success of the invention in
rendering labor more efficient, in saving time, and improving quality,
and reducing the outlay and risks of capital, was divided between the
employers and work-people wholly by the operation of natural causes.
There was no interference of the Legislature on one side or the other;
and practically there was no interference of trades-unions to enforce
a minimum rate of wages, or to impose restraints on the skill, indus-
try, and deserts, of the individual male and female laborers. Every-
where there were inferior, middling, and superior laborers, earning
corresponding wages ; and everywhere the skillful and handiest labor-
ers passed naturally into the class of employers and capitalists. It
was a free and wholesome cooperation of capital and labor to supply
the best and cheapest articles to the cash demand of a vigorous con-
sumption ; and the profits arising from the trade were divided be-
tween wages and capital wholly in proportion to the special skill and
industry of the individual employers and employed; with the result,
as we have seen, of raising wages from 50 to 100 per cent., and adding
immeasurably to the comfort, health, and independence of the laborers,
but especially of the female portion of them.

But such a result is neither more nor less than distribution of the
proceeds of production of the most exact and equitable kind. On a
large scale the increased quantity of wealth arising from the inven-
tion of the sewing-machine has been divided precisely as — on grounds
of equity — it is most fit and beneficial that it should be divided ; and
this equitable and wholesome division has taken place as a necessary
consequence of the most efficient methods of production being left at
perfect liberty, as regards both workmen and masters, to arrive at the
cheapest means of commanding and stimulating consumption. If at
an early or later stage of the establishment of the sewing-machine it
had been possible for the male to exclude the female workers ; or, for
the two combined to prevent the use of the machine in the houses of
male or female workers ; or, for any trades-union to enforce a mini-
mum wage, or to impose restraints on individual skill and invention
devoted to increase the gross profits — that is to say, the fund alone
available for division between labor and capital — it is easy to see that
the whole march of the improvement would have been retarded and
thwarted. It is clear, also, that the two circumstances which have
very materially assisted the success of the machine, as regards both
producers and consumers, have been : 1. The small cast of the ma-
chine itself, which admitted its effective use in the homes of the work-

486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ers, and in this way has cheapened production by rendering of value
the intermittent labor of whole families as it could be spared, and
when it could be easiest applied. In this respect tlie sewing-machine
has been the reverse of the former handloom. The machine-workers
have prospered because they could take the new invention into their
houses without diminishing its force. The handloomers were supei-
seded because the steam-shuttle could not be made a domestic imple-
ment. 2. The eminent suitability of female labor to the sewing-ma-
chine has secured a class of workers who have had the strongest mo-
tives to apply whatever skill and industry they possessed to increase
ihQiv piece-work wages by the extent and efficiency of production. It
maybe added, indeed, that the great results which have been obtained
are amonsr the most cogent illustrations which can be found of the
magical influence of payment by results, that is to say, of payment by
the piece ; for, happily, no other mode of payment has been possible
for sewing-machine labor.

The lesson of the whole of this gratifying and hopeful history is,
as we said at the outset, that the methods of most efficient production
are those which necessarily contain within themselves the methods of
most effectual and beneficial distribution : in other words, if we under-
stand and apply thoroughly and truly the conditions which most
cheaply, rapidly, and constantly produce wealth, we also, and as a
necessary and ^:»ari ^5«s5m consequence, understand and apply the con-
ditions which insure the distribution of that wealth among all the
parties concerned in the most just and beneficial manner. So far,
philosophers and philanthi-opists have spent their energies in the wrong
direction. They have sought for artificial means of what they con-
sidered more equal distribution of the products of industry, failing to
see that in the circumstances and conditions which render industry on
the largest scale most productive there are native and inherent forces
which link together production and distribution at every step. —
TJie Economist.

CORRESP ONDENCE.

487

CORRESPONDENCE.

HOW A PHILOSOPHIC SKEPTIC WAS KEC-
ONCILED TO RELIGIOUS FAITH.

IT has not been usual to regard Herbert
Spencer as a reconciler of skeptical
minds with religious verities ; nevertheless
he has labored with great power and ear-
nestness to attain this end, and there has
been varied and pointed evidence that this
labor has not been thrown away. A letter
recently published in the Chicago Times
states a quite remarkable case of reconver-
sion to Christianity, under the influence of
the study of " First Principles." There
have probably been many similar cases,
though not so conspicuous, and it is not
unlikely that there will be a great many
more. Perhaps it would be well for our
evangelical friends not to overlook this cir-
cumstance; and, when they have battered
away at hardened old disbelievers in reli-
gion with the customary weapons to no
purpose, to buy a copy of "First Princi-
ples," and, having mastered it, to try Spen-
cer's short method as a last resort. The
letter referred to relates to the return of
the late Judge Alfred W. Arrington from
what is termed " modern infidelity " to the
Christian faith, largely through the influence
of Mr. Spencer's book. The writer — Mr. C.
C. Bonney — was an intimate personal and
professional friend of Judge Arrington, and
was familiar with the matter of which he
writes. Mr. Arrington died in Chicago,
December 31, 186*7. The communication
to the Times is as follows. — Ed. :

" Mr. Editor : The Times of last Sunday
contained a letter written by the late Judge
Arrington in 1832, about the time of his
renunciation of revealed religion. It is due
to his memory that his final return to his
early faith be as widely published. In the
memoir prefixed to his poems, published
after his decease, Mrs. Arrington sketches
briefly his religious career, showing him in
youth an eloquent preacher, in manhood a
truth-seeking skeptic, and at the close of
his life a convinced and satisfied Christian.
She says :

" ' At the early asre of eighteen years he com-
menced to preach, and at that time exhibited an

oratorio power that resembled the inspiration
of an Italian improviaalore. He drew large
audiences, and excited the greatest enthnsiagm.
He continued to preach for several years at in-
tervals, until he los^t his childhood's faith ; and,
after fruitless attempts to find peace in other
communions, ultimately abandoned revealed re-
ligion. He afterward sought in philosophy a
solution of his intellectual difficulties ; but, of
course, with only partial success. He, how-
ever, never abandoned his search for truth.
The different systems of metaphysics, from the
Indian philosophers down to the latest schools
of English positivism, were as familiar to him
as the alphabet. The principles of the physical
sciencfs were fully mastered, and their rela-
tions to each other and to human life. He
sought in every quarter for the knowledge that
would enable him to create a sound philosophy
of life and morals. ...

" ' The works of Herbert Spencer had a most
happy effect upon his mind. He studied them
with the greatest delight, and professed to find
in them the possible union of science and reli-
gion. . . .

" ' For some time previous to his last illness,
his aggressive skepticism had entirely disap-
peared, and in various ways he manifested, not
only a respect for Christianity, but a strong de-
sire for the gift of faith. This solace was, how-
ever, deuied him till he lay upon his death-bed,
when, to use his own words, "iife a flash of
light, every cloud disappeared^ and the vision of
Jesus Christ xvas vouchsafed ?«.e." '

" I may add to the foregoing extracts
that alter this event he called his wife to
his bedside, and said, among other things :
' Promise me, Leora, that you will assure
my friends, especially my professional breth-
ren, some of whom may have been misled
by my skepticism, that when I returned to
my faith in the Christian religion my mind
was not enfeebled by disease, but that my
intellect was as clear and strong as ever,
and that it was not merely an assent to my
early faith, but a conviction as clear as the
light of the truth of the supreme miracle of
the incarnation. To believe that is to be-
lieve all.'

" These are the words as I recall them,
and as I believe, if his voice could reach us,
he would ask to have them given to the
public. His return from infidelity to faith
began with his reading of ' The Unknow-
able,' and particularly the chapter .on 'The
Reconciliation,' in Herbert Spencer's ' First
Principles.'

" I procured and read Mr. Spencer's
book at Judge Arrington's urgent request,
and learned its effect on his mind in subse-
quent conversations.

" Some enterprising publisher should
give us a new edition of Judge Arrington's
writings, with a more ample and detailed
sketch of his life than has hitherto appeared.
He was a man of extraordinary intellectual

488

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

endowments, and the story of his life faith-
fully told would have all the charm of a
noble romance. C. C. Bonnet.

"Chicago, February 17, 167T."

THE SUN-SPOT PERIODS.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

In the course of an hiquiry lately made
in reference to the periodicity of cold
seasons, and their coincidence with the
greatest prevalence of the sun-spots, I came
to the conclusion (the reverse of that reached
by most of those who have wii!.ten on that
subject) that, while there is a recognized
periodicity in the sun-spot maxima, and also
a seeming periodicity in the recurrence of
cold seasons, the cold winters, instead of
falling coincident with, oftenest occur inter-
mediate between, the maxima of the sun-
spots.

I think the coldest season of the present
century was that of 1816, while the sun-spot
maximum for that period is placed in 1817.
Another remarkably cold winter, and one
of which I have a vivid recollection, was
that of 1856 ; while the nearest sun-spot
maxima were in 1849 and 1860. Another
unusually cold winter occurred in 1866, al-
most exactly intermediate between the maxi-
mum of 1860 and that which followed.

It seems to be taken for granted that
the sun emits less heat during the time it is
partially covered with spots. But is this a
ftict Avhich is substantiated by experiment ?
It is easy to see that its light may be less ;
but light and heat, though originating and
being propagated similarly, are not identi-
cal either in their effects or in the mode of
propagation. Thin wave-undulations differ
very greatly in length and frequency.

If two liquids of different colors and dif-
ferent specific gravity, and which do not
readily mix, be poured into the same caldron,
the lighter will rise to and cover the sur-
face. If the one of the least specific grav-
ity be the lightest in color, it will reflect
light the most readily ; and, if the contents
of the caldron be agitated, so that the two
liquids be made to show at the surface al-
ternately, the reflection will be alternately
greater or less, according as each liquid
predommates at the surface.

Suppose that, instead of other agitation,
heat be applied to the bottom of the cal-
dron. Gradually, with the increase of the
heat, upward jets are produced, and the
darker liquid breaks through the lighter
surface in the act called boiling. These
dark fractures of the light surface — do they
not correspond to the sun-spots ?

In its ordinary state, the body of the
snn is enveloped in, and covered by, an ex-
ceedingly bright surface, appearing to be

slightly reticulated, called the photosphere.
When this photosphere is undisturbed, we
have the maximum of light. At other times,
apparently by increased internal action, the
uniformity of this photosphere is destroyed ;
titanic forces, acting from beneath, rupture
it, and produce what to us is the phenome-
non of sun-spots.

Now, is it not logical to infer that the
increased action which ruptures the photo-
sphere is accompanied by increased heat-
radiation ? If it be, there is reason for the
cold seasons falling not coincident with, but
intermediate between, the sun-spot maxima.
Geo. AV. Chapman.

A PEETTT BIG DOG-STOPvY.

To the Editor of the Popvlar Science Monthly.

The perusal of the interesting article on
" Canine Sagacity," which appeared in the
December number of The Popclar Science
Monthly, gave me great pleasure, and caused
me to recall to memory a very remarkable
case of the same chai-acter which came under
my own observation about two years ago. I
was then practising medicine in Galveston,
Texas. One day I was called to see a patient,
Mrs.Wechsler, the wife of a German butcher.
As I entered the hall of the house where
she lived, I was met by a large black dog,
who under no consideration would let ne
pass, until Mr. Wechsler himself came to
pacify him and assure him that it was all
right. The dog then followed us into the
sick-room, and, while I was examining the
patient, the dog was watching all my move-
meiits most attentively. When I departed,
I noticed that I was followed by the dog,
who did not leave me until he had seen me
enter my office. A few days after this the
dog entered my office apparently very un-
easy about something. The thought struck
me at once that perhaps I might be wanted ;
so I put on my hat and followed the dog,
who immediately started for home, where I
found Mrs. Wechsler sick in bed, with no
one in the house to attend to her. She was
surprised at my timely call, and, when I
told her that I had been called by the dog,
she related to me what was even more as-
tonishing. She had suddenly been seized
by a violent attack of vomiting fifteen or
twenty minutes previously, when the dog
had picked up an empty tin pan and placed
it beside her bed, before rnnning for the
doctor. This dog, who was only eight months
old, had never received any kind of tiain-
ing. It is therefore evident that something
like the following train of thoughts must
have passed through his mind : Seeing me
examine the patient and prescribe for her,
he must have conceived the idea that I was
the proper person to be there when she was
sick. Having made up his mind on this

CORRESP ONDENCE.

489

point, the next thing to be done was to find
out where I lived ; and this he did by ac-
companying me to my office. Seeing her
vomit, lie brought her a tin pan, which he
probably had seen her use for that purpose,
and then set out for my office. The dog
called for me a number of times afterward,
but never without my services were needed.
He was never told to fetch me, but deter-
mined himself when it was necessary to do
so. Yours, respectfully,

John Sundberg, M. D.

Baltimore, December 4, 1876.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Sir : In an article headed " Over-Con-
sumption or Over-Production? " in your July
issue, Mr. Buuce offers an answer to the
question, " Why are the times so hard ? "
taking as his text Prof. Bonamy Price's ar-
ticle, " One per Cent.," which he pronounces
to be illogical, fallacious, and based on unwar-
ranted assumptions. It is not easy to dis-
entangle Mr. Bunce's argument, but the fol-
lowing is believed to be a fair statement of
the propositions it involves :

1. That the common ideas in regard to
national extravagance are erroneous, it be-
ing something essentially diffiirent from in-
dividual extravagance.

2. That wasteful consumption has had
nothing to do with commercial distress ;
that, on the contrary, destruction produces
abundance.

3. That no part of the nation's capital
has been lost in unproductive enterprises.

4. That the real cause of the trouble is
over-production.

5. That the remedy lies in cooperation
among producers to regulate production.

A refutation of these propositions is not
the object of this letter; all that time and
space will allow is to stand them up, stripped
of verbiage, and see how they will look.

In the first place, concerning national
extravagance, after pronouncing the idea or-
dinarily held to be " peculiarly erroneous,"
Mr. Bunce says : " We think it can be
shown that expenditure in the case of the
individual, and expenditure in the case of a
large number of individuals, have certain
essential diffijrences, the difference being
that the income of the former is absolutely
fixed, while that of the latter is wholly ex-
pansive." As it stands, this proposition
must mean that wastefulness, a bad thing
in the case of the individual, becomes in
the case of an aggregate of individuals a
good thing ; it means that, each man's in-
come being fixed, he cannot safely live be-
yond it ; but, if we add together a " large
group " of these incomes, they become
" wholly expansive," whatever that may be.

and cannot be too recklessly spent ; it
means, in short, that the whole is some-
thing totally different from the sum of its
parts.

Mr. Bunce tells us that " a community
is rich because it consumes^ abundance being
the product and consequent of excessive de-
struction." And here is the proof : "It is
evident that the immense consumption of
coal has made coal cheap and abundant.
It has rendered possible the employment
of vast capital in the erection of costly ma-
chinery for working, transporting, etc. . . .
It is true, the consumption of coal is in-
creased by cheapness, but it is only by ex-
travagance that the machinery by which it
is made cheap is put in operation. We
have an immense wealth of coal because
we consume coal so extensively ! " This
rule, we are told, works in all, or nearly all,
our staples, and the conclusion is, " that
in all staple things a nation is rich because
it consumes." Was ever the operation of
the law of supply and demand so grotesque-
ly construed ? That the demand for a com-
modity stimulates the activity of supply is
most true, and, where increase is possible,
the supply is increased until the widest area
of demand is filled at a minimum cost, but
it is only by economy that this minimum
can be reached. It is surely only necessary
to remember that, no matter what the em-
ployment of capital or appliance of machin-
ery, every ton of coal moved a foot repre-
sents a given unit of force in the total sum
available for supplying human needs, and
that, when so used, it cannot be applied to
other work, in order to see the full absurd-
ity of the proposition that the nation is the
richer if the product be wastefuUy destroyed
instead of being husbanded and prudently
used !

The third point made, that no part of
the capital of the country has been lost in
unproductive enterprises, deserves, perhaps,
a little fuller attention because of the pecul-
iar reasoning by which it is sought to be
sustained. Mr. 13unce says that these works
were largely carried on by what he calls
" released energy, by labor not otherwise re-
quired," and that so far " the community is
not the poorer by a mite in consequence."
He is willing to admit that, by the purchase
ofiron abroad, etc., we have lost a part of our
" surplus," but he declares that " the as-
sumption that it impaired our capital is
wholly groundless." With such a use of
terms, it becomes needful to define what is
meant by capital in an economic sense, and
to point out the difference between it and
the capital stock and surplus of a bank or
a life-insurance company. The latter are
terms used to designate what a book-keeper
knows as the fictitious accounts which show
the amount of assets of a corporation; it is
a purely artificial division which has been

49°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

found convenient in keeping accounts, and
has no analogue in the accumulations of a
community. The word capital, as used by
Prof. Price and economists generally, means
the nation's accumulated stock of food,
clothing, and the other necessaries of life.
So long as these commodities remain uncon-
sumed, they are called free capital ; when
they are employed to sustain laborers en-
gaged in building a warehouse, a bridge, or
a railway, the capital is said to become
" fixed," or sunk in such enterprise. If the
investment is a paying one, returning the
cost with interest, the capital is in time
released ; if it loses money, ultimately be-
coming worthless, then the capital is fixed
forever, or lost. And the true cost of these
works to the community is correctly ex-
pressed by the price paid for them, Mr.
Bunco to the contrary notwithstanding ;
for, traced to its ultimate source, the cost
of the material used is simply the amount
of labor that has been put upon it. Of the
vast amount of labor which has been so
misapplied, not one stroke can be consid-
ered as " released energy — labor not other-
wise required." It was labor that was
needed elsewhere, as is plainly proved, if
proof were needed, by the sharp competi-
tion and high wages paid for it. But the
assertion that there is no labor that could
not be put to better use than to throw it
away, needs no proof. "But," he asks,
triumphantly, " how is it if the savings of
a country have been impaired that capital,
at the same moment, should be seeking in-
vestment at any rate of interest, that all
financial circles are choked with an excess
of money ? "

" When / use a word," said Humpty
Dumpty, scornfully, to Alice in Wonder-
land, "it means just what I choose it to
mean, neither more nor less." It is only by
attributing a similar mental attitude to Mr.
Bunco that tlie confusion of terms which
marks his article is to be explained. Cap-
ital has been already defined ; money, it
may be simply said, is a measure of value,
a medium, a commodity, at times a tran-
sient representative for capital, when there
is capital to represent, but either may ex-
ist without the other. The reader will
excuse these elementary definitions, as they
seem to be called for. Savings, capital,
money, it is hardly necessary to say, are
not convertible terms; and it requires no
profound reasoning to show that idle
" money " — undoubtedly the immediate re-
sult of lessened trade — may find its ulti-
mate cause in impaired savings. It is be-
cause savings have been impaired that
economy and retrenchment are enforced ; it
is because people cannot save, and at the
same time go on consuming high-priced
commodities with the old recklessness, that
prices fall and trade operations become re-

stricted and less profitable ; it is because
commerce no longer offers high-paying in-
vestments, that money accumulates in busi-
ness centres, and is offered, like other com-
modities, at low prices. And in view of
the fact that it is the cost and not the amount
of production that needs to be lowered in
order to renew the activities of trade, this
is a most cheering sign.

As has been said, the cause of our trou-
ble, as assigned by Mr. Bunco, is over-pro-
duction. That is to say, too much labor
has been usefully employed, too much ma-
chinery has been put in motion, too much
cotton has been spun, too much leather
made — in short, not to particularize, the
wants of the people have been too freely
supplied. The economist will, of course, ad-
mit, as Mr. Bunco says, that there may be
over-production of certain things, but the
ill efl'ects resulting from undue production
of certain things would be partial and local-
ized, and would tend rapidly to correct
themselves. Nothing short of general over-
production would account for general de-
pression. And so we are brought face to
face with the proposition that there is an
unhealthy excess of industrial energy in the
world, and that it produces more of the
necessaries of life than the workers can
profitably assimilate !

A few words as to the proposed remedy.
Of course, if it be admitted that over-pro-
duction is the cause, the cure is obvious :
it is to check production, and Mr. Bunco
does not hesitate to recommend a coopera-
tion of producers for that purpose. The
adjustment of industrial activity cannot be
left to natural laws, but combinations must
be formed which shall see to it that the
forge-fires are not relit, and that the id!c
operative shall remain idle. With millions
of laborers waiting for work, this seems like
heroic treatment, but there is no way to
limit production but to limit the amount of
labor employed. And now we begin to see
how " peculiarly erroneous " have been the
commonly accepted views. The man who
makes two blades of grass grow where one
grew before ; the inventor who, by machin-
ery, increases and cheapens the aggregate
of things made ; the industrious and frugal
operative, who works long hours and saves
his earnings — have hitherto been regarded
as useful members of society. But this is
all wrong; the "tramp " is your true con-
servator of public welfare. He takes a
sliare in that destruction which leads to
abundance, and he at least cannot be
charged with contributing to the evil of
over-production.

Regarding the example of France, Prof.
Price attributes the successful payment of
the indemnity to the fact that France had
" saved " — accumulated. It would perhaps
have been better to sav it was because she

EDITOR'S TABLE.

491

had acquired the habit of living within her
means ; but neither explanation would suit
Mr. Bunce, who says it was solely due to
the manner in which her savings had been
held — ^they had been kept in old stockings,
and, when unearthed, enabled the state to pay
the German exactions. The admission that
" saving " of any kind produced riches that
were available under such an unusual strain
is fatal to his position ; but, passing this,
nothing could be more incorrect than the
assumption that the enormous levy was
paid out of stocking-hoards. Less than ten
per cent, of the sum was paid in coin from
any source. The indemnity fund was drawn
from three sources : 1. The exchanges of
foreign trade (i. e., proceeds 0^ current pro-
duction) ; 2. By selling foreign bonds and
stocks held in France (i. e., by converting
the accumulated results o^ past joroduction) ;
3. By money borrowed from foreign coun-
tries (i. e., by discounting the proceeds of
future production). This done, and realiz-
ing that, though the levy was arranged, it
was not made good, she has gone on pro-
ducing with unparalleled vigor.

On the other hand, Germany, upon the
strength of her acquired millions, proceeded
to make serious drafts on her available in-

dustry : 1. By the maintenance of a large
standing army ; 2. By the employment of
vast amounts of labor in constructing forti-
fications, iron-clads, and munitions of war ;
3. By unproductive private enterprises, un-
duly stimulated by speculation. Of course,
productive industry must be restricted ;
commodities have been made costly in price
and poor in quality to such a degree that
Prince Bismarck declines to allow Germany
to compete in the Paris Exposition of 18*78,
because of the mortification which would
result from a comparison of her products
with those of other nations. Here, wages
have been paid, and wages have been re-
ceived ; that which Mr. Bunce calls " diffu-
sion " has gone on, and, according to his
theory of over-production, Germany should
have been spared the commercial evils that
have been felt in other countries. The
fact is, she is worse off to-day than any na-
tion that has a sound currency, and one of
her economic writers suggests with some
bitterness that the way out of her troubles
is to engage in one more wai', as the result
of which she should have to pay five mill-
iards of francs.

E. R. Lkland.
New Toek, June 28, 187T.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

CLARENCE KING ON CATASTROPmSil.

MOST of our readers have probably
read the brilliant address of Mr.
Clarence King on Catastrophism in Ge-
ology, recently delivered at the Yale
Scientific School, and published in the
newspapers. The speaker was fortu-
nate in his topic, which is not only of
wide scientific and popular interest, but
one to which he has given special study
from the American point of view.

When men first began to observe
geological phenomena, they were pro-
foundly impressed with the grandeur of
their display of power. Rocky masses,
miles in thickness, showed that stupen-
dous forces had been at work upon
them, upheaving, folding, distorting,
and dislocating the mass of strata as
if they had been sported with by
preternatural powers. Firmly believ-
ing that Nature is only about 6,000
years old, all this conjuring with the
earth's crust was supposed to have

taken place within that time. It was
a necessary inference that the forces
which had been at work, and the ef-
fects produced, were on a scale of mag-
nitude of which people know nothing
nowadays. That the world had been
drowned in a deluge was deemed cer-
tain ; and that the whole march of ge-
ological transformation had been cat-
aclysmal and convulsive was a natural
conclusion. Early geology, therefore,
explained things by catastrophes.

But, with the progress of observa-
tion and the sobering of the imagina-
tion, geologists began to suspect that
the notion of catastrophes had been
drawn upon a little too freely, and the
question arose as to how far causes such
as are now in operation can be in-
voked to explain geological effects. It
was recognized as safest to reason from
the known to the unknown, and, as the
Mosaic barrier gave way, there seemed
endless time for the play of geological

492

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

changes. It was soon recognized that
transformations, such as are now tak-
ing place, with indefinite time, might do
all that has been hitherto ascribed to
catastrophes. A careful study of the
varieties and rates of contemporaneous
change seemed to establish the conclu-
sion that such action is sufficient to ac-
count for all geological results. Those
sudden and tremendous demonstrations
of which we have no experience were
discredited ; catastrophes went out of
fashion, and uniformitarianism became
the dominant idea in geology.

Mr. King holds that this doctrine
has been carried too far. Prof. Thomp-
son and his school have tried to corner
the geologists on the question of time,
maintaining on physical grounds that
they must check their periods and du-
ration, which would necessitate the
quickening of the activities, and thus
induce a return-movement toward ca-
tastrophism. Mr. King does not argue
the case from this point, but puts it on
the ground of direct geological evidence
that rates of action and change, of
which the world at present knows
nothing, liave been in play at former
times on the American Continent. The
following passages are illustrative of
his views :

" I bave thus hastily mentioned a few of
the most imijortant geological crust-changes
in America whose rates are demonstrably
catastrophic. Besides surface-changes in-
volving subsidence, upheaval, faulting, and
corrugation, all of which may be executed
on a scale or at a rate productive of destruc-
tion of life, catastrophes may be brought
about by sudden, great changes of climate,
or by intense Volcanic energy. In the latter
field there are obviously no catastrophes of
the first order. Geological maps of the globe
liave progressed far enough to demonstrate
tliat considerable areas are, and always have
been, free from actual ejection of volcanic
materials. On the contrary, numerous great
regions, notably the western third of our
own continent, and the shores of the Pacific,
were once literally deluged with volcanic
fires. An examination of the ejected rock
shows that modern eruptions, by which the
volcanic cones of the present period are

slowly built up from slight overflows piling
one upon another, is not the method of the
great Miocene and Pliocene volcanic periods.
There were then outbursts hundreds of miles
in extent, in which the crust yawned, and
enormous volumes of lava rolled out, over-
whelming neighboring lands. Volcanoes
proper are only isolated chimneys, imposing
indeed, but insignificant when compared
with the gulfs of molten matter which were
thrown up in the great massive eruptions.
Between the past and present volcanic phe-
nomena there is not only a difference of de-
gree, but of kind. It is easy to read the
mild exhibition of existing volcanoes as a
uniformitarian operation, namely, the growth
of cones by slight accretions ; but such rea-
soning is positively forbidden in the past.

" If poor, puny little Vesuvius could im-
mortalize itself by burying the towns at its
feet, if the feeble energy of a Lisbon earth-
quake could record itself on the gravestones
of thousands of men, then the volcanic pe-
riod in Western America was truly catas-
trophic.

" Modern vulcanism is but the faint,
flickering survival of what was once a world-
wide and immense exhibition of telluric en-
ergy— one whose distortions and disloca-
tions of the crust, whose deluges of molten
stone, emissions of mineral dust, he.ited
waters, and noxious gases, could not have
failed to exert destructive eff'ect on tlie life
of considerable portions of the globe. It
cannot be explained away upon any theory
of slow, gradual action. The simple field
facts are ample proof of the intensity and
suddenness of tertiary vulcanism.

" Of climatic catastrophes we have the
record of at least one. When the theory of
a glacial period came to be generally accept-
ed, and the destructive effects of tlie inva-
sion of even middle latitudes by polar ice
were realized, especially when the devastat-
ing eff'ects of the floods which were charac-
teristic of the recession of the ice came to
be studied, uniformitarianism, pure and sim-
ple, received a fatal blow. I am aware that
British students believe themselves justified
in taking uniformitarian views of the bowl-
der till, but they have yet to encounter phe-
nomena of the scale of our quaternary exhi-
bitions.

" A most interesting comparison of the
character and rate of stream erosion may be
obtained by studying, in the Western Cor-
dilleras, the river-work of three distinct pe-
riods. The geologist tliere finds preserved,
and wonderfully well exposed : 1. Pliocene
Tertiary river-valleys, with their bowlders,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

493

gravels, and sands, still lying undisturbed
ill the ancient beds ; 2. The system of pro-
found canons from 2,000 to 5,000 feet deep,
whioli score the flanks of the great moun-
tain-chains, and form such a fascinating
object of study, and not less of wonder, be-
cause the gorges were altogether carved out
since the beginning of the glacial period ; 3.
The modern rivers, mere echoes of their
parent streams of the early quaternary age.
As between these three the early quater-
nary rivers stand out as vastly the most
powerful and extensive. The present rivers
are utterly incapable, with infinite time, to
perform the work of glacial torrents. So,
too, the Pliocene streams, although of very
great volume, were powerless to wear their
way down into solid rocks thousands of
feet at the rapid rate of the early quater-
nary floods. Between these three systems
of rivers is all the difference which sepa-
rates a modern (uniformitarian) stream and
a terrible catastrophic engine, the expres-
sion of a climate in which struggle for ex-
istence must have been something absolute-
ly inconceivable when considered from the
water precipitations, floods, torrents, and
erosions, of to-day.

" Uuiformitarians are fond of saying that
give our present rivers time, plenty of time,
and they can perform the feats of the past.
It is mere nonsense in the case of the caiions
of the Cordilleras. They could never have
been carved by the pygmy rivers of this cli-
mate to the end of infinite time. And, as
if the sections and profiles of the canons
were not enough to convince the most skep-
tical student, there are left hundreds of dry
river-beds, within whose broad valleys,
flanked by old steep banks, and eloquent
with proofs of once-powerful streams, there
is not water enough to quench the thirst
even of a uniformitarian. Those extinct
rivers, dead of drought, in connection with
the great canon system, present perfectly
overwhelming evidence that the general
deposition of aerial water, the consequent
floods and torrents, forming, as they all do,
the distinct expression of a sharply-defined
cycle of climate, as compared either with
the water phenomena of the immediately
preceding Pliocene age, or with our own
succeeding condition, constitute an age of
water-catastrophe whose destructive power
we only now begin distantly to suspect."

Having given his reasons for reject-
ing the idea of uniformity in the course
of Nature, especially in Western Amer-
ica, Mr. King proceeds to connect his

view with the question of Evolution.
It is imputed to him hy the newspapers
that he arrays Catastrophe against Evo-
lution, to the destruction of the latter
doctrine ; but this is an error. He la-
bors to show the inadequacy of Mr. Dar-
win's theory of natural selection to ex-
plain organic development ; but, as we
have said, again and again, Darwinism
is not Evolution, and the most eminent
evolutionists recognize the tendency to
load the law of natural selection with
a good deal more than it can carry.
Mr. King recognizes that the principle
of the " survival of the fittest " is a
true principle that has played an im-
portant part in organic progress, but
which is supplemented by otlier agen-
cies in the general scheme of Evolution.
That Catastrophism is not regarded as
fatal to Evolution is at least true of one
of its most illustrious representatives,
for Mr. King remarks, " Huxley, per-
meated in every fibre by belief in Evo-
lution, feels that even to-day Catastro-
pliism is not yet wholly out of the
possibilities." And speaking of the
two theories of unqualified Uniformi-
tarianism and universal Catastrophism
(as held by Cuvier), Mr. King declares
that he rejects them, and says : " Hux-
ley alone among prominent evolution-
ists opens the door for a union of the
residua of truth in the two schools,
fusing them in his proposed ' Evolu-
tional Geology.' Looking back over a
trail of 30,000 miles of geological travel,
and after as close a research as I am
capable, I am impelled to say that his
far-sighted view precisely satisfies my
interpretation of the broad facts of the
American Continent."

In this conception of evolutional
geology, Mr. King is led to assign a
higher place than has hitherto been al-
lowed to what he terms "evolution of
environment," which he regards as a
distinct branch of geology that must
soon take a recognized form. He as-
sumes a property of plasticity in organ-
isms, by which they are capable of ac-

494

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

celerated changes in response to catas-
trophic disturbances in the environment.
Upon this point he remarks :

" It is only through rapid movements of
the crusts and sudden climatic changes, due
either to terrestrial or cosmical causes, that
environment can have seriously interfered
with the evolution of life. These effects
would, I conceive, be — 1. Extermination;

2. Destruction of the biological equilibri-
um, thus violating natural selection ; and,

3. Rapid morphological change on the part
of plastic species. When catastrophic
change burst in upon the ages of unilbrm-
ity, and sounded in the ear of every liv-
ing thing the words ' Change, or die,' plas-
ticity became the sole principle of salvation.
Plasticity, then, is that quality which, in
suddenly enforced physical change, is the
key to survival and prosperity. And the
survival of the plastic, that is, of the rapidly
and healthily modifiable during periods
when terrestrial revolution offers to sjjecies
the rigorous dilemma of prodigious change
or certain death, is a widely different princi-
ple from the survival of the fittest in a gen-
eral biological battle during terrestrial uni-
formity."

THE LATEST CASES OF HERESY.

The turning out of the Rev. Augus-
tus BLauvelt, of the Dutch Reformed
Church, by the Kingston tribunal, for
alleged heresy, is one of the things so
common nowadays as hardly to excite
notice, and we should probably have
heard little of this case had it not been
that the theological body saw fit to put
the trimmings on to the transaction in
a way that was not agreeable to the
reverend excommunicate. Not content
to depose Mr. Blauvelt from his charge
for non-conformity to the creed which
he had agreed to uphold, they thought
it desirable to give the proceeding an
extra touch, and so accused him of be-
traying his Master. Mr. Blauvelt says
that, when he found it impossible any
longer to accept the creed to which he
had subscribed, he would gladly have
resigned, but the polity of the society
did not allow it ; and when they found
it necessary to cut him off, he should

have recognized the propriety of it,
and acquiesced without protest. But
when they proposed to " spot " him, and
fasten on him the label of Judas, to save
other denominations the trouble of
looking into his character and belief, if
they were so inclined, he did not assent,
but appealed to a higher organization.
He thought that, if such an outrage as
that was to be perpetrated, it had bet-
ter not be done in a corner, but by the
whole responsible body in a conspicuous
place, and where dissenters, if any there
should be, might have the credit of
favoring fair play.- In the final issue,
twenty-six men voted that the society
had nothing further to do than to ex-
scind the teacher who no longer taught
approvingly. But ninety men thought
differently, and seemed deeply to feel
that every fagot, thumb - screw, and
dungeon, of the last eighteen htmdred
years, and all the instruments and
agencies of religious conformity, would
be dishonored if this writer of inde-
pendent articles in Scriiner''s Magazine
did not get an extra kick at parting —
all that the law allows in ISTY.

But with these tactics of the Dutch
Reformed Church we are not much
concerned: what interests us far more
is the initial aspect of the case, or that
working of the theological polity which
at the outset binds the conscience and
fetters the thought of all who assume
the function of public teachers, in its
jurisdiction. The deeper question is
one of religious liberty, of the rights of
conscience, and the prerogative of in-
dependent expression. From this point
of view, other recent cases are of in-
terest.

The Rev. Mr. Miller, of Princeton,
got into a dangerous way of thinking
for himself, about the creed of his
church, and, not being pious and politic
enough to crush his rising queries as
instigations of the devil, had the hon-
esty to announce some conclusions
about the mystery of the Trinity which
were unpalatable to the Sanhedrim to

EDITOR'S TABLE.

495

which he was accountable ; whereupon
they suspended him from the author-
ized ministerial function.

And now there comes report of
another case of specially remarkable
features, in Scotland. A distinguished
divine has been condemned by his
church for heresy in contributing a
valuable and important article to an
influential publication. The great issue
comes out here in a conspicuous and
somewhat startling way. It is useless
to deny that the most remarkable thing
about this age is the activity of inquiry,
and the progress of knowledge. More
and more, people will scan their tradi-
tions, overhaul their opinions, and in-
vestigate their truth ; and every subject
upon which they can hold opinions is
undergoing this inexorable revision.
The consequence is, that errors are
sifted out, beliefs that fail to stand the
test are gradually corrected, and knowl-
edge is steadily extended. These pro-
cesses are so real and so rapid that
great works, which represent the gen-
eral state of thought at one time, in a
few years require extensive readjust-
ment. The eighth edition of the " En-
cyclopfedia Britannica," which was
published in 1857, was a comprehensive
and faithful representation of the state
of general thought at that time. But
the numerous and important advances
of knowledge made since have left it
so far behind that it became necessary
to reconstruct it. This is now being
done, and several volumes have ap-
peared. Among other subjects to be
dealt with was the Bible ; and, strange
to say, there has been a great deal of
progress and modification of opinion
in regard to the origin, interpretation,
and history, of this important work,
within the last twenty years. The edi-
tors were responsible before the world
for the honest and faithful treatment
of the subject. There could be no
flinching from the duty of a thorough
statement upon the subject here, any
more than in the departments of physical

science. Very naturally the ablest and
best-equipped student was sought to
deal with so delicate and critical a sub-
ject. Prof. Eobertson Smith, of the
Theological Seminary at Aberdeen, was
selected for the duty. It cannot for a
moment be supposed that a gentleman
of position and ability, such as would
be chosen for this work, and writing
for the thinkers of the world in so
distinguished a publication as the "En-
cyclopjedia Britannica," would fail to
treat the subject with the severest care,
in the genuine spirit of truth- seeking,
and with all the honor of the most
elevated scholarship. And such is the
character of the essay. It is written
with masterly ability, and is so full of
interesting and impoi'tant information
with which evei'ybody should be famil-
iar, that we shall print it in full in the
next number of The Popular Science
Supplement. Yet the Free Church of
Scotland has been thrown into con-
sternation by the article, and Prof.
Smith has been summoned before the
General Assembly and suspended, and
it is reported that he is to be formally
" tried." Meantime, the world will be
interested, and will assiduously read the
essay.

Now, we call attention to the con-
trasted policy of Science in the same
circumstances. If we turn to the arti-
cle " Chemistry," in the " Encyclopae-
dia Britannica," we shall see that here
also great advance is indicated. There
has, in fact, been a revolution so radi-
cal and complete, that those familiar
with the old statement may find them-
selves bewildered by the novelty and
strangeness of the presentation. Yet
nobody hears about any perturbation
or alarm in the chemical world, or
about Prof. Armstrong being arraigned
before the Chemical Society and sus-
pended for heretical teaching.

Obviously there are here two intel-
lectual procedures, which are not only
different, but antagonistic. On the one
hand, there is recognition that truth is

496

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the supreme end to be sought ; that it
is yet but partially known ; that doubt
respecting its received forms, and the
subjection of them to the most inex-
orable tests, is an imperative duty ; and
that tlie noblest mental occupation of
man is the free exercise of his powers
in questioning received beliefs, on any
and all subjects, and attaining to clear-
er, more elevated, consistent, and valid
opinions. It is the office of Science to
push destructive criticism to the utter-
most limit, in every direction of thought,
in the steadfast faith that truth will
thereby be the gainer, and views more
and more clearly established, against
Avhich destructive criticism will be pow-
erless.

Accordingly, in every thoroughly
managed scientific school in the world,
the students are taught, first of all, to
be dissatisfied with things as they find
them — are trained to skeptical habits
in regard to all that of which the proof
is not perfect ; and are, moreover, es-
pecially required to enforce this disci-
pline upon themselves by questioning
the evidence of their own results, and
by welcoming from any quarter the
hostile criticism that shall overthrow
the conclusions they suppose themselves
to have established. This is, perhaps,
an ideal to which but few scientific stu-
dents fully attain, both because of its
essential difliculty, and because scien-
tific education is as yet but a very par-
tial influence in moulding the mind ;
while the whole force of current and
traditional culture is thrown in favor
of a very difi'erent system of Ideals,
ethics, and objects, in the work of men-
tal cultivation.

It is very difi'erent in the religious
sphere. Theology is older than science,
and, by the mass of the people, is re-
garded as a thousand times more im-
portant. Theological teachers have
been the great pioneers of education in
the past, and are still overwhelmingly
in the control of it. Among the presi-
dents of our colleges, where there is

one man of science there are ten doc-
tors of divinity. A system of educa-
tion dominated by theology is one
which embodies the theological spirit
in its methods of culture. What that
spirit is, as respects freedom of thought,
and the duty of its teachers in the for-
mation of their opinions, we have seen
in the recent treatment, by large and
authoritative bodies, of Blauvelt, Miller,
and Smith. Truth was not permitted
to be their object. The right of private
judgment, and the consequent right of
the free expression of its results, were
made crimes to be punished. The lib-
erty to doubt, and from that starting-
point to go on to something more true,
is not only not encouraged, but is pro-
hibited.

The newspapers, indeed, say, in
commenting upon Mr. Blauvelt's case,
that the ecclesiastical decision was right,
inasmuch as he had violated his en-
gagements with the Church : he agreed
to teach certain things, and was bound
by his contract. Possibly ; but we pro-
test against this degradation of the func-
tion of the teacher, especially on the
most important subjects, to that of
merely carrying out the literal stipula-
tions of a bargain. Commerce may re-
quire this, but it is not favorable to the
attainment of religious truth. Where
would the Protestant Reformation have
been, if this theory of religious con-
tracts had been strictly adhered to?
And what is the meaning of religious
liberty, if those who teach religion are
not to be allowed to think ? Moreover,
as men can no more help thinking than
breathing, what is to become of the re-
ligious conscience, if they are not al-
lowed to utter what they think ?

But granting that men must fulfill
their obligations, the deeper question
then arises as to their right to assume
such obligations. The theological policy
being fixed, what right had either Blau-
velt, Miller, or Smith, to subject him-
self to it, so that by the legitimate
and independent exercise of his own

LITERARY NOTICES.

497

mental faculties he should be liable to
be cast out of his communion as an
heretical culprit ? What right had
they, or what right has any man, to
assume that a statement of doctrine
at any time is final, and to enslave
themselves to its life-long acceptance ?
This question is one for theological stu-
dents, and if the decisions at Kingston,
Princeton, and Aberdeen, are to be
taken as indicating the authorized policy
of the orthodox world, the young man
who contemplates entering that field of
labor should make up his mind whether
he is prepared to cut himself off from
the spirit of the age, to abjure the pur-
suit of truth, and sink into the office of
a mere passive repeater of cut-and-dried
formulas, prescribed to him by the
powers to which he contracts allegiance.
He must understand that the less he
can have to do with science the safer it
will be for him. Its spirit will rebuke
him at every step. He will have, more-
over, to iearn that theological science,
so called, is a misnomer and a mockery.
Where the scientific element enters,
movement begins, and progress ensues.
It implies intellectual activity, free
questioning, escape from error, and ad-
vance to new conclusions, and upon all
this, from present indications, there re-
mains the interdict of theological au-
thority, paralyzing free thought, just as
it did centuries ago.

We print an essay of Dr. Cones, the
naturalist, which will sufliciently vindi-
cate scientific men from the imputation
of not doing honor to the regal faculty
of imagination. No brain-cracked poet
could go further in rhapsodical glorifica-
tion of the image-making power of the
mind than this devotee of observation
and induction. What more can be
asked to disprove the alleged arrogance
of scientists, and to establish their char-
acter for humility, than for one of their
eminent representatives to go over into
the midst of the guardians of all that is

most exalted and ennobling in intel-
lectual effort, and say to them, "One
excellent and most useful purpose which
the imagination subserves at the hands
of the gifted few whom the higher de-
velopment of this faculty makes leaders
of thought, and watchful guardians of
human progress, is, to put men of sci-
ence on their proper level, and to teach
them to know their place?" Various
queries might arise at this point, but as
the doctor evidently went over to the
literary society to unbend, and have a
frolic of fantasy in their direction, he
probably thought it not worth while to
take his logic along, and spoil the fun.
And so nothing remains but to improve
his wholesome lesson.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Cyclopedia of Education : A Dictiona-
ry of Information for the Use of Teach-
ers, School-Officers, Parents, and Others.
Edited by Henry Kiddle and Alexan-
der J. ScHEM. Pp. 868. Price (cloth),
$5. (Sold by subscription.) New York :
E. Steiger,

It is a curious fact that, while the edu-
cated class in England and this country have
been for a hundred years making cyclopae-
dias on all sorts of subjects for other peo-
ple, they have only j\ist now succeeded in
getting one for themselves. Lawyers, doc-
tors, clergymen, architects, engineers, and
farmers, all have their alphabetical summa-
ries of special knowledge for ready refer-
ence, until such works have long since come
to be indispensable ; but only this year have
we 3rst got a cyclopaedia of education in
the English language that will give teach-
ers, school-boards, and all interested in the
subject, available and easy command of the
wide range of information which bears upon
the vocation of instructor. The explanation
of this tardiness is not obvious, for no sub-
ject is more amenable to this mode of treat-
ment, and certainly none more imperatively
requires it. But it does not much matter
how long the work was delayed, now that the
want has been so adequately and admirably
supplied by the work before us. The editors
have been equal to their formidable task,

VOL. XI.

-32

498

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and have laid out the enterprise on a com-
prehensive and judicious plan, and have
brought their own ability and experience,
aided by tlie best talent in the country, to
the execution of it.

There is difficulty, in our space, in re-
viewing a work so elaborate as this, and so
packed with attractive statements that one
is tempted to read it through like a history ;
and all we can do is to convey to our read-
ers some idea of the quality and scope of its
contents. Among the subjects systemati-
cally and prominently treated are : 1. The
Theory of Education and Instruction, em-
bracing, under numerous headings, a state-
ment of the principles that have been ar-
rived at by scientific inquiry and practical
experience for guidance in the work of
teaching. These results apply to all the
grades of instruction and training, from the
Kindergarten up to the university. 2. The
Organization and Management of Schools,
including discipline, class-teaching, and the
art of instruction, or the general subject of
school economy. These topics are consid-
ered with the fullness that their obvious
importance requires. 3. Careful attention
is given to the administration of schools
and school systems, embracing supervision,
examination, school hygiene, school archi-
tecture, etc. 4. State Policy in relation to
Education, a subject of peculiar importance
in this country, not only because of the ex-
tent of legislative control over the subject,
but because of the diversity of government
action in the different States. 5. Much space
is devoted to the history of education, both
the general history of school methods and in-
stitutions in different parts of the world, and
particularly the history of the school systems
in the different States and Territories of this
country. 6. Biographical Notices of Emi-
nent Educators form a distinct and very at-
tractive branch of the work. 7. The Statis-
tics of Education, or the data of its extent
and progress, are comprehensively presented.
8. The subject of Educational Literature
forms a very interesting feature of the work,
and is ably handled. Of this the editors
say : " As the immense mass of material to
be condensed within the compass of a single
volume has necessitated the greatest possi-
ble brevity, references are made throughout
to standard works on educational science.

as well as to statistical works, affording
more detailed information. It is believed
that this will prove one of the most valuable
features of the work."

Besides these leading topics, which are
treated methodically in their various as-
pects, a great number of miscellaneous sub-
jects pertaining to human culture are so
fully presented as to enrich the volume and
greatly to increase its efficacy as a reference-
book for the teacher. The perusal of vari-
ous articles, which may be taken as repre-
sentative, has satisfied us of the painstaking
assiduity and excellent judgment of the
editors in carrying out the project. They
are not only the first in this country to do
the work, but they have evidently done it
so well that there will be no necessity of
again attempting it. "The Cyclopaedia of
Education " should be in every library, and
in the hands of every teacher. We may
add that the work is handsomely printed,
neatly and substantially bound, and forms
an inviting volume that is not too unwieldy
for habitual reference. It is sold exclusive-
ly to subscribers, and can be had only from
the special subscription agents, or from the
publisher.

Reconciliation of Science and Religion.
By Alexander Winciiell, LL. D.
New York : Harper and Brothers.
Pp. 403. Price, $2.

The question of the relations of sci-
ence and religion receives a new treatment
in this interesting volume. Though the
title of his book brings into prominence
the idea of peace, or of a terminated con-
flict, yet the work itself, it must be said, is
mainly occupied with the antagonism. The
warfare is historic and a living struggle of
to-day; the reconciliation a promise of the
future. But, in respect to the questions at
issue. Dr. Winchell claims to take a non-
partisan attitude, favorable to a calm and
fair survey of the field of controversy. At
any rate, he does not try to end the strife
by belittling it. The opposition between
religion and science is not illusive ; he rec-
ognizes its reality, its extent, its impor-
tance, and its difficulties. He seems, in-
deed, to regard it as a part of the great
system of conflicts and counteractions in
Nature, such as attraction and repulsion,

LITERARY NOTICES.

499

polar antagonism, centripetal and centrifu-
gal forces. The intellect which gives origin
to science, and the sentiment of faith, or
instinct of worship, which gives origin to
religions, work in opposite spheres, and
work against each other by action and re-
action in historic periods, which the writer
designates as psychic cycles. IIow deep is
this necessity of contest, and how wide its
field of operation, in the author's opinion,
may be gathered from the following open-
ing passage of Chapter II. : " I have at-
tempted to show that the essential natures
of the religious and the intellectual forces
in man foreordain a species of antago-
nism ; that this perpetual antagonism is
not, nevertheless, an abnormal condition,
but a grand example of the universal econ-
omy of God, who has ordained antagonism
as the condition of progress in the natural
and the moral worlds. I have deduced
from the necessary relation of the ethical
and cognitive powers a necessary series of
oscillations in the relative dominance of re-
ligious and intellectual influences in the
lives of men ; and have indicated that the
exponent of these oscillations has been, as
it must be, a series of alternating periods
of religious and of intellectual activity and
progress. Such alternations, since the an-
tagonizing forces belong to humanity as
such, must characterize the history of all
nations, all races, and all times."

He then proceeds " to show that the
facts of the religious and intellectual his-
tory of the human race illustrate and con-
firm these deductions, and become in real-
ity a broad inductive basis on which these
propositions may be rested as valid gener-
alizations. A prolonged and attentive
study of the facts which make up the re-
ligious and intellectual history of our race
has caused my attention to be directed
to the following facts subsidiary to the
general induction: 1. Religious faith re-
cedes from its normal condition to one of
abnormal subordination, or advances to
one of abnormal supremacy ; 2. Intellect
from its normal condition either advances
to a haughty dictatorship or falls into a
condition of servitude ; 3. These move-
ments of faith and intellect are reciprocal
and responsive; 4. The direction of the
movement is determined by the initiative : if

faith lead in activity, a religious phase suc-
ceeds ; if intellect take precedence, reli-
gious pretensions shrink, and an intellectu-
al phase succeeds. The two phases com-
plete a psychic cycle." Four of these
psychic cycles are traced in the course of
Christian history.

This is an original and ingenious con-
caption by which Dr. Winchell is enabled
to group and arrange the elements of his
discussion, historic, religious, philosophic,
and scientific, in a very instructive manner
for his purpose, and on this account the
exposition is certain to be read by general
students with interest and profit. Dr.
WinchelFs work will do especial service,
among religious readers, by making the
whole discussion, as we might say, a piece
of natural history ; that is, he treats it in
both its aspects, as a part of the method
and phenomena of Nature. While holding
to the inspiration of the Bible, and the su-
pernatural claims of Christianity, as mat-
ters of his own special faith, he neverthe-
less holds to the validity of the universal
religious sentiment in man, and which is as
much a subject of rational inductive in-
quiry as are the physical sciences them-
selves. We can hardly overrate the gain
thus secured, by bringing the whole inquiry
into the scientific sphere, and conducting
it in the broad judicial spirit which genuine
science always imposes.

In one respect, we think Dr. Winchell's
work is open to critical objection : it fails
to state, as fully as the subject requires,
the bearing of the doctrine of Evolution
upon the questions in issue. He gives a
cautious adhesion to the biological aspect
of this theory in the following passage from
the preface : " In reference to the much-
mooted scientific question of the derivative
origin of species, the reader will detect in-
dications of a growing faith. A certain
class of proofs has been accumulating at a
rapid rate ; and the author's present con-
viction is, that the doctrine of the deriva-
tion of species should be accepted."

Now, if the doctrine of descent, as here
referred to, is to be accepted at all, it is
on the ground of its truth ; and, if it be
true, it does not stand alone or as a propo-
sition with which we have no further con-
cern than simply to approve or reject it.

500

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

If the origin of species by derivation is es-
tablished, it goes a great deal furt.her and
gives us the origin of many more things. It
must be taken as an indication of the plan
of Nature, of which man is a part, so that
the career of humanity is at once brought
under the law of development. If there
be truth in evolution, we are bound to go
by it ; and if man's religious nature has had
an unfolding, like the other elements of his
being, that fact must certainly be of the
greatest moment in determining the rela-
tions of religion and science. As to har-
mony or conflict, the question at once
arises at what stage it is taken, and what
are the traits of that change in which
man's religious progress consists. Dr.
Winehell, as we have said, afiBrms the uni-
versality of the religious element in man,
and deduces its validity from its universal-
ity, but he ought to have eliminated from
it the transitory, or what can be outgrown,
and told us what there is about it that is
essential and permanent, and to be finally
harmonized with science. He enumerates
the following as the grand fiicts common to
the religious faiths of the world : 1. A Su-
preme Being, the author of all things in ex-
istence ; 2. A revelation of the Supreme
Being either in sensible things or in the
intelligence of inspired men ; 3. A system
of worship — which is either instinctive
and aimless, or intended to propitiate the
Deity and win happiness for the worshiper ;
4. Prayer, the universal cry of humanity in
distress ; 5. Future existence ; 6. Moral
responsibility ; 1. A system of future re-
wards and punishments ; 8. A priesthood
charged with the direction of religious
ceremonies, and clothed with a special in-
vestiture of divine authority and power.
He says : " These facts I find to be the con-
stants in the varying faiths of mankind.
I will add that two other facts reveal them-
selves in most, of the religious systems of
the world — both the greater and the less.
These are : 1. A belief in the efficacy of
vicarious expiation ; 2. An expectation of
a Redeemer."

These are, no doubt very widely-spread
beliefs, but they have had very different
meanings among different races, and at
different times. In this field, preeminent-
ly, we are familiar with the decay of the

vital core of beliefs, and the conversation of
their formulas, but what we want most to
know is, the laws of change, transformation,
and expansion of religious ideas, in relation
to man's intellectual development — what
falls away and what survives. Dr. Winchell
recognizes the progress, and gives us the
final result, in a form so generalized, that we
can only find the constants just named by
some stretch of implication. He says : " The
next psychic cycle, it seems to me, will wit-
ness a synthesis of thought and faith — a
recognition of the fact that it is impossible
for reason to find solid ground that is not
consecrated ground ; that all philosophy and
all science belong to religion ; that all truth
is a revelation of God ; that the truths
of written revelation, if not intelligible
to reason, are nevertheless consonant with
reason ; and that divine agency, instead of
standing removed from man by infinite in-
tervals of time and space, is, indeed, the
true name of those energies which work
their myriad phenomena in the natural
world around us. This consummation — at
once the inspiration of a fervent religion
and the prophecy of the loftiest science — is
to be the noontide reign of wedded intellect
and faith, whose morning rays already
stream far above our horizon."

TcRKEY. By James Baker, M. A. New
York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 496. Price,

$4.

The problem of the Turkish Empire, the
great anomaly in European civilization, has
long occupied the attention of those inter-
ested in international politics — an interest
greatly heightened, of late, by the Russian
invasion of Turkey, and the threatened com-
plication of other states in the struggle.
To those whose solicitude about the Orien-
tal question leads them to inquire into the
condition of the people most deeply con-
cerned the present volume will be eminently
welcome. We lately called attention to Mr.
Wallace's admirable book on " Russia."
Colonel Baker's volume gives us a corre-
sponding picture of Turkish life and char-
acter, the political institutions, religious
peculiarities, and material resources of the
empire. The book is full of very interesting
information upon this class of subjects,
much of which is fresh, and calculated to

LITERARY NOTICES.

501

dispel erroneous impressions, and many un-
just prejudices that are entertained in Chris-
tian countries, concerning the Turliish peo-
ple. Turks are known to the outside world
chiefly through their government, which is
bad and corrupt, and shamefully misrepre-
sents the population which it rules. After
sketching some historic features of Turkish
character in former times, in Chapter VIII.,
Colonel Baker goes on to say :

" There is one point in common with both
the past and the present, and that is that the
Turkish rank and file, the real pith of the na-
tion, were then, as now, distinguished for their
patience, discipline, sobriety, bravery, honesty,
and modesty, and to these qualities I may also
add ttiat of humanity, ahhoui^h I know it will
excite an Indignant exclamation from many at
the present moment. But look at the Turkish
eoldier in private life, and you find him gentle
and kind to children and women, and exceed-
ingly fond of animals. His first thought after a
long and tiring day's march is his horse. As
soon as he has made the animal comfortable,
then he thinks of the man. When he is exas-
perated by what he thinks insults to his creed,
he kills and slays as his teaching tells him, and
he appears a fanatical madman ; but he is then
outside his real nature, and not within it. It is
but the other day that I saw thirteen thousand
of these brave men arrive fresh from the front
and all the hardships of the Servian campaign.
They were billeted for ten daysaU over the town
of Salonica, and there was not a single com-
plaint, or cause for complaint of their conduct,
from man, woman, or child.

"The streets, although filled with soldiers,
were as quiet as in ordinary times. What other
troops in the world would behave in such an ad-
mirable manuer ? Read the greatest authorities
on the subject. Von Hammer, Gibbon, Boue,
Ubiciui, Creasy, and all agree in praise of both
the past and present character of the Turkish
rank and file. But it is the rank and file that de-
picts the character of the nation, and not the
corrupt oligarchy, which from its prominence
misrepresents it. We find, then, that the rank
and file of the Turkish people is the same now
as ever, so that it is not the nation but the rulers
which have changed, and this change has been
brought about through the corrupt influences
which were handed over to them by the Byzan-
tine Empire.

"As soon, therefore, as the head of the Turk-
ish nation sliall be purified, we shall find the
whole constitution in a healthy state — there is
no disease of the body. The combination in
Turkish government of despotism with the free-
dom of the most democratic of republics is
unique. In Turkey there is no aristocracy. All
men below the sultan are equal, not only in the
eyes of the law, but by creed and custom, A
shoeblack may be made grand-vizier, and it is
by no means uncommon to see some of the high-
est oflicials of the state who have been servants
to predecessors in office."

The volume is written in a pleasant, un-
ambitious style, the writer's object being
evidently to tell the story of the Turks in a
plain, direct, and instructive way.

Elementary Chemistry : A Text-Book for
Beginners, designed as an Introduction
to Barker's Chemistry. By S. F. Peck-
ham, A. M. Pp. 254. Price, $1. Louis-
ville, Ky. : John P. Morton h Co.

This is a neatly-bound, neatly-printed,
and neatly-illustrated school-book, designed
for beginners ; and the author says that his
" object has been to supply a work for ele-
mentary schools which should be as nearly
as possible equal in quality to the text-
books of Barker and Eliot and Storer." He
could not have taken better models. A
peculiarity of the book is, that the work
of learning and instruction is carried on by
the artifice of conversation between Harry,
George, Lucy, and Uncle Louis, which raises
the question whether much of their talk is
worth the space given to it. The illustra-
tions run into the pictorial, regardless of
the publisher's purse, and it is an aim of
the writer to make the book introductory
to agricultural studies.

The Forces of Nature : A Popular Intro-
duction to the Study of Physical Phe-
nomena. By AmedeeGuillemin. Trans-
lated from the French by Mrs. Norman
Lockyer, and edited, with Additions
and Notes, by J. Norman Lockyer, F.
R. S. Illustrated by nearly 500 Engrav-
ings. Part I. Pp. 40. Price, 40 cents.
London : Macmillan & Co.

The great success of the elaborate vol-
ume under the foregoing title, both in
France and England, has induced the pub-
lishers to enter upon its reissue in parts,
with the view of cheapening it, and bring-
ing it to the attention of a wider circle of
readers. It is hardly necessary to repeat
what we said in reviewing it, that the book
is superbly illustrated, and is very clear and
popular in the style of its text. It will be
completed in eighteen parts.

Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy
OF Sciences, Arts, and Letters. Vol.
in. 18Y5-'Y6. Pp. 269.

This volume of 269 pages comprises
twenty-four papers read before the Acad-

502

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

emy, of which thirteen were read before the
department of the natural sciences. Several
of these illustrate the geology and natural
history of Wisconsin, but are of general as
well as of local interest. Others give the
results of archaeological researches in the
State, with several illustrations.

The departments of letters, of the social
and pohtical sciences, and of speculative
philosophy, are represented by papers of
ability from specialists in the respective de-
partments. A paper on recent progress in
theoretical physics by Prof. John E. Davies,
of the University of Wisconsin, is an able
resume of researches on that subject.

A summary of proceedings of the Acad-
emy since 1874 is given, and not the least
interesting portions of the volume are me-
morials commemorating the labors and worth
of two deceased members, the late Prof.
Peter Engelmann, and the eminent Dr. J.
A. Lapham, first secretary of the Academy.

A Course of Lessons in Modeling Wax
Flowers, designed especially for Be-
ginners. By Florence I. Duncan. With
Illustrations. Philadelphia : J. B. Lip-
pincott. Pp. 94.

This little book is intended as a prac-
tical guide to the art of modeling flowers
ill wax. The author aims to give such ex-
plicit directions for the selection of mate-
rials, and their proper manipulation, that a
novice in the art can acquire dexterity in
the management of wax for this purpose.
It is well gotten up, is at-tractive in its gen-
eral appearance, is printed on fine thick
paper, and illustrated by seven full-page en-
gravings of flowers suitable for models.

Catalogue of the University of Cincin-
nati FOR the Academic Year 1877-'78.
Pp. 104. Office of the University.

This young institution gives indications
of vigorous life and thorough-going manage-
ment. Its scientific department, especially,
is administered with ability. Chemistry, for
example, is not only taught in the sense of
imparting existing knowledge, but the stu-
dents are early called upon to address them-
selves to original and independent work.
There are gaps, unsettled points, contested
questions, and doubtful results, in such
abundance in this science that there is no
difficulty on the part of the intelligent

teacher in assigning problems suited to va-
rious capacities and steps of advancement,
or in combining a class upon any suitable
line of investigation. Prof. F. W. Clarke,
who has charge of physics and chemistry,
has airanged a course of preparative work
along the track of chemical physics, which
is well fitted to train the students to habits
of accurate manipulation, and to stimulate
them in the direction of original thought.
One feature of his plan is thus presented :

"In connection with the other laboratory
exercises, a certain amonnt of time will be
spent in making fine chemical preparations,
and in determining densities. In ISTT-'TS this
portion of the course will be so arranged as to
involve the cooperation of all the laboratory-
students in a systematic research upon the con-
stitution of double salts. Each student will be
required to prepare a number of such salts, and
to determine, by means of the spcciflc-travity
bottle, the amount of condensation which talves
place during their formation. At the end of the
year the entire mass of material thus collected
will be discussed both by the student and by
the professor, and as much of it as proves to be
valuable will be published in some one of the
scientific journals. The aim of this exercise is
to give every student some insight into the
methods pursued by scientific investigators, and
to demonstrate the important principle that
whoever is able to study science at all is also
able to contribute something toward its ad-
vancement."

The Anonymous Hypothesis of Creation.
By James J. Furniss. New York :
Charles P. Somerby. 1877. Pp. 54.
Price, 50 cents.

In this review of the Mosaic cosmogony,
the author aims at presenting the subject as
concisely as practicable for the benefit of
those who have not the time or the inclina-
tion to peruse more voluminous works. The
first and second chapters of Genesis are dis-
sected and compared, and their supposed
incongruities are rendered more obvious by
being presented in tabular form.

A Calendar of the Dakota Nation, by
Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Garrick Mal-
lery, U. S. a., from the Bulletin of the
United States Geological and Geographi-
cal Survey. Pp. 25.
Colonel Mallery, with the assistance
of Lieutenant Reed and others, whose ser-
vices are acknowledged, has presented a
valuable paper, with a lithographic copy of
the Dakota calendar. The original is on

LITERARY NOTICES.

503

cotton cloth, and represents, by a series of
symbols, events in which the Dakotas were
concerned, beginning about the year 1800.
Each year is represented by a symbol,
the meaning of which is explained in the
text. The symbol for 1800 is thirty black
lines, representing that thirty Dakotas were
killed that year. The symbol for 1801 is
the head and body of a man covered with
red blotches ; that year the small-pox broke
out in the nation. In 1869 the sun was
eclipsed; the symbol representing it is a
black disk. The calendar is of value as
" an attempt, before unsuspected among the
nomadic ti'ibes of American Indians, to form
a system of chronology."

The Dkvelopment of the Animal Kingdom :
A Paper read at the Fourth Meeting of
the Association for the Advancement of
Woman. By Grace anna Lewis. Pp.21.

This paper is an attempt to show that
there exists an " order of relationship" in
the animal world, and that, beginning with
the lowest organisms, there has been, up to
the highest forms, an " order of develop-
ment." The facts Avhich recent paleonto-
logical researches have brought to light are
used by the author with considerable skill
in illustration of her subject.

Personal Immortality, and Other Papers.
By Josie Oppenheim. New York :
Charles P. Somerby. Pp. 98. Price,

This little work is by an avowed free-
thinker, who, in a few pages of prefatory
remarks, tells us in a very candid way why
she thinks such a book is needed, and what
she hopes to accomplish by it. Then fol-
low discussions of " Personal Immortality,"
" Materialism," " Prayer," etc. The spirit
of the writer is good, and, whether readers
a,2;ree with her views or not, they cannot
deny her sincerity or fail to be gratified by
her tolerance.

Western Diptera. By C. R. Osten-Sacken.
From the Bulletin of the United States
Geological and Geographical Survey,
Vol. III., No. '2. Pp.' 164.

Very little was known of the diptera of
the Pacific coast until the publication of
this report. Collections were made by the

author in California during the years 1875
and 1876, not only along the low plains,
but on plateaus of the Sierra Nevada region,
at elevations of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet
above the level of the sea. The present
volume is a survey of the collections made,
which the author says are, after all, but a
small fragment of the fauna collected dur-
ing a limited season. The descriptions of
famihes and species are full and clear, and
the volume, which comprises 165 pages,
will be prized as a valuable contribution to
American entomology.

Report on the Mineral Wealth, Climate,
AND Rainfall, and Natural Resources,
OF the Black Hills of Dakota. By
Walter P. Jenney, E. M., Geologist in
charge. Pp. 71.

This report, published in 1876, comprises
Chapters V., VI., and VII. of the forthcom-
ing final report of the exploration of the
Black Hills, made under direction of the
Commissioners of Indian Affliirs, in 1875.

The area of the Black Hills is stated to
be nearly 6,000 square miles, about two-
thirds of which area is in Dakota, the re-
mainder in Wyoming. They are separated
from the main chain of the Rocky Moun-
tains, and surrounded by level or rolling
plains. The mineral and agricultural re-
sources, climate, rainfall, water, forests,
etc., of the Black Hills region are presented
in considerable detail. A good map accom-
panies the report.

First Annual Report of the Ohio State
Fish Commission. Columbus : Nevins
& Myers, State Printers. 1877.

In this report is given a detailed and
very interesting account of what has been
done by the Ohio State Fish Commission to
promote the culture of fish in that State.
Hatcheries have been established at Cas-
talia Springs, Toledo, Cleveland, and Kel-
ley's Island, at all of which places the
hatching of fish has been successfully car-
ried on. The report is greatly enhanced in
value by numerous illustrations, which are
accompanied by very full descriptions,
copied from the manuscript of Prof. Jor-
dan's forthcoming report on the zoology
of Ohio. The report includes a catalogue
of the fishes of the State.

504

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Shade - Trees, Indigenous Shrubs, and
Vines, by T. Stewart, M. D., and In-
sects THAT Infest Them, by Miss Emma
A. Smith, Entomologist. Peoria, 111. :
Transcript Company. 18YV.
This pamphlet was prepared for the re-
gion about Peoria, 111., but contains much
that will be of value elsewhere. It gives
a brief account of the indigenous trees and
shrubs best adapted to the locality, and the
paper by Miss Smith treats of the insects
which infest them, of which figures are
given. Publications like this do excellent
service in directing public attention to the
cultivation of trees and the planting of for-
ests.

Science-Lectures at South Kensington.
London and New York : Macmillan.

Under the above general title Macmillan
& Co. have published a series of small vol-
umes containing lectures delivered at the
South Kensington Museum during the loan
collection of scientific apparatus last year.
One of the volumes contains two lectures
by Prof. Roscoe on " Technical Chemistry,"
the first treating of the manufacture of sul-
phuric acid, and the second of the alkali
manufacture. In another volume are two
lectures by Prof. Stokes, on " Absorption
of Light and the Colors of Natural Bodies,"
and on "Fluorescence." The third volume
of the series contains two lectures on the
" Steam-Engine," by F. J. Bramwell. Finally,
there is a volume entitled " Outlines of Field
Geology," by Prof. Geikie. These lectures
are all addressed to science-teachers, and not
to popular audiences ; hence they are rather
technical, and possess an interest for the
practical student of science rather than for
the general reader. The prices are : for
the first two volumes, 20 cents each ; for
the other two, 25 cents.

J. W. Bouton announces " Isis Un-
veiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of
Ancient and Modern Science and Theology,"
by H. P. Blavatsky, Corresponding Secre-
tary of the Theosophical Society. This work
is announced as a philosophical study of
Orientalism, by a native of Asia, whose
life has been passed in the study of tradi-
tions, languages, literature, mythology, phi-
losophy, and mysticism, of Eastern peoples.

and who considers Oriental thought and
history with reference to modern ideas.
The work is to be issued in two large octavo
volumes.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

Narrative of the Polaris Expedition. By
Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis. Washington: Gov-
ernment Priutiug-Office. Pp. 69(5. With numer-
ous Plates.

Hand-book of Descriptive Astronomy. By
George P. Chambers. London and New York:
Macmillan. Third edition. Pp. 960. Price,
$10.

History of Protection in the United States.
By W. 6. Sumner. New York: Putnams. Pp.
64. Price, 60 cents.

Lists of Elevations West of the Mississippi.
By H. Gannett. Washington: Government
Printing-office. Fourth edition. Pp. 1G4.

The Tailed Amphibians. By W. H. Smith.
Detroit : Herald print. Pp. 158.

Eighth Annual Report of the Massachusetts
Board of Health. Boston: Wright print. Pp.
523.

Bulletin of the Geological and Goosraphical
Survey of the Territories. Vol. III., No. 3.
Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp.
200.

Relations of the Public School to the Negro.
By Civis. Richmond : Clemmitt & Jones print.
Pp. 39.

Scientific Basis of Delusions. By Dr. G. M.
Beard. New York: Putnams. Pp.47. Price,
50 cents.

Pennsylvania College MontMy. Gettysburg:
Wible print. Pp. 36. Price, $1.25 per annum.

Semicentennial Anniversary of Prof. J. W.
Jackson at Union College. Albany: Munsell
print. Pp. 32.

Reply t o a Printed Circular. By Dr. J. Marion
Sims. New York: Kent & Co. print. Pp. 24.

Influence of Physical Condition on the CJen-
esis of Species. ByJ. A. Allen. YxomVue Bad-
ical Beview. Pp. 32.

Twenty -eighth Annual Announcement of
the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Pp. 20.

Recent Progress in Sanitary Science. By A.
R. Leeds. Salem Press print.

Papers on the Corj'phodontidse, the Odon-
tornithes, and a Gigantic Dinosaur. By O. C.
Marsh. From Anurican Journal of Sciences.
With Plates. Pp. 8.

Responsibility in Parentage. By Pvcv. S. H.
Plait. New York: S.R.Wells & Co. Price, 10
cents.

Geological History of Cayuga and Seneca
Lakes. By C. W. Foote. Ithaca, N. Y. : Nor-
ton & Conklin print. Pp. 14.

A Case of Recurring Sarcomatous Tumor. By
Thomas Hay, M. D. Philadelphia: Lindsay &
Blakiston. "Pp. 14. With Lithographic Plates.

Second Stenografik Teecher. Amherst, Maes.,
U. S. A.: J. B. Smith.

Chemistry of Hydrogen. Also. Reduction of
Silver. By A. R.Leeds. New York: Trow &
Son print. Pp. 23.

Surgical Anatomv of the Tibio-tarsal Articu-
lation." By Dr. J. A. Wyeth. From American
Journal of Medical Sciences. Pp. 12.

Directory of the Spiritualism of the Bible.
By Susan A. Vandyke. Pp. 4.

Ornitholosy of the Red River of Texas. By
C. A.H. McCuuley. Pp.40. American Insectiv-

P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY.

S^S

orous Mammals. By Elliott Coues. Pp.22. Bul-
letin of the United States Entomological Com-
mission. No. 2. Pp.14. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing-office.

The Plants of Wisconsin. By G. D. Swezey.
Beloit: I'ree jh'ess print.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Scientific Associations for 1877. — The
French Association for the Advancement of
Science will this year hold its sessions in
August, at the city of Havre, under the
presidency of Dr. Broca, the eminent ar-
chaeologist. The Geological Society of Nor-
mandy will give an exhibition of the geo-
logical and paleontological products of that
ancient province.

The annual meeting of the British Asso-
ciation will be held at Plymouth, on Au-
gust 15th ; Prof. Allen Thomson, President.
The officers of the Association hope to be
supported by the personal assistance and
written contributions of philosophers of
other countries, and they undertake to make
preparation for the reception of the distant
friends and associates who may give notice of
their intention to be present at the meeting.

The officers of the American Associa-
tion for the next meeting, which is to be
held at Nashville, Tennessee, commencing
on Wednesday, August 29th, are Prof. Si-
mon Newcomb, President; Prof. Edward
C. Pickering, Vice-President of the Physical
Section ; Prof. 0. C. Marsh, Vice-President
Section of Geology and Natural History ;
Prof. N. T. Lupton, chairman of the Chemi-
cal Subsection ; Prof Daniel Wilson, chair-
man of the Subsection of Anthropology ;
R. H. Ward, chairman of the Subsection of
Microscopy; A. R. Grote, General Secre-
tary ; F. W. Putnam, Permanent Secretary ;
William S. Vaux, Treasurer.

Sliad in the Oliio River. — Mr. Spencer
F. Baird, of the United States Fish Commis-
sion, in a letter to the editor of Forest and
Stream, states that he has received a few
specimens of a genuine white shad, four
pounds in weight, taken from the Ohio River
at Louisville, Kentucky — a direct result
from the efforts made by the commission to
stock the western rivers with shad. The
letter gives a brief account of the work
done by the commission toward introducing

the shad into the waters of the Western
States, beginning with 1872, when Seth
Green planted 30,000 young shad in the
Alleghany at Salamanca, New York, and
25,000 in the Mississippi near St. Paul.
Later in the same year, the Rev. Mr. Clift
placed 200,000 in the Alleghany at Sala-
manca, and a small number in the Cuya-
hoga and in the White River at Indian-
apolis. The same gentleman carried 2,000
young shad as far west as the Platte, at
Denver. In 1863 about 160,000 shad were
placed in the Greenbriar and New Rivers
in West Virginia, and about 55,000 in the
Monongahela in Pennsylvania and the Wa-
bash in Indiana. Mr. Baird has been in-
formed that for some considerable time
forty to fifty shad have been taken daily at
Louisville by a drag seine said not to ex-
ceed thirty or forty yards long, and that in
the shoaler water of only three or four feet,
while the regular steamboat-channel is ten
or twelve yards deep and 250 yards wide.

A Remarkable Salt-Bed at Godericb, On-
tario.— Dr. T. Sterry Hunt gave, at the late
meeting of the Institute of Mining Engi-
neers, an account of the layers of rock-salt
in the geological strata of Goderich, Onta-
rio, as developed by a boring recently made.
The paper has been published in the Engi-
neering and Mining Journal, from which we
quote some particulars regarding two of the
most important rock-salt beds reached in
the course of the boring. A bed of rock-
salt of exceptional purity was found at the
depth of 1,060 feet, and another bed, not
so pure, at the depth of 1,092 feet. Of
these, the former is 25 feet thick and the
latter 34 feet ; they are separated from each
other by a layer of less than seven feet of
rock, and for practical purposes may be
regarded as one. The amount of foreign
matter contained in the twenty-five-foot
bed is singularly small, being less than a
quarter of one per cent. Its remarkable
purity is seen on comparing this with
the best commercial salts. Thus, Cheshire
rock-salt contains of foreign matter 2.67
per cent., and the famous rock-salt of Car-
dona, Spain, 1.45 per cent, of impurities.

The salts got by evaporation from sea-
water and from brines, with which our mar-
kets are in great part supplied, contain nearly

5

o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as much impurity. " From data gathered by
me," says Dr. Hunt, " and published some
years since in a ' Report of the Geological
Survey of Canada,' it appears that the amount
of foreign matters in Turk's Island salt is
2.34 ; in Saginaw salt, 2.00 ; in Syracuse
solar salt, 1.15 ; and in the boiled salt from
the same locality about 1.50 per cent. Of
the salt made at Goderich from the brines
pumped from the salt-bearing strata of the
region, three samples, analyzed by me in
1871, gave: for coarsely crystalline salt)
1.097 ; flaky medium salt, 1.282 ; and fine
salt, 1.625 per cent, of foreign impurities.
The fine salt, which is the least pure, is
made by boiling, the others by slower evap-
oration. The analysis by Dr. Goessmanu of
another sample of Goderich boiled salt gave
1.50 ; while the rock-salt from the layer of
10| feet in Division VIII. of the section
[the twenty-five-foot layer mentioned above]
contains only 0.234 per cent., or less than
one-sixth of the amount of foreign matter
found in the boiled salt made from the
Goderich brines."

ibont the English Sparrow. — A spirited
but entirely courteous controvei'sy is being
carried on in the columns of our contem-
porary. Forest and Stream, about the English
sparrow. The principal questions in dis-
pute are whether this bird is useful as a
destroyer of noxious insects, worms, and the
like, and whether it banishes from its
haunts all other species of small birds.
The evidence is conflicting. Some of the
writers say of the sparrows that they are
" exceedingly quarrelsome among them-
selves," and intolerant of birds of a differ-
ent species. When a stranger-bird makes
his appearance among them, the fury of the
whole sparrow community is turned upon
him ; they chase him hither and thither,
giving him no rest until he is banished from
the ncighborliood. " They " (the sparrows)
" let the orchards go to ruin," we are told,
" for they will not cat every kind of insect."
One writer sums up the case against the
sparrows thus : 1. They have no personal
attractions except their tameuess ; 2. They
are practically useless ; they may have been
useful on their first arrival from Europe, but
they are too much pampered to be so now ;
3. They destroy fruit-blossoms ; 4. They

are often quarrelsome, and sometimes drive
away useful birds. On the other hand, we
are told that the sparrows destroy immense
numbers of larvae, especially during the
winter ; that they are not hostile to other
birds ; that they do not destroy fruit-germs.
A writer who lives in Tenafly, New Jersey,
says : " We have a few sparrows in the
yard, and find their presence makes very
little difference with the other birds. We
have sixteen varieties of birds in the yard
at this writing, viz., brown thrush, robins,
catbirds, orioles, wood - robin, bluebirds,
phoebe-bird, cuckoo, kingbird, and the rest
warblers of different kinds. We find the
most quarrelsome to be the kingbird and
black oriole. These last are chasing almost
everything that crosses their path."

Hygiene of the Eyes. — A series of ques-
tions touching the care of the eyes were
recently submitted to Dr. E. G. Loriug, Jr.,
by the Medico-Legal Society of New York.
Dr. Loring replied in a paper which has
since been published in tlie Medical Eecord.
To the first question — namely, whether bad
air has any direct effect on the sight ? — the
author replies that vitiated air has a spe-
cially irritating influence on the mucous
membrane of the eye ; and that bad air, as
a primal cause, may set in train morbid
processes which not only will affect the
working capacity and integrity of the or-
gan, but may even lead to its total destruc-
tion. The second question was, whether
size and quality of type may cause disease
of the eye ? According to Dr. Loring, the
smallest print which a normal eye can read-
ily recognize at a distance of one foot is
about /y inch, and at eighteen inches' dis-
tance about 3^- inch. The normal eye
should never be subjected for any length of
time to a type smaller than twice this size,
or -,\ inch, and it would be better, after
middle-life, to employ a type even a little
larger than this ; but the employment of
spectacles removes in a great degree the
necessity of a larger type with advancing
years. The finer the type, the closer the
book has to be held to the eye, and the
greater the demand on the focalizing power
and the muscles that bring both eyes to
bear at once upon the print. On the other
hand, too coarse type is wearisome to the

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

507

eye, requiring more exertion of the muscles
that govern the movements of the eye. The
distance between the hues should be about
one-eighth inch ; nearer than this is apt to
be confusing, farther apart is also confusing.
Heavy-faced type is preferable to light-
faced. An almost imperceptible yellow tint
in the paper, "natural tint," is very desi-
rable ; pure white paper, especially if it has
a metallic lustre with bluish tinge, should
not be employed. The paper should be
thick enough not to be transparent, should
have a close, fine texture, and be free from
sponginess. To the third question — whether
too long and constrained attention to one ob-
ject, without rest or variety, will cause eye-
disease? — Dr. Loring replies affirmatively,
and assigns the physiological reasons. Fi-
nally, he was asked whether the angle at
which light strikes the eye is important ?
He replies that the light should not come
directly in front; neither should it come
from directly behind. It should not come
from the right side, because, in writing, the
shadow of the hand falls across the page ;
and a moving shadow over a lighted sur-
face not only reduces the quantity of light
and leads to a stooping position, but it is
also more annoying to the eye than a uni-
form reduction in the illumination of even
a greater degree. The best direction for
the light to come is from the left-hand side,
and from rather above than below the level
of the hand.

High Temperatures and Bowel-Com-
plaints.— Dr. N. S. Davis, in a " Report on
Clinical and Meteorological Records " com-
municated to the American Medical Asso-
ciation, an abstract of which we find in the
Medical Record, reaches the conclusion that
the bowel affections, so characteristic of
this temperate climate, begin invariably
with the first week of continuous high tem-
perature, and that every subsequent occur-
rence of several days and nights of continu-
ous high temperature causes new attacks
to be increased in number throughout the
month of July, less in August, and still less
in September ; that it is not simply the
extreme of heat, but its duration, which
determines the number of attacks ; that
this continuous high heat, to be efficient in
producing these affections, must follow a

protracted season of cold ; and that, if we
compare these deductions directly with sta-
tistics of mortality, we shall find them to
conform in every particular in that the
higli rate of mortality follows exactly the
same line. That fact was regarded as one
of great importance in connection with sani-
tary measures which were to be adopted for
the protection of life in infants ; preventive
measures must strike with the first week of
consecutive high temperature. These con-
clusions were corroborated by quotations
from mortality-tables.

Blanniial Value of Spent Tan and Saw-
dust.— From careful analyses of spent tans
and dyewoods and other similar waste ma-
terials. Prof. F. H. Storer, of the Bussy In-
stitution, reaches the general conclusion
that they contain but a very small propor-
tion of fertilizing substances, and that prac-
tically, whether they be fresh or rotten,
they have very little value as m.mure. Of
fresh sawdust, even that from hard woods,
he says that it can hardly be considered
an economical manure ; it is far inferior,
for compost, to peat. But, curiously enough,
the chemical evidence goes to show that it
is for feeding animals rather than for feed-
ing plants that sawdust might be put to
use. Fresh sawdust, even that of pine-
trees, can be used with advantage as fodder
in times of dearth. Twigs and leaves, as
the clippings of vines and hedges, or bushes
mown in pastures, are undoubtedly valuable
both as manure and forage. Autumn leaves
and the rakings of woodland, which consist
for the most part of leaves that have not
only fallen, but have bisen bleached by
rains, may be classed as somewhat inferior
to straw.

Wearing Qualities of Alumininm.— The

comparative resistance of aluminium to
change of color and wear, when brought into
daily use, has been made the subject of ob-
servation by Dr. C. Winklcr,of Freiberg, who
finds, according to the Polytechnic Revieio,
that it is inferior to silver in retaining color
and lustre, being about on a par with Ger-
man-silver in these respects ; while it wears
away more rapidly than silver, but less so
than German-silver. Spoons made of all
three materials, each having exactly the

5o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

same weight, were used a year under pre-
cisely similar conditions, being placed in
the same soups, sauces, sour salads, etc.,
and exposed alilve to hot, acid, and alkaline
solutions, and subjected to similar methods
of cleaning. The aluminium turned to a
dead bluish-gray color, and lost its lustre ;
the German - silver changed to a grayish-
yellow ; the silver lost only in color, retain-
ing its lustre. Weighed at the end of the
year, the silver spoon had lost 0.403 per
cent., the aluminium spoon 0.630 per cent.,
and the German - silver spoon 1.006 per
cent. For small coins. Dr. Winkler thinks
that alumhiium is to be preferred to either
nickel or silver alloys.

Is Insanit}^ on the Ineroase? — Do the

conditions of human life, as they exist in
modern civilized countries, tend to an in-
crease of insanity ? A glance at the statis-
tics of the insane for any given country
would seem to require an affirmative an-
swer to this question. For instance, the
ratio of insane persons in England in the
year 1859 was 18.67 to 100,000 persons;
in 1865 it was 21. 73 ; in 1870, 24.31 ; in
1876, 26.78. In other words, there is now
one insane person to 375 of the popula-
tion, while in 1859 the proportion was
about one in 540. But, as is shown by Dr.
Henry Maudsley, in the Journal of Mental
Science, the increase is apparent only : more
insane persons are registered now than for-
merly. Again, the establishment of numer-
ous asylums, and the better care bestowed
on patients, have had the effect of prolong-
ing the lives of the insane ; this, too, will in
part account for the higher proportion of
insane shown by the statistics. The ques-
tion is incidentally raised by Dr. Maudsley,
whether we cure more insane persons nowa-
days, when we treat them well, than our
uninstructed forefathers cured when they
treated them ill. " There is," he repUes,
" no evidence that we do." Here the sta-
tistics timdd Kcem to show that, under the
old system, there was a higher percentage
of recoveries. " Yet, it would be wrong,"
remarks the author, " to attribute the lower
percentage of recoveries to the ill-success
of our present mode of dealing with insan-
ity ; it is, no doubt, owing in great part, if
not entirely, to the greater proportion of

chronic and incurable cases among those
who have been admitted during the last
twenty-five years. Formerly, acute and vio-
lent cases only were sent to asylums, and
they would yield a larger percentage of re-
coveries, as well, probably, as a larger per-
centage of deaths. Of the admissions fewer
recover and fewer die each year now than
then, the result being the steady accumula-
tion of a residue of chronic and incurable
insanity beyond what occurred then. It
is a question," he adds, " deserving atten-
tion, whether the present practice of crowd-
ing the insane of all sorts into large asy-
lums, where the interests of life are extin-
guished, and where anything like individual
treatment is wellnigh impracticable, is so
much superior to the old system in effecting
recoveries as some persons imagine."

TIic Rocky-Mountain Locust iu Manito-

bat — The following notes on the appear-
ance and migration of the locust in Mani-
toba and the Northwest in the summer of
1875 are taken from a notice, in the Ameri-
can Journal of Science, of a paper on that
subject by George M. Dawson. In the year
just mentioned the hatching of locusts began
in Manitoba on May 7th, and on May 15th
it was general. The movement began in
July, and was most general during the lat-
ter half of that month and the early part
of August. The direction was southeast or
south. Other swarms of locusts came from
the south across the forty-ninth parallel,
with a wide front stretching from the
ninety-eighth to the one-hundred-and-eighth
meridian ; these arrived before the Manito-
ba broods were mature. These were the
extreme northern part of the army, going
northward and northwestward from the
States ravaged in the fall of 1874. Mr.
Dawson thinks that the planting of belts
of woodland would in time effect a general
and permanent abatement of the grasshop-
per-plague, since they usually avoid such
belts. Their journey southward was re-
gardless of the direction from which their
parents had come the preceding year ; and
those of Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, and
Texas, flew northward and northwestward,
returning on the course of their parents,
who had flown southeastward from that
quarter. The normal direction of flight is

P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY.

509

toward the hatching-grounds of their par-
ents, so that two years seem to be required
to complete the migration cycle. Tlie
methods of prevention proposed are the
cultivation and preservation of forest-trees ;
the protection of the prairie-grass till the
appropriate time for destroying the young
insects by fire ; and the protection of in-
sect-catching birds.

A New Whe.it-Fnnjins in California. —

Early in Mai-ch of the present year the
young wheat in certain districts of Califor-
nia began to exhibit on its expanded leaves
yellowish-white patches of fungous growth.
This peculiar species of " rust " or " mil-
dew " appears to be new to California, and
has been recognized by Mr. H. W. Hark-
ness, of the San Francisco Microscopical
Society, as the Erysiphe graminis of De
Candolle. According to Mr. Harkness, the
fungus appears on the expanded leaves in
felt-like patches, from one-sixteenth to one-
half inch in length, following the longest
diameter of the leaf equally on both sides.
It adheres with great tenacity, though, on
examining sections of the leaf and fungus,
no suckers are apparent. The leaf, at a
short distance from the culm, soon turns
brown and dries. In the earlier stages the
mycelium is observed creeping over the sur-
face, its filaments overlying one another
until it forms a felted mass. To what ex-
tent the wheat will be damaged, it is as yet
impossible to say. Adhering, as it does,
closely to the plant, it doubtless appropri-
ates the juices needed for maturing the
grain, at the same time excluding air and
sunlight from the tissues. Its visible ef-
fect is a weakening of the stalk, thus favor-
ing decay.

A New Measure of Geological Time. —

The amount of solid matter abraded from
the land and carried to the sea as sediment,
or in suspension, has often been estimated
by geologists, and the importance of this
suspended matter as an agent of geological
changes has been fully recognized. But
less attention has been bestowed upon the
soluble matter washed out of the earth by
every fall of rain and added to the waters
of the ocean. This subject has been studied
by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, whose results, as

I set forth in his presidential address to the
Liverpool Geological Society, we find sum-
marized in the Nineteenth Century as fol-
lows : The author's first problem was to
estimate the total quantity of solid material
removed in the course of one year, by the
solvent action of rain, from the entire sur-
face of England and Wales, supposing the
mean rainfall to be thirty-two inches. It
is worthy of note that the variation of rain-
fall in different parts does not affect the
quantity of dissolved matter to anything
like the extent that might have been an-
ticipated. True, the hilly districts of the
west, in Cumberland, Wales, Cornwall, and
Devon, intercept a large quantity of rain ;
but, then, these collecting-grounds are com-
posed of old rocks, ranging from Cambrian
to Carboniferous ; and such rocks are, to a
great extent, insoluble. On the other hand,
in the southern and eastern counties the
rainfall is much less than in the west ; but,
then, the rocks belong generally to Second-
ary and Tertiary formations, and are toler-
ably soft and soluble. A kind of compen-
sation is thus established, the total quantity
of solid matter carried off in solution in a
given time being much the same in one
river as in another. Roughly speaking, it
may be said that where the rainfall is great-
est the solubility is least ; where the rain-
fall is least the solubility is greatest. It is
needless to follow the details of the calcu-
lation by which the author is finally led to
the conclusion that about 8,370,630 tons
of solids are annually removed in solution
by the rivers of England and Wales. Dis-
tributing the denudation equally over the
country, the total area being 58,300 square
miles, we obtain a general lowering of the
surface to the extent of .000077 of a foot in
a single year ; in other words, it would re-
quire 12,978 years to reduce the surface of
England and Wales by one foot through
the solvent action of rain alone. Fewer
data exist for extending this interesting
inquiry to the Continent of Europe, and
fewer still when we pass to other parts of
the world. But, making the best of avail-
able data, and proceeding on the principle
that " Nature, on the whole, averages the
results," Mr. Reade feels justified in assum-
ing provisionally that about one hundred
tons of rocky matter will be dissolved by

510

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rain from every English square mile of the
solid surface of the earth in the course of a
year. All this dissolved matter, however
far it may be transported by rivers, ulti-
mately runs down into the sea. If, then,
as commonly supposed, the sea contains
only what has been washed out of the land,
the results previously attained may help us
to form some crude idea of the length of
time which has been needed to give the
ocean its present composition. Not to be
irksome, we may pass over an array of fig-
ures and a number of provisional assump-
tions, in order to reach conclusions of gen-
eral interest. These conclusions are, that it
would take, in round numbers, 20,000,000
years to accumulate the quantity of sul-
phates of lime and magnesia contained in
the vast bulk of the ocean, but only 480,000
years to renew the carbonates of lime and
magnesia; with reference, however, to the
latter constituents, it must be borne in
mind that a vast quantity of carbonate of
lime is constantly being removed from sea-
water for the supply of the hard parts of
shell-fish, crustaceans, corals, and other ma-
rine animals, and consequently the amount
calculated as present in the ocean is far
from indicating the total quantity which is
poured into it. But what are we to say of
the chlorides, especially the chloride of
sodium, which is the prime constituent of
sea-water? The ocean contains so much
of this salt, and the rivers usually so little,
that we are driven to conclude from the
author's calculations that it would take
200,000,000 years to renew the chlorides in
the ocean !

Geological Changes in Colorado.— It is

noted as an interesting fact by Dr. A. C.
Pealc, in the American Journal of Science,
thnt Colorado, which now possesses the
highest mass of mountains in the United
States, and whose mean elevation is higher
than that of any other State or Territory,
was also one of the highest areas of the
North American Continent in Palaeozoic
time. In very early time in Coloi'ado there
was archsean land rising above the Palseo-
zoic sea. As the Carboniferous age pro-
gressed, this land diminished by encroach-
ment of the sea, due to subsidence of the
land. This subsidence continued through

Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous time, into
the early Tertiary. At the close of the Lig-
nitic there was a physical break, followed by
a subsidence (at least locally) and subse-
quently by elevation, after the deposition
of the Miocene strata. The elevation of
the Rocky Mountains, as we now see them
in Colorado, is the result of an elevation
commencing in early Tertiary time and con-
tinuing through the period, accelerated per-
haps at the close of the Lignitic, and the
deposition of at least Lower Miocene strata.
This elevation is probably still going on.

