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THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

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

VOL. XXL

MAY TO OCTOBER, 1882.

NEW YOKK :

B. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, and 5 BOND STREET.

188 2.

COPYRIGHT BY

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, *

1882.

/o44^

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

MAY, 1882.

METHODS AND PEOFIT OF TREE-PLANTING.

By N. H. EGLESTON.

THE recent calamitous fire in Michigan calls attention afresh to the
rapid consumption of our forests, and occasions renewed inquiry
as to what may be done either to check that consumption or to make
good the loss thereby sustained. More than fifty townships of land,
covering an area of aboufr two thousand square miles, or a territory
nearly half as large as the State of Connecticut, were swept over by
the flames. " Scarcely a green sprig," says a reporter, " was left in
the track of the fire." This fire was, indeed, exceptional in extent, as
well as in the loss of life occasioned by it ; and yet it was only the em-
phasized form of a very common occurrence — one so common that we
fail to notice it as we should, or become sensible of the aggregate losses
resulting therefrom. The destruction of the great pine-forests of the
Northwest, of Michigan and Wisconsin, rapidly as it is carried forward
by the lumberman's axe, is hastened by the fires lighted, in some cases,
by the lumberman's carelessness or that of others, and in other cases
as the speediest way of clearing the ground for agricultural use. There
is no part of our country exempt from the destructive effects of forest-
fires. The mountains and hill-sides of New England frequently show
blackened spaces on their verdant flanks. The same is true of the
great wooded regions of New York and Pennsylvania. The vast Adi-
rondack forests are visited by fires, the frequency and extent of which
are known to hardly any but the wandering trappers and hunters whose
camp-fire's, left unextinguished, may have lighted them. New Jersey
has suffered severely from the burning of her woods. Ten thousand
acres, covering a space seven miles in breadth, were swept over, at one
time, in 1866. In 1871 two fires in Ocean County consumed over
thirty thousand acres, and it is said that this whole county is overrun

VOL. XXI. — 1 \

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ■

by fires as often as once in twenty years. In' the southern part of the
State, so frequent are the fires and so wide-spread, the risk has made
woodland less salable than formerly. Though nine tenths of this
region is wooded, there is little large timber to be found, and lumber
is largely brought from distant places. Droughts are becoming more
frequent, and these increase the exposure to fire. Thus the partial con-
sumption of the forests makes their further consumption the more cer-
tain and rapid.

And what is true in this limited area is measurably true through-
out the country. That our forests are being destroyed with alarming
rapidity admits of no question, and it is probably true that fires con-
sume more than are cut down by the axe of the lumberman and the
wood-chopper.

Our neighbors in Canada keep themselves better informed in regard
to the condition of their forests than we are in regard to our own. The
Commissioner of Crown Lands, in the province of Quebec, in his re-
port of 1871, speaking of the preservation of timber-lands, says : "The
most formidable agent in the destruction of our forests is, certainly,
fire. All the most active operations in lumbering which have taken
place since the settlement of the country, and all those which are likely
to take place for the next twenty years, have not caused, and will not
cause, to our forests so much devastation as this one destroying ele-
ment has effected up to the present time." In a report on forestry
and the forests of Canada, by a member of the Dominion Council of
Agriculture, in 1877, it is estimated that more pine-timber has been
destroyed by fire than has been cut down and taken out by the lum-
bermen.

The combined effect of fires and the wasteful consumption of our
forests in the production of lumber and for other purposes, and the
almost total neglect to protect their growth, have resulted in the
diminution of our area of woodland to such an extent as justly to occa-
sion alarm on many accounts. In California, for instance, the Presi-
dent of the State Board of Agriculture reported, several years ago,
that within twenty years at least a third of the native supply of ac-
cessible timber had been cut off or destroyed, and that forty years
would exhaust the forests. This estimate was made without taking
into account the increased demands upon the forests which would be
made by the increase of population and the growth of manufacturing
industries.

Similar reports come from other States and Territories, though in
those which were originally heavily wooded the destruction of the
trees may not have gone so far as to produce a scarcity of lumber, or
to increase its price to such an extent as to be burdensome. In some
parts of the country, also, particularly in the older States, it is proba-
ble that the growth of the woods has kept pace with their destruction.
Yet of the country .as a whole it may be said, without hesitation, that

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 3

the supply of desirable timber, both pine and hard-wood, has materially-
diminished within the last twenty-five years. As a natural conse-
quence, the price has everywhere advanced, and a further advance is
as natural and inevitable, unless effective measures are taken to check
the waste of our forests and to restore them to their proper dimen-
sions. The necessity of vigorous action in regard to this matter is
beo-inning to be felt. In the sparsely wooded districts of the West
this is particularly true. The Legislatures and agricultural societies
of several of the States have already taken important action on the
subject. Laws have been enacted for the protection of the existing
forests from destruction by fires, and for encouraging the planting of
trees. The national Congress has also, within a few years, made
enactments both for the repression of timber-thieving on the public
lands and to encourage the planting of timber-trees.

The enactments of Congress for the purpose of encouraging tim-
ber-planting, while they have marked a step in the right direction,
have not been so effective as they might have been. This has resulted
in part through evasion of the laws by speculators, who have only made
a pretense of planting while their real object was to get possession of
land which they could sell at a profit for agricultural purposes, and in
part because the requisitions of the law were too onerous to be com-
plied with by settlers without capital. The latter was of course unin-
tentional. But this, as well as other defects of the timber-culture acts,
came as the natural result of our ignorance in this country of the whole
matter of tree-planting. We know enough to plant apple and peach
trees in orchards, and a row of maples or elms, occasionally, along the
road-side, for shade and ornament. But of the cultivation of trees on
the large scale, in masses, as they grow in the native forests, few
among us know anything. A planted forest is a thing almost unknown
here. The chances are that, among the members of Congress who
framed the timber-culture acts, not one had any practical knowledge
of the subject. The whole matter is new to us, and we have hardly
any experience for our guide. For our knowledge we must go abroad,
where the subject is treated with the greatest and most scientific atten-
tion, as we have lately shown (" Popular Science Monthly," July, 1881).
In France and Germany, and other European countries, one of the
principle bureaus of government is that having charge of the forests
and rivers. Its annual reports are looked for and read with interest,
as having important bearings upon the revenue as well as upon the
health of the people and the agricultural and commercial resources of
the country. -

It is a happy thing for us that, as we are waking up to the neces-
sity not only of checking the wasteful consumption of our existing
forests but of planting new ones, we have the experience and careful
study of the subject by European nations to aid us. For, although
their physical conditions are in many respects different from our own,

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

so that we can not adopt their methods without modification, yet
certain great principles and facts have been established which are as
applicable to use here as they are there.

The first, the fundamental point in tree-planting on a large scale,
that is, in planting what may be called a forest, is to consider the trees
as a Crop, like any other crop, only this requires a much longer time
than ordinary crops to come to maturity. This will at once put the
subject to many if not to most persons in a new aspect. Accepting
the idea that trees are to be planted like corn or wheat, as a crop, there
follows at once the necessity of care and cultivation and the consider-
ation that these are the conditions of success. We do not expect to
harvest an ordinary crop, and one that will yield a satisfactory pecu-
niary return, without having bestowed upon it care and labor. No
more should we look for success in the larger growths of the forest
without a corresponding culture. And when we come to look upon
the growth of a forest in this light we shall easily, almost inevitably,
regard our ordinary native forests, where the trees are simply suffered
to grow up in complete neglect, exposed to injury from the intrusions
of cattle and from other causes, as at best only a partial utilization of
the fields which Nature has provided for our comfort and profit. It is
true that trees will grow and come to maturity in rough places and on
poor soils, where nothing else will grow or where the cultivation of
other crops is impracticable and unprofitable. It is true also that the
growth of these great forest-crops, instead of impoverishing, enriches
the soil. Hence there is no use of our poor and what we call waste
lands, which abound more or less everywhere, at once so economical
and profitable as to devote them to the growth of trees. Left to them-
selves, as our forests and woodlands generally are, they are remunera-
tive. But they might be made much more remunerative. They would
be, if, instead of regarding them as one of the accidental products of
Nature, we were to regard them as one of our staple crops, something
to be managed and cared for by us.

The proper care of a tree-crop, as of any crop, requires its protec-
tion from injury. But we have left our forests unfenced, or, if we
have inclosed them, it has been not so much for the sake of excluding
destructive animals from them as for the purpose of making them past-
ure-grounds for our cattle, where they have been free to range and
feed upon whatever might please their taste. The tender buds, the
green and succulent shoots, the young trees sprouted in Nature's seed-
bed and started for the growth of a century, perhaps more, we have
put at the disposal of the teeth and horns and trampling hoofs of cat-
tie. This has been regarded as a cheap way of feeding these animals.
But there is no fodder for cattle so expensive as forest-fodder. Grass
is cheaper than trees. Sir John Sinclair, in his " Code of Agriculture,"
says : " A landlord had better admit his cattle into his wheat-field than
among his under-wood. In the one case they only injure the crop of

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 5

one year, whereas in the other, by biting and mangling one year's
shoot, mischief is done to at least three years' growth." But he has
quite understated the possible if not probable damage. At the Vienna
Exposition in 1873 there was a convention of forest managers from
most of the European countries, and an extensive exhibition of forest
products. Among these there were sections of trees taken from a for-
est property near Krainburg, and designed to illustrate the compara-
tive growth of trees when properly protected and cultivated and when
exposed to browsing animals. There were shown trees which in thirty
years had attained a height of only thirty inches, and others of the
same age which had grown near them, but protected from animals,
that were twenty-eight feet in height. The cubic contents of sixteen
hundred trees, exposed and protected, were measured, with this result :
in the unpastured woods, three thousand and fifty-six cubic feet ; in
the pastured woods, eleven. The annual increase of growth was found
to be as one hundred to one, or a loss of ninety-nine per cent, of pos-
sible results. Here certainly is food for study.

In many of the ancient forests of Europe there has come down, by
immemorial usage, the feudal right of the neighboring peasants to
pasturage ; but so injurious is the exercise of this right felt to be
that the owners of the forests make it one of their chief endeavors to
extinguish this right, by purchase or otherwise, whenever they can.

Again, looking upon his trees as a crop, the planter will engage in
his work with a patient forecasting of the future. His success or fail-
ure does not depend upon what he may do, or fail to do, in a single
season or a single year. His trees will come to maturity only with the
lapse of generations. He may be planting in part for his grandchildren
rather than for himself, except so far as they are himself. The pine,
for example, is reckoned to come to maturity only after a growth of
one hundred and sixty years. All the more need, therefore, for the
adoption of a proper method, and that he should

" Learn to labor and to wait."

The European managers of forests, in forming their plantations,
allow from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and sixty years as
the period of growth, or of rotation, as they call it. In laying out a
forest plantation they will divide the proposed tract into six or eight
sections, planting one every twenty years, and, when the whole is
planted, cutting and renewing a section every twenty years. Mean-
time there is a thinning process going on all the while, as the trees
grow and require more room for their proper development. By this
division of a forest into sections, they avoid the evil effects upon water-
supply, climate, etc., resulting from the sweeping off of large forests
at one time.

European foresters also insist strongly upon the importance of
drainage for the best growth of the forest. They urge that this is

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fully as important for the most rapid and healthful growth of trees
as for the growth of the ordinary crops of the garden or the field.
For this purpose they construct open ditches at intervals throughout
the forest. In our natural forests, filled with the roots of old trees
and often with rocks, it would be difficult to make such ditches. But
in many of our low and swampy lands it would be quite practicable,
and would add greatly to the amount and value of the growing wood.
There is no reason why one should not incur the expense necessary
to drain the soil for trees as readily as he does that which he considers
desirable for his grass or corn ; and all who undertake the planting of
trees on new ground should bear this in mind.

We are writing now to urge the importance and even necessity of
planting trees on the large scale, as well as the preservation and care
of our existing native forests ; and one of the first questions to be set-
tled is that of the distance which should separate trees from each other
at the time of planting. The experience of European planters has
satisfactorily proved that they should be planted much nearer to one
another than they are to stand when fully grown. In this respect they
should be planted not like the apple or peach orchard, but like the
corn-field. One reason why the law of Congress for the promotion of
tree-culture has not been more successful is that it allowed trees to be
planted twelve feet apart. Trees, when young, are delicate things,
and need protection. Like human beings, they seem to have a feeling
of companionship. They support and encourage one another. They
thrive best when near each other. Accordingly, European foresters
commonly plant trees at a distance of not more than four feet apart,
and some of our Western planters are disposed to place them even
closer than this. Such close planting follows the course of Nature.

If we observe a natural forest, from which destructive animals are
excluded, we shall see that the ground is thickly strewed with trees —
that few large vacant spaces are to be found, especially when the trees
are small. As they increase in size and need more space, Nature has
her own way of thinning out. The weaker decay, and the law of the
survival of the fittest asserts itself. Following her guidance we have
learned to plant closely, and then, from time to time, to make room
for the growing trees by transplanting a portion to other fields, or by
cutting them and devoting them to such uses as they are fitted for.
The smaller serve for hoops for the barrel-maker, or poles for various
uses. And so, at all stages of growth, there is an available and profit-
able use for the trees that seem to be crowding their neighbors.

It is found, again, that trees are not only social in their nature, but
that they like variety in their society. As a general thing, different
kinds of trees grow better when mixed together than when each kind
is planted by itself. This, also, is usually Nature's way of planting.
It is common, therefore, for the foresters abroad to plant what they
call nurse-trees along with those which they intend to make the staple

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 7

of the ultimate and full-grown forest, the final outcome of their one
hundred and twenty or one hundred and sixty years of watching and
culture. If, for instance, they propose to raise what shall be at last a
forest of oak-timber, they will plant with the oaks successive rows of
the pine, .the beech, the maple, the larch, or the birch, each at a dis-
tance perhaps of twenty feet from its own kind, but each only four
feet from some neighbor. After a few years the quickest-growing
trees will be removed — those nearest the oaks — and this will go on
from time to time till, finally, the oaks are left to develop themselves
to their fullest stature and their greatest strength. As a rule, the thin-
ning is made at such intervals that half the trees originally planted
will be removed by the time they are twenty feet high. The number
on an acre should not exceed eight hundred when they have reached
the height of thirty feet, and when forty feet high only three hundred
or three hundred and fifty should remain. These successive thinnings,
it is estimated, will more than pay for the care and labor, as well as
interest on the land, leaving the final forest as clear profit. And it is
to be considered that very much more valuable timber is produced on
an acre of ground with this careful and systematic treatment than
when a forest is left to grow up by chance and in neglect, as is so
commonly the case. There is as great difference in the returns, pro-
portionally, as there is between the yield of a vegetable-garden care-
fully tended and that of one left without proper cultivation and allowed
to be overgrown with weeds. Dr. Berenger, head of the School of
Forestry at Vallambrosa, Italy, says that "while an uncultivated
woodland, taken for a long period, and counting interest and taxes,
would yield almost nothing to the capital invested, it is well established
that the same land, managed according to modern science, would, in
the long run, yield a revenue both conspicuous and constant."

In many parts of our country, on the plains and prairies especially,
and wherever tree-planting is undertaken, except for utilizing waste
or rough and comparatively inaccessible ground, which would not be
profitable for ordinary tillage, the most desirable mode of planting
will be in belts or borders rather than in blocks. These belts should
be so disposed as to serve as screens from the strongest and most hurt-
ful winds. There can thus be secured an equally abundant growth of
timber, while the screen it furnishes will greatly increase the product
of other crops, and serve to promote the comfort of all, whether man
or beast, who can have its shelter. The variety of products on a farm
may be thus greatly increased also. Tender vegetables and fruit-trees
readily flourish under the protection of such shelter belts of forest-
trees which could not otherwise be cultivated with success, if at all.
And the protection of such belts extends farther than many suppose.
It is estimated that their beneficial influence reaches, in horizontal
distance, about sixteen times their height. It is probable, therefore,
that belts of trees might be so disposed, on almost any farm, that the

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ground occupied by them would not diminish but rather increase the
cultivable area, and the forest growth would be a positive addition to
its productiveness.

But whatever the particular plan adopted, a prominent question
will be with every one, what trees to plant. The multitude offering
themselves for consideration is embarrassing. Our country is one of
such extent and such varied climate and soil that we have a tree vege-
tation embracing all the variety of the entire Eastern hemisphere.
Our Atlantic coast corresponds, in this respect, with that of China
and Japan, while our Pacific-coast region is like that of Western
Europe. At the International Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876,
the wood of nearly four hundred indigenous species of trees was
shown, whereas Great Britain has only twenty-nine ; France, thirty-
four ; and all Europe, leaving out Russia, only about fifty. The little
State of Connecticut, on the authority of Professor Brewer, has sixty
species of native trees. At the Philadelphia Exhibition there were
specimens of thirty-seven species of the oak, thirty-four of the pine
family, seventeen of spruce and fir, eleven of maples, besides many
others.

With such a variety of trees and so many conditions of climate
and soil, and the different objects which the planter may have in view,
no one can give an answer to the question what to plant, except in a
general way. Trees have their homes as well as men, where they
develop to the best. And, though they may often be transferred to
other regions and be made to form to themselves new homes, the
success of such a transfer can not be predicted with certainty. Ex-
periment alone can decide. But, for the general purposes of tree-
planting, and for those who are looking for definite and sure results,
the safe rule, and the only trustworthy one, is to follow Nature — to
plant the trees which she has already planted near us or in situations
like our own. From these we may wisely make a selection, according
to the objects we have mainly in view. If we want the speediest
growth of fuel or shelter, we shall choose the quick-growing trees. If
we purpose to grow valuable timber we shall make a different selec-
tion, or we may select for both results at the same time. Even in
those parts of the country most destitute of any considerable masses
of trees, the Western Plains, the treeless regions as they are called,
there are a goodly number of species showing themselves, if but
sparsely, and giving us hints as to what may be accomplished there
in tree-planting, if fires and the depredations of destructive animals
can be prevented. We have it, for example, on good authority, that
the following trees, among others, are natives of Nebraska, one of
the so-called treeless States : the buckeye, the red and the sugar ma-
ple, the box-elder, the honey locust, the white and green ash, two
species of elm, the hackberry, sycamore, black walnut, three species
of the hickory, seven species of oak, the iron-wood, two species of

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 9

birch, four of willow, the cotton-wood, the yellow pine, the red cedar,
and two species of fir. Besides these trees there are many shrubs,
some of which are tree-like and reach a height of twenty feet. One
living where such trees are natives will hardly need to look elsewhere
for trees, whether for fuel, timber, or the purposes of art and orna-
ment. But one may also be pretty sure that where these grow other
well-known and valuable trees can be successfully cultivated.

And there are some trees which are deserving of more attention than
has yet been given them in this country. The willows, for instance,
have seldom been cultivated in a large way ; and yet there are few
trees so easily grown, or which will pay better for cultivation. They
adapt themselves to a wide range of soil and climate. They grow on
high ground and on gravelly soils not less than by the sides of streams,
where we most commonly see them. They are of rapid growth and
yield a large return. The osier-willow is specially useful, we know,
for the manufacture of baskets, chairs, and other articles of furniture,
and we import it to the extent of $5,000,000 annually, when we might
produce it easily in almost any part of our country. "We hardly think
of the willow as a timber-tree or for the production of lumber, but
only as yielding a cheap, poor sort of fuel. But in England the wood
is greatly prized for many purposes. While it is light it is also tough;
it does not break into slivers. Hardly any wood is so good, therefore,
for the linings of carts and wagons used in drawing stone or other
rough and heavy articles. It makes excellent charcoal, especially for
the manufacture of gunpowder. It bears exposure to the weather, and
boards made of it are very serviceable for fences. Some species of it
are admirable for use as a live fence or hedge. On account of its com-
parative incombustibility, the willow is eminently useful for the floors
of buildings designed to be fire-proof. It grows to a large size and
furnishes a great amount of lumber. There is a white willow growing
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which, at four feet from the ground,
measures twenty-two feet in circumference and extends its branches
fifty feet in every direction. Tradition says it was brought from
Connecticut in 1807 by a traveler, who used it as a riding-switch.
The Hon. Jesse W. Fell, in giving an account of experiments in tree-
planting, on an extensive scale, in Illinois, says, " Were I called upon
to designate one tree which, more than all others, I would recommend
for general planting, I would say unhesitatingly it should be the white
willow." Professor Brewer says : " In England, where it is often sixty
or seventy feet high in twenty years, there is no wood in greater
demand than good willow. It is light, very tough, soft, takes a good
finish, wiH bear more pounding and knocks than any other wood grown
there, and hence its use for cricket-bats, for floats to paddle-wheels
of steamers, and brake-blocks on cars. It is used extensively for turn-
ing, planking coasting-vessels, furniture, ox-yokes, wooden legs, shoe-
lasts, etc." Fuller says, "It groweth incredibly fast — it being a by-

io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

word that the profit by willows will buy the owner a horse before that
by other trees will pay for the saddle." The basket-willow, well cul-
tivated, will yield a net income of $150 a year to the acre. On the
whole, therefore, it would seem that the various kinds of willow, the
economic value of which has been hitherto entirely overlooked in our
country, are eminently deserving, of attention, and will amply reward
those who cultivate them.

The ailantus and the catalpa are also deserving of much more
attention than has been given them. They are both quick-growing
trees, soon attaining a size fitting them for use as fuel or in the form
of lumber, while they are also very tough and durable. They combine
solidity with rapid growth in an unusual degree, which gives them
great value to the tree-planter. The ailantus is a native of China. It
was brought to this country about a hundred years ago and planted as
an ornamental tree. It was for a time very popular as a shade-tree in
the streets of many of our cities, but the disagreeable odor of its
flowers soon destroyed its popularity, and it was cast out of good
society. But, although it may not be a desirable tree for the street or
the vicinity of houses, it has, as we have said, qualities which com-
mend it to the forest-planter. The French have planted it extensively
because its leaves have been found to be a welcome food to the silk-
worm. We may find it advantageous to plant it for the same reason, if
the silk-culture is to be established in this country. The ailantus, while
it grows as rapidly as the cotton-wood, produces a wood of a spe-
cific gravity nearly equal to white oak, which it resembles in color
and structure, and above that of black-walnut. It has a beautiful
grain, takes a high polish, is easily worked, and is an admirable
wood for cabinet-work or the interior finish of houses. It will grow
on almost any soil, and is easily propagated by seed or from suck-
ers, which it throws up very abundantly. It is quite hardy as far
north as a line drawn from St. Louis to Boston, and is well fitted for
planting in exposed positions. Professor Sargent, of the Arnold Arbo-
retum, Harvard University, says of it : "A careful study of the ailan-
tus from an economic point of view, and as a subject for sylviculture,
forces on me the conclusion that no other tree, either native or for-
eign, capable of supporting the climate of so large an area of the
United States, will produce, in so short a space of time, and from land
practically useless, so large an amount of valuable material — valuable
alike for construction and for fuel."

TheWestern catalpa (C. speciosa), formerly little known beyond
the region of the lower Ohio, except as a few specimens have been
grown for the sake of their beautiful flowers, which resemble somewhat
those of the horse-chestnut, has lately been found to be one of our
most valuable trees. AVhat chiefly commends it, in addition to its
very rapid growth, is its remarkable durability. ~No tree is known to
be equal to it in this respect. It seems to be almost imperishable

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. n

when exposed to moisture, and was formerly much used by the In-
dians for canoes. It has been a favorite material for fence and gate
posts, and posts are now to be seen which have been in the ground
from fifty to a hundred years, and show hardly any signs of/ decay.
It promises to be a very valuable tree for railway-ties, and some of our
railway companies, especially in the West, are planting it extensively
on this account. It is also an excellent wood for the uses of the car-
penter and the cabinet-maker. It resembles in color and texture the
chestnut, is easily worked, and takes a fine polish. The rapidity of its
growth in good soil is astonishing. A specimen from a tree which
grew in Nebraska, and shows but four annual layers of growth, meas-
ured nine and three quarters inches in circumference, and the growth
of the first two years was already turned to heart-wood. The tree is
easily propagated from seed, and will grow anywhere south of the
forty-second parallel. Specimens of it are to be found as far north as
the middle of Massachusetts, and along the sea-coast as far as Maine.
Wherever it can be established it will prove not only one of our most
beautiful but one of our most useful woods. There are two species
of catalpa indigenous* to the United States ; the Speciosa, flowering
three weeks earlier than the other, a native of the South, is the hardier
of the two, and preferable for planting.

As showing how practical men regard the catalpa and the ailantus,
we may state that the Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad have made a con-
tract with Messrs. Douglas, of Waukegan, to plant for them in Kansas
several hundred acres of these trees. A Boston capitalist has also con-
tracted for the planting in the same way of five hundred and sixty
acres of prairie-land in Eastern Kansas. The plantation is to consist
of three hundred acres of the catalpa, two hundred acres of ailantus,
not less than twenty-seven hundred and twenty trees to the acre,
and sixty acres are to be held as an experimental ground to be
planted with several varieties of trees to be selected by Professor
Sargent. What is even more noteworthy, the Iron Mountain Railroad
Company, whose road runs for hundreds of miles through a heavily
timbered country, have made a similar contract for planting near
Charleston, Missouri, one hundred acres of the catalpa as an experi-
ment. This they do because, while they own some of the finest white-
oak timber on the continent, catalpa ties have stood on their road for
twelve years entirely unaffected by decay, and the demand for ties
and for posts of this wood far exceeds the present supply. It is esti-
mated that the new railroads built in the treeless States in 1879
required over ten million ties.

The Australian eucalyptus, or blue-gum, though an Australian tree,
makes itself at home in California. It is a tree of astonishingly rapid
growth, yet, like the ailantus and catalpa, it produces heavy, solid
wood. In a plantation of it in Alameda County, California, in seven
years from planting the trees were generally ten inches in diameter

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and sixty feet high. Wonderful stories are told, also, of the value of
the eucalyptus as a preventive of malaria, and in reclaiming swamps
by absorbing their moisture. But, whatever may or may not be true
of it in these respects, the rapidity of its growth and the quality
of its wood will commend its cultivation wherever it can be accli-
mated.

A good deal has been expected of the Scotch pine, and it has been
somewhat extensively imported for the purpose of planting. In Eu-
rope it has a great reputation for the durability of its wood, and for its
rapid growth on poor soils and in exposed situations. But time is seem-
ing to prove that this tree is not well adapted to our country. It grows
well for a while, and has a promising appearance while young ; but,
after attaining an age of from twelve to twenty years, it is apt to fail,
dying off suddenly, to the great disappointment of the planter. Its
most valuable use is as a nurse-tree in very exposed places, where it
will shelter other and better trees until they get established and are
able to take care of themselves.

But it is hardly worth while to go abroad for the Scotch pine when
we have at home such a tree as the pitch-pine (P. rigida). This tree
can be produced from seed in this country in the open field with as
much certainty as a crop of corn. It has been grown for many years
in this way on the barren and wind-swept soil of Cape Cod, and its cul-
tivation has been entirely successful. Large plantations of it are to be
found there, and, for the production of fuel and as a nurse for more
valuable trees in such exposed and sterile situations, it has proved
worthy the attention of land-holders, as it can be planted at a cost of
from one to two dollars an acre.

But the white pine is the most valuable of the conifers for our
Northern States. No other is equal to it as a timber-tree. The one
drawback to its cultivation is the difficulty of producing it from seed
in the open field. It is a tender and delicate plant at its beginning.
It needs the care and shelter of the nursery. But a tree so noble when
fully grown, and so valuable for many purposes, is worthy of all needed
care when young, and will repay it abundantly. The tree-planter can
well afford to be at the expense of transplanting this tree from the
nursery. For timber, when fully grown, for shelter-belts on farms and
grounds, as well as for its fine appearance on the lawn as a single tree
or in clumps, our American white ]3ine stands second to no other tree
in its claims - upon the attention of the planter. The rapidity with
which it is being swept away by the lumberman's axe, together with
its great usefulness and desirability in the arts, and especially for build-
ing purposes, will give this tree for some time to come an increasing
economic value.

The European larch is quite worthy of cultivation, especially in
New England. Professor Sargent says, " There is no tree capable of
producing so large an amount of such valuable timber in so short a

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 13

time as the European larch, in countries where its cultivation is pos-
sible." Its cultivation has been proved possible in a large part of our
country. In the East and West alike it has been planted with success,
and has shown itself to be superior to the American larch, or hack-
matack, as it is commonly called. It is especially adapted to poor
soils, and bleak, rocky situations — emphatically a tree to be planted on
waste and comparatively valueless lands. It belongs to the coniferous
family of trees, though not an evergreen. It grows to a height of
more than one hundred feet, and perhaps no tree combines more valu-
able qualities. In Europe is is especially esteemed for railway-ties.
It is the most durable wood known when alternately subjected to the
influence of air and water. Hence it is very valuable for piles for the
construction of docks and the support of buildings. Venice is largely
built upon piles made of this wood, and, though they have been ex-
posed to the elements for hundreds of years, in many cases they show
hardly any signs of decay. The European larch is more durable, as
well as stronger and tougher, than oak. For posts it is probably equal
to our red cedar. It is admirably adapted for the frames.of buildings.
Grigor, an eminent English writer on forestry, says, " No tree is so
valuable as the larch in its fertilizing effects, arising from the rich-
ness of the foliage which it sheds annually." The Messrs. Fay and
others have planted it extensively on Cape Cod and with great success.
It has been grown all the way from there to Northwestern Iowa, and
even beyond, and a village in Iowa bears the significant name " Larch-
mont."

An important practical question arises whether it is best to stdrtt a
plantation from the seed or from trees already grown from one to three
years — that is, of a size convenient for transplanting. With some kinds
of trees there is little difficulty in raising them from the seed sown
where they are to grow. But the preponderance of opinion both in
Europe and in this country favors planting the young trees. Though
so large and strong when fully grown, many trees are quite small and
tender at tl}e beginning. The stately pine, that sends its lofty spire to
a height of one or even two hundred feet, is hardly visible for the first
two years of its life. It is very easily destroyed. It is most econom-
ically raised, therefore, in nurseries or seed-beds, where it can have the
needful protection and care. Transplanting, also, while in the nurs-
ery tends to give trees a furnishing of roots which prepares them to
make a more vigorous growth than when they spring from seed on the
forest-ground. It will in most cases probably be safer and cheaper
for the planter to procure his trees from the professional nursery -men
than to undertake himself to raise them from the seed. The European
larch and Scotch pine can be imported at a cost of not more than half
a cent apiece, all expenses paid. Messrs. Douglas & Sons, of Wauke-
gan, Illinois, and other nursery-men in this country, are now raising
them very largely and will furnish them at an equally cheap rate ;

i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and there are some risks in importing trees which are avoided by pur-
chasing those which are home-grown.

The Messrs. Douglas are probably the largest and most successful
raisers of forest-tree seedlings in the United States ; and, while they
are sending out trees by the million, for the encouragement of farmers
and others of small means who have had no experience in, planting, or
find it difficult to procure trees, at the suggestion of Professor Sargent,
of the Arnold Arboretum, they offer to send out dollar packages of
trees by mail, post-paid, to any part of the country. These packages
contain each from seventy-five to a hundred forest-trees. By this
means any one who has any interest in trees, or who would like to
make an experiment in growing them, may at trifling cost have them
delivered safely at his own door. Two years ago seventy-five thou-
sand trees were sent out in this way as a beginning, and not a single
one, it is said, failed to reach its destination in a good condition.

It may be well to make one statement in regard to planting a par-
ticular class of trees. These are the evergreens, or the conifers, in-
cluding of course the larches. For shelter-belts on farms and by road-
sides, and for ornamental planting near dwellings, no trees are more
desirable. They commend themselves also for their bright-green foli-
age, holding on through the long winters which prevail over so large
a portion of the country. They have been less planted than is desir-
able, because planting them has so often resulted in failure. This has
come principally from not understanding the different nature of these
trees from that of all others. The sap of the pine family is resinous
and hardens whenever the bark of the roots becomes dried by exposure
either to the sun or the wind, and when once hardened no application
of water will dissolve it and set it flowing again. The tree is death-
struck. Nothing can save it. Hence the one important thing in trans-
planting evergreens, whether from their native woods or from the
nursery, is to keep the roots in a moist state until they are safely bed-
ded in the ground again. This is the secret of success. This done,
no trees are more easily or successfully managed. We would as soon
undertake to transplant a hemlock or a pine as a currant-bush. There
is no more need of failure with the one than with the other.

We have assumed all along, if we have not directly asserted, that
the planting of trees on the large scale will be pecuniarily profitable,
while it is, on many accounts, so desirable. We turn to this point now,
however, more distinctly, because, although tree-planting is desirable
for the repair of the rapid waste of our existing forests and to main-
tain a supply of lumber for the various uses of life, indispensable in-
deed, and most important also in its bearings upon climate, agricult-
ural production, and upon all the industries and comforts of life, it
is the argument of pecuniary profit upon which we must chiefly rely
for any efficient action in the work of forestry. Nothing can be plainer,
to any one who looks at the subject in a comprehensive way, than that

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 15

there is coming an increased demand for wood, for use as fuel and in
the various arts and industries, while the sources of supply will be less-
ened for a long time to come, whatever may be done to increase them.
The existing forests, which we are sweeping off so rapidly with the
axe and by fire, have been the growth, some of them, of centuries.
They can not be replaced in this generation or the next. In some
cases they can not be replaced at all. Meantime the destruction of
what are left will continue. It is estimated that the great lumber
region of Michigan and Wisconsin will be swept of its timber in ten
years more. The increasing millions of our population will make in-
creasing demands upon the forests. With all that we may do in plant-
ing there is likely to come a scarcity of lumber and of timber for pur-
poses of construction which will carry the price far beyond anything
which we now know, and make woodlands mines of wealth to their
owners.

But comparatively few take such a large view of things ; or, if
they do, have the forecast and resolution to act upon it. It is the con-
sideration of present gain or loss which moves most men to action.
And, regarded in this light, the subject of tree-planting is one which
commends itself to almost all land-owners. Apart from the rich prai-
ries of the West, there is hardly a farm, we may say, upon which there
is not. some portion so swampy, so rocky and inaccessible, or so poor
in soil, that the cultivation of the ordinary crops upon it is impracti-
cable or unprofitable. Such portions are now properly called waste-
lands. But there ought to be no waste-lands. There need be none.
These intractable portions of many of our farms, now bearing only a
scanty and often well-nigh worthless growth, may, with little trouble,
be planted with valuable trees, which, even in a few years, will yield a
profitable return from their proper thinning, while those that may be
left will increase in value as certainly and as rapidly as money depos-
ited in a savings-bank or invested in the public funds. The farmer or
land-owner can hardly provide for his children so easily as in this way
a sure and valuable legacy. A distinguished authority has said, " As
a general rule, in the highlands and lowlands of Scotland, land under
wood, at the end of sixty years, under good management, will pay the
proprietor nearly three times the sum of money that he would have
received from any other crop on the same piece of ground."

Nothing is better understood in England and on the Continent than
that the forests are among the best and surest sources of income.
Governments and great corporations regard them as stable and impor-
tant means of revenue. In our own country, as yet, we have not
become accustomed to look upon the forests in this aspect. Nor have
we cared for them as we do for those things which we depend upon
for revenue. And yet, neglected as our woodlands have been, and
left to take care of themselves, they have yielded a fair pecuniary
return. There is no reason why, with good management, they should

16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not be as profitable as the Scotch plantations. We have already suffi-
cient demonstration of this from actual experiment. We have some
plantations of trees, both in the East and in the West, which are of
sufficient age to furnish reliable data upon this subject. Mr. Budd, a
tree-grower of Iowa, and a careful observer, says : "A grove of ten
acres, thinned to six feet apart, containing twelve thousand trees, at,
twelve years were eight inches in diameter and thirty-four feet high,
the previous thinning paying all expenses of planting and cultivation.
Ten feet of the bodies of these trees were worth, for making bent-
stuff, etc., forty cents each, and the remaining top ten cents, making a
total of $6,000 as the profit of ten acres in twelve years, or a yearly
profit of $50 per acre.1' Similar reports come from other places in the
West.

But, turning from the rich lands of the West to the poor soils and
rough exposures of the East, we have sufficient examples of the profit-
ableness of tree-planting. One of the oldest in date, perhaps the
oldest example of forest-planting in this country, is that of Mr. Zacha-
riah Allen, at Smithfield, Rhode Island. In 1820 a tract of land
forty acres in extent was bequeathed to him. Professor Sargent,
from whom we take the account, says : " It had been constantly used
as a pasture for nearly a hundred years previous to its coming into
Mr. Allen's hands, and was at that time entirely worn out. The situ-
ation was an elevated one, and completely exposed to the wind, the
forty acres occupying the summit of a high hill of granite formation.
The surface was marked with ledges, cropping out in projecting cliffs,,
with intervals of loamy soil, covered with a scanty herbage, and sup-
plying nourishment to a few straggling white birches and the other
hardy plants which still too clearly mark our barren pastures. It was
found impossible to lease the land for pasturage, so exhausted had it
become. The owner consequently determined to try the experiment
of planting the whole, or that portion where the rock did not come to
the surface, with the seeds of forest-trees. The planting was done in
1820, and cost $45. Since then, for fifty-seven years, Mr. Allen has
kept a minute account of his expenditures and receipts in connection
with that field. He sets down the price of the land at fifteen dollars
an acre, that being what it was appraised at in the division of the es-
tate of the previous owner, though the taxes were for years less than
two dollars and a half yearly for the whole forty acres. Charging him-
self with the land and with interest on its valuation, and also on the
taxes paid" for fifty-seven years, his debit account stood, at the close
of 1877, $3,804.83. His credit account at the same time, for wood,
posts, timber, etc., and 320 cords still uncut, stood $6,348.06, leaving
a profit of $2,543.23, or 6T9^- per cent on the investment for the whole
term, and the land greatly improved besides."

The experiments of Messrs. Fay and others at Lynn, and on the
barren sands of Cape Cod, where thousands of acres, valued at only

METHODS AND PROFIT OF TREE-PLANTING. 17

fifty cents apiece, and hardly worth that, have been planted with the
native pitch and white pine, the Scotch and Austrian pine, the Nor-
way spruce, and the European larch, are equally convincing. Mr.
Fay planted in 1854, and in 1877 had one hundred and twenty-five
acres densely covered with trees. The larches had reached a height
of forty feet and a diameter of fourteen inches. Scotch pines, sown
as late as 1861, were thirty feet high and ten inches in diameter a foot
from the ground. Mr. Fay is abundantly satisfied with the results of
his experiments. Professor Sargent says, speaking of the plantations
made by Messrs. Fay and others : " When we consider the success
which has attended the experiments of these gentlemen in reclothing
their property with forest growths, under circumstances, too, as dis-
advantageous as it is possible for Massachusetts to offer, it must be
acknowledged that the attempt to replant our unimproved lands. is a
perfectly feasible one; and the only wonder is that the inhabitants of
Essex and Barnstable Counties, with such examples before them, have
not already planted their worthless, worn-out lands with a crop which
would yield a larger profit than any they have produced since the first
clearing of the forest."

Taking the results of Mr. Fay's planting, and the average results
of the planting of the larches in the Highlands of Scotland, which are
nearly the same in like conditions, Professor Sargent finds that, on
ordinary soil, larches planted when about one foot high and three years
old, will in twenty years average twenty-two feet in height and seven
inches in diameter three feet from the ground ; and that in thirty
years they will be from thirty-five to forty feet high and twelve inches
in diameter; and, if thinned out, the remaining trees, at fifty years
from the time of planting, will reach from sixty to seventy feet in
height and at least twenty inches in diameter. On this basis he makes
the estimated profit on a plantation of ten acres of larch-trees, at the
end of fifty years, to be $52,282.75, or thirteen per cent per annum for
the whole time. The estimate is carefully made, as would be seen, if we
had space for the particulars ; but with a considerable discount from
the figures of Professor Sargent there is left, certainly, a reasonable
profit.

It is to be remembered also that trees are not exhausting crops, but
that they tend to enrich and improve the land on which they grow.
If this be taken into account, the estimate of possible and probable
profit from the planting of our many acres of wild, rocky, sandy, and
other poor and practically waste land, is to be counted only by mill-
ions of dollars, while the benefits that would accrue from extensive
tree-planting in the more equable distribution of rain and the flow of
our streams^ in meteorologic influences upon health and comfort, and in
other ways, would be simply incalculable.

VOL. XXI. — 2

18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

PEOFESSOE GOLDWIJNT SMITH AS A CEITIC.

By HERBERT SPENCER.

I

N the pref ace to the " Data of Ethics " there occurs the following
sentence :

AVith a view to clearness, I have treated separately some correlative aspects
of conduct, drawing conclusions either of which becomes untrue if divorced
from the other, and have thus given abundant opportunity for misrepresentation.

When I wrote this sentence, I little dreamed that Professor. Gold-
win Smith would be the man to verify my expectation more fully than
I expected it to be verified by the bitterest bigot among those classed
as orthodox.

I do not propose here to enter upon a controversy. I propose sim-
ply to warn readers that, before accepting Professor Goldwin Smith's
versions of my views, it will be well to take the precaution of refer-
ring to the views as expressed by myself, to see whether the two cor-
respond. And, by way of showing that this warning is called for, I
will give them the opportunity of comparing representation with real-
ity in a single instance.

In his article in the last number of this " Eeview," and on page
340, he characterizes the doctrine I have set forth in these words :

An authoritative conscience, duty, virtue, obligation, principle, and rectitude
of motive, no more enter into his definitions, or form parts of his system, than
does the religious sanction.

Before going further, let the reader dwell a moment on this state-
ment, and consider the full implication of its words. Let him ask
himself what kind of conclusions he would look for in a system of
ethics which does not recognize " an authoritative conscience " ; what
ideas of right and wrong are likely to be found in a treatise on con-
duct which excludes "duty" and "virtue"; what he thinks must be
the general traits of a moral doctrine in which "principle" has no
place. Then, when he has fully impressed himself with the meaning
of Professor Smith's words, and imagined the kind of teaching indi-
cated by them, let him observe the teaching he actually finds. The
following passage, from chapter ix of the " Data of Ethics," will pre-
pare the way for more specific passages :

It is quite consistent to assert that happiness is the ultimate aim of action,
and at the same time to deny that it can be reached by making it the immediate
aim. I go with Mr. Sidgwick as far as the conclusion that "we must at least
admit the desirability of confirming or correcting the results of such compari-
sons [of pleasures and pains] by any other method upon which we may find rea-
son to rely " ; and I then go further and say that, throughout a large part of
conduct, guidance by such comparisons is to be entirely set aside and replaced
by other guidance (pp. 155, 156).

PROFESSOR GOLD WIN SMITH AS A CRITIC. 19

Even without going further, it will, I think, be manifest enough that,
instead of putting pleasures and pains in the foreground, as alone to
be considered in determining right and wrong (which Professor Gold-
win Smith's account of my views will lead every reader to suppose I
do), I have here distinctly asserted the need for another method of
determining right and wrong. And if comparisons of pleasures and
pains, or estimations of happiness, are to be " entirely set aside " in
the guidance of " a large part of conduct," it will puzzle any reader to
conceive what such guidance can be if there are excluded from it all
ideas of principle, rectitude, duty, obligation. But now, remarking
this much, I go on to point out that a large part of the chapter is de-
voted to the refutation of Bentham's doctrine, that happiness is to be
the immediate object of pursuit. I have insisted on the authoritative
character of certain "regulative principles for the conduct of asso-
ciated human beings" (p. 167), which are already recognized and "es-
tablished," and have urged that conformity to these must be the direct
aim, and not happiness. Concerning certain moral ideas and senti-
ments, I have said :

Are they supernaturally-caused modes of thinking and feeling, tending to
make men fulfill the conditions to happiness? If so, their authority is peremp-
tory. Are they modes of thinking and feeling naturally caused in men by ex-
perience of these conditions? If so, their authority is no less peremptory (p.
168).

And then, having in various ways explained and enforced the need
for these "regulative principles," and the peremptory authority of
these " modes of thinking and feeling " known as conscience, I have
closed the chapter by saying that "conflicting ethical theories . . .
severally embody portions of the truth, and simply require combining
in proper order to embody the whole truth" (p. 171).

The theological theory contains a part. If for the divine will, supposed to
be supernaturally revealed, we substitute the naturally-revealed end toward
which the power manifested throughout evolution works; then, since evolution
has been, and is still, working toward the highest life, it follows that conform-
ing to those principles by which the highest life is achieved is furthering that
end. The doctrine, that perfection or excellence of nature should be the object
of pursuit, is in one sense true, for it tacitly recognizes that ideal form of being
which the highest life implies, and to which evolution tends. There is a truth,
also, in the doctrine that virtue must be the aim, for this is another form of the
doctrine that, the aim must be to fulfill the conditions to achievement of the
highest life. That the intuitions of a moral faculty should guide our conduct is
a proposition in which a truth is contained, for these intuitions are the slowly
organized results of experiences received by the race while living in presence of
these conditions. And that happiness as the supreme end is beyond question
true, for this is the concomitant of that highest life which every theory of
moral guidance has distinctly or vaguely in view.

So understanding their relative positions, those ethical systems which make
virtue, right, obligation the cardinal aims, are seen to be complementary to those

zo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ethical systems which make welfare, pleasure, happiness the cardinal aims (pp.
171, 172).

Nor is this all. Having asserted that the moral sentiments " are
indispensable as incentives and deterrents," and that " the intuitions
corresponding to these sentiments " have " a general authority to be
reverently recognized," I have ended by saying :

Hence, recognizing in due degrees all the various ethical theories,- conduct in
its highest form will take as guides, innate perceptions of right, duly enlight-
ened and made precise by an analytic intelligence, while conscious that these
guides are proximately supreme solely because they lead to the ultimately su-
preme end — happiness, special and general (pp. 172, 173).

Experience does not lead me to suppose that Professor Goldwin
Smith will admit his description of my views to be unjustified. Con-
trariwise, many instances have proved to me that, when the statements,
first made are not distinguished by great scrupulousness, no great scru-
pulousness is shown in the defense of them. The reader will be able,
however, to decide beforehand whether any reply which may be made
can be adequate. He has simply to ask himself whether, having read
the sentence I have quoted from Professor Goldwin Smith, he could
have expected to find in the " Data of Ethics " the passages I have
quoted from it. If he says " No," as he must do, then, whatever ex-
planation or defense may be offered, will leave outstanding the charge
of grave misrepresentation.

Perhaps it will be assumed that this is simply a mistake, an inad-
vertence, an oversight on the part of Professor Goldwin Smith — an
excejDtional error he has fallen into. Well, even were this true, it
could hardly be held to excuse him, considering that his statement in-
volves a condemnatory characterization of the work as a whole. But
it is not true. So far from being exceptional, the instance I have
given is typical of his entire criticism. I have noted eight other state-
ments of his concerning views of mine, which are quite at variance
with the facts — most of them as widely at variance as the one I have
instanced. I do not wish to occupy either my own time or the pages
of the " Contemporary Review " in setting forth these at length, but
I am quite prepared to do it if need be. — Contemporary Review.

-+++-

MONKEYS.

Bt ALFRED ETTSSEL WALLACE.

IF the skeletons of an orang-outang and a chimpanzee be compared
with that of a man, there will be found to be the most wonderful
resemblance, together with a very marked diversity. Bone for bone,
throughout the whole structure, will be found to agree in general

MONKEYS. 21

form, position, and function, the only absolute differences being that
the orang has nine wrist-bones, whereas man and the chimpanzee have
but eight ; and the chimpanzee has thirteen pairs of ribs, whereas
the orang, like man, has but twelve. AVith these two exceptions, the
differences are those of shape, proportion, and direction only, though
the resulting differences in the external form and motions are very
considerable. The greatest of these are, that the feet of the anthro-
poid or man-like apes, as well as those of all monkeys, are formed like
hands, with large opposable thumbs fitted to grasp the branches of
trees, but unsuitable for erect walking, while the hands have weak
small thumbs but very long and powerful fingers, forming a hook
rather than a hand, adapted for climbing up trees and suspending the
whole weight from horizontal branches. The almost complete identity
of the skeleton, however, and the close similarity of the muscles and
of all the internal organs, have produced that striking and ludicrous
resemblance to man which every one recognizes in these higher apes
and, in a less degree, in the whole monkey tribe ; the face and feat-
ures, the motions, attitudes, and gestures being often a strange carica-
ture of humanity. Let us, then, examine a little more closely in what
the resemblance consists, and how far, and to what extent, these ani-
mals really differ from us.

Besides the face, which is often wonderfully human — although the
absence of any protuberant nose gives it often a curiously infantile
aspect — monkeys, and especially apes, resemble us most closely in the
hand and arm. The hand has well-formed fingers with nails, and the
skin of the palm is lined and furrowed like our own. The thumb is,
however, smaller and weaker than ours, and is not so much used in
taking hold of anything. The monkey's hand is, therefore, not so
well adapted as that of man for a variety of purposes, and can not be
applied with such precision in holding small objects, while it is un-
suitable for performing delicate operations such as tying a knot or
writing with a pen. A monkey does not take hold of a nut with its
forefinger and thumb as we do, but grasps it between the fingers and
the palm in a clumsy way, just as a baby does before it has acquired
the proper use of its hand. Two groups of monkeys — one in Africa
and one in South America — have no thumbs on their hands, and yet
they do not seem to be in any respect inferior to other kinds which
possess it. In most of the American monkeys the thumb bends in
the same direction as the fingers, and in none is it so perfectly opposed
to the fingers as our thumbs are ; and all these circumstances show
that the hand of the monkey is, both structurally and functionally, a
very different, and very inferior organ to that of man, since it is not
applied to similar purposes, nor is it capable of being so applied.

When we look at the feet of monkeys we find a still greater differ-
ence, for these have much larger and more opposable thumbs, and are,
therefore, more like our hands ; and this is the case with all monkeys,

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

so that even those which have no thumbs on their hands, or have them
small and weak and parallel to the fingers, have always large and
well-formed thumbs on their feet. It was on account of this peculiar-
ity that the great French naturalist Cuvier named the whole group of
monkeys Quadrumana, or four-handed animals, because, besides the
two hands on their fore-limbs, they have also two hands in place of
feet on their hind-limbs. Modern naturalists have given up the use
of this term, because they say that the hind extremities of all monkeys
are really feet, only these feet are shaped like hands ; but this is a
point of anatomy, or rather of nomenclature, which we need not here
discuss.

Let us, however, before going further, inquire into the purpose and
use of this peculiarity, and we shall then see that it is simply an
adaptation to the mode of life of the animals which possess it. Monk-
eys, as a rule, live in trees, and are especially abundant in the great
tropical forests. They feed chiefly upon fruits, and occasionally eat
insects and birds'-eggs, as well as young birds, all of which they find
in the trees ; and, as they have no occasion to come down to the
ground, they travel from tree to tree by jumping or swinging, and
thus pass the greater part of their lives entirely among the leafy
branches of lofty trees. For such a mode of existence, they require
to be able to move with perfect ease upon large or small branches, and
to climb up rapidly from one bough to another. As they use their
hands for gathering fruit and catching insects or birds, they require
some means of holding on with their feet, otherwise they would be
liable to continual falls, and they are able to do this by means of their
long finger-like toes and large opposable thumbs, which grasp a branch
almost as securely as a bird grasps its perch. The true hands, on the
contrary, are used chiefly to climb with, and to swing the whole
weight of the body from one branch or one tree to another, and for
this purpose the fingers are very long and strong, and in many species
they are further strengthened by being partially joined together, as if
the skin of our fingers grew together as far as the knuckles. This
shows that the separate action of the fingers, which is so important to
us, is little required by monkeys, whose hand is really an organ for
climbing and seizing food, while their foot is required to support them
firmly in any position on the branches of trees, and for this purpose
it has become modified into a large and powerful grasping hand.

Another striking difference between monkeys and men is, that the
former never walk with ease in an erect posture, but always use their
arms in climbing or in walking on all-fours like most quadrupeds.
The monkeys that we see in the streets, dressed up and walking erect,
only do so after much drilling and teaching, just as dogs may be
taught to walk in the same way ; and the posture is almost as unnat-
ural to the one animal as it is to the other. The largest and most
man-like of the apes — the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang-outang — also

MONKEYS. 23

walk usually on all-fours ; but in these the arms are so long and the
legs so short that the body appears half erect when walking ; and
they have the habit of resting on the knuckles of the hands, not on
the palms like the smaller monkeys, whose arms and legs are more
nearly of an equal length, which tends still further to give them a
semi-erect position. Still, they are never known to walk of their
own accord on their hind-legs only, though they can do so for short
distances, and the story of their using a stick and walking erect by its
help in the wild state is not true. Monkeys, then, are both four-
handed and four-footed beasts ; they possess four hands formed very
much like our hands, and capable of picking up or holding any small
object in the same manner ; but they are also four-footed, because
they use all four limbs for the purpose of walking, running, or climb-
ing ; and, being adapted to this double purpose, the hands want the
delicacy of touch and the freedom as well as the precision of move-
ment which ours possess. Man alone is so constructed that he walks
erect wUh perfect ease, and has his hands free for any use to which
he wishes to apply them ; and this is the great and essential bodily
distinction between monkeys and men.

We will now give some account of the different kinds of monkeys
and the countries they inhabit.

The Different Kinds of Monkeys and the Countries they
inhabit. — Monkeys are usually divided into three kinds — apes, monk-
eys, and baboons ; but these do not include the American monkeys,
which are really more different from all those of the Old World than
any of the latter are from each other. Naturalists, therefore, divide
the whole monkey-tribe into two great families, inhabiting the Old
and the New Worlds respectively ; and, if we learn to remember the
kind of differences by which these several groups are distinguished,
we shall be able to understand something of the classification of ani-
mals, and the difference between important and unimportant characters.

Taking first the Old World groups, they may be thus defined :
apes have no tails ; monkeys have tails, which are usually long ; while
baboons have short tails, and their faces, instead of being round and
with a man-like expression as in apes and monkeys, are long and more
dog-like. These differences are, however, by no means constant, and
it is often difficult to tell whether an animal should be classed as an
ape, a monkey, or a baboon. The Gibraltar ape, for example, though
it has no tail, is really a monkey, because it has callosities, or hard
pads of bare skin on which it sits, and cheek-pouches in which it can
stow away food ; the latter character being always absent in the true
apes, while both. are present in most monkeys and baboons. All these
animals, however, from the largest ape to the smallest monkey, have
the same number of teeth as we have, and they are arranged in a
similar manner, although the tusks, or canine teeth, of the males are
often large, like those of a dog.

2+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The American monkeys, on the other hand, with the exception of
the marmosets, have four additional grinding-teeth (one in each jaw
on either side), and none of them have callosities or cheek-pouches.
They never have prominent snouts like the baboons ; their nostrils are
placed wide apart and open sideways on the face ; the tail, though
sometimes short, is never quite absent ; and the thumb bends the same
way as the fingers, is generally very short and weak, and is often quite
wanting. We thus see that these American monkeys differ in a great
number of characters from those of the Eastern hemisphere ; and they
have this further peculiarity, that many of them have prehensile or
grasping tails, which are never found in the monkeys of any other
country. This curious organ serves the purpose of a fifth hand. It
has so much muscular power that the animal can hang by it easily
with the tip curled round a branch, while it can also be used to pick
up small objects with almost as much ease and exactness as an ele-
phant's trunk. In those species which have it most perfectly formed
it is very long and powerful, and the end has the under-side cpvered
with bare skin, exactly resembling that of the finger or palm of the
hand, and apparently equally sensitive. One of the common kinds of
monkeys that accompany street organ-players has a prehensile tail, but
not of the most perfect kind ; since in this species the tail is entirely
clad with hair to the tip, and seems to be used chiefly to steady the
animal when sitting on a branch by being twisted round another
branch near it. The statement is often erroneously made that all
American monkeys have prehensile tails ; but the fact is that rather
less than half the known kinds have them so, the remainder having
this organ either short and bushy or long and slender, but entirely
without any power of grasping. All prehensile-tailed monkeys are
American, but all American monkeys are not prehensile-tailed.

By remembering these characters it is easy, with a little observa-
tion, to tell whether any strange monkey comes from America or from
the Old World. If it has bare seat-pads, or if when eating it fills its
mouth till its cheeks swell out like little bags, we may be sure it
comes from some part of Africa or Asia ; while, if it can curl up the
end of its tail so as to take hold of anything, it is certainly Ameri-
can. As all the tailed monkeys of the Old World have seat-pads (or
ischial callosities as they are called in scientific language), and as all
the American monkeys have tails, but no seat-pads, this is the most
constant external character by which to distinguish them ; and, having
done so, we can look for the other peculiarities of the American monk-
eys, especially the distance apart of the nostrils and their lateral po-
sition.

The whole monkey-tribe is especially tropical, only a few kinds
being found in the warmer parts of the temperate zone. One inhabits
the Rock of Gibraltar, and there is one very like it in Japan, and these
are the two monkeys which live farthest from the equator. In the

MONKEYS. 25

tropics they become very abundant, and increase in numbers and va-
riety as we approach the equator, where the climate is hot, moist, and
equable, and where flowers, fruits, and insects are to be found through-
out the year. Africa has about fifty -five different kinds, Asia and its
islands about sixty, while America has one hundred and fourteen, or
almost exactly the same as Asia and Africa together. Australia and its
islands have no monkeys, nor has the great and luxuriant Island of New
Guinea, whose magnificent forests seem so well adapted for them.
We will now give a short account of the different kinds of monkeys
inhabiting each of the tropical continents.

Africa possesses two of the great man-like apes — the gorilla and
the chimpanzee, the former being the largest ape known, and the one
which, on the whole, perhaps most resembles man, though its counte-
nance is less human than that of the chimpanzee. Both are found in
West Africa, near the equator, but they also inhabit the interior
wherever there are great forests ; and Dr. Schweinfurth states that
the chimpanzee inhabits the country about the sources of the Shari
River, in 28° east longitude and 4° north latitude.

The long-tailed monkeys of Africa are very numerous and varied.
One group has no cheek-pouches and no thumb on the hand, and many
of these have long, soft fur of varied colors. The most numerous
group are the guenons, rather small, long-tailed monkeys, very active
and lively, and often having their faces curiously marked with white
or black, or ornamented with whiskers or other tufts of hair ; and
they all have large cheek-pouches and good-sized thumbs. Many of
them are called green monkeys, from the greenish-yellow tint of their
fur, and most of them are well-formed, pleasing animals. They are
found only in tropical Africa.

The baboons are larger, but less numerous. Thev resemble dogs
in the general form and the length of the face or snout, but they have
hands with well-developed thumbs on both the fore and hind limbs ;
and this, with something in the expression of the face, and their habit
of sitting up and using their hands in a very human fashion, at once
shows that they belong to the monkey-tribe. Many of them are very
ugly, and in their wild state they are the fiercest and most dangerous
of monkeys. Some have the tail very long, others of medium length,
while it is sometimes reduced to a mere stump, and all have large
cheek-pouches and bare seat-pads. They are found all over Africa,
from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope ; while one species, called the
hamadryas, extends from Abyssinia across the Red Sea into Arabia,
and is the only baboon found out of Africa. This species was known
to the ancients, and it is often represented in Egyptian sculptures,
while mummies of it have been found in the catacombs. The largest
and most remarkable of all the baboons is the mandrill of West Af-
rica, whose swollen and hog-like face is ornamented with stripes of
vivid blue and scarlet. This animal has a tail scarcely two inches

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

long, while in size and strength it is not much inferior to the gorilla.
These large baboons go in bands, and are said to be a match for any-
other animals in the African forests, and even to attack and drive
away the elephants from the districts they inhabit.

Turning now to Asia, we have first one of the best known of the
large man-like apes — the orang-outang, found only in the two large
islands, Borneo and Sumatra. The name is Malay, signifying " man
of the woods," and it should be pronounced orang-ootang, the accent
being on the first syllable of both words. It is a very curious circum-
stance that, whereas the gorilla and chimpanzee are both black, like
the negroes of the same country, the orang-outang is red or reddish-
brown, closely resembling the color of the Malays and Dyaks who live
in the Bornean forests. Though very large and powerful, it is a harm-
less creature, feeding on fruit, and never attacking any other animal
except in self-defense. A full-grown male orang-outang is rather more
than four feet high, but with a body as large as that of a stout man,
and with enormously long and powerful arms.

Another group of true apes inhabit Asia and the larger Asiatic
islands, and are in some respects the most remarkable of the whole
family. These are the gibbons, or long-armed apes, w^hich are gen-
erally of small size and of a gentle disposition, but possessing the most
wonderful agility. In these creatures the arms are as long as the body
and legs together, and are so powerful that a gibbon will hang for
hours suspended from a branch, or swing to-and-fro, and then throw
itself a great distance through the air. The arms, in fact, completely
take the place of the legs for traveling. Instead of jumping from
bough to bough, and running on the branches, like other apes and
monkeys, the gibbons move along while hanging suspended in the air,
stretching their arms from bough to bough, and thus going hand over
hand as a very active sailor will climb along a rope. The strength of
their arms is, however, so prodigious, and their hold so sure, that they
often loose one hand before they have caught a bough with the other,
thus seeming almost to fly through the air by a series of swinging
leaps ; and they travel among the net-work of interlacing boughs a
hundred feet above the earth with as much ease and certainty as we
walk or run upon level ground, and with even greater speed. These
little animals scarcely ever come down to the ground of their own ac-
cord ; but, when obliged to do so, they run along almost erect, with
their long arms swinging round and round, as if trying to find some
tree or other object to climb upon. They are the only apes who nat-
urally walk without using their hands as well as their feet ; but this
does not make them more like men, for it is evident that the attitude
is not an easy one, and is only adopted because the arms are habitually
used to swing by, and are therefore naturally held upward instead of
downward, as they must be when walking on them.

The tailed monkeys of Asia consist of two groups, the first of which

MONKEYS, 27

have no cheek-pouches, but always have very long tails. They are
true forest monkeys, very active, and of a shy disposition. The most
remarkable of these is the long-nosed monkey of Borneo, which is very
large, of a pale-brown color, and distinguished by possessing a long,
pointed, fleshy nose, totally unlike that of all other monkeys. Another
interesting species is the black and white entellus monkey of India,
called " Hanuman " by the Hindoos, and considered sacred by them.
These animals are petted and fed, and at some of the temples numbers
of them come every day for the food which the priests, as well as the
people, provide for them.

The next group of Eastern monkeys are the Macaques, which are
more like baboons, and often run upon the ground. They are more
bold and vicious than the others. All have cheek-pouches, and though
some have long tails, in others the tail is short, or reduced to a mere
stump. In some few this stump is so very short that there appears to
be no tail, as in the magot of North Africa and Gibraltar, and in an
allied species that inhabits Japan.

American Monkeys. — The monkeys which inhabit America form
three very distinct groups : 1. The Sapajous, which have prehensile or
grasping tails ; 2. The Sagouins, which have ordinary tails, either long
or short ; and, 3. The Marmosets, very small creatures, with sharp
claws, long tails, which are not prehensile, and a smaller number of
. teeth than all other American monkeys. Each of these three groups
contains several sub-groups, or genera, which often differ remarkably
from each other, and from all the monkeys of the Old World.

We will begin with the howling monkeys, which are the largest
found in America, and are celebrated for the loud voice of the males.
Often in the great forests of the Amazon, or Orinoco, a tremendous
noise is heard in the night or early morning, as if a great assemblage
of wild beasts were all roaring and screaming together. The noise
may be heard for miles, and it is louder and more piercing than that of
any other animals, yet it is all produced by a single male howler sitting
on the branches of some lofty tree. They are enabled to make this
extraordinary noise by means of an organ that is possessed by no other
animal. The. lower jaw is unusually deep, and this makes room for a
hollow bony vessel about the size of a large walnut, situated under the
root of the tongue, and having an opening into the windpipe by which
the animal can force air into it. This increases the power of its voice,
acting something like the hollow case of a violin, and producing those
marvelous rolling and reverberating sounds which caused the celebrated
traveler Waterton to declare that they were such as might have had
their origin in the infernal regions. The howlers are large and stout-
bodied monkeys with bearded faces, and very strong and powerfully
grasping tails. They inhabit the wildest forests ; they are very shy,
and are seldom taken captive, though they are less active than many
other American monkeys.

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Next come the spider-monkeys, so called from their slender bodies
and enormously long limbs and tail. In these monkeys the tail is so
long, strong, and perfect, that it completely takes the place of a fifth
hand. By twisting the end of it round a branch the animal can swing
freely in the air with complete safety; and this gives them a wonderful
power of climbing and passing from tree to tree, because the distance
they can stretch is that of the tail, body, and arm added together, and
these are all unusually long. They can also swing themselves through
the air for great distances, and are thus able to pass rapidly from tree
to tree without ever descending to the ground, just like the gibbons
in the Malayan forests. Although capable of feats of wonderful agility,
the spider-monkeys are usually slow and deliberate in their motions,
and have a timid, melancholy expression, very different from that of
most monkeys. Their hands are very long, but have only four fingers,,
being adapted for hanging on to branches rather than for getting hold
of small objects. It is said that, when they have to cross a river the
trees on the opposite banks of which do not approach near enough for
a leap, several of them form a chain, one hanging by its tail from a
lofty overhanging branch and seizing hold of the tail of the one below
it, then gradually swinging themselves backward and forward till the
lower one is able to seize hold of a branch on the opposite side. He
then climbs up the tree, and, when sufficiently high, the first one lets
go, and the swing either carries him across to a bough on the opposite
side or he climbs up over his companions.

Closely allied to the last are the woolly monkeys, which have an
equally well-developed prehensile tail, but better proportioned limbs,
and a thick, wholly fur of a uniform gray or brownish color. They
have well-formed fingers and thumbs, both on the hands and feet, and
are rather deliberate in their motions, and exceedingly tame and affec-
tionate in captivity. They are great eaters, and are usually very fat.
They are found only in the far interior of the Amazon Valley, and,
having a delicate constitution, seldom live long in Europe. These
monkeys are not so fond of swinging themselves about by their tails as
are the spider-monkeys, and offer more opportunities of observing how
completely this organ takes the place of a fifth hand. "When walking
about a house, or on the deck of a ship, the partially curled tail is car-
ried in an horizontal position on the ground, and the moment it touches
anything it twists round it and brings it forward, when, if eatable, it is
at once appropriated ; and when fastened up the animal will obtain any
food that may be out of reach of its hands with the greatest facility,
picking up small bits of biscuit, nuts, etc., much as an elephant does
with the tip of his trunk.

We now come to a group of monkeys whose prehensile tail is of a
less perfect character, since it is covered with hair to the tip, and is of
no use to pick up objects. It can, however, curl round a branch, and
serves to steady the animal while sitting or feeding, but is never used

MONKEYS. 29

to hang and swing by, in the manner so common with the spider-
monkeys and their allies. These are rather small-sized animals, with
round heads and with moderately long tails. They are very active and
intelligent, their limbs are not so long as in the preceding group, and,
though they have five fingers on each hand and foot, the hands have
weak and hardly opposable thumbs. Some species of these monkeys
are often carried about by itinerant organ-men, and are taught to walk
erect and perform many amusing tricks. They form the genus Cebus
of naturalists.

The remainder of the American monkeys have non-prehensile tails,
like those of the monkeys of the Eastern hemisphere ; but they consist
of several distinct groups, and differ very much in appearance and
habits. First we have the Sakis, which have a bushy tail and usually
very long and thick hair, something like that of a bear. Sometimes
the tail is very short, appearing like a rounded tuft of hair ; many of
the species have fine bushy whiskers, which meet under the chin, and
appear as if they had been dressed and trimmed by a barber, and the
head is often covered with thick, curly hair, looking like a wig.
Others, again, have the face quite red, and one has the head nearly
bald — a most remarkable peculiarity among monkeys. This latter
species was met with by Mr. Bates on the upper Amazon, and he de-
scribes the face as being of a vivid scarlet, the body clothed from neck
to tail with very long, straight, and shining white hair, while the head
was nearly bald, owing to the very short crop of thin, gray hairs. As
a finish to their striking physiognomy, these monkeys have bushy
whiskers, of a sandy color, meeting under the chin, and yellowish-gray
eyes. The color of the face is so vivid that it looks as if covered with
a thick coat of bright scarlet paint. These creatures are very delicate,
and have never reached Europe alive, though several of the allied
forms have lived some time in our Zoological Gardens.

An allied group consists of the elegant squirrel-monkeys, with long,
straight, hairy tails, and often adorned with prettily variegated colors.
They are usually small animals ; some have the face marked with black
and white, others have curious whiskers, and their nails are rather
sharp and claw-like. They have large, round heads, and their fur is
more glossy and smooth than in most other American monkeys, so that
they more resemble some of the smaller monkeys of Africa. These
little creatures are very active, running about the trees like squirrels,
and feeding largely on insects as well as on fruit.

Closely allied to these are the small group of night-monkeys, which
have large eyes, and a round face surrounded by a kind of ruff of
whitish fur, so as to give it an owl -like appearance, whence they are
sometimes called owl-faced monkeys. They are covered with soft,
gray fur, like that of a rabbit, and sleep all day long, concealed in
hollow trees. The face is also marked with white patches and stripes,
giving it a rather carnivorous or cat-like aspect, which, perhaps, serves

3o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as a protection, by causing the defenseless creature to be taken for an
arboreal tiger-cat, or some such beast of prey.

This finishes the series of such of the American monkeys as have
a larger number of teeth than those of the Old World. But there is
another group, the Marmosets, which have the same number of teeth
as Eastern monkeys, but differently distributed in the jaws, a premolar
being substituted for a molar tooth. In other particulars they resemble
the rest of the American monkeys. These are very small and delicate
creatures, some having the body only seven inches long. The thumb
of the hands is not opposable, and instead of nails they have sharp,
compressed claws. These diminutive monkeys have long, non-prehen-
sile tails, and they have a silky fur, often of varied and beautiful colors.
Some are striped with gray and white, or are of rich brown or golden-
brown tints, varied by having the head or shoulders white or black,
while in many there are crests, frills, manes, or long ear-tufts, adding
greatly to their variety and beauty. These little animals are timid
and restless ; their motions are more like those of a squirrel than a
monkey. Their sharp claws enable them to run quickly along the
branches, but they seldom leap from bough to bough, like the larger
monkeys. They live on fruits and insects, but are much afraid of
wasps, which they are said to recognize even in a picture. This com-
pletes our sketch of the American monkeys, and we see that, although
they possess no such remarkable forms as the gorilla or the baboons,
yet they exhibit a wonderful diversity of external characters, consider-
ing that all seem equally adapted to a purely arboreal life. In the
howlers we have a specially developed voice-organ, which is altogether
peculiar ; in the spider-monkeys we find the adaptation to active motion
among the topmost branches of the forest-trees carried to an extreme
point of development ; while the singular nocturnal monkeys, the active
squirrel-monkeys, and the exquisite little marmosets, show how distinct
are the forms under which the same general type may be exhibited,
and in how many varied ways existence may be sustained under almost
identical conditions.

Lemurs. — In the general term, monkeys, considered as equivalent
to the order Primates, or the Quadrumana of naturalists, we have to
include another sub-type, that of the lemurs. These animals are of a
lower grade than the true monkeys, from which they differ in so
many points of structure that they are considered to form a distinct
sub-order, or, by some naturalists, even a separate order. They have
usually a much larger head and more pointed muzzle than monkeys ;
they vary considerably in the number, form, and arrangement of the
teeth ; their thumbs are always well developed, but their fingers vary
much in size and length ; their tails are usually long, but several
species have no tail whatever, and they are clothed with a more or
less woolly fur, often prettily variegated with white and black. They
inhabit the deep forests of Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Asia,

MONKEYS. 3 1

and are more sluggish in their movements than true monkeys, most
of them being of nocturnal or crepuscular habits. They feed largely
on insects, eating also fruits and the eggs or young of birds.

The most curious species are — the slow lemurs of South India,
small tailless nocturnal animals, somewhat resembling sloths in appear-
ance and almost as deliberate in their movements, except when in the
act of seizing their insect prey ; the tarsier, or specter-lemur, of the
Malay Islands, a small long-tailed nocturnal lemur, remarkable for the
curious development of the hind-feet, which have two of the toes very
short and with sharp claws, while the others have nails, the third toe
beino- exceedingly long and slender, though the thumb is very large,
giving the feet a very irregular and outre appearance ; and, lastly, the
aye-aye of Madagascar, the most remarkable of all. This animal has
very large ears and a squirrel -like tail, with long, spreading hair. It
has large curved incisor teeth, which add to its squirrel-like appear-
ance and caused the early naturalists to class it among the rodents.
But its most remarkable character is found in its fore-feet or hands,
the fingers of which are all very long and armed with sharp, curved
claws, but one of them, the second, is wonderfully slender, being not
half the thickness of the others. This curious combination of charac-
ters shows that the aye-aye is a very specialized form — that is, one
whose organization has been slowly modified to fit it for a peculiar
mode of life. From information received from its native country, and
from a profound study of its organization, Professor Owen believes
that it is adapted for the one purpose of feeding on small, wood-boring
insects. Its large feet and sharp claws enable it to cling firmly to the
branches of trees in almost any position ; by means of its large, deli-
cate ears it listens for the sound of the insect gnawing within the
branch, and is thus able to fix its exact position ; with its powerful
curved gnawing teeth it rapidly cuts away the bark and wood till it .
exposes the burrow of the insect, most probably the soft larva of some
beetle, and then comes into play the extraordinary long wire-like
finger, which enters the small cylindrical burrow, and with the sharp
bent claw hooks out the grub. Here we have a most complex adapta-
tion of different parts and organs all converging to one special end,
that end being the same as is reached by a group of birds, the wood-
peckers, in a different way ; and it is a most interesting fact that,
although woodpeckers abound in all the great continents, and are
especially common in the tropical forests of Asia, Africa, and America,
they are quite absent from Madagascar. We may therefore consider
that the aye-aye really occupies the same place in nature in the forests
of this tropical island as do the woodpeckers in other parts of the
world.

Distribution, Affinities, and Zoological Rank of Monkets.
— Having thus sketched an outline of the monkey-tribe as regards
their more prominent external characters and habits, we must say a

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

few words on their general relations as a distinct order of mammalia.
No other group, so extensive and so varied as this, is so exclusively
tropical in its distribution, a circumstance no doubt due to the fact
that monkeys depend so largely on fruit and insects for their subsist-
ence. A very few species extend into the warmer parts of the tem-
perate zones, their extreme limits in the northern hemisphere being
Gibraltar, the western Himalayas at eleven thousand feet elevation,
East Thibet, and Japan. In America they are found in Mexico, but
do not appear to pass beyond the tropic. In the southern hemisphere
they are limited by the extent of the forests in South Brazil, which
reach about 30° south latitude. In the East, owing to their entire
absence from Australia, they do not reach the tropic ; but in Africa
some baboons range to the southern extremity of the continent.

But this extreme restriction of the order to almost tropical lands is
only recent. Directly we go back to the Pliocene period of geology,
we find the remains of monkeys in France, and even in England. In
the earlier Miocene several kinds, some of large size, lived in France,
Germany, and Greece, all more or less closely allied to living forms of
Asia and Africa. About the same period monkeys of the South
American type inhabited the United States. In the remote Eocene
period the same temperate lands were inhabited by lemurs in the East,
and by curious animals believed to be intermediate between lemurs
and marmosets in the West. We know from a variety of other evi-
dence that throughout these vast periods a mild and almost sub-trop-
ical climate extended over all Central Europe and parts of North
America, while one of a temperate character prevailed as far north as
the Arctic Circle. The monkey-tribe then enjoyed a far greater range
over the earth, and perhaps filled a more important place in Nature
than it does now. Its restriction to the comparatively narrow limits
of the tropics is no doubt mainly due to the great alteration of climate
which occurred at the close of the Tertiary period, but it may have
been aided by the continuous development of varied forms of mam-
malian life better fitted for the contrasted seasons and deciduous vege-
tation of the north temperate regions. The more extensive area
formerly inhabited by the monkey-tribe would have favored their
development into a number of divergent forms, in distant regions and
adapted to distinct modes of life. As these retreated southward and
became concentrated in a more limited area, such as were able to
maintain themselves became mingled together as we now find them,
the ancient and lowly marmosets and lemurs subsisting side by side
with the more recent and more highly developed howlers and anthro-
poid apes.

Throughout the long ages of the Tertiary period monkeys must
have been very abundant and very varied, yet it is but rarely that
their fossil remains are found. This, however, is not difficult to ex-
plain. The deposits in which mammalian remains most abound are

MONKEYS. 33

those formed in lakes or in caverns. In the former the bodies of large
numbers of terrestrial animals were annually deposited, owing to their
having been caught by floods in the tributary streams, swallowed up
iu marginal bogs or quicksands, or drowned by the giving way of ice.
Caverns were the haunts of hyenas, tigers, bears, and other beasts of
prey, which dragged into them the bodies of their victims, and left
many of their bones to become imbedded in stalagmite or in the mud-
dy deposit left by floods, while herbivorous animals were often carried
into them by these floods, or by falling down the swallow-holes which
often open into caverns from above. But, owing to their arboreal
habits, monkeys were to a great extent freed from all these dangers.
Whether devoured by beasts or birds of prey, or dying a natural death,
their bones would usually be left on dry land, where they would
slowly decay under atmospheric influences. Only under very excep-
tional circumstances would they become imbedded in aqueous de-
posits ; and, instead of being surprised at their rarity, we should rather
wonder that so many have been discovered in a fossil state.

Monkeys, as a whole, form a very isolated group, having no near
relations to any other mammalia. This is undoubtedly an indication
of great antiquity. The peculiar type which has since reached so high
a development must have branched off the great mammalian stock at
a very remote epoch, certainly far back in the Secondary period, since
in the Eocene we find lemurs and lemurine monkeys already special-
ized. At this remoter period they were probably not separable from
the insectivora, or (perhaps) from the ancestral marsupials. Even now
we have one living form, the curious Galeopithecus, or flying lemur,
which has only recently been separated from the lemurs, with which
it was formerly united, to be classed as one of the insectivora ; and it
is only among the opossums and some other marsupials that we again
find hand-like feet with opposable thumbs, which are such a curious
and constant feature of the monkey-tribe.

This relationship to the lowest of the mammalian tribes seems in-
consistent with the place usually accorded to these animals at the head
of the entire mammalian series, and opens up the question whether
this is a real superiority or whether it depends merely on the obvious
relationship to ourselves. If we could suppose a being gifted with
high intelligence, but with a form totally unlike that of man, to have
visited the earth before man existed in order to study the various
forms of animal life that were found there, we can hardly think he
would have placed the monkey-tribe so high as we do. He would ob-
serve that their whole organization was specially adapted to an arbo-
real life, and this specialization would be rather against their claiming
the first rank among terrestrial creatures. Neither in size, nor
strength, nor beauty, would they compare with many other forms,
while in intelligence they would not surpass, even if they equaled, the
horse or the beaver. The carnivora, as a whole, would certainly be

VOL. XXI. — 3

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

held to surpass them in the exquisite perfection of their physical struct-
ure, while the flexible trunk of the elephant, combined with his vast
strength and admirable sagacity, would probably gain for him the first
rank in the animal creation.

But if this would have been a true estimate, the mere fact that the
ape is our nearest relation does not necessarily oblige us to come to any
other conclusion. Man is undoubtedly the most perfect of all animals,
but he is so solely in respect of characters in which he differs from all
the monkey-tribe — the easily erect posture, the perfect freedom of the
hands from all part in locomotion, the large size and complete opposa-
bility of the thumb, and the well-developed brain, which enables him
fully to utilize these combined physical advantages. The monkeys
have none of these, and without them the amount of resemblance they
have to us is no advantage, and confers no rank. We are biased by
the too exclusive consideration of the man-like apes. If these did not
exist, the remaining monkeys could not be thereby deteriorated as to
their organization or lowered in their zoological position ; but it is
doubtful if we should then class them so high as we now do. We
might then dwell more on their resemblances to lower types — to ro-
dents, to insectivora, and to marsupials, and should hardly rank the
hideous baboon above the graceful leopard or stately stag. The true
conclusion appears to be, that the combination of external characters
and internal structure which exists in the monkeys is that which, when
greatly improved, refined, and beautified, was best calculated to become
the perfect instrument of the human intellect, and to aid in the devel-
opment of man's higher nature ; while, on the other hand, in the rude,
inharmonious, and undeveloped state which it has reached in the quad-
rumana, it is by no means worthy of the highest place, or can be held
to exhibit the most perfect development of existing animal life. — ■ Con-
temporary Review.

■♦•»

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSES.

By EOBEET W. LOVETT.

IN the fifth century before Christ, Democritus declared that the
senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste were merely modifications
of the sense of touch. Aristotle ridiculed his theory, and so, stamped
with his disapproval, it lay untouched for two thousand years, until
Telesius, an Italian of the sixteenth century, revived it.

Strange to say, all that modern science has accomplished in embry-
ology and zoology tends to confirm this theory of Democritus, that
these four senses are only specializations of the universal sense — the
sense of touch. In the embryo of all animals the organs of these four
senses first appear as infoldings of the outer germinal layer, the ecto-

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSES. 35

derm, from which the outer skin also develops. At an early stage
they are all simple pockets in the outer covering. If the history of
the embryo is to be taken as the miniature of the history of the race —
that is, if the individual in its development follows the same course
that the race has followed, and it seems reasonable to suppose that
this is the case — it is easy to see the importance of this evidence.

In the animal kingdom the sense of touch is universal; it is even
found in those lowest animals, the protozoa, which are only masses of
simple protoplasm. But, if this animal with its one sense is to become
higher, there must be a division of labor ; there is too much work for
one sense to do properly, and by a quantitative modification this primi-
tive sense is to become qualitatively different in parts, and this quali-
tative difference is the difference which we notice between the sense
of touch and the other senses of the higher animals; it has come about
by an accumulation of the sense of touch.

The waves of air which fall on the body of this protozoan as heat
are capable of a higher rendering, they will signify more than heat to
the proper organ for perceiving them, they will give the sensations of
light and colors. The simplest eyes are merely pigment-spots in the
skin, they merely distinguish heat from cold and light from darkness ;
but later, by the formation of a lens and sensitive membrane, the ex-
ternal world is revealed in all its variety.

The eye is first found in the sea-anemone, where it is merely one
of these pigment spots. But all that the most complete eye can give
to us is a field of gradated colors. In itself this field of colors conveys
no information to us. It must be explained before it can be of any
practical use to us, and this necessary explanation can only be furnished
by our sense of touch. That is, distance, magnitude, and shape are
not directly perceived by the eye, but are suggested by certain object-
ive gradations of color which have been associated with them in our
past experience. Thus, sight appears as entirely dependent upon touch
for its usefulness. This theory was first advanced by Bishop Berke-
ley in his famous " Essay toward a New Theory of Vision," and was
afterward confirmed in a very wonderful way by some experiments
made by Dr. Cheselden, of London. A young man had been blind from
his birth on account of cataracts. These were removed by Dr. Ches-
elden, and he suddenly received his s'.ght. At first he could perceive
no such thing as distance or form. Only by repeatedly touching ob-
jects could he bring himself to realize that certain experiences of touch
were always associated with certain gradations of color. Gradually
he connected the sensations of sight with the sensations of touch, and
in time became as insensible as we are to their true relation.

The ear first appears, in the jelly-fish, as a pocket in the outer skin.
In this simple condition it serves as a general indicator of violent air-
motion. But as the animal becomes higher there is a demand for a
nicer perception of sound, and this pocket is closed and finally is pro-

3 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vided with a complicated acoustic apparatus, in the same way that the
eye is provided with a lens, which renders into terms of noise and mu-
sic those air-waves which to the rest of the skin are imperceptible.

But a sound conveys no more information in itself than does the
field of colors presented by the eye ; only when we can tell from what
it comes, and what consequences have been connected with it in our
past experience, does it have any practical meaning to us. And, again,
this explanation can only be furnished by our sense of touch, or by our
sense of sight, which, as we have seen, is entirely dependent upon our
sense of touch.

The senses of smell and taste should properly be resolved into one
sense, for they are probably only late modifications of the same prop-
erty of the mucous membrane lining the mouth and nose. This mem-
brane is only an invading growth of the skin surrounding the mouth,
so, morphologically, this sense is the same as the two just examined.
The sense of smell is undoubtedly present in some insects, as, for in-
stance, in the burying beetles, and may perhaps be found lower.

In man this double sense is undoubtedly retrogressive, and probably
reaches its highest development in some of the lower mammalia.
With us it is at best only a source of transitory pleasure, and seems in
no way to contribute to our higher mental development.

But the senses of sight and hearing are very different in this re-
spect. If Darwin is right, they have played a most important part in
the evolution of the past as the instruments of sexual selection. And,
in the future development of our race, it seems as if their perfection
would be reached only with the perfection of the human mind. For
if the impulse to development is given from without by the environ-
ment, these organs must be continually improved so as to perceive the
nicer and nicer distinctions in the environment which will be the
means of elevating the mind. If the impulse to development is given
from within the mind, these sense-organs must be developed more
highly in order to provide the enlarging mind with the continually
nicer perception which it will require.

Man's mind develops, not his body. With the exception of these
two sense-organs, his body has been nearly stationary for thousands of
years, but these two organs respond to comparatively little change.
The ear of the savage differs from the ear of the civilized man more
than the two men differ in any other respect.

Touch, smell, and taste seem as complete as they need be for any
conceivable human being, but that the eye is yet incomplete is very
strikingly shown by the so-called actinic rays of the solar spectrum.
In this spectrum there are rays beyond the violet which have an action
on certain chemical substances much like the action of the blue and
violet rays. But to the human eye these rays are absolutely invisible.
The perception of this unknown color seems but a short step in the
development of the eye.

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY. 37

But how different from the others, both in character and history,
is the sense of touch ! Having -with them a common origin, like them
it is resident in the outer skin, but it is active alike all over the body ;
the touch of the finger-tips may be more delicate than that of the
palms, but it is only a quantitative difference. The sense of touch is
the fundamental sense. All the other senses have to render their data
into its terms before they can be understood by the mind. Animals
can live without sight, hearing, taste, or smell, but the presence of the
sense of touch seems a necessary condition of animal existence. The
other senses are means of self-preservation ; the sense of touch is the
manifestation of an animal's existence.

The senses, then, all originate from the outer covering ; this cov-
ering has from the beginning a special sensation from the resistance
to external pressure ; this property it retains throughout the animal
kingdom. The other sense-organs appear as specialized parts of this
universal sense-organ ; morphologically they are only parts of the skin,
rendered more sensitive than the normal skin.

All the evidence seems to point one way, to the conclusion that the
other senses are all modifications of the sense of touch. That such is
probably the fact seems to be generally admitted. What I have tried
to show is our ground for that conclusion, and that what was with
Democritus a random speculation is with us fast assuming the nature
of a scientific truth.

«♦ • »-

THE STEREOSCOPE: ITS HISTORY.*

0

By W. LE CONTE STEVENS.
I.

rpHAT a near object of small dimensions presents an aspect slightly
-L different to each one of a pair of eyes directed upon it, has been
known for more than two thousand years ; but no application of this
knowledge was ever made until some time after the beginning of the
present century. The analysis of binocular vision is one of the prod-
ucts of modern investigation, and the stereoscope is its direct outcome.
That vision with two eyes is greatly preferable to what the ancients
accorded to Polyphemus is fully appreciated by every one who pos-
sesses a pair of healthy visual organs and a stereoscope, but who at
any time has been so unfortunate as to suffer a temporary injury that
reduces him for a few days to the condition of the classic monocular
giant. Familiar as he may be with the truth that the perspective
effect of a fine painting is better appreciated when one eye is closed,

* Expanded from an address before the Photographic Section of the American Insti-
tute, delivered March 7, 1882.

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

he is never willing to keep it thus inactive any longer than necessary ;
and, if such a hint is gently suggested, he is prompt to answer it by
some prosaic contrast between the artist's clever illusion and the neces-
sities of life in a wide-awake world. Lord Bacon says : " We see more
exquisitely with one eye than with both, because the vital spirits thus
unite themselves the more, and become the stronger ; for we may find
by looking in a glass whilst we shut one eye that the pupil of the other
dilates." But even the cogent logic of Lord Bacon would scarcely
reconcile many of us to the adoption of strictly Cyclopean customs in
the enjoyment of vision.

In response to the question, " What is the use of having two eyes ? "
the answer has been given, " To have one left if the other is hurt."
Much as we may admire the sagacious foresight of this youthful physi-
ologist, it will not be found sufficient to rest contented with his ulti-
matum. He had evidently not tried his skill to find how unexpectedly
he would miss the inkstand while endeavoring to dip his pen into it
at arm's length, with one eye closed. He had not thought of holding
his finger a few inches in front of his face to find what part of the
wall it would hide from each eye in succession, or how differently it
would look when regarded from those two points of view separately,
how much thicker it would appear when both eyes were open, how read-
ily he could examine three sides of it at once, how much more defi-
nitely he could judge its distance, in a word how much more compre-
hensive was the information given by two eyes if used at the same
moment. Assuming that he knows exactly how to account for the
inversion of the retinal image and the erect appearance of the object
there pictured, how our visual perceptions are only signs of what we
momentarily feel on the retina, signs that generally represent the real-
ities with a fair degree of accuracy, but may sometimes represent
almost anything else on demand, how, if the eyes be healthy, we have
no consciousness of possessing any retina at all, but instantly and un-
consciously refer every retinal sensation to some external body whose
existence we are obliged to assume, unless there be special arguments
to convince us to the contrary— granting all this, our young physiolo-
gist has not thought of inquiring how it is that, although two retinal
images are produced, we see but a single object, and this despite the
fact that, like photographs of the same body simultaneously taken
from different stand-points, these two images are necessarily dissimilar.

This question, and especially its latter part, is much more easily
asked than answered with fullness, clearness, and certainty. There is
no antecedent reason why two separate retinal images should not pro-
duce the impression of two separate bodies. That they may do so
must have come within the experience of every one. A few "glasses of
champagne are often enough to convince the most skeptical. Without
resorting, however, to agencies that produce involuntary though tem-
porary loss of 'muscular control of the eyes, it is only necessary to

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY.

39

gaze at any clearly defined object for a few moments, and press upon
the eyeball near the outer corner of the opening between the lids —
double vision is instantly attained. The condition thus induced is un-
natural, and the effect is unnatural vision. Our modes of interpreting
nerve-impressions, like our modes of mental and bodily action in other
respects, are the results partly of individual experience and partly of
inheritance through countless generations. If a blow is received upon
the right cheek, whether it be from a solid body or from a wave in the
medium in which we are immersed, experience at once suggests the
direction from which it came. If through many generations every
individual were continually receiving gentle blows on the center of
the right cheek through all the moments of waking existence, and the
accurate perception of these were conducive to his welfare, then on
physiological principles it seems in the highest degree probable that
the judgment of direction by the cheek might become as habitual and
unerring as is our judgment of direction by the eye. By a liberal
construction of language we might be said to that extent to see with
the cheek ; and the man who is blessed with the healthiest, best-trained,

Fig. 1.— Left and Kight Projections uf Glass Coae.

and most vigorous cheek, aside from other qualities, would be most apt
to win in the struggle for existence. If, then, in normal vision each of
two eyes receives impressions due to wave-impulses from the same ex-
ternal object, the position of this is referred to the same external place
in accordance with the association that experience, individual and an-
cestral, instantly arouses in response to the sensation felt on each sep-
arate retina. If, therefore, every person were blessed with such optic
luxuriance as is attributed to the fabled Argus, there is no reason to
suppose that, if each eye be healthy and ordinarily controllable, he
would have anything else than single vision, unless the necessities
imposed in the struggle for success made it advantageous to acquire
the power of dissociating the action of the muscles of these eyes, and
thus making use of voluntary multiple vision.

4o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In an essay published many years ago, Carlyle dwelt, in a manner
characteristically his own, upon the unconsciousness that is a mark of
health in the human body. The dyspeptic man knows full well that
he has a stomach, but the eupeptic child has no conception of the ex-
istence of such an organ, however vivid may be its ideas of fairies, ogres,
and dragons. In like manner the retina is an abstraction for him who
has good binocular vision and but little book-lore. "With a single eye
he sees many objects at the same time, and judges their different posi-
tions ; the only idea aroused is about the objects themselves, and not
about the retinal impressions from them. If both eyes be directed to
the same distant point, there is still the same consciousness of a single
external thing, and not of two eyes. By slowly crossing the two visual
lines for the purpose of comprehensively scanning the root of one's own
nose, which is the nearest object that can be regarded with entire con-
venience, if both eyes are of equal power, the visual impression is found
to be that two noses are approaching each other, and closing up the
brightest part of the field of view in front. Between them is left a
narrow heart-shaped window, with dimly transparent nasal shutters.
The outlines of these are most easily discerned by momentarily clos-
ing each eye alternately, while the convergence of visual lines is vig-
orously retained, and then opening both and depending on indirect
vision. If there is any consciousness of an eye at all, it is referred
to the sensation of strain in the muscles that seem to be pulling the
shutters together, and not to any retina receiving pictures of them.
There is, indeed, the consciousness of looking out of the window
from a single stand-point, but not from two eyes. The subjective im-
pression is that the two points of view are identified into a single
eye, whose position is central and constitutes the point of origin from
which all our estimates of direction and distance are made. Keeping
the nasal window as small as possible by cross-vision, and endeavor-
ing to test the real singleness of the double-phantom nose by gently
putting the finger upon it from in front, it is easy additionally to con-
vince one's self that

"... things are not what they seem."

Two fingers will be seen approaching from different directions. If it
should occur to the indignant observer that these may be utilized in
putting an end to his nasal redundancy by closing up the window, they
will steadily converge and strike together upon the root of the nose,
almost exactly where he had been supposing his point of view to be.
The window at the next moment, instead of being closed, will be
opened wide, and, on resting the tired muscles of his eyes, he will find
that the phantom-noses have leaped to the two sides, the position of
each being indicated by the faithful ghosts of the fingei. The experi-
ment is a little surprising at first, and the specters are very shadowy,
but a literally close search will be quite sure to reveal them by indirect
vision.

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY.

41

Subjectively, therefore, our condition is not so very different from
that of the famous Cyclops. We have the advantage of being able to
see double, by adjusting conditions properly ; but, if sensation is to be
trusted, the object is duplicated while the eye is single, although by
other means we learn that the object remains single, and is only viewed
from two different stand-points at the same moment, while the sepa-

Fig. 2.— Wheatstone's Stereoscope. (Front View.)

1

£0

Fig. 3.— Wheatstone's Stereoscope. (Ground Plan.)

rate lines of direction for the two eyes meet elsewhere. By appropri-
ate muscular training the eyes may be directed, each slightly outward,
so that these "lines meet behind the observer's head while the object,
apparently duplicated, is seen still in front. The recognition of the
subjective fusion of the two eyes into a Cyclopean, or central binocular
eye, is a fundamental prerequisite for the explanation of vision in the
stereoscope. In consequence of this, if two similar pictures are placed
close in front of the eyes, the distance between their centers being
equal to the distance between the pupils, they at once appear to coa-
lesce into a single picture. In this way an objective existence may
appear to be given to the binocular eye by approaching a mirror until
the nose touches the glass, and avoiding the convergence of visual
lines that would otherwise be natural. A narrow face is seen, possess-

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing but a single eye, that looks into the very depths of the observer's
Cyclopean eye.

The conception of this subjective union as the product of the ex-
perience of the race in interpreting sensations, and the consequent
necessity of distinguishing between realities and their visual represen-
tations, seems never to have been appreciated until long after the in-
vention of instruments for use in the analysis of vision. Much con-
fusion has resulted from the attempt to explain what are really sub-
jective results of retinal sensation by the application of geometric
principles, irrespective of the illusive union of the two eyes when em-
ployed together. In 1604 Kepler stated that the 'distance between the
eyes constituted a base-line, which we employ for measuring the dis-
tance of objects by a species of visual triangulation. This idea was
subsequently greatly elaborated by Sir David Brewster and others ;.
and in most, if not all, of our text-books of physics to-day it is applied
in a very familiar diagram to explain the principle of the stereoscope.
On this theory the apparent position of every point in the stereoscopic
field of view is determined by the meeting of separate visual lines,
which converge in front. An obvious consequence is that this locali-
zation should become impossible if the visual lines become parallel or
divergent. But, in truth, there can be no perception of locality by
this method. If the eyes are subjectively united, the visual lines be-
come subjectively united along with them ; if, indeed, such language
is at all applicable to lines that are mere abstractions. In its applica-
tion to stereoscopic vision, therefore, the diagram is worthless ; for
such vision is much easier to most persons when the visual lines are
parallel, or very slightly divergent, than when they are strongly con-
vergent, and in no case can there be any recognition of intersection
between lines which, if subjectively perceived at all, wTould be coinci-
dent throughout their whole extent.

The error just mentioned has undoubtedly sprung from the assump-
tion that stereoscopic vision is always perfectly normal. If this be so,
it should be as painless as the reading of this page, even when con-
tinued for hours in succession. Every one who has tried the experi-
ment with an ordinary stereoscope, and a large, miscellaneous collec-
tion of stereographs, knows how wearying it is, and how in some cases
distinct vision is found impossible. To indicate the real differences
between normal vision and that which is attained in most stereoscopes,
it will be necessary first to study the development of this instrument.

The duality of human vision of near objects, and the consequent
dissimilarity of retinal pictures in the separate eyes, was apprehend-
ed and more or less vaguely discussed by Euclid (b. c. 300), Galen
(a. d. 200), Baptista Porta (1593), Leonardo da Vinci (1584), Aguilo-
nius (1613), and by Smith, Harris, and Porterfield during the eight-
eenth century. No practical results were wrought, however, until
1838, when Sir Charles Wheatstone read before the Royal Society his

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY.

43

now classic paper on the " Physiology of Vision." Let the reader im-
agine, or actually put on the page before him, some small solid body,
such as a cone, with a few lines drawn from its vertex to the base. If
it be of glass, so much the better ; an ink-dot can then be marked at
the center of the base, and the lines scratched upon the sides can
easily be blackened. Close the left eye ; the cone appears to the right
eye like Fig. 1, R. Without moving the head, look with the left eye
alone ; the appearance is like Fig. 1, L. If each eye were in succes-
sion transformed for a moment into an electric light, the shadows
projected upon the paper would be those given in the figure, but with
a common base. Opening both eyes, the perception of the height of
the cone is far more distinct than when either is closed. Let us now
quote Wheatstone's own words : " It being thus established that the
mind perceives an object of three dimensions by means of the two dis-
similar pictures projected by it on the two retinse, the following ques-
tion occurs : What would be the visual effect of simultaneously pre-
senting to each eye, instead of the object itself, its projection on a
plane surface as it appears to that eye ? To pursue this inquiry, it is
necessary that means should be contrived to make the two pictures,
which must necessarily occupy different places, fall on similar parts of
both retinse. Under the ordinary circumstances of vision, the object
is seen at the concourse of the optic axes (visual lines *), and its im-
ages consequently are projected on similar parts of the two retina? ;
but it is also evident that two exactly similar objects may be made to
fall on similar parts of the two retince, if they are placed one in the
direction of each optic axis, at equal distances before or beyond their
intersection."

Fig. 4.— Wheatstone's Stereoscope (Perspective View), 1833.

To follow out to the letter the instructions suggested in Wheat-
stone's last sentence, transfer Fig. 1 to glass. This can be easily done.
Upon an oblong plate of window-glass put a few drops of clear var-
nish ; let it spread thinly over the surface and become thoroughly dry.

* In Wheatstone's time the visual lines were supposed to be optic axes. That this is
not quite so has since been proved by Helmholtz.

44

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Copy the picture, of exact size, by scratching through the varnish, and
then blacken the lines with ink. Hold the transparent plate at the
distance of a foot from your eyes, and through it look at a point about
five feet away. Very little motion of the plate is needed to get this
point exactly aligned with each of the dots within the circles by look-
ing with each eye in succession. Look at the point now with both
eyes, and you will see, suspended in the air, probably just beyond the
plate, apparently a solid cone of glass pointing toward you, the very
facsimile of our glass cone from which the pictures were taken.

Copy the picture also on paper or card-board, of exact size, but with
the part marked R transferred to the left, and that marked L to the
right. Hold up the point of a pencil about half-way between your
eyes and the card. In a moment the proper position is found, where it
is aligned with R for the right eye and with L for the left. Open both
eyes and converge them upon the pencil-point. A little cone pointing
toward you is suspended in the air just beyond the pencil, which may
now be withdrawn. Move your head from side to side : the cone
moves with you. It is brilliantly lustrous, sharp in outline, and much
smaller than that previously seen. Two companion circles, one on each
side, are left behind on the card, and are larger than the base of the
suspended cone, but a little smaller than the circles originally were.
Their appearance is due to images of R and L which fall upon retinal
parts that in normal vision could not be simultaneously impressed by

Fig. 5.— The First Landscape Stereograph.

an external single body. The sensations produced by them are hence
not suggestive of singleness, and each is therefore referred separately
outward in the direction from which the rays producing them have
come. Such side-images are perceived also when the glass plate is
employed. Try the same experiment now with the picture on the
page ; the miniature cone leaps off the paper into the air, but this time
it is hollow, for its vertex is pointed to the place from which it seems
to have sprung.

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY. 45

These experiments are delightfully surprising when successfully-
accomplished for the first time. They are well worth the trifling pre-
liminary trouble which they entail. But even this can be in great
measure avoided by having a photograph of the picture taken on glass.
If you will previously approach the polite photographer in your most
charmingly courteous and irresistible style, enable him to perceive the
glittering phantom cone reversed in mid-air, invite him to grasp it
and give to this " airy nothing a local habitation and a name," and
convince him that, if not illusive, it is even more elusive than the
merry sunbeam which his camera alone can catch in all its beauty, he
will at once be lost in admiration of your magic skill and singular sa-
gacity, and instantly find it impossible to avoid preparing the wonder-
working photograph on glass. This he will smilingly present to you
in the most enthusiastic and complimentary manner, with evident
gratitude for the favor you have bestowed, and the good taste you
have exhibited in selecting him as the recipient of your discriminating
and exclusive confidence.

The presence of the uncombined images at the sides of the bi-
nocular picture, as it stands out in solid relief, is apt to be confusing,
because their effect is partially to distract the attention. In Wheat-
stone's first experiments, he avoided them by looking through tubes,
or into a box. In any case, the methods of stereoscopy just de-
scribed, although by far the most useful in studying the principles of
binocular vision, are not usually acquired until after a few trials.
When they are once mastered, it becomes easy to discard pencils and
other points of fixation, and the voluntary muscular control of the
eyes is sufficient for all cases. Wheatstone gave to the world a new
revelation in both the science and the art of perspective, when, in
1838, he devised his reflecting stereoscope for the purpose of remov-
ing the difficulties involved in stereoscopy by direct vision. Figs. 2
and 3 are exact reproductions of his drawings, representing the front
view and ground-plan of his original stereoscope ; and, in describing
them, we can not do better than again to give his own words : "AA'
are two plane mirrors, about four inches square, inserted in frames,
and so adjusted that their backs form an angle of 90° with each other;
these mirrors are fixed by their common edge against an upright, B,
or against the middle line of a vertical board, cut away in such manner
as to allow the eyes to be placed before the two mirrors. C C are two
sliding boards, to which are attached the upright boards DD', which
may thus be removed to different distances from the mirrors. To
facilitate this adjustment I employ a right- and a left-handed wooden
screw, r I ; the two ends of this compound-screw pass through the
nuts e e', which are fixed to the lower parts of the upright boards D D',
so that, by turning the screw-pin p one way, the two boards will ap-
proach, and, by turning it the other way, they will recede from each
other ; one always preserving the same distance as the other from the

46

.THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

middle line f. E E' are panels, to which the pictures are fixed in such
a manner that their corresponding horizontal lines shall be on the
same level ; these panels are capable of sliding backward and forward
in grooves on the upright boards, DD'. The observer must place his
eyes as near as possible to the mirrors, the right eye before the right-
hand mirror, and the left eye before the left-hand mirror ; and he must
move the sliding-panels E E' to or from him, until the two reflected
images coincide at the intersection of the optic axes, and form an
image of the same apparent magnitude as each of the component pict-

ures.

55

In using this stereoscope, of which a perspective view is given in
Fig. 4, the two conjugate pictures must be on separate cards, but may
be much larger than those which are now so extensively used with
more modern instruments. The arrangement is obviously such that
no side-images can be perceived, since it is impossible for either eye
to receive more than one image, and this is reflected from the oblique
mirror directly in front. As an instrument it is unwieldy and incon-
venient in comparison with those to which we are accustomed ; but

Fig. 6.— The Binocular Camera.

with it the great secret of binocular vision was brought into open day-
light. Wheatstone had the genius to find out how the door was to be
unlocked, and it was left for others to devise the special forms that
would be employed in making most acceptable to the world the treas-
ure which he had found. His predecessors had more or less distinct
conceptions of an hypothetical treasure, just as something was known
about the nature of steam before the low-pressure engine was invented,

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY. 47

and about sound-waves before the telephone came into existence. To
him distinctly belongs the credit of objectively demonstrating the
essential features of binocular vision, with the first instrument act-
ually constructed in accordance with principles which possibly others
might have applied, if they had possessed equal clearness of concep-
tion and fertility of invention. So slight was the general appreciation
of the fact that the two retinal images in binocular vision are dissimi-
lar, that Wheatstone made this discovery independently, and then
added the application which others had failed to make, but without
the knowledge that any one had preceded him in even forming the
conception. The originality of his discovery is not affected by the
unemphatic statements afterward found to have been recorded by
those who preceded him in thought but not in act.

One of these predecessors was Mr. James Elliot, of Edinburgh,
who, "previous to or during the year 1834, had resolved to construct
an instrument for uniting two dissimilar pictures." By delay he lost
the golden opportunity, which, without envy or knowledge of his ex-
istence, was snatched away from him by Wheatstone. Not until 1839
did Elliot construct the instrument which he had contemplated. It
was simply a wooden box, open at the extremities, so that a pair of
conjugate pictures on glass could be placed at one end, and all light
except that which was transmitted through them could be excluded
from the eyes placed at the other end. He was not aware of Wheat-
stone's invention, which indeed did not become generally known for a

Fig. 7.— Brewster's Stereoscope, 1849.

number of years after its completion, because not adapted for general
use, and because no other means than free-hand drawing existed for
the accurate preparation of the conjugate pictures. Those employed
by Wheatstone were outlines of various geometric solids. Elliot's
first stereograph was^a landscape, represented in Fig. 5, which is a

48

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

little smaller than that constructed by him. In the background of
each picture is the moon, the stereographic interval between them be-
ing two and a half inches, which is about the average distance between
the pupils of a pair of eyes. Next comes a cross, and in the fore-
ground is the withered branch of a tree. In the picture on the right
it is seen that the branch is nearly aligned with the cross, which is
projected against the sky on one side of the moon ; in that on the
left one limb of the cross is projected against the moon, while the
branch is wholly on the right of both. If the reader will place one
edge of a card on the line between the two pictures, while the other
edge touches his nose and forehead, he will perceive but a single pict-
ure, in which the branch, cross, and moon are successively farther
away, the two former standing out in clear relief. By a little attention,
moreover, he will see two phantom-cards, one on each side of the
combined picture, and between the two his Cyclopean eye is regarding
the landscape before him.

At the exhibition of Wheatstone's reflecting stereoscope, and the
reading of his paper before the British Association at Newcastle, in
August, 1838, one of the most interested auditors present was Sir
David Brewster, who remarked on its important bearing upon the

Fig. 8.— Modified Brewster Stereoscope.

theory of single vision to which he himself had given much attention.
In his subsequent investigations he devised two important instruments
which, with others of less value, were described in papers published
in 1849. These were the binocular camera and the lenticular stereo-
scope. During the following year they were exhibited in Paris ; and
here it was that stereoscopy first became the delight of the people^
after having been confined for a dozen years to the laboratory of the
physicist.

The binocular camera needs but little description. Every one is
familiar with the instrument, first devised in its simplest form by Bap-

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY. 49

tista Porta, as ordinarily employed by the modern photographer. It
consists now of a dark chamber, into which light from the object to
be pictured is converged with a combination of carefully corrected
achromatic lenses upon a prepared plate whose distance can be readily
adjusted. If provided with two such combinations a few inches apart
(Fig. 6), so that two pictures of the same object can be simultaneously
taken thus from slightly different standpoints, it becomes the instru-
ment on whose co-existence depends the value of the stereoscope.
Without it the preparation of the stereograph would be practically
impossible in many cases, for a living object, and even many inanimate
objects, such as clouds, may move during the interval consumed in
changing the position of the single camera and taking the two pictures
successively. In the absence of photography dissimilar pictures must
be made with the brush or pencil ; and, aside from the labor thus im-
posed, few artists can compete with the sunbeam where perfect accu-
racy in every detail is required. Without the stereoscope, on the
other hand, there would be little or no raison cVttre for the binocular
camera. Photography can scarcely be said to have had an existence
before the publication, in 1839, of the labors of Talbot and Daguerre ;
and until Archer discovered, in 1851, that collodion could be employed
as a vehicle for silver salts, the art was incapable of very wide or suc-
cessful application for stereoscopic purposes. This epoch in photog-
raphy, indeed, came after Brewster's double camera had been devised.
The latter was itself the timely and natural outcome of the develop-
ment of this art of sun-drawing, in conjunction with Brewster's in-
vention of a far more convenient form of stereoscope than that em-
ployed by his distinguished contemporary. Wheatstone could hardly
have entertained any idea of utilizing the evanescent images in silver
nitrate obtained prior to 1802 by Wedgwood and Davy, or even those
secured in 1814 by the elder Niepce on bituminized plates, which, in-
deed, were more permanent, but still far from satisfactory. Scarcely
a year elapsed after Wheatstone's invention before the first photograph
ever obtained from the human face was successfully taken by the
leader in photography on our own side of the Atlantic, Dr. John W.
Draper ; but the art was not yet enough developed, even in such

Fig. 9.— Arrangement of Semi-Lenses.

hands, to suggest the application for stereoscopic purposes which was
afterward so happily made by Brewster. To this physicist, therefore,
we must credit the invention of the means by which stereoscopy was
made to become co-extensive with photography.

The only difficulty in viewing a stereograph, as we have seen, con-
sists in giving the proper direction to the eyes, which, in spite of the
VOL. xxi. — 4

50

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

efforts of the untrained observer, will generally converge to a single
point of fixation. Brewster's mode of preventing this was, like El-
liot's, to cause each of the two pictures to be viewed at the bottom of
a box, through which light was transmitted. His stereoscope is shown
in Fig. 7, which has been taken from an instrument brought to New
York in 1850, and much prized by its owner as the first stereoscope
ever seen in America. The box is of mahogany, and provided with a
lid which can be raised so that an opaque card also may be viewed, if
desired, by reflected light admitted from above. The bottom is made
of roughened glass so as to diffuse the light that is transmitted, in case
a photograph on glass is employed. In either case, the picture can
slide easily in and out. To secure the natural convergence of visual
lines, a condition which Brewster thought indispensable, a pair of semi-
lenses were inclosed in brass tubes at the top of the box. These tubes
could be drawn slightly out, like those of an opera-glass, and one was
capable of slight lateral motion, being fixed upon a sliding plate of
wood as shown in the drawing. They could thus be adapted to differ-
ent pairs of eyes. They served the double purpose of holding the
semi-lenses, with edges toward each other, at the most convenient dis-

Fig. 10.— The American Grandfather, 1861.

tauce from the stereograph, and of hiding from each eye the picture
intended for the other. Since the rays in transmission are deviated
toward the thicker part of the glass, it is possible without discomfort
to use pictures on which the stereographic interval exceeds that be-
tween the observer's pupils. On ordinary stereographs, however, three
inches is the usual limit. Another office performed by the semi-lenses

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS HISTORY.

51

is that of magnifying the pictures as they are binocularly viewed. It
was indeed a happy thought that produced such a combination of ad-
mirable features.

Much space could be occupied in describing the many forms of
stereoscope that have been devised since that of Brewster was first
put forth. They have all been applications of the principles already
explained in connection with the reflecting and refracting instruments,
devised in 1838 and 1849e That of Helmholtz is probably the best in
Europe. In this each tube extends into the box, and is provided with
a pair of accurately centred plano-convex lenses, which greatly mag-
nify the pictures. It is indeed simply a pair of telescope eye-pieces,
each of which is screwed into a plate to which lateral motion, for the
purpose of adjustment, may be given with a screw, lever, and spring.
To avoid the necessity of optic divergence, the stereograph must be
comparatively small. Such an instrument is necessarily quite costly.
The form most widely employed in Europe is that shown in Fig. 8,
in which the box is divided by a partition (s), which does not extend
so far as to prevent ready motion of the slide. The tubes are dis-
carded and the semi-lenses are permanently fixed, edge to edge (Fig.
9), into the wood at the smaller end. This is objectionable, because
no adjustment is possible for either the distance of the card or the
width between the eyes.

Twenty years ago the stereoscope just described was the only one
extensively used in America. At present it is hard to find, because
totally displaced by another instrument, the device of a modest Ameri-
can whose name seems to be but little associated in the popular mind

Fig. 11.— Accommodating Grandchildren, 1882.

with his own invention. This fact would be inexplicable were it not
that he has made so many thousands of readers happy by his writings
on literary topics that they think of him only as the poet, the profess-
or,' the genial " autocrat of the breakfast-table," whose delicate humor
and warm human sympathy have so often caused smiles and tears to
mingle together, that they forget him as the physiologist, who finds
use for other instruments besides his mirth-provoking pen. There are
few who think of him as an inventor, when they use the convenient
and compact stereoscopes that have been multiplied in tens of thou-
sands, until now no home is too humble, no father too poor, to delight

52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his little ones with phantom scenes of beauty, brought by the sunbeam
and the stereoscope from places that their eyes will never behold.
The writer will not be deemed blameworthy in transcribing, from a
letter that was not intended for the public, a few lines which the au-
thor has consented to let him give. Dr. Holmes says : " It appeared
to me that the box stereoscopes were cumbrous and awkward affairs.
I had one of Smith and Beck's, and one or more of other patterns, but
I did not like them ; and so one day I cut out a piece of wood in some
such shape as this (Fig. 10), the lines representing slots in which the
stereograph was to be placed, stuck an awl in for a handle, and there
was my stereoscope. ... I have forgotten to mention the hood, which
I made of pasteboard cut to fit. Other open instruments, and many
closed ones, have been made, but most of them have been awkward,
expensive, and sometimes gimcracky, whereas I think mine may be
called simple, strong, cheap, handy."

No better compendium of good qualities can be expressed than is
comprised in this brief list of four words. The figure is taken directly
from " the original great-grandfather pattern," as the inventor has
pleasantly called it, the " real Adam " of hand-stereoscopes, that was
born — or developed — in 1861, delighted the human beings who lived
in that remote day, and has been sleeping these many years. Com-
pelled now to show itself, like Hip Van Winkle, it is perhaps a little
stiff ; and in style it is a trifle blunt, in comparison with its polished
and accommodating great-grandchildren of the present day (Fig. 11),
that fold up and pocket themselves out of sight ; but nevertheless its
character is that of a straightforward, clear-headed old ancestor, that
looks forth honestly from under that somber hood.

To produce the illusion of viewing an actual sunlit scene, Dr.
Holmes placed between the stereograph and the semi-lenses an oblique
wooden plate, in which were a pair of elliptic openings, so that the
effect was that of looking through a circular window. The front was
covered with gilt paper from which a golden light was reflected upon
the picture. As an appropriate name he selected that of " The Claude
Lorraine Stereoscope."

The inventor offered his device gratuitously to manufacturers in
New York and Philadelphia, but their refusal was as courteous as
was consistent with firm opposition. He did not assume the trouble
to secure it by patent, as he " did not care to make money by so ob-
vious and simple a contrivance." A few of these stereoscopes were at
last constructed by Mr. Joseph L. Bates, of Boston ; and the demand
rapidly grew so that now but few of any other make are to be found in
the United States. Improvements, indeed, have been added, but not
of such kind as to diminish the cost ; one of these, introduced by Mr.
Bates, was the substitution of a sliding cross-bar for the series of fixed
slots. The " Claude Lorraine " effect may be easily obtained with any
ordinary stereoscope, by the use of an extra cross-bar, on which the

MEASUREMENTS OF MEN. 53

gilt window-plate is hinged ; it may thus be adjusted to any position
and inclined at will according to the direction from which the light
comes.

A simple and moderately satisfactory stereoscope may be impro-
vised by unscrewing the concave eye-pieces from an ordinary opera-
glass, and looking through it at the stereograph, which must be held
about six inches from the centers of the object-glasses and parallel to
the line connecting these. Vision by this method, however, is very
uncomfortable if the stereograph be large. The instrument is a crude
Helmholtz stereoscope, but it needs adjusting-screws at both ends of
each tube to make it entirely satisfactory. The only objection to Dr.
Holmes's instrument is the absence of adjustment ; but, despite this
defect, it is deservedly used everywhere in our country. Quietly and
unselfishly he has done far more for the stereoscope in America than
has ever been credited him by those who enjoy the fruits of his spon-
taneous and unpaid ingenuity.

■+*+-

MEASUREMENTS OF MEN.

By FRANCIS G ALTON, F. B. S.

WHEN shall we have anthropometric laboratories, where a man may
from time to time get himself and his children weighed, meas-
ured, and rightly photographed, and have each of their bodily faculties
tested, by the best methods known to modern science ? In the Janu-
ary number of this " Review " I endeavored to show the advantages
of photographic chronicles maintained from childhood to age, and how
they should be made and preserved ; in the present memoir I propose
to briefly speak upon the anthropometric and medical facts that might
properly be recorded by the side of the photographs in the family
records to which I there referred. I shall endeavor to define the scope
of what may be effected in this direction, partly by accurate apparatus
now extant, and partly in a rougher and less effective way, owing to
the present want of appropriate apparatus. In doing so the instru-
mental and other desiderata will be pointed out that seem most easily
capable of being supplied, if the attention of a few persons interested
in the matter could be brought to bear on the subject Two things
are at present needed — a desire among many persons to have them-
selves and their children accurately appraised, and an effort among a
few scientific persons who have the special knowledge required for the
purpose to systematize the methods by which this could best be done.
There appears at length to be a somewhat general concurrence of
opinion that the possibilities of a child's future career are more nar-
rowly limited than our forefathers were fondly disposed to believe. I

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shall not endeavor to epitomize the many arguments pro and con in
respect to such views as these, but will merely recall, in partial justifi-
cation of them, the results of some inquiries into the life-histories of
twins * that I published a few years ago. I took two categories of
twins — those who were closely alike in their infancy and those who
were exceedingly unlike — and I traced their histories up to the date of
the memoir. It appeared that twins who were closely alike at the first
frequently preserved their resemblance throughout life, subject, I may
almost say, to the accident of a fever, or other serious illness altering
the constitution of one of them, and laying the first foundation of a
gradually widening divergence. I found not a few cases in which
twins residing apart and following different professions at home and
abroad still continued to live parallel lives, ageing in the same way,
and preserving all along the same features, voice, gestures, and ways
of thought. I also met with cases in which death had occurred at
nearly the same time to the two twins, and from the same disease. It
further appeared, as regards those twins who were born very unlike,
that in no case did their dissimilarity lessen under the influence of
identical nurture. They had the same nurses, the same tutors, the
same companions, they were reared in every respect alike, yet their
characters continued to be as dissimilar, and, I need hardly add, their
features remained as different as if they had belonged to totally dif-
ferent families. The conclusion to which I was driven by the results
of this inquiry was that a surprisingly small margin seemed to be left
to the effects of circumstances and education, and to the exercise of
what we are accustomed to call " free-will."

It follows from such opinions as these, which appear to be gaining
ground in popular estimation, that it is highly desirable to give more
attention than has been customary hitherto to investigate and define
the capacities of each individual. They form his stock-in-trade, the
amount of which admits of definition, whereby he has to gain his live-
lihood, and to fulfill the claims upon him as head of a family and as a
citizen. So far as we succeed in measuring and expressing them, so
far almost in an equal degree should we be able to forecast what the
man is really fit for, and what he may undertake with the least risk of
disappointment. They would encourage him if unduly timid, or they
would warn him from efforts doomed to be wasted.

What I propose to speak of in the present memoir are those meas-
urements of the bodily form and faculties that can, or apparently could,
be made with some precision, but the personal data in respect. to in-
tellectual and emotional capacities, and to special aptitudes and tastes,
require a separate treatment. The progress of the art of measure-
ment of the more purely bodily faculties has been by no means uni-
form. It has never been specially directed toward furthering the

* " Journal of the Anthropological Institute," 1875 ; " Fraser's Magazine," November,
18*75.
\

MEASUREMENTS OF MEN. 55

knowledge of the life-history of individuals, but for the most part
toward other theoretical investigations. In some cases elaborate in-
struments and methods of observation have been devised by which
certain faculties have been tested with extreme minuteness ; in other
cases no well-contrived and approved system of examination exists.
If everything should be stated by which anthropometry might profit,
the effect would be not unlike the map of some partially-settled coun-
try, drawn on a scale so large as to show the cadastral survey of its
principal town-lands. A fraction of the whole would thus be minutely
engraved, the wide adjacent regions would be represented by a few
lines of route, and the remainder would consist of blanks. In order
to convey in the best way an idea of what is known about such a coun-
try as this, the general map of it should be on a small scale, and then
uniformity of treatment becomes possible. Acting on this principle,
I shall avoid entering into details on those subjects where there exists
very much to speak of, and shall nowhere go further than is sufficient
to express the simpler requirements of anthropometry.

Let us, then, consider how we should set to work to define and de-
scribe the various bodily faculties of a person whom we had ample
means of observing, say one of our own children. Some of the obser-
vations could hardly be made except at a properly equipped anthropo-
metric laboratory ; others, as it will be seen, could at present be car-
ried on best in the play-ground. I shall not care to distinguish these
in the description ; they will be obvious enough when they occur. The
tests would define the capacities of the person at the moment when he
was observed. They are expected to be renewed at intervals, so as to
serve as records of successive periods in his life-history.

Photography was the subject of my last memoir. I showed that
the features should be taken in full face and in exact profile, and on
not too small a scale — that of about one seventh of the natural size
being, perhaps, the most convenient. I also spoke of other photo-
graphs in less formal attitudes, to show the whole figure and gesture.
In some of these the limbs might be more or less bared to exhibit the
muscular development.

I need not dwell upon the usual anthropometric measurements.
They should of course be made, and probably no better rules can be
followed in making them than those of the present Anthropometric
Committee of the British Association. These measurements refer to
height, to weight, to chest-girth (but only if taken by skilled observers
on a uniform plan), to capacity of lungs (also under those condi-
tions), and to color of hair and eyes. Other data are asked for in
the instructions issued by the committee which would also require
to be recorded, and which may as well be mentioned now — such
as birthplace and residence, whether in town or country, both of the
person and of his parents ; also their race, whether English, Scotch,
or Irish, etc.

56 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

We now proceed to the measurements and records that are more
especially the subject of this memoir.

Energy may be defined as the length of time during which a per-
son is wont to work at full stretch, day by day, without harm to him-
self, in obedience to an instinctive craving for work, and endurance
may be tested by the same observation if an adequate motive for work
be supplied. Some persons seem almost indefatigable ; they are never
happy or well except when in constant action ; and they fidget, fret,
and worry themselves under enforced idleness. Others, whose vitality
is low, break down under a small amount of strain, and their happiness
lies mainly in repose. The true tests would undoubtedly be physio-
logical, and of considerable delicacy, but they have yet to be dis-
covered, or at least to be systematized for anthropometric purposes.
They would measure the excess of waste over repair consequent upon
any given effort, and would furnish the indications of a loss of capital'
which, if persevered in, must, infallibly lead to vital bankruptcy. Now,
when a haberdasher examines a piece of cloth to learn its strength, he
handles and pulls it gently in different directions, but he does not care
to tear it to pieces or to strain it. He learns by the way it behaves
under a moderate tension how it would support a great deal more of
it. So it may prove to be with physiological tests, as applied to the
determination of the amount of endurance. The balance of the living
system might be artificially disturbed by a definite small force, and its
stability under the influence of greater forces might thereby be in-
ferred. Unfortunately, the only convenient tests of a person's endur-
ance that are now available are records of such feats of sustained
bodily or mental work as he may have recently performed, that were
not succeeded next day by feverish excitement or by fatigue, but
whose effects were entirely dissipated by a single night's rest.

The faculties about which I have next to speak admit of being
developed in a high degree by exercise, and some difficulty will always
arise in knowing how far their development may be due to nature and
how far to practice. This difficulty is, however, of less importance
than it might appear to be. All our faculties are somewhat exercised
in the ordinary course of life, and when we begin to practice any
special test, though our skill increases rather quickly at first, its rate
of progress soon materially lessens, and we are able to judge with
sufficient precision of the highest point which we can hope to attain.
When recording the results of any test it would be sufficient to append
a brief note concerning the amount of previous practice.

The strength is best measured by a spring dynamometer, of which
the frame-work is held in the left hand with the arm extended, while
the spring is drawn back by the right hand in the attitude of an
archer. This is the test used by the Anthropometric Committee ; it
only refers to the strength of the arms, but that is in most cases
sufficient to express the general muscular power, and it has the ad-

MEASUREMENTS OF MEN. 57

vantage of not causing injurious straining to weakly persons. Trials
of lifting heavy weights are positively dangerous. If a multitude of
persons were tested in that way, some instances of broken blood-
vessels and of abdominal ruptures would be almost sure to occur.

Agility may be defined in terms say of the number of seconds
required to run a hundred yards, of the greatest horizontal distance
that can be covered by a leap, of the distance to which a cricket-ball
can be thrown, and by means of various gymnastic feats. The several
merits of the latter, however, require to be carefully considered, and
those that can be performed in-doors and in a confined space should be
selected as standards.

The co-ordination of muscles and eye is another faculty that varies
widely in different persons, while it is also greatly increased by educa-
tion. Some persons are gifted with a high power of accurate move-
ment, while others are as notoriously clumsy. In all cases, however,
this faculty may be largely developed in special directions, as is shown
by the superior dexterity of artisans to that of amateurs. It seems a
most simple faculty to be tested, nevertheless I know of no recognized
methods of doing so ; and, in default of one, the best plan of defining
its amount might be, in the case of youths, by their measured skill in
well-known games, as racquets, cricket, rifle-shooting, billiards, and
wherever else a good eye and steady hand are required.

The faculty of sense-discrimination has in many respects been the
subject of most elaborate experiments, chiefly in regard to the rela-
tion between the amounts of stimuli, as measured by objective stand-
ards (such as weight in pounds, as brightness in units of intensity,
etc.), and the corresponding amount of evoked sensations, measured
by subjective standards, namely, by the feelings of the several persons
operated on. Out of all the contrivances that have been devised for
these experiments, some of which are extremely delicate, we want a
battery of the most simple ones that are sufficiently effective for ordi-
nary anthropometric purposes. I find it difficult, in obedience to the
programme already laid down, to enter as much as I should like to do
into particulars concerning this wide and important part of the sub-
ject before us. The sources of error to be guarded against, the prin-
ciples that have to be attended to, and the instruments already in use,
can not be properly explained in a few paragraphs. The reader must
take it for granted that all this is a familiar subject to many writers
and experimenters, such as Fechner and Delbceuf, and that the work
remaining to be done is to select out of extant instruments those that
are sufficiently inexpensive and quick in manipulation to be appro-
priately placed in an anthropometric laboratory. Under these circum-
stances I will refrain from doing more than specifying the more im-
portant measurements among the many that admit of being made :

Sight. — Its keenness ; the appreciation of different shades ; that
of different colors.

5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Sound. — Its keenness ; the appreciation of different grades of
loudness ; that of different notes.

Touch. — Discrimination of different roughnesses, such as wire-work
of differently sized mesh.

Muscular Sense. — Discrimination of weights externally alike, but
differing slightly in specific gravity.

Another class of delicate apparatus refers to the rate of response
to stimuli. A signal is given to one of the senses, as by the sight of
a suddenly lifted finger, by an exclamation, or by a touch, to which
response is made by pressing a stop. The interval between the signal
and the response is measurable, and it differs in different persons.

Another well-known arrangement tests the time lost in forming a
simple judgment. Arrangement is made for two possible and different
signals, which are severally to be responded to by different forms of
response. The subject of the experiment is ignorant which of the
two signals will appear. After he perceives it, there is an appreciable
time of hesitation before he is able to make the appropriate response,
and this time is easily measured, and is found to differ in different
persons.

The persistence of impressions, especially if visual ones, is exceed-
ing various. Some persons are strongly affected by after-images and
others are not. For example, after gazing at a red wafer for a short
definite time and then rapidly withdrawing the eye, the appearance of
a green after-image will be present to some and not to others. There
can be little doubt that the liability to after-images is an important
factor of the artistic temperament, being the base of the enhanced
susceptibility to conditions of contrast and harmony of colors. Nu-
merous experiments exist bearing on various kinds of after-images, but
they want systematizing for anthropometric purposes.

The memory, in its dependence on the relative impressions of eye,
ear, and other senses, whether severally or in combination, admits of
being tested, and here again numerous scattered experiences have been
gained, and ingenious experiments have been devised which require
consolidating and systematizing.

This is perhaps as much as need be said in a very brief general
glance over a large division of a large subject. My object is to point
out that means already exist for the appraisement of many of the prin-
cipal bodily faculties, but that they require to be systematized, and
that others have to be contrived, and that they can not be properly
utilized for ordinary anthropometric purposes without such apparatus
as would require to be kept in a laboratory and used under the guid-
ance of an intelligent operator.

I will say a few words, and a few only, upon another large branch
to which I alluded in my previous article, namely the medical life-his-
tory of each individual. There seems to be need for medico-metric

MEASUREMENTS OF MEN. 59

laboratories where certificates of observed facts should be furnished to
any applicant for stated fees. These would contain as exact and com-
plete a report of the physiological status of a person as is feasible in
the present state of science, by the help of the microscope, chemical
tests, and physiological apparatus. Laboratories of this description
ouo-ht to be welcome to practicing physicians, who, being unable to
keep the necessary apparatus in their consulting-rooms, could send
their patients to be examined in any way they wished, whenever they
though it desirable to do so. The laboratories would be of the same
convenience to them that the Kew Observatory is to physicists, who
can send their delicate instruments there to have their errors ascer-
tained.

The data for the medical history of a man's life are the observa-
tions made by his physician in his successive illnesses, and I would
dwell on the importance of gradually establishing a custom that the
medical attendant of each patient should as a matter of course write
down such clinical notes of his case as are written at the bedsides of
public patients at hospitals. These papers would be for the private
and future use of the patient, and would be preserved by him, together
with the prescriptions. They would accumulate as the years went by,
and would form the materials for a medical life-history of very great
value to the patient himself in the illnesses of his later life. The
records might be epitomized by his physician from time to time, and
they would in that form be an heir-loom to the children of the patient,
warning their medical attendants in future years by throwing light on
hereditary peculiarities.

The popular object of this and the previous memoir is to further
the accumulation of materials for life-histories in the form of adequate
photographs, anthropometric measurements, and medical facts. ~No
doubt it would be contrary to the inclinations of most people to take
much trouble of the kind about themselves, but I would urge them do
so for their children so far as they have opportunities, and to establish a
family register for the purpose, filling it up periodically as well as they
can. It will have been seen that much may be effected without special
apparatus, and on the other hand that much more could be effected,
and with increased ease and precision, if anthropometric laboratories
existed.' Should a demand arise for such establishments, it would not
be difficult to form them in connection with various existing scientific
institutions. A few shelves would hold the necessary apparatus. Some-
thing useful of the kind could be set on foot at a moment's notice, but
it would require much practice and consideration by capable men be-
fore a standard outfit could be decided on.

The motives that might induce a person to take the trouble of get-
ting himself accurately measured and appraised from time to time, and
of recording the^ results, are briefly as follows : 1. Their biographical
interest to the person himself, to his family, and descendants. 2.

60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Their utility, especially from a medical point of view, to himself in
after-life. 3. The information they might give of hereditary dangers
and vital probabilities to his descendants. 4. Their value as future
materials for much-needed investigations into the statistics of life-
histories. — Fortnightly Review.

-+++-

LIBEETY OF THOUGHT.

By Rev. E. WOODWARD BROWN.

MY subject is the progress of freedom of inquiry ; of liberty to
investigate and discuss, to compare and contrast, to adopt and
reject opinions — liberty to think for one's self in every direction. The
subject is not the great life and war of thought, that which accom-
panies struggles of all kinds in the world — struggles religious, polit-
ical, social, and industrial — but is simply the progress of thought out
of an enslavement that has existed through the world in all time.
The mind of man has been more or less forbidden to exercise itself
as it pleases. A great work which it might have done and has not
done, work of all sorts throughout society in all its departments, has
failed because some men have forbidden other men to think in a dif-
ferent way from what those men willed.

The causes why men have repressed thought are found in a natural
dislike of dissent from cherished opinions — in a natural illiberality
owing to ignorance or pride of opinion, or in a vague fear that new
thinking will in some way hurt one, or one's cherished opinions, as to
how things should be ; also in the advantage pecuniary, social, polit-
ical or other, arising from some established system, civil, ecclesiastical,
educational, or the like, which free discussion would endanger in whole
or in part. Through these causes those who have had the power have
used it to put down all objectionable thought.

In heathendom, whenever and wherever a great ecclesiastical sys-
tem has prevailed there has generally been an enslavement of mind in
all directions ; and wherever a great absolute state has existed there
has been an enslavement of mind in political and social, if not also in
religious directions. To refer to the enslavement by ecclesiastical sys-
tems : in these instances the ecclesiastical power has shackled thought
upon religion, morals, science, and literature, upon social and civil
subjects, in short upon everything ; has controlled absolutely the
whole expression of the nation's mind. The priestly class have ar-
ranged, inspired, and regulated all the duties to God, to the state, to
the family,, and to society. The priestly body has also claimed the su-
preme control of education ; has prescribed the limits and the courses
in which it shall be lawful for the human mind or for the human being

LIBERTY OF THOUGHT. 61

to go ; has also fixed the laws of literature and art, as we see in the
conventional architecture, sculpture, and paintings of Egypt, Assyria,
and Babylonia. This ecclesiastical conventionalism, supported by the
popular superstition, has greatly hampered original thought.

This sacred fixedness has not allowed, on the one hand, any progress
in the native mind itself, nor the influence upon it of foreign mind and
foreign methods.

In Egypt we have a priesthood dominant and fixing all forms of
life. In the Assyrian power we have the kings constantly exalting the
gods, in proclamation and inscription ; and the architecture and sculp-
ture are of an ecclesiastical and unchanging pattern. In the Medo-
Persian power the ecclesiastical authorities largely shape the people's
life; and- we find that part of the creed, that idols should be de-
stroyed, enforced wherever the Persian arms were carried. In Hin-
dostan we have religion setting conventional limits to religion, phi-
losophy, science, art, literature, politics, and social life.

But, on the other hand, we also find libertv of thought. Buddhism
has been tolerant and pacific ; has propagated itself never by war nor
by legal force, but only by moral suasion. China, too, seems to have
allowed a measure of liberty of thought in everything but politics.
Several religions exist there side by side ; and philosophy, science,
and literature are found without an ecclesiastical imprint.

In the ancient republican systems of government there seems to
have been more or less liberty of thought, except in religion and poli-
tics. This was so in the Phoenician confederacy, in the Carthaginian
commercial states, in the Grecian republics, and in the Roman com-
monwealth.

In the dawn of Greece we find the priestly class weakened and
superseded by the military. The despotic colleges of priests which
existed in the East never had a place among the high-spirited and
independent chiefs of Greece, who are described in Homer and else-
where as taking the offices of religion into their own hands, and in
various ways keeping its ministers in check. Doubtless, the genius of
the people also had something to do with this. Nowhere has there
been more liberty of thought in heathendom than in Greece, more
freedom from superstition and bigotry ; and yet even the Greeks were
intolerant. Anaxagoras, who tried to explain astronomical and mete-
orological phenomena, had a narrow escape with his life from the
offended "piety" of the Athenians. It took all the influence of Peri-
cles to save him. Socrates was put to death. Phidias was persecuted,
and died broken-hearted in prison. Every honest man was, at one
time, in danger of being accused of atheism by the zealots. Noble
citizens were tortured. Yet, on the whole, " at the epoch of the high-
est glory of philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, and most of the philosophers,
whether of Grecian, or, more latterly, of Greco-Roman antiquity, had
full liberty of thought, or nearly so. The state's public policy inter-

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fercd but little with their labors, to cramp them and give them a par-
ticular tendency. They, on their part, concerned themselves but little
about politics, nor cared much to influence immediately and decisively
the society in which they lived."

Liberty of thought was allowed in Roman civilization, and yet,
even there, was not permitted upon political subjects. The Roman
method of conciliation was, first of all, the most ample toleration of
the customs, religion, and municipal freedom of the conquered, and
then their gradual admission to the privileges of the conquerors. Free-
dom of thought was allowed to a remarkable degree. Education was
controlled neither by priest nor magistrate. Writing was free, and
the circulation of popular works was extensive, though probably the
rulers would have quickly restrained the circulation of what they
considered injurious to the state. Public speech was free upon phi-
losophy and morals, and uj)on theories of government, liberty, and'
tyrannicide.

"While Mohammedanism has fixed unalterably its doctrines and
forms, and has allowed no discussion of them, and so far has been
inconsistent with freedom of thought, still it has permitted a measure
of free thought. Its followers do not regard infidelity or heresy as
criminal, and persecution for theological opinions .has not been their
rule. They have never had an Inquisition ; or the burning of an unbe-
liever under authority of law. They have always allowed conquered
Christians to retain their faith, and even to have public worship. No
wars of compulsory conversion like those of Charlemagne, no expul-
sion of unbelievers, like that of the wars of Spain, stain the record of
Mohammedanism. The succession of the Greek Patriarchs of Constan-
tinople and Jerusalem has been regular for more than four centuries,
and their relations with the Sultan have been far more amicable
usually than those of the Pope with the kings of France and Ger-
many.

The Koran says, " Those who are Moslems and those who are Jews,
and the Christians and the Sabeans who believe in God and the last
day, and work righteousness, for them is their reward with the Lord,
and there is no fear for them, and they shall not be put to sorrow."
Many of the caliphs invited Christian scholars to their courts, and
were glad to have Christian students in their schools. The Caliph
Ilaroun-al-Raschid employed Nestorians as head teachers. In the
tenth century ambitious young Frenchmen went to the Asiatic
schools of Spain. For instance, there Gerson, afterward Pope Syl-
vester II, was educated.

We now come to the progress of liberty of thought in Christen-
dom.

The Christian Church has been afraid of inquiry because, so far as
it makes unsound and false statements of fact, contrary to those of
the Bible, it tends to unsettle the minds of men in what is regarded

LIBERTY OF THOUGHT. 63

as accepted and very important truth, and so she objects to every one
reading what she considers to be infidel books.

But, again, portions of the Christian Church have opposed inquiry
because it made true statements which contradicted certain wrong
interpretations and inferences that the Church had made from Script-
ure, and so, in undermining the errors of theology and the Church,
seemed to be undermining the important truth, and, while in reality
doing a good service, seemed to be doing harm. For instance, inves-
tigation of the laws of nature has ever been supposed by many " to be
doing away with the being or the perfections or the providence of
God ; the discovery of second causes has been thought to detract from
the glory of the Great First Cause." The discovery that God works
by law, or with regularity, has been supposed to interfere with the
faith that he is personal, has a choice to do this or that, and inter-
feres among men for or against. A class of thinkers have assumed
that, at least in some spheres, God acts without the aid of second
causes, and frequently without regard to uniform laws — acts irregu-
larly. Science has been steadily reducing the extent and the number
of such spheres, but in the case of every one there has been a battle
offered by those who believed that in that sphere God operated with-
out regard to law ; that there man should not look for regular laws or
for secondary causes, and that to do so is presumptuous if not irrever-
ent and impious. In this way good men and great men have shown
themselves opponents of real science ; have made the mistake of assum-
ing that their prejudices and views were in harmony with the spirit
and the views of the Bible, or of true religion. These men have
supposed that they and the Bible were at one, and have been mistaken.
They have undertaken contests in which they were defeated, and in
which it became afterward apparent to the Church at large that they
were mistaken.

This opposition of portions of the Church to mental liberty is con-
trary to the original views and practices of the Church. And the right
has also been disputed by worthy men, such as Ambrose, Hilary, and
Martin, within the Church. The Christian religion is not accountable
for this false position of the Church toward freedom of thought.

Let us now look at the mental enslavement in Western Christendom.
Strange to say, that great Christian Church which has played such
an important part here, has, as before intimated, been guilty of such
enslavement ; has, with all its illumination on many subjects and its
great power, been an opponent of freedom of thought ; has been hos-
tile to views of Scripture and doctrine different from the accepted
views of the day ; has considered all expression of divergent views as
exceedingly bold, if not irreverent and heretical. For centuries the
clergy and the monks directed the whole current of European affairs,
personal, family, community, or national ; scientific, literary, philoso-
phical, or theoretical. The clergy and monks were a body by them-

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

selves, a hierarchy, a caste, a class that had undertaken the intellect-
ual as well as much other schooling of Europe. They ruled in and
throughout every sphere. They fixed everything in thought, religious
doctrine, general philosophy, science, art, poetry — all. In a great
measure they formed and controlled public opinion. They fashioned
after their own views the minds of youth.

All this was well enough for a time. Europe needed it, and the
gain was greater than the loss ; better almost any education than no
education ; not but that their education was the best, but there comes
a time when formal education by human teachers must cease — when
" school is out " ; and when this time arrived in Europe, and here and
there men were in thought beginning to go without their teachers
and beyond their teachers, then the Church, instead of, like a wise
father, letting them go, tried to hold them.

The Church had become lifted up with the idea that theirs alone
was the wisdom which could train, and theirs alone was the right to
train ; that it was their legitimate business. And so they tried to
regulate thought — all the thought of the world so far as they could
reach that world.

Learning was oppressed, original speculation in philosophy, original
research in science, were prevented. Human reason was bound, for
woe to him who claimed to find in metaphysics, mathematics, or the
physical sciences that which contradicted what was stated ! " The
habit of doubt, the impartiality of suspended judgment, the desire
to hear both sides of a disputed question, the going beyond what
was taught," the making discoveries, all were condemned. Freedom,
the condition of true inquiry, was cursed. Blind, unquestioning ac-
ceptance was blessed. The people were allowed a literature of imagi-
nation, but the effort was made to strictly keep them out of any
moral and physical truth other than Rome had provided.

~YYre now come to the change of the tide, to the beginning of better
days for inquiry, to the dawn of the day of liberty. While liberty
of thought was always more or less asserting itself, still, after a while,
such assertion increased in emphasis and force. Several facts were
favorable. It seems that, after all, the Church admitted the principle
of freedom, for she advocated free thinking for herself. She main-
tained that religious belief and practice should not be brought under
the absolute control of the civil government, and, by this assertion of
the independence of the spiritual and therefore of the intellectual
world, she prepared the way for the independence of the individual in
these worlds. The language she held for herself as a whole, for her-
self in matters of religion and conscience, and for herself in the in-
tellectual sphere, led the way for similar language by each person
for himself.

Another great gain for freedom of thought was when secular gov-
ernment began to think for itself in its executive, legislative, and judi-

LIBERTY OF THOUGHT. 65

cial departments ; when each state began to declare that, in political
matters, it was independent of the Church.

Still another great gain was, when a few " mighty though solitary
persons " in the twelfth century, the first scholastics, asserted the right
of human reason to be heard and to be consulted in the formation of
opinions, as against the mere say-so of the Church ; though most of
these persons forbore to attack commonly received opinions upon
religion ; but they revolted from blind acceptance of everything the
Church said. They went to work timidly. They would believe in
part because the Church said so, but they wanted that belief sup-
ported also by reason. The inference would be that reason had also
some claim to be heard ; a further inference might be that these men
were rationalists, and would only believe what reason could com-
prehend, but that would not follow. They only did not want to
believe what contradicted reason, and they wanted the privilege of
supporting their belief by reason so far as they could.

Abelard, founder of the scholastic philosophy, began the great
battle. The first shock of the strife was- when he threw down the
gauntlet about reason, and St. Bernard, a very distinguished divine of
the day, took it up. Both were men of great genius, leaders of great
parties, and both were bent on reform. St. Bernard was a monk,
humble, self-denying, and modest. He was celebrated for his pen-
ances, his poverty, his devotion to the distressed, as well as for his
learning and eloquence. He had attacked the vices of the monastic
world, and was reforming it with great zeal. It was a fight between
giants, and Abelard was beaten — he was silenced.

A friend and disciple of Abelard, Arnold of Brescia, advocated
liberty of thought, while he also championed the rights of the people
all around to act and live as they pleased, so far as the ecclesiastical
body then dominant was concerned. And, so far did this revolu-
tion go, begun by Abelard and Arnold of Brescia, that it seemed at
one time likely to antedate the great religious revolution of the six-
teenth century by nearly four centuries. Free, independent thinking,
with heresy, was rife in all the schools. A republic existed at Rome.
The most fertile of the French provinces, Languedoc, was in the power
of the Albigenses. But as Abelard was silenced, so Arnold was
hanged. • The Roman Republic was suppressed. The Albigenses of
Languedoc were exterminated. The cause of liberty came to grief,
and yet the good work of emancipation was not ended.

'Another great gain for free thought was in the early national
literatures. They were uncompromising foes of Rome, its vices and
its tyranny over thought. Petrarch denounced the Roman hierarchy,
popes, cardinals, and monks, with unmeasured severity. He poured
out a torrent of invective. Dante showed the ideal church, and then
contrasted with it the real Church. He put popes into hell, and called
Rome the very Babylon that John saw in the Apocalypse. Boccaccio

TOL. XXI. 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

treated the popular religious teachers with unbounded ridicule. The
Minnesingers of Germany expressed freely their hatred of the tyranny
of the Church ; and the Provencal bards of France were unsparing in
their attacks upon the hierarchy, until they were silenced by the fatal
Albigensian crusade. The rising popular national literature. of Eng-
land indignantly censured the monks and higher clergy, and spoke out
boldly against the whole hierarchical system. The famous " Vision
of Piers Ploughman," by William Langlande (a. d. 1362), one of the
earliest pieces of English literature, is from the pen of an earnest
reformer, " who values reason and conscience as the guides of the
soul, and attributes the world's sorrows and calamities to the wealth
and worldliness of the clergy, and especially of the mendicant orders " ;
while, also, Chaucer, in his " Canterbury Tales," shows himself in full
accord with Wycliffe in hostility to the mendicant orders.

In many of these early writings, reverence for the Church and re-
ligion is blended with bitter, censures of the arrogance and wealth of
the ecclesiastics. The spiritual power of the Pope is distinguished
from his temporal power. The one is revered, the other denounced.

Again, we have the beginning of free thought in criticism in the
idea of the comparative study of religion, as seen in the work " De
Tribus Impostoribus."

Further, we have the beginning of free thought in philosophy, to
wit : in the Mohammedan philosophy of the great infidel Averroes,
introduced into Christendom from the Mohammedan universities of
Spain ; and there was also a struggle of the Church with Averroism,
the subject of conflict being the nature of the soul, and the doctrines
of emanation and absorption.

Furthermore, we have an effort at free thought in science. There
were the leaders of science, Raymond Lully and Roger Bacon ; there
were also the Platonists — Barbaras, Curanus, Ticinus, Patricius,
Picus, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Fludd, etc. ; and again the theoretical
reformers of science — Telesius, Campanella, Bruno, Ramus, and Me-
lanchthon.

Moreover, there were discoveries which tended to diffuse knowl-
edge, and so to awaken the mind of Europe — the art of making pa-
per, the invention of gunpowder, and the discovery of the magnetic
needle. There were, also, the universities. Instead of the Church
being exclusively the only tribunal of opinion, the universities became
now also centers of thought, with opinions and power of their own.
Thus a certain new supremacy sprang up in the world of thought — a
supremacy generally in accord with that of the Church, but sometimes
antagonistic, and always more or less separate from it in the sphere
of philosophy, science, and letters, here claiming to have an opinion of
its own, and the claim being to some extent allowed.

Again, free thought found help in the jurists. They hated the
Papal tyranny. Their study of the scattered remains of Roman law

LIBERTY OF THOUGHT. 67

and civilization tended to generate mental freedom from prejudice and
from authority.

We also have help to free thought in the revival of classical learn-
ing. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, among the many compli-
cated causes which it would be difficult to trace, a general revival of
Latin literature took place, which greatly modified the mental state of
Europe. For the first time in centuries we find, feeble though it be,
an uprising against the universal credulity and against the universal
passion for theology. There was a strong desire for secular learning
beginning to stir the mind of Europe. A taste was developed for
philosophy, science, letters, and classical learning, an intellectual life
which, while more or less suppressed in one land or another, one gen-
eration or .another, by civil or ecclesiastical despotism, was destined
to increase all over Europe and to continue until the present. Men
thronged the universities to study not only theology, but also philoso-
phy, law, medicine, science, belles-lettres, and the old literature of
Greece and Rome. A desire arose among men to think for themselves
in every sphere of thought. At this revival there was introduced into
literature that principle of freedom to think which the Reformation
brought into religion, and which principle Cartesianism brought next
into philosophy ; and, next, the French Revolution, four centuries
from the beginning of the general movement, brought into politics.

Again, we have the rise of free thought in religion. Church tyr-
anny was encountered by a resistance within the Church itself, which
resistance could not be overcome. Many could not be restrained, con-
fined, and controlled by the Church. ^Nowhere, in fact, did individual
reason more boldly assert itself than in heresies and sects in the Church
— in their denial of the infallibility of creeds, councils, and popes.
The long rule of orthodoxy was broken through by many heresies,
which, though often repressed, broke out again as often, and with new
force and consistency. The minds of the learned were perplexed by
sudden doubts concerning the leading doctrines of faith.

Every sort of new opinion in religion was entertained, notwith-
standing ecclesiastical authority. An impartial philosophy was pro-
claimed by Abelard. A stern and uncompromising infidelity was
taught in Seville and in Cordova, which infidelity began to overshadow
the mind of Christendom. A passion for astrology and for the fatal-
ism it implies revived, though there was, as yet, no general disposition
to rise above the traditional teachings and fixed systems of the
Church. -

The Reformation was, among other things, an assertion of liberty of
thought ; was a partial emancipation of the mind of Western Christen-
dom from bondage ; was a teaching man to think for himself in the
specific instance of the claims of the Romish Church to control all in
religion ; was, if not a complete emancipation, at least a great increase
of liberty. This, in Germany, Denmark and Holland, England and

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

France, and, for a time, in other lands where the Reformation was
afterward crushed out, was a power of mental freedom.

Yet mental enslavement continued. The reformers would only

m

change the master. He certainly was not to be the Roman Catholic
Church, they said ; he was only to be a more legitimate power. Stand-
ards were still set up, and ecclesiastical and civil power stood behind
them, to compel religious, philosophical, scientific, and other thought,
not to differ from them. Every one, Romish or Protestant, claimed
the right to defend and to propagate opinion by force ; every one was
in favor of calling in the civil power to aid in a controversy in thought.
But matters have much improved in the ecclesiastical sphere during
these last four centuries. There is now marked progress in liberty
of religious thought. The fierce invectives once hurled back and
forth between Protestant and Catholic are dropped. The war of de-
nominations has largely ceased. Convictions seriously entertained are
now generally respected. Although a change of religion, or even in
ministers a change of denomination, frequently causes more or less
petty persecution, still there is improvement since the time, several
centuries ago, when the apostasy of any one from the rest was re-
garded as one of the worst of crimes. A change of religion or even
of denomination, from a sense of duty, is now commonly allowed
among intelligent men. To-day the Protestant nations and the Roman
Catholic countries of France,, Spain, Italy, Austria, Bavaria, and Span-
ish America, have abandoned intolerance and enjoy freedom of opinion.

There is also marked progress in liberty of scientific thought — in
the seventeenth century, that freedom to prosecute and publish inves-
tigation in science, which is so necessary to the advancement of sci-
ence, hardly existed as yet. Though the political influence of the
Church of Rome had much diminished, though European society had
largely passed from the dominion of the Roman Church to that of
temporal governments, yet that Church, though less tyrannical, freer
from abuses, and more tolerant than before, was still disposed to
maintain at every point the doctrines and opinions already expressed
upon questions of science and learning ; while also in Protestant
lands popular prejudice still to an extent repressed mental freedom.

But there arose practical reformers in science — Leonardo da Vinci
Copernicus, Fabricius, Galileo, Kepler, and Tycho Brahe. Science
began to make decided advances in geography, astronomy, chemistry,
physics, anatomy, medicine, geology, political economy, and other
branches. The conflict with the astronomers is well known and has
been well described — the fear of Copernicus, the imprisonment of
Galileo, the burning at the stake in Rome of Giordano Bruno for up-
holding the teaching of modern astronomy as to the immensity of the
universe and the plurality of worlds.

Still liberty of thought in science began to grow in various lands,
giving us Bacon, Harvey, Descartes, Hooker, Barrow, Newton, Locke,

LIBERTY OF THOUGHT. 69

Condillac, Helvetius, and others. In the present century all force has
ceased, though certain advances in science have awakened opposition
— for instance, the teaching of geology that the world had existed
for millions of years, and had taken its shape under natural laws.
This was thought to be against the Bible ; so, too, vaccination and
anaesthetics and other new things have been opposed with unnecessary '
haste and heat, as devices to defeat God's will. But to-day science
and philosophy are free in many lands, while the narrow and restrict-
ive policy which still obtains in others is gradually yielding.

Freedom of political thought is largely increased, though despot-
ism and obstructive social systems have been much in the way ; but,
as the civil despotisms have changed into constitutional governments,
there has been a steady increase of freedom.

Freedom of publication has likewise increased. In the middle ages
nothing was allowed to be published that was against the opinions of
the ruling powers in church or in state, nothing in theology, philoso-
phy, science, or literature ; though of course this tyranny was by no
means complete, and very many were the attacks 011 received opinions.
Still, as a rule, the press was enslaved. Despotic governments in
church or state have not allowed a free press, except in instances of
a mild sovereign or upon matters foreign to any interest of the rulers.
The general policy has been to forbid all utterance that in any way
is subversive of the authority or influence of government. We have
heard much of regulation of the press, in political matters, which
means despotic interference with it ; the governments have been
afraid of it ; the upper classes in church, state, society, and indus-
trial enterprise, have been afraid of it ; it is rather the mouth-piece of
truth and of justice for the people ; wherefore " the complete proper
liberty of the press is the conquest of a high civilization."

In France the Revolution witnessed the freedom, even the license,
of the press. Bonaparte followed. He feared and hated free thought,
and was, in some directions, its persistent opponent and oppressor ; he
exerted the immense power which he possessed to trammel the press ;
he cherished a mean jealousy of every kind of intellectual superiority
which he could not enslave.

In Austria, Spain, and Italy, under their despotic governments, in-
fluenced more or less by the priests, a strict censorship has been exer-
cised over all thought interfering with civil or with ecclesiastical
despotism. Yet, since the civil absolutism has decreased, the liberty
of the press has increased, until now, in Italy at least, it is complete.

The English-speaking lands have a free press ; so, I believe, have
the Spanish republics of America, and the same is true of Germany,
Holland, and Belgium, and to a less extent of Scandinavian countries.
In all these lands the principle has largely prevailed that writing and
publishing are in^themselves indifferent matters to government.

Such is a review of the progress of liberty of thought, especially

7o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in Christendom — a review that evidences the fact of progress. There
was never before a period when men were judged so little according
to their belief as now, and when all studies were pursued with such
freedom. The victory of toleration in the purely intellectual sphere
has been almost achieved. The principle is almost established that
there shall be no restraint upon thinking, speaking, or publishing,
whether it be in theology, in philosophy, in criticism, in science, in
literature, or in politics. Both the law and public opinion favor such
liberty.

•♦♦♦»

A EEPLY TO MISS HAEDAKEE ON THE WOMAN

QUESTION.

By NINA MOEAIS.

TO classify phenomena as manifestations of a universal law is the
intellectual pastime of the nineteenth century. The finding of a
Eosetta stone which shall be the key to a bewildering maze of details
is a mental rest to the thinker. Hence, a theory which settles a much-
vexed question by a scientific ipse dixit is met with a murmur of ad-
miration and a sigh of relief. But those who profess to hold a com-
mission from Science should not the less be bound to the " scientific
rule of deducing no principle which facts will not prove." What Sci-
ence says, facts will corroborate, but they will not always wait upon
the interpretation of her devotees. About fifty years ago a gentleman
of high scientific attainments proved by irreproachable mathematics
that no steamship could cross the Atlantic, for by no expedient could
a vessel be built which could stow away enough fuel to propel itself to
so great a distance. To-day the gentleman might take as an ordinary
trip the journey he proved impossible.

In the March number of " The Popular Science Monthly " Miss
Hardaker invokes Science to testify to the natural and irrevocable
mental inferiority of the female to the male. A statement of this
kind, coming as it does when woman is struggling for every step in
her intellectual advance, is peculiarly baneful to her. To cover ancient
prejudice with the palladium of scientific argument is to unite the
strength "of conservatism and of progress in one attack. An examina-
tion of the accuracy of the paper, " Science and the Woman Question,"
may not, therefore, be ill-timed.

Two propositions underlie Miss Hardaker's argument. They are
as follows :

1. A large amount of matter represents more force than a small
amount. Hence man is superior to woman in body and brain (page
579).

2. "All human energy is an exact equivalent of the amount of

REPLY TO MISS HARDAKER. 7i

food consumed and assimilated." Man, by reason of his larger organs,
eats and assimilates more food than woman does. Each of his organs,
including the brain, is therefore capable of acting with proportionally-
greater energy. Hence, " men will always think more than women "

(page 583).

Collaterally our author finds that the demands of maternity must
cause a large subtraction from the smaller amount of mental energy
which women would otherwise exert, and, as the result of her funda-
mental propositions, she draws the startling conclusion that "unless
woman can devise some means for reducing the size of man, she must
be content to revolve about him in the future as in the past " (page
581).

Before entering upon the question by means of her own original
and scientific method, Miss Hardaker makes the following statements :
" Students of physiology see that a final and conclusive law can not be
drawn from differences in brain- weights and measurements, because of
the present imperfection of data." But the superior power of the male
brain, like the superior power of the male muscle, is shown conclusive-
ly by its product (page 578).

The figures which begin Miss Hardaker's argument are those which
all speculations regarding the brain take into consideration. These
figures are quite complete enough to indicate distinctly that the aver-
age male brain is always larger than the female. Miss Hardaker her-
self states that " all accepted authorities agree that the average male
brain exceeds the average female brain in weight by about ten per
cent " (page 578). Now, if the principle that bulk is power were ad-
mitted, the measurements obtained would be nearly, if not quite, con-
clusive of the natural superiority of the male : it would not have been
reserved for Miss Hardaker to make the discovery. Miss Hardaker
can not afford to dismiss brain-measurements as incomplete evidence,
for these statistics become the key-stone of her own logic when she
endeavors to prove man's mental superiority because of his excess of
brain.

The student, however, does not reason as Miss Hardaker reasons.
He, as well as she, possesses the historic fact that the product of the
masculine mind has always been greater than that of the feminine.
He might, therefore, find that, as the male brain has been more produc-
tive, it is the better organ. Upon this point Miss Hardaker contends
that not only can we reason to the general quality of organs from
tlreir respective products, but we can actually arrive at a knowledge
of their structure by such processes of logic. " We do not examine a
muscle," she says, "to ascertain its internal structure" (page 578). If
this were true, the occupation of the anatomist would be gone : the
valvular arrangement of the heart, the cellular formation of the lungs,
would have been disclosed by an observation of the externally percep-
tible operations of these organs. The truth is, that we can never rea-

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

son from product to structure until after we have internal evidence of
the functional relations between the structure and product of the class
of organs to which those under test belong ; nor can we without such
knowledge even reason to the general quality of two organs by their
different product, unless our comparisons are made under the same
. environment. For instance, take two pairs of lungs : let one respire at
sea-level, the other at the top of Mont Blanc. Their absolute product
would be no estimate of their relative capacity. Still, the physiologist
would have little difficulty in eliminating the effect of difference of
circumstances in his calculation, because his complete knowledge of
the lungs and of the influence of atmospheric pressure enables him to
allow for differences of environment. But no such allowance can be
made in estimating the normal power of the male and female brain
which have always acted in different mental atmospheres ; for the
relation of structure to function as regards brain has not been accu-
rately determined.

It is because of this lack of knowledge regarding the precise con-
nection between brain-structure and thought, and not because of im-
perfection in the data of measurements, that students refuse to draw
therefrom the law of brain capacity ; and thinkers will not infer the
capacity of male and female brains from their products, until the
different influences acting upon men and women can be eliminated.
While anatomy is unable to solve for us the enigma of sexual brain-
power, we may have recourse to comparison under similar environ-
ment as the key to our problem. This method of discovery Miss
Hardaker, with a perversity remarkable in a disciple of modern science,
is laboring zealously to prevent.

" We need not," she says, " ascertain the meaning of brain-size by
experiment ; we can arrive at it by analogy. All other organs (under
the same conditions) work in proportion to their size. Is there any
good reason for making an exception of the brain?" (page 578).
Now, even if all other organs work in proportion to their size, the fact
that the brain is exceptional, in the nature and in the variety and
complexity of its functions, would render the argument from biceps to
brain as questionable as that from marble to zinc. There may be prop-
erties in common, but in the production of forces the similar effects of
these common properties may be wholly vitiated by others peculiar to
only one of the objects compared. Besides, size is not always a gauge
of organic capacity. Does the large eye see better, the large ear hear
more, the large nerve feel more keenly ? And, if, all other conditions
being equal, they might do so, the incalculable variation of condition
renders the size test of no practical value at all. This, however, is a
phase of the subject to be discussed later, when we shall endeavor to
show that, although we agree with Miss Hardaker that a larger brain
means something, it does not necessarily mean a " greater amount of
thinking in a given time." And, here we throw in, as interesting

REPLY TO MISS HARDAKER. 73

facts, that woman's smaller heart beats faster than man's larger one ;
that her circulation is to his in swiftness as ten to nine ; and that, ac-
cording to Miss Hardaker's figures, and to some celebrated authorities,
the proportion of brain to body is larger in woman than in man.

But to meet Miss Hardaker upon her own ground in the discussion
of her fundamental propositions, we shall waive, as she has done, all
sexual differences, of physical or local environment, and all analogical
inferences, and proceed to compare the male and female brains upon a
supposititious level of like conditions. She proposes to prove, on quite
new and highly scientific grounds, that absolute weights and meas-
urements are, after all, the ultimate tests of capacity. It may be
deemed singular that the profound students who have preceded Miss
Hardaker — some of whom were undoubtedly scientists — should have
entirely overlooked the beautifully simple conclusion she formulates,
thus : " If mass represents force, the larger the brain, the larger the
power." The reason why students have been so blind to Miss Harda-
ker's discoveries is quite as simple as the discovery itself. It is because
her premises are false.

A large amount of matter does not represent more force than a
small amount, nor does it represent any force at all. There is an ele-
mentary law of physics which declares that the momentum of a body
equals its size multiplied by its velocity, and this may lead to the sup-
position that matter itself is force. But matter in a state of inertia
is not power ; it becomes powerful only when acted upon. The same
force acting upon different bodies imparts velocity in the inverse ratio
of their masses ; and, since velocity as well as size is a factor of power,
it follows that a force which imparts a greater velocity to a smaller
body gives it as great a momentum as a larger body obtains when
acted upon by the same force ; for the velocity in the latter case is
feebler. Even admitting (what Miss Hardaker does not appear to
claim) that potential energy may be proportionate to size of mass, we
see that potential energy can only be evolved by an appropriate force
acting through or upon the mass, and, to make the potential energy of
a large mass do more work than that of a smaller one, the force ap-
plied must always be greater. Hence, not the size of the body, but the
strength of the impelling force, is the ultimate test of its power. A
glance at obvious facts will show that size is not the gauge, that
weight may indeed be a direct impediment to the evolution of force.
The avoirdupois of the fat boy is a clog to his energy ; the fast run-
ner wins by his light weight ; the champion oarsman reduces his
flesh.

In applying her theory to the brain, one fact which Miss Hardaker
herself states is sufficient to tell very disastrously against her conclu-
sion that larger brain-weight means larger thinking power. "Accord-
ing to Gratiolet, the male brain can not fall below thirty-seven ounces
without involving idiocy, while the female may fall to thirty-two

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ounces without such result " (page 578). Here are two brains precisely
of the same quality, one thirty-seven ounces the other thirty-one, an
absolute difference of six ounces. Yet these six ounces represent just
nothing. Indeed, give the woman thirty-four ounces and leave the
man thirty-seven, his three ounces more are simply a minus : thirty-
four is rational thought, thirty-seven irrational. In this instance a
small amount of matter represents more power than a large amount.
It would seem that the true law must be sought elsewhere than in the
grocer's scale.

But the impelling force which Miss Hardaker omits in her former
statement is supplied in her next assumption : "All human energy is
derived from food. Man eats more than woman because his larger
size requires him to do so, a larger proportion of nourishment is sent
to his brain ; hence men think more than women." A look backward
at our elementary law of physics will show that Miss Hardaker's sec-
ond conclusion is as weak as her first. To repeat that portion of our
law which bears upon this argument, we find that the same force act-
ing on different bodies imparts velocity in the inverse ratio of their
masses, and it is therefore clear that, in order to make the large ma-
chine run as fast as the small one, fuel must be supplied to the former
more freely. The explosive force that sends the tiny rifle-ball at the
rate of twenty miles a minute could not overcome the inertia of the
missile discharged from the Krupp gun ; a proportional force to each
would send each just the same distance. Now, granting all the prem-
ises of Miss Hardaker's second proposition, that male and female eat
in certain fixed proportions, that a certain fixed amount of that pro-
portion goes to nourish relatively proportioned brains, the only logical
conclusion is that the larger brain, supplied with more blood, would in
a given time do heavier work, but not more work, than the smaller one
supplied with less blood. Under these circumstances the momentum
of the larger brain would be greater than that of the small brain ;
their velocities equal. Without his extra supply of blood, man's brain
could never overtake woman's in velocity / indeed, without this addi-
tional stimulus it might not be able to move at all. The theory that
the smaller brain is propelled more easily, might explain the quickness
of perception and of fancy which, according to Miss Hardaker, are
womanly traits.

Such reasoning, however, is at best mere theorizing, for it applies
the simple laws of mechanics to the intricate and so far inexplicable
structure of the brain, making no allowance for complications which
would divert the action of the law. It may be true that blood is the
primary motor of the brain ; but there are many other elements besides
the size of brain and body, or even the amount of food assimilated,
which measure the quantity of blood sent to the brain. The problem
is by no means, as Miss Hardaker has tried to make it, an easy sum in
simple proportion which the school-boy may solve standing on one

REPLY TO MISS HARDAKER. 75

foot. Omitting altogether a consideration of the superior blood-circu-
lation of women as a class, overlooking entirely the probability (in-
dicated by the data of the idiot question heretofore discussed) that
proportion of brain to body is an element in the capacity of the for-
mer, the individual rapidity of circulation, the richness of food in
brain-making material become important terms of our problem. The
opium-eater, the wine-drinker, the consumer of brain-stimulants, cer-
tainly drive more than a proportional share of blood to the brain. At
the same time there is always a personal equation to vary the propor-
tional action of food-supply. The brains of Moses and Mohammed
were stimulated by prolonged fasts. The circumstances of travel,
temperament, companionship, wealth, the passions, music, art, dancing,
machine-stitching, and a thousand others, which can never be aver-
aged, often exert an adventitious influence on the appropriation of
fuel for thought. These influences are entirely independent of food-
consumption and brain-size ; they defy the application of any law of
mechanics.

But Miss Hardaker's scientific argument, if true, proves too much ;
for if men, the greater consumers, think more or even better because
of the large size of their bodies and the larger power of their digestive
organs than women do, then it must follow that the larger and health-
ier men as a class must think, if not more, at least more profoundly,
than smaller and less robust men. Yet the bulk of the world's thought
has not been done by men of superior physique or even of superior
health. Aristotle, Napoleon, Jeffrey, Thiers, were short in person ;
Shakespeare, Buckle, Comte, were delicate in frame ; Descartes and
Bacon were always sickly ; Heine wrote his best while in physical
agony ; Newton and Spinoza were slight in form and of medium
height ; Herbert Spencer's health has always been precarious ; Mrs.
Browning was a life-long invalid ; while, unfortunately for a theory
based upon superior digestion, Goethe and Carlyle were confirmed
dyspeptics.

The instances here crted are by no means exceptional. Indeed, the
seeker for data under this head will find that, instead of larger and
more healthy physiques evolving a larger average amount of mental
power than smaller and less robust ones, the contrary result is emphat-
ically true. As a matter of fact, the circumstance of superior muscu-
lar development seems unfavorable to great exertion of the mind.
The demands of the body itself are in large men imperative. The
waste of the system must be repaired, and the first draughts of energy
must go to this purpose. Afterward, though the potential energy
represented by the food consumed may still be stored up, there is little
power or little inclination to apply that energy to thought. The col-
lege student who is most active in the field, who has the greatest
height in his stockings, and the biggest biceps, is rarely at the head of
his class. Not Wly does the larger body require more in proportion

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for its nourishment, but the forces which effect this nourishment are
not easily turned in other directions, and it is, therefore, a natural se-
quence that the body must dwindle as the power of the mind increases.
The savage Teutons, whose great bodies affrighted the Romans of
Caesar, have become the civilized possessors of less bulk and more
knowledge. Human energy appears not to be harmonious, but to run
in grooves. Thought produces thought, and the energy once sent to
the brain is the direct cause of a new demand for supplies. In like
manner, the arm that is developed by work needs a larger amount of
food for its maintenance. This is the explanation of the historic fact
that physical and mental powers have never been proportionally culti-
vated, but always at the expense of each other. The profound thinker
and the superior pugilist are rarely united.

But, even if it is true that the larger and healthier physique affords
more blood for brain-use, it does not follow that the larger the supply
the greater the amount of brain- work possible. The argument assumes
that the brain has no limit to its activity except in the quantity of
blood that ban be prepared for it. But it needs no scientific educa-
tion to know that there are other influences which limit the thinker's
activity, and that these limitations are somewhere in the mysterious
recesses of the brain, or in the forces of which the brain is the organ.
The physical health of the brain-worker may be perfect, his digestion
unimpaired, his power to assimilate food the same, and yet he may not
be able to concentrate his thoughts or carry on a complicated train of
reasoning. The defect is not in his body — that is as healthy as ever ;
nor is it in any of the processes of blood-making — these go on as be-
fore. The trouble lies in the brain itself, whose capacity for work
is measured by some hidden standard of its own, and which gives
warning when a cessation of brain-work is imperative. The body is a
furnace whose power of consuming fuel is greater than the capability
of its boiler — the brain — to generate power. To kee]3 the latter in
good working condition, something more is necessary than building
and feeding the fires. A supplementary but' important consideration
is, whether the steam beyond a certain point will not be productive of
unpleasant consequences in the form of an explosion.

In the discussion of the collateral question, that of the effect of
maternity on brain-power, Miss Hardaker's scientific logic takes its
most amusing form. " The necessary outcome of absolute intellectual
equality of the sexes," she says, "would be the extinction of the human
race. For, if all food were converted into thought in both men and
icomen, no food tchatever coidd be appropriated for the reproduction
of species " ( page 583). What Miss Hardaker really means by this last
highly scientific axiom it is impossible to guess. She can not mean
that, as all food is converted into thought in men, women must cease
to be mothers in order to imitate his food-conversion. Whatever Miss
Hardaker may intend by her impossible supposition, the fact that ma-

REPLY TO MISS HARDAKER. 77

ternity does make large draughts upon the energy of woman is not to
be overlooked. But, unless it can be shown that the mental activity of
man is ceaseless, that his manual labor diverts no blood from the brain,
that his imaginative and reasoning powers keep steadily at work year
in and vear out, limited only by supply of food, it does not necessarily
follow that women must fall behind men in the brain-work of a life-
time. Both men and women need mental rest — no brain-worker can
keep at the top of his speed for ever ; and women whose duties as
mothers divert their energy from the brain may overtake men in their
voluntary holidays. This fact will have more concrete significance
when we reflect that the professional brain-workers in both sexes are
in the minority, and that women who are such are usually unmarried,
or mothers of small families. At the same time, the labors of men who
form the great masses of population are not more stimulating to brain-
culture than the vocations of their wives. But, granting what is prob-
ably true, that woman as a whole can never show as much mental prod-
uct as man, because some of her time and energy must be devoted to
motherhood, still she may be quite as capable of production. There-
fore, any reasoning which excludes women as a class from the advan-
tages of equal mental training with men, on the ground that they must
be the mothers of the race, is forcing the activity of women into one
channel, and rendering all other efforts (such as the writing of a scien-
tific article, perhaps) unnatural and unwomanly.

But suppose the whole of Miss Hardaker's argument to be founded
on true premises, and all her conclusions to be just and accurate, it
may yet be pertinently asked, Cut bono ? Miss Hardaker would slam
the educational doors in women's faces because, being smaller, they
are unfit to enter the select retreats of Brobdingnag. But, if justice
is to prevail in the rules of admission, the woman who possesses a brain
of fifty-six ounces is entitled to precedence over the great majority of
males whose brains weigh only forty-nine and a half. Should the en-
vironment be more favorable to the woman whose brain-weight is
forty-four ounces, she can claim the advantage over the larger male
brain whose environment is less favorable. Then, too, the applicants
for entrance must be subjected to the test of an eating-match, and the
dyspeptic must consent to suicide or rejection. All this must be done,
for, although Justice carries her scales, she is blindfolded. She can
only weigh brains, food, environment, but can not see the sex of suitors
for admission into the new academy. Miss Hardaker must be aware
that, were every element in her assumptions true, some women must
be greatly superior to the average men, although the highest point
reached by the male could not be obtained by the female. Miss Hard-
aker would, perhaps, object to having the doors of journalism closed
against her, because she can never think as profoundly as Lord Bacon,
or because in general woman's literary production has not made so fair
a showing as man's. It is not long ago since this sort of reasoning

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

militated strongly against the publication of any article that might be
signed with a woman's name. But science — not the false science which
answered Miss Hardaker's invocation, not the science which would con-
fine the negro to slavery because of his small brain and small mental
achievement — true science says that, if woman's power is to be judged
by her work, she must be given a fair field for its display. To clear
the race-course for the man, and to block woman's road at a certain
point, because we feel intuitively that she can go no further, is by
no means consistent with modern scientific methods. If the line of
woman's power is marked, let her discover the fact, as Bacon thought
— all scientific truth should be discovered by experiment. The discov-
ery will not long be delayed ; the law of the survival of the fittest will
not be abrogated. But, if it should be found that the mental steam-
ship of the female can, after all, store enough fuel to cross the ocean
of reasoning, it would give woman the inestimable benefit of correct-
ing the possible errors into which a professed enemy of her sex has
fallen. It would demonstrate that, like Mr. Darwin's pea-hen, women
have remained inferior to their mates, not because of natural defect,
but by reason of external circumstances. A just trial is the whole de-
mand of the reform philosophy.

In the Royal Society, many years ago, it is said Charles II asked
an explanation of the fact that a fish in water had no weight ; that
water plus a fish was no heavier than water without a fish. The wise
gentlemen of the Royal Society (presumably males of large bulk) were
much agitated over the problem, and gave many scientific reasons for
the remarkable phenomenon. It was a wiser man (though not of so
scientific a turn of mind) who, instead of giving his reasons why the
fish had no weight in its own element, tried the experiment and found,
to the surprise of the scientific gentlemen, that a practical test was of
more value than any quantity of learned but ill-founded speculation.
Perhaps it will not be out of place, by way of parallel to Miss Harda-
ker's triumphant demonstration of " the reason why," to cite the testi-
mony of a prominent instructor, whose evidence tends to show that
her scientific impossibility may be affected by some elements which
she has not considered. " So far as my observation and experience
go, " says President Magill, of Swarthmore College (a gentleman who
for ten years has been the instructor of about three hundred students
of both sexes), "there is absolutely no difference in the average intel-
lectual capacity of the sexes, under the same training and external in-
fluences. The valedictorians of our classes have been almost equally
divided between the sexes, with a slight and accidental preponderance
in favor of the young women."

THE GENESIS OF THE SWORD.

79

THE GENESIS OF THE SWOED *

THE idea of employing weapons for assault or defense was a logic-
al result of the first contests that took place between man and
man. In these contests the strongest man with his native weapons —
his fists — was unconsciously the father of all arms and all armed
strength, for his weaker antagonist would early seek to restore the
balance of power between them by the use of some sort of weapon.
The shorter-armed man lengthened his striking power by the use of a
stick, and found, after a time, the help its leverage and weight afforded
him. The first case in which the chance-selected, heavy-ended staff or
club showed that weight or hardness had its value, was a first step
toward furnishing it with a strong head. Hence the blow of the fist
was the forerunner of the crushing weapon. In the same way the
pointed stick became the lance or dagger ; and the thrown shaft,
helped, as knowledge increased, by the bow or " throwing-stick," was
the precursor of the dart and arrow. The character of the first
weapons was largely determined by the nature of the materials from
which they were derived, and their shape partly from this and partly
by copying the forms of the weapons possessed by the animals the
• primitive men slew. Hence arises the general similarity in character
and shape of the earliest tools from all parts of the world.

The weapons of animals are piercing, striking, serrated, poisoned
or missile ; and weapons made directly from those of some animals
were used for similar purposes. Spears and lances are found made
from the weapons of the walrus, boar, gnu, rhinoceros, sword-fish, nar-
whal, and antelope, to be used for piercing, as the animals themselves
used them. The serrated bone of the sting-ray furnished both the
material and example for many a South-Sea Island spear. The saw-
fish's snout has given the natives of New Guinea a ready-made weapon
(Fig. 2), and the setting of the shark's teeth in the jaw has suggested
their employment in making deadly the edge of a Tahiti sword (Fig.
39). The curved buffalo-horn and the wavy antelope-horn gave the
types of the Indian kandjar. (Fig. 1) and many other Eastern weapons.
The hollow poison-fang of the venomous serpent not only gave a
lesson to the- South American Indians, who use a poison-tipped spear,
but indirectly suggested holes for poison in the poisoned arrow-heads,
and grooves for the same purpose in the mediaeval stiletto. The
barbed arrow-head was suggested by the barbed sting of the insect,
which stays in the wound it makes ; and the Bushman may have
learned to half cut off his arrow close to the head, so that it should
break off in the wound, from observing how stings thus break off in

* From a paper by C. Cooper King, of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in Cas-
sell, Petter, Galpin & Co.'s " Science for All."

8o

TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the body they have penetrated. Other patterns have been furnished
by the stones which the primitive men have had to use for crushing
and cutting tools, and have been developed in working them out.
Thus we have the axe, spear, lance, or dart, and arrow (Figs. 3, 4), of

the paleolithic men, the stabbing dagger made from

reindeer-horn (Fig. 0), and the stone lance-heads

(Fig. 5) of the cave-men.

In the next stage, that of the "neolithic" men,

the tools are a little better finished ; the weapons

1 2

Weapons from Animal Forms.

4 5

Palaeolithic.

7 8 9

Neolithic.

cut better, the lance-heads are thinner, sharper, and finer, and pro-
visions for fastening to handles appear (Figs. 7, 8, 9) ; and the dagger
(Figs. 8 and 9) has developed the form from which all the other hand-
weapons have come.

The bronze age, having the art of working in a more tractable ma-
terial, gave an improved weapon. Its dagger is thinner, broader, more
pointed, and more dangerous, but yet bears evidence, in peculiarities
of shape, that memories of the stone age still survived in the fabri-
cator's mind. The blades are still short, but the weapon is furnished
with a handle of wood (Fig. 11) or bronze (Fig. 10) or ivory (Fig. 12),
often richly decorated and quite small. The ancient nations furnish us
longer daggers, or swords of bronze, of various patterns, as the Egyp-
tian (Fig. 13), Assyrian (Fig. 14), and Grecian (Figs. 15, 16) swords.

The earlier swords were used exclusively for stabbing. Adapta-
tion to cutting was begun after bronze was introduced, and was de-

V\

10
Irish.

11 12

English.

18 14

Egyptian. Assyrian.

15 16

Grecian.

veloped as the art was learned of forging iron and steel into weapons.
The first iron swords copied the shape of their bronze ancestors, and,
while they were longer and more formidable stabbing instruments
than those, were not much better for cutting. They were broad, two-

THE GENESIS OF THE SWORD.

81

edged, and in time pointed. Finally, the Romans made the gladius —
sharp, of highly-tempered steel, and strongly piercing — the first real
sword (Figs. 17, 18, 19), of which only five specimens are now known
to exist.

The well-tempered and well-made Saxon sword was the property
only of those who had the rank of thane. As a rule, it was a straight,
cut-and-thrust Made, with a double edge and a broad point, though
other shapes have been found.

Of the three ways in which a sword may be used for cutting, that
called chopping, in which the work is done with the shoulder and fore-
arm and little play of the wrist, and the blow comes down straight with
a whack, is of the most value against body-armor. The medieval
swords, therefore, were stout, straight, and wide (Figs. 20 to 23), and
adapted to that kind of work. The hands being clad in mail, no at-
tempt was made to protect them, and the hilts were plain and simple,
except that a groove was sometimes made in the side of the blade to
diminish the weight of metal without causing a loss of strength. The
character of the sword varied little except as to the fashions suggested
by fancy, till armor was done away with about 1600. Then, the change

u

21 22

Medley al.

24 25

Eapiers.

of the sword into the single-edged weapon or the rapier-blade began
to become common. While rapiers with flat or very slightly triangu-
lar blades, and often immoderately long, were used in France, Spain,
and Italy in the sixteenth century, the full development of this form
of arm (Figs. 24, 25) took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies. The blades were narrow, the hilts had merely a single nar-
now guard for the back of the hand, with a broad base to protect the
fingers in thrusting, and the rhomboidal or triangular section of the
blade was altered, lightened, and stiffened by grooving (as in the group
of figures, 26).

VOL. xxi. — 6 \

82

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The fighting-swords of the latter part of the eighteenth and for-
mer part of the nineteenth centuries (Fig. 27) were not very good,
either as rapiers or sabers, and marked a period of transition to one

Sections or Sword-Blades.

almost of decadence. The cavalry-swords of the early part of the
present century were clumsy and unscientific. With great width of
blade and a tendency to increase the width toward the point (Fig. 28),.
they were not intended for cutting weapons, and were almost useless

as thrusting ones. The idea that weight at the.
sword-end was valuable in enhancing the force of
the cut was faulty in theory and practice, and was
rather a retrogression to the principle of the axe
than an advance in the true method of construc-
tion of the sword. This has given way to the mod-
ern sword, which combines within itself all the
powers of which the weapon is capable, is good
as a guard for thrusting and for cutting. Slightly
curved, but not so much as to impede its pointing
power, nor so wide as to be too heavy, stiffened by
grooves so as to be capable of use as a rapier, its
blade, with an edge on one side along its length,
is flattened at the point, where it is ribbed, for
strength, into a two-edged sword (Fig. 29). The
hilt has a wider guard, and is intermediate between the rapier type
and that of the basket form. Adopting the principles that have ob-
tained at various times, it is a good all-round weapon in skillful hands.
While Western nations have thus tended to adopt a straight blade,
Eastern races have almost without exception preferred a curved sword.
By reason both of their physical peculiarities and of the lighter char-
acter of the armor they wear, they have been accustomed to adminis-
ter cutting blows with their weapons rather than the straight, down-
right strokes that are • adapted to Western strength and armor, and a
curved edge is more suitable for cutting blows. The hilt of the East-
ern sword is small, and the boss, or pommel, at the end of the hilt is
large, so as to prevent the sword from slipping when the drawing cut
is made. The Asiatic swords exhibit, moreover, greater divergencies
of type than the Western swords. Some, like the Persian cimeters
(Fig. 30), and the Malay creeses (Fig. 31), are often wavy, sometimes
resembling the conventional tongue of fire (flamboyant), forms which
may be due to the influence of the priests of the fire or the sun, or may
be copied from the curvature and ornamentation of the antelope-horn
dagger. The Albanian sword has the edge thrown forward by the

THE GENESIS OF THE SWORD.

83

slight forward curvature of the blade, a feature which is heightened
in the Goorkha knife, the owner of which, it is said, can decapitate an
ox with one blow of it (Fig. 32). Some of the Eastern swords, as
those of the Chinese, the Bashi-Bazouk or Circassian dagger, with its
blade resembling the Roman gladius, and the Mahratta sword, are
straight, like the Western weapons.

The ornamentation of all these weapons is very frequently only the
survival of the methods by which the blades were fixed to their hilts,
which was generally by thongs or rivets. Thus the Malay creese (Fig.
33) and the tulwar (Fig. 34) are made clearly to indicate the way in
which the blade was originally lashed with cords to the hilt.

The sword does not rank so highly with savage nations as the spear

30 31

Asiatic Curved Swords.

33 34

Survivals of Methods of Attachment.

or club, and belongs to a higher civilization than that which is satis-
fied with hand-to-hand weapons of stone. But the development of the
club into the sword is easily traceable, though the ultimate resultant
is far inferior to the metal blades of even the bronze age. Figs. 35
to 41 show the successive steps. The Xew Zealand club (Fig. 35) ;
the Indian collaree-stick (Fig. 36), often used as a missile ; the Iro-
quois club (Figs. 37, 38), rendered good for piercing or cutting as
well by a deer-horn point at first, and by an iron blade later on ; the
Marquesas (Fig. 39) or Tahiti cutting instrument, armed with sharks'
teeth ; the. Esquimau or Australian sword (Fig. 40), in which strips
of meteoric iron, obsidian, or glass are inserted in a cleft in the side of
a stick; and fastened by cement ; and, lastly, the Mexican maquahuilt
(Fig. 41), or wooden sword, armed with sharp, razor-like flakes of ob-
sidian, are the progressive steps of savage life toward the sword. The
last-mentioned weapon was deadly enough to be ranked with its iron
compeer, for it is said to have been capable of cutting off a limb. In
this respect it is th^ highest type of a sword of other materials than
metal.

Of all weapons, the sword has held throughout historic time the

84

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

highest place. Its use implied the personal courage of the individual
at close quarters. The arrow might slay at a distance, and be dis-
charged by a coward. The spear, again, if long enough and deftly

*

y

35

36 37 38 39

Development or the Swokd among Savages.

40

41

held, could kill without risk to the holder thereof, unless the adversary
were similarly armed. But the sword meant personal conflict, where
the victory was not always to the strong. Rightly it is the sign of
might and governance, for it implies both the will and the power to
execute the behests of its holder. It is one of the insignia of author-
ity, because it is the sign of courage and skill.

-♦^♦^

ON THE DIFFUSION OF ODOES.

By E. C. EUTHEEFOED.

THE following paragraph is similar to others I have occasionally
seen going the rounds of the papers for the last twenty-five or
thirty years :

It is said that a grain of musk is capable of perfuming for several years a
chamber twelve feet square without sustaining any sensible diminution of its
volume or its weight. But such a chamber contains 2,985,984 cubic inches, and
each cubic inch contains 1,000 cubic tenths of inches, making in all nearly three
billions of tenths of an inch. Now, it is probable, indeed almost certain, that
each such cubic tenth of an inch of the air of the room contains one or more of
the particles of the musk, and that this air has been changed many thousands of
times. Imagination recoils before computation of the number of the particles
thus diffused and expended. Yet have they all together no appreciable weight
and magnitude. — Moseleifs Illustrations of Science.

OJV THE DIFFUSION OF ODORS. 85

More than thirty-six years ago I announced, in some lectures I was
then engaged in delivering, that there were some facts in the phenom-
ena of odors and the sense of smell that were incompatible with the
effluvia or diifusion-of -particles theory ; and I suggested an explana-
tion based on the idea of a vibration or wave-motion, and an " odorif-
erous ether " analogous to, if not identical with, that of the luminif er-

ous ether.

In the year 1863, in a letter to Professor Tyndall, I submitted the
thought to him. After quoting some passages from his book, " Heat
a Mode of Motion," upon the subject of odors, I wrote as follows : " I
would respectfully ask if, in the consideration of, or in the course of,
experiments upon this subject, it has ever occurred to you that odor
might be as essentially a " mode of motion " as heat, light, or sound ?
. . . The seemingly unlimited generation of odoriferous particles (?)
by certain substances, without sensible diminution of bulk or weight,
first led to the conception that, however copiously odoriferous particles
of matter were disseminated through the atmosphere, the odorous prop-
erty itself was as purely a specific variety of motion as the undulations
of the luminif erous ether. That this must be the explanation of the
action of the odor-generating force for a part of its route to the hu-
man sensorium seems to be incontrovertible, for it is hardly conceiv-
able that the material particles should actually penetrate the membrane
and force their way, as moving bodies, through the pulpy tissue of
the nerves to the seat of sensation ; but that through that portion of
their career, at least, their power is propagated by wave-like motions
analogous to those of heat and sound."

Professor Tyndall did me the honor to answer my letter, but not to
indorse my view, except in a very faint and qualified manner. Never-
theless, reflection and added experience have only gone to confirm me
in the correctness of it, and I venture to predict that before many
years it will be as much an accepted fact of science as the undulatory,
luminiferous-ether theory now is.

In the case given above the entire space of the chamber is thor-
oughly impregnated with the perfume as much as if it were an abso-
lute solid of odor. And yet these "particles," so profusely diffused
through the room, are wafted away, and their places supplied by new
emissions from the undiminished " grain," " many thousands of times ':
every year without appreciable " sensible diminution of its volume or
weight," or pungency. This is an obvious impossibility upon any the-
ory of molecular Or atomic diffusion. The assumption of immense dif-
fusibility and vastness of inter-particular spaces would only enhance
the difficulty, for the odor spans the spaces — is as absolutely continu-
ous as if the particles were in actual contact. That is, in the given
space, the chamber, anywhere within the limits of the odor, there is
no place where it is not. This actio in distans implies ethereal motion
— vibration — between the particles.

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

According to this view the odoriferous bodies, or their molecules,
have no more to do (in the sense of physical impact) in producing the
sensation of smell than a luminous body — a candle or the sun — has to
do (by impact) with the sensation of light. There is corporeal impact
or touch in neither case. Of course, with each molecule as a center of
activity, the effect will be more pronounced at the immediate surface
(as with all radiant energies) than at any distance. And, undoubted-
ly, particles of disintegrating, odorous matter are often brought in
contact with the Schneiderian membrane ; but the sensation of that
impact, if there be any, would be of touch, not of smell, as surely as
that, from that point of contact to the sensorium, the effect or influ-
ence is conveyed by a vibration — a wave-motion in the " fluid " of the
nerve-duct — as the undulations of the luminiferous ether are propa-
gated along the course of the optic nerve to the seat of sensation,
where they are translated into light and color. But, if, for any por-
tion of the distance between the internal sense and the fragrant body,
the odor, like light, is but a motion, it is safe to assume it for all.
The analogy of this mode of odors to that of light and sound is some-
thing in its favor.

■♦•♦■

COLOK-BLINDNESS AND COLOK-PEKCEPTIOK*

By SWAN M. BUENETT, M.D.

TO physiologists that part of the function of vision which is con-
cerned in the perception of colors has always been one of great
interest, but it was not until the genius of Thomas Young offered
them his theory of vision that they had anything like a plausible
working hypothesis. This theory, as elaborated and promulgated by
Professor Helmholtz, has until very recently been the one most relied
upon in explanation of all the phenomena of colored vision. It is,
however, a pure hypothesis, since not one of its fundamental princi-
ples is a demonstrated or even a demonstrable fact. By a process of
deductive reasoning, and most probably with little, if any, experimen-
tation— for it is said that Young prided himself on being independent
of the necessity of experiment — the vivid imagination of this original
mind seized upon an hypothesis which seemed to satisfy the demands
of an acceptable theory, in so far as it accounted for all or nearly all
of the observed phenomena. At that time, however, and even when
Helmholtz resurrected and revivified the theory, the question of color-
blindness had not been investigated to the extent it has within the
past ten years, and most physiologists rested content with the belief
that at last the true theory of colors had been found,

* A paper read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, December 18, 1880.

COLOR-BLINDNESS AND COLOR-PERCEPTION 87

Such, however, is no longer the case, and there are many who are
not almost but quite persuaded that the true theory of vision is one
of the questions to be solved by the coming physiologist. This theory
of Young-Helmholtz, as it is called, demands three primary or funda-
mental colors, by the admixture of which all other colors are pro-
duced. These colors are supposed, by Helmholtz, to be red, green,
and violet. All other colors and shades are made from the proper mixt-
ure of two or more of these colors. White is the sensation produced
by the proper mingling of all three sensations ; black is the absence
of sensation. Corresponding to these three primary sensations there
are in the retina, or terminal expansion of the optic nerve, three dis-
tinct sets of nerves which respond to the wave-lengths of the luminif-
erous ether which physically represent these colors.

This is all very simple and extremely plausible, but certain phe-
nomena of vision make it necessary to so modify this simplicity as to
spoil its beauty and give an elasticity to the theory which can not be
gratifying to the student of exact science. It becomes necessary to
suppose, for instance, that the nerve-fiber which responds to red is also
affected, in a less degree, by the green waves, and in a still less degree
by the violet; and the green waves, while principally affecting the
green fibers, affect also the red and violet; and the violet waves influ-
ence the red and green fibers, though in a much less degree than they
do the violet. In this theory gray is but a white of diminished in-
tensity.

Color-blindness is explained in keeping with this theory as follows :
Any one or all three of the color-fibers may be wanting, or lacking in
functional activity. Consequently there may be red-, green-, or violet-
blindness, or there may be total color-blindness. Since, however, it is
supposed that each one of the color-fibers is affected (though in a less
degree) by both other colors as well as by its own peculiar color, there
must be a sensation produced by each color, though it will be of less-
ened intensity in the case of the lacking color, and that sensation must
be other than that of the color belonging to the missing fiber. Under
these circumstances, even a saturated primary color would not, when
its fiber was missing, appear black, though it would appear darker than
to one with normal color-perception. To a red-blind person, a spectral
red, for example, while appearing a color much less luminous than is
usual, would not be black ; and, if a solar spectrum were presented to
such a color-blind individual, it need not appear shortened at the red
end. If the green fiber is the lacking one, green will not appear as
black,' but when of a certain shade will appear as gray, and for the
following reason : White is the product of the sum of all the sensa-
tions which the mind is capable of perceiving through the eye. When
the eye is normal, we have it when all three of the fibers are affected
in about the same degree, and in the color-blind when the two remain-
ing fibers are thus^affected. Any color, therefore, which contains, be-

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sides green, a certain proportion of the other colors (red and violet) —
as certain shades of what we call green do — will cause, when presented
to such a green-blind individual, the sensation of white of diminished
intensity. When the solar spectrum is placed before him, there should
be a gray or neutral band at the line which divides the two colors
which are unmistakably distinguishable ; and, in the green-blind, it is
nearer the red end of the spectrum than in the red-blind.

When the violet is the lacking fiber, we have phenomena analogous
to those where the red fiber is missing, though, of course, there are
differences in details.

In accordance with this theory, therefore, there can be no color-
blindness, in the strict acceptation of the term, except when all the
color-fibers are lacking ; because all colors produce an impression of
some kind, though it may not be the one experienced by those of nor-
mal color-perception. There is, however, a marked confusion of the
various colors, and by the special character of this confusion one kind
of color-blindness is differentiated from another.

In making an examination for the diagnosis of color-blindness,
nomenclature, or the naming of the colors which are presented to the
person to be examined, is entirely discarded. It has been found that
an individual maybe able to name the several colors correctly, and yet
make mistakes when called upon to match them ; and, on the other
hand, he may not be able to name a single color correctly, and yet
make no serious mistakes in "matching." The method of comparison
is therefore the only one which should be adopted in making examina-
tions for color-blindness.

The method of Professor Holmgren, which is the simplest and, on
the whole, the most convenient, consists in placing on a table before
the examinee a large assortment of skeins of colored worsteds. A
" sample " skein of light-green is laid to one side, and the individual
is told to select from the pile all the skeins which are of the same
color — lighter or darker. If he places by the sample a shade of any
other color but green, he is color-blind. This examination, however,
does not fix the particular color to which he is blind, and, in order to
find the color which is lacking in his chromatic scale, a purple or rose-
colored skein is laid aside as a sample and the confusions he makes
here are supposed to fix the diagnosis. If he matches the purple with
blue and violet or one of them, he is red-blind. If, however, he selects
the greens and grays, he is green-blind. Violet-blindness (which is
very rare) is recognized by a confusion of red, purple, and orange in
the test with the purple skein.

Another plan for employing the comparative method is to have
two solar spectra, one above the other, the upper of which is movable.
A colored band is isolated in the fixed spectrum, and the upper spec-
trum is moved until what is supposed to be the same color is immedi-
ately above it. Or, the isolated band may be matched with a skein of

COLOR-BLINDNESS AND COLOR-PERCEPTION. 89

colored wool. Of course, the same mistakes will be made here as in
the preceding method.

Another method of examination rests on the phenomena of what
are called contrast colors. When a white surface is illuminated simul-
taneously by a red and a white light — as by two lamps, for example,
before one of which a red glass is held — an object, a pencil, for in-
stance, held midway between the two will cast two shadows, one from
the red light and another from the white light. To one of normal
color-perception, one of these shadows (that cast by the white light)
will be red, while the other (that cast by the red light) will be green ;
to any one blind for either one of these colors, there will be no differ-
ence in the color of the shadows. If rings cut from black or gray
paper are laid upon red or green paper and the whole is covered with
tissue-paper, the rings will have a reddish tinge if the ground is green,
and green if the ground is red. If, however, the individual is blind
to either of these colors, no such difference will be noted ; and, if
letters cut from black or gray paper are used instead of rings, they can
not be distinguished when laid on the colored ground and covered
with the tissue-paper.

Another method is to make letters of certain colors on different
colored grounds — shades of red letters, for instance, on a green ground.
When these are of the requisite tints, the color-blind person is not able
to distinguish them.

There are other methods, but they are all modifications to a greater
or less extent of the foregoing, and any one who is color-blind to any
considerable degree can be detected by any one, or at least by any
two, of the methods indicated.

There is another theory of colors brought forward within the last
few years by Professor Hering, of Prague, which is adhered to by
many physiologists, and is a vigorous rival of the Young-Helmholtz
theorv. Professor Hering assumes that there are three chemical vis-
ual substances in the retina, which he calls the black-icJiite, the red-
green, and the Mue-ydlow. Light acts upon these substances by what
he calls assimilation (A), and dissimilation (D). When light acts in a
dissimilating or decomposing manner on the black-white substance, the
sensation of white is produced ; when there is an assimilation or regen-
eration of this substance, the sensation is black. Hering is by no
means certain which are the A- and which the D-colors, but he is dis-
posed to regard red as the dissimilating color of the red-green sub-
stance, and green the assimilating color. Blue, he thinks, causes dis-
similation of the blue-yellow substance, while its regeneration is caused
by yellow. All colors, he supposes, act in a dissimilating manner on
the black- white substance — that is, they produce the sensation of white
in addition to their own peculiar color. They act, however, in vary-
ing degrees of intensity, yellow acting with the greatest power, the
strength of action diminishing toward the two ends of the spectrum.

9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In accordance with this theory, there are, therefore, four fundamental
colors instead of three (excluding black and white), namely : red,
green, yellow and blue, and they are supposed to be produced as fol-
lows : Red is the product of the dissimilation of the red-green sub-
stance, green is the result of its assimilation ; blue is the result of the
dissimilation of the blue-yellow, and yellow of its assimilation. , When
the A- and D-action on the red-green and blue-vellow substance are
equal there is no color sensation, but only the D-action of these colors
on the black- white substance, that is white. Simultaneous A- and D-
action on the black- white substance, however, is not attended by aboli-
tion of sensation, but by the sensation of gray.

It will be seen from this that, in the Hering theory, what were be-
fore considered as complementary colors are antagonistic and tend to
neutralize each other. It will be remembered that those colors have
been called complementary which, when mixed together, would pro-
duce white (we speak now of spectral colors). This was explained by
the Young-Helmholtz theory on the principle of combination ; it is
accounted for by the Hering theory on the principle of subtraction.
When red and green, for instance, form white on being mixed, the
white is not produced by the sum of the sensations of red and green,
but the red and green, being antagonistic, neutralize each other, and
there only remains the D-action of both colors on the black-white sub-
stance— that is, white.

As in the Young-Helmholtz theory, the other colors, aside from the
primary, are the results of mixed sensations.

Color-blindness, in accordance with this theory, is of two forms.
In one, both color substances are wanting, and there only remains the
black-white substance to be acted on by light (achromatopsia). In
the other form, one of the two color-substances is lacking and only
the two colors of the remaining color-substance are distinguishable
(dichromatopsia). If the red-green substance is lacking, there will be
red-green blindness or blue-yellow vision ; if the blue-yellow substance
is the missing one, there will be blue-yellow blindness, or red-green
vision.

To satisfactorily account for some of the phenomena of color-blind-
ness, however, it becomes necessary to suppose that, when one color-
substance is wanting, the light rays which act specifically on that sub-
stance produce an A- or D-action on the remaining color-substance. In
red-green blindness, for example, red, yellow, and green act in a dis-
similating manner on the remaining blue-yellow substance, giving rise
to the sensation of yellow, while blue alone acts in an assimilating man-
ner. The most strongly dissimilating color will be yellow, while the
others will be more or less varying in their action. In the case of
blue-yellow blindness, red, yellow, and blue are the dissimilating col-
ors and green the assimilating color. It will be readily understood,
when we have this state of affairs, that in the dichromatrope, where

COLOR-BLINDNESS AND COLOR-PERCEPTION. 91

the A- and D-action of the one remaining color-substance are equal,
gray will be the result, because, as we have before remarked, where two
colors neutralize each other there still remains the action of both on
the black-white substance, which will give rise to the sensation of gray
or white of diminished intensity. But the same colors will not appear
gray to all color-blind persons, for the reason that the same colors do
not act in every case with the same intensity of dissimilation and as-
similation. In most individuals it is the purple and the blue-green
which give rise to the impression of gray.

A spectrum should, in accordance with this theory, appear in only
two colors to the color-blind, and may or may not be shortened ac-
cording as the dissimilating power of the two remaining colors is in-
tense or very feeble. The only colors, of course, which such a color-
blind person can with certainty distinguish are the two belonging
to the one remaining color-substance, blue and yellow, for instance,
when there is red-green blindness, and red and green when there is
blue-yellow blindness. It is not to be understood, however, that such
an individual can never correctly distinguish other colors. Most fre-
quently he can, but there is always a liability to confusion, often of
the most astonishing character ; and, moreover, the distinctions are
made, not by the sense of color, but by some other characteristic, dif-
ferent degrees of luminosity, most commonly.

The evidences which the phenomena of color-blindness have
brought against the three-fiber theory of Young-Helmholtz are :

1. That the red-blind can not distinguish perfectly the greens and
violets, nor the green-blind the reds and violets ; yellow and blue being
the only colors about which they make no mistakes.

2. Even in a spectrum which is very much shortened the red-
blind finds the brightest place, not in the bluish-green, as we should
expect, but in the yellow, as in the normal eye.

3. This theory can not satisfactorily explain the extreme shorten-
ing of the spectrum, extending, as it sometimes does, into the orange,
and even into the yellow.

4. The line of demarkation in the spectrum is sharply at the blue,
all to the left almost always appearing of one color, and all to the
right of another, there being no lines of division between blue and vio-
let, nor between the red and yellow and the yellow and green.

5. The gray or neutral band is far from being invariably present,
and when it is it is often, in the red-blind, in the position it should
be in the green-blind, and vice versa (Mauthner).

'Against the Hering theory the following objections have been ad-
vanced :

1. There is no reason for supposing that red and green and blue
and yellow are opposing colors. They are all active in their specific
line, and even Hering has not been able to determine which possesses
the A-action an<J which the D-action.

gz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

2. The simj)le colors are not complementary, as Hering asserts ;
blue-green, and not green, is the complementary color of red, and
violet-blue, and not blue, is the complementary color of yellow. The
simple colors can not, therefore, be considered as antagonistic.

3. The white, which comes from the union of two of Hering's
antagonistic colors, is not the result of subtraction, but of addition, as
is shown when, with a double spectroscope, a saturated violet being
made to cover a yellow, a white is produced which is manifestly more
intense than the yellow, while another yellow of the same intensity as
the violet added to the yellow does not produce a yellow intenser than
the yellow resulting from the first experiment.

4. White is not a direct independent sensation ; it is absent in the
spectrum where, in red-blindness or violet-blindness, the specific color
is absent (Donders).

From the foregoing, and from a study of the phenomena as pre-
sented by a number of color-blind persons, two important facts are
forced upon the unbiased observer : 1. That we have not yet arrived
at any fixed laws governing the phenomena ; that all cases can not be
classed as distinctly red, green, or violet blindness, though it seems
probable that all might be classed under the heads of red-green and
blue-yellow blindness. 2. That neither of the two prominent hypothe-
ses fills the demands of an acceptable theory, inasmuch as both fail to
account consistently for all the phenomena.

It seems to us that, in the consideration of the subject of color-
blindness hitherto, too much stress has been laid on the part which the
retina plays in color-perception. There are three distinct agents at work
in the perception of color. The impression is first made on the retina;
this is carried thence by means of the optic nerve to the center in the
brain which presides over the function of vision, and it is there con-
verted into a sensation. Let any one of these agents become incapaci-
tated, from any cause, for properly carrying on its function, and there
must be a perversion or absence of sensation. In certain affections of
the retina and optic nerve we have instances of color-blindness from
deranged or abolished functional activity of the first two agents, and
in some forms of toxic action, particularly alcoholic poisoning, we have
in all probability examples of the cerebral form of color-blindness.
The supposed color-fibers or color-substances may be in a perfect con-
dition and acted upon in a perfectly normal manner by light, but the
optic nerve may be incapacitated by some change in its molecular
structure from carrying all of the impressions correctly to the brain-
center, and, even should all the separate impressions arrive there, the
cerebral center itself may not be in condition to convert them into the
proper sensation. The conducting power of the nerve, or the convert-
ing power of the cerebral center, may be but slightly deranged or to-
tally deficient for some color or colors, and so the phenomena presented
by two cases falling under the same category would be very different;

COLOR-BLINDNESS AND COLOR-PERCEPTION. 93

and, when we consider the infinite degrees of incapacity that may exist
for all the different colors, we can readily understand the infinite varia-
tion in the mistakes of the color-blind, and the impossibility of laying
down exact rules for diagnosis.

It is my belief that a large number, perhaps a majority, of the
cases of congenital color-blindness have not their seat in the retina at
all, but are cerebral in their character. In other words, I believe
that in these cases the brain-center of vision has not the power to dif-
ferentiate the various impressions it receives. This opinion will seem
the more plausible when we remember that the sense of sight is a de-
veloped or educated one. Though we have received from our ances-
tors the potentiality of vision, every child that is born must learn to
see for itself. Without here entering into a discussion of the ques-
tion of the development of the color-sense, which has received much
attention at the hands of Mr. Gladstone, Magnus, and others, it is safe
to assume, with our knowledge of analogous matters, that the differen-
tiation of colors is a power partly inherited and partly developed in
the individual ; and, moreover, we should expect to find this power,
which is undoubtedly cerebral in its character, most strongly devel-
oped where the faculty was most used. And so we do find it. Wom-
en, who are much more concerned than men in the selection and com-
parison of colors, are rarely affected with color-blindness ; and we all
know how much quicker the feminine eye is in detecting slight differ-
ences in shades of color than is that of men who are not color-blind.
In those cases of color-blindness which, for the sake of distinction, we
shall call central, we believe that the brain-center of vision has not
been developed to its full or at least to its ordinary power for discrim-
inating between the impressions corresponding to the different colors.
The retina may be capable of properly responding to these various im-
pressions, and the optic nerve may carry them as separate impressions
to the brain-center ; but this has not the power of converting them
into individual sensations.

From what has already been said, it is evident that neither of the
two at present prominent theories satisfactorily accounts for all the
phenomena of color-blindness. Moreover, it seems to me, the true
theory of colors when found will be simple ; and the laws governing
the sense of vision will be found to bear some analogy to those gov-
erning the other senses — at least, I do not believe it will be found nec-
essary to invent new processes and new reactions of tissues to agents
affecting the economy. The true theory, I believe, will be found to
lie in the direction pointed out by the recent researches on the phys-
ical reaction of certain simple substances to the undulations of the lu-
miniferous ether. This reaction may be in its restricted sense chem-
ical, purely physical, or chemico-physical ; but it will be due to the
changes in the molecular structure of simple substances, caused by the
action of the e^her. In other words, the variation in the sensation

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

produced will have its basis, not in complexity of tissue, but in the
varying action of the affecti7ig agent.

"Without entering into a discussion of the question in detail, I
would say that it seems probable that the optic nerve is merely a
highly organized nerve of common sensation. In some of the lower
forms of animal life light is perceived over the whole cutaneous or
external surface, as shown by the action of the animals when exposed
to its influence. Furthermore, it is now a generally admitted fact
that heat and light are due to vibrations of the same ether, differ-
ing only in their wave-lengths. The effect of both heat and light is
to produce molecular change. When heat produces a sensation through
the cutaneous nerves, it is most probable that it does it by means of a
molecular change in the terminal filaments of these nerves which is
communicated to the brain-center through the nerves, probably also
by a rapidly progressive change in their molecular structure. The
nerves of common sensation, however, do not seem to possess the power
to differentiate variations in wave-lengths — they take cognizance only
of the varying intensity of the vibratory motion ; that is to say, they
distinguish quantities rather than qualities. It would, however, be
doing no violence to known facts to suppose that a high specialization
would enable these nerves to carry as distinct impressions the changes
wrought by the separate wave-lengths. In fact, it is highly probable
that they do so, but the cerebral centers in which they terminate have
not been educated to the point of making distinctions between these
separate impressions and fixing them as individual sensations.

In framing a theory of color-perception on the basis we have indi-
cated, we would suppose the retina to be a body whose molecular
structure is such that it will respond with promptness to all or nearly
all the wave-lengths of perceptible light. This molecular change pro-
duced in the retina is carried by the optic nerve to the center of vis-
ion in the brain, and is there converted into a sensation. This is, to
some extent, going back to the original theory of Newton, who, in
speaking of the action of light upon the retina, considered that "the
rays impinging upon the ends of the optic nerve excite vibrations
which run through the optic nerve to the sensorium. Here they are
supposed to affect the sense with various colors according to their nat-
ure and bigness."

The chief objection to this hypothesis, advanced by Young, was
that the frequency of these vibrations must be dependent upon the
constitution of the substance of the retina, and it was almost impossi-
ble that every sensitive point should have an infinite number of differ-
ent particles to respond to this infinite number of vibrations. He there-
fore supposed the number to be limited to three which corresponded
to red, green, and violet.

It will be seen that the difference in the different theories of colors
lies in the supposed reaction of the retina to light. After the impres-

COLOR-BLINDNESS AND COLOR-PERCEPTION.

95

sion has passed beyond the retina, there is no special or important dif-
ference m the views as to the final conversion into a sensation The
objections to these two hypotheses we have already stated. The accept-
ance of such an hypothesis as we propose, however, does not involve
the necessity of inventing new laws, or of creating new issues, but
only applies known laws and analogous reactions of other substances
to the elucidation of the phenomena observed. We know that there
are membranes which respond with promptness to any number of sim-
ple aerial vibrations at the same time, and recent discoveries have
shown that there are substances which, when in proper condition thus
respond to wave-lengths of light. Silenium, when in a crystalline
condition, alters its molecular condition (as manifested by its varying
resistance to the passage of the electric current), not only when acted
on by light of varying intensity, but also by the different wave-leno-ths
If, then, we suppose the retina to be a substance of this nature but
responding more promptly, and in a more delicate manner, than' anv
other known substance to the wave-lengths of light, we have a basis
tor a theory of vision which is extremely simple in its nature, and
tounded on known physical laws.

We will not here enter upon a detailed application of this theory
to the elucidation of all the phenomena of colored vision, but will sim-
ply mention a few points in connection with color-blindness. One
general principle may be laid down which will cover all cases of reti-
nal color-blindness as distinguished from cerebral or central, and that
is, that in these cases the molecular structure of the retina is so al-
tered as to allow it to respond feebly or not at all to light rays of cer-
tain wave-lengths. We know, for example, that silenium must be in
a crystalline state-that is, its molecular structure must be in a certain
definite condition-before it can respond in such a delicate manner to
variation m the intensity of the light-waves ; and we know that there
are certain wave-lengths of the ether-the ultra-red and the ultra-
vlolet-which call forth no reaction on the part of the retinal sub-
stance. It would, therefore, be a highly justifiable supposition that a
slight alteration m the molecular structure of the retina would render
it incapable of being affected by certain wave-lengths to which it,
when in a normal condition, readily responds. This incapability may
be partial or complete as regards any particular wave-lengths. In
some instances of color-blindness, for example, the spectrum is short-
ened at the red end even under the most intense illumination, while
in others there is a shortening only when the illumination is feeble-
becoming of normal length when the intensity of the illumination is
increased-showmg, in the latter case, that the reaction to the red rays
is still present when they are of sufficient intensitv.

When we come to cerebral color-blindness, which is, according to
my view, the most common, the explanation is still simple. In this
instance we have only to suppose the cerebral center of vision incapa-

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ble of distinguishing between the impressions of wave-lengths which
lie relatively near together as regards their vibration numbers. It
will be noticed, as an important fact, that there is confusion only of
those colors which lie toward the same end of the spectrum. Red and
green, for instance, are the colors which are most commonly undistin-
guishable ; blue and yellow less commonly ; but no instance -is on
record in which red and blue, or green and yellow, were constantly
confounded. It seems from the examinations thus far made that the
color-blind make, as a rule, distinctions between only two classes of
color-sensations. A most intelligent color-blind man, whom I recently
examined with the spectrum, saw it only as two colors — the line of
demarkation being sharply at the blue-green junction, all to the right
was blue, all to the left was what he called red. He could distinguish
no line of separation between the red, green, and yellow, and the maxi-
mum of intensity was at the yellow, as is the case with normal eyes.
As Mauthner says, there are no fixed rules which serve us for a diag-
nosis between red- and green-blindness. The two colors are confused,
but how are we to know which is the one correctly perceived ? The
individual who is found to be green-blind by one method of examination
is often found to be red-blind bv another, and in some cases to have a
shortening of the red end of the spectrum. Moreover, the red-blind
can not unerringly pick out the greens, nor the green-blind the reds.

If, as we believe, a large number, perhaps a majority of the cases of
congenital color-blindness are cerebral rather than retinal, and due
more to a want of education of the color-sense than to any anatomical
defect, a plan for the diminution or eradication of color-blindness
would be by no means chimerical. The fact that women are less fre-
quently color-blind than men we consider most probably due to the
circumstance that their faculty for color is in more active and constant
use, and for this reason has become more highly developed, and has been
transmitted as a sexual peculiarity from mother to daughter. It seems,
therefore, quite reasonable to suppose that if boys could have their
color-sense educated to the same extent as girls, and the process were
continued through a number of generations, the defect of color-blind-
ness would in course of time disappear, except as a rare anomaly.

-+++-

STALLO'S "CONCEPTS OF MODERN PHYSICS."*

By W. D. LE SUEUK.

" "FT is generally agreed," says Mr. Stallo, " that thought in its most
-L comprehensive sense is the establishment or recognition of rela-
tions between phenomena." All perception is of difference ; and two

* From a criticism of " The Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics," in the " Cana-
dian Monthly."

STALLO'S "CONCEPTS OF MODERN PHYSICS." 97

objects, therefore, are the smallest number requisite to constitute con-
sciousness. On the other hand, objects are conceived as identical by
an attention to their points of agreement ; though conception may also
be regarded as perception applied to a group of objects, so as to bring
before the mind its class characteristics ; the word well expressing
the gathering into one of the several qualities or properties by which
the group is distinguished from other groups. Conception is, there-
fore, the source of ideas, and the word concept expresses the union
effected in the mind of those attributes or properties under which a
given object is at any moment recognized. In other words, it is " the
complement of properties characteristic of a particular class." If the
class be a very special one the concept will apply to but few individu-
als ; but the complement of properties which it will connote will be
a very comprehensive one. If, on the other hand, the class be a very
wide or general one, the concept will apply to a much larger number
of individuals, but it will comprehend fewer attributes or properties.
As application widens, meaning narrows ; until from an infima species,
or in English a group of the most special kind, we rise to a summum
genus, or a class in which only such properties remain as are absolutely
essential to thought. The process by which this is done is the proc-
ess of abstraction, which consists in dismissing from consideration all
properties not essential to the particular class which we may wish to
form. Objects are known, it is further to be remarked, " only through
their relations to other objects," and each individual object only "as a
complex of such relations." No operation of thought, however, "in-
volves the entire complement of the known or knowable properties (or
relations) of a given object. In mechanics a body is considered sim-
ply as a mass of determinate weight or volume, without reference to
its other physical or chemical properties " ; and, in like manner, every
other department of knowledge only takes account of that aspect of
the object which it is necessary for the purpose in hand to study.
The mind can not completely represent to itself at any one time all
the properties or relations of an object ; nor is it necessary that it
should do so, as they can not possibly all be relevant to the same intel-
lectual operation. Our thoughts of things are thus symbolical, because
what is present to the mind at a given moment is not the object in the
totality of its relations, but a symbol framed for the occasion, and em-
bracing just those relations under which the object is to be considered.
A concept in which all the relations of an object should be embraced
is an obvious impossibility. We can not stand all round a thing all at
once ;'we must choose our side, or, in other words, fix upon our point
of view.

The above line of thought will be familiar to all students of phi-
losophy, and particularly to those acquainted with the writings of Mr.
Herbert Spencer. For some reason or other, however, Mr. Stallo
abstains, not only here but generally throughout his book, from any

VOL. XXI. — *7

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mention of the relation of his philosophical views to those of other
writers. He does not give us his bearings, so to speak, but leaves us
to discover them for ourselves. We can not think this policy a good
one. To the general reader it is not helpful, as it may lead him to
form an exaggerated idea of the originality of the views contained in
the volume — a result, we are sure, at which the author would not con-
sciously aim. Some special illustrations of what we are now remark-
ing upon may present themselves before we close.

" All metaphysical or ontological speculation is based upon a dis-
regard of some or all of the truths above set forth. Metaphysical
thinking is an attempt to deduce the true nature of things from our
concepts of them." The last sentence presents us with a definition of
admirable terseness and force, stating as it does the whole case against
metaphysics in a dozen words. For purposes of thought we analyze
and abstract ; but, not content with deriving from these operations the
logical aid they are calculated to afford, we fly off to the conclusion that
what we have done in the realm of thought holds good outside of thought
or absolutely. To apply this to the matter in hand : where the " me-
chanical theory of the universe " asserts mass and motion to be the " ab-
solutely real and indestructible elements of all physical existence," it
overlooks the fact that mass and motion by themselves are really
elements of nothing but thought, and are simply a kind of mental
residuum after all the more special properties of objects have, by suc-
cessively wider generalizations (as before explained), been mentally
abstracted. As our author puts it : " They are ultimate products of
generalization, the intellectual vanishing-points of the lines of abstrac-
tion which proceed from the infimce species of sensible experience.
Matter is the summum genus of the classification of bodies on the
basis of their physical and chemical properties. Of this concept, matter,
mass and motion are the inseparable constituents. The mechanical the-
ory, therefore, takes not only the ideal concept matter, but its two
inseparable constituent attributes, and assumes each of them to be a
distinct and real entity." Mr. Stallo sees in this a survival of mediae-
val realism ; but it is really nothing else than the opinion of the mul-
titude, now and in all ages, elevated to the rank of a philosophical
doctrine. Men in general are materialists who temper their material-
ism to themselves by a supplementary belief in spiritual existences.

Not only is the mind prone to believe that its concepts are truly
representative of external realities, but it readily assumes also that the
order of succession in the world of thought must be the order of de-
velopment in the external world. The effect of the latter illusion is
completely to invert the order of reality. " The summa genera of
abstraction — the highest concepts — are deemed the most, and the data
of sensible experience the least, real of all forms of existence." Be-
cause we arrive at the concept matter by leaving out of consideration
all the properties that differentiate one form of matter from another,

STALLO'S "CONCEPTS OF MODERN PHYSICS:' 99

and because matter thus divested of its special properties forms a kind
of rock-bed of thought, we conclude that similarly undifferentiated
matter must form the rock-bed, or, to vary the figure, the original raw
material, of the objective universe. But manifestly, in the scale of
reality, the highest place must be given to things as they are, to indi-
vidual objects with their full complement of properties, and succes-
sively lower places to such objects robbed by abstraction of one after
another of their essential attributes. When we come to matter, we
have just enough left to think about and no more. The logical faculty,
however, goes further, and performs the tremendous feat of sundering
the elements, mass and force, the conjunction of which alone renders
matter a possible object of thought ; whence arise endless discussions
as to whether motion is a function of matter, or matter a function of
motion. The first opinion is known as the mechanical or corpuscular
theory of matter, and the latter as the dynamical. The true answer
to these intellectual puzzles is that we have no business dealing with
the mere elements of thought as if they were elements of things, and
that so long as we do we shall only succeed in landing ourselves in
in what Mr. Spencer calls " alternative impossibilities of thought."