The Bnilding System of Philadelphia. —

A paper on " A Building System for Great
Cities," published in the Penn Monthly,
contains an account of what may be called
the Philadelphia system, of separate houses
for families of very moderate means — arti-
sans, and even laborers. There are three
primary forms of houses, viz., the two-story
four-roomed house, the two-story six-roomed
house, and the three-story eight-roomed
house, the value of which is respectively
$1,200 to $2,500, $2,500 to $3,800, and
$3,000 to $5,000. They are always of brick,
erected on stone-walled cellars not less than
seven feet deep, fourteen by twenty-eight feet
for the smallest houses, fourteen to sixteen
by forty-two to forty-five feet for the six-
roomed and the eight-roomed houses. All
these are built in contiguous rows or blocks
with a common wall between them. Since
the inauguration of the system, which scarce-
ly dates before the year 1862, building has
made rapid progress. In 1867 it began to be
specially active, and since that time an aver-
age of 4,500 houses yearly has been erected,
of which 2,500 were two-story and 2,000
three-story. The writer of the paper in the
Penn Monthly has learned, from a personal
inspection of a district near the southern
border of the city of Philadelphia, that three-
fourths of the dwellings that have been
erected two years or more are owned by
those who live in them. In a space less
than a mile square, and containing 4,000
dwellings, the proportion of vacant houses
was less than two per cent. Certainly more
than one-half of these dwellings were owned
by their occupants, and often entire blocks
of thirty or forty houses would show over
ninety per cent, so owned.

NOTES.

511

Are the Salts of Copper poisonous?—

Dr. Burcq, M. Galippe, and others, having
in communications addressed to the Paris
Academy of Sciences asserted that copper
is not poisonous after the manner of lead,
and that it may be absorbed for a long
time without injurious consequences, Dr.
E. Decaisne has submitted to the same
Academy the results of observations made
by himself, from which it would appear
that the reverse is the fact. We present a
synopsis of Dr. Decaisne's paper, which we
find in La Nature. He states that in 1864
he published a memoir entitled " A Medical
Study on Absinthe-Drinkers," in which it was
shown that a great many of the cheaper
qualities of absinthe contain sulphate of
copper, and that, of a hundred and fifty ab-
sinthe-drinkers observed by him, a certain
number gave clear evidence of copper-poi-
soning. Fifteen samples of absinthe, pur-
chased at wine-shops in Paris, all contained
sulphate of copper in varying proportions :
three of the samples contained it in the pro-
portion of twenty-five centigrammes to the
litre. Indeed, some of the distillers frankly
admitted that they used sulphate of copper
to color the absinthe. M. Decaisne cited a
recent case of poisoning by acetate of cop-
per, that of a young man of twenty-three,
who showed all the symptoms of acute poi-
soning by copper salts, after having drunk
some " eau de vie de marc," an inferior
quality of brandy. Analysis of a sample
of this brandy showed it to contain 1.164
gramme of acetate of copper to the litre.
The hquor had been distilled in an appa-
ratus that had lain unused for a year, and
which had become filled with acetate of
copper. French statistics show that sul-
phate and acetate of lead rank third among
substances employed in criminal poisoning.

NOTES.

Mr. Jabez Hogg, the eminent English
microscopist, in a recent paper calls atten-
tion to certain " errors of interpretation " to
which microscopists are liable in examining
the scales of insects and other minute ob-
jects. Some such " errors of interpretation "
were pointed out by Mr. John Michels in the
Monthly two years ago, but his statements
were at the time called in question by mi-
croscopists in various portions of this coun-

try. Mr. Hogg himself, when these errors
were first pointed out in the London Micro-
scopical Society by Dr. Piggott, expressed
the opinion that the latter was laboring un-
der a mistake. Later, however, he was
convinced of the correctness of Piggott's
views, and now confirms them with his own
observations.

A PRESSURE of forty to one hundred
and twenty atmospheres has been found by
Quincke to be incapable of forcing a per-
ceptible quantity of carbonic-acid or hydro-
gen gas through a glass wall 1.5 millimetre
in thickness, during a period of fifteen years.

A MONUMENT to Licbig was unveiled at
Darmstadt, his native town, on May 12th,
the seventy-fourth anniversary of his birth.

Died, in Berlin, on March 29th, Alexan-
der Braun, Professor of Botany in the Uni-
versity of Berhn, aged seventy-two years.
In a brief notice of his life Professor Asa
Gray says : " His influence as a teacher is
said to have been great ; as an investigator,
he stood in the first rank among the bota-
nists of our time ; as a man, his simple, ear-
nest, and transparently truthful character
won the admiration and love of all who
knew him." With Braun's memoirs on the
" Arrangement of the Scales of Pine-Cones,
etc." (1830), began the present knowledge
of phyllotaxis. Other noteworthy memoirs
by this author are that on "Rejuvenescence
in Nature," and "The Vegetable Individual
in its Relation to Species," both of which
have been translated into English.

The residual charcoal, after lixiviation
of destructively distilled sea-weed, possesses
an extraordinary power of absorption and
deodorization. According to Mr. E. C. C.
Stanford, its composition is about midway
between that from wood and that from bone,
in the proportion of carbon ; but it is more
nearly like the latter, from which it differs
in containing more carbon and carbonates
of calcium and magnesium, and less phos-
phates. It can be obtained at one-fourth the
price of any other charcoal.

Mention is made, in Land and Water, of
a singular hybrid, the progeny of a barn-
yard cock and a common duck. The body
of the hybrid is like that of a duck, but the
feet, which have three front claws and a ru-
dimentary back one, are not webbed, and
the upper mandible is that of a fowl, extend-
ing only half the length of the lower, which
is that of a duck, the singular formation
causing great difficulty in feeding.

A writer in the American Naturalist
cites the following instance of carnivorous
habits in the red-headed woodpecker : In
the summer of 1876 a man in Humboldt
County, Iowa, raised a large number of black

512

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Cayuga ducks. While the birds were still
very young, many of them disappeared, and
the bodies of several were found with the
brains picked out. On watching carefully,
a red-headed woodpecker was caught in the
act. He killed the tender duckhng with a
single blow on the head, and then picked
out and ate the brains.

The " Transactions " of the American
Society of Civil Engineers for May contains
an article on " Approximate Determination
of Stresses in the Eye-Bar Head," by W. H.
Burr ; minutes of meetings ; an interesting
letter written by (ieneral Philip Scliuyler in
1Y99, giving his opinion of a plan proposed
by Dr. Brown for supplying this city with
water from the Bronx River ; and a list of
new books on engineering and technology,
besides other matters of interest to engi-
neers.

Mr. McNab, of the Edinburgh Botanical
Society, states that the past spring in Scot-
land was more backward than any other
during the last twenty-eight years.

Having measured the red blood-cor-
puscles of men belonging to fourteen differ-
ent races or nationalities, Dr. Richardson,
of Philadelphia, found the average diameter
to be 1,2^4 of an inch, the maximum diam-
eter being 2 7^7-T, and the minimum

4 u 0 0 •

The " hard glass " manufactured by
Siemens, of Dresden, by means of hydraulic
pressure, is said to be stronger than Bastie's
glass, in the proportion of five to three. Its
fracture, according to the English Mechanic,
is fibrous, not crystalline. Besides being
stronger, it is also cheaper than Bastie's
"tempered" glass; and, unlike the latter,
sheets of the Dresden glass can be cut to
any size with the diamond.

The number of blind persons per 100,000
of the population of Bavaria is 52 ; of the
United States, 52 ; Prussia, 58 ; Belgium,
66 ; Switzerland, 11 ; Sweden, 81 ; France,
84; Norway, 184. The number of insane,
cretins, and idiots, is, in Bavaria, 110 per
100,000; in the United States, 160; Scot-
land, 185; France, 238; Switzerland, 300;
Wiirteniberg, 312; Norway, 340. Of deaf-
mutes the United States have 45 per 100,-
000; Belgium, 46; Bavaria, 58; France,
58 ; Saxony, 60 ; Switzerland, 245.

Trade, commerce, is usually considered
one of the chief influences favoring civiliza-
tion ; yet, according to Mr. James Irvine,
it has the contrary effect in Africa. Every
native is a trader from the day of his birth,
and the cultivation of the soil is utterly
neglected. The buying and selling of palm-
oil, palm-kernels, and a few minor products,
give them really all they require, and they
cannot be stimulated to further exertion.

Langeroy, in a communication to the
Paris Academy of Sciences, calls attention
to the antiseptic properties of bichromate
of potassa. According to him, one per cent,
of the bichromate in water absolutely pre-
vents putrefaction in all animal and vege-
table substances. After meat has stood in
the solution for a few months it resembles
gutta-percha, and medals have been struck
li'om it; but it becomes poisonous, and
even dogs refuse to eat it. This antiseptic
will doubtless be of great use for the pres-
ervation of natural-history specimens.

A SIMPLE and ingenious contrivance for
drawing liquids from carboys is described
in La Nature. It consists of two tubes
passing into the carboy through the stop-
per, one of the tubes serving as a siphon,
and the other as a means of increasing the
air-pressure over the liquid. At its outer
extremity the siphon has attached to it a
short section of rubber or gutta-percha
tube, which may be compressed by a clamp.
To fill the siphon, a person blows thiough
the short tube, with the clamp relaxed.
When sufficient liquid is drawn off, the
clamp is allowed to compress the walls of
the elastic tube, stopping the flow.

In a late report on the origin of the
skin-disease known as Delhi boil, or, as it
has been lately named from its wide distri-
bution in the East, Oriental sore, Drs. Lewis
and Cunningham reject the view that the
affection is attributable to parasitic agency.
From extended observations in widely-sep-
arated districts they are led to ascribe the
disease to the use of well-waters that con-
tain a large quantity of salts, and are ex-
tremely hard. In Egypt, Asia Minor, and
Syria, where the sore prevails, the well-
waters are notoriously brackish, agreeing
in this with many stations in India, where
the disease is also prevalent.

Dr. C. a. Bressa, deceased in 1835, be-
queathed all his property to the Turin Acad-
emy of Sciences, the net interest to be given
every two years as a prize for the best work
done, during the previous four years, in
physics, natural history, chemistry, physi-
ology, pathology, geology, history, geogra-
phy,* or statistics. The fund is now avail-
able, and the first award will be made two
years hence. The competition will be open
to the whole world, and the prize will
amount to about |2,500.

Moles render to the farmer and gardener
very considerable service at little or no cost
— the damage they do being more than com-
pensated by the destruction of worms and
grubs. When they have eaten all the grubs
and worms in a certain place, they emigrate
to another, and there repeat their gratui-
tous work.

SIMON NEWCOMB.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

SEPTEMBER, 1877.

DOMESTIC EETEOSPECT AND PEOSPECT.'

By HEKBERT SPENCER.

INDUCTION has greatly predominated over deduction throughout
the foregoing chapters ; and readers who have "borne in mind
that Part II. closes with a proposal to interpret social })henomena
deductively, may infer either that this intention has been lost sight of,
or that it has proved impracticable to deal with the facts of domestic
life otherwise than by empirical generalization. On gathering to-
gether the threads of the argument, however, we shall find that the
chief conclusions forced on us by the evidence are those which Evo-
lution implies.

We have first the fact that, little as it might have been expected,
the genesis of the family fulKlls the law of Evolution under its lead-
ing aspects. In the rudest social groups nothing to be called mar-
riage exists : the unions of the sexes are extremely incoherent. Fam-
ily groups, consisting of mothers and such few children as can be
reared without permanent paternal assistance, are necessarily small
and soon dissolve : integration is slight. Within each group the re-
lationships are less definite ; since the children are mostly half-broth-
ers or half-sisters, and the paternity is often uncertain. From such
primitive families, thus small, incoherent, and indefinite, there arise,
in conformity with the law of Evolution, divergent and redivergent
types of families — some characterized by a mixed polyandry and
polygyny ; some that are polyandrous, difierentiating into the fraternal
and non-fraternal ; some that are polygynous, differentiating into
those composed of wives and those composed of a legitimate wife and
concubines ; some that are monogamous, among which, besides the
ordinary form, there is the aberrant form distinguished by a wife

' Conclusion to the chapters on " The Domestic Relations," which complete vol. i. of
the " Principles of Sociology."
VOL. XI. — 33

514 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

married only for a part of each week. Of these genera and species
of families, those varieties which are found in advanced societies
are the most coherent, most definite, most complex. Not to dwell on
intermediate types, we see, on contrasting with the primitive kind of
family group that highest kind of family group which civilized peo-
l^les present, how relatively high is its degree of evolution. The
marital relation has become perfectly definite ; it has become extreme-
ly coherent — commonly lasting for life ; in its initial form of parents
and children it has grown larger — the number of children reared by
savages being comparatively small ; in its derived form, comprehend-
ing grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., all so connected as to
form a definable cluster, it has grown relatively large ; and this large
cluster consists of members whose relationships are very heteroge-
neous.

Again, the developing liuman family fulfills, in increasing degrees,
those traits which we saw at the outset are traits of the successively-
higher forms of reproductive arrangements throughout the animal
kingdom. Maintenance of species being the end to which mainte-
nance of individual lives is necessarily subordinated, we find, as we
ascend in the scale of being, a diminishing sacrifice of individual lives
in the achievement of this end ; and, as we ascend through the suc-
cessive grades of societies with their successive grades of family, we
find a further j^rogress in the same direction. Human races of the
lower types, as compared with those of the higher, show us a greater
sacrifice of tlie adult individual to the species ; alike in the brevity of
that stage which precedes reproduction, in the relatively heavy tax
entailed by the rearing of children under the conditions of savage
life, and in the abridgment of the period that follows : women espe-
cially, early bearing children and exhausted by the toils of mateimity,
having a premature old age soon cut short. In superior family tyjjes
there is also less sacrifice of juvenile life: infanticide, which in the
poverty-stricken groups of primitive men is dictated by the necessi-
ties of social self-preservation, becomes rarer ; and juvenile mortality
otherwise caused decreases at the same time. Further, along with
the diminishing sacrifice of adult life, there goes an increasing com-
pensation for the sacrifice that has to be made : more prolonged and
higher pleasures are taken in rearing progeny. Instead of states in
which children are early left to provide for themselves, or in which,
as among Bushmen, fathers and sons quarreling try to kill one an-
other, or in which, as Burton says of the East Africans, " when child-
hood is past, the father and son become natural enemies, after the
manner of wild beasts," there comes a state in which keen interest
in the welfare of children extends throughout parental life. And
then to this pleasurable care of offspring, increasing in duration as
the family develops, has to be added an entirely new factor — the
reciprocal pleasurable care of parents by offspring : a factor which,

DOMESTIC RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 515

feeble where the family is rudimentary and gaining strength as the
family develops, serves in another way to lessen the sacrifice of the
individual to the maintenance of the species, and begins, contrari-
wise, to make the maintenance of the species conduce to the more
prolonged life, as well as to the higher life, of the individual,

A fact not yet named remains. Evolution of the higher types of
family, like evolution of the higher types of society, has gone hand-
in-hand with evolution of liuman intelligence and feeling. The gen-
eral truth that there exists a necessary connection between the nature
of the social unit and the nature of the social aggregate, and that
each continually moulds and is moulded by the other, is a truth which
holds of domestic organization as well as of political organization.
The ideas and sentiments which make possible any more advanced
phase of associated life, whether in the family or in the state, imply a
preceding phase by tlie experiences and discipline of which they
were acquired; and these, again, a next preceding phase; and so
from the beginning. On turning to the last part of the " Principles
of Psychology" (edition of 1872), containing chapters on " Develop-
ment of Conceptions," "Sociality and Sympathy," "Ego-Altruistic
Sentiments," " Altruistic Sentiments," the reader will find it shown
how the higher forms alike of intellect and feeling, made possible
only by the social environment, evolve as this environment evolves —
each increment of advance in the one being followed by an increment
of advance in the other. And carrying out this doctrine he will see
that since altruism plays an important part in developed family life,
the higher domestic relations have become possible only as the adapta-
tion of man to the social state has progressed.'

In considering deductively the connections between the forms of
domestic life and the forms of social life, and in showing how these
are in each type of society related to one another because jointly
related to the same type of individual character, it will be convenient
to deal simultaneously with the marital arrangement, the family struct-
ure, the status of women, and the status of children.

Primitive life, cultivating antagonism to prey and enemies, brute
or human — daily yielding the egoistic satisfaction of conquest over
alien beings which prove to be weaker, daily gaining pleasure from
acts which entail pain — maintains a type of nature which generates
coercive rule, social and domestic. Brute strength glorying in the
predominance which brings honor, and unchecked by regard for others'
welfare, seizes whatever women fancy prompts, adding to them and
changing them at will. And children, at the mercy of this utter self-

* As included in the general theory of the adaptation of organic beings to their cir-
cumstances, this doctrine that the human mind, especially in its moral traits, is moulded
by the social state, pervades social statics ; and is especially insisted upon in the chapter
entitled " General Considerations."

5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ishness, are preserved only when and as far as the instinct of parent-
hood predominates. Clearly, then, weakness of the marital relation,
indeiiuite incoherent forms of family, harsh treatment of women, and
infanticide, ai'e inevitable concomitants of militancy in its extreme
form.

The advance from these lowest social groups, hardly to be called
societies, to groups that are larger, or have more structure, or both,
implies increased cooperation. This cooperation may be compulsory
or voluntary, or it may be, and usually is, partly the one and partly
the other. We have seen that great militancy implies predominance
of compulsory cooperation, and that great industrialness implies pre-
dominance of voluntary cooperation. Here we have to observe that
it is deductively manifest, as we have found it inductively true, that
the accompanying domestic relations are in each case congruous with
the necessitated social relations.

The individual nature which exercises that despotic control and
submits to that extreme subjection implied by pronounced militancy
in developing societies, no less than the fostering of egoism and re-
pression of sympathy by a life devoted to war, inevitably determines
the arrangements within the household as it does the arrangements
without it. Hence the disregard of women's claims shown in stealing
and buying them ; hence the inequality of status between the sexes
entailed by polygyny ; hence the use of women as laboring slaves;
hence the life and death power over wife and child; and hence that
constitution of the family which subjects all its members to the eldest
male.

Conversely, the type of individual nature developed by voluntary
cooperation in societies that are predominantly industrial, whether
they be peaceful, simple tribes, or nations that have in great measure
outgrown militancy, is a relatively-altruistic nature. The daily habit
of exchanging services, or giving products representing work done
for money representing work done, is a habit of seeking such egoistic
satisfaction as allows like egoistic satisfactions to those dealt with.
There is an enforced respect for others' claims ; there is an accom-
panying mental representation of their claims implying, in so far,
fellow-feeling ; and there is an absence of those repressions of fellow-
feeling involved by coercion. Necessarily, the type of character thus
cultivated, while it modifies social actions and arrangements, modifies
also domestic actions and arrangements. The discipline which brings
greater recognition of the claims of fellow-men brings greater recog-
nition of the claims of women and children.. The practice of con-
sulting the wills of those with whom there is cooperation outside
the household, brings with it the practice of consulting the Avills of
those with whom there is cooperation inside the household. The
marital relation becomes changed from one of master and subject
into one of approximately-equal partnership ; while the bond becomes

DOMESTIC RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 517

less that of legal authority and more tliat of affection. Tlie parental
and filial relation ceases to be a tyranny which sacrifices child to par-
ent, and becomes one in Avhich, rather, the will of the parent subordi-
nates itself to the welfare of the child.

Thus the results deducible from the natures of militancy and in-
dustrialness correspond witJi those which we have found are, as a
matter of fact, exhibited. And, as implying the directness of the
alleged connections, I may here add an instance showing tliat in the
same society the domestic relations in the militant part retain the
militant character, while the domestic relations in the industrial part
are beginning to assume the industrial character. Commenting on
the laws of inheritance in ancient France, as affecting children of
different sexes and different ages, Konigswarter remarks that " it is
always the feudal and noble families which cling to the principle of
inequality, while the ideas of equality penetrate everywhere into the
rotwihres and bourgeoises families." Similarly Thierry, speaking of
a new law of the thirteenth century, equalizing rights of pi*operty be-
tween the sexes and among cliildren, says : " This law of the hour-
geoisie^ opposed to that of the nobles, was distinguished from it by
its very essence. It had for its basis natural equity."

And now we come to the interesting question, " What may be in-
ferred respecting the future of the domestic relations ? " We have
seen how the law of evolution in general has been thus far fulfilled in
the genesis of the family. We have also seen how, during civilization,
there has been carried still further that conciliation of the interests of
the species, of the parents, and of the offspring, which has been going
on throughout organic evolution at large. Further, we have noted
that these higher traits in the relations of the sexes to one another
and to children, which have accompanied social evolution, have been
made possible by those higher traits of intelligence and feeling pro-
duced by the experiences and disciplines of progressing social states.
And we have, lastly, observed the connections between special traits
so acquired and special types of social structure and activity. Assum-
ing, then, that evolution will continue along the same lines, let us
consider what further changes may be anticipated.

It is first inferable that, throughout times to come, the domestic
relations of different peoples inhabiting different parts of the earth
will continue to be iinlike. We must beware of supposing that de-
veloped societies will become universal. As with organic evolution,
so with super-organic evolution, the production of higher forms does
not involve extinction of all lower forms. As superior species of
animals, while displacing certain inferior species that compete with
them, leave many other inferior species in possession of inferior habi-
tats, so the superior types of societies, while displacing those inferior
types occupying localities they can utilize, will not displace inferior

5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

types inhabiting barren or inclement localities. Civilized peoples are
unlikely to expel the Esquimaux. The Fuegians will probably sur-
vive, because their island cannot support a civilized population. It is
questionable whether the groups of wandering Semites who have for
these thousands of years occupied Eastern deserts will be extruded
by societies of higher kinds. And perhaps many steaming malarious
regions in the tropics will remain unavailable by races capable of
much culture. Hence the domestic, as well as the social, relations
proper to the lower varieties of man are not likely to become extinct.
Polyandry may survive in Thibet ; polygyny may prevail throughout
the future in parts of Africa ; and, among the remotest groups of hy-
perboreans, mixed and irregular relations of the sexes will probably
continue.

It is possible, too, that in certain regions militancy may persist,
and that along with the political relations natural to it there may sur-
vive the domestic relations natural to it. Wide tracts, such as those
of Northeastern Asia, unable to support populations dense enough to
form industrial societies of advanced types, will perhaps remain the
habitats of societies having those imperfect forms of state and family
which go along with offensive and defensive activities.

Omitting such surviving inferior types, we may here limit our-
selves to types carrying further the evolution which civilized nations
now show us. Assuming that among these industrialism will increase
and militancy decrease, Ave have to ask what are the domestic rela-
tions likely to coexist with complete industrialism.

The monogamic form of the sexual relation is manifestly the ulti-
mate form ; and any changes to be anticipated must be in the direc-
tion of completion and extension of it. By observing what possibili-
ties there are of greater divergence from the arrangements and habits
of the past, we shall see what modifications are probable.

Many acts that are normal with the uncivilized are, with the civ-
ilized, transgressions and crimes. Promiscuity, once unchecked, has
been more and more reprobated as societies have progressed ; abduc-
tion of women, originally honorable, is now criminal; the marrying
of two or more wives, allowable and creditable in inferior societies, has
become in superior societies felonious. Hence, future evolution, along
lines thus far followed, may be expected to extend the monogamic
relation by extinguishing promiscuity, and by suppressing such crimes
as bigamy and adultery. Dying out of the mercantile element in
marriage may also be inferred. After wife-stealing came w^ife-pur-
chase; and then followed the usages which made, and continue to
make, considerations of property predominate over considerations of
personal preference. Clearly, wife-purchase and husband-purchase
(which exists in some semi-civilized societies), though tliey have lost
their original gross forms, persist in disguised forms. Already some

DOMESTIC RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 519

disapproval of those who many for money or position is expressed ;
and this, growing stronger, may be expected to purify the monogamic
union by making it in all cases real instead of being in some cases
nominal.

As monogamy is likely to be raised in character by a ublic sen-
timent requiring that the legal bond shall not be entered into unless
it represents the natural bond, so, perhaps, it may be that mainte-
nance of the legal bond will come to be held improper if the natural
bond ceases. Already increased facilities for obtaining divorce point
to the probability that, whereas, in those early stages during which
permanent monogamy was being evolved, the union by law (originally
the act of purchase) was regarded as the essential part of marriage, and
the union by affection as non-essential, and whereas at present the
union by law is thought the more important and the union by affection
the less important, there will come a time when the union by affec-
tion will be held of primary moment and the union by law as of
secondary moment : whence reprobation of marital relations in which
the union by affection has dissolved. That this conclusion will seem
unacceptable to most is probable — I may say, certain. In passing
judgment on any moditied arrangement suggested as likely to arise
hereafter, nearly all err by considering what wovdd be likely to result
from the supposed change, all other things remaining unchanged.
But other things must be assumed to have changed ji:)a?v! passu.
Those higher sentiments accompanying union of the sexes, which do
not exist among primitive men, and were less developed in early
European times than now (as is shown in the contrast between an-
cient and modern literatures), may be expected to develop still more
as decline of militancy and increase of industrialness foster altruism ;
for sympathy, which is the root of altruism, is a chief element in these
sentiments. Moreover, with an increase of altruism must go a de-
crease of domestic dissension. Whence, simultaneously, a strength-
ening of the moral bond and a weakening of the forces tending to
destroy it. So that the changes which may further facilitate divorce
under certain conditions are changes which will make those condi-
tions more and more rare.

There may, too, be anticipated a strengthening of that ancillary
bond constituted by joint interest in children. In all societies this is
an important factor, and has sometimes great effect among even rude
peoples. Falkner remarks that although the Patagonian marriages
"are at will, yet when once the parties are agreed, and have children,
they seldom forsake each other, even in extreme old age." And this
factor must become more efficient in proportion as the solicitude for
children becomes greater and more prolonged, as we have seen that it
does with progressing civilization, and must continue to do.

But leaving open the question what modifications of monogamy,
conducing to increase of real cohesion rather than nominal cohesion,

520 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are likely to arise, there is one conclusion we may draw with certainty.
Recurrinir to the three ends to be subserved in the order of their ini-
portance — welfare of species, welfare of offspring, welfare of parents —
and seeing that, in the stages now reached by civilized peoples, wel-
fare of species is effectually secured in so far as maintenance of num-
bers is concerned, the implication is that welfare of offspring must
hereafter determine the course of domestic evolution. Societies which
from generation to generation produce in due abundance individuals
who, relatively to the requirements, are the best physically, morally,
and intellectually, must become the predominant societies, and must
tend through the quiet process of industrial competition to replace
other societies. Consequently, marital relations which favor this re-
sult in the greatest degree must spread, while the prevailing senti-
ments and ideas must become so moulded into harmony with them
that other relations will be condemned as immoral.

If, still guiding ourselves by observing the course of past evolu-
tion, we ask what changes in the statics of women may be anticipated,
the answer must be that a further approach toward equality of po-
sition between the sexes will take place. With decline of militancy
and rise of industrialness — with decrease of compulsory cooperation
and increase of voluntary cooperation — with strengthening sense of
personal rights and accompanying sympathetic regard for the personal
rights of others, must go a diminution of the political and domestic
disabilities of women, until there remain such only as differences of
constitution entail.

To draw inferences more specific is somewhat hazardous : proba-
bilities and possibilities only can be indicated. While in some direc-
tions the emancipation of women has to be carried further, we may
suspect that in other directions their claims have already been pushed
beyond the normal limits. If from that stage of primitive degrada-
tion in Avhich they were habitually stolen, bought and sold, made
beasts of burden, inherited as property, and killed at will, Ave pass to
the stage America shows us, in which a lady wanting a seat stares at
a gentleman occupying one until he surrenders it, and then takes
it without thanking him, we may infer that the rhythm traceable
throughout all changes has carried this to an extreme from which
there will be a recoil. The like may be said of some other cases :
what were originally concessions have come to be claimed as rights,
and, in gaining the character of assiamed rights, have lost much of the
grace they had as concessions. Doubtless, however, there will remain
in the social relations of men and women, not only observances of a
kind called forth by sympathy of the strong for the weak irrespective
of sex, and still more called forth by sympathy of the stronger &ex for
the weaker sex, but also observances which originate in the wish,
not consciously formulated but felt, to compensate women for certain

DOMESTIC RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 521

disadvantages entailed by their constitutions, and so to equalize the
lives of the sexes as far as possible.

In respect of domestic powei-, the relative position of women w ill
doubtless rise ; but it seems improbable that absolute equality with
men will be reached. Legal decisions from time to time demanded
by marital differences, involving the question which shall yield, are
not likely to reverse all past decisions. Evenly though law may bal-
ance claims, it will, as the least evil, continue to give, in case of need,
supremacy to the husband, as being the more judicially-minded. And,
simihirly, in the moral relations of married life, the preponderance of
power, resulting from greater massiveness of nature, must, however
unobtrusive it may become, continue with the man.

When we remember that up from the lowest savagery civilization
has, among other results, brought about an increasing exemption of
women from bread-winning labor, and that in the highest societies
they have become most restricted to domestic duties and the rearing
of children, we may be struck by the anomaly that at the present
time restriction to indoor occupations has come to be regarded as a
grievance, and a claim is made to free competition with men in all
out-door occupations. This anomaly is traceable in part to the abnor-
mal excess of women ; and obviously a state of things which excludes
many women from tliose natural careers in which they are dependent
on men for subsistence justifies the demand for freedom to pursue
independent careers. That any hinderances standing in their way
should be, and will be, abolished must be admitted. At the same time
it must be contended that no considerable alteration in the careers of
women in general can be, or should be, so produced ; and, further,
that any extensive change in the education of women, made with the
view of fitting them for businesses and professions, would be mischiev-
ous. If women comprehended all that is contained in the domestic
sphere, they would ask no other. If they could see all that is implied
in the right education of children, to a full conception of which no
man has yet risen, much less any woman, they would seek no higher
function.

That in time to come the political status of women may also be
raised to something like equality with that of men, seems a deduction
naturally accompanying the preceding ones. But such an approxi-
mate equalization, normally accompanying a social structure of the
completely industrial type, is not a normal accompaniment of social
types still partially militant. Just noting that the giving to men and
women equal amounts of political power, while the political respon-
sibilities entailed by war fell upon men only, M^ould involve a serious
inequality, and that the desired equality is therefore impracticable
while wars continue, it may be contended that though the possession
of political power by women would possibly improve a society in
which state-regulation had been brought within the limits proper to

522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pure industrialism, it would injure a society in which state-regulation
has the wider range characterizing a more or less militant type. Sev-
eral influences would conduce to retrogression. The greater respect
for authority and weaker sentiment of individual freedom character-
izino- the feminine nature would tend toward the maintenance and
multiplication of restraints. Ability to appreciate special and imme-
diate results, joined with inability to appreciate general and remote
results, characterizing the majority of men, and still more character-
izing women, would, if women had power, entail increase of coercive
measures for achieving present good, at the cost of future evil caused
by excess of control. But there is a more direct reason for antici-
pating mischief from the exercise of political power by women, while
the industrial form of political regulation is incomplete. We have
seen that the welfare of a society requires that tlie ethics of the fam-
ily and the ethics of the state shall be kept distinct. Under the one
the greatest benefits must be given where the merits are the smallest ;
vmder the other the benefits must be proportioned to the merits: for
the infant, unqualified generosity ; for the adult citizen, absolute jus-
tice. The ethics of the family have for their correlatives the parental
instincts and sentiments, which, in the female, are qualified in a smaller
degree by other feelings than in the male. Already these emotions
proper to parenthood, as they exist in men, lead them to carry the
ethics of the family into the policy of the state ; and the mischief
resulting would be increased were these emotions, as existing in women,
directly to influence that policy. Tlie progress toward justice in so-
cial arrangements would be retarded, and demerit would be fostered
at the expense of merit still more than now.

But, in proportion as the conceptions of pure equity become clearer;
as fast as the regime of voluntary cooperation develops to the full the
sentiment of personal freedom, with a correlative regard for the like
freedom of others ; as fast as there is approached a state under which
no restrictions upon individual liberty will be tolerated, save those
which the equal liberties of fellow-citizens entail ; as fast as indus-
trialism evolves its appropriate political agency, which, while commis-
sioned to maintain equitable relations among citizens, is shorn of all
those powers of further regulation proper to the militant type ; so fast
may the extension of political power to women go on without evil.
The moral evolution which leads to concession of it will be the same
moral evolution which renders it harmless and probably beneficial.

No very specific conclusions are to be drawn respecting future
changes in the status of children. Parental and filial relations, less
regulated in detail by law and custom than all others, have more
readily changed under the influence of changed sentiments and ideas,
and, while becoming generally liberalized, have become so far varied
that it is diflicult to characterize them.

DOMESTIC RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 523

While an average increase of juvenile freedom is to be anticipated,
there is reason to think that here and there it has already gone too
fai'. I refer to the United States. Besides in some cases unduly
subordinating the lives of adults, the degree of independence tliere
allowed to the young appears to have the effect of bringing them for-
ward prematurely, initiating them too early in the excitements proper
to maturity, and so tending to exhaust the interests of life before it is
half spent. Such regulation of childhood as conduces to full utiliza-
tion of childish activities and pleasures, before the activities and pleas-
ures of manhood and womanhood are entered upon, is better for off-
spring at the same time that it is better for parents.

How far is parental authority to go? and at what point shall
political authority check it ? are questions to be answered in no satis-
factory way. Already I have given reasons for thinking that the
l)Owers and functions of parents have been too far assumed by the
state; and that probably a reintegration of the family will follow its
present undue disintegration. It seems possible that from the early
form in which social and family organizations are compulsory in char-
acter, we are passing through semi-militant, semi-industrial phases, in
wliich the organizations of both state and family are partly compul-
sory, partly voluntary, in character ; and that, along with complete
social reintegration on the basis of voluntary cooperation, will come
domestic reintegration of allied kind, under which the life of the fam-
ily will again become as distinct from the life of the state as it origi-
nally was. Still there remain the theoretical difficulties of deciding
how far the powers of parents over children may be cariicd ; to what
extent disregard of parental responsibilities is to be tolerated ; when
does the child cease to be a unit of the family and become a unit of
the state. Practically, however, these questions will need no solving ;
since the same changes of character which bring about the highest
form of family will almost universally prevent the rise of difficulties
which result from characters of lower types proper to lower socie-
ties.

Moreover, there always remains a security. Whatever conduces
to the highest welfare of offspring must more and more establish itself
through the replacing of children of inferior parents reared in inferior
ways by children of better parents reared in better ways. As lower
creatures at large have been preserved and advanced through the
insti'umentality of parental instincts ; and as in the course of human
evolution the domestic relations originating from the need for pro-
longed care of offspring liave been assuming higher forms ; and as the
care taken of offspring has been becoming greater and more enduring ;
we need not doubt that, in the future, along with the more altruistic
nature accompanying a higher social type, there will come I'elations
of parents and children needing no external control to insure their
well-working.

524 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

One further possibility of domestic evolution remains. The last
component to show itself among the feelings Avhich hold the family to-
gether, the care of parents by offspring, is the one which has most
room for increase. Absent in brutes, small among primitive men, con-
siderable among the partially civilized, and tolerably strong among the
best of those around us, filial affection is a feeling that admits of
much further growth, which is needed to make the cycle of domestic
life complete. At present, the latter days of the old whose married
children live away from them are made dreary by the lack of those
remaining pleasures to be derived from the constant society of de-
scendants ; but the time will come when this evil will be met by an at-
tachment of adults to parents which, if not as strong as that of aged
parents to children, approaches it in strength.

Further development in this direction will not, however, occur
under social arrangements which jjartially absolve parents from the
care of offspring. A stronger feeling to be displayed by child for
parent in later life must be established by a closer intimacy between
parent and child in early life. No such higher stage is to be reached
by walking in the ways followed by the Chinese for these two thou-
sand years. We shall not rise to it by imitating, even partially, the
sanguinary Mexicans, whose children, at the age of four, or sometimes
later, were delivered over to be educated by the priests. We shall
not improve family feeling by approaching toward the arrangements
of tlie Koossa-Caffres, among whom " all children above ten or eleven
years old are publicly instructed under the inspection of the chief."
This latest of the domestic affections will not be fostered by retro-
grading toward customs like those of the Andamanese, and, as early as
possible, changing the child of the family into the child of the tribe.
Contrariwise, such a progress Avill be achieved only in proportion as
both moral and intellectual culture are carried on by parents to an
extent now rarely attempted. When the unfolding minds of children
are no longer thwarted, and stunted, and deformed, by the mechan-
ical lessons of stupid teachers — when instruction, instead of giving
mutual pain, gives mutual pleasure by ministering in proper order to
faculties which are severally eager to appropriate fit knowledge pre-
sented in fit forms — when, with a wide diffusion of adult culture,
joined with rational ideas of teaching, there goes a spontaneous un-
folding of the juvenile mind such as is even now occasionally indi-
cated by exceptional facility of acquisition — when the earlier stages
of education passed through in the domestic circle have become, as
they will in ways scarcely dreamed of at present, daily aids to the
strengthening of sympathy, intellectual and moral, leaving only the
more special cultures to be carried on by others ; then will the latter
days of life be smoothed by a greater filial care, reciprocating the
greater parental care bestowed in earlier life.

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES. 525

ODD FOKMS AMONG FISHES.

By Professor SANBOKN TENNEY.

PROBABLY there is no group of animals— certainly no group of
vertebrates — tliat exbibits more strange and even monstrous
forms than fishes.

The typical fish, we may well believe, is some such form as the
salmon, or the cod, or the bass, or an average of these and their nu-
merous allies. In a word, the ordinary fishes of the ocean, lakes, and
streams, give us essentially the true idea of the typical fish.

But what remarkable departures from these ordinary forms do we

Fig. 1.— Salmon, introduced here as an example of a typical fish.

find when we take a survey of the whole vast group of animals that
are called fishes !

Let us take the salmon as a fair sample of an ordinary fish, and
then briefly notice a few of the strange forms to which the name is ap-
plied.

If we look at the rays (Fig, 2), we see "fishes" whose width is so
great in proportion to their length, that in giving their dimensions it
would seem to be quite the natural thing to put down the loidth as the
prominent measurement instead of the length, as is our custom in the
case of ordinary fishes. And it may be remarked here that the great
relative breadth of these animals is connected with the kind of move-
ments which they exhibit in progression. Instead of ordinary swim-
ming, these animals eflect locomotion by a sort of flight through the
waters; and hence are often called "sea-eagles," "sea-vampires," etc.
They all belong to the sea. Some of the rays are of wonderful dimen-
sions, although the ordinary kinds are only about two or three feet
wide. One was taken near Messina which weighed half a ton. One
taken near Barbadoes is said to have been so large that it required
seven yoke of oxen to draw it ! Levaillant tells us of one which was
thirty feet wide and twenty-five feet long ; and Dekay states that
one of these monsters of the deep has been known to seize the cable
of a small vessel at anchor, and draw it several miles with great
velocity !

52(

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The rays have the mouth, nostrils, and gill-openings, on the under-
side. Like the sharks, they are without gill-covers, and have the gills
iixed by both margins. Their teeth differ from those of all ordinary

FiQ. 2.— Sting-Eat {Trygon hastata, Storer).

fishes, being of a definite form, bounded by planes symmetrically ar-
ranged, the whole forming a beautiful mosaic (Fig. 3).

Remarkable as are the form and general structure of the rays, as
indicated above, a still more remarkable structure is exhibited in some

Fig. 3.— Teeth of a Eat.

of them ; for those known as torpedoes (Fig. 4) are so constructed
that they are a powerful galvanic battery. These have the space be-
tween the pectoral fins, the head, and the gills, on each side, filled
with membranous tubes which are divided by horizontal partitions
into small cells filled Avith a sort of mucus and traversed by nerves;

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES.

527

and by means of this apparatus they give violent shocks to animals
with which they come in contact.

Hardly less strange than the rays are those animal structures

sm

Fig. 4.— Torpedo, ft, brain ; eo, eye and optic nerve ; «/, electric organs ; sn, spinal nerves ; sm,
spinal marrow; /jg', pneumogastric nerves going to the electric organs; };g'', branch of the
preceding; g, gills.

which remind us somewhat of tlie rays on the one hand, and the
sharks on the other, but Avhich differ from both in several important
respects, but especially in having a very long depressed and bony

Fig. 5.— Mackerel-Shark (Lamna punctata, Storer).

snout, armed on each side with spines implanted like teeth, the whole
constituting a most formidable weapon. These are the sawfishes
(Fig. 7), which attain a length of fifteen feet or more.

528

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Every one sees at a glance that the sharks (Figs. 5, 6, 1) are
widely different from all ordinary fishes. Their peculiar outline in
general, their unequal-lobed tail, their transverse mouth on the un-
derside of the head, their formidable array of lancet-shaped teeth,

Fig. 6.— Thresher-Shark (Alopias vulpes, Bonaparte).

tlieir fixed gills without gill-covers, their rough skin, their pillow-
shaped eggs with long, tendril-like appendages at the corners (Fig.
8), all combine to separate them about as far as possible from typical
fishes. And if we compare them with one another, what wonderfuUy-

FiG. 7.— Hammer-head Shark {Zygcena malleus. Valenciennes) ; and Sawfish (Pristis anti-
quorum, Latham).

diversified forms do we see as we pass from the dog-sharks to the
mackerel-sharks, and from the latter to the white sharks, and from
these to the threshers, and to the hammer-heads, and so on through
the whole list !

And who that has studied only the ordinary fishes would at length

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES.

529

expect to find such a fish as the chimsera (Fig. 9) — an animal whose
general appearance, it is true, is somewhat shark-like, but which, if
possible, is more strange and monstrous than any of the sharks or

Fig. 8. — Shark's Egg, with a Portion of the Covering removed.

rays ? This curious arctic fish, which attains the length of four feet,
is not only exceedingly remarkable in its general appearance, but it is
especially remarkable in its structure — having no upper jaw, the four

Fig. 9.- Northern Chim.era, or King of Herrings (Chimcera monstrosO).

•upper teeth being supported on the front of the skull, and only two
teeth in the lower jaw, and having no backbone, this important part
being represented only by the most rudimentary structure, such as

Fig. 10.— Lepidosiken.

•exists in the ordinary embryonic vertebrate, and which is known
under the name of chorda dorsalis.
VOL. XI. — 34

53°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the tropical regions of America and Africa there is found a
strange "fish," about three feet long, and called the lepidosiren
(Fig. 10) — scaly siren, as the name implies. In its general aspect it
is decidedly reptilian, and some writers have described it under the
reptiles. Nor is it strange that naturalists should have been in doubt
in regard to its true affinities, for it is decidedly reptilian in appear-
ance, and is so unlike the typical fishes in structure that it has both
gills and lungs — thus leading a sort of double life. It is believed
that in important respects this fish is like some of the fishes that lived
in the old Devonian times.

Fia. 11.— Gab-pike (Lepidosteus).

The gar-pikes, too, depart considerably from ordinary fishes,
especially in their teeth, hard, shining scales, and heterocercal tail
(Fig. 11).

And the sturgeons (Fig. 12), ballasted and protected with rows of
large bony plates, and with a nose fitted for " rooting," and a mouth

Fig. 12.— Sturgeon (Acipenser ooc7jrhijnchus, Mitchell).

for sucking, and a tail more or less like that of a shark, are very un-
like anything we should select as a typical fish.

And what shall we say of the " sea-horses," or hippocamps (Fig.
13), whose head reminds us far more of the head of a horse than it

Fig 1.3 — Ska-Horsr \Ilippocam.-
ptis Hudsonius, Dekay).

Fig. 14.— Pipe-fish {Sygnathus Peckianus, Storer).

does of that of a typical fish ? And of the pipefishes (Fig. 14), or sy-
gnathi, whose body is all length, nearly, and whose mouth is just at
the extremity of a long snout ; and which have this strange habit.

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES.

531

namely, that the males receive the eggs into a pouch, in which they
carry them till they are hatched ?

Who tliat has studied and heard of only ordinary fishes would
ever expect to see such an animal as the sunfish {Orthagoriscus) ; and
who, when he sees one for the first time, would regard it as anything
short of a monstrosity? This huge fish (Fig. 15), weighing, in some

Fig. 15.— Sunfish (^Orthagoriscus mola, Schreiber).

cases, five hundred pounds, is so abbreviated behind, that it is scarcely
represented behind the dorsal fin, making it one of the most remark-
able forms, and one of the most difficult to explain, to be found in the
whole class.

The trunk-fishes (Fig. 16) are very remarkable forms. They have
an inflexible shield of bony plates, so that the mouth, tail, and fins,
are the only movable parts. These small fishes — from three inches to

Fig. 16.— Teunk-fish {Lactophrtjs
Camelinui-, Dekay).

Fig. 17.— Puffer ( Tetraodon hirgidus,
Mitchell).

a foot, in length — are thus in strong contrast with the ordinary fishes,
whose whole bodies are so flexible that tliere is the greatest freedom
of motion throughout nearly the entire structure.

Again, the puffers (Fig. 17) are remarkable forms. Being more
or less covered wiih spines, and having the habit of inflating them-
selves bv swallowino; aii", thus givins: them more or less of a rounded

53 =

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

appearance, tbey may perhaps not improperly be called the " sea-
urchins " among fishes.

Another strange form is the fishing-frog, or angler (Fig. 18), whose
enormous mouth enables it to swallow animals nearly as large as

Fig. 18.— Angler, or Goose-fish {LojMus Americanus, Cuvier).

itself, and whose antex-ior dorsal rays bear fleshy filaments, which it is
said to use as a bait to decoy other fishes, thaf it may secure them as
food.

In the cavities under stones in the sea are found the little toad-
fishes (Fig. 19), whose head is so like that of a toad that we are
ready to concede that both the popular and scientific names of these
animals (batrachus) are well bestowed.

Fig. 19.— Toad-fish (^Batrachus tau, Linnoeus).

There are many other fishes that depart so much from the ordinary
forms that tlie common fisherman instinctively names them after some
land-animals. The sea-wolf or wolf-fish is one of these, although its
head is more like that of a wild-cat or a lynx than it is like that of a
wolf. It is sometimes called the sea-cat. Its body is long, witli a
dorsal fin nearly the whole length, and the head is round; its moutli
is armed with a most formidable array of teeth, making this animal,

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES.

533

which is five or six feet long, a most dangerous antagonist when the
fisherman comes in direct conflict with it.

The hand-fishes of the tropics are very small, but their grotesque
appearance and hand-shaped fins, suited for creeping, make them very

Fig. 20. —Sea- Wolf {Anarrhiclias lupus).

proper subjects of notice in this connection. One very small species
is found on our Atlantic coast.

Nor ought the lump-fish (Fig. 21) to be omitted in this enumera-
tion ; for, although it is not specially remarkable in its general aspect,
it is very remarkable in at least one portion of its structure. It has

:%

Pig. 21. — Lump-fish {Cyclopterus lumpiis, Linnsens).

its ventral fins united so as to form a cup-shaped disk, and by means
of this disk this fish is able to attach itself to any surface with great
firmness. Pennant states that, upon putting one into a pailful of
water, it adhered to the bottom so firmly that he lifted it by the
fish's tail.

Fig. 22.— Swoed-fish.

Nor ought we to omit to mention the sword-fish, although it ex-
hibits nothing specially remai'kable in its general form, excepting its
sword-like prolongation of the jaw (Fig. 22). And on account of its

534

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

movable spine at the base of the tail we may merely mention the
herbivorous lancet-fish, although in its general outline it is scarcely
more remarkable than a perch or a bream.

'"Sea-ravens" {Hemipterua^ Fig. 23), "sea-robins" (Frio)iotus),
" sea-swallows " [Dactylopterus), and sculpins ( Coitus)^ may well be
called strange fishes, for their forms are so marked and so strange that
they at once arrest the attention of the commonest observer at the

Fig. 23— Sea-Raven (iZeffiJ;><er«s ^mrfiawM*, Storer). Fig. 34.— Star-Gazer (Crawo.'copws

anoplos, Cuviei).

sea-side. While all these have a certain general resemblance to one
another, all agreeing in being remarkably ugly, each has its own
marked peculiarities in -the development of the head and fins, and in
the curious fleshy filaments which are found upon some of them.

We may also justly include the little star-gazers ( Uranoscopiis,
Fig. 24) of the Atlantic, whose eyes are so placed that they appear as
if looking constantly toward the heavens, and whose mouth is cleft
vertically, and has in it a long filament wliich can be protruded at
will, and which is said to be used in attracting small fishes while the
owner lies concealed in the mud.

Next we may mention the remora (Fig. 25), on whose head there
is a sort of disk composed of laminae which are serrated and movable,
by means of which the fish can firmly attach itself to other animals.

Fig. 25.— Remora (,Echeneis).

It is said that it can be made useful by putting a ring attached to a
line around its tail, and then allowing it to swim away in searcli of a
victim ; when it has firmly attached itself to a fish, both the remora
and its captive are hauled in together.

Remarkable and strancre as are all the forms of fishes which we
have so far noticed, not one of them exhibits any want of bilateral
symmetry. But we now come to a whole group of fishes, including

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES.

535

halibuts, turbots, soles, flounders (Fig. 26), etc., whose two sides are
totally unlike — a peculiarity which is not only not found in any other

Fig, 26.— Floundek (Platessa vulgaris, Cuvier).

group of fishes, but not in any other group of vertebrate animals.
These strange fishes have the body flat, both eyes on the same side

Fig. 27.— GAii-FisH (Belone iruncata, LeSueur).

of the head, and the sides of the mouth unequal. They are without a
swimming-bladder, live at the bottom of the sea, and are of all sizes,

Fig. 28.— Flting-fish {Exoccetm),

from those not more than six or eight inches in length to those that
attain a weight of six hundred pounds.

536

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As for the gars, I should not mention them in this article, although
they are quite peculiar in several respects, were it not for one fact
connected with the nature of their skeleton. Their bones are of a
green color, a peculiarity which, so far as I am informed, is unique
among vertebrates.

Nor is there anything very peculiar about the flying-fishes, except
the excessive development of their pectoral fins, and the habit of
" fliglit " connected with this development (Fig. 28).

Fig. 29.— Catfish (SUurus glanU).

But perhaps we ought not to omit to mention the siluroids (Fig,
29), or catfish, for, although they are more like ordinary fishes than
some of those already mentioned, their large, broad, and flat head,
and large .mouth with its fleshy filaments, give them a decidedly
outre appearance, making them quite marked forms in the class of
fishes.

As to the little blind-fishes (Fig. 30), or AmUyopsidce, of the
Mammoth Cave, they are very similar in general outline to ordinary
fishes, but are peculiar in having the eyes rudimentary and concealed

Fig. .30.— Blind-fish {Airiblyopsis spelmus,
Dekay).

Fig. .51.— Lamprey {Petromyzon Amencanin,
LeSiieur).

under the skin, and in having the vent before the base of the pectoral
fins at the point indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 30.

The eels are only or mainly remarkable on account of their elon-
gated form. But the lampreys (Fig. 31), though eel-like in form, are
not only different from ordinary eels in their structure, but very dif-
ferent from all the fishes we have hitherto noticed. Their respiratory

ODD FORMS AMONG FISHES.

537

apparatus is very peculiar, being composed of seven pouches on each
side, which receive water from the lateral openings of a canal distinct
from the oesophagus, and discharge the same through seven branchial
openings on each side of the neck ; and their mouth and tongue are
more strange than their breathing-apparatus." The mouth is round,
and the tongue moves forward and backward in it like a piston, thus
enabling the animal to produce a vacuum to fix itself firmly to a stone
or any other body in the water.

As we 2:et near the bottom of the scale in the examination of
fishes, we find forms which, so far as their general outline is concerned,
give no intimation of their true affinities. The myxines, or hags (Fig.
32), are of this sort: small fishes which have the general aspect of

Fig. 32.— Hag, or Mtxine (Mijxine
limosa, Girard).

Fig. 33.— Lancelet, or Amphioxus (Bran-
chionloma).

worms, but whose plan of structure shows them to be vertebrates,
and whose circular mouth and piston-like tongue ally them to the
lampreys.

And at the very bottom of the group of fishes we find the little
amphioxus, or lancelet (Fig. 33) ; and how wide is the gap between
this soft, nearly transparent vertebrate, without teeth or jaws, with-
out skeleton or real head, and with only a mere slit for a mouth, and
the typical fish as we see it in the shad, the cod, and the salmon !
So little does the amphioxus appear like even a vertebrate, that Pal-
las, the naturalist who first described it, thought that it was some
sort of slug or snail.

These strange forms of fishes are facts ; and the important ques-
tion is, What do they mean ? What has caused them ? What are
they for? Will they continue ? These and other questions quickly
suggest themselves, and are easily asked ; but are not so easily an-
swered.

The whole subject of the origin and meaning of organic forms is
a very important one. It is not so narrow as indicated by the ques-
tions asked above about the queer forms of certain fishes ; but it is a
subject which embraces inquiry into the origin and full significance
of all organic forms upon the earth and within its crust.

Are these fishes and all other organic forms juj^t as they were cre-
ated ? The creationist says " Yes ; " the evolutionist says " No." Sup-
pose we admit the doctrine that they were all created as they now
appear — what does it mean that there are 15,000 specific forms of
fishes, and that a thousand, or two thousand, more or less, are of these
outre forms described above ? Can any one give a satisfactory an-

538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

swer? Or suppose we accept the doctrine of evolution and natural
selection — does that, when we come right down to the facts as re-
vealed in tliese 15,000 forms of fishes and all other organic forms,
solve all the difficulties for us, or enable us to solve them ? Does
evolution alone enable us to account for the wonderful diversity of
form, to say nothing of the scarcely less wonderful diversity of size,
among these numerous vertebrates — especially when we remember
that thousands of the most diverse forms have alwavs been under
essentially the same physical conditions ?

Is there any rational explanation that we can yet give of such a
form and structure as those exhibited in the torpedo (Fig. 4), in tlie
sawfish and the hammer-head shark (Fig. 7), the chimsera (Fig. 9), the
remora (Fig. 25), or the lamprey (Fig. 31) ?

Is it not true that we have much yet to learn before we can give
a satisfactory exjjlanation of the wonderfully diverse forms in the
animal kingdom, or even in a single group like that of fishes ?

THE OBSERYATOKIES OF ITALY.'

By Peofessoe G. EAYET.

IN the course of my journey in Italy, I visited successively the ob-
servatories of Palermo, Naples, Rome (that of the Roman College
as well as that of the Capitol), Florence, Bologna, Moclena, Padua,
Milan, and Turin, remaining some time at each. There are thus no
less than ten observatories in Italy, three times as many as in France;
and from the proceedings of the Congress of Astronomers at Palermo ^
it appears that it is the intention of the Government to maintain all
of them, each one being devoted, however, to a diflferent branch, so
as to fulfill the various needs of astronomical science, now become so
complex.

Of these observatories, only that of Naples has a considerable
number of assistants, and in no one is the work done under rigid
regulations; each astronomer devotes himself, according to his predi-
lections, to a special subject ; emulation and the desire to make a name
in science produce a continuity of effort the result of which has in

' Prof. Rayot, of Marseilles, has recently been deputed, by the Minister of Pubhc In-
struction of France, to visit the various observatories of Italy, and to report upon them.
His report is published in the Archives dcs Alissions Scientifiques, S™« serie, tome iii., p.
529. As this work is not generally accessible, and as almost nothing is known in this
country of the important steps now taking in Italy, it is believed that the following
abridgment and translation of this report will be of value. — EniTOR.

"^ &e Appendix to vol. iv. of the "Memoirs of the Society of Italian Speclroscopists,"
p. 37, ct seq.

THE OBSERVATORIES OF ITALY. 539

the last few years been manifest in various brilliant discoveries.
To show this, it will be sufficient to describe briefly the situation of
each observatory, and the work upon which it is at present engaged.

The Observatory of Palermo : Director^ M. Cacciatore ; As-
tronomer^ M. Tacchini. — This observatory contains two important
instruments: a meridian-circle, constructed in 1857 by Pistor and
Martins (of Berlin), whose telescope has an aperture of 126 milli-
metres (4.98 inches), and an equatorial by Merz (of Munich), of 24
centimetres (9.45 inches) aperture, which, though built in 1857^ was
not mounted until 1865. The meridian-circle was employed in 1870
to determine the difterence of longitude between Naples and Palermo,
this last point being the fundamental station in the new topographical
map of Sicily, and it is daily employed in observations of the sun
and the principal stars. The most important work, however, of the
observatory of Palermo, which is specially undertaken by M. Tac-
chini, is the daily study of the solar protuberances.

Since the total solar eclipse of 1868, a great number of astrono-
mers have devoted themselves to the daily observations of these
protuberances, in order to study their distribution on the solar cir-
cumference, and their relations with solar spots. Among these
astronomers are Lockyer, Secchi, Rayet, Respighi, Tacchini, and
Young, but it is in Italy that these researches are most vigorously
prosecuted, and, in order to avoid the interruptions in a series which
cloudy days may occasion, the observatories of Palermo, Rome, and
Padua, prosecute these observations in common.

Every day, when the weather will permit, M. Tacchini makes a
drawing of the protuberances surrounding the boi'der of the sun and
of the spots and faculae which are upon its surface. These drawings,
as well as those made at Rome and Padua, are subsequently pub-
lished in the "Memoirs of the Society of Italian Spectroscopists,"
whose publications, begun in 1872, form already four large quarto
volumes.

For this work, M. Tacchmi makes use of the large equatorial of
the observatory, and a direct-vision spectroscope made by Tauber, of
Leipsic, which has two series of five prisms. These prisms are of rare
excellence, for, in spite of their number, the spectral lines suffer no
distortion. The spectroscope can be rotated on its axis so that it can
be placed tangentially on any portion of the sun's circumference.
Among the interesting historical instruments of the observatory is
the altitude and azimuth circle made by Ramsden in l788-'89, which
served Piazzi in the preparation of his great catalogue of stars.

The Observatory of Naples : Director^ M. de Gasparis ; As-
tronomers, MM. Fergola, Brioschi, and Nobile. — The observatory of
Naples is the most important of those of Italy, in its equipment and
its personal establishment.

It was founded in 1812 by Murat, and it is built in agreement with

S40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

modern ideas. It contains numerous instruments which are maintained
in perfect order by the care of an instrument-maker attached to the
observatory. In the west meridian room are a transit-instrument by
Reichenbach (aperture 117 millimetres = 4.61 inches), and a meridian-
circle by the same artist (aperture 108 millimetres = 4.25 inches).
These are still in use, and by means of them M. Fergola has lately
determined the diiFerences of longitude of Naples with Rome and
Palermo. The east meridian room contains a meridian-circle by
Repsold, which has just been mounted, and wliich is one of the best
instruments of this class made by this celebrated artist. The tele-
scope has an aperture of 163 millimetres (6.42 inches), and a focal dis-
tance of two metres (8.74 inches). It has a single graduated circle,
one metre (39.37 inches) in diameter, and four microscopes.

It is with this instrument that M. Fergola is observing the zone
of stars which the observatory of Naples has undertaken for the Ger-
man Astronomical Society. Besides the three meridian-instruments
the observatory of Naples has in active use two equatorials, and is
soon to obtain a third of larger dimensions. The first of these instru-
ments was constructed in 1811 by Reichenbach andUtschneider, and has
83 millimetres (3.27 inches) aperture. It is with this small instrument
that M. de Gasparis discovered nine asteroids, Ilygea^ Parthenope,
Egeria^ Eunornia, Psyche, 3Iassalia, Themis, Ansonia, and Beatrix.
The second equatorial was made by Merz, of Munich, and has 134 mil-
limetres (5.28 inches) aperture, and 2.06 metres (81.10 inches) focal
length. The objective is of so perfect a figure that, in spite of its
small dimensions, M. Nobile has been able to employ it in the meas-
urement of double stars of Struve's catalogue. (These were discov-
ered by Struve with an objective of 9.62 inches aperture.)

Observatory of the Roman College : Director, Padre Sec-
chi; Astronomer, Padre Ferrari. — The observatory under the direc-
tion of Padre Secchi is built upon the top of the cupola of the
church of St. Ignatius, near the Corso ; but in so solid a way that the
stability of the instruments, during the night at least, is quite satis-
factory. The prmcipal nistrument of the observatory is an equatorial
of 7.5 inches aperture, which is one of the chefs-d''oeuvre of Merz.
There is still another equatorial, by Cauchoix, of five inches aperture,
which is used for the daily observations of solar spots, and also a transit-
instrument by Ertel (aperture 92 millimetres = 3.62 inches), for time-
determinations. The situation of the observatory, in the centre of the
city, has forced its illustrious director to devote his efforts to the study
of physical astronomy, which in his opinion is too mvich neglected in
government observatories.

To enumerate the magnificent works executed in this branch of as-
tronomy by Padre Secchi would require too much space, but I may
mention a new experimental method used by Padre Secchi in his
studies of the solar protuberances. For more than a year he has

THE OBSERVATORIES OF ITALY. 54.1

employed in place of the prisms of his spectroscope a diffraction-
grating ruled upon speculum metal by Lewis M. Rutherford, Esq., of
New York City. This grating has 4,000 lines to the English inch,
and gives a spectrum whose definition leaves nothing to be desired.
For the study of the solar prominences such a grating appears to me
infinitely superior to any combination of prisms.

Observatory of the Capitol : Director^ M. Respighi ; Assistant^
M. Scarpellini. — The second observatory in Rome, that of the Capitol,
is under the patronage of the Accademla dei Nuom Lincei. It is
placed upon the summit of the southeast portion of the palace of the
Capitol, and it is sufficiently removed from the neighborhood of trav-
eled streets to preserve it from the vibrations caused by carriages,
etc. The instruments are undisturbed enough to allow of the most
delicate astronomical observations, such as the determination of the
nadir-point and the observation of stars by reflection from the surface
of quicksilver, at all hours of the day.

The horizon is also entirely free, so that if the situation allowed of
a more regular placing of the instruments it might be considered as
very favorably situated for the making of observations of precision.
M. Respighi is now occupied in observations of solar protuberances,
and in meridian observations, which are to serve as a basis for a cata-
logue of stars. For the first purpose an equatorial by Merz, of four
and a half inches aperture, and a direct-vision spectroscope with five
prisms, are employed.

A beautiful meridian-circle by Ertel serves M. Respighi for his ob-
servations of those fixed stars of the first six magnitudes, wliich are to
be employed by the Italian staff-officers in their geodetic operations.
This observatory possesses also a reflex zenith-tube, made by Ertel
from designs by M. Respighi himself. It is a sort of transit-instru-
ment, with an aperture 108 millimetres (4.25 inches), provided with
an eyepiece which contains three groups of declination-wires. The
basin of quicksilver, by means of which the reflected stars are observed,
is 21 metres (68.90 feet) below the objective, which thus masks but a
small portion of the sky. When the telescope is directed toward the
nadir stars very close to the zenith may be observed by the declina-
tion-wires during their transit ; at the same time and without touch-
ing the instrument the nadir may also be observed, so that the zenith-
distance of each star depends upon the micrometer-screw alone and
is determined with the great accuracy which this kind of observation
allows.

Observatory of Florence : Assistant, M. William Tern pel. —
The old observatory of Florence, formerly presided over by Donati,
has been dismantled, and a new and magnificent structure is nearly
built at Arcetri, near the house formerly inhabited by Galileo. The
old observatory is now used for a meteorological station, under charge
of Prof Pitti.

542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The new observatory possesses : 1. A Fraunhofer equatorial of
three inches aj)erture, suitable for a comet-seeker; and, 2. A large
equatorial by Aniici, of eleven inches aperture, of excellent quality.
Besides this, a small meridian-instrument is mounted in the meridian-
room. This room will subsequently contain a meridian-circle of seven
inches aperture, and a transit-instrument somewhat smaller. It is
proposed to have for this observatory a staff composed of a director
and five assistants.

Observatory of Bologna : Director^ M. Palagi. — The observatory
of the University of Bologna is one of the most ancient in Italy, and,
like all the observatories of the past century, it is placed on the top
of a high tower, which unfits it for precise observations. In the plan
proposed for the reorganization of the Italian observatories, this insti-
tution is to devote its labor to observations of physical astronomy.
It possesses a meridian-circle, by Ertel, of forty-two lines (3.5 French
inches) aperture, mounted in 1851, but now little used, and also a
DoUond equatorial of three inches aperture. Its collection of histori-
cal instruments is of high interest.

Observatory of Modena : Director, M. Ragona. — Modena is an as-
tronomical city, for in it or near it were born Amici, Secchi, Tacchini,
Ferrari, and other Italian astronomers. The Ducal Observatory is,
like that of Bologna, in a transition state. It was founded in 1819, by
Bianchi, and was provided with the best instruments of that time, but
it now will probably become the central meteorological station of the
surrounding states. Its meridian-circle is of four inches aperture
with three-feet circles, and was made by Fraunhofer and Reichenbach
in 1819, but requires some changes to bring it up to modern require-
ments. Its Amici equatorial has two and one-third inches aperture
only, and is thus too small for most astronomical purposes. Its col-
lection of meteorological and magnetic apparatus is, on the contrary,
very complete and noteworthy, and has been made, in most cases,
upon plans furnished by M. Ragona.

Observatory of Padua : Director, M. Santini ; Astronomer, M.
Lorenzoni, — This observatory dates from 1774, when this city was
placed under the protectorate of Venice, and wlien this powerful re-
public attracted the most celebrated professors to its university. It
is well situated for observations of precision, as the numerous cata-
logues of stars published by its celebrated director, now the oldest
living astronomer, testify snfiiciently. The principal instruments of
the observatory are a meridian-circle and an equatorial, both by
Starke— the first of 117 millimetres (4.61 inches) aperture and with
one-metre (39.37 inches) circles ; the second with twelve centimetres
(4.74 inches) aperture and two metres (78.74 inclies) focal length.
There is also a spectroscope by Hoffmann. The two latter instruments
are used by Lorenzoni for daily observations of the solar protuber-
ances. The meridian-circle is employed in observations of the sun,

THE OBSERVATORIES OF ITALY. 543

planets, and the principal stars, and can even observe stars down
to the tenth magnitude by means of a peculiar device for bright

wires.

Observatory of Milan : Director, M. Schiaparelli ; Astronomer,
M. Celoria.— The Milan Observatory is one of the most ancient of
Italy, its foundation in the Brera Palace having been established in
1760. Among its directors have been the celebrated astronomers Bos-
covich, Oriani^, Cesaris, and Carlini. The Ephemeris of Milan has long
been distinguished for its accuracy, and for the memoirs published in
connection with it by Oriani, Cesaris, and Schiaparelli. The obser-
vatory contains two halls, one for the equatorial and one for the me-
ridian-circle. The equatorial, by Merz, was mounted in February,
1875. It has an aperture of 218 millimetres (8.58 inches), and a focal
length of 3.20 metres (125.99 inches), and its objective is of such an
excellence that a magnifying power of 700 diameters is habitually
used. It is to be devoted to a reobservation of Struve's double stars.
The meridian circle is by Starke, and has an aperture of four inches
and a focal length of five feet.

Observatory of Turin : Director, M. Dorna ; Assistant, M. Char-
rier. — The present observatory of Turin was constructed in 1820, and
until 3 864 it was under the direction of the illustrious Plana; since
that time it has formed part of the university, and is under the charge
of the Professor of Astronomy. Its instruments are : 1. A meridian-
circle by Reichenbach, with a circle one metre (39.37 inches) in diam-
eter, and a telescope by Fraunhofer, twelve centimetres (4.74 inches)
in diameter. This excellent instrument is used for observations of the
sun and stars for the determination of the time, which is given to the
city by means of a time-ball. 2. A comet-seeker of twelve cen-
timetres (4.74 inches) aperture and eighty-two centimetres (32.28
inches) focal length, mounted in a small dome. 3. A repeating circle^
by Ertel, used for purposes of instruction. 4. An equatorial of 117
millimetres (4.61 niches) aperture and 1.82 metres (71.65 inches)
focus, which will be used by Dr. Cliarrier for spectroscopic observa-
tions of the solar protuberances. A larger equatorial is soon to re-
place this.

In terminating these short notes I must formulate in a few words
the reflections which my visit to so many institutions has suggested
to me. The simple enumeration of the instruments would ill suffice
to judge of their importance. It is not sufiieient that an observatory
should be provided with numerous or powerful instruments : it is fur-
ther necessary that these instruments should be at, the service of ac-
complished astronomers earnest in the pursuit of their studies, and
having no other desire than to achieve a name in science. In all these
respects the observatories of Italy leave the most satisfactory impres-
sion upon the visitor. Thanks to ibis universal ardor, no moment is

544

THIJ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lost ; and Italian astronomy, which for a time languished, is reconquer-
ing with marvelous rapidity the rank which the labors of Galileo as-
sured to it at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

-♦♦♦-

ON DKOPS.

By a. M. WOPwTHINGTON.

AMONG the many ways in which electricity is called in to give
assistance in various physical investigations, one of the most
elegant and interesting is the application of the electric spark to
render momentarily visible a body that is rapidly moving or changing
its form. The duration of the electric spark is so short — probably
not more than ^4-5-07; ^^ ^ second — that a body, such as a rotating
wheel or oscillating rod, moving in a dark room with extreme rapidity,
will, if illumined by an electric spark, seem stationary, since the wheel
or rod has not time to change its position appreciably during the
short instant for which it is visible. If the spark be bright, the im-
pression is left on the eye long enough for the attention to be directed
to it, and for a clear idea to be formed of what has been seen.

The writer of this article has recently applied this method to
watching the changes of form in drops of various liquids falling verti-
cally on a horizontal plate. As usually seen, a drop of water falling

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

from a height of ten or twelve inches on a smooth solid substance,
such as glass or wood, seems to make an indiscriminate splash. The
whole splash takes place so quickly that the eye cannot follow the
changes of form ; the impression made by the last part of the splash
succeeding that of the first part so quickly as to confuse it.

A little careful observation, however, shows that the drop passes
through very definite symmetrical forms, and that a splash is by no
means an irregular, hap-hazard phenomenon.

Let the reader let fall a few drops of milk, about \ inch in diame-

ON DROPS.

5+5

ter, on a smooth dark surface of wood or paper, from a height of, say,
six inches (milk is better than water, as it is easier to see, especially
on a dark ground) ; lie will observe that the liquid makes a blot with
a more or less regular undulated edge, but the splash is too quick to
follow with the eye.

Let him now substitute a drop of mercury for the milk. By watch-
ing the splash very intently he will be able to catch a glimpse of the
mercury spread out in the symmetrical, star-like form of f, Fig. 9.
After the drop has been thus spread out it recovers its globular
form, since the mercury does not wet the plate. On increasing the
height of fall a few inches, it will be noticed that small drops split
off in a more or less complete circle, and are left lying on the plate,
while the rest of the drop gathers itself together in the middle of the
circle.

The chief reason why these appearances could not be seen with
milk is, that the milk wets the glass or wood and sticks to it, while
the mercury does not. But by smoking a slip of glass or card tolera-
bly thickly in the flame of a candle, we get a linely-divided surface of
lampblack to which the milk does not adhere any more than the mer-

FiG. 4.

cury, and by very careful watching we may notice that the same
radial star is formed by the milk, but it is much more difficult to
catch sight of than the mercury-star. But if the mark on the lamp-
black be examined after the drop of milk or mercury has rolled away,
it will be found to consist of delicate concentric rincrs with number-

VOL. XI.

546

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

less fine radial striae where the smoke has been swept away. These
may be seen very well by holding the glass plate up to the light if it
has not been too tliickly smoked.

The marks thus made are very beautiful and. symmetrical, and it
will be found, if the glass be uniformly smoked, that the same-sized
drops of the same liquid falling from the same lieight will produce
almost exactly similar marks : while if the height be changed the
mark on the lampblack will be somewhat changed; and it is a fair
inference, if eacli drop makes almost exactly the same complicated,
symmetrical mark, that the splash of each drop takes place in almost
exactly the same way.

The glimpse that may be caught of the drop in the way described
is obtained when the drop is really almost stationary, having flat-
tened itself out on the plate, and being on the point of contracting
aoain to its orioinal form.

That a drop if so flattened out will recover itself, is seen on press-
ing down a drop of mercury with the finger, or a drop of water with
a piece of black-lead or other substance to which it does not adhere.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

On removing the pressure the drop springs back to its old form ; the
force which causes this being exerted by the curved surface of the
liquid at the edge of the flattened drop, on the liquid within. The
flatter the drop becomes the greater is the curvature of the edge, and
the greater the corresponding pressure tending to restore it to its
original globular form. The extent to which a drop that has fallen
on a plate will spread out depends on the velocity with which it strikes
the plate, i. e., on the height of fall ; so that as long as the drop returns
to the globular form the whole phenomenon of the splash may be re-
garded as an oscillation similar to that of a pendulum ; the velocity of
the liquid outward being checked, overcome, and finally reversed by
the ever-increasing pressure of the curved edge, just as a pendulum
has its velocity checked, overcome, and finally reversed, by the action
of gravity.

It is only when the height of fall is very great that the liquid flics
off in all directions and the splash ceases to be an oscillation ; this

ON DROPS.

547

case corresponds to that of a simple pendulum started with a blow so
violent as to break the string.

But the liquid star and the complicated pattern on the smoked
glass show that the splash is not a simple spreading out of the drop
equally in all directions, to return again.

^^^^^^^^^E^^^^H*'' ^^^1

■

^Mi ^ -..-^

H

mik

■

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.

In order to observe the form of the drop at any given instant dur-
ing the splash, it is necessary to make use of the electric spark, and to
take advantage of the fact that drops of the same size falling from
the same height will all behave in the same way.

It will be necessary to let a drop, say of mercury, fall on a plate
in comparative darkness, and to produce a strong spark at the instant
the bottom of the drop comes in contact with the plate, and so illumine
it ; the observer will then see the drop in the form it has at that m-
stant.

A second drop must be let fall in the same way, and be illumined
by the spark not at the first moment of contact, but a shade later, say
^i_ second later, when the drop will have spread itself out slightly on
the plate; and similarly we must illuminate a third drop a shade later
than the second, and so on. The observer can, after a little practice,
draw from memory on each occasion the drop in the form in which he
has seen it. It will be seen that the pi'ocess consists in isolating con-
secutive phases of the splash from those that precede and follow, and
which take place in darkness, and so do not confuse what has been
seen as they would do in continuous daylight.

The device adopted by the writer for so timing the appearance of
the spark as to illumine the drop at any desired phase of the splash
consisted essentially in breaking the current of an electro-magnet at
the instant the drop began to fall*, the magnet, thus ceasing to act,
releases a spring which immediately begins to pull the terminal wire
of a strong electric current out of the other terminal, which is a cup
of mercury, and the strength of the spring and the depth of immersion
of the wire in the mercury are so adjusted that the wire leaves the
surface of the mercury, and the required spark is produced at the
instant the drop reaches the plate.

548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

For the next drop the spark is made to appear a shade later, either
by slackening the spring or increasing the depth to which the terminal
wire is immersed in the mercury.

The accompanying figures have been drawn in the way described,
and show the behavior of a drop of mercury about i inch in diameter,
falling from a height of about three inches on to a glass plate. Each
fio-ure represents a rather later stage of the splash than the preceding.

c

d ^ %

Fig- 9.

Fig. 9 was drawn from the final stages of a milk-drop ^ inch in
diameter, falling four inches on to smoked glass; but the forms are
almost identical with those of mercury. Of these d and h are vertical
central sections of the middle part of the drop, while e and /are alter-
native forms of h and c.

From the ends of the rays of Fig. 4, usually twenty-four in num-
ber, small drops often split off. These are not shown in the figure.
One of the most curious features of the phenomenon is the transition
from twenty-four rays to twelve arms, shown in Fig. 5, The beauty
of many of the forms, especially of the ridged, shell-like form shown in
Fig. 4, when composed of shining quicksilver apparently rigidly fixed,
is very striking. Very similar forms are obtained with milk, but,
whether with milk or mercury, are liable to occasional variations.
For a more detailed account the reader is referred to the "Proceed-
ings of the Royal Society," Nos. 174 and 177, 1 8 76-'7 7. —iVa^wm

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 549

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS.

By J. N. LAENED.

IN bringing these two subject-matters of thought into conjunction
with one another, I wish, if possible, to set them clear of all con-
troversy at the outset. No attempt at a definition for either can
escape dispute ; but a merely indicative statement may be made in
each case that will give form enough to the conception without touch-
ing any point of question in it. If I should say, for example, with
Mr. Emerson, that civilization is " a certain degree of progress from
the rudest state in which man is found," I should provoke the disputes
that are rife as to what is and what is not " progress " for the human
race. But I may safely say that civilization is a certain cumulative
succession of modifications or changes in the state and character of
men — which indicates the conception quite distinctly enough, and
excludes every matter of debate. In like manner I may avoid the
disputations of the ethical schools, and yet set out a notion of morals
that will serve every present purpose of thinking, if I say that moral
philosophy has for its subject human conduct, considered with refer-
ence to whatever absolute qualities may be found in it. It might
seem, on the first thought, that this statement assumes the very thing
that is in question between those who contend for the absoluteness
and those who contend for the relativity of our ideas of right and
wrong. But it is not so. The dispute of the moralists has reference,
not to any characteristic of the qualities in conduct which we cognize
as moral, but to the mode in which they are cognized. Our concep-
tion of such qualities involves the conception of absoluteness in them,
and it is only by that notion of absoluteness that they are distin-
guished from the other qualities which appear in human conduct, such
as wisdom, prudence, ingenuity, and the like. The imperative " ought^''
which puts its mark upon what is moral, in distinction from wliat is
prudent or expedient, is just as autocratic in the doctrine of the utili-
tarian as in that of the intuitionist. The former, as Mr. Sidscwick has
pointed out in his admirable analysis of " The Methods of Ethics,"
can only hold that the moral rules of conduct are means relative to an
end (greatest happiness) by holding that the end itself is prescribed
absolutely, and ought to be pursued. But absoluteness of end involves
absoluteness of means, since means and end are inseparable — so far
as human knowledge goes — and cannot be conceived of apart. Hence
the qualities in conduct which the utilitarian finds essential to the
attaining of the object that represents " duty " to him are just as abso-
lute in his view as in the view of the intuitive moralist, who admits
nothing objective in his notion of " duty." In what I have to say,

550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

therefore, of that kind of quality in human conduct which we call
" moral," I shall distinguish it only by its absoluteness.

Every act in the conduct of a human being is incident to some
one or more of the varied relationships by which his state of being is
conditioned. Fundamentally, there are four groups of such relation-
ships, subject to which every act of man is performed : 1. His rela-
tionships to inanimate Nature, or to the matter, the forces, and tlie
routine processes, of his physical environment ; 2. His relationships to
the living creatures with which he is associated in existence, that are
not of his own kind ; 3. The relationships that exist within himself,
between the manifold parts of his own being ; between that, for exam-
ple, which is animal on one side and that which is more than animal
on the other ; 4. The relationships that exist between himself and his
human fellows.

It might be expected, perhaps, that I should add a fifth relation-
ship— that of man to the supreme source of being and of law in the
universe ; but this lies at the outside of what we are now investigat-
ing. It is a relationship to which nothing in human conduct can be
incident primarily, however powerful an influence upon conduct may
be referred to it secondarily. The emotions of religion, induced by a
conscious relationship of responsibility to some supreme, divine gov-
ernment in the universe, give a color of their own, it is true, to the
quality of human acts, but they do not assume to impart that quality
nor to change it. Primarily, they have nothing to do with it — it is
determined independently of them — and Religion has to do with the
quality of human actions only by adopting the colder consciousness
on which Morality is founded, and suffusing it with the warmth of
reverential and impassioned motives.

Of the four groups of relationships to which all conduct is incident,
the one first named does not fall within the region of morals, and
the second only touches upon the borders of it. Without entering
into the reasons of the fact, it may be seen that the kind of quality we
are looking for in human actions cannot exist where the act is entirely
conditioned by purely physical laws, as in the case of a man's dealing
with the inanimate world. As he stands related to brute creatures,
however, one new factor is introduced, which is that of sentiency, on
the opposite side of the relationship, as well as on the side of the
human actor, and we find in the conduct incident to this a single
quality which we recognize as of absolute existence — inhering in
the very nature of the act to Avhich it pertains. For the positive
phase of this quality, which is not exactly kindness and not exactly
mercifulness, no name seems to have ever been adopted. In its nega-
tive phase we call it cruelty, and it appears to be, among moral traits,
the primary one.

In the third group of relationships, embracing those which are

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS.

551

intrinsic in man (as between his ruling faculties and the organs whicli
they rule, or between his reason and his will, on the one hand, and his
affections, appetites, and senses, on the other), the field of moral inves-
tigation enlarges, but is still limited. There seem to be two forms
in which the absoluteness of quality that we are searching after in
human conduct is found appertaining to these intrinsic relationships.
We have it, I think, in the qualities that we call truthfulness and
courage, and I do not perceive it in any others within this category,
except such as are no more than modifications and combinations of
these, with tlieir opposites. I cannot now go beyond this mere state-
ment of a conclusion, unless it be to suggest that such distinguisliable
moral qualities as patience, fortitude, resignation, and so on, are modi-
fications of the radical quality of courage ; while another order of
qualities, like temperance, chastity, and sincerity, have their root in
truthfulness, or integrity, which may be the better name. Out of
these two radicals there may be derived, I think, by combination and
modification, all the qualities which I should classify as the moral
qualities of the personal order.

The final set of relationships to be investigated is that which
exists between the individual man and his fellow-men ; and here the
field of moral study opens to its widest dimensions. These social
relationships are varied, numerous, and highly complicated by inter-
mixture. It might be supposed that we should have to divide them
into two principal groups, embracing — 1. Such relations as exist be-
tween man and man individually ; and, 2. Such relations as exist
between the individual man and his fellows at large, in the united
body which we call society; but it will be found that a man's relations
to society are only the sum of his relations to the several members of
it, and that society, in fact, is nothing more to him than a congrega-
tion of the persons between whom and himself he comes to recognize
that there are relations of human fellowship existing. Nothing new,
as a true factor in morals, is introduced by social organization — not
even by the institution of government ; because that is a mere ar-
rangement for defining (sometimes arbitrarily and incorrectly) the re-
lations between individuals. These relations between individuals,
then, are what we have to examine, and they seem to divide them-
selves as follows :

1. The relationship in which one man stands toward another simply
as a living creature. This is identical with the relation existing be-
tween man and brute animals, in the conduct incident to which we
discovered no moral quality except that of cruelty and its unnamed
opposite ; and we need not go far in human history to find social states
and circumstances in which no other relationship than this is often
recognizable between men, and under which no other moral quality
<3an often exist in the conduct that is incident to it.

2. The relationships which one man sustains to another as a human

552 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fellow. These latter are partly direct and partly indirect or second-
ary relations.

Tbe direct relationships in this case are those of a man to the con-
crete/>erso/i of his human fellow. These direct relationships are sim-
ple and not very numerous, in fact, although they assume countless
variations of circumstance and form. Some of them are special, like
the relations that exist between parent and child and between hus-
band and wife ; some of them ai-e limited, like the relations that exist
between the sexes; and some of them are common and universal. In
the conduct which is incident to these relationships there has seemed
to be a great variety of distiuguishable qualities of the absolute sort,
and we iiave a lengthy catalogue of names in the nomenclature of
morals to represent them ; but I am disposed to believe that, after all,
there are only two radical qualities (with their opposites) to be found
in this sphere of Imman conduct. These are benevolence and justice.
All the rest, which appear upon the surface as distinguishable moral
qualities, I conclude to be either variations of these in degree and by
circumstance, or else the resultant of some blending of them with the
moral qualities of the other order. Such blending is necessarily in-
cessant, because the relationships under which man is acting are al-
ways mixed. Mr. Lecky has given the name of the "amiable virtues"
to a considerable group of these moral qualities, such as charity, gen-
erosity, magnanimity, mercifulness or clemency, kindness, and so on,
every one of which would seem to have its root in benevolence, or in
benevolence and justice combined, and to be merely circumstantial
modifications of the same essential quality. Then we have, appertain-
ing to this relationship, such qualities as fidelity and honor — if the
two are really distinguishable — and both of these are clearly produced
by an intermixture of the absolute personal quality of truthfulness
with the absolute social quality of justice. Whatever else there may
be of distinguishable moral qualities appearing to be incident to the
direct relations of human fellowship, I am sure that they will be found
reducible to the two radicals of benevolence and justice, or to their
combination with those other radicals — courage and truthfulness —
which we found to have an intrinsic source in the constitution of man,
as qualitative factors in human conduct.

The indirect or secondary relations that exist between man and
man as human fellows are those which extend to something additional
to the person — to things, that is, which have become recognizably
identified with the person. In these relationships the whole notion of
"property" is involved. The idea of "property" is the idea of a
special relation existing between a certain man and certain things, in
recognizing which we necessarily recognize — 1. That our own relations
to those things are modified by it ; and, 2. That it introduces a ncAV set
of relations between ourselves and the man, which are indirect, be-
cause the things in question are intermediate in them. Not only tan-

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 553

gible but intangible things become thus associated with tlie person-
ality of our fellow-man, and give rise to these indirect relationships.
His opinions and beliefs, his friendships and his reputation, tlje objects
of liis affections, the franchises that he acquires under the artificial
institutions of society, are all examples of the intangible things which
become intervening subjects and objects in many of the relationships
that a man sustains toward his fellow-men. The indirectness of the
relationships thus created is productive of great complexity in them,
and gives rise to much confusion of moral notions with reference to
the conduct that is incident to them. Out of all the complications
that arise, however, there is not one distinctly new quality evolved.
We distinguish in this region of conduct such absolute characteristics
as those of honesty (under many names) and tolerance, but they are
all of the composite class, and have their root, for the most part, in
justice and truthfulness intermingled, with benevolence sometimes
imparting its amiable tone to them.

As the result of our survey, then, we have discovered but four ab-
solute qualities in human conduct that are simple and radical, while
we have traced a very few of the numerous qualities that are com-
posite, or derived, to the relationships out of which they arise. We
have :

Of radical qualities of the personal order — courage and truthful-
ness.

Of radical qualities of the social order — benevolence and jixstice.

Of derived and composite qualities of the personal order — temper-
ance, chastity, fortitude, patience, etc., with their opposites.

Of derived and composite qualities of the social order — two
classes, viz. :

1, Incident to direct social relationships : charity, generosity, mag-
nanimity, mercifulness, kindness, fidelity, patriotism, etc., with their
many-named opposites.

2. Incident to indirect social relationships : honesty in all its forms,
and with all its opposites, which are numerous in the nomenclature of
morals.

Having acquired, so far as this, a partly definite notion of morals,
we may now return to take up the conception of civilization, and bring
the two sets of ideas into conjunction.

I did not venture to say of civilization that it is " a certain degree
of progress " in the state of man, because there are those who deny
that the cumulative succession of changes, in man and society, which
appear in the process called civilization, are, on the whole, progressive
chancces. Their denial, moreover, has reference entirely to the moral
features of the process. They do not question the fact that human
history, in the civilized communities, is a liistory of intellectual de-
velopment and advancement. Tliey concede the largest claims that
can be made as to the growth of knowledge among men ; as to the

554 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

growth of capacity in them for the knowledge of knowable things ;
and as to the growth of power in them to control the material condi-
tions of their existence, within such limits as are set by physical law.
They do not belittle the modern triumphs of the race in commerce,
science, art, invention, and organization. But they look upon all this
as an evil, delusive, vainglorious show — a devil's work of tinsel and
veneer — a bubble-blown fabric, quite empty of the substance of eternal
things. They insist that there has been no moral growth in human
nature, as a whole, to accompany the evolution of rational faculties
and powers ; and that, while human conduct has been gathering its
potent gains of prudence, ingenuity, skillfulness, and the like — which
are qualities relative to means and ends — it has gained, on the whole,
in tlie absolute qualities of rightness and goodness, either nothing at
all or less.

This denial of moral progress, as a general fact, is made, however,
with some necessary qualifications. There are certain moral fruits so
conspicuous in the history of civilization, that no pessimist can dis-
pute them. That the long, slow movements in society, which have
been tending, with steady purpose and sure result, to establish order
and the reign of equal laws ; to extinguish slavery ; to break oppres-
sion of every form ; to mitigate the barbarities of war, and to put re-
straints upon it; to diminish human sulFering ; to help the unfortu-
nate, and to lift the debased ; to cultivate the cosmopolitan sentiment
and the spirit of cooperation among men — ^^that the movements which
bear this ripening fruitage are moral movements, it is impossible to
deny. However the sullen pessimist may disparage them, as senti-
mental and superficial, the moral quality in them is unmistakable.
He yields, therefore, to the evidence of a moral growth of human
character in these amiable directions, but he contends that it is all
awry, and more deforming than otherwise in the result. He points to
the other sides of the historical exhibition of humanity, and asks us
what we can find to please us in the total showing. Is there less
hypocrisy among men, he demands to know, than there was twenty
centuries ago? Is there less chicanery, less duplicity, less grasping
greed and selfish meanness? Is there less rapacity, in fact, after all
the rude violence that you have subdued by softer manners is taken
out ? Is there less ruthlessness in the pursuit of ambitious or avari-
cious ends ? Has any nobler type of character been fashioned by all
your schools and institutions than the type of Socrates and Plato?
Is your democratic Yankee, with his newspaper, his caucus, his party
" platform," and his patent ballot-box, a more admirable patriot than
the grim republican of old Rome ? Is your modern mechanic, with
his cunning tools and his marvelous engines, a more honest workman
than the patient cathedral-builders of the middle ages ? Is your
modern merchant, with his steam carriers, his electric messengers, and
his bills of credit, a more scruj)ulous speculator than the camel-driv-

\ CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 555

ing trader of old, who fetched and carried between Babylon and Tyre ?
Such questions as these are not easy to answer, and very few persons
will be willing to meet them with affirmations, in any jjositive and
unqualified way.

We are brought, then, face to face with the fact that there are cer-
tain directions in which the process of civilization appears to be much
more certainly a process of moral development, as evinced in human
conduct and character, than it does in others ; certain particulars of
conduct, that is, in which the fact of moral progress is nindeniable,
and certain others in which, at least, it is open to doubt. Now, this
is assuredly a fact of great significance. For the inference is plain
that, if the progress of the race in intellectual culture and in social
organization is attended with a certain moral development in some
particulars of conduct more distinctly than in others, there must be
reasons for this difierence, and most likely they will be found in some
bearing which the one process of culture has upon the other. It is to
pursue this suggestion a little that I have taken the subject up.

The moment we pause to reflect upon the diflference in question,
one fact concerning it arrests attention. It is this : that the particu-
lars of conduct in which the moral advancement of the human race is
most obvious and indisputable are exactly and entirely those which
we have seen to be incident to the direct relations of human fellow-
ship, and that the qualities developed are entirely those which apper-
tain to that relationship, having their root in benevolence and justice
alone. On the one hand, charities, friendships, institutions of kindly
helpfulness, and all generous, gentle amenities of social intercourse ;
on the other hand, charters, ordinances, constitutions — defined equi-
ties and broad determinations of personal rights : these are plainly
the greater moral fruits of civilization which show signs of approach
to ripening, as yet, and they all lie within the domain of those direct
relationships which exist between man and man as human fellows, and
which connect themselves with nothing else.

This fact leads us quickly to the recognition of a second one, which
becomes just as plain on examination — namely, that the particulars
of conduct in which the moral advancement of mankind appears most
questionable are exactly and entirely those which we have seen to be
incident to the indirect relations of human fellowship ; to the relations,
that is, which involve some intermediate thing, through which the
line of relationship to our fellow is drawn. These take in, as has been
said, all the relationships in which "property" is concerned, era-
bracins: the whole organization of trade and of labor under hire : and
they also take in a great part of the political relationships that arise
out of the institutions of government. Now, it is undeniably in these
spheres of conduct that the moral effects of civilization present the
most discouraging appearance. Are men as honest in work and trade
as they were in more primitive times? Is there not more trickish-

556 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ness, more cheating, more fraud, more overreaching, more adultera-
tion, more sham, more outside pretension and inside falsity ? Are
they as true in political action to the state in which they have united
and incorporated themselves ? Is there as much genuine patriotism ?
Is there not more political corruption and neglect of political duty ?
These are certainly the questions which stagger the optimist most.

Here, then, we discover that the particulars of conduct between
which the widest difference of progress in moral culture appears are
precisely those that we have already separated by one of the broad
differences that were found when we classified the relations to which
human conduct is incident. It is natural to conjecture that the one
difference may connect itself with the other. It becomes still more
natural when we perceive that the characteristic difference which dis-
tinguishes the two sets of relationships in question has been widened
by the process of civilization. On one side, the direct^ primary rela-
tions that exist between men, in their purely personal attitude toward
one another, have been steadily pressed into greater intimacy and
closeness, at every step of advance wliich has been made in the diffu-
sion of knowledge and in the social organization of the race, while
they have been more and more generalized in the same operation.
On the other side, as the industrial, commercial, and political mechan-
ism of society has acquired more complexity and greater extension,
the indirect or secondary relations, which involve the fact of ])ropertv,
etc., have been all the time undergoing variation and multiplication,
and have been shaped into forms of greater remoteness, as between
the persons and the things that are concerned together in them. The
effect in the one case has been to set out the relationships in question
more clearly, to define them more distinctly, and to render them more
easily recognizable as they widen ; and it is within the sphere of this
effect that we have the jDrogress of moral culture most marked. In
the other case the effect has been to obscure most of the relationships
in question, and to render the clear perception of them more difficult
as they lengthen out; and it is within the range of this effect that we
find most doubtful evidences of moral growth in the process of civili-
zation.

From this I shall now venture a generalization, to see whether it
will be justified by further scrutiny of the moral history of mankind,
and I offer it in the following propositions :

1. That moral notions, or notions of rightness in conduct, are
formed in the mind by the perception of certain relations to which
human conduct is incident ; that they are exactly akin in nature,
therefore, to mathematical notions, and have their genesis in the
operation of the same faculties ; that there is no more need, in conse-
quence, of a special " moral sense " to account for tliem than there is
need of a distinct mathematical sense to account for the perceptions
and reasoning processes of arithmetic and geometry.

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 557

2. That " Tightness " in conduct is just as absolute a quality as
" straightness " in mathematical lines (from which it takes its name),
and can no more depend for its existence upon the "utility" that is
found in it, or upon its coincidence with the experience of liappiness
among men, than the existence of the quality of straightness in mathe-
matical lines can depend upon the utility with which it serves the
architect and the engineer, and coincides with the necessities of me-
chanical art.

3. That our moral notions of right and wrong, w^ith reference to
each particular of conduct, are distinct and complete in exact propor-
tion to the clearness and fullness of our perception of the relations
which that particular of conduct appertains to ; that their influence
in the guiding of our conduct depends upon the distinctness w^ith
which they have thus been formed; but that our obedience to the
guidance they offer depends upon something else, which we shall
have to investigate hereafter.

Let me illustrate these propositions as briefly as possible :
It seems to be historically certain that man's cognition of the
alter ego, or other " self," with Avhich he finds himself associated in
existence at every turn, is slowly acquired at the beginning of it, and
that his conception of that other "self" (or fellow-man) is formed
gradually by the projection upon it of ideas that have grown in his own
self-consciousness. There are social states still existing, as I have said,
in which one man's cognition of another seems to be very slightly
difierent from his cognition of brute creatures, and we may take these
to repi'esent one of the primitive stages of human development. But
progress occurred in the evolution of consciousness, until the attri-
butes of the subjective "self," which it had cognized first, became
more or less perfectly projected upon an objective " self," and one
man recognized in another a repetition of the same fact of existence
which he found in his own being ; in other words, he arrived at the
recognition, more or less perfectly, of a human fellow. At this stage
moral notions and sentiments had their beginning, exactly as mathe-
matical notions began when two external objects were distinguished
from one another, and yet cognized together as two instead of one.
There would follow some perception of a relation between this con-
scious "self" and that other cognized "self," and it would be per-
ceived as the definition of a rule of conduct between them, just as surely
as there followed in the other case a perception of the relation in posi-
tion that exists between one object and another, and which conditions
every act that involves the two. In both instances the fundamental
idea generated by the perception must be the idea of a line — a " line
of conduct " in the first, a " line of motion" or a " line of position "
in the second — and the quality of " rightness " which attaches to the
conception of the one is identical in kind with the quality of " straight-
ness " that attaches to the other.

558 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The golden rule of conduct, " Do unto others as ye would that
they should do unto you," is strictly analogous to a mathematical
definition ; or, rather, it is the translation of such a definition into the
language of morals. It is not only the formula of an equation, but it
is precisely equivalent to the definition that we give of a right line
when we say that only one such line can be drawn between two
given points, and that to attempt to project another in reverse direc-
tion is only to repeat the first. It simply states the recognition of a
corresponding fact — namely, that the line of right conduct projected
from ray " self" to another " self," which I have cognized, is such that
no different line can be projected from that other self to me. What
the line of right as projected to me from my fellow is, I am taught
by my consciousness of the demands that exist in my own being.

In this way men first acquired, perhaps, the notions of right which
produced a certain imperfect respect for life and liberty among them,
and also a certain respect for property, according to the primitive
idea of property, which was a narrow one. But, of course, these
notions were restricted to the small social range within which the re-
lations of human fellowship had become even indistinctly recognized.
How limited that range was at the beginning, it is impossible to say ;
but our earliest knowledge of the human race finds it everywhere
bounded by associations of kinship. The patriarchal family, the clan,
the gens^ the tribe, seem to have always, at a certain stage in the
development of humanity, circumscribed for each man his recognition
of other men as human fellows, and his perception of the relations
which he sustains to them as such. Within that close circle of recog-
nized relationships, however, we can find in the primitive states of
society almost as perfect a determination of moral rights and obliga-
tions, so far as many particulars of conduct are concerned, as we find
in the civilized communities of the present day. We know that,
among the Indian savages of our own time, theft and murder within
the membership of a tribe are condemned as distinctly, almost, as
they are among ourselves; but as between tribe and tribe, or between
Indian and white man, neither killing nor stealing connects itself with
any apparent sense of wrong. The fact seems to have been the same
in all the earlier tribal forms of society, and when the succeeding
Ibrm was reached, in the organization of the political state, the larger
boundaries of that social corporation still circumscribed the moral
notions of its citizens just as rigorously.

In the ancient Gentoo laws of India, which show admirable no-
tions of honesty as between the subjects of the laws, we find pre-
scriptions for dividing the booty of robbers who had plundered any
contiguous but alien people. "If any thieves," says the ordinance,
"by the command of the magistrate, and with his assistance, have
committed depredations upon and brought booty from another ^■jro'O-
ince, the magistrate shall receive a share of one-sixth of the whole," etc.

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 559

In ancient Greece, even at the golden prime of that splendid nar-
row culture which exhibited itself so incomparably in art, in literature,
and in civic virtue, the moral rules which concern liberty and life, and
the simpler of the moral rules which concern rights of property, were
defined very perfectly as between the fellow-citizens of each state, and
between the kindred states, but very imperfectly beyond that strict
limit of familiar association. The stranger, the alien, the enslaved
captive, the barbarian of the non-Hellenic world, were not human
fellows to the Greek ; at the most they were only human creatures of
some different variety, having that similitude and approaching some-
what to that relation, but quite excluded from his cognition of fellow-
ship by all the habits of his feeling and his thought. According to
his perception, they were clearly proper subjects of predatory warfare
and piracy; he could kill them, plunder them, enslave them, with no
more compunction of conscience than the modern hunter feels in capt-
uring or killing the game-animals of the forest. And yet the same
conscience was acting in the Greek that acts in men to-day ; but only
with more narrowness of range in the perceptions upon which it acted.

We shall have to pass far beyond the Greek in history to find much
of a moral change in these respects. The Englishman of the Eliza-
bethan age was a tolerably cultured man, as well morally as other-
wise. So far as his fellow-Englishmen were concerned, he had notions
of right conduct that were quite accurately formed. But he found it
hard to carry many of these notions beyond the shore-bounds of his
little island. The sea in that time — not only the Spanish Main, but
the English Channel, and the very Thames itself — was swarming with
English pirates and buccaneers, who were the contemporaries of Shake-
speare, and Bacon, and Spenser, and Coke ; who boasted the best
names of the English gentry in their ranks ; who received more than
half countenance from the public sentiment and the public policy of
the English nation ; and who pillaged Spanish, French, and Flemish
traders with serene impartiality, killing captains and crews without
remorse when it suited their convenience to kill. In fact, Mr. Fronde
tells us that the well-encouraged piracy of the sixteenth century was
" the very source and seed-vessel " of the future naval power of Eng-
land.

This insulation of moral ideas, which established one code of con-
duct for fellow-citizens and another for foreigners, one code for
neighbors and another for strangers, characterized every people until
recent times ; but it has been disappearing rapidly among all the fore-
most races since the modern growth of universal commerce began.
There is no mistaking the reason why. In the footsteps of commerce,
every kind of communication and intercourse between men has closely
followed, like the threads behind a weaver's shuttle. By travel, by
migration, by correspondence — through the post, the newspaper, and
the telegraph — men are fetched nowadays from the farthest corners

560 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the earth into acquaintance with one another. For the civilized
man of our time, most of the world has become a neighborhood. He
interests himself in the life and doings of another hemisphere much
as he does in the affairs of his own town. He cannot help losing the
sense of strangeness and of remoteness in his cognition of other men,
even though they inhabit the antipodes. He cannot resist the in-
fluence of the association into which he is thrown with all men, of all
nations, races, classes, and creeds, and he necessarily extends to them,
more and more in common, his recognition of human fellowship. In
other words, he generalizes more and more his notions of right con-
duct toward men, because his clear perception of those relations of
fellowship upon which such notions are based has become a general
instead of a partial one. This accounts for the whole humane move-
ment of modern times toward democracy, toward the breaking of
caste and the leveling of class divisions, toward emancipations and
enfranchisements, toward equity in institutions and laws, toward com-
mon education and toward public and private charities of every kind.

It is not the fact, however, that every man acquires entirely for
himself these larger and more intelligent perceptions, which broaden
and clarify his notions of right. There is the same giving and taking
in this as in other matters of knowledge. Men accept from one
another a great deal of what becomes the serviceable common stock
of knowledge in every department. We are all of us settled now in
the belief that the earth is round, that it revolves about the sun, that
it rotates on its axis, that the other planets do the same, and that
these motions are all controlled by the same force, under the same
law% which governs the fall of a ripened apple from its stem ; but
how many comprehend tlie mathematical proofs by which such
beliefs as these are sustained ? The belief makes its way among
men by the force of the authority of the few, whose keener facul-
ties have verified the demonstration of it — assisted, indeed, by the
general growth of what may be called a receptive intelligence,
which enables men to discern the probability of the truth of things
which they do not perceive clearly in fact. But such beliefs are ac-
cepted at last and acted upon and reasoned uj^on, exactly as though
they held in each man's mind the firmest ground that his own jjer-
ceptions and his own reason could give them. It has appeared to
be the same with all the larger generalizations in morals. They are
diffused in society by the propagation which we call a growth of
public opinion, and they sometimes enforce themselves in the moral
code of a community even before the major part of its members have
half recognized the ground of fact upon which they rest.

If we turn now to the indirect relationships between men, which
arise out of the institutions of property, politics, etc., we shall see that
they have been generally rendered more remote and less recognizable,
by the same operations that have produced greater intimacy and fa-

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 561

miliar closeness in the direct relations of person with person. This
fact is particularly apparent in the relationships which involve prop-
erty. The primitive idea of property was so associated with the fact
of possession or occupation that it could not be entertained apart
from that. According to the earlier Roman law, stolen property was
lost to its owner, simply because he had lost possession, without which
the moral intelligence of that age could not retain its conception of
the right of property. If recovered from the thief, it was appropriated
by the state. In the later Koman jurisprudence this inequity was
corrected, but it reappeared in the legislation of the barbarian con-
querors of the empire, and again became the law of Europe for several
hundred years ; surviving in some parts of Germany, according to
Chancellor Kent, until near the middle of the last century. By the
common law of England, as laid down even so lately as in the Com-
mentaries of Blackstone, goods wrecked were adjudged to belong to
the king, and the owner had no right of recovery until a curious
statute of Edward II. gave him that I'ight, upon the condition that
some living creature should have escaped the wreck, to fictitiously
represent him, it would seem, in the act of possession at the last mo-
ment.

This strange defect in the primitive idea of the right of property,
lingering so obstinately and so long, illustrates the difficulty Avhich
men have always experienced in carrying that idea from a simpler to
a more complicated set of circumstances, and the easiness with which
their perception of the relations to which it attaches becomes confused
by any separation, whether real or apparent, of the thing from the
person. But, in the evolution of our civilized social state, more com-
plex forms of property have been coming all the time into existence.
In some of these, the person and the thing have been pushed apart to
a wide remove from one another ; in others, the association of ownership
between them is subtilely conditioned by various circumstances and
contingencies ; in others, several persons are associated with the same
thing, in common ownership, or with a succession of rights in it, or
with rights that are various in degree ; in still others, the thing which
is the subject of property is a pure figment of the brain — the mere
idea of a property-right which has itself become property by a con-
venient fiction. Again, half the wealth of the world has been acquir-
ing of late a kind of duplicate shadow-form of existence, by paper
representation, in a hundred modes — as in bonds, notes, drafts, stock-
certificates, bills of lading, etc. — and so plays a double part, one real
and one fictitious, in the commercial transactions of the present day.
That this protean mobility of form should be given to " property," and
the subjects and conditions of ownership be so continually multiplied
and modified, without obscuring the indirect relations which "prop-
erty " creates between men, and confusing the perception of them, is
quite impossible. Along with this obscuring cause there is another
VOL. XI. — 36

562 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

one to be found, which has been equally active in the whole arena of
industrial and commercial intercourse. This is the constant multipli-
cation of intervening agents — middle-men, factors, brokers, speculators,
contractors, and distributors of every sort — between the producer and
the consumer, or between the primary owner and the ultimate owner
of almost everything which is the subject of ownership and trade.
Those two, who are the actual persons brought chiefly into relation-
ship by the thing in question, are put quite out of sight of one another
in most of the transactions of modern industry and commerce ; and it
is easy to see how much more energy in the forming of a notion of
right is required to preserve the integrity of the line of conduct
between them, through indirect dealings like these.

The truth, then, seems to be that the civilizing process in society
has, thus far, had two quite contrary moral effects : one, to cultivate
and quicken in men the intelligence which apprehends their relations
to one another, and which perceives a right line in all the conduct that
is incident to those relations ; the other, to complicate and obscure
one prominent group of such relations, and to make the apprehension
of them more difficult. If the former effect has not yet overcome the
latter, in that sphere of conduct where the conflict between them is
greatest, there is nothing to wonder at in the fact. It is quite accord-
ins; to the nature of our moral cognitions that men should sooner learn
not to steal than not to cheat : because stealing is an assault direct
uj^on that fact of 2^ossession which we have seen to be at the bottom
of the idea of a right of property ; whereas cheating takes most of
its suo^o-estions from the absence of that fact. It is certain that civ-
ilization has diminished downright robbery, depredation, theft, and
not so much by its police, nor by the force of its penal laws, as by
cultivating the notion of right conduct which condemns them. If it
has not yet curtailed the devices of fraud, and if men make dishonest
use of the knowledge and the skill that they have gained in every art,
even more, perhaps, than their fathers used the scantier methods of
fraud which they knew, the reason seems to be explained, and I can
find nothing in the fact to argue against a final ripening of moral
fruits in this region of human conduct, as well as in the rest.

" But what then ? " every reader will ask. "Is it enough to account
in this way for our notions of right ? Is it enough to satisfy ourselves
that they are formed like our mathematical notions, by the same facul-
ties, in the same way, and that they have the same intellectual gene-
sis ? Is there not something more which this doctrine leaves still
unexplained? — that something which distinguishes a moral notion from
every other that is formed in the human mind ; that something in it
which is mandatory and urgent ; that sometliing which we call con-
science, sense of duty, obligation ? " I say. Yes ; there certainly is
something involved in morals beyond the knowledge of right and
wrong ; some kind of a force, or some kind of a law of feeling in man,

CIVILIZATION AND MORALS. 563

which constrains him toward the right line of conduct when he has
discerned it. That it only operates in coincidence with his perception
of the line of right — that men, in other words, have no conscience with
respect to wrongful deeds which they have not yet recognized as wrong-
ful— appears to be shown by all the facts of human history. If it were
otherwise, the Greek should have had a conscience to protest against
infanticide ; the Roman should have had a conscience to protest against
slavery and against the bloody games of the arena; the Jew should
have had a conscience to protest against the slaughter of women and
children in war ; Calvin should have had a conscience to protest against
the burning of Servetus, and Cotton Mather a conscience to protest
ao^ainst the witch-hunting deviltries at Salem. This conscience, then,
must be something that is only made active by the development of a
moral intelligence which reveals to men the line of right in one par-
ticular of conduct after another. Need we try to account for it any
otherwise than by calling it a law of feeling^ analogous in kind to that
law of motion which operates to constrain the obedience of matter to
risfht lines of motion ? We know that, when Ave throw a stone into
the air, it would move forever in the straight line of its projection if
other forces, more potent than the projecting one, did not interfere to
overcome the proper law of its motion. If, now, we might imagine a
state of consciousness in tliis clod of matter, by virtue of which it
could/ee? the resistance in itself to the perturbing forces that are swerv-
ing it from the line of rectitude, we should have the perfect analogue
of what I conceive to be the conscience of the human being ; a persist-
ent law of feeling, that is, in man, w^hich resists deviation from the
right lines of conduct whenever he has become conscious of them.
Such an implanted law of moral feeling in human nature is no more
difficult of conception, nor any less so, than the rectilinear law of ma-
terial motions.

But if the moving stone were conscious of the commanding law
v/hich resists all perturbing influences, it would still be irresponsible
for its deviations from the right line of motion ; whereas the acting
man is not, because all the forces, of projection and pei'turbation alike,
are in himself, and within the control of his own volition. He has but
to bring his will into conjunction with the resisting ms inertioi in his
moral consciousness to make the resistance always efficient.

And this brings to licjht the third element in morals: which is the
discipline of obedience in man to the law of feeling which constrains
him toward the right line of conduct when he has perceived it. This
discipline is very obviously the final end and final fruit of human cult-
ure. We need not wonder that it is slowly attained, when we think
of the powerful animality in man which has to be struggled with in
the process. It may be that our modern civilization has accomplished
little as yet beyond tlie older in this direction, of moral discipline. It
may be that men have acquired larger perceptions of right without

564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

being trained to obey them any better, except in a few directions of
conduct, where the least resistance of opposing appetites and passions
is encountered. But still it must be true that all culture tends, first,
to develop the moral intelligence which forms right notions of con-
duct, and, finally, to perfect the moral discipline which makes conduct
obedient to them.

It is upon that discipline chiefly that those qualities which I have
called the moral qualities of the personal order, and which have their
root in truthfulness and courage, depend for their evolution. I had
intended to recur to these for some discussion at tins point, but my
article is already too long. Perhaps it is enough to note the fact that,
being incident as they are to intrinsic relations, self-existing in man,
which undergo no complication and no change, the moral notions that
define them may easily have been quite as distinct at some earlier
stages of human culture as they are now. If they manifest themselves
no more potently in conduct than they did twenty centuries ago —
which seems doubtful, upon the whole — the fact must show us how
little our modern civilization has yet advanced the race in moral dis-
cipline, whatever gains in moral knowledge it may have brought.

■♦«♦■

DOES IT TAKE TIME TO THINK?

(SOME MEASUREMENTS OF THE PEESONAL EQUATION.)

Bt T. F. BEOWNELL.

MASKELYNE, the Koyal Astronomer of England, in August,
1795, had his attention called to the fact that his assistant,
Mr. Kinnebrook, was making errors in recording observations. He
noticed that Mr. Kinnebrook had fallen into the habit of making
his records half a second later than they should be. In the follow-
ing year this fault was found to have increased. All of Mr, Kinne-
brook's observations were recorded as about four-fifths of a second
too late. The assistant was a trained and skilled observer of long
experience, but, although the fault was pointed out to him, and
realized by him, it appeared impossible for him to overcome it.
The same error still appeared in all his work. The two astronomers,
it must be remarked, were working together observing and noting
the same events, such as the transits of the same stars across hair-
lines placed in the fields of vision of their telescopes or transit-instru-
ments. After observing side by side a large number of events, and
recording the times as accurately as they could to the second and
fraction of a second in each case, it was found by a comparison of
results that the events were almost invariably recorded by Mr.- Kin-

DOES IT TAKE TIME TO THINK? 565

nebrook as Iiaving taken place four-fifths of a second later than the
time observed and noted by Maskelyne. All attempts by Mr. Kin-
nebrook to account for or to remedy what he deemed his fault were
in vain. At last Maskelyne, assuming that his own observations
were correct, and that the habit of his assistant arose from some de-
fect difficult to explain, felt obliged to discharge him as incompetent
for the special class of work in which he had been long engaged.
At the present day astronomers, with better knowledge of the de-
gree to which the personal element enters into all work, and espe-
cially into a class of labor so difficult as that of recording fractions
of a second or hundredths of an inch, are accustomed to place as
much reliance upon the observations of Mr. Kinnebrook as upon
those made by the royal astronomer himself. The constant difference
in the result is explained, not by the assumption of incompetency on
the part of one of these astronomers, and of complete accuracy on
that of the other, but by reference to what is known as the relative
personal equation of the two men. It is not supposed that the rec-
ords made by either of them are absolutely correct. Beyond a doubt
there is in the records of each a small and constant error arising
from personal characteristics. There is no reason to suppose that the
amoimt of this error was larger with Mr. Kinnebrook than with Mas-
kelyne. The absolute personal equation, as the error is called, is as
likely to appear in the observations of one as in those of the other.
The error of four-fifths of a second, which invariably appeared, does
not represent a difference from the exact truth, but the constant dif-
ference between the amount of error habitual to one of these observ-
ers and the amount of error habitual to the other. But, as we do not
know the personal equation of either, in this, which is the first recorded
case of the kind, we can never know where the truth actually was.

By this and similar cases the attention of scientific men was called
to the effect of personal characteristics in classes of work similar to
that of the astronomical observatory. Examination showed that
these characteristics are a constant cause of error. By numerous ex-
periments it appeared that one who observes and records an occur-
rence always gives a result which differs from the exact truth. Even
where the observer was trained and skilled in observing events like
those in the experiment, the rule was the same. He recorded the
time too early or too late. The error would appear in each experi-
ment, and always to the same amount. If the record was too late in
one, it invariably was too late. This habitual difference between the
time as noted by an observer and the actual time of the happening
of the occurrence is what has been termed the absolute personal
equation of that observer. It represents the amount of error which
he will always make. It has been found to differ with different per-
sons for the same class of events. It also differs in the same person
for events of different classes. The time required to observe and

566 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

record the happening of a sudden and unexpected spark, for instance,
is always greater than that required in the case of the expected ap-
pearance of a letter or figure thrown upon a screen. The equation
also diflfers according as the facts are observed by the use of one of
the senses or of another. The time required for some of the senses
to convey intelligence to us is far greater than that required by
others.

In making astronomical observations the equation requiring atten-
tion is that relating to the sense of sight. Being the value of an
habitual error, it invalidates all observations, since the record of each
observer is incorrect in a certain constant amount. It is, therefore,
necessary to obtain the personal equation of the observer, and to add
or subtract this from the results which he notes, in order to know the
true time of the occurrence recorded by him. This can easily be
done. To obtain the equation for observation of the transits of stars,
for instance, the method is quite simple. A luminous point similar
to a star is made to move with uniform velocity in a circle, and to
pass across the field of a telescope. The exact time the point is upon
the hair-line which divides the field of view is correctly recorded by
mechanism which stops a chronometer. The observer watches the
luminous point, and as soon as he sees it upon the line presses a but-
ton which stops a second chronometer. The difference between the
times indicated by the two chronometers gives the personal equation
of the observer for the transits of stars, recorded by pressing a but-
ton. Its amount will be very small. When the time is taken by
glancing at a clock and then noting, the equation of almost all ob-
servers is so large as to demand a correction.

Since personal characteristics are the cause of a constant error, it
follows that two observers of equal skill, using instruments of equal
accuracy in observing and recording a large number of occurrences,
will always differ from each other in the results obtained, and in an
amount that will always be the same. This constant difference be-
tween the results given by two observers is called their relative per-
sonal equation. The four-fifths of a second between the records of
Mr. Kinnebrook and Maskelyne Avas the value of such an equation.
It is the sum or the difference of the amounts of error habitual to
each. Its value may be found by experiment, or by adding together
the absolute equations of each, or by subtracting one from the other
in case the tendencies to error are in the same direction.

An interesting example of a personal equation was the ground of
a serious criticism made about a year ago upon the trustworthiness
of the observations made at Greenwich. In timing the class of ob-
servations which were criticised, the record was kept at the observa-
tory in seconds and tenths of a second. The first record was made
at the time of the observations by dots or punctures made in a tape
running over a drum, the spaces between the dots representing cor-

DOES IT TAKE TIME TO THINK? 567

responding lengths of time. The tape was prepared for use by being
marked off by printed dots, about a third of an inch apart, into spaces
representing seconds. The permanent record was prepared subse-
quently by reading off the results noted upon the tape. To read off
the whole seconds was of course a simple matter of enumeration of
spaces representing seconds. The fractious of a second, however, it
was customary to estimate in tenths of a second. The estimation
was made upon the position of one sharply-marked dot as referred to
two other well-defined dots, one on each side of it, indicating the be-
ginning and the end of a second, and separated about a third of an
inch. It was done by inspection of the tape, by highly-trained and
experienced men, to whom it had been a daily work for years. Such
being the methods, an astroijomer connected with another observatory
selected at random from the reports of the Greenwich Observatory a
large number of records, and caused the number of times each fraction
of a second occurred to be counted. Theoretically, there is no reason
why one fraction should appear more often than another. An ex-
amination of over 1,200 instances, however, showed that certain
fractions appeared much more frequently than they theoretically
should. The figure 4 or j^q-, and the figure 0 or y"^, were found too often.
Upon this fact was founded a criticism upon the accuracy of the re-
ports. It was claimed that the frequency of these fractions was occa-
sioned by personal characteristics in the person who estimated the
fraction ; and it was assumed that such were the idiosyncrasies of
even the most highly-trained persons, that in making such estimations
they would unconsciously tend to use certain figures rather than
others; in this case it was argued that the tendency causing error
was to make the record four-tenths for most fractions between three-
tenths and five-tenths, and where the dot was near the end of a second
to record the time as a whole second. This criticism was offered in
a dignified and serious way in a prominent scientific journal, and was
as earnestly replied to and discussed by the observers at Greenwich
in the same journal.

This example of the personal equation is quite different from that
which was first briefly described. The value of the. equation in this
case it is impossible for us to formulate with accuracy in the present
state of our knowledge. In examples like the first, the factors can be
more readily observed, analyzed, and measured. The difference which
appeared in the case of Maskelyne and Mr. Kinnebrook arose, without
doubt, from the fact that nervous and mental actions require time for
their accomplishment, and because the rate of nervous transmission
and mental action in one of these observers constantly differed from
that in the other. The problem of the personal equation in this aspect
becomes one of physiology and psychology. As such it has been in-
vestigated with great research by specialists during the past twenty
years. And, although the results obtained are in most cases only

568 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

approximately true, the various experiments that have been made are
not without some curious interest.

It is well known that the operations of the nervous system require
time. The action of the different senses is not instantaneous ; there
is always an interval of time after a foreign body touches our skin
before we know that it touches us. So also between the mental de-
cision to make a movement and its actual execution there is a real
though short interval.

Where upon sight of a star a button is to be pressed, there is, first,
the action of the sense of sight which gives us knowledge of the ex-
istence of the star ; and, second, action of the will causing pressure of
the button. In fact, the physiological and psychical action, in all
cases where excitation is followed by the giving of a signal, may be
divided into six separate and successive actions. The sensation may
be divided into three distinct acts. In the example supposed there is,
first, tlie reception of the image of the star upon the retina ; second, the
transmission of the stimulus through the nerve from the eye to the
brain ; and, third, the mental perception of the existence of the star.
The voluntary movement which causes the signal may also be divided
into three acts. There is, first, the act of the will by which it is deter-
mined to press the button ; second, the transmission of the impulse
through the nerves from the brain to the hand ; and, third, the excite-
ment of the muscular fibres by which the finger is bent and the button
pressed. The entire interval between the excitation and the giving
of the signal, during which these six acts occur in succession, has
been called the physiological time. It is really the same in amount,
in most cases, with the personal equation. That portion of it which
is occupied with the purely mental acts of perceiving the signal and
determining the signal is called the psychical time. It is the time
required to think.

Attempts have been made to measure each of these six factors,
and interesting results have been obtained, though of various degrees
of accuracy and trustworthiness.

The earliest experiments were made with reference to the rapidity
of movement through the nerves. The first attempt to measure the
velocity of nervous impulses proceeding from the brain under action
of the will was made long ago by Haller. He ascertained, by reading
aloud with great rapidity extracts from the " ^neid," the average
number of letters which he could pronounce in one minute. Then he
calculated the length of the nerve from the brain to the muscles of
the tongue and mouth. Each letter he regarded as requiring a ner-
vous impulse. He was obliged then only to multiply the number of
letters spoken in each minute by the length of the nerve. This gave
as a result that the rate of nervous transmission from the brain was
about 150 feet a second. This experiment was defective in failing to
take into account the facts that both the act of willing and that of

DOES IT TAKE TIME TO THINK? 569

muscular contraction require time. Had these been considered, the
solution would have been farther from the truth than it really was.
Recent investigations of more precision have not, however, given re-
sults that differ widely from that obtained by Haller. The rate as
given by Helmholtz, after many experiments, is about 111 feet per
second. This is now generally accepted as the most accurate state-
ment. Slight differences in results for movements from the brain, and
for those proceeding to it, have been obtained in the investigations,
but the rate is regarded by the best authorities as essentially the
same for both movements. If there be a difference, it arises because
the rate of voluntary impulses moving from the brain outward is the
more rapid of the two.

A difference also has been found to exist in the rapidity with
which we perceive impressions received through the eye, and those
received through the ear. This at one time was supposed to be
caused by a difference in the rate of transmission in the respective
nerves. The better authority now is that the disparity is occasioned
either by difference of length of the two nerves, or because the mind
does not so readily distinguish impressions of one kind as those of
the other.

If these data are correct, it requires at least one-twelfth of a sec-
ond for us to perceive a sensation in our foot. A mosquito which
selects our ankle as the field of his operations has nearly a sixth of a
second in which to make his escape, for it requires at least one twelfth
of a second for us to find out that the mosquito is there, and another
twelfth of a second for us to make up our mind to declare war upon
him and to initiate hostile action.

It will be observed that the rate of nervous transmission is com-
paratively slow. Electricity travels at the fate of many thousand
miles a second, or, more accurately, 16,000,000 times as fast as nervous
action. Light moves about two-thirds as fast as electricity. If we
examine movements which are comparatively sluggish, we find that a
cannon-ball, when fired, moves about 900 feet a second, or nearly ten
times as fast as nervous energy. A railroad-train speeding along at
sixty miles an hour would be moving at about the same rate as an
ordinary nervous stimulus, though in a contest the stimulus would
probably win.

By further experiment it has been determined that the time re-
quired for the excitation of the muscular fibres for such acts as the
supposed pressing of the button, this being the factor last in order of
the entire six, is about one-hundredth of a second.

It is also declared with some precision, both by analogy to this
last act and by experiment, that the time required for the reception of
the impression by the sensitive membrane, which is the first and a
corresponding factor of the complete physiological time, is also about
one-hundredth of a second.

570 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

There are now left undetermined only two of the factors. These
are the time required for the two purely mental acts : first, of per-
ceiving the sensation ; and, second, of willing the movement which
immediately follows. These two make up the psychical time. It
may be obtained by first learning the entire physiological time, and
then subtracting from that the value of the four known factors, the
determination of which has been given. This would leave the period
required for the purely mental operations of distinguishing and will-
ing-

For the purpose of learning the physiological time for events of

difierent orders, a large number of carefully-prepared experiments
have been made by different investigators. Though the results ar-
rived at lack much in accuracy and completeness, they are highly
interesting and instructive.

For experiments relating to sight the arrangement is usually of
the following nature : The patient is seated before a screen, upon
which certain letters or numbers can be thrown, or before glass
globes, which can be suddenly illumined by an electric spark. Upon
seeing the number, letter, or illumination, as the case may be, the
patient immediately gives a signal by some slight movement of the
hand or foot. Nice arrangements are provided, by which both the
event and the signal register themselves, giving the time exact to the
thousandth of a second.

The general result of many experiments is, that the time required
for ordinary persons to distinguish an appearance and to give the
signal amounts to about one-fifth of a second. Exactly speaking, in
the experiments of one scientist, the time required was found to be
.188 of a second. In trials made by three other investigators the
results have been .200, .205, and .194 of a second respectively. None
of these conclusions varies much from one-fifth of a second. A com-
parison has also been made between cases where the event was an
electric spark and others where the event was the passage of a lumi-
nous point across a line, the signal being the same in each experi-
ment. According to one series of trials, it was found that the time
required in the former case was .200 of a second and in the latter
only .0*77 of a second. In other words, the perception and signaling
of the former occupied three times as much time as in the case of the
latter.

In experiments with the sense of hearing, the arrangements are
generally of the same nature. The event is usually the sound of a
bell or note, or of a spoken letter or number. For this sense the
physiological time has been calculated to be about one-sixth of a sec-
ond. Four investigators give .148, .1505, .180, and .182 of a second,
as the exact results of their experiments. It Avill be noticed that the
physiological time for the sense of hearing is shorter than for that of
sight. We hear more quickly than we see.

DOES IT TAKE TIME TO THINK? 571

For the sense of touch there is a discrepancy in the results thus
far given by different investigators. According to the best author-
ity, it appears that the physiological time in this case is about one-
seventh of a second, and less than that of sight or hearing. Some,
however, make it somewhat larger than this, and place it midway
between those of sight and hearing.

Having thus found the entire physiological time by many care-
fully-prepared experiments, and having previously obtained, as has
been briefly pointed out, the value of four of its factors, the value of
the remaining two can be readily obtained by subtracting. We
should then have the time necessarily employed in purely mental acts
of distinguishing or recognizing an event and willing the signal.

One careful investigator, after experiments in which the event was
the sounding of a bell, and the signal was made by pressing with the
foot, tabulates the resvilt with the following precision :

Time occupied (in seconds) by the mechanism of hearing the bell 010

By the act of perception of the sound and of willing the signal 112

By the transmission of nervous impulse through the spinal cord and nerve of the leg

to the foot 088

By the mechanism of muscular contraction in moving slightly the foot 010

Total physiological time 220

This is only slightly more than one-fifth of a second.

The two mental operations, it will be perceived, occupy somewhat
more time than is required for the transmission of the impulse to the
foot, and a little more than one-half of the entire time.

In all the tests thus far given the operation of the mind is as sim-
ple as possible. The terms of the problem are reduced to their lowest
forms. Upon the simplest kind of a perception, and that expected,
the patient is required to exercise his volition in the simplest way.
There is no necessity of making comparison between two or more sen-
sations, or of deciding between two or more courses of action.

But in the following experiment the mental acts required were
more complex. The patient, upon receiving a slight shock given to
the right foot, was to give the signal by moving the right hand, and
upon receiving the shock in his left foot he was to give the signal
with his left hand. He was left in ignorance upon which foot the
shock was to come. It was found that under these circumstances the
physiological time was prolonged one-fifteenth of a second beyond the
corresponding time where the patient was informed which foot was to
receive the shock. In the latter case there was no need of reflection,
but in the former he was obliged first to decide which foot was
touched, and then to decide upon the corresponding signal. One-
fifteenth of a second represented the time required for these acts of
the mind.

A similar test was made for the sense of sight. For a red light

572 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the signal was to be given with the right hand, for a white light with
the left hand. In this case the mental action of deciding these alter-
natives and coordinating the corresponding act of volition required
no less than .154, or nearly one-seventh of a second.

Other experiments have been made with the sense of sight, where
the patient was instructed to give the signal by pronouncing the name
of a vowel which was shown to him. If he had to distinguish between
two vowels, the psychical time was prolonged .166 of a second beyond
what it would have been for one vowel. If he was required to name
one out of five, the prolongation was increased to .ITO of a second.

Similar experiments with the sense of hearing, where the vowel
was spoken to the patient and repeated by him, gave similar results.
Where two vowels were selected from the mind occupied .056, and
where five were used .086 of a second longer than if only one expected
vowel were spoken.

Where two colors were shown, and the signal was given by a
movement of the hand, or by the voice, the physiological time for the
movement of the hand was found to be always greater than for the
voice.

When the signal was the pronouncing of a vowel, as " i," the time
required was less than when the patient was obliged to speak the
vowel with a consonant before it, as " pi," or " ki," or " ti." The let-
ter " p " was found to retard the patient .011 of a second, " t " twice as
lonsr, or .022 of a second, and " k " .021 of a second. A further result of
these curious investigations was that the patient required three times
as long to distinguish between two letters which were shown upon a
screen as to distinguish between the two corresponding vowels when
spoken.

In all these investigations the psychical time is made up of two
periods : the first required by the mind to perceive the sensation or
to distinguish the alternative, the second required for the mental act
of willing the signal. An attempt has been made to measure each of
these. The experiment for this purpose was so arranged that the pa-
tient was to hear several vowels,,but was directed to give the signal
only upon hearing a certain one of them. Under this arrangement
the patient concentrated his attention upon the perception of the
vowel at hearing which he was to act. He prepared himself, as
far as could be, to pronounce it the moment he heard it. Before he
heard it he willed to speak it on the instant that he should perceive
it. There remained only the act of recognizing the vowel when it
should be spoken, of distinguishing it among the other vowels. The
act of volition was in this way eliminated from the physiological time,
and the simplest mental act of distinguishing was calculated from the
result. This result, based upon this and similar experiments, was that
the mental act of distinguishing reqviired about one twenty-third of a
second of time. The whole psychical time being about one-twelfth

ABORIGINAL POTTERY. 573

of a second, tlie time required in ordinary cases for the remaining act
of willing was easily calculated to be about one twenty-eighth of a
second. If these investigations can be regarded as entirely trustwor-
thy, they tend to show that the mind perceives somewhat more slowly
than it wills.

Of the personal equation, in its widest sense, there are many ex-
amples even more suggestive and worthy of extended treatment than
these which have received mathematical measurement. These exam-
ples are to be found in all human action, and in the result of all human
work. Noticeably is this true in all acts and occupations which have
their basis and lowest forms in acts of imitation. None the less is it
true in those higher forms of art and action where close imitation is
less desired than the interpretation of some pervading spirit, or the
representation of some underlying essential. In the acts of painting a
landscape, of copying a picture, of interpreting a symphony, of read-
ing a poem, of acting a play, of following an argument, or in any of
the common or artistic acts of men, be they mental or pliysical, the
personal equation of the actor enters as a perceptible element in the
result. The discussion of the nature and value of the personal equa-
tion where it appears in forms so subtile as in the cases last mentioned
would furnish many considerations of interest and instruction, but to
undertake the treatment of these forms is beyond our present purpose
or opportunity.

-♦*♦-

ABOEIGINAL POTTERY OF THE SALT-SPRINGS,

ILLINOIS.

By GEORGE ESCOL SELLERS.

IN the work by the late J. W. Foster, LL. D., on the " Prehistoric
Races of the United States of America," published in 18Y3, when
treating of the pottery of the mound-builders, on page 248, he says :

" On the Saline River, Gallatin County, Illinois, according to MS. notes of Prof.
Cox, there is, just above low-water mark, a salt-spring, which was resorted to
in the earliest settlement of the country, by those of European descent, for the
purpose of procuring salt by evaporating the brine. Here occur, however, nu-
merous fragments of pottery, showing that a prehistoric people had resorted to
the same spring, and for the same purpose. From the slight curvature of the
fragments it is evident that the vessels were of large capacity. The material is
coarse, and the general thickness of the vessel is about half an inch, but at the
rim it is three-quarters of an inch. The exterior is marked by vertical lines
of depression about half an inch apart, with bars less conspicuous and close to-
gether, sometimes at right angles, and at others oblique. When I first saw these
specimens, I was somewhat surprised that the makers should bestow so much
ornamentation on vessels so coarsely made, and applied to such ordinary uses ;

574 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

but a slight examination showed me that these figures had been impressed and
not carved ; or, in other words, that a hasket of rushes or willmcs had Jirst teen
constructed, inside of tohich the clay was moulded and allowed to dry lefore
lurningy

Then, in a foot-note, he continues :

" Since this chapter was written, I have seen a paper of Mr. Charles Eau, of
New York, on the aboriginal pottery of this country, in which he refers to this
locality, and arrives at the same conclusion as myself. ... I had occasion
to examine a fragment of a vessel sent to Dr. Davis in 1859, by Mr. George
E. Sellers, who obtained it at the salt-springs, near the Saline Eiver. . . .
Several acres, Mr. Sellers states, are covered with broken vessels, and heaps of
clay and shells, which indicate that they were made on the spot. They present
the shape of semi-globular bowls with projecting rims, and measure from thirty
inches to four feet across the rim ; the thickness varies from a half to three-
quarters of an inch.

" The earthenware has evidently ieen moulded in iaslets. It is solid and
heavy, and must have ieen tolerably well talced. The impressions on the outside
are very regular, and are really ornamental, proving that these aboriginal pot-
ters were also sMllful hasTcet-mahers.

" Mr. Rau quotes from Hunter, as to the aboriginal mode of making pottery,
' Another method practised is to coat the inner surf ace ofbasTcets, made of rushes
or irillows, with clay, to the required thickness, and, when dried, to burn them
as above described.' "

My object in writing this article is to refute a theory that would
attribute to the rude, prehistoric people of the Stone age a skill in
manipulation that cannot now be a{)proached by the skilled artisan of
the present age ; that is, keeping in form and lining with heavy clay
fragile baskets of the large size of these old salt-kettles.

About the time I sent the specimens to Dr. Davis referred to by
Mr. Rau, I also sent some to the Hon. Thomas Ewbank, and in my
letter accompanying I stated that I had discovered what at first I
took to be an entire kettle bottom-up ; but, on removing the earth that
covered it, it appeared to be a solid mass of sun-dried clay. From its
position among heaps of clay and shells, its hard, compact, discolored
— I might say almost polished — surface, I became satisfied it was a
mould on which the clay kettles had been formed, precisely as in loam-
moulding at the present day.

Mr. Ewbank, in reply, said he thought I was mistaken ; that what
I took for a mould was most probably a concreted sediment that had
filled a kettle and been turned out ; that there was no evidence of the
aborigines of either North or South America having ever iised the
lathe, or formed their ware by striking; not even among the Peru-
vians, whom he considered far in advance as to forms and qiiality of
pottery- ware. They had moulded bottles or jugs on gourds, and open
vessels in baskets, which had been burned out or ofl^ in baking ; he
thought the specimens I sent him bore evident marks of reed baskets,
etc.

ABORIGINAL POTTERY.

575

Before presenting the facts that have confirmed me in my original
view of the manner in which tliese salt-pans were formed, and that I
may be better understood, I will endeavor to describe the location
where the fragments are found.

My first visit was in company with my friend the late Dr. David
Dale Owen, about the year 1854. We found two water-worn ravines,
commencing on the hills that rise abruptly on the south side of the
Saline River, and drain into it. At the base of the hills they are
crossed by a State road, between which and the river their bottoms
are level, hard, and barren, and here, close to the road rise the salt-
springs. Between the ravines is a bench or river-bottom subject to
annual overflow.

These bottoms, as well as the hill-sides, were covered with a thick
growth of young timber — the primitive forest having been cut off for
fuel for evaporating the brine at the time the salines were worked by
the early settlers. The principal spring was then, and is now, known
as the " Nigger " well or salt-works, as it was worked by slave-labor
while the State of Illinois was a Territory.

Fig. 1.

The spring in the west ravine overflowed a curbed well about eight
feet square, which I sounded, and found to be about forty feet deep.
In the east ravine a salt-spring was oozing. A short distance above
the curbed well flows a sulphur-spring, and near it one of good fresh
water.

I have been informed, by a reliable party who had personal knowl-
edge of all that was done by the early settlers in working the salines,

576 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that in the east ravine they sunk a well and curbed it down to
the bed-rock, a depth of 42 feet, and made a boring of about 150
feet in its bottom. That all the way from the surface to the rock
they found pieces of broken pottery, and on the rock a pitcher or jug,
with a handle within the rim ; this jug was sent to the Philadelphia
Museum. My informant expressed the opinion that, at the time the
aborigines used the waters, the spring had its outlet at or near the
bed-rock, and had since gradually filled by surface-washings, just as
the well in the west ravine has been filled since my first visit, and is
now a cattle-tramped salt-swamp.

The present outlet of the spring is not over six or eight feet above
low water of the Saline River, and the character of its bed precludes
the possibility of its ever having been on a lower level ; for at Island
Ripple, within two miles of the spring, t^e river falls over a broad reef
of rocks which backs t^ie watey — forming a pool — up to this place,
where there is another slight ripple.

This, to me, is conclus_ive evidence that, whoever the people were
who left the masses of broken pottery as proof of their having used
the salt-waters, they resorted to precisely the same means as did their
more civilized successors of our time — that is, sinking wells or reser-
voirs to collect the brine ; and the dipper-jug which had been dropped
had sunk to the bottom, showing that their reservoirs were down
to the rock.

Running nearly in an east-and-west course on the south side, and
close to the outlet of the springs, is an upheaval that has brought the
carboniferous limestone to the surface standing on edge. The sulphur
and fresh-water springs rise south of the line of this dike. On the line
of it, about the centre of the raised bottom or plateau between the two
ravines, say ten or twelve feet higher than the springs, and embracing
an area of about eight acres, occurs a sink of about 120 feet in diame-
ter. It was on the raised rim of this sink that I discovered the heaps
of clay and shells, and what I took to be the inside mould or core on
which the kettles had been formed. It was then a pool of water,
around which I found the most abundant remains of pottery, not only
represented by fragments of the large, coarse salt-pans, but by many
pieces of small vessels of much finer texture, and of superior workman-
ship, such as would be used for domestic purposes. From these
and large quantities of chippings and offal, I inferred that this was
the site of the old settlement. The broken pottery, the black soil,
the waste from long occupancy extending a considerable distance
both east and west of the springs, and to the foot of the bluffs on the
south, covering an area of about thirty acres, were confirmatory of
this view; but the fact of the annual overflow made me look further
for a permanent settlement.

The hills at this point run nearly an east-and-west course, form-
ing a range of upheaval that crosses the State of Illinois, from the

ABORIGINAL POTTERY.

577

Ohio River at Shawneetown to the Mississippi, and at some places at-
tains a height of about VOO feet, being the highest land in Illinois or
in either of the adjoining States of Missouri, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Immediately south of the salt-springs is a spur of the main hill, its
northern terminus being precipitous bluffs of metamorphic sandstone,
which Prof. Worthen, the State Geologist of Illinois, who once visited
the location with me, classed with the Chester group. Above this
bluff, where the spur rises at an angle of about 30°, it has been
terraced, and the terraces as well as the crown of the spur have
been used as a cemetery: portions of the terraces are still perfect ; all
the burials appear to have been made in rude stone cists, that vary in
size from eighteen inches by three feet, to two feet by four feet, and
from eighteen inches to two feet deep. They are made of thin-bedded
sandstone slabs, generally roughly shaped, but some of them have
been edged and squared with considerable care, particularly the cov-
ering-slabs. The slope below the terraces was thickly strewed with
these slabs, washed out as the terraces have worn away, and which
have since been carried off for door-steps and hearthstones.

jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijiimTHiT
ipiLilmliiilllJlIljTOJl
[iiiipiirijriiiiiiimWr'''
^|jIlUi'(ifi;iIIlMiiiiii([Tmrr
liigllpMDTnTnTnriTr

uiiiiiiiiijiiiiiiiMiiTrn'H

' ' illimimiimiilijn^^

Fig. 2.

I have opened many of these cists; they nearly all contain frag-
ments of human bones far gone in decay, but I have never succeeded
in securing a perfect skull; even the clay vessels that were interred
with the dead have disintegrated, the portions remaining being almost
as soft and fragile as the bones.

Some of the cists that I explored were paved with valves of fresh-
water shells, but most generally with the fi-agments of the great salt-
pans, which, in every case, are so far gone in decay as to have lost the
outside markings. This seems conclusively to couple the tenants of
these ancient graves with the makers and the users of the salt-pans.

The great number of graves and the quantity of slabs that have
been washed out prove either a dense population or a long occu-
pancy, or both.

On the crown of the main hill above the cemeterv are ranires of
circular depressions, from one to three feet deep, and from fifteen to
twenty-five feet in diameter ; they cover a large area, on two sides of
which there is evidence of earthwoi-ks.
VOL. XI. — 37

578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I had the soil removed from one of these depressions, and found
marks of long-continued fire in its centre, from which I infer that they
are sites of the lodges of these ancient people.

The general character of this portion of the hill-range is precipi-
tous to the north, with a very gradual descent to the south, forming
the north slope of the broad and beautiful valley of Eagle Creek, a
tributary of the Saline, a valley once cultivated by the prehistoric
people that worked the salines, evidenced by the fine sjDecimens of
stone agricultural implements turned up by the plough, and most abun-
dant near the earthworks.

I have in my colle(!tion, from this locality, four hoes or spades,
flaked out of chert or quartzite, most probably from the metamor-
phic sandstone of the district. They are beautifully wrought, and
vary in size from six and a half by three and a half to ten and a half
by four and three-quarter inches, and from one-half to three-quarters
of an inch in thickness.

On receipt of Mr. Ewbank's letter in 1859, I examined carefully
quantities of specimens of pottery, and found the markings on all of
them to have been made by woven cloth of twisted threads, and in no
single instance by rush or willow baskets. Some of these cloth im-
pressions were of fine texture.

When I considered that a basket of the large size of these salt-
kettles, even if made of metallic wii-e no thicker than the thread im-
pressions, could not possibly be kept in form while being lined with
heavy clay, the idea of using any twisted textile fabric for such a
purpose seemed absurd. We must, therefore, look for some other
explanation of these markings.

They could not be for ornament, or the rough, sharp edge of the
projecting rim would have been finished with more care, or where
threads had broken, or pieces been torn from the cloth, the defects in
the markings would have been repaired.

Some of the threads of the cloth being at right angles to the rim,
and gradually becoming oblique or bias, presented the exact appear-
ance which a bandage of cloth would, if tightly bound round a semi-
globular bowl.

I imagine these half-civilized people to have been practical utili-
tarians ; and I can see the use of a bandage in holding the moist clay
firmly bound Avhile being raised from the mould on which it was formed,
and which was essential to prevent cracking as it hardened or dried.

If a bandage was used in this manner and for this purpose, there
could probably be found pieces of the pans showing the width of
bandage used, also where and how it had been fastened at its union.

Therefore, my first object was to secm-e all the specimens that I
could, also the mould or core on which I believed the pans had been
formed. But from the time I collected the specimens sent to Mr. Ew-
bank and Dr. Davis, it was nine or ten years before I again had an

ABORIGINAL POTTERY

579

opportunity of visiting the springs. I then found the plateau between
them cleared and under cultivation ; the water had dried from the
sink ; a crop of corn was growing on its bottom ; the plough had ovei--
turned and broken the mould, but in doing so had exposed portions of
others of the same character. They appeared to have been small
mounds built of stone, and covered with a tenacious yellow clay, which,
by sun-drying, had become as hard as common salmon-brick.

From the position of the moulds on the rim of the sink, I inclined
to the opinion that it was mainly an artificial reservoir for water, and
the centre of a great pottery-manufactory ; the material used being
the siliceous fire-clays and shales of the coal-measures, which are found
in abundance, decomposed and ready for use, in ravines within reason-
able distance of the locality, together with fresh-water shells from the
reefs and ripples of the Saline and Wabash Rivers, using bivalves and
univalves indiscriminately.

The plough had played sad havoc with the pieces of pottery I ex-
pected to secure. At first, pieces ten or twelve inches across were
easily obtained ; now one as large as the hand is a treasure : this
breaking up made it very difficult to secure the evidence I was look-
ing for. I made many thorough searches before finding any specimens
of well-marked unions of the bandages, or establishing conclusively
that in no case were the bottoms of the large vessels marked, as they
would have been if formed in baskets.

Fig. 3.

A person familiar with the work of the early settlers informs me
that, in grading for foundations of their salt-furnaces, several of tlie
large pans, almost perfect, were unearthed and destroyed by the black
laborers. He paid no attention to the markings, only observing that
their bottoms were perfectly plain, and described them as " basins, as
large around as the hind-wheel of his wagon, with flattish bottoms."

580

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

At the present salt-works, about five miles higher up the Saline
River, on its south fork, near Equality, is the " Half-Moon Lick,"
where the earth has been licked away to a depth varying from
twelve to sixteen feet, in the shape of a horseshoe, about 200 yards
from point to point of the heels, and to the toe, or back of the curve,
250 yards. In this lick are still to be seen deeply-trodden buf-
falo-roads. On one bank is a slightly-raised ridge, in which were
found imbedded a number of earthen vessels in a row. Mr. B. Tem-
ple, one of the proprietors of the salt-works, described them to me as
between four and five feet diameter and sixteen to eighteen inches
deep. After uncovering, they Avere not removed, but suffered to go
to decay. The bones of the mastodon have been found here.'

Fig. 4.

On many of the fragments of the large pans in my collection the
impressions of the cloth are perfect delineations of the fabrics used.
Though differing greatly in pattern and in fineness of texture, they
are all, with one single exception, made <»• woven in the same manner
— that is, by twisting two threads of warp around the single thread
of the woof, precisely as the wire faces of laid moulds for forming
paper are now made. The coarsest fabric that I find the impression
of has warps about one and a half inch apart, with about five threads
of woof to the inch. This piece is shown full size in Fig. 1 ; the double

^ After writing the above description of the " Half-Moon Lick," I referred to Prof. E.
T. Cox's report of it in the " Geological Surrey of Gallatin County," as published in the
sixth volume of A. H. Worthcn's "Report" of Illinois, and find that he has probably
trusted to cye-mcasuremetit, and fireatly understated the extent of this remarkable lick.

I wrote to Mr. B. Temple, who confirmed what I had written, and furnished the
actual measures, as given above.

ABORIGINAL POTTERY. 581

warp when twisted being about one-eighth of an inch, and the woof
from one-twelfth to one-tenth of an inch in diameter. It will be ob-
served that the twist of the warp is continuous, while that of the woof
terminates at, or is lost in, the warp.

The finest specimen I have has ten threads of warp to the inch,
with a woof or filling of from thirty to thirty-four. Fig. 2 is a portion
of it, showing the texture, which, though exceedingly close in the
filling, is plainly impressed on the clay, even showing the twist of the
threads and the crimping of the cloth as bound round the vessel.

The exception referred to is a square-mesh net. The squares are
one-fourth of an inch ; the threads in thickness about equal to No. 6
sewing-cotton ; and the knots at the corners of the meshes are very
distinctly marked.

Fig, 3. represents the first piece that I found giving any idea of
the union of the bandage, which in this case appears to have been by
the intervention of a stick to which the threads were fastened.

Fig. 4 is a piece of the rim of a vessel where the bandage has been
united by twisting.

Fig. 5 is a similar piece, showing where two pieces of cloth of dif-
ferent texture have been united, and the obliquity of the threads to
the rim caused by the hemispherical form of the vessel.

Fig. 6 shows varieties in the pattern of the cloth.

On none of the specimens do I find impressions of cloth woven as
delineated by Mr. Foster (p. 225), as cloth from the mounds of Butler
and Jackson Counties, Ohio.

Most of the fragments of the large vessels are of a leaden-clay
color, and, where reddened by heat, it is more on the inside than on
the outside. Some specimens that 1 found in the woods showed signs
of the action of fire on the portions projecting above the ground, from
the frequent burning of the woods. Where reddened by heat, most
of the markings have been thrown off".

This and other considerations lead me to doubt a burning or bak-
ing process ever having been applied to them, and I do not think it
would have been possible in open fires. The unequal heat would have
caused unequal expansion and contraction, and consequent cracking.

It is evident that they are composed of a cement of siliceous clay
and slightly-calcined shells. None of the pieces will stand a high
heat and afterward moisture. I have heated to redness large pieces,
that, on fracturing, I found to contain portions of coarsely-pounded
shells (flakes as large as one-fourth of an inch frequently occurring).
On cooling, they were about the color of common salmon-brick ; when
moistened, they at once fall to pieces by the slacking of the shell-lime;
and when exposed to the air they gradually waste away, the lime
only slacking and causing disintegration as it absorbs moisture from
the air.

582

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

If formed of cement, they must have time to harden, and for that
purpose must be removed from the mould on which they were formed,
to prevent cracking by contraction; and here the cloth bandage be-
comes a necessity. But this cloth is a costly article, requiring a great
expenditure of hand-labor and time. It must not be allowed to fasten

Fig. 5.

to the vessel as the cement hardens. To prevent this, a simple, natu-
ral device has been adopted. The pottery shows a laminated texture.
No doubt every fresh layer of the cement has been hardly compressed
on the previous one; for at hand we find the primitive tools that were
used for the purpose, scattered over the site of this ancient pottery-

ABORIGINAL POTTERY.

583

manufactory, in shape of flat river-pebbles, all of which are polished
on the flat surface, just as the digging edges of the stone spades are
by use. Cement thus compressed would be too hard to take the per-
feet impression of the cloth bandage ; but a thin layer, or even a

Fig. 6.

wash, of river-silt or mud would take it, and at the same time prevent
the cloth adhering to the vessel ; and, when required to be removed,
a slight surface-moistening would accomplish the object without in-

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

jury to the cloth. The river-silt is sufficiently siliceous when in con-
tact with a body of lime-cement, in process of time, to become almost
as hard as the cement itself 1 have succeeded in separating perfect
sections of this thin surface-lamina from the underlying mass; but in
no instance have I found this coating on the plain bottoms of the
vessels.

And now, reader, if you have patiently and attentively followed
me through these ramblings, and still believe this ancient, simple,
practical people went the roundabout road you have been led to sup-
pose to accomplish an object, with great waste of time, labor, and
material, when a simpler, more natural, and direct way was open to '
them, and which my researches convince me they adopted, I will ask
you to accompany me up the hill, not by the steep ascent, through the
cemetery, but up the ravine, past the sulphur-spring. You will find
it gradual and easy ; in fact, part of the old, well-beaten foot-trail is
now a wagon-road ; but, before reaching the top, the trail leaves the
road and winds among the rocks, one branch sweeping off' to the left
to the ancient settlement. We will take the one to the rioht. When
you near the top of the hill, though fully a quarter of a mile from tlie
salt-spring, keep a sharp lookout, for you may chance on a good
specimen of well-marked pottery. On reaching the crown, you will
be some distance west of the old town-site. Here the plough has
been working destruction for many years ; but you cannot take up a
handful of soil without finding in it the dehris of the old salt-pans.

You are now in a lane separating a young apple-orchard, thickly
grown with clover (so thick as to cover all specimens), from freshly-
ploughed cornfields, stretching far off* to the south, over the grand
valley of Eagle Creek.

If you can take your eyes from the charming landscape, climb with
me the snake-fence into these ploughed fields, and examine the soil : you
will not be likely to find any specimens worth saving, unless it be in an
old fence-row, for the ploughshai'e has ground them and the corn has
fed on them. Still, the soil is largely composed of disintegrated pot-
tery. You may walk the furrows, examine the washes, the entire slope,
to the east, to the west — you may follow its descent to the south — in
every ravine, drain, or wash, you will find these remains, and you may
possibly be repaid for your tramp by discovering among the wasted
pottery and flakes of chert a spade, a rough and peculiarly-chipped ar-
row-point, or a flaked axe or chisel. But when your legs have given
out, and you can walk no farther, you will have failed to find the boun-
daries that limit the district over which these remains are strewed.
Then you will sit down and ponder in amazement, and ask, " What
object (^ould these people have had in carrying their broken pans and
strewing them broadcast over so vast an extent of country, and so far
from the salt-springs ?" As you sit thinking, you feel the warmth of
the setting sun. Its rays cast your lengthening shadow on the hill,

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 5^5

and that of the hill far over the valley of the Saline; from these shad-
ows you obstruct the rays of light, and from these glimmering rays
you begin to realize that these simple peojDle, who had advanced so
far as to have learned the use and value of salt, probably from the
herds of mighty animals that came to lap the water of the springs, or
to lick the salt-impregnated earth, had also learned that the sun dried
away the water and left the salt ; and as they could not take the sun
down into the valley to the water, they carried the w^ater to the sun ;
and here on this southern slope, which tlien, as it does now, caught
the first rays in early morning, its noonday beams, and evening kiss,
were ranged scores — probably hundreds— of these primitive vessels, in
which the sun, by its direct rays and heat-laden, southern breath, was
doing the work of evaporation, yet not unaided by man. Around in
every direction you find evidence of this, for every stone— and there
are myriads— has been through tlie fire. They have been heated to
redness and plunged into the brine.

Now, you may say I am indulging my imagination. Well, be it
so. If I am, my imagination keeps within the bounds of possibility ;
while yours would endow these primitive people, whose only imple-
ments or tools seem to have belonged to the rude age of stone, with a
skill in handling them far beyond what we in this enlightened age
possess, with all our appliances. And you do this to give a color of
truth to an entirely imaginary process, not sustained by a single fact.

■♦»»

mSTIJSrCT AND INTELLIGENCE.^

By W. K. BEOOKS.

TO many persons the phenomena of instinct and intelligence in
animals seem irreconcilable with any theory of the evolution of
organisms through the action of natural causes, but the popular opin-
ion upon this subject has undergone a very considerable change within
the last half-century, so that the difficulty now presents itself and
finds expression in a much more manageable form than would have
been the case a few years since.

With regard to instinct, we can easily see that if animals of a
given species are born with a constitutional tendency, or instinct, to
perform a certain action under certain circumstances, this tendency
may be improved and perfected by natural selection, provided favor-
able variations appear, and be inherited. If instinct varies in the
different individuals of a species, the struggle for existence wall result

' A lecture from a course on " Biological Theories," delivered at the Johns Hopkins
University, January, 1877.

586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in the destruction of those in which it is imperfectly or abnormally
developed, and the preservation of those individuals which exhibit
any advantageous variation.

In order to place the phenomena of instinct upon the same footing,
with reference to natural selection, as is held by other manifestations
of life, it is only necessary to show that instincts vary, and that these
variations may become hereditary.

Not a great many years ago the statement that instinct varies
among animals of the same species would have been met by a flat
denial, but no one at all acquainted with the subject would probably
now be found to disj)ute it. A fcAV examples may not be out of place,
however.

The oriole now builds its hanging-nest with the pieces of string,
horse-hair, yarn, and carpet-ravelings, which are to be found in abun-
dance about houses and barns ; and I have seen a nest into which
three fish-lines, with their hooks and sinkers, several yards of kite-tail
from a telegraph wire, and a shoe-string, were interwoven. Of course,
it is not natural for the bird to use such material as this, but the odds
and ends furnished by man are much better fitted to its needs than
the grass and fibres used by its less civilized ancestors. This change
certainly shows power to improve in accordance with changed condi-
tions ; but it may perhaps be said that it is not an example of change
in an instinct, but simply in a non-hereditary habit. The fear of man,
shown by almost all the smaller animals, is in many cases newly
acquired, for in regions uninhabited by man it is not shown, and it is
only as the animals of such regions learn, by generations of persecu-
tion, that man is highly and peculiarly dangerous, that they come to
avoid him ; yet this fear is truly instinctive, for it is shown by the
^'oung as well as by the adult. The testimony of travelers as to the
tameness of animals in regions where they have never been persecuted,
is well known. For instance, Darwin, in his " Journal " of the voyage
of the Beagle, says : ".This disposition is common to all the terres-
trial species of the Galapagos Islands, namely, to the mocking-thrush,
the finches, wrens, tyrant fly-catchers, the dove, and carrion-buzzard.
All of them often a^^proached sufiiciently near to be killed with a
switch, and sometimes, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat. A gun
here is almost superfluous, for with the muzzle I jDushed a hawk oflT
the branch of a tree. One day, while lying down, a mocking-thrush
alighted on the edge of a pitcher made of the shell of a tortoise,
which I held in my hand, and began very quietly to sip the water ;
it allowed me to lift it from the gi-ound, while seated on the vessel.
I often tried and very nearly succeeded in catching these birds by
their legs. Formerly these birds appear to have been even tamer
than at present. Cowley (in the year 1684) says that ' the turtle-
doves were so tame that they would often alight upon our hats and
arms, so that we could take them alive, they not fearing man until

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 587

such time as some of our company did fire upon them, whereby they
were rendered more shy.' Dampier also, in the same year, says that
a man in a morning's walk might kill six or seven dozen of these
doves. At present, although certainly very tame, they do not alight
upon people's hats, nor do they suffer themselves to be killed in such
large numbers. It is surprising that they have not become wilder ;
for these islands, during the last hundred and fifty years, have been
much visited by buccaneers and whalers ; and the sailors, wandering
through the woods in search of tortoises, take a cruel delight in
knocking down the little birds."

Darwin also says that at Terra del Fuego a certain species of
goose, which is much hunted by the natives, is so wild that it
is a very difficult matter to kill even one, although in the Falk-
land Islands, where it is not often disturbed by man, a sportsman
may sometimes kill more in a day than he can caiTy home. This
goose is not migratory ; but a bird of passage, the black-necked
swan, brings with it to the Falkland Islands the wisdom learned
in more dangerous regions, and is very hard to obtain. Darwin
ends with the following comments : " From these several facts we
may, I think, conclude, first, that the wildness of birds with regard
to man is a particular instinct directed against him, and not de-
pendent on any general degree of caution arising from other sources
of danger ; secondly, that it is not acquired by individual birds in a
short time, even when much persecuted, but in the course of succes-
sive generations it becomes hereditary. With domesticated animals
we are accustomed to see new mental habits or instincts acquired, and
rendered hereditarj^ ; but with animals in a state of nature it must
always be most difficult to discover instances of acquired hereditary
knowledge. In regard to the wildness of birds there is no way of
accounting for it except as an inherited habit ; comparatively few
young birds, in any year, have been injured by man in England, yet
all, even nestlings, are afraid of him ; many individuals, on the other
hand, both at the Galapagos and at the Falklands, have been pursued
and injured by man, but yet have not learned a salutary fear of
him." If instincts have been acquired gradually by natural selec-
tion— like modifications of structure — we should expect to find that,
like other adaptations, they are in many cases more or less imperfect.
We were formerly taught that instinct difiers from intelligence inas-
much as it is an infallible guide and perfect in its results. If we
have sliown that it admits of improvement, we need not argue its
imperfection ; but a few examples of the failure of instinct may not
be out of place. Migratory birds often return too early in the season,
and perish from lack of food. The instinct which leads insects to lay
their eggs upon or near food which is proper for the larvae to which
the eggs will in time give rise, although the adult insect may feed
upon something quite different, is a very wonderful and beautiful

588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

provision of Nature, but it has been shown to fail signally in some
cases. Certain flies lay their eggs upon decaying animal matter, in
order that the maggots may find an abundant supply of proper food ;
but the flies are sometimes misled by the odor of a species of arum,
and lay their eggs upon the leaves of the plant. The young, of
course, perish as soon as they are hatched, for they are unable to sub-
sist upon vegetable food. The presence of a certain odor stands in
relation to the existence of putrid flesh, and there is in the fly a cor-
responding relation between the sensation caused by this odor and a
tendency to deposit her eggs. That is, the relation between a certain
sensation and a certain action is in harmony with another relation
between two phenomena, external to the fly ; but this adjustment is
not quite perfect, since the odor of the arum-plant, which is not the
right odor, does what nothing but the odor of putrid meat should do.
The trap-door spider makes for its dwelling a round hole in the
ground, which it lines with silk and covers with a lid or trap-door,
lastened with a hinge and lying even with the ground, and fitting so
exactly that it is no easy matter to find the hole, even when the ani-
mal has just been seen to enter it. To render the deception still more
perfect, the top of the door is sometimes covered with living mosses
and lichens, which the spider is supposed to plant in this place ; the
whole apparatus is very wonderfully made, and we can hardly admire
sufiiciently the instinct which enables the animal to construct it.
This instinct may lead to a great mistake, for a close observer of the
habits of this animal — J. T. Moggidge — found a nest in sandy soil,
where there was no vegetation. The lid had its usual cover of moss,
although this failed to answer its purpose, for the little round spot of
verdure made the nest very conspicuous instead of helping to hide it.
The process of fish-culture furnishes a good illustration of the imper-
fection of such highly-important instincts as those concerned with the
perpetuation of the species. It is found that if trout, white-fish, shad,
or many other species, are allowed to lay their eggs in the natural
manner, a very great proportion — ustially much more than half — fail to
be fertilized, and of the remainder many are destroyed by crowding
and lack of fresh water; many more are buried by sediment, or carried
away by the current, so that only a very few develop and give rise to
young fish ; and many of the young are so weakened by the unfavor-
able conditions to which they have been exposed that they are unable
to free themselves from the remains of the egg-shell, so that the num-
ber hatched is' very small indeed as compared with the number of
eggs. To obviate this, the male and female fish are caught just
before the time at which the eggs are deposited. These are pressed
out of the body of the mother, artificially fertilized, and placed in
proper hatching-boxes, and in this way the number of young is in-
creased many hundred per cent. It is no exaggeration to say that, as
compared with the artificial, the natural method of propagation among

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 589

these fishes is crude and faulty in the greatest degree. Nor can it be
said that this wastefulness is compensated by the great number of
eggs, for the production of so many eggs by the mother involves a
great expenditure of force, which might be saved by more highly-de-
veloped instincts.

In view of all the instances given, I think we may conclude that
instinct is not a fixed, immutable, perfect law and guide, but an im-
perfect, improvable, gradually-acquired method of adjusting actions
to the surrounding conditions ; and therefore subject to slow perfec-
tion through the survival of the fittest variations. Let us now see
whether animals possess other mental powers than the instinctive ;
whether they exhibit any faculty which may properly be called intel-
ligence. No one doubts that most of our domestic animals admit
of individual improvement or education, but it may be said that this
improvement is due to man's intelligence, not to that of the animals
themselves. There is abundant proof, however, that animals are
capable of much individual improvement in a state of nature. You
can't catch old birds with chaff; and a new trap partakes of the prop-
erties of a new broom, Morgan, in his book on " The American
Beaver and his Works," says that beaver-houses are often found of a
construction very inferior to the average ; and that, according to the
Indians, these are the work of young animals which have not yet
completed their education. Every one who has studied the habits of
cats knows how frequently they fail to raise their first litter of kittens,
and a very careful observer tells me that this is true of white mice to
a much greater degree.

Leroy, a writer of the seventeenth century, and a very reliable au-
thority, says that there is a marked inferiority in the nests made by
young birds, and that the best and most complicated nests are made
by those species of birds whose young remain a long time in the nest,
and thus have more opportunity to see how it is made.

He says that not only are the nests of young birds badly made,
but that very unfit places are chosen for them, and that these defects
are remedied in time when the builders have been instructed by their
sense of the inconvenience they have endured. Wilson likewise
claimed that there is a very perceptible inferiority in the nests of
young birds. To one at all familiar with animals, the fact that each
individual undergoes a process of intellectual development and self-
education is so familiar tliat it seems strange that any one should
question it ; but, as the contrary statement is still occasionally met
with, it seemed proper to give the above instances of improvement.

The fact that dogs dream, and under circumstances of peculiar
hardship and misfortune become crazy, seems to indicate a very close
similarity between their minds and ours ; and no one who has seen
an idiotic or half-witted dog can doubt that an ordinary dog has a
mind to lose.

590 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Dr. Kane tells us that one of the Newfoundland dogs which spent
two arctic winters with him was so oppressed by the darkness and
solitude of the long night, and so reduced in strength by hardship
and cold, that it at last became insane, and manifested all the symp-
toms which were observed in some of the human beings of the party
who were affected in the same way by the same causes.

Many animals, poultry for instance, have special cries for special
purposes : an alarm-cry to indicate danger ; a call to announce the dis-
covery of a supply of food ; a maternal " cluck " to keep the brood of
chicks together; and several other cries, each of which has a meaning.
These cries are undoubtedly produced and understood by the fowls
instinctively, but the process by which man learns to recognize them
and to understand their meaning is purely intellectual. The farmer's
dog learns to distinguish and understand them as well as the farmer
himself, and knows when he may be unconcerned, and when he is to
go to their defense ; and there is not the slightest reason to doubt
that he acquires his knowledge, as man does, by a process of obser-
vation, memory, and thought. Instances of intelligence among the
higher mammalia could, of course, be indefinitely multiplied, but it
does not seem necessary to dwell upon the subject here. I will, how-
ever, give a few examples of what seems to be intelligence among
the lower animals. I think it was Lubbock who observed a spider
which wished to raise a captured wasp to a more elevated portion of
the web. Finding it too heavy, it stopped its efforts and gnawed off
two of the wings, and then made a second attempt. As it was still
too heavy, it lightened it still furtlier, and again tested it, and re-
peated the process until it had reduced its load to a manageable size.
I am unable to give the authority for the following, but think the
account was published in Nature some years since: A gentleman
found a small dead bird and impaled it upon a stick, and stuck the
other end of the stick into the ground near some " scavenger" beetles.
The instinct which leads these insects to bury dead birds and other
animals as a provision for the wants of their young is well known.
In this case they soon found the bii-d — but how was a bird perched
upon an upright stick to be buried in the ground ? After some con-
sultation they resorted to the very clever expedient of digging up
the stick, and then digging a hole large enough to bury both bird
and stick. Although this seems very like intelligence, it may possi-
bly be explained as a case in which the ordinary instinctive habit of
the animal accidentally fitted an exceptional demand upon it.

Many of the actions of ants, however, do not admit of any such
interpretation. When two armies of ants of different species leave
their homes at the same time, arrange themselves in ranks, and march
to a point of meeting, and engage in battle, they exhibit, not simply
proofs of concerted action, but evidences that they can arrange and
plan to meet extraordinary and unusual emergencies.

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 591

Of the actions which organisms perform in order to accomplish a
purpose, some, like those to which I have called your attention, are to
be placed above, others below instinct. Many of the actions of plants,
such as turning the leaves toward the light, the tendency of the roots
to grow downward, and. the closure of the flowers at night, remotely
resemble instinctive actions. In some the resemblance is more per-
fect— the groping of tendrils for support, for instance. Prof. Gray
gives the following account of this action : " When a twining stem
overtops its support, the lengthening shoot is seen thrown over to one
side, and usually outstretched. One might suppose that it had fallen
over by its weight, but it is not generally so. If turned over, sa-y to
the north, when first observed, it will probably be found reclining to
the south an hour or two later, and, an hour later again, turned north-
ward : that is, the end of the stem sweeps round in a circle con-
tinually like the hand of a clock. It keeps on growing as it revolves ;
but the revolving has nothing to do with the growth, and indeed is
often so rapid that several complete turns may be made before any
increase in length could be observed. The time of revolving varies
in different species. It also depends upon the weather — being slow or
imperceptible when it is cold, and more rapid when it is warmer.
Sometimes it stops when everything seems favorable, and starts again
after a while. The hop, bean, and morning-glory, ai'e as quick as any.
In a sultry day, and when in full vigor, they commonly sweep round
the circle in less than two hours. They move by night as well as by
day. This sweeping is the cause of the twining. The stem sweeps
round in order that it may reach some neighboring support ; as it
grows it sweeps a wider and wider space, that is, reaches farther and
farther out. When it strikes against any solid body, like the stalk
of a neighboring plant, it is stopped ; but the portion beyond the con-
tact is free to move as before, and, continuing to move on and to
lengthen, it necessarily winds itself round the support, that is, twines."
The sudden closure of the leaf of the Venus's-flytrap, as soon as it is
touched by an insect, and the excitement of the glandular hairs upon
its surface, still more closely resemble the instinctive actions of ani-
mals, and we here find the power to distinguish between different
foreign bodies, for Darwin has shown that, although the leaf will close
upon a small piece of meat, it is not excited by contact with a small
piece of glass. In animals we meet with a large class of what are
called reflex or automatic actions, and these are perhaps a little
nearer to true instinctive actions than most of those performed by
plants. Such are the actions of the various organs concerned in di-
gestion, which are passive until the presence of food calls them into
action, when they at once begin their work. A little higher are those
actions which may be performed or controlled by volition, although
they are usually automatic ; such as winking to protect the eye from
injury, and the act of throwing out the arms when in danger of fall-

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing. These are commonly spoken of as instinctive actions, but it is
impossible to separate them from the class last spoken of. A little
higher than the reflex actions are the truly instinctive ones, as a
type of which we may take the actions of some very young chickens,
experimented upon by Mr. Spalding. In a paper read before the
British Association, this experimenter says : "-Chickens hatched and
kept in the dark for a day or two, on being placed in the light nine
or ten feet from a box in which a brooding hen was concealed, after
standing chirping for a minute or two, uniformly set off straight to
the box, in answer to the call of the hen, which they had never seen,
and never before heard. This they did, struggling through grass,
and over rough ground, when not able to stand steadily on their legs.
Ao-ain, a young hawk was made to fly over a hen with her first brood
of chickens, then about a week old. In the twinkling of an eye most
of the chickens were hid among the grass and bushes; and scarcely
had the hawk touched the ground, about twelve yards from where
the hen had been sitting, when she fell upon it, and would soon have
killed it outright. A young turkey gave even more striking evidence.
When ten days old it heard the voice of the hawk for the first time,
and close beside it. Like an arrow frcm a bow it darted oflT in the
opposite direction, and crouched in a corner, and remained for ten
minutes motionless and dumb with fear." These examples will serve
as illustrations of pure instinct, and we wull pass now to actions which
are superior, but obviously similar, to the instinctive ones. Ac-
tions which are frequently repeated become habitual, and habits of
long standing become so firmly fixed that the actions are performed
unconsciously, and, as it were, instinctively.

Most of us can remember the labor and pains which were required
in order to learn to write: the comparatively easy acquisition of the
art of making down-strokes, and the tendency, which we adhered to
so obstinately, to form all our letters with down-strokes, and to fill
in the curves and shading afterward. Any one who has watched a
child writing has observed the necessity under which it labors for
counting the bends to distinguish an m from an n, and the tax which
an hour's writing inflicts upon all its bodily and mental powers. Con-
stant practice soon renders writing habitual, and the necessary mus-
cles act mechanically, so that we are able to give all our attention to
the intellectual part of the process, while the writing is done without
any effort or attention. A well-drilled soldier performs the proper
evolution at the Avord of command, although he may be so preoccu-
pied or so fatigued as to be perfectly unconscious of his actions.
Such habits are remarkably persistent, especially when they are ac-
quired early in life, and they have nothing to distinguish them from
instinctive actions except that they are unconscious.

They are often performed involuntarily, and even in opposition to
a previous determination. Street-car horses soon learn to stop and

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE.

59:

start at the sound of the car-bell, and I once saw an obstinate horse,
which had resisted every other means of persuasion, start at the
sound of the bell and get the car fairly under way before he had time
to think what he was doing.

Every one remembers the story of the old pensioner who received
the command "Attention " from a by-stander while he was returning
from market with his dinner in his hand. At the word of command
lie instantly and mechanically dropped his dinner in the mud, and took
the proper position. Occasionally in man, and quite frequently in
other animals, these habits of long standing are transmitted to the
next generation, and, as they are then independent of individual ex-
perience, they are true instincts. Although the art of writing is not
inherited, the particular style of handwriting is very often hereditary.
The act of pointing or setting in dogs would be a great disadvantage
to wild animals, and there is every reason to believe that it has been
very recently acquired by a few breeds of domestic dogs ; yet it is
frequently inherited in its highly-developed form, and the transmis-
sion of a slight tendency in this direction appears to be general. The
following seems to be an instance of the appearance in the second
generation, as an instinct, of an acquired habit. A correspondent of
Nature says :

" A few years ago I bought in Skye a perfectly uneducated Skye-terrier.
The first accomplishment which I taught him was that of ' sitting up ' — an
accomplishment which he had great difficulty in acquiring. This was not owing
to any stupidity on his part, for when he had once passed over this pons asino-
rum of dog-performances, he proved to be a very clever animal, and learned
many other tricks with great ease. He appears never to have forgotten the
pains which were taken to teach him his first trick, and to have judged there-
from that there is great merit in sitting up. Not only does he rely upon this as
a last resource to move me to take him out, or not to whip him, but he judges
that it must soften the heart of an India-rubber ball. Sometimes, when an-
noyed at his playing with this, his favorite plaything, I have placed it on a
chimney-piece, and turned ray attention elsewhere.

" On looking round again, I have seen my dog sitting up to the India-rubber
ball, evidently hoping that it would jump down and play with him again. My
dog is now the father of a family, and one of his daughters, who has never
seen her father, is in the constant habit of sitting up, although she has never
been taught to do so, and has never seen others sit up. She is especially given
to this performance when any other dog is being scolded.

" Whether this is an instance of helping a fellow-animal, of which Mr. Dar-
win gives so many curious examples, or whether the dog simply hopes to avert
the storm from her own head, the fact appears to me patent that this dog has
inherited the impression that sitting up has some special virtue for turning away
wrath."

A little higher than the habitual actions are tliose which are so
complicated, or occur so rarely, or depend upon such delicate combi-
nations of conditions, that they never become habitual — that is, they
VOL. XI. — 38

594- THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are never performed without thought, although we may be able to
group them into classes, and to guide our conduct by general rules or
principles, either established by experience or accepted upon the
authority of others. The resemblance between these actions and
the instinctive ones is recognized in common speech, for we often hear
it said of a person who is guided in the main, in this way, by general
rules, and is often unable to assign any reason for a particular course
of conduct, that he or she is a person of fine natural instincts.

The actions of the sailor, who guides his movements by the weath-
er reports from the Government Signal-Office, without understanding
or caring much about the way in which the reports are made out, are
still more rational, and further removed from instinct, although they
evidently fall into the series, and have much in common Avith those
actions last mentioned. Finally, the actions of " Old Probabilities "
himself belong to a still higher class, and are eminently rational.

Reviewing the ground which we have passed over, we find that
living things present us with a series of more or less related ac-
tions.

First, we have the mechanical and reflex actions of plants and
animals ; then the instinctive action, then the hereditary habit, then
the acquired habit ; next the action governed by a general rule,
established by experience; and finally the rational action.

Great as seems to be the difierence between the two extremes of
this series when considered by themselves, it is possible to pass from
one to the other through a series of intermediate actions, without the
necessity for any great jump in any part of the series ; and it is plain
that, great as are the differences between them, they all have some-
thing in common. Let us try to discover what this something is.
All the actions which we have been examining are alike in this, that
they are directed to the accomplishment of a purpose. The root
grows downward in order that it may reach water. The leaf turns
with the sun in order that it may receive a greater supply of heat.
The fly-trap closes upon its prey and pours forth its secretion in
order that it may be supplied with food. The vine twines in order
that its long, slender stem may be supported. The digestive organs
perform their various functions that the body may be nourished and
its waste supplied. The eyelids close in order that the eye may be
shielded from danger.

The chick instinctively seeks its mother that it may be protected
and fed ; and it hides from the hawk to save its life. The dog begs
and the soldier goes through his manual to escape punishment, or to
gain a reward or approbation, or perhaps from a combination of all
these motives with still higher ones, but in any case to accomplish a
purpose. The sailor watches the weather-predictions and regulates
his actions accordingly, in order that his voyage may be finished as
safely and quickly as possible. And the signal-officer publishes his

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 595

predictions in order that the public may be informed as to the proba-
bilities of change.

It may be said that in the last two or three cases the purpose is
intelligently appreciated, and that they are thus separated by a sharp
line from the others ; but this distinction gradually shades off and
disappears as an action becomes habitual, and as soon as the habit
becomes hereditary it may be entirely wanting.

The well-drilled soldier goes through with his evolutions without
a thought as to his reasons for doing so, and nearly every middle-aged
business-man of methodical habits probably recollects finding himself
at his place of business on a holiday without knowing how or why
he came there. One characteristic of these various actions is, then,
that each has a purpose. Another is that, although the object of the
action is the accomplishment of a purpose, the cause of the action is
a change, external to the organism and distinct from the purpose.

The leaf of the Venus's-flytrap closes, and the digestive organs
of an animal do their work, not because food is needed, but because
they are excited by the presence of a foreign body. The dog points
because he scents a particular odor, not because he wishes to do his
duty. The soldier assumes his position because he hears the word of
command, etc. The actions which are the subject of our present lect-
ure stand, tlien, in a double relationship. They are excited by cer-
tain external changes, and they have for their object the accomplish-
ment of a purpose. Herbert Spencer has expressed this dual rela-
tionship in a simple formula. According to him, these and all other
peculiarly vital actions consist in "the adjustment of internal rela-
tions to external relations." This is not very lucid when stated ab-
stractly, but perhaps an example will help to make it clear. If I
kick a stone, I may move it a greater or less distance, and set up some
slight molecular cliange within it, and hurt my foot, perhaps. If I
kick a dead dog, the result is the same ; but, if the dog is alive, I shall
find that all these results follow, and something more. The molecu-
lar change in the nerves of the dog gives rise to or excites a series of
actions adapted to meet my attack and to prevent further injury.
There is a relation, external to the dog, between the kick and a dispo-
sition to do him further violence ; and there is an internal relation in
the dog between the sensation caused by the blow and a desire to
escape the violence which is to follow ; and whether he crouches and
supplicates, or puts his tail between his legs and runs, or returns my
attack, he simply adjusts internal relations to external relations.
There is a relation between a downward direction and the presence of
water in the ground, and to this relation the roots of the plant re-
spond.

There is a relation between the presence of a foreign body in the
stomach and food to be digested ; and accordingly, when the stom-
ach is excited by the sensation of contact with a foreign body, it be-

596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gins its work — that is, there is an adjustment between the internal
relation of a certain sensation to the digestive process and the exter-
nal relation between the presence of foreign matter in the stomach
and food.

There is a relation between the sudden approach of a body toward
the eye and danger to that organ, and to this relation the nerves and
muscles are adjusted. There is a relation between a peculiar "cluck"
and the presence of the mother-hen, and to this I'elation the cliick
responds. There grows up in the mind of the soldier a connection
between the word "attention" and a particular attitude, and when he
feels the sensation caused by the command, he at once, and uncon-
sciously, performs the muscular movements necessary to assume that
position; that is, there is an adjustment between the internal relation
of a certain sensation to certain muscular movements and the exter-
nal relation of a certain command to the necessity for assuming a
given position. The sailor learns that there is a relation between cer-
tain signals and stormy weather, and to this relation his actions are
adjusted. Finally, General Meyer finds that there is a relation between
low barometric pressure in certain parts of the country and a liability
to storms in other regions, and to this external relation he adjusts his
actions.

The kind of external change to which an organism may respond
of course varies greatly in diiferent cases, both in constancy and com-
plexity. The Venus's-flytrap is adjusted only to relations between
objects on the surface of the leaf and in contact with it, but an animal
with even rudimentary organs of sense may respond to changes which
occur at a distance. Even the simple capacity to distinguish light
from darkness is enough to enable an animal to perceive a distant
body between it and the sun, and to adjust its actions accordingly.

As we ascend to creatures having more developed eyes, we find an
increase in tlie sphere of surrounding space throughout which external
relations can establish corresponding internal relations. A slight con-
vexity of the epidermic layer lying over the sensitive tract first serves,
by concentrating the rays, to render appreciable less marked varia-
tions in the quantity of light, and thus brings into view the same
bodies at a greater distance, and smaller or less opaque bodies at the
same distance. From this point upward, through the various types
of aquatic creatures to the higher air-breathing creatures, we trace,
under various forms and modifications, a complicated visual apparatus
and a widening space through which the correspondence extends. It
is needless to go into details. Hypotheses and illustrations aside, it
is obvious that from the polyp, which does not stir till touched, up
to the telescopic-eyed vulture or the far-sighted Bushman, one aspect
of progressing life is the greater and greater remoteness at which visi-
ble relations in the environment produce adapted relations in the
organism. The extension of the correspondence in space does not end

INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 597

with the perfecting of the senses. In creatures of comparatively ad-
vanced organization there arise powers of adjusting inner relations to
outer relations that are far too remote for direct perception. The mo-
tions by which a carrier-pigeon finds its way home, though taken a
hundred miles away, cannot be guided by sight, smell, or hearing, in
their direct and simple forms. Chased animals, that make their way
across the country to places of refuge out of view, are obviously led
by combinations of past and present impressions which enable them
to transcend the sphere of sense. And thus also must it be with creat-
ures which annually migrate to other lands.

In man, this secondary process of extension is carried still further,
Tliough the correspondences he effects by immediate perception have
a narrower range than those of some inferior creatures, and though
in that species of indirect adjustment just exemplified he is behind
sundry wild and domesticated animals, yet, by still more indirect
means, he adjusts internal relations to external relations that are im-
mensely beyond the appreciation of lower beings. By combining his
own perceptions with the perceptions of others as registered in maps,
he can reach special places lying thousands of miles away over the
earth's surface. A ship, guided by compass, and stars, and chronom-
eter, brings him from the antipodes information by which his pur-
chases here are adapted to prices there. From the characters of
exposed strata he infers the presence of coal below, and thereupon
adjusts the sequences of his actions to coexistences a thousand feet
underneath. Nor is the environment through which his correspond-
ences reach limited to the surface and the substance of the earth. It
stretches into the surrounding sphere of infinity. It was extended to
the moon when the Chaldeans discovered how to predict eclipses; to
the sun and nearer planets when the Copernican system was estab-
lished ; to the remoter planets when an improved telescope disclosed
one, and calculation fixed the position of the other; to the stars when
their parallax and proper motion were measured ; and, in a vague
way, even to the nebulae when their composition and forms of structure
were ascertained. At first sight, no two things could seem to have
less in common than the tendency of a sprouting potato to grow tow-
ard the light, and the preparations made by human beings for such a
rare, and distant, and complicated event as a transit of Venus ; yet
each is, objectively considered, an adjustment of internal relations to
external relations, and the two phenomena are so well connected
by intermediate forms that there can be no doubt of their rela-
tionship.

Physiologists are gradually proving the statement that these and
all other vital changes are, in ultimate analysis, changes in the proto-
plasm of the body, and that they are not brought about by any pecul-
iar vital force, but are the direct outcome of the physical and chemi-
cal structure of the protoplasm itself; so that vital changes, considered

598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

simply as changes, must not be regarded as peculiar, and fundament-
ally unlike the changes of inorganic matter.

Vital changes cannot, however, be regarded as changes simply
standing by themselves, for, if we overlook their adjustment to the
accomplishment of a purpose, we omit their most essential character-
istic.

In so far as the contraction of a muscle is simply a change, it is
without doubt purely physical ; but in the adjustment of this change
to a relation between external changes, in its adaptation to a purpose,
we have something which has no parallel except in living things, and
perhaps some of man's contrivances, such as the automatic governor
of the steam-engine. Living things are distinguished from those
which have not life by their adjustment, and life consists in this ad-
justment. Small as this difference seems when stated abstractly,
and unimportant as it appears to be when we contrast such an organ-
ism as an amoeba, with its simple and almost mechanical power of
retracting its pseudopodia upon irritation, and such a highly-com-
plex and changeable inorganic being as the ocean, yet, considered not
in itself but in its adjustment to external relations, this power in the
amoeba separates it very widely from all inorganic forms of existence,
and connects it with the highest manifestations of life ; for the series
of adjustments of which that of the amoeba is one of the simplest may
be traced almost without break up to the most rational actions of
man. A vorticella contracts and folds down its circlet of cilia when
touched, because there is a connection between violent contact and the
presence of danger ; and this recognition of a connection between the
changes of the external world is knowledge of the order of Nature, and
this, in its higher form, is experience, and experience implies memory,
and memory and experience are forms of consciousness. Thus we
are able to understand the meaning of such expressions as that of
Haeckel, that living things are distinguished from the not living by
the possession of memory. It seems best to restrict the use of such
purely subjective terras as memory and experience to the higher
forms of conscious life, but we must not overlook the fact that the
existence of an adjustment between internal and external relations
implies something fundamentally like the memory of higher animals.

Finally, I wish to call attention to the fact that natural selection
is constantly acting through the law of the survival of the fittest, in
such a way as to bring each organism into more and moi'e perfect
harmony with its environment ; that is, it is constantly bringing about
a more and more exact, definite, and perfect adjustment betw^een ex-
ternal and internal relations. If this adjustment constitutes vitality,
and if natural selection furnishes an explanation of the manner in
Avhich the adjustment has been brought about, have we not, in the
laAV ,of natural selection, an explanation of the origin of life ? — not
of course of the origin of the matter of life, nor of the changes of

SCIENCE AND WAR. 599

which life is made up, nor of the production of living beings, but of
the origin of those attributes by which living things are especially
characterized, and in which they differ from all other forms of exist-
ence.

SCIENCE AND WAR.

Br II. BADEN PEITCHAED.

RECENT wars have had particular interest for the man of science.
If we go back some fifteen or twenty years and consider the
different wars which have unfortunately occurred since that time, we
shall find connected with each one of them certain features which un-
doubtedly mark progress in the art of killing and wounding. Some
argue — and on very good grounds, no doubt — that the more sharp
and terrible warfare is made, the more speedily must it come to an
end, and hence look with favor upon the means taken every day to
render weapons more destructive and the soldier more cunning in his
dangerous trade. We do not propose to discuss this argument, nor to
enter at all into any comparison between the wai's of our forefathers
and those of to-day, but at a crisis like the present we need hardly
apologize for bringing before our readers some points illustrating the
marked influence of science upon modern warfare.

Starting from the close of the Crimean War, the first in which the
electric telegraph was employed, we find ample examples of the as-
sistance furnished to tlie soldier by scientific research. One instance
taken from the war of 1858 is especially interesting. The Austrians
held Venice at the time, it may be remembered, and, to protect the
harbor, torpedoes were laid down. The torpedoes were fired by elec-
tricity, and contained gun-cotton, this being the first instance on
record of the employment of electric torpedoes and of the newly-
invented nitro-compounds. Nor was this all. The torpedo system
devised at Venice by the Austrian engineers had yet another point
of scientific interest. A camera-obscura was built overlooking the
liarbor, and upon the white table of this instrument were reflected the
waters of Venice. As the torpedoes were sunk one by one a sentinel
in the camera noted the place of their disappearance with a pencil,
giving each torpedo a consecutive number. A row-boat in the harbor
described a circle around the sunken torpedo, indicating the zone of
its destructive power, and the sentinel again, with his pencil, made a
corresponding ring upon the camera-table. In the end, therefore,
while the harbor itself was apparently free from all obstruction, a very
effective means of torpedo-defense was established, the key of which
was only to be found in the camera-obscura. The sentinel here had
wires in connection with every torpedo, and was in a position to fire

6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

any one as soon as he observed — by means of the camera — the pres-
ence of a hostile vessel within the limits of any of the circles marked
upon his white table.

In the American War of 1860, the electric torpedo, invented but
two years before, played a most conspicuous role^ and formed indeed,
with the use of big guns and monitor iron-clads, one of the most im-
portant features of the struggle, at any rate from a scientific point of
view. The war of 1866, when the Austrians suffered such a terrible
defeat at the hands of the Prussians, will long be remembered as a
combat between the old muzzle-loading rifle and the breech-loader, in
which the latter was victorious. The Franco-German struggle of
1870, again, though marked by the employment of no special arm, if
we except the mitrailleuse, was assisted by important applications of
science ; to wit, the reproduction, by means of photo-lithography, of
the French ordnance maps and plans, Avhich were distributed in thou-
sands thi'oughout the German army, and the establishment in France
oila jyoste aerienne to communicate with the besieged garrison of Paris.
The regularity with which the mails left Paris par ballon monte must
still be fresh in the memories of our readers, the publication of corre-
spondence from the French capital being maintained in our journals
during the whole period of the investment. From September 23d to
January 28th, when Paris was practically cut oiF from the rest of the
I'epublic, no less than sixty-four balloons left the city with passengers,
mails, and pigeons, and of these only three were lost, while five were
captured. The return-post by " homing pigeons " was hardly so regu-
lar, but nevertheless half the number of dispatches given in by corre-
spondents at Tours and elsewhere, or in other words 100,000 mes-
sages,, were by the unflagging energy of the postal authorities carried
into the beleaguered capital. The dispatches, most of them as brief as
telegrams, were distinctly printed in broad sheets and photographed
by the aid of a micro-camera ; impressions upon thin, transparent films
were then taken and rolled in a quill attached to the tail of the winged
messenger which was to bear them into Paris. Arrived at tlieir des-
tination, the tiny photographic films were enlarged again by the
camera, and the disi^atches, being once more legible, were distributed
to the various addresses.