The notion of the inertia of matter is similarly a product of ab-
straction, and by no means a representation of fact. Our author's
explanation (page 163) is as follows : "When a body is considered
by itself — conceptually detached from the relations which give rise to
its attributes — it is, indeed, inert, and all its action comes from with-
out. But this isolated instance of a body is a pure fiction of the in-
tellect. Bodies exist solely in virtue of their relations ; their reality
lies in their mutual action. Inert matter, in the sense of the mechan-
ical theory, is as unknown to experience as it is inconceivable in
thought. Every particle of matter of which we have any knowledge
attracts every other particle in conformity with the laws of gravita-
tion ; and every material element exerts chemical, electrical, and other
force upon other elements which, in respect of such force, are its
correlates. A body can not, indeed, move itself ; but this is true for
the same reason that it can not exist in and by itself. The very pres-
ence of a body in space and time, as well as its motion, implies inter-
action with other bodies, and therefore, actio in distans ; consequent-
ly, all attempts to reduce gravitation or chemical action to mere
impact are -aimless and absurd.

This whole passage is so completely on the lines of the Positive
Philosophy, that to us it seems singular that the author could have
penned- it without making some reference to the precisely similar
views of Auguste Comte, views which the scientific world in general
has largely disregarded or ignored. "Did the material molecules,"
says Comte ("Philosophic Positive," vol. i, p. 550), "present to our
observation no other property than weight, that would suffice to pre-
vent any physicist ^from regarding them as essentially passive. It

ioo THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

would be of no avail to argue that, even in the possession of weight,
they were entirely passive, inasmuch as they simply yielded to the
attraction of the srlobe. "Were this correct, the dirheuitv would onlv
be shifted ; the earth as a whole would then be credited with an activ-
ity denied to separated portions of it. It is, however, evident that, in
its fall toward the center of the earth, the falling body is just as
active as the earth itself, since it is proved that each molecule of the
body in question attracts an equivalent portion of the earth quite as
much as it is itself attracted, though, owing to the enormous pre-
ponderance of the earth's attraction, its action alone is perceptible.
Finally, in regard to a host of other phenomena of equal universality,
thermal, electric, and chemical, matter plainly presents a very varied
spontaneous activity of which it is impossible for us henceforth to

o ard it as destitute. ... It is beyond all question that the purely
passive state in which bodies are conceived to be when studied from
the point of view of abstract mechanics becomes under the physical
point of view a complete absurdity."" Xearly sixty years have elapsed
since this was written ; and yet, as Mr. Stallo's book proves, there is
a necessity for repeating and re-enforcing it to-day. The same may
be said of the doctrine that all our knowledge of objective reality
depends upon the establishment and recognition of relations ; or, in
other words, that the properties of things by which we know them
are their relations to other thing This doctrine lies at the very
foundation, not only of the Positive Philosophy, but of all true philos-
ophy, and yet, according to the statement of our author, it has been
••almost wholly ignored by men of science, as well as by metaphysi-
cians, who constantly put forward the view that whatever is real must
exist absolutely r* : or, in other words, that nothing which does not

-t absolutely can be real. Hence have arisen the endless discus-
sions as to absolute motion and rest. That motion could be real, and
yet only relative, L rued, even to such eminent thinkers as New-

ton, Leibnitz, and Descartes, wholly impossible ; yet far from there
being any impossibility in the matter, the truth is that it is only rela-
tive motion that can have to our apprehension the character of reality.
Absolute motion could in no way be distinguished from absolute rest.

♦»»

THE TEEE THAT BEAES QUIXIXE.

By 0. E. BACHELEB. M. D.

THE introduction of cinchona-culture into India was commenced
in 1S6'2. The rapid destruction of the cinchona-tree in South
America, owing to the reckless method of gathering the bark, and the
consequent high price of quinine in a country where that drug holds

THE TREE THAT BEARS QUININE. 101

so important a rank, led the Government of India to try the experi-
ment of introducing the tree into the waste mountainous regions of

CD CD

that country. Difficulties almost insurmountable were at first presented
in obtaining young plants and seeds from the cinchona regions of the
Andes, on account of the obstacles thrown in the way by the different
South American governments. Several years passed before a sufficient
number of plants could be secured for purposes of experiment.

Exjjerimental gardens were opened on the Xilgiri Mountains of
Southern India, the Himalayas on the north of Bengal, the hills of
Assam and the Northwest Provinces, and on the highlands of Burmah.
"With the exception of the Nilgirifl and Himalayas, these localities
were found to be unfavorable.

At Darjeeling in the Himalayas, four hundred r ;les north of Cal-
cutta, near which the cinchona-gardens are located, I gathered the fol-
lowing particulars of the introduction and culture of the cinchona-tree,
and the manufacture and use of its alkaloid- :

1. The soil, climate, and temperature of the cinchona regions of the
Andes were carefully noted. Gneiss and mica schist in a somewhat
loose and decomposed state, with a covering of vegetable mold, at
such an altitude as would secure a moist temperature with the least
possible variability, were the observed conditions, and these were
sought for in the Himalayas. Gneiss and mica schist compose the pre-
vailing formation throughout the Himalayan range, except its snow-
capped summits, which are granite. To find the proper altitude was
a more difficult matter. The higher and lower were at first tried, but
it was found that an elevation of from four to five thousand feet above
the sea-level afforded the most favorable conditions.

The soil is, as far as possible, identical with that of the Andes.
The eastern terminus of the Himalavan range, being nearest to the
sea, and in the range of the southeast monsoon, which on land ifl
southwest, is constantly shrouded in mist, so much so that the ravs of
the sun are seldom clear. The eternal snows and glaciers are here not
more than fifty miles from the burning plains of Bengal, the highest
peak, the second in the world, being more than twenty-eight thousand
feet above sea-level. The rain-fall is more than double that of the
plains, the last ten years showing an average of one hundred and thir-
teen inches per year. A remarkably uniform temperature is thus se-
cured, the extremes being 34r and 90°, while the ordinary summer
range is between 60" and 70D, and the winter between 45° and 55°.

Several varieties of the cinchona have been tried. Some have
failed entirely, while the C. saccirubra and G. tfisaya prove the most
hardy. The former of these has proved by far the most productive,
and is now much more generally cultivated.

'2. The seeds ripen at the commencement of the dry season suc-
ceeding the rains, i. e., in October and Xovember. After being gathered
they are spread out, in shallow boxes to dry. It is estimated that an

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ounce of seeds may produce from twenty to twenty-five thousand
plants. When thoroughly dried they are sown in beds, and when
well started the young plants are transferred to nursery -beds protected
from sun and rain by light thatched roofs. When from eight months
to a year old, or about twelve inches high, they are ready to be planted
out, the thatch-covering having been removed for a fortnight or so to
harden them. Propagation by cuttings is practiced to some extent,
and succeeds well. The plants are about six feet apart, and an acre of
ground may produce a thousand or more trees.

Where vegetation is so rapid and profuse as in India, constant
weeding is necessary, and, until the trees are sufficiently large to shade
the ground, one or two hoeings a year are highly beneficial. The
following may be considered as a fair representation of the rapidity
of growth :

At four years of age, 9 inches girth, 9 feet height.
" six " " 13 " " 17 " "

" ten " " 21 " " 30 " "

" twelve " " 28 " " 39 " "

At first, a very successful method was introduced for securing the
bark without injury to the tree. Commencing with trees about eight
years old, a strip of bark an inch and a half wide was taken from the
trunk, extending from the lower limbs to the roots. Leaving a strip
of equal width, an inch and a half, another was taken, and so on quite
round the tree, thus removing one half and leaving one half intact.
The whole trunk was then covered with moss, carefully bound on, so
as to exclude the light and air. In from ten to eighteen months the
bark would be found to be completely renewed without detriment to
the growth of the tree. The new bark thus formed was found to be
thicker and richer in quinine than the natural growth. This process
could be repeated at intervals of from a year to a year and a half for
an indefinite period. This method is still followed in the Nilgiris,
while in the Himalayas it has failed on account of the ants, which
penetrate the moss and destroy the exposed wood. In the Himalayas
two methods are now practiced. By the first the trees are felled and
the bark carefully peeled from the trunk and branches. The stumps
are allowed to remain, and from the sprouts that spring up two of the
most thrifty are preserved for future trees, while the rest are cut away.
This is called coppicing. By the second method the tree is uprooted,
and the bark removed from the trunk, branches, and roots. The
ground is then replanted with seedlings. Time must show which of
these methods will prove the most profitable.

The bark, on being removed from the trees, is placed in open sheds
near at hand to dry, that the first process of drying may be in the
open air and in the shade. When dried as much as possible without
artificial heat it is carried to the dry-house, a close brick building,
where the process is completed with the aid of slow charcoal-fires.

THE TREE THAT BEARS QUININE. 103

The drying is thus accomplished, at the lowest possible temperature,
without detriment to its chemical qualities. After this it may be
stored without danger of deterioration.

3. The medicinal alkaloids contained in the bark are quinine,
cinchonidine, quinidine, and cinchonine. Quinine has long been re-
garded as by far the most important of these, being the great specific
for malarious fevers. The price of bark in the market has conse-
quently varied with the amount of quinine it was found to contain,
with very little reference to the other alkaloids. Careful experiments
have shown that all these alkaloids possess a very high medicinal value,
but little if at all inferior to quinine.

Malarious fevers, prevailing so extensively throughout India, and
especially among the lower classes, the high price of quinine has ren-
dered it absolutely prohibitory to the masses. Consequently, the Gov-
ernment has turned its attention to the production of an article that
should contain, as far as possible, all the febrifuge qualities of quinine,
at a rate so moderate as to come within the reach of all. This benevo-
lent object has been fairly reached in the production of what is known
as amorphous quinine, or cinchona alkaloid, which sells at about fifty
cents per ounce, while quinine is held at from three to five dollars per
ounce. The products of the government cinchona-gardens are largely
employed in the manufacture of this drug.

The method of preparation is extremely simple. The bark, roughly
pulverized, is macerated in cold water acidulated with sulphuric acid,
until its properties are quite exhausted. Its resulting liquor is pre-
cipitated by a caustic alkali potash. The precipitate is then dried,
pulverized, and sealed in tin boxes of a pound each. The powder is
of a dull whitish color, very light, almost insoluble in water, but dis-
solves readily in acidulated water. At the time of issuing the last
report, one hundred and forty thousand ounces of this febrifuge were
being produced from the Himalaya gardens.

4. At , an early period extensive experiments were instituted to
ascertain the relative curative value of the different alkaloids. One
commission, consisting of sixteen prominent medical officers, reported
as follows :

Treated by cinchonine, 410 cases. Cured, 400, failed, 10.
" . " cinchonidine, 359 " " 346, " 13.

" " quinidine, 376 " " 365, " 11.

The experiment was then varied, in which the alkaloids were pitted
against quinine. The number of fever-cases treated was 2,472, with
2,445 cures and 27 failures. The ratio of failure per 1,000 was as
follows :.

Treated by quinine . . . . . . . ratio of failure 7*092

" " quinidine " " 5*024

" " chinchonidine . . . . " " 9926

" " cinchonine " " 23*255

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

These results, corroborated as they are by many subsequent ex-
periments, in various parts of India, conclusively show that all the
alkaloids of cinchona possess a nearly equal curative value, and hence
the conclusion is that all combined possess a value very little if at all
inferior to quinine. The doses are about the same. Cinchona alkaloid
is now largely used throughout the country, with a proportionate re-
duction in the demand for quinine.

■♦*»•

SKETCH OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, Bast., M. P.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK is one of that class of men of whom each
age can present only a few brilliant specimens, who are at home,
and masters, in pursuits of the most diversified character. He is al-
most equally distinguished as a banker and man of business, as a zool-
ogist, ethnologist, and archaeologist, and as a publicist and parlia-
mentarian. He stands in the front rank among bankers, while he
occupies a prominent position among naturalists, and " is a standing
proof that an industrious man of active mind may at once be diligent
in business while serving science." " His name," says one of his most
appreciative biographers, " is equally familiar to the ethnologists and
entomologists of New York or of Moscow, in the counting-houses
where the world's business is settled, and among the Maidstone Lib-
erals, who every four years temporarily lose their voices with crying,
' Sir John and liberty ! ' Most curious of all, the cause of this repu-
tation in one circle is little known to those in the other two. The
Kentish rustics may know that the ' Squire ' is fond of looking at
queer things, and the bankers may have sometimes listened to him at
the Royal Institution or in Parliament ; but each set of men judge
their many-sided friend by their own standard, and in each depart-
ment he has rendered services which ought to command the respect in
which he is indubitably held."

Sir John Lubbock derives his versatility in a very large measure
by inheritance. His father, Sir John William Lubbock — the third
bar"onet of that name — was head of the banking-house to which the
son has succeeded, and earned a more enduring fame as an astronom-
ical and mathematical writer. He was for twelve vears Treasurer and
Vice-President of the Royal Society, and was the author of works on
" The Lunar Theory," " Perturbation of the Planets," "Researches on
the Tides," the "Theory of Probabilities," and other publications,
which are still quoted as authorities. His treatise on " Probabilities ':
anticipated that of Quetelet by several years, and, being published
anonymously, was for some time ascribed to De Morgan.

The present baronet, the subject of this sketch, was born in Lon-

SKETCH OF SIB JOHN LUBBOCK, BART, M. P. 105

don, on the 30th of April, 1834. His early education was received in
a private school kept by Mr. Waring ; at a later period he was sent to
Eton College, where he had the Earl of Dalkeith, Lord Grey de Wil-
ton, Mr. Lefevre, and Mr. Chitty, Q. C, for fellow-pupils. He was
withdrawn from school when fourteen years old without being al-
lowed to enter the university, and put into the bank ; for his father's
partners had been taken suddenly ill, and it was deemed important that
he should be prepared to assume control of the establishment as soon
as possible in case death should take away its heads. His attention
was here directed to quite different objects from those in which he
had been interested, but he did justice to their demands, and exerted
himself to become a complete man of business, with a success to
which his subsequent accomplishments as a banker and the mark he
has left in English methods of business bear ample testimony. He
did not suffer this, however, to divert him from his former pursuits.
He passed his leisure at the family seat of High Elms, near Farnbor-
ough, in Kent, " a goodly mansion in the midst of an estate of four-
teen hundred acres, which had been purchased by his grandfather."
Here he continued his studies in natural history, and made it an object
to supplement and extend that education only the foundations of
which are laid at school and college.

The banking-house of which Sir John Lubbock is the head — that of
Robarts, Lubbock & Co., has been in existence since 1T50, has always
stood high, and has not decreased in stability during the administra-
tion of its present chief. Lender that administration it has promoted
a reform in the methods of transacting business throughout the king-
dom that has greatly facilitated and expedited it, by securing the ex-
tension of the clearing-house system of London to the country banks.

The clearing-house has long been a most useful institution among
the London bankers for collecting the checks paid in by their custom-
ers with greater facility than by sending round to the various banks and
getting the money over the counter, and, in their turn, having to pay to
the messengers of other bankers the charges drawn on them. In the
clearing-house building as many desks are arranged as there are bankers
connected with the institution, each of which is allotted to a particu-
lar banker. A clerk, going with a number of checks upon some or all
the bankers, puts those which are drawn upon each on his desk. At
the same time all the other banks holding checks upon his bank place
them upon his desk. When the day's business is completed, only the
balances shown upon posting the checks pro and con have to be paid
over, and this is done through drafts upon a special account in the
Bank of England. Mr. Babbage had called attention to the propor-
tion of transactions of bankers that passed through the clearing-house
to those that did not. Acting upon the suggestion given by Mr. Bab-
bage, Sir John, taking an amount of $115,000,000 that passed through
the hands of his hcvuse during the last few days of 1864, analyzed the

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

respective items of clearing -checks, bills, bank-notes, and coin, and
found that out of each million more than $700,000 passed through the
clearing-house. Such a measure of the convenience secured by the
system was evidence enough that its extension was desirable. Under
the old system of settling country accounts, a country bank taking in
the course of the day two hundred checks, drawn on perhaps one hun-
dred bankers scattered all over the kingdom, had to write one hundred
separate letters and dispatch them by post to as many different points.
Under the new system, the checks are all sent to London, grouped and
classified as are the city checks in the city clearing-house, and sent in
batches to their destinations, with a great saving of labor.

To Sir John Lubbock is also due the introduction of a method of ex-
amination for clerks of bankers and joint-stock companies conducted .
by the City of London College, in the same manner as the examina-
tions instituted by the Government under the Civil Service Commis-
sioners. He is also Honorary Secretary to the London Association of
Bankers, and in that capacity, besides keeping the records of the meet-
ings of the association, acting as secretary of all committees, control-
ling the internal arrangements of the Clearing-House, etc., he has the
duty of representing the bankers of London on questions relating to
Government in Parliament, and, indeed, whenever any intermediate
agent between banking circles and the officers of Government is
needed. When the Institute of Bankers, now numbering more than
two thousand members, was formed, he was unanimously chosen its
president. He has contributed many valuable papers to financial lit-
erature, and was a member of the International Coinage Commission.

The proper performance of these multifarious duties would seem
not to leave time for the successful pursuit of any other occupations,
but Sir John Lubbock has been able to give them due attention and,
in addition, besides doing good service to his country in Parliament,
to become a distinguished investigator and experimenter, and an au-
thority in more than one branch of science. Science was one of the
earliest of Sir John Lubbock's pursuits, and it was one of those that
he has most constantly followed up. He knew practically nothing of
banking till he was fourteen years old, while his name was not on the
rolls of Parliament till he was a man of thirty-six. But he was a nat-
uralist in his very childhood. His taste in this direction was carefully
nurtured by his father, who was accordingly very glad when Mr. Dar-
win settled as his near neighbor at Down. From that day forward
he was a pupil of that master, and became one of his most ardent dis-
ciples. His methods of investigation are very similar to those of Mr.
Darwin, and consist largely of the minute, accurate observation of
small things. His researches in zoology have been chiefly devoted to
the development, habits, and structure of the lower animals, chiefly of
insects and Crustacea, in which he has made numerous discoveries that
are recorded in various scientific journals and in the " Transactions ':

SKETCH OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. BART, M. P. 107

of the Royal, Linngean, and other learned societies. Relative to these
subjects he has published an elaborate treatise on one of the obscure
groups of insects, entitled a " Monograph of the Thysanura and Col-
lembola " (Royal Society, 1873), and works of a more popular charac-
ter on the "Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects" and "Wild Flow-
ers considered in Relation to Insects," in the latter of which he con-
siders the agency of insects in the fertilization of flowers by carrying
pollen from flower to flower while in search of food, and the adapta-
tion of the flowers to the function of dusting the insects that visit
them with their pollen and to the reception of the pollen of other
flowers from them. His most recent researches, carried on with the
aid of members of his family, have been devoted to the observation of
the habits of insects, particularly of wasps, bees, and ants, which have
been attended with important discoveries. He has given particular
attention to the study of the mental faculties of insects, whether those
creatures have any, and to what extent they may be developed, and
has made numerous interesting communications on the subject to the
British Association and the Royal Institution, which have been ex-
tensively published, even in miscellaneous journals, and generally
read ; and in connection with this branch he was able to interest the
British Association with the life-history of a pet wasp which he kept,
to such an extent that its death in the following year was considered
worthy of notice in a special paragraph in "Nature." Among the
consequences of these publications have been the direction of a greater
degree of attention to the biological history of the orders that form
the subjects of them, and a higher appreciation of the study of little
things.

Sir John Lubbock also became an active and eminent student of
archaeology. He examined the shell-mounds, or kitchen-middens, on
the coast of Denmark, to which attention had originally been called by
Steenstrup and other Danish antiquaries, and was the first to make Eng-
lish readers acquainted with those rude relics of the ancient Scandina-
vian savages. He also studied the gravels of the Somme from Amiens
to the sea, in search of prehistoric remains, and explored the bone-caves
of Dordogne and the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, and examined the
archaeological collections in numerous public and private museums.
These researches formed the subjects of various memoirs in the " Nat-
ural History Review" and other publications, and were finally col-
lected, with many additions, and published under the title of " Pre-
historic Times as illustrated by Ancient Remains and the Manners and
Custonis of Modern Savages," in a work which has passed through
five editions. His readings in the literature relating to modern savage
life led him to a consideration of the origin of civilization and of the
manner in which customs, once all but universal in the infancy of the
human race, became altered or narrowed down to the few rude tribes
who may now ahme possess them. These inquiries were originally

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

given to the Royal Institution in the spring of 1868, and were after-
ward greatly enlarged and published in a work, * The Origin of Civil-
ization and the Primitive Condition of Man," which has passed through
five editions, and, like his former work on prehistoric man, has been
translated into the French, German, Italian, Danish, Russian, Hunga-
rian, Dutch, Swedish, and other languages. It has also gone through
two American editions, and has given rise to considerable controversy
which has been called forth bv the antagonism of some of its views to
the prepossessions of a large proportion of its readers. It must have
cost the author an enormous amount of labor, and is, aside from the
theories it enunciates, a most serviceable work of reference, offering a
nearly exhaustive array of facts which it would be impossible for any
student to obtain for himself, drawn from a mass of authorities the
mere list of which would fill a considerable space. In this work the
Darwinian doctrine is applied in tracing the development of the social
and mental condition of savages, their arts, their system of marriage
and of relationship, their religions, languages, moral character, and
laws. It sustains the belief that " the law of humanitv is not des^en-
eracy, but progression ; not the falling away from a primitive state of
perfection, but the gradual amelioration and advance toward a higher
and better condition." To be more particular, the author maintains
the conclusions that "existing savages are not the descendants of civ-
ilized ancestors ; that the primitive condition of man was one of utter
barbarism ; and that from this condition several races have independ-
ently raised themselves." This work was one of the first attempts to
treat the origin of civilization on a rational and philosophic basis, and
has been pronounced " the completest summary of barbaric life that
we possess."

These books form, however, but a small part of Sir John Lubbock's
scientific writings, which include besides numerous papers in the trans-
actions of learned societies, and in the scientific and antiquarian jour-
nals, the list of which is constantly growing, and the editing from the
original manuscript of the treatise of the nonagenarian Svend Xilsson
on " The Stone Acre of Sweden."

The labors of Sir John Lubbock in behalf of the preservation of
the ancient monuments of Great Britain and Ireland may be con-
sidered in connection with his scientific work, although they have been
carried on chiefly in Parliament, and under the form of appeals to the
public. They have found shape in the well-known Ancient Monu-
ments Bill, which passed a second reading three times, but was finally
lost in the House of Lords. This bill was based upon the principle
" that, if the owner of one of these ancient monuments wishes to de-
stroy it, he should be required, before doing so, to give the nation the
option of purchase at a fair price." For this purpose, it proposed to
create a body of commissioners especially charged with the protection
of the ancient monuments, and so commended itself to all persons in-

SKETCH OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART, M. P. 109

terested in the subject that every archaeological society in the kingdom
petitioned for its passage. It was, however, strongly opposed by
other interests, with arguments of the most puerile character, such, for
instance, as that the people who erected the monuments were savages,
about whom no one cares or should care ; that the monuments them-
selves are ignoble and destitute of all art and of everything that
entitles them to preservation ; and that to preserve them was to inter-
fere seriously with the rights of property.

Replying to these objections in 1875, Sir John asked the honorable
members of the House of Commons to look at the ancient monuments
in their own districts mentioned in his bill, and tell him which of
them they would see destroyed without regret. " Was it Silbury Hill,
the grandest sepulchral monument, perhaps, in Europe ? Was it Ave-
bury, the most remarkable of the so-called Druidical structures ? Was
it Stonehenge, enigmatical and unique ? Was it Arthur's Round Table,
or the Rollrich Stones, Kitscoty House, or Wayland Smith's Forge,
dear to all readers of Sir WTalter Scott ? " Then, after referring to
similar monuments in Scotland and Ireland, he concluded : " Those
monuments have passed through great dangers. They have been
spared by Roman soldiers, by Britons, Saxons, Danes, and Xormans ;
they were respected in days of comparative poverty and barbarism ;
in these days of enlightenment and civilization, of wealth almost be-
yond the dreams of avarice, they were in danger of being broken up
for a profit of a few pounds, or removed because they cumbered the
ground. If the House allowed them to be destroyed, they could never
be replaced. It was said that the bill would interfere with the rights
of property. What rights ? The right of destroying interesting na-
tional monument-. That was the only right that would be interfered
with. It was not incidental to the bill, it was no drawback in the bill, it
was the very object of the measure. It was really, however, the rights
of destruction, not the rights of possession, which it touched. It was
now for the House to determine whether it would exercise on behalf
of the nation the right to preserve those monuments ; whether it
would maintain the ri^ht of individuals to destrov, or the risrht of the
nation to preserve."' Sir John himself bought two of the sites men-
tioned in his speech, to save them from threatened destruction : Ave-
bury, whose temple was nearly perfect in the time of Charles n, who
visited it, but which was now about to be sold for building-lots after
most of its stones had been broken up or carried off ; and Silbury
Hill, said by "Xature " to be "the grandest tumulus in Great Britain,
if not in Europe."

Sir John Lubbock's political career may be said to have begun in
1865, when he stood for a seat in the House of Commons for West
Kent, at the request of the Liberal Committee, and was defeated by
only fifty votes. In 1868 he was nominated as a Liberal candidate for
the representation of the L^niversity of London, backed by a committee

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

composed of such men as Airy, Babbage, Darwin, Huxley, Lyell, Max
Miiller, Tyndall, and others, but he thought it better to leave the field
open to Mr. Lowe, and stood, instead, for West Kent, where he was
again defeated. In 1870 he was elected for the borough of Maidstone,
and again, in 1874, after a keener contest than the preceding one, but
a good-natured one. In 1880 he lost his seat for Maidstone,, but was
returned a few days afterward by the University of London. In
recommending him for this seat a number of gentlemen, among whom
were Messrs. Alfred W. Bennett, Grant Duff, Thiselton Dyer, F. W.
Farrar, D. D., Dr. Michael Foster, H. E. Roscoe, and Dr. Samuel
Wilks, said that, since he combined in himself eminence in many
branches of knowledge and walks of life, he might be said to represent,
as few (if any) others could, the different faculties which combined to
form the university. He has made his mark in Parliament as an in-
dustrious, discriminating, working member, more distinguished, per-
haps, for the merit of the measures he has introduced and supported
than as a brilliant orator, although he has acquitted himself excellently
in the latter capacity, and earned the reputation of a speaker who
always has something to say that is well worth hearing, and the faculty
of saying it well. The following list of the bills which he has intro-
duced and promoted in their passage through the Houses attest that
his labors have been to the purpose, efficient, and successful. The bills
are, to use the peculiar phraseology with which their titles are legally
expressed, the Apothecaries' Company Medical Act Amendment Bill ;
the Bank Holiday Bill ; the Falsification of Accounts Bill ; the Banker's
Book Evidence Bill ; the College of Surgeons' Medical Act Amendment
Bill ; the University of London Medical Act Amendment Bill ; the
Absconding Debtor's Bill ; the Factor's Acts Amendment Bill ; the Bills
of Exchange Bill ; the Dental Practitioners' Bill ; the Compromise Acts
Amendment Bill ; and the Ancient Monuments Bill, which was lost
in the House of Lords. All of these acts have a practical bearing on
every-day life, and show the stand Sir John has taken in Parliament
as the elected member for the University of London, and the repre-
sentative, by an unrecorded vote, of science and the banking interest.
The best known of his bills is the Bank Holiday Bill, which has added
four new statute holidays to those that were already in existence, with
a result that has been in every way satisfactory, both to employers and
to the persons in their employ. Speaking of Sir John in connection
with the Ancient Monuments Bill, but having this act also in view,
" Nature " styles him " a member whose reputation as an archaeologist,
though great throughout the country, is exceeded by his popularity as •
the author of the most successful measure of private legislation in
modern times— the Bank Holiday Act," Sir John's political career,
as a whole, has been that of a consistent Liberal.

As a magistrate and country gentleman, Sir John Lubbock also
takes an active part in most of the varied duties incumbent on an

SKETCH OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART, M. P. in

English land-owner. He has contributed to political literature, though
not so voluminously as to scientific, and he has taken an active part in
measures to promote the extension and improvement of science-teach-
ing in the schools. The amount of work that he has done could have
been accomplished at his age only by means of the most indefatigable
industry, and the most economical use of time. He has always been
an early riser, and contrives, whenever it is possible, to get three or
four hours' work in the morning before breakfast. His career is an
example of what can be accomplished in a life well spent. No doubt,
says a biographer, many adventitious advantages existed in his case,
which poorer men do not possess. He had no anxiety as to bread ;
but, on the other hand, he does as much mechanical work every day
as would entitle him to a very fair return for his labors. Moreover,
the calls of his public position make inroads on his time, of which the
man who is his own master, by reason of his living in the by-ways of
the world, has little idea.

Sir John has received the appointment of the crown as a member
of the Senate of the University of London, and has been for several
years vice-chancellor of the same institution. He has also been a trustee
of the British Museum, a member of the Public School Commission, a
member of the International Monetary Commission, and a member of
the Royal Commission for the Advancement of Science. In literary,
scientific, and scholastic honors he is a Doctor of Civil Law of Oxford,
an LL. D. of Dublin, a Fellow of the Royal, Linnaean, Geographical,
Geological, and Antiquarian Societies ; he has been President of the
Ethnological Society, of its successor, the Anthropological Institute of
Great Britain, Vice-President of the Royal Society, Vice-President
and President of the Linnaean Society, the principal English biological
society ; and Vice-President and President of the British Association,
having been selected for the latter office to preside over the last (the
jubilee) meeting of the association, at York.

Sir John Lubbock was married in 1856 to Miss Ellen Frances,
daughter of the Rev. Peter Hordern, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Lanca-
shire, and has a family of three sons and three daughters. Lady Lub-
bock was a woman of considerable natural ability, and enjoyed the
privilege of giving much encouragement and aid to her husband by
the interest she took in all his pursuits. Her sympathies were also
extended to her husband's friends, who are still able to remember the
hospitable reception they used to meet at her hands. She contributed
a paper on " The Shell-Mounds of Denmark " to the volume of " Va-
cation Journals " for 1862-'63. She was a contributor to " Nature "
from time to time, and wrote a few articles which appeared in a pub-
lished form elsewhere. These works, however, " Nature " remarks,
" would afford but a poor criterion of all that she has directly and in-
directly done toward the advancement of natural science." She died
in 1879.

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES.

THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON;*

OR,

TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF HAKIM BEN SHEYTAN.

Translated by F. L. 0.

CHAPTEE III.

" Whose salam hails me? Hath my friend returned ?
It is his form, but not his cheerful voice."

SO says the poet ; and thou, too, O father of my faith,f wilt find
me an altered man, if it be the will of Allah that we shall meet
again. Yet not the frost has chilled my heart ; not the harmattan-
wind has seared my brow : the gloom that clouds my soul is the gloom
of sorrow for the boundless misery of my fellow-creatures — even of
my fellow-men. For the habitants of Monghistan are not brutes ; nor
are they apes, J gifted with human skill. No : they are men, degraded
by vice and monstrous superstitions, and as a human being I share in
their shame, and the weight of their woe oppresses my own heart.
May the angel of mercy be their helper !

Beth-Raka is not a large town, and I hoped to reach the opposite
hills by sunset ; but, before we had made our way to the end of the
first street, the smoke began to stifle our breath, and we concluded to
make a detour to the right and approach the furnace from the north
side of the town, where the ground was higher and the air less suffo-
cating. We entered a side-street, and would to Allah the smoke
had been dense enough to blind our eyes and save us the distress of
beholding such misery ! The street forms a hollow way through the
hills, and the rocks on both sides are full of caves, most of them
widened to a height of eight feet. In and around these caves we saw
a swarm of shapes as if the sleepers of a rock-tomb had issued from
their gloomy dens — withered forms, bloated or swollen faces, and eyes
that were not fit to meet the light of day. We met a half -grown lad
with the face of an old man, and laborers that were too infirm to walk
erect, and as we proceeded I saw with horror that the condition of
these unfortunates was not the result of an exceptional malady, but of

* Copyright by D. Appleton & Company, 1882.

f Addressed to the Mollah of Tripoli. The pastor fides of an Arabian mosque styles
himself " Guardian of the Faith," and " Gate-keeper of the Peace-house " (Kada'l Beth-
Salam).

% " All that day we met neither man nor beast nor ape," says Ibn Koteiba in his
chronicle of the Mauritanian campaign. Monkeys, in the opinion of the Arabs, are not
beasts, but Ayd-Kapi's — a sort of half -men.

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 113

their daily habits. The starved-looking children were playing in the
street ; some, too weak to play, were sitting on the ground, diverting
themselves as well as they could ; the men were busy at work, as if
disease had become their accustomed state, an evil too hopeless to
attempt its cure. Unlike the beggars of Soodan, their poor prefer
tatters to nudity. Even their little ones were encumbered with un-
sightly rags, and, strange to say, the poorest people seemed to have
the largest number of children. Habit has inured them to the im-
purities of the atmosphere ; they breathe the thickest dust with in-
difference ; yet these same people are afraid of the night-air. After
dark the fire of the furnace burns low and the smoke clears away, at
the very time when the inhabitants close every aperture of their
hovels. Where whole families sleep together (as in the den of Er-
Masood) this insane habit can not fail to increase their infirmities.
Poverty is by no means the only cause of their sickliness. The only
manly -looking men I saw in that town were the hard-working laborers
of a smithy, and in the wealthier quarters, where the children are as
pretty as our own, their fathers look unsound and peevish, in spite of
their great paunches.

The cave-street led steadily up-hill till we reached the top of an
eminence, where we stopped and breathed more freely. On the north
slope of the hill the wealthier burghers had some well-built log-houses,
and right before us was a large stone building with a spacious court,
where I saw a number of fat old fellows, all wearing the same kind of
cloaks, and all shaved like the sick of a lazar-house. At first I thought
that the place was a sort of hospital for the cure of obesity, but I
afterward ascertained that it was a guttle-house,* a building where
numerous dervishes are fattened at the public expense. These holy
men consume great quantities of manioc-roots, f which they digest in
the interior of the building, where every one of them has a little stall
of his own. At daybreak, at sunset, and again at the rise of the moon,
they set up a plaintive howl, in order to save their souls from the
Great Pitch-Hole, as the Monakees call the vale of Jehannum.J They
do not perform any kind of useful labor, but, as their howl is supposed
to propitiate the wrath of the gods, they are revered as saints, and the
people feed them very liberally. They wear a sort of sack-gowns, as
tighter garments would be inconvenient ; and among those I met
at Beth-Raka some were so fat that I could see their cheeks from
behind.

In the mean time the sun had gone down, and, as the twilight in

* Fress-Haus (W.).

f The Jatropha manUiot, a species of esculent tubers, as nutritious as our yams or
"sweet-potatoes."

\ The mythology of the Mohammedans represents the bottomless pit as a desolate
valley, swept by harmattan-winds, and infested with uncouth goblins and swarms of gad-
flies— a sort of tropical Tartarus.
vol. xxi. — 8

ii4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this country is very short, we feared that we should lose our way in
the maze of the suburban roads. The dervishes of the guttle-house
seemed disinclined to converse with strangers, and the children at play
on the hill were unable to answer our questions ; but at last we met a
well-dressed old burgher, who gave us all the information we desired.
"The road to Kapibad passes through my field," said he, "and if
you will follow me I will show you the shortest way. I live at the
foot of the hill over yonder, where you see that large mosque of the
Tripilates."

" Is not that sect very numerous in this town ?" I asked.

"Yes, their buildings occupy all the best sites," said he, "and they
have the impudence to call themselves the only true Yeshanees."

" Do you belong to the Thumpers ? " I asked.

" The Thumpers," said he, " are nearly as superstitious as the Tri-
pilates. Their teachers walk in darkness. No, I am a JSHbir, or
Senior, of the Grizzlies,* so called because our people follow the rule
of the primitive Yeshanees, whose priests were chosen from among the
gray -headed and venerable elders of the community. — How do you like
this part of our land ? " he asked, when we reached the foot of the
declivity.

" The hills remind me of the Khundee highlands," said I ; " the
buildings of Khundistan can not be compared to yours, but the in-
habitants seem to be happy in their free wilderness."

" Yes, they have a happy climate," said he, " but they are poor,
ignorant wretches, who worship only one God and take a sinful delight
in worldly pleasures. They do not know that the welfare of the soul
requires the mortification of the body, and that earthly thoughts ob-
struct the way to heaven."

" Where does all this smoke come from ? " I inquired.

"From the mash-house," said he. "We shall pass it before we
reach the city gate. The mashers employ a hundred workmen, and it
will surprise you to see what quantities of grain pass through their
hands."

If the mash-house had been a bakery, its usefulness could have
reconciled me to the smoke, for in this quarter of the city, too, the
people seemed to be in desperate want of bread, and I asked the Kar-
man to distribute all our provisions to relieve some of the famished
children that gathered around us at the street-corners.

Near the gate the road was not paved, and the ground was here
covered with mire instead of dust.

" Yes, cities abound with foul odors and all kinds of impurities,"
remarked the Kabir, " but such evils are outweighed by moral bless-
ings. In this town even the poorest enjoy the advantage of spiritual
instruction and edifying sermons."

" A great advantage, indeed," I was going to say, when I stumbled

* Parduscos (R.).

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 115

over a big man who was lying prostrate in the middle of the street.
A shorter and fatter fellow was sitting near him, but made no attempt
to help his comrade, and for good reasons, as it seemed, for, when I
tried to assist the prostrate man, he kicked me like a horse, and after
a torrent of frightful blasphemies began to pelt us with mud and
rubbish.

" Leave them alone ! " cried the Karman ; " I believe that drunken
wretch has hit me with a stone."

But at those words the fat man jumped to his feet and staggered
forward as if he were going to follow us. "Do not call a Yeshanee
a wretch," he stammered ; " that man is fond of mash, but he atones
for it on the prayer-day, and in the mosque no one can exceed the
frequency and fervor of his groans. — Oh, how Yesha loves a prayerful
heart ! " he added ; when I heard a loud splash, and, looking back, I
saw that he, too, had fallen in the mud, and was evidently as drunk as
his companion.

" Mash is very cheap in this town," explained the Kabir.

" Not to those poor fellows," said I ; "it will cost them their
health."

"Yes, but such losses, too, often result in spiritual gain," replied
the Kabir. " The body must be humbled, the natural heart must be
broken, before the soul can partake of grace. The vilest sinners be-
come the devoutest believers. — Here is the mash-house," said he, as
we stopped before a high stone-wall.

The building was shrouded in a cloud of hot vapor that added a
lurid glow to the lights that shone through every hole and crack in
the wall, and when we reached the gate we could hear the hiss of a
mighty furnace, but the flues were so high that the black smoke
passed harmless over our heads. Still, the atmosphere within was
almost suffocating. The air was thick with steam, made more offen-
sive by the intensity of the same vicious odor we had first noticed in
the eastern suburbs. All this smell, filling the air for leagues around,
seemed to be diffused from a seething kettle in the background of the
building. A multitude of half -naked men ran to and fro with sacks,
pots, and buckets, while others were raking the furnace which was
going to be covered for the night. Nearer by, and all along the
walls, were large heaps of grain, besides apples and other fruits.

" Is this hdbbada * — a provision store-house ? " I inquired.

" No, these things are merely stored here till they are ready to use
them," said the Kabir, " and that will be soon enough ; every day five
hundre'd horse-loads of grain are here used up in the manufacture of
strong drink. They make five kinds of mash, the cheaper sorts cheap
enough for the poorest."

These words convinced me of what I had suspected for some time,

* E<T abbada, " by treason," in the original — evidently by the misplacement of a dia-
critical point. x

n6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

though my soul shrank from the thought as long as there was a shad-
ow of doubt, namely, that these ship-loads of victuals would all be
made into fire-water ; mountains of grain and fruit turned into poison,
while the streets were full of starving children !

" Do you believe in a god ? " I asked the Kabir.

"I do, and in more than one ! " was the prompt reply. , ,

"And do you believe the gods will forgive you this shameful
waste?"

The Kabir touched my arm. " Do not talk so loud," he whispered.
" How can we help it ? " said he, in an undertone ; " we have tried all
kinds of remedies, and they have all failed. How can we prevent the
manufacture of mash ? "

" Simply enough," I replied ; " do not drink it. Does your religion
not forbid such an outrage, or does not your conscience prompt you
to stop it ? Is the way to freedom so far ? " *

" We have not been idle, O son of my uncle," said the Kabir ; " the
evil has been greatly diminished."

" In what way ? " I asked.

"Our dervishes," said he, "prohibit the sale of mash on all prayer-
days."

" When do they permit it ? " I asked.

" Only on six days out of seven," said he.

" But do you not drink mash in your mosques ?" asked my guide.

The Kabir gave him an evil look.f "That is a slander," said he.
" What they hand around in our mosques has the smell and the ap-
pearance of mash, but before we put it to our lips a special miracle
turns it into quite a different substance." J

" Has it a different taste ? " I inquired.

The Kabir hesitated. "Unbelievers deny it," said he. "Our
doctors claim that it has the same effect on the human body as a simi-
lar quantity of ordinary mash ; Jbut science, you know, is always forg-
ing weapons to destroy the faith." #

The overseer of the mash-house stood near enough to overhear our
conversation. He made no remark, but walked up to the furnace and
ordered the laborers to quit work. " It is time to close the gate," said
he.

We took the hint and left.

" That overseer owns a part of the mash-house," said the Kabir?
when we reached the open street. " I wonder if he has heard your
remarks ? "

* Professor Widerleger understands this as an allusion to the sixteenth chapter of the
Syrian Koran, where the drunkard is compared to a slave who can not fly because " the
way to his native land is so far."

f Meyad emassek — a venomous look.

% "Por un milagro peculiar se obra una trasustaciacion," (R.).

* " Dass die Wissenschaft Waffen zur Vernichtung des Glauhens schmiedet," (W.).

ENTERTAINING^ VARIETIES. 117

" Do you care if he did ? " said I.

" Oh, certainly ! " whispered the Kabir ; " he is a man of wealth,
and a prominent member of our mosque."

The Kabir's residence was a long wooden building at the end of a
field, with several shade-trees, and some fifty acres of land, devoted to
the cultivation of poison-berries.

"If you dislike the smell of fire-water, you had better accept the
shelter of my roof ,' ' said he, " for all our caravansaries are redolent
with the fumes of mash. As for myself, I never touch the stronger
sorts, though our doctors prescribe them."

We thanked him for his kindness, but, as the night was clear and
pleasant, we asked permission to camp under one of his shade-trees.
While the Karman pitched our tent, our host pressed me to inspect
the interior of the building.

" Do you know a remedy for the gout ? " * he asked as soon as we
were alone. " I have tried all sorts of cures, but unsuccessfully."

" Have you ever tried to drink water ! " I asked him.

The Kabir sighed. " I thought you were a physician," said he ;
" is that the only remedy you know ? Never mind," he added, when I
made no reply, " I suppose there is no help for it. This earth is a vale
of tears."

He had lighted a lamp, and I noticed that the background of his
room was full of papyrus-rolls, tablets, and other things that bespoke
him a man of letters.

"There is one consolation," said he; "the evils of this earth can
not deprive us of spiritual enjoyments. Nay, the more the light of
earthly pleasure fades, the brighter the joys of a higher world often
dawn upon the mind."

A strange smell began to fill the room, and, looking toward the
corner where the Kabir was seated upon his divan, I discovered to my
dismay that he had lighted a pot with, stink- weeds. He invited me to
take a seat at his side, but, seeing that I was in need of rest, he kindly
permitted me to retire to my tent.

Before we resumed our journey the next morning, we had to re-
plenish our provision-bags, and met a boy who offered to show us the
way to the market-place. " It is not far from here," said he, " you
can already hear the shouting of the doctors."

Since daybreak we had, indeed, heard the sound of repeated
whoops, often accompanied by the tooting of a cow-horn ; and when
we arrived at the market-place we soon discovered the cause of the
noise. 'In opposite corners of the square two medicine-venders had
erected their platforms, and their incessant yells had already attracted
large crowds of the natives. One of the doctors had decorated his
booth with all sorts of fanciful pictures, and, while he exalted the

* Akdel hesha^, the " wine-disease." Either the gout or the stone.

n8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

merits of his medicine, the mahudis* blew their horns, while two as-
sistants ran to and fro distributing spoonfuls and handfuls of a blue
powder and collecting copper coins. The doctor had the voice of a
steer, and I noticed that his sudden whoops f sometimes opened the
purse-strings of spectators who had listened with indifference to his
quieter remarks. - -

His rival had no pictures, but talked with astonishing volubility
and attracted customers by a very ingenious device. Behind his plat-
form he had made an inclosure with chains and ropes and filled it
with a troop of sickly-looking fellows — cripples, lepers, and such
like — as he could easily have collected in any back street of the
town. Now and then, in the course of his fluent harangue, the doc-
tor would stop and turn toward this cadaverous assembly. " Have
you not all derived great benefits from the use of my oil ? " he in-
quired.

" Yes, yes, yes ! " the lepers shouted in chorus, whereupon the
mahud blew his horn, and the collectors rushed into the crowd to ex-
change bottles for coin. At times the doctor varied his query : " Is
there any disease which my oil will fail to cure ? "

" No, no, no ! " yelled the chorus, and a shower of coin followed as
before. At longer intervals a couple of assistants would bring a large
tub from an adjoining building, and, with the appearance of a strenu-
ous effort, lift it up and exchange it for an apparently empty pot irpon
the stage.

"Another barrelful sold!" then cried the doctor. "By Allah
(whose perfection be extolled ! ), there is no medicine like it ! Oh, the
wonderful virtues of my oil ! " whereupon the mahud blew his horn
vigorously till coppers showered in from all sides.

Walking toward the gate, we overtook several men whom I re-
membered to have seen at the stand of the oil-man.

"What is that oil good for, O friend ?" I asked a young fellow
who carried a bottle of it in his hand.

He looked at me with surprise. " Did you not hear what the doctor
said ? " he replied ; " it cures all diseases, so it can not fail to be good
for something."

" Tell me, O my master," I asked an old burgher, " do you know
what that bottle contains ? "

" That I can not tell," said he ; " but surely it must be a powerful
medicine."

" And do you prefer it to the other doctor's powder ? " I asked
again.

" Judging from its taste, the potency of this oil can not be ex-

* Mahud (pi. mahudim, or mahudis), a town-crier, or news-crier. When Cordova
was the capital of Moorish Spain, every market-hall of the vast city had two mahudis,
who announced the news twice a day, like our morning and evening papers.

f "Sein plotzliches Gebrull," (W.).

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 119

ceeded," said he ; " no powder in the world could be so bitter and dis-
gusting."

" Why did you buy that bottle, O brother of my uncle ? " I asked
one other man, an old fellow with the long hair of a villager.

" I bought it because I saw all the townsfolk do the same," he re-
plied ; " it must surely be good for something. I should have bought
a larger bottle," he added, " but the times are very hard. Our fields
are suffering from a drought, and on the western border people are
dying with hunger."

The appearance of the country seemed to confirm these words. Six
miles from Beth-Raka the fields looked as if the samum-wind had
scorched the grass ; and here and there at the road-side the people had
gathered around a singing dervish, praying for rain, as my guide as-
sured me, though he confessed that he could not understand the chants
of the singer. Toward noon we passed a mountain that seemed to
be a general meeting-place of the dervishes, for high up among the
rocks of the summit we could see a large assembly of people, and even
at this distance we heard the sound of their chants.

" What are those people doing up there ? " I asked a man who had
halted his wagon near a point where a by-road led up toward the top
of the mountain.

" Praying for rain," said he ; "I am going there myself."

" Your horses will have a hard pull before you reach the top,"
said I, for his wagon was heavily loaded with grain.

" Oh, no," said he ; " my servant will take this load to the mash-
house at Beth-Raka. The brewers are paying high prices because of
the scarcity of grain."

" And what will you do on the hill ? " I inquired.

" Sing and pray," said he. " Will you join me and let us ask Allah
to deliver us from this famine ? "

" No, sir," I replied, " but I wish I could deliver you from that
mash-house."

The fellow turned away with an angry look and remarked that I
must be a 3Iurchnk — a word which they apply to a race of impious
savages who refuse to exalt the glory of Allah.

We had now passed the last ridge that divides the plain of Beth-
Raka from the valley of Kapibad ; and before us, on the heights of
the western hills, we saw the towers and gardens of the Monghistan
capital. My guide was well acquainted with this part of the country,
and when we reached the next hamlet he took me to a caravansary
where'he had often stopped, and where we intended to clean our gar-
ments before proceeding to the capital. But we had hardly entered
the gate of the Asmakan,* when the gate-keeper took my guide aside,
and, after a few questions, crossed his arms and greeted me after the
manner of the Galla highlanders.

* The\court-yard where caravans water their camels.

120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

t

"May Allah bless the day and the hour of your arrival ! " said he.
" This morning a messenger of the Emir has arrived from Kapibad,
and is now awaiting your coming under a tree where all the roads
from the east meet near the village gate."

\_To be continued.']

Dornian, in his "Origin of Primitive Superstitions," gives the follow-
ing on the authority of Schoolcraft: " Sleep is thought by the Algic race to be
produced by fairies, the prince of whom is Weeng. The power of this Indian
Morpheus is exerted in a peculiar manner and by a novel agency. Weeng
seldom acts directly in inducing sleep, but he exercises dominion over hosts
of gnome-like beings, who are everywhere present. These beings are invisi-
ble. Each one is armed with a tiny club, and when he observes a person sit-
ting or reclining under circumstances favorable to sleep, he nimbly climbs upon
his forehead and inflicts a blow. The first blow only creates drowsiness; the
second makes the person lethargic, so that he occasionally closes his eyelids; the
third produces sound sleep. It is the constant duty of these little emissaries to
put every one to sleep whom they encounter — men, women, and children. They
hide themselves everywhere, and are ready to fly out and exert their sleep-com-
pelling power, although their peculiar season of action is in the night. They are
also alert during the day. "While the forms of these gnomes are believed to be
those of little or fairy men, the figure of Weeng himself is unknown, and it is
not certain that he has ever been seen. Iagoo is said to have seen him sitting
upon a branch of a tree. He was in the shape of a giant insect, with many
wings upon his back, which made a low, deep, murmuriDg sound, like distant
falling water. Weeng is not only the dispenser of sleep, but it seems he is also
the author of dullness. If an orator fails, he is said to be struck by Weeng. If
a warrior lingers, he has ventured too near the sleepy god. If children begin to
nod or yawn, the Indian mother looks up smilingly and says they have been
struck by Weeng, and puts them to bed."

In his "Diseases of Memory," Ribot says: "When a child learns to

write, according to Lewes, it is impossible for him to use his hand alone; he
must also move his tongue, the facial muscles, and perhaps his feet. In time
he is able to suppress these useless discharges of nerve- force. And so, when
we attempt for the first time any muscular act, we expend a great quantity of
superfluous energy which we learn gradually to subdue. By exercise certain
movements are fixed, to the exclusion of others."

What is a Cause ? — Kingdon Clifford says that the word represented

by " cause " has sixty-four meanings in Plato and forty-eight in Aristotle. He
further observes that " these were men who liked to know as near as might be
what they meant ; but how many meanings the word has had in the writings of
the myriads of people who have not tried to know what they meant by it will,
I hope, never be counted."

Oxygen and Consciousness. — Brown-Sequard, according to Dr. Luys,

once injected the head of a dog, when separated from the trunk, with defibrin-
ated and oxygenated blood, and at the moment when the injection of this blood
had recalled the manifestations of life he called the dog by his name. The eyes
of the head thus separated from the trunk turned toward him, as if the voice of
the master had still been heard and recognized.

CORRESP ONDENCE.

121

CORRESPONDENCE.

DR. PRIESTLEY.

Messrs. Editors.

CERTAIN facts connected with the life
and history of Dr. Priestley came to
my knowledge and recollection about the
time of the centennial gathering at North-
umberland, Pennsylvania. Had it occurred
to me sooner, I should have deemed it of
sufficient interest to those present, and to
the general public, to have communicated
these facts ; and, even now, it seems desira-
ble to make this record.

When Dr. Priestley's house was attacked
by the mob, and he was driven from his
home, he fled for his life, and took ref-
uge with my maternal grandfather, Samuel
Vaughan, either at his London house (in
Mark Lane, or Mincing Lane), or at his
country-house in Hackney. For a long time
previous to this date he was very intimate
in my grandfather's family, where he was
received always as a loved and welcome
guest. At the time referred to he remained
an inmate of the family for a month or
more. My mother, who was born in Lon-
don, in 1766, was living with her parents at
the time of the riot. A strong attachment
had grown up between her and Dr. Priest-
ley. She looked upon him as a second fa-
ther ; and I well remember, as a boy, the
great pleasure with which she dwelt upon
the memory of their friendship. While con-
cealed in my grandfather's house Dr. Priest-
ley wrote his celebrated " Appeal." It was
dictated by him to my mother, she acting as
his amanuensis. The " Appeal " was printed
from her manuscript. As a memorial of
this event, Dr. Priestley presented to my
mother a brooch, made for the purpose.
It is a miniature likeness of himself, cut in
shell, on a blue background, and mounted
in an oval gold frame, with a scroll across
it near the bottom, on which is the word
" Appeal." This brooch is now in my
possession. I held it in my hand at the
time of the celebration, regretting that so
interesting a relic could not be viewed by
those present. Forty years or more have
elapsed since my mother's narration of these
events, and, as the present account rests
entirely upon the memory of my late sister
and myself, it is possibly incorrect in some
details. The main points, however, may be
relied upon, and as proof may be taken the
existence of the brooch, bearing on its scroll
the word " Appeal."

T. B. Merrick.

Gebmantown; Philadelphia, )
February 24, 1888. )

QUACK ADVERTISEMENTS.
Messrs. Editors.

Ik the March number of " The Popular
Science Monthly " there is an article from
the London " Lancet " entitled " Quackery
within the Profession," which, though short,
is certainly vigorous. The following quota-
tions are pertinent :

" There can not possibly be a ' system '
or ' cure ' in medicine. There are no rule-
of-thumb methods, and no mysteries in true
science. If we do not know what a remedy
is, and how it acts, we have no right, as hon-
est men, to employ it. The time has passed
for the working of cures by charms, and the
recourse to nostrums. We pander to the
credulity of the unskilled community when
we show ourselves credulous. . . . From the
highest places in society to the lowest ranks
of the people, there is just now a grievous
readiness to ' believe in ' quacks and quack-
ery. . . . There is no system, or cure, or charm,
or nostrum, known to the profession."

These words are strong enough, and arc
properly found within the pages of a maga-
zine devoted to popularizing science — that
is, popularizing it in the sense of giving the
unprofessional reader the latest teachings
of science without the rigorous processes of
induction leading to such results.

The aim being, therefore, such a high
and laudable one, is it not somewhat incon-
sistent, to say the least, to find in the same
March number advertisements of the follow-
ing notoriously quack medicines and reme-
dies ?—

St. Jacob's Oil, Grrcffenberg's Vegetable
Pills, Voltaic Belts, Parker's Ginger Tonic,
Kidney-wort, Mrs. Pinkham's Vegetable
Compound, "a positive cure for consump-
tion," and two whole pages devoted, the one
to Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure,
and the other to Compound Oxygen ?

Such advertisements undoubtedly pay
well ; but should not a prosperous magazine
like " The Popular Science Monthly," with
such lofty pretensions, be above lending
itself, even indirectly, to countenancing
quackery, or doing anything to increase that
" grievous readiness to believe in quacks and
quackery " which the writer in the London
" Lancet " so much deplores ?
Respectfully yours,

Charles E. L. B. Davis,

Captain of Engineers.
Buffalo. Xeav York, February 22, 15S2.

Captain Davis writes to the editors of
the " Monthly," complaining that they do

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not also edit the advertisements. We must
draw the line somewhere, and we stop at
the one hundred and forty-fourth page. We
do not think it would be easy to edit the
advertisements. If the rule should be, not
to publish lies, it would abolish the depart-
ment, for they are by no means confined to
quack medicines. St. Jacob's may he about
his " oil," and Aunty Pinkham about her
" compound " ; but there is this mitigation
in such cases, that everybody knows it.
The worst difficulty begins with those ad-
vertisements in which truth and falsehood
are mixed, for —

"A lie that is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies."

Our correspondent had better address him-
self to the managers of the advertising de-
partment, and convince them that they
should not work down to the low standard
of the religious and secular press. Mean-
time we agree not to sandwich advertise-
ments through the text of the " Monthly,"
as is the custom with some journals. — Ed-
itors.

SCIENCE IX THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Messrs. Editors.

I have read with great interest the arti-
cles you have recently published, explain-
ing improved methods of teaching various
branches of science in public schools.

At the opening of this school last Sep-
tember, we found ourselves with a class of
a dozen boys and girls from fourteen to
eighteen vears of as:e, who were ready to
begin the study of ''natural philosophy."
I suppose we might have provided those
boys and girls with copies of some one of
the many text-books which profess to carry
students over the entire subject in " four-
teen weeks," or some other incredibly short
time ; we might have set those students to
committing and reciting that text, but we
didn't.

After some experimental work with im-
provised apparatus in illustration of the
properties of matter, the students provided
themselves with copies of Tyndall's " Les-
sons in Electricity." We chose that branch
of physics rather than any other, because
the school owned a set of Tyndall's appa-
ratus especially designed to accompany the
"Lessons." The class then began a sys-
tematic course of experiment, following, in
a general way, the order of their book, but
making also many other experiments. The
students took turns in conducting the work,
and all were enthusiastic. Nothing was
taken without proof, and, the better to as-

sure myself of the thoroughness of the work,
I had them write up from memory weekly
reports of the experiments performed. Of
course, our work was slow, but I think it
was sure, a real scientific spirit manifesting
itself in every member of the class. We
have now reached a part of the work where
a more powerful electrical machine is nec-
essary, and of course we shall get it. I
think it is a mistake to begin with the ma-
chine. It is too complicated to be easily
understood at first, and the result is a lack
of clear ideas. The simple experiments rec-
ommended by Professor Tyndall are excel-
lent. They lead the student along so grad-
ually and so surely that when he reaches the
explanation of the electrical machine, or the
Leyden-jar, he finds very little difficulty.

We have in the school other scientific
work than that described above ; but this
is the one subject where we have the best
chance to cultivate accuracy and an interest
in scientific methods.

Yours, respectfully,

Charles J. Bfell,
Principal of Boonville Academy.
Boowille, New York, February 18, 1SS2.

INFLUENCE OF EAETH-WOEM3 ON
PLANTS.
Messrs. Editors.

I notice much discussion concerning the
effects of earth-worms upon plants in pots,
in regard to their eating the roots of plants,
and also the injury their acid excretions
may do the plants. Having kept house-
plants for many years and in all sorts of
vessels, from unglazed earthen pots to
glazed delf, and in iron and in tin vessels
also, and having had good success without
drainage at all, even by having a hole in
the vessel, and also having had the earth-
worms under consideration, before Mr.
Darwin was heard from on the subject, I
feel that I may add an item of interest
about them. The complaints that I have
seen come from florists. Florists, like all
other specialists, have notions, and I believe
this about earth-worms hurting plants is
one. I have found women who, when their
house-plants did not thrive, laid it to earth-
worms. I do not agree with them nor with
the florists, as I do not believe, from nearly
twenty years' handling of house-plants, that
earth-worms injure pot-plants. I have used
all sorts of soil, from good garden to leaf-
mold, and have always used well-rotted
manure, in which earth-worms abound, to
mix with the soil, and, if I can, have had
good air, plenty of light, correct tempera-
ture, and have watered properly. I have
never failed to have a plant thrive, even if
the pot was full of worms, and was tin, delf,
iron, or unglazed pottery, and I have grown

EDITOR'S TABLE.

123

and had bloom all of the ordinary house-
plants, and some that were not common in
house-culture.

I have noticed that the worm3 will, if
there is a hole in a pot, and the pot is not
often disturbed, crawl out at the hole and
lie under the pot, if there is room, and the
bottoms of most pots will allow this, and

' this they will do in all sorts of pots. Plants

frequently become diseased from over-wa-

I tering, its lack, or from other causes, and

! too often the worm has to take blame for

what he is entirely innocent of.

Yours, respectfully,

Aoa H. Kepley.
Effingham, Illinois, February 20, 1SS2.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

"SCIEXCE AKD CULTURE."

THE reception accorded to Professor
Huxley's new volume, under the
above title, by the leading organs of pub-
lic opinion, is especially significant at
the present time. The book is a collec-
tion of addresses, lectures, and essays,
which have appeared at intervals dur-
ing the last seven years, on a consid-
erable variety of subjects, educational,
biological, and philosophical. They are
all of superior merit — the maturest and
most finished of Professor Huxley's lit-
erary productions, and are all of popular
interest ; but the critics do not regard
them as having equal claims to their
attention. It is the first address, from
which the volume takes its name — given
at the inauguration of Josiah Mason's
college — to which they chiefly devote
themselves, and their discussions are
noteworthy, as indicating the great
change that is going forward in the
public mind with regard to the higher
relations of science and education.

It is beyond doubt that the most for-
midable hindrance to the progress of
rational education is the idolatry of an
antiquated and effete system of study.
on the ground that it is pre-eminently
and exclusively adapted to the promo-
tion of " culture." It is by association
of classical studies with a dignified and
venerated ideal of " culture " that they
have acquired their superstitious as-
cendency, and have become the greatest
drags we have on real educational prog-
ress. Human cultivation is, and alwavs
must be, the supreme thing, and it is,
therefore, difficult to overestimate the

injurious influence of a false ideal of its
means and objects.

But the difficulty in this case is in-
creased by the fact that the ideal of
culture, which must now be rejected as
wholly inadequate, was once true. The
old and the still prevalent idea of cult-
ure is that which is derived from liter-
ary pursuits, and it is limited to certain
literary forms, as most perfect for the
purpose. Professor Huxley says of the
great majority of educated Englishmen
that, " in their belief, culture is obtain-
able only by a liberal education ; and a
liberal education is svnonymous, not
merely with education and instruction
in literature, but in one particular form
of literature, namely, that of Greek and
Koman antiquity. They hold that the
man who has learned Latin and Greek,
however little, is educated, while he
who is versed in other branches of
knowledge, however deeply, is a more
or less respectable specialist, not admis-
sible into the cultured caste."

But the human mind is no longer to
be cultivated merely by the forms or
the arts of expression. That these are
important things, and that in past times
they may have been the main things, no
one denies ; but such an ideal of cult-
ure is essentially superficial, and breaks
down before the serious intellectual de-
mands of the present time. The mind
of our age has passed from the consid-
eration of verbal figments to the laws of
reality. The correlative of form is sub-
stance, and the correlative of literary
form is the substance of thought, and
modern science has made this the funda-

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mental concernment. There has been
not only a change here, but a reversal
of the order of importance. The ques-
tion now is, not of the art of expres-
sion in itself, but to what is it subserv-
ient. "We grow increasingly impatient
of the rhetorician. The casket may be
elegant, but what does it contain? The
husks and shells of expression have had
sufficient attention — we have now to
deal with the living kernel of truth.
The old ideal is discredited by the new
developments of knowledge, and the
new ideal must contain more substan-
tial elements than that which it super-
sedes. Under the old ideal of cul-
ture, a man may still be grossly ig-
norant of the things most interesting
and now most important to know ;
but an ideal of cultivation begins to
be demanded which does not comport
with ignorance. Modern knowledge is
the highest and most perfected form of
knowledge, and it is no longer possible
to maintain that it is not also the best
knowledge for that cultivation of mind
and character which is the proper ob-
ject of education. This truth is making
its way steadily, and although the tra-
ditional ideal of culture is strongly for-
tified in existing institutions, and main-
tained by old habits and associations,
it is undermined on every side, and is
certain to give place to more compre-
hensive and rational views of what con-
stitutes a properly cultivated man.

The leading criticisms of Professor
Huxley1 s book, as we have said, illus-
trate this position decisively. They not
only show that the question is upper-
most and urgent with the thinking
classes, but that science has already so
clearly established its main positions
that the old resistance is futile, and that
a revised and enlarged conception of
culture has become inevitable. Pro-
fessor Huxley is even reproached by
distinguished literary authorities for not
fully perceiving the strength of his own
case, and how far science has already
pushed its educational conquests. It is

even maintained that the scientific spirit
and method have so far penetrated and
revolutionized the classical system as to
have given it a new lease of life ; so
that it will be conserved in future only
by virtue of what it has borrowed from
the progressive agency which it has
hitherto so desperately resisted. The
London " Saturday Keview " discourses
upon the subject as follows:

Professor Huxley's position as to the claims
of the natural sciences on the one hand and
the humanities on the other — of the " mod-
ern" and the " classical " plan of education,
as they are commonly called — is, on the whole,
if we rightly collect his meaning, something
like this : The medieeval system of European
universities, which with more or less minor
diversity was in substance the same every-
where, embraced everything which to the
best men of its day seemed best worth a
man's knowing, and deserves our thanks and
praise according to its time and work. But it
became stereotyped and inexpansive. It was
too narrow to hold the flood of new knowl-
edge and interests let loose upon the world
by the revival of classical learning. The
Eenaissance, in so far as it affected educa-
tion, was the protest of far-sighted reformers
against the bondage of medievalism. The
humanities fought their pitched battle against
the scholastic curriculum, and won it. Our
present classical education represents the tri-
umph of the lilterai humaniores three cen-
turies and a half ago. But the humanities,
like the scholastic system before them, have
in their turn become stereotyped. Now science
has arisen and opened a new world, unfamil-
iar to the men of classical traditions, and often
scorned by them ; and science is fighting its
way to its proper eminence as Greek did in
the days of Erasmus. The leaders of science
are the true humanists of our own time, and
the old-fashioned humanities must give place
to them. Now, if we were prepared to as-
sume, as Professor Huxley to some extent
seems tacitly to assume, that classical educa-
tion had reached its final development, and
that nothing more was to come out of scholar-
ship and antiquities than was got out of them
by English scholars forty or fifty years ago,
we should entirely agree with Professor Hux-
ley's conclusions. But, for our part, we are
not prepared to assume anything of the kind.
There are matters not adverted to by Profess-
or Huxley, and to which, as they certainly lie
outside his business, his attention may natu-
rally have not been directed, which appear to

EDITOR'S TABLE.

125

us necessary to be taken into account before
we acquiesce in the view of science and hu-
manism as two litigant parties, or attempt to
pass a final judgment upon their alleged
strife.

It may seem a strange thing to say, but
Professor Huxley has underrated the strength
and the victories of science. They are not
confined to the bounds of natural history or
physics, or to any or every branch of what we
call the natural sciences. The modern spirit
of science is too mighty and subtile not to
penetratt, into every region of the field of hu-
man knowledge. It is transforming and re-
quickening the humanities themselves ; and
we make bold to say that classical studies, so
far from waning before the light of science,
are awakening and waxing to a new Renais-
sance of which not we, but our children and
children's children, will see the full splendor.
What is it that Sir Josiah Mason's foundation
excludes, and in Professor Huxley's judgment
rightly, from the benefits and encouragement
of his bounty ? " Mere literary education and
instruction," such mere drilling in language
as until a recent date was understood to be
the staple of our so-called classical learning.
But our universities are now awake to the
truth that knowledge of the ancient languages
is an instrument, not an end in itself. The
end is another kind of knowledge, and knowl-
edge not undeserving to be compared for
worth with the knowledge of things and of
nature. It is the knowledge of man in the
works of his hands and his thought, of the
men from whom we inherit our laws, our art,
and our civilization ; the praise of famous men,
and our fathers that begat us. Socrates and
Plato, the fathers of philosophy ; Pericles,
the father of statesmanship ; Alexander, the
father of conquering civilization ; Ulpian and
Papinian, the fathers of scientific law ; Trajan
and the Antonines, of administration and
government ; Homer, the father of poetry ;
Phidias and Praxiteles, of sculpture — these
last the masters' of all followers in their craft
unto this day— and Aristotle, the father of
science itself ; surely of these men and their
work we can not know too mueh, and even a
little knowledge of them would be ill ex-
changed, for a man who does not mean to be
a chemist, for a little knowledge of the atomic
weights of elements.

But {his, some one will say, is not what
comes of our so-called classical education ;
what we get from our classical teachers is only
verse-grinding, scraps and odds and ends of
half-understood Latin and Greek, and a gen-
eral contempt for knowledge that is not at
Latin and Greek. This has been only too

true ; but we hope it will not be true much
longer. Cambridge, the head and front of the
old verbal scholarship, is transforming her
classical curriculum. Not through mere lin-
guistic attainments, but through scientific phi-
lology, scientific archaeology, scientific study
of ancient history and philosophy , will hence-
forth lie the road to her highest honors. "We
shall no longer have accomplished classical
scholars who stand mute before a coin or an
inscription, and can not tell a work of the
school of Phidias or Praxiteles from a late
Asiatic or Eoman imitation. Let the teachers
of natural science look to it on their side that
their own special studies do not degenerate
into mere book-work, such barren catalogues
of undigested facts and such an empty show
of paper knowledge as Professor Huxley lifts
up no uncertain voice against. Then, when
at last a true and lively knowledge of man
and of his history goes hand in hand with a
true and lively knowledge of Nature and her
works, our schools will produce results worthy
of their noble means, and science and culture
will be no longer names to bandy in contro-
versy, but firm and inseparable allies. Science
has come upon our humanists as from a re-
gion of mystery, like the nameless champion
of the legend, clad in magical armor and
wielding invincible weapons. But the cham-
pion is a friend and deliverer ; well for them
that receive him, and ill for them that in rash-
ness and little faith repel him. But is there
not already a working alliance ? Are modern
philology and archaeology "mere literary ed-
ucation and instruction " ? "We conceive not ;
and we call Professor Huxley himself to wit-
ness. In his Aberdeen address he expresses
the wish that there should be a Professorship
of Fine Arts in every university, and that its
functions should somehow be regularly con-
nected with the arts curriculum. We are
happy to think that this is exactly what is
being done, or in a fair way to be done, at
Cambridge. The study of classical antiquity
through classical art is there rapidly becom-
ing a living and working branch of the gen-
eral classical studies of the university. But
this, some will again say, is dreaming of the
future. Are we satisfied with the present ?
Are we content that there should be univer-
sity dignitaries who do not know one end
of the solar spectrum from the other, and
bishops who show their competence to criti-
cise biological theories by supposing that the
blood-corpuscles are formed by coagulation
after death ? We answer, unquestionably not.
We hold that the elements of natural knowl-
edge should be an integral part of general edu-
cation. But we would make room for them

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— as we have already said on other occasions
—not by ceasing to teach the humanities, but
by teaching them better.

The criticism of the London "Acad-
emy " still further illustrates the ad-
vance of rational ideas on this subject :

The address on " Science and Culture,"
which gives its name to the volume, is a dis-
cussion of the place of scientific and of liter-
ary training in education. T he form in which
the question in debate between the advocates
of " science " and of " culture " is presented
is not which of these two things is the more
valuable, but whether the idea of complete
culture does not include within itself that of
scientific discipline. This way of stating the
question brings out clearly the fundamental
agreement that there is — if we leave out of ac-
count the devotees of " useful knowledge " —
between the advocates of the classics and of
physical science. For it is seen that the' ad-
vocates of science admit that every one ought
to know something of literature, though they
think it possible sufficiently to cultivate the
sense of literary form by means of the modern
languages alone ; while the advocates of the
classics, in maintaining that classical studies
give the best possible intellectual training,
admit that culture is not complete if nothing
but the sense for literary form has been cul-
tivated. The questions that are really in de-
bate are, therefore, the subordinate ones—
whether, though real intellectual as well as
aesthetic education is given by the study of
the classics, physical science is not the typical
intellectual discipline, for which anything
else is an imperfect subsitute ; and whether,
though some literary culture can be got out of
modern books alone, a certain knowledge of
the classics is not necessary as a preparation
for the the full appreciation of European lit-
erature in general. Professor Huxley decides
both these questions in favor of the advocates
of scientific education. He suggests incident-
ally that modern men of science have more
of the spirit of antiquity than " the modern hu-
manists. . . . "We falsely pretend," he says,
speaking of the Greeks, "to be the inheritors
of their culture,. unless we are penetrated, as
the best minds among them were, with an
unhesitating faith that the free employment
of reason, in accordance with scientific meth-
od, is the sole method of reaching truth."

He points out, near the end of the essay,
that the higher sciences, those that deal with
man and society, can only be constructed by
the application of the methods of physical
science. As regards the literary side of edu-
cation, he expresses the opinion that " for

those who mean to make science their serious
occupation ; or who intend to follow the pro-
fession of medicine ; or who have to enter
early upon the business of life ; . . . classi-
cal education is a mistake." It is possible to
get sufficient culture out of modern literature
— perhaps out of English literature alone.

Something might be said against this last
opinion, even by those who agree with Pro-
fessor Huxley entirely as to the necessity of
scientific discipline as part of a complete ed-
ucation. But, granting that knowledge of
classical literature is not an essential part of
culture, there is still a difficulty about omit-
ting Greek and Latin from education in some
cases and not in others. For, if the classical
languages are to be taught at all, it is desir-
able that the study of them should begin at
an earlier age than that at which a decided
preference either for literature or for science
usually manifests itself.

This last remark is very important in
its bearing upon the general issue be-
tween classical and scientific studies. It
is a concession of what we have con-
stantly maintained, that, if the study
of Greek and Latin is to be worth any-
thing at all, it must consume a portion
of the time devoted to education that
is out of all relation to the value of the
acquisitions, compared with others that
are necessarily excluded. If that time
is not given to them, the acquisitions are
so worthless that the effort is wasted ;
but, if the full time is taken by the
classical tongues, there is no room left
for any fullness or thoroughness of
scientific study. Hence the need, as
the "Academy " remarks, of beginning
so early with the Greek and Latin that
the pupil is unable to form an opinion
of the uses and value of his studies. But
this period of immature judgment is ex-
actly the proper time for the training of
the powers of observation and the ac-
quisition of elementary science. These
early years, therefore, belong rightfully,
and by the laws of the mental constitu-
tion, to science and the rudimentary
study of natural things. It is a suffi-
cient outrage in itself to put children
at the dead languages, whereby there
is certain to be engendered a hatred of
study ; but it is no less an outrage upon

LITERARY NOTICES.

127

the childish nature to neglect those
studies which are best suited to this
stage of his unfolding faculties.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Physical Education ; or, the Health Laws
of Nature. By Felix L. Oswald, M. D.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 259.
Price, $1.

The health papers contributed by Dr.
Oswald to the " Monthly " during the past
year, having been revised by the author, are
now issued in a separate form, and, as we
are glad to see, at a price which will favor
their wide circulation. We call attention
to some points of interest in this remark-
able little book.

In the first place, it must be said that
the author is no mere unpractical theorizer.
He is a medical man of thorough prepara-
tion and large professional experience, and
an extensively traveled student of nature
and of men. While in charge of a military
hospital at Vera Cruz, his own health broke
down from long exposure in a malarial re-
gion, and he then struck for the Mexican
mountains, where he became director of
another medical establishment. He there
spent eight years, making many excursions
to explore the imperfectly known Mexican
highlands, and he has given the results of
his observations and adventures in his
" Summer-land Sketches,'5 one of the most
interesting and instructive books of travel
that has appeared in a long time.

Dr. Oswald has also journeyed extensive-
ly in Europe, South America, and the United
States, and always as an open-eyed, absorbed
observer of nature and of men. So active
a career we might suppose not to be in the
highest degree favorable to superior literary
work, which we are accustomed to expect only
from the devotees of scholarship, who con-
centrate themselves upon books in the soli-
tude of their libraries. And yet Dr. Oswald's
merits as a writer are of a very high order.
He has a genius in- the use of language
which is less a result of cultivation than a
gift of nature. He writes in a style that is
at once crisp and incisive, easy and flowing.
His vocabulary is prolific, and every word is
the most felicitous for its place. There is

no halting and no dissonance in the musical
rhythm of his periods, and there is not a
weak or a faltering sentence to be found be-
tween the covers of the book on " Physical
Education." He never spins out his pas-
sages, or plays with epithets for effect ; and
though the earnestness and ardor of ex-
pression often start the pulse, the strain of
eloquence never breaks into rhetorical in-
flation. These traits are possessed by our
author in a degree that places him, beyond
question, among the few unrivaled masters
of lucid idiomatic English.

In an age when the whole force of cult-
ure is thrown upon the art of effective ex-
pression, it is no easy task to reach pre-
eminence in this field ; but the interest of
the case is heightened when we learn that
Dr. Oswald is not an Englishman, and is not
writing in his native speech, but in a foreign
tongue. Macaulay, in his life of Frederick
the Great, remarks, " Xo classic work, as
far as I recollect, was ever composed by
any man except in a dialect which he had
learned without remembering how and when,
and which he had spoken with perfect ease
before he had ever analyzed its structure."
The little book now before us will go far to
refute this dictum of the great essayist. At
any rate, we do not think the critic of the
" Troy Press " is far from the truth when
he declares that " Mr. Felix L. Oswald, of
Cincinnati, is the cleanest writer of pure
English on this continent."

But, though proficient to a rare degree
in one of the most difficult arts, yet with
Dr. Oswald this art is far from being an end
in itself; he subordinates his gift of writing
to a more serious purpose. It is by the
breadth, beneficence, and vital urgency of
this controlling purpose that the man is to
be properly measured. With him the accom-
plishments of literary expression, like the
facts and truths of science, only acquire their
highest value as they are made tributary to
human amelioration. By " physical educa-
tion " he means not mere " gymnastics," as
hitherto interpreted, but all hygienic and
educative resources for the physical improve-
ment and redemption of mankind. Though
a man of many-sided culture, and a passion-
ate lover of nature, and therefore with in-
exhaustible resources for his own mental
gratification, yet Dr. Oswald is still more a

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

man of profound sensibility to his human
environment, and of irrepressible sympathy
with the weakness, the difficulties, the er-
rors, and the miseries of his fellow-beings.
His book has the double object of pointing
out the more common and fruitful sources
of those debilities and infirmities from
which people suffer through their preju-
dices, ignorance, unhealthy habits, and un-
natural practices, and of arousing them to
more earnest, hearty, and determined effort
at amendment.

It is just at this point that criticism in-
tervenes with its accusation that our author
writes with exaggeration and extravagance.
If this objection implies that facts are dis-
torted or truth overstrained in Dr. Oswald's
pages, we believe it will be found to have a
very slender basis ; if it is a mere matter
of taste, the use of superlatives is certainly
excusable here if anywhere. Dr. Oswald is
inspired with the hope of mending things ;
and, in writing for the people, he does not
believe that non-committal under-statements
are best suited to answer that purpose.
With feeble conventional protests which
arouse no indignation and provoke no ac-
tion Dr. Oswald has little patience. He
writes both to divert and to convert his
readers, and his essays are therefore doubly
contrasted with the subdued regulation
monographs of a scientific period that is
cultivated out of half its life. To produce
any salutary and permanent reform, the
evils to be corrected require to be presented
in a very strong light and vividly realized.
" Cool indifference, whatever subjective ad-
vantages it may have, will never set a rub-
bish-heap of old shams and errors afire."

There is but one thing worse, in the
view of Dr. Oswald, than the injurious prac-
tices which undermine the stamina and
lower the health and life of a people, and
that is the dull, conventional acquiescence
in a confessedly vicious state of things.
Holding that this wide-spread and culpable
torpor is due largely to the preaching of an
ancient gospel of anti-naturalism, he main-
tains that its only possible counteraction is
the vigorous and vehement inculcation of the
gospel of nature, and his book is animated
throughout with this preaching. The mere
lazy indifference of those who are comfort-
able in prevailing customs, and content with

the decorous rule of Mrs. Grundy, is suffi-
ciently intolerable ; but when these fall back
upon a philosophy of life which maligns
the natural instincts, libels the world we
live in, and promises another to compensate
for the breakdown of this, he has only hot
denunciation of the doctrine and all who
teach it. However we may object to pun-
gency of speech, Dr. Oswald may at any
rate plead the abundant example of his
adversaries in the use of it.

The " Physical Education " is one of the
most wholesome and valuable books that
have emanated from the American press in
many a day. Not only can everybody un-
derstand it, and, what is more, feel it, but
everybody that gets it will be certain to
read and re-read it. We have known of the
positive and most salutary influence of the
papers as they appeared in the " Monthly,"
and the extensive demand for their publi-
cation in a separate form shows how they
have been appreciated. Let those who are
able and wish to do good buy it wholesale
and give it to those less able to obtain it.
It will be a boon to benighted multitudes.

The Voyage of the Yega round Asia and
Europe, with a Historical Review of
Previous Journeys along the North
Coast of the Old World. By A. E.
Nordenskiold. Translated by Alexan-
der Leslie. With five Steel Portraits,
numerous Maps, and Illustrations. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 741. Price,
86.

The frequent references which have been
made within the last two years to the enter-
prise of which this work gives the first full
and detailed account, attest the value which
the world attaches to the problem which it
was designed, if possible, to solve, that of
forcing a northeast passage to China and
Japan — a problem which, the author re-
marks, "for more than three hundred years
had been a subject of competition between
the world's foremost commercial states and
most daring navigators, and which, if we
view it in the light of a circumnavigation of
the Old World, had, for thousands of years
back, been' an object of desire to naviga-
tors." Professor Nordenskiold was led to
undertake this voyage by the success of his
previous voyages, in which he had reached
the mouth of the Yenisei River by sea from

LITERARY NOTICES.

129

Sweden, in 1875 and 1876, and was con-
vinced that the open navigable water which
had carried him so far extended probably to
Behring Strait. He laid his plans before
the King of Sweden and other persons, who
were known to sympathize with his object,
and received from his Majesty, Mr. A. Sibi-
riakoff, and Mr. Oscar Dickson, whose por-
traits on steel worthily appear in the vol-
ume, pledges of substantial support, selected
his company, prepared his vessels — the Vega,
a steam-whaler, the Lena, as a tender to go
ahead in doubtful places, and two merchant-
vessels, which were to carry coal for the ex-
ploring vessels — and sailed from Maosoe, a
few miles southwest of Xorth Cape, on July
25, 1878. Here the expedition proper be-
gan and hence it was conducted through the
sea that washes the northern edge of the
Old World, along the coast-lines of provinces
of which readers may have seen indefinite
mention, and conceived hazy ideas, but of
which they could have hardly had distinct
notioDS before, till it emerged again through
Behring Strait into the regions of civili-
zation and exact knowledge. Of the sea
and coasts along the Arctic borders of Eu-
rope and Asia, Professor Nordenskiold's ac-
count gives the fullest and most interest-
ing descriptions, touching nearly all the
subjects of interest appertaining to them.
First, we have the history, which in the pres-
ent case naturally relates and is largely con-
fined to previous voyages to the same re-
gions, the relation of which, Professor Xor-
denskiold remarks, adds a much-needed va-
riety to the interest of the story, " for near,
ly all the narratives of the older northeast
voyages contain in abundance what a sketch
of our own adventures has not to offer, but
what many readers, perhaps, will expect to
find in a book such as this — accounts of
dangers and misfortunes of a thousand sorts
by land and sea." Then come geographical
descriptions of features of land and sea,
with the varied aspects of summer and win-
ter phenomena according to the season when
the author witnessed them ; natural history,
embracing the vegetable and animal life of
the whole Arctic stretch covered by the voy-
age; geology; and the delineations of the peo-
ple. In the latter category are included full
and satisfactory as well as entertaining ac-
counts of those curious tribes, the Samoyeds
vol. xxi. — 9 \

and the Chuckchees, their mode of life, habits
and manners, and religion, which are rich in
incidental and personal sketches, are given
in the kindliest of feeling and with delicate
humor, and form, perhaps, to general readers,
the most interesting part of the book, while
they must also rank high as anthropological
studies. A prominent object of the voyage
was to study the feasibility of opening a
commercial highway from Europe to the
river-marts of Central and Eastern Siberia,
by way of the sea-route which the expedi-
tion took. Professor Nordenskiold's esti-
mate of the productive capacity of these re-
gions of the far Xorth, and of their possible
value in the world's economy if they could
be brought within reach of the markets,
may be a surprise to those who have asso-
ciated with Siberia all that is frozen and in-
hospitable. " If we take Siberia in its widest
sense," he says, "that is to say, if we in-
clude under that name not only Siberia
proper, but also the parts of High Asia
which lie round the sources of the great
Siberian rivers, this land may very well be
compared in extent, climate, fertility, and
] the possibility of supporting a dense popu-
lation, with America north of 40° north lati-
tude. Like America, Siberia is occupied in
the north by woodless plains. South of this
region, where only the hunter, the fisher,
and reindeer nomad can find a scanty liveli-
hood, there lies a widely extended forest
territory, difficult of cultivation, and in its
natural conditions, perhaps, somewhat re-
sembling Sweden and Finland north of 60°
or 61° north latitude. South of this wood-
ed belt, again, we have, both in Siberia and
America, immeasurable stretches of an ex-
ceedingly fertile soil, of whose power to re-
pay the toil of the cultivator, the grain ex-
ports during recent years from the frontier
lands between the United States and Can-
ada have afforded so striking evidence.
There is, however, this dissimilarity between
Siberia and America, that, while the prod-
ucts of the soil in America may be carried
easily and cheaply to the harbors of the At-
lantic and Pacific, the best part of Siberia,
that which lies around the upper part of the
courses of the Irtish, Obi, and Yenisei, is
shut out from the great oceans of the world
by immense tracts lying in front of it, and
the great rivers which in Siberia cross the

130

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

country and appear to be intended by nature
to form not only the arteries for its inner
life, but also channels of communication
with the rest of the world, all flow toward
the north, and fall into a sea which, down to
recent times, has been considered complete-
ly inaccessible." The basins of the three
Great rivers together cover an area of near-
ly 2,500,000 geographical square miles, of
which 1,440,000 geographical square miles
lie south of 60° north. A part of the jour-
ney lay through the region of the remains of
the mammoth, and " between shores prob-
ably richer in such remains than any other
on the surface of the globe, and over a sea,
from whose bottom our dredge brought up,
along with pieces of drift-wood, half-decayed
portions of mammoth-tusks." The business
of gathering and disposing of these tusks is
really an important one, estimated to amount
to a hundred pairs a year, or twenty thou-
sand pairs since the country was conquered.
These figures indicate that the mammoth
population of the country must have been
more considerable than the impression of
the barrenness of the Arctic regions which
is given by a superficial view leads us to sup-
pose could have been the case. Professor
Xordenskiold finds no difficulty, however, in
indicating the sources whence these animals
derived their food. Having remarked that
the remains of food which were found in the
hollows of the teeth of a rhinoceros discov-
ered on the Wilui River consisted of por-
tions of leaves and needles of species of
trees that still grow in Siberia, he observes
that " it ou^ht not to be overlooked that in
sheltered places overflowed by the spring in-
undations there are found, still far north of
the limit of trees, luxuriant bushy thickets,
whose newly expanded juicy leaves, burned
up by no tropical sun, perhaps form a spe-
cial luxury for grass-eating animals, and that
even the bleakest stretches of land in the
high north are fertile in comparison with
many regions where at least the camel can
find nourishment."

Even now the animal life in the extreme
north, as in Xova Zcmbla, in summer, "is
more vigorous and, perhaps, even more
abundant, or, to speak more correctly, less
concealed by the luxuriance of vegetation,
than in the south." Especially is this the
case with " the innumerable flocks of birds

that swarm around the polar traveler dur-
ing the long summer days of the north."
Insects, also, of a few species, are remark-
ably abundant, considering that the soil is
continually frozen below the depth of a few
inches, but as a rule " the actual land ver-
tebrate fauna of the polar countries is ex-
ceedingly scanty in comparison with that
of more southerly regions. It is quite oth-
wise as regards the sea. Here animal life
is exceedingly abundant as far as man has
succeeded in making his way to the farthest
north. At nearly every sweep the dredge
brings up from the sea-bottom masses of
decapods,crustacea, mussels, asteroids, echi-
ni, etc., in varying forms, and the surface of
the sea on a sunny day swarms with ptero-
pods, beroids, surface-crustacea, etc, "A
greater number also of the higher types of
animals within the polar territory occur in
the sea than on the land. Having spent a
winter in the frozen ocean, the expedition
proceeded easward to and through Behring
Strait, and calling, always with scientific
intent, at Japan, China, and the East In-
dia islands, came around through the Red
Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and
the Atlantic Ocean, to its starting-point in
the Scandinavian waters, thus accomplish-
ing, for the first time in history, the circum-
navigation of Europe and Asia.

Lectures on the Origin and Growth
of Religion as illustrated by Some
Points in the History of Indian Bud-
dhism. By T. W. Rhys Davids. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 262.
Price, $2.50.

A religion which is believed to embrace
more adherents than any other system of
religious thought ; the fundamental princi-
ples of which are embodied in a literature
the merit and intrinsic interest of which
have received the general recognition ' of
scholars in all nations ; and some of the ex-
ternal aspects of which present a striking
resemblance to some Christian forms, is
entitled to be regarded as a most remark-
able outgrowth and manifestation of human
thought, and deserves profound and respect-
ful studv. Buddhism is such a religion as we
have described, and it receives the treatment
it merits at the hands of Mr. Davids, who is
considered one of the most competent living
authorities on the subject It has to be

LITERARY NOTICES.

131

examined by nations, for it presents very
varied phases in different countries, accord-
ing as it lias been modified by the character
and circumstances of their people and by
their history. Everywhere, however, India
is looked to as the land of its origin ; and it
is in India that its oldest and most impor-
tant books are found. Mr. Davids has,
therefore, very properly selected India as
the country in which to consider it for the
elucidation of its fundamental principles.
His lectures, which were delivered on the
Hibbert foundation, consider, first, " The
Placs of Buddhism in the Development of
Religious Thought," under which head the
author reviews the condition of India at the
time of the introduction of Buddhism, the
effect the new religion had on that condi-
tion, and the influence the condition exerted
upon the shape it eventually took ; and,
afterward, the "Pali Pitakas," or the prin-
cipal books of Buddhism — the Buddhist
theory of Karma, or what takes the place,
with a striking difference, of the Christian
idea of the future life ; the " Buddhist Lives
of the Buddha " ; " Gotama's Order," or the
rules that were laid down by the founder
of the religion himself ; and " The Later
Forms of Buddhism," which are immense in
their variety. Among the lessons to be de-
rived from the study, Mr. Davids points out
that " the knowledge of what man has been
in distant times, in far-off lands, under the
influence of ideas which at first sight seem to
us so strange, will strengthen within us that
reverence, sympathy, and love, which must
follow on a realization of the mysterious
complexity of being, past, present, and to
come, that is wrapped up in every human
life."

Bacteria. By Dr. Ferdinand Cohn. Trans-
lated by Charles S. Dolley, Rochester,
New York. Pp. 30, with a Plate.

The title of this paper and the name of
its author commend it without any further
words. We need notice especially only the
translator'^ statement of one of his objects
in offering it, which is, to set the example
of publishing scientific books in cheap edi-
tions, as is done abroad. The plate of illus-
trations consists of figures that were drawn
by Dr. Cohn himself for " The Microscopical
Journal."

Beliefs about Man. Bv M. J. Savage.
Boston: George H. Ellis. Pp. 130.
Price, $1.50.

This work, a complement to a previously
published volume on " Belief in God," em-
braces the substance of a number of regu-
lar Sunday-morning sermons on the nature,
origin, and destiny of man, in which were
also considered some of the problems, such
as those of sin and salvation and of free-
will, which have troubled him during all the
ages. The points brought out may be sum-
med up in brief, that " man is the animal
that has learned to think of himself, to
think of right, to think of God, and has
ended by thinking that he is a son of God " ;
that the doctrine of evolution has no rela-
tion to theism or atheism ; that the doctrine
of necessity, as distinguished from free-will,
"gives us motive power, gives us a way to
work, gives us confidence that our work will
' not be without its appropriate results " ; that
the forces, the powers, that are at work in
human nature to-day do not need uprootal
or change, but only instruction, guidance,
self-control ; that the perfect city of God
is to begin here ; that the absolute condi-
tions of progress are freedom and knowl-
edge ; and that death is not the end, but
may be simply the fitting for " that other,
higher life, that we may trust surrounds us
everywhere now, and of which, even to-day,
unknowingly, we are a part."

Transactions of the Medical Association
of Georgia. Thirty-second Annual Ses-
sion, 1881. • Edited by Dr. A. Sibley
Campbell, M. D., Secretary. Augusta,
Georgia : Pp. 314. Price, §1 ; by mail,
$1.05.

This volume includes the papers which
were read at the meeting of the association
whose proceedings it records ; which papers
pertain to appropriate subjects in medical
and surgical treatment, and are based upon
material drawn chiefly from cases in the
practice of their authors. The one, perhaps,
of most general interest is that of Dr. R. J.
Xunn, on " Female Diseases, the Result of
Errors in Habit and Hygiene during Child-
hood and Puberty." Illustrations are given
where the matter calls for them. The ne-
crology of members of the association who
died during the year is followed by a num-
ber of biographies of physicians previously

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

deceased, among which a conspicuous posi-
tion is given to that of Dr. Crawford W.
Long, for whom is claimed absolute priority
in the discovery of anaesthesia by ether, and
who died in 1S78, "at the bedside of a pa-
tient, in the discharge of his duty."

The Universe; or, The Infinitely Great
and the Infinitely Little. By F. A.
Pouchet, M. D. Sixth edition. Illus-
trated by 270 Engravings on "Wood.
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
564. Price, $3.75.

To present the leading facts of nature to
the non-scientific public in such a style that
it will read of them with the interest with
which it follows the development of a ro-
mance, without detracting from the dignity
and accuracy of scientific statement, to
compose such a vivid word-picture as shall
enable the reader to form an adequate con-
ception of the marvelousness of the wonders
that science has discovered, without falling
into exaggeration and sensationalism, are
tasks which the most learned investigator
in science and the best-trained writer would
be justified in shrinking from attempting.
Only a man of strong imagination, combined
with an unusually even mental poise, could
undertake to carry a series of description
of this character through the whole field
of nature. M. Pouchet has undertaken
this, and has accomplished it successfully.
He leads us in his most entertaining work,
which the child or the student of science
may read with equal pleasure, by succes-
sive steps, truly from the .infinitely little
to the infinitely great. Beginning with the
invisible world of the microscope, which
includes the animalcules that still live in
our fluids, the fossil infusoria of the edi-
ble earths, and the nummularia of the lime-
stones of which cities and the pyramids
are built, and the " architects of the sea,"
the corals, the boring mollusks, and the
u mountain-building " foraminif era, he goes
on to make us acquainted with the insects,
the abundance of their life, and the magni-
tude of their works and their depredations,
the birds and the artful structures of which
they are the architects, and with the won-
derful migrations of animals of every class.
Then, passing to the vegetable kingdom, he
illustrates the anatomy and physiology of
plants, the functions of the seed and the

process of germination, the " extremes in
the vegetable kingdom," from the lichen of
the rock to the baobabs and sequoias of the
primeval forest, and discourses of the lon-
gevity and density of plants, and their mi-
grations, even more wonderful than those
of animals. Next the department of geology
is brought under review, with an account of
the formation of the globe by gradual devel-
opment and change as recorded on the tab-
lets of the rocks, descriptions of fossils, em-
bracing here again the extremes, though not
infinite, of the little and the great — "the
mountains, cataclysms, and upheavals of the
globe, volcanoes and earthquakes, glaciers
and eternal snows, caverns and grottoes,
steppes and deserts, and the air and its cor-
puscules. The " Infinitely Great " is repre-
sented in the sidereal universe, under which
head are considered " The Stars and Im-
mensity" and the solar world. The final
chapter gives a brief account of the mon-
sters and superstitions, belief in which was
cultivated in the middle ages. The author
declares — and his work bears him out — that
his object in composing it has been to in-
spire and extend to the utmost of his power
a taste for natural science : hence, he has
given, " not a learned treatise, but a simple
elementary study, conceived with the idea of
inducing the reader to seek in other works
for more extensive and more profound
knowledge." We can onlv refer to the rich-
ness of details that characterizes the work
and the excellence of the illustrations.

The Gospel in the Stars ; or, Primeval
Astronomy. By Joseph A. Seiss, D. D.
Philadelphia: E. Claxton & Co. New
York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Pp. 452.
Price, 81-50.

The author of this work, a prominent
Lutheran clergyman, has already acquired
considerable distinction from the zeal with
which he has propagated Piazzi Smyth's
theory that the great pyramid of Egypt was
constructed in pursuance of a divine revela-
tion, for a divine purpose. He here pro-
pounds a similar theory for the formation
and delineation of the forty-eight original
constellations of the sky, which he believes
were primarily composed under inspiration,
to typify man's redemption by Christ. What-
ever skeptics, readers, and scholars may
think of the matter, he has no doubt about it.

LITERARY NOTICES.

l33

The Art of Voice-Production, with Spe-
cial Reference to the Method of Cor-
rect Breathing. By A. A. Patton,
author of "The Voice as an Instru-
ment." New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 106. Price, $1.

Application is made in this work of the
investigations which have been carried on,
by means of the laryngoscope, into the struct-
ure and mode of action of the vocal organs,
to the study of a scientific cultivation, or, as
the author, with but litttle exaggeration,
calls it, production of voice. The founda-
tion of voice-culture is laid in correct breath-
ing. This should always be full and easy,
and done by the action of the muscles of the
diaphragm, not of the clavicle or ribs. The
technic consists in learning to know when
the voice-organs act properly, and how to
make them act so. Particular stress is laid
upon what is called the articulate action of
the glottis — an action under which, in its
perfection, the individual notes of a series
are divided in such a manner that a com-
plete scale of fractional tones of very small
degree may be produced with perfect smooth-
ness, and with unchanging though naturally
modifying tone-quality, by the voice, as the
best violinists accomplish the same through
their instruments. To this, the author be-
lieves, such singers as Xilsson and Santley
owe their marvelous powers of execution ;
and, in illustration of the fineness to which
it is possible to reduce it, the case is cited
of Madame Mara, who was able to perform
twenty-one hundred changes of pitch within
the compass of three octaves, or one hun-
dred changes between each two notes of the
ordinary scale.

The Study of Trance, Muscle-Reading,
and Allied Xeryous Phenomena, in
Europe and America. With a Letter
on the Moral Character of Trance-Sub-
jects ; and a Defense of Dr. Charcot. By
George M. Beard, A. M., M. D. New
York. Pp.' 40.

This is a setting forth, in brief, of what
has been done in Europe during the past
two or three years, in a department of psy-
chology in which the author was one of the
earliest and is still one of the most inde-
fatigable workers, and offers a means of
comparing American (of which Dr. Beard's
have been the most conspicuous) and Euro-
pean researches in it.

Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer. By
Alexander Winchell, LL. D. Chicago :
S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 400. Price, $2.

This is a very pleasant volume of es-
says, descriptive, scientific, and philosophic,
though predominantly geological, and writ-
ten in a style intended to suit the general
reader. As is well known, the author has
command of a very entertaining style, and
his long and varied experience with the
practical study of nature has given him
ample materials for an attractive volume.
Books of this kind perform a most impor-
tant office, not only in awakening a feeling
for science, but in instructing the public on
many interesting topics which are hardly
touched in our scientific manuals. A few
of his titles will suggest the variety there is
in these pages: "Mont Blanc and its As-
cent," " Obliterated Continents," " A Grasp
of Geological Time," " Geological Seasons,"
" Salt Enterprise in Michigan," " Huxley
and Evolution," and " The Metaphysics of
Science." We need not commit ourselves
to eveiything Professor Winchell says in
this volume, but it will prove instructive
and provocative of thought to most read-
ers, and may be therefore cordially recom-
mended.

Principles of Chemical Philosophy. By
Josiah Parsons Cooke, of Harvard Col-
lege. Revised edition. Boston: John
Allyn. Pp. 623. Price, 83.50.

We are glad to see that this well-known
standard work devoted to the higher grade
of chemistry has undergone careful and ex-
tensive revision by the author, and been so
largely rewritten as to make it in many
respects a new book. Xot only is the work
itself essentially improved by this further
elaboration, but the results of the last ten
years of chemical progress are thoroughly
embodied in its text, and many features of
scientific interest are here brought forward
for the first time. The distinctive aim of
the work is philosophical, that is, it presents
the great body of the chemical truths in a
closely correlated and thoroughly systema-
tized form. " Thus alone," says the author,
"can the student give breadth and dignity
to his knowledge, and come to know nature
not as a sum of certain parts, but as a grand
and related whole." Such a generalized
knowledge of chemistry this book aims to

134

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

impart. It presents chemistry as a philo-
sophic system, and it deals with the facts
of the science only so far as they illustrate
this system. It is not intended in any re-
spect to take the place of laboratory teach-
ing, but solely to supplement it. Not until
the student has become familiar with chem-
ical phenomena, at least to some limited ex-
tent, is he prepared to study the science in a
systematic way ; but all who have this prep-
aration will acquire most rapidly a general
knowledge of the whole field when the sub-
ject is presented in a deductive form.

Report of the Director of the Astronom-
ical Observatory of Harvard Col-
lege. By Edward C. Pickering. Cam-
bridge: University Press. Pp. 16.

This is the thirty-sixth annual report of
the institution. Mention is made of. the
improved position that has been given the
Observatory for conducting researches by
means of the subscription which was raised
in 1878. Observations have been made on
eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, the spectra
of particular stars, the comets of 1881,
variable stars, and the working of the in-
struments, and also photometric observa-
tions. Some interesting results have been
derived from the observations on stellar
spectra, one of them giving a hint toward
a more rapid method of detecting variable
stars, another suggesting analogies between
the spectrum of a certain star and that of
the great comet of 1881. Mr. Chandler, of
the observatory staff, is engaged in collat-
ing, for comparison, the observations of
stars of known or suspected variability.

The Palaeolithic Implements of the Val-
ley of the Delaware. Cambridge,
Massachusetts : Peabody Museum of
American Archaeology and Ethnolosrv.
Pp. 25.

This publication contains communica-
tions which were made on the subject
named in the title to the Boston Society of
Natural History at one of its meetings, as
follows: "Historical Sketch of the Discov-
ery of the Implements," by C. C. Abbott ;
" A Comparison of them with Palaeolith-
ic Implements from Europe," by H. TV.
Haynes ; " On the Age of the Trenton Grav-
el," by G. F. Wright ; " Statement relating to
the Finding of an Implement in the Grav-

el," by Lucien Carr ; and " On the Litholog-
ical Character of the Implements," by M. E.
TVadsworth. Mr. F. TV. Putnam furnishes
the concluding remarks, in which he de-
scribes the finding of three implements by
himself and a companion, and adds, " Cer-
tainly the evidence that has been brought
forward to-night will clear away all doubts
as to the importance and reliability of Dr.
Abbott's discoveries and investigations,
which have proved the former existence of
palaeolithic man in the valley of the Dela-
ware."

Chemical and Physical Analysis of Milk,
Condensed Milk, and Infants' Milk-
Foods, with Special Regard to Hygiene
and Sanitary Milk-Inspection. By Dr.
Nicholas Gerber. Translated and ed-
ited by Dr. Hermann Endemann. Illus-
trated. New York. Pp. 101.

The author of this treatise has been
engaged, scientifically and practically, in the
dairy industry for several years, and is now
manager of a milk-product company in the
interior of the State of New York. Having
often himself felt the need of a uniform
method of analysis for milk and its products
which would satisfy practical wants, and
possess scientific accuracy, he has aimed to
give in this volume a short and exact method
for the examination of the various milks and
milk-foods, expecting to follow it up with
another volume on other milk-products and
substances employed in the dairy industry.
He claims superiority for his method over
the methods known before 1877, in accu-
racy, in simplicity, and in cheapness and
economy of time.

The Brain of the Cat. By Burt G. Wild-
er, M. D. Pp. 39, with Four Plates.

This paper, which was originally read
before the American Philosophical Society,
is the first of a series of contributions to the
knowledge of the brain of the domestic cat,
and is to be followed with a " Description
of the Cerebral Fissures, together with their
Svnonomy." The author believes that the
cat offers superior advantages over other
easily accessible animals for preliminary
anatomical work. He also proposes a re-
vision of anatomical nomenclature, with a
schedule of alterations for abbreviating and
simplifying it, and making it more intel-
ligible.

LITERARY NOTICES.

135

Publications of the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology, and of its Of-
ficers, Students, and Alumni. 1862-
1881. Compiled by William Ripley
Nichols, S. B. Boston: A. A. King-
man. Pp. 50.

The list is intended to include the
books, pamphlets, reports, and contribu-
tions to periodicals (excepting daily jour-
nals) printed during the time included within
its scope, by the Institute officials and its
affiliated societies and associations ; by pro-
fessors and other instructors during their
connection with the school ; by special
students during their connection with the
school ; and by alumni and holders of cer-
tificates of proficiency during their connec-
tion with the school and in after-life. The
list is of considerable size, covers a variety
of subjects, literary and scientific, includes
many titles from foreign journals, and is
creditable to the institution and to American
research.

The Science of Mind. By John Bascom,
author of " The Principles of Psychol-
ogy," " Comparative Psychologv," etc.
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 462." Price,

$2.

The first thing to be said about Dr. Bas-
com's various philosophical works is that
the handling of the subjects is his own, and
in stamping upon them the individuality of
his own mind he gives them a new and at-
tractive interest. And that freedom and
freshness which he maintains in his methods
of statement are to no small degree pre-
served in the elucidation of his views. He
is in no sense either a compiler or a servile
expositor of established opinions, but he is
an independent (we had almost said a free)
thinker upon his chosen themes of study.
Although by no means always up to the
times, he is always in a progressive way,
and moves as fast, perhaps, as the circum-
stances will allow. His present work, " The
Science of Mind," though avowedly and es-
sentially metaphysical, and standing squarely
upon intuitional or transcendental ground,
is still a- very different book from its prede-
cessors of the same class, and shows that
the intelligent metaphysician is compelled
to yield to the advance of scientific knowl-
edge.

Dr. Bascom does not sympathize with the
current reproaches of metaphysical philoso-

phy, but recognizes that, like all other im-
perfect and difficult things, it may be and
must be practically improved. In his pref-
ace he says : " If asked why I hoped that
this volume might reward study, I should
answer, not because the system presented is
new, but because the statement it here re-
ceives is at once succinct and elaborate, is
strengthened by new points, by a consistent
! maintenance of all that belongs to it, and by
the rejection of that which, essentially alien
to its principles, only embarrasses it. I
trust the intuitive philosophy will be found
hereby to have gained somewhat of that
proof which springs from completeness and
proportion of parts."

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Political Economy in One Lesson. By Al-
pbonse Coartoia. New York: The Society for
Political Education. 1882. Pp. 20.

Formula and Tables for the Horse-Power of
Leather Belts. By A. F. Nagle, M. E. Provi-
dence, Rhode Island : J. A. & R. A. Reid, print-
ers. 1S82. Pp.8.

A Free Canal. Letter of ex-Governor Sey-
mour. Pp. 5.

Some Points relating to the Geological Ex-
ploration of the Fortieth Parallel. By M. E.
Wadsworth, Ph. D. Reprint from " Proceedings
of the Boston Society of Natural History. "' Pp.
32.

History of the Water-Supply of the World.
By Thomas J. Bell. Cincinnati, Ohio : Peter G.
Thomson. 1882. Pp. 134.

The Geological and Natural History Survey
of Minnesota. Ninth Annual Report. ByN. II.
Winchell, State Geologist. St. Peter: J. K.
More, State Printer. 1881. Pp. 392.

The Constants of Nature. Part V. A Recal-
culation of the Atomic Weights. Bv Professor
F. W. Clarke. S. B. Washington: Smithsonian
Institution. 1882. Pp.271.

Natural Law. or the Science of Justice. Part
I. Bv Lvsander Spooner. Boston : A. Williams
& Co*. 18S2. Pp 16.

Our Homes. By Henrv Hartshorne. Phila-
delphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1882. Pp.
119. 50 cents.

Report to the State Board of Health on the
Methods of Sewerage for Cities and Large Vil-
lage* in the State of New York. By James F.
Gardiner, Director of the New York State Sur-
vey. Pp. 15.

Nervous Shock as a Therapeutical Agent.
Bv Romaine J. Curtis. M. D. " St. Louis Medi-
cal Journal " Publishing Co. 1882. Pp. 13.

The Germination and Vitality of Seeds. By
Richard E. Kanze, M. D. Pp. 14. 50 cents.

National Regulation of Interstate Commerce.
Bv C. C. Bonney. Chicago : Legal News Co. 1882.
Pp. 32.

A Free Canal. Argument of the New York
Produce Exchange in favor of making the Ca-
nals of the State free from Tolls. 1S82. Pp. 18.

The Books of Chilan Balam : The Prophetic
and Historic Records of the Mavas of Yucatan.
Bv Daniel G. Brinton. M. D. Philadelphia: Ed-
ward Stern & Co. 1882. Pp. 19.

136

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Anaesthesia and Non- Anaesthesia in the Ex-
traction of Cataract. By Haskett Derby, M. D.
Cambridge : Riverside Press. 1882. Pp. 32.

Studies from the Biological Laboratory of
Johns Hopkins University. Professor H. New-
el Martin. Editor ; Professor W. K. Brooks, As-
sociate Editor. Baltimore: N. Murray. Vol.
II, No. 2. 1882. Pp. 178. Illustrated.

Cotton-Seed: The Greatest Wonder of the
Present Day. By Professor J. P. Stelle. Mo-
bile. 1882. Pp.8.

Hints and Suggestions for Reform in Medi-
cal Education. By Frederic R. Sturgis, M. D.
New York: William Wieser, printer. 1882.
Pp. 13.

Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural
Sciences. Vol. iv, No. II. Buffalo : Bigelow
Brothers, Printers. 1S82. Pp. 63. Illustrated.

Experiments in Amber Cane and the Ensi-
lage of Fodders at the Experimental Farm, Mad-
ison. Wisconsin. David Atwood, printer. 1882.
Pp. 78.

The Mistakes of Robert G. Insersoll on Nat-
ure and God. A Scientific Criticism. By George
W. Edgett. Boston : Thomas Todd, printer.

1881. Pp.37.

Insects injurious to Forest and Shade Trees.
By A. S. Packard, Jr., M. D. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. 1881. Pp. 275. Illus-
trated.

Report on a Water Supply for New York and
other Cities of the Hudson Valley. By J. T.
Fanning, C. E. New York. 1881. Pp. 38. Il-
lustrated.

On Ovariotomy. By Thomas Keith, M. D.
Louisville, Kentucky : John P. Morton & Co.,
printers. 1881. Pp. 19.

Epidemic Convulsions. By David W. Yan-
dell, M. D. Louisville, Kentucky: printed by
John P. Morton & Co. 1881. Pp. 15.

A Discourse on the Life and Character of Dr.
Richard O. Cowling. By David W. Yandell, M.
D. Louisville, Kentucky : printed by John P.
Morton & Co. 1882.

Statistics of the Production of the Precious
Metals in the United States. By Clarence King.
Washington : Government Printing-Office. 1881.
Pp. 94. ^With Plates.

Gloria. A Novel. By R. Perez Goldos. From
the Spanish, by Clara Bell. In two volumes.
New York : William S. Gottsberger. 1882.

Polly's Scheme. By Corydon. Boston: D.
Lothrop & Co. 1882. Pp. 207. $1.

The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning. By
Helen H. Richards. Boston : Estes & Lauriat.

1882. Pp. 90.

Vaccination. Arguments Pro and Con. By
Joseph F. Edwards, M. D. Philadelphia: P.
Blakiston, Son & Co. 1882. Pp. 80. 50 cents.

First Aid to the Injured. By Peter Shepherd,
M. B. Revised by Bowditch Morton, M. D. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1882. Pp.87. 50
cents.

How to Make the Be>t of Life. By J. Morti-
mer Granville, M. D. Boston : S. E. Cassino.
1882. ]»p. 96. 50 cents.

Easy Lessons in Light, by Mrs. W. Awdry,
114pa2es; and Easy Lessons in Heat, by P. A.
Martineau, 136 paees. London: Macmillan &
Co. 1880.

The Rhymester, or the Rules of Rhyme. By
the late Tom Hood. Edited, with Additions, by
Arthur Penn. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
1882. $1.

The Occult World. By A. P. Sinnetr. Bos-
ton: Colby & Rich. 1882. Pp.172. $1.

Tables for the Determination. Description,
and Classification of Minerals. By James C.
Fave, Ph. D. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co.
1882. Pp. 85. $1.

John Stuart Mill : A Criticism. With Per-
sonal Recollections. By Alexander Bain, LL. D.
New York : Henry Holt & Co. 1882. Pp. 200.
$1.25.

James Mill: A Biographv. By Alexander
Bain, LL. D. New York : Henry Holt & Co.
1882. Pp. 466. $2.

The Wine Question in the Lieht of the New
Dispensation. By John Ellis, M.D. New York :
published by the author. 1882. Pp. 228,

The Practice of Commercial Organic Analy-
sis. By Alfred H. Allen, F C.S. Vol. ii. Phila-
delphia : Presley Blakiston. 1882. Pp. 561. $5.

Annual Report of the State Geologist of New
Jersey for the Year 1881. By Professor George
H. Cook. Trenton, New Jersey : J. L. Murphy,
printer. 1881. Pp. 107.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Purification of the Boston Water-Snp-
ply, — The water with which the city of Bos-
ton is supplied became affected last October
by a peculiar and disagreeable taste and
odor which made it unpalatable, and justi-
fied much complaint on the part of citizens.
The taste was quite accurately described as
a " cucumber-taste," from its resemblance
to the taste of water which has stood in
contact with cucumbers. In a milder form
it was called a "fish-oil taste." After sev-
eral efforts to determine its origin, Professor
Ira Eemsen, of Baltimore, was called in to
give the subject a thorough examination.
He, after patient investigation and experi-
ments, which failed to discover the cause of
the odor in other matters, determined its
source, by the most satisfactory tests, to be
the decomposition of a fresh-water sponge
(Spongilla jluviatilis), that was found quite
abundantly in the mud of the bottom of
Farm Pond, the water of which was most
offensive. Measures have been taken to
free the pond from the cause of impurity.

Tile Hessian Fly. — From a monograph
published by Professor A. S. Packard, Jr.,
through the United States Entomological
Commission, it appears that the losses from
the Hessian fly are greatest in the grain-
raising areas of the Middle and Northwest-
ern States and the adjoining regions of Can-
ada, while the New England States have
been comparatively free from its attacks,
probably because so little wheat is culti-
vated in them. No statistics as to the loss-
es have ever been collected, but they have
been sufficient to occasion much conster-
nation and alarm in certain years. Two

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

137

broods of the fly are produced in a year, the
first laying its eggs in April and May, the
second in August and September. The dam
age is done by the larva, which lies at the
sheathing base of the leaves first above the
roots, at or near the surface of the soil, and
absorbs the sap from the stalks. From the
larva, the insect passes into the pupa state,
in which it resembles a flaxseed, and re-
mains in it for the five winter months. The
pest flourishes best in rather warm and moist
seasons ; and it has been noticed that the
years when it has been most abundant have
been characterized by weather answering to
that description. It is afflicted by several
parasites by which it is said that nine tenths
of every generation of the insects are de-
stroyed. The principal parasites are a chal-
cid fly that destroys the pupa, and a platy-
gaster, which lays its eggs in the e^g. Pro-
fessor Packard recommends, as remedies for
the insect, late sowing of fall wheat, so that
the flies may be killed by frost before lay.
ing their eggs, high culture to give the plant
new vigor, the sowing of the most vigorous
and many-stooled varieties, and pasturing,
which destroys the " flaxseeds," but is " a
rather rude, uncertain remedy." Special
remedies like limeing, dusting, burning stub-
ble, etc., are not recommended, because they
are inferior to those just mentioned, and
are as likely to destroy the helpful para-
sites as the harmful flies. A comparison of
the periods when the flies have been most
abundant indicates that the plague has cul-
minating periods in the neighborhood of
twenty-five years apart.

Folk-Lore of the Mammoth. — Baron
Xordenskiold, in his " Voyage of the Vega,"
gives some interesting citations of the folk-
lore of the Siberian natives respecting the
mammoth, whose remains are very abundant
in the country. Evert Yssbrants Ides, a
Russian embassador in 1692, related that
the heathen Yakuts, Tunguses, and Osti-
aks, supposed that the mammoth always
lived in. the earth and went about in it,
however hard the ground might be frozen,
and that it died when it came so far up that
it saw or smelled the air. J. B. Miiller, in
1720, added that the tusks were believed to
have formed the animal's horns, that they
were fastened above the eyes and were

movable, and that with them the animal
dug a way for itself through the mud ; when
it came to a sandy soil, the sand ran to-
gether so that the mammoth stuck fast and
perished. Miiller further stated that many
natives assured him that they themselves
had seen such animals in large grottoes in
the Ural Mountains. Klaproth says that
the Chinese at Kiakhta considered mammoth
ivory the tusks of the giant rat, tien-shu,
which is found only in the cold regions
along the coast of the Polar Sea, avoids the
light, and lives in dark holes in the interior
of the earth. Some of the literati believed
that the discovery of these immense earth-
rats niurht even explain the orisrin of earth-
quakes. The horns and crania of the rhi-
noceros, which were found along with the
remains of the mammoth, were believed to
have belonged to gigantic birds, concerning
which stories were related analogous to those
told of the roc in the "Arabian Nights."
Pieces of the horns were used to increase
the elasticity of bows, and were believed to
exert a beneficial effect on the arrow, and to
tend to make it hit the mark. Ermann and
Middledorf suppose that the finds of these
remains two thousand years ago gave occa-
sion to Herodotus's account of the Arimaspi
and the gold-guarding dragons. Certain
it is that during the middle ages such " grip-
claws " were preserved as of great value in
the treasuries and art collections of the time,
and that they gave rise to many a romantic
story in the folk-lore, both of the "West and
the East. Even in our own century, Heden-
strom, in 1830, otherwise an intelligent
traveler, believed that the fossil rhinoceros-
horns were actual "grip-claws."

Water-Temperatures at the Top and Bot-
tom of Lakes. — Professor William Ripley
Xichols has obtained, from the examination
of the relative temperatures of the surface
and the depths of fresh-water ponds near
Boston, Massachusetts, results that differ
from the views on this subject that are
commonly held and taught. In Fresh Pond
and Mystic Pond considerable difference
was shown to exist in the temperature at
the top and at the bottom, and the tempera-
ture appeared to decrease regularly from
top to bottom. Having compared his own
observations with those made in Swiss and

i38

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Scotch lakes, in winter as well as in sum-
mer, Professor Nichols is led to the conclu-
sion that " the watei of lakes and ponds is,
as a rule, before freezing, cooled to a temper-
ature much lower than 4° Cent. (39° Fahr.),
not simply at the surface, as generally
stated, but to a considerable depth. The
commonly received idea and the current
statements of the text-books of chemistry
and physics, are, therefore, misleading."
The temperature of the water at the bottom
of deep lakes is, moreover, not constant at
the point of greatest density, as is frequently
stated, but often lies appreciably above that
point. Professor Nichols is not satisfied
that we know sufficiently well the depth to
which the diurnal variations of temperature
extend under different circumstances. The
curves of temperature in Mystic Pond show
that there were several times when a few
successive days of warm or cold weather
produced an effect on the water, even at a
depth of seventy-five feet. The paper re-
cording these observations is supplemented
by a list of other publications and papers
bearing on the subject.

Sanitary Reports of British Schools. —

The "Lancet" about a vear ago addressed
a series of questions to the managers of
English schools respecting their sanitary
provisions and the health of their pupils.
The answers which it has received indicate
that the subject is given considerably more
attention than it was a few vears asro, and
that many of the managers sympathize with
the editor in the object of his inquiries —
that of ascertaining the conditions of the
best scholar-health. The first report made
by the journal summarizes the replies re-
ceived from thirty-nine schools, in relation
to the points of the character of the situa-
tion and buildings, and the climatic con-
ditions ; the amount of air-space per pupil
in the sleeping- and school-rooms ; general
state of health,- cases of illness; sanitary
arrangements as regards drainage, closets,
lavatories, bathing, towels, etc. ; provisions
for the isolation of contagious cases ; and
provisions for medical inspection. No par-
ticular relation seems to be shown between
the presumed healthful or unhealthful
character of the site, and the presence or
absence of disease. The sleeping-rooms

afford from 273 to 1,300 cubic feet of air
per individual ; if the schools were full, the
probable average allotment would be be-
tween 300 and 400 feet. The provision of
air in the school-rooms is " fairly ample."
The drainage is pronounced good in nearly
every school, and no cases of illness are
mentioned which could be traced to defect-
ive drainage. Lavatory arrangements are
well attended to, with provisions for hot,
cold, and swimming baths, and separate
towels, brushes, etc., for each boy. Eight
schools report that no cases of illness oc-
curred during the year, one never having oc-
casion to send for the doctor. The diseases
mentioned include ophthalmia in two schools,
pneumonia in two, " congestion of the
lungs " in two, peritonitis in one, rheumatic
fever and erythema nodosum in one, and
sore-throat in one. Measles occurred in fif-
teen schools (fifteen cases in one), scarlet
fever in twelve (fourteen cases with one
death in one school), varicella in two, mumps
in three (thirty cases in one school), Rotheln
in three, whooping-cough in two, and ty-
phoid fever in one. Many of the schools
have provision of some kind for the isola-
tion of pupils sick with contagious disease.
Only five schools have arrangements for
systematic medical inspection. The value
of these returns is modified by the fact that
the schools having the best sanitary ar-
rangements and showing the best condition
would naturally be the ones most ready to
report.

Recent Existence of the Mastodon. —

Professor Collett's " Geological Report of
Indiana for 1880 " mentions some new facts
that seem to indicate that the mastodon
existed in our country at a more recent date
than is commonly supposed. In nearly all
the specimens that have been found, gener-
ally in places where the animal has been
mired, the skeletons are in a greater or less
state of decay. In a skeleton discovered a
few years ago, in Fountain County, the mar-
row of the larger bones was used by the
workmen to grease their boots, and the
place of the kidney-fat was occupied by
lumps of adipocere. During the summer
of 1880 a mastodon was found in Iroquois
County, Illinois, that gave every evidence
of having lived among the same life and

POPULAR MISCELLAXY.

*39

vegetation as prevail to day. A mass of
fibrous, bark-like material was found be-
tween the ribs, filling the place of the ani-
mal's stomach, which proved to be composed
of crushed herbs and grasses, similar to
those that still grow in the vicinity. In the
same beds of miry clay, a multitude of small
fresh-water and land shells were observed
and collected, of mollusks which prevail all I raffe is very delicate, and the marrow is
over the States of Illinois, Indiana, and parts held at a high value. Passing the animals
of Michigan. These facts afford strong of the deer and bovine tribes, which are ap-
evidence that animal and vegetable life, and predated by all, we come to the whales and
consequently climate, are the same now as seals, which furnish a chief part of the food-

and the quagga and zebra form favorite
dishes amon? the Hottentots and in Central
Africa. Camel's flesh is highly esteemed in
Africa, but is not liked by the Tartars. The
hump, however, cut in slices and soaked in
tea, serves the purpose of butter. The South
American alpaca affords a flesh little infe-
rior to mutton. The flesh of the young gi-

when the mastodon lived.

Some Rare Meats. — The flesh of the
elephant is relished by the inhabitants of
many districts of Africa and Asia. Major
Denham says that it is esteemed by all, and
that, though it looks coarse, it is better fla-
vored than the beef of the country. Gor-
don Cumming speaks of the dainty dishes of
baked elephant's feet and elephant's trunk,

supply of the Esquimaux. The walrus is
also highly esteemed in the Arctic regions,
and its tongue, heart, and liver are often
eaten by whalers in the lack of better pro-
visions. The dolphin is eaten at the Faroe
Islands, where two thousand individuals are
taken annuallv. The flesh of the dusronsr is
good and palatable, having the flavor of pork
combined with the taste of veal, and is es-
teemed a great delicacy by the Mohamme-

whicb, prepared after a way he describes at \ dan Malays, who find in it a substitute for
length, very much resemble buffalo's tongue. tne Pork tnat is forbidden them. The meat

of the young animal salted and cured, with
the flesh and fat in its alternate layers, pro-
duces a bacon which can not be distin-
guished from that of real pig, and which
finds a ready sale in Queensland. The oil,

Le Yaillant says that baked elephant's foot
is a dish fit for a king ; but Captain Lind-
ley likens it to " very soft leather and glue
mixed together." Hippopotamus-meat is
appreciated in Africa by both natives and

European colonists, but Dr. Schweinfurth properly tried out, is equal to fresh butter,
and Captain Lindley do not find it so appe-

The fat of this animal and of the rhi-

Suggestions to Observers in Anthro-

tizing.

noceros is considered delicious, and is used pology. — Recognizing that the rapid ad-
instead of butter. The Portuguese settlers vance of civilization is causing the native
are permitted to eat the flesh of these ani- races everywhere to disappear, or is modi-
mals during Lent, passing it off as fish. The fying them essentially, and that what still
flesh of the American tapir, somewhat re- exists in its originality must be saved now,
sembling unsavory, coarse, and dry beef, is the Anthropological Society of Hamburg
considered palatable by the Indians, and ' has framed a schedule of questions, to be
the fatty protuberance on the nape of its \ sent out to persons who are in a position to
neck, and the feet and groin, cooked to a answer them intelligently, respecting the
jelly, are regarded as great delicacies. The | more important characteristics of the abo-
horse is said to have been universally used rigines of the several countries. The ques-
as food before the period of civilization, and ; tions concern — first, the names of tribes and
was greatly liked by the ancient Germans : the districts in which they live ; the color of
and Scandinavians. Mungo Park speaks of the tribes, the characteristics of their hair,

wild horses being eaten in Africa. . Mare's
flesh is a choice morsel to the Chilian In-
dians. The efforts to reintroduce horse-flesh
as food have had considerable success in
some European capitals. The Greeks ate
donkeys ; the flesh of the wild ass is held
in high esteem by the Persians and Tartars ;

the material and fashion of their clothing,
the ornaments — of whatever kind — they
wear, and how they wear them, the marks
of paint, cutting, and tattooing, that they put
on their skin, whether they file or knock out
their teeth ; their weapons, how they make
them and how they use them, and their de-

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fenses; the material, architecture, furnish-
ing, and adornment of their dwellings, wheth-
er they be huts, pile-dwellings, caves, or
tents ; their public buildings, temples, sacred
places, and altars ; their domestic, hunting,
and farming utensils, pottery, glassware,
metallic and wooden vessels ; how they
make and apply their paints ; their mining
arts ; their usages in trade ; their money
and their manner of counting ; how they
make their fires ; their intoxicants and nar-
cotics ; what they know and have of music
and musical instruments ; what with them
takes the place of writing; their supersti-
tions and folk-lore, and particularly the ob-
jects to which they give special honors ;
their social customs and usages in inter-
course with friends and enemies ; observ-
ances in the matters of birth, marriage, and
death ; their diseases and methods of cure ;
their ideas as to a future state ; their tradi-
tions as to their origin ; their knowledge of
the stars, and their manner of computing
time. The questions covering these points
in detail are to be sent out, in English and
German, to ship-captains, merchants, con-
suls, and missionaries, who, it is expected,
will enter upon the schedule notes embody-
ing such information as they can furnish.
As it is impossible to make the questions
exhaustive, further communications than
those asked for, such as the judgment of the
respondent may dictate, will be thankfully
received.

An Artificial Volcano. — The newspapers
of Cologne tell of a kind of artificial volcano
which was produced recently at Apenrade,
in the Rhine provinces, in the course of the
digging of an artesian well. At the depth
of not quite five hundred feet, a strong ebul-
lition was noticed, accompanied by a dull
rumbling. Then, all at once, the earth and
stones in the tube were violently blown out
to a considerable height, with a heavy deto-
nation, and a column of gas came up hiss-
ing. When lighted with a match, the gas
burned with a clear flame, rising high in the
air, till it was extinguished by a new erup-
tion of pebbles and dirt. Eruptions of
stones and gas continued till the time the
story was told, when the flame of the gas
continued to be of undiminished intensity.
The phenomenon was occasioned, of course,

1 by one of those accumulations of gas which
I take place now and then in the bowels of
the earth, giving rise to fire-damp explosions
in coal-mines, causing earthquake-shocks in
countries which are not volcanic, and giving
rise to the so-called " mud-volcanoes," when
the gas forces its passage through .beds of
moist clay.

Origin of Native Gold.— Professor J. S.
Xewberry has presented some strong points
of fact and argument against the theory
that the grains and nuggets of gold found
in placers are formed by precipitation from
chemical solutions. He holds, in a paper
he has published on the subject, that geol-
ogy teaches, in regard to the genesis and
distribution of gold, that it exists in the
oldest known rocks, and has been thence
distributed through all strata derived from
them ; that, in the metamorphosis of these
derived rocks, it has been concentrated into
segregated quartz-veins by some process not
yet understood ; that it is a constituent of
fissure-veins of all geological .ages, where it
has been deposited from hot chemical solu-
tions, which have reached deeply buried
rocks of various kinds, gathering from them
gold with other metallic minerals ; and that
gold has been accumulated through mechan-
ical agents in placer deposits by the erosion
of strata containing auriferous veins.

What has been gained by Vivisection. —

Dr. Ferrier was recently arrested in Eng-
land for practicing vivisection without a
license, and the members of the British Med-
ical Association were indignant at the act,
regarding it as an insult and a measure of
annoyance. Dr. Ferrier's offense seems to
have been observing with Dr. Yeo, who had
a license, experiments that were intended to
throw light upon certain features of the
treatment of lesions of the brain. Dr. Fer-
rier's investigations in this department,
which would have been impossible without
vivisection, have been of immediate and of
the greatest value to mankind. Among the
results of them has been the discovery of
the means of localizing in its definite region
the point where an injury, resulting in epi-
leptic fits, has been inflicted, and of apply-
ing remedial treatment to the precise spot
where it will be effective. Dr. Echeverria

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

141

has given a list of 165 cases of traumatic
epilepsy, 64 per cent of which were cured
by trephining. Before Dr. Ferrier's ex-
periments this trephining would have had
to be done blindly. The knowledge gained
by Dr. Ferrier's researches has also been
useful in guiding to the spot where pus has
accumulated in case of abscesses in the
brain, and in indicating the site of tumors.
Considering how recently these discoveries
have been made, it in fact seems extraordi-
nary that they should have been already
productive of so much benefit. The opera-
tions on the animals are not painful after
the exposure of the brain has been accom-
plished, and that is done under anaesthetics,
nor does any pain follow the recovery from
anaesthetic influence. The effects of the
after-stimulations are simply the excitement
of the wonder and curiosity of the animals
at their involuntary motions. Probably a
single sportsman inflicts more pain in a
day's shooting than Dr. Ferrier has done in
the whole course of his researches.

A Xew Natural Hydrocarbon. — Profess-
or Henry Carvill Lewis has published a
description of a new substance resembling
dopplerite which has been found in a peat-
bog at Seranton, Pennsylvania. It is black,
jelly-like in consistency, and elastic to the
touch when first taken from the ground,
breaking with a conchoidal fracture, but be-
comes tougher and more elastic, like India-
rubber, immediately on exposure to the air.
Occasional seeds, having the characters of
the spores of one of the higher cryptogams,
occur in the substance, as well as in the sur-
rounding peaty matter. The composition
of the substance nearly corresponds with
the formula CioH22Oi6, differing from that
of dopplerite in the presence of much larger
proportions of hydrogen and oxygen. Pro-
fessor Lewis suggests that this product is,
perhaps, an intermediate product between
peat and coal, and proposes to combine it
with dopplerite under the generic name of
phytocollite (" plant-jelly ").

Parasites. — Professor Arnold Heller, of
Kiel, has recently published an interesting
work on parasites, with particular reference
to their import to men. It is only lately
that the true origin and character of para-

sites have been at all adequately understood.
Not very long ago they were supposed to be
formed out of the substances of the body ;
and in the condition of knowledge at the
time it was hard to account otherwise for
their presence in certain parts of the sys-
tem. They have also been supposed to be
received by inheritance ; and it has not been
fully proved that, in rare instances, this
may not be the case. It has, however, been
shown that, as a rule, they are introduced
into the system, either directly or through
germs taken in with the food, breathed in
the air, brought by unclean hands or with
unclean dishes, or blown in with the dust.
They are generally dependent on moisture
for their vitality, and, finding in the bodily
juices a favorable environment, may be-
come suddenly active after having been long
dormant in uncongenial situations. Most, if
not all of them, probably existed originally
in a free state, and have become wonted to
what is now an exclusive abode by gradual
adaptation in long time ; in such cases, they
seem to have lost some of the organs, such
as those of locomotion, which they origi-
nally possessed, but which have become of
no further use to them. Some of them have
been made useful to man. The leech serves
a valuable purpose in the healing art ; the
cochineal aphis furnishes a valuable dye ;
the tape-worm of the snipe tickles the pal-
ate of the hunter and the epicure as " mac-
caroni-piatti " — flat maccaroni; and the
worms of fresh-water fishes are esteemed as
food in some parts of Italy. The ichneu-
mon flies and their tribe are of inestimable
benefit in destroying the insect enemies to
vegetation ; and helpful moths have been
discovered which prey upon the moths and
other insects in the furs of rodents and the
feathers of birds. Among vegetable para-
sites, ergot is valuable in medicine, and the
mistletoe-berry is used in making bird-lime
and fly-paste. It has been suggested that
even intestinal worms may be good for
children by helping to consume the excess
of slime ; and Jordan, of Mayence, has set
forth that the animals that infest the skin
of man may be beneficial by forcing him to
look after the cleanliness of his person and
clothing, and his intestinal worms by mak-
ing him careful of his food. This view can
not, however, be justified, even when we ad-

142

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mit that parasites in many cases do no per-
ceptible harm. To these cases may be op-
posed the numerous instances in which they
have proved destructive to their hosts,
whether animals, birds, or men, often car-
rying off multitudes of creatures when they
become excessively abundant on a species ;
and in the most favorable cases they give
the host discomfort and inconvenience,
though their work mavbe overlooked in the
presence of his superior vigor. As a rule,
parasites belong to the lower orders of
animals — worms or insects. Sometimes an
arachnoid or a crustacean will join the com-
pany ; but a few small fishes are the only
creatures among the vertebrates that ever
assume that relation. The stories that have
been told of the existence of other inhabit-
ants in the system are either fables or have
originated in the accidental presence of sin-
gle individuals who were probably as much
astonished as their host at finding them-
selves in such a home.

The Repeating Melograph. — M. J. Car-
pentier exhibited, at the recent electrical 1
exhibition in Paris, an instrument called the
repeating melograph, by means of which, he
claimed, any piece or improvisation which
a composer may play on the key-board to
which it is attached is registered, and may !
be repeated upon any other instrument \
with which it may be connected. It, more-
over, secures the repetition, not of the
piece only, but of the style, even to the j
false notes, of the player. Both processes,
the registering and the repeating of the
piece, are performed through the medium
of electric currents. In the former case the
keys of the instrument on which the piece
is played are connected with wires through
which a current is established when the key
is pressed down. This current sets in oper-
ation an apparatus, with tools answering to
the several keys, by means of which a per-
foration corresponding in character with
the musical value of the note is made in a
moving band of paper. The piece being
finished, the band is ready to serve in a
second execution of it. Electric communi-
cation is effected between the perforated
band and the second instrument ; and a
current is formed, causing a corresponding |
key to be sounded at each perforation of j

the band as it passes the circuit in the pro-
cess of unrolling. M. Carpentier contem-
plates adjusting his instrument so that it
may also be made to print the piece in or-
dinary musical type.

Electric Units.— The International Con-
gress of Electricians at Paris unanimously
agreed upon a uniform standard of electric-
al units of measurements. It decided to
adopt the fundamental units, the centime-
tre, the gramme, the second (C. G. S.);
that the practical units, the ohm and the
volt, should be defined, as now, the ohm as
109, and the volt as 108; that the unit of
resistance (ohm) be represented by a col-
umn of mercury having a section of a square
millimetre at the freezing-point, and a
height to be determined experimentally by
the International Committee ; that the cur-
rent produced by a volt in an ohm be called
an ampere instead of a w-eber, the latter
name having been applied by Weber him-
self in Germany to a current of ten times
less force ; that the name of coulomb be
applied to the quantity of electricity defined
by the condition that an ampere gives a
coulomb a second, the former English we-
ber ; and that the name farad be applied to
the capacity defined by the condition that a
coulomb in a farad gives a volt — which is
equivalent to the farad of the British Asso.
ciation. The Carcel lamp was recommended
to be continued as the standard for the com-
parison of lights, pending the investigations
of an International Committee to ascertain
and fix upon the most practicable standard.

"Clonds of Seeds." — A correspondent
of " La Nature " describes a remarkable ap-
pearance of seeds in the air that was ob-
served in Guatemala during eight consecu-
tive days in February last. In the early
hours of the afternoon it was easy to per-
ceive at a certain distance from the ground
bodies resembling snow-flakes, which ap-
peared and disappeared instantaneously,
generally going in the same direction, but
which were visible only when they passed
between the sun and the observer. They
moved gracefully, with variegated colors,
falling and then rising out of sight, as snow-
flakes do when they melt in the air; at
other times they were carried along by the

NOTES.

H3

wind. The populace thought that fire was
falling from the sun. More intelligent per-
sons believed that snow had been actually
formed in consequence of the cooling of the
atmosphere, some of which had fallen with-
out melting till it came in sight, and this
view was currently accepted. It was finally
shown; however, that the particles were float-
ing seeds, and every one was enabled to sat-
isfy himself of the fact by grasping a hand-
ful of them.

NOTES.

The tertiary lake-basin at Florissant, be-
tween South and Hayden Parks, Colorado,
furnishes one of the richest deposits of fossil
insects that have been found anywnere.
According to Mr. S. H. Scudder, who exam-
ined it in connection with the Hayden Sur-
vey, it has yielded in a single summer more
than double the number of specimens which
the famous localities at (Eningen, in Bava-
ria, furnished Heer in thirty years. The
(Eningen specimens are, however, a3 a rule,
better preserved, but a larger number of
satisfactory specimens are found at Floris-
sant than at (Eningen. Sixteen species of
insects have been published, and, besides
these, a planorbis-shell, eight species of
fishes, several birds' feathers, and a single
tolerably perfect sparrow. Also several
thousand specimens of thirty-seven species
of plants, have been found.

Professor Xorde.vskiold has had occa-
sion during his Arctic vova^es to ask the
question, which must have often occurred to
many, What becomes of the " self -dead "
animals, or those that die a natural death ?
During his nine expeditions in regions where
animal life is abundant, he has found only
a very few remains of recent vertebrate
animals which could be proved to have died
a natural death. We have at present no
idea of what beeomes of the bodies of such
animals, " and yet we have here a problem
of immense importance for the answering
of a large number of questions concerning
the formation of fossiliferous strata. It is
strange, in any case, that on Spitzbergen it
is easier to find the vertebras of a gigantic-
lizard of the Trias than bones of a self-dead
seal, walrus, or bird, and the same also
holds good of more southerly inhabited
lands."

Mr. A. S. Packard, Jr., has given, in a
contribution to the Boston Society of Nat-
ural History, the descriptions of twentv-two
new species of ichneumon, microgaster, tri-
cogramma, and other genera of parasites in-
festing North American butterflies, typical

specimens of most of which may be seen in
the collection of Mr. S. H. Scudder, and of
a few in the Harris collection of the muse-
um of the society.

Professor Otis T. Masox is not satisfied
I with the existing classifications of the an-
j th Topological sciences, and has adopted a
J classification of his own, as follows: 1. An-
thropogeny ; 2. Prehistoric Anthropology ;
3. Biological Anthropology ; 4. Psychologi-
cal Anthropology ; 5. Ethnology ; 6. Linguis-
tic Anthropology; 7. Industrial Anthropol-
! ogy ; 8. Sociology proper ; 9. The Science
! of Religion ; to which he adds a tenth class
of works on the instrumentalities of re-
search. In his bibliographical contributions
to the Smithsonian Report and the " Ameri-
can Xaturalist," Professor Mason states that
a larger number of papers have been pub-
lished on prehistoric anthropology than on
any other branch of the science. He enu-
merates one hundred and forty-six memoirs
in this branch as published in 1879, and
twentv-eizht as published in America alone
in 1880.

The deaths in the Peabody Buildings,
London, during sixteen years, have been at
the rate of sixteen and seven tenths per
thousand per annum, while the general
death-rate of the metropolis during the
same period has been twenty-three and
four tenths. The death-rate in the crowd-
ed districts surrounding the Peabody Build-
ings has been stated to be thirty or forty to
the thousand.

A committee of the British Association
is investigating the question of the existence
of earth-tides, or of oscillations in the crust
of the earth similar to those which are pro-
duced in the ocean by the attraction of the
moon. A pendulum is so suspended that its
slightest motion turns a mirror, and causes
a perceptible movement in the spot of light
reflected by it upon a distant screen. The
pendulum is proved to be continually chang-
ing its position, for the reflected light is in
incessant motion, and so irregularly that it is
hardly possible to localize its mean position
on the screen within five or six inches. Mr.
W. Mattieu Williams has susnrested that the
constant movements of the microscopic bub-
bles imprisoned within the cavities of gems
and minerals are due to the same cause.

The death is announced of the Rev. Dr.
Thomas R. Robinson, Director of the Ob-
servatory at Armagh, Ireland. He was
elected to the Royal Society in 1856, and
was one of. the oldest Fellows on the list,
beimr nearlv ninetv when he died. His
latest contribution to science, " On the Con-
stants of the Cup Anemometer,'' was pub-
lished in the " Philosophical Transactions "
in 1S80.

i44

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

M. P. Puiseux, remarking upon the ap-
parent relations between the activity of
vegetation and actinometric conditions, cites
in illustration the promptitude with which
plants mature during the summer of lands
which the snow hardly leaves. Phaneroga-
mous plants may be found at the height of
twelve thousand feet, ranunculuses on the
Schreckhorn, saxifrages on the Gravola, go-
ing through all the phases of their develop-
ment in the space of three months under a
mean temperature, according to ordinary
estimates, considerably inferior to that of
the polar regions. Doubtless these plants
find a compensation for the unfavorable
thermic conditions in the intensity of the
solar radiation at great altitudes, which is
increased by the reflections from the snow.

M. Gautier insists, in a number of
communications to the French Academy of
Sciences, that the venom of serpents con-
tains a toxic substance analogous to the
alkaloids and the ptomaines. The venom
of the Vaja tripudians, of which a quarter
of a milligramme will kill a sparrow, may
be boiled, filtered, and treated with alcohol,
without losing its activity. These proper-
ties indicate a relation with the alkaloids.
Not only the saliva of serpents, the salivas
of other animals — of the dog, the hare, even
of man — are capable of exhibiting delete-
rious properties. An extract from human
saliva furnishes an extremely poisonous
liquid, capable of killing a bird almost as
quickly as the venom of a serpent. Thus
the saliva of man, the dog, and the serpent,
all contain toxic alkaloids, and do not differ
essentially except in the higher or lower
degree of concentration of the poison ; and
it appears that animal as well as vegetable
tissues are capable of elaborating alkaloids.

M. G. Delaunay has been studying the
influence exercised by the greater or less in-
tensity of the nutritive phenomena in cases
of poisoning by strychnine. Equal doses
of strychnine were given to two frogs, one
of which had been kept active for a half-
hour previously. The poison took effect
more quickly and more actively upon this
one than upon the one that had been quiet.
In another experiment, the poison operated
more slowly and more lightly upon a frog
that had been bled than upon the other one,
which had not been hurt. When one of the
frogs was bled after taking the poison, it
exhibited a tendency to return to the nor-
mal condition in measure as it lost blood.

M. Albert Gaudry has been elected to
fill the chair in the French Academy which
was made vacant by the death of M. Sainte-
Claire Deville, receiving forty votes to eight-
een cast for his competitor, M. Laury, ge-
ologist. " La Nature " remarks that with
M. Gaudry a new science, paleontology, ob-
tains representation in the institute.

Dr. K. von Fritsch, of Halle, maintains
that the causes of earthquakes are much
slighter than has been generally believed,
that they may be sought at a depth of not
more than ten or fourteen miles, and often
of less, and that rather feeble forces may
produce earthquakes which will be felt at
great distances. The hammer in Krupp's '
factory, which weighs a thousand centners,
and falls from a height of ten feet, pro-
duces sensible concussions over a surface
five miles in diameter ; and a recent explo-
sion in a dynamite factory was felt at be-
tween twenty-five and thirty miles away.
Dr. Fritsch points out how earthquakes
might and must be produced by the increase
and decrease in volume of rocks under the
influence of physical and chemical forces,
by concussions, by the opening of crevice9
in rocks, and by the subsidence of masses
of rocks due to these agencies.

Dr. S. Gibbon, medical officer for the
Holborn district, London, says in his latest
report that, whatever may be the cause,
there is no doubt that a Jew's life in Lon-
don is, on an average, worth twice as many
years as a Christian's. The Hebrews of the
metropolis are notoriously exempt from tu-
bercular and scrofulous taint. Pulmonary
consumption is very rare among them. The
medical officer of one of the Jewish schools
has remarked that their children do not die
in anything like the same ratio as Christian
children. In High Street, Whitechapel, the
average death-rate on the north side, which
is occupied by Jews, is twenty per thousand,
while on the south side, which is occupied
by English and Irish Gentiles, it is forty-
three per thousand.

Mr. C. R. Plowright, F. L. S., made
thirteen experiments last summer in inocu-
lating wheat-plants with the fungus of the
barberry-bush, and derived results adverse
to the theory that wheat-mildew is developed
from the fungus. One hundred and sev-
enty-six plants of wheat were employed,
seventy-eight of which were inoculated with
the barberry-fungus, and ninety-eight un-
inoculated ones were kept for check plants.
Seventy-six per cent of the inoculated plants
developed the rust in about fifteen days, and
seventy per cent of the uninoculated plants
developed it also. Only one experiment of
the thirteen seemed to support the theory
of metamorphosis.

Mr. Muybridge has been exhibiting some
remarkable rapid-process photographs in
Paris, one of which is said to have been
taken in one hundredth of a second. He
has obtained a series of six photographs
during the leap of a clown, which when pro-
jected on a screen by a zoetrope exhibit the
clown as in motion, with all his changes of
position.

\

CHARLES DARWIN, M. A., F. R. S., Etc.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1882.
SPECULATIVE SCIENCE.

By J. B. STALLO.

" Wenn ein Kopf und ein Buck zusammenstossen, und es hlingt hohl, muss es denn immer
das Buck yewesen sein ? " — Lichtexberg, the Physicist.

THE zbove title is prefixed to an article contributed by Professor
Simon Newcomb to the April number of the " International Re-
view." The avowed object of that article is to discredit a recent vol-
ume of the " International Scientific Series" (" The Concepts and
Theories of Modern Physics ") as a publication unworthy of the com-
pany in which it appears, and to denounce its author as a person
ignorant of the subject whereon he writes — as a scientific, or rather
unscientific, " charlatan " and " pretender " belonging to the class of
" paradoxers " whom Professor De Morgan has immortalized in his
famous " Budget." I am fully aware that, as a rule, it is both unwise
and in questionable taste for an author to make direct reply to criti-
cism, however hostile, baseless, or absurd. The merits of a book must
find their vindication, at last, in its contents, and the chief function
of the critic is to bring them to the attention of the reader, the value
and spirit of the critical performance being of secondary importance.
But the case in hand appears to me to be an exceptional one. The
unmistakable intent of Professor Newcomb's " criticism " (and, if it
be left unchallenged, its probable effect) is to signalize the contents of
the book with which he deals as mere drivel, and unworthy of a mo-
ment's serious attention. And he writes for a magazine, the majority
of whose readers, however intelligent they may be, can hardly be ex-
pected to possess that familiarity with the matters under discussion
which is a necessary prerequisite to the formation of an independent
and trustworthy judgment. All they are likely to know and care is,

YOL. XXI. — 10 X

146 THE POPULAR SCLEXCE MONTHLY.

that Professor Xewconib is a prominent scientist, at the head of a
scientific bureau in Washington; while the author of the book he pro-
fesses to review, if known at all, is known only in connection with
pursuits which are generally supposed to preclude, not only distinc-
tion but even reputable standing in the domains of scientific investi-
gation. I take the liberty, therefore, to subject the strictures of my
critic to a counter-critical examination, trusting that the learned pro-
fessor himself will find it thorough, and that the reader who has not
only perused his article, but also looked into a chapter or two of my
book, will recognize it as neither impertinent nor unfair.

Whatever may be thought of the soundness or unsoundness of the
general argument of the little book in question, the drift of that argu-
ment, it seems to me, can hardly be mistaken by the reasonably intelli-
gent reader. TThat I attempt to show is simply this : that modern
physical science aims at a mechanical interpretation of physical phe-
nomena, seeking to effect a reduction of them to two elements which
are ordinarily designated as matter and motion, but which (for reasons
briefly stated in the book, but to be stated more at length presently)
are more correctly designated as mass and motion. I then attempt to
show that, if to these premises we add the assumption of the atomic
constitution of matter, the mechanical theory necessarily involves four
distinct propositions, relating severally to the equality, inertia, and in-
elasticity of the atoms or ultimate molecules and the essentially ki-
netic character of what is now universally termed energy. In order to
enforce the irrecusability of these propositions on the basis of the
atomo-mechanical theory, and to guard against the imputation that I
am engaged in the frivolous pastime of chopping logic, I am at pains
to show, in the next four chapters, that every one of these pro]30si-
tions is insisted on and propounded in terms identical with, or equiva-
lent to, those in which I state them, by men whom I was under the
delusion, up to the time of the aj^pearanc'e of Professor Xewcomb's
article, of regarding as persons of the highest scientific authority —
such men as Professors Du Bois-Reymond, Thomas Graham, Wundt,
etc. I then proceed to inquire what is the relation of these proposi-
tions to the sciences of chemistry, physics, and astronomy, as they are
actually constituted, endeavoring to ascertain whether or not the funda-
mental propositions of the atomo-mechanical theory are available as
theoretical solvents of the facts with which these sciences are con-
versant, and whether or not they are consistent with them. The result
of this inquiry is, that the man of science, however emphatic he may
be in the general assertion that all physical phenomena are due to the
interaction of atoms or ultimate molecules, is constrained by the data
of scientific experience to repudiate and discard the propositions
which his assertion necessarily involves. It thus appears that there is
conflict between the facts and working hypotheses or theories of the
sciences on the one hand and the atomo-mechanical theory on the

SPECULATIVE SCIEXCE. 147

other ; that the latter theory fails in the presence of the facts, and
that all attempts to remove this conflict have, thus far at least, been
abortive.

After supplementing these preliminaries by a discussion of the
atomic theory and its dependant, the kinetic theory of gases, I ap-
proach the problem whose solution is the sole aim of my little treatise,
which, as is expressly stated in the very first sentence of the preface,
is designed as a contribution, not to physics or metaphysics, but to the
theory of cognition. That problem is the determination of the logical
and psychological origin of the mechanical theory, and of its attitude
toward the laws of thought and the forms and conditions of its evolu-
tion. It is neither necessary nor practicable here to attempt a repro-
duction of the tenor of my discussion. It is sufficient for my present
purpose to state my conclusion, which is, that the mechanical theory
with all its implications is founded on a total disregard or misapprehen-
sion of the true relation of thoughts to things or of concepts to phys-
ical realities ; that, so far from being a departure from and standing in
antagonism to metaphysical speculation, the propositions which lie at
its base are simply exemplifications of the fallacies that vitiate all
metaphysical or ontological reasoning properly so called. There is
hardly a page in the book, after the first two expository chapters, in
which my utter repudiation of the mechanical theory and its funda-
mental assumptions is not couspicuous. My objections to this theory
are stated in so many ways, and are enforced by so many considera-
tions, that my position in regard to it appears to me insusceptible of
misapprehension even by the most hebetated intellect. During the
last six weeks I have received more than twenty letters from various
persons — most of them mathematicians and physicists, but a few of
them persons without scientific training — in which the doctrines of my
book are discussed or questioned, sometimes on grounds which indicate
that my meaning has been strangely misapprehended. But not one of
these letters gives rise to the least suspicion that the writer was mis-
taken as to mv attitude toward the mechanical theory.

And now, what does Professor Xewcomb represent my position to
be ? The reader who has not seen his article will be amazed when I
tell him that, according to him, my book was written for the purpose
of maintaining the propositions of the atomo-mechanical theory, and
of subverting the whole science of physics by means of them, on the
principle, I suppose, that if the facts do not agree with the theory, so
much the worse for the facts ! Here is Professor XewcomVs lan-
guage : '

The author's criticism is wholly destructive ; where he constructs it is only
to destroy. It is true that his first chapter on the atomo-mechanical theory lays
down certain propositions already mentioned which he seems to hold as true.
He makes use of them to destroy the whole fabric of modern physics, and show
physical investigators generally to be the subjects of miserable delusions. But

i48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his last chapter is devoted to showing that this theory is itself a failure, so that,
when he takes his leave, we have nothing left to contemplate hut a mass of ruins.

It is curious to note the introduction of the word " seems " into this
passage — as the lawyers say, its appearance with a semble — while in
other places, e. g., where Professor Newcomb speaks of the proposition
that molecules are inelastic as my "favorite doctrine," or where he
charges me (after reading my tenth chapter !) with ignorantly con-
founding the "abstract noun" mass with the concrete term matter, he
makes no such qualification.

Having satisfied himself (no doubt before writing his article,
though the conclusion is stated most explicitly toward its close) that I
am in the lists as a champion of the atomo-mechanical theory and as
the dogmatic defender of its fundamental propositions, he proceeds to
assail these propositions, sometimes with what he seems to regard as
an argument, but generally with a sneer. The contents of my intro-
ductory chapter, consisting almost exclusively of citations from the
writings of Professors Kirchhoff, Helmholtz, Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig,
Du Bois-Reymond, etc., he brands as "propositions in which we can
trace neither coherence nor sense." The thesis that, on the basis of the
atomo-mechanical theory, all potential energy is in reality kinetic —
the distinct proposition of Professor P. G. Tait, who asserts it as the
unavoidable consequence of the atomo-mechanical theory of gravita-
tion— he "passes over as not even worth quoting." Similarly the doc-
trine of the essential passivity of matter — also a proposition of Pro-
fessor Tait, whose exact words I quote on page 306 of my book — is
flouted with the disdainful remark that " such words as * active ' and
' passive' have no application in the case and serve no purpose, except
to produce confusion in the mind of the reader." In this way he
levels his thrusts at the most eminent physicists and mathematicians
of the day, laboring always under the hallucination that he is strik-
ing at me.

Among the most characteristic performances of Professor New-
comb are his strictures, already adverted to, on my substitution of the
term mass for the word matter, in designation of the substratum of
motion in the light of the atomo-mechanical theory. According to
him, this use of the word mass is evidence of my ignorance and intel-
lectual confusion, as well as of my " total misconception of the ideas
and methods of modern science." He informs me that the word mass
is " an abstract noun like length" whereas I use it " as a concrete term,
and in nearly the same sense as we commonly use the word matter."
And thereupon he delivers himself of a dissertation (which resembles
nothing so much as a sermon of " Fray Gerundio " to his " familiars ")
on the necessity of using scientific terms only in accordance with their
exact definitions, of ascertaining the meanings of the words mass and
motion by a reference to the methods whereby they are measured, and

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. i+9

so on. All this is certainly strange news to an author who has de-
voted several chapters of his book to the task of showing that the
great fundamental vice of the mechanical theory is the confusion of
concepts with things, and particularly of the connotations of the con-
cept mass with the complement of the properties of matter — who, in
a word, is guilty of the great offense of expressing, in the precise terms
of the science of logic, what Professor Xewcomb is staggering at with
a phrase borrowed from some elementary treatise on grammar !

And here I am tempted to do a little Gerundian preaching myself,
Professor Xewcomb being, of course, my congregation of " familiars."
Here is my sermon : Sombre sabio y admirado, scattering supernal
wisdom, like hurling thunder-bolts, is a prerogative of the dwellers on
Olympus, not to be usurped by a drag-footed philosopher bellowing at
its base. Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi. I do not mean to question
your general ruminant powers ; but you have delivered yourself of
some things " that have not been well digested," and had better be
chewed again. Let me see how I can help you. Listen: When we
speak of matter, we mean something which not only has weight, pro-
portional to its mass, but which has all manner of properties — optic,
thermic, electric, magnetic, chemical, and so on. Now, in the light of
modern science, all these " properties " are regarded as modes of mo-
tion, if I may be permitted to use the expression of Professor Tyndall.
And when we strip matter (in thought, you understand) of all these
modes of motion, we have nothing left but inertia, which is but
another name for mass. This mass is not a concrete thing, but a con-
cept or a part of a concept ; it is, as you say, " an abstract noun like
length." And the trouble with the atomo-mechanical theorists is their
fancy that this abstraction is a thing in itself, something you could
look at if you had a telescope with sufficient magnifying power, or
which you could weigh and measure if you had a pair of scales or a
chemical reagent sufficiently delicate. They labor, as you see, under
a huge mistake, which, in charity, ought to be corrected. Whenever
you find real matter, you have mass and the modes of motion in indis-
soluble synthesis and conjunction. But when this synthesis is broken
by the destructive analysis of the mechanical theorist who persists in
saying that things consist of matter and motion, you are bound to tell
him that what he calls matter is not matter at all, but only something
which, by a. curious law of our thought, we are bound to conceive or
imagine as a substratum of motion — the word substratum being a bar-
barous Latin term which in a rough way signifies what is supposed to
underlie motion. The term matter, as used by those deluded people
who think that all the facts of this world can be explained by a reso-
lution of them into matter and energy, or matter and motion, denotes
simply what the physicist who knows what he is talking about calls
mass.

And now, mind, what I have just told you is not some shallow con-

i5o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ceit hatched under my own time-tonsured pate, but genuine wisdom
which I have simply borrowed from an old, clear-headed fellow, who
lived and died a long while ago — Leonhard Euler. If you will read
his seventy-fourth letter to a German princess, written on the 11th day
of November, 1760, you will find it all set forth at great length. In
reading it you must bear in mind, though, that in Euler's time the im-
ponderables, as they were then called, were not so distinctly known or
believed to be modes of motion as they are now. And you must also
remember that he was writing to a princess who probably knew more
about madrigals and operatic airs than about scientific terms, in conse-
quence whereof his exposition became a little diffuse. If, however,
you should reject eld Euler's reasoning as "belonging to a past age of
thought," which, I see, is one of your favorite ways of getting rid of
irrefutable truths, I may refer you to a gentleman who is yet among
the living— Hermann Helmholtz. You will find what he has to say on
the "matter in hand," on the third and fourth pages of his first essay,
" Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft " (not included in the collection of
his essays).

Now, hombre querido (I am still preaching), if after this you will
carefully read again the first twelve chapters of my book, you will
probably find that they are somewhat less absurd than you fancied they
were. But you will say, no doubt — in fact, you do say, though not
in so many words — that all this is mere speculative trash, in which the
man of science has no concern. One of my reviewers in the New
York " Critic " — whom I at one time suspected, perhaps unjustly, from
certain peculiarities of his phraseology, and from the fact that, like
yourself, he sneers at me for having "wasted" two long chapters on
transcendental geometry, of having had oral confabulations with you,
in which the mouth of the speaker was not and could not be applied
to the ear of the listener — disposes of my discussion of the relation of
the mechanical theory to the laws of thought by the following oracu-
lar dictum (a travesty of a saying of Carlyle) : "A sound digestion has
little self -consciousness of the operations of the stomach; the sound
thinker gives himself little uneasiness respecting the laws of thought."
I can not stop, at this moment, to show you how and why a little
knowledge of the laws of thought is useful to the physicist and mathe-
matician. I shall come to that by-and-by, when I have considered
what you say about the kinetic theory of gases and space of an indefi-
nite number of dimensions. For the present I only want to tell you
how I ventured upon the audacity of intruding the theory of cognition
into the science of physics.

In Europe, as well as in this country, there are certain idle fellows
who, during the first half of the present century, for want of more
useful occupation, took to tracing the ramifications of forms of speech,
and finally got to digging for their roots. These absurd persons
abound chietly in Germany, where, as you know, the people are always

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. 151

in the nebular regions, when they ought to be fighting and grubbing
on the solid ground below. In course of time these individuals, de-
spite the utter fatuity of their undertaking, persuaded themselves that
they were engaged in something important, and became noisy and pre-
sumptuous. At one time they even clamored for admission into the
ranks of the physicists and astronomers, on the ground that they had
discovered phonetic and other laws, which they claimed to be as im-
mutable as the laws of Kepler. Their application was, of course,
scornfully denied, for the reason that they were either no scientists at
all, or at best speculative scientists. Instead of submitting humbly
to this just decree of the physicists (it is a pity they had not my pres-
ent meekness before them as an example), these men grew wrathy and
turned away with something like this objurgation : " Well, never mind,
the time is not far distant when you will come as suppliants to us."
And, thereupon, in sheer malice, having got well-nigh through with
the roots and branches of words, they fell to attacking the history of
their meanings — of concepts, as they called them — pretending to make
legitimate employment of inductive methods, which they wholly mis-
apprehended, no doubt, and which, at any rate, were among the clear
prerogatives of the physicists. And now they pretend to have estab-
lished, inductively, a number of laws relating to the operations of the
intellect, which they again assert to be immutable, and, though con-
trolling acts of consciousness, to be wholly independent of deliberate
intent or set purpose. They say, for instance, that there runs through-
out the history of speculative as well as of ordinary thinking an
almost irrepressible tendency to hypostasize concepts, or (as I have
called it, cribbing an outrageous barbarism from Professor Bain) to
reify them. I will try to explain to you what that means, as nearly as
possible in your own words. When people make or find a new " ab-
stract noun," they instantly try to put it on a shelf or into a box, as
though it were a thing ; thus they reify it. In very early times they
did worse than that — they undertook to incase it in a smock-frock or
a pair of breeches. They personified it. There was a still earlier
period when, worst of all, men blasphemously and impiously deified
abstractions ; and it is said that this class of persons has not wholly
died out yet.

Now, the silly speculators I have just alluded to have already di-
vided the science they pretend to be cultivating into several branches,
to which, being word-mongers, they give all sorts of sesquipedalian
names, such as comparative linguistics, comparative psychology, com-
parative mythology, and so forth. To give you an idea of the temer-
ity of these pseudo-scientists, let me tell you that one of them, Professor
Max Miiller, of Oxford — who is, of course, a German — at one time
undertook to account for the monotheism of the Jewish race by a
peculiarity of Semitic speech. It is even whispered that he and others,
years ago, evolved $he whole city of Troy, with all its houses and

i52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

walls, the heroes within it, with their wives and children, as well as
the Greek warriors and their ships, without it — everything, including
the Trojan horse and what it contained — from a parcel of solar myths,
demonstrating to their own satisfaction that all these persons and
things were, at bottom, nothing more than "objectivations" of forms
and laws of speech. As was to be expected, this fine theory came to
grief when Schliemann appeared with a pickaxe and spade. As usual,
the theory collapsed in the presence of the facts. Be that as it may,
there is one thing these scientific pretenders persist in asserting, in
spite of all their past discomfitures : that more than three fourths of
the controversies in theology and metaphysics have had their rise in
the ignorance of the fathers of the Church, and of mediaeval and
modern scholastics, of the results brought to light in these new-fangled
sciences. Unfortunately, when I was less old and waiy than I am
now, I fell in with these " paradoxers," some of whom I knew to be
men of great learning, and believed to be persons of thorough earnest-
ness of purpose. To my astonishment I found two mathematicians
among them — Hermann Grassmann and Franz Woepcke. I had read
with some difficulty, but, as I thought, with reasonable grasp of his
meaning, the " Ausdehnungslehre " (since supplemented by a new
treatise under nearly the same title, and a number of articles in
Crelle's and Borchardt's " Journal ") of Grassmann ; and I had at-
tempted to read some of the writings of Woej^cke, though without
success, because he went far beyond my depth. But I got an impres-
sion that both had things to say — in mathematics, at least — that were
worth knowing ; and inferred that there must be sense and jmrpose
also in their linguistic endeavors. In this way I became interested,
and gradually caught the spirit of the comparative linguists and my-
cologists by contagion. And so it came to pass that, after a while, I
asked myself this question : " If the results of these sciences are avail-
able for the solution of the perplexities of the metaphysicians, why
may they not also throw some light on the nature of our perplexities
in physics ? ': So far as I could learn, no one had attempted an orderly
and systematic answer to this question, although (as is not unusual in
cases of this sort) there was a considerable amount of scattered mate-
rial ready to the hand of whomsoever should undertake the work.
Under these circumstances, I was fool-hardy enough to make an at-
tempt myself, the result being my poor little book. And now I con-
fess I am not a little mortified at being informed that I am a " learned
and able " idiot ; and I derive but scant comfort from the assurance
that my mental predicament may be accounted for on the theory of
contagion, and that the hypothesis of congenital imbecility may be
avoided.

But it is time to doff my Gerund ian robes and to cease apostro-
phizing the familiars, for I have things to say which ought to be said
in all earnestness and sobriety. I am about to examine Professor

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. 153

Newcomb's animadversions on my chapters on the kinetic theory of
gases and transcendental geometry. On the former he expatiates as
follows :

For the benefit of the non-scientific reader we may say that there is no
theory of modern physics, the processes supposed by which are invisible to di-
rect vision, which is more thoroughly established than this. It explains with
the utmost simplicity and without introducing any but the best known prop-
erties of molecules, a great number of diverse phenomena, seemingly incapable
of explanation in any other way. The only objection of the author which we
can completely understand is that the theory in question — i. e., the kinetic theory
of gases- — seems to him incompatible with his own favorite doctrine that mole-
cules are inelastic. Should he have any hesitation in pitting his a priori idea
against so widely received a theory, it should relieve him to know that the sup-
posed antagonism arises only from his own misapprehension. No elasticity is
assigned the molecules in the Tcinetic theory, but only an insuperable, repulsive
force which causes the molecules to repel each other when they are brought suffi-
ciently near together. The reader who has any interest in following the author
in his attempt to show that Maxwell and his colaborers were guilty of a long
series of fallacies and errors in attempting to prove the theory in question, may
read the chapter, as an abstract is impossible.

So " no elasticity is assigned to the molecules in the kinetic the-
ory." Well, that is startling news indeed ! I hope it has been con-
veyed to Sir William Thomson, who at latest accounts was still en-
gaged in the arduous, but, as we are now informed by Professor
Newcomb, utterly useless study of vortex-rings, which he hopes to
make available as substitutes for elastic atoms or ultimate molecules.
At the last meeting of the British Association Sir William Thomson
read a paper " On the Average Pressure due to the Impulse of Vortex-
Rings on a Solid," of which an abstract is published in "Nature"
for May 12, 1881 (vol. xxiv, pp. 47, 48). In this paper Sir William
says :

The pressure exerted by a gas composed of vortex-atoms is exactly the
same as is given by the ordinary kinetic theory, which regards the atoms as hard
elastic particles.

I do not' deem it necessary to multiply quotations from the writings
of other scientific men in support of my statement that the kinetic
theory of gases can not dispense with the assumption of the elasticity
of ultimate- molecules. No intelligent reader who has glanced at page
42 of my book can be in any doubt as to what is taught on the subject
by the founders and promoters of the theory in question. But I will
add one citation, because it is from a book to which I shall have occa-
sion to refer for another purpose. The most thorough mathematical
treatise on the kinetic theory of gases, indorsed as such by Clerk
Maxwell, is the well-known little book of Henry William Watson. It
is in the form of propositions ; and the very first words of the first
proposition are these :

i54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A very great number of smooth, elastic spheres, equal in every respect, are
in motion within a region of space of a given volume, and therefore occasionally
impinge upon each other with various degrees of relative velocity, and in various
directions.

The italics in this passage, as well as in all past and future quota-
tions, are mine.

In justice to Professor Newcomb, however, we must look at his
entire sentence, which is this : " No elasticity is assigned to the mole-
cules in the kinetic theory, but only an insuperable, repulsive force,
which causes the molecules to repel each other when they are brought
sufficiently near together.'''' This information, Professor Newcomb
hopes, will "relieve me." I am indeed relieved ! AVhat the learned
jDrofessor tells me in the last part of his sentence certainly simplifies
matters to the last degree. All that needs be assigned to the mole-
cules is an "insuperable repulsive force." Such a force is the greatest
convenience for the physicist that can possibly be devised ; it not only
effects a simple and satisfactory solution of the difficulties set forth in
my fourth and eighth chapters, but it enables us at once to get over
every other difficulty that may be suggested. It is singular that Sir
Isaac Newton did not understand this when he was distressed about
the mechanism of gravitation ; for, obviously, all that is required to
explain it is to assign to the molecules an attractive force. Sir Isaac's
ignorance is all the more remarkable because, coming to think of it, I
now recollect that the philosophy of which Professor Newcomb is the
able exponent was very clearly set forth, just fourteen years before
the appearance of Newton's "Principia," in a profound metaphysical
treatise published by one Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (otherwise called
Moliere) under the somewThat whimsical title " Le Malade Imaginaire."
Toward the close of that great work (wrhich is in the form of dia-
logues), one of the interlocutors, Bachelierus, philosophizes as follows :

"Mihi a docto doctore
Domandatur causam et rationem quare
Opium facit dormire.
A quoi respondeo
Quia est in eo
Virtus dormitiva
Cujus est natura
Sensus assoupire."

Of course, we are not to be embarrassed by anything John Ber-
noulli has written about " insuperable forces " as mathematical or phys-
ical, functions ; nor is it worth while to be disturbed by considerations
respecting the effect of their assumption upon the doctrine of the con-
servation of energy.

Professor Newcomb's indignation at my treatment of the kinetic
theory of gases is very great indeed. " There is no theory of modern
physics," he says, " the processes supposed by which are invisible to

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. i55

direct vision, which is more thoroughly established than this. It ex-
plains with the utmost simplicity, and without introducing any but the
best-known properties of molecules, a great number of diverse phenom-
ena seemingly incapable of explanation in any other icay." Now, it
is a great pity that these glad tidings did not reach Professor Clerk
Maxwell before he was laid to rest in his early grave. They would
certainly have been a great comfort to him, and possibly might have
prolonged his life. For there is reason to suspect that in his latter
days he arrived at conclusions respecting the kinetic theory of gases
which bear a strange resemblance to my own. Being, not a scientific
dogmatist, but an honest and candid investigator in search of truth, he
came to see with ever-increasing clearness that the difficulties of his
favorite theory beset not only its fundamental assumptions, but also
their inevitable consequences, especially in their bearings upon the
theory of heat. After the appearance of Watson's treatise already
adverted to, on the 26th day of July, 1877, he published in "Nature"
(vol. xvi, No. 404) a review of it, in which he considered the signifi-
cance of Mr. Watson's propositions in connection with certain matters
discussed on pages 97, 99, and 127 of my book. And thereupon he
made this declaration (" Nature," vol. xvi, p. 245) :

The clear way in which Mr. Watson has demonstrated these propositions
leaves us no escape from the terrible generality of his results. Some of these, no
doubt, are very satisfactory to us in our present state of opinion about the con-
stitution of bodies, but there are others which are likely to startle us out of our
complacency, and perhaps ultimately to drive us out of all the hypotheses in
tchich hitherto we have found refuge into that state of conscious ignorance which
is the prelude to every real advance in knowledge.

I hope, by-the-way, that this last remark of the great scientist will
be pondered by those who complain that, after demolishing, as they
imagine, all current physical theories, I leave them in the midst of ruins,
and do not at once present them with a golden key for unlocking all
the mysteries of the universe, or, like Puck, in " Midsummer-Night's
Dream," " put a [theoretical] girdle round about the earth in forty
minutes."

Before I leave this subject, I take the liberty of quoting another
passage from the same article, which Professor Newcomb, if he knows
anything about the discussions to which the kinetic theory of gases
has given rise, will find instructive. Speaking of Boltzmann's attempt
to reconcile the elasticity of atoms with their rigidity by increasing
their co-efficients of elasticity ad infinitum, so as to make them practi-
cally rigid — a supposition also developed in an essay of Hugo Fritsch
in Konigsberg, entitled " Stoss zweier Massen unter der Yorausset-
zung ihrer Undurchdringlichkeit behandelt," which does not seem to
have fallen under Professor Maxwell's notice (and, I may add, a sup-
position of which Professor Newconib's "insuperable force" may

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be a vague reminiscence) — Maxwell says ("Nature," vol. xvi, pp.
245, 246) :

But, before we accept this somewhat promising hypothesis, let us try to con-
struct a rigid-elastic body. It will not do to increase the co-efficients of elasticity
without limit till the body becomes practically rigid. For such a body, though
apparently rigid, is in reality capable of internal vibrations, and these of an
infinite variety of types, so that the body has an infinite number of degrees of
freedom.

The same objection applies to all atoms constructed of continuous, non-rigid
matter, such as the vortex-atoms of Thomson. Such atoms would soon convert
all their energy of agitation into internal energy, and the specific heat of a sub-
stance composed of them would be infinite.

A truly rigid-elastic body is one whose encounters with similar bodies take
place as if both were elastic, but which is not capable of being set into a state of
internal vibration. "We must take a perfectly rigid body and endow it with the
power of repelling all other bodies, but only when they come within a very
short distance from its surface, but then so strongly that under no circumstances
whatever can any body come into actual contact with it.

This appears to be the only constitution we can imagine for a rigid-elastic
body. And, now that we have got it, the best thing we can do is to get rid of
the rigid nucleus altogether, and substitute for it an atom of Boscovich — a math-
ematical point endowed with mass and with powers of acting at a distance on
other atoms.

But Boltzmann's molecules are not absolutely rigid. He admits that they
vibrate after collisions, and that their vibrations are of several different types,
as the spectroscope tells us. But still he tries to make us believe that these
vibrations are of small importance as regards the principal part of the motion of
the molecules. He compares them to billiard-balls, which, when they strike
each other, vibrate for a short time, but soon give up the energy of their
vibration to the air, which carries far and wide the sound of the click of
the balls.

In like manner, the light emitted by the molecules shows that their internal
vibrations after each collision are quickly given up to the luminiferous ether;
If we were to suppose that at ordinary temperatures the collisions are not severe
enough to produce any internal vibrations, and that these occur only at temper-
atures like that of the electric spark, at which we can not make measurements
of specific heat, we might, perhaps, reconcile the spectroscopic results with what
we know about specific heat.

But the fixed position of the bright lines of a gas shows that the vibrations are
isochronous, and therefore that the forces which they call into play vary directly
as the relative displacements, and, if this be the character of the forces, all im-
pacts, however slight, will produce vibrations. Besides this, even at ordinary
temperatures, in certain gases, such as iodine gas and nitrous acid, absorption
bands exist, which indicate that the molecules are set into internal vibration by
the incident light. The molecules, therefore, are capable, as Boltzmann points
out, of exchanging energy with the ether. But we can not force the ether into
the service of our theory so as to take from the molecules their energy of inter-
nal vibration, and give it back to them as energy of translation. It can not in
any way interfere with the ratio between these two kinds of energy which Boltz-
mann himself has established. All it can do is to take up its own due propor-
tion of energy according to the number of its degrees of freedom. We leave it

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. 157

to the authors of "The Unseen Universe " to follow out the consequences of this
statement.

I may safely take it for granted after this, I presume, that, while
Professor Newcomb may have a vocation for expounding and defend-
ing the kinetic theory of gases, he has no special call, as he supposes,
to stand up for Clerk Maxwell and his opinions.

It is hardly necessary to say that Professor Newcomb does not
honor my objections to the kinetic theory of gases with any notice or
attempt at refutation. He observes that " an abstract of them is im-
possible," which is to be regretted, for, if he had undertaken to give
us one, we should undoubtedly have learned some noteworthy things.
The task of making such an abstract does not appear to be very dif-
ficult. What I insist on is, that every valid physical theory is essen-
tially a simplification and not a complication, a reduction of the number
of unrelated facts which it undertakes to account for, and not a mere
substitution of many arbitrary assumptions of unknown and unverifiable
facts for a few known facts — that is to say, speaking in the language
of mathematics, that every true physical theory is in effect a reduction
of the number of independent variables representing the phenomena
to be explained. And I show that the kinetic theory of gases not only
fails to satisfy this requirement, but is a complete reversal of a legiti-
mate scientific procedure. This is the sense of the passage which Pro-
fessor Newcomb parades before the unwary reader, whom he ought to
have shocked still more with my horrible suggestion (which I now
deliberately repeat) that a gas is in its nature a simpler thing than a
solid, and that no attempt to account for its properties by taking those
of a solid as a basis and making arbitrary additions to them is likely
ever to succeed.

It is not a little instructive to note the character of sacredness as-
cribed by persons of Professor Newcomb's frame of mind to dominant
physical theories, and the violence with which they repel every attempt
to point out their defects. My reviewer in " The Critic " is almost be-
side himself after reading my " assault " on " that magnificent fabric
of science, the undulatory theory of light and heat." Before he pelts
me again with his missiles, he will do well to look and see who is
standing at the place to which he directs them. There is at Harvard
University a most learned and laborious scientist whose merits as an
original investigator are at least equal, if not superior, to his inestima-
ble services as an expounder of scientific truth, and the extent of whose
attainments is no less conspicuous in his memoirs and books than the
clearness of his intellect — Professor Josiah P. Cooke, Jr. In May,
1878, Professor Cooke published a lecture on the radiometer in this
journal ('f Popular Science Monthly "), in which he had occasion to
speak of the undulatory theory of light and the luminiferous ether.
And there (pages 11, 12) we find this language :

But turn now to tl^e astronomers, and learn what they have to tell us in re-

i58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gard to the assumed luminiferous ether through which all this energy is supposed
to be transmitted. Our planet is rushing in its orbit around the sun at an aver-
age rate of over 1,000 miles a minute, and makes its annual journey of some
550,000,000 miles in 365 days, 6 hours, 9 seconds, and -^ of a second. Mark the
tenths ; for astronomical observations are so accurate that, if the length of the
year varied permanently by the tenth of a second, we should know it; and you can
readily understand that, if there were a medium in space which offered as much
resistance to the motion of the earth as would gossamer threads to a race-horse,
the planet could never come up to time, year after year, to the tenth of a second.
How, then, can we save our theory, by which we set so much, and rightly,
because it has helped us so effectively in studying Nature ? If we may be allowed
such an extravagant solecism, let us suppose that the engineer of our previous
illustration was the hero of a fairy-tale. He has built a mill, set a steam-engine
in the basement, arranged his spindles above, and is connecting the pulleys by
the usual belts, when some stern necessity requires him to transmit all the energy
with cobwebs. Of course, a good fairy comes to his aid, and what does she do?
Simply makes the cobwebs indefinitely strong. So the physicists, not to be out-
done by any fairies, make their ether indefinitely elastic, and their theory lands
them just here, with a medium filling all space, thousands of times more elastic
than steel, and thousands on thousands of times less dense than hydrogen gas.
There must be a fallacy somewhere, and I strongly suspect it is to be found in
our ordinary materialistic notions of causation, which involve the old metaphys-
ical dogma, "nulla actio in distans" and which in our day have culminated in
the famous apothegm of the German materialist, " Kein Phosphor, Icein Gedanke"

If my reviewer will compare this passage with what I have said on
the undulatory theory, he will, perhaps, discover that my observations
are at least proof against the charge of frivolity and irrelevancy.
And it is not necessary to add, I hope, that it is no more my intention
than that of Professor Cooke to call upon the physicist to throw
away the undulatory theory as a working hypothesis before he has a
better one.

I now come to Professor NTewcomb's reflections on my discussion
of transcendental geometry. Here are some of them :

In considering the author's work in detail, we begin with the subject of tran-
scendental geometry, or hyper-geometry, as it is sometimes called. We do this
because his criticisms are so readily disposed of. He speaks of the "new geo-
metrical faith " ; of the " dispute " between the " disciples " of the transcendental
or pangeometrical school and the "adherents" of the old geometrical faith ; of
the "champions" of the old geometrical creed; of the "doctrine" of hyper-
space. To the refutation of these supposed erroneous doctrines he devotes no
less than sixty-two pages. Now, all his criticism is founded on an utter mis-
apprehension of the scope and meaning of what he is criticising. We make bold
to say that no mathematician has ever pretended to have the slightest evidence
that space has four dimensions, or was in any way different from what is taught
in our familiar system of geometry. He has not been an adherent or champion,
or held any doctrine on the subject. Now and then it is barely possible that a
physicist might be found — Zollner, for instance — suggesting such a thing in a
moment of aberration. But the great mass of men in their senses remain unaf-
fected by any such idea.

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. 159

Again :

Whatever we may say of the utility of such investigations, one thing is cer-
tain they are perfectly harmless. At the very worst they can do no more

injury to scientific conceptions than the careless author of an elementary algebra
will do his pupil by loading an hypothetical baker's wagon with more loaves of
bread than the baker could get into it. If Judge Stallo had taken up a book on
algebra, found a problem the answer to which required five thousand loaves
of bread to be carried by a single baker, and had devoted sixty-two pages to an
elaborate statistical and mechanical proof that no wagon could possibly hold
that number of loaves, his criticisms would have been as valuable and perti-
nent as those which he devotes to his imaginary school of pangeometry.

After reading these passages I am sorely perplexed. When Pro-
fessor Newcomb penned them he had before him my extracts (in a
note to page 211 of my book) from the Exeter address of Professor
Sylvester, embodying a reference to the speculations of Professor Clif-
ford, and another independent citation from Clifford's writings on page
213. And, being himself a writer on geometry of more than three
dimensions, he can hardly have been ignorant of the many other pan-
geometrical speculations respecting the necessity of assuming the ex-
istence of a fourth dimension for the purpose of explaining certain
optic and magnetic phenomena. There are mathematicians and phys-
icists in Europe — excellent mathematicians and physicists, too — who
maintain that space must have at least four dimensions, because with-
out it a reconciliation of Avogadro's law with the first proposition of
the atomo-mechanical theory is impossible. According to them, experi-
ence shows that matter has not only extension but also intension, which
directly evidences the actual existence of a fourth dimension in space.
Among those who advocate views like this is Professor Ernst Mach, in
Prague. How, in the face of all this, Professor Xewcomb could have
the hardihood to assure his readers that no mathematician has ever
pretended that space has more than three dimensions, I am at a loss
to understand.

But it is1 not worth while to quarrel with him on this head ; for
his statement, that I devote sixty-tivo pages to the attempt at proving
that space has in fact but three dimensions, is a pitiful misrepresen-
tation, akin to the statement that I am the defender of the propositions
of the atomo-mechanical theory. In my two chapters on transcendent-
al geometry there is not a page, not even a line, devoted to such an
undertaking. I discuss two main questions : first, whether or not it is
true, as Lobatschewsky, Riemann, and Helmholtz assert, that space is
a real thing, an object of direct sensation whose " properties," such as
the number of its dimensions and the form or degree of its inherent
curvature, are to be ascertained by observation and experiment— by
telescopic observation, for instance ; and, secondly, whether or not
the empirical possibility and character of several kinds of space can
be deduced a priori from the concept of an n-f old extended multiple,

160 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or from the abstract concept " quantity," using this term as compre-
hending both algebraic " quantities " and geometrical magnitudes. As
subsidiary to these questions I also discuss certain minor questions,
such as that of the representability of non-homaloidal forms of space ;
but upon the proof that there is actually no such thing as non-homa-
loidal or four-dimensional space I do not waste a syllable. In other
words (which Professor Newcomb may find more intelligible, perhaps) :
my first inquiry is, not whether any one has ever discovered a fourth
dimension or an inherent spatial crook by looking through a telescope,
but whether there would be any use or sense in trying to make such a
discovery by looking through a telescope, even if we could get a base-
line large enough to meet the requirements of Professor Helmholtz ;
and my second inquiry is, whether or not there is any world-producing
potency in an algebraic formula or an " abstract noun."

Professor Newcomb claims that investigations respecting geometry
of more than three dimensions are at least harmless, and even useful,
inasmuch as " they have thrown a flood of light on the origin and
meaning of geometrical axioms." My answer to this is, that specula-
tions of this sort are harmless only so long as it is not pretended that
they can teach us anything respecting either empirical reality or em-
pirical possibility. And they can throw light on the origin and mean-
ing of geometrical axioms only by giving us an insight into the nature
of the forms or modes in which the world of objective reality is or
may be reproduced in the intellect. But what shall we say, then,
about the grin at speculation in science which stares at us from the
very title of Professor Newcomb's article ? If he may throw a flood
of light on the foundations of geometry, by speculating about space
of four dimensions, am I to be jeered at when I endeavor to direct a
feeble ray from the general theory of cognition on the same subject —
when I try to do methodically what he is doing at random, and with-
out the least suspicion that anything more is necessary for the accom-
plishment of his purpose than skill in the handling of an analytical
formula ? It may be that my undertaking has not been very success-
ful ; but in magnis voluisse sat est. And this leads me to say a few
words in answer to the intimation of Professor Newcomb and the
direct charge of my reviewer in " The Critic," that inquiries into the
forms and laws of thought are sheer impertinence, and of no conse-
quence to the physicist.

In the introductory part of his article Professor Newcomb flings
at me the case of De Morgan's paradoxer Smith, who fancied that he
could prove the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter
to be exactly 3^, by getting somebody to admit that the ratio of the
circumference to the diameter is the same for all circles, and then tell-
ing him to draw one circle with the diameter 1 and circumference 3^.
ISTow, the intellectual plight of this paradoxer, who, besides assuming
the very thing to be proved, failed to see that his argument would

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. \6i

serve equally well to establish any other ratio, and who never thought
of asking himself the question whether or not a diameter 1 and a cir-
cumference 3^ were compatible — whether or not his postulates were
consistent with each other — is closely analogous to the mental pre-
dicament of certain scientific specialists who are constantly multiply-
ing forces, superable and insuperable, and all manner of entities^ with
impossible or contradictory properties, for the purpose of explaining
natural phenomena. When this is done with a proper insight into the
nature and use of such fictions — with the understanding that they are
mere devices for fixing ideas or colligating facts (to use WhewelPs
expression) — it is well enough. But, in many cases, the specialists have
no such insight. They begin to treat the fictions here spoken of as
undoubted realities, whose existence no one can question without sub-
jecting himself to a Newcombian fnstigation. Take the case of the
ether, the hypothetical substratum of luminar undulations. It is
first mentioned simply as a fluid of the greatest tenuity, as wholly
inappreciable to the senses, and as offering no resistance to atoms or
celestial spheres. Thereupon, to meet the exigencies of the undulatory
theory, it is endowed with a co-efficient of elasticity thousands of times
greater than that of steel. Next, at the demand of some physicist or
chemist, who wants to incase his atoms or molecules in ethereal at-
mospheres or envelopes, it is made as soft and mobile as hydrogen gas.
First, it is looked upon as continuous ; then, to explain the dispersion
of light, it is made discontinuous, and "finite intervals" are interposed
between its atoms. But now comes Clerk Maxwell, and shows that,
if the constitution of the ether were atomic, consequences would ensue
upsetting the whole theory of heat ; or Helmholtz and Sir William
Thomson, in order to be able to construct their vortex-atoms, require
it to be absolutely frictionless and incompressible, and therefore con-
tinuous ; and, accordingly, it is restored again to its ancient continuity,
no matter what may become of Cauchy's theory of chromatic dispersion
or Fresnel's theory of polarization. Originally there is but one ether ;
but presently Professor Norton contends that the luminiferous ether
is not available for the purpose of explaining the phenomena of elec-
tricity and magnetism. He demands a second ether, filling the same
space with the first ; and his demand is complied with. In a 6hort
time Mr. Hudson appears with the claim that even the phenomena
of light can not be accounted for on the supposition of a single
light-bearing ether ; and he must have two luminiferous media, " each
possessed of equal and enormous self - repulsion or elasticity, and
both existing in equal quantities throughout space, whose vibrations
take place in perpendicular planes ; the two media being mutually in-
different, neither attracting nor repelling " — and, again, his request is
granted without further ceremony. To cap the climax, finally arrives
the pangeometer, and insists that back of and behind all these ethers
there is an independently real thing, an object of direct sensation,
TOL. xxi. — 11

162 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

space, which is probably flat, but which possibly may turn out to be
inherently crooked. And now, when somebody shakes his head and
proposes to examine whether there is not something wrong with this
whole mode of philosophizing, which mistakes crutches for limbs, and
scaffolds for buildings, Professor Newcomb hurls a wooden thunder-
bolt at him, or a reviewer in the New York " Critic " reminds him
that " the sound thinker gives himself little uneasiness respecting the
laws of thought."

Now let us look for a moment at the atom. The physicist or
chemist gets it originally as an ancient heir-loom, handed down from
the times of Democritus or Lucretius. It is a solid body, with attach-
ments of hooks and loops. The modern scientist takes off the attach-
ments, and holds on to the main solid body, polishing it for his use.
So this body becomes round ; but in course of time appear the miner-
alogist and chemist with their morphological laws, such as the law of
Mitscherlich, with theories of polarity or valency, or what not ; and to
accommodate them it is proclaimed that the atom is a cube or a rhomb
or an octahedron, or whatever else will silence the most clamor. After
a while, Kroenig or Clausius declares that, in the interest of his kinetic
theory of gases, he must insist on the perfect sphericity of the atoms
or ultimate molecules ; and thenceforward (for a month at least) they
are spherical. But, at the expiration of the month, Maxwell points to
certain anomalous facts which are supposed to be inconsistent with
atomic sphericity, and he suggests that it be modified so as to give the
atoms the form of oblate or prolate spheroids ; and, of course, his sug-
gestion is adopted. In a short time some physicist rushes out of his
laboratory or study, and announces that he has just obtained experi-
mental results or arrived at theoretical conclusions requiring an utter
rejection, not only of the definite figure of the atom, but of its entire
bulk ; and forthwith it is subtilized into a mere center of force. But
now the physicist is reminded that force must have a substratum, and
that its indispensable correlate is inertia. At this juncture the pan-
geometer flits upon the scene, and offers the perplexed physicist his
fourth dimension in which to lodge both the extension and " inten-
sion " — i. e., mass — of the centers of force, assuring him that he may
have the mere punctuality of the atom in ordinary space, and behind
it, in space of four dimensions, any amount of bulk and weight. At
this stage of the proceedings the physicist begins to look desperate ;
perhaps he is silently meditating the question, What is to become of
experimental research if the properties of things can vanish ad libitum,
and retire into the recesses of the pangeometrical regions ? And yet,
woe to him who ventures to suggest to the chemist that the origin of
the trouble is not in his retorts, but in the sincipital alembic through
which all his results are at last distilled, or to show the physicist that
there is no defect in the lenses of his microscope, but great want of
achromatism in those of his intellect ! He speedily learns that the

SPECULATIVE SCIENCE. 163

stupid arrogance of dogmatism, which it is the special function of sci-
ence to repress, has some of its most vulgar representatives in the
ranks of those who claim to be, not only votaries of science, but its
chosen protagonists and defenders.

Some years ago Fechner, in the first edition of his " Atomenlehre,"
printed an answer he had made to some one who objected to the theo-
ries of the physicists about atoms, ethers, forces, and so on. It was
something like this : " I have a handful of coins. You are not pleased
with the effigy and inscription, and advise me to throw them away ;
yet you offer me nothing to replace them but an empty purse." If
that speech had been made to me, I should have met it with this reply:
" The mischief is that your coins are spurious ; they are base metal.
Nevertheless, they may serve a good purpose as mere counters or
tokens, provided you never lose sight of the fact that they are nothing
more. But experience teaches that you do constantly lose sight of
that fact, and in a short time insist dogmatically that the coins are
of unquestionable intrinsic value. And, having found out that you
can manufacture any amount of them at little expense, you do what
all inflationists and debasers of the currency are in the habit of
doing : you flood the market with stuff which must inevitably bring
ruin upon the very man whom you have ensnared into the belief that
he can never have enough of it, viz., the laborer who is employed in
the hard work of producing the material out of which science is to be
constructed. So, if you are unable to procure genuine theoretical
specie to represent the scientific wealth you are intent on accumulat-
ing, and at the same time are unwilling to restrain your propensities
for manufacturing spurious coin and palming it off on yourself and
others as sterling cash, you had better carry your facts about in bas-
kets or bags, and resort to the ancient clumsy method of barter."

I will not weary the reader by drawing upon the rich store-house
of theoretical chemistry for further illustration of the manner in which
provisional and tentative hypotheses are paraded as absolute finalities,
and results of experimental research are obscured instead of being ir-
radiated by theoretical conceits. I will content myself with a single
further reference to a very recent and very remarkable exemplification
of the proneness of the very ablest men of science to multiply enti-
ties and confound modes of physical interaction or forms of intellect-
ual apprehension with indestructible things.

In the scientific journal, "Nature," for May 26, 1881 (vol. xxiv, p.
78), there is a communication from Professor Silvanus P. Thompson,
containing an extract from the preface to his then forthcoming book
"Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism," in which he says :

The theory of electricity adopted throughout is, that electricity, whatever
its nature, is one, not two ; that electricity, whatever it may prove to be, is not
matter and is not energy ; that it resembles both matter and energy in one re-
spect, however, in that it can neither be created nor destroyed.

164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Accordingly, Professor Thompson supplements the doctrines of the
" Conservation of Matter " and " Conservation of Energy " with the
new doctrine of the " Conservation of Electricity," which, indeed, is
the title prefixed to his communication.

There are, of course, thoughtful physicists (and their number is
increasing from day to day) who do not share the delusion that every
momentary device for sorting and grouping facts is to be hailed as a
new scientific revelation, and who do not dream of calling upon any
one to uncover his head before every passing conceit as though it were
an eternal truth. But, unfortunately, these men are not always in the
high places, and are averse to obtruding themselves in public as vindi-
cators of the authority of science.

I certainly cherish sentiments of the sincerest admiration and re-
spect for the high-minded and generally modest men who devote their
energies to the extension of the bounds of knowledge, and, in the in-
terest of thorough and effective work, shut themselves up in narrow
and dingy workshops from whose windows a wide survey of the scien-
tific horizon is difficult or impossible. And I appreciate fully the im-
propriety of troubling and interrupting them with idle and frivolous
criticisms and suggestions. I know that they are under the necessity
of arranging and combining their crude materials upon such principles
and hypotheses as they have at hand — that they can not make bricks
without straw. But when a scientific specialist appears as an intruder
in discussions for participation in wThich his habitual occupations have
tended, not to qualify, but to disqualify him ; and when, instead of
listening and saying what he has to say respectfully, he turns to the
crowd and vociferates about "charlatans," "pretenders," and "para-
doxers," my thoughts involuntarily run into the words of an old Greek
which have been stored in my memory since my boyhood days :

Of 6e Ke ht]t' avrbg voetj ju^t' aXkov clkovuv
'Ev ■ &vp[iti fiaXkriTai, 06' avr' axpv'iog hvrjp.

■+++-

THE EYE-LIKE OKGANS OF FISHES.

By Dr. EENST KKAUSE.

ONLY a few biological studies can count on so general an interest
as those which concern the diversities in the sense-life of ani-
mals. We wonder at the stories of snails and mussels that have ears
in their feet, or on their backs, or in the folds of their mantles, or
which, like the Argus of mythology, have many eyes, or which have
eyes on all their limbs ; or of those creatures which, like some fishes,
have organs of taste all over their skin ; or of animals on which have
been discovered nervous organs that do not seem to relate to any of

THE EYE-LIKE ORGANS OF FISHES.

165

our recognized sensorial functions, but rather point to some sixth sense,
unknown to us. To this class belong the phenomena presented by a
group of bony fishes, living for the most part at extreme sea-depths,
classified in the three related families of the Scopelids, Sternop>tychids>
and Stomiatids, which have lately received attention from naturalists.
They are generally small fishes, often only an inch or less in length,
and have on either side of their belly a row of bright spots, extending
from the snout to the tail, that might be said to look like a double row
of pearl-buttons fastened upon their skin-coat. Sometimes a third row
is found extending from the head to the anal fin ; and frequently single
spots, often of considerable size, are scattered over the head and gills
and over the sides of the fish. Several ichthyologists — among them B.
Rafinesque, of Palermo ; Delle Chiaje, of Naples ; Risso, of Nizza ; and
Cocco, of Messina — have had their attention drawn, since the first dec-
ade of the century, to specimens of those creatures that have occasionally
been washed ashore in storms ; and the more recent deep-sea investiga-
tions have made several allied forms known. The old ichthyologists ap-
parently never examined the spots very carefully, but simply described
them as silvery mottles or light points. Leuckart seems to have given
them the first critical examination in 1864, in Chauliodus Sloani, Sto-
mias boa, and Scopelus Humboldtii, and came to the opinion from it
that they might possibly be regarded as supplementary eyes. Ussow,
of Moscow, published a paper in 1879 on the structure of the so-called
eye-like spots in Chauliodus, Stomias, Astronesthes, Gonostoma, and
Maurolicus, in which he expressed the conclusion that the spots in the

Fig. l.—Argyropekcus hemigymnus, twice the natural size.

three first-named genera were real organs of sight, but that the struct-
ure of those in the other genera was of a quite different nature, and
really glandular. In the same year Leydig published a work on the
Chauliodus Sloani, in which he admitted the similarity of the spots
of that species to eyes, but was disposed to regard them as transitional
organs rather than as real eyes, and referred to one of his observations
as indicating that they might have been luminous in life. Leydig has
more recently examined ten other species of the families Sternopty-

166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chidce and Scopelidce (from specimens preserved in spirit), and has con-
siderably advanced the solution of the question of the office of these
organs.

The organs in the /Sternojrtychids and the Scopelids show essential
differences in structure, and a third type has been noticed in some
scopelids. Hence, Leydig has described three classes of organs, con-
sisting— 1. Of eye-like organs ; 2. Of organs of a glass-pearly appear-
ance ; and, 3. Of luminous organs. These three forms can be easily
distinguished with a glass. The organs of the first class resemble
brownish sacks filled with a gray matter ; those of the second class
brown-bordered, plate-shaped depressions, the ground and edges of
which are covered by a film with a metallic luster ; and those of the
third class, confined to the genus Sco2ielus, present themselves as larger
spots of a silvery luster, or a grayish pearl-color.

The eye-like organs — which we have already spoken of as arranged
in rows along both sides of the lower central line of the body — are
also found on the head about the nose and eyes, on the lids and skin
of the gills, and, in the genus Chauliodus, in groups of much smaller
spots within the cavities of the mouth and gills. The number of the
spots, which hardly ever exceeds a hundred in the other genera, rises
in this genus to a thousand and more. Their outward appearance is
not quite the same in the different parts of the body, but passes from
the form of a round sack to that of a cylinder ; and some spots are of
the shape of a bell or an ampulla. In the genus Argyropelecus (Fig. 1)
the Organs are grouped. They consist of an integument of brown

Fig. %—Ichthyococcus ornatus, twice the natural size.

pigment, which is coagulated from the thick skin and forms a ring-
fold, or gather, dividing the interior into a forward and hinder part.
Within this integument is a film of a bright metallic luster, which
either underlies the whole of it, or only forms a belt at the mouth,
and consists of iridescent threads or spangles lying in the thick skin.
The gray inner mass is divided into two sections, a larger hinder part
filling the sack, and a smaller forward part. The hinder part is always
spherical, the forward part cylindrical, and the two together form a
connected whole. To both parts appertains a radial striation pro-
ceeding from a frame- work that is continued within from a membrane
inclosing the gray mass. The longitudinal section of the hinder part
of the organ superficially resembles the cross-section of an orange.
We have to deal here, however, not with a few pervading radiations,
but with a hollow cone of radiations meeting in the center, a certain

THE EYE-LIKE ORGANS OF FISHES.

167

number of which stream out over the spherical circumference of the
sack, and fill the neck-part debouching without, so as to give the fig-
ure of a cone of rays sunk into the sphere. The net-work is, like that
of the orange, filled with small cells, a part of them strongly refract-
ing the light, which pass toward the common point of radiation of
both divisions into an opaque granular substance. A nerve is always
present in the neck-region of this organ, the fibers of which appear to
be lost in the granular midst of the spherical section whose exact his-
tological relations have not been ascertained. Externally, the whole
organ is inclosed in a lymph-chamber.

The glass-pearly organs are also distributed over the sides of the
belly, the head, the gill-flaps, and the skin of the gills, and the three
on the skin of the gills are always longer than the others. They are of
the shape of a round disk a little sunken, with a body having a metallic

Fig. 3— Ete-ltke Organs from the Bor- Fig. 4.— Longittdtnal Section of the Eye of
der of the Bsli.y of A>'qyropelecus hemi- Stomiis anguiUiformis (after Des-sow), with the
gymnus; longitudinal section, greatly mag- p.-irts designated thu* : interior vitreous eub-
nified. stance (ir): lens (D\ retina ir) ; pigment layer

(p) : iris-like fold {if), and opiic nerve (n),
greatly magnified.

luster and overlaid with a curved transparent integument. An outer
brown film of pigment is always present, with a layer of closely joined,
regular, hexagonal plates, and a latticed jelly-tissue of delicate, radi-
ated cells that form a net-work, and are lifted up under a roof -like,
spiral-shaped concretion (Fig. 5). The nerve-bundles are also present.
Quite similar, but distinguished chiefly by their larger size, is the struc-
ture of the so-called luminous organs which are present in the Scope-
lus Rafinesquii and Scopelus metopoclampus as brightly glittering,
wTell-detined spots above the nasal openings and under the eyes, and
which in Scopelus Humooldtii and Scopelus JBenoitii exhibit the form
and appearance of depressed pearl-spots.

168

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Concerning the nature of these organs, Ley dig denies that any of
them are glandular, although Ussow admits that this may be the case
with some of the fishes. The hypothesis that they are organs of a
sixth sense has received no confirmation. There remains, then, the the-
ory proposed by Leuckart, Ussow, and Leydig, and accepted by Sem-
per as undoubtedly correct, that they are real subsidiary eyes, like
the eyes of mussels, etc. Leuckart and Ussow believed that they
were able to distinguish a lens, a vitreous substance, and a retina, and
the latter has published drawings of those parts ; but the careful ex-
aminations of the structure of the organs and comparisons between
it and the eyes of mollusks have led Professor Leydig to doubt this
opinion ; for he has observed that, when the fish swims horizontally,
the mouths of the supposed eyes are turned, not toward the light, but
downward, toward the dark bottom. Still less do the glass-pearly
organs resemble eyes. Leydig is rather disposed to believe that he
can with great probability recognize an identity in their structure with
that of the electric and pseudo-electric organs of some fishes, particu-
larly in the jelly-tissues and the disposition of the nerve-endings. Ac-
cording to this view, each of the disks would in itself correspond to a
chest of the electric organs. The round shape of the disks may be
explained by their isolated situation, there being no pressure of one
upon another to make them angular. A similar diversity prevails in
the form of the electric and pseudo-electric organs to that existing in
the organs which we are considering, while the homology of the two
is strikingly expressed in their similar situation and distribution. Ley-
dig believes that two series of formations of this kind have been devel-

Fig. 5.— Two " Glass-pearly " Organs from the Side of Scopelus Humboldtii, moderately

magnified.

oped, one of which leads through the pseudo-electric organ of the
Gymnarchus niloticus and the disk-like organs of the Scopelids to the
real electric organs, while the other series includes the eye-like organs
of the sternoptychids ; an apparatus which is also represented in the
larvse of salamanders.

The appearance of this phenomenon in the amphibia, frequently
observed as they approach the fish type, should point to some definite
connection between the activity of those organs and water-life ; but
the nature of this activity, whether electricity is developed by it or
not, is still veiled in complete darkness.

THE EYE-LIKE ORGANS OF FISHES.

169

These organs have been regarded by many as luminous organs. A
single glance shows that the body and lateral walls of the disk shine
with a silvery and golden luster, but not different from that of the
background of a fish's eye when viewed before a screen. More strik-
ing is the appearance in the case of the larger organs of the head in
certain species, which are pre-eminently marked by it as a luminous
apparatus. But, if the sole object of the apparatus were the collection
and reflection of the light which fell upon the fish, its complicated
structure in other respects, and its innervation, would be superfluous
and still more incapable of explanation. We have, however, an ob-
servation that seems to show that these organs not only collect light,
but are also really phosphorescent. The distinguished naturalist of
the Challenger Expedition, Willemoes-Suhm, now deceased, saw Sco-
pelius phosphorescent in the night, of which he says : " One of them
hung in the net like a shining star as it came out of the darkness.
Possibly the seat of the light is in the peculiar side organs, and it may
be that this phosphorescence is the only source of light in the great
depths of the sea." The thought that in the dark abysses of the deep
sea every animal carries its lantern as the miner carries his lamp on
his head, is a very fascinating one ; and, indeed, Herr Willemoes-
Suhm observed several other fishes that were provided on the smooth
head and on the head-beard with " a remarkably large sense-organ."
Valenciennes has also remarked of the genus Hemirarnphus that it
bears a strongly glittering phosphorescent pustule on the tip of its tail.
Although the majority of these animals have never been observed in
a living condition, we might easily agree to the opinion that the or-

Fig. e.—Scqpelus Rafinesquii, twice the natural size. Two luminous orgaus in the ocular region.

gans of all three categories serve as a more or less perfect illuminating
apparatus ; and, if we compare Professor Leydig's sections of them,
this opinion, which is only very apparent at the first view, becomes
extremely probable. Especially does the section of the eye-like organ
of Argyropelecus and Ichthyococcus resemble the illuminating parts of
a projection-apparatus. If we conceive the granular spot in the cen-
ter, into which the nerves enter, as the source of light standing in the
middle of the apparatus, there are likewise behind this the concave
reflector, and in front of it the diaphragm through which the con-
centrated cone of ray$ is thrown outward under a strong refraction.

170

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In the pearl-like organs, also, if we have understood Professor Ley-
dig's description aright, a curved, refracting body seems to lie on the
side of the organ that is turned outward. We should thus, if our pre-
sumption is confirmed, have here not a simple illuminating organ, but
a complete optical illuminating apparatus in different degrees of per-
fection, throwing out in an extremely concentrated condition, by
means of a concave mirror and lenses, the phosphorescent light
generated within it ; and the fishes under consideration would be
fully equipped with a series of little, button-shaped illuminating ap-
paratuses.

I may assert here that there is nothing hazardous in this idea. As
Professor Leydig has maintained, the " eye-like," and the " pearl-like,"
and the really luminous organs, are of thoroughly homologous struct-
ure, and we know of the latter, the only ones that have been observed
in a living animal, that they emit a star-clear light. If, now, Nature
has provided us with a most wonderful camera-obscura in our eyes,

Fig. 7.— Caudal Extkemitt of Scopslus Humboldiii, with "glass-pearly" organs, and a large

pearl- spot.

why may she not also have produced a much simpler light-house lan-
tern— provided, of course, that such an apparatus could be useful to the
animal ? I have already had something to say concerning the uses of
their luminous apparatus to different animals ("Kosnios," vol. vii, p.
479), and have endeavored to show that their principal service is proba-
bly as a means of exciting fear. At any rate, the opinion may be given
up that the light diffused by the deep-sea animals is a means of clear-
ing up the purple darkness below, or, as some have thought, of pro-
ducing the diversified hues of the deep-sea animals. Animals living
in the dark do not require light for their existence, as is demonstrated
by the numerous blind cave-animals. The opinion, also, that the lu-
minous fish make their prey in any way visible by means of the organs
subsidiary to their eyes could not in any degree help to account for
the existence of luminous apparatus on the lower part of their bodies,
for their eyes would not be able to see what those organs lighten up ;
but such organs might very well make the animal more visible from a
distance, and might thereby serve a similar purpose with the protect-
ive colors of the animals of the upper world, especially if the appear-
ance were associated with a disagreeable taste or smell. Only in some
such manner as this can we account for the luminous organs, for ex-
ample, of a crustacean that was brought up by the Challenger Expedi-

THE APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 171

tiori from a depth of nineteen hundred fathoms, and which was totally

blind.

Professor Leydig remarks upon this point that the luminosity is,
for the most part, only a subsidiary shining dependent on the secre-
tion of a fatty body, and that the significance of the formations as
electrical and pseudo-electrical organs is not altered on that account.
We might also remark on this subject that, according to Kolliker's
observations, the luminosity of many animals is under the influence of
the will, so that the innervation of the phosphorescent organ no longer
seems superfluous ; and that, according to Jousset de Bellesme, glow-
worms cease to shine as soon as their principal ganglion is removed.
Moreover, according to Bellesme's observations, the glow may be pro-
duced by electrical as well as by nervous excitation. At all events,
the hypothesis which I have submitted appears to me to be worthy of
a searching examination. — Translated from Kosmos.

-<++-

TH? APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS.

By F. W. CLAEKE.

THERE are to-day in the United States over four hundred institu-
tions claiming the title of college or university. Some of them are
really, a few confessedly, only high-schools or academies ; and between
these and the highest there is every diversity of grade. In them there
are over four hundred " presidents," " principals," " chancellors," or
whatever the heads of the institutions may be called, and some thou-
sands of professors or teachers. This great body of men and women
is continually changing ; yearly there are deaths, removals, and resigna-
tions ; yearly there are a multitude of new appointments. The pur-
pose of this essay is to inquire how such appointments are made, and
how they ought to be made ; what considerations do govern, and
what should govern, the selection of college officers.

At a casual glance it would seem as if little could be said upon the
subject ; of course appointments are made by regular boards of trus-
tees, and of course each appointment is determined by the peculiar fit-
ness of the successful candidate for the position he is to occupy. Such
is the theory, but the application thereof may be exceedingly elastic.
Strange standards of fitness are frequently adopted ; and appointments
to responsible positions are often made upon principles which would
be recognized in no other kind of business except the trade of partisan
politics. In political life an efficient officer may be displaced for mere
party reasons, and supplanted by some one altogether his inferior. In
the college world, slight shades of difference in theological belief are
at times similarly potent.

i72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The qualifications demanded of a college president are different in
different places. In some institutions the head is purely an executive
officer, with no teaching to do ; in others he must fill a professor's
chair also. On the one hand, a man of general scholarship, breadth of
view, and executive ability is called for ; on the other, special familiar-
ity with some particular branch of learning must be added to the re-
quirements. To find all these qualifications united in one individual
is by no means easy. A man of one ability is easily found at any
time ; but men of many abilities, at once both versatile and thorough,
are scarce. In any case, the college president, to be a successful man-
ager, must have tact ; he must have executive capacity and force ; he
must be business-like in his methods, he must command the confidence
and respect of trustees, teachers, students, alumni, and of the commu-
nity in which he lives; he must be a good judge of men; and he must
have the training which only experience can give. Failing in any one
of these qualifications he is liable to fail altogether, for the strength of
the whole chain is but that of its weakest link. He must have public
confidence, in order to attract public support ; he must be in harmony
wTith the faculty, or things will go at loose ends ; if the students dis-
trust him, discipline can not be maintained. When vacancies occur in
the teaching force, he will have great influence in filling them ; hence
he must be familiar with scholarship in its various phases, and able to
decide upon the relative merits of different candidates. Finally, he
must be thoroughly acquainted with college routine, clear in his views
concerning courses of study and methods of instruction, up in all mat-
ters relating to marks, examinations, discipline, and the like. He
should have high ideals, and at the same time be neither a doctrinaire
nor a dreamer.

The fact that most of the older American colleges were founded
with religious ends in view has had much to do in determining the
appointment of college presidents. Plainly, if the chief function of
the schools is to train clergymen, they should be controlled by clergy-
men ; and so they have been controlled almost universally. If a Baptist
college needs a president, some Baptist clergyman is chosen ; a Pres-
byterian college puts a Presbyterian minister at its head, and so on.
That this state of affairs has naturally come about no one can deny,
but whether it is any longer a legitimate condition is questionable.
The functions of the college are broader than they were a century ago;
it no longer aims chiefly to feed the ministry, but seeks rather to send
cultivated men and women into all walks of life. Hence, although a
minister may be an efficient college president, he should not be ap-
pointed because he is a minister, but for other reasons distinctly. Just
here an example may have value. A few years ago a popular clergy-
man was elected president of a well-known college. Within a year
his popularity was gone, and students, professors, and trustees were
alike dissatisfied. The reason was simple. The new head was a

THE APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 173

clergyman only — not an educator. As head, being a man of energy,
he meddled with things which he had not learned to understand, har-
assed the pupils, doubtless with the best of intentions, attempted to
carry out impracticable measures, and made trouble generally. Fortu-
nately, he was a man of some tact, and able to learn wisdom by expe-
rience, so that after a while order was restored, and at last he regained
popularity and confidence. But he learned his new trade at the ex-
pense of the institution, which suffered during the period of his tute-
lage. Would it not have been better if he had begun as a tutor,
then risen to the rank of professor, and finally been promoted to the
presidency after he had shown his fitness ? In brief, is it not safe to
say in general terms that no man because of success in one profession
should at once be intrusted with the highest place in another ? The
loftiest positions in any line, political, educational, or what not, should
be earned by faithful service and proved capacity in the lower grades.
There may be exceptional cases, but they are so rare as to count for
nothing in establishing the general principle. Special knowledge,
training, and experience are demanded of a college president just as
much as of a bank cashier, an army officer, or the captain of a ship ;
and rules like those which govern the latter classes of appointments
should hold good in the educational profession also.

Since the duties of a professor are more easily defined than those
of a college president, the rules governing his appointment ought to
be correspondingly simpler. In general he is to teach a single subject
or groups of allied subjects, and should therefore be chosen for special
knowledge of the branches indicated. If he is to fill the chair of Latin,
he must necessarily be selected because of his scholarship in Latin ; if
he is to teach mathematics, he must be a mathematician ; and so on.
Furthermore, good character and efficiency are essential. It would
seem as if there could be no doubt upon these points, as if no argu-
ment about them were possible ; and yet, as a matter of fact, plain as
they are, they are frequently ignored. Favoritism, nepotism, and
sectarianism often outweigh all other considerations even in the col-
lege world ; and men of no genuine scholarship secure appointments
over candidates whose real credentials are vastly higher. The son of
a college president may be appointed to teach some subject in which
he has never been properly trained ; an unsuccessful clergyman may
be provided for by assignment to a professor's chair; and such things,
far from being mere abstract possibilities, do actually occur. Still
other absurdities are continually being perpetrated. The writer has
known of a case in which a teacher was invited to take any chair he
chose in a certain Western college ; and of another instance in which
an applicant for a professorship offered to accept any department that
might be offered to him. Professors have been known to begin their
own studies in the line of their professorships after they had been
elected ; and some years ago the trustees of one college passed a rule

174 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ' ■

to the effect that any member of the faculty could be called upon to
teach any subject, under penalty of dismissal if he refused. This
ignorance puts a premium upon intellectual dishonesty. It needs no
argument to show that all such cases result in inefficiency and super-
ficiality ; the colleges represented by them are shunned by competent
men, they suffer in reputation, and at last they dwindle into mere local
academies. Fortunately, the law of natural selection holds good
among institutions as among animals, and in the long run only the
fittest flourish and survive.

But all vices are not great vices, and small crimes against college
morality are committed even by old and famous institutions. For
example, a certain Professor of Natural History has been wittily de-
scribed as " a good theologian, slightly tinctured with zoology " ; his
appointment having been secured by raising false issues of the ultra-
sectarian kind. It is hardly necessary to add that the highly respect-
able college in which he teaches is not recognized as a shining center
of zoological research. In the same institution a teacher of mathe-
matics was to be appointed ; and an enthusiastic friend praised the
mathematical ability of a leading candidate. " No matter about his
mathematics," said one of the authorities, " we want to know if he is
a man of good moral character." The remark wTas suggestive. Of
course, moral character was essential, and to be scrupulously consid-
ered, but not above other qualifications equally important. Character
and competency need both to be regarded; since a man may be a model
of purity, and at the same time incapable of teaching even the alpha-
bet. Candidates for professorships are often sharply catechised.
" What church do you go to ? " " What are your views upon such
and such doctrines ? " These questions are almost invariably asked.
"Are you a professor of religion?" said a college trustee to a young
candidate for a position. " No, sir, I am a professor of chemistry,"
was the reply, and rejection followed. Curiously enough, the college
represented by this instance was not a sectarian school, but a State
institution, founded upon the congressional land-grant of 1862. From
such-like impertinent questions some of the ablest scholars in America
have suffered. Pure character, unblemished reputation, high scholar-
ship, and great achievements, are not sufficient for answers. Only a
rigid conformity to certain dogmas can render the candidate's calling
and election sure. Hypocrisy may succeed where real merit would
avail but little.

Since a tutorship is the natural stepping-stone to a professorship,
tutors should be chosen for qualifications essentially the same as those
which are demanded of professors. There are now available a multi-
tude of competent young men, who are ambitious to win professor-
ships, and who, with that aim in view, have devoted years of laborious
study to special preparation for special teaching. Some are chemists,
who have pursued original investigations at Berlin, Leipsic, Bonn,

THE APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 175

Harvard, or Baltimore ; others have studied philology, under the fore-
most German masters ; still others have become thorough biologists,
students of history and philosophy, or mathematicians. From among
these the ranks of tutors should be filled, and legitimate promotion, in
due time, ought to follow.

At some colleges, Harvard for example, the policy above indicated
is followed. If a tutor in Greek is needed, some young man who has
distinguished himself in Greek is chosen ; and, upon the hypothesis
that he intends to make a life-work of classical study, he is given
every advantage to distinguish himself still further. In some other
institutions, however, a different plan is adopted. At Yale, for in-
stance, tutors are often, if not always, appointed in a sort of general
way, without particular reference to special studies, the subject to be
taught by each being settled afterward. In consequence, a Yale tutor,
whose real specialty is mathematics, may be obliged to teach only
Latin ; while another, whose bias is purely classical, may have to
struggle with pupils in trigonometry. Doubtless these evils are
greater in appearance than in reality ; probably in most cases mat-
ters adjust themselves in a more rational way; still, in some instances,
the mischief is really done. Such a state of affairs ought not to be even
possible. It is sometimes urged, in extenuation, that every young man
who has graduated creditably ought to be able to teach others what-
*ever he has himself learned ; and, in a measure, this is true. But a
fellow may have studied mathematics only as a matter of routine, get-
ting none of its real spirit, and putting no enthusiasm nor vigor into
his work. Doubtless he can carry others through the same routine
afterward, hearing recitations from a text-book, and recognizing such
mistakes as may be made ; but " teaching " of this kind is hardly
worthy of the name. Every college teacher, whether professor or
tutor, ought to feel the subject which he teaches ; he should be able
to rouse the interest of his pupils, to stimulate thought among them,
to encourage the bright ones forward, and to remove difficulties from
the paths of those who lag behind. Such work can be done only by
special scholars, who have taken up their life-tasks as a labor of love,
and who are brimful of earnestness and enthusiasm. With the lower
college classes this scholarly vigor is especially needed. The pupils
must be started aright at the very beginning, for, if their interest is
not awakened then, there is great danger that it may continue sleep-
ing always. But in no part of a college course should mere perfunc-
tory instruction be tolerated. A man may be a teaching machine, and
yet fall very far short of being a teacher.

Now, having discussed the reasons governing college appointments,
we may fitly consider the methods by which the appointments should
be made. Suppose that there are several competent candidates for a
given position ; how shall one be selected, and by whom ? Technic-
ally, there can be but one answer to this question, namely, that the

i76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

trustees of the college must choose ; but practically this answer does
not fairly cover the case. The average board of trustees consists not
of special scholars, but of men in active life — merchants, manufactur-
ers, lawyers, doctors, and the like ; with oftentimes a liberal sprink-
ling of clergymen thrown in. It may be that not one of them has any
special knowledge of the branch to be taught by the proposed appointee,
or any adequate means of judging independently as to the relative fit-
ness of the candidates. In some instances, too, they meet but once a
year, namely, at commencement time ; and in such cases a decision
must be reached in advance of the meeting. Clearly, then, they must
act upon recommendations ; and the practical question is, Whose recom-
mendations shall carry the most weight ?

To this question a great variety of answers are possible ; as maybe
shown by citing three common modes of procedure : First, an elec-
tion may be carried by personal lobbying ; the candidates and their
friends seeking out individual trustees, and, by all sorts of arguments,
relevant and irrelevant, securing pledges of support. This process is
objectionable enough in politics, but it is tenfold worse in educational
affairs. Secondly, the president of the college may decide between
the candidates, and make a recommendation upon his own responsi-
bility— a method which is perhaps the one most generally followed.
Thirdly, the faculty as such may be officially consulted, and their nom-
inee given the appointment. Ignoring the first plan as unworthy of
consideration, let us examine carefully the other two.

The efficiency of the second mode of appointment naturally de-
pends upon the character, tact, and temperament of the college presi-
dent who attempts to carry it out ; and it may lead either to good
results or to mischief. A wise president, having an appointment to
recommend, will scrupulously consider all the interested parties. Hav-
ing ascertained all the essential facts concerning the available candi-
dates, and being satisfied as to their antecedents and ability, he will
consult with his associates upon the faculty, especially with those most
interested in the appointment to be made, and in his final decision he
will give due weight to their advice and wishes. Theoretically, this
method is simple enough, but in its practical application it is often at-
tended by serious difficulties. Sometimes a faculty is split into cliques,
and then the president must either make an independent decision, or
else take sides with one faction as against another. Such dilemmas are
common, and bring great uneasiness to their victims. A new presi-
dent may find an old faculty half buried in a rut from which it can be
lifted only by fresh and vigorous men ; he may be embarrassed by
alumni, who expect appointments in preference to outsiders ; there
may be tutors who will growl and grumble if not promoted in accord-
ance with their own notions as to their deserts. Whichever way he
turns he is liable to create dissatisfaction and heart-burning ; the un-
successful candidates and their friends all abuse him for favoritism

THE APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 177

and incompetency ; in short, all the worst features of personality may
be introduced into a contest which above all others ought to be unaf-
fected by personal considerations. Many a college war has sprung
from conflicts over appointments ; and only an exceptionally strong
president can long hold out against the difficulties which such contests
are apt to raise against him. With but few men is the method of per-
sonal appointments successful ; with many it leads to inharmony and

overthrow.