The present Russo-Turkish War cannot well be less interesting
than those that have so recently preceded it, and we may especially
point out two directions in which fresh examples of scientific war-
fare will probably manifest themselves — in connection, namely, with
the cavalry pioneer and the Whitehead torpedo. Both of these will
probably be seen in warfare for the first time, and before many days
are past we may hear of their doings in action.

The cavalry pioneer must not be confounded with the Prussian
Uhlan who played so conspicuous a part in the last war. The ubiqui-
tous Uhlan, terrible as he was, did not work the injury which some of

SCIENCE AND WAR. 601

the Cossacks will have it in their power to inflict if accoutred as pio-
neers. These are selected from the smartest and most daring troop-
ers, lightly armed and well mounted. In a belt round their waists
they carry a few pounds of gun-cotton or dynamite, and with this
highly-destructive explosive they may work incalculable harm. A
small charge of gun-cotton placed simply upon a rail and fired with a
fuse suffices to blow several feet of the iron to a distance of many
yards, thus rendering the railway unserviceable on the instant. A
trooper may dismount, place a charge at the base of a telegraph pole,
fire it, and be in his saddle again within sixty seconds. Wires may
thus be cut and communication stopped in the heart of an enemy's
country by fearless riders, who have but to draw rein for an instant
to effect the mischief, while lines of railway in the neighborhood are
entirely at their mercy. Even light bridges and well-built stockades
may be thi'own down by the violent detonati<m of compressed gim-
cotton, and forest-roads considerably obstructed by trees thrown
across, which are never so rapidly felled as when a small charge of this
explosive is fired at their roots.

The influence of the Whitehead torpedo, of which we have heard
so much of late, will likewise be felt for the first time during the pres-
ent war. An implement so ingenious in its character that, as Lord
Charles Beresford the other day happily remarked, it can do almost
anything but talk, is in the possession of both belligerents, and will
doubtless be heard of ere long on the Danube and in the Black Sea.
These torpedoes are manufactured at Fiume on the Mediterranean,
and, like Krupp guns, are to be purchased by any one vvhq chooses to
pay for them.

The British Government manufactures its own Whitehead torpe-
does in this country, having paid several thousand pounds for the
privilege. The machinery inside this torpedo is still a secret, which
is strictly maintained by our Government, but the principle of the
invention is well known. It is a long, cigar-shaped machine measur-
ing a dozen feet and upward. In the head is a charge of some violent
explosive, such as gun-cotton, or dynamite, which explodes as soon as
the torpedo strikes an obstacle. The motive power is compressed air,
which is forced into the machine by powerful air-pixmps, immediately
before the torpedo is discharged into the sea, no less than 600 pounds
on the square inch being the pressure exerted. The Whitehead is
shot from a tube, and moves through the water as straight as a dart,
the compressed air working upon a screw in the tail of the machine.
The delicate machinery permits the torpedo to swim at any depth
below the surface that may be desirable, and it flies straight in the
direction it is aimed, at a speed of something like twenty miles an
hour. If it fails to strike the foe, then the intelligent apparatus at
once rises to the surface, becoming innocuous as it does so, and may
in this condition be captured without difficulty.

6o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A torpedo of this sort striking the sides of an iron-clad would
almost infallibly send her to the bottom, and although it has been
proved that a network or crinoline around the ship is capable of retard-
ing the progress of a " fish " of this nature, and exploding the same
harmlessly in its toils, it is obviously a very diiRcult matter thus to pro-
tect one's craft. Against heavy torpedoes, indeed, there seems no way
of defense at all (the Whitehead generally carries a charge of seventv
or eighty pounds, but moored torpedoes may contain a 500-pound
charge), and therefore Turkish vessels will have to give Russian ports
a wide berth. All must remember how the magnificent fleet of the
French was kept at bay by the torpedoes of the Germans in the North
Sea in 1870, and the Black Sea ports are no doubt similarly protected.
So demoralizing is the dread of the torpedo with sailors apparently,
that they will dare anything rather than venture into waters Avhich
conceal these cruel foes.

At no other time has there been so much want of unanimity among
the great powers of Europe on the subject of ordnance. There are to
be found at the present moment cannon of a dozen dlflferent descrip-
tions in the gun-parks of European nations, differing from each other
not only in respect to their construction, but in the metal of which
they are made. So far as small-arms are concerned, we know there is
but one opinion; some nations prefer one breech-loader to another,
but all agree in the emploj-ment of breech-loaders. In the case of
cannon, however, it is different. Germany relies upon breech-loading
ordnance, while Great Britain has forsaken the system and gone back
to muzzle-loaders; Austria makes her guns of bronze, Germany of
steel, Russia favors steel and brass, America cast-iron, while England
has cannon of steel encompassed with iron, and France weapons of
iron girt with steel.

The balance of favor is beyond question with the breech-loader at
the present moment. All the new artillery of the Russians and the
Turks is of this kind, while the field-guns both of the Germans and
Austrians are upon the same system. France has done nothing lately
for the regeneration of its ordnance, and there remain but Great
Britain and Italy to represent muzzle-loading artillery. Bvit Italy,
although she has adopted the British system for very heavy guns, is by
no means a confirmed believer in it, and will doubtless hesitate before
following our example very far, beset, as she is, with neighbors armed
Avith breech-loaders.

Of all the powers, it is, curiously enough, steady-going Austria
which has taken the boldest and most independent course in the mat-
ter of artillery. It was but at the end of 1875 that the Austrian War-
Office decided to adopt the Uchatius cannon for field-artillery, and yet
at this moment every artillery regiment of the vast Austro-Hungarian
army is armed with the new weapon. Within eighteen months no
less than 2,000 of these cannon have been cast and finished, and now

SCIENCE AND WAR. 603

the Vienna arsenal is engaged in the manufacture of heavy guns of
the same character. Never was a more energetic step taken. A new
cannon of some sort was held to be absolutely necessary to uphold
the prestige of the army, and a commission having been intrusted
with the selection of an arm, pronounced without delay in favor of the
scheme brought forward by General von Uchatius. In October, 1874,
the first round was fired from a Uchatius gun, and a twelvemonth
afterward the sweeping reform which was to introduce an entirely
new artillery throughout the Austrian service was decided upon.
Government sanctioned an expenditure of £1,800,000 to be spent in
two years, and General von Uchatius was directed to give all the
assistance in his power toward the fulfillment of the design.

The Uchatius gun is made of so-called steel-bronze. Chilled bronze
would be a better name, since Uchatius casts his metal in a chilled, or
metal mould, in the same manner, pretty well, as Sir William Palliser
produces his famous chilled projectiles. Bronze, as everybody knows,
has been a favorite metal with gun-founders from the earliest days,
and in the East, especially, magnificent castings of this nature have
been produced. About ninety per cent, of co})per and ten of tin is
the mixture commonly employed in making ordinary bronze, and eight
per cent, of tin is the proportion preferred by Uchatius. The diffi-
culty in casting bronze, as those who have any experience know full
well, is that of securing homogeneity, soft particles of tin becoming
isolated in the mass, and giving rise to tlie defect known as "tin-
pitting." Whether we have lost the secret of bronze-casting, or whether
in former times they were more skillful at the work, certain it is that
founders of the present day are unable to secure so uniform an alloy
as formerly. This was very apparent when some eight or ten years
ago our own , Government adopted, for a brief time, bronze artillery.
The addition of a small percentage of phosphorus did not mend mat-
ters, and the highest authorities on the subject were at a loss to sug-
gest an effective remedy. Our bronze guns, too, had another defect
which could not be overcome. After firino; the bore became afiected,
and the weapon, as it was termed, " drooped at the muzzle." These
were the two defects indeed that led mainly to the abandonment of
the bronze gun in this country, and they are, too, the difficulties which
General von Uchatius appears to have overcome. He has got rid of
" tin-pitting," and his guns do not " droop at the muzzle."

Uchatius found that by subjecting the alloy in a liquid form to
considerable pressure, he was enabled to secure a perfectly homoge-
neous mass, a result which was also furnished, he discovered, when he
had gone a step further, if the molten metal was rapidly cooled. Steel-
bronze is apparently made much in the same way as the toughened
glass of which we have heard so much lately. After being cast in a
mould, the alloy is thrust into a reservoir of oil, heated to a high
temperature, so that the metal suddenly cools, but only down to a cer-

6o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tfiin point. Then the casting is withdrawn and allowed to get cold
more gradually. A regular and crystalline structure is in tliis way
produced, which has none of the defects of ordinary bronze. It is a
moot point whether phosphorus enters into the composition at all.
Chemists tell us they can find no trace of it, but this is no absolute
proof that a small percentage of the element was not originally con-
tained in the alloy, being burned out after it had done its work of har-
monizing the two metals. The inventor is rather reticent on the point,
but in any case it is very certain that he produces a uniform and
homogeneous alloy of a hard, crystalline nature.

One other expedient Uchatius has recourse to in making his cannon.
When he has cast his gun and chilled it, he proceeds to dilate the
bore. Wedges of steel, shaped in the form of cones, are forced into
the tube of the gun one after another, until the calibre of the weapon
has been increased by something like seven or eight per cent. This
expansion or dilation of the tube has not only the eiFect of hardening
or steeling the core, but also of rendering the gun more elastic and
capable of resisting more effectually the strain put upon it at the
moment of firing. The gun, after this process, is in a state of elastic
tension, and it is said that there is a pressure from without, inward,
equal to that which was exerted to dilate the gun in the first instance ;
and that this is actually the case can scarcely be doubted, since it is a
fact that a section of the gun, before being quite severed, will tear
itself loose with considerable violence, and will be found on separa-
tion to have partially returned to its former calibre.

So far as practical trials have been conducted with the weapon,
the Austrian Government have every reason to be satisfied with the
Uchatius gun, which compares favorably with the Krupp steel cannon
in the matter of accuracy and durability ; while, as regards its cost, it
is far cheaper than any other rifled ordnance. A steel field-piece costs
upward of £100, even when not protected with rings, while the iron-
steel weapon, manufactured in this country, costs about £70 sterling ;
the steel-bronze cannon of General von Uchatius, on the other hand,
are made for £35 apiece.

In construction, the Austrian gun is so similar to that of Herr
Krupp, of Essen, that the latter claimed compensation for an infringe-
ment of his patent when the manufacture of the Uchatius gian was
first commenced. The Essen works, our readers may know, supply
not only Germany with steel breech-loaders, but have provided the
present belligerents with all their modern artillery. Russia has still
many brass cannon on hand, and Turkey a goodly number of Arm-
strongs, but both powers mainly depend upon their steel Krupps.
These stood the German army in such good stead during the last war
that tlieir reputation is firmly established. They are of crucible steel,
and the breech, instead of being upon a hinge, or in the form of a
block, moves round in a D-shaped socket, the escape of gas being
further prevented by rings of phosphor-copper.

THE LABOR-QUESTION. 605

The manner in which the ordnance of this country is constructed is
sufficiently familiar to our readers. A tube of steel is encompassed by
jackets of wrought-iron, and in this way the toughness of the latter
is combined with the hardness of tlie former. All our guns, as we
have said, load at the muzzle, while those of Russia, Germany, Austro-
Hungary, and Turkey, are breech-loaders. Italy, in the case of the
100-ton guns with which she intends to arm her two stupendous tur-
ret-vessels, the Duilio and Dandolo, has adopted our method of con-
struction, except that she employs smooth, instead of studded, pro-
jectiles. With the employment of a gas-check at the base of the shot
to prevent windage and so secure the full force of the exploding
charge, the use of studs in a shot appears to be unnecessary, sufficient
spin being imparted to the projectile by the soft metal of the gas-
check before named, which causes the shot to rotate after the manner
of a Snider bullet. So satisfactory, indeed, were the Italian trials of
these projectiles last year that it is by no means improbable that we,
too, may give up the use of studded shot.

As to the comparative value of breech-loaders and muzzle-loaders,
we shall not offer an opinion. No doubt a muzzle-loader is the stronger
weapon, because its breech is solid ; but our cousins, the Germans,
urge very justly that, since their guns do not burst, they are quite
strong enough. Advocates of the muzzle-loading system argue again
that their weapon is more simple in construction, and for this reason
is to be preferred ; but on the other hand the sponging and loading
of a gun is more easy to effect if it o])ens at the breech. Indeed, in
the case of very heavy guns located in a casemate or on board ship,
the Germans reproach us with the assertion that we must needs have
recourse to all sorts of complicated and awkward machinery in load-
ing, while in their case a simple pulley or crane is all that is necessary.
Either, say they, we must expose our gunners through the open port
when loading, or, as in the case of the Thunderer, rely blindly on
hydraulic apparatus to work the guns for us. So stands the question :
perhaps the present war will bring us a solution of it. — Nature.

•♦«♦•

THE LABOE-QUESTION.

By E. G. ECCLES.

IN sociology, the " personal equation," if not eliminated, distorts
men's view of Nature's workings more than in any other depart-
ment of thought. Despite this, nowhere else do they cling so tena-
ciously to this distorting factor. Shallow conclusions, based upon
traditional notions of right and wrong, tinctured with the bias of class
or education, is the sum total of the majority of attempts at making

6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

clear this vexing but important subject. Scientific methods are un-
thought of, and scientific conclusions either ignored or denounced as
cold, hard, and unsympathetic. They never trouble themselves about
ascertaining wliat it is possible to do under the circumstances^ but,
without a minute's consideration, set up their Utopian standards of
right, and at once proceed to bend everything in that direction.
Should they deem it right to reverse the course of the Mississippi, we
might almost expect to see them undertake the impossible task, care-
less of all disastrous consequences. They have wasted power by ask-
ing what ought to be done, instead of inquiring what can be done.

If ever this problem receives an accurate solution, it will come
from viewing it pliysically rather than morally. As the bone and
sinew of man is the stored energy of sunbeams, so property or capital
is the same energy re-stored after being unlocked as Avork. As the
former is the potential energy of physical life, so the latter is the po-
tential energy of social life. Any attempt at viewing the matter by
ignoring this law of the conservation of energy, Avhich is at the foun-
dation of social order, can only result in false opinions and lead to
dangerous measures.* When men were savages, and bone and sinew
ruled, he who had most physical power was chief. Now, a vaster
magazine of energy is accumulated in capital, and whoever has most
of it rules. This is but a plain statement of fact. The power is there
lodged by the very constitution of society, and no attempts at realiz-
ing the dream of communism can wrest it away. What can the man
of muscle do ?

In early stages of human development, the accumulation of bodily
vigor and strength was the main object of life. Natural and sexual
selection conspired to pick the strongest, best-formed specimens, while
driving the weak and worthless to the wall. Strategy soon com-
peted with strength, and, when victor, intellect was picked with it.
From among all the strategic devices of intellect property was selected
as the fittest, and society became a necessity for its protection. As
at first men found that such life as they sought could only exist when
bodily waste was balanced or overbalanced by accumulation, so now
we cannot long maintain physical health if nutrition fails to keej) pace
with waste. Some form of phthisis may take hold of us and increase
the waste beyond the normal, or our supply of food may be with-
held, and we die of inanition. Social life is subject to two just such
sets of dangers. In a machine we have friction and interference an-
swering to similar ideas. These must each be brought to the minimum
if we would have things work smoothly.

Are working-men, as a class, frugal and provident ? Do they
curb self-gratification, and make present sacrifice for future advan-
tage ? HoAV many mechanics or day-laborers calculate their annual
waste of means on such unnecessary articles as tea, coffee, tobacco,
' Whcti this was penned the writer did not suspect it would be so quickly verified.

THE LABOR-QUESTION. 607

beer, whiskey, etc, ? How many, instead of selecting plain, whole-
some, cheap food, spend their extra dollars on pastry, rare fruits and
vegetables, etc. ? The business done in this line by the grocers and
bakers of the lower wards of New York will answer this. I have
eaten at the tables of rich and poor in many States, and my expe-
rience teaches me that, as a rule, the well-to-do mechanic lives better
than many merchants, bankers, and professional men, as long as his
wages hold out. The same prodigality is manifested in dress and
ornament. They will make any sacrifice to ape the rich or vie with
each other. Servant-girls often dress better than their mistresses.
Who will calculate the dollars wasted by that mechanic's family, be-
fore sickness or accident drove him to the poor-house? How much
did he throw away on rent, that he might live in a better house than
he was well able to afford? How many dollars were spent on thea-
tres, balls, sociables, fairs, or excursions, that might have been saved?
How much did superstition extort from him ? These are a feAv of the
many avenues through which his hard-earned wages escaped. Add
to these the physician's bills, for attending to himself and family when
overwork and uncleanliness brought on sickness ; and, last though
not least, consider the number of mouths he is himself the cause of
havino- to till, and the number of backs to clothe. If his income had
overbalanced this expenditure, when the crisis arrived he would have
been safe. With how many of our present paupers and tramps was
this the case ? Are the careful to be forced to bear the load of the
careless? Self-restraint is more important to the poor man than
legislation. This will sjive him a fitness for the battle of life, while
that but unmans and effeminates him.

Again, are these men now out of employment the best types of
laborers or mechanics, and the most trusty and efficient servants
their employers had ? Are they the honest, careful, thoughtful work-
ing-men who labored most earnestly for their employers' interests?
Are those who have been retained the stupid and dishonest ? — the
unpi-ofitable servants ? Are they — but why proceed ? The case is
only too clear against the unemployed, as a class. Of course, there
are exceptions. Unavoidable circiimstances have doubtless thrown
adrift the worthy. When a crisis comes, employers will retain those
who have labored most faithfully and honestly for their interest.
All others must lose employment. The improvident at once become
paupers, demanding a living from their already heavily-burdened but
careful fellow-workmen. If, during the age of muscle, lazy, puny
men with diseased bodies, brought on by excess and vice, had de-
manded of the stalwart and vigorous that they must carry them on
their backs, even though at their own peril, what could have been
thouo;ht of them ?

An array of unemployed men is clamoring for work, and the sym-
pathetic urge their claims, "Fate is dealing hard with them," say

6o3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they ; " can we not alleviate their distress ? " They would invoke state
aid in behalf of these social failures, and thus increase the burdens
upon the employed, forgetting that " the last straw breaks the camel's
back." Tliey would increase the number of officials, and lose thou-
sands of dollars of the people's money by theft, while only tens or
hundreds were bestowed as charity. They forget that the poor mill-
ions who are the consumers are the real tax-payers. All experience
has shown that only abortive effort and theft can be hoped for when
the state interferes. It is already overloaded with such work, and its
officers are men subject to temptation where cash is concerned. A
change of these has been advocated, but this would only be a change
of thieves. No one class has a monopoly of morality. There are
moral and immoral men in all classes ; and, unfortunately, men of
light specific gravity are more apt to swim in the sea of politics than
their more solid fellows. Shall we, then, resort to an indiscriminate
bestowal of alms ? Statistics have again and again shown that, in
the direct ratio of alms-giving, there is an increase of pauiDcrism and
crime. The easier you make the pauper's life, the more of that re-
straint you remove which now hinders many from choosing pauper-
ism as a profession. If you have money to spend upon them, de-
mand an equivalent in work of some kind for every cent bestowed.
This leaves them with a spark of manly feeling, and satisfies your
desire to relieve their wants. I have seen philanthropic men and
women refuse to purchase a cane, toy, or newspaper, from a really
suffering and needy person in the street, because they either did not
want the article offered or would not be troubled with it ; and I have
tlien seen them go a few steps and drop as much money as would have
made the purchase into the hat of a professional beggar, who was less
worthy and less needy. It was hard to escape the conclusion that
the sympathetic feeling which could only be satisfied by giving with-
out requiring aught in return was here tinctured with the unhallowed
self-righteousness of the Pharisee.

In these unemployed workmen we have a vast amount of energy
wasting itself in uselessness or crime. In the bank-vaults lie unused
large stores of the potential energy of society. Rich and poor are
suffering from the inactivity. "What is the cause of this ? The capi-
talists will make no new investments, as they will not pay. Business
is stagnant. People refuse to purchase. Such is the general cry, and
over-production takes the blame. Over-production of what ? How
can an over-pro.duction of wheat and potatoes produce an over-pro-
duction of everything else ? How happens it that all the industries
appeared to collapse together ? Was there over-production in all ?
Has each person in these United States got all the clothing and arti-
cles of comfort and luxury he can possibly desire ? How can over-
production be chargeable with this state of affairs, when, by a little
thought upon the matter, we might see that the evidence points to

THE LABOR-QUESTION. 609

the fact that every increase of goods brings a corresponding increased
demand for such goods ?

If there is one thing more than another working-men long for, it is
high wages. To keep up their pay they unite in trades'-unions and
analogous combinations. The employer wages war against this effort.
While the former would demand all the profit of his labor, leaving the
latter nothing for his pains, he in turn would like to retain it all for
himself. If these were the sole factors of this battle, wages would
steadily ascend, the balance of force ranging upward. Unfortunate-
ly (?) for the workman, this is not the case. His own unconscious
efforts to pull wages down outweigh his conscious efibrts to keep
them up. Can he not see that every time he deserts a dear dealer to
buy from a cheap one he is thoughtlessly creating a tendency to lower
the wages of all who take part in the manufacture of such articles?
This eventually, and through a variety of channels, works around to
his own. This move on his part likewise creates a necessity for dis-
honesty and adulteration, which still further reacts against him. His
employer, on the other hand, does more toward keeping up wages by
seeking dear markets for his goods than his conscious efibrts amount
to in pulling them down. As the heaviest strain on the produce of
the workman is" the downward one, since all consumers take part in
it, loages must fall. All the world clamors for clieap goods. Event-
ually a point of stable equilibrium must be reached, where very low
wages precede very cheap goods. As capitalists, studying the cost
of production, hold on to goods, refusing to sell at a sacrifice, their
sales descend or cease, and wages are thrown down first. Could work-
ing-men be made to realize the fact that high wages mean con*espond-
ingly high food, clothing, fuel, rent, with all else he would purchase,
while low wages mean the opposite, I think they would agree with me
in saying that the amount received per diem for their work was of
secondary importance. Some laborers must take the shrinkage in
advance of others.

That there are more goods in the American market than is at
present demanded, under existing conditions, is a certainty. But if
over-production has glutted one market, why not seek another? Why
stop mills and factories ? Why turn laboring-men into the street ?
Is there no channel of least resistance for business to travel in ? An
over-production of goods is an over-production of wealth. Has the
nation more wealth and comfort than it can manage or knows what
to do with ? The thing is perfectly absurd. When railroads came
they brought an over-supply of accommodation for stage-coach trav-
elers, but this extra amount of room found a use for itself in making
travel cheaper and more comfortable, so that immensely more people
traveled. Every labor-saving machine has done the same for the
articles it produces. But suppose the price of travel had kept up,
and the comforts remained the same, while the means of carrying
■VOL. SI. — 39

6io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

passengers had rapidly increased, what would have occurred ? Sup-
pose the cotton machinery had turned into the market millions of
yards of cotton, where hundreds answered before (as is actually the
case), and the manufacturers had charged the old prices, what would
have happened ? It is obvious that in the first case not one extra
traveler would have gone from home, and the much-needed railroads
would have been a nuisance ; while, in the second, the manufacturers
would have been deluged with their own stock, been compelled to
close their factories and howl " Over-production !" Whatever arrests
the descent of prices, entails vpo7i society just such a state of affairs as
we are passing through. It stops wide distribution, as the owners of
such goods are unable to cope with the traders of foreign markets.
Protectionists aid in this part of the trouble. It accumulates a heav-
ier supply than is demanded in the home-market. It overwhelms
factories with their own goods, and drowns the manufacturer in bank-
ruptcy, unless he stops work. It turns worthy, as well as unworthy,
working-men adrift. It brings on all the horrors so piteously com-
plained of. What can avert such consequences ? There are, doubt-
less, factors in this problem unnoticed here, but this to me aj)pears
to be the main one. Allow wages to descend steadily, as the market
demands, instead of holding them up till a crisis is reached. When
crises come, they hurl them down like an avalanche far below the
true level at which they should rest. Let the machinery of society
have free, unimpeded action. Teach laborers to give way to the
inevitable, without clogging the wheels by " strikes." They must
learn to give in to the decrees of Fate without a murmur. They
frighten themselves with a bugbear of starvation from low wages,
and bring in a real bear with their acts. " O ye of little faith ! "
Will they never learn that eight hours' work at one dollar, with
goods at half-price, is far better than four hours' work at the same,
with goods at full price? Trades'-unions are waging war against
natural law. Wages must come down ! Profits must decrease ! It
is absolutely impossible to keep these up and have business pro-
ceed. If not satisfied with the pay ofiered by one employer, seek
another. Unions, when other than a council of working-men aim-
ing at the common good, are positive evils. Society must learn to
frown down every interference on their part with the workings of
trade, or we will be continually subject to recurrences of business
stagnation and violence. They thwart their own purposes and en-
tail the very miseries they profess to cure. Labor, like everything
else in the market, is worth neither more nor less than supply and
demand put upon it. It is sheer madness to battle fact by saying
it should be worth more. Imagine an astronomer as insane as this,
insisting upon it that the sun ought to revolve around the earth, and
therefore refusing to reason upon the fact that the earth revolves
around the sun ! Merchants have no right to force each other, by mob

THE LABOR-QUESTION. 611

violence, to maintain high prices upon their wares. No more have
working-men this right when selling their labor. When they find it
necessary to employ each other, they are just as exacting as tlie capi-
talists in demanding well-done work at low rates.

The capitalist will gladly welcome all unemployed laborers when
the prices of his goods can be regulated by the demand for them, in-
stead of, as now, by the high wages he is compelled to pay his men
and high prices for his raw materials. He will have no fear of over-
gtockino; the markets of a world where men's wants are so numerous
and insatiable. But it will not do to let him toy with men's wages
at every whim he has. Men must seek for the highest remuneration
without combination, compulsion, or restriction. Business-men must
seek the highest prices in the same way. Excessive selfishness on
the part of employe, as well as employer, lies at the root of the mat-
ter. When this is toned down, and each works for the other's interest,
things will go better with both. Till then we may expect to see mis-
ery, and hear the wail of want from many quarters. Relieve this by
giving the laborer something to do, however trifling, and not by alms.
Ask the state to do nothing, or you will impose extra burdens upon
the worthy, and sink them to pauperage. Teach working-men to live
more economically, and practise self-restraint. Advise them to com-
pete with each other in doing the most and best work they possibly
can for their employer while in his employ. Teach them that they
bring down their own wages, and that this is not their employer's
doings. Show them that, if the wages descend slowly and steadily, it
will avoid a crash of business, and, making goods correspondingly
cheap, do them good rather than harm in the end. Train them into
that true spirit of freedom and faith that will enable them to allowfel-
low-workmen, who are in need, to sell their labor for what they choose.
Teach the employers to work for the interests of their men. Teach
them to be less avaricious in demanding high profits for themselves.
Teach them to give the working-men the highest wages the market
will allow. Teach them to be honest and truthful with each other,
and the public. Teach each class these points, and the highest sub-
stantial advantages to the working-class will soon be realized as a liv-
ing fact. The present and past troubles are the legitimate fruits of our
social immorality. The poor are not the only sufferers. Things, as
they now exist, are about the best possible to our present stage of
development. With improvement of men's natures will come a cor-
responding improvement of society. All that we can do is to search
after the laws governing such matters, and remove obstructions from
the way. With this done, leave all else to the vis medicatrix naturm.

6i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

SKETCH OF PKOFESSOE SIMO^ NEWCOMB.

PROF. NEWCOMB was born in the Province of Nova Scotia,
March 12, 1835. Both of his parents were of New England
descent, their families having emigrated to the Provinces at various
times. His father pursued the avocation of village schoolmaster, and
from this circumstance the son during his childhood enjoyed educa-
tional advantages which were good for the time and place, but ex-
ceedingly scanty when measured by any other standard. A taste for
arithmetic was developed at a very early age, and before he was
twelve years old the embryo astronomer had completed the (restricted)
course taught by his father.

From this time he was thrown upon his own resources, reading
and studying at random the few books which Providence threw in his
way. A traveling peddler sold him Latin and Greek grammars and
readers. For a short time he studied the rudiments of French, with
a teacher, but acquired a better knowledge of the language from the
descendants of the old French settlers, while at the same time an
algebra, borrowed from a clergyman, was his constant companion.

At the age of eighteen we find him in the State of Maryland,
teaching school — his ancestral calling — but with his active mind con-
stantly engaged in mathematical pursuits. In 1856 Mr. Newcomb
was so happy as to make the acquaintance of Prof. Henry, of the
Smithsonian Institution, with whom he had corresponded on a scien-
tific subject, and who soon took an active interest in the welfare of
his newly-discovered young friend. In conjunction with Mr. Hil-
gard. Prof. Henry secured for young Newcomb a position as com-
puter for the "American Nautical Almanac," the office of which was
then located at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Here Mr. Newcomb found both the material and the incentive to
pursue his mathematical studies of the theories of the celestial motions.
He enrolled himself a student of the Lawrence Scientific School, and
attended the lectures of Prof. Peirce. After making a study of the
works of Laplace and La Grange, he started on the line of original
investigation, and has ever since pursued it, with uniform success.
In 1861 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the Navy, and
assigned to duty at the Naval Observatory, Washington, with which
he is still connected.

In 1863 he married Miss M. C. Hassler, daughter of the late Sur-
geon Hassler, United States Navy, and granddaughter of the late Prof.
Hassler, the originator and first Superintendent of the United States
Coast Survey.

It may seem surprising that, wliile Prof. Newcomb's name is not

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR SIMON NEW COMB. 613

associated with any brilliant discovery or achievement in astrononi}-,
he has, nevertheless, secured as great a reputation as was ever gained
by an American astronomer, and is quoted abroad as among the high-
est authorities in mathematical astronomy. Perhaps the secret lies
in the unity of purpose which has characterized all his efforts. His
special field has been that of " exact " astronomy — the prediction of
the motions of the heavenly bodies from their mutual gravitation —
the perfection of the tables and other data, from which the " Nautical
Almanac " is prepared, in order that the navigator and surveyor may
be enabled to find their positions by sea or land. When the late
Admiral Davis founded the "American Nautical Almanac," some
twenty-five years ago, the tables and other materials for its construc-
tion were extremely imperfect, but Prof. Newcomb's studies have all
tended to their improvement.

Prof. Newcomb gained a European reputation while still a com-
puter at Cambridge, by his paper " On the Secular Variations and
Mutual Relations of the Orbits of the Asteroids." The question of
the correctness of Olher's theory, that these bodies resulted from the
explosion of a single planet, had never been decided, because no one
had ever investigated the changes which their orbits had undergone
in past ages. This was done in the paper we have mentioned, and it
was shown that the orbits could never have intersected in a single
point, unless they had in the mean while been deranged by some un-
known cause.

Since his appointment in the navy his most considerable works,
outside of his duties at the observatory, have been the "Investiga-
tion of the Orbits of the Two Outer Planets, Uranus and Nieptune,"
accompanied by elaborate tables, which were at once adopted in all
the nautical almanacs of Europe and America. In the preparation of
these " tables," Prof. J. Henry, his kind and firm friend of now more
than twenty years, took great interest, and gladly assisted him by
supplying him with funds from the Smithsonian.

In 1867 the observatory published his "Investigations of the Dis-
tance of the Sun," leading to the value of the Solar Parallax now
most generally adopted, namely, 8", 84 8.

In 1870 he visited Europe to observe the total eclipse in the Medi-
terranean, and was everywhere received with the highest distinction
in scientific circles.

He took an active part in procuring the great telescope for the
Washington Observatory, and was in charge of it during the first
year or two after its erection, investigating with it the satellites of
his two favorite planets, Uranus and Neptune.

When Congress authorized the organization of parties to observe
the late transit of Venus, Prof. Newcomb was appointed one of the
commission to prepare the plans for those parties, and to arrange for
the complete execution of those plans, after the return of those parties

6i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to the observatory. From the first meeting of this commissiou Prof.
Newcomb has acted as secretary thereof. Prof. Newcomjb's most
recent labors have been on the motion of the moon, and the possible
variability of the sidereal day, on which subject he has published
several fragmentary discussions. Hansen's tables of the moon have
deviated from observation for several years past in a remarkable
manner, and he has accounted for the changes by an acceleration in
the rotation of the earth on its axis. It is now considered that he
has proved the actual existence of this acceleration beyond reason-
able doubt.

In February, 1874, he was the recipient of the gold medal of the
Koyal Astronomical Society of Great Britain. The presentation was
jjreceded by an address by the president, Prof. Cayley, in which,
after giving an account of several of Prof. Newcomb's most important
contributions to mathematical science, he says : " They exhibit all of
them a combination, on the one hand, of tnathematical skill and power,
and, on the other hand, of good hard work, devoted to the furtherance
of astronomical science." Thus, though belonging to the younger
generation of astronomers, Prof. Newcomb has received his full share
of honors, both at home and abroad. Graduating as B. S. at Har-
vard University, in 1858, he is now, at home, member of the National
Academy of Science, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sci-
ences, in Boston. In 1 876 he was elected President of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and presides at its
annual meeting, in Nashville, in August of this year. In 1874 he
received the honorary degree of LL. D. from the Columbian Uni-
versity, at Washington, and in 1875 the same honor from Yale.
Abroad, he was, in 1872, elected associate member of the Royal Astro-
nomical Society of Great Britain ; in 1874, corresponding member
of the Institut de France ; in 1875 he received the honorary degree of
Ph. D. from the University of Leyden, at its three-hundredth anniver-
sary. Also in that year he was made a member of the Imperial Acad-
emy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, member of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences, and member of the Royal Bavarian Academy
of Sciences.

COBRESP ONDENCE,

615

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Popular Science ilonthly.

SIR : In the last number of The Popular
Science Monthly Mr. E. R. Leland re-
plies to my article in the July issue entitled
" Over-Consumption, or Over-Production ? "
misstating some and misconceiving other of
my arguments. It would be an infringe-
ment on your space for me to follow Mr.
Leland through all his assertions, and at
best I should be only repeating arguments
already made. But Mr. Leland attempts to
formulate my theories, and, as I think I can
do this more accurately than he, permit me
to reaffirm what I have said in this com-
pact form, which will be the briefest and
most satisfactory method of meeting Mr.
Leland's reply :

1. The resources of Nature are gratui-
tous ; they are practically exhaustless ; and,
as the activity of capital and the energy of
labor are not fixities, large consumption or
demand (Mr. Leland talks of wasteful con-
sumption as if the word " wasteful " were
mine) stimulates the energy of capitalists,
leads to the application of improved ma-
chinery, brings about better transportation,
so that as a result all, or nearly all, products
are proportionately increased in abundance
because of extended consumption, and the
possibilities of consumption. Mr. Leland
says : " That the demand for a commod-
ity stimulates the supply is most true, and,
where increase is possible, the supply is
increased until the widest area of demand
is filled at a minimum cost, but it is only
by economy that this minimum can be
reached." We repeat Mr. Leland's words
— " most true." But large consumption is
a powerful agent in securing minimum of
cost in production ; it brings in competi-
tion, it leads to the invention of machinery
and improved methods of production or
manufacture — in fact, minimum of cost is
never reached except in those things that
are in general use. Consumption or de-
mand leads, therefore, as a rule, not only to
greater abundance, but to greater cheap-
ness. But I do not mean, and I did not
speak of, wasteful destruction, which Mr.
Leland dwells upon so much, but of use.
Waste is foolish, in the first place, because
it confers no good upon any one ; and, sec-
ondly, because it is only the certainty and
regularity of legitimate use that exercise a
healthful stimulus upon production. Waste,
that destroys machinery, permits bridges to
go into decay, destroys roads, lets grain
rot in its storehouses, burns up cities, ex-

hausts the reserves of capital, is direful ;
but wse, which is the means of setting mill-
ions of busy hands to work, is another
thing. I know the economists say that
capital alone determines the fact of produc-
tion, demand merely governing the direc-
tion it shall take ; but is it not clear that,
if we reduce consumption to its minimum,
production will shrivel up ?

2. The extravagance of an individual
has some essential difference from the ex-
travagance of a whole community. Of
course, one bankrupt multiplied ten thou-
sand times simply gives us ten thousand
bankrupts. It was scarcely necessary for
Mr. Leland to point this out. But a com-
munity considered as a unit has for its re-
sources the boundless wealth of Nature,
which, as we have already seen, increases
with the demands made upon it, so that
liberal use makes rather than reduces abun-
dance. This proposition hangs upon the
first ; if that is true, this is true. By ex-
travagance I simply meant free use, not idle
destruction ; and what I wished to show is,
that Nature yields her treasures in increas-
ing proportion to the activity that demands
them, so that we are richer in coal, iron,
fabrics, food, etc., because our wants are
many, our demand eager, our use of these
things abundant. It is perfectly true that
if the wealth of a community is simply the
aggregate incomes of its members, then the
whole must partake of the nature of its
parts ; but there is a kind of wealth that
accrues to the individual and does not to
the community as a whole, such as rcid., for
instance, which, enriching some, is a tax upon
others, and no addition whatever to the sum
total of the wealth of the community; and
in like manner there is wealth which ac-
crues to the whole, but is not a part of an
individual's income.

3. Mr. Leland makes me affirm that no
part of the nation's capital has been lost in
unproductive enterprises. There have been,
as all know, immense losses in foolish rail-
road and speculative enterprises ; but I con-
sider these losses to have fallen upon our
surplus rather than our reserves ; that our
ability to keep all our machinery in motion,
to run our mills, erect warehouses, build
ships, construct railroads really needed, do
all forms of legitimate productive labor, is
not impaired — while, according to Prof.
Price, it is impaired, and this is the reason
of our business distress. I can detect no
evidence that business cannot revive be-

6i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cause of insufficient capital, the difficulty
being rather that capital is Iviug idle.

4. I am accused of attributing the busi-
ness depression to over-production, whereas
I distinctly said speculative over-production
— over-production brought about by cen-
tralization of wealtli and vast appliances
of machinery, which under artificial stimu-
lus produces an excess at one period, and
tlien at another, stopping all production,
turns hosts of workmen into the streets
idle and empty-handed, followed conse-
quently by a great reduction of consump-
tion.

5. I laid no stress upon cooperation to
regulate production, merely mentioning it
as the only remedy I could suggest. Such
cooperation is doubtless impracticable ex-
cept to a limited extent. The fear is, there
is no remedy, and that we shall have — as,
indeed, has been frequently predicted — con-
tinually our intermittent periods of over-
trading and speculation, offset by those of
prostration and suffering. The elimination
of speculation and other" crazes" — that is,
the maintenance of production in legitimate
and healthful relation to consumption — is,
as I think, indisputably the only remedy ;
but how this is to be brought about is more
than I can say. Economists, surveying the
broad field over long distances of time, are
contented to say that these periods are but
perturbations ; that production in the end
iloes adjust itself to consumption. While
this is true, our concern is how to reduce
the intensity and duration of these pertur-
bations.

There are other points that call for an-
swer in Mr. Leland's letter; he gives me
some elementary instruction as to the mean-
ing of capital and of money ; and he de-
cries the fact of " released labor ; " but
it seems unnecessary for me to take your
space merely to vindicate my opinions or
to establish my knowledge of elementary
principles — your readers can have no con-
cern in these matters. The thing is, to get
at the truth of the causes of our business
distress, and those interested are referred
to the article of Mr. David A. Wells — than
whom there is no better authority — in the
last North American Review, wherein we
are told that the community is suffering to-
day, " strange as the proposition may at
first thought seem, not because we have
not, but because we have ; not from scarci-
ty, but from abundance ; " that is, not from
impaired capital, according to Prof. Price;
and that " the only remedy is the creation
of more wants or demands for our products,
and, as a consequence, more and enlarged
employments for our labor." That is to
say, it is not by the community economical-
ly reducing consumption to its minimum
that a revival of trade is to come, as we
hear asserted on every side, but by the crea-

tion of new wants, by the stimulus of con-
sumption. This is the essential basis of
my aTgument.

With respect, yours, etc.,

0. B. BUNCE.

"THE TIDES."

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

The article on " The Tides," in the July
number of your Monthly, would be amus-
ing had it not appeared in a scientific peri-
odical of high standing ; but, when such
erroneous and ill-digested views are set
forth in a reputable journal for public in-
struction, they call for a public notice which
they do not at all deserve.

The author of the article referred to has
unfortunately adopted the errors of state-
ment and conception generally found in our
text-books of natural philosophy, prepared
by authors of no authority, for our public
and preparatory schools. I have had occa-
sion recently to examine several such books
on the subject of " Centrifugal Force," so
called, and have found very few that are
not in error. If the author of " The Tides "
had expended a portion of the time devoted
to the elaboration of his subject in an ex-
amination of the basis of his explanation —
centrifugal force — he could not have reached
conclusions at variance with the simplest
fundamental principles of physics.

Newton's first law teaches that a body,
once set in motion, will continue to move
on with uniform velocity in a straight line
forever if left to itself. To produce circu-
lar motion a constant force directed toward
a fixed point must be applied in addition to
the original force. The fixed point then
becomes the centre of revolution. The
original impulsive force (or continued force
acting during a finite time), and the constant
force directed toward the centre, are the
only forces concerned in uniform circular
motion. " Centrifugal force " expresses
merely the resistance of a body to deflec-
tion from a straight line in which it tends to
move, according to Newton's first law of
motion. It is its inertia with reference to
motion in a specified direction toward the
centre. If only that which produces or
tends to produce motion or change of mo-
tion is force, then there is no such force as
"centrifugal force;" for the only motions
that a body moving in a circle has are tan-
gential, due to the original impulsive force,
and the radial toward the centre, due to the
constant centripetal force. If the centripe-
tal force ceases to act, the body moves on
tangentially, in obedience to the tangential
force; if its motion of rotation ceases, it
falls toward the centre. It can take no
other direction of motion unless some force,
additional to those required for uniform cir-

CORRESP ONDENCE.

617

cular motion, is impressed upon it. " Cen-
trifugal force" is a misnomer — a convenient
fiction to represent resistance. Resistance
or inertia only opposes motion ; it never
produces it ; and is, therefore, not force.
Hence any explanation of phenomena that
assigns " centrifugal force " as the real
cause in producing motion or change of
motion is wholly erroneous, and subversive
of Newton's first law. No such resort to
" centrifugal force " is necessary in the ex-
planation of the tides.

I must confess entire ignorance of the
experimental demonstration that bodies
weigh more or are heavier at midnight than
at any other hour of the twenty-four. If
that be true, and the cause assigned by Prof.
Schneider a sufficient explanation, then the
lunar midnight should produce the same ef-
fect as the solar. On this point allow me
to quote from Sir William Thomson and
Prof. P. G. Tait's " Treatise on Natural Phi-
losophy," vol. i., page 662. The authority
of these physicists must be acknowledged :
" Hence as the moon or anti-moon (an im
aginary moon 180° from the real one) rises
from the horizon to the zenith of any place
on the earth's surface, the intensity of appar-
ent gravity is diminished by about bijootnni
part ; and the plummet is deflected toward
the point of the horizon under either moon
or anti-moon by an amount which reaches
its maximum value when the altitude is 45°.
The corresponding effects of solar influence
are of nearly half these amounts."

Does Prof Schneider mean to subvert
Newton's third law that action and reaction
are always equal ? If he can prove that the
centripetal force for any point of a revolv-
ing body is greater or less than its reaction,
the " centrifugal force," he will certainly
disprove Newton's law, and compel a recon-
struction of most, if not all, mechanical
propositions.

His statements respecting the value of
" centrifugal force " (properly centripetal
force or acceleration toward the centre) as
depending on the radius of curvature are in-
correct. It is not unconditionally true that
" in a short curve the centrifugal force is very
great." On the contrary, if the time of revo-
lution is constant, the " centrifugal force "
varies directly as the radius, increasing as
the radius increases. If the velocity of ro-
tation is constant, " centrifugal force " va-
ries inversely as the radius, increasing as
the radius decreases. Neither of these con-
ditions is met in the comparison of the revo-
lutions of the earth and the moon in their
orbits, since neither times nor velocities are
the same in the two orbits. In fact, the
acceleration of the earth (and, therefore, of
the moon) toward the sun is about -,'0^0 of
an inch ; while that of the moon toward the
earth is a little less than -y^^ of an inch a
second. The acceleration of the earth tow-

ard the common centre of gravity of earth
and moon is only a small fraction of the
moon's acceleration toward the same point.
These accelerations are the measures of " cen-
trifugal force." Hence, according to Prof.
Schneider's theory, the solar tide should be
many times greater than the lunar.

My amazement reaches a climax when I
read, near the close of the article in ques-
tion, that " centrifugal force acts in a line
tangent to the earth's orbit; " or, " in a di-
rection at right angles with the radius-vec-
tor." Really, Mr. Editor, your compassion
should have saved Prof Schneider from mak-
ing such an egregious blunder.

In reference to the true explanation of
the tides, the length of this communication
will allow me to add only that, if Prof.
Loomis, in his admirable " Treatise on As-
tronomy," had applied to the tides the same
explanation and figure, mutatis mutandis,
that he uses in estimating the amount of
the sun's disturbing effect on the moon's
motion, no uncertainty would remain in the
mind of teacher or student respecting the
cause of the tides.

H. S. Carhart.

Northwestern TJiavERSiTT,
EvANSTON, Illinois, July 2, 1877.

.\

"THE ZODIACAL LIGHT."

To th e Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Prof. Brame's article on " The Zodiacal
Light," in The Popular Science Monthly
for July, may make a recent observation
of that phenomenon of interest. About
eight o'clock in the evening of July 3d my
attention was called to a peculiar appear-
ance of the sky. The sun had been below
the horizon about an hour. From the point
in the horizon where it was last seen a
broad band of pink or rose-colored light
followed the ecliptic across the sky to the
opposite horizon. Its south limit was sharp-
ly defined — its intensity nearly the same
from horizon to horizon. Its north limit
was not determinable, the pinkish light ex-
tending nearly or quite to the horizon, fill-
ing the entire northern sky. The southern
sky from the ecliptic was of the normal
blue color, with the exception of a single
streak of a darker blue, extending from the
point where the sun sank below the horizon
about 90° into the southern sky, making an
angle of say 30° with the southern limit of
the rose-colored light, or the ecliptic.

There were none of the auroral charac-
teristics. The light was steady, and the
entire exhibition as described lasted for
twenty minutes, when it all faded away
gradually, leaving a perfectly clear sky, with
only a trace of the pink in the west.

Charles A. Morey.

"Winona, Minnesota, July 5, 1877.

6i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Reading an item, attributed to a writer
in Science Gossip, on the " Food of the
Water-Tortoise," in the " Popular Miscel-
lany" of your July number, showing that
that reptile appears " to have a special rel-
ish for the food of the cat," it occurred to
me that I might also relate a fact which
came under my own observation bearing
upon this subject : During last summer I
found an ordinary snapping-turtle {Chelydra
sei'pentina) in a field adjoining my residence,
and near a brook which empties into Boone
River, a few rods below. It was a vicious
old fellow, and more than ordinarily curious
to me from the fact that it had more than a
hundred leeches clinging to its shell and
various portions of its skin. I had some
suspicions that my captive had committed
depredations upon my young black Cayuga
ducks ; but dishking to murder it " in cold
blood," I let it go, and it speedily disap-
peared in a deep hole in the brook. Some
days afterward, while passing near the
place, I heard a duck squawling and splash-
ing in the water, and went at once to learn
the cause. I found that this same turtle
had seized one of my ducks by the foot,
and was trying to drag her under the water
— tor " carnivorous purposes ! " The duck
was full-grown, and would have weighed
five or six pounds, but would soon have
been killed if I had not rescued it. I got
hold of the bird and drew her to the shore,
but the turtle held on, till I was able to
secure him. Of course, he caught no more
of my ducks.

But this reminds me of another inter-

esting fact. These black Cayuga ducks —
said to have descended from ancestors capt-
ured at Cayuga Lake, New York, by reason
of long domestication and highfeeding — have
come to have very heavy bodies and short,
small wings. Owing to the disuse of the
latter, they have become so far atrophied
that " well-bred " birds are quite incapable
of flight. In the summer of 1875, one of
my half-grown ducklings had the misfortune
to lose one of its legs. After some days'
absence it hobbled home from the river on
one foot, the other having no doubt been
torn off by one of these same predacious
turtles. The little bird speedily recovered
from the injury, though it never attained the
full size of its mates. It hopped about quite
briskly on its single foot, using its wings to
surmount obstacles or increase its speed.
The consequence was that its wings grew to
such size and length that it was capable of
flying twenty or thirty rods, and possibly
much farther. It could rise easily out of the
water, and once on the wing was able to
clear the bank and a high fence — in all, a
quite abrupt rise of fifteen or twenty feet
— and thus speedily reach home, while its
mates were slowly w^addling through the
grass. My flock of ducks showed in a striking
manner the result produced by the long dis-
use of their wings ; while the unfortunate
one-legged bird as strikingly evidenced how
rapidly " compulsion to more diligent use"
produced a very decided and important
modification of the wings, increasing their
strength, as well as the length of the feath-
ers. Charles Aldhich.
Webstee City, Iowa, July 6, 1877.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

SPECTROSCOPIC DISCO VER Y OF OXYGEN
IN THE SUN.

CELESTIAL chemistry has taken
another stride forvrard. In a
paper recently read before the Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, and printed
in the American Journal of Science
and Arts, Dr. Henry Draper announces
the discovery of oxygen gas in the sun,
the fact being arrived at and verified
by a long course of spectroscopic ob-
servations.

Viewed in any of its numerous as-
pects, this discovery is of immense in-
terest. Whether as an extension of our
knowledge of solar physics, solar chem-

istry, and the nature of the spectrum
itself, or as throwing further light upon
the constitution of the universe ; wheth-
er as bearing upon cosmical theories
that have attracted much attention, or
as a triumph over the difficulties of com-
plicated experiment, or, finally, as an
illustration of hereditary genius in sci-
ence, where a line of research opened
brilliantly by the father nearly half a
century ago, has been pursued with
equal brilliancy to this crowning result
— however regarded, this exploit of the
younger Draper must command un-
qualified admiration.

As has been repeatedly shown in our

EDITOR'S TABLE.

61

9

pages,' the elder Draper was one of the
early and most successful explorers of
the chemical relations of the luminous
spectrum. He was a pioneer in this
line of investigation, and the first to
make extensive use of photography in
this branch of research ; and he was so
far in advance of his time, that his dis-
coveries were totally unappreciated.
But he furnished the fortunate men who
followed him with their tools to reap
the splendid harvest of spectroscopic
discovery, which has so impressed the
woi'ld daring the last eighteen years.
We have never had any doubt that his-
tory would set all these things right, but
the venerable doctor will at any rate be
easy in the assurance that the sceptre
has not departed from his family.

When it was established that the
light emitted by vaporized and incan-
descent bodies gives spectra by which
they may be identified, the passage was
rapid to the discovery of chemical sub-
stances by the analysis of light. A
study of the spectra of the sun and stars
soon gave evidence that they contained
forms of matter with which we are fa-
miliar upon earth. All the metals, for
example, in a state of luminous vapor,
yielded bright lines in the spectrum so
distinctive in each case that there was
no possibility of mistaking them. When
these were carefully mapped and com-
pared with the spectra from the sun
and stars, such a startling mass of co-
iiicidences was at once disclosed, that
there was no escape from the conclusion
of a common causality, or that these
metals exist also in the stellar bodies.
There was but one serious difficulty.
The lines obtained by the combustion
of the metals were bright and colored,
while the corresponding lines in the
solar and stellar spectra were all dark.
Kirchhoff resolved the difficulty in 1859,
by showing how the bright lines may
become dark lines by absorption in such
conditions as the celestial bodies fur-

1 8ee PopuxAE Science Monthly, vol. iv., p.
361 ; vol. is., p. 390.

nish ; and it was thus not only estab-
lished as a fact that there are various
terrestrial metals in the sun and stars,
but their mode of manifestation was
brought into complete harmony with
theoretical requirements.

The nebular hypothesis, which had
been growing for a century, and which
assumed the origin of all the bodies in
the solar system from a common nebu-
lous source, was, of course, at once
and profoundly aff'ected by the new
revelations. It was proved that there
are common elements extensively dis-
tributed among celestial bodies, which
confirms the hypothesis that they have
a common origin. Not only was there
new and positive j^roof of the exist-
ence of nebulous matter in the celestial
spaces, but the ultimate elements of
which material Nature is constituted
were shown to be universal, and the
nebular hypothesis was thus strongly
confirmed. Yet a difficulty at once
arose, that the main predominant ele-
ments of terrestrial Nature were not
found to exist in the sun and stars.
The evidence, of course, was negative,
but it was held by many to be weighty,
in disproof of the nebular doctrine.
If the non-metallic elements, it was
said, which form the principal part of
terrestrial objects, do not exist in the
sun, the derivation of that body and of
its encircling planets from the same
primeval source is impossible. Dr.
Draper has now proved that oxygen in
large proportions exists in the sun (and
probably nitrogen also) ; and his dis-
covery can therefore only be regai'ded
as lending further and more powerful
confirmation to the nebular hypothesis.

Dr. Draper's paper, in the American
Journal of Science and Arts, is accom-
panied by an illustrative diagram, which
brings the demonstration before the eye
of every reader. It exhibits the spec-
trum of the sun, and that which is pro-
duced from air, so juxtaposed that the
fact and the extent of the identity of
the lines in the two representations are

620

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

seen at a glance. The matching and
identification are even more complete
than they were in the original experi-
ments of Kirchhoff with the metals, for
here it is not necessary to invoke a
theory for the unification of bright and
dark lines ; the bright lines of the spec-
trum of oxygen being continuous with
the bright lines of the solar spectrum.
It is, indeed, because the solar oxygen
reveals itself by bright lines that these
have not been earlier detected, as they
have been masked and concealed among
the unoccupied luminous spaces, be-
tween the dark lines that have hitherto
been the main objects of attention.

Dr. Draper has been occupied for
several years with this investigation —
in fact, he has grown into it. Besides
Lis inherited ai)titude, and life-long
training in this delicate line of manip-
ulation, and his thorough familiarity
with the peculiar difficulties of these
investigations, his work could only have
become successful by means of a com-
bination of appliances, some of which
are only lately available. His task was
to produce a gas spectrum, and main-
tain it at a brilliancy which would ad-
mit of its being photographed alongside
of that of the sun itself. Oxygen is
made incandescent by electricity. The
most ample, steady, and sustained com-
mand of this agent was therefore in-
dispensable. This was secured by the
Gramme machine, a dynamo-electric
engine connected with a large induc-
tion-coil and a battery of Leyden-jars.
The impulse was furnished by a Bray-
ton's petroleum-motor, which " can be
started with a match, comes to its regu-
lar speed in less than a minute, and
preserves its rate entirely unchanged
for hours together." This was belted
to the Gramme machine, which, at its
usual rate of running, gave 1,000 ten-
inch sparks per minute. This " torrent
of intense electric fire," consisting of
twenty ten-inch sparks per second, was
passed through Pliicker's tubes, con-
taining oxygen, the spectrum of which

is thrown upon a sensitive photographic
surface, while the solar spectrum is
formed beside it, and both are fixed
together upon the tablet. The embar-
rassments of the investigation are thus
referred to in Dr. Draper's paper :

" This research has proved to be more
tedious and difficult than would be supposed,
because so many conditions must conspire
to produce a good photograph. Tliere must
be a uniform, prime-moving engine of two-
horse power, a dynamo-electric machine
thoroughly adjusted, a large EuhmkorfF coil
with its Foucault break in the best order, a
battery of Leyden-jars carefully propor-
tioned to the Pliicker's tube in use, a helio-
stat which of course involves clear sunshine,
an optical train of slit, prisms, lenses, and
camera well focused, and, in addition to all
this, a photographic laboratory in such com-
plete condition that wet, sensitive plates can
be prepared which will bear an exposure of fif-
teen minutes and a prolonged development.
It has been difficult to keep the Pliicker's
tubes in order; often before the first expos-
ure of a tube was over, the tube was ruined
by the strong Leyden sparks. Moreover, to
procure tubes of known contents is trouble-
some. For example, my hydrogen-tubes
gave a spectrum photograph of fifteen lines,
of which only three belonged to hydrogen.
In order to be sure that none of these were
new hydrogen-lines, it was necessary to try
tubes of various makers, to prepare pure
hydrogen and employ that, to examine the
spectrum of water, and finally to resort to
comparison with the sun."

In regard to the significance of the
inquiry in relation to spectroscopic
study, Dr. Draper remarks :

" We must, therefore, change our theory
of the solar spectrum, and no longer regard
it merely as a continuous spectrum with
certain rays absorbed by a layer of ignited
metallic vapors, but as having also bright
lines and bands superposed on the back-
ground of continuous spectrum. Such a
conception not only opens the way to the
discovery of others of the non-metals, sul-
phur, phosphorus, selenium, chlorine, bro-
mine, iodine, fluorine, carbon, etc., but also
may account for some of the so-called dark
lines, by regarding them as intervals be-
tween bright lines."

EDITOR'S TABLE.

621

SEELYE ON CIVILIZATION AND RELI-
GION.

TnE inaugural address of Prof. J.
H. Seelye, upon assuming the presi-
dency of Amherst College, has at-
tracted the marked attention that was
to have been expected from the eminent
scholarship and versatile accomplish-
ments of the author. The interest,
moreover, has been especially height-
ened by the intrepidity evinced in his
choice of a subject. President Seelye
did not shrink from the responsibilities
of the occasion. Taking the helm of a
leading orthodox institution for the
education of young men, founded "we
are told " as a breakwater to Harvard,
which had been captured by Unitarian-
ism," and, therefore, as a bulwark of
evangelical faith, he addressed himself
to one of the great vital issues which
have been forced upon modern theology
and made prominent by the later ad-
vances of scientific thought. His sub-
ject is the relations of religion to civ-
ilization and to education.

President Seelye's argument has
been interpreted as an assault upon the
doctrine of evolution, and by his ad-
mirers as an annihilation of it. The
Christian Intelligencer, for example,
says, " It has fallen like a bomb into the
camps of skepticism ; " and has a star-
tling significance " in this day of theo-
logical enervation and cowardice before
a dogmatic evolutionism." Again, the
writer says : " He first of all joins issue
with the superficial and unsupported
notion that there is ' an inherent law
of progress in human nature by which
it is constantly seeking and gaining for
itself an improved condition,' and eon-
tends, on the contrary, that there is a
'law of deterioration.' Most acutely
and eloquently does he prick this bub-
ble, blown of sentimentalism and con-
ceit, which has so long been suffered to
pass unchallenged, and even been has-
tily adopted by Christian thinkers."

Now, with this estimate of the ad-
dress we can hardly agree. If evolu-

tionism be a bubble, we doubt if it has
been reserved for President Seelye to
prick it ; and if the address be a bomb-
shell, there are grounds for thinking
that it is the president's own party that
must beware of the explosion. His po-
sitions are : 1. That the historic phe-
nomena of national decay disprove the
doctrine of evolution ; 2. That what-
ever progress there has been is due to
the supernatural. He says :

" No historical fact is clearer than that
human progress has never revealed any
inherent power of self-perpetuation. Arts,
languages, literature, sciences, civilizations,
religions, have in unnumbered instances de-
teriorated and left a people to grope in the
shadow of death whose progenitors seem to
rejoice in the light of life."

Again :

" It was not the construction of his house
that taught man to build his temple, but
exactly the other way. The same is true
with sculpture, painting, poetry, and music.
It was a religious impulse which gave to
all these their first inspiration. The oldest
monuments we possess of any of these arts
are associated with some religious rite or
faith. But, more than this, we must also
notice the undoubted fact that the arts have
grown in glory just as the religious senti-
ment has grown in power."

In brief —

" The supernatural is the Alpha as well
as the Omega of human thought."

These are favorite ideas with Presi-
dent Seelye, which he has expounded
elsewhere, and we shall perhaps get his
view more sharply before us by quoting
briefly from an earlier statement, also
made with deliberate care. In the arti-
cle on "Darwinism," in "Johnson's
New Universal Cycloptedia," he says :

" The history of men is full of instances
of deterioration. If we weigh it simply by
number, whether of years, or of nations, or
of individuals, degeneration and decay vast-
ly preponderate. Where is the civilization
now of Tyre, and Carthage, and Babylon,
and Nineveh ? and where are the arts which
built the Great Pyramid and Baalbec ? All
over the world we have evidence of a ten-
dency among nations and men to sink away
from civilization into barbarism, but history

622

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

does not show an instance of a nation rising
by its own efforts from barbarism to civili-
zation. . . . The incontestable fact is, that
human nature reveals no inherent impulse
to improve or perfect itself. History gives
unnumbered cases of a downward tendency,
but not a single instance of a self-evolved
progress. The lamp which lights one nation
in its advancement has been always lighted
by a lamp behind it. Civilization is never
indigenous ; it is an exotic plant wherever
found. This is the simple truth of history,
which makes all such discussions as Mr. Dar-
win's respecting the descent of man as false
to fact as they are abhorrent to philosophy."

President Seelye's inference that be-
cause nations decay there is no evohi-
tion of humanity, does not appear to be
conclusive. The considerations alleged
as making the doctrine of Darwin's dis-
cussions "false to fact" seem to us to
be in harmony with it, and the natural
consequence of it. President Seelye
appeals to the historic phenomena of
deterioration, disintegration, and decay
among nations and civilizations as dis-
proving the principle of development ;
but how is decay made possible except
by previous growth, and how can a
community degenerate unless it has first
been organized and unfolded ? The con-
clusion is certainly logical that before
civilizations can dissolve they must first
be evolved, so that to aflnrm a " law of
deterioration " is necessarily to imply
a previous "law of evolution.'' In the
normal course of Nature the effete and
outworn must pass away. The spent
molecules of our tissues have to be
eliminated, that more vitalized particles
may replace them. Individuals when
they get old and useless die out of the
community, that their younger and more
vigorous successors may carry on the
work. On the larger scale, but in the
same way, nations die out as civilization
progresses; while civilizations them-
selves are spent in the larger advance-
ment of humanity. "We may brood with
morbid sentiment over excretion, de-
cay, and death, until there seems to be
nothing else ; yet these are normal

things, and are simply the correlates and
the consequences of growth and life.
President Seelye declares that in the
past career of humanity " degeneration
and decay vastly preponderate ; " ho
should have explained how that can be
— how there could be a fall without a
previous rise to make it possible. If
he means that much the greater num-
ber of nations and civilizations come
apparently to naught, we have simply
to say that this is the law in the realm
of life : the eggs that are wasted and the
seeds that are scattered and lost vastly
preponderate over those that mature.
Nature is profuse in the waste of life,
and sacrifices multitudes where but
few are perfected. But is not this
ruthless and wide-spread destruction
only a part of Nature's policy for the
attainment of grand results ? The evo-
lutionists afiirm continuity of influence
in the sphere of life, and that some of
the nations and civilizations which de-
chne and die pass on the impulses which
they have gained to reappear in suc-
ceeding and higher stages of national
and racial development. President Seel-
ye recognizes this principle of continu-
ity in saying, " The lamp which lights
one nation in its advancement has been
always lighted by a lamp behind it."
National advancement is here conceded,
and also a series of advancements, each
depending upon a preceding one. But
is there nothing gained by accumulated
experience ? Is there no general prog-
ress resulting from the advancement of
nations in succession and under different
circumstances? If the dissolution of
states and the decay of civilizations do
not break the continuity of those agen-
cies by which man is civilized, how can
they hinder that gradual improvement
of the process and heightening of the
effects which evolution implies as the
consequence of prolonged, varied, and
accumulated national experiences ?

If we try President Seelye's logic in
a more special case, its quality will,
perhaps, be more apparent. " Behold,"

EDITOR'S TABLE.

623

he might say, "tlie orchards of the
world ! They deteriorate and decay, and
nothing remains of them at last but
withered branches, dead trunks, and
rotten stumps. Where are the orchards
mentioned by Pliny, the orchards of the
middle ages, the old Indian orchards,
or even the orchards of the Revolution ?
The history of apples does not show an
instance of an orchard growing by its
own efforts. The vitality which impels
one orchard in its growth has always
been kindled from the vitality of an
orchard behind it. This is the simple
truth of history, which makes all such
discussions as Mr. Darwin's respecting
tlie descent of the golden pippin from
the sour and miserable crab as false to
fact as they are abhorrent to pomology."
In regard to the second and main
position of President Seelye's address
respecting the relations of religion to
civilization, it is chiefly interesting from
the indications it affords of the ration-
alistic tendencies of New England or-
thodoxy. "We by no means object to
the prominent part which he assigns to
religion in promoting the progress of
man ; and are only agreeably surprised
at the catholicity of his position. The
president says that " human nature
reveals no internal impulse to improve
and perfect itself; " this he maintains
is duo to an external impulse, to a
power above man, which he assumes to
be the agency of supernatural religion.
But the transition from barbarism to
civilization has taken place on an ex-
tensive scale. President Seelye asks,
" "Where are now the civilizations of
Tyre and Carthage, of Nineveh and
Babylon?" His question implies that
they once existed, and his hypothesis
of their origin is that they were the
product of religious inspiration and su-
pernatural agency. It will be hardly
claimed that those ancient and extinct
civilizations were due to the Christian
religion ; but if not, then they were
caused by other religions potent with
genuine inspirations and supernatural

in their elevating influence. Yet is it
not the essence of orthodoxy that it is
the only true faith, and that all other
so-called religions are delusions, im-
postures, and heathenish superstitions ?
The implication of the inaugural ad-
dress contravenes evangelical theology
by assuming that there are other reli-
gions than that professed in New Eng-
land, which are genuinely attested as
of supernatural influence by their civil-
izing impulses, and which have been in
operation whenever and wherever there
has been any improvement in the con-
dition of humanity. Now, this recog-
nition of the universality of genuine
religious influences, as opposed to the
exclusive claims of any particular sys-
tem, we understand to be the broad
ground of rationalism ; and, if Amherst
orthodoxy can accept it, we shall cer-
tainly be the last to complain. "We only
hope, however, that tliis surrender,
horse, foot, and dragoons, to ultra-ra-
tionalism, is not to be considered as a
bomb-shell in the camp of evolution.

It is a serious question whether
President Seelye has not here put a
strain upon the claims of supernatural-
ism which endangers them. Grant-
ing the universality of the religious
agency, he must explain why it is not
always efficient in the work of ele-
vation. The president points impres-
sively to the phenomena of national de-
generacy and decay. Viewed as a part
of the order of Nature, these phenom-
ena are explicable ; but, from President
Seelye's point of view, what reason is
there why all that had been gained
should be thus thrown away ? His
theory that true religious influences are
coextensive with all phases of human
progress is an important step in the lib-
eral direction; and his further assump-
tion that the rhythmic successions of
progress are due to an intermittent su-
pernaturalism can have little other ten-
dency than to eliminate the supernatu-
ral from the investigation of the sub-
ject. "Why should President Seelye

624

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

stop half-way, and, having taken latitu-
dinarian ground in regard to the extent
of true religious influences, why should
he not complete the work of rational-
ization by recognizing the religious ele-
ment as a necessary and indestructible
part of the constitution of human na-
ture ?

The question of the agencies by
which man has been civilized or failed
to become so, and which determine his
present advancement or retrogression,
involves forces which do not belong to
an imaginary sphere of mystical ca-
price, but to the orderly course of nat-
ural things which it is the proper office
of Science to explore. The religious
agency must submit to this ordeal, and
be dispassionately studied in its laws
of action in connection with and in
the same way as all the other agencies
which enter into the great result, and
which are just as divinely ordained as
that to which theologians are wont to
ascribe everything, and of which they
claim to be the special guardians. Pres-
ident Seelye reechoes the old assump-
tion, although in a manner which shows
how far his law of decay has already
taken effect upon orthodoxy under
the liberalizing influence of Science.
But if the reader desires to obtain a
better idea of the progress that the sci-
entific method has really made in its
application to the study of civilization,
and to contrast its results with those
of preceding methods, let him carefully
read the opening article of the maga-
zine in his hand.

LITERARY NOTICES.

NoMisMA ; OR, Legal Tender. By Henri
Cernuschi. New York : D. Appletou &
Co. Price, $1.25.

This book contains the testimony given
by M. Cernuschi, the well-known French bi-
metallist, before the United States Monetary
Commission in February last, together with
several of his essays reprinted from other
sources. Although the work of an ardent

advocate of a double standard, defending
his views with ability, the book is not one
which would afford much comfort to .he sil-
ver party of this country. "We commend
it to them for perusal ; they will find well
stated the extent of the mischief which
would come from the adoption of the double
standard by the United States, unless a simi-
lar step be taken by all commercial nations.
From it also the greenback-men might learn
that a prime essential of good money is that
its issue be an automatic issue which no one
can control — something independent of hu-
man agency — and this, of course, is an attri-
bute that paper-money can never possess.
As to the merits of a bi-metalhc system, if it
could be made universal — if the same ratio
between gold and silver, and the same mint
laws, could be established the world over —
it is a question upon which a great deal is
to be said on both sides, and certainly M.
Cernuschi puts his side of the case very
strongly. But we cannot help thinking
that, practically, it is of about as much im-
portance to us as a question of lunar poli-
tics. The prospect of England, for exam-
ple, abandoning the single gold standard is
too remote for this phase of the question to
be taken into present account. It is an in-
teresting economic speculation, and nothing
more.

It may be added that M. Cernuschi pro-
poses to make silver just as good as gold for
all purposes of money ; worth just as much.
He has, therefore, little in common with our
silver-men : they would cease to care about
the " dollar of our fathers " if it were made
as good as gold ; they want it only because
it is worth less, and can be made the means
of forcing a composition upon their credit-
ors at something less than one hundred
cents.

Scientific Basis of Delusions. By G. M.
Beard, M. D. Pp. 47. New York:
Putnam's Sons. Price, 50 cents.

The author, in the introduction to this
little work, tells us that it is preliminary to
a " work on the Philosophy of Delusions,
which will aim to unfold in detail the phe-
nomena of the Involuntary Life, including
Trance, and to give practical suggestions
for the reconstruction of the principles of
evidence in their application to history and

LITERARY NOTICES.

)25

to logic — to science and to law." In the
present voluiiie he proposes a new theory
of trance, and considers its bearings on hu-
man testimony. Trance — whether natural
as somnambulism, or self-produced as by
so-called " trance-speakers " — results from
activity of a portion of the brain-substance
while the remainder sleeps : this is the " In-
voluntary Life." In this state men see
visions, receive revelations, and have ecsta-
sies, after the manner of Mohammed, the
mediaeval saints, and Swedenborg.

Oriental Religions and their Relations
TO Universal Religion. — China. By
Samuel Johnson. Boston: Osgood &
Co. Pp. 975. Price, $5.

The author of this work is an Oriental
scholar of fine accomplishments, and a philo-
sophical student of theology in a very broad
and liberal sense. He isa transcendentalist,
and like Emerson and Ripley he formerly
preached, but like those worthies he out-
grew the function of pulpit teacher, but
only to devote himself more assiduously to
the pen. Starting with the religious prob-
lem of humanity, and treating it with the
freedom and boldness of the transcenden-
talist, Mr. Johnson was soon carried be-
yond the narrow boundaries of the faith he
had inherited, and was powerfully drawn to
the consideration of those ancient religions
of the East which are celebrated alike for
their antiquity, the vast multitudes of their
believers, and the philosophical interest of
their doctrines and dogmas. This line of
inquiry had such fascination for Mr. John-
son, and seemed so full of promise as a
source of enlargement and a more catholic
spirit to Christian thinkers, that he resolved,
twenty years ago, to devote himself to the
exposition of the Oriental faiths in connec-
tion with the life of the Eastern peoples, for
the advantage of English readers.

In 1872 he published the first volume
of this research on the " Faiths, Religions,
Philosophy, and Life of India," as a contri-
bution to the natural history of religion.
His point of view was rational and scien-
tific, and he delineated the characteristics
of the Hindoo mind, its traditions and social
forms, its piety and morality, and the specu-
lative principles, ethics, and humanities of
Buddhism, with a deep sympathy for the

vol. XI. — 40

human elements involved, but with the same
disciplined coolness of temper with which
Herschel explored the heavens, and Lyell
investigated the crust of the earth. " I have
written," he says, " not as the advocate of
Christianity or any other distinctive relig-
ion, but as attracted on the one hand by the
identity of the religious sentiment under all
its great historic forms, and on the other by
the movement indicated in their diversities
and contrasts toward a higher plane of uni-
ty on which their exclusive claims shall dis-
appear."

The second volume in the same line of
study HOW appears, and is devoted to China.
This is especially opportune, now that we
have the Chinese problem upon us in so im-
minent a form on the Pacific coast. The
Californians will deal with it in the light of
race-prejudice, and in its passionate and
sordid aspects ; but the intelligent mind of
the country will desire to inform itself re-
garding the real character of this extraordi-
nary people. To all who are thus inclined
Mr. Johnson's volume will be full of grave
instruction. It is not a mere superficial de-
lineation of Chinese life, such as a traveler
would give us who had been Impressed by
its sensuous aspects, but it is an analysis of
the Chinese mind, an ethnic study, and the
survey of a civilization. Education, govern-
ment, language, literature, history, and
poetry, are taken up systematically in the
division of " structures," and an immense
amount of most important information is
here compactly presented. It is of but lit-
tle use to talk to Americans about educa-
tion anywhere else in the world ; yet, as we
are rapidly sliding into the Chinese system
of education by state control, our people
might profitably look into the working of
that system where it has had prolonged
trial and worked out its legitimate conse-
quences.

Mr. Johnson has not failed to point an
incidental moral in this direction. He says :
" Chu-tsze defines learning as imitation —
conformity to a prescribed standard ; and
in these schools even organization holds an
inferior place to the mere act of ' repeating
after the teacher, each by himself, in a
shrill voice, rocking to and fro.' This per-
fect image of automatism is not without re-
semblance to the arrangements into graded

626

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

classes, so much admired in our Western
school systems, and to those arts of 'read-
ing in concert ' which are believed to have
such virtue in our democratic culture.

" It would in fact be difficult to imagine
a better outward symbol of the mental status
produced by these processes of an excessive
organization, so widely admired in the pub-
lic schools of America. They tend to de-
stroy all possibility of original force. Bead-
ing, for instance, is becoming reduced to
as purely mechanical a conformity to pre-
scribed tone, time, and emphasis, as the
Chinese custom of repeating words after the
teacher has produced without any organi-
zation whatever. Chinese boys, rocking
out their parrot tones, eagerly copying the
master, or ' backing the books,' do but
openly confess, in their noisy routine of
imitation, the mental slavery which our pre-
vailing system disguises under the varnish
of a ' drill.' ' Reading in concert ' has
played its part in the Chinese system also,
with effects upon voice and manner which
we need not cross the hemisphere to find in
full operation.

" Concerning ' imitation ' as a principle
of culture, let us add that, false as it is, its
moral quality at least is higher when it fol-
lows, as in China, a type that does not
change with human caprice, than when it is
subject to arbitrary crudities and idiosyn-
crasies imposed on the pupils by individual
teachers. In both cases, however, the real
ultimate reference is to an all-powerful au-
thority in that public sentiment and com-
mon belief of which these educational sys-
tems are meant to be the expression. And
when this public control has become all-
pervading, as it steadily tends to be, whether
as Chinese tradition of ages, or American
fashion of the hour, its effect through bnl-
fafion, in leveling and trimming young minds
into a dull, self-satisfied uniformity, is in-
disputable. In the course of ages it has
cast all Chinamen in one mould, and made
their intellectual productions as monotonous
as their physical type. The warning is for
us, even at the opposite pole of social and
political character."

Of moral education the author says :
" More prominent than rote-work in the
programme of the school system is respect
for moral laws as eternal and divine. Mod-

esty and humility; reverence for the old;
the evil of war and the wickedness of cruel-
ty and conquest ; the love of truth, purity,
and self-restraint ; delicacy of feeling, de-
votion to duties, fidelity to functions — are
the burden of this popular teaching, the
very substance of text and precept. I be-
lieve, not only that the whole series of read-
ing-books used in the schools of China does
not contain a single impure precept, but
that there is scarcely one noble conception
of duty and humanity that cannot be found
represented in the daily recitations of these
children of a grand ethical literature, who
are taught to prize it, not with slavish super-
stition, but for the naturalness of its ideal.
Nor does this textual teaching fail of a
practical basis in the home. It would be
difficult to find any treatise on home educa-
tion more admirable than the ' Instructions
of the Sacred Edict,' whose utilitarian wis-
dom is here overflowed by teuderest senti-
ment."

In regard to Chinese education in man-
ners, Mr. Johnson remarks : " As the moral
relations are expressed in a concrete ideal,
in which no change is supposed possible, so
they are embodied in rites and ceremonies
which share their sacredness. As the child
learns ideas in the form of actual written
characters, so he conceives duties in the
form of strictly-regulated actions. Hence
the prime importance of the ' proprieties '
in education. They are not aft'ectations,
but recognized as the natural order of con-
duct, the virtue of behavior. . . . The au-
thority of fixed rules of behavior, while
scarcely more absolute than that of fashion
in Western society, is not, like fashion, de-
tached from the highest law of ethics and
faith, but is strictly identical with it. To
the Chinese, their ceremonial is simply man
in his manifold relations. Its minute rules,
which appear to exhaust the possibilities of
prescription, are believed to express man's
normal relations to the universe. They
seem, in fact, to have historically grown out
of the national consciousness of these rela-
tions, instead of being imposed by arbitra-
ry authority or transient will. What they
correspond with in Western life is not our
etiquette, red tape, or religious formalism,
but such conformities as are admitted by
all of us to be natural, proper to all right

LITERARY NOTICES.

627

performance of functions, and therefore of
highest import. These conformities would
of course differ from those of -the Chinese,
being based on more complex relations and
wider knowledge of Nature, and hence more
open to changes of detail ; but their ethical
ground is really the same. Thus the minute
ritual of Chinese filial piety consists in rou-
tines of conduct which are recognized as
beyond all question the best, and indeed
the only, ways in which an ideal love and
reverence can be fulfilled. It is sufficiently
clear, from the spirit of these prescriptions,
that this minuteness itself is simply an en-
deavor to inspire the whole of domestic life
with real reverence and love."

After a bi'oad sketch of the Chinese
character and quality, Mr. Johnson passes
to a study of the Chinese sages, their doc-
trines and influence, and the national beliefs
on religious subjects, the development of
Chinese Buddhism, missionary experiences,
and closes his work by a presentation of
the philosophy, metaphysics, arid anthro-
pology, that prevail in China. We cannot
here even attempt to give the author's con- '
elusions upon many important topics which
he considers, and will only say that while
he evidently has great respect for much
that is to be found in the institutions and
ideas of this great division of the Oriental
world, he is by no means an undiscrimi-
nating admirer of everything Chinese. Of
course they are benighted heathen, and we
send missionaries to instruct them in better
religious ways. This attitude, however, is
not altogether favorable to a just judgment
of the Chinese character, and Mr. Johnson
has done an excellent service in correcting
our prejudices and giving us truer views of
the faith and life of so large a portion of
the human family.

A Hand-book of Descriptive Astronomy.
By George F. Chambers, F. R. A. S., of the
Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 938. Price,
$10.

This is in all respects a most excellent
book on astronomy, clear, full, splendidly
illustrated, carefully accurate, and in a high
degree popular. The first edition was issued
ten years ago, and a third being now called
for, the author has thoroughly revised it and
added two hundred pages of new matter,

bringing it sharply up to the time. His rea-
son for making the book is thus stated;
" There is a lack of works in the English lan-
guage which are at one and the same time
attractive to the general reader, serviceable
to the student, and handy, for purposes of
reference, to the professional astronomer ;
in fact, of works which are popular without
being vapid, and scientific without being un-
duly technical." In regard to the present
edition Mr. Chambers says : " There is
scarcely a single page which has not been
to a greater op less extent dressed up, or in
some way amended, with the object of mak-
ing its statements more accurate in sub-
stance or intelligible in diction. The most
important changes will be found in the chap-
ters dealing with the sun, sidereal astron-
omy, and astronomical instruments. The
descriptions of clusters and nebulse have
been made more numerous, and the lists of
objects critically revised one by one actu-
ally at the telescope, so as to make that por-
tion of the work more completely than for-
merly a vade mecujn for the mere star-gazer,
who is an astronomer simply in the respect
that he is the owner of a telescope. Indeed,
it has been chiefly with this idea in view
that so much additional matter has been
introduced into the chapters relating to
astronomical instruments. The ' Practical
Hints ' and suggestions have been gathered
from so many sources, and embody the col-
lective wisdom and experience of so many
men, that they cannot fail to deserve atten-
tion. I believe also that this volume now
stands alone in its full description, so far as
regards the wants of amateur observers, of
the mounting and use of reflecting tele-
scopes."

List of Elevations, principally in that
Portion of the United States west of
THE Mississippi. By H. Gannett, M. E.
Washington : Government Printing-Of-
fice. Pp. 164.

This fourth edition of the work named
above embodies the results of its author's
continued labors down to 1877. It con-
tains profiles of nearly all the railroads in
the region west of the Mississippi ; eleva-
tions of many thousands of points ; mean
heights of the States and Territories ; slopes
of the principal streams in the West, etc.
A map of the United States, in approximate

628

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

contours ef 1,000 feet of vertical intervals,
and embodying all the results of the au-
thor's researches on elevations, accom-
panies the work. We are informed that,
" to express still more clearly the facts
brought out by the map, it is the intention
of the Survey (Hayden's) to make shortly
a relief model of the United States on the
basis of this map."

Influence of Physical Conditions in the
Genesis of Species. By J. A. Allen.
(From the Radical Review.) Pp. 33.

Mr. Allen, in enforcing his thesis that
the " conditions of environment " are the
principal factors in modifying species, ad-
duces some very instructive examples of
the progressive enlargement of certain
peripheral parts of animals as we go from
the north to the south. Thus the ears of
wolves, foxes, some deer, and hares, are
larger in southern than in northern indi-
viduals of the same species. In birds, the
enlargement of the bill, claws, and tail, is
specially noticeable — the bill being pecul-
iarly susceptible of variation. This, the
author remarks, accords with the general
fact that " all the ornithic types in which
the bill is remarkably enlarged occur in the
intertropical regions." A similar progres-
sive change southward is remarked in the
color of animals, especially birds.

The Geology of the Eastern Portion of
THE Uintah Mountains. By J. W.
Powell. Washington : Government
Printing-office. Pp. 217.

The region described in this report by
Prof Powell comprises three great geologi-
cal provinces, designated respectively the
Park Province, the Plateau Province, and
the Basin Province, succeeding one another
in this order from east to west, and all lying
east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the
great Plains. The whole region is one of con-
siderable geological interest, as presenting
on a large scale three great categories of
facts, namely, those relating to displacement,
degradation, and sedimentation. The forma-
tions here studied have an aggregate thick-
ness of 50,000 feet, and embrace strata of
the Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Ceno-
zoic ages. The volume is fully illustrated
with plates and woodcuts, and accompanied
by an atlas of colored maps.

Geographical Surveys west of the One-
Hundredth Meridian. By Lieutenant
G. M. Wheeler. Pp. 355. With Il-
lustrations. Washington : Government
Printing-Office.

During the year ending June, 1876,
Lieutenant Wheeler's Survey was organized
in two divisions, designed to operate, the
one in California, and the other in Colorado
and New Mexico. The volume before us,
besides the general report of Lieutenant
Wheeler, and the executive and descriptive
reports of the officers in charge of the Cali-
fornia and Colorado divisions, contains sev-
eral special reports by scientific men at-
tached to the survey, among which we may
mention, as possessing a direct popular in-
terest, reports by Dr. Loew on alkaline
lakes and mineral springs in Southern Cali-
fornia, and on the physical and agricultural
features of the same region ; a report by
Dr. Yarrow on ethnological researches made
near Santa Barbara ; an analysis by A. S.
Gatschetof eleven Indian dialects ; last, but
by no means least, Lieutenant Bergland's
report on the operations of a party com-
missioned to determine the feasibihty of
diverting the Colorado River for purposes
of irrigation.

Precursory Notes on American Insectiv-
orous Mammals. By Dr. Elliott Coues.
(From Hayden's "Reports.") Pp. 22.
Washington: Government Printing-Of-
fice.

The insectivorous mammals here de-
scribed belong to two families, namely :
Talpidw, or moles, and Soricidce, or shrews.
Of moles the author recognizes four good
genera as existing in America, namely:
Scalops, Scapanus, Condylura, and Uroiri-
chus. Urotrichus is the only one of the
four known to be common to both hemi-
spheres. Of European genera of Soricidce
only one, Sorex, is known to occur in Amer-
ica ; Marina is the most characteristic
American genus. The third and last of the
American genera is JVeosorex.

Report of the Philadelphia Board of
Health for the Year 1875. Pp. 351.

We have specially to commend this vol-
ume for the many neat graphic charts which
it contains. Statistical tables are always
dry and confusing, but when they are cast

LITERARY NOTICES.

629

into the shape of graphic charts even the
most careless cannot fail to note the fluctu-
ations of the quantities which they repre-
sent. Among the matters treated of in the
body of the report, we would name espe-
cially the Municipal Hospital, water-supply^
nuisances, as fat-boiling, intramural inter-
ments, etc. The deaths in Philadelphia for
the year covered by the report numbered
17,805, an increase of 2,567 over the pre-
ceding year. The exhibit of the statistics
of mortality among children under ten was
less favorable than usual ; the year 1872,
when small-pox committed such ravages,
was not as fatal to children as 1S75. Diph-
theria prevailed to an extent unprecedented
in the records of the preceding sixteen
years.

Coordinate Surveying. By H. F. Wal-
ling, C.E. Pp.19. With Plates. (From
" Proceedings of" the American Society
of Civil Engineers.")

The object of this essay is best stated
in the words of the author himself, who
says: "It is the object of this paper to
point out a simple method by which the
high degree of precision which accompanies
the Coast Survey work may be made avail-
able in the ordinary operations of land-sur-
veyors and civil engineers, in those districts
over which the Coast Survey triangulations
have been carried, and at the same time to
call attention to the importance of an ex-
tension of these triangulations over the en-
tire country."

Problem of Problems.

We noticed, not long ago, a book enti-
tled the " Problem of Problems," a discus-
sion of atheism, Darwinism, and theism,
which has been much praised by theological
authorities as an annihilating criticism of
Evolution and the Darwinian school. The
book received some damaging criticism, and
the rumor got started that it would be re-
vised. But it seems this is an error. What-
ever else may change in this world of muta-
tions, the " Problem of Problems " and its
solution in President Braden's book will re-
main unchanged. The author announces in
the Cincinnati Christian Standard that " it
will never be revised." He says, " The com-
mendations of the book have been such.

and by such persons, that it would be a re-
flection on them to revise it." It is a great
satisfaction to have something at last that
will be stuck to and can be depended upon.
And, now that we have something that is to
stand like a lighthouse amid the storms of
controversy, it is well to be fully aware of
its value, and we notice that the Journal of
Speculative Philosophy, in its April issue,
testifies of the author that " for tilting
against the Darwinians, Spencerians, Com-
tians, Correlationists, Evolutionists, et id
genus omne, he is well enough accoutred,
and is mighty in his cause." We shall do
well not to forget how this puissant finality
in modern polemics originated. The Jour-
nal says of the author, " At the age of four-
teen he became a skeptic, and lectured in
public on the skeptical side of the question."
The precocious rogue pursued this scan-
dalous course for ten years, when he was
abruptly pulled up, and took the back track.
The Journal says, " At the age of twenty-
four he met a preacher, who converted him,
and he began his career as a lecturer against
skepticism, the fruits of which are contained
in the volume before us." Now, if anybody
wants to stop a great scientific movement,
he will know how to prepare for it.

Why the Earth's Chemistry is as it is.
By J. N. LocKYER, F. R. S. L. New
York: Macmillan. Pp. 59. Price 25
cents.

Three lectures by Mr. Lockyer are con-
tained in this volume ; they were originally
delivered at Manchester, before a popular
audience. In the first of these the author
gives a singularly clear account of the prin-
ciples and main results of spectrum analysis
of nebulag and comets. The second lecture
treats of meteorites, and the chemical con-
stitution of the stars and the sun. The
third lecture treats of the planets of our
system and their atmospheres, and con-
cludes with an exposition of the theory of
evolution.

The Tailed Amphibians, including the
C^cilians. By W. H. Smith. Detroit :
Herald print. Pp. 158.

This monograph, prepared as a thesis
to be presented to the Faculty of Michigan
University for the degree of Ph. D., very
succinctly describes the distinguishing char-

630

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

aeters of the several orders of animals be-
longing to the class Amphibia. Wherever
the author had it in his power to study the
characters of the animals he describes,
either in living specimens or in natural his-
tory collections, he has done so ; in other
cases he has had recourse to the writings
of the best authors. The work is one of
solid merit, both for its original research
and for its concise presentation of the re-
sults of prior investigation.

Principal Characters of the Cortphodon-
TID.E ; Characters op the Odontor-
NiTHES ; Notice of a New and Gigantic
Dinosaur. By Prof. 0. C. Marsh. Pp.
6. With Plates. (From American Jour-
nal of Science and Arts.)

A special interest attaches to the genus
Corijphodon, inasmuch as it occurs in the
tertiary strata of both hemispheres. In the
second paper named above, Prof. Marsh
gives certain characters common to the
odontornithes with the ostrich. The third
paper contains measurements of portions of
a dinosaur which surpassed in magnitude
any land - animal hitherto discovered, its_
length having been probably from fifty to
sixty feet !

Topographical Atlas Sheets.

These "Atlas Sheets" are a portion of
a series of maps designed to embrace the
territory of the United States west of the
one-hundredth meridian. The present set,
seven in number, are devoted to the topog ■
raphy of portions of Colorado, Arizona,
and New Mexico. They are based on the
results obtained by Wheeler's Survey.

Iron and Steel Constructions. By J. J
Weyrauch, Ph. D. Pp. 112, With
Plates. New York : Van Nostrand.
Price, $1.

The problems discussed in this little vol-
ume, namely, the strength and calculation
of dimensions of iron and steel construc-
tions, have for some time engaged the at-
tention of engineers on both sides of the
Atlantic. The author presents a general
view of the results so far obtained, and
offers formulas of his own based on Woh-
ler's law. The calculations have special
reference to bridge and building construc-
tions.

Gold and Debt. An American Hand-Book
of Finance. By W. L. Fawcett. Chi-
cago : S. C. Griggs & Co. Price, $1.'75.

Considerable useful information, and a
number of tables convenient for reference,
have been gotten together in this book. The
money units of the world, paper, coin, sus-
pension of specie payments, etc., are the
subjects of a series of chapters which show
that the author has bestowed a good deal
of labor on them. He says, however, that
" the first object was the compilation iu
compact form, convenient for reference, of
trustworthy statements and figures regard-
ing the great factors in the financial prob-
lems of the day." There is certainly a need
for such a book, but this volume hardly
supplies it. The discussion of subjects too
large for his space, and of others that are
purely speculative, has taken up time and
room that should have been used in collect-
ing and arranging the material proper for a
hand-book. Thirty-one pages, for example,
are given to estimates of the amounts of gold
and silver in the world — a sort of speculation
that is wholly worthless. There is a lack of
system in the arrangement of the tables ; there
are unnecessary repetitions and unaccount-
able omissions ; and, finally, there is no in-
dex, a negligence not to be forgiven in a
work of this kind. Still, it will be found con-
venient for the business-man and the stu-
dent until a better one is prepared, which,
as this is not a very remunerative field of
work, may be a long time.

Ornithology of the Region about the
Sources of the Red River of Texas.
By Lieutenant C. A. IT. McCaulet. (From
Hayden's " Reports.") Pp. 40. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Office.

Lieutenant McCaulet, while on sick-
leave in Southern New Mexico, attached
himself as a volunteer to an exploring ex-
pedition conducted by Lieutenant Ruffner,
of the Engineers. His duties mainly related
to the survey proper, and he was able to
devote to the collection of ornithological
specimens only the leisure time left after
the day's work or the day's march was over.
Nevertheless, he has made a substantial
contribution to the avi-fauna of the region
explored. The report is edited and anno-
tated by Dr. Elliott Coues, United States
Army.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

631

PUBLICATIONS KECEIVED.

Supplemental Remarks on tho Physiological
Effects of Severe and Protracted Muscular Ex-
ercise, witti Especial Reference to its Influence
upon the Excretion of Nitrotren. By Prof. Aus-
tin Flint, Jr., M. D. Vroxaihe Journal of Anat-
omy and Physiolooy. Pp. 9.

Some Remarkable Gravel-Ridges in the Mer-
rimack Valley. By Geo. F. Wright. From Pro-
ceedin;:? of the Boston Society of Natural His-
tory. Pp. 17. Maps 3.

Report on Dermatology. By L. P. Yandcll,
Jr., M. D. From the American Practitioner for
June, 1877. Louisville, Ky. Pp. 8.

A New Te*t-Reaction for Zinc, and other
Laboratory Notes. Pp. ti. And Notes upon the
Lithology of the Adirondacks. Pp. 35. By Al-
bert R. Leeds. From the Americcui Chemist
for March, 1877.

On the Production and Use of Compressed
Air in Mining Operations. By M. F. L. Cornet.
Translated from the French by Robert Zahner.
Prom the Journal of the Franklin Institute, for
June and July, 1877'. Pp. 21.

On the Brains of some Fish-like "Vertebrates;
on the Serrated Appendages of the Throat of
Amia; on the Tail of Amia. By Burt G. Wilder,
M. D. From Proceedings of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science, 1870.
Pp.11, and Plate.

The Scientist's Theology. By E. A. Beaman.
New York : E.H. Swiuue'y, 1877. Pp.24. Price,
10 cents.

On the Use of Large Probes in the Treatment
of Strictures of the Nasal Duct. By Samuel
Theobald, M. D. From the Transactions of the
Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.
Baltimore, 1877. Pp. 2-i.

Report of the Director of the Central Park
Menagerie, for 1876. New York, 1877. Pp. 34.

Facts and Figures for Mathematicians ; or,
The Geometrical Problem which Benson's Ge-
ometry alone can solve. By Lawrence S. Ben-
son. New York: 149 Grand St. Pp.22. Price,
30 cents.

On the Possibility of Transit Observations,
without Personal Error. By S. P. Langley.
From American Journal of Science and Arts,
July, 1877, Pp. 6.

Report on the Discovery of Supposed Paleo-
lithic Implements, from the Glacial Drift in the
Valley of the Delaware River, near Trenton,
N. J. By Charles C. Abbott, M. D. Cambridge,
1877. From Tenth Annual Report of the Pea-
body Museum. Pp. 14, Illustrated.

Address delivered by Hon. A. J. Peeler, be-
fore the State Agricultural and Mechanical Col-
lege of Texas, June 26, 1877. Austin. Pp. 34.

The Pneumatic Electric System for lighting
and extinguit'hing the Gas used fur Street-Lights,
and the Use of the Apparatus for General Tele-
graphic Purposes. By John H. Blake. Boston,
1877. Pp. 33. Illustrated.

The National Guardsman. A Journal devoted
to the Interests of the National Guard of the
United States. Vol. i.. No. 1. August, 1877.
Monthly. Pp. 16. Price, $1 a year.

Thirty-third Annual Catalogue of the Officers,
Faculty, and Students, of the University of
Notre Dame, Indiana, for the Academic Year
1876-'77. Pp. 62.

Remarks of Robert E. C. Steams on the
Death of Colonel Ezekiel Jewett ; and also on
the Late Dr. Philip P. Carpenter. Before the
California Academy of Sciences. Pp. 5, each.

The Magnetism of Iron Vessels, with a Short
Treatise on Terrestrial Magnetism . By Fairman
Rogers. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1877.
Pp. 125. Price, 50 cents.

Art -Education applied to Industry. By

George Ward Nichols. With Illustrations. New
York : Harper & Brothers, 1&77. Pp.211. Price.
$4.

The American Palaeozoic Fossils. A Catalogue
of the Genera and Species, etc. By S. A. Miller.
Cincinnati, 1877. Pp. 253. Price. $3.

Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc. By William
B. Carpenter, LL. D., F. R. S. New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1877. Pp. 158. Price, $1.25.

The Question of Rest for Women during Men-
struation. By Mary Putnam-Jacobi, M. D. The
Boylston Prize Essay of Harvard University
for 1876. Illustrated. New York: G. P. Put-
nam's Sons, 1877. Pp. 233. Price, $3.50.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Death of Prof. Sanborn Tenney.— We

have learned with regret of the death of
Prof. Tenney, which took place on July
9th, at Buchanan, Michigan. The sad event
was unexpected, as the deceased had, one
week previously, seemed to enjoy perfect
health. The cause of death is supposed to
have been heart-disease. From an appre-
ciative biographical sketch of the deceased
which has appeared in the New York World
we gather the following particulars about his
scientific labors : In 1808 he was Professor
of Natural History in Vassar College, and
in the same year accepted a like position in
Williams College. He had already pub-
lished an elementary text-book of geology,
which is still, after repeated revisions,
largely used in high-schools and academies.
He was a frequent contributor to periodi-
cal literature of scientific articles of a pop-
ular kind. The present number of the
Monthly contains probably the latest essay
of this description written by him. He was
an enthusiastic and careful student, a pupil
and admirer of Agassiz, and like his distin-
guished preceptor he excelled as a teacher.
Besides the " Geology " mentioned above.
Prof Tenney compiled several other pop-
ular text-books, among them one on zoolo-
gy. He occupied the chair of Natural His-
tory in Williams College down to the time
of his death. He was to have been in
charge of an expedition of college-students
to the far West this season, and on the
day he died was to have joined the expedi-
tion at Chicago.

Remains that were not prehistoric. —

We have received from a source unknown
to us two clippings, from the Weekly Press,
presumably of Santa Bai'bara, Cahfornia, in

632

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which mention is made of the result of ex-
cavations in " the Carpenteria." These ex-
cavations led to the discovery of a large
mass of human bones, domestic implements,
trinkets, and other objects, which were at
first supposed to be "prehistoric." The
ardor of the explorers was, however, much
dampened when they found among the
treasure-trove such modern articles as
glass beads and glass wine-bottles, and the
conclusion was inevitable that the curiosity-
seekers had simply struck " a big graveyard
of the native population, whom the mission-
ary padres found and taught here eighty or
one hundred years ago." A letter of in-
quiry having been addressed to Mr. Hubert
H. Bancroft, author of " The Native Races
of the Pacific States," that gentleman ex-
pressed in the following terms his opinion
of the supposed prehistoric character of the
Carpenteria "find:"

" There is no evidence whatever in Cali-
fornia of a race older or more civilized than
that found by Europeans a cetitury or so
ago. In Mexico and Central America the
case is very diflFerent. There are a few ma-
terial remains in Northern Mexico, Arizona,
and New Mexico, but nothing, so far as I
have been able to discover, north of these
points."

Rare Minerals in Colorado. — Writing of
rare minerals found in Colorado, Mr. T. F.
Van Wagenen, in the Engineering and
Mining Journal, says that thallium, in-
dium, and cadmium, have lately been de-
tected in ores from that State. Of the
rarer metals there have been found in Colo-
rado, besides the three mentioned above,
nickel, cobalt, selenium, tellurium, uranium,
bismuth, molybdenum, and platinum, and
there is scarcely a doubt that columbium,
thorium, titanium, and vanadium, will be
recognized as soon as proper search is
made. A belt of tellureted veins is be-
lieved to traverse the entire State from
north to south. Two years ago, sylvanite
and altaite were found in San Juan County.
The principal locality for bismuth-ores is in
Geneva, where two mines are being worked
that carry a considerable quantity of schir-
merite. Sulphide and carbonate of bismuth
occur on Sugarloaf Mountain, Boulder Coun-
ty. Nuggets of native bismuth are common

in the upper gulches of the Blue Valley ; the
same metal has been found also in the Ar-
kansas Valley. Nickel-ore, ranging from two
to five per cent., has been found in three
localities. Among the mineralogical curiosi-
ties of the tellurium belt may be mentioned
a telluride of mercury found in the Mountain
Lion mine. Native mercury and amalgams
of both gold and silver have also been found
at several points along this belt.

The Vienna Scientific Club. — In January,
1876, the project of founding a Scientific
Club in Vienna was considered at a meeting
of the Geographical Society of that city. It
was very favorably received by the members,
and measures were taken to carry it into
execution. Before many weeks the club was
organized, and suitable quarters provided
for it in the house occupied by the Austrian
Association of Engineers and Architects.
There the club finds ample accommodation
for the social gatherings of its members, as
also for its regular Thursday-evening meet-
ings for scientific discussion, and its more
public entertainments. In March, the num-
ber of members was nearly 700, and it was
steadily increasing. The yearly dues of
members of the club amount to only sixteen
florins — less than eight dollars — and there
is an entrance-fee of five florins. The club
has a growing library and reading-rooms,
with a very large number of periodicals,
scientific and literary, on file. If such clubs
as this, and equally inexpensive, were found-
ed in our large American cities, they would
afford a much-needed means of communica-
tion between workers in different branches
of science. Further, they would give some-
thing like organization to the body scientific,
and perhaps add weight to scientific opinion.

Steel-Bronze Cannon. — Uchatius's inven-
tion of "steel-bronze" cannon rests, says
Nature, on the observation that all metals
(lead and zinc excepted) gain an increase
of elasticity, after undergoing a continuous
weighting above their first limit of elastici-
ty. Later experiments by the inventor of
the steel-bronze cannon appear to show
that even homogeneous bronze is capable
of a great increase of its elasticity through
simple stretching without condensation. It
is only a stretching of the vnetals above

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

633

their limit of elasticity, whereby the mole-
cules, brought to a state of flow, glide over
each other, and assume a wholly new po-
sition more favorable to resistance, that
causes the increase of elasticity. A simple
condensation produces merely an increase
of the absolute solidity and diminution of
the tenacity, but no real increase of elas-
ticity. The limit of elasticity may be raised
nearly to the breaking consistence, so that,
in many cases, it is six and seven times the
original. Mere stretching for a short time
is of little use ; the tension must last a con-
siderable time. It is also well to apply a
gradually-increasing weight.

Properties of White Paint. — As the re-
sult of hundreds of experiments in carbon-
ate of lead and hydrate of lead, both sepa-
rately and mixed, Messrs. Wigner and Har-
land, of the British Society of Public Ana-
lysts, reach the conclusion that a white
paint, to be efficient, and to possess both
the powers of laying on readily and easily,
and by its opacity hiding the color be-
neath, must consist of an admixture of hy-
drate and carbonate of lead in a certain
definite proportion. The true proportion
would appear to be three equivalents of
carbonate of lead and one equivalent of hy-
drate. The experiments further show why
zinc-white, carbonate of magnesia, and other
metallic oxides and carbonates, do not yield
good paints. In the case of white-lead a pos-
itive chemical compound has been formed,
and the seventy-five per cent, or there-
abouts, of carbonate of lead present has
been dissolved in the chemical compound,
and so a paint has been formed which pos-
sesses a covering power in excess of any
other compound known. Until some means
can be devised by which oxide of zinc or
some other substance can be dissolved in
the same way, so as to form a paint pos-
sessing characters somewhat different from
a mere emulsion, it is vain to expect that
they can equal good white-lead.

Cliange of Tint in Flowers.— The change
of tint in flowers of Ipomoa purpurea (morn-
ing-glory) under the influence of atmos-
pheric moisture was the subject of a com-
munication by Prof. D. S. Martin to the
New York Academy of Sciences. The phe-

nomenon was observed in dark-blue flowers
of this plant, and it was found to occur
under two aspects, viz., 1. A reddening of
the general blue color when the air is
charged with moisture ; and, 2. The produc-
tion, by drops of rain, of sharply-defined
spots upon the blue, which are at first red,
and then bleach to white. Prof. Martin
was led to examine the subject experimen-
tally, by testing the flowers with acids and
with ammonia-water. The result was such
as was to have been expected with vege-
table blues, that is to say, the ammonia had
no effect, while the solutions of acids (ox-
alic, tartaric, and carbolic) produced the red
coloring easily. Tried upon the pink varie-
ty of flowers, the acids had no effect, and
the ammonia produced a strong blue color,
which ere long passed away by evaporation.
It is therefore evident, the author concludes,
that this effect is due to some acid sub-
stance dissolved or absorbed by atmospher-
ic water. If the latter is diffused through
the air without precipitation, a general red-
dening of the blue corollas appears; if it
falls upon them as rain and stands for a
while, every drop produces a sharp spot
that passes from red to white.

Barflfs Method for preserving Iron.— A

method proposed by Prof. Barff for pre-
venting the corrosion of iron consists in
producing upon the surfaces of the iron
articles to be protected a coating of the
black or magnetic oxide of iron. This he
does by raising the iron articles, in a suit-
able chamber, to a temperature of from
500° to 1,200° Fahr., and then passing
steam into this chamber, keeping the arti-
cles for five, six, or seven hours, as the case
may be, at that temperature, in an atmos-
phere of superheated steam. At a tempera-
ture of 1,200° Fahr., and under an exposure
to superheated steam for six or seven hours,
the iron surface becomes so changed that it
will stand the action of water, even though
it be impregnated with the acid fumes of the
laboratory. When the process is carried on
at a lower heat, the iron articles will resist
any amount of moisture with which they
may come in contact in a house or building ;
but they will not permanently resist the ac-
tion of the weather out-of-doors. The rea-
son of this is, that only a thin film of the

634

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

iron, on its surface, is transformed into the
blacli oxide. Iron pipes protected by this
process may be used instead of lead pipes
for conveying water through houses. Iron
for architectural uses may be made to resist
the weather ; the process may also be em-
ployed to protect cast-iron statues, which
would thus be rendered as enduring as those
of bronze.

The Mystery of Pain.

BY PROFESSOR GRANT ALLEN.

On the crimson cloth

Of my study-desk
A histrous moth

Poised, statuesque.
Of a waxen mould

Were its light limbs shaped,
And in scales of gold

Its body was draped ;
While its delicate wings

Were netted and veined
With silvery strings

Or golden-grained,
Through whose filmy maze

In tremulous flight
Danced quivering rays

Of the gladsome light.

On the desk close by

A taper burned,
Toward which the eye

Of the insect turned.
In its vague little mind

A faint desire
Rose undefined

For the beautiful fire.
Lightly it spread

Each silken van.
Then away it sped

For a moment's span ;
And a strange delight

Lured on its course,
With resistless might.

Toward the central source.
And it followed the spell

Through an eddying maze.
Till it stagsered and fell

In the deadly blaze.

Dazzled and stunned

By the scalding pain,
One moment it swooned,

Then rose again :
And again the fire

Drew it on with its charms
To a living pyre

In its awful arms :
And now it lies

On the table here
Before my eyes

All shriveled and sere.

As I sit and muse
On its fiery fate.

What themes abstruse

Might I meditate !
For the pangs that thrilled

Through its delicate frame.
As its senses were filled

With the scorching flame,
A riddle inclose

That, living or dead.
In rhyme or in prose,

No seer has read.
" But a moth," you cry,

" Is a thing so small I "
Ah, yes, but why

Should it sufler at all ?
Why should a sob

For the vaguest smart
One moment throb

Through the tiniest heart ?
Why, in the whole

Wide universe.
Should a single soul

Feel that primal curse ?
Not all the throes

Of mightiest mind.
Nor the heaviest woes

Of humankind,
Are of deeper weight

In the riddle of things
Than this insect's fate

With the mangled wings.

But if only I,

In my simple song.
Could tell you the lohy

Of that one little wrong,
I could tell you more

Than the deepest page
Of saintliest lore.

Or of wisest sage:
For never as yet

In its wordy strife
Could Philosophy get

At the Import of life ;
And Theology's saws

Have still to explain
The inscrutable cause

For the being of pain:
So I somehow fear

That, in spite of both,
We are baffled here

By this one singed moth. "

Prof. Hebra on the Tse of tlie Bath. —

Prof. Hebra, of Vienna, dissents from the
generally-received opinions as to the bene-
fits of frequent resort to the bath. His
views on this subject, as set forth at some
length in the Boston Journal of Chemistry^
are to the following effect: It is not true
that frequent bathing is conducive to health,
and harmless : millions of men take no
baths of any kind, at most only washing
the face and hands, and yet live to old age
in good health. It cannot be proved that

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

635

the use of the various kinds of baths wards
off disease, or that washing in cold watei"
prevents catarrh, rheumatism, etc. As long
as " water manipulation " is accompanied by
an agreeable general sensation and no erup-
tion on the surface of the skin occurs, it
may be pursued as a pastime ; but when it
produces great itching or eruption on the
skin, the bathing and washing must cease.
The consequences of friction, douches, hot
vapor, shampooing, etc., sooner or later
show themselves in the shape of permanent
redness, a sensation of burning or itching,
and the production of nodules and furuncles,
which precede the formation of pustules and
abscesses. Prof. Hebra speaks as follows
of the employment of water in the treat-
ment of skin-diseases :

"Its employment is contraindicatcd in
all sensitive, irritable persons whose skin is
liable to prolonged redness, the production
of rashes, and itching ; in all cutaneous af-
fections accompanied by acute swelling and
serous infiltration ; and in all chronic der-
matoses in which the horny layer of the
epidermis — either through the effects of
disease or of remedies — has been removed,
exposing the layer beneath. Thus it is not
proper to employ water soon after using
stimulating substances externally, as ar-
senic, iodic mercury, etc. By avoiding
water and employing starch or other inert
powder, the healthy state of the surface
will be much sooner restored. Water, on
the contrary, is indicated in those diseases
where its macerating and irritating eifecta
are useful, namely, in chronic dermatoses,
such as psoriasis, lichen, ichthyosis, old
eczema, prurigo, etc. Water also exerts
the most beneficial effects when different
secretions — the products of inflammation,
and the remains of dead tissue — have to
be removed, as in abundantly-suppurating
wounds, ulcers, and gangrene. It is useful
also in favoring the formation of new epi-
dermis in pemphigus, and after extensive
destruction of the skin by burns or caustic
substances."

Domestication of thfe Wild-Turkey.— The

following observations on the habits and
domestication of the wild-turkey we take
from a paper of similar title by J. D. Caton,
published in the American Naturalist. Mr.

Caton commenced domesticating the wild-
turkey about ten years ago, his original
stock having been procured from the eggs
of the wild hen ; it has been twice replen-
ished in the same way. The young birds
from the wild-turkey's eggs, when brought
up in close intimacy with the human fam-
ily, become very tame, but they are afraid of
strangers, and when anything excites their
suspicion they take wing and are off like
a flock of quails. The young turkeys breed
freely when a year old. Mr. Caton is now
raising the eleventh generation of the do-
mesticated wild-turkey, and says that the
breed has not deteriorated either in size or
in reproductive powers. But they have
changed in form and in the length of the
legs ; the body is shorter and more robust,
and its position is more horizontal. As re-
gards color but little change was observed
in the first or second generation ; after that,
the tips of the tail-feathers and tail-coverts
began to lose the soft chestnut-brown of
the wild-turkey, and to become lighter ; the
changeable purple tints of neck and breast
assumed a greenish shade ; the bristles on
the naked portions about the head became
more sparse or altogether disappeared ; the
blue about the head and the purple of the
wattles became bright -red; the pinkish-
red of the legs became dull or changed
to brown. These changes of color were
seen in the first year of the bird's growth,
but in its second these marks of degenera-
tion would in most individuals, especially
the cocks, disappear, and the plumage
would show the thorough-bred wild-turkey.
Each succeeding generation shows these
changes to be more pronounced, but each
year as the bird grows older the shades of
color of the wild parent become more dis-
tinct. But Mr. Caton has hens now three
or four years old with brown legs and on
whose feathers the white has very consider-
ably superseded the cinnamon shade, and
he is satisfied that without a fresh infusion
of wild blood in the course of fifteen or
twenty years more but few individuals would
show the distinctive marks of the wild-tur-
key to any considerable extent.

The habits of the wild-turkey are not
so rapidly changed as the form and color-
ing, still they too change. The wild-turkey
cock by the time he is five months old seeks

636

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a perch well up in the largest trees in his
range, and as he grows older he is disposed
to roost higher and higher, till he is fre-
quently found at the very apex of the tallest
tree. This habit is scarcely impaired by
domestication in the second and third gen-
erations, but after that the birds grow less
and less ambitious of high places, till at last
they come down to about the level of the do-
mestic turkey. The timidity characteris-
tic of the wild-turkey is eradicated very
slowly. When the wild-turkey in the forest
voluntarily leaves her nest, she always cov-
ers it carefully with leaves. This is done
with less care by the first descendants of the
wild hen, and each succeeding generation
becomes more careless in this respect.

Prof. Thorston on onr Domestic Metals.

— The statement is made by Prof. Robert
H. Thurston that this country has for years
been importing cast-iron, while domestic
products of equal and even greater intrinsic
value sell at lower price. Other similar
instances of unwisdom are cited by Prof.
Thurston, as, for example, the fact that we
are importing boiler-plate at eleven cents a
pound, when we can purchase American
steel, vastly superior in all respects for the
special purposes to which the former article
is applied, at eight cents. Again, we im-
port vast quantities of foreign steel tools,
when at Pittsburg and elsewhere we make
steel fully its equal. In New England and
Pennsylvania we have ores from which is
made the finest cast-iron ordnance in the
world. In Ohio we make a metal for car-
wheels such as is never seen in Europe, and
of such tenacity and elasticity that foreign
engineers listen incredulously when it is
described. Our Lake Champlain ores make
an iron fully equal to Swedish for conver-
sion into steel ; and around Lake Superior
and in Missouri we have deposits from which
comes Bessemer metal far superior to the
phosphorus-charged metal we import. New
Jersey supplies us with zinc which meets
with no competition as a pure metal, and
which can be used without purification even
for chemical purposes ; and our native cop-
per is absolutely free from admixture with
injurious elements. It is time that these
facts should be known, and that the people
should disabuse their minds of the idea that.

because a commodity is " imported," it is
therefore of greater intrinsic value than a
domestic product.

The Deterioration of Silli Fabrics.— The

complaint is frequently heard that the silk
fabrics now manufactured are by no means
as lasting as similar fabrics manufactured
twenty or thirty years ago. That this com-
plaint is justified, the Wareliouseman and
Draper admits, and then points out the
causes of the deterioration. Adulteration
of silk on a large scale, and systematically,
began about eighteen years ago, soon after
the Bilk-worm disease had made its appear-
ance in the silk-producing countries of Eu-
rope, when raw silk rose from twenty-one
and twenty-two shillings sterling per pound
to as much as sixty shillings. In order to
keep down the price of the manufactured
goods, foreign materials were introduced,
and these were often in excess of the silk.
"It would be curious," says a writer on the
subject of " weighting " silks, " to follow one
pound of China or Italian silk through its
various processes in reaching a silk dress.
The silk is sent to the dyers, and the first
process is boiling off". All silk in its natural
state has a certain amount of gum in it ; this
must be boiled off, and, when this is done,
sixteen ounces are reduced to twelve. It is
then dyed black, and the process of weight-
ing commences. The twelve ounces is sent
to the manufacturer, varying from twenty-
four to fifty-two ounces. I have to-day seen
silk dyed and weighted in Lyons up to fifty-
two ounces. Very large dye-works exist in
Lyons for the purpose of doing this busi-
ness ; and it is done to perfection."

Fatality of Inebriety. — In an article on
the "Duration, Mortality, and Prognosis of
Inebriety," by Dr. T. D. Crothers, published
in the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, we
are informed that the mortality of this dis-
ease has been estimated at from 96 to 98
per cent., or less than four per cent of re-
coveries. Under treatment in asylums the
lowest estimate has been placed at 33 per
cent., and from that up to 62 per cent.
This excessive mortality is due, according
to Dr. Crothers, to profound degenerations,
produced by alcohol, and the peculiar con-
ditions of low vitality, impaired and per-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

637

verted cell-action, commonly preceding this
disorder. The inebriate is literally in a
toxic condition, in which all the organs are
both unduly depressed and exalted, or in a
state of suspended activity, bordering on
paralysis. The mortality of the inebriate is
further increased by the favoring conditions
which bring on inflammatory affections, as
pneumonia, pleurisy, gastritis, diseases of
the kidneys, etc. Severe bodily injuries, too,
have generally a fatal termination in in-
ebriates. The existing degenerations seem
to intensify the lesion and its effect, and re-
duce the resisting power of Nature to its
minimum. The fatality of inebriety is in-
creasing, and its complications are becom-
ing more profound and general.

Uses of the Antennse of Insects. — In

working on the problem as to the use
of the antennae of insects, Mr. L. Trou-
velot, as he states in the American Natu-
ralist, procured a large number of but-
terflies of Limenitis disippus, and with
about a dozen of these tested the truth of
a statement to the effect that a butterfly
deprived of its antennae, on being thrown up
into the air, falls heavily to the ground with-
out spreading its wings. All these butter-
flies took flight, but there was a certain
hesitation in their movements. The author
next carefully covered with thick Indian-ink
the eyes of several individuals ; when this
coating was dry they were allowed to go
free. They could fly, and, though blind,
avoided hurting themselves by dashing
against any hard object. Both antennse hav-
ing been cut off from a blinded butterfly,
the insect when thrown up fell heavily.
Another butterfly, blinded and with antennae
removed, was set at liberty on a table.
Then with a small brush a drop of sweet-
ened water was held very near the mouth,
head, spiracles, etc. The insect remained per-
fectly still ; but, when the stumps of the au-
tennaj happened to be touched, it unrolled its
proboscis and searched for the sweet liquor.
The next insect was treated like the last,
save that a drop of thick gum-arabic was
allowed to dry on the stumps of the antennae.
The insect could not use its wings, and was
insensible to the touch of sugar-water on
the sealed stumps. Experiments showed
that insects deprived of their antennje do not

copulate. The author next cut off the an-
tennae of ants, and then let) them go free
with their comrades ; these mutilated ants
did not seem to recognize their fellows, nor
did they follow the same path, but kept
moving in a circle. The author, in sum-
ming up the results of his experiments,
says that the sense located in the antennae
is not merely that of touch, hearing, or
taste, nor a combination of all these : it
appears to differ essentially from any of
man's senses ; it is a " kind of feeling or
smelling at a great distance."

Moss-Copper. — The term " moss-copper "
is used to designate accumulations of fila-
mentous copper found in cavities, in pigs of
certain kinds of regulus. This moss-cop-
per appears to be formed at a comparative-
ly low temperature, and it has actually been
produced at a temperature far below red-
ness, by W. M. Hutchings, who gives in the
Chemical News an account of his interest-
ing experiments. He fused a button of
regulus, one-quarter of a pound in weight,
under borax in a clay crucible, and then
poured the molten mass into an iron mould.
After it had cooled in the mould for some
time, so that it had been quite solidified for
some minutes, it was broken in two by a
blow with a hammer. It had now cooled
below redness, even in the centre. At the
moment of fracture the surfaces exposed
were perfectly clean and lustrous, but after
a minute or two they became slowly cov-
ered with a growth of minute copper fila-
ments, which increased till in some places
it resembled a coarse velvet. After three
or four minutes one of the halves was again
broken in two, and again the exposed sur-
face was lustrous. The piece was now just
cool enough to hold in the hand, yet the
moss-copper slowly began to appear here
also, though not so abundantly as before,
and only in patches.

Fanna and Flora of the Florida Keys. —

L. F. de Pourtales, in Tlie Naturalist, s\^a\-
izes the Florida Keys as a curious example,
though on a very small scale, of a land of
comparatively modern origin, which has re-
ceived its fauna and flora from two differ-
ent and very distinct sources — the West
Indies and the North American Continent —

638

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the flora being derived chiefly from the
former, and the fauna mostly from the lat-
ter. The marine fauna of the coral region
of South Florida he pronounces a West In-
dian colony engrafted on the more or less
North American fauna of the east and west
coasts of the peninsula. Of the land ani-
mals the mammals are entirely North Amer-
ican. The batrachia and reptiles, too, belong,
with a very few exceptions, to North Ameri-
can species. The insects are probably of
mixed origin, coming from North America,
Cuba, and the Bahamas. The laud-shells
of the Keys are the same as those of the
mainland.

As regards the flora of Florida and its
Keys, the author says of the pine that it is
confined to the mainland, there being only
one small group of Keys which bears a
growth of pines. Pine-forests, indeed, are
characteristic of the shores of Florida, and
of all the Southern States, while the char-
acteristic trees of the Keys are fig-trees,
quassia, torch-wood, mahogany, and a few
others, interspersed with a dense shrubbery,
in which several species oi Euycnia are per-
haps most common.

How the American Aborigines disposed
of their Dead. — The modes of disposing of
the bodies of the dead in use among the
aborigines of America are classed by Mr.
Edwin A. Barber, in the Naturalist, under
four heads, viz. : inhumation, cremation,
embalmment, and aerial sepulture. Of these,
the first was most usually employed, the
bodies being interred either in ordinary
graves, in mounds, or in caves. Several
tribes, among them the Lenni-Lenape, or
Delawares, were accustomed to incase their
dead in stone boxes or tombs. In tumulus-
burial, the dead were generally laid near the
original level of the surface, and the mound
heaped over them. Only isolated instances
of cave-burial have been signalized in the
United States, as in Breckenridge County,
Kentucky, and in the Canons of Utah, Arizo-
na, and New Mexico. Cremation was of two
kinds — in graves and in urns. Among the
Pueblos of Arizona and Utah the body was
sometimes burned, and the ashes deposited
in shallow tombs. Several tribes on the
Gila River, in Southern Arizona, burned the
bones of the dead in urns. But few cases

of embalming are known to have occurred
in the limits of the United States. As ex-
amples of this mode of preparing the corpse
may be mentioned the Mammoth Cave and
Salt Cave mummies of Kentucky. These
bodies have been preserved by a rude spe-
cies of embalmment and by exsiccation.
Aerial sepulture was of two kinds — the first
by suspension on scaflblds or in trees, the
second by sepulture in canoes. Several
tribes still employ the former mode of burial.
The Sioux elevate the bodies of their dead
into trees, or stretch them out on raised
platforms, wrapping them in blankets and
leaving them to the mercies of the elements
and carnivorous birds.

Accnratc Geological Estimates.— A good
illustration of the exactness of modern geo-
logical science is found on comparing the
results actually obtained in the sinking of
artesian wells in London with the conclu-
sions reached by Prof. Prestwich as long
ago as 1851. In a work published in that
year, " A Geological Inquiry respecting the
Water-bearing Strata of the Country around
London," Prestwich made the prediction
that the chalk beneath London would be
found to have a thickness of 050 feet, the'
upper green-sand of 40 feet, and the gault
of 150 feet. At the time of this announce-
ment, as we learn from Nature, no well in
London had been sunk to a greater depth
than 300 feet in the chalk, but now there
are four deep borings which marvelously
confirm Prof. Prestwich's reasonings. We
take from our London contemporary the
following table, showing the results as cal-
culated by Prestwich, and as actually ascer-
tained by borings :

STRATA.

Chalk

Upper green-sand .
Gault

11

650

40

150

Boring at
Kentish-
town.

645

iso;«r

Boring at

Crossness.

646
V2

148

Boring at
Meux's
Brewery.

653

28
159

" When it is remembered," adds Nature,
" that the chalk graduates downward insen-
sibly into the upper green-sand, and that it
is almost impossible to decide on their line
of separation, it will be admitted on all
hands that the agreement between the es-
timated and proved results is marvelously
close."

NOTES.

639

Mental Disease in Animals. — The pathol-
ogy of mind in the lower animals, and more
especially in domestic animals, is a subject
which, singularly enough, has hitherto at-
tracted very little attention, though it is
one that ought to possess the highest in-
terest to man. Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, who
for a few years past has devoted himself to
the study of mental phenomena as exhibited
in the animal creation inferior to man, con-
tributes to the Journal of Mental Science
the results of his observations upon the men-
tal pathology of animals, from which it ap-
pears that in them insanity is virtually the
same as in man. He notes, however, certain
peculiarities in the case of the lower ani-
mals, the most important of which is the
facility with which artificial insanity ma.y be
produced in them, either by ill-usage or by
brain or blood poisoning; hence the whole
course of insanity may be very convenient-
ly studied in animals. This unworked field
of comparative psychology presents to the
ambitious young physician the opportunity
not only of earning distinction, but also of
adding to human knowledge, and thereby
to human as well as animal happiness and
well-being. " Let me," writes Dr. Lauder
Lindsay, " commend the experimental and
scientific study of the pathology of mind in
the lower animals to those capable youths
who at present fritter away their time, tem-
per, and opportunities, on subjects both trite
and trivial ; who expend their ingenuity in
improving upon Nature by drawing hard
and fast lines of demarkation where she
draws none ; who discover in the last fash-
ionable drug, or mode of drugging, a pana-
cea for all the ills of the insane ; who delight
in barren statistics that have already been
tabulated a thousand times, with results of
no practical value."

Archaeology. — The Lapham Archaeologi-
cal Society of Wisconsin is the name of an or-
ganization formed and located at Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, for the purpose of instituting
researches into the antiquities of that State.
It proposes to survey and register the dis-
covery of ancient mounds ; collect and pre-
serve the relics found ; and to publish from
time to time such information concerning
the results of its labors as will lead to a bet-
ter knowledge of the origin and character

of the prehistoric peoples of the region of
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley.
It has long been known that Wisconsin is
particularly rich in remains of the mound-
builders. In 1855 Dr. J. A. Lapham, after
whom this society is fitly named, published,
as one of the Smithsonian contributions, a
quarto volume describing and figuring such
as had then been observed. They have been
discovered in great numbers since, and there
is ample room for vigorous work in explor-
ing and describing them before they disap-
pear under the denuding operations of the
plough and the harrow. They are so widely
scattered and so small in size that their pres-
ervation is quite out of the question after
the soil begins to be cultivated. It is to be
hoped that the society will be able to push
its labors successfully, and that its action
may excite a spirit of emulation in other
localities.

NOTES.

A DESTRUCTIVE tomado visited the vi-
cinity of Elkhart, Indiana, on the afternoon
of July 2d. It completely destroyed sev-
eral buildings, and unroofed others, up-
rooted whole orchards, and distributed trees
and rubbish over acres of crops. The prog-
ress of the storm was from west to east ; but
the buildings and trees all fell toward the
south, as if they had been taken up by the
northern portion of the whirling column,
and thrown into the centre, which seemed
south of the principal track of devastation.
No one was killed outright, but one of the
injured has since died. A correspondent
suggests one fact connected with the work
of this tornado, which he thinks seems to
indicate the presence of a large amount of
electricity, if, indeed, the manifestation was
not chiefly electric. All the leaves on the
trees, all the corn, grain, and other green
things within the path of the hurricane,
were seared and shriveled, as if by great
heat.

It has been found by Miiller, of the
Berlin Chemical Society, that steam at or-
dinary pressure, when sent into saline solu-
tions, raises their temperature considerably
above its own. A solution of common salt,
so concentrated as to have its boiling-point
127°, may be raised to 125°, by sending
into it steam at 100°. The more concen-
trated the solution the higher the rise.

The power of resistance to the action of
sea-water possessed by copper and phos-

640

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

phor-bronze respectively is shown by the
result of an experiment made under the
auspices of the Russian Government. The
experiment lasted for six months, and at the
end of that time it was found that the cop-
per (which was of the best quality) had lost
over three per cent, of its weight, while the
loss of phosphor-bronze was but little over
one per cent.

In a lecture-room experiment suggested
by M. V. Meyer for showing increase of
weight by combustion, a candle is attached
to each pan of a balance, and above one a
glass tube open at both ends is hung at
nearly the height of the wick. In this tube
is a piece of wire gauze holding fragments
of caustic soda ; after balancing the candles,
one of them is lit, when the products of
combustion are retained by the soda, and
this end of the beam descends.

That toads will eat bees, would seem to
be cleai'ly proved by the observations of M.
Brunet. As the bees of a hive were crowd-
ing in to escape from a rain-storm, some of
them rested on the grass in the vicinity
awaiting their turn to enter. M. Brunet saw
a toad busy in devouring these bees. He
carried the toad again and again to a dis-
tance of from thirty to fifty metres from the
hive, but sooner or later the animal was at
his post again, greedily devouring the bees.

While investigating the hygienic prop-
erties of pine and eucalyptus, Charles T.
Kingzett found that by exposing a mechani-
cal mixture of water and turpentine to a
current of air at normal summer tempera-
ture, a solution containing hydrogen per-
oxide— a powerful disinfecting and oxidiz-
ing agent — and camphoric acid may be
readily obtained. This solution contains
no oil of turpentine, is non-poisonous, and
without harm to textile fabrics.

It is noted as a curious fact by Sir
Samuel Baker that a negro has never been
known to tame an elephant or any wild ani-
mal. The elephants employed by the an-
cient Carthaginians and Romans were
trained by Arabs or Carthaginians, never
by negroes. A person might travel all over
Africa, and never see a wild animal trained
and petted. It had often struck Sir Samuel
as very distressing that the little children
never had a pet animal ; and, though he had
often offered rewards for young elephants,
he had never succeeded in getting one alive.

At the meeting of the American Medical
Association, at Chicago, on June 5th, the
subject of the revision of the American
Pharmacopoeia, the proposed rejection of
the one in use, and the substitution there-
for of an entirely new, more modern and
complete work on that subject, was post-
poned indefinitely.

The long-talked-of plan of heating a city
by steam, generated at one or more points,
and distributed by pipes, is at length about
to be practically tried at Lockport, New
York, where boilers and boiler-houses are
now erected. The working of this new sys-
tem will be watched with interest. The in-
ventor estimates that the saving to each
householder will be from thirty -three to
fifty per cent, of the present expense for
stoves, coal, etc.

Remains of an enormous dinosaur have
been discovered in Colorado, and received
at Yale College, which, according to Prof.
Marsh, would indicate the length of the en-
tire animal to have been about fifty or sixty
feet ! Portions of the sacrum and of the
posterior limbs have been preserved ; the
last two vertebrse are nearly complete.
From all the indications. Prof Marsh con-
cludes that it was an herbivorous reptile,
and perfectly distinct from any species
known. He names it 2'itanosaurus mon-
tanus.

From a study of no less than a hun-
dred and six epidemics of typhoid fever,
Jaccoud reaches the conclusion that the
disease is engendered by fecal matter ; but
that this matter is not typhogenic, that is,
does not of itself produce the typhoid symp-
toms, unless it incloses the specific poison
of the disease. There are, however, he ad-
mits, circumstances under which such mat-
ter is poisonous, without having had any
previous admixture of typhoid substances.
In such cases the poison is, he says, elabo-
rated in the fecal matter, which itself, as be-
fore, is merely an agent of transmission.

In 1861, 1,500,000 pounds of Indian tea
was consumed in the British Isles ; three
years later the amount of this tea consumed
was 2,500,000 pounds; in 1867, 6,000,000
pounds; in IS'ZO, 13,500,000 pounds; in
18*74, 21,000,000 pounds; in 1875, 1Y,500,-
000 pounds; and in 1876, 19,000,000 pounds.
It is expected that the consumption for the
present year will be not less than 32,000,000
pounds, or one-fourth of all the tea con-
sumed in the United Kingdom. Indian tea
has always commanded the highest price in
the London market.

In testing the comparative cxplosiveness
of nitro-glycerine, in the crystallized and the
liquid state, Beckerhinn used a drop-block
of wrought-iron weighing 2. 130 kilogrammes,
having at its lower end a hardened steel
point of Y.068 square millimetres. The
nitro-glycerine was spread in a thin layer on
a flat anvil of Bessemer steel, and the weight
was dropped from diiferent heights. The
liquor exploded at a fall of 0.'78 metre, but
the crystallized or frozen nitro-glycerine
only at 2.13 metres.

WILLIAM STANLEY JEV0N8.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

OCTOBER, 1877.

BATHYBIUS AKD THE MONEES.*

By Professor ERNST HAECKEL.

'' |) ATHYBIUS, about which so much has been said, has no exist-
-L) ence ; the assumption of its existing rested on illusions. It
will be the same with the rest of the Moneres ; these supposed pri-
mordial organisms, too, will prove to be the product of erroneous
observation. So has one of the main supports of the modern devel-
opment doctrine fallen, and it will yet be found that all its other sup-
ports rest upon illusions and on error. The whole fabric of Darwin-
ism is simply an air-castle, the theory of natural selection is a soap-
bubble, and the doctrine of descent is not true."

Such is the gist of many an article published during the past year
in all sorts of periodicals. Simply and solely from the supposed non-
existence of Bathybius it is rashly inferred that there is no such
thnig at all as Moneres, and that the doctrine of evolution is badly
hit. This assertion is of course made with most gusto by the oppo-
nents of the development theory. The clergy is already rejoicing
over the utter downfall of the theory of descent. But even among
the adherents of the theory of evolution, the non-existence of Bathyb-
ius is held to be proved, and from this fact a series of conclusions is
drawn which suggests more or less weighty objections against some
of the main principles of Darwinism, These circumstances, as also
the confusion of the public mind as to the actual state of the case,
have induced me to consider the Moneres question Avith special refer-
ence to Bathybius. It would appear to be specially my right, nay,
even my duty, to discuss this question, inasmuch as it was my dubi-
ous luck to have stood godfather to this " ill-famed primordial slime
of the sea-depths." When, in 1868, my friend Thomas Huxley gave

* Translated from the German, by J. Fitzgerald, A. M.
VOL. XI. — 41

642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to it in baptism the name Dathyhius Haeckelii^ he of course could not
have foreseen that the poor neophyte would, like another Icarus, in a
very short time become a biological celebrity, ascending to the heaven
of terrestrial fame, and then before the end of its first decennium
tumbling down into the gloomy Hades of mythology. Let us see,
then, whether it is really dead, and whether it has ever existed at all.
And supposing we have to admit its merely mythological ai)parition-
existence, let us see what consequences result for the Moneres.

I. History of the Moneres. — In tlie spring of 1864 I observed in
the Mediterranean, at Villafranca, near Nice, little floating globules
of slime, one millimetre or half a line in diameter, which interested
me very much. Under the microscope each of these globules looked
like a little star, its centre consisting of a far smaller, structureless
globule, while from the outer surface radiated several thousand
exceedingly fine threads. Close examination with high powers
showed that the whole body of the star-shaped thing consisted of
simple albuminous cell-substance — sarcode, or protoplasm ; and that
the threads radiating on all sides from the surface were not perma-
nent organs, but constantly variable, in number, size, and shape.
They were seen to be changing and non-persistent processes of the
central protoplasmic body, like the " false feet," or pseudopodia,
which constitute the only organs of the Rhizopods. But while in
the Rhizopods cell-nuclei are scattered through the protoplasm, and
hence their bodies, morphologically considered, are made up of one or
of many cells, nothmg of the kind is to be seen in the protoplasmic
globules observed at Villafranca. For the rest, no difference was to
be found between the two with resj^ect either to the motions of the
filaments or to the manner in which they were employed as organs of
touch for sensation, or as organs of nutrition for taking in food. To
complete the natural history of the little protoplasm-globule, wdiich I
had studied with great minuteness, all that was still needed was a
knowledge of its mode of propagation. In this, too, I was finally
successful. After some time the little creature broke up into two
halves by simple division, and each of these went on living like the
original one. Thus I had learned the whole life-cycle of what I had
to regard as one of the simplest organisms conceivable, and I gave it,
in recognition of its fundamental significance, the name of Proto-
genes primordialis, "first-born of primeval time." An accurate
description of it was published by me in vol. xv. of the Zeitschrift
fur loissenschaftUche Zoologie (p. 360, Plate XXVI., Figs. 1 and 2).

The very next year two distinct, extremely simple organisms, very
closely resembling Protogenes, were described by the distinguished
microscopist Cienkowski. In vol. i. of the Archiv filr mikroskopische
Zoologie (p. 203, Plates XII.-XIV.) he published very interesting
" Contributions to the Knowledge of Monads." Among the various Pro-
tista here associated by Cienkowski under the old, ambiguous term

BATHYBIUS AND THE M ONERS. 643

" Monads " occur two microscopic inhabitaBts of fresh water, which in
the perfectly simple and structureless constitution of their unnucleated,
radiate protoplasmic body resemble Protogenes — the genera Protomo-
nas {Monas amyli) and Vampyrella (the latter in three dilFerent spe-
cies) ; they differ, however, from Protogenes in their mode of propaga-
tion. Whereas Protogenes, after it has grown to a certain size, does not
gain any further increase of mass, but directly breaks up into two frag-
ments, Protomonas and Vampyrella retract their rays, and pass into the
inactive state, and meanwhile the little protoplasmic globule becomes
encysted, or surrounded with an enveloi^e (cyst). While so encysted,
Protomonas breaks up into a great number of smaller globules, and
Vampyrella into four fragments (tetraspores). All of these afterward
become free, and by a simple process of growth are developed into
the perfect form.

In the mean time I had myself observed, in fresh water at Jena, a
fourth allied genus of extremely simple organisms, in all respects like
the common Amoeba, but distinguished from it by having no cell-nu-
cleus, and no contractile vesicular envelope ; hence I named it Prota-
moeha primitlva. While in the first-named three slime-globules (Pro-
togenes, Protomonas, and Vampyrella) numerous filaments radiate
from the entire surface of the central protoplasmic body, in Prota-
moeba, on the contrary, just as in the common Amoeba, there are only
a few short, finger-shaped processes, which are constantly changing,
being now retracted, and again pushed out in some other place.
When Protamoeba has, by taking in food — which operation it performs
after the manner of Amoeba — attained a certain size, it breaks up by
division into two parts. I first published my observations of Prota-
moeba in the " Generelle Morphologie," vol. i., p. 133. Afterward
I published figures of Protamoeba primitiva, which are to be found
in my " Natural History of Creation," sixth German edition, p. 167,
and in my "Anthropogenic," third edition, p. 414,

Backed by these observations, which were still further prosecuted
afterward by other investigators, and also by myself, I, in 1866, in the
" Generelle Morphologie," established a special class, that of Moneres
(i. e., simjjle), for all these organisms of most simple constitution, la
the first volume of that work I wrote as follows :

" In order clearly to distinguish from all other organisms made up of hetero-
geneous parts these simplest and most imperfect of all organisms, wherein nei-
ther the microscope nor chemical reagents can detect any differentiation of tlie
homogeneous plasmic body, we give them, once for all, the name of Moneres, or
simple organisms. Surely, if we would explain life ; if we would deduce it
from falsely so-called ' dead matter ; ' if we would fill up the chasm between
organisms and the inorganic world — we must needs give special attention to
these very interesting but hitherto quite neglected organisms, and lay the great-
est stress upon their exceedingly simple morphological constitution, which never-
theless is entirely consistent with the discharge of all the essential functions of
life. Inasmuch as in these homogeneous living things no trace is to be discov-

644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ered of different morphological constituents, of ' organs ; ' but, on the contrary,
as all the molecules of the structureless carbon compound of the living albumen
of which they consist are equally capable of performing the various life-func-
tions, it is plain that the idea of an organism can be educed only dynamically or
physiologically from vital movement, and not statically or morphologically from
the composition of the body out of ' organs.' "

For some years after this the circle of our experiences with these
strange " organisms without organs " was considerably widened.
During my voyage to the Canary Islands in 1866-'67 I very naturally
directed my whole attention to these organisms, and was so fortunate
as to discover many new forms of Moneres. On the white calcareous
shells of a remarkable Cepbalopod [Spirula Peronii), found in thou-
sands on the coasts of the Canaries, I have sometimes noticed nu-
merous little red points, which under the magnifying-glass looked like
ornamental stai's, and, when highly magnified, like orange-red proto-
plasmic disks or globules, from the circumference of which radiated
numerous tree-shaped filaments, with branches. Closer observation
showed that these (comparatively colossal) protoplasmic bodies, too,
were unnucleated and structureless, and that they propagated after
the same manner as Protomonas, the globular, encysted body break-
ing up into a great number of little fragments. To this new genus
of Moneres I gave the name of Protomyxa aurantlaca^ and it is
figured in Plate I. of the " Natural History of Creation." I then,
during the same year (1867), found a like magnificent Moneres form
in the mud of the harbor of Puerto del Arrecife, the port-town of the
island of Lanzarote, and to it gave the name of Myxastruin radians.
Its distinguishing mark is this, that the fragments or spores into
which the globular body breaks up in the act of propagation arrange
themselves in lines radiating from the centre of the globule, and exude
spindle-shaped, siliceous envelopes, from which the young Moneres
afterward drops out.

On the strength of all these observations, I, in 1868, published in
the Jenaische Zeitschrlft fur Naturvnssenschaft an extended " Mono-
graph of the Moneres " (vol. iv., p. 64, Plates II. and III.). In this
monograph both my own observations and those of others are set
forth at length and discussed. At that time the number of known
genera of Moneres was seven. By later observations it has been in-
creased to sixteen, as is stated by me in my " Supplement to the Mon-
ograph of the Moneres" {Jenaische Zeitschrift fur Naturwissenschaft,
1877, vol. vi., p. 23). The diiferences between these Moneres come
simply from the fact that the soft, slimy mass expands and moves in
difierent forms, and that the asexual propagation (by division, spore-
formation, etc.) takes place in different ways.

II. History of JBathyhiics. — The great interest possessed by the
Moneres morjihologically as well as physiologically was further height-
ened when, in 1868, the foremost zoologist of England, the celebrated

BATHYBIUS AXD THE M ONERS. 645

Thomas Huxley, described, in the Journal of Microscopical Science
(vol. viii., new series, p. 1, Plate IV.), a new and quite peculiar species
of Moneres, giving it the name of Bathyhius Haechelii. Unlike the
rest of tlie Moneres, this Bathybius had included in it certain peculiar-
ly-formed microscopic, calcareous corpuscles — coccospheres and cocco-
liths ; but its formless masses of pi-otoplasm, of very diiferent sizes,
were said to cover in enormous quantities the profoundest abysses of
the sea, from 5,000 to 25,000 feet depth. With this formless primor-
dial organism of the simplest kind, which, occurring in thousands of
millions, covers the sea-bottom with a living layer of slime, a new
light seemed to be thrown upon one of the most difficult and most
obscure problems of the history of creation — namely, the question of
the origin of life upon the earth. With Bathybius, the ill-famed
"Urschleim" (primordial slime) appeared to have been found, of
which it had been prophetically affirmed, fifty years before, by Oken,
that from it was sprung the whole world of organisms, and that this
"Urschleim" itself had sprung from inorganic matter at the sea-bot-
tom in the course of planetary development.

The deep-sea ooze containing the masses of Bathybius was first
discovered during the deep-sea soundings made in 1857 for the Atlan-
tic cable. The Atlantic Telegraph Plateau, which stretches from Ire-
land to Newfoundland at a mean depth of 12,000 feet, was found to
be covered everywhere with a peculiar gray, very finely-pulverized
ooze. This ooze was remarkable for its tough, sticky nature, and under
the microscope showed masses of little calcareous-shelled Rhizopods,
particularly Globigerinae, and also, as one of its main constituents,
those minute corpuscles known as coccoliths. But it was not till
eleven years later, in 1868, that Huxley, with the aid of a very power-
ful microscope, made a new and thorough investigation of this ooze,
calling in also the aid of chemical analysis. He discovered the naked,
free, formless protoplasm-masses, which, together with the Globi-
gerinre and the coccoliths, make up the great bulk of the ooze.
" These masses are of different sizes, some being visible to the naked
eye, others extremely minute. Subjected to microscopical analysis,
they showed, imbedded in a transparent, colorless, structureless
matrix, nuclei, coccoliths, and occasionally foreign bodies."

Living Bathybius was first observed in 1868, by Sir Wyville Thom-
son and Prof William Carpenter, two practised and sagacious zoolo-
gists, during a deep-sea exploring expedition to the North Atlantic,
in the war-ship Porcupine. Of the living deep-sea ooze they write:
"This ooze was actually living; it collected in lumps as though albu-
men had been mixed with it ; and under the microscope the sticky
mass was seen to be living sarcode " (Annals and 3Iagazine of Nat-
ural History, 1869, vol. iv., p. 151) ; and Sir Wyville Thomson, in his
very interesting work, "The Depths of the Sea," second edition, 1874,
p. 410, adds:

646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"In this dredging [Globigerina-ooze taken at tlie depth of 2,435 fathoms in
the bay of Biscay], as in most others in the bed of the Atlantic, there was evi-
dence of a considerable quantity of soft gelatinous organic matter, enough to
give a slight viscosity to the mud of the surface layer. If the mud be sliaken
with weak spirits of wine, fine flakes separate like coagulated mucus ; and if a
little of the mud in which this viscid condition is most marked be placed in a
drop of sea-water under the microscope, we can usually see, after a time, an ir-
regular network of matter resembling white-of-egg, distinguishable by its main-
taining its outline, and not mixing with the water. This network may be seen
gradually altering in form, and entangled granules and foreign bodies change
their relative positions. The gelatinous matter is therefore capaile of a certain
amount of movement^ and there can be no douht that it manifests the pheiwmena
of a very simple form of life.''"'

My own researches on Bathybius-ooze had to do, like those of
Huxley, only with dead substance in alcohol. The bottle in which it
had been sent to me from the Faroe Islands bore this label: "Dredged
of Prof. Thomson and Dr. Carpenter with the steamer Porcupine, in
2,435 fathoms. 22. July 1869.— Latitude 47° 38', longitude 12° 4'."
Thus this Bathybius-ooze was the same on which the observers named
above had made their investigations of the amoeboid movements.
The results of my own investigations I have stated fully in my
" BeitrLige zur Plastiden-Theorie " (II. '' Bathybius and the Free Pro-
toplasm of the Sea-Depths," JenaiscJte Zeitschrift fur Naturicissen-
schaft, 1870, voh v., p. 499, Plate XVII.). The eighty figures I there
give of the different formless protoplasm-masses of Bathybius, and of
the little calcareous bodies included in the same, were copied with the
utmost exactness from very highly-magnified images of those organ-
isms taken with the aid of the camera lucida. Some of the fissures
have also been used in my paper on " Life in the Profoundest Depths
of the Sea," which was published in 1870, in the Virchow-IIolzendorff
Collection (No. 110).

This specimen of Bathybius-ooze, which had been very well pre-
served in strong alcohol, I examined as minutely as possible, employ-
ing the newest methods of research, and in particular the excellent
method — not employed by Huxley in his investigation — of staining
with carmine and iodine, my purpose being, above all, to determine
more accurately the quantity and quality of the amorphous pro-
toplasmic matter. This albuminous substance, which was reddened
by carmine, was very evenly distributed through the ooze, and in most
of the specimens examined constituted at least one-tenth to one-fifth
of the whole volume ; in many instances it was as much as one-half.
The same protoplasmic masses which, on treatment with carmine, be-
came of a more or less deep-red tint, took from iodine and pure nitric
acid a yellow color; and with other chemical reagents they exhibited
precisely the same properties as the protoplasm of animal and vegetal
cells. The form of most of the little masses was irregular, roundish,
or provided with obtuse processes resembling those of an Amoeba;

BATHYBIUS AND THE M ONERS. 647

others took the form of irregular reticulations of sarcode, like those
of the Myxomycetse.

Whether the little calcareous frustules — coccoliths and cocco-
spheres — which occur so abundantly in Bathybius-ooze, both within
and between the protoplasm-masses, actually belong to it or not, 1
was unable to determine, especially as I had already observed the very
same kinds of calcareous frustules in the bodies of sundry pelagic
Radiolaria which live at the surface of the ocean oiF the Canaries
(" Myxobrachia of Lanzarote "). These strange calcareous bodies,
occurring now in the form of a simple concentrically stratified disk,
again resembling a shirt-button, anon assuming the shape of a sphere
made up of several disks, and so on,were as likely to be secretions of the
Bathybius sarcode as foreign bodies accidentally (or in the process of
taking up food) introduced into the protoplasm. Of late the second
hypothesis has come to appear the more probable, and biologists now
hold that all these corpuscles are microscopic calcareous algse — cal-
careate unicellular plants.

These investigations, confirmed as they have been by sundry other
observers, seemed to show that at the bottom of the Atlantic, between
the depths of 5,000 and 25,000 feet, there exists a sort of ooze which,
with its other characteristics, contains a great quantity of a peculiar
and as yet hardly individualized species of Moneres. The error into
which we now fell consisted in over-hastily generalizing the results of
these deep-sea soundings in the North Atlantic, and supposing the
bed of the deep sea to be everywhere covered with similar Moneres.
This inference was flatly negatived by later research. During the
cruise of the Challenger, which extended over three and a half years,
though careful search was made for Bathybius in the depths of various
seas, it was nowhere found. We have no ground for calling in ques-
tion the diligence and accuracy of the eminent naturalists attached to
the famous Challenger Expedition ; and all the less because its director,
Sir Wy ville Thomson, had been himself the first to observe the move-
ments of the living Bathybius. Hence we must suppose that, in the
portions of the deep-sea bottom explored by the Challenger, there
were no Bathybius Moneres. But does it hence follow that all previous
observations and inferences were incorrect ?

As is very usual in such cases, exaggerated and one-sided views
were at once given up, and no less exaggerated and one-sided contrary
views adopted. Once it was supposed that Bathybius occurred in
masses at the bottom of every sea ; now its existence anywhere was
denied. The Bathybius-ooze preserved in alcohol, which had been the
subject of prior investigations, was now held to be nothing but a
gypsum precipitate, such as is found wherever sea-water is mixed with
spirits of wine. This hypothesis was first put forward by certain
naturalists of the Challenger Expedition, and therefore Prof. Huxley
recanted — prematurely, as I believe — his earlier views concerning

648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Bathybius. In Nature (August 19, 1875), and in the Quarterly Journal
of Microscopic Science (1875, vol. xv., p. 392), he writes as follows:

"Prof. Wyville Thomson informs me that the best efforts of the Challenger's
staff have failed to discover Bathybius in a fresh state, and that it is seriously sus-
pected that the thing to which I gave that name is little more than sulphate of
lime, precipitated in a flocculent state from sea-water by the strong alcohol in
which the specimens of the deep-sea soundings which I examined were pre-
served. The strange thing is, that this inorganic precipitate is scarcely to be
distinguished from precipitated albumen, and it resembles, perhaps, even more
closely, the proligerous pellicle on the surface of a putrescent infusion (except
in the absence of all moving particles), coloring irregularly, but very fully, with
carmine, running into patches with defined edges, and in every way comporting
itself like an organic thing. Prof. Thomson sj^eaks very guardedly, and does not
consider the fate of Bathybius to be as yet absolutely decided. But since I am
mainly responsible for the mistake, if it be one, of introducing this singular sub-
stance into the list of living tbings, I think I shall err on the right side in attach-
ing even greater weight than he does to the view which he suggests."

These words of Prof. Huxley's awakened marked interest, and
were pretty generally thought to be the death-blow of poor Bathyb-
ius. But, in proportion as the real parents of Bathybius show a dis-
position to abandon their child as being beyond hope, the more do
I consider it to be my duty as its godfather to defend its rights and,
if possible, to restore its expiring vital spark. Here, as luck would
have it, I find a vahiable ally in the person of a traveled German nat-
uralist, who quite recently observed living Bathybius off the coast
of Greenland. The well-known north-polar explorer, Dr. Emil Bes-
sels, who fortunately returned safe after the wreck of the Polai-is,
writes as follows of the HaecJcelina gigantea, a giant Rhizopod, prob-
ably identical with Astrorhiza, previously described by Sandahl :

"During the late American North-Polar Expedition, I found in Smith Sound,
at the depth of ninety-two fathoms, great masses of free, undifferentiated,
homogeneous protoplasm, without any trace of coccoliths. In view of its truly
Spartan simplicity, I gave to this organism (which I was able to study in the
living state) the name of Protobathybius. In the report of the expedition it
will be figured and described. I would simply say in this place that these masses
consisted of pure jnotoplasm, in which calcareous particles occurred only by ac-
cident. They appeared to be very sticky, mesh-like structures, with perfect amm-
hoid movements ; they took up i^O'rticles of carmine, and other foreign substances,
and there was active motion of the nuclei.'''' — {Jenaische Zeitschrift fur Naturicis-
senschaft^ vol. ix., p. 277. See also Annual Keport of the Secretary of the
Navy for 1873).

In Packard's " Life-Histories of Animals " is to be seen a figure
(published by Bessels) of the protoplasm-net of Protobathybius. From
this figure I conclude that Protobathybius is the same as our J3athyhius.

III. A Critique of Bathybius. — Having now presented to the reader
the historic facts relating to Bathybius, we next address ourselves to

BATHYBIUS AND THE MONERS. 649

a critique of this subject. We will endeavor, by impartially weighing
the facts, to form an unprejudiced judgment on Bathybias, now so
decried and so generally discredited.

With respect to dead Bathyhlus — deep-sea ooze brought from the
North Atlantic and preserved in spirits of wine — all the observers who
have studied it closely agree in saying that it contains greater or
smaller masses of coagulated protoplasm, which, in their morphologi-
cal and chemico-physical properties, bear the closest resemblance to
certain Moneres. The results obtained by Huxley from material ex-
amined by him — results which I myself have been able to confirm and
enlarge — have been admitted as correct by all the other observers
who studied the same ooze.

With respect to living Bathyhlus, we have positive testimony as
to its characteristic, Rhizopod-like movements from three competent
observers, namely, Sir Wyville Thomson, Prof. William Carpenter,
and Dr. Emil Bessels. All three made their observations on deep-sea
ooze from the North Atlantic. On the other hand, the attempts made
by members of the Challenger Expedition in various seas to repeat and
confirm these earlier observations on the movement phenomena led
only to 7iegative results.

What follows now from this testimony, all of which we mast rec-
ognize as of equal credibility, but which, nevertheless, is self-conflict-
ing ? Simply that the Bathybius-ooze has a limited geographical dis-
tribution^ and that it was an over-hasty generalization to people all
deep-sea abysses with that organism. But from the fact that the
Challenger Expedition did not rediscover living Bathybius it surely
does not follow that the observations made in other localities by the
Porcupine Expedition were faulty. Or, from the fact that the Chal-
lenger Expedition found Radiolarian ooze only in a comparatively limit-
ed area in the Pacific and nowhere else, must we draw the conclusion
that no such thing exists ? We know that the vast majority of organ-
ic species have a limited distribution ; why, then, should not the dis-
tribution of Bathybius be limited too ?

Hence I confess I cannot understand why Huxley should have so
su<ldenly and so totally changed his views about Bathybius. Still less
do I understand how, at the last meeting of the German Naturalists'
Association at Hamburg (September, 1876), Bathybius could ever have
been publicly interred. In the Berlin Nationalzeitung I find the
following notable report (dated Hamburg, September 21st) of a
paper by Prof. Mubius, on "Marine Fauna and the Challenger Expe-
dition : "

" Over these plateaus [deep-sea plateaus, from 3,700 to 4,000 feet deep] we
should look for the mysterious ' primordial slime,' Bathybius, to which the
famous Iluxley gave the name of Bathyhius Haeckelii as a compliment to his
genial friend of Jena. But, unfortunately, natural history met with a sad mis-
hap. Bathybius, which fitted so nicely into the modern hypotheses of the be-

650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ginning of things, turned out to be an artificial product of gypsum precipi-
tated by alcohol from sea-water, in which it is held in the state of solution.
"Wherever fresh specimens of the ooze have been examined on shipboard, no
traces of 'Batliybius' have been found. The audience were fairly startled when
Prof. Mobius, by simply mixing alcohol with a glass of sea-water, caused Ba-
thybius to appear before their eyes."

Verily, this is a remarkable kind of logic. Because spirits of wine
mixed with sea-water precipitates gyj^sum, therefore Bathybius-ooze
kept in spirits of wine is precipitated gypsum ! And this demonstra-
tion " fairly startled " the members of a German Association of
Naturalists ! That strong spirits of wine mixed with sea-water pro-
duces a light, flocculent gypsum precipitate is known to every one
that has preserved marine animals in spirits of wine. But so, too, is
it known to every man who, like Huxley and myself, has closely ex-
amined the Bathybius-ooze collected by the Porcupine Expedition, that
the Moneres-like, albuminous bodies found therein consist actually of
alhuminous substance and not of gypsum. Carmine stains them red,
nitric acid and iodine yellow ; sulphuric acid decomposes them, and
they give all the other reactions of protoplasm^ which is not the case
with gypsum, as every one knows.

If we finely pulverize certain kinds of chalk, or chalky marl, we
obtain a fine white flour, that might easily be mistaken for the re-
markable Radiolarian ooze found by the Challenger Expedition in a
limited area of the Pacific (and there only), at a depths ranging from
12,000 to 26,000 feet. This Radiolarian ooze, which I am at present
engaged in studying, consists almost exclusively of the most beautiful
and varied forms of siliceous Radiolarian shells. But with the naked
eye we cannot distinguish this dried ooze — a wonderful microscopic
museum of Radiolaria — from pulverized chalk-marl containing not a
single Radiolarian shell. I now propose that at their meeting in Mu-
nich next September (187*7) the Naturalists' Association exjierimental-
ly demonstrate that these enormous Radiolarian dejiosits, discovered
by the Challenger Expedition at the bottom of the Pacific, have no
real existence. "The experiment is a very simple one." Let the
lecturer bray in a mortar, in sight of the assembled naturalists, a bit
of chalk-marl containing no Radiolaria. The white powder so ob-
tained does not contain a single Radiolarian ; therefore the Pacific
ooze (consisting exclusively of Radiolarians) does not exist, since these
two substances cannot be distinguished from each other by the naked
eye — quod erat demonstrandum. We are confident that this striking
experiment will "fairly startle" the beholders, and make an end of
Radiolarian ooze.

IV. A Critique of the Moneres. — From the foregoing, we think
it clearly appears that the non-existence of Bathyhixis is not proved.
Nay, it is highly probable that the observations of Wyville Thom-
son and Carpenter and Bessels on the movements of living Bathybius

BATHYBIUS AND THE M ONERS. 651

■were correct. We will, however, for the nonce, suppose the contrary
to be the fact, and will grant that Bathybius is not a Moneres, nor even
an organism. Does it follow from this that the Moneres too have no
existence ? Or must we say that, as the familiar great sea-serpent of
fable does not exist, therefore there is no such thing as a sea-serpent?
We know that there are many sea-serpents belonging to the family of
the viviparous and highly-venomous Hydrophidm {Hydrophis^ Pla-
tiiriis, ^pysurus^ etc.), which chiefly inhabits the Indian Ocean and
the Sunda Archipelago, but none of which attain any considerable
size.

It were useless here again to quote my own researches which have
demonstrated the existence of upward of a dozen diiferent species of
Moneres, some living in fresh, others in salt water. I would, however,
state that these observations have since been repeated and confirmed by
a number of competent investigators. Some of these Moneres appear to
be very widely distributed in fresh water, as for instance the genera
Protamoeba and Vampyrella. Pt'otamceba agills and Vampyrella spiro-
yyrce may be observed almost any summer at Jena. P. primitiva and
V. vorax have been seen by sundry observers in very diverse locali-
ties. Other new Moneres forms have been quite recently discovered by
Cienkowski and Oskar Grimm. When the attention of microscopists
has been more generally directed to these extremely simple organisms,
we may hope that our knowledge of them will be considerably widened
and deepened.

Whether Bathybius is or is not a true Moneres, at all events we
already know with certitude a number of true Moneres whose funda-
mental importance is quite independent of Bathybius. We know that
even now there exist in the waters of our planet a number of very low
forms of life, which ai'e not only the simplest of all actually observed
organisms, but even the simplest imaginable of living things. Their
whole body, in the fully-developed and reproductive condition, con-
sists of nothing but a little mass of structureless protoplasm, whose
changing, variable processes all at once discharge the various life-
functions — movement, sensation, transmutation of matter, nutrition,
growth, and reproduction. Morphologically considered, the body of a
Moneres is as simple as an inorganic crystal. We cannot distinguish
in it separate jDarts ; or, rather, each part is equivalent to each other.
These facts and their far-reaching consequences apply to all Moneres
without exception — with or without Bathybius ! — and hence it does
not affect the theory at all whether Bathybius exists or not.

When we describe these Moneres as " absolutely simple organisms,"
we of course only express their morphological simplicity^ the absence
of distinct organs. Chcmico-physically, they may be highly compos-
ite ; indeed, we must in any case ascribe to them, as to all albumi-
nous bodies, a highly - complex molecular structure. Many regard
the slime-like albuminous body of Moneres as a single chemical albu-

652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

men combination, while others see in it a multitude of such combina-
tions ; others, again, regard it as an emulsion or intimate blending of
albuminous and fatty particles. For a general biological view of the
Moneres this is of subordinate interest; for, however the case may be,
the creature is at all events, /rom the anatomical point of view ^ per-
fectly simple — an organism without organs. It proves incontro-
vertibly that life does not depend on the cooperation of different or-
gans, but on a certain chemico-physical constitution of amorphous
matter — on that albuminous substance which we call sarcode or pro-
toplasm— a nitro-carbon compound in the semi-fluid state.

Hence, life is not a result of organization, but vice versa. Amor-
phous protoplasm gives rise to organized forms. Having already, in
previous writings, called attention to the high importance of the Mo-
neres from this and other points of view, I can here only refer to those
papers. At present I must content myself with pointing out the im-
portance of the Moneres in connection with the great question of the
origin of life. The oldest organisms, sprung by spontaneous genera-
tion (Urzeugung) from inorganic matter, must have been Moneres.

It is precisely the general importance of the Moneres for the
solution of the greatest of biological problems that makes them a
stumbling-block and a scandal to the opponents of the doctrine of
evolution. These men, of course, take every opportunity to dispute
the existence of Moneres, exactly as was done in the case of Eozobn
Canadense, the much-disputed oldest fossil of the Laurentian forma-
tion. The most experienced and competent students of the class
Rhizopoda — at their head Prof. Carpenter, of London, and the distin-
guished anatomist Max Schultze, of Bonn, deceased — are firmly con-
vinced that the American Eozoon is a genuine Rhizopod — a Polytha-
laminm, near akin to Polytrema. I have myself for several years
made a special study of Rhizopods. I have minutely examined sev-
eral fine preparations of Eozoon made by Carpenter and Schultze, and
I have not the slightest doubt that it is a genuine Polythalamium, and
not a mineral.

But, just because of the extraordinary fundamental importance of
Eozoun, and because the discovery of that fossil adds several millions
of years to the earth's organic history, making the j)rimitive Silurian
formations to appear recent by comparison, and rendering a great ser-
vice to the doctrine of evolution, therefore it is that the opponents of
that doctrine so stoutly aflirm that it is not of organic origin at all,
but purely mineral. But as the high importance of Eozoon was placed
in its proper light by these unavailing attacks of ill-informed opponents,
so is it, too, with the Moneres — with or without Bathybius. The true
Moneres remain, forming an immovable foundation-stone of the doc-
trine of evolution. — Kosinos.

MOLECULAR MAGNITUDES. 653

MOLECULAR MAGNITUDES.

By L. R. CUKTISS.

IN entering upon an analysis of the subject of atomic and molecular
masrnitudcs, it is desirable that we should have as clear an idea of
the immeasurably small in Nature as possible. To the astronomer the
size and relative distances of the celestial bodies are real magnitudes,
and so also, to the molecular physicist, the magnitudes verging upon
the infinitely small are just as much of a reality. The billionth part
of an inch is just as much of a fact as a billion miles.

The mathematical definition of a point consists in stating it as a
locality without length, breadth, or thickness ; but we receive no very
concise idea of the definition until we proceed graphically, and make
a dot with a pencil or otherwise, which shall possess limited dimen-
sions of length and breadth ; then, by the metaphysical process of
abstraction, we dispense with the linear dimensions of length and
breadtli, and thus purify our conceptions concerning physical magni-
tudes, and place ourselves in a way of realizing the entity or real ex-
istence of the invisibly small in Nature.

In the animal kingdom are found myriads of forms so minute that
their bulk is reckoned by less than the millionth part of a cubic inch,
yet each one is endowed with organs of sense or assimilation sufficient
to serve the purpose in their sphere of life. The vegetable kingdom,
also, oflTers abundant specimens of microscopic forms, calculated to
excite our admiration by the beauty and minuteness of their organisms.
Such is notably the case in several forms of Diatoinaeece. The striated
markings of Pleurosigma fasciola aggregate to 64,000 to the inch,
while Amphipleura pellucida often exhibit striae exceeding 100,000 to
the lineal inch. And yet the skeletons of these minute organisms are
composed mainly of silex, the silex again being made up of silicon
and oxygen. Notwithstanding the almost infinitesimal magnitudes
of the organic world, human skill is able to compete in the matter
of minuteness. Platinum wire has been drawn so fine as to rival
in minuteness the smallest fibre of the spider's web. Gold has been
deposited upon the surface of other metals, and drawn to such ex-
treme thinness that a thousand-millionth part of a grain exhibited
the visible characteristics of the metal. The oscillations of the hori-
zontal pendulum can be measured to the sottuWoo V'^'^^ *^^ ^"^ inch,
by the aid of a small mirror, a beam of light, and a graduated
scale for reading the vibrations. Nobert, with a mechanical skill un-
surpassed, has repeatedly ruled with a diamond-point upon glass the
nineteenth band of his test-plate, consisting of lines less than the
^ ^ a'o 0 Q ^f ^" va.Q\\ apart, and it is claimed that he has succeeded in

654 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ruling plates covering 224,000 lines per inch, such as would aggregate
* in superficial areas to over 50,000,000,000 to the square inch ! Such
minute divisions are wholly beyond the resolving power of the most
elaborate of modern microscopic appliances ; for it has been shown by
Sorby 'that the ultimate power of the microscope for distinct defini-
tion is limited to the examination of magnitudes not less than one-half
of the average wave-length of the luminous spectrum ; and it is shown,
upon the authority of Helmholtz, that when the amplitude of the ob-
ject is less than this half wave-length — or somewhat in excess of 80,-
000 to the inch — the dark interference-fringes impair the definition of
the instrument, except in the case of striated markings, which may be
clearly defined, or resolved, by so arranging the illumination as to
mask the fringes, and bring out a good definition even in excess of
100,000 to the inch. Hence, the main difficulty attending the possible
amplification of objects less than about the yo'sto^ ^^ ^" mch in diam-
eter is a purely physical one, and depends upon the constitution of
light itself.

The various phenomena of chemical physics teach us that matter
is not homogeneous, but is made np of infinitesimal particles or atoms,
the term atotn meaning indivisible 2^0,^11016 ; and that the term mole-
cule— meaning literally a little mass — refers to an aggregation of two
or more atoms. Thus, a crystal of common salt may be pulverized until
one of its fragments is barely discernible to the highest range of micro-
scopic power, and still this fragment will retain all the characteristics
of salt. This same microscopic portion is susceptible of a further
subdivision by solution in water, when the spectroscope will detect
its presence in the still minuter quantity of the one-hundred-millionth
part of a grain. Here, in the case of salt, physical analysis ends, and,
aside from chemical analysis, any further subdivision must be by the
process of abstraction, until by its means we arrive at the mental con-
ception of a portion so minute as to consist of an atom of sodium
united by the bonds of chemical affinity to an atom of chlorine. This
is now a molecule of common salt. Any further division destroys the
entity of the compound, and results in the decomposition of the salt
into the atoms of its elements. Hence a simple molecule is the small-
est portion of any chemical compound that is not susceptible of subdi-
vision without destroying its entity, or, in other words, the smallest
number of atoms that can cohere to form a compound constitute the
molecule of that compound. An atom is designated as the ultimate
particle of any elementary body, and is not susceptible of any further
division within the range of human analysis.

Were it possible to magnify the atoms of matter to a diameter
available for distinct vision, we should be met at the outset by a dif-
ficulty too astounding for realization. It is a matter of easy proof

' H. C. Sorby, F. R. S., in his anniversary address to the Royal Microscopical Society,
in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for April, 1876.

MOLECULAR MAGNITUDES. 655

that the magnifying of any object while in motion will exhibit that
motion increased in velocity just as many times as the diameter of the
object is augmented. Suppose we had at our command an instrument
competent to amplify the atoms to the one-fiftieth of an inch in diam-
eter : in the case of the hydrogen-atom the necessary magnifying
power would be 10,000,000 diameters, under which power the atoms
would have their motions enhanced by the same multiple, and we
should then be called upon to examine an image the fiftieth part of
an inch in diameter plunging across the field of vision five hundred
million times faster than the flight of a cannon-ball.

It follows, since human skill is incompetent to penetrate by any
mechanical means into the internal structure of matter, that we shall
be compelled to direct our labors to other modes of investigation if
we would know more of the atomic structure of matter, possessing as
it does a minuteness far surpassing the analytical power of the micro-
scope ; in fact, so hopelessly ultra-microscopic as to elude all other
processes except that of mathematics and experimental investigation.

The question of the infinitely large and the immeasurably small
has engaged the attention of philosophers since the days of Democ-
ritus. Modern investigators are, however, in possession of experi-
mental data that aid them in arriving at facts with ever-increasing
accuracy. We have the atomic theory first placed upon a substantial
basis by Dalton, which treats of the atomic constituents of matter,
and gives to each atom a definite size and weight, and establishes the
proposition that atoms combine to form molecules, and that molecules
aggregate to masses. We have also the kinetic theory of gases,
which has been placed upon a purely mathematico-scientific footing,
as has also the department of hydro-kinetics ; and experiments within
these departments are accumulating evidence concerning the atomic
and physical structure of matter.

The kinetic theories are based upon the conception that these
particles or atoms are in constant motion among themselves ; and it
assumes, also, that their movements have an infinite series of veloci-
ties in all conceivable directions, but with varying degrees of inten-
sity. This idea of atomic and molecular motion puts us in possession
of an important factor for determining the causation of all physical
phenomena. Of course we do not presume to say that the atom is
the primordial or ultimate constituent of matter, for there are many
evidences to show that the present list of sixty-five elements of mat-
ter may not be elementary at all, but isomeric compounds of one or
more simpler constituents.

The question might here be asked, '' Hoav does the physicist know
anything of the relative size of atoms and their vibratory motions?"
The answer is : by mathematical deductions, based upon the behavior
of gases ; by experimental evidence, principally in the domain of ra-
diant heat ; also in the interdifiusion of liquids and gases. Researches

656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in these departments have determined, with a great deal of certainty,
that the atoms and molecules of matter do not touch each other, and
that the various velocities they may assume under different condi-
tions are the causes of all the phenomena of light and heat. And,
moreover, it has been determined by the most refined experiments,
with special instruments of precision, that these atoms have a definite
size and weight, and, under special conditions, a definite velocity and
momentum. The pressure of gases has also been defined as the re-
sultant of the molecular bombardment or impact of these flying pro-
jectiles against the sides of the containing vessel.

Some molecular data have been tabulated from the calculations of
Clausius, Maxwell, Thomson, and others, but the figures given are
wholly beyond human comprehension. Thus the number of atoms in
one cubic inch of hydrogen-gas, at the temperature of freezing water
and under the pressure of one atmosphere, is given in the neighbor-
hood of three hundred millions of millions of millions, each atom pos-
sessing an initial velocity of over a mile per second, covering nearly
eighteen billions of oscillations in different directions in the same sec-
ond of time. That is to say, each particle of hydrogen, while moving
at the rate of seventy miles per minute, has its course wholly changed
something like 17,700,000,000 times in every second. Sir "William
Thomson concludes, from the data given by Clausius, that the diam-
eter of the gaseous molecule is somewhere between the ^-g 0 0 U 0 0 o ^^^
the -gooooooou ^^ ^" inch, and as the density of known liquids and solids
is from 500 to 16,000 times that of common air, he concludes that the
distance from centre to centre of contiguous molecules in solids is
less than the o^o,?,,,^^ and greater than the stottoVoToo of an inch ;
and he illustrates by supposing "a drop of water to be magnified up
to the size of the earth, each molecule to be amplified in the same pro-
portion, these molecules will then be less in size than cricket-balls,
but larger than small lead-shot."

Imagine the particles of the air we breathe flying about at the rate
of eighteen miles per minute — a velocity exceeding that of a cannon-
ball — a velocity which, if the particles were all moving in one direc-
tion, would constitute a tornado ten times more violent than any ter-
restrial hurricane ! How is it, then, that we can survive the incessant
bombardment of such a storm of projectiles ? Simply because the
particles are moving in all directions, so as nearly to counterbalance
each other's momentum. Were it not that the molecules are continu-
ally changing their direction by executing a sort of carrom upon their
neighbors, the interdiffusion of liquids and gases would be almost in-
stantaneous. If the molecules could project in straight lines without
interference with each other, the opening of a bottle of perfumery
would permit the diffusion of its odor to the distance of many hundred
feet sooner than you could open and recork the bottle, or, in some
instances, about one-third of a mile in one second of time.

MOLECULAR MAGNITUDES. 657

An instructive experiment may be made : First, finely pulverize
indigo, charcoal, or carmine, and then mix either of them with water,
and place under the microscojje, when an incessant movement of the
small granular particles will become apparent; and the smaller the
particles, the moi*e rapid and uniform will be their movements. These
movements are chiefly of a vibratory kind ; and it is when the par-
ticles are minutely divided, so as to approach the limits of microscopic
range, that this vibratory motion, together with an irregular axial
rotation, approaches a degree of perfection that is beautiful as well as
suggestive. This experiment is well calculated to assist us in forming
a mental conception of the magnitudes and the motions of those atoms
and molecules which have for their realm the regions below and be-
yond the immeasurably small.

As to the shape and internal structure of atoms, there is no definite
knowledge ; but Helmholtz's studies of certain equations in hydro-ki-
netics, several years ago, gave rise to the idea that vortex-motion in
a frictionless medium .would exist forever — an assumption which is
purely hypothetical ; but since the proposition has been enlarged upon
by Sir William Thomson — who conjectures that the atoms might be
filaments or rings endowed with a vortex-motion — the subject assumes
a shape better calculated to form the basis of a scientific theory. To
be sure, mathematical formulas might show that the behavior of a
vortex-filament in a non-resisting medium would answer to that
ascribed to atoms — indestructible and unaltei-able through all time ;
still, at the same time, the means at hand for its complete mathemati-
cal verification are not adequate to place the subject beyond the
regions of theory. Prof. Tait, in a review of this subject in his
*' Recent Advances of the Physical Sciences," remarks that, " with a
little further development, it may be said to have passed its first trial,
and, being admitted as a possibility, may be left to time and the
mathematicians to settle whether it will really account for everything
experimentally found."

Small as these atoms are, we are not permitted to stop here, but
remember that there is a finer medium environing them all, embracing
possibly a complexity of internal structure sufiicient to baffle human
investigation for all time. This cosmic or luminiferous ether is sup-
posed to fill all space, intermolecular and interstellar, and to be the
medium in which the atoms and molecules move like motes in the
sunbeam.

Atoms and molecules may vibrate to and fro, or may execute vari-
ous oscillations about each other, with a moderate velocity, or perform
their motions with a rapidity beyond conception ; and be the intensity
of the vibrations ever so great or ever so small, these same vibi-ationa
determine the amplitude of the ethereal waves — those waves of great-
est length giving rise to all the phenomena of radiant heat, while shorter
ones constitute light in all its luminous and chromatic efiects ; as also
VOL. XI. — 42

658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the ethereal waves of still more rapid undulations and lesser length
furnish the actinic force of light. And if the mathematical deductions
of such as Maxwell and Boltzmann, together with the refined research-
es of many others in this border-land of science, are not at fault, we
would not be surprised if, at some early day, the solution of the phe-
nomena of electricity should be found in some way connected with
ethereal vibrations, infinitely more rapid and minute than those which
produce the actinism of the ultra-violet spectrum. The difficulties at-
tending the solution of this problem maybe moi-e fully comprehended
when we recollect that, in dealing with vibrations more rapid than
those bordering the visible spectrum, we are leaving regions where
the undulations comprise nearly one thousand million of millions in a
second of time, only to be confronted with others of infinitely greater
rapidity.

These ethereal and molecular actions are going on eternally about
us. The photographer's sensitized plate may receive an image that
maps out the constellations, or, through the prism of the spectroscope
in lines of light, we may read of the constituents of the nebulae, and
thus upon the waves of ether do we hold communion across the uni-
verse by that ethereal chain of motion which binds us to the stars !

-♦•♦-

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN OPTICS.

By ELIZA A. YOUMANS.

THE little work of Mayer and Barnard, designed to introduce be-
ginners to the experimental study of optics, is so much needed,
so skillfully done, and may be so helpful to teachers and students of
all asres, that it is desirable to ofier a few illustrations of the method
of experiment adopted, and to point out some of the cheap and simple
ways which Prof. Mayer has hit upon for exemplifying and proving
optical phenomena. We shall make free use of his text as well as his
cuts in the present article. Fig. 1, for example, represents the ar-
rangement adopted to prove that light moves in straight lines. He
first gets three little blocks, two or three inches square ; then three
slips of pine, three inches by four and one-eighth of an inch thick ;
and then three postal-cards, through which a small apertui-e is to be
made. The authors say: "Just here we need a tool for making small
holes and doing other work in these experiments ; and we push, with
a pair of pliers, a cambric needle into the end of a wooden pen-holder
or other slender stick, putting the eye-end into the wood, and thus
making a needle-pointed awl." This is an excellent little contrivance,
and we suggest to the pupil to make a set of them with difierent-
sized needles, which he will find very useful. Now, lay^the postal-

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS luV OPTICS.

659

cards flat on a board, one over the other ; measure off a half-inch from
one end of the top postal-card, and with the awl punch a hole through
them all just Jialf-way from each side. Trim the holes with a pen-
knife, and then take one of the cards and one of the wooden slips and
put the card squarely on one of the wooden blocks, and, placing the
slip over it, tack them both down to the block. Place one of the
blocks near a lighted lamp, as shown in the figure, and another at the

m .;;;ifp*^^^^^^^^

'16

FlO. 1.— EXPEKIMEXT PEOVIXG THAT LlGHT .MOVES IN STRAIGHT LlNES.

opposite side of the table, whei-e the observer can sit to look through
the aperture. When the light is seen through both openings, draw the
third card into line between the others, when the ray will be seen to
pass through all three cards. Next, take a piece of thread and stretch
it against the sides of the three cards as they stand, and it will be
seen that they are exactly in line, and, as the holes in the cards are at
the same distance from their edges, it is proved that the beam of light
that passes through all the holes must also be straight. If the posi-
tion of the blocks is changed, so that the directions of the holes in the
cards are different, the same effect will be observed, so that it is de-
monstrated that light moves in exactly straight lines in all direc-
tions from the source of illumination. Of course, a pupil can learn
from a book that light moves in straight lines, but this will be a mat-
ter of hearsay or authority, and not of direct knowledge, while if he
makes this experiment he will have begun to prove things for him-
self, and the preparation for it, and trial in different ways, will be
a good exercise in manipulation.

Now, if the student wishes to prove the variation in the quantity
or intensity of light at varying distances, he can do it in the simple
way shown in Fig. 2. A small slit is cut in the card near the lamp,
through which the light passes, A sheet of white paper, resting
ao-ainst some books at the opposite side of the table, forms a screen,
upon which the light falls. A bit of paper, an inch square, is
held by the point of the awl, the handle of which is stuck in some

66o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

■wax on the table. Set the needle-awl, with the bit of paper, about
twelve inches from the lamp, and then darken the room. Upon the
screen, which is placed two feet from the lamp, will then be seen
the shadow of the square bit of paper. With a lead-pencil trace an
oiitline of this shadow on the screen, and then move it a foot farther
back ; and note how much the shadow is increased in size. With
the pencil trace this shadow on the screen, and then laying the paper

Fig. 2.— Experiment with Shadows.

on the table and measuring the two shadows, you will see how they
compare in size, and get a clew to the principle of inverse squares, as
it is called.

Fig. 3 represents the means used in showing that the angle of the
ray as it strikes the mirror is the same as that at which it is reflected.
A and B are two of the postal-cards and their blocks used in the first
experiment, turned Avith their inside faces toward each other, and
separated by three more blocks of the same dimensions as those sup-

Fig. 3.— Angle of Incidence and Reflection.

porting the cards. The flame is placed even with the hole. On the
middle block rests a piece of glass, coated on the bottom side with
black varnish. The eye looks through the hole H upon the glass,
where it sees a small spot of light that is the reflection of the ray
from the lamp through the hole A. The point of the needle is placed

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN OPTICS.

66 1

directly over this spot, and held in position by the wooden handle
with a piece of wax. A strip of paper, filling the distance from A to
5, and four inches wide, is held upright between the cards, with the
bottom resting on the mirror. The edge of this is marked with a pen-
cil at the hole A^ and again at the needle-point. A straight line
joining these marks will form an angle at the bottom of the paper
that is identical with the angle of incidence. By reversing the ends
of the paper, and comparing this line with one from B to the needle,
both will be found alike. The angles of incidence and reflection agree.
In regard to the reflection of light. Prof. Mayer remarks :

" The clouds, the water, the grass, rocks, the ground, buildings, the walls
inside, clothing and furniture, and everything we can see, reflect light in every
direction again and again, and thus it is that all spaces, without and withiu, are
filled with light so long as the sun shines. At night the sun siuks out of sight,
and still it is light for some time after, for the sunlight is reflected from the sun-
set-clouds and the sky. Sometimes, upon a summer's day, when broken clouds
partly hide the sun, you will see long bars of dusky light streaming from open-
ings in the clouds. These long bars are beams of sunlight shining upon dust
and fine mist floating in the air, and we see them because each si)eck and par-
ticle reflects light in every direction."

Fig. 4. — Light reflected bt Floating Particles.

Fig. 4 shows the efiect of particles in scattering the light. A clean
glass jar stands upon a black cloth laid on a table in a dark room, and
over its mouth rests a postal-card having a slit in it one inch long and
one twenty-fifth of an inch wide. A beam of light enters the room
from one side, and is thrown downward upon the postal-card by a

662

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hand-mirror. Now set fire to a small bit of paper, and drop it into
the jar. When it is burned out, put the postal-card in place, and the
vessel will be filled with smoke. The beam that is reflected down-
ward from the mirror enters the slit, and you see a slender ribbon of
light extending downward through the jar, while all around it is quite
dark and black. Fig. 4 shows the light streaming through the opening
in the card, and lighting up the particles of smoke in its path. Take oft'
the card, and let the reflected beam fall freely into the jar : the smoke
is now wholly illuminated, and the vessel appears to be full of light
To make a milk-and-water lamp :

" Take away the jar and put a clean glass tumbler in its place. Fill this witli
water and throw the beam of reflected light down upon it, and the water will
be lighted up so that we can easily see the tumbler in the dark. Now add a
teaspoonful of milk to tbe water and stir them together. Throw the beam of
light down once more. This is indeed remarkable. The tumbler of inilk-and-
water shines like a lamp, and lights up the room so that we can easily see to
read by its strange white light. Move the mirror and turn aside the beam of
light, and instantly the room becomes dark. Turn the light back again, and
once more the glass is full of light. Here the minute particles of milk floating
in the water catch and reflect the light in every direction, so that the entire
goblet seems filled with it, and the room is lighted up by the strange reflections
that shine through the glass."

Vui. 5.— Experiment showing the Law of Eefraction.

By the following simple contrivance, illustrated in Fig. 5, Dr. Mayer
shows the pupil how he can demonstrate the law of the refraction of

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN OPTICS.

663

light: 1. We have a clear glass bottle, with a sheet of white paper, in
which a perfectly round hole has been cut, pasted on its side ; 2. Hori-
zontal and perpendicular lines are drawn with ink upon the glass at
right angles across each other, and within this circle, dividing it into
four equal parts ; 3. Water is poured into the bottle until its level is
that of the horizontal line ; 4. A postal-card containing a slit is placed
as at D in the figure ; 5. The mirror, _S, reflects the beam into the
bottle so that it may touch the water where the two lines cross. The
light is seen to bend as soon as it enters the water. The index of re-
fraction for all liquids may be determined by measuring the distance
from where the beam enters to the perpendicular, then the distance
from the per^^endicular to where it vanishes, and dividing these into
each other. The constancy of the quotient for each particular liquid
can also be shown by having the beam strike the water at various
angles, making these measurements and dividing. No matter how
the distances vary from the perpendicular, when divided into each
other they give the same result for the same liquid.

Fig. 6.— Total Reflection.

With a mirror on the table and our bottle arranged as in Fig. 6,
total reflection will occur, that is, all the light of the beam will be
thrown downward from the surface of the water.

" Sometimes, when walking along a road on a warm day, you may observe
a curious quivering in the air just where the road seems to meet the sky, as it
goes over a hill. The objects near this point appear to be distorted and to
tremble, or they assume fantastic shapes. Here we have an instance of refrac-
tion caused by the heated air just above the surface of the road. The light
passing through these layers of unequally-heated air is refracted unequally, and
the objects that reflect the light appear distorted. In some instances the refrac-
tion may pass the critical angle, and we may see the objects apparently doubled
by reflection. Warm, calm days by the sea show the same thing, when distant

664

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

vessels appear repeated in the sky, or when distant land that is really below the
hoi-izon 'looms' \ip and glimmers upon the horizon in trembling headlands.
This illusion is called the mirage, and takes place when refraction exceeds the
critical angle and becomes reflection.

" Fill a clear glass tumbler with water, and put a spoon in it, or dip one
finger in the water, and hold it above your head, so that you can look into the
water from below. You will find that you cannot see through the water up
into the air above. The under-surface of the water will appear to shine like
burnished silver, and the spoon or your finger will be reflected in it, as in a
beautiful mirror. This illustrates total reflection, and shows that in this case
all light thrown upward through the water is reflected from its surface. Look
into the tumbler from above, and it appears full of clear water. Look into it
from below, and it seems as if an opaque sheet of silver rested on the water, and
shut out the view of everything above."

Fig. 7 shows a neat and simple arrangement by wbich water can
be nsed for a lens to illustrate refraction. It is merely a long pine
box fourteen inches higli, made of thin boards, with one side open, and

a round hole in the top five inches
in diameter. On this opening rests
a hemispherical glass dish made by
cutting off the round top of a glass
shade, and which is filled with clear
water. A piece of looking-glass is
supported below at an angle of
forty-five degrees, so as to reflect a
stream of sunlight upward through
the water-lens. The rays are thus
refracted and brought to a point at
a proper distance above. If a sheet
of paper is held horizontally just
over the bowl, it will be lighted
up by the rays coming through the
lens. Raise the joaper slowly, and
the circle of light on its surface
will grow smaller and brighter, till
it is reduced to a point, when it
will burn a hole in the jDaper. If
a little smoke is diffused through
the space, it will reveal tlie double
cone of light, with one base upon
the surface of the water-lens, and the other forming a large circle of
light upon the ceiling, the rays all crossing at the focal point. With
some additional attachments Prof. Mayer makes such a lens work in a
magic lantern for projecting large pictures upon screens, the whole
mechanism being estimated to cost but |3.20.

One of the most beautiful experiments in total reflection is that
illustrated by Fig. 8. A Florence flask filled witli water acts as a

Fig. 7.— The Water-Lens.

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN OPTICS.

665

lens. The i-oom is darkened, and the light coming from without is
brought to a focus on the inside of the flask. A hole has been made
through the glass, and as the water streams out the light is totally

Fig. 8.— The Fountain of Fire.

reflected so as to illuminate the stream as it falls into the pail below.
Of this experiment the authors say :

" How magical ! The curving stream of water is full of light, and appears
lilve a stream of molten iron. The spot where it falls seems touched with fire.
Put your finger in the stream of water, and it is brightly illuminated. Of
course, the water soon runs down, and the display stops. To prevent this,
bring water in a rubber tube from the water-pipes in the house, and then regu-
late the supply so that the receiver may be kepi full as fast as the water runs
out.

" Place a piece of red glass behind the flask in the beam of sunlight, and the
stream of water will look like blood. Touch it, and the hand will be crimson,
and the scattered drops that fall in a shower into the tub will shine like drops
of red fire. Place a green or blue glass behind the flask, and the stream of
water will turn green or blue, and present a most singular appearance. Hold a
goblet in the stream, and it will overflow with liquid light. Flashes and sparkles
of fire will appear in it, and foam over the sides, shining with brilliant light.

" This beautiful experiment is as interesting as it is strange and magical, and
it illustrates both refraction and total reflection. The flask makes a lens, and
the falling stream of water is lighted up by the cone of light that enters it at the
hole in the flask. Both the water and the light pass out of the hole together,

666

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the ligLt inside of the water. That this is so, may be proved by permitting the
water to escape, when the light will be seen shining out of the hole horizontally
into the room. Why, then, does it not shine out into the room while the water
is escaping? "When the stream of water is flowing out, it falls in a curve into
the tub on the floor. The beam of light, passing out with the water, meets its
curved surface at such an angle that it is totally reflected. This beam of reflec-
tion again meets the surface of the water, and is again totally reflected. In this
manner it is reflected from side to side, again and again, till it reaches the tub,
and there we see it shining brightly. It is a prisoner in the water, and follows
it down into the tub. When you put your hand in the falling water, you see
that it is lighted brightly, and yet the stream by comparison is rather dark. If
it were pure distilled water it would hardly be visible. As it is full of floating
specks and motes, each of these reflects light, and these cause the water to
appear full of light.