The third method of appointment, namely, upon recommendation
from the faculty, seems to be the most satisfactory of all. Of course,
it is not absolutely perfect, for it may give rise to dissensions ; but, on
the whole, it leads to better results than any other. The unsuccessful
aspirants for position can not blame and harass one individual, as when
the power of appointment is practically vested in the president alone,
for the annoying responsibility is divided among several persons ; nei-
ther can favoritism be urged as the reason for any particular choice.
Furthermore, since any good faculty consists of a number of men
actively engaged in scholarly work, its judgment as a body concerning
the fitness of candidates is more likely to be accurate than the opinion
either of a president or of a board of trustees who can not be expected
to give more than superficial attention to the matter. The members
of a faculty know of their own knowledge what standing a candidate
-has as an educator, what work he has done, and what he is probably
capable of doing ; and this knowledge, which frequently involves long
personal acquaintance with the aspirant, is worth much more than any
information derived from mere formal letters of recommendation or
from hearsay. Whoever is recommended by them will be a safe per-
son to appoint, and will be likely to work in harmony with his col-
leagues. They, on the one hand, calling a man to a vacant chair, will
be gratified by his acceptance ; while he, on the other side, will feel
grateful to them for their consideration. It is well known that this
method of appointment is in vogue at the Sheffield Scientific School ;
and it is said that no professor has been called to that institution ex-
cept upon the unanimous recommendation of the faculty. The natu-
ral result is a harmonious and efficient body of teachers, and an excep-
tionally strong school.

Inasmuch as this third method of appointment presupposes a faculty
already in existence, it can not of course apply to those schools which
are in process of organization. In such cases it is best for the trustees
to select a strong and competent man for president in whom they can
have fulL confidence, and give him almost autocratic powers. Let him
choose the first faculty, drawing about him such teachers as will work
in unison with him and with each other ; and then refer all subsequent
appointments to that body. Of course, in no case should a board of
trustees surrender its own authority, but the recommendations of a
faculty should be ignored only for the most substantial of reasons. Be-
vol. xxi. — 12 *

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tween faculty and trustees there ought to be perfect concert of action;
when either body distrusts the other, mischief is sure to happen. The
method by which teachers are appointed should be a matter of usage
and policy, not of prescribed rule ; and the method above laid down
seems to be the safest in the long run. A faculty can not maintain
the highest efficiency unless it is thoroughly harmonious ; any jar or
friction in it leads to dissatisfactions which quickly spread to the stu-
dents, and the result is disastrous to all the parties concerned.

-♦*♦-

SIR CHARLES BELL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERI-
MENTATION.

By Dr. WILLIAM B. CAEPENTEE.

IT has been repeatedly urged, by the opponents of physiological
experimentation, that Sir Charles Bell in his later life declared
that his physiological discoveries had been really made by anatomy
only, and that he had only made experiments for the satisfaction of
others ; and a quotation to this effect has been lately brought promi-
nently forward by Mrs. Dr. A. Kingsford, in order to set in the most
unfavorable light what she characterizes as the needless, fruitless, and
barbarous experiments of Magendie on the same subject.

As it is probable that the vivisection question will be again
brought before Parliament, I think it important that the public should
be informed of the real history of the discoveries with which Sir
Charles Bell is commonly credited ; that history having been most
erroneously narrated by his brother-in-law, Mr. A. Shaw * (who may
be presumed to have written with Bell's sanction and authority), and
its errors, though fully exposed at the timef (during Bell's life), hav-
ing been repeated and even exaggerated by the most recent of his
biographers. J

The great discovery ordinarily attributed to Sir Charles Bell is
that of the distinctness of the motor and sensory nerve-fibers ; as
shown by the separate existence of motor and sensory endowments,
(1) in the anterior and posterior roots of the spinal nerves, in whose
trunks these two orders of fibers are bound up together ; and (2) in
certain nerves of the head, some of which are motor only, while others
are sensory only. These doctrines, according to Mr. A. Shaw, had
been conceived as far back as 1809 ; and were then embodied in a
tract which Bell printed for private distribution among his friends,*

* " Narrative of the Discoveries of Sir Charles Bell in the Nervous System " (1839).
f " British and Foreign Medical Review," January, 1840.

% " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. iii (1875).

* Sir Charles Bell himself fixed the date as 1811.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTATION. 179

under the title " Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain." In support of
this statement Mr. Shaw cited certain passages from Bell's very scarce
tract, which, read in the light of subsequent events, seemed an ade-
quate justification of it. But, unluckily for the credit of both, a copy
of the tract had found its way into the possession of a certain Mr.
Alexander Walker, who had claims of his own to advance ; and he re-
printed it in full in a thin volume (now before me) published anony-
mously in 1839, under the title of " Documents and Dates of Modern
Discoveries in the Nervous System."

I well remember the sensation which was produced at the time,
among those who took an interest in the subject, by this publication ;
from which it plainly appeared that the fundamental conception enun-
ciated in this " Idea " had gone no further than this — " that the nerves
of sense, the nerves of motion, and the vital nerves, are distinct
throughout their whole course, though they seem sometimes united in
one bundle ; and that they depend for their attributes on the organs
of the brain to which they are severally attached " ; while, in carry-
ing out this conception, Bell, misled by his anatomy, had gone alto-
gether wrong.

This doctrine was by no means new. It had been known from a
very early period that our limbs can only feel or move (I use these
words in their ordinary sense) by virtue of the nerve-trunks which
connect their skin and muscles with the spinal cord, and through it
with the brain. And although, when a limb is paralyzed, it is usually
deprived at the same time of feeling and of motion, yet as cases were
occasionally observed in which motion was lost without feeling, or
(more rarely) feeling was lost without motion, the idea arose that two
distinct sets of fibers may be bound up in the same trunks ; one for
feeling and the other for motion — or, as we should now express it
more scientifically, one set conducting impressions made on the sensory
surfaces toward the central sensor ium, while the other transmits nerve-
force from the motor centers of the nervous system to the muscles
which it stimulates to contraction. This idea found distinct expres-
sion in the writings of certain ancient medical authors ; and cropped
up from time to time in modern medical literature, some writers ap-
proving it, while others dissented from it. And it was formally ad-
vanced in 1809 by Mr. Alexander Walker, who, in a paper entitled
" New Anatomy and Physiology of the Brain in Particular, and of the
Nervous System in General," published in the " Archives of Universal
Science " for July in that year, argued that " medullary action " (or,
as we should now say, a nerve-current) "commences in the organs of
sense ; passes, in a general manner, to the spinal marrow, by the an-
terior fasciculi of the spinal nerves, which are, therefore, nerves of
sensation, and ascends through the anterior columns of the spinal
marrow, to the hemispheres of the cerebrum," in which he located
the sensorium commune. Thence he traced his " medullary action "

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

downward and backward into the cerebellum, which he supposed to
be the center of volition ; from this " it descends through the poste-
rior columns of the spinal marrow, and expands through the posterior
fasciculi of all the nerves, which are, therefore, the nerves of volition,
toward the muscular system."

Thus, then, it is clearly Mr. Alexander Walker who must be
credited with the first promulgation of the idea of the functional
distinctness of the anterior and posterior roots of the spinal nerves, in
virtue of what he supposed to be their connections with the cerebrum
and the cerebellum respectively : but, working out this idea under a
wrong conception of the relative functions of the two brain-centers,
he was led to regard the anterior roots as sensory, and the posterior
as motor ; and, as he neither submitted nor proposed to submit this
erroneous doctrine to the test of experiment, it fell unheeded to the
ground.

Now, those who only know the history of Bell's work either directly
or indirectly through Mr. A. Shaw's first account of it, will be con-
siderably surprised to learn that (whether or not he was acquainted
with Walker's speculations) he pursued, in the first instance, precisely
the same anatomical track ; and that, through his having followed
this under the guidance of another wrong preconception as to the
functions of the cerebellum (which had not at that date been eluci-
dated by experiment), the physiological conclusion at which he arrived
was even further from the truth than that of his predecessor.

A distinguished Edinburgh professor of the last century, Dr.
Robert Whytt, who had studied with great care what he termed the
" vital and involuntary motions " of the body, had argued with con-
siderable ingenuity that, while the cerebrum is the center of sensation
and the originator of voluntary motion, the cerebellum is the organ of
such " vital and involuntary motions " as the action of the heart and
the muscular walls of the alimentary canal, together with the move-
ments of respiration. Now, Bell, brought up in the Edinburgh school,
and commencing his investigations under the influence of this pre-
possession, was led by it in an entirely wrong direction ; for the whole
argument of his " Idea " is to the effect that the anterior roots of the
spinal nerves minister both to sensation and voluntary motion, in
virtue of their connection with the cerebrum, while the posterior roots
" govern the operation of the viscera necessary to the continuance of
life," in virtue of their connection with the cerebellum. He did in-
stitute experiments, indeed, both on the columns of the spinal cord
and on the roots of the spinal nerves ; but, under the influence of
his anatomical preconception, he entirely missed the true meaning
of their results, and deemed them to be confirmatory of his erroneous
views :

"Experiment I. — I opened the spine, and pricked and injured the
posterior filaments of the nerves ; no motion of the muscles followed.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTATION. 181

I then touched the anterior division ; immediately the parts were
convulsed."

" Experiment II. — I now destroyed the posterior part of the spinal
marrow by the point of a needle ; no convulsive movement followed.
I injured the anterior part, and the animal was convulsed."

The experiments thus narrated by Bell in a letter to his brother,
dated March 2, 1810, have been cited as proving that he had thus
early attributed motor functions to the anterior roots, and sensory to
the posterior. But the inference which he himself drew from them
at the time was altogether different :

" It is almost superfluous to say that the part of the spinal marrow
having sensibility [i. e., the anterior column] comes from the cere-
brum ; the posterior and insensible port belongs to the cerebellum."

Thus, although on the track of a great physiological discovery,
Bell allowed himself to be completely diverted from it by his anatom-
ical preconception. Of the true functional relations of the two sets of
nerve-roots, there is not the remotest hint in this " Idea."

Xone the less, however, do I recognize in it what (to my mind)
constitutes the real basis of Bell's claim to the elucidation of the mean-
ing of the double origin of the spinal nerves. " Considering," he said,
" that the spinal nerves have a double root, and being of opinion that
the properties of the nerves are derived from their connections with
the parts of the brain, I thought that I had an opportunity of putting
my opinion to the test of experiment, and of proving at the same time
that nerves of different endowments were in the same cord and held
together by the same sheath." This was, unquestionably, one of the
most fertile suggestions that the insight of a man of genius has ever
put forth for the guidance of physiological inquiry ; and, even if Bell
had never himself pursued it further, he would clearly be entitled to a
very large share of any discoveries that others might make by working
upon it. It seems, however, as if the unsatisfactory character of the
results he obtained and his dislike to experimentation upon living
animals turned his thoughts in a different direction ; and he applied
himself for some years to the study of the nerves of the face, on the
peculiarities of whose anatomical distribution he seems to have long
pondered, with the idea that these might furnish him with the key of
which he was in search.

Bell, as is well known, had considerable artistic ability ; and one
of the earliest of his publications was his very valuable "Anatomy of
Expression," in which he pointed out how close is the relation between
many of the muscular movements by which the emotions are ex-
pressed and those concerned in respiration. Still, as it would seem,
under the "dominant idea" of a special set of nerves for the "vital
and involuntary motions," he assigned this special motor function to the
seventh pair, which arises by a single root, and supplies the muscles of
the face generally ; while he supposed the fifth pair, which arises (like

i8z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the spinal nerves) by a double root, to be the nerve of ordinary (or
voluntary) motion for the muscles of the face generally, as well as of
sensation for its sensory surfaces. The analogy of the fifth pair to the
spinal nerves (which was no new idea) seemed to him to be further
indicated by the existence of a " ganglion " upon its larger root, corre-
sponding with that which is seen on the posterior roots of the spinal
nerves. Following up this train of reasoning, he instituted experi-
ments with the view of determining what function the fifth pair had
in virtue of its double root, which the seventh pair had not. And as
he found that division of the seventh pair, while partially paralyzing
the muscles of the face, did not in any perceptible degree impair its
sensibility, while section of either of the three divisions of the fifth
pair destroys the sensibility of the part of the face it supplies, he came
to the conclusion that the sensory endowments of the fifth pair are due
to its possession of a double root ; a conclusion which he strengthened
by the consideration that the third, fourth, and sixth nerves — which,
being distributed exclusively to the muscles of the eyeball, can not be
supposed to have any but motor endowments — all arise by single roots.

In this way, Bell was led to assign to the two roots of the spinal
nerves the same double function which he attributed to the two roots
of the fifth pair of nerves of the head ; and thence to assign the sen-
sory function to the posterior roots, because, like the second root of
the fifth, they bore ganglia before uniting with the motor roots.* Now,
to say that Bell, by this train of reasoning, discovered the motor and
sensory functions of the anterior and posterior roots of the spinal
nerves, is utterly preposterous. He had not even truly determined (as
the event proved) the true functions of the fifth and seventh nerves of
the head. And the extension of his conclusions regarding the double
roots of the fifth pair, to the spinal nerves generally, had rather the
character of a happy guess than of a logical sequence. No scientific
physiologist at the present time would think himself justified in put-
ting forward such an extension as more than a suggestion, to be con-
firmed or negatived by experimental evidence. And let it not be for-
gotten, moreover, that it was experiment alone which afforded Bell
any reason whatever for attributing a sensory function to the gangli-
ated root of the fifth pair ; and that, without this basis, the question
of the spinal nerves remained exactly in the condition in which he had
taken it up.

It is, indeed, not a little curious that in the two memoirs (1821
and 1822) in which Bell presented to the Royal Society the results of

* It is a significant indication of the chaotic ignorance which prevailed on this subject
" sixty years since," that, as Bell himself informs us, he found himself met, when first
groping at the notion of the sensory endowments of the posterior roots of the spinal
nerves, by the current doctrine that the function of the ganglia is " to cut off sensation,"
i. e., to allow these nerves to minister to the " vital and involuntary motions," without our
being made conscious either of those movements or of the impressions which excite them.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTATION. 183

his investigations into the fifth and seventh nerves of the head, the
present doctrine of the spinal nerves is nowhere explicitly stated. These
memoirs can scarcely, indeed, be read in any other sense ; and "A
Manual of Anatomy," published by Mr. John Shaw (another brother-
in-law) in 1821, contains a tolerably clear intimation of it. Moreover,
Mr. J. Shaw, having visited Paris in 1821, and having repeated to
Magendie the experiments on the fifth and seventh nerves which he
had made with Sir C. Bell, further pointed out to him (as appears
from Magendie's own narration) * the analogy of the fifth to the spinal
nerves, and attributed to the double roots of these " regular " nerves
this double function of motion and sensation.

It was at this point that Magendie took up the experimental in-
quiry, both as to the roots of the spinal nerves and the functions of
the fifth and seventh nerves of the head ; and it will be convenient to
dispose of the latter in the first instance. He showed that the second
of the three divisions of the fifth pair is a nerve of sensation only ; so
that the part of the face which it supplies (between the eyes and the
upper lip) depends for its motor action on the seventh pair, which he
regarded as the ordinary motor nerve of the face, ministering to its
voluntary movements, as well as to those of expression and respira-
tion. These corrections (which were confirmed by other experimenters)
were not only accepted by Sir C. Bell, but were appropriated by him
as his oicn ; the reprints of the two memoirs just referred to being
altered in successive editions of his " Nervous System of the Human
Body," by omission, addition, and variation, not only without any
acknowledgment of the source of the correction, but without the least
intimation of a change. It is clear, therefore, that although he shrank
from making experiments himself, he was ready enough to profit by
those of others.

On testing experimentally Bell's idea of the functions of the an-
terior and posterior roots of the spinal nerves, and varying his experi-
ments in every way he could think of, Magendie was only able to
arrive at this general conclusion — that the anterior roots are more
especially motor , and the posterior more especially sensory. For he
could not get over the fact that irritation of the anterior roots in the
living animal called forth signs of pain, and that irritation of the
posterior roots called forth movements. The repetition of the same
experiments by others gave no more conclusive results ; until, in 1831,
Johann Miiller (afterward the celebrated Berlin professor) was able,
by a very carefully devised method of experimentation upon frogs, to
show that, for these animals at least, Bell's doctrine was correct. And
it was by the extension of the same method to warm-blooded animals,
and by the light of the new ideas then dawning f as to the " reflex

* "Journal de Physiologie," October, 1821.

f The very clear ideas long before promulgated by Prochaska on this point had been
entirely forgotten. >

184 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

function " of the spinal cord (which up to this time had been generally
looked on as a bundle of nerves), that the truth of Bell's doctrine came
at last to be fully established. For the movements called forth, by
irritation of the posterior roots were found to be due, not to the direct
transmission of motor impulses from them to the muscles, but to the
transmission of a motor nerve-current through the anterior roots, in
resj>onse to the stimulation given to the spinal cord itself by the
irritation of the posterior ; while, on the other hand, it was made
clear that the indications of pain given when the anterior roots are
irritated, are due to the presence, in those roots, of sensory filaments
derived from the posterior, which pass inward at the point of junction
between the two. But for the well-devised and carefully executed
experiments by which these difficulties were cleared up, the w^hole
matter would have remained in the state of uncertainty in which I
well remember it to have been, when I first entered on the study of
the subject, previously to Miiller's experiments.

Having myself been afterward Sir Charles Bell's pupil (in surgery)
both in London and Edinburgh, I can testify from personal knowledge
that he himself never admitted that his discoveries needed any con-
firmation whatever ; but was always strong in the conviction, not only
that he had himself given all needful evidence of them, but that noth-
ing more remained to be done in the physiology of the nervous sys-
tem. It is not a little significant of his attitude of mind on this
subject, that he used to declare his complete inability to understand
"what Marshall Hall was driving at"; the doctrine of reflex action
independently of sensation being altogether "beyond his comprehen-
sion." As this last doctrine, which forms the basis of modern neurol-
ogy, is one which anatomy could scarcely even suggest, and which
nothing but experiment can demonstrate, I hope that Sir C. Bell's
opinion of the all-sufficiency of the study of anatomy for the advance-
ment of physiological science may henceforth be appreciated at its
true worthlessness. For I have shown, first, that Sir Charles Bell,
trusting to anatomy for his guidance, icent altogether wrong in the
first instance ; secondly, that it was by experiment on the nerves of
the face that he was led into the right track ; thirdly, that in regard
to these, through placing too much trust in his anatomical preconcep-
tions, and insufficiently testing them by further experiments, he was
led into mistakes which were only corrected by the experiments of
Magendie ; and, fourthly, that the most important discovery with
which he is usually credited — that of the motor and sensory functions
of the anterior and posterior roots of the spinal nerves respectively —
was only established in the true scientific sense by the experiments of
others working on his lines. Those experiments might have issued,
for any real proof ever given by Bell to the contrary, in establish-
ing some other doctrine of the spinal nerve-roots than that to which
he had been led by his study of the nerves of the face — such, for

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTATION. 185

example, as that of Alexander Walker, or that of his own first
" Idea."

These assertions are not now made for the first time, with the view
(as might be urged) of lowering Sir Charles Bell's credit, and thereby-
weakening the force of the testimony borne by him in regard to the
uselessness of experimentation as a means of physiological discovery.
Forty-two years ago, the history I have now sketched (which was then
a matter of contemporary knowledge) was told in detail in the leading
medical " Quarterly " ; the misrepresentations of Mr. A. Shaw as to
Sir C. Bell's "Idea" of 1811 were fully exposed; and Bell himself
was distinctly charged with having altered what professed to be exact
reprints of his papers in the " Philosophical Transactions," in order to
make them square with the corrections supplied by the experiments of
Magendie. To those charges, so far as I am aware, no reply teas ever
made, either by Mr. A. Shaw or Sir C. Bell ; but a new and more
correct history, including a reprint of Bell's " Idea," was given by Mr.
A. Shaw nearly thirty years later in the " Journal of Anatomy and
Physiology " (vol. iii, 1869). Further, in Professor Yulpian's " Lecons
sur la Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux" (Paris, 1866), the history is
narrated in terms almost identical with my own, omitting only the
reference I have supplied to Magendie's first knowledge of Bell's
views, but inserting several of the altered passages in Bell's pa-
pers. And, finally, the venerable Professor Milne-Edwards, in his
admirable " Lec/ons sur la Physiologie et l'Anatomie Comparee "
(tome xi, pp. 361, 362), has given a most true and just appreciation
of the respective shares which Bell and Magendie had in this great
discovery.

I have never admitted the truth of the well-worn ada«;e, " A little
knowledge is a dangerous thing " ; because every one who studies
any subject whatever must begin with " a little knowledge," and only
by its possession can know where and how to obtain more.

But " a little knowledge " is dangerous when it leads its possessor
to imagine that he (or she) knows all about the subject ; and is doubly
dangerous when it is taught as the whole truth to others. And this
is exactly what Mrs. Dr. A. Kingsford has done, in her desire to excite
a prejudice against physiological experimentation ; fastening eagerly
upon Sir Charles Bell's depreciation of it, without taking any trouble
to ascertain historically what that depreciation is worth.— Fortnightly
Review.

186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE ZLTNI SOCIAL, MYTHIC, AND KELIGIOUS

SYSTEMS.*

By F. H. CUSHING

GENTLEMEN of the National Academy of Sciences — Ladies
and Gentlemen : Let me at once present my Indian friends.
And now let me introduce some remarks on the mythology and re-
ligion of the people whom they represent, the Zuni Indians of Western
New Mexico, the largest of the Pueblo nations, the lingering remnants
of a vast culture which gave rise to the cliff and mesa ruins of the far
Southwest, by a few words designed rather to define my own position
than to illustrate my subject.

The student of the natural history of mankind finds his most diffi-
cult subject in the mythology of the lower peoples. Even our own
mythology, including our theisms and superstitions, is hard to under-
stand, yet ours is, thanks to just such bodies as the one which I have
the honor to address to-day, the simplest of all mythologies, because
its range of superstition is circumscribed by that of definite knowl-
edge, its theism simplified in proportion to the extent of material phi-
losophy.

Perhaps first among the causes of our difficulty is the fact that all
mythology deals with those forces and things in nature which are be-
yond our comprehension; that it ends not here, but attempts to explain
the origin of things in themselves incomprehensible. In proportion,
then, to the lack of definite knowledge in any people, its mythology
becomes more complicated and less readily understood. To the same
intellectual germ in humanity which quickens the philosophy of the
nineteenth century may we look for the cause of the origin and growth
of mythology. And thus it happens that we find the scientist of our
own places and times and the Zuni Indian laboring hand in hand in
the same field, both trying to explain the phenomena of nature and
their existence, the one by metaphysical the other by physical re-
search ; the one by building up, the other by tearing down, mythology.
In order, then, to comprehend the mythology of a people, we must learn
their language, acquire their confidence, assimilating ourselves to them
by joining in their every-day life, their religious life, even as far as
possible in their intellectual life, by remembering with intense ear-
nestness the reasonings of our own childhood, by constantly striking
every possible chord of human sympathy in our intercourse with those
whose inner life we would study.

I think I have now sufficiently explained why I have entered into
relation with the Zuni Indians, and become a participator in their

* Lecture before the National Academy of Sciences, delivered in Washington, April
22, 1882.

ZUNI SOCIAL, MYTHIC, AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 187

religious practices and, so far as possible, beliefs, to the extent of
acquiring membership in their gentile organization as well as in their
priesthood ; and my attitude toward the audience before me is that
of an imperfect exponent of Zuni mythology and belief.

Since my return from the Southwest, time has not permitted a suf-
ficient study of those technicalities which have, during the past few
years, been introduced into this class of subjects. I shall therefore
have to proceed very simply, much as would a Zuiii priest, could he
address you, in a discussion of his mythology and religion.

The Zuiii mythology, or theogony, is a reflection of Zuiii socio-
logic or governmental institutions, with the added feature of an almost
universal spiritualistic philosophy. Hence it follows that a discussion
of the one must include at least a brief description of the other. Like
all well-known tribes of North American Indians, the Zuiiis are
divided into gentes, there being in their nation fifteen distinct clans
or gentes. These again are combined into phratries, not political
confederacies as among the Iroquois and Muscogee, but ecclesiastical
bands, or, in other words, into secret medicine or sacred orders, of
which there are, including the wonderful and supreme organization
of the Priesthood of the Bow, thirteen. Based upon this sociologic
structure, the government of Zuni embraces three principles, the ec-
clesiastic, the martial, and the political, the outgrowths of which, in
their order of precedence, are the priesthoods or caciqueships, the
war chieftaincies, and the political chieftaincies. Supreme in na-
tional as well as in ecclesiastical office is the priest, or cacique of the
sun, or Pekwina, immediately under whom are four secular as well
as ecclesiastical high-priesthoods or caciqueships, the priesthood of
the Pueblo, or temple of worship — in Zuiii hia kice armosi — with the
auxiliary office td shiwan okia, or "Priestess of Seed." Selected
by, yet supreme over the latter four priests in martial and secular
matters, are the two high-priests, or caciques of war, who may or
may not be at the same time master-priests — Pithlcm shiican moson
atchi — of the Order of the Bow. These six priests are designated in
Zuiii ecclesiastical language "Priests of the Light or Day"; while
resident in those special clans, which by heredity furnish the high-
priesthoods (mainly the Clan of the Parrots, itself considered consan-
guineally descended from the gods), are numerous " Priests of the
Night or Darkness," any one of whom may be chosen on the death of
a priest of the light by the surviving companions. The two priests
of war in turn create both the martial and political head chieftaincies,
referring the. latter to the four priests of the temple for acceptance or
rejection. The martial head chieftaincy, or war chieftaincy, includes
the third priesthood of the Order of the Bow, thus combining the eccle-
siastical with the martial, and explaining the precedence of the latter
over the political office. The third priest of the Order of the Bow, or
head war-chief^ then names three sub-chiefs, themselves necessarily

188 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

members of his own order. Likewise the head chief creates his own
three sub-chieftaincies as well as the second political head-chieftaincy
or chief, who in turn names his own three sub-chiefs. We find, then,
that the democracy, or republic, of popular tradition, in its reference
to the sedentary Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, is, like most
other popular traditions regarding these comparatively unknown
peoples, erroneous ; that in reality their political fabric is set up and
woven by an elaborate priesthood, the only semblance of democracy
reposing in the power of the council — itself composed of all adults of
good standing in the nation — to reject a political head chief as thus
chosen, while the power of choosing a substitute remains still in the
hands of the martial priests, and that of confirming him in the hands
of the four priests of the temple. The latter are considered the
mouth-pieces of the priest of the sun, just as the two priests of war are
considered at once the mouth-pieces and, in martial and political affairs,
the commanders of the four priests of the temple ; and, again, the
third priest of war, or head war-chief, and the first political chief,
brothers to one another, yet differentiated in their functions, are con-
sidered to be the mouth-pieces of the two priests of war, the one in
times of national disturbance, the other in times of peace. And yet,
again, the sub-chiefs of the war-chief, as well as those of the two
political head chiefs, are considered the mouth-pieces of their respect-
ive superiors.

Now, the organization of each one of the sacred or medicine orders
of Zuiii, less in importance than the order of the priesthood of the
bow, is a miniature representation of the national ecclesiastical and
martial organizations — that is, each order has its peJewina, or high-
priest, its four Jeia Jeice armosi, or priests of the temple, its two pitJilan
shiwan mosun atcJii, or priests of the bow, and in accordance with its
special office its medicine or prayer-priest or master, and its sacred
council. Less strictly secret, yet more sacred, and organized upon
similar though more elaborate principles of office, is the church of
Zuni, the order of the sacred dances, or the Jed Jed, which is lodged in
six places of worship — the half -underground estnfas of the north, west,
south, and east, the upper and lower regions of the universe. While
the Jed Jed, as a whole, has its supreme high -priests, its priests of the
temple, its warrior-priests, and its prayer-masters, each one of these
six temples of worship has also its like special system of priesthood,
with the added offices of song-priests or masters. Both in its organi-
zation as a whole and in its lesser organizations, the Jed Jed seems to be
a perfect mirror, as it were, of the mythology of the Zufii nation, just
as the mythology is a reflection of the sociologic organization of the
same nation. It is, then, to a study of the organization and functions
of the Jed Jed, based upon a knowledge of the national sociologic or-
ganization, that we are to look for the most complete and clear exem-
plification of their system of gods, just as we are to look to the tradi-

ZUNI SOCIAL, MYTHIC, AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 189

tional rituals, prayers, songs, and sacred epics of this Jed Jed for a
comprehensive idea of their mythology. Knowledge gained from
both these sources may in turn be vastly added to, strengthened, and
corrected by a close study of their most abundant and beautifully
imaginative folk-lore.

Supreme over all the gods of Zufii is Hano ona vrilona, or holder
of the roads of light, corresponding to the earthly peJewina, or priest of
the sun, and represented by the sun itself. Beneath him is a long line
of gods so numerous that I know not half their names, nor have I re-
corded them, but they are divided into six great classes : the celestial
or hero gods (the demon-gods themselves perhaps the vestiges of a
more ancient hero-god mythology), the elemental gods, or the gods of
the forces of nature, the sacred animal gods, or the kia pin a hdi and
Jcia she ma a hdi, the gods of prey or wemar a hdi, and the tutelary
gods, or divinities of places. While Hano ona wilona is supreme over
all, he himself, like the earthly sun-priest, is limited by his own high-
priests among the gods — the celestial or hero gods, and they, in turn,
by the demon-gods, while the two earthly offices of head political and
war chiefs are represented, on the one hand, by the raio or water-
wantings beings, or animal gods ; and, on the other, by the wemdr a
hdi, or gods of prey, while the priests of the night in the human or-
ganization (tkwi-na-proa-a shi-ica-ni) seem to be represented by the
tutelar gods of the deistic organization. Not less important, then,
because they are supposed to act in connection with the latter, are the
ancients, or spirits of the ancestors, who form the body-politic of this
great system of gods, and are supposed to serve as mediators between
the mortals and the gods. In Zimi belief they have also a definite
place of residence assigned to them, notwithstanding which they are
supposed to hold constant communion, even to the extent of occasional
materialization with those whom they have left behind, to listen atten-
tively to their prayers, and to represent them in some vague way to
the higher gods of the Zuni mythology.

While this great system of gods, like the Jed Jed, is organized, as a
whole, not unlike the ecclesiastical and martial systems of the Zuiiis,
so also has each one of the six systems of gods, like each of the six
estufas of the Zunis, its offices of high-priests, priests of the house or
temple, warrior-priests, etc. As an example of this special organiza-
tion, let me speak of the gods of the ocean, who under specific names
and attributes are further distinguished as " our beloved Pe Jeioi we, or
sun-priest of the ocean ; our beloved the ona ya na Je'ia a sJii tea ni,
or priests of .the temples of the ocean ; our beloved mother, the K^o
haJc o JcHa, or the goddess of the white shells ; our beloved, the three
great warrior-priests of the ocean, Jcia cJila ica ni, Jen pish tai a, and
tsi JcHa hdi a, in whom we do not fail to recognize the two master-
priests of the bow, and the third priests of the bow, or head warrior-
chief of the martial organization. The lesser personages of Zuni

i9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

government are finally represented by the sacred animal gods of the

ocean.

Let me give, as illustrations of the deistic conceptions of the Zunis,
without special reference to their rank in this governmental system of
the gods, the names and supposed attributes of a few of the principal
gods of Zuni mythology. Hdno ona wilona, or the " holder of the
roads of our lives," the supreme priest-god of Zuni mythology, is sup-
posed to hold as in his hands the roads of the lives of his human sub-
jects, is believed to be able (to use the language of a Zuni) to see (or
perceive) not only the visible actions of men, but their thoughts, their
prayers, their songs and ceremonials, to will through his lesser deities
whether a thing shall be or shall not be in the course of a human life.
I once asked a priest in Zuni, who was about to go forth on a hunt,
" Do you think you will lay low a deer this day ? " and he said, " Ooth-
lat hdno ona wilona" (as wills or says the holder of the roads of life).
Immediately below Hdno ona wilona are the gods Ahai in ta and
Ma Hsai le ma, the two great deities of the priesthood of the bow, an-
ciently known as Ua nam atch pi ah ho' a, the beloved both who fell (for
the salvation of mankind). They are supposed to be twin children of
the sun, Hdno ona wilona — mortal, yet divine. They were the guiders
of mankind from the four great wombs of earth, the birth-place of the
human family, far eastward toward the middle of the world ; but,
on reaching the eastern portion of Arizona, in the great exodus of the
Pueblo races, they are supposed to have been changed by the will of
their grandfathers — four great demon-gods — into warriors, and ever
since have been the great gods of the order of the priesthood of the
bow, and the rulers of the mountain-passes, and enemies of the world.
Just so the young man, in modern Zuni life, who lives for years in
peaceful industrial pursuits, and all at once becomes chosen as a proper
person for membership in the Order of the Bow, is induced to take
a scalp, and henceforth becomes a ruler of his people and his world, a
warrior and a member of that most powerful of priesthoods. These
two gods are supposed to have been the immediate ancestors of the
two lines of priests who are now their representatives, the high-priests
of the Order of the Bow ; from them, in one unbroken line, has been
breathed the breath of sa wa nikia, or the medicine of war, from one
to the other of the members of their household, the a si Man shi
we ni, or their children, the priests of the bow, just as has been in
the belief of the Roman Catholics the unbroken apostolic succession.
Through their wills over the hia sin a hai, or annual gods, with the
consent of Hdno ona wilona, or the " holder of the roads of life,"
are the roads of man's life divided, or the light of his life cut off —
figurative expressions for death in the highly poetic language of the
Zunis. Prior to their creation war seems to have been a secondary
element in the existence of the Pueblo race ; such as it previously was,
however, it was represented by the great ancient god of war, the hero

ZUNI SOCIAL, MYTHIC, AND RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 191

of hundreds of folk-lore stories, Atchi a la to sa, or " he of the knife-
feathered wings." He is supposed to carry ever about him his many-
colored bow, a ni Ho Ian, or the goddess of the rainbow, to walk upon
his swift arrow, wi lo lo aHe, turquoise-pointed god of lightning, and
to be guarded on the right and the left by his warriors, the mountain-
lion of the North and the mountain-lion of the West.

Among other beings of ancient Zufii mythology we have the mar-
velous example of Oohe pololon, or "the god of the north wind,"
whose breath sends the cold winds from the north region and drives
the sands of the southwestern deserts, which have been stirred up by
the will of the gods of the mountain. Dark and gloomy, like the
clouds of the north-land home, ferocious with his shining teeth and
glaring pendant eyeballs, wild with his iron-gray halo of ever-waving
hair and beard, Oohe pololon is one of the most terrific of Zuiii demon-
gods. Then we have the gentle moon, mother of the women of men,
through whose will are born the children of women, the representative
in this system of deities of the Shewan okao, or seed-priestess, younger
sister of the priests of the temple ; and the sister of the moon, the
beautiful goddess of the ocean, through whose ministrations are
awakened the loves of the Zuni youth, and the good fortune of trade
is secured.

While those gods in Zuni mythology remaining unknown to me
are legion, yet I might continue for hours to mention gods and their
attributes ; as for instance, " he who carries the clouds from the ocean
of sunrise to the ocean of sunset and scatters them through the heav-
ens between " ; Kwe le le, or " he who infuses the roots of all trees
with the spirit of fire, and swings his torch in mid-air, and it forthwith
bursts into flames " ; Te sha minkHa, or "he who dwells in the canons
and cliffs of the mountains, ever echoing the cries of his children, men
and beasts of mortality."

Interesting among the hero-gods is the great priest of all religious
orders save that of the bow, Poshed ankHa. In the days of the new,
yet not until after men had begun their journey toward the east, he is
supposed to have appeared among the ancestors of the Zunis, the Taos,
the Coconinos, and the Moqui Indians, so poor and ill-clad as to have
been ridiculed by mankind. He it was who taught the fathers of the
Zunis their architecture and their arts, their agriculture and their system
of worship, by plume and painted stick ; but, driven to desperation
by the ingratitude of his children, he vanished beneath the world, never
to return to the abodes of men— yet he still sits in the city of the sun,
ever listening to the prayers of his ungrateful children.

Let me add one more example : that of Kia nis ti pi, or "the great
water-skate," who with his long legs measured the extent of the earth
as with a compass, and between the oceans of sunrise and sunset deter-
mined the center of the world as the home of the Zunis. He is repre-
sented by a peculiar figure, and this introduces us to a new depart-

i92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment of the subject — the conventional system of pictographs whereby
the Zufii sacred orders illustrate their mythological ideas. It is first
to a close study of the mythology and theogony of the Zuiiis, and
then to that of the conventional forms of art among these and kin-
dred peoples, that we are to look for the key to the mysterious and
unnumbered pictographs of the great Southwest.

Interesting for comparison with Eastern mythology is the study of
the phallic and the serpent symbolism as they occur in highly devel-
oped forms among the Zuni Indians. Yet, again, interesting because
of the light that it throws upon the development of human religions
and mythologies is the study of the influence of environment, physical,
biologic, and sociologic, as exemplified by the religion and mythology
of the Zunis.

I regret most deeply that in the limited time allowed me to-day
I can not go into a discussion of these various questions, and into
a production of the hundreds of facts illustrative of them which I
have in rny possession ; but that I have time only to add that, as
further illustrative of the connection between the Zuni sociologic and
the Zuni mythologic systems is the fact that no general names for
chiefs of all the departments — ecclesiastical, martial, and political —
are to be found in their language, nor is there a general name for their
god-priests, hero, demon, animal, elemental, celestial, or tutelar. Yet
the term awa nu thla includes the political and martial chiefs in Zuni
government, just as does the name kHapin a hd i include their repre-
sentatives, the sacred water and prey-gods, of Zuni mythology.

-<++-

ASTRONOMICAL PANICS.

By DANIEL KIEKWOOD.

WHEREVER science has not been cultivated, all new and start-
ling appearances in the sky are regarded as supernatural. But
a few years since a shower of meteoric stones fell in India, the fall
being attended by terrific explosions. The alarmed inhabitants of the
district believed these masses of rock to have been thrown by their
deities from the Himalaya Mountains, and with great veneration gath-
ered up the fragments to be kept as objects of religious worship. Nor
need we smile at this example of recent superstition. In the most
civilized countries of the ancient world such phenomena as the aurora
borealis, total eclipses, comets, and meteoric showers, were viewed as
miraculous displays of divine power, and generally as forerunners of
impending disasters. A brief account of some of the panics thus pro-
duced may not be without interest.

No one who has seen the more brilliant displays of the northern

ASTRONOMICAL PANICS. 193

lights — the splendid coronal arch, the columns tinged with various
colors and moving in silent grandeur upon the midnight sky — ca'n
wonder that in a superstitious age their appearance should have
excited the utmost consternation. Before the eighteenth century no
physical explanation of such displays had been suggested or even
thought of. The phenomena appeared suddenly and unexpectedly,
and could not be referred to natural causes then known. The excited
imagination saw armies mustering in the sky, brandishing their spears
and raising aloft in quick succession their bloody lances. A very brill-
iant aurora seen in England, in 1575, is described by a writer of that
period as a chasm formed in the northern sky, in which " were seen
a great many bright arches, out of which gradually issued spears, cit-
ies with towers, and men in battle array ; after that there were excur-
sions of rays in every direction, waves of clouds, and battles in which
some were fleeing, some pursuing, and others wheeling around in a
surprising manner." If panics of this nature have ceased, the fact is
due to the ever-advancing light of physical science.

One of the most noted eclipses in history is that recorded by He-
rodotus, and which occurred in the year 585 b. c. The panic produced
by this eclipse put an end to the war between the Medes and the Lydi-
ans. A great battle was in progress, when, suddenly, day was turned
into night by a total eclipse. The contending armies, struck with
consternation, at once laid down their arms and hastened on both sides
to conclude a peace.

The Eclipse of Laeissa. — Xenophon, in his "Anabasis," Book
III, chapter iv, relates how the excitement and alarm produced by a
total eclipse led to the surrender of a city. When the Persians ob-
tained the empire from the Medes, their king besieged the ancient city
of Larissa, but failed to capture it till, finally, the inhabitants, terror-
stricken by the darkness of a solar eclipse, lost all courage, and so the
city was taken.

A total eclipse of the sun was visible at many places in Europe on
May 12, 1706. Professor Grant relates, in his " History of Physical
Astronomy," that in many parts of the city of Geneva persons were
seen during the totality "prostrate on the ground and offering up
prayers, under the impression that the last day was come."

An ancient writer, in describing the great meteoric shower of the
year 1202, says : " The stars flew against one another like a scattering
swarm of locusts, to the right and left ; this phenomenon lasted until
daybreak ; people were thrown into consternation and cried to God,
the Most High, with confused clamor." Similar consternation and
alarm were exhibited during the great meteoric display of 1366. An
historian of that time says, " Those who saw it were filled with such
great fear and dismay that they were astounded, imagining that they
were all dead men, and that the end of the world had come."

The terror an# alarm produced among the colored people of the
tol. xxi. — 13

i94 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

South by the great star-shower of 1833 have been so often described
that the details need not here be repeated. I may, however, remark
in passing that this shower was derived from the same meteoric swarm
that produced the displays of 1202 and 1366, to which I have referred,
and which returns at intervals of thirty-three years and three months.

In former ages comets were regarded as signs sent directly by the
Deitv to announce coming wars or fatal disasters. The degree of ter-
ror which they excited was proportioned to the size of the comet or
the form and length of its train. A great comet, believed to have
been that of Halley, appeared in April, a. d. 1066, the year in which
William the Conqueror invaded England. This comet was looked
upon as the forerunner of the conquest, and produced universal alarm.
" The new star means a new king," was the common expression of the
day. All writers of that period bear witness to the splendor of the
comet of 1066.

But the accounts of all great comets in ancient times furnish similar
instances of superstitious dread- and consternation. Of a different nat-
ure was the alarm produced among the ill-informed in 1832 by the
baseless expectation of the earth's collision with Biela's comet. It had
been announced by astronomers that on a particular day a part of the
earth's orbit would be included within the nebulosity of the comet.
This statement was misunderstood by the general public, and a com-
ing together of the earth and the comet was by many apprehended.
Astronomers well knew, however, that our planet would be millions of
miles from the intersection of the two orbits before that point could
be reached by the comet.

The latest instance of supposed danger from a comet is that founded
on a misapprehension of an article by the distinguished Mr. Proctor.
In 1668 a large comet appeared and passed very near to the sun's sur-
face— probably through the upper strata of its atmosphere. The great
comet of 1843 moved so nearly in the same path that it was supposed
by some astronomers to be a return of the same body ; the period
being one hundred and seventy-five years. But the path of the bright
comet seen in the southern hemisphere in 1880 coincided still more
nearly with that of the comet of 1843, and these dates would indicate
a period of only thirty-seven years. Either, therefore, the period is
becoming rapidly shorter, or the comets are separate bodies moving in
orbits which, within the limits of the planetary system, are nearly co-
incident. The latter alternative has, I think, the greater probability.
The theory, however, that the comets of 1668, 1843, and 1880 were
returns of the same body, and that its orbit is converging with great
rapidity, has been defended as affording a plausible explanation of the
similarity of elements. At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical So-
ciety of London, May 14, 1880, Mr. Marth, a well-known astronomer,
remarked as follows :

"Supposing this comet of 1843 is the same as that of 1668, it would

ASTRONOMICAL PANICS. 195

not be very wonderful that it should reappear now after thirty-seven
years, instead of one hundred and seventy-five years. The velocity of
a body moving in the solar system depends simply on its distance from
the sun, and on the major axis of its orbit. If the velocity is reduced
by a resisting medium, there will be a reduction of the major axis, and
there is nothing whatever unreasonable in the supposition that, how-
ever weak the corona may be, its resistance would have a very great
effect upon the motion of a comet which rushes through it, so that I
should not be at all surprised if it should turn out that this comet of
1880 is the same as the comet of 1843 and that of 1668, and that its
revolution has been so much affected that possibly it may return in,
say, seventeen years."

These remarks of Mr. Marth were some time since quoted by Mr.
Proctor, and made the basis of an article which in unscientific circles
produced to some extent a most absurd sensation. Mr. Proctor's re-
marks on the subject have been misinterpreted as indicating the prob-
able destruction of life upon the earth about the close of the present
century. His language, however, though somewhat unguarded, ex-
pressed no such opinion.

The three comets named above approached nearer the sun than
any other known, except, perhaps, that of 1680. In fact, when nearest
the sun they actually grazed the solar atmosphere, or passed through
its outermost portions. Now, it is well known that the motion of a
planet or comet through a resisting medium continually lessens its
distance, and hence accelerates its velocity. Messrs. Marth and Proc-
tor assume that the passage of the comet of 1668 through the outer
portions of the sun's atmosphere reduced its previously long but un-
known period to one hundred and seventy-five years, so that its next
appearance was in 1843. The perihelion distance at that date was
still less ; the comet met with greater resistance, and the period was
shortened to thirty-seven years. The time of revolution would thus
be lessened at each successive return, and ultimately the comet would
plunge into the sun. Striking the solar surface with a velocity of
three hundred and fifty miles a second, the amount of heat produced
by the concussion and radiated to the earth might raise the tempera-
ture to such a degree as to destroy life upon our planet. Such are the
conjectures suggested in Mr. Proctor's paper. Let us briefly consider
them.

In the first place, the fact on which the theory of the supposed
catastrophe is based — viz., the identity of the three comets — is extreme-
ly doubtful. It is much more probable, in view of all the circum-
stances, that they are different bodies moving in similar orbits.

Again, the period of seventeen years, fixing the comet's next re-
turn, according to Mr. Marth, about 1897, was the merest conjecture,
not founded on any mathematical calculation whatever. It is true
that the passage o£ a comet through the sun's atmosphere would short-

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

en its period at each return. The absorption of the comets of 1843 and
18S0 by the sun's gaseous envelope, at some time in the distant future,
is therefore by no means improbable. Such results are not known to
have occurred in historic times ; but, if the sun is gradually contract-
ing— in other words, if its diameter was once considerably greater than
at present — any comet passing so near the center as that of 1880 would
have plunged so deeply into the sun's atmosphere as to be absorbed
into its mass. It is true, moreover, that, when the motion of a body is
arrested, such motion is converted into heat. If the earth were stopped
in its orbit, its fall upon the sun would produce an amount of heat
equal to that now radiated in ninety years. If the mass of the comet
be -^JLq that of the earth, the heat produced by the impact would
scarcely be equal to that now radiated in seven days ; or, if the com-
etary mass be only equal to that of a globe one hundred miles in di-
ameter, and of the same density as the earth, the additional amount
of heat would be less than that now supplied in a single hour. It
may further be remarked that the collision would be as likely to occur
on the hemisphere turned away from the earth as on that turned
toward us.

But let us assume that the great southern comet of 1880 was in fact
a return of the comet of 1843, that its present period is about thirty-
seven years, and that in consequence of its passage through the outer-
most strata of the sun's atmosphere its period must be shortened more
and more until it falls upon the sun's surface. The solar atmosphere
is known to be very rare from the fact that matter thrown out by the
sun's eruptive force has been seen to ascend to a height of two hun-
dred thousand miles. The resistance which it would offer to the
comet's motion would therefore be slight, and in all probability sev-
eral centuries would elapse before the comet's course would be termi-
nated by its falling upon the sun. Instead, therefore, of a sudden
catastrophe, we should have a gradual dissolution of the comet ; por-
tions becoming absorbed by, or incorporated with, the solar atmos-
phere at each successive perihelion passage. The apprehension of
danger to the earth from a great and sudden increase of the sun's heat
is, therefore, without any reasonable foundation.

It is due to Mr. Proctor to say that he did not designate the year
1 897, nor indeed any other, as that in which the comet would fall into
the sun, nor did he express the opinion that the collision would occur
at the cornet'^ next return. He merely remarks that, "if already the
comet experiences such resistance in passing through the corona when
at its nearest to the sun that its period undergoes a marked diminu-
tion, the effect must of necessity be increased at each return, and after
only a few, possibly one or two, circuits, the comet will be absorbed
by the sun." This statement, though perhaps incautiously expressed,
is very different from that attributed by unscientific readers to its
distinguished author.

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS THEORY. 197

THE STEREOSCOPE: ITS THEOKY.

By W. LE CONTE STEVENS.

II.

ALL of the forms under which the stereoscope has come into gen-
eral use have been devised with a view to creating to the utmost
the illusion of natural binocular perspective by reproducing as nearly
as possible the conditions of natural vision. That this end is not
successfully attained is painfully felt by those who linger too long
over an attractive collection of stereographs. To secure comfortable
vision the muscles of the eyes must suffer no unusual strain. It is not
easy to explain briefly how such strain is necessarily implied in the
use of this instrument. Suffice it to say that, in looking at a point a
few inches distant, the ciliary muscle which surrounds the crystalline
lens in each eye is strongly contracted, and so is the muscle on the
inner side of each eyeball. These contractions usually accompany
each other, and to dissociate them is always more or less painful. The
stereograph is but a few inches distant, but, because there are two
pictures, the convergence of the visual lines is much less than normal ;
indeed, optic divergence is not unfrequently necessary. The uncon-
scious interpretation which is put upon the retinal sensation is due
partly to imagination ; but also largely to the temporary condition
of the muscles of the eyes. This includes not only the ciliary but
also the rectus muscles, external and internal, by which the eyeballs
are controlled, as the angle between the visual lines is varied. The
effect of varying this angle is best studied with a modification of
Wheatstone's stereoscope, which the writer has constructed for this
purpose. A pair of conjugate pictures are chosen, which present as
little as possible of mathematical perspective. A stereograph of the
moon, divided at the middle, is one of the best for this purpose. The
twin photographs are placed upon cross-bars (Fig. 12) which rest on
graduated .arms that are pivoted at the proper point in the base of a
cubical block to which the mirrors are cemented. These arms move
in contact with part of a circle, marked off in degrees at the circum-
ference, the center of this being in the pivot. If the two arms make
a straight line, and the pictures are properly adjusted, the visual lines
must be parallel, for the eyes to receive the reflected rays. If pulled
forward toward the observer, the visual lines must converge in order
to retain single vision, and the angle of convergence is at once obtained
from the circle. If pushed slightly back, as represented in the figure,
single vision can be retained only by optic divergence. Most eyes that
are healthy will be found capable of enduring a few degrees of such
divergence. The real distance of the object is thus kept unchanged,
and the card appears always directly across the visual line. The varia-

198

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions in apparent size and distance of the binocular image are very
striking, while the perspective in the picture remains clear but also
variable. If the stereograph be that of a reversed cone, this becomes
apparently shallow, small, and near, or deep, large, and remote, ac-

Fig. 12.— The Graduated Reflecting Stereoscope.

cording as the excess of strain is upon the internal or the external rec-
tus muscles. This instrument, indeed, is useful in quite a variety of
binocular experiments. The visual effects are the same as those from
an adjustable stereoscope with semi-lenses, but the limits of variation
are far wider, and it is a decided advantage to obtain direct measure-
ment of the optic angle.

Such experiments show very conclusively that the current theory
of visual triangulation, whatever may be its application to normal
binocular vision, has to be entirely discarded as an explanation of
stereoscopic vision. As a theory it is beautifully simple, and at first
glance appears eminently satisfactory ; the only objection to it in rela-
tion to the stereoscope consists in the fact that it is untrue. Its ex-
pression may be found in most of our text-books of physics, and the
diagram usually employed in explaining the stereoscope is that of Fig.
13, which is taken from Helmholtz's " Physiological Optics," the only
change being in the avoidance of Greek lettering. This slight change
also is made in the following translation from the French edition of this
work, which received the last corrections of the distinguished author,
who is universally recognized as the highest living authority on the
subject of which it treats. After describing the arrangement of the
prism-like semi-lenses, he writes : " The two drawings are placed, side
by side, upon the same sheet. The right eye, R, looks upon the draw-
ing, a b, through the prism, p / the left eye, L, looks upon the drawing.
a' b\ through the prism, p ; the partition, <7, prevents each eye from
seeing the drawing intended for the other. The rays, cp and c' p\
sent forth by" the drawings, are refracted by the prisms, following the
directions p R and p L, the prolongations of which cut each other at C.
The convexity of the surfaces of the prisms has the effect of diminish-
ing at the same time the divergence of the sheafs of rays, so that each
eye sees at A B an image of the drawing that is presented to it. The
object appears in relief at A B."

This explanation is distinctly geometric, the locality of each point
of the image perceived being determined by intersection of visual lines,

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS THEORY.

199

A-

_s-

-B

Fig. 13.— Theory of Visual
Tri angulation .

R C and L C, as the attention is successively directed to different
points in the field of view. If accepted at all, it must be accepted
fully. If we suppose the semi-lenses removed, and that R and L
together represent a binocular camera, the diagram shows the exact
relation between this and an object to be
pictured, and the admirable mathematical dis-
cussion which Helmholtz gives subsequently
in full is strictly applicable. But, if the ob-
server's eyes be too near together, or the stereo-
graphic interval be too great, the relation
between the visual lines ceases to be the same
as that between the camera axes, and we no
longer have the conditions under which the
geometric discussion can be applied. It is but
due to Helmholtz to add that he closes with
the following remark : " These conditions are
not generally fulfilled for the photographic
proofs and the stereoscopes of commerce."
The same credit can not be given to the
writers of the ordinary text-books. This quali-
fication is of the last importance, for without it the theory is absurd,
the apparent position of the image determined by intersection of
visual lines being behind the observers head when optic divergence
is induced, and at an infinite distance when they are parallel. But,
even when camera axes and visual lines bear the same relation among
themselves, the abnormal muscular condition necessitated in stereo-
scopic vision introduces a disturbing element. The theory is hence
not applicable at all to the stereoscope, but must be limited to the dis-
cussion of the binocular camera.

With a view to enabling persons with untrained eyes easily to per-
form many of the experiments through which variation in appearance
of the binocular image is produced by varying the conditions un-
der which the same stereograph is viewed, the writer has devised an
adjustable stereoscope (Fig. 14), which presents the additional very
important advantage of rendering vision as nearly painless as it can
be with the ideal stereograph, even although the stereographic inter-
val on the one employed be so great as to produce only confusion, or
strain of the eyes, when the common form of stereoscope is used.
Instead of being fixed in position, the semi-lenses are lightly rested in
a pair of boxes, with openings in front and rear so as to transmit the
light. Attached to the partition between them are a pair of springs
against which the thin edges of the semi-lenses are pressed by ad-
justing-screws in contact with their thick bases. By turning these so
that the glasses are pressed as close as possible together, the light
which enters the eyes passes through the thicker part of each glass,
where the planes^ that may be supposed to touch the opposite curved

200

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

faces are nearly parallel. The rays are hence but little deviated in
transmission, and the condition is the same as that in the ordinary
stereoscope. Vision is then as comfortable as can ever be expected,
when the stereographic interval is less than three inches. If it exceed
this limit, the pain produced by the muscular strain of optic diver-
gence, which would now be necessary, is prevented by giving a few

Fig. 14.— The Adjustable Stereoscope. Adjustment tor Natural Perspective.

leftward turns to each screw. The semi-lenses are at once pressed
farther apart by the springs, the rays pass through at points where the
opposite surfaces are more inclined to each other, and they are hence
more deviated, so as to enter the eyes still without imposing the ne-
cessity of divergence. Indeed, if the stereographic interval be small,
and free play be given to the springs, uncomfortable convergence may
be induced at will. Under this condition a stereograph may be em-
ployed on which the interval is as great as four inches. If, while
viewing the combined image, the semi-lenses be screwed closer to-
gether, the eyes will continue to adapt themselves, while fusion of im-
ages is retained, and any degree of divergence is thus induced that
the observer may be disposed to endure. If the stereograph has been
properly selected to illustrate the effects of muscle-reading, the image
will appear to increase in depth as the visual lines diverge.

In front of the partition between the lens-cases are a pair of fold-
ing metal screens, of such width that when pressed flat against the
wood they will hide from each eye the picture on the side belonging
to the other, but when folded, as shown in Fig. 15 s, the whole stereo-
graph becomes visible to each eye. On a movable cross-bar there is

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS THEORY.

201

another folding-screen of wood, which is shown pressed down in Fig.
14, and raised in Fig. 15. In the former condition it does not obstruct
any part of the field of view, but in the latter it hides from each eye
the half of the stereograph on its own side, and permits that on the
other side to be seen through the opening at the middle. By now lift-
ing the cover of the cases containing the semi-lenses, these glasses may
be removed, and their places supplied with a pair of wedge-shaped
prisms, which are introduced with their bases, instead of their sharp

Fig. 15.— The Adjustable Stereoscope. Adjustment for Reversed Perspective.

edges, against the springs, while the screens are arranged as in Fig.
15. Pushing the cross-bar, intended to hold the picture, out to the
farther end, a stereograph is put upon it that has been specially selected
to show the effects of binocular perspective. Any stereograph in which
mathematical perspective is not strong may be employed — that of the
moon is excellent. Looking at this now through the prisms, instead
of appearing convex it presents the aspect of a lustrous hollow hemi-
sphere of crystal, through which on its farther side are seen the famil-
iar dead sea-bottoms and jagged volcanic ridges. Our prisms and
windowed screen have apparently turned the moon into a cup by bring-
ing into each eye the picture originally intended for the other. On
folding down the windowed screen, two extra moons spring into view.
Comparing the middle concave image with the flat ones upon the two
sides, it appears smaller and nearer, and this disparity is increased by
pulling the stereograph nearer. As it approaches it grows shallower
and slightly elliptic, the horizontal diameter becoming shorter ; for, as
the card is brought nearer, its plane becomes more oblique to the di-
rection of the rays, which leave it to be refracted by the prisms before
entering the eye. > To the combined Cyclopean eye, while each circle

202

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

must appear as an ellipse because viewed obliquely, the illusion is that
there is no obliquity of vision, but that a narrow cup is suspended di-
rectly in front ; while the pictures that are really in front of each sepa-
rate eye appear, without relief, out at the two sides.

If the attention be carefully directed successively to the foreground
and background when binocularly viewing a properly constructed out-
line stereograph, it will be found that perfectly distinct vision of the
whole picture at any given moment is not usually possible. The dis-
tance between corresponding background points exceeds that between
similar foreground points. This excess we shall call the stereoscopic
displacement. If it be considerable, a pair of corresponding back-
ground points must be seen double, or imperfectly combined, when
the foreground is distinct. In transferring the attention, then, to the
background, slight associated contraction of the external rectus mus-
cles is necessary to secure perfect combination of corresponding points,
and this instantly suggests the idea of greater distance for these.
Thus, as the attention is given to different parts of the picture, the
tension in the muscles of the eyes is continually varying, and this is
one important element in determining our binocular perception of
solidity. Unless the attention be very carefully given to it, we are
apt to overlook the successive duplication in different parts of the field
of view. If the stereoscopic displacement be small, the perception of
such duplication may be quite impossible, while the appearance of
solidity, or of perspectiveness, as it has been called, remains distinct.
The stereograph, represented in Fig. 16, has been specially con-
structed to exhibit a variety of different stereoscopic displacements.
It may be viewed either with cross-vision, or with the aid of a card
placed edgwise upon the triple line at the middle, or by placing the
page in front of the semi-lenses of a stereoscope. Supposing the last
of these methods to be employed, there will be seen at the top of
the field of view a truncated cone, with a dot at the center of its
lower base, and a pair of projections from the circumference of the

Fig. 16.— Stereograph illustrating the Binocular Combination or Lines.

THE STEREOSCOPE : ITS THEORY. 203

upper base. When the latter is made an object of attention, two
dots are seen on the lower base, which apparently broadens out
on the two sides ; but the moment the attention is concentrated upon
them, unless the observer is a little skilled in indirect vision, they
fuse into one, and four instead of two projections are seen at the
upper base, which in turn has broadened out. Indeed, very little
skill is needed to perceive the distinct duplication of the entire
upper base. At the middle of the field of view is an inclined black
parallelogram, on which no duplication of any part can be perceived,
except by a very steady gaze or by comparison with the black cir-
cles above and below ; and these in turn are made to appear at
different distances from the observer. The circular arc and straight
line, each marked a, combine into a distorted parabola, in which the
concavity is perfect at the middle, but at the top and bottom it breaks
into two separate lines. The resultant of the lines marked b is quite
as distinctly curved, but many persons will fail to notice any duplica-
tion at all; and this remark applies still more forcibly to the resultant c.
The group d forms a warped surface ; but, if the resultant line at its
right be fixedly examined, it will be seen as an oblique cross, the com-
bination being effected only by motion of the eyes. The group e pre-
sents still greater difficulties. The pair f are nearly horizontal, and
are coalescent at the middle, but not combined at the extremities ;
each component hence appears no longer straight. The arrows at the
left point obliquely, some toward and some from the neighborhood of
the observer ; but, if the gaze be rigidly directed to the vertical rod on
which they are fixed, a pair of well-practiced eyes will perceive some
of them to have very mobile double heads. The circles x, y, and z
have a common axis, and are successively nearer to the observer ; x
and z are highly lustrous, and, when either is regarded separately, y is
by indirect vision seen slightly double.

The two halves of this stereograph are strikingly dissimilar, but the
principle which it illustrates enables us to secure stereoscopy with a
pair of absolutely similar figures by so adjusting these in position that
advantage may be taken of the almost spherical surface of the back of
each eye." The geometric explanation of this is un suited to the present
article.* It may be sufficient to state that, if the two pictures be op-
positely inclined to the visual lines, instead of being directly across
these, the retinal images must be dissimilar, and the subjective combi-
nation of these must hence present the appearance of relief, which
may be varied at will by varying the inclination of the cards.

The theory of associated muscular action which has been illus-
trated, while undoubtedly true, is still not sufficient by itself to explain
all the phenomena of stereoscopy. The perception of distinct relief
is possible when the card is illuminated with the electric spark. No
motion of the eyes is attainable during so minute an interval. It is

* See "American journal of Science" for April, 1882, p. 297, and May, 1882, p. 359.

204

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

possible also, when the stereoscopic displacement is so small, that not
the slightest duplication of images can be distinguished with even the
keenest vision. When this displacement is large, the play of the eyes
is necessary to the completeness of the perception ; but, in any case,
the illusion is complex. The perception of double images is doubtless
one important element ; but when these are too minute to be distin-
guished, we are driven to other resources for an explanation.

Every one has noticed that each instrument in an orchestra has its
own peculiar quality of sound, each singer in the cast of an opera his
own vocal timbre. The explanation of this is no longer a mystery
since Helmholtz analyzed, by the aid of resonators, what had eluded
analysis by the unaided ear, and showed that the difference in quality
between tones, nominally the same from different sources, is due to
minute modifications upon sensations, corresponding to small air- waves
accompanying those which produce the fundamental tone. By a well-
known system of graphic representation, let the curve in Fig. 17 stand
for the fundamental note ; if this be simple, the curve is perfectly
regular. But in fact it is accompanied by a group of smaller waves

Fig. 17.— Simple Sound Waves.

Fig. 18.— Complex Sound Waves.

(Fig. 18, a V)\ when all are graphically combined, the curve is modified
(Fig. 18, c d), and so is the actual sensation. With the same funda-
mental a different series of overtones would have produced a different
resultant curve and sensation. The first of these resultants may rep-
resent c' from a soprano's voice, the other c' from that of the tenor,
each sending into the ear 264 complex thrills per second. Without
being absolutely unisonant, they constitute a pair of dissimilar musical

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 205

sounds that coalesce harmoniously. A well-trained ear may pick out
some of the overtones without the aid of resonators, and perceive in
the background a few duplicated sound-images ; but the great major-
ity of them are so faint that their presence can not be perceived apart
from each other, or from the fundamental to which they give character.
The rich combination of all stands out in strong musical relief, com-
pared with what each voice alone would yield, or with the sweet but
thin sound of a tuning-fork that sings forth the same fundamental pitch.

This principle relates to the combination of sensations, whatever
may be the cause of dissimilarity among the components of the group.
We have not the data from which a binocular image can be graphic-
ally expressed as a curve, for the dissimilarity of the components is
not due to interference of waves of light. But the facts suggest kin-
ship between the modes of sensation in the two cases. The dissimilar
groups of light-images arouse sensations that are simultaneously con-
veyed to the brain, and the proper interpretation at once comes as the
product of past experience. All we can affirm is, that experience has
taught us to interpret retinal sensations which are slightly different in
the two eyes, as the signs of an external object possessing three dimen-
sions in space, when the images are produced upon parts of the con-
cave surfaces which bear to each other the relations that would be im-
posed by the presence of such an object if naturally viewed. Such
experience has been acquired by each of us individually, and probably
with exceeding rapidity in consequence of inherited tendencies. It is
therefore not necessary that the localization of what we see in the
stereoscope should be limited to cases of optic convergence, or the per-
ception of relief to those in which double images can be distinguished.

Our discussion has led us from the domain of physics to the con-
fines of metaphysics. Explanations are at best only relative, and the
psychologist, the physiologist, and the physicist must join hands in
working out the problems of binocular vision. The progress made
during the last half-century invites the hope that much may yet be
accomplished before the next century brings us its morning greeting.

■»»»

THE JEWS IN EUROPE *

By Dr. J. VON DOLLINGEE.

' I.

THE Academy celebrates to-day the birth of its royal head and
gracious protector. Such a festival is, first of all, devoted to
feelings the simplest, purest, and most elevating — love, reverence,

* Anniversary Address before the Academy of Sciences at Munich, delivered July
25, 1881. Translated^ Mr. W. M. Salter.

206 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gratitude. But it is also an occasion on which we are glad to think
of our sovereign as weighing and pondering the affairs of his people,
and the general condition of Germany ; and passing under review the
most important events of the time, carefully measuring their gravity.
And so our thoughts turn naturally to the most recent events, to the
serious problems, which are now pressing with so loud and urgent a
voice upon our attention.

Xot the least of these is the Semitic question, which has been
agitating Germany for some years. The parties stand sharply over
against one another, and as, in the thirteenth century, the cry was
"Here Guelph, there Ghibelline," so now there sounds through the Ger-
man lands, " Here Semite and friend of the Semite, there anti-Semite."
With no little astonishment have we perceived that the conflict rages
most violently just in the principal city of the empire, and even among
those belonging to the aristocracy of culture. And, although the
south of Germany is thus far much less involved in the agitation than
the north, the forces in motion there are not without influence in our
own vicinity. In our days, science may no longer, as was formerly
the case, keep aloof in self -contented attitude from the great mart of
life ; rather has it the strongest reasons for participating, with the
ripest results it has reached, in the solution of the problems of our
age and nation, and for allying itself, to the end of mutual advantage,
with all clarifying and quickening social forces.

So let one of the offerings presented by the Academy, on this the
natal day of its royal protector, be an attempt to show how these
things have come to be : how the knot, the manner of whose loosing
no one is now able to indicate, has gradually twisted itself ; and how
History, wise guide of life that she is, holds up to the new errors that,
are threatening us the warning mirror of the errors of the past.

The fortunes of the Jewish people make, perhaps, the most im-
pressive drama in the history of the world.

The Greek tragedians dwell with predilection on the Hybris, the
arrogant misuse of power, as the dark fate that draws men on to de-
struction. In the fortunes of this people we encounter, as it were, an
Hybris made up of religious fanaticism, vulgar avarice, and instinctive
race-aversion. It was the result of that moral and intellectual infirm-
ity which, for many centuries, has affected the highest as well as the
lowest classes, and which still to some degree exists in wide circles,
although kept in bounds by custom, fear, and public opinion. This
infirmity was and is, in a word, a lack of the sense of justice.

We know well the powers that still to-day, in every possible form,
whether open or disguised, are constantly repeating this one thought :
"We alone are in possession of the full and saving truth, and therefore
everything must be conceded to, and everything permitted us, that is
necessary or serviceable in spreading and putting forward this truth."
Where this principle prevails, and it did prevail in the entire thousand

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 207

years from 500 to 1500 a. d., and is still affirmed by those who adhere
to the mediaeval view of things — there even the idea of justice must
appear as a damnable illusion. Such justice, we mean, as enables us
to judge of men according to their education, inclination, and preju-
dices ; as leads us to enter into the circle of their thoughts and sympa-
thies, and to treat them accordingly ; as leads us to excuse and bear
with their departure from the lines of our own thinking, believing, and
doing, and to respect their independence. The Christian religion has
comprehended this justice in the command to love our neighbor as we
love ourselves ; but, by the rulers as well as the masses, by the teach-
ers as well as the taught, by the educated as well as the ignorant, this
supreme command has been misunderstood, ignored, and transgressed
to an almost immeasurable extent.

As to the present condition of affairs in this regard I do not pro-
pose to speak. It is, however, easy to see that the civilization of a
nation ranks the higher, the greater the number of those in it who are
permeated by this higher spirit of justice, and the more calculated its
institutions are to protect and manifest it. Where the relations of
men to one another touch the religious field, we are accustomed to call
the lack of this virtue fanaticism ; and there have been times when
even the best men and the noblest characters have thought and acted
in a fanatical spirit. And so it has come about that, in judging of the
past, we, on our part, are now called upon to display this justice to
just those who were untrue to it in life, and denied it to their fellow-
men.

Already, before the destruction of their capital and national sanc-
tuary, the Jews were the most wide-spread of all peoples, and, when
Strabo said that there could not be found one place in the world
which did not harbor Jews, he spoke of a world comprising all the
lands about the Mediterranean, and extending, in Asia, as far as into
the Perso-Parthian Empire. By reason of transportations en masse, of
half -free, half-compulsory colonization, of wars, and commerce in
slaves, and gradually also because their spirit of enterprise took the
direction more and more of commercial pursuits, they had become a
diaspora, which, while numerous particularly in the sea-towns, using
for the most part the Greek language, and influenced on many sides
by Greek culture, still everywhere held firmly together, and preserved^
its existence as a distinct community. Like other inhabitants of the
empire, they enjoyed the benefit of the protection of the Roman law.
In general, they were esteemed and even given preferment, rather than
mistreated, by the emperors. Their elders, indeed, received certain
immunities ; firmly holding together, and helping and advancing one
another, they were successful competitors in all branches of industry,
therefore — hated. And if their rite of circumcision, their celebration
of the Sabbath, their laws respecting food, and their shy habits of
seclusion, excited much derision and contempt, there was still in their

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cultus of the one purely spiritual God, who was represented by no
imao-e, a powerful attraction for the minds of pagans, who were sur-
feited with the numberless divinities of their religion. " Enemies are
they of the gods as well as men "—such was the frequently pronounced
judgment of the pagan populace on this nation, whose character was
so mysterious to them. About the time of the Roman war in Judea,
they fell, not seldom by thousands, as a prey to the fury of the heathen
populace.

They won again, however, a center of religious life and a head : in
the little town of Jamnia, in Palestine, the sanhedrim formed itself,
whose presiding officer was honored and recognized as the patriarch of
the whole nation ; so there was at once a supreme authority and an
academy.

But just at this time, and in consequence of the powerful influence
of the zealots, which had been enormously increased during the late
wars, Judaism withdrew convulsively within itself, the Pharisaic way
of thinking became exclusively predominant, and cast out every foreign
element, such as Hellenism and Essenism ; while the Talmud, which
held all the members of the Jewish body together and lay like an iron
band about the nation, completed the separation, and all the more
surely since the Roman laws forbade any to be circumcised who were
not of Jewish birth.

However, the question of vital moment was, what attitude those who
carried the future in their bosom — viz., the Christians — would assume
toward the Jews. The earliest Church remained true in this respect
to the example and word of its Master and the teaching of the apos-
tles. It believed and taught : 1. That the death of Christ, for which
the leaders of the Jews and a part of the people at Jerusalem were re-
sponsible, involves in no way the continuous guilt of the whole nation.
On the contrary, Christ himself asked for the forgiveness of his cruci-
fiers, and his prayer was heard. Peter, too, like his Master, excused
their transgression on the ground of their ignorance. 2. The people is
by no means outcast from God, even if their dispersion, the downfall
of their state, and the destruction of their temple and capital, may be
regarded as a divine punishment. Israel remains the chosen people of
God, since God can not retract his choice and promise. At some fut-
ure dav, when the " fullness of the Gentiles " shall have come, the full-
ness of Israel will also believe, and make an harmonious fellowship
along with Gentile believers.

Starting from this view drawn from the New Testament, the wisest
and most eminent teachers of the Church exhorted that the Jewish
people must be regarded as a brother who has for the time gone astray,
but will sooner or later return to the Father's house, and in the mean
time is always and will remain the bearer of irrevocable promises.
Hence, they marked out the duty for Christians of indulgent and patient-
ly enduring love toward the race, of which both Christ and the apos-

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 209

ties were members, and from which they did not wish to be separated.
The most learned and original of the older fathers, Origen, declared :
" They are and remain our brothers ; but they will only unite with us
when we, by our faith and our life, have stirred them to emulate our
example." Even Augustine frequently said : " In the hearts of Chris-
tians the confidence lives, and is expressed by them continually, that
the children of the present Jewish generation will some day melt into
one faith with the Christians." This view of the earliest Church dis-
appeared, however, when Christianity became the state religion, and
Roman heathenism en masse, with its hate and contempt for the Jews,
became converted, in part freely and in part through direct or indirect
compulsion, to Christianity. Soon the synods forbade eating with a
Jew ; and Ambrose, who, while still unbaptized, was elevated to the
bishopric of Milan, styled the burning of a synagogue in Rome by the
populace an act pleasing to God, and called the Emperor Maximus,
who desired its rebuilding, derisively a — -Jew. There comes to be,
with infrequent exceptions, a more hostile strain in the writings of
Christians, and the name of brother vanishes ; their remaining without
the Church is explained no longer by ignorance, but by an ill-meant
obduracy on their part. The hope of a future reconciliation is, in-
deed, held ; but the reconciliation is placed as it were in the most
distant corner of the future, in the last days before the final catas-
trophe and the judgment of the world. It seemed as if the prospect
of living in community with Israel (when, moreover, according to the
Biblical doctrine, Israel would retake the ancestral primacy) was so
little to the taste of the Christians that they were anxious to restrict
so unwelcome and vexatious a condition to a few days or months.

The Christian emperors had changed nothing of importance in
their laws respecting the rights and liberties of the Jews until the
year 439, when Theodosius II excluded them from all public, even
municipal, offices. This law passed over into Justinian's Codex, and
regulated their status in Europe as well as in the Eastern Empire.

In the West we encounter at the end of the sixth century the first
forced conversions in the Frankish Empire ; Avitus, in Clermont, and
the kings Chilperic and Dagobert set the precedent. It was followed
in the kingdom of the Spanish Visigoths on a large scale. There,
where the bishops ruled the state, King Sisibut in the year 612 allowed
the Jews only the choice of emigrating or being baptized. Many
chose the latter, but turned back after a time to Judaism ; and, as the
result,, there began a series of violent measures to keep them in the
Church against their will, and to avenge their lapsing. This was 'in
accordance with a decree of the national synod of Toledo— a fatal de-
cree, which has cost more blood and tears than any law of heathen
antiquity, since it served as a norm for innumerable deeds in subse-
quent time.

In the Frankisb Empire the ordinances of the Episcopal councils,
vol. xxi. — 14

2io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

remained for a long time within the circle defined by the Emperor.
The Jews were forbidden marriage with Christians, the ownership and
sale of Christian slaves, and jurisdiction in court over Christians ; fur-
ther, Jews and Christians were not allowed to take a common meal,
and the employment of a Jewish physician was forbidden. Bitter hos-
tility against the Jewish people is breathed first in the Frankish Em-
pire in the writings of the Archbishops Agobard and Amolo, of Lyons,
about the year 848 ; the latter recommended Sisibut's action as one
acceptable to God, and worthy of imitation — a bad sign of what was
to come. However, these writings also indicate, first, that at that
time the charge of a usurious fleecing of the Christians by the Jews
was not yet brought forward ; and, further, that the Emperor, the offi-
cers of state, and even the agricultural population, were well-disposed
to the Jews, and that the state still protected them.

But with the end of the eleventh century a turn of things began,
which proved full of disaster to the Christians as well as to the Jews
and the pagans. The highest authority in the Western world had
announced the principle of the religious wars, and found the means to
foster them and continuously excite them anew. It had become an
expiatory and saving work to conquer non-Christian peoples, and to
plunder and destroy those who resisted ; hence, it was unavoidable
that the condition of the Israelitish people should take a much worse
shape than before ; and, although in general Europe was making
steady progress in the formation of orderly civil governments, this
progress was of no advantage to the Jewish people ; rather did each
century, until the Reformation, bring an increase of their misery. For
the Israelite was in the eyes of the then existing Christians worse than
an unbeliever ; he was called in the official language of the Church
perfidus — i. e., a man who deserves neither truth nor confidence.
" Oremus et pro perfidis Judais " stood in the Liturgy for Good Fri-
day, and all theologians and canonical writers of that time used the
expression. The Jew should be avoided like one afflicted with a
plague, even whose breath contaminates, or like a dangerous tempter,
whose words hide the poison of doubt and unbelief. The laity were
forbidden to speak even one word with him on the subject of religion.

When, therefore, the hosts of the Crusaders went out to war
against the Mohammedans in Asia, they began slaying the Jews at
home, and plundering their houses. And the kingdom of Jerusalem
began its existence by burning the Israelites who lived there, together
with their synagogues.

Those were acts of fanatical and untamed bands. For princes and
peoples, for priests and laymen, the utterances of the Popes and coun-
cils respecting the rights and duties of Christians to the Jews were
naturally accepted as giving the law. Before this, the Roman bishops
had not concerned themselves about the Jews ; their epistles and en-
actments during the first six centuries contain nothing about them, the

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 211

imperial laws appearing to have satisfied them. Gregory the Great
protected them unweariedly against the acts of violence common in
Southern Italy, and forbade forcing them into the Church. On the
other hand, he sought to procure their conversion by vouchsafing
privileges to them, and set up the doubtful principle, which was often
evoked later on when forcible conversions were attempted, viz., if the
Church does not win thereby those who have been bought over, it
certainly wins their children.

From that time on, for nearly three centuries, the Popes are silent
respecting the Jewish people. After the middle of the ninth century
the first considerable assumption of power on the part of the Papacy
took place under the Pseud-Isidore, Nicholas I, and his nearest succes-
sors. When Stephen VI (885-891) broke the long silence, a strong
hostile feeling had already taken the place of the earlier mildness in
Rome. The Pope wrote to the Archbishop of Narbonne, that " he
had been plunged into deadly anxiety by the news that the Jews,
those enemies of God, had become possessed there by royal permission
of property in land, and that Christians lived together with these
dogs, and even performed service for them, although, as a punishment
for the death of Christ, all the pledges and promises which God had
confirmed to them were canceled." With this the signal was given,
and the new path entered upon on which men now proceeded to ad-
vance. It is true that the Jews were not seldom successful in ob-
taining Papal letters of protection. The injunction not to force them
to baptism, or to rob or kill them, was often repeated ; but, while on
other occasions, even in matters of little consequence, banning, inter-
dicting, outlawing, and other drastic means were threatened and ap-
plied, these bulls for the protection of the Jews consisted of general
exhortations, and were of little use, because the penal sanction was
wanting. The kings and high nobility set everywhere the example of
lawlessly oppressing, abusing, and plundering the Jews, and we do not
find that the Popes called them to account for this, or took the part of
the oppressed against them. On the contrary, when Philip Augustus
robbed and banished the Jews of France, Coelestin III declared that the
king in doing this had shown his ardent zeal in the cause of God ; and
when any temporal ruler, who was also an official in the Church, in order
to be sure of his right to do so, asked for Papal authorization to drive
out the Jews from his dominion, it was readily granted him. The
declaration of Innocent III, that the whole people was condemned
by God, on account of its guilt, to perpetual slavery, became the
oft-cited Magna Charta for all those whe lusted after the gains and
possessions of the Jews ; in accordance with it rulers and peoples
acted. Nor could the impression it made be greatly diminished by
the circumstance that the Popes supported the letters, which they
from time to time gave for the protection of the Jews, by referring
to the prophecy about a remnant of the people that should remain

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

over, in order to be converted in the last days. Such a remnant of the
Jews, it was thought, would be preserved, if not in Europe, at all
events in Asia.

The succeeding Popes held firmly to the principles and demands of
Innocent III. If the Jews built a new synagogue, it must be torn
down ; the only thing allowed was to repair the old ones. No Jew
could witness against a Christian ; the bishops were to insist, even
with the use of force, upon their wearing of the distinctive badges, the
hat or the yellow cloth. This law respecting badges was particularly
hard and cruel ; for, in the frequent uprisings and tumults in the cit-
ies, the Jews fell so much the easier into the hands of the infuriated
mob, which in this way recognized them at a glance ; and in traveling
they became the prey, without hope of rescue, of the robber-knights
and highwaymen, who naturally looked upon every Jew as an outlaw.
In Spain, permission was therefore given them to wear every kind of
clothing in traveling, but the permission was soon taken back.

Especially did Eugene IV,' who annulled the humane concessions
made by Martin V, add to the sharpness of the ecclesiastical legisla-
tion, already pitiless enough, and the question was perforce raised
how, if all this was fully carried out, could these men maintain their
piteous existence at all.

Whatever ground the Popes had left untouched, was covered by
the councils of the different countries ; they forbade, for example,
that a Christian should let or sell a house to a Jew, or buy wine of
him. In addition to all this, came the oft-renewed orders to burn all
copies of the Talmud and its commentaries — i. e., by far the largest
part of the Jewish literature — on account of the passages hostile to
Christianity that were said to be found therein. And then came
again tortures, persecutions, and imprisonments in abundance. It
seemed as if the mighty of the earth had only stones instead of bread
for the afflicted people, and were disposed to give no answer to their
entreaties and inquiries, other than that which the ancestors of the
Jews once gave to the tyrant Herod, viz., when he asked what, then,
he snould do for them, they replied, to hang himself.

The new theory of the slavery of the Jews was now adopted and
elaborated by the theologians and canonical writers. Thomas of
Aquinas, whose views pass as unimpeachable in the whole Church, de-
cided that the princes could dispose of the property of these men, who
were condemned to perpetual bondage, just as they would of their own
goods. A long series of writers on the canon law built upon the same
foundation the assertion that princes and lords could forcibly dispos-
sess the Jews of their sons and daughters, and cause them to be bap-
tized. That a baptized child of a Jew should not be allowed to re-
main with its father was universally taught, and still is a demand of
the Church. The princes, in the mean time, had greedily adopted the
papal doctrine of the divinely ordained slavery of the Jews, and the

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 213

Emperor Frederick II based thereupon the claim that all Jews were
his property as the Emperor, according to the then prevailing logic,
that the master's rights over them had been transmitted from the old
Roman emperors to him as their successor. His son, Conrad IV, al-
ready used the expressions, " servants of our chamber," and the Schioa-
benspiegel * professed to know that " King Titus had given them over
to be the property of the imperial chamber." King Albrecht de-
manded from King Philip of France that the French Jews be handed
over to him, and later the Jews themselves said, in a memorial to the
Council of Ratisbon, that " They belonged to the Emperor, in order
that he might preserve them from entire destruction at the hands of
the Christians, and keep them as a memorial of the sufferings of
Christ."

After the fourteenth century, this servitude to the exchequer came
to be understood and applied as a complete slavery : " You belong,"
says the Emperor Charles IV, in a document addressed to the Jews,
" to us and the empire with your lives and possessions ; we can order,
do, and act with these as we like and as seems good to us." In fact, the
Jews frequently went, like an article of merchandise, from one hand
into another ; the Emperor declared, now here, now there, that their
claims for the payment of debts were annulled, and caused a large
sum of money, generally thirty per cent, to be paid by the debtors
into his own treasury.

The protection which emperor and empire were supposed to ac-
cord to the servants of the exchequer was often illusory, even when
they were granted special privileges ; as a matter of fact, they were
without civil rights. Only where self-interest dictated, not to allow
men in so many ways useful and profitable to utterly perish, did the
governments step in. Otherwise everybody's hand was against them,
from emperor down through all ranks of society to the very rabble.
Often protection was assured them only for a limited time, at the end
of which they were as good as outlawed, unless they immediately
bought with large sums of money a renewal of the letter of protection.
They were -used like sponges — allowed to completely fill themselves, in
order to be then as completely squeezed out. What happened in the
year 1390 deserves to be kept in the memory of Germans as a con-
stant warning. King, princes, nobles, and cities were, by reason of
long wars, all alike in debt ; then the example that had been already
given by France was copied. At the Imperial Diet held in Nurem-
berg, all money-claims by Jews were annulled, and, instead of paying
their rightful creditors the debtors paid in fifteen per cent of their in-
debtedness to the royal treasury ! In this way, for example, the Duke
of Bavaria, the Count of Oettingen, and the city of Ratisbon, each
won one hundred thousand gold florins.

If a prince ever showed a disposition to favor the Jews of his land

* The book containing the statute- and feudal-laws of South Germany. — Translator.

2i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or any single individual, by bestowing perhaps a piece of land or an
office upon him, a papal letter soon appeared warning and threatening
with punishment, and reminding the prince that a son of the hand-
maid should never be preferred to a son of the free-woman.* Car-
dinal legates of the Pope had it decided at councils (as at Vienna, in
1267) that no Jew should be permitted in a bath-house or drinking-
saloon or an inn ; that no Christian should dare buy meat of a Jew,
since he might thus be treacherously poisoned. The Synod of Sala-
manca, of the year 1335, declared that physicians of the Mosaic faith
offered their services only because they wished to destroy, as far as
they could, the Christian people, and so, in effect, the population of
all Europe.

In this way the seeds of hate and detestation were sown, and whole-
sale murder was the harvest. Accustomed to the view that every Jew
is a born enemy and debtor to the Christians, the nations, in a time
when what was cruel and unnatural was credulously laid hold of with
a kind of predilection and even eagerness, held the Jews to be capable
of every crime, even the most improbable and impossible. After the
twelfth century, the story went about that the Jews craved Christian
blood, some imagined for their festival of the passover, others as a
remedy against a secret hereditary disease ; and, to get it, that they
put a boy to death every year. In addition, a pretense was made of
knowing that they crucified a Christian every year in mockery of the
Redeemer.

If a corpse, on which there were signs of violence, or a dead child,
was found anywhere, a Jew must have been the murderer ; generally,
the crime was supposed to have been committed by a number jointly,
and torture was continued till it extorted confessions. Then followed
horrible executions, and in many cases a general butchering of the
whole Jewish population in town and country. An orderly, unpreju-
diced judicial procedure was not to be thought of. The judges and
magistrates trembled themselves before the rage of the populace, which
had its mind made up from the start, and held fast to the presumption
that the most infamous deeds might be expected of every member of
this murderous people. Occasionally, it was an image of Christ, which
a Jew was said to have pierced with a knife or mutilated, that gave
the signal for a massacre. After the year 1290, rumors of maltreated
and miraculously bleeding Hosts were added. From Paris, where the
first case had happened, the news spread to the neighboring countries.
Very soon the possession of a similar miraculous treasure was coveted
elsewhere; and now it appeared as if the Jews, seized by a demoniacal
frenzy, at once believed and disbelieved an ecclesiastical dogma, and
had an irrepressible desire for an agonizing death — so frequently were
these ostensible outrages revenged upon them.

In London the Jews were murdered because they were suspected

* Cf. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, iv, 22-31. — (Translator.)

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 21

5

of plotting to burn the great city with Greek fire. The great plague,
which in 1348 swept over and depopulated all Europe, could only, it
was easily known, proceed from the Jews. The fact that the sober
and temperately living people were much less affected by the plague
than the Christians, converted the bare suspicion into a certainty.
They had everywhere, in consequence of a great conspiracy, in which
the houses of lepers had also taken part, poisoned the springs and
wells, and even the rivers. In Zofingen it was pretended that actual
poison was found in one of the wells. On the rack some Jews and
lepers confessed to the deed. There hence burst forth a storm of
fanaticism, of bestial revenge and vulgar avarice, such as has never
before nor since been seen in Europe. The victims were counted in
single towns by thousands. Many anticipated the rage of the mob by
taking their own lives. To no purpose did Pope Clement VI declare
in two bulls that the Jews were innocent. Those who saved them-
selves by a swift flight found an asylum only in distant Lithuania.

Still, not merely on account of religion and the fictitious crime did
the popular hatred direct itself against the Jews ; there was in addi-
tion a third motive, acting just as, if not more strongly. The Jews
loaned money on interest, they were usurers ; they carried on an in-
deed indispensable but none the less sinful business, and fleeced, so
the saying was, the Christians. The accusation was not untrue, and
yet unjust.

Popes and councils, supporting themselves upon an incorrect inter-
pretation of Luke vi, 35,* have since the end of the eighth century
with one voice and with a continually increasing rigor, condemned
and visited with ecclesiastical penalties all taking of interest, in what-
ever form, on loaned capital. In the early Church, only the clergy
were forbidden to take interest ; but, as the influence of the Papal
chair increased, the prohibition was extended to the laity also.

No distinction was made between interest and usury, but every
stipulation for or taking of the slightest amount over and above the
capital that had been loaned was forbidden by the Popes and councils,
a prohibition from which there could be (as Alexis III, in 1179, de-
clared) in no case a dispensation. To this Clement V at the Council
of Vienna added the decision that it is heresy to assert that the taking
of interest is not a sin.

Unendurable fetters were thereby placed upon all commerce and
business ; and Pope Gregory IX declared even the money advances,
with interest stipulated, which maritime traffic requires, to be dam-
nable usury. The Church had thereby placed itself in contradiction
with the nature of things, with the indispensable requirements of
civil life and of general trade ; she might, indeed, prevent her own
members from taking interest, but she could not command or compel

* The revised translation reads, "and lend, never despairing," in place of the old
translation, il and lend* hoping for nothing again." — (Translator.)

2i 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

them to loan out their money without interest. On account of the
general lack of ready money in a time when the supply of gold and
silver metal was continually decreasing, and a currency to take their
place had not been devised, everybody from the highest to the lowest
came very frequently to a pass where they must borrow money ; and
since trade in money was strictly forbidden to the Christians, and
could only be carried on by them when veiled under other forms of
business or in roundabout ways, the Jews, who were excluded from
other branches of industry and positions in life, entered upon it. An
industrious people the Jews have ever been. As long as they formed
a state of their own, their principal occupations were agriculture,
horticulture, and the trades. In their hands Palestine had become
one of the best cultivated and most fruitful lands of the earth. The
Mosaic legislation was intended to encourage the improvement of the
soil, and to further the cultivation of grain, wine, and oil. Further,
in the first centuries after Christ, and after the destruction of the
Jewish state, the people remained faithful to their old customs.
Josephus, in the beginning of the second century, still praises the
industry of his countrymen in their trades and in agriculture.

There is no evidence to be found in the Roman literature and the
laws of the emperors that the Jews had given themselves up to shrewd
bargaining and small trading, or in general had become a commercial
people. The numerous Jews that lived in Rome appear to have been
poor. Further, the violent and extremely bloody risings of the Jews
in Egypt and Cyrene, and on the islands (of the Mediterranean) in-
dicate that they did not form a commercial population or one dealing
in small wares, for such a class of people do not often take up arms.
Even as late as the tenth century, they formed a stationary population
in Spain, Southern France, and even in Germany. This condition,
however, they could not maintain in face of the hostility of the Church
and of the people, and moreover, after the rise of the Italian maritime
and commercial cities with their merchant-fleets, they lost their hold
upon the commerce between the West and the Orient. The concen-
tration of trade in the guilds and the exclusion of the Jews from ordi-
nary intercourse with Christians made it impossible for them to be-
come artisans. Just as little could they live on agriculture, since they
were almost everywhere forbidden to own land. Cardinal James, of
Vitry, who knew the Orient well, observes in the year 1244, "Among
the Mohammedans the Jews ply handicrafts, although it is only the
lower and despised branches that they occupy themselves with, but
among the Christians they live on the business of loaning money."
The thought forces itself upon us, how great a benefit would have
been conferred upon the world, Christian and Jewish alike, if a cardi-
nal or a Pope at that time had reflected upon this contrast between
the Jews under the Crescent and the Jews under the Cross, and had
drawn from it the practical inferences that lie so near at hand.

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 217

In addition, the physician's calling was as a rule closed to the Jews,
although in Mohammedan countries it was precisely as physicians that
they won high distinction ; for the councils forbade a sick person, on
pain of excommunication, to take medicine from a Jewish physician —
it being better, as they declared, to die than to be healed by an infidel ?
They were further excluded from all schools, high and low. Whoever
had a desire for knowledge must become a rabbi, and if, as a very rare
exception, a prince, like Alfonso X of Castile, made use of Jewish
mathematicians and astronomers, the education of these men was ob-
tained in lands where the Koran ruled. The taking of interest on
loans from strangers was permitted to the Jews by their law, and the
supposed prohibition by Christ was believed at first by both parties
not to be binding upon the Jews. The matter changed, however,
after Innocent III. At the end of the twelfth century, theologians
and canonical writers taught that, in accordance with natural law as
well as the divinely revealed law of the Old and New Testaments, the
taking of interest in general is forbidden and is a sin. Innocent III
ordered, therefore, that the Jews should be compelled to give back the
interest they had collected, and to this end introduced an expedient that
had not been used before, viz., that Christians should be compelled,
on pain of excommunication, to break off all intercourse with those
Jews who refused to make the returns. This amounted, in case the
programme was strictly carried out, to delivering them over to death
by starvation. Hence arose sad confusion and conflicts of many kinds.
The bishops, whose duty it was to pronounce excommunication, were
disposed often to execute their task in good earnest ; and the synods
(for example, that at Avignon in 1209) urged them to do so. The
princes, on the other hand, in whose interest and as whose servants
the Jews carried on their money-lending, protected them ; or, on the
other hand, as happened in not a few cases, confiscated their entire
property for their own use, on the plea that it had been gained by
taking interest. Sometimes they even compelled Christian debtors to
pay the outstanding interest into their own treasury.

Interminable confusion to clergy and laity was the result of the
action of the hierarchy in forbidding the taking of interest, and the
canonical writers vexed themselves to invent distinctions and find ways
of escape out of the labyrinth. In innumerable cases they found them-
selves helpless in face of the actual circumstances and practically aban-
doned the principle, although in theory no one could attack it on pain
of death. In real consistency, the Christians should have been forbid-
den to borrow on interest, since by so doing they enticed the Jews to
sin. But Popes, bishops, clergy, were themselves often in a situation
in which they must seek for a loan and pay the interest ; in fact, the
whole organization of the curia, the management of the system of
benefices, the taxation of the clergy by the Popes, were calculated to
make bishops, clergy, monasteries, and chapters liable to the payment

2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of interest to Jewish capitalists. Under these circumstances the canon-
ical writers finally decided that, being in any case lost, it was imma-
terial whether the Jews committed a few more or a few less sins ; the
borrowing Christians, however, were excused by their necessities.

The interest demanded by the Jews was, it is true, exceedingly
high, and often beyond the power of the debtor to pay, but this was a
result of the value of money at the time, of the scarcity of coin, and
above all, of the oppressive amounts which the Jews were obliged to
pay to princes and town authorities. The Caorsines and the great
Italian bankers put their demands just as high as the Jews, and where
they got the trade in money into their own hands the desire arose, as
for example in Paris at the beginning of the fourteenth century, to
have the Jews back again, since their activity as money-lenders wras,
on the whole, in many ways beneficial, and at that time irreplaceable.
They did for the northern countries and for Spain what was done for
Italy by the bankers' associations of the so-called Lombards, and by
the money-brokers of Asti, Sienna, Florence, and other cities, who
were partly patronized and partly silently tolerated (and in either case
frequently called into requisition) by the Popes and bishops. In France
and England there was even at times competition between Lombard
and Jew. The Emperor Louis's son, Louis the Brandenburger, issued
in the year 1352 a public invitation to the Jews to settle free of tax-
ation in his land, because " since the time when the Jews were de-
stroyed (referring to the great massacre of 1348), there has been every-
where, both among rich and poor, a deficiency in ready money."

-o^-o-

I

CHEMISTRY IN HIGH-SCHOOLS.

By ELISA A. BOWEN.

HAVE, for some years, been trying to improve the teaching of
chemistry in girls' schools. It is, of course, work of the most
elementary character. I wished earnestly to make it, so far as it went,
inductive study — in other words, to train the observing powers to se-
lect for themselves the significant facts ; and to train the reasoning
powers to draw for themselves, with some degree of independence,
the more important of the general principles which we call the theory
of chemistry.

When I began to teach this subject, about six years ago, the pro-
gressive teachers had become dissatisfied with the old plan of book-
study or lecture, with experiments by the teacher. The best thing
offered as improvement was the performance of experiments by the
pupils themselves. This was certainly an important advance ; and
manipulation is, first or last, essential to any complete knowledge of

CHEMISTRY IN HIGH-SCHOOLS. 219

chemistry. But it is not all that is needed. Mental activity is the
important thing.

I will illustrate the plan which has proved best in my own experi-
ence, merely saying, first, that even where pupils have studied physics,
I have a preliminary drill to make sure the girls are quite clear about
the forms of matter, the properties of liquids and gases, attractive and
repulsive forces. I do not say a word to them about chemical attrac-
tion, because I wish them to study that out for themselves. Some-
times they have already learned by heart a definition from some book
on physics ; but, as Thomas Carlyle would say, " by the blessing of
Heaven they have generally forgotten it."

I think the best experiment to begin with is the evolution of oxy-
gen gas by heating the red oxide of mercury. This is not the easiest
or the most convenient way of obtaining oxygen, but it is much the
simplest process.* I do not usually tell my pupils anything — not
even what the substance is which they are to make ; but they know
I shall question them closely about what they have seen. When the
experiment is concluded — the gas tested with a glowing taper ; the
residue of mercury examined ; and a little of the red oxide put into
water and stirred, to show that it will not dissolve — I usually ask
questions about as follows :

" When the jar was lifted from the water to the shelf, why did
not the water fall out ? Why did the water afterward sink in the
jar ? Did you see anything in the jar as the water fell ? Why do
you think there was anything in the upper part of the jar ? What
form of matter was it ? How do you know that it was not air ? How
was it like air? How was it unlike air ? Had it color or smell ? Did
it burn ? What was it burned ? Did the gas have anything to do
with the burning ? " f I then tell them the gas is called oxygen ; and
I write on my blackboard the name and symbol, with a list of the
properties which they have just discovered.

I then proceed to ask : " What remained in the ignition tube at
the close of the experiment ? What form of matter was it ? Did
you ever before see anything with that shiny luster ? What class of
bodies have it ? " Then I tell those who do not already know that it
is mercury, and I give the symbol, Hg.

I then say : " Where were the gas and the liquid when that red
powder was placed in the tube ? What became of the powder ? Did
it take any force to separate the gas and liquid which you say formed
the powder? What was the force? What sort of a force is heat?
Do you suppose any force held the oxygen and mercury togeth-
er ? Do you know a general name given to forces which unite

* I always, of course, have ready a quantity previously otherwise made.

f I find that pupils will at first, of themselves, make the somewhat conventional dis-
tinction between " combustibles " and " supporters of combustion." For a while I let
this pass.

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bodies ? Name some kinds of attraction. Is this force cohesion ?
Why not ? Is it adhesion ? Why not ? " I finally tell them the force
is called chemical attraction, and I call on them to put into words a
clear definition of chemical attraction. As they do so, I simply criti-
cise the successive trials they make, until the definition is correct in
matter and form ; and then, after making them repeat it several times
in concert, I write it on the blackboard.

By similar questions, which I will not weary the reader by repeat-
ing, I make them draw from the same experiment facts and definitions
about elements, simple substances, compounds, oxides, decomposition,
etc., etc.

In my life, I have taught a great deal of Latin and English, but I
know no such language-lesson as is given when a class, under the fire
of a skillful teacher's criticism, slowly perfects a clear logical state-
ment, or definition, for which they have gained the material by using
their own senses and reason. My pupils keep note-books, and at every
lesson bring me, neatly written out, the substance of the previous lesson.

I have given above only a samj)le of the general tenor of questions.
Sometimes some misapprehension on the part of pupils makes me di-
verge widely to bring them back on the track.

I endeavor to make the subject as practical as possible by having
pupils study the chemistry of common operations. After the above
experiment, I usually introduce the subject of air by asking : " Why
did the taper at last fail to light again when dipped into the jar ?
What had become of the oxygen in the jar? Did the remains of the
burned paper look like the remains when paper is burned in the air ? "

After this I take a bit of sodium and burn it in oxygen. I also
oxidize some in the air. I show, by testing, that the oxygen has dis-
appeared from the jar. I test the first oxide with red litmus, both be-
fore and after dissolving in water. I let the pupils taste a little of a
very dilute solution. I then ask questions about sodium just as I did
about oxygen and mercury. I ask what has become of the oxygen
and the sodium ; what unites them ; what the force is called ; draw
them on to classify the result of the union as a compound and an ox-
ide ; draw them on to note the properties of the compound. Then I
have them test the oxide formed in the air just as the other was
tested. I ask : " Is this a compound ? Do you think you know either
of its elements ? Of which one are you sure ? Do you think you
know the other element ? Why do you think it is oxygen ? Where
did the oxygen come from ? What other reason have you for thinking
the air contains oxygen ? "

I wait for further experiments before indorsing their partly formed
conclusion about oxygen in the air. We next make some study of
carbon by burning coal in oxygen. I have them test the result with
lime-water. We burn coal in a receiver of air, and test this result also.
I have some powdered charcoal heated in contact with the red oxide

CHEMISTRY IN HIGH-SCHOOLS. 221

of mercury, and that result tested. Every particle of information
which observation can draw from these experiments is carefully elicited
by questions such as I have described.

At this point I usually inform them that the red oxide of mercury
is sometimes made by heating mercury a long time in contact with air.
They commonly by this time consider the evidence of oxygen in the
air pretty conclusive. I next lead them to think about the air we
breathe : whether it comes from our lungs unchanged ; to think of
some way of testing whether it contains free oxygen. I have them
test the breath with lime-water, discuss the effect of the union of car-
bon and oxygen, especially the heat.

In all this I tell them very little. I become greatly interested in
seeing how much I can get them to do for themselves. I simply try to
stimulate and get them on the right track. At this point I usually
ask them whether they think the air contains anything besides oxygen,
and set them to discussing ways of getting at the other element in air.

Devising experiments is a very important part of chemical train-
ing, and, where the pupil sees beforehand some question to settle, he
can be made to do it. By rousing him to think, criticising his crude
plan, and showing, or making him think of, its defects, it can be done.
Pupils will devise the well-known experiment of burning away oxygen
from air, but of course they must ■ be told that phosphorus is the best
combustible for their purpose. By taking up the various requirements
of the experiment separately, they will suggest nearly everything.

But before the experiment is actually carried out, to prevent the
confusion which would arise from the vapor of phosphoric anhydride,
I have them make a little study of phosphorus. It is examined, burned
in oxygen, burned in air, the anhydride noted, its great affinity for wa-
ter, its behavior to litmus both before and after union with water, its
taste noted, etc. After this we use phosphorus to help us study the
composition of air. The girls note (approximately) the proportion of
oxygen to nitrogen.

We test the air for carbonic acid ; discuss the moisture in it, etc. ;
and then I have them make some study of water. To do this I first
put a bit of sodium in a very small cage of wire gauze, and thrust it
under a little water. The result is tested, and shown to be the same
compound they before knew. When they are satisfied that the oxy-
gen must come from the water, we collect hydrogen and examine it.
I have them also note the new method of decomposition. Then we
have the proof by synthesis, burning hydrogen and collecting a little
of the water.

As we proceed, my pupils begin to think ahead of questions, and
their perceptions grow sharper.*

* In final review, I employ the topical method of recitation, but this method is too
loose for investigation, which must be held down to accuracy, by well-considered ques-
tions, taking up one pqjnt at a time.

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

If, after this, we decompose water by a battery, the students will
at once recognize the process for themselves as decomposition ; and it
confirms their previous analysis of water. But, if I begin experiment-
in cr by battery decomposition, they can not study out for themselves
the rationale of the process. Of course, the teacher can explain and
point out and make it understood, but they take it all pretty much
upon authority, and their minds are far less active and independent.
And so, of making oxygen at first with potassium chlorate. The
chlorate is a less simple substance than the red oxide of mercury ;
and the presence of the binoxide of manganese, with the catalysis,
complicates the process.

While directing this experimental study I do not tell them any of
the facts which come on testimony, unless, like the fact about the
making of the red oxide of mercury, it is a necessary step in some
chain of reasoning which they can make out mainly for themselves.

The precautions necessary in using such substances as sodium make
it unwise and imprudent to set careless young folks to handling them.
One accident would bring lasting disrepute on our chemical study.

Showy experiments are demoralizing, though they excite for the
time a sensational interest. But, when young folks really think for
themselves, they are so pleased with it that they can take the highest
interest in a very simple process. There is an experiment which I
learned from that capital book, "Eliot and Storer's Chemistry," which
illustrates a good many things I have said. It is designed to show the
great diffusibility of hydrogen. A tube, closed at one end with plas-
ter of Paris, is filled with hydrogen, and put in a tumbler of water for
a day or two. The water first rises in the tube, then sinks to the level
of that in the tumbler, in consequence of hydrogen escaping faster
than air comes in. When I first taught chemistry, my pupils took no
interest in this experiment. When I tried making them discuss the
changes, and discover for themselves the property of hydrogen which
causes them (which they do with all ease), they find it more interesting
than the burning of phosphorus in oxygen. This experiment shows,
too, how genuine inductive teaching must necessarily be oral teaching,
for a text-book merely tells the philosophy of the changes, which is
precisely the thing the pupils ought not to be told.

When chemistry is taught inductively, the order in which the sub-
ject is presented becomes important. It is of the highest consequence
that the more' dependent parts of the science should not be put for-
ward in the beginning. I do not think the order of our American
text-books so good as that of Stockhardt.

I will state, in a very few words, the order which seems to me best.
I usually make the pupil study, first, the individual properties of the
thirty chief elements, taking up no compounds but oxides and hydro-
gen acids. The pupil should test the oxides with red or blue litmus ;
note the acid or basic taste ; note which are insoluble in water. The

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 223

difference between hydrates and anhydrides should be clearly brought
out, and the part which hydrogen plays. After this survey, the pupil,
for himself, without prompting, divides the elements into their two
great classes.

Then, after some little study of sulphides and the other binary
compounds, the principal acids and bases should be shown in their
concentrated form. After this, a number of them should be combined
to form salts, and, in doing this, it should be brought out very clearly
{by, not for the pupil) how the bases replace the hydrogen of the acid.
There should also be some general study of crystallization.

It would be easy to multiply suggestions, but it has been my pur-
pose in this brief paper simply to describe what I have tried, and give
only the results of experience.

•»o»

A NEW THEOKY OF THE SUN".

THE CONSERVATION" OF SOLAR ENERGY.

By C. WILLIAM SIEMENS.

A PAPER was recently read by me before the Royal Society,
under the above title, which may be termed a first attempt to
open for the sun a creditor and debtor account, inasmuch as he has
hitherto been regarded only as the great almoner, pouring forth inces-
santly his boundless wealth of heat, without receiving any of it back.
Such a proposal touches the root of solar physics, and can not there-
fore be expected to pass without challenge — to meet which I gladly
embrace the opportunity, now offered to me through the courtesy of
the editor of this review, of enlarging somewhat upon the first concise
statement of my views regarding this question.

Man has from the .very earliest ages looked up with a feeling of
awe and wonderment to our great luminary, to whom we owe not only
the light of day, but the genial warmth by which we live, by which
our hills are clad with verdure, our rivers flow, and without which
our life-sustaining food, both vegetable and animal, could not be pro-
duced.

When for our comfort and our use we resort to a fire either of
wood. or coal, we know now by the light of modern science that we are
utilizing only solar rays that have been stored up by the aid of the
process of vegetation in our forests or in the forests of former geolog-
ical ages, when our coal-fields were the scenes of rank tropical growth.
The potency of the solar ray in this respect was recognized — even be-
fore science had discovered its true significance — by clear-sighted men
such as the late George Stephenson, who, when asked what in his opin-

224 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ion was the ultimate cause of the motion of his locomotive-engine, said
that he thought it went by "the bottled-up rays of the sun."

With the exception of our coal-fields and a few elementary com-
bustible substances such as sulphur and what are called the precious
metals, which we find sparsely scattered about, our earth consists es-
sentially of combined matter. Thus our rivers, lakes, and oceans are
filled with oxidized hydrogen, the result of a most powerful combus-
tion ; and the crust of our earth is found to consist either of quartz (a
combination of the metal silicon with oxygen) or limestone (oxidized
calcium combined with oxidized carbon), or of other metals, such as
magnesium, aluminium, or iron, oxidized and combined in a similar
manner. Excepting, therefore, the few substances before enumerated,
we may look upon our earth, near its surface at any rate, as a huge
ball of cinder, which, if left to itself, would soon become intensely
cold, and devoid of life or animation of any kind.

It is true that a goodly store of heat still exists in the interior of
our earth, which, according to some geologists, is in a state of fusion,
and must certainly be in a highly heated condition ; but this internal
heat would be of no avail, owing to the slow rate of conduction, by
which alone, excepting volcanic action, it could be brought to us liv-
ing upon its surface.

An estimate of the amount of heat poured down annually upon the
surface of our earth may be formed from the fact that it exceeds a
million times the heat producible by all the coal raised, which may be
taken at 280,000,000 tons a year.

If, then, we depend upon solar radiation for our very existence from
day to day, it can not be said that we are only remotely interested in
solar physics, and the question whether and how solar energy, com-
prising the rays of heat, of light, and the actinic rays, is likely to be
maintained, is one in which we have at least as great a reversionary
interest as we have in landed estate or other property.

If the amount of heat, or, more correctly speaking, of energy, sup-
plied annually to our earth is great as compare^ with terrestrial quan-
tities, that scattered abroad in all directions by the sun strikes us as
something almost beyond conception.

The amount of heat radiated from the sun has been approximately
computed by the aid of the pyrheliometer of Pouillet, and by the
actinometers of Herschel, at 18,000,000 heat-units from every square
foot of its surface per hour ; or, expressed popularly, if coal were con-
sumed on the surface of the sun in the most perfect manner, our total
annual production of 280,000,000 tons, being the estimated produce of
all the coal-mines of the earth, would suffice to keep up solar radiation
for only one forty-millionth part of a second ; or, if the earth were a
mass of coal, and could be supplied by contract to the solar furnace-
men, this supply would last them just thirty-six hours.

If the sun were surrounded by a solid sphere of a radius equal to

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 225

the mean distance of the sun from the earth (95,000,000 miles), the
whole of this prodigious amount of heat would be intercepted ; but
considering that the earth's apparent diameter as seen from the sun is
only seventeen seconds, the earth can intercept only the 2,250-millionth
part. Assuming that the other planetary bodies swell the amount of
intercepted heat to ten times this amount, there remains the important
fact that f|f 000000 °f tne s°lar energy is radiated into space, and
apparently lost to the solar system, and only 22goS0ooo utilized or in-
tercepted.

Notwithstanding this enormous loss of heat, solar temperature
has not diminished sensibly for centuries, if we neglect the periodic
changes, apparently connected with the appearance of sun -spots, that
have been observed by Lockyer and others, and the question forces
itself upon us, how this great loss can be sustained without producing
an observable diminution of solar temperature, even within a human
life-time.

Among the ingenious hypotheses intended to account for a con-
tinuance of solar heat is that of shrinkage or gradual reduction of the
sun's volume, suggested by Helmholtz. It may, however, be argued
against this theory that the heat so produced would be liberated
throughout its mass, and would have to be brought to the surface by
conduction, aided perhaps by convection; but we know of no material
of sufficient conductivity to transmit anything approaching the amount
of heat lost by radiation.

Chemical action between the constituent parts of the sun has also
been suggested ; but here again we are met by the difficulty that the
products of such combination would, ere this, have accumulated on the
surface, and would have formed a barrier against further action.

These difficulties led Sir William Thomson to the suggestion that
the cause of maintenance of solar temperature might be found in the
circumstance of meteorites, not falling upon the sun from great dis-
tances in space, as had been suggested by Mayer and Waterton, but
circulating with an acquired velocity within the planetary distances of
the sun, and he shows that each pound of matter so imported would
represent a large number of heat-units, without disturbing the plan-
etary equilibrium. But in considering more fully the enormous amount
of planetary matter that would be required for the maintenance of the
solar temperature, Sir William Thomson soon abandoned this hypoth-
esis for that of simple transfer of heat from the interior of a fluid sun
to the surface by means of convection-currents, which latter hypothesis
is at the present time supported by Professor Stokes and other leading
physicists.

This theory has certainly the advantage of accounting for the
greatest possible store of heat within the solar mass, because it sup-
poses the latter to consist in the main of a fluid heated to such a tem-
perature that, if it wfere relieved at any point of the confining pressure,
vol. xxi. — 15

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

it would flash into gas of a vastly inferior, but still of an elevated,
temperature. It is supposed that such fluid material, or material in
the " critical " condition, as Professor Thomas Andrews, of Belfast, has
named it, is continually transferred to the surface by means of convec-
tion-currents, that is to say, by currents forming naturally when a
fluid substance is cooled at its upper surface, and sinks down after
cooling to make room for ascending material at the comparatively
higher temperature. It is owing to such convection-currents that the
tenrperature of a room is, generally speaking, higher toward the ceil-
ing than toward the floor, and that upon plunging a thermometer into
a tank of heated water the surface temperature is found slightly supe-
rior to that near the bottom.

These convection-currents owe their existence to a preponderance
of the cooled descending over the ascending current ; but this differ-
ence being slight, and the ascending and descending currents inter-
mixing freely, they are, generally speaking, of a sluggish character ;
hence, in all heating apparatus, it is found essential to resort either to
artificial propulsion, or to separating walls between the ascending and
the descending currents, in order to give effect to the convective
transfer of heat.

In the case of a fluid sun another difficulty presents itself through
the circumstance that the vast liquid interior is enveloped in a gaseous
atmosphere, which, although perhaps some thousands of miles in depth,
represents a relatively very small store of heat. Convection-currents
may be supposed active in both the gaseous atmosphere and in the
fluid ocean below, but the surface of this fluid must necessarily con-
stitute a barrier between the two convective systems, nor could the
convective action of the gaseous atmosphere — that is to say, the simple
up and down currents caused by surface refrigeration — be such as to
disturb the liquid surface below to any great extent, because each
descending current would have had plenty of time to get intermixed
with its neighboring ascending current, and would, therefore, have
reached its least intensity on arriving on the liquid surface.

As regards the liquid, its most favorable condition for heating
purposes would be at the critical point, or that at which the slightest
diminution of superincumbent pressure would make it flash off into
gas ; but considering that, by means of conduction and convection, the
liquid matter must have assumed, in the course of ages, a practically
uniform temperature to a very considerable depth, it follows that the
liquid below the surface, with fluid pressure in addition to that of the
superimposed gaseous atmosphere, must be ordinary fluid, the critical
condition being essentially confined only to the surface.

Conditions analogous to those here contemplated are met with in
a high-pressure steam-boiler, with its heated water and dense vapor
atmosphere. Suppose the fire below such a boiler be withdrawn, and
its roof be exposed to active radiation into space, what should we ob-

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 227

serve through a strong pane of glass inserted in the side of the boiler
near the liquid surface, lit up by an incandescent electric lamp within ?
The loss of heat by radiation from the boiler would give rise to con-
vection-currents, and partial condensation of the vapor atmosphere ;
then, if the motion of the water were made visible by means of coloring
matter, we should observe convection-currents in the fluid mass sepa-
rate and distinct from those in the gaseous mass ; but these convection-
currents would cause no visible disturbance of the liquid surface, which
would present itself to the eye with the smoothness of a mirror. It is
only in the event of the steam-pressure being suddenly relieved at any
point on the surface that a portion of the water would flash into steam,
causing a violent upheaval of the liquid.

The dark spots on the sun appear to indicate commotion of this
description, but these are evidently not the result of mere convection-
currents ; if they were, they would occur indiscriminately over the
entire surface of the sun, whereas telescopic observation has revealed
the fact that they do occur almost exclusively in two belts, between
the equator and the polar surfaces on either side. Their occurrence
could be satisfactorily explained if we could suppose the existence of
strong lateral currents flowing from the polar surfaces toward the
equator, which lateral currents in the solar atmosphere would cause
cyclones or vortex action with a lower and denser atmosphere consist-
ing probably of metallic vapors ; this vortex action extending down-
ward would relieve the fluid ocean locally from pressure, and give rise
to explosive outbursts of enormous magnitude, projecting the lower
atmosphere high above the photosphere, with a velocity measured,
according to Lockyer, by a thousand miles a second. It will be seen
from what follows how, according to my views, such vortex action
in those intermediate regions of the sun would necessarily be pro-
duced.

But supposing that, notwithstanding the difficulties just pointed
out, convection-currrents sufficed to effect a transfer of internal heat
to the surface with sufficient rapidity to account for the enormous
surf ace-loss by radiation, we should only have the poor satisfaction of
knowing that the available store would last longer than might have
been expected, whereas a complete solution of the problem would be
furnished by a theory, according to which the radiant energy which is
now supposed to be dissipated into space and irrecoverably lost to our
solar system, could be arrested and brought back in another form to
the sun himself, there to continue the work of solar radiation.

Some six years ago the thought occurred to me that such a solution
of the solar problem might not lie beyond the bounds of possibility,
and, although I can not claim intimate acquaintance with the intrica-
cies of solar physics, I have watched its progress, and have engaged
also in some physical experiments bearing upon the question, all of
which have served> to strengthen my confidence, and to ripen in me

228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the determination to submit my views, not without some misgiving, to
the touchstone of scientific criticism.

For the purposes of my theory, stellar space is supposed to be filled
with highly rarefied gaseous bodies, including hydrogen, oxygen, nitro-
gen, carbon, and their compounds, besides solid materials in the form
of dust. Each planetary body would in that case attract to itself an
atmosphere depending for density upon its relative attractive impor-
tance, and it would not seem unreasonable to suppose that the heavier
and less diffusible gases would form the staple of these local atmos-
pheres ; that, in fact, they would consist mostly of nitrogen, oxygen,
and carbonic acid, while hydrogen and its compounds would pre-
dominate in space.

In support of this view it may be urged that, in following out the
molecular theory of gases as laid down by Clausius, Clerk Maxwell,
and Thomson, it would be difficult to assign a limit to a gaseous at-
mosphere in space ; and, further, that some writers — among whom I
will here mention only Grove, Humboldt, Zollner, and Mattieu "Wil-
liams— have boldly asserted the existence of a sj>ace filled with matter.
But Newton himself, as Dr. Sterry Hunt tells us in -an interesting
paper which has only just reached me, has expressed views in favor of
such an assumption.

The history of Newton's paper is remarkable and very suggestive.
It was read before the Royal Society on the 9th and 16th of Decem-
ber, 1675, and remained unpublished until 1757, when it was printed
by Birch, the then secretary, in the third volume of his " History of
the Royal Society," but received no attention ; in 1846 it was pub-
lished in the "Philosophical Magazine " at the suggestion of Harcourt,
but was again disregarded ; and now, once more, only a few months
since, a philosopher on the other side of the Atlantic brings back to
the birthplace of Newton his forgotten and almost desjrised work of
two hundred years ago.

Quoting from Dr. Sterry Hunt's paper :

Newton in his Hypothesis imagines "an ethereal medium much of the same
constitution with air, but far rarer, subtler, aud more elastic. . . . But it is not
to be supposed that this medium is one uniform matter, but composed partly of
the main phlegmatic body of ether, partly of other various ethereal spirits, much
after the manner that air is compounded of the phlegmatic body of air inter-
mixed with various vapors and exhalations." Newton further suggests in his
Hypothesis that this complex spirit or ether, which, by its elasticity, is extended
throughout all space, is in continual movement and interchange. '* For Nature
is a perpetual circulatory worker, generating fluids out of solids, and solids out
fluids ; fixed things out of volatile, and volatile out of fixed ; subtile out of
gross, and gross out of subtile ; some things to ascend and make the upper ter-
restrial juices, rivers, and the atmosphere, and by consequence others to descend
for a requital to the former. And as the earth, so perhaps may the sun imbibe
this spirit copiously, to conserve his shining, and keep the planets from receding
further from him ; and they that will may also suppose that this spirit affords or

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN 229

carries with it thither the solary fuel and material principle of life, and that the
vast ethereal spaces between us and the stars are for a sufficient repository for
this food of the sun and planets. . . . Thus, perhaps, may all things be originated
from ether."

If at the time of Newton chemistry had been understood as it now
is, and if, moreover, he had been armed with that most wonderful of
all modern scientific instruments, the spectroscope, the direct outcome
of his own prismatic analysis, there appears to be no doubt that the
author of the laws of gravitation would have so developed his thoughts
upon solar fuel that they would have taken the form rather of a sci-
entific discovery than of a mere speculation.

Our proof that interstellar space is filled with attenuated matter
does not rest, however, solely upon the uncertain ground of speculation.
We receive occasionally upon our earth celestial visitors termed meteor-
ites ; these are known to travel in loose masses round the sun in orbits
intersecting at certain points that of our earth. When in their tran-
sit they pass through the denser portion of our atmosphere they be-
come incandescent, and are popularly known as falling stars. In some
cases they are really deserving of that name, because they strike down
upon our earth, from the surface of which they have been picked up
and subjected to searching examination while still warm after their
exertion. Dr. Flight has only very recently communicated to the
Royal Society an analysis of the occluded gases of one of these mete-
orites as follows :

COa (Carbonic acid) 0-12

CO (Carbonic oxide) 31-88

H (Hydrogen) 45*79

CH4 (Marsh-gas) 4-55

N (Nitrogen) 17*66

100-00

It appears surprising that there was no aqueous vapor, considering
that there was much hydrogen and oxygen in combination with car-
bon ; but perhaps the vapor escaped observation, or was expelled to a
greater extent than the other gases by external heat when the meteor-
ite passed through our atmosphere. Opinions concur that the gases
found occluded in meteorites can not be supposed to have entered
into their composition during the very short period of traversing our
denser atmosphere ; but, if any doubt should exist on this head, it
ought to be set at rest by the fact that the gas principally occluded is
hydrogen, which is not contained in our atmosphere in any appreciable
quantity.

Further proof of the fact that stellar space is filled with gaseous
matter is furnished by spectrum analysis, and it appears from recent
investigation, by Dr. Huggins and others, that the nucleus of a comet
contains very much^ the same gases found occluded in meteorites, in-

230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

eluding " carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and probably oxygen," while,
according to the views set forth by Dewar and Liveing, it also con-
tains nitrogenous compounds such as cyanogen.

Adversely to the assumption that interplanetary space is filled with
gases, it is urged that the presence of ordinary matter would cause
sensible retardation of planetary motion, such as must have made itself
felt before this ; but, assuming that the matter filling space is an al-
most perfect fluid not limited by border surfaces, it can be shown on
purely mechanical grounds that the retardation by friction through
such an attenuated medium would be very slight indeed, even at plan-
etary velocities.

But it may be contended that, if the views here advocated regard-
ing the distribution of gases were true, the sun should draw to him-
self the bulk of the least diffusible, and therefore the heaviest gases,
such as carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, oxygen, and nitrogen, whereas
spectrum analysis has proved, on the contrary, a great prevalence of
hydrogen.

In explanation of this seeming anomaly, it can be shown, in the
first place, that the temperature of the sun is so high that such com-
pound gases as carbonic acid and carbonic oxide could not exist within
him, their point of dissociation being very much below the solar tem-
perature. It has been contended, indeed, by Mr. Lockyer, that none
of the metalloids have any existence at these temperatures, although
as regards oxygen Dr. Draper asserts its existence in the solar photo-
sphere. There must be regions, however, outside that thermal limit,
where their existence would not be jeopardized by heat ; and here
great accumulation of the comparatively heavy gases that constitute
our atmosphere would probably take place, were it not for a certain
counterbalancing action.

I here approach a point of primary importance in my argument,
upon the proof of which my further conclusions must depend.

The sun completes one revolution on its axis in twenty-five days,
and its diameter being taken at 882,000 miles, it follows that the
tangential velocity amounts to 1*25 miles per second, or to what the
tangential velocity of our earth would be if it occupied five hours
instead of twenty-four in accomplishing one revolution. This high
rotative velocity of the sun must cause an equatorial rise of the solar
atmosphere, to which Mairan, in 1731, attributed the appearance of
zodiacal light. Laplace rejected this explanation on the ground that
zodiacal light extended to a distance from the sun exceeding our own,
whereas the equatorial rise of the solar atmosphere due to its rotation
could not exceed nine twentieths of the distance of Mercury. But it
must be remembered that Laplace based his calculation upon the
generally accepted hypothesis of an empty stellar space (occupied
only by an imaginary ether), and it can be shown that the result of
solar rotation would be widely different, if supposed to take place

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 231

within a medium of unbounded extension. In this case pressures
would b.e balanced all round, and the sun would act mechanically upon
the floating matter surrounding him in the manner of a fan, drawing
it toward himself upon the polar surfaces, and projecting it outward in
a continuous disk-like stream from the equatorial surfaces.

By this fan action, hydrogen, hydrocarbons, and oxygen are sup-
posed to be drawn in enormous quantities toward the polar surfaces of
the sun ; during their gradual approach they pass from their condition
of extreme attenuation and intense cold to that of compression, accom-
panied with increase of temperature, until, on approaching the photo-
sphere, they burst into flame, giving rise to a great development of
heat, and a temperature commensurate with their point of dissociation
at the solar density. The result of their combustion will be aqueous
vapor and carbonic acid, and these products of combustion, in yielding
to the influence of centrifugal force, will flow toward the solar equa-
tor, and be thence projected into space.

In view of the importance of this centrifugal action for the pur-
pose of my theory, the following simple mathematical statement of the
problem may not be thought out of place : Let us consider the condi-
tion of two equal gaseous masses, at equal distances from the solar
center, the one in the direction of the equator, the other in that of
either of the poles. These two masses would be equally attracted
toward the sun, and balance one another as regards the force of gravi-
tation, but the former would be subject to another force, that of cen-
trifugal action, which, however small in amount as compared with the
enormous attraction of the sun, would destroy the balance, and deter-
mine a motion toward the sun as regards the mass opposite the polar
surface, and into space as regards the equatorial mass. The same ac-
tion would take effect upon the masses filling their places, and the
result must be a continuous current depending for its velocity upon
the rate of solar rotation. The equatorial current so produced, owing
to its mighty proportions, would flow outward into space, to a practi-
cally unlimited distance.

The next question for consideration is, "What would become of
these products of combustion when thus returned into space ? Ap-
parently they would gradually change the condition of stellar material,
rendering it more and more neutral ; but I venture to suggest the pos-
sibility, nay, the probability, that solar radiation will, under these con-
ditions, step in to bring back the combined materials to a state of sep-
aration by dissociation carried into effect at the expense of that solar
energy which is now supposed to be irrevocably lost or dissipated into
space as the phrase goes.

According to the law of dissociation as developed by Bunsen and
Sainte-Claire Deville, the point of decomposition of different com-
pounds depends upon the temperature on the one hand, and upon the
pressure on the other. According to Sainte-Claire Deville, the disso-

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ciation tension of aqueous vapor at atmospheric pressure and at 2,800°
C. is 0*5, that is to say one half of the vapor would exist as such, the
remaining half being found as a mechanical mixture of hydrogen and
oxygen ; but, with the pressure, the temperature- of dissociation rises
and falls, as the temperature of saturated steam rises and falls with its *
pressure. It is therefore conceivable that the solar photosphere may
be raised by combustion to a temperature exceeding 2,800° C, whereas
dissociation may be effected in space at- a lower temperature. This
temperature of 2,800° would be quite sufficient to account for the char-
acter and amount of solar radiation, if it is only borne in mind that
the luminous atmosphere may be a thousand miles in depth, and that
the flame of hydrogen and hydrocarbons, in the uppermost layers of
this zone, is transparent to the radiant energy produced in the layers
below, thus making the total radiation rather the sum of matter in
combustion than the effect of a very intensely heated surface.

Sainte-Claire Deville's investigations had reference only to heats
measured by means of pyrometers, but do not extend to the effects of
radiant heat. Dr. Tyndall has shown by his important researches that
vapor of water and other gaseous compounds intercept radiant heat in
a most remarkable degree, and there is other evidence to show that
radiant energy from a source of high intensity possesses a dissociating
power far surpassing the measurable temperature to which the com-
pound substance under its influence is raised. Thus carbonic acid and
water are dissociated in the leaf-cells of plants under the influence of
the direct solar ray at ordinary summer temperature, and experiments
in which I have been engaged for nearly three years * go to prove that
this dissociating action is obtained also under the radiant influence of
the electric arc, although it is scarcely perceptible if the energy is such
as can be produced by an inferior source of heat.

The point of dissociation of aqueous vapor and carbonic acid ad-
mits, however, of being determined by direct experiment. It engaged
my attention some years ago, but I have hesitated to publish the quali-
tative results I then obtained, in the hope of attaining to quantitative
proofs.

These experiments consisted in the employment of glass tubes fur-
nished with platinum electrodes, and filled with aqueous vapor or with
carbonic acid in the usual manner, the latter being furnished with
caustic soda to regulate the vapor-pressure by heating. Upon immers-
ing one end of the tube charged with aqueous vapor in a refrigerating
mixture of ice and chloride of calcium, its temperature at that end was
reduced to —32° C., corresponding to a vapor-pressure, according to
Regnault, of l81u6 of an atmosphere. When so cooled no slow elec-
tric discharge took place on connecting the two electrodes with a small

* See " Proceeding, Royal Society," vol. xxx, March 1, 1880 ; also a paper read before
Section A of the British Association, September 1, 1881, and ordered to be printed in
the report.

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 233

induction-coil. I then exposed the end of the tube projecting out of
the freezing mixture, backed by white paper, to solar radiation (on a
clear summer's day) for several hours, when, upon again connecting up
to the inductorium, a discharge, apparently that of a hydrogen vacu-
um, was obtained. This experiment being repeated furnished unmis-
takable evidence, I thought, that aqueous vapor had been dissociated
by exposure to solar radiation. The carbonic-acid tubes gave, how-
ever, less unmistakable effects. Not satisfied with these qualitative
results, I made arrangements to collect the permanent gases so pro-
duced by means of a Sprengel pump, but was prevented by lack of
time from pursuing the inquiry, which I propose, however, to resume
shortly, being of opinion that, independently of my present specula-
tion, the experiments may prove useful in extending our knowledge
regarding the laws of dissociation.

It should be here observed that, according to Professor Stokes, the

-ultra-violet rays are in large measure absorbed in passing through
clear glass, and it follows from this discovery that only a small portion
of the chemical rays found their way through the tubes to accomplish
the work of dissociation. This circumstance being adverse to the ex-
periment only serves to increase the value of the effect observed, while
it appears to furnish additional proof of the fact, first enunciated by

-Professor Draper, and corroborated by my own experiments on plants,
that the dissociating power of light is not confined to the ultra-violet
rays, but depends in the process of vegetation chiefly upon the yellow
and red rays.

Assuming, for my present purpose, that dissociation of aqueous
vapor was really effected in the experiment just described, and assum-
ing, further, that stellar space is filled with aqueous and other vapor of
a density not exceeding the ^ part of our atmosphere, it seems rea-
sonable to suppose that its dissociation would be effected by solar radia-
tion, and that solar energy would thus be utilized. The conjoint pres-
ence of aqueous vapor, carbonic acid, and nitrogen would only serve
to facilitate their decomposition, in consequence of the simultaneous
formation of hydrocarbons and nitrogenous compounds by combination
of the nascent hydrogen and the nitrogen with carbon in a manner
analogous to what occurs in vegetation. It is not necessary to sup-
pose that all. the energy radiated from the sun into space should be
intercepted, inasmuch as even a partial return of heat in the manner
described would serve to supplement solar radiation, the balance being
made up by absolute loss. To this loss of energy would have to be
added that consumed in sustaining the circulating current, which how-
ever, need not relatively be more than what is known to be lost on our
earth through the tidal action, and may be supposed to be compensated
as regards the time of solar rotation by gradual shrinkage.

By means of the fan-like action resulting from the rotation of the
sun, the vapors dissociated in space to-day would be drawn toward the

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

polar surfaces of the sun to-morrow, be heated by increase in density,
and would burst into flame at a point where both their density and
temperature had reached the necessary elevation to induce combustion,
each complete cycle taking, however, years to be accomplished. The
resulting aqueous vapor, carbonic acid, and carbonic oxide would be
drawn toward the equatorial regions, and be then again projected into
space by centrifugal force.

Space would, according to these views, be filled with gaseous com-
pounds in process of decomposition by solar radiant energy, and the
existence of these gases would furnish an explanation of the solar
absorption spectrum, in which the lines of some of the substances may
be entirely neutralized and lost to observation. As regards the heavy
metallic vapors revealed in the sun by the spectroscope, it is assumed
that these form a lower and denser solar atmosphere, not participating
in the fan-like action which is supposed to affect the light outer atmos-
phere only, in which hydrogen is the principal factor.

Such a dense metallic atmosphere could not participate in the fan
action affecting the lighter photosphere, because this is only feasible
on the supposition that the density of the inflowing current is, at
equal distances from the gravitating center, equal or nearly equal to
the outflowing current. It is true that the products of combustion of
hydrogen and hydrocarbon are denser than their constituents, but this
difference may be balanced by their superior temperature on leaving
the sun, whereas the metallic vapors would be unbalanced, and would
therefore obey the laws of gravitation, recalling them to the sun. On
the surface of contact between the two solar atmospheres, intermixt-
ure induced by friction must take place, however, giving rise to those
vortices and explosive effects within the zones of the sun, between the
equator and the polar surfaces, to which reference has already been
made in this article ; these may appropriately be called the " stormy
regions " of the sun, which were first observed and commented upon
by Sir John Herschel. Some of the denser vapors would probably get
intermixed, be carried away mechanically by the lighter gases, and
give rise to that cosmic dust observed to fall upon our earth in not
inappreciable quantities, and generally assumed hitherto to be the
debris of broken meteorolites. Excessive intermixture between the
heat-producing atmosphere and the metallic vapors below appears to be
prevented by the existence of an intermediate neutral atmosphere, and
called the penumbra.

As the whole solar system moves through space at a pace estimated
at 150,000,000 miles annually (being about one fourth of the velocity
of the earth in its orbit), it appears possible that the condition of
the gaseous fuel supplying the sun may vary according to its state of
previous decomposition, in which other heavenly bodies may have
taken part, and whereby an interesting reflex action between our sun
and other heavenly bodies would be brought about. May it not be

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 235

owing to such differences in the quality of the fuel supplied that the
observed variations of the solar heat may arise ? — and may it not be
in consequence of such changes in the thermal condition of the photo-
sphere that the extraordinary convulsions revealed to us as sun-spots
occur ?

The views here advocated could not be thought acceptable unless
they furnished at any rate a consistent explanation of the still some-
what mysterious phenomena of the zodiacal light and of comets.
Regarding the former, we should be able to revert to Mairan's views,
the objection by Laplace being met by a continuous outward flow
from the solar equator. Luminosity would be attributable to particles
of dust emitting light reflected from the sun, or to phosphorescence.
But there is another cause for luminosity of these particles, which may
deserve serious consideration. Each particle would be electrified by
gaseous friction in its acceleration, and its electric tension would be
vastly increased in its forcible removal, in the same way as the fine
dust of the desert has been observed by Dr. Werner Siemens to be in
a state of high electrification on the apex of the Cheops Pyramid.
Could not the zodiacal light also be attributed to slow electric dis-
charge backward from the dust toward the sun ? — and would not the
same cause account for a great difference of potential between the sun
and earth, which latter may be supposed to be washed by the solar
radial current ? May not the presence of the radial solar current also
furnish us with an explanation of the fact that hydrogen, while
abounding apparently in space, is practically absent in our atmosphere,
where aqueous vapor and carbonic acid, which would come to us
directly from the sun, take its place ? An action analogous to this,
though on a much smaller scale, may be set up also by terrestrial rota-
tion, giving rise to an electrical discharge from the outgoing equato-
rial stream to the polar regions, where the atmosphere to be pierced by
the return flood is of least resistance. Thus the phenomenon of the
aurora borealis or northern lights would find an easy explanation.

The effect of this continuous outpour of solar materials could not
be without very important influences as regards the geological con-
ditions of our earth. Geologists have long acknowledged the diffi-
culty of accounting for the amount of carbonic acid that must have
been in our atmosphere, at one time or another, in order to form with
lime those enormous beds of dolomite and limestone, of which the
crust of our earth is in great measure composed. It has been calcu-
lated that, if this carbonic acid had been at one and the same time in
our atmosphere, it would have caused an elastic pressure fifty times
that of our present atmosphere ; and, if we add the carbonic acid that
must have been absorbed in vegetation in order to form our coal-beds,
we should probably have to double that pressure. Animal life, of
which we find abundant traces in these "measures," could not have
existed under such conditions, and we are almost forced to the conclu-

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sion that the carbonic acid must have been derived from an external
source.

It appears to me that the theory here advocated furnishes a feasible
solution of this geological difficulty. Our earth being situated in the
outflowing current of the solar products of combustion, or, as it were,
in the solar chimney, would be fed from day to day with its quota of
carbonic acid, of which our local atmosphere would assimilate as much
as would be necessary to maintain it in a carbonic-acid vapor density
balancing that of the solar current ; we should thus receive our daily
supply of this important constituent (with the regularity of fresh rolls
for breakfast), which, according to an investigation by M. Reiset,
communicated to the French Academy of Sciences by M. Dumas on
the 6th of March last, amounts to the constant factor of one ten-
thousandth part of our atmosphere. The aqueous vapor in the air
would be similarly maintained as to its density, and its influx to, or
reflux from, our atmosphere would be determined by the surface tem-
perature of our earth.

It is also important to show how the phenomena of comets could
be harmonized with the views here advocated, and I venture to hope
that these occasional visitors will serve to furnish us with positive evi-
dence in my favor. Astronomical physicists tell us that the nucleus
of a comet consists of an aggregation of stones similar to meteorites.
Adopting this view, and assuming that the stones have absorbed in
stellar space gases to the amount of six times their volume, taken at
atmospheric pressure, what, it may be asked, will be the effect of such
a divided mass advancing toward the sun at a velocity reaching in
perihelion the prodigious rate of 366 miles per second (as observed
in the comet of 1845), being twenty-three times our orbital rate of
motion ? It appears evident that the entry of such a mass into a com-
paratively dense atmosphere must be accompanied by a rise of tem-
perature by frictional resistance, aided by attractive condensation.
At a certain point the increase of temperature must cause ignition,
and the heat thus produced must drive out the occluded gases, which
in an atmosphere 3,000 times less dense than that of our earth would
produce 6x3,000 = 18,000 times the volume of the stones themselves.
These gases would issue forth in all directions, but would remain un-
observed except in that of motion, in which they would meet the
interplanetary atmosphere with the compound velocity, and form a
zone of intense combustion, such as Dr. Huggins has lately observed
to surround the one side of the nucleus, evidently the side of forward
motion. The nucleus would thus emit original light, whereas the tail
may be supposed to consist of stellar dust rendered luminous by reflex
action produced by the light of the sun and comet combined, as fore-
shadowed already by Tyndall, Tait, and others, starting each from
different assumptions.

Although I can not pretend to an intimate acquaintance with the

A NEW THEORY OF THE SUN. 237

more intricate phenomena of solar physics, I have long had a convic-
tion, derived principally from familiarity with some of the terrestrial
effects of heat, that the prodigious dissipation of solar heat is unneces-
sary to satisfy accepted principles regarding the conservation of en-
ergy, but that solar heat may be arrested and returned over and over
ao-ain to the sun, in a manner somewhat analogous to the action of the
heat recuperator in the regenerative engine and gas-furnace. The
fundamental conditions are :

1. That aqueous vapor and carbon compounds are present in stellar
or interplanetary space.

2. That these gaseous compounds are capable of being dissociated
by radiant solar energy while in a state of extreme attenuation.

3. That the vapors so dissociated are drawn toward the sun in
consequence of solar rotation, are flashed into flame in the photo-
sphere, and rendered back into space in the condition of products of
combustion.

Three weeks have now elapsed since I ventured to submit these
propositions to the Royal Society for scientific criticism, and it will
probably interest my readers to know what has been the nature of
that criticism and the weight of additional evidence for or against my
theory.

Criticism has been pronounced by mathematicians and physicists,
but affecting singularly enough the chemical and not the mathemat-
ical portion of my argument ; whereas chemists have expressed doubts
regarding my mathematics while accepting the chemistry involved in
my reasoning.

Doubts have been expressed as to the sufficiency of the proof that
dissociation of attenuated aqueous vapor and carbonic acid is really
effected by radiant solar energy, and, if so effected, whether the
amount of heat so supplied to the sun could be at all adequate in
amount to keep up the known rate of radiation. It was admitted in
my paper that my own experiments on the dissociation of vapors
within vacuous tubes amounted to inferential rather than absolute
proof ; but the amount of inferential evidence in favor of my views
has been very much strengthened since by chemical evidence received
from various sources ; and I will here only refer to one of these.

Professor Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, has,
in connection with Professor Herschel, of Newcastle, recently pre-
sented an elaborate paper or series of papers to the Royal Society of
Edinburgh "On the Gaseous Spectra in Vacuum-Tubes," of which he
has kindly forwarded me a copy. It appears from these memoirs that
when vacuum-tubes, which contain attenuated vapors, have been laid
aside for a length of time, they turn practically into hydrogen-tubes.
In another very recent paper presented to the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh, Professor Piazzi Smyth furnishes important additional proof of
the presence of oxygen in the outer solar atmosphere, and gives an ex-

23 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

planation why this important element has escaped observation by the
spectroscope. Additional proof of the existence of oxygen in the outer
solar atmosphere has been given by Professor Stoney, the Astronomer
Royal for Ireland, and by Mr. R. Meldola in an interesting paper com-
municated by him to the "Philosophical Magazine," in June, 1878.

As regards the sufficiency of an inflowing stream of dissociated
vapors to maintain solar energy, the following simple calculation may
be of service : Let it be assumed that the stream flowing in upon the
polar surfaces of the sun flashes into flame when it has attained the
density of our atmosphere, that its velocity at that time is 100 feet per
second (the velocity of a strong terrestrial wind), and that in its com-
position only one twentieth part is hydrogen and marsh-gas in equal
proportions, the other nineteen twentieths being made up of oxygen,
nitrogen, and neutral compounds. It is well known that each pound
of hydrogen develops in burning about 60,000 heat-units, and each
pound of marsh-gas about 24,000 ; the average of the two gases mixed
in equal proportion would yield, roughly speaking, 42,000 units ; but,
considering that only one twentieth part of the inflowing current is
assumed to consist of such combustible matter, the amount of heat
developed per pound of inflowing current would be only 2,100 heat-
units. One hundred cubic feet, weighing eight pounds, would enter
into combustion every second upon each square foot of the polar sur-
face, and would yield 8x60x60x2,100 = 60,480,000 heat-units per
hour. Assuming that one third of the entire solar surface may be re-
garded as polar heat-receiving surface, this would give 20,000,000 heat-
units per square foot of solar surface; whereas, according to Herschel's
and Pouillet's measurements, only 18,000,000 heat-units per square foot
of solar surface are radiated away. There would thus be no difficulty
in accounting for the maintenance of solar energy from the supposed
source of supply. On the other hand, I wish to guard myself against
the assumption that appears to have been made by some critics, that
what I have advocated would amount to the counterpart of " perpetual
motion," and therefore to an absurdity. The sun can not of course get
back any heat radiated by himself which has been turned to a purpose ;
thus the solar heat spent upon our earth in effecting vegetation must
be absolutely lost to him.

My paper presented to the Royal Society was accompanied by a
diagram of an ideal corona, representing an accumulation of igneous
matter upon the solar surfaces, surrounded by disturbed regions
pierced by occasional vortices and outbursts of metallic vapors, and
culminating in two outward streams projecting from the equatorial
surfaces into space through many thousands of miles. The only sup-
porting evidence in favor of this diagram were certain indications
that may be found in the instructive volume on the sun by Mr. R. A.
Proctor. It was therefore a matter of great satisfaction to me to be
informed, as I have been by an excellent authority and eye-witness,

THE FUTURE OF MIND. 239

that my imaginary diagram bore a very close resemblance to the
corona observed in America on the occasion of the total eclipse of the
sun on the 11th of January, 1880.

Enough has been said, I think, to prove that the theory I have
ventured to put forward is the result, at any rate, of considerable re-
flection ; and I may add that, since its first announcement, I have not
seen reason to reject any of the links of my chain of argument : these
I have here endeavored to strengthen only by additional facts and
explanations.

If these arguments can be proved to the entire satisfaction of those
best able to form a judgment, they would serve to justify the poet
Addison when he says :

" The unwearied sun from day to day
Does the Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty Hand."

— Nineteenth Century.

-+++-

THE FUTURE OF MIND *

Br PETER BRYCE, M. D.

BUT what does science testify as to the probable future of mind in
earthly life ? Have mind and body attained their supreme
development ? Is humanity a fixed entity, incapable of essential modi-
fications or improvement ? All the evidence goes to show that the
improvement of the human race is practically illimitable. This is true
both of mind and body, which, as has been shown, advance pari passu,
and is made very evident by the fact that the pre-eminence of Euro-
peans over barbarous races, which is so manifest in their intellect, is
just as manifest in their anatomy and physiology. There is a diver-
sity of proofs of the advance of the physical man in modern times.
No one questions that the average duration of life is being steadily
prolonged. Besides a multitude of new arts and new sciences, all the
arts and sciences known to the ancients have been so wondrously de-
veloped as to seem like new creations of the modern man. Geology,
zoology, botany, chemistry, geography — physical and political — medi-
cine, painting, politics, theology, etc. — every department, in fact, of
human interest — have grown, as it were, into new and marvelous
revelations. But to suppose that these immense developments of art
and science can have resulted without corresponding improvements in
the human intellect, is to ignore very important biological principles.

* From a discourse on " Some of the Phenomena of Mind," delivered before the
Medical Association of the State of Alabama, April 11, 1882, by Dr. Peter Bryce, Super-
intendent of the Alabama Insane Hospital, etc.

240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As an advanced science implies an advanced art — the progress of the
two being ever conditioned upon each other — so the great advances
of the sciences and arts imply a corresponding development of human
intelligence. The principle of action and reaction prevails in the
world of mind as in the world of matter, and while the human intel-
lect, by cogent applications of its powers, has established multitudi-
nous differentiations in things once inextricably intermingled, a cor-
responding differentiation and specialization of its own powers has
inevitably resulted. But specialization of functions being the direct
evidence of its greater perfection, it is incontrovertible that the mul-
tiplication of specializations of knowledge by human inquiry has re-
sulted in improvements of the powers of the human mind. The strain
now put on human power to keep pace with the advances already
made is an assurance that there will be in the future no lack of oc-
casion for continued mental development. Air departments of hu-
man enterprise have in truth been already so marvelously developed
as to defy the complete grasp of any but specialists of more than ordi-
nary capacity. Croakers may find fault and stigmatize the advance
of the age as mainly material. Never did carping criticism have
poorer ground for its averments. The material advance is fully
matched by the moral advance. Proofs of it are so multiplied as
scarcely to deserve enumeration. Liberty to think boldly and to give
free utterance to honest convictions is fast becoming a sacred principle
of society. Liberty of person, and equal justice — irrespective of rank
and wealth — are now almost everywhere recognized as divinest prin-
cij^les of government. The sick and the unfortunate, instead of being
left to die without aid or to pine through a miserable existence, are
now everywhere provided for at the expense of those whom fortune
has subjected to less severe trials. Sumptuary laws are now not only
known to be useless but their principle is condemned. Private war
has almost ceased to be waged ; and the duty of revenge, once sanc-
tioned by religion, has given place to the duty of forbearance and
forgiveness. The well-being of one's neighbor is now universally felt-
to be the good fortune of one's self. Vast accumulations of wealth,
instead of being squandered in the purchase of places and useless
decorations for elevating one's self above his fellows, are now em-
ployed in educational, industrial, and eleemosynary foundations.

Nor is this true of individuals only. Governments, both monarch-
ical and republican, instead of employing their resources in war and
destruction, are now rivals in the most beneficent achievements for
prolonging and ennobling human life. Slavery has been abolished
in nearly every civilized country, and all forms of privileged oppres-
sion are rapidly meeting with the same condemnation. In truth, such
has been the progress of morals and the general assimilation of the
principles of equity, that the most important functions of life and
society are now accomplished without the intervention of government,

THE FUTURE OF MIND. 241

giving promise of a gradual declension of the functions of the central
power before the more precise and equitable supervision of society
constituted of individuals imbued with ever-present aspirations for
justice and advancement. Already this day of a new excellence has
dawned, and there are not a few indications that new crystallizations
of social forces are destined to supervene. The liberation of woman
from her ancient servitude and her rapid advance to every privilege
for which her powers adapt her, the emancipation of children from
the severe domestic tyrannies and cruelties to which they were time
out of mind subjected, are striking evidences of the ameliorations due
to general moral advance. Like the animal organism the social organ-
ism responds throughout its whole substance to any force brought to
bear upon it, and the influence of scientific methods of thought is
destined to exert upon society augmenting influences of the most per-
vading and salutary kinds. Truth and morality are inextricably inter-
mingled, and whatever aids in the discovery of truth is a potential
moral adjuvant. As, in Scripture, condemnation and the belief in lies
are everywhere conjoined, so moral advance is ever assured by devices
that accomplish the enlargement of the realm of truth. To carp at
scientific methods is to carp at truth, for scientific methods are only
severe procedures for the discovery of truth ; and there is, to my
mind, little doubt that in no great while the much-desired reconcilia-
tion of natural with revealed truth will be successfully achieved. I
find in late utterances of scientific men of the highest stamp much that
is in conformity with some of the prevalent teachings of religion.
Herbert Spencer is unquestionably the most perfect embodiment of
advanced scientific thought. While in special departments there are
many that go before him, in the power of co-ordinating the various
sciences and embodying their myriad diverse facts into a consistent
body of philosophy he goes far before all his contemporaries. His
writings, indeed, stand apart as a great mountain-range looming far
above the lesser heights. It would be easy, from Mr. Spencer's writ-
ings, to accumulate declarations that have wondrous congruity with
orthodox -doctrine. The worship of humanity, Mr. Spencer declares,
can never take the place of the worship of God. He also affirms, with
all our orthodox creeds, that precepts of right living do little or no
good unless the corresponding emotion can in some way be roused.
His standard of right conduct, scientifically deduced, is a perfect law
of righteousness which may not be debased below the mark of perfec-
tion,,however unable men and women may be to fulfill its require-
ments.

In every aspect, therefore, the prospect of human advancement is
very cheering. Individually and collectively man is so steadily pro-
gressing to the achievement of the great problem of his life — perfect
conformity to the conditions of his being — that no mad enthusiasm is
needful to prompt the anticipation of a rapid advance to that condition

VOL. XXI. — 16

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of things which the ancient seers foresaw and aspired toward, when
" they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up the sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."

But, while science is disclosing the methods of mind, and pre-
paring for it on earth a nobler and still more noble role, what are
its testimonies as to the duration of mind — its immortality ? Some
of the most devoted adherents of scientific methods have reached
conclusions which are unfavorable to mind's immortality. But it
is not surprising, in view of the novelty and marvelousness of many
lately demonstrated scientific truths, that even men of calm tem-
per should be led to attach undue importance to them — to claim for
them reaches and meanings which do not of right belong to them.
Close as may be the demonstrated union between mind and body, no
philosophy of organization and life satisfactorily accounts for the pres-
ence of mind. Mind is indeed unique, peculiar ; has its own laws, and
overleaps and undermines all mere material phenomena. The study
of mind is, therefore, incomplete unless subjectively pursued. The
mind must be questioned, must testify of itself, if we would arrive at
anything approaching just conclusions with reference to it. This is
indisputable from the fact that mind is that mysterious quality in us
by which we explore all material phenomena. It is only, therefore, by
due attention to mind's subjective contemplation that we gain the right
to reason upon the phenomena of material things. A surveyor who
should go around determining boundaries, directions, and areas, with-
out having first put to severe tests his compass and chains, would be
acting not a whit more absurdly than they who leave out of the study
of material and mental phenomena a subjective study of mind. But,
if only by questioning mind about itself we can rightly understand its
nature, dare we, in conducting the inquiry, ignore a whole host of its
most prominent intuitions ? Surely not. But mind's testimony of
itself is, that there are in it indefeasible principles of individuality,
responsibility, and immortality. It would be strange, indeed, if this
noble, this intensely royal, thing, which disdains to be classed with any
material forces, however sublimated they may be, should be remanded
to the companionship and fate of the phenomenal, the sensual, the
perishing !

Happily for the theory of evolution, not all nor even the majority
of its advocates have given assent to such conclusions. Mr. Darwin
has ever conjoined with his marvelous disclosures of the relations of
organic facts a spirit of religious reverence. Mr. Herbert Spencer
avows that there are unseen, eternal verities which justify religion.
Lessing, David Strauss, and Professor Helmholtz, could not reconcile
themselves to the thought of a final destruction of the living race, and,
with it, all the fruits of all past generations. Others among them,
however, assume that, since mind is only known to us as a phenomenon

THE FUTURE OF MIND. 243

of organism, the death of the organism involves a discontinuance of
all its functions — thought, affection, and will, not excepted — and their
resolution into the more primitive forces from which they originally
sprang But it is clearly a most unwarranted assumption that spiritual
individuality — the fundamental principle of which no one pretends to
apprehend — can not be prolonged or perpetuated, except under such
material circumstances as earth supplies. If it be recollected how
ignorant man is of the essences of matter and motion, and that there
are in mind or spirit qualities which can not be ranged with material
things, or with their almost infinitely subtile forces, we will readily see
that the assumption of no conscious life except under such circum-
stances as material things supply is most unwarrantable.

Even the argument against immortality, based upon the relations
of mind to organism, when closely examined, loses much of its seem-
ing fitness. The persistence of force is, indeed, as much an axiom of
science as the indestructibility of matter. What appears to be cessa-
tion of force is simply its transformation into other forces. But mus-
cular movements provoked by volition are not actuated by mental
force. The mind, in voluntary motions, does not supply the force.
It only signals the nerve-centers that furnish the force. The centers
of motion, which have of late been demonstrated in the brain, do not
supply the force for the operation of the muscles, whose contractions
they specially control. The brain-centers are properly only intellect-
ual signal-centers — centers whence issue the volitions that liberate the
forces of the lower nerve-centers for contracting special muscles. Fatal
errors in reference to mind may easily grow from confounding nervous
force with mental force. It is impossible to form right conceptions of
mind so long as it is regarded as a merely resultant force made up of
the organic forces which lead up to it. In any such conception there
is left out an important element which it is difficult explicitly to define,
but which may be forcibly suggested by a comparison. The beautiful
form — symmetry and proportions — of a noble tree may be regarded
apart from the organic materials and forces which underlie it. Thus
regarded it is, as it were, spiritual, and is capable of arousing concep-
tions of beauty and grandeur in the soul of the beholder. Mind, in
this view, instead of a mere force, becomes a symmetrical and living
expression of the relations of the myriad forces which have from the
very beginning entered into the life. It is, therefore, in one view, as
absolutely immaterial as the form and beauty of a tree. But in still
another aspect mind must be considered a higher and vastly more sub-
tile force than any physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
in its actions and methods of development is governed by laws pecul-
iarly its own. Mind or mental force is, therefore, unique, and stands
apart as a grand exception to the general law of the correlation of
forces. But, as all the physical forces are persistent in some form or
other, it is eminently unreasonable to suppose that this peculiar force,

244

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that immeasurably transcends all others, should alone undergo abso-
lute extinction. It needs must be, therefore, that mind or mental force
shall continue to exist after dissolution of the organism with which
its manifestations are associated, by passing into a new state, or new
conditions of activity, of which science takes no cognizance. Thus
considered, mind, in its ultimate analysis, becomes a purely spiritual
entity which can never be dissolved and commingled with the hetero-
geneous forces of the material world.

■»»»■

T

ABOUT THE MOLDS.

1HE molds represent an immense variety of minute plants that
grow upon a great number of objects, and under different circum-
stances. The spores from which they are developed are borne in the
air, imperceptibly to us because of their extreme littleness. The mi-
croscopic examination of them reveals some very curious dispositions
and forms, always worthy of admiration. We often, in the spring,
perceive blades of grass covered with a chalk-like dust, so white that
one is at first sight inclined to take it to be hoar-frost. On examining
it with a microscope of small power, we shall perceive a real forest of

minute plants. Little bundles of very delicate filaments, clear and
crystalline, composed of roundish cells connected together, rise from a
net-work of other branching filaments, which are collectively called the
mycelium (Fig. 1). These curious organisms are the first phases of a
parasitic plant belonging to the great order of the cryptogams, or a

ABOUT THE MOLDS.

245

fungus. A mold that has caused great damage to grape-vines — the
Oidium Tuckeri — is an incompletely developed fungus.

A whitish substance may be remarked on the leaves of lilacs near
the middle of the summer, which
might be regarded on superficial
observation as dust from the road.
It is also a mold. The microscope
shows it to be made up of very deli-
cate threads, similar to those of spi-
ders' webs. As these threads become
older, we may observe joined to them
a number of little spheroidal bodies,
some very small and white, others
larger and yellow, and others brown.
The white and yellow corpuscles are
young fruits of the fungus, and the
brown ones are ripened fruits. If
one of the last is put into a drop
of water and pressed between two
glasses for mounting microscopic
preparations, it will let escape some
small pyriform, transparent sacs,
each inclosing spores, the number
of which varies according to the

species, but is definite for each species. The arrangement of these
spore-containing sacs (sporangia?) is shown by the vertical section (Fig.
4). The number of sporangice (b) contained in each of the fruits varies
in different species from one to twenty and more.

Aside from every scientific consideration, a great interest is given
to these plants by the beauty of their ornamentation ; and they form

choice objects for preparations. Around each receptacle may be seen
numerous appendages radiating in every direction, and generally un-
colored. In some genera these appendages are long and flaky, while
other genera have only six or eight of them in the form of short needles

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

projecting from a bulbous base (Fig. 3). The extremities of the
needles in other species are curved and turned over, as in Figs. 2 and
5, and in others they are one or two times branched ; while in the
genus Microsphoeria the extremities of the appendages take the most
varied and most exquisite forms (Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9).

The life and history of these little plants afford a large field for
studies and investigations, which are within the reach of every one
who has a good microscope, and is not engaged on any other special
study. Such researches are, moreover, of great practical value. The
parasitic fungi are one of the great plagues of agriculture. They fix
themselves in hosts upon leaves and fruits, where they shut up the
stomata and prevent the action of air and light. The hope of discov-
ering a remedy for such evils is dependent on the study of their causes.

-*"—*-

THE INTKODUCTIOlSr OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.*

THE roving shepherd sows hastily a piece of land, which he leaves
after harvesting his crop, to do the same the next year wTith
another piece of land. But, when fruit-growing is combined with
agriculture, this unsettled shepherd-life becomes entirely changed.
The plantation of trees and vines must be inclosed, and taken care of
a long time before it will bring fruit. Hence arises the sense of a
settled home and of individual possession. Even the house of the
planter becomes a firmer structure ; the ground is more thoroughly
cultivated, so that a smaller territory suffices to support the family,
and individuals combine more and more into social communities. Man
thus becomes accustomed to a settled order of life, and to the relations
which form the foundation of lawful constitutions. Closely associated
with these changes in the mode of living is the introduction of domes-
tic animals.

In the early time, when the tribes of the Indo-European people
still formed one undivided folk in its Asiatic home, the sheep and the
cow had already been tamed. This is proved in the case of the sheep
by the numerous varieties existing among them. The word daughter,
which means " the milker," and which is common to all the Indo-Eu-
ropean languages, bears witness to the early taming of the cow. Of
both these animals, man at first used only the milk, the flesh, and the
skin. Afterward the cow became man's assistant in agriculture* It
was not until a much later time that the horse took the place of the
cow, at first chiefly in traveling and in riding, afterward more and
more in agricultural operations. Here, however, arises the important
question, whether the people already possessed these tamed animals

* Translated from the German.

THE INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 247

when they moved into the several parts of Europe, or were they first
received by them at a later time.

There is no doubt that the original home of the horse is not Eu-
rope, but Central Asia ; for since the horse in its natural state de-
pends upon grass for its nourishment and fleetness for its weapon, it
could not in the beginning have thriven and multiplied in the thick
forest-grown territory of Europe. Much rather should its place of
propagation be sought in those steppes where it still roams about in
a wild state. Here, too, arose the first nations of riders of which
we have historic knowledge, the Mongolians and the Turks, whose
existence even at this day is as it were combined with that of the
horse. From these regions the horse spread in all directions, espe-
cially into the steppes of Southern and Southeastern Russia and into
Thrace, until it finally found entrance into the other parts of Europe,
but not until after the immigration of the people. This assumption is,
at least, strongly favored by the fact that the farther a district of
Europe is from those Asiatic steppes, i. e., from the original home of
the horse, the later does the tamed horse seem to have made its his-
toric appearance in it. The supposition is further confirmed by the
fact that horse-raising among almost every tribe appears as an art
derived from neighboring tribes in the East or Northeast. Even in
Homer the ox appears exclusively as the draught-animal in land opera-
tions at home and in the field, while the horse was used for purposes
of war only. Its employment in military operations was determined
by swiftness alone. That the value of the horse must originally have
depended on its fleetness, can easily be inferred from the name which
is repeated in all the branches of the Indo-European language, and
signifies nearly " hastening," "quick." The same fact is exemplified
by the descriptions of the oldest poets, who, next to its courage, speak
most of its swiftness. How beautiful, for example, is the description
in Homer ! —

" ... As when some courser, fed
With barley in the stall, and wont to bathe
In some smooth-flowing river, having snapped
His halter, gayly scampers o'er the plain,
And in the pride of beauty bears aloft
His head and gives his tossing mane to stream
Upon his shoulders, while his flying feet
Bear him to where the mares are wont to graze."

Iliad (Bryant's translation, vi, 644-651).

And what lofty words does the author of the book of Job use in
speaking of this animal ! —

" He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted ;
Neither turneth he back from the sword.
The quiver rattleth against him,
The glittering spear and the shield.

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage :
Neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha ;
And he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the
captains, and the shouting."

(Chapter xxxix, verses 22-25.)

It was chiefly by reason of these two properties — fleetness and cour-
age— that the horse quickly became an animal without which history
would seem barren enough. Without the horse neither the expedi-
tions of an Alexander, nor a migration of tribes, nor a Christian knight-
hood, would have been possible ; in a word, without the horse, all those
mighty movements which have shaken the world and have stirred the
very foundations thereof, could never have been thought of ; and the
people, sitting still and silent upon the ground, would never have left
their accustomed boundaries to go forth fighting and colonizing from
land to land.

Happily the horse possessed still other important properties which
rendered possible its emj)loyment in other than warlike uses. Chief
among these properties are its sagacity, endurance, and fidelity.
When, therefore, war was no longer the chief employment of Euro-
peans, and agriculture had taken its place, man soon thought of em-
ploying the horse as a draught-animal as he in like manner had hith-
erto used the cow. Then did the horse become, for the first time, of
real use to culture, and a leading actor in it. Such had not been the
case in Asia up to this time. The ox had drawn the plow and wagon
but lazily and slowly, and agriculture had made slow progress ; but
with the horse came a new impulse, a higher purpose in this occupa-
tion, which made it an important and valuable one. Even to this
time the horse, by reason of his excellent properties, is regarded as the
truest companion and aid of man in all the operations as well of war
as of agriculture. Neither is this noble animal to be forgotten in com-
merce and trade, nor in art ; in a word, it is the most valuable and
therefore the best treated domestic animal which Europe has to ex-
hibit.

Besides the horse, some other animals, which in the pastoral time
had not yet entered Europe, soon made their appearance. They were
the ass, with its near relative the mule, and the goat. All these wan-
dered, as did the vine, fig, and olive, from Asia Minor and Syria to
Greece ; and, strange as it may seem, the mule preceded the ass, whose
original home may after all have to be sought for in Africa. Both
spread at a later date from Greece into the same regions in which the
vine and the olive found their way, and for a time did not pass beyond
these regions. For, notwithstanding their patience and contentment,
by virtue of which they are satisfied with the most wretched food,
they did not find the climate in Northern Europe a hospitable one for
them, and are both still really strangers there.

THE INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 249

The goat, too, on account of its predilection for young trees, buds,
and sharp, aromatic herbs, can be kept in great numbers only in those
regions in which the injuries inflicted by them are of relatively little
importance. It therefore feels more at home in the rocky labyrinths
of the Grecian islands, Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy, than in the northern
regions. According to the census, Italy in 1863 possessed forty-one

million goats.

• Of four-footed animals, Europe has received only one further ad-
dition— the cat. Unlike the dog, it was most probably not a primitive
companion of man, but is relatively a late gain. The taming of the
animal is a fruit of the religious customs of the Egyptians, who recog-
nized the worth of this mouse-destroyer, and permitted divine honors
to be paid to it. Its picture, therefore, meets us beside other wonder-
ful figures upon numerous Egyptian monuments, and in the tombs
whole layers of cat-mummies are sometimes to be found.

The ancient Greeks were not acquainted with the cat, but the
mouse was certainly known to them from the earliest period — a fact
shown by the name which is common to all the Indo-European lan-
guages, and which signifies apparently " thief " — and they not seldom
suffered so severely under the plague of these pests that whole regions
were devastated and in consequence had to be abandoned. For the
destruction of the mice they used either the weasel or the marten,
which were tamed for this purpose. The weasel, especially, held just
the same place among them that the cat now holds among us, and it
passed in like manner into proverbs and fables. In Aristophanes, a
certain person is summoned to tell a story, and he begins his fable with

the words —

u There was once a mouse and a weasel."

That the cat was as little known as a domestic animal to the Ro-
mans as it was to the Greeks, is plainly shown by the story of the
country and the city mouse, as narrated by Horace, who lived in the
time of Augustus. - There is certainly no question that if Horace had
known the cat he would have mentioned it in this passage, but no
mention of it is made. In the fourth century a. d., we find the cat
mentioned for the first time among the domestic animals, and it not
only spread abroad among all the European peoples, but was also
transplanted to Asia. If Hehn's conjecture be correct, its general in-
troduction was occasioned by the irruption of the rat, which seems to
have entered Europe in company with the immigrants from Asia.

Among the Germans this animal was allotted to Freya, whose car-
riage was drawn by two cats. At the same time it was regarded as a
shrewd, magic-working animal, and it therefore played a leading part
in matters of witchcraft, during the middle ages, beside the owl and
the bat, in myths that grew plainly enough out of its sneaking move-
ment, its preference for the night, its dark fur, and its eyes, which
glow in the dark. > Cats guarded secret treasures in mountains and

25o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

caves, they lay at cross-roads, at night they carried on their operations
in ruined mills in the forest ; even witches and magicians assumed
their forms in order either to inflict injury upon others or to visit the
Bloeksberg. The German fables of animals allot to the cat the prize
for wisdom and deception. When it becomes necessary to bring the
robber Reynard to court to make an end to all his evil deeds and the
complaints arising therefrom, and Brown, i. e. Bruin, the bear has
failed in the attempt, then it appears that only Harry, the cat, is able
to accomplish the task of delivering the artful message to the evil-
doer. Again, the cat does not lack certain desirable qualities. How
burdensome does the dog with its caresses often become, how unskill-
f ully does he exert himself to please ; how gentle and amiable, on the
contrary, can the cat be, how pleasant its manner and motion ! Dur-
ing the middle ages, therefore, the cat served as a plaything for dis-
tinguished ladies, who nursed it on their laps and fed it with dainty
bits ; and at the present time, among many persons, the cat finds rec-
ognition and love : in Gottfried Mind it has found its Raphael, and
poets, like Tieck, Amadeus Hoffman, Lichtwer, and in recent times
Scheffel, have ennobled their thinking and striving ; who, for example,
does not hold in grateful remembrance the deep philosophizing of the
cat Hidigeigei (in Scheffel's " Trompeter von Sakkingen ") on the
theme " Why do men kiss ? " Even Lessing's quaint nature could find
a source of enjoyment in this animal ; on his writing-table lay his cat,
and no one can read without emotion how Lessing, when his favorite
had destroyed the manuscript of " Nathan," patiently and quietly
wrote the poem anew without depriving the author of the mischief of
its usual place. Notwithstanding this, for most men there is some-
thing demoniacal and weird about the animal, which withdraws it
from their sympathy ; hence Massius rightly says of it, " Complicated
by the favor of parties and by their hate, its character in history
wavers."

Among manifold other varieties of animals, birds have always ex-
cited in a marked degree the attention and the favor of man. Since
the primeval time hosts of songs have been sung to the lark, the stork,
the nightingale, and the swallow, and the speech of people greets them
in their flight with a thousand fond, familiar words. Nay, it is not too
much to assert that, without the birds, even the spring-time would be
sad, just as by their flight the winter becomes so much the more
gloomy and desolate. But that which most attracts us to birds is
their power of song and of flight. In ancient times favored men pre-
tended to understand their mysterious sounds, which were to them
the voice of Fate, since they seemed either to encourage by a cheer-
ful address or to warn by threatening tones. The flight especially
seemed to be supernatural and worthy of admiration, and there has
certainly been no lack of attempts to imitate it, as the myth of the
Greeks regarding Daedalus and Icarus shows. But it was precisely

THE INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 251

this power of flight, and the impulse to wander connected therewith,
which made it impossible for man to draw the majority of fowls into
closer relations with himself, and to make them useful to him. He
was in reality able to domesticate only those which had lost more or
less the power to fly, or those which had in only a slight degree the
character of flying animals, and were not compelled to change their
dwelling-place in winter. Thus our presentation is limited to the few
which are now regarded as really domestic animals — viz., to the goose,
duck, turkey, and peacock.

Although the taming of the goose and the duck reaches back to a
very early period — since neither of them was brought hither from
Asia, but both are descended from our native wild varieties — the fowl,
or chicken, is of comparatively recent date in Europe. In the Old
Testament, and upon the Egyptian monuments, it is not to be found.
It appeared first in India, and gradually spread farther westward,
where it gained much respect, especially among the Persians. In the
religion of Zoroaster the cock was sacred, being regarded as the herald
of the morning and a symbol of light, because he drove away the evil
spirits of darkness.

In Homer and Hesiod, and in general in the oldest Greek poets, we
find no trace of the fowl. It seems to have been first mentioned by
Theognis (about 600 b. c), and was universally known to the contem-
poraries of the Persian War. The comparison between the fights of
cocks and of men is a favorite one with the poets of that period.

Themistocles is said to have once stirred the courage of his army
by pointing to two fighting cocks which staked their lives for the
glory of victory, and not for their hearths and gods. It agrees well
with its late introduction that the cock has attained to but little im-
portance in cultivated circles : he was sacred to Ares (Mars), and
people were accustomed, after recovery from sickness, to bring to
iEsculapius, the god of medicine, a cock as a sacrifice.

From Greece the fowl quickly found its way into Sicily and Lower
Italy ; only the Sybarites, who were notorious gluttons, are said to
have admitted no fowl within their walls, so that they might not be
disturbed in their sleep.

Among the Romans the fowl played a very important part : sacred
cocks accompanied the departing commanders to the scene of war, and
were used for taking the auspices. It was considered a favorable sign
if the fowls ate greedily ; but, on the other hand, it denoted a mis-
fortune if they refused food. It will thus be readily seen that the
attendant of these birds (jntllarius) exercised much influence in this
matter, according as he did, or did not, give the fowls food before the
taking of the augury.

How widely the breeding of fowls spread and developed in Italy
may be learned from the writings of Yarro and of Columella. Fowls,
and especially fighting-cocks, were constantly imported from places

25 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which had become noted for breeding them — e. g., Rhodes, Chalcis,
Delos — or directly from Persia.

That the fowl did not come into Germany from Italy, but that a
more direct transfer of it from Persia — perhaps by way of Thrace,
Illyria, and Pannonia — must have taken place, is shown by the names
(ha/uit huhn, henne), which are independent of, and different from, the
Greek and Latin names ; and it is further shown by the ideas and rep-
resentations which, in the North, are connected with the fowl. Thus
we find in separate and distinct places the same belief as in Persia —
that the cock, by his crowing, frightens away the evil spirits ; he was
the symbol of flame, the animal of Loki, the god of fire : when he un-
folded his wings, conflagrations started up under him, whence comes
the still current expression for an act of incendiarism, " To set the red
cock upon any one's roof." Caesar reports of the Britons that among
them, just as among the Persians, no one was allowed to eat the flesh
of fowls. At what time, however, the northern immigration took place
can not be accurately stated ; yet the supposition can not be wide of
the truth that it was when the Persians, during their expeditions to
Greece, came into contact with the above-named tribes: — somewhere
about the fifth century b. c. From that starting-point, then, this
useful domestic animal soon spread abroad everywhere, and found al-
ways the most ready reception wherever man was about to change
from a nomadic shepherd-life and have a settled, permanent home. At
present the breeding of fowls receives most attention in France, which
country is said to support, at the lowest calculation, 100,000,000 fowls
— a striking example of what an important part in the economical life
of a people this animal is capable of playing.

The peacock, too, is a native of Asia, having come to us from In-
dia. Phoenician ships, so early as the time of Solomon, brought it to
the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The first place in which peacocks
were kept in Greece seems to have been the temple of Hera in Samos,
for there, according to mythology, this bird had its origin. That the
peacock was dedicated to Hera can not astonish us, for she is the god-
dess of the starry heaven. Another myth related that the thousand-
eyed Argus, the watcher of the moon goddess Io, had been slain by
Apollo and changed into a peacock, or that Hera had placed his thou-
sand eyes upon the feathers of her bird. Moreover, the peacock was
very profitable for that temple of Hera, inasmuch as its plumage en-
ticed thither many inquisitive sight-seers, who willingly paid the tem-
ple tribute for a sight of the beautiful bird. As a reward for this, the
Samians placed its image upon their coins.

In Athens we find the peacock first mentioned in the fifth century
b. c, and the contemporary writers fail to find sufficient words to tell
what a surprise its appearance had made among that inquisitive and nov-
elty-loving people. It is, therefore, not remarkable that, already in the
fourth century b. c, peacocks were more numerous in Athens than quail.

HYDRODYNAMICS AND ELECTRICITY. 253

The question, " By what way and by whom was the peacock
brought into Italy ? " is shrouded in deep darkness ; and the supposi-
tion of Hehn, that it was brought thither directly from Phoenicia or
Carthage, stands upon doubtful testimony. It was, however, cordially
received and prized in that country, especially in the later times of
senseless luxury. The orator Hortensius, a contemporary of Cicero,
was the first to bring the peacock roasted upon the table, and, despite
the lack of palatableness in its flesh, his example seems to have been
extensively imitated.

From Italy the peacock found its way into the rest of Europe, and
became in Christian lands the subject of a double symbol. On one
side it was regarded as an emblem of immortality, for the story gained
credence that its flesh was incorruptible ; on the other hand, it served
as an exhortation to humility, according to the well-known proverb,
" The peacock has a brilliant coat of feathers, but do not look down
at its feet."

Reference was made, too, to its sneaking walk and its vicious char-
acter, especially in old age. But the knight gladly adorned his hel-
met with its feathers, and the custom at great banquets of bringing to
the table, amid the flourish of trumpets, a roasted peacock adorned
with its own feathers, and of taking a vow thereupon, lasted down to the
end of the middle ages. In more recent times, however, the bird, to-
gether with its flesh and its feathers, has fallen into discredit ; and it
is left to the Chinese mandarin to carry the peacock's feathers as a
sign of rank.

-♦♦♦-

HYDRODYNAMICS AND ELECTRICITY.

VISITORS at the recent Electrical Exposition in Paris were much
interested in an apparatus exhibited by Dr. C. A. Bjerknes, of
the University of Christiania, Norway, for the illustration of certain
properties in hydrodynamics analogous to some of the manifestations
of electricity and magnetism. Professor Bjerknes has been carrying
on his investigations in this line for nearly twenty years, having pub-
lished his first paper, " On the Internal Condition of an Incompress-
ible Fluid in which a Sphere of Variable Volume is moving," in 1863,
and having followed it up with numerous other j)apers relating to
similar problems. The results of experiments in every case corre-
sponded with those which had previously been indicated to him by
mathematical calculations. The experiments had in view the study of
molecular movements by reproducing mechanically, but in the inverse
sense, as the results proved, the simple and fundamental electrical and
magnetic phenomena.

Pulsating and ©scillating bodies are applied so as to produce vibra-

254

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions in a trough of water about six inches deep. By pulsating bodies
are meant those which undergo alternate changes of volume, marked
by two distinct phases, one of swelling and one of contraction. The
pulsations of the, two bodies are spoken of as synchronous when the
similar phases occur simultaneously in them. The oscillating bodies
are constant in volume, but undergo alternate changes of place, from
right to left and from left to right, or in a vertical direction.

Pulsations are communicated by means of little tambours or drums
made of hollow cylinders of metal, over the ends of which are stretched
flexible plates or membranes. These drums are made to swell and
contract by means of pumps, with which they are connected by India-
rubber tubing, that compress the air within them. Two drums are
usually employed in the experiments, each connected with a separate

pump, so that the rhythm of the pulsations may be regulated at will.
Thus both drums may be caused to pulsate synchronously, or with an
opposite rhythm. In the simplest pulsator (Fig. 1,1) the two drum-

FlG. 1.

Mm

m

heads beat synchronously, or suffer dilatation and collapse together, as
the pump is worked. In another disposition the drum-heads are sepa-
rated by a rigid partition dividing the instrument into two chambers,
each having its separate connection by a distinct tube, with a different
pump, making it practicable to produce either synchronous or unsyn-
chronous pulsations. A more common disposition is to use two simple
pulsators in connection with the two pumps, one of which is held in
the hand, while the other is mounted in the water, so as to be left free
to move.

The two phases of pulsation are regarded by Professor Bjerknes as
analogous to the poles of the electrode or magnet. The phase of dilata-
tion may thus be likened to the north pole, that of collapse to the south

HYDRODYNAMICS AND ELECTRICITY. 255

pole. If, now, having one of the drums mounted in the water, and
the other held in the hand, we bring them near each other while both
are dilating or both are contracting — that is, while both are in the
same phase of pulsation — attraction will take place between them.
The mounted drum will assume the direction of approach toward the
one held in the hand, and of following it when it is removed ; but if
they are in opposite phases — if one is swelling while the other is con-
tracting— they will be repelled. Like poles attract, unlike ones repel.
The phenomena are the inverse of what are observed in ordinary elec-
tricity and magnetism, where unlike poles attract and like ones repel.
The pulsating drum in these experiments represents an isolated pole, a
conception which physicists have not hitherto regarded as possible.

Spheres of invariable volume, but adjusted so as to oscillate in either
an horizontal or vertical direction, maybe used instead of the pulsating
drums, when the phenomena assume a modified shape. The oscillators
used by Professor Bjerknes are mounted as in the figure (Fig. 1, 3),
where the sphere on the left is arranged so as to oscillate horizontally,
and the one on the right to oscillate vertically, the alternate move-
ments of oscillation being produced, like the pulsations of the drums,
by alternately forcing in and withdrawing the air. The opposite sides
of the sphere assume opposite phases, and the sphere acts like a mag-
net. If a sphere is brought near a pulsator, so that its oscillating
movement shall be toward the drum while that is dilating, attraction
takes place ; but, if it be turned in the opposite direction, so as to be
moving away from the drum while the same is swelling, repulsion will
be manifested.

If two oscillating spheres be brought near each other, attraction
takes place in case they are both moving to or from each other; repul-
sion, in case they are both moving in the same direction : and the
change can be effected at once, as before, by turning one of the spheres
around.

Professor Bjerknes has a considerable variety of apparatus for
modifying the aspects of the phenomena by changing the relative
situations of the bodies to each other, in all of which manifestations
of an inverse character to those of ordinary magnetism are developed.
If one of the spheres be mounted so as to be free to move about a
vertical axis, it is found that, when a second oscillating sphere is
brought near to it, the one that is free turns round its axis, and sets
itself so that both spheres shall be simultaneously approaching or re-
ceding^ from each other. Two oscillating spheres mounted at the ex-
tremities of an arm, with freedom to move, behave with respect to
another oscillating sphere exactly like a magnet; in the neighborhood
of another magnetic pole. These directive effects are believed by
Professor George Forbes to be perfectly new, both theoretically and
experimentally.

The phenomena* of attraction and repulsion, described above, are

256

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

supposed by Professor Bjerknes and Professor Forbes to be due, not
to the action of one body on the other, but to the mutual action of one
body and the water in contact with it, the water being regarded as
the analogue of Faraday's medium. "Viewed in this light," says
Professor Forbes, " his first experiment is equivalent to saying that, if
a vibrating or oscillating body have its motions in the same direction
as the water, the body moves away from the center of disturbance ;
but, if in the opposite direction, toward it. This idea gives us the
analogy of dia- and para-magnetism. If, in the neighborhood of the
vibrating drum, we have a cork ball, retained under the water by a
thread, the oscillations of the cork are greater than those of the water
in contact with it, owing to its small mass, and are, consequently, rela-
tively in the same direction. Accordingly, we have repulsion, corre-
sponding to diamagnetism. If, on the other hand, we hang in the
water a ball which is heavier than water, its oscillations are not so
great as those of the water in its vicinity, owing to its mass, and con-
sequently the oscillations of the ball relatively to the water are in the
opposite direction to those of the water itself, and there is attraction
corresponding to para-magnetism. A rod of cork and another of
metal are suspended horizontally by threads in the trough, and a vi-
brating drum is brought near them : the cork rod sets itself equatori-
ally, and the metal rod axially."

Fig. 2.

From these and other experiments Professor Bjerknes has con-
cluded that the motion of a vibrating agent in the water produces a
real magnetic field, with its lines of forces presenting, but always
in an inverse sense, identical phenomena of diamagnetism and para-

THE CAUSE OF TUBERCULAR DISEASE. 257

magnetism, magnetic interference, etc. He has been able to trace out
the direction of the lines of force produced in the liquid with the ap-
paratus represented in Fig. 2. A light sphere or cylinder is mounted
in the midst of the liquid upon an elastic rod, so that it shall partake
* of every movement of the surrounding water ; a brush is attached to
it, and arranged in such a manner as to paint, on the glass plate above,
the line of every vibration of the fluid important enough to move it.
If two drums are used pulsating concordantly, a figure is obtained
precisely like that produced by iron filings in a field of two similar
magnetic poles. If the pulsations are discordant, the figure is like
that obtained with two dissimilar poles. Three pulsating drums give
a figure identical with that produced by three magnetic poles.

A number of interesting conclusions may be drawn from these ex-
periments concerning the nature of electric and magnetic vibrations,
but they need to be further confirmed before a positive announcement
of them can be justified.

-*-»~o~

THE CAUSE OF TUBERCULAR DISEASE.

LETTER FEOM PEOFESSOE TYNDALL TO THE LONDON "TIMES."

ON the 24th of March, 1882, an address of very serious public im-
port was delivered by Dr. Koch before the Physiological Society
of Berlin. It touches a question in which we are all at present in-
terested— that of experimental physiology — and I may, therefore, be
permitted to give some account of it in the " Times." The address, a
copy of which has been courteously sent to me by its author, is en-
titled " The Etiology of Tubercular Disease." Koch first made him-
self known by the penetration, skill, and thoroughness of his researches
on the contagium of splenic fever. By a process of inoculation and
infection he traced this terrible parasite through all its stages of de-
velopment and through its various modes of action. This masterly
investigation caused the young physician to be transferred from a
modest country practice, in the neighborhood of Breslau, to the post
of Government Adviser in the Imperial Health Department of Berlin.
From this department has lately issued a most important series of
investigations on the etiology of infective disorders. Koch's last in-
quiry deals with a disease which, in point of mortality, stands at the
head of them all. If, he says, the seriousness of a malady be measured
by the number of its victims, then the most dreaded pests which have
hitherto ravaged the world — plague and cholera included — must stand
far behind the one now under consideration. Koch makes the start-
ling statement that one seventh of the deaths of the human race are
due to tubercular 4isease, while fully one third of those who die in

VOL. XXI. — 1*7

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

active middle age are carried off by the same cause. Prior to Koch it
had been placed beyond doubt that the disease was communicable ;
and the aim of the Berlin physician has been to determine the precise
character of the contagium, which previous experiments on inocula-
tion and inhalation had proved to be capable of indefinite transfer
and reproduction. He subjected the diseased organs of a great
number of men and animals to microscopic examination, and found,
in all cases, the tubercles infested with a minute, rod-shaped para-
site, which, by means of a special dye, he differentiated from the
surrounding tissue. It was, he says, in the highest degree impres-
sive to observe in the center of the tubercle-cell the minute organ-
ism which had created it. Transferring directly, by inoculation, the
tuberculous matter from diseased animals to healthy ones, he in
every instance reproduced the disease. To meet the objection that it
was not the parasite itself, but some virus in which it was imbedded
in the diseased organ, that was the real contagium, he cultivated his
bacilli artificially, for long periods of time, and through many succes-
sive generations. With a speck of matter, for example, from a tuber-
culous human lung, he infected a substance prepared, after much trial
by himself, with the view of affording nutriment to the parasite. Here
he permitted it to grow and multiply. From this new generation he
took a minute sample and infected therewith fresh nutritive matter,
thus producing another brood. Generation after generation of bacilli
were developed in this way without the intervention of disease. At
the end of the process, which sometimes embraced successive cultiva-
tions extending over half a year, the purified bacilli were introduced
into the circulation of healthy animals of various kinds. In every case
inoculation was followed by the reproduction and spread of the para-
site, and the generation of the original disease.

Permit me to give a further, though still brief and sketchy, account
of Koch's experiments. Of six Guinea-pigs, all in good health, four
were inoculated with bacilli derived originally from a human lung,
which, in fifty-four days, had produced five successive generations.
Two of the six animals were not infected. In every one of the in-
fected cases, the Guinea-pig sickened and lost flesh. After thirty-two
days one of them died, and after thirty-five days the remaining five
were killed and examined. In the Guinea-pig that died, and in the three
remaining infected ones, strongly pronounced tubercular disease had
set in. Spleen, liver, and lungs were found filled with tubercles ; while
in the two uninfected animals no trace of the disease was observed.
In a second experiment, six out of eight Guinea-pigs were inoculated
with cultivated bacilli, derived originally from the tuberculous lung
of a monkey, bred and rebred for ninety-five days, until eight genera-
tions had been produced. Every one of these animals was attacked,
while the two uninfected Guinea-pigs remained perfectly healthy.
Similar experiments were made with cats, rabbits, rats,, mice, and other

THE CAUSE OF TUBERCULAR DISEASE. 259

animals, and, without exception, it was found that the injection of the
parasite into the animal system was followed by decided and, in most
cases, virulent tubercular disease.

In the cases thus far mentioned inoculation had been effected in
the abdomen. The place of inoculation was afterward changed to the
aqueous humor of the eye. Three rabbits received each a speck of
bacillus culture, derived originally from a human lung affected with
pneumonia. Eighty-nine days had been devoted to the culture of the
organism. The infected rabbits rapidly lost flesh, and after twenty-
five days were killed and examined. The lungs of every one of them
were found charged with tubercles. Of three other rabbits, one re-
ceived an injection of pure blood-serum in the aqueous humor of the
eye, while the other two were infected in a similar way, with the same
serum, containing bacilli, derived originally from a diseased lung, and
subjected to ninety-one days' cultivation. After twenty-eight days
the rabbits were killed. The one which had received an injection of
pure serum was found perfectly healthy, while the lungs of the two
others were found overspread with tubercles.

Other experiments are recorded in this admirable essay, from which
the weightiest practical conclusions may be drawn. Koch determines
the limits of temperature between which the tubercle-bacillus can
develop and multiply. The minimum temperature he finds to be 86°
Fahrenheit, and the maximum 104°. He concludes that, unlike the
bacillus anthracis of splenic fever, which can flourish freely outside
the animal body, in the temperate zone animal warmth is necessary for
the propagation of the newly discovered organism. In a vast number
of cases, Koch has examined the matter expectorated from the lungs
of persons affected with phthisis and found in it swarms of bacilli,
while in matter expectorated from the lungs of persons not thus
afflicted he has never found the organism. The expectorated matter
in the former cases was highly infective, nor did drying destroy its
virulence. Guinea-pigs infected with expectorated matter which had
been kept dry for two, four, and eight weeks respectively were smitten
with tubercular disease quite as virulent as that produced by fresh ex-
pectoration. Koch points to the grave danger of inhaling air in which
particles of the dried sputa of consumptive patients mingles with dust
of other kinds.

It would be mere impertinence on my part to draw the obvious
moral from these experiments. In no other conceivable way than that
pursued by Koch could the true character of the most destructive
malady by which humanity is now assailed be determined. And, how-
ever noisy the fanaticism of the moment may be, the common sense of
Englishmen will not, in the long run, permit it to enact cruelty in the
name of tenderness, or to debar us from the light and leading of such
investigations as that which is here so imperfectly described.

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

SKETCH OF CHAELES E. DAE WIN, LL.D.

ME. DAE WIN died at his home, Down House, near Orpington,
England, April 19th. He had been suffering for some time
from weakness of the heart, but continued to work till the last. He
was taken ill, after having enjoyed an apparent improvement, on the
day before his death, with pains in the chest, faintness, and nausea,
from which he never recovered.

Mr. Darwin inherited his scientific tastes from two successive gen-
erations of ancestors, and has transmitted them to some of his chil-
dren. His grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, was a distinguished
botanist, and was the author of a poem " The Botanic Garden," the
merits of which are decidedly more botanical than poetical, but which
has a place in English literature ; and of the " Zoonomia, or the Laws
of Organic Life," a work in which the theory of development was
plainly foreshadowed. His father, Dr. Eobert Waring Darwin, was
a Fellow of the Eoyal Society. His grandfather on the mother's side
was the celebrated Josiah Wedgwood, whose name is intimately asso-
ciated with the Wedgwood earthenware.

Charles Eobert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England,
February 12, 1809, and received a preparatory education at the gram-
mar-school of that place, under the head-mastership of Dr. Samuel
Butler, author of one of the old standard text-books on geography,
and afterward Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry. He entered the
University of Edinburgh when sixteen years old, and two years later,
in 1827, went to Christ's College, Cambridge, whence he was gradu-
ated Bachelor of Arts four years afterward. The most that is known
definitely of his special pursuits at these institutions is that at Edin-
burgh he gave some attention to marine zoology, and read his first sci-
entific paper, " On the Movement of the Ova of Frustra " before the
Plinian Society, and that at Cambridge he was especially interested
in botany.

His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle had returned in 1830
from a four years' survey of the coasts of Patagonia and Terra del
Fuego. Captain Fitzroy, of the Beagle, had gained so much credit by
his efficiency as an officer and the value of the observations he re-
corded, that, he easily obtained a commission to return to the South
American waters on another and more extensive exploring expedition.
Before going he made a public offer to give up a part of his own cabin
to any competent naturalist who would accompany him. Darwin saw
the notice, and at once offered his services without salary, on the condi-
tion that he should be given the disposition of his collections. He was
accepted, and thus obtained, when twenty-two years old, " what would
be considered a prize by any naturalist of double his age." The expe-
dition, with Darwin as one of its members, sailed on the 27th of Novem-

SKETCH OF CHARLES R. DARWIN, LL.D. 261

ber, 1831, and was gone four years and ten months, during which time
it visited Brazil, Patagonia, Chili, Peru, the Galapagos and Society-
Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius, St. Helena, and the Cape
Verd Islands. The observations taken during this voyage and the pre-
vious expedition were published by Captains King and Fitzroy, their
commanders, in a voluminous report, to which Mr. Darwin contributed
a volume embodying " A Journal of Researches into the Geology and
Natural History of the Various Countries visited by his Majesty's
Ship Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, from 1832 to
1836." Of this work Sir Charles Lyell wrote to the author, in Sep-
tember, 1838, before it was actually published: "I assure you my
father is quite enthusiastic about your journal, which he is reading,
and he agrees with me that it would have had a great sale if separately
published. The other day he told me that he wished to get a copy
bound the moment it was out, and send it as a present to Sir William
Hooker, who, more than any one, would be delighted with yours. He
was disappointed at hearing that it was to be fettered by the other
volumes, for, although he should equally buy it, he feared so many of
the public would be checked from doing so." The volume was pub-
lished separately in 1845. The ten years which followed Mr. Darwin's
return to England were mainly devoted by him to the publication of
the numerous and important results that had been obtained during the
voyage. He edited the treatises of Professor Owen, Mr. Waterhouse,
Mr. Gould, the Rev. J. Jenyns, and Mr. Bell, on the different groups
of vertebrate animals as " The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S.
Beagle " ; and he wrote three separate volumes embodying further
fruits of his observations than he had given in the " Report," " On the
Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs " (1842) ; " Geologic Obser-
vations on Volcanic Islands " (1844) ; and " Geological Observations on
South America " (1846). Of the first three works, a reviewer of the
second edition in "Nature," in 1874, says : "The rising generation of
naturalists and geologists have not had, and most probably will never
have, such feelings of intellectual pleasure as fell to the lot of the
readers of Charles Darwin's book on ' Coral Reefs,' which was offered
to science more than thirty years ago. The recent researches into the
nature of the deposits of the deep-sea, and the discoveries of bathy-
metrical zones of water of very different temperatures, are certainly
full of vast interest, and will afford the data for the development of
many a theory ; but the clear exposition of facts, and the bold theory
which characterized the book on < Coral Reefs,' came unexpectedly and
with overpowering force of conviction. The natural history of a zo-
ophyte was brought into connection with the grandest phenomena of
the globe — with the progressive subsidence of more or less submerged
mountains, and with the distribution of volcanic foci." And this re-
viewer adds that "even at this period of Darwin's life the importance
of the struggle for existence had been recognized by him, and had in-

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fluenced his thoughts. He remarks that he ' can understand the grada-
tion only as a prolonged struggle against unfavorable conditions.' "
The President of the Geological Society has said that, "looking at
the general mass of Mr. Darwin's results, I can not help considering
his voyage around the world as one of the most important events for
geology which has occurred for many years." Professor John W.
Judd, noticing the works of this series in a group, said, in 1877, " Stu-
dents of Mr. Darwin's earlier geological writings must all have been
impressed by the powers of minute observation, the acumen in testing,
and the skill in grouping data, and the boldness and originality in
generalization which distinguished their author ; for these character-
istics are no less distinguished in the theory of coral reefs than in that
of natural selection " ; and " these ' Geological Observations ' are well
worthy to take their place in the long series of the author's contribu-
tions to the doctrine of descent side by side with those more widely
known works on different dej^artments of zoology and botany which
have been published subsequently to the ' Origin of Species.' "

His most important work on zoology, " A Monograph of the Family
Cirripedia," was published by the Ray Society, 1851 to 1853. It gave
accurate determinations of every recognized species of the animals
known as barnacles and sea-acorns; and was shortly afterward followed
by another monograph on the fossil species of the same family, which
was brought out by the Philosophical Society. All of these works —
each of which was, as the estimates we have quoted indicate, of the
first importance in itself, and each of which is a standard to this day —
were but as preliminaries to the culminating achievement of Mr. Dar-
win's life, the exposition of the doctrine of the origin of species and
development by natural selection, as given in the series of works on
" The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection ; or, the Pres-
ervation of Favored Paces in the Struggle for Life" (1859) ; "The
Variations of Plants and Animals under Domestication" (1867), and
"The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex" (1871) ; and
in the numerous special works in which he has made various particular
phenomena of animal and vegetable life illustrate and re-enforce his
great doctrine. The views expressed and defined in these works, al-
though, now that they have " come of age," they have sensibly and
profoundly affected the whole world of thought, were a surprise.
Scientific men received them hesitatingly or with incredulity ; those
who were not scientific with displeasure. Yet they were not wholly
novel ; for Aristotle, Goethe, Mr. Darwin's grandfather, and others,
had suggested similar hypotheses, and Mr. Wallace had independently
reached conclusions very like those enunciated by Mr. Darwin. They
have had to make their way against the prepossessions of the minds
to whom they appealed, and against the prejudices which those pre-
possessions awakened when they were assailed.

Gradually the theory of descent gained acceptance among the

SKETCH OF CHARLES R. DARWIN, LL.D. 263

scientific thinkers of England, with whom the proportion of those
ready to deny it grows less from year to year. In Germany it became,
in the course of ten years, more or less completely accepted by those
best qualified to judge, and was the occasion of the production of a
considerable literature of arguments and facts in its favor, without
encountering any very serious opposition. In France, the truth of the
theory was far less extensively admitted, and it continued to be, for
many years, the object of a vigorous and often bitter opposition, the
echoes of which have hardly yet died away. A prolonged discussion
took place in the French Academy of Sciences relative to the merits
of the author of the theory in 1870, when Mr. Darwin was nominated
to fill the vacancy in the zoological section caused by the death of M.
Purkinge. M. Milne -Edwards first spoke in his favor, saying that,
while he was himself absolutely opposed to evolutional doctrines, he
rendered homage to the value of the special works of Mr. Darwin,
especially to the theory of the formation of coral islands. M. Elie de
Beaumont added his testimony to the value of this theory, and re-
marked that Mr. Darwin had done good work which he had spoiled
by dangerous and unfounded speculations ; he should not be elected
until he had renounced them. M. Emile Blanchard was very severe
upon Mr. Darwin for an hour, styling him an " intelligent amateur " ;
and M. Elie de Beaumont interpolated that his work was the " froth
of science." M. de Quatrefages replied to M. Blanchard, saying that
there were two men included in Mr. Darwin, a naturalist observer and
a theoretical thinker : the naturalist is exact, sagacious, and patient ;
the thinker is original and penetrating, often just, sometimes too rash.
That the theory with which his name is connected, that of natural
selection, has in it something seductive and plausible, is shown by
its having been worked out by such men as Darwin, Wallace, and
Naudin, laboring independently and in different paths. If the ideas
and the works of Darwin are such as some of his opponents repre-
sent, how can they have obtained the support, in less than ten
years, of such men as Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, Karl Vogt, Lubbock,
Haeckel, Filippi, and Brandt himself, who has just been elected
correspondent in opposition to Mr. Darwin ? Then, having enu-
merated Mr. Darwin's works in geology, comprising seven real
contributions to the science, and in zoology, his works on the origin
of species and variation, and particularly his investigations of the
strange variations in fowls, pigeons, and rabbits, M. de Quatrefages
summed up by saying: "Mr. Darwin is an eminent naturalist, who
wishes to remove from science the invocation of the first cause, and to
seek the explanation of the natural facts of the organic world in sec-
ondary causes, as was done long ago in geology, chemistry, and phys-
ics. But he goes no further ; and we ought not to judge Darwin by
the words of a few disciples who seem never to have read his works.
It would be unjust to make him responsible for the exaggerations and

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

aberrations of those who take refuge under his name." M. Robin
made an argument which presents a singular appearance now, in view
of the hosts of minute but important facts which Mr. Darwin has
showered upon science since it was made, that, in respect of demon-
strable facts which he had introduced, there would be a hundred zool-
ogists who should have precedence over him. If from his publications
" we eliminate the views, neither the reality nor falseness of which is
demonstrable, and which are therefore not objects of science, there
remains to him a share of titles which is inferior to that represented
by the well-demonstrated scientific data introduced by M. Bischoff ;
there remain to him even fewer titles to our suffrages than to any of
the savants who are placed on an equality with him in our list of pres-
entations." Mr. Darwin was not elected. His name came before the
Academy again, on a nomination to be a foreign correspondent, in
1872, and received the same support and the same opposition as two
years before. He was rejected — receiving only fifteen votes, to thirty-
two cast for Mr. Loewen, of Stockholm. His time came at last to
receive the recognition of French men of science. He was elected a
corresponding foreign member in the zoological section in 1878, by a
vote of twenty-six to fourteen, after a rapid change in his favor, and
three years after having received a similar recognition from the Im-
perial Academy of Science of Vienna. On the occasion of his sixty-
ninth birthday, in 1877, he received, as a testimonial from Germany, an
elegant album, containing the photographs of one hundred and fifty-four
men of science in that country, addressed " To the Reformer of Nat-
ural History, Charles Darwin," and a similar album containing the
photographs of two hundred and seventeen distinguished professors
and lovers of science in the Netherlands, accompanied with an account
of the progress of opinion in that country with respect to evolution, as
a proof which, it expressed, " we are persuaded, can not but afford
you some satisfaction that the seeds by you so liberally strewed have
also fallen on fertile soil in the Netherlands." Mr. Darwin replied to
the latter testimonial modestly, acknowledging his obligations to pre-
vious observers of facts, and adding : " I suppose that every worker
at science occasionally feels depressed, and doubts whether what he has
published has been worth the labor which it has cost him ; but for the
remaining years of my life, whenever I want cheering, I will look at
the portraits of my distinguished co-workers in the field of science, and
remember their generous sympathy." In 1877 the University of Cam-
bridge, amid circumstances of great enthusiasm, conferred the degree
of LL. D. on him in a Latin oration, in which his work was neatly
summarized, and which closed, "Thou, also, who hast so learnedly
illustrated the laws of nature, be our doctor of laws." A subscription
was afterward inaugurated at Cambridge for the erection of a perma-
nent memorial of him, which it was agreed should be a picture, to
be painted by Mr. W. M. Richmond.

SKETCH OF CHARLES R. DARWIN, LL. D. 265

Mr. Darwin's later works, besides those which we have already
named, which are for the most part monographs embodying facts and
researches into the manner in which different functions of animals and
plants are developed, include "The Various Contrivances by which
Orchids are fertilized by Insects " (1862) ; " The Movements and Hab-
its of Climbing Plants " (18G5) ; " The Expression of the Emotions
in Man and Animals" (1872) ; "Insectivorous Plants" (1875) ; "The
Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom "
(1876) ; " The Different Forms of Flowers and Plants of the Same
Species" (1877); "The Power of Movement in Plants" (1881); "The
Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with
Observations on their Habits" (1882). All of these works have been
received with interest by the public, and have been fully noticed in
our pages. The works which have been called forth by the influence
of Mr. Darwin's writings are catalogued in a German pamphlet of
thirty-six octavo pages, containing the names of three hundred and
twelve authors.

Mr. Darwin was subject to frequent sudden attacks of illness which
laid him prostrate for days together. The periods of convalescence
were made useful for observations requiring almost constant atten-
tion ; and such observations, made in the sick-room, are referred to
in his " Climbing Plants." His tastes were almost wholly scientific.
For sculpture or pottery, or even for drawing, except as an aid to bo-
tanical and zoological pursuits, he cared very little, his collection of
pictures being confined to a portrait of old Dr. Darwin and one of
Josiah Wedgwood, hanging in his dining-room, and sketches of Sir
Joseph Hooker and Professor Huxley in his study.

Commenting on Mr. Darwin's methods of investigation and pres-
entation, " Nature " remarks in a review of one of his books, that, in
turning over its pages, " one is almost distracted from the intrinsic
interest of the facts and speculations by the sagacity with which the
research is carried on, and the skill with which the results are mar-
shaled for our information. It is peculiarly worthy of notice . . . how
the reader is allowed, in studying Mr. Darwin's pages, to form his
own hypothesis in explanation of the facts, only to be compelled, in due
course, as the narrative proceeds, to admit that such hypotheses are
utterly untenable." Scientific candor is mentioned as one of his prom-
inent qualities by Mr. J. TV. Judd, who says that, " like his teacher
and friend, the late Sir Charles Lyell, he never forgets in his discus-
sions to look at all sides of the questions before him, and to give the
fullest expression and weight, alike to the difficulties which he him-
self detects, and to arguments which opponents may have advanced."
This quality is well illustrated in the successive editions of the " Ori-
gin of Species," where the author's changes or modifications of views
in particular points are frequently acknowledged and recorded.

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIY.

THE present year will be memora-
ble in the history of science as
bringing to a close the labors of two
illustrious scientific thinkers — one, per-
haps, the most eminent man of science
in America, Dr. John William Draper,
and the other probably the most cele-
brated scientific man of the world at
the present time, Dr. Charles Robert
Darwin. Both men had accomplished
their work, the former dying at the age
of seventy-one, and the latter at the
age of seventy-three ; and it is remarka-
ble that both were among the most dis-
tinguished representatives of the same
school of progressive scientific thought.
Their names will be for ever associated
with that great revolution of ideas for
which all modern science has prepared,
but which has been accomplished only
within the present generation. Both
men made large and important contri-
butions, by observation and experiment,
to the departments of science which
they respectively cultivated, but they
will be measured in future chiefly by
the bearing of their work upon the great
intellectual movement of the period.

Everybody knows what we mean in
speaking of the movement of thought
with which the names of Draper and
Darwin are identified; and which we
have referred to as a revolution of
ideas already accomplished. One of its
leading aspects is the application of the
scientific method to the phenomena of
life in order to explain their changes
by natural causes. Mr. Darwin's name
has been so closely associated with this
extension of scientific method to cover
the origin of the diversities of living
beings upon earth that he has come to
be a representative of the idea ; while
the term " Darwinism " has been vague-
ly employed to stand for the doctrine.

The twenty volumes of " The Popular
Science Monthly " bear uniform and
abundant record that " Darwinism "
has been generally accepted as true in
the world of science for the last ten
years. But there is a sharper test of
the change of opinion that has taken
place than any affirmation regarding
the verdicts of scientific men. At its
earliest promulgation "Darwinism " was
denounced by the whole body of relig-
ious authorities as false and execrable.
There was never such unanimity in the
pulpit as was displayed in cursing the
new apostle of the doctrine of man's
descent from an ancestry of inferior
animals. The devil got a considerable
respite while the batteries were all be-
ing turned upon Darwin as the arch-
enemy and subverter of all religion.
But, as the movement of ideas went on
all the same, common sense began to
assert itself in various quarters, so that
there has latterly been more temper-
ateness of condemnation, and even a
readiness to accept the long-detested
doctrine as probably true, and by no
means so bad as it at first seemed. And,
now that Darwin is dead, there is a
universal burst of admiration for the
man, accompanied by abundant admis-
sions that his ideas are true ; and he is
laid in Westminster Abbey alongside of
Newton, while the most eminent preach-
ers of London agree in declaring that
there has been nothing in his teaching
that is not wholly consistent with the
soundest Christian belief. Canon Lid-
don, of St. Paul's, author of " The Di-
vinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ," is reported to have said in a
sermon that "Mr. Darwin's theories
are not necessarily hostile to the fun-
damental truths of religion"; and
Canon Barrv, author of " Orthodox

*r 7

Commentaries on Portions of the Bi-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

ble," declared that "the doctrine of
evolution lent itse^ as readily to prom-
ises of God as less complete explana-
tions of the universe."

To explain the world-wide fame of
Mr. Darwin and the expressions of high
appreciation that have been elicited by
his death, several circumstances must
be taken into account. In the first
place, his pre-eminence as a naturalist
is not for a moment to be questioned.
He had a genius for investigation in
this field, as is shown by the immense
amount of valuable and original work
that he has accomplished. As an ac-
curate and indefatigable observer, of
keen insight, and equally fertile and
skillful in his experimental devices to
bring out the secrets of Nature, he was
probably without a rival. Descended
from a race of naturalists, he seemed
to have a constitutional intuition for
penetrating the mysteries of living be-
ings, and detecting subtilties that had
eluded previous observers. Patient, in-
dustrious, and concentrated upon his
work, he has enriched natural history
with a multitude of new facts, which
will make his name an authoritv for all
future time.

But Mr. Darwin was more than a
mere observer and accumulator of facts ;
he was a man of ideas capable of meth-
odising his observations and making
them tributary to the progress of theo-
retical views. He found the problem
of the origin of the diversities of living
beings unsettled, he subordinated all
his researches to its solution, and he
put forth a theory upon the subject
that has made him famous. This was
the principle of natural selection, called
also the survival' of the fittest, and it
was elaborated with a wealth of il-
lustration that rapidly commended it
to the acceptance of the scientific
world. In a nutshell it is this : There
is a law of heredity, or descent of traits,
from generation to generation, in the
kingdom of organic life — a law under
which " like produceSyLike." But there

is also a law of variation by which
like always produces the slightly un-
like— a modification from generation
to generation, and adaptation to ever-
changing conditions. At the same
time the rate of multiplication gives rise
to a destructive struggle for existence,
in which multitudes perish and but com-
paratively few survive, while the sur-
vivors are those best fitted to the new
conditions. In this way new charac-
ters are strengthened and developed,
and old traits are weakened and disap-
pear, so that the progress of life is at
the same time a slow transformation, in
which at first new varieties and then
new species gradually arise by minute
increments of change. Thus the diver-
sities among living creatures are ac-
counted for by the operation of natural
agencies.

But, besides the intrinsic character
of his work, the traits of the man were
eminently calculated to produce the
most favorable impression. He was not
a controversialist, and, instead of going
roughly athwart men's prejudices, he
was kindly, considerate, and concilia-
tory in all his writings. He was also
modest and eminently candid and fair-
minded, always seeking to do justice to
the views of his opponents. Men felt
that his supreme object was simply to
get at the truth. For this he labored in-
cessantly and untiringly, and thus won
the respect of all who can appreciate
sincerity of aim and elevation of pur-
pose. Added to this he was a very ge-
nial and pleasant man in his personal
relations, and most highly regarded by
those who were honored with his ac-
quaintance and friendship.

But still other elements must be
taken into account in explaining the
extent of his popularity. He was a
remarkably fortunate man. We refer
not so much to his easy circumstances,
which gave him command of resources
and allowed full consecration to a life
of study ; but we mean that he came
at a great crisis of thought, when a lead-

z68

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

er was wanted in a comprehensive sci-
entific field. It was his happy fortune
to avail himself of a previous advance
of biological inquiry, which was much
greater than is generally supposed. Mr.
Darwin has himself fully pointed out
to what various extents his idea of nat-
ural selection had been discerned by
preceding naturalists. It was a discov-
ery all ready to be made, and how in-
evitably it grew out of the state of
knowledge that had been attained, and
how imminent it was in the thought of
the time, is shown by the fact that he
was compelled to publish on the sub-
ject earlier than he had intended, to
prevent being anticipated by Mr. Alfred
Eussel "Wallace, who had already ar-
rived at and worked out the same prin-
ciple. It was fortunate for the fame of
Mr. Darwin that Mr. Wallace so grace-
fully and generously stepped aside, and
surrendered to him the full leadership
of the new biological reform.

Nor is it to be forgotten, in enumer-
ating the causes that have conspired to
give such prominence to the name and
fame of Darwin, that his subject was
one of intense and universal interest.
No matter how unpalatable were the
theories proposed, everybody was con-
cerned with questions of the origin of
life, because they involved explanations
of human origin. Whence we came
has always been a riddle which there
has been an irrepressible curiosity to
solve. Mr. Darwin's explanation came
in the name of science, and, apparently
involving but a single principle of such
simplicity and familiar illustration that
everybody could understand it, his lit-
tle book was sought for and read with
avidity by all 'classes. And yet, in the
nature of things, it was impossible that
the work should be generally under-
stood with any thoroughness. It dealt
with an order of ideas for which our
higher education made no preparation,
so that the college graduate was little
better equipped than the uneducated
country farmer to read intelligently and

appreciatingly the argument of the
" Origin of Species." There was, con-
sequently, a great deal of popular con-
fusion and misapprehension as to what
Mr. Darwin had really done, and which
naturally led to erroneous and even ex-
travagant claims as to the nature and
scope of his work. To those who were
not well instructed he came to be re-
garded as the creator of an epoch and
the originator of the whole scheme of
ideas connected with his investigations.
We see this in the tendency to attribute
to Mr. Darwin the fatherhood of the
law of evolution, and to identify evolu-
tion with Darwinism. He contributed
to that universal law a most important
principle, but he was neither its founder
nor did he ever attempt anything like
its general exposition. That great doc-
trine had been overwhelmingly proved,
had been resolved into its forces, for-
mulated, and extensively applied to
the reorganization of scientific knowl-
edge, before Mr. Darwin had ever
published a word upon the subject.
He has done noble work, and his posi-
tion is for ever assured among the
greatest in science ; and, if circum-
stances have tended to favor some ex-
aggeration of his real claims, we may
leave to time the correction of imper-
fect judgments, and the equitable award
of all honors among those to whom
honors are due.

A VERY MODERN REPROACH.

Commenting, two months ago, upon
Goldwin Smith's article attacking sci-
entific ethics, we pointed out the exten-
sive co-existence of supernatural beliefs
with a lax morality. The " Christian
Union," under the title of " A Very An-
cient Reproach," charges " The Popular
Science Review " with reviving a stale
old accusation of Thomas Paine. It,
moreover, attempts to confound us
with " History," and offers a quotation
from Gibbon, declaring that through
conversions by the early Church " the

EDITOR'S TABLE.

269

most abandoned sinners " in many cases
became " the most eminent saints."
The " Union " then proceeds to remark :
" If ' The Popular Science Monthly ' de-
sires further information as to the act-
ual effect which evangelical religion
has produced on the morals of the com-
munity, it will be found in abundance
in Lecky's ' History of European Mor-
als,' in the same author's ' flistory of
England in the Eighteenth Century,'
and in Professor Draper's ' History of
the Intellectual Development of Eu-
rope,' and none of these authors can be
accused of being eulogists of Christian-
ity. "We leave the ' Review ' to settle
it with Gibbon which horn of the
dilemma it will accept."

We have no issue with Lecky or
Draper, and nothing to settle with Gib-
bon. If we had no other source of in-
formation respecting the relations of
faith and morals as manifested in hu-
man conduct, than what was written a
hundred years ago about what took
place sixteen hundred years earlier, it |
would be different ; but the illustrations
of the relation of religious belief to
ethical practice are too clear, familiar,
and impressive all around us to make
this course necessary. On living ques-
tions we prefer living authorities, and
judgments based upon immediate ob-
servation and experience, to historic in-
ferences regarding what took place at
remote periods. Accordingly, we value
the testimony of the editor of the
" Christian Union " higher than even
that of Gibbon, while his record is far
more to the point. The article entitled
"A Very Ancient Reproach " is imme-
diately followed by another which
serves as an instructive comment upon
it by showing that the " reproach " is
also both very modern and very real.
Its title is "A Missouri Saint," and the
editor writes upon the subject with an
openness which " The Popular Science
Monthly " has never emulated. He
says:

St. James — St. Jesse James — is the latest

contribution of America to the noble army of
saints and martyrs. —

Death seems to settle all accounts ; and
no sooner was this murderous villain dead,
than the whole community set to work with
extraordinary unanimity to canonize him.
His funeral was an ovation ; the attendant
throng crowded the Baptist church, " where
he was converted in 1866 " — heavens ! what
sort of a man would he have been if he
had not been converted? — the sheriff and
under-sheriff acted among the pall-bearers ;
the services were opened with the hymn
"What a friend we have in Jesus!" the
officiating ministers comforted the stricken
community with extracts from the plaints of
Job and David, and with a comforting dis-
course on Christ's forbearance and forgive-
ness of sins ; and, finally, the procession to
the grave was one of immense proportions.

Out upon such a religion as this ! If a Dr.
Thomas intimates that there may be perhaps
a probation in another world for those who
seem to have had no true probation in this,
he is turned out of the fellowship of the
church as a heretic. If a Mr. Jones and a
Mr. Martin send a freebooter and a life-long
robber and murderer straight to heaven in a
chariot of fire without as much as a baptismal
bath by the way, will any church call them
to account for their falseness to the law of
God and the sacredness of morality? We
shall see.

Excellent, certainly ! But, if exactly
the same sentiments, only pitched in a
lower key of indignation, appear in
"The Popular Science Monthly," we
are accused of reviving the obsolete re-
proaches of infidelity, and the " Chris-
tian Advocate " breaks into a pious dia-
tribe about " Sugar-coated Poison."

The view of the " Christian Union "
is well confirmed by "The Nation," as
follows :

James's relations to the Church, too, had a
curiously mediaeval flavor about them. He
was the son of a Baptist minister, but his
career apparently did not strike his mother,
or any of his family or neighbors, as incon-
sistent with the possession of a stock of fun-
damental and ineradicable piety. When ho
died, she rejoiced in the thought that he had
gone to heaven. Two Baptist ministers per-
formed the funeral services, and a vast con-
course of friends, including the sheriff, who
was deeply affected, followed the remains to
the grave, not son-owing, apparently, as those

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

who are without hope. In fact, the James
territory, which includes the adjacent corners
of four States, is a region which seems closely
to resemble in its religious and moral condi-
tion a Frankish kingdom in Gaul in the sixth
century. Every one knows how very early
in the history of the Church the tendency to
make faith take the place of right-living began
to show itself. St. James had to warn the
very first generation of Christians that pure
religion and undefiled consisted not in sound
belief, but in good deeds. Tbe difficulty of
making people show their faith by their
works has beset Christianity ever since. Bar-
barians rapidly accepted the Christian dog-
mas, and took eagerly to the rites and cere-
monies of the Church, but they never were
quite ready to accept its views about behavior.
Gregory of Tours, in his most instructive
chronicle, tells some very grotesque stories of
the difficulties which the bishops had in Gaul
in his day in refusing the communion to no-
torious evil livers. One Frankish chief — a
great robber and cut-throat — insisted on hav-
ing it administered to him, and the bishop
had to let him have it, in order to save life,
for he threatened to kill all the other commu-
nicants if he was not allowed to partake also.
The comfort the Italian and Greek brigands
find in the external observances of their creed,
while committing the most atrocious crimes,
is now an old story. A skeptical or agnostic
robber is in fact unknown in Eastern or South-
ern Europe.

The devout brigands all belong to the
Catholic or Greek Church, which has always
greatly exalted the value of external worship
and pious credulity, and thus furnishes only
too much temptation to those who are ready
to believe without limitation for the purpose
of postponing any change in their habits.
The Protestant Church has been much more
exacting in the matter of conduct, and in fact
has afforded in its teaching but few of the
refuges for easy-going sinners which its great
rival provides so plentifully. But the fight
between faith and right-living nevertheless
rages within its borders unceasingly, and not
always to the advantage of the latter. It is
not only in the James district in Missouri
that one comes on the strange compromises
by which a certain external devoutness is
mado to atone to the conscience not only for
spiritual coldness, but for long and persistent
violations of the fundamental rules of moral-
ity. Startling as are these revelations about
the state of society in that part of the coun-
try, they are hardly more startling, every-
thing considered, than the frequency with
which our defaulters and embezzlers in this

part of the world prove to have been vestry-
men, deacons, Sunday-school superintend-
ents, and prominent church-members durin^
long years of delinquency and perfidy.

LITERARY NOTICES.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC
No. XL.

SERIES.

Myth and Science. An Essay by Tito
Vignoli. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 372.
Price, $1.50.

Though an opportune and much-needed
book upon a subject that is exciting wide
attention in the higher circles of inquiry, yet
this treatise is of a much graver character
than its title might imply to those familiar
with current mythic literature. It is not a
book of old fairy tales nor of the mytholog-
ical legends of different peoples, but it is a
compact disquisition on the origin and nat-
ure of the common mythical element mani-
fested by all grades of intelligence. It is a
philosophical essay, and some critics declare
it to be as hard as metaphysics, which is
saying a good deal, because the book is far
more interesting than metaphysics.

A leading element of interest in this vol-
ume comes from the point of view taken by
the author in the investigation. He assumes
evolution without any reserve, and declares
that " it is evident, at least to those who do
not cling absolutely to old traditions, that
man is evolved from the animal kingdom."
It is true that Mr. Max M tiller, the gram-
marian of mythical romance, not long ago
republished his prophecy that " the idea
of a humanity emerging slowly from the
depths of animal brutality can never be
maintained again in our century." But it
certainly does not look much as if the doc-
trine were at present thus discredited. Mr.
Darwin, its great apostle, was yesterday en-
tombed in Westminster Abbey with the sing,
ing of an anthem composed expressly for the
occasion, in the presence of the best talent
of the country and a formal deputation from
the University of Oxford and representa-
tives from learned societies, the import of
the whole being that " Darwin's work was
at length claimed by the nation as its own,"
while, by the verdict of Europe, the author
of the " Descent of Man " was pronounced
to be the greatest scientist of his age. At

LITERARY NOTICES.

271

any rate, Mr. Yignoli has the science of the
world and probably the truth of the case on
his side. But, if man was developed from
the lower animals, he has derived his psy-
chical faculties, as well as his bodily organ-
ism, from his inferior ancestors; and, al-
though he has left them by a wide gap, they
are still parts of a series with so much re-
maining in common that the higher can only
be interpreted in derivative connection with
the lower. On this view the mythical ele-
ment, as considered by our author, begins
with the lower animals, and comparative psy-
chology is appealed to, with many special
experiments, to show that animals endow
the objects around them with a conscious-
ness like their own. Man, in his early stages,
does a similar thing by " animating " the
forces and objects of nature, and filling the
world with mythical personalities. This
process goes on, according to Mr. Yignoli,
with the advance of intelligence, so that sci-
ence, instead of ending myths, only modifies
them. Man " personifies all phenomena, first
vaguely projecting himself into them, and
then exercising a distinct purpose of anthro-
pomorphism until, in this way, he has grad-
ually modified the world according to his
own image."

In his opening chapter on the ideas and
sources of myths, Mr. Yignoli thus presents
the point of view from which he considers
the subject :

We do not propose to consider in this trea-
tise the myths peculiar to one people nor to one
race ; we do not seek to estimate the intrinsic
value of myths at the time when they were al-
ready developed among various peoples and con-
stituted into an. Olympus or special religion; we
do not wish to determine the special and histor-
ical cause of their manifestations in the life of
any one people, since we now refrain from enter-
ing on the field of comparative mythology. It is
the scope and object of our modest researches
to trace the strictly primitive origin of the hu-
man myths as a whole ; to reach the ultimate
fact, and the causes of this fact, whence myth in
its necessary and universal form is evolved and
has its origin. ■

We must, therefore, seek to discover whether,
in addition to the various causes assigned for
myth in earlier ages, and still more in modern
times, by our great philologists, ethnologists,
and philosophers of every school— causes which
are for the most part extrinsic— there be not a
reason more deeply seated in our nature, which
is first manifested as a necessary and spontane-
ous function of the intelligence, and which is,
therefore, intrinsic and inevitable.

In this case myth will appear to us, not as an
accident in the life of primitive peoples varying
in intensity and extent, not as a vague concep-
tion of things due to the erroneous interpreta-
tion of words and phrases, nor again as the fan-
ciful creation of ignorant minds; but it will ap-
pear to be a special faculty of the human mind,
inspired by emotions Which accompany and ani-
mate its products. Since this innate faculty of
myth is indigenous and common to all men, it
will not only be the portion of all peoples, but of
each individual in every age, in every race, what-
ever may be their respective condition.

Myth, therefore, will not be resolved by us
into a manifestation of an obsolete age, or of
peoples still in a barbarous and savage state,
nor as part of the cycle through which nationa
and individuals have respectively passed or have
nearly passed; but it remains to this day; in
spite of the prevailing civilization which has
greatly increased and is still increasing, it still
persists as a mcde of physical and intellectual
force in the organic elements which constitute it.

Easy Lessons in Science. Edited by Pro-
fessor W. F. Barrett. Light. By
Mrs. W. Awdry. Pp 114. Heat. By
C. W. Martineau. Pp. 136. Macmil-
lan & Co.

Yerily, verily, if the children of this
generation do not grow wise in science, it
will not be for lack of elementary books
for the purpose. " Rudimentary Lessons,"
" Elementary Lessons," " Simple Lessons,"
" Easy Lessons," and " Primers " innumera-
ble, separate and in groups, edited by one
book-maker and written by others, are already
multiplied on every hand, and are increasing
more rapidly than ever. They must be pur-
chased, or they would not continue to be
made ; and, if purchased, they are probably
read and used — so that, on the whole, we
may assume that the result is good. But
one thing is certain — the excellence of these
books is in no relation to their numbers, nor
is it easy to discern much if any improve-
ment in the successive series. They are all
lesson-books with abundant pictures to be
learned in the old-fashioned way in the
school-room. There is some effort at cheap-
ening the means of experiment for scientific
illustration, and, in so far as this promotes
demonstration, the effect is undoubtedly
beneficial. But these little manuals gener-
ally display but a very limited acquaintance
with the minds of the young, and they are
all conformed to the common type of books
of information to be obtained by the regular
old process of reading and lesson-learning.

272

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The two volumes before us on " Light "
and "Heat" are of the usual character.
The name of Professor Barrett as editor
may be taken as a guarantee that the vol-
umes are accurate in their statements, but
we see no evidence that the editorship goes
any further. They seem to be ordinary
text-books merely reduced in dimensions.
Good teachers might use them, we think,
with good effect, but good teachers are few,
and the best teachers are independent of
their books. On the other hand, bad teach-
ers are innumerable — they are the rule, and
the real question about primary books is
how they work in the hands of incompetent
teachers. The best books in these circum-
stances are those that favor the self-educa-
tion of the pupil, and release him from the
over-meddling of stupid instructors. The
books before us, it is needless to say, are
not of that order.

Die chemische Ursache des Lebens theo-
retisch und experimented nachge-
wiesen. (The Chemical Cause of Life
theoretically and experimentally demon-
strated.) By Oscar Loew and Thom-
as Bokorny, of Munich. Munich, Bava-
ria. 1881. Pp. 60, with a Colored
Plate.

Since the first synthesis of an organic
body, urea, was made by Wohler in 1828,
say the authors of this treatise, vital force
has been regarded as the result of chemical
and physical processes. This has been ac-
cepted as satisfactory till the present time,
notwithstanding it has been necessary to ad-
mit, on a closer consideration, that a clear-
er definition of the chemical activity by
which living protoplasm is governed would
be hailed as a very desirable step of prog-
ress. The idea that there was a chemical
difference between dead and living proto-
plasm never found expression till 18*75, and
nearly all physiologists still hold the view
that a complete chemical identity exists be-
tween them, notwithstanding that it would
be hardly possible to explain the cause of
life if this were the case. E. Pfliiger was
the first to assert, in 18*75, in a paper on
physiological combustion in living organ-
isms, that a chemical difference must neces-
sarily exist between living and dead proto-
plasm. One of the authors of this treatise,
in verifying an hypothesis he has proposed on

the formation of albumen, met with a number
of unaltered Aldehyde groups which stood
in close relations with the Amidon groups,
and immediately conceived the idea that the
source of the vital movement in protoplasm
was to be sought in the Aldehyde groups
with their intense atomic movements, and
the origin of death in the passage of the Al-
dehyde groups into Amidon groups. Short-
ly afterward both the authors succeeded in
demonstrating the real existence of Alde-
hyde groups in living plasma. The present
monograph gives a full and connected ac-
count of their experiments, and of the veri-
fications of them.

The Oyster Industry. By Ernest Inger-
SOLL. Washington : Government Print-
ing-Office. Pp. 251, with Forty-two
Plates.

The present monograph is a part of a
series on " The History and Present Condi-
tion of the Fishery Industries," which is in
course of publication under the direction of
the United States Fish Commission, in con-
nection with the census. The arrangement
of the main part of the work is geograph-
ical, beginning with the maritime provinces
of Canada, and passing, with copious ac-
counts of the culture and trade in oys-
ters at all important points on the Atlantic
coast, to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific
coast. Chapters follow on the utilization
of oyster-shells, and the natural history of
the oyster, with notices of the fatalities to
which it is subjected. " An Oysterman's
Dictionary " offers an entertaining as well
as informing collection of phrases and words
descriptive of mollusks and other inverte-
brates of the Atlantic coast. Statistical ta-
bles are given in the final chapter.

A Monograph of the Seal-Islands of
Alaska. By Henry W. Elliott. Wash-
ington: Government Printing-Office. Pp.
176, with Two Maps.

The fur-seal was very often mentioned
in the discussions that took place during the
negotiations for the acquisition of Alaska,
but very little was known of it, and it was
hardly represented in the best zoological
collections. The author of this monograph
became interested in the subject, and in
1872, by the joint action of the Secretary
of the Treasury and Professor Baird, was

LITERARY NOTICES.

273

enabled to visit the Pribylov Islands and
study the life and habits of the animals.
The notes, surveys, and hypotheses here pre-
sented are founded on his personal obser-
vations in the seal-rookeries of St. Paul and
St. George, during the seasons of 1872,
1873, 1874, and 1876. They "were ob-
tained through long days and nights of con-
secutive observation, from the beginning to
the close of each seal season," and cover, by
actual surveys, the entire ground occupied
by these animals.

The Areas op the United States, the
Several States and Territories, and
their Counties. By Henry Gannett,
E. M., Geographer and Special Agent of
the Tenth Census. Washington: Gov-
ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 20, with
Map.

The question, "What constitutes the
area of the United States ? " is by no means
a simple one, but involves other questions
of including or leaving out inlets, and the
measurement of numerous gores. For the
purpose of this work the main area was
procured by summing up the square degrees,
and the areas of the fractions of square de-
grees were computed after direct meas-
urement, with scales on the maps of the
Coast, Lake, and Mexican Boundary Com-
mission surveys. The whole contour of the
country is thus given by surveys whose ac-
curacy is unquestioned, except as to the
part between the Lake of the Woods and
Lake Superior, and a part of the eastern
boundary of Maine, of which exact surveys
have not been made. The same principles
were observed in computing the areas of
States and counties, where, however, bound-
ary surveys are often not so accurate as they
should be.

Statistics of the Production of the
Precious Metals in the United States.
By Clarence King, Special Agent of
the Census. Washington : Government
Printing-Office. Pp. 94, with Six Plates.

This. statistical statement is offered in
advance of the author's report on the pro-
duction of the precious metals, of which it
will form the concluding chapter, on ac-
count of its immediate interest to legislators,
financiers, and metallists. It consists al-
most wholly of statistics, presented in a full
and clear manner. n

vol. xxi. — 18

Annual Report of the Chief Signal-Of-
ficer of the Army to the Secretary
of War, for the Year 1881. Washing-
ton City. Pp. 86.

The Signal Service continues to manifest
its value, particularly in the meteorological
department. The present officer, General
Hazen, has endeavored to bring it into active
sympathy and co-operation with men of sci-
ence; and it enjoys the assistance of an
advisory committee of the National Acade-
my of Sciences. The work of the year has
been marked by advance in nearly every
department, among the evidences of which
we notice the establishment of a permanent
school of instruction at Fort Myer, Virginia ;
the extension of forecasts to periods of more
than twenty-four hours; the forecasts of
" northers " for the interior plateau ; the
extension of the special frost-warning to
the fruit interests ; the organization of a
service for the special benefit of the cotton
interest ; arrangements for original investi-
gation in atmospheric electricity, in ane-
mometry and in actinometry ; and in the last
subject, especially with reference to the im-
portance of solar radiation in agriculture,
and the absorption of the sun's heat by the
atmosphere ; the publication of special pro-
fessional papers ; the offering of prizes for
essays on meteorological subjects ; the or-
ganization of State weather services ; co-op-
eration in work in the Arctic regions ; ar-
rangements for organizing a Pacific coast
weather service; and a large increase of
telegraphic weather service, without addi-
tional expense to the United States. The
popular confidence and support of the bu-
reau, General Hazen says, have never been
impaired, and the scope of its usefulness in-
creases with each year.

The Constants of Nature, Part V. : A Re-
calculation of the Atomic Weights.
By Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, S. B.,
Professor of Chemistry and Physics in
the University of Cincinnati. Washing-
ton : Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 279.

This work and Professor George F.
Becker's "Digest" of the investigations of
"Atomic Weight Determinations, published
since 1814," which forms Part IV of the
series of " Constants," are complementary
to each other. Professor Clarke began his
investigations in 1877, for the purpose of

274

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

revising the determinations of the atomic
weights of all the elements. lie does not
claim that any of the results he has reached
are final, but admits that each one of them
is liable to repeated corrections. The real
value of the work, he believes, lies in an-
other direction ; the data have been brought
together and reduced to a common standard,
and the probable error has been determined
for each series of figures. Thus the ground
is cleared, in a measure, for future experi-
menters.

The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning :
A Manual for Housekeepers. By Ellen
H. Richards, Instructor in Chemistry,
Woman's Laboratory, Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology. Boston: Estes
& Lauriat. Pp. 90. Price, $1.

We are glad to see such a book by such
an author from such a place. A lady en-
gaged in teaching practical chemistry in an
institute of technology, and applying her sci-
ence to the art of improving domestic life,
affords an example of the fitness of things
which is seen much too rarely. To the eye
of a stupid public opinion, cooking and clean-
ing are very vulgar things — the operations
of menials and scullions. But to the eye of
science they are most interesting processes,
tasking thought to master them, giving
pleasure in understanding them, and valu-
able benefit in applying them. To the eye
of ignorance, however cultivated, there is
nothing about cooking and cleaning that is
worthy of respect, and they are therefore
left to the incompetent, who give us bad
work ; but, if they were better understood,
practice would be improved, and we should
have more wholesome cookery and more per-
fect cleanliness.

Mrs. Ricbards's neat little brochure is a
contribution to domestic education which,
though too slight, will be well appreciated.
It is not an attempt to compress a great
deal of information in a small compass, but
to make the subject clear as far as it is
treated. Her " Chemistry of Cooking " is at
the same time a course of brief lessons in
chemistry ; that is, enough of the science is
thoroughly explained to make its applica-
tions intelligible. We cordially commend
it as an excellent beginning in a direction
that must in future be more carefully and
thoroughly pursued.

The Geological and Natural History
Survey of Minnesota. Ninth Annual
Report, for the Year 1880. By N. H.
Winchell, State Geologist. St. Peter,
Minnesota. Pp. 392, with Six Plates.

The work of the year covered by this
report consisted chiefly of the arrangement
for the museum of the crystalline rocks
gathered during the previous seasons in the
northern part of the State, including the
cupriferous series ; determinations in pale-
ontology ; examinations of building-stones ;
the study of the hydrology and water-
powers ; field work in the southwestern part
of the State ; and the examination of the
" Lake region " of the center, with reference
to hydrology and the distribution of forest-
trees.

La Lumiere F^lectrique ; son Histoire, sa
Production, et sonEmploi. (The Elec-
tric Light ; its History, Production, and
Employment.) By Em. Alglave and
J. Boulard. Paris.

The authors have taken advantage of
the revelations which the recent Interna-
tional Electrical Exposition at Paris afford-
ed of the extent to which electrical force
has been developed as a working power,
and the variety of purposes to which it has
been practically applied, to prepare this ele-
gant work, showing what has been done in
that direction, when, and how. The large
mass of material which they had to dispose
of has been divided among six books, in the
first of which is reviewed the history of arti-
ficial illumination, and the different phases
through which it has passed from the dimly
tempered darkness of the ancients, with their
rude oil-lamps, through the stages of tallow,
sperm, and stearine candles, and the improved
lamps of modern days, to the beginnings of
the electric light. The second book treats
of voltaic or arc lights, the manner in which
the arc is produced, the fabrication of the
carbons, and the mechanism of the regulat-
ing apparatus, and furnishes descriptions of
the different lights of this class. The third
book is devoted to incandescent lamps, and
includes descriptions of the Edison, Swann,
Lane Fox, and Maxim lamps. In the fourth
book the different kinds of apparatus for
generating the electric current, and in the
fifth book the several systems for securing
its distribution and division, are described ;

LITERARY NOTICES.

275

and the sixth book comprises accounts of
the applications that have been made of the
electric light in light-houses, war, naviga-
tion, in industry, the arts, and commerce,
its installation in mines and excavations,
railroad-stations, warehouses, and even in
agricultural operations. All of these ac-
counts are profusely illustrated with clear
representations of the machinery and appa-
ratus described, with a few landscapes elec-
trically lighted. The authors have also given
much information concerning the cost of es-
tablishing and maintaining the electric light
for these several purposes. The work is
thus not only one to be read, but also one
that may be profitably consulted for practi-
cal purposes.

Bi-Monetism : The Money op Commerce
and the money of the state. by
Joseph Stringham. Oshkosh, Wiscon-
sin. Pp. 64.

This pamphlet embodies the results of
an inquiry which the author has made into
the relations of the two moneys to each
other, and into the utility of gold, silver,
and paper as materials for money. He
concludes that gold is the sole money of
commerce, and will continue to be so as
long as present commercial customs con-
tinue, but that the demand within the
several States for paper or silver tokens
for use in internal business is sufficient to
absorb all the silver, and raise it to its coin
value in gold, and keep it there. Silver,
if its use for such a purpose should become
general in the states of Europe and Amer-
ica, might thus eventually gain a recognized
place as money in commerce, but not other-
wise; while, under existing circumstances,
"silver or any other metal could not be
coined at its commercial value in gold with-
out subjecting the coinage to frequeDt
changes."

Guides for Science Teaching. The Oys-
ter, Clam, and other Common Mollusks.
By Alpheus Hyatt. With Plates. Pp.
65. Common Minerals and Rocks. By
William 0. Crosby. Pp.130. Boston:
Ginn, Heath & Co.

We noticed several months ago some
volumes of a series of small hand-books
published under the supervision of the Bos-
ton Society of Natural History, which were

designed as aids to teachers wishing to in-
struct their pupils in branches of that de-
partment, but not to be used as text-books.
We notice in addition to the works we then
named the two whose titles stand at the
head of this article. The manual on
mollusks is fully illustrated with excellent
plates, and Mr. Hyatt is strong in insisting
that teachers can not use any text-book as
a basis of good instruction, but must lead
children to see for themselves. The system
of classification set forth in Mr. Crosby's
book on minerals is practically illustrated
and exemplified in the arrangement of col-
lections in the museum of the society.

The New Ethics : An Essay on the Moral
Law of Use. By Frank Sewall. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 61.

Mr. Sewall regards ethics as appertain-
ing to the will rather than to the intellect;
and suggests that it may be considered as a
kind of moral aesthetics, or " aesthetics on
the moral plane," and defined as a science
of taste that treats of the will of man as
subject to sensations of pleasure and of pain
from moral objects presented to it, and
capable of being affected and modified by
them. The object of moral education is to
adapt man to the moral law of the universe,
which, assuming that it is real, may be
expressed as the law of use, or of service,
" but the law of mutual service, not the
service of self." The author has no confi-
dence in intellectual culture as an element
of moral progress.

Proceedings of the Boston Society of
Natural History. Vol. XX, Part IV,
January, 1880-April, 1880. Pp. 169;
Vol. XXI, Part I, Mav, 1880-December,
1880. Pp.112. Boston: Published by
the Society.

The papers of most general interest in
the former of these two volumes are the
notice of the death of Dr. Thomas M. Brew-
er, by President Bouve ; and the review of
Professor Brewer's scientific labors, by Mr.
J. A. Allen. The other volume contains
notices of Mr. Bouve's withdrawal from the
presidency of the society, and of the deaths
of Dr. C. T. Jackson, Count Pourtales, Mr.
L. S. Burbank, and Mr. George D. Smith.
Many of the special papers, which concern

276

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a wide variety of subjects in natural histo-
ry, geology, physics, and archaeology, have
been noticed from time to time in " The Pop-
ular Science Monthly." Mr. S. H. Scudder,
the new president of the society, defines its
aim in his inaugural address as distinct-
ively educational ; and with this view it
restricts its museum to the collection and
exhibition of such objects as can be put
directly to public use ; furnishes direct in-
struction by lectures, lesson and guide books,
to those who have in charge the education
of youth ; and is working for the introduc-
tion and retention of the study of nature in
the public schools.

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF LlFE. By J.

Mortimer Granville, M. D. Pp. 96.
Boston : S. E. Cassino. Price, 50 cents.

This little volume has been added to Dr.
Granville's excellent series of small books
on the mental phases of personal hygiene.
They are all devoted to the conditions of
mental health, and to the care of the mind
under the strain and exposure of neglect,
overwork, bad habits, etc. The present
volume is full of miscellaneous suggestions
and practical precautions in the conduct of
every-day life that, if followed, will be cer-
tain to guard against trouble and increase
the enjoyment of health. Dr. Granville has
improved the literary form of his work as
he went on, so that this last part is written
in a clearer and simpler style than those
which preceded it.

Report on Diphtheria. By Franklin Sta-
ples, M. D., Winona. Pp. 44.

The report includes the facts gathered by
the State Board of Health respecting the
prevalence of diphtheria in the State of
Minnesota during two years, from Novem-
ber, 18*78, to November, 1880. It embodies
the substance of replies received from the
several counties of the State in answer to
inquiries sent out by the board respecting
the prevalence or non-prevalence of the
disease, its forms and degree of malignancy,
the apparent causes and means of propaga-
tion (with express attention to the relations
of the disease to water-supply and sanitary
surroundings), and the means employed for
its prevention. The facts collected, which
are given as they were sent up, form a mass

of valuable material to aid in the study of
the malady. By this study the board say
in the report : " We have been able to con-
firm many points of doctrine now generally
understood concerning this disease, and, by
observing its behavior on our soil, in our
climate, and among the people of the vari-
ous nationalities of our State, we have been
able to arrive at some conclusions as to the
kind of sanitary work demanded." These
conclusions are given, and are not essentially
different from those that have been agreed
upon by sanitarians generally.

The Use of Tobacco. By J. I. D. Hinds,
Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry in Cum-
berland University, Lebanon, Tennes-
see. Cumberland Presbyterian Publish-
ing House. Pp. 138. Price, 75 cents.

This little work presents a view of the
subject adapted to popular comprehension,
with arguments against the use of tobacco
based chiefly on economical, hygienic, and
moral grounds, which are designed to reach
the public.

The Temple Rebuilt : A Poem. By Fred-
erick R. Abbe. Boston : D. Lothrop &
Co. Pp. 251. Price, $1.25.

By the " temple " the author typifies the
soul of man, which has been cast into ruins
by sin, and is rebuilt on the hew foundation
of the plan of salvation as laid down by
Christ, by the Christian virtues and graces
serving as builders, and using prayer and
good works as their implements.

Incandescent Electric Lights, with Par-
ticular Reference to the Edison
Lamps at the Paris Exhibition. By
Compte Th. du Moncel and William
Henry Preece. With other Papers.
New York : D. Yan Nostrand. Pp. 176.
Price, 50 cents.

A volume of " Yan Nostrand's Science
Series." It has been called out by the pub-
lic interest in the growth of the Edison and
other systems for maintaining a steady elec-
tric light of low intensity. Besides the
paper of Compte du Moncel and the address
of Mr. Preece, which give the title to the
book, the volume contains articles on " The
Economy of the Electric Light by Incan-
descence," by John W. Howell, and on " The
Steadiness of the Electric Current," by C.
W. Siemens.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

277

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Wings of Pterodactyls. By Professor
0. C. Marsh. Pp. 16. With Plates,

Nature the One and Only Deity; and Human-
ity in its Entiretv, in all its Stages of Being,
Nature's Highest Expression. By John Frank-
lin Clark. Boston : Colby & Rich. Pp. 16.

Contributions to the Chemical Laboratory of
Harvard College. By Henry B. Hill. Pp. 32.

The Daggatouns, a Tribe of Jewish Origin in
the Desert of Sahara : A Review. By Henry
Samuel Morais. Philadelphia: Edward Stern
& Co. Pp. 14.

Consumption : Is it a Contagions Disease ?
What can be done to prevent its Ravages ? By
Bela Cogshall, M. D. Flint, Michigan. Pp. 12.

The Importance of introducing the Study of
Hygiene into the Public and other Schools. By
Stanford E. Chaille, M. D., Professor of Physi-
ology, etc., University of Louisiana. New Or-
leans. Pp. 20.

Annual Report of the Board of Health of the
State of Louisiana to the General Assembly, for
the Year 1881. New Orleans. Pp. 427.

Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Ani-
mals : A Lecture. By Professor 0. V. Riley.
Washington: Judd & Detweiler. Pp. 82. 10
cents.

State Education. By Charles S. Bryant, A. M.
Pp. 16.

On Some Hegelisms. By William James.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pp. 24.

Notes of Work by Students of Practical
Chemistry in the Laboratory of the University
of Virginia. No. X. Communicated by J. W.
Mallet. London. Pp. 15.

Transactions of the Seismological Society
of Japan. Vol. II. July to December, 1880.
Tokio: "Japan Mail" Office. Pp. 103. With
Charts.

Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Vol. III. New York: Lehmaier & Bro., printers,
95 & 97 Fulton Street. Pp. 110.

A Study of the Various Sources of Sugar.
By Lewis S. Ware, Member of the American
Chemical Society, etc. Philadelphia: Henry
Carey Baird & Co. Pp. 66. 50 cents.

Bacilus Anthracis. By George M. Sternberg,
Surgeon, United States Army. New York:
Thompson & Moreau, 51 & 53 Maiden Lane.
Pp.4. With Plate.

Experiments with Disinfectants. By George
M. Sternberg, Surgeon, United States Army.
Pp. 12.

A Contribution to the Study of the Bacterial
Organisms commonly found upon Exposed Mu-
cous Surfaces, and in the Alimentary Canal of
Healthy Individuals. By George M. Sternberg,
Surgeon, United States Army. Pp. 24. With
Three Photo micrographic Plates.

The Silk-Worm: Being a Brief Manual of
Instructions for the Production of Silk. By C.
V. Riley, M. A. Ph. D. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office. Pp. 37. Illustrated.

Guide to the Flora of Washington and Vicin-
ity. Washington: United States National Mu-
seum. Pp. 264. With Map.

Civilization in its Relation to the Decay of
the Teeth. By Norman W. Kiuesley, M. D. S.,
D.D.S. New York: D. Appletoh& Co. Pp.10.

Geologie des Eiseus (Geology of Iron). By
E. Reyer. Vienna, Austria. Pp. 19.

Some Remarks on the Tastes and Odors of
Surface Waters. By William Ripley Nichols.
Boston : Society of Civil Engineers. Pp. 16.

Utah and its People : Facts and Statistics
bearing on the "Mormon Problem.'" By a Gen-
tile. New York : R. O. Ferrier & Co., 62 Vesey
Street. Pp. 48. *

Natural Filtration at Berlin. By William
Ripley Nichols. Boston. Pp. 8.

History and Causes of the Incorrect Latitudes
as recorded in the Journals of the Early Writers,
Navigators, and Etplorers, relating to the At-
lantic Coast of North America, 1535-1740. By
the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter. A.M. Boston:
Privately printed. Pp. 20.

Intermittent Spinal Paralysis of Malarial
Origin. By V. P. Gibney, A. M., M. D. New
York: B. Westermann & Co. Pp. 20.

Annual Report of the Connecticut Agricult-
ural-Experiment Station for 1881. New Haven,
Connecticut : Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor. Pp.
122.

Proceedings of Meetings held February 1,
1882, at New York and London, to express Sym-
pathy with the Oppressed Jews in Russia. New
York: Industrial School of the Hebrew Orphan
Asylum. Pp. 50.

The Orthoepist. By Alfred Ayres. Twelfth
edition, revised and enlarged. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. 1882. Pp. 208. $1.00.

The Ventilation of Coal-Mines. By W. Fair-
ley, M. E. New York : D. Van Nostrand. 1882.
Pp. 95. 50 cents.

The Student's Guide in Quantitative Analy-
sis. By H. Carrington Bolton, Ph. D. New
York : John Wiley & Sons. 1882. Pp. 127. Il-
lustrated.

The Medical Adviser in Life Assurance. By
Edward H. Sieveking, M. D. Philadelphia : P.
Blakiston, Son & Co. 1882. Pp.196. $2.

Operations of the United States Life-Saving
Service for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1881.
Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1881.
Pp. 428.

Consular Reports, Nos. 1, 2, and 3. 1880 and
1881. Washington : Government Printing-Office.
1881. Pp.600.

Comparative New Testament ; Old and New
Versions, arranged in Parallel Columns. Phila-
delphia : Porter & Coates. 1882. Pp. 690.

Report on the Geology of the Henry Mount-
ains. By G. K. Gilbert. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office. 1880. Second edition.
Pp. 170. Illustrated.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Sewerage of Large Villages. — Mr. James
T. Gardiner, Director of the New York State
Survey, has made a valuable report to the
New York State Board of Health on the meth-
ods of sewerage for cities and large villages.
He finds, after inquiry, that where, in gen-
eral, intelligent efforts have been made to
produce proper sanitary conditions for towns,
cess-pools and vaults have been abolished,
and the sewage is removed from the neigh-
borhood of dwelling-houses by dry removal,
or by water-carriage or sewerage. The effi-
ciency of the system of removal by means
of the dry earth-closet depends upon con-
stant proper attention. In practice, it is
found that the provision of fine, dry earth,
and the constant intelligent surveillance
necessary, can not be secured from any but

278

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

exceptional families. The system can not,
therefore, be safely recommended for towns
in which a large proportion of the people
are always ignorant and careless. The tub,
cask, or pail system, which is used even on
a large scale in England, France, and Ger-
many, " is undoubtedly the best method of
removal, where towns have neither water-
supply nor sewerage." In this system, the
refuse matter is allowed to fall into a tub
or cask, which is removed, emptied, cleaned,
and disinfected by the town authorities at
least once a week. At Manchester, Eng-
land, sifted ashes are added during use to
the contents of the tub, as a deodorizer.
This system is successfully employed at
Manchester and Rochdale, England, at an
expense of $95 per thousand persons, or ten
cents per person per annum ; and is recom-
mended for villages which can have no gen-
eral water-supply. The weakness of it is,
that the removal, cleansing, and disinfect-
ing of the tubs require constant care and
expense, and may be neglected by careless,
ignorant, or parsimonious village authorities
— a weakness rather attributable to village
authorities than to the system — but under
no circumstances could the evils of such
neglect be comparable with those of privy-
vaults. The system is, however, unavoida-
bly inferior to that of sewerage, in that it
does not provide for the removal of waste-
water and slops. Mr. Gardiner expresses
a decided preference for the " separate "
system of sewerage, which is adapted to
carry off slops alone, to the " combined "
system, in which the attempt is made to
carry off both slops and storm-water by
means of one set of conduits. He regards
the separate system as vastly cheaper than
the combined, and as very much more
wholesome, in that it does not supply the
territory for the cultivation of the bacteria
that find rich and extensive propagating
grounds on the moist, unglazed walls of the
large combined sewers. A conspicuous ex-
ample of the successful application of the
separate system is found at Memphis, Ten-
nessee.

Origin of the Son's Light and Heat. —

Dr. H. R. Rogers, of Dunkirk, New York,
has come forward with a criticism of the ex-
isting theories of the origin of the light and

heat of the sun from combustion, mechanical
action, or shrinkage of the sun's mass, as
insufficient and not adequately supported by
the analogies of any facts with which we are
acquainted, and has advanced a theory that
they are the result of electrical action. The
sun, he believes, is a cold body, like the
earth, but so constituted and so situated
relatively to the earth that a stream of elec-
tric currents is constantly passing between
the sun and the earth. These currents reach
their points of greatest intensity within our
atmosphere, where all the manifestations of
force which we assign to the sun's surface
really take place. Dr. Rogers also believes
that the phenomena of gravitation may be
traced to the same origin.

The Germination and Vitality of Seeds.

— Dr. Richard E. Kunze, has collected a
number of facts respecting the germina-
tion and vitality of seeds, in an essay which
was read by him before the Torrey Botan-
ical Club last December. Some seeds, to
grow, must be planted immediately on ma-
turity. Familiar examples are those of the
elm and maple, the oak, and most of our
common nuts. The seeds of the larkspur
{Delphinium formosum), of some gentians,
and of Angelica, partake of this character.
Spanish chestnuts and filberts, however,
have been sent, enveloped in wax, to the
Himalayas, and plants from them are now
growing there. Seeds of the Victoria regia
had to be transmitted from America to Eng-
land in water before the first plant was
raised that came to perfection. Bosse, a
German horticulturist, says that, when seed
is to be kept for any length of time, it
should be left in its natural covering. Oth-
er means of protection are sometimes avail-
able to preserve perishable seeds. Acorns
will keep, packed in the hard ground, for
centuries, and many seeds may be safely
kept or transported in honey. Some seeds,
like those of the Cucurbitaccce, the balsam,
stock, and wall-flower, improve with age to a
certain extent. Many seeds are capable of
preserving their vitality for years under or-
dinary conditions of dry exposure. Experi-
ments by M. Alphonse de Candollc indicated
that woody species preserved the power of
germinating longer than others, while bien-
nials were at the opposite end of the scale,

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

279

and perennial herbs lost their vitality sooner
than annual ones. Of three hundred and
sixty-eight species of seeds fifteen years old,
that he sowed, only seventeen germinated,
and but few of the species came up. The
seed of radish has grown freely at fifteen
years; that of Sida Abutilon at twenty-
five ; those of melon and tobacco at forty ;
that of the sensitive-plant at sixty. A com-
mittee of the British Association reported
in 1S47, after seventeen years of examina-
tion, that the Leguminosce, considered as a
family, appeared to possess more vitality
than any other; next came the Malvaccce,
Tiliacece, and Croton, of the Ihtphorbiacece,
among those kinds whose seeds grow after
ten or more years. Apparently well-authen-
tieated instances of seeds that have grown
after having been preserved from a remote
antiquity are not rare. Plants have been
raised from seeds found along with coins of
the Emperor Hadrian, in an ancient bar-
row in England — Medicago and a helio-
trope from a Roman tomb, fifteen or six-
teen hundred years old, where they had been
put in a bag under the head of the corpse
for a pillow. The genuineness of some
of the specimens of so-called " Egyptian
wheat " has sometimes been questioned,
but Mr. M. F. Tupper obtained plants from
grains which Sir Gardiner Wilkinson took
from a previously unopened mummy-case,
and gave to Mr. Pettigrew, who gave them to
him. Rose-seeds and doura-seeds, the gen-
uineness of whose ancient Egyptian origin
is equally well authenticated, have grown,
the former with Mrs. Governor Wood, at
Quincy, Illinois, the latter with the Rev.
Albert Hale, of Springfield, Illinois. Pro-
fessor Jobn Henry Carroll, of the College
of Archaeology and Esthetics of the City
of New York, has raised Indian corn from
seed taken from a Peruvian mummy sup-
posed to be twelve hundred years old.

A Criticism of Medical Schools.— Dr.
Frederic R. Sturgis, in a paper read before
the Medical Society of the State of Xew
York, strongly denounces the present sys-
tems and standards of medical education.
Noticing some unfavorable criticisms that
have appeared of the general culture and
manners of young physicians, he attributes
the origin of the condition which the criti-

cisms expose to the unregulated manage-
ment of the medical schools. They are
nearly all private business enterprises, and
have to look to their fees for their support.
Hence, while they are always on the alert
for whatever may tend to increase their fees,
they are easily enough prone to neglect or
overlook what may have no direct bearing
upon that point, though it may be of the
utmost importance in relation to the fitness
of the student to become an acceptable
practitioner, and a desirable acquisition to
the community in which he may settle him-
self. The charters of medical schools are
too easily obtained, and not sufficiently
guarded, to make it sure that the school
will be a useful agency, or even that it will
not do harm. " There is nothing," says Dr.
Sturgis, " making the educational candidate
for a charter show just cause for its exist-
ence, nor anything binding it to give good
and proper instruction ; hence, as soon as
its charter is obtained, it may do as it
pleases — teach or not, as it likes ; or, if it
prefers it, may sell its diplomas." The
remedy for this evil is the pecuniary en-
dowment of schools, by means of which
they may be able to limit themselves to
their proper office of serving as places of
instruction and nothing else, and be re-
lieved of the necessity of making their
diplomas licenses to practice, " which right
ought never to have been given them."
Then branches can be taught, such as pub-
lic hygiene, medical jurisprudence, and the
like, which have now to be passed over in
silence, or else very superficially taught ;
and the institution which gives the best
instruction will, other things being equal,
receive the most students. In a word, the
concern of the institution should be, in the
language of President Eliot, " to have a very
good school of medicine, rather than a very
large one."

Provincial Accents among DeafOIntes.

— A topic has been under discussion in the
French Academy of Sciences that involves
the question whether provincial accents in
speech are or are not the result of local
peculiarities in the structure of the vocal
organs. M. F. Hement has observed that
the deaf and dumb children in a certain in-
stitution, who had been taught to articulate

28o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sounds, speak with the accent of their coun-
try ; and he believes that, as they have
never heard any one speak, their peculiar
accent can only proceed from their having
organic conformations like those of their
parents. M. Hement is supported by a
communication from Mr. W. E. A. Axon,
published in "Nature." M. Emil Blan-
chard, contradicting this view, cited the ex-
ample of a French-speaking Chinaman with
whom he had talked, who had no trouble
with his r's ; and he suggested that the ques-
tion could not be considered satisfactorily
solved till a number of children of people
speaking peculiar idioms had been sepa-
rated from their parents from birth, and
taught to speak a single language. Mr. A.
Graham Bell has communicated a paper to
the "Academy," stating that, in observing the
pronunciation of at least four hundred deaf-
mutes whom he had taught to speak, he has
never remarked any tendency of the kind
described by M. Hement. In some cases, it
was true, dialectic accents could be detected ;
but he has always found, on investigation,
that such children had been able to speak
before they became deaf. M. Hement de-
clares that his opinions are not shaken by
Mr. Bell's observations, and even professes
to find in them new arguments in support
of his own theory.

Insect Enemies cf Forest and Shade
Trees. — Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., of the Unit-
ed States Entomological Commission, Las
published a valuable report on insects in-
jurious to forest and shade trees, which is
intended, not so much to embody the fruits
of any original research, as to give a sum-
mary of what is up to this time known of
the habits and appearance of such insects
as are injurious to the more useful kinds of
trees. The amount of knowledge we have
on the subject is really scanty enough, and
the report is, therefore, largely a simple
list of the insects that live upon our more
important forest-trees. The matter is emi-
nently worthy of the attention of farmers
and gardeners and others, who have the op-
portunity and are competent to make intel-
ligent investigations relative to it and in-
form naturalists of what they find out ; and
such persons are invited to communicate
the substance of their observations to the

commission. Much has been done in France
and Germany, both of which countries pos-
sess valuable illustrated works on forest-
insects. Kaltenbach, in his work on the
insect enemies of plants, describes astonish-
ing numbers of insects as found -on some
kinds of forest-trees, only a comparative
few of which are, however, particularly de-
structive. Thus, 537 species are injurious
to the oak, and 107 are obnoxious to the
elm ; the poplars afford a livelihood to 264
kinds ; the willows yield food to 396 species,
the birches harbor 270, the alder 119, the
beech 154, the hazel-nut 97, and the horn-
beam 88. Among the coniferous trees, the
junipers supply 33 species, and 299 species
prey upon the pines, larches, spruces, and firs
collectively. In France, Perris has observed
more than one hundred species either inju-
rious to the maritime pine or living upon
it without being especially injurious to it.
The number known to attack the different
kinds of trees in the United States is suffi-
ciently large to excite great fears for the
future prosperity of our diminished forests
unless some means are found to check their
increase, and the subject of forest entomol-
ogy is becoming one of really great impor-
tance.

Domestication of Wild Dacks. — Mr.

Charles Linden has made report to the Buffa-
lo Society of Natural Sciences of the experi-
ments which Mr. George Irwin, of Mayville,
on Chautauqua Lake, has been conducting
for more than thirty years in the domestica-
tion of several species of wild duck. A suit-
able lot of about an acre in extent, on the
edge of the lake, was fitted up with protecting
sheds and nesting-places, and stocked from
time to time with eggs for hatching, duck-
lings, and old birds. The pin-tail and
American swan freely bred and raised their
young in the inclosure, without anymore re-
straint than was necessary for safe-keeping,
but wrere never fully domesticated, nor even
transferred from the breeding-pen to the
barn-yard. The dusky duck and mallard,
which proved most tractable for domestica-
tion or complete metamorphosis into tamed
barn-yard fowl, resisted all efforts for this
purpose if they were transferred to the pen
when one year old, but were readily tamed
when they were raised from eggs or capt-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

281

ured young. "The majority of them
seemed to feel as much at home here as in
any nestiug-ground of their own choice, and
generally returned whenever they were per-
mitted to migrate in autumn." The proge-
ny of the Canada goose as well as of the oth-
er species prospered well and became large.
Some of the progeny are still living, and
betray in many instances a tendency to re-
vert, as to plumage, but the majority have
become completely metamorphosed into
barn-yard fowl. No hybrids from different
species were obtained, except from crosses
between the mallard and the dusky duck.
The food of all the ducks was what they ate
in the wild state— grains, acorns, etc. ; and
shoots and roots of aquatic plants for the
wood-ducks. All the species experimented
with migrated southward, if not maimed,
each autumn, and invariably returned with
a male mate, which remained till the female
began to hatch, when it went away, never
to return. The crosses obtained with tame
birds retained their original plumage to a
greater or less degree, but were of increased
size. It appears from the experiments that
the majority of our wild ducks are not easi-
ly prone to change their wild condition for
that of perfect domestication, but that they
manifest no aversion to breed freely, even
when they are placed under artificial re-
straints.

Siberian Products. — The following facts
indicate that Siberia may be destined to
occupy a place of considerable importance
in the world's trade : Gold, silver, platinum,
lead, copper, and iron are found in the Ural.
The gold product of that region (nearly all
of it being drift-gold) amounted in 1S76 to
between 140 and 150 centners ; and the
whole product of Siberia in 1877 was esti-
mated at about 780 centners. Coal-beds
exist in the Ural, in the Kirghiz steppes,
on the northern borders of the Altai Mount-
ains, on Lake Baikal, and on the Amoor
River. Graphite-beds have long been worked
in the Shian Mountains, and other graphite
beds are waiting exploitation on the lower
Tunguska. Agriculture and cattle-raising
do not flourish, notwithstanding some favor-
ing circumstances, on account of the deficien-
cy of outlets and labor. The fur-trade is not
so important as it formerly was ; for the

silver-fox, ermine, and sable have become
scarce. The fisheries afford an important
article of export, but they are carried on in
the most primitive manner. The opening
of the Arctic Ocean to navigation and the
extension of the railroad that now reaches
to Ekaterinburg will be of great advantage
to the future of Siberia.

Miracles not out of Date. — Dr. Gior-
dano has reported upon a remarkable epi-
demic of morbid fanaticism which is pre-
vailing in the village of Alia, in Italy. The
place is almost inaccessible, having but
little intercourse with the world, and is
marked by a barbarous style of living, and
by the prevalence of intermarriage, with
its usual concomitants of weak-mindedness,
morbidness, and idiocy; consequently, su-
perstition flourishes. After a long drought
in February, March, and April last, a re-
ligious procession was organized to obtain
rain. The statue of Saint Francis was car-
ried round, and the declaration of a fanatic
that he saw water flowing on the face of the
saint was readily taken up by the credulous
crowd. The miracle was attributed to the
intercession of a girl named Rosalia Giallon-
barda, who, having formerly suffered from
epilepsy, believed she had been cured by
the saint, and was the subject of an exces-
sive mysticism, with hallucinations. Her
frenzy was caught by her relatives and
neighbors, and spread abroad till the crowds
of fanatics coming to visit her and the saint
became so formidable that she was arrested.
This " sacrilege " only stimulated the popu-
lar excitement.

Silk-spinning Spiders. — The spiders,
large Epeiridce, which produce silk, inhabit
the hottest countries. They are represent-
ed in our latitudes by a few species of infe-
rior size, the most common of which, the
Epeira diadema, is very numerous in gar-
dens in the fall, and may be remarked by
the regularly shaped webs which it weaves
among the bushes. These delicate gauzes,
however, give only an imperfect idea of the
webs that are woven by the larger species
of tropical regions. In India, the Sunda
Islands, Madagascar, Reunion, and Mauri-
tius, the Epeira! construct webs of extraor-
dinary dimensions, and the traveler has frc-

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

quent cause to admire the threads which he
finds strung across the water-courses, and
fastened to the trees on the opposite sides.
The threads of these spiders are of dif-
ferent kinds, and proceed from different
glands. The silk which is wrapped around
the cocoons is not the same that is spun in
the webs, and may be of an entirely dif-
ferent color. The silks of various Epeirce
were brought to Europe by travelers in the
seventeenth century, and excited admiration
by their fineness and brilliancy. Experi-
ments were tried in making cloth and gloves
from them, but they were found to have
no powers of endurance. Louis XIV, wish-
ing to encourage a new art, had a coat made
of the silk, but was glad to take it off the
first day, for it suffered a rent every time
he moved. These efforts appear to have
been made with the silk of the webs. That
unrolled from the cocoons proved to be
stronger. M. Bon, in 1709, carded from
the cocoons a silk which he described as
much finer and stronger than ordinary silk,
and which, he claimed, was fitted to make
any kind of fabrics. In Spain, Raymondo
Maria de Tremezer, between 17V7 and 1791,
made several articles as bright and fine as
silk from the threads of the Epeira diadcma.
Mr. Rolt, an English merchant, was able to
exhibit to the Society of Arts a specimen
thread twenty thousand feet long, that had
been spun by twenty-two spiders in less
than two hours, and which was five times
as fine as the thread of the silk- worm ! Al-
cide d'Orbigny asserted that he had gar-
ments, able to sustain considerable wear,
made in South America from spiders' silk.

Food and Civilization. — M. Beketoff, a
Russian hygienist, has expressed some novel
views in a paper on " The Alimentation of
the Human Race in the Present and the Fut-
ure." Physiologists are accustomed to con-
sider a mixed diet, of which meat shall con-
stitute about one third, to be the best for
mankind in general, and to be almost essen-
tial to the best development. M. Beketoff
does not consider this view to be well
founded, or sustained by the facts as they
appear on examination of the diet of the
best races. A large majority of mankind
do not use meat, nor a mixture of meat and
vegetables, but vegetables alone, as food.

The people of Europe consume more meat
than those of any other part of the Old
World, but most of it is used in the cities,
while the country people enjoy only a small
fraction of the quantity which the physiolo-
gists say they need, and it has come to that
point that, in the most civilized part of the
world, meat is only not wholly left out of
the list of common foods. In the most
populous and most civilized parts of Asia,
as in China and India, cattle-raising is quite
insignificant, and in Japan can hardly be
said to exist at all. The Africans raise cat-
tle, but live chiefly on vegetables. Only in
North and South America and Australia is
meat consumed on a really large scale. Not
only the relative, but the absolute number
of cattle also, shows a tendency to diminish
as the population increases and the ground
is more devoted to tillage ; so that the pros-
pect is apparent that, with the continuous
development of agriculture, industries, civ-
ilization, and population, cattle-raising will
pass into real insignificance, and the mass of
men will be unable to obtain animal food.
Sources of vegetable food must be found, to
supply its place, among the plants richest
in albuminous substances. The legumes
are the most prominent of these plants. To
determine the power of beans to sustain all
the functions of life, Dr. Ylrochiloff per-
formed a series of experiments upon him-
self, by eating regularly equal quantities of
bread and sugar, and adding to them for a
certain time meats, for another period peas.
The result was, in his own words, that
" both the mixtures quite fulfilled the pur-
pose of nutrition, as was proved by the
same weight of body being kept up and the
forces being maintained in the same state
by either food." The meat-mixture was,
however, assimilated more readily than that
of which the peas formed a part. It is
affirmed that men occupied in intellectual
work especially need a mixed food ; but of
this we are not certain, not knowing on
what those whose intellectual achievements
have been greatest have really lived ; and
many of them have been very irregular eat-
ers. Taking the historv of the human race
as a whole, we may observe that races liv-
ing almost exclusively on meat have been
and are the most savage ones. The pre-
historic " finds " show that the beginnings

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

283

of civilization and of the cultivation of
plants kept pace with each other. This
does not prove that a meat diet is opposed
to civilization, but that the necessities of
people who are dependent on meat for food
hinder advance in civilization. They have
to be hunting, and wandering about from
place to place. It is when they have learned
to till fields and tame animals, and have be-
come fixed in homes, that they find time to
cultivate arts. The Arctic savages are fish-
hunters, the barbarians of the Asiatic
steppes depend on their herds, the meat-
eating Turks and Mongols were more bar-
barous than the vegetable-eating Hindoos
they conquered, and were the authors of the
woes of that suffering people, M. Beke-
toff's conclusion i3 that a vegetable diet
contributes more than any other to the in-
tellectual development of a people, while a
wholly animal diet determines a kind of life
incompatible with progress. A mixed diet
has not been the promoter of civilization,
for the most highly gifted authors have
often drawn their physical forces from a
wholly vegetable diet. Finally, " the great
thing is evidently not the kind of food, but
the kind of life that the food determines."

Synthesis of Indigo. — One of the most
important of the recent discoveries in
chemistry is that which Baeyer has made
of a practical process for the artificial pro-
duction of indigo. The successful experi-
ments of this chemist had been foreshad-
owed by the production of alizarene, the
coloring principle of the madder-root, from
the anthracene of coal-tar ; by the discover-
ies by Fritsche of the relations of indigo
with the benzene ring and the amido-group ;
by Erdmann and Laurent's discovery that
indigo on oxidation yields a crystalline body
possessing no coloring power, to which they
gave the name of isatin ; and by Baeyer and
Emmerling's accomplishment of the reverse
process of reducing isatin to indigo. Three
processes have been employed for the syn-
thesis of indigo, of which, however, only
one, by Baeyer, is of practical importance.
The three processes have in common that
they all proceed from some compound con-
taining the benzene nucleus ; that they all
start from compounds containing a nitrogen-
atom ; and that they all Commence with an

ortho-compound. They difter from each
other in that Baeyer's process requires the
abstraction of an atom of carbon, while of
the others one requires the addition of an
atom of carbon, and the second starts with
the right number of atoms of carbon. Bae-
yer's successful process, which may be called
the manufacturing process, starts from cin-
namic acid, a substance which is contained
in gum-benzoin, balsam of Peru, and a few
other aromatic bodies, but which can be ob-
tained more cheaply by manufacturing it
artificially. Bertagnini has obtained it from
oil of bitter almonds ; and other processes
for the same purpose have been carried
out. One of the processes most likely to
be adopted is that of Dr. Caro, who con-
verts toluene, by adding chlorine, into ben-
zylene dichloride, and treating the latter sub-
stance with sodium acetate, forms cinnamic
acid and sodium chloride. The next steps
in the process are the formation from cin-
namic acid of ortho-nitro-cinnamic acid; the
conversion of this into its di-bromide ; the
separation from this of the two molecules
of hydrobromic acid, which gives rise to
ortho - nitro - phenyl - propriolic acid ; and,
lastly, the conversion of the latter product
into indigo by heating its alkaline solution
with grape-sugar, xanthate of soda, or some
other reducing agent. The actual yield of
indigo by the last reaction has not been
made equal to what is demanded by theory,
it being only 48 per cent, while the theoret-
ical yield would be 68 per cent. The artifi-
cial production of indigo by this process
may be considered as within reasonable dis-
tance of commercial success, for the ortho-
nitro-phenyl-propriolic acid, the colorless
substance which, on treatment with a re-
ducing agent, yields indigo-blue, is already
in the hands of the Manchester calico-
printers, and may be obtained at the price
of six shillings per pound of a paste con-
taining 25 per cent of the dry acid. Indigo
can not, however, be made profitably from
this product till the theoretical yield can be
obtained from it, and until the price of the
dry propriolic acid can be reduced to 20s.
per kilo, or 85. ($2.00) a pound. The proc-
ess may, however, be found applicable with
advantage even at present rates, for uses
for which natural indigo is unfitted. Of the
other processes for manufacturing indigo,

284

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the first starts from ortho-nitro-benzoic
acid, which yields isatin after successive
treatment with phosphorus pentachloride,
silver cyanide, caustic potash, and nascent
hydrogen. The other, also by Baeyer,
starts from ortho-nitro-phenyl-acetic acid,
which, having been obtained synthetically
from toluol, is converted into the amido-
acid, then by the loss of water into a body
called oxindol, from which isatin, and there-
fore indigo, can be obtained.

Tohaccoism. — M. Thorens has published
some observations on angina pectoris caused
by tobaccoism. His attention was called
to the subject by the case of a patient who
had most of the symptoms of angina pec-
toris, but in whom no cause for the affec-
tion could be found except excessive smok-
ing. The patient smoked cigarettes, and
swallowed the smoke, thus making the
whole quantity of smoke pass through the
lungs. Evidently the opportunities given
for the absorption of smoke and nicotine in
this case were colossal in comparison with
those which would exist in a person smok-
ing ten times as much, but in an open place
and without swallowing the smoke. An-
other circumstance aggravating the affec-
tion was, that the patient smoked his cigar-
ettes directly, without the intervention of a
holder, so that the smoke reached his mouth
hot, without any chance having been given
for the condensation of any of the volatile
products. His mouth was, moreover, in con-
stant contact with the tobacco-leaves, so
that the liability of absorption by the buccal
membrane was greatly increased. Similar
affections arising from similar causes had
been noticed by Beau and M. Gelineau, a
naval surgeon, both of whom observed that
the trouble was mitigated when the use of
tobacco was moderated. The case surrcrcsts
a number of precautions to be observed by
persons who will smoke but desire to do
themselves as little harm as possible, among
which are never to swallow or inhale the
smoke ; to avoid smoking in an inclosed
place, or at least to have the room as large
and as well ventilated as possible ; and to
put as considerable a distance as is prac-
ticable between the light and the mouth,
always using for this purpose long-stemmed
pipes or cigar-holders. The driest tobacco

and that which is weakest in nicotine, should
be preferred. M. Thorens exonerates to-
bacco from the charge of producing cancer,
although it is of course liable to irritate a
wound already made, or a surface that has
already been injured by heat. , .

The Horse in America. — It has been
generally believed that the horse was intro-
duced into America by the Spaniards. Pro-
fessor Marsh, on the other hand, has found
abundant remains of probable ancestors of
the horse in our "Western geological forma-
tions ; so that, if there were no horses be-
fore the Spaniards came, there must have
occurred a failure of the race. Mr. E. L.
Berthoud, of GoldeD, Colorado, believes that
he has evidence that the Spaniards found
horses in South America when they first
visited it. Among the maps which he has
recently received from Paris, in a collection
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is
one which Sebastian Cabot drew for the
Emperor Charles V, representing his ex-
plorations of the La Plata and Parana
Rivers, and containing symbols of the ani-
mals and plants that he found. Among
these symbols was that of the horse repre-
sented near the plains of the Gran Chaco,
where the immense herds of that animal
range to-day. He claims that this affords a
fair presumption of the native origin of the
race, for neither the Spaniards nor the Por-
tuguese had then been lorg enough in the
country (in 1527) for their horses to have
escaped from Peru to the head of the Para-
guay and Parana Pavers and to have in-
creased in numbers sufficiently to attract
attention.

The Protective Organs of Plants.— Dr. A.

Tschirch has recently published some inter-
esting observations on the relations of the
anatomical structure of plants to climate
and location. In the first place, the adjust-
ment of the breathing-pores appears to be
adaptable to a variety of external condi-
tions in different plants of the same fam-
ily. In plants that grow in a moist at-
mosphere, the pores are exposed with but
slight protection ; while the means of pro-
tection appear to increase gradually as the
habitat becomes drier, and reach the high-
est point in desert plants. The closed cells

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

285

that lie partly outside of the epidermis en-
joy the least protection, a3 in certain ferns,
while a higher degree of protection is given
when the cells are sunk beneath the epider-
mis and framed in a kind of funnel ; and
the highest degree when the stomata are
arranged in rin^s or ovals on the under-side
of a rolled leaf. Another means of pro-
tection is afforded by the structure of the
epidermis, which is fortified by a strong
cuticular structure, hardly permeable to
vapor in many Australian plants, and is
sometimes re-enforced by deposits of oxalate
of lime. Such structures are peculiar to
plants which have to sustain great drought.
The epidermis of many plants, as the Euca-
lyptus globulus, is also covered with a coat-
ing of wax, which serves not only to pro-
tect it, but also to give a deeper setting to
the pores. The protective effect of hairs
operates in several ways: they cover the
pores ; they form a kind of space over the
pores in which air and vapor may collect ;
and they constitute a kind of screen over
the whole body of epidermis-cells against
insolation and desiccation. Thus, plants
growing on high, dry mountains, or in the
steppes, are generally thickly haired. Hairs
also serve to make the plant measurably
defiant of sudden changes of temperature,
and form an important part of the vege-
table economy of regions like Soodan and
continental Australia, which are subject to
such changes. Even in temperate climates,
varieties of the same species growing in
open and exposed places are more hairy
than those growing in protected woods.
In the eucalyptuses the intercellular spaces
and air-passages of plants growing in dry
situations are much contracted, while in
those growing in valleys and along rivers
they are expanded. Willkomm has called
attention to the fact that a sap strong in
saline solutions is much less subject to
evaporation than a thinner sap ; and thus
the halophytes keep fresh in stony places
and the driest climates, while the Chenopodi-
acecB (goose-foots), with much salt in their
juices, flourish in dry places, and are met
abundantly in the Asiatic steppes and the
interior of Australia ; and these look green
and vigorous in the driest time of the year,
when everything else is parched and brown.
The form and position qf the leaf also often

show an adaptation to help the plant resist
drought. Plants having to grow in a dry
climate generally exchange the usual broad
leaves for a narrow, close one, have it re-
duced to a cylindrical form, or, as in the
brooms, make a green limb serve them as
the assimilating organ. Broad leaves are
seldom found in very dry regions. Many
species peculiar to hot and dry situations
have a faculty of arranging their leaves
vertically, so that only the edge is exposed.
The Lactuca scariola, the only European
plant having this peculiarity, grows on road-
sides and dry hills, while all the other spe-
cies of lettuce, growing in shady and moist
places, and in gardens, have the leaves ar-
ranged in the ordinary way, except that
Lactuca sativa puts out vertical leaves when
it is growing in a thin soil. The ethereal
oils and thorns of plants may also possibly
serve some protective purpose, but this is a
subject for further investigation.

Terra del Fuegians in Paris.— Eleven
natives of Terra del Fuego, four men, four
women, and three children, were taken to
Europe by 31. TVaalen, who has resided
for several years at Punta Arenas, Pata-
gonia, and have been entertained at the
Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris. M. "Waa-
len was fishing for seals in the waters of
their inhospitable island when he came
in contact with these savages, and suc-
ceeded, by giving them plenty to eat and
treating them with tact, in getting them
to stay on his vessel, whence they were
transferred to a Hamburg steamer on its
way to Europe, M. Waalen depositing secu-
rity with the governor of Punta Arenas for
their safe return after making their Euro-
pean tour. What mark their visit will make
upon them, and how long it will endure, is
a question which the experiment of Captain
Fitzroy may help to answer. He took back
three Fuegians, two men and a woman, after
they had been three years in Europe, and
had seemed to become nearly civilized, and
set them among their tribe, in a good house,
with a tract of tillable land, tools, and a
missionary to take care of them. Going
back to see them a few months afterward,
he found all that pertained to civilization
destroyed, that they had returned to com-
plete savagery, and that the missionary was

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

anxious to get away from them. The Fu-
egians in Paris are described as accustomed
to squat for hours, without moving, around
a fire on the lawn, perfectly indifferent to
everything, and listlessly looking at the
crowd who peer at them through the bars
of the fence as if they were some extraor-
dinary animals, and as occasionally exchang-
ing with each other the guttural duckings
which serve them for a language. Only one
thing will excite liveliness in them — the de-
sire for food.

Forms of Aurora Borealis. — Lieutenant
Weyprecht, in his recent work on the ob-
Bervation of the aurora borealis, distinguish-
es between seven forms in which the light
appears in the polar regions. The first form
is that of almost regular arches rising or
sinking from the magnetic south or north
to or away from the zenith, and generally
extending to both sides of the horizon. Sec-
ond, are streamers of irregular form and
varied appearance, appearing like bands
much longer than broad, moving in the at-
mosphere, and nearly always bent in folds
and twists ; they consist either of masses of
light unequally distributed along the length
of the band, or of single beams of the
breadth of the band closely arranged to-
gether in a direction toward the magnet-
ic zenith, and having their intervals filled
with light-masses. This form is cut away
on every side, or at most touches the hori-
zon on only one side. Of the third form are
threads, extremely fine beams of light of
various lengths, some of them reaching from
near the magnetic zenith to near the hori-
zon, and grouped in such a manner as to
resemble a fan covering a part of the firma-
ment. The beams are not united, but are
separated by dark spaces of greater or less
width. Generally, they are prolongations of
a streamer, which in such case answers to
the continuous lower border of the fan.
Fourth, is the corona, in which the beams
or light-masses are joined in a common cen-
ter near the magnetic zenith, and a constant
movement is maintained toward or around
the same. Fifth, haze — dim, unformed ac-
cumulations of light-masses illy defined, at
some point in the firmament. Sixth, the
dark segment, a darker appearance, form-
ing a segment of a circle, in the magnetic

north or south, bounded by a fixed and low-
seated bow of light. Seventh, the polar
shine, an illumination of the polar sky, the
form in which the light generally appears in
middle latitudes, but which is not observed
in its home. Its characteristic feature is
that the rays diverge from the horizon up,
while the divergence in all the other forms,
if their rays can be distinguished, is in the
reverse direction. The movements of the
mass consist either of a rising and sinking
of the rays and arches with reference to the
horizon, a lengthening, and shortening, and
sidewise motion of the threads, or a general
change of place. The mass has also mo-
tions within itself, which may consist of
undulations or flashes of the light. The
undulations are waves, streamers, or partial
arches, which pass along generally from the
magnetic east or west, toward the opposite
end of the phenomenon, and then appear
to spring out from it. The flashes are the
shooting of short, broad beams, with the
velocity of lightning, from the streamers
toward or from the zenith. They are the
forerunners or accompaniments of intensive
coronas, and originate in particular when a
stream of rays merges into the corona.

Wyville Thomson. — The death of Sir
Charles Wyville Thomson, in the fifty-fourth
year of his age, is announced. He was born
in Linlithgow, Scotland ; began his medical
training at Edinburgh University in 1845 ;
held a Lectureship on Botany at King's Col-
lege, Aberdeen, in 1850 ; and has occupied
professorial chairs in science at King's Col-
lege, Cork, Belfast, and Edinburgh, where
he succeeded Professor Allman as Professor
of Natural History in 1870. He has con-
tributed many papers of merit to scientific
societies and periodicals, beginning with ono
on the application of photography to the
compound microscope, which was read be-
fore the British Association in 1850. His
most distinguished service, and one by which
he won an enduring fame, was as Director
of the Civilian Scientific Staff of the Chal-
lenger Expedition, where he gave unremit-
ting personal attention to the dredging op-
erations, and the examination of specimens.
He had been for some time in feeble health,
and his death followed his becoming severely
chilled on a visit to Edinburgh. " Sir Wy-

NOTES.

287

ville was an excellent lecturer, a most genial
companion, and an excellent host," and
was fond of amusements of all kinds.

NOTES.

The Boston Society of Natural History
announces that a sea-side laboratory, under
the direction of its curator, will be opened
at Annisquam, Massachusetts, July 1, to
continue until September 1, 1882. A limited
number of students can be accommodated,
and the work will consist mainly of study
and observation of the common types of
marine animals, under the immediate care
of Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, assistant in the
museum and laboratory of the society. Full
particulars may be obtained by addressing
the curator of the society, Professor Alpheus
Hyatt, of Boston.

The French Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science will meet at La
Rochelle, August 24th to 31st. The organi-
zation of the congress is already in active
preparation. M. Jousset de Bellesme has
published a note calling attention, as the
topics most likely to attract the interest
of zoologists, to ostreiculture, which is car-
ried on along the neighboring coasts ; to
termites, whose nests are found in the vicin-
ity ; and to several valuable collections of
the local fauna. Among the excursions will
be dredging expeditions at sea, and geolog-
ical excursions under the guidance of local
experts.

The account of the late Professor Clerk
Maxwell, to be published by Messrs. Mac-
millan & Co., will include a biographical
outline, with selections from correspond-
ence, by Professor Lewis Campbell, who
was very intimate with Mr. Maxwell in early
life ; an account of his chief contributions
to science, by Mr. William Garnett, who was
associated with him as demonstrator at the
Cavendish Laboratory for the last six years
of his life ; and a collection of his poems,
some of which are already known to the
public, while the greater number will be
published for the first time.

John Charles Frederick Zoellxer,
Professor of Physical Astronomy in the
University of Leipsic, died April 29th. He
was born,in Berlin in 1834. After receiv-
ing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at
Basle, he devoted himself to the study of
photometry as applied to astronomy and
physiology. He was the author of several
works on subjects related to astronomy and
photometry, the best known of which is that
11 On the Nature of Comets." He invented
the spectroscope which is generally used by
astronomers for the observation of the solar

protuberances and the lines of their spec-
trum. He was specially prominent in the
later years of his life through his efforts to
explain the alleged phenomena of spiritual-
ism by means of a fourth dimension of space.

An extraordinarily high death-rate which
was recorded in London for the week ending
February 11, 1882, was ascribed to the dense
fogs which had been prevailing. This view
is strongly confirmed by the fact that the
only weeks in which similarly high death-
rates have been recorded during recent years
were those ending December 20, 1873, and
February 7, 1880, each of which immediately
followed a period of dense fog and intense
cold. It is also sustained by the fact that
the death-rate for the week ending February
11, 1882, in the twenty-seven large pro-
vincial towns, was more than ten per cent
below that of London ; which goes to show
that the increase of deaths was caused by
the fog rather than by the cold.

The Popular Observatory, which was
opened by M. Jaubcrt on the Trocadero,
Paris, in* July, 1880, has been visited by
p..veral thousand persons desiring to observe
the stars, more than two thousand of whom
have enrolled themselves as regular astro-
nomical or microscopic observers, or attend-
ants on the lectures. The pupils of the
Popular School of Astronomy have made
a considerable number of observations, of
which they have given accounts in a jour-
nal, and several of them have associated
themselves to put up a laboratory at their
own expense. M. Jaubcrt has established
a popular scientific class, meeting twice a
week, which is largely attended by teachers.

The value of porcelain depends on the
purity of its color, and this is dependent on
the absence of dark spots in the clay, which
are produced chiefly by particles of iron.
These particles are now extracted at some
of the French factories by means of large
electro-magnets, which are kept in opera-
tion by the steam-power used in other de-
partments of the manufacture. At Mehun
three machines purify about 6C0 kilo-
grammes (or 1,500 pounds) of porcelain
paste every day, the proportion of impuri-
ties found averaging about 8 kilogrammes
of impurities to 100,000 kilogrammes of
paste.

Dr. Josef Chavanne, the Austrian geog-
rapher, estimates the mean altitude of the
Continent of Africa to be 2,169-93 feet, or
double the mean altitude of the Continent
of Europe, which M. G. Leipoldt has esti-
mated at 97T41 feet. According to M.
Chavanne, if the Atlas range were spread
over the entire Continent of Africa, it would
give a height of 85'S6 feet only, while the
Abyssinian mountain-mass would similarly
give a height of 7972 feet.

283

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Dr. Carl Yogt has declared, peremp-
torily, that "the organisms in meteorites
announced by M. Hahn have no existence ;
what have been described as such result
from crystalline conformations which are
absolutely inorganic. None of the imag-
ined organisms have the microscopic struct-
ure belonging to the organisms with which
they have been associated. In particular,
the asserted sponges do not show the struct-
ure of either existing or fossil sposges ;
the so-called corals do not show that of
polops or anthozoa ; and the imagined cri-
noids do not show the structure of known
crinoids. The observed structures are due
to an opaque crust, or result from optical
illusions, caused by an incomplete method of
conducting microscopic researches."

Signor Roncelli, of the Italian Parlia-
ment, has devised a simple and practical
method of voting by electricity. Each
member of the House has in front of him
a metal plate bearing his name or number,
on which are three buttons, marked respect-
ively, "Ay," "No," and "Abstain." The
buttons are connected with a central print-
ing apparatus which prints in three separate
columns the ayes, noes, and abstentions, ac-
cording to the buttons touched by the mem-
bers; while, with every addition to each
column, the sum of the votes in the column
is automatically recorded.

M. Delahaye has published in the
" Revue Industrielle " some facts concern-
ing extraordinary pressures of wind that
have been observed in railway management
in India. On the 5th of October, 1864, two
trains on the Eastern Bengal Railway, one
of eight cars, the other of twelve, were
blown over during a violent storm. Four
other cars were blown down a side-track, and
overturned near the station by colliding with
other cars which had also been blown there.
On the 21st of September, 1878, a long
freight-train on the same railway, while
going about eight miles an hour, was blown
back nearly a mile, although the engine had a
full head of steam and the breaks were put
on. Half the train was taken off, when the
rest could barely make headway. The In-
dian railway service affords several other
cases of trains that were stopped or greatly
hindered by strong winds.

M. Pitre de Lisle has described a sin-
gular class of stone celts or hatchets which
have been found so far only in Brittany and
Northwestern France. They differ from
other stone hatchets in having a knob or
button-like termination on the butt or
hammer end, while other hatchets taper
away to a more or less conical point in this
part. The blades vary in length from about
three inches to about fifteen inches, and are
all made of rocks belonging to the family

of diorites. M. de Lisle calls these instru-
ments haches d tete, or haches d bouton —
hatchets with heads, or hatchets with but-
tons. He believes that the object of the
expansion was to give greater security to
the fastening of the blade or to the holding
of it in the hand.

Sir Robert Christison, Professor of Ma-
teria Medica in the University of Edinburgh,
died January 27th, in the eighty-fifth year
of his age. He was the son of a professor
in the university, was graduated as Doctor
of Medicine in 183 9, and became Professor
of Medical Jurisprudence in the university
in 1822, and of Materia Medica in 1832.
His specialty wTas poisons, on which he pub-
lished a "Treatise" in 1829 that is still
recognized as a work of great value. He
received numerous honors on account of his
eminence in his department, and held many
public positions for which his gifts of knowl-
edge and experience furnished important
qualifications. He was elected to the presi-
dency of the British Association in 1876, but
declined it on account of his advanced age.
He was noted in his youth as the most ac«
complished athlete in the university.

Besides the contributions in physical
science which have, within a year or two,
appeared in European journals, from Jap-
anese students, we find that they are doing
their share of the work in biological science
as well. "Within a few months there have
appeared in the " Quarterly Journal of
Microscopical Science," London, an article
on the structure of the gills of Lamelli-
branchiates, by Mr. Mitsukuri ; and another
paper, by the same author, on the develop-
ment of the suprarenal bodies in mamma-
lia. In the " Zoologischer Anzeiger," Leip-
sic, Mr. Ijima gives a condensed summary of
a memoir on the structure of the ovary, and
the origin of the egg and the egg-string in
Nephelis ; and Mr. Iwakawa gives the results
of his observations on the genesis of the egg
in Triton. The two latter-named gentlemen
have never been abroad.

A wealthy land-owner in the Tyrol has
made an application of the microphone to
the detection of subterranean springs. He
fixed the microphones at the spots where
he supposed water might exist, each being
connected with its telephone and battery.
Then, at night, he put his ear to each of the
instruments and listened for the murmur-
in"- of the waters — and in several cases
heard it.

An exposition of electricity is to be held
in the Palais Royal at Munich, under the
auspices of a committee, of which Dr. G. de
Beetz, of the Royal Scientific School, is
president.

SAMUEL STEHMAN HALDEMAN.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JULY, 1882.

PLANT-CELLS AND THEIE CONTENTS *

By T. H. McBETDE.

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA.

A CHILD'S toy-balloon may afford us an illustration of what a
naturalist might call a typical cell. We have in the toy simply
a closed sac thoroughly distended by its contents, more or less per-
fectly spherical in shape, and affording in outline or cross-section an
almost perfect circle. In the organic cell the sac is known as the
cell-wall, and whatever may be inclosed by the cell-wall is called the
cell-contents. A typical cell would be round, spherical, but very few
cells, as they occur in nature, are perfect spheres. A cell which may
be spherical at the outset may change its shape in accordance with
changing circumstances, so that we may say that the form of all cells
which we find united to form tissues varies with the situation which
such cells occupy, and the functions of the tissues themselves. This
we shall see more clearly as we go on. That vegetable tissues, as they
occur in wood, pith, leaves, flowers, and fruit, are entirely composed
of cells, may be easily demonstrated. All that is needed is, to take a
very thin slice of any of these substances and examine with a micro-
scope of moderate power, when the cellular structure becomes imme-
diately apparent. So, then, all the great variety of form and color, and
all the resulting beauty, which the vegetable kingdom affords, and all
the varied economic value of plants, depends upon the form and con-
tents of these little organic units — of cells. More than this : these cells
are of the highest scientific interest. All the discussion of the past
few years in regard to spontaneous generation and the origin of life
has been a discussion of vegetable cells ; and very much of all that we
know about life, its activity and its mystery, has been derived from

* Illustrations from drawings by C. H. Dayton, Mary McBride, and the author.

VOL. XXI. — 19

290

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 1.— Yeast-Cells.

the study of the cells of growing plants. It becomes, then, a matter of
some interest to know something about these cells ; and, if the reader
can imagine himself for a little while looking through the lenses of
our microscope, it will be the purpose of this article to tell him some
little of what he may see while he studies the cells of plants.

We may begin with the simplest form of plant-cells ; and so, for
our first experiment, let us examine a drop of brewer's yeast. Here
(Fig. 1) are the cells of the famous yeast-plant, the cells which are the
active agents wherever yeast is employed, whether in the beer-vat or

batter-crock. In both cases we find the
cells producing fermentation : desirable
in beer for the sake of the alcohol re-
sulting ; in bread, for the carbonic gas
set free in form of bubbles, which, per-
meating the dough, make it spongy and
light. But look at the shape of these
• cells. Little oval bodies they are, some
almost round. Many are entirely iso-
lated, so that we see a single cell may
constitute the entire plant ; some are
linked together, as links in a chain.
The attachment here, however, is not
very intimate, when once the cells have attained their full size, for
then each cell readily and naturally parts company with its neigh-
bor— parent, I should rather say, for the cells, as they adhere together,
represent really so many successive generations, and illustrate for us
one method of cell -multiplication, namely, that which is effected
by budding. New cells are continually pushed out as buds on the
sides of cells already in existence. The buds grow, reach maturity
very rapidly, and in a very short time themselves give rise to new
buds and cells. These little yeast-cells, which are not more than three
or four ten-thousandths of an inch in diameter at most, are about as
simple vegetable cells as we may find anywhere. Growing thus iso-
lated from each other, hardly so much as jostling one another in life's
race, there seems no reason why such cells should not be perfectly
spherical, or why, so to speak, life's work should not, with them, result
in a well-rounded whole.

But the yeast-plant belongs low down in the scale of life, and its
simplicity of cell-structure corresponds well with its rank. For the
greatest variety of form among plant-cells we must look to higher
plants, though not to the highest. The Algce, in their marine forms
well known to every gatherer of " sea-moss," and in fresh-water forms
familiar to ail microscopists, afford cells of almost every imaginable
shape, character, and color. Here, as with the yeast-plant, a single
cell ofttimes makes up the entire organism, but, while some cells are
simple, others branch and divide in all directions : some simulate the

PLANT-CELLS AND THEIR CONTENTS.

291

stem, roots, and branches of higher plants, some are tiniest rolling
spheres ; some stretch away to the length of several feet, and some
are microscopic specks. In Fig. 2 we have the representation of a
beautiful marine alga, unicellular, and yet thirty inches or more in
length.

As we ascend the scale of life we find the individual cell more sub-
ordinate to the organism as a whole, and so less complex in itself ; and

I • .■' Tll»v « ' ■' T/','l

F13. 2.— Unicellular Alga (copied from Thom6.)

yet, when we examine the cells which make up the tissues of the best
plants we can find, the blooming occupants of our hot-houses, gardens,
and fields, we meet with marvelous diversity, and are soon made to
feel that variety of form is the law, uniformity the exception. Fig. 3
represents the appearance of a cross-section of a stem of Tradescantia.
From this section we may learn not the variety of cell-forms only, but
something of the manner in which every plant is developed, and some-
thing of the porousness of all cellular structure.

But let us tear off with our forceps a little shred of the epidermis
of some leaf. The leaf from a petunia will do ; that of the wild
Jacob's-ladder is better, and that of the wake-robin better still. Let

292

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

us examine this little shred with our microscope, using a lens of mod-
erate power. This is from the upper side of the leaf (Fig. 4). How
delicate the cell- walls, how beautiful the pattern ! Here is Nature's
best attempt at uniformity. All these cells serve identically the same
purpose, and, so far as we can see, might have been exactly alike.
Yet, while there is similarity, no two are just alike. Let us tear off
another shred of epidermis, this time from the lower surface of the

Fig. 4.— Epidermis from the Upper Side
of a Leaf.

Fig. 3. — Cross-Section of Tradescantia ze-
brina, Wandering Jew (highly magnified).

Fig. 5.— Epidermis from the Lower Side
of a Leaf.

leaf. Here (Fig. 5) we have the same arrangement and forms of cells,
but more beautiful and varied outlines, and the cells are more inti-
mately interlocked. Our magnifying power is greater, and the cells
appear larger ; moreover, we have before us a few cells altogether un-
like any of their neighbors, little button-hole-like structures. These
are the stomata of the leaf, and through these tiny mouths — for the
stomata are real oj^enings through the epidermis — the exchange of
gases goes on between the growing plant and the surrounding atmos-
phere.

Let us now pass on a little further in our investigation of these
plant-cells and note the contents of some of them. In our examination

PLANT-CELLS AND THEIR CONTENTS.

293

Fig. 6.— Cross-Section of a Leaf,
showing the Cells containing
Chxorophyl.

of the cells from the epidermis of the leaf no contents were apparent ;
in fact, the cells are tabular, very thin in proportion to their width,
and any contents they may possess are so nearly homogeneous as to
be transparent and invisible. But let us make a thin transverse sec-
tion of the same leaf. Here (Fig. 6) we find cells different in shape
from any we have yet seen, and evidently possessing different contents.
The cells from the inside of the leaf are here seen filled with tiny green
bodies, sometimes closely packed together,
sometimes scattered more sparsely. These
little green bodies are the chlorophyl-gr&n-
ules, affording to our vegetation all the
lovely tints which render charming a land-
scape in spring. Children of the light are
these little green grains, lovers and worship-
ers of the sun. At all events, they appear
by uncounted millions in the bright light of
the open sky, become fewer and fewer in
proportion as the light received by any
plant is diminished, and finally disappear
entirely when the plant is left in total darkness. Every one will recall
the appearance of potato-stalks where growth has started in some dark
corner of the cellar. Cells taken from such growth afford not a sign
of chlorophyl. Botanists tell us that the petals of flowers are only
altered leaves. In petal-cells, then, instead of chlorophyl-grains, we
find in some cases granules of yellow, sometimes of orange. Some-
times the cell contains no such granules, but rather some colored fluid,
red, blue, or purple, and then our flowers are tinted accordingly ; some-
times the cells of a petal contain air only, and then the flower is white.
But these tiny green grains in the leaf-cells do vastly more than
simply lend their color to the foliage ; they are readjusters and organ-
izers, and perform, in those diminutive laboratories we have been
calling cells, feats which the chemist strives in vain to rival. They
take possession of molecules of carbon dioxide and of water, compel
the binding chemical forces to relax their hold, combine again, to serve
the purposes of the plant, the atoms of carbon, of hydrogen, using
such part of the oxygen as may be necessary, and setting the remain-
der free in the open atmosphere — all this in the sunlight. The chloro-
phyl bodies thus work while it is day, have charge of nearly all
the income of the plant, and provide in themselves for the temporary
storage, of its daily accumulations, mostly in the form of starch. When
the night comes, these same little factors give up at once their labors
and their stores, other cells of the plant begin to work, change and
transfer and change again, until all the wondrous series of vegetable
products with which we are familiar (the sugars, the oils, the alkaloids,
crystals of various forms and kinds) are formed and properly deposited.
We might go on now to examine cells containing many of these sub-

294

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stances, but one or two examples will suffice. Perhaps the most
familiar vegetable product is starch, certainly interesting since it
enters so largely into the daily food of the world. Let us make a
thin section of a common potato and examine it for a moment (Fig. 7).
See what a multitude of tiny spheres and ellipsoids crowd the cells !
If we apply to our section iodine, we introduce the test of color.
The little solids take on a bright-blue tint, and so prove themselves

Fig. 7.— Potato-Cells, containing Stakch-Gkains.

starch. Now we can see why the potato forms so nutritious an article
of diet. During fall and winter starch-grains, such as we have just
seen, fill the cells of apple-twigs and of branches of various kinds, and
form the basis for that lavish expenditure of plant-force by which our
orchards and woods are made glorious in the sudden inflorescence of
spring.

If we make a section of the petiole of a begonia-leaf, we may find
cell-contents as remarkable as beautiful. Here are plainly crystals
with their symmetrical, angular outline. Some of the mineral sub-
stances brought through the plant by currents ascending from the roots
have found room in the cells of the leaf-stalk to shoot the rays of
minute crystals, and here the crystals lie, sometimes a dozen jewels in
a single setting (Fig. 8).

But the interest attaching to plant-cells does not culminate in chlo-
rophyl, nor yet in starch-grains and crystals. The chlorophyl, as we
have seen, owes its allegiance to the light, the starch to the chlorophyl,
and the crystals to the water and the soil ; but back of all this, and
behind all this, though intimately united with it all, is that which owes
its homage to none of these — which moves all, controls all, uses all,
builds the cell-wall, and inhabits it — is, indeed, the active principle by
which chlorophyl becomes efficient, by which the inorganic is lifted

PLANT-CELLS AND THEIR CONTENTS.

295

into forms organic, and the earth filled with the children of life, the
very essence of the living cell — the protoplasm. To this protoplasm
we now turn our investigation.

Twelve or thirteen years ago this word — the name, to say nothing
of the thing named — would have come all but unknown to the general
reader. But to-day, thanks to the continuous discussions of the last
decade, the word needs no introduction. All our readers know that

Fig. 8.— Cross-Section of Petiole op Begonia-Leap, shows Crystals in the Cells (copied

from Prantl.)

protoplasm is the simplest form of living matter with which we are
acquainted, is the living element of every living cell. One of the
most characteristic phenomena of life is independent motion, and pro-
toplasm more frequently reveals itself by moving. Such is the case in
the cells we are now considering. In 1869 Professor Huxley set the
thinking world all agog by describing, in a passage of wonderful accu-
racy and beauty, what he could see of moving protoplasm in the hair of
a stinging nettle. Nettle-hairs and vegetable hairs generally consist
either of a single elongated cell, or of a series of oblong cells arranged
in a filament. Moreover, such hairs, or trichomes, are usually colorless,
transparent throughout, and afford, therefore, cells admirably adapted
to microscopic examination. Hairy plants are very common, so we
may corroborate Professor Huxley's statements by observations made
almost anywhere. Let us examine a hair taken from the evening-prim-
rose. Here, under a magnifying power of from 400 to 500 diameters,
we may see within the hair a delicate current sweeping down one side
to the point, turning abruptly with slight delay, and then returning by
the opposite side of the cell, leaving in the center a neutral space filled
with cell-sap, across which the oppositely moving streams seem never
to pass, in which they are never lost. No nucleus is present, nor any
central station of power. The tiny streamlet pours on, self -guided

296

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

(Fig. 9). The hairs on the young leaves of violets and on common red
clover exhibit the same sort of a stream moving in much the same way
(Figs. 10 and 11).

The unicellular hairs of the common morning-glory present a dif-
ferent phase of the same current. Here the stream is confined to the

Fig. 9.— Tip of a Hair Fig. 10.— Tip of a Hair Fig. 11. — Hair from Fig. 12. — Hair from
from Evening Prim- from Violet Leaf. Red Clover. Morning GJloky, uni-

rose. cellular.

cell- wall most closely, but the movement is unique. The protoplasm
in its course is by turns contracted and expanded, giving to the whole
current a billowy appearance, a miniature profile of rolling waters.
Wave follows wave, but with no deceptive motion, for the rapidly
passing granules advise us that the current is strong and real under-
neath waves that rise and fall but never break (Fig. 12).

PLANT-CELLS AND THEIR CONTENTS.

297

The unicellular hairs found on young leaves of Yerbena urticifolia,
a common way-side weed, exhibit something like a nucleus at the base
of the hair, from which center streams of protoplasm are constantly
departing, to which they constantly return (Fig. 13). Fig. 14 shows
the terminal cell of a hair taken from the petal of the purple lady's-

Fig. 13.— Unicellular Hair of Verbena. Fig. 14.— Hair from Petal of Lady's Slippee.

slipper. Here the nucleus seems almost to be in the way. It is so
large as nearly to close the narrow cell across from side to side, and
the current appears crowded between the nucleus and cell-wall.

In the hairs that cover the common tomato-plant we may find
beautiful transparent cells. In these cells sometimes the nucleus shows
a vacuole, and the streams are always fine and large, but changeful as
the shadows of passing clouds (Fig. 15).

But we must resort to plants belonging to the botanical order Cu-
curbitacece to find hair-cells showing greatest activity. In the hairs
covering the forming bud of a common pumpkin-vine the cells are of

298

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rapid growth, with finely transparent walls (Fig. 16). Each cell has a
large nucleus, which, while variable and varying, is quite constant in
position, and often shows one or more vacuoles. Out to the very lim-
its of the cell, sweeping its every corner from the nucleus as a center,
vital streams go forth — streams now wide and sweeping, now narrow-
ing and again swelling, or pouring along to join some neighboring cur-
rent ; now forming temporary vacuoles, now bearing on strong tide

Fig. 15.— Base-Cells of a Tomato Haie.

Fig. 16.— Hair from Pumpkin Vine.

particles large and small, granules of chlorophyl and what not ; now
branching in various directions, now diminishing to merest threads,
forming and fading away, finally disappearing below the field of vis-
ion, only to reappear once more at the place of starting. The changes
of movement and appearance are so rapid that no drawing can be true
for more than a single moment.

In studies such as these we might pass on from plant to plant, in
garden, on highways, in forest and on prairie, until time should fail
and patience be well wearied. The " Song of Nature " is true :

PLANT-CELLS AND THEIR CONTENTS. 299

" No numbers have counted my tallies,
No tribes my house can fill ;
I sit by the shining fount of Life,
And pour the deluge still."

But there are some other plants whose cells exhibit the phenomenon of
living, moving protoplasm so much better than nettle-hairs or pump-
kin-hairs, that I can not forbear presenting, in concluding the present
article, the cells of one more plant. The plant we now select is a very-
common one in most parts of our country, but on account of its simple
and retired habits of life is little known save to the botanist and
microscopist. An aquatic plant it is, finding a home in slow-running
streams, or shallow ponds whose sandy bottoms reflect the warm rays
of the summer sun. Totally immersed in water, however, and so far
independent of rains, our plant knows little distinction of spring and
summer, and grows on vigorously until the frosts of fall are heavy
enough to> seal everything under a covering of ice. If during this long,
growing season we collect a sprig of Chara (for such is the name of the
plant), we shall find it made up of something like a stem bearing whorls
of leaves, or at least of what may pass for leaves. Let us now take
one of the newest and smallest of these leaves and place it under our
lens. A series of cells, you say. But through the thin wall of any
cell appears again a flowing stream. Not the pale, delicate thread of
silver we saw feeling its way around the cell-wall of the pumpkin-hair
or tomato-hair, but a very river it seems now as it rushes on, wave after
wave, up from the depths below across the field of vision and down
again, over and over, or round and round, in ceaseless rotation (Fig. 17).

Fig. 17— Terminal Cell from a Frond of Chara (slightly magnified).

Now the current catches in its course this little particle, now that,
hurling each along, now up, now down, now over, now under, without
weariness, without hindrance, hour after hour, before us.

And now, as the stream goes on so grandly, think, for a moment,
what it is at which we gaze. "We call it protoplasm, but it is the cur-
rent of life, the " physical basis of life " — the common bond which
binds in one the whole kingdom of organic things. Think, too, of the
antiquity of that stream, its lineage. The brook that " goes on for
ever " is as nothing to it, for here the stream has come flowing down
through ages which are to us as eternity, ever since life began on
earth. The mountains have been hoary with years, and have disap-
peared beneath the level of the all-producing sea, but this stream is
older than they. Continents have grown old, worn out, and been re-

3oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

newed, rebuilt from the debris of this same stream, and life has again
flooded the continents, but its origin is older than they.

But now that we have before us such a fine large stream, may we
not make further investigation, may we not know its mystery, the
hiding-place of its power? We touch the cell with our needles, open
its wall to make minuter inspection ; but in an instant the charm
is broken, the mystic river forgets to flow, the tiny particles settle
into unbroken peace.

kt The parent fountains sink away
And close their crystal veins ;
And where the glittering current flowed,
The dust alone remains."

We are permitted to look in and see how the work of life goes on,
but we can as yet go no further. We may explain. We may say it
is all the result of chemical forces, and doubtless chemical forces are
working there ; but such explanation demands an explanation. Does
chemical action renew itself ? Chemical action is one thing, chemical
action perpetuated and controlled by life is quite another. We may
say, life is the property of protoplasm, or we may reverse the state-
ment and say that protoplasm is that form of matter which manifests
the phenomena of life, but that is as far as we can go. The streamlet
hemmed by the narrow walls of the cell of any plant is to us a bound-
ary. On one side the line, peace unbroken, eternal fixity, rest, of a
world whose chemical forces acted once and for ever ; on the other, the
vast procession of life begins, rises before us, spreads away in variety,
activity, in beauty, in wonderfulness, incomprehensible.

-♦»*♦-

THE JEWS IE EUKOPE.*

By Dr. J. YON DOLLINGEE.

II.

A GLANCE at the changing fortunes of the Jews in France, Eng-
land, and Spain, brings clearly to light how their condition was
influenced by the hierarchy. In England as in Germany, the Jews were
the special property of the king, and were in part fostered as a valu-
able and profitable possession, and provided with privileges, and in
part, particularly under King John and Henry III, made the object of
merciless extortion. They enjoyed, indeed, also the royal protection,
which, however, in times of sudden attack by the populace, came al-
most always too late, and only sharpened the popular hatred to which

* Anniversary Address before the Academy of Sciences at Munich, delivered July
25, 1881. Translated by Mr. W. M. Salter.

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 301

they fell a prey. Henry III, after forcibly assessing them several
times, took (in 1230) suddenly from them a third of their possessions ;
afterward, to get a loan, he mortgaged all the Jews of Great Britain
to Count Richard. The Jews begged, since their condition had be-
come unendurable, for permission to emigrate ; but it was refused
them, since the king loved them all too dearly to let them go. Bish-
ops, as Grossetete, of Lincoln, demanded their banishment, and Ed-
ward I ordered it in 1290 ; and in this way robbed himself of a most
valuable instrument, by which previous kings had indirectly taxed
their subjects. On account of the general lack of regular and suffi-
cient income for the crown — a lack under which all states at that time
suffered — some persons must be found who would take the place of
those who had been banished. Such substitutes presented themselves
in the associations of the Caorsines and the Italian money-brokers.
Their way to England was paved by the Roman curia, which used
them as its collectors, though the most prominent of them became
bankrupt suddenly in 1345, and went off with debts unpaid. As usur-
ers and financial managers for the crown, they were hated no less than
the Jews.

In France the system of extortion practiced upon the Jews was
still more methodical and crafty. Philip Augustus began his reign at
the age of fifteen (1182) with the plundering and banishing of all Is-
raelites. The report that they put a Christian to death every year at
the time of their passover is said to have led him to this course, but the
debts left him by his father were the immediate occasion. In the year
1198 they were recalled. Louis VIII declared all their claims for in-
terest to be invalid, and ordered that the moneys due them should be
paid to their lords, the king and the barons. Louis IX, convinced
equally that all taking of interest was heinous sin, and that all the Jews
of the land were his slaves, compelled them several times to purchase
the privilege of remaining in the country ; and, when he thought that
he had extorted enough from them, banished them from his kingdom,
with confiscation of whatsoever they still possessed. When the Jews
implored before the governor of Karbonne for the restoration of the
rights that had been taken away from them by the king, they com-
plained : " The Jews are robbed of their means, and yet compelled to
pay their debts ; while, on the other hand, those who owe them are
freed from the obligation to pay their Jewish creditors. They are
forbidden to loan money on interest, and yet are not allowed to earn a
living in any other way." The king's order was not completely car-
ried out. Many remained, others returned afterward from time to
time.

Louis's brother, Count Alphonse of Poictiers, made use of a par-
ticularly shrewd procedure in his state, which was afterward imitated
in Germany. Under the pretext of expenditure for a crusade, he had
himself authorized \j the Pope to appropriate to himself all interest

3o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that had been collected by the Jews ; and then the entire Jewish pop-
ulation, including women and children, was incarcerated. The poorer
ones were liberated after a while ; but the rich, with their wives, were
held in prison until they had completely satisfied the avarice of the
count and his officials. Philip the Fair did not fail to follow the ex-
ample of his grandfather, in a way that was even more thorough, and
brought more profit. He banished suddenly all Jews in the year 1306 ;
possessed himself of their entire property ; had their houses, syna-
gogues, schools, and even their burying-grounds, sold to the highest
bidders ; and compelled all their debtors to pay into his own treasury.
With the barons, who craved their share in the spoils, he came to an
agreement.

The drama closed at last in the year 1394 when Charles VI, on the
representation of his confessor, and at the request of his spouse, who
was under this man's influence, ordered the last expulsion of the Jews
from his kingdom, on the plea that many who had intercourse with
them had become lukewarm (tepidi) in their faith.

In Spain, under Mohammedan rule, the condition of the hunted
and afflicted people was more favorable than in any Christian land.
Although not free, the synagogue chose its own national judges or
kings to represent it before those in power. Their schools flourished
there ; they pursued especially the study of medicine with greater suc-
cess than the Christians. Also under the Christian kings in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries they were still influential, serving the kings
as financial advisers, chancellors of the exchequer, as astronomers and
physicians. In Toledo alone there were some twelve thousand of
them ; their wealth permitted them to purchase at least the most in-
dispensable rights by the expenditure of money. In general, from the
time of the Arabian rule to the end of the thirteenth century, their con-
dition in Spain was more favorable than in any other European land.
Within the walls of their Jewish quarters {aljamas), they lived ac-
cording to their own law and statute. But the fourteenth century
brought evil in its train also to the Jews of the Peninsula. While
valuable and serviceable to the kings as farmers of the taxes and chan-
cellors of the exchequer, they were hated by the people. Now in one
city, and now in another, they were attacked, struck down, and their
synagogues burned. The most violent storm broke upon them in the
year 1391, and raged throughout the whole of Spain ; priests, like the
Archdeacon of Ecija, had kindled the conflagration by their sermons.
Many thousands were slain ; 200,000 saved themselves by baptism,
but after a few years it was found that 17,000 had relapsed into Juda-
ism. A hundred years later — 1492 — the royal edict appeared which
commanded the entire body of the Jews to emigrate, and leave their
possessions behind them. Since the Inquisition at the same time for-
bade selling food to the Jews, the majority were not able to emigrate,
if they wished, and so were compelled to be baptized. The most of

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 303

those who went out of the land — the numbers vary from 170,000 to
400,000 — perished by plague, famine, or shipwreck. The descendants
of the survivors, the Sephardim, found reception in Italy and in that
part of the Orient which was under Turkish dominion ; also for a short
time in Portugal. Spain, however, became filled with families of
mixed descent, and the contrasts of pure and impure blood, of old
Christians and neo-Christians, poisoned the whole social life.

The fate of the Jews was still worse in Portugal than in Spain.
For a Ion or time their condition was better than in the rest of the Pen-
insula. The murderous storm of 1391 did not extend to them ; they
enjoyed some privileges, had property in land, and pursued agriculture
and wholesale businesses. But in the reign of King Manuel (1495),
otherwise praised as gentle and humane, they met with a deadly blow :
their children under fourteen years were snatched from them and bap-
tized ; they themselves could remain in the land only as they became
converted to the Church. Thus this kingdom also was filled with
those who feigned conversion and were forcibly baptized. The re-
sults were fearful. In the year 1506, in Lisbon, two thousand new
converts were put to death in three days, because one of the neo-Chris-
tians had ventured to doubt a supposed miracle. Soon after, the In-
quisition was introduced as the well-tried instrument for handing over
the property of the wealthy neo-Christians to the state treasury.

In the larger commercial cities of Italy, the existence of the Jews
was, comparatively speaking, endurable. Since the trade in money
was already in the hands of Christian bankers, they occupied them-
selves more here with mercantile business. They encountered no
risings of the mob, or massacres.

All these things become more comprehensible when we observe
that the historians of the time, in narrating the enormities that were
committed, give no sign of pity, and do not utter a word of indigna-
tion. Many times the clerical chroniclers even express their satisfac-
tion : for example, the Monk of Waverley writes in a triumphant tone
of the massacre, in London, at the coronation of Richard I, which was
perpetrated without any provocation on the part of the Jews, and closes
with the exclamation, " Blessed be the Lord, who has given up the
godless to their deserts ! " (" Annales Monast.," p. 246). And yet they
do not fail to point out that avarice was a principal cause of these mis-
deeds ; that nobles and citizens who were in debt incited to them, in
order, by a single stroke, to become free of their (Jewish) creditors ;
for money was in truth the protecting as well as the destroying angel
of the Jews in those days. The unhappy ones must press their debtors,
always expecting that at the next moment they themselves would suffer
from the inevitable reaction against them.

Since the clergy declared the mere existence of the Jews among
the Christians to be an immeasurable danger, requiring the most care-
ful watching and isolating, we should expect that they would have

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

labored conscientiously and with all their powers to convert the Jews.
This did not happen, however. The men who were capacitated for
such a work were completely wanting until the beginning of the thir-
teenth century, and even after the rise of the mendicant orders, a part
of whose work was to institute missions among the Jews, there was
very seldom a theologian who could lay claim to the education indis-
pensable to this end. An interpretation of the prophetical books (of
the Old Testament), which could have made an impression upon edu-
cated Jews, was beyond the powers of that time. That great flood
of allegorical interpretations, which ruled the Biblical literature of the
Christians, appeared to Israelitish Biblical scholars the empty play of
an arbitrary and unbridled imagination. The early Church stood, in
general, much nearer to the Old Testament people and faith ; the great
alterations and new formations of the middle ages had immeasurably
widened the gap. The worship of images, which, according to the
Israelitish view, contradicted the Decalogue, the whole scheme of do-
minion and compulsion which had been organized by Hildebrand, the
religious wars with the system of indulgences — these were things that
made the conversion of a Jew uncommonly difficult ; and the pictorial
representations of the Trinity, that appeared in the latter part of the
middle age, must have seemed like a confirmation of the charges of
tritheism which they brought against the Christians. In many places,
indeed, the Jews were compelled to hear discourses aiming at their
conversion by the monks, but an effect opposite to what was intended
was unavoidably produced. It is told of the preacher-monk Yincenz
Ferrer, that his eloquence effected 30,000 conversions in Spain. But
these ostensible conversions took place in the midst of the horrors of
the slaughter of 1391 and of the ensuing occurrences, and the apostasy
that soon commenced of 17,000 new converts indicates how much the
conversions were worth.

If a Jew voluntarily became a Christian, he lost everything that
union with a people holding so firmly and faithfully together had
hitherto secured him, and by no means did he win the favor of the
Christians ; rather did his condition in most cases become worse. For
the Church met him with suspicion. In Rome, indeed, it was regarded
as a rule, to which there was hardly any exception, that a baptized Jew
would relapse. If he had means, it was made a duty for him to return
all the interest he had taken, a sum often in excess of his present pos-
sessions ; and in France it was even the custom to confiscate all his
goods, and indemnify the king or baron for his loss of a bondsman,
and of the income derived from him. Two laws of Charles YII de-
stroyed this custom ; but this very monarch took from the Jews, who
avoided exile by embracing Christianity, two thirds of their property
for himself ; and his contemporaries thought this a softening of the
severity of the old statutes. If the converted Jew was poor, he ex-
perienced the lack of the means of subsistence ; for he had not learned

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 305

a trade, nor could he any more take up with traffic in money, and his
only resource was to become a barterer and dealer in small wares. The
worst and most horrible thing was that the new convert fell a prey to
the power of the Court of Inquisition, and, wherever there was an in-
quisitor, he was liable to arrest and torture on a mere suspicion, and
could be sentenced either to money-fines or to imprisonment. That
the inquisitor could impose fines upon merely suspected persons was
already, in 1330, the teaching of the canonical writers, and nothing
was easier or more tempting than the discovery of some cause of sus-
picion against a rich Israelite, baptized or unbaptized.

While the Spaniards were striving to root out Israel from the Penin-
sula, they prepared for themselves a most fearful scourge, under whose
lashes they were to bleed for centuries. For, since they drove so
many Jews into the Church through fear of death, and forced them to
continuous hypocrisy, they caused the establishment of the Holy Office,
which was directed at first against this secret retention of the Jewish
faith. The majority of educated Spaniards at the present day doubt-
less acknowledge the Inquisition to have been the sorest national mis-
fortune ; it was an institution which has served to dishonor the Spanish
name, and has been a source of manifold misery and a school of hy-
pocrisy to the Spanish people. But that this institution maintained
itself so long in Spain, and for over two hundred years found contin-
ually new victims for its " acts of faith," is owing to the events of
1328, 1391, and 1492, along with the distinction, contrived by the
Church, between absolute and relative coercion in baptism.

Many thousands of Jews were then forced to be baptized ; they
were often allowed no other alternative than that of death or entrance
into the Church. In many cases they preferred death, and perished
either by their own hands or at the hands of their oppressors, and the
example of some who were steadfast inspired whole hosts to copy after
them. At the same time, there was a considerable number who, in
fear of death, or to escape banishment and loss of property, suffered
themselves to be baptized ; and it was just as natural that, when they
breathed free, again, they should renounce Christianity and turn back
to the cult of their fathers.

The doctrine was indeed continuously taught and accepted that a
baptism forced upon one was null and invalid, and it would hence
seem self-evident that he who had been coerced should be free to turn
back to his ancestral religion. But, as early as 633, the Spanish Visi-
gothic bishops had declared that those forcibly baptized should be held
in the Church. This had passed over into Gratian's book of doctrines
and statutes, and now no one was any longer permitted to surren-
der the Christian faith once confessed, or return to the practices of
Judaism. He was once for all a Christian, and, as such, subject to
the jurisdiction of the religious court ; if he went back to the faith
of his fathers he must suffer, as every heretic and apostate, the death
vol. sxi. — 20

306 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by fire. The princes were also ready, in ease no Court of Inquisition
was in existence, to execute this punishment. The Emperor Frederick
III caused a young man, who was valuable to him as a servant, and
who, after being baptized out of fear turned back to Judaism, to be
conducted to the stake, to which he went singing psalms. In Spain
and Portugal the observing of some Jewish rite, on the part of a new
convert, sufficed to subject him to imprisonment and torture. It was
not realized that by this means the Church was being filled with hypo-
crites, and that numberless profanations, otherwise sought to be avoided
in every possible way, unavoidably took place. In her better days the
Church regarded an entrance of her walls, accomplished by the influ-
ence of slaughter and terror, a disgrace and a sacrilege ; but now all,
bishops, priests, and laity, worked harmoniously together to imprint
this stigma on their Church — above all, in Spain.

A more painful existence than that of a Jew in the middle ages
is scarcely thinkable, and, if he had had a knowledge of history, with
what longing would he have looked back to the happy time of the
Roman Empire ! Every day the Jew must be prepared for some act of
extortion, or the loss of all his goods, or imprisonment or banishment.
Emigration was often impossible, and was in most cases not permitted,
so long as the Jew had any remaining possessions which could be taken
from him ; and when he did undertake it his condition hardly ever
improved ; it was often " falling out of the frying-pan into the fire."
Moreover, he had to pay a high price for permission to live elsewhere,
even if it was only for a few years. On the highways of the country
his person was as insecure as that of an outlaw.

The whole external history of the Jews for almost a thousand years
makes up a succession of elaborate oppressions, of degrading and de-
moralizing afflictions, of violence and persecution, of wholesale slaugh-
ters, with interchanges of banishments and recallings. It is as if the
European nations had vied with each other in trying to create the double
delusion that the Jews were condemned till the end of time in the de-
crees of Heaven to the severest helotism, and that the sons of the Gen-
tiles were ordained to act the part of jailers and hangmen to the chosen
people of God ! Christians knew not how to dispense with them ; they
were serviceable in many ways ; and yet they could not be endured.
Their countenances worked like a challenge upon the believer, who
was touched by no scruple, and thought it possible to explain the Jews'
fixed attachment to their ancestral faith, under the clear light of the
gospel, only as a species of wicked obstinacy.

Nevertheless, one feature is striking in the great mass of abusive
discourses, arraignments, and declamatory outbursts against the de-
tested people — a feature which, along with endless repetition of the
customary phrases, characterizes the ecclesiastical literature of those
centuries: and this is, that their moral life, so far as the family, chas-
tity, temperance, and fidelity to obligations go, is never attacked. Along

THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 307

with the charge of avarice and usurious money-lending, it is always
simply their religious belief that made the ground for charges against
them : they are continually accused of crime ; and the fact that they
did not recognize the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and Incarna-
tion was sufficient proof of their guilt. That they actually railed at
Christ and his mother before the ears of Christians was certainly very
rare, since they knew that a word of that sort sufficed to devote them,
and often also their families, to death. It could not occur to an Israel-
ite to wish to convert a Christian to his own faith. It is written in
the Talmud, " Proselytes are as dangerous for Judaism as ulcers on a
sound body." If one not a Jew had really a mind to become a convert
to Judaism, he must be told, "Do you not know that the Jews live in
sufferings and woes, that they are insulted and cast out, tormented and
put to the rack ? " At the same time, he was reminded of the oppress-
iveness of the statutes, and of the privations and sacrifices to which
he would have to submit.

" The Christian brought the Jews to this pass," Shakespeare makes
his " Merchant of Venice " say, and history for thirteen hundred years
says the same. When the Jews in Spain were threatened with de-
struction and banishment, a rabbi is reported to have said to the Chris-
tian : " We are at once a people blessed and laden with a curse. Now
you wish to destroy us, but you will not succeed, because we are
blessed. The time will come when you will exert yourselves to raise
us up, but in this you will not be successful, for Ave are cursed." If
this was actually uttered, it is not clear whether the reference was to
the Spanish Jews, the Sephardim, or the curse was conjectured to rest
on the whole people. A retrospect of nine centuries of ignominious
treatment and misery might easily have awakened such a thought.
But since the Reformation the lot of the Jews has been steadily grow-
ing more favorable, and to-day no rabbi can any longer have the sense
of a curse resting upon his race. The number of Jews now living on
the surface of the globe has been estimated to be very nearly twelve
million ; should the number be less, it is none the less certain that
they are more powerful than they ever were in past time, not except-
ing the period of their political independence. The official (Christian)
interpretation of the word of the prophets, current in the middle ages,
is thereby proved delusive ; according to it, the Jewish people were to
be reduced by continuous mistreatment and persecution to a very small
handful of survivors. But in spite of all the heavy blows dealt upon
this anvil, and of the numerous proselytes to Christianity and Moham-
medanism, they have not lost but rather steadily increased in numbers.
For a hundred years Israel has struggled for political emancipation,
and at last has won it in all European states ; only Russia, Spain,
and Portugal have not as yet granted it. It has also not been granted
them in the Mohammedan world. But in Europe the larger half of the
Jews find themselves" in possession of all social and political rights.

3o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Israelites sit now in the parliaments and congresses. They are al-
lowed to be teachers in most of the universities, and the number of
Jewish young men who devote themselves to study increases with
every year. Important offices are already intrusted to Jews. Their
protective union, the judiciously managed " Israelitish Alliance," which
has its seat in Paris, appears to be constantly winning greater influ-
ence. The facts of comparative statistical science are favorable to
them. In most countries, theirs is, relatively speaking, the smallest
number of judicial crimes, and they stand foremost among the popu-
lation in general prosperity and wealth, even in length of life and rate
of increase. The old virtues of temperance and continence, of well-
ordered and affectionate family life, of filial piety to parents, which
served so well in preserving this people from destruction in the troub-
lous times of the middle ages, have not yet vanished from among
them. Marriage unions with Christians and conversion are more com-
mon than formerly ; in Berlin alone several years ago, there were esti-
mated to be some two thousand proselytes.

It is true, however, that there are dark shadows to the picture ; the
better spokesmen of this people do not deny their serious faults; they
must allow that there is abundant occasion for sharply reproving
them : they only urge that the faults arrest attention more than the
virtues. The strongest charge and the principal reason for the popu-
lar hatred of them is the economical injury they inflict, and the manner
in which they take advantage of the peasantry in the Slavic and also in
some German countries, in connection with small bartering and money-
lending, which seem to be their favorite occupations. In the East,
particularly in Galicia, this injury is called even by a stronger word
— it is named devastation. The fault is undeniable ; our Israelitish
fellow-citizens lament it as much as we, but it would be unjust to make,
on account of race connection, the whole responsible for the conduct
of a fractional part, who are far removed and beyond control. The
same is true of the founding of sham companies (Griinderunwesen)
and the pernicious speculation in money, which is a fault common
to Christians and Israelites. As it was formerly alchemists, astrolo-
gers, and searchers after hidden treasures, who took advantage of
the blind and eager credulity of the higher classes, so now Jewish
speculators do the same. In a similar way, the sins of the press of
the day are to be charged upon its circle of Christian readers as
well as upon the Jewish editors, who only follow the fashion in pan-
dering to, rather than trying to mold, the opinions and passions of the
people.

The great reform movement, that began with Mendelssohn in the
bosom of Judaism, has given it a new form in Germany, France, and
England. Those of the Jewish people who live in Slavic countries
remain for the most part untouched by this movement, and are still
bound to the Talmudic standards ; but in "Western Europe the Israel-

THE JEWS IN EtfROPE. 309

ites have given up many of their traditional prejudices and customs,
and come nearer the Christians in manners and ways of thinking.

At the present time, Germany is the bearer and foster-father of the
spiritual life of Judaism, as in earlier times (and in the order stated)
were Spain, Southern and Northern France, and then Holland. The
German Israelites lead those of the rest of the world, because of the
language they use ; they alone, too, have a religious and theological
literature of their own, to which their brethren in other countries
resort for instruction in spiritual things. And hence it may be justly
asserted that the influence of German ways of thinking is stronger
than any other one thing among the Jews to-day, and it extends even
to North America.

Among civilized peoples with a distinctive moral and intellectual
life, the Jew residing in their midst thinks with the bulk of the nation.
The German Jew thinks about all questions of spiritual and social life
in an essentially German manner, which was far from being the case in
the preceding century ; and since our culture and civilization have
come out of Christianity and have a Christian coloring, the Jew, how-
ever disinclined he may be to Christian views, can not help thinking
and acting about many things, whether consciously or unconsciously,
in a Christian way. So, for example, in regard to marriage, which is
regarded by the Jews no longer from the Old Testament point of
view, but from the Christian. And the same may be said of the Brit-
ish and French Israelites ; they think and feel as the great nation
thinks and feels in whose midst they live.

Altogether too long has the false and detestable view ruled in the
world that we are called upon to avenge, generation after generation,
the sins and mistakes of the fathers upon their guiltless descendants.
It is a view which has covered Europe with a multitude of cruel and
shameful deeds, the thought of which causes us to shudder and avert
our faces. Woe to us and our posterity if such a law of revenge is
ever applied to the descendants of the Germans, Frenchmen, Spaniards,
and Englishmen of the middle ages ! But there is one thing which
the self-styled anti-Semitic agitation of to-day should not forget, viz.,
that hate and contempt are feelings bitter and of no comfort to him who
cherishes them, and painful and exasperating to those against whom
they are directed. A sad thing it is when (to use a Scriptural expression),

" Deep calleth unto deep."

Rather let the saying of Sophocles's " Antigone " be and remain
our motto :

" My nature leads to sharing love, not hate "

3io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

PORCELAIN AND THE AET OF ITS PRODUCTION.

By CHAELES LAUTH,

ADMINISTRATOR OF THE NATIONAL MANUFACTORY AT SEVRES.

THE uses of porcelain have so multiplied, the employment of that
material has become so general, that few rjersons recollect the
time, not yet far back, when it was considered an object of luxury,
and only delf was within the reach of all. In this paper I shall con-
sider, first, the nature of porcelain and the history of its discovery ;
next, the principal points in its manufacture ; and, lastly, the different
methods of decorating it.

It is generally understood that porcelain is, as a rule, the resultant,
of the action of fire on a certain kind of clay. No one is likely to con-
found it with earthenware or delf. While those wares are soft, opaque,
and of impure colors, porcelain is always white, is perfectly clear, and
is harder than steel. The fundamental distinction between the three
wares is that earthenware is obtained by the simple action of fire on
common clays ; delfs are earthenwares more or less colored and glazed
with a leaden enamel, which is rendered opaque by tin ; while hard
porcelain is obtained from a white clay, kaolin, and is enameled with
feldspar.

Kaolin, a natural hydrated silicate of alumina, is absolutely refract-
ory and opaque ; it constitutes the resistant part of porcelain. Feld-
spars are silicates of alumina and potassa, fusible at a very high tem-
perature into a beautiful transparent glass. If, now, we mix a quantity
of feldspar with kaolin, cover the mixture with a layer of feldspar, and
heat the whole at a very high temperature, the feldspar will melt and
communicate to the opaque clay a clearness greater or less according
to the quantity of it present, and to the superficial part of it that beau-
tiful glaze with which all are familiar. A part of the action in this
process is chemical, and consists in the production of a new crystalline
silicate formed by a combination of all the substances present. The
discovery of porcelain in China is traced back to a high antiquity.
The Chinese have certainly made it regularly for at least a thousand
years ; many authors fix the discovery at fifteen hundred or eight-
een hundred years ago, but no evidence exists to justify our going
further back than a thousand years. The first pieces that came to
Europe were probably brought by the Venetians at the end of the
thirteenth century. Charles VII, King of France, received a present
of Chinese porcelains, about the middle of the fifteenth century, from
the Sultan of Babylon ; but it was not till the sixteenth century that the
importation of these Oriental products by Portuguese and Dutch mer-
chants assumed a real importance. The discovery of tender porcelain
was made in France toward the end of the seventeenth century, but

PORCELAIN AND THE ART OF ITS PRODUCTION. 311

whether by Louis Poterat or by Reverend, at Paris or Rouen, is dis-
puted. This ware has no relation with real porcelain ; it contains
neither kaolin nor feldspar, but is an artificial product, a kind of glass
made from a mixture composed essentially of sand, lime, potash, soda,
and a small quantity of marine marl. This mixture, made plastic by
the addition of manganese or other fluxes, is baked without glazing, and
is covered after baking with a glazing composed of silica, lead, potash,
and soda. The beauty of the material, its perfect glaze, and the
facility with which verifiable colors are fixed in it, make of tender
porcelain a ware exceptionally adapted to decoration.

The discovery of tender porcelain did not arrest the investigations
of men of science and potters, who saw very well that it had none of
the characters of the porcelain of China. A bed of kaolin was found
in Saxony in 1709, and Bbttger set up at Meissen the first European
factory of hard porcelain. Fifty years later, in 1758, Guettard at
Alencon, and afterward, in 1769, Madame Darnet at Saint-Yeux, near
Limoges, discovered the French beds, and the industrial fabrication of
hard porcelain was begun in France in 1774. Tender porcelain gave
way quickly in the rivalry with hard porcelain. This was unfortunate,
in an artistic point of view, for the latter material is very unaccommo-
dating to the decorator. A more important object was, however, to
create for domestic economy an absolutely healthful industry, and
much is due to the illustrious Brongniart for having by his investiga-
tions put the manufacture of kaolinic porcelain on a firm scientific
foundation.

Natural kaolin is never a pure clay, but contains also sand, unde-
composed feldspar, etc., in variable quantities, and must first be purified.
For this purpose the mass is pounded, and the products are separated
one after another by successive levigations with water. The clay,
which is extremely slow in settling, is drawn off first, and may be ob-
tained almost pure ; the other deposits, composed of more or less f eld-
spathic sands, are brayed in mills, and are destined to enter in their
turn into the preparation of the pastes. The nature of porcelain, its
physical and chemical properties, vary infinitely according to the pro-
portion of its two consituent elements (kaolin and feldspar), and as other
substances, lime, silicious sands, potsherds, etc., are added, as is often
done. Every country and every factory has its composition, which is
adapted to the use to which the porcelain is destined, to the degree of
resistance that is to be demanded of it, and to the kind of decoration
it is lo receive. Generally, porcelain is more solid as the proportion of
clay increases, and requires a higher temperature in baking ; if, on the
other hand, the proportion of feldspar is increased, it becomes more fu-
sible, may be baked at a lower temperature, and submits more readily
to decoration, but its plasticity and the possibility of working it easily
diminish rapidly^ The mixture of the materials should be perfect ;
when this is the case, the mass will keep for a long time, and become

3i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

more plastic as it grows older. The qualities required of a good paste
may be communicated by diluting it and stirring it with water and
decanting, or by prolonged beating and manipulation. By treading it
out or beating it we not only give it complete plasticity and homoge-
neity, but we also clear it of air-bubbles which would otherwise swell
out in baking and cause much damage.

The next thing is to give our ware the form which has been deter-
mined for it in a design previously made. This requires a knowledge
of the whole process of fabrication. It would be a mistake to suppose
that porcelain can be baked in any desired form. It becomes soft in
baking, and has to be supported ; and, as it is to be covered with a glass
that melts at the same moment, places which need not be enameled
must be found for fixing the supports in every piece, unless we are
willing to risk having it spoiled. We may thus comprehend one of
the difficulties in the manufacture of porcelain, and one of the points
in which it differs most from delf.

Articles of porcelain may be shaped without molds or with them.
By the former method all the shapes are obtained that may be pro-
duced by turning. The clay is first shaped on the wheel by the hand
into a rough block of the general shape which the object is destined
to assume, and is then left to dry, slowly and with care, to keep it
from cracking. When it has been dried to a suitable degree of con-
sistency, it is put upon the wheel again and carefully worked into the
exact shape desired, with the moldings and ornaments called for by
the design, and by the aid of the most simple instruments.

Articles whose shape does not adapt them to manipulation on a
revolving wheel, such as objects of statuary and many lighter objects,
may be shaped by molding them. The mold is made of plaster of
Paris ; to it, when dry, is applied a layer of the porcelain paste, which
is pressed into it carefully and as evenly as possible ; the earth espouses
all the details of the sculpture, and, after a few moments, the plaster
having absorbed the water from the paste in contact with it, a shrink-
age takes place, thanks to which the proof detaches itself almost spon-
taneously. The operation is sure to be successful in the case of simple
forms whose outlines offer no impediment to taking them from the
molds. If, however, we purpose to obtain objects in relief, statuettes,
groups of figures, or sumptuous vases, the sculptural decorations of
which constitute their chief ornament, the process becomes more com-
plicated. In this case the molder has to divide his pattern into a
number of parts, the superficies of which must be determined by the
possibilities of taking off the molds ; then he must make as many
molds in plaster as he has parts of his model ; these molds will in
their turn serve for the reproduction of each of the parts, which have
afterward to be joined and cemented by the aid of the paste diluted
in water. After this the seams at the junction of the parts must be
rubbed away, and the whole work finished up by a restorer who must

PORCELAIN AND THE ART OF ITS PRODUCTION. 313

necessarily be an artist. I can not leave this part of my subject with-
out mentioning the property which porcelain has of shrinking when
baked. The shrinkage amounts to about ten or fifteen per cent.

A third method of shaping porcelains is by casting, which was dis-
covered at Tournay, 1784, and in which Brongniart has made numer-
ous improvements. Nothing is more simple than the manufacture of
a small object by this process. Thus, if we take a plaster mold of a
cup, and pour into it a quantity of barbotine, or porcelain-clay mixed
with water, the mold will absorb the water from the clay in contact
with it, forming a shell less liquid than the rest of the barbotine, and
which sticks to the plaster. When this shell has attained a suitable
thickness, the rest of the barbotine may be poured out : what remains
in the mold constitutes the cup. We leave it to dry, and in a little
while it will have gained consistency enough to be taken out of the
mold without being deformed. Ware thus made is extremely delicate ;
the slightest pressure with the lingers may destroy it. This process is
used at Sevres for large pieces, but special manipulations are required
for such work ; for the weight of the shell which should adhere to the
mold when the liquid is poured out, and which should be thicker and
heavier in proportion to the greater size of the vessel, is very apt to
cause it to separate from the plaster and fall. The least awkward-
ness might destroy the piece, and this should be avoided at any cost.
MM. Milet and Delacour have devised a method, which has been used
at Sevres since 1857, for avoiding such accidents by turning compressed
air against the interior of the mold at the moment the barbotine is
poured out, to take the place of the liquid and hold the porcelain shell
against the plaster. M. Regnault has simplified this operation by ex-
hausting the air on the outside of the mold, which effects the same
purpose and is more convenient of execution. The absence of seams,
the purity of the outlines, and the clearness of the surfaces obtained
by this process, make it one of inestimable value when we wish to get
an object of art, and lift it far above the process of molding. The de-
tails of the operation are very exacting, but none of them should be
neglected. Their importance may be realized by reflecting that a hid-
den fault in the interior of a large piece, a bubble of inclosed air, a
lack of homogeneity in the paste, or other flaw, is not perceptible till
after the baking, when the vessel has been decorated, and may perhaps
have become of very great value. The slightest defect in the casting
may destroy this value.

The objects, having been properly shaped and fitted, have next to
be transformed into porcelain by the action of fire, the function of
which is to combine the different elements of the paste and deter-
mine the fusion of the glazing. The baking is done twice. In the
first operation, when the temperature is relatively only moderately
high (1,800° to 2,160°), the earth is converted into what is called biscuit-
baked porcelain; it becomes very tough and sonorous, and extremely

3i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

flexible ; in this condition it is submitted to the enameling process. That
operation is of the simplest character, and consists in a quick immer-
sion in water holding in suspension a feldspathic rock, which has pre-
viously been reduced to an impalpable powder. Yet it requires great
care, for the thickness of the enamel must be adapted to the piece; it
may be neither too great nor too little, under penalty of accidents ; it
must be as even as possible, with neither bulges nor thin places.
These qualities can not be obtained by dipping alone, so the object
has to be retouched with a brush. The next step is baking in the
sharp-fire, where the temperature of from 2,880° to 3,240°, at which
feldspar fuses, must be reached. A few facts will enable us to compre-
hend the steps and the difficulties of this operation. Porcelain-clay
can not be baked in direct contact with the flames, ashes, and smoke,
without being greatly altered. It must, then, for the biscuit-baking
as well as for the sharp-fire, be inclosed in protecting envelopes called
gazettes, or casettes — cases of as refractory clay as can be got, in which
the pieces are adjusted with great care on suitably arranged supports.
It must be remembered that porcelain is baked at the temperature at
which it becomes soft; the softening must then be anticipated at the
time of fitting the vessel in the casette, and all the parts of the object
must be supported so as to prevent any possible deformation. At the
same time the supports must be prevented from sticking to the piece;
and it is only by the aid of many kinds of artifices that the object can
be effected without the supports leaving visible marks of their having
been applied.

The furnace is divided into two stories, the upper one of which is
the dome, or biscuit-baking compartment, and is warmed by the sur-
plus heat that escapes from the lower story and passes through the
vent-holes in its roof. The lower story, where the baking with the
sharp-fire is done, is called the laboratory, and is heated by a number
of fires placed along the circumference of the furnace, called alandiers.
The casettes filled with articles to be baked are arranged vertically and
as symmetrically as possible, and properly supported in the interior of
the laboratory; when the furnace is filled, the entrance is closed by a
double door of refractory materials, and the fires are kindled at the dif-
ferent alandiers. The temperature should be raised very slowly and
very regularly, in order to avoid unequal dilatations, which would
develop breaks in the objects. The heating is watched through little
openings left in the walls of the furnace for that purpose, through
which the color of the fire is observed. It may be seen to pass in suc-
cession from a dark red to orange, bright orange, and white. At the
white heat, which is reached in from twenty-four to sixty hours, ac-
cording to the kind of furnace and fire, the porcelain is near its baking-
point. Since no apparatus has yet been invented for ascertaining the
precise temperature within the furnace, the condition of affairs inside
has to be determined experimentally by means of trial-pieces, which are

PORCELAIN AND THE ART OF ITS PRODUCTION. 315

put in for that purpose. These pieces become glassy a few hours
before the baking is completed, but are apt in that condition to fly to
pieces. If the baking is arrested at that point, the pieces would all be
excessively brittle, and the batch would be spoiled; so the heat is kept
up till the trial-pieces come out glazed and clear, without being brittle;
but, if the cooking is prolonged much beyond that point, it will be at
the risk of changing the character of the porcelain, and of other serious
accidents. It is a very delicate matter to determine the right point for
stopping the heat without running upon one danger in the effort to
avoid the other. When the cooking has been judged complete, the
fire is covered up, the vents are stopped, and the furnace is left to cool
of itself — a process requiring from four to eight days.

An equally important consideration with that of the temperature is
that of the nature of the gases existing within the furnace. If only
white porcelain is baked, it is generally best to have an atmosphere of
reducing properties, because the small quantities of iron, titanium, etc.,
included in the clays, will then be least oxidized, and will not color the
mass as would be done with an oxidizing flame ; if, however, the por-
celain is decorated, it is generally an advantage to have an oxidizing
atmosphere ; and, as both kinds are generally baked at once, it is only
by the best management — by, for example, artificially introducing into
the piles gaseous substances adapted to one or the other object — that a
satisfactory result can be reached. The nature of the fuel employed
is variable. Different kinds of wood and coal are used. Efforts are
made to adopt gaseous fuels, with which alone we can expect to be able
to obtain a complete mastery over the baking.

Having reviewed as succinctly as possible the principal points in
the fabrication of porcelain, we now come to the description of the
processes employed to enrich that beautiful material. The art of fix-
ing colors on pottery differs essentially from that of fixing them on
cloths, wood, and paper ; besides, special qualities, distinguishing it
from all other kinds, are exacted of ceramic decoration. A perfect
adherence, an absolute resistance to atmospheric agents, a glaze that
shall permit the colors to be confounded with that of the object itself,
are the characteristic qualities of a handsome ceramic decoration.
Since the glazing of porcelain is a rock, one of the hardest substances
of the mineral kingdom, it is easily understood that absolutely special
processes must be adopted to make a color adhere. The result can be
reached only through the intervention of an elevated temperature ;
and 'this fact eliminates at once from the palette of the ceramist all
organic coloring matters and all minerals of slight stability. We must
have recourse to oxides, metallic silicates, and metals. The fixation of
these colors is always the result of a chemical action, of a combination
that takes place at a high temperature, between the body or the glaz-
ing of the porcelain and the materials employed to decorate it. Sev-
eral different methods are applied for this purpose, but they may be

3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

divided into two classes : decoration by the sharp-fire, and decoration
by the enameling furnace. The former method consists in the appli-
cation upon the porcelain of coloring substances which are fixed
and developed upon it at the same temperature as that at which the
porcelain is baked. It is the method that gives the most highly prized
results, for with it the color is covered by the enamel, and takes a
high luster and deep setting, becoming, as it were, of one body with
the object. The magnificent blue of Sevres, certain browns, the
blacks, and a few other shades are obtained by this process.

The color may be mixed in the paste, or put on the fashioned ob-
ject, before enameling, or mixed with the glazing ; or it can be put
upon porcelain that has been baked and will then be baked a second
time in the sharp-fire. This is the process we employ at Sevres for
our blues.

One of the most brilliant varieties of decoration by the sharp-fire
consists in what is called the process of applied pastes, or in painting
with barbotine upon the raw or biscuit-baked porcelain ; by succes-
sive, rightly tempered applications we can lay on a considerable thick-
ness of material, on which the artist can with the chisel give a fine
finish and thus add great value to his decoration. When the barbo-
tine is applied upon a tinted bottom, charming effects, making the
porcelain look like real cameos, can be obtained in the clear material.
If coloring oxides are added to the barbotine, a real picture can be
obtained. Unfortunately, the number of colors that can be used in
the sharp-fire is, on account of the excessive temperature, very limited.

In decoration in the enameling-furnace, the painting is always
done on baked porcelain, consequently on enamel, and the heating
takes place at a relatively low temperature. Since the glazing is not
to be melted, as in the sharp-fire, an intermediate agent or flux is
required to make the colors adhere. This is generally a silicate or a
silico-borate of lead, or for metals a sub-nitrate of bismuth. When
the temperature is raised, these substances melt, attack the glaze, and
combine with it, determining by their reaction the adherence of the
color. The temperature in these operations is determined by the
nature of the fluxes and of the colors ; and, as some colors are more
sensitive than others, it is frequently necessary to bake in two succes-
sive and different fires.

The palette of Sevres is complete, and is competent to reproduce
with a marvelous excellence the chief works of the greatest painters.
Notwithstanding the beauty of the sharp-fire colors, and the richness
of the palette, much is still left to be desired in the decoration of
French hard porcelain. The sharp - fire colors are too limited in
number and too delicate to admit of any great variety of effects being
drawn from them ; and the colors of the enameling furnace, in spite
of their richness, have a capital fault. They are opaque, and they
cover the porcelain and hide all of its highly prized qualities.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 3i7

Improved processes of decoration have been devised by M. Sal-
vetat and M. Ebelmen, of which the manufactory of Sevres has pos-
session, and which, I believe, will permit the substitution for painting
of a lively and brilliant decoration, as distinct as that of delf, but
which will be as superior to that as the material to which it is applied
is more precious and delicate. Using these processes, the artists of
Sevres will be able to go beyond making commonplace copies of what
has been made in the East, and to create a genuine French school of
porcelain, restoring that material to the high rank which the artistic
delfs have nearly taken away from it.

I consider that the manufactory at Sevres, being a national estab-
lishment, supported by the country, ought to lay aside the character
of a factory, and become a school of ceramics, devoting itself to the
search for new processes, for original forms and decorations, to the
creation of workmen and artists who shall be masters in their business ;
and that it is its absolute duty to give to French industry the results
of its investigations. Thus might it become a most useful element in
the national industries, and a glory to France and the republic.

-+*+-

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXEECISE*

By EMILE DU BOIS-EEYMOXD.

ALTHOUGH the reputation of the Romans as a civilized people
has somewhat sunken of late, their army -life still awakens un-
bounded admiration. The Greeks called their army after the camp,
the Macedonians after its formation. To the neo-Latins the army is
armed power ; the Germans seem to regard it as a union of the war-
riors into a common host. The Romans, on the other hand, as Gibbon
has remarked, named their army from exercise. The Greeks aimed at
the harmonious development of individuals, without any well-defined
purpose. Incessant methodical drill of the manhood, a field of Mars,
is essentially a Roman institution, for war was the natural condition
of the Roman commonwealth.

Overthrown by the barbarian hosts, the regular army disappeared
from the world's stage for a thousand years, and the greatest question
of controversy for mankind, whether Christian or of Islam, was how
once upon a time the quarrel of a clan over a pretty woman was de-
cided by single combat of knights before Ilium. With the revival of
ancient culture on the threshold of the new time, the drilling of troops
came again into its right. No one now doubts that, other things being

* An address at the anniversary of the Institute for Military Surgeons, Berlin, August
2, 1881.

3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

equal, the better-schooled army prevails. Hardly any army deserves
better than the Prussian- German the name JExercitus. Before a meet-
ing of the physicians of that army it is not inappropriate to consider
exercise somewhat in its direct physiological aspect.

Boyish excesses have brought the Darwinian doctrine into such
bad repute in wide circles that I do not without consideration place
myself at its point of view. Yet, whatever view of the world one
may take, science, which desires to comprehend the world, will not be
prevented from at once representing the world comprehensively ; since
it, according to Herr Helmholtz's evident remark, must start out from
this presupposition unless it is contradicted at the outset. Only me-
chanical conception is science ; when supernaturalism comes in, science
ceases. As the jurist takes the law, without considering equity and
palliating circumstances, so the naturalist goes on to mechanical con-
clusions, without regarding venerable beliefs. It is not his office to
reconcile these beliefs with those conclusions.

More, the Cuvierian doctrine of repeated creations underlaid by
repeated cataclysms has lost all justification since Lyell showed that
goeological phenomena have proceeded without general cataclysms,
and Darwin has added that species change. Now wre can more intel-
ligibly ascribe to the creating Almighty only the action of having
placed a first germ of life in previously inanimate nature. Is it not,
then, simpler and more worthy of that Almighty to conceive that he at
once endowed matter with the power of allowing the living to arise
out of itself under definite conditions, without new assistance ?

This was Leibnitz's view, and it may be said of it that even the
most cautious need not be afraid of it. According to this view, it is
the object of natural research to show how the living originated by
mechanical processes out of the inorganic, and how, out of this doubt-
less most simple life, the present organic nature has been mechanically
developed. If we could succeed in filling up the scheme of the theory
of descent with real contents, we should know how the series of living
beings has unfolded itself during unlimited time and through numer-
ous generations, according to certain norms which appear to us as
laws of organization. But with this the problem would be only half
solved.

Living beings are in themselves fitted to their purpose, and adapted
to the external conditions of their lives ; they were always so ; and,
while they transform themselves according to their surroundings, they
not merely adapt themselves to their new conditions, but they also
perfect themselves in our human conception. Thus, from this point
of view, organic nature appears not only as a machine, but also as a
self -improving machine.

This second half of the problem demands for its solution the proof
that the adaptive process has gone on mechanically, and the only not
wholly vague effort to give this proof that has yet been made is the

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 3i9

theory of selection. Unfortunately, however, this theory encounters
insuperable difficulties as soon as it tries to step from the free-sailing
air-balloon of probabilities upon the hard ground of realities. Nothing
is easier than to ridicule the doctrine of natural and sexual selection.
So much the more earnestly will the seeker for truth seize any means
that can contribute anything to the solution of the problem. Is it not
now a most promising coincidence that the higher beings exhibit in
exercise such a self-improving machinery as we have recognized in the

aggregate of life ?

From these remote distances of research, which are the peculiar
metaphysics of our time, come with me into a blacksmith's shop. The
lad who lifts the hammer for the first time to-day soon becomes tired
in spite of his splendid muscular foundation. He sweats ; and, when
he takes a horseshoe from the master's hands, he burns his fingers.
Two years later he can, without sweating, perform the trick illustrating
the mechanical theory of heat of pounding cold iron red-hot, and is not
afraid to touch the hot metal. What has happened ? First, the lad's
arms have increased in compass, their muscles in tension to the highest
capacity of contraction. If we could have weighed the muscles of his
arms at the beginning of his apprenticeship, and could weigh them
now, we should find that they had grown heavier ; as also, according
to Edward Weber, the muscles of the right side of the body are
heavier than those of the left. The muscles are also the most perfect
power-machines — not only in that when active they make the most
complete use of the consumed matter ; not only in that, according to
Herr Heidenhain, their strength in particular instances increases with
the service demanded of them — but they are distinguished above all
machines made by man in that by frequent labor-service they become
stronger and more capable of enduring further labor. It does not
need to be proved that the effect of exercise on the muscles is imme-
diate and local, and not transmitted through the favorable influence of
bodily exertion on the general organism. Even the Greeks found fault
with the disproportionate degree to which boxers trained their arms
only, and runners their legs ; and our pugilists and ballet-dancers are
illustrations of the same. Under some circumstances the local results
of exercise may be destructive to the whole, as when the muscles of the
heart suffer hypertrophy in consequence of excessive resistance in some
part of the circulation.

On the other hand, the surgeon knows only too well that the mus-
cles of a stiffened or sprained joint, or of one that has been confined
with bandages, become wasted, as do likewise muscles the nerves of
which have been cut or that have been otherwise disabled.

The part is known which the latter fact, falsely interpreted by the
older physiologists, played in the question of what was called the Hal-
lerian muscular irritability, till John Reid — at a time when experi-
ments on living animals were not prohibited in England — showed

320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that muscles deprived of their natural innervation could be kept tit
for work provided they were electrically excited at sufficiently brief
intervals ; an experiment which found an important application in
surgery and neuropathology.

Even in the midst of health unused muscles pine away, or become
pale and powerless, like the ear-muscles of most men. In general, the
redness of muscles is related to greater strength in consequence of fre-
quent exertions. Herr Ranvier showed that the red and pale muscles
occurred together in rabbits and rooks ; that they were distinguished
by their structure and by the time required for contraction without its
being possible to decide that one set worked more than the other, and
without any clew being given to the object of this disposition. Little
is known of the microscopic qualities of used and unused muscles. In
contrast with the muscles of fattening cattle, working cattle have
thicker primitive bundles and coarser sarcolemma, the latter determin-
ing the lesser nutritive value of the flesh. According to Herr Vir-
chow's terminology, nutritive stimulation has also taken place. In
muscles falling away through disuse, as the waste progresses a fatty
metamorphosis sets in, against which, as is well known, its ceaseless
activity does not protect the heart-muscle. Muscular contraction is
accompanied by chemical changes. The blood flows darker from tense
than from resting muscles ; they consume more oxygen and form more
carbonic acid. An acid permanently reddening litmus is set free in
them. Their watery constituents and the amount of substances soluble
in alcohol increase in them, while the amount of substances soluble in
water diminishes — probably because glycogen is consumed in the con-
traction. The albuminous constituents remain about the same, yet the
derivatives of albumen known as the flesh bases appear to be richer.
That to the last hard-working muscle, the heart, is for this reason a mine
of such bodies to the chemist ; and the flesh of a fox that had been
shot was found by Liebig to be ten times richer in creatine than that of
a captive fox. We are, unfortunately, still very far from understand-
ing the connection of these various processes and their relation to mus-
cular contraction, that is, to the interchange of isotropic and uniso-
tropic substances in the muscular fibers, and to the transformation of
mechanical, thermic, and electric forces. We only know that there is
involved an increase and modification of a process of change that was
already going on during rest, particularly of the oxidation of nitrogen-
ous substances, by which, in addition to mechanical labor-service, an
apparent surplus of heat is developed. Even the muscles at rest are a
seat of respiration and the development of heat in animal bodies. The
muscle acts very much like the reserve-locomotive that stands ready
for use on the switch, which is all the time burning a little fuel and
can be attached to a train or sent to help a disabled engine at any
instant, but which requires, in connection with the greater display of
force it is to make, a greater consumption of material and expenditure

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 321

of heat. Ludwig and Sadler showed on this point that, aside from
mechanical hindrances, the blood flows freer and richer through the
vessels of the working muscle. This is not only in the sense that new
combustible matter is introduced, but also in that the ashes are at
the same time swept away from the muscle-hearth ; since, according
to the discovery of Herr Johann Ranke, followed out by Hermann
Roeber, the acids formed by muscular activity depreciate the mechan-
ical and electrical capacity of the muscle, exhaust it chemically as we
are accustomed to say, without being able to conceive any other than
a chemical exhaustion of the muscle. Still less than of the chemical
mechanism of muscular contraction, have we a conception of what
takes place chemically in the strengthening of the muscle by exercise,
of how it becomes better fitted for work through a higher degree of
oxidation, and of why it falls away on the cessation of the changes
that take place in it in activity. It seems most natural to think
that these effects depend alone upon the increase and diminution
of the flow of blood during activity and during rest ; yet this of
itself only makes the case darker than if we had not ventured to
decide the question in such a way. Chemistry throws the manifold
varieties of muscle-flesh which our taste distinguishes with so much
refinement generally into one pot ; and the old statement, established
in knowledge, that English park-deer tastes flat, is still far from being
explained.

A subjective explanation is finally to be mentioned. The tired
muscle, as long as it is becoming stronger through exercise, gives pain
for several days when it is used and when it is pressed upon. Even
a muscle which has been once or oftener hardened, or thoroughly
trained, gives pain when it is again put to work after a long idleness,
as we soon learn when we begin a journey on foot or on horseback.
Whoever, after a long interruption in gymnastic exercises, feels no
more pain, will make no further progress. The muscles hurt after
epileptic spasms. Even if we attempt to ascribe the feeling of the
muscles to the nerves of the tendons, joints, and skin, and the Vater-
Pacini bodies, we still should not imagine that they bring on the
pains in tetanus and trichinosis. Notwithstanding Sach's labors, we
are not yet in the light concerning the pathic nerves that bring about
these pains. Wherever and however they do it, they also produce
muscular aches after exertions.

The improvement of the muscles by exercise, little as we know of
it, has* been established from antiquity, and, being relatively more
familiar, the best case of improvement, is fitted to serve as an ex-
ample for similar processes in other tissues. Indeed, the question
now is, whether other tissues than the cross-striped muscles are by
frequent exercise of their office in the animal household made bet-
ter fitted for that office. After what has been said above, we can

x . . .

with some justification add to this question the many times more

vnr. ttt't 9,1

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

easily answered one, whether other tissues diminish in consequence
of a failure to exercise them in their office.

A physiological proof that the smooth muscles are strengthened by
exercise is wanting. The adaptation of the eye to near vision dimin-
ishes from childhood to age according to a regular law, notwithstand-
ing the constant exercise of the faculty ; but it does not follow from
this that Briicke's muscle does not gain strength, for its gain may be
more than compensated by the growing stiffness of the tissue and the
diminished elasticity of the crystalline lens. The fact that men see
imperfectly at close range what their occupation gives them little
occasion to regard, indicates that Briicke's muscle loses strength when
it is not used. The uterus has no occasion to be exercised, for it is
active only after long pauses, and gains a portion of new fibers every
time for that purpose. We know nothing of the movements of the
muscle-maw of the bird, which forms a transition to the cross-striped
muscles. On the other hand, such pathological facts as the hyper-
trophy of the muscles of the bladder and the pylorus under circum-
stances of extraordinary resistance leave no doubt that the smooth
muscles, like the cross-striped ones, are strengthened by labor. Thus
an empirical basis is given to Herr Rosenthal's supposition that the
immunity against cold conferred by cold-bathing depends upon the
exercise of the smooth muscles of the skin and their vessels, which
are intrusted with the lowering of the co-efficient of cooling of the
body in the cold. Cold washing and bathing are the gymnastics of
the smooth muscles.

The young blacksmith, of whom we spoke a short time ago, had
gained another advantage from exercise besides greater strength in
the muscles of his arm : he ceased to burn his fingers. Every one
knows that the epidermis thickens on those parts of the skin that are
frequently subjected to pressure, rubbing, and the touching of hot
things and caustic fluids. Handling of tools, rowing, vaulting on the
rack and bars, produce a callus chiefly at the ends of the middle-hand
bones or in the palms ; glass-blowing produces callus on the inside of
the fingers. Recurrent blisters often result in callus. Under the
pressure of hard shoes the form of skin-thickening known as corns
takes the place of callus. Callus and corns have been histologically
investigated, yet we can not tell why the useful callus is formed here,
the painful corn there, to say nothing of our having a theory of the
processes. They fall in the category of what Herr Virchow calls for-
mative stimulation of the cell-complex, and regards, like the nutritive
stimulation, as the result of a general and fundamental property of the
elementary organisms. An increased supply of matter, immediately
conditioned on an increased flow of blood, also takes place here. Since
we can not well predicate a vis a fronts, enlargement of the vessels re-
mains the only yet possible step toward an understanding, and with
this we reach a closed gate before which many other problems are

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 323

already encamped, in the question how inflammation and vascular
paralysis are distinguished. Our case is also distinguished by the fact
that the skin, protected by callus like the practiced muscles, now af-
fords better service under similar circumstances. The callus, m par-
ticular cases, represents an improvement in the grasping organ. For-
mative stimulation also occurs in the muscles ; the contents of the
primitive bundle are moved to nucleation through local stimulation,
yet . the advantageous stimulation by exercise seems to be almost en-
tirely, or chiefly, of a nutritive sort.

In like manner as the skin fortifies itself against the repeated touch
of hot bodies by means of local calluses, it adapts itself to the heat of
the sun through erythema and a change consequent upon it which is
accompanied with the development of pigment, although pigment
favors the absorption of the sunbeams. The fact is, perhaps, con-
nected with this, that it is advantageous to animals to have the side
that is turned toward the light of a dark color. Hence, as Moseley
observed on the Challenger, JEcheneis rernora has the belly dark, the
back light. Heat from artificial sources of a relatively lower temper-
ature, which is deficient in refrangible rays, has a remarkably differ-
ent effect from sunlight. Workers by the fire are pale. It is still to
be seen whether the electric light will take the place of the sunlight
in its effect on the skin as it does in the case of plants.

Horny structure becomes unfit for its purpose with insufficient
use. A remarkable example of this is the cessation of the growth of
the hoofs of horses and cattle on the soft turfs of the Falkland Islands,
mentioned by Darwin. On the other hand, the hoofs of horses harden
on dry, stony soils, as Xenophon teaches in his school for horsemen ;
and colts brought up on such soils need no protection.

The so-called rider's bones, the exercise-bones, which have not be-
come rarer since the introduction of the new armor and the modified
drill, but have moved from the left to the right, may be considered
as a kind of inner callus, the development of which affords a new ex-
emplification of the Osteo-blasten theory. These bones hardly bring
any advantage to their possessor, and can not be included among the
instances of self-improvement through exercise. It would be too far
fetched and groping in a too dark quarter for me to do more than
mention here that Ludwig Fick believes that the well-adapted form of
the joints may have been derived from exercises during the fetal pe-
riod and the earliest days of life. Is it not possible that the splendid
formation of the spongy bone-substance in the epiphyses, which was
discovered by Hermann Meyer, and further investigated by Julius
Wolff, depends on nutritive and formative stimulus in the direction of
the greatest pressure and strain ? The injurious effect of insufficient
use is shown in this region by the non-growth of the teeth of rodents
when they are fed on too soft food, or after the trigeminus has been
cut.

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The self -improvement of the series of connecting tissues by exer-
cise in other members, takes place in a more peculiar manner, rather
mechanical than chemical and physiological. The motions of the
joints are made easier by exercise ; and making stiff joints movable
is one of the most grateful objects of orthopedy. Herr Henke ex-
plains the unusual suppleness of the so-called India-rubber men as the
result of relaxation of the ligaments, a disappearance of edge-surfaces
of bone, and a diminished radius of curvature of the sliding surfaces,
but particularly of a prolongation of the flesh-fibers at the expense of
the tendons. Possibly an elastic tissue is formed in the ligaments of
their limbs. "Whether such a tissue grows in the vocal cords after ex-
ercise in vibrating them is still uncertain.

To make our statement complete, the increased ease in labor —
bought, it is true, at the cost of greater danger of secondary bleedings
— of those who have borne many times, belongs here. We may also
regard as a self -improvement, although belonging to another region,
the relaxing after-birth, and the accompanying reflex action of the
breast upon the uterus.

The glands are another class of tissues the efficiency of winch is
raised by exercise. The sexual glands — the milk- glands and testicles
— are known to be capable of remaining at rest for years and even
for life, while their tissues are subject to a considerable diminution, as
is also normally the case with animals during the intervals between
the periods of heat. Inversely the sexual glands attain a wonderful
degree of production by means of alternations of rest and activity, as
is exemplified by stallions, milch-cows, sheep, and goats. If the breast-
glands are not kept exercised by sucking, the udder by milking, they
dry up and sink to rest till they are newly excited in sympathetic
action with the uterus. The same can not be immediately proved of
the fluids of secretory glands, but it is hardly doubtful that a digestive
vessel that is kept active by two meals a day, with its glandular attach-
ments, will dispose of a larger quantity of the various digestive fluids
than that of a penitent. The kidneys of the practiced beer-drinker give
passage to an incredible quantity of fluid. Finally, one who reads in
the sketches of the manners of the last century of the continual weep-
ing of the sentimental men and women of the time, will hardly be
able to restrain the presumption that their tear-glands were brought
up to the work by practice. We are as ignorant concerning the mech-
anism of the self-improvement of the glands through exercise as con-
cerning the process of secretion in them. Since this process is different
in nearly every gland, according to what nerves are introduced — in
one the secreted matter increases ; in another becomes fatty ; in an-
other persists unchanged, but receives and gives out matter, or under-
goes changes in itself — the problem appears twice as intricate and the
information doubly scanty, so that at last we have to do again only
with an increased accession of matter and more frequent innervation.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 325

The idea of exercise as we have regarded it passes so gradually
over to hardening against frequently repeated injuries, that I am
tempted to place here also the adaptation of the organism to accustom
itself to endure poisons. Without going back as far as King Mithri-
dates, many men have by habit made themselves comparatively proof
against alcohol, nicotine, and the alkaloids of opium. The North-Ger-
mans are only too proof against Pettenkofer's man-poison (my an-
thropotoxine) in badly ventilated assembly-halls, railway-carriages,
etc., to which fire-place people, like the English, are so sensitive. This
inurement can hardly be called self -improvement.

You have, perhaps, gentlemen, been waiting in impatient expect-
ancy for me to speak on the subject you first thought of when you
heard that my address was to be on exercise. By exercise we under-
stand commonly the frequent repetition of a more or less complicated
action of the body with the co-operation of the mind, or of an action
of the mind alone, for the purpose of being able to perform it better.
Not without a purpose have I deferred the consideration of this kind
of exercise to this point, for it is quite different from the kinds pre-
viously spoken of, although those kinds may be connected with it.
This fundamental difference has not as yet been duly considered. We
seek in vain in most physiological text-books for instruction respect-
ing exercise ; if it is given, only the so-called bodily exercises are
generally considered, and they are represented as merely exercises of
the muscular system ; therefore it is not strange that laymen in medi-
cine, professors of gymnastics, and school-teachers generally believe
that. Yet it is easy to show the error of this view, and demonstrate
that such bodily exercises as gymnastics, fencing, swimming, riding,
dancing, and skating are much more exercises of the central nervous
system, of the brain and spinal marrow. It is true that those move-
ments involve a certain degree of muscular power ; but we can con-
ceive of a man with muscles like those of the Farnesian Hercules, who
would yet be incompetent to stand or walk, to say nothing of his ex-
ecuting more complicated movements. For that we have only to add
to our conception the power of arranging the motions suitably, and of
causing them to work harmoniously.

Thus it becomes clear, if proof were needed, that every action of our
body as a motive apparatus depends not less, but more, upon the proper
co-operation of the muscles than upon the force of their contraction.
In order to execute a composite motion, like a leap, the muscles must
begin to work in the proper order, and the energy of each one of them
(in Helmholtz's sense) must increase, halt, and diminish according to a
certain law, so that the result shall be the proper position of the limbs,
and the proper velocity of the center of gravity in the proper direc-
tion. We know little as yet of the way in which we impart a definite
duration to the energy of the muscles, for our researches have so far
informed us upon little else than the convulsions following extremely

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

brief excitations, and upon tetanus. Since the nerves only trans-
mit the impulses coming from the motor-ganglion cells, it is evident
that the peculiar mechanism of the composite movements resides in
the central nerve-system, and that, consequently, exercise in such move-
ments is really nothing else than exercise of the central nerve-system.
This possesses the invaluable property that the series of movements
(if we may speak thus), which take place in it frequently after a
definite law, are readily repeated in the same order, with the same
swell and ebb and intricacy, whenever a singly felt impulse of the will
demands it. Thus, all the bodily exercises we have mentioned above
are not mere muscle-gymnastics, but also, and that pre-eminently,
nerve-gymnastics, if for brevity we may apply the term nerves to the
whole nervous system. Johann Miiller, whose explanations, in the
second volume of his " Hand-book of Physiology," still appear to me
the best that have been written on the theory of movement, has recog-
nized this double nature of bodily exercises, but has not sufficiently in-
sisted upon it. On this, he makes a remark which strikingly enforces
our view; that is, that improvement in exercises of the body often con-
sists nearly as much in the suppression of unessential by-motions as in
acquiring dexterity in necessary motions. Observe the active boy who
for the first time raises himself upon a ladder with his hands. Al-
though it is of no use to him, his arms and his legs shake at every
grasp. After a few weeks he holds the hips, knee and foot joints of
his closely locked legs tautly extended. The suppression of by-motions
furnishes unconsciously to us a mark of the pleasing appearance of the
well-drilled soldier, of the skilled gymnast, and of the cultivated man ;
chorea begins when they are let loose. We know nothing of the
mechanism of the suppression of by-motions, yet it is evident that,
when muscles remain at rest in the course of exercise, the result of the
exercise is not to strengthen them.

Under continuous severe exertions, as in mountain-climbing and
long walks, the heart begins to beat faster and more strongly, and op-
pression of the breath is felt, because, according to Johann Miiller,
the heart participates in a by-motion ; in Traube's opinion, because
it is stimulated by the excess of carbonic acid formed in the laboring
muscles. How is it, then, that exercise diminishes these palpitations ?
Is it by means of the vagus nerve ?

Perspiration under exertion may also be regarded as a by-secre-
tion as well as the greater secretion of saliva in speaking and chewing ;
and the diminished perspiration of our blacksmith when taught would
then be the suppression of this by-secretion, which might be compared
to a by-movement, through exercise. The beating of the -heart and
perspiration are, however, involuntary, and it is very questionable
whether we can refer the stopping of them by means of exercise to
such processes.

Still, something else than the control of the muscles by the motor-

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 327

nervous system comes into consideration in most composite movements.
The sight, the sense of pressure, and the muscular sense, and finally
the mind, must be prepared to take in the position of the body at each
instant, so that the muscles may be in a proper state of adjustment ;
this is plainly shown in the exercises of fencing, playing billiards,
rope-dancing, vaulting on horses in motion, or leaping down a mountain-
slope. Thus not only the motor, but the sensor nervous system also,
and the mental functions, are capable of being exercised and need it ;
and the muscles again appear to acquire a deeper importance in gym-
nastics. What is said here of the coarser bodily movements applies
equally to all skilled work, of the highest as well as of the lowest
kind. Although a Liszt, or a Rubinstein, without an iron muscularity
of arm, can not be thought of, and although, likewise, the movements
of Joachim's bow during a symphony may correspond to many kilo-
grammemetres, still their power as virtuosos resides in their central
nerve-system. The readiness of the turner, the machinist, the watch-
maker ; of the glass- blower and glass-polisher ; the skill of the anat-
omist and surgeon ; writing and drawing ; womanly labors like sewing
and knitting, crocheting and lace-making ; finally, the hardly consid-
ered yet more or less artful performances of daily life, dressing and
undressing, the use of the sponge, comb and brush, knife and fork —
what are they all at last but acquired concatenations of the actions of
ganglion cells which, after they have often run on in an appointed
course, now succeed each other in the same manner with qualified facil-
ity, catching into each other, pausing and resuming again, like the voices
in an artfully composed concert ? When Lessing asked whether Ra-
phael would have been any the less a great painter if he had been born
without hands, he perceived this truth. Is it necessary to add that
the same principle applies to all the movements as well as to those of
the hands ; that, for example, vocal culture rests upon no other one ?
Singers need not only flexible vocal cords, strong respiratory and
laryngeal muscles, ringing resonance of the air-passages — all these
would in themselves alone be of no more use to them than a Stradi-
varius violin to a wood-cutter — their talent has its root in the gray sub-
stance at the base of the fourth ventricle. Here also is concealed, but
awaiting a higher command, exercising its functions through the
hinder third of the left third convolution, the machinery of the speech
mechanism, as bulbar paralysis sadly teaches.

It is very remarkable in all these processes that the more any com-
posite movement is practiced, the more unconscious is the act of the
nervous system directing it, until at last the latter can not be distin-
guished from spontaneous nervous mechanisms like the involuntary re-
flex and by-movements. Erasmus Darwin remarked that, when any
one learns to turn, each movement of the hands seems at first to be
directed by the will, but that at last the action of the hands becomes
so at one with the effect that the turner's will seems to reside in the

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cutting of his knife — that is, that he unconsciously puts it in the right
position.

Practice further exhibits its influence upon the nervous system on
its purely sensory side, abstracted from all movement. It sharpens
and corrects the musical ear, and teaches it to perceive over-tones, in-
exact intervals, and slight dissonances. The local sense and the color
sense of the eye are improved by practice. It teaches the wonderful
arts of quick reading, of taking in fleeting phenomena like the vibra-
tions of the magnetic needle, of bringing the sight of the gun to bear
on the black of the target. It teaches to distinguish copies and all
kinds of subjective appearances, to comprehend at a glance micro-
scopic pictures that pass before the beginner in superficial confusion,
in such a way that it is very hard to draw the line between exercise of
the sense and that exercise of the judgment over the impressions of
sense that is called visits eruditus. As exercise induces the discontinu-
ance of unused muscles, it also teaches us to neglect unused images,
such as the double images of the points of the picture outside of the
horopter ; or, in looking through an optical instrument, the impres-
sions made upon the unengaged eye. Yet no practice appears to break
through the law according to which the points of the retina in indi-
rect vision receive attention only transiently and with a certain effect.
Although it is hardened against bad smells, the nose of the chemist is
the rival of spectrum analysis in delicacy. It would be unjust to say
that the wine-connoisseurs of Bordeaux can discriminate concerning
the place of the growth of a vintage, while only its age is in question
with them. Not less susceptible of cultivation are the perceptions of
temperature, pressure, and locality. The last, especially, measured
according to the least distance at which two bodies, nearly in contact,
still separate, may be distinguished, become sharpened by practice in
the course of a few days — giving one of the arguments which oppose
a purely anatomical definition of the range of feeling.

As exercise refines the senses, neglect stupefies them, and that not

merely in consequence of the apathy of the organ. After destroying

the eyes and ears of new-born puppies, Herr Hermann Munk observed

that what he had recognized as the visory and auditory spheres of the

brain borders were backward in development. According to Hugue-

nin, blindness of many years' duration results in waste of the visory

spheres.

<»»

A CUEIOUS BURMESE TRIBE.

By Lieutenant G. KEEITLEE,

OF COUNT SZECIIENYl's CENTRAL ASIAN EXPEDITION.

IN our journey from Sayang in Yunnan to Bhamo in Burmah, we
became acquainted with a race of mountaineers who are called
Kacheen by the Burmese, but who call themselves Chingpos. They

A CURIOUS BURMESE TRIBE. 329

are a small, delicate people, whose brightly-beaming eyes contrast
strongly with their reserved behavior. The faces of the men as well
as of the women can not be called unhandsome. The head is oval and
well-shaped, the eyes are horizontal, the nose is strong and straight,
the ruddy lips are finely cut, and the teeth are blackened with betel-
juice.

All the hard work among the Kacheen is done by the women and
girls, who are up in the morning at their household duties while the
men are still in bed.

The woman does not venture to raise her eyes when she speaks
with her husband or her employer. She has no concern about the
business or enterprises that he is engaged in, but considers everything
good and unquestionable that he orders ; and the subjection of the
women goes to the extent that the death of one is lamented as a
pecuniary loss, because the laboring force is diminished by it ; and a
family that has several daughters is for that reason considered rich.
The women are all the time at work, cutting down trees, splitting
wood and bringing it to the house, cutting roads through the thickets,
driving the cattle to pasture, cleaning the house, getting the meals,
and weaving cloth. The men perform no manual labor, or, at most,
will once in a while go out into the field and show the women in a
rough way how the tillage ought to be done. Their principal busi-
ness is to visit their neighbors, to drink sheru (a sweet drink made
from rice), and smoke opium. Only in case of pressing need will
they take their mules and their women and go to Bhamo and get loads
of goods to take to China. Marriages among the lower classes are
mere business affairs, in which the dowry and physical strength of the
bride are the first considerations. Among the higher classes weddings
are regarded as important events, and are distinguished by particular
usages and ceremonies.

When a death occurs, the relatives make the sad event known to
their neighbors by firing guns. When the friends are gathered to-
gether, a part of the number go into the woods to prepare the coffin,
while the others sacrifice to the household gods. The coffin is hewed
out, after sacrificing a hen, at the place where the tree is cut, and the
part where the head is to lie is blackened with coal. The corpse is
washed, dressed in new clothes and laid in the coffin, with a piece of
silver in its mouth to pay its ferriage over the river. The old clothes
of the deceased are laid, with a dish of rice, upon the grave, and rice
is scattered along the road on the way home. The mourners after-
ward assemble and celebrate the event with singing, dancing, and
drinking, as long as the sheru lasts.

Persons who die by the sword are wrapped in a straw mat and
buried as soon as possible, and the friends build a hut for the wander-
ing spirit of the slain. A similar custom prevails with regard to those
who die of small-pox, and to women who die in childbirth. In the

33o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

latter case, the Kaclieen believe that the dead are changed into evil
spirits, and for that reason young women have an indescribable horror
of such a death.

It is evident from these facts that the religion of the Kacheen has
nothing in common with Buddhism. Their religion includes the belief
in a Supreme Being who has created everything, in a heaven and a
hell, and a future state of rewards and punishments ; but the views of
individuals do not give the slightest clew to a clear definition of their
faith. The mountaineers, however, all agree in a caltus, which con-
sists in giving honors to the so-called Nats, or tutelary genii. They
also believe that the spirits of murdered persons, under the name of
Munda, make the mountains unsafe, and that they take possession of
those persons over whom a similar fate is pending. The Kacheen have
an unwritten language, and a very primitive method of computing
time. Their year begins on the day when they begin to eat the newly
harvested rice, and ends on the day that a dish of fresh rice is again
gathered.

Slavery has existed among them from a considerable antiquity.
Boys and girls are stolen in Assam and sold to wealthy Kacheenese.
A young slave is worth about twenty dollars, a full-grown man only
about ten dollars. The lot of the slaves is not very hard, and their
children are regarded as more or less members of the family.

The food of the people consists of rice, beans, pork, and dried fish
imported from Burmah. The men eat separately from the women.

Their towns are composed of from three to ten houses, each of which
is surrounded by a stone-wall about six feet high. We were always
required to dismount before passing the wall, for the mountaineers have
religious scruples against allowing persons to ride on horseback into
their courts. The houses are light bamboo structures, without iron or
stone work. A north-and-south passage leads into the interior, which
strangers are allowed to enter only from the south. First we passed a
stable, whose fence was adorned with the horned skulls of buffaloes, and
the marshy floor of which yielded at every step. A few steps led to
the dwelling-house proper, which appeared to be divided into a western
and an eastern half. The western part consisted of a series of closed
rooms, the eastern half of three apartments open toward the long pas-
sage, in the middle and largest of which was built the hearth, where
a fire was "constantly kept up.

The head of the house and his family live in the inclosed rooms, the
domestics and slaves in the opposite rooms. The floors are of plank,
and kept clean, and the ceiling is identical with the smoke-blackened
roof. The whole house is built on piles. The few other domestic
buildings are grouped around the inclosure-walls, and are commonly
situated on the edge of the thick and gloomy forest.

The Kacheen call all their chiefs, who rule each over a small terri-
tory, Tsobwa. The Tsobwa receives yearly from his subjects as tithes

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 331

a large basket of rice and a quarter of the meat whenever a do-
mestic animal is slaughtered ; and he exacts a small toll from every
caravan that passes through his domain. His office is hereditary, as
is also that of his prime minister, who is called Pomein. The chief
himself administers justice; but in important cases he calls a council,
which meets either around the fire in the house or in the open air.
These chiefs seem to be quite independent, and only indirectly under
the influence of the Chinese Government. The relations between the
Kacheen and the Burmese are of constant hostility, frequently break-
ing out in murderous outrages. The country of this people is a broad
strip of land extending from the Snowy Mountains of the north, be-
tween the valleys of the Tapeng and the Irrawaddy, to about the
twenty-fourth parallel of latitude.

-♦•♦♦-

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY.

By GEORGE ILES.

THE problems of property form an interesting department of social
science. They involve questions as to the growth and distribu-
tion of wealth, the province of government with respect thereto, and
similar inquiries scarcely susceptible of treatment by formal scientific
methods. Still, the subject is one of sufficient importance to warrant
a brief sketch of it appearing in the magazine which was the first to
give the American public a scientific exposition of the principles of
sociology.

The institution of property is, in many quarters of the world, find-
ing active criticism. German and French socialism, Russian nihilism,
the Irish Land League, and weighty utterances by the leaders of thought
in Europe and America, all declare that the institution of property re-
quires reconsideration and reform. It is very commonplace, indeed, to
say that respect for the rights of property insures the chief stimulus to
industry, intelligence, and thrift ; yet, in the complexity of modern
life, the distribution of wealth has become so unequal that discussion of
how justice may be feasibly and safely introduced into the laws and
customs affecting property is of urgent importance. The natural dif-
ferences among men in the way of aptitude and ability are always
wide enough to cause a variety in human fortunes sufficiently trying
to the less capable classes of mankind, were there at work no other
cause for disparity in worldly success. When, however, in addition
to having to accept the smaller reward in the smaller sphere, the man
of but moderate or little ability has to suffer the restrictions which
come from the artificial enactments of law and society, discontent
easily takes root in his heart and flourishes.

332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The spur to the accumulation of wealth is undoubtedly sharpened
by the power of bequeathing one's possessions to one's family and
friends ; yet it is this power of bequest, gradually increased through
the centuries to its present breadth, which furnishes the most difficult
part of the problem of property. Re-enforced in Great Britain by the
laws of entail and primogeniture, it has led to the concentration in the
hands of a few of a large proportion of the entire wealth of the coun-
try. The heirs of unearned lands, houses, and funds are without the
healthy natural spur to useful work which universal experience declares
necessity to furnish ; and subtile moral poison is distributed through
society when, as in Great Britain, long trains of bequest bestow the
choicest estates and social positions in the realm upon a few individ-
uals through the mere accident of birth. When merit and the means
of enjoyment are so often unrelated, as we see them in Great Britain,
there is valid ground for complaint and a plain source of envy on the part
of the millions apportioned to toil, while some have unearned luxury
and ease. Is it right that, because a man, centuries ago, was successful
in battle or a favorite of his king, or generations ago was engaged in
lucrative trade and thus gathered possessions together, his posterity
should be maintained for indefinite time by the working world ? And
is it right that his descendants should reap richer and richer rewards,
as years roll by, from the increase in value conferred ujDon their estates
as the surrounding population grows more numerous and advances in
intelligence and industry ? Why should books and inventions, which
are peculiarly the creations of a man, be so imperfectly protected, and
only confer rights terminable in a few years, when rights in ordinary
property are so nearly absolute ? Such are the questions which are
being put to the political economists and legislators of to-day, and their
just and peaceful solution will demand a wisdom and forbearance
which we may be disappointed in expecting.

The most patent evils with which the institution of property is
commonly charged are those connected with land, and here it is that
the agitation for property reform has usually begun. The researches
of Sir Henry Maine and M. Laveleye show that the primitive cul-
tivation of land was communal. Such still is the Russian mir and
Swiss Allmend. Under communal systems every child born upon
the land was guaranteed subsistence, and wide disparity in fortune be-
tween individual and individual was scarcely possible, so that pauper-
ism was unknown. How the communal systems gave birth to our
existing methods of individual possession M. Laveleye tells in an in-
teresting way in his work on "Primitive Property." The practical
fact which concerns us is that, among civilized nations individual prop-
erty is established and is held to need reform. The change from com-
munal and clan ownership of land to the tenure of recent times has
been attended by a gradual divorce of the responsibility which for-
merly attached to land-owning ; if the responsibility now exists at all,

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 333

it does so as a moral feeling which may be neglected with no legal
- penalty and often no social odium. The Duchess of Sutherland could
banish the occupants from the estates which their ancestors had tilled
for centuries, and convert the land into pastures, yet legal resource
there was none. A sybarite Marquis of Hertford could live in Paris
for thirty years together, with an income of ninety thousand pounds,
and dismiss without a reply a deputation of his Irish tenants petition-
ing for assistance in building a much-needed railway. Could the orig-
inal founders of the two families thus unworthily rejDresented have
treated their retainers and tenantry thus haughtily and unjustly, and
not suffer for it ? I think not. The rules of property, devised with
a limited glance into future time, and with no expectation of the vast
strides in population and wealth wThich the world has made during the
past century, have had very awkward strains put upon them — strains
which they were not originally expected or intended to bear. The rise
of manufacturing towns and the drift of the rural population to the
cities have conferred upon land-owners an immense multiplication of
their fortunes, and made the incomes of many of them aggregate
sums far beyond the legitimate demand of mortal, and this to the
plain deprivation of the public.

Mark, too, the influence of the landlord in legislation. Note the
privilege which attends his claims even in America.

In Great Britain in 1G92 the tax on land was one fifth of its annual
value, now it is about one fifth of that fraction. Landlords have thus
grossly evaded their fair share of taxation. And note what horrid
suffering and violences, often unpardonable, have been necessary to give
Ireland such measure of land-reform as she enjoys to-day. The agita-
tion against primogeniture and entail grows constantly in force in Great
Britain, and the reform begun in Ireland and hastened there by differ-
ences in race and religion between landlords and tenants must of its
justice spread to the sister island in time.

The complaint against property has, I think, been unduly directed
against land, perhaps because land used to be the chief form of wealth.
Real estate may present the most evident cases of abused privilege,
but the main social difficulty, it appears to me, is the undue accumu-
lation of wealth of any kind. The land of the world is certainly lim-
ited in quantity, but so are other forms of wealth : houses, mills, ma-
chinery, railways, and merchandise — all these, though vast in amount,
are something short of infinite ; and while land, as in America, is freely
exchangeable for these other things, no special harm attaches to undue
possession of it. And if it be said that these other things differ from
land in that they can be indefinitely increased in amount, such an in-
crease may be fairly compared with the settlement of barren territory
in old countries, or of virgin soil in new. The forms of wealth other
than land, while practically quite as limited in quantity, are quite as
necessary to human life, so that, in their arguments against excessive

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

holding of land, political economists have perhaps paved the way for
a more radical discussion of the rights of property than they ever an-
ticipated.

~No landlords have ever been more oppressive to a community, or
levied more odious exactions, than the merchants and speculators who
in the United States corner coal or pork, or the manufacturers who,
secure in a close, protected market, combine to extort from consumers
an exorbitant price for oil and chemicals. Canadian cotton-mills, which
before the rise in the tariff, effected in 1878, were paying about eight per
cent in dividends annually, since then have earned double and treble
such profits at the public expense. The broad question of property,
not the narrow one of land, is up for discussion, and it can not be dis-
missed with inadequate treatment. At the dawn of the present manu-
facturing era, in the days of Watt and Arkwright, about a century
ago, there was a hope widely prevalent that the conquered forces of
nature, acting through the ingenious machinery and processes so rap-
idly brought forth at that time, would greatly improve the lot of the
poor. That hope, so creditable to the hearts of the men who enter-
tained it, remains unfulfilled. The poor, it may be admitted, have
been improved in condition, but have they proportionately shared in
the enormous aggregate increase of national wealth ? The development
of the past century's manufacturing and trading industry in the exist-
ing moral and social circumstances has been attended by the constantly
growing contrast between colossal fortunes on the one hand and the
earning of a mere livelihood on the other. The masses toil as hard as
ever, for all the steam-engines, the railways, and complicated machinery
applied to every form of industry. The chief result, and certainly an
unsatisfactory one, is that the luxury of a few increases. Within re-
cent years palace-building has begun in America, and sums have been
lavished upon the homes of railroad and mining kings to an extent
equal to the making cheerful and wholesome whole quarters of cities
occupied by the squalid tenements of toilers. With industry highly
specialized, and becoming more and more so year by year ; with the
web of a credit competition continually increasing in complexity and
liability, leading to panics more severe with every recurrence, there is
manifest danger to property — danger, because these stresses of busi-
ness entail suffering beyond description among the working-classes,
and, under some sharp distress, they may make a savage and ill-con-
sidered attack on capital. Let Pittsburg and Baltimore justify the
assertion.

Popular discontent has in all ages been a dangerous thing, but how
much more so than ever now, when a numerical majority — that is, the
poor — control legislation, elect the executive, and levy taxes ! In the
last analysis the rights of property depend upon the popular will, and
the people can readily modify existing rights in what they may take
to be the general good. Fourier and Saint-Simon did not speak to

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 335

a nation enjoying universal suffrage, nor were Utopias ever before
'preached to men who might practically attempt their establishment.
The wide diffusion of popular knowledge through the schools, the
press, and the platform, in these latter days, has made the discussion
of such questions as that before us very general and very earnest.
Workingmen's newspapers of wide circulation debate the pros and
cons of the land and other problems fearlessly and with much good
sense. The extension of the suffrage and the progress of political re-
form have taken such subjects out of the small circle where only
speculative thinkers used to discuss them, and brought them home to
the great masses of the working population, into whose hands the
reins of legislation must more and more directly come. Trades-unions
have made workmen sensible of the power of union and organization,
and the benefits they have derived from their combinations have led to
a wide-spread capacity for acting in concert scarcely known among
them until this generation.

While in England and on the Continent of Europe property is much
more unequally held than in America, it is evident that there are forces
at work in the New World which are creating problems similar to
those in the Old. Competent observers declare that wealth is passing
more and more into the hands of the wealthy, the manners of the
wealthy class are improving — they are gradually becoming an aristoc-
racy in all but name ; and, as the societies of the older cities become
more and more cultivated, I think we may see a large proportion of
wealthy families retaining their possessions for generations as they do
abroad. It used to be thought that the sons or grandsons of rich
Americans could be relied upon to give back to the community their
inherited wealth through demoralization and incompetence ; but that
reliance is proved baseless in a noteworthy proportion of cases in New
York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Fifty years ago the wealthiest man
in America had a fortune of ten millions, let us say ; now, the wealth-
iest citizen of the United States has a fortune estimated at from' ten
to fifteen times as much ; and the proportionate increase in the extent
of fortunes of the second and third magnitude has been similar. Has
the wealth of the average citizen increased in anything like this de-
gree ? And such democratic social intercourse as we possess has its
dangers — the intermingling in society in this country of people com-
paratively poor with those comparatively rich implants in those of
restricted incomes a desire to live expensively, which would less often
be the Case were class lines as distinctly drawn here as they are across
the Atlantic.

Into the question of the social advantages to a community of a very
wealthy and leisured class I do not enter, but in passing would note
that perhaps the worthiness and manliness, as a rule, of the British
aristocracy have done very much toward their privileges being re-
spected in these times of radicalism. And contrariwise, the sharpest

336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

disgust against property has been expressed in the democratic far
West, where refinement unpossessed of wealth jostles with the coarse
ostentation of the bonanza kings.

The conquest of the weak by the strong, which must date from the
very dawn of trade as from the first morning of life, has . been more
remarkable than ever within the last generation or two. The new
methods of rapid or instantaneous communication bring vast commer-
cial fields under the scrutiny of the keenest business intellects, and the
local knowledge of the small trader is overborne in competition by the
capital, adroitness, or unscrupulousness of his metropolitan adversary.
Modern business economy favors vast organizations which absorb fee-
ble competitors, and convert men who were independent principals into
the servants of a master-will, whether controlling an individual firm
or a corporation.

The danger to the public interest in the growth of great monopo-
lizing companies is proved in the case of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, which had nominally a capital of eighty million dollars a
year ago, upon which it had to pay dividends. Nearly fifty-five of the
eighty millions was, however, fictitious stock — water, in the language of
Wall Street (see " North American Review," March, 1881). In the
" Atlantic Monthly " for March, 1881, it is stated that the Standard Oil
Company refines nineteen twentieths of the coal-oil of the United
States, and robs the public of eight and three quarter cents per gallon
by its monopolizing control. And what makes the abuses of property
so difficult of legislative reform is that monopolists in their schemes
avail themselves of business rules which, in their ordinary working,
are legitimate, and can not be safely interfered with. If a Legislature
enacts that a company shall not divide more than ten per cent annu-
ally as profit, that company is sold out to another, and both of them
can pay dividends up to ten per cent. Competition is abolished by
exercise of the right of purchase and sale, whereby competing railway,
steamboat, or telegraph lines may be controlled by a single capitalist
or syndicate ; the operation being aided by banking facilities whereby
stocks can be pledged as collateral security for loans equal to eighty
or ninety per cent of their market value. The presidents and di-
rectors of great companies who organize such operations, and who
have at all times special and early information of the influences likely
to affect the value of their stocks, either directly or through agents,
and the margin system, frequently add large sums to their fortunes at
the expense of ignorant shareholders. The ordinary operator in Wall
Street loses simply because he plays against men whose dice are loaded.
The tendency to corporate and wholesale management so plain in the
vast enterprises of the country is manifest in the less noticeable. In
the Western States the factory-system has invaded the corn-fields :
grand culture, as it is called, has come into vogue ; large capital, elab-
orate steam-machinery, and regiments of laborers, are cultivating the

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 337

soil, and not scores of independent families with their personal inter-
ests and all the healthy influences of an independent, self-reliant
struggle. In manufacturing and trading, as well as in farming, the
strong large companies and houses are absorbing the weaker, and the
fortunate ones who head the movement tend to become proportionately
fewer as the process goes on. Every child now born into the world's
theatre finds most of the best seats taken, and a good many of the
second best. In all this I think there is danger, for which it is be-
coming necessary that preventives were thoughtfully sought.

Without deliberately facing the problem of have and icant, there
has been for ages a lurking, unconscious impression abroad that the
differences in human fortunes are apt to injuriously widen — that the
very poor have a moral claim upon the rich ; that somehow, if human
affairs were once to be placed on a basis of right, there would be none
very poor, and so roundabout justice has for long been calling itself
charity. The English poor-laws, dating from Elizabeth, which guar-
antee the natives of a parish support by the parish, is the most note-
worthy example of this. Perhaps the next most striking example is
our modern state education, which goes beyond the enforcing on a
parent of bis child's education — as it enforces its provision of food,
clothes, and shelter — and, as it seems that these latter expenses are all
the parent can usually bear, the child of the poor man is sent to school
chiefly at the charge of the rich and well-to-do. The attempt at rec-
tifying, however crudely, somewhat of the current social injustice,
reconciles many to the measure who would otherwise oppose it on
the high grounds of liberty and the inviolable responsibility which
should remain with a parent — for why should bread not be given to
the children by the state as well as books ?

Besides public-school education, there have been many commend-
able attempts within recent years at reducing the glaring inequalities
of fortune so common and so undesirable. Public parks, libraries,
museums, picture-galleries, and hospitals have been established with
public funds for the popular good ; and wealthy men have given large
gifts to them, recognizing the responsibility of riches and doing some-
thing for the toilers who have brought their accumulations together.
Yet if we are to expect more of justice in the institution of property
as time goes on, we may expect to see the circle of charity recede as
opportunities for its exercise diminish.

Having briefly and very imperfectly stated some of the evils which
attend {he present methods of distributing and accumulating property,
let us proceed to glance at the principal remedies suggested for their
correction. The formal proposals for the righting of the wrongs of
property have begun usually with land. In Great Britain not only re-
formers and philosophers, but parliamentary commissioners have again
and again pronounced against the laws and customs of primogeniture
and entail. These laws and customs are held to lead to unduly large

VOL. XXI. — 22

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

estates — estates so vast as to be unwieldy in management, interposing
factors and stewards too often between landlord and tenant ; these
vast estates yield incomes culpably great and so enormous that their
recipients are often indifferent to improvements in farming in com-
parison with proprietors of small farms, and much land is wasted by
being held for mere sport. When the holder of an entailed estate
quarrels with his heir, the land suffers, that the personal property
which may be freely bequeathed may be increased. Such quarrels, if
we are to follow the experience of common life, are usually due in part
to qualities in the heir which would make him less worthy of the
estate than some relative or kinsman to whom the holder might be-
queath it were he free to use his judgment.

Mr. Kinnear, who has written a most sensible book on the subject
of property in land, argues convincingly that the diffusion of property
rather than its aggregation is desirable, holding that nationally prop-
erty will be found to be accumulated more rapidly in the former case
than in the latter, while at the same time comfort and content will be
more common. He speaks from wide experience in Great Britain,
France, and the Channel Islands. Mr. Kinnear suggests that there be
limits placed to the amount bequeath able to an individual, so that very
large estates may become divided. In common with the majority of
competent observers, he prefers the French tenure of small parcels of
land to the British tenure of great estates, but he regards the French
compulsory division of the bulk of a property at a father's death
among his children as wrong : were the father free to will to whom
he pleased, the moral effect would be beneficial.

Children grow disobedient and unfilial when they know they can
not be set aside. And speaking of wills, the custom of making what
should be naturally one of the saddest events in life the occasion of
coming into a father's estate is severely commented upon by the sup-
porters of Russian and other communal systems of tenure. In the
Russian mir, when a young man becomes of age, he enters into the
enjoyment of a share in the common estate, and the effects of this
difference are said to be observable in the stronger family feelings
which the Russian peasantry cherish in comparison with their West-
ern brethren.

The sad experience of King Lear and the painful presence of the
gaping heir are both avoided by those sensible men of wealth who are
their own executors to as great an extent as may consist with the
reserve of a personal competence.

The individual holding of land as in France, Germany, England,
and America, has been opposed by a great many thinkers and popular
leaders. The chief objection lodged against it has been that land,
being as absolutely necessary to human subsistence as air and water, it
should be as free from monopoly as these ; for as the accumulations of a
single holder go on there is risk of his being able to drive people forth

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 339

where monopolists like himself do not exist, or, in conjunction with
other such monopolists, order people off the face of the earth !

The second objection made to the present nearly absolute holding
of real estate is that, particularly in America, and in Great Britain
during the past century, the growth of population, the advance of
manufacturing towns, and general progress in trade and commerce, have
had the effect of enormously enhancing the value of land, increasing
rents, without owners having given the community any equivalent
whatever. Now, this unearned increment, as it is called, has bestowed
upon some British noblemen and American land-owners many millions
of value conferred by the mass of the people. This evident injustice
is especially pressing in America, where there can be no doubt that, if
the tenure of land remains as it is, the value of land apart from the im-
provements which labor may effect upon it, will be multiplied greatly
within a century. Various remedies have been proposed to correct
the evil.

The nationalization of land as suggested by Mr. Herbert Spencer
has special reference to the United Kingdom. He would have the Gov-
ernment buy all the land from its owners at current market rates, and
let it on competition. Mr. Fawcett, in his criticism of this suggestion,
estimates the value of British lands and houses, apart from mines and
railways, at £4,500,000,000. This enormous sum exceeds by six times
the British national debt, and the raising of so large a sum as a loan
in purchase would probably enhance the rate of interest one per cent
beyond its present rate, and beyond the present rate of return received
as rent. An annual deficit of £50,000,000 is calculated as the probable
result of carrying out the proposal. Besides the special value attach-
ing to individual possession, a value forming part of the current prices
of land would be abolished when nationalization took place, and purely
economic rents, minus the expense of an objectionable government
control, would form the revenue to be credited against the interest on
the purchase-money.

One of the leading pleas for nationalization of the land is the dep-
rivation suffered by those who own none; but could not complaint
be directed with .equal propriety against lessors by all other citizens
who would have to accept subleases ? The sole benefit that could be
hoped for from this scheme of nationalization would be the absorption
in coming time of the appreciation in value due to increased density
of population and other causes. This appreciation, if it takes place at
all in the generations of the near future, is not likely to be other than
moderate in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Henry George, of San Francisco, in his striking book, "Progress
and Poverty," advocates much more heroic treatment of the evil of
unearned increment. The constantly increasing tax of landlords, as
tenants multiply an<J advance in industry, he regards as the main rea-
son why a wedge seems to be dividing more and more widely the rich

34o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and poor. In his distant State he has seen land taken up by specu-
lators and held untilled for years, that it might advance in value by
immigration — settlers by such action being far too widely scattered
for their private good or the general welfare of the State. Taking the
ground of natural right, and following Quesnay and others, Mr. George
declares that except in the improvements due to labor no man can have
a valid title to any part of the earth's surface. He therefore proposes
a tax on real estate which shall be equal to its rental as unimproved
land. In defense of this virtual confiscation in its results, he declares
his opinion to be that his tax would render any other unnecessary, so
that, in exemption from duties and other government levies, property-
holders would receive a considerable palliative for the loss caused them
by his discovery of the invalidity of their titles. The owners of town
and city lots whereon buildings exist, and owners of improved farms,
would retain the whole value of buildings and improvements, so as to
be left with a large proportion of their former wealth. Objections
bristle on all sides against Mr. George's proposal. First, he takes no
note of the pretty general diffusion of real estate among the American
people, property which all except a few of the whole population regard
as real and substantial in a special sense. The confiscation of land, in
past years freely exchangeable for other property and not generally
held to-day by the enjoyers of very much unearned increment, would
be resented by the common sense of the people ; and the conscience
of the needy classes, once weakened as to the validity of the tenure of
one kind of property, might, under pressure of want in a commercial
panic, indiscriminately attack all.

Most of us feel that the millionaires have too much even for their
own good, yet any confiscation which might begin by depleting ple-
thoric purses might end by larceny from very slender ones ; and a
movement ostensibly begun on grounds of public justice might, by
additions of envy and the spirit of common theft, degenerate into
wholesale pillage. Besides, how could a government like that of the
United States be trusted with so vast and difficult a business as assess-
ing all the land within its borders at its value — that is, at its market
price, minus improvements ? But the injustice of unearned increment
in land remains with us still, and makes us wish that in America, on
original settlement, the leasing for. long terms had been established
instead of absolute sale or gift by the Government ; and also directs
attention to the advisability of taxing the increase of value in land due
to advancing population, say to the extent of one half such increase,
in cases of depreciation just rebate being made. Some perception of
the evils which Mr. George has beheld and would endeavor to correct,
led a few years ago to the forming in Melbourne, Australia, of a land-
reform society, which intended to urge on the Government the plan
of leasing its lands instead of selling them to men who were reproduc-
ing in the colony some of the worst features of the English land-

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 341

tenure. In Java the Dutch Government leases plantations to a vast
extent, and the plan works well there.

In Germany, the agitation against the existing laws and privileges
of property has taken the form of socialism ; the schemes of thinkers
and closet-students have been popularized by press and platform until
now the Socialistic party sends a large representation to the Reichstag,
pressing measures upon the Government which a generation ago would
have been deemed revolutionary. Much heated discussion has recently
taken place in the national Legislature on the proposal that the Gov-
ernment should undertake the manufacture of tobacco ; and if the state
should manufacture tobacco acceptably and economically, why not
cotton and wool ? The beaucracy and strong paternal Government of
Germany perform so many functions left in England and the United
States to private enterprise, that the people in times of business de-
pression look to the Administration for measures of relief instead of
to their own efforts.

It seems to me that socialism is an evidence of the constantly rising
dislike among the masses to the main advantages of competition and
new business economies being enjoyed by the small class of capitalists.
How far state control may allowably be invoked as a remedy in fields
wherein individual exertions have been employed is a question warmly
debated. One school of thinkers, led by Spencer and Bastiat, hold to
laissez /aire, and wish the operations of government confined to the
narrowest limits — the maintenance of order and the enforcing of con-
tracts— leaving individuals the utmost scope to think, express them-
selves, and act ; the opposite school, among whom as an able exponent
may be named Mr. Cairnes, hold that individuals, while following what
they believe to be their interests, may not conceive their interests truly
or in relations harmonizing with the general good, and that therefore
some general control by the community of the actions of its several
classes and members is most desirable for the correction of such prac-
tices and pursuits as are inimical to the whole body of the people,
though pleasant or profitable to a few. This is said by Mr. Cairnes
and others, not in advocacy of the general state direction of industry,
but only in qualification of the sweeping theory that individuals, each
doing his own work for its own reward, or seeking his pleasure in his
own way, unconsciously contributes to the highest well-being of the
community. Mr. Cairnes thinks the individual in society should be
like a musician, who, in playing his part, looks chiefly to his own score,
but occasionally glances at the central conductor so as to keep proper
time with his fellows.

State socialism is not a living question in Great Britain or America;
in Great Britain, however, the Government has notably added to its
functions of late years : it has absorbed the telegraph service and the
savings-banks intoxthe post-office, and there is some expectation that
the railways may also come under Government control. Mr. Brassey

342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

believed that much waste of capital would have been prevented had
Government controlled the English railways from their inception ; un-
necessary duplicate lines would not have been built, and their heavy
cost in construction and maintenance would have been saved. Some
forms of industry, like railway transportation, where free competition
can be seen to lead to public waste, would seem to come appropriately
under state control, provided that, as in Great Britain and Germany,
the Government is administered honestly and intelligently. Advo-
cates of state-controlled industry point to the danger, particularly in
America, of railroad and similar monopolies robbing the people, but
the people are not yet satisfied that their risks are not less as matters
stand than if Washington officials bought supplies, constructed time-
tables, and engaged the servants. Mr. Albert Fink, railroad commis-
sioner, in ability and character the chief American authority in railroad
questions, gave before the Committee on Commerce in Washington,
last March, some very interesting explanations of the difficulties of
railroad management. He showed that the intricacies of the business
were plainly beyond the mastery of a government board, and he at-
tributed the sources of such valid complaints as are made against
railroads to their lack of mutual co-operation and good faith. He
suggests the appointment of a commission to investigate the facts
adduced in substantiation of complaints against railroads ; such a com-
mission, at the close of its labors, to recommend, if it thought fit, the
establishment of a permanent commission for the best devisable super-
vision by the state of railroad transportation. Mr. Fink stated that a
board of arbitration among the railroads themselves, with power to
enforce agreements and maintain good faith, would abolish the main
evils which beset the business. He drew attention to the fact that,
while agitators desire to reduce the earnings of the few roads in the
Union which pay more than the ordinary return upon investments to
that rate, they are not desirous of making up from the public treasury
the deficits met with in operating many of the lines of great public
utility.

Modern business is unquestionably, in important departments, pass-
ing from individual to corporate management, particularly as the art
of conducting companies becomes better understood year by year.
Town and city corporations in Great Britain have long since absorbed
with advantage the business of water-supply, and have, within recent
years, successfully undertaken the manufacture and supply of gas ; and
why, if ten men agree to conduct a business, may not ten thousand,
or the large majority of voters in a town, or, for that matter, in a
country, resolve themselves into a company, if they think there are
good prospects of profit ahead, and conduct any business whatever ?
Experience alone can decide whether the expectation of profit is base-
less or not.

Less ambitious than state socialism, and more practical, is co-oper-

PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 343

ation, which is fast revolutionizing British retail trade, but which is
very slowly attacking the pressing problem of production. We can
only expect the conflict of capital and labor to cease when labor, by
thrift, has saved capital and participates in profits. To begin co-oper-
ative production, only picked men can be useful, for, in the present
condition of workingmen, there is not generally diffused the intelli-
gence and character necessary to selecting proper leaders and trusting
them.

The difficulties of co-operation are the main difficulties attending
the reforms of property. No laws or methods tending to replace a
millionaire by ten men of a tenth his fortune may touch the question
of how extreme poverty among the masses is to cease. The elevation
of the poor chiefly depends upon themselves, upon their intelligence,
their ascertaining the real conditions of life by a sensible plan of edu-
cation, and then fulfilling those conditions by hard work and self-re-
straint. No people that spend $600,000,000 a year on drink can excite
much sincere pity for their poverty. No people who marry without
regard to their ability to maintain wives and children can look for
substantial aid from Legislatures. Leclair, the house-painter of Paris,
has demonstrated that honesty and forbearance are all that are needed,
under available direction, for workmen to appropriate the profits they
so heartily grudge their employers. Evidences abound that, when
the time comes that workmen are fit for co-operation, able men from
among their ranks will take their places at the head of manufacturing
associations, and therefore the deprivations which are suffered by the
present systems of employing labor await abolition with the develop-
ment of conscience and intelligence among the toilers.

The material gain achievable by directly interesting workmen in
the results of their labor must soon be expected to awaken among
both employers and employed a desire to test, on a large scale, the
partnership plan so eloquently advanced by Mr. Holyoake and others.
If the profits now appropriated by the heads of great companies and
firms are felt to be more than just, the moral condition which makes
the profits so great is one which it lies with the contributors them-
selves to lift and improve.

Formal methods of dealing with the problems of property may be
expected to do much less to equalize disparities of fortune than an im-
provement in social morality throughout all classes of the people.
The great monopolists derive much of the strength of their position
from a debased public sentiment, which condones their methods and
admires their success. Often the shippers who complain against the
tyranny of a great steamship or railroad line themselves practice rules
similar to those against which they cry out ; they take advantage of
scarcity — at times an artificially created scarcity — to extort extra prof-
its ; and, as a railroad monopoly makes its traffic bear all it will, the
little monopolist, lh the shape of manufacturer or trader, makes his

344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

customers pay him as much as he can, when circumstances give him
the power of demanding unusual prices. An elevation in social mo-
rality would make conduct of this kind less common than it is, and
would inevitably have some influence in restraining the greed of great
monopolies. In America, with its limited past, wealth has an excess-
ive social power, its pursuit is the business of nearly all the strongest
intellects, and its marvelous growth in the country at large from year
to year constantly tends to make it a more and more decided object
of ambition. The ideal of a vast number of the people is wealth, and
scarcely any price is thought too great to pay for it. If any improve-
ment of this ideal is possible, it lies with teachers of morality and
right thinking to effect it. Whether on the school-rostrum or the plat-
form, in the pulpit or the editorial chair, or, above all, in the home, the
aim of life should be taught to lie rather in the development of heart
and conscience than in the accumulation of vast estates — more in the
growth of honor and manliness than in the growth of those arts which
gather wealth but stunt and paralyze the faculties of true enjoyment.
The low idea of the subordination of life to the means of living is at
the root of most of the problems of property. One of the chief im-
pulses in the pursuit of wealth is the desire of obtaining public admi-
ration and applause ; if these are intelligently awarded much will be
done to curb the unscrupulousness of those who gather together a
great deal more than they can enjoy, in some cases heaping up sums
far outbulking the accumulations of any previous age. And much
will be done toward making efficient, in the prevention or punish-
ment of the abuses of great properties, such legislation as may be ap-
plicable.

-♦♦♦-

THE ETHICS OF YIVISECTIOK

By Dr. SAMUEL WILKS. ,

SINCE many writers opposed to the practice of experiments on ani-
mals have based their objections entirely on moral grounds, and
thus made the question of vivisection an ethical one, I have been
anxious to know what laws they have discovered for our guidance on
this vexed subject. They discourse on cruelty, on immorality, and on
the rights of animals ; but these expressions are so vague that they
fail to afford any basis for legal or public action, or, if there be any
attempt at definition, it is with the object of making these terms con-
form to a foregone conclusion on the very point under discussion.
Thus it is constantly asserted that physiologists feel at liberty to tort-
ure animals at their pleasure, without regard to the " higher dictates
of humanity" or to the "laws of morality." It is thus implied that
there exists among the public some principle of conduct toward the

THE ETHICS OF VIVISECTION. 345

lower animals which has no place among experimenters. They speak
as if, standing on a higher platform and beholding all creatures from a
superior position, they could frame a code of laws which should have
due regard to the rights of animals, and govern our own conduct in all
our relations to them. This position is altogether fallacious : man can
not disconnect himself from the animal world, and can not define its
rights. It must, therefore, be abandoned as altogether untenable, and
the subject discussed from a totally different stand-point. Our relation
to the animal world can only in a very qualified sense be regarded from
an ethical point of view ; much in the same way as eating and drinking
may be spoken of as questions of morality when moral considerations
exert their influence over the amount and kind of food which we con-
sume ; this, however, can not hide from us the fact that the subject of
digestion is fundamentally a physiological one.

The duty of man toward animals as an abstract question is from its
very nature insoluble ; it can only be partially answered on the grounds
of expediency, and these will vary according to age and nation. We
should, rather, ask what is our relation to the lower animal world, and
in what place in that relationship can moral considerations come into
force ? In endeavoring to form a judgment of this relationship we
must take facts as we find them, for the attempt at an explanation is
trying to solve the riddle of our existence, and leaves us still with "the
burden of the mystery of all this unintelligible world."

In seeking a solution of such a question as our duty toward inferior
creatures, we must take into account man's animal nature ; he is of the
earth, earthy, and depends for his existence on the living world around
him. Like many other creatures, he has to prey upon the lower ani-
mals for his subsistence, and although he may not often, after the exam-
ple of some monsters of the deep, swallow small fishes by the mouthful
— as in partaking of white-bait — yet, like the other carnivora, he hunts
his prey and stealthily lies in wait for his victim. A large part of the
existence of the lower animals is employed in search for food, or in
protecting themselves from the assaults of their more powerful foes.
Their exquisitely keen senses are put into full play to seek out their
prey, or to place them on their guard against their more subtle enemies.
Paley could discourse on the design manifested in the claws, teeth, and
lithesome movements of the tiger, so well adapted for the capture of
its victim, and with equal discernment portray the form and slender
legs which enable the latter to escape its foe. It is necessary to picture
Nature 'as we find it, or we may fall into the error which we see per-
vading so many recent writings — viz., that nearly all the miseries and
pain inflicted on the lower animals arise from their connection with
man. If we remember how many animals prey upon one another we
shall realize the vast amount of pain and suffering ever existing among
highly organized and sensitive creatures. None of us can measure the
agonies of the slow death of an animal who has escaped mangled from

346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his enemy and been left to linger on a sunburned soil, with hunger un-
appeased and thirst unslaked. Most of us have seen the picture of the
dying camel in the desert, glancing up with fearful eye at the vultures
hovering above him ; and the cat playing with the terror-stricken
mouse is to many a familiar sight. Over other and grosser cruelties
23racticed by one animal on another, it would be best to draw a veil.
A far pleasanter picture is it to contemplate the beauties of Nature,
the glorious vegetation, the singing of birds, the gamboling of the
lambs in the meadows, or the wild herds in the prairies ; and yet there
is no escape from the fact that animals practice toward one another
nearly every human crime. There is the bright side of the shield, but
there is the other which shows that "the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth with pain until now."

Man, like other carnivorous animals, derives a pleasure from hunt-
ing his prey ; and, indeed, many of the gratifications of life are depend-
ent upon his animal instincts. In a primitive condition, while the
woman is at home providing for the household, the husband is away
in the forest or on the mountain seeking for food, and finding a keen
exhilaration in the chase. In a higher state of civilization the instinct
still remains ; for, although the butcher may supply the meat, the
sportsman still pursues the game ; or if the fish-monger sells the salm-
on, the zest for catching the fish still exists. A man does not kill
his own sheep for dinner, but he approves of the act ; the most honest
and guileless lady will not hesitate to eat the bird for the capture of
which cunning and treachery have been employed. It would seem,
from these examples, that a carnivorous animal like man can not frame
a code of laws in relation to his inferiors, or determine the rights of
the lower animals, on any Christian or other ethical principle, such as
ato do as we would be done by." Up to recent times we have acknowl-
edged no other law than " might is right." For I am not aware that
society or the public voice has put any restraint on man's desire to kill
whatsoever animals he pleases for his food ; as for clothing, he may
capture any creature he fancies, and steal the skin, coveting it the more
the handsomer its coat ; while society has not hitherto placed any lim-
its upon his greed. We not only eat for necessity, but we foster and
pamper our appetites, we breed creatures for our uses, and, when fit
for our stomachs, kill them, doing also what humanity has never yet
blushed at; first mutilating them and unsexing them. It has been truly
said that in this sad world one of the greatest gifts bestowed on the
animal creation is the relation of the sexes ; and the singing of birds,
the building of nests, the mating of animals, have given rise to much of
the poetry of Nature. But it has been left for man to make herds of
beef, and flocks of mutton, and horses whose only function is to drag
our carriages. One might ask, in these sentimental and aesthetic days,
whether one sigh of pity has ever been raised over these poor maimed
creatures ? What do those who talk of the rights of animals say on this

THE ETHICS OF VIVISECTION. 347

matter ? or how does the ethical question apply here ? Was the mo-
rality of the business discussed when nearly the whole family of whales
was exterminated for the sake of their oil, or whenever troops of horses
have been exported to engage in our quarrels and perish on the battle-
field ? If a horse could define his rights, would he admit the necessity
of his going round and round in a mill the live-long day, or dragging
a tram-car with the never-ceasing jangle of bells in his ears ? Would
the thousands of God's creatures in India approve of being called
" vermin," and exterminated at so much a head ? It is clear that, as
regards food, clothing, mutilation, or work, there seems to be no other
rule guiding us than " might is right." We have exercised the do-
minion given us over the beasts of the earth and fowls of the air as
tyrants.

Now, when all this is said and admitted, we recognize over and
above our animal instincts a higher nature within us — pity, love, com-
passion, and duty toward other objects ; sentiments, indeed, which
seem almost antagonistic to our lower life and to the proclivities of our
fleshly body. This higher aspiration has ever been regarded as one of
the best evidences of man's spiritual nature. We observe that a culti-
vated man is obliged to find a substitute to kill the sheep for his dinner,
or to employ the necessary cunning to catch his game, since he could
not practice deceit himself, nor nerve his arm to strip the Arctic ani-
mals of their skins to clothe himself. But although he does not im-
brue his hands in blood, and although he dismisses from his mind the
question of the animal's " right " to its own skin, he can not discard
his own animal nature by appointing a substitute to perform actions in
the result of which he participates. When, therefore, the question of
the relationship between man and animals is considered, the fact that
man is a killing and hunting animal himself lies at the very foundation
of this relationship. Where, then, it may be asked, do the higher sen-
timents of which I have spoken come in ? A ready answer is, that all
these practices toward the lower animals are admissible and necessary
for man's existence, but that cruelty should be avoided. This word, in
common use of late, appears to signify the giving of unnecessary pain,
but it still remains ambiguous unless the word " necessary " is defined.
One may gather from various writings that " necessary " is equivalent
to " advantageous to man " ; for example, the word " cruelty " would
be applicable to the case where a half -starved horse is made to
drag a cart too ponderous for his strength, but it would not apply to
the case of the same horse dragging a heavy cannon over a mountain
for the safety and glory of the nation. What, then, is necessary pain,
and what unnecessary pain or cruelty ? If necessity is construed, as it
is at present, to include not only the procuring of food, but man's en-
joyment and general advantages, it is obvious that the question must
have ever-varying answers. There are a few persons, vegetarians on
principle, who would not kill animals for food under any consideration ;

343 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE 3I0XTHLY.

there are others who would not take their lives for pleasure. Past gen-
erations have approved of cock-fighting : there may be a future gen-
eration who will discountenance pigeon-shooting, and will regard that
as;e as barbarous which could witness without disgust the bleeding car-
casses of sheep hanging up in our most fashionable thoroughfares.
The spirit of the age and the feeling of society for the time seem to
determine what amount and kind of pain and suffering people will
allow to be inflicted on animals and what they will disallow. The very
valuable Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does not
seem in its operations to offer a solution of the question. It would
seem that most of the examples of cruelty which the society publishes
are those where the public gain nothing by the act complained of, and
can therefore afford to prosecute. For example, I have heard " shame "
called on a carman who was endeavoring: to make a horse draw a coal-
wagon along the slippery pavement of Bond Street ; and this exclama-
tion came from a gentleman who on turning round might have seen the
quails and larks closely caged for his table, and the dying and writhing
lobsters waiting to end their miseries in a pan of boiling water. It-
would almost seem that the infliction of pain is allowable if approved
by the majority, and that it is not allowable and constitutes cruelty if
disapproved. In other words, cruelty depends upon the public estima-
tion of its utilitv or inutilitv. One is forced to arrive at this conclu-
sion, for the more one thinks over the rights of animals, or the ethical
question of our treatment of them, the less does it appear that any
considerations framed upon rights or morals have ever influenced man-
kind in its conduct. It is possible that some vague ideas respecting
man's dutv to animals mav be floating- through different brains, but
those ideas have never become concrete.

It being admitted that man has a power, if not a right, over the
lives of the lower animals, the question arises, Where should this right
be limited, and at what point should our animal instincts, appetites,
and wants be restricted ? Utility or advantage seems to be the gauge
used by the majority of persons. The question, therefore, between
the anti-viviseetionists and their opponents appears to be a narrow one.
The former assert that the pain inflicted on animals is out of propor-
tion to the advantages obtained : Lord Coleridge savs as much in his
well-wrapped-up dictum. We, on the contrary, declare that the im-
portance of experiments can be shown to be overwhelming in compari-
son with the pain inflicted on animals for this and other objects. The
lofty phrase that " knowledge is unlawful knowledge if it is pursued by
means which are immoral " must be analvzed to understand its mean-
ing. As it is made applicable to vivisection, it is clear that " immo-
rality" means "giving pain to animals"; and his lordship's statement
would run, " All knowledge is unlawful if obtained by giving pain to
animals." Whence it follows that, as it is allowable to give pain to ani-
mals for various purposes, it is only unlawful to give pain when the pur-

THE ETHICS OF VIVISECTION. 349

pose is knowledge. I see no other interpretation to put upon his words,
and thus he places himself entirely at one with the rest of the anti-vivi-
sectionists. These writers select out of foreign works all the horrible
pictures they can find, and most unfairly ignore all those important
experiments made by the aid of the most trifling operations under
chloroform, and which have proved to be of inestimable benefit to ani-
mals and men. Lord Coleridge, although protesting against the charge
of antagonism to science, unwittingly shows how profoundly he mis-
understands the methods of scientific men, and consequently falls into
the same error as his more ignorant friends. However little sympathy
he may have with science, one would have thought that Whewell, Mill,
Jevons, and others had clearly demonstrated that the methods of science
can ODly be reached by accurate observation and well-devised experi-
ment. I am afraid, therefore, that scientists will scarcely consider that
man to be among their allies who believes their method is " to perform
a hundred thousand experiments in the hope that some new fact may
turn up." But this is only an example of the misleading nature of the
statements and expressions of the anti-vivisectionists. This very term
implies that their opponents are vivisectionists ; much in the same way
as, if a certain sect of vegetarians were to style themselves anti-sheep-
killers, all the rest of the world would be sheep-killers, and this oppro-
brious word would be employed toward any lady who was seen eating
a mutton-chop. The two cases are exactly analogous, for among the
thousands of medical and scientific men who see the advantages of
making experiments on animals there are scarcely twenty who would
be willing to undertake operations of so disagreeable a nature. Just
as the sheep-killers are those only who would protest against any laws
being made to prevent them eating animal food, so in like manner the
" vivisectionists " are those who maintain that legislation should not
prevent a few physiologists performing the experiments which they
judge necessary. What is asked by the vivisectionists is, that the
whole power of the law should not be brought to bear upon a handful
of accomplished men who are engaged in the service of science and
humanity. They do not object to laws being made to prohibit incom-
petent persons from experimenting.

The difference between a dozen anti-vivisectionists and a dozen
scientific men can not possibly turn upon a moral question such as dis-
like of cruelty ; and, therefore, if the one can look upon an animal
injured and bleeding with serenity and the other not, it would be ow-
ing, as the former party assert, to usage or habit. Let this be admit-
ted, the converse is also true, and it may be safely conjectured that
much of the opposition to experimentation is due to the unpleasant
picture which the subject presents to the imagination. The difference
between sensitiveness and compassion, or active benevolence, was long
ago pointed out by f oleridge ; but for this difference, Howard would
be justly called the most hard-hearted of men. A lady shrinks with

350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

horror from treading on a black beetle, but is only too satisfied to hear
that the cook has exterminated the " vermin " by poison or boiling
water. But lately an excellent example of a personal sensitiveness
being mistaken for compassion has been witnessed in the case of the
sale of the elephant. If the word of the Council of the Zoological
Society can be taken as true, it was believed that " Jumbo " would be
far happier traveling among his kin than leading a life of solitude in
London. Yet, in spite of this statement, all the kind-hearted people
have been sending their subscriptions to enable the society to forego
its bargain, since they and their children can not bear to part with their
favorite. It is like the frequent example of a mother preventing her
son taking the voyage prescribed for the benefit of his health because
her feelings can not allow her to part with him.

After eliminating all that is irrelevant and false, the question be-
tween experimenters and anti-vivisectionists appears to be a simple one.
The latter declare that experiments are attended with great cruelty,
and the results are of little or no good ; they should therefore be dis-
allowed. The former deny the truth of the proposition, and maintain
that it is tyranny to put in force the power of the law to prevent a few,
a very few, men of known reputation as trained physiologists perform-
ing occasional experiments, often unattended by pain, for the sake of
advantages which they believe to be enormous. To endeavor to make
vivisection a question of ethics, when moral considerations are alto-
gether and confessedly ignored in a thousand other instances, is clearly
illogical, and obviously prompted by an undue bias. In other words,
the selection of the so-called standard of "morality," or of the "rights
of animals," by which to measure the permissibility of physiological
experimentation, is undeniably a prejudgment of the real point at
issue. — Contemporary Revieic.

■♦•♦•

BORAX m AMERICA.

By W. 0. AYEES, M. D.

BORAX is now well known to occur in very many of the salt-
springs in the Coast Mountains of California. But in only two
places has it been found in large quantities: these are Borax Lake and
Hachinhama (pronounced Hati -chin-har -ma), both being in the im-
mediate vicinity of Clear Lake, about eighty miles north of San
Francisco.

Borax Lake is a shallow pool intensely of alkaline water, without
inlet or outlet, and of course its extent depends on its reception of rain-
water. After an exceptionally wet season it has a length of perhaps
a mile and a half, with a depth of eight to ten feet ; after an excep-

BORAX IN AMERICA. 351

tionally dry season, on the contrary, it shows sometimes no water, the
muddy bottom being covered with saline incrustations. When it has
a length of three fourths of a mile, with a depth of four feet, being
perhaps its average condition, the water holds in solution 18*75 grains
of solid matter to the ounce — '039 of its own weight. This consists
of salts of soda, in the following proportions : Sodium carbonate, *618;
sodium chloride, '204; sodium biborate, '178.

But this alkaline water, exceedingly rich as it is in borax, consti-
tutes only a trifling part of the commercial value of the lake. In fact,
it has never been turned to account at all in the manufacture of borax,
though such use of it is entirely practicable, as the statements to be
presently made in relation to Hachinhama will show. The muddy
bottom of the lake was found, immediately on its discovery in 1856, to
contain borax in crystals, in quantities most astonishing.

These crystals, being tested by various workers in iron and steel,
were pronounced equal to the very best of refined borax. They are,
in fact, pure biborate of soda, without any other impurities than the
mud mechanically entangled with them in their process of crystal-
lization. They correspond to the native borax of other localities,
designated as ti?ical, but yet are decidedly distinct from it. In fact,
no such crystals as those of Borax Lake have ever been found in any
other locality, and there are several points in connection with their
mode of formation, and even their very existence, which are by no
means easy of comprehension, as we shall see.

Although the discovery was made, as already stated, in 1856, no
practical development of the lake was begun until 1864. From this
time it was pressed vigorously until 1868, when it ceased, not from
failure of the supply, but simply from mismanagement of the work.
The crystals were certainly less abundant at the last than in the earlier
workings, but the lake still held and doubtless holds now an amount
running to many millions of pounds, if it be not in truth practically
inexhaustible.

Their abundunce was such, and the yield was so great, that within
the period specified the lake had revolutionized the borax-trade of the
United States ; in fact, it had accomplished that work before the close
of the year 1864. The annual importations since 1855, the earliest
date at which the congressional reports enable us to trace them, had
varied from $143,218 to $217,944. In 1864 they were suddenly re-
duced to $8,984, a result due entirely to the working of Borax
Lake.

A statement of the manner in which the crude crvstals were re-
moved and utilized will bring to our notice the strange peculiarities of
their nature, origin, and mode of crystallization.

The mud which constitutes the bottom of the lake is a smooth,
even, plastic clay, of unknown depth. It has been bored through
thirty feet without showing change in its structure. The upper por-

352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion, for four and a half to five feet, holds unnumbered crystals; at
that depth they suddenly and abruptly cease. Abundant explorations
demonstrated that none were to be found any lower, and the daily
working came to recognize the fact as established. The mud below
that was saturated with the salts of soda, such as held by the water
of the lake, but no distinct crystals existed.

The crystals of borax, in the upper portion, were removed by
means of coffer-dams. Each dam consisted of a box, without top or
bottom, four feet square and six feet deep, made of thin boiler-iron,
suitably stiffened with surrounding bands of heavier iron. These
dams, suspended above the water, between large pontoons or floats,
were allowed to drop suddenly, whereupon their force of descent,
drove the sharp lower edge down through the soft mud and into that
which was sufficiently firm and tenacious to resist the inrpact, and to
render thus the iron walls of each a true coffer-dam, from which the
entire contents could be easily removed.

The water was first pumped or bailed out, till it became too thick
to flow easily, and the remaining mud was lifted in tubs, in true min-
ing style, and thrown into large troughs, where, being subjected to
constant agitation in streams of the lake-water, it was washed away,
the borax being retained by its superior gravity.

No crystals were found until from twelve to fifteen inches in depth
of the most fluid mud had passed away. The mud then began to feel
" gritty," as the workmen expressed it, the " grit " consisting of multi-
tudes of most exquisitely perfect minute crystals of borax. These crys-
tals, like all those in the lake, were lying loose, detached from each
other, attached to nothing by the base, and consequently perfect at
both ends. It is not meant by this that every crystal was absolutely
complete in every angle, but that they all had the tendency to the
theoretical type, symmetrical at each end (a form which in artificial
crystallization we scarcely ever reach, except by accident), and that
many of them showed the type in full j)erfection, such as no model
could excel or equal.

With every descending inch through the mud their size increased;
the "grit" soon became " sand," in a few inches farther crystals were
very manifest to the eye, and shortly a " layer " was reached. It is
true that in some places no " layers " occurred, the crystals being scat-
tered at random through the mud. But in most instances when from
twenty-four to thirty inches of surface-mud had been removed, and
the crystals had attained a length of one fourth to one half an inch,
one or more " layers " would be found within the four feet square of
the coffer-dam. In these " layers " the crystals were so closely packed
as to have no mud intermingled with them; they were nearly as clean
as though recently washed in clear water, lying closely stowed and
loose, like pebbles on a beach. A " layer might be one to four inches
thick and two feet, more or less, in length, surrounded on all sides by

BORAX IN AMERICA. 353

mud which held only scattered crystals without any such richness as
. its enveloped pocket.

Going deeper, the crystals became constantly larger, though less
numerous, as the mud grew more dense, until a stratum was reached
which was designated " blue clay." In the mud immediately above
the blue clay, crystals from one to two inches long were very common,
though many of the smaller ones were still intermingled. Here a
change in the crystals showed itself, full as well marked as the change
in the bed in which they lay. The small crystals were not present ;
they had never been formed as in the mud above. Instead of them
lay imbedded scattered crystals, few in number, but of great size, and
having commonly a family look by which they could be recognized.
Few of them were as small as two inches in length, and not unfre-
quently those weighing a pound each were obtained, being perhaps
five to seven inches long, by two to four inches wide.

They lay imbedded in the clay, which was so firm that they could
be picked out singly, each leaving the sharp mold which it had formed
during its slow process of crystallization. They were all within a lit-
tle more than a foot of the surface of the blue clay, many explorations
showing that it was useless to seek for them at a greater depth.

Of the abundance of the crystals within the portion of the lake
* occupied by them, a space of about forty acres, some idea may be
formed from the fact that nine hundred pounds have been gathered
from one dam, four feet square. And this by no means represents
their full amount, as all the smaller crystals were washed back again
into the lake in the process of their separation. At the same time it
was remarkably true that the yield was very uneven. In what was
known as " rich ground " barren spots constantly occurred, and often
almost the entire yield of a dam came from one side or one corner,
perhaps only a third or a fourth part of the full area.

The crystals thus obtained had a decidedly green color. The fig-
ure introduced is given for the purpose of conveying an idea of the
size which the green crystals sometimes attained. It is not an exag-
geration. I have seen many which weighed individually as much as
the one here delineated. Their proportions were very erratic, but
always conforming to the one type.

They were entirely free from the tenacious coating incident to the
tincal of other localities ; were readily and perfectly soluble in hot
water, and in the process of refining by solution and recrystallization
yielded -their full weight of transparent borax of the finest quality,
less merely the weight of the mud which had been mechanically en-
tangled with them during their growth in a muddy menstruum. The
green color disappeared in the refining, not being found either in the
deposited mud or the new crystals.

We are prepared now to look at the origin of these salts as held in
solution or in crystalline form. If, in a basin of water, more or less
vol. xxi. — 23

354

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shallow, containing a plastic soda-mud in the form of chloride and car-
bonate, deriving its carbonic acid from one source and its chlorine from
another during its deposition, or, subsequently, fissures were opened

Crystal of Native Borax from Borax Lake, Natural Size.

in the subjacent strata, allowing the escape of a limited amount of jets
of boracid acid from beneath in vapor, we should have all the con-
ditions required to account for the formation of the borax in the midst
of the two more loosely combined salts.

BORAX IN AMERICA. 355

Thus far our way is plain. But whence came the enormous depo-
sition of the green crystals of Borax Lake, their isolation and segrega-
tion in perfect crystallized integrity, and their continued preservation ;
while at the same time, in a solution almost identical in chemical com-
position, as we shall see, at Hachinhama, and in which often the pro-
portion of borax to a given quantity of water becomes greater, no such
crystals exist ?

In most instances of salts crystallizing from a solution, the crystals
attach themselves by a base to whatever material is adjacent, and
when numerous they form a crystalline mass, from which the summits
only of the crystals project — a crystal perfect at both extremities, and
the sides not being common. And in Borax Lake itself, whenever the
water has evaporated to such a degree in a dry season as to form a
deposit from excess of strength, it has been an amorphous crust of
carbonate, chloride, and borate, with no perfect crystals of either.

But the green crystals are isolated, and in thousands of instances
are absolutely perfect, ends and sides. The large ones of the blue
clay lie, as we have seen, each in its own mold. The smaller ones
above lie often in layers, inches in thickness, hundreds of crystals
heaped together as distinct from each other and as separate as pebbles
on a beach.

Still, again, comes the strange fact that these crystals have been
lying, how long we can not say, but almost certainly for very, very
many years (for there is not the slightest evidence to lead us to believe
that they are of recent formation), in a solution which makes no ap-
proach to saturation, and to whose influence as a solvent they seem
totally indifferent.

The water of Borax Lake, when it has a depth in its main extent of
five feet, which it often has for very many months and perhaps years
in succession, holds in solution about half an ounce of borax to the
gallon. During this interval, for four or five months of the summer
season, its temperature is at no time lower than 55° to 60° Fahr. But
water at that temperature dissolves a little over eight ounces of borax
to the gallon. How, then, can the green crystals remain in such a
liquid so long without being destroyed ?

It may be supposed that the carbonate and chloride, in the com-
plex mixture, render the hold of the borax so slight that, because of
their presence, it is ready to separate. In reply to this suggestion
comes the statement of the fact that when the same water is concen-
trated by evaporation to a specific gravity of 12° Beaume, in which
state it holds in solution six ounces of borax to the gallon, no tend-
ency is manifest to the formation of even a single crystal.

Again, it has been suggested that, lying in a muddy menstruum,
the movement of particles is so far arrested as to prevent diffusion,
the stratum of water immediately surrounding each crystal becoming
saturated and remaining unchanged. But this does not in the least

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

account for the commencement of crystallization, which, so far as we
can judge, must have been in an exceedingly weak solution. Nor does
it perhaps seem possible that such complete seclusion from ascending
and descending currents could in any way be secured. The winter
rains pour in quite fierce torrents of drainage- water from all sides,
often rendering the entire lake decidedly turbid, and of course causing
more or less of commotion in every part. And in addition to this
is the diffusion of particles, caused by the changes of temperature
throughout the year.

In whatever light, therefore, the question is viewed, it is not free
from difficulties. And yet at the same time it is but right to recall
the fact that these green crystals are in their nature tincal, though
such tincal as has never been found elsewhere, and that the crystals
of tincal are perhaps in other localities formed subject to the same
conditions as here prevail.

We turn now to Hachinhama, the other locality mentioned, as af-
fording the borax-supply of California. This is on the southern side
of Clear Lake, about four miles west of Borax Lake, which it closely
resembles in its features, though much smaller, being an oval lagoon
about four hundred yards in length. "We have, as there, a sheet of
clear alkaline- water, with a bottom of soft, plastic mud. This mud
has been bored to about the same depth as in the explorations at Borax
Lake, without its lower limit being reached.

The evidences that the alkaline pool occupies the space of an ex-
tinct crater, are more manifest here than at Borax Lake, as the in-
closing walls still remain, though abraded on their northern extremity,
while on the south they rise abruptly to the great mountain-summit of
Conoktai.

The water of Hachinhama holds in solution the salts of soda in the
following proportions : Sodium carbonate, *754 ; sodium chloride,
•083 ; sodium biborate, '163. The mud throughout its entire depth
is richly stored with the same salts, but without any development
whatever of crystallization of any kind.

After the cessation of work at Borax Lake, in 1868, attention was
turned to the resources of Hachinhama. Of course, the style of work-
ing must be totally different, for here was no borax ready formed, no
green crystals needing simply solution and recrystallization. All that
was available was a sheet of water, holding the salts above recorded.
The problem, then, was to separate in purity the borax — the only
one of sufficient value to be worth the effort — and leave the others.

Borax being the least soluble of the three salts, and at the same
time much more soluble in hot water than in cold, it was argued that,
were the water of Hachinhama sufficiently concentrated by boiling
and then allowed to cool slowly, the borax would crystallize out, leav-
ing the carbonate and chloride in solution.

This is correct in theory, and in laboratory practice the results

BORAX IN AMERICA. 357

were entirely satisfactory, but in working large quantities the case
was found very different. Concentrated to 20° B., a crop of crystals
was deposited which were pure borax, but they were scarcely more
than fifty per cent of the borax originally held by the lye thus formed.
When, now, this mother-liquor was still further concentrated, no more
pure borax separated, but a combined mass of borate and carbonate.

And here was manifested another feature. The amount of borax
available depended very largely on the bulk of the solution in which
it was allowed to cool. Very small quantities were of course useless
in practical working, though the crop from them was satisfactory.
Patiently continued trials showed that pans of two to three gallons
gave economically the best results. But even here the borax clung so
closely to the carbonate as to occasion much difficulty, until the plan
was devised of crystallizing them together, and then washing away
the carbonate by means of its greater solubility.

This was the plan adopted, and by its use about eighty per cent of
the borax originally contained in the Hachinhama water, as pumped
into the evaporating-pans, was secured. The extent of the works may
be estimated from the fact that about 4,000 of the pans mentioned
were in daily use.

But the unassisted lake-water was not long used. Hachinhama,
from its shallowness, becomes nearly or quite dry at the close of each
summer. As it dries away, the exposed mud is thickly covered with
the salts deposited. These were carefully removed for use. The sur-
face thus cleared of its salts began at once to renew its coating, the
deposit being speedily replaced by capillary attraction from the stores
beneath. In a week, or perhaps more, the surface was ready for
sweeping again. The second crop was abundant, it was replaced by
a third, and by others in succession, till the advent of the rains (never
occurring in that climate till October, or perhaps November) put a
stop to their formation.

This process was repeated each year during the occupation of
Hachinhama, and, when the lake filled in turn with the winter rains,
the alkaline-water bore the same degree of strength consecutively,
showing that the stores of supply in the mud beneath gave no evi-
dence of exhaustion.

The salts thus gathered were used by lixiviation to strengthen the
lake-water in the evaporating-pans, and thus increase the yield of
borax.

The work of refining the borax thus obtained differed in nothing
from that employed with the green crystals of Borax Lake — hot solu-
tion and crystallization in lead-lined tanks. Hachinhama borax, as
placed in the market, was of a grade of excellence never surpassed.

The works were conducted in this manner until the spring of 1872,
when a change was^ introduced in consequence of the discovery that
immense deposits of borates existed in Nevada. It was determined to

358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

utilize the borate of lime, in the form of ulexite, for the conversion
into borax of the carbonate of soda held in the water of Hachinhama.