" This fountain of fire is a charming experiment for a school, and its double
lesson makes it as interesting as it is beautiful."

Prof. Mayer uses Lis flask-and-water lens, as illustrated in Fig, 9,
to get a solar microscope, and so well does it succeed that it is doubt-
ful if it can ever be excelled for combined cheapness and efticiency.
With some blocks of wood, a twenty-five-cent microscopic glass lens,

'i'»'i««iiiiiiiiiiiii:;i:'i;;iT':i:ii!':!':'':,):,f ii.i "• ii:::'i'i'il,;il«':iii!:Ji;i:'i,i' : ' . :.J l.iJl . f'l ^

Fig. 9.— The Solab Microscope.

and a slide carrying a microscopic object, he gets very striking
effects. Animalcules in water, and all sorts of transparent micro-
scopic objects, can be projected upon a curtain by its aid, so that a
large number of people can be entertained by observing the effects
produced.

Fig. 10 shows how a common iron top, such as may be found in
any toy-store, may be transmuted into a color-top. The shape of the
handle is of no importance. By fastening disks of various colors,
made of drawing-paper, around it, all sorts of chromatic changes may
be studied. With red, green, and violet, white will appear by spin-
ning the top. With one-quarter green and three-quarters red a deep

SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS IN OPTICS.

667

orange may be produced. Directions are given for using the top on
the lantern, and casting the colors on the screen, so that a great many
persons may see it at once.

Fig. 10.— Tue Color-Top.

Another method of producing these recompositions is illustrated
in Fig. 11. We have here a square piece of board for a base, an up-
right block at the corner, two pieces of glass to which the dotted lines

Fig. 11. — Direct Rkco.mposition of TU!i Coloks

run, and in which reflections are to be seen at the spots where the
lines meet, and three pieces of paper at A, B, and C, painted respec-
tively red, green, and violet. The image of A is supposed to go througb

668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

both pieces of glass to the eye, while the reflected images of B and C
are, by adjustment, to be made to overlap each other and the image
of yl. When this is accomplished a single white object is seen. This
experiment is conducted most successfully near a window, and with
the back toward the light. When the red and green images are super-
imposed a yellow one is seen, and when the green and violet are super-
imposed we have blue. The colors originally supposed to be primary
were red, yellow, and blue. Prof. Mayer has here given a simple
means of refuting this old theory.

Prof. Mayer describes the construction of a cheap and simple
heliostat for directing the sunlight into the room, and keeping the
beam in the same position for all these experiments. We refer the
reader to the book for the details of its construction, and the full-j^age
woodcuts by which it is illustrated. A great point has been gained
for scientific education by thus putting it in the power of any student,
with ordinary ingenuity, a few tools, and a few shillings, to make such
a large number of interesting and instructive experiments.

-♦-•-♦—

ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY.

By T. II. HUXLEY, F. E. S.

THE chief ground upon which I venture to recommend that the
teaching of elementary physiology should form an essential part
of any organized course of instruction in matters pertaining to domes-
tic economy, is that a knowledge of even the elements of this subject
supplies those conceptions of the constitution and mode of action of
the living body, and of the nature of health and disease, which prepare
the mind to receive instruction from sanitary science.

It is, I think, eminently desirable that the hygienist and the physi-
cian should find something in the public mind to which they can ap-
peal ; some little stock of universally-acknowledged truths, which may
serve as a foundation for their warnings, and predispose tOAvard an
intelligent obedience to their recommendations.

Listening to ordinary talk about health, disease, and death, one is
often led to entertain a doubt whether the speakers believe that the
course of natural causation runs as smoothly in the human body as
elsewhere. Indications are too often obvious of a strong, though per-
haps an unavowed and half-unconscious, undercurrent of opinion that
the phenomena of life are not only widely difierent, in their superficial
characters and in their practical importance, from other natural
events ; but that they do not follow in that definite order which char-

1 A paper read at the Domestic Economy Congress, held in Birmingham, England,
July 17-10, 1877.

ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY. 669

acterizes the succession of all other occurrences, and the statement of
Avhich we call a law of Nature.

Hence, I think, arises the want of heartiness of belief in the value
of knowledge respecting the laws of health and disease, and of the
foresight and care to which knowledge is the essential preliminary,
Avhich is so often noticeable ; and a corresponding laxity and careless-
ness in practice, the results of which are too frequently lamentable.

It is said that, among the many religious sects of Russia, there is
one which holds that all disease is brought about by the direct and
special interference of the Deity, and which, therefore, looks with re-
pugnance upon both preventive and curative measures, as alike blas-
phemous interferences with the will of God. Among ourselves, the
" Peculiar People " are, I believe, the only persons who hold the like
doctrine in its integrity, and carry it out with logical rigor. But
many of us are old enough to recollect that the administration of
chloroform in assuagement of the pangs of childbirth was, at its in-
troduction, strenuously resisted upon similar grounds.

I am not sure that the feeling, of which the doctrine to which I
have referred is the full expression, does not lie at the bottom of the
minds of a great many people who would yet vigorously object to
give a verbal assent to the doctrine itself. However this may be, the
main point is that sufficient knowledge has now been acquired of vital
phenomena to justify the assertion that the notion that there is any-
thing exceptional about these phenomena receives not a particle of
support from any known fact. On the contrary, there is a vast and
an increasing mass of evidence that birth and death, health and dis-
ease, are as much parts of the oi'dinary stream of events as the rising
and setting of the sun, or the changes of the moon ; and that the liv-
ing body is a mechanism the proper working of which we term health ;
its disturbance, disease ; its stoppage, death. The activity of this
mechanism is dependent upon many and complicated conditions, some
of which are hopelessly beyond our control, while others are readily
accessible and are capable of being indefinitely modified by our own
actions. The business of the hygienist and of the physician is to
know the range of these modifiable conditions, and how to influence
them toward the maintenance of healtli and the prolongation of life ;
the business of the general public is to give an intelligent assent,
and a ready obedience based upon that assent, to the rules laid down
for their guidance by such experts. But an intelligent assent is an
assent based upon knowledge, and the knowledge which is here in
question means an acquaintance with the elements of physiology.

It is not difficult to acquire such knowledge. What is true, to a
certain extent, of all the physical sciences, is eminently characteristic
of physiology — the difficulty of the subject begins beyond the stage
of elementary knowledge, and increases with every stage of progress.
While the most highly-trained and best-furnishqd intellect may find

670 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

all its resources insufficient when it strives to reach the heights and
penetrate into the depths of the problems of physiology, the element-
ary and fundamental truths can be made clear to a child.

No one can have any difficulty in comprehending the mechanism
of circulation or respiration, or the general mode of operation of the
organ of vision ; though the unraveling of all the minutiae of these
processes may, for the present, baffle the conjoined attacks of the
most accomplished physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. To
know the anatomy of the human body, with even an approximation
to thoroughness, is the work of a life, but as much as is needed for
a sound comprehension of elementary physiological truths may be
learned in a week.

A knowledge of the elements of physiology is not only easy of ac-
quirement, but it may be made a real and practical acquaintance with
the facts, as far as it goes. Tlie subject of study is always at hand in
one's self. The principal constituents of the skeleton, and the changes
of form of contracting muscles, may bo felt through one's own skin.
The beating of one's heart, and its connection with the pulse, may be
noted; the iu^uence of the valves of one's own veins may be shown ;
the movements of respiration may be observed ; while the wonderful
phenomena of sensation afford an endless field for curious and inter-
esting self-study. The prick of a needle will yield, in a drop of one's
own blood, material for microscopic observation of phenomena which
lie at the foundation of all biological conceptions ; and a cold, with
its concomitant coughing and sneezing, may prove the sweet uses of
adversity by helping one to a clear conception of what is meant by
" reflex action."

Of course, there is a limit to this physiological self-examination.
But there is so close a solidarity between ourselves and our poor rela-
tions of the animal world, that our inaccessible inward parts may be
supplemented by theirs. A comparative anatomist knows that a
sheep's heart and lungs, or eye, must not be confounded with those
of a man; but so far as the comprehension of the elementary facts of
the physiology of circulation and of respiration and of vision goes,
the one furnishes the needful anatomical data as well as the other.

Thus, it is quite possible to give instruction in elementary physiol-
ogy in such a manner as not only to confer knowledge, which, for the
reason I have mentioned, is useful in itself; but to serve the purposes
of a training in accurate observation, and in the methods of reasoning
of physical science. But that is an advantage which I mention only
incidentally, as the present conference does not deal with education in
the ordinary sense of the word.

It will not be suspected that I wish to make physiologists of all
the world. It would be as reasonable to accuse an advocate of the
" three R's" of a desire to make an orator, an author, and a mathema-
tician, of everybody. A stumbling reader, a pot-hook writer, and an

ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY. 671

arithmetician who has not got beyond the rule of three, is not a per-
son of brilliant acquirements ; but the difference between such a mem-
ber of society and one who cannot either read, write, or cipher, is
almost inexpressible; and no one nowadays doubts the value of in-
struction, even if it goes no further.

The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my
mind, a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I
do not believe that it is other than a very valuable possession, how-
ever infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge
is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of dan-
ger ?

If William Harvey's life-long labors had revealed to him a tenth
part of what may be made sound and real knowledge to our boys and
girls, he would not only have been what he was, the greatest physi-
ologist of his age, but he would have loomed upon the seventeenth
century as a sort of intellectual portent. Our little knowledge would
have been to him a great, astounding, unlooked-for vision of scientific
truth.

I really see no hai-m which can come of giving our children a little
knowledge of physiology. But then, as I have said, the instruction
must be real, based upon observation, eked out by good explanatory
diagrams and models, and conveyed by a teacher whose knowledge
has been acquired by study of the facts, and not the mere catechismal
parrot-work which too often usurps the place of elementary teaching.

It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to give a formal contradiction to
the silly fiction, which is assiduously circulated by fanatics who not
only ought to know, but do know, that their assertions are untrue,
that I have advocated the introduction of that experimental discipline
which is absolutely indispensable to the professed physiologist, into
elementai'y teaching.

But wliile I should object to any experimentation which can justly
be called painful, for the purpose of elementary instruction, and while,
as a member of a late Royal Commission, I gladly did my best to
prevent the infliction of needless pain for any purpose, I think it is my
duty to take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition
of the law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines, with live-
frog bait, for idle amusement, and, at the same time, lays the teacher
of that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment if he uses
the same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beauti-
ful and instructive of physiological spectacles, the circulation in the
web of the foot. No one could undertake to afiirm that a frog is not
inconvenienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and having his
toes tied out ; and it cannot be denied that inconvenience is a sort of
pain. But you must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated animal
for scientific purposes (though you may do a good deal in that v/ay
for gain or for sport) without due license of the Secretary of State for

672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Home Department, granted under the authority of the vivisection
net.

So it comes about that, in this present year of grace 1877, two
persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. One has impaled
a frog, and suffered the creature to writhe about in that condition for
hours; the other has pained the animal no more than one of us would
be pained by tying strings round his fingers, and keej^ing him in the
position of an hydropathic patient. The first offender says, " I did it
because I find fishing very amusing," and the magistrate bids him de-
part in peace; nay, probably wishes him good sport. The second
pleads, " I wanted to impress a scientific truth, with a distinctness at-
tainable in no other way, on the minds of my scholars," and the magis-
trate fines him five pounds.

I cannot but think that this is an anomalous and not wholly credit-
able state of things. — Nature.

-♦♦♦-

COSMIC AND OKGANIC EYOLUTIOK

By LESTER F. WARD, A. M.

ryiHE evolution of a world is not obviously identical with the evolu-
-J- tion of an organism. From one point of view they may be re-
garded as, to a certain extent, opposite processes. Fully understood,
they are different manifestations of one process, affected by very dif-
ferent circumstances. Regarding each as an aggregate which must
equally run its course, the special histories of the two are quite un-
like. The history of every aggregate consists of two parts, a rise and
a. decline. It has its period of growth and its period of decadence.
The first consists in a gradual progress from a diffused toward a con-
centrated state ; the second is the return from the concentrated to
the diffused state. The process involved in the first period is the
integration of the matter of the aggregate, and the dissipation of its
motion. In the second period this process is reversed : its matter is
disintegrated, and motion is evolved. The first of these processes is
termed evolution ; the second, dissolution. In theory this is identical
in all aggregates, and therefore the life-history of a plant is the same
as that of a star.

But, while we may trace and understand the process in the former
of these aggregates, and may declare such to be its law as the result
of more or less accurate experimental proof, this is not the case with
the latter. We see the varied forms of life spring into being and
vanish out of being. We may watch them during their entire his-
tory, from the moment when they emerge from the imperceptible to
that in which they are again lost in the imperceptible. We can ob-

COSMIC AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 673

serve all the processes of concentration, of differentiation of parts, and
of integration of the whole, as well as those of equilibration, of decom-
position, and final dissolution. Not so with the planet. Whatever
theory may suggest or require, we are forced to confess a profound
ignorance of the final destiny of worlds. So far as we are able to
observe, the universal tendency of all matter is from the indefinite
and homogeneous to the definite and heterogeneous; from a state of
unstable to one of stable equilibrium. But this is only the morning
of the life of any aggregate. We have 110 reason to suppose that, in
all the myriad worlds of visible space, a single "star presents to our
gaze a condition representing the evening of its life. In the light of
all our knowledge of the heavenly bodies and of the nebulae, we study
with absorbing interest the history of our own planet. From the
confused gaseous condition in which it is supposed to have originally
been, its motion has been gradually dissipated and its matter inte-
grated, until only a comparatively thin envelope of gas — the atmos-
phere— remains. The rest has all assumed either the liquid or the
solid form, the latter of which presents the nearest approach to com-
plete stable equilibrium. And it can scarcely be doubted that this
process still continues, and will continue, until ultimately this omni-
present eremacausis shall also reduce the waters and the atmosphere
to the condition of stability and solidification — a state of planetary
existence which many suppose our satellite to have already reached.

And may not this same law be called in to explain the hetero-
geneity of elementary matter, as known to chemistry ? If all matter
is primordially identical, as so many philosophers have dreamed, is it
not philosophical to assume that our sixty-five known elements repre-
sent so many states of heterogeneity, so many distinct kinds of pri-
mary aggregates, which the matter of our globe and other worlds has
taken on in its course from complete homogeneous instability toward
its ultimate condition of stable equilibrium, as represented in what
we know as solids ?

However this may be, it is at least true that, so far as regards
purely cosmical processes, the ascending series is the only one observ-
able by us. For the " dead star," be it understood, represents, in the
grand cycle of the redistribution of matter and motion, the meridian
of its lite, and not its close. Complete equilibration is the last act in
the drama of evolution, and must be attained before the forces of dis-
solution commence their work. But we look in vain for any signs of
the dissolution of the universe. Whatever theory may require, the
fact ever remains that the process which we see going on in our por-
tion of space is the process of evolution only. We see only the inte-
gration of matter and the dissipation of motion. We see only the
tendency toward the condition of stable equilibrium. We see only
the absorption of the gaseous and the establishment of the solid form
of matter. All the theories by which it has been sought to compen-
Tor,. XI. — 43

674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sate for the radiations of luminous bodies have proved mere specu-
lations. We know that the sun is radiating its heat into space ; we
do not know that space is returning this dissipated motion, either to
the sun or to any other centre. We see planets and stars in various
stages of their progress toward the stable state ; we have no reason
to believe that any are in the condition of transition from the stable
to the unstable state.

The moon is supposed to have already passed through most, if not
all, of its stages from the gaseous to the solid condition. Its atmos-
phere has been absorbed, its waters have retreated into its interior or
perhaps been converted into solids, and all its visible activities have ap-
parently ceased. If there still exist volcanic activities upon it, as cer-
tain observations seem to prove, they are probably the only ones, and
are themselves declining. Doubtless there are other bodies m our
solar system whose equilibration is even more complete than that of
the moon — as, perhaj)s, some asteroids, or the satellites cf the outer
planets. They have run their long cosmical course, and have arrived
at last at the final state of complete, stable equilibrium. This state
is the goal of the whole process of evolution. It must, therefore, be
regarded, when viewed from this standpoint, as the state of greatest
perfection in the life of every aggregate. Many of the heavenly
bodies have certainly advanced far toward this condition, and all are
undoubtedly approaching it. But where is the evidence that any have
commenced to reverse this process ? What star is suspected of being
in a state of disintegration ? Where in all the universe do we see
solids turning into liquids, and liquids into gases ? Where and how
are the radiations emitted by concentrating bodies being harvested
again, and applied to the disintegration of completely integrated mat-
ter? In a word, amid all these manifest proofs of evolution, what
proof exists of dissolution regarded as a cosmical process ? We are
bound to confess that there is none. We are justified in its assump-
tion on a priori grounds alone, if at all. The law of the conservation
of energy, now so well established in all the departments of physics,
must be theoretically extended to the mechanics of space. This law
is only another expression for the indestructibility of motion. If no
motion can be destroyed, the same quantity must always exist in the
universe. And as motion is necessarily nothing more than the local
change of material atoms, all the solar and astral radiations must
continue for all time to afiect the same quantity of matter to the same
extent. Hence these radiations cannot be wholly lost. Still, all this
may be true, without afiecting the question of the dissolution of worlds.
The minute fraction of the sun's heat which is intercepted and ab-
sorbed by the different bodies of the solar system is utterly insuffi-
cient to ever eflfect their disintegration ; and it is continually dimin-
ishing as the sun itself a23proaches the term of its existence : o forti-
ori, no such results can ever be produced by any of the more remote

COSMIC AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 675

radiating bodies. All this motion is projected into space, and the
history of its future work is wholly beyond our comprehension. It
may continue to affect the ethereal atoms pervading space for all
eternity, without exerting an appreciable influence upon concenti*ated
matter. Even our right to project the law of conservation into the
realms of space, where we daily see motion dissipated but never re-
composed, has been called in question. Have we the right to assert
that this motion, lost to our system, is not lost to the universe ? True
Science well knows how here to suspend its judgment, but it also
knows liow to restrain the hopeless cry of ignorabinms.

Mr. Herbert Spencer is therefore right in making evolution the
fundamental principle of philosophy, and regarding dissolution, which
is its exact opposite and correlate, as practically of very inferior im-
portance. For, so far as the earth itself and the heavenly bodies are
concerned, the very existence of such a process is in doubt. So far as
our knowledge of the universe, as such, extends, but one law is any-
where observable, and that is the law of evolution. Indeed, evolution
is but the process of which the principle is gravitation. Evolution is
the concentration and integration of matter ; its tendency is toward
the condition of stable equilibrium. The contraction of a body is due
to the artraction of its molecules. Gravitation alone can explain this
tendency, and gravitation necessarily requires it. Evolution is there-
fore coextensive with gravitation. Whei'ever gravitation prevails,
evolution must prevail. On the contrary, a condition of dissolution
would require the prevalence of a force the reverse of gravitation — a
repulsive and expansive force. Our acquaintance with the visible
universe reveals no region of space where we can assume the preva-
lence of such a force. On the contrary, many fixed stars, and even
nebulae, afford the strongest evidence of being under the dominion of
an attractive force. Not, however, but that there exists in the uni-
verse abundant evidence of the possibility and reality of a repulsive
or dissolving force. This is found, and with the greatest certainty,
within the scope of our daily observation of the facts about us. And
in at least one instance it is assumed, with a high degree of proof, to
manifest itself in regions beyond the limits of terrestrial influence. I
refer to the behavior of the tails of comets at perihelion. But wher-
ever we see this force of repulsion, which alone could effect the disso-
lution of the aggregates already formed, it is wholly subordinate to
the force of attraction which has formed them. Phenomena of this
nature are but episodes in the history of a system or of a world.
Everywhere the opposite phenomena predominate. Everywhere the
force of gravity is evolving new aggregates, and bearing old ones on
to their final state of complete equilibration.

Let us now turn to the second branch of our subject, and glance
for a moment at the phenomena and laws of organic evolution. The
first fact that presents itself is, that its primary condition is the influ-

6/6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ence of the sun. However it may have been at one period of the his-
tory of the earth, when its internal temperature may have been of a
nature to favor the development of organic life without the sun's aid,
by the earth becoming itself a sort of sun, it may at least be now
affirmed that the solar radiations are the sole condition of vital exist-
ence on the globe. This fact is so apparent that even savages have
generally recognized it, and science has scarcely been able to qualify
the popular conception. By the aid of the sun's heat and light the
various forms of vegetable and animal life have been evolved. By the
same influence, year by year, the buds, and flowers, and leaves, unfold
to the elements, and renew their conditions of growth and reproduc-
tion. By means of it the waters of the globe are in part converted
into vapor and gas, in which state alone they are adapted to the sup-
ply' of organic beings. By its influence the various organic bodies on
the surface of the earth are finally disintegrated, and the materials for
new forms and new beings are dissipated into the gaseous form, for
recomposition and i-eutilization. By the same influence the waters of
the globe are prevented from solidifying, and made the abode of mill-
ions of organic beings. In a word, it is the influence of the sun which
alone renders our planet a habitable globe.

But what is the nature of this great and wonderful influence as
expressed in the terms of the redistribution of matter? However
paradoxical it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the great life-
creating and life-sustaining force of the sun is cosmologically a disin-
tegrating force, a force of dissolution. Indeed, the solar and sidereal
radiations are the only examples which the whole universe presents to
us of such a force. It seems strange enough to be comj^elled to as-
cribe all the phenomena which have been embodied in the term or-
ganic evolution to the action of a force which is the precise opposite
of evolution, and which ultimately accomplishes the dissolution of
every such aggregate. Yet it is only because the sun is in a state in
which its matter is being integrated, and its motion radiated into
space, that our earth is capable of producing the forms of organic life.
It is only because a portion of this motion, ejected from the sun, is in-
tercepted and absorbed by the earth, by which a portion of its own
matter is disintegrated, and its own course of evolution is in so far
arrested that the presence of the beings peopling it has been made
possible. It is only through cosmical dissolution that organic evolu-
tion can go on.

Is life, then, a process of dissolution? Is organic evolution a mis-
nomer ? Are the imfolding of the bud, the branching of the tree, the
hatching of the Qg^^., the differentiation of the animal — are these but so
many steps which concentrated matter is taking toward its final disin-
tegration ? Is development the antithesis of evolution? To all these
questions a negative answer may, I think, be given. But we have
gone far enough to perceive that some broad distinction exists between

COSMIC AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION. e-jj

cosmic and organic evolution. Let us examine this distinction more
closely. We know that an organism develops, much like a world, out
of an homogeneous and diffused state of its elements. Throughout its
course the organic aggregate behaves like other aggregates. From
the imperceptible it becomes perceptible. From the diffuse it becomes
concentrated. From the indefinite it becomes definite. From the
homogeneous it becomes heterogeneous. From the unstable it ap-
proaches the stable condition. Segregation, which is the selective
process, is more marked in the organic than in the inorganic aggre-
gate. Its parts are differentiated and rendered distinct and definite,
while through an increasing dependence between them the whole
aggregate becomes more and more firmly integrated or consolidated.
Growth, which is increase of bulk, is simply the absorption of diffuse
gaseous or liquid materials, which may theoretically be regarded as
having originally belonged to the aggregate in its most widely dif-
fused condition. Development, which is increase of structure, is the
same process which all aggregates undergo in their transition from
the homogeneous and indefinite toward the heterosreneous and definite,
under the laws of segregation and the multiplication of effects. Final-
ly, equilibration in organic aggregates is distinct and universal.

Every organism must reach this stage, and that in a comparatively
brief period — so brief as to be capable of repeated and easy observa-
tion. So plain does this stage of its progress become that it is feared
that the predication of a stage of equilibration, not to say dissolution,
for inorganic aggregates, is an argument from analogy, where the
analogy is taken from a very subordinate class of phenomena, viz.,
from the observed equilibration of organic aggregates. A universal
conclusion is deduced from a particular case ; the law of the whole is
assumed from that of a part. This, according to Mr. Spencei-'s own
showing in his " Principles of Psychology," is the weakest form of
reasoning. It should be admitted, however, that while the doctrine
of the ultimate disintegration and dissolution of the celestial bodies
rests on very insufficient inductive evidence, there are strong a priori
grounds, beyond the domain of science, but clearly Avithin the range
of philosophy, which make it a legitimate object for the exercise of
the " constructive imao;ination."

The most important truth which can be called in to aid us in this
difficulty and apparent confusion of phenomena is that of the per-
petual competitive operation of both the forces of evolution and of dis-
solution. Both these influences are at all times and in all kinds of
aggregates simultaneously at work. The history of every aggregate
is that of its struggle with these opposite contending influences. TJie
final equilibration implies this. It is the establishment of equilibrium
between just these forces. In the evolution of a star the forces of
dissolution are mostly within the aggregate. In that of a star-system
they seem to be wholly so. The process of evolution goes on against

678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the inherent tendencies to dissolution. The eqviilibrimn reached is
between the attractive or integrating and the repulsive or disinte-
grating forces. Both are at all times active, and, if the latter at last
prevail and the mode of redistribution is reversed, the gravitative in-
fluence still continues to oppose its progress. In an organism the dis-
integrating tendencies are chiefly from without. Everywhere on the
globe the sun's influence is tending to prevent the integration of the
liquid and gaseous elements. Life is the product of this struggle.

It may be laid down, as a universal law of the redistribution of
matter, that organization is the product of the antagonistic tendencies
of attraction and repulsion during the period in which the former pre-
vails. Organization is, then, the great distinguishing characteristic of
the process of evolution. The organization of the solar system is the
result of this competitive struggle between these two agencies. It is
the same with an organism. We have, then, at last reached a plane of
generalization in which the cosmical and the organic processes may
be regarded as parallel and homologous throughout. The active prin-
ciple which directly results in organization is that which Mr. Spencer
denominates segregation^ by which the like parts are brought together
and unlike parts separated.

The final result of this process is the formation of many distinct
and definite parts which are unlike one another — heterogeneous.
Each of these definite parts, differing from all the rest in the same
aggregate, is, within itself, homogeneous, i. e., consists of a uniform
internal structure. The like particles, in consequence of the similarity
of their properties, naturally gravitate to the same j^lace. In the case
of the earth the atmosphere or gaseous portion forms a uniform en-
velope around it, due clearly to the nature and homogeneity of its
molecular constitution. The waters, for the same reason, form a par-
tial second envelope within this. The hardened crust of solid matter
comes next, and in like manner the entire organization of the earth
might be explained. Exactly the same process takes place in a living
organism. Its various organs, vessels, specialized tissues, and differ-
entiated parts, are tlie result of this same law of mechanical selection.
The difference in the properties of the matter of each is at once the
cause of their segregation and of their organic function.

The point at which we have arrived, therefore, is this : Organiza-
tion is the necessary consequence of the competition of the integrat-
ing and disintegrating forces, so long as the former prevail. The
influence of the sim upon the matter of the globe is toward its disin-
tegration and dissipation into gas. But for the opposing influence of
gravitation, attraction, or concentration, this result would be speedily
accomplished. But the resultant of these two antagonistic forces, at
a time when their relative power is substantially what it now is on
the surface of our globe, is such as to render possible the form of evo-
lution which we denominate organic life. A certain amount of the

COSMIC AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 679

matter of the globe is in the gaseous form. The gases themselves are
differentiated into what we call oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, and
aqueous vapor, each of which exerts its special influence in the econ-
omy of vital existence, and without any one form of which, so far as
we can see, life would be impossible. Another portion of the matter
composing the earth exists in the liquid state, the chief form of which
is water, of which more than half the weight of all organized beings
consists. Evidently without water nothing answering to our concep-
tion of life could exist. Of the solid matter of the globe there exists
the greatest heterogeneity, and it may be classified in a variety of
different ways. Many, though probably by no means all, of the so-
called distinct substances known to us are of direct value in the for-
mation of organic tissues, and certain of them are clearly indispen-
sable, so far as we understand their office ; as, for example, lime, phos-
phorus, iron, etc., etc. Certain of these substances are crystalline,
others colloid in their structure, the latter of which possess peculiar
adaptations to the formation of organic tissue. Finally, between the
solid and the liquid state there exist all grades of transition, thus
adding variety to the organic adaptations.

As the universal law of concentration or integration proceeds to
reduce all these varied forms to one, and to cement all in a single ho-
mogeneous solid, it is met by the powerful but somewhat irregular
and erratic force of the solar radiations, reenforcing the inherent cos-
mical influences already so far overcome in the evolution of the planet
as to have brought it to its given state. The result of this conflict of
forces is the condition in which we find our globe. Without the aid
of the sun's rays, organic evolution might have been impossible.
Without the aid of the cosmical force of concentration, in a certain
way counteracting without neutralizing them, it would have equally
been impossible. With such a predominance of the one as has proba-
bly prevailed in the past, or of the other as will probably prevail in
the future, the particular form of evolution required to develop what
we know as life seems also beyond the range of scientific probability.
A few degrees more either of heat or of cold are sufficient to utterly
destroy it. Of the latter, we have a near approach to a positive ex-
ample m the state of things existing in regions round the poles of the
earth's axis. Of the former, artificial proofs are easy, and certain
desert regions of the globe constitute partial illustrations, easily com-
pleted by the imagination.

We thus learn what a precarious thing life is, within what narrow
limits it is circumscribed, upon what slender conditions its possibility
depends ; contemplating which, we may be appalled to reflect how
small a portion of the concentrated matter of space must be presumed
to fall under these conditions. For, even if every world in space
passes through this organic period, its duration must be ephemeral
compared with the vast cycle of its existence.

68o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The important truth that it has been sought to reach by these con-
siderations is, that organic evolution is but one of the minor manifes-
tations of universal evolution. It occurs at a stage of the process
when the struggle between the contending forces is very great, if not
at its greatest. It is the immediate product of that struggle, and
cannot exist when either the one or the other greatly predominates.
The force to which we universally ascribe all possibility of life is the
force which is tending to disintegrate the matter of the globe by ab-
sorbing the motion of the sun. The force which constitutes evolution
proper is that which bears down all life and reduces the face of Na-
ture to a desert waste. The interaction of these two forces, where
they are suitably proportioned, effects the organization of portions of
the matter on the globe, and organization itself is life. The period of
greatest organic perfection on a planet is therefore very different from
the period of its greatest cosmical perfection, which corresponds with
that of complete equilibration. Cosmical evolution is the histoi-y of
the universe, organic evolution is a transient episode in the life of a
paltry planet. We can only console ourselves with the belief that,
but for this trifling digression of Nature, no being would have existed
capable of formulating the laws of the universe.

Organic evolution must not, however, be restricted to the mere
span which the life of an individual represents. To fully comprehend
its scope, the conception of the organic aggregate should be extended
to embrace all the life, past, present, and future, on the globe. The
mysterious process of reproduction, unknown to all other aggregates,
has the effect of binding all livinsf organisms into one continuous
whole, and giving to all terrestrial life the stamp of unity. The indi-
viduals of a race or species do not represent so many distinct aggre-
gates. The qualities of antecedent forms, whether inherited or ac-
quired, are transmitted to subsequent forms, thus conserving, as it
were, all the organization previously evolved. Although the dissolu-
tion of the individual aggregate takes place, the work of evolution
which has been going on within it is passed on to a new generation, to
be there continued and again transmitted. The individual, therefore,
becomes of comparatively small importance. The real organic aggre-
gate is the race. The race alone is capable of receiving and preserv-
ing all the products of organic evolution. Ontogenetic development is
lost sight of in the march of phylogenetic development. The individual
is merged in the species, the species in the genus, the order, the class,
and all are finally swallowed up in the tout ensemble of organized exist-
ence. Organic being, as such, is the final term to which the generaliza-
tion must be carried before the true scope of organic evolution can be
adequately grasped by the mind. Individuals perish and are decom-
posed ; species become extinct ; genera, families, and whole classes,
are swept from the earth. The broadest divisions into which the
organic kingdoms of Nature have been classified have each their

COSMIC AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION, 681

periods of ascendency and decline. But organic evolution ever con-
tinues. Progress in organization is the constant result. It is always,
on the whole, the less organized that gives way to the more organized.
If the rich and exuberant cryptogamic vegetation of the Carbonif-
erous epoch has dwindled away into the insignificant cryptogamic
vegetation of our time, it has been succeeded by a pha^nogamic vege-
tation of far higher organization and nobler qualities. If the great
saurian dynasty that ruled the Cretaceous age has surrendered its
sceptre and disappeared from the stage of terrestrial life, a far higher
mammalian dynasty, at whose head man now stands, has taken up
that sceptre and is moving on to still loftier heights of organic devel-
opment.

We have thus arrived at the highest point from which the phe-
nomena of organic evolution can be surveyed. What do we see ? We
see that, in proportion as our point of view rises, the relative impor-
tance of the phenomena of dissolution to those of evolution dimin-
ishes. We see that the dissolution of the individual aggregate affects
but little the evolution of the race-aggregate, and not at all that of
the complete life-aggregate of the globe. We see that, amid all the
evanescent forms that surround us, the evolution of life is constant ;
that of organic being as such there is no dissolution. We thus find
the parallelism between cosmic and organic evolution, which at the
outset seemed so paradoxical, and afterward so imperfect, to be at
last complete. In the one as in the other, the only phenomena which
we know to be universal are those of evolution. In the one as in the
other, the opposite class of phenomena are wholly subordinate, spe-
cial, and local. In the one as in the other, the forces of attraction and
repulsion, of integration and disintegration, are in perpetual conflict.
Ill the one as in the other, the organization of matter is the result.
Just as tlie doctrine of the ultimate dissolution of the bodies of space
rests on a priori deductions alone, unsupported by empirical obser-
vation, so must the final disorganization of the life of our globe be
inferred from cosmological principles, which transcend tlie present
limits of astronomy and physics. So far as we are capable of pene-
trating the mysteries of space or of life, we find that evolution is the
law of the universe ; while the forces which oppose that law, though
powerful and ever active, are secondary and subordinate, and only
seem to revei-se it by the destruction of transient forms. In tlie gen-
esis of world-systems this counter-evolutionary force consists in the
inherent expansive power of diffused matter, or, what amounts to the
same thing, in the resistance whicli such matter offers to the forces of
condensation. In the phenomena of life this resistance comes chiefly
from the sun, whose thermal radiations tend to dissipate the elements
of the globe.

We are thus brought into full view of the deepest truth that
underlies the redistribution of matter — the profound antithesis be-

682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tween gravitation and ethereal vibration, which constitute, in the last
analysis, the true correlative jt)riwc«}^^es of which evolution and disso-
lution are the corresponding processes. These are the agencies which
are at all times antagonizing each other in all parts of the universe,
and whose exact equality in it seems to form a logical tenet of the
modern cosmology. A certain golden mean between these forces, but
in which the former must j)redominate, results in organization ; star-
systems are formed in space, and life is developed out of the plane-
tary elements. Such appears to be the state of all the matter within
the range of human observation. For, whatever may be the condi-
tion of other worlds or other regions of space, the phenomena of our
world and our portion of space belong to the ascending series ; and
whatever may be the final doom of our planet and our universe, both
are now in a state of progress, and are still rejoicing in the morning
of creation.

♦»»■

PESSIMISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE.

By CHAELES NISBET.

THE consideration of general questions not admitting of definite
answer, and always throwing us back on the consciousness of
the extreme limitation of our knowledge, is not a profitable direction
of mind, nor to be recommended as an exclusive study.

Still, occasionally, it may be wholesome, as it has confessedly a
strange attraction for us, to journey to the confines of our little island
of knowledge, and thence speculate a little on the trackless ocean of
mystery to the navigation of which science and logic are alike inade-
quate. All true religion is founded on this consciousness of the infi-
nite, of an ultimatum transcending our comprehension, but stimulating
and exercising our faith.

The moral government of the world, the spiritual tendency, or
indeed any dominant direction, of things, is not patent to the fleeting
glance, does not reveal itself even to the most strenuous thought.
The history of the world presents itself rather as a Jeremiad, as a
bottomless chaos in which evil and good w^restle with each other for
the mastery, and where evil generally boasts the vast majority of
forces.

Savage countries lie thousands of years morally stagnating or
decomj^osing, often physically starving, ground down under cruel des-
potisms and superstitions, reducing one another in perpetual warfares.
The pages of the most favored countries show long chapters of declen-
sion, and the moral influxes, like angels' visits, only few and far be-
tween. The cause of Brutus opens the way to Cgesarism and death.
Spain shares in the tide of new life, but that life is zealously extin-

PESSIMISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 683

guished, and the nation settles down to decay. Cromwell and his
Puritanism introduce Charles II. and licentiousness. The Pilgrim
Fathers, Washington, and other great men, lay with solemnity and
greatness of mind the foundations of the United States, and is its his-
tory hitherto a satisfactory result ? Nation after nation, Egyptian,
Persian, Jewish, Grecian, Roman, Arabian, and Celtic, shoot into blos-
som in order to rot back into forgetfulness.

And if we take regard of the individual units that are always
swarming by the millions into the world, what vast quantities get
blasted out before they have well begun to cry, not to speak of the
possible units frustrated of birth. And of those surviving the perils
of the outset, how all get bruised and damaged sooner or later, till
death comes and snuffs out the smoky tallow-lights ! People made a
great fuss at the time about the late William King Thompson, of Brook-
lyn, New York, ship-exploder, as if he had done something more than
usually wicked, but now it is seen for the mere trifle it is. Say he ex-
ploded half a dozen ship-loads of men, was there, out of the six human
cargoes that flew successively all at once into ten thousand pieces, as
much as one individual that properly speaking ever lived, or lived
other than the most insignificant sensational existence? At every
change of the temperature of the atmosphere from heat to cold are
not many thousands of aerial midges summoned, on very shojt notice
indeed, from their gay discursions to face the solemnities of eternity ?
Animal existence is cheap as dust, the earth and stones only requiring
some little mixing and kneading in order to turn off endless batches
of men and women.

Consider the tens of thousands always being born in our large
cities, who by bad j^arentage, bad conception, foul air, foul food, and
all manner of evil influences, get at once summarily stamped and sealed
off to depravity and perdition. Think how in all our towns are houses
where choice human cattle are kept, fed, and dressed, their soundness
attested (on the Continent) by qualified officials ; and how your choicest
human cattle, rejoicing in their spiritual culture, throng into these
shows to inspect and purchase. And in this enlightened age we know
this is Nature all the world over, and Nature must be obeyed.

We are proud of the present age as the triumph of trade and
mechanism. And we know the high genius and aim of trade. Trade
thinks only on a good balance, and is proud of a good balance, be it
got out of the follies and vices of men or in whatever way. Trade is
thinning the country, crowding the towns, swelling dukes' incomes,
fattening distillers and brewers, disfiguring and reducing the human
physique^ blighting the tenderness of relations between man and man,
checking you off the values of the different sorts of intellect and in-
spiration. And, thanks to the extreme nicety of our mechanical ar-
rangements, we are cut down into the most fractional existences. As
if the disjecta membra left on a field of battle were made to spin into

684 ^^-^ POPULAR SCIUNCE MONTHLY.

some sort of galvanic life ! In the higher provinces, too, your intel-
lectual men are distributed into departments and sub-departments as
writers or speakers, while life in the walks of fashion is a game of
consumption and show. And when on the part of busy men the day's
arduous endeavors toward the continuance of sublime human life are
accomplished, and leisure is left for reflection, then a glass of beer, a
pipe, cards, coffee and cake, a game at billiards or whist, a novel from
the circulating library, is illimitable scope for the spiritual faculties.

And if we turn to our highest spiritual institutions we see equal
signs of prosperity. At all our famous universities droves of young
men called " students " are invited to profane the holiest names and
symbols under the pretext of studying them, as if the first and fore-
most condition to intellectual activity or " study" were not a certain
degree of spiritual faculty, of purification of the heart. The towns
where they are collected for spiritual culture they defile more scanda-
lously than any other class which makes no pretensions to spiritual
culture.

Even if we single, out of the whole range of human history, the
few men of genius whom we are constrained to regard as the eminent-
ly favored and endowed of our race, we find what a broken career has
been allotted to the most of them. Have not many of them, possess-
ing courage to inspire, intelligence to enlighten, sensibility to refine
the world, sickened under the languor of neglect or got embittered at
the endless contradictions and misrepresentations of their fellows, dy-
ing at last as unfortunate men, unhappy to themselves, unbeneficial to
their contemporaries? What an evil is the not unfrequent depravity
of genius, and which under happier circumstances might have been a
great salutary influence instead ! Might not the tremendous forces of
Swift, for example, have been turned to better account than left to
explode in shocks of half diabolic hate in earlier days, and in madness
at the end ? Think of the generous human heart, brave will, and clear
head of Burns, a man of quite transcendent powers, yet fain to slink
past on the shady side of the street, left to bleed so Avretchedly to
death in the midsummer of his days. ContemiDlate the great intellect
and great heart of Lessing, a man of thrice excellent mother-wit and
eftectiveness, disposing with a lordly air of the whole literature of
Europe, awakening with his clarion-voice his slumbering nation to
new intellectual conquests, yet himself imprisoned for so many of his
best years in the stifling library-dust of Wolfenbtittel, isolated there
in the midst of an unhealthy swamp ; the world such a dish of skimmed
milk as to be incapable of any sense of honor. Was not Lessing's
child a boy of remarkable sense, who no sooner came into the world
than, seeing his mistake, made out of it double-quick ? Is it not prob-
able that many brave souls, braver and better perhaps than any known
to fame, have gone down to silence unregarded, the world's stupidity
being more than a match for the gods themselves ? Think of good

PESSIMISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 685

Edgar in " King Lear," and had he been left to die a maniac, would
that, think you, have been untrue to fact ?

Even the one or two to whom Fate has been most propitious, a
Shakespeare, a Goethe, have not they too suffered from the bruises or
flattery of Fortune, fallen at any rate far short of the fullness and
balance a happier age and education might have conducted them to ?

People are indeed fond of raising monuments and holding cente-
naries (to the so-called honor ! ) of great men, but do you think there is
any significance at the bottom of it ? Very little indeed. The fathers
kill the prophets, and the sons garnish their sepulchres.

In the face of these facts and considerations how disgusting to
hear the universal cant about " public opinion ! " The shoemaker's
opinion may indeed have some value on the matter of boots, the tai-
lor's on that of clothes ; but what opinion can the masses, all ab-
sorbed in the question of simple existence, have about government
and education and religion ? At best they are capable of a total
heart-belief in names^ of dying as martyrs for names. Dean Stanley
admits that most of the noble martyrdoms have been in attestation
of peculiar combinations of letters of the alphabet. See the intellect
and heart of Scotland wrangling, down into the latter end of the
nineteenth century (and into how many later centui'ies ?), as to whether
little children at school shall learn how to define eflTectual callinsf and
distinguish between justification, adoption, and sanctification !

And all men shall be immortal ? Each despicable unit must needs
be an immortal and independent soul ? Came from God ? And God
sends by special appointment such swarms of immortal souls, often in
such questionable way, sinto the world ? And if you are really eter-
nal the one way, before., you must also be so the other Avay, behind?
What, then, of your being a thousand years ago ? And you do seem
to carry the air of eternity about you, sleeping and digesting and
pottering about nothing as you do ! Is not each individual man,
according to Darwin and Haeckel, but the temporary inheritor and
transmitter of the qualities of his ancestors, modified by the impres-
sions received during his own tenure of life from intercourse with
people, reading, etc. ? And how can the self-same life be held at one
and the same time by each individual successive link in an endless
chain, seeing the life devolves but in succession, and that each link in
the chain sparkles into existence and luminousness only during the
short term of actual possession ?

It is no use arguing that men are left to their own free-wills, and
have themselves to blame for their fates, when the whole complaint is
simply that men have no free-wills to be left to, but are total slaves.
And yet not a poor devil desecrating the earth but, under very possi-
ble circumstances, through a kinder providence and better influences,
might have been saved in the first place from being born a devil.
Where, then, is the moral government of the world, the ideal tendency

686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of things, the high and lofty destinies, and all that ? Schopenhauea-
and Bahnsen, earnest thinkers, arrive, after exhaustive examination
and mature deliberation, at the conclusion that the world is not the
best but the worst conceivable, the best possible issue for it annihila-
tion, man's greatest misfortune birth, his greatest happiness death.

And yet the everlasting impossibility of accepting this as a final
statement proves unquestionably its partiality — proves there must be
quite a ditFerent and broader verdict. Duni sxnro spero ; respiration
is aspiration. Life is hope, is struggle upward and onward. Healthy
and robust life can set no final goal to its endeavors and hopes, but
carries deep in its bosom the promise of quite an infinity of inheri-
tance— dim and unconscious perhaps, yet latently warm and unques-
tioning.

Despair is death, declension from once recognized higher ideas is
degeneration, violation of principles of honor and justice once recog-
nized is inevitable injury. In the active furtherance of spiritual or
universal ends alone has man solid and complete satisfaction. What
is the meaning of the universal Jeremiad from the beginning of time
till now but "the fall," the declension from the necessary justice and
goodness ? Down to the last stage of depravity the man is never at
home in his depravity. It is always c^epravity, and not native bad-
ness. The man's unsightliness, alienation from himself and his fel-
lows, inward sense of bankruptcy and ruin, is an eloquent, pathetic
sermon in behalf of the true. Injustice, selfishness, disavowal of
obligations, seizure of others' property, never enriched or profited a
man, but has always been so much inward contraction, induration,
plethora, deliration — always so much disease involving so much pain,
demanding so much expiation.

The subordination of self in the pious recognition of the eternal
laws (= religion) and the adequate willing execution of the same
(= art) — that alone is life, and a man is more or less according to the
measui'e of his possession of this life. In the name of God, which is
our highest expression of the world, is recognized something higher
than our utmost sense of the just, good, and beautiful. If, then, our
hearts go out in fervent, irrepressible longings of love toward the great
men who have met on this planet the most unhandsome reception, if
we demand that the heavy debt of love and esteem which was due to
Lessing, for example, but never paid, be at last made good to him,
that this excellent spirit, which out of a full heart would radiate to the
quickening and enlightening of his country and Europe, do not strike
his beams into emptiness, but that he himself also be gladdened by
the warm reflection of his own light — is there, are we to suppose,
nothing in tlie heart of things, nothing in the primal intellect and
heart corresponding to this unsubduable demand on the part of our
remote individual consciousness ? Shall the mother-sun be less warm

PESSIMISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 687

than a reflex ray of itself? If, again, our hearts, though so poor and
insensible, can yet break in salt sorrow over the confused helpless
misery of the masses, is the prayer that bursts involuntarily from them
not in accord witli the heart of God himself? Is it a foolish and false
impulse which Nature stirs in the heart of the mother when she rec-
ognizes a quite infinite value in the poor helpless chick newly-born to
her ? • When Jesus Christ appeared as a symbol of love and mercy in
this world, preaching the prodigal son, and proclaiming the God of
this world to be a God of righteousness and comj^assion, could the
hearts of his hearers remain insensible to the manifestation and the
sermon ? Have not the words been caught up as the truest gospel of
the highest God ? And in Jesus Christ, who felt an unspeakable in-
terest even in the outcasts of society, and whose attitude toward the
morally wrecked man, in whom desires and appetites had devoured
all the handsome capital and prospects and possibilities in life, was
not the side sniff of cold disdain, but condemnation into everlasting
fire or an infinite yearning of compassion — in this appearance of Jesus
Christ on earth have not men been constrained worshipfully to recog-
nize the truest incarnation of God ? Religion which sinks in us all
personal regards, which would bring us into immediate communion
with the Supreme, is ever a consciousness of inexhaustible resources —
is more than a counterpoise for all the ills of life, and all the black
facts which history can adduce — is a power which can dwarf all his-
tory, all the hitherto actual, into the insignificance of a mere prelude,
and not an essential act in the drama of life itself.

Meanwhile, over and above this general reflection, which, if needed,
can always serve as our last impregnable resource, it is possible to
predicate particularly some of the advantages, and even the absolute
necessity, of the confusion and misery everywhere attaching to reality.

This confused world of good and evil is the right arena and train-
ing-school for battle, enterprise, patience — for all the active and in-
deed also all the passive virtues. The baseness, stupidity, folly,
injustice, suffering, and wreck, this world everywhere presents, are
always a splendid challenge to strengtli, diligence, endurance, faith,
wisdom — to all sublime and manly qualities. Sloth, indolence, sweet
dreaminess, and credulity, have a hard time of it here — meet every day
with the shrewdest rubs and tosses till they are either forced into
wakefulness or gored into death. A long-living and prosperous nation
must plough the soil, must sail the sea, must live much out-of-doors,
must ever be prepared to defend its own against the whole surround-
ing world. And the artist or man of letters must ^ot ensconce him-
self too much in his cozy study, but lay himself open to the shock of
opposition and the misconstruction of his fellows, must not shrink
from the experience of unkindly facts to try his nerve and test his
digestion. Only to the man -who lives industriously, moderately,
honestly, truthfidly, and piously, does God vouchsafe higher dis-

6S8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

closures ; and to the man who will eat the bread that has been by the
labor of other hands j^rocured for him without paying an equivalent,
the kingdom of heaven is forever shut.

The personal pain, lauguishment, and imbitteredness, do not spoil
for the brave man his appreciation of life, but by persistent faith and
well-doing he subdues and converts contrarieties into furtherances.
Socrates and Paul and Cromwell and Milton did not break their hearts
or give up the tight. Lessing, after all the languor and sickness of
Wolfenbiittel, refused to die, though he bore in his heart the deadly
ravages of fate, till he had first presented to his ungrateful country
his large-hearted offering of " Nathan der Weise." Nor was he ego-
istically looking forward to a world of happiness beyond the grave, as
compensation for his sufferings, as reward for his magnanimous services.

" He heeded not reviling tones,
Nor sold his heart to idle moans,
Though cursed and scorned, and bruised with stones."

Think what sort of world it would be without the pain and perse-
cution. When in our church-pews our ears are tickled with the sweet
eloquence about heaven, where there will be no tragedy, no pain, no
tears, no trial of temper, no tempers, no passions, no black, all white,
only white, everlasting singing, and so on, does not every masculine
heart feel the most melancholy misgivings about the concern ? would
he not willingly sell out on that policy even at a liberal discount, could
he but invest with the realized capital in this troublous yet withal
interesting planet ?

The truth is, the mixture and antithesis is the aj^petizing quality
in the fare of life. The dangers, misunderstandings, jealousies, errors,
and seductions, on the one hand ; on the other hand the joy in
healthy relations to the sensuous world, and in the esthetic contem-
plation of it, the sense of the ludicrous and ridiculous evermore tickled
by the wonderful conjunctions of the sublime and vulgar in human
affairs, the feeling of heaven in true relations to our fellow men and
women, in work accomplished and duty performed, the highest bliss
of all in the recognition of, and nearer and nearer identification with,
the Supreme Spirit; the sense, in short, of a hell on the one hand to
be shunned, and a heaven on the other to be enjoyed — whoever vivid-
ly realizes all this will not underrate life on this planet, but infinitely
prize it.

Yes, this earth is dear to mortal men, not merely in spite of its
tears and crosses, but also on account of them. The bitterest expe-
riences we pass through need but to drift to the due distance in the
past, and they assume a wonderfully interesting guise. Strangely,
tenderly aftecting in the retrospect are our riotous " Hal " days, our
sigliing Venus and Adonis fit, our sultry Werther fever, our sweet and
bitter Faust period, and all the other dear illusions which beset us on
our devious path.

PESSIMISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 689

For indeed we prize life not by the sum of our possessions, but
only by the rate and steadiness of pur growth. " Not the possession,"
says Lessing, " or fancied possession of the truth, but the endeavor
after it, determines a man's value. If God held in his right hand the
sum total of truth, and in his left the ever-inextinguishable desire
after truth, though linked with the condition of everlastingly wander-
ing in error, and called to me, ' Choose,^ I should humbly close with
the left and answer: ' Father, give me this ; the truth pure and simple
is for thee alone.' "

But if we will have cleared to ourselves at the highest court what
it is that imparts to error, crime, and tragedy, their powerful attrac-
tion, so that they are indispensable to high poetry and music and art,
we shall find it is only because they constitute a dark background to
heighten the play of the lightnings, to glorify the splendor of the
sun. The trial and sorrow and humiliation serve to bring out in dis-
tincter outline the faith and serenity and triumph which, as in St.
Paul, are more than a match for all the powers of darkness. Our
conviction of the dominance and necessity of moral law is so deeply
grounded, that the storm and earthquake threatening its upheaval only
summon into livelier consciousness our inexpugnable confidence. Let
the heavens fall. Though the earth be removed, God is our refuge.

It is the conscious or unconscious conviction of every sound man
that truth is better and more beautiful than any delusion — that
a man's well-being is the measure of his conformity to truth. Does
a man find his hitherto solid philosophy impugned, his most holy
religion out of joint with new emerging facts, he will not shut his ears
to the severe reason. Does Science come and knock from under his
feet the ground of immortality on which he had rested, it may help
only to startle him out of his egoism — startle him on to some firmer
footing. He must feel the immortality in the present, and not post-
pone it to the future. Only he who has eternal life in him(= intellect-
ual recognition of, and hearty identification wath, eternal law) is eter-
nal. If Darwinism is true, and a man's spiritual supremacy is also
true, the two facts will square with each other. For mind and Nature
are the type and impression, in perfect correspondence to each other.
The harshest exception is, when properly understood, no exception
but a confirmation of the beautiful law. Depth and wholeness of
vision will always be song and piety, be Dante and Shakespeare, never
skepticism and mockery. The reconciliation of the spirit with Fate
and Nature is a grace which rests sweetly and unconsciously in the
heart of simple goodness, but is also the crowning grace of the bold-
est intellect which has pierced deep enough. Plato, Shakespeare,
Milton, Newton, Kant, Goethe, and Schiller, are reverent worshipers,
and walk in the sanctuary above arm-in-arm with Christ and the
apostles. We see, in the " Nathan der Weise," how the brave Lessing
received before death in fullest measure the gift of reconciliation.
VOL. XI. — 44

690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

And out of the perplexities and corruptions and misunderstand-
ings of human affairs we have in Nature, uhich ever over-canopies
and surrounds us, a retreat into the beautiful, where we can evermore
refresh our sense and conviction of the holy. The sun, stars, woods,
grasses, shells, birds, and wild creatures, are not corrupt, or at least
do not suggest to man, when he contemplates them as a whole (aes-
thetically and not'scientifically) — do not suggest images of corruption ;
but the poor besotted wretch beholds a perfect splendor in the sun, the
prey of ruinous appetites looks into an eye of innocence in the flow-
ers, the bankrupt gazes around and above him, and wonders why in
a royal palace he should be a blot and disgrace.

As soon as the man rises above his desires, and throws the roots
of his being beyond the narrow confines of his egoism into the spirit-
ual realm, where his own individual self sinks in other individuals,
where other individuals become as much his proper interest as him-
self, then the soul becomes one with the universal soul, and jierfect
reconciliation is enjoyed. The man's past pains are healed, his very
sins and sorrows yield themselves to him as experience and instruc-
tion and romance.

The devil himself is subdued into good. Job's latter days are
more beautiful than his early days. Through his sorrows and errors,
Faust at last attains to a wider and holier life. The attraction to
Gretchen, notwithstanding the sensuous illusions, has, in the heart of
it, a soul of love and sacredness, and through the deep welter of sin
and suffering is purified at last into sanctity. Do you think Faust in
the end would annihilate his experience of Gretchen if it w^ere possi-
ble? No, the earth and heaven are dearer because of her. Gretchen
is universalized, and the universal is Gretchenized; the world is all a
sacred, pathetic Gretchen.

That an unhappy life may be happier than a happy one is indeed a
paradox, but is meant in earnest. A tragedy is more delightful than
a comedy. Or a comedy is better for a mixture, and strong mixture,
of ti-agedy, so the tragedy only get digested in the end. Black is
necessary not only to the relief, but even to the very composition of
white. I should not choose a life of uninterrupted pleasure, w^ere the
world to engage its utmost to secure it me. The lightning is born of
the darkness ; and the battle, joy, and splendor of life are to be meas-
ured by the amount of opposition overcome.

" They say best men are moulded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad."

Let us with assured hearts trust the Cause of all, who has created
the good and the evil, but has, w^e believe, made the evil to be ulti-
mately subservient to the good. — Macmillan'' s Magazine.

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 691

THE MODEEN PIANO-FORTE.

By S. AUSTEN PEAECE, Mus. Doc, Oxon.i

MUSICAL instruments with manuals or key-boards, and fixed
tones, occupy a most important position in the annals of
modern art. All the greatest composers have been skilled per-
formers on such instruments, and especially on the piano-forte. They
are very greatly indebted to it ; not that their works have been pro-
duced by its aid, or that it has been allowed to exercise a formative
influence over their imaginings, but because of its companionship and
sympathy. The creator of new musical forms, while engaged in his
silent work — in the comparatively slow process of writing the indi-
vidual parts for all the instruments employed in the orchestra — not
only exercises the faculty of expression, but also the power to with-
hold. This power — this muscular strength of the brain, to grasp and
retain whatever has been conceived, notwithstanding the perplexity
as to means of expression, which commonly attends a crowd of ideas
and feelings — is sometimes in danger of being overtaxed. On these
occasions great relief is found by opening the piano-forte, and throw-
ing off the i^iece at full speed on this plastic instrument. After realiz-
ing his ideals in this immediate and satisfactory manner, the composer
returns refreshed to his patient labor — to the detailed record on paper
of those emotions which fill him with such passionate energy. Or,
should he wish merely to find relief in utterance — to commune Avith
himself, and obtain recreation by driving temporarily from his thoughts
the work in hand — then this comprehensive instrument, this minia-
ture orchestra, enables him to extemporize elaborate contrapuntal
forms, clashing Cyclopean harmonies, or highly-involved melodic
strains. The sovmds thus evoked fall back on his delighted ear,
exhibiting to him, in audible form, his psychologic condition. During
these fleeting moments he thus beholds his subjective state, as clearly
and definitely as in a mirror he would see, similarly reflected in visi-
ble form, the expression of his countenance.

But the piano-forte, by making domestic music at all times easily
and immediately attainable, without the preliminary adjustments re-
quired for the harp or other stringed instruments, has become uni-
versally popular. Its literature is larger than that of any other, and
whatever musical forms have found favor with the public are imme-
diately adapted and rearranged for reproduction on it.

The piano-forte appears in four principal forms : as grand, square,
upright, and curved, the latter being a newly-designed model, by Mr.
J. W. Otto, of St, Louis, Missouri. The American grand piano-forte

' Lecturer on Harmony and the Science of Music, at the General Theological Seminary,
New York ; Musical Director of Columbia College Glee- Club, etc.

692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is, however, the greatest triumph of inventive genius and skill, aided
by modern physical science ; and this fact being acknowledged in all
parts of the civilized world, foreign trade has been introduced to such
an extent as to make the industry one of the largest in the United
States. All the makers here daily strive for preeminence, and en-
deavor to surpass one another in the superior excellences of the
smalle&t details, if not in the novelty and value, of their own re-
spective inventions. No pains or expense are spared to obtain im-
provements, in the hope that these may, at least, lead to subsequent
discoveries in the many untrodden paths of acoustical science. In
this respect they resemble the old violin-makers of Italy, who also
took a pardonable pride in their productions, which are the result of
similar prolonged strivings.

The violin and the piano-forte, however, although in some respects
similar, are in others widely different. The violin is endowed with
perpetual youth. It even improves with age. The piano-forte does
not. The violin is a mere shell of wood, modeled somcAvhat after a
human shape, held together by glue, and strung with catgut ; and
although its various parts must be adjusted with great discrimination,
and the bow with which it is excited be finely formed (having, for
instance, a length of say twenty-nine and a quarter inches; weight
of 900 grains ; a diameter gradually decreasing, for twenty-three
inches, from one-third to one-tenth of an inch, the curvature mean-
while increasing at an accelerating rate, to give a spring to the bow),
yet this musical instrument, when compared with a piano-forte, appears
as an extremely simple organism. It is" more homogeneous, like all
the other members of the numerous family of viols. The piano-forte,
on the contrary, with its many kinds of wood, hard and soft, heavy
and light; its many kinds of clotlis and felts; of skins; with its
masses of wrought and cast iron, steel, copper, brass, silver, lead, etc.,
is a more highly-complex production. It is heterogeneous, rather
than homogeneous; and only by the most perfect coordination of all its
parts does it retain an organization capable or worthy of preservation.

The piano-fortes of Erard, so highly prized for their extreme re-
finement and susceptibility to slightest variations of touch, are ex-
tremely delicate ; and while other Europeans have succeeded in mak-
ing more robust instruments, it has been reserved for the Americans
the ability to endow their productions M'ith constitutions capable of
resisting, to any remarkable extent, climatal influences. The degree
of their success, with reference to longevity, is not yet fully proved ;
and the variations in this respect are so great that it would be even
rash to form an estimate, as we shall presently see. It is only safe to
say that a piano-forte is never better than when it first leaves the
hands of its maker. Like a young, impressionable being, it may then
be made to suit special tastes and requirements. The readiness and
extent of response to touch can then be determined, and the tones

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 693

may at once be made fuller, rounder, sweeter, harder, more brilliant
and penetrating, or more sympathetic. It is vain to hope that they
will be mellowed or otherwise improved with age or use.

For it is a common experience that piano-lortes differ greatly in
the ability to retain their good qualities, even though subjected to
the same conditions. It is also noteworthy that, although many in-
struments may be made precisely similar, and by the same workmen
at the same season of the year, all other known things being also equal,
they will differ in their charactei'istics, as children of the same family
mysteriously differ from one another, although retaining many marked
points of resemblance. It should, therefore, not cause surprise that
among the 30,000 piano-fortes annually produced in the States some
will be found so admirably balanced, so happily constituted, and
adapted to endure great " wear and tear," as to survive mutilation,
railway-accidents, extremes of heat and cold, dampness and dryness,
and yet remain surprisingly vigorous and strong. Engineers and
others acquainted with the conduct of iron — in suspension-bridges,
for instance — which does not uniformly granulate, will not be sur-
prised to learn that three strings struck uniformly with the same ham-
mer may break at widely different periods, after losing their tenacity
from the insidious nature of vibrations, and then from thermal changes
rather than blows. But hei-e we are not merely speaking of the
strings, but of the piano-forte in its entirety — as consisting of a great
number of mutually-depending parts, cooperating to a common end
and the harmonious working of all.

To trace the gradual development of the piano-forte, from all its
various archetypes, would occupy too much space. It is sufficient
here to point out that virginals, spinets, clavichords, hai'psichords,
and various new forms of old types of similar instruments, were found
incapable of further improvement. In the "struggle for existence"
they failed to compete with the piano-forte, which, although at first
far inferior, has finally survived them all. During the past fifty
years, modern science has materially aided in enlarging its powers,
especially in America ; and it now claims our attention as the ulti-
mate result of a long series of modifications superimposed on modifi-
cations which have led to what Mr, Herbert Spencer might designate
as " an immense increase in the harmony between the organism and
its environment."

European piano-fortes introduced by the early settlers here soon
became useless. The dry land-winds of the interior, the moist sea-
breezes of the coasts, the violent and sudden thermal changes, could
not be endured. A new species had to be produced, for this one failed
to become acclimated. The problem to be solved in those days was
by no means an easy one. It was as difficult to improve upon the
then existing piano-forte as it is to increase the capabilities of those
we possess now. But the indomitable jjerseverance of sturdy souls

694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

led them to face the difficulties resolutely, and devise " new internal
relations " to meet " new external relations ; " to bring about, as" it
were, a closer " corresj)ondence between the organization and its en-
vironment." They learned that the " degree of life varied with the
degree of correspondence ; " that along with complexity of organiza-
tion there goes an increase in the number, in the range, in the spe-
cialty, in the complexity of " adjustments of inner relations to outer
relations," in what may perhaps be termed "the evolution of the
piano-forte."

Their first, rather uncouth-looking instruments, with enormously
large, solid wooden frames, appeared as an "unmixed breed," and
therefore so far stable. They did not succumb so readily to the
climate, and even presented peculiarities that attracted attention in
Europe. The native woods of which they were made were found
to be better adapted to the climate; polish was used even for the
sound-boards, in preference to varnish, which evaporated, and other
slight changes were adopted with great benefit. Yet still the requi-
site degree of strength could not be obtained from wood alone, and
the comfortable classes using pile carpets, heavy curtains, soft cush-
ions, and other warmth-retaining substances in their drawing-rooms,
demanded a piano-forte that could make itself heard in the presence
of so many deadeners of sound. Iron was then employed in combina-
tion with wood, but, the action of the two materials being by no means
uniform under constantly-changing conditions, the desired equilibrium
was not gained. In some instances the transverse swelling of the
wood fractured the iron plates. Although tliis " mixed constitution "
failed to meet the requirements then, the combination is now better
understood.

The first intention of the application of iron — of the liarp-shaped
metallic rinor — was not to enable the instrument to endure the constant
strain of the strings. It was supposed that the metal would expand
and contract uniformly with them, in the severe changes of this cli-
mate, and that in this manner the instrument would remain longer in
tune, although the actual pitch might vary.

In 1837 the highly-skillful American maker, Mr. Jonas Chicker-
ing, conceived the bold idea of constructing a frame entirely of iron,
and in the same year made his first square piano-forte in this way.
In 1840 he produced the first grand piano-forte Avith an entire iron
frame all in one casting. By this remarkable invention the piano-forte
gained in truth an " iron constitution," competent to bear the atmos-
pheric changes of this climate, and to it all subsequent successes are
referred.

It was a great achievement to obtain a frame capable of resist-
ing the enormous strain of the strings, but this advance imperatively
led to innumerable variations being made in various details, for the
attainment of an equilibrium, without which the promised gain could

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 695

not have been fully realized. The softer tissues still remained of
wood of various kinds, and other such essential materials. With the
acquisition of an iron frame or vertebra equal to the tensile strain of
thirty tons without danger of fractures, came the temptation to em-
ploy strings of greater thickness, with a tension of from eleven to six-
teen tons. These sti'ings, stretched as near as possible to the limit of
elasticity, that they might give forth the most vigorous vibrations,
required to be set in motion by blows from hammers specially adapted
for the purpose. (Voices similarly strained on the liighest notes
within their compass also have the most brilliant quality, as for in-
stance the "G" of Mr. Santley and the chest "C" of Tamberlik.)
Then, again, the increased powers of the instrument made greater de-
mands on the sound-board.

If we compare the vibrations of the violin, set up by the com-
paratively gentle friction of the bow, with those of a piano-forte
sound-board, violently trembling in response to strong percussive
accents, and the multitudinous and continuous vibrations of long,
thick metallic strings, it is at once evident that they are of a more
extraordinary nature. Great discrimination was used in the selec-
tion of the wood from the spruce-trees of the Northern forests ; many
experiments were made to discover which way the grain of the wood
should be disposed, and. in what manner the sound-board should be
compelled to receive and transmit impressions without fear of such
derangements as should lead to a state of paralysis. To make it act
most energetically the fibres were permanently compressed longitu-
dinally, as in a vise, up to a certain point, similar to the strings, which,
as we have just now seen, give forth tones of most satisfactory quality
when stretched to the verge of breaking. There is a readily-found
precise limit to this compression, after which the tones become hard
and thin in quality. The sound-board is now also slightly curved,
forced upward or made convex that it may resist tlie downward press-
ure of the bridge that holds the strings slightly elevated from their
level, to secure a complete and intimate communion for the transmis-
sion of vibrations. It is clear that, if, from any cause, a sound-board
should become concave, or loose at any of the sides, serious conse-
quences would ensue. Considerations such as these sufficiently prove
that the attainment of a perfect harmony among the parts, to resist
successfully external influences, was no slight undertaking.

The American piano-forte has, however, attained a constitution
that will endure dryness, cold, and even furnace-heat, but succumbs
to excessive dampness. A good instrument, dried to the utmost,
rapidly absorbs moisture. The well-fitted parts, having no room to
swell, then become rigidly bound together, and thus the action is de-
stroyed. It would therefore suffer if placed in a room having no sub-
cellai', under which water-courses might be formed after rains. An
inferior instrument made with damp materials and kept damp by

696 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

judicious sprinkling, ostensibly to allay dust, might thus successfully
compete with a good instrument during an ordinary public exhibition,
although it would soon prove worthless.

Varnish is now used for sound-boards and cases, both here and in
England.

The constitution of the English piano-forte enables it to bear the
English climate, in which the humidity is more uniform. When
brought here it breaks down. But even the American piano-forte can
only to a certain extent bear the trials from climatal changes to which
it is subjected, and for a very limited space of time in some parts of
the States, as, for instance, the Rocky Mountains. If a good instrument,
made with native woods, seasoned for two years in the open air, and
kiln-dried for three months at 130° Fahr., be removed in winter, while
the thermometer is at zero, and placed in a heated concert-room, the
sudden rise in the temperature, causing dampness, would affect the
glue as well as the wood-work. But when organic derangements are
not caused, a host of minor ailments set in which impair and gradually
destroy a j^iano-forte. The metals corrode, the strings break, the pins
liolding the wires relax their hold, and then turn round (in inferior in-
struments), the felt on the hammers becomes worn, the damper actions
rattle, the various centres loosen, the hammers (that deliver the blow
before the key is fully down, and then immediately retire from the
string, to allow it to vibrate and take up such a position as to deliver
a number of consecutive blows with rapidity) may act with irregu-
larity, or without the requisite vigor, and moths may attack the felt
and cloth. Although many of such ailments yield to treatment, yet
they are unmistakable signs of general decay. In forming an estimate,
however, of the longevity of a piano-forte, one should reflect on his
growing insusceptibility to sensuous ijnpi'cssions, and not institute
comparisons with newer instruments of greatly-enhanced capabili-
ties. It is well also to point out that sometimes articles of furni-
ture, free to vibrate, wall do so in sympathy with certain notes of the
instrument, and thus make a supposed defect. Articles, such as a
stiletto in a metal sheath, or a glass globe on a gasalier, are not
readily detected in the act of responding.

On comparing piano-fortes by various makers it is well also to
bear in mind the special peculiarities of each. The makers of the
Erard piano desire to produce a brilliant, ringing effect, and do not
destroy the numerous, tingling overtones which succeed the cessation
of their primaries. Sensitive artists, who desire an achromatic quality,
object to these, although they are intended to add a kind of harmonic
halo or lustre to the general tone, which in a crowded drawing-room
might appear dull and lifeless — wanting in radiance and animation.
The Broadwood makers strive for the formation of a full, organ-like
tone. The Collards are successful in obtaining flute-like and liquid
tones, which in the treble are remarkably sweet and dulcet. The Ger-

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 697

man piano-fortes are generally rough and unfinished in mechanical
details when compared with the French, although the tones are
stronger.

Yet neither bear comparison with those of America. These
also, among themselves, present marked characteristics. One maker
prides himself on the magnitude and power of his instruments, and
their fitness to be employed with the orchestra in large halls ; another
on the delicacy and extreme purity of the tone, which he deems can
only be attained from instruments intended for the drawing-room or
halls of moderate size ; a third may try to obtain a " traveling-power,"
which quality is so markedly deficient in many upright pianos and in
free-reed organs, as compared with grand piano-fortes and pipe-organs,
that always sound better when at some distance. Great attention is
always paid to the material and form of the hammer, which is found
to produce the best tone when covered with soft felt, made of the wool
of the merino sheep. This Saxony wool is worked here by Germans.
Great care is also paid to the spinning of the covei-ed wii-es, and the
consistency of all the others to avoid defects that would lead to beats,
and deceive the tuner.

Much experience and practical skill are required in the designing
of the scales, or elaborate balancing of. length, weight, thickness,
material, and tension of the strings, to secure uniformity from bass
to treble, while conforming to a given length of case, although the
design may be planned in accordance with the mathematical the-
ories of stretched strings. Then, again, the point where the blow
is to be delivered is carefully chosen, that objectionable nodes may
be destroyed. For the same reason wedge-like dampers are em-
ployed to check vibrations, and are made to act at a point where
subsequent dissonant overtones may be rendered impossible. For
the want of this last precaution, an otherwise valuable upright
piano-forte, by a prominent firm in Germany, was pronounced a failure
in London, some years ago. On striking any one of the bass notes,
and then raising the key, after a short interval of silence, the harmonic
seventh was generated ; and this was no Aveak, vanishing tone, but a
strong, continuous sound resembling that of a musical glass.

On studying the detailed accounts of new patents for improve-
ments— real or imaginary — on comparing the statements of rival
makers, or on being persistently contradicted by interested experts,
one learns the difficulty of forming an opinion on points at issue, hav-
ing reference to the advantages gained by alterations in the mode of
constructing piano-fortes. It demands considerable special knowledge
even to fully comprehend these points. One should carefully avoid
expressing opinions that might tend to affect values, and be content
with the reflection that the public at large is well enough informed to
know that only. those firms possessing the requisite capital, intelligence,
and experience, can produce an intrinsically valuable instrument.

698 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Cheaply-made piano-fortes are mostly sold to ignorant persons, living
far from the great centres of civilization.

It will be found interesting to notice some of the facts learned by
those who have conducted experiments in the hope of improving the
piano-forte, for many of these are somewhat peculiar, and contrary to '
general anticipation. Thus : Chladni's figures are not formed by sand
strewed on the sounding-board ; nor does the sand travel fi-om the
point where the shocks or impulses are imparted to this vibrating
body, but collects at this very point, namely, close to the bridge.
Again, no difficulty is experienced by " interference," when two or
three strings tuned in perfect unison vibrate side by side ; nor from
ovei'stringiug the bass wires. The fitting together of trough and crest
of sound-waves — the coincidence of the "swing" and the "swang,"
which cancels both, and forms the hyperbolic curve of silence on the
outer broad side of each prong of a tuning-fork, is a phenomenon that
does not appear in any portion of the scale. Nor does that which is
termed " sympathy," that occurs when two organ-pipes stand too near
each other, require consideration from the designer of a piano-forte.
The addition of a second string, far from destroying the vibrations of
the first, or even interfering witli them, more than doubles the power
of the tone. A single string gives forth a comparatively insignificant
and feeble note. When three strings are used, the third does not add
Iialf as much again, a fourth string adds still less in proportion, and,
judging from the quality of tlie tone produced, seems to require an
entirely new design.

In the final adjustments of the piano-forte by men of extremely
keen sensibilities, certain defects, limitations, and peculiarities of the
Imman ear, have been discovered that are noteworthy. The Greek
architects well knew tliat long horizontal lines, if straight, would not
appear to be straight Avhen viewed from below, and therefore in the
Parthenon they executed exceedingly delicate curves. Their columns
were not exactly cylindrical, and many similar and most subtile devia-
tions from geometrical truth were employed that remain as evidences
of their consummate skill. In music, also, certain nuances — devia-
tions from rigid accuracy or mathematical truth — are constantly made
by which the powers of true artists are manifested. These minute
shades of difierence — these slight variations or modifications of quality
of tone, power of tone, pitch, speed, etc. — when not exaggerated, but
determined with an art-concealing art, are found to be true to Nature,
and find their justification, not as exceptions to general rules, but as
exemplifications of the highest principles. The refined perceptions
of piano-forte finishers have led them to the fact that the highest
notes of the instrument should be tuned slightly sharper than perfect,
or each note will a})pear to be flat, when compared with the octave
below. If these notes are tuned perfectly, and proved to be so by
various tests, there still remain a secret dissatisfaction and conscious-

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE. 699

ness of a certain dullness, which detracts so much Irom the good effect
of the instrument as to lead some persons to suppose it to he one of
inferior quality. The expedient, therefore, of slightly raising the pitch
of about seventeen of the highest notes (when the piano-forte is ex-
tended to high C) is adopted, by which the instruments gain greatly
in brilliancy, briskness, sprightliness, or whatever term may fitly de-
note the reverse of flatness and insipidity. Octaves tuned in the
middle of the key-board are frequently deemed perfect when too
small, and some few students of tuning are prone to accept as true,
octaves that are too large in this region of the scale.

But by far the most extraordinary fact, with reference to the final
adjustment of the piano-forte, is the general acceptation of its particu-
lar " temperament " for all instruments having twelve notes to each
octave. Whatever other temperament may be chosen for such in-
struments, only one simple, natural diatonic scale can be properly
rendered. With this arrangement, called the " equal temperament,"
not a single chord is correctly tuned. No intervals are made abso-
lutely perfect, but the ear has gradually been led to be content with
them, when they approximate the truth in conformity with this par-
ticular system. By the equal distribution of the many kinds of
apotomes, found on calculating intei'vals from the scale given by
Nature's super-harmonics, they are subsequently practically disre-
garded— treated as non-existent — and thus elaborate modulatory har-
monies ai-e rendered comparatively easy to construct ; and the hu-
man ear being less able to detect imperfections in dissonances than
in consonances, composers have gradually employed, with increasing
freedom, dissonances of the most unusual and startling kind. It
would not be strictly true to say that modern writers have neglected
the sweet, cloying style — abounding in pleasant-sounding phrases —
because the absolute perfection of these ready-made, dissonant har-
monies is more readily overlooked. The influences that have deter-
mined the course of modern art can only be perceived from a psycho-
logic point of view. We may, however, safely say that modern com-
posers have not been deterred, but rather assisted, if not actually
emboldened, by their enharmonic intervals being made freely inter-
changeable, their far-fetched harmonies easily found and little scru-
tinized; and point out that the dynamic power of discords increases
their present value as artistic materials, now that fugal and similar
forms, compelling progress, are more rarely used.

The temperament of the piano-forte led directly to the entire re-
modeling of the "king of instruments," the church-organ; but yet,
not without considerable strife. During the first three-quarters of
the present century this particular form of temperament was a mat-
ter that greatly exercised mathematicians, organ-builders, musical
purists, clergymen, and organists, in England, and has only now be-
come generally adopted in that country. The solid and highly-com-

700 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pound tones of the organ, sustained with equal energy, caused the
imperfections of the concords to be markedly apparent. They could
not be ignored, as when occurring with the evanescent tone of a
piano-forte. The super-harmonics, or summation-tones, disagreeing
with each other, developed, in common with difference-tones, a mass
of attendant dissonances, which even the employment of a double
foundation (sixteen-feet manual stops) and powerful pedal-organ, etc.,
could barely hide.

The music of the Church was then as calm and free from passion
as the sculptures of Phidias; no exciting dissonances held the listener
spellbound until they were resolved. The organ-builders, accord-
ingly, produced instruments that were solemn, sedate, serious and
grave, forcible and powerful, without betraying passion or the flut-
terings of private, personal emotion. To use this temperament would
be to destroy these features, which the piano-forte-makers did not
desire to retain. They sought brilliancy and contrast for secular
requirements, and were at once manifestly gainers by the system ;
while the organ-builders were compelled to reflect very seriously on
matters of ritual and their own reputations.

To make this clear : Let the length of a stretched string be repre-
sented by unity, and |- or -^^-^ the octave. Now, three major-thirds
are less than an octave ; for f X f X f = -f^. Again, let | or J^Ve
represent the octave, and it will be seen that four minor-thirds are
greater than an octave ; for | X f X f X f = i^V

The contraction of the minor-thirds, therefore, by one-fourth of the
ratio 625 to 648, caused a further depression of the significant note in
the minor-chord, by which it became more gloomy and depressed ; and
the expansion of the eloquent major-third by one-third of the diesis, or
ratio of 125 to 128, caused the expression of joy in the major-chord to
be exaggerated or intensified, or even over-excited, when compared
with the peaceful, contented, restful character of the pure harmony.

These violent contrasts affected the quality of the tones, not indi-
vidually, but when heard in combination. The general character of
the tone-tint was thus greatly modified.

That the ear is much more sensitive to imperfections of intervals
with simpler ratios is proved by the uneasiness experienced while a
violinist tunes his strings to the interval of a fifth (|). Twelve such
fifths exceed the octave by an interval having the ratio of 524.288 to
531.444. Each successive fifth must, therefore, be contracted one-
twelfth of this interval (or diascMsma) , that the series may be bound-
ed by a perfect octave ; and in this manner the tonal system of keys,
which is in reality a slowly-ascending infinite spiral, practically takes
the form of a circle. This fact must be borne in mind if one would
satisfactorily account for many laws of art. The ideal purity which
enraptures the creative artist is ncA'er realized ; for all performances
are marked by the imperfections attending human efforts.

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE.

701

That a general compromise, or sacrifice of truth to convenience,
must be made in instruments having twelve fixed tones to the octave,
will be seen by a comparison of three most closely-related diatonie
scales, and their respective proportions :

G. A.

F.

510

G.

480

C. D. E. F.

360 320 288 ii70

A. B-flat. C. D. E. F.

432 405 360 324 2S8 2*70

240

G.

240

G.

240

B.

213^ 192
A. B.

216 192
A. B-flat.

216 202|-

C.

180

C.
180

C.

180

D.
160
D.
160
D.
162

E. F-sharp. G.
144 128 120

F.
135

F.

135

E.
144
E.
144

G.

120
G.

120

It is clear to the meanest comprehension that the sound " D," the
second note of the scale of " C," differs from " D," the sixth note of
the scale of " F ; " and also that the sound " A," the sixth note of the
scale of " C," differs from " A," the second sound of the scale of
" G ; " and similarly, in the ratio of 80 to 81.' It is evident that any

* The relative speeds of the vibrations of each note of the diatonic scale are here
given for the convenience of persons accustomed to calculate by their aid.

264 297 830 352 396 ' 440 495 528

The true diatonic scale may be represented in various ways, which may occasionally
prove useful in measuring intervals, although the divisions are not exactly correct.
S ich as —

ASCENDING SCALE.

1. The Periphery
of a Cmle.

2.
53 Degrees.

3.
301 Degrees.

4.
730 Degrees.

5. In Mean
Semitones.

C ..

B

33° 31" 11'
61 10 22
54 4:3 16
61 10 11
33 31 11
54 43 16
61 10 22

10

27
16
27
10
16
27

56
153

92
153

56

92
153

136
872
222
372
136
222
372

1.1173
2.0891

A

1 S240

G..

2.0391

F

1.1173

E

1.S240

D.

2.0391

c

360° 0" 0'

53

301

730

12.0000

But the logarithms of the ratios of the intervals are most generally used. The logarith-
mic or equiangular spiral best illustrates to the eye the return of the octave, the curve

being so drawn that a complete revolution halves the' distance from the pole. It is also
valuable for other properties besides this geometric periodicity, representing a continu-
ously-rising tone.

702 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

note, say " D " on the piano-forte, which has to do duty for all the
various kinds of " D," as well as those of " C double-sharp " and " E
double-flat," must be so attuned as to form a happy mean between
them.

If, then, in the extremely simple case given above, drawn from
the triune system of scales and chords, exemplified in the most insig-
nificant compositions, one may be led to doubt and difticulty, it is easy
to understand that violinists and others prefer to follow blind rules,
leading them to make, for instance, all notes with sharps, higher than
their enharmonic equivalents in flats, and vice versa, in elaborate com-
positions, that would involve calculations of extreme complexity ; or,
in such cases, to follow their own subjective feelings rather than seek
justification by mathematical proofs, especially when performing
alone their own parts, and thus not called upon to act in conformity
with others. In such cases, notes depressed, and having a downward
tendency, are more depressed ; and notes raised, which are aspiring,
are made more elevated. The interval C : G flat would therefore be
contracted, and that of C : F sharp enlarged in the following (fre-
quently-heard) expressions :

G-flat F. F-sharp G.

C D-flat and C B.

The " C " in the first progression is also virtually a raised note, and
the " C " in the second a depressed note, as may be seen by reference
to the scales indicated by the terminating chords. The laws which
musicians obey, consciously or unconsciously, in the ordinary routine
of composition and performance, are very fascinating, and will ere long
be systematized.

The three scales given above prove that the chord of A-minor,
formed with two notes from the chord of C, differs in altitude from
the chord of A-minor formed from the chord of the parallel A-major,
by depressing the third ; and also that the minor-third from the sec-
ond to the fourth note of a scale is smaller than the remaining minor-
thirds. These facts seem to have escaped the attention of all writers
on harmony, who bewilder students with elaborate arguments respect-
ino- the so-called " chord of the added sixth," that undermine their

own theories.

Having now drawn attention to the use of the piano-forte, its evo-
lution, longevity, ailments, etc., and compared it with the violin with
reference to its vitality; having also shown some of the singular facts
that are the common experience of piano-forte makers and tuners
respecting the human ear, and the system of temperament, which has
not been a hinderance to the course of modern art— let us now con-
sider that remarkable phenomenon, the " peculiarity of the key," which
remains, or is acknowledged to remain, by most candid persons, even
now that equal temperament is universal, and that the pitch has been
gradually raised.

THE MODERN PIANO-FORTE.

703

111 the English translation of Bombet's " Life of Haydn " a list of
the keys is given with their acknowledged characteristics appended.
Thus : " D-flat major. Awfully dark. In this remote key Haydn and
Beethoven have written their sublimest thoughts. They never enter
it bjit for ti'agic purposes." Again • " A-flat major. The most lovely
of the tribe. Unassuming, gentle, soft, delicate, and tender, having
none of the pertness of A in sharps. Every author has been sensible
of the charm of this key, and has reserved it for the expression of his
most refined sentiments." And so on. Now, it was never supposed
that the peculiarities of the keys could be confused with the peculiar-
ities of the old modes, such as Dorian, Phrygian, etc., which led Dry-
den to say, " Softly sweet in Lydian measure ; " for all these modes
were designedly, mathematically, and markedly, dissimilar. But it
was generally supposed that the " unequal temperament," which fa-
vored some keys at the expense of others, led to the various, other-
wise unaccountable, characteristics. These, however, have remained,
singularly enough, with the "equal temperament," by which system
all the keys are equal — i. e., the ratios of their intervals are precisely
similar.

This peculiarity of the key is not to be confounded with other,
accountable differences : such as induce composers to write in flat
keys for military bands to attain the greatest brilliancy, and in sharp
keys for orchestras for the same end. In these cases the greater
number of open notes (more naturally and simply formed tones), and
other such known facts, lead to a clear understanding on this point.
But in the piano-forte no such considerations can be made to account
for the subtile phenomenon. It was once supposed that the absolute
pitch employed was the cause of the difference ; but since the time
of Haydn the pitch in all countries has risen to such an extent that
the scale of A-flat characterized above has become virtually the scale
of A-natural, with which it was there compared ; but no correspond-
ing variation of opinion respecting it has been recorded. Ladies still
commonly express a decided preference for flat keys, and probably for
this reason fashionable drawing-room music is generally cast in four
or five flats — although these keys may be also chosen partly because,
according to the conformation of the hand and the disposition of the
ivory keys, the chords with flats are more easily and readily con-
trolled, especially when distributed in the arpeggio style, and have
to be played with great speed, freedom, and facility. But the va-
rious attempts made to account satisfactorily for key -character
on the piano -forte have hitherto only demonstrated thnt reason
and understanding are incapable of fathoming and explaining the
matter.

The piano-forte of the present day is, as we have seen, the result
of many contributions. Posterity alone can pronounce judgment upon
it, and show in what it is deficient ; for who shall say what the " piano-

704

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

forte of the future " will be ? We ourselves complacently regard our
age and its works, while anticipating the constant progress of the hu-
man race and its increasing ability to " reveal itself in tones."

SNOKING, AND HOW TO STOP IT.

By JOHN A. WYETH, M. D.

TO those unacquainted with the mysterious parlance of the anat-
omist, the use of strictly scientific terms might prove discour-
aging and fail to interest. I shall therefore discard the scie)}tijic in
favor of the every-day phrases, in explanation of the following figure
(1), which, it will be observed, represents a human head split from
above downward through the central line.

Through the only two channels in which the air travels in going to
the lungs, namely, through the nose and mouth, are drawn two arrows,

Fig. 1.

a and b. These two passages unite in a common cavity at/, and from
that point there is but one tube leading to the lungs.

At c is a bone called the hard palate, which forms the roof of the
mouth and the floor of the nose, separating these two air-channels
from each other. At the inner or posterior end of the bone, c, is seen
a little body, d, called the soft ■palate, made of muscle and covered
with a delicate skin. This soft palate is attached at one end to c, the
hard palate ; the other end hangs loose, and moves or flaps in the act
of breathing, something like a window-curtain when acted upon by a
current of air. This is its condition while we are asleep or awake,
though during sleep it lacks in tonicity, being much more relaxed, or
flabby, than when we are awake. At e is represented the tongue.

SNORING, AND HOW TO STOP IT, 705

Now, in order to snore, one must keep the mouth open, as well
as the nose, and in this condition the two currents of air, a and i, pass-
in »• in and out together during the acts of breathing, catch this little
curtain, d, between them, and throw it into rapid vibration. This
vibration, more or less intense and sonorous, is what we call snoring.

It is only with the mouth open that snoring can be accomplished
during sleep. Awake, if the nose is closed by the thumb and finger,
by taking a forcible breath, it is possible to snore, and the same
result may be accomplished with the mouth shut and the nose open ;
but the muscular effort necessary to its accomplishment is more than
we can command during sleep, and would wake up the individual who
might unconsciously make the effort.

If the mouth be closed (the natural condition during slumber), but
one current of air will pass to and from the lungs. This current,
pressing about equally upon all sides of the canal indicated at a, will
press the soft palate, d, forward and downward until it is applied to
the tongue, e, and will hold it there gently, thus preventing any sono-
rous vibration.

It follows that any device which prevents the lower jaw from
dropping down, during the relaxation of sleep, and opening the
mouth, will shut out the one unnatural current of air and prevent
snoring.

Fig. 2.

I have devised the apparatus represented in Fig. 2, which consists
of a simple cap, a, fitting the head snugly; a cap of soft material, b,
fitting the chin ; and a piece of elastic webbing, c, tacked to the chin-
piece, and to the head-cap near the ears. The webbing can be made
more or less tense as may be required to effect the closure of the
mouth.

The apparatus is so simple that anyone can make it; and the
writer hopes this explanation will recommend itself to those individ-
uals who, from the possession of this unfortunate habit, are a nuisance
to everybody — excepting themselves.

VOL. XI. — i5

7o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

MAES AND ITS SATELLITES.

By Peofessos DAKIEL KIEKWOOD.

THE recent and wholly unexpected discovery of two Martial
satellites has awakened a new and lively interest in all that
relates to our neighboring planet. Its telescopic aspect and the
probable natui-e of its physical constitution are especially worthy of
renewed consideration.

The mean distance of Mars from the snn is 139,877,000 miles.*
Its orbit deviates more from the circular form than that of any other
principal planet with the exception of Mercury; its eccentricity being
0.09326. The difference, therefore, between its greatest and -least
distance amounts to about 27,000,000 miles. But the eccentricity,
though great, is nevertheless increasing; and, when it shall have
attained its superior limit, the aphelion distance will be 196,000,000
miles. This is greater than the perihelion distance of many as-
teroids. Mars, therefore, occasionally invades the cluster of minor
planets. Is it not possible that his' superior force may attach some
of its members to his retinue of satellites ?

Mars was the first planet to exhibit indications of an axial revolu-
tion. As early as 1636 Fontana, a Neapolitan astronomer, had an
imperfect view of a spot on the planet's disk. He reobserved the
same figure in 1638, and from the changes noticed in its position and
aspect he inferred the jDrobability of the planet's rotation. He seems,
however, to have made no eflbrt to determine its period. Dr. Hooke,
in 1666, noticed some well-defined spots, which he found to change
their appearance on the surface, to disappear and return at regular
intervals ; whence he inferred that the planet completes a rotation
either in twelve or twenty-four hours. During the same year Cassini
observed spots on each hemisphere of the planet, from the motions
of which he concluded the period of rotation to be 24'' 40". In 1704
Mai'aldi, the nephew and pupil of Cassini, made a series of observa-
tions on the spots, from which he deduced a period of 24'' sg*". In
1719 he renewed his observations under favorable circumstances, and
obtained a period precisely equal to that originally found by Cassini.
In order to determine the exact period of rotation. Sir William Her-
schel undertook a series of observations in 1777, which he again
resumed in 1779. From the changes which he observed in the ap-
pearances of the planet he fixed the time of revolution at 24^" 39""
21.67'. The determination by Kunowsky in 1821 gave 24"' 36" 40\
The observations of Beer and Mildler in 1830 indicated a period of
24h 3i^m -|^Qs_ Their observations, however, in 1832, combined with

- This value corresponds to a solar parallax of 8.88".

MARS AND ITS SATELLITES. 707

those of 1830, gave 24'' 37"" 23.7'. In regard to tlie exact period of
rotation and the slight discrepancies between the results obtained by-
different observers, Prof. O. M. Mitchel remarks as follows :

" In 1839 Madler reviewed Herschel's observations, wJaence his first results
were deduced, and discovered that, after introducing the necessary reduc-
tions, the discrepancy of two minutes might be reduced to two seconds, by
giving to Mars one more rotation on its axis, between the observations of 1777
and 1779, than Ilerschel had employed.

" By combining Madler's observation, made at Berlin, 1830, September 14th,
12'' SO"", with one made at the Cincinnati Observatory, 1845, August 30th,
S"" 55"", making the corrections due to geocentric longitude, phase, and aberra-
tion, I find the period of rotation to be 24'' 37" 20.6', differing by only two
seconds from Madler's period as last corrected." '

Finally, Richard A. Proctor, Esq., by an exhaustive discussion of
all the observations, has determined the period to be 24'' 37™ 22.735'.

The diameter of Mars is about 4,700 miles. Its surface is rather
more than one-third that of the earth, while its volume is to that of
our planet in the ratio of two to nine.

The persevering labors of Beer and Madler proved beyond ques-
tion that many of the lineaments observed in the aspect of this planet
are permanent in their character, and not merely atmospheric. Tiie
same spots, with the same general outlines, and the same varieties of
color, have been noticed at successive oppositions ; not always, it is
true, with precisely the same distinctness, but without any other
changes than such as might be attributed to atmospheric variations.
Two white circular spots are observed in the polar regions, which in-
crease during the winter, and decrease in the summer, of each hemi-
sphere respectively, and which may, therefore, be regarded as polar
snows. These spots were noticed by Maraldi as early as 1716;. their
connection, however, with the change of seasons was first shown by
Sir William Herschel. The same astronomer found the inclination of
the axis of Mars to the plane of its orbit to be 61° 18'. The Martial
tropics are therefore 28° 42' from the equator, making the torrid zone
10° wider than that of the earth. In so far, then, as climatic changes
are dependent on the obliquity of the planets, the seasons of Mars
may not differ, perhaps, except in their duration, very greatly from
our own.

. The Satellites of Maks. — We come now to the history of one
of the most interesting discoveries of the nineteenth century. With
the single exception of our own moon, Mars is the most favorably
situated of all the heavenly bodies for telescopic observation. The
most careful scrutiny, however, for more than two centuries, had
failed to furnish any indication of the existence of a satellite. The
opposition of Mars in August, 1877, occurred when the planet was

' Sidereal Messenger^ p. 101.

7o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

very near its perihelion. The body was, therefore, in the best possi-
ble position for close examination. At the approach of this favorable
epoch the new twenty-six inch refractor of the Naval Observatory at
Washington, under the skillful direction of Prof. Asaph Hall, was
turned upon the planet. On the night of August 11th a small star
was observed near the disk of Mars, but its true character was not
then suspected, or at least not determined. On Thursday night, the
16th, at ll*"' 42", Prof. Hall again noticed a star of the thirteenth or
fourteenth magnitude, very close to Mars, and measured its apparent
distance from the planet. On the same night, about two o'clock, he
again examined the planet, and to his great surprise found that the
small star had moved in company with Mars. He had therefore dis-
covered a Martial satellite. On Friday morning the observations were
submitted to Prof. Simon Newcomb, who, from the data furnished by
a watch of five hours, calculated the time of revolution, which he
fixed as a first approximation at 31 or 32 hours. This showed that
the satellite must pass behind Mars some time during the following
night. It was accordingly invisible when first looked for in the
evening, but, as predicted by Newcomb, it reappeared about one
o'clock. On Saturday morning the discovery was made known to
Admiral Rodgers, the superintendent of the observatory. It was de-
termined, however, to wait for another observation before formally
announcing so important a discovery. On Saturday evening the
satellite was again found very nearly in its predicted place, and its
exact position was measured by several astronomers.

About four o'clock on the morning of August 18th Prof. Hall dis-
covered a second satellite, interior to the orbit of the first, and of
about the same apparent magnitude. The astronomers of Europe
were officially notified of the facts by the following dispatch :

"Washington, August 18, 187T.

Two satellites of Mars have been discovered by Hall at Washington. First,
elongation west, August 18th, eleven hours, Washington time. Distance, eighty
seconds ; period, thirty hours. Distance of second, iifty seconds.

" Joseph Heney."

The statement of fifty seconds as the distance of the inner satel-
lite was subsequently found to be quite erroneous.

On Monday, August 21st, Rear-Admiral Rodgers, superintendent
of the observatory, communicated the discovery, together with Prof.
Newcomb's approximate circular elements of the orbits, to the Hon.
R. W. Thompson, Secretary of the Navy.

Distances from the Ckntre of Mars. — The distance of the in-
ner satellite from the centre of the primary is about 5,700 miles ; that
of the outer, 14,200. The distance of the former from the surface of
Mars is but 3,300 miles — no greater, in fact, than that of London from
New York. The apparent magnitude of Mars as seen from this satel-

HUXLEY'S AMERICAN LECTURES. -jog

lite is 2,000 times greater than that of the sun or moon as seen from
the earth.

Periods of the Satellites. — Prof. Newcomb gives 30'' and 14""
as the pei-iod of the outer satellite, and V'' and 38"" as that of the
inner. Both move, like our moon, from west to east. The period of
the inner is less, while that of the outer is greater^ than a Martial day.
It is obvious, therefore, that, as seen from the surface of the planet,
the apparent motion of the satellites will be in opposite directions,
the inner rising in the west and setting in the east ; the outer rising
in the east and setting in the west — so that the phenomenon of two
moons meeting in mid-heaven will be to the Martialists no unusual
occurrence.

The Mass of Mars. — Before the discovery of these satellites the
determination of the mass of Mars was a problem of great difficulty,
the body being too small to have much eifect in disturbing the mo-
tions of other planets. The value assigned by Burckhardt was
5T¥¥T5T5 *^^* ^^ *^^ ^^^ being unity. The difficulty of the problem
is now happily removed, and Newcomb has found from the elements
of the exterior satellite a value of -jo^wfo j ^ mass less than Burck-
hardt's in the ratio of six to seven.

The Bearing of the Discovery on the Nebular Hypothesis. —
The inner satellite of Mars completes three orbital revolutions in less
than a Martial day. This anomalous fact in the planetary system
would seem, at first view, to be utterly inconsistent with the nebular
hypothesis. The question is one of more than ordinary interest, but
its discussion may well be deferred until we shall have obtained more
exact information in regard to the Martial system.

-♦♦♦-

HUXLEY'S AMEEICA:Nr LECTUKES.

By Peofessob E. EAT LANKESTEE.

THE five addresses which have been recently brought out by Prof.
Huxley in the form of a small volume were delivered under very
varied conditions, and deal with subjects widely separate from one
another. Three of them form a series of lectures on the doctrine of
Evolution, and were delivered by the author at New York in Septem-
ber, last year. These were the only popular scientific lectures which
Prof Huxley would allow himself to undertake during his summer
holiday devoted to a tour in tlie United States. The "Address on
University Education " was delivered at the formal opening of the
Johns Hopkins University, at Baltimore, during the same visit. The
concluding lecture of the present volume was delivered in connection

710 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with the Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at South Kensington
in December, last year, and deals with the study of Biology.

The range of topics thus indicated is wide enough to give us
samples of all the moods of Prof. Huxley's vigorous and eloquent
style. As comj^ared with his previously -published addresses and
essays, we find no diminution of power, no less artistic care in the
arrangement of materials, no less cogency of argument and stern in.
sistence on the appeal to facts rather than to a priori considerations,
nor can we detect any indication that as he grows older the author is
more timid in face of those "logical consequences" of his teaching —
the bugbears of some, but the beacons of other, philosophers. Per-
haps—and this is more especially noticeable in the lectures on Evolu-
tion— there is less of that playful treatment of opponents and their
transgressions — that sudden but graceful discomfiture of his adversary
by the unexpected production of a quaint though close-fitting illustra-
tion— which in former writings gave a pungency and aroma to Prof.
Huxley's pages no less fascinating than peculiarly their own.

In the three lectures on Evolution, the history of Nature is made
the subject of a closely-reasoned inquiry. Three current hypotheses
— the Uniformitarian, the Miltonic, and the Evolutional — are recog-
nized, and their respective claims to our acceptance discussed. The
paleontological evidence in favor of the hypothesis of Evolution
forms the subject of the second and third lectures, and with great
skill the opportunity is used in order to bring before an American
audience in the most forcible way two very important and interesting
American discoveries of recent date. America is, indeed, rapidly be-
coming the headquarters of paleontological research. Prof. Huxley's
own discoveries regarding the genealogical connection of birds and
reptiles form an important argument in favor of the hypothesis of
Evolution, and in placing this argument before his audience he was
able to explain to them at some length the interesting new fossil birds
obtained by Prof. Marsh, of Yale College, from the cretaceous rocks
of Western America. The structure of two of these ■ birds, ^es^xr-
ornis and Icthyornis^ which possessed, unlike all other birds, distinct
conical teeth imbedded in their jaws, is illustrated by woodcuts in the
printed lecture. Now that the principle has been admitted, we may
hope to see an illustrated edition of some of the lectures which were
issued in preceding volumes without woodcuts.

The second American discovery which is brought to bear on the
hypothesis of Evolution, and forms, indeed, part of what Prof Hux-
ley calls the "demonstrative evidence of Evolution," relates to the
pedigree of the horse, and is also due to Prof. Marsh. Strangely
enough, America, which within the historic period is remarkable for
the absence of indigenous horses, and the fertility within her borders
of the wild-horses descended from domesticated ancestors of the Old
Woi'ld, is even more remarkable for having buried in her soil a greater

HUXLEY'S AMERICAN LECTURES. 711

number and variety of fossil horses than any that the Old World can
show. Eohippus and Orohippus from the American Eocene deposits,
and Mesohippus from the American Miocene dejDosits, are most im-
portant links in the series (the later members of whicli are PlioJiippus,
■ Hqyparion, and Anchitheriinn, i'ound also in European Tertiary strata),
connecting tlie living one-toed genus Equus with a typically five-toed
ancestor common to it and other ungulate mammals. The structure
of the feet and teeth of this series of forms, which furnish demonstra-
tive evidence of the evolution of the horse by progressive modification,
is placed before the reader in its main features with great clearness,
and the description is notably assisted by a full-page woodcut.

The choice of the term " Miltonic " in place of any other for what
is sometimes termed the "Mosaic" account or hypothesis of creation,
and the statement of the reasons which have led to that choice, are
samples of a kind of serious jesting in which Prof. Huxley shows infi-
nite skill and delicacy. There is no doubt, he urges, as to Milton's
view of the history of creation, as given in his great poem. On the
other hand, were a writer to call this the " Biblical doctrine," he
"would be met by the authority of many eminent scholars, to say
nothing of men of science, who at various times have absolutely
denied that any such doctrine is to be found in Genesis." In fact, we
are told by these authorities that the six days of Genesis are six
periods that we may make just as long or as short as convenience re-
quires. " A person," says Prof. Huxley, " who is not a Hebrew
scholar can only stand aside and admire the marvelous flexibility of
a language which admits of such diverse interpretations." The term
" Mosaic," in reference to the same doctrine, Prof. Huxley also con-
siders objectionable, because "we are now assured upon the authority
of the highest critics, and even of dignitaries of the Church, that
tliere is no evidence that Moses wrote the book of Genesis, or knew
anything about it."

" You will understand," he says, " that I give no judgment— it would be an im-
pertinence upon my part to volunteer even a suggestion — upon such a subject.
But that being the state of opinion among scholars and the clergy, it is well for
the unlearned in Hebrew lore, and for the laity, to avoid entangling themselves
in such a vexed question. Happily, Milton leaves us no excuse for doubting
what he means, and I shall therefore be safe in speaking of the opinion in ques-
tion as the Miltonic hypothesis.'"

The Baltimore address gives us a sketch of the writer's ideal of
primary education, of university education, and especially of medical
education — how to encourage research, and how best to fill vacancies
in a professoriate. He does not hold the view that " you can go into
the market and buy research, and that supply will follow demand, as
in the ordinary course of commerce." His conviction is that "the
best investigators are usually those who have also the responsibilities
of instruction." Very valuable for other universities than that of

712 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Baltimore are Prof. Huxley's few words of advice on "buildings."
"Get an honest bricklayer, and make him build you just such rooms
as yoji really want, leaving ample space for extension." When

"you have endowed all the professors you need, and built all the laboratories
that are wanted, and have the best museum and the finest library that can be
imagined ; then, if you have a few hundred thousand dollars you don't know
what to do with, send for an architect, and tell him to put up a fagade. If
American is similar to English experience, any other course will probably lead
you into having some stately structure, good for your architect's fame, but not
in the least what you want.''

The South Kensington lecture contains some strong pleading for
the study of Biology, as a subject of deep importance to the com-
munity. Among other illustrations of its importance it is urged 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. " Brilliant articles " are from time to time written by " paper-
philosophers " devoid of even the elements of biological knowledge,
and the teachings of biologists are demolished, while the weather-
cock heads among us are. Prof. Huxley tells us, much exercised by the
"winds of doctrine" let loose in the said articles. Turning, however,
to his favorite storehouse of metaphor, he finds that the brilliancy of
the writers "is like the light given out by the crackling of thorns
under a pot, of which Solomon speaks." Solomon makes use of the-
image for purposes of comparison, but Prof. Huxley politely abstains
from proceeding further into detail.

The study of Biology which is here advocated is practical study
of the actual phenomena presented by plants and animals.

"Nobody will ever know anything about biology, except in a dilettante 'paper-
philosopher ' way, who contents himself with reading 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 symbohcal of the things of which it treats ; the more
complicated the things, 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 symbolized— that is
really what is at the bottom of the whole matter. , . . 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 be acquired through the operation of your observing
faculties on the phenomena of Nature."

The rationale of the demand ior practical teaching in all branches of
science — a demand to which it is exceedingly difficult to get those
who have the direction of educational institutions in this country to
accede — has never been stated with more simple force than in the
above extract.

Like all his writings, this last volume by Prof. Huxley presents

SPECIMENS OF EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE. 713

him to us in the aspect of a sure-footed resohite guide who, with a
firm hand, takes us up an endless variety of the peaks of social and
scientific problems, hard to be scaled. He brings his reader skillfully
up to the summit, explains tlie prospect, and carefully deposits him
again in his proper place. There are few excursions, where a little
exertion is needful, so exhilarating and profitable, so much to be rec-
ommended to the traveler among questions of the day, as those
which are accessible through the good ofiices of Prof. Huxley. —
The Academy.

♦»»

SPECIMENS OF EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE.

By F. W. CLARKE.

AMERICA is unquestionably preeminent in educational matters.
It has more schools and a greater variety of schools than any
other country on the face of the earth. Some of these schools are
extremely remarkable. You cannot match them elsewhere. They
thrive only upon the freest soil, untrammeled by effete convention-
alities. Throughout the West and South they spring up abundantly,
as if in proportion to the fertility of the land. The New England and
Middle States are too much tied down to routine and tradition to
produce such rare developments of the intellect. Such schools deserve
to be more widely known and more generally appreciated. We pro-
pose to help some of them to a broader fame, by printing a few
extracts from their circulars and catalogues.

First in order -let us take some clippings from a little jiamphlet
issued by a school in Faribault, Minnesota. This circular is remarkable
for its clear expression of views upon a variety of educational topics,
and for the suggestions it offers concerning real school discipline.
Here are a few of the wise regulations :

" Scholars with any contagious trouble or disease are not allowed in the
school till cleaned, or till their disease is beyond danger.

" If a snow-storm is up, the teacher takes the privilege to dismiss the school
earlier in the afternoon than it otherwise would have been.

"It is not allowed to scholars to jump on to or hang to teams except on the
way to or from school, and then only with the permission of the driver.

"Anything belonging to the school-house or to the scholars, broken, torn, or
damaged, must be paid or restored by the scholar or scholars who have done
it, as well as by those who were accessory to it.

" Where a punishment is in order it will be applied whether a scholar's parent
or any visitors are present or not."

And so on for about twelve pages. The remai-kably concise and
exact wordins: of these valuable rules must attract the attention of
every teacher. The circular closes with a four-page essay upon " The

714 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Affairs of Education," from which a feAV slips may be culled. The
author holds that it is very unwise to be "lenient, indulgent, uncon-
cerned, or superficial, in school-keeping," and considers it extremely
wrong to resort to " a false show of unmasticated, unprepared, unfit,
and undigested accumulation of stuff and. material, producing neither
educational bone, or muscle, or nerve, and. crammed in, drummed in,
or infused, as with a funnel, in a hurry, or in the worry and flurry of
an unquiet, unconcerted school."

Who, understanding this, can doubt it ? Or who can doubt that
the confidence of the pupils in the teacher " renders them more apt
to conceive how much they are bound in gratitude to parents and
teacher, and to get aware of the depth of the contrast and abyss of
their real course and nature of action and that what it should be, and
thus makes them more studious to be grateful and to advance their
own interests as scholars ? "

The teacher of this school, like most other Germans, believes in
systematic thoroughness. " But," says he, " this does not mean that
in the system that promotes perception, thorough thinking and rea-
soning, understanding, memory, self-reliance, deceitless ennobling en-
lightenment, and well-digesting progress, a scholar gets along slowly
over the ground or through the books ; on the contrary, while it ex-
cludes headway on the skip and jump, as each point is completely
learned and mastered, it makes the next depending on this so much
easier and more quickly grasped, and in a short time, what puzzles
and discourages others, becomes to him the greatest delight ; and thus
he progresses from point to point, from page to page, from combining
to combining the known with the unknown, the former unlocking and
explaining the latter, and so he moves faster and faster, leaving the
half-tutored, unsteady fustians far back in the distance."

The last citation which I shall make from this document might be
construed into a rap at myself:

" It would be malicious folly without self-respect, to detach parts of this cir-
cular from their dependent connection with others that explain their spirit and
application, and then to pervert their true construction ; hence it is not intended
for such persons," etc.

On second thoughts, however, this passage can refer only to those
who have criticised the school and made light of its methods. " Let
the galled jade wunce, our withers are un wrung." We can only
express our admiration for such an extraordinary " Avell of English
undefiled," and for the profundity of the ideas contained in it.

Another school of peculiar interest is the Mars Hill Academy, near
Florence, Alabama. The "permanent circular" of this institution,
now before me, bears date 1872, and contains many points worthy of
quotation. The merits of the school are well emphasized by the fol-
lowing paragraph :

SPECIMENS OF EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE. 715

"J. M. Cunningham, of Hamburg, Tennessee, boarded one son and two
daughters at the Institution during the first session. During the second session
he boarded one son and four daughters there. He seemed to regret his inability
to do more for the school, but considered little Emma^ the ball/, rather too
small to send to a boarding-school. He thinks, however, that the school is a
good one, and deems it the duty of those who are blessed with more children
than himself, to lend a more helping hand. Re is a man whose judgement and
jyatronage are both valuable.^''

This remarkably italicized passage shows at once that Mars Hill
Academy believes in the coeducation of the sexes. In another portion
of the circular, however, we learn that, although the boys and girls are
frequently brought into the presence of each other, the strictest care
is taken " that all observe a proper distance." Furthermore, every
pupil signs an elaborate pledge never to " seek or accept a private or
secret conversation or correspondence with any pupil of the oj)posite
sex from my own, and that I will never receive a proposition for such
correspondence or conversation, or anything tending thereto, without
immediately committing the same to the principal," and so forth, and
so forth, and so on. Thus we see that coeducation, at least in this
school, can hardly be considered dangerous. The morality of the
scholars is also advanced by a Scriptui-al exercise of an hour in length
every morning before breakfast. Here is a part of the result :

" At our last examination we examined the Bible class before the public for one
hour without one unsatisfactory answer being given, and might have continued the
examination with honor to all the members ior four hours. They could tell with
ease the number of hooh in the old Bible ; the nnmer of bool's in the New Testa-
ment ; the number of chapters in each ; the number of chapters written by
various writers; the name and order of every booTc in the entire Bible ; the num-
ber of chapters in every book in the entire Bible ; the origin and meaning of
the names of the books ; the history of the creation in detail ; the history of the
first family ; the history of i\\Q flood; the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
the twelve patriarchs, etc. ; the history of the Egyptian bondage and deliverance ;
the number and order of the plagues of Egypt ; the history of Sodom and Go-
morrah ; the beautiful, thrilling, story of the Cross, etc."

But the crowning glory of the school is to be found in the certifi-
cate given to every student at the end of his or her course. It is
described thus :

" To every pupil, great and small, will be presented a vert elegant cer-
tificate, containing a concise statement of the progress of the pupil, with the
name. State, county, and post-office, of the same. These certificates are very
beautiful ; they are beautifully printed in four colors. In the centre is a rep-
resentation of the earth, showing the equator, tropics, and polar circles. Around
the horizon of the northern hemisphere is printed in green, ' Blessed are they
that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
may enter in through the gates into the city.' The southern hemisphere is
bounded by — ' Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole

7i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

duty of man.' Within this circle is beautifully arranged the following certifi-
cate:

" ' This is to certify that M , of county, , a good, kind, obedient,

moral, studious, courteous, worthy, and honorable pupil of Mars Hill Academy,

, near Florence, Alabama, has attained a high degree of proficiency in ,

and is hereby recommended to the public as eminently worthy the confidence
and esteem of every member of any community in which h — lot may e'er be
cast, if future life does not corrupt h — .'

" This is surrounded by four hearts, two in red and two in green, and eight
'beautiful^ approp7'iate illustrations. The words Faith, Hope, Charity, and Heav-
en, are printed in green and red within the hearts, in Greeh, Latin, and English.
Surrounding the heart on the north is the motto, 'Labor conquers all things,' in
three languages. The name of the Institution on the south in three languages.
In large and beautiful variegated characters the name and location of the In-
stitution appear on the top and bottom of the certificate. All the space not
otherwise filled is occupied by most beautiful and appropriate passages of
Scripture. The whole is surrounded by a neat border, ends with the benedic-
tion of the Principal, and will be presented to each and every pupil, elegantly
framed, so that it may be worthy of a conspicuous place in the most fashion-
able parlor. Size of frame, sixteen by eighteen Inches."

Who, after reading this, does not long to possess just such a cer-
tificate ?

All things considered, the most remarkable specimen of educa-
tional literature yet issued is the catalogue of Neophogen College, at
Gallatin, Tennessee. This catalogue has no rival : it can never be
excelled, and probably will never be equaled. It begins with a map
of Sumner County, wherein the college is situated. Then come four
woodcuts representing "honor-students," young gentlemen, a like-
ness of the college-president, John M. Walton, LL. D., and then four
more effigies of " honor-students," young ladies. These woodcuts are
unique. The next feature of interest in this pamphlet is the page
devoted to the Faculty. Here the predominating name is Walton ;
it occurs no less than five times, although apparently but three indi-
vidual Waltons are indicated. There are also a number of blanks
indicating vacant professorships, not waiting, of course, for endow-
ments, but for men of sufficient ability to fill them. Among these
blanks we find the title of " Professor and Master, School of Phrenol-
ogy, Physiognomy, and Hygiene." What a pity that so important a
chair should be empty ! But we find some compensation for this
misfortune when we see near the bottom of the list the name of an
estimable lady inserted as "Mistress of Cuisine and Hygiene."

After a long (and to the general reader uninteresting) list of
students, with their marks for " application," " punctuality," and
" deportment " appended, we come to a few pages of text. Here we
learn much of the character and position of Neophogen. We are
informed, for example, that it is a "National University," being
" centrally located between the North and the South, the East and

SPECIMENS OF EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE, 717

President of Neophogen College.— (i^rom the Catalogue.)

the West," Besides, " it is within a few hours' ride of Epperson,
Red, Castalian, or Tyree Springs. Any kind of mineral water can be
had at the College, if desired."

But piecemeal quoting is useless; we need a longer sample of this
descriptive part of the catalogue. Let us take a page at once, with
all its headings :

"The Two Oumberlands,

with banks and crests adorned by the noblest monarchs of the forest, and em-
bracing the lovely valley between, make the land of the poet's dream and the
home of the artist's heart.

"Health and Wealth

are here combined with 3,500 citizens, who cannot be surpassed for intelligence
and refinement.

"Fo Parallel
can be found (estimating the population) to the ten first-class turnpikes leading
into this little city of enterprise. These fine roads are valuable auxiliaries to

718

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Ajr-^^^o^. Jt^^

QjX^'

Honor-Students of Neophogen College.— (i^/'ow the Catalogue.)

SPECIMENS OF EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE. 719

the school, for they can be made to contribute to the health and pleasure of
both the students and the faculty.

"The Scenery

is most beautiful and romantic. In a single glance, from a central point, the
eye surveys an ellipse, the circumference of which is 150 miles; and 'out-
stretching in loveliness ' — the lawn, the woodland, the meadow, the town spread
out beneath, the gushing rills, the flowing rivers, the farm-houses scattered
here and there, the rugged cliffs — all make up a landscape which is at once
picturesque and sublime. The future home of Neophogen was not selected
without canvassing the advantages and inducements offered at all the most
noted points in our country.

"The Community.

"We claim for the citizens of Gallatin and vicinity that true virtue and magna-
nimity found alone in the most refined society.

" Here, identity is lost in public spirit. Here, a studious observance of the
rights of others is ever manifested. Here, the principles fostered by those noble
old pioneers are infused into the minds of their successors.

"Here are the descendants of those worthy spirits — the Winchesters, Trous-
dales, Jacksons, Peytons, Wynnes, Halls, Guilds, Turners, Barrys, Heads, Black-
mores, Lauderdales, Bledsoes, Babers, Aliens, Bennets, Blounts, Elliotts, Odoms,
Dismukes, Blythes, Millers, Donelsons, Williamses, Boyerses, Bates, Mont-
gomerys. Smiths, Duffys, Boddies, Glovers, Alexanders, Waltons, Kirkpatricks,
Deshas, Blues, Winstons, Tomkinses, Houses, Hallums, Eascoes, Bakers, Greens,
Stuarts, Wilsons, Wallaces, Moores, Joyners, Buggs, Franklins, Cantrells, Loo-
neys, Hassells, Harrises, Malones, Pattersons, Parkers, Kings, Johnsons, Shutes,
Guthries, Cottons, Branhams, Douglases, Bells, Tyrees, Martins, McCoins, Harts,
Cages, with many other names worthy of emulation, and the half is not told.

" While we studiously ignore the idea of aristocracy and nobility, our minds
are pleasantly associated with dignity and purity."

All this information is evidently just what a careful parent would
require. The healthiness of a college town, and the character of its
people, must be important to every father having a child to educate.
As for the qualifications of the professors, the following passage is
sufficiently suggestive:

" What is the duty of many, is generally neglected by all. Here is continued
and special stimulus to president and professors ; here are no easy and assured
positions, with fixed and positive salaries, but they depend upon the patronage,
prosperity, and reputation of the institution. That this should be so, is too ob-
vious for comment. A very little knowledge of human nature is necessary to
see why. To each teacher it is plain, the greater the labor, the greater the
reward."

This passage is also instructive : " Learned men who have failed
in business are tendered every inducement to take a life-home here.
We intend to take the most active measures, and use every exertion,
to raise a large life-fund for the relief of unfortunate literary men.
Let them have homes, and the society of congenial spirits."

720 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

After the " curriculum," in which many studies are hiid down with
numerous text-books for each, comes a list of optional studies, with
the extra prices affixed. Here we find "music on harp" quoted at
$30, and " comparative philology " at 17.50. Italian, French, Spanish,
and German, are ten dollars each ; so that comparative philology may
be regarded as given at a wholesale price. Languages are so much
cheaper in a buncli than they are singly.

But the degrees given at Neophogen afford one of the most interest-
ing items concerning the college. They are eighteen or twenty in num-
ber, and among them some are of considerable novelty. For example :

" A. M. will be given to any male, and M. A. to any female, who, after hav-
ing received A. B., shall also graduate in penmanship and book-keeping, pho-
nography and mnemotechny, comparative philology, and Anglo-Saxon, and in
French, or German, or Spanish ; and to a B. S., completing these same (preced-
ing) additional or extra studies, the degree of M. S. (Master or Mistress of
Science).

"M. E. L. (Master or Mistress of English Language), to any student gradu-
ating in the schools of humanities, and of history and moral science; and in
common-school written arithmetic, elementary algebra, geometry, and the trig-
onometries and mensuration ; in political economy and metaphysics ; in pen-
manship and book-keeping, phonography and mnemonics, comparative philology
and Anglo-Saxon.

"B. A. LL. (Bachelor (or Maid) of Ancient Languages).

" B. M. LL. (Bachelor (or Maid) of Modern Languages).

" B. M. (Bachelor (or Maid) of Music), to .any graduate in music.

" B. M. and D., in Music and Drawing.

" B. M. and D. and P., in Music and Drawing, and Painting.

" B. F. A. (Bachelor (or Maid) of Fine Arts), to graduate in the three preced-
ing, and also in wax-work."

But mere quotations cannot do full justice to this extraordinary
catalogue. I will, therefore, give only a very few more, quite hurriedly,
and leave the reader to seek for fuller details in the original document.
Under the head of "specialties" a variety of studies are given, Eng-
lish, elocution, oratory, and typography, being made especially promi-
nent. As for etiquette, tliis passage will speak for itself:

"It is not a matter of choice, but compulsion. The course of training in
etiquette is, in great part, original. It has been said that manners make the
man; if not true, they at least cannot be neglected. Here it is the theory with
continued practice. We think we have the politest students in America. The
salutation, the bow, the courtesy, the word, the tone, the look, the inflection —
vocal and physical ; the attitude, the hand, the feet, the spine, and the eye, are
all observed and studied, and the students daily exercised in them."

Another passage of striking merit runs as follows :

"What has brought discredit upon diplomas of this age? What so greatly
reduced the respectability of the word graduate in this age of nostrums and
charlatanry ? Amtcer. Silly parents, and incompetent and unscrupulous teachers.

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 721

" Parents that are content to purchase the labeled casket without the jewels ;
parents that are in many cases deceived themselves, and in other cases willing to
deceive. Some reason thus: 'I have children, my children must be graduates, it
is respectable.' Croesus speaks, or intimates unmistakably, and it is done.
There must be radical reform here. Common, old-fashioned honesty demands it.
It must not be. The vital interests of our country cry aloud against it.

" We must steer aloof from making these pinchbeck and galvanized scholars.
This will be very pleasant to the eyes of all honest, earnest, and competent
teachers. We are all presidents and professors these days ; but we have an un-
controllable fancy for those noble old words, ' teacher ' and ' school.' "

The social importance of coeducation is shown thus:

"The young ladies and gentlemen are permitted, we may say required, to
have interviews in the drawing-rooms twice in each month. The refining,
elevating, and stimulating effects of these evening associations, regulated by
system and class rotation, must be seen to be appreciated."

The moment we consider that the young ladies wear "green-calico
dresses and wliite aprons" for a school-uniform, we cannot doubt the
impressiveness of these interviews. Further on we find that prizes
are given at Neophogen for "neatness," "grace," "true modesty,"
and " etiquette ; " and the names of the " fortunate winners " are
appended. The catalogue closes with two pages of " opinions of the
press." A single specimen will do to illustrate these:

"The teachers of Neophogen College have the highest national reputation,
both as teachers and authors. It is the cheapest college of the kind in the
world, and is the best one for the males and females of the North and the South.
It is located in a beautiful section of the State, which was selected with great
care." — Eepublican Banner {Nashville, Tenn.)

These extracts sufficiently indicate the remarkable character of
Neophogen. Who, after reading them, can longer doubt that the
South is in earnest in this great matter of education ? Let the boast-
ful educators of New England bow their heads, and humbly confess
that they can never hope to parallel such schools as the Mars Hill
Academy and Neophogen College !

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES.

By JOSEPH EODES BUCHANAN, M. D.

THERE has ever been, and probably for another century there
will continue to be, an " irrepressible conflict " between those
whose conceptions of Nature are limited by sensation — who recognize
no existence but matter and motion, who trace all that exists to ma-
terial causes alone — and a very different class of thinkers, who trace

VOL. XI.-^6

722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

causation beyond matter, who discover causes that are not material
(called spiritual), who believe that the Great First Cause (the Unknow-
able of materialists) is an infinite spiritual power or basis of all things,
and who recognize in man also a spiritual power of which they are
conscious, widely different from matter, partaking of the nature of the
Divine, and, being a very positive entity — the greatest of all realities
to us — destined, in accordance with the doctrine of the persistence of
force, to a duration analogous to that of matter.

To the materialist, who finds in matter " the promise and potency "
of all things, there is no higlier object of reverence and love than the
examples of men and women within his reach ; there is no future life
to conij^ensate for the wrongs and sufferings of this, the triumph of
fraud, or the unmerited agonies of disease and poverty ; there is no
apparent controlling purpose of benevolence or justice in the universe,
but only a chance medley of strife, in which strong-handed selfishness
is best rewarded, and when " man dies as the dog dies " the account
is closed, and the self-imposed martyrdom of the loving hero appears
a final loss and folly.

To the spiritualist, the universe has a deeper meaning, a nobler
destiny. The wisdom of the Infinite, which is unutterably beyond his
reach, is a consoling reality, and the little play upon this theatre, the
life-struggle of threescore and ten years, is but the beginning, the
gestation and birth of a career corresi^onding to our noblest aspira-
tions and our faith in the Divine benevolence.

Man has such immeasurable powers of adaptation that a strong
moral nature may exist under the gloomiest views of materialism
(which naturally tend to the pessimism of SchoiDenhauer and Hart-
mann), and sustain itself by its constitutional energy and buoyancy ;
but there are millions to whom materialism teaches the daily lesson
that to " put money in thy purse " is the chief aim of life, and to riot
in sensual pleasure on ill-gotten gain, until the candle burns out, is
the best wisdom.

The glow of hope, the removal of anxiety, the exaltation of happi-
ness, the enlargement of sympathy and love, which thousands have
experienced when they have passed from the dark nescience of ma-
terialism to the brilliant certainties of spiritualism, and learned the
grandeur of human destiny — whether the change has been effected by
emotional eloquence and historical argument in the bosom of the
Church, or by scientific investigation and experimental inquiry in
pneumatology, or by that direct perception of spiritual existence now
enjoyed by a few (and destined to be enjoyed by all when the human
race shall have attained maturity of development) — should satisfy
any impartial thinker that the diffusion of spiritual knowledge is as
noble and practical a form of philanthropy as a good man can labor for.

But, in laboring for these ennobling truths, he encounters a strong
resistance in the animal nature of man, in the selfish and depressing

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 723

character of our daily toils, and in the too great concentration of
attention upon physical sciences, to the exclusion of those in which a
psychic element is found. The study of physical science alone is no
better preparation for psychic studies, which employ different faculties,
than the study of the counting-house ledger or the supervision of a
pork-house would be for the service of Parnassus.

A recent publication from Dr. Carpenter, embodying two lectures
on psychic subjects (mesmerism, spiritualism, etc.), presents, in the
most offensively exaggerated form, the pragmatic pretension of cer-
tain physical scientists to take charge of psychic investigations with
an air of more than papal infallibility, and an emphatic notice to all
the rest of mankind, not only that they are incapable of such investi-
gations, but that their opinions, their testimony, and even their oaths
are not entitled to claim a feather's weight before the self-created tri-
bunal of which Dr. Carj)enter is the authoritative mouth-piece.

The magniloquent insolence of such a proclamation would be
amusing enough, even if ])r. Carpenter were, as he fancies himself, an
expert of great skill ; but when he is dealing with a subject of which
he knows far less than thousands of the most enlightened people, far
less than many men of science who are his peers in intelligence and
his superiors in candor and in philosophic habits of thought, his inso-
lent assumptions of superiority and denial of their claims to veracity
and intelligence, whenever in conflict with his own theories, are all
that his most unfriendly opponent could desire in order to demon-
strate his utter unfitness for the task which he has assumed.

Passing by his ludicrous claims to a boundless superiority over
contemporary scientists who do not follow his lead, we may ask
whether he has any claims whatever to be recognized as an expert,
whose opinions on these subjects have any especial value. Eminence
as a physiologist does not imply eminence or capacity as a psycholo-
gist. It is true, physiology and psychology are coterminous sciences ;
but until recently their cultivators have kept as wide apart as the an-
tipodes. Psychology has been prosecuted as if man never htid a body
(and ultra-psychologists do not admit that there is a human body or
any other material existence whatever), while physiology has been
cultivated in the same ultra spirit of nescience, as if man had no soul.
So thoroughly does a feeble or a narrow mind, in fixing its attention
on one object, lose sight of everything else. Dr. Carpenter himself
has expressly excluded the soul from the pale of science, which is the
next thing to excluding it from cognition, and one of the most recent
voluminous and learned American works on physiology excludes it
entirely, and substitutes the physical action of the brain, as follows :
" The brain is not, strictly speaking, the organ of the mind, for this
statement would imply that the mind exists as a force, independently
of the brain ; but the mind is produced by the brain-substance "
(Flint's "Physiology of Man," Nervous System, p. 327).

724 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Thus physiologists generally regard mind as purely phenomenal —
as something holding the same relation to the brain as music to the
violin, when the violin j^lays itself. If tlie relations of the brain to
paralysis or to digestion are. under consideration, such physiologists
may be recognized as expei'ts ; but when its relations to a soul of
wMch they know nothing are under consideration, we may very proj)-
erly say to them, " Ne siitor ultra crepidam^''

Of course, materialists cannot deny that mental phenomena exist,
but to them they are simply the phenomena of matter. Dr. Carpen-
ter may even admit the existence of a soul beyond the pale of science
— a quiddity as distinct from the real soul as Spencer's "Unknow-
able " is from any conception of a God, Practically speaking, Dr. Car-
penter is entirely in harmony with other materialists.

Men of scientific culture, who have spent a considerable portion of
their lives in practical investigation and familiarity with the facts of
mesmerism, spiritualism, and other psycho-physiological sciences, are
experts in the higliest sense of that term, and can but smile at the
insolence of those who, never having made a successful experiment on
those joint operations of the soul and body which constitute mes-
meric, spiritual, and other sciences, nevertheless claim, as Dr. Carpen-
ter does, to be recognized as the oracle in matters of which his igno-
rance is both pitiable and ludicrous, having never, by ])is own confession,
witnessed any of the innumerable facts demonstrating an extra-mate-
rial agency, which, during the whole of the present century, have been
accumulated and diffused in all civilized countries, and among their
foremost thinkers. His position is precisely that of the principal Pro-
fessor of Philosophy at Padua, who refused to look through Galileo's
telescope, and continued to teach the old theories. Nay, far worse :
he not only refuses to see M'hat is open to all men, but, as Horkey wrote
against Galileo, while refusing all fair investigation, and thus furnished
an examjde to " point a moral " for posterity — an example of the
power of "dominant ideas" in a bigot — Dr. Carpenter repeats the
same performance amid the higher enlightenment of the present age,
with a perversity and hostility of purpose which wei-e never surpassed
by the blind votaries of Aristotle. And as Horkey detected the trick
in Galileo's telescope which made stars by reflected light. Dr. Car-
penter too detects fallacies in the experiments of Prof. Crookes, whose
temperate and candid reply places him in even a worse position than
that of Martin Horkey. (See Nineteenth Century for July.)

In a question of the existence of certain facts, the honest witness
who, without prepossession, investigates and follows up the facts
wherever they are visible, is competent to instruct us; but he who
carefully avoids coming into close contact with the facts, and, while
maintaining his mind in undisturbed ignorance, feasts upon second-
hand gossip and stale calumnies, which he retails with delight, is hard-
ly entitled even to a nod of recognition among honest inquirers.

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 725

When Home was in England, and gentlemen of nnimpeachable ve-
racity and superior intelligence saw him lifted from the floor by an
entirely invisible power, why would not Dr. Carpenter witness such
an occurrence ? When Slade was in England, of whom gentlemen of
intelligence say that when a pencil was placed between two clean
slates fastened together, which were left in full view of spectators in
broad daylight lying on the table, messages were written on the in-
side of the slates, of a highly intelligent and appropriate character,
why did Dr. Carpenter, if he possessed the sentiments of honor and
love of truth which mankind generally recognize as commendable,
refuse to make the simple and brief investigation which would have
determined in an hour whether his theories and his stale calumnies
had any foundation or not ?

The truth is, Dr. Carpenter and men of his character care mainly
for their own personal infallibility: they seek only the vindication of
their own theories, per fas et 7iefas, and do not approach an experi-
mental test unless they are permitted to interfere and dictate some
method of conducting experiments to hinder or delay their progress.
But when a simple experiment is proposed which cannot be intermed-
dled with, and which is completely and forever decisive, such as the
levitation of a table or a man to the ceiling, no one being in contact
with the lifted object, or the production of writing upon the interior
of two clean slates which the inquirer brings himself, firmly secured
together, the pretentious dogmatist is very careful to keep out of
reach, no matter how he may be importuned or challenged. He gen-
erally fortifies himself with a few contemptuous phrases and a deter-
mination to see nothing of the marvelous.

The public that employs and patronizes men of science has a right
to expect from them fidelity to truth and vigilance in seeking it — not
cunning in evading or skill in calumniating true discoveries, followed
by contemptuous neglect when their claims have been demonstrated.
Such is the course pursued by some toward all discoveries in which
psychic powers are invoh^ed. There is a fossilized materialism in
many minds, which has become a matter of blind feeling, utterly irre-
spective of facts or science, against which it is vain either to reason
or to offer facts. In the last resort the skeptic declares, " I wouldn't
believe it if I saw it myself."

Of this vicious state of feeling, producing an incapacity to reason
correctly on certain subjects, we need no better example than Dr.
Carpenter himself, as exhibited in this brochure of one hundred and
fifty-eight pages, the substance of which may be condensed into four
propositions :

1. History exhibits a great deal of folly, superstition, and igno-
rance, and a great • many preposterous narratives of witchcraft and
silly miracles, attested by many witnesses : therefore^ in the present
enlightened age, human testimony is of no value when it affirms any-

726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

thing out of the usual course of Nature (as observed by Dr. Carpen-
ter), and the scientific testimony of Profs. Crookes and Wallace (reen-
forced by that of eminent men and women in Great Britain, France,
•Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United States, whose numbers and
moral and intellectual capacity would outweigh any Royal Society or
French Institute), is of no more value than the most fanciful mediaeval
legends of Catholic saints, which science does not condescend to notice.

2. Some individuals can be brought by a proper operator into a
waking mesmeric condition of passive credulity and obedience to the
voice : therefore we should believe everybody liable to this condition,
and believe nothing that anybody tells us which is different from the
usual course of Nature, as Dr. Carpenter tinder stat ids it.

3. The usual course of Nature under our own observation — we beg
pardon. Dr. Carpenter'' s observation — is all of tchich Nature is capahle^
and no new laws or agencies which Dr. Carpenter does not know are
to be expected or developed by investigation. Whoever asserts that
any such laws or agencies exist, is to be regarded as a liar or a victim
of hallucination ; and, \\\ fact, the chief phenomena of mesmerism and
spiritualism have been discovered to be cheats.

4. Mesmer advanced certain preposterous and unscientific preten-
sions; certain mesmeric operators have made failures; and Dr. Car-
penter affirms that he has several times failed to discover any clairvoy-
ance in celebrated clairvoyants, and has detected some pretenders to
clairvoyance as impostors: therefore, mesmerism is a delusion.

It is difficult to treat such a mass of absurdity and misstatement
with the gravity and courtesy apj^ropriate to scientific discussion.
When a dogmatic adult insists on proving to us that the earth is en-
tirely flat, he takes rank, as a first-class bore, Avith Dr. Carpenter;
and tlfe only method of disposing effectively of such nuisances is
that adopted by Mr, Alfred R. Wallace— a heavy wager to be set-
tled by actual measurement of a portion of the earth's surface. If
Dr. Carpenter had courage enough to endure the wager-test, he
too might receive his quietus from Mr. Wallace. But there is no
hope of that ; the large reward offered in England, to any one who
will produce certain spiritual phenomena by physical means, will never
be called for.

The first proposition may pass for what it is worth. If there are
any who agree with Dr. Carpenter in his assumption that the super-
stitious tales of an ignorant age are as worthy of credence as the
elaborate investigations of the most distinguished scientists — men
whose testimony would be decisive in any court of justice where life
was at stake — it is not worth while to reason with them. The as-
sumption of Dr. Carpenter is slanderous against his distinguished
scientific opponents ; but its extreme silliness renders it entirely harm-
less to any but himself. The same argument would destroy the credi-
bility of medical, surgical, and physiological works of to-day, because

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 727

the medical records of former times contain much that is absurd and
incredible.

The second proposition is but little better than the first. There is
an unfortunate development of brain which makes or marks the con-
stitutional and incurable bigot, to whom bigotry is pliilosophy. The
Italian philosophers who denounced Galileo, and the French physicians
who laughed at Harvey, were as unsuspicious of their own mental de-
fects as Dr. Carpenter. Could anything but the blinding impulse of
bigotry induce a man of great intelligence, age, and experience, to
confound possibiUty with certainty in this ridiculous manner — to
affirm that because certain individuals can be mesmerized in the
American manner, wide awake, but passive creatures of the operator's
voice, therefore we should consider all men liable to this condition,
and treat all testimony that contravenes our opinions of the course of
Nature as the testimony of helpless mesmeric subjects? By an exact
parity of reasoning we may say certain individuals in every com-
munity have committed, or might commit, murder : therefore, w^hen-
ever we find any one dead, and do not know how he died, we may as-
sume that the men or w^omen who were in his vicinity murdered him.

But suppose Dr. Carpenter should witness a case of levitation, and
have the honesty to report what he saw, shall we then hold him to be
either a mesmerized dupe or a confederate knave — which would he
prefer to be called ? Dr. Carpenter may he sincere, but he speaks
quite reverentially of the Scriptures, although by his own declarations
he must regard their miracles as shams which had never been exposed
by a learned expert ; and their spiritual phenomena, so analogous to
those of the present day, as base impostures.

The third proposition, considered as a w^ork of art, is an ingenious
compound of evil, on which his satanic majesty might smile in grim
approbation. Dr. Carpenter's language is as follows : " My conten-
tion is, that where apparent departures from them [the laws of Nature]
take place through human instrumentality, w^e are justified in assum-
ing in the first instance either fraudulent deception, or unintentional
5e{/'-deception, or both combined — until the absence of either shall
have been proved by every conceivable test that the sagacity of
skeptical experts can devise."

As for himself, he affirms that he has "no other theory to support
than that of the well-ascertained laws of Nature ; " and further, that
" it is quite legitimate for the inquirer to enter upon this study with
that ' prepossession ' in favor of the ascertained and universally-ad-
mitted laws of Nature which believers in spiritualism make it a
reproach against men of science that they entertain."

If this be a true and honest statement of the case, there is no case
in court for discussion : Dr. Carpenter is a philosopher, and the
spiritualists are hopeless fools. By what muddled process of thought
he could bring himself to make such a statement, we need not inquire.

728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

There is not a scientific spiritualist wlio would not rej^udiate the
statement as calumnious. If the laws of Nature can be violated, there
is no absurdity or chimera which is not admissible ; but, instead of
believing this possible, sjnritualists are the foremost of all men in in-
sisting on the universal inviolability of all the laws of Nature, ex-
tending their infrangible power not only over all physical phenomena,
but throughout tlie equally extensive psychic realm (in sjnte of all
metaphysical speculations to the contrary) — an extension which Dr.
Carpenter has not affirmed himself.

Dr. C^ix^iiwler presumes that liberal thinkers must be at war with
the laws of Nature, because Jie thinks those laws incompatible with
the new phenomena. The obfuscation of his mind is the same which
has characterized narrow-minded bigots in all ages. The narrow-
minded man cannot conceive two widely-different truths at once, and
perceive their harmonies: he adopts one with zeal, and rejects the
other firmly, because he thinks them incompatible. Narrow-minded
men are of course bitter partisans, and the great majority of mankind
from defective brains and irrational education see only one aspect of
truth, and reject all others.

Dr. Carpenter sees no truth in mesmerism, and Baron Dupotet sees
no reliable truth in medicine ; Hahnemann rejected the entire accumu-
lations of allopathy, and the old school indignantly rejected Hahne-
mann's discoveries as nonentities. A doctor who administers three-
grain pills will not tolerate homeopathic pellets; and he who has dis-
covered that infinitesimals will cure is often equallj^ intolerant of the
three-grain pills: and so they call each other quacks and impostors,
in the same spirit in which Dr. Carpenter assails those who see more of
the truth than himself, and are equally interested in psychic and
physical facts. How long shall it be before the "survival of the
fittest," or the improvement of education, shall give us a generation
with brains enough to entertain two ideas at once?

The difficulty of Dr. Carpenter and all other narrow-minded people
lies in the poverty of their conceptions. They have no idea that it is
possible for Nature to show her powers in any new way to which they
are unaccustomed. Hence, the ascent of a balloon seemed miraculous
to the ignorant peasants, who took it for the work of the devil; and
the formation of a solid block of ice from water was a similar viola-
tion of Nature's laws to the Asiatic despot, who felt justified in treat-
ing the traveler as a liar who told him of it. Had Dr. Carpenter been
his prime-minister, the traveler might have fared worse.

There is no better evidence of philosophic imbecility than a senti-
ment of the all-sufficiency of our present meagre knowledge of Nature.
The proposition of Dr. Carpenter that all new, marvelous facts shall be
treated as impossibilities, and the witnesses who, without any other
motive than the love of truth, attest them at the expense of their own
popularity, shall be treated as impostors (which means, made personally

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 729

infamous and consigned to the mercies of antiquated laws), embodies
all the impulses of stolid ignorance and malignity which have in past
ages warred against science and innovation by prisons and by death-
penalties.

Every great discoverer introduces something to human knowledge
different from the usual understanding of Nature, and is, therefore, by
the Carpenterian rule, a fit subject for persecution. The rigorous ap-
plication of this principle would check progress by a war upon the
greatest benefactors of mankind — those who lead them into essentially
new ideas of Nature. The rule is therefore thoroughly satanic in its
moral aspect, while in its intellectual character it is thoroughly stolid,
being a declaration of war against the increase of knowledge in certain
directions forbidden by the bull of the materialistic pope.

Considered as an appeal to that great tribunal, the public, this little
volume is an extraordinary piece of insolence — what would be called
at any judicial tribunal a flagrant contempt of court, entitling the aj)-
plicant to summary dismissal and punishment. Dr. Carpenter not only
pronounces the public, to whom his book is an appeal, incompetent to
decide, virtually telling every reader that he has no right to an opinion
on what he has seen until Dr. Carpenter (or some one whom he recog-
nizes as a colleague) has told him what to think ; but he assumes, like
a " border-ruffian," to expel every witness from court who testifies
differently from himself. No matter how jjure the character, or how
lofty the intelligence, if they disagree with him they are falsifiers ; but,
as to all who agree, their testimony is valuable, no matter how con-
temptible its source.

It is pitiable to see a gentleman of Dr. Carpenter's standing repro-
ducing the obsolete trash which public intelligence had buried in
oblivion. The toe-joint and knee-joint theory of rappings was speedily
exploded in America, and has scarcely been heard of for twenty years.
Rappings have occurred in thousands of families, in spite of their in-
credulity, and compelled them to recognize an invisible power which*
acts sometimes with force sufficient to break furniture, and to be heard
at considerable distances. As Dr. Carpenter manifests a remarkable
ignorance of the progress and present status of spiritualism, it is
probable he does not know that the joint-rapping certificate to which
Mrs. Culver's name was attached was refuted immediately after its pub-
lication. The seances she describes never occurred at all, Catharine
Fox being at that time seventy miles distant at Auburn. How un-
manly, how much like a malignant village gossip, in Dr. Carpenter to
dig up decomposed slanders, when the lady concerned, now Mrs.
Jencken, was in London, and he might at any time have satisfied
himself in an hour of the reality of true spirit-sounds and other
phenomena !

Throughout his long career. Dr. Carpenter has kept himself Avillfully
ignorant of mesmeric and spiritual facts, which are easier of access

730 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

than almost any other scientific phenomena. He has reproduced the
career of Horkey with remarkable fidelity. No sincere inquirer has
ever failed, if he made proper effbrts, to obtain evidence of an active
intelligence which is not material. In my first interview with a me-
dium, over twenty-five years ago, loud sounds — not raps, but sounds
like the creaking of a wooden mill — were freely produced at request in
a small uncovered table in our parlor, when no person was in contact
with it or within three feet of it. On making careful examinations, the
sounds appeared to be developed in the loose marble slab which con-
stituted its top, and, by feeling the slab on both sides, I could locate
the sound and vibration with great accuracy in its centre. When no
one was touching the table, it was held down by the spirit-power,
when requested, with a force which I estimated at twenty pounds in
lifting it.

But it is entirely useless to mention any such facts to bigots of the
Carpenter class, or to sustain them by any amount of testimony ; for
to them all testimony is woi'thless concerning anything outside of
the limit which Dr. Carpenter has marked off with a grand Caidinal
Richelieu flourish, as the impassable limit where inquiry must halt and
vituperation begin.

Great is the power of the speculative scientific dogmatism which
enabled Dr. Carpenter to show in his "Physiology" that one hundred
pounds of starch would support the life of a savage as long as four
hundred pounds of venison or other game (Chapter VII. Of Food and
the Digestive Process), although it w^ould be as difiicult to convince
the unscientific savage that such an opinion is preferable to experi-
ence as to convince Crookes, Wallace, Flammarion, Hare, or even Vic-
tor Hugo, that Dr. Carpenter's ojnnions are preferable to their own
careful observations.

Worthless as this book seems as an argument, and amusing as it is
to those at whom it is aimed, it has some power for mischief — the
'power of a demoralizing example — the power of position and reputation
in giving a quasi-respectability to that which is philosophically silly
and ethically corrupt. The most demoralizing influence which pro-
ceeds from a thoroughly depraved society is the doctrine that all men
are knaves or fools, to which Dr. Carpenter has given his active co-
operation—saving only a few self-styled " experts " from this satanic
maxim. His unfair example is corrupting to scientific literature. The
vast amount of mesmeric facts, which coidd scarcely be summarized
and classified in the limits of his book, has been carefully ignored, and
his readers would not suspect their existence, if dependent on him for
information. Yet, as he is such a stickler for the scientific qualifica-
tions of witnesses, why could he not even allude to the testimony of
Prof. Agassiz, who ranks before the world at least as high as himself?
Pi'of. Agassiz was thoroughly mesmerized by the Rev. C. H. Towns-
hend,and his letter describing his sensations and condition during the

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 731

process (February 22, 1839) is publislied in Townshend's "Facts in
Mesmerism."

As the limits assigned this essay do not admit a complete review
of this little book, it may now be dismissed, but not to oblivion, for it
is destined to survive all other Avritings of Dr. Carpenter, and to be
remembered as long as Horkey's letter against Galileo. Posterity
will be amused to think that Whately's " Historic Doubts " concern-
ing the existence of Napoleon Bonaparte, written for amusement,
were more than matched by Carpenter's doubts of the existence of
any mesmeric or spiritual facts, written in all the earnestness of
a dogmatic and infallible philosophizer. In the struggle between
stubborn vituperative materialism and comprehensive science, the
battle-ground is at the psycho -physiological junction of the two
worlds. Man, belonging to both the spiritual and the material world,
cannot be properly studied except as a psycho-physiological being,
and those who refuse to do this simply ignore anthropology. The
effort of ultra -bigoted materialists is to exclude all agencies not
thoroughly material — all that is intermediate between the psychic
and the physiological — to crush its students and teachers by per-
sonal or professional ostracism and accusations of lying knavery
and hallucination. The malignity of the attacks is sufficient proof
that they do not originate in the love of science or of truth, even if
they were not often distinguished by mendacity, the mildest example
of which is the late assertion of Dr. Forbes Winslow, of London, that
" this form of delusion" (spiritualism) "is very prevalent in America,
and the asylums contain many of its victims; nearly 10,000 persons
having gone insane on the subject are confined in the public asylums
of the United States." This is quite a fair example of the truthfulness
of the majority of the statements on that side of the question. The fact
is, however, that the published reports of our fifty-eight insane asy-
lums show but 412 from religious excitement, which is less than two
per cent, of the whole number, and but 59 from spiritualism, which is
twenty-six hundredths of one per cent, of the whole number in these
asylums (23,328).

Dr. Carpenter and the majority of physiologists prefer to culti-
vate physiology as a purely material science, and reduce man as neai'ly
as possible to a chemical and dynamic apparatus. I have preferred
to cultivate physiology in a more philosophic way, recognizing the
eternal man who inhabits the body, as well as the transient physical
form, and discovering a new class of facts which render our chemi-
cal and anatomical physiology far more philosophic and intelligible.
What a blind groping in the dark rigidly materialistic physiology
appears to one who has gained that full knowledge of our complex
constitution which constitutes our anthropology ! I do not mean by
this that mesmerism and spiritualism combined with mechanical phys-
iology constitute anthropology : far from it. Both mesmerism and spir-

732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

itualisra are rich but empirical collections of facts, in which there is
a large amount of material, hut very little that can be called philoso-
phy or satisfactory science.

Anthropology is established by investigating the centre of man's
existence — the seat of his conscious life — the brain, in which the spir-
itual comes into contact with the physical, and is subject to analogous
laws. In this theatre of their joint action both may be studied, and we
may find that philosophy for which the world has so long been looking
in vain, Avhich shall comprehend the entire scope of human existence.

As one of these numerous psycho-physiological discoveries which
are receiving daily confirmation from pathology, from autopsies, and
from Dr. Ferrier's interesting experiments, I would very briefly allude
to psycJiometry, a few experiments in which, if rightly conducted,
would dissipate the entire fabric of physiological materialism. The
discovery of psychometry and the introduction of the word by myself,
thirty-four years ago, have made it quite familiar to liberal minds
throughout the United States, and to some extent abroad.

The initial facts which I discovered in 1841, that all who have a
high development of sensibility are capable of feeling the influence of
any substance held in the hands, even to the extent of perceiving its
taste as well as its medicinal eflects, led to far more marvelous de-
velopments. The supposition of materialism has always been, that
when medicines aflfect the body from contact with the exterior, an
appreciable quantity of the substance must have been absorbed into
the circulation. Against this theory I guarded by placing the medi-
cines in an envelope of paper, which prevented contact with the cuticle,
and concealed the nature of the substance from the knowledge of the
subject of the experiment. In making such experiments I found that
from twenty-five to thirty per cent, of the persons tried could realize
distinct medicinal eflfects, corresponding to the nature of the medicine.
In one of my collegiate classes of medical students (in 1849, some of
whom have since occupied honorable public positions), the effects were
distinctly recognized by forty-three, whose statement w^as published at
the time. These effects would begin in the hand, ascend the arm to
the head, and rapidly diffvise over the whole body.

If the materialist supposes that the substance passed through the
dry paper to the dry hand, through its unbroken cuticle and up the
arm, I would ask, How long would it take for twenty grains of tartar-
emetic or of quinine to be exhaled through the paper ? I am not aware
that such substances when dry are ever materially diminished in
weight by being kept in dry paper.

Omitting other associated facts and philosophy for want of space,
I pass on to the consummation, that persons who realize with facility
these medical impressions can also realize psychic impressions of the
most subtle character, in such a manner as to dissipate all doubt of
the reality of this wonderful power. A manuscript from any source

THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. 733

retains in itself a subtle psycho-physiological emanation characteristic
of its writer; and an impressible person with a fair endowment of the
psychometric faculty, to such an extent as we would find in perhaps
one person in twenty, or, in some southern communities, one person in
five, is capable of feeling the entire mental and physical influence of
that person as perfectly as if in contact with himself, and describing
the individual as he was at the time of writing — his entire mental and
physical condition. When there is a high endowment of the psycho-
metric faculty, the descriptions of characters made in this way are
more subtly accurate than those from any other source, and the sym-
pathetic impression of the physical condition is so vivid as to develop
in the psychometer the pains and morbid conditions of the writer.

In the proper performance of the experiment, the psychometer is
not allowed even to see the manuscript, which is used by placing it
on the centre of his forehead ; nor is he assisted by leading questions.
It sometimes happens that, if the character described be one with which
the psychometer is familiar, he will finally be able to recognize it, and
tell the name of the writer by the identity of the character. For exam-
ple, while writing this article yesterday, a lady, of considerable intel-
lectual reputation and elevation of character, came in, whom I knew to
possess fine psychometric powers. Thinking that I might make a suit-
able experiment upon her for the illustration of my subject, I selected
one of my autographs, and requested her to give me an example of her
powers. She knew not what autographs were in my possession, and
was not allowed a view of the manuscript, which was placed on her
forehead without being seen, and without the slightest hint or suspi-
cion of its nature. In a few moments (holding it to her forehead by
her finger) she manifested great mental excitement, and desci'ibed a
character of unusual grandeur and moral elevation. She felt like a
great leader to whom multitudes were looking up — a man of com-
manding stature, of immovable firmness and strength of character,
and the loftiest philanthropy. She could hardly refrain from rising
up and striding over the floor, from intense excitement. After giving
a forcible description of the character, she said she was sure it must be
General Washington, as it corresponded to her knowledge of his char-
acter, with which she was quite familiar. I then took the paper from
her forehead, to let her see this autograph, on which she had been
pronouncing :

" To all to whom this writing shall come.

" I certifje, that William Morgan Esquire, commands a company of volun-
toors in the service of the United States of America.

" Givon at Head Qrs. at Momstown this 25tli day of Febry 1777.

" G. WASmNGTON."

Ever since my announcement of this discovery, in 1843, I have
found it the most perfect agency ever devised for the investigation

734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of character, and it has become well known throughout the United
States. There are as many as a score of practitioners of psychoraetry
who will send a written description of the character connected with
any manuscripts sent them, and a number of physicians who, with
great success, use their psychometric power for the diagnosis of the
condition of patients at a distance.

But experiments and investigations would be entirely useless if
Dr. Carpenter could succeed in his aim to build an impassable wall
for the exclusion of all essentially novel truths, by denying the com-
petency of scientific testimony to introduce new facts foreign to his
own cramped conceptions of Nature.

To exclude the multitudinous facts of mesmerism, including the
vast number of surgical operations and marvelous cures in which it
has been employed by Dr. Esdaile, Dr. Elliotson, and hundreds of
others of unquestionable character — to exclude the facts of spiritual-
ism witnessed by millions, and to combine all the incompatible powers
of medical and clerical bigotry now, as the Aristotelians and Romish
priests combined against Galileo — is a task in which his success will
hardly equal that of Lactantius in denouncing the wicked innovations
which asserted tlie existence of the antipodes.

-**^^

T

THE DECLINE OF PAKTY GOVEKNMENT.

By Professor GOLDWIN SMITH.

HE late presidential election appears likely, in its results, to

mark an epoch not only in the political history of the United

States, but in that of all constitutional countries. In the person of
the new President the American Government has come out of party
and is trying to be the government of the whole nation. Sir Robert
Peel tried the same thing in England, though in his case the " splen-
did perfidy" to party was less marked than in the case of Governor
Hayes, because the repeal of the corn laws was not more essential to
the interest of the country, which it rescued from death, than it was
to that of the Conservative party, which it rescued from hopeless
opposition to the nation and from utter political ruin. Party found a
dagger with which to stab Sir Robert Peel. President Hayes has
shown himself a strong man, but the greatest trials of his strength
are still to come. AVhen Congress meets he will have to contend both
with the resentment of the regular managers of his own party and
with the hostility of the thorough-going Democrats, who will see
their opportunity in the breach between the President and the party
which raised him to power, as the Whigs in 1846 saw their opportu-
nity in the breach between Sir Robert Peel and the Protectionist sec-
tion of his followers. Supposing, however, that President Hayes, like

THE DECLINE OF PARTY GOVERNMENT. 735

Peel, should fail, his attempt, like that of Peel, will have a signifi-
cance which no momentary failure can annul. It announces the de-
cline of the party system, and the advent, not immediate, perhaps, but
still certain, of national government.

It is curious with what implicit faith Ave have all reposed upon
party, as the normal, permanent, and only possible mode of carrying
on a free constitution, disregarding not only the objections which
reason obviously suggests to the system and the general evidences of
its bad effects on politics and political character, but the facts which
showed plainly enough that its foundations were giving way, and that,
if this was tlie only basis of government, government was likely to be
soon left without a basis.

Burke, in his " Thoucjhts on the Cause of the Present Discontent,"
has given at once his definition and his defense of party :

" Party is a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the
national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.
For my part, I find it impossible to conceive that any one believes in his own
politics or thinks them to be of any weight who refuses to adopt the means of
having them reduced into practice. It is the business of the speculative philos-
opher to mark the proper ends of government. It is the business of the poli-
tician, who is the philosopher in action, to find out proper means toward those
ends, and to employ these with effect. . Therefore every honorable connection
will avow it as their first purpose to pursue every just method to put the men
wlio hold their opinions into such a condition as may enable them to carry their
common plans into execution with all the power and authority of the state. As
this power is attached to certain situations, it is their duty to contend for these
situations. Without a proscription of others they are bound to give to their
own party the preference in all things ; and by no means, for private considera-
tions, to accept any offer of power in which the whole body is not included ;
nor to suffer themselves to be led or to be controlled or to be overbalanced, in
office or in council, by those who contradict the very fundamental principles on
which their party is formed, and even those upon which every fair connection
must stand. Such a generous contention for power, on such manly and honor-
able maxims, will easily be distinguished from the mean and interested struggle
for place and emolument. The very style of such persons will serve to discrimi-
nate them from those numberless impostors who have deluded the ignorant with
professions incompatible with human practice, and have afterward incensed
them by practices below the level of vulgar rectitude."

To form a rational and moral basis for party, to prevent party
from sinking into faction, the party leader from becoming an "im-
postor," and the " generous contention for power " from degenerating
into a " mean and interested struggle for place and emolument," there
must be, as Burke says, a particular principle on which the members
of the connection are agreed in desiring that government should be
carried on. Failing such a principle, party, and the golden haze with
which Burke, according to his manner, has surrounded it, vanish, and
leave a faction or a void.

736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The principle must not be a moral principle, because this would
imply an organized opposition to morality on the other side, and the
permanent existence of an immoral party ; two parties always in active
existence being plainly essential to the working of the system. You
cannot, for example, have a party of purity, because this would imply,
as its correlative and complement, a party of corruption, and it would
be a grotesque arrangement to devote half your citizens permanently
to the service and advocacy of corruption in order to maintain the
machinery of your government.

The principle must be one of expediency. Parties, in other words,
must be divided by some question of policy, about which honest men
may differ. And it must be a question of sufficient magnitude to
transcend in importance all other questions; of sufficient importance
to warrant a man of sense and a good citizen in surrendering for its
sake his private judgment on all other political subjects to the guidance
of the party leader and the exigencies of the party struggle, and in
doing his utmost to exclude from the legislature and the public service
all men, however honest, however able, however useful in general re-
spects to the country, who do not agree with him on the vital point.
We need not use the invidious term proscription ; the thing will be the
same.

Now, it is manifest, in the first place, that the occurrence of such
questions is exceptional, and not normal ; they can seldom arise in
fact except with reference to some organic change in the constitution,
such as the transfer of supreme power from the crown to Parliament,
or the change in the character of Parliament itself, embodied in the
English Reform Bill of 1832. American slavery was an issue of a
different kind and of still more transcendent importance; but it was
one lying quite beyond the pale of ordinary politics. In normal times
the occupations of legislatures and governments will be matters of
current administration, not one of which is likely to form an issue of
sufficient importance to swallow up all the rest and form a rational
ground for the division of the nation into two organized parties strug-
gling each to place its leaders in exclusive possession of the powers
of the state.

In the second place, questions of expediency, however important,
do not last forever; in one way or other they are settled and disap-
pear from the political scene. Slavery dies and is buried. Parlia-
mentary reform is carried out with all its corollaries, and becomes a
thing of the past. What is to follow ? Another question of sufficient
importance to warrant a division of the nation into parties must be
found. But suppose no such question exists, are we to manufacture
one ? That is the work to which tlie wire-pullers devote themselves
in democracies governed by party, but the results seem hardly to cor-
respond to our notion of the adamantine basis on whicli the political
edifice is to rest forever.

THE DECLINE OF PARTY GOVERNMENT. 737

Some astronomers say that the moon once had an atmosphere, but
that she has exhausted it, and that she shows us what our planet will
be when, in the course of ages, its atmosphere also shall have been ex-
hausted. The colonies, in this matter of party government, may fur-
nish an indication of the same kind to the mother-country. In Canada,
for example, while New World society was struggling to repel the
intrusive elements of the old regime forced upon it by the imperial
country, and to extort self-government, the parties, though not alto-
gether edifying in their behavior or salutary in their influence upon
popular character, were at least formed upon real lines. But the
struggle ended with the abolition of the state Church and the secu-
larization of the clergy reserves. Since that time there has been no
real dividing line between the parties ; they have ceased to be truly
directed to public objects of any kind ; their very names have become
unintelligible. Politics under such a party system must inevitably
sink at last into an " interested contest for place and emolument "
carried on by " impostors who delude the ignorant with professions
incompatible with human practice, and afterward incense them by
practices below the level of vulgar rectitude." It is needless to say
what effects an incessant war of intrigue, calumny, and corruption,
carried on by such party leaders, with the aid of the sort of journal-
ists who are willing to take their pay, must produce on the political
character of a community, however naturally good, and well adapted
for self-government. Nobody is to blame. The blame rests entirely
on the system. Lord Elgin found fault with Canadian parties for
being formed with reference to petty objects, not to great questions.
It is singular that so acute a man should not have asked himself where
the great questions were to be found. Were they to be manufactured
or imported ?

Nothing is more curious than the ingenuity with which new rea-
sons are invented for old institutions when the original reasons have
ceased to exist. The advocates of the party system in countries des-
titute of party questions, at a loss for rational grounds of defense,
take a desperate dive into psychology, and affirm that all men are
by natural tendency either Conservatives or Liberals, so that the di-
vision of every community into two parties is not merely a practical
exigency of politics but a general law of humanity. In that case
Nature must have been peculiarly kind to certain politicians who are
furnished with a double set of tendencies enabling theni to appear in
both the parties at different periods of their career. It is hardly
necessary to prove that the varieties of natural temperament are num-
berless, and are still further diversified by the influences of position,
age, and fortune ; and that to divide any nation into two organized
parties according to their temperaments would be an undertaking far
transcending in absurdity all the fancies of Laputa, Yet such phi-
losophy probably helps to cast a halo over a contest of "impostors,"
VOL. XI. — 47

738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the character and objects of which could not otherwise escape the
most " vulgar " eye.

We have an example of the tendencies of the system in the Aus-
tralian colonies, if Australian journals may be believed. Whatever
laud-questions or other questions of an organic kind or of permanent
importance there were, having been settled, and no basis for parties
left, party government it seems in those countries is weltering in cabal,
senseless faction-fighting, and all the concomitant evils. The worst
arts and the worst men inevitably acquire an increasing ascendency
in public life. Changes of ministry, brought about for the most part
by mere personal intrigue, are of constant occurrence. Government
is almost as unstable as in Mexico, and though the mode in which the
revolutions are effected is less violent, they are perhaps not much less
injurious to the political character of the people, or less likely to pro-
duce a complete disintegration of authority in the end.

Imitation of England has led the political world a strange dance.
The Chinese shipwrights, when desired to build a vessel in place of
one which had been disabled by dry-rot, produced an exact copy, dry-
rot and all. Montesquieu fancied that the grand secret of English
liberty lay in the separation of the executive and the judicial power
fi-ora the legislative. With their union in the same hands liberty
would end. This theory found general acceptance ; yet at the very
time when Montesquieu made this profound observation, the legisla-
ture had in fact got into its hands the executive, which it appointed
by the vote of its majority, and the judiciary, which was appointed
by the executive. But the effect of the notion is visible in the pro-
visions of the American Constitution; and the consequence is an
occasional dead-lock, arising from a conflict between the legislature and
the executive, as in the case of President Johnson, who was impeached
to force him into harmony with Congress. Again, the House of Lords
has been taken for a Senate^ and the check imposed by its mature and
deliberate wisdom on the rashness of the more popular House has
beejij supposed to be the grand safeguard of British legislation. The
House of Lords is not a Senate, nor a second Chamber, in the sense
in which the term is practically employed by the architects of new^
constitutions. It is an estate of the realm : it is a privileged order
having an interest of its own separate from that of the nation at
large, and defending its own interests, which are necessarily those of
privilege, and therefore of reaction, by resisting every measure of
political change as long as it is safe to do so. Of its revising precip-
itate legislation in an impartial sense no instance can be found. But
other nations try to reproduce it in the form of a second Chamber,
and they find, one after another, that, compose your second Chamber
and appoint its members as you will, the result is either a nullity or a
collision between the two Houses, in which the more popvdar House
will probably prevail.

THE DECLINE OF FAETY GOVERNMENT. 739

In the same way it has been assumed that the English system of
party and of cabinets, which are'committees of party, is the vital prin-
ciple of constitutional government. But party in England has been
the instrument, probably the indispensable instrument, of a chronic
revolution. By the action of the party wliich in its successive phases
has borne the names of Puritan, Whig, and Liberal, the Tudor autoc-
racy has been reduced to a limited, or rather a faineant, monarchy, and
the Tory oligarchy, once intrenched in the rotten boroughs, has been
replaced by a House of Commons elected on a more popular basis ;
supreme power, in other words, has been gradually transferred from
the crown and the aristocracy to the representatives of the people.
All this time there has been a real ground of division and a question
of importance supreme enough to warrant allegiance to a party. But
the process is now nearly complete. Other questions, of which the
name Radical is the symbol, will probably emerge, and may again
furnish grounds for the action of party. As it is, the lines between
the aristocratic and democratic parties remain, though their outline
is confused, and the democratic party is paralyzed for the time by the
Conservative reaction, caused mainly by a vast influx of wealth. But
we have an inkling at all events in the present state of things, even
in England, of the time when the materials for party will be finally
exhausted, and when we shall be obliged perforce to look out for some
other mode of working constitutional government. Bayonets have
their uses, but you cannot sit on them. Party has its use as the organ
of a pacific revolution ; but it will not supply the permanent basis of
a national government.

Even in the course of the revolution, efiected by means of party
in England, as often as the movement has been temporarily suspended
by accident or lassitude, the weakness of the system has appeared.
Between the fall of Jacobitism and the advent of the French Revolu-
tion, when there was no great party question on foot, but the offices
of state were still put up as the prizes of success in the struggle of
parliamentary factions, you had half a century of chaotic intrigue and
corruption, broken only by the short dictatorship of Chatham, whose
own conduct, in the cabals which drove Walpole into the war with
Spain, was an example, if not of place-hunting, of place-storming, of
the most flagrant kind. The boasted efficienc)^ of party, as a detector
and exposer of abuses, was then proved to be little sustained by facts;
it was seen, neither for the first nor for the last time, that two factions,
whatever their mutual hatred, may virtually combine to preserve a
privilege of plundering the community, which each hopes to exercise
in its turn.

Not only is the usefulness of party as a political instrument close-
ly connected with the peculiar circumstances of English history ; it is
closely connected also with the peculiar circumstances of an age of
unscientific politics, of combinations formed upon class interests, of

740 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

little independence of mind, feeble reasonings, and strong passions.
With the advance of political knowledge, of independent thought,
and it must be added of public morality, allegiance to party grows
less possible, party discipline loses its hold, the cohesion of party is
broken up and refuses to be restored. The better a party is in point
of intelligence, individual sense of responsibility, individual regard
for the public good, the less submissive to the whip, and therefore the
weaker, it becomes ; a singular result of the only perfect system.
What do we see in England now ? On one side is a party weak to
the verge of impotence, unable to act together even for one evening,
to all appearances hopelessly excluded from power ; and this because
it is a party of opinion, of individual intelligence, of individual con-
science, of individual desire to improve the condition of the people.
On the other side is a party overwhelmingly strong, acting under per-
fect discipline, and likely to be for an indefinite time master of the
state; and this because it is a party of interest, which always unites,
while opinion inevitably divides.

Efforts are made on the Liberal side to compensate the weakness
of mental independence as a basis of party union by increased strin-
gency of organization. But these only bring more clearly to light the
incompatibility of mental independence with the party system. In
a recent number of this magazine we published a very graphic and
interesting account of the political machinery used by the Liberal
managers at Birmingham, We are not in a humor to quarrel with
anything which in the present dearth of ability, especially of rising
ability, in the House of Commons has helped to secure the election of
Mr, Chamberlain. Nor do we overlook the fact that the spontaneous
organization on the side of the Tories, in the shape of social connec-
tions and the tyrannical pressure they exert, is such that it can only
be counterbalanced by artificial organization carried to a high pitch
on the other side. But we must say that the use of such machinery
does seem to involve a terrible sacrifice of those very habits of men-
tal independence which it is the pride of Liberalism to promote. The
absolute necessity of defending progress and the interests of the com-
munity at large against the despotism of a class alone reconciles us
in any measure to the system. Li the United States the masters of
the party machines have everywhere taken the representation out of
the hands of the people : yon are practically not at liberty to vote
for anybod}^ but their nominees ; and the Republican horse, to van-
quish the Democratic stag, becomes absolutely the slave of its rider.

In the United States the opinion of the best judges, so far as Ave
can gather it, is that the disorganization of the parties is increasing and
is likely to increase. Nor is it possible to name any issues on which
new parties can be formed. There is no question which, even suppos-
ing it to be of sufficient importance, would at all coincide with the
existing lines ; and a complete reconstruction of parties with a new

THE DECLINE OF PARTY GOVERNMENT. 741

arrangement of the leaders and wire-pullers, irrespective of all per-
sonal connections, would be practically out of the question. Two
alternatives will present themselves to the people : either a new mode
of working constitutional government and maintaining the proper
check on the executive must be found, or the President must be allowed
to become something very like an elective dictator for a term of years.

The practice of setting up the offices of the executive as the prize
of victory in a legislative contest ^carried on by the agency of party
appears to be injurious alike to legislation and to executive govern-
ment. It is injurious to legislation, because public men are constantly
tempted to deal with legislative questions in the interest of their own
ambition, for the purpose of paving their way to office, or strengthen-
ing their position there, not with a view to the proper objects of legis-
lation; whence a number of unnecessary, premature, and dishonest
measures. All the members of the Conservative party, before 18G7,
had recorded their opinions against a large extension of the franchise
as tending to place political power in ignorant and irresponsible hands.
They, then, to keep their party in office, and at the bidding of lead-
ers who they knew had no other motive, themselves extended the
franchise to the most ignorant and irresponsible part of the popula-
tion, the populace of the towns. The practice is injurioiis to executive
government, because it excludes or ejects from office the ablest and
most trusted administrators on account of opinions respecting legis-
lative questions which in no way affect administration. It wrongly
unites, in short, two political functions which are perfectly distinct
and which mutually suffer by being bound up with each other.

It is needless to dilate upon the relations of party, its machinery,
its strategy, the press which serves it and expresses its passions, to
public morality and the general interests of the state ; the facts are
always before our eyes. But experience of a colony or of some new
covmtry is needed to make one thoroughly sensible of the effects of
this warfare upon the political character of the people, and of the ex-
tent to which it threatens to sap the very foundations of patriotism
and of respect for lawful authority in their minds.

It is supposed that the hostile vigilance of party is the gi-eat safe-
guard against political corruption, and one which, if removed, it would
be impossible to replace. But there are some countries at least in
which the indiscriminate slander in which party constantly deals
forms really a cloak of darkness for all corruption rather than a lantern
for the detection of any ; while its effect on the character of public
men is to produce general lowness of tone and brazen indifference to
accusations of every kind. The experiment has not yet been tried of
legislating definitely against the corrupt use of legislative or executive
power, which is a perfectly tangible crime (at least it is difficult to see
why the sale of a vote in a legislative assembly, or of a government
contract, is not as tangible a crime as the fraudulent breach of an or-

742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dinary trust), and of instituting a tribunal for the trial of offenders.
And therefore we are still at liberty, at all events, to entertain the
belief that the sight of a single politician suffering a felon's doom by
the impartial and righteous judgment of a court of law, for the corrupt
betrayal of his public trust, would have a more salutary effect than
the interested and reckless denunciations of all the jiarty orators and
journalists in the world.

It is easy to see why, up to thj^ time, party has been the law of
politics ; but it is not easy to see why, for the future, and as reason
extends its sway over the political sphere and limits the reign of pas-
sioUj party should be the law of politics more than of any other sub-
ject. Party, we mean, organized and permanent ; such as the parties
of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, of the Blacks and Whites, of the Caravats
and Shanavests. On social and philanthropic questions, on questions
and in movements of all kinds, people combine for a particular object,
and the object having been gained they fall back into their ordinary
associations. Why should they not do the same in politics, supposing
politics to be a matter not of passion and ambition, but of reason and
of the public good? This is the answer to the argument on the side
of party that nothing can be carried without combination. It can
hardly be necessary to meet the argument that political truth can
only be hammered out by the constant collision of parties. With re-
gard to all other subjects it is supposed that while free discussion is
conducive to the discovery of the truth, party feeling and subserviency
to party are most adverse to it. But people tacitly assume that they
can have party without party feeling and the evils to which every one,
when the question is distinctly proposed to him, admits that party
feeling must lead.

Nor, again, need we dwell long on the argument that party is neces-
sary in order to keep up an interest in human affairs. Human affairs,
according to all present appearances, are likely to be interesting
enough to keep the mind of man alive and to give birth to abundance
of controversy (if that is the thing desired) for generations to come,
without our forming artificial parties for the purpose of enabling am-
bitious men to obtain exclusive possession of the power of the state.

Party is no doubt indispensable to selfish interests, which by tak-
ing advantage of the balance of factions are enabled, to an almost in-
definite extent, to compass their special objects at the expense of the
community. It is indispensable to political sharpers who, without
legislative powers or any sort of ability or inclination to serve the
public in any honorable way, find subsistence in an element of passion
and intrigue. To whom or to what else it is indispensable, no one
has yet been able definitely to say.

Burke himself, the great apologist of party, was the great apostate
from it. He called his apostasy fidelity to the Old Whigs ; but the
Old Whigs were in their graves, and the i-hetorical turn given by him

THE DECLINE OF PARTY GOVERNMENT. 743

to his secession did not alter the fact. In the case of his defense of
party, as in many other cases, his fervid and unbridled imagination
has ei'ected a particular expedient, the necessity of a special occasion,
into a universal and everlasting law. Before him, another man had
shaken off party trammels apparently from the conviction of their
radical inconsistency with the public interest. The life of Lord Shel-
burne is in this special respect a most important, as well as in all re-
spects a most interesting, addition to political biography, and we shall
see as it proceeds whether Shelburne is entitled to the credit of hav-
ing tried to be a national statesman.

Our proposition, however, is this : that, let party, as a system of
government, be good or evil, the materials for parties are nearly ex-
hausted in the British colonies, and probably in the United States ;
that they are temporarily exhausted, and may one day be entirely ex-
hausted, in England ; while in other countries (in France and Ger-
many, for instance) the sections and subsections of opinion are too
numerous and the lines between them are too wavering to admit of
the clear division into two parties absolutely essential to the working
of the system, which, when there are three or four parties instead of
tyvo, becomes a quicksand of intrigue on which no government can be
founded. Under these circumstances it is necessary, whether we will
or not, to look out for some other foundation for constitutional gov-
ernment. The penalty of not doing so will be either confusion or the
domination of some selfish and, because it is selfish, compact and all-
powerful interest.

To determine what that foundation is to be, is probably a task re-
served for better heads than ours. But perhaps the Swiss Constitu-
tion, in its general principles, may point the way. It suggests the
regular election of the executive council by the legislature in place of
a struggle of parties to determine which side of the House shall have
the privilege of distributing the prizes among its leaders. The proper
relations between the legislature and the executive might be pre-
served by a proper rotation of elections, with any such provisions as
seemed expedient in the way of cumulative voting. The tenure of
office would of course be limited ; whether to the duration of the Par-
liament (which is the Swiss system) or to a term of years would be a
question of detail, but the advantage of a continuous executive would
be in favor of the latter plan. It does not seem that with this limita-
tion the power of the members of the executive council would be too
great, or that their responsibility would be unduly diminished ; excess
of authority, provided it be constituted in the interest of the whole
nation and accountable to the nation in case of an abuse of power, is
not the i^olitical danger which at present we have most reason to
dread. Nor does it seem that, with, say, three elections occurring
each year, the executive council could get much out of harmony with
the legislature, or fail pretty adequately to represent the j^revailing

744 "J^HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sentiment of the legislature for the time being. But the executive
under such a system would do its own work, and leave the legislature
free to do the work of legislation. The special initiation of the Min-
ister of Finance in financial matters would be preserved by the same
sense of an obvious necessity which has established it. In the per-
formance of purely administrative duties, all the members of the coun-
cil might without difficulty agree, and their cooperation in their
proper work might be perfect, notwithstanding possible differences of
opinion about matters of legislation. Why should not a good Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer act in harmony with a good Home Secretary
notwithstanding a difference of opinion about the church establish-
ment or the extension of the franchise? Why should the country be
prevented by that difference from availing itself of the administrative
capacity of both ? And why should not each be free to vote as a
member of the legislature, in accordance with his personal opinion ?
At present a cabinet has something of the character of a conspiracy,
inembers often suppressing or even acting against their own opinions
in order to present a united front to the enemy and to maintain their
hold of power, from which no small calamities have flowed. It Avould
not be difficult to point to instances of measures forced on a cabinet
by some leading member, his colleagues acquiescing merely from fear
of a break-up, and then carried through Parliament by the influence
of government, though the sense both of the legislature and the cabi-
net was really the other way.

The tendency inherent in party government to supersede the na-
tional legislature by the party caucus has long been completelj'^ de-
veloped in tlie United States, where it may be said that in ordinary
times the only real debates are those held in caucus, congressional
legislation being simply a registration of the caucus decision, for
which all members of the pai'ty, whether they agreed or dissented in
the caucus, feel bound by party allegiance to record their votes in the
House ; just as the only real election is the nomination by the caucus
of the party which has the majority, and which then collectively im-
poses its will on the constituency ; so that measures and elections
may be and often are carried by a minority but little exceeding one-
fourth of the House or the constituency, as the case may be. The
same tendency is rapidly developing itself in England ; and it is evi-
dently fatal to the genuine existence of parliamentary institutions.

So far as England is concerned, the institution of an executive reg-
ularly elected by the legislature at large in place of a cabinet formed
of the leaders of a party majority would be substantially a return to
the old form of government — the Privy Council. Parliament is now
the sovereign power, and election by it would be equivalent to the
ancient nomination by the crown. The mode of electing and confirm-
ing a Speaker shows how the forms of monarchy may be reconciled
with the action of an elective institution.

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JEVONS. 745

However, be the proper substitute for party what it may, the thing
here insisted on is that party is evidently in a state of decadence ;
that the causes of its decadence are not accidental or temporary, but
inherent in its nature, which is that of an instrument of change, not
that of a permanent principle of government ; and that, consequently,
sooner or later some other basis for government must be found. " You
are sanguine," say objectors, " if you think you can carry on constitu-
tional government without party." We trust not ; for, if it is so, the
end of constitutional government is at hand. The decline of party
may fairly be said to present an urgent question : for the political ob-
server to-day — to-morrow for the statesman. — Macmillan's Magazine,

■♦«»

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JEYONS.

WILLIAIM STANLEY JEVONS was born at Liverpool, in the
year 1835. His father, Thomas Jevons, was an iron-merchant
in that city ; his mother was a daughter of William Roscoe, the well-
known historian. She was a woman of great cultivation, the writer
of hymns and poems which are to be found in general collections, and
the editor of the " Sacred Offering." Young Jevons received his
early education along with his cousin. Prof. Roscoe, at the High-
School of the Mechanics' Institution, Liverpool, the head-master of
which was, at that time, Dr. W. B. Hodgson, now Professor of Politi-
cal Economy in the University of Edinburgh. At the age of sixteen
he went to University College, London, and, during the two years he
remained there, distinguished himself highly in the classes of mathe-
matics and natural science. In 1853 he received, on the recommenda-
tion of Prof. Graham, the offer of an appointment as an assayer to
the Australian Royal Mint at Sydney. He accepted this appointment,
and, after having qualified himself by a course of assaying under Profs.
Graham and Miller, he proceeded to Sydney, where he discharged the
duties of the office for five years, devoting his leisure time to scientific
investigations, particularly meteorology. He, however, resolved to
leave this field of work and devote himself to the study of the higher
sciences. Returning from Australia, he visited the United States in
1859, and, arriving at London, he at once resumed his studies in the
University College, and won distinction in his various classes. In
1862 he graduated as M. A. with first-class honors, and the gold medal
in the department of Logic, Philosophy, and Political Economy. Two
years later he was elected Fellow of University College.

In 1863 he published his first important work on economical sci-
ence, entitled "A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold ascertained, and
its Social Effects set forth." He consented to take the position of
tutor in Owens College in 1863, and in 1866 was elected to the chair
of Logic and Political Economy in that institution. The year pre-

746 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vious lie had read to the British Association a paper containing the
fundamental positions of his later work, " Theory of Political Econ-
omy," In 1865 appeared the treatise " On the Coal Question," deal-
ing with the problem of the exhaustion of tlie English coal-mines, the
calculations of which were adopted by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Mill in
their treatment of the subject. In 1869 appeared the small work,
" Substitution of Similars the True Principle of Reasoning ; " in
1870 he read a paper before the Royal Society " On the Mechanical
Performance of Logical Inference ; " and about this time he com-
pleted his well-known Logical Machine. In 1870 appeared the first
edition of the " Elementary Lessons in Logic." The " Theory of Po-
litical Economy " was published in 1871 ; and the author's great work,
" The Principles of Science," was issued in two volumes in 1 874.

" The Principles of Science " is a comprehensive treatise on pure
and applied logic, or on the formal theory of inference and the
methods of scientific investigation. The first book resumes the au-
thor's previous researches in pure logic, and carries them a step
further. All inference is regarded as essentially reasoning from simi-
lars to similars, afiirming that what is true of one thing is true of
its like. The rules of inference flowing from this general principle,
and the symbolical notation employed to express all the forms of
thought, are stated and exemplified with great fullness. The par-
ticular novelty introduced is the view of induction, which Prof.
Jevons regards as merely the inverse process of deduction. Thus,
in deduction, we have given to us certain relations among terms or
notions, and by the application of the formal laws of thought we
develop all the possible combinations which are consistent with
given relations. In induction, on the other hand, the combinations
of terms are given, and we require to reason backward to the pos-
sible relations from whicli they may result. Insisting strongly upon
his view of inductive inference. Prof. Jevons is led to criticise and
reject the ordinary accounts of the process. He declines to admit
that inductive research necessarily involves the idea of causation,
and assimilates it more nearly to the mathematical doctrine of proba-
bility. The chapter in which he expounds the philosophy of induc-
tive inference is peculiarly valuable, and deserves more careful criti-
cism than it has yet received. As final result we have the complete
subordination of induction to deduction; all inductive research, ac-
cording to Prof. Jevons, consisting of three steps — framing an hy-
pothesis as to the general law, deductively inferring results from it,
and comparing the inferred conclusions with real fact.

The subordinate points involved in this theory of induction, such
as the principles of combination and the general method of calculat-
ing probabilities, are treated very elaborately. The problem of in-
verse probability, which is, in Prof. Jevons's view, identical wifh the
problem of induction, receives most careful attention. Some attempts
have recently been made to carry out one or two of the elaborate

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JEVONS. 747

logical computations shown to be necessary for the complete solu-
tion of the problem.

The remainder of the treatise is an exhaustive account of the
methods of scientitic investigation. What is most remarkable in this
portion of the work is the combination of extensive and accurate
knowledge of facts with perfect command of the most general prin-
ciples. As a writer on scientific method, Prof. Jevons is fairly en-
titled to the credit of being a peer of predecessors so eminent as
Herschel, Whewell, and Mill. He has given the fullest and best ex-
position of the methods actually employed by the greatest scientific
workers, and has collected from all quarters a mass of most richly-
varied illustration.

The concluding book of the treatise is a brief but pregnant essay
on the results and limits of scientific method. The outcome of the
author's careful analysis of induction, the essentially ^^roJai^e charac-
ter of what are called natural laws, is applied as a corrective to the
rash scientific generalizations indulged in by many writers, and to
the equally rash deductions from them. At the present time his.
weighty remarks on the supposed contradiction between natural law
and divine providence in any form are peculiarly deserving of attention.

Prof. Jevons published a volume, in 1875, entitled "Money, and
the Mechanism of Exchange," forming part of "The International
Scientific Series." It contains a lucid and admirably-written exposi-
tion of the nature and functions of money, the principles of circu-
lation, the various forms of credit documents, and the elaborate
mechanism (banks, check, and clearing systems) by which money
exchanges are facilitated. Careful and comjjlete historical notices
are also given with regard to the various metallic currencies, modes
of coinage, and regulations of issue, while technical matters, such as
the qualities requisite for good metallic currency, the loss of weight
in coins by usage, and the cost of keeping up the currency, receive
due attention. His last publication was the little compendium of
logic called "The Logic Primer," intended to give general readers
some idea of this science.

In 1868 Prof. Jevons was appointed an Examiner in Political
Economy in London University. In 1870 he was President of the
Economic Section (Section E) of the British Association at its Liver-
pool meeting. In 1872 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1874 and 1875 he was an Examiner for the Moral Sciences Tripos
at Cambridge. In the year 1876 the Senatus Academicus of Edin-
burgh University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. ;
and in the same year he was appointed Examiner in Logic and Moral
Philosophy in London University. In March, 1876, Prof. Jevons an-
nounced his resignation of his professorship at Owens College ; and
in October, 1876, he entered upon the duties of the distinguished
position to which he had been chosen, and which he now occupies, as
Professor of Political Economy in University College, London.

748

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

COHRESPONDEISrCE.

"THE TIDES."
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

I HAVE read with a good deal of inter-
est Prof. Schneider's article on " The
Tides," in the July number of the Month-
ly. I was pleased with his method of ap-
proaching the problem, because it deals
with the planetary bodies as we actually see
them in motion, not demanding that effort
of the imagination required in studying the
problem simply as one of static equilibrium.
He has succeeded in rendering tolerably in-
telligible from a new standpoint a subject
which is perhaps left for the average reader
in a somewhat unsatisfactory state in our
popular works on astronomy and physical
geography.

In proportion as he has done this por-
tion of his work well, is any error of state-
ment into which he may have been led lia-
ble to prove mischievous. This is my only
excuse for venturing to offer any criticism
on the work of one who has really done
valuable service in presenting familiar
truths in new aspects.

Nowhere is our author more clearly
wrong than in his own criticism of the com-
monly-accepted theory of the causation of
the tides. He admits, apparently, that the
attraction of the moon, or of the sun, is
capable of lifting into a tidal protuberance
the waters that lie, in popular parlance,
directly beneath them ; but that the earth
itself should be drawn away from the
waters upon its opposite surface, he pro-
nounces preposterously absurd. " It has
been proved experimentally," he says,
"that all bodies on the surface of the earth
are heavier at midnight than at any other
hour of the twenty-four." He cites no au-
thority for this statement, which is simply
inconsistent with the observed fact that at
midnight, leaving out of account the influ-
ence of the moon, the tide is rising instead
of falling. The state of the tide, however,
as we shall perhaps have occasion to indi-
cate hereafter, is not a trustworthy meas-
ure of the local variations in that gravita-
tive force which manifests itself as weight.
Unless, therefore, delicate experiments with
the pendulum have actually demonstrated
the existence and amount of such diurnal
variations, we can only infer them from
our knowledge of the forces which may
produce them.