The ulexite was brought by car-loads from the deserts east of the
Sierra Nevada to San Francisco, and thence to Clear Lake, and a great
increase in the borax yield of Hachinhama was the result. The proc-
ess adopted was to saturate, with the ulexite, the boiling lye from
the lixiviating tanks, before it had acquired sufficient strength to crys-
tallize on cooling. A double decomposition was thus accomplished,
resulting in a thick, milky-looking mixture which was an intensified
solution of borax, rendered turbid by the insoluble carbonate of lime,
this latter speedily settling and leaving the clear borax-liquor for con-
centration and crystallization.

Practically, however, this solution was never pure, for here came
in again the same fact which had been demonstrated in the first work-
ings at Hachinhama, that the bulk of the liquid in which the action
took place had much to do with the chemical union accomplished. In
laboratory experiments the work was perfect, and a boiling-heat of
only a few minutes formed the full theoretical amount of borax
demanded ; yet, when dealing with large quantities, this proved im-
practicable. Although violent boiling was long continued, even for
hours, analysis of the lye showed that a certain proportion of the car-
bonate of soda still remained untouched by the boracic acid, and that,
too, when the ulexite employed was in excess of the amount which
careful analysis showed was sufficient to saturate the carbonate of
soda present. And this excess was a necessity, and the daily working
came to recognize it and to act accordingly, for, when the even theo-
retical quantity only was used, a much larger proportion of the soda
remained untouched.

The operations at Hachinhama continued vigorously till 1874, by
which time the enormous supply of borax brought into the market
from Nevada had reduced the price to so low a point that further pro-
duction became impossible. Hachinhama supplied all the American
borax made from the cessation of work at Borax Lake in 1868 till
1873, and the two localities afforded between 1864 and 1874 all that
was ever made in California. The yield of Hachinhama, during the
last two years of its running, was something over 5,000 cases of 112
pounds each.

The immense stock crowding upon the market, which has reduced
the price of borax to very nearly one fourth of its former rate, is com-
monly called " California borax," but that is a misnomer, originating
in the fact that it has necessarily been shipped from San Francisco ; it
is exclusively a product of Nevada. It is, in its look, so unlike the
ordinary English borax, or that made at Hachinhama, that the con-
trast is very striking. Still it is practically the same, and has the
same working value.

A glance at the map of the State of Nevada shows a large number

BORAX IN AMERICA. 359

of dotted spots, individually of no great extent, scattered over the
desert regions east of the Sierra Nevada. Most of them are without
designation, but a few are marked " Soda Flat," " Salt Marsh," etc.
They all have probably a common origin ; they are places which long
ago (how long we can not tell) were covered with water, since removed
by solar evaporation. Each consists of an extent of entirely flat sur-
face of dried mud, sometimes absolutely bare, sometimes covered with
saline deposits. It had been known for years that these deposits were
both what is there universally called " alkali" (carbonate of soda) and
salt. But it was not until 1871 that much attention was drawn to the
fact that several of them contained also deposits of borates, though
published mention had been made some time earlier that these existed
there.

The number of these "marshes," which are marked by borate
deposits, it is impossible to state, as so large an extent of that arid
region remains as yet very imperfectly known. A sketch of one,
however, gives the characteristics of all.

One of the largest is known as the " Columbus Marsh." It is situ-
ated in Esmeralda County, about two hundred and fifty miles nearly
due east from San Francisco, and about one hundred and sixty miles
south of Wadsworth, on the Central Pacific Railroad. The portion
last abandoned by the water, and now covered by saline deposits, ex-
tends about ten miles from east to west, and three from north to south,
with an extension on the south into Fish Lake Valley, forming an arm
fifteen miles long by one to three miles wide. Not all parts of this
extent are equally rich in salines, neither is the character of the de-
posits the same at different parts, though it must have formerly been
covered with one sheet of water, of presumably a uniform quality or
nearly so.

A space of several hundred acres in one part, for instance, is covered
with a crust of chloride and carbonate of soda, through which the foot
breaks at every step ; but the black mud beneath is filled to the depth
of six to twelve inches with borate of lime aggregated in nodules,
which, when broken open, show a beautiful pearly- white mass of satiny
luster. These are the ulexite, and are commonly called "cotton-bolls."
They can be picked out by hand like the kernel of a nut, separating
clean and clear.

Immediately adjoining the ground thus rich in ulexite is a wide
stretch barren of everything, except a little chloride and carbonate.
Just beyond this come five or six hundred acres, thickly covered with
borate of soda, so little contaminated with sand or anything else as to
crystallize out, by simple solution, eighty per cent of its weight in
pure borax. Over vast extents of this surface I have seen the crude
borax in its granular, semi-crystalline form lying from fifteen to twenty-
four inches in deptl^, while, at the distance of a quarter to half a mile,
the borate of lime was in similar abundance. The supply of borax

360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

thus indicated is manifestly sufficient to fill all demands, far into the
future years, and this refers only to that which is now on the surface ;
while the experience gained at Hachinhama seems to show quite con-
clusively that, were all the present store removed, its place would be
refilled with a new crop drawn from the inexhaustible resources be-
neath.

To explain the manner in which these separate deposits have been
formed is not easy, though in relation to the two borates the following
suggestions may possibly be of some avail : If in a broad, shallow,
mud-bottomed lagoon, the sodium of which has already formed its
combinations with carbonic acid and chlorine, we imagine the process
of evaporation to continue until instead of water there remains merely
a muddy mass, so far viscid as to be unable to flow from one point to
another, and that into this mass boracic acid is forced from beneath in .
jets, here and there, only in limited areas, and not extending beyond
them, and if we imagine, still' further, that the supply of boron is not
sufficient to displace all the carbon and chlorine, we should have car-
bonate and chloride existing, intermingled with borate of soda, pre-
cisely as we in fact find them, and with a lime-mud we would have the
ulexite.

This may perhaps answer for the borates, but a much greater diffi-
culty is encountered when we propose to ourselves the question how
the carbonate and the chloride crystallized separately. Over the chief
extent they are blended, as they would be left by the evaporation of a
lake which held them both in solution. Yet it is also true that, here
and there, in areas separated from each other by no elevations what-
ever, and which have evidently never been separated, but which must
have been parts of the same lake, vast beds of pure salt occur ; while,
perhaps, a quarter or half a mile away, carbonate of soda is lying in
equally great quantity. How can these masses have been thus placed ?
Their bulk demonstrates that in each case quite a considerable depth of
solution, even in its most concentrated form, was absolutely necessary.
They could not have existed in such juxtaposition and have retained
their chemical integrity.

Could the deposits have been formed at different times? There
is nothing to indicate it, nor is the difficulty made less by answering
this question in the affirmative. The chloride, in a blended solution,
would of course be the last to crystallize, yet there is nothing to
cause us to believe that over the carbonate-beds a mass of salt was
once formed and subsequently removed. Neither can the two salts be
crystallized in bulk, from a united solution, by any means with which
we are at present acquainted, and left in the state of separate purity,
in which countless thousands of tons are now lying on the deserts of
Nevada.

The question is as difficult as the one why the mud of Borax Lake
is filled with the green crystals, while that of Hachinhama has none.

PROTOPLASM. 361

The points concerning the combinations and the crystallizations in the
Californian localities, and in those also of Nevada, I can vouch for
personally. The facts are as set forth. I have mentioned nothing
which I have not myself seen. The questions which are left without
answer are certainly worth investigation.

♦♦»

PEOTOPLASM.

By FRANCES EMILY WHITE, M. D.*

AT the recent International Medical Congress, held in London,
upon which the attention and enthusiastic interest of the whole
medical world were for the time being centered, Professor Huxley,
in an address made to that assembly, used the term " medicine " to in-
clude " the great body of theoretical and practical knowledge which
has been accumulated by the labors of some eighty generations " —
that is, during the entire period since the dawn of scientific thought
in Europe. In justification of this broad application of the term, he
says, "It is so difficult to think of medicine otherwise than as some-
thing which is necessarily connected with curative treatment, that we
are apt to forget that there must be and is such a thing as a pure
science of medicine — a pathology which has no more necessary sub-
servience to practical ends than has zoology or botany." In other
words, there is a science of disease and au art of healing, both of
which are included in the term " medicine," and, as all art is applied
science, it is easy to see where the study of the " healing art " should
begin.

Pathology is abnormal physiology, or, more broadly, biology, the
science of living matter; living matter being recognized by its innate
tendency to undergo certain changes of form and to manifest certain
physiological phenomena which are universally recognized as consti-
tuting organization and life. When these changes of structure or of
function become injurious to the organism, or cease to promote its
general well-being, they are pathological, but the line of separation is
not a distinct one; it is impossible to say with exactness where physi-
ology ends and pathology begins.

It is evident, then, that the science of disease is a branch of the
general science of life; and the distinguished lecturer, in making so
wide an application of the term "medicine," no doubt intended to
assert that the science of biology rests upon the broad foundation of
the general physical sciences. The study of medicine, then, consists
primarily in the study of biology, including those abnormalities of

* Address delivered &t the opening of the Thirty - second Annual Session of the
Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

structure and perturbations of function to which living matter is
liable; and, secondarily, medicine deals with the applications of the
knowledge thus acquired for the checking of these perturbations and
the renewal of normal structures — in other words, for the relief of
suffering and the restoration and preservation of health.

The Held of medicine is, then, a large one. As already intimated,
some knowledge of the various natural sciences is essential to its suc-
cessful study ; not only by reason of the fact that living matter is sub-
ject to the same chemical and physical laws as non-living matter, but
also because of the intimacy of its relations to its physical environ-
ment, and of the constancy of the reactions between every organism
and its environment.

As a general introduction to the course of medical study now
opened in this college, it has therefore seemed appropriate to devote
an hour to a brief biography of Protoplasm, the universal life-substance
from which all organisms, whether vegetable or animal, originate, and
modifications of which constitute even the most complex tissues of the
highest animal forms.

Though so universally diffused, though the autobiography of pro-
toplasm has been written in the life of every plant and animal since
creation's dawn, it is still a hidden story in some of its earlier chapters.
Perhaps it is the very simplicity of its origin that balks us: we would
fain invoke some supernatural explanation of the growth-force and
the capacity for development which belong to this substance, as dis-
tinct from non-living matter, forgetting that all natural forces are
equally elusive and obscure. Why do certain kinds of matter always
crystallize in certain fixed and characteristic forms? Why, on the
other hand, is protoplasm formless, but capable of endless develop-
ment and change ?

There are certain chemical and physical differences between crys-
tallizable and non-crystallizable substances which, if fully understood,
would no doubt furnish an answer to this question.

Protoplasm, a non-crystallizable substance, is both physically and
chemically of a highly complex composition not determined with ex-
actness, but known to consist mainly of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,
and carbon, variously combined in such proportions as to produce
representatives of three classes of chemical substances — the albumi-
noids, the starches, and the fats — the albuminous constituents largely
predominating in native undifferentiated protoplasm.

With these compounds is associated a considerable though varying
proportion of water, as well as smaller quantities of saline and other
crystalline substances.

Of the molecular structure of living, active protoplasm, nothing
definite is known ; it is, however, probable that the albuminoid matter
of its massive molecule is associated with a complex fat and with some
form of starch ; while the water and the salts may be loosely combined

PROTOPLASM. 363

either physically mingled or perhaps weakly held together by the
feeble chemical affinities which belong to all massive molecules. This
constitutes a slime-like mass which, like all chemical compounds, ex-
hibits certain characteristic reactions by which it is clearly distinguish-
able from certain substances, and known to be closely allied to certain
others.

Protoplasm has the power of absorbing water in varying quanti-
ties, so that it is sometimes soft and nearly fluid, and again hard and
leathery, though ordinarily of a medium consistence and density best
described by the term " slime-like " already employed. It is then a
glairy, tenacious, semi-fluid substance, transparent, and generally col-
orless ; and if not quite the homogeneous, structureless matter which
it was long supposed to be, there is at least an entire absence of differ-
entiation of structure quite comparable to the observed absence of lo-
calization of function. When it acts it acts en masse or indifferently,
sometimes in one portion, sometimes in another, of its substance, for
the production of its simple movements and for the bringing about of
its protean forms. Now all mouth, and anon all stomach, at times all
feet, and again all lungs, it fulfills Dryden's famous description,
" Everything by starts, and nothing long," save that it is ever and
always protoplasm.

Like other albuminous substances, it is coagulable by heat, by al-
cohol, and by mineral acids, and is similarly stained by iodine and by
nitric acid. Living protoplasm possesses also certain fundamental
properties by which it may be distinguished from dead protoplasm.
Prominent among these properties, grouped under the single term
" vital," may be mentioned first, excitability, or, as it is more com-
monly called, " irritability" by which is meant the power of respond-
ing to a stimulus. An amoeba suddenly brought in contact with some
foreign body responds to the stimulus so received by certain charac-
teristic movements.

The movements of protoplasm, however, can not always be thus
traced to some external exciting cause. Watching a specimen beneath
the microscope, portions of the mass may be seen to creep, or rather to
flow, slowly away in fine threads uniting with other threads from dif-
ferent parts of the same mass, thus forming an irregular net-work. Or
perhaps it thrusts out temporary feet indifferently from any part of its
surface by means of which it creeps slowly about, and it draws them
in again, returning to the somewhat globular shape which appears to
belong to its quiescent state. These movements are spontaneous ; that
is, they originate in the mass and result from the essential constitution
of this kind of matter ; therefore protoplasm is described as " auto-
matic " or self-acting, and even as having a will of its own.

The internal changes which bring about these movements are be-
lieved to be identical with those which occur in muscle-tissue under
stimulation, producing the change of form in muscle-fiber known as

364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

contraction ; hence protoplasm may be said to be " contractile" and
this is another of its so-called vital properties.

Protoplasm also feeds upon nutritive material brought into contact
with its surface. This it does by flowing around the substance, what-
ever it may be, which serves for its food, thus inclosing it in a tem-
porary stomach improvised anew for each occasion, and becoming
gradually obliterated as the new material slowly dissolves and is ab-
sorbed, mingling and chemically combining with the already existing
protoplasm, and thenceforth forming a part of its substance. In other
words, certain kinds of dead matter called food are assimilated, con-
verted into living protoplasm by those processes of absorption and
chemical union which constitute nutrition in all living things. Hence,
protoplasm is " assimilative" and this is another of its vital properties.
Side by side with this process of taking in new material and convert-
ing it into its own substance, there is also another process going on —
that of rejection of old, broken-down, effete matter which has not only
become useless to the living protoplasm, but would be injurious if
retained.

The life of protoplasm is thus seen to consist in a double series of
chemical changes, by one of which its substance is constantly renewed
and built up ; by the other, it as constantly breaks down, the products
of decomposition being gradually rejected from the living, ever-fluct-
uating mass, which thus becomes the theatre, the arena, of life.

What is the outcome of this constant play of chemical and phys-
ical forces — this incessant interchange of matter between the mass of
protoplasm and its environment? In other words, what is the mean-
ing of the life thus manifested ? Its significance is this : The produc-
tion and manifestation of new and higher kinds of force than any
belonging to inanimate, inorganic matter.

In the life of protoplasm we behold the dawning of voluntary mo-
tion— of those spontaneous movements especially characteristic of ani-
mals (though shown to a slight extent by plants as well), and exhibited
in the highest degree by man in the thousand muscular adaptations
displayed in his complex mechanism.

But the doctrine of the correlation of forces formulates the fact
that the amount of force in the universe of matter is constant and un-
varying ;. that, as matter is indestructible, so the forces which it mani-
fests are persistent — never increasing, never diminishing. Whence,
then, comes this new and higher kind of force called spontaneous mo-
tion ? It is a law of physics that, as elemental molecules aggregate
to form those which are more complex and massive, the force previ-
ously manifested by the simpler molecules becomes potential or latent,
as it was formerly expressed ; and that in the breaking down of these
more complex molecules, in their return to their former simple state,
this hidden force springs into activity again, not necessarily reappear-
ing, however, as the same kind of force ; there is not only a storing

PROTOPLASM. 365

up of energy, but a transformation, a remolding of it in other and,
in the case under consideration, higher kinds. As the wide and rapid
vibrations which constitute the expansive power of steam are made,
by means of suitable mechanical appliances, to disappear in condensa-
tion and to reappear as locomotion, so the potential forces locked up
in the molecules of protoplasm appear in the breaking down, the de-
composition, of these molecules as spontaneous movements of some
portions of the mass.

The energy expended in the movements of protoplasm is supplied
through the chemical changes going on in its substance, by the break-
ing down of compounds possessing much latent energy into more sim-
ple ones containing less such energy.

These downward chemical changes are mainly processes of oxida-
tion, one of the chief products of oxidation being carbonic-acid gas.
Now, the taking in of oxygen and the giving out of carbonic acid
together constitute respiration ; hence protoplasm is " respiratory " —
another of its vital properties. It breathes, as the fish does, by absorp-
tion of oxygen from its surrounding medium ; but it breathes at the
entire surface of its mass instead of at special parts of its surface, as
in the fish. This is true of vegetable as well as animal protoplasm,
the two being indeed regarded, in all essential points, as identical.

Protoplasm is also " reproductive.'''' Haeckel, in his history of the
discovery of the monera, which consist of little globules of simple
protoplasm, describes their mode of reproduction as follows : " The
little creature divides into two halves, and each of these goes on living
like the original one."

But there is a form of living protoplasm even more simple, if pos-
sible, than the moneron of Professor Haeckel — the Myxomycetoe — of
which a very good description may be found in the inaugural address
of Professor Allman, President of the British Association, in 1879,
published in the October number of " The Popular Science Monthly *
of that year. These organisms consist, during the greater part of
their lives, of simple protoplasm. They may be found in moist places
growing on decaying leaves, rotten wood, etc., etc., over which they
spread in the form of a net-work, exhibiting amoeboid movements, ap-
pearing to be sensitive to the light, and giving other evidences of life.

But we may find a specimen of protoplasm even nearer home than
this. Prick your own fingers, if you choose ; withdraw a drop of liv-
ing blood from the wound, and, having properly diluted it, place it
under your own microscope for observation. Scattered among the
numerous small bodies which give to the blood its brilliant crimson
hue, may be seen a few somewhat larger colorless ones — the leucocytes
or white cells.

These microscopic bodies consist mainly of simple, undifferentiated
protoplasm. They* differ from the monera (first found by Haeckel
floating on the surface of the Mediterranean Sea) in being nucleated ;

3 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that is, they contain a central kernel, the nucleus, which is more dense
than the surrounding protoplasm, and of a slightly different chemical
composition. These bodies, which circulate among the tissues with
the blood forming a part of it, manifest independent movements,
thrusting out and drawing in portions of their mass in true amoeboid
fashion ; they devour solid particles of matter which come in their
way — their smaller comrades, the red corpuscles, not always escaping
their voracity. This they do by flowing around and inclosing them,
as already described. They have also been observed by Klein to mul-
tiply by division, like the monera. The white blood-corpuscle, identi-
cal, apparently, with the amoeba, which may be found in the standing
water of pools attached to the surface of leaves, and in many other
similar situations, is a true cell — the morphological unit from which
all organisms, whether low or high, originate, and by whose multipli-
cation, development, and differentiation, all the tissues of their bodies
are produced.

The history of the growth and development of every animal —
whether moner, mollusk, or man — is a history of cell-multiplication
and cell-differentiation ; and the most highly endowed individual of
them all possesses no property, no faculty, no power, which is not at
last foreshadowed in the formless, structureless, protoplasmic cell from
which they are all alike derived. Is the nervous tissue of man in the
highest degree irritable and automatic — that is, sensitive and self-act-
ing ? So is protoplasm, though in an almost infinitely less degree. Is
muscular tissue eminently contractile, serving for the production of
the varied and complicated movements of all parts of the body ?
Protoplasm is also capable of slight spontaneous motions of its entire
mass. Are the various glands of the body actively secretory and ex-
cretory ? So is protoplasm within the narrow limits of its chemical
necessities. Equally, also, with the highest tissues and organisms, it
reproduces its kind.

The complex body of any one of the higher animals may, then, be
considered as consisting of certain tissues, each of which has not only
been derived from protoplasm but each of which corresponds, in its
perfected function, to some one of the fundamental properties of pro-
toplasm, to the special manifestation of which it is devoted for the
benefit of the organism as a whole, on the important principle first
spoken of by Milne-Edwards as the physiological division of labor.
Division of labor among the tissues, however, as among the members
of a community, has its limits. While every tissue has some leading
quality, some special function, developed to the highest degree in the
interests of the organism as a whole (contraction in muscle-tissue, se-
cretion in gland-tissue, and so on), yet each tissue retains in its own
private interests, as it were, vestiges of all the other protoplasmic prop-
erties belonging to their common ancestor. Hence, all the tissues are
assimilative to the extent of keeping up their own nutrition ; all are

PROTOPLASM. 367

to some degree irritable, all are capable of reproduction of their own
kind of cells, and so on.

Thus, from the beginning of his career, as a microscopic speck of
living matter, to its close, although he figures as the most highly en-
dowed and transcendent of beings, man, biologically considered, is
protoplasm, protoplasm, only protoplasm ; and, whatever his perfec-
tions, regarded as a member of the animal series, he has the high
privilege of knowing if not of feeling himself the brother of all living
things. With Job, he may say unto the worm, " Thou art my mother
and my sister." " Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"

" What, then, is protoplasm ? " we are inclined to ask, almost at
the close of our attempt at a description.

Professor Huxley has called it "the physical basis of life" — an
expression which has become classic in the scientific world — while life,
in its turn, is defined as a property, or congeries of properties, of
protoplasm. Pflttger has naively said, " Albumen lives " — that is,
becomes protoplasm — " when it begins to take in oxygen " ; and Fos-
ter, with equal simplicity, remarks, " The whole secret of life may
almost be said to be wrapped up in the occult properties of certain
nitrogen compounds."

Lewes, in his own graphic style, has said, "The organism and its
environment are the two factors, of which life is the product."

Protoplasm is the agent by which the energy of non-living matter
is converted into that of living matter — the sacred fire which is never
permitted to go out, but perpetually glows on the altar of Nature, fed
by the vestal forces of the environment, and burning ever higher and
higher through those twin influences, heredity and the survival of the
fittest.

This true " vital spark " is not only transmitted from generation to
generation in the entire animal world, each reproducing its own kind,
but it has been handed on, through vast geological ages, from branch
to branch of the animal tree, since that far-off period when the " dawn-
animal " first left its imprint in the hardening mud of its slimy bed at
the bottom of a vast ocean whose waters were still under the influence
of the earth's heated interior, when this ocean was overhung by a sky
dark with clouds so dense that day and night were scarcely distinguish-
able, and shutting in an atmosphere heavy with carbonic-acid gas.

The relations observed between the fossil animals thus far discov-
ered, the existing animal series, and the embryonic forms of all ani-
mals at the various stages of development of their respective embryos,
are most significant. The earliest, oldest known fossil (the Eozobn
Canadense, or " dawn-animal," the genuineness of which, though de-
nied by some, is more than probable) belongs to the same class of or-
ganisms as the moneron and the amoeba of to-day, which stand at the
bottom of the scale of animal life ; and the geological ladder in its
ascent bears upon its successive rounds fossils which correspond, with

3 68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

more or less exactness, to the ascending series of now living forms ;
showing, however, in addition to these, many connecting links between
existing classes, which, in the progress of time and development, have
diverged widely from each other ; while the modern science of em-
bryology as clearly shows that the development of the human being —
beginning in a formless, structureless, microscopic speck of protoplasm,
comparable in all appreciable respects to the " dawn-animal " of the
Palaeozoic period, and to the moneron and amoeba of to-day — consists
in the ascent, step by step, with a good degree of exactness, both of
the geological ladder and of the trunk of the animal tree whose branches
represent all existing forms of animal life, whose roots are deeply im-
bedded in the inorganic crust of the earth, and at whose apex appears
the genus homo — the crown and consummate flower of organic devel-
opment. In other words, the individual development of every human
embryon is a brief resume (in which, it is true, some of the chapters
are suppressed and others greatly condensed) of the history of the de-
velopment of animal life on the globe, from its infancy to the present
day.

In 1862 Professor Graham pointed out the importance of the two
states of matter, described by him as crystalloid and colloid^ — crystal-
like and jelly-like. He says : "The colloidal state is, in fact, a dy-
namical state of matter ; the colloid possesses energy, and may be
regarded as the primary source of the forces appearing in the phenom-
ena of vitality."

Although certain colloids have a very simple chemical composition
(as silica, for example, which, ordinarily crystalloid, is capable of ex-
isting in a colloidal state), the molecular constitution of the colloids in
general is undoubtedly highly complex. The molecule of albumen (a
typical colloid closely resembling protoplasm), while it consists of but
six different chemical elements, is estimated as containing several
hundred atoms of these elements, which thus render the molecule an
extremely massive one.

Now this massiveness of its molecules confers upon protoplasm a
certain mechanical stability favorable to the preservation of organic
forms ; at the same time endowing it with the chemical instability
essential for the constant exchanges of material which constitute nu-
trition and are characteristic of all living matter.

These massive molecules are also reservoirs of vast amounts of en-
ergy of the kind long known as potential — a term which, though likely
to vanish, not into thin air but into the thinner ether, is nevertheless
a very convenient one. This potential energy, stored up during the
slow processes of plant-life and appropriated by animals in the form of
food, is liberated or manifested as actual energy in the decomposition
of their tissues — that is, in the gradual breaking down of tissue-cells,
by means of which the animal functions are performed, and carbonic
acid, urea, and other excretory compounds are produced.

PROTOPLASM. 369

But a large part of the tissues which make up the bodies of adult
animals have, in a great measure, lost their resemblance to the proto-
plasm from which they were derived, through an extreme development
which has resulted in tissues quite unlike each other — some of them,
as the bones, for example, evidently serving a purely mechanical pur-
pose in the body ; and it may be said that a comparatively small pro-
portion of the tissues of the body are, strictly speaking, living. Pro-
fessor Beale classifies all the material of the tissues, and even of the
ultimate cells from which the tissues are derived, under two heads, as
formative and formed — that is, matter which has the power of pro-
ducing new matter like itself out of pabulum or food, and that which
has no such power, but which has been produced by the former. He
considers that a muscle-fiber is not, like the protoplasm which produced
it, living ; and that the nerve-fiber also consists of formed material of
which protoplasm is the builder.

In accordance with this view, only the lowest — that is, the nutri-
tive— processes can be regarded as truly vital. The higher functions
performed by the perfected tissues — the bones, the muscles, and the
entire system of nerve-fibers and nerve-centers, including the brain —
are mechanical rather than vital ; the character of the function in each
case depending on the character of the mechanism, i. e., on the par-
ticular relations of the parts concerned.

Muscle-tissue, for example, has but a single and simple physio-
logical property, the power of change of form called contraction, and
even this is a function of formed material rather than of living mat-
ter ; but, through the mechanical relations of bones and tendons, of
joints and ligaments, of associated and opposing individual muscular
bundles, all the complicated and varied movements of the body are
brought about.

The action of muscle is one and the same, whether it be expended
in the grosser movements of locomotion, in the finer manipulations of
the skilled artisan and the musician, or in the still more delicate ad-
justments of the vocal cords, by means of which the exquisite modu-
lations, almost infinite in variety, of the voice of a Patti or a Campa-
nini are produced.

These various adjustments are evidently mechanical in their nat-
ure. The so-called vital processes — processes identical with those
taking place in the simplest animal that lives, and in the very grass
beneath our feet, perform a comparatively humble part in the produc-
tion of the vast results. The vital processes are concerned in the
building up of the tissues and organs produced by and from proto-
plasm out of the food supplied to it ; and the chemical changes in-
volved in the breaking down of the tissues furnish the initial force in
each case ; but the actual forces manifested are due to transformations
of this initial force brought about by the complicated mechanism which
this force serves to set in operation.
vol. xxi. — 24

37o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The powers and possibilities of protoplasm may be crudely com-
pared to those of steam, the expansive property of which may be
observed in a simple apparatus for the grinding of coffee, for example,
or in the operations of a magnificent Corliss engine, by which all the
complicated machinery of an entire Exposition may be set in motion.
The steam has precisely the same properties in the two cases, but the
resulting forces differ in proportion to the complexity and multiplicity
of the relations of the parts of which the different mechanisms are
respectively composed.

In the study of the highly complex mechanism, the human body —
which constitutes the study of medicine — all the powers and proper-
ties of matter must be duly considered and taken into account, for all
are concerned in the production of its forces and in the performance
of its functions ; not one is violated or turned out of its natural course,
but all combine in a harmony more complete than is manifested by
any other known combination of materials and forces. Heterogene-
ousness the most extreme, complexity the most intricate, actions and
reactions the most delicately balanced, all unite, in the play of the
forces of the body, in the production and manifestation of its varied
powers.

The study of science in any of its numerous departments is intrin-
sically elevating and ennobling if it be pursued in the true scientific
spirit, viz., in the desire and search for truth for truth's own sake ; and,
while the pursuit of medicine has its practical side in preparing its
votaries for the service of suffering and sick humanity — perchance for
making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk — it
also broadens and enriches their own individual characters and lives,
since it leads them into the green pastures by the still waters of the
eternal truths of nature, at the same time bringing them into the still
higher experiences of sympathy and charity toward all mankind.

-++>-

THE MECHANICS OF INTEKMITTENT SPKHSTGS.

By Dr. OTTO WALTEEHOFEE.

THE springs called thermal springs are found in all latitudes, at
various elevations above the sea, and in most of the geological
formations. The word thermal does not, however, denote a spring of
any particular degree of temperature, and is far from signifying that
the springs to which it is applied are all equally warm ; for any spring
is thermal, the water of which is warmer than the mean annual tem-
perature of the place where it occurs. In the equatorial regions, where
the mean annual temperature is about 80°, a thermal spring should
have a temperature of about 85°, while in the northern parts of the

THE MECHANICS OF INTERMITTENT SPRINGS. 371

earth, as, for example, at Yakutsk, in Siberia, where the year's tem-
perature does not exceed 13°, it need be only a little above that. The
waters of thermal springs maintain an equable temperature, and must
therefore come out of depths in the earth at which the variations in
the temperature of the air exert no influence. According to Boussin-
gault, this depth in the tropics is only a little more than one or two
feet, but between 48° and 52° of north latitude it is between sixty-six
and ninety-three feet below the surface. Besides the springs that are
called thermal, many springs are found the temperature of which ex-
ceeds the highest mean temperature of the year, and are called warm
springs. Examples are the spring at Carlsbad, 167° ; that of Wies-
baden, 158° ; those of Baden-Baden, 154° to 111°, etc. The depth
from which the waters come may be approximately calculated by the
rule that the temperature increases one degree for every ninety feet
below the surface. Hence the water of the bubbling spring at Carls-
bad is supposed to come from a depth of seven thousand three hun-
dred feet.

A third class of springs, the boiling springs, geysers, or hot springs,
whose temperature is near the boiling-point of water, are peculiar in
respect to the places where they appear. They are found only in vol-
canic regions ; are numerous in Iceland, where there are more than a
hundred of them ; on the North Island of New Zealand, where they
are most abundant in the neighborhood of the Roto Mahana, or Hot
Lake ; and near the Yellowstone Lake, the Fire-hole and the Madison
Rivers, in the region of the Wind River Mountains, in the United
States, where some eight hundred of them are grouped within a cer-
tain well-defined area.

Among the hot springs, those which are intermittent, or the flow
of which is uneven, are regarded with particular interest. Their waters
are of a crystal clearness, with a slight tinge of green, and contain in
solution considerable quantities of silicic acid, which frequently is de-
posited, in consequence of the evaporation of the water or the lowering
of its temperature, as sinter. The most thorough investigations of the
phenomena of intermittent springs have been made at the great
geyser at the foot of the Bjarnaf ell in Iceland. Sartorius von Walters-
hausen,* Descloiseaux, f and Bunsen, J have made extensive observa-
tions upon them, from the results of which, and of their own observa-
tions, Mackenzie, Bunsen, and, more recently, O. Lang, have formed
theories respecting the mechanical causes of the intermittent flow.

The-Great Geyser is situated at a height of one hundred and ten
metres (three hundred and fifty-seven feet) above the sea. The part
accessible to observation consists of a straight cylinder, R, lined with
siliceous sinter, S, Fig. 1, about three metres (or ten feet) in diameter,

* " Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island," 1847.

f " Competes Rendus," tome xxiii, 1846.

% " Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie," Bd. kii.

372

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 1.

and twenty-three and a half metres (seventy-six and a half feet) deep,
which widens out above into a tunnel-shaped basin, B, from two to
three metres (six and a half to ten feet) deep, and seventeen to twenty
metres (fifty-five to sixty and one half feet) in horizontal extent. The

walls of the basin are formed of a,
cone of siliceous sinter, S, from six
to nine metres (twenty to thirty
feet) high, and about sixty -five
metres (more than two hundred
feet) broad. The water of the gey-
ser is crystal-clear, with a greenish
tint, and flows, except immediately
after an eruption, steadily over the
rim of the basin. A double mo-
tion may be perceived in the col-
umn of water inside of the cylinder.
A hot stream ascends from the bot-
tom in the axis of the cylinder,
while the cooler water descends by
the sides, but only to about half-
way down, for it there unites with the rising hot current and ascends
again to the surface. The temperature of the water is 179° at the
surface of the basin ; rises at the bottom of the basin to 192°, and
rises in the bottom of the cylinder to 251° and 260°. The peculiarity
of the intermittent streams consists in the fact that their waters mixed
with steam are forcibly thrown up in huge jets at longer or shorter
intervals. At the Great Geyser, jets of steam, accompanied by detona-
tions raising the water to the height of about ten feet, appear in
different parts of the basin at intervals of from one and a half to two
hours. At intervals of from twenty-four to thirty hours, a column
of water, mixed with steam, rises over the whole extent of the cylinder
and the basin, with a sound as of distant thunder, to a height of from
twenty-five to thirty metres (eighty to ninety-three feet), and scatters
clouds of spray. After an eruption of this kind, the duration of which
is about ten minutes, the basin and cylinder are empty ; they are
gradually filled up again in the course of from four to six hours, after
which the processes described above are repeated. The loss of water
occasioned by the eruption and overflow is made up for by side-
streams, a part of which, W, being near the surface, probably bring in
cold water; others, W, entering at the bottom, water of a higher tem-
perature than the boiling-point.

The following theories have been advanced in explanation of the
periodical eruptions of the Great Geyser, and of the phenomena of in-
termittent springs generally :

According to Mackenzie's theory, a hollow space, b, Fig. 2, exists
in the interior of the earth wherever an intermittent spring occurs,

THE MECHANICS OF INTERMITTENT SPRINGS. 373

the walls of which are formed of thick stone, free from penetrating
clefts. Water-ways entering it from above and from the sides bring
in cool waters ; while other streams bring up from below water heated
to above the boiling-point, or steam from the volcanic foci. The
inferior conducting power of the rock-masses, inclosing the chamber

Fig. 2.— Mackenzie's Theory op Eruption.

and the stream-channels, prevents any material diminution of the tem-
perature of the steam and the water, so that the chamber, b, becomes
filled with hot water and steam. By virtue of its levity, the latter
collects in the upper part of the chamber, while the water covers the
bottom, and at the same time, as it is added to by the constant inflow
from the canals which enter the chamber, b, rises and shuts up the tube
at a. The steam is thus deprived of an outlet, and, since it is con-
tinually compressed into a smaller space by the constantly increasing
mass of water, is added to by the entrance of new steam, and is heated
to a higher temperature by the heat brought in with the hot water
that keeps flowing in ; it on its side exercises upon the surface.of the
water in the chamber a pressure that, increasing every moment,
gradually raises the water in the tube, c, and causes an overflow over
the rim of the basin, d. Finally, the pressure of the inclosed steam
becomes so powerful as to overcome the absolute weight of the mass
of water in- the tube, c, and throw it up strongly and suddenly in
fountain-like spouts. After the steam in b has relieved itself, and the
pressure on the water has thereby been diminished, a becomes again
closed up by the rushing back of the water from the tube and the
flow of water from the chamber, and the conditions requisite to an-
other eruption are produced. The temperature of the water in the
chamber and in the tube rises continually between one eruption and
another, and reaches in many places the degree at which steam is
formed. This is the case in the lower part of the tube at a, where,
the water nearer the chamber having a higher temperature than in
other parts of c, the steam rises in c and causes the bubblings which
appear in the basin at intervals of from one and a half to two hours.
This theory, which supposes a subterranean cavity acting as a kind

374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of steam-boiler, has now very few adherents, since Bunsen has given
an explanation of the phenomenon that makes the supposition of a
cavity in the interior of the earth unnecessary.

Bunsen gave his sagacious explanation of the periodical eruptions
of the Great Geyser after observations and researches which he him-
self undertook in the year 1846. He found that the temperature in
the geyser-tube, R, Fig. 1, is in a state of continuous increase between
one eruption and another. Thus, if the whole column of water, R, is
divided into layers of a specified thickness, one of these layers, for
example, at a certain depth below the surface would show immediately
after an eruption a temperature of 187°, which would rise after an
interval to 188°, and then to 189°, etc. The more deeply situated lay-
ers would have a higher temperature at first, which would increase in
the same manner. In no layer, however, would the temperature at
which water is changed into steam be indicated before an eruption*
The passage of water into steam — that is, its boiling — does not take
place under all circumstances at 212°, but only when the pressure on
its surface is equal to the weight of one atmosphere, or fifteen pounds
to the square inch. If the surface in question is exposed to a lower or
a higher pressure than this, water will boil at a correspondingly lower
or higher temperature. Thus the boiling-point is depressed as we
ascend mountains and enter regions where the pressure of the su-
perincumbent atmosphere is less than fifteen pounds to the square
inch. Conditions also exist in nature in which the boiling-point is
raised to more than 212°, and may be found, for example, in the inter-
mittent springs. To return to the tube R in the Great Geyser (Fig. 1),
the water in which we have divided into a number of horizontal lay-
ers: a greater weight is put upon each successive layer in the descend-
ing series, since each one has to bear the weight of all the layers above
it in addition to that of the atmosphere. Water, the temperature of
which exceeds 212°, is called superheated. It has the property of being
convertible instantly into steam as soon as the weight laid upon it is
removed. Bunsen turned this physical behavior of water to the expla-
nation of the eruptions of the Great Geyser. The water brought up in
the streams (W, Fig. 1) is in a superheated condition on account of
the depth from which it comes and the pressure to which it is exposed.
It is not, however, converted into steam on reaching R, because that is
prevented by the weight of the column of water above. The layers of
water above it are, however, heated by convection from it, so that
they become specifically lighter, and originate the axial current toward
the surface. As soon as it reaches the surface, the water is cooled by
radiation, and a part of it falls back in the shape of the downward
currents along the sides of the tube, causing a depression of tempera-
ture, and a corresponding delay in the formation of steam. But these
currents are weak, their water is gradually becoming warmer as it
gets farther from the surface, so that they only reach about the middle

THE MECHANICS OF INTERMITTENT SPRINGS. 375

of the tube R, and fail to prevent the temperature of the whole water-
column from finally rising under the influence of the constant flow of
superheated water from the streams, W. The strata of water in the
middle of the tube finally reach the temperature of the boiling-point
at that depth. This water is then converted into steam, and thereby
the pressure upon the lower strata is diminished. Then the strata of
water still deeper in the tube are also converted into steam, and this
throws the masses of water above it energetically out of the geyser-
tube. The water being cooled somewhat in the air, a part of it
falls back in the tube, and, producing a reduction of temperature,
causes a short interruption of the formation of steam, but that is re-
sumed again as the superheated water flows in, and continues till the
whole column has been so reduced in temperature, by the water that
falls back, that the liquid strata no longer reach the boiling-point
corresponding with the pressure upon them, and the eruption ceases.

According to the theory of Lang, the Great Geyser occupies a space
in the interior of the earth in shape somewhat like Fig. 3. The tube

Fig. 3.

R, by which the waters are connected with the surface, is bent upward
at x, to be bent downward again at y into the tube Z, which, reaching
the depths of the earth, is connected with the channels V. These
channels conduct to Z hot water mixed with steam, while R is supplied
by the streams S, which lie near the surface, with cold water. The
geyser-tube becomes stopped at x by the accumulation from these two
sources, and the steam rising from Z, deprived of an outlet, collects at
y. Its elasticity being augmented by the masses of steam that keep
coming up, and by the continued accession of heat from Z, it forces
away the water that is in contact with it, and gradually fills the con-
necting passage x y\ and a part of Z, while it interposes a separation

376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

between the water-columns R and Z. The water in R becomes heated
by contact with the imprisoned steam, and will obviously attain a
higher temperature in the lower than in the upper part of the geyser-
tube R. Superheated water is produced in R as well as in Z, because
the weight of the water in R and the upward pressure of the water,
and the confined steam in Z, produce pressure and counter-pressure.
As steam and water continue to rise from the channels V, the level of
the water in x y is depressed, for the steam can exercise its force only
in the direction of R. As the expansive force of the steam increases,
a greater quantity of water is driven over the rim of the basin till the
force of the steam becomes so great as to exceed the weight of the
column of water in R. Single puffs of steam escape, the elastic force
of the vapor is slightly diminished, and a sudden development of steam
is produced from the superheated water in Z, causing the whole col-
umn of water in R to be thrown forcibly into the air. The super-
heated water which has got into R during this movement is likewise
converted into steam, increasing the effect. The conditions required
by the last theory for the origin of an intermittent spring exist in nat-
ure. Volcanic forces produce suitable crevices, and the water, leaving
siliceous deposits upon the walls, makes these clefts steam-tight.

The time which elapses between two successive eruptions varies in
different intermittent springs. It depends upon the length and breadth
of the whole geyser-shaft, and the distance to which it penetrates to-
ward the interior of the earth. The temperature of the superheated
water and the amount of steam that is formed from it are also largely
dependent on the size of the spring. Thus, Strokr and the Little Gey-
ser, intermittent springs in Iceland, also lying at the foot of Bjarna-
f ell, have much stronger eruptions than the Great Geyser. The inter-
mittent springs of the North Island of New Zealand are distinguished
by their beautiful snow-white deposits of siliceous sinter, within which
the water of the basin appears blue. The most imposing of known
geysers are those of North America, of which the Giant shoots its jet
to the height of two hundred and fifty feet.

-♦♦♦-

A PREMATURE DISCUSSION.

By Mrs. Z. D. UNDEEHILL.

IN her clever article upon " Science and the Woman Question," in
"The Popular Science Monthly" of March, 1882, Miss Hardaker
arrives at the definite conclusion that woman is and must necessarily
for ever remain the intellectual inferior of man. In view of the im-
portance of this conclusion, it will perhaps be worth while for a critic
committed to neither side of the question to point out several flaws in

A PREMATURE DISCUSSION. 377

Miss Hardaker's argument, which show that, whether or not her final
conclusion be correct, the proofs and reasoning which she adduces to
sustain it do not fulfill that purpose.

In the first place, Miss Hardaker brings forward prominently the
argument that, as the brain of man is larger than that of woman, there-
fore his intellectual ability must be greater. But she omits to first
prove that size is an essential attribute of superiority. Some of the
most intelligent members of the animal kingdom have also, as far as
actual size is concerned, the smallest brains. Excluding man, no other
animals have elaborated for themselves such complicated social sys-
tems as have ants and bees. There are many similar facts which tend
to show that size of brain has only a relative instead of an independent
value, and scientific investigations have not yet been carried far enough
to establish the physiological bases upon which this relative value of
brains is to be estimated. It is quite possible that it may ultimately
be found to depend upon factors of which we as yet know nothing.

The argument that, as man has larger stomach and lungs than
woman, he must consequently have more energy and more mental
ability, is equally without a base in any such accumulation of exact
facts as must always be the only foundation for trustworthy induc-
tions. The fact that the elephant and horse have also larger stomach
and lungs than those of man has not enabled them to surpass human
beings in that complex evolution of mental and moral qualities which
we agree to denominate superiority. The real material causes from
which such superiority proceeds we have yet to discover ; and, while
it looks at present as though relative size of body and brain might be
one among them, we have no such positive proof of this as would war-
rant resting an argument upon it.

As to the other arguments founded upon the supposed inferiority
of intellectual vigor in women, owing to the discharge of their peculiar
physiological functions, it is only necessary to repeat that the solution
of this question involves a knowledge of the complicated workings
and balances of the human system which we do not yet possess.

The argument for the intellectual superiority of man, based upon
the supposed superiority of his intellectual achievements, shows the
same unscientific disposition to draw conclusions before investigating
facts. The mass of the female sex has been engaged since the begin-
ning of civilization in two functions — the regulating of household life
and the training of children — both undoubtedly involving intellectual
activity.. Reflection must make it obvious that it would be impossible
to arrive at a correct conclusion as to woman's mental powers by com-
paring her achievements with those of man in fields which, as a sex,
she has never entered. In order to rightly estimate her brain-power,
it would be necessary to discover by long-extended and carefully col-
lated research the amount of intellectual ability involved in the dis-
charge of those functions to which her energies and intelligence have

378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been directed. The observations of one person are of no value as a
foundation for argument ; but it would perhaps here be pertinent for
the writer to mention that, in her own experience of life, she has seen
women who have not impressed her as inferior in mental ability to the
men with whom they associated, and to whom the exercise of their
duties, as the heads of households and the guardians of childhood (in-
volving the many questions, abstract and practical, which these duties
do involve), has seemed to afford scope for the greatest intellectual
activity.

Considering the want of knowledge, of all but the most frag-
mentary facts, which meets us at the threshold of this question, it
would seem that all the arguments on either side are wasted breath,
and that those advocates deserve reprobation who would throw a false
veil of scientific reasoning over their ignorance. It is a sufficient sign
that no real study of the question has yet been made, when we find on.
both sides suppositions and feelings brought forward as arguments.

The only way in which such a problem can be properly approached
is by the scientific methods of study which are now applied to other
subjects : the painstaking accumulation, from all available sources and
by many collaborators, of all the statistics and facts bearing upon it,
the patient search for such truths connected with it as we are still
ignorant of, and the application to all alike of unprejudiced investiga-
tion and strict logic. This has never yet been attempted.

-♦**-

THE EELATION OF MUSIC TO MENTAL PEOGEESS.

By S. AUSTEN PEAECE, Mus. Doc, Oxon.

THE nature of music is threefold, like that of man to whom it ap-
peals. Therefore, it may be regarded as a sensuous art, in that
it delights the ear ; as a psychologic art, in that it records the emo-
tions, and requires mental operations on the part of the hearer for
its due appreciation ; and, as it involves agreements, differences, sym-
metries, complexities, etc., and order in apparent disorder, it may be
regarded as a branch of science closely allied to mathematics.

The distances between the holes of a flute, the tension of a drum-
head, the lengths of organ-pipes, the rapidity of vibrations, the inter-
vals between recurring accents — in fact, all that may be surveyed and
expressed in numbers in this art — give evidence of the mental power of
the musician, irrespective of all considerations respecting the imagina-
tion or creative power in originating compositions.

The music of a people may be considered in direct relation to
their supersensuous natures. From this point of view alone, strongly
marked differences may be noted ; for, by comparing modern Italian

THE RELATION OF MUSIC TO MENTAL PROGRESS. 379

music with German, it is at once seen that the latter is developed more
highly in an intellectual sense.

Our modern music is styled a new art, chiefly because it requires
advanced mental powers of a special kind on the part of composers
and auditors. Instead of being a succession of monotones, it is a
complex web of many tones, that the hearer must analyze to under-
stand and enjoy. In the ordinary church-quartet there are four such
interwoven threads ; in a symphony by Beethoven, many more. An
elaborate tonal plexus demands from the listener considerable mental
effort, unless he has acquired by study a "polyphonic ear," or the
power of perceiving the relationships of all the parts heard simultane-
ously, as clearly as one, looking down upon a ball-room scene, may
perceive the symmetrical forms of a mazy dance.

It is interesting to consider the birth of a new art, and gratifying
to note that our modern civilization is marked by so rare an event.
We need not, therefore, lament that at the Renaissance no specimens
of Greek music were forthcoming ; for these might have influenced
the early composers, whose special duty it was to strive to express the
new thought and feeling of the time, and of the Latin and Germanic
races, not of Greeks or Orientals. When the mental sleep of the
dark ages passed to the waking dream or semi-consciousness of the
middle ages that led to the complete awakening, there was great pro-
ductive activity in all branches of art.*

But, whereas, in architecture, painting, poetry, dancing, sculpture,
dramatic representation, etc., models of classic antiquity were at hand,
in the department of music nothing came to light but the didactic
treatises of the Greeks. These works, which were printed in Holland
in the original text and studied carefully by musicians, failed to ex-
ercise any marked influence on the art, for there were no actual com-
positions found that would illustrate the theories so carefully elab-
orated. Our modern art, therefore, is no Euphorion, born of a Faust
and Helen— of Christian and pagan ancestry — for there was no artistic
dualism in music at the Renaissance.

Although the Church had, in the Bible, a foundation for poetical
and musical art, it neglected Hebraisms. Being reared on classic
ground, its first hymns and poetic forms were Greek and not Oriental.
But this early Church music could not supplant that which mission-
aries found in Western countries. Strong as the Church was, in many
senses, in those days, it could not hinder the introduction and recogni-
tion of. the new polyphonic style. In this one particular it seemed
powerless to dominate over the free spirit of man that thus formed
for itself its own mode of expression. The musician was left un-
hampered in his actions, while throughout the Renaissance there was
a constant struggle between the styles of the mediaeval artists and

* See article in " The Popular Science Monthly " on the " Imperfections of Modern
Harmony," vol. xvi, p. 5l6.

380 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the classic models of antiquity in all the other arts. To this day,
music has, in a technical sense, remained free from all admixture with
relics of the dead past ; and, although some of these may be hereafter
discovered, it is doubtful if they would prove more than merely inter-
esting to those thinkers who are ever desirous of enlarging their con-
ceptions of the art by studying that of other peoples.

Such specimens could hardly have any vital power, however high-
ly they might be prized, being too foreign to the experiences and
requirements of our age to find willing ears. And this not because
sympathy with the emotions expressed would not be accorded, or that
the few sounds of the lyre would not prove sensuously agreeable, but
because the structure of the music, in the third sense mentioned above,
would prove so strange.*

We can not here define the Greek scales, nor contrast Occidental
music with Oriental, Gothic cathedrals with Grecian temples, dramas
of Shakespeare or Kalidisa with those of Sojxhocles, as regards relative
complexity and simplicity, but must proceed to point out that as civili-
zation arose in the West, music at least kept pace with it, if it was
not greatly in advance of the intellect of the time, as it is now, when
even Beethoven's latest quartets remain as sealed books. It has been
noted that it was an important factor in the general Western illumi-
nation, and was most truly of it, while the other arts were represented
by specimens that were in it but not entirely of it. These arts of
visible representation of known things requiring less mental power
than the invention of new forms that have no counterparts in nature or
geometry, it does not appear strange that, while painting, sculpture, and
architecture attained highest perfection long ago, music continues to
make rapid advances in several directions, to open new schools, to pass
through various phases — now being developed in one direction, now in
another — that this art is expected to reveal hitherto unknown possi-
bilities in the future. We have already grown beyond the deification
of the bodily man, and seek the mystic inner soul. This makes the
art of music so greatly in requisition. Our successors may go deeper
still, and altogether cease to make reproductions of tangible things.

The relation of musical art to literature and general progress may
be seen illustrated in the recent history of Germany. After the Thirty
Tears' War, which reduced her to material, mental, and moral poverty,
she began to establish the Protestant religion, and to try to form into
one coherent state a number of small principalities. Her literature
was the expression of the national spirit, and yet helped to form this
spirit. Luther invented the Choral, which remains to this day, not
only the song of the Church, but the national song of the whole united
people, their political song, their war-song, and one of the mightiest
engines for developing in the minds and hearts of the people the sen-

* See article on " Oriental Music," vol. xviii, p. 241, in " The Popular Science
Monthly."

THE RELATION OF MUSIC TO MENTAL PROGRESS. 381

timent of universal brotherhood. " Nun danket alie Gott," which won
the battle of Leuthen, during the late Franco-German War, proved its
influence over the people to be unimpaired.

Music and literature thence went hand in hand down to the school
of the Romanticists, in which the middle ages became the ideal, and
appeals were made to the national pride of the German. Then Wag-
ner produced art-works that are similarly founded on national myths,
and are more ambitious in scope and intention, as well as in musical
and dramatic structure, than any works of his predecessors. Let us
now take a broader historic but a narrower musical survey.

The Church accepted the musical teachings of Pythagoras and the
astronomical theory of Ptolemy ; and thus, for some unknown reason,
progress was retarded. When the world accepted what the Church
rejected, progress began in both sciences. For Ptolemy had demon-
strated a new "section of the canon/' by which our modern major
scale was scientifically determined, and justified, and which made our
harmony possible.

The invention of counterpoint in the north of England in mediae-
val times, and the subsequent practice of canonic forms of imitation,
led to the general treatment of music on scientific methods by com-
posers, however it obtained among the populace. In China we find
music among: the uneducated classes as unlike that of the musical
mandarins as can well be imagined.

Subsequently, the discovery of harmony in nature opened a new
realm to the musician. It was a revelation. It provided him with a
scale of sounds analogous to that of color in the spectrum, and he
soon determined the proportions mathematically. Hence a new sci-
ence arose within the art of music, by which the composer no longer
proceeded by a kind of " rule of thumb," but with a perfect knowl-
edge of the ratios of speeds of vibrations, at which sounds would
combine to form chords, as chemists after John Dalton learned to
make new compounds unerringly.

The musician followed up the soft whisperings of Xature, until he
found that each tone was attended by myriads of other tones as truly
as attendant planets, asteroids, etc., surround a primary sun.

Heretofore music was made to conform to certain laws of propor-
tion when viewed horizontally on the paper, but now it was made to
conform to another series of laws, when regarded horizontally ; the
art of fugue was seen to be one of the greatest triumphs of the
humammind, and the great universities in England instituted exami-
nations for degrees in music, making the projection of an eight-parted
fugue or canon in silence the supreme test of the mental prowess of
each candidate.

It is thought that the opera was intended to be a resuscitation of
the Greek drama, in which all was to be elevated and made musical.
The music, however} differed but little from the prevailing style. It

382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is also thought that at the Crusades, when we learned so much from
the Arabians, in mathematics, etc., we also acquired their musical
systems, which are marvels of ingenuity and complexity ; but these
were utterly rejected, and the Arabians, on their part, refused to
admire the little we could then accomplish with the new science of
harmony. So little did our music take its rise in the East (although
all our instruments originally came from thence), that the Irish harps
and harpers were sent to Italy, where they gained the praises of Dante
and Galileo. The Italians subsequently sent their sons westward, to
learn counterpoint, as Americans now study in Europe.

In early times music was much more troublesome to learn than it
is now. The instruments were difficult to tune, and keep in tune ; and
the notes had to be identified by the ear. Now, a deaf or ignorant
performer may provide himself with the tonal system ready-made and
symmetrically laid out as on a piano-forte finger-board. The complex
nature of the new art demanded such a simplification, and some ar-
rangement by which an executant might operate many notes at the
same time. The advances made in the physical sciences generally, and
especially in pneumatics, hydraulics, electricity, and acoustics, aided in
the improvement of organs.

The mere act of reducing the musical dream to positive statement
in writing marks a mental advance, especially when it is remembered
that this notation has proved capable of recording conveniently the
most highly elaborated forms of modern compositions. It is far
simpler than the Chinese notation, and more direct than tablature,
which gave directions how to find the notes, instead of indicating
them directly by letters that form a kind of algebra. With this nota-
tion the musician has been able to avail himself of the printing-press,
and thus to spread his apparently indescribable imaginings broadcast
throughout Christendom. Singularly enough, his harmonies are still
unappreciated elsewhere.

The study of comparative psychology has been followed up.
Hence we now find in the works of Chopin an ideal reflection of the
sorrows of the Polish people, long suffering from quarrels not of their
own making ; and, in the passionate music of the Italian, a marked
contrast with the deeper-felt expressions of his Teutonic neighbor.
Modern introspection, as in Byron's " Manfred " and Goethe's " Faust,"
finds its counterpart in the overtures of Schumann and Wagner, whose
" Faust Overture " is acknowledged to be a portraiture of a definite
soul-state.

Although the drama has declined, modern music has become pre-
eminently dramatic. A symphony by Beethoven is an idealized form
of the Shakespearean drama, rather than that of the Greeks ; for it has
not a mere trio of parts, but many ; and a complex scheme of plots
and counter-plots, incidental passages, etc. Its voices are persons (in
the sense of personare, "to sound through"), and they are heard

DR. GUNTHER ON THE STUDY OF FISHES. 383

simultaneously, not merely consecutively. The Wagnerian opera,
therefore, that employs both visible and invisible characters, shows an
advance worthy our present attainments.

It was stated above that, while other artists are occupied with the
tangible forms of the external, visible world, the musician is busily
engaged in the study of the human soul ; yet it must be remembered
that he has had to seek for the germs of his art in nature, and that
these were hidden from him so deeply that they were hidden long.*

His resonator must be constructed to re-enforce some particular
note which he supposes to be sounding, whereas the telescope of the
astronomer reveals many unsought objects at once. And while the
painter finds his forms and colors openly displayed, the musician must
evolve his from within. He creates both form and spirit, and so en-
tirely, that we can form no notion of the smallest tributary melody in
any work we have not actually heard, or the score of which we have
not seen.

If our civilization endures or progresses, there can be little doubt
that the music of the future will continue to give evidence of the fact,
even if it should not contribute to the general advancement.

-+++-

DE. GUNTHER OX THE STUDY OF FISHES.f

MANY difficulties, says the " Quarterly Review," tend to prevent
ichthyology becoming a popular study, as the study of shells,
insects, birds, or flowers is popular. However it may be with the par-
ticular species that anglers seek out and professional fishermen hunt,
fishes as a class are not familiar objects. They keep for the most part
out of sight, and when at liberty in their element can be detected only
by passing glimpses, after which they are nearly always immediately
lost. The aquarium, whatever it may have done to aid the study of
the lower forms of aquatic animals, has contributed little or nothing to
promote a real knowledge of ichthyology ; and a preserved specimen
of a fish is a most unsatisfactory object, as far as it can be from hav-
ing anything' of the color or the life or the grace of a real fish, and
can not by any possibility be made to present a natural aspect.

Another serious difficulty in the way of the student of fishes may
be stated' thus : In beginning the study of any department of natural
history, whether it relates to plants or to animals, the first effort is to
find out characteristics of the smaller groups composing it, and to

* See article on " The Modern Piano-forte," p. TOO, October, 1877, in " The Populaa
Science Monthly."

f An Introduction to the^ Study of Fishes, by Albert C. L. G. Giinther, Ph. D., F. R. S.,
Keeper of the Zoological Department in the British Museum.

384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

assort them in accordance with those characteristics ; in short, to ar-
range or classify them. The young conchologist, for example, sees in
an instant that out of a miscellaneous collection of shells some are
bivalve and others univalve, and that some of them exhibit clear dis-
tinctions connected with the form of the animal to which the shell
belongs. The young entomologist, with still greater ease/ perceives
the difference between most of the insects that come in his way, and
indeed in some cases needs no instigation to look for them — the differ-
ence between a grasshopper and a house-fly, a beetle, a butterfly, and
a moth, being self-evident to any one with eyes. So with the verte-
brates ; it requires no previous zoological instruction to enable any
child to point out characters that will separate a snake from a tortoise,
a rabbit from a sheej), a whale from a camel, and the rough primary
division of all these creatures is at once perceptible. But with fishes
this is not so. The learner, judging, as he is at first inclined to do,
from outward survey, is surprised to find that the essential differences
between a lamprey and an eel are deemed to be far greater than
between an eel and a salmon, and that a skate is much further re-
moved from a turbot than the latter is from a gudgeon, while a lance-
let, which, when immersed in a bottle of spirit, looks so like a small
smelt, differs, in the opinion of certain systematists, more from it than
the smelt does from a frog, or indeed from any other existing verte-
brate. All this, which the learner finds written in the first book on
the subject (if he has one of the least authority) to which he has ac-
cess, is so entirely in contradiction, as he thinks, to the plain evidence
of his eye-sight, that he may well be staggered at the outset of his
studies and discouraged from their prosecution. The classification of
fishes has in truth been a task of no ordinary difficulty, and it is a sub-
ject requiring a far greater knowledge of their internal structure than
can possibly be expected of a beginner.

One of the most formidable difficulties in the way of arriving at
an intelligent classification has been removed by a discovery which
Dr. Giinther has made concerning the affinities of certain groups of
fishes or fish-like animals, the relations of which to each other and to
other fishes had been an inscrutable puzzle to all systematists. Among
these were the ganoids, a family represented in an indefinite number
of fossils, mostly of very ancient date, but few types of which survive
to this day, and these restricted to the fresh waters of Eastern Asia,
North America, and tropical Africa ; other fossil fishes of equal an-
tiquity, which were closely allied to the abundant sharks, dog-fishes,
rays, and skates of our own seas, the " Chondropterygians " or " Elas-
mobranchs " ; sturgeons, " Chondrosteans," possessing much of an
archaic character ; and besides these, there now exist two animals,
commonly called " mud-fish," scientifically " Dipnoi," which have been
deemed by some great authorities true fishes, by others amphibians.
Furthermore, in the early days of the settlement of the Australian

DR. GUNTHER ON THE STUDY OF FISHES. 385

colony of Queensland, accounts were given of the existence in the
rivers of the country of a large fish which the colonists called a
" salmon," from the fact of its having salmon-colored flesh, and of
sometimes, it was said, rising to a fly. Mr. Krefft, Curator of the
Australian Museum, at Sydney, having examined a specimen of this
fish in 1869 or 1870, pronounced it to be allied to the mud-fish, but
discovered also that it possessed teeth so closely resembling those of
certain fossil fishes attributed by Agassiz to the sharks, that no doubt
could be entertained of the generic identity of the two forms. Ac-
cordingly, the newly found animal was described as a species of

Ceratodus — that being the name which Agassiz had conferred on the
creatures whose fossil teeth he had long before made known. Now,
all this was in itself sufficiently remarkable, for it proved that Cera-
todus, as a genus, had persisted from the Mesozoic era ; but its im-
portant bearing was not fully perceived till after some more examples
had been obtained and sent to Dr. Giinther. He described the recent

Ceratodus in great detail in the " Philosophical Transactions " for
1871, and was able, furthermore, by its means, to show how the palaeo-
zoic as well as the recent ganoids, the sharks and skates — both ancient
and modern — the sturgeons, the mud-fishes, with some other forms
that had hitherto been irreconcilable, could all be brought together
through some essential characters common to the whole of them, and
harmoniously placed in a single class, to which he assigned the name
of " Palseichthyes " — fishes of ancient type. Professor Huxley had
previously pointed out the affinity of the mud-fishes to certain ganoids,
but the credit of discovering this comprehensive classification is due to
Dr. Giinther.

Dr. Giinther does not undertake to describe definitely the geograph-
ical distribution of fishes in the sense in which the term geographical
distribution is used by naturalists of other branches, he holding that
" the endeavor to establish, by means of our present fragmentary geo-
logical knowledge, the divisions of the fauna of the globe leads us
into a maze of conflicting evidence." It is obvious that fishes are not
amenable to the laws of geographical distribution which govern land-
animals. In treating of their relations in this respect it is, moreover,
necessary to separate them into categories, of which Dr. Giinther
makes four: 1. Fresh-water fishes ; 2. Brackish-water fishes ; 3. Marine
fishes, which are furthermore subdivided into shore-fishes and oceanic
or pelagic fishes ; and, 4. Fishes of the deep sea. Even in the case of
fresh-water fishes, which of course live under conditions more similar
to those of land-animals than do those of the other categories, he dis-
allows the six great zoogeographical regions which most geologists
have accepted, and would arrange them in three zones — Northern,
Equatorial, and Southern. These zones, are, however, broken up into
regions, which roughly correspond with the six generally received, ex-
cept that the Australian region of most zoogeographers is split up into

TOL. XXI. 25

3 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

two, the " Tropical Pacific " and the " Antarctic " region, the last in-
cluding the Patagonian seas as well as those of New Zealand and Tas-
mania. The fishes of the second category (brackish water), owing to
the fact of their living in salt-water equally with fresh, and thus being
able to spread readily over the globe, can not help in any plan of par-
celing out the earth's surface into districts. The shore-fishes afford a
somewhat better definition, and of them five groups are formed, which
inhabit respectively the Arctic Ocean, the Northern Temperate Zone,
the Equatorial Zone, the Southern Temperate Zone, and the Antarctic
Ocean. The pelagic fishes seem to require separation, but as little can
be deduced from them as from the inhabitants of brackish waters, and
they insensibly mingle with the fishes of the deep sea.

Thirty years ago no one had the audacity to believe that the abysses
of the ocean were tenanted with piscine life. Even animal life of any
sort had been supposed to be inrpossible at a greater depth than that
which has now been found to be but the portal of a new world of
beings. The discovery of what has since been proved to be deep-sea
forms of fishes began indeed long ago, but the abysmal nature of
their haunts was hardly suspected, and certainly not recognized till
much later, when the fact was established by Dr. Giinther, conjointly
with the late Mr. James Yate Johnson. On this subject Dr. Giinther
says : " The knowledge of the existence of deep-sea fishes is one of the
recent discoveries of ichthyology. It was only twenty years ago, that,
from the evidence afforded by the anatomical structure of a few sin-
gular fishes obtained in the North Atlantic, an opinion was expressed
that these fishes inhabited great depths of the ocean, and that their or-
ganization was specially adapted for living under the physical abyssal
conditions. These fishes agreed in the character of their connective
tissue, which was so extremely weak as to yield to, and to break under,
the slightest pressure, so that the greatest difficulty is experienced in
preserving their body in its continuity. Another singular circumstance
was, that some of the specimens were picked up floating on the surface
of the water, having met their death while engaged in swallowing or
digesting another fish not much inferior, or even superior, in size to
themselves. The first peculiarity was accounted for by the fact that,
if these fishes really inhabited the great depths supposed, their removal
from the enormous pressure under which they lived would be accom-
panied by such an expansion of the gases within their tissues as to
rupture them, and to cause a separation of the parts which had been
held together by the pressure. The second circumstance was explained
thus : a raptatorial fish, organized to live at a depth of between five
hundred and eight hundred fathoms, seizes another usually inhabiting
a depth of between three hundred and five hundred fathoms. In its
struggles to escape, the fish seized, nearly as large or strong as the
attacking fish, carries the latter out of its depth into a higher stratum,
where the diminished pressure causes such an expansion of gases as

DR. GUNTHER ON THE STUDY OF FISHES. 387

to make the destroyer, with its victim, rise with increasing rapidity
toward the surface, which they reach dead or in a dying condition."

It was also shown that, as the same species and genera are found in
the most distant parts of the globe, the deep-sea fishes are not limited
in their range, and consequently, as is admitted on other grounds, that
the physical conditions of the ocean-depths must be much alike all the
world over. That the deep-sea fishes are not of a peculiar order, how-
ever peculiarly organized, but are for the most part modified forms of
surface-types, was another conclusion arrived at from the scattered
evidence available before dredging at great depths was systematically
practiced, and a conclusion that has since proved to be right. Never-
theless, it still remained to ascertain more precisely the bathymetrical
horizons in which the different kinds lived, and this has been to some
extent attained by observations made during the voyage of the Chal-
lenger ; but these can not be received without further critical examina-
tion, for, unfortunately, no precaution seems to have been taken to
keep the mouth of the dredge closed, and therefore it is probable, if
not in some cases certain, that fishes were occasionally entrapped while
the machine was passing through the surface-water. On the other
hand, the majority of the examples taken in the dredge offer literally
internal evidence that they were inhabitants of the abysses, being so
organized as to be unable to live near the surface, and consequently
that they were captured at the greatest depth to which the dredge
reached, or nearly so.

The physical conditions of the deep sea, affecting the organization
and distribution of these fishes, are thus formulated by Dr. Giinther :

1. " Absence of Sunlight. — Probably the rays of the sun do not
penetrate to, and certainly do not extend beyond, a depth of two hun-
dred fathoms ; therefore, we may consider this to be the depth where
the deep-sea fauna commences. Absence of light is, of necessity, ac-
companied by modifications of the organs of vision, and by simplifica-
tion of colors.

2. " Phosphorescence. — The absence of sunlight is in some measure
compensated. for by the presence of phosphorescent light, produced by
many marine animals, and also by numerous deep-sea fishes.

3. "Depression and Equality of the Temperature. — At a
depth of five hundred fathoms the temperature of the water is already
as low as 40° Fahr., and perfectly independent of the temperature of
the surface-water ; and from the greatest depths upward to about
one thousand fathoms the temperature is uniformly but a few degrees
above the freezing-point. Temperature, therefore, ceases to offer an
obstacle to the unlimited dispersal of deep-sea fishes.

4. " The Increased Pressure by the Water. — The pressure of
the atmosphere, on the level of the sea, amounts to fifteen pounds per
square inch of surface on the body of an animal ; but the pressure
amounts to a ton weight for every one thousand fathoms of depth.

383 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

5. " With the Sunlight, Vegetable Life ceases in the Depths
op the Sea. — All deep-sea fishes are therefore carnivorous ; the most
voracious feeding frequently on their own offspring, and the toothless
kinds being nourished by the animalcules which live on the bottom, or
which, 'like a constant rain,' settle down from the upper strata toward
the bottom of the sea.

6. " The Perfect Quiet of the Watep* at Geeat Depths. —
The agitation of the water, caused by the disturbances of the air, does
not extend beyond the depth of a few fathoms ; below this surface-
stratum there is no other movement except the quiet flow of ocean-
currents, and near the bottom of the deep sea the water is probably in
a state of almost entire quiescence."

Now, the effect of these conditions on some part or parts of their
structure is such that all deep-sea fishes are easily recognizable, with-
out positive evidence of their having been caught at a great depthj
and in many of them the most striking characteristics relate to the
pressure of the water they inhabit. Their bones and muscles are com-
paratively feebly developed ; the former " have a fibrous, fissured, and
cavernous texture, are light, with scarcely any calcareous matter, so
that the point of a needle will readily penetrate them without break-
ing." They are loosely attached to each other — the vertebrae es-
pecially ; and, unless carefully handled, the body will almost certainly
fall to pieces. But that this is not the animal's normal condition we
may be well assured. It is due simply to the absence of the pressure
which keeps the whole organization compact ; for, as has just been
stated, most of these fishes are rapacious, and to indulge their enor-
mous voracity they must execute rapid and powerful movements, to
effect which their muscles must be as firm and their vertebrae as tautly
braced as in their surface-swimming relatives. Marvelous as this is,
it is far from being all that is marvelous in the structure of these
dwellers in the profundities. Besides modifications of their eyes, such
as are found in several other groups of animals, many of them are fur-
nished with " more or less numerous, round, shining, mother-of-pearl-
colored bodies imbedded in the skin," of which Dr. Gtinther says :
" These so-called phosphorescent or luminous organs are either large
bodies of an oval or irregularly elliptical shape placed on the head, in
the vicinity of the eye, or smaller round globular bodies arranged sym-
metrically in series along the sides of the body and tail, especially near
the abdominal profile, less frequently along the back. . . . The organs
of one kind consist of an anterior, biconvex, lens-like body, which is
transparent during life, simple or composed of rods ; and of a poste-
rior chamber, which is filled with a transparent fluid, and coated with
a dark membrane composed of hexagonal cells or of rods arranged as
in a retina. . . . In the other kind the organ shows throughout a
simple glandular structure, but apparently without an efferent duct.
Branches of the spinal nerves run to each organ, and are distributed

DR. GUNTHER ON THE STUDY OF FISHES. 389

over the retina-like membrane or the glandular follicles. The former
kind of organs are considered by some naturalists true organs of vis-
ion (accessory eyes), the function of the latter being left unexplained
by them."

There can hardly be a reasonable doubt that the functions of these
organs, of both kinds, have reference to the conditions of light under
which the animals live, but further than that judgment concerning
them must be suspended. Dr. Gtinther briefly states three hypotheses
that have been broached as possible : 1. That both kinds are " acces-
sory eyes," to which the objection is offered that several fish having
well-developed and even large eyes, perfectly adapted for seeing in
the dark, are endowed with them, while in other deep-sea fishes, with-
out external eyes, they are absent. 2. That only the organs with a
lenticular body and a retina-like membrane behind it are visual, but
that the glandular organs are phosphorescent ; and more may be said
for this view than for any other, since the glandular organs are cer-
tainly luminous. 3. That all the organs are producers of light, in
which case it must proceed from the inner cavity and be emitted
through the lens-like body as through a bull's-eye lantern. It will be
hard to decide which of these suppositions is the right one, for it seems
impossible to reproduce in the animals and their environment on the
surface the conditions of an uninterrupted deep-sea life. [This sub-
ject was fully discussed by Dr. Ernest Krause in the last number of
" The Popular Science Monthly."]

The deep-sea fishes display few colors. Their bodies are generally
black or silvery, with a most brilliant sheen, which is preserved even
after years of immersion in spirits. A few are " picked out " with
bright scarlet, either on the fin -rays or the filaments attached to them.
These filaments, it may be said, are eminently characteristic of fishes
that inhabit still water, and the fact that many of the deep-sea forms
are adorned with them perfectly accords with the belief that the abys-
mal regions are quiet.

Another remarkable property of some of these creatures is the pos-
session of a stomach so capable of distention that it can hold a prey
of twice or thrice the bulk of its destroyer. Dr. Gtinther gives figures
of two or three fish with distended stomachs ; and Mr. Johnson, his
associate in this investigation, writes of a specimen which he procured
at Madeira :

" The man from whom I obtained it stated that he had a fish with
two heads, two mouths, four eyes, and a tail growing out of the middle
of the back, which had astonished the whole market ; and the fisher-
men, one and all, declared they had never met with anything like it
before. At first sight it really did appear to be the monster described;
but a short examination brought to light the fact that one fish had been
swallowed by another, and that the features of the former were seen
through the extensible skin of the latter. On extracting the fish that

39o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

had been swallowed, it proved ... to have a diameter several times
exceeding that of its enemy, whose stomach it had distended to an
unnatural and painful degree." The action performed by the fish in
these cases is not, however, a real swallowing, but more like the similar
process executed by serpents.

The interest of Dr. Giinther's book does not end with the account
of deep-sea fishes, but the chapters devoted to that subject and to classi-
fication illustrate the most striking discoveries that have been recently
made in ichthyology. Among the curiosities of fish-life that please
and amuse as well as instruct, is the story of the fighting-fish of Siam,
which, on seeing another of its species, or even its own image, in a mir-
ror, becomes suddenly excited, and of which, though it is dull in hue at
other times, " the raised fins and the whole body shine with metallic
colors of dazzling beauty, while the projected gill-membrane, waving
like a black frill round the throat, adds something of grotesqueness to
the general appearance." The Siamese are infatuated with the com-
bats of these fishes, staking on the results considerable sums, and some-
times their persons and families, while the license to exhibit fish-fights
is farmed, and brings in no small revenue to the royal treasury.

The peculiarity of the flounders, and other flat fishes, by which the
eyes, normally situated in the young, move around as the animal grows,
until they are both on the same side of the body, is well known, but
the manner in which the transposition is effected is still in question.
There is, moreover, no end to the wonders to be found in fishes' eyes.
Those of the genus Anableps, known in Demerara as " four eyes,"
have the iris horizontally divided by a black band, which almost justi-
fies their name; and as these fishes frequently swim with the head half
out of the water, it is presumed that the upper and lower portions of
the cornea are adapted for the different density of the media in which
they are respectively used. The " star-gazers " ( Uranoscopus) , and
others, have eyes that can be raised or lowered at will; but the most
remarkable instance of mobility in these organs seems to exist in cer-
tain gobies of the genus Periophthalmus and its ally JBoleophthalmus,
which might be called " oglers," as they have the power of thrusting
their eyeballs far out of the socket, and turning them as freely as a
chameleon rolls his. These fishes are also remarkable for another
faculty, toward which their versatile eyes must contribute not a little.
At low water they remain on the muddy flats, and hunt for their prey,
which consists of small crustaceans and other marine animals, mak-
ing rapid leaps by the aid of their fins and tails, which are strong;
and when their eyes are retracted they are protected by a membra-
nous lid.

Then the fishes that travel over land, the flying-fishes, with the
controversy as to whether they really fly or only seem to (with Dr.
Gunther denying the reality of the flight, and others affirming it from
their personal observations), and the fish that build nests, like the

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES. 391

stickleback, and the fishing-frog, or angler, and the salmons and the
cod, and the herring, afford inviting objects of curious observation, or
scientific and economical study or speculation, concerning the later
results of which we have kept the readers of " The Popular Science
Monthly" informed. The last fish we notice is the eel, the manner of
the reproduction of which is yet a puzzle to naturalists. Dr. Gimther
says of it:

" Their mode of propagation is still unknown. So much only is
certain, that they do not spawn in fresh water, that many full-grown
individuals, but not all, descend rivers during the winter months, and
that some of them, at least, must spawn in brackish water or in deep
water in the sea ; for in the course of the summer young individ-
uals, from three to five inches long, ascend rivers in incredible num-
bers, overcoming all obstacles, ascending vertical walls or flood-gates,
entering every larger or smaller tributary, and making their way even
over terra firma to waters shut off from all communication with rivers.
Such immigrations have long been known by the name of ' eel-fairs.' The
majority of the eels which migrate to the sea appear to return to fresh
water, but not in a body, but irregularly, and throughout the warmer
part of the year. No naturalist has ever observed these fishes in the
act of spawning, or found mature ova ; and the organs of reproduc-
tion of individuals caught in fresh water are so little developed, and
so much alike, that the female organ can be distinguished from the
male only with the aid of a microscope."

-*-♦-

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES.

By M. BADOEEEAU.

THE rectangular system of laying out streets has the advantage of
extreme simplicity, and lends itself to a convenient adjustment
of the interior of the houses of a city ; but it is monotonous in the
extreme, and makes communication between one quarter of the town
and another very inconvenient ; for the passenger is compelled to go
along the two sides of a triangle to accomplish the distance repre-
sented by its hypotenuse. We have endeavored to solve the problem
of the best way of arranging the streets of cities by mathematical cal-
culations, but have found the task one leading to geometrical compli-
cations. We recommend the study to geometricians as an interesting
one, and content ourselves here with stating the conclusions we have
reached. We have examined the question in the two forms : By what
law can we arrange the streets so as to lose the least possible amount
of space, and still have the greatest possible length of roads ; and,
given a surface of which the shape and area are known, and the law of

392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the division of the population having been ascertained, how shall we
lay out the roads so as to make the different lines of communication,
particularly the most frequented ones, as short as possible? Four
plans ordinarily present themselves under which the ground selected
for our city to be built on may be laid out : the square, hexagonal, oc-
tagonal, and circular. Of these, the hexagonal type seems, according
to our mathematical calculations, the one which gives the greatest
length of streets and the greatest amount of habitable surface, with
the smallest consumption of space. As a rule, for cities the population
of which is homogeneous, the octagonal and hexagonal plans are much
preferable to the square in respect both to the utilization of the sur-
face and the facility of communications. Unfortunately, both plans
are liable to the objection that they give house-lots having acute an-
gles of sixty degrees in the hexagonal, and of forty-five degrees in the
octagonal plan. Practically the population finds it convenient to bear
toward the center of the city, and, the more it bears that way, the more
it is to its interest to do so. Consequently, the density of the popu-
lation diminishes from the center toward the circumference. Under
such conditions, the circular plan is very satisfactory. It has in effect
the double advantage of furnishing direct roads to the center of the
town, and of accommodating itself to giving to the houses in the out-
lying quarters the greater amount of space they require. For the
center of cities, where the population is compact and homogeneous,
where land is dear and communication is needed in every direction
alike, the hexagonal plan, with the reservation of a few places for
public monuments, is most convenient. This central part might be
surrounded by a boulevard, beyond which the circular type might be
adopted with modifications so as to avoid curved streets. The princi-
pal streets of each suburb might be directed toward the center of the
city, and each suburb might in itself be laid out more or less according
to the rectangular type. The transverse streets would, however,
spread farther apart as the distance from the center became greater ;
and main diagonal streets might be arranged to cross the whole city,
with few or only slight deviations. Beyond the suburbs, the principal
radial streets might be continued for a considerable distance farther,
but the transverse streets would nearly disappear. The accompanying
design has been drawn according to these principles. It is worthy of
remark that the sketch is more like the European cities that have
grown up by progressive additions than the American cities which
have been built on a so-called rational plan.

So far we have considered the question from an exclusively geomet-
rical point of view. We may continue our study by referring to the
influences which geographical, meteorological, commercial, and polit-
ical conditions have had in the laying out of cities. Certain directions
in the ways of communication are often imposed by the topographical
situation ; as, for example, when the town is crossed by a river or a

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES.

393

highway. Some cities are free to extend over the plain in any direc-
tion, while others are restricted to narrow valleys, or to islands of
which they cover the whole. The city of Cadiz, confined upon an
island, has very high houses, with terraces and lookouts, the object
being to reach a height where the air will be healthy and the rain-
water pure. St. Malo is built much after the same fashion, and the

streets in both cities are very narrow. Every one knows that the
principal highways in Venice are canals, and that the several islands
are traversed by prodigiously narrow and crooked streets. On the
other hand, the cities of Hungary extend over considerable spaces and
are thinly populated. The city of Maria Theresa, or Szabadka, for
instance, according to E. Keclus, covers a space of eight hundred and
ninety-six square kilometres, and is really nothing but a province cut
up by regular avenues, by the side of which houses stand at intervals
— an oasis of stone in the immense plain.

We may remark, with respect to the bearing of climate, that nar-
row and crooked streets protect the inhabitants against heat and against
cold, but they foster the accumulation of miasms and prevent the cir-
culation of air. Cities tend to expand on the side from which the pre-
vailing winds come.x It is the most pleasant side, because it is free
from the unhealthy emanations of the town.

394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In considering the economical side, account must be taken of the
density of the population and the frequency of communications. It
is important that the principal centers be connected by wide, direct,
and easy roads following the course of the most usual commercial cur-
rents. Theoretically, the width of each street should be proportionate
to the traffic upon it.

Historical considerations may sometimes rule, for due force must
be allowed to existing conditions in the construction of each new
street.

Sometimes cities are built so fast that we might say they are made
up of sections constructed after a plan framed in advance. In such
cases they generally present a regular disposition. Such a town is
Carlsruhe, in Baden, where the avenues converge toward the Chateau,
and of such character are most American cities. Generally, however,
in old Europe, cities develop themselves slowly, and the laying out of
their streets has been influenced by the circumstances in their history.

Open cities generally expand gradually by the building of houses
along the roads toward neighboring towns. They thus take a kind of
radiated or palmate form, quite favorable to facility of communication.

Fortified cities are developed in an intermittent way. After hav-
ing been for a long time smothered within their walls, they end by
breaking the barriers down and uniting with their suburbs ; construct-
ing elegant boulevards in the places formerly occupied by their forti-
fications. The city of Paris bears the marks of several changes of this
kind. Generally the extension takes place alike in all directions, and
the towns that have undergone such metamorphoses present a succes-
sion of concentric zones separated by circular boulevards. The cen-
tral nucleus generally offers a close agglomeration of high houses part-
ed by narrow, crooked, and everywhere crowded streets. Here public
and private business is transacted, and the centers of trade and amuse-
ment, the public offices, and the churches, are established. Through
this part also lie the usual ways of passage from one suburb to another.
Most frequently the old town is traversed by a grand artery, the history
of which goes back to the origin of the place, and which is usually
busy with trade and much crowded. The population of the suburbs
is generally less dense than that of the city proper ; and the streets are
wider, and the houses farther apart. The inhabitants of the suburbs
are in the habit of going frequently to the center of the city, because
it is the most populous part, and because the roads to the other suburbs
lie through it. The principal streets of the suburbs also converge
toward the center.

All the characteristics we have sketched may be found in the city
of Vienna, where the ancient city, still called die Stadt — " the City,"
rests on a branch of the Danube in the north, and on the Wien in the
southwest. The cathedral, situated in the center of the town, St. Ste-
phen's Place, and the Graben, are still the points toward which the

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR S. S. HALDEMAN. 395

Viennese and strangers are most in the habit of resorting; thence bear
toward the north and toward the south, the Kamtnerstrasse and the
Porte Rouge Street, so as to form a grand artery traversing the whole
of the ancient city. One of the finest boulevards in the world has
been built on the site of the fortifications that surrounded the place in
the east, south, and west ; and beyond this " Ring," as well as on the
north side of the branch of the Danube, vast suburbs, regularly laid
out, extend in every direction, enlarging tenfold the surface of the
city.

Sometimes circumstances prevent the development being equal in
every direction. The city of Antwerp, resting on the Scheldt, pre-
sents, with the suburbs that have recently been annexed to it, a semi-
circular form. Calais has only one suburb, much more populous,
it is true, than the city itself ; and the fortifications which separate
the town and its suburb are to be razed and replaced by boulevards.
Dismantling is not the only agency by which the aspect of cities may
be suddenly modified. A great fire, for example, destroyed the central
part of the city of Rennes in 1720, after which a new town, with high
houses, wide, straightened, and rectangular streets, and handsome
squares, was built in place of the burned one. A few old quarters,
which the fire had spared, formed an ugly enough inclosure for this
new town, which still partly exists. At the same time the suburbs have
stretched out along all the principal roads, and a few new quarters
have been built in the healthiest part of the suburban zone. At other
times the hand of man destroys entire quarters, to reconstruct them in
a more convenient and more hygienic manner. In such cases the
worst quarters are the first to suffer transformation, and become in
their turn the most elegant ones. The example set in Paris, under the
administration of M. Haussmann, has been extensively followed in other
cities in France and abroad. The construction of new basins in sea-
ports also frequently leads to radical modifications of the aspect of the
towns and in the grouping of their streets. TTe are evidently very far
from exhausting the questions that grow out of the subject ; but we
hope we have succeeded in showing how complex and interesting they
are, and how imperfect is the plan of those cities that are laid out in a
net-work of rectangular streets. — Translated from the Revue Scien-
tifique.

-+ * »

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR S. S. HALDEMAN.

THE career of Professor Haldeman illustrates how a student, who
has his heart in his work, may excel as a specialist in more than
one branch of science ; and shows how the enthusiastic investigator,
seeking light from all sides on the point he has under investigation,

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

may be led by the natural course of his work from one branch to
another, which at first view seems quite distinct from it. Professor
Haldeman was in his early youth a collector of living objects around
his father's estate, and thus laid the foundations, in his recreations,
for the eminence he afterward reached as a naturalist. Then, having
turned his attention to ethnology, he was drawn to the study of lan-
guages and philology, and became one of the most distinguished Amer-
ican scholars and authorities in those branches. Next, he became in-
terested in archaeology, and contributed to that subject in his papers
before the American Association of 1880, the last literary labors of his
life. His success in all of these branches appears to have been owing
to the adaptation of his natural tastes, and these to have been devel-
oped from inherited peculiarities.

Samuel Stehman Haldeman was born, August 12, 1812, at Lo-
cust Grove, on the Susquehanna River, twenty miles below Harris-
burg, Pennsylvania. His family were of Swiss descent, had possessed
the extensive estate which was their home for several generations,
and occupied a considerable social position. His great-grandfather
was a member of a local Committee of Public Safety in Revolutionary
times ; his great-uncle was the first Governor-General of Canada under
British rule ; his grandfather was a member of the General Assembly
of the State in 1795. A niece of his great-grandfather and great-
uncle, Mrs. Marcet, born Jane Haldimand, was a celebrated scientific
writer, distinguished as the first who attempted to popularize science,
by the publication of her " Conversations " on chemistry, natural phi-
losophy, botany, mineralogy, language, and political economy. Pro-
fessor Haldeman derived his middle name from the maiden name of
his mother, Frances Stehman, who was an accomplished musician,
and transmitted to him that correct ear for the notation of sound that
made him in after-life so accomplished a phoneticist. His father was
a man of literary tastes, and warmly encouraged the son's aspirations
in a direction congenial to his own. Young Haldeman's education, till
he was thirteen years old, was carried on in the local schools and his
father's library. No little of it was gained on the farm, where he
made the collections of specimens in natural history, which he was
taught by a Methodist minister how to prepare, and of aboriginal
stones and implements, which constituted his first museum, in the loft
of the family carriage-house ; and where he gathered shells, he says,
on the banks of the Susquehanna long before he knew the meaning
of genus and species.

When five years old he was a fellow-scholar with Daniel Engle,
who could not speak English, but could spell in German, and sat with
him. Young Haldeman soon discovered that his companion could
spell in another language, and engaged him to bring his German
spelling-book to the school, so that he could learn to do the same.
The book was brought, and carefully hidden, to be studied in secret.

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR S. S. HALL EM AN. 397

The teacher found the boys out, and forbade their studying German
during school-hours, but allowed them to do so at recess and noon,
when he also took a part in the exercise.

In 1826 Haldeman was taken to Harrisburg, to the classical school
of Dr. John Miller Keagy, a " great teacher," who, besides the clas-
sical languages, " knew Hebrew, German, and French. He had a taste
for the natural sciences, and in the absence of class-books he taught
orally in an excellent conversational style." He remained two years
at this school, and was then sent to Dickinson College, where his sci-
entific tastes were encouraged by Professor Rogers, afterward State
geologist. The stereotyped course of study of the college was not
consonant with his own views of how his faculties should be trained,
and he left the institution after two years, to take the superintendence
of his own studies. He became ostensibly engaged with his father in
conducting a saw-mill, but spent much of his time in field-studies, and
with his books, concerning which he wrote at the time : " I developed
a taste for rainy weather and impassable roads ; then I could remain
undisturbed in the perusal of my books, a supply of which I kept in a
back office, where I retired as soon as the sky looked threatening." In
1 833-' 34 he attended the lectures of the medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania, but without any design of becoming a
physician. In 1835 he was married to Miss Mary A. Hough. Shortly
afterward he removed to Chickies, Pennsylvania, to the house which
he occupied till the end of his life, and became a silent partner in the
iron business conducted by his brothers, Dr. Edwin and Paris Halde-
man. In connection with this business he wrote two papers for " Sil-
liman's Journal," on " Smelting Iron with Anthracite Coal," and edited,
in 1855, a revision of Taylor's " Statistics of Coal." " In his residence
at Chickies," says Dr. D. G. Brinton, in his memorial before the Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, "books and cabinets accumulated under his
laborious hands, only to be scattered again and give place to others
when his insatiable appetite for knowledge led him into new fields of
investigation. For forty-five years he spent most of his time in his
library, where, in his vigorous manhood, he worked sixteen hours a
day. For, though he accepted several professorships, and delivered a
number of courses of lectures, he did so with reluctance, preferring to
be master of his time, and to spend it in the quiet of home."

He received from Professor Rogers an appointment as assistant on
the Geological Survey of New Jersey in 1836, and of Pennsylvania in
1S3T. • His field of work in Pennsylvania embraced that part of the
State lying between the Blue Mountain and the South Mountain, the
most important division, geologically, in the State. While engaged
upon it he discovered the fossil plant, Scolithus linearis, the most an-
cient organic remains found in Pennsylvania, on which he published a
monograph in 1840. During this period he also recorded the obser-
vations, real discoveries, that the peregrine falcon makes its nest in

39S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rocks, as in Europe, and not in trees, as Wilson and others had sup-
posed ; and that the American eagle is a fishing-eagle, robbing fish-
hawks when he can, diving himself after fish when he has to. He also
discovered and described a new species of trilobite in Pennsylvania,
which Professor Hall named after him.

Professor Haldeman's first publication was made in 1835, the year
of his marriage, and was a paper in the " Lancaster Journal," exposing
the falsity of the celebrated "Moon Hoax," published by Richard
Adams Locke in the New York " Sun." He also published, in connec-
tion with his labors as a naturalist, a work on the " Fresh- Water Uni-
valve Mollusca of the United States," in nine parts, 1840 to 1866 ; three
numbers of a series of " Zoological Contributions " ; " Outlines of the
Zoology of Pennsylvania"; a sketch of the natural history and geology
of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania ; a monograph on the genus JLep-
toxis for a French work ; an article on the " Zoology of the Inverte-
brate Animals," for the American edition of the " Iconographic Ency-
clopaedia" ; and seventy-three papers which Professor Agassiz has
enumerated as having appeared in the scientific and philosophical jour-
nals and " Transactions " of the United States up to 1852.

"Dr. Haldeman," says Mr. C. H. Hart, "very early took a deep
interest in the languages of the North American Indians, and, as an
aid to the study of ethnology, he now devoted his attention to the
study of language in general ; and doubtless it will be as a learned and
accurate philologist that his labors will be most remembered. His in-
vestigations in this most interesting study were not directed so much
to the origin and source of language as to rendering it facile of
acquirement and expression — his specialty being the notation of the
elementary sounds uttered by the human voice in speech ; thus reach-
ing the form of language, which is merely the peculiar method of
uniting thought with sound." The first result of these labors in this
department was the paper entitled " Some Points in Linguistic Eth-
nology, with Illustrations chiefly from the Aboriginal Languages of
North America," which was published in the " Proceedings of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences," in October, 1849. A
work on the "Elements of Latin Pronunciation," which was published
in 1851, and was warmly received, was an indirect result of studies
which he pursued with the object of finding a way to adapt the Latin
alphabet, while adhering strictly to its Latin signification, to the repre-
sentation of the sounds of the native Indian languages. From this
he was led on to pure linguistic studies, the fruits of which appeared
in his " Investigation of the Power of the Greek ft by Means of Pho-
netic Laws" (1853), in a monograph "On the Relations between Chi-
nese and the Indo-European Languages " (1856), and in his report to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science " On the Pres-
ent State of our Knowledge of Linguistic Ethnology." Having de-
livered some lectures on the " Mechanism of Speech " before the Smith-

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR S. S. HALDEMAN. 399

sonian Institution, he entered the competition for a prize of one hundred
pounds offered by Sir Walter Trevelyan, President of the Phonetic
Society of Great Britain, for the best essay " On a Reform in the
Spelling of the English Language " ; to contain among other features
" an analysis of the system of articulate sounds, an exposition of those
occurrino- in English, and an alphabetic notation, in which as few new
types as possible should be admitted." The result of this effort was
a work on " Analytic Orthography," which, even before it had been
revised in accordance with the suggestions of the donor of the prize,
was preferred to the essays of seventeen competitors, all learned Euro-
pean philologists, and which was published in 1860. Five years after-
ward appeared a work on " Affixes : in their Origin and Application
exhibiting the Etymologic Structure of English Words," which was
pronounced, by a writer in the " Contemporary Review," " a collection
more rational, complete, and exhaustive of the component parts of our
language than we have had any good right to hope for within the
present century."

Professor Haldeman was one of the founders of the American
Philological Association, and was its first vice-president 1874-'76, and
its president 1876-77. He contributed many papers to its " Transac-
tions," the first of which, on the " German Vernacular of Pennsyl-
vania," was afterward extended, under the light of new studies, at the
request of the Philological Society of London, into "Pennsylvania
Dutch ; a Dialect of South German, with an Impression of English,"
which was published in 1872. His last published philological work,
" Outlines of Etymology," had in view the teaching of this as other
sciences are taught, and appeared in 1877.

To this department of Professor Haldeman's activity belong his
labors in behalf of reform in the spelling of the English language, in
connection with which he presided at the International Convention on
the subject held in Philadelphia in July, 1876, when the Spelling Re-
form Association was organized, and he was made one of the vice-
presidents. His address to the American Philological Association
at the close of his presidency in 1877 was devoted mainly to this
reform.

Of his attainments in philology, Professor March says : " Professor
Haldeman was in early life and by his mental constitution a scientist,
and he took hold of the facts of speech in that spirit. He had a deli-
cate ear and flexible organs of speech, and could pronounce with ease
the most unutterable scientific vocables. His scientific habit enabled
him to watch and describe the movements of the organs in producing
all sorts of sounds, and to give the physical processes or causes of the
changes in the sounds of words from age to age. He devoted much
study to these subjects, seeking living speakers of every nation and
tribe, and imitating and recording their peculiarities. He applied his
knowledge of the l£ws of letter-change to etymology — chiefly, so far

4oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as I know, to the derivation of English words and affixes. His text-
books on that subject are full of ingenious observation and careful
scientific deduction. He was also a great reader of old English books
in their early editions, and he treasured in his memory the curiosities
of spelling and pronunciation, the rhymes and puns and the like which
he found there. He busied himself also with the Pennsylvania Dutch,
as it is called, and traced it to its sources in Europe. He read largely
the German works on the science of language, but he was an independ-
ent observer, and more likely to be biased by his critical temper than
by absorption in any systems."

Professor Haldeman was actively interested in education, and occu-
pied professorial chairs during a large part of his life. He was chosen
Professor of Zoology in the Franklin Institute in 1842, and afterward
filled the positions of chemist and geologist to the Pennsylvania State
Agricultural Society in 1852 ; Professor of Natural History in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, 1850 to 1853 ; professor in the chair of the
same name in Delaware College, Newark, 1855 to 1858 ; and Professor
of Comparative Philology in the University of Pennsylvania from 1869
till his death. He regularly attended the meetings of the Pennsylva-
nia State Teachers' Association. Professor Haldeman had in great
part been induced to change his studies from zoology mainly to lin-
guistics by the failing condition of his eye-sight ; in a similar manner
an order to take exercise for his health became the occasion of his en-
gaging in the study of archaeology in 1875. He proceeded to carry
out an intention he had long entertained of digging for aboriginal rel-
ics in the Chickies Rock retreat, a shallow cave on his own property.
Here he obtained the interesting collection which he presented to the
American Philosophical Society, and which he described in a mono-
graph •" On the Contents of a Rock Retreat in Southeastern Pennsyl-
vania," published by the society since his death, with fifteen large
quarto plates. He also published archaeological papers in the " Smith-
sonian Report " for 1877, in the '' American Antiquarian " and " Ameri-
can Naturalist," and through the American Association.

He was a prolific and successful writer on a curious variety of sub-
jects, some of which appear incongruous with each other. The list of
his scientific publications prepared by his daughter, Mrs. Eliza Figgel-
mery, includes ten titles in conchology, twenty-three in entomology,
two on arachnidae, five on Crustacea, six on annelides and worms, seven
in geology and chemistry, thirty-three in philology, seven in archae-
ology, and twenty-nine miscellaneous publications. Outside of the
immediate circle of subjects with which his name is most prominently
associated, he published one or two works of literary criticism, an essay
on the " Tours of a Chess-Knight," showing how the knight can pass
over the whole chess-board, touching each square but once ; a collec-
tion of "Rhymes of the Poets," by Felix Ago, containing specimens
of false rhymes from one hundred and fourteen prominent writers ;

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR S. S. HALDEMAN. 401

and two mock-heroic poems. He was a contributor to Johnson's " Cy-
clopaedia " and an associate editor of the department of comparative
philology and linguistics in it ; and he left behind him in manuscript
two complete philological works ; one on " Word-Building," the other
on " English Prosody." The diversity of occupation of which this va-
ried bibliography affords evidence was in part a matter of principle with
him, for, says Dr. Brinton, "it was his taste and apparently also his
theory that a student should not be a specialist, but should devote his
mind to different branches, thus securing wider knowledge " ; and he
once said to Professor Barber, "I never pursue one branch of science
more than ten years, but lay it aside and go into new fields." That he
was able to acquit himself creditably in everything he undertook, we
have the word of Agassiz, who said of him, " That man Haldeman has
an idea behind every word he utters." Professor Le Conte has said
that "next to his valuable contributions in philology, the most impor-
tant work of Professor Haldeman was in the direction of descriptive
natural history. He was well versed in several branches of zoology,
and notably in conchology and entomology ; in both studies he per-
ceived latent possibilities of future philosophical development which
the then imperfect observations rendered impossible to do more than
dimly outline. . . . While his contributions in the two branches of
zoology above mentioned have contributed to their advance in this
country, what are to be especially admired are the zeal, the honesty of
expression, and the unselfishness with which he did everything he be-
lieved to be right, or to be his duty as the occasion dictated. ... At
all times he was an industrious and intelligent laborer, a warm and
sympathetic friend, and a thorough hater of pretense and empiri-
cism."

Professor Haldeman was born of Protestant parents, but, not satis-
fied with the theology that was preached around him, made a study of
the evidences of Christianity for himself, and ended by uniting with
the Roman Catholic Church, in whose faith he died.

His death took place suddenly on September 15, 1880, a few days
after his return from the Boston meeting of the American Association.
The immediate cause was heart-disease, following a period of consid-
erable fatigue.

tol; xxi. — 26

402 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES.

Charles Darwin paid a splendid compliment to John Fiske in a letter

he wrote him after reading the " Cosmic Philosophy." This is part of what he
said : " You must allow me to thank you for the very great interest with which
I have at last slowly read the whole of your work. I have long wished to read
something about the views of the many great men whose doctrines you give.
I never in my life read so lucid an expositor (and therefore thinker) as you are ;
and I think that I understand nearly the whole, though perhaps less clearly
about cosmic theism and causation than other parts. It is hopeless to attempt
out of so much to specify what has interested me most, and probably }7ou would
not care to hear. It pleased me to find that here and there I had arrived, from
my own crude thoughts, at some of the same conclusions with you, though I
could seldom or never have given my reasons for such conclusions." It was but
natural that Mr. Fiske should feel that he owed something to the memory of his
departed frieud for this beautiful tribute to his own labors, and he has well
repaid it in his article upon Charles DarwTin in the June "Atlantic Monthly."
This paper is not only a cordial and highly appreciative eulogy of the character
of the great naturalist, but it is probably the most " lucid exposition " that has
yet been given of the special doctrines that will in future be associated with the
eminent name of Darwin.

The Word of a Khan. — Hulaku, the grandson of the great Genghis

Khan, exceeded even the first Caliphs in religious respect for the sanctity of
his word, and it is said that he invariably refused to make a promise "till the
possibility of fulfilliug it became absolutely indubitable." In the winter of 1257
he laid siege to the city of Bagdad, and, after planting his battering-rams, de-
manded an unconditional surrender, with the threat that both the Caliph and
his subjects would be made to repent it if the gates were not opened before
night. The defenders hesitated, but on the following day the Tartars erected a
lofty gallows-tree, and the frightened Caliph preferred to come to terms. The
magnificence of his gifts seemed to soften the heart of the conqueror, for the
ominous scaffold was removed ; but, after a private consultation with his cap-
tains, Hulaku concluded that, after all, something or other must be done to
redeem his word. So, after enjoying the hospitality of the Caliph for a day or
two, they marched him to headquarters, and, instead of hanging him, sewed him
up in a leathern bag and dragged him across-lots till " every joint and bone in
his body was pounded as in a mortar " ; and, instead of burning the inhabitants
with their city, they brained eight hundred thousand of them, and flung them
into the Tigris, till the river was actually choked with corpses. Andrew Crichton
(" History of Arabia," vol. ii, p. 45) adds that the number of the slain did not
even include the victims of the neighboring villages!

Happiness. — "Happiness," says Leibnitz, "results from the attain-
ment of any greatly desired or greatly needed object." — " Happiness is health,"
says Helvetius. — " And luck," adds Diderot. — The harmonious development of
our mental and physical faculties : Spurzheim. — Peace with God : Eckart. — Nil
admirari : Horace. — Moral freedom: Campanella. — Victory: Simonides. — A
cheerful disposition: Pestalozzi. — Self- approval : Fichte. — The enjoyment of

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 403

harmless pleasures and abstinence from injurious ones : Epicurus. — Self-improve-
ment: Hobbes. — An income of five thousand pounds: Richard Porson. — Suc-
cess : Bolingbroke. — The citizenship of an illustrious state : Sophocles. — Health,
books, and solitude : Zimmermann. — Health, wealth, and a liberal education :
D'Alembert. — Day-dreams for those who still hope ; resignation and a padded
easy-chair for those who know better : Schopenhauer. — Visions of glory before
the battle of life ; a comfortable lazaretto after the inevitable thrashing : Id. —
Virtue and resignation : Seneca. — Freedom from the tyranny of kings and vices :
J. J. Rousseau. — A good bank-account, a good cook, and a good digestion : Ed-
mond About. — Fortitude in adversity, moderation in prosperity : Anaxagoras. —
Peace : Buddha.

In an article on English Poetry the " Quarterly Review " declares that

the historic method shows "how the mind and spirit of the English people in
each age is reflected in the poetry of that age as it is nowhere else reflected " ;
and again, " how truly England's poetry has mirrored the historic condition of the
several ages which produced it." The " Quarterly " thus illustrates its theory:
14 No English poet has more historic value than Chaucer, for none more faith-
fully reflects all the mingled influences that swayed his time. Though belonging
by birth to the middle class, Chaucer's sympathies, as those of Shakespeare and
of "Walter Scott, were with the aristocrats. He soon became a gentleman and a
courtier, and saw life from that side." This looks much as if Chaucer's poetic
mirror was somewhat warped, and this is still further confirmed by what the
"Quarterly " says: "Wide as was Chaucer's genial humanity, he still looked at
life through the eyes of the well-to-do, even of the aristocratic class with whom
he was so much associated. No one would guess from his poems that he lived
in what a modern historian has called ' a time of shame and suffering, such as
England had never known; when her conquests were lost, her shores insulted,
her fleet sunk, her commerce destroyed, her people exhausted by the long and
costly wars with France, and by the ravages of pestilence.' None would guess
from his poems that his was the day when the black-death swept off half the
population of England, and when the peasant revolt threatened revolution."

The Age of Faith. — The credulity of the patristic era may be inferred

from the superstitions of the so-called philosophers of that age. Celsus, Lucan,
and Apuleius, then hailed as morning-stars of rationalism, would now be in dan-
ger of a strait-jacket. The elder Pliny has been called the Roman Humboldt,
and his " Natural History " a thesaurus of universal knowledge. The value of
that treasury may be estimated by the following specimen-bricks : Among the
fercB naturm of Africa he mentions a catoplus, "an animal found only in Ethio-
pia. All who behold the eyes of this beast fall dead on the spot. Luckily, the
creature has' a heavy head, which is always weighed down to the earth. Were
it not for this circumstance it would prove the destruction of the human race.1''
" The bodies of whelks and oysters," the Roman Humboldt assures us, " are in-
creased- in size and again diminished by the influence of the moon. Certain
accurate (!) observers have found out that the entrails of field-mice correspond
in number to the days of the moon's age." The flight of ravens, too, is influenced
by the changes of the lunar phases, though their observance of certain days may
be due to a religious sentiment. In the case of barn-yard fowls there is no room
for any such doubt. They are religious birds. By way of establishing this point
he thinks it sufficient x to mention that chickens throw dust over their bodies in
the manner observed by the augurs in the week of purification. During the fort-

4o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

night of the waning moon the actions of crows and starlings evince a sad disre-
gard of religious duties, but "burying black briony in the four corners of a field
will secure it against the ravages of the most impious bird." Need we wonder
that the Kiddles of that age could credit the miracles of St. Polycarp ?

The Biter bitten. — " Intellectual presence of mind," says Lavater,

" favors the practice of dissimulation, as well as the art of repartee." This latter
gift seems to be a characteristic talent of the Semitic race. Al-Mansour, the
second Abbasside Caliph, was importuned to commute the sentence of a rebellious
governor of Morocco, on the ground that the followers of the rebel revered him
as a saint and a prophet. "That's no excuse," said the Caliph, "for, if he is
endowed with the gift of prescience, he must have foreseen that I am going to
hang him to-morrow."

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the neglected fields of North-
ern Spain formed a humiliating contrast with the flourishing huertas of the
Moorish provinces ; yet Alfonso IV of Aragon tried to demonstrate the supe-
riority of his countrymen from this very difference. " In our country men handle
the sword and clowns the spade," he told the Moorish embassador ; " my cavaliers
are too proud to meddle with agriculture." "And yet sixty thousand of these
hidalgos have condescended to fertilize the fields of Xeres," observed the Morisco.

But, of all biters bitten, the most astonished was, perhaps, the Jesuit Gorres,
who insulted meek Moses Mendelssohn by the question, "how it came that in all
countries of Christendom the Hebrews were dreaded as cheats?" "No won-
der," replied the philosopher, with his blandest smile, "since you have all been
so amazingly cheated by one of oar people"

American Stock- Breeding is thus magnified by President Francis A.

Walker, writing in the "Princeton Eeview " : "The trotting horse we have
created, certainly the most useful variety of the equine species, and we have im-
proved that variety in a degree unprecedented in natural history. - Two genera-
tions ago the trotting of a mile in two minutes forty seconds was so rare as to
give rise to a proverbial phrase indicating something extraordinary ; it is now a
common occurrence. ' But a few years ago,' wrote Professor Brewer, in 1876,
'the speed of a mile in 2*30 was unheard of; now, perhaps, five or six hundred
horses are known to have trotted a mile in that time.' The number is to-day,
perhaps, nearer one thousand than five hundred. Steadily onward have Ameri-
can horse-raisers pressed the limit of mile-speed, till, within the last three sea-
sons, the amazing figures 2'10 have been reached by one trotter and closely
approached by another."

About 1800 we began to import, in considerable numbers, the favorite

English cattle, the short-horn. The first American short-horn herd-book was
published in 1846. In 1873 a sale of short-horn cattle took place in Western
New York, at which a herd of 109 head were sold for a total sum of $382,000—
one animal, a cow, bringing $40,600 ; another, a calf five months old, $27,000;
both for the English market. To-day Devons and short-horns are freely ex-
ported from New York and Boston to England, to improve the native stock.

The Society of Dilettanti was formed one hundred and fifty years ago,

by a number of gentlemen who had traveled in Italy and enjoyed its treasures
of antiquity and art, for social intercourse and aesthetic improvement. English-
men most distinguished in politics and literature have been among its members.
Originally it was indispensable that a candidate for admission should have been

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 405

met in Italy by the member proposing him. This rule is said to have led on one
occasion to a resolution of the members which might well astonish geographers.
A candidate had been elected on the strength of his having been met at Avignon
— at that time really more Italian than French in all its associations. The mis-
take was seen, and in order to maintain the validity of the election a special
resolution was carried, that "in the opinion of this society Avignon is in Italy."
It was then considered that a dangerous precedent might have been created, and
forthwith a second resolution was passed, that "in the opinion of this society
Avignon is the only town in France which is in Italy."

Christian Liberality . — President Arthur being on Long Island the other

Sunday with some publicans and sinners, and the party being an hungered while
the corn was not eared, plucked the contents of a trout-pond and did eat.
"Whereupon the Scribes and Pharisees are shocked at this desecration of the
Sabbath-day. The " Christian Union," in an article suffused with complacency
at its well-known Christian liberality, remarks : " The country can afford to
have a mistaken public policy maintained through four years of misadminis-
tration better than it can afford to have a bad example of Sabbath-breaking,
impiety, and vulgarity, set before the whole community by men of the first

eminence."

Ownership and Rental. — Of the 3,800,000 farms, approximately, into

which the cultivated area of the United States is divided, sixty, or even seventy,
per cent are cultivated by their owners. In the Northern States the proportion
rises to eighty per cent, or even higher. Connecticut, Maine, and Massachu-
setts, of the New England States, and Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, of
the Northwestern States, show an excess of ninety per cent.

The bigotry of the orthodox Eussians, like that of the conservative

Spaniards, is a sort of mental disease, but there is less method and more humor
in the madness of the Muscovites ; a facetious answer has often propitiated the
wrath of their clerical inquisitors. The Synod of Moscow once arraigned the
philosopher Lermontoff on the charge of being an abettor of the Copernican
heresies, especially of the "doctrine of plural worlds," and requested him to
explain his paradogmas. " From the bugs in the beard of your Eminence,"
Lermontoff addressed the "grand metropolitan," "I infer that the beards of the
worshipful coadjutors are similarly infested, and by a parity of reasoning the
population of this earth inclines me to suspect a plurality of inhabited planets."
They let him go.

General Skobeleff, in his memoirs of the Turkish campaign, tells an equally
good story at the expense of his orthodox countrymen. When the vanguard of
his cavalry approached the hamlet of Kerzanlik, in the eastern Balkan, the
frightened burghers sent out a deputation of prominent citizens to implore the
clemency of. the conqueror. Skobeleff returned an evasive reply, and, after a
private consultation with his colleagues, the spokesman of the committee repeated
his appeal with the following amendment : that, rather than have their town
pillaged, the citizens would agree to supply every trooper of his command with
sixteen pints of slibovitz (plum-brandy), and consent to believe in any number
of gods not exceeding two dozen!

406

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

CORBESPONDENCE.

YIBEATION OF EOCKS.

Messrs. Editors.

REFERRING to Dr. Garretson's com-
munication in the February number
of " The Popular Science Monthly," relating
to rock-vibration in the Patapsco Valley, I
would state that a like phenomenon has
often been manifested at Cuyahoga Falls,
Ohio, and has been the subject of much cu-
rious speculation on the part of the inhabit-
ants of that village. It has been supposed
that the vibrations were caused by the water
flowing over the river-dams, but the mystery
has been, why the effect should be produced
at such great and irregular intervals. Some-
times the vibrations do not occur with no-
ticeable force within intervals of less than
one or more years, and yet the quantity of
water flowing over the dam increases and
diminishes almost continually within its
maximum and minimum limits. When the
rock-vibrations occur they produce an in-
termittent rattling of loose window-sashes
and jarring of buildings. The Cuyahoga
River, which runs through the village, is
about fifty or sixty feet wide at the first
dam. The height of the dam maybe twelve
feet. The back water extends about two
miles, the banks being sloping and of mod-
erate height. Below the first dam the river
runs through a rapidly descending rocky
gorge, there being four or five dams within a
distance of about half a mile. W. F. H.
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, February 19, 1SS2.

DEFINITIONS OF MATTEE AND
FOECE.
Messrs. Editors.

I write to ask whether the following
definitions, distinguishing the three states
of matter, have ever been given to the pub-
lic. I have not found them in any text-
book. Also, whether the test given herewith,
distinguishing the two kinds of forces, has
ever been formally stated in any scientific
work. If not, I think it would be well that'
they should both appear in " The Popular
Science Monthly." I submit them to your
consideration : Definitions distinguishing the
three states of matter. — A solid is matter
whose cohesion is greater than gravity upon
its particles. A liquid is matter whose
gravity is greater than the cohesion of its
particles. A gas is matter, the repellent
force (or heat) of whose particles is greater
than gravity and cohesion combined. Test
distinguishing the tivo kinds of force. — All
forces are divided into two kinds, attractive
forces and motive forces, or attractions and
motions, and may thus be distinguished : All
motive forces can be insulated ; no attract-
ive force can be insulated. Had this test
been understood in the days of Newton, it
might have saved the scientific world im-
mense experimental labor.

Respectfully,

E. II. Randle.
Eiplet, Tennessee, May 2, 1882.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

SPENCER'S DESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY.

THEEE are many who will regret to
learn that this great work has
been brought to a close. It has not
been carried, as far as its projector origi-
nally intended, but still we can not say
that it has stopped prematurely or re-
mains merely as a fragment. On the
contrary, it is substantially accom-
plished. It wasalarge enterprise, broad-
ly conceived by Spencer twenty-five
years ago, as a comprehensive basis on
which to build the superstructure of so-
ciological principles. The undertaking

involved a carefully digested method of
collecting and classifying all the main
orders of facts which represent the con-
stitution and characteristics of different
human societies, in a form suitable for
convenient reference and ready com-
parison ; and it was on a scale that im-
plied the co-operation of several schol-
ars working through many years to
execute it. It was inevitable that this
task should be of gigantic proportions
and involve enormous labor, because
social generalizations, to have value,
must be based upon that which is both

EDITOR'S TABLE.

407

common and peculiar to many and di-
verse communities.

The enterprise was, moreover, whol-
ly new, nothing having been previously
done toward gathering the multitudinous
data necessary for studying what may
be called the natural history of human
societies. It was also desirable that the
work should at first be so effectually
done that it could be made popularly
available ; and, in securing this object,
the magnitude of the effort expended
upon it by the editor and the compilers
simply represented so much labor saved
by the student of social questions. Its
preparation was not only an elaborate
process of condensation and simplifica-
tion, but it involved a selection of valu-
able data to be of permanent use in
subsequent social inductions and con-
structions. An incalculable amount
of material had to be overhauled to
find the pertinent facts. It was a win-
nowing of the bulky chaff of history
to separate its wheat. Science applied
to history gives us first of all a revalu-
ation of its materials. The great mass
of it must be left out as comparatively
worthless. As Professor J. R. Seeley
well remarks: "History is now a de-
partment of serious scientific investi-
gation. T\'e study history now in the
hope of giving more precision, definite-
ness, and solidity to the principles of
political science." And it may be add-
ed that we are beginning to study his-
tory with a view of obtaining clearer,
truer, and broader ideas of the consti-
tution and development of human so-
ciety.

It is unnecessary here to expatiate
on the value of Spencer's method in
this undertaking, or the thoroughness
of its execution. The original plan,
though liot technically completed, has
been carried out on a comprehensive
scale. Three great groups of human
communities have been treated, viz. :
1. Savage and Uncivilized Societies ; 2.
Civilized Societies, Extinct or Decayed ;
and, 3. Civilized Societies, Historic and

still Flourishing. Of these groups, rep-
resenting communities of every type and
grade, past and present, stationary and
progressive, the social constitution and
history of seventy-two distinct com-
munities are systematically described.

This is done in eight large folio
parts or separate treatises, in which the
facts are first brought into relation by
tabular arrangements, and then the au-
thorities for all the statements are given
in an appended form as extracts from
the works consulted. The simplifica-
tion is remarkable ; and the command
given over the immense details of the
whole subject is something quite in-
credible to those unacquainted with the
work.

"We are therefore justified in say-
ing that Spencer's "Descriptive Soci-
ology" is nothing less than a cyclo-
paedia of social data, inexhaustible in
its wealth of instructive facts, lucid in
method, elaborately fortified in its au-
thorities, free from all hypothesis, and
furnishing in a very accessible form
the kind of knowledge most demanded
by the modern student of social affairs.

It would seem that such a work
ought to have been welcomed and lib-
erally sustained by a public-spirited age.
But it has been commercially a disas-
trous failure. The obvious reason is,
that there is but very little appreciation
of the need of such a work. Neither
our so-called " Schools of Political Sci-
ence" nor our so-called "Associations
for the Promotion of Social Science "
seem to have any idea of what science
means in relation to social phenomena.
The solitary cultivators of the science
are without backing by any parties, so-
cieties, or schools, and are left to their
unaided exertions. Mr. Spencer could
find no publisher to take the pecuniary
risk of his enterprise, and so he printed
his costly cyclopaedia at his own ex-
pense. He contributed his talent and
his time, paid his assistants and his
printer's bills, but he made a work that
was not wanted and would not sell, and

408

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

he has had to take the penalty in very
serious losses. With Part 8, devoted to
French Sociology, he issues the follow-
ing notice of the cessation of the work :

"With the issue of the eighth part, here-
with, the publication of the "Descriptive
Sociology " will be closed.

The collecting, classifying, and abstract-
ing of the materials contained in the parts
now completed was commenced in 1867 ; and
the work, carried on at first by one compiler,
subsequently by two, and for some years by
three, has continued down to the present
time.

On going through his accounts, Mr. Spen-
cer finds that during the fourteen years which
have elapsed since the undertaking was com-
menced, the payments to compilers, added to
the costs of printing, etc. , have amounted to
£-4,425 15s. Id., while up to the present time
the returns (including those from America)
have been £1,054 12s. Id. — returns which,
when they have been increased by the amount
derived from the first sales of the part now
issued, will leave a deficit of about £3,250.

Even had there been shown considerable
appreciation of the work, it would still have
been out of the question to continue it in face
of the fact that, after the small sales which
immediately follow publication, the returns,
so far from promising to repay expenses in
course of time, do not even yield five per cent
interest on the capital sunk.

Should the day ever come when the love
for the personalities of history is less and the
desire for its instructive facts greater, those
who occupy themselves in picking out the
gold from the dross will, perhaps, be able to
publish their results without inflicting on
themselves losses too grievous to be borne —
nay, may possibly receive some thanks for
their pains.

The personality of this announce-
ment makes some corrections here ap-
propriate. It has been often said that
the profits of Mr. Spencer's American
reprints have been greater than those
of the original English publications.
This is a mistake. Some of his books
sold better in this country at first, but
the English sales have had a steady in-
crease, so that the income from them
has been greater than from the Ameri-
can editions. In regard to the "De-
scriptive Sociology," although encour-
aged by his American friends to expect

fair returns from it here, the sales have
been so small that the publishers de-
clined to reproduce it after the third
number, and the work has been kept
in stock by the help of others and by
advances from Mr. Spencer himself.
The appearance of the above notice of
discontinuance has, moreover, been the
occasion of no little misrepresentation,
both in England and in this country.
In England it was rumored that Mr.
Spencer's losses from publication have
been so great as to compel him to go to
America to recruit his means by lecturr
ing ; and in this country the newspa-
pers have intimated that the failure of
his "French Sociology" has brought
him to actual want. These statements
are wholly groundless. Mr. Spencer
has never for a moment entertained the
idea of lecturing here, although offered
very liberal terms; and, while he is not
a rich man, he is by no means in strait-
ened circumstances. He could, of course,
ill afford to lose sixteen thousand dol-
lars , besides many years of labor, on a
single publication, but it has certainly
not made him a bankrupt.

It must be added that Mr. Spencer
has never accepted a farthing from any
source contributed for his private or
personal benefit. "When his "System
of Philosophy," which was not self-sus-
taining, was threatened with suspen-
sion, some funds were sent him from
this country to meet the expenses of
its continuance, but they were accepted
solely as a public trust, and to be applied
to an object recognized by all as of a
purely public nature.

ELECTRIC STORAGE-BATTERIES.

Sixce the first announcement of M.
Faure's improvement of the Plante sec-
ondary battery, speculation has been
rife as to the great number and kinds
of uses to which such batteries could
be applied; and, while much of it has
been only sober prediction, some of it
has been altogether fanciful. The re-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

409

cent arrival of the steamship Labrador
with a number of these batteries on
board, which had been successfully used
during the passage in electric illumina-
tion, has revived both the interest and
the speculations about them in this
country, so that a few words on their
possibilities, and what has been so far
accomplished, may be here appropriate.
It is hardly necessary to say anything
regarding the construction of the Faure
cell, as it was fully described in the
August number of the " Monthly " of
last year, and has since received much
attention in the technical papers and by
the daily press.

That a thoroughly commercial stor-
age-battery has a wide field of useful-
ness before it there can be no question.
Of the many uses to which it could
be applied, one of the most important,
perhaps, is as an element in a system
of electric distribution for both light
and power purposes. "With a storage-
battery in each house, a smaller electric
producing plant in continuous opera-
tion could take the place of the larger
one required without it, and distribu-
tion could be readily accomplished with
one set of mains, as, by simply connect-
ing groups of battery-cells in the prop-
er way, arc and incandescent lamps, as
well as various pieces of machinery,
could be run quite independently of
each other.

The power that such a battery con-
fers of utilizing the results of work per-
formed at other times and places makes
it peculiarly well adapted for use in
isolated electric plant, such as would
be suitable for suburban and country
houses. Wind and water power are
both suitable for charging the battery,
but neither of them would commonly
be available as direct agents in main-
taining a current. It is not at all im-
possible that we may yet see the farm-
ers using the power of the wind, which
costs nothing beyond interest on in-
vestment in a mill and repairs, to light
their houses, and obtain all the power

necessary for many of the operations
of the farm.

Such batteries would also have a
not unimportant use in the propulsion
of cars on street and suburban rail-
ways, and it is quite within the bounds
of reasonable expectation to think that
they could in a good many cases dis-
place steam with advantage on ordinary
railways. The conditions requisite to
render this feasible are simply good
water-power facilities at sufficiently
frequent intervals along the line, or
such a proximity to coal-mines that the
electricity for the charging can be gen-
erated at the pit, and coal transporta-
tion, therefore, dispensed with. The
great advantages of a method of rail-
way propulsion which would dispense
with the fire, steam, and smoke of the
locomotive, are too obvious to need
specifying. Many other applications of
these batteries might be named, and the
sphere of their utility will doubtless con-
stantly enlarge with the progress of in-
dustry.

In order, however, for the storage-
battery to take its place as an impor-
tant element in the growing industrial
applications of electricity, it must reach
a considerably higher efficiency than it
appears to have yet attained. The re-
sults obtained in the experiments on the
Faure battery at the Conservatoire des
Arts-et-Metiers, communicated to the
French Academy of Sciences in March
last, and which constitute the only trust-
worthy account yet given of the per-
formance of this batterv, certainlv leave
much to be desired. The experiments
were conducted to determine — 1. The
mechanical labor expended in charging
the battery; 2. The quantity of elec-
tricity stored up during the charge; 3.
The quantity of electricity given out
during the charge ; and, 4. The elec-
trical work actually effected during the
discharge. They resulted in showing
that the battery returned forty per cent
of the total mechanical power spent in
I charging it, and sixty per cent of the

4io

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

electrical work spent upon it. The lat-
ter result is alone to the point, as in the
former the efficiency of the dynamo-
machine enters as an element, as well
as that of the storage-battery. On this
showing the storage-battery does not
seem to have reached a commercial
stage, but that it will do so at no very
remote time there is every warrant for
believing, when we consider the large
amount of attention there is now being
given to the subject, and the rapidity
with which electric appliances are at
present passing out of the experimental
into the industrial stage.

LITERARY NOTICES;

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES,
No. XLI.

Diseases of Memory: An Essay in the
Positive Psychology. By Th. Ribot,
author of "Heredity: its Phenomena,
Laws, Causes, and Consequences,"
" English Psychology," etc. Translated
from the French by William Hunting-
ton Smith. D. Appleton & Co. Pp.
209. Price, $1.50.

From both a scientific and a practical
point of view this monograph is among the
most interesting and valuable that have ap-
peared in the " International Series." It is
an able statement of the latest knowledge
on a subject which concerns almost every-
body. "We can here only intimate the au-
thor's stand-point in the discussion.

Where are our thoughts when we are not
thinking them ? Not a ten-thousandth part
of the great stock of mental acquisitions
which a man possesses is ever in con-
sciousness at any one time. And, of those
which in our waking states are ever rapidly
emerging and disappearing, only a very small
portion are obedient to the will — they exist
and are preserved independently of con-
sciousness, and they come and go, to a large
extent, by laws deeper than volition.

Where, then, is the great stock of our
ideas when we arc not aware of them ? The
common, the prc-scientific answer is, they
are in the mind, which is an abstract spirit-
ual container, of which we only know that
it is an immaterial essence. This mind is

made up of faculties, and memory is one of
these faculties, in which the intellectual con-
tents are stored up until called for by volun-
tary thought. Hamilton speculated vaguely
about " mental latency," but where the men-
tal stock is kept was always regarded as
a great mystery — in fact, an insoluble mys-
tery which there was no use in working at,
because all the mind that concerns us is the
mind we know about. Mind was thus bound-
ed by consciousness, and memory, or the re-
call of ideas, was considered purely as a
matter of volition, while this faculty in all
men was looked upon as very much the
same thing. Dugald Stewart, for example,
says of the memory, " that original dispari-
ties among men, in this respect, are by no
means so immense as they seem to be at
first view, and that much is to be ascribed
to different habits of attention, and to dif-
ference of selection among the various ob-
jects and events presented to their curi-
osity."

Cut it is obvious enough that nothing
can be done with the problem of mental
disease under this view ; and, if we are to
inquire concerning "diseases of memory,"
the first thing is to ascertain what we have
to deal with that is capable of being dis-
eased. This, of course, is the corporeal
part of our nature, and it implies at once
that memory has its organic side. It is the
nervous part that registers and conserves
our psychical acquisitions, and accordingly
Professor Ribot begins his work by the
study of nervous structures, properties, and
activities, and with the consideration of
memory as a biological fact. Memory im-
plies three things : first, an impression, and
therefore an organism capable of receiving
impressions. The various senses bring, and
the nervous centers receive and record,
these impressions. The centers, moreover,
recombine, reassociate, and elaborate these
impressions in the most complex ways.
This implies, secondly, a conserving or re-
taining capacity of the nerve-centers, which
answers to the notion of mental storing.
Then there is, thirdly, the emergence of
these impressions in thought, or conscious
recollection. This deliverance in conscious-
ness is a result which we might call inci-
dental, and depends, of course, on the prior
conditions of impressibility and -conserva-

LITERARY NOTICES.

411

tion, which are, therefore, of fundamental
importance. It is estimated that there are
a thousand million cells in the human brain,
all bound into a living unity by four or
five thousand million nerve-fibrils of amaz-
ing tenuity, and this is the grand mechan-
ism of registering, conserving, and elabo-
rating impressions and turning them out as
groups and systems of ideas. Conscious-
ness is merely a door through which a small
part of these cerebral elaborations emerge.
Mind grows as this organism grows ; its ca-
pacities are at bottom organic capacities,
and its diseases are breaks, failures, debili-
ties, and degenerations of the nervous sub.
stratum of all psychical operations.

Memory is therefore not the faculty of
an abstraction, but a phenomenon of nerv-
ous dynamics ; and it is dependent upon
the soundness, vigor, nutrition, and organic
perfection of the nervous structure. It is
not one thing, but our memories are innu-
merable. Investigating the problem from
the biological point of view, our author is
able to throw light on the many forms of fail-
ure to which the control of mental acquisi-
tions is subject. He is, in fact, prepared
to announce a law of the decay of memory,
which explains the order in which acquire-
ments disappear as the organ of thought
declines in force by age or from various
other causes. The import of the book is
therefore highly practical, for in proportion
as we have a correct understanding of the
subject shall we be saved from the conse-
quences of erroneous views. The subject
is far enough from being cleared up, but
this little book ' gives us more trustworthy
knowledge about it than can be found in
any preceding treatise upon it.

The Present Religious Crisis. By Au-
gustus Blauvelt. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Pp. 196. Price, $1.

This is not at all a scientific book in the
usual sense, but it raises the question in a
very emphatic way that is fundamental to
all science, namely, the question of liberty
of thought. Whatever we may say in re-
gard to the alleged conflict between relig-
ion and science, of one thing there can not
be the slightest doubt : there is a radical
and a desperate conflict between theology
and liberty of thought. It is historic, and

it is contemporaneous; and, if any doubt
its inveteracy, let them read Mr. Blauvelt's
book, which may be taken, in one of its
aspects, as but a new illustration of the old
experience in which religious bigotry is
arrayed against free and independent in-
quiry.

In his preface, Mr. Blauvelt remarks :
" "When the author says that he was gradu-
ated from Rutgers College, at New Bruns-
wick, New Jersey, and also from the Peter
Hertzog Theological Seminary connected
with the same institution, he has given a
sufficient guarantee that his original instruc-
tion in divinity was of the most hyper-or-
thodox description. Nor does he concede
that any alumnus of either Alma Mater
ever went forth who was, to begin with, a
more devout and implicit believer than he
was in both the essentials and the non-es-
sentials of the general orthodox theology,
and notably that of the Calvinistic order.

" It is needless to assure the reader that,
while he was a student at New Brunswick,
the author was most securely guarded
against all contamination from modern in-
fidelity, lie does not remember, for ex-
ample, that in those days he ever heard so
much as the mention of the name of Strauss.
At the same time, he does have an indis-
tinct recollection that, in a vague and gen-
eral way, he was taught at once to dread
and to abhor that modern theological mon-
strosity, namely, German rationalism."

It was not to be expected that an active-
minded man like Mr. Blauvelt, when he be-
gan to think for himself, would be content
to remain in the mental condition induced
by the theological seminary. Upon assum-
ing the function of a public religious teach-
er, he found the necessity of a more thor-
ough equipment for his work than his
theological instructors had provided, and
he therefore entered upon the systematic
study of the traditional theology, from the
point of view of modern criticism. The
spirit in which he engaged upon the work of
biblical and religious research is thus indi-
cated. He says that " the specific purpose
with which he originally took up these in-
vestigations was to vindicate the traditional
Protestant conceptions about the Bible and
religion against all the assaults of the mod-
ern unbelievers. But from the very outset

412

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

he conceived the idea that, to make this
vindication of any actual and permanent
service to those conceptions, it must itself
be actual ; it must itself be scientific, it must
itself be something decidedly more than
merely theological. In other words, what-
ever inherited conceptions, about either the
Bible or religion, he found he could not
establish by valid evidence and by legiti-
mate reasoning, he resolutely determined
that he would never make the effort to es-
tablish either by any such distortion of evi-
dence, or by any such illegitimate reasoning,
as he had fortunately come to discover to
be only too characteristic of the mediaeval
apologists."

Pursuing his biblical studies from this
independent point of view, Mr. Blauvelt, in
the spirit of the liberal scholarship of the
time, was led to the formation of opinions
widely differing from the orthodox tradi-
tions. The general results which he reached
are given with their proofs in the first eight
chapters of the little volume before us, the
subjects of which are : I. The Crisis ; II.
Dogmatic Theology; III. The Yalidity of
the Biblical Canon ; IV. The Inspiration of
the Bible ; V. The Historical Character
of the Gospels; VI. The Religion of the
Bible; VII. Religion; VIII. The Religion
of Jesus. These chapters are full of infor-
mation in relation to the work of modern
criticism on biblical subjects, and they af-
ford an excellent introduction to the general
inquiry, for those who wish to know how
the register of theological liberality stands
at present.

But the sequel of honest and fearless
research proved to be in this case, what it
had always been before, repression of free
thought. In Chapter IX, Mr. Blauvelt gives
us some examples of the treatment extended
to religious men who have undertaken to
inquire for themselves. He* tells us that
"when, in 1835, Strauss published the ini-
tial volume of his first ' Life of Jesus,' he
was occupying the position of a theological
instructor at Tubingen, with the most brill-
iant prospects before him, and beloved and
honored of all. But even before the ap-
pearance of the second volume he was sum-
marily ejected from his position. As the
unparalleled commotion created by his work
continued to increase, his own father turned

away from him in anger ; his early teachers
in divinity hastened to disavow all complic-
ity with his opinions, and ' as for the friends
and companions of my studies,' says Strauss
hirnself, 'these I had the mortification of
seeing exposed to so much suspicion and
annoyance for their merely rumored inti-
macy with me, that it became a point of
conscientious duty not to expose them to
still greater odium by any public memorial
of our friendship."

Again, " The faculty of the Theological
Seminary of St. Sulpice were once engaged
in preparing their annual examinations,
when a young candidate for the deaconship,
who had always been noted for his great
modesty and studious habits, asked leave to
submit a number of questions which per-
plexed his mind and seemed to depress his
religious spirit. Unless they were solved to
his satisfaction, he could not hope to enter
into holy orders. His earnestness aston-
ished and alarmed the entire faculty. They
refused at once to examine questions which
to them appeared novel or subversive, and,
justly fearing that a neophyte who on the
threshold of the priesthood was besieged
with such misgivings might become a cause
of strife in the Church, they withheld their
protection, and bade him depart from the
consecrated place. This inquisitive and
conscientious student was Joseph Ernest
Renan." How he subsequently succeeded
in passing with the highest honors his ex-
amination for University Professor of Phi-
losophy ; how he became Professor of He-
brew, Chaldaic, and Syriac Languages and
Literature in the oldest chair of the oldest
institution in the land ; and how he was
howled down by the clerical party so that
he could not be even heard on the day of
his inauguration; and how this was fol-
lowed by a governmental decree suspending
his course of lectures indefinitely — is now
well-known matter of history.

When the volume entitled " Essays and
Reviews," containing some independent the-
ological thought, appeared in England, the
authorities were besieged to prosecute the
writers for heresy ; and there was one peti-
tion which is said to have contained the sig-
natures of not less than nine thousand clergy-
men of the Established Church, to promote
this end. Bishop Colenso was subsequently

LITERARY NOTICES.

413

hunted down for his heresies, and Professor
Robertson Smith has been very recently dis-
missed from the professorship of Hebrew,
in the Free College of Aberdeen, for the
same cause.

In further illustration of this religious
hostility to independent thought, it may be
stated that the author of the book before us
contributed in 1873, to "Scribner's Monthly,"
a series of papers entitled " Modern Skepti-
cism," which were simply a bold and forci-
ble statement of the present drifts of liberal
inquiry regarding theological matters. The
periodical was widely and vehemently de-
nounced for printing such discussions, and
there were public demands made for a new
editorship on penalty of the withdrawal of
patronage. Dr. Holland resisted the bigoted
crusade, and after a year or two another
paper was forwarded to him by Mr. Blau-
velt, in continuation of the argument. In
reply, Dr. Holland wrote : " Your last arti-
cle was received, and I have read it to-day.
At the conclusion of its perusal, I find my-
self called upon to make the most impor-
tant decision that has ever come to me for
its making, since I became an editor. I
must be frank with you. I believe you are
right. I should like to speak your words
to the world ; but, if I do speak these, it will j
pretty certainly cost me my connection with
the magazine."

So much for freedom of religious
thought — American freedom of religious
thought — Protestant freedom of religious
thought, in the last quarter of the nine-
teenth century of Christianity ! Of course,
Mr. Blauvelt himself did not escape the
penalties of applying the scientific method
to theology. We do not notice the statement
in his volume, but if any one will turn to
" The Popular Science Monthly," for August,
1877, he will see that the reverend heretic
was stripped of- his office, turned out of the
church, and branded as a "betrayer of his
Master." It was a little too late to burn
him, but is not that about as far as Chris-
tian toleration has yet " progressed " ? One
thing is evident : if Mr. Blauvelt had been
a little more dishonest, had played fast and
loose with his conscience, and had not been
so anxious about the truth, he could have
spent all his days in pious comfort in the
bosom of the Church. Ever, and in the

nature of things, repression of thought is a
bid for hypocrisy.

Egyptian Obelisks. By Hejtry H. Gor-
ringe. Published by the Author, 32
"Waverley Place, New York. Pp. 187,
with 41 Plates.

The propriety of regarding as a great
achievement the removal of a noble object
of the oldest civilization from the place
where it has rested for ages, to adorn a
modern pleasure-ground among surround-
ings as different as possible from those
among which it has stood, has been criti-
cised by admirers of the antique. The fact
that the English, French, Germans, and Ital-
ians have also taken obelisks from Egypt
may show that they are not innocent, but
can not excuse us if the act is, as some be-
lieve, a kind of vandalism. The criticisms
can not, however, be applied justly to those
who removed the obelisk in Central Park,
for they did not take it from before the
temple at Heliopolis, where Thothmes II set
it up, but from the place to which others
before them had removed it from there.
The offense of removal, if it was an offense,
was committed by the Romans nineteen hun-
dred years ago ; and they may have been
guiltless of actual sin, for they probably
found the obelisk already thrown upon the
ground. Americans have been guilty of
no " despoilment," or removal from among
" antique surroundings " ; for the most
prominent surroundings which Commander
Gomnge found about the obelisk at Alex-
andria " were a railway depot, a new apart-
ment-house, and an Arab fort," and it would
have inevitably been destroyed if he had
not taken it away. In other respects, a
feeling of disgust was aroused by the sur-
roundings, and " something more than curi-
osity was needed to induce one to approach
near enough and remain long enough to ex-
amine and appreciate it." The removal of
the monument from such a situation as
Commander Gorringe describes to one that
is fully worthy of it, though un-Egyptian,
should be considered an act deserving as
much praise as the tact, ingenuity, and en-
gineering skill that were displayed in effect-
ing it with complete success. Readers of
the present work will find abundant oppor-
tunity to admire these qualities as displayed

4-H

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by Commander Gorringe, for the difficulties
he had to meet, whether proceeding from
the tempers of men or the stolidity of nat-
ural forces, and the means by which he
overcame them, are clearly described and
illustrated in the interesting and often amus-
ing narrative that forms the first third of
the volume. The account of Commander
Gorringe's experiences in getting the great
stone afloat and across the ocean is supple-
mented by descriptions of the methods, also
illustrated, by which other obelisks have
been transported to Paris, London, and
Rome. The rest of the book is mainly his-
torical and archaeological. In it are in-
cluded a review of the " Archaeology of the
JS"ew York Obelisk," its symbolism, trans-
lations of the inscriptions on it, and its his-
tory ; a " a Record of all Egyptian Obe-
lisks," with photographs, and translations
of their inscriptions ; and " notes on the
ancient methods of quarrying, transporting,
and erecting obelisks," including all that is
known on the subject. The final chapter,
arranged by Professor Persifer Frazer, de-
scribes the analyses of the materials and
metals found with the obelisk, and is illus-
trated by polariscopic sections of rocks.
The work thus combines a narrative of per-
sonal adventure and professional achieve-
ment, an exhaustive historical and archaeo-
logical account of Egyptian obelisks, and the
results of scientific study, in a setting in
which no expense seems to have been spared
to make it worthy of the subject, and to
leave nothing wanting.

Experimental Researches into the Prop-
erties and Motions oe Fluids, with
Theoretical Deductions therefrom.
By W. Ford Stanley. London: E. &
F. N. Spon. 1881. Pp. 538. Price,
86.

Having been engaged in an experiment-
al examination of the undulatory theory of
fight, from which he was obliged to desist
on account of failing eye-sight, Mr. Stanley
took up this subject, he tells us, from the
interest awakened by the previous work,
and in the hope of making clear to his own
mind certain points left obscure by his pre-
vious investigations. It soon, however, ap-
peared to him that " there was yet an im-
mense amount of work to be done in re-

searches in the motions of fluids before
theoretical principles of the sciences of hy-
drodynamics and acoustics could be fixed
upon mechanical principles with any great
precision," and he consequently entered
upon the extended investigations set forth
in the present volume. Of the unsatisfac-
tory state of much of the work in this
branch of physics the author instances the
case of wave-motions on water. The true
procedure in this case is to determine the
manner in which waves are produced on the
surface of water by the action of the wind,
and then, as a secondary consideration, to
investigate the action of gravity in bringing
the surface to equilibrium. The reverse of
this order, the author asserts, is usually fol-
lowed, the question being made a case of
the oscillations of fluids through gravitation
only, and thus begged, as you have then to
assume the wave in existence, while its pro-
duction is the thing to be accounted for.

The first three chapters, the author
states, are speculative, and he puts them
forth simply as helping to a clearer concep-
tion of the nature of a fluid. In the fourth
chapter he develops a theory of rolling con-
tact of fluids moving upon static bodies ; and
in the fifth and sixth chapters he offers
principles of conic resistance in fluids which
give simple mechanical laws for the class of
motions known as vortices, eddies, and cy-
clones. The eighth chapter is devoted to
an exposition of the " principles of motive
resistance to the projection of free solids in
extensive fluids," and the ninth to the " dif-
fusion of flowing forces in fluids."

These nine chapters constitute the first
section of the work, the principles estab-
lished in which are applied to the elucidation
of the manifold phenomena of natural cur-
rents produced by the combined effects of
heat, gravitation, and the earth's rotation.
In the third and closing section of his work
Mr. Stanley takes up the subject of the for-
mation of waves upon the surface of water,
on which he reaches conclusions not mate-
rially different from those of M. Flangergues
and Mr. Scott Russell. A fourth section
upon sound-motions in fluids, which should
have made a part of the present treatise,
the author withholds from publication until
he has opportunity to go over the subject
again, with the help, which he anticipates

LITERARY NOTICES.

415

will be considerable, furnished by the dis-
coveries in the telephonic transmission of
sound.

Myron Holley ; and what He did for

Liberty and True Religion. Pp. 328.

Boston : Printed for the Author, P. 0.

Box 109.

The name of the author of this work is
not given upon the title-page, but by turn-
ing over the leaf we get an explanation of
the matter as follows :
" Copyright secured by Elizur Wright."

" A copy of this book, which three lead-
ing publishers, though guaranteed against
loss, have declined to publish, either with
the author's name or without it, will be sent,
post-paid, on the receipt of $1.50 addressed
to Elizur Wright, Box 109, Boston. Or ten
copies will be sent, free of freight, on the
receipt of $10.

"If any profit should accrue from the
sale, it will all be paid to the descendants of
Myron Holley till such time as the State of
New York shall have paid the just debt it
owes them."

"We have to thank the writer of this
book for one of the most readable and in-
structive biographies we have ever read,
and for doing justice to the character of a
very rare and remarkable man. Myron Hol-
ley was born in 17*79, and died in 1841. His
career, which was thus ended more than
forty years ago, belongs to the early part of
the century, and we had heard much of his
noble work and his manly characteristics,
though only in a fragmentary and unsatis-
fying way, and had often expressed regret
that there was no accessible sketch of his
life. Now that we have it, it is more appar-
ent than ever how great would have been
the loss to the world if the task had remained
unperformed.

The character of Mr. nolley has been
brought out vividly in this volume in several
relations. In the first place, he was one of
the most efficient, influential, and indefati-
gable of the pioneers to which we owe the
canal system of the State of New York.
No matter how this system may be now re-
garded, the construction of the Erie Canal
was a leading step in the progress of our
Western civilization, and full of formidable
difficulties from the novelty* and magnitude

of the project, and the state of the public
mind upon the subject. One of the most
interesting portions of Mr. Wright's racy
and graphic book is the account he gives of
the origin and growth of the canal policy,
which he found it indispensable to delineate
in order to bring out the full import of Mr.
Holley's relation to it. He was not only a
man of great energy and determination, but
of admirable tact, clear judgment, and invin-
cible integrity. He entered into the project
with his whole soul, subordinated all personal
interests to it, neglecting his own private
affairs, under the unwise impression that,
when the great public work was done, the
State would do him justice. We have no
room here for explanations upon this point,
and must refer the reader to the pages of
Mr. Wright, where it is proved that the
I State of New York cheated Myron Holley
i out of more than a hundred thousand dol-
lars, when millions would not have repaid
the State for the value of his services in
carrying out the canal project.

Myron Holley's name will also be his-
toric in connection with the progress of
American ideas by his early and controlling
alliance with the anti-slavery movement.
He was a pioneer reformer in the days when
: opposition to slavery meant social execra-
tion, and when the North in all its great ele-
ments— political, ecclesiastical, collegiate,
literary, and social — was on its knees to the
South for every vile and venal purpose. It
i was in the palmy days of Northern pol-
troonery— when the South was told that she
• could have anything she wanted, and all she
1 wanted ; that she had but to name the term3
on which this government might continue,
and they should be conceded, and when
slavery was rampant and regnant as the su-
preme interest of the American Republic —
that Myron Holley took the lead in found-
ing the Northern Liberty party.

To this history Mr. Wright also adds an
interesting account of Holley's independent
and advanced religious views, and also his
ideas of domestic culture, family interests,
the education of children, and the conduct
of social life. In all these relations Mr.
Holley was a man of great individuality, and
freedom from the tyrannical restraints of
mere conventionalism. He was a thorough-
going reformer when reform was less a vo-

416

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

cation than it has since become, and he was
always marked for the reasonableness and
temperateness of his views, and the ability
and power wi:h which they were presented.
Myron Holley was one of the personali-
- that are not to be forgotten, and we hare
:n to thank Elizur Wright for his pains-
taking and srenerous efforts to rescue from

fonretfulness a character so worthy to be

-

remembered, and admired, and emulated.
Anneal Report of the Connecticut Ag-

EICrLTCKAL-ExPERIlTENT STATION", FOB

188L New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse
i: Taylor. Pp. 122.

Tez Station has been occupying bor-
rowed quarters in the Sheffield Scientific
School, which were so limited that it has been
able to do little else than oversee the analy-

jf fertilizers. This it does rrratuitouslv
when consumers of the fertilizers, for mod-
erate fees when proprietors and sellers, are
i:s customers. It having become necessary
to remove the Station, the direct <: r sags
it be given a situation where it can test the

icultural value of the fertilizers, and per-
form other experiments in practical agri-

:ure. The act <:: Connecticut in estab-
lishing th: Station) been responded to in
other States. New Jersey has a Station in
connection with the Agricultural Col-

; :• a: New Er-.nswick, which enjoys the
advantage of a farm. North Carolina has

_

lately furnished its station with excellent ac-
commodations at public expense; and New
York is organizing a station at an outlay of
I - ,000 a year. The report contains very
full accounts of an iIje - and valuation of
different kinds of fertilizers, and papers on
fodders and feeding-stuffs, with their analy-

Of immediate and practical inter
are articles on the feeding of milch-cc
at different dairies and the Xew Jersey Ex-
perimental Station, and on feeding with en-
silage.

The Occtlt World. Ev A. P. Slxnett.
Boston: Colbv £ Rich! Pp.172. Price,

n.

The author apparently belongs to the
band of Theosophists, and asserts that the
wisdom of the ancients survives as what he
calls the occult philosophy, and that u it was
already a system of knowledge, that had been
cultivated in secret and handed down to ini-

tiates for ages, before its professors per-
formed experiments in public to impress the
popular mind in Egypt and Greece. Adepts
of occultism in the present age are capable
of performing similar experiments, and of
exhibiting results that prove them immeas-
urably further advanced than modern sci-
ence in a comprehension of the forces of
nature.'' He claims, also, that these adepts
have peculiar knowledge of the mental and
spiritual world. He has met this science
during his travels in India, and has assumed
to describe in this volume his experiences of
it. and the knowledge he has gained respect-
ing it. Those who read the book with the
expectation of finding anything in it to con-
firm the high-sounding pretensions declared
at the start will be disappointed.

Marriage and Parentage, and the Sani-
tary and Physiological Laws for the
Production of Children of Finer
Health and Greater Ability. Xew
York: M. L. Holbrook & Co. Pp. 186.

The doctrine of this bock is that " the
race might be greatly improved by wiser
and more sanitary marriages, and by more
physiological parentage"; and the author
suggests that, u if the average standard of
ability of the race in intellect, in morals, and
in physical power were raised one degree
during each century, the results could hard-
ly be estimated." The subject deserves
discussion in a practical, common-sense man-
ner, and receives it here.

The Xew Infidelity. By ArGrsiTS Rad-
cliffe Grote. Xew York : G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. Pp. 101. Price, $1.25.

The author has endeavored to show in
this work that there is an essential differ-
ence between the religious temper of the
Aryan race and the Semitic. " Our villages
to-dav," he says, M are Aryan settlements in
their vital points, not Semitic inclosure? ;
and it is so with our religion — at bottom it
is pagan stilL" He has also tried to show
that revealed religion is not directly attacked
bv the discoveries of Science. " Only Xat-
ural Religion n — which is regarded by him
as the foundation of paganism — " is now as-
sailed in her own house, by her own chil-
dren, and with her own weapons. This has
come to pass through the further develop-

LITERARY XOTICL

417

ment of that race-tendency which seeks in ,
nature for the proof of the existence of 1
God. In Nature, paganism found at first
many gods ; and our present monotheistic
idea (outside of Christianity) seems to be
the result of the gradual extinction of the
belief in diverse deities, by the process of
discovering a sinzle force moving the uni-
verse of matter."

A>* ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON ELECTRICITY.

By James Clerk Maxwell. Edited by
William Garnet t. Oxford : Clarendon
Press. 1881. Pp. 208. Price, $1.90.

The greater part of this work consists
of articles written by the late Professor
Maxwell some years before his death, with
a view to their ultimate publication as an
elementary text-book of the subject. Owing
to the labor involved in the editing of the
Cavendish papers, they were left in a very
incomplete state at the time of his death,
but the editor has endeavored to carry out
the original purpose, by supplementing them
with material taken from Professor Max-
well's larger work, "Electricity and Mag-
netism." The first two chapters are de-
voted to an experimental demonstration of
the principal facts relating to electric charge
considered as a quantity capable of in-
urement, and the third to electric work and
energy. In the fourth chapter the electric
field is considered, and Faraday's law of
lines of induction forms the subject of the
fifth. Some particular cases of electrifica-
tion are taken up in the sixth chapter, elec-
trical images in the seventh, and conden-
in the eighth. The various phenomena of
the current form the subject of the ninth
and tenth chapters, while the methods of
maintaining it are considered in the eleventh.
The twelfth chapter is devoted to the meas-
urement of electrical resistance, and the
thirteenth and last to electrical resistance of
su'ostan . -

The Mother's Guide in the Management
and Feeding of Infants. By John M.
Keating, M. D. Philadelphia : Henry
C. Lea's Son £ Co. Pp. 11 S. Price.
tl.

The author has endeavored to supply a

want which he believes to be daily growing,

as the monthly nurses of the last generation,

whose knowledge gained by experience gave

vol. xxi. — 27

them a place hardly secondary to that of the
doctor, are passing away — the want of a
better understanding of the requirements
of a new-born babe. A n>: for arti-

ficial feeding has been developed; over-
luxurious and overheated dwellings have
raised the question of proper clothing ; and
the rapid advancement of science has taught
us the value of early treatment to eradicate
the tendency to inherited taint. For ex-
plaining these matters, the work considers
the requirements of the infant, first from
birth till the catting of its first teeth, then
during the period of dentition, and finally
those of a child after its third vear.

Opium-Smoking in America and China. A
idy of its Prevalence and Effects, Im-
mediate and Remote, on the Individual
and the Nation. By H. H. Kane, M. D.
>\ : k : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
156. Price, $1.

■• That opium-smoking. -he author

of this work, "is a vice that imperativ
demands careful study at the hands of Amer-
icans is made manifest by the fact that the
practice, comparatively unknown among us
six vears a^ro, is now indulsed in bv some
six thousand of our countrymen, male 1
female, whose ranks are being daily
cruited ; . . . that large and small towns in
the "West and large cities in the East abo\:
in places where this drug is sold

; and that in some of E bates it
has been found necc - j to enact repn
ive laws on the subject. Dr. Kane I
made careful investigations of the methods
and effects of opium-smoking, by personal
experiment, by the observation of smok
in the act and afterward, by correspond-
ence and communication with other similar
observers, and by the consultation of books
in which the subject is discussed, and c:
the results in this volun

A Study of the Various Sources of Sugar :
Sugar-Cane, Sorghums, Sugar-Beet, Ma-
ple, Water-Melons, etc. By Lewis
Ware. Philadelphia: Henry Gbu
Baird ^c Co. Pp. 66. Price, 50

The author - ta that suear.

the largest single article of import into the
country, offers a greater field for usef uln-. - -
in the investigation and introduction and
development of a new industry than u any

418

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not now here existing." He reviews all the
products from which sugar is obtained or is
expected to be obtained, in order to discover
which one presents the most hopeful open-
ing for enterprise. His conclusions are,
that sorghum offers a difficult problem from
a financial point of view ; that amber-cane
is a little more satisfactory, but not sat-
isfactory enough; that the cultivation of
corn-stalks for sugar would exhaust the
soil ; that sugar-cane can not supply the
home demand ; that the maple can do this
no better ; that the expectation of obtain-
ing sugar from sweet-potatoes is delusive,
and that of getting it from white potatoes
more so. Water-melons deserve more con-
sideration, but they are declared to be in-
ferior to the sugar-beet; and the last is
pronounced " the only possible plant which
can supply the North with sugar." The
question remains, whether beet-sugar can
be made profitably without the artificial
stimulus of protection. If not, we had
better continue to raise what we can derive
a profit from without artificial aid, and buy
our sugar where we can get it cheapest.

Vaccination : Arguments Pro and Con ;
with a Chapter on the Hygiene op
Small-pox. By Joseph F. Edwards,
M. D. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston, Son
& Co. Pp. 80. Price, 50 cents.

The energy of the opposition manifested
by a considerable number of persons against
vaccination has induced the author to make
his own independent study of the question.
He has gathered information from all avail-
able sources and considered the arguments
on both sides, as he presents them here, and
has become convinced that in vaccination
properly performed, and in that only, we
can find immunity from small-pox. He at-
taches much importance to anticipating the
opposition that may arise and spread in this
country, as it has done in England.

First Aid to the Injured. By Peter Shep-
herd, M. D. Revised and added to by
Bowditch Morton, M. D. New York :
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 88. Price,
50 cents.

A brief manual intended for non-profes-
sional readers, the object of which is to fur-
nish a few plain rules to enable any one to
act in cases of injury or sudden illness,

pending the arrival of professional help.
The revisions and additions by the Ameri-
can editor have been simply such as would
make the work more suitable to this coun-
try.

Sir John Lubbock's charming little book
on " Ants and Bees " will be the next vol-
ume of the " International Scientific Series,"
and is now in press, to be very shortly is-
sued. It will contain much new, fresh, and
entertaining matter on a subject always full
of interest. Sir John has been many years
a close observer of the habits of these little
creatures, and his volume will therefore not
be a second-hand compilation, but an origi-
nal contribution to the most romantic aspect
of natural history.

The entertaining sketches entitled " The
Mountains of the Moon " ; or, Chronicles of
Hakim Ben Sheytan, concerning a curious
African people, of which we have printed
some representative installments in the
" Monthly," is now being copiously illus-
trated for separate publication in a volume.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Circulars of Information of the Bureau of
Education. No. 6. 1881. Effects of Student
Life on the Eye-sight. By A. W. Calhoun. M. D.
And No. 1. 1882. Training-Schools for Nurses.
Washington : Government Printing-Office.

Fungi injurious to Vegetation. With Reme-
dies. By Dr. Byron D. Halstead. Pp. 35.

The Opium-Habit, By E. H. M. Sill, M.D.
New York : Berminghaui & Co. 1882. Pp. 8.

On the Trachyte of Marblehead Neck, Mas-
sachusetts. By M. E. Wadswortb, Ph.D. Pp. 7.

Biogen : A Speculation on the Origin and Na-
ture of Life. By Dr. Elliott Cones. Washing-
ton : Judd & Detweiler. 1882. Pp. 27.

The Death-Rate of Memphis. By George E.
Waring, Jr. 1882. Pp.6.

How the Great Prevailing Winds and Ocean
Currents are produced. By C. A. M. Taber.
Boston: A. Williams & Co. 1882. Pp. 82. 40
cents.

History and Description of the Luray Cave.
By S. Z. Ammen, A. M. Baltimore : J. W. Burst
& Co. 1882. Pp. 48. Illustrated.

Educational Journalism. By C. W. Bardeen.
Syracuse : C. W. Bardeen, Publisher. 1881. Pp.
30.

Bulletin of the United States National Mu-
seum. No. II. Bibliography of the Fishes of
the Pacific Coast to the End of 1879. By Theo-
dore Gill. Washington: Government Pnntmg-
Office. 1S82.

Notes on Phvsiological Optics. By W. Le
Conte Stevens. * 1882. "Pp. 28.

Current Fallacies about Vaccination. A Let-
ter to Dr. Carpenter. By Dr. P. A. Taylor, M. P.
London : E. W. Allen. 1881. Pp. 37.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

419

Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Vol. IV, Nos. 1-4. January-April, 1882. New
York : Bermingham & Co. 1822. Pp. 48.

How we See. By Dr. Swan M. Burnett.
Washington : Judd & Detweiler. 1882. Pp. 25.
10 cents.

The Mental Status of Guiteau. By Walter
Channing, M. D. Cambridge, Massachusetts :
Riverside Press. 1882. Pp.22.

The Mineral- Water Controversy, Artificial or
Natural. By Carl H. Schultz. New York :
Wells, Lockett & Rankin. 1882. Pp. 32.

Forest-Tree Culture in California. Pp. 12.
And, On the Growth of Certain California For-
est-Trees and the Meteorological Inferences
suggested thereby. Pp. 8. By Robert E. C.
Stearns. Berkeley, California.

Color-Names, Color-Blindness, and the Edu-
cation of the Color-Sense in our Schools. By
B. Joy Jeffries, M. D. Boston : L. Prang & Co.
1882. Pp.11.

A Bibliography of Fossil Insects. By Sam-
uel H. Scudder. Cambridge, Massachusetts :
University Press. 1882. Pp. 47.

Tenth Annual Report of the Board of Di-
rectors of the Zoological Society of Philadel-
phia. Philadelphia. 1832. Pp.30. Illustrated.

Third Annual Report cf the Executive Com-
mittee of the Archaeological Institute of Amer-
ica, etc., etc. Cambridge : John Wilson & Son.
1882. Pp.56.

The Domain of Physiolosry, or Nature in
Thought and Language. By T. Sterry Hunt,
F.R. S. Boston: S.E. Cassino. 1882. Pp. 27.

The Passion Tragedies of the Nineteenth
Century. By Richard Monsill. Rock Island,
Illinois. 1882. Pp.83. 50 cents.

Kindergarten Manuals. Primary Helps. By
W. N. Hailmann, A. M. Syracuse : C. W. Bar-
deen. 1882. Pp.29. Fifteen full-page Plates.
75 cents.

Capital and Population. By Frederick B.
Hawley. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1882.
Pp.267. $1.50.

Gypsies. By Dio Lewis. New York :M. L.
Holbrook & Co. 1882. Pp. 214. Illustrated.

A Compendious Dictionary of the French
Language. By Gustave Masson. New York:
Macmillan & Co. 1882. Pp. 416. $1.

Cornell University Register. 1881-1882. Ith-
aca, New York. Pp. 120.

Currency ; or, The Fundamental Principles
of Monetary Science. Bv Hugh B. Willson.
New York: G. P. Putnam Sons. 1882. Pp.309.
§1.50.

Handbook of Invertebrate ZoSlogy. Bv W.
K. Brooks. Ph. D. Boston: S. E. Cassino. 1S82.
Pp.392. Illustrated. $3.

An Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language. By Rev. Walter W. Skeat. New
York : Macmillan & Co. 1882. Pp. 799. $2.50.

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of
the Smithsonian Institution, for the Year 1880.
Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1881.
Pp. 772.

Essays in Jurisprudence and Ethics. By
Frederick Pollock, M.A. London: Macmillan
& Co. , 1S82. Pp. 383. $3.

Tenth Census of the United States. Statis-
tics of the Population of the United States by
States, Counties, and Minor Civil Divisions.
Compiled by Francis A. Walker. Pp.375. Sta-
tistics of Public Indebtedness, embracing the
Funded and Unfunded Debts of the United
States and the Several States. Compiled under
the Direction of Robert P. Porter. Pp. 667.

History and Present Condition of New Or-
leans. Louisiana, and Report on the City of
Austin, Texas. By George E. Waring, Jr., and
George W. Cable. Pp. 99.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

American Forestry. — An American Con-
gress of Forestry was held in Cincinnati,
beginning April 25th, of which the Hon.
George B. Loring, Commissioner of Agri-
culture of the United States, was chosen
President for the year. Ten State and Pro-
vincial organizations, one of which embraces
the Canadian Provinces, were recognized,
and sections were constituted, as follows:
A. Uses of Forests ; Dr. Franklin B. Hough,
President. B. Conservation of Forests ; Dr.
John A. Warder, President. C. Influences
of Forests, Injurious and Beneficial ; Pro-
fessor "William Saunders, President. D. Ed-
ucational Means ; Professor N. P. Egleston,
President. Professor William Saunders, of
London, Ontario, read a paper on " Insects
affecting Forest-Trees," in which he con-
sidered the various means of preventing and
remedying insect depredations. Dr. George
Vasey, of Washington, D. C, read a paper
on " The Distribution of Conifers in the
United States," and was followed by a
discussion on resonant trees, in which the
American cypress was declared to be far
superior for musical instruments to any
foreign wood. Mr. Hough gave an account
of what had been done by the State of New
York in the matter of the Adirondack Park,
after which resolutions were adopted ap-
proving the policy of establishing the park,
and recommending the adoption of similar
measures by other States. Mr. Verplanck
Colvin presented a paper on " The Decay
and Preservation from Decay of Wood,"
in which the merits of several preservative
substances were considered. Professor Lane
read a paper on " The Importance of Ex-
perimental Stations of Forestry," and the
Congress recommended the establishment of
such stations, to be under the care of the
agricultural colleges, with a central station.
In a paper on "The Profits of Durable
Trees," Dr. A. Furness, of Danville, Indiana,
showed that an investment of $50 for one
acre of land and $25 for tree-plants had re-
turned him in sixteen years a clear profit over
all expenses and taxes of $1,048. Mr. C.
David, of Madison, Indiana, read a few notes
" On the Natural Growth of Forest-Trees "
which had given him in about thirty years^
upon an originally bare prairie, a wood of

420

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

timber-trees from twelve to sixteen inches
in diameter. Dr. F. B. Hough stated that
a journal devoted to the interests of for-
estry would be begun soon, to be edited by
himself, and published by Robert Clarke &
Co., of Cincinnati. Committees were ap-
pointed to report on the importance of ex-
perimental forest stations ; to suggest a plan
for the prevention of the destruction of for-
ests by fire and cattle ; to report on the
importance and necessity of State commis-
sions of forestry ; on forest-culture, and on
forestry schools. The next meeting was
appointed to be held at Montreal, Canada,
August 21st and 22d of this year, two days
before the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
when reports from these committees are ex-
pected. One of the days of the convention
was styled " Arbor Day," and was devoted
to the planting of trees in the public squares
aud Lincoln Park. A large number of the
trees were named in honor of public men
and distinguished citizens, etc. This, though
not of particular practical bearing, tends to
awaken interest in a cause that needs such
awakening sadly enough.

Sound-Shadows in Water. — Professor
John Le Conte has described in the "Amer-
ican Journal of Science " a course of inves-
tigations, which he has made with the as-
sistance of his son, on sound-shadows in
water. It is probably within the experience
of all that more or less perfect sound-shad-
ows are thrown by hills, buildings, piers,
and other obstacles, to the transmission of
aerial vibrations. Nevertheless, the bound-
aries of such shadows are so imperfectly
denned that they can hardly be compared,
except in a general way, with the shadows
of light. Many ordinary obstacles are elas-
tic and give passage to a part of the sound,
as translucent bodies let a part of the light
through ; and waves are liable to a diffrac-
tive divergence, which proceeds from the
secondary waves that originate at the bound-
aries of the obstacle and are propagated
within the geometrical shadow. Lord Eay-
leigh refers the difference in effect in the
case of sound as compared with light to
the difference in the proportion of the
wave-lengths of the two phenomena to the
size of the obstacle. An ordinary obstacle

bears an immense ratio to the length of a
wave of light, but does not bear a very
great ratio to the length of a sound-wave.
Hence it follows, from the mathematical
theory of undulations, that the waves of
sound bend around obstacles, and produce
more or less effect within the geometrical
shadow, while light-shadows have definite
boundaries, and are more sharply de-
fined. These views appear to be confirmed
by experiment; for the shadows cast by
acute sounds are more distinct than those
produced by grave sounds. It is also a sig-
nificant fact that sound-shadows seem to
be more perfect or more sharply defined in
water than in air. David Colladon found
this to be the case in 1826. Professor Le
Conte's son, under his direction, made some
experiments in this matter during the re-
moval of Rincon Rock at San Francisco, by
blasting with dynamite, in 1874. The shock
produced in the water — which was felt at
the distance of three hundred feet as a short
concussion or click — was followed by a sec-
ond shock in the air, that was heard. When
the observer stood upon the top of a wooden
pile, the concussion seemed to come up
from the water along the cylinder of wood.
A soda-water bottle was let down near a
pile about forty feet from the explosive car-
tridge. "Whenever it was left within the
geometrical shadow of the pile from the
cartridge, it was not hurt by the explosion ;
whenever it was placed outside of the shad-
ow it was shivered to atoms, and this wheth-
er it was filled with water or with air. In
other experiments stout glass tubes firmly
adjusted to a frame-work supporting them,
were let down horizontally so as to He across
the piles. In every case the shock of the
explosion shivered the parts of the tube
that projected on either side of the posts,
and left the part within the shadow unin-
jured. The boundaries between the broken
and the protected parts of the glass were
sharply defined. The same effects were pro-
duced when the tubes were put twelve feet
beyond the pile. Professor Le Conte ex-
plains these phenomena by endeavoring to
show that the sound-shadows are more dis-
tinct in water than in air because the sound-
waves are shorter in that medium. The
character of the explosion also probably has
much to do with the nature of the effect : the

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

421

sharp, sudden detonation of nitro-glycerine
is calculated to generate shorter waves than
a more deliberate explosion. This view is
confirmed by the fact that, when an extreme-
ly disastrous explosion of nitro-glycerine
took place in San Francisco in 1880, a vio-
lent concussion was felt in the University
buildings, three miles away, while no aerial
shock was felt at Professor Joseph Le
Conte's house, eight hundred and ninety feet
farther off, but within the geometrical shad-
ow of one of the buildings. The sound-wave
coming by the air was completely cut off
by the acoustical shadow cast by the inter-
vening: structure. This would not have
been the result in the case of ordinary
sounds.

The Salmon-Disease. — Professor Huxley
recently read a paper before the Royal So-
ciety on the disease which prevails occasion-
ally among the salmon in North America
and Siberia, in which he reviewed the re-
sults of the commission that was appointed
in 1878, when the disease raged in the Sol-
way district, to investigate its nature. The
evidence taken before the commissioners
leaves no doubt that the malady is to be as-
signed to the diseases caused by parasitic
organisms, and that it is a contagious and in-
fectious disease of the same order as ring-
worm, the muscardine among silk-worms,
and the potato-disease, and is the work of
a minute fungus. In fact, the Saprolegnia
which causes it is an organism closely allied
to the Peronospora, which is the cause of
the potato-disease. One distinction may be
marked between them, that the Peronospora
are parasites depending altogether upon liv-
ing plants for their support, while the Sa-
prolegnia are essentially saprophytes, that
is, they ordinarily derive their nourishment
from dead animal and vegetable matters,
and are only occasionally parasites upon
living organisms. The zoospores of these
plants, diffused through the water, germi-
nate and produce a mycelium similar to that
from which they started as soon as they
reach the healthy skin of a salmon. Pro-
fessor Huxley experimented in inoculating
the bodies of dead house-flies from the dis-
eased salmon-skin, and in a few hours saw
the bodies completely ttrken possession of
by the white filaments of the fungus ; it

was proved to him that the pathogenic Sa-
prolegnia of the living salmon may become
an ordinary saprogenic Saprolegnia, and, per
contra, that the latter may give rise to the
former. Hence the cause of salmon-disease
may exist in all waters in which dead in-
sects infested with the Sapn-olegnia are met
with. The Saprolegnia do not appear to be
found on decaying bodies in salt-water. We
must, therefore, " look for the origin of the
disease to the Saprolegnia which infest dead
organic bodies in fresh waters. Neither
pollution, drought, nor over-stocking, will
produce the disease if Saprolegnia are ab-
sent," although they may favor the condi-
tions on which its spread depends. Profess-
or Huxley also concludes that the chances of
infection for a healthy fish entering a river
are prodigiously increased by the existence
of diseased fish in that river, insomuch as
the bulk of Saprolegnia on a few diseased
fish vastly exceeds that which would exist
without them. Hence, "the careful extir-
pation of every diseased individual is the
treatment theoretically indicated ; though,
in practice, it may not be worth while to
adopt that treatment."

Catalogue of Scientific Periodicals. —

Dr. H. C. Bolton, of Trinity College, is pre-
paring for the press his long-delayed " Cata-
logue of Scientific Periodicals," which will
appear in the octavo series of the Smith-
sonian Institution. The catalogue is intend-
ed to embrace independent journals of pure
and applied science, published in all coun-
tries, from 1665 to 1880 ; so far as possible,
minute details will be given concerning
changes of title, sequence of series, editor-
ship, and date of publication. The arrange-
ment of titles will be strictly alphabetical,
but periodicals having different names at
different periods will be grouped together
under the heading of the first or earliest
title of the series, cross-references being
made in all cases. A peculiar feature of
the catalogue is presented in synoptical ta-
bles containing the dates of publication of
each volume of the periodicals named, ex-
hibited by a method slightly modified from
the plan originated by Professor James D.
Dana, and is described in his "System of
Mineralogy " (page 34, foot-note). Only a
limited number of the periodicals can be en-

422

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tered in the synoptical tables, as preference
is given to those which were published dur-
ing a long series of years, or were issued
very irregularly. The publication of the
data contained in these tables was at one
time abandoned on account of supposed
typographical difficulties, but these have
been overcome. The catalogue does not
embrace transactions of learned societies,
these being found in the admirable " Cata-
logue of Scientific Serials," by Mr. S. II.
Scudder ; but it does embrace every branch
of applied science, including engineering,
architecture, chemical technology, geogra-
phy, ethnology, agriculture, horticulture, te-
legraphy, meteorology, etc. More than twen-
ty languages are represented in the work,
which it is hoped will be completed before
the close of the year.

Sioux Superstitions. — Mr. H. C. Yar-
row has communicated to the Anthropolog-
ical Society of Washington, D. C, some ob-
servations by Mr. William E. Everett, a
Government scout at Fort Custer, on some
superstitions of the live Indians. The Sioux
believe that when they die they go directly
to the " Great Spirit's Big Village," having
to cross a long divide, and perhaps fight the
spirits of their dead enemies on the way ;
for this reason they want their best horses
killed with them, and their arms put by
their side. Reaching their paradise, they
are received by their friends and relatives
and escorted to a fine lodge, where they
meet their wives and children that have
gone before ; all their war-horses that have
been killed in battle reappear before them ;
if they have been maimed in war, their miss-
ing members immediately return to them ;
if they have mutilated themselves greatly
for some friend or relative, that person
comes to them and embraces them, and
makes them large presents ; and they find
themselves encamped amid most delight-
ful surroundings. Their idea of sickness is
that a bad spirit of one of their enemies
has entered the sick person, and must be
driven out by noise ; and a great uproar is
made, while the invalid is made to inhale
the smoke of sweet grasses and herbs to
assist in the exorcism. Bad spirits are be-
lieved to be sometimes sent back to earth
in the shape of some animal, and Indians

often fancy that they can talk to their friends
under such forms. Mr. Everett once saw
Sitting Bull making motions with his hands,
and talking to a large wolf, which apparent-
ly understood what he said, " for whenever
he would make the sign for ' Do you under-
stand ? ' the wolf would throw up his head
and howl." The chief told Mr. Everett that
he was making medicine to find where the
main herd of buffalo were, and whether it
would rain or snow before the hunters got
back ; and he said the wolf was the spirit
of a great hunter, and always gave him
warning whenever there was any danger
close at hand, and told him where the buf-
falo were to be found. He also repeated
some predictions the wolf had made to him,
which seem to have been afterward exactly
fulfilled. A remarkable superstition pre-
vails with relation to the white-tailed deer,
and is so strong that an Indian can seldom
be induced to shoot one of those animals.
They believe that the deer embodies the
spirit of a woman, who, if it is killed, will
appear before them and kill them, or make
their life a torture. Mr. Everett is ac-
quainted with several stories of Indians
who started out, in spite of the superstition,
to hunt the white-tailed deer and did not
return, but who were afterward found, by
their friends going out to search for them,
lying by the side of a dead deer strangled,
with the marks of a woman's hand on their
throat, and a woman's feet on the ground.
One grim story of this character, which he
repeats with its particulars, relates to six
young men who went out together and shot
six deer, and were found strangled, with
marks of fingers on their throats, and hor-
rified looks, as if they had seen something
awful. A curse was pronounced upon the
spot where the tragedy happened, by the
oldest man of the tribe, which was said by
the Indians to have been fulfilled to the
letter.

What are Sun-Spots? — Opinions respect-
ing the nature of the sun-spots vary widely.
Secchi thought they were clefts filled with
metallic vapors ; Weber and Kirchhoff, that
they were clouds of smoke ; Reis, that they
were clouds of vaporized oxyhydrate of iron ;
and Faye, Zollner, Gautier, Spiller, and Spo-
rer, that they were a dross formed by a ccol-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

423

ing of the sun's fiery matter. None of these
theories is fully satisfactory. The hypothe-
sis of clouds of smoke hardly agrees with
the immensely high temperature we have to
ascribe to every part of the sun's surface,
and the supposition of a dross would re-
quire a greater degree of cooling than could
possibly take place there. Ilerr Edmund
von Ludwighausen Wolff has advanced the
theory in " Kosmos " that the spots, instead
of being cooler, represent parts of the sun
that are vastly hotter than the rest of its
body ; that is, that they are regions in which
all the heat-movements have reached the in-
tensity of the ultra-violet and invisible rays ;
consequently, they appear dark. Herr Wolff
remarks that Secchi's observation that the
spots gave out not less but more heat than
the rest of the sun's surface, and Fraun-
hofer's that the forces that produce the
spectrum-lines appear to be more active in
the spots, and the fact that flashes of light
are frequently seen to spring up from the
midst of them, are contradictory to all pre-
viously received theories, but agree fully
with that which he proposes, and are clearly
explainable by it.

The Laws of Rain-fall.— Professor E.

Loomis has prepared, in aid of his studies of
the laws affecting the amount of rain-fall at
different places, a graduated table of the
average annual rain-fall at more than seven
hundred points. Of two hundred and four
stations at which the mean exceeds seventy-
five inches (rising from this amount to 492*-
45 inches at Cherapunji, Assam), some are
elevated more than two thousand feet above
the sea, and nearly all are within one or two
hundred miles of elevated mountains. Rain
chiefly occurs when the wind from the ocean
is blowing toward the mountains, and the
extraordinary rain-fall at most of them is
probably due to the influence of the mount-
ains, by which the wind is deflected upward
to such height that a considerable part of
the contained vapor is condensed by the
cold of elevation. The cases in which the
rain-fall is excessively deficient are, on the
other hand, those of places in which nothing
exists that may cause an upward current of
air. Another cause of deficient rain-fall,
frequently exemplified,>is the descent of a
current of air which has been forced up to

a great height and suffered condensation of
its vapor, after it has crossed the mountain,
by the influence of which it has been raised,
when its temperature rises and it becomes
dry. Such effects are produced by the
Rocky Mountains on the plains east of them
and by the Himalayas on the Desert of
Gobi ; and the operation of these two
causes will assist in explaining most of the
rainless districts of the globe. Other in-
fluences modifying the amount of rain-fall
are, the meeting of the northeast and south-
east trade-winds, which results in a great
rain-belt surrounding the globe ; the irreg-
ular barometric depressions of the middle
latitudes, indicating frequent storms ; prox-
imity to the ocean, especially when the prev-
alent wind comes from the sea ; and the
projection of capes and headlands into the
ocean, which contribute to frequent rains.
Uniformity in the direction of the winds
throughout the year, such as prevails in
the trade-wind regions, obstruction of the
free movement of surface-winds by mount-
ains, remoteness from the ocean measured
in the direction from which the prevalent
wind proceeds, and high latitude, tend to
produce a dry climate. These principles do
not seem to be fully borne out by the phe-
nomena of rain on either side of the Alle-
ghany Mountains, but we have not yet sys-
tematic enough or careful enough observa-
tions to enable us to determine what is their
real influence. Mount Washington, in New
Hampshire, exerts a marked influence. The
mean annual precipitation there is seventy-
seven inches, while in the surrounding dis-
tricts it is only forty inches.

Improved Sanitary Condition of Lon-
don,— The report of the English Registrar-
General for 1880 completes the fourth dec-
ade of reports since the weekly return of
that officer was first published. It shows
that the death-rate in London for the year
(taking the population of the metropolis as
given by the last census) was not more than
21*5 per thousand inhabitants, than which
a lower death-rate has been returned in only
three of the last forty years. The decade
closing with 1880 was one of lower mor-
tality in London than any of the three de-
cennial periods for which trustworthy sta-
tistics are available, the rate having been

4H

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

22-4 for 1880, and having ranged from 23-7
to 24*9 in the three decades from 1841 to
18*70, and averaged 23*4 during the whole
period. The health of London, which was
practically stationary during the thirty years
ending with 1870, showed a marked im-
provement during the following ten years ;
and it may be estimated that at least 70,000
persons were living within registration in
London at the end of the ten years who
would have died had the mean death-rate of
the preceding thirty years been maintained.
Dividing the ten years into two periods of
five years, the death-rate appears to have
been considerably lower in the later than
in the earlier period. These facts afford
strong evidence of the efficacy of the sani-
tary efforts of late years in the face of the
increasing density of the population,' which
has, of course, worked against them. This
ascription of improvement to the effect of
sanitary measures is justified by the fact ,
that the most marked decrease in mortal-
ity is in that from zymotic diseases. The
average annual death-rate from fever fell
from 092 per 1,000 during the first three
decades of the forty years to 0-37 per 1,000
in 1871-80. The rate of infant mortality
has not, however, diminished to a corre-
sponding proportion with the mortality from
other classes of diseases.

The Aquarides, or July Meteors. — M.

Cruls has communicated a notice of the
meteors which the earth meets between the
25th and 30th of July, called Aquarides, be-
cause they appear to radiate from a point
near 5 Aquarii, of which regular observa-
tions have only recently been made under
favorable conditions. The possibility of the
earth meeting at a point in its orbit one or
more currents of asteroids is very admis-
sible. Each of these currents mirfit be de-
fined by its proceeding from distinct centers
of emanation which may be determined by
the crossing of the trajectories ; but, to give
a character of certainty to the existence of
these centers, the determination should rest
upon the definition of an adequate number
of trajectories. If the existence of a con-
siderable number of radiant points should
be verified by continued observations, the
phenomena would lose the character which
a few trains isolated and distributed after

a certain manner in space would present,
and would assume that of an intricacy of
asteroidal currents, compelling the admission
that the infinite multitude of corpuscles oc-
cupies an immense zone analogous to the
zodiacal light, and possibly having a certain
connection with it. M. Cruls believes with-
out doubt that the zodiacal light extends
beyond the orbit of the earth, at least in
certain directions ; while he was observing
the meteors in July, he saw the zodiacal
light at one o'clock in the morning distinct-
ly projected upon the zenith, and extending
toward the eastern horizon ; the earth was
at that moment within its limits. Three
astronomers and three pupils participated
in watching the meteors at Rio, from the
25th to the 30th of July. They counted
2,710 meteors, and estimated that five per
cent of the whole number escaped observa-
tion. It was manifest to all the observers
that ninety per cent of all the paths of the
meteors intersected each other in the neigh-
borhood of Fomalhaut. The horary means
increased fast from the hours of evening till
those of morning, and exhibited a remarka-
ble incandescence near sunrise. This seems
to indicate that the swarms of meteors
move in an opposite direction to the earth ;
for in that case, the movement of the earth
at sunrise being directed toward that point
in the ecliptic which is on the meridian,
the meteors would then enter the atmos-
phere under more favorable conditions of
speed than at any other hour of the night.

Piseco Lake-Trout and T Lake Falls. —

Piseco Lake, in the Adirondacks, formerly
the fishing-grounds of the once famous Pi-
seco Club, was noted in the earlier days of
its frequentation for the wonderful catches
of trout it afforded. According to the state-
ment of the Rev. Ilenry L. Ziegenfuss, in
"Forest and Stream," an average of less
than six men fishing from the club-house at
Walton Lodge, for an average of less than
nine days annually, succeeded in capturing
in nine years — 1842 to 1850 — more than
three tons of trout. The largest trout ever
taken from the lake — which was called for
distinction the " Emperor " — was caught on
the 24th of June, 1842, and weighed twenty-
six pounds and eight ounces. Another fish
weighed twenty pounds and a quarter, and

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

425

measured three feet, less half an inch, in
length, and two feet, less half an inch, in
circumference. In June, 1847, the president
of the club killed a red-fleshed lake-trout
that weighed twenty-four pounds, the largest
that was ever taken there by trolling. With-
in eidit miles of Lake Piseco is T Lake,
whose waters flow down the mountains
toward West Canada Creek over a fall of
nearly seven hundred feet, into the pool
called "Snowstorm's Delight." In mid-
summer but little water comes down from
the lake, but in spring and fall immense
volumes thunder over the height with a roar
that is heard at Piseco. Many extravagant
statements are current respecting the height
of the falls, but the matter has been partly
settled by the measurements of Colonel J.
T. Watson, of Clinton, New York, made in
1876. The swift rapids at the top of the
falls are one hundred feet in length ; the
sharp pitch three hundred and ninety feet,
and the almost perpendicular fall below two
hundred feet, giving a total of six hundred
and ninety feet. The falls are thirty feet
wide at the top and three hundred feet at
the bottom.

The Teleradiophone.— M. Mercadier, the
French electrician, has ingeniously adapted
the photophone to telegraphy. When, in
working with the photophone, the ray of
light striking upon the selenium receiver is
eclipsed many times in a second, a continu-
ous hum is produced, and this may be bro-
ken up into signals by varying the intervals
between the intermissions, so that a kind of
Morse alphabet can be played upon the in-
strument. An arrangement for producing
signals of this kind is attached to the trans-
mitting instrument, when the signals are
sent along the line to a telephone at the
other end. No gain over the ordinary tele-
graph is realized by such an arrangement,
but, by multiplying the number of transmit-
ters at one end and the number of tele-
phones at the other end, it can be made to
admit of several different messages being
sent along the same wire at a time, and of
sending messages at once from opposite
ends of the wire without confusion. In or-
der to give the multiple messages effect, it is
only necessary to rotate the eclipsing wheels,
which act upon the several selenium re-

ceivers at different speeds, so as to produce
notes of different pitch in the receiving tele-
phones, and to fit each resonator so as to
enhance a particular note. Then, although
the complex current flows through all the
telephones in turn, each telephone will only
render to the ear of the clerk the particular
note for which he listens, and the makes
and breaks of that note will be the mes-

sage.

Origin of the Astronomical Symbols.—

Every one who consults an almanac is ac-
cmainted with the curious figures that ap-
pear in its pages as symbols for the planets
and for celestial phenomena — the only real
hieroglyphics which survive in current use
to our day — but few, probably, have exam-
ined into their origin. Modern text-books
on astronomy do not condescend to discuss
such matters, but the books of the two for-
mer centuries gave full explanations on these
as well as on some other points, which the
school-room science of to-day is too dignified
to consider. Such books were Lalande's
" Astronomy," in French ; Long's, in Eng-
lish ; and Eiccioli's " Almagestum Novum,"
in Latin. Lalande shows that £ > the sym-
bol of Mercury, is derived from the cadu-
cous, the serpent-wreathed mace of the
Greek and Roman divinity ; $ is a hand-
mirror, the most appropriate symbol of Ve-
nus, the goddess of beauty ; $ , a lance,
nearly covered by a buckler, which it most
became the god of war, whose planet, Mars,
it represented, to carry ; If , a capital Greek
zeta, the first letter of the name of Zeus,
or Jupiter, re-enforced by an intersecting
stroke ; "£> , the sickle of old Father Time,
Chronos, or Saturn; and O and "£>, figures
of the disk of the sun and of the new moon.
Huet gives the same explanation in his
notes on Manilius, and Long gives a series
of artistically designed pictures of the ob-
jects themselves, from which the figures are
derived. The symbols for the sun and moon
are very ancient. They occur on the Egyp-
tian monuments, and are mentioned by Cle-
ment of Alexandria in the second century.
The others are of comparatively modern
date, and are not so old even as the Ara-
bian manuscripts. They were invented by
the astrologers of the middle ages, and arc
said by Humboldt to be not older than of

426

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the tenth century. The sign for the earth,
$ , a globe surmounted by a cross, indicat-
ing its Christian origin, may be traced to
about the sixth century. Of the recently
discovered planets, the sign for Uranus, JJ[,
is a modification of the initial H of Herschel ;
and that for Neptune, f , is derived from
the trident of the sea-god. The attempt to
give similar symbols to the smaller planets
was abandoned after they began to be too
numerous to be distinguished in this manner.

Obesity and its Treatment. — According
to the observations published by M. de
Saint-Germain, in the "Union Medicale,"
the great danger to be feared from obesity
lies in the direction of lesions of the heart.
Considerable differences exist relative to
the influences of sex on the liability to the
affliction, but M. de Saint-Germain believes
that women are the more liable to it, and
that in proportion as they are addicted to
alcoholism, prostitution, or inactivity. It
may be developed at any age, even as early
as two years ; M. Hillairet recently exhib-
ited at the Academy of Medicine a little
girl six years old who was wonderfully fat.
Among the causes of obesity are mentioned
excess of food and of alcoholic drinks, too
much sleep, and occasionally marriage. Wid-
owhood, which makes men fat, appears to
have the contrary effect on women. M.
de Saint-Germain illustrates his method of
treatment by citing the example of one of
his best friends — who was most probably
himself. Having grown to the weight of
two hundred and thirty pounds, he tried to
train himself down by the regulation meth-
od of treatment, and in six weeks lost twen-
ty-nine pounds and all his strength. He
then stopped, recovered his weight and his
health, and suffered no particular change for
eight years. Then he took to horseback-
riding, gymnastics, and fencing, varying his
exercises occasionally, but always keeping
them up actively, in the early morning hours.
To these he added a severe regimen ; no
breakfast after his fatiguing exercises, but
a cigar to sooth the stomach. Later a
breakfast of two boiled eggs, a cutlet with
salad and fruit, coffee without sugar or
spirit, no bread or wine, but water or tea
without sugar to drink ; for dinner, no soup,

a plate of meat, a dish of green vegetables,
fruit, no bread or wine ; no dining in the
city ; absolute self restraint. The result was
a fall of his weight to two hundred and
twelve pounds, and increased vigor.

An Ideal Jelly-Fish.

A jelly-fish swam in a tropical sea,

And he said : "This world it consists of ME ;

There's nothing above and nothing below

That a jelly-fish ever can possibly know,

Since the highest reach we can boast of, sight,

Is only the vaguest sense of light ;

And we've got, for the final lest of things,

To trust to the news which one feeling

brings.
Now all that I learn from the sense of touch,
Is the fact of my feelings viewed as such ;
But to think these have an external cause
Is an inference clear against logical laws :
Again, to suppose, as I've hitherto done,
There are other jelly-fish under the sun,
Is a poor assumption that can't be backed
By a jot of proof or a single fact :
In short, like Fichte, I very much doubt
If there's anything else at all without ;
And so I've come to the plain conclusion,
If the question be only set free from confu-
sion,
That the universe centers solely in me,
And if I were not then nothing would be ! — "
Just then a shark, who was passing by,
Gobbled him up in the twink of an eye,
And he died with a few convulsive twists,
But, somehow — the universe still exists !

Grant Allen.

Reciprocal Parasitism. — M. Maxime Cor-
nu has taken notice of a prolongation of the
vegetative activity of the chlorophyl-cells
occurring under the influence of a parasite.
M. Schwendener has affirmed that lichens
are really fungoid parasites on algse, which
they envelop with their filaments and at the
expense of which they live ; and his view
has been confirmed by the investigations of
Rees, Bornet, and Stahl. The principal ar-
gument which has been opposed to this
theory is based on the difficulty of explain-
ing how the alga continues to live, grow,
multiply, and even acquire new vigor, in-
stead of perishing in the toils of the para-
site. M. Van Tieghem supposes, to explain

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

427

this singular circumstance, a special form
of parasitism, which he calls reciprocal par-
asitism. It may, perhaps, be illustrated by
the case of the leaf of the maple, which is
frequently attacked at the end of the sum-
mer by an erysiphus, that occupies the lower
surface and fruits there. In the fall the
leaves change color and drop off, but the
spots occupied by the erysiphus remain
green, and so continue, a spot distinct from
all the rest of the leaf, for weeks. A simi-
lar reciprocation may take place between
the algoid and fungoid parts of the lichen.

A Mechanical Rock-Excavator. — By the

aid of perforators, worked by compressed
air, it has been possible to complete in a
few years works of subterranean excava-
tion like the tunnels of Mont Cenis and
Mont St. Gothard, which would formerly
have occupied several generations of miners.
Hand-drilling can be dispensed with when
such perforators are used, for the perforator
itself makes the hole destined to receive the

powder by which the rock is blown up, and
the miner has nothing to do but to pick up
the pieces. A full solution of the mechan-
ical operation of boring is thus obtained,
and a self-acting ventilation of the shafts
and the removal of all noxious vapors are
secured at the same time. Till recently it
was not practicable to appl}7 the perforators
in coal-mines charged with explosive gases,
for such mines had to be worked without
using powder. Two French engineers, Mil.
Dubois and Francois, have resolved this
difficulty by the construction of an appa-
ratus which they call a bosseyeuse, or, as we
might call it in English, a pioneer-drill. Its
principal feature is a kind of needle-wedge
which is made under the action of the per-
forator to enter the hole made by the drill
and break the rocks up by the force of
pressure, without throwing out the frag-
ments as powder does. This apparatus has
been used in several gas-infected mines in
the Belgian coal-basin, with a considerable
consequent diminution in the frequency of

n'-2- jig . s in*

w i

i

■-c^™™^— J>"ILL HOLE

FiG3. 1 to 4.— Application of the Pioneer-Needle to break up the Eock in the Hole

THAT HAS BEEN ALREADY MADE BY THE FOIL OF THE PERFORATOR.

explosions. The powder, if that is used, is
introduced when the hole excavated by the
perforator has reached a depth of about
twenty-seven inches ; or, if the mine con-
tains explosive gases, the needle-wedge is
substituted for powder. This apparatus,
which is represented in the figures (1 to 4),
consists of two bars of iron, shaped like

segments of a circle, and touching by their
ends, the union of which constitutes a cylin-
der hollowed along its axis with a conical
hole. The section of the two segments is
of the same size as the drill-hole, so that
they fill it completely when inserted in it.
As soon as the drill-hole has been hollowed
to a sufficient depth, these two bars are in-

423

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

serted in it, and a conical steel needle-drill
is introduced into the central hole of the
metallic cylinder thus formed. The piston-
head of the perforator is then made to strike
upon the head of the needle, so as to drive

it in like a wedge and cause it to force the
two segments apart and split the rock. As
many holes may be made as are necessary
to break the rock up, and this depends much
upon its hardness. Fig. 5 represents a sec-

Fig. 5.— Section of a Gallery under a Coal-Mine, indicating the Holes to be bored by
the Perforator, so as to break up the Sterile Rock in Four Successive Operations.

tion of the chamber of a coal-mine, and in-
dicates the position of the holes that have
to be drilled to break up the rock in four
successive operations. The inventors of this
apparatus claim that rock can be broken up
with it in veins of the average thickness
almost as fast as with gunpowder.

Transmission of VibrationSo— The Trans-
actions of the Seismological Society of Ja-
pan contains an account of experiments by
Professor H. M. Paul, in Washington, D. C,
on the transmission of vibrations from rail-
road-trains through the ground. Cups con-
taining mercury were fixed at four stations,
at distances of from 0*29 to 0*93 of a mile
from the railroad, in which the amount of
disturbance caused by vibration was ascer-
tained by noticing the displacements of the
reflected image of the pole-star. The char-
acter of the effects varied according to the
distance of the station from the train, the
nature of the ground at the station, and the

j kind of train, but they were distinct. At
I one of the stations the communication of
vibrations, which were limited to a shallow
depth, appeared to be interrupted by the
intervention of a ravine. The effect of car-
riage-driving on a public road was also ob-
served. A hack carrying four persons and
drawn by two horses, about four hundred
feet away, caused a temporary shaking of
the mercury whenever a wheel struck a stone
or hollow; and a similar effect was pro-
duced while the carriage was crossing a
small wooden bridge at about five hundred
feet ; but no serious continuous disturbance
was perceived till the carriage approached
within two or three hundred feet of the in-
strument.

The Systematic Position of the Braclii-
opoda. — In the " Jcnaische Zeitschrif t f iir
Naturwissenschaft," Jena, 1881, Dr. Oscar
Uertwig and Dr. Richard Hertwig, the emi-
nent embryologists, recognize the work of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

429

Edward S. Morse on the Brachiopoda as
follows. Having made certain compari-
sons, they say : " After these analyses, it is
self-evident that the brachiopods must be
distinguished from the mollusks, and that
the two represent perfectly different types
of development. It is the merit of Steen-
strup to have first recognized this, and in-
deed, as early as 1847, to have sought a
connection of the brachiopods with the an-
nelids. Independently of him, Morse has
pursued the same road, and one may say
decided the question by comparing, with
great ingenuity and to the minutest details,
the anatomy of the brachiopods with that
of the worms and the mollusks, and has in
this connection proved throughout their dif-
ference from the mollusks and agreement
with the annelids." Gegenbaur also assumed
the position of Steenstrup and Morse, and
remarks in the second edition of his " Grund-
zuge " that the brachiopods have little more
in common with the mollusks than the pos-
session of a shell quite different from the
housing integument of the latter, and form
a small and sharply distinguished division,
the origin of which may be traced back to
the stem of the worm and specially of the
chaetopod.

Death of Professor William B. Rogers. —

Professor William B. Rogers, ex-President
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy and one of its founders, died very sud-
denly of apoplexy, May 30th, during the
exercises of the graduating class of the in-
stitution, which he was attending. He had
begun making an address, and was review-
ing what the institute had accomplished,
when he was attacked. He was taken from
the hall, and died in about twenty minutes.
Professor Rogers was born in Philadelphia
in 1805, and was one of four brothers, all
of whom have distinguished themselves in
science. He suceeeded his father, Dr. P. K.
Rogers, as Professor of Natural Philosophy
and Chemistry in William and Mary Col-
lege, in 1829, and was Professor of Natural
Philosophy and Geology in the University of
Virginia from 1835tolS53. He removed
to Boston, where he had since lived, in the
latter year. He was President of the Insti-
tute of Technology from \862 to 1868, and
was President of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science in 18*75.
He was the author of works on the " Strength
of Materials " and the " Elements of Me-
chanical Philosophy," and of many scien-
tific papers. A portrait and sketch of Pro-
fessor Rogers were given in " The Popular
Science Monthly " for September, 18*76.

The Mysterious Volcano of Apo. — The

Governor of Davao, Mindanao, Philippine
Islands, recently ascended a remarkable vol-
cano called Apo. An expedition to the
mountain had often been contemplated be-
fore, but had been prevented, partly by the
unexplored and difficult character of the
country, partly by the opposition offered by
the natives, who, though nominally Mo-
hammedans, believe that the summit of the
mountain is inhabited by a demon to whom
they are accustomed to make offerings
when they think he is angry with them, or
when they wish him to allow them to collect
sulphur. The crater of the volcano was
found to be 9,9*70 feet above the sea, extinct,
and covered with vegetation within, although
the temperature of the air was but little
above the freezing-point. A wide chasm
on the southern slope of the mountain was
the seat of numerous solfataras, which, furi-
ously spitting out sulphurous vapors with a
fearful smell and roar, might well inspire
fear in the minds of an ignorant populace.
The Tagalaya stream, which rises on the
mountain, and in the rough bed of which
the ascent was made, brings down lumps of
sulphur. A sharp cold prevails in the crater
and on the mountain for three thousand
feet below it, but the lava and ashes still
radiate enough heat to be perceptible, and
make one warm who lies down upon them ;
and, perhaps, to keep up the vegetation
which manages to subsist there. Two petri-
fied tree-trunks, which were noticed during
the ascent, indicate that a very different
vegetation formerly existed there.

Eggs of Reptiles and Insects as Food.—

The eggs, even of animals which impress us
most Unpleasantly, have their value as food,
and seem to be capable of inspiring a relish
in the palates of those who have learned to
eat them. The eggs of most of the species
of tortoises are excellent for eating, nutri-
tious, and agreeable to the taste ; and those

43°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the green turtle are held in great esteem
wherever they are found. The mother-tur-
tles lay three times a year, depositing some-
times as many as a hundred eggs at a lay-
ing, and carefully covering them up with
sand, so that it requires an experienced
searcher to detect them. The Indians of
the Orinoco and Amazon obtain from these
eggs a kind of clear, sweet oil, which they
use instead of butter. About five thousand
eggs are required to fill one of their jars
with oil ; yet so abundantly are they depos-
ited that about five thousand jars are put
up yearly at the mouth of one of the riv-
ers; the harvest is estimated by the acre.
Young eggs are frequently found in the
bodies of slain turtles by hundreds, in all
stages of development, and generally con-
sisting entirely of yolk ; they are often pre-
served by drying, and are considered a great
luxury. Alligators' eggs are esteemed by
the natives of the regions where those rep-
tiles abound ; and Mr. Joseph, in his " His-
tory of Trinidad," says that he found the
eggs of the cayman very good. The female
alligator lays from one hundred and twenty
to one hundred and sixty eggs ; they are
about as large as the egg of a turkey and
have a rough, shell filled with a thick albu-
men. One of the lizards, known as the
iguana, is capable of furnishing as many as
fourscore eggs, which when boiled are like
marrow. The larvae and nymphae of ants
are considered by many people a choice rel-
ish when spread upon bread and butter, and
are said to be excellent curried. In Siam
they are highly esteemed, and are so valu-
able as to be within the reach only of the
rich. In some parts of Africa, where ants
swarm, they are said to form at times a con-
siderable proportion of the food-supply.
They are used in some countries of Europe
for making formic acid, and are subject to
an import duty. The eggs of insects be-
longing to a group of aquatic beetles are
made in Mexico into a kind of bread or
cake called, liautlc, which is eaten by the
people, and may be found in the markets.
They are got by means of bundles of reeds
or rushes, which are put in the water and
on which they are deposited by the insects.
Brantz Mayer, about forty years ago, noticed
men on the Lake of Tczcuco collecting the
eggs of flies which, he says, when cooked in

cakes were not different from fish-spawn
having the same appearance and flavor.
" After the frogs of France and the birds'
nests of China, I fancy they would be con-
sidered delicacies, and I found they were
not disdained on the fashionable' tables of
the capital." According to the report of
the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870,
the larvse of a large fly which frequents
Mono Lake, in California, are dried and
pulverized and mixed with acorn-meal and
baked for bread, or with water and boiled
for soup.

Sanitary Inspection of Honses, — Mr.

Lewis Angell, Sanitary Inspector of West
Ham in Essex, an outlying district of Lon^
don, says, in illustration of the prevalence
of sanitary defects even in the best houses,
and of the need of thorough inspection,
that in the civic palace of the Lord Ma}ror
of London, " three quarters of an inch of
floating fungi scurf was recently found on
the surface, and three eighths of an inch of
mud at the bottom of the cisterns, while a
bottle of water on his lordship's table con-
tained hundreds of nematoid worms." Of-
fensive mud and animal organisms were
also found in the cistern of the Athenaeum
Club, St. James. We habitually defy dis-
ease when we leave the dcors of our closets
open and the windows shut. The reverse
ought to be the practice. He believes that
sanitary science should be put on a par
with literary and mathematical studies in
the schools, and that public and official in-
spection should be provided for everywhere,
the expense in the care of new buildings to
be met by fees charged upon the owners
and builders, who expect to derive a profit
from them. He commends what has been
done in Chicago in the official inspection of
tenements, and the official supervision of
plumbing that has recently been adopted
in New York.

The Screw-Propeller. — The people of
Boulogne, France, have recently set up a
statue of Frederic Sauvage, to whom they
ascribe the invention of the screw-propeller.
He devised a means of propulsion by screws
in 1832, and offered it to the French Gov-
ernment. A commission reported upon it
that it might be employed with advantage

NOTES.

43i

for small boats, but would be of no use for
large vessels. The English Government
tried to buy the invention exclusively for
England, but Sauvage refused to sell it on
such term3. It was applied to a steamer in
1841, after plans furnished by Sauvage, but
the builder and engineer of the vessel took
all the credit for it. After an experience
in the debtors' prison, and then spending
$16,000 in experiments during ten years,
Sauvage passed the last years of his unfort-
unate life in the Picpus asylum. The pri-
ority of his invention is disputed in behalf
of several Englishmen : of James Watt,
who proposed to use a screw in If 70; of
Edward Shorter, who patented a propeller
in 1800, and applied it two years after-
ward ; of Stevens, in the United States, who
tried to drive a boat by a screw in 1801 ; of
Trevithick, who invented a screw-propeller
in 1816 ; and of Samuel Brown, who used
one in 1827. F. Pettit Smith, to whom
more than any other person we owe the use
of this motor, never claimed to be its in-
ventor, but only that he placed it in the
dead-wood of the vessel. The " Revue Sci-
entifique " claims the credit of the invention
for Charles Dallery, who obtained a patent
for a screw-propeller and a tubular boiler
in 1S03.

NOTES.

The fifth annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Society of Microscopists will be held at
Elmira, New York, Tuesday, August 15th,
and on the three following days. Liberal
arrangements have been made by the local
committee for entertainment. A meeting
of great interest is anticipated. A larger
list of papers than on any previous occasion
has been promised, and preparations have
been made for a full display of instruments,
accessories, and objects. Committee reports
are to be made " On Eye-pieces," " On Re-
vision of the Constitution," and " On the
Question of a Quarterly Journal." Members
intending to be present will please notify
Dr. Thaddeus & Updegraff, secretary of the
local society, Elmira, New York ; members
intending to present papers or communica-
tions, to Professor D. S. Kellicott, secretary
of the association, 119 Fourteenth Street,
Buffalo, New York.

M. A. Blavier has endeavored to ac-
count for certain remarkable climatological
anomalies that have been recently observed

in France, by supposing that the Gulf
Stream was deflected from its regular
course. He observes that the sardines,
which, in their regular migrations, follow
exactly the course of the derivative current
of the Gulf Stream, called the Rennel, have
followed another route than their usual one
to the ocean ; also that a slight elevation of
temperature has been observed in Shetland ;
and that an accumulation of ice has been
noticed at the French station in Iceland.

M. de Lacerba, of the Physiological Lab-
oratory of Rio Janeiro, recommends the
permanganate of potash as a sure antidote
for the bite of venomous snakes. To be
effective the solution of the salt should be
prepared at the moment of using it ; and in
order that it may always be on hand, he
recommends that packages be put up to be
carried by persons going into dangerous
spots, containing one tenth of a gramme of
the permanganate, and a ten-gramme bot-
tle. The solution should be injected with a
syringe.

From a statement made in the French
Academy of Sciences, by M. Gosselin, it ap-
pears that M. Collin, of Alfort, has found
that American trichinous meat contains al-
most exclusively dead trichina?, and is, there-
fore, not particularly dangerous.

Macgillivray, in his narrative of the
voyage of H. M. S. Rattlesnake in 1852,
said that he had seen the skulls of children
at Cape York pressed into a conical shape
by the constant manipulation of their moth-
ers. Von Baer doubted the possibility of
such an effect being thus produced. Dr.
Miklucho Maclay, however, saw the press-
ure actually applied by the mothers at Tor-
res Straits in 1880. He says that, during
the first weeks of the lives of the children,
the mothers were accustomed to spend
several hours each day in compressing the
heads of their children, for the express pur-
pose of giving them a conical shape. An-
other kind of deformity, in the heads of the
women, resulting; from their habits in carrv-
ing loads, was observed by Dr. Maclay m
N'.w Guinea. The women here were accus-
tomed to put whatever they had to carry
into bags, which they supported by bands
laid on their heads, a little behind the coro-
nal suture. This practice, pursued from
childhood, produced a saddle-shaped depres-
sion across the skull, which was sometimes
three or four millimetres deep.

Professor E. Desor, of Neufchatel,
Switzerland, geologist and anthropologist,
and a student of glaciers and glacial geol-
ogy, died in March last. He lived several
years in the United States, and has left his
mark on American geology and marine
zoology.

432

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The National Academy of Sciences con-
sists of ninety-five members and four hon-
orary members, ninety-nine in all. Thirty-
four live in the New England States : seven-
teen in Massachusetts, three in Ehode
Island, and fourteen in Connecticut. Thir-
ty-six live in the Middle States : fifteen in
New York, five in New Jersey, fourteen in
Pennsylvania, two in Maryland. Sixteen
live in the District of Columbia. Nine live
West : one in Ohio, one in Kentucky, one
in Illinois, two in Missouri, four in Califor-
nia. Three live abroad, all being New-Eng-
landers. One is unclassified as to residence.
None live South. Total, ninety-nine.

Forty-three represent the mathematical
sciences, as pure mathematics, astronomy,
geodesy, engineering, physics, etc. Twelve
represent chemistry ; sixteen represent the
geological sciences; twenty-four represent
the biological sciences ; four are unclassi-
fied. Total, ninety-nine.

M. Paul Bert has been elected a mem-
ber of the French Academy of Sciences, to
fill the vacancy in the department of medi-
cine and surgery caused by the death of M.
Bouillaud.

M. Piot has made experiments, under
the direction of M. Laborde, to ascertain
the order in which the functions of the or-
ganized tissues cease in normal asphyxia.
He insists that the exact moment of death
is very difficult to determine, and that we
can not fix the instant when the stoppage
of the heart and of respiration is definite.
The mechanical movements of inspiration
first cease to become apparent ; then the
beating of the heart becomes less frequent,
but continues ; the pupils of the eyes are di-
lated excessively, and the cornea becomes
insensible. These, however, are only ap-
parent signs of death, for dogs in which
such phenomena have appeared may still be
brought back to life by means of artificial
respiration.

M. de Khotinsky, a Russian naval offi-
cer, has been endeavoring to improve the
lime-li^ht so as to render it available for
general purposes. He proposes to supply
oxygen in a condensed form, and to burn
ordinary gas with it in his new lamp, in
which he has made a fresh adjustment of
the lime or magnesia.

M. Paul Bert, before the resignation of
the Gambetta ministry, had instructed M.
Dumas, permanent Secretary of the French
Academy of Sciences, to draw up a list of
scientific men who had died or received in-
juries while making experiments or re-
searches for the advancement of science,
with the view of awarding pensions to the
widows and families of those who had died,
and of giving substantial aid to those who
survived.

M. Campardou has made some new ob-
servations on the successful treatment of
apparently dead infants with baths at about
120°. In one case, an infant on which fric-
tion, inflation of the lungs, and other reme-
dies had been tried in vain, and which M.
Campardou regarded as lost, was put into
water of 113°, and revived in less than fif-
teen seconds. The same process was ap-
plied to an infant fifteen days old, which had
apparently died after a gradual decline.

M. Marey has succeeded in obtaining
photographs of birds and insects in the act
of flying. He introduces the " photograph-
ic revolver" into an apparatus having a
shape roughly like that of a gun, and, point-
ing it at the flying animal as if he were go-
ing to shoot it, he has obtained a series of
impressions each of which represents a stage
of the flight. The pose, which is naturally
only about -5V0" °f a second, has been pro-
longed to jfo of a second with most satis-
factory results.

The French Academv of Sciences recent-
ly departed from its custom of giving memo-
rial honors only to members, to pay a trib-
ute of respect to M. Poitevin, deceased who
was one of the principal contributors to the
improvements in processes for multiplying
photographs by which the photographic has
been raised to be a real industrial art.

According to Libanius, the term " athe-
ists" was used as a common name for Chris-
tians by the cultivated Greeks of his period
— the fourth century.

Konig's great tonometer, the unique col-
lection of standard tuning-forks which was
shown at the Philadelphia Exhibition, is
still for sale, the project to buy it for the
University of Pennsylvania having fallen
through. " Nature " suggests that if it can
not be acquired for the South Kensington
collection, an effort be made to buy it for
either the Cavendish or the Clarendon Labo-
ratory.

M. C. Decharme has given an account of
hydrodynamic experiments in which he has
imitated the phenomena of electro-magnet-
ism and induction by means of liquid cur-
rents. M. Bjerkness, in his experiments
performed with vibrating and pulsating
bodies in still water, obtained analogous ef-
fects, but inverse, to those of electricity and
magnetism. M. Decharme, using running
liquids, found the analogies to be direct.
He produced sonorous vibrations of greater
or less pitch by turning currents of gas
upon mercury, and more or less grave vibra-
tions by directing currents of water upon a
solid body. The vibrations of the former
kind were carried beyond the highest, and
those of the latter kind below the lowest,
limit of perceptible sounds.

ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

AUGUST, 1882.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXEECISE.

By EMIL DU BOIS-REYMOND.

II.

BETWEEN the external sensation and the internal perception
stands the time-sense, adapted to the distinction and estimation
of the succession ; it is really a grosser hearing and sight, for the
cochlea and retina do nothing more than distinguish the more or less
rapid succession of impressions. The time-sense is susceptible of
a high degree of training, as may be learned from intercourse with
astronomers and watch-makers. The later chronoscopy has warranted
the possibility of determining the educability of the nervous system to
a punctual obedience. In the experiments which Herr Donders first
made tentatively, the mean of the time which the same observer re-
quired to execute a determined movement in accordance with some
signal which he saw, heard, or perceived, sunk from day to day to a
limit which was soon reached. The result was the same in a small
degree which the drill-master enjoys in a large degree, when to his
command a single sound responds, hardly longer protracted than to
twice the difference in the time required for the sound-wave to pass
from him to the nearest and to the farthest man.

Finally, the internal sense also, which has already entered into our
considerations, is susceptible of exercise. Before all, the memory is
strengthened by practice to a certain degree, and according to its em-
ployment in different directions. It may be recorded here that, as I
have heard Schleiden relate, Robert Brown was able to distinguish
twenty-five thousand species, Kunth only twenty thousand species of
plants ; and, if Kunth undertook to impress more than that number

* An address at the anniversary of the Institute for Military Surgeons, Berlin, August
2, 1881.

vol. xxi. — 28

434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon his mind, others passed out. The morphologist remembers forms,
the mathematician formulas, though he may prefer to work them out
anew ; the philologist speech-forms and citations, the chess-player
games. Personages whose high positions in life require them to recog-'
nize many faces have wonderful accomplishments in that faculty. I
have myself learned from my own experience that the same person by
changing his employment may, if we may use such an expression,
change the direction of his memory. I have also observed upon my-
self the influence of exercise upon the memory. Faraday was, it is
well known, accustomed to lament the weakness of his memory. And
when I (if I may compare small things with great) was engaged con-
tinuously for ten years, as he was during his whole life, with qualita-
tive experiments, I remarked that my former good memory declined,
undoubtedly because I needed each day, to continue my work, only
the steps of the experiments of the day before. My memory began to
improve again when I began to give lectures. Like the memory, the
power of the most various mental activities increases with exercise
and diminishes with neglect. We hear a great deal said in teachers'
associations about how school-youth should not only appropriate what
is taught them, but should also learn to exercise their sensations and
perceptions, and make their mental powers facile. General and diplo-
matist, jurist and physician, mathematician and descriptive naturalist,
chess-player and mechanician — all are practiced in their peculiar meth-
ods of thought. The effects of exercise extend into the emotional
life : who would doubt that a Heine exercised himself in giving free
course to the flow of his conceptions, in allowing them to strengthen
themselves, as it were, in order to draw half deliberately out of the
fountain the immortal complaint of self-created sorrow ?

There are in psychology few darker points than the doubling of
our I in this mental exercise. A final incomprehensible something in
us oppose as subject another equally Incomprehensible as object,
which is ourselves, yet also really is not, and forces it to a painful
exertion, as at another time it compels its bodily substratum to prac-
tice itself in a composite movement, with aching muscles and other
pains. Whoever comprehends the fundamental fact of metaphysics,
that no arrangement and movement of matter can afford an explana-
tion of consciousness even in its simplest form, will never think ulti-
mately of conceiving these processes as mechanical ones.

This confessedly does not exclude our at least ideally, looking
through to the play of the ultimate atoms of our present elements,
somewhat as Herr Clausius, before our mental eyes, causes the mole-
cules in a gasometer to perform their crossings and reboundings ; and
we may even confidently anticipate an important result, just the al-
ready declared fundamental distinction between exercise of the central
nerve-system and exercise of the muscles, connective substances, etc.
While in these tissues we deal with nutritive and formative stimu-

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 435

lation, by exercise of the central nerve-system is signified, in the first
place, the making fluent certain molecular movements, partly through
regulation and suitable re-enforcement of the impulses producing them,
partly by the elimination of the obstacles originally opposing them.
It must not, however, be said with this, that the highly vascular gray
substance is not also nutritively stimulated by the activity incumbent
upon it. Every thing indicates that, without a proper degree of ac-
tivity, gray substance wears away as muscle does. But every increase
in the fluency of definite forms of motion with a definitely enduring
course is a newly acceding moment, indicative of exercise of the cen-
tral nerve-system.

The more easy unfolding of a frequently repeated molecular move-
ment in the ganglion-cells may be represented under the figure of a
water-channel or a stone-slide, in which the path originally built
roughly is so worked out and polished by the continuous passage of
water, snow, and stones through it, that thenceforth water, snow, and
stones reach the bottom surely and quickly, almost as soon as they
begin to fall upon the ways converging toward it. All machines are
improved with time through the wearing away of little roughnesses,
so that their course becomes a more or less evenly or periodically
varying one. Since they afterward become shackling through usage,
they have, it seems, an age of development, one of bloom, and one
of decay ; and Tiede speaks of his chronometer as of a living being
with a definite period of life. In order to bring nearer to comprehen-
sion the facilitating of the molecular movements in the ganglion-
cells, it will be well to remember that the tone of a violin becomes
softened by long use, as inversely India-rubber, that is not stretched
at intervals, becomes brittle. The instructiveness of this comparison
lies in its poverty. It shows us the utterly hopeless insufficiency of
our knowledge in the face of such mysteries.

Herr Fechner has mentioned a particularly curious case of exercise
of the central nerve-system, which sets anew in a clear light the com-
paratively slight importance of exercise of the muscles. In the An-
doyer method of teaching to write, the pupil writes over with a pen
for twenty times in succession the identical letters that have been pre-
viously written with a pencil, and the hand returns with a swing from
the end of the line to its beginning, in order to write it over again
without a pause. Ernst Heinrich Weber has observed in the case of
his children that the left hand learned to write some at the same time
with the right, but it wrote as in a looking-glass. We do not under-
stand how the right side of the brain gained by exercise without the
left hand moving during the exercise.

But equally whether we understand it or not, man is adapted to
self -improvement by means of exercise. It makes his muscles stronger
and more enduring ; his skin becomes fortified against all injury ;
through exercise his limbs become more flexible, his glands more

436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

productive. It fits his central nerve-system for the most complicated
functions ; it sharpens his senses, and by it his mind, reacting upon
itself, is enabled to augment its own elasticity and versatility. Return-
ing to our starting-point, we ask, Is not this one of the means, perhaps '
the principal one, by which the collectivity of living existence becomes
a self -improving machine ? As to the crystal, the parts of like struct-
ure and properties composing it ; as to the whole organism, the ele-
mentary organisms whose life makes up its life, so are related to the
whole of organic nature the single living existences, that is, the prop-
erties and functions of the whole are the sum of the functions and
properties of the individuals ; and if the individual living being is im-
proved by exercise, does not this also sufficiently explain the progress
of the aggregate ? Lucid as the supposition appears, on a nearer trial
it encounters serious difficulties.

First, only the most highly organized animals are amenable to ex-
ercise, or, what means the same thing, trainable. After the generally
distributed companions of man, the horse and the dog, the most teach-
able animal is the elephant. Chamisso found intercourse with the apes
on board the Rurik uncommonly instructive, " for," as Calderon says
of the ass, " they are almost men," and he made the profound remark
that they might be able to bring themselves up to the mark if they did
not lack the property which Newton held to be one with genius, stead-
fastness. Carnivores, with the exception of the cheetah (Fells ju6ata)>
ruminants, and rodents, exhibit only moderate teachability ; yet Herr
Fritsch considered the draft-oxen at the Cape of Good Hope wiser
than the horse, and in Brazil and Thibet sheep are trained to carry
loads. Among the birds, the higher ones are the parrots, starlings,
bullfinches, and canary-birds ; the falcon ranks with the cheetah in
teachableness. Chameleons, snakes, and carp are only moderately
teachable. The training of fleas is only apparent ; they always per-
form their tricks under a kind of compulsion. The immense host of
other creatures all around us show no more aptitude for training than
they do, for the reason that every animal within its own circle has no
need of instruction ; what we call instinct affords to animals, without
effort of the individual, more than any exercise can. What practice
could teach birds to build warmer nests, to find the way south more
certainly, -or bees to solve their geometrical, spiders their mechanical
problems ? Instinct and perfectibility complement each other as it
were in the ascending series of animals to a growing sum, so that,
the more instinct retreats before perfectibility, by so much does the
living being stand at a higher stage. Secondly, although the animals
we have named, and many others besides, are susceptible to exercise
and trainable, animals still do not of themselves exercise and perfect
themselves, but do so only when man takes them to school. Therefore,
the animals around him appear less susceptible to training, the lower
the stage at which he himself remains. Higher races of men would

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 437

certainly have tamed the beautiful zebra and quagga ; the elephant,
brought by Hannibal over the Alps, fell back with Northern Africa
into wildness. Only nutritive and formative augmentation of advan-
tages which an animal may have acquired in the wild state could
come into consideration here, and these would have to be hereditary to
lead to perfection in a course of generations.

This seems, thirdly, not to come to pass. No matter for how many
generations man cuts off the tail and ears of dogs, tail and ears return
with each new brood. The mutilation which the Semitic races have
performed on their children for hundreds of ages, and which Islam has
imposed upon a great part of the population of the Old World, is not
yet chronicled in nature. If, now, artificial defects are not heredi-
tary, how may we venture to suppose that those artificially acquired
changes which appear as favorable results of exercise are conveyed
through egg and seed to posterity ?

To this argument the following considerations are opposed: Al-
though deformities produced by exterior force are not inheritable,
we nevertheless see that incontestably internally acquired changes are
only too surely transmitted. Of this, the host of hereditary diseases
affords an example. Since cellular pathology has shown that the most
various heritable diseases of the tissues, the most malignant as well
as the most harmless forms, move within the limits of the once given
type, the difference appears exposed to light which separates an artifi-
cial deformity from a retrogression caused by disease ; and it becomes
comprehensible why in tame rabbits, the tips of the ears of which may
have been idle for many generations, the ear-muscles disappear, and the
ears hang down limp ; and why the eye and visory substance of subter-
ranean and cave-inhabiting animals waste away. But, even if a deterio-
ration within the type of the species by lack of exercise becomes heredi-
tary, formations dependent on nutritive and formative stimulation,
which also remain necessarily within the type of the species, may like-
wise be transmitted. This appears even to be the case with the inwork-
ing of the central nerve-system in certain forms of emotion, of which
the growing wild of the at first confiding bird on a formerly uninhabited
island furnishes a classical example. Certainly animals in freedom do
not, like those under human training, become habituated to definite, fre-
quently repeated functions, yet hunger and love, hatred, cold, thirst, etc.,
drive them likewise to the frequent performance of certain acts. So?
finally, might the innate superiority called instinct (Kunsttrieb) have
been gradually developed through practice, and the more easily, as a
certain degree of pleasure is connected with the execution of series of
movements that have become familiar. If, then, instinct does all that
is necessary for the maintenance of the species, there is no more room
for further improvement or for development in new directions, and the
species remains at the stage it has reached as bees and spiders have done
ever since man has known them. We may confidently assert that at

438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the farthest no other actions of the ganglion - cells in the nervous
system of these animals are possible than those which serve their par-
ticular, instinctive actions. As the artisans from IsTewcastle-on-Tyne,
at the Bureau of Emigration of New York, replied to the question
what kind of work they understood, " Packing files," so animals with
a perfected instinct purchase their superiority with a one-sidedness
which, because they can learn no more, makes them appear as if they
had never learned.

Susceptibility to exercise first enters into the animal world when
the maintenance of the individual and the species has been so assured,
through outer and inner circumstances, that the creature does not need
a further particularly one-sided development. We are, then, free to
conceive, with an appearance of justification, that the strength of the
muscles employed in flight and digging, the thickened epidermis on
the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, the callus on the pre-
hensile tail and the buttocks of apes, the bone-prominences at the
attachments of the muscles, and many other similar things, depend
on the inherited consequences of nutritive and formative stimulation,
while the most diversified kinds of skill may be traced back to inher-
ited concatenations of actions of the ganglion-cells ; and this, whether
we consider the waves which flow along apparently in a purely mechan-
ical manner in the gymnotus-fin, or in the thousand feet of the wood-
louse ; or the intelligent posture of the French pointer, which, un-
taught, and without ever having seen one before, points at the lizard
in the sub-tropical shrubbery as his ancestors pointed at the partridge
on the plain of St. Denis. With Mr. Herbert Spencer meeting me in
the 6ame thought, which I believe, however, I have more sharply
grasped, I deduced on a former occasion how, in such transmissibility
of educationally derived aptitudes, possibly lies the reconciliation of
the great antitheses of the theory of knowledge — of the empirical and
the innate views.

Besides improvement by exercise, improvement by natural selection
should not be left out of the account, if we would understand the
adaptability of organic nature, for a threefold reason : First, there
are numerous adaptations — I mean only the so-called sympathetic col-
orings— for which natural selection, not exercise, seems to afford an
explanation. Secondly, plants, which are not less adaptable in their
wTay than animals, do not enjoy exercise. A few phenomena of plant-
life, reminding us of callus, and traceable back to nutritive and forma-
tive stimulation, belong rather to the region of healing and restora-
tion, which is at this point closely connected with exercise. Thirdly,
and finally, we require natural selection in order to explain the origin
of the adaptability to exercise itself.

Indeed, the usefulness of exercise in its most diversified forms is in
itself a deep problem. If we do not concede, as we can not scientific-
ally, that the adaptive quality originated otherwise than mechan-

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 439

ically, we must conclude that in the struggle for existence those creat-
ures prevailed which, by exercise of their natural functions, casually
increased their fitness for those functions, or did this more than others,
and that the beings so favored transmitted this their happy gift to
their posterity for further increase. Thus originated an animal world
susceptible of exercise ; thus was originated natural selection itself, in
the exercise of an important aid ; finally, thus became the whole of
life, like the individual, a self -improving machine. Herr Ewald He-
ring was also led to the conclusion that " even those properties of an
organism may be transmitted to its posterity which it has not itself
inherited, but has appropriated to itself under the particular circum-
stances in which it has lived, and that, in consequence of this, every
organic being imparts to the germ that separates from it a small patri-
mony which it has acquired in the individual life of the mother organ-
ism and laid up for the grand inheritance of the whole race." The
more perfectly this conception agrees with the one just unfolded, the
more I am sorry that I can not follow Herr Hering when he repre-
sents the capacity of living beings to transmit acquired properties as
an original power of organic matter, and explains it as a power of
reproduction of the same kind with memory. To make the manifold
processes on which the different kinds of exercise depend the expres-
sion of an original power, appears to me to be rather a darkening than
an illuminating generalization. Herr Hering finds the tertium com-
parationis between the transmission of acquired bodily properties
and memory in reproduction. But I see no similarity between the
facile rolling-off of a definite molecular process in the ganglion-cells
of the individual — which is memory — and the return in the offspring
of a molecular arrangement imposed, in consequence of external con-
ditions, upon the parent, which would be the transmission of acquired
properties ; and, if I did see a similarity, it would for me retire before
the distinction that, as the name ( Geddchtniss) indicates, memory is an
attribute only of thinking beings. Herr Hering's unconscious recollec-
tion is a side-piece to the idea which men since Plato, to the injury of
science, have suspected as a shaping force in the "great and little
world," or to the life-force, in the face of which all the problems of
physics and chemistry should lie open. Unconscious recollection is,
moreover, not acceptable to me, because Herr Haeckel has eagerly
appropriated it, and given it an important part in his plastidule theory.

I hold this play with groundless analogies to be the more hazard-
ous, since, finally, it can not be strongly enough sounded that the
transmission of acquired properties which we have thought of, with
Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Hering, and many others, as possible and
real under certain conditions, is proved, on further reflection, to be per-
fectly incomprehensible.

We are indeed indebted to the mechanical theory of gases for
more just conceptions of the minuteness and the number of molecules;

440 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

viewed in its light, the number of possible arrangements in the ovum
and spermatozoon grows into immensity. If we could imagine the head
of a spermatozoon as large as the Great Eastern, and the space repre-
sented by it filled with a wheel-work as fine as that of the smallest
lady's watch, our figure would still be far from giving any kind of a
representation of the ultimate division of matter. It is thus clear
that the head of a spermatozoon affords space and opportunity for the
endlessly numerous arrangements and various motions on which the
innumerable types and properties, with which this apparently so simple
organism is charged, finally depend. It may then, at all events, be
conceived that parental dyscrasies communicate themselves through
the blood to the germs in the testicles and ovaries. But now let a
group of ganglion-cells in the brain, if we may speak thus, be played
upon to a certain molecule-dance-figure. The blood can not be changed
by that. Consequently, the threads of the plexus spermaticus interims
must so work upon the semen-cells in the seminal canal, the egg-cells
in the after-growing Graafian pustules, that each act of exercise in the
course of growth leaves its mark on the egg or on the spermatozoon,
and that it is followed after years by the natural culmination of the
same molecule-dance-figure in the corresponding group of ganglion-
cells in the man or animal that has grown up out of that egg, or with
the aid of that spermatozoon. How the plexus spermatieus internus,
the connection of which with the brain is only of the loosest character,
brings this to pass, can not be found out. The conditions are no more
favorable for the comprehension of the kinds of exercise resting upon
nutritive and formative stimulation.

As we have already pointed out, it appears that we might, in order
to verify the transmission of acquired properties, invoke the example
of hereditary diseases, from which our ancestors were in all probabil-
ity free, which chiefly visit more highly developed manhood, and the
transmission of which consequently resembles the transmission of ac-
quired properties. Still, we may question whether the first epileptic
attack, the first migraine, followed injuries which came upon a sound
adult, or whether the foundation for them was not laid in the egg or
the spermatozoon out of which the first sufferer grew. There re-
mains, for the confirmation of this view — we will be honest — the trans-
mission of acquired peculiarities, an hypothesis drawn solely from the
facts illustrating it, yet quite obscure in itself, which receives only
doubtful light through Darwin's "pangenesis."

I believe now, gentlemen, that I have justified the expression with
which I introduced to you my intention to speak of exercise — that is,
that it deserved a place in the scientific order of the day ; yet I need
not say explicitly how far I am from entertaining the thought that I
have contributed anything essential to the fulfillment of that object. I
consider that I have succeeded no further than more sharply to define
the eventual phylogenetic office of exercise and the direction of the

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 441

evidences to be supplied than is usually done in the presentations of
the Darwinian theory. In the immense field of research opened by
Darwin after the fall of the zoological-paleontological dogma, the cul-
tivation of which will employ the plowshares of many generations, we
have plainly indicated to us one point where the work is urgent. On
the other hand, a surer foundation might now be laid for the determi-
nation of one of the practical questions relating to exercise.

All are agreed as to the importance of bodily exercise for modern
civilized mankind. With the knightly tournaments of the middle
ages, in which, moreover, only an extremely small minority ever took
part, physical training has more and more declined. Jean Jacques
Rousseau, by his educational romance, gave the impulse to a move-
ment that was fast taken up, especially in Germany, and, borne
through the national and military struggles of the war of freedom, has
culminated in the German turning.

Physical exercise had been pursued by us in this form for half a
century when doubts were raised as to its fitness. To the German
turning was opposed a theoretically devised form of physical training,
the so-called Swedish movement, or gymnastics, the ground thought
of which was the limitation of the exercises to extremely simple,
although varied, motions. Since these movements were performed
against resistance, a methodical strengthening of all the individual
muscles was thought to result from them, and the true ideal of an
athletic muscular system to be reached.

Again, from another point of view do we hear the superior fitness
of the German turning doubted. The European nation which stands
foremost in physical accomplishments, and which attaches the highest
value to bodily vigor, the English, has till very recently known noth-
ing like the German turning. Separated more than ever from the
Continent during the French Revolution and the Empire, it was little
affected by the movement of which Rousseau was the pioneer. Jahn's
arguments, with their somewhat German-chauvinistic coloring, found
but little acceptance there. The English, however, had less use for
turning than the nations of the Continent. Thanks to the rural life of
the wealthy classes and the common training of the youth in public
institutions, a number of national games and contests (riding, rowing,
games of ball of various kinds) had been formed, which afforded a
superior empirical schooling in the various movements called forth in
them ;.as the achievements of the English mountain-climber, who has
just put Chimborazo under his feet, sufficiently illustrate. The pas-
sionate interest felt through the length and breadth of Sir Charles
Dilke's " Greater Britain " in the annual contest between the dark-
blue Oxford and the light-blue Cambridge oarsmen on the Thames
can only be compared with the enthusiasm of the Greeks for their
national games of competition, and goads the youth to the most ear-
nest exertion.

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Here we have the other extreme. The nar* k^oxqv practical peo-
ple rejects our physical exercises as too theoretical for its taste. The
English at least did not understand at all, when, in answer to the
question what sports we played at, an effort was made to explain our-
tool-gymnastics to them.

When we undertake to judge, in the light of our view into the
nature of physical exercise, between these three forms, the German
turning, the Swedish movement, and the English sport, the utter
worthlessness of the second form for the bodily improvement of a
healthy youth manifests itself at once. We have found that physical
culture is not only exercise of the muscles, as it appears on a superficial
view to be, but is quite as much, yes, more, exercise of the gray sub-
stance of the central nerve-system. The physiological value of the
Swedish movement is expressed in the simple remark that it can
strengthen the muscles, but has not power to make composite move-
ments fluent. Now, in an extremely theoretical case, a physical train-
ing is thinkable, by which single muscles of a Caspar Hauser could be
cultivated by gymnastics to a lion-like strength without the victim of
such an experiment even learning to walk. The Swedish movement
is only good for the purposes of physicians, to keep up or restore
the efficiency of single groups of muscles.

Turning our attention to the relative worth of the German turning
and the English sport, the latter evidently responds more than the
former to the demands arising out of our physiological anatomy.
Were the end masterhood in running, jumping, climbing ; in dancing,
fencing, riding ; in swimming, rowing, or skating — then nothing could
be more advisable than to practice equally and directly the necessary
concatenations in the actions of the ganglion-cells, without pausing at
the not practically applicable preliminary and intermediate steps of
the German turning.

The German turning, however, offers not only the advantage of
furnishing to any number of youth, of every age and condition, op-
portunity for exercise with the smallest amount of external prepara-
tions, and independent of often unattainable external conditions ; it
not only implies the moral earnestness of an effort that proposes self-
improvement without immediate practical advantage as an ideal aim,
wherein the superiority of the intellectual training sought in the Ger-
man gymnasium may also be discerned ; but, furthermore, the ingen-
ious selection of German exercises, approved and refined through a
long experience, results incontestably in a more equable perfecting of
the body than can be attained where, as in England, the individual,
following his own casually determined inclination, applies himself with
ambitious enthusiasm to rowing or riding, to ball-playing or mountain-
climbing. The youthful body, thoroughly trained after the German
method, enjoys the extraordinary advantage that, like a well-instructed
mathematician, it is provided with methods for every problem, with

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 443

ready forms of movement for every situation of the body. Put, for
example, an English boy and a German boy on a road across which
hurdles are thrown : the English boy will be sure to climb over some-
how. According to the height of the impediment, the German boy
jumps, or he climbs, props himself, and swings himself over.

Nothing prevents the German turner at pleasure carrying his more
theoretical training into practical and immediately available forms of
exercise, in which he, since he has learned to learn, speedily attains the
skill which his natural ability permits to him ; so we have been told
that the gymnasiast soon does as well as the real-scholar in the labora-
tory.

After all this there can be no doubt that German turning, in its
wise mingling of theory and practice, exhibits the happiest, yes, the
most adequate solution of the great problem with which pedagogics
has been busy since Rousseau — a truth which, after a short obscurity,
is now hardly contested, but the physiological principle of which a
few are beginning to understand.

I further remark that I do not class with German turning the so-
called order-exercises, which, over-estimated as preparatives to exercis-
ing, and a lazy-bench for inefficient teachers of turning, belong, in my
opinion, to the Kindergarten.

Hardly any progress in the knowledge of the laws of exercise has
been made since Milo of Croton's famous experiment with the calf.
Yet we are indebted to the creator of psychophysics for the beginning
of the inquiry which is here possible. Herr Fechner daily for two
months raised and dropped a pair of nine-and-a-half-pound dumb-
bells conformably to the beat of a second-pendulum, from the hanging
position of the hands to over his head, raised them and dropped them
again, till fatigue compelled him to stop. The curves, the ordinates
of which indicated the number of elevations daily, are instructive in
a double respect. At first the exercise appeared to bear no fruit,
then the results came out all at once ; but they soon reached their
limit. Volkmann had a similar experience in exercise of the senses.
Herr Fechner's curves, in the second place, do not rise steadily, but in
a serrated manner, according as weariness or increasing facility pre-
vailed. These experiments might be made of useful aj:>plication in
the inspection of recruits for particular purposes.

Like individuals, so are whole peoples susceptible to exercise and of
being- trained ; and here also an originally higher talent often does
not go so far as continuous practice. The hardy, tough, North-German
stock resemble the unpromising land, conquered only by obstinate
labor, which we till. The Prussian is the self-made man among the
peoples, yet he has not made himself without some help sent him by a
favoring destiny. He has been eminently made, trained, and exercised
through the care of a series of chiefs, unique in the world's history,
culminating in the Emperor William. The present memorial day re-

444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

calls one of the numerous acts of wise care whose blessed fruits we
meet everywhere in this city, in this state. This institution, created
when Prussia was still a feeble, small power, has grown with the state
in importance and certainty of aim, and is now the nursery of physi-
cians for by far the largest part of the Prussian-German army and
for the Imperial German fleet. Whether scholar or teacher, each one
of us feels how, with this elevated position of the school, his duty in-
creases to perfect himself by means of incessant conscientious exercise.

-*—+-

NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND NATIONAL EDU-
CATION*

By BENJAMIN WARD KICHARDSON, M. D., F. E. S.

I ASK myself if the system of education at present going on in our
nation is a system which has a proper relation to the necessities
of the nation. I look round me, to see the nation in chaos of thought
and action ; in what Mr. Gladstone has correctly defined as social revo-
lution in one part, and mental revolution in all parts ; mental revolu-
tion that might, by merest accident, by one or two days' shortness of
food, from failure of foreign supply and panic thereupon, pass, after a
few years of further chaos, into physical revolution. And the thought
which occurs to my mind, as it must to all who think, is, Are we educat-
ing to prevent catastrophe ? Are we educating the young to become
useful, independent, and capable working members of society, ready
to work with muscle as well as brain, in orderly and profitable form,
or are we educating them to become mere troublers without design,
repiners without hope, schemers without self -endurance, masters of the
forces of Nature herself, knowing how to use them for temporary, self-
ish, insane objects, but not knowing how to apply them for splendid
results and the general good ?

The national necessities as the bases of national education are, first
and foremost, these : that although in the early days of youth the
three simple elementary educational practices of learning to read, to
write, and to calculate, are necessities for the time, they are compara-
tively valueless unless combined with further necessities of a physical
kind — namely, sound and systematic muscular training ; freedom of
breathing, and circulation of the blood ; practical training, so that the
body can be structurally built up and sustained in health ; preparation
for all duties requiring precision, decision, presence of mind, and en-
durance ; and readiness to acquire any craft or handicraft that may
bring a useful living ; in a word, an education that shall bring the

* From a Lecture delivered before the Society of Arts, April 28, 1882.

NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND EDUCATION. 445

mental and physical qualities of every person into faithful harmony
and good-will.

I, like some of my colleagues at the School Board, would break up
the monotony of the schoolmaster and the schoolmistress, and would
give those excellent workers as much variety of teaching as any of
them could desire. But that variety should be physical, not mental ;
play, rather than work ; training of the muscles, and, I may say, of
the skeleton too ; of the lungs, of the heart, of the digestive organs ;
of brain and nerve for action — not of brain alone, and again brain,
and brain, hour by hour, all the day long. I, like others of my col-
leagues, would encourage economy, not by keeping things as they are,
but by saving some part of the two fifths of the money now expended
on teaching to spell, and by laying it out in teaching how to walk
with grace and ease ; to sing with correctness ; to swim ; to learn the
use of the arms, and fingers, and hands ; and to become men and
women in the strict sense of the word, without danger of retrograd-
ing a hair's breadth in the Darwinian line.

I said, in my address at the Health Congress, at Brighton, what
was quite true, that I had never in my life seen a healthy child, by
which I meant that I had never seen a child that had not in it either
some actual or latent constitutional disease. Touching the subject
now in hand, it is equally true to say that it is all but impossible to
find, in the board schools of our large towns, any semblance, critically
viewed, of health. Constitutional taints, which under favorable cir-
cumstances may often be concealed, and which may or may not be
apparent, are there. Various conditions of disease are there, inde-
pendently of the tendency from heredity ; there of themselves, in
some irregularity of body or limb, in some imperfection of sense, in
some deficiency of quality of blood, in some feebleness of respiration,
in some nervous irregularity of function, in some shade of mental
aberration.

The field of disease which is presented in some of the schools situ-
ated in crowded localities is indeed a sight at once for anxiety and pity.
To the eye of a physician who, like myself, has spent many years in
dispensary practice, it tells a story which is absolutely painful, if he
permit the results to be calculated out in his mind at leisure hours ;
if, that is to say, he compares what he has witnessed in his survey
with what he has learned, from long observation, of the meaning of
the phenomena in the history of life. It is not necessary to strip the
children, percuss and sound the chest, examine the spine, or practice
any of those refined arts of diagnosis with which he is familiar. He
reads from the indications of temperament, of expression of counte-
nance, of color of skin, of position of limb, of build of body, of gait,
of voice, sufficient outward manifestation to discern what is the true
physical state, what are the stamp and extent of disease, what is the
vital value of the lives generally that are before him.

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Foremost among the evils which are thus presented to him are those
conditions of disease known as ansemia and cachexia. Strictly, these
are not diseases like diabetes, bronchitis, or defined affections having
a regular course, but they are states of diseased form, which by their
presence indicate a faulty nutrition at the period of life when good
nutrition is most required, and which can not long go on without
insuring the construction of an impaired bodily organization. The
blood is not being duly oxygenated, and food, therefore, though it
even be fair in quality or quantity, is not properly applied. The nerv-
ous system is imperfectly built up ; the skeleton is imperfectly built
up ; the muscular system is imperfectly built up and sustained. How
can the improvement which is called scholarship be turned to fitting
account in such recipients of it ? I watched recently the afternoon
working of a large class of scholars, and counted one third of them
under the most decisive influence of these conditions of disease. Of
the affected, there would not be, in the ordinary averaging of life,
twenty years of existence under the course that was being followed.
The one saving clause in their case was development by physical
training, and that was withheld. The one destroying clause in their
case was over mental work, without the physical training, and that
was assiduously and regularly supplied.

With or without the anaemia and cachexia, there is the constitu-
tional disease, struma or scrofula, present in these classes. The in-
stances of this kind, in varying degrees of intensity, are most numer-
ous. This condition, again, is a mal or bad nutrition. It, as much as
cachexia and anaemia, with which it is so often allied, is fostered by
the prevailing system of mental pressure.

With these two conditions before the eye, there is to be seen here
and there in the classes, of both sexes, but of the girls especially, the
specimen of the phthisical or consumptive subject. In a class of fifty
I pick out three thus doomed, if their circumstances be not changed,
six per cent, certainly a moderate proportion. The disease has not
positively developed, but the probability of its developing is all but
certain, unless it be checked by the one or only remedial or preventive
method — freedom from nervous exhaustion, combined with physical
exercise in open breathing-space. Such preventives are not supplied,
but undue nervous exhaustion and confinement are both supplied, and
so the fatal disease is systematically fanned from latency into activity.

Spinal deformity and irregular construction of the skeleton is an-
other condition of disease, or actual disease, readily detectable in these
classes.

Miss Lofing, speaking of her experiences as to the girls which have
come under her notice, reports that they are, as a rule, very flat-chested,
that there is evidently much spinal distortion, and that lateral cur-
vature of the spine is common among them. This, which is equally
true in respect to boys, is accounted for by Miss Lofing in terms which

NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND EDUCATION 447

show that the present school system does more than simply permit the
mischief that is progressing, it actually fosters it and promotes it.
Asked "to what the effects are chiefly ascribable," she replies : "A
part is ascribable to home neglects ; but the greater part of it is due
to excessive and prolonged constraints under the common-school con-
ditions : too long sitting on badly constructed seats ; but, with good
seats, they are kept in bad positions in long writing exercises. The
common bad position is, indeed, prescribed by the Government School
Inspectors. I have found that, to obtain the school grants, the chil-
dren are so constrained as to exclude the exercises that are needed for
their bodily development."

The present system is not only a violation of physiological but of
psychological law. The powers of receptivity of the minds of chil-
dren of different ages have been tested experimentally, with as much
care as physicists take when they are treating in their experiments on
the relationships of ordinary matter to force. Certain brains can take
in so much, and no more, according to age. The capacity grows with
cultivation and skillful teaching, no doubt, but it must be permitted
to grow. In the very young a lesson of a minute may be all-sufficient.
Later, of three minutes, five, ten, fifteen, and so on, to one hour, two,
or three. But to this there is a limit, and it is probable that, with the
best scholar of primary-school age, the powers of receptivity rarely
extend beyond a period of two hours and a half of direct teaching.
Teachers of various districts, and of different countries, have testified
in respect to this point, and while they have explained, from direct
observation, that the receptivity varies in different children according
to difference of temperament, physical health and build, as might very
well be expected, the receptivity at one time, in all children, ceases at
the end of three hours.

Proposed Reforms. — From these considerations let me now turn
to the reforms which we, who are urgent as to reform in the present
educational system, have in view. We reason that the existing sys-
tem is not a" basis for the national necessities. We are of opinion
that in the future the education of a mental kind now being supplied
will be imperfect and doubtful, nay, it may be of dangerous use, un-
less it be so laid out with physical culture that a perfect or compara-
tively perfect health of body shall go with it and sustain it. We
urge that, as we must either educate health or disease, it is best to edu-
cate hearth.

The design we have in view, then, includes several heads, which
I may arrange in the following order :

Physical Culture of the Body. — We urge that education
should be so distinctly physical, that the body should be in no respect
less improved than the mind at the close of the educational career.
We follow, in this regard, the teaching of the Platonic philosophy, in
which the master insists that the symmetry of mind and body be cul-

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tivated and maintained, without which there can not be beauty, there
can not be health. We urge that this is the only sure way of keep-
ing up a strong and vigorous and independent population, that shall
understand how to utilize the home resources of land and industry,
and keep the land and industry in the possession of our and their
descendants.

The system of education that is now being carried out seems to
us to promote in no way whatever this necessary intention. In the
" standards " we find no efficient instruction of a technical kind that
even in the barest hypothetical style teaches the principles of useful
arts and appliances. Practical details of industries and of modes of
learning industrial occupations are thought to be of less importance
to the scholar than a knowledge of geography, construction of lan-
guage, physiology, and history. It is no wish of ours to ignore studies
of the kind above named, but we consider that elementary instruction
in details of inventive and industrial pursuits holds a first place, and
that in a country like ours in which so much, in which, in truth,
almost everything, depends on individual perfection in some useful art,
such elementary instruction ought to have the place it deserves at
once and for good. We think, moreover, that the instruction should
not be purely theoretical. We contend that it should include element-
ary training in useful work of a practical kind. We do not see why
work-rooms should not be set up in schools, in which boys should be
taught the use of the lathe ; the beautiful art of wood-carving ; the
skill of the draughtsman ; the method of distinguishing metals, and
other simple experiments in chemistry ; the arts of swimming and rid-
ing ; the art of distinguishing colors and signs at a distance ; the prac-
tice of mensuration, and a number of other good and useful branches
of physical learning, which, whether the boy remain at home or whether
he emigrate to another country, will always be to him a direct assist-
ance, a means of earning his bread, and an insight and test of his par-
ticular ability or aptitude for the vocation by which his subsistence will
be most easily obtained.

Extending this principle of practical teaching to the female sex, we
would have the girls well trained, both theoretically and practically,
in those occupations which in the course of life fall more distinctly
under their exercise, management, or supervision. We know that in
the schools at present girls are taught sewing and a few other useful
industrial accomplishments. We would extend these instructions.
We would have the girls instructed in modeling ; in the art of color-
ing and painting on glass and porcelain ; in the various processes of
selecting, sorting, preserving, and preparing foods for the table ; in
the cleaning and ornamentation of drawing-room ornaments, and in
all the works pertaining to domestic life. The girls in our schools
would, as we believe, make more rapid progress in mere book-learning
if one half of the time now devoted to books were devoted to that

NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND EDUCATION. 449

other branch of practical education which forms the greater part, in
practice, of the future of the womanly life. We consider that evi-
dence in proof of this belief has already been offered, and we suggest
that a girl trained in the manner now described would, in this coun-
try, or in any other country into which she might emigrate, be far
better fitted for the duties pertaining to any station she might hold,
than if she were simply dismissed from school primed with the stand-
ards, and standardless.

Life-learning Texdencies. — We contend, secondly, that the ed-
ucation of the young of all classes, and of the poorest classes chiefly,
should be so framed as to lead to the inducement of making the acqui-
sition of knowledge a taste instead of a task, a pursuit instead of a
labor. We contend that if the present system is pursued — in which
children who are not by heredity born to mental occupation, and who
are not physically privileged to acquire information, are, by sheer
force, driven through the hard and fast lines, fenced out by the books
called standards, at a pace that shall make them complete their educa-
tion irrespectively of temperament, health, ability, before their thir-
teenth or fourteenth year — the pressure, amounting in every case to a
hardship, will merely have the effect of causing them to cease to learn
when the pressure is taken off. We insist upon this, that the system
shall be so modified that there shall be no mental pressure at all, but
a mixture of mental and physical teaching which shall bring the mind
into desire for knowledge after it is freed from the necessities to ac-
quire it.

Aptitude for Productive Ability. — A third advancement upon
which we lay great stress is, that the educational system shall be of
a kind that shall render the body of fitting aptitude for productive
ability. We argue that, unless discrimination is used by the teacher
for detecting the natural or hereditary capabilities of the scholar, there
must be failure in result of the most serious kind ; failure that will
tell upon all the productive industries of the country, so that agricult-
ure, the various industrial arts, the various labors which call for mus-
cular skill, activity, and endurance, will be sacrificed, or largely reduced
in effective value. In insisting on this practice of developing produc-
tive ability, we are sustained by the belief that nothing could be lost
by the effort in the way of actual education. We are of opinion that
the time saved by the adoption of varying conditions of school-work
would prevent the injuries now incident to the fixed rules under which
the educational system is enforced, and in this view we are supported
by the opinions of the most practical teachers.

We maintain that courses of physical training such as we wish to
introduce would have a distinct formative effect in mental habits.
This is especially seen in the industrial and reformatory institutions
where the same principles of mixed physical and mental training have
been adopted as prevail in the district half-time schools. A draft

VOL.. XXL — 2&

450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

report prepared for the consideration of the Education Committee says
of them :

" In the long-time schools, during the time the boy is kept waiting
under restraint, his mind is absent from his lessons, which are com-
monly so uninteresting as to be repugnant to his voluntary attention,
and his thoughts are away on cricket, or some sort of pleasurable play,
so that he generally only returns, upon call to the lesson, as to a task to
be got rid of. Under the restraint of separate confinement in a prison,
the mind of the young criminal can not, as is shown by his action on
release, have been occupied with compunctious visitings of remorse, as
commonly assumed. His thoughts are of his ill-luck under the wide
chances of escape of which he has had experience during all the time
he has been at large before detection, and of how he may have better
luck when he gets out. He is exhorted to be good : but the child of
the mendicant or of the delinquent does not see his way to doing other
than he has done before ; and why should he, so long as he feels his in-
aptitude of hand and arm for industrial work ? Be this as it may, under
the common conditions of restraint in the district schools, or in the
reformatory schools — all of which, comprising some thirty thousand
children, are now of necessity conducted on the half-time principle of
varied physical and mental teaching — the pupil is placed under
entirely new and opposite conditions, by which bad thoughts are
excluded and good thoughts induced and impressed from day to day
by practical work from the like of which he may hereafter get some-
thing good for himself. In the morning he is roused out of his sleep
to attend to his head-to-foot washing and his dressing. Then he has
to go with others to his breakfast ; after that to the school, where,
with his class, he is kept to the simultaneous class lesson without wait-
ing, to which he willingly gives himself, as it is not over-wearisome,
like the lessons of the long-time schools. He may next have to fall
under the drill-master or the gymnast, and, if he stumble or fail, he is
jeered by the other pupils, or reproved by the corporal ; but he soon
participates in the zeal and competition of common lively action. He
may on the following day have a swimming-lesson. He may next
have some naval exercise at the mast, where, unless he holds on, he
will fall into the net spread beneath to receive him. Then he has to
go to the workshop, where the work-master — in carpentry, in shoe-
making, or in tailoring — keeps the mind, the hand, and the eye, of the
pupil intently occupied. His day's occupation may be varied by free-
hand drawing, so useful to handicrafts, or by lessons in singing, or, if
he be a very good and apt boy, by lessons in instrumental music. The
enumeration of the incessant occupations may sound as of severe labor ;
but the course is varied by "relief -lessons," and it becomes so little
irksome that an interruption is disagreeable, and an exclusion from
any part of it is acutely felt as a punishment. When some parents
exercise their right of taking away children from the district school,

NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND EDUCATION. 451

the children are not glad, but commonly cry at having to leave the
institution, to part with their playmates or their workmates, and to go
home. As the physical and industrial exercises have been improved,
desertions have diminished and the outcomes bettered. From morn
until night bad thoughts are much excluded, and comparatively good
thoughts — thoughts of doing better for themselves by work and wages,
and by all honest and esteemed position — are generated and impressed.
The teacher can not look into the mind and see what effects, or whether
any, have been produced by his precepts. But the drill-master or the
work-master does see the valuable primary moral principles of atten-
tion, patience, self-restraint, prompt and exact obedience, in outward
and visible action. The general result is that the pupil gets interested
in what he does, and does it with a will."

We are strongly of the opinion that by the introduction of phys-
ical training the end will be accomplished of reducing natural crime.

Lastly, we submit that, to insure the future happiness and serenity
of the people of the future, the children of the present should have
their mental and art training varied by making the subject of recre-
ation a scientific branch of study among all who are engaged in
educational work. In such advance, we should have the means for
recreation made the means for imperceptible instruction in bodily and
mental powers, so that, having never unduly severed them from the
tastes of the scholar, they shall be true resting-places, useful as well as
pleasing diversions from mental and physical labor.

I have now put forward our programme. It is framed on what we
conceive to be the basis of national necessities. A few concluding
paragraphs may be taken as proposed resolutions to explain the mode
in which we would carry out the reforms we have in view :

1. We propose to lessen the tasks of a mental kind in all schools,
by the introduction of what is practically a half-time system. Believ-
ing that the brain of the child under fourteen years of age is suffi-
ciently charged, to be safely charged, when it has been subjected to
three hours work in book-teaching, we assume that this period per day
of such teaching is sufficient for all useful and safe advancement, that
the children would have more than they could learn, and would retain
more than they need retain on this plan. We propose at the same
time to make inspection into such book-learning less critical and less
severe, with an institution of insi^ection into physical capability as a
part of the inspection, in place of the part given up to book standards.

In connection with this department we propose that there should
be at stated times a physical inquiry, by competent authority, into
the health of every school and every scholar, and that as much special
encouragement and reward should be given to scholars who present
the best physique as to those who present proofs of superior attain-
ments in the standards.

We propose further that this great change shall be effected by

452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

utilizing the time thus taken from books in application to lessons of
play, exercise, or work that shall be useful in developing the body,
and in making it apt to attain proficiency in physical arts and sciences.
We would suggest that, in the school itself, the means for this phys-.
ical instruction should be provided ; but we would not by any hard
and fast line hold by the school as the only place. If it were found
in any case that a scholar had the means, in his half-time, of following
any proper and profitable occupation without injury to himself, we
should let him follow it, by which plan, as we believe, the sting of the
compulsory clause in the education act would be most effectually
blunted.

2. We propose that, while the mind of the child shall not be sur-
charged with book-learning at a time when the body is in the most
critical stage of development either into a sound and helpful or into
an unsound and helpless body, there shall be made a provision in the
school itself, by which education shall be allowed to go on after the
usual prescribed time, in which it is presumed that the education is
completed.

3. We propose, in the introduction of physical education into
schools, that it should be at once of the simplest and best kind ; not a
system of one particular character, but one which should combine
everything that is useful in various systems, and which should interest
the scholar, while it develops his physical life. We agree with an
observation made by Mr. Charles Roberts, in a letter in which he
says :

I have examined with some care, from a physiological point of view, the
various systems of physical education, but I am not satisfied with any of them.
The military drill, in use in many schools, puts too great a strain on the lower
limbs, and too little on the arms and trunk, and, though the exercises are useful
for discipline, they are monotonous and wearisome to children, and may be in-
jurious, by inducing flat-foot and other deformities of the body. On the other
hand, the exercises in ordinary German gymnasiums are generally too severe for
children, and not sufficiently under the control of the non-medical teacher ;
their expense, moreover, places them beyond the reach of elementary schools.
The Swedish system, again, as taught in the board schools, lacks spirit and
energy, from the entire absence of apparatus, and therefore of motive, to at-
tempt or complete a definite object — a defect which Miss Chreiman's system has
removed to considerable extent, by the limited use of simple apparatus.

4. We propose that there should be introduced into the system
what may be shortly explained as systematic training of the senses, so
that the senses of sight, hearing, touch, and even smell, should be
brought up to the best standards of perfection. Such training, we
are of opinion, could be carried out by means of lessons and of simple
apparatus, and would, in the course of carrying it out, afford facility
for practically testing the capacity of every scholar, and his fitness or
unfitness for the after-duties he may be called upon to undertake. In

NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND EDUCATION. 453

America, they have had appointed tests for the proof of color- sight, so
that it may be determined, when a man applies for duties in which
color-sights are required, whether he can distinguish color. If our
design were in operation, no scholar would leave a school without
being made fully acquainted with his particular failure or capacity for
this and such like occupations.

5. We propose, finally, to use the time that we wish to extract
from book-learning, in some, and indeed in a free degree, in the cul-
tivation of certain of the more refined and pleasure-building arts.
First among these we would place music, as the primitive of recrea-
tive pleasures. We observe that our children are well and happy
when they can sing ; we see men and women gathered together, and
find the height of mirth and happiness when somebody gives a song
or a tune. In the most refined society, music is the joy of life ; in the
lowest dens, men, hardly above animals, when they meet to be amused,
sing. It may be that in all these positions the music is very bad, but
it is there, and it extends through creation. Here, therefore, is the
first recreation to be scientifically studied. Make a nation, we say,
a musical nation, and think how you have harmonized it, socially,
morally, healthfully. "We can not begin to teach this recreation too
early or too soundly.

We ought to begin by making the learning of notes in succession
— the scale of musical chords — coincident with the learning of the
alphabet. Xext, the intervals should be taught, in a simple but care-
ful way, so that melody may be acquired, and the art of sight-singing
attained. From this elementary basis should follow the simplest forms
of time, after which a plain melody could be read with as much ease
as the reading of the first story-book. Simple part-songs, leading to
endless delight, would succeed in exercise ; and a true and natural
language in sweet sounds would be the property, in one generation, of
all the nation. In addition to music, we would, as a matter of course,
introduce other pleasant recreations, such as dancing, gymnastics, and
all those museular games and exercises which, by discharging naturally
the nervous force, relieve the mind of mischievous intents and provo-
catives to destructive habits.

This is the programme we would put before the nation, in respect
to the grand revolution we consider necessary, of placing national
education on the basis of national necessities. Should it be urged that
what we- propose is too essentially physical or muscular, we answer
that all education is, in the strict sense, physical and even muscular.
Speech is muscular, expression is muscular, writing is muscular, com-
position is muscular, as much as mental. It is as purely a muscular
act to decline a Greek verb as to walk across a tight-rope ; only that
the muscular movement, hardly so refined, is more obscure. We meet
two men, one of whom is seen to move with ease and grace, the other
with dullness and weight. We say, how accomplished the one, how un-

454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

couth the other ! We hear two men discourse — the one with elegance,
precision, style, the other with hesitation, blundering, rudeness. We
say, how accomplished the one, how uncouth the other ! In all these
cases, muscular force has played its equal part with mental aptitude,
or inaptitude. We see a man who has not been educated to grace of
manner, or speech, or thought, assuming the part of a man of grace,
manner, and thought, and, by much study, sustaining the character
for a short time, as on the stage. But we know that man only acts ;
he is not trained to the muscular skill that can carry him through all
parts of life with equal grace, though he may, by intense labor, attain
a minor part, and be perfect in it.

We know that no one who late in life enters a vocation requiring
certain qualities, like that of a physician, a surgeon, a preacher or
pleader, a commander, a pilot, an engineer, a player, can gain that
full self-possession which comes, as it is said, naturally, to the man
who has been from early life trained in the work. Here again the
failure we affirm is muscular as much as mental. The concealed mus-
cular mechanism is not in working order. The mind may issue its
commands, but, if the muscles fail to obey, the mind, like a general
whose red-coats are undrilled and impervious, may break itself to im-
becility and produce no results beyond hopeless and helpless confusion
and dismay.

So we contend for the physical education of all our young, on the
lines I have laid down, as the stirring want in this stirring time. Our
intention is to make this nation a nation of heroes as well as scholars ;
a nation that the sculptor can describe as well as the historian ; a
nation that can hold its own in the scale of vitality, and protect its
own by the virtues of courage, physical prowess, and endurance, as
ably as by statesmanship and knowledge, more ably than by expedi-
ency and craft.

-♦*♦-

ACOUSTIC ABCHITECTUKE.

By WILLIAM W. JACQUES, Ph. D.,

LATE FELLOW IN PHYSICS OF THE JOHKS HOPKINS TJNIVEESITY.

IN the construction of a building in which large numbers of people
are to be gathered together to listen to music or speaking, it is
highly important to consider the conditions which shall best allow the
sound to be carried from the musician or speaker to all of the hearers.
It is the aim of the present article to place before the reader an outline
of the art of so constructing buildings, and to present certain general
principles upon which acoustic success depends.

The subject divides itself naturally into three parts. In the first is
considered the effect of the condition of the air within an auditorium

ACOUSTIC ARCHITECTURE. 455

upon its acoustic qualities, and it will be shown, as would naturally be
expected, that the condition of the medium which conveys the sound
exercises a very considerable influence on the facility and accuracy
with which the sound is conveyed. In the second part is considered
the effect of the arrangement of the walls which inclose the audito-
rium, and of the materials of which these walls are composed. In the
third and last part there are discussed several minor points, attention
to which will aid in the securing of a building which shall be good
and not bad for sound. These three headings, it is believed, will cover
the whole ground.

It seems almost self-evident that the condition of the air, which is
the medium by which sound is conveyed from one part of an audito-
rium to another, will exercise a considerable effect upon its acoustic
properties. An experimental inquiry shows us that such is the case.
What peculiar condition of the air is it that affects the transmission of
sound ? Whether the air is hot or cold, wet or dry, whether it con-
tains a larger or smaller percentage of oxygen, nitrogen, or carbonic
acid, seems to have no effect on its acoustic properties. But whether
the air is quiet and mechanically homogeneous, or whether there are
mingled draughts of hot and cold air moving in various directions,
does seem to have a considerable effect. In other words, the motion
of the air within an auditorium does have a very perceptible effect on
its acoustic qualities.

Probably most readers have noticed, or in any event they have
seen recorded, instances in which sounds of very ordinary intensity
have been heard, and heard distinctly, at a very considerable distance
from the source. In particular, the author remembers an instance
which came to his notice one summer afternoon, while resting half-way
up the side of one of the hills near the Green Mountains. The hill
sloped gently to a meadow at the foot, and its sides curved somewhat
like the walls of an amphitheatre, of which the meadow was the floor.
Nearly a mile away, across the meadow, a man was mowing grass with
a mowing-machine drawn by horses. The day was slightly cloudy,
and from the mower, up the side of the hill to tho observer, was mov-
ing a slight, hardly perceptible breeze. The air was optically very
clear, and appeared to be rather dry. The click of the mowing-ma-
chine was heard with wonderful distinctness, but the author was not a
little surprised when, the machine having stopped for the moment, the
" Go along ! " of the driver was plainly heard as he urged his horses
on. Not only were the words plainly intelligible, but the provincial
twang peculiar to the country-folk of that region was distinctly dis-
tinguishable. Here the human voice, raised probably very little
above the ordinary tone, and not at all above that of a preacher in
his pulpit or an actor on the stage, was distinctly heard, and with all
its peculiarities of quality, nearly a mile away.

Another instance is that mentioned by Sir John Ross in his account

456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of his voyage to the polar regions. He says, " I found no difficulty,
in that cold and quiet ah*, in conversing with a man a mile away." It
will be noticed that in both of these cases the air was mechanically homo-
geneous ; that is, there were no alternating currents of hot and cold air.

In striking contrast with these may be mentioned the condition of
the air as a vehicle for sound in the burned district of Boston, just after
the fire had swept over it. There were many places, where there was a
mixture of hot air, smoke, steam, and currents of cold air, in which the
shouts of two people hardly a hundred feet apart, although audible,
were so confused and indistinct as to make communication entirely
impossible, and this too in quiet parts quite remote from the scene of
conflagration. This effect was noticed when there were mingled cur-
rents of hot and cold air. That is, the air was mechanically heteroge-
neous. Humboldt speaks of the great difference in transmissive power
for sound of the tropical air during the day and at night, and attrib-
utes this difference to the homogeneous condition of the air at night
as compared to its heterogeneous condition in the day-time, due to
convection-currents rising from the heated sands.

A large number of instances might be cited, and we should find
that a clear homogeneous air transmits sounds readily, while an atmos-
phere broken by alternating convection-currents of warm and cold
air is a very poor vehicle for sound. The explanation of this is not
difficult. The original ray of sound, striking upon the first current of
air, is partially reflected and partially transmitted.

The loss of the reflected portion causes a decrease in the intensity
of sound. The transmitted portion, striking upon a second current, is
likewise divided, and its transmitted portion continues to be so divided
as many times as there are variations in the density of the air. Its
reflected portion, as well as that of all the succeeding reflections, in-
stead of being wholly lost, is interrupted in its backward course by
the first current of air, and reflected along the path of the primary
wave, but following it at an interval of time, depending upon the
thickness of the current of air. Each reflection being thus again and
again divided and reflected, we have, following close upon the primary
wave, a multitude of secondary waves, which, falling later and later
upon the ear, greatly mask the distinctness of the original sound, and
give rise to indistinctness and confusion.

It is evident, then, that in order to procure the proper propagation
of sound, one must do away with these air-currents. It must be re-
membered, however, that, when large numbers of people are crowded
into halls, the air within is usually subjected to very considerable dis-
turbances in order to obtain even indifferent ventilation. Registers,
sprinkled here and there over the floor, send up their currents of hot
and cold air. Opened windows or other cold-air ventilators send in
their currents of cold air. If these currents could be made visible to
the eye, as they can be detected by proper apparatus, we should see

ACOUSTIC ARCHITECTURE. 457

that hot and cold currents do not readily mix, but fill the whole audi-
torium with alternations, continually varying in temperature and there-
fore in density and relative motion.

The proper solution of the problem is to admit the air in large
volume, and at the proper temperature, at one side of the auditorium,
carry it bodily across the room in one large mass as nearly as may be
without break of homogeneity, and exhaust it at the other side. Or it
may be introduced through a perforated floor and rise to be exhausted
at the roof. This plan has been tried with success ; the air, being first
brought to the proper temperature in the basement, passes up through
myriads of gimlet-holes, and is exhausted at the ceiling by means of
numerous openings connected with a high chimney or other means of
producing an exhaust.

An example of the first method is shown in the Baltimore Academy
of Music, where the author was able to make some experiments to
determine how far acoustic properties were actually dependent upon
the condition of the air. The ventilation of the house is arranged as
follows : The whole supply of fresh air is admitted at the back of the
stage, is then warmed, then crosses the stage horizontally, passes
through the proscenium, and then, somewhat diagonally toward the
roof, across the auditorium, in one grand volume and with gentle mo-
tion, so as to almost entirely prevent the formation of minor air-cur-
rents. It is exhausted partially by an outlet in the roof, and partly
by numerous registers in the ceilings of the galleries. From this cen-
tral outlet and from the large flues of the registers, the air passes into
the ventilating tower over the great chandelier, which supplies, in its
heat, a part of the motive power of the circulation. It is further ex-
pelled from the tower by means of properly constructed ventilators.
The acoustic properties of this house are universally agreed to be very
superior.

The experiment made by the author consisted in stationing ob-
servers in various parts of the house while the performance was going
on, with directions to note, at intervals during the evening, the readi-
ness with which they could hear what was said on the stage. The ob-
servers were ignorant of the experiment to be tried. Observers A and
B were stationed in the first, and C and D in the second balcony, from
8 to 10 one evening, when Neilson was playing "Rosalind." At 8.50
the ventilators were closed, so as to interrupt the normal circulation
of air ; and the doors into the lobbies, and thence into the street, were
thrown open, that counter-currents might be established. At 9.20 the
doors were closed, and the ventilators set right. The testimony of the
observers was :

A (first balcony). — 8 to nearly 9, good ; for about half an hour,
bad ; afterward much better.

B (first balcony).-^8 to 9, good ; 9 to 9.30, bad ; 9.30 to 10, good.
Strong current of air felt from door a little before 9.

45 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

C (second balcony).— 8 to 8.50, good ; 8.50 to 9.20, bad ; 9.20 to
10, good.

D (second balcony). — 8 to about 9, good ; 9 to 9.20, bad ; 9.20 to
10, good.

An examination of the foregoing data can leave very little doubt
that the condition of the air within an auditorium exercises a very
considerable influence upon the facility and accuracy with which sound
is conveyed.

The Academy of Music, in Baltimore, is an example of how a de-
sirable condition of the air may be obtained. It must not be supposed,
however, that acoustic success depends entirely upon the condition of
the air. In fact, the condition of the air is a matter quite secondary
to that which next comes up for discussion — the material and arrange-
ment of the walls.

It is not uncommon to find churches or halls built nearly square,
with a speaker's desk at one end, and a bare wall of stone covered with
plaster opposite. If one goes into such a room when it is empty and
speaks from the desk, he notices a loud and disagreeable reverberation
following each syllable, which, if the room be large enough, comes
back to him as a distinct echo. When the room is filled with people,
this resonance or echo will considerably decrease ; but, in such a room
as we have described, it will not by any means disappear.

If now we choose a similar room, but with walls sheathed up with
thin boarding or a thin layer of plaster laid on to light laths and
having a free air-space behind, we shall, in all probability, find that,
when this room is filled with people, the echo or reverberation will
have almost if not quite disappeared. This is a comparison that the
author has often made, and it gives the cue to the whole art of choos-
ing the materials of which the walls are to be built. They must be
built of such material and arranged in such way that they shall absorb
and not reflect sound-waves falling upon them.

When the speaker utters his first syllable, the sound goes out in
straight lines from his mouth to all parts of the house. So much of it
as goes directly to the ears of the audience is effective, but all the
other rays of sound ought to be as completely as possible absorbed
and destroyed, else they will be reflected from the walls and ceiling
back to the audience ; and, arriving at their ears somewhat later than
the direct sound, will give rise to the confusion or echo whose ap-
parent effect is to bridge each syllable of the speaker over into the
next, and so cause apparent indistinctness of articulation.

The presence of an audience in a room causes the absorption of
such words as would otherwise be reflected from the floor, and thence
to the walls, and so back and forth. But it is out of the question to
cover the walls and ceiling with an audience. The absorjrtion of the
sound is, however, sometimes effected by draping heavily with cloths ;
but it has been found by experiment that there are other materials,

ACOUSTIC ARCHITECTURE. 459

more conveniently handled, which answer the purpose much better.
A sheathing of thin pine-wood, lightly suspended, particularly if there
be a large and free air-space behind it, will absorb sound very com-
pletely.

There is a very great difference in the absorptive power of different
wall materials for sound. Walls of stone and brick absorb hardly any
of the sound that falls upon them, but reflect it nearly all ; while walls
of thin and dry pine-wood absorb a very much larger proportion and
reflect comparatively very little. In order to determine the absorptive
power of different wall materials for sound, the author has made bold
to extend the general principle in radiant energy, that " bodies which
give out rays most readily when excited absorb them most readily
when exposed to their action," to such rays as we have in sound.
Suspecting from analogy that this principle might be true for sound-
waves, he has proved by experiment that this is, at least in a general
way, the case, and has then devised the following method of measure-
ment :

If a tuning-fork be set in vibration and held against a wall, it will
communicate its vibrations to the wall and the wall will give out a
sound, which sound will be feeble or intense just in the same propor-
tion that its capacity to absorb sounds falling upon it is feeble or
intense. In this way the absorptive power of different wall materials
has been measured, and a few of the results are arranged in the order
of this power in the following table :

1. Thin and dry pine sheathing, lightly supported or in panels.

2. Corrugated iron.

3. Heavy wood paneling.

4. Thin, dry, and hard plaster on light laths lightly suspended.

5. Heavy plastering on laths lightly supported or attached to
wooden Avails.

6. Heavy plaster on laths closely fitted to brick or stone walls.

7. Thin brick walls.

8. Thin brick wails covered with plaster directly laid on.

9. Thick brick walls.

10. Marble and other stone walls.

A comparison of this table with results actually obtained in
churches in' which these different wall materials are used has amply
proved their correctness.

There is one fact of considerable practical value that seems espe-
cially Worthy of attention. Corrugated iron, we see, has a very good
absorptive power for sound, while it is durable, safe from fire, and can
be easily worked into any ornamental forms desired. It seems, there-
fore, peculiarly fitted for the lining up of an auditorium. Bethany
Church, on Franklin Square, Baltimore, is built entirely of this mate-
rial, and is a decided^ acoustic success. We need, however, not only to
attend to the material of the walls, but to their arrangement as well.

460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

While a plain blank wall opposite the speaker will throwback a strong
reverberation, if this wall be broken up by recesses, or spaced with
pilasters, or if a gallery be extended across it, the reverberation will
be much less.

The lining of the walls should, if possible, be placed at a consid-
erable distance from the main wall, and supported by it so as to allow
as free vibration as possible. Thus when other considerations require
that the walls of a building shall be of stone or brick, the acoustic
qualities may be recovered by lining up with thin pine, corrugated
iron, or a thin coating of plaster on light laths, and susjoending this
lining as lightly as possible and at a considerable distance from the
solid wall. The arrangement of walls in panels is a very advanta-
geous one, as each panel may be so constructed as to be easily set in
vibration. Perhaps the ideal arrangement would be an auditorium
with brick walls, within which is a shell made up of thin wooden
panels, and placed at such a distance from the solid walls that the pas-
sage-ways to the entrances on the floor and various galleries maybe
placed between.

In this connection it becomes necessary to discuss the proper shape
to be given to an auditorium. A good way to arrive at this is to con-
sider first an audience in the open air on a calm day. The open air
on a quiet day, when the atmosphere is not disturbed by convection-
currents, is probably the best possible place for speaking to a large
number of people. Wesley is said to have preached successfully to
twenty thousand people gathered together in a natural amphitheatre
formed by the hills, and on a day when the atmosphere was at rest.

Let us take a small platform arranged for an open-air speaker, and
notice how an audience will form itself about it. If the audience is
large and each person anxious to hear, we shall find that the outline
of the crowd will be that of a section cut through an egg, with the
speaker placed at the focus of the smaller end. As in an auditorium
we trust to the natural diffusion of sound to absorb the stray rays, we
should evidently adopt this same ovate section for the outline of the
floor.

But, when we come to consider further that it is desirable to place
each member of the audience so that he can see the speaker, and so
that the speaker's voice may come directly to him, we see that we con-
form still further to the egg-shape, for, in order that we may do this,
the floor must curve upward as it recedes from the speaker, and the
galleries form only a continuation of this curve. To that we may say
that the proper shape of an auditorium is in general that of an egg-
shell, the speaker being at the focus of the smaller end and the audi-
ence being seated over the lower half, while the upper half forms the
vaulted roof. Like an egg-shell, we have seen that the walls should be
thin and capable of absorbing, as fully as possible, all the stray rays
of sound. While the egg-shape is the ideal, other considerations fre-

ACOUSTIC ARCHITECTURE. 461

quently require considerable departures, but it will generally be found
that rooms constructed on this plan, if the materials of the walls and
the condition of the contained air be secured, are acoustically good.

The Greek and Roman amphitheatres, having the audiences ar-
ranged in semicircles, each circle rising above the one in front of it,
and having the auditorium either open at the top or covered with
awnings so that the waste sound might easily escape at the top or be
absorbed by the audience around the sides, were crude approaches to
this plan. The modern theatres, in which the floor slopes upward as it
recedes from the stage, and in which the balconies are placed one above
the other and are of horseshoe form, conform still more closely to it.

Other considerations frequently demand that music-halls and
churches shall be square or oblong in shape, and it must not be sup-
posed that acoustic success can not here be obtained. But, in these
forms, great care must be taken to avoid large reflecting surfaces, and,
by means of paneling or other devices, to absorb fully the waste
sound.

We have now examined the two important features on which acous-
tic success depends. The atmosphere must be in such condition as to
best allow the natural diffusion of sound ; and, further, the walls must
be of such material, and so arranged, as to absorb as fully as possible
the waste sound. It now remains for us to look at some of the minor
points which contribute to acoustic success.

There is one danger to which buildings having a vaulted roof are
peculiarly liable, and that is, that the roof, if constructed of proper
curvature and of non-absorbing material, is apt to act as a great con-
cave mirror to gather up waste rays of sound and reflect them back to
a focus somewhere in the audience, and so produces a loud and dis-
agreeable echo. The architect can not exercise too great care in se-
lecting absorbing materials, and in so arranging them as to prevent
this possibility. A change in curvature, or breaking by transverse
arches, will often do this. This focus would be a small area in case of
a dome ; but, in case of an arched roof running from front to rear, it
would be a straight line.

It often happens that churches constructed without regard to acous-
tic principles are found, when completed, to possess this fault in a strik-
ing degree. The only complete remedy in such cases is to entirely
replace the ceiling. It may, however, often be largely alleviated by
placing the pulpit in a different position, as near one corner or against
the wall half-way. down one side. Sometimes the fault may be largely
remedied by using a reflector to throw the sound out toward the audi-
ence and prevent its going up toward the roof.

Reflectors, or sounding-boards, should be used only with judicious
care. Their object is not, like a concave mirror, to gather the rays of
sound and throw them out to a focus in the audience. When so con-
structed they have been found to do more harm than good, especially

462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

when the focus is so distant that a strong echo is returned from the
opposite wall. Their object is rather to control such rays of sound as
would otherwise go up to the roof and be retained as a disagreeable
echo. A perfectly flat surface placed over the pulpit and not too far
from the speaker's head, will often do this ; but it is better to have the
wall back of the pulpit gradually curve forward until it completely
overhangs the speaker's head. The speaker must be near to this wall,
so that the direct and reflected sounds may be as nearly as possible
identical.

There is a belief, prevalent among some architects, that a hall, in
order to be acoustically good, must have its length, breadth, and height
in harmonic proportion. There seems to be no good foundation for
this belief, and the author, after careful experimental inquiry, has
failed to find that this is the case.

It frequently happens that, in a building in which there is consid-
erable resonance, the speaker, by timing his syllables so that the reso-
nance of one shall have disappeared before the next is uttered, may
make himself understood to a large audience with comparative ease.
This is recognized by most public speakers, and it is not uncommon
to hear them speak of the "key-note" of any particular hall.

The act of striking the " key-note " consists not so much in pitch-
ing the voice at any particular key as in carefully timing the rate at
which the syllables succeed each other.

■+++-

PEOGEESS OF THE GEEM THEOEY OE DISEASE*

By JOHN TYNDALL, F.E.S., LL.D. (M. D., TUBINGEN).

THE virtual triumph of the antiseptic system of surgery, based as
that system is on the recognition of living contagia as the agents
of putrefaction, is of good augury as regards the receptivity of the
public mind to new views respecting the nature of contagia generally.

To the credit of English surgeons it stands recorded that, guided
by their practical sagacity, they had adopted in their hospitals meas-
ures of amelioration which reduced, almost to a minimum, the rate of
mortality arising from the "mortification" of wounds. They had dis-
covered the evils incident to " dirt " ; and, by keeping dirt far away
from them, they had saved innumerable lives, which would undoubt-
edly have succumbed under conditions prevalent in many of the hos-
pitals of Continental Europe.

In thus acting, English surgeons were, for the most part, "wiser
than they knew." Their knowledge, however momentous in its prac-

* Introductory Note reprinted from Professor Tyndall's " Essays on the Floating Mat-
ter of the Air, in Relation to Putrefaction and Infection."

PROGRESS OF THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 463

tical applications, was still empirical knowledge. That dirt was fatal
they had discovered ; but why it was fatal few of them knew. At
this point Lister came forward with a scientific principle which ren-
dered all plain. Dirt was fatal, not as dirt, but because it contained
living germs which, as Schwann was the first to prove, are the cause
of putrefaction. Lister extended the generalization of Schwann from
dead matter to living matter, and by this apparently simple step revo-
lutionized the art of surgery. He changed it, in fact, from an art into
a science.

" Listerism " is sometimes spoken of as if it merely consisted in the
application of carbolic-acid spray ; but no man of any breadth of
vision will regard the subject thus. The antiseptic system had been
enunciated, expounded, and illustrated, prior to the introduction of
the spray. The spray is a mere offshoot of the system — elegant and
effective it is true, but still a matter of detail. In company with my
excellent friend Mr. John Simon, I once visited St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, and became acquainted, in its wards, with the practice of the
late Mr. Callender. The antiseptic system was there as stringently
applied as at King's College. Immediately before his departure to
America I spoke to Mr. Callender on this subject ; and he then told
me expressly that his aim and hope had been, not to introduce a new
principle, but to simplify the methods of Lister. And yet Mr. Cal-
ender's practice is sometimes spoken of as if it were, in principle, dif-
ferent from that of his eminent contemporary.

It is interesting, and indeed pathetic, to observe how long a dis-
covery of priceless value to humanity may be hidden away, or rather
lie openly revealed, before the final and apparently obvious step is
taken toward its practical application. In 1837 Schwann clearly es-
tablished the connection between putrefaction and microscopic life ;
but thirty years had to elapse before Lister extended to wounds the
researches of Schwann on dead flesh and animal infusions. Prior to
Lister the possibility of some such extension had occurred to other
minds. Penetrative men had seen that the germs which produce the
putrefaction of meat might also act with fatal effect in the wards of a
hospital.

Thus, for example, in a paper read before the British Medical As-
sociation at Cambridge in 1864, Mr. Spencer Wells pointed out that
the experiments of Pasteur, then recent, had " all a very important
bearing, upon the development of purulent infection and the whole
class of diseases most fatal in hospitals and other overcrowded places."
Mr. Wells did not, as far as I know, introduce any systematic mode of
combating the organisms whose power he so early recognized. But, I
believe, in hardly any other department of surgery has the success of
the antiseptic system been more conspicuous and complete than in that
particular sphere of ^practice in which Mr. Wells has won so great a
name.

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A remark in the paper just referred to would seem to indicate that,
in regard to the further possible influence of germs, the thoughts of
Mr. Spencer Wells had passed beyond the bounds of pure surgical
practice. " Their influence," he says, " on the propagation of epidemic .
and contagious diseases has yet to be made out."

This shows that at the time here referred to the germ theory,
in its wider medical sense, had begun to ferment in England. Two
years, indeed, prior to the above occasion, and for the use of the same
Association as that addressed by Mr. Wells, the late Dr. William Budd
had drawn up a series of " Suggestions toward a Scheme for the Inves-
tigation of Epidemic and Epizootic Diseases," which strikingly illus-
trate the insight of a man of genius, withdrawn from the stimulus of
the metropolis, and working alone, at a time when the whole medical
profession in England entertained views opposed to his. Budd states
in succession, and with perfect clearness, the points which he considers
most worthy of the attention of the Association. He recommends
inquiry as to the nature of the evidence alleged to prove the disease
under investigation to be contagious or communicable. Whether such
disease admits of being artificially propagated by inoculation or oth-
erwise. Through what surface or surfaces the virus may be shown to
enter the body, and to leave it, when the disease is taken in the nat-
ural way. Whether the disease is distinguished by eruptions external
or internal. Whether it has a period of true incubation ; and, if so,
what are the length and limits of that period. Whether one attack,
as in small-pox and many other contagious diseases, preserves against
future attacks. Whether in the case of human disease animals as well
as man are susceptible, and, if so, what animals. What is the evidence,
if any, as to the particular country or region in which the disease first
appeared ? What are its present geographical limits ? Whether there
is any evidence of its modern or recent introduction into countries pre-
viously exempt. How far any such disease may have been prevented
from invading new countries, or from spreading from any particular
center, by measures directed against contagion. Above all, to deter-
mine what is the nature, and what the true value, of the evidence sup-
posed to show that the specific poison of a contagious disease may
originate spontaneously, or be generated de novo. "What we most
want to know," adds Budd, " in regard to this whole group of diseases
is, where and how the specific p>oiso7is lohich cause them breed and
multiply.''''

Budcl's own relation to the question here raised was distinct, and,
under the circumstances, impressive. "After giving many years of
time and thought to an examination of the evidence bearing on this
question," he comes to the conclusion that " there is no proof what-
ever " that the poisons of specific contagious diseases ever originate
spontaneously. " That the evidence on which the contrary conclusion
is founded is negative only ; that evidence of precisely the same order,

PROGRESS OF THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 465

only to all appearance still more cogent, would prove animals and
plants, even of large species, to originate spontaneously ; that this evi-
dence is therefore of no weight ; and, lastly, that all the really impor-
tant facts point the other way, and tend to prove that these poisons
(to use a term which is probably provisional only), like animals and
plants, however they may have once originated, are only propagated
now by the law of continuous succession."

The word " poisons," here provisionally employed, was a concession
on Budd's part to his weaker brethren ; for he, without a shade of
doubt, considered the poison to be a real living seed. There was, I
believe, but one physician of eminence in England who, at the time
here referred to, shared this conviction, and who imparted to Budd
the incalculable force derived from the approbation and encourage-
ment of a wise and celebrated man. It gives me singular pleasure to
write down here the name of the venerable Sir Thomas Watson, who
lent to William Budd unfailing countenance and support, and who has
lived to see that the views which commended themselves to his philo-
sophic judgment are at the present moment advancing with resistless
momentum among the members of the medical profession. It was far
otherwise at the time to which we here refer. " Opinions like these,"
said Budd, " are no doubt, at present, those of a small minority. A
very large, and by far the most influential school in this country — a
school which probably embraces the great majority of medical practi-
tioners, and the whole of the 'sanitary public' — holds the exact con-
trary ; and teaches that sundry of these poisons are constantly being
generated de novo by the material conditions which surround us."

Budd's remark regarding the spontaneous generation of " animals
and plants, even of large species," is both pregnant and pertinent. In
reference to special and solitary outbreaks of contagious fever, I have
frequently heard physicians of distinction affirm, without apparent mis-
giving, the " impossibility " of importation from without. On such
occasions a reply, in the strict sense affirmed by William Budd, was
always at hand ; for I was able to adduce cases of solitary mushrooms,
found upon out-of-the-way Alpine slopes, to which the evidence would
apply with greater force than to the cases on which the physicians re-
ferred to based their conclusions. With the atmosphere as a vehicle
of universal intercommunication, it is hard to see any just warrant for
the reliance of medical men upon the negative evidence stigmatized
by Budd as valueless. It is, however, evidence by which many physi-
cians are still influenced, and the effects of which it will probably re-
quire a generation of doctors, brought up under other conditions of
culture and of practice, to wholly sweep away.

These conditions are growing up around us, and their influence will
be all-pervading before long. Never before was medicine manned
and officered as it is>now. To name here the workers at present en-
gaged in the investigation of communicable diseases would be to ex-
vol. xxi. — 30

466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tend beyond all reasonable limits this Introductory Note. On the old
Baconian lines of observation and experiment the work is carried on.
The intercommunication of scientific thought plays here a most im-
portant part. It will probably have been noticed that, while physiol-
ogists and physicians in England and elsewhere were drawing copiously
from the store of facts furnished by the researches of Pasteur, that
admirable investigator long kept himself clear of physiology and
medicine. There is, indeed, reason to believe that he was spurred on
to his most recent achievements by the papers of Burdon Sanderson,
Koch, and others. The union of scientific minds is, or ought to be,
organic. They are parts of the same body, in which every member,
under penalty of atrophy and decay, must discharge its due share of
the duty imposed upon the whole. Of this "body," a short time since,
England provided one of the healthiest limbs ; but round that limb
legislation has lately thrown a ligature, which threatens to damage its
circulation and to divert its energies into foreign channels. In observa-
tional medicine one fine piece of work may be here referred to — the mas-
terly inquiry of Dr. Thorne Thorne into the outbreak of typhoid fever
at Caterham and Redhill. Hundreds were smitten by this epidemic, and
many died. The qualities of mind illustrated in Dr. Thome's inquiry
match those displayed by William Budd in his memorable investiga-
tion of a similar outbreak in Devonshire. Dr. Budd's process was
centrifugal — tracing from a single case, in the village of North Taw-
ton, the ravages of the fever far and wide. Dr. Thome's process was
centripetal — tracing the epidemic backward, from the multitude of
cases first presented, to the single individual whose infected excreta,
poured into the well at Caterham, were the cause of all.

The essays here presented to the reader belong to the A B C of the
great subject touched upon in the foregoing Note. The two principal
ones, namely, Essays II and III, were prepared for the Royal Society,
and are published in the " Philosophical Transactions " for 1876 and
1877. But, though written for that learned body, I sought to render
their style and logic so clear as to render them accessible to any fairly
cultivated mind. The essays on " Fermentation " and " Spontaneous
Generation " have already appeared elsewhere ; while the first essay,
on " Dust and Disease," has been for some years before the public. It
may be regarded as a kind of popular introduction to the more strenu-
ous and original labors which follow it.

The essay most likely to try the reader's patience is Number III.
On the whole, however, and particularly in its bearings on the germ
theory of disease, it is probably the most important of all. The diffi-
culties which sometimes beset the experimenter in these investigations
are best illustrated by this essay. It shows, to my mind in a very
impressive manner, the analogy of the spread of infection among or-
ganic infusions with its mode of propagation among human beings.

A GIGANTIC FOSSIL BIRD. 467

The vital resistance of certain germs to heat is strikingly illustrated in
the third essay, one infusion being there proved to maintain its poten-
tiality of life intact after eight hours' continuous exposure to the tem-
perature of boiling water. Under the plain guidance of the germ
theory, it is, however, shown that an infusion of this stubborn character
may be infallibly sterilized by discontinuous heating, in one hundredth
part of the time requisite when the boiling is continuous. Another
question, to my mind of fundamental importance, is also disposed of in
Essay III, where it is shown that the germs which exhibited the fore-
going resistance are neither contained in the air, nor attached to the
surface of the vessel, above the liquid, but that they manifest their
extraordinary vitality in the body of the liquid itself.

On public sympathy the sanitary physician has mainly to rely for
support, in a country where sanitary matters are left so much in the
hands of the public itself as they are in England. But sympathy
without cause — that is to say, without some basis of knowledge — is
hardly to be expected. It is as a contribution to such knowledge that
these essays have been collected, and thrown into their present handy
form.

Koyal Ihbtitutioh, Avgust, 1881.

-♦*♦-

A GIGANTIC FOSSIL BIRD.

By STANISLAS METXNIEE.

THERE are really privileged persons within the scientific domain.
M. Gaston Plante, whose name is associated with a most im-
portant advance in electrical knowledge, enjoyed the opportunity, in
1855, of making, in a wholly different direction, a discovery in paleon-
tology that was of great interest. In a very curious bed of loam of
the Eocene tertiary formation, called the ossiferous conglomerate of
Men don, and which has now nearly disappeared, he found a bird's
tibia, which measured, though it was not whole, forty-five centimetres
in length. At first sight this great bone appeared to exhibit consider-
able analogies with the corresponding part of the swan, and differed
from it only by the presence of the subtrochlean groove, and by the
relatively high situation of the osseous arch, and the outer muscular
attachment. But what a contrast in the size ! An idea of it may be
gained from Fig. 2, A and B, which represent the tibia of the Meudon
bird — to which Constant Prevost fittingly gave the name of Gastornis
(Gaston's bird) — and the tibia of the common swan, on the same scale.
After M. Plante's discovery, a geological formation corresponding
exactly with the conglomerate of Meudon was found at Reims. Quite
recently, Dr. Lemoine has established the connection between the beds

468

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

m

of Reims and Meudon more closely by the discovery of the remains of
gastornis in Champagne, from which he has constituted a new species
that he calls Gastornis Eduardsii. The bird was not less than three

metres (about ten feet) high when
standing, and is shown in that po-
sition in Fig. 1. The author pos-
sesses the femur, the tibia, the
tarso-metatarsian, and several pha-
langeal bones of this bird. The
pelvis is represented in his collec-
tion by an ischion and the upper
extremity of the pubis. A cervical
vertebra, a caudal vertebra, a frag-
ment of the sternum, and ends of'
the ribs, have furnished him sub-
jects for interesting observations.
Dr. Lemoine has collected pieces
of bone, which he considers half of
a breast-bone and a coracoid bone.
He also describes the lower end of
the humerus, a radius, a metacar-
pian, and the terminal phalangeal
of the wing. A large proportion
of the bones of the head have also
been found by the author during
his paleontological probings, and
with their aid he is able to com-
plete the description of this re-
markable ornithological type.

All the parts of the skeleton
so far discovered are represented
in Fig. 1, where they have been
so placed as to show the skeleton
restored, in its normal position.

This richness of his material
has enabled Dr. Lemoine to form
very precise notions concerning
the giant bird of the environs of
Reims. In his opinion, the cra-
nium must have been relatively
voluminous and less disproportion-
ate than the cranium of the ostrich.

B, Tibia of the Common Swan (reduced to This is indicated bv the quadrate
one third of the natural size). .

bone, a part of the orbitary cavity,
and almost the whole of the base of the cranium, in which the oc-
cipital condyle, the sub-condylian furrow, the basilar tuberosities, the

'

^

v-^

■SK

Fig. 2.— A, Tieia of the Gastoknis of Mett-
don (reduced to one third of the natural size).

A GIGANTIC FOSSIL BIRD.

469

sphenoidal escutcheon, and the basipterygoid apophyses with their
faces well accentuated, are exhibited. According to Mr. Huxley, this

Pig. 1.— Restoration of the Skeleton op Gastorxis Eduardsii, an Eocene Bird, Three

Metres (or about ten feet) High.

character occurs now with several birds — divers, ducks, and hens — and
with several lacertians and ophidians.

The upper mandible, which was found almost entire, is very re-
markable for a series of false alveoles, reminding one of the atrophied

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

alveoles of reptiles, and which probably corresponded, not with true
teeth, but with thickenings of the horn of the bill. The bill also, to-
ward its anterior third, seems to have represented a real tooth, but a
tooth of a bony nature and of continuous substance with the bill
itself. This mode of dentition had been previously observed by Rich-
ard Owen in the Odontopteryx toliapica.

The lower mandible is marked by its terminal extremity, which
seems to have been slender, and by its hinder half presenting faintly-
accentuated muscular attachments.

A part of the sternum does not permit us to say whether that por-
tion of the skeleton had a keel. The shoulder seems to have been
composed of a quite short breast-bone with a wide posterior articular
surface, of a coracoid bone and of a scapulum, the group isolated and
quite different from the single bone of the ostrich. The humerus is,
like all the other bones of the wing, more voluminous than in the
ostrich. The cubitus rather recalls the shape of that bone in ordi-
nary birds, and bears marks indicatory of feathers. The radius was
thin, the metacarpians appear to have been independent, offering a
characteristic of great value, for it occurs only in two other orders.
The iliac bone, very distinct, is remarkable for the sloping character
of its posterior border. It is very difficult in the face of such charac-
teristics to fix the true affinities of the gastornis. MM. Hebert, Ed.
Lartet, and R. Owen, have expressed opinions on this point, and the
latter is inclined to refer the fossil bird to the order of the waders,
and more especially to the rails. M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards is of a
different opinion, and is rather disposed, on the ground of a variety
of osteological traits, to classify the gastornis with the ducks. But
he is prompt to recognize that the Eocene animal offers peculiarities
so different from anything shown in living nature that it is impos-
sible to place the gastornis in any of the established natural groups.
Another gastornis has been found at Reims, which Dr. Lemoine has
described under the name of Gastornis minor ; and the author has
besides found the remains of two entirely different genera of birds.
— Translated from La Nature.

-♦*♦-

THE BOOK-MEN.

Br the late Hon. T. WHAKTON COLLENS.

WHAT a vast difference there is between us and our ancestors
who lived three thousand years ago ! What savages they
were ! What a polished people are we ! Surrounded by all the glo-
ries and lights, blessings and hopes of civilization, we can hardly
realize the fact that we are the descendants of men who roamed in

THE BOOK-MEN. 471

forests and deserts, of men as ignorant, superstitious, wild, and brutal
as the Comanche Indians. Such, nevertheless, is the fact ; and the
question naturally arises : How, through the ages, have our ances-
tors been able to overcome their abject condition, and rise to the
heights of knowledge and art, to survey an immense horizon of truth,
and use the magical bounties of invention ? Did the light break upon
us all at once ; did we get all the superior advantages of science and
art we now enjoy from a single hand or from one inspiration, or was
the process not only slow and gradual, but difficult and terrible ? To
what or to whom do we owe this great change, this wonderful trans-
formation of the mind, manners, and labors of the human race ?

We answer at once : The progress of man from the savage to
the civilized state of society and to its functions and uses was in-
deed slow and arduous, and is due to the studies of solitary, think-
ing book-men, careful theorists, or inquisitive philosophers, who, in
each generation, and one after the other, have promulgated the result
of their meditations.

Understand us — we mean what we say : we say boo7c-me?i, we say
theorists y and, if humor prompts, it may add contemptuous epithets to
the terms. We may say, if we choose, mere book-men, mad theorists,
or dreamy philosophers, and still the proposition would be true.

To demonstrate this truth we might begin with primeval man, go
through ancient history, tracing the march of mind from the mythic
Hermes of Egypt, the Pythagoras of Greece, the Zoroaster of Persia,
to the grand display of civilization exhibited by the Roman Empire
under Aurelius Antoninus, or under Constantine the Great, and thence
follow the current in all its vicissitudes down to the present age. But
the limits of a single article preclude so extended a review of human
progress. Hence, we are compelled to select, if possible, a period of
history within which a fair illustration of the march of mind may be
found (leaving out former and subsequent ages), to test other periods
by the same laws of development. Let us, therefore, begin in the
middle of the middle ages, that is to say, in the year 800 after Christ,
and finish with the discovery of America, in the fifteenth century.
From this first point our premises will be apparent. At the last point
our conclusion will be reached ; and then all the consequences, as ap-
plicable to modern times, will show themselves as clearly as the land-
scape in the light of day.

In the year 800 after Christ, what was the state of Europe ? The
Goths, the Yandals, the Franks, the Huns, the Normans, the Turks,
and other barbarian hordes, had invaded and overthrown the Roman
Empire, and had established various kingdoms upon its ruins. These
hordes of savages had destroyed, not only all the works of civilization,
but civilization itself. Ignorant as they were of everything that dis-
tinguishes and elevates human nature, they broke up the schools, ruined
the monuments, abolished arts and manufactures, prevented commerce,

472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and reduced the conquered nations to their own condition, inaugurating
in the completest manner the reign of brute-force and mental dark-
ness. If they afterward espoused Christianity, they molded it to
their own savage superstition, till at last naught was left of the divine
dispensation but its name, to cover the most degrading idolatry and
demonism. At the time we begin our specific examination we find
that, in the then so-called Christian nations —

1. There existed no science worthy of the name, no schools what-
ever. Reading, writing, and ciphering, were separate and distinct
trades. The masses, the nobility, the poor and the rich, were wholly
unacquainted with the mysteries of the alphabet and the pen. A
few men, known as clerks, who generally belonged to the priesthood,
monopolized them as a special class of artists. They taught their
business only to their seminarists, apprentices ; and beyond themselves
and their few pupils no one knew how to read and write, nor was it
expected of the generality, any more than it would be nowadays, that
everybody should be a shoemaker or a lawyer. Kings did not even
know how to sign their names, so that when they wanted to subscribe
to a written contract, law, or treaty, which some clerk had drawn up
for them, they would smear their right hand with ink, and slap it
down upon the parchment saying, " Witness my hand." At a later
date, some genius devised the substitute of the seal, which was im-
pressed instead of the hand, but oftener besides the hand. Every
gentleman had a seal with a peculiar device thereon. Hence the sac-
ramental words now in use, " Witness my hand and seal," affixed to
modern deeds, serve at least the purpose of reminding us of the ig-
norance of the middle ages.

In fact, in those days a nobleman considered it below his dignity to
have any knowledge of letters. This was left to persons of inferior
rank. The use of arms, horsemanship, and war, were the sole avoca-
tion of the lords of the land. As all authority, and indeed safety, de-
pended upon force and success in battle, skill at arms was necessarily
the genteelest of the arts. The nobility knew no other ; and the
workmen they admired the most were those who forged their uncouth
armor, ungainly shields, and clumsy swords.

Society was divided into orders : at the top were the prelates and
priesthood, the kings and nobles ; at the bottom the serfs who were
the bulk of the people ; and intermediate were a few free workmen
and burgesses who enjoyed a sort of quasi exemption from personal
servitude, but were subject to the despotic rule of the king and
lords.

All persons were also unmitigated believers in magic, sorcery,
witchcraft, enchantments, amulets, astrology, evil-eye, conjuration, fas-
cination, divination, fetichism, charms, evocation of ghosts, specters
and devils, talismans, incantations, fortune-telling, palmistry, cabalistic
arts, spells, divining-rods, bargains with the occult powers, and the

THE BOOK-MEN. 473

like. Even in our time vestiges of the like belief exist among us, but
then it was universal and denied by none, whether prince, priest, or
populace. There is no parallel to this state of things in modern times,
except in the interior towns of Africa.

It was then universally conceded that the nobles were men of a
superior race ; that their blood was different and purer than that of
other men. All the land belonged to them. No one doubted their
title. The population of every barony considered the baron as their
rightful master, holding his authority from God himself. It was next
to sacrilege to disobey him. Yet these barons were brutal, extortion-
ate, and cruel. They were constantly at war with each other, and
therefore lived in fortified castles, whence they now and then sallied
to levy contributions among their own serfs, rob passengers and cara-
vans on the highway, or plunder and* burn the property or massacre
the people of neighboring fiefs. They had the right of life and death
over their vassals. These could not marry or travel without their per-
mission. The maidens of the baronies were obliged to gratify the
lusts of the baron whenever he took a fancy to any of them ; and this,
so far from being considered as an act of outrageous despotism, was
generally accepted as an honor conferred. No Turkish pasha or Rus-
sian boiar holds now greater power than the feudal lords possessed
and abused during the middle ages. They exacted and took the first,
the largest, and the best products of the labor of the people ; and none
(not even those who were the victims of unscrupulous tithes, tribute,
and pillage) ever suspected that the nobles exceeded their divine and
rightful privileges. The people, when robbed, or put to the rack,
might think their lord was a hard and cruel master ; but his right to
do as he pleased was to every mind unquestionable.

The laws which then existed (if indeed the name of law could be
justly applied to such an ordination of society) were only such as
were calculated to maintain the power and fortune of the tyrants we
have just described. Murder was punished only when the culprit was
a villain, or a man of inferior rank to that of his victim ; and then the
punishment was graded, so that the murder of a noble or priest by a
villain or inferior was avenged by the most revolting and agonizing
tortures and death, while, if on the contrary the victim was a villain
and the homicide a nobleman, a few pence was the price of blood.
Trials there were none worthy of the name. They tested the guilt or
innocenc'e of those who were suspected of offenses by various super-
stitious practices, such for instance as making the supposed offender
walk over red-hot plowshares. If he got burned he was guilty, if he
passed over unscathed he was innocent. The favorite mode of de-
ciding causes before the courts was the trial by battle. The parties
were made to fight ^t out, but not always with equal arms. The
villains were permitted only to wield the club, while the gentry en-
tered the lists sword in hand, clothed in armor and on horseback.

474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The result of the combat was religiously believed to be "the judg-
ment of God " between the parties.

We have said that in those ages no science existed. Let us add
that it was then universally taken for certain truth that the earth was
flat ; that the skies were a dome of hard adamant, which inclosed and
covered the world like the walls and roof of a building ; that the stars
were occult beings having good or evil influences over men ; that the
winds and the floods, the rain and the crops were either special dis-
pensations of Providence, independent of any original design or law,
or were, when unfavorable, the act of evil spirits or magical opera-
tions. The monuments of Roman architecture were allowed to go to
ruin. The art of building had been almost forgotten, and was limited
to the erection of rough and uncouth fortresses and walls suited to
keep men and horsemen at bay. These were usually located on the
tops of almost inaccessible rocks. The people lived in huts ; they ate
with their hands ; food was cooked without pots or kettles, on the
embers, or roasted on spits. Candles were unknown, stockings were
unknown, clothing was made of dressed skins, and, though some woven
fabrics were made by means of hand-looms, they were so inferior that
the ordinary stuffs worn by the people of the present day would have
been then considered as luxurious finery fit for a king to wear.

We forgot also to mention, in relation to the trial by battle, that
the lawyers of those days did not gain their suits by means of evi-
dence, authorities quoted out of books, and speeches or arguments
addressed to the courts ; but the lawyers were men-at-arms, expert in
the use of the sword, the lance, the mace, and the baton • and the
parties, when they were able, would hire them to fight out the case in
the arena as gladiators. Thus the case would be decided in favor of
him whose lawyer beat, or cut down, or unhorsed his adversary's law-
yer. Those were indeed the days when might was right.

Our object in giving this sketch of the state of civilization in the
eighth and ninth centuries is, to contrast the condition of society
then with what it is now, and to inquire how mankind could emerge
from that order of things to the present stage of human progress.
By what means were barbarism, universal ignorance, and superstition
to be overcome ? From whom was the first light to come ? Who
was to take the first step toward a better order or higher knowledge ?

The impediments were of the most formidable character. Every-
body was ignorant except the few clerks, or clergymen, we have
mentioned, and even the range of their knowledge, beyond theology,
was very limited. All around them was darkness, and naught indi-
cated even a gleam of light or liberty.

By whom or when was the first step taken ? By the very clerks
or book-men we have mentioned, during the reign of Charlemagne in
France, and that of Alfred in England. Long had they labored in the
solitude of their cloisters to enlarge the scope of their learning. As-

THE BOOK-MEN. 475

siduously had tbey multiplied copies of precious manuscripts and of
their own works. Zealously had they striven to find laymen willing
to purchase and study those works and listen to their instructions.
At last they persuaded Charlemagne to establish a school in Paris, and
Alfred to found a university at Oxford, in order to educate aspirants
for the priesthood and form doctors of theology. Nothing was
thought of but to cultivate the kind and extent of learning: then exist-
ing. It was natural to procure for these schools copies of all the
books then to be found. Few, indeed, were these — as brief sketches
of Latin grammar, a few Latin vocabularies, a meager treatise on
arithmetic and geometry, and a stray copy of the philosophical work
by Porphyry, and another by Boetius. The rest was all Christian
theology and philosophy, such as the works of St. Augustine and other
fathers, besides the Bible and the canons of the Church. The savant
chosen for Paris was the monk Alcuin, and the scholar selected for
Oxford was another monk, Grimbaldus.

The deed was done. A school was established. Men were offered
a great opportunity of becoming book-worms, and consequently to
think and theorize. The result was inevitable. To meditate, they
had to exercise their reasoning faculty, while they studied the philos-
ophy they found in the few books they had, and pondered over theol-
ogy, theology and ancient philosophy as harmonized with dogma.

One of the teachers who succeeded Alcuin was a doctor of philos-
ophy named John Scotus Erigenus, an Irishman by birth. He wrote
philosophical treatises in which a new question was raised. This
question was, whether an abstract term or a word, such, for instance,
as the word " humanity" represented a real being ; an essence in
nature ; a real and single thing existing independent of any indi-
vidual. Not whether there were many individual men included by a
process of thought under a general name, but whether that general
name " humanity " was not the name of a reality, antecedent in crea-
tion and in time to the existence of any individual — antecedent to
Adam himself.

Yain as this question would seem, it raised a great debate among
the clerks and doctors. Soon parties were formed among them, pro
and con. The one party got the name of Realists, the other that
of Nominalists. Minds became excited, curiosity was aroused. In
order to prove one opinion or the other, information was sought in
every direction. Every scrap which could be found of Plato's and
Aristotle's works was rescued from oblivion, and quoted as authority
by one or the other side. Other ancient books were disinterred. The
savants began to investigate natural phenomena, and, above all, to
closely scrutinize man himself, physically and intellectually.

Though the question in debate might appear at this day quite
frivolous and easily answered, yet in those times it was necessary as a
first step in the progress of getting rid of the fundamental errors and

47 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

prejudices prevalent even among the savants. We must not lose sight
of the mental condition of all men in those times. If we keep this
in view, we shall, instead of despising the men who first put the ques-
tion just stated, wonder how at that stage of intellectual progress it
could have suggested itself to any mind. Certain it is that the most
learned (so small was their amount of science, and so peculiar were
the settled opinions of their age) were not ready to discuss other sub-
jects.

They soon brought their discussions before their pupils, and from
among these the debate found its way into society : kings, nobles,
and burgesses talked about it, and as a consequence talked about the
points of knowledge necessary to solve the question. This was a
slow operation indeed. It took eight centuries before the controversy
was settled.

Yet, in time, hundreds of other questions grew out of this single
one, and it became necessary to settle all the minor objections and
issues before the main one could be concluded upon. What is soul ?
what is mind ? what is reason ? what is feeling ? what is sensation ?
what is knowledge ? what is man and his destiny ? what is revelation
in contradistinction to science ? how far can science go without re-
quiring the aid of revelation ? is man a free agent ? are all men of
the same species ? what are the laws of thought ? — in one word, what
was true or not true in everything then generally held to be true ?

We are far from wishing it to be understood that all these ques-
tions were immediately suggested or started ; but the book-men (as
their sphere of thought became more and more enlarged) by the
sharp contradiction of one another, found it necessary to suggest and
discuss them all. They did so boldly and conscientiously, in their
contestations. They did so, though many among them were, for the
ant i- Christian opinions they advanced, condemned as heretics.

But we are too hasty. We must endeavor to show the different
steps of this evolution, and the main instrumentality of the book-men
and the theorists in every advance that was made.

In the course of the reign of Charlemagne, the doctors of philos-
ophy composed a calendar, and proposed the months as we have them
now. This calendar they formed by means of their studies of such
ancient writings of the Greeks and Romans as they had been able
to procure.

They prevailed upon Charlemagne to establish this calendar by
law. By doing this, Charlemagne got all the credit of the work itself;
but to a certainty he was incapable of performing it. Individually, he
was an ignorant man; but he thirsted for knowledge, glory, and power;
had heard from the scholars of the ancient grandeur, monuments, and
literature of Rome and Greece; and his ambition impelled him to
carry into effect any suggestion of measures likely to contribute to
his glory. He was devout, and sought also the glory of God.

THE BOOK-MEN. 477

Hence he encouraged education, for he found it furnished men capa-
ble of serving him effectually in all his aspirations. But who could
give education? None but the clerks or book-men, who were then
the only men of science.

Passing beyond this reign, we see the effects of this policy gradu-
ally developing themselves. During the tenth century, the arithmet-
ical figures we now use to write down numbers were first introduced
into Europe. Previously the Roman letters I, V, X, L, C, etc., had
been employed to express numeric quantities. The advantage of the
new method we can all appreciate, for it is the method we all use at
present. But who first introduced and taught this improvement in
arithmetical notation, with all the facilities it affords for the calcula-
tions ? We owe the importation to the book-men who traveled to
acquire knowledge from the Arabs who had conquered Spain, and
whose schools at Cordova had acquired great celebrity. Thus we see
the advance of science was from one set of book-men to another set
of book-men, and from their schools to the people.

In this and the preceding century too, we find that it had become
a common practice for the doctors of philosophy and theology to
challenge each other to public debates ; and that it became fashion-
able for the gentry to be present at these intellectual duels, where
thought met thought in a struggle to convince of truths or convict of
error.

From theologians arose the most distinguished philosophers of the
times. We could, in our advanced state of knowledge, consider the
scientific opinions they advanced as unworthy of our serious considera-
tion ; but then they were of the utmost importance, in this, that they
were incitements to thought and to further investigation. This was
the main thing in an age of intellectual obscurity, to bring forth
more and more light from the first sparks of truth. The mind once
awakened, curiosity and reflection once aroused, a process of develop-
ment of right reason was inaugurated, which in time spread itself
from the mind of man over all nature.

This takes place in the midst of the first Crusades, by which hun-
dreds of thousands were led to perish disastrously ; but restless and
curious philosophers followed in the wake of war and rapine, and
hovered around the armies to bring back from the East all the science
they could gather. We often read of the improvement in science the
West of Europe derived from the Crusades ; but the story is always
told so as to leave the impression that the plunder the mind brought
back from Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, was
gathered there by the boorish soldiers and their captains. A moment's
thought will, however, set us right on this point. Science could only
be gathered by men already partially acquainted with science, by men
having a taste for it, by the scholars and the book-men. To them,
therefore, must we award all the praise for any scientific advantage

478 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which Europe derived from the Crusades. The armies were intent
upon booty and power ; the philosophers who followed them were
seeking for new truths ; and the advance of knowledge that they re-
turned with is one of the benefits the West of Europe derived from
the Crusades.

Let us note some of the most important prizes they carried home.
At Amalfi, a port in the southern part of Italy, a stopping-place for
the Crusaders, they discovered a copy of the " Institutes and Pandects
of Roman Law," a work which had been long lost to the world. From
the Arabians of Spain or Alexandria they procured the works of Plato
and Aristotle, as well as other learned treatises of ancient sages. These
they studied and commented on with assiduity, each one according to
the bent of his mind. Hence, in time we find the learned men not
only becoming numerous, but divided into classes. Some follow the
study of religion, humanity, and mind ; others devote themselves to
history, grammar, and poetry ; others to law ; others to mathematics
and astronomy, and others to architecture. But we must keep in view
that all these sciences and arts were yet in a crude state, far, far be-
neath what they are at this day. The book-men, the theorists, the
philosophers, had centuries of research, discussion, and reflection to
accomplish, and numberless labors to undergo, before producing the
good harvest we are now enjoying.

Thus, in the thirteenth century the book-men and their disciples,
the lawyers, politicians, poets, painters, masons, astronomers, architects,
navigators, physicians, and all other seekers and distributors of knowl-
edge, had hosts of adherents among the masses. Hence, the practical
results of the labors of the scholars were becoming more apparent.

In religion St. Thomas produces his " Sum of Theology," and brings
the scholastic philosophy to its perfection. In politics, the yeomanry
of England, instigated by Archbishop Langton, a book-man, demand
and obtain Magna Charta — that is to say, no taxes without repre-
sentation, trial by jury, habeas corjnis, and no taxes without the con-
sent of Parliament ; while in Florence a democratic constitution is
established by the people. In science, the labors of the alchemists
and astrologers are progressing toward the first positive dawn of
chemistry and astronomy ; and Roger Bacon, the first of the great
prophets of natural science, reveals some of the most important secrets
of chemistry. Roger Bacon, the first of the natural philosophers, who
was he ? "History answers — a book-man, a monk, a solitary student of
the works of his predecessors in philosophy and theology. In the arts,
Gothic architecture raises a worthy tribute to Heaven. We also find
that in this century navigation begins to improve and commerce to be
developed, particularly in England and in Italy ; and the learned take
advantage of the facilities thus afforded to undertake voyages in search
of geographical and other knowledge. Among the rest, Marco Polo,
a student of languages, travels throughout Asia, finds his way even to

THE BOOK-MEN. 479

China and Japan (a most wonderful feat in those days), and, on his
return, writes an account of his travels ; and his book, at a later day,
serves (among other things) to induce the discovery of America by
Columbus.

We now enter the fourteenth century, and amid the many practical
consequences of the dissemination of knowledge from its original
source, the book-men and philosophers, we might, unless we consider
the necessity of the case, lose sight of the starting-point. In Spain,
Alfonso the Wise gives his people the laws of the Seven Partides,
compiled by philosophical jurisconsults from the Roman law. In
France, the States-General, or Grand Parliament, is convoked by
Philip le Bel, and, after him, Louis X makes the Parliament a per-
manent institution for the sanction of all laws. By-and-by the serfs
and peasantry acquire their freedom and gain many valuable rights —
not, however, without insurrection and bloodshed. Marcel in Paris
and the Jacquerie in the provinces strike for liberty. In England the
Commons assert their privileges : no money to government without
their consent ; the concurrence of the Commons with the Lords neces-
sary for all laws ; and the right of inquiry and impeachment by the
Commons established. In Switzerland, William Tell leads his coun-
trymen to victory and national independence and republican institu-
tions. In Italy, the mariner's compass is invented by Gioja de Amalfi.
Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, those first lights of the dawn of polite
literature, compose their beautiful romances and poems. In Germany
clocks are invented, and Schwartz first puts gunpowder, invented by
Roger Bacon, to practical use, and some scientific mechanic builds
the first paper-mill. Previously manuscripts were all written on parch-
ment. These were magnificent results, taking place in the midst of
terrible persecution ; but we understand it all when we know that in
spite of every obstacle and opposition the book-men had, in this and
the preceding centuries, unceasingly labored amid the capricious favors
and disfavors of princes and kings to establish libraries, schools, and
universities everywhere. They succeeded admirably, and every gen-
eration saw the increase of the number of those to whom the benefits
of education had been communicated. Notwithstanding the fears of
despots, the trial by ordeal began to fall into disrepute, the influence
of the principles of the laws of ancient Rome as Christianized by Jus-
tinian was felt.

At last we reach the glorious fifteenth century, ever memorable for
the invention of printing and the discovery of America. Why was
printing' invented ? Because the demand for books had directed in-
ventive genius to seek a substitute for the laborious and costly process
of copying. Guttenberg, the inventor, was himself a lover of books
and a scientific mechanic. Why was America discovered ? Because
schools of mathematics, astronomy, and navigation had been estab-
lished at Genoa, in one of which Columbus was educated. Thence,

48o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and in subsequent life, he derived the benefits of the labors of Lorenzo
of Pisa, who had introduced algebra into the universities of Europe ;
and of Mtiller and Boehm, who had, by their geometrical researches
and theories, demonstrated the rotundity of the earth. With this
knowledge, confirmed by observation during his early life as a navi-
gator, and the works of Marco Polo, Columbus projected the voyage
which resulted in the discovery of the Western Continent. But print-
ing and the rotundity of the earth were not the only consequences of
the studies of book-men in the fifteenth century. We have already
mentioned algebra, and have time only to state that the establishment
of the first bank at Genoa, the Hanseatic League, the voyage of Vasco
de Gama around the Cape of Good Hope, the first working of coal-
mines at Newcastle, Norwich, the first drama, the final systematization
of musical notation, all took place in the fifteenth century. We should
also have shown how the study of sesthetical principles in this and the
preceding century, by the societies and guilds of masons and architects,
endowed the world with great painters and architects, and sculptors —
Benvenuto, Raphael, Angelo, Titian, and many more who have left be-
hind them imperishable monuments of their studies and genius.

Need we look back to recapitulate and confirm the fact that the
highest source, continuous movers and central custodians of the studies
which caused these great events were book-men, school-men, and the-
ologists ? Let us rather look forward into succeeding centuries, and
merely mention the names of Erasmus, Thomas More, Francis Bacon,
Descartes, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Dalton, Lavoisier,
Shakespeare, Harvey. But no ! the names of the studious thinkers
who from their cabinets and laboratories have revolutionized the
world, and to whom we owe the grand and beautiful civilization and
works — arts, machines, products, conveniences, political science, lib-
erty, commerce, etc., which we now enjoy, would take hours to enu-
merate. There is not a development of science or art that can not be
traced back to the " eureka " of some solitary, plodding book-man.

■♦•»

ABOUT ELEPHANTS.

By Dr. ANDREW WILSON, F.E.S.E.

THE interest which attaches to the modern representatives of the
mammoth host is by no means limited to the zoological world,
but extends throughout all classes of society, who find something to
wonder at even in the huge proportions and ungainly ways of the
elephant family. A remarkably limited family circle is that which
includes the elephants as its typical representatives. The past history
of the race, like that of not a few other groups of animals and plants,
is exactly the converse of its present-day phases, as regards numerical

ABOUT ELEPHANTS, 481

strength at least. As the existing pearly nautilus is the sole survivor
of the immense hordes of four-gilled and shelled cuttle-fishes which
swarmed in the primitive seas and oceans of our earth, or as the few
living " lampshells," or Brachiopods, represent in themselves the full-
ness of a life that crowded the Silurian seas, so the two existing spe-
cies of elephants with which we are familiar to-day stand forth among
quadrupeds as the representatives of a comparatively plentiful past
population of these mammalian giants. The causes which have de-
populated the earth of its elephantine tenants may be alluded to here-
after ; but it is evident that neither size nor strength avails against
the operation of those physical environments which so powerfully
affect the ways and destinies of man and monad alike. One highly
important feature of elephant organization may, however, be noted
even in these preliminary details respecting the modern scarcity of
elephantine species, namely, that the slow increase of the race, and,
as compared with other animals at least, the resulting paucity of num-
bers, must have had their own share as conditions affecting the exist-
ence of these huge animals. The elephants are, of all known animals,
the slowest to increase in numbers. At the earliest, the female ele-
phant does not become a parent until the age of thirty years, and only
six young are capable of being produced during the parental period,
which appears to cease at ninety years of age ; the average duration
of elephant-life being presumed to be about a hundred years. But it
is most interesting, as well as important, in view of any speculation
on the increase of species and on the question of competition among
the races of animal life, to reflect that, given favorable conditions of
existence, such as a sufficiency of food, a freedom from disease and
from the attack of enemies, and the elephant race, slow of increase
as it is, would come in a few thousand years to stock the entire world
with its huge representatives. On the data afforded by the foregoing
details of the age at which these animals produce young, and of their
parental period, it is easy to calculate that in from seven hundred and
forty to seven hundred and fifty years, nineteen million elephants
would remain to represent a natural population. If such a contin-
gency awaits even a slowly increasing race such as the elephants un-
questionably are, the powerful nature of the adverse conditions which
have ousted their kith and kin from a place among living quadrupeds
can readily be conceived. In the face of such facts, the contention
that the " struggle for existence," in lopping off the weak and allow-
ing the strong to survive, accomplishes in its way an actual good be-
comes- clear. And the important biological lesson is also enforced,,
that there is a tolerably deep meed of philosophy involved in the Lau-
reate's pertinent remark concerning the " secret meaning " of the deeds.
of Nature, through

"finding that of fifty seeds
She often brings but one to bear."
tol. xxi. — £l

482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Reference has already been made to the paucity of existing species
of elephants, only two distinct species being included in the lists of
modern naturalists. These are the African elephant (Loxodon [or Ele-
phas] Africanus) and the Indian elephant (Elephas Indicus). But
the elephantine race is not without its variations and digressions from
the ordinary type. We discover that among the elephants of each
species " varieties " are by no means uncommon. These varieties ap-
pear as the progeny of ordinary animals. Thus the Sumatran elephant
and that of Ceylon are regarded as constituting a distinct species, one
authority (Schlegel), indeed, affixing to it the distinctive appellation
of Elephas Sumatrensis. The balance of zoological opinion, however,
is in favor of the Ceylon form being simply a " variety " of the Indian
species ; in other words, the differences between these two forms are
not accounted of sufficient merit to elevate the former to the rank of a
distinct animal unit. The famous "white elephants," whose existence
has given origin to the proverbial expression concerning the disadvan-
tage of unwieldy possessions, have a veritable existence. In Siam, as
is well known, these animals are regarded with the utmost reverence,
and are held in sacred estimation and kept in royal state by sovereign
command. They are to be regarded, however, merely as an albino or
colorless " variety " of the Indian species. Their production depends,
like that of albinos or white varieties of birds or other animals, on
some undetermined conditions affecting development. We occasion-
ally find white varieties of birds — even including that paradoxical
anomaly, a white blackbird — and albino cats are as familiar objects as
are albino rabbits and white mice. Darwin remarks on the fact that
albinism is very susceptible of transmission to offspring, and it is
so even in the human race. It is not known whether the white
elephants exhibit any special peculiarity of structure or life ; but the
interesting correlation has been observed that almost all white cats
which possess blue eyes are deaf. The nature and origin of this
association of characters are unknown, but the occurrence of such
apparently unconnected states serves to remind us that great as
yet are the mysteries which environ the becoming of the living
worlds.

The characters of the Indian and African elephants, respectively,
are by no means difficult to bear in mind. The Indian elephant (Fig.
1, 2) has a concave or hollow forehead, and the ears are of relatively
moderate size. The eye is exceptionally small, while there are four
nails or hoofs on the hind-feet, the number of toes on each foot being
five in all elephants. The color of the Indian species is, moreover, a
pale brown, and is of a lighter hue than that of the African species ;
and, while the former has " tusks " in the males alone, the latter pos-
sesses tusks in both sexes. The African elephant ( Fig. 1, 1) has a
rounded skull and a convex forehead, and the ears are of very large
size. It possesses only three nails on the hind-feet, and four hoofs on

ABOUT ELEPHANTS.

4^3

the front toes. Certain important differences, to be presently noted,
also exist between the teeth of these species.

The limits of size of the two species of elephants appear to have
afforded subject - matter for considerable discussion. The average
height of the male Indian elephant is from eight to ten feet, and that

Fig. 1.— Heads of (1) African and (2) Indian Elephants.

of the females from seven to eight feet. The African species, accord-
ing to the most generally recorded testimony, attains a larger size than
its Indian neighbor. Sir Emerson Tennent, quoting a source of error
in the measurement of elephants, gives the remarks of a writer who
says :

" Elephants were measured formerly, and even now, by natives, as
to their height, by throwing a rope over them, the ends brought to
the ground on each side, and half the length taken as the true height.
Hence the origin of elephants fifteen and sixteen feet high. A rod
held at right angles to the measuring rod, and parallel to the ground,
will rarely give more than ten feet, the majority being under nine."

As regards the number of elephants captured annually, a recent
return gives us five hundred and three as captured in the three years
ending 1880, in the forests of Assam, by the Indian Government.

There exist a few points in the special anatomy of the elephants
of which it may be permissible to treat briefly, and, of these points,
the skeleton presents several for examination. First in interest, per-
haps, comes the enormous size of the skull, and the modifications
wherewith this huge mass of bone is rendered relatively light and
more easily supported on the spine. The skull of the elephant is un-
questionably large, even when considered in relation to the huge body
of which it forms such an important part ; but, when the skull is seen
in section, we discover that, instead of presenting us with a solid mass
of bone, its walls are hollowed out in a remarkable fashion, so as to
materially reduce its weight. It is evident that a demand exists in
these animals for \a skull of great strength, which not only shall be

484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

equal to the task of giving origin to muscles of power sufficient for
the animal's movements, but which may also adequately support the
great "tusks." And Nature has succeeded accordingly, by a most in-
teresting modification, in uniting size and strength to a minimum of
weight.

A very short but strong neck and powerful bony processes borne
on the joints thereof serve as support and holdfasts respectively for
the huge cranium. In other parts of the skeleton, such as in the shape
and form of the shoulder-blade, the elephants resemble the rodent
quadrupeds, such as the hares, rabbits, rats, beavers, etc. ; and it has
long been a notable fact of elephantine anatomy that this resemblance
is by no means limited even to the bones. But a somewhat ludicrous
peculiarity of the elephants, readily noted by the observer, and one
referred to by both classic and modern poets, is their awkward gait ;
and this again -depends upon a readily understood anatomical modifi-
cation. It is such a peculiarity that is referred to in " Troilus and
Cressida," in the lines —

" The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy,
His legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure."

And again the phrase —

" I hope you are no elephant, you have joints,"

evidently refers to the curious and ungainly movements of these quad-
rupeds. The explanation of the elephantine gait rests primarily with
the length of the thigh-bone, and with the facts that this bone is very
long and lies perpendicularly to the line or axis of the spine, the thigh
not forming an acute angle with the spine, as in other quadrupeds.
Thus, the "ham" of the animal stretches half-way down the thigh,
and, when the animal walks, the bend of the knee or leg at the latter
point imparts a decided clumsiness to the gait. The great body rests,
not so much upon the toes as upon the great pads which unite the toes,
and which in fact constitute a broad, flat sole behind these members.
Similar pads in the rhinoceros and hippopotamus support the weight
of the body. No collar-bones are developed in the elephant race — a
fact which, of course, bears a relation to the absence of those move-
ments, such as climbing, etc., in which these bones play an important
part, as serving to fix the limb employed. The brain of the elephant
reveals certain points of anatomical interest. For example, the lesser
brain or " cerebellum " is not covered by the brain proper or " cere-
brum " ; but the surface of the latter is deeply convoluted or folded.
The existence of deep brain-convolutions in man is believed to be asso-
ciated with a high measure of intellectual power, and the elephants do
not seem to belie the statement, as applied to lower life, when their
sagacity is taken into consideration. The proportion borne by the
weight of the brain to that of the body has always formed an inter-
esting topic of physiological nature. As a matter of fact, great varia-

ABOUT ELEPHANTS. 485

tions exist when the ratio of brain to body is examined in different
animals. Thus in man, as is the. case with lower animals, the ratio
diminishes with increasing weight and height. In lean persons the
ratio is often as 1 : 22 to 27, and in stout persons as 1 : 50 to 100. In
the Greenland whale the ratio is given as 1 to 3,000 ; in the ox as 1
to 160 ; in the horse as 1 to 400 ; in the dog as 1 to 305 ; in the ele-
phant as 1 to 500 ; in the chimpanzee as 1 to 50 ; and in man as 1
to 36.

The absolute weight of brain in an elephant which was seven and
a half feet high, and eight and a half feet in length from forehead to
tail, was nine pounds. The brain of an Indian elephant was found to
weigh ten pounds ; and Sir Astley Cooper gives the weight of the
brain of another specimen as eight pounds, one ounce, and two grains ;
while that of an African elephant seventeen years old was found by
Perrault to weigh nine pounds.

The muscular system of the elephant necessarily partakes of the
massive character adapted for the work of moving and transporting
the huge frame. But the anatomy of the "proboscis" or "trunk"
constitutes in itself a special topic of interest, and one, moreover, which
gives to the proboscidian race one of its most notable characteristics.
The " trunk " is, of course, the elongated nose of the elephant. It is
perforated by the nostrils which open at its tip, and above the aper-
tures is a curious finger-like process, which, when opposed to a small
projection somewhat resembling a thumb in function, constitutes a
veritable hand, and is utilized by the animal in almost every detail of
its life. AVith the exception cf the snout of the tapirs, the trunk of
the elephant has not even a distant parallel in the animal series. Its
muscles form two sets of fibers, one set of which compressing its sub-
stance also extends its length, while the second set shortens the organ
and enables it to bend freely in any direction. When we add to the
possession of this extreme muscularity a high degree of sensitiveness,
the proboscis of these animals may be regarded in the light of one of
the most useful as well as most interesting features of their organiza-
tion. Its use is not limited to the prehension of food (Fig. 2, 1, 2),
however, or even to the additional function of an organ of touch. Oc-
casionally, water is drawn up into the trunk, and is then squirted over
the body as from a flexible hose (Fig. 2, 3), thus serving as a kind of
shower-bath apparatus ; and stories have been recorded wherein such
a use of the proboscis has played a prominent part in the act of ele-
phantine revenge on some over-bold or offending human.

The teeth of the elephantine race form a highly characteristic feat-
ure of their anatomy. In the mouth of a higher quadruped, such as
man, the bat, or ape, no less than four kinds of teeth are represented.
These are the front teeth, or incisors, the " eye-teeth," or canines, the
premolars, and the molars, or "grinders."

In the elephants, only two kinds of teeth are represented, these be-

486

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ing the incisors, or front teeth, and the molars, or grinders ; while the
front teeth themselves only exist in.the upper jaw. The incisors grow
from "permanent pulps," and hence they increase during the whole
life of the animal, or nearly so. A large pair of tusks may weigh from
one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds, and as regards struct-

Fig. 2.— Vartotjs Uses or the Proboscis.

ure they are found to consist of dentine, or " ivory," and of " cement * ;
while the enamel, which forms such a characteristic feature of ordi-
nary teeth, may or may not be represented. The tusks vary, according
to Darwin, " in the different species or races according to sex, nearly
as do the horns of ruminants. In India and Malacca, the males alone
are provided with well-developed tusks. The elephant of Ceylon,"
adds Mr. Darwin, " is considered by most naturalists as a distinct race ;
there, ' not one in a hundred is found with tusks, the few that possess
them being exclusively males.' The African elephant is undoubtedly
distinct, and the female has large, well-developed tusks, though not so
large as those of the male." The molars, or grinding-teeth, exhibit an
equally curious structure. In the life-time of an elephant twenty-four
molar teeth are developed in all, six on each side of each jaw. But,
at any one time in the life of the animal, not more than two of these
teeth are to be seen in each side of the jaw. A curious succession of
these molars takes place in the elephants, for they are found to move
from behind forward, the teeth in use being gradually ousted from
their place by their successors as the former are worn away. Thus
the whole "set of molars in due time moves forward in the jaw and
each successive tooth is, as a rule, larger than its predecessor. In
structure, the molars of the elephant are highly peculiar, each exhibit-
ing the appearance rather of a compound than of a single tooth. Each
tooth is built up of a series of plates set perpendicularly in the tooth,
and consisting of ivory, or " dentine," covered by enamel, while " ce-
ment " fills up the interspaces between the plates. As the tooth wears
in its work, the enamel comes to project above the surface of the tooth,

ABOUT ELEPHANTS. 487

and a characteristic pattern is thus developed on the surface of the
molars of each species of living elephant. Thus, in the Indian ele-
phant, the molars exhibit a series of cross-ridges, which are more nu-
merous than those of the African species, while in the latter form the
enamel plates form a distinctly lozenge-shaped pattern. It sometimes
happens that in elephants kept in captivity the succession of the teeth
is disarranged, from the fact that the molars are not worn away fast
enough, and the succeeding teeth are displaced, thereby causing de-
formity of the jaws.

The elephants were included in the older systems of classification
in a somewhat heterogeneous group of quadrupeds named the Pachy-
dermata. That this order — now abolished and divided to form several
new groups — was motley enough in its representation is readily seen,
when we discover that the rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and other forms
were included within its limits along with the elephants themselves.
The technical name " Pachydermata " related to the thick skin which
invests the bodies of the animals just mentioned, and in the elephants
this characteristic is, of course, extremely well represented. The thick
skin hangs in folds on the body, while the typical hair-covering which,
by natural right, all quadrupeds possess, is but sparsely developed. It
would seem, however, that the young elephant possesses a much more
profuse covering of hairs than the adult. Such a statement is consist-
ent with the general biological law which holds that the young form
exhibits the primitive characters of the race more typically than the
adult. In this view of matters the young elephant is nearer the type
of its ancestors than the adult ; and in the young whales the same
remark holds good ; since the youthful cetaceans may possess a sparse
covering of hairs, such as the adults do not exhibit.

Speaking of the comparative hairlessness of the elephant and rhi-
noceros, Mr. Darwin remarks that, "as certain extinct species (e. g.,
mammoth) which formerly lived under an Arctic climate, were covered
with hair, it would almost appear as if the existing species of both
genera had lost their hairy covering from exposure to heat. This
appears the more probable, as the elephants in India which live on
elevated and cool districts are more hairy than those on the lowlands."

The social history and psychology of the elephant race form of
themselves topics wide enough to fill a volume. From the earliest
times, these animals have been enlisted by man in the service of war,
or as beasts of burden, as aids in the chase, or even in the brutal and
demoralizing sports of the ancient arena. The value of ivory in the
earliest ages must have given rise to elephant-hunting as a source of
gain and profit ; and the inroads of man upon the species have natu-
rally caused not merely a limitation in the numbers of these animals,
but have likewise served to modify, in a very marked fashion, their
geographical distribution. But the utility of these great animals to
man depends as much upon their docilitv and tractable nature as

488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon their manufacture of ivory. Probably there is no more sagacious
animal than a well-trained elephant, and the development of such high
instincts as these animals exhibit may form an additional illustration
of the marked influence of association with man in inducing the growth
of intelligence and reasoning powers in the animal creation. ~No one
may doubt that the dog, for instance, has benefited to a marked
degree from such association with human surroundings, and that the
comparatively low mental powers of many other animals are susceptible
of higher development through domestication is an idea fully sup-
ported by all that is known of instances where a wild race, or indi-
vidual animal of wild habits, has been brought in contact with man.
The "learned pigs" and tame hares are cases in point ; and the rela-
tively low mental powers of many of the apes may be largely attrib-
uted to that want of interest in " poor relations " with which humanity,
as a body, views the quadrumanous tribes.

The records of popular natural history teem with examples of the
sagacity of elephants, a mental quality which, it may be added, is
likely to owe much to the relatively long life and corresponding
opportunities of acquiring experience which these animals possess ;
while it has been also remarked that, as the elephant, unlike the dog,
rarely breeds in captivity, and as each individual elephant has to
acquire, independently of heredity, its own knowledge of the world
and of man, so to speak, these great animals present infinitely more
remarkable examples of animal sagacity than the dog. One specially
interesting feature of elejm ant-life consists in the aid given by the
domesticated elephant to man in the capture of the wild species. The
fact of these animals entering into an offensive and, from its very
nature, an intelligent alliance with man, against their own race, may be
regarded either as illustrating the desire to benefit the race by confer-
ring upon them the blessings of civilized life and employment, or as
exemplifying a process of demoralization and treacherous develop-
ment which might afford an argument against the universally bene-
ficial effects of domestication of the animal form. Nor is the probem
rendered any the less attractive to the metaphysician and moralist,
when it is discovered that it is through the caresses and blandishments
of the false females that the wild elephants are tempted into the snare :
the parallelism between the experiences of lower and higher life being
too obvious in this instance to escape remark.

Probably no animal exhibits a greater knowledge or instinctive ap-
prehension of danger than an elephant. Instances are numerous, for
example, when an elephant has refused to cross a bridge esteemed safe
by his human guides, but which has collapsed with the animal's weight,
when, goaded and tortured to proceed, he has advanced in despair, only
to find himself immersed in the water below. But cases are also re-
corded in which the danger experienced by the elephant itself has
apparently not rendered it insensible to the safety of its keeper. " The

ABOUT ELEPHANTS. 489

elephant," says Darwin, " is very faithful to his driver or keeper, and
probably considers hirn as the leader of the herd. Dr. Hooker informs
me that an elephant which he was riding in India became so deeply
bogged that he remained stuck fast until the next day, when he was
extricated by men with ropes. Under such circumstances elephants
will seize with their trunks any object, dead or alive, to place under
their knees to prevent their sinking deeper in the mud; and the driver
was dreadfully afraid lest the animal should have seized Dr. Hooker
and crushed him to death. But the driver himself, as Dr. Hooker was
assured, ran no risk. This forbearance, under an emergency so dread-
ful for a heavy animal, is a wonderful proof of noble fidelity." Swain-
son gives a description of the sagacity of an elephant under such cir-
cumstances which is worth quoting in the present instance : " The
cylindrical form of an elephant's leg — which is nearly of equal thick-
ness— causes the animal to sink very deep in heavy ground, especially
in the muddy banks of small rivers. When thus situated, the animal
will endeavor to lie on his side, so as to avoid sinking deeper, and,
for this purpose, will avail himself of every means to obtain relief.
The usual mode of extricating him is much the same as when he is
pitted ; that is, by supplying hioi liberally with straw, boughs, grass,
etc.; these materials being thrown to the distressed animal, he forces
them down with his trunk, till they are lodged under his fore-feet in
sufficient quantity to resist his pressure. Having thus formed a suffi-
cient basis for exertion, the sagacious animal next proceeds to thrust
other bundles under his belly, and as far back under his flanks as he
can reach ; when such a basis is formed as may be, in his mind, proper
to proceed upon, he throws his whole weight forward, and gets his hind-
feet gradually upon the straw, etc. Being once confirmed on a solid
footing, he will next place the succeeding bundles before him, pressing
them well with his trunk, so as to form a causeway by which to reach
the firm ground. . . . He will not bear any weight, definitely, until, by
trial both with his trunk and the next foot that is to be planted, he
has completely satisfied himself of the firmness of the ground he is to
tread upon. . . . The anxiety of the animal when bemired forms a
strong contrast with the pleasure he so strongly evinces on arriving at
terra firma" Such an account becomes extremely interesting, as con-
vincing us that much, if not all, of the sagacity which is called forth by
such circumstances must be inherent and original, as opposed to that
gained by experience. It can not be supposed that the accident de-
scribed can form such a frequent experience of elephant-existence in
a wild state as to constitute a certain basis for acquired knowledge of
what to do in the exigency. On the contrary, it seems more reason-
able to suppose that the inherent and intuitive sagacity of the animal
is simply called forth by the threatened danger, and that such an
exigency brings into play mental acts analogous to those whereby,
through mechanical and similar contrivances to those employed by the

490 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. '

elephant, man might rescue himself or his property from immersion in
the swanrps.

The memory of elephants is of a highly remarkable nature, both as
to its duration and in its operation as enabling the animal to recognize
friends and foes. I am fortunate in being able to place on record an
instance of elephant memory of a very interesting kind, and one which
serves to show in a highly typical manner the remembrance by these
animals of kindness, and also of the reverse treatment. In 1874
Wombwell's menagerie visited Tenbury, in Gloucestershire, and on
that occasion the female elephant, " Lizzie " by name, drank a large
quantity of cold water when heated after a long walk — the animal, as
a consequence, being attacked with severe internal spasms. A local
chemist, a Mr. Turley, being called in as medical adviser, succeeded
in relieving the elephant's pain, the treatment including the application
of a very large blister to the side. The menagerie in due course went
its way ; but, in May, 1879, it again visited Tenbury, and, as Mr. Tur-
ley stood at his shop-door watching the zoological procession pass down
the street, the elephant stepjDed out of the ranks, crossed from one side
of the street to the other, and, having advanced to Mr. Turley, placed
her trunk round his hand and held it firmly, at the same time making,
as Mr. Turley informs me, a peculiar grunting noise, as if by way of
welcome. Thus it was clear that, after an interval of five years, " Liz-
zie " had recognized an old friend in Mr. Turley, and that, moreover,
she remembered him with a sense of gratitude for his successful en-
deavors to relieve the pain from which she had suffered. At night
Mr. Turley visited the menagerie, when the elephant again made every
demonstration of joy, and embraced him with her trunk. She drew
Mr. Turley's attention particularly to the side whereon the blister had
been applied, thus showing that all the circumstances of five years
previous were fresh in her memory. Observing that in 1881 the me-
nagerie had again visited Tenbury, I wrote to Mr. Turley, inquiring if
" Lizzie " had again recognized her old friend. That gentleman re-
plied, his letter bearing date May, 1881, that she had again recognized
him, beginning to " trumpet " whenever she beheld Mr. Turley among
the spectators in the menagerie. On his speaking to his patient, she
placed her trunk round his legs and lifted him from the ground, but
in the gentlest manner possible. On Mr. Turley proceeding to exam-
ine one of her hind-legs, which had been under treatment, the elephant
kept holding one of her fore-legs toward him in such a fashion as to
draw his attention to the limb. As Mr. Turley, however, had had no
concern with the fore-leg, he was puzzled to account for the animal's
movement ; but the keeper explained that the fore-leg in question had
been treated by a veterinary surgeon for an injury, and that the latter
had used his lancet to afford relief. The elephant was irritated by
the operation, and expressed her resentment on again seeing the veter-
inary practitioner by striking at him with her trunk. The act of call-

ABOUT ELEPHANTS. 491

ing Mr. Turley's attention to the fore-leg was simply an expression of
admiration for the gentler treatment to which he had subjected his
patient ; the quieter medical treatment contrasting apparently with
the rougher surgical measure to which the fore-leg had been subjected.
It is thus clear not merely that the elephantine nature is endowed with
an active memory, but that a lively sense of gratitude for past kindness
is also represented in the list of mental attributes of this giant race.

A parallel instance of elephant memory is afforded by the case of
an elephant which, having broken loose from the stables on a stormy
night, escaped into the jungles. Four years thereafter, when a drove
of wild elephants was captured in the " keddah," or inclosure, the
keeper of the lost elephant went to inspect the new arrivals, arid
climbed on the railings of the " keddah " to obtain a satisfactory view
of the captured animals. Having fancied that among the animals he
recognized the escaped elephant — an idea ridiculed by his comrades —
he called his lost charge by name. The animal at once came close to
the barrier, and, on the keeper proceeding into the inclosure and com-
manding it to lie down, the elephant obeyed, and the man led his for-
mer charge triumphantly forth from among its wild companions. But
the memory of kindnesses is equaled in the elephant by that which
recalls acts of injury to remembrance. The well-known story of the
Indian elephant which, on being pricked by a native tailor near whose
stall it had wandered, returned and deluged the man with a shower-
bath of dirty water, finds many parallels in the history of elephant
character. An elephant, which was kept at Versailles by Louis XIV,
was in the habit of revenging himself for affronts and injuries. A man
who, feigning to throw something into his mouth, disappointed him,
was beaten to the ground with the trunk and trampled upon. On a
painter desiring to sketch this elephant with trunk erect and mouth
open, his servant was instructed to feed the elephant for the purpose
of inducing the animal to assume the desired attitude. But, the sup-
ply of food falling short and elephantine chagrin being aroused, the
elephant, drawing up water into his trunk, coolly showered it down
upon the unfortunate painter and his sketch, drenching the one, and
rendering: the other useless.

The pugnacity of the elephant is very great, and the determination
with which contests are carried on between these animals is highly
remarkable. ' Mr. Darwin, on the authority of the late Dr. Falconer,
tells us that the Indian species fights in varied fashions, determined
by the position and curvature of his tusks. " When they are directed
forward' and upward, he is able to fling a tiger to a great distance — it
is said to even thirty feet ; when they are short and turned downward,
he endeavors suddenly to pin the tiger to the ground, and, in conse-
quence, is dangerous to the rider, who is liable to be jerked off the
howdah " — for it is on

Elephants endorsed with towers,"

492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as Milton has it, that the great carnivore of India is hunted. A most
remarkable trait of elephant existence, and one which parallels the
proverbial "red rag" and bovine fury, is the apparent animosity of
the race to white color. Sir Samuel Baker says that both the African
elephant and the rhinoceros attack gray or white horses with fury.
The explanation of such traits of character probably lies hidden in
that philosophy of color in relation to sex and animal development
which the reseaches of Darwin and others have so far unraveled.

As a final observation regarding the psychology of the elephant,
Mr. Darwin's statements concerning the " weeping " of these animals
may be quoted. Remarking that the Indian species is known to weep,
Mr. Darwin quotes Sir Emerson Tennent, who says that some "lay
motionless on the ground, with no other indication of suffering than
the tears which suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly." Another
elephant, " when overpowered and made fast," exhibited great grief ;
" his violence sank to utter prostration, and he lay on the ground,
uttering choking cries, with tears trickling down his cheeks." " In
the Zoological Gardens," says Darwin, " the keeper of the Indian ele-
phants positively asserts that he has several times seen tears rolling
down the face of the old female, when distressed by the removal of
the young one." Mr. Darwin also makes the interesting observation
that, when the Indian elephant " trumpets," the orbicular muscles of
the eyes contract, while in the " trumpeting " of the African species
these muscles do not act. Hence, as Mr. Darwin believes that in man
the violent contraction of the muscles round the eyes is connected
with the flow of tears, it would seem by analogy to be a legitimate
inference that the Indian elephant has attained a higher stage in the
expression of its emotions than its African neighbor.

The social history of the elephants includes several somewhat
melancholy incidents connected with the dispatch of these animals,
rendered necessary from their dangerous condition. The best known
of these incidents is that connected with the death of Chunee, the
Exeter Change elephant, reported in the " Times " for March 2, 1826.
The account of the death of Chunee is as follows :

The elephant was a male, and had been an inmate of the Exeter Change
Menagerie for seventeen years. He was brought from Bombay, where he was
caught when quite young, and was supposed to be about five years old when
purchased by Mr. Cross ; consequently his present age is twenty-two. The
effect of his unavoidable seclusion had displayed itself in strong symptoms of
irritability during a certain season from the first, and these symptoms had been
observed to become stronger during each succeeding year as it advanced toward
maturity. The animal was altogether kept at this season very low, and also
plentifully physicked, for which latter purpose no less than one hundred-weight
of salts was frequently given to him at a time. Notwithstanding these precau-
tions, the animal within the last few days had shown strong proofs of irritability,
refusing the caress of his keepers and attempting to strike at them with his
trunk on their approaching him, also at times rolling himself about his den and

ABOUT ELEPHANTS. 493

forcibly battering its sides. About 1 p. m. he became more ungovernable than
ever, and commenced battering the bars of his den with his trunk. These bars
are upward of three feet in girth, and are composed of oak, strongly bound on
all sides with iron, and are placed about a foot asunder. For some time they
resisted the ponderous blows which he almost incessantly directed against them,
but by 2 p. m. one of them was found to be started from the massive cross-beam
into which it was mortised : and, as at that time the animal still continued as
violent as ever, serious fear began to be entertained lest he should break out, in
which event the amount of damage or loss of life which he might occasion
would have been incalculable. In these circumstances, although the value of the
animal was at least one thousand pounds, Mr. Cross at once determined on hav-
ing him destroyed, and after some consideration it was resolved to give him
some corrosive sublimate in a mess of hay. However, the animal no sooner
smelled the mixture than he rejected it, and it was then determined to shoot
him. Accordingly, a messenger was sent to Somerset House, where two soldiers
were on guard, who, on a suitable representation being made, were allowed to
go over to the menagerie, taking with them their muskets. Several rifle-guns
were also obtained from different places in the neighborhood and put into the
hands of such of the persons about the establishment as had courage enough to
remain in the room. In this manner, in all about fourteen persons were armed,
but before commencing operations it was deemed prudent to secure the front of
the den, by passing cords around those bars against which the animal's violence
had been principally directed. This having been done and the muskets loaded,
about a third of the party advanced to the front of the den till within about
five yards of the animal and discharged their pieces at the tender part of the
neck below the ear, and then immediately retreated to a recess at the lower end
of the room for the purpose of reloading. The animal, on finding himself
wounded, uttered a loud and piercing groan, and advancing to the front of the
den struck his trunk several times with all his fury against the bars, another of
which he succeeded in forcing out of its place. Having thus exhausted his fury,
he became quiet, upon which another detachment of the party approached his
den, and, after firing upon him, retired into the recess as before ; the animal on
receiving the fire plunged again most violently against the front of the den, the
door of which he actually lifted from off its uppermost hinges, but was prevented
from getting out by the strong manner in which the ropes bound the different
bars together, On his becoming more tranquil, preparations were made for
firing a third volley ; but no sooner were the muskets about to be leveled than
the animal, as if conscious of their being the cause of his wounds and also of
the vulnerable parts against which they were intended to be directed, turned
sharp round and retreated into the back of the den and hid his head between
his shoulders. It hence became necessary to rouse him by pricking him with
spears, which -being effected, the muskets were discharged at him, and, although
several balls evidently took effect in the neck on this as well as on the former
occasion, still he did not exhibit any signs of weakness, beyond abstaining from
those violent efforts which he had previously made against the front of his den ;
indeed, from this time he kept almost entirely at the back of his den, and, al-
though blood flowed profusely from the wounds he had received, he gave no
other symptoms of passion or pain than an occasional groan. For about an hour
and a half in this manner a continuous discharge of musketry was kept up
against him, and no less than one hundred and fifty-two bullets were expended
before he fell to the ground, where he lay nearly motionless, and was soon de-

494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

spatched with a sword, which, after being secured upon the end of a rifle, was
plunged into his neck. The quantity of blood that flowed was very considera-
ble, and flooded the den to a great depth. This was the same elephant who was
the accidental cause of its keeper's death, whose ribs it crushed four months
back while in the act of turning round in its den.

After reading this account, we may well feel tempted to indorse
the opinion of a correspondent of " Land and Water," who remarks
that the like of it " can never occur again, thank God, in England ! "

The history of the elephants would be manifestly imperfect, even
when detailed in the briefest manner, without a reference to their
present distribution and to the biography of the race in the past. As
in the case of many other groups of animals and plants, we can only
fully aj:>preciate the modern relations of the elephants wThen some
knowledge of their development in the geological ages has been ob-
tained. In the eyes of the modern naturalist, the present of any liv-
ing being is not merely bound up in its past development, but the
existing conditions of any race become explicable in many cases only
wThen the former range of the group in time has been ascertained.
This holds especially true of the elephants ; for the existing species
represent the remnants of a once larger and far more extensive dis-
tribution of proboscidian life. Hence, it behooves us to make the ac-
quaintance, firstly, of their present distribution, and secondly of their
distribution and development in past ages, if we are to understand
writh any degree of completeness and mental satisfaction the relations
of the elephantine races.

The distribution of the elephant on the earth as it now exists may
be disposed of in a very few words. The Indian species occurs in
Asia, from the Himalayas to Ceylon, while its range extends eastward
to the Chinese borders, and southward to Sumatra and Borneo as well.
The African species possesses as localized a habitat. It wTas Swift
wTho, remarking on the customs of geographers in his day, said :

" So geographers in Afric maps
"With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er unhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns."

The witty dean's lines show at least that the geographers did not mis-
take the wide distribution of the giant animal in the Ethiopian conti-
nent. For, south of the Sahara — the territory north of which is zoo-
logically'a part of Europe — the African elephant is everywhere found,
forming one of the most characteristic features at once of the African
landscape and of the Ethiopian fauna, and dividing the sovereignty of
the land with the lion himself.

Turning now to the past history of the elephant race, one may pri-
marily note the more prominent members of the group wdiich rank
among the curiosities of the geologist. First in order comes the ex-
tinct mammoth — the JElephas primigenius (Fig. 3) of the naturalist.

ABOUT ELEPHANTS.

495

Of this huge elephant we possess considerable knowledge, inasmuch
as specimens have been obtained, literally packed amid the Siberian
ice, and so perfectly preserved that even the delicate tissues of the
eyes could be inspected. This was the case in the famous specimen
found in the frozen soil of a cliff at the mouth of the Lena in 1799.
The skin of this huge elephant was then seen to be clothed with a thick
coating of reddish wool interspersed with black hairs. The skeleton,
removed in 1806 by Mr. Adams, and preserved in St. Petersburg,
measures sixteen feet four inches in length, the height is nine feet four

a

O

<

o

o

i-l

t4

6

—

inches, and the tusks measure each nine feet six inches along their
curve. The mammoth's tusks appear to have had a wider curvature
(Fig. 3) than those of existing elephants ; and probably, like the Afri-
can species, both male and female mammoths possessed these great
teeth. The measurement of mammoth tusks from recent dejDosits in

496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. .

Essex gives a length of nine feet ten inches along the outer curve, and
two feet five inches in circumference at the thickest part. Another
specimen weighed one hundred and sixty pounds ; and a dredged
specimen taken off Dungeness was eleven feet long. The mammoth's
tusks have long formed articles of commerce and barter in Siberia ;
the ivory, as Professor Owen remarks, being "so little altered as to
be fit for the purposes of manufacture." The mammoth's extensive
range forms not the least noteworthy point in its history. It certainly
roamed farther abroad, so far as we know, than any other elephantine
form. Its remains occur in Britain and in Europe generally ; they
have been found on the Mediterranean coast and in Siberia ; and they
are met with in North America as well. In Scotland and in Ireland
the mammoth was apparently less plentiful, but its remains occur in
these countries, where, indeed, no other elephantine remains are found.
It may be added that the molar teeth of the mammoth are by no
means unlike those of the Indian elephant in the arrangement and pat-
tern of its enamel plates.

Another extinct elephant, equally famous with the mammoth, was
the Mastodon — a name given to these animals in allusion to the nipple-
like projections seen on the surface of the molar teeth. Their remains
occur in Europe, Asia, and in North and South America. In the mo-
rasses of Ohio and Kentucky, for example, whole skeletons of these
interesting ele])hants have been discovered. The length of the mas-
todon in some cases exceeded sixteen feet ; and the tusks have been
found to measure twelve feet in length. Over a dozen species of mas-
todons have been described, but they agree in certain important char-
acters which serve to distinguish them from other elephants. Thus,
the roughened teeth appear to have been adapted for bruising coarse
herbs and leaves — indeed, associated with mastodon remains in America
collections of leaves have been found occupying the situation in which
the stomach of the animal would have been situated, and thus indicat-
ing the dietary of these extinct giants. Furthermore, a most impor-
tant difference between the mastodons and other elephants is found in
the fact that these animals possessed two tusks springing from the
lower jaw, in addition to the tusks with which, as in ordinary ele-
phants, the upper jaw was provided. But it would seem that these
lower tusks never attained a large size, while it is probable that they
fell out when the animal attained the adult period of its existence.

More extraordinary still, in respect of its variations from the ordi-
nary structure of the elephants, was the Dinotherium (Fig. 4), the
fossil remains of which occur in Europe and in India. The skull of
a dinotherium has been found to measure four feet in length, while
a thigh-bone was five feet three inches long. Thus, in so far as size
is concerned, the dinotherium may claim a foremost place among its
elephantine cousins. But various circumstances seem to suggest that
the latter animal departed from the elephant type in certain important

ABOUT ELEPHANTS.

497

particulars, while some authorities have been even found to suggest
that it represents a connecting link between the elephants and the sea-
cow or manatee order (Sirenia). The tusks of dinotherium spring
from the lower jaw (Fig. 4) ; and instead of being curved forward
and upward, they bend abruptly downward and backward. The use
of these tusks is extremely difficult to determine, but it has been sug-
gested that the dinotherium was an aquatic animal, living in shallow
waters, and that these huge teeth may have enabled it to root up the
plants on which it fed, or have enabled it to climb, as does the living
walrus, from the sea on to the river-banks.

Fig. 4.— Restoration of Dixothzrittm.

In addition to these latter elephants, which are essentially distinct
from the living species, certain extinct forms may be mentioned
which, in their essential characteristics, resembled existing proboscid-
ians more or less closely. Thus, we know that elephants closely
related to the Indian species existed in Asia in Miocene times, the
remains of at least six species being obtained from Indian deposits of
that age ; and we also know that Europe boasted of elephants in that
period of geology known as the " Pliocene " ; for in the deposits of
France and Italy, as well as in the formations of that age in Britain,
elephant remains occur. Later in point of time come the curious
" pygmy elephants " of Malta, whose remains exist in that island, and
whereof one (Elephas Melitensis) attained the size of a donkey, while
another [Elephas Falconeri) was smaller still, and averaged two and
a half or three feet in height.

The geological order and the succession in time of these various
elephants is important to trace ; for the unraveling of so much of the
past history of the elephants as is known to us depends upon the
knowledge of their succession and of the periods of their appearance
and extinction. If we tabulate the rocks wherewith the past of the
elephants is concerned, we may render their arrangement clear thus :

Quaternary

•{

Recent (Soils, etc.).

Tertiary Rocks I pLI0CEXE)~~~7 ( Post-Pliocene (Ice Age),
including

Miocene,
^ Eocene,

vol. xxi. — 32

498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Thus the oldest and lowest of the Tertiary rocks — which are them-
selves collectively the most recently formed — is the " Eocene," and
the succeeding "Miocene," "Pliocene," and "Quaternary," are given
in their due order ; the latter formations bringing us to the soils and
surface accumulations of our own day. The " Ice Age," or " Glacial
Epoch," we may also note, occurred during the Post-Pliocene period,
as shown above.

Turning now to the past history of the elephants, we find the first
chapter of that biography to open in the " Miocene " age. The earlier
or " Eocene " period contains no elephant fossils, and it may have been
that in this Eocene age, which beheld the first beginnings of nearly
all the existing quadruped races, the evolution of the elephant stock
from its ancestry was taking place. Leaving for the present the con-
sideration of the probable root of the elephantine tree, we thus dis-
cover in the Miocene period the first beginnings of elephant existence.
In this period the mastodons roamed over Europe and India, while in
this age also the dinotheriums, with their great lower tusks, made
their first appearance on the stage of time. As the geological series
progressed, and as the Pliocene age succeeded the Miocene times, we
discover the elephants in increasing numbers. The Miocene, with its
relatively few elephantine forms, contrasts forcibly with the increase
of those animals in the succeeding age. Europe and India harbor its
Pliocene elephants, as we have seen ; while both Europe and America
in this latter age possessed the mastodons. The Post-Pliocene period,
however, dawns in turn, to find the mastodons still existent in North
America, but unknown in Europe ; while the mammoth now appears
as a representative form, along with survivals of the European ele-
phants of the Pliocene time. The " pygmy elephants " of Malta also
belong to the Post-Pliocene age.

Thus we discover that a distinct sitccessio?i of types cf elephantine
forms has taken place on the earth's surface, beginning with elephants
which, like the dinotherium and mastodon, differ from existent spe-
cies, and ending with elephants which, like the mammoth or the Eu-
ropean elephants of the Pliocene, more or less closely resembled the
quadruped giants of to-day. It becomes interesting further to trace
out the later history of the race before the bearings of these facts on
the origin of the elephant race are discussed. The mammoth, for ex-
ample, certainly survived the " ice-age," to the irruption of which was
probably "due the extinction of the other elephantine forms. We know
of this survival because its remains occur in " recent " or " post-gla-
cial " deposits. We are also certain that early man must have beheld
the mammoth as a living, breathing reality, for its remains have
been found associated with the rude implements of early men, and a
rough portrait of the great red-haired elephant has been discovered,
scratched on one of its tusks — a rude but unquestionable tribute of
early art to the science of zoology. Its woolly hair, protecting it against

ABOUT ELEPHANTS. , 499

the rigors of the ice-age, may have enabled it to survive that period,
which was apparently so fatal to elephant life at large.

Summing up the details we have thus collated, from the geological
side, we may now face the problem of the origin of the elephant race.
Not that the problem itself is fully answerable, for our knowledge of
the elephant race in the past is yet of comparatively limited extent ;
but the main lines of the biological argument are clear enough to those
who will consider, even casually, the evidence already at hand. It is
thus clear that the true elephants, which belong to the Pliocene pe-
riod, are ushered into existence, so to speak, by forms that are less
typical elephants — mastodon and dinotherium — when judged by the
standard of existent elephantine structure. There are various species
of mastodons known to geologists, which exhibit a gradation in the
matter of their teeth, and presumably in other structural aspects as
well, toward the ordinary elephant type. As the mastodons precede
the ordinary elephants in time, we shall not be deducing an unwar-
rantable inference if we maintain that the origin of the true elephants,
both fossil and living forms, may safely be regarded as arising from
the mastodon stock. The elephants of to-day are connected by links
of obvious nature with the Pliocene and Post-Pliocene forms ; and,
when the " ice-age " cleared the earth of the vast majority of the spe-
cies, the progenitors of our living elephants must have escaped de-
struction and have survived the cold, possibly in the regions wherein
they now exist, just as the mammoth, in its turn, survived the rigors
of the ice-period, through the presence of its woolly coating and its
hardier constitution. There seems thus to be no special difficulty,
either of purely geological or of intellectual nature, in conceiving that
the elephants of to-day are simply survivals of that elephantine host,
whose existence was well-nigh terminated by the " ice-age," and which
left the mammoth, and the progenitors of our living elephants, to re-
plenish the earth after a catastrophe as sweeping and fatal in its nature
as any deluge.

But if the origin of the modern and later elephants may thus be
accounted for, and if their geographical birthplace may be assumed to
exist within the confines of the Old World, a more fundamental and
anterior query may be put with reference to the origin of the masto-
don stock, which we have supposed, and with reason, is the founder of
the true elephant races. From what stock, in other words, did the
mastodons themselves arise ? The chain of organic causation, to be
perfect and complete, can not assume the mysterious origin of the
mastodon. That stock must, in its turn, have originated in an ances-
try less like the elephants than itself. It is not improbable that the
evolutionist of the future will seek and find the mastodon ancestry in
the dinotherium group, or in some nearly related forms. For, as we
have seen, the dinotherium exhibits a structure which appears to re-
late the elephants to>other and lower quadrupeds, such as the sea-cows

5oo THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. '

and their neighbors. If this supposition be permissible, then a further
stage still awaits our intellectual journey in the search after the origin
of the elephant races. In the Eocene rocks of Xorth America occur
the fossil remains of some extinct quadrupeds, of which the Dinoceras
is the best-known form. These animals unite in a singular fashion the
characters of elephants and ordinary "hoofed" quadrupeds. "While
they possessed horns, they also developed tusks from the eye-teeth ;
and, from a survey of their complete organization, Professor Marsh
tells us that the position of these unique quadrupeds is intermediate
between the elephants themselves and the great order to which the
hoofed quadrupeds belong. Dinoceras and its neighbors precede the
dinotherium and mastodon in time, and this fact alone is important
as bearing on the assumed relationship of these forms.

It may thus at present be assumed with safety that the evolution
of the elephants has taken place from some ancient Eocene quadruped
stock, represented by the Dinoceras group, which belongs to no one
group of living quadrupeds, but is intermediate in its nature, as we
have already observed. From some such stock, then, we may figure
the dinotherium and mastodon races to have been in due time evolved.
The 2s ew World, in this light, must have been the birthplace of the
elephant hosts ; for the Dinoceras and its neighbors are of North
American origin ; migration to the Old "World having taken place by
continuous land-surface then existent, and the further evolution of the
living species and their fossil neighbors having occurred in the Eastern
hemisphere. Thus, once again we arrive at the existing races of ele-
phants. These are simply the survivals of an ancient line of quadru-
peds, whose history is simply that of every other living being — animal
or plant — a history which, like the unfolding of a flower, leads us from
form to form, along pathways of variation and change, and which, at
last, as the ages are born and die, evolves, from the buried and forgot-
ten races of past monsters, the no less curious and unwieldy quadruped
giants of to-day. — Bdgravia.

-+++-

THE CHEMISTEY OF SUGAE.

By Professob HAEVEY TT. WILEY.

THE annual consumption of sugar by the people of the United
States amounts to more than forty pounds per capitum. This
gives as a total the enormous quantity of two billion pounds per
annum. The cost of this commodity may be safely placed at eight
cents a pound. The total value of the sugar consumed each year,
therefore, is one hundred and sixty million dollars. Sugar is a theme
of general and pecuniary interest, which is a sufficient excuse for an
article on its chemistrv.

THE CHEMISTRY OF SUGAR. 501

Sugar is a general name applied to a class of bodies composed of
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, having a more or less sweet taste, and
exercising a rotatory power on the plane of polarized light.

In chemical composition the sugars may be regarded as a combina-
tion of water with carbon, and they belong therefore to that class of
bodies which are known as carbo-hydrates. Starch, wood-fiber, and
various sorts of gums are bodies nearly allied in chemical composition
to sugar.

Sugar is chiefly a product of vegetable growth, and is found in
some part or other of a large number of substances.

Sometimes it is found in the root, as in the beet and sweet-potato.
Again, it occurs in the fruit, as in the grape and water-melon. At
other times it is stored in the juices of the plant, as in the maple-tree
and the sugar-cane.

In whatever position it occurs, it is always diluted with water, and
mixed with various gums and albuminous bodies peculiar to the plant
containing it.

The manufacture and refining of sugar consist in separating it
from these impurities, and evaporating the water until the crystalliz-
ing point is reached, or a sirup is produced.

I have said that sugar is of vegetable origin. This must be con-
strued to mean the sugars of commerce and common consumption.
The animal organism possesses a glycogenic function in common with
plants.

The amount of sugar, however, produced by the animal organism,
with the exception of that from the milk-glands, is inconsiderable in
a state of health. In certain forms of disease, however, as in diabetes
tnellitus, the amount of sugar produced in the body may be immensely
increased.

Sugar may also be made by chemical means from the bodies
already mentioned, such as starch, cellulose, gum, etc.

In this sketch I will mention only the more important sugars. For
the purposes of a popular classification the sugars may be arranged as
follows :

1. Cane-sugar, or sucrose.

2. Grape-sugar, or glucose.

3. Milk-sugar, or lactose.

4. Starch-sugar, or amylose.

Cane-sugar, in a commercial sense, is by far the most important of
these bodies.

It has never been formed by chemical synthesis, and the chief
sources from which it is derived are the sugar-cane, the sugar-beet,
and the sugar-maple. TVhen pure it is a white crystalline body easily
soluble in water and having an intensely sweet taste. The molecule
of cane-sugar consists of forty-five atoms, distributed as follows, viz.,
twelve atoms of carbon, twenty-two of hydrogen, and eleven of oxy-

502 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gen. By the hundred this is equal to 42*11 per cent of carbon ; 51*46
per cent oxygen, and 6*43 per cent hydrogen. Its expression by sym-
bols is CjjH^O^. The amounts of carbon and hydrogen in cane-sugar
are determined by igniting it with oxide of copper or other substance
rich in oxygen. By this process the carbon is converted into carbon
dioxide (carbonic acid), and the hydrogen into water, each of which
substances is easily collected and weighed.

Indeed, this process is used for estimating carbon and hydrogen
in all sugars. The oxygen is usually estimated by difference.

It has thus been shown that oxygen and hydrogen exist in sugar in
the exact proportions necessary to form water. A materialistic defini-
tion of sugar would be forty parts of fine charcoal mixed with fifty-
eight parts of pure water. Yet charcoal and water mixed in the above
proportions are far from being sweet ; a good illustration of the differ-
ence between chemical union and mechanical mixture. Pure cane-
sugar, when left to itself, has no tendency to change. When diluted
with water, however, and brought in contact with a nitrogenous body
it undergoes fermentation, and yields at first alcohol, carbonic dioxide,
and other products, as will be shown subsequently. -

Pure cane-sugar has the power of twisting the plane of polarized
light to the right. For the purple ray or transition tint this torsion
amounts to 73*8°, and for the monochromatic sodium-flame to 66*67°.
These numbers represent its specific rotatory power.

I will give an explanation of what these terms and numbers signify
further on. From this property the chemist is able to determine the
amount of pure sugar in any sample submitted to him for examination,
and containing no other optically active body. For, if, using the
sodium-flame, he should find the rotation to be 33*34°, he would know
at once that the sample contained only fifty per cent of sugar, and so
on for other numbers. When cane-sugar is heated with an acid, or
for a long time to a high temperature without one, it suffers a peculiar
change which is called inversion. Inverted sugar has almost lost its
power of crystallization, and has changed its deportment toward po-
larized light. It consists now of two distinct kinds of sugar, one of
which turns the plane of polarized light to the left and is called
Icevulose, while the other turns it to the right and is called dextrose.

At ordinary temperatures, however, the laevo-rotatory power of in-
verted sugar is much greater than the other. This preponderance of
laevo-rotatory power increases as the temperature falls, and diminishes
as it rises. At 88° Cent., these two powers are equal, and the sugar
exerts no influence whatever on polarized light.

These twin constituents of inverted sugar can be separated with
lime, which forms with the laevulose a compound less soluble than with
the dextrose, and from which the latter is separated by pressure. The
lime compound is then decomposed by oxalic acid and the laavulose
set free.

THE CHEMISTRY OF SUGAR. 503

Honey is composed of left-handed or invert-sugar, some grape-
sugar, and more or less cane-sugar. After keeping for some time the
cane-sugar is all converted into the invert variety. When cane-sugar
is heated to a temperature of about 200° C, it undergoes a transforma-
tion, and a part of it is changed into an aromatic substance called
caramel. This change consists essentially in the loss of two molecules
of water. Caramel is used chiefly in the manufacture of candies, for
flavoring: whiskies, brandies, etc.

A pleasing and instructive experiment which any one can try will
show that suorar is made of charcoal and water. A strong solution of
sugar is placed in a glass until the bottom is well covered. Strong
sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) is now added, and the whole stirred with
a glass rod until it swells up and turns black. The sulphuric acid has
a very strong liking for water, which it steals from the sugar mole-
cules, leaving only the carbon.

Another interesting experiment is to burn the carbon in sugar with
the oxygen in the chlorate of potassium, the lire being kindled with a
drop of sulphuric acid. For this experiment four parts of sugar are
carefully mixed in an old saucer with five parts of chlorate of potas-
sium, and the mass then touched with a glass rod which has been
dipped into strong sulphuric acid. The chemical action produced by
the sulphuric acid makes heat enough to ignite the whole mass, and
the carbon of the sug-ar is thus burned out.

O

Grape-sugar, as its name implies, is found in grapes and some other
substances. This name is also sometimes incorrectly given to one, and
often all the sugars made from starch or derived from fruits. It is
dextro-gyratory, having for the sodium ray a specific rotatory power
of about 52*5°. It is fermentable, and is not changed by heating with
dilute acids. It crystallizes, but with less facility than cane-sugar, and
is much less sweet to the taste. There are other varieties of sugar
which possess the same properties as grape-sugar. To these the gen-
eral name, dextrose or glucose, has been given. Any sugar, whatever
be its source, which, in a dry state, has the formula C6H]306, and a
specific rotatory power of 52#5° to the right, is entitled to the name
dextrose.

Dextrose is also the final product of long-continued boiling of
starch with an acid.

Starch-sugar, or amylose, is a mixture of various products, chief
among which are dextrose, dextrine, and maltose.

For a full discussion of this sugar I refer to my paper in this maga-
zine for June, 1881.

Milk-sugar, or lactose, is found in milk, and is not important com-
mercially. It is used mostly as a vehicle for administering- medicines.

*/ J ZD

In composition it is identical with cane-sugar, but differs from it
greatly in both chemical and physical properties.

Optically it is nearly related to dextrose, its specific rotatory power

5c4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. •

being only a little greater. It is much less soluble and much less sweet
than cane-sugar.

Both lactose and dextrose, where freshly dissolved from the crys-
talline state, have a rotatory power nearly double the normal. This
peculiarity is called " birotation." Milk-sugar ferments when mixed
with yeast, but not so readily as grape-sugar or dextrose. The
fermented milk forms a mild alcoholic beverage much prized in some
countries.

Most sugars readily combine with lime, and with the alkalies, and
also with many of the ordinary salts. Cane-sugar especially combines
easily with bases almost like an acid, forming salts which are called
sucrates.

Many metallic compounds help the crystallization of the sugars,
and such salts have been used in the refining of sugar for this purpose.
Owing to the difficulty, however, of removing these compounds com-
pletely, the practice has been generally abandoned.

The action of sugars on copper compounds is of especial interest,
because it is used as a means of estimating the quantity of sugar pres-
ent in a substance.

Alkaline copper solutions, when heated with most sugars, have
their copper reduced to the form of a suboxide (CnaO). Of the sugars
which act in this way, I may mention grape-sugar, lactose, dextrose,
and maltose. Pure cane-sugar does not act upon copper solutions
until after it has been converted into invert-sugar. Dextrine or starch
gum is likewise inactive. The copper solution generally employed for
the estimation of sugar contains the copper in the form of a tartrate,
with some sulphate of sodium and an excess of sodium hydrate in the
mixture. It is called " Fehling's solution."

The specific rotatory power of a sugar is its property of twisting
the plane of polarized light either to the right or left. The instrument
used to determine this is called a polariscope, or saccharimeter. The
instrument in more common use has an ordinary oil or gas lamp as the
source of light. By quartz plates this light is modified in character
so as to produce a tint most sensible to change. This is called the
transition tint, or teinte de passage. It is a purplish color, which on
the one side changes to blue, and on the other to a rose-red. In the
last few years instruments using a monochromatic light are coming
into use, and they have some advantages over the other kind. The
one-color light is produced by passing the rays from a sodium-flame
through a crystal of bichromate of potassium, by which a pure yellow
is obtained.

The field of view in these instruments has only half its area filled
by a quartz plate. When the instrument is adjusted to zero the quartz
semi-disk offers no opposition to the passage of the light. Interposing,
however, a tube containing a sugar solution, one half the field is dark-
ened. The analyzer is then turned until the field is equally illuminated

THE CHEMISTRY OF SUGAR. 505

again, and the angle through which it has been moved is read on a
divided circle and vernier.

Since the rotation is less for the sodium-ray than for the transition
tint, the two are distinguished by different symbols. For the former
the symbol [a]D is used, and for the latter [a] or [a]j. The one-color
saccharimeter is especially to be recommended for those who may be
subject to any degree of color-blindness. A discussion of the optical
principles involved in circular polarization would be out of place here.

Fermentation is a peculiar decomposition which sugars suffer un-
der the influence of a nitrogeneous germ called the " ferment."

Cane-sugar, under the influence of a mucous sporule, undergoes
"mucous fermentation," and is converted into a gum and a kind of
sugar called "mannite." Neither acid nor alcohol is produced by this
process.

Lactic fermentation takes place under the influence of an organ-
ism called penicilium glaucum. The chief product of this fermenta-
tive is lactic acid. In the case of a dextrose it may be represented by
the following equation :

Dextrose. Lactic Acid.

C6HnO,=2C,HeO,.

Milk-sugar undergoes this fermentation most readily, first absorb-
ing a molecule of water and then breaking up into four molecules of
lactic acid. If the process is allowed to go on, the lactic acid will
break up into butyric acid, carbonic dioxide, and hydrogen. If the
Torula aceti take the place of the germ named above, cane-sugar
especially will yield acetic instead of lactic acid.

The vinous is by far the most important of the fermentations to
which sugars are subjected.

Ordinary yeast is the nitrogenous body which seems best suited to
develop this change.

Cane-sugar, before undergoing vinous fermentation, absorbs a mol-
ecule of water and is changed by an active principle of the yeast into
invert-sugar. The chief products of vinous fermentation are alcohol
and carbonic dioxide. Less important products are succinic acid,
glycerine, cellulose, and fat.

All the sugar, with the exception of about four per cent., is con-
verted into the two products first named. By an equation, the process
may be represented as follows :

Sucrose. Water. Alcohol. Carbonic dioxide.

C12Ha2Ou + HaO=4 C2H60 + 4 CO,.

Thcpeculiar fungus which is most active in the vinous fermenta-
tion is saccharomyces cerevisice / but there is much about the process
which is yet obscure.

In the conversion of starch into sugar by diastase or acids, and the
conversion of sugar into alcohol by fermentation, we have the ratio-
nale of that vast industry carried on by distillers and brewers. If the

5o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

process of vinous fermentation is continued, the alcohol is converted
chiefly into acetic acid (vinegar).

Decolorization. — Even a brief account of the chemistry of sugar
would not be complete without an allusion to the methods employed
to remove the coloring-matters naturally present in all sugars.

Sulphurous acid is sometimes employed for bleaching, but the
carbon obtained by heating blood, bones, and other animal substances
in closed retorts is by far the most efficacious means of decolorizing
known. The pure white sugars and light-colored sirups of commerce
are decolorized with this animal char. We may say that this decolor-
ization is effected by oxidation of the coloring-matter, and yet the
phenomenon does not appear to be wholly one of oxidation. Like the
ju-ocess of fermentation, it is difficult to explain it in full.

The solutions of sugar of a proper degree of dilution are passed,
often under pressure, through successive filters of animal charcoal un-
til their color is fully discharged.

Since a high temperature tends both to render sugar of a deeper
color, and if it be sucrose to invert it, the evaporation of the sirup is
carried on in vacuum-pans, whereby it is effected much more rapidly
and without impairing the power of crystallization in the finished prod-
uct.

From the multitude of facts connected with the chemistry of sugar
I have endeavored to select those which are most important and of
most interest to the general reader. Every intelligent man can not be
a sj>ecialist in every department of science, but he can easily acquire
a general idea of the progress of science. It is certainly a part of a
liberal education to know something of the chemistry of common
things.

This country ought to make its own sugar. The sugar-fields of
Louisiana, with wiser management and a more scientific agriculture,
could be made to increase their yield tenfold. Along the more north-
ern parts of the Union the climate and soil are well adapted to the
culture of the sugar-beet. We should not be discouraged because a
few attempts in this direction have not proved financially successful.
Twenty-five years of failure in Europe have been followed by fifty
years of success, until at the present time two fifths of all the cane-
sugar produced m the world are obtained from the sugar-beet. Last
of all, the great Indian-corn-producing area of the country is peculiarly
suited to the growth of the sorghum sugar-cane, and the production
of crystallized sugar from this source is no longer a mere possibility.
It has already been realized. Land which will produce forty bushels
of corn per acre will yield from six hundred to a thousand pounds of
sugar, and nearly one hundred gallons of sirup. In another decade,
instead of having to import eleven twelfths of the sugar we consume,
as we do now, we may hope to produce it all.

TRANSCENDENTAL GEOMETRY. 507

TRANSCENDENTAL GEOMETRY.

Br ALFEED C. LANE.

TRANSCENDENTAL geometry is the geometry of solids and sur-
faces in n-dimensional or in curved space. Exactly what surfaces
and what solids is a hard question to answer, and the answer is still
harder to understand. Let us, then, first find out in what way or ways
the science of transcendental geometry arose.

Descartes invented a method of applying algebra to geometry by
the well-known Cartesian co-ordinates. As you remember, a point in
a plane is determined by two co-ordinates, x and y, for example; a
point in space by three, x, y, and 2. Now, the question is not unnatu-
ral, " What would x, y, z, v, determine ? " The natural answer is, " A
point in space of four dimensions."

Moreover, we see that, although we have no experience of space of
four dimensions, we could form equations between four variables, and
transform and combine them as we do in analytic geometry of three
dimensions. By adopting a code of interpretation as like to our ordi-
nary code as circumstances would permit, we could interpret the rela-
tions of our equations as geometrical relations.

But, as the idea of a fourth dimension to space is almost if not
quite inconceivable, let us endeavor to render it less so if possible.
Imagine a man deprived of everything but vision, in the way of sen-
sible experience. The world to him would be two dimensional. If,
then, he were taken out to drive, he would see continual changes in his
plane of vision, but he would ascribe them merely to the effects of
time. Eor example, were he to go through a covered bridge, his sensa-
tions might be as follows : A small dark spot, gradually enlarging till
it covers the field of vision ; then a small bright spot in the middle of
it, which would similarly enlarge.

Now, suppose our universe sliced in two by a plane which moved
along through it. Suppose sentient beings inhabited this plane. They
would perceive at once two dimensions of our universe and the third as
a succession in time. So we might suppose ourselves conscious of
three dimensions of our universe, and of the fourth as the succession
of things in time. Thus we might consider time as a dimension. It
is so considered in the mechanical curves of position. Yet we should
then have to bring in time relative to time.

We will illustrate still further by considering the theory ^ — ^
of knots. It is evident that, so long as the line represented f C~W
in the adjoined figure is kept in the plane, the knot or kink I ^J
can not be got out of it. But, by turning the loop up, it —
can be removed at once.

The annexed knot — the type of all knots in ordinary space — can

5o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not be undone without severing the ends. In four-dimensional space it
could. By this means Zollner interpreted some of the knot-untying

performances of Slade, the American spiritualist. Let
us, for example, interpret these facts, using time as
fourth dimension, bringing in, of course, time relative
to time. If time were a fourth dimension, parts of the
state of things at different instants might be visible to-
gether. Thus we could have A, C, B, after being tied,
joined to A, D, B, and then A, C, B, before being tied.
But we must remember, in passing on, that algebraic equations are
capable of other than geometrical interpretations, and that their rela-
tions by themselves prove nothing in regard to real or possible relations
between external facts. Moreover, the algebraic theory of dimen-
sionality will be interpreted fully by nothing less than a space of infi-
nite dimensionality.

We come now to the most difficult branch of the subject, that of
curved surfaces and of curved space. The curvature of a plane curve at
any point is the limit of the ratio of the length of the curve to the differ-
ence in direction of the initial and terminal tangents. Its differential

expression is Dts or rnr^xyyjr ^° Set tne curvature of a curved
surface at any point, we slice it up by planes normal to it at that
point. On each of these planes it will describe a curve. These
curves will have different curvatures at the original point. The
reciprocal of the product of the greatest and least of these is called
by Gauss the measure of curvature. This name he also applied to
an analogous function of the co-ordinates of a point in space. The
expression, for a plane curve, of the curvature is the reciprocal of
the radius of the circle of closest possible contact at the point investi-
gated. Hence, some have argued that transcendental geometry was
inconsistent, in that it talked about the curvature of a space where
there were not Euclidean straight lines, hence no radii, and nothing to
refer the curvature to. This argument is open to other answers, but
it is enough to say that the measure of curvature has no necessary
connection with radii.

To return, the condition that a rigid figure can be moved about on
a surface without changing its shape, or that a rigid body can be simi-
larly moved in space, is that the measure of curvature of the surface
or space is constant in value. Some one might say that, if a body is
rigid, no motion can change its shape. This, however, is not true of the
mathematically rigid body except under the above conditions, taking
the most general definition of a rigid body.

It is assumed in Euclid that motion of a figure does not alter it.
That is, if an angle, A B C, is equal to an angle B C D, it will be
equal to it however it is as a whole moved or rotated. This is an
assumption that the measure of curvature of the plane or space is
constant. Moreover, if we assume it constantly equal to naught, the

TRANSCENDENTAL GEOMETRY. 509

so-called geometrical axioms that two straight lines can not inclose a
surface, etc., are true. For example, a spherical surface has a con-
stant measure of curvature not equal to zero, and positive. Since the
shortest distance between two points is a straight line, let us, extend-
ing the analogy, call the shortest distance between two points of a
spherical surface, lying wholly in that surface, a straight line of that
surface. Now, as the measure of curvature of a spherical surface is
constant, we can slide a figure about over the surface without altering
it, as is evident at once. On a sphere, however, more than one per-
pendicular can be drawn on the surface from a point to a straight line,
and two straight lines can inclose a surface.

In a surface whose curvature is negative, an infinite number of
straight lines of the surface can be drawn through a given point which
will never meet a given straight line. Such a surface would be like a
spool. Some of its sections would be concave and others convex to
the same point. We have analogous results in what is called curved
space. These results were first suggested by Riemann, who was a
pupil of Gauss.

For this mathematical treatment all that is needed is, first, algebra
and the differential calculus; secondly, a method of interpreting them
geometrically. We have found a code of interpretation for some
algebraic equations which give geometrical results, and we apply it so
far as we can to all.

So far the mathematicians might have gone without let or hin-
drance, and there some of them, as Boole and Grassman, stopped.
But others thought they had settled whether the geometrical axioms
were a priori truths or not. We have just worked out a system of
geometry, said they, which is not, as we think, impossible, where these
axioms do not hold. Therefore these axioms are the results of an ex-
perience of things as they are. If we had had a different order of
things, as is possible, these axioms would not have been true nor
thought of. I shall, however, try to prove that, although not thought
of, they are true.

The geometrical axioms express relations; relations between what?

Geometry is a branch of mathematics. Therefore the geometrical
axioms express mathematical relations. What, then, is mathematics,
and with what does it deal ?

Mathematics, in its widest sense, I will define as the science which
treats of logical- — that is necessary — relations. Between outside things
there are no necessary relations. The relation of cause and effect is
sometimes called necessary ; but, if so, it is not usually handled math-
ematically. The relations must, then, be of mental things.

They are not relations between images or imaginations of outside
things, for two reasons : First, the relations between imaginations can
be no more necessary than the things they image ; second, the im-
aginations of men's minds are different. One may imagine a line as a

5io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chalk-line on a blackboard ; another, as the edge of a knife ; I myself,
as the boundary between crystal faces.

However, in all our minds there is something the same in each. It
is the concept or idea. And It is of concepts and ideas that mathemat-
ics treats.

Here Mill seems to make a mistake. He says, " The points, lines,
circles, and squares which any one has in his mind are simply copies
of the points, lines, circles, and squares which he has known in his
experience." To his mind, then, the function of thought, when we
think of circles, is to reproduce some original sensation more or less
vividly. This, however, is what I call imagination ; and we have tried
to prove that imaginations were not the objects of mathematical treat-
ment. Helmholtz acknowledges this when he says that the axioms of
geometry, taken by themselves out of all connection with mechanical
propositions, represent no relations of real things.

We will notice certain other facts about concepts and words, in
connection with their mathematical relations. The first is the per-
sistence of concepts. By this I mean that an idea once formed, by
whatever means, experimental or otherwise, does not depend upon the
continual recurrence of the same experience for its continued existence.

That is, having once formed an idea of a baby hippopotamus, by
having seen one in Barnum's Great Show, I have that idea, which is
called into use on various other occasions — such as hearing of it in the
newspapers. It is not at all necessary that I should renew the experi-
ence every time Barnum comes around. It is, of course, true that a
concept may be disused, but its use may be made common as well by
unlike as by like experiences.

However, on closer inspection of the hippopotamus, my conception
may be new. This leads us to our other all-important distinction and
division. Every name has a denotation and a connotation. Its de-
notation is usually of things, its connotation is conceptual. Some
words, proper names especially, correspond to things, the ideas attached
to which vary according to the varying aspect of the thing. Other
words, however, correspond to ideas ; these words are applied or not
to things according as there are experiences coming under the concept
to which they are attached. •

This distinction between words with fixed denotation and varying
connotation and words of fixed connotation and varying denotation is
quite important, as we shall see. Let us first, however, return to our
hippopotamus. This is a word for me of at least partially fixed deno-
tation ; it must include the animal that I saw ; it must not include
an ordinary pig. The connotation would be almost indefinite. This
word has, then, a fixed denotation varying connotation, approximately.
On the other hand, take the name, rigid body. This is a name with
a denotation varying down to zero, perhaps, but its connotation is
changeless.

TRANSCENDENTAL GEOMETRY. 511

Thus we see that mathematics may be defined as the science of the
relations of concepts. Its vocabulary, too, must be one of fixed con-
notation. That is why symbols are so useful ; their connotation does
not vary unconsciously.

Benjamin Peirce defines mathematics as the science that draws
necessary conclusions. Mill says, " The problem is — given a function,
what function is it of some other function ? " It is obvious that nec-
essary conclusions can be drawn only so far as there are relations
fixed whence to draw them ; the function must be given before we
find its relations with other functions.

Now, I wish to insist, as strongly as I can, that any set of concepts
become fit for mathematical handling as soon as their relations are
unfolded, and this is what I have so far proved. If you ask, " Whence
these concepts ?" my answer is, " From experience." From it comes
the " element of intuition " that Stallo says is an element in every geo-
metrical axiom. Space itself is but a product of experience. If a
man could only hear or taste, would he have our concept of space ? I
trow not.

Let us now, after this long digression, return to our transcendental-
ists. Euclidean geometry and non-Euclidean alike are mathematical.
Verbally they come to different conclusions, but neither conclusion
affects facts. The difference is here, it seems to me. Transcendental
geometry is the offspring of analytic, though some have tried to treat
it otherwise. The relations that it handles are at first algebraic rela-
tions that may apply to anything. Then applying the geometric no-
menclature to algebraic expression, calling expressions of the first
degree linear, etc., it interprets these results geometrically. Its defini-
tions, thus, are different from those of Euclid ; the ideas connoted by
its vocabulary are different ; its concepts are not the same. It is not
wonderful, then, that it gets a broader field of relations.

We decide, then, that from their respective definitions the Euclid-
ean and the transcendental geometry are true. And this is, perhaps,
the most important point to settle, for the transcendentalists have said
that, although the geometrical definitions were true, the axioms need
not be. We, however, say that the axioms, or what you will, of par-
allelism, etc., are part of the connotation of the words defined, and are
simultaneously given. Of course, some experience is necessary to
make us form any concepts.

The question now to be answered is, then, Which are the best defi-
nitions ? But it must be remembered that, as long as we are dealing
with mathematics, we are never dealing with real things. Thus Helm-
holtz is wrong in saying that by adding any mechanical axioms or
principles we can obtain an empirical science out of geometry, if the
science thus obtained is purely mathematical.

Mathematical concepts can have two virtues in varying degrees,
namely, simplicity and resemblance to, or rather correspondence with,

5i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. '

external reality. First, they must be simple, that is, their relations to
one another must be easily handled ; second, their relations must cor-
respond more or less closely with the relations of some set of external
things. They do not correspond absolutely. There are no external
things which have the properties of mathematical straight lines except
approximately. Take the annexed figure. - -

One would not hesitate to call A B, B C, C B,
straight lines, and to say that the triangle ABC
has the sum of its angles equal to 180°. The error
he would make (they are drawn with compasses) we
always make in kind, though not in degree, in apply-
ing mathematics to realities. I wish to make clear
that the relation between mathematical truths and external facts, is
one of resemblance, not identity. What the essence of resemblance is
I shall not discuss.

No external facts can do more than change the utility of the two
geometries. At present, for simplicity and accuracy of resemblance
to external facts, the Euclidean geometry need not fear being swal-
lowed up. If, however, facts should be discovered which could be
most simply correlated to transcendental truths, transcendental geom-
etry might become important.

Let us recapitulate. We have tried to show that mathematics
deals only with concepts, and that the two geometries are, therefore,
also concejDtual. Their apparent discrepancy we tried to account for
by showing that they used different concepts. We showed that, al-
though concepts might be originated by sensations, they were not,
nor were affected bv, external facts. The relation between mathe-
matical truths and external facts is one of more or less resemblance,
not of identity. Nor can the resemblance be ever proved to be
perfect.

The Euclidean geometry has as great facility in accommodating
itself to all known facts as the transcendental, and greater simplicity.
It is therefore of greater practical utility. The mathematical truth
of each is not affected by experience.

Thus transcendental geometry, with its egg-shells turned inside-
out without cracking, its knots mysteriously untied, its worlds where
the background of everything is a man's own head, is from its con-
ceptual basis, as a creation of man's mind, true. It is a pretty mathe-
matical diversion ; it is, as yet, nothing more.

MY SPIDER. 513

MY SPIDEE.

By W. H. T. WINTER.

A SPIDER, sitting placidly on a hat-peg, awakened in me a vague
enthusiasm for natural history ; so I captured him, and put him
in a bottle. He was lean and gaunt, and had an ominous countenance.
The small row of eyes on the vertex of his head looked murder and
rapine, and the formidable jaws — which he moved slowly, as if he
were sucking his teeth — meant death to those who were his inferiors
in strength. He seemed to have been lately in distressed circum-
stances, for the light came through his very carcass, and his legs were
almost as weakly as the gossamer he wove. The strongest part of him
seemed to be the stiff hairs that covered him. They stood out inde-
pendently, and covered his body with such profusion that I was led to
call him Esau.

The bottle most likely did not impart a generous warmth, and
probably the garish light of day was not pleasant to this denizen of
the rafters and remote corners, yet he settled himself in his new habi-
tation with a calmness which commanded my admiration. No fear
entered his breast ; he was not daunted by captivity. He did not
wildly seek an outlet, like most of the things we call insects. He
seemed to be of the school of the ascetic Brahmans, and apparently
regarded fate as invincible.

"Even if I keep you in captivity," I said, "I will provide you with
a mansion, and you shall have an amplicity of food." After a little
search a wide-necked jar was obtained, and I set to work to catch
flies. The jar was glass, and its mouth was covered with muslin ; but
in case Arachnida cared not for light and ventilation, I provided him
with a piece of paper rolled cone-wise, and in this inner chamber he
could seek retirement.

On being placed in his new abode, my friend betrayed no curiosity.
He merely settled himself on the piece of paper, as it had a more
genial feel than the transparent floor. Perhaps he watched me, but I
could not tell that from his expression. His face was typical of indif-
ference.

I now began to make havoc among a colony of flies who had ap-
parently spent their lives in obtaining from the window-panes some
occult flavor which is not perceptible to our coarser palates. I made
three captives, who were passed beneath the muslin door of the jar
with a little sleight of hand. The appearance of these flies was my
next subject of observation. They each had an individuality which
I did not till then know that flies possessed. Their deportment, their
figures, their very moral tone, had a distinct stamp ; yet there was an
harmonious something which united characters so different. The first
TOL. xxi. — 33

5 h THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

had a fluffy appearance, his body looked sodden, and he behaved in
a fat and sensual manner. He took the grossest pleasure in warming
his ventral surface on the side of the jar toward the sun. He sipped
the sweets of life to excess, and had lost that activity a fly ought to
possess. Alas ! his career rendered him unfit to battle in the struggle
for existence. He became the spider's first meal. . .

The second fly had but one wing. He was lean and ill-nurtured,
yet he had withal a chirpy and pleasing manner. He had neither the
pompous bearing of opulence nor the boisterous ways of rude health.
He was a sweet-tempered and amiable fly, and among the local muscse
undoubtedly occupied the same position that Tiny Tim did in his
family. I should have let him go, only that I feared that, if I did so,
I should also release the third fly, whom my soul loathed. Now, let
me tell you why that fly was objectionable. He was the only fly left
on the window-panes, and he walked over them with the arrogance of
a landlord. I sought to catch him, but each attempt was more futile
than the last. He dodged, he flew away from the window, he calmly
floated about the room, and I followed him, flapping with my pocket-
handkerchief till I visibly perspired. He was as cunning as the fox
of Ballybogue, who, you remember, used to take in the newspaper to
see where the meets were to be. My temper overcame me, and I
swore I would have that fly.

After a hunt, which brought out all my worst characteristics, I
caught him, and deposited him in my vivarium, rejoicing to myself
that his death-agonies would be some compensation for my pains. As
soon as he got into the jar, Mr. Fly discovered that his poor little
brother in adversity had a raw place where his wing had been torn off,
and he would follow him from place to place to put his sucker on to
the sore. It was not the kindliness of the dogs of Lazarus which led
him to lick the wound. He saw that Tim did not like it, and, as he
was a nasty, bullying cad, he persisted in his obnoxious performances.
I left him disgusted. He was a beast !

In the course of an hour or so I returned. The sensual fly was in
the arms of the spider. The hunter, with his quarry in his clutch, was
on the piece of paper, and I could see him well. Four black bead-like
eyes, situated on the very summit of his head, gleamed at me with
ferocity. His mandibles were stretched to their utmost. The hooked
extremity of one was driven into the fly's eye, the other was fixed
somewhere about its throat. Between these a pair of jaws were work-
ing with a synchronous and scissors-like movement, and his upper and
lower lip (for such they were, I afterward learned) worked, as it were,
between whiles. As the jaws approached each other, the lips parted.
His palps, or leg-like antennae, waved slowly as the tail of an angry
cat ; and his very spinnerets, six in number, stood out turgid with
excitement. The fly was still, except for a quivering motion of one
of its legs. It was the tremor of death.

MY SPIDER. 515

For ten minutes, at least, the spider did not move a limb. The
palpi forgot to wave, and he abandoned himself to the full and gross
enjoyment of his meal. I forgot the fly's agonies. This poor starved
creature, safe from the persecution of the house-maid, was reveling in
the juices of a luscious fly. The gloom of his life was dissipated by a
bright spot. Starvation even had a charm when followed by such a
meal.

At last he fixed the fly against the paper with one foot, and loos-
ened his grip, and, after giving a sigh of satisfaction, proceeded to de-
capitate his prey. He then held the carcass in such a manner that I
thought he was going to blow into it, but he did not. The pangs of
hunger were assuaged, and, with an Epicurean manner worthy of Bril-
lat-Savarin, he sought for some dainty morsel in the chest.

Half an hour after, he still lovingly held his prize, although he ate
no longer. The child-rhyme was floating in his memory :

" Oh, what fun !
Nice plum bun !
How I wish
It never was done ! "

I went to bed, and on the morrow another corpse, that of Tim, lay on
the floor of the bottle. His expression was placid as in life, and there
was that beast of a fly, whom I described before, sucking at the old
wound.

Days went on, and Esau's digestion seemed a laborious process. I
watched with eagerness to see whether he would lay his hands on his
companion by force or fraud. The spider lay immovable, the fly was
idly busy in security.

Now, the utter disregard of decency paraded by that fly would
have sent a cold shiver down the spine of any proper-minded person.
He hustled the corpses of his brethren who were dead. He was con-
stantly trying to extract from their bodies what juices the spider had
left. He turned them on their stomachs. He turned them on their
backs. He had no regard whatever for the deceased.

I sat in my arm-chair and pondered over the levity of that wretch
till the dinner-bell rang, and I went sorrowfully to my evening meal.
" How much superior am I to that fly ! If a steak from one of my
fellow-creatures were laid before me, I should reject it with abhor-
rence," thought I, " even if it were garnished with the savory onion
or the mushroom — ay, even if it were relished with oyster-sauce and
the ten'derest asparagus. It is only the worst grades of life which can
feed upon their kind."

We had chickens for dinner. The liver wing was excellent, and
the en-dedans of the back afforded pleasant picking. I begged the
maid to preserve the bones for a broken-legged dog whom I had
adopted. >

5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. '

My plate was brought on to the lawn, and on it were the remains
of the fowls ; and the dog was carried out with all care to enjoy his
meal on the grass. Poor old thing ! His tail wagged with a steady
flap, his eyes glistened softly, his neck was outstretched, and his nose
was agitated with a delicate twitching till he was placed beside his
repast. Then he fell-to, and with admirable judgment selected the
most meaty morsels to commence with.

It was lucky that he had finished two pinions, for " the Philistines
were upon him." A pea-hen close by heard the crunching. She lis-
tened. Curiosity seized her, and she looked at the eater, first with
one eye, then with the other. (That was mere coquetry, as it gave
her an opportunity of showing off the graceful movements of her
neck.) She approached a few steps with stagy dignity ; she saw there
was food, and the bird of Juno, forgetting her state, ran with an un-
gainly and slop-slap step toward the plate.

The bird was large and powerful, and the dog was small and an
invalid. He therefore secured the best advantages that the circum-
stances afforded, and sneaked off on three legs with a drumstick.

" Gristle ? " quoth the pea-hen ; " excellent ! Tendon ? better
still." — Gaup, gaup. — "A small bone? 'twill do me no harm." Down
it went. — " A little picking ? " — peck, peck.

" Thou cannibal ! " thought I, " those are the remains of thy com-
panions of the farm-yard. That fly is not so unnatural, after all. I
will let it go."

My resolution was short-lived. Two hours ago there were but a
spider and a fly and a piece of paper in the glass jar. Now my friend
the spider was evidently getting hungry, and he was exerting himself.
Two strong cords were drawn from the paper to the bottom of the
jar, and Esau meant business. His spinnerets were turgid, his aspect
was determined, and steadily and slowly he commenced to make a
web. Now and then the fly took a walk and broke through a strand
or two. They stuck to his legs, and annoyed him. With a little
difficulty the films were got rid of, but consternation began to seize
the fly's mind, and he resolved to move from the scene of operations.
He took up his quarters on the muslin which covered the neck of the
jar.

Next morning the fly's head hung like a Bulgarian atrocity in the
web, his body lay at the mouth of the spider's den. During the night
Esau had made a cavern of cobweb.

It is the duty of the historian to adhere to the truth, even if it
casts a slur on his favorite theories, and blasts his reputation as an
observer.

Esau was not a male : he was a lady.

One day, while feeding the beast, I noticed that the den in the
corner had been extended into a passage with two openings, and in
the passage wall was a spot thicker and more opaque than the rest of

MY SPIDER. 517

the building. This I surmised was a deposit of eggs, and I afterward
found that I was right.

Still, I had named the animal ; and, on the principle of the parson
who insisted on christening the little girl John, I adhered to the origi-
nal appellation. Hitherto the spider had discovered none of the at-
tributes proverbial to her sex, and I did not feel justified in naming
her Lucy or Maria.

There were warm days that year, when the air smelled of clover,
and flies came out plentifully, and Esau was fed on all available insects
that had wings. The house-fly was her staple food, although she re-
garded small moths as delicacies, and thought midges and small gnats
were toothsome articles of diet ; but her soul loathed blue-bottles.
They were to her what caviare and absinthe are to the uneducated.
If a blue-bottle was put into her net she bound it down with many
strands of cobweb, and killed it, and, before the animal had ceased to
quiver, cast it from her web with evident repugnance. Beetles she
did not care for, as they broke her web ; but money-spinners she tol-
erated. Daddy-long-legs fell an easy prey to her, although she did
not relish them. That I know, because she never took their carcasses
to her cave.

By way of a treat I once offered her a small earth-worm. It wrig-
gled and writhed, lengthened itself and shortened itself, assumed the
shape of a corkscrew, and tied itself up into knots. Esau sought
refuge in her house, and stuck her head out to watch these strange
manoeuvres. At first, she was as still as possible ; then there was an
oscillatory movement of the palpi. She generally did that when she
was getting up her pluck. Then she made a rapid rush to within an
inch of the worm, and reconnoitred again. She was not satisfied, and
retired a second time to think the matter out. The worm, in the
mean time, either got tired of struggling, or else philosophically arrived
at the conclusion that he could make himself as comfortable in a cob-
web as in any other place. The period of rest was fatal. Esau darted
on her prey and stuck her mandibles into him. Vainly did the worm
try to charm the enemy by tickling her with the end of his tail. Esau
held on like a vice. The worm tried to encircle her body with furtive
gyrations. Esau had no inclination to play at Laocoon, and eluded
the strategy of his prey. That worm gave in.

I began to get tired of my pet. She was getting fat ; and the
fatter she grew the more ferocious she became. I sought another
spider, and found one smaller than the one I possessed. To my mind
it was of the same species, but from its size I imagined it was a male.
" I will be the historian of the loves of spiders," I said. " Their do-
mestic happiness shall be a moral to mankind. Two spiders together
will give me an opportunity of making fresh observations."

I was not disappointed, but my researches gave a result that I had
not anticipated. \

5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When I put my finger near the new spider he gathered his legs
together, and assumed an abject attitude ; perhaps it was a simulation
of death. Anyway, the position gave me the idea of meanness and
knavery ; so I called him Uriah Heep, because he was " so 'umble."

" Esau," I said, with befitting solemnity, " wilt thou take Uriah to
be thy wedded husband ? " I dropped him into the jar. . The lady
was sitting in her web ; but she bolted into her chamber the moment
she felt the impulse of the fresh arrival.

"Ah," thought I, " she is parading her coyness."

Uriah did not seem at his ease, and, leaving the cobweb, he took
up a position between the paper and the wall of the jar. Esau pro-
truded what ought to have been her nose — had she belonged to a
higher species — from the doorway of her sanctum. There was evident
uneasiness on both sides.

Now, I do not believe that these two creatures slept for two days
and two nights. They regarded each other with profound suspicion.
I put flies into the jar. They would not be allured by food. If one
moved the twentieth part of an inch, the other altered its attitude to
a similar degree. If Esau wished to get out of her apartment, Uriah
occupied a different strategical position. It was a period of brain-
tension, watchfulness, and terror.

On the third morning I found Uriah had fallen a victim. His
thorax was separated from his abdomen, his legs were disarticulated
and scattered, and Esau sat on her perch, placid and contented, the
mistress of the situation.

Spiders of both sexes and of every shade of opinion successively
shared the captivity of Esau, and they all shared the fate of Uriah.
The blood of Mr. Heep had whetted the appetite of the Amazon, and
she increased in valor and ferocity. She gauged the strength of her
opponent with infallible precision. Now she would use all the arts of
strategy ; now she would trust to the prestige of victorious arms. Her
jar became a very charnel-house of the remains of her kind. A battle
occasionally took place, but superior strength and agility made Esau
victress. As a rule, however, the new intruder said Kismet the mo-
ment it was seized, and resigned itself to fate.

I have yet to relate the most interesting part of my narrative.
Pardon me whispering, reader ; but Esau has yet to become a mother.
The queen of the pickle-jar, who directed the destinies of her subjects
— and I must say she directed them in pretty much the same direction
— was herself to become the slave of a numerous progeny. It has been
an enigma to me who the sire of that progeny could have been.

" No scandal against Queen Elizabeth, I hope ? "

Reader, I assure you, my duties are those of a grave historian.
I am no carrier of tattle.

It has been an enigma to me (allow me to resume the subject)
who the sire of that progeny could have been. Perhaps it was some

MY SPIDER. 519

spider of ancient lineage, who did valiant battle in his ancestral cob-
webs against predatory wasps. Perhaps he had won Esau's young
affections, and become master of her charms. Perhaps it was some
errant knight, who had vowed the extermination of the whole race of
parasites which infest the spider's body. Perhaps it was some wealthy
spider, who owned vast demesnes of netting, which extended over
many a rafter, and offered hunting-ground for many a retainer. Per-
haps her spouse was remarkable for his personal beauty, and had car-
ried off her heart by his comeliness. I know that no spider base-born
could have been the father of her offspring. Her behavior to Uriah
Heep forbids so gross a surmisal.

Then, how was it that she was alone on the hat-peg ? The aristo-
crat might have spurned her from his home from the prospect of a
more advantageous alliance. The enthusiast might have doubted her
intensity, and so deserted her. Dives might have been jealous, and
have procured an act of separation ; Adonis probably spirited away by
some light of love.

Her history is open to conjecture alone. The fact remains, that
she laid eggs, and they were hatched.

If my memory be not deceived, the small spiders appeared a fort-
night or three weeks after I first noticed the eggs. When first born,
they were small, yellowy-white, and indefinite, like cheese-mites — just
what one would imagine spider-babydom to be. They moved at a
pace almost imperceptible from its slowness, and their gait was weak
and vacillating. As well as I could make out with the naked eye,
they were constantly tumbling on their sides for the first few days.
They seemed to meet with obstacles which are not apparent to our
gross vision.

I thought the sun would be grateful to them, and their jar was
placed on the window-sill. Either the warmth suited them, or baby
spiders gain strength rapidly; for, before three days were over, Esau's
offspring became marvels of agility. When they were at one end of
the piece of paper, urgent business called them to the opposite ex-
tremity of the cone, and they ran as fast as their small legs could
carry them. If they were on the floor of their home, urgent reasons
induced them to promenade the ceiling. Occasionally one little chap
would take a long journey around the floor of the jar, while another
would start off on a commission of inquiry, and investigate the con-
struction of the cobweb with the minutest care. A third would mount
its mother's back, and crawl over her out of sheer curiosity. No pair
of them ever seemed to do the same thinor at the same time. I never
saw them feed ; but during the next week or two they increased in
size and strength. Esau contemplated them with pleasure ; her char-
acter was softened. Dozens of flies were put into the jar, but few
were killed. Some became entangled and died in the toils, but the
majority occupied the top of the jar, and especially affected the mus-

520 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lin doorway, which was moistened for their delectation with sugar and
water.

The time for my summer holidays arrived, and I started for the
south, leaving Esau to look after the house.

The friendship I had struck up with spiders certainly increased
the pleasure of my trip. I found my friends in numbers everywhere
I went. They were on the shady side of dock-leaves. They floated
in the air and settled on my hat, and were carried off by the next
breath of breeze. I found their webs in profusion between the
branches of a monkey-tree in the garden ; and in the corn-fields
myriads of these small creatures trapped flies that were almost micro-
scopic. On the sandy slopes of the sea-shore, cobwebs were among
the gorse-bushes. The diadem spiders in the rose-trees vied with
each other in the regularity of their nets, and every barn was rich in
arachnean architecture. I had heard of water-spiders, and I hunted
for them assiduously in every pool and stream in the neighborhood,
but with no success. I found no water-spiders, but I became the pos-
sessor of many inhabitants of the ponds.

Three weeks passed too quickly, and I had to return to my work
and to Esau. Alas ! what a lamentable sight met my eyes ! Esau
was dead, and her children were certainly fatter than when I left. I
could arrive at but one conclusion. The dauntless adventuress who
had gloried in murder and fratricide had become the victim of mis-
placed love. Those little wretches whom she had brought into the
world, and cared for and nurtured, had turned uj)on her and slain
her and sucked her life-blood. Ah, poor mother, thy antecedents
might not have been good ! Possibly thou mightest have dined off
thy husband or thy paramour — certainly thou hast waged unnatural
though valiant war against thy kind ; still, that was no reason why
thou shouldst have been sacrificed by thy offspring in the bloom of
thy maturity. — Gentleman's Magazine.

-+++-

SUDDEN WHITENING OF THE HAIR.

WITH so many professors of the art of rejuvenation proclaiming
their readiness to turn old faces into new ones, smooth out
wrinkles, obliterate crow's-feet, and restore the hair to its original
abundance and color, the putting of young heads upon old shoulders
should be easy enough ; but the proverbial impossibility of putting
old heads upon young shoulders still seems to hold, although the feat
has sometimes been accomplished by Nature herself. Sorrow, not
Time, frosted the bright tresses of Mary Stuart and Marie- Antoinette ;
and theirs were not the only queenly heads that have been prematurely

SUDDEN WHITENING OF THE HAIR. 521

whitened by care and anxiety. "While Hanover was waging an un-
equal contest with Prussia, a lady in attendance upon the consort of
the brave, blind king, wrote thus of her royal mistress : " In the last
two months her hair has grown quite gray, I may say white. Four
months since one could scarcely discern a gray hair ; now I can hardly
see a dark one."

A similar change has often taken place in the course of a single
night. One of the witnesses in the Tichborne case deposed that, the
night after hearing of his father's death, he dreamed he saw him
killed before his eyes, and found, on awaking, that his hair had turned
quite white. An old man with snow-white hair said to Dr. Moreau :
" My hair was as white as you see it now, long before I had grown
old. Grief and despair at the loss of a tenderly loved wife whitened
my locks in a single night when I was not thirty years of age. Judge,
then, of the force of my sufferings." His white hairs brought no such
recompense with them as happened in the instance of the gay gallant
who had the hardihood to hold a love-tryst in the palace grounds of
the King of Spain. Betrayed by the barking of an unsympathetic
hound, the telling of the old, old story was interrupted by the appear-
ance of the king's guard. The scared damsel was allowed to depart
unchallenged ; but her lover was held captive, to answer his offense.
Love-making under the shadow of the royal palace was a capital
crime ; and so overwhelmed with horror at the idea of losing his head
for following the promptings of his heart was the rash wooer, that,
before the sun rose, his hair had turned quite gray. This being told
King Ferdinand, he pardoned the offender, thinking he was sufficiently
punished.

When the Emperor Leopold was about to make his grand entry
into Vienna, the old sexton of St. Joseph's Cathedral was much
troubled in his mind. Upon such occasions it had been his custom
to take his stand on the pinnacle of the tower and wave a flag as the
imperial pageant passed by ; but he felt that age had so weakened
his nerve that he dared not again attempt the perilous performance.
After thinking the matter over, he came to the conclusion that he
must find a substitute ; and knowing his pretty daughter had plenty
of stalwart suitors, the old fellow publicly announced that the man
who could take his place successfully should be his son-in-law. To
his intense disgust, the offer was at once accepted by Gabriel Peters-
heim, his special aversion, and the special favorite of the girl, who
saw not with her father's eyes. On the appointed day Vienna opened
its gates to the new-made emperor ; but it was evening, or near upon
evening, when the young flag-bearer welcomed the procession from St.
Joseph's Tower. His task performed, Gabriel would have descended
from the airy height, but found his way barred. Two wretches had
done the treacherous sexton's bidding, and closed the trap-door of the
upper stairway, leaving the brave youth to choose between precipi-

522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. '

tating himself on the pavement below, or clinging the cold night
through to the slender spire, with but ten inches of foothold. He
chose possible life to certain death ; but, when rescue came with the
morning, his eyes were sunken and dim, his cheeks yellow and
wrinkled, his curly locks as white as snow. Gabriel Petersheim had
won his bride at a fearful cost. , .

Believing a fortune might be easily won in the oil-country, a
young Bostonian went there to enrich himself. One stormy night a
glare in the sky told him that an oil-tank was on fire a few miles off ;
and knowing that, after a time, the oil would boil up and flow over
the side of the tank, he made for a hill to witness the spectacle.
" She's coming ! " a man shouted. There was a rumbling sound, and
then the burning oil shot up from the tank, boiled over its sides, and
floated down the creek, destroying everything in its way, and setting
fire to a second tank. Curiosity getting the better of discretion, he
ran to the ground in the rear of the tanks, to get a better view, and,
in trying to avoid a pool of. burning oil, fell into a mud-hole, and stuck
fast therein. Struggling till he could struggle no longer, he lay back
exhausted, watching the billows of smoke surging upward and floating
away into space. Suddenly his ears were startled by the sound of
cannon-firing ; a column of flame and smoke shot up from one of the
tanks, and he was stricken almost senseless with the knowledge that
the "pipe-line men" were cannonading the first tank, to draw off the
oil, and so prevent another overflow. He tried to shout, but the
words would not come. A little stream of burning oil ran slowly
but surely toward him. He watched it creeping on until it was
almost upon him ; then in a moment all was dark. When he came
back to consciousness he found himself in his own room, surrounded
by " the boys," who had seen him just in time to save him. It was a
weary while before he was himself again, and then he was inclined to
doubt if he was himself, for his once dark hair was perfectly white.

Instances have not been wanting of the hair being deprived of its
color in a few minutes. The home-coming of the King of Naples
after the Congress of Laybach was celebrated with much public
rejoicing. To do the occasion honor, the manager of the San Carlo
Theatre produced a grand mythological pageant, in which an after-
ward well-known opera-singer made his debut in the character of
Jupiter. The stage-thunder rolled, the stage-lightning flashed, as the
Olympian monarch descended on his cloud-supported throne. Sud-
denly screams of horror rang through the house ; the queen fainted,
and all was uproar and consternation, until the voice of the king was
heard above the din, crying, "If any one shouts or screams again,
I'll have that person shot ! " Something had gone wrong with the
machinery before the clouds had descended ten feet, and Jupiter had
fallen through. Fortunately, a strong iron wire or rope caught his
cloak, and, uncoiling with his weight, let him down by degrees. But

SUDDEN WHITENING OF THE HAIR. 5,23

a workman falling with him was impaled upon a strong iron spike
supporting the scenery. In ten minutes or so they reached the ground,
the workman dead, the singer dazed, but able to thank Heaven on his
knees for his escape ; and then the awe-stricken people saw that the
black-haired deity had become transformed into a white-haired mortal,
whose youthful features formed a strange contrast to their venerable-
looking crown.

Staff-surgeon Parry, while serving in India during the Mutiny, saw
a strange sight. Among the prisoners taken in a skirmish at Chamda
was a sepoy of the Bengal army. He was broitght before the authori-
ties, and put to the question. Fully alive to his position, the Bengalee
stood almost stupefied with fear, trembling greatly, with horror and
despair plainly depicted on his countenance. While the examination
was proceeding, the by-standers were startled by the sergeant in charge
of the prisoner exclaiming, " He is turning gray ! " All eyes were
turned on the unfortunate man, watching with wondering interest the
change coming upon his splendid, glossy, jet-black locks. In half an
hour they were of a uniform grayish hue.

Some years ago a young lady who was anxiously awaiting the com-
ing of her husband-elect, received a letter conveying the sad tidings
of his shipwreck and death. She instantly fell to the ground insen-
sible, and so remained for five hours. On the following morning, her
sister saw that her hair, which had been previously of a rich brown
color, had become as white as a cambric handkerchief, her eyebrows
and eyelashes retaining their natural color. After a while the whit-
ened hair fell off, and was succeeded by a new growth of gray. This
case coming under the observation of Dr. Erasmus Wilson, shattered
his unbelief in the possibility of the sudden conversion of the hair
from a dark color to snow-white. No man knows more about the hair
than Dr. Wilson ; but he is at a loss to explain the phenomenon quite
to his own satisfaction. " If," says he, " it be established that the hair
is susceptible of permeation by fluids derived from the blood — a trans-
mission of fluids from the blood-vessels of the skin into the substance
of the hair really occurs, the quantity and nature being modified by
the peculiarity of constitution or state of health of the individual — it
follows that such fluids, being altered in their chemical qualities, may
possess the power of impressing new conditions on the structure into
which they enter. Thus, if they contain an excess of salts of lime,
they may deposit salts of lime in the tissue of the hair, and so produce
a change in its appearance from dark to gray." Then he tells us :
' The phenomenon may be the result of electrical action ; it may be the
consequence of a chemical alteration wrought in the very blood itself,
or it may be a conversion for which the tissue of the hair is chiefly
responsible." So many "may-bes " from such an authority prove that
the mystery of the sudden whitening of the hair is yet unsolved. It
is likely to remain unsolved, since the doctor — more modest than

524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

many of his brethren — owns that " the mysteries of vital chemistry
are unknown to man."

The whitening of the hair wrought by mental disturbance is some-
times only of a partial nature. Vexation of spirit gave Henry of Na-
varre a party-colored mustache. An old writer tells of an Irish cap-
tain going to deliver himself up to Lord Broghill, the commander of
the English forces, who, being met on his way by a party of English
soldiers, was made prisoner, and was so apprehensive of being put to
death before Lord Broghill could interfere in his behalf, that the anx-
iety of his mind turned some of his locks quite white, while the others
remained of their original reddish hue. Perhaps the curious change
was less annoying to its victim than that which befell an American
girl, whose first intimation of her lover's falsity was the reading an
account of his marriage in a newspaper. After a night's brooding
over the traitor's perfidy, her looking-glass showed her that one side
of her head was still adorned with tresses of golden brown ; but the
other, alas ! was decked with locks more befitting a grandam than a
maiden still in her teens ; though even this was not so bad as was the
case of a French girl, who, frightened by the floor of her room giving
way beneath her, shed her hair so quickly that in three days' time she
was — to use the expressive comparison of a chronicler of the event —
"as bald as a bell-handle." — Chambers's Journal.

-+*+-

HOW PLANTS EESIST DECAY.

By W. 0. FOCKE.

THE destruction and decomposition of organic substances, both ani-
mal and vegetable, are promoted by the lower fungoids, particu-
larly by yeast-plants and molds, which we may for brevity call rots.
During life, that is, as long as a lively circulation is kept up, plants
are protected against the attack of these ever-present organisms, but
during the periods of rest, when the life-activity of the plant is reduced
to a minimum, defense by the vegetative process is suspended. The
older parts of plants, also, in which the normal circulation has become
very limited, are poorly fitted to resist decay. It is, therefore, a ques-
tion how it happens that perennial plants are so rarely attacked by the
lower fungoids during their periods of rest.

The best protection is afforded by a firm epidermis, especially if it
is fortified against the persistence of moisture upon it by a coating of
wax. The importance of epidermal protection is exemplified in the
North American opuntias, which bear the Central European winters
quite well. If any part of the stalk has suffered an injury which has

HOW PLANTS BUSTS T DECAY. 525

destroyed the outer skin, even if only for a very small space, decay
begins at the wound, and spreads till it destroys the branch, unless
warmer weather quickens growth in the weakened plant, when the
process comes to a stop.

The most common protective armor of the higher and woody plants
is the cork-bark. The corky substance is of itself extraordinarily
tough, and even when dead is only very slowly destroyed by molds.
Tree-barks also appear generally to contain chemical substances that
operate as poisons upon the lower organisms. The most commonly
diffused of such substances are tannin and other coloring-matters
allied to it. Many barks also contain strong bitter matters and alka-
loids, like salicin, pinipicrin, quercitrin, sesculin, chinin, aricin, strych-
nin, berberin, etc. The most persistent waxes also reside in the bark,
and ethereal oils in individual cases, as in the laurels. The general
diffusion of these substances in the bark is the more remarkable be-
cause they are rarely found in the wood or the annual leaves.

The subterranean parts of plants need the same protection as the
stem. Swamp-plants in particular, which grow in a soil always under-
going decomposition, would fall a prey to decay very quickly without
some especial defense. All plants whose organization does not insure
them against the action of swamp-soil, perish alike, even under expos-
ure in the winter, at any other time than during the growing season.
The under-ground parts of plants growing in such soils are protected
in part by the hard epidermis, partly by coloring-matter, as in the
alder, comarum, and sanguisorba; or by bitter constituents, as in men-
yanthes ; or by ethereal and aromatic substances, as in valerian and
acorus ; or by acrid matter, as in frangula and the Ranunmlacem. An-
tiseptic substances, such as tannin, saponin, and phloridzin, are also
found in the underground organs of plants that do not grow in swamps,
and the strong essences of the rhizoma of ferns and of the punica-root
belong to the same class.

Evergreen leaves, besides requiring means of defense against the
lower organisms, need protection against the higher animals, which
would consume them during the winter if they were quite accessible
and enjoyable. Ulex and Ruscus, therefore, have thorny limbs, smi-
lax and the evergreen brambles and roses have spines on their leaf-
nerves, juniper and the holly-leaved plants have thorny leaves. The
foliage of yew, arbor-vitaB, ledum, rhododendron, oleander, and lauro-
cerasus is poisonous ; and the palatableness of the leaves of pine and
spruce, of laurel, ivy, and box, is at least very limited. Only the com-
mon underwood, consisting mostly of plants of the heath family, which
are to a great extent covered during winter by leaves and snow, con-
tain food for animals in their leaves and twigs. These leaves are like-
wise defended against rots by the poison in the poisonous kinds, by
the hard, bright epidermis in the hollies, and presumably by chemical
qualities ; the heathsxcontain a coloring-matter.

526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. '

Among the fruits, the juicy ones are designed to be eaten by ani-
mals, which are to serve as the medium for scattering their seeds. It
is, therefore, of advantage to the plant to have its fruit valuable to
some animal. The fall season affords an excessive abundance of fruits,
but the best and most palatable ones are exposed to speedy destruction.
It is, therefore, an advantage to animals, especially to birds, and to the
plants likewise, if a few fruits have keeping qualities, that is, are able
to resist decay, even if it be partly at the expense of their pleasant
taste. This is the case, for example, with the berries of juniper, yew,
holly, viburnum, and cowberry, whose persistence appears to depend
partly on a hard epidermis, partly on chemical qualities ; on an ethereal
oil in the juniper-berry, apparently on benzoic acid in the cowberry.
Ivy-berries do not ripen till winter.

Seeds are protected by their hard casings or by chemical substances.
The poison contained in seeds may in part answer the purpose of
preventing their being consumed by animals ; but many seeds, as for
instance the aromatic seeds of the umbelliferaB and other plants, con-
tain not poisonous but antiseptic substances. The fatty oil, which is
so abundantly present in seeds, is perhaps as valuable as a means
of protection as for food. The oil as well as the shell of the seed
prevents the entrance of water at low temperatures ; and, unless
water is present, the dry seed can not be attacked by the germs of
decay.

If we survey the vegetable products that afford active chemical
agents, we shall find that they are predominantly the bark, roots, and
seeds. The coloring-matters, the bitter products, the alkaloids, and
the poisonous substances are for the most part obtained from these
organs. The leaves which afford such powerful matters are generally
evergreen. Indeed, there are poisonous plants (among the nightshades,
Araceee, and Personates) and certain poisonous bushes (dogbanes and
cashews) which are protected by this quality against the teeth of ani-
mals. The ethereal oils serve further in many plants, as among the
labiates, the rues, the myrtles, and some geraniums, for protection
against the heat of the sun, the reduction of temperature produced by
the evaporation of the oils compensating in some degree for the insuf-
ficiency of the water which the plants are able to draw from the soil.
Aside from these particular cases, however, chemically differentiated
substances do not occur abundantly in the leaves or the wood of sum-
mer-green plants. Yet a protection of the wood against the germs of
decay is evidently not at all superfluous. Wounds are often made
upon trees by mechanical injuries, dying limbs, etc., from which decay
may penetrate to the interior of the tree. Hence, we quite often find
the wood rotten in the interior of a living tree. It is, therefore, also
an advantage if the wood is defended against the attacks of rot by its
finer texture, by gums, or by antiseptic substances like camphor, quas-
sine, berberin, or columbin.

THE TOPMOST COUNTRY OF THE EARTH. S27

The great diversity of the chemical combinations that plants, in-
stead of applying for their proper growth, store up in their tissues as
a means of protection against the heat of the sun, the lower fungi, or
animals, is really astonishing. Even in the liverworts we meet differ-
ent substances neither the chemical nature nor the biological impor-
tance of which is clearly enough known. Among the ferns, only the
under-ground stems are endowed with substances of strong qualities.
Only single groups among the monocotyledonous plants, and of these
the leaves (Aracece) or the flowers (Mielanthacece, lilies) of which show
a higher organization, possess acrid poisons or alkaloids or aromatic
substances. Among the conifers and dicotyledonous plants the strong
substances are very widely diffused in the more enduring kinds.

We have not considered the coloring-matters and odors of the
flowers and fruits in this sketch, for they do not serve for protection,
but to attract animals.

It is worthy of remark that plants which produce particular sub-
stances may be naturalized in regions in which those substances are
not required by them. The labiates and rues, which originally be-
longed to hot climates, still produce ethereal oils in Northern and
Central Europe, although they no longer need protection against the
hot sun. Closer reflection on the facts we have set forth will show
that the real relation must be properly presented as a whole.

Numerous observations, nevertheless, are still necessary in individ-
ual cases to make the true significance of each particular phenomenon
clear.— Kosmos.

4r++

THE TOPMOST COUNTKY OF THE EAETH.

By LnsinsHABT G. KKEITLEE.

THE name Thibet, as we call that highland, the natural isolation
of which gives it a unique position in the world, is not known
among the people who inhabit it. The Thibetans call their country
Bod, or Bod-yirl ; the inhabitants of the northern slopes near the great
desert call it Tungut ; the Chinese, Si-fan. The highland proper rises
in the form of a huge elongated segment of a circle from the adjacent
lowlands, and is formed by Nature herself, through the sharply denned
rocky precipices that inclose it on every side, into a separate part of
the world. The country is bordered on the south by the heaven-aspir-
ing crests of the Himalayan system, consisting of three nearly parallel
ranges, the southernmost of which forms the real roof of the Thibetan
highland. Impenetrable tropical woods rising from the fever-breeding
forest and swamp lands are met at a considerable height by the pine-
growths, the whole forming a wonderful panorama ; above these rise

528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, ■

-

the rocky walls bearing in their clefts the eternal ice which glitters
and sparkles in the clear sunlight like a gigantic diamond. Similar in
structure, but made more imposing by the fact that the steep precipices
are planted directly on the untilled plain of the Tarim basin, without
any notable intermediate slopes, rises the extreme chain of the Kuen-
lun system as the northern boundary of the Thibetan highland. The
western boundary is formed by the chain of the Karakorum, with its
Triassic and Carboniferous formations, and the furrowed Pamir plain ;
and the eastern boundary by the curved declivities of the Himalaya
system itself, descending with a somewhat more gentle slope toward
China. Penetrated by numerous streams which, as a whole, main-
tain a north and south course, the intervening mountain-regions
present formidable impediments to communication. The traveler is
overlooked from all directions by icy mountain-peaks that rise to an
average height of at least twenty thousand feet. The high table-land
itself presents a sad aspect. The enormous height and the climatal
conditions dependent upon it restrict vegetation within a narrow limit.
No trees are found there, or cultivated fields, no flowers or fruits ; and
the green spots on which the stunted lavender maintains a precarious
existence may be counted among the broad basins filled with gravel
and pebbles. The winds bring no moisture. The sparse snow-falls
of the year are not enough to impart productivity to the earth, and
the plateau is nearly destitute of animal and plant life.

The Thibetan settlements are almost entirely situated in the valleys
of the larger rivers, which the relatively lower situation, the higher
degree of moisture in the atmosphere, and the possibility of irrigation
enable the inhabitants to bring to a measure of tillability. A certain
degree of fertility of the soil of the capital can not be denied. Two
principal rivers have their sources at a nodal point in the Himalayas,
whence they cross the more southern country and India from left to
right. They are the Indus in the west and the Sampo in the east.
The course of the Indus is well known and marked, but all that has
been ascertained of the Sampo is that it maintains a nearly easterly
course to southeast of Lassa, after which it is still in doubt whether
it becomes the Brahmapootra or the Irrawaddy.

The climate is very severe. The temperature in winter often falls
to from 13° to 22° below zero ; all the rivers and lakes are covered
with ice as early as November, and even in April the sun has not
acquired vivifying force enough to melt their crystal surfaces.

No European is allowed to pass over the southern boundary of
this country. The East Indian Government has made several at-
tempts to gather information about it, but has been baffled. Colonel
Montgomery, a few years ago, conceived the idea of instructing young
Indian Buddhists in geography, and sending them to Thibet in the
guise of natives. Carrying only indispensable instruments with them,
they have been exploring the plateau since 1865, and have till recently

THE TOPMOST COUNTRY OF THE EARTH. 529

returned regularly to India with valuable information. The suspicion
of the Thibetans was, however, at last aroused, and a pundit sent in
1879 was not allowed to reach Lassa, but, some of his words having
been overheard and his mission divined, he was compelled to flee, leav-
ing most of his baggage behind him. An imperfect map of the coun-
try was made in the beginning of the eighteenth century, by order of
the Emperor of China, with the aid of the Roman Catholic mission-
aries, but its data rest upon report rather than upon the results of
actual observation. It has been, however, the foundation on which all
our maps of the region have had to rest.

The Thibetan legend of the origin of the people is that, in the
beginning, only one man and his three sons lived on the table-land.
They had no houses or tents, but led a migratory life, without being
troubled with the cares of existence, for the land was not then desert,
or poor, or cold. Trees were growing which afforded choice fruits,
rice flourished without man having to labor to raise it, and the tea-
plant thrived in the fields that Buddha afterward changed into stony
places. Thibet was then all the more a fortunate, rich land, because
these four men, then the only living creatures in the world, knew
nothing of war and contention, but lived in unity and peace. At last
the father suddenly died. Each of his sons wanted his body, to dis-
pose of it in his own way. This was the first dispute. The corpse
lay for some days on a large rock, and the sons avoided one another.
At last the eldest son made a proposition : " Why should we be
alienated because a misfortune has happened to us all in common ?
Let us be agreed, and divide the body." They all accepted the
proposition. The corpse was divided into three parts, and each son
took a part. The eldest son got the head. He went away toward the
east, and became the father of the Chinese, who excel in craft and
have great skill in trade. The second son was satisfied with his dead
father's limbs. He also left his home and settled where the great
Desert of Gobi gives his posterity, the Mongols, plenty of room ;
their characteristic is restlessness. The youngest son received the
breast and bowels. He remained in Thibet, and from him are de-
scended the Thibetan people, who are distinguished in ordinary inter-
course by good nature, openness, and cordiality, in war by courage and
enthusiasm.

The knowledge that Ptolemy had of the country consisted of ob-
scure sketches which were closely connected with stories of the Chinese
capital. Herodotus tells something of the wealth of the land in gold.
He says that the gold was found by ants and collected by them into
large heaps which were guarded by griffins ; and he also tells that a
number of Hindoos once got into the country at night when the
guardians were asleep, gathered up as much gold as they could carry
away on their shoulders, and went back to their homes rich.

The expedition of> Count Szechenyi, to which I was attached as a
vol. xxi. — 34

5 3o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

geographer, was permitted, a little more than a year ago (in 1880), to
add a little to our geographical knowledge of the eastern part of the
Thibetan highland, particularly of the table of Chung-yen, where no
European had ever before penetrated. The priests used every means
in their power to prevent our carrying out our project of going to
Lassa ; and, when they at last came out against us with a thousand
soldiers, we were compelled to leave the main road and force our way
to the south.

The Thibetans belong to the great Mongolian race, but they are
distinguished in many respects, and to their advantage, from their con-
geners, the Mongols proper and the Chinese. The external character-
istics which they have more or less in common with them are the
small black eyes, the prominent cheek-bones, the flattened nose, large
mouth, and thin lips. They are, like all mountaineers, stout and strong.
When I saw Thibetans for the first time at Ta-tsien-lu, I was prepos-
sessed with them. They had come down out of the high mountains
and wild clefts expressly to see us Europeans. The contrast between
them and the Chinese was made clear not only by their imposing ap-
pearance, but also by their earnest quietude and the grave demeanor
they maintained in the midst of the crowd of shrieking and boisterous
Chinese townsmen. These robust, muscular figures, with weather-
browned, wrinkled, thin, earnest faces, were the people called " wild "
by the Chinese ; and their black, deep-set eyes, framed in a tangled
forest of straggling hair, glowed with the fierce fire of religious fanati-
cism.

The men are always armed, if not with a Chinese matchlock, with
the sword of their country, a weapon often of marvelous workmanship,
having the hilt adorned with turquoises and the sheath richly chased.
Every one wears on his breast, as an amulet against evil spirits, a cas-
ket of gold, silver, or copper, containing various forms of incantation.
The women and girls, with their two braids of raven hair, their bright-
ly colored, chubby cheeks, their ample drapery, and their precious or-
naments of metal and jewels, drive their puny Chinese rivals quite out
of the field of comparison. Variety rules in the Thibetan dress, par-
ticularly in the arrangement of the women's hair. Sometimes it is
worn in two braids, sometimes re-enforced with great structures of
yak-hair ; always, if the wearer is able, adorned with jewels, silver or-
naments, or strings of coins. The women's faces are never clean, but
the custom prevails of soiling them purposely.

Their dwellings are situated, either scattered or in little hamlets,
wherever tillable soil can be found. Their houses rather resemble de-
fensive towers than residences : they are made of drift-stones, of one
story or more, and are expected to accommodate the domestic animals
as well as the family ; and, if the house is of one story only, the ar-
rangement is apt to be rather promiscuous. The separation is more
effective if the house has an additional story ; but in the houses of

THE TOPMOST COUNTRY OF THE EARTH. 531

the better class the only means provided for the family to reach the
upper stories are split trunks of trees, with notches for steps cut in the
round side. The rooms are dark and gloomy, well ventilated through
the half-stopped chinks in the walls, with a fire in the middle of the
floor, and light bunks or the floor itself for beds, but innocent of any
other furniture except a low table and two or three skin mats ; chairs
and benches are known only by hearsay. The only roof is a flat plat-
form over the rooms, on which the crops are spread in dry weather
and the inhabitants sun themselves in the winter, and where a shrine
of Buddha is often erected. The nomadic, cattle-raising Thibetans
live in tents, which they weave from the hair of their domestic ani-
mals.

The Thibetans are pleasantly disposed, and intercourse with them
would be cordial and agreeable were not the free development of their
natural traits restricted by the pressure of their religion. Frank and
hearty in word and deed and in everything that is not connected with
religion, generous in intercourse and in trade with the crafty Chinese,
they always come out second best when they have dealings with them.
They are brave soldiers and feared as such, but are never cruel. The
men are fond of gymnastic exercises, and try their strength to-
gether at every opportunity. They are excellent pedestrians and
. horsemen, and are extravagantly proud if they can boast of having
the best horse in the place. As porters they have wonderful powers
of endurance. While we Europeans, suffering in the thin air of an
elevation of seventeen thousand feet, had to stop often to recover our
breaths, I could not but envy our Thibetan bearers, who kept on up
the heights with their heavy loads, as often as not singing. Their
social intercourse is marked by sharp, sprightly wit and humor ; but
some of the upper classes ape the artificial courtly manners of the
Chinese.

The principal food of the country is called Jamba. To make it a
quantity of powdered tea is cooked for several hours, after which it is
poured into a churn, when salt and butter are added, and the whole is
stirred till a complete mixture is effected. The broth is then divided
among the hungry ones, each of whom gets his share in a wooden
bowl, after which a sack of roasted barley-meal is brought out. Every
one takes a handful of meal from the sack, puts it into the tea and
mixes the mass into a shapely lump, and swallows his dough with a
keen appetite. I have seen a Thibetan devour thirty-two of these
lumps in .an hour. The preparation of this meal makes it possible for
each Thibetan to have his hands washed twice a day. After the meal
is over, the wooden bowls are licked clean with the tongue, and worn
on the breast next to the skin as something precious.

Polyandry is practiced, not on account of any lack of women, for
there is no such lack, but as a measure of economy. When the eldest
son marries, his wife becomes also the wife of all his brothers. The

532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE -MONTHLY.

custom does not lead to so many difficulties as it might be supposed it
would, and the chief troubles arising out of it concern the fatherhood
of the children. The housewife occupies rather a commanding than
a subordinate position.

Three ways of burying the dead prevail. The poor sink their
dead in one of the mountain-streams ; those of a better class hang
the bodies upon a tree, where they are consumed by birds, and the
bones are afterward thrown into the river ; the rich cut the bodies up
into small pieces, pound the bones and mix them with Jamba, and
then carry the remains to the mountains, where they are left for
the birds. These are old customs, and have no connection with
religion.

Buddhism was introduced in the seventh century, and soon became
the national religion. The present line of Dalai Lamas is in succession
to the reformer Tsong-Kaba, who flourished in the fourteenth century,
and denounced the corruptions into which the religion had fallen. The
branch of the church which it represents is called the yellow sect, in
distinction from the red sect of followers of the old dynasty, which
prevails in the principalities of the southern Himalaya range. A dy-
nasty of lamas, the Teshu lamas, founded by another reformer in the
fifteenth century, resides at Teshulumbo, near Shigatze, and is on the
best of terms with the Dalai Lamas. The lamas are believed only to
change form when they die, their identity passing to some child. So,
on the demise of the Dalai Lama, the new lama is sought out in ways
that are known to the priests, and is always found in some obscure
family, thus leaving people of any influence always free from gov-
ernmental care and influence. He is carefully brought up, so as to be
always as a child, and under the entire control of the priests, who re-
ceive their reward in the power they exercise, and in the rich gifts
that are brought by the pilgrims who come from all Buddhist coun-
tries to seek the Dalai Lama's blessing. Besides the two orthodox
chiefs, there exist in Thibet and Mongolia one hundred and three
Kutuktus, or heads of cloisters, to whom an immortality similar to
that of the Grand Lamas is ascribed.

The priests, by virtue of their ownership of all the land in the
country, exercise a despotic power over the people, who can hold only
as their tenants, and keep them under complete spiritual control. They
are thus enabled to keep the country isolated, and to defy the Chinese
Government, while they are willing and even anxious to enjoy its pro-
tection.

SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD. 533

SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD.

BARON NORDENSKIOLD has been styled by Germans the
Vasco de Gama of our century. His work is solid and original
enough to stand by itself, and need not be compared or contrasted
with that of any other. The careful, systematic pursuit of a well-
formed purpose, with the full benefit of the experience of past navi-
gators, with a well-defined idea of what was expected to be accom-
plished, and of how it was to be done, with scientific foresight
displayed at every step, can not with justice to either be weighed in
the same scale with the bold achievements of the hardy adventurers
of former centuries who, starting without the aid of any of the knowl-
edge which has now been accumulated, and without definite notions
of where they should go or what they would find, discovered what the
fortunes of the wind and the waves brought in their way. The char-
acter of Nordenskiold's work and the manner in which it was per-
formed mark, however, the difference in the methods of research
which were available in the past and those which we enjoy and
employ at present. In this sense only can a just comparison be made
between Nordenskiold and the explorers of other centuries.

Baron Nordenskiold is not only a most successful Arctic explorer
and navigator, as he is best known : he has done excellent work in
other branches of science, and has contributed to knowledge from
many directions ; and the pages of his narratives of voyages bear evi-
dence to the fact of his versatility, that no event or thing that may
add to knowledge is unobserved or unemployed by him ; that he
knows how to lay all under contribution for the advancement of
knowledge. What is most attractive about him, says Dr. Karl Mtiller,
of Halle, " is not the splendid achievement of his polar journeys, but
the irrepressible perseverance with which he exerted himself through
years at a time to pass from small beginnings to ever bolder and more
practical problems. While the navigation of the northeast passage
may always be regarded as the brightest among his discoveries, Nor-
denskiold was, through all his previous history, a whole man."