It is in his attempt to do this that our
author falls into the fatal confusion of
thought Avhich leads him to pronounce ab-

surd a theory which to the clear-sighted
Newton was simply the truth. This confu-
sion seems to arise wholly from a careless
use of the term weight or gravity. On the
side of the earth facing the sun, all particles
of matter feel the attraction of the earth
and that of the sun as forces acting in op-
posite directions. " The weight of a body
situated at this point then will be diminished
by precisely the amount of the sun's attrac-
tive force." Yes, if meanwhile the earth's
centre remain stationary. But this is not
the fact ; the whole mass of the earth has
simultaneously yielded to the solicitation
of the same attraction. If these motions
are equal, they can produce no change in
weight, for weight is simply the force with
which a body tends to approach the earth's
centi'e, not simply the force with which it
advances through space in the direction of
that centre. Prof. Schneider himself points
out the distinction, but proceeds immedj-
ately to ignore it in his reasoning. He
says: "As the particles of the eartti most
remote from the sun feel its attraction plus
that of the earth herself, they are drawn
with greater force toward the centre of the
earth than any other particles. Hence,"
he triumphantly asserts, " it cannot be true
that the whole earth is drawn away from
the waters, and that any tide is produced
by the waters being left behind."

Having thus convincingly (?) shown the
necessity for a more satisfactory hypothesis
regarding the causation of the tides, he pro-
ceeds to offer one of his own. The first
thing we remark, however, in examining
this is that it embodies all that was con-
tained in the old " absurd " hypothesis,
while it compHcates the problem by com-
pelling us to consider not only the attrac-
tion of the sun or moon, but also the antag-
onizing force which prevents the earth from
moving in the direction of the attracting
body. It is true that by an ingenious mis-
statement of his own theory the writer avoids
what to him seems paradoxical in that which
he rejects. One of the tides — that on the
side of the earth facing the disturbing ))ody
— he tells us, is produced by centripetal,
the other by centrifugal force. In an ex-
planatory paragraph he admits, although
he does not distinctly state, what is the fact,
viz., that in each case coinciding effects are
produced by simultaneous variations in op-
posite directions of both these forces. Rec-
ognizing, however, the supreme value of
directness and simplicity of statement in
all popular expositions of scientific truth,

CORRESP ONDENCE.

749

we are disposed to overlook inaccuracies
such as tliese, lying merely on the surface.
It is otherwise wkh anything that betrays
confusion of thought in regard to the funda-
mental elements of the problem. This, it
seems to me, the writer has done in ascrib-
ing to centrifugal force a primary place in
the causation of tides. It is only as the
waters upon the earth's surface have free-
dom of motion— are acted upon, therefore,
as independent of the earth's mass— that
tides are possible. On the other hand, only
in so far as the waters take up by friction
and cohesion of their particles the motion
proper to the portion of the solid earth un-
derlying them, wUl they acquire the in-
creased tangential momentum which consti-
tutes the so-called centrifugal force. When
it is understood that the force in question
operates only in this indirect manner, it be-
comes plain that it ought not to be classed
with gravitation as a primary cause of the
tides, but rather with the rotation of the
earth as an important secondary factor,
necessary to be studied in tracing out the
actual operation of their real cause.

The new mode of explaining the ob-
served phenomena is, however, on the whole,
quite intelligible and satisfactory in its ap-
plication to the solar tides. It requires a
greater effort of the imagination to see ex-
actly how the same principles operate in the
causation of the lunar tides. It is easy to
understand how centrifugal force will pre-
dominate on the side of the earth opposite
the moon, and how the waters on the nearer
side will tend to insphere themselves about
the centre of gravity of the rotating system,
a point only 2,687 miles from the earth's
centre. There is some difficulty in taking
on trust the statement that the earth will
feel on the side facing the moon a centripe-
tal force equal to the centrifugal force which
is said to cause the tide on the opposite
side, when we remember that the moon it-
self is a part of the rotating system, and
must itself claim a share, however small, of
the forces, centrifugal and centripetal, whose
balancing equivalents are to be sought on
the remote side of the earth. And it is far
from clear to the tyro in mathematics why
high tide should occur directly under the
moon, where centrifugal force, acting in a
direction away from the earth's centre, is
but slight, while centripetal force, acting in
the oppo&ite direction, is at its maximum so
far as it is dependent on proximity to the
centre of rotation. Although the explana-
tion of this latter apparent paradox is by
no means difficult, it will certainly prove to
many a fertile source of perplexity.

The interest I have myself taken in ap-
plying Prof. Schneider's hypothesis to the
numerous practical problems which arise
the moment we pass in our study from hy-
pothetical tidal waves to the actual move-
ment of the waters of existing oceans, has

led me to jot down the above points in the
way of friendly criticism. For the rest, I
would rather listen to some abler critic.
A. B. Lyons, M. D.
Detroit, June 27, 1877.

THE NEW IDEAS ABOUT SPACE.

To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

Dear Sir: The letter of Prof. G. B.
Halsted, of Johns Hopkins University, in
your number for July, 1877, in regard to
the imaginary geometry of Gauss, Loba-
tchewsky, and Beltrami, brings to my mind
the fact that there is no necessary truth in
many things that we have regarded (at least
we mathematicians) as necessary truths.

Sir George Airy investigated the condi-
tions under which perpetual motion might
exist (Cambridge "Philosophical Transac-
tions," 1880, vol. iii., pp. 369-372).

Newton's notion of negative density
(" Principia," book ii., sec. ii., prop, x.) is
another ease.

Laplace, in the "Mecanique Celeste,"
has indulged in a remarkable speculation as
to what the laws of motion would have been
if momentum, instead of varying simply as
the velocity, had been a more comphcated
function of it.

These things seem to overturn current
metaphysics, and that is about all the good
in them. Yet Reid, in what he calls the Ge-
ometry of Visibles, chapter xli. of his "In-
quiry," raised a question of like nature.
Hamilton, as noticed by George Lewes
(" Problems of Life and Mind," vol. ii.. Ap-
pendix), has avoided any comment.

By reason of the superb contempt which
this extraordinary man affected for mathe-
matics, I presume he thought it beneath his
notice. Your obedient servant,

Lewis Kennon, M. D.
Fort Bataed, New Mexico, Jnly 29, 1S77.

THE WOODEUFF SCIENTIFIC EXPEDI-
TION.

We give below an important letter from
Prof. W^ilder, of Cornell University, on the
Woodruff Scientific Expedition, and would
call the attention of those interested to the
assurances it contains concerning the op-
portunities for study and the facilities for
original work which the expedition is expect-
ed to afford. Prof. Wilder is a member of
the faculty of scientific instructors, and also
one of the trustees of the expedition. The
letter, as will be seen, is in response to our
inquiries :
To the Editor of the Popvlar Science ifonihly.

Sir : In answering your inquiry as to
the nature and extent of scientific work to

750

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

be attempted on the Woodruff Expedition,
and the facilities therefor, I must premise :
first, that the published list of professors
does not include several who are expected
to conduct special departments of botany
and zoology ; second, that the faculty have
had no official conference, so that I can
speak only for myself.

My own duties will include — 1. General
lectures on the habits and structure of ver-
tebrates. These will be nearly free from
technicalities, so as to be intelligible to all.
2. Special mstruction of those who may
wish to go more deeply in certain directions ;
this by superintendence of dissections, and
occasional lectures. 3. Instruction in meth-
ods of collecting, preparing, and preserving
specimens. 4. Preparation of, and research
upon, embryos, brains, hearts, and other
soft parts, which are usually neglected by
foreign collectors.

The students will provide their own dis-
secting instruments, cans, and preserva-
tives ; but, as stated on page 21 of the an-
nouncement, the management engages to

furnish a library and apparatus for instruc-
tion.

I understand such requisite apparatus
to include nets, dredges, and sounding ar-
rangements, chemical and physical instru-
ments, microscopes, diagrams, blackboards,
stereopticon, and the means of preserving
certain typical forms for illustration of lect-
ures.

To insure the fulfillment of the promises
made in the announcement, the trustees are
to control the transfer of the fees to the
director. The trustees are also members of
the faculty, and their interests are therefore
identified with those of the students.

From what I know or have heard of
those concerned in the management of the
expedition and the instruction, I feel confi-
dent that all possible facilities will be af-
forded for the acquisition of general infor-
mation, and for the pursuit of special lines
of investigation.

Respectfully yours,

Burt G. Wilder.
Ithaca, New Tokk, September 1, 1ST7.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

CARPENTER ON SPIRITUALISM.

THE recent publication of Dr. Car-
penter's little volume entitled
" Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc., His-
torically and Scientifically Considered,"
has given a renewed impulse to the dis-
cussion of this subject, and called out
the strongest champions of the doctrines
assailed. We have been accused of un-
fairness in not opening the columns of
the Monthly for the spiritualists to
present their side of the question ; and
so we print two replies to Dr. Carpen-
ter, one English and the other Ameri-
can, by distinguished representatives of
the spiritualist party. In The Popular
Science Supplement, No, V., appears
the answer to him made by Mr. A. E.
Wallace, in the Quarterly Journal of
Science ; and in our present number
the reader will find an original con-
tribution, to the same purpose, by
Dr. J. R. Buchanan, well known for
the last thirty years as an eminent
investigator and expositor of the so-
called spiritualist phenomena. Dr. Bu-
chanan is one of those who objected

to our editorial course on this question
as one-sided and unjust. Not liking
this imputation, we offered him space
in our pages to answer Dr. Carpenter.
He accepted the offer, and we fulfill
our promise. How far his article is to
be regarded as a reply to the reasoning
of Dr. Carpenter, or as convicting him
of error, will probably be a contested
question with different classes of read-
ers ; hut he has, at all events, given us
his very decided opinion of that gentle-
man, his book, and his backers. We
fear, however, that the critic has for-
gotten, for once, that denunciatory epi-
thets, however profuse and peppery,
are not arguments. Dr. Buchanan
seems to have vividly remembered all
the hard hits that he and his coadjutors
have received from scientific writers,
and is bent upon using the opportunity
to get even with them. This is laud-
able enough, within judicious limits;
yet incontinence of vituperation is a
symptom of weakness. Besides, some-
thing is due to self-respect; and if we
thought Dr. Carpenter was the silly,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

751

narrow-minded, muddle-headed, pre-
tentious, and insolent imbecile that Dr.
Buchanan intimates, we would try and
find better occupation than troubling
ourselves about his obsolete trash.

Dr. Buchanan opens his batteries
against the materialists, but might he
not as well have left this to some irate
theologian ? This polemical dash can-
not be effective against Dr. Carpenter,
who is certainly no materialist, either
by his own avowal, by the tenor of his
writings, or their common interpreta-
tion. On the contrary, he is a religious
man, who has written copiously and
cogently against materialism. The term
materialism, skillfully used, is no doubt
a good controvei'sial weapon for popu-
lar effect, but in the hands of Dr. Bu-
chanan it loses its edge, as he seems to
regard all science which limits itself to
the investigation of Nature in its ordi-
nary aspects as materialistic.

We cannot here go into this contro-
versy, but may briefly refer to what we
regard as one of its primary issues. At
the threshold of the subject we en-
counter the questions. What is Nature?
What are the limits of its laws ? and.
What weight, or logical force, is to be
allowed to the conception of the laws
of Nature ? When observation, experi-
ment, and reason, have concurred in
establishing a principle which may be
always verified and found to be con-
stant, what is the degree of firmness
with which it is to be held ? Science
recognizes the laws of Nature as so
fixed and fundamental that the well-
trained mind must be under an over-
whelming predisposition in regard to
them. Hence, when marvelous stories
are told of the violations of these laws,
the tendency of such minds must be to
put them aside as unworthy of atten-
tion. They cannot be entertained as
against the demonstrated uniformities
of the natural world. Much in regard
to Nature is, of course, unknown ; what
we understand may be as but a few
drops to the ocean in relation to what

we do not understand ; yet some things
are known, and with so high a degree
of certainty that we can rest in them
with profound assurance that no fu-
ture extension of knowledge can falsify
them.

Dr. Carpenter maintains, and we
think rightly, that there is a strong bias
in scientific minds in favor of the in-
flexibleness of natural laws which the
spiritualists do not share. His language
is, that "it is quite legitimate for the
inquirer to enter upon this study with
that ' prepossession ' in favor of the as-
certained and universally admitted laws
of Nature, which believers in spiritual-
ism make it a reproach against men of
science that they entertain." Both our
critics resent this imputation upon "be-
lievers in spiritualism." Mr. Wallace de-
clares it to be " unfounded and totally
false; " and Dr. Buchanan afiirms spir-
itualists to be " the foremost of all men
in insisting on the universal inviolabil-
ity of all the laws of Nature, extending
their infrangible power not only over
all physical phenomena, but throughout
the equally extensive psychic realm."

It is obvious that Dr. Buchanan here
uses terms to suit himself, as he gives to
the phrase "laws of Nature" a mean-
ing very different from its established
scientific significance. In its scientific
sense, the term " Nature " designates
that sphere of phenomena, material and
mental, of which we have constant ex-
perience, which is accessible to the hu-
man faculties, and which by its order
becomes a subject of methodical knowl-
edge ; while the laws of Nature are the
uniformities of action that are coexten-
sive with this sphere. To this tract Dr.
Buchanan annexes a "psychic realm,"
meaning thereby, not the common
sphere of mind which is already em-
braced by the term "Nature," but a
super-mundane, extra-material, preter-
natural, or spiritual world, above and
beyond the sensuous order. This su-
pernal region he claims to bring under
the operation of the laws of Nature,

752

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and therefore to make it a part of Ma-
ture, which we hold is simply to con-
fuse all distinctions and confound the
natural with the supernatural. Dr. Bu-
chanan cannot do this in the name of
science, for science itself has only come
into existence hy marking off the nat-
ural from the supernatural, and it be-
longs by its very essence and origin to
one term of this contrasted relation.
"We cannot undo the great work of sci-
ence, and cancel all that has been gained
in the intellectual progress of mankind,
by going back to primitive times when
the natural and the supernatural were
all mixed up, and nothing was known or
suspected of such things as the laws of
Nature. It was then believ.ed that,
there exists an upper sphere inhabited
by gods who interfered as they chose
with earthly matters; the spiritualists
now believe in a corresponding ghost-
realm, inhabited by disembodied spirits,
who have still the power of meddling
with the course of terrestrial affairs.

This ultra - material realm, it is
claimed, is manifested by material ef-
fects. But it is not by those effects
which occur regularly and uniformly,
and to which we give the name of
laws, that it is the office of science to
trace out. These are not attributed to
spiritual agencies. The spirits are nev-
er alleged to be the causes of cohesion,
refraction, digestion, gravity, or any
of the matter-of-course operations that
go on around us. They are only dis-
closed to us by striking, wonderful,
exceptional, or miraculous manifesta-
tions; that is, the common order of
Nature gets along without them, and
they are only known by breaking
through it. In Nature we see with our
eyes; in the "psychic realm" men are
said to see with the backs of their
heads. In Nature tables remain at rest
upon the floor' forever unless some
definite terrestrial force is applied to
move them ; in the " psychic realm "
they travel about or rise to the ceiling
without the intervention of any earth-

ly cause. In Nature a bouquet will not
pass through the woody barrier of a
door, or the resisting masonry of a
wall ; in the " psychic realm " " a large
bunch of hollyhocks, asters, laurels,
and other shrubs and flowers," is mys-
teriously spirited into a house without
coming through the usual openings in
the usual way by which material bodies
are transferred. In Nature, if a man
unguardedly loses his balance in a win-
dow, he falls to the earth ; but in the
"psychic realm" Mr. Home "floats in
tlie air by moonlight out of one win-
dow and in at another at a height of
seventy feet from the ground." In Na-
ture, if we wish to go to a house, we
must walk there or get a conveyance
to be carried, and then can only get in-
side by the opening of some passage of
entrance ; but in the " psychic realm "
buxom Mrs. Guppy " sails through the
air all the way from Highbury Park to
Lamb's Conduit Street, and is brought
by invisible agency into a room of which
the doors and windows were closed and
fastened, coming plump down in the
midst of a circle of eleven persons who
were sitting in the dark shoulder to
shoulder."

Can those who believe these things
be said to maintain the laws of Nature ?
Certainly not, in any such sense as that
which science affirms. The spiritual-
ists say that these apparently miracu-
lous effects are not really miraculous,
but are simply the consequences of
higher laws of Nature by which the
lower ordinances of the iiiaterial sphere
are overcome. But it is clear that be-
fore the man of science can accept such
astounding propositions he must give
to the winds all those laws of the natu-
ral world which he has been accustomed
to regard as of demonstrated constancy.
In life, by all his resources, the most
gifted riian cannot suspend the opera-
tion of gravity upon a single particle
of matter by an infinitesimal fraction.
But when he dies we are taught that
his ghost can come back, and suspend

EDITOR'S TABLE.

753

the action of gravity, in a way to ex-
cite the astonishment of whole circles.
And this miraculous prerogative, we are
told, is, itself, but an exemplification of
natural law. But, assuming the truth
of the spiritualist's view, we have sim-
ply come to an end of natural law. If
the wonders alleged be true, where is
the basis of trust in the regular course
of Nature? If the uniformities of phe-
nomena that science assumes to have
discovered can, as a matter of fact, be
disturbed by the capricious incursions
of unseen beings, then there are no
such uniformities; and the conception
of law, instead of being the most fun-
damental conviction of the scientific
mind, is an illusion to be abandoned.
Anxiety about the constancy of these
laws is, however, the last thing that
troubles scientific men, and their repose
of mind upon this subject sufficiently
accounts for their general indifference
to the claims of spiritualism.

INDICATION'S OF PROGRESS.

Ottr readers will well remember the
row occasioned last year when Prof.
Huxley said that the evidence of the
truth of evolution must be accepted as
demonstrative. "We mark with interest
the decisive indications that are accumu-
lating in confirmation of Prof. Huxley's
position. Another President of the
British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science has spoken upon the
subject, under the responsibilities of
his distinguished position, and in entire
corroboration of the avowals of former
presidents of that body for the last
dozen years in relation to this question.
His indorsement of evolutionary doc-
trine is emphatic and unqualified. Prof.
Allen Thomson has been well known
as an eminent cultivator of biology ;
but he comes forward now as a new
authority, and will be listened to with-
out the prejudice which attaches to the
names of those men who have been in
VOL. XI. — 48

the thick of the fight for the last twenty
years. The topic of the presidential
address is the " Development of the
Forms of Animal Life," and we here
quote the opening passages, describing
the remarkable change in the manner
of viewing biological questions which
has taken place during the last half-
century. President Thomson says :

" In the three earlier decades of this cen-
tury it was the common belief, in this coun-
try at least, shared by men of science as
well as by the larger body of persons who
had given no special attention to the sub-
ject, that the various forms of plants and
animals recognized by naturalists in their
systematic arrangements of genera and spe-
cies were permanently fixed and unalter-
able ; tliat they were not subject to greater
changes than might occur as occasional va-
riations, and that such was tlie tendency to
the maintenance of uniformity in tlieir spe-
cific characters that, when varieties did
arise, there was a natural disposition to the
return, in the course of succeeding genera-
tions, to the fixed form and nature supposed
to belong to the parental stock ; and it M'as
also a necessary part of tliis view of the per-
manency of species that eacliwas considered
to have been originally produced from an
individual having the exact form which its
descendants ever afterward retained. To
this scientific dogma was further added the
quasi-religious view that, in the exercise of
infinite wisdom and goodness, the Creator,
when he called the successive species of
plants and animals into existence, conferred
upon each precisely the organization and
the properties adapting it best for the kind
of life for which it was designed in the gen-
eral scheme of creation. This was the older
doctrine of ' Direct Creation,' of ' Teleologi-
cal Eolation,' and of 'Final Causes;' and
those only who have known the firm hold
wliich such views had over the public mind
in past times can understand tlie almost i;n-
qualified approbation with which the reason-
ing on these questions in writings like the
' Bridgewater Treatises' (not to mention
older books on natural theology) was re-
ceived in their time, as well as the very op-
posite feelings excited by every work which
presented a different view of the plan of
creation.

" On the Continent of Europe, it is true,
some bold speculators, such as Goethe,
Oken, Lamarck, and Geoflfroy St.-Hilaire,
had in the end of the last and commence-

754

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment of this century broached the doctrine
that there is in living beings a continuous
series of gradations as well as a consistent
and general plan of organization ; and that
the creation, therefore, or origin of the dif-
ferent forms of plants and animals must have
been the result of a gradual process of de-
velopment or of derivation one from another,
the whole standing connected together in
cei'tain causal relations. But in Britain such
views, tliough known and not altogether re-
pulsive to a few, obtained little favor, and,
by some strange process of reasoning, were
looked upon by the great majority as little
short of impious questionings of the supreme
power of the Almighty.

" How different is the position of matters
in this respect in our day !— when the cau-
tious naturalist receives and adopts with
the greatest reserve the statement of fixed
and permanent specific characters as belong-
ing to the different forms of organized beings,
and is fully persuaded of the constant ten-
dency to variation which all species show
even in the present condition of the earth,
and of the still greater liability to change
which must have existed in the earlier pe-
riods of its formation — when the belief pre-
vails that so far from being the direct prod-
uct of distinct acts of creation, the various
forms of plants and animals have been grad-
ually evolved in a slow gradation of increas-
ing complexity ; and when it is recognized
by a large majority of naturalists that the
explanation of this wonderful relation of
connection between previously-existing and
later forms is to be found in the constant
tendency to variation during development
and growth, and the perpetuation of such va-
riations by hereditary transmission through
successive generations in the long but in-
calculable lapse of the earth's natural muta-
tions. These, as you must all be aware, are
in their essential features the views now
known as Darwinism, which were first simul-
taneously brought forward by Wallace and
Darwin in 1858, and which, after being more
fully elaborated in the works of the latter
and ably supported by the former, secured,
in the incredibly short space of ten or twelve
years, the general approval of a large por-
tion of the scientific world. The change of
opinion is, in fact, now such that there are
few scientific works on natural history,
whether of a special or more general charac-
ter, in which the relation whicli the facts of
science bear to the newer doctrines is not
carefully pointed out; that, with the gen-
eral public too, the words 'Evolution' and
'Development' have ceased to excite the

feelings, amounting almost to horror, which
they at first produced in the minds of those
to whom they were equally unfamiliar and
suspicious ; and that even in popular litera-
ture and ephemeral effusions direct or met-
aphorical illustrations are drawn in such
terms of the Darwinian theory as ' struggle
for existence,' ' natural selection,' ' survival
of the fittest,' ' heredity,' ' atavism,' and
the like.

" It caqpot be doubted that in this coun-
try, as on the Continent, the influence of au-
thority had much to do with the persistence
of the older teleological views ; and, as has
been well remarked by Haeckel, one of the
ablest and keenest supporters of the modern
doctrine, the combined influence more espe-
cially of the opinions held by three of the
greatest naturalists and biologists who have
ever lived, viz., Linnaeus, Haller, and Cu-
vier, men unsurpassed in the learning of
their time, and the authors of important dis-
coveries in a wide range of biological sci-
ence, was decidedly adverse to the free cur-
rent of speculative thought upon the more
general doctrines of biology. And if it were
warrantable to attribute so great a cliange
of opinion as that to which I have adverted
as occurring in my own time to the influ-
ence of any single intellect, it must be ad-
mitted that it is justly due to the vast range
and accuracy of his knowledge of scientific
facts, the quick appreciation of their mutual
interdependence, and above all the unexam-
pled clearness and candor in statement of
Charles Darwin.

" But while we readily acknowledge the
large share which Darwin has had in guiding
scientific thought into the newer tracts of
biological doctrine, we shall also be disposed
to allow that the slow and ditficult process of
emancipation from the thralldom of dogmatic
opinion in regard to a system of creation,
and the adoption of large and independent
views more consistent with observation, rea-
son, philosophy, and religion, has only been
possible under the effect of the general prog-
ress of scientific knowledge and the acquisi-
tion of sounder methods of applying its prin-
ciples to the explanation of natural phenom-
ena."

President Thomson's address con-
cludes with the following words: "I
consider it impossible, therefore, for
any one to be a faithful student of em-
bryology, in the present state of science,
witliout at the same time becoming an
evolutionist. There may still be many

EDITOR'S TABLE.

7SS

difficulties, some inconsistencies, and
much to learn, and there may remain be-
yond much which we shall never know ;
but I cannot conceive any doctrine pro-
fessing to bring the phenomena of em-
bryonic development within a general
law which is not, like the theory of
Darwin, consistent with their funda-
mental identity, their endless varia-
bility, their subjugation to varying ex-
ternal influences and conditions, and
with the possibility of the transmission
of the vital conditions and properties,
with all their variations, from indi-
vidual to individual, and, in the long
lapse of ages, from race to race.

" I regard it, therefore, as no ex-
aggerated representation of the present
state of our knowledge to say that the
ontogenetic development of the indi-
vidual in the higher animals repeats in
its more general character, and in many
of its specific phenomena, the phyloge-
netie development of the race. If we
admit the progressive nature of the
changes of development, their similar-
ity in different groups, and their com-
mon characters in all animals, nay,
even in some respects in both plants
and animals, we can scarcely refuse to
recognize the possibility of continuous
derivation in the history of their origin ;
and however far we may be, by reason
of the imperfection of our knowledge
of paleontology, comparative anatomy,
and embryology, from realizing the pre-
cise nature of the chain of connection
by which the actual descent has taken
place, still there can be little doubt re-
maining in the mind of any unpreju-
diced student of embryology that it is
only by the employment of such an hy-
pothesis as that of evolution that fur-
ther investigation in these several de-
partments will be promoted so as to
bring us to a fuller comprehension of
the most general law which regulates
the adaptation of structure to function
in the universe."

THE DECLINE OF PARTIES.

"We print the able and suggestive
essay of Prof. Goldwin Smith on " The
Decline of Party Government." He
opens an interesting question, which,
in one shape or another, is bound to
force itself more and more upon think-
ing people. The customary short logic
of the case is that we cannot have gov-
ernment without politics, and we can-
not have politics without partisanship ;
this is, therefore, a necessary thing,
which must hold the same ascendency
in the future that it has held in the
past, so that all ideas of doing without
it are futile, and all inquiries respecting
its decline superfluous. We do not sup-
pose that political parties are to cease,
or that partisans have the slightest occa-
sion for anxiety respecting their contin-
uance ; but we do not believe that the fu-
ture is to repeat the past in this matter.
The progress and diflFusion of science, the
formation of scientific habits of thought,
and an increasing faculty of observing
and reasoning directly upon the facts of
life, are going to interfere materially
with the ideas and interests of politics.
Thus far politics has been a blind and
bungling art, necessary indeed, but so
crude, loose, and wasteful in its prac-
tices, and so much a matter of rule-of-
thumb, and transient experience, and
the manipulation of men, that all idea
of far-reaching principles in the polit-
ical sphere is currently scouted. Yet
this is not the region of chaos, and
there are laws in political phenomena,
deeper than legislative enactments.
These are to be gradually worked out
into scientific expression, and in pro-
portion as this is done political parti-
sanship must undergo important modi-
fication. It may be, as Prof. Smith as-
sumes, that partisanship must decline
for lack of serious issues upon which
multitudes of men can be kept in prop-
er antagonism. But we calculate upon
a growing dissatisfaction with the meth-
\ ods by which the most valid political

756

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

questions are dealt with. The assertion
of principles and the advocacy of meas-
ures must continue to be indispensable,
and there cannot fail to be differences
of opinion ; but partisan ethics demands
denial as well as affirmation, and denial
as a matter of policy. It provides for
opposition, and of course dreads acqui-
escence and agreement. As a work
of dealing with serious questions, this
policy cannot continue to command
respect. Indeed, there is already a
growing disgust in the community at
the emptiness and futility and hum-
bug of political partisanship. Men of
honest purposes and fair discrimination
will not go to the polls to vote unless
overborne and swept along by a fac-
titious excitement. We are told that
good men should attend primary meet-
ings, so as to rescue politics from the
corrupt hands into Avhich it has fallen.
But it is a grave question whether it
has not fallen into such hands by the
necessary laws of partisanship. What
is the chance of a plain, honest man, ac-
customed to open dealing, in a caucus
or convention against the skilled in-
triguers, the practised wire-pullers, and
the disciplined managers, who fill the
air with their cries of "reform," and
outdo everybody in their zeal to purify
politics ? The stealthy, long-headed cal-
culator beats the man of inexperience
at every tack and turn ; and party poli-
tics is peculiarly tlie field where craft,
manoeuvre, and strategy, have their un-
hindered way. This is being increas-
ingly recognized, and there is coming
with it a deepening distrust of parti-
san agency. To get everything decent
out of politics as quickly as possible is
now the open demand. Courts, schools,
prisons — all tbe important agencies of
society — must, it is admitted, be taken
out of politics, if their purity and efl&-
ciency are to be maintained ; and even
the chief office-holder of the nation
heads a crusade to get all the office-
holders of the country out of politics.

Citizens may be expected to imitate
this good example, and more and more
get out of politics themselves.

FURTHER ASTRONOMICAL DISCO VJERIES.

The luck of successful research seems
now with the astronomers. Last month
we announced the brilliant discovery
of oxygen in the atmosphere of the sun
by Prof. Henry Draper ; and we have
now to chronicle the equally brilliant
discovery of two satellites of Mars by
Prof. Asaph Hall, of the Naval Obser-
vatory at Washington ; aud also of a
third moon of Mars discovered ten days
later by Profs. Henry Draper and E. H.
Holden at the private observatory of the
Drapers, at .Hastings-on-the-Hudson.
We publish an interesting article, by
Prof. Daniel Kirkwood, on " Mars and
his Satellites," giving an account of the
growth of our knowledge of the planet
and the particulars of Prof. Hall's dis-
covery of his moons.

As Prof. Kirkwood remarks, the
question whether Mars had a satellite,
which has now been so remarkably re-
solved, has long interested astronomers.
How they have regarded it may be il-
lustrated by the following passage from
the third edition of Mr. Chambers's ad-
mirable " Hand-book of Descriptive As-
tronomy," published this year :

" As far as we know, Mars possesses no
satellite, though analogy does not forbid,
but rather, on the contrary, leads us to infer
the existence of one ; and its never having
been seen, in this case at least, proves noth-
ing. The second satellite of Jupiter is
only ^Jj of the diameter of the primary, and
a satellite -i, of the diameter of Mars would
be less than one hundred miles in diameter,
and therefore of a size barely within the
reach of our largest telescopes, allowing
nothing for its possibly close proximity to
the planet. The fact that one of the satel-
lites of Saturn was only discovered a few
years ago renders the discovery of a satellite
of Mars by no means so great an improbabil-
ity as might be imagined."

LITERARY NOTICES.

7S7

LITERARY NOTICES.

Experimental Science Series for Begin-
ners. LifiHT : a Series of Simple, En-
tertaining, and Inexpensive Experiments
in the Phenomena of Light, for the Use
of Students of every Age. By Alfred
M. Mayer and Charles Barnard. New
■ Yo.-k: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 112.
Price, $1.

The expensiveness of apparatus has
long been felt as a formidable difficulty in
the effort to make scientific education popu-
lar and practicable. There is double hin-
drance here ; the instruments of experiment
are so costly that they cannot be procured
for common use, and because of this expen-
siveness they have to be kept in careful
charge, so that ordinary pupils cannot use
them, and must content themselves merely
to look on and see others work. But what
is wanted indispensably is, that all the stu-
dents shall be themselves put to work ; shall
be set to making experiments, and observ-
ing and proving things for themselves. The
obstacles to such a course have hitherto
been so great and so general that pupils
have had but little chance to cultivate ma-
nipulation ; and but few schools, in fact,
have lieen able to procure the instruments
requisite for demonstration on the part of
the teacher. To remedy these difficulties
and point out not only how scientific ap-
paratus for physical experiments can be
cheaply made, but how much the pupil can
do to help himself in the matter, Prof.
Mayer, of the Stevens Polytechnic Insti-
tute, has undertaken a series of little books,
of which the first is now published. His
choice of a subject to begin with is most
fortunate. The phenomena of light are at
once familiar and attractive, are always
available, and admit of appliances for illus-
tration of the most simplified and inexpen-
sive character. We give ample illustra-
tions of this in another article of the Month-
ly, from which the reader will see how
much can be done in the way of careful
experimentiil work for the illustration of
the principles of optics, with but a small
outlay of money and but little trouble.

The authors say in the preface : " It is
believed that this book will occupy a place
hitherto unfilled in scientific literature. It

is specially prepared for the boy or girl
student and for the teacher who has no ap-
paratus, and who wishes his pupils to be-
come experimenters, strict reasoners, and
exact observers. Nearly all the experl-
ments described are new, and all have been
thoroughly tested. The materials employed
are of the cheapest and most common de-
scription, and all the experiments may be
performed at an expense of less than fifteen
dollars. The apparatus is at the same time
suitable for regular and daily use in both
the home and school, and with care should
last for years."

It is proper to add, in explanation of
the joint authorship of the work, that Prof.
Mayer has been long busy in inventing
I simple and cheap apparatus to help teach-
j ers and pupils in the art of experiment-
I ing; but, being greatly occupied with his
I professional duties, he made an arrange-
j men* with Mr. Charles Barnard to assist
I him in preparing his results for the press.
All the contrivances and inventions for il-
lustrating experiments belong to Prof.
Mayer; Mr. Barnard has attended to the
i detail in the execution of the book, while
Prof. Mayer has maintained a close super-
vision of the work.

Report of the Commissioner of Fish and
Fisheries. Part III., for 1873-"74 and
18'74-"75. Washington: Government
Printing-Office.

In this report Prof Baird gives the re
suits thus far obtained in the inquiry into
the decrease of food-fishes, and the efforts
to protect and propagate them in American
waters. The work in which the commission
is engaged is an important one ; it has been
pushed with vigor, and with results which
upon the whole are encouraging. The ex-
tent to which fish can be made to contribute
to the food-supply is not generally appre-
ciated. It is not alone the fisheries of the
coasts and the Great Lakes that may be made
to have value, but every mile of river and
creek, and every pond and even ditch, may,
with proper management, be made to con-
tribute toward supporting a stock of fish.
They manage these things better in China,
and have carried pisciculture to an extent
unknown among Western nations.

Many of the indigenous game-fish de-
cline to adapt themselves to the changed

758

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

conditions resulting from civilization — they
gradually disappear from the streams, and
even if they did not are often greedy, car-
nivorous savages, who effectually bar a great
increase of numbers, especially in small wa-
ters They must be replaced by species
that take more kindly to cultivation — that
may be domesticated. The trout seems
well adapted to pond-culture, and its merits
are well known. Prof Bairdalso ranks the
European carp very highly in this connec-
tion, and believes that for propagation in
ponds and sluggish waters, both North and
South, it will excel all others. Its good
qualities are : fecundity and adaptability
to the processes of artificial propagation ;
hardiness, rapid growth, and ability to popu-
late waters to their greatest extent ; harm-
lessness in relation to other fishes, living
largely on a vegetable diet ; and good table
qualities.

The volume is largely occupied by sup-
plementary papers of unequal value : ac-
counts of the fish-industries of other ages
and countries; reports of the special ef-
forts to transport fish, lobsters, etc., to and
from California, and to Europe; and an ap-
pendix devoted to the natural history of the
subject. A systematic list of food-fishes,
with descriptions and some account of their
range, seasons, etc., would be a valuable
and much-needed contribution to common
knowledge. We hope it will be possible for
Prof. Baird to carry out his partial promise
to issue such a work in such a way that it
will be obtainable by the general public.

Ancient Society : or, Researches in the
Lines of Human Progress from Sav-
agery through Barbarism to Civili-
zation. By Lewis H. Morgan, LL. D.
New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1877.
Pp. 500. Price, $4.

Many of the obscure problems of eth-
nology are here analyzed and discussed with
a wealth of learning which renders the work
a valuable one for both the student and
general reader. In the opening paragraph
the author affirms the great antiquity of
mankind upon the earth, and proceeds to
illustrate the extreme rudeness of their
early condition and the gradual evolution of
their mental and moral powers through the
slow accumulations of experience. The
facts presented throughout the work show

that the progress of mankind has been from
the bottom of the scale, and that " the
theory of human degradation, to explain
the existence of savages and barbarians, is
no longer tenable." It is shown that human
progress has been essentially continuous,
and that there is a common principle of in-
telligence in the savage, the barbarian, and
the civilized man. As a consequence of
this, the same results have appeared at all
times and in all areas under the same eth-
nical conditions. " The roots of modern in-
stitutions," the author observes, *' are
planted in the period of barbarism, into
wliich their germs were transmitted from
the previous period of savagery. They have
had a lineal descent through the ages with
the streams of the blood, as well as a logi-
cal development."

The subject is considered by the author
under these four heads : 1. Growth of In-
telligence through Inventions and Discov-
eries ; 2. Growth of the Idea of Govern-
ment ; 3. Growth of the Idea of the Family ;
4. Growth of the Idea of Property.

In the discussion of each of these the
reader is made familiar with the successive
phases of culture which society has passed
through in the course of its development.
These phases are, as defined by the author,
savagery, barbarism, and civilization, con-
stituting three grand ethnical periods in the
progress of mankind. Savagery, the term
applied to the lowest status, extends from
the period in which mankind were without
arts or definite social organizations to that
in which they had attained something of
both. With the close of the period of
savagery that of barbarism begins. At this
period the art of making pottery had been
developed ; the bow and arrow, and imple-
ments of flint and stone, were in use. The
ethnical period of barbarism is subdivided,
as is that of savagery, into three stages,
representing characteristic phases of cult-
ure. It began with the simple arts re-
ferred to, and ends with the invention of a
phonetic alphabet and the use of writing
in literary composition. In this stage of
culture are placed the Grecian tribes of the
time of Homer, and the Germanic tiibes of
the time of Ca;sar. Civilization begins with
the close of barbarism. It will not be in-
ferred that the transition from one status

LITERARY NOTICES.

759

of society to another has been sharp oi'
sudden. " Time has been an essential ele-
ment in the formation of these strata."

The various lines along which develop-
ment has taken place are thus summarized :
1. Subsistence ; 2. Government ; 3. Lan-
guage ; 4. The Family ; 5. Religion ; 6.
Home-Life and Architecture ; 1. Property.
In the author's plan each of these lines
is followed in detail, and the characteristic
features of each in the successive stages
of culture are presented in their order.
Thus subsistence is shown to have been
at first upon fruits and roots. Next in or-
der came fish, then farinaceous substances ;
later, meat and milk ; and lastly arose agri-
culture. It is obvious that food and the
methods of procuring and preparing it have
direct relation to culture, so that the status
of a primitive people may be determined
vei'y nearly by that standard.

The author's elaborate discussion of the
genesis of the family will be read with close
attention, and will doubtless excite criti-
cism. We can only in the briefest manner
state without comment some of the aspects
and forms of the primitive family as pre-
sented in the work. The lowest status of
society is characterized by promiscuous in-
tercourse. The next stage was intermar-
riage of brothers and sisters. Out of this
arose the consanguineous family, or family
representing consanguinity and affinity, giv-
ing rise finally to the organization of the
family on the basis of sex. In this a check
was given to the intermarriage of brothers
and sisters, and following this occurred
marriage between single pairs. A higher
stage was the patriarchal family arising
from pastoral life. Lastly arose the mono-
gamian family, in which paternity of chil-
dren is assured, with ownership of property,
and lineal descent.

Throughout the work it is made ap-
parent that the earliest steps in progress
were 'taken with difficulty, and required a
long period of time. But changes became
more rapid as society advanced. If 100,000
years be assumed as the period of man's
existence on earth, 60,000 years, on the
theory of progressive development, must
be assigned to savagery, 20,000 years to
the lower stage of barbarism, 15,000 years
to the middle and upper stages of barbarism,

leaving but 5,000 years for the period of civ-
ilization. It would thus appear that during
three-fifths of the whole human period man
was scarcely more than a child. Whatever
changes of fact or of conclusion future in-
quiries may render necessary in the present
work, it will remain a monument of the
painstaking labor of the author.

Principles of Theoretical Chemistry, with
Special Reference to the Constitution
of Chemical Compounds. By Ira Rem-
SEN, M. D., Ph. D., Professor of Chem-
istry in the Johns Hopkins Umversity.
Philadelphia : Henry C. Lea, 18Y7. Pp.
231. Price, $1.25.

This is a contribution to chemical litera-
ture of special fitness and importance at the
present time, when the science is passing in-
to a new stage. Prof Remsen devotes him-
self to the theoretical aspects of what is
called the new chemistry, which he treats
with discrimination, presenting its claims
with clearness and weighing its defects with
fairness. He aims to show exactly upon
what basis our present conceptions of chem-
ical constitution rest. The need of a sifting
discussion of the subject is assumed to rest
upon the fact that the more recent views,
be they good or bad, are held by nearly all
the working chemists of the day. In regard
to the execution and purposes of his book,
the author remarks in his preface : " The
subject is, of course, not exhausted ; many
things have purposely been left out, either
because they have not yet reached such a
stage of development as to entitle them to a
place among the fundamental principles, or
because it was thought better to emphasize
more strongly those principles which are
treated. Should the reader miss anything
which he expected to find, he will please
carefully consider whether the grounds re-
ferred to are a sufficient excuse for the omis-
sion. The imperfections that will be noticed
are, partly at least, due to the imperfection
of our knowledge on some of the subjects
discussed. For instance, it seems to be im-
possible for us at present to treat the sub-
ject of valence in such a way as to lead to
satisfactory results, mainly for the reason
that we know so little in regard to it. What-
ever view of this property one may take, he
will find some difficulties which he cannot
surmount."

76o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Physiological J^sthetics. By Grant Al-
len, B. A. Pp. 283. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. Price, $1.50.

Prof. Allen dedicates this book to Her-
bert Spencer as " the greatest of living phi-
losophers," and, as might be expected from
this, he treats his subject from the point of
view of Spencer's philosophy and the law
of evolution. This is only another exem-
plification of the power of a great princi-
ple, whenneivly introduced into thought, of
modifying old beliefs and methods of study.
Mr. Bain took up the investigation of the
human mind more closely from the physio-
logical side than had been before attempted
in any general exposition ; but he could not
link psychology to physiology without bring-
ing it more completely into the current of
scientific progress. Hence, when the doc-
trine of evolution was accepted, physiolo-
gy underwent a philosophical change which
was so powerfully felt in psychology that
Prof. Bain had to revise his methodical
works to bring them into harmony with it.
As aesthetics is occupied with a certain or-
der of human feelings, its roots must be
found in physiology, and Prof. Allen's book
is an attempt to trace out the connection.
We shall review this work more fully in the
future, but may here remark that it has
been received with great interest and very
cordial approval abroad. There are vari-
ous opinions as to the completeness of his
analysis, and the sufficiency of some of his
reasonings, but it is agreed that he has
opened the subject in a broad aspect, and
in a direction that must be pursued by fu-
ture thinkers. The London Examiner thus
refers to the work in the opening of its re-
view :

"Amons? the branches of human activity
which the growing science of physiology is des-
tined to illuminate, the fine arts certainly have
a place. In proof of this we need refer only to
the work of a single living physiologist, H. Helra-
holtB. Of the importance of this thinker's phys-
iological contributions to the theory of musical
art it is unnecessary to speak. It may not be so
widely known that this same physiologist has
recently published an instructive essay, illus-
trating the bearing of optical science on the art
of painting. This invasion of the region of
sesthetics by natural science will be regarded as
an evil by all those who suppose that this terri-
tory should be infolded in a mist of super-subtile
metaphysical fancy. To those, however, who
ask for a clear and well-defluing daylight in all
domains of inquiry, the new direction of physi-

ological labor will be welcome. If anything Is
likely to supply a firm objective basis for aesthetic
rules it is physiological science. Mr. Grant Al-
len distinctly recognizes this, and his volume is
a valuable attempt to add to the physiological
foundations of art.

" Our author begins with a timely protest
against the unscientific idea, apparently coun-
tenanced by Mr. Raskin, that the pleasures of
art are not susceptible of exact explanation.
He holds that aesthetic enjoyments, like aU other
pleasures, may be brought under simple prin-
ciples or laws of nervous action. Moreover, he
goes further, and, by help of the new science of
organic evolution, seeks to explain how it is that
our nervous system has become so constituted
as to respond in a pleasurable or painful man-
ner to the various sensory stimuli. In this way
he hopes to arrive at a complete answer to the
question regarded as insoluble by Mr. Ruskin,
' Why do we receive pleasure from some forms
and colors, and not from others ? '

"The physiological method of study cannot
as yet be safely carried into the discussion of
art-eftects beyond the simple sensations of tone,
color, etc. The physiological conditions of the
more complex delights of intellect and emotion
are not as yet accessible. It is a question, in-
deed, whether as yet the physiological method
is adequate to explaining all the sesthetic pleas-
ure of tone and color, and their combinations.
This, however, is the task which Mr. Allen sets
before himself. He devotes the greater part of
his space to the elementary pleasures of art,
illustrating these, as is fitting, by a general
review of the phenomena of pleasure and pain
in the lower bodily regions and in the various
senses. Following most recent writers on the
subject, he connects pain with the destructive or
injurious action of an organ, pleasure with the
normal action corresponding to the amount of
energy stored up at the time."

Bulletin of the Geological and Geo-
graphical Survey of the Territories
(Havden's). Volume III., No. 1. Pp.
185." With Plates. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-Office.

In this number of the " Bulletin " are
contained twelve papers, mostly on subjects
anthropological and entomological. Among
them is one by the Rev. M. Eells, on the
Twana Indians of the Skokomish Reserva-
tion, in Washington Territory. This is an
instructive account of the condition of a
tribe of Indians in the transition state from
savagism to semi-civilization.

Recent Progress in Sanitary Science. By
A. R. Leeds. Pp. 22. Salem : printed
at the Salem press.

The progress made in sanitary science
during recent years consists, according to

LITERARY NOTICES.

761

Prof. Leeds, first, in an increased knowledge
of what constitutes clean air, clean water,
clean food, and clean environments, on the
one hand, and on the other hand what con-
stitutes filth in air, fi,lth in water, filth in
food, and filth in our environments, whether
it be filth mineral, vegetable, or animal ; and,
secondly, in a better knowledge of the
means of preserving cleanliness and repress-
ing filthiness.

Bulletin of the Geological and Geo-
graphical Survey of the Territories
(Hayden's). Vol. III., No. 3. Pp. 105.
With Plates. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Oftice.

Besides a series of five paleontological
papers by Dr. C. A. White, this number
of the " Bulletin " contains a brief essay by
E. A. Barber on the " Utah Dialects."
Also, one by P. Schumacher on "Method
of Making Stone Implements." There is
a paper by Dr. Coues on "Insectivorous
Mammals;" one by Lieutenant McCauley
on the " Ornithology of the Red River of
Texas ; " a " Catalogue of Land and Fresh-
Water Shells," by S. Aughey, Ph. D. ;
finally, " Notes on the Geographical Work
of the Survey," by A. D. Wilson.

Annual Report of the Massachusetts
State Board of Health. Pp. 520.
Boston : A. J. Wright, State Printer.

The Massachusetts health reports, of
which this volume is the eighth, form a se-
ries of public documents hardly equaled
for the wealth of important information
■which they contain. The " Special Re-
ports "on sanitary subjects comprised in
the present volume are seven in number,
and treat of " Pollution of Streams, Disper-
sal of Sewage, etc. ; " " Sewerage ; " " San-
itary Condition of Lynn ; " " Registration
of Deaths and Diseases ; " " Growth of
Children ; " " Disease of the Mind ; " and
" Health of Towns." It is only by unceas-
ing iteration of the lesson that filth is the
great cause of disease, that the local au-
thorities of towns and cities can be aroused
to a sense of the danger of allowing in-
sanitary conditions to persist. This lesson
is inculcated with much force and thorough-
ness of research in some of the special re-
ports named above.

Art-Education applied to Industry. By
George Ward Nichols. Pp.211. With
numerous Illustrations. New York :
Harper & Brothers. Price, $4.
The title of this work sufficiently indi-
cates its purpose, which is to promote among
the people an acquaintance with the princi-
ples of art as applied to the products of in-
dustry. The author would have these prin-
ciples taught in all grades of our schools,
and offers a scheme of a progressive course
of art-instruction which he thinks might
easily be adopted by directors of schools in
this country. He gives an account of the
present statre of art-education in sundry Eu-
ropean countries, and especially commends
the programme of art-education in use in
the public schools of Belgium. The work
is profusely illustrated.

Linear Perspective. Part I. By F. R.
Honey. Pp. 36. With Plates. New
Haven: Judd & White. Price, $1.25.

The author of this little treatise, who is
instructor in Descriptive Geometry and Per-
spective in the Sheffield Scientific School,
here presents to the student, with all need-
ed clearness, the leading principles of Linear
Perspective in the space of a very few pages,
and then proceeds to make application of
them to perspective drawing. The course
of instruction advances by easy steps from
the construction of the perspective of a
point situated in the horizontal plane to the
construction of the perspective of a groined
arch and its shadows, and of a spiral stair-
way.

Annual Record of Science and Industry
for 1876. By Spencer F. Baird. Pp.
845. New York : Harper & Brothers.
Price, $2.
The "Annual Record," which from the
first has been recognized as the very best
work of its kind anywhere published, con-
tinues to give evidence of the skill and care
of its editor. The volume for 1876 contains
some notable improvements on all its pred-
ecessors. One valuable feature now added
is the index of authors and subjects, ap-
pended to the " General Summary." An-
other is the prefixing of the names of Prof.
Baird's principal collaborators to the chap-
ters of the " General Summary," written by
them. The chapter on " Astronomy" is by
Prof. Holden, that on "Meteorology" by

762

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Prof. Abbe, "General Physics" by Prof.
Barker, " Chemistry " by the same, " Geol-
ogy" by Prof. T. Sterry Hunt, and so on,
the different departments of " Scientific and
Industrial Progress " being attended to by
writers of i-ecognized competence. In com-
piling the second division of the volume,
which consists of condensed abstracts of
papers on scientific and industrial work, the
editor has been assisted by a strong corps
of writers, among whom we may name Profs.
F. W. Clarke, Cope, F. V. Hayden, Major
Powell, and Lieutenant Wheeler.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Bible of Humanity. By J. Micholet. New
York : Bouton. Pp. 374. Price, $3.

Engineering Construction. By J. E. Shields.
New York: Van Nostrand. Pp. 138. Price,
$1.50;

Sanitary Condition of Dwelling-Houses. By
G.E. Waring, Jr. Van Nostrand. Pp.145. Price,
50 cents.

Inorganic Chemistry. Vol. II., Metals. By
T. E. Thorpe. New York: Putnam's Sons. Pp.
401). Price. $1.50.

Weighing and Measuring. By H. W. Chis-
Iiolm. New York : Macmillau. Pp.208. Price,
$1.50.

"The Jukes." By R. L. Dusdale. New
York : Putnam's Sons". Pp.121. Price, $1.25.

Daily Bulletin of the Signal Service. With
Charts. Washington: Government Printing-
Offlce. Pp. 185.

The Locust Plague in the United States. By
C. V. Riley. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.
Pp. 236. Price, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 11.

Physical Geography. By A. Geilsie. New
York: Macmillan. Pp.391. Price, $1.75.

General History of Connecticut. By Rev. S.
Peters. New York: Appletons. Pp. 285. Price,
$1.50.

Report of the Milwaukee School Board. Mil-
waukee: Keogh print. Pp.396.

Compendium of Facts and Events. By E.
Emery. Peoria. 111. : Transcript ^tvoX. Pp.517.
Price, |8.

New Constructions in Graphical Statics. By
H.T.Eddy. New York: VanNostraud. Pp.62.
Price, $1.50.

Telegraphic Determination of Longitttde. By
Lieutenant-Commander F. M. Green, LT. S. N.
Washington: Government Printing-OfiBce. Pp.
102.

Metallurgical Review. Vol. I., No. 1. Monthly.
New York: David Williams. Pp. 100. Price,
$5 per year.

Report of the Peabody Museum. Cambridge :
Printed by order of the Trustees. Pp. 167.

Brooklyn Monthly. G. F. Beecher, editor.
Vol. I., No. 2. Pp. 18. Price. $1 per year.

Relations of Pain to Weather. By Dr. S. W.
Mitchell. Philadelphia : Collius print. Pp. 25.

Photoaraph of the Trotting Horse Occident.
By Muybridge. San Francisco.

Fishes of Upper Georgia. By D. S. Jordan.
Salem Press print. Pp. 70.

Molecule and Atom, By G. F. Barker. From
Proceedings of American Associatiou. Pp. 23.

Heredity. By Dr. E. N. Brush. Buffalo:
Hansman '&, Burow print. Pp. 12.

Personal Appearance. By T. S. Soziuskey,
M. D. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott. Pp.
196. Price, $1.25.

Materialism and Pedagogy. By W. H. Wynn.
Gettysburg, Pa. : Wible prmt. Pp. 22.

Brain of Procamelus Occidentalis. By E. D.
Cope. Pp. 4. With Plate.

Green River Sliales. By E. D. Cope. Pp. 10.

Rationale of compressing Cotton. By S. H.
Gilman. New Orleans : Hyatt print. Pp. 52.

Lectures and Essays. By Dr. V. W. Blanch-
ard. New York: Blanchard Food-Cure Compa-
ny. Pp. 67. Price, 10 cents.

Hay-Fever. By Dr. E. J. Marsh. Newark,
N. J. : Harrtham print. Pp. 26.

New Method in Solar Spectrum Analysis.
By S. P. Langley. From American Journal of
Science and Art. Pp. 6.

Anglo-American Primer. By Elieza Boerd-
man Burnz. New York: Burnz & Co., Fonetic
Publishers. Price, 15 cents.

Annual Meeting of the Free Religious Asso-
ciatiou ( 1877). Boston : The Association. Pp.
95. Price, 40 cents.

Venous Circulation. By Dr. W. F. Glenn.
Nashville : Marshall & Bruce print. Pp. 4.

Pacific School and Home Journal. Vol. I.,
No. 6. San Francisco : Lyser & Co. Monthly.
Pp. 40. Price, $2 per year.

Darwin on Fertilization of Flowers. ByT.
Meehan. From Penn Monthly. Pp. 10.

The Glacial Period in the Southern Hemi-
sphere. By T. Belt. From London Quarterly
Journal of Science. Pp. 30.

Serpent and Siva Worship. By Hyde Clarke
and C. S. Wake. New York : Bouton. Pp. 48.
Price, 50 cents.

The American Bison. By J. A. Allen. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-Offlce. Pp. 144.

A Scientific Course of Study. By C. E. Bes-
sey. Grinnell, Iowa : jlwrorw print. Pp.11.

Electrical Conduction. ByR. C.Kedzie. Pp.8.

Criminality. By Dr. W. G. Stevenson. From
the Sanitarian. Pp. 23.

Glacial Ice Deposits. By G. Sutton. From
Proceedings of American Association. Pp. 7.

American Homaopathist (monthly). Vol.1.,
No. 1. Chicago : Chatterton & Co. Pp. 40. Price,
$2 per year.

Notes from the Chemical Laboratory of Johns
Hopkins University. Pp. 16.

Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of
Sciences. Vol. 11., Part 1. Davenport Gazette
print. Pp. 148. Price, $3 per volume.

Inscribed Tablets from Davenport, Iowa.
Pp. 22. With Plates. From the same.

Heredity, Pauperism, and Crime. By Dr. E.
H. Parker, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Pp. 12.

School Discipline. By J. Kennedy. Syra-
cuse, N. Y. : Davis, Bardeen & Co. Pp. 23.

Electrometers. By J. T. Bottomley. New
York : Macmillan. Pp. 33. Price, 20 cents.

Veratrum Viride. By Dr. J. S. Lynch. Bal-
timore : Inues & Co. print. Pp. 8.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science met at Nashville, Ten-
nessee, on Wednesday, August 29th, Prof.
Simon Newcomb presiding. The sessions
continued for four days. Prof. 0. C. Marsh,
of Tale College, was elected President of the

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

76^

Association for the present year ; Prof. R.
H. Thurston, of the Stevens Technological
Institute, Hoboken, Vice-President of the
Physical Section ; Prof. Augustus R. Grote,
Vice-President of the Section of Natural His-
tory ; Prof. H. Carrington Bolton, of Colum-
bia College, New York, General Secretary ;
Prof. Francis E. Nipher, St. Louis Universi-
ty, Secretary of Section A ; George Little,
Atlanta, Georgia, Secretary of Section B ;
William S. Vaux, Philadelphia, Treasurer;
chairman of Chemical Sub-section, Prof. P.
W. Clarke, of the University of Cincinnati.
The Association will meet next year in St.
Louis, on the third Wednesday of August.
The address of Prof. 0. C. Marsh, as Vice-
President of Section B, at the Nashville
meeting, on the " Introduction and Succes-
sion of Vertebrate Life in America," was a
paper of extraordinary interest, embodying
the results of its author's fruitful researches
into the paleontology of this continent.
Prof. Grote advocated the creation of an
International Scientific Service, or organi-
zation for the advancement of knowledge.
We shall in future numbers of the Monthly
publish abstracts of some of the more inter-
esting papers read at this meeting of the
Association.

The Ciuciiona Alkaloids.— Of all the spe.
cies of cinchona-trees planted in the Nilgiri
Hills district of India, the red-bark, or C.
succirubra, has succeeded best ; indeed,
none of the other species appear to thrive
in the Nilgiri plantations, and they are rap-
idly giving way before the red-bark cin-
chona-tree. The bark of the latter contains
only a small proportion of the alkaloid qui-
nine as compared with the other three prin-
cipal alkaloids — cinchonine, cinchonidine,
and quinidine — and hence the promise of
.an abundant supply of the first-named alka-
loid from the Indian plantations is not ful-
filled. Hence, if the febrifuge properties of
the cinchona were confined to the alkaloid
quinine, we should have to pronounce these
plantations a failure. But it appears to be
still an open question whether quinine is
entitled to this preeminence. Indeed, there
is good reason for believing that the kind
of bark which earned for the cinchona-tree
its reputation had for its predominant al-
kaloid cinchonidine. Within a few years,
medical commissions have been appointed

in Madras and Bombay to determine the re-
spective values of the four alkaloids as feb-
rifuges. The result arrived at by the Ma-
dras commission, as stated by Dr. B. H. Paul,
in a paper read before the London Society of
Arts, was to the effect that, " in recent cases
of uncomplicated paroxysmal fever, there
did not seem to be any great superiority of
one cinchona alkaloid over another." The
numerical results on which the commission
founded its conclusions were as follows :

Cured.

Treated by cinchonine 410 400

" " cinchonidine 859 346

" " quinidine 376 365

In subsequent trials these alkaloids were
compared with quinine, and the total num-
ber of cases treated was 2,472, and of these
2,445 were cured. The ratio of failure per
1,000 cases was as follows :

Quinine 7.092

Quinidine 6.024

Cinchonidine 9.925

Cinchonine 23.255

Which appears to show that the first three
are nearly equal in their febrifuge proper-
ties.

Treatment of the Opiaiu-HaMt. — The

English Church Mission supports at Hang-
chow, China, an " opium-refuge," or hos-
pital for the treatment of smokers of opium.
The capacity of this hospital, as we learn
from the Journal of Inebriety, is for about
thirty patients, and there are generally about
as many applications for admission as can
be granted. Persons wishing to be ad-
mitted make their applications on or before
the beginning of a month ; all the patients
for one month being admitted on the same
day, and remaining in the hospital for three
weeks. In this way, twelve classes of pa-
tients are turned out each year, and there is
one week in each month for cleansing the
hospital. The treatment is directed simply
to relieving the malaise and depression
caused by discontinuance of opium, and
the physician in charge states that at the
end of three weeks the patients can entirely
dispense with the drug without physical in-
convenience. One strange fact is developed
by this benevolent enterprise. Some of the
patients enter the refuge without any desire
of giving up opium. They have gone so far
that a large quantity is required to satisfy

764

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

their craving — larger than they can afford
to buy. By submitting to hospital treat-
ment they can get back to a point where a
moderate quantity of the drug will produce
the desired effect. " They only wish to get
up-hill, that they may have the pleasure of
sliding down again ! " Even in his dissipa-
tions the Chinaman shows his characteris-
tic wariness.

Silver-bearing Sandstones. — A corre-
spondent of the Engineering and Mining
Journal describes the " silver sandstone "
formation occurring in the vicinity of Leeds,
a village ia the southwestern corner of
Utah, about 300 miles from Salt Lake City.
The formation is a beautifully-stratified red
and white sandstone, but greatly broken
up and eroded. Where the strata have
been undisturbed, they rise to a height of
perhaps 1,000 feet above the valley in table-
mountains, alternately banded with red and
white. The numerous foldings and contor-
tions of the strata are accounted for by the
presence of many extinct volcanoes, while
the great sandy deserts, covered with sage
and cactus, bear abundant evidence of the
erosion. On the northern side of what was
once a vast basin, lying between several
ranges of high mountains of old rock, where
the erosion of an anticlinal has left ridges
or reefs cropping out at various angles, are
the mines. The sandstone consists of red
and white deposits, carrying some lime as a
cementing material, with occasional layers
of clayey or shaly rock, and a considerable
amount of carbon scattered throughout.
The white sandstone seems so far to have
carried the ore, but all the strata carry it in
greater or smaller quantity. Careful sam-
plings and analyses show that there is a
large amount of ore running from $20 to
$50 per ton — in several beds, a foot or
more in thickness, averaging from $50 to
$200, while others have streaks of various
widths, from one to ten inches, yielding ore
from $200 to $1,200.

Specimens of so-called " silver-mud "
from Oregon have been examined by Mr.
Henry G. Hawks, member of the California
State Geological Society, who found the sub-
stance very rich in silver in the free state,
though the microscope failed to give any
clew to its origin. It has been suspected

that this " silver-mud " is an artificial prod-
uct, intended to subserve fraudulent designs,
but Mr. Hawks could not find any evidence
of fraud. If the free silver in the mud
were fihngs, a single glance would suffice to
detect the fact. Had the silver been pre-
cipitated from solution by copper, it would
have been crystallized. An amalgam of
silver and mercury would have yielded a
sublimate if strongly heated in a glass tube
closed at one end. Such amalgam intro-
duced into the wet mud, and the whole
heated sufficiently to volatilize the mercury,
would have left the substance in a hard-
baked state, which could not again have
been reduced to the state in which the mud
was when it came into the hands of Mr.
Hawks. The author finds a close resem-
blance between this " silver-mud " and the
silver-bearing " sandstone," so called, of the
preceding paragraph.

Anthropology in Germany. — A writer in
Das ^4 Ms/rtMfZ directs attention to the neg-
lect of anthropological research in the great
schools of Germany. The science of an-
thropology, he remarks, together with all
its subordinate branches, such as anatomo-
physiological anthropology, ethnology, eth-
nography, "prehistory," and comparative
archaeology, were substantially founded by
German scholars, as Keller and Virchow,
Schaaffhausen and Bar, yet hitherto they
have been assigned no ofiicial place in
higher education. There is not in all Ger-
many a single professorship of anthropol-
ogy, though that is a subject that interests
the entire cultured public. " With us," he
writes, " the four antiquated Faculties still
profess to represent science in its totality.
In France, the case is different. Schaaff-
hausen, in his account of the Prehistoric
Congress of Buda-Pesth, observes that in
Paris a professorship of anthropology has
been in existence for the last twenty-seven
years. Besides, we learn of the recent
establishment in Paris of a school of an-
thropology. This school consists of four
sections, of anatomy, biology, ethnology,
' prehistory,' and linguistics, with Broca,
Jopenard, Dally, Mortillet, and Hovelacque,
for professors. In Germany two scientific
men lecture on anthropology, namely, Ecker
in Freiburg, and 0. Jager in Stuttgart."

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

765

Distribntion of the Seventeca-Tear Lo-
enst. — Mr. L. G. Olmstead, of Fort Edward,
sends us an account of a recent interview
with Dr. Asa Fitch, the distinguished ento-
mologist of Salem, New York, from which we
exti'act the following particulars concerning
the habits and geographical distribution of
the seventeen-year locust, which has but
lately planted the seeds for the crop of 1894 :

"The seveiiteen-year locust, the Cicada
septeitdecim — thus named by Linnaeus, the
prince of natural historians — has just made
its regular visit to the woods north of
Clark's mills, below Fort Miller Bridge, on
the Hudson River. Fort Miller Bridge is
their extreme northern limit. From time
immemorial they have appeared on the same
spots. If the woods are cleared up, they
resort to the nearest orchards. They are
found from this locality south along the
Hudson, on through New Jersey, Delaware,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Caro-
linas, and Georgia. They come out in im-
mense numbers, the woods resounding with
the din of their notes.

" There is an annual Cicada which ap-
pears in dog-days, whose shrill note is quite
dirt'erent from the seventeen-year locust.
The notes of this last arc not unlike those
of the tree-toad, and they were heard at
Clark's mills above the noise of the ma-
chinery.

" They sing when the sun shines. When
growing old their note is much more feeble.
The males alone sing; the females are si-
lent, and this has given rise to the distich :

' Happy are the Cicadas' lives,
Because they all have voiceless wives.'

" This is their fourth visit that the doc-
tor has observed. He has gathered and con-
fined scores of them, under netting on an
apple-bush to keep them from being de-
voured by birds, which collect to feed on
them in immense numbers, as do the swine,
and such wild animals as skunks, weasels,
etc.

" The locusts puncture the bark of trees
and live on the juice. They do not disturb
herbaceous plants. They pierce the twigs
and deposit two eggs in each puncture,
which are probably male and female. The
grub hatches and drops to the ground, into
which it is said to go to great depths, and is
seventeen years in getting its growth. They

sometimes come up in the bottom of newly-
dug cellars, and where roads are made across
districts they have occupied, and they work
themselves up through the hardest beaten
highway. On coming out of the ground
they immediately pair, and the female com-
mences boring the twigs and depositing her
eggs, which occupies her about three weeks,
when they die and disappear. They never
do any appreciable injury to the trees. This
seventeen-year locust is not found in any
other part of the world.

" They left Fort Miller about the 25th of
June, leaving an appointment to hold an-
other great concert on the same ground in
1894. The twigs of witch-hazel, poplar,
maple, hickory, oak, etc., are beautifully
punctured and as regularly as the stitches
on a horse's harness, thus —

Sometimes there will be two rows on the
under side of the same twig, thus —

Many twigs of the oak have died from the
puncturings.

" There is also a third species of locust in
this county, of which only a very few appear.
The species of Cicada are numerous in warm
climates. The doctor has in his collection
ninety-two species. He has the three found
in tl)is county ; others from Pennsylvania,
Illinois, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama ;
the Bahama Islands, Jamaica, Venezuela,
Brazil; Colombia, Chili ; a number from
France, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Algiers, Cape
of Good Hope, Senegal, Madagascar; the
Crimea, Sylhet (a part of British India),
Borneo, Java, Ceylon, Assam, Malacca, and
New Holland."

Cremation of Dr. Cliarles F. Winslow. —

The following, from a gentleman who took
an active part in the cremation of the body
of the late Dr. Winslow, at Salt Lake City,
on July 31st, contains many interesting de-
tails concerning this event not before pub-
lished :

"Dr. Winslow always had a dread of
being buried in the ground ; perhaps not
a dread, but he had seen many bodies that
had suffered the slow decomposition and
ravages of the worms, and the thought
was disgusting to him. His heart was
taken out and embalmed, placed in a jar,

■]6(^

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and is to be buried within the grave of
his mother. As soon as his executor (and
personal friend) reached here, it was de-
cided to proceed with the cremation, but,
before it was done, his children at the East
intervened, and the operation was delayed.
One of his sons came here, and, after
reading the will and talking with his (the
doctor's) friends, to whom the doctor had
so often expressed his views in favor of
' cremation,' decided that it ought to be
done, and wrote to the other children for
their consent, which they finally granted.
In the mean time the body had been em-
balmed, and kept continually packed in ice.

"Dr. Hamilton, who had charge of the
* cremation,' consulted me as to the means
of doing it. They had talked of taking the
body to one of the reverberatory furnaces,
as they wanted it done quickly — in fact,
before his children would know of it. I
thought a furnace could be built quickly
and cheaply that would answer the purpose,
and designed one, as per inclosed rough
sketch.

" I will admit that many improvements
could have been made on it ; but, when you
consider that in six hours from the time it
was commenced a fire was built in it, I
think you will say we did well. Time and
expense were the obstacles I had to over-
come. The interior of the furnace was six
feet by two ; the bottom was of boiler-iron.

FUKNAOE IN WHICH THE CREMATION WAS PERFORMED.

three-eighths of an inch thick ; the roof of
fire-tiles, two feet long and one foot wide.
This enabled us to cover without an arch.
The door for the admission of the body was
at the south end. You will notice two stacks ;
the extra one was made so that we could
shut off the flames by means of a damper,
enabling us to put the body in, and also to
view the action without the flame approach-
ing the door. You will see that the flame,
when the furnace was at work, passed un-
der the floor the whole length, and then
returned over the body and up the stack at
the south end of the furnace. In the oper-
ation we used the coal from ' Rock Springs,'
on the Union Pacific Railroad.

" It was intended to ' cremate ' immedi-
ately on the completion of the furnace, but
Dr. Hamilton had doubts as to the working
of the furnace ; so he placed in it a quarter
of beef, and found it to produce the desired
result on this in one hour and five minutes ;
and, while this was going on, word came to
stop it all.

" Finally, all was arranged on the 31st
of July ; the body, then weighing 126 pounds,
was placed on a sheet of iron one-eighth of
an inch thick, turned up at the sides and
end, and introduced into the furnace, which
was at a full-red heat, at 6.20 p. m. The
dampers were opened, and the flame al-
lowed to pass directly over the body. For
some time quite a ' boilinc/ ' took place, and
lasted until most of the moisture had
been driven off"; in about an hour
nearly all the flesh was consumed and
the heat was raised. At the end of
two and a half hours all action was
at an end, but five minutes more was
allowed, when the fires were drawn
and air admitted to the furnace. In
about half an hour the plate was
di'awn, and the bones gathered up ;
they were perfectly white and friable,
so much so that they could be easily
crushed in the hand. After this we
rubbed the bones in an iron mortar,
and passed them all through a flour-
sieve, making in bulk about one quart,
and in weight about four pounds.
From the time the body was put into
the furnace until the ashes were ready
for the urn was four hours and forty
minutes.

" From the construction of the fur-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

je-j

nace we had perfect control over the heat.
I did not wish to have it too hot at the time
of placing the body in it for fear of an ex-
cessive generation of gases, but I believe
we would not have gained anything by
having the heat any more intense ; from my
observation I am convinced that the heat
required is not so gFeat as generally sup-
posed : the action of the heat on the lime
gives it the appearance of being intensely
hot, but at the same time I noticed that the
end of the plate whei'e the flame turned
was barely altered — just scored a little, as
if it had approached nearly to the melting-
point.

" The furnace did not cost $100, and I
suppose about 1,000 pounds of coal were
consumed."

Signs of Advance iu Medical Science. —

A significant communication has appeared
in the English medical journals, namely, a
letter to Dr. B. W. Richardson, from George
Wyld, M. D., Vice-President of the British
Homoeopathic Society, in which the latter
pleads for a reconciliation between homoeop-
athists and practitioners of the regular
school of medicine. Dr. Wyld in effect
maintains that the art and science of medi-
cine, as understood by the homoeopathists,
so called, of England, and by the regular
profession, are now the same. Hahnemann,
in his famous essay, entitled " The Medi-
cine of Experience," had made no mention
of homoeopathy, and the doses there rec-
ommended were tangible, not infinitesimal.
But, as his views were scornfully rejected by
the medical profession of the time, Hahne-
mann, in his turn, became intolerant of the
views received by the medical profession,
and, "out of spite," as one might say,
adopted the doctrine of the efficacy of in-
finitesimal doses. But everything is now
changed, according to Dr. Wyld. " The so-
called homoeopathists," he writes, "have
almost entirely abandoned the use of glob-
ules, and have substituted doses in a tangi-
ble form. Further, whereas the early hom-
oeopathists denounced all auxiliaries in the
treatment of disease, it is now the practice
to make frequent use of all remedies of a
simple kind, such as occasional aperients,
anodynes, opiates, anaesthetics, galvanism,
hydropathy, Turkish baths, and mineral

waters. In short, we define our practice as
rational medicine, including the application
of the law of contraries, but plus the appli-
cation of the law of similars." Dr. Wyld
adds that the sentiments he expresses are
held by a large number of homoeopathic
practitioners. He believes that were physi-
cians of his school to be admitted to the
regular medical societies and to the pages
of regular medical journals, it would not
be long before all sectarianism in medicine
would be at an end. He demands the same
liberty of opinion in medicine as in religion
or pontics, and an amalgamation with the
regular profession on equal terms. Dr.
Richardson asks his brethren to " accept
this intended message of peace and good-
will in the spirit in which it is written and
offered."

Experiments witli Viper-Poison.— In the

Zeitschrift filr Biologic, Valentin states the
results of his researches on viper-poison.
The particular species of vipers employed
was the V. aspera of LinnEeus. Only one
viper out of twenty could be made to bite
by external irritation. One viper was made
insensible under the influence of ether, and
Valentin took the opportunity of squeezing
out some of the poison on squares of Swed-
ish filtering-paper; he also obtained some
of the transparent mucus which had col-
lected on the palate near the apices of the
poison-fangs. A fragment of this paper a
few millimetres square placed under the skin
of the back of a frog generally caused death
in from six to twenty hours, the cause of the
fatal results, the author thinks, being due to
the admixture of some of the yellow, oily
secretion of the poison-gland with the sali-
va. Paper impregnated with the poison re-
tained its activity for six months or more,
and enough was obtained from one animal
to saturate twenty pieces of filtering-paper
presenting twenty to thirty-five square milli-
metres of surface. It was found that a
quantity of the poison not exceeding
0.00037 of a gramme is capable of produc-
ing, when inserted beneath the skin of a
frog, well-marked and persistent symptoms
of poisoning and death iu thirteen days ;
and quantities varying from one-half to one
milligramme killed a frog in from eight to
twenty hours.

768

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

NOTES.

According to an estimate made by the
Berlin Statistical Bureau, the total steam
motive-power actually in use throughout
the world is equal to 13,500,000 horse-pow-
er, or to the working force of 25,000,000
horses.

Some grains of wheat left in Polaris Bay
(north latitude 81° 38') by Captain Hall's
expedition, in the year 18Y2, were carried
to England by Captain Nares last year.
Though they had been exposed for four
years to the intense cold of that high lati-
tude, these wheat-grains germinated on be-
ing sown in a pot of earth at the Botanic
Garden, Kew.

A Papier-mache coating for the bot-
toms of iron-ships is proposed by Captain
F. Warren, who states that weeds and bar-
nacles will not adhere to this material. The
special cement by which it is secured may
be applied cold, hardens under water, is
unaffected by high temperature, and pos-
sesses great tenacity. A plate thus pro-
tected on one side was immersed for six
months, and then the protected side was
found clean, while the unprotected metal
was covered with rust and shell-fish.

The schooner Florence, avant-courrier
of Captain Howgate's proposed expedition
to the north-polar regions, sailed from New
London on the 2d of August, with the de-
sign of establishing a colony of explorers
on the north shore of Cumberland Island.
This island forms the western shore of
Davis Strait, and lies between parallels 64
and 68 north latitude and between the me-
ridians 62 and 78 west longitude. The
party which goes out in tlie Florence is
supplied with provisions sufficient for one
year, or until the arrival of the main expe-
dition under Captain Howgate, which is
expected to sail in .July of next year. The
ship's officers and scientific staff of the
Florence are as follows : Master, George E.
Tyson, of Polaris fame; first-mate, Wil-
liam Sisson ; second, Dennison Burrows ;
steward, Eleazar Cone; meteorologist, Or-
ray T. Sherman ; naturalist, Ludwig Kutn-
lin. Mr. Sherman is a graduate of Yale Col-
lege. Mr. Kumlin is sent under the aus-
pices of the Smithsonian Institution. The
vessel's crew consists of picked seamen.

The first "telephonic line" for practical
use has been set up by Mr. C. Williams, of
Boston, connecting his place of business in
that city with his residence in Somerville, a
distance of about three miles. By this line
" conversation," Mr. Williams says, " can be
carried on nearly as well as if those con-
versing were in the same room."

The "Transactions" of the American
Society of Civil Engineers for June contains
an interesting discussion on the subject of
the preservation of timber, besides minutes
of meetings and several articles of impor-
tance mainly to engineers.

A YEAR or two ago. Prof Bolton, of
Columbia College, had some combustible
material in his laboratory set fire to by
rays of light concentrated by a globular
glass jar filled with water. A similar acci-
dent lately occurred in Paris, a number of
cartridges being ignited by solar rays con-
centrated by an " eye " in a window-pane.
A terrific explosion resulted. " Similar ca-
tastrophes," says iVa/M?r, "are more com-
mon than is generally supposed in sum-
mer, the windows of railway-carriages ignit-
ing sometimes over-dried plants, or even
leaves fallen on railway embankments. It
is known that fires sometimes occur in Al-
gerian forests through drops of water sus-
pended to the leaves and forming lenses."

The climate of Victoria and other parts
of the continent of Australia has been
highly commended as of benefit to con-
sumptive patients ; but the official statistics
appear to prove the contrary. From an
" Analysis of the Statistics of Phthisis in
Victoria," it appears that the disease is as
common and as constant in Alelbourne and
its suburbs as in England, both among the
immigrants and the native-born whites.

In 1843, as we learn from a writer in
the American Natttralist, a white-maple
tree (Acer dasi/carpum) in the town
of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, measured
twelve feet in circumference at three feet
above the ground. In October, 1876, the
tree was, at the same height fiom the
ground, fifteen feet nine inches in circum-
ference. Thus tlie average annual increase
of circumference was about 1.36 inch.

The London Geographical Society has
declined to cooperate with the Interna-
tional Association for the Exploration of
Africa founded by the King of the Belgians,
and favors independent work by the Eng-
lish. To promote the accomplishment of
this work a fund is to be raised, and the
Geographical Society has already made a
special donation of £5(i0. It is estimated
that a well-equipped exploring expedition
will cost £1 IDs. for every geographical
mile of country traveled in Africa.

The native trees, bushes, and shrubs, of
Southern France that are most sensitive to
cold during extreme winters are by Mar-
tins held to be survivors of the flora which
covered the same area during the Middle
Tertiary ; they are exotic as to time, as
other plants are exotic as to space.

I]^ D EX.

PAGE

Aboeigines, American, how they disposed of their Dead 638

Advance in Medical Science 767

Air and Houses 196

Aluminium 507

American Association for the Advancement of Science 762

Animals, Mental Disease in 639

Antennae of Insects 637

Anthropology in Germany 764

Anti-Ferments 251

Antique Marbles 67

Ants, Habits of 39

Appalachian Mountain Club 382

Aqueducts. (Illustrated.) , 26

Archjeology .' < 639

Associations, Scientific 605

Astronomical Discoveries 756

Astronomical Observations on the Rocky Mountains 123

Atheism, The Accusation of 367

Atmospheric Pressure. (Illustrated.) 316

Bad Odors in Reservoired "Water 469

Bain, Alexander, Education as a Science 391

Barff's Method of preserving Iron 633

Barnard, F. A. P., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 100

Bath, Hebra on Use of 634

Bathybius and the Moners 641

Bert, P., Atmospheric Pressure 316

" " Transmission of Excitations 230

Blood, Circulation of the 294

Blue Glass 109

Books noticed :

" The English Constitution " (Bagehot) 110

"Principles of Sociology" (Spencer) 112

" Electricity and the Telegraph " (Prescott) 116

" Lessons in Electricity " (Tyndall) 116

" Philosophical Discussions " ("Wright) 117

" Russia" ("Wallace) T 117

VOL. XI. — 49

770 INDEX.

Books noticed : page

" Agricultural Eeport" 118

" Continuous Bridges " (Bender) 118

" Alcoholic Poison " (Kellogg) 118

" The Jukes" (Dugdale) 118

"Early Migrations" 118

" Japanese Wrecks " 118

" Early Maritime Intercourse " 118

" St. Louis Academy of Science" 118

" Skin-Diseases" (Duhring) 119

" Pagan and Christian Symbolism " (Inman) 119

" Physics " (Arnott) 119

" Lectures on Light " (Tyndall) 242

" Fish " 243

" Political Economy " (Bastiat) 244

" Cross and Self Fertilization " (Darwin) 244

" Alphabet in Finance " (McAdam) 245

" Geology of Indiana " (Cox) 245

" Condensed Classics " 245

" Zoological Society of Cincinnati " 245

" David and Anna Matson " (Duniway) 245

" Chemical Analysis " (Douglas and Preston) 246

" Chemists' Manual " (Mott) 246

" The Microscopist " (Wythe) 246

" Michigan Board of Health " 247

" Commissioners of Education " 247

" How to Camp Out " (Gould) 247

" Principles of Sociology " (Spencer) 247

" New Lands within the Arctic Circle " (Payer) 371

" Cooking Manual " (Corson) 373

" Best Beading " (Perkins) 373

" Milton Anthology " 373

" Geometrid Moths " (Packard) 373

" Moral Maxims " (Baldwin) 374

" Symbolical Language " (Knight) 374

" Analysis of Religious Belief " (Amberly) 374

Radical Revieic 375

" Dynamics " (Bottomley) 375

" Smithsonian Eeport " 375

" Cellulose " 375

" Acoustics, Light, etc." (Lees) 376

" Poughkeepsie Natural Science Society 376

Western Review 376

" Analysis of Milk " (Baumhauer) 376

" Myehtis " (Seguin) 376

" Metric System " 376

" Ancient Glaciers of New Zealand " (Russell) 376

" Natural History of Illmois " 376

" Topographical Surveys " (Gardner) 376

" Geographical Surveys " (Warren) 377

" New York Meteorological Observatory " (Draper) 377

INDEX. J -J I

Books noticed : i'-^gb

" American Zoology " (Packard) 377

Kindergarten Messenger 377

" Cyclopedia of Education " (Kiddle and Schem) 497

" Science and Religion " (Winchell) 498

Turkey " (Baker) 500

Chemistry " (Peckliam) 501

" Forces of Nature " (Guillemin) 501

" Wisconsin Academy of Sciences " 501

" Was Flowers " (Duncan) 502

" University of Cincinnati " 502

" Astronomical Hypothesis " (Furniss) 502

"Dakota Calendar " (Mallery) 502

" Development of the Animal Kingdom " (Lewis) 503

" Personal Immortality " 503

" Western Diptera " (Osten-Sacken) 503

" The Black Hills " (Jenney) 503

" Ohio Fish Commission " 503

" Shade-Trees " (Stewart) 504

" Science-Lectures " : 504

"Isis unveiled" (Blavatsky) 504

" Nomisma" (Oernuschi) 624

" Scientific Basis of Delusions" (Beard) 624

" Oriental Religions " (Johnson) 625

" Descriptive Astronomy " (Chambers) 627

" List of Elevations " (Gannett) 627

" Influence of Physical Conditions in the Genesis of Species " (Allen). 628

" Geology of the Uintah Mountains " (Powell) 628

" Geographical Surveys " (Wheeler) 628

" Insectivorous Mammals " (Ooues) 628

" Philadelphia Board of Health " 628

" Coordinate Surveying " (Walling) .■■ 629

" Problem of Problems " 629

" The Earth's Chemistry " (Lockyer) 629

" Tailed Amphibians " (Smith) 629

" Characters of Corypodontidfe " (Marsh) 630

" Topographical Atlas-Sheets " 630

" Iron and Steel Constructions " (Weyrauch) 680

" Gold and Debt" (Fawcett) 630

" Ornithology of the Red River Region " (McCauley) 630

" Experimental Science " : Light (Mayer and Barnard) 757

" Fish and Fisheries " "^57

" Ancient Society " (Morgan) '^^^

" Theoretical Chemistry " (Remsen) '^^^

" Physiological Esthetics (Allen) '''60

" Survey of the Territories " (Hayden) 760

< " Sanitary Science " (Leeds) *^^

" Massachusetts Health Reports " 761

" Art Education " (Nichols) 761

" Linear Perspective " (Honey) 761

" Record of Science and Industry " (Baird) 761

772 INDEX.

PAfiB

Bowel-Complaints, High Temperature and 507

Brame, 0. E., Zodiacal Light 349

Brewer, T. M., The Museums of Europe 472

Brooks, W. K., Instinct and Intelligence 585

Brownell, T. F., Does it take Time to think ? 564

Buchanan, J. R., Psycho-Physiological Sciences 721

Building System of Philadelphia 510

Bunce, 0. B., Over-Production, or Over-Consumption 306

Candle, The Electric. (Illustrated.) 429

Cannon, Steel-Bronze 632

Carpenter, William B., on Spiritualism 12, 161

Catastrophism, King on 491

ChampHn, J. D., Marbles 67

Chinese Modes of Fishing 251

Chloroform, Deaths from Inhalation of 254

Cinchona Alkaloids, The 763

Circulation of the Blood ... 294

Civilization and Morals 549

Clarke, F. W., Specimens of Educational Literature 713

Cleopatra's Needle 380

Climatic Influence of Vegetation 385

Color-Blindness , 250

Copper, Determination of 251

Copper Salts, are they poisonous ? 511

Cosmic and Organic Evolution 672

Cotton-Culture in Egypt 121

Cones, E., Imagination 455

" Cram," Jevons on 239

Cremation of Dr. Winslow 765

Crime and Education 380

Crotch, W. D., The Norwegian Lemming 404

Curtiss, L. R., Molecular Magnitudes 653

Darwin, Testimonials to 121

Death, New Test of 254

Decline of Parties ^^^

Decline of Party Government 'i'34

Distribution of Standard Time in the United States 174

Divisibility of Gold 74

Does it take Time to think ? 564

Dog-Story, A Big 488

Domestic Retrospect and Prospect 513

Drinking, Moderate, "What is 252

Drops. (Illustrated.) 544

Dupuy, E., Heredity in Nervous Diseases 332

Early Man of North America 365

Eccles, R. G., The Labor-Question 605

INDEX. 773

PAGK

Educational Literature, Specimens of. (Illustrated.) 713

Education and Crime 380

Education as a Science 391

Electric Candle. (Illustrated.) 429

Elementary Instruction in Physiology 668

Emperor, A Philosophic 461

Evolution, Cosmic and Organic 672

Evolution of the Family 129, 251

Evolution Theory, Sir Wyville Thomson on , . , 126

Excitations, Transmission of. (Illustrated.) 280

Expedition, Scientific, around the World 249

Experiments, Simple, in Optics. (Illustrated.) 658

Extinction of a Prehistoric Kace 124

Extirpation of our Larger Mammals 258

Eyes, Hygiene of the 506

Family, Evolution of the 129, 257

Family and State 370

Farrier, Art of the 378

Fermentation 363

Fermentation and Disease 236

Fisher, G. J., Circulation of the Blood 294

Fishes, Odd Forms among. (Illustrated.) 525

Fishing, Modes of, in China 251

Florida Keys, Fauna and Flora of 687

Flowers, Change of Tint in 638

Forces, Initiatory 150

Foster, Michael, Protoplasm 422

Foster, G. F., Gravitation 57

Fruit-Culture in England 249

Gar-Pike, Habitat of 366

Gar-Pikes. (Illustrated.) 1, 186

Garvei-, J. A., Matches 413

Geological Changes in Colorado 510

Geological Estimates 688

Geological Time, A ISTew Measure of 509

Germs, Destruction of 124

Gold, Divisibility of : V4

Grasshoppers, Extermination of. 116

Gravitation 37

Ground-Air. (Illustrated.) 280

Guillemin, A., New Star 59

Habits of Ants S9

Haeckel, Ernst, Bathybius 641

Heat, Influence of, on Galvanic Conductivity 123

Heat and Motion, and Political Economy 329

Heredity in Nervous Diseases 332

Heresy, The Latest Cases of 494

774 INDEX.

PAGE

High Temperature and Bowel-Complaints 507

Holden, E. S., Standard Time 174

Honey-Dew 237

Huxley, T. H., Instruction in Physiology 668

Huxley's American Lectures 709

Ignorant Enterprise 122

lies, G., Initiatory Forces 150

Imagination 455

Import of Protoplasm 422

Indications of Progress 753

Inebriety, Fatality of 636

Initiatory Forces 150

Insanity, Is it on the Increase ? 508

Insects in Colorado ' 104

Instinct and Intelligence 585

Iron, Barff's Method of preserving 633

Italy, The Observatories of. 538

Jevons on " Cram " 239

Jevons, iProf., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 745

Jupiter and Saturn, their Physical Condition 233

Jupiter's Cloud-Masses, Movements of 81

King, Clarence, on Catastrophism , 491

Kirkwood, D., Mars and its Satellites 706

Labor- Question, The 605

Lankester, E. E., Huxley's American Lectures 709

Larned, Civilization 549

Lattimore, S. A., Bad Odors in Water 409

Lemming, The Norwegian. (Illustrated.) 404

Life, Material Kesources of 339

Lockwood, S., Owls 142

Locust, The, in Manitoba 508

Locusts, The Seventeen-Year 765

Lubbock, Sir John, Ants 39

Man, Early, of North America 365

Marbles, Antique •' • • ^7

Mars and its Satellites ^^^

Marsh, Prof. O. C, Bigsby Medal awarded to 252

Marsh-Fevers . 250

Matches 413

Material Eesources of Life 339

Matter and Mind 183

Mauna Loa, Eruption of. 125

Meat-Supply, Extending the 253

Medical Science, Advance in T67

Meek, F. B., Death of. 382

INDEX. 775

PAGE

Mental Disease in Animals , 639

Mental Overwork 105

Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc 12, 161

Metals, Our Domestic 636

Metric Weights in Massachusetts 379

Mind, Matter and 183

Mind-Reading hy the Ear 362

Minerals, Rare, in Colorado 632

Molecular Magnitudes 653

Moss-Copper 637

Movements of Jupiter's Cloud-Masses 81

Museums of Europe 472

Mushrooms, Edible 366

Mystery of Pain 634

Nature, Study of, in Schools ■. 367

JSTear-sightedness in Schools 122

Nervous Diseases, Heredity in 332

Newcomb, Simon, Sketch of. (Portrait.) 612

New Star in Cygno. (Illustrated.) 69

Niaudet, A., Electric Candle , 429

Nisbet, C, Pessimism and its Antidote 682

Notes 127, 255, 383, 511, 639, 768

Observatories of Italy 538

Odd Forms among Fishes. (Illustrated.) 525

Optics, Simple Experiments in. (Illustrated.) 658

Oswald, Dr. F. L., Vegetation and Climate . 385

Outerbridge, A. E., Divisibility of Gold. 74

Over-Consumption, or Over-Production ? 306, 489, 615

Overwork, Mental 105

Owls, American. (Illustrated.) 142

Oxygen, Discovery of, in the Sun 618

Palmer, J. A., Toadstools , 93

Parties, Decline of 755

Party Government, Decline of 734

Pearce, S. A., The Modern Piano-forte 691

Pessimism and its Antidote 682

Pettenkofer, Max von. Air and Houses , 196

" " Ground-Air 280

Philadelphia, Building-System of. 510

Physiology, Elementary Instruction in , • 668

Piano-forte, The Modern 691

Political Economy, Heat and Motion and 329

Pottery, Aboriginal, of Illinois. (Illustrated.) 573

Prescott, A. B., Material Resources of Life 339

Pressure, Atmospheric, and Life. (Illustrated.) 316

Pritchard, H. B., Science and War • 599

Proctor, R. A., Jupiter's Cloud-Masses 81

776 INDEX.

PAGE

Progress, Indications of 753

Protoplasm, Import of 422

Psychic Phenomena 253

Psycho-Physiological Sciences V21

Rabbits in New Zealand 379

Rare Minerals in Colorado 632

Rayet, G., The Observatories of Italy 538

Relation of Air to the House we live in 196

Relative Importance of Ideas 108

Remains that were not Prehistoric 631

Renan, E., Spinoza 217

Retina, Retention of Impressions by 252

Retinal Nerves, Action of the 381

Retrospect and Prospect 513

Rumor, A Baseless 241

Saline Deposit, A Curious '. 236

Salt-Bed at Goderich 505

Sawdust as Manure 507

Schneider, E., Tides 271

Science and War 599

Science, How it is advanced in Norway 125

Sellers, G. E., Pottery 573

Seelye on Civihzation and Religion 621

Seventeen-Year Locusts 765

Sewing-Machine, The, in Political Economy 481

Shad in the Ohio 505

Siberia, Reopening Route to 378

Silk Fabrics 636

Silver-bearing Sandstones 764

Simmons, W. E., Aqueducts 26

Singing in the Ears 104

Skeptic, A Philosophic, how reconciled to Religious Faith 487

Smith, G., Dechne of Party Government 734

Snoring, and how to stop it. (Illustrated.) 704

Space, New Ideas about • 364, 749

Sparrow, The English 506

Specimens of Educational Literature. (Illustrated.) 713

Spencer, Herbert, Evolution of the Family 129, 257

" " Status of Women 433

" " Retrospect and Prospect. 513

Spinoza 217

Spiritualism, Carpenter on 750

Spiritualism, Mesmerism, etc 12, 161

Spontaneous Generation 381

Standard Time, Distribution of, in the United States 174

Status of Women and Children 433

Steel-Bronze Cannon 632

Stewart, Balfour, Sketch of. (Portrait.) 359

H

INDE'X.

Ill

PAGE

Stock-Feeding, Economy of 383

Sudan, Eesources and Industries of 126

Sun-spot Periods 488

Supplements of the Popular Science Monthly 238

Tan, Spent, as Manure 507

Tenney, Prof. Sanborn, Death of. 631

" " Fishes 525

Testimonials to Mr. Darwin 121

Thurston on Domestic Metals 636

Tides 271, 616, 748

Tin, where got by the Ancients 383

Tint, Change of, in Flowers 633

Toadstool-Eating 93

Torpedo, Electrical Phenomena of. 382

Treatment of the Opium-Habit 763

Trout, Voracity of the 254

Trowbridge, D., Jupiter and Saturn 233

Turkey, Wild, Domestication of the 635

Vaux, C, A Philosophic Emperor 461

Vegetation, Climatic Influence of 385

Vienna Scientific Club 632

Viper-Poison, Experiments with 767

Wallace, A. R., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 235

War and Science 599

Ward, L. F., Evolution 672

Water-Tortoise, its Food 381

Wheat-Fungus, A New, in California 509

White, F. E., Matter and Mind 183

White Paint 633

Wilder, B. G., Gar-Pikes 1, 186

Wild-Turkey, Domestication of the 635

Winslow, Dr., Cremation of 765

Wood-Ants, Feeding-Habits of. 104

Woodruff Scientific Expedition 749

Worthington, A. M., Drops 544

Wyeth, J. A., Snoring 704

Youmans, Eliza A., Experiments in Optics 658

Zodiacal Light. (Illustrated.) 349, 617

END OF VOL. XI.

/^