Baron Nordenskiold enjoyed the advantage of an ancestry distin-
guished through several generations for scientific attainments. "Nat-
ure " says, in its biography of the explorer : " The race from which
Nordenskiold sprang had been known for centuries for the posses-
sion of remarkable qualities, among which an ardent love of nature
and of scientific research was predominant. Its founder is said to
have been a Lieutenant Nordberg, who was settled in Upland about
the beginning of the seventeenth century. His son, Johan Eric, born
in 1660, changed the name to Nordenberg. He died in 1740, leaving
two sons, Anders Johan and Carl Frederik, both of whom, though the

534 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

latter was only lieutenant, were elected members of the Swedish Acad-
emy of Sciences when it was founded in 1739. Carl Frederik is the
common ancestor of the families bearing the name of Nordenskiold
now living in Sweden and Finland. One of his many remarkable sons,
the third in order, Colonel Adolf Gustaf Nordenskiold, became owner
of Frugord, in Finland. This property, situated in a forest-crowned
valley in the department of Nyland, is still in the possession of the
Nordenskiolds. Here Colonel Adolf Gustaf Nordenskiold built a
peculiar residence, the middle of which is taken up with a hall two
stories high, round the upper part of which runs a broad gallery, in
which collections in natural history are arranged. His youngest son,
Nils Gustaf, was born in 1792. After passing his examination in min-
ing at the University of Upsala, he was for several years the pupil of
Berzelius, with whom he formed the warmest friendship, which was
only broken off by death. Nils Gustaf, early known as a distinguished
mineralogist, was appointed a government inspector of mines in his
native country, and, by means of liberal grants of public money, was
enabled to undertake extensive foreign tours, which brought him into
communication with most of the eminent mineralogists and chemists
of the day in England, France, and Germany. After three years of
foreign travel he returned to Finland, and was promoted in 1824 to
be chief of the mining department, and devoted thirty years of restless
activity to the improvement of that important branch of the industry
of his native land. He traveled through Finland in all directions, in
the prosecution of his untiring mineralogical and geological researches.
His travels extended as far as the Ural. He published his views, dis-
coveries, and experiments in many scientific periodicals and in several
independent works, and a large number of minerals discovered by him
afford evidence of his keen research. He was made Councilor of
State, and obtained many distinctions for his scientific services from
the sovereign and from learned bodies. On February 21, 1866, he
ended his active life."

Adolf Eric Nordenskiold, the son of this Nils Gustaf, chief of
the mining department of Finland, and of his wife Margaretta Sofia von
Haartman, was born at Helsingfors, Finland, November 18, 1832, the
third in order of seven children. In his boyhood he was an industri-
ous collector of insects and minerals, and was permitted to accompany
his father in mineralogical excursions. Under the guidance of his
father, who, a pupil of Gahn and Berzelius, was an expert in those
matters, he acquired a skill in recognizing and collecting minerals
which proved of great service to him in the path of life he afterward
followed, and in the use of the blowpipe. He subsequently undertook
the charge of the rich mineral collection of Frugord, and made vaca-
tion tours, which were of great benefit to him. He studied for some
time with a private tutor, and was then sent to the gymnasium at
Borgo, where, according to his own accounts, he enjoyed an almost

SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD. 535

unlimited freedom, the teachers showing no inclination to meddle
much with the occupations of their pupils. He entered the University
. of Helsingfors in 1849, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of
chemistry, natural history, mathematics, physics, and particularly
mineralogy and geology. Having passed his candidate examination
in 1853, he accompanied his father on a mineralogical tour to the
Ural. In this expedition, according to Professor Fries, of Upsala,
was unconsciously laid in him the beginning out of which his later
expeditions grew. " It was an instance of the old eagle teaching the
young one to fly." After his return from this excursion, Nordenskiold
continued to prosecute his chemical and mineralogical studies with zeal.
The subject of his dissertation for the licentiate, " On the Crystalline
Forms of Graphite and Chondrodite," which was delivered on the 28th
of February, 1855, bore relation to them. During the following sum-
mer he was engaged upon a description of minerals found in Finland,
which was published in the fall. Various short papers on mineralogy
and molecular chemistry were published in the " Transactions of the
Finnish Scientific Society," and a paper on " The Mollusca of Finland "
was published by NordenskiGld, along with Dr. E. Nylander, in 1856,
in response to a prize question proposed by one of the faculty of the
university. While these studies were being prosecuted, young Nor-
denskiold had been appointed salaried curator of the mathematico-
physical faculty, and had obtained a post at the mining office as min-
ing engineer extraordinary, with inconsiderable pay, and an express
understanding that no service would be required from him in return.
He lost these positions in consequence of having been present at a
festival where too much freedom was given to the expression of polit-
ical feelings, and spent a few months abroad, working a part of the
time at Rore's laboratory in Berlin at researches in mineral analysis.
Returning to Finland, he secured a stipend for a line of study through
Europe in 1857 ; but at the " Promotion Festival " in that year, where
he was to take his master's and doctor's degrees, more liberal views
were aired, which Yon Berg, the governor of the Duchy, considered
treasonable, and Nordenskiold left Finland again, this time not to re-
turn as a fixed resident. The displeasure of the Government against
him was not, however, of long continuance, for he has been welcome
in Finland since 1862, and he might have been appointed Professor of
Mineralogy in the University of Helsingfors, had he been willing to
agree to give up politics. He became naturalized in Sweden, and soon
rose to eminence in public life and in science.

The 'Arctic voyages of Baron Nordenskiold began in 1858, when
he took part in the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen under Torell,
the chief of the Swedish Geological Survey. On his return, he was
appointed successor to Mosander in the Riks Museum at Stockholm,
where he immediately went to work, partly at the arrangement of the
museum, partly at the scientific researches which formed the subjects

536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. '

of several papers that were published in the " Transactions " of the
Academy of Sciences and of the Geological Society. He made con-
stant endeavors to enlarge the collections, with the result that by the
aid of the Swedish mineralogists and of the students, who co-oper-
ated with him, and in consequence of the extraordinary richness of the
Scandinavian Peninsula in rare and valuable minerals, the cabinet has
become one of the most considerable in Europe.

In 1861 he took part in the second expedition of Torell to Spitz-
bergen, expecting with that to end his excursions toward the pole, and
with that view married, in 1863, a Finnish lady, Anna Mannesheim,
daughter of ex-President Count Carl Mannesheim. He had, however,
already, in December, 1862, crossed on the ice from Sweden to Fin-
land, in order to make some investigations on the formation of sea-ice ;
and in 1864 he went with the third Swedish expedition to Finland,
the business of which was connected with the measurement of the arc
of the meridian. His destiny to become an Arctic explorer seems to
have been settled with this enterprise, and from it may be dated the
beginning of a purpose to conduct explorations on his own account
and after his own plans. The next year found him engaged in mineral
investigations in Sweden and Finland. In 1867 he went to Paris
as a member of the International Metric Commission, attended the
Exposition, and made the acquaintance of the men of science of the
south.

In 1868 ISTordenskiold went out as the head of the fourth Swedish
Arctic expedition, to which Mr. Oscar Dickson, the patron of his later
voyages, first gave his generous aid. In this voyage he sought to get
as near to the pole as possible, and the sensational achievement of it
was that the Sophia reached a higher latitude (81° 42') than had
been attained by any vessel in the old hemisphere. Far more scien-
tific importance is attached to the fact that the expedition brought
home a rich collection of the fossil plants of the Arctic regions, con-
cerning which but little had previously been known. Another expedi-
tion, in which Nordenskiold was accompanied by Dr. Berggren, was
dispatched to Greenland in 1870, having for its principal object to as-
certain whether the Esquimau dogs could be relied upon for long
sledge- journeys. This question was decided in the negative, but the
expedition brought forth scientific fruit second in value to that of no
other single one, in that it gave an opportunity to the brave student
who led it- to examine the remarkable ice-formation of the interior of
Greenland, and that it led to the discovery of the celebrated large
blocks of meteoric iron of Ovifak, concerning the origin of which a
lively scientific controversy has arisen, and which, the explorer himself
suggests, may at some future time " form the starting-point for quite
a new theory of the method of formation of the heavenly body we in-
habit."

Concerning the ice-formation, Baron Nordenskiold has written :

SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD. 537

"An excursion of some length was made into the wilderness of ice,
everywhere full of bottomless clefts, which occupies the interior of
Greenland, and which, if I except unimportant wanderings along the
edge, and an inconsiderable attempt in the same direction in the year
1728, by the Dane Dalager, was now, for the first time, trodden by
human foot. I had here an opportunity of clearing up the nature of
a formation which, during one of the latest geological ages, covered
a great part of the civilized countries of Europe, and which, though
it has given occasion to an exceedingly comprehensive literature in all
cultivated languages, had never before been examined by any geolo-
gist."

Another expedition, of two vessels, was fitted up in 1872, with the
design of attempting to reach the pole with reindeers, to which Lieu-
tenant Palander, the companion of his last voyage, was for the first
time attached. The ice was unusually unfavorable, and the winter
was spent in Mussel Bay, on the north of West Spitzbergen. Here
attention was first called to the presence of dust of cosmic origin con-
taining nickel-iron, the agency of which as a possible factor in build-
ing up the earth's crust is discussed with considerable fullness in the
"Voyage of the Vega"; more complete researches on the aurora
and its spectrum were carried on ; investigations were made on the
development of algae during the winter night of four months ; numer-
ous new contributions to a knowledge of polar countries during former
geological epochs were discovered ; and a complete series of meteoro-
logical and magnetic observations was made in the most northerly
latitude where such observations had up to this time been carried on.
With this expedition Nordenskiold's efforts to reach the pole ceased.
He had become convinced by his repeated voyages that there was no
open sea at the pole ; and he had his attention drawn to the " more
practical problem, which had interested the foremost commercial states
and the most daring navigators for three hundred years, and geogra-
phers for thousands of years " — that of forcing a northeast passage to
China and Japan, and the circumnavigation of the Old World.

In 1875 he succeeded, with the walrus-hunting sloop Proeven, in
sailing over the Kara Sea as far as to the mouth of the Yenisei, whence
he put himself in communication with the river-steamers to Yeniseisk ;
and whence he returned by land, while his companions came back by
sea to Europe. By this voyage, he says, " I was the first person who
succeeded in penetrating from the Atlantic Ocean in a vessel to the
mouths of the great Siberian rivers. One of the objects which the
old northeast voyagers had aimed at was at last accomplished, and
that in a way that promised to be of immense practical importance for
the whole of Siberia. The voyage was also regarded in that light by
leading men of the great empire of the East, and our return journey
from Yeniseisk by Krasnojarsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizh-
nee-Kovgorod, Mosqow, and St. Petersburg became, therefore, a jour-

538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ney from fete to fete. But a number of voices were simultaneously
raised, which asserted that the success of the Proeven depended on an
accidental combination of fortunate circumstances which would not
soon occur again. In order to show that this was not the case, and
that I might myself bring the first goods by sea to Siberia, I under-
took my second voyage to the Yenisei in 1876, in which I penetrated
with the steamer Ymer, not only to the mouth of the river, but also
up the river to Yakovieva in 71° north latitude. Hence I returned
the same year by sea to Europe."

Between these two voyages, Baron Nordenskiold found time to
visit our International Exhibition at Philadelphia, in connection with
which his name is recorded as one of the judges in the group of pot-
tery, glass, artificial stone, etc., and as an exhibitor of maps. " And it
may deserve to be mentioned," he says, " that, leaving New York on
the 1st of July by one of the ordinary steamers, and going on board
my own vessel in Norway, I reached the mouth of the Yenisei on the
15th of August — that is to say, in forty-six days."

The voyages of the Proeven and the Ymer led to several purely
commercial voyages to the Yenisei and the Obi. After his return from
the second voyage, he became fully satisfied, in the light of his own
experience and of the old explorations of the north coast of Asia, that
the open navigable water, which for two years in succession had car-
ried him across the Kara Sea, formerly of so bad repute, to the mouth
of the Yenisei, extended in all probability as far as Behring Strait,
and that a circumnavigation of the Old World was thus within the
bounds of possibility.

He conceived the idea of a new voyage, the purpose of which was
to pass through the whole extent of the Arctic Ocean to Behring
Strait, and thence around the continent back to Stockholm. He so-
licited an audience with the king, the scientific men, and Arctic voy-
agers of the country. It was given him on the 27th of January, 1877,
and he came to it fully prepared with a statement of his purposes and
his reasons for considering them feasible. Besides "the world-histori-
cal navigation problem," which would be solved by the success of the
enterprise, he suggested that " extensive contributions of immense im-
portance ought also to be obtainable regarding the geography, hydrog-
raphy, zoology, and botany of the Siberian polar sea ; and beyond
Behring Strait the expedition will meet with other countries having
a more luxuriant and varied nature, where other questions which per-
haps concern us less, but on that account are not of less importance
for science as a whole, will claim the attention of the observer and yield
him a rich reward for his labor and pains."

He received the encouragement and aid he asked for, and was able
to sail in July, 1878, on a new expedition, the complete success of
which is a matter of history, and the ultimate results of which, in the
opening of new branches and lines of trade, and the bringing to pos-

SKETCH OF BARON ADOLF ERIC NORDENSKIOLD. 539

sible productiveness of an immense region hitherto supposed to be
consigned to the dominion of ice, can not as yet be adequately esti-
mated.

The value of his work was appreciated by the people with whom
he came in contact during the course of the voyage. On the arrival
of the expedition of 1875 at the Lena, the Dolgans at that remote
spot on the border of the tundra, " when they understood clearly that
we had come to them not as brandy-sellers or fish-buyers from the
south, but from the north, from the ocean, went into complete ec-
stasies .... At Dudino, also, the priests living there held a thanks-
giving service for our happy arrival thither." The voyage home,
around the Pacific coast and by the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal,
was marked by a series of festivities given at every point where the
Vega touched. At Yeddo the navigators were greeted with deputa-
tions, bearing addresses of welcome and invitations, and were given
a lunch with the Mikado, and a special audience with his Majesty.
Similar scenes were repeated, with such variations as circumstances
made appropriate, at Hong-Kong, Cairo, Naples, Lisbon, Paris, Copen-
hagen, and Stockholm. At Naples, the expedition was welcomed
back to Europe by the representative of King Oscar of Sweden, who
also conferred Swedish decorations on Baron Nordenskiold and Lieu-
tenant Palander ; an Italian officer came down from Turin commis-
sioned by the Government, and bearing the welcomes of several munici-
palities and scientific societies, with Italian orders for the men of the
Vega. At Lisbon, in addition to the usual audiences and receptions,
the Portuguese Chamber of Deputies voted a welcome and a congratu-
latory address. Circumstances prevented the public demonstrations
which had been arranged for in England from being held, but the
visit of Nordenskiold and Palander to London was made pleasant by
the hospitality of the most distinguished scientific men of the king-
dom. At Paris a public reception was given by the Geographical
Society; the commanders' and officers' insignia of the Legion of Honor
were conferred by the Minister of Education, at a meeting of the
delegates of twenty-eight learned societies held in the Sorbonne ; a wel-
come was given by the Institute followed by a festive reception by
the Municipal Council ; numerous dinners were eaten, and medals
were liberally distributed. Invitations to Holland and Belgium had
to be declined " from want of time and strength to take part in more
festivities." The entrance to Stockholm was made through a thick
fleet of excursion-steamers gayly decorated, and under a brilliant illu-
mination of the city ; and, after the first enthusiastic welcomes, "fUe
followed fete for several weeks." Writing of this expedition, Dr.
Karl Miiller says, in "Die Natur," that u among the most recent
voyages none has been so splendidly planned, none undertaken
with such noble means and pursued with such eminent scientific suc-
cess as the circumnavigation of Europe and Asia by Nordenskiold

54o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and his companions." Of the series of voyages to Spitzbergen, " Na-
ture" says: "These expeditions were not undertaken for the mere
purpose of creating a sensation by the foolhardy feat of attempting
to reach the pole at all hazards. Geographical discovery certainly
formed a part of the programme of all the expeditions in which Xor-
denskiold has been engaged ; " and it contrasts the results — of the first
importance, and obtained with a modest expenditure — strongly with
those of r< the expensive and elaborately equipped expedition in the
Alert and Discovery." Speaking in 1879, while the last expedition
was still in progress, " Xature " said, " Comparatively young as Pro-
fessor Xordenskiold is, he has done an amount of work rarely accom-
plished even in a long life-time." And in February of this year, re-
viewing his whole work, it said : " Thus no one man has done half so
much as Baron Xordenskiold for a scientific exploration of the Arctic
regions. The most striking characteristics of his various expeditions
have been the small expense at which they were conducted, their mod-
est but carefully considered equipment, the clear and scientific meth-
ods on which they were planned, and the wealth and high value of the
results obtained." Baron Xordenskiold is now preparing for another
expedition.

Baron Xordenskiold represented the capital of Sweden in the Diet
from 1869 to 1871, and was instrumental in bringing about some im-
portant legislative measures for the promotion of science.

Personally, Baron Xordenskiold is a genial man. His modesty
and aversion to public display, which are well known and recognized,
are quite remarkable in his " Voyage of the Vega," where he shuts his
personality wholly out of sight, and devotes his attention, with an ex-
clusiveness which is rare among travelers, to the account of what he
observed and learned. Yet he loses no occasion to introduce his com-
panions and their labors, and to give them full credit. So complete is
his sinking of himself that it has been impossible to find anything in
that work with which to illustrate his personality for the purposes of
this sketch.

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 541

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES.

Says "Blackwood's Magazine": "The man who first suggested an

electric telegraph, in a letter to the 'Scots Magazine' in the year 1745, Charles
Marshall, was looked on as having dealings with the Evil One, and had to leave
his native country and go to America. When Ronalds, about the year 1817, laid
his plans for an electric telegraph before the English Government, they would
not even take the trouble to investigate the matter. An under secretary, in the
usual official style, wrote him that he was l directed by his Majesty's Secretary of
State, etc., to inform Mr. Ronalds that a telegraph is of no use in time of peace,
and that in time of war the semaphore then in use was quite sufficient for the
purpose.'" And as late as 1879 one of the "most able and experienced elec-
tricians of the day " was in a state of mind to say before a select committee
that he did not think the telephone would be much used in England; that he
fancied the descriptions they got of its use in America were a little exaggerated ;
" but there are conditions in America which necessitate the use of instruments
of this kind more than here. Here we have a superabundance of messengers,
errand-boys, and things of that kind. In America they are wanted."

Tanner, in his narrative of a captivity among the North American In-
dians, says that, when a certain chief named Picheto was one night much alarmed
by a furious storm, he got and offered some tobacco to the thunder, entreating
it to stop.

Prisons as Clinics. — Dr. Maudsley remarks: "Another promising but

strangely neglected field of inquiry is a study of criminals. The time will come,
ought to have come now, when prisons shall be used for the systematic investi-
gation of the antecedents, and for the clinical study of the varieties of the crimi-
nal nature, just as asylums are used for the clinical study of diseased minds, hos-
pitals for the study of diseased bodies. It may not be doubted whether half the
books that have been written on moral philosophy would be worth one good
book, by an earnest and industrious inquirer, who should undertake the scien-
tific study of the inmates of a single prison."

Jfax Muller says, in his sketch of Kant, that for the last twenty years

of his life he always had guests at dinner — two to five — that he demanded punc-
tuality, that the guests proceeded to the dining-room talking of no subject more
profound than the weather, that politics (and we may add science, natural his-
tory, etc.) was a frequent subject of conversation, but anything of the nature of
metaphysics was rigorously excluded. Though of a very slender constitution,
all his life through Kant had managed to keep himself in health by persistent
adherence to certain maxims of diet and regimen. One of these was that the
germs of disease might often be avoided if the breathing were systematically car-
ried on by the nose ; and for that reason Kant always in his later years walked
alone with mouth closed. He was also careful to avoid perspiration. He walked
after dinner alone, and then attended to business or read newspapers and mis-
cellaneous books. As the darkness began to fall, he would take his seat at the
stove, and, with his eye fixed on the tower of Lobenicht church, would ponder
on the problems which exercised his mind. One evening, however, as he looked,
a change had occurred — the church-tower was no longer visible. His neighbor's

542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

poplars had grown so fast that at last, without his being aware, they had hid the
turret behind them. Kant, deprived of the material support which had steadied
his speculations, was completely thrown out. Fortunately, his neighbors were
generous — the tops of the poplars were cut, and Kant could reflect at his ease
again.

The manuscript of Mill's " Logic " was first sent to the publisher Murray,

who, after keeping it so long as to occasion a year's delay in its publication, de-
clined it. It was next offered to Parker, who accepted it, and sent the opinion
of his referee, in the writer's own hand, withholding the name. ''He forgot,"
said Mill, " that I had been an editor, and knew the handwriting of nearly every
literary man of the day." The referee was Dr. W. Cooke Taylor, who after-
ward was one of the reviewers of the book.

Carriage- Fares in New YorTc and London. — A writer in the " Tribune,"

describing the carriage system of large cities, says: "Briefly put, the legal rates
for cabs and carriages in New York are fifty cents a mile and fifty cents a half-
hour, with no fare less than one dollar. In London the cab rate is twenty -five-
cents for any distance under two miles, and thirteen cents for each additional
mile ; just one fourth the rate .in New York." Who would live under mo-
narchical extravagance, when they can have republican simplicity at four times
the price ?

Infinitesimal Scale of Molecular Systems. — Life is a stream of attri-
butes that flows along from generation to generation, each kind being, as it
were, a special channel for special characters. But the everlasting wonder is,
how all the characteristics of a species can be embodied in a germ so as to be
reproduced by growth ; and still more amazing is it how the nicer shades of
organic modification are also transmitted by the germ so as to become hereditary.
In some way the systems of organic molecules must be capable of taking and
retaining an infinite number of inconceivably delicate impressions ; for with
the myriad forms of life there must be formed myriads of molecular modifica-
tions of germ structure. Dr. Flint says that the head of a human spermatozoon

is -j-oVo °f an incn l°n&i ToVo °f an incn broad, and ^sloo °f an iQcn m thick-
ness; and Professor Du Bois-Reymond says if this head is assumed to be as large
as the Great Eastern, and packed throughout with machinery as fine as the finest
ladies' watch, even this would fail to represent the fineness of the system of
molecular machinery that actually fills the head of the real spermatozoon.

According to Mr. Lockyer, the Egyptians are stated to have recorded

373 solar and 832 lunar eclipses ; and he says this statement is probably true as
the proportions are exact, and there should be the above number of each in from
twelve hundred to thirteen hundred years.

The " Saturday Review " notices, as an instance of the reduction to ab-
surdity of the conjectural method, the efforts ot M. de Gubernatis to interpret
the multiform stories of the cat and allusions to the cat in folk-lore, as parts of
the great system of solar myths. With M. ae Gubernatis, the cat with white
ears in a fairy tale is the "morning twilight, ' or ' the moon which chases the
mice of night." A chattering oat appears in a Russian fairy story, and is killed
in the territory of a hostile sultan. M. de Gubernatis explains that the sultan is
''the wintry night," but leaves us in the dark as to what the chattering cat is.
A cat is metamorphosed in a tale by Madame d'Aulnay into a woman who wears
a dress of thin white gauze, set off with rose-colored taffeta, the gauze and rose-
colored taffeta being inventions of the author's fancy which she has added to the

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. $43

original story. M. de Gubernatis does not see them in this light, but regards
them as something highly mythical, and as signifying that the white cat was the
moon, and became the dawn. So in iEsop's fable of the cat-woman, that the
bride went to bed must mean that " the evening aurora sinks into night." " The
Italians describe an empty house by saying, ' There was not even a cat there.'
But do they mean that the house is deserted, even by the home-loving, domestic
puss ? Nothing so commonplace. The proverb is derived from the sun entering the
night, where he finds nothing, or ' only the cat moon.' Black cats are not black
cats, but they are the moonless night. ' The cat in the bag of the proverb has
probably a diabolical allusion ! ' When a German invalid sees two cats fight, he
thinks it a bad omen. "Why ? Because, in M. de Gubernatis's opinion, the cats
'represent, perhaps, night and twilight.' It seems to be held that men take no
interest in anything except so far as it may be considered a symbol of night or
light. When monies parturiunt, and nascitur ridiculus mas (the mountains labor
and a ridiculous mouse is born), the reference is not to the immensity of the la-
bor and the minute results. Oh, no ; ' from the mountain came forth the mice of
night, the shadows of the night, to which the cat moon and cat twilight give
chase.' . . . ' When the cat's away the mice will play.' What does this mean?
It means that ' the shadows of night dance when the moon is absent,' which is
precisely what they do not do. ISTo moon, no shadows, still less any shadow-
dance. The most ordinary truths of experience are not only set aside, but re-
versed, by the method of M. de Gubernatis, a method from which not even poor
puss has escaped."

Baron von Nordenskiold, in his "Voyage of the Vega," gives a pleas-
ant account of the domestic life of the Chukches, the tribe that inhabits the
northeasternmost part of Asia. "Within the family," he says, " the most remark-
able unanimity prevails, so that we never heard a hard word exchanged, either
between man and wife, parents and children, or between the married pair who
own the tent and the unmarried who occasionally live in it. The power of the
woman appears to be very great. In making the more important bargains, even
about weapons and hunting implements, she is as a rule consulted, and her
advice is taken. A number of things which form women's tools she can barter
away 'on her own responsibility, or in any other way employ as she pleases.
When the man has by barter procured a piece of cloth, tobacco, sugar, or such
like, he generally hands it over to his wife to keep. The children are neither
chastised nor scolded ; they are, however, the best behaved I have ever seen.
Their behavior in the tent is equal to that of the best brought- up European
in the parlor. They are not, perhaps, so wild as ours, but are addicted to games
which closely resemble those common among us in the country. Playthings are
also in use, for instance dolls, bows, windmills with two sails, etc. If the parents
get any delicacy they always give each of their children a bit, and there is never
any quarrel as to the size of each child's portion. If a piece of sugar is given to
one of the children in a crowd, it goes from mouth to mouth round the whole
company. In the same way the child offers its father and mother a taste of the
bit of sugar or piece of bread it has got. Even in childhood the Chukches are
exceedingly patient. A girl who fell down from the ship's stair, head foremost,
and thus got so violent a blow that she was almost deprived of hearing, scarcely
nttered a cry. A boy, three or four years of age, much rolled up in furs, who
fell down into a ditch cut in the ice on the ship's deck, and in consequence of
his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay quietly still until he was observed
and helped by one of £he crew."

■>44-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

DU BOIS-REYMOND ON EXERCISE.

MAGAZINES are of two kinds:
the entertaining kind, which
cater to mental laziness, and can be
skimmed over without mental effort;
and the instructive kind, which con-
tain articles that must be read twice.
" The Popular Science Monthly," from
the start, has furnished a considerable
proportion of articles so weighted with
valuable thought as to require concen-
tration of mind and often careful re-
perusal to grasp and assimilate their
contents. This has provoked frequent
protests on the part of our readers, who
have complained that we deviate from
the magazine-standard of easy reading,
and are not true to our title, which
promises a magazine adapted to the pop-
ulace. Yes, but to the improvement of
the populace! The "Monthly" was
started for no other reason than be-
cause the standard of our current maga-
zines was low — too low to reflect the
best mental activity of the times. Their
aim is to amuse and beguile their read-
ers by calling forth the smallest possible
amount of mental reaction. "We started
because the popular magazines, com-
peting downward, shirked vigorous
work, and were false to the demands
of an age characterized beyond all oth-
ers for its intellectual seriousness, and
by the magnitude, importance, and prac-
tical quality of the questions that are
occupying the ablest minds in all coun-
tries. These minds can not be followed
— these questions can not be under-
stood— without effort on the reader's
part. This is the price that must be
paid for real knowledge. People can
not be amused into mental grasp and
vigor, they must be exercised into it.
We talk of mental progress, mental ele-

vation, mental expansion, but these are
attainable only on the condition of men-
tal exertion.

We print, in two parts, another of
those articles that have to be re-read to
get their full import. It is by Professor
Du Bois-Reymond, and is on "Exer-
cise," so that it is at the same time an
illustration and an exposition of our
subject. It is a most original and in-
structive statement, and will well repay
reperusal.

One of the inevitable effects of the
advancement of science in various di-
rections is the establishment of new
connections of thought which are often
most striking and significant. What
can Darwinism have to do with exer-
cise ? Restricting the term Darwinism,
as we must do, to natural selection,
Du Bois-Reymond shows that they are
very closely related. Viewing organic
nature mechanically, the series of living
beings has been unfolded during un-
limited time by adaptation to new con-
ditions, the course of movement being
in an ascending scale. " From this
point of view, organic nature appears
not only as a machine, but also as a
self-improving machine." But the law
of self-improvement is, that powers and
faculties are strengthened and grow by
exercise, and are weakened by non-
exercise. In the struggle for existence,
therefore, those will win and survive in
whom exercise has developed superior
capacities and resources, while the less
exercised and weaker fail and perish.
The principle of exercise is thus a kind
of motive-power in animal evolution,
and, as might be expected, is full of the
most important results in the higher
spheres of physiological and psychical
activity.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

545

The predominance of pugilism and
athletic sports, which depend upon
11 muscle," have favored the idea that
the chief influence and benefit of exer-
cise is upon the muscular system ; but
Professor Beymond shows that this is
an error. An important effect is, of
course, produced in the development
of the muscles, which is very fully and
interestingly traced out ; but by far
the most important and valuable influ-
ence of physical exercise is shown to
be upon the nervous centers. "It is
easy to show the error of the common
view, and demonstrate that such bodily
exercises as gymnastics, fencing, swim-
ming, riding, dancing, and skating are
much more exercises of the central
nervous system, of the brain and spinal
marrow. Every action of our body as
a motive apparatus depends not less but
more upon the proper co-operation of
the muscles than upon the force of their
contraction. In order to execute a
composite motion, like a leap, the mus-
cles must begin to work in the proper
order, and the energy of each one of
them must increase, halt, and diminish,
according to a certain law, so that the
result shall be the proper position of
the limbs, and the proper velocity of
the center of gravity in the proper di-
rection."

But when it is established that the
Central nervous system is not only
amenable to the law of exercise, but is
the chief object of its influence, we then
begin to see how the highest mental
effects are involved in the question.
Improvement by means of exercise and
deterioration from non-exercise apply
to the gray matter of the brain as well
as to the muscles. From this point of
view, which is that of the philosophy
of human educability, the subject has a
comprehensive interest, and we hope our
readers will recognize that, in furnish-
ing them articles that imply some effort
in their mastery, we are conforming to
the only law by which real mental im-
provement can be secured.
vol. xxi. — 35

MORE SIG3TS OF THE TIMES.

That there has been going forward
within the last few years a rapid lib-
eralization of public opinion on the
subjects that are in issue between sci-
ence and theology, everybody now ad-
mits ; and, having done what little we
could to promote this salutary result,
we are naturally interested in all the
striking indications of the growth of
toleration in quarters where it has been
previously but little looked for. We
called attention a few months ago to
the significance of a declaration made
by an eminent English doctor of divin-
ity that the appreciation of Herbert
Spencer's system of philosophy is u an
education to an age," and we have
now to take note of another liberal
concession of perhaps greater interest.

The Victoria Institute, a vigorous
English society of nearly a thousand
members, consisting chiefly of lords,
bishops, and clergymen, was founded a
few years ago for the broad purpose of
reconciling orthodox Christianity with
the revelations of science. It is a kind
of British standing committee on the
relations of science and theology, the
duty of which is to consider and report
on all the alleged cases of their con-
flict.

It has been long expected that the
Institute would take up the question ot
the religious relations of Spencer's phi-
losophy, and that has now been done.
The last report of its proceedings, just
published, contains an elaborate paper,
attacking this system and claiming to
demolish it, which was written by the
Rev. W. D. Ground, and its reading was
followed by an unusually full discussion
of the subject by the members of the
Institute. We have no room to repro-
duce at length either the essay or the
comments that were made upon it; but
there are certain features of both to
which it seems desirable to call atten-
tion, because we here get weighty the-
ological confirmation of positions that

546

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have long been maintained in the Popu-
lar Science Monthly."

"We have heard a great deal of Mr.
Spencer's materialism. The charge has
become stereotyped. It is said that
this is a materialistic age ; that life
is materialistic ; that science is mate-
rialistic, and that Spencer is the arch-
materialist who works the doctrine up
into a philosophy for universal gratifi-
cation. We have always denied the
truth of this accusation, and held that
it has been made either in ignorance
or dishonesty. We have maintained
not only that Spencer is explicitly
opposed to materialism, but that he
has written with great power against
it. And we have, moreover, main-
tained that, in the future emergencies
of theological thought which are sure
to result from the further progress of
science, the value of Spencer's anti-
materialistic logic will be better appre-
ciated. All this has been regarded as
sufficiently amusing, but how is it now
with the experts of the Victoria Insti-
tute? The Bev. Mr. Ground says:
" The existence and the immateriality
of mind is a cardinal doctrine of Mr.
Spencer's philosophy. It is one of the
last and most certain deliverances of
his philosophy that mind and matter
both exist, and that between these two
there is a chasm which no effort of ours
enables us to cross. He exhausts the
resources of language to declare that
this is the one fact which transcends
in absolute certainty every other fact.
Somehow, this seems to have escaped
the notice of many who have criticised
his writings, and he is commonly be-
lieved to uphold something like mate-
rialism. Greater error, howTever, there
can hardly "be. Materialism has never
before had such a powerful and uncom-
promising opponent, and it is hardly
probable that it can ever again make
head against his attacks. The doctrine
of the absolute immateriality of mind
is a structural part of his philosophy,
and one which is simply invaluable to

those wrho see the spiritual aspect of
things."

In the discussion which followed
the reading of the paper, there was
not a word of protest against this state-
ment. Various things were objected,
to, but this avowal, so directly in the
teeth of current prejudice, provoked
not the slightest criticism. It was, in
fact, indorsed by the unanimous ap-
proval of Mr. Ground's argument,
which was based upon the idea that
Spencer is not a materialist, and de-
rived its whole force from this assump-
tion. Mr. Ground makes numerous
citations from Spencer wThich incon-
testably prove his position ; and this
portion of his argument may be fairly
put against the whole mass of criticism
which aims to convict Spencer of mate-
terialism. „

But there was one part of Mr4
Ground's essay for which the society
was not prepared : his estimate of the
character of Spencer's work startled
his audience. He began by saying:
"The system of philosophy associated
with the name of Herbert Spencer has
now been nearly twenty years before
the philosophical world, and it has
slowTly made its way until it has won a
place in the first rank of such produc-
tions. "Whatever we may think of it,
it is not easy to withhold our intellect-
ual homage. It is the last and proba-
bly the greatest attempt ever made to
present a true philosophy of the kos-
mos; it is imbued with the modern
scientific spirit ; it claims to be strictly
in accord with scientific principles; it
displays a breadth of generalization
and a wrealth of energy such as we find
only in the greatest works of all time;
and it is by many believed to be one of
the worthiest triumphs ever achieved
by the unaided intellect of man. It is
never easy to estimate justly any con-
temporary work — we stand too near it
to see its true proportions — but it
seems to not a few that Mr. Spencer
may fairly claim a place in the front

EDITOR'S TABLE.

547

rank of the intellect of the world. His
greatness in this respect must in justice
be conceded."

Mr. Ground in closing re-affirmed
his high opinion of the import of Spen-
cer's work as follows : " We may, how-
ever, allow that, if only he will keep
within his proper limits, very much of
what he has written will stand in lines
of unfading truth and beauty, and he will
have the honor of lifting the human
intellect to a higher plane of thought
and life. He is so great and many-
sided, and he has contributed such a
vast amount of intellectual force, that
no one who reverences the mind of
man as one of the greatest handiworks
of God can honestly refuse him hom-
age. He stands before us of the build
of the giants, perhaps of the immor-
tals, and his nature is not yet made up
so as to show us what will be his ulti-
mate place — whether amid those who
shed kindly benefactions on the race,
or those who like evil angels leave be-
hind them a heritage of negation, unbe-
lief, and despair."

Such talk was not at all palatable to
the members of the Victoria Institute,
who could not recognize much great-
ness in a man whom they had just
seen so effectually "crushed." The
chairman led by observing, " I would
rather not have seen so very much ad-
miration for Mr. Herbert Spencer com-
bined with the reasoning of the paper,
which proves so successfully that if
this 'writer' is indeed a 'gia t,' he is
but a giant stuffed with straw." The
Rev. Dr. Irons remarked, "I concur
fully with the chairman in saying that
the estimate formed of Mr. Herbert
Spencer was somewhat exaggerated,and
yet I have to acknowledge the great ad-
miration I entertain of Spencer's style
and acuteness and power of analysis,
and I do not think we gain anything
by depreciating our opponents." Others
followed in a similar strain, and only
Professor Griffiths accepted the esti-
mate of Spencer, and took exception to

the general argument of the essay. In
reviewing and closing the discussion,
Mr. Ground admitted that he might have
been over-impressed by Spencer's gen-
ius, but that it was very easy to commit
the opposite mistake. He said : "I feel
sure, however, that some in this Insti-
tute greatly underrate Mr. Spencer — a
mistake which in my judgment would,
if not corrected, bring disastrous conse-
quences, but it is possible that I may
have gone to the opposite extreme. In
reading his philosophy, I am distinctly
conscious that vaster thoughts are be-
fore me than when reading Shakespeare.
Shakespeare one can take up any time
as the companion of an idle hour, and
the amount of mental stimulation he
gives is relatively trifling. Not so is it
with Spencer. It is only when the eye
is keenest, the will strongest, the nerv-
ous force most abundant, that you can
be sure of following him. The first
(Shakespeare) carries you through the
gentle undulations of an English coun-
ty, and his highest elevations are hard-
ly so much as Snowdon or Helvellyn,
but Spencer carries you up the awful
Alpine ranges, where the spaces of
thought over which the eye roves are
incomparably vaster, and where the
exertion demanded is far greater.
Spencer has a certain Miltonic grand-
eur. I could name places in his phi-
losophy where views are given us of
creation, in which, if we add the spir-
itual conceptions of which I spoke,
the idea presented rises, to my mind,
in extent, sublimity, and overpowering
greatness above everything I have yet
met with in all uninspired literature.
To grasp his system is like standing in
the Sistine Chapel and bearing the full
weight of the conceptions of Michael
Angelo. While this fact explains the
fascination that Spencer exerts over
many, it also shows us the great dan-
ger either cf letting his system con-
tinue, as it no doubt is, the reigning
philosophy of the world, or of depre-
ciating it below its just value."

548

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

TEE SLOW PROGRESS OF IDEAS.

In his recent excellent report to
Columbia College, Dr. Barnard says, in
discussing the policy of universities,
"Newton stands perhaps without a
peer in the scientific annals of all time,
yet the astronomy of Ptolemy continued
to be taught in Newton's own univer-
sity of Cambridge for a century after
the publication of the 'Principia' had
created astronomical science anew."
This is an excellent illustration of the
power of habit and tradition in educa-
tion. In further discussing "Educa-
tion as a Science" in the same report,
President Barnard quotes the following
statement of the Rev. Mr. Quick, the
Cambridge lecturer, on the history and
philosophy of teaching : " I take it that
Jacotot taught more emphatically than
any one three great pedagogic truths :
first, that a good teacher exercises the
searching rather than the receiving fac-
ulties of the learner's mind ; second,
that all fresh knowledge should be con-
nected with what the learner knew
before; and, third, that a thorough
knowledge of anything is an almost in-
exhaustible source of power. However,
if his principles were right, there must
have been some grave defect in the ap-
plication of them, or his system, which
at first met with immense success, would
not so speedily have lost its ground."
To this President Barnard adds, " The
grave defect in the application consisted
obviously in his pushing the first prin-
ciple to an extravagant and unreasonable
excess, and in leaving the pupil too en-
tirely helpless."

"We suspect that the reason why
those golden truths of Jacotot have
not been more generally accepted and
practiced, and why his system perished
with him, was deeper than is here indi-
cated. Badly applied they no doubt
were, but it is more significant that they
were prematurely thoroughgoing, and
involved the cutting up of an old system,
root and branch. If it took a hundred

years for the magnates of Cambridge
University to recognize the demon-
strated truths of the " Principia," how
much longer will it take to introduce
something like a law of gravitation into
education ? It is hurrying things if a
great new principle gets well accepted
in a century and intelligently applied in
another century, and Jacotot's experi-
ment is but half a century old. Science
is making progress, but it moves pre-
cious slow in old educational establish-
ments. Loading the memory with
Greek and Latin seems still to be the
leading business of Columbia College ;
while Dr. Barnard tells us that ;' zo-
ology, botany, physiology, and biology
are all unrepresented in our scheme of
instruction." As a further illustration
of the slowness of collegiate improve-
ment and reform, it may be mentioned
that, while Columbia College has a
strong corps of teachers for drilling in
the dead languages, it has no adequate
provision for discipline in the correct
and elegant use of the living language
in which the intellectual life-work of
all the students is to be carried on.
Dr. Barnard laments that there is no
sufficient provision " to practice the
learner in the proper use of language,"
and urges the Board of Trustees to re-
pair this and the other omissions re-
ferred to. From all of which we infer
that, although knowledge goes slow,
Columbia College goes slower.

Dr. Barnard desires to have the
ladies patronize his institution, but they
may well reply: "Not yet, dear doc-
tor; you are too far behind the age.
We appreciate ihe honor, and the so-
ciety of the gentlemen would not be
unpleasant ; but it is a very important
question whether the culture you are
prepared to give us is the best calcu-
lated to qualify us for that sphere of
life to which most of us are destined.
We have all read that Agesilaus, King
of Sparta, upon being asked what
things he thought most proper for girls
to learn, answered, * Those which they

EDITOR'S TABLE.

549

ought to practice when they come to he
women.' Does your education answer
to that test ? Is a college in which
physiology and biology are unrepre-
sented, and which offers no instruction
in anthropology — the science of human
nature — the proper place to educate
young women for the duties of mother-
hood, the nurture of children, and the
intelligent practical administration of
home affairs ? We can not see that you
have what we most want, and we are
afraid if we came you would so fill our
heads with everything we don't want
that we should he worse off than if we
were not educated at all. Go on with
the excellent work of modernizing your
curriculum, and, when you have made
it to better represent the present state
of knowledge, it will be time to talk to
us about buying it."

This is encouraging. "We had sup-
posed that the ladies were crazy to get
into the college anyhow, without the
slightest regard to what they found
there — in fact, wanted to get in merely
because they had been kept out ; ac-
cordingly, as this is not so, we rejoice.

COLLEGE GOYERXMEXT.

"We last year had the pleasure of
commending the new departure of Am-
herst College in the matter of govern-
ment. It consisted in an open repu-
diation of the old and still prevailing
system of paternal control which so
naturally engenders conflict and pro-
motes excesses on the part of the stu-
dents. As we before remarked, young
men can only be educated in manhood
by being practiced in its liberty and
responsibility. The home government
of childhood and early youth is neces-
sarily paternal, watchful, care-taking,
often too much so for the development
of self-reliant character ; but when boys
become young men they have the right
to substitute self-restraint for external
restraint as the governing law of con-
duct. And especially $vhen they go to

college, where the scheme of studies as-
sumes mental maturity, where the new
social forces are so active, and the new
temptations so strong, they should be
thrown upon their honor, and pledged
to self-control at the outset and with-
out reserve. It is gratifying to observe
that the second year's experience at
Amherst proves the practicability and
the superiority of the self-governing
method. A correspondent of the " New
York Evening Post " remarks:

It has been a year of unusually satisfac-
tory progress. Professor W. S. Tyler, who
was graduated in 1830, and has been con-
nected with the college ever since, says that
it has been the most healthy and satisfactory
year for the college that he has ever known.
More and better work has been done in the
studies, and there has never been a year of
such perfect discipline. It is the new sys-
tem of government, now at the end of its
second year of practical working, which is
given the credit of the improvement. In
brief, the system is this : The relation of fac-
ulty and students is regarded as that of two
parties to a contract. The student wishes to
study, and contracts to follow the rules of the
college. The faculty contract to give the
instruction. If a student breaks his contract
by disorderly conduct or by committing any
of the irregular acts so common in colleges
against public peace, he is held to have bro-
ken his contract, and ipso facto his connec-
tion with the college ceases. He has broken
his word, and a rupture of the contract by
one party releases the other. No vote of ex-
pulsion is passed. There is no writing home
to parents. No member of the faculty is ex-
pected to act the spy. The single act of the
student settles the whole thing. All this is
now perfectly understood. When the system
was introduced its first enforcement was par-
ticularly severe, and the students did not fully
comprehend the situation. For that once
only, after a full reparation for the wrong, the
offenders were restored to their standing, and
there has been no relaxation of the rule since.
It was believed that the past year would be
particularly trying, because the novelty would
be worn off, and the permanent value of
President Seelye's theory would be tested.
Besides this change, there came with it a
total abolition of the old ranking system, and
so the test this year has been particularly se-
vere. It is of high interest, therefore, that
every one of the faculty, and, so far as is

550

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

known, every one of the students, is heartily
in favor of the new system. • Not a single
disorder has occurred in college during the
year. Even the freshmen, to burn their
celebration bonfire, did not steal any one's
fence, nor tear down any one's barn, but
bought their materials and had an honest fire
on the campus. A spirit of manliness and
self-reliance has become prevalent to a degree
which was utterly unknown when the stu-
dents were under the parental system, and
were inclined to regard the faculty as their
natural enemies. About a fortnight asro the
faculty made a thorough investigation into
the scholarship in all departments, in order
to compare the efficiency of the course now
with what it was under the old method of
discipline and working. It was found that
the new way is better than the old by far, and
that the scholarship of the students is better
than formerly. This is not attributed to any
higher average in the general ability of the
young men, but solely to the stimulus which
comes from the college atmosphere.

LITERARY NOTICES.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES,
NO. XLII.

Ants, Bees, and Wasps. A Record of Ob-
servations on the Habits of the Social
Hymenoptera. With Illustrations and
Colored Plates. By Sir John Lubbock,
Bart., M. P., F. E. S., etc. D. Appleton
k Co. Pp. 44S. Price, $2.

When, some ten years ago, the author of
this work was solicited to contribute a vol-
ume to the " International Scientific Series,"
he cordially consented, on the condition that
he might take his time. Nothing could
be more reasonable, for Sir John is a very
busy man, and occupied by many duties.
But, now that his book has appeared, the
surprise is that he should have done it so
quickly. The most expeditious way of pro-
ducing a book is, of course, with the scis-
sors ; the next is with the pen, where the
work is spun from the fancy ; but the slow-
est method is where the author strikes into
original inquiry, which involves long-contin-
ued observation and experiment before he
can bring the subject into shape for literary
presentation. It is in this sense that Sir
John Lubbock has made the present work.
How it has originated, and what is its ob-
ject, are thus stated in the preface : " This

volume contains the record of various ex-
periments made with ants, bees, and wasps,
during the past ten years. Other occupa-
tions, and many interruptions, political and
professional, have prevented me from mak-
ing them as full and complete as I had
hoped. My parliamentary duties in par-
ticular have absorbed most of my time just
at the season of year when these insects can
be most profitably studied. I have, there-
fore, whenever it seemed necessary, careful-
ly recorded the month during which the
observations were made, for the instincts
and behavior of ants, bees, and wasps are
by no means the same throughout the year.
My object has been, not so much to describe
the usual habits of these insects, as to test
their mental conditions and powers of sense.''

The work has, therefore, a twofold inter-
est. In the first place, it is a contribu-
tion to comparative psychology; a subject
which requires much more cautious and dis-
criminating study than it has formerly re-
ceived. The insects to which Sir John Lub-
bock has devoted himself exhibit remark-
able mental traits, but it is by no means
so easy a thing to interpret them rightly.
Much, of course, was critically and accu-
rately known of their habits and characters
before our author took up the inquiry, as
his copious bibliography and numerous cita-
tions show ; but there was also so much
loose and exaggerated statement in the pop-
ular natural history of these creatures, and
so much serious deficiency in their scientific
study, that a close and systematic re-exam-
ination of the phenomena was necessary.
Sir John devised various ingenious methods
of dealing with his insects, and by taking
the ample time necessary to educate him-
self in their manipulation, and in getting
familiarly acquainted with their ways, he
has been enabled to qualify many previous
opinions respecting their intelligence, and
very much to extend our accurate knowledge
upon the subject.

But while the problems which Sir John
Lubbock had here to solve were those of
comparative psychology, they have another
interesting aspect. The insects being gre-
garious and eminently social, all their men-
tal manifestations were in social relation, so
that the inquiry ran inevitably into compar-
ative sociology. It is this fact which gives

LITERARY NOTICES.

55i

the highest interest to the research. It i3
of no little importance to find out how much
these tiny creatures know which are capable
of elaborating such curious and extensive
social arrangements. Are they really next to
man in the scale of intelligence ? Sir John
Lubbock seems to have arrived at this con-
clusion, but he opens his introductory chap-
ter thus : " The anthropoid apes no doubt
approach nearer to man in bodily structure
than to any other animals ; but when we
consider the habits of ants, their social
organization, their large communities, and
elaborate habitations ; their roadways, their
possession of domestic animals, and even,
in some cases, of slaves, it must be admit-
ted that they have a fair claim to rank next
to man in the scale of intelligence.''

We have no space either to explain Sir
John's interesting method of procedure
in these researches, nor to intimate his re-
sults. But we may say that the author has
thoroughly caught the spirit of his country
neighbor, Mr. Darwin, and that his book is
quite of the Darwinian order, evincing the
most minute, painstaking, and patient ob-
servation, and reasoning no further or faster
than the facts will warrant.

Capital and Population : A Study of the
Economic Effects of their Relations
to Each Other. By Frederick B. Haw-
ley. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
Pp. 267.

The author confesses his position, as
exemplified in his treatise, to be a peculiar
one. While considering himself a disciple
of what is called the English and orthodox
school in political economy, he has arrived
at results which are in many instances dia-
metrically opposed to those of that school ;
especially on the subjects of free trade and
taxation. On the other hand, his reasoning
presupposes the falsity of most of the ar-
guments heretofore advanced in support of
the very conclusions he upholds. These
singular results are obtained by his taking
up the -reasonings of Mill and Ricardo, and
others of their school, and carrying them
out on their lines beyond the limits where
they stopped, and by taking up and giving
importance to factors that were unconsid-
ered or overlooked by them. Having point-
ed out an important variation in the defini-
tion of capital as givenxby Ricardo and Mill,

he makes the deduction that over-accumula-
tion, or the increase of capital beyond the
needs of population, is not only possible, but
of frequent and periodic occurrence in all
civilized nations ; that there is, in fact, a
tendency to it. He then undertakes to show
that proportional and real wages vary in-
versely instead of together, as has hereto-
fore been assumed, and that it is not a high
rate of proportional wages, but of real wages,
that is a stimulus to population. He fur-
ther reaches conclusions opposed to free
trade and in favor of the protective policy ;
that manufactures are more advantageous as
a national pursuit than agriculture, and com-
merce is more advantageous than either ;
and finds a basis for a positive decision in
favor of bi-metallism.

John Stuart Mill. A Criticism, with Per-
sonal Recollections. By Alexander
Bain, LL. D. Henry Holt & Co. Pp.
201. Price, $1.25.

This volume is precisely what was need-
ed to supplement Mill's "Autobiography."
While, on the one hand, that work is inval-
uable as a disclosure of personality, and as
an interpreter of mental experience, such
as none but the author himself could give,
on the other hand it is full of the neces-
sary bias and the limitations of an auto-
representation, and contains defects and
omissions which only another mind could
supply. Dr. Bain was pre-eminently the
man to add this counterpart to Mill's own
sketch of his life. He knew the man inti-
mately, was himself an independent student
of the whole range of questions to which
Mill devoted himself, while the two men
were in such sympathy that Mr. Mill in-
trusted to Professor Bain the revision of
the proof-sheets of the "Logic," his great-
est and most important work. With such
a preparation, Professor Bain could not fail
to give us a most interesting sketch, and
which is at the same time a critical estimate
of Mill's publications. Much light is thrown
on the circumstances of the production of
each work — how the author was led to the
subject, how his views were modified or ex-
panded, and how he wa3 influenced by the
leading contemporary minds of his time.
There is an interesting analysis of Mill's
relation to Comte, and a still more inter-

552

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

esting statement of his relations with Mrs.
John Taylor, whom, after twenty years' ac-
quaintance as a married woman, after the
death of her husband, Mill married. There
is a critical examination of his extravagant
claims in regard to the talent of this lady,
and also of Mill's attitude toward the
" woman question " generally.

There are various important points, on
which Dr. Bain disagrees with Mill, which
we should like to have seen further eluci-
dated, and to a consideration of some of
these we may return in future. But the
points of objection are generally well taken.
We are gratified to observe that Dr. Bain
holds exactly the opinion which we have
maintained in regard to Mill's celebrated
"University Address" on education. As
the questions involved are of permanent in-
terest, it may be well to quote what Bain
says about this performance of Mill :

The St. Andrews address was a very length-
ened performance ; its delivery lasted three
hours. It aimed at a complete survey of the
higher education. Its absolute value is con-
siderable ; but, in relation to the time, place,
and circumstances, I consider it to have been a
mistake. Mill had taken it into his head that
the Greek and Roman classics had been too
hardly pressed by the votaries of science, and
were in some danger of being excluded from
the higher teaching ; and he occupies nearly
half of the address in vindicating their impor-
tance. The secoud half is a vigorous enforce-
ment of the claims of science.

The performance was a failure, in my opin
ion, for this simple reason, that he had no con-
ception of the limits of a university curriculum.
The Scotch universities have been distinguished
for the amount of study comprised in their arts
degree. Mill would have them keep up the
classics intact, and even raise their standard;
he would also include a complete course of the
primary sciences— mathematics, physics, chem-
istry, physiology, logic, and psychology — to
which he would add political economy, juris-
prudence, and international law. Now at pres-
ent the obligatory sciences are mathematics,
natural philosophy, logic, and moral philoso-
phy. If he had consulted me on this occasion,
I should have endeavored to impress upon him
the limits of our possible curriculum, and should
have asked aim to arbitrate between the claims
of literature and science, so as to make the very
most of our time and means. He would then
have had to balance Latin and Greek against
chemistry, physiology, and jurisprudence ; for
it is quite certain that both these languages
would have to be dropped absolutely, to admit
his extended science course. In that case he
would have been more careful in his statements
as to the Greek and Latin languages. He would

not have put these languages as synonymous
with "literature"; and he would have made
much more allowance for translations and ex-
positions through the modern languages. He
would have found that at the present day we
have other methods of correcting the tendency
to mistake words for things than learning any
two or three additional languages. He would
not have assumed that our pupils are made all
"to think in Greek'1; nor would he have con-
sidered it impossible to get at the sources of
Greek and Roman history without studying the
languages. If he had a real opponent, he would
not have given the authority of his name to the
assertion that grammar is "'elementary logic.'"
His mode of speaking of the style of the ancient
writers, to my mind at least, is greatly exagger-
ated. "Look at an oration of Demosthenes;
there is nothing in it which calls attention to
itself as style at all ... . The Athenians do not
cry out, What a splendid speaker, but, Let us
march against Philip." He also gives way to the
common remark that the teaching of Latin and
Greek could be so much improved as to make it
an inconsiderable draft upona pupil's energies.
On this point he had no experience to go upon
but his own, and that did not support his posi-
tion.

In the scientific departments he carries out
strictly the Comte hierarchy of the fundamental
sciences, and, in this respect, the address was
valuable as against the mischievous practice of
culling out a science from the middle of the se-
ries, say chemistry, and prescribing it by itself
to the exclusion of its forerunners in the hier-
archy. While he speaks fairly and well on the
mathematical and physical sciences, his remarks
on the moral and political display, as usual, the
master's hand. He next goes on to talk of free
thought, on which he maintains a somewhat
impracticable ideal for our universities. From
science he proceeds to art, and enforces a favor-
ite theme — the subservience of poetry to virtue
and morality. One feels that on this topic a
little more discrimination was necessary ; art
being a very wide word. His conclusion was a
double entendre : "I do not attempt to instigate
you by the prospect of direct rewards, either
earthly or heavenly ; the less we think about
being rewarded in either way, the better for
us."

In the reception given to the address, he was
most struck with the vociferous applause of the
divinity students at the free-thought passage.
He was privately thanked by others among the
hearers for this part.

The Medical Adviser in Life Assurance.
By Edward Henry Sieveking, M. D.
Philadelphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co.
Pp. 206. Price, $2.

The author's object is to frrnish the
reader with information which, if it is to be
found at all in the ordinary works of medi-
cine, is so scattered as not to be readily

LITERARY NOTICES.

553

available. Much of the substance of the
book is derived from the experience of the
author, or has been placed at his disposal by
friends who have been engaged in the study
of questions connected with life insurance.
The special topics of " The Normal Man,"
" The Duties of the Medical Officer," " Hered-
itary Influences," " The History of the In-
dividual," " The Insuree's Liability to Dis-
ease," and "The Medico-Legal Aspects of
Life Insurance," arc considered.

Geological Survey of New Jersey. An-
nual Report of the State Geologist for
the Year 1881. Trenton, New Jersey :
John L. Murphy. Pp. 303, with Map
and Table of Temperatures.

The topographical survey has been
pushed, during the year, westward across
Morris County and the central part of War-
ren County, to the Delaware River at Belvi-
dere, the work covering an area of 360
square miles, and making, with what had
been previously done, a total area of about
1,260 square miles completed. In the sev-
eral chapters of the report are considered the
encroachments of the sea upon the low-lying
lands of the shore, the ores of iron and other
metals, and quarries of stone in the State,
with statistics ; and more than half of the
volume is occupied with the consideration of
" the climate of New Jersey." An excellent
geological map of the State accompanies the
report.

From River to Sea. A Tourists' and
Miners' Guide from the Missouri River
to the Pacific Ocean, via Kansas, Colo-
rado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Califor-
nia. Charles S. Gleed, Editor. Chicago:
Rand, McNally & Co. Pp. 240. Price,
$1.

This work is designed to supply a want.
Its purpose is to give people a good general
idea of the vast territory which is tributary
to the new line of railway communication
(Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway)
between the Missouri River and the Pacific
Ocean. It embodies a great deal of infor-
mation of a kind which the traveler looks
for, and will be generally useful to him.
The illustrations, which are fairly well but
not finely executed, lose a large part of their
value by being inserted without reference to
the text, and in a not regular order.

Political Institutions : Being Part V of
the Principles of Sociology. The
Concluding Portion of Volume II. By
Herbert Spencer. Pp. 457. Price,
$1.50.

The second volume of Spencer's " Prin-
ciples of Sociology " is devoted to the evo-
lution of I, Ceremonial Institutions, and II,
Political Institutions ; and, as the first part
was issued separately about two years ago,
the second part is now also issued separately,
for the convenience of those who have pro-
cured the other.

Although this work is in its nature his-
torical, yet it is necessary to discriminate
between the method of ordinary history and
that here adopted. Common history only
applies to the later stages of progress, and
it would deal with political institutions only
in their higher modifications. But the idea
of " development " implies that of origin,
and carries us back to prehistoric times
and primitive conditions. The question is,
in what way the earlier or rudimentary
forms of political institutions grew up.
This problem lies back of that of the ordi-
nary historian, is of a deeper nature, and
can only be successfully pursued under the
| guidance of some general theory of social
genesis which will throw a common light on
the development of ceremonial, political,
ecclesiastical, and industrial institutions.
Such a theory is that of evolution, and ac-
cordingly it is here made a part of the ex-
position of that theory. Of the difficulties
of the exposition growing out of the nature
of the subject, and the imperfections due
to its subordination to a larger scheme of
thought, the author says :

The division of the "Principles of Sociology"
herewith issued, deals with phenomena of Evo-
lution which are, above all others, obscure and
entangled. To discover what truths may be
affirmed of political organizations at large is a
task beset by difficulties that are at once many
and great— difficulties arising from unlikeness
of the various human races, from differences
among the modes of life entailed by circum-
stances on the societies formed of them, from
the numerous contrasts of sizes aud decrees of
culture exhibited by such societies, from their
perpetual interferences with one another's proc-
esses of evolution by means of wars, and from
accompanying breakings-up and aggregations in
ever-changing ways.

Satisfactory achievement of this task would
require the labors of a life. Having been able
to devote to it but two years, I feel that the re-

554

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

suits set forth in this volume must of necessity
be full of imperfections. If it be asked why,
being thus conscious that far more time and
wider investigation are requisite for the proper
treatment of a subject so immense and involved,
I have undertaken it, my reply is that I have
been obliged to deal with political evolution as
a part of the general Theory of Evolution ; and,
with due regard to the claims of other parts,
could not make a more prolonged preparation.
Any one who undertakes to trace the general
laws of transformation which hold throughout
all orders of phenomena must have but an in-
complete knowledge of each order; since, to ac-
quaint himself exhaustively with any one order,
demanding, as it would, exclusive devotion of
his days to it, would negative like devotion to
any of the others, and much more would negative
generalization of the whole. Either generaliza-
tion of the whole ought never to be attempted,
or, if it is attempted, it must be by one who
gives to each part such time only as is requisite
to master the cardinal truths it presents. Be-
lieving that generalization of the whole is su-
premely important, and that no one part can be
fully understood without it, I have ventured to
treat of Political Institutions after the manner
implied : utilizing, for the purpose, the materi-
als which, in the space of fourteen years, have
been gathered together in the " Descriptive So-
ciology," and joining with them such further
materials as, during the last two years, have
been accumulated by inquiries in other direc-
tions, made personally and by proxy.

Statistics of the Production of the
Precious Metals in the United
States. By Clarence King, Special
Agent of tbe Census. Washington :
Government Printing-Office. Pp. 94,
with Six Plates.

The information on which this report is
based has been procured, so far as is possi-
ble, directly from the producers of bullion.
It was not expected that completeness could
be reached in this way, for many small pro-
ducers would be overlooked or would fail to
report, but the plan gives a nearer approach
to accuracy than can be gained from the
comparison of the receipts of domestic bull-
ion at the mints and assay-offices, or from
an examination of the bullion accounts of
the express companies — the only other
sources of information that were open. A
comparison of the annual output of different
States shows that the United States produces
33-13 per cent of the gold yield of the
whole world, 50'59 per cent of the silver,
and 40-91 per cent of the total. Of the ag-
gregate supply of the precious metals,
North America furnishes ho'^lS per cent.

IIand-Book of Invertebrate Zoology for
Laboratories and Seaside Work. By
W. H. Brooks, Ph. D. Boston : S. E.
Cassino. Pp. 392, 200 Cuts. Price, $3.

This volume has very strong claims upon
the biological student ; but for the begin-
ner, especially if he lives near the sea, it is
incomparable. The art of starting a be-
ginner aright in any branch has not yet
been perfected, but Dr. Brooks has made a
successful stroke in this direction for zoo-
logical science. The work has been planned
with reference to the exigencies of system-
atic study, and to put the student upon
the right track to attain the mastery of the
subject with the least waste of exertion.
Nothing is introduced that is not want-
ed. Generalizations and comparisons are
omitted, on the principle that the beginner
shall first get at the facts, in order that he
may subsequently grasp and make the gen-
eralizations his own. The work is there-
fore not a text-book, but a hand-book of
practical study, and is admirably adapted
for self-instruction. In his prefatory re-
marks describing the work, the author says :
" Most lecturers upon natural science find,
no doubt, that preliminary work, the presen-
tation of facts upon which science is based,
absorbs so much time that there is no room
for a philosophical discussion of the scien-
tific aspects of the subject. I have there-
fore attempted to show the student how
to acquire a knowledge of the facts for him-
self, in order to remove this burden from
lecturers and text-books."

The types selected for description are, of
course, but few compared with those con-
sidered in systematic works ; but still they
cover wide zoological ground, and are suffi-
cient to prepare for more comprehensive
research. In the treatment of each type
the author has not attempted to present all
that is known about it, but simply to guide
the beginner to those features which he can
find and observe for himself. And so also
with the illustrations. The minute details
of complicated structural figures are omit-
ted, and only those given that it is neces-
sary for the beginner himself to discover
in his examination of the specimens. For
this purpose, the illustrations are greatly
superior to any we have elsewhere seen.

The book begins with the examination

LITERARY NOTICES.

555

of amoebae, and the opening directions for
obtaining them will give a good idea of the
clearness, directness, and simplicity with
which the whole work is written :

Amoebae are frequently to be found in abun-
dance in the superficial ooze which forms a thin
layer upon the bottom of Dearly every quiet
body of fresh water. The ooze may be collected
from a pond, stream, or ditch, by gently and
slowly skimming the bottom with a tin dipper
fastened to a long handle. In gathering the
ooze be careful to barely skim the surface, and
to avoid disturbing the black mud which usually
occurs just below the ooze.

Transfer the material thus gathered to a col-
lecting - bottle, and gather ooze from several
bodies of water, preserving each specimen in a
separate bottle, for amoebae may be abundant in
one locality and almost absent in another. Pour
the ooze into shallow dirhes, such as soup-
plates or bakinsj-dishes, putting enough into
each dish to form a layer about an eighth of an
inch deep over the bottom.

Place the dishes near the window, where
they will be well lighted without exposure to
the direct rays of the sun ; fill them with fresh
water, and allow them to stand undisturbed for
two or three days, in order to allow the amoebae
to creep out of the ooze and accumulate at its
surface.

If a permanent supply of amoebae is desired,
each dish may be converted into a small aqua-
rium by the addition of a few floating water-
plants, such as " duck-weed," and -when covered
with a pane of glass, to exclude dust and pre-
vent excessive evaporation, may be kept in
eood order for several months by simply replac-
ing with fresh water the loss by evaporation.

In a day or two a thin brownish-yellow film
will usually be visible over the whole or parts of
the surface of the ooze; and portions of this
film, almost entirely made up of microscopic
organisms which have crept to the surface, may
now be examined for amoebae, in the following
manner.

It only remains to add that this work is
published at a very low price. Considering
its cost and elegance, we hardly know of
another so cheap a book. And, considering
that there is no other book at all like it to
serve the purposes of introductory study in
its field, it ought to be in wide demand by
the students of natural history.

Essays' on the Floating Matter op the
Air, in Relation to Putrefaction and
Infection. With Illustrations. By
John Tyndall, F. R. S., M. D. D. Ap-
pleton & Co. Pp. 338. Price, $1.50.

Some of the researches contained in this

book have appeared in the pages of " The

Popular Science Monthly," and nothing,

therefore, need be said to our readers tha*
is merely commendatory of their interest.
The volume is the result of extended re-
searches into one of the obscurest of sub-
jects— the nature, conditions, and influence
of the invisible microscopic life of the at-
mosphere. Any inquiry into the dust and
floating contents of the air, if thoroughly
pursued, leads to the more subtile question
of infinitesimal forms of life and their
germs as floating elements of the breathing
medium. Profound problems are here en-
countered : Are these germs spontaneously
originated, or are they subject to the laws
of propagation which govern all other grades
of life ? Again, are these germs the seeds
of disease which affect the higher forms of
life, and thus become of the highest mo-
ment to the physician and the hygienist ?
The import of the subject has been dis-
closed only within the last few years, and
depends upon the perfection of the micro-
scope, and the most refined researches into
the nature and effects of fermentation and
putrefaction. Many able men in different
countries have been working, with intense
assiduity, over different branches of this
momentous inquiry ; but it was on many
accounts fortunate that Professor Tyndall,
about a dozen years ago, saw its importance,
and brought all his resources to bear upon its
systematic investigation. That he has thrown
much more light upon the subject by his skill-
ful and extensive experiments, and that he
has made very important contributions to the
establishment of the germ theory of disease,
will not be questioned. But in still another
respect it is fortunate that he identified him-
self with its elucidation. By his rare power
of exposition, and his wonderful clearness of
statement, he has done more, perhaps, than
all other writers to impress the medical pro-
fession and the public both with the vital
importance of the subject and the advance
that has been made in the establishment of
its fundamental principles. His present
book embodies the main results of his origi-
nal work, and, what is more, it presents
them in so lucid and inviting a form that
all classes of readers will be equally pleased
and instructed by his views.

There is, perhaps, in the whole field of
science no illustration more striking than
is here afforded of the fruitful practical

556

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

application of investigations undertaken
for the simple purpose of the extension of
knowledge, with no perception of its ulti-
mate utilities. While one division of labor-
ers, spurred by the urgent necessities of
observers, spent their energies in bringing
the microscope up to its highest power, an-
other division was equally absorbed in find-
ing out what could be known of the newly
revealed world of microscopic life. The
stimulus of the love of discovery was suffi-
cient to insure the successful progress of
both. But now we begin to see the benefi-
cent ripening of their results as they could
not see it. As a legitimate issue of those
labors, we have arrived at views of the nat-
ure and propagation of diseases that will
make an epoch in the advance of medical
and hygienic science. "We print, in the
present Monthly, the Introductory Note to
Professor Tyndall's volume, which is very
instructive in regard to the present position
and future influence of the " Germ Theory
of Disease."

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians
(a. d. 1450-1881). By Eminent Writ-
ers, English and Foreign. Edited by
George Grove, D. C. L. Part XIV.
London and New York: Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 128. Price, $1.

The present number includes the titles
from Richter to Sehorbcrlechner. The plan
and execution of the work are commend-
able. The information is given in well-writ-
ten and easily readable articles, the length
of which is adapted to the character and
importance of the subject. Biographies of
eminent composers, performers, instrument-
makers, and other musical persons, predom-
inate in the present number, ranging from
few-line notices of little distinguished in-
strumentalists to the sixteen-page article that
is given to a distinguished composer like
Rossini. Besides these, the number before
us has paragraphs, within a few pages, on
such subjects as " Ridotto," the opera of
Rienzi, " Rigadoon," with a musical passage
to show what it is, the opera of Rinaldo,
" Einforzando," " Ripieno," " Ritardando "
and its synonyms, " Ritorncllo " with oth-
er musical illustrations, etc. We mention
these heads to give only an inadequate idea
of the abundance and variety of the mate-
rial with which the work deals.

Our Homes. By Henry Hartshorne, A. M.,
M. D. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston, Son
& Co. Pp. 150. Price, 50 cents.

A volume in the series of " American
Health Primers," edited by Dr. W. W. Keen.
It is a practical, pleasant-reading treatise
on house-building, house management, and
house sanitation, considering the subject
under the heads of situation, construction,
light, warmth, ventilation, water-supply,
drainage, disinfection, population (the rela-
tions of density of population to health),
and working-men's homes.

The Wine Question in the Light of the
New Dispensation. By John Ellis,
M. D. New York : Published by the
author. Pp. 228.

The controversy respecting the use of
fermented or unfermented wine in the com-
munion service is considered here in the
light of the teaching of the Swedenborgian
Church, with citations from authorities and
opinions outside of that church, all going to
sustain the presumption that unfermented
wine is the kind to be used.

The Rhymester ; or, the Rules of Rhyme.
A Guide to English Versification. By
the late Tom Hood. Edited, with Addi-
tions, by Arthur Penn. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. Pp. 208. Price, $1.

The author believes that verse-making
— not trying to write poetry — is of use as an
exercise for fixing accurate pronunciation ;
and that, if done at all, it should be well
done. He accordingly gives here the rules
for doing it well. Many changes have been
made by the American editor, of which the
more material one3 are marked, and chap-
ters have been added on the sonnet, the ron-
deau, and the ballade, and on the other fixed
forms of verse.

The Books of All Time. A Guide for the
Purchase of Books. Compiled by F.
LEvroLDT and Lynds E. Jones. New
York : F. Leypoldt. Pp. 80.

A list of approved books is given, with
the prices of the best or most popular edi-
tions ; and to each title are attached bits
of criticism which throw some light on the
characteristics of the author. The list, as a
whole, is a good one and deserves approval,
but would have been better for a little closer
pruning away of mediocre books.

LITERARY NOTICES.

557

A Reading Diary of Modern Fiction.
Containing a Representative List of the
Novels of the Nineteenth Century, pre-
ceded by Suggestive Remarks on Novels
and Novel-reading. New York : F. Ley-
poldt. Pp. 150.

The main object of this work is stated
to be " to present a survey of all that is
considered worth reading in the domain of
modern fiction, and thus to make easy a
daily record of what has been read and
what to read next, with a view to compar-
ing notes and a mutual exchange of recom-
mendations among congenial friends." For
this purpose a column in each page is given
of " Books worth Reading," and is followed
by blank columns for estimating merit, and
recording other books that may be suggest-
ed. Our remark is, that the catalogue is too
full. We should not like any one for whose
mental cultivation we cared to become ac-
quainted with so many novels. If the list
were only one tenth as large, it would be
many times more valuable.

The Practice of Commercial Organic
Analysis. By Alfred LI. Allen, F. I. C,
F. C. S., Lecturer on Chemistry and
Public Analyst. Volume II, Hydro-car-
bons, Fixed Oils and Fats, Sugars, Starch,
Alkaloids, and Organic Bases, etc. Phil-
adelphia: Presley Blakiston. 1882. 8vo.
Pp. 561. Price, $5.

To those chemists who are already the
fortunate possessors of the first volume of
Mr. Allen's work, it will be good news to
know that the second volume has at last
been issued, for its appearance has been
awaited with some impatience. In the for-
mer volume we had a full description of the
alcohols, with the acids and ethers derived
from them ; also the phenols, carbolic, sali-
cylic, and benzoic acids, as well as all the
cyanogen bodies. The present volume, which
is much larger than the former, contains
the new methods of analysis of many arti-
cles of present interest. The analytical
chemist will probably turn first to the chap-
ter on glucose and grape-sugar, for on these
subjeefs reliable and practicable information
is meager. Here, for the first time, we be-
lieve, methods for estimating maltose are
given, and attention is called to the error
which it causes when Fehling's solution is
employed for the estimation of dextrose in
commercial glucose. The method of de-

termining dextrose, maltose, and dextrine in
the same solution from the rotatory and re-
ducing power, in connection with the spe-
cific gravity of the solution, is clearly and
concisely given.

Next in interest to glucose is the analy-
sis of butter, and, although the chemist has
not yet attained perfection in this, we find
here the best methods known at present for
detecting oleomargarine. The last chapter,
a lengthy one, is devoted to aniline deriva-
tives, the assay of aniline dyes, the identifi-
cation of coal-tar colors, and the recognition
of dyes on tissues.

We bespeak for the book the most fa-
vorable attention, because it is the only com-
plete work on this subject in the English
language, because it is new and up to the
times, and because its author is well known
as a practical analyst. The work is indis-
pensable to the laboratory.

Currency ; or, The Fundamental Princi-
ples of Monetary Science postulated,
explained, and applied. By Hugh
Bowlby Willson. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 309. Price, $1.50.

The author contemplated, when he be-
gan, many years ago, his investigations on
the subject of this work, writing a synopsis
of the theories and practices of ancient and
modern nations in respect to their curren-
cies, but soon discovered that he would not
have time to perform the task. The pres-
ent work, the scope of which is more limit-
ed, has grown out of a series of postulates
which he published in 1875—^76, in a Loritlon
journal, for the purpose of directing atten-
tion to the desirability of embodying the
ascertained and generally accepted princi-
ples of monetary science in a few " simple
if not self-evident" propositions. Professor
Bonamy Price, of Oxford, wrote him a note
of thanks for his letter, saying, " It is ex-
ceedingly good, and I rejoice over it much,
especially the postulates and principles."
Much space is devoted to attacking the
" prejudices and ignorance " which uphold
the present systems of issuing and supply-
ing paper money, they containing much that
is regarded as at variance with scientific
principles. The plan of delegating the issue
of paper money to banking corporations
other than the government is assailed ; and

558

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the result of the author's deductions " has
been the evolvement of a purely automatic
method of supplying both coined and paper
money," with supply and demand as the
only motive power to be used in keeping the
automaton in motion. In opposition to the
" mercantile theory," which seeks to accu-
mulate the largest stores of the precious
metals in a country, a plan is contended for
which leaves those metals " free to the dis-
tribution of the natural forces of industry
and trade."

History op the Water-Supply of the
World. Arranged in a Comprehensive
Form from Eminent Authorities. By
Thomas J. Bell, Assistant Superintend-
ent of the Cincinnati Water-Works.
Cincinnati : Peter G. Thomson. Pp.
134. Price (paper), 50 cents.

The original intention of this work was
to arrange a compilation of general and lo-
cal information on the subject of water-
supply in all of its bearings, with special
reference to Cincinnati, and to the project
for a new supply for that city. As the
work progressed, its scope became broader,
and the plan assumed a more comprehen-
sive form. The work contains a descrip-
tion of the various methods of water-supply,
and discusses the pollution and purification
of water, sanitary effects, and analyses of
potable waters ; and, further, considers
other topics having special reference to
Cincinnati, the Ohio River, and the proposed
water-supply of the city.

A Compendious Dictionary of the French
Language. Adapted from the Diction-
aries of Professor Alfred Edwall. By
Gustave Masson. New York : Macmil-
lan & Co. Pp. 416. Price, $1.

A most excellent dictionary for daily use.
The compiler has endeavored especially to
realize the qualities of accuracy and com-
pleteness, and to keep equally distant from
exaggerated concision and overabundance
of detail. The letter-press is clear, yet com-
pact. The matter is arranged in four col-
umns to the page, the words are printed in
bold-face type to catch the eye readily, and
the definitions are satisfactorily full. Par-
ticular attention has been paid to etymolo-
gies in the French-English part. A supple-
ment, giving the principal diverging deriva-

tives or doublets in the language (showing
how words have varied from the Latin roots
and from the congeners in other Romance
languages) is of much use and interest to
students. The Chronological Tables of the
History of French Literature from the ear-
liest period to the present day, of chronicles
and memoirs, and the other literary informa-
tion with which the work is introduced, will
be welcome to many who would otherwise
find it difficult to obtain, from the numer-
ous sources from which it would have to be
drawn, the information which they convey.

How the Great Prevailing Winds and
Ocean-Currents are produced, and
how they affect the Temperature
and Dimensity of Lands and Seas. By
C. A. M. Taber. Boston : A. Williams
& Co. Pp. 82. Price, 40 cents.

The author states as a reason for this
publication that, after many years of experi-
ence on the oceans, he has found that the
generally accepted theories of the causes of
the great winds and currents were not in
harmony with the world-wide operations of
nature, but were rather adapted to certain
areas of oceans and continents than applica-
ble to larger portions of the globe, " where
the great movements of the atmosphere and
ocean are not concordant with the general-
ly accepted explanations." He reviews the
theories of Hadley, Maury, Adhemar, Croll,
Geikie, and other authors who have written
upon the subject, shows wherein he regards
them as deficient, and elaborates his own
theory, in which a depression of sea-level on
the western, and elevation on the eastern
sides of the ocean, by the force of the west
winds, and an independent circulation of
waters around the poles, form important
parts.

Primary Helps : Being No. 1 of a New
Series of Kindergarten Manuals. By
W. N. Hailmann, A. M., editor of " The
Kindergarten Messenger and the New
Education." Syracuse, New York : C.
W. Bardeen. Pp. 29, with Fifteen
Plates. Price, 75 cents.

Professor Hailmann is an enthusiastic
Kindergartner, a practical teacher, and a
member of the Board of Education of De-
troit, Michigan. It has been his aim for
years to bring those engaged in the Kinder-
garten work into harmony, and especially to

LITERARY NOTICES.

559

establish a connection between the Kinder-
garten and the public schools. The present
book is the first fruits of his efforts in this
direction, and aims to make the principles
of Froebel applicable to primary schools.

Report on the Geology of the Henry
Mountains. By G. K. Gilbert. Wash-
ington : Government Printing - Office.
Pp. 170, with full-page Engravings and
Photographs.

The author expresses a considerable de-
gree of satisfaction at the manner in which
his work in the survey of these mountains
has been accomplished. He had his own
way in conducting it, and pursued it under
circumstances of exceptional advantage,
with the result that, he says, " so thorough
was the display [of the formations], and
so satisfactory the examination, that, in
preparing my report, I have felt less
than ever before the desire to revisit the
field and prove my conclusions by more ex-
tended observation." The Henry Mount-
ains are not a range, and have no trend, but
are simply a group of five individual mount-
ains, separated by low passes, and -without
discernible system of arrangement, situated
in Southern Utah, on the right bank of the
Colorado River of the West, and between
its tributaries, the Fremont and tbe Esca-
lente. The highest peaks rise about 5,000
feet above the plateau at their base, and
11,000 feet above the level of the ocean.
At the time of their discovery by Professor
Powell they were in the center of the largest
unexplored district in the United States ; and
they are in a desert country that has hardly
any economic value.

A Bibliography of Fossil Insects. By
Sam[jel H. Scddder. Pp. 48.

This work forms one of the series of the
" Catalogue of the Library of Harvard Uni-
versity," and is one of the first formal at-
tempts to collect separately the titles of
papers on fossil insects. It shows the re-
sults of great labor, for it gives not only the
titles of books and papers on the subject,
but also a very large number of references
to works and essays in which fossil insects
are only referred to, or form one among
other topics of equal prominence, which
are touched upon in the course of a chapter,
essay, or book, and in all the principal lan-

guages of science. Except when otherwise
stated, all the papers quoted have been ex-
amined by the author personally.

Tables for the Determination, Descrip-
tion, and Classification of Minerals.
By James C. Foye, Ph. D., Professor in
Lawrence University. Chicago : Jansen,
McClurg & Co. Pp. 85. Price, $1.

The object of this work is to furnish
tables by means of which students may,
with as few easy tests as possible, learn to
determine and classify minerals found in
the United States, and become familiar with
their principal characteristics. Two tables
serve for the determination of species ; a
third gives the crystalline structure and
other distinctive characteristics of each
species ; a fourth classifies the species ac-
cording to "Dana's Mineralogy"; and a
fifth classifies by basic elements and ores.
The appendix gives the distinctions between
some of the closely allied species and varie-
ties. A great deal of information is com-
pressed into a small space.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIYED.

The Little Mountains East of the Catskills.
By W. M. Davis. Pp. 33. With Plate.

Scientific Proceedings of the Ohio Mechanics'
Institute. Vol. I. No. 2. Cincinnati, May, 1882.
Pp. 50.

Clinical Contributions to Electrical Thera-
peutics. By Romaiue J. Curtiss, M. D. Joliet,
Illinois. Pp. 52.

Quarterly Report of the Bureau of Statistics
for Three Months ended March 31, 1882. Wash-
iugton: Government Printing- Office. Pp.96.

Note on the Aurora of April 16-17, 1882. By
H. Carvill Lewis. Pp. 9. Illustrated.

Proceedings of the National Association for
the Protection of the Insane and the Prevention
of Insanity. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
1S82. Pp. 55.

Missouri Historical Society. Publication No.
6. Archaeology of Missouri. By F. H. Balder.
St. Louis, Missouri. Pp. 17.

A New Theory of the Suspension System,
with Stiffening Truss. By A. Jay DuBois, Ph.D.
Pp. 43.

Indian Languages of the Pacific States and
Territories, and of the Pueblos of New Mexico.
By Albert S. Gatschet. New York: A. S. Barnes
& Co. 1882. Pp. 10.

Preventing Disease. By J. R. Black, M. D.
Newark, Ohio. Pp. 17.

Charles Rohert Darwin. Bv Joseph F. James.
Read before the Cincinnati Society of Natural
History, May 2, 1882. Pp.7.

A Bill reirulatins Rates of Postage. Boston :
Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers. 1882. Pp. 9.

The Student's Guide in Quantitative Analy-
sis. By H. Carrino-ton Bolton, Ph. D. Illustrat-
ed. New York : John Wiley & Sons. 1882. Pp.
127. $1.50.

560

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Extra Census Bulletins : Tables showing the
Cereal Production of the Uuited States by Coun-
ties, 1881, pp. 36; Repoit on the Manufacture of
Fire-Anns and Ammunition, by Charles H.
Fitch, 1882, pp. 36 ; Tables showing the Cotton
Production of the United States by Counties,
1881, pp. 5 ; Keport on the Cotton Production of
Louisiana, by Eugene W. Hilsard, 1881, pp. 99.
Washington : Government Printing-Office.

Report on Experiments and Investigations to
develop a System of Submarine Mines. By
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry L. Abbott. Washing-
ton: Government Prin ting-Ufflce. 1SS1. Pp. 444.

Memoirs of the Science Department of the
TJniversily of Tokio. No. 6, The Chemistry of
Saki-Brewing, by R. W. Atkinson, B. So., pp. 73 ;
No. 7, Report on the Meteorology of Tokio for
the Year 1880, pp. 77, with Plates ; and, The
Wave-Lengths of some of the Principal Fraunho-
fer Lines of the Solar Spectrum, by T. C. Men-
denhall. Ph. D., pp. 27. Published by the univer-
sity. Tokio, 1881.

Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft of 1692-
By George M. Beard, M. D. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. ISS'S. Pp. 112. $1.

The Science of Ethics. Bv Leslie Stephen.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1882. Pp.
462. $4.

Antinous. A Romance of Ancient Rome. By
George Taylor. From the German by Mary J.
Safford. New York: William S. Gottsberger.
18S2. Pp. 343. 75 cents.

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. A Critical
Exposition. By George S. Morris, Ph. D. Chi-
cago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 1882. Pp.272. $1.25.

Science Ladders. Edited by N. d'Anvers.
No. 1. Forms of Land and Water, illustrated, pp.
67; No. 3, Vegetable Life, illustrated, pp. 78.
New York : G. P. Putnam s Sons. 1882. 50 cents
each.

Our Merchant Marine. By David A. Wells.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 219.
$1.25.

The Gospel of T aw. Bv S. J Stewart. Bos-
ton : George H. Eilis. 1882. Pp. 326. $1 25.

A Geographical Reader. Compiled by James
Johonnot. New York : D. Appletou & Co.
1SS2. $1.25.

Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad.
By Archibald Geikie, LL. D , etc. With Illus-
trations. New York : Mitcmillan & Co. 1882.
$1.75.

Physiognomy. A Practical and Scientific
Treatise. "By Mary Olmsfead Stanton. Printed
for the Author. San Francisco. 1831. Pp. 851.

What is Bright's Disease? Its Curability.
Philadelphia: Published by the Author. 1882.
Illustrated. Pp. 152. $1.

A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Skin.
By Louis A. Dnhring. M. D. Third edition, re-
vised and enlarged. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippin-
cott & Co. 1.82. Pp. 685. $6.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The Great Telescope at Princeton. — The

new telescope for the Ilalsted Observatory
at Princeton has been mounted within the
past few weeks, and is now ready for work.
In magnitude it ranks at present as fourth
among the great refracting telescopes of the
world, and second in the United States. Its
only superiors in size are the Vienna re-
fractor, of twenty-seven inches diameter,

the telescope of the Naval Observatory at
Washington, twenty-six inches in diame-
ter, and the telescope of Mr. Newhall, at
Newcastle, in England, which has an aper-
ture of twenty-five inches. A number of
still larger instruments are indeed under
construction, but it will be some time before
any of them are actually in place. The
object-glass of the Princeton telescope is
twenty-three inches in diameter, and has a
focal length of thirty feet. The glass disks
were cast by Feil, in Paris, but the telescope
was made by Alvan Clark & Sons, of Cam-
bridge. Though the telescope is a little
smaller than the Washington equatorial, its
mounting is considerably heavier and firmer,
and is improved in many respects. The
regulator of the driving-clock is unusually-
powerful, and, to prevent friction and wear
of its pivots, its shaft is floated in mercury.
The clamps and slow-motions are all man-
aged without removing the eye from the
eye-piece, and the declination circle is also
read from the eye-end by a new and ingen-
ious arrangement of the makers. The ob-
ject-glass is peculiar in having its two lenses
separated by a space of about seven inches,
so as to allow a free circulation of air be-
tween them, thus greatly diminishing the
disturbing effect of changes of temperature.
This construction secures also freedom from
the " ghosts " (formed by reflection between
the lenses) which are so troublesome in
many large instruments. The curves of the
lenses are not those usually employed, but
i are somewhat like those of the Gaussian
system, though not so deep. The color and
spherical aberration are very perfectly cor-
rected, and the performance of the glass, so
far as can be judged from a few nights'
work, is extremely fine. The instrument is,
of course, provided with all the usual mi-
crometers, eye-pieces, and other accessories,
but as its chief occupation, for the present
at least, is to be in the line of stellar spec-
troscopy, special attention has been given
to the spectroscope, which is the most pow-
erful ever made for star-work. It is a direct-
vision instrument, on the plan of that used
for some years back at Greenwich, though
much larger. It was constructed by Ililger,
of London, under the kind supervision of
Mr. Christie (the present Astronomer Royal),
in accordance with his own designs. It has

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

561

three of his so-called half-prisms, of such
size as to take a beam two and one quarter
inches in diameter, and is nearly six feet
long. The whole cost of the telescope and
spectroscope was $26,000, which was pro-
vided by the generosity of Robert Bonner,
R. L. Stuart, and other friends of science
and the college. The observatory itself, of
which the corner-stone was laid sixteen
years ago, has been newly fitted up for its
occupant. A gas-engine furnishes the power
for moving the dome and working the shut-
ters, and it also drives an Edison dynamo
electric machine which provides a powerful
current to be used for lighting purposes, or
to supply the spectra of gases and metals to
be compared with the spectra of the stars.

American Archaeological Researches. —

The third annual report of the Archaeological
Institute of America reviews the work that
has been pursued by the agents of the in-
stitute in archaeological explorations in New
Mexico and Mexico, and in the excavations
at the ancient Greek city of Assos, and in-
cludes the first report of the committee on
the American school of classical studies at
Athens. Mr. Bandelier, who' had been ex-
ploring in New Mexico in the service of the
institute, spent some time in Mexico, first
at Cholula, where he studied the history of
the city and the manners and customs, the
habits and superstitions, and the domestic
architecture of the present native Indian
inhabitants. He inquired into the origin
and character of the ancient Mexican deity
Quetzal-Chohuatl, and the significance of
the myth attached to his name, and made a
study of the great pyramid of Cholula. The
latter, he declares, is not entitled to be called
a pyramid, but is only a huge mound, some
two hundred feet high, which originally
covered an area of about sixty acres, and
now presents' the appearance of three dis-
tinct terraces, surrounding and supporting
a conical hill, very wide, and much over-
grown with shrubbery. It is constructed
of materials precisely similar to those which
make up the plain on which it stands, and
appears not to have been all erected at one
time, but to be the accumulation of suc-
cessive periods of labor. Mr. Bandelier
believes that the structure was designed
to hold immense communal buildings, like

those at Pecos, in New Mexico, but in size
approaching the great edifices at Palenque
and Uxmal, and all built around a vast
court, in the center of which stood an enor-
mous " worship-mound," and that it was
built by the Toltecs, or Mayas. Mr. Bande-
lier also visited Mitla, where he secured ac-
curate plans and measurements of the most
important buildings, thirty-nine in number.
The so-called palaces are not greatly differ-
ent from the pueblos of New Mexico, and
are described as built and ornamented with-
out any knowledge of mechanical contriv-
ances, dark and imperfectly ventilated, and
only a " barbaric effort of a barbarous peo-
ple." His conclusion, drawn from the shape
and size of the single apartments, is that
they were not intended for every-day abodes,
but only as shelters at night and in bad
weather, and retreats for the women and
1 children during a hostile attack — communal
1 structures, differing from the similar con-
| structions of other Indian tribes " only in
i so far as the exigencies of a different cli-
mate or of varying resources demanded." M.
Louis H. Ayme, United States consul at
Merida, has entered into a contract to ex-
j plore, as agent of the institute, such places
i in Yucatan as have not recently been ex-
j amined by Dr. Le Plongeon or M. Charnay.
i The ruins of Yucatan have suffered great
destruction during the forty years since
they were visited by Stephens.

The American Association. — The thirty-
first annual meeting of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science will
be held at Montreal, beginning August 23d,
under the presidency of Principal J. W.
Dawson, LL. D., F. R, S., of McGill Univer-
sity. The headquarters of the association
will be at McGill University, where mem-
bers will register as soon as possible after
their arrival. The hotel headquarters will
be at the Windsor Hotel. The offices of the
local committee and of the permanent sec-
retary will be at the university. The gen-
eral sessions and the meetings of the sec-
tions and committees will all be held in the
university buildings. The permanent sec-
retary, Professor F. W. Putnam, may be
addressed at Salem, Massachusetts, till Au-
gust 17th, after which his address will be at
the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, Canada.

562

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The British Association.— The fifty-sec-
ond meeting of the British Association will
be held at Southampton, beginning August
28d, when the chair will be resigned by Sir
John Lubbock and assumed by Dr. C. W.
Siemens, F. R. S., president-elect, with the
usual address appropriate to the occasion.
The addresses at the evening general meet-
ings will be, " On the Tides," by Sir Will-
iam Thomson, F. R. S., August 25th, and
on " Pelagic Life," by Professor H. N.
Moseley, August 28th. The presidents of
the sections will be : A, Mathematical and
Physical Science, Lord Rayleigh ; B, Chemi-
cal Science, Professor D. Liveing ; C, Geol-
ogy, R. Etheridge, F. R. S. ; D, Biology,
Professor A. Gamgee, with Professors Gam-
gee, M. A. Lawson, and W. Boyd Dawkins
as presidents in the Departments of Anat-
omy and Physiology, Zoology and Botany,
and Anthropology ; E, Geography, Sir R.
Temple, Bart. ; F, Economical Science and
Statistics, the Right Hon. G. Sclater-Booth ;
and G, Mechanical Science, John Fowler,
F. G. S. Excursions to places of interest
in the neighborhood of Southampton will
be made on the afternoon of Saturday, Au-
gust 26th, and on Thursday, August 31st.

Forests and Climate. — Dr. J. M. Anders,

in the "American Naturalist," has carefully
examined the influence of forests upon cli-
mate and rain-fall. The principal influence
exerted by woods upon climate is as wind-
breaks, in which capacity the service they
render is familiar enough. The experiment
has been tried extensively in France of
planting trees in belts one hundred metres
apart, with marked benefit to the climate.
Forests may slightly promote the condensa-
tion of moisture by inducing an upward
movement of the air, as mountains are
known to do on an extensive scale ; but
their action in this respect, on account of
their low height, is not important enough
to be made account of. Woods play a more
important part in furnishing the air with
moisture by transpiration of water through
their leaves. It is computed from experi-
mental tests that they give off in this way
twelve times as much water as is evaporated
directly from the soil on which they stand,
twice as much as goes up from a free soil,
and more than is emitted from an equal

body of water. They are able to do this,
and keep it up, because they are at all times
supplied with an abundant store of moist-
ure for transpiration. This is given them
partly by the power which their roots have
to attract moisture from every direction ;
partly by the retention of the rain-fall in
their net-work ; and partly by the property
possessed by vegetable mold of absorbing
moisture and holding it. This power of
evaporation is shared by the humbler vege-
tation, and it operates nearly constantly,
even during long droughts. Climate is also
materially affected by this quality, for moist
air during winter tends to moderate extreme
cold and during summer produces a refresh-
ing coolness. Now, since it is established
that forests moisten the air over, in, and to
some extent around themselves, "may we
not be pardoned for concluding that warm
currents sweeping over a country and strik-
ing the cool moist air in and above the for-
ests, and mingling with it, would have a
portion, at least, of the contained moisture
condensed into gentle showers, extending
their beneficent influence to neighboring
fields ? Again, let some stray current come
along, of a lower temperature than the air
of the forest, and the moist air of the for-
est would readily be condensed, since it is a
well-known fact that a moist air discharges
its vapor more readily in the form of rain
than a drier atmosphere. We have now
seen how trees can cause local rains ; it will
also be observed that the rain is formed
chiefly above the forest, though it may be
through the influence of winds that it falls
to the earth for some distance around. By
increasing the frequency of light rains, for-
ests tend to obviate drought, which is of
ultimate importance to the farmer's crops
and vegetation in general. It will be seen
that all our deductions have been drawn
largely from the known facts from observa-
tions." Forests also produce abundant dews,
an office not to be despised, for heavy dews
are often very refreshing to vegetation.

Atmospheric Pressure and the Sea-Lev-
el.— One of the most interesting phenom-
ena of the recent winter in Europe was a
remarkable depression of the level of the
Mediterranean Sea under the influence of
the high barometric pressures of December

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

563

and January. At Antibes, in particular,
the water-level sunk considerably, falling
about a foot during the first fortnight in
January, and laying bare bottoms over
which small boats had previously sailed
with ease. A similar depression was noticed
on the coasts of Italy, particularly at Fiu-
micino. A French savant, M. Daussy, has
estimated the amount of this influence, and
calculated that it is equal to the product
of the excess of height over the normal by
the density of mercury. The action of at-
mospheric pressure is so manifest at other
points in the Mediterranean, according to
Dr. Niepce, of Nice, that it almost alone
constitutes the tidal force. The fact is con-
firmed in a paper on the climate of Venice,
which has recently been published by M.
Tono, of the Meteorological Observatory in
that city, which shows the closest corre-
spondence between the changes in atmos-
pheric pressure and the rise and fall of the
waters.

The Monnd-Builders and the Southern
Indians. — Dr. Daniel G. Brinton has sought
to answer the question, Who were the mound-
builders ? by inquiring whether and to what
extent the tribes who inhabited the Missis-
sippi Valley and the Atlantic slope were
accustomed to make works similar to the
mounds. It is clear, from several accounts,
that the Iroquois were accustomed to con-
struct burial-mounds, and their neighbors,
the various Algonquin tribes, occasionally
raised heaps of soil. The Cherokees do not
appear to have been real mound-builders,
but they appreciated the convenience of
mounds, and put their more important build-
ings upon thenrwhen they had them at hand.
The tribes among whom we can look for
the descendants of the mound-builders with
the greatest probability of success are the
tribes of the great Chahta-Muskokee family,
which includes the Choetaws, Chickasaws,
Creeks, Seminoles, and Natchez. They
" seem to have been a building race, and
to have reared tumuli not contemptible in
comparison even with the mightiest of the
Ohio Valley." Cabeza de Vaca, who accom-
panied the expedition of Pamfilo de Nar-
vaez in 1527, mentions a place where the
natives were accustomed to erect their
dwellings on a steep hifl, and dig a ditch

around its base, as a means of defense.
All the accounts of those who participated
in Hernando de Soto's expedition describe
the Southern tribes as constructing artificial
mounds, using earthworks for defense, ex-
cavating ditches and canals, etc. Thus,
La Vega tells how the caciques in Florida
formed earth into a kind of platform " two
or three pikes in height, the summit of which
is large enough to give room for twelve,
fifteen, or twenty houses, to lodge the cacique
and his attendants. At the foot of this ele-
vation they mark oat a square place, accord-
ing to the size of the village, around which
the leading men have their houses." Bied-
ma says that the caciques of a certain re-
gion " were accustomed to erect near the
house very high mounds (tertrcs tres-elevees),
and there were some who placed their houses
on the top of these mounds." The Hugue-
nots who attempted to settle in Florida de-
scribed similar structures as marking the
sites of the houses of the chief. William
Bartram, the botanist, who visited the Creeks
in the last century, found that they had
" chunk-yards " surrounded by low mounds
of earth, at one end of which, sometimes
on a moderate artificial elevation, was the
chief's dwelling, and at the other end the
public council-house. Large burial-mounds
are also often spoken of as being made by
these tribes. Many of the mounds in the
Gulf States are very large. One in the
Etowah Valley, Georgia, has a capacity of
one million cubic feet. The Messier mound,
near the Chattahoochee River, contains about
seven hundred thousand cubic feet, and is
twice as large as the great mound near
Miamisburg, Ohio. Dr. Brinton's views are
parallel, if not identical, with those worked
out by the late Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, in his
" Houses and House-Life of the American
Aborigines."

The Microbe of Malaria.— M. Richard, a
French pathologist, announces that he has
discovered the parasite of malaria in a mi-
crobe which makes its special habitat in the
red globule of the blood, where it is devel-
oped in a similar manner with the weevil in
the bean, and whence it issues as soon as it
has reached the perfect state. When the
blood of a patient suffering from an attack
of fever is examined, red globules will be

564

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

found, having a little round, clear spot in
their depth, but which otherwise preserve
all the appearance and elasticity of the nor-
mal red globules ; they are simply, if the
expression may be allowed, stung. Besides
these globules, others exist in which the
evolution of the microbe is more advanced ;
the clear spot has become larger, and is sur-
rounded as if by a setting of fine black granu-
lations ; all around, the hemoglobine, plainly
distinguishable by its greenish-yellow tint,
forms a ring, which grows narrower as the
parasite increases in volume. At last, noth-
ing is left of it but a perfectly colorless,
narrow marginal zone, the hemoglobine hav-
ing entirely disappeared, and the substance
of the red globule having been taken pos-
session of by the microbe till it has been
reduced to a shell. "We now have a. circular
element having nearly the dimensions of
the red globule, and inclosing the microbe,
which has reached its perfect condition, and
is provided with one or more very slender
prolongations, which are, however, not visi.
ble in this condition. At this moment the
parasite is about to pierce the membrane
that contains it, and escape into the plasma
of the blood. This microbe can be found
in every patient about to be attacked with
fever, except those suffering from marsh-
cachexy, concerning whom M. Richard can
not speak decidedly, because he has not
made sufficient examinations of them.

Geological Influences in English His-
tory.— Professor Archibald Geikie has an
article in " Macmillan's Magazine " illus-
trating how the history of the English peo-
ple has been affected by the geological struct-
ure of their island. That the relation thus
assumed is real may be proved by viewing
the contrast between the heart of En^-
land and the heart of Scotland. The former
is inhabited by a rich agricultural or busy
mining English-speaking population, is dot-
ted with large cities, and teems in every
clement with the bustle of enterprise ; the
latter, a region of rugged mountains and
narrow glens, is tenanted by a Celtic race
that clings to its old tongue and habits,
has never built towns and hardly villages,
abounds in pastures and game-lands, but
has no industrial centers, no manufact-
ures of any kind, and only a feeble agri-

culture struggling for existence along the
bottoms of the valleys. These differences
prove, upon examination, to have arisen
fundamentally from the utterly distinct geo-
logical structure of the two regions, by
which diversities in human characteristics
were initiated in far prehistoric times, and
have been continued, in spite of the blending
influences of modern civilization, down to
the present day. Passing by the conjectures
as to what may have happened in prehis-
toric times7and between the Cymric and
Gaelic branches of the Celtic race, we come
to the Roman conquest, which was extended
over the lowland regions of the Old Red
Sandstone and Carbonif erons strata of Eng-
land and Scotland, and was stopped at the
crystalline rocks of the Highlands. The
same geological influences which guided the
progress of the Roman armies may be traced
in the subsequent Teutonic invasions of
Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Norwegians. It
was on the former platforms of undisturbed
strata "that invaders could most success-
fully establish themselves. So dominant
has been this geological influence, that the
line of boundary between the crystalline
rocks and the Old Red Sandstone, from the
north of Caithness to the coast of Kincar-
dineshire, was almost precisely that of the
frontier established between the old Celtic
natives and the later hordes of Danes and
Northmen. To this day, in spite of the in-
evitable commingling of the races, it still
serves to define the respective areas of the
Gaelic-speaking and English-speaking pop-
ulations." On the northwestern coasts of
the island there are none of the fringes
of more recent formations which have had
so marked an influence on the eastern side.
Hence, though the Norsemen possessed
themselves of every available bay and inlet,
driving the Celts into the more baiTen inte-
rior, the natural contours made it impossible
that their hold on the ground should be so
firm as that of their kinsmen on the east.
Hence the Gaels eventually came down upon
them, and all obvious trace of the Norse oc-
cupation disappeared, save in the names given
by the sea-rovers to the islands, promonto-
ries, and inlets. The difference in the charac-
ter of the Irish and the Highlanders — both
Celts — may be traced to differences in geolog-
ical structure and scenery. The Irishman is

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

565

light-hearted and impulsive, because he lives
in an easy country, with a soft climate and
rich soil. The Highlander is rugged and
stern, because his country, where " he has
to fight with the elements a never-ending
battle, wherein he is often the loser," is so.
The apportionment of lands into cultivated,
pasture, and feral lands, rests upon geological
causes, which determine that each tract shall
be used for the purposes by which the most
can be made out of it. The sites of towns and
villages may often be traced to a similar in-
fluence. Formerly they were built around
heights that could be fortified ; now they are
built where the geological features afford the
most scope for industrial and commercial
development ; and the latter towns are the
ones that are growing, and to which the
population is being transferred at the ex-
pense of the others. The style of archi-
tecture, which is largely determined by the
presence or absence of building-stone, and
the kind of the stone or clay, is obviously
related to geological features. Lastly, " the
history of the development of our system
of railways, our steam machinery, our man-
ufactures, is unintelligible except when
taken together with the opening up of our
resources in coal and iron," and these are
traceable wholly to geological features.

A New Weighing of the Earth.— Pro-
fessor von Jolly, of Munich, has recently
employed a new process for the determina-
tion of the mean density of the earth. He
placed a pair of scales in the top of a tower,
and attached to each plate of the instrument
a wire which reached, passing through a
zinc tube, to twenty-one metres below. To
the lower ends of the wires other scale
plates were suspended, which thus hung
within a little more than a metre of the
ground. Under one of the lower plates he
put a ball of lead, a metre in diameter. The
fact that a body at a certain elevation gains
in weight as it is brought nearer to the
ground was verified by weighing bodies first
in one of the upper balances and then in one
of the lower ones. Furthermore these bodies
varied in weight in the lower plates accord-
ing as the mass of lead remained under
them or was taken away. The differences in
these weights showed the degree of attrac-
tion exercised by the mass. The value

thus obtained, compared with the attraction
exerted by the earth alone, furnished a means
of ascertaining, according to the laws of
gravitation, the ratio between the density of
the earth and that of lead, and, the latter
being known, of determining the mean den-
sity of the globe. M. von Jolly's experi-
ments give this density as 5-692, with a prob-
able error of ±0*068, a figure that agrees
quite well with other determinations, par-
ticularly with Bailey's of 5 '6 7.

Recent Applications of Science to Ma-
chinery.— Sir Frederick Bramwell took as
the subject of his chairman's address at the
recent opening of the 128th session of the
Society of Arts, the later applications of
science to the promotion of arts, manufact-
ures, and commerce. It could not be said,
he remarked, that any new scientific discov-
ery or principle has been applied to the
steam-engine, which is still our pre-eminent
motor, but the principles on which its eco-
nomical action depends have been advanced
by the application of jacketing for saving
steam and the use of higher pressures, with
a consequent economy of coal. Available
pressures have increased during the last
half-century from three and a half pounds
to one hundred pounds ; and Mr. Loftus
Perkins has engines running with four
hundred pounds of pressure above that
of the atmosphere, demanding a consump-
tion of one and two thirds of a pound of
coal per indicated horse-power per hour
against two and a half pounds required by
engines using a pressure of one hundred
pounds. The saving, five sixths of a pound,
seems small when expressed in simple fig-
ures, but it represents a considerable per-
centage, and the difference between running
a vessel fourteen days and twenty-one days
with the same stock of coal. ^Nevertheless,
unless some wholly new and at present un-
dreamed-of discovery is made, the steam-
engine will have to yield its place to other
means of obtaining motive power. The
average of British engines do not give forth
one twenty-fifth of the energy that may be
considered as residing in the fuel they con-
sume ; and even if we should obtain a horse-
power per hour for as little as one pound
of coal, we should still utilize only about a
sixth or a fifth of that energy. The opera-

5 66

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion of railways has been improved by the
introduction of steel rails, the extension
of the block and interlocking systems, the
application of continuous brakes, and the
better adaptation of rolling-stock to turn-
ing curves ; and the use of steel for cross-
ties is anticipated. Arrangements are in
use by which the signal-man can cause the
whistle of the engine to sound at the same
time he gives the danger-signal ; and a
device to enable him also to turn off the
steam, apply the brakes, and stop the train
is desirable and not impracticable ; but this
should be accompanied with a registering
apparatus to reveal the negligence of the
engineer that may have made it necessary
to apply it. So much has been gained in
our knowledge of the theory of resistance
and the best dimensions and shapes of ships,
that we are now able to build vessels ap-
proaching the size of the Great Eastern,
and run them with a profit at a greater
speed than was ever attained before. Gas-
engines are made, the workings of which are
nearly as steady as those of the steam-en-
gine, and with Mr, Dowson's process for
making fuel-gas, power can now be obtained
from gas-fuel for less cost than in the ordi-
nary steam-engine. A curious application
of shifting ballast, which was once thought
to be one of the most dangerous agents to
equilibrium, has been made in the British
war-vessel Inflexible to check the rolling of
the vessel. Water, in a tank extending
across the vessel, by being on the lower side
at the moment the vessel turns to roll upon
the other side, and remaining there till the
position of equilibrium is reached, restrains
the violence of the oscillation, diminishes
its extent, and tends to bring the vessel
sooner to rest.

Scientific Societies in Japan. — Besides
having several bodies in the nature of
learned societies which have enjoyed a time-
honored existence, the Japanese have been
prompted, under the impulse given by the
introduction of European culture, to found
several new scientific associations. The most
important of these bodies is the Geograph-
ical Society of Tokio, with two hundred
members, among whom are included several
of the chief personages of the empire.
Its "Transactions" are neatly printed in

pamphlets of about one hundred pages
each, and contain much matter, especially
the papers relating to Corea, that is valua-
ble to European geographers. A biological
society was established while Professor
Morse, of Salem, Massachusetts, was con-
nected with the University of- Tokio, and
is now conducted by Professor Yatahe, a
scholar educated in the United States. The
Kojunsha, or Society for the Circulation of
Knowledge, has branches in nearly every
town of importance in the empire. A
member desiring information on any sub-
ject applies to the secretary, who finds on
his books the names of any persons who
are likely to satisfy the applicant, and trans-
mits his questions to him. The answers
are forwarded to the inquirer, and, if im-
portant enough, are printed in the weekly
" Journal " of the society. This associa-
tion has nearly three thousand members,
some of them in Europe and America.
The Seismological Society has been insti-
tuted for the study of earthquakes, for
which Japan offers rare facilities. It is
given the use of the telegraphs by the Gov-
ernment for the instantaneous transmission
of news of phenomena happening in any
part of the country. The Numismatic So-
ciety, one of the old native societies, is very
active, and publishes a periodical describ-
ing the new and strange coins that are ex-
hibited at its meetings. The Antiquarian
Society and the Society of 6ro-players are
also ancient native organizations that still
flourish.

A New Race in Course of Development.

— M. Gustave Le Bon has called attention
to a peculiar race living in the Tatras
Mountains, the process of whose formation
out of the neighboring peoples, from whom
it is now isolated, he believes can be traced
quite clearly. It is the people called the Podo-
lians. They are surrounded on different sides
by Ruthenians, Slovacks, Magyars, Germans,
and other races, yet are distinct from them in
many of the most essential characteristics.
Their land is walled by a circle of mountains
difficult to traverse, which interpose an ef-
fectual physical separation between them
and the races dwelling on the other side;
the climate is rigorous, the soil poor, and
adapted to the production of so limited a

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

567

number of crops that their food is almost
entirely confined to oatmeal, and milk, or
its products. Under such conditions only
the most vigorous children can survive;
consequently a natural selection has been
going on for centuries, by the operation of
which the people have acquired a superior
stature and cranial capacity. The legends
and traditions go back to a period when the
people's ancestors were all brigands, and
were at the same time very religious, and
when their moral and religious sentiments
were wholly independent of each other, or,
we might say, contradictory. They were ac-
customed never to start off on a predatory
expedition without invoking God and the
saints for. the success of the enterprise, and
the legends are full of testimonies of the
protection that Heaven accorded to the rob-
bers. The Church of St. Anne, at Nowy
Targ, it is said, was built by thieves as a
thank-offering for the care the Lord took
of them in one of their expeditions ! The
population appears to have been produced
from crosses of the neighboring races, which
ceased after it became considerable enough
to take care of itself, and it has consolidated
its traits under the immediate influences of
its environment. The Podolian territory,
protected by its inclosure of steep mount-
ains, was in the old times the refuge of
the outlaws of the neighboring country, who
met there and laid the foundations of the
present race. The chief element in the
composition was probably furnished by
Poles, whom the Podolians resemble in
psychological traits and language more than
they do their other neighbors. Next in im-
portance, perhaps, were the Slovacks, with
whom linguistic affinities are traceable. The
mental traits, tastes, and culture of the
Podolians are peculiar, and in some respects
incongruous with the conditions of their life.
They are addicted to letters, music, and
poetry, and are very religious. The only
one of the races around them that share
these tastes is the Ruthenians, but they
are at the same time capricious in dispo-
sition, and lacking in energy, activity, and
perseverance, while the Podolians are the
opposite. We must infer, then, that the
Podolians derive their refined tastes by in-
heritance from Ruthenian ancestors, while
their more vigorous qualities have been de-

veloped under the influence of the struggles
which they have had to maintain with the
physical conditions of their country. The
superior cranial capacity of the Podolians,
which is remarkable, is likewise probably
owing to the constant draft which circum-
stances have made upon their resources and
the activitv of their intelligence.

Fossil Insects. — Mr. H. Goss has recently
concluded a series of papers reviewing the
studies of several paleontologists in fossil
insects. The hexapod insects constitute, aft-
er the crustaceans, the most numerous class
of ancient articulates with which we are
acquainted. Remains of their wings, quite
distinguishable, are found in the Devonian
formations of America and the Carbonifer-
ous of Europe. Myriapods appear first in
the Trias ; and Arachnids had not, until
scorpions were recently discovered in the
Carboniferous of Scotland, been found below
the Jurassic. The two most ancient insects
known are two which Mr. Scudder has de-
scribed from the fern-marked Devonian
strata of New Brunswick, one of which is
allied with the Neuroptera, or dragon-flies,
the other with the Orthoptera. These classes
seem to have the field to themselves till the
Carboniferous period, when the Hemiptera
and Coleoptera (and our Scottish scorpion)
first appear. The most common insects of
the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic epochs appear to
be of the family of the cockroaches, which
are very abundant in both continents, and
which Mr. Scudder has made the subject of
a special monograph. Insect remains be-
come more abundant in the Jurassic epoch.
A certain limestone of the English Lias is so
full of them that it is called the insect lime-
stone. The Coleoptera are most numerous,
probably because their horny elytrae better
resist decay, but Hymenoptera and Diptera
also are found at Solenhofen and Purbeck.
The cretaceous and tertiary beds, how-
ever, have furnished the largest number of
specimens that have been studied by pale-
ontologists, the multiplication of insects
having, it seems, been greatly favored by
the prevalence of angiospermous vegetation.
The Lepidoptera appear last, and are rare,
not more than ten authentic types of them
having been recognized. Certain beds, such
as those of Solenhofen, Aix in Provence,

::5

THE POPULAR SCIE2 ?1 M XTHLY.

Radobo j in Hun-
gary, Monte Baka in Italy, and the Floris-

- r:"-:rii;. ire ::V::^: :'::
of insects they afford. 11k
ir -_:r •: _: :: ';:-: ::::•
ur-:- :lif jt _ :;: :: '.;ss
: jf-iiz ~-; ::: f-.\i :: :hf~
beds is ifii lia^wi he il by the prevalence

types. Eytrae are found in
- - - . . .

A cnrraJio-

f :L.

:zz zz~ - - _ - . .

zzziz iit.riil -= izi:-- ZZ.Z ::'z.-z

I _ . _ '
... .- : _- : z.. : t f . r _- ir — 1

:i. ::_^::.t:
: zz-. l-_- in:

t . :

Sewire-Inialiwi ia
X. Durand-Claye. a

z

:irlii ::

~-\z, :::

7

-

---- z zzzz

" 1 : ■

■ "

.:: . i- z = :-
5 . iz— 1 ::

r z - : -
I .:t. : .li-
ef of about

Thus far, four hundred and seventeen ac
hare beat enough to absorb all the sew.
age of the city, indicating an absorbing-
power of thirry.r*-o thousand cubic met
a vear for each acre. The works

the city, for the use of the irrigated lands

::: tlirrj - :.:- :.:.: :;.-. .:.~1 :s ;u ..::::
gardeners for from : ~ f twenty-eight
i- -::e. Hie mortality of the
city— one of about one hundred thousand
inhihil mln Iii~ been reduced twenty-one
Jt: ----- -:;: :ir : "i::::i :: :_> ?y;:iz:

.. I i : ■-: - ._

meats with chemical agents, irrigation i

: z . ' _.: - : '.zzi. 7_t

tract took in and purine . 18 cubic me-.

• :

i~i : - in r '. z: :-i :::-■-

iliinmiiMil to treat all of its sewer-waters

_ .he same way, and bought two tracts, one

: seventeen hundred and forty acres, the

other, at Osdorf and Friederiekenhof , of two

HmwhimI a: One thousand

and eighty acres of the latter tract only hare

been used. In addition to the cultivated

plats, drained basins are provided for the

: is z ~ i. zz.

ieh, after a deposit about a foot thick has

accumulated, the grout. I ried, dug up,

i ready for cultivation in the next

- :i: Z'z.: -\- ::-'--.

z : :::= : i : I:se . - ~zz . ..__"--: _ : ~ : :-"..i^ .

: . - r'iiir- i- : 7_- .—•

Z-ZZii-i: ::: zzlzz. :::_rZr._„:..ir :: zzz-

seats are not affected by them. The cost

: *Z™Z tne ttnds is defrayed by the

mIt ::' 'z.-zz - s: :'::: ~_t 11.7 is ::.> z:

1- :~ l;r I : ZZZZZ.ZZZ ZZ Z It ~ ZZ~Z . ~~Z-Hi

■ ifale to let the lands atfromtwer
: it :: "

hundred acres, of suck a character tint 1
tea drainage is necessary. The irrigated
lands are let to the engineer who eonstruet-
the works at a scale of rents which

to rise in four years to eighteen dollars an

The Salt Depart* of the Persian Galf.
—On the eastern side of the Persian Gulf
is an extensive area containing a fan
deposit of salt winch crops out at various

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

places and ris^ f rocks of

siderable magnitude. The salt-bearing rocks
are of a reddish color, receiving their f
from red ochre, which, associated to a small
extent with specular iron, em -e salt

deposit and is more or less mixed with
imparting to it also a red tint. Hie asso-
ciation of ochre with salt i3 so constant in
the district that the existence of the former
is almost a sure indication of the presence
of the latter. Hear the villi age of Kowin
on the Island of R^hm, the salt and ochre
are so mingled in a part of the range as to
give it the appearance of a structure made
of red bricks and mortar. Years ago, the
salt was gathered from hollows in the ground
where briny water issuing from the rocks
could be collected and the mineral would be
left after evaporation in beautiful crystal-
line TnaffMfjg. More recently, the salt has
been quarried ; and the works condor:
this purpose have become large caverns in

icb stalactites have been formed from the
tri _ :f the brine, yielding snow-white

isms of saecharoid salt. Besides these
m*asg»( the salt is found here in pure white
lumps, easily reduced to granules, the most
valuable form, red, stony masses which are
used chiefly for salting fish, and translucent
and tran- masnr.-> of cubical forms,

and is dug out with crow-bar At Hameran,
four mile3 f roir. a-shore, the salt is

a about four feet thick with in-
ter- of earthy material, anc
sometimes of a pale-greenish color from eon-
tact with an earth containing mangan
The mass - are broken with
gunpowder and granulated with mallets.
Warn ^alt are found
close by the village of Salakh, near Hen-jam,

naphtha which the na-
tiv f light and for rheu-

matic com;/ arts

The Great Arftif Forest.—
X : : lenskmld, in his "V of the '•' -

describes what he c greatest :':

the earth ha- show. I: exists in the

country of the Yenisei River, and extends
from the fifty- h or fifty-ninth degree

of latitude to far north of the A Tir-

. in the neighborhood of ti j-mm\h

degree of la: covering an extent of

about one tb^usand kilometres from north

i:;:.

i -. — ~~ .

from east to west. "It
~_r__\_r_i. :;r-rr*. :: ~r.;:~:_- ~:
_:,:. .;:_r- -7 '■-- :.:-: : ''--. : .
at many places devastate::
On the high eastern bank of
:i.~ z:: -r. - :: z,- ir^zir- -----

bank. It eonninta principally of pines. . . .

Most of these already north of the Arctic
Circle [the traveler is soppuacd to be
from north to sooth] reach a colossi]
but in such a ease are often here, far froc
all forestry, gray and half -dried up with age.
The ground is covered with fallen bra nrhc
and stems in all stages of rottenness, whid
are covered, often concealed, by an exceed
ingly luxuriant bed of mormen, while tree

i:--.. ~ir_: :"_:- -----7 .r z —i :-.- — "

rr-rler_. ir.i :_-- ~:± ::" :_r ;i: ::.:« ~:
-een here and there among the pine

-_::i:r:r.'-

show that the limit of trees in the Y

::

: s :z. ':. :.- rZ'.z.irL.

-::'..:. :::_.: L.r.l :_ — l:~

in SicDy. — fen er:;-

:r_ 7 ._ : : s ::zz \- i: zz ea:h
itzzr :r_ L zrzzizLZ.'.-

■re

S::-j. One is
of the island, about eight miles no:
gentL It proceeds from o mountain shoot
hundred feet high, called Wonlorn,

:he ±L\-r~_i izzzizz:- :: -i::"- if

iL:.~ri inter. ;': - tie - - ::
hohihlr of mod rises and bursts every
u:e. 7_r ::'-r: fr:::: - is i-.ir
on the western side of the lower region of
Etna, nearly forty miles weal of Macaluba,

n i ::.ii . f ; ii:e i~ :: Tr_ir_rs i-i . r_es

:- the ievTi : the r:::h :. I: if ni-fii-:-
i \'.j zz ~ z: -..-..': i '.
The mud sports out in jets several yards

- - -
runs into the bed of the B itiet. The

ei option has been reneoed three times with-

deep subterranean rumblings and i liwg

f the earth, some of which are

eptiMe several miles ow The

that issues from these volcanoes

570

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and petroleum-bearing. A kind of scum of
petroleum may be seen on the edges of
the craters of Macaluba. The gases es-
caping from them contain from thirty-four
to thirty-six per cent of carburetted hy-
drogen, with sulphuretted hydrogen and
carbonic acid. The soil around Paterno,
in which the center of the second eruption
is situated, is calcareous, and abounds in
springs containing carbonic acid. The wa-
ters, infiltrating the soil, raise its temper-
ature and form a kind of veined alabaster,
which is much esteemed. The eruptions
are occasioned by the passage of carburet-
ted hydrogen, which is formed by the de-
composition of organic matters within the
earth, in seeking its way to the surface
through beds of clay which have been
washed down into the crevices. Mud-vol-
canoes of another kind, of which those of
New Zealand and Iceland afford examples,
are formed by vapors of water proceeding
from ordinary volcanoes, and are distin-
guished by the high temperature of the
mud and the absence of carburetted hy-
drogen.

The Oldest Flowering Plant.— MM. G.

de Saporta and A. F. Marion have been study-
ing the genera Williamsonia and Goniolina,
the most ancient angiospermous plants of
which the fructiferous organs have been
preserved. The stem bears at its extremity
reproductive apparatus in which two differ-
ent modes of structure, indicating a dioecious
plant, may be distinguished. A many-leaved
involucre, having its bracts so curved as to
give it a globular appearance, is observed in
every case. The parts of the male involucre
are disposed in a single row, connivent, elon-
gated, and attenuated at the end. The organ
represents a conical axis, the base of which
is surrounded with a circular zone marked
with radiating stiiae. The outer edge of
this zone, when it is exposed, is occupied
with a collection of very small compart-
ments of irregular hexagonal contour, that
seem to represent as many pollen-boxes.
This basilar zone corresponded with a ster-
ile and persistent portion of the androphore,
which in its integrity probably covered the
whole conical receptacle with a matted layer
of staminal appendages, recalling by their
disposition and office the male organs of the

Typhas. The female organs of the William-
sonia are provided with the globose invo-
lucre of the male flower, except that the
bracts are a little shorter. The organ con-
tained within this involucre, which was cer-
tainly caducous at maturity, consisted of a
receptacle or spadix in the form of a more
or less globose solid cushion. The central
leaves of the involucre, which remain in
place, testify by their thickness to a par-
ticularly tough primitive condition. The
spadix in the midst of them is covered on
its upper part with carpellary compartments,
while the fibro-ligneous tissue which com-
posed the axis of the receptacle is recog-
nizable in the lower part.

French Exploring Expeditions.— Since

18*74 the French Government has authorized
the organization of three hundred and thirty
scientific missions, of which one hundred and
sixty-eight were to operate in Europe, fifty-
four in Africa, forty-eight in Asia, thirty- six
in America, and twenty-four in Oceania.
Most of these missions are still at work, and
generally report to a commission appointed
by the Minister of Public Instruction. The
" Revue Scientifique " reviews the condition
of the most important of the missions, par-
ticularly of those which relate especially to
geography. M. Lantz is in Madagascar,
studying the natural history of the less
accessible parts of the island ; M. Pelaf ud
is exploring the Mascarene Islands ; M. Mon-
tano, Malaysia ; and M. Marche, the Philip-
pine Islands. In Africa, M. Matheis is ex-
ploring the region between the Niger and
the Benoue ; M. Revoil is examining the
Somauli country from Cape Guardaf ui to the
Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb ; Messrs. Savorgnan
de Brazza and Ballay are supplementing
Stanley's work on the Congo ; Messrs. Roux,
Cagnat, and Gosselin are studying the geog-
raphy and archaeology of Tunisia ; M. Gal-
lieni has concluded a treaty for the naviga-
tion of the Niger to Timbuctoo ; and several
expeditions are engaged in the eastern part
of the continent. In Asia, M. Haas is pur-
suing artistic and historical investigations
in Hindostan ; M. Chantre has started from
Bagdad to look into the anthropology and
zoology of the region of the Caspian Sea
and Mount Ararat ; M. Clermont-Ganneau is
engaged in archaelogical work in the east of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

57i

Egypt, in Philistia, and Phoenicia ; M. Cot-
teau is making his way through Russia and
Siberia to Japan. M. Wiener is traveling
through South America ; M. Pinard, having
done some work in Alaska, is engaged in
California, New Mexico, and Arizona ; and
M. Charnay is digging in the ruins of the
ancient cities of Mexico. In Europe, M.
Georges Pouchet is studying the glacial
fauna of Norway; M. Dieulafait is inves-
tigating the formation of rock-salts and
gypsums in Switzerland ; M. Milne-Edwards,
as the head of a commission, is about to
engage in deep-sea researches in the Medi-
terranean ; and several parties are exploring
the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Is the Moon red-hot? — Mr. W. Mat-
tieu "Williams believes that the surface of
the moon has an intrinsic brilliancy of its
own, and a temperature much greater than
is usually supposed. He expresses the opin-
ion, in effect, that the surface of the moon
is, as it appears to be in eclipses, " of a dull-
red heat, and that this high temperature is
due to the action of the sun's rays striking
it directly, without any intervening shield of
aqueous vapor or other atmospheric mat-
ter. If the volcanic tufa, of which the
moon's surface is evidently composed, re-
sembles the corresponding material on our
earth, it is one of the best absorbers of heat
and the worst of conductors. This being the
case, the uninterrupted glare of the sun's
rays would produce its maximum possible
effect on a thin film of the moon's surface.
. . . "We must remember that a dull copper-
red heat, just visible in the dark, is consid-
erably below the temperature of red heat
visible in daylight. Supposing the color of
the moon to be due to such heat, I should
estimate its surface temperature at a little
above 600°." Lord Rosse, estimating the
surface temperature of the moon, concluded
it was about 500°. Mr. Williams was led to
his conclusion by watching the appearance
of the moon during the totality of an eclipse.
When the partially eclipsed moon rose, the
shaded part displayed a full copper-red col-
or ; a3 the eclipse progressed, this advanced
to a darker or more obscure copper-color ;
then the redness gradually faded, and the
shaded portion of the moon grew darker
and grayer, until at last it became of a dark

slate-color ; and its outline or limb was
barely traceable toward the end of the
eclipse. In some elementary treatises this
copper-color is attributed to " the refraction
of the sun's light by the action of the earth.'*
Mr. Williams fails to see how this can oper-
ate in the middle of the shadow, where the
color is the most decided, and why it should
fade as the eclipse progresses, and finally be
lost just at the outer edge of the shadow.
The fading is easily accounted for on Mr.
Williams's hypothesis, as the result of the
rapid cooling of the lunar surface on the
withdrawal of the sun's rays. The reason-
ing that ascribes so high a temperature to
the side of the moon presented to the sun
must lead to the conclusion that the dark, or
night side, is intensely cold.

The Original Home of the Aryans.—

Dr. Fligier argues in " Kosmos " that the
theory of the Asiatic origin of the Aryan
race is not yet as firmly settled as has been
supposed. Latham disputes it on geograph-
ical grounds in his "Native Races of the
Russian Empire." Pictet believes, on the
evidence of the names of animals and plants
that were known to them, that they origi-
nated farther north than the Asiatic theory
supposes, and fixes their birthplace in South-
ern Russia. Benfey and Professor Tomas-
chek, of Gratz, agree with him, and indicate
the region of the southern Volga as their
primary home, whence they may have spread
to the Carpathian Mountains on the west,
and to the marshes of the interior and the
Ural on the east. Bogdanoff has found
dolichocephalous skulls of the recognized
type of the German giant-graves in the Kur-
gans of Moscow. Resemblances between
Finnish and Aryan and between Magyar and
Iranian words indicate that those people
were respectively neighbors to each other
in their old times, as might have been the
case if the theory of the European origin of
the Aryans is true. Dr. Fligier believes that
the results of linguistic, anthropological, and
archaeological researches indicate that the
Indians and the Iranians lived near each
other for a long time in Eastern Europe or
Northwestern Asia, and that the Indians
followed the Iranians into Asia. That this
happened at a comparatively late period is
presumed to be shown by the fact that these

572

THE rUFULAK SCIENCE MONTHLY.

peoples are not mentioned in the older Baby-
lonian cuneiform inscriptions, and are first
spoken of in the Assyrian inscriptions of
the ninth century b. c. A second Aryan
emigration to Asia followed across the Hel-
lespont. After making a detailed examina-
tion of the Aryan stocks and their supposed
emigrations, Dr. Fligier concludes that their
linguistic unity does not by any means con-
stitute an anthropological unity : the Asiatic
Aryans have partly lost their Aryan type,
and the European Aryans present two quite
distinct types.

Observations of the Last Solar Eclipse.

— The solar eclipse of May 19th has been
the subject of a number of communications
to the French Academy of Sciences. M.
Janssen spoke in terms of admiration of the
photographs of all the phases of the phe-
nomenon which were obtained by means of
the photographic revolver. A very laconic
notice of the observations made during
totality by Messrs. Trepied, Lockyer, Thol-
lon, and Tacchini, was sent by telegraph.
The Egyptian Government gave exceptional
facilities to the observers. Photographs of
the corona and its spectrum were obtained,
the latter exhibiting the lines of potassium
and hydrogen. The observers at the same
time noticed a comet which was visible to
the naked eye in the immediate vicinity of
the sun. At Lyons M. Andre and his aids
saw between the edge of the moon and the
outline of the sun-spots which it was ap-
proaching, the development of the gray lig-
ament that has been noticed between the
edge of the sun and the circumference of
the planets crossing its disk. The popular
observatory of the Trocadero, in Paris, on
the day of the eclipse, put four telescopes,
as many opera-glasses, and blackened glass-
es, at the service of the public. About a
hundred persons were present as early as
six o'clock in the morning. Each instru-
ment was in charge of an assistant, whose
duty it was to help the public to see the
phenomenon. One of the assistants made
a projection apparatus of his telescope, and
threw an image of the eclipse and of nu-
merous solar spots upon a screen, where it
could easily be looked at by fifteen persons
at once. It was thus made possible to ex-
amine with the microscope the details of a

considerable number of spots, and to see
the black profiles of the lunar mountains
designed on the illuminated image of the
sun. Several drawings of the solar spots
and the eclipse were taken.

An Insect-lodging Flower.— M. Treub
has made a study in Java of the Discidia
Rafflesia, a curious plant which lives upon
trees without touching the ground. It pro-
duces urns in the shape of jars open at
the top, and containing within a system of
branched roots. After showing that these
formations are produced by the folding of
a leaf upon itself in such a manner that its
lower face corresponds with the interior
face of the urn, M. Treub inquires what
may be the office of the organs. The fact
that the interior of the urn is lined with a
waxy coating precludes the idea that it
can directly serve a carnivorous purpose.
Against this, too, are the facts alleged by M.
Treub, that ants which are found in the urn
are always very lively and generally very
numerous ; that they come out of the urn
as easily as they go into it ; and that they
swarm in it to such an extent that the roots
suffer from them, and the radicels are eaten
or are very weak. These insects, then, seem
rather to devour the discidia than to serve
it as food. M. Treub concludes that "the
urns of the discidia are of no use to it as
traps for insects. The plant is not in any
sense carnivorous. Instead of falling into
an ambuscade, the ants that enter an urn
find there a lodging that suits them marvel-
ously. The principal, if not the sole, func-
tion of the urn is to collect, or, in a lesser
degree, to save water." M. Treub shows
further that the water in the urns is gen-
erally rain-water, more rarely transpired
water, that may perhaps be afterward re-
absorbed by the plant.

Calculating the Area of the United States.

— Mr. F. Y. Carpenter, C. E., has explained
in " Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine "
the difficulties which are encountered in
making an accurate computation of the area
of a large country like the United States,
having irregular boundary-lines. The prin-
cipal difficulty arises from the indetermi-
nateness of the expression, " our territorial
outline." The place, even, of the sea-line

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

573

is not fixed. Tradition, not law, sets it at
three miles out from shore, but the Spaniards
in Cuba have claimed six miles, and most
nations now have guns capable of enforc-
ing their jurisdiction over that distance. It
is impossible to determine by a fixed rule
what waters between headlands shall be in-
cluded as a part of the territory. It seems
obviously proper to include landlocked bod-
ies of water ; but should Lake Michigan
be admitted to this category ? Mr. Car-
penter decides that it should. A convention
between France and England made in 1839
defined the coast-line as one that should
cross the mouths of all bays and channels
not more than ten miles in width. This
would exclude Chesapeake Bay, which is
fifteen miles wide at its mouth, but is evi-
dently as much a part of the United States
as Seneca Lake. Lords Hale and Ilawkins
would have had the ocean boundary cross
such inlets as are so narrow that " a man may
reasonably discern from shore to shore " ;
and Justice Story thought the vision should
be required to be distinct and with the
naked eye; "Wheaton would include the
ports, harbors, bays, mouths of rivers, and
adjacent parts of the sea inclosed by head-
lands ; and Willcock, saying that it may be
regarded as generally accepted that bays or
channels within the horns of promontories,
however large, are subject to the sovereign
of the neighboring land, has given a defini-
tion under which our Atlantic coast micrht
be considered to extend in a straight line
from Maine to Florida. The effect of ele-
vation over the sea upon the area of a tract
is also considered by Mr. Carpenter. All
tracts the measurement of which is taken
in degrees and minutes, gain in extent as
their height above the sea is increased, for
they are there a part of a larger sphere than
one whose perimeter is defined at the nor-
mal levei. ' Colorado, having a mean ele-
vation of 7,050 feet, is estimated to gain in
consequence 44,800 acres, or seventy square
miles% Estimating the mean altitude of the
whole United States at 2,600 feet, the coun-
try is> 800 square miles larger than it would
be if it were all down at the level of the
sea. A district or country otherwise gains
in superficial area of land if it is mount-
ainous, by reason of the slope of its hills.
It is impracticable as >yet to determine the

actual gain from this source for any State ;
but if Colorado is supposed to have an aver-
age slope of ten degrees, it gains an addi-
tional area of 1,600 square miles; if its
slope is five degrees, its gain is 400 square
miles. Taking a mean of these figures, it
seems safe to say that Colorado is indebted
to its mountains for at least one thousand
square miles of area, which has never yet
been included in any statement of its geo-
graphical extent.

Tastes and Smells in Water.— Dr. Will-
iam Ripley Nichols, in a paper on " The
Tastes and Odors of Surface Waters," calls
attention to the desirability of competent
persons trained to scientific observation
undertaking systematic daily examinations
of the water in reservoirs for long periods
of time — say for five years — to watch the
changes that take place in its condition and
the causes of them. He also notices that
the means by which water may be made
unpleasant are numerous and complicated,
and are not always animal in their origin.
The worst smell that he ever obtained was
from allowing the seed parts of a species of
Potamogcton to decay in water. Professor
Brewer has obtained a fishy odor from the
decay in water of the leaf-stalks of a pick-
erel-weed. Sometimes the odors and tastes
from various plants differing from each
other seem to blend into a more or less
marshy or pond flavor. The water of
ponds and lakes that are surrrounded by
woods acquires more of a bitter or astrin-
gent taste, that may be referred to the dead
leaves. When a recently felled tree is ex-
posed to the action of water, or when
bushes or grass and weeds are killed by
being flooded, the sap and more soluble
matters are leached out and putrefy or
undergo other forms of decomposition. If
the matter is alternately flooded and left
bare, decay takes place fast. As the level
is lowered, those aquatic plants which grow
in shallow water die, and if the water rises
after a short interval it becomes impreg-
nated with the products of their decay. If
a considerable interval elapses, land-plants
grow upon the exposed surface, and, being
drowned by the rising waters, tend to its
contamination in the same manner. The
substances which form the most offensive

5 74

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

part of the soluble vegetable matter are
albuminous in character, and the chemical
effect on the water is to increase the amount
of what is called "albuminoid ammonia."
No doubt dead fishes and animalcules and
their excrement add to the nitrogenous
organic matter in surface-waters, but their
presence is not necessary to account for
bad odors. As a rule, in waters not con-
taminated with sewage, the animal matter
forms only a trifling proportion of the en-
tire organic matter, but the recent investi-
gation of Professor Remsen shows that in
some instances the animal matter, as from
sponges, may be appreciable and of prac-
tical importance.

Old and 3Vew Latitudes on the Atlantic

Coast.— The Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, of the
New England Historic Genealogical Society,
has published an inquiry into the history
and causes of the incorrect latitudes as re-
corded in the journals of the early writers,
navigators, and explorers relating to the
Atlantic coast of North America. After
giving comparisons of the old with the new
and corrected latitudes of a considerable
number of places, he sums up bis conclu-
sions that the early latitudes are generally
trustworthy to within a single degree ; that
the minutes or fractions of degrees as set
down by writers anterior to the middle of
the eighteenth century are never to be
relied upon, and are never correct, except
by accident ; and that the annotations of
commentators upon the latitudes recorded
in the journals of our early navigators and
explorers, in all cases in which they at-
tempt to identify places within the limit of
one degree by the latitude alone, can not
properly be cited as authority. The sources
of the errors of latitude to which attention
is thus directed are not far to seek. The
instruments possessed by the earlier navi-
gators were of the rudest and coarsest
character. They were graduated in degrees
only, of which each degree occupied but
about one tenth of an inch of space, and
t'le attempt to subdivide this space into
sixty parts, for minutes, would have been
impossible if it had been made. So, putting
down the fractions of degrees, or minutes^
was an absolute and sheer guess. In the
old journals the minutes are usually written

in fractions of a degree, as one fourth, one
third, one half, two thirds, or three fourths,
and sometimes translated into minutes, and
given as fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, or
forty-five minutes, but very rarely in any
number of minutes not represented by these
general fractions. The zodiacal ephemeris,
moreover, was not graduated in minutes,
and consequently inaccuracy existed as to
the exact point of the sun in the zodiac at
the time of taking the latitude. The tables
used in connection with this instrument,
moreover, were not calculated oftener than
once in thirty years, so that they became
obsolete long before they were put away,
by reason of the precession of the equi-
noxes. Several other sources of error of
minor importance, now always allowed for,
were neglected in those days. " If the
latitudes of the early navigators," the
writer adds, "had been determined with
as much accuracy as is attained by the
observations of the present day, some in-
teresting historical questions might have
been settled, and some not very decisive
controversies might have been avoided."

Word-Blindness. — M. Armaignac has
described a curious case of persistent " word-
blindness." The sufferer is and always has
been in the full enjoyment of his intellect-
ual faculties ; he has never had any trouble
in his speech or from paralysis ; and he
writes correctly, in a regular and elegant
hand, whatever is dictated to him or what-
ever is his own thought ; but, although his
vision is perfect and normal, he can not see
a single printed word or a written one,
whether it be written by himself or another.
He recognizes the names of the letters and
figures, but can not join them objectively to
form words or numbers ; yet he can form
words and numbers mentally if the letters
or ciphers are dictated to him. M. Armai-
gnac has advised his patient to learn to read
again, beginning with the alphabet ; but he
finds the intellectual strain of joining the
letters into words and syllables very severe.

Harvest-Time. — Every season is a har-
vest-time in some country on the globe. In
Australia, New Zealand, Chili, and some
other countries in South America, the har-
vest takes place in January. In India, it

NOTES.

575

begins in February and is completed in
March. In Mexico, Persia, and Syria, it
takes place in April ; in Asia Minor, Alge-
ria, Morocco, and parts of China and Japan,
in May, and after this in California, Spain,
Portugal, Italy, Greece, Sicily, and some of
the southern departments of France. In
July it begins in France, Austria, Hungary,
Poland, Russia, and the Middle United
States. The turn of Germany, Belgium,
Denmark, and Holland comes in August,
and of Scotland, Northern America, Swe-
den, and Northern Russia in September.

Obituary. — Mr. Thomas Potts James,
who died in February last, was one of our
oldest botanists, and was one of four — Sul-
livant, Austin, James, and Lesquereux — who
have distinguished themselves as specialists
in the mosses. He was born at Radnor, Penn-
sylvania, in 1803. Having been prevented
by circumstances from acquiring a collegiate
education, as he had intended, he settled
down in Philadelphia as a druggist, pursu-
ing science as a by-occupation. He was an
active member of the leading scientific so-
cieties of the city, and an officer of many of
them. He made himself familiar with the
phenogaraous vegetation of the neighbor-
hood of Philadelphia, and then devoted him-
self to the special study of the mosses, on
which he contributed several papers, in-
cluding the bryological department of the
report of Clarence King's exploration of the
fortieth parallel. He was associated with
Mr. Lesquereux in the preparation of the
" Manual of North American Mosses " which
Sullivant was about to prepare in connection
with Lesquereux when he died. Mr. James's
death leaves Mr. Lesquereux the only sur-
vivor of the four American bryologists, and
imposes upon him the task of completing
the " Manual."

Mr. John Scott Russell, the construct-
or of the steamship Great Eastern, died at
Ventnor, Isle of Wight, June 8th, in the
seventy-fifth year of his age. He was the
son of a Scotch clergyman, and was destined
for the Church, but his taste for mechanics
and science led him in another direction.
He was graduated from Glasgow University
when sixteen years old ; was appointed tem-
porary Professor of Natural Philosophy in

the University of Edinburgh in 1832 ; com-
municated to the British Association his
first paper on the nature of waves and the
best form of vessels in 1835 ; and received
the gold medal of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh for another paper bearing on
that subject two years later. As manager
of a ship-building establishment at Gree-
nock, he built several vessels after the ideas
he had worked out, and constructed the
Great Eastern in 184.6. He became a
Secretary of the Society of Arts in 1845.
In 1850 he was appointed a joint Secretary
of the Commission for the promotion of the
Great Exhibition of 1851, and was one of
the three chiefs in the furtherance of that
enterprise. His greatest engineering work
was the construction of the dome of the
Exhibition Building at Vienna in 1873, the
largest dome in the world. His last work
was the design for a high level bridge with
a span of one thousand feet, to cross the
Thames below London Bridge. He also
built the steamer that carries railway-trains
across the Lake of Constance ; and he con-
tributed many valuable papers to the litera-
ture of his profession.

NOTES.

Dr. Byron D. Halstead, of the " Amer-
ican Agriculturist," has published, in the
report of the Secretary of the Connecti-
cut Board of Agriculture, an important
memoir on " Fungi injurious to Vegetation,
with Remedies." In it he describes ergot,
the potato-rot, the rust of wheat, corn-smut,
the onion-smut, the apple-leaf fungus, the
peach-curl fungus, the American grape-mil-
dew, the lettuce-mildew, and the raspberry
fungus.

M. Barral, Secretary of the National
Agricultural Society of France, has shown
recently that the beet-sugar industry is ad-
vancing steadily in Germany, but is sta-
tionary in France. A great change has
taken place in the character of the ap-
paratus used for extracting the sugar in
Germany, where hydraulic and continuous
presses have given way to a process of
extraction by diffusion, the apparatus for
which is much more simple. A similar
change is going on in France, but it has
made less advance there than in Germany
and Austria. The relative depression of
the industry in France is owing to two
causes : the quality of the beet-roots, which

576

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is inferior ; and the manner of laying the
taxes, which in Germany and Austria bear
upon the fabrication, and stimulate it to de-
vices to improve the yield, while in France
they bear upon the consumption, and tend
to discourage it.

A bark containing quinine and quini*
dine, and currently known as Cuprea cin-
chona, imported from Colombia, has re-
cently had a sale in England comparable to
the entire amount of the importation of
cinchona - bark from all other countries.
The affinities of the tree which produces it,
hitherto unknown, have been traced out by
M. Triana, who has found that the bark is
chiefly derived from two species of Remijia,
a genus of which no species was previously
known to contain quinine. Seeds of the
Remijia have been received, and are in cul-
tivation at Malvern House, Sydenham. The
tree is likely to prove valuable for cultiva-
tion in countries where malarial fevers
abound. It grows at an elevation of from
six hundred to thirty-three hundred feet
above the sea, where even red cinchona will
not flourish.

The census report on fire-arms and ammu-
nition lays stress on the advantage of the
"interchangeable system" of manufactur-
ing, or the system by which any single part
is made to fit into any machine of the same
class, and its influence in the development
of industries. Two of our great industries,
agriculture and manufactures, now depend
largely upon this system, which is of Ameri-
can origin, and has reached its greatest de-
velopment in our country. Its introduction
has reduced waste and effected economy in
production. By it the manufacturer is able
to furnish machines of all kinds at reason-
able cost, repairs are made easy and cheap ;
and agricultural processes, by the aid of
generally available machinery, have become
greatly extended. One of the direct results
of the system has been a great improvement
in the strength, durability, and working per-
formances of the machines made.

M. Torcapel describes a formation of
basalt rich in pyroxene and very hard, and
more than six hundred feet thick, at Au-
benas, in Ardeche, France, under which the
washings of the river Rhone have exposed
a succession of beds of tufa, volcanic mud,
and decomposed basalt containing teeth and
bones of mammals which have been as-
signed by M. Gaudry to the Upper Mio-
cene. The situation of the fossils and the
superincumbence of the basalt leave no
doubt that the animals to which the bones
belonged were contemporaneous with the
eruption and its victims. The date of the
latter and that of the basaltic eruptions, the
outflows of which cover a large portion of
the central plateau of France, may there-

fore be referred to the period named. M.
Gaudry remarks that these conclusions
agree with those reached by M. Earners in
the Cantal.

M. L. Clemandot has given the name of
tempering by compression to a new method
of treating metals, particularly steel, which
consists in heating the metal to a cherry-
red, and then putting it under a strong
pressure, and keeping it there till it is
cooled.

The fifth in the series of " Saturday
Lectures," in the National Museum at Wash-
ington, for 1882, was by Professor Riley,
and gave " Little-Known Facts about Weil-
Known Animals," in the form of a popular
account of the life-history of the oyster
and his enemies, the star-fish, the shore-
crab, the common frog, the house-fly, para-
sitism, the mosquito, and the earth-worm. "

The report of the census shows that, in
the whole United States, 14,462,431 acres of
land are devoted to the cultivation of cot-
ton, and that the total product of the coun-
try is 5,1*76,414 bales, or -,-0% of a bale per
acre ; Georgia gives the largest extent of
land to the cultivation of the staple, 2,617,-
138 acres ; Mississippi produces the largest
quantity, 955,808 bales ; and Louisiana gives
the largest return per acre, 0*59 bale.

Mr. William Morris Davis has made,
in " Appalachia," an interesting study of
" The Little Mountains east of the Catskills."
These mountains, which rise only one or two
hundred feet above the plain, and are about
two miles wide, have a complicated structure
and " a charmingly picturesque surface, and
in tracing out their continual changes one
encounters problems of great variety and
beauty. The belt they occupy " is not great
in quantity but very varied in quality."
Their rocks, of the Hudson River and Low-
er Helderberg groups, are adorned with nu-
merous fossils ; and they afford examples of
the six types of surface form as determined
by folded, stratified rocks ; both mountains
and valleys of monoclinal, anticlinal, and
synclinal structure. The whole system ex-
hibits the Appalachian character of increase
of variety and abruptness of change from
east to west.

TnE United States produces, according
to the reports of the census, 44,113,495
bushels of barlev, 11, 817,32*7 of buckwheat,
1,754,861,535 of Indian corn, 407,859,999
of oats, 19,831,595 of rye, and 459,479,505
of wheat. Of the several States, California
produces the most barley, 12,579,561 bush-
els ; New York the most buckwheat, 4,461,-
200 bushels ; Illinois the most corn (325,-
792,481 bushels), oats (63,189,200 bushels),
and wheat (51,110,502 bushels); and Penn-
sylvania the most rye, 3,683,621 bushels.

THOMAS SAY.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

SEPTEMBER, 1882.

ELECTEIC AND GAS ILLUMINATION.

By C. M. LDNGEEN.

THE period of contest and denial over the question of the possi-
bility of producing a light of low intensity by means of elec-
tricity, that would be suitable for the general purposes of interior
lighting, has about drawn to a close. It is now pretty generally
conceded — what there has never been any reason for denying — that
the known laws of electric transmission interpose no bar to the suc-
cessful solution of the problem, but that the difficulties in the way
are solely of a practical kind. And it is, further, quite generally
agreed that these practical difficulties have been for the most part
resolved, and the question reduced down to one of cost simply ; and,
while a good deal of discussion has taken place upon this point, but
little has been written that will enable the general public to form a
judgment upon the subject, and arrive at a trustworthy opinion of the
relative cost of it and gas under actual commercial conditions.

In estimating the relative cost of the two illuminants, it has been
common to compare simply the cost of the materials consumed in
their production, or, when the cost of the apparatus necessary to
generate the electricity has been taken into account, this has usually
been upon the basis of a limited production, and, to this extent,
unfair to electricity. A comparison, to be of any value, should be
between plants of a size sufficient to reduce the cost to the lowest
point at which it can be commercially maintained, and should include
all of the items entering into it. The attempt has been made, in the
following pages, to institute such a comparison, and present the facts
in the case as they are, so far as they can be obtained. The compari-
son is upon the ib^asis of works capable of producing a million feet a
day, as, in such works, gas can be made as cheaply as in any that are
vol. xxi. — 37

57*

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

larger. The figures for the electric plant are based upon the work of
Mr. Edison, as he is the only one who has so far made any attempt
to put in an electric plant upon an industrial scale. And, for that rea-
son further, only his system of distribution is considered, though it
may be a question whether it is the one which will prove most satis-
factory in practice. An objection to it of considerable force in the
opinion of some, is, the difficulty of handling engines and boilers with
sufficient rapidity to meet great and sudden variations of demand, such
as not unfrequently occur during the seasons of the year in which the
weather is changeable. The variation that experience has shown takes
place at different periods of the day can be met readily enough. On
this account, and on account of the greater freedom secured in the
matter of working various pieces of apparatus without interference, it
would seem that the system of distribution which includes a storage-
battery would be preferable, and may, perhaps, become the final form,
adopted in electric installations. It can not well enter into the present
calculation, however, as there are no data with reference to the first
cost and depreciation available, and because the present secondary bat-
teries do not seem to have yet reached a satisfactory commercial form.

The cost of such a plant for coal-gas will vary in this country from
$2,500 to $4,000 for each million feet of the yearly make, but $3,000
may be taken as a fair average. Owing to the great variability in the
demand for light at different seasons of the year, a gas-works of this
size will be called upon to furnish but 200,000,000 instead of 365,000,000.
feet a year. The plant will therefore cost $600,000. Of this, $250,000
may be taken as the cost of the mains, which, in average conditions,
will have, for a works of this size, a total length of fifty miles, cover-
ing a district of about three square miles. To compare an electric
with a gas plant, it is necessary to know the number of five-foot
burners that will be maintained at the time of greatest consumption,
as on this depend both the amount of horse-power required and the
size of the mains to transmit the current.

The variation in the demand for light from hour to hour, as it
would occur in average conditions on a bright December day, is ex-
hibited in the following table, in percentages of the total make for the
twenty-four hours :

1-8a.m li

8- 9 " \

9-10 " \

10-11 " £

11-12 " \

12- 1 p. m \

1- 2

u

i

2- 3

H

.... i

3- 4

a

i

4- 5

a

n

5- 6

(<

16 to 20

6- 7

(1

14

per cent.

7- 8 p. m

u

8- 9 "

it

9-10 "

u

10-11 "

«

11-12 "

«

12- 1 A. H

«

1- 2 "

u

2- 3 "

((

3- 4 "

((

4- 5 "

20 "

5- 6 «

u

6- 7 "

7- 8 p. m 12 per cent.

12
10

6

5

lft

lft

lft
lft
lft
lft
lft

u

U

t<

CI

ELECTRIC AND GAS ILLUMINATION. 579

This shows the time of greatest consumption to be between the
hours of five and six, and the demand as high as twenty per cent of
the entire daily make. In the case of the plant under consideration,
the maximum number of burners that will have to be maintained at
any one time is therefore 40,000.

Before proceeding to estimate the cost of the plant to generate and
distribute electricity sufficient to maintain this number of burners, a
few words descriptive of Mr. Edison's system will be desirable, espe-
cially as there appears to be considerable misapprehension on the sub-
ject. The distribution is what is known as in multiple arc — that is,
the lamps are placed upon cross-wires between the conductors. Imag-
ine a ladder erected upon an ordinary railway, so that it stands across
the track, each foot resting upon one of the rails. Then these rails
will represent the outgoing and returning street-conductors ; the side-
bars of the ladder, the house-conductors ; and each rung, a lamp. The
dynamo-machines generating the current are arranged in exactly the
same way with regard to the circuit, all the positive poles being
joined to one main conductor, and all the negative ones to the other.
The arrangement is what is known, in the case of electric batteries, as
coupling for quantity, as opposed to coupling for intensity, and is
similar, to that of a number of pumps discharging water into a common
main. This disposition of the electric-producing apparatus has the im-
portant advantage that the reserve plant, to meet contingencies, needs
to be but a fraction of the total one ; while, if each machine supplied
an independent circuit, the plant would have to be in duplicate. As
is well known, the steam-engines driving the dynamos are coupled
directly to the machines, without the intervention of belts or gearing,
the combination being termed the steam-dynamo.

The street-mains consist of wrought-iron tubes about two inches
in diameter, containing two half-round copper rods imbedded in an
insulating resinous cement. A main of this kind is carried continu-
ously around each city block. At the intersections of the streets the
conductors are brought together and joined to a main somewhat larger,
termed a feeder, which supplies the current to these four blocks. It
will thus be seen that the system of mains and the mode of produc-
tion of the electricity are as readily capable of expansion to meet
increased business as in the case of gas. The mains can be tapped
anywhere for new consumers, and to meet this increased demand it is
only necessary to run a feeder to the place of enlarged consumption,
and increase the producing plant sufficiently.

What, then, will be the cost of such an electric plant to do the
same amount of lighting as the above gas plant? If we take eight
sixteen-candle lamps, maintained throughout the whole system for
each actual horse-power applied to the dynamo-machine, engines with
a normal capacity of five thousand horse-power will be required to
sustain the maximum number of burners. This will include the re-

580 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

serve plant, as engines of a normal capacity of forty-two hundred
can readily be forced to five thousand horse, or twenty per cent, to meet
this extreme demand, and, with the generators arranged after Mr. Edi-
son's plan, this per cent is an ample reserve. The maximum demand
can, of course, be met either by forcing, or by running the entire plant
at its normal rate, and forcing only in case of accident. To cover a
district of three square miles, two distributing stations will be suffi-
cient. The steam-dynamos may be taken as of two hundred horse
each, working normally. The present steam-dynamos are of but one
hundred and twenty- five horse, but they can be made two hundred
horse with but slight increase of cost, which Mr. Edison contem-
plates doing in future installations. This will give thirteen steam-dy-
namos to one station and twelve to the other. These may each be
placed at $8,000, making a total for the two stations of $200,000.
That this is. a sufficient allowance will be evident upon considering the
machines in detail. There are first the two hundred horse-power
engines. No one will question that these can be obtained by a large
buyer at $18 per horse-power, or $3,600 each.* This leaves $4,400 to
cover the cost of the dynamo. The material in these, as now being
constructed, is as follows :

Iron (wrought and cast) 40,700 pounds at 3| cents = $1,425 00

Zinc (cast) 680 "6 " = 40 80

Copper 3,440 " 28 " = 963 20

44,820 $2,429 00

This leaves $2,071 for the cost of construction, which will be rec-
ognized as more than enough, when it is remembered that the cost of
the iron as above given includes its shaping, and that the copper on
the armature is in the form of bars and disks, which, with suitable
tools, can be expeditiously constructed.

Adding twenty-five per cent to the cost of material for the 200-
horse machine, there is still left $1,364 to be expended in construction.
It seems to me, therefore, that $8,000 is a safe estimate of the cost of
such steam-dynamos. Regarding the boilers, the sectional or water-
tube boiler, on account of its freedom from dangerous explosions, the
smaller space occupied by it, its higher efficiency, and less cost for
repairs, is in every way the best suited for a purpose of this kind.
Such a boiler set ready for use, including stack and apparatus for hand-
ling coal and firing, will cost $20 per horse-power. The total boilers
would therefore cost $100,000, making the entire producing portion
of the plant, exclusive of real estate, $300,000.

As the Edison mains are now being laid, they will transmit a cur-

* Mr. Edison informs me that engines of 200 indicated horse-power are being pur-
chased by him for $1,750 each, delivered in New York. This estimate is, therefore, much
too high, but, as the comparison of plant in the text is based upon it, I have thought it
best to let it stand, and point out the needed correction here.

ELECTRIC AND GAS ILLUMINATION. 581

rent sufficient to maintain from sixteen thousand to eighteen thousand
sixteen-candle lamps. Taking the former figure, this is one and a
quarter mile per 1,000 lamps. Basing the calculation for mains upon
this mileage and the size of the present mains, the same number of
miles of electric mains would be required as for gas. The present
conductors are, as stated, in the form of half-round copper rods, of
varying sizes, diminishing of course as they proceed from the station.
They are, however, equivalent to round rods with a uniform diameter
of one half inch. Such rods weigh Ayo*j of a pound per foot, and
3986*4 pounds per mile, costing, at 28 cents per pound, 81,116 per
mile. As there are two rods in each main, the cost per mile for
copper would be $2,232. To this must be added $1,200 per mile for
wrouo-ht-iron tube, boxes at the joints between the mains and house-
wires, and insulating material, and $1,000 per mile for laying, making
the total cost of the main per mile, laid ready for use, $4,432. Four
fifths of the mains would be of this size, the other fifth being feeders
equivalent to round rods three fourths of an inch in diameter. These
latter weigh T69 pound per foot, and would therefore cost $2,340
per mile, and, taking the cost of inclosing tube, insulation, and laying
the same as above, their total cost per mile would be $7,196. The
total cost of the mains, forty miles at $4,432 per mile, and ten miles
at $7,196 per mile, would therefore amount to the same as the gas-
mains, viz., $250,000. If real estate be added at $50,000, which in
most cities requiring this size of plant would be ample, the total cost
of the electric plant would be the same as one for gas.*

The elements entering into the cost of the light to the company
furnishing it are, in each case, the interest on the investment, depre-
ciation, or the amount spent each year in keeping the property in good
condition, the labor of all kinds — in the manufacture, distribution, and
management — and lastly the cost of the materials used in its produc-
tion. In the case of gas but a few of these items as they occur in
American works are obtainable, so that recourse must be had to the
published reports of foreign companies, and the like items estimated
for this country. Of these, the reports of the London companies as
analyzed by Mr. Field will best serve for the purpose of the present
comparison.f Taking first the item of depreciation, we find that for
the four metropolitan companies this was, for the year 1880, on the
producing portion of the plant 9*86 cents per 1,000 feet of gas sold,
or about five and a half per cent on the cost of this part of the plant
as it^ has been taken in this paper. Calling this ten cents a thousand

* "WTiile this estimate seems to me not far from the expenditure that would be actually
required for this size of plant, it should be stated that it is lower than any of those given
by the electrical experts examined by the select committee of the House of Commons in
its consideration of the Electric Lighting Bill.

f Having been unable to obtain a copy of 3Ir. Field's " Annual," I have taken the
figures as quoted from this for the year 1SS0 by Mr. Dowson, in a recent lecture before
the Society of Arts.

582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

feet, we have $20,000 a year as the expenditure under this head, which
is probably well within the actual figures of most American works.
In the case of the electric plant four per cent is a sufficient allowance
for the same item, which gives a yearly charge of $12,000, and a cost
of six cents per 1,000 feet.

Depreciation of this part of the plant varies but little with different
works, as the conditions upon which it depends are relatively constant,
but that of the mains is, on the other hand, exceedingly variable. In
a dry, open soil, gas-mains will last a great length of time, and even
when they become entirely rusted through they will still continue ef-
ficient if undisturbed. They do not, however, remain undisturbed, so
that in the most favorable conditions some expenditure is necessary to
keep them in working condition. We shall probably not be far wrong
if we take this at two per cent of the entire cost of the mains, which in-
cludes, of course, that of laying them. This item then becomes in the
case of our gas plant $5,000 per year, and 2-J cents per 1,000 feet. In
the case of the electric mains, this percentage must be reckoned only
upon their cost, exclusive of the copper, as this latter is practically in-
destructible, and can be used again and again. The amount upon
which to reckon the two per cent depreciation is therefore $2,200x50
=$110,000, and the yearly charge $2,200, which gives 1*1 cent per
1,000 feet. The interest on the investment is the same in each case,
and amounts to $24,000 a year, at four per cent, and to 12 cents per 1,000
feet. These items include all that are properly chargeable to the expense
account of the plant save taxes, which would be about the same in each
case, and which maybe neglected for the present. The plant account,
then, stands, in the two cases, for each thousand feet or its equivalent :

Gas. Electricity.

Interest 12" 12'

Depreciation of producing works 10' 6*

" of mains 2-5 1*1

Total 24-5 191

19-1

Balance in favor of electricity 5*4

The items entering into the cost of coal-gas are, exclusive of man-
agement, rent and taxes, etc., the cost of coal, of manufacturing, and
of distribution. Taking the last first, we find 4*4 cents per 1,000 feet
as the cost' of this item for the four metropolitan companies. Putting
this at 5 cents for American works, and deducting from this 2J cents
for the depreciation of mains, which is included in this charge, there
is left 2% cents for the cost of the labor of inspection of meters, etc.,
which constitutes the charge of distribution, and which would be about
the same in both systems.

As the depreciation of the mains is not given separately, this item
is liable to error, due to a wrong estimate of such depreciation, but, as
it affects both systems similarly, it will not vitiate the results. Under

ELECTRIC AND GAS ILLUMINATION. 583

manufacturing, the English report includes purifying, salaries, the
wages for carbonizing, and wear and tear, which latter item has al-
ready been carried to the plant account. The first of these amounts
to 1*82 cent ; the second *82 of a cent, and the third to 7*16 cents,
making a total of 9*8 cents per 1,000 feet. This is probably much
below the actual amount paid for these items in American works, but
I am assured on excellent authority that, in works constructed after
the best modern models, purification should cost the gas company
nothing, and that all labor in the manufacturing department should be
covered by an outlay equivalent to one man's wages ($2.50 per day)
for each 40,000 feet of gas made per day. As the same amount of
labor would have to be paid for each day in the year as on the days of
greatest demand, this would amount, for a daily make of 1,000,000
feet, to 25 men whose wages at $65 per month (26x2^-) would be
$19,500 * a year, or 9f cents per 1,000 feet of the actual make. Includ-
ing the cost of purification, and calling the amount 12 cents, we shall
not be far wrong, or at least shall not exceed the actual outlay in the
average works of this size. In the case of electricitv the labor re-
quired at each station would be :

One chief-engineer $125 per month.

Three assistants (at $75) 225 "

Five firemen (at $60) 300 "

Total $61

— making $15,600 a year for the whole manufacturing plant, and 7*8
cents per 1,000 feet. To this may be added 14- cent to cover salary
of electrician and incidental labor, bringing the item up to 9 cents.

There remains to be considered the cost of the coal in the case of
gas, and the expense of running the engines in the case of electricity.
The cost of coal per 1,000 feet of gas made was, in the case of the Lon-
don companies, 36^^ cents, corresponding to $3.51 per ton, the make
of gas being for this amount of coal 9,529 feet. This was offset by
the sale of residuals, as below :

Coke and breeze 1T16 cents.

Tar and products T-l 3 "

Ammonia and products 5-72 "

Total 24-06 "

— which leaves 12*8 cents as the net cost of the coal.

Compared with foreign companies, both in England and on the
Continent, but very little is done with the residual products in this
country, and the amounts received vary greatly between different
works. Reliable data on this point can not be obtained, but under the
most favorable conditions this item can not be taken as amounting* to

* The engineer furnishing the information on which this statement is based informs me
that this should be 112,500, or $2.50 per 40,000 feet of the actual yearly, instead of the
maximum daily, make.x This would reduce the item 9} cents to 6-4- cents per 1,000 feet.

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

more than one half the cost of the coal, while with most works it is
probably inconsiderable. The average price of the coal used may be
placed at $4.50 a ton, and the amount of gas produced 10,000 feet,
making the cost 45 cents per 1,000 feet. This make of gas can hardly
be maintained with a production of residuals equal to one half the cost
of the coal, but. assuming that it is, the cost of the coal becomes 22£
cents per 1,000 feet.

In the foregoing estimate of the electric plant, it has been as-
sumed that eight lamps could be maintained throughout the entire dis-
tributive system for each actual horse-power expended upon the pulley
of the dynamo-machine. That this is entirely feasible has been proved
by careful tests made by experts in no way interested in any of the
lamps, and their results can therefore be accepted without question.
For such a use as electric lighting, the cost of a horse-power may
safely be taken as not above the best results hitherto obtained in prac-
tice. In general manufacturing, the item of power, while important, is
not sufficiently so to demand that constant and great care necessary to
obtain the very best results, and hence few engines and boilers yield
in practice the same results as in special tests. With electric-light
companies, this item, on the contrary, is vital, and we may confidently
expect to see them in time obtaining their power at a considerably less
cost than is now common. Mr. Edison finds as a matter of fact con-
firmed by several months' test at Menlo Park, that he is able to maintain
a horse-power an hour with five pounds of slack (one third pea and two
thirds dust), costing $2.45 a ton. For the purpose of the present com-
parison, however, it is best to make a liberal allowance, and take for a
200-horse-power engine a consumption of four pounds of coal an hour,
the coal costing $4.50 per ton of 2,240 pounds, delivered. A horse-
power will then cost ^of a cent an hour, and we may rightly abate
our liberality sufficiently to include in this the cost of the oil for lubri-
cating the engine and dynamo.

The maintenance for an hour of 200 electric burners, the equivalent
of the 1,000 feet of gas, will therefore cost 20 cents, as against 22-J
cents for the gas.

Summing up the results so far obtained, the two accounts stand as

follows :

Plant Account. Pee ^O00 Feet.

Gas. Electricity.

Interest 12' 12*

Depreciation of producing works 10* 6*

Depreciation of mains 2*5 1*1

24-5 19-1

Manufacturing expenses :

Labor 12* 9*

Coal 22-5 20-

34-5 29-

Working expenses :

Distribution 25 2*5

Total 61-5 60-6

ELECTRIC AND GAS ILLUMINATION. 585

Under this last heading there should be added rent and taxes, man-
agement, law charges, bad debts, and various incidentals. These can
not be separately arrived at with any closeness, but they may be taken
in the lump as about the same part of the total charges as in the
case of the London companies, which is 16 per cent, exclusive of the
interest on investment. This in the present case would be 9*4 cents
per 1,000, bringing the total cost per 1,000 up to 71 cents with gas and
60 cents with electricity.

The promoters of the electric light would probably demur to this
statement, so far as rent and taxes are concerned, as they insist upon
the much smaller real estate required with the electric than with a gas
plant. This difference does not, however, seem to me sufficient to be
of any practical moment, as the real estate in the case of electricity is
in the district supplied, where the price of land is relatively high,
while the gas companies can readily place their works in such locality
as to compensate in lowered land value for the greater amount re-
quired. Gas companies can, moreover, build within much smaller
limits than usual when for any reason it is desirable, and closely ap-
proach the space requisite for an electric installation.

An item of considerable amount which has been omitted from the
estimate for electricity is the cost of the renewal of the lamps. "With
the general introduction of incandescent electric lighting, this is a
charge which would fall directly upon the consumer, but it is one
which would steadily diminish with improvement in lamps. Assum-
ing, however, that it is a legitimate charge upon the company supply-
ing the light, the item amounts to 10 cents per 1,000, if the lamps have
a life of 600* hours and cost 30 cents. This brings the electric ac-
count up to 70 cents per 1,000.

So far as coal-gas is concerned, then, these figures show a slight ad-
vantage in favor of electricity, and while they are only approximative
they are near enough to the truth, I think, to represent the actual
relation of the two illuminants. "While very much doubtless remains
to be done in the improvement of coal-gas manufacture, it does not
seem probable that this will affect its cost of production to the same
extent as future improvements of electric apparatus may be expected
to decrease that of the electric light. Looking closely at the two ac-
counts, it does not seem probable that the item relative to plant will be
materially lessened in the future. The cost of the plant has already
been taken at a figure very near the lower limit, so near that the sub-
stitution of this in its place would make a difference in the yearly
plant account of but 2-J cents per 1,000. We may, on the other hand,
expect improvements to largely reduce the cost of the electric plant.
On Mr. Edison's system of distribution, the size of the conductors
varies inversely as the resistance of the lamps, so that they may be

* I am informed by Mf . Edison that the average life of the lamps is now 900 hours,
including 3 per cent breakage in handling.

$86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

materially reduced if the resistance of these latter can be increased ;
while any improvements affecting the number of lamps per horse-
power diminishes both the interest account by reducing the plant and
the actual cost of production.

How far coal-gas can go in a reduction of the cost of production it
is difficult to say, but I think the lower limit may safely be taken at
the point at which the sale of residuals pays for the coal. Both of
these items — cost of coal and prices of residuals — are practically be-
yond the control of a gas company. The coal is already purchased in
the open market at the lowest figures at which it can be obtained, and
the market for residuals depends chiefly upon the development of
chemical industries, which can hardly be hastened by the action of a
gas company. This market is a steadily growing one, and it is not
impossible that the residuals will in time pay for the coal, though it is
hardly probable. The items of labor and distribution can not probably
undergo any considerable reduction. The limit, then, below which it
does not appear that there is any probability of coal-gas falling in this
country is 46 cents per 1,000, which is a figure that may be reached
by electricity without assuming anything less, probable than the above
supposition respecting gas. It is only necessary to get ten lamps per
horse-power, and produce the latter with three pounds of coal an hour,
to bring the cost down to 47 cents, exclusive of the lamps.

As a present competitor, however, what is known as water-gas —
gas produced by the decomposition of steam in the presence of coal or
oil — appears to be the more formidable. This mode of gas-manufact-
ure has the advantage of coal-gas in a lessened cost of the producing
plant, a smaller labor account, and a decreased depreciation of the
generating apparatus. Its successful competition with coal-gas ulti-
mately depends upon what the latter can make of its residuals, as there
is no offset of this kind in its case, but with present conditions it can
go below it. The producing portion of the plant costs but little more
than half that for coal-gas, while the labor is about a third, and depre-
ciation but slightly more than this. A sixteen-candle gas will require
three gallons of oil per 1,000 feet, and can be made with oil at 5 cents
a gallon and coal at 84.50 a ton, at an expenditure of 28 cents per
1,000 feet for materials. The total cost will not exceed 60 cents.

Such, then, appears to be the relation of these two agents on the
basis of illumination solely, but it must not be forgotten that the
amount of light which each plant can furnish does not represent the
actual relative capacity of the two. The electric plant can be run
not only four hours a day for light, but any further number of hours
for power, without any increase of the machines. The gas-plant, on
the other hand, would have to be increased, to furnish both power and
light. That this advantage of electricity is liable to be a very impor-
tant one will hardly be questioned, when the extent of the field open
to electro-motors is borne in mind.

LONGEVITY. 587

On these figures the cost of electricity is near enough to that of gas
to enable it to offer a very substantial competition, and one which may
be expected to grow stronger with increased experience and future
improvements. That under the stimulus of this competition con-
siderable improvement will be made in lighting by gas seems very
probable. Already it has been shown that in the matter of burners
there is a wide field for invention, and that the results now usually
obtained are much under what are possible. With the high-power
burners of Siemens, the illumination obtained from sixteen-candle
gas has been more than doubled, and in others it has been carried up
to from five to five and a half candles per foot. How suitable burn-
ers yielding such a great increase of light will be for the general pur-
poses of lighting, and whether they can with advantage displace* the
simple flat tip, remains to be seen, but the present indications are that
it is chiefly through the use of improved burners that gas must en-
deavor to resist the assaults of the incandescent light. Competition
on the basis of a gas of higher illuminating power simply, without a
resort to improved burners, does not seem very promising. The re-
cently published report of the sub-commission, appointed to test the
incandescent lamps at the Paris Exhibition, of which Mr. Crookes was
a member, shows that a thirty-two-candle lamp can be maintained with
an increase of from 28 to 37 per cent of the power required to sustain
one of sixteen candles, while with gas such an increase of illumination
will require an additional expense of fully 50 per cent of the cost of
one of the lower candle-power. This is so with the Lowe gas, with
which three gallons of oil are sufficient to give sixteen candles, but
six are required for thirty-two, and it is not probable that coal-gas can
be enriched any cheaper. Whether the limit to progress in gas-light-
ing— both in the matter of improvement of manufacture and burners
— is sufficiently far off to give gas unquestioned possession of the field
of lighting or not, the result can alone determine. But, if the figures
presented in this paper can be at all relied upon, they show that gas-
manufacturers and those interested in gas property will do well not to
underrate the strength in their own domain of this rising industrial
power.

-+++-

LONGEVITY.

By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D.

DURING his last expedition to Central Asia, Professor Vambery
managed to interview the Emir of Samarcand — a sort of Mo-
hammedan prince-cardinal and primate of the Eastern Sunnites. As
Imam of the local ly^eum the Emir appeared to take a natural interest
in the progress of European science, but, when his guest expatiated on

5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the material prosperity of the "Western Giaours, he interrupted him
with a less expected question.

" The happiest people on earth, you call them ? What age do
they generally attain to ?" Vambery seems to have returned an eva-
sive reply, though he admits that the query was not altogether irrele-
vant, at least from the stand-point of an Oriental who values existence
for its own sake. But, even in the less unpretending West, longevity
is not a bad criterion of happiness. Misfortune kills ; Nature takes
care to shorten a life of misery — for reasons of her own, too, for, in a
somewhat recondite (but here essential) sense, the survival of the hap-
piest is also the survival of the fittest. The progress of knowledge
tends to circumscribe the realm of accident, and with it the belief in
the existence of unmerited evils. In spite of prenatal influences and
unprecalculable mishaps, the management of the individual is the
most important factor in the sum total of weal or woe, If we could
see ourselves as Omniscience sees us, we would probably recognize our
worst troubles as the work of our own hands, and we thus recognize
them now with sufficient clearness to be half ashamed of them. Most
men nowadavs dislike to confess their bad luck. We have ceased to
ascribe diseases to the malice of capricious demons, and even in Spain
the commander of a beaten army would hesitate to plead astrological
excuses. Polycrates held that a plucky man can bias the stars, and
the popular worship of success may be founded on an instinctive per-
ception of a similar truth. Sultan Achmed went too far in his habit
of strangling his defeated pashas, but the world in general agrees
with him that there must be something wrong about a generally un-
successful man. After two or three decided defeats the partisans of a
popular leader will give him up for lost, and after a series of disasters
the damaged man himself generally begins to share their opinion and
loses heart, or, as the ancients expressed it, admits the decree of fate —
i. e., his own inability to prevail in the struggle for existence ; and it
is curious how swiftly a physical collapse often follows upon such a
giving way of the moral supports. The storms of every political,
social, and financial crisis extinguish hundreds of life- flames ; lost
hope is a fatal (though a silent and sometimes an unconfessed and un-
suspected) disease. Good luck, on the other hand, tends to prolong
life ; the longevity of pensioners and sinecurists is almost proverbial,
and there are men who continue to live in defiance of all biological
probabilities, merely because existence somehow or other has become
desirable, as a liberal supply of external oxygen will nourish a lamp
in default of the inner oil. At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian
War, King William and his chancellor and staff-officers were already
gray -headed veterans, and it is no accident that they are all alive yet ;
while nearly all the ministers and marshals of the exploded empire
have followed their leader — " weary of life and tired of buttoning and
unbuttoning," as a captain of H. M. S. explained his suicide.

LONGEVITY. 589

The votes that killed Cavour and Disraeli probably revived La
Marmora and Gladstone. Success is a panacea ; a series of long-lived
rulers will generally be found to coincide with an era of national tri-
umphs, and a general increase of longevity with a period of material
progress, industrial development, good crops, etc., for, when " living "
is cheap, one man's success does not necessarily imply the short-coming
of his neighbor.

But, as Ludwig Borne says, " to be happy is one of the cardinal
virtues " — there is such a thing as a gift of supporting vitality on an
accident-proof fund of good humor, a Mark-Tapley-like disposition to
exult in the disregard, or, at least, in the defiance, of bad- luck. In
stress of circumstances, Hamlet's alternative may often depend upon
the possession of this accomplishment, for I believe that it is one of the
talents which can be cultivated. ISTot all men can attain to the philo-
sophical eminence of Francis Fenelon, who valued gloomy days as a
foil to brighter ones ; but a step in the right direction is a resolute
contempt of trifling adversities, which leads to the habit of distinguish-
ing life from its incidents, the pilgrimage from the way-side vicissi-
tudes, and can be most easily acquired by keeping an ultimate goal in
view — not a supramundane one necessarily, but something elevated
enough to aid us in overlooking the base annoyances which beset all
but the loneliest by-ways of modern life. This devotion to a nobler
and enduring, or even a permanently interesting, object — a mere
hobby, in fact — serves to enhance the value of life, and explains the
success of many survivors under apparently hopeless difficulties, the
victory of competitors handicapped with disease, poverty, and defi-
cient education ; they support a cause which supports them in return ;
they live upon as well as for a principle. Hence the apparent paradox
of the longevity of busybodies, of men who seem to burn the fuel of
life at an extravagant rate. Xenophon, Cardinal Richelieu, Ximenes,
Benjamin Franklin, and Frederick the Great, were probably the busiest
men of their respective nations, gallop-riders on a road where others
kept the even tenor of their way, but they bestrode their hobbies and
managed both to outride and outlive their competitors.

It is, indeed, a mistake to suppose that the tranquillity, per se, of a
man's life tends to prolong its duration ; and the longevity of stagnant
villages and country parsons proves only how infinitely health out-
weighs all other means of happiness. The peasants of Southern Rus-
sia live almost as frugally as the Hebrew patriarchs, on milk, bread,
and honey, with a bit of cheese now and then, or a drop of hydromel
(half -fermented honey-water) ; their climate is dry and favorable to
perennial out-door life, and in spite of official tyranny, war, and rumors
of war, feudalism, and outrageous over-taxation, they outlive the free-
born British yeoman, with his strong ales and daily beefsteaks. But
the coincidence of dietetic and administrative abuses cuts the thread
of life with a two-edged knife, and in Northern Russia the average

59o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

duration of life is ten years less than among the equally intemperate
but less misgoverned natives of Northern Germany, and almost twenty
years less than in the equally despotic but less poison-cursed territo-
ries of the Shah.

Historically, too, the lowest ebb of human happiness coincides with
that of human longevity. The ancient Greeks outlived us by about
thirty years, but even our northern Russians would outlive the nations
of the Christian middle ages, when common sense was a capital crime,
the suppression of all natural instincts the chief aim of education, and
the invention of new instruments of torture the only flourishing branch
of industry. The Western pessimists dislike to confess the main object
of their religion ; but their first exemplar, Buddha Nepaulensis, did not
hesitate to define it as the mortification of all earthly desires — in other
words, the shortening of life by all j)ossible means, excepting the resort
to the summary and, therefore, more desirable methods of direct suicide.

The depreciation of Nature, which formed the constant theme of the
orthodox preachers, may have had something to do with the unparal-
leled destructiveness of mediceval epidemics ; if life was a curse and
death the highest gain, the converts of such dogmas must have yielded
to Siva with Hindoo-like apathy, while, on the other hand, it is a
well-established fact that the mere determination to live has often
turned the scales in the crisis of an apparently hopeless disease. Dur-
ing the Grecian Revolution of 1821, Edward Trelawney survived a load
of buckshot because he "felt that he had no right to die," and mothers
with a houseful of sick children have frequently resisted the virus of
a contagious fever. Mahmed Kasim, the first Arabian conqueror of
Hindostan, was infected with the pest by the messenger of a rajah
who had adoj>ted that method of freeing his country from the invad-
ers, and, in spite of all remedies, a number of Mahmed's companions
died before the end of the week. But Mahmed himself " conquered
the disease as he had conquered the rajahs " — recovered by sheer will-
force, and continued the campaign on the seventh day after the arrival
of the plague-bearer.

In the century of Trajan, the Thessalian mountaineers were the
macrobiotes, the long-livers, par excellence, of the Roman Empire ;
the natives of Asia Minor, with her over-populated islands and luxu-
rious cities, the most short-lived. Time has since wrought strange
changes in the land of the Ephesians ; the wealthy cities have disap-
peared, and, with the single exception of her North-Persian neighbors,
the Levanters are now the longest-lived race on earth. Next come
the Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Hindoos, and southern Russians ; next to
these, and long before any West Europeans, the present inhabitants
of the United States, for the advantages of a golden age like ours
more than counteract such things as pork-fritters and strawberry-short-
cakes. Among the separate States, North Carolina and Vermont hold
the highest rank ; Louisiana and New Jersey the lowest, topographi-

LONGEVITY. 591

cally as well as biologically. As a rule, highlanders outlive their low-
land neighbors, country people the city folks, and among the cities of
the Caucasian nations sea-port towns without swamps are the most
salubrious. New York is the healthiest large city in America ; St.
Petersburg, in spite of her high latitude, the unhealthiest of all cities
whatever, taking the longevity of the natives as a criterion, for the
inclusion of foreign residents would give the highest death-rate to
Singapore or Vera Cruz. The Neva swamps breed fever and rheuma-
tism, diphtheria and consumption, turn about, and in co-operation with
the marasmus of bureaucracy and political espionage. But what
makes Munich such a peculiarly unhealthy place ? It must be lager-
beer, or else the tedium of Bavarian orthodoxy and Wagner's operas —
the mania of the past combined with the " music of the future " — for
under the same latitude merry Paris reconciles fast-living with long-
living enough to yield to no first-class city except New York. The
burghers of Vienna shorten their lives with greasy made-dishes, and
the Berliners with fell schnapps and a still fiercer struggle for exist-
ence— twelve hundred thousand eupeptic bipeds, surrounded by sand-
hills, and living on their wits and on each other.

Lonc|on holds about the medium between New York and St. Peters-
burg, but should not be mentioned in the same class with other towns,
since her populace has expanded into a nation, distributed over fifteen
or sixteen towns and half a hundred villages. The business part of
the great brick wilderness, divested of its oases and outlying garden
regions, would probably prove to be the richest harvest-field of Death,
for coal-smoke and red-hot competition are unfavorable to longevity,
and the mens cequa in arduis has ceased to be an Anglo-Saxon charac-
teristic.

The cities of Italy, Spain, and Portugal have become parasites
upon the starving country population ; strongholds of pampered priests
and titled sinecurists ; but, with all his freedom from worldly cares,
the gordo sanducho, the clerical glutton, is outlived by the rustic
pariah, as a proof that the favor of Nature is better than the favor of

princes :

" How small the part that laws can cause or cure,
Of all the ills that human hearts endure ! "

— and human bodies, too ; the tax-collector, with his thumb-screws,
calls around once a year, but the gout every week, and dyspepsia once
or twice a day. Turks and Italians inhabit the same latitude, and
nearly the same kind of mountains and semitropical plains, and the
remarkable physical inferiority of the Trinitarians must be ascribed to
their stimulating diet and greater sensuality, for somehow or other
the rustic Mussulman is a truer monogamist than his Western neighbor.
In the time of Strabo the Island of Cos was noted for the general
health of its inhabitants and their longevity, which some Grecian phy-
sicians attributed to the excellence of the drinking-water, and others

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to the genius of Hippocrates, who had taken the islanders under his
special protection. That genius must have settled in the Turkish
town of Janina, where drug-stores are unknown, and indeed superflu-
ous, as a sick person is at once suspected of wine-drinking, and takes
care to conceal his condition. The town is situated at the head of a
clear mountain-lake, and the longevity of the abstinent inhabitants
might tempt an undertaker to indulge in the remark of Frederick the
Great, at the battle of Kolin, when his grenadiers finally refused to
advance : " Ihr Hunde^ wollt Ihr eioig leben?" — (Ye hounds, are ye
going to live for ever ?)

Frugality, in the sense of vegetarianism, is the sometimes in-
voluntary virtue of most Orientals, and may help neutralize their
narcotics; the flesh-abhorring Hindoos attain to a surprising age,
considering their penchant for betel-poison and their ultra-Arabian
poverty. Our carnivorous red-skins are the most short-lived of all out-
door dwellers, and clearly in consequence of their diet, for in South
America, too, even the inhabitants of the malarious sea-port towns
survive the gauchos, whose menu is limited to three courses and one
entremet — dried beef, fresh beef, salted beef, and beef -tallow.

Professor Schrodt, who includes horse-riding among the sedentary
occupations, recommends pedestrianism as a cure for all possible dis-
eases, since the German Land-boten — mail-carriers afoot — generally
attain to an extreme old age, and appeals to several Grecian writers
who make a similar remark in regard to the Spartan hemerodromes.
In Prussia all government employes are pensioned after a certain
term of service, and a JLand-bote enjoys, therefore, the advantage of an
insured income in conjunction with the necessity of physical exercise
— bodily motion combined with ease of mind — the health-secret of the
gymnosophists and the children of the wilderness.

" Woe to them that are at ease ! " says Carlyle, but his anathema
does not prevent the English village parson from outliving every other
class of his countrymen, not excepting the British farmer, whose peace
of mind can not always be reconciled with high rents and the low
price of American wheat. Where agriculture is what it should be — a
contract between man and Nature, in the United States, in Australia,
and in some parts of Switzerland — the plow-furrow is the straightest
road to. longevity ; in Canada, where Nature is rather a hard task-
master, the probabilities are in favor of such half-indoor trades as
carpentering and certain branches of horticulture — summer farming, as
the Germans call it. Cold is an antiseptic, and the best febrifuge, but
by no means a panacea, and the warmest climate on earth is out and
out preferable even to the border-lands of the polar zone. The average
Arab outlives the average Esquimau by twenty-five years.

The hygienic benefit of sea-voyages, too, has been amazingly ex-
aggerated. Seafaring is not conducive to longevity ; the advantage
of the exercise in the rigging is more than outweighed by the effluvia

LONGEVITY. 593

of the cockpit, by the pickle-diet, the unnatural motion, and the foul-
weather misery ; and, from a sanitary stand-point, the sea-air itself is
hardly preferable to mountain and woodland air. The eozoon may
have been a marine product, but our Pliocene ancestor was probably a
forest creature.

"For what length of time would you undertake to warrant the
health of a seaman ? " Yarnhagen asked a Dutch marine doctor. " That
depends on the length of his furlough," replied the frank Hollander,
and it will require centuries of reform to redeem our cities from the
odium of a similar reproach. In victuals and vitality towns consume
the hoarded stores of the country, and only the garden-suburbs of a
few North American cities are hygienically self-supporting. Per-
manent in-door work is slow suicide, and between the various shop-
trades and sedentary occupations the difference in this respect is only
one of degree. Factories stand at the bottom of the scale, and the
dust and vapor generating ones below zero ; the weaver's chances to
reach the average age of his species have to be expressed by a nega-
tive quantity. In France, where the tabulation of comparative statis-
tics is carried further than anywhere else, the healthfulness of the
principal town trades has been ascertained to decrease in the following
order : House-building, huckstering, hot-bed gardening (florists), car-
penter and brick-mason trades, street-paving, street-cleaning, sewer-
cleaning, blacksmiths, artisan-smiths (silver, copper, and tin concerns),
shoemaking, paper-making, glass-blowing, tailor, butcher, house-
painter, baker, cook, stone-masons and lapidaries, operatives of paint
and lead factories, weavers, steel-grinders — the wide difference be-
tween brick and stone masons being due to the lung-infesting dust of
lapidary work, which, though an out-door occupation, is nearly as un-
healthy as steel-grinding. Lead-paint makers have to alternate their
work with jobs in the tin-shop, and, after all, can rarely stand it for
more than fifteen years ; needle-grinders generally succumb after
twelve or fourteen years. The human lungs seem able to eliminate
the impurities breathed by street and sewer cleaners, for, in London
as well as in Paris and Marseilles, the followers of both trades rank
high among the long-lived classes. Hucksters somehow manage to
outlive city gardeners as well as shopkeepers ; among the Hecubas of
the Paris market-hall, not less than two hundred and eighteen had
passed their threescore and tenth year.

Preaching, and, strange to say, pettifogging, are the healthiest of
all the learned professions ; their lung-exercise may have something
to do with it, for lecturing-teachers outlive the " silent " teachers
(dancing-masters, etc.). Physicians die early ; Nature revenges her-
self upon her leagued adversaries, for druggists and barbers (in many
parts of Europe synonymous with village quacks) are likewise short-
lived ; but sextons reach a good old age : there must be a mistake
about the supposed danger of grave-yard effluvia.
vol. xxi. — 38

594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Art still increases the value of human life, but not its length ; the
greatest modern masters of tune and color died in their prime, like the
greatest poets ; inspiration, in all its forms, would seem to be a flame
that consumes the human clay more quickly than the fire of affliction
— if the extreme longevity of so many of the ancient masters did not
suggest a different explanation, namely, that the revelations of Nature
and the tendencies of established dogmas have ceased to harmonize,
and that the lovers of truth have nowadays to cross a Pontus where
they must prevail against a whole sea of adverse currents, or Leander-
like perish.

In the course of the last sixty or seventy years the average dura-
tion of human life has undoubtedly increased in all civilized countrieSj
but it is not less certain that the gain of a few decades does not yet
begin to offset the loss of centuries ; we have saved ourselves from
the abyss of medieval unnaturalism, but we are still far from having
recovered the ancient height's of vitality; the after-effects of the Bud-
dha-poison still cramp our limbs and sadly retard our upward progress ;
but the tide has turned, and the main currents of the age have ceased
to set deathward.

According to the demonstrations of the naturalist Camper, the
normal average of our life-term should be at least ninety years. His
arguments are both biological and historical, and would agree with
the scriptural records, if, as Schleiermacher suggests, the Genesis-years
were seasons, of about ninety days. The "years" of the patriarchs
were certainly not months, for men who saw their children and chil-
dren's children must have lived longer than thirty years The biolog-
ical argument that in a state of nature the life of a mammal relates
to the period of its growth as 6-8 to 1, would give us an average of
90-160 ; the southern Arab is full-grown with sixteen years, the north-
ern Caucasian hardly before twenty. Hundreds of ancient statesmen
and philosophers outlived their threescore and ten by a full decade,
though we need not doubt that then, as now, metaphysics and politics
were not specially conducive to longevity, nor that even by that time
vices had shortened the natural average by several decades.

But there is another a priori argument which, from all but an
ultra-pessimistic stand-point, seems almost self-sufficient in its conclu-
siveness. The whereabouts of new planets have been discovered by
an inductive process based upon the observation of otherwise unac-
countable disturbances in the orbits of other stars, and Camper's theory
alone would account for an otherwise inexplicable contradiction in the
economy of human life. Man's life is too short for the attainment of
its highest purposes. Our season ends before its seed has time to yield
a harvest ; before a brave dav's work is half done we are overtaken
by the night, when no man can work. As the world is constituted, it
takes a certain number of years for a new industry to take root and
yield its first fruits ; it requires a certain period for a new opinion to

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE. 595

penetrate the crust of society and reach the fertile subsoil of the lower
strata. Before the end of that period the planter of the tree has to
fertilize the soil with his own bones ; the weary tiller has to yield his
plow to other hands. And the noblest plants are of such slow growth
that the master of the vineyard appears to discriminate against his
worthiest laborers ; nothing seems wanting to aggravate the injustice
and incongruity of the existing arrangement.

But a minimum life-term of ninety years would reconcile all con-
tradictions : two thirds of it would be enough for the adjudication of
every claim, and the remaining third could be devoted to rewards or
retributions. The second generation, which now can only reverse and
regret the short-sighted judgment of the first, would have a chance to
make amends for the injustice. Such men as Kepler, Spinoza, Dante,
Milton, Bayle, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Burns, Beethoven, Paine, and By-
ron, would have survived the influence of their detractors, and Time,
the avenger, could have answered their appeal with something better
than a monument.

-♦*♦-

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE.

By II. L. FAIECHILD.

A FIERCE and pitiless struggle for life in the animal world is a
stern fact. All creatures are beset by dangers. The negative
conditions of cold and hunger and the positive influences of nature's
elements are more easily resisted than the innumerable voracious foes.
Every animal is predestined food for some other animal. But self-
preservation is a universal thought, and endless is the variety of ways
whereby life is prolonged.

A few external organs of defense are familiar to every one — as
horns, claws, teeth, stings, shells, etc. Many animals depend on weap-
ons and muscular power, a still greater number upon keen senses
and fleetness — eternal vigilance. Others rely upon intelligence, cun-
ning, simulation, and deceit ; while stupidity, against which even the
gods are .powerless, may be the saving of others. Some are protected
by skill in construction, some by unconscious resemblance, and a host
by color, armor, and other passive means. A volume would not ex-
haust the subject, as there is scarcely a species of animal without
some peculiarity for self-preservation.

This brief paper will only treat of defense against enemies ; and,
although the subject permits of no natural classification, an arbitrary
division into passive and active defense will be convenient.

A host of animals of all classes and ranks are more or less defended
by a hard covering — the result of natural growth. Such defense, like
other modes to be described, is strictly involuntary and passive ; and,

;96

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

requiring no intelligent effort, it may be regarded as the lowest. But
even in this there is unbounded variety. We will distinguish the
following classes :

1. Transformed epidermis constitutes the armor of the lobster, in-
sects, and hard-skinned articulates in general. Also the hair of mam-
mals, the feathers of birds, the scales which cover most fishes, reptiles,
and the legs of birds, and the plates of that lizard-like mammal, the

4gj

iSmm ^m^Mmm

Fig. 1.— Manis {Manis itentadactylcC).

manis. 2. Stony secretion of the skin. Here belong the limy shells
of mollusks, the tests of sea-urchins, star-fishes, etc. ; also those of the
chalk-forming rhizopods, and the silica shells of other microscopic ani-
mals. 3. True oony armor produced by the skin ; as the coat-of-mail
of the armadillo, and the scale-armor of the ganoid fishes, the bony
pike and sturgeon, for example (also the armor of the group to which

Fig. 2. — Stukgeon (Acipenser).

belong the trunk-fishes. This sort of armor was very common among
the most ancient fishes, but it has now gone quite out of fashion.
The crocodile and alligator still have this bone armor in great per-
fection, and covered with epidermic plates — that is, they have a com-
bination of 1 and 3. Altogether they are as well protected as any

Fig. 3. — Ostraciontidjs. Horned Trunk-fish (Ostracion cornutus).

living creature. The armadillo has only its back covered with this
bone armor, but, like the hedgehog and the manis, it can roll itself
into a ball with the unprotected parts inside. 4. In the turtles the

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE.

597

endo- or vertebra-skeleton, is strangely modified and partly expanded
upon the outside of the body ; so it is literally true that the turtle is
inside of his internal skeleton. The ribs are expanded to form the
carapax, and the breast -bones to form the plastron of a solid box,
within which many species can withdraw their head and limbs. But
this is not all. The box is completed by the addition of numerous
bony plates developed from the skin, and over all a horny epidermic

Fig. 4.— Armadillo (ChlamyphorKS truncatus).

covering:

The latter furnishes the beautiful and valuable tortoise-
shell. Thus the armor of a turtle is a combination of 1, 3, and 4.
One of the land-tortoises, the box-tortoise, deserves particular mention.
The plastron, or breast-plate, of this species is divided into two mov-
able parts hinged at a line drawn transversely or across the middle.
When its head and feet are withdrawn, each end of the shell is tightly
closed, so that no animal can get even a claw inside.

The skin of the rhinoceros is so very touo-h and thick that it
defies ordinary weapons, and is said to resist soft-lead rifle-bullets.

Spines may be either (1) epidermic or (2) a secretion. The first
class includes the spines of the echidna, hedgehog, and porcupine ;
also those of most fishes, lizards, and crabs. To the second class
belong those of the globe-fishes, mollusks, rhizopods, and sea-urchins.
The spines of the latter group have a remarkable structure. They are
attached to the test or shell by a ball-and-socket joint and each moved
by independent sets of muscles. While some species have only a
very few large club-shaped spines, others have countless thousands of
minute needles. The thorn-like spines of the common sea-urchin are
also used in locomotion, and it has been happily said that a sea-urchin
on its travels is like an animated chestnut-bur.

The hedgehog is one of the best protected of living animals.
" Marching securely under the guardianship of its thorn-spiked armor,
it recks little of vany foe save man. . . . The formidable array of
bristling spines with which the back is more or less covered offers a

598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cheval-de-frise of sharp spikes toward any animal that may present
itself as an enemy. Another peculiarity is the power possessed by
these creatures of rolling themselves into a round ball, by placing the
head on the breast, drawing up the legs, and curling the body firmly
round the members. By this posture the hedgehogs render themselves
invulnerable to almost any animal that may attack them. . . . When
in this curious attitude, the hedgehog can not be unrolled by main
force, as long as any life remains in the body, for there is an enor-
mously developed muscle, with a very thick margin, which spreads over
the back and round the sides, and which, when contracted, holds the
creature in so firm an embrace that it will be torn in pieces rather than
yield its point."

The spines of this animal are about an inch long, and naturally lie
flat on the back, directed toward the tail. But by a peculiar arrange-
ment they are erected when the owner coils himself. In shape the
spine " is not unlike a large pin, being sharply pointed at one ex-
tremity, and furnished at the other with a round, bead-like head, and
rather abruptly bent near the head. If the skin be removed from the
hedgehog, the quills are seen to be pinned, as it were, through the
skin, being retained by their round heads, which are acted upon by
the peculiar muscle which has already been mentioned.

" Protected by this defense, the hedgehog is enabled to throw
itself from considerable heights, to curl itself into a ball as it descends,
and to reach the ground without suffering any harm from its fall. A
hedgehog has been seen repeatedly to throw itself from a wall some
twelve or fourteen feet in height, and to fall upon the hard ground
without appearing to be even inconvenienced by its tumble. On reach-
ing the ground, it would unroll itself and trot off with perfect uncon-
cern."

The quills upon the " fretful porcupine " are several inches in
length. The absurd belief that this animal could throw its quills at
an enemy, after the fashion of a lance, arose from the following facts :
" Their hold on the skin is very slight, so that, when they have been
struck into a foe, they remain fixed in the wound, and, unless imme-
diately removed, work sad woe to the sufferer. For the quill is so
constructed that it gradually bores its way into the flesh, burrowing
deeper at every movement, and sometimes even causing the death of
the wounded creature. In Africa and India leopards and tigers have
frequently been killed in whose flesh were pieces of porcupine-quills,
that had penetrated deeply into the body, and had even caused sup-
puration to take place. In one instance a tiger was found to have his
paws, ears, and head filled with the spines of a porcupine which he had
vainly been endeavoring to kill. ... If irritated or wounded, the
porcupine becomes at once a very unpleasant antagonist, as it spreads
out its bristles widely, and rapidly backs upon its opponent."

Many small creatures are undoubtedly protected by offensive fluids

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE. 599

or odors, which are not a matter of consciousness or will. In illustra-
tion of this method of defense, it will be sufficient to quote the f ollow-
ino- : " In South America there is a family of butterflies termed Heli-
co?iidce, which are very conspicuously colored and slow in flight, and
yet the individuals abound in prodigious numbers, and take no precau-
tions to conceal themselves, even when at rest during the night. Mr.
Bates found that these conspicuous butterflies had a very strong and
disagreeable odor ; so much so, that any one handling them, and
squeezing them as a collector must do, has his fingers stained and so
infected by the smell as to require time and much trouble to remove
it. It is suggested that this unpleasant quality is the cause of the
abundance of the Heliconidce ; Mr. Bates and other observers report-
ing that they have never seen them attacked by the birds, reptiles, or
insects, which prey upon other lepidoptera."

Great numbers of animals are permanently colored so as to har-
monize with their favorite surroundings. This obscure coloring may
be either for the purpose of securing prey, or for concealment. The
banded colors of the tiger perfectly blend with the lights and shadows
in the jungle-grass. Those forest animals which live on the ground,
as game-birds, deer, rabbit, or squirrel, are of brown or neutral hues,
which assimilate to the color of dead leaves and tree-trunks ; and they
are quite impossible to discover as long as they remain motionless.
Animals of the desert are dull or rust colored, or of some light tint.
Insects, frogs, and lizards, which live among the leaves, are green ;
those on the ground in dry or rocky places are pale accordingly.
Grasshoppers generally have the prevailing hue of the fields where
they subsist. Indeed, protective coloration is very common, and any
person can find examples.

More remarkable, however, is the protection afforded by what is
termed chromatic function. "It consists in the power possessed by
many fishes, crustaceans, amphibia, and reptiles, of adapting their gen-
eral coloring, often by extremely rapid alteration, to the coloring of
the surrounding objects, so that they seem to be helped by it in the
pursuit of their prey, or especially protected against the attacks of
their enemies."

This is very striking in many fishes. It can be readily observed in
the common tree-frogs. The chameleon and the devil-fishes are famous
for their power of changing color when irritated. The degree of con-
sciousness involved in this is unknown.

The resemblance to inanimate objects of many small animals, espe-
cially insects, is one of the most curious things commonly met with.
Insects imitate leaves, sticks, dry twigs, stones, lichens, etc., so per-
fectly as to sometimes deceive the close observer. The most remark-
able examples are found in the tropics, where insect-life luxuriates.
Wallace thus describes an Indian butterfly {Kallima) : " The upper
surface of these is very striking and showy, as they are of large size,

fee

THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

and are adorned with a broad band of rich orange on a deep-bluish
ground. The under side is very variable in color, so that out of fifty
speeimens no two can be found exactly alike ; but every one of them
will be some shade of ash, or brown, or ochre, such as are found among
dead, dry, or decaying leav - The apex of the upper wings is pro-
duced into an acute point, a very common form in the leaves of trop-
ical shrubs and trees, and the lower wings are also produced into a

\

Fig. 5.— LzAT-BuTrEETi.T ; KaUima parakkta).

short, narrow tail. Between these two points runs a dark curved line
exactly representing the midrib of a leaf, and from this radiate on
each side a few oblique lines, which serve to indicate the lateral veins
of a leaf. . . . But this resemblance, close as it is, would be of little
use if the habits of the insect did not accord with it. If the butterfly
sat upon leaves or upon flowers, or opened its wings so as to expose
the upper surface, or exposed and moved its head and antennae as many
butterflies do, its disguise would be of little avail. We might be sure,

AXIJfAL SELF-DEFEXSE.

5c i

however, from the analosrv of manv other eases, that the habits of the
insect are such as still further to aid its deceptive garb : but we are
Dot obliged to make any such supposition, since I myself had the
good fortune to observe scores of Ko.llirn.o. paralefaa, in Sumatra, and
to capture many of them, and can vouch for the accuracy of the
following details : These butterflies frequent dry forests and fly very
swiftly. They were never seen to settle on a flower or a green leaf,
but were many times lost sight of in a bush or tree of dead leaves.
On such occasions thev were g;enerallv searched for in vain, for, while
gazing intently at the very spot where one had di- i ~. it would

suddenly dart out, and again vanish twenty or fifty yards farther on ;
on one or two occasions the insect was detected reposing, and it could
then be seen how completely it assimilates itself to the surrounding
leaves. It sits on a nearly upright twig, the wings fitting closely back
to back, concealing the antennae and head, which are drawn up between
their bae The little tails of the hind wing touch the branch, and

form a perfect stalk to the leaf, which is supported in its place by the
claws of the middle pair of feet, which are slender and inconspicuous.
The irregular outline of the wings gives exactly the perspective effect
of a shriveled leaf. We have thus size, color, form, markings, and
habits, all combining together to produce a disguise which may be
said to be absolutely perfect : and the protection which it affords
sufficiently indicated by the abundance of the individuals which p a
sess it."

Of the walkinsr-stick in Wallace savs : " Some of these are a

foot long and as thick as one's finger,
and their whole coloring:, form, r;_ -
itv, and the arrangement of the head.
lees, and antenna?, are such as to render
them absolutely identical in appearance
with drv sticks. Thev hang; loosely
about shrubs in the forest, and have
the extraordinarv habit of stret chins:
out their lesrs un symmetrically. s
to render the deception more com-
plete." The counterfeiting is carried
even to the imperfections and injnr: -
of the objects copied. Still speaking
of the walking-stick insects, TTailace
says : H One of these creatures, obtaine 1
bv mvself in Borneo, was covered over
with foliaceens excrescences of a clear
olive-green color, so as exactly to re- FlG- *■— ■**■«■ ?p- » wmgfcaB

serous insect.
semble a stick grown over by a creep-
ing moss or jungermannia. The Dyak who brought it assured me it
was grown over with moss, althougrh alive : and it was only after a

602

THE POPULAR SCIENCE NMOTHLY.

most minute examination that I could convince myself it was not so."
And of a leaf -butterfly he says : " We find representations of leaves
in every stage of decay, variously blotched and mildewed, and pierced
with holes, and in many cases irregularly covered with powdery black
dots, gathered into patches and spots, so closely resembling the various
kinds of minute fungi that grow on dead leaves that it is impossible
to avoid thinking at first sight that the butterflies themselves have
been attacked by real fungi."

Mimicry is the resemblance which poorly protected animals bear to
others well protected. Several species of edible butterflies imitate the
Heliconidce and others, which are protected by fetid odors ; other

a

d

Fig. 7.— a, Doliops sp., mimics 5, Pachyrhynchus orbifer ; c, Doliops ci/rcidioncides, mimics d,
Pachyrhynchus sp. ; e, Scepastvs pachyrhynchoides (a grasshopper), mimics/, Apocyrtus ; g,
Doliops sp.. mimics h, Pachyrhynchus sp. ; i, Phorospis sp. (a grasshopper), mimics k, a Coc-
cinella. All from the Philippines, of natural size. It is evident that the great similarity of the
creatures to those they mimic is less conspicuous in the engraving than in real life, since the
exact correspondence in the coloring can not he given here.

butterflies mimic wasps so closely that persons fear to handle them,
although the imitation does not extend to the sting. Innocent beetles
imitate other beetles which have hard shells or fetid glands. They
also mimic bees and wasps. Flies also mimic wasps, and grasshoppers
mimic beetles. Some moths almost exactly imitate the form and
color of humming-birds. Wallace states that some harmless snakes

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE. 603

mimic poisonous species. And this mimicry is found even among
birds.

Active defense implies such organs and methods of defense as are
under control of the animal's will, or matters of conscious action. We
shall here find much greater variety.

The homes of animals — nests, houses, burrows, etc. — are protection
from the storm and for the young as well as from foes. This is a
most interesting and extended field, and requires separate treatment.

But many small creatures build individual shells or cases wholly for
defense against enemies. These are frequently carried about with the
creature, as armor, wherever it goes. A familiar example, found in
any brooklet, is seen in the case of the young caddis-fly. To hide and
protect itself from the ever-hungry fishes, the larva of this insect in-
closes its body in a tube formed by gluing together bits of wood,
shells, sand, and all sorts of matter that
may be found at the bottom of a stream.
This case has a silken lining, and out of
the end the larva protrudes its head and
legs for locomotion, or wholly withdraws
out of sight and danger. Other water larvae
reside within a bit of hollow straw or plant- Fig. 8.— caddis-Worm, with its
stem. A similar habit characterizes a group

of sea-worms, to which belongs the Serpula. Thin tubes may be formed
of a limy secretion, or built by cementing sand, shells, etc. One of
the tentacles of the Serpula is terminated by an expansion which, when
the worm withdraws into its case, serves as a stopper (operculum) to
securely close the opening (see Monthly, February, 1882, page 452,
Fig. 4). The silk pupa-cases of the moths are very wonderful, even
if very common, examples of artificial covering.

The singular hermit-crabs are obliged, on account of their lack of
a hard epidermis, to inhabit some empty mollusk-shell. And they are
exactly fitted for that sort of life : the tail-fin is changed into hooks
for holding the shell ; some of the legs are strong levers for dragging
its heavy house ; and one of its claws is disproportionately large, in
order to close the opening of the shell.

Keen senses combined with swiftness of locomotion are the chief
reliance of birds and mammals. The rabbit is a fair example. Inno-
cent and timid, entirely without weapons, it is always on the alert.
With its large eyes, ears sensitive to the slightest sound, and a delicate
sense of smell, it is as difficult to surprise as it is to " catch a wea-
sel asleep." Every deer-stalker knows he must approach his game on
the side opposite the wind. Most mammals, especially the herbivor-
ous, scent danger, and flee away. Many of them use their natural
weapons only when brought to bay, and in despair. This is true, in-
deed, of many carnivorous beasts when they are not bold with hunger.
Birds rely, for warning of foes, more exclusively upon their eyes.

6o* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Excepting from man, the birds and beasts of prey have little to
fear. Their offensive weapons are terribly effective. And, besides
teeth Bud claics, the lion and tiger can strike such bloics with their
paws as will kill a buffalo at a stroke. The cud-chewing mammals
have horns which may, with even the most timid, be efficient as a des-
perate resort. These are of various kinds as regards form, structure,
growth, and duration. The principal kinds are represented by those
of the deer, giraffe, antelope, and ox. The efficiency of these natural
weapons is greater than would be imagined from a knowledge simply of
our domestic animals. The water-buffalo of India (to quote from TTood)
"is a most fierce and dangerous animal, savage to a marvelous degree,
and not hesitating to charge any animal that may arouse its ready ire.
An angry buffalo has been known to attack a tolerably sized elephant,
and, by a vigorous charge in the ribs, to prostrate its huge foe. Even
the tiger is found to quail before the buffalo, and displays the greatest
uneasiness in its presence." -Of the gaury Wood says, "These herds
... in their own domains bear supreme rule, neither tiger, rhinoceros,
nor elephant daring to attack them." Some antelopes are on occasion
quite a match for the lion.

The horn of the rhinoceros is very different from those of the ru-
minants. Its peculiar situation on the nose makes it a very ugly and
efficient weapon. It is placed on the middle of an arch of bone, the
latter being free at one end so as to give elasticity. Many animals,
particularly the horse tribe, make excellent use of the feet. Of the use
of the hind-feet, the mule is a striking but somewhat threadbare illus-
tration. The elk and related animals strike with the fore-feet, and
are able to cope with a dog or wolf.

The ostrich and the secretary-bird also hick; and the latter, as is
also true of many birds, gives heavy blows with its wing.

The kangaroo uses his hind-feet less to kick than to cut and dis-
emboicel his antagonist. The bear employs much the same tactics. He
// vrjs and crushes his antagonist with his fore-legs, and strikes and tears
with either foot.

The elephant uses his great weight to literally crush his foe. But
his weapon is his elongated nose.

Another example of the nose used as a weapon is found in the
sword-fish. Here the bones of the skull are produced to form a thick
beak, or sicord, which points forward directly in a line with the body.
With this lance, five or six feet long, the fish is able to pierce even
through a ship's bottom. The British Museum is said to contain a
sword imbedded in the planking of a ship. Accounts have been given
of the sword-fish attacking and even killino; the whale.

The saw-fish, a sort of shark, has a similar beak, not sharp pointed,
however, but blunt and armed with teeth on either edge. It can be
used as a lance, and has been deeply driven into a ship's timbers. It
is used mainly for striking, and, if the animal attacked is moving, the

ANIMAL SELF-DEFEXSE.

605

effect is a saw-cut. It then acts as a veritable saic. But it seems ab-
surd for an animal to carry teeth on the outside of his nose.

With another shark the tail is a weapon, as it is with the whale
also. The tail of the thrasher is extremely large, and can deal severe
blows. The thrashers have been known to attack the whale when the
latter is at the surface. It is conjectured that the thrashers and the
sword-fish form a conspiracy against the whale, and, while the latter
prevent the whale from diving, the former leap out of the water and
brincr their huge tails down on the naked back of the whale with a tre-
mendous slap that can be heard a long way. Probably the whale is .
more frightened than hurt.

Some rays or skates have the tail long and whip-like. It is covered
with sharp spines, and forms an effective instrument for either strik-
ing or grasping. These spines produce severe inflammation, and are
greatly dreaded by fishermen. The larger ones are much used by sav-
ages for edging weapons. It is supposed that the whip-ray seizes an
enemy, or its prey, with its tail, and kills it by the cutting spines on
its tail, and by pressing it against the barbed spine situated on its back.
These spines are commonly used as spear or arrow heads by the sav-
ages of the South Sea.

Some small creatures have forceps or jaws as weapons. Those of
the lobster are modified feet, while those of the beetle are mouth-parts.

The most elaborate organs of defense are found in the lower forms
of life. And at near the lowest point in the animal scale we find an
apparatus exceedingly complex and efficient. This is the "nettling-
threads," "lasso-cells," or cnidcBj which give the hydra, jelly-fish, and

Fig. 9.— Lasso-Cell, coxtaetlsg Barbed Filament. (.After Gosse.)

polyps their power of stinging. They are also possessed by the cri-
noids, some naked sea-snails, and some sea-worms. Like manv other
weapons, they are used to subdue prey as well as to repel enemies.
These creatures are soft and delicate, and would seem to be the easiest
food for other animals. The cnidm are probably their only defense,
but they seem quite sufficient. A chapter would be required to give a
full description of these wonderful weapons. The instrument consists
of a hollow filament, coiled in a sac, the whole of microscopic size.
The sacs are commonly on the surface of the tentacles and other free
surfaces of the body. In some species they are collected in thread-

606 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

like magazines which are shot out of the body-walls. Upon irritation
this hollow thread is thrown out of the sac to a great length, by ever-
sion. It is turned inside out, and then exposes a barbed surface. They
penetrate the soft tissues of the animal attacked, and convey a poison
fatal to small animals. Any bather who has ever been stung by a
jelly-fish can give a satisfactory account of the effect of these weap-
ons. There is no doubt that a man would be completely and quickly
paralyzed if entangled, in a nude state, among the tentacles of the
larger jelly-fishes.

The stings of insects are more familiar, but still very wonderful.
In the sting of the honey-bee " we see an apparatus beautifully con-
trived to enter the flesh of an enemy ; two spears finely pointed, sharp-
edged, and saw-toothed, adapted for piercing, cutting, and tearing ;
the reversed direction of the teeth gives the weapon a hold on the
flesh, and prevents it from being readily drawn out. Here is an elab-
orate store of power for the jactation of the javelins, in the numerous

/ /

Fig. 10.— Barbed Case of Everted Settling-Thread. (After Gosse.)

muscular bands ; here is a provision made for the precision of the im-
pulse ; and, finally, here is a polished sheath for the reception of the
weapons and their preservation when not in actual use. All this is
perfect ; but something still was wanting to render the weapons effect-
ive, and that something your experience has proved to be supplied."
This is the poison, which has also a complex apparatus for its secretion
and ejection. This sting is a modified ovipositor, and possessed only
by the females, or neuters, which are undeveloped females. The male
insect is always a mild and inoffensive creature.

Scorpion-stings are similar to those of insects in position and use,
but are unlike in origin and development.

The poison-fangs of venomous snakes are modified teeth. They
are so attached that when not in use they lie in a fold in the upper
jaw. The poisonous snakes have broad heads, on account of the mus-
cles which control the fangs and the large glands which secrete the
venom. The latter is a sort of saliva, probably charged with ferment-
ing organisms, which are harmless in the food-canal, but which in the
blood multiply with amazing rapidity. The poison is conveyed to the
wound by a groove in the side of the fang.

The fangs of spiders represent the antenna? of insects. They are
tubular, for conveying venom, and jointed. The point or terminal
joint when not in use shuts into the basal joint, like the blade of a

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE.

607

pocket-knife into its handle. The fangs of the scorpion are modified
feet.

Certain fishes have the power of storing a large quantity of elec-
tricity, which is used at will to paralyze and kill prey or enemies.
The electric eel can kill small fishes at a distance, it is said, of fifteen
feet ; and they sometimes kill the horses which are driven into the
pools for the purpose of exhausting and capturing the eels. The elec-
tricity, is stored in a peculiar tissue of large cells or tubes which act
like a battery of so many Leyden-jars. Apparently nervous force is
here converted into electricity. After giving several shocks, the creat-
ure is exhausted for a time.

Besides those creatures which are passively offensive by their odors,
there are others which can at will exini
fluids to offend and deter enemies. The
skunk need only be named, and the point
will be fairly grasped by the reader.
Some reptiles have the power to expel
an offensive fluid from glands in the
skin. The toad and salamander are ex-
amples. This fluid is acrid and biting,
and intensely irritating to delicate skin,
as the mucous membrane of the mouth
or eye. The abundance of this viscid
yellow fluid in the salamander probably
led to the ancient notion that this little
amphibian could withstand and extin-
guish fire. The water-beetle (Dytiscus)
also expels a nauseating fluid.

It is very curious to find how some
weak and lowly creatures succeed in
frightening away their powerful foes.
They assume a virtue which they do not ^^Z^^SS'^^^t,
possess. « The attitudes of some insects tajjg; cjjwjirg £** «££

may also protect them, as the habit of 'tothepectora\&ns-nl,nervilaterales;

. •J np, branches of the pneumojastric

turning up the tail, by the harmless rove- nerves going to the electric organ ;

beetles, no doubt leads other animals,

besides children, to the belief that they can sting. The curious atti-
tude assumed by sphinx caterpillars is probably a safeguard, as well as
the blood-red tentacles which can suddenly be thrown out from the
neck by the caterpillars of all the true swallow-tailed butterflies."

Many creatures produce sounds for the same purpose. The cat
spits. Snakes hiss. The porcupine rattles his quills. " Even the pre-
liminary rustle of the quills with which a porcupine generally prepares
every attack is sufficient to make an ordinary horse flee in terror."
Perhaps the sounds >produced by certain naked sea-snails are in some
decree for defense.

608 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Various lizards abash their enemies by expansion, protrusion, or
erection of appendages. The iguana has a bag beneath the neck which
it puffs up. The frilled lizard of Australia has a sort of Elizabethan
collar about its neck which it can suddenly expand, to astonish and put
to flight the approaching enemy. And the basilisk of South America ■
has fin-like appendages upon its back and tail which it can erect if
annoyed. The chameleon inflates his body with air, that he may ap-
pear to be a much bigger creature than he really is. From this sprang
the belief that the chameleon lived on air.

The phosphorescence of animals is a subject not yet fully explained.
But without doubt it is partly defensive.

One of the most queer and ludicrous methods of protection is seen
in the bombardier beetles. In description of this, listen to Pouchet :
" They alarm their enemies by means of real artillery. These coleop-
tera when threatened suddenly expel from their intestines a whitish
acid vapor, the explosion of. which as it issues produces a certain sound,
a slight detonation, which carries disorder among the aggressors. This
explosion may even be repeated a certain number of times. Hence,
when one of these insects is pursued by an enemy, it fires off its artil-
lery anew. The instinct of defense is so inherent in the tribe of bom-
bardiers that, at the sound of a cannon-shot from one of them, all the
others fire at the same time ; there is a running fire along the whole
line. The sound produced by these coleojDtera is intense enough to
startle those who do not know the ruse"

Truthfulness is not an inherent virtue of animal character. Many
are the tricks, deceits, and devices by which they selfishly seek advan-
tage. A common artifice is that of feigning death in order to escape
the reality. " Playing 'possum " is a dodge not confined to those higher
animals to which we in our condescension grant the possession of a
degree of intelligence. The larva of the dytiscus, knowing the prefer-
ence of fishes for living active prey, when seized immediately becomes
flaccid and limp. The fish, supposing he has seized only a carcass,
drops it in disgust, and the dytiscus makes the most of his opportu-
nity. When the insect becomes a hard-skinned beetle, it, of course,
loses this power, and then employs a disgusting fluid, as before men-
tioned.

Every collector of insects becomes familiar with species which have
the habit of quietly dropping from the plants on which they feed to
the ground, upon the least alarm.

Hunters are familiar with many wiles by which pursued animals
endeavor to elude their pursuers and throw them off the scent. The
fox has the habit of doubling on his track, of walking fences, and go-
ing into water. Wood thus describes the habit of a South African
antelope, the duyker-bok : "If the sportsman should happen to over-
take this buck, it will lie still, watching him attentively, and will not
move until it is aware that it is observed. It will then jump up and

ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE. 609

start off, making a series of sharp turns and dives, sometimes over
bushes and at others through them. When it conceives that it is ob-
served, it will crouch in the long grass or behind a bush, as though it
were going to lie down. This conduct is, however, nothing but a ruse
for the purpose of concealing its retreat, as it will then crawl along
under the foliage for several yards, and, when it has gone to some dis-
tance in this sly manner, it will again bound away."

"When a slug or naked snail enters a bee-hive, the bees fall upon
him and sting him to death, as a matter of course. But what to
do with the carcass then becomes a vital question. And now is ex-
hibited the wonderful intelligence of the social insects. The body is
too large for the bees to move ; but if left it will breed pestilence.
They cover it with wax ; they embalm it, as did nations of old
their dead. But a shelled snail entering*- the hive is invulnerable to
their weapons, so they cement his shell to the bottom of the hive. It
is a sentence of imprisonment for life, with no hope of pardon. Yet
such manifestations of thought we call " instinct," because we wish to
monopolize "intelligence."

Oddest of all defensive methods is that of snapping off the tail.
The blind-worm, or slow- worm, is a little snake-like lizard common in

Fig. 12.— Blint)-Wor3I (Anguis fragV.is).

the Old World. When alarmed it contracts its muscles in such man-
ner and degree as to break its tail off at a considerable distance from
the end. But how can this aid it ? The detached tail then dances
about very lively, holding the attention of the offender, while the liz-
ard himself slinks away. And for a considerable time the tail retains
its capability of twisting and jumping every time it is struck. The
lizard will then gfow another tail, so as to be prepared for another
vol. xxi. — 39

610 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

adventure. There are other lizards which have a similar power, though
in less degree. The American glass-snake, so called, is one.

draper describes certain snails of the Philippine Islands which do
the same thing : u Every species (ITeUcarion) that I personally exam-
ined possessed the singular property ... of shedding their tails
when thev are seized somewhat roughly, at a little wav behind the
shell. This they do by whisking the tail up and down with extraordi-
nary rapidity, almost convulsively, till it drops off ; if the creature is
held by the tail it immediately falls to the ground, where it easily hides
among the leaves. . . . These snails at first constantly escaped me and
my collectors in this way, and not unfrequently we had nothing but
the tail left in our hand."

-+++-

BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS AND THEIR ORIGIN.

Br M. H. GORCEIX.

THE discovery of the diamond-beds of the Cape of Good Hope,
with the extraordinary abundance of their yield, seems to have
caused it to be forgotten that the empire of Brazil only a few years
ago had the monopoly of that precious stone, as it still has of the finest
crystals. Hopes have been entertained that the examination of the
green serpentine, in which the Cape diamonds are scattered, would per-
mit a determination of its origin and its primitive bed. No doubt,
however, now exists that the magnificent crystals incased in that rock
were already in existence when in its upward course from the depths
of the earth it brought them along with it and left them where they
are now found. Unless, then, new discoveries are made at the Cape,
of beds of a different nature, it will be necessary to look to Brazil for
the solution of the question of the primitive bed, the origin and the
mode of formation of the diamond — a triple problem which appears,
down to the present time, to exist as a challenge to all who are occu-
pied with geology and mineralogy.

The diamond has been and still is mined at numerous points in
Brazil, which are situated chiefly in the provinces of Bahia, Goyaz,
Matto Grdsso, Parana, and Minas Geraes. Except in the last province
and in that of Bahia, they give occasion only to the labors of isolated
diamond-workers, the garimperos of Brazil, who wash the sands of
the streams in large wooden bowls. The principal diggings in Minas
Geraes are grouped around the city of Diamantina, which is situated
almost on the meridian of Rio Janeiro, about five hundred miles from
the coast. A few other districts also furnish small quantities of dia-
mond-. VTe shall consider especially the diamond-beds of Diamanti-
na ; and we need not then speak of the others, for they are all so

BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS AND THEIR ORIGIN. 611

nearly alike that the study of one of them is enough to give an exact
idea of the others. The country here is not one that we have to dis-
cover, but to make known, and it well repays a better acquaintance.
If we go to it we shall run no dangers, we need fear or seek no thrill-
ino- adventures ; but we may feel as much ease in traveling as we en-
joyed a few years ago in going from Florence to Bologna, or on the
road to the Apennines. The security is even greater. It is said that
in Mexico military convoys have been necessary to guard the trains
eno-ao-ed in the transportation of silver from the interior to the coast,
and that even these guards did not protect them. Never has a single
soldier or a single agent of the police been employed in such service in
Brazil. For nearly two centuries successive caravans and numerous
travelers have transported to Rio Janeiro from the most remote points
of the interior fortunes in diamonds or in gold, simply packed in wood-
en boxes ; yet we can not cite a theft that has been committed on the
roads, now great highways, which were still, hardly fifty years ago,
simple bridle-paths traced through virgin forests.

The rocks are at first schistose ; then, in the environs of Ouro
Preto, the capital of the province, appear quartzose formations, sand-
stones, and quartzites. These rocks constitute the peak of Itacolumi
and the enormous mass of Caraca, the landmarks that guide us. After
a while the white or green mica of the quartzites is replaced by span-
gles of oligist iron, and for several leagues the dust of the road and
the pavements of the streets of the towns through which we pass are
formed of the most beautiful iron minerals in the world. Quartz,
mica, and oligist iron are not generally elements of a very fertile soil,
but, under the action of a considerable humidity, these rocks are dis-
integrated and decomposed. Wherever the hand of man has not car-
ried destruction, there is developed, under the influence of a favorable
climate, one of the finest vegetations in the world.

"We are now in the land of g^old. The road is evervwhere marked
with the ancient diggings ; enormous heaps of gravel on the banks of
the streams indicate how considerable have been the excavations of
which we see only the persisting mark-.

The rocks are always the same : mica-schists, quartzite containing
mica or oligist iron, or itabaryte. The aspect of the country does not
chano-e : mountains succeed mountains, all of them rounded, srraduallv
sloping on one side, carved into peaks on the other ; and, since we
follow generally the water-sheds, we have only brooks to cross, the
sources of all the rivers that finally form the Rio Doce. But. after
having passed the town of Serro and crossed, a few miles north of this,
a chain of mountains perpendicular to the grand crest we have been
following, the aspect wholly changes. Before us extends a vast plain,
on which the eye hardly distinguishes a few undulations rising around
the city of Diamantina. the red roofs of which are visible through a
bouquet of verdure that forms a green oasis in the midst of the sur-

612 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rounding desert. On the right, toward the east, we may perceive a
peak, the summit of which, constantly surrounded with clouds, has
never been reached — less on account of its height, which is not much
more than six thousand feet, than of the precipices and deep clefts
which forbid approaching it. It is the peak of Itaube. On the left
is seen a less elevated mountain, formed of a single block of rounded,
rough-grained quartzite, which has been given the name of Pedra
Redonda. From around these two peaks rise the principal brooks that,
united, form the Jequitinhonha, a stream the sands of which yield dia-
monds to a considerable distance below Diamantina.

The quartzose rocks predominate everywhere ; the schists are seen
only at rare intervals, and in their beds. But those rocks, of which
quartz in grains forms the principal element, are different from those
we have met in the gold-bearing region. They are more granular,
only slightly micaceous ; they pass into real sandstones ; and the beds,
generally inclined a few degrees toward the east, are less dislocated,
less metamorphic than those of the schists and micaceous quartzites
which they cover, and which form an islet on which is situated the
city of Diamantina.

To these quartzites and sandstones are added, on the banks of the
Jequitinhonha and some of its affluents, conglomerates of rounded
pebbles, the horizontal beds of which occur in the same region on the
banks of the Paruna, a stream emptying into the Rio das Yelhas. The
schists and the lower quartzites containing green mica appear around
Diamantina, and in patches in the bottom of the ravines through which
the Jequitinhonha flows. Quartzites, sandstones superior to the pre-
ceding, and conglomerates crowning the whole series, such are the for-
mations, to which heaps and dikes of diorite should be added, which
form the soil of this diamond-bearing basin.

The surface, in consequence of the nature of the dominant rock, is
covered with a bed of white sand marked by brilliant crystals of quartz
derived from the numerous veins of that substance which penetrate all
the strata. Of vegetable mold there is not a trace, except in the bot-
toms of the ravines. In the dry season, a few kylmerias, with knotty
trunks and a thick rough bark like that of the cork - oak, humble
melastomas with yellow and red petals, and the opuntias, with their
straight stems covered with a spiny down, are not sufficient to hide
the aridity of the soil. No cultivated fields, but widely scattered
houses. Everywhere, however, the ground is dug deeply, and turned
over, more by the hand of man than by the action of the elements ;
but the only product demanded of the earth is the diamond.

The region forms a vast ellipse, the major axis of which, running
from north to south, extends about fifty miles from the city of Serro
to the little river Caethe Mirim, and the other axis more than twenty-
five miles from the Jequitinhonha to a line parallel with the Rio das
Yelhas. It is, in effect, situated in the valleys of both these rivers,

BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS AND THEIR ORIGIN. 613

while a strip of it in the south, near the city of Serro, belongs to the
basin of the Rio Doce. Capital differences are marked in the distri-
bution of the diamond-bearing beds of these valleys.

In the basin of the Jecjuitinhonha, nearly all the water-courses,
however insignificant, are or have been diamond-bearing from their
sources to their mouths at that river. In the basins of the Rio das
Velhas and of the Rio Doce, the streams cease to yield diamonds at a
short distance from their source.

In these streams, the diamond is always accompanied by gold in
flakes or in little nuggets ; but while the diamond prevails in the center
of the diamond-yielding region, as we move toward the east, the
proportions are reversed : gold becomes more abundant ; and finally,
after having passed the city of Serro, it is the only precious substance
contained in the sands. To this point penetrated, at the beginning of
the eighteenth centurv, those bold adventurers, bands of whom, seeking
gold for nearly a half-century previously, had crossed the mountains
and reached the middle of the forest of the Sierra d'Espinhaco, dispos-
sessing the tribes of savages whose last representatives still live mis-
erably on the banks of the Rio Doce.

Often, down to 1729, the gold-hunters had noticed, in the bottoms of
the bowls in which they washed the river-sands, little bright crystals,
to which they attached no value. The brilliancy of these crystals,
their hardness, and their regular form, as if shaped by the hand, had
indeed attracted the attention of the miners, and many had saved
them to use as counters in play ; but gold alone had any value in the
eyes of these adventurers. At this epoch, according to the least
uncertain tradition, a monk, who had taken part in the search for dia-
monds in India, recognized the nature of these counters. He told his
discovery to a certain Bernardo da Fonseca Lobo, who made it known
in his name to the Portuguese Government. The king immediately
took possession of all the lands where the presence of diamonds had
been recognized, and where it could be suspected.

Bernardo received as his reward the title of roval notarv, and the
command of the militia of the most important city of the region. The
name of the monk was forgotten. I do not believe that the name of
either could have been popular at Minas, for their discovery, which
threw hundreds of millions into the treasury of the kin^s of Portugal,
was the origin of one of the most despotic rules that any country ever
had .to endure.

The first diamonds were found in the sands of the brooks ; and
these sands, or, to use the Portuguese expression which has passed into
nearly all languages, cascalhos, still constitute the beds that are prin-
cipally worked. But beds of an entirely different nature, situated,
like mines of metals, in the midst of the strata, and of corresponding
depth, have beenxbrought to notice in later years.

The diamond-bearing cascalhos not only occupy, or rather did oc-

614 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cupy — for most of them have been worked — the beds of all the water-
courses, but they were also placed in beds on the table-lands and in the
gorges of the mountains, at levels which the waters never reach in our
day, even in times of freshet. They have a peculiar appearance, that
never deceives the eye of the experienced miner. At first sight, they
resemble the gravels of our rivers. They are formed of rounded peb-
bles of various colors, and are composed of numerous species of min-
erals, of which I, still only at the beginning of my studies of the sub-
ject, have already recognized more than thirty. Of these, quartz, the
oxides of titanium, titanic iron, tourmalines, phosphates, fibrolite, octa-
hedric oligist iron, and magnetite, which are well known to the miners
and distinguished by them under various fanciful names, are the true
satellites of the diamond, its veritable train, and are with rare excep-
tions sure to be found with it at Diamantina. They have so intimate
a connection with it, in fact, that we are justified in believing that the
same formations include the primitive beds both of these minerals and
of the diamond. The form of the specimens leaves no doubt as to the
causes to which they owe it. They have been brought down by the
waters and worn round by friction. They can not, however, have been
turned into spherical balls by a simple transport of a few hundred
yards. The diamond itself, the hardest of all bodies, has not escaped
this action ; and fragments of it are found from which every trace of
crystallization has disappeared, and which are as round as marbles.
Not the sands of the large streams alone, but also those of the smallest
brooks, even those near their sources, present the same characteristics.
The stones must, then, owe their shapes to the polishings which they
have suffered by being held in the windings of the rocks and rolled
around them by the eddies of the waters. While they have been thus
polished off, they have produced an analogous phenomenon on the bot-
toms of the rivers, where they have caused the wearing out of those
circular holes — the " giants' pots," the caldeiroes of the diamond-hunt-
ers, with which the beds of the streams of Diamantina are pock-marked.
The sands in these holes are naturally richer than the other sands ; for
the lighter elements are carried away by the water, and more fragile
substances than the diamond are ground to powder in them. For a
hundred and fifty years the miners have considered it a piece of great
good fortune to discover one of these caldeiroes ; but new ones are now
very seldom found. A few hundred yards above the bridge of the
Diamantina road over the Jequitinhonha, the course of the water is
barred bv enormous blocks of diorite, between which the current has
excavated subterranean passages. The river having been partly turned
from its course, one may now go into one of these grottoes, which is
occupied by a cascalho of extraordinary richness. The sides of the rock
are as polished as the best-worked marble ; the light of the torches is
reflected as from a glass ; and the visitor perceives at every instant cy-
lindrical holes as regularly formed as if some skillful potter had shaped

BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS AND THEIR ORIGIN 615

them on his wheel. The discovery of some of these caldeiroes after
expensive labors, some thirty years ago, afforded sufficient return to
enrich the families of the two partners who worked them. An eye-
witness to the fact relates that in one of the holes under the diorite
arch, when the superficial layer of sterile sand was removed, a clear
mass of the precious stones was revealed, and the discoverers were
able on the spot to fill their pockets with diamonds. In the Ribeirao
do Inferno, a single caldeiroe of a few cubic metres' capacity fur-
nished nearly 8,000 carats of diamonds. Such fortunes, however, are
extremely rare, and can not be counted on in the regular mining.

It is easy to comprehend how powerful must have been the action
of the erosion above described, the duration of which is measured by
many millions of years, but is quite outside of our chronology. The
greater part of the ravine through which the Jequitinhonha flows, as
well as the whole groundwork of the hydrographic system of the
region, is doubtless due to phenomena of upheaval, the directions
of which oscillate around a north-and-south axis. The tributaries of
that river have cut out channels for themselves wrhich are now deep,
close canons, with sharply cut, precipitous walls.

The almost horizontal disposition of the sandstone strata, and of
the conglomerates, which form the banks of the rivers, and the terraces
which indicate the successive levels occupied by the river-bottoms,
leave no doubt of the correctness of this assertion. At first, conse-
quently, the bottoms of the streams were almost at the level of the
surface ; the rivers overflowed their banks after light rains, and their
diamond-bearing sands were spread over the table-lands and in the
mountain-gorges. As the beds of the rivers were worn down deeper
in the rock, overflows became more rare, and the sands were carried to
only small distances from the banks. Finally, after a certain period,
inundations became impossible, and the sand was deposited in the
caldeiroes, the caves, and subterranean channels which the river wore
out in the rocks over which it flowed. This epoch may be referred to
the period which preceded our own, and which is characterized in
Europe by the stone implements of human origin and use, specimens
of which have been found in the diamond-bearing land.

Then, either by a rising of the coast, or, as is less probable, by a
subsidence of the central plateau of Minas Geraes, the fall of the
streams diminished, and, instead of continuing to excavate their beds,
they began to fill them with the diamondless, shifting deposits, the
formation of which is continued into our day. The sands of the
table-lands and the banks of the rivers are much less rich than those
of the streams ; and in any case the diamonds have to be separated,
by methodical washings, from the foreign substances with which they
are mixed. Very rarely a simple sifting with the fingers suffices to
extract the jewel. In 1824 a region was discovered in the lower part
of the table-land of Diamantina where tjie diamonds were scattered

616 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

through the soil, accompanied only by a few bits of quartz. Accord-
ing to the popular expression, the crystals of the precious stone could
be picked out of the roots of the grass when it was pulled up. A
diamond of twenty-eight carats was found on the surface of the
ground. At some distance from this spot, I have myself seen, on the
summit of the ridge between the valleys of the Jequitinhonha and
the Rio das Velhas, diamonds in ground-cracks some inches deep, with
no other companions than enormous crystals of quartz. Cavities in
the rock a few metres away did not contain a trace of diamonds,
although they bore identical crystals of quartz. The old miners
ascribed the disposition of the minerals they sought in regular veins
to the intervention of good genii. It seems as if, at Diamantina, a
wicked fairy must have sown the diamonds on the ground according
to its caprices; and never were caprices more whimsical and varied. .
The diamond there forms only an insignificant part of the gravels, and
is in most uncertain proportions.

The work of washing the diamonds is done wholly by hand. In
the first operation, the sands are placed, in portions of two hundred to
two hundred and fifty pounds, in a kind of hod or rectangular trough,
only three sides of which are inclosed. The hods are arranged by
twos, fours, or sixes, by the side of a trough of water about a foot
and a half deep, so that their bottoms shall be slightly inclined toward
it. A workman, standing in the trough before each hod, dashes water
upon the sand in it. The clay and the very fine sands are carried away,
and the first separation is made. The larger pieces remaining in the
top of the sand are picked away ; the diamond is to be found in the
two upper thirds of the mass that is left, the lower part being nearly
sterile. The washing is afterward finished in bowls a little deeper
and a little more conical than those used by the gold-washers. The
washer puts the sand in the bowl and fills it with water ; then by
whirling the bowl and shaking it up and down while the sand is float-
ing around in it, and being careful to stir it from time to time with
his hand, he determines a classification in the order of density. This
work is easy if he is washing gold ; for that metal is heavier than the
substances with which it occurs, and always goes to the bottom.

The diamond, however, having a density about three and a half
times greater than that of water, and more considerable than that of
quartz and tourmaline, but less than that of the oxides of iron and
titanium, its constant companions, settles in the middle layers. The
washer, after several rinsings, removes the upper particles, hardly
looking at them, and, when he has reached a certain level, which his
skill recognizes at once, tips his bowl slightly, so as to let the water
run off in a thin film, and, perceiving the glittering crystals of the
diamond, picks them out with his fingers. The vigilance of the over-
seers must be redoubled at this stage, particularly when slaves are em-
ployed ; for I know of nothing equal to the skill of the slaves in find-

BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS AND THEIR ORIGIN. 617

ing diamonds, except that with which they make them disappear if the
vigikmce of the superintendent is relaxed for an instant. I can not
describe all the artifices employed, but I should remark that, since the
works have become free, fraud has greatly diminished. Under the old
rule it overtook half the diamonds in the gravels.

Difficulties of another kind are presented when the precious grav-
els are situated in the beds of the rivers. Since the channels have
been deeply cut in the rock, and are bordered by steep cliffs, it is im-
possible to construct lateral sluices for turning the water away from
them, except at an expense which even the magnificent return that is
anticipated will not justify. A quicker and more simple process has
been devised. The river is dammed, and a flume is made of planks to
carry the water from the dam to some three or four hundred yards
below. The intervening space between the dam and the end of the
flume, in which the precious gravels of the caldeiroes are supposed
to be situated, is thus left free from running water, while the water
which stands upon it and that which reaches it by infiltration are
removed by pumps worked by water-wheels. The work must be done
quickly when this system is employed, for there is no time to lose.
The river is generally docile enough during the dry season, from May
to October ; but, if only a slight storm comes on, it is transformed at
once into a torrent that nothing can resist, and which carries off dams,
wheels, and viaduct. This is what happens, as a rule, fifty times out
of a hundred. I know of diamond- seekers who have recommenced for
three or four years in succession the same works, to have them every
time destroyed under their eyes by sudden freshets. Then a fortunate
season has amply recompensed them for all that they had lost. Others
have just had time to work for a few days in the rich beds, a few cubic
yards of which have yielded them hundreds of carats of diamonds ;
but how many have exhausted all their resources without reaching
this promised land ! Nevertheless, no machines, or barrows, or inclined
planes are employed, notwithstanding the enormous force furnished
by the fall of water in the race is at the disposal of the operator ;
only picks, shovels, levers to raise the rocks, and, for means of trans-
portation, laborers, who carry on their heads large wooden troughs,
which others fill with sand and stones. Nothing can be more pictur-
esque than these great trenches, where crowds of negroes are moving
about like ants in an ant-hill, running in gangs to receive their loads,
and carrying them away in groups, while they intone songs, which are
almost always in the language of the African coast. The excavation
becomes deeper and more sinuous ; groups of men, like clusters of
bees, hang, by the aid of the most primitive of ladders, to the rock-
walls, and the work goes on with a feverish ardor. From time to time,
the overseers probe the sand with long iron rods. Great is the rejoic-
ing when the existence of the diamond-bearing cascalho beneath the
sterile sands is revealed by a peculiar sound which all the miners know.

618 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

As great, also, is the disappointment when, as often happens, the probe
strikes the rock without meeting the diamonds — they having been al-
ready taken away by the miners of the previous century, all traces of
whose former presence have been destroyed by the river. This is an-
other risk that the diamond-seekers have to run.

These gravel-beds are not the only treasure-bearers in the diamond-
yielding region. The mineral elements of which they are composed
have been washed by the waters from more ancient rocks. Now, what
are these rocks ? Do they still exist, or have they been wholly de-
stroyed ? To answer these questions, I have carefully endeavored to
determine the group of minerals which I have called the satellites of
the diamond, persuaded that, wherever their primitive bed should be
found, there would also be met that of the diamond. Now, all around
the city of Diamantina, and for more than twenty miles west of it, the
dominant rocks are quartzites with green mica, and beds of schists of
the same nature and the same age as those of the auriferous forma-
tions. They are traversed by numerous veins of quartz containing
oxides of iron, titanium, and tourmalines, the satellites of the diamond
in the river-gravels. The origin of the latter is evidently due to the
destruction of these rocks by the action of the waters ; and we may,
therefore, conclude that they ought to contain the primitive bed of the
diamond.

The study of the geographical distribution of the diamond-bearing
streams leads us to the same conclusion. All the streams, the sands of
which have been found to be richest in diamonds, depart from this
zone.

These deductions are confirmed also bv the two facts of the dis-
covery of the diamond in place in the sandstones with green mica,
two hundred miles from Diamantina, and the discovery of clay-beds,
formed from the decomposition of the schists intercalated in the quartz-
ites, twenty miles west of the same city, where rise two rivers, the Rio
Pardo and the Caethe Mirim, celebrated in the annals of the miners
for their richness. The idea that the Brazilian diamonds were found
only in alluvial deposits was so firmly rooted that at first no one at-
tached importance to these discoveries. I was myself incredulous
respecting them till I was able to verify with my own eyes the exist-
ence of the diamond in the rocks in place. I distinguished three for-
mations :" one white, with considerable quantities of crystals of quartz ;
a second gray, composed almost entirely of oxide of iron ; the third,
the strongest, of mottled clay, with considerable quantities of the
same crystals, of rutile and oligist iron, which I have already pointed
out as occurring in the river-gravels. All the formations are strongly
inclined toward the east, and are intercalated with micaceous quartz-
ites, the turns of which they follow ; and were, therefore, formed at
the same time with them in remote geological epochs, which, in con-
sequence of the total absence of fossil remains, can not be precisely

BRAZILIAN DIAMONDS AXD THEIR ORIGIN. 619

identified. A comparison of them with other strata of the Sao Fran-
cisco Valley, which are characterized by the presence of palaeozoic
corals, permits me to affirm that they certainly ascend as far back as
the Silurian period. Other travelers, previously to myself, have men-
tioned this formation, and my friend the geologist Dorville-Derby,
who supports my view, has carefully described it. The washing of
these clays is performed in the same manner as that of the gravels,
and I have myself extracted diamonds from them. In the washing,
the minerals which we found rolled and rounded in the river-sands,
and presenting an entirely different aspect, came out in perfect crys-
tals, without a trace of wearing. They are the same satellites of the
diamond, but still in their primitive bed. The diamonds also of Sao
Joao da Chapada are characteristic : like the crystals of oxide of
iron, their angles are whole ; their wrinkled faces and their uniform
color have suffered no modification by friction. Should not the same
conclusion be adopted for the diamond, and may we not assume that it
also is here found where it was formed ? It is true that I have not
found diamonds actually in the little veins of quartz that traverse these
beds, nor in the schists, the decomposition of which has produced the
diamond-bearing clays with these same crystals of oligist iron and
rutile. But hardly one diamond exists to a million crystals of oligist
iron ; more than thirty thousand pounds of clay have furnished only
ten little diamonds weighing about a carat. It would have been a
rare chance to perceive, even with a strong glass, one of these stones,
no larger than the head of a pin, in the midst of an enormous mass of
sterile substances. Objections may indeed be made to the views which
I have presented. The formations in which the diamond is found
have not always been in the condition in which we now see them.
They are not eruptive rocks, that have come already formed from the
center of the earth, but have originated from the destruction of more
ancient formations, and have undergone metamorphic action under
the influence of which new crystalline elements have been formed
within them, and they have assumed the aspect they now present.
Why, it may be asked, may not the diamond also have been derived
from these primitive formations ? And then the problem, instead of
having been resolved, is. only put back another step.

I may reply to this by asking if the processes of trituration effect-
ive enough to reduce crystals of feldspar and quartz to mud and sand
would not also have modified the diamonds by smoothing their angles
and we'aring away their surface ; especially, since we have seen that
much lighter rubbings have been enough to produce such effects in
the streams ? I could likewise answer other objections that my mind
suggests ; and I believe I have shown that the diamond of the allu-
vial formations of Diamantina comes, like the iron and titanic oxides,
the tourmalines and the phosphates, its faithful companions, from the
destruction of the quartz-veins intercalated into the palaeozoic rocks of

62o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the region. The constant association of this precious stone with those
minerals causes me to believe that it has been brought, like them,
from the depths of the earth in the condition of a volatile compound,
and that it owes its crystallization to a dissociation produced under
the action of heat and a considerable pressure. Now, what is this
volatile compound ?

As to the oxides of iron and titanium, together with what takes
place in volcanoes, the synthetic experiments of M. Daubree leave no
doubt that they have come up as chlorides and fluorides. May the case
not be the same with the diamond ? Its presence in the midst of a
crystal of anatase lends support to this hypothesis. This is, it is true,
only an hypothesis ; but it is an hypothesis based on the observation of
phenomena in which I have taken analogy for my guide. Far be it
from me to assume that I have resolved the problem. I shall be well
satisfied if I shall ever be able to raise the corner of a veil which
more fortunate and more skilled men than myself will, I am convinced,
eventually remove completely.

It is very difficult to estimate the quantity of diamonds furnished
by Brazil. Between 1772 and 1793 the royal treasurer received 877,717
carats of diamonds, or about 38,000 carats a year. At least as many
more were stolen or smuggled away. This would make the annual pro-
duction in round numbers about 80,000 carats ; if we assume this aver-
age for a total period of a hundred and fifty years, we reach the figure
of 12,000,000 carats, or nearly 2,400 kilogrammes (6,000 pounds), or a
volume of seven or eight hundred quarts. It is impossible to calculate
even approximately the total value of these stones. Generally, the dia-
monds of Brazil are small ; stones of fifteen or twenty carats are rare ;
and the Star of the South, a stone which was found in the western
part of the province, at Bagagem, is the only one of them that calls
for a special mention. This diamond weighed, in the rough, 254*5
carats, and, after being cut, 125 carats. Finds like this are very rare ;
and I know of miners who have washed and washed over the cascalhos
of Bagagem for twenty years, without having found a second Star of
the South, or even a single diamond of value. They are still, how-
ever, far from giving up the search. The total production of Brazil
in 1880 hardly exceeded sixteen kilogrammes, or forty pounds (about
80,000 carats). In the same time, the mines of the Cape yielded
2,000,000 carats. The Brazilian diamonds, however, have a very
marked superiority in luster and beauty, so great that they have often
been taken for Indian brilliants.

^V AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 6z\

THE FUXCTIOXS OF AX AMEEICAX MANUAL

TKAIOTXG-SCHOOL*

By Professor C. M. WOODWARD, Pn. D.,

OF THE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, ST. LOUIS.

WITH his gentle lance Emerson pricked many a bubble, and,
though collapse did not always follow immediately, the wound
was always fatal. In 1844, in his essay on New England reformers,
he charged popular education with a want of truth and nature. He
complained that an education to things was not given. Said he : " We
are students of words ; we are shut up in schools and colleges and
recitation-rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a
bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. We can
not use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms." And again,
speaking of the exclusive devotion of the schools to Latin, Greek, and
mathematics, " which, by a wonderful drowsiness of usage " had been
" stereotyped education, as the manner of men is," he says : " In a
hundred high-schools and colleges this warfare against common sense
still goes on. ... Is it not absurd that the whole liberal talent of this
country should be directed in its best years on studies that lead to
nothing?"

This is evidently too severe, bat we must admit that Emerson
anticipated and greatly aided a reform which has been gathering
strength for a whole generation. Hence it is to-day scarcely neces-
sary that I should present arguments in favor of manual education.
The great tidal-wave of conviction is sweeping over our whole land,
and the attitude and aspect of men are greatly changed from what
they were ten years ago. What I said in 1873 in a public address in
favor of technical education was held to be rank heresy. I fear it
would be regarded as rather commonplace to-day. The progressive
spirit of the age has actually penetrated our thick hides, and we are
trying to keep step with the universe.

In every community the demands of technical education have been
discussed, and, in every instance when the old system has been sub-
jected to the tests which good sense applies to business, it has been
found wanting.

Defective Education. — Is, then, I ask — is the education we give
as broad and round and full as it ought to be ? Is the time of tute-
lage most wisely spent ? Do the results we secure justify the means
and methods we use ? Is the relation between education and morality
as close as it should be ? Does our education fill the definition of

* Address delivered at Saratoga Springs, New York, on Thursday, July 13th, before
the joint meeting of the National Teachers' Association and the American Institute of
Instruction.

622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Pestalozzi ? I think to these questions we must seriously answer :

No ! There is a lack of harmony between the school-house and the

busy world that surrounds it. Some have even claimed that we are

wrong in supposing that education diminishes crime. Let us see if

there is any truth in their position.

You know how often a life is a failure from defective education.

Too often do we see young people, who might have been educated to

eminent usefulness, cast

"... unfinished

Into this breathing world scarce half made up."

I have seen poor lawyers, who, under a proper system of training,
would have made excellent mechanics, and not a few highly educated,
able-bodied men actually begging for the price of a day's board. I
recall one man in particular who was able to speak several languages,
but because no one would employ him as a linguist he must needs
beg, for he knew not how to work. Now, when a man's education
has been misdirected, and he is thrown upon the world shackled by
outgrown theories, bewildered by false lights, and altogether unpre-
pared for the work which perhaps he was born to do, and when in his
extremity he resorts to knavery and violence and fraud to secure what
he knows not how to get by fair means, those who directed or should
have directed his education can not be held blameless.

The moral influence of occupation is very great. A sphere of
labor congenial and absorbing, that fully occupies one's thoughts and
energies, is a strong safeguard of morality. If you would keep men
out of mischief, keep them busy with agreeable work or harmless play.
The balance of employments is fixed by our state of society and the
grade of our civilization. Now, if indiscriminately we educate all our
youth away from certain occupations and into certain others, as is
very clearly the case, some employments will be crowded, and con-
sequently degraded ; in others, the choicest positions will be filled by
foreigners, and the lowest posts, wherein labor is without dignity,
must perforce be filled by those who have neither taste nor fitness for
their work. The result is broils, plots, and social disorder.

Thirty years ago an eloquent Frenchman (Frederic Bastiat) charged
the one-sided education of his countrymen with being an actual dan-
ger to society. He argued that the " stranded graduates," as he called
those who, unable to navigate the rough waters of practical life, had
been tossed high and dry on the reefs along the shore, " filled with a
sense that the country which had encouraged them to devote their
best years to classic studies owed tbem a living, or a means of living,
would become the leaders of mobs and officers at the barricades."

More Light. — When the shadow of death was drawn over the
great Goethe, he uttered his last wish for "more light." We must
echo his cry, if we would prepare our American system of education
for a more glorious destiny. We treat our children too much as the

AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 623

unskilled gardener treats his plants. He puts them by a window, and
pours over them a flood of light and life-giving rays. Instinctively
they turn out toward the source of their strength. They put forth
their leaves and budding promises, and, as we look at them from the
outside, we mark their flourishing aspect and rejoice. But, if we
look at the other side, we shall find them neglected, deficient, and de-
formed. What they want is more light — light on the other side.
Were the sun always in the east, our trees would all grow like those
on the edge of the forest, one-sided.

So in education, we must open new windows, or rather we must
level with the ground all artificial barriers and let every luminous
characteristic of modern life shine in upon our school-rooms. We
must pay less heed to what the world was two or three hundred years
ago, and regard with greater respect what the world is to-day.

The Arts of Expression. — Dr. Youmans recently said (" Popular
Science Monthly," May, 1882) : "The human mind is no longer to be
cultivated merely by the forms or arts of expression. The husks and
shells of expression have had sufficient attention ; we have now to
deal with the living kernel of truth. . . . Under the old ideal of cult-
ure, a man may still be grossly ignorant of the things most interest-
ing and now most important to know. . . . Modern knowledge is the
highest and most perfected form of knowledge, and it is no longer
possible to maintain that it is not also the best knowledge for that
cultivation of mind and character which is the proper (i. e., the high-
est) object of education."

I desire, for a moment, to direct your attention to the arts of ex-
pression. Next in rank to the ability to think deeply and clearly is
the power of giving clear and full expression to our thoughts. This
last can be done in various ways. As this brings me squarely upon a
subject I wish to impress strongly upon you, I will illustrate it by a
somewhat elaborate example :

A gentleman recently called upon me for my opinion concerning
a certain automatic brake for freight-cars. The device was new to
me, but it lay pretty clearly defined in the mind of my visitor. It
was not original with him, but for the purposes of my illustration it
might have been. Before I could pass judgment, the device must lie
as clearly in my mind as, perhaps more clearly than, it did in his ; so
he set out to express his thought. He was what we call well educated,
being a graduate of the oldest university in the land, and was well
versed in the conventionalities of spoken and written languages. Ac-
cordingly, he proceeded to utter a succession of sounds. His lips
opened and shut with great rapidity, and without intermission a series
of sounds fell upon my ears. The sounds I heard were quite familiar
to me, as I had been listening to them in one order and another for
over forty years, and, as they had always been associated in my mind
with certain concrete things and the relations of such things to each

624 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

other, certain thoughts about those things began to take shape in my
mind.

Of course, the sounds I heard had not the smallest likeness to the
things called up by them in my mind. To an Italian peasant, or to
Archimedes of Syracuse, they would have been as unintelligible as
the chattering of a magpie. They were purely arbitrary or conven-
tional ; yet, much of our education had been devoted to their mastery.
Nevertheless, as a means for expressing thought, they were, in the
present case, quite inadequate. The ideas aroused in my mind were
confused and fragmentary, and altogether unsatisfactory. The images
lacked precision. Had my friend resorted to writing a description of
the invention, in either English, French, German, Latin, or Greek,
using in every case a set of purely conventional symbols (to represent
the other set of conventional sounds), which we had both spent years
in getting some knowledge of, he would have succeeded little better.
Whether sj)eakmg or writing, much of his thought he could not clothe
in words. He, therefore, abandoned the wholly conventional, or ver-
bal, art of expression and turned to the pictorial.

But, here he soon confessed that his education was deficient. He
had never studied the art of representing objects having three dimen-
sions on a surface having but two, and hence he was ignorant of the
methods he ought to adopt to express by drawings the objects he
was thinking of. However, I caught more of his meaning from some
crude attempts at sketching than I had from all his talk. A few lines
were luminous with meaning ; yet, they left far too much for me to
supply by my imagination ; hence, my visitor withdrew and sent me
a full set of what we called " working drawings," made by the in-
ventor, who was a draughtsman.

These drawings, though a sort of ocular resemblance to the things
signified, were still half conventional, and required, on my part, a
certain amount of training to enable me fully to understand them ;
this, fortunately, I had received, and, through the art of expression
embodied in them, I gained a tolerably clear idea of the thought of
the inventor. "With scarce a written or spoken word, they expressed
that thought far more clearly and fully than any merely verbal de-
scription could do ; they showed the relations of parts which were
beyond the reach of words.

But my friend was not content to stop there. The drawings had
been but partially intelligible to him with their " plans, elevations, and
sections," and, judging me by himself, he believed that a third art of
expression would outvalue both the others ; he, therefore, invited me
to call at a shop and examine a specimen of the device itself, produced
by a skilled mechanic. The real article, which is the mechanic's art
of expression, proved to be an improvement even upon the thought of
the inventor. The latter had not been a mechanic, and he had made
the sort of mistakes that draughtsmen, who are not something of

AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 625

mechanics, always make. Certain parts it had been practically im-
possible to construct, as they involved shapes that could not be molded
by ordinary means. A nut had been placed where it was next to im-
possible to turn it ; and certain parts which were to be of cast-iron
had been given such dimensions that the castings would have snapped
in pieces while cooling. These errors had been corrected by the
mechanic, and the perfected thought lay fully expressed before me.

In this illustration we have three greatly different methods of ex-
pressing essentially the same thought. Each constitutes a distinct
language, and each is absolutely essential to modern civilization.

You will note how a crude thought often takes practical shape in
the hands of the draughtsman and the mechanic. "Drawing," says
Professor Silvanus P. Thompson, " is the very soul of true technical
education, and of exact and intelligent workmanship." Those who
have tested this can tell how many marvels of ingenuity, as lovely as
chateaux en Espagne, have vanished in the presence of " plans and ele-
vations " ; and how many beautifully drawn designs have been merci-
lessly condemned as impracticable by judges versed in the laws of con-
struction and the strength of materials.

Much more could be said upon the arts of expression, their relative
importance and proper cultivation. You will readily think, as did
Lessing in his Laocoon, of poetry, painting, and sculpture. You will
recall how lofty thoughts have in all ages found expression in archi-
tectural forms, and yet, throughout all the history of architecture, the
laws of mechanics as then understood and the properties of the ma-
terials used have determined the different styles. In our own age we
are trying to express ourselves in iron and steel, and to cast off the
fetters of an age of marble and granite.

In a recent address Mr. Charles H. Ham, of Chicago, said that, by
putting thought into seventy-five cents' worth of ore, it is converted
into pallet-arbors worth 82,500,000. He continues : " Skilled labor is
embodied thought — thought that houses, feeds, and clothes mankind.
The nation that applies to labor the most thought, the most intelli-
gence (i. e., that best expresses its thought in concrete form), will rise
highest in the scale of civilization, will gain most in wealth, will most
surely survive the shocks of time, will live the longest in history."

But some one will say, as to methods of expression : " One art is
enough for me ; make me master of one, and I will care for no second."
I answer, you are thinking of an impossibility. If a mechanic is only
a mechanic, he is never a master, even of his own art. He is crippled
at every turn ; in expressing himself, he is limited to what he can make.
He is without that powerful ally, drawing, the short-hand of the im-
agination, and in the presence of thoughts that baffle concrete expres-
sion he is dumb. Valuable machines even are sometimes purely im-
aginary. Clerk Maxwell, in his " Theory of Heat," says : "For the
purposes of scientific illustration we shall describe the working of an

TOL. XXI. — 40

626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

engine of a species entirely imaginary — one which it is impossible to
construct but very easy to understand," referring to Carnot's engine.
In like manner, if one would command confidence as a draughtsman he
must be a mechanic as well. And, finally, if I am a student of words
alone, and if I go not beyond my dictionaries, I shall never guess their
meaning. A large proportion of our emphatic words are technical ;
they belonged originally to some craft, and none but a craftsman
knows their exact meaning. President Eliot, of Harvard, once said
that the highest education was that which gave one the fullest and
most accurate use of his mother-tongue. I would modify the state-
ment, and claim that the highest and most liberal education is that
which, besides cultivating most fully the powers of thought, gives one
full command of all the arts of expression.

I need not remark that many, perhaps most thoughts, do not adr
mit of concrete nor even of pictorial expression, as, for example, all
abstractions ; hence they suffer seriously from want of clearness. If
you have a clear thought on abstract matters you can never be sure
you have expressed it clearly.

Before we devote ourselves exclusively to the arts of expression,
we must cultivate all the faculties and encourage the growth of thoughts
worthy of expression. The thought must precede its expression by
any method, and in the cultivation of the thinking mind the concrete
should precede the abstract. Give children clear and accurate thoughts
of real things, of the material wTorld we live in, of real plants and ani-
mals, of the laws of materials, of qualities and then of quantities, be-
fore you venture on the field of abstractions. Before you cultivate
the high arts, make sure of the low ones ; without them as a founda-
tion no superstructure of fine art can stand overnight. As Emerson
says (in " Man, the Reformer ") : " "We must have a basis for our
higher accomplishments, our delicate entertainments of poetry and
philosophy, in the work of our hands. We must have an antagonism
in the tough world for all the variety of our spiritual faculties, or they
will not be bom."

A habit of clear thinking once formed will never leave us, however
abstract our investigations become ; while a habit of stopping short
with ill-defined results, of resting content with obscure and half-grown
mental images, a mental attitude of f ogginess, has a stultifying effect
which seriously dwarfs the mind. This is a most important subject,
but I have place for but a few words of exhortation. Give children
clear thoughts, and begin with the concrete. Wrhen the mind is too
weary or too sick to clear up obscurities, it is time to seek rest and rec-
reation and fresh air. Beware of straining the powers of attention by
too much schooling ; beware of overtaxing the mind by too many and
too difficult subjects, and especially beware of poisoning the blood and
debilitating the brain by bad air. The fruit of any and all these evils
is mental as well as physical decrepitude.

AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 627

The Aims of Education. — But to return. I claim for these forms
of expression, which I have taken pains to distinguish, more nearly
equal care and consideration in the elementary education of every
child. Teach language and literature and mathematics with a view to
make each child a master of the art of verbal expression. Teach me-
chanical and free drawing, with the conventions of shade and color,
and aim at a mastery of the art of pictorial expression. And, lastly,
teach the cunning fingers the wonderful power and use of tools, and
aim at nothing less than a mastery of the fundamental mechanical
processes. To do all these things while the mind is gaining strength
and clearness, and material for thought, is the function of a manual
training-school.

Prejudices to be overcome. — The traditions are heavily against
us, but the traditions of the fathers must yield to the new dispensa-
tion. As was to have been expected, the strongest prejudices against
this reform exist in old educational centers.

As President Walker, of the New York Board of Education, frankly
admitted at the laying of the corner-stone of Professor Felix Adler's
splendid institution, " The Workingman's School and Free Kinder-
garten," the methods and aims proposed by the advocates of manual
training-schools are a criticism upon the methods and aims of the es-
tablished system, and nothing is more natural than for it to resent the
criticism and discourage reform.

No man has done more — nay, no man has done as much — to intro-
duce the manual feature into American education as Professor John
D. Runkle, of Boston, and yet the School of Mechanic Arts established
by him in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
has, after an existence of several years, been apparently almost frozen
out in the biting atmosphere of that highly aesthetic city. I doubt if
one could find on American soil a more unpromising field for a manual
training-school than beneath the lofty elms of Cambridge and New
Haven.

Luxuries ix Education. — There are luxuries in education, as in
food and dress and equipage, and in wealthy communities the luxuries
command the chief attention. At the English Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge, a large proportion of the students expect to be gentle-
men of leisure. The idea of giving heed to the demands of skilled
labor, of preparing for lives of activity and usefulness — the idea of
earning one's daily bread and of supporting one's family — scarcely
enter their heads. Either they inherit livings, or they seek to get
livings through the Church, or they enter the army with commissions
purchased by kind friends who wish to get them out of the way, or
they go into law or politics. It is no wonder that such men devote
themselves largely to the luxuries of education — Greek, astronomy,
philology, higher mathematics, Latin hexameters, Italian — in a word,
to "polite " learning. In such an atmosphere as that how incongruous

6z8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is the plea of mine for an education to things ; for a training of the
hand and eye as well as the intellect to lives of useful employment !
Yet half the colleges in the United States ape the English universities,
and half the high-schools ape the colleges.

The result of all this has been a certain false sestheticism which
turns away from the materialism of our new notions. The highly cul-
tivated would soar away into purer air and nobler spheres. There is a
feeling more or less clearly expressed that the material world is gross
and unrefined ; that soiled hands are a reproach ; that the garb of a
mechanic necessarily clothes a person of sordid tastes and low desires.
As Dr. Eliot, of St. Louis, has expressed it, " It is thought to be a sad
descent for a university whose aim should be the highest education to
stoop to the recognition of handcrafts of the mechanic."

Manual Education. — Perhaps no better general statement of the
new creed has been made than that of Stephen A. Walker, in a speech
already referred to. He put it for us thus : " Education of the hand
and the eye should go along, pari passu, with the education of the
mind. We believe in making good workmen as well as in making
educated intellects. We think these are things that can be done at
the same time, and our proposition is that they can be done better to-
gether than separately."

As I said in the beginning, this proposition is meeting with general
favor among the people. I have pointed out the sources of some of
the opposition ; it remains for me to touch upon the two objections
which I surmise are about the only ones in the minds of my hearers.
You ask first, " Is your proposition practicable ? " You doubt the feasi-
bility of uniting in a real school such incongruous elements as arith-
metic and carpentry, history and blacksmithing. You fear either that
the shop-work will demoralize the school, or that the shop-work will
never rise above the dignity of a mere pastime.

!NTow, I claim not only that what I propose can be done, but that it
has been done in St. Louis, and perhaps elsewhere as well.

Organization of a Manual Training - School. — Professor
Thompson, in his valuable essay on the apprenticeship schools of
France, classifies French technical schools under four heads :

1. The school in the workshop or factory.

2. The workshop in the school.

3. The school and the shop side by side.

4. The half-time schools.

To the first class the school is subordinate to the factory ; the boys
or girls learn a particular trade, and everything in the school as well
as in the shop is designed to meet the wants of those expecting to
enter the particular trade. For obvious reasons there can be no gen-
eral adoption of such a combination in the country. Professor Thomp-
son gives his verdict in favor of the school and the shop side by side,
though there is much to recommend the second plan.

AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 629

No one of the French plans exactly suits me. I prefer to incorpo-
rate manual with intellectual education, and include both under the
name school. We do not have what you call school in the morning
and shop in the afternoon ; nor do we spend the forenoons with tools,
and devote a few evening hours to study and recitation.

The Manual Training-School of St. Louis differs from all other
technical schools with which I am acquainted. It much resembles the
Boston School of Mechanic Arts, though it differs from it in admitting
boys at fourteen instead of fifteen years of age ; in having a three
years' course instead of two, and in having a full and independent
equipment of study and recitation rooms, as well as shops. I gladly
avail myself of this occasion to publicly acknowledge our indebtedness
to the able reports and papers published by ex-President Runkle on
the Russian system of tool-instruction and the organization and work
of his school.

Prospectus op the School. — A prospectus of our school has just
been issued, giving in detail our course of study, and the methods of
tool-instruction. I shall be happy to give a copy to every one who is
sufficiently interested to ask for it. To those who do not care for the
details, I will say that our course of study runs through three years, in
five parallel lines : »

1. A course in pure mathematics.

2. A course in science and applied mathematics.

3. A course in language and literature.

4. A course in penmanship and drawing.

5. A course in tool-work in woods and metals.

Our school is not managed on the assumption that all the boys who
go through it will become mechanics, or that they will be manufac-
turers. Our graduates will doubtless be found in all the professions.
We strive to help them find their true callings, and we prejudice them
against none. I have no sort of doubt, however, that the grand result
will be that many who otherwise would eke out a scanty subsistence
as clerks, book-keepers, salesmen, poor lawyers, murderous doctors,
whining preachers, abandoned penny-a-liners, or hardened school-keep-
ers, will be led, through the instrumentality of our school, to positions
of honor and comfort as mechanics, engineers, or manufacturers.

No Articles made for Sale. — For the purpose of discountenanc-
ing certain grave popular fallacies in this country, I will add a word,
even aj; the risk of repeating what I have said elsewhere, as to our plan
of shop management. We do not manufacture articles for sale, nor do
we pretend to fully teach particular trades.

A shop which manufactures for the market, and expects a revenue
from the sale of its products, is necessarily confined to salable work,
and a systematic and progressive series of exercises is practically im-
possible. If the shop is managed in the interest of the student, he is
allowed to leave a step or a process the moment he has fairly learned

630 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

it ; if it is managed with a view to an income (and the school will be
counted a failure if its income is wanting), the boys will be kept at
what they can do best, and new lessons will be few and far between.
In such a shop the pupils will suffer too much the evils of a modern
apprenticeship. m

" The common apprentice is a drudge set to execute all kinds of
miscellaneous jobs. There is no systematic gradation in the difficulty
of the exercises given him ; more than half his hours are purely wasted,
and the other half are spent on work unsuited to his capacity. What
wonder that four, five, or six years make of him a bad, unintelligent,
unskillful machine !" (Professor Silvanus Thompson).

A very bright boy of seventeen years had expected last fall to en-
ter a pattern-shop in St. Louis as an apprentice, but was disappointed,
there being no vacancy in the number of apprentices allowed. He
therefore came to the Manual Training-School, and during the year
made excellent progress, not only in carpentry and wood-turning, but
in drawing, mathematics, and physics. When he showed me some of
his handiwork at the end of the year, I asked him if he would have
made equal progress as an apprentice. "No," said he, "I should
have spent most of the first year sweeping out offices and running
errands."

(Since the above was written, a gentleman told me of his father's
experience when learning the trade of a tanner in Philadelphia, many
years ago. He lived in the family of his employer, and during the
first six months he tended the baby.)

Self-supporting Schools. — I fancy there is no more pernicious
fallacy than this of making a school self-supporting by manufacturing
for the market. Suppose you attempt to maintain one of these popu-
lar humbugs, a commercial college, on that theory, or to run a full
medical school without endowment on the self-supporting plan (the
students would probably write prescriptions cheap, and cut off legs for
half price) ; or to manage a public school of oratory and English com-
position on the strength of an income derived from contributions to
newspapers and magazines, and from orations made and delivered to
order. Nothing could be more absurd, and yet the cases are closely
parallel. No ; do not be beguiled by the seductive promise of an in-
come from the shop. Admit from the first the well-established fact
that a good school for thorough education on whatever subject costs
money, both for its foundation and its support.

Closely connected is the matter of teaching particular trades, to
which the lads shall be strictly confined. Such a course may work well
in monarchies, where the groove in which one is to run is cut out for
him before he is born ; but it is unsuited to the soil and atmosphere of
America. A single trade is educationally very narrow, while their
number is legion. " The arts are few, the trades are many," says Mr.
Runkle. The arts underlie all trades; therefore let us teach them as

AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 631

impartially and thoroughly as possible, and then it is but a step to a
trade.

And this brings me to a very important point. Admitting that,
with a suitable outfit of tools, shops, etc., a programme such as I have
described can be carried out, you ask : " What, after all, is the manual
training acquired at school good for ? Has the mind been nourished
through the fingers' ends ? Has the hand gained any enduring skill?
Is it really but a step from the door of the manual training-school to
the shop of the craftsman ? "

Experience answers all these questions satisfactorily, and adds that
there is scarcely a calling in society that is not edified by manual
training. Rousseau once remarked that " to know how to use one's
fingers gave a superiority in every condition in life." I recently made
systematic inquiry among the parents of my boys as to the effect of
the one or two years' training in our school. Their reports on the
points now under consideration are both interesting and encouraging.
They write :

" Gerald takes great interest in fixing up things generally."

"Charles fixed my sewing-machine."

" George has made many little matters of household utility, and
seems to delight in it."

" We go to Henry to have chairs mended, shelves put up, etc., and
he does excellent work. He made a fine set of screen-frames."

"The mechanical faculty was quite small in John's case, and it has
been developed to a remarkable extent."

" Leo does all the jobs around the house."

And so on, for nearly a hundred pupils.

Again, the parents testify to an increased interest in practical affairs,
in shops and machinery, and in such books and periodicals as the "Sci-
entific American." Beyond question, there is a certain intellectual
balance, a good mechanical judgment, a sort of level-headedness, in
practical matters consequent upon this sort of training, that in value
far outweighs special products. Said Rousseau, in his "Erailius," one
hundred and twenty years ago: "If, instead of keeping a boy poring
over books, I employ him in a workshop, his hands will be busied to
the improvement of his understanding ; he will become a philosopher
while he thinks himself only an artisan."

As to enduring skill, I will let you judge for yourselves. The
blacksmithing has occupied the second-year class about two hundred
hours — ten a week. Each man had his forge and set of tools, and
each executed substantially the same set of pieces. Here is a partial
set of the work done. The pieces are numbered in the order in which
they were done. They were first wrought in cold lead while the order
of the steps and the details of form were studied, and then they were
executed in hot iron. I have a few of the lead specimens here. The
boys have not yet learned to weld the lead. The instructor's estimate

632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of each piece is shown in the per cent stamped on it. The pair of
tongs was made on time — less than four hours. On the day of our
public exhibition, twenty boys worked at the forges about two hours.
Practical smiths who were present highly commended their work.
Their weakest point was the management of the fire.

Professor Clark wished me to bring some of the wood-work. I
could easily have brought a cart-load, but thought it not necessary.
The boys do not do fine work, of course, as these few specimens show.
I, however, have tracings of the main exercises in wood-work.

As our school has seen but two years, I can not appeal to its
graduates to answer the question, " How far is it from our door to
positions as journeymen mechanics ? " hence, I avail myself of the tes-
timony of Mr. Thomas Foley, instructor of forging, vise-work, and
machine-tool work, in the Boston Mechanic Art School. He had him-,
self served an apprenticeship of seven years, and, after several years
at his trade, had given instruction for five years. We must consider
him a competent judge. In his report to Professor Runkle, and con-
tributed by the latter to the recent report of the Secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of Education, Mr. Foley says : " The system of
apprenticeship of the present day, as a general rule, amounts to very
little for the apprentice, considering the time he must devote to the
learning of his trade. He is kept upon such work as will most profit
his employer, who thus protects himself. . . . Now, it appears like
throwing away two or three years of one's life to attain a knowledge
of any business that can be acquired in the short space of twelve or
thirteen days by a proper course of instruction." (I take it that by
twelve days he means one hundred and twenty hours distributed over
about forty days.) "The dexterity that comes from practice can be
reached as quickly after the twelve days' instruction as after the two
or more years spent as an apprentice under the adverse circumstances
mentioned above."

Mr. Foley secures the best results from lessons only three hours
long. He adds : " The time is just sufficient to create a vigorous
interest without tiring ; it also leaves a more lasting impression than
by taxing the physical powers for a longer period. We have tried
four hours a day, but find that a larger amount of work, and of better
quality, can be produced in the three-hour lessons."

I consider this testimony of Mr. Foley very conclusive. It practi-
cally disposes of the claim, so often brought forward by practical men,
that no boy can learn a trade properly without going to the shop at
seven o'clock in the morning and making his day of ten hours, " man-
fashion "; and that dirt and drudgery, and hard knocks, and seasons of
intense weariness and disgust, even, are essential to the education of a
good mechanic.

The Cost. — It remains for me to touch upon the second important
question you all have in your minds, namely, that of the cost. You

AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 633

are practical men and women, and you wish now to sit down and
count the cost.

We set out in St. Louis to have the best of everything. We
bought the best tools and put in the best furniture. We have plenty
of room and light and pure air. We aim to have good teachers and
all necessary appliances. Our capacity is about two hundred and
forty boys, in three classes of one hundred, eighty, and sixty, in the
first-year, second-year, and third-year class respectively.

Our building, complete, cost about $33,000

Our tools and school-furniture 16,000

If we add the cost of the lot (150 x 106| feet) 14,400

"We have, as the total cost of our plant $63,400

Where land is cheap, and less or lighter machinery is used, less
money would suffice, but let no one deceive himself by supposing that
the reform proposed is to be at once a money-saving one. Such a
school costs money, but it is a grand investment. Said one of our
benefactors to me not ten days ago, "I feel better satisfied with
the money I have put into the Manual Training-School than with any
other money I have invested in St. Louis."

As to the cost of construction, the shop is about as expensive per
hour as the recitation and drawing rooms. Good mechanics, fairly
educated, who are at the same time endowed with the divine gift of
teaching, are rare. We have a first-class machinist and an expert
blacksmith, and pay each twelve hundred dollars per year. The size
of our divisions is generally limited to twenty members — in drawing
we shall occasionally " double up."

Incidentals — wood, iron, paper, etc. — and the wear and tear of
tools amounted last year to about ten dollars per head. The total
cost of supplies and instructions and all incidentals, next year, is esti-
mated to be seventy-five dollars per pupil.

How then, say you, can this costly reform be accomplished ? The
public schools have no funds to spare ; salaries are still too low, and
the demand for extensions outruns the supply. As Colonel Jacobson,
of Chicago, has said : " The alternative before you is more and better
education, at great expense, or a still greater amount of money wasted
on soldiers and policemen, destruction of property, and stoppage of
social machinery. The money which the training would cost will be
spent in any event. It would have been money in the pocket of Pitts-
burg if she could have caught her rioters of July, 1877, at an early
period of their career, and trained them, at any expense, just a little
beyond the point at which men are likely to burn things promiscuously.
It is wiser and better and cheaper to spend our money in training good
citizens than in shooting bad ones."

How to go to* Work. — There are two ways of going to work :

1. Cut down somewhat, if necessary, the curriculum of higher

634 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

studies, and incorporate a manual department with your high-school.
The investment will pay, and the means of further growth will soon
be found.

2. Mature your plans and lay them before your wealthy, public-
spirited men. Almost for the first time in America we are harvesting
a splendid crop of millionaires. They abound in every city. They
know that boundless wealth left to sons and heirs is often a curse,
rarely a blessing, and they would fain put it to the noblest uses. In
England such wealth would naturally go to the establishment of noble
families, or the purchase of grand estates which should be transmitted
unimpaired to the oldest sons through successive generations.

Our American peerage shall consist of those who devote the gains
of an honorable career to the establishment of institutions for the bet-
ter education of generations that shall come after them. Let others
follow the example of Cornell, Vanderbilt, and Cooper, of New York ;
Stevens, of Hoboken ; Girard, of Philadelphia ; Johns Hopkins, of
Baltimore ; Case, of Cleveland ; Rose, of Terre Haute ; the Commer-
cial Club, of Chicago ; and those whom I could name in St. Louis.

-+++-

A NOTE ON "THOUGHT-BEADING."

Bt hoeatio donkin.

AN article on this subject in the "Nineteenth Century" for June
contains conclusions so inadequately supported by trustworthy
facts that a few words of comment seem to be called for. The matter
in question has attained a somewhat undue prominence of late ; but if
it is as simple and intelligible as it appears to be to most who have
investigated it with care, and with minds free from mystical bias, any
aid toward the extinction of what must then be regarded as an ignis
fatuus of pseudo-science carries with it its own justification.

The position of the writers of the article seems to be that it is pos-
sible for one person to divine the thoughts of another in the absence
of any known means of communication. This inference is based
mainly on a series of statements of cases where several children of a
certain family, as well as a servant-girl in the same family, were pro-
fessedly able to tell words and objects thought of in their absence,
without contact with or sign from those who knew what they were
required to do.

It may be taken as proved that the explanation of muscular indi-
cation amply covers all cases where, as in the well-known drawing-
room game of " Willing," there is actual contact between the person
who guides and the person guided. It is difficult, indeed, for the
guider, who is intent on the success of the experiment, to avoid giving

A NOTE ON "THOUGHT-READING." 635

hints by pressure, alteration of speed, and otherwise, to the guided
one, who is, as a rule, only too ready to quickly interpret them. The
same explanation would apply to cases where the person who is
"willed" to find something hidden during his or her absence is in no
contact with any of the " willing " party, but Avho often succeeds in
discovering the desired object by studying the unconscious indica-
tions given by the faces of the expectant circle. All this is, in fact,
nearly admitted by the writers we quote, though their denial of Mr.
Stuart Cumberland's own explanation of his performances in this line
is perhaps as unwarrantable as the " further inquiry " that they sug-
gest.

The remarks in this paper will, therefore, be confined to the
alleged results obtained where there was no actual contact. It will
be at once admitted with the writers of the article that common
sense demands that every known mode of explanation of facts should
be exhausted before the possibility of an unknown mode is considered.
This is an all-important admission, obvious as it seems to be. It is
required by the method of common sense, which is no less the method
of science ; all true explanation consisting in a procedure from the
known to the unknown.

In the next place, it is equally obvious that in all scientific in-
quiries the good faith of individuals concerned should form no part
of the data on which the conclusion is to rest. A person merits cre-
dence in proportion as the facts he alleges can be demonstrated or
reproduced, and to the jealous care he shows in avoiding fallacy.
But we can never, as our authors say, call on Science to put deception
out of court by a belief in any one's integrity. Half of the evidence
which has propped up the spiritualistic craze is based on the results
obtained through mediums of " unblemished character " in private
families, whose virtuous reputation has been largely sustained by the
fact that they did not take money for their trouble ; no regard being
paid to innumerable other motives and tendencies to deception.

This being admitted, the cases before us in the paper alluded to
can be easily dealt with. They differ in no way from the ordinary
platform performances of the little " clairvoyantes " who from time to
time have amused us both in the name of Second-Sight and in that
of the humbler and honester one of Conjuring. It is well known that
a very simple code of signals will suffice to produce results much
more startling than those we are discussing. The first word or letter,
for 'instance, of the question asked of the "sensitive" medium may
denote the category to which the object fixed upon belongs. The
second and third, and so on, serve to specialize it further, and by a
series of questions and remarks it is easy to understand that any
amount of information may be conveyed. When the clairvoyante
is not blindfolded, other means of communication, of course, are pos-
sible, and in any case auditory signs other than words could be

636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

agreed upon quite unsuspected by the audience to be amused or
deceived.

We have, therefore, an intelligible and admitted explanation
which fully serves to cover all the facts in question. Such things are
constantly done by collusion — it is a vera causa. It would be illog-
ical to substitute for this a perfectly gratuitous hypothesis and an
unknown agency. This is especially true in the case of such a set of
phenomena as we are now considering. The possibility of thought-
reading, as alleged by the writers of the paper, is so far beyond, or
rather contrary to, universal experience that some use might fairly be
made of the a priori argument, although the case need in no way
rest on such a method. It may be said in passing that there is an
enormous prima facie objection to the truth of the proposition that
such divination is possible : the assumption and conviction of the con-
trary, based on immemorial experience, being, as it were, one of the
suppressed major premises of all social intercourse.

On this argument, however, we would not depend unduly. The
case against the genuineness of the asserted phenomena seems strong
enough without it.

The children in question were not blindfolded.

In most of the experiments there is no mention made of silence
being preserved. On the contrary, we may infer that no such rule was
made ; as the children must have been corrected when their guesses
were wrong, as they often were.

On the hypothesis of collusion, it must further be noted that, in
order to minimize the difficulty of the code of signals, and simplify
the performance as much as possible, the child was previously in-
formed of the nature of the object selected — e. g., whether it was a
card or a name. The first guess, then, would give an opportunity for
the conveyance of perhaps even the final hint contained in the correc-
tion offered.

The mistake made by the servant in guessing the name " 'Enry "
for "Emily" is obviously significant, and an excellent example of an
" undesigned coincidence." Surely it must lead almost every plain
mind to the irresistible conclusion that a mistaken whisper or facial
gesture played some part in the phenomenon. This remark applies as
well to the errors made by the children in the case of words alike in
sound.

The theory of collusion is, moreover, strongly countenanced by the
fact of the mediums being children, who are always ready to join in
any game of deception ; and by the association with them of the
servant-girl — a valuable fact, putting out of court the assumption of
any inherited special quality peculiar to the family, as an explanation,
possibly plausible to some minds, of the alleged marvels.

It will probably, however, be readily allowed, with the authors of
the article, that the experiments made in the presence of the members

THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE. 637

of the family are scientifically untrustworthy. They may, therefore,
be practically ignored. Yet we infer from the paper that most of the
experiments were made under these conditions ; and we read that the
presence of the father " seemed decidedly to increase the percentage
of successes."

The authors, indeed, say, "Though generally the object selected
was shown to the members of the family present in the room, we were
sometimes entirely alone." From the only rational point of view, that
of scientific skepticism, and therefore with total disregard of the per-
sonal factor, this consideration seems in no way to invalidate the line
of comment here taken. It is not clear to how many of the three
observers the pronoun " we " in the above passage refers ; but, at any
rate, we miss entirely in the paper any specific quotation of results
obtained in this latter set of circumstances.

But, even if this evidence had been forthcoming, no mere ipse dixit
on such a matter could for one moment be admitted. Reason would
require us to entertain the great probability of mental bias in some at
least of the observers, or to discredit the accuracy of their memory,
rather than to allow that anything has been adduced in this account
of what, to say the least, must be called superficially conducted experi-
ments, to warrant a recognition of any novelty, or, by consequence, to
stand in need of explanation by a theory of "brain- waves." — Nine-
teenth Century.

■♦•»-

THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE *

By Peofessor GEOEGE H. PEEKIXS.

A CHANGE in the theory of disease, which long since began, but
is not yet completed, must profoundly affect the work of the phy-
sician of the future. Disease was formerly believed to be a something
which had a sort of independent existence, and which went about over
the earth seeking whom it might assail. When this something had
entered the body of a man it created confusion in his internal economy,
and order could not be restored until the intruder was driven out.
Accordingly, remedies none of the gentlest were vigorously applied
until the disease was scared away or the patient died. It is strange
how universal among men this belief in a possession, an entrance of
something into the body causing disease, has been.

This savage idea was long perpetuated among civilized people, and
remedies were used which were hardly less absurd than the leapings,
howlings, and rattle-shakings of an Indian medicine-man. The change

* An Address delivered at the opening of the Twenty-ninth Annual Course of Lect-
ures in the Medical Department of the University of Vermont.

638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

has come very gradually. At first the student of medicine enlarged
his field of study, from disease and its phenomena, until it included the
structure and action of tissues and organs in health. Physiology and
anatomy, of little importance in the old science of medicine, began to
have recognized value. After this it was found that organs did not
always become disordered because of assaults from within the body,
but that they were affected by external influences.

It was found that the organs must not only preserve equilibrium
within the body, but that there must also be equilibrium between the
body and its externals. It was discovered that in every organ there
were forces that built up and forces that pulled down, and that out-
side of it there were also conservative and destructive forces, and it
became obvious that, unless these acted so as to preserve equilibrium,
disease, and finally death, must ensue. Thus the art of healing and
the science of medicine are now very far from being as simple as they
were a century ago, and every year adds to their complexity. The
physician of to-day must have full knowledge of man as man, of anat-
omy and physiology, as a necessary foundation upon which his further
studies must rest.

Physiology especially has developed during the last fifty years, so
that it has almost become a science by itself, but it still remains a part
of the wider science of biology. Here again we see a difference be-
tween the studies of the ancient and modern physician. To-day, and
still more in the near future, the physician must extend his studies be-
yond man, and the reason is plain. Man, with whom alone the physician
formerly supposed himself concerned, is but an isolated being discon-
nected from the rest of nature. Nature tolerates no such isolation.
No living being, even the simplest, exists, or can exist, independently
of other beings. It affects them and is affected by them, and what is
true of the simplest is yet more true of the more complex and most of
all of man. Nature is one, and all her creatures are parts of the whole.
For this reason man can not be fully known merely as man, he must
also be known as a part of the animal kingdom. No one can well un-
derstand human anatomy or physiology who knows nothing of that of
the lower animals. Comparative anatomy and physiology have thrown
very much light upon many obscure problems to which the study of
man gave rise. Therefore, I would most earnestly urge upon all med-
ical men the study of biology. It may be replied that the courses of
study are now crowded, but it is certain that the successful physician
of the future must know something of nature as a whole. Already
many of our most important theories as to disease — the structure of
organs, cell-growth, cell-life, and many more — have come to medicine
from biology. In an address before the International Medical Con-
gress held in London in August, 1881, Professor Huxley remarks that
" the search for the explanation of diseased states in modified cell-life,
the discovery of the important part played by parasitic organisms in

THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE. 639

the etiology of disease, the elucidation of the action of medicaments
by the methods of experimental physiology, appear to me to be the
greatest steps which have ever been made toward the establishment of
medicine on a scientific basis. I need hardly say, they could not have
been made except for the advance of normal biology. There can be
no question, then, as to the connection between medicine and biological
science. There can be no doubt that the future of pathology, of thera-
peutics, and therefore of practical medicine, depends upon the extent to
which those who occupy themselves with these subjects are trained in
the methods and impregnated with the fundamental truths of biology.
And I venture to suggest that the collective sagacity of this congress
could occupy itself with no more important question than with this :
How is medical education to be arranged, so that, without entangling
the student in those details of the systematist which are valueless to
him, he may be enabled to obtain a firm grasp of the great truths re-
specting animal and vegetable life without which, notwithstanding
all the progress of scientific medicine, he will still find himself an em-
piric ? "

The modern theories of evolution have done great things for medi-
cine, and will do far more in the future. They have put in action
forces that may revolutionize medical science. Evolution has shown,
as nothing else could, how profoundly animals are affected by their
environment, their food, habits, climate, etc., and, by showing how
inevitable is the modification of structure in other animals, has called
attention to the same facts in man's existence.

Men knew long ago that animals were greatly affected by their
surroundings, but this truth was far from being fully recognized until
evolution re-affirmed it, and emphasized its affirmation by facts which
could not be passed by. Thus man was led to ask, What application
have these principles to my own habits of life, to my well-being ? To
what extent are my diseases induced and fostered by external condi-
tions ? The reply to these inquiries is found in sanitary science, in
health officers and boards of health, and we have as yet only the be-
ginning of the answer. Sanitary science, though in its infancy, has
already profoundly affected medical science in many directions. Per-
haps the most important effect that as yet appears is the leading med-
icine away from its old, blind, absolute faith in remedial agents, in
therapeutics, toward greater faith in right living, proper diet, dress,
and drainage. Not that remedies are to be wholly laid aside, but
they will be more sparingly used, and more intelligently, and often
not at all. Where formerly drugs, powerful in quantity and qual-
ity, were invariably given, many of our best physicians now pre-
scribe few or none, depending, and with better results, upon pure air,
simple food, and other hygienic means. I believe that more would
thus treat disease were they not prevented by the patients themselves.

So long as it is less trouble to take quinine than to clear out drain

640 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or cess-pool, so long as men prefer swallowing drugs to abstaining from
favorite articles of food, or regulating personal habits, so long must
the medical advisers of a community find their best efforts to advance
sound sanitary science thwarted. It will be a long and tedious task —
this of educating out of the popular mind this strange passion for dos-
ing ; but herein lies one of the most important tasks of the physician
of the future. If he does his work well, he must be strong enough
and determined enough to stem a powerful current of deeply rooted
prejudice and self-indulgent unreasonableness ; but, if he and his fel-
lows only persevere, they will do incalculable good. So difficult is this
work that many shrink from it. They admit the importance of fresh
air in hospitals, nay, they demand it, but in their private practice they
say little about ventilation. They are careful that their prescriptions
shall be properly compounded and regularly taken, but they are much
less careful about the diet of their patients. They treat zymotic dis-
eases, but do not enforce such sanitary regulations as they know to be
necessary. I do not say that all are open to this charge — not all, but
some — and there should be none. With all earnestness would I plead
that the people be taught how to live, and I would urge this not only
for the sake of the people, but for that of the doctors as well. It is
evident that their success as healers of disease must be far greater
if their patients observe hygienic laws than if they do not. The in-
structions of the doctor, weighty enough when given to one stricken
with grave disease, may often fall unheeded upon the listless ears of a
well person. Sick people are usually more eager to get well than well
people to avoid sickness ; and yet, even though the labor seem well-nigh
useless, the welfare of the race demands that the principles of hygiene
be made known, and the task of doing this naturally rests upon those
who have undertaken to be the medical advisers of the community.
It may be that the people will learn to care very much for those laws
upon the observance of which good health depends, with discouraging
slowness, but the good work once begun must go on with increasing
power and influence. We may take heart as we see what has already
been done in this direction, for a great deal of very important knowl-
edge has already baen received by the people — knowledge of the
necessity for fresh air and sunshine, of cleanliness of person and of
premises, of proper food, clothing, and exercise, of the laws of hered-
ity and how hereditary tendencies to disease may be overcome. If
we compare the sanitary condition of the homes and the villages of
our ancestors not more than a century ago, with that which we may
now find, we shall, I think, be led to hope very much for the future.
It may still be true, as an eminent medical writer not long since de-
clared it to be, that " men in general behave in relation to the laws
which govern human evolution very much as primeval savages be-
haved in relation to the laws of physical nature — are content with
superstition where they should strive to get knowledge, and put up

THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE. 641

prayers where they should exert intelligent will." This may be true,
but it is certainly less true than formerly, and the physician of the
future is to see to it that it becomes wholly untrue. If man can ever
reach a time when epidemic diseases shall be of rare occurrence, when
all zymotic diseases shall be confined within narrow bounds, and be
speedily eradicated within these, he must remember with profound
gratitude those to whom he owes his happy estate. Is there any other
way in which the physician can so alleviate suffering and so help man-
kind as by striving to bring to pass such a blessed state of things ?
Is this too much to hope for ? Possibly, but we may approach it
much more nearly than we have as yet. Even in its beginning pre-
ventive medical science is far from a failure. Epidemic diseases that
once raged as the pestilence are now largely prevented ; others, once
objects of unspeakable terror, are robbed of much of their virulence.
Life-insurance statistics show us that human life in England is more
than thirty per cent longer to day than it was one hundred and fifty
years ago, and the end is not yet reached.

The relief of suffering, which is commonly thought to be the chief
mission of the physician, is indeed a great and noble work, but I believe
that he may do a higher and grander work. There are a pathology and
a morbid anatomy, not of the body only, but of the moral nature as
well. Many physical disorders are also moral and mental, and can only
be rightly treated as this is understood. If it be true that men are
not only more comfortable and happy when well than when ill, but
that they are better morally, a new and most important field of use-
fulness is opened before the physician. If a well man, other things
being equal, is a better man than a sick one, more certain to act wisely,
to judge candidly and fairly, and live rightly — if a well man is of
more worth in every way than a sick one — then all that has been said
of the need and the value of hygienic instruction has added force. I
do not for a moment forget the many heroic natures that have been
grand enough to rise above bodily pain and feebleness, and with
pathetic earnestness have sought to do some good work for the world,
and have sent forth from their chambers of suffering golden words,
melodious, heart-stirring verses, helpful soul-inspiring thoughts. And
yet we need to recognize the fact that good is more certain to come
from health than from disease. Pain may have its mission, physical
and moral, and may bring out the richness and sweetness of a char-
acter as nothing else can, but in and for itself it is not desirable, and it
can not be doubted that a community that is sound physically will be
more sound morally than it could be if harassed by pain and weak-
ness. I believe that there is such a thing as sin in the world, and I would
not call it a disease for which man is not responsible; but none the less
do I believe that physical disorder, that sickness and pain, morbid con-
ditions of the body* causing morbid conditions of the mind, may and
do lie at the foundation of very much that we call crime. A man

TOL. XXI. — 41

642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

whose digestive system is a continual scourge, whose nerves are weak
or excited, whose brain receives impure blood, such a man can not be
the same man morally that he would be were he in full vigor of health.
Well men are not always virtuous. Ill health is not the sole cause of
crime, nor can criminals be treated as invalids — not at all. And yet
crime is often closely connected with disease. It is often both the
parent and the offspring of disease. Since we may not know just how
much of the crime in the world is due to pathological conditions of
the body, we must punish crime as such, but we may, because of our
doubt as to its cause, be liberal with our charity and lenient in our
judgment whenever, and to such extent, as they may not interfere with
the welfare of society as a whole.

No one holds a maniac morally responsible for his actions, even if
grossly criminal. Is insanity the only morbid condition that dwarfs
man's moral instincts, that blinds him to truth ?

In this case we can see how much preventive measures are better
than curative, and the future work of the physician, if it be largely
the teaching people how to live so that they may avoid disease, must
also lessen the amount of crime. It were well if the physician kept
constantly before his mind the thought that he is to seek to make men
better morally as well as physically. If it is better so to live that ill-
ness shall not come, than being ill to be cured, it is also a nobler and a
higher task to prevent disease than to heal it, and in this labor of pre-
vention medicine will rise to a height far above that to which it has
yet attained, and accomplish results more beneficent and glorious
than its greatest triumphs of the past.

And the whole community must be instructed — women more than
men, for they more than men regulate the condition of the home.
Upon them is laid not only the burden of bearing the children, but they
most have to do with their food, clothing, and general training. And,
since woman must take part in the great work of sanitary instruction,
she should have a thorough medical education, that she may be able to
tell to every woman, and every girl too, what she ought to know, and
what she will not and can not learn so readily nor so well from any
man.

If man were altogether an animal and had only animal instincts,
there would perhaps be little ground for hope, but man can be taught
not merely that he may so care for his body that it shall be less sub-
ject to the attacks of disease, he may be taught that it is his duty to
so care for it that his physical organism is a God-given trust which
he can not violate without moral wrong. The physician of the future
must, as has been already noticed, have to do with the moral as well
as the physical nature of man. But, before he can do this with suc-
cess, he must understand what man is, his feelings, emotions, thoughts,
as well as the course of the blood or the action of organs. If he shall
know of this higher part of man, he may appeal to it forcibly and

THE PHYSICIAN OF THE FUTURE. 643

persistently. Anatomists and physiologists, as they study the body,
may be so engrossed in the object of their investigations that they
forget that it is not the whole of man. They may forget that this
dead body which they study does not offer any explanation of the
deepest and most conspicuous phenomena of human life and experi-
ence. The cadaver on the dissecting-table is not a man. Neither the
anatomist's scalpel nor the histologist's microscope can ever discover
what it was in that body which made it a man, distinct from other
men.

The lips, tongue, vocal cords, are all there, but it was by these, not
from them, that came the words of love or hate, entreaty or com-
mand, which the man spake during his life. The brain is there, it is
or was the organ of the mind, but the thought — where is that ? Evi-
dently we have not here all that made this man a man, and we must
see more than the body if we are to know man ; we must see that in
that body there was an essence — a something which we can not define,
but which is as real as if most definite, and that this something, this
soul, is far more important than any other part of man. When he
stands over his dissecting-table, the anatomist may think of man as
only an aggregation of organs and tissues, and these of differently
arranged and modified cells ; but when he sends his thought into the
recesses of his own heart, when he calls before him the experiences of
his inmost life, when he looks around him and sees men — their activi-
ties, struggles, defeats, triumphs, courage, even their meanness and
knavery, and still more when he knows of their thoughts of the here-
after, their longings for something better and higher than this world
can afford them — when, in short, he stands face to face with the phe-
nomena of human life in its varied phases, is he not compelled to believe
that it all must have some other source than the molecular and chem-
ical forces which he finds in the body ?

It is in this fact — in the existence of a soul in man — that the physi-
cian of the future must rest his hope of success. That man has in
himself capacity for growth, that progress is and always must be pos-
sible to him — these are truths that must sustain the sanitary reformer
in the midst of greatest discouragement. If it be true that man may
live not only for the present, but as well for the future ; if he can be
made to see that he may not only make his present life better and
nobler, but that in doing this he is affecting his future life ; if he can
be brought to understand that what he is in this life must necessarily
determine largely what he is to be in the life beyond the grave ; that,
though the body is not the soul, yet, as the medium by which the soul
manifests itself, its condition affects the soul — will he not be ready to
listen to the teachings of any who can help him to a better physical
and so to a better spiritual life ? Only as the physician holds before
his mind the whole of man can he reach the full development of his
own life ; only thus can he raise man to that height of, sanitary well-

644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

being: to which he should seek to raise hiin. In the address to which
reference has already been made, Professor Huxley says : " A scorner
of physic once said that Nature and disease may be compared to two
men fighting, the doctor to a blind man with a club who strikes into
the 7nttie, sometimes hitting the disease and sometimes hitting Nat*
ure. The matter is not mended if you suppose the blind man's hear-
ing to be so acute that he can register every stage of the struggle, and
pretty clearly predict how it will end. He had better not meddle at
all till his eyes are opened." This predicament of the blind man is
probably not unfamiliar to every doctor, for at best human skill and
knowledge often reach their limit before the disease does, but cer-
tainly every physician should be ready to exert himself to the full
extent of his power to open his eyes as far as possible, to be as little
blind and as seldom as may be. And as a blind man may be able to
prevent a conflict which, once begun, he can not control, so the doctor
may have sufficient knowledge to prevent disease which he can not
heal. He may often be more certain of his position as a preventer
than as a healer of sickness.

Although man stands at the head of creation, it does not neces-
sarily follow that he has reached his highest possible position. It
seems entirely reasonable to believe that a more thorough dissemina-
tion of sanitary knowledge and its more complete application in com-
mon, every-day life would develop a race of men longer-lived, more
vigorous, happier, and better than any yet seen. It may be too late
to do very much with this generation, but may there not be hope for
the next, and the next after that ? What might not a few, generations
of right living, right feeling, right thinking men do for the race ?
Here, then, are opportunities within the grasp of the physician of the
future such as await no one else — opportunities for useful, helpful
work such as never before inspired the mind or stirred the heart of
the professional student ; such a privilege of effectually aiding in the
advancement of the human race, of making it nobler and better.

Such opportunities well used must bring upon those to whom they
are given a glorious benediction.

It should not escape the notice of the physician that this golden
future will not inevitably be his to whom by right it belongs. By
right, if he seizes it and holds it ; but, if he does not, it must slip from
him, as it should. Already many of the leaders in sanitary movements
are not from among medical men. These, many of them, fail to appre-
ciate their privilege ; they do not see what is before them, but are so
busily engaged in search of some pill or potion which may or which
may not cure some disease, that they can not see the treasure which
lies just within reach. The whole work of medicine is important,
and the search after remedies should not be abandoned as useless,
neither should it take the place of greater and more important labors.
It is a noble thing to give time and strength to the discovery of means

TRIALS BY FIRE AND FIRE-JUGGLERS. 645

which may be used to heal disease or alleviate pain, but it is a far
grander and nobler task to teach the people how to live so that dis-
ease and pain will not come upon them.

-♦•♦-♦-

TEIALS BY FIKE AND FIRE-JUGGLERS.

By M. A. De EOCHAS.

IN his very interesting lecture on witches, Dr. Regnard has men-
tioned that insensibility to suffering was, in the middle ages, con-
sidered evidence of diabolical relations. By a singular contradiction
of the human mind, this same insensibility was also under certain
circumstances attributed to divine intervention ; and that which, in
one case, brought death upon the accused, was good for his acquittal
in another case.

Trial by fire, by means of which Heaven was appealed to for proof
of innocence, appears to have originated in India. The Vedas men-
tion it, and travelers still find it in use in all the East. The Greeks
also were acquainted with it. " We are ready to hold red-hot iron
and walk through flames to prove our innocence ! " exclaimed the
Thebans in the " Antigone " of Sophocles, who were accused of hav-
ing abetted in the theft of the body of Polynice.

The first authentic trial of this kind recorded among Christians is
related by Gregory of Tours, in the case of Saint Sulpicius, Bishop of
Autun. This saint, who lived in the fourth century, was made a
bishop, although he was married. His wife could not make up her
mind to leave him, but resolved to live with him under a vow of
chastity taken according to the laws of the Church. Having learned
that the faithful accused them of not observing their vow, the woman
had fire brought to her publicly on Christmas-day, and, having held it
in her dress for nearly an hour, gave it to the bishop, saying to him,
" Take this fire, which will not burn you, so that they may see that
the fire of lust has no more effect upon us than these coals have upon
our clothes."

Saint Brice, Bishop of Tours, made use of a similar trial to prove
his innocence of a crime that was imputed to him. The chronicles,
beginning from this epoch, have preserved numerous examples of
these 'trials. They were employed, not only to discover heretics, but
also to distinguish genuine relics from false ones. The Council of
Saragossa, in 592, ordered that only those relics which the fire had
respected should be venerated. The multiplication of these trials in
Gaul was probably due to the influence of the conquering race, with
whom the custom seems to have been established from time immemo-
rial. In an addition to the Salic law made by Kings Childebert and

646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Clotaire, in 593, was a clause that a man, accused of theft, should be
adjudged guilty of it if he was burned in the trial by fire. In 630
King Dagobert, in reforming the laws of the Bavarians, the Ale-
mans, and the Ripuarians, according to Christian ideas, continued
in effect the law of the Ripuarians providing that, if any one was cited
before a court to answer for an offense by his servant, he should be
adjudged guilty if the hand of his servant was hurt by the fire. In
819 Louis le Debonnaire ordained that a servant, who was burned in
the trial by boiling water, should be put to death. Hincmar relates
that Queen Thietberge, wife of King Lothair, when accused of a hor-
rible offense, proved her innocence by a man who underwent for
her in 860 the trial by boiling water without being scalded. In 876,
Louis, second son of Louis the German, established his rights over
Germany, which his uncle, Charles the Bald, contested, by means of
thirty men, ten of whom suffered the trial by cold water, ten that of
hot water, and ten that of red-hot iron. Charles the Bald, not willing
to give up to these proofs, marched against his nephew at the head
of an army, and was thoroughly beaten. It would be superfluous to
multiply examples of this kind, which became more and more numer-
ous till the end of the eleventh century, when the trials were formally
condemned by Popes Stephen V, Celestine III, Innocent III, and
Honorius III.

We pass on to the description of the general course of proceeding :
Trial by hot water was made simply by plunging the arm into a boiler
full of boiling water, to take out from it a ring, or a nail, or a stone,
which had been suspended in it. In some causes the hand was put
in to the wrist, in others to the elbow. It is even said, in the formulas
of Saint Dunstan, that the stone was sometimes concealed under an
ell-deep of hot water. Commoners made the trial for themselves,
while people of quality hired others to make them. Those who were
burned were declared guilty, and those who escaped were considered
innocent.

The trial with hot iron, called judgment by fire, was made in dif-
ferent ways. Sometimes one red-hot iron was taken hold of — or
perhaps several in succession — and was carried to a considerable dis-
tance. The iron was generally shaped like a plowshare, and was,
therefore, called Vomer. A second way was to walk upon red-hot
irons with the legs bare to the knee. Six, nine, or twelve irons were
made ready for the trial, according to the magnitude of the inrputed
offense. In Denmark a kind of red-hot iron glove, reaching to the
elbow, was used.

The trials were made in the presence of priests delegated by the
bishop, and of secular officers of justice. Those who submitted to
them were obliged first to wash their hands, arms, or feet, with fresh
water, to remove any advantages they might have obtained from rub-
bing their limbs with some substance that could deaden the action of

TRIALS BY FIRE AND FIRE-JUGGLERS. 647

the fire ; the priest then threw holy water upon them, pronounced ex-
orcisms and benedictions, which may be found in the formulas of
Marculfe and Saint Dunstan, made them kiss the Gospels, and then the
trial began. When it was over, the hand, arm, or foot that had been
in contact with the fire was wrapped in a linen cloth, under the seal of
the judge, not to be opened till after three days had passed.*

It is not easy to give now a natural explanation for all of these
facts ; we are too little informed respecting the accompanying circum-
stances. It appears, however, that we might, besides having recourse
to the cases of hysterical insensibility described by Dr. Regnard, con-
nect the power of enduring the trials with one of the three following
causes : diminution of the sensation of heat by evaporation from the
surface of the skin ; insensibility obtained for the skin by means of
preliminary artifices ; and illusion respecting the intensity of the source
of heat.

With respect to the first of these causes, the experiments of M.
Boutigny are well known ; and it is possibly only the want of hardi-
ness that prevents our discovering more numerous applications of it.
Dr. Davenport, an EDglish physician, gives one of them. He says he
has seen a workman in the dock-yards at Chatham plunge his bare
hand into boiling pitch. The man tucked up his shirt-sleeve, put in

* [A volume of the " Calendars of State Papers ; Colonial Series," recently pub-
lished in London, under the editorial supervision of "W". Noel Sainsbury, of the Public
Record Office, contains in a letter of 1620, from an agent of the East India Company, in
the Island of Tecoe, a description of the native rite of purgation from the charge of
murder, which closely resembles the Saxon ordeal. The account is the more valuable
and interesting, because it is, to all appearance, authentic, and not tainted with the su-
perstitious credulity with which the stories dating from the middle ages are colored.
An Englishman having been killed by some of the islanders, Nicolls, the chief factor,
obtained their king's license to summon the suspected persons and make them touch
the corpse. All except one, who was ill, obeyed the summons, but betrayed no sign of
guilt ; whereupon the king ordered the absentee to be sent for. " He took," says the
narrator, " the dead man by the hand with extreme quaking and many distracted gest-
ures and answers, but would not hold it any time. Nicolls urged this to be the man,
and required, justice. The king caused him to be bound, and professed in his con-
science that he was the man, but that he must be tried by their law also. ... A fire
was made, and an iron pan with a gallon of oil set to boil, till it came to such a de-
gree of heat that a green leaf dipped therein was sodden and shriveled. The pris-
oner was then, in testimony of his innocence, to take a small ball of brass, little big-
ger than a musket-shot, out of the oil with his naked hand, and if any burning or scald
appeared thereon he was contented to die. . . . Stripping up his sleeve above the el-
bow, and taking a kind of protestation, desiring that as he was clear he might pros-
per in this act, he dipped his hand to the wrist in the boiling oil, took out the ball, held
it fast, and crying ' Olla Basar I ' {' Great is the Lord ! '), tossed it up, caught it again, and
then cast it on the ground, showing his hand, which had no more sign of hurt than
if he had experimented the same in cold water ; the devil, as seems, being loath at that
time to lose his credit. The fellow was instantly released, and within an hour after
returned in his holiday apparel, and none so lusty as. he, though so weak before as to
be brought upon men^s shoulders to his trial. This was all the justice we could have
for our murdered man." — Editor P. S. M.]

648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his hand up to his wrist, and took out some of the pitch as he would
have done with a spoon* ; the pitch, which was in actual contact with
his skin, he wiped off with tow. To assure himself that there was no
trickery, Dr. Davenport put his whole forefinger into the boiling pitch,
and was able to move it about for some time before the heat became
uncomfortable. The workman affirmed that, if any one put his hand
when covered with a glove into the boiling liquid, he would be burned
very badly. A fact related by Dr. Beckman, another physician, is
referable to both the first and the second of the causes we have men-
tioned. A workman in the foundry at Auerstadt, in 1765, for a small
gift, took some melted copper in the hollow of his hand, showed it to
the spectators, and then threw it against the wall. Then he rubbed
the fingers of his calloused hand briskly together, put them under his
armpits for a few instants, to make them sweat, as he said, passed
them over a dish of melted copper as if he would skim it, and finished
by moving his hand rapidly backward and forward in the liquid mass.
Dr. Beckman perceived a strong smell of burned horn while this was
going on, but the man's hand did not seem to be hurt.

In 1809 a Spaniard named Lionetto went through Europe per-
forming still more wonderful feats. While he was at Naples he ex-
cited the curiosity of Professor Sementini, who made a study of him,
and, having performed numerous experiments upon himself, has left us
the most positive documents that we possess on the subject. Lionetto
put a plate of red-hot iron on his hair, and a thick fume was imme-
diately seen to rise from it. He struck his toes with another red-hot
iron, and this likewise produced a thick and offensive vapor. He put
an iron nearly red-hot between his teeth. He drank about a third of
a spoonful of boiling oil. He quickly plunged the ends of his fingers
into melted lead, and put a little of the liquid metal on his tongue ;
and afterward he bore a red-hot iron upon that organ, which was cov-
ered with a grayish coating. Professor Sementini discovered : 1. That
rubbings with sulphuric acid leave the skin insensible to red-hot iron.
2. That a more complete result is reached by rubbing with a solution
of alum evaporated till it becomes spongy. 3. That the insensibility
obtained by either of these processes is made considerably more per-
fect by a series of rubbings with hard soap, each rubbing, except the
last one, being followed by washing with water. 4. That the tongue
may be made insensible by covering it with a salve composed of a
solution of alum saturated at the boiling-point. Boiling oil put on a
tongue thus prepared did not burn it ; a hissing was produced, like
that of hot iron when put into water ; the heated oil cooled in contact
with the solution, and could then be swallowed without danger.

Professor Sementini remarks that Lionetto, to satisfy the specta-
tors that the oil was really hot, threw lead into it, which melted, but
that the lead, in melting, absorbed a part of the heat from the oil. It
is very possible, also, that the jugglers, instead of melted lead, used

TRIALS BY FIRE AND FIRE-JUGGLERS. 649

alloys fusible at low temperatures, or even simply mercury, as is done
in some imitations of their tricks.

A father in the Church, Saint Hippolytus, has revealed to us in a
book called " Philosophumena " other tricks which the pagan priests
employed. " This is the way," he says, " that the magician can put
his hand into a brass vessel full of pitch that appears to be boiling.
He puts into the dish vinegar and natron (carbonate of soda), and, on
top of this liquid, pitch. The mixture of vinegar and natron has the
property, on the application of the slightest heat, of agitating the pitch
and producing bubbles that rise to the surface and present the ap-
pearance of boiling. Previous to the operation, he washes his hands
several times with salt-water, which would keep them from getting
burned even if the pitch should be really hot. If he anoints his hands
with myrtle, natron, and myrrh mixed with vinegar, and washes them
as well with salt-water, he will not be burned. His feet will not be
burned if he anoints them with isinglass.

" The magician breathes fire and smoke from his mouth ; then,
putting a piece of cloth on a dish full of water, he throws burning
coals upon it, and they leave the cloth intact.

" He breathes smoke from his mouth for a short time, by putting
in it a coal of fire wrapped in tow, and keeping the coal alive with his
breath. The cloth in the dish is kept from being set on fire by the
coals that are thrown upon it, by the transfer of the heat to the salt-
water under it. The cloth should also be previously dipped in salt-
water and covered with a mixture of whites of eggs and liquid alum.
If to this liquid we add the liquor of eternal life,* the effect of the
composition is to render the cloth — providing it has been prepared for
some time — wholly incombustible."

We may remark upon the similarity of the last recipe with that
which the latest experiments have suggested for the robes of ballet-
dancers in the opera.

The feat of breathing fire played an important part in antiquity.
By its aid the Syrian Eunus was able to revive the insurrection of the
slaves in Sicily, and Barchochebas to assume the command of the Jews
who revolted against Hadrian. Both used it to make their followers
believe in the divine inspiration with which they pretended to be in-
vested, the former by the Syrian goddess, the latter by the God of
Israel.

I give next one of the recipes of the jugglers who at present per-
form this miracle in the fairs. They take a handful of tow in each
hand ; the left hand holds also, concealed, a piece of burning tinder.
The performers begin by taking from the right hand with the teeth a
piece of tow which they pretend to chew, while they fill it with saliva
and dispose it in the mouth, by the aid of the tongue, so as to form a

* Possibly ammoniacal carbonate of copper, the magnificent color of which is called
by chemists celestial blue. The ancients got ammonia by distilling blood with ashes.

650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

kind of shield against the heat. Then, pretending to take new tow
with the left hand, they introduce into the mouth the parcel of in-
flamed tinder, on which they immediately place dry tow by biting into
the right handful. Combustion is excited by blowing with the throat,
and the current of air protects the lips from burning.

I have repeated the experiment of a pretended boiling described in
the " Philosophumena," using oil instead of liquid pitch. It produced
a complete illusion. The oil boiled in large bubbles, throwing up to
the surface a white foam, without its being necessary to raise the tem-
perature to more than 86°.

I have not tried either of the processes for producing insensibility
described above, nor those which are given by Albertus Magnus and
other sorcerers of the middle ages, as follows :

"1. Take mallows- juice, powdered psillium-seed, and lime ; mix
the whole with the white of an egg and horse-radish-juice. Rub the
hands with the mixture and let them dry ; then rub them again, and
you will be able to handle fire.

" 2. Dissolve quicklime in bean-water, then mix in Messina earth,
to which add a little mallows and bird-lime ; rub yourself with it and
let it dry.

" 3. Rub your hands with strong vinegar in which you have dis-
solved vitriol, and add plantain-juice."

It was probably by the aid of similar recipes that the priestesses
of Diana Parasya, in Cappadocia, according to Strabo, were able to
walk barefooted over burning coals ; and the Hirpi, according to Pliny,
procured exemption from military service by renewing the same mira-
cle annually in the Temple of Apollo, on Mount Soracte. In our own
time the Arabian sect of the Aissaouas perform feats quite as astonish-
ing as those we have mentioned. The subject might afford entertaining
studies to those who are interested in finding natural ways of account-
ing for facts which have been regarded as prodigies. — Revue Scien-
tifique.

■♦»»

ELECTKOMAETA.

By TV. MATTIEU WILLIAMS.

A HISTORY of electricity, in order to be complete, must include
two distinct and very different subjects : the history of elec-
trical science, and a history of electrical exaggerations and delusions.
The progress of the first has been followed by a crop of the second
from the time when Kleist, Muschenbroek, and Cuneus endeavored to
bottle the supposed fluid, and in the course of these attempts stumbled
upon the " Leyden-jar."

Dr. Lieberkuhn, of Berlin, describes the startling results which he

ELECTR OMANIA. 65 1

obtained, or imagined, " when a nail or a piece of brass wire is put
into a small apothecary's phial and electrified." He says that " if,
while it is electrifying, I put my finger or a piece of gold which I hold
in my hand to the nail, I receive a shock which stuns my arms and
shoulders." At about the same date (the middle of the last century),
Muschenbroek stated, in a letter to Reaumur, that, on taking a shock
from a thin glass bowl, " he felt himself struck in his arms, shoulders,
and breast, so that he lost his breath, and was two days before he re-
covered from the effects of the blow and the terror " ; and that he
" would not take a second shock for the kingdom of France." From
the description of the apparatus, it is evident that this dreadful shock
was no stronger than many of us have taken scores of times for fun,
and have given to our school-fellows when we became the proud pos-
sessors of our first electrical machine.

Conjurers, mountebanks, itinerant quacks, and other adventurers
operated throughout Europe, and were found at every country fair
and/e^e displaying the wonders of the invisible agent by giving shocks
and professing to cure all imaginable ailments. Then came the dis-
coveries of Galvani and Volta, followed by the demonstrations of
Galvani's nephew Aldini, whereby dead animals were made to display
the movements of life, not only by the electricity of the voltaic pile,
but, as Aldini especially showed, by a transfer of the mysterious
agency from one animal to another. According to his experiments
(that seem to be forgotten by modern electricians), the galvanometer
of the period, a prepared frog, could be made to kick by connecting
its nerve and muscle with muscle and nerve of a recently killed ox,
with or without metallic intervention.

Thus arose the dogma which still survives in the advertisements of
electrical quacks, that " electricity is life," and the possibility of re-
viving the dead was believed by many. Executed criminals were in
active demand ; their bodies were expeditiously transferred from the
gallows or scaffold to the operating-table, and their dead limbs were
made to struggle and plunge, their eyeballs to roll, and their features
to perpetrate the most horrible contortions by connecting nerves with
one pole, and muscles with the opposite pole of a battery.

The heart was made to beat, and many men of eminence supposed
that if this could be combined with artificial respiration, and kept up
for a while, the victim of the hangman might be restored, provided
the neck was not broken. Curious tales were loudly whispered con-
cerning gentle hangings and strange doings at Dr. Brookes's, in Lei-
cester Square, and at the Hunterian Museum, in Windmill Street, now
flourishing as " The Cafe de 1'lStoile." When a child, I lived about
midway between these celebrated schools of practical anatomy, and
well remember the tales of horror that were recounted concerning
them. When Bishop and Williams (no relation to the writer) were
hanged for burking, i. e., murdering people in order to provide " sub-

652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

jects " for dissection, their bodies were sent to Windmill Street, and
the popular notion was that, being old and faithful servants of the
doctors, they were galvanized to life, and again set up in their old
business.

It is amusing to read some of the treatises on medical galvanism
that were published at about this period, and contrast their positive
statements of cures effected and results anticipated with the position
now attained by electricity as a curative agent. Then came the brill-
iant discoveries of Faraday, Ampere, etc., demonstrating the relations
between electricity and magnetism, and immediately following them
a multitude of patents for electro-motors, and wild dreams of super-
seding steam-engines by magneto-electric machinery.

The following, which I copy from " The Penny Mechanic," of
June 10, 1837, is curious, and very instructive to those who think of
investing in any of the electric-power companies of to-day : " Mr.
Thomas Davenport, a Vermont blacksmith, has discovered a mode of
applying magnetic and electro-magnetic power, which we have good
ground for believing will be of immense importance to the world."
This announcement is followed by reference to Professor Silliman's
" American Journal of Science and the Arts," for April, 1837, and
extracts from American papers, of which the following is a specimen :
" 1. We saw a small cylindrical battery, about nine inches in length,
three or four in diameter, produce a magnetic power of about three
hundred pounds, and which, therefore, we could not move with our
utmost strength. 2. We saw a small wheel, five and a half inches in
diameter, jDerforming more than six hundred revolutions in a minute,
and lift a weight of twenty-four pounds one foot per minute, from the
power of a battery of still smaller dimensions. 3. We saw a model
of a locomotive-engine traveling on a circular railroad with immense
velocity, and rapidly ascending an inclined plane of far greater eleva-
tion than any hitherto ascended by steam-power. And these and
various other experiments which we saw convinced us of the truth of
the opinion expressed by Professors Silliman, Renwick, and others,
that the power of machinery may be increased from this source be-
yond any assignable limit. It is computed by these learned men that
a circular galvanic battery about three feet in diameter, with magnets
of a proportionable surface, would produce at least a hundred horse-
power ; arid therefore that two such batteries would be sufficient to
propel ships of the largest class across the Atlantic. The only mate-
rials required to generate and continue this power for such a voyage
would be a few thin sheets of copper and zinc, and a few gallons of
mineral water."

The Faure Accumulator is but a very weak affair compared with
this, Sir William Thomson notwithstanding. To render the date of
the above fully appreciable, I may note that three months later the
magazine from which it is quoted was illustrated with a picture of the

ELECTROMANIA. 653

London and Birmingham Railway Station, displaying a first-class pas-
senger with a box-seat on the roof of the carriage, and followed by an
account of the trip to Boxmoor, the first installment of the London
and Northwestern Railway. It tells us that, "the time of starting
having arrived, the doors of the carriages are closed, and, by the assist-
ance of the conductors, the train is moved on a short distance toward
the first bridge, where it is met by an engine, which conducts it up
the inclined plane as far as Chalk Farm. Between the canal and this
spot stands the station-house for the engines ; here, also, are fixed the
engines which are to be employed in drawing the carriages up the
inclined plane from Euston Square, by a rope upward of a mile in
length, the cost of which was upward of £400." After describing
the next change of engines, in the same matter-of-course way as the
changing of stage-coach horses, the narrative proceeds to say that
" entering the tunnel from broad daylight to perfect darkness has an
exceedingly novel effect."

I make these parallel quotations for the benefit of those who imag-
ine that electricity is making such vastly greater strides than other
sources of power. I well remember making this journey to Boxmoor,
and four or five years later traveling on a circular electro-magnetic
railway. Comparing that electric railway with those now exhibiting,
and comparing the Boxmoor trip with the present work of the London
and Northwestern Railway, I have no hesitation in affirming that the
rate of progress in electro-locomotion during the last forty years has
been far smaller than that of steam.

The leading fallacy which is urging the electro-maniacs of the
present time to their ruinous investments is the idea that electro-mo-
tors are novelties, and that electric-lighting is in its infancy ; while
gas-lighting is regarded as an old or mature middle-aged business,
and therefore we are to expect a marvelous growth of the infant and
no further progress of the adult. These excited speculators do not
appear to be aware of the fact that electric-lighting is older than
gas-lighting ; that Sir Humphry Davy exhibited the electric light in
Albemarle Street, while London was still dimly lighted by oil-lamps,
and long before gas-lighting was attempted anywhere. The lamp
used by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution, at the begin-
ning of the present century, was an arrangement of two carbon pen-
cils, between which was formed the " electric arc " by the intensely
vivid incandescence and combustion of the particles of carbon passing
between the solid carbon electrodes. The light exhibited by Davy
was incomparably more brilliant than anything that has been lately
shown either in London, or Paris, or at Sydenham. His arc was four
inches in length, the carbon pencils were four inches apart, and a broad,
dazzling arch of light bridged the whole space between. The modern
arc-lights are but pygmies, mere specs, compared with this, a leap of one
eighth or one quarter inch constituting their maximum achievement.

654 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Comparing the actual progress of gas and electric lighting, the gas
has achieved by far the greater strides ; and this is the case even when
we compare very recent progress. The improvements connected with
gas-making have been steadily progressive ; scarcely a year has passed
from the date of Murdoch's efforts to the present time, without some
or many decided steps having been made. The progress of electric-
lighting has been a series of spasmodic leaps, backward as well as for-
ward. As an example of stepping backward, I may refer to what the
newspapers have described as the " discoveries " of Mr. Edison, or the
use of an incandescent wire, or stick, or sheet of platinum, or platino-
iridium ; or a thread of carbon, of which the " Swan " and other mod-
ern lights are rival modifications.

As far back as 1846 I was engaged in making apparatus and ex-
periments for the purpose of turning to practical account "King's,
patent electric light," the actual inventor of which was a young Amer-
ican, named Starr, who died in 1847, when about twenty-five years of
age, a victim of overwork and disappointment in his efforts to perfect
this invention and a magneto-electric machine, intended to supply the
power in accordance with some of the " latest improvements " of 1881
and 1882. I had a share in this venture, and was very enthusiastic
until after I had become practically acquainted with the subject. We
had no difiiculty in obtaining a splendid and perfectly steady light,
better than any that are shown at the Crystal Palace. We used plat-
inum, and alloys of platinum and iridium, abandoned them as Edison
did more than thirty years later, and then tried a multitude of forms
of carbon, including that which constitutes the last " discovery " of
Mr. Edison, viz., burned cane. Starr tried this on theoretical grounds,
because cane being coated with silica, he predicted that by charring it
we should obtain a more compact stick or thread, as the fusion of the
silica would hold the carbon-particles together. He finally abandoned
this and all the rest in favor of the hard deposit of carbon which
lines the inside of gas-retorts, some specimens of which we found to
be so hard that we required a lapidary's wheel to cut them into the
thin sticks.

Our final wick was a piece of this of square section, and about one
eighth of an inch across each way. It was mounted between two
forceps — one holding each end, and thus leaving a clear half -inch be-
tween. The forceps were soldered to platinum wires, one of which
passed upward through the top of the barometer-tube, expanded into
a lamp-glass at its upper part. This wire was sealed to the glass as it
passed through. The lower wire passed down the middle of the tube.
The tube was filled with mercury and inverted over a cup of mercury.
Being thirty inches long up to the bottom of the expanded portion, or
lamp-globe, the mercury fell below this and left a Torricellian vacuum
there. One pole of the battery, or dynamo-machine, was connected
with the mercury in the cup, and the other with the upper wire. The

ANTHROPOID MYTHOLOGY. 65 5

stick of carbon glowed brilliantly, and with perfect steadiness. I sub-
sequently exhibited this apparatus in the Town-Hall of Birmingham,
and many times at the Midland Institute. The only scientific difficulty
connected with this arrangement was that due to a slight volatilization
of the carbon, and its deposition as a brown film upon the lamp-glass ;
but this difficulty is not insuperable. — Knowledge.

■♦ • »•

ANTHKOPOID MYTHOLOGY.

By De. B. PLACZEK.

SHAKESPEARE in one place calls sleep the " ape of death," and
thereby gives living expression to an idea which men have at all
times entertained of their "nearest relative." As sleep to death, so
according to the vulgar view is the ape related to man. Sleep is not
quite death, and is no longer conscious life, but is something between
the two ; and man learns to regard it as a counterfeit of death. We
may say, in general, that wherever men have come into close contact
with monkeys they have acquired the same impression of them, that
they are a caricature of man, and the idea that they are a not-yet man or
a no-longer man, a human likeness of a more primitive design or one
that has suffered deformity. All of the more ancient conceptions of
the relations between men and apes thus waver between variation and
degeneration. The shape which the idea of a community of the two
principal families of primates has taken, among the partisans of cre-
ation as well as of transformism, can be followed, from divination to
empiricism, from superstition to scientific description, and it is not
strange that among all the theories of the doctrine of development
the so-called " monkey theory " has spread most rapidly and widely.
Besides the myths and legends in which the face of an ape now and
then appears — fables, the fundamental idea of which carried out by
skillful and careful minds assumes a scientific value — we meet, among
the more ancient peoples who made the anthropoid apes the subjects of
scientific disputes or invested them with religious or ritual interest, far
more important expressions of a supposed relationship of those creat-
ures with man.

The most ancient literature of the Hebrews is eminently a rich and
inexhaustible treasury of observations of nature and inquiries into it.
We shall first concern ourselves with these, and then draw from
Arabian, Egyptian, Indian, ancient Mexican, and other stores, their
ape-lore so far as it is of scientific interest and approaches the present
conceptions of the nature of apes. Of the joint triennial voyages of
the Israelite and I^hoenician fleets to Africa, 1 Kings x, 22, says :
" For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram ;

656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver,
and ivory, and apes, and peacocks." This is repeated in 2 Chronicles
ix, 21. The joint expeditions to Ophir referred to in 1 Kings ix, 27,
28, x and xi, and in 2 Chronicles ix, 10, were probably of the same
kind. The name of Tarshish (Tartessus in Spain), the most important
trading-point of the Phoenicians, had probably come into application
to designate all large merchant-vessels designed for long sea-voyages,
in whatever direction they might be accustomed to sail. The Hebrew
names for apes, kofim (singular Jcof), and peacocks, tuJcijim, undoubt-
edly point to an Indian derivation. For Jcof, ape, is in Sanskrit Jcafi,
" the nimble," and tukij corresponds with the Malabar togai. The
apes which the sailors of those times brought back from their distant
journeys were probably Asiatic, even if the possibility is not excluded
that the Israelite-Phoenician ships occasionally touched the African
coasts and brought monkeys thence. That different kinds of monkeys
were kept by the ancient Hebrews as pets, and were also trained for
employment in household tasks, appears in numerous places in the
post-Biblical literature. Four kinds of monkeys were particularly men-
tioned : Jcof, the ape in general, where it alone is named ; when it
appears at the same time with others it perhaps refers to the Indian
Hanuman (Semnojrithecus entellus) y Jcipud or Mptiph (regarded by
some commentators as an abbreviation of cercopithecus), a tailed ape
or baboon ; Adne-JiasadeJi, or Abne-Jiasadeh, or Adam-hasadeh (ac-
cording to Bochart), or Bar-nasJi-ditur, corresponding with the orang-
outang or the anthropoid apes ; and DelpJdJc. Everywhere is a rela-
tionship of the ape with man suggested, and in the ritual casuistics
the ape is regarded as a kind of man, and so considered in view of the
religious law. At the sight of an ape or a monkey, the benediction
was uttered, " Praised be he who changes his creatures ! " — an allusion
to the belief which was found among many ancient people, especially
among the Arabs, that the ape was a degenerated form of man, or that
the latter took on the outward appearance of the ape in consequence
of moral degeneration (Talmud, B. Berachoth, 58 b.). But since the
ape to which the benediction applies is placed in the same category
with a negro, albino, or dwarf, the idea appears to underlie it that the
variation is an inborn one. The former acceptation is supported in
Berachoth 57 b., "To see an ape or a monkey in a dream is a bad
sign " ; and in Bereschit Rabba C, 23, " In the time of Enoch men
were changed into apes." Rabbi Jose taught that the corpse of an
Adne-hasadeh was unclean in the tent the same as that of a man, while
the laws in the case of the bodies of beasts were quite different. Im-
mediately afterward the same Rabbi Jose expresses the opinion that
the ape {Jcof) must be regarded as an undomesticable or hardly domes-
ticable animal. According- to him, the Adne-hasadeh stands much
nearer to man than the common ape or than any other tailed species
of ape. It appears from Joma 29 b and Menachot 100 b, that the ape

ANTHROPOID MYTHOLOGY. 657

was employed in household tasks : " If the show-bread is not arranged
according to the directions upon the holy tables in the temple at Jeru-
salem, it is just as though an ape had done it." According to Idajim,
1, 5, the ape could be employed in connection with certain religious
ablutions ; but the Rabbi Jose, named above, denies him this property.
Baba Kama speaks of apes being trained to keep the house clear of
vermin ; and it is well known that they will eat the smaller animals,
such as young birds, mice, bugs, and caterpillars, as dainties.

Of the tricks of apes, Baba Kama tells of one of the animals that
stole dye-stuff and colored wool with it. Nedarim mentions one that
ran away and was found in a cave along with the treasures that it had
collected there. Duvaucel, Brehm, and others, say that Indian apes
steal and conceal gold, precious stones, and other bright things.

The palatableness of the milk and blood of bipeds is spoken of by
several Talmudic authors, and the question is suggested why, if only
men are meant, the term biped should be exceptionally used. The
glossater, A. ben David, adds the remark, " such as man " ; while Jiz-
chaki says, " Only man is meant here." The erect anthropoids may,
however, also have been in the thought of the writers. In exj)Osition
of Leviticus xi, 27, "And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among
all manner of beasts that go on all four," it is remarked in the Sifra,
51, "By these are meant the ape (kof), the Kipud, and Aclne-
hasadeh." A. ben David says in this connection : " While the ape
resembles man in form, and has fingers on his hands and toes on his
feet like men, he is nevertheless ranked among the other animals as
unclean." In Jebamot, it is said that a deformity of a man's foot by
which the toes are bent under the sole so that he has to walk on the
back of his foot, renders him unfit for the performance of certain cere-
monies. In Moed Katon is an allusion to a funeral orator, named
Bar Kipuph (son of an ape or ape-man), who had a deformity of this
kind, and probably received his nickname in consequence of it. Robert
Hartmann says that the chimpanzee and orang-outang go on all-fours,
bending their fingers into the hollow of their hands, and setting the
calloused back of their hands on the ground ; and this explains why
the gait of crippled persons was called ape-like, and why the orator
was called Bar Kipuph. Sometimes we meet the expression, " like the
act of an ape," a bare imitation.

The fables of the Abne, Ad?ie, or Adone-hasadeh, have assumed
very strange forms. While the Talmudic and Midraist representations
of this being distinctly point to an authropoid ape, the name of which
may appear in Job v, 23 — "For thou shalt be in league with the
stones of the field ; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with
thee " — where the word in the original translated stones is believed
by some to refer more properly to this animal — the interpreters and
glossaters, following the fashion of the grotesque fables of great apes,
have made a formidable monster of it. Kilajim describes it as the

VOL. XXI.-

658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Bar-nash-ditur (man of the mountain), which can live only through
the umbilical cord, and dies if it is broken. Maimonides says the
Adone-hasadeh are animals resembling men. Travelers wrote of the
animal that it talked much and intelligently, even with a human ar-
ticulation. In Arabic it is called alnanas, which Buxdorf translated
vdvog, nanos, dwarf (in Talmudic nanos means shut). Clearness is
lent to the supposition that these accounts referred to apes by the fact
that E. Tison, in 1698, methodically dissected a female chimpanzee
from Angola in Africa, and called it a pygmy, comparing it with the
accounts of the ancients respecting alleged dwarf races in Ethiopia,
which races, however, modern ethnologists recognize in several real
living tribes of diminutive size. Simson asserts in a note to Kilajim,
8, 5, that he had heard that the Abne-hasadeh was the animal Jodua,
through a bone of which, according to Talmud Synhedrin 65, a, b, the
wizards mentioned in Leviticus xix, 31, and xx, 6, and in Deuteron-
omy xviii, 11, placing them' in their mouths, were able to projuhesy ;
" and how a great cord rises out of a root in the ground on which the
Jodua grows like a squash or melon ; his face, body, and limbs are like
those of a man, but the navel is joined to the cord that rises out of the
earth-root. No being dare venture within reach of the cord, for fear of
being destroyed,* and the animal devastates everything within the circle
which the cord describes. No man can approach it with safety ; and,
if any one wishes to overcome it, he must endeavor to lay hold of the
cord and break it, or shoot through it from a distance with an arrow,
when the animal dies." We apparently have to deal here with a con-
glomeration of fables of different times and places. There are, first,
exaggerations in the sketches of the great anthropoid apes, from Hanno
in his periplus to the fanciful Du Chaillu, not to speak of the fabu-
lous impossible accounts that appear in Pliny, JElian, and other an-
cient writers. The Adne-hasacleh, or Jodua, except as to the navel-
cord, corresponds well with the authentic accounts of the gorilla as
we find them in the works of Brehm, Dr. Franquet, R. Burton, Lenz,
Giirsfeld, and Koppenfels. By means of the navel-cord we may rec-
ognize in the Adne-hasadeh a plant-animal, a kind of Boranetz, of
the fable of which Lewysohn, in his " Biology," introduces the follow-
ing account : " In this steppe or desert (Lesser and Great Tartary) is
found the Boranetz, or Bornitch, as some call it, a fruit as large as a
melon, having the form of a sheep (whence it gets the name of Boran,
Russian for sheep), with a head, feet, and snout, and, what is remark-
able, this fruit has on the outside a skin covered with white, bright,
and very finely tinted hair, firm as silk. These skins are valued very
highly by the Tartars and Russians. This Boranetz grows on a bush
three feet high, which implants itself in the navel of the sheep. The
fruit turns, like a summer flower, as if it would incline itself toward the
plants near it. They tell of it, that if the grass and plants around it
dry up, the fruit perishes for want of food and support ; and the same

ANTHROPOID MYTHOLOGY. 659

happens if the surrounding vegetation is cut and taken away green.
They say also that wolves are very fond of the Boranetz, and that it
has within meat, blood, and bones." The Adne-hasadeh has, how-
ever, none of the Iamb-like character of the Boranetz, but, on the con-
trary, a spirit averse to restraint.

I believe a slight etymological rectification will give us a clew to
the conception out of which this fable has grown. For tabur, navel,
substitute tabaat, fundament, and from the cord connecting the navel
with a root in the ground we are led to the tail, by which the animal
hangs itself to a limb or a projecting root. The accounts of the fe-
rocity of the Adne-hasadeh need not be rejected as silly and monstrous
when we recollect how mischievous and destructive some apes are, as,
for instance, the Cynocephahis sphynx, which may have stood for the
original Adne-hasadeh, and which carries desolation into fields and
gardens.

An important part is also assigned to apes in legends and parables.
" When Noah was about to lay out his vineyard, Satan came up and
asked him, ' Would you like to have me with you at the planting and
the wine-making ? ' * I am digging,' said Noah, evasively. What did
Satan do ? He brought up a lamb, a lion, a hog, and an ape, and killed
them all in the vineyard till it was soaked with their blood. Thus it
happens that man is soft and mild as a lamb after the first draughts ;
that he feels as brave and strong as a lion when he has drunken as
much as agrees with him ; then, when he has drunk more than enough,
he becomes like a hog, disagreeable and boisterous ; and, finally, when
quite drunk, staggers and tumbles around, and makes faces, like a
monkey." Perhaps the expression " to get as tipsy as a monkey " is
derived from this. Synhedrin relates of the time of the confusion of
tongues : " At the building of the tower of Babel men divided into
three parties. One party said, ' We will go up to heaven and settle
there ' ; the second party said, ' We will pray to our gods up there ' ;
and the third party said, ' We will go up and make war.' The last
were changed into apes and devils."

Seven vanities, says the "Kohelet," correspond with the seven
phases of the life of man. When he comes into the world, everything
kisses and embraces him ; from two to three years old, he is like a pig,
dirty, rooting everywhere, putting everything into his mouth ; at ten
years old he is jumping and capering about like a goat ; at twenty,
he is a horse, vain, enthusiastic, eager, looking around for a wife ; when
he takes a wife, he becomes an ass, bears burdens, and if he has
children he is harassed like a dog to support them ; and, when old, he
becomes capricious and irritable, like an ape." A later writer, Salomo
Ibn Verga, toward the end of the fifteenth century, describes the
course of all things and beings as follows : " The coral forms the tran-
sition between the mineral and the vegetable kingdom, the sponge be-
tween the vegetable and the animal, and the ape is the intermediate

660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

member between the animal and the man." Jalkut Reubeni remarks,
u The ape veils itself before man as man does in the presence of the
Shekinah.*' We recognize in this view the law brought into vogue by
Leibnitz, and extended by Bonnet, of the continuous graded ascent of
created beings. Finally, it is proper to state here that, according to
the agadistic view, the primitive man as well as the ape, for the most
part, lived only on vegetable food. "Flesh-eating was forbidden to
Adam as well as to all his posterity till the time of Xoah," say Le-
kachtob, Synhedrin, Jalkut Chadash, and Sefer Chassidim.

While the references to apes in the ancient writings of the
Hebrews are generally of a matter-of-fact character, the stories and
delineations by the ancient Arabians have, as a rule, a romantic
stamp. The ape-men Xesnas, which Maimonides believes to mean the
Adne-hasadeh, play a conspicuous part in the Arabian travelers' sto-
ries, their romances, and their theology. I may state here that the ape
is called in modern Arabic Xesnas or Xasnas. A Mohammedan tradi-
tion runs : Ibn Abbas said : " Men (Xas) have perished and the Xes-
nas are left." He was asked, "What are Xesnas?" and he replied,
" Creatures which are like men and are still not men." Al-Gauhari
defines the Xesnas as "creatures that hop on one leg." The Xesnas
are very fully described by Al-Kazrwini as animals of a half -human
figure which serve the people as food. They have half a body, half a
head, a hand, and a leg, as if they were men split in two. This idea is,
I believe, only the too literal and hyperbolical carrying out of the
description of an ape as half a man. Wiistenfeld translates Xesnas by
" one-legged creature," and deduces from citations which he makes,
that God changed men into Xesnas as a punishment. The Koran, Su-
rah ii, says : "You know what happened to those among you who pro-
faned the Sabbath. We said to them, be apes and be excluded from
human society, in order that they might be an example for the present
and the future, and a warning to the pious." The Xesnas were said to
be Shemites, and descended from Shenrs son Hasim ; to sjjeak Arabic,
and to have Arabic personal names Ibn Ajjas, in his cosmography,
describes the Xesnas as creatures with one eye, one ear, and one leg.
Macudi gives a similar description and adds, that they rise out of the
sea. The Xesnas killed such men as thev could catch.

According to another view, the Xesnas were identical with Gog and
Magog. Arabian historians speak of an invasion by a pygmy people
called Xesnas into Southern Arabia — a tradition which is referred by
Fresnel to the irruption of the Roman legions. The question is raised
in the casuistics of Mohammedan ritual, whether it is right to eat the
flesh of the Xesnas. As a rule such food is absolutely forbidden. Aj
Tabbarii permits it, because aquatic animals are generally not for-
bidden. Wahrmund defines the Xesnas as a " large ape, an orang-
outang, a chimpanzee ; a one-armed and one-legged satyr that hops
fast." Muhis-ai-Muhis of Albustani says : " It is related in tradition

AXTHROPOID MYTHOLOGY. 661

that a branch of the tribe of Ad rebelled against its prophets, and God
changed them into Nesnas, that is, into creatures with one hand and
one leg, which hop like the birds and eat grass like the cattle. They
say that this race has died out, and that such creatures of the kind as
are found now are of a different creation (are not changed men). Com-
mon people call apes Xesnas."

The ancient Egyptians did not represent the ape as a caricature of
man, but idealized it and paid it religious honors, as they did to many
other animals. A cynocephalus was kept and worshiped in the temple
at Hermopolis, while a cercopithecus was honored at Thebes. Mum-
mies of apes have been found in both of these eitie-. The ape also
has its place in the hieroglyphics as the representative of the sound
"en," and is called ein in Coptic. The god Anubis, who, at the judg-
ment of the dead in Amenti (or the land of death), put the heart of
the deceased in the balance of justice in order to report the result
to Thoth, is figured with the head of a cynocephalus, or dog-faced
baboon. Thoth himself generally appears associated with the attribute
of the cynocephalus, the emblem of the dog-star. The temple of
Queen Hatasu, at Der-el-bahri, is adorned with inscriptions relating to
a grand expedition into the balsam-bearing land of Punt, the Egyp-
tian Ophir, in which the offerings sent by the king of that country are
described : " The transports were loaded to the full with the wonder-
ful products of the land of Punt, and the various building-woods of
the godly land, with heaps of balsams of incense, with green incense-
trees, with ebonv, with ivorv, adorned with sold from the land of
Amu, with liquorice-wood, ehefit-wood, with frankincense, holy bal-
sams, and eye-paints, with cynocephaluses and baboons and greyhounds,
and with leopard -skins. Xever was the like brought to any king of
Egypt since the world has stood." According to Brugseh. the incense-
trees stood on the decks of the vessels, and the apes, let loose, gam-
boled in the rieerinsr, to the threat delight of the sailors.

In the Indian Raniayana, where the animals are praised as allies
of Rama, apes are depicted in groups, under the direction of a king
who obeys the nods of Rama. They are not, however, introduced as
idealized apes, changed men or incarnate demons, but as veritable apes
with all their less pleasant peculiarities realistically portrayed. A
favorite figure of the poem is Hanuman, the fool of the serious drama,
around whom a fabulous atmosphere has already gathered. In him
may be recognized the Hulman of the Hindoos, the Mandi of the Mai-
abars, the sacred ape, Semnopithecus enteUus. He is an Atlas, who
bears mountains on his shoulders. A child of the wind and the air. he
affords the most agreeable svmbolism of the simian character. Like
a rash child, he tried to go up to the sun, and still carries a remem-
brancer of his mishap in the deformity of his lower jaw, which is longer
than the upper one.x "With his foolhardy, comic ways, he cheered and
comforted Rama's beloved wife Sita. and helped deliver her from the

662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

terrible Lanka, the city of the demon-king Havana. In gratitude for
this, Rama crowned him and embraced him in the sight of both hosts,
of men and of gods.

In no land in the world has honor to apes struck as deep root as
in India. Formerly temples were consecrated to them, and now, as
Tavernier relates, asylums, special gardens, and hospitals are erected
for them ; and the Hulman is particularly regarded as sacred. Cap-
tain Johnson states that the natives of Baka leave a tithe of the har-
vest on the field for the Bhunder (llacacus Rhesus) ; and the penalty
of killing this ape was death. The mild, human-like face of the orang-
outang when quiet, and his deliberate, gentle, docile manner, contrast-
ing with the nervous, convulsive restlessness of other monkeys, were
well adapted to win for him the favor and reverence of the Indians ;
and this was apparently not affected by the knowledge of the ferocious
appearance and manner he exhibits when enraged. The Javanese, re-
marking upon these features, say, " Monkeys could speak if they would,
but they do not, because they are afraid that if they did they would
be put to work." Indian princely families boast of their descent from
apes, and bear the title of " tailed Rana." In the Indian metempsy-
chosis the souls of the pious after death pass into the Hulman.

The apes of the New World received a similar treatment from its
aborigines to that which was given to their relatives in the Old World.
A remarkable correspondence is observable between the Aztec hiero-
glyphics for the days and the animal symbols which the Eastern Asi-
atics apply to the designation of the course of their year. The sym-
bols in the Mongolian calendar are derived from animals, and among
them four of the twelve coincide precisely with those of the Aztec
calendar, and three are as nearly the same as the difference in the
genera of the two hemispheres permits them to be. This will appear
more plainly as an enumeration of the animal signs used by the East-
ern Asiatics in describing their years. Among the Mongols, Mantchoo
Tartars, Japanese, and Thibetans, they are the mouse, the ox, the
leopard (or tiger), the hare, the crocodile (or dragon), the serpent, the
horse, the sheep (or goat), the ape, the hen, the dog, and the hog.
Among the Mexican names for the days we also find the hare, the ser-
pent, the ape, and the dog ; and instead of the leopard, crocodile, and
hen, which were unknown in Mexico at the time of the conquest, the
panther, lizard, and eagle. Thus, the Mexicans made the ape a symbol
in the division of time and in chronological reckoning. Aztec tradi-
tions make mention, like those of the Hindoos, Thibetans, Persians,
and Greeks, of four or five cataclysms, of cycles, after the fulfillment
of each of which the world was destroyed, to be recreated anew. The
belief in the recurrence at appointed times of these revolutions of
nature through the operation of one or another of the elements was
peculiar to many lands of the Eastern hemisphere, and has often been
advanced as an argument in favor of the doctrine of a common origin.

THE POISONS OF THE MANUFACTORY. 663

The third age of the Mexicans, that of air, in which the Mayas con-
quered the giants of the former age, lasted 4,010 years, and ended in
a hurricane by which all men except one pair were turned into apes.
In the four ages of the Mexicans, which were called the ages of earth,
fire, air, and water, we have to deal with a backward development,
from giants to men, then to apes. This shows a curious agreement
with the story of the Talmud, already referred to, that a part of the
race at the confusion of tongues were turned into apes. It also curi-
ously corresponds with the ancient Indian myth that made the ape a
child of the wind and the air.

While the folk lore on one side degrades the ape to a degenerate
species of man, it on another side in compensation, as in Indian and
among many negro tribes, derives the pedigree of distinguished fami-
lies from apes, and consigns the souls of the honorable and pious to
their bodily integuments. According to Brehm, the hair-tuft of the
baboon serves the negroes of West Africa as the model for their coif-
fures. That lowly race also tries to exalt its similarity with the ape
which the satirists of every zone make striking enough, and a humorous
writer was not so far wrong when he described an ugly man as " a
baboon, with hairs projecting from around his eyes." Not only bodily
deformities and imperfections have been ascribed to apes, but moral
transgressions also have been regarded and spoken of in the same
view.

That the faculty of articulate speech is dependent on an upright
position is suggested in the Hebrew book " Sohar Chadash," which
says : " The animals can not look straight up to heaven, and therefore
can not speak ; and we learn of King Nebuchadnezzar that, when he
was reduced to the condition of an animal, he could not help himself
until he was able to rise and look up. Therefore he said to Daniel
(Daniel iv, 34), 'I raised my eyes to heaven, and then my understand-
ing returned to me.' If the animals, walking erect, could look up to
the sky, they would be able to speak."

-»»♦■■

THE POISONS OF THE MANUFACTOEY.

Br HECTOE GEOEGE.

THE cases of contamination of the air by means of insalubrious in-
dustrial operations may be divided into two groups : 1. Emana-
tions (dusts or vapors) that act as poisons, and which, carried by the
blood to all parts of the body, produce general and various disorders.
2. Dusts, of a simply irritating character, which act locally on the
lungs, and produce^n them disorders the intensity of which generally
depends on the hardness of the particles.

664. THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

We will begin with the poisonous dusts, taking first one of the
most murderous classes — those of lead. Accidents due to lead are
liable to occur among many classes of operatives who work with this
substance either in a metallic state or in combination. Painters, min-
ers, plumbers, type-founders, compositors, and glass-makers are pecul-
iarly exposed to them.

The most obvious precaution to be taken against the admission of
poisonous dusts with respired air is to arrest their passage by means
of a protective veil or mask. An insurmountable obstacle has pre-
vented the use of such a precaution. The workmen will not wear the
screens, although effective and convenient ones enough have been
made. Workers in white-lead ought also to wear special clothing for
their work ; but all that it has been possible to get them to do is to
cover their ordinary clothing with overalls. This does not give sum- .
cient security against the transportation of lead-dust by the clothes.
Other important measures are those which have regard to cleanliness ;
here, again, we are opposed by an obstinate resistance. In a shop at
Washington, near Newcastle, England, where the oxychloride of lead
is prepared, the workmen quit because of an effort to introduce baths
among them. They would not be shut up in a bath-room, although
they would bathe very readily in the open air or in swimming-ponds.

A very essential precaution that workmen should always take is
never to deposit or eat their food in the shop, or allow it to be in any
way exposed to mixture with poisonous dusts.

Attention has been directed toward finding an antidote to lead-
poisoning. M. Meisens, in 1843, recommended iodide of potassium,
and it has been used with excellent effect ; it cured declared diseases,
as, for instance, paralysis ; and permitted the continuance of work in
lead without danger from colic. The Academy of Sciences awarded
a prize for the discovery. Milk was recommended as a preventive of
lead-poisoning by M. Didier-Jean, director of the glass-factory at St.
Louis, near Sarreguemines, in 1867 ; but the workmen were not dis-
posed to use it, and found a way to bring alcoholic liquors to the shop
instead of milk.

General hygienic measures against this source of danger include
the suppression of lead-dusts, that is the production of as little as pos-
sible of them, and the removal of them as soon as they are produced.
Moistening, grinding, and mixing under water, closed apparatus for
pulverizing, natural and artificial ventilation, substitution of machines
for the hand, and mechanical packing — such are the improvements
adopted by the factories at Brussels and Lille, with great advantage
to the health of the workmen. Of two white-lead factories in Paris a
few years ago, one was very unhealthy, furnishing from two hundred
and fifty to two hundred and eighty patients a year to the hospitals ;
while the other, with the same number of men employed, was only
slightly unhealthy, and furnished only two or three patients a year, or

THE POISONS OF THE MANUFACTORY. 665

a hundred times less. The difference depended on one condition only.
The former factory made white-lead in powder or in cakes ; the other
prepared and sold it exclusively ground in oil. In the former process
much dust, in the latter none, was disengaged.

Another step in progress may be gained, perhaps, by substituting
inoffensive substances for the compounds of lead employed in industry.
"White-lead has already a rival in zinc-white, but it is objected to that
substance that it has an inferior coloring power. To meet this objec-
tion, Mr. Griffith, of England, has prepared a white coloring substance
based on sulphuret of zinc, which combines the coloring power of
white-lead with the inoffensive qualities of the salts of zinc.

A pharmacist of Brest, M. Constantin, has received a prize from
the French Academy of Sciences for the discovery of substitutes for
the use of oxide of lead in the glazing of pottery : glazes based on
lime for the uncolored, on oxide of manganese for colored, glazings.

A number of inoffensive colors deserve mention as substitutes for
poisonous colors. Such substances as eosine, fluorescine, and other
products derived from aniline, have been fortunately introduced in
later years for painting children's toys.

Nothing need be said of copper. It is as inoffensive as lead is dan-
gerous ; and it appears, according to the researches of Dr. Burq, to
confer upon workmen who handle it an almost absolute immunity
against cholera.

Mercury is as dangerous as lead. It provokes salivation, destruc-
tion and loss of the teeth, tremblings, paralysis, and death. The
workmen exposed to injury from it are miners employed in its extrac-
tion, gilders, looking-glass makers, and hatters. The personal hygiene
is the same as for lead ; but in securing its application we are still
opposed by the carelessness and foolhardiness of the workmen.

The principal means relied upon for preservation against acci-
dents from mercury are the employment of ammoniacal sprays in the
shops, and of iodide of potassium, as for lead. Both remedies were
recommended by M. Meisens after a long series of experiments, and
have been used with excellent effect. The division of the labor in its
most insalubrious phases and an energetic ventilation are excellent
measures. Operations in mercury have been, moreover, much allevi-
ated by the introduction of new processes. Gilding with mercury
has been replaced by galvanoplasty ; silvering of glass with mercury
by a plating process which is performed at half the cost, and is without
danger to health. Mercury is used by hatters in a secret process for
impregnating the fur of the hare and rabbit, to make it felt, with a
mixture of mercury, nitric acid, and water. Efforts have been made
to find a substitute for quicksilver, and Dr. Hillairet proposed in 1872
to use molasses, but the experiment was not satisfactory.

Phosphorus is but little used among us except in the manufacture
of matches. The troubles which it occasions are cou°'h, headaches,

666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and disorders of the stomach. In the gravest cases, the inhaling of the
vapors causes a more or less complete destruction of the bones of the
jaws, in which they produce necrosis, especially in persons with decayed
teeth. Such disorders have, however, become more rare. Besides
finding a way to neutralize phosphoric vapors by essence of turpentine
placed in a bottle, to be hung from the workman's neck, the vapors
themselves have been suppressed by the adoption of processes in
which all the dangerous parts of the operations are performed by ma-
chinery.

The General Match Conqoany of France, which enjoys the monop-
oly of the manufacture in that country, has gradually introduced
machinery, within the last ten years, by which the mixture of the
phosphorus paste, the dipping of the matches, and the packing, are all
done without exposing any one to the inhalation of the vapors.

Sulphide of carbon, which possesses the property of softening and
inflating India-rubber, is much used in the manufacture of India-
rubber foot-balls and balloons of various kinds. It occasions pains in
the head and limbs ; loss of appetite ; paralysis of the sight, the hear-
ing, and the limbs ; cachexy, and death. It should not be handled
except in closed vessels. M. Deschamps, of Belleville, invented a glass
box, having two openings, for the passage of the hands and arms, to
which were attached India-rubber sleeves, to be fastened at the wrist,
and enable the hand to work within the apparatus without giving any
outlet for the vapors ; but the workmen laughed at the apparatus,
called it a magic-lantern, and would not use it. There remains, then,
no other resource than an active ventilation to carry off the poisonous
vapors ; and for that reason work in sulphide of carbon should be
carried on only in large establishments, well ventilated, and should be
excluded from small rooms.

Passing by the manufacture of chemicals, which is a special indus-
try, involving many peculiar causes of insalubrity, and which deserves
a full treatment by itself, we come to dusts that are simply irritating.
They may be divided into two groups : those which are not soluble in
the liquids of the body, and consequently accumulate in the lungs, and
obstruct them ; and those which, being soluble, have only a transient
effect, and do not produce irremediable disorders. The first group
includes the coal and the siliceous dusts ; the second group all the
others.

The accumulation of coal-dusts in the pulmonary vesicles pro-
duces, in coal-miners, workers in charcoal, and copper-founders, a
malady designated by the name of anthracosis, which frequently ends
in death. The lungs of victims of this disorder resemble a piece of
sliced coal. In the personal hygiene against these elements, we men-
tion the use of wadded masks, which has been followed by excellent
effects in the mines of Belgium, where it has been possible to get
them adopted. In general hygiene, Dr. Manouvriez (of Valenciennes),

LITTRfi, DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAINE. 667

some time ago recommended the projection of water, in the form of
rain, to bring the dust to the ground. Fecula and talc have been used
as inoffensive substitutes, in iron-founding, for charcoal, as the dusting
between the mold and the melted metal.

Siliceous dusts are apt to arise especially in the making and re-
dressing and re-cutting of millstones. They accumulate in the bron-
chia?, which they scratch, and produce one of the most painful of
coughs, with decline and loss of strength. Sometimes an eliminatory
inflammation supervenes, with expectoration of masses of siliceous
dust, particles of steel, and bits of bronchial membrane, and gives a
temporary relief. But the disorders return, and the workmen have to
leave the shops, to continue in a condition of marasmus an existence
which is terminated by a premature death. The victims of this dis-
ease, called the St. Roch disease, are hardly ever able to endure more
than eight or ten years in their occupation.

The dusts, moreover, which accumulate in the throat produce an
incessant thirst, and lead the workmen to habits of intoxication. M.
Mercier, of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, a manufacturer of small mills, who
himself works at the stones, has contrived a very thin and inexpensive
silken veil, to which he has attached spectacles, for the protection of
the eyes. He has used it with great success since 1870, but has not
been able to induce more than twenty or twenty-five of his workmen
to adopt it. The others laugh at it, and die of the dust against which
they will not protect themselves.

Among the siliceous dusts should be included those arising in the
manufacture of porcelain. At Charenton, St. Maurice, Montreuil near
Paris, and Sarreguemines, the workers in porcelain die very frequently
of pulmonary phthisis, hardly reaching more than the average age of
forty-four years and a half, and rarely passing fifty years. The pro-
tecting veil ought to be used here also.

The dusts of gypsum, on the other hand, appear to be inoffensive,
and even hygienic, according to Dr. Burq, who is almost tempted to
attribute to them a salutary action in pulmonary phthisis. At any
rate, the workmen recognize them as pleasant. They have only the
single inconvenience, common to all dusts, of provoking thirst ; and
that thirst is not always quenched with pure water.

-+++-

LITTRE, DUMAS, PASTEUR, AKD TAINE.

THE names which we have placed at the head of this article are
those of four of the most illustrious representatives of the intel-
lect of France in t^he present age. M. Littre, whose recent death the
Academy and the world of letters have to deplore, takes rank among

663 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the greatest masters of language ; M. Dumas still pursues his valuable
researches in chemical science, and he combines with them an eloquence
and elegance in literary composition not unworthy of his scientific re-
nown ; M. Pasteur has carried to their farthest limit the investigations
of physiology, and has rendered incalculable services to mankind by
tracing to their sources the germs of life, and of the diseases which
affect life ; M. Taine must be placed among the best French writers
left to us since the extinction of the great historians, critics, and ora-
tors of the last generation. By a fortunate accident three of these
eminent persons were called upon to take part on two memorable occa-
sions beneath the dome devoted to the public sittings of the French
Institute. That building, dedicated to letters, to science, to art, and
to criticism, may be regarded as the last refuge and asylum of the
genius and culture of France. It has resounded for two centuries to
the voices of the great leaders of thought and eloquence of former
generations ; it still collects within its walls whatever is best and no-
blest in French society. This institution alone survives the great cata-
clysm which has swept away thrones, and churches, and orders, and
constitutional government. The National Institute, and especially the
oldest branch of it, the French Academy, still pursues its calm and dig-
nified course, unshaken by despotism, by sedition, by popular tumults,
by the violence of war, or by the scourge of revolution. Even during
the siege of Paris we believe that its sittings were scarcely interrupted.
Beneath the customary forms of academic compliments, which are in
themselves idle ceremonies, it is not difficult to trace in its proceedings
the language of earnest thought and warm feeling ; and we shall have
occasion to show that the great conflict of the age between faith and
science, between the intellect and the senses, between spiritualism and
materialism, between mind and matter, between the finite and the infi-
nite, was the real subject of the discourses delivered on the occasions
to which we now particularly refer.

But there was in this encounter a peculiar contrast. M. Littre, to
whose memory the speech of M. Pasteur was devoted, was himself a
Comtist ; his philosophy was entirely negative ; he denied everything
which could not be brought within the evidence of the senses. These
agnostic opinions were strenuously assailed by the eminent man of
science whose duty it was to relate the touching history of his life.
M. Taine, who had been elected to the Academy two years before in
the place of M. de Lomenie, disclaimed all adherence to Comtism, and
spoke with very little respect of its founder, but his language was not
less skeptical ; it was a distant echo of the philosophy of the eighteenth
century, which destroyed all beliefs and planted nothing in their place ;
it was an avowal of the supremacy of matter over mind, which is char-
acteristic of ail his own writings. To him M. Dumas replied with
great force and point. The great chemist told him that all the re-
searches of the present generation into the secrets of the material

LITTEJS, DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAIXE. 669

creation indicated the existence of powers infinitely beyond it, and
that the utmost advance in scientific knowledge only brought us to
the verge of an incalculable horizon. The discourse in answer to M.
Pasteur was delivered by M. Renan, but it proved to be a feeble and
disjointed effort of French incredulity, without its wit. So that the
cause of skepticism and negation was on these occasions upheld by the
men of letters, inquirers into the origin of language and the phenom-
ena of history, while the cause of belief in an infinite and supernatural
power was defended by the men of science, whose lives have been de-
voted to the study of the natural world and to demonstration by the
experience of the senses. The contrast was striking, and we think our
readers may follow it with interest.

But, before we proceed to that part of our subject, we must pause
to pay a tribute of respect, unhappily too long delayed, to the memory
of the most remarkable of these eminent persons. There are other
experimentalists, there are many historians, but M. Littre stands alone
as the greatest of lexicographers, and the literary work accomplished
by his almost unassisted labor was literally stupendous. We can use
n$ other term. The character of the great " Dictionary of the French
Language," to which he devoted thirty years of unremitting toil, is best
described by its elaborate title-page. The mere material bulk of the
work, which was published in four thick quarto volumes, is astonishing.
The manuscript (without the supplement) covered 415,636 pages. The
proof-sheets were 2,242. If the " Dictionary " had been set up in a
single column of type, it would have extended over 37,325 metres, or
about twenty-seven miles. The work was first projected in 1841, when
M. Littre had already passed the fortieth year of his life ; it was not
till 1846 that the contract was signed with M. Hachette, whose liberal
support was indispensable to the author. From that time forth the col-
lection of authorities and materials, and the art of classification, which
was the result of numerous experiments (some of them being abortive),
occupied about thirteen years. Several persons were employed to
read and extract, with a precise reference, passages from the whole
body of the French classical writers from the sixteenth to the nine-
teenth century ; to which M. Littre added, from his accurate knowl-
edge of the old French chronicles and poets, a multitude of curious
archaic examples from the thirteenth century downward. The arrange-
ment of this enormous mass of materials seems to have been entirely
done, by M. Littre himself. The work of printing began in September,
1859, and was completed in July, 18T2. Every proof passed under
the eyes of four careful correctors, besides the printer's reader, and
the final revision of the author. It took about two months to carry
a sheet through the press. In the course of this vast operation 292
quarto pages of three columns each were added to the proofs. Twice
the composition and execution of the work were interrupted by a revo-
lution and a war ; but, by assiduous efforts, M. Littre always kept

6-o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

i

ahead of his compositors and correctors. We must leave him to relate
in his own words how this was effected. The volume entitled " Gla-
nures " contains a paper, written in the last hours of his life, entitled
" Comment j'ai fait mon Dictionnaire," which tells the wonderful story
of his literary existence : " My rule of life included the twenty-four
hours of the day and night, so as to bestow the least possible amount
of time on the current calls of existence. I contrived, by sacrificing
every superfluous indulgence, to have the luxury of a dwelling in the
country and another in town. My country abode was at Menil-le-Roi,
near Paris, a small old cottage with near an acre of productive garden,
which dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis, as it did to the old man in
the Georgics. There I was master of my time. I rose at eight ; very
late, you will say, for so busy a man. Wait an instant. While they
put my bedroom in order, which was also my study, I went down-
stairs with some work in hand. It was thus, for example, that I com-
posed the preface of the ' Dictionary.' I had learnd from Chancellor
d'Aguesseau the value of unoccupied minutes. At nine I set to work
to correct proofs until the hour of our mid-day meal. At one I re-
sumed work, and wrote my papers for the * Journal des Savants,' to
which I was from 1855 a regular contributor. From three to six I
went on with the c Dictionary.' At six punctually we dined, which
took about an hour. They say it is unwholesome to work directly
after dinner, but I have never found it so. It is so much time won
from the exigencies of the body. Starting again at seven in the even-
ing, I stuck to the * Dictionary.' My first stage took me to midnight,
when my wife and daughter (who were my assistants) retired. I then
worked on till three in the morning, by which time my daily task was
usually completed. If it was not, I worked on later, and more than
once, in the long days of summer, I have put out my lamp and con-
tinued to work by the light of the coming dawn. However, at three
in the morning I generally laid down my pen, and put my papers
in order for the following day — that day which had already begun.
Habit and regularity had extinguished all excitement in my work. I
fell asleep as easily as a man of leisure does ; and woke at eight, as
men of leisure do. But these vigils were not without their charm. A
nightingale had built her nest in a little row of limes that crosses the
garden, and she filled the silence of the night and of the country with
her limpid and tuneful notes. O Virgil ! how could you, who wrote
the Georgics, describe as a mournful dirge, miserabile carmen, those
glorious strains ? "

We have never heard of another example of severe labor of the
brain carried on systematically for seventeen or eighteen hours a day
for so many years. But M. Littre, who was himself a great medical
authority, is of opinion that it did him no harm. He was past forty
when he began this work ; he was fifty-nine when he began to print
the Dictionary ; he was seventy-two when he completed it ; and he

LITTRfi, DUMAS s PASTEUR, AND TAINE. 671

lived to be near eighty. To these details we will only add that he
abstained from every kind of luxury and indulgence, except a holiday
of one month in the year, spent on the coast of Brittany. He lived
on the smallest pittance on which life could be supported. Hachette
allowed him a hundred pounds a year, but half of this sum went to his
wife and daughter. He had previously saved forty thousand francs,
but that was lost in the Revolution of 1848. The publisher's advances
to the author amounted to no more than forty thousand francs, a sum
which was eventually repaid out of the profits of the sale. But until
the completion of the work the sale was small, and these thirty years
of unexampled labor were at the time wholly unproductive. Happily,
M. Littre's life was sufficiently prolonged for him to witness the tri-
umphant success of his great undertaking. It brought affluence to his
declining years ; it placed him on the seats of the French Academy ;
it has given him fame far beyond his modest aspirations and his simple
tastes. We have been informed that fifty thousand copies of the
Dictionary have been sold ; if this is the fact, it is without a paral-
lel for a publication of this price and magnitude.

It is impossible for us within our present limits, and with the task
we have now before us, to attempt a critical examination of this great
work. Suffice it to say that the conception was as original as the exe-
cution is marvelous. The French language has been spoken and writ-
ten for seven hundred years ; like all languages, it has undergone vast
transformations in that period ; like all living languages, it is still un-
dergoing a process of perpetual evolution. The Dictionary of the
Academy is the standard of the accepted and existing language of
France ; it excludes archaisms, it condemns neologisms, it gives no
references or derivations. M. Littre's design is far broader and more
vast ; it is based on the historical growth of the language, and it in-
cludes the history of every word in the language from its first occur-
rence, its etymology, and its various meanings, down to its modern
use. The period of what is termed contemporary or classical French
dates from Malherbe, a little more than two hundred years back ; but,
with few exceptions of recent date, every word has a tradition of cen-
turies behind it. Thus, each article in M. Littre's Dictionary in-
cludes, first, the word ; then its pronunciation ; then the conjugation
of the verbs, if irregular ; then the definition of the various meanings
of each word, illustrated by quotations from the best authors of the
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, all textually referred
to so 'that they can be found ; and these meanings are scientifically
arranged, always proceeding from the more simple and concrete to the
more abstract and metaphorical. This classification of meanings is
the most remarkable feature in the work, because it is executed with
an extraordinary amount of philosophical discrimination. Take, for
example, the worc^ Nature : M. Littre dissects and unravels it into
twenty-eight shades of meaning, and each of these is verified by ap-

672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

propriate quotations and authorities. Such an article takes the reader
into the depths of philosophical speculation ; in tracing the history of
a word he follows the history of thought. The verb passer runs to no
less than sixty-six meanings, many of them amusing, proverbial, anec-
dotical. The vrord faire in French represents the two English verbs
to make and to do. It consequently covers an immense field of action.
M. Littre defines it as the word " qui denote toute espece d'operation
qui donne etre ou forme." He traces it through eighty-two shades of
meaning, and the article he devotes to it is an essay of no less than
eight quarto pages. Hence this Dictionary becomes attractive and
even fascinating. Like Forcellini's Lexicon, which it most resem-
bles, there is scarcely a passage or marked expression in the French
classics which is not cited in it ; but Forcellini and Ducange were
dealing with dead or expiring languages ; M. Littre had to force his
way through the Babel of modern literature and society.

"We now pass from the book to the man, whose life is scarcely less
remarkable than the work to which he devoted it, and here we shall
avail ourselves of the guidance of M. Pasteur in his discourse. Emile
Littre was born in Pans, February 1, 1801. His father was an artil-
leryman of the first Republic, who had adopted with passion, both in
politics and religion, the stern theories of the Revolution of 1791, and
defended them in the patriotic army. He transmitted these opinions
to his son, who inherited the same austerity of principles, tempered,
however, by great natural benevolence. His mother was a woman of
the same energetic stamp, though uneducated. Sainte-Beuve described
her as " a Roman matron." The lad was educated at the Lycee Louis-
le-Grand, his father having a small appointment in the office of inland
revenue in Paris. The elder Littre learned Greek, and even began
Sanskrit, to assist in the education of his son. On leaving college the
young man acted for a time as secretary to M. Daru ; but he desired
to follow the medical profession, and had all but completed his hos-
pital training, when his father died, leaving him too poor to take his
degree and to enter upon practice. Accordingly, he never did practice
medicine, except gratuitously among the poor of his village. Yet
such was the medical reputation he acquired by his subsequent writ-
ings, that, as we have been informed, he was ultimately elected a mem-
ber of the Medical Council of Paris. At this early stage of his life,
in 1831, he was compelled to fall back on the humble occupation of a
teacher of foreign lan^uao-es and mathematics, and a translator of ar-
tides for the " National " newspaper, which made him acquainted with
Armand Carrel. Meanwhile his mind, conscious of its strength, yet
modest to excess, formed vast and varied projects, which he hesitated
to execute. Such was the mastery he had already acquired over the
sources of the French language, that he amused himself by translating
a book of the " Iliad " into French verse of the thirteenth centurv.
He also translated the elder Pliny, and in 1831 plunged into a greater

LITTRE, DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAINE. 673

work, a translation and edition of the writings of Hippocrates, for
winch his medical studies had prepared him. Indeed, he continued
to write on medical subjects, in which he always took the strongest
interest. "Though I have studied medicine," he said, " without hav-
ing made any practical use of it, I would not exchange for anything
else this fraction of knowledge which I have acquired by persistent
labor."

The use he did make of it was to watch over the health of his vil-
lage, for to a rigorous austerity of life he united the utmost tender-
ness of heart, and, although he wandered far from all theological belief,
his life was one constant example of self-denial, of consideration for
others, and of what might be called the religion of duty. ISTo monk
ever lived on simpler fare or in a humbler abode. That cottage still
remains in the state in which he left it, and over the table, as a visible
symbol of reverence and toleration, hangs a picture of our Saviour.
We have already related in his own language the extraordinary labor
in which his days and nights were spent over the Dictionary. Yet his
door was never closed against the visit of a friend ; he continued to
take part in the transactions of the branch of the Institute to which
he belonged ; and, yielding to the earnest solicitation of the widow of
Auguste Comte, he consented to write, in addition to his other work,
a biography of that personage.

Born and educated upon the devastated soil of the French Revolu-
tion, Littre had entered upon- life without religious opinions ; indeed,
like the elder Mill, his father had deliberately withheld them from him.
But at the age of forty he read the " System of Positive Philosophy "
by Auguste Comte, and he thus described the impression he received
from it : " This book subjugated me. A conflict arose in my mind
between my old and my new opinions ; the latter triumphed. I be-
came a disciple of the Positive Philosophy, and I have remained so.
For the last twenty years I have been an adept of this philosophy.
The confidence I feel in it has never been shaken. Employed on very
different subjects — history, language, physiology, medicine, erudition
— I have constantly used it as a sort of tool which traces for me the
features, the origin, and the conclusion of each question. It suffices
for everything ; it never deceives me ; it always enlightens me."
This is the' best testimony ever borne to the value of M. Comte's phi-
losophy ; and it is borne by an eminent man, and that man a French-
man. M. Comte has had but little honor in his own country ; he was
detested, despised, and to some extent persecuted in France while
he was alive ; and, with the exception of M. Littre, we have never
•heard that he has obtained any eminent disciple among his own coun-
trymen.

From England, on the contrary, he received solid proofs of sym-
pathy and interest^ for he lived on an English annuity ; and since
his death his works have been carefully translated, and his opinions
vol. xxi. — 43

674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

adopted by some of the young and active minds of the present times.
The French even deny him the merit of originality, and repudiate his
system, probably because they know more of the man than we do.
But we shall leave M. Pasteur to discuss it : " The fundamental prin-
ciple of Auguste Comte is to set aside all metaphysical inquiry into
first and final causes, to reduce all ideas and all theories to fact, and to
restrict the character of certainty to experimental demonstration. His
system includes a classification of the sciences, and a pretended law of
history expressed by the assertion that the conceptions of the human
mind pass successively through three states — the theological, the meta-
physical, and the scientific or positive.

" M. Littre was full of praises of this system and of its author. In
his eyes Auguste Comte was a man destined to hold a great place in
posterity, and the positive philosophy was one of those products of a
century or more which change the level of human thought. If he had
been asked what he esteemed most in the laborious efforts of his life,
Littre would doubtless have replied that it was his sincere and perse-
vering apostolate of positivism. It is not uncommon to find the most
learned of men deluded as to their own chief merits. I confess, there-
fore, that I have formed an estimate of the work of Auguste Comte
differing widely from that of M. Littre. The causes of this divergence
are the result of the very nature of the inquiries which occupied his
life and of those which have exclusively occupied mine.

" The labors of M. Littre were directed to researches in history,
language, and scientific and literary erudition. The subject of these
studies lies entirely in facts belonging to the past, to which nothing
can be added, from which nothing can be subtracted. The method
of observation to be followed in them can seldom lead to strict
demonstrations. Scientific experiment, on the contrary, admits no
others.

" The experimentalist in the conquest of nature is continually op-
posed to facts not yet manifest, and which exist in the potential rudi-
ments of natural laws. The unknown, within the limits of the possi-
ble, and not of the past, is his domain ; and to explore it he employs
that marvelous experimental method, of which it may be said with
truth, not that it suffices for all things, but that it rarely deceives
those who use it aright. The mistake of Auguste Comte and M.
Littre was to confound this method with the simple method of obser-
vation. Unused to experimental philosophy, they use the word ' ex-
perience ' in its ordinary signification, which is by no means its mean-
ing in scientific language. The daily tasks of the man of science lead
him to seek the idea of progress in an idea of invention. I find no
invention in positivism. The mere gradation of the human intellect
and the classification of the sciences have no claim to the title."

M. Littre found a certain repose of mind in the absolute denial by
the positivists of all metaphysical truth. He was, in fact, what is now

LITTER DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAINE. 675

called an agnostic. Without denying the existence of God and the
immortality of the soul, he dismissed them from his thoughts, as sub-
jects incapable of scientific demonstration. To this M. Pasteur re-
plies :

" As for myself, holding that the words ' progress ' and ' invention '
are synonymous, I ask by what new philosophical or scientific dis-
covery the soul of man can be torn from these lofty themes. They
seem to me to be eternal, because the mystery that infolds the uni-
verse, from which they emanate, is itself eternal. . . .

" Positivism errs in more points than in its mistaken method. The
thread of its argument, though apparently close enough, has in it a
vast fault, which the sagacity of M. Littre might have detected. He
frequently remarks, in speaking of positivism from the practical point
of view, 'I call positivism all that is done by society to promote
social organization on a scientific basis, which is the positive con-
ception of the world.' I accept this definition if it be rigorously ap-
plied ; but the great and manifest fault of the system is that it omits
from the positive conception of the world the most important of posi-
tive ideas — that of the infinite.

"Beyond this starry firmament what is there? More skies and
stars. And beyond these ? The human mind, impelled by an irresisti-
ble power, will never cease to ask itself, what lies beyond ? Time and
space arrest it not. At the farthest point attained is a finite boundary,
enlarged from what preceded it ; no sooner is it reached than the im-
placable question returns, returns for ever in the curiosity of man. It
is vain to speak of space, of time, of size unlimited. Those words
pass the human understanding. But he who proclaims the existence
of the infinite — and no man can escape from it — comprehends in that
assertion more of the supernatural than there is in all the miracles of
all religions ; for the conception of the infinite has the twofold char-
acters that it is irresistible and incomprehensible. We prostrate our-
selves before the thought, which masters all the faculties of the under-
standing, and threatens the springs of intellectual life, like the sublime
madness of Pascal. Yet this positive and primordial conception is
gratuitously set aside by positivism, with all its consequences on the
life of human society.

" The conception of the infinite in creation is everywhere irresisti-
bly manifest. It places the supernatural in every human heart. The
idea of God is a form of the idea of the infinite. As long as the mys-
tery of the infinite weighs upon the mind of man, temples will be
raised to it, be the object of adoration Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or
Jesus. Metaphysics are but the study of this commanding notion of
the infinite. The same ideal conception is the faculty which, in pres-
ence of beauty, suggests the perfection of beauty. Science and the
true passion for discovery are the effects of that intense desire to
know, which is inspired by the mystery of the universe. And what is

676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the true source of human dignity, of liberty, of modern democracy,
but the conception of an infinite power, before which all men are
equal ? * There must be,' says M. Littre, ' some spiritual bond of hu-
manity, without which society would lapse into isolated families or
hordes, and be no real society at all.' This spiritual bond, which he
placed in a sort of subordinate religion of humanity, can only consist
in the lofty conception of the infinite, because the spiritual bond must
be one with the mystery of the world."

The genius of M. Littre was essentially analytical. In that spirit
he delighted to trace the uses of words and language to their roots and
filaments ; and he performed that task with consummate ability. But
we discover in his writings no power of constructive reasoning. On
the contrary, he was apt to mistake mere reveries and phantasms for
the laws that govern society and the human mind. Thus in 1850 he
announced " that peace for the next five-and-twenty years was fore-
seen by sociology, and, indeed, that peace was to last throughout the
present period of transition, at the end of which a republican confed-
eration would unite the west of Europe and put an end to armed con-
flicts." In 1878 he was obliged to confess that all bis forecasts were
mere delusions. In the interval four wars had broken out, and the
great monarchies of Germany and Italy had consolidated their power
at the expense of France. We have a profound resj>ect for M. Littre
as a philologist, but he certainly was not a politician nor a philosopher.
That new-fangled term " sociology" covers a multitude of false specu-
lations and puerile blunders.

M. Taine is not a disciple of Auguste Comte, and he professes no
great respect for that positive philosopher. He is rather a follower of
Condillac and the skeptics of the last century ; and, as we have had
occasion to point out in reviewing his works, he attributes, like the
late Mr. Buckle, a sovereign power to matter over mind, and to ex-
ternal circumstances pver the formation of individual and national
character. We have not forgotten his caricature of English literature,
which he ascribes to the carnivorous tastes of the Anglo-Saxon. He
judges of the genius of a nation by its diet and its climate. On the
occasion of his own reception at the Academy, in January, 1880, M.
Taine delivered an eloge of his predecessor, M. de Lomenie, which is
really a masterpiece, unexceptionable in taste and style. ISTo one has
drawn a more faithful and graceful picture of the French society of
the last generation, such as gathered round Madame Recamier at the
Abbaye-aux-Bois. But these things have passed away. M. Dumas,
the eminent chemist, in his reply to the new academician, touched on
the vagaries of a more recent period, and did not leave M. Taine's
materialist philosophy unnoticed.

He told him that " the fanatics of the naturalist school, upsetting
language and placing the physical above the moral side of things, con-
tend that, to judge of a man's work, you must trace his innermost life,

LITTER DUMAS, PASTEUR, AND TAINE. 677

ascertain whether he was born on a calcareous or a granite soil, learn
whether his ancestors and himself have drunk wine, cider, or beer, or
eaten meat, fish, or vegetables — nay, you must penetrate the meanest
details of his existence, and descend from the heights of criticism and
from a scientific system to the gratification of a paltry curiosity."

This sarcasm was not ill-directed to its mark, but M. Dumas went
on : " The physician and the naturalist may teach what is physical in
man, that his nerves are sometimes instruments of pain, and that his
body is but dust. That is their business. But philosophy and elo-
quence should cast their mantle of purple and gold over the baser
aspects of life. It is their business to strengthen the heart of man
and raise his soul to immortality. That is what you tell us has been
done by Mr. Tennyson, the greatest poet of his time, if not of his
country, whom some of his admirers place above Byron and not far
below Shakespeare."

And the old man eloquent went on : " The philosophy of nature
played a considerable part in the events of the last century. The
schools of Greece thought they had penetrated to the elements of all
things ; the Roman poets, in turn, regarded themselves as the inter-
preters of creation ; Diderot and his rivals boasted that they possessed
the universe. But the discoveries of science in our own age prove
that none but the ignorant can suppose that the whole book of wisdom
has been revealed to us. The source of life and its essence are un-
known to us. We have not seized that mysterious link which connects
the body with the mind, and constitutes the unity of individual man.
We have no right to treat man as an abstract being, to disdain his
history, or to attribute to science an influence over the direction of the
moral axis of the world, which its progress does not justify. We
have, it is true, conquered the earth, measured the track of the planets,
calculated the mechanism of the heavens, analyzed the stars, resolved
the nebula?, and followed the eccentric course of comets ; but beyond
those stars, whose light is centuries in reaching us, there are other
orbs whose rays are lost in space ; and farther, farther still, beyond
all limits and all computation, are suns which we shall not behold, and
innumerable worlds hidden from our eyes. After two thousand years
of effort, if we reach the utmost extremity of the universe, which is
but a point in the immensity of space, we are arrested on the thresh-
old of the Infinite, of which we know nothing. ' The nature of man,
his present and future existence, are mysteries impenetrable to the
greatest genius, as well as to the rest of mankind,' said D'Alembert,
at the height of his fame. ' What we know is but little,' said La-
place on his death-bed. Those were the last words of the illustrious
rival of Isewton. Let them also be mine."

The lofty idealism of these speakers repudiated alike the Comtism
of M. Littre, the materialism of M. Taine, and the destructive criticism
of M. Renan. It is no less opposed to that miscalled philosophy of

678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the senses which has found of late years so many able advocates
among the men of science and the younger thinkers of England.
The perceptions of the senses are undoubtedly the only guides we
possess to a knowledge of the material world, and the inferences
drawn from them by the faculties of the understanding are the legiti-
mate conquests of physical science. But they entirely fail to explain
the higher functions of the intellect, which are the domain of meta-
physics ; still less do we derive from the senses the moral laws of jus-
tice, of truth, of charity, of conscience ; and least of all that concep-
tion of the supernatural and the infinite which it is the glory of man
to trace in nature and in the emotions of the soul. Man alone, said
Goethe, is a religious animal, and those who would degrade his nature
to that of the brutes, begin by extinguishing in him the sense of re-
ligion.

These are, in other words, the sentiments expressed by M. Dumas
and M. Pasteur. And who are they who hold this language ? The
one is a chemist, conversant with all the known properties of natural
bodies and the marvelous combinations of the atomic theory which
reduces them all to a few primitive elements. The other is a physi-
ologist who has refuted the theory of spontaneous generation, and es-
tablished on a solid basis that life alone can impart life. They have
both traveled as far on the road of natural science as it will take them ;
they have even enlarged the bounds of physical knowledge. But, ar-
rived at that term of man's labor, they acknowledge that an infinite
horizon of thought, of action, of forces, and of power lies beyond the
scope of sensuous observation. He studies Nature with a careless eye
and a benighted mind who does not perceive that the supernatural lies
in it and above it. For when all is said that science can teach, and all
is done that skill can achieve to cultivate the earth and bring forth its
fruits, one gift remains without which everything else were vain — that
gift which the Supreme Creator has reserved absolutely to himself —
that gift which man and every living creature can take away, but can
never restore — that gift without which this earth would be no more than
the cinder of a planet — the mystery and the miracle of Life. Life is
everywhere ; without life nothing would exist at all : matter would
be the caput mortuum of the universe. With the diffusion of life
creation begins ; and of that act all but a supernatural power is inca-
pable. The seed of cummin you commit to the earth includes it ; the
single grain of wheat shoots up, not only to reproduce itself, but to
multiply its ears a hundred-fold and in successive generations, millions
upon millions of times, and to nourish a world ; the acorn carries in
its little cup a thousand years of vitality ; the midge and the butterfly
that sport for a day upon the rushes and the blossoms enjoy it ; the
laborious earth-worm that builds up the fertile soil of our fields and
gardens has it ; it ascends through all the scale of existence until it
arrives at Man, a being capable of conceiving Infinite Power and hopes

THE CHINESE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 679

of an everlasting future. Yet who shall say what Life is ? What is
the value of a system of philosophy which denies or discards the only
rational solution of the very first problem and condition of our own
existence ? — Edinburgh Review.

•♦•»■

THE CHINESE: THEIE MANKEKS AND CUSTOMS.

THE manners and customs of the Chinese — an extensive subject,
and our canvas a narrow one.

But where to begin ? — Domestic life, religion, war, courts of justice,
schools, literature, are all alike almost unknown. Be chance our guide.
A paper is lying open on our table : it is the " Times." Let us follow
the order of its articles and commence at once with the article of births,
marriages, and deaths.

Births will afford us but little subject for remark. Let us, how-
ever, suppose that the solemn bath appointed for the third day is over,
which would seem to be almost a Chinese baptism, and the mother to
be convalescent. If the offspring be a girl, there will probably be no
rejoicing, but, if a boy, the mother will go in state to the temple fre-
quented by her family and offer thanks to Tien How, the queen of
heaven. The only time it was our fortune while in China to see a
native lady of any standing was on such an occasion. A wife of
Howqua, the son of the celebrated Hong merchant, had gone to the
Temple of Honam to return thanks for the birth of a son. The shrine
in the temple which she was visiting had been founded by the elder
Howqua in honor of his ancestors : it was a lofty hall with roof open
to the beams, closed in the rear and at the sides, but in front opening
with richly carved doors on a raised terrace surrounded by a stone
balustrade and overlooking a square, turfed inclosure containing two
or three fine specimens of the Chinese banyan, or Ficus religiosa, and
a pond of water covered with the broad green leaves and rose-tipped
flowers of the lotus, the sacred plant of Buddha, who is often repre-
sented as seated on its open flower. Crossing this pond and skirting
it were a bridge and gallery of massive stone carving, corresponding
with the balustrades and communicating with the terrace. On the op-
posite side of the gallery was seen the rear of another shrine, colored
of a deep vermilion like the one in front, with its high arched roof
sweeping down like the curved outline of a Tartar tent (from which
the Chinese style of architecture is supposed to be borrowed), and
adorned with dragons, birds, and dolphins in glazed pottery of the
brightest colors. Down either side stretched a line of gloomy clois-
ters communicating with the rest of the building. At one end of the
terrace were two or three small tables arranged with viands placed

680 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon them and surrounded by a considerable party of Chinese, among
whom we noticed several females standing, evidently in attendance
upon some lady, as in China the servants are almost invariably of the
other sex. Knowing the scruples of the Chinese against admitting
foreigners into the presence of the female members of their families,
we turned back, and were on the point of leaving that part of the
temple, no little disappointed at being unable to see the whole of the
building, when two members of the group, one of whom was a son of
Howqua, came forward and requested us to continue our examination,
if we wished. We did so. The shrine at which the ceremony was
going on had been decked with flowers, while on the long, counter-
like altar in front of the figure of the goddess, between the jars of.
porcelain and bronze half filled with sandal-wood ashes in which sticks
of incense were burning, and upon two square pedestals in front of
the altar, were piled up pyramids of fruits and sweetmeats. On either
side of these pedestals were two of smaller size, on each of which was
placed a book apparently of religious service, and by its side a small
wand and a hollow, red, kidney- shaped gourd, which when struck
gave a hollow and not unmusical sound, each blow upon it marking
the repetition of a prayer. These, as it were, formed the lecterns of
the officiating priests ; and between them, facing the central vase on
the high altar, were placed a cushion and a mat on which the fair
devotee might kneel and perform the kotou, or ceremony of kneeling
and touching the ground with the head at certain periods during the
service. At either side of the central door of the shrine stood a large
bronze vase heaped with silvered paper formed into boxes about the
size and shape of steel-pen boxes, and emblematical of bars of Sycee
silver, which is burned at the conclusion of the ceremony as an offering
to the queen of heaven.

On passing out of the shrine, still accompanied by the two Chi-
nese who had joined us, we passed near the banqueting party, when
the lady rose, supported by two of her servants, and, crossing her
hands, saluted us in the Chinese fashion. Of her beauty I can say
nothing ; neither my companion nor myself could remember anything
save a face painted d la Chinoise, and hair tied up in the usual tea-pot
form, dressed with magnificent pearls, jade ornaments, and natural
flowers. The golden lilies, as the inhabitants of the Flowery Kingdom
call the crippled feet of the higher classes of their women, and the
splendidly embroidered robes, attracted our attention far more than
the eyes and features, which doubtless ought to have been our only
consideration.

It is after this festival, not always, of course, celebrated with the
magnificence we have described, that the relatives of the child present
it either with plate, or bangles of silver or gold, on which are in-
scribed the characters signifying long life, honor, and felicity. It is
also at this period that it receives its " milk-name," or the pet name by

THE CHINESE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 681

which it is known in its family, the name by which it is known to
others being only given to it at the completion of its fourth year, when
its education is supposed to commence.

We have all heard the Chinese charged with infanticide. We be-
lieve that crime to be less prevalent with them than it is with us. If
children are ever exposed, as has been seen on a way-side altar near
Honam, we believe that bitter want and a hope that charity would
provide for the child better than the mother could have been the mov-
ing causes. As a general rule, self-interest acts as the strongest bar to
this vice. That the life of the male children should be preserved is most
important, as the Chinese law will compel the sons to maintain their
parents, and, in the event of all the sons dying, no one would be able
to offer that worship at the tomb of the father and mother on which
their happiness in another state is supposed to depend. With the girls
preservation is almost as important, and they are a marketable com-
modity, either as wives or as servants. Indeed, it is no very rare thing
to see a basketful of babies sent down from Canton to Hong-Kong for
sale at prices ranging from two to five dollars. These are all girls ;
and the purchase of one or more of them is generally the first invest-
ment that a Chinese Aspasia makes of her earnings, a speculation sure
ultimately to pay a very large interest on the money sunk.

In denying the existence of infanticide it is necessary to make one
exception. This is among the Tan-kia, or boat-population. These
are a race of people of different descent and different religion from the
Chinese, governed by their own magistrates, and so looked down upon
by the other classes that no child of a boat-woman can compete in the
literary examinations, or, whatever his ability may be, become an as-
pirant for office. This class is excessively superstitious, and we have
heard it stated by missionaries that, when a child belonging to peo-
ple of this class suffers from any lingering malady, and recovery be-
comes hopeless, they will put it to death with circumstances of great
cruelty, believing it to be not their child but a changeling, and fancy-
ing that a demon has taken the place of their offspring for the purpose
of entailing on them expense and trouble for which they could never
get any return.

The next article we come to is marriage : hedged in with formali-
ties in all countries, but in none more so than in China. As we have
just been speaking of the Tan-kia people, let us take Dr. Yvan's ac-
count of one of their marriages, and have done with them :

"In harvest-time," savs the doctor, "anv man of their class who wishes to
marry goes into the next field and gathers a little sheaf of rice, which he fastens
to one of his oars. Then, when he is in presence of the Tan-kia girl of his choice,
he puts his oar into the water, and goes several times round the boat belonging
to the object of his affections. The next day, if the latter accept his homage,
she, in her turn, fastops a bunch of flowers to her oar, and comes rowing about
near her betrothed."

682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The relatives on both sides assemble on board the girl's boat ;
there is a general feast, a great firing of fire-crackers, beating of tom-
toms and burning of joss-paper to frighten off evil spirits, the cup of
union is drunk together, the bride is taken to her new floating home
in a closed sedan of red and gold, and the ceremony is at an end. The
rice in the above case is emblematic of the support promised by the
man, the flowers of the happiness offered by the woman.

Among the pure Chinese, and especially among the higher classes,
the affair is a much longer and more serious one. From the almost
Turkish strictness with which females are secluded, it is comparatively
rare that a couple see each other previous to betrothal, and still more
so that there should be any acquaintance between them. This has
given rise to the necessary employment of a character equivalent to
the bazvalan or marriage-broker of ancient Brittany, to Mr. Foy's
Parisian Matrimonial Agency Office, or the daily marriage advertise-'
ments of our own papers. If your wish is for marriage in the abstract,
the broker will find you a fitting partner first, and negotiate the trans-
fer after. If you are less purely philosophical, and wish to consult
your own tastes as well as the interests and increase of the nation, you
are only to name the party, and the broker becomes your accredited
embassador. There is, however, one preliminary point to be ascer-
tained. Has your intended the same surname as yourself? If so, it
is a fatal difficulty, as the laws of China would not permit the mar-
riage. If, however, she is Chun and you are Le, or she is Kwan or
Yu, and you rejoice in any other patronymic monosyllable, the next
step is for the broker to obtain from each a tablet containing the
name, age, date and hour of birth, etc. These are then taken to a
diviner and compared, to see if the union promises happiness ; if the
answer is favorable (and crossing the palm with silver is found to be
as effectual with fortune-tellers in China as it is elsewhere), and the
gates are equal, that is, if the station and wealth of the two families
are similar, the proposal is made in due form. The wedding-presents
are then sent, and, if accepted, the young couple is considered as le-
gally betrothed. A lucky day must next be fixed for the wedding,
and here our friend the diviner is again called upon. Previous to the
great day the bridegroom gets a new hat and takes a new name, while
the lady, whose hair has hitherto hung down to her heels in a single
heavy plait, at the same time becomes initiated into the style of hair-
dressing prevalent among Chinese married ladies, which consists in
twisting the hair into the form of an exaggerated tea-pot, and support-
ing it in that shape with a narrow plate of gold or jade over the fore-
head, and a whole system of bodkins behind it. On the wedding
morning, presents and congratulations are sent to the bridegroom,
and among the rest a pair of geese ; not sent, as we might imagine,
by some wicked wag or irreclaimable bachelor as a personal reflection
on the intellectual state of his friend, but as an emblem of domestic

THE CHINESE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 683

unity and affection. The ladies, too, in China as well as elsewhere,
indulge in a little fashionable crying on the occasion, and so the rela-
tives of the bride spend the morning with her, weeping over her im-
pending departure, or, more probably, their own spinsterhood. They
do not, however, forget to bring some contributions for her trousseau.
In the evening comes the bridegroom with a whole army of his friends,
a procession of lanterns, a long red cloth or silk tapestry embroidered
with a figure of the dragon, borne on a pole between two men, and a
large red sedan covered with carving and gilding, and perfectly close.
In this the bride is packed up securely out of sight, and the whole
procession, preceded by a band of music and the dragon and closing
with the bride's bandboxes, starts for home. On arrival she is lifted
over the threshold, on which a pan of charcoal is burning, probably in
order to prevent her bringing any evil influence in with her. She then
performs the kotou to her husband's father and mother, worships the
ancestral tablets of her new family, and offers prepared betel-nut to
the assembled guests. Up to this time she has been veiled, but she
now retires to her chamber, where she is unveiled by her husband ;
she then returns, again performs obeisance to the assembled guests,
and partakes of food in company with her husband ; at this meal two
cups of wine, one sweetened, the other with bitter herbs infused in it,
are drunk together by the newly married pair, to symbolize that hence-
forth they must share together life's sweets and bitters. The bride
then retires, escorted by the matrons present, some one of whom re-
cites a charm over her, and arranges the marriage-couch. The next
morning the gods of the household and the hearth are worshiped, and
the six following days are devoted to formal receptions at home of
different members of the two families or equally formal visits paid to
the family of the bride. During the whole of this period she still
travels in her red-and-gold sedan, and is still escorted by her band of
music and dragon.

Such are the ceremonies with which the chief or number one wife
is espoused, and of this rank there can be but one. Taste and depth
of pocket give the only limit to the number of subsidiary wives that
may be taken. These are married with far less ceremony than the
first, are often from a different class of society, being literally pur-
chased, and act to a certain extent as servants or attendants to the
chief wife. They are, however, legal wives, with recognized rights
and position ; their children are legitimate, and inherit in equal shares
with those of the first wife. Indeed, this last is considered as the
mother of the whole family, and the children are bound to. display
toward her more reverence than even toward their natural parent.

But even in the Flowery Land, people sometimes find that the bit-
ter predominates over the sweet in the cups of alliance, and that the
geese borne in the marriage procession are emblematical of something
else besides domestic affection. In a word, they occasionally want to

684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be unmarried. And really they have made a very fair provision for
enabling themselves to loose the knot. ISTot only do they admit such
grounds of divorce as would satisfy Sir Cresswell Cresswell, but they
add to them inveterate infirmity, disrespect to the husband's parents,
thieving, and, most comprehensive class of all, ill-temper and talka-
tiveness. However, if the husband has acquired property since his
marriage, if the wife has no parental home to which she may return,
or if she has mourned for her husband's parents, divorce can not take
place. It is one of the many exemplifications of the Chinese maxim
that the laws should be severe, but tempered with mercy in their ad-
ministration.

There is, however, another dissolution of marriage over which law
has no power — that which is effected by the hand of death. The
widow is not forbidden to remarry, but by so doing she loses many
privileges, and her conduct is considered somewhat light and irregu-
lar. Nature, however, will occasionally speak louder than fashion,
and it may be worth while to repeat the tale told by Chwangtsze, the
great Chinese philosopher.

A Chinaman died soon after his marriage with a young and lovely
woman. As he was dying, the wife was loud in her protestations of
grief, and her determination not to marry again. The husband was
not unreasonable ; he only asked that if she did take another spouse
she would wait till the earth upon his grave was dry. He died and
was buried ; and many a young and handsome bachelor of the prov-
ince of Shantung was present at his funeral. She listened to no
suitor, for woman's heart is tender, and she could not so soon forget
the lost one. Daily she stole to his grave. She wept, but no tear
fell upon the soil, she took good care of that. At last, after a few
days, Chwangtsze happened to pass, and saw her fanning, not herself,
but the damp earth. He asked the reason. She told him of her hus-
band's last request, and begged him to assist her. She offered him a
fan to assist her, and there they sat to fan away the moisture : the
grave was so long a-drying !

Poor Chwang ! He was not much more lucky himself. He did
not take the widow, but neither did he take warning. The geese
were carried for him, and were very typical of himself. He had
nothing to do for it at last but to quit political life, in which he had
gained some distinction, and turn philosopher. But we will have "no
more scandal about Queen Elizabeth," lest rosy English cheeks should
take the part of China's golden lilies, as we have known widows at
home almost in as great a hurry as those of the province of Shantung.

But even to the poor Chinaman death must come at last, even
though there is no paper in Canton, so far as we know, to furnish a
notice of his life and death, and to publish an abstract of his will, as
is the case in more civilized countries. To him it comes armed with
few terrors, so long as he leaves behind him male offspring to make

THE CHINESE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 685

the prescribed offerings at his tomb. We have stood by many a
Chinese death-bed, and though the dying man might " prattle o' green
fields," and fancy himself once more surrounded by his friends amid
the peach-groves of Hiang Shan, while his frail body was tossing on
the stormy waves of the Indian Ocean, yet there was no sign of dread
with regard to the future that awaited him. But there, far out at
sea, there was no opportunity for witnessing the ritual of death But
one brief hour after the eye has glazed, and the jaw has fallen, the
canvas-shrouded and shotted corpse takes its last plunge into the
blue ocean depths, without a prayer, without a rite save the few cash
sprinkled by his remaining comrades over his watery tomb.

On shore a very different spectacle is presented. As the last hour
draws near, the relatives wander round the house with cries, the gong
is incessantly beaten, and packet after packet of fire-crackers gives
out its short, sharp series of detonations, sounding like irregular
platoon-firing, to frighten away the evil spirits supposed to be watch-
ing round the house to seize the departing soul ; while, within, upon
the filming eye the smoke of the ever-burning incense mingles with
death's gray shadow. The eye has closed, the spirit has departed, and
now every door and window is flung wide open, and the " keen " rises
wildly to recall the wandering guest to its deserted tenement. And
now the death is announced to all the relatives ; the door is hung with
white drapery, and down each lintel hangs a scroll of white, on which
appear funereal inscriptions in blue. Large blue-and-white lanterns
are hung on either side of the entrance, and probably a bamboo
portico, thatched with matting, is erected to preserve lanterns, inscrip-
tions, and garlands from the weather. Should it be a parent who has
passed away, two figures of the stork, the emblem of longevity, appear
amid the decorations. The relatives of the deceased, robed in white,
and with white cloths bound about their heads, now go in procession
to the nearest spring or river ; before them is supported the nearest
heir of the deceased, wearing a white veil, showing signs of the deep-
est affliction, and bearing in his hand a bowl in which are two copper
coins, whose united value is about half a farthing. This company,
uttering the most dismal howls, and having in its train musicians
whose performances are scarcely less doleful, has gone to purchase
water to wash the dead. This ceremony having been performed, the
body is dressed as in life, and placed in its coffin, which has previously
been half -filled with quicklime. The lid is then put on, and cemented
down, the whole of it being afterward highly polished, and the name
of the deceased inscribed upon it.

The coffin, it may be as well to remark, is not a slight shell like
those in use among us, but is either a hollowed tree or made in the
form of one — the sides being rounded, and five or six inches in thick-
ness. They are formed of very hard and costly woods, reaching oc-
casionally the price of five hundred pounds. A handsome coffin is

686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

considered as acceptable a birthday present as a son can offer to his
father, and coffins so given are often preserved unused for years.

The coffin having been closed, it is covered with a white cloth, and
watched for twenty-one days. During this period a small red board,
with the names of the deceased in raised gilt letters, standing on a
pedestal, and having an opening in the back, stands near the corpse,
and is the object of a species of worship. It is called the ancestral
tablet, and the hole in the back of it is intended to give admission to
the spirit which is supposed to inhabit it. Should the family possess
no available burial-ground, a diviner is consulted to choose some lucky
spot for a tomb, which must be outside a town, and generally at some
distance from it, a favorite spot being on the slope of a hill overlook-
ing water. The tombs are formed in the shape of a horseshoe, con-
sisting of a flat platform, under which the body is laid, surrounded
by a raised wall, in the center of which a stone is placed, bearing a
copy of the inscription on the ancestral tablet. Of course, the degree
of ornament about the tomb depends in great measure on the rank and
wealth of the deceased.

It by no means follows, however, that the body is buried at the
close of the twenty-one days. The necessity to choose a lucky site,
or the wish to transport the coffin to some distant burial-ground, may
cause delays ; and cases have been known where the delay has arisen
from less justifiable motives. The Chinese law will not enforce the
payment of rent so long as the body of the tenant's grandfather re-
mains unburied in the house ; nor is a man's property distributed till
his funeral rites are completed. Hence the necessity which sometimes
arises of taking legal steps to compel the burial.

Under different circumstances, the body of the great viceroy Yeh
lay for months unburied. Let us give a description of his coffin, as
it was not many months ago. A few rods outside the east gate of
Canton, back from the street, stands an unpretending Taonist temple.
A plain, unornamented gate opens the way into a long, narrow in-
closure, which leads up to the shrine. The grounds seem deserted,
save that one old Chinaman stands by the inner gate. He is no door-
keeper, but a street beggar. Yeh, the viceroy of Canton, has no door-
keepers now.

We pass beneath another archway, and up a passage hung with
white, till- we reach the apartment of the dead. Here, at length, we
meet a few attendants, and a Taonist priest officiates as our guide.
He leads us into a small hall about twenty-five feet by twenty, hung
with blue cloth, on which funereal inscriptions are embroidered in
white silk. An altar stands in the middle of the room, on which are
placed some dozen bowls of cooked vegetables and piles of artificial
fruit, and sticks of burning incense. Behind the altar is a tablet of
white silk on which are embroidered the names and titles of the late
viceroy, and behind this, again, a curtain hangs from the roof to the

SKETCH OF THOMAS SAY. 687

ground. We raise and pass the curtain, and before us stands the
coffin.

It is a plain box, but of great size, being twelve feet in length and
four in thickness, each side consisting of a single slab of hard and
costly wood brought from the province of Sze Chuen, far in the inte-
rior. Its cost was over fifteen hundred dollars. The man who for
years ruled with a rod of iron — before whose mandate one hundred
thousand heads fell in the execution-ground of Canton, whose diplo-
matic skill baffled for years the ministers of European powers, who,
when his city was little better than a ruin and a desert, could not fight,
and would not yield lest he should betray the prestige of the inviola- .
bility of Canton, after all his power, skill, and obstinacy — lies unhon-
ored and almost unattended without the walls of the city which he
could rule but could not save.

But we must hasten to a close. The grave having been fixed upon
and the day for interment appointed, an altar is prepared in the room
in which the body lies, and upon it are piled fruits and cakes, while in
front of it we see a roast pig and a goat, the two latter being often made
in lacquer- ware, and hired for the occasion. At the door are placed mu-
sicians, and from time to time large masses of silvered paper are burned
at the entrance of the room. The body is then escorted to the tomb,
all the mourners dressed in white, and the offerings, pig, goat, and all,
form part of the pageant. But the principal object is the ancestral
tablet, borne in a red shrine, and often accompanied by the figures of
the household gods. On reaching the grave some religious ceremonies
are performed, large quantities of silvered and gilt paper, and imita-
tions of clothes, ships, etc., are burned, this being the readiest way of
supplying the wants of the deceased, and forwarding his luggage to
the spirit-land. The provisions furnish forth a feast, the coffin is in-
terred, and the ancestral tablet borne back to the ancestral hall, where
we will leave it, until the return of the period for the worship of the
dead leads us back to the now closing grave. — Temple Bar.

-+*+-

SKETCH OF THOMAS SAY.

By J. S. KINGSLEY.

THOMAS SAY, the father of American zoology, was born in Phil-
adelphia, July 27, 1787. Of his youth we know comparatively
nothing. At an early age his parents, who were Quakers, placed him
in a boarding-school under the control of the Friends, but Say did not
take kindly to the instruction there provided, and acquired nothing
but a most intense dislike for his teachers and for all ordinary branches
of study. We are justified in ascribing this antipathy on his part to

688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the incompetency of the instructors, for in after-years Say showed an
ability and a desire to learn which only the most repressing circum-
stances could have checked in his youth. Dr. Benjamin Say, the
father, was an apothecary, in moderate circumstances ; and young Say,
after leaving school, was placed for a time behind the counter of his
father's shop. After he had acquired some knowledge of the drug
business, his father established him in trade with John Speakman,
who was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia. Through Speakman, Say was induced to join the society, and
with this act he began a life of science which has left its impress on
every branch of natural history.

Say is considered as one of the founders of the Philadelphia Acad-
emy, but this is not exactly so. The academy was founded January
12, 1812, while Say was not elected to membership until April of
that year, and his first attendance at the meetings was on April 16,
1812. What was his surprise, on entering the temple of science, to
find the whole collection of specimens consisting of " some half a dozen
common insects, a few madrepores and shells, a dried toad-fish, and a
stuffed monkey ! — a display of objects of science calculated rather to
excite merriment than to procure respect." In fact, the academy was
a social organization. This is shown by its first constitution, the pre-
amble of which runs somewhat as follows (we quote from memory) :
" Whereas, we believe that we can obtain the same amount of pleasure
and enjoyment, and at a less exj)ense, around a common fireside and a
common candle, than we can, each at his own fire and beside his own
light," etc. With the advent of Say to membership this was soon
changed, and the academy took its place among the scientific bodies of
the world, a place which it has since occupied, though at times it has
seemed to many of its friends that it was not doing the work which it
ought. At present, under the able presidency of Dr. Leidy, it j)rom-
ises to take a higher stand than it ever has in the past.

Long before joining the academy, Say had acquired a familiarity
with the forms of beetles and butterflies, but without reducing his
knowledge to systematic order. ISTow, on joining a scientific society,
he began those investigations on the American fauna which only
ceased with his death. His partner, Speakman, fully sympathized
with his passion for nature, and willingly did the labor of both in the
shop, so that Say might devote all his time and energies to his favorite
studies. Soon, however, this comfortable arrangement was brought
to an end ; the firm of Speakman and Say, in an evil hour, indorsed for
friends, and, as a not unnatural result, came to grief. Say then took
up his residence in the rooms of the society, making his bed on the
floor, cooking his own food, and living at an expense at times not
exceeding seventy-five cents a week. Had he, like Thoreau, given an
account of his life at this time, it would have been an interesting
chapter.

SKETCH OF THOMAS SAY. 689

In 1816 he projected a work on American entomology, and in
the next year six plates and the accompanying text were printed,
but, from a lack of proper pecuniary support, the project for the
time fell through, and the work was not properly published until a
later date. In 1817 William Maclure and several other men of influ-
ence and property joined the academy, and through their efforts the
" Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia " was
started, and Say began his long list of contributions to knowledge.
No complete list of his papers has been published, but the number
aggregates nearly one hundred.

In 1818 Say, in company with William Maclure, George Ord, and
Titian R. Peale, visited Georgia and Florida on a collecting expedition,
and in the next year Say received an appointment as naturalist on
Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, with Peale as an assistant.
Peale is now the only survivor of either expedition, and at a ripe old
age continues his scientific labors. The writer has heard many an
anecdote of these trips from him. Long's expedition left Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, in May, on a steamboat built for the purpose, and pro-
ceeded as far as Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they spent the winter.
Daring the next year they went to the Rocky Mountains, and, return-
ing by another route, broke up at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in No-
vember. Say appears to have been unfortunate on this expedition.
At one time he was in charge of a party of five, making a trip on foot,
when the pack-horse broke loose, and they lost both horse and bag-
gage. Later, in charge of another party, he fell in with a number of
Kansas Indians, and again lost horses, baggage, and camp equipments.
The narrative of Long's expedition was published in two octavo vol-
umes and folio atlas (Philadelphia, 1823), and some of Say's descrip-
tions of the animals and " animal remains found in a concrete state "
were given in foot-notes scattered through both volumes.

After the disruption of the party, Say, in company with one or
two others, went to New Orleans, and soon returned to Philadelphia.
His next trip was with Long's second expedition, which explored
the sources of the Mississippi River ; but, with the exception of this
and one or two minor expeditions, the next few years were spent in
Philadelphia.

In 1825 Say left his native city, never to return. William Maclure,
who was a man of wealth and refinement, but considerably eccentric
withal, had an idea that the " community system " was the true way
of living, and, unlike some other dreamers, he proceeded to put his
plans into execution. A large tract of land was purchased at New
Harmony, Indiana, and there the community was started. Numbers
of people, among them Thomas Say, Gerard Troost, and C. A. Lesueur,
influenced by the arguments of the projectors and the glowing accounts
of the happy life to be led by a people possessing all things in common
and working for a common good, removed themselves and theirs to
vol. xxi. — 44

690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this modern Utopia. The community, however, did not prosper ; in-
ternal dissensions, as might have been expected, sprang up, and the
aid of the courts was invoked. Maclure, utterly disgusted, went to
Mexico, and left Say at New Harmony as his agent, to attend to the
settling of the affairs of the community. This was not an agreeable
task, but, without other means of support, Say was obliged to accept,
and continued in this position until his death. This stay at New Har-
mony was not a period of scientific idleness on the part of Say, as the
numerous contributions which proceeded from his pen attest.

At his death his collections arid library came into the possession of
the Philadelphia Academy. The insects were submitted to another
entomologist for arrangement, but through an unpardonable neglect
were allowed to go to complete ruin before their return to the academy,
and the types of hundreds of species were thus irrevocably lost. The
remainder of his types are principally the property of the Philadelphia
Academy, where they are as religiously preserved with his own labels
as are those of Linne and Fabricius in London, or of Herbst in Berlin.
The number of new species which Say described has probably never
been exceeded, except in the cases of those two exceedingly careless
workers, John Edward Gray and Francis Walker, of the British Mu-
seum. There is this in Say's favor, which can not be said of the two
just mentioned, that his descriptions are, almost without exception,
easily recognized, and almost every form which he described is now
well known. Working as he did without books, and without that
traditional knowledge which obtains among the Continental workers,
it was unavoidable that he should redescribe forms which were known
before ; but, owing to the clear insight he possessed, and the dis-
crimination he exercised in selecting the important features of the
form before him, his work has never caused that confusion in syn-
onymy which many in much more favorable circumstances have pro-
duced.

Say's work was almost wTholly the scientific description of the
forms 'which came under his eye, and there is scarcely anything in his
writings concerning the habits of animals, or which appeals in the
slightest to the popular taste, and his language frequently is not of
chaste and classic character. An extract from his " American Ento-
mology " will illustrate this : " During the progress of Major Long's
expedition up the Missouri, that enterprising and excellent officer in-
trusted me with the direction of a small party of thirteen persons,
destined to explore the country on the south side of that extended
river. After encountering many obstacles and privations, which it is
unnecessary to enumerate, the party arrived at the village of the
Konza Indians, hungry, fatigued, and out of health. Commiserating
our situation, these sons of nature, although suffering under the injus-
tice of white people, received us with their characteristic hospitality,
and ameliorated our condition by the luxuries of repletion and repose.

SKETCH OF THOMAS SAY. 691

Whilst sitting in the large earth-covered dwelling of the principal
chief, in presence of several hundred of his people, assembled to view
the arms, equipments, and appearance of our party, I enjoyed the
additional gratification to see an individual of this fine species of
Blaps running toward us from the feet of the crowd. The act of
impaling this unlucky fugitive at once conferred upon me the respect-
ful and mystic title of * medicine-man ' from the superstitious faith
of that simple people."

Say's two principal works, published separately, were his "Ameri-
can Entomology " in three volumes (Philadelphia, 1824-1828), with
fifty-four colored plates ; and his " American Conchology," of which
only six parts appeared previous to his death. The work on ento-
mology was a credit to himself and to the printer, while almost the
only merit possessed by the latter work was the fine plates from the
pencil of Mrs. Say. Mr. Say's other published papers will be found
in the " Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,"
"Transactions of the American Philosophical Society," "Maclurean
Lyceum," "Nicholson's Encyclopa3dia," " American Journal of Science
and Art," " Western Quarterly Reporter," reports of Long's expedi-
tions, and several papers which were published separately at New Har-
mony. His entomological papers have been collected and reprinted,
with annotations, by Dr. J. L. Le Conte, in two octavo volumes (New
York, 1869).

Besides the work which appears in connection with his own name,
almost all of the publications of Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte,
while in America, were corrected and arranged for the press by Say.
This and other work made such calls upon his time that almost all of
his own work was the product of the midnight hours ; and this, in con-
nection with his wicked disregard of the demands of his stomach, so
undermined his constitution that, when attacked by a fever in his
Western home, he had not the strength to rally, and on October 10,
1834, he passed away.

According to the testimony of all who knew him, Mr. Say was a
most pleasant and agreeable companion, a thorough student, and a man
of the most unpretentious manner. Always ready to assist a friend,
his stores of knowledge were freely opened to those who asked, and
information was cheerfully granted to all inquirers.

692 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLT.

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES.

Spanish Enterprise. — Peter Bayle holds that it is sufficient for the glory

: i nation to have produced one superlative man in every department of human
merit, and by that rule the Spaniards can hardly be charged with a want of en-
terprise. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the autos-da-fe of the
Infallible Church had turned Southern Europe into a moral cinder-heap, a Spanish
_._:.eman. by the name of B edra, and possibly a relative of the immortal
I _■ ir".. resolved to profit by the prevailing tendency of the age and graft his fort-
une upon the one flourishing branch of human industry. After devoting a few
ura to the art of counterfeiting handwritings and the selection of discreet ac-
complices, he suddenly appeared at Lisbon with a train of a hundred and twenty
foil: i ~-.-r». and presented his credentials as a papal plenipotentiary. The spread
: heresy, he informed the astonished king, called for extraordinary measures,
and his Holiness had resolved to invest the Cass. Santa with discretionary pow
and had sent him as a special legate with instructions to institute immediate pro-
EmgB igainst the prominent heretics, Moslem and Jews, of the kingdom.
S me three thousand persons were summoned before the new tribunal, and, while
the bewildered authorities prepared a protest against the threatened innovation,
the bailiffs of the legate had arrested six hundred suspects, and forcibly collected
two hundred thousand crowns as fines for contempt of court. When the rela-
:s of the prisoners expostulated in rather emphatic terms, the legate expressed
his regret at the necessity : fining them too; and, when the discontent threat-
ened to assume the form of a general revolt, the plenipotentiary considered it
- painful duty to arrest the ringleader? is abettors of heresy, and, after a formal
trial and the confiscation of their property, three hundred of the malcontents
" tally burned at the stake, June. 1539. The tribunal was just preparing
to fine the entire city of Lisbon, when by some indiscretion of a tax-collector
the imj store was discovered, but, when the citizens flew to arms, the man of
God had disappeared. He was afterward captured near Seville and sent to the
galleys, but, in consideration of his zeal in behalf of the holy faith, he was soon
loned, and the Pope, moreover, confirmed the decrees of the extemporized
tribunal, and, as Voltaire remarks, thus rendered sacred what before was merely
human.

Had the Ancients Cheap Boolcst* — Mr. S. E. Dawson remarks, in his

tare on copyright, that it is a very common error to suppose that the ancient
world was very badly supplied with books — to transfer to the times of Greek,
Roman, and Egyptian civilization the darkness and dearth of mediaeval Europe.
7 : : - in those da; ry gentleman's house had its library and every

y had its public library. In every wealthy household was a servant to read
id and another to copy books. Atticus, Cicero's friend, kept a large number
- and made a good deal of money by the sale of the books
- manufactured. In those days a publisher or bookseller kept a staff of skilled
slaves. When a book was to be published one of these read and the others
wrote, and in that manner, by the means of cheap slave-labor, large editions of
books were published. The literary activity of the countries round the Medi-
terranean was very great, and we underestimate it. Horace has preserved for us

EXTERTAIXIXG VARIETIES. 693

the names of the booksellers in whose shops he used to lounge. Martial refers
a shabby fellow called Lupercus (who wanted to borrow his epigrams) to his
bookseller Atrectus. He tells him the shop is "opposite the forum of Caesar,
and placards are posted outside giving the names of poets,"' evidently as is the
custom of booksellers to this day. The price of the volume — the first book of his
epigrams — he says is five denarii, equivalent to three shillings and sixpence ster-
ling. Now, this first book contains one hundred and nineteen epigrams, or over
seven hundred verses. It appears elsewhere that cheaper copies were provided.
Martial refers to copies well rubbed with pumice and adorned with purple. The
cheaper copies could be had at half that price, but this was in the best style.
So that if we compare the price with the published price in England of "Maud,"
or any of the original small volumes of Tennyson's poems, which were issued at
five or six shillings, the Roman publisher does not seem to be much dearer than
the English one.

The first evidence on record of an author s right of copy is in the case

of " Paradise Lost." This transaction is usually misrepresented. The bargain
was that Simmons was to pay £5 cash, £5 more when thirteen hundred copies
were sold, and £5 each for the second and third editions. It took seven years
to sell the first thirteen hundred copies, and in 1680 Milton's widow sold her
interest for £8 more.

In reference to his conversion, Sir Charles Lyell says: "The question

of the origin of species gave me much to think of, and ycu may well believe that
it cost me a struggle to renounce my old creed. One of Darwin's reviewers put
the alternative strongly by asking ' whether we are to believe that man is modi-
fied mud or modified monkey.' The mud is a great come-down from the ' arch-
angel ruined.' Even in ten years I expect, if I live, to hear of great progress
in regard to l fossil man.' "

Broderip says that, in spite of all the dogs and cats which float down

the Thames, none of their remains have been found in recent excavations in the
Thames deposits.

An Earthly Paradise. — Unless the Garden of Eden was planted in the

very happiest latitude, the work of the gods seems for once to have been ex-
celled by the achievement of a mortal. Toward the end of the tenth century.
Abderrahman III. the Caliph of Cordova, conceived the idea of turning a whole
mountain-range into a pleasure-park. On the heights of the Sierra de Penas he
built the famous Hischam Ptussava, the summer-castle, with a pedestal of mas-
sive terraces girt with lakes and artificial cascades. The western slope of the
Sierra, according to Ibn Caldir, an area of forty square leagues, was planted with
all the trees known to the Arabian botanists — palms, laurels, chestnuts, oaks.
and mountain-firs — all ranged in groves at different altitudes, according to the
higher or lower latitude of their natural habitats. Ship-loads of foreign plants
were landed at the harbor of Alicante, and the transport of these botanic cargoes
is said to have employed sixty caravans for more than four years. " Not Shiraz,
nor Araby the Blest, had such a wealth of odoriferous shrubs," says the his-
torian ; roses trained into trees, copses of lilac and jasmine-bushes loaded the
air with perfume, and the Cordova gardeners seem to have known a method for
ripening winter crops without hot-houses, for the orchards of the lower slopes
furnished a perennial supply of fresh fruit. On the upper levels the Caliph had
his game-preserves* in vast plantations of pinaoetes, a sort of Alpine fir that
formed almost impenetrable thickets, while the highest crest of the Sierra was

694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

laid out in pleasure-walks, mountain-meadows alternating with groups of cedar-
trees and rocky altamiras or lookout-places. Special buildings Lad been pro-
vided for the acclimatization, or rather localization, of whole colonies of singing-
birds, which were bred in-doors for a number of years till they were tame
enough to be trusted at large. From the summer-palace, at an elevation of
three thousand feet over the level of the Guadalquivir, an avenue led down to
the east gate of Cordova by such nice gradations that the road-bed seemed to be
a perfect level, and from various directions shady trails, apparently artless, but
equally well graded, wound up to the summit of the mountain-range, where the
Caliph had an astronomical observatory.

Landgrave Wilhelni of Hesse-Cassel built his mountain-palace on the pro-
ceeds of six thousand of his faithful subjects, sold to England at sixty-five pounds
apiece, but Abderrahman III had no need of killing his fowls to get their eggs.
During the reign of the first three caliphs, Cordova was, next to Bagdad, the
richest city of the world ; the valley of the Guadalquivir contained thirty-six
towns and eighteen hundred prosperous villages, and the contemporary his-
torians of the West vie in extolling the beauty and luxuriance of the Boscdl, the
orchard-region that surrounded the Moorish capital with a wreath of evergreen
gardens.

The Sierra de Penas is now a naked rock, Cordova a labyrinth of ruins, in-
fested with pigs and begging friars, and the observatory of the impious Uni-
tarians has been turned into a shrine of San Isidro. The Boscal has become a
sandy desert, but on the south side of the river there are still some good bottom-
lands, and the thrice-blessed cherry-trees of the orthodox peasants continue to
yield an excellent kind of brandy.

Starting a New Religion. — Professor Seeley remarks, in his new book on

" Natural Religion " : " It is said that the theophilanthropist Larevellere-Lepeaux
once confided to Talleyrand his disappointment at the ill-success of his attempt
to bring into vogue a sort of improved Christianity, a benevolent rationalism
which he had invented to meet the wants of a skeptical age. ' His propaganda
made no way,' he said. 'What was he to do?' he asked. The ex-bishop
politely condoled with him, feared it was indeed a difficult task to found a new
religion, more difficult than could be imagined — so difficult that he hardly knew
what to advise. ' Still ' — so he went on after a moment's reflection — ' there is
one plan which you might at least try: I should recommend you to he crucified
and rise again on the third day ! ' "

Seeley on Theological Differences.— -"Why should we be so willful as to

forget that the error of monstrously overestimating doctrinal differences has
been all along the plague of theology ? There can be no greater mistake than to
measure the real importance of a dispute by the excitement of the disputants.
It has often been remarked of theological controversies that they are never con-
ducted more bitterly than when the difference between the rival doctrines is
very small. This is nearly correct, but not quite. If you want to see the true
white heat of controversial passion, if you want to see men fling away the very
thought of reconciliation and close in internecine conflict, you should look at
controversialists who do not differ at all, but who have adopted different words
to express the same opinion."

Origin of the Aral Horse.— Letter of the Emir Abd-el-Kader, from

"The Horses of the Sahara," by General E. Dumas, 1857:
" Praise be to the one God !

ENTERTAINING VARIETIES. 695

" To him who remains ever the same amid the revolutions of this world :
" To our friend General Dumas.

" Peace be with you, through the mercy and blessing of Allah, on the part of
the writer of this letter, on that of his mother, his children, their mother, of all
the members of his family and of all his associates.

u To proceed : I have read your questions, I address to you my answers.

" You ask me for information as to the origin of the Arab horse. You are
like unto a fissure in a land dried up by the sun, and which no amount of rain,
however abundant, will ever be able to satisfy.

"Nevertheless, to quench, if possible, your thirst (for knowledge), I will this
time go back to the very head of the fountain. The stream is there always the
freshest and most pure.

"Know, then, that among us it is admitted that Allah created the horse out
of the wind, as he created Adam out of mud.

" This can not be questioned. Several prophets — peace be with them ! —
have proclaimed what follows :

'* When Allah willed to create the horse, he said to the south wind :

" 'I will that a creature should proceed from thee — condense thyself! ' and
the wind condensed itself. Then came the angel Gabriel, and he took a hand-
ful of this matter and presented it to Allah, who formed of it a dark bay or a
dark chestnut horse (koummite — red mingled with black), saying:

" ' I have called thee horse (frass) ; I have created the Arab, and I have be-
stowed Upon thee the color koummite. I have attached good fortune to the hair
that falls between thy eyes. Thou shalt be the lord (sid) of all other animals.
Men shall follow thee wheresoever thou goest. Good for pursuit as for flight,
thou shalt fly without wings. Upon thy back shall riches repose, and through
thy means shall wealth come.'

" Then he signed him with the sign of glory and of good fortune (ghora, a
star in the middle of the forehead)."

Carlyle on Liberty. — Caroline Fox, in her " Memories of Old Friends,"

gives a vivid sketch of her last meeting with Carlyle, whose " look and most of
his talk were so dreary," at Mentone. After railing " at the accursed train,
with its devilish howls and yells, driving one distracted," Carlyle went on:
"Oh! this cry for liberty! liberty! — which is just liberty to do the devil's
work, instead of binding him with ten thousand bands — just going the way of
France and America, and that sort of places. "Why, it is all going down-hill as
fast as it can go, and of no significance to me — I have done with it. I can take
no interest in it at all, nor feel any sort of hope for the country. It is not the
liberty to keep the ten commandments that they are crying out for — that used
to be enough for the genuine man — but liberty to carry out their own prosper-
ity, as they call it. And so there is no longer anything genuine to be found. It
is all shoddy. Go into any shop you will, and ask for any article, and ye'll find
it all one enormous lie. The country is going to perdition at a frightful pace.
I give it about fifty years yet to accomplish its fall."

696

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

WEAL THY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGA TOES.

THE appearance of Sir John Lub-
bock's remarkable book on " Ants
and Bees" lias awakened some inter-
esting discussion as to why there are
not more such authors, and why, espe-
cially, we have no representatives of
the class in this country. Sir John
Lubbock is a man of wealth, who could,
if he pleased, " enjoy " his liberal
means — that is, spend his time in dig-
nified idleness or elegant amusement ;
but he finds his pleasure, on the con-
trary, in all kinds of hard work, and,
although he takes abundant relaxation,
he never wastes an hour. The " Scien-
tific American " remarks that we have
a wealthy, idle class of men, who have
no need to labor with hand or head,
and who are free from every care.
But, impelled by fashion, hundreds of
such young men are to-day scouring the
Adirondacks, or shooting the rapids of
the St. Lawrence, and boring themselves
to death in quest of amusement, because
" it is quite the thing, you know."
Here is the- material from which natu-
ralists a :d independent investigators of
nature ought to be recruited in this
country.

To such men Sir John Lubbock has
set a noble example. Something — much,
indeed, is to be first of all allowed to
genius, but more is to be allowed to a
dominant purpose, and the unremitting
assiduity which is pleasurable when
there is a cultivated interest in the sub-
ject. There is an all-sided activity in
this case which is quite remarkable.
To begin with, Sir John Lubbock is by
profession a banker, and so thoroughly
a man of business as to be not only a
successful money-maker, but a leading
reformer of the English banking sys-
tem. His important work in this direc-

tion is thus well summed up in the
" Whitehall Eeview " :

He has made two great landmarks in the
history of banking which will always be
associated with his name. One of these is
the bank holiday ; the other, the institution
of the clearing-house of country hanks, by
which the benefits long known in the city
of London were extended to all parts of the
country. All the honors that the banking
world could confer upon him have been lib-
erally bestowed. He is the president of the
Institute of Bankers, with its two thousand
members, and holds the peculiar and remark-
able position of honorary secretary of the
London Association of Bankers. He is thus
, the medium between the banks and the Gov-
; ernment, and the chosen exponent of the
: views of hankers in relation to Government.
' Then, he has instituted a system of examina-
I tion for bankers' clerks corresponding to the
| civil-service examinations. Sir John was a
', member of the Internationa] Coinage Com-
mittee appointed by Government, and he is
j the author of a great variety of papers in
financial literature.

And yet all this is but the subordi-
nate and incidental part of Sir John
, Lubbock's work. He is pre-eminently
1 a scientific investigator, and it is as
■ such that he will be chiefly known in
the future. A sagacious, patient, plod-
ding observer of minute phenomena,
he is at the same time a comprehensive
original thinker, and had made a world-
wide reputation by his researches into
prehistoric archaeology before he en-
tered upon the systematic study of the
social hymenoptera, the results of
which are but just published.

If, now, we press the question why
there are not more such men, particu-
larly in this country, in the ranks of
science, and helping forward its work,
it will be an evasion to answer that it
is for lack of native capacity or the
talent for such labor. We have plenty
of this good mind running to waste

EDITOR'S TABLE.

697

that might do invaluable service in
the extension and diffusion of scien-
tific knowledge. The difficulty is a
lack of sufficient interest in such things
to resist other solicitations. We do
not begin early enough with the study
of science to form deep, persistent con-
trolling impressions. Other subjects
get the start, and the loss of ground
can not be subsequently recovered. Sir
John Lubbock recognizes that this is a
great deficiency of education in Eng-
land, and he has again and again brought
forward measures in Parliament for
extending and rationalizing scientific
study in the primary schools, so as to
lay a better foundation for this mental
pursuit in later life. We suffer sorely
from the same neglect. Our primary-
school science is not genuine; it is
book-science, and awakens no feeling
or enthusiasm for the study of natural
things. Our rich young men, however
nominally educated, have never serious-
ly taken hold of the study of nature,
and, of course, care nothing about it.
Intellectual ambition, therefore — and
we have plenty of that — takes other di-
rections. Two unregulated and over-
whelming passions in this country stifle
the growth of science : the intense and
absorbing passion for wealth, and the
universal infatuation for politics. These
are great national diseases, not peculiar
to America, but malignant in America,
and the state of mind they engender
makes the systematic cultivation of
scientific thought next to impossible.
Hence our education issues in money-
making and politics as exclusive pas-
sions, with no cherished intellectual
interests to counteract and restrain
them. When our early scientific edu-
cation becomes more perfected and
better organized, so that a strong inter-
est in the study of nature shall be en-
kindled in the minds of the young, we
may then hope that American young
men of affluence will be more inclined
to seek their gratification in some of
the varied and inexhaustible pursuits

of scientific knowledge. As the " Sci-
entific American" truly remarks:

We have men of brains, of leisure, and of
means, seeking in vain for some new way of
getting rid of the most valuable thing on
earth — time. But they are of no use to us
or to science ; let them finish their days as
they have begun, let them listen to a few
law lectures that they do not understand, or
join some political party and set up for states-
men if they have money enough to buy an
office. But shall this thing go on for ever \
Is it not possible to cut off, in part at least,
the source of supply by turning it to other
channels ? Many of these young men who
have now no thought beyond the morrow,
no higher ambition than to color a meer-
schaum, were boys once — real, genuine, in-
quisitive boys. Then their powers of obser-
vation were capable of cultivation, then a
love of nature could have been implanted in
their souls, and life would have been bright-
ened by an object, and one worthy of a life-
long pursuit. When teachers cease to hold
up as models those great men who, like Lin-
coln and Garfield, have risen from poverty
and obscurity to the presidency, and point
with pride to the boys who, in spite of
wealth and luxurv, have had the courage and
perseverance to do a noble act by devoting
their time, money, and talents (for some rich
boys have genius as well as poor ones) to the
study of nature, when teachers begin to have
common sense, we may hope to see some of
this valuable material rescued from its pres-
ent downward course. Bich men are not all
fools, and there are some who would take
pride in a son who, although he might not
be a Leidy or a Lubbock, a Darwin or a
Dawson, should be able to associate on terms
of scientific equality with men of that class.

BEECHEB OX

THEOLOGY AXD EVOLU-
TION.

The first article in the "STorth
American Review " for August — an ex-
cellent number — is by Henry Ward
Beecher, on "The Progress of Thought
in the Church." It is an independent,
a powerful, and a most significant dis-
cussion, wrhich we recommend every-
body to read. We shall not attempt to
make any statement of the argument,
and only call attention to the large
and hearty recognition of science as an
agency for the purification of religion.

65S

THE POPULAR SCIENCE 1T0XTHLY.

The progress of thought in the Church
is forcibly shown to be a result of the
progress of science outside the Church.
The distinction between religion and
theology is not new, but Mr. Beecher
shows that it is wide and deep, and
thai religion must unload theology or
sink witii it. The doctrine of evolution
is not only broadly accepted, but i:s
coming is hailed as the greatest event
of modern religions progress. It is des-
tined to do what nothing else could so
effectual!/ do to sweep out of the way
and into oblivion the crreat bodv of old
orthodox theological dogma, by which
the human mind has been perverted and
enslaved for ages. We quote two or
three passages, which will illustrate the
positions taken by Mr. Beecher. After
a brief but vivid statement of the work-
ing of the law of evolution upward
through the various spheres of natural
phenomena, until man and his higher
development are reached, Mr. Beecher
aays:

• this point there is a halt. It is perhaps
moat revolutionary tenet ever advanced.
It will be to theology what Newton's discov-
eries were to the old astronomy. The repug-
nance that men feel at descending along such
a road, and with such an ancestry, would
n and subside in a short time. It is not
the retrospect, but the prospect, which gi -
Bach almost universal hesitation to the mind
and imagination of mere scientific moralists.
Its admission would be fatal to the theory of
a 1 1 md verbal inspiration of the Bible

-1 held by some. The first two chapters
: lenesiB have been a sword in the hands
of theologues of old with which to fight
r. :- rf modern astronomy. Xext
they were sharpened against the advent of
geology. In both conflicts God prevailed
and the truth was victorious. Now again, i
bat upon a more tremendous issue, theology J
resists evolution. It is an honest resistance. ,
To admit :' truth of evolution is to yield up •
the re:_ 3 - Log : it > to change the
whole notion of man's origin, his nature, the
problem of human life, the philosophy of j
morality, the theory : sin, the structure of :
mo: _ srnment - I ght in the dominant
theologies r>f the I .m world, the fall of '

man in Adam, the doctrine : original sin,
the nature f am, and the method of atoning

for it. The d: en : s :-f God as sot forth in the
confession of faith, and the machinery sup-
posed to be set at work for man's redemption,
the very nature and disposition of God — as
taught in the falsely called Pauline but really
Augustinian theology, popularly, known as
C.'.vinistic — must give WJ

The dread of Darwinian views is sincere ;
ye: a secret fear prevails that thev mav be
true. But have men considered what a relief
I they will be from some of the most disgrace-
ful tenets of theology ? Are they content to
gnaid and defend a terrific scheme which
lies the honor, the yosti nd the love of
I God against a movement that will cleanse the
' abomination and vindicate the ways of God
to man ' Even if the great truth of evolution
led to unbelief, it could not be so bad as that
impious and malignant representation of God
and hi- _ ~ . mment which underlies all me-
diaeval and most of modern theology. "We
shall quote from the Presbyterian Confession
of Faith the account given by the Church of
the origin of man and of his moral govern-
ment, in the light of which the scientific ac-
count of the origin of man and the nature
of sin is as health to sickness, as life to death.
Instead of dreading the prevalence of the sci-
entific doctrine, Christian men should rush
toward it with open arms and exultation as a
release from the hideous nightmare of aares.
The tendency of recent scientific re-
rches and disclosures respecting the mind
of man and his origin and nature will be far
more pronounced upon the theories of the-
ology than upon the institutions of religion.
Christian churches are legitimate organiza-
tions for the development of religious emo-
tion and for the application of truth to our
daily life. Those churches which are organ-
ized for devotion will be less disturbed than
academical churches which have hitherto
aimed only to expound and defend a creed.
But churches whe a : genius it is to develop
religious thou_ it, as distinguished from re-
ligious emotion, will gradually change, and
the devotional element will take the place

largely of the the . _ I the ethical the

place of the philosophical.

"When the creeds of the past era have
passed away, vre shall enter upon the creeds
of a new era. These will differ not alone in
their contents fr:m frmer doctrinal stand-
ards, but they wiD differ in the very genius
and method of construction. Our reigning
creeds begin with God, with moral govern-
ment, with the - heme of the universe, with
the great, invisible realm beyond. These
are the weakest places in a creed, because
the matters they contain are least within the

LITERARY XOTICES.

699

reach of human reason, and because the al- -
leged revelations from God upon them are
the mo~t scanty and uncertain. The creeds
of the future will begin -where the old or
ended : upon the nature of man, his condi- i
tion on earth, his social duties and civil obli- j
cations, the development of his reason, I
spiritual nature, its range, possibilities, edu- '
cation — the doctrine of the human reason, of
the emotions, of the will — man as an indi- <
vidual. man social and collective ; and, from ,
a sound knowledge of the natu. i I mind,
developed within the scope of our experience ;
and observation, we shall deduce conceptions
of the great mind — the God id I from

our best ascertainments — in the sphere with-
in which our : Ities vrere created to act
with certainty of knowledge. Our creeds
will ascend from the known to the unknown,
which is the true law and method of acquir-
ing knowledge. Hitherto they have expend-
ed their chief force upon that which is but
dimlv known.

TEE DJJIWIX MEMORIAL.

A movement has been started in
England to get up some kind of a me-
morial in honor of Mr. Charles Darwin.
The English Executive Committee has
requested the following American gen-
tlemen to co-operate with them in pro-
moting the object: Asa Gray, chair-
man ; Spencer F. Baird, James D. Dana,
Charles W. Eliot, D. C. Gilman, James
Hall, Joseph Le Conte, Joseph Leidy.
O. C. Marsh, S. Weir Mitchell, Simon
Xewcomb, Charles Eliot Xorton, Fran-
cis A. Walker. Theodore D. "Woolsey ;
Alexander Agassiz. Treasurer. Sub-
scriptions may be sent to Alexander
Agassiz, Cambridge, Massaeh:> .:>.
who will acknowledge the same and
forward them to the Treasurer of the
English Executive Committee of the
Darwin Memorial.

The American committee, in their
circular, without date, say that the form
which the memorial is to take has not
yet been decided ; it will probably in-
clude an endowment for a scholarship
to carry on biological research. Noth-
ing could be more appropriate to the
character of the man wh.ose memory is
to be honored than thus to link his

name with the progress of knowledge
in the field which he has done so much
to make his own. But the " Athe-
naeum " announces that the memorial
will take the customary form of a mar-
ble statue, and that the trustees of the
British Museum will be asked to plu
if in the large hall of the museum
South Kensington. The English sub-
scriptions are reported as amounting
to $12,500. The United Kingdom will
probably be able without help to pay
for a marble statue ; and would it not
be well for the American committee to
entertain the idea of doing something
independently in this country I The en-
dowment for a biological scholarship, if
abandoned in England, might well be
taken up here.

LITERARY NOTICES.

A Geographical Reader. Compiled and
arranged by James Johoskot, author of
" Country School-Housv - Xew York :
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 416. P:
£1.25.

The compiler believes : is no

advantage for the readingdessons given to
the pupil in school to be primarily dnv
to some subject of thought. " If the food
is also palatable as well as nutritious,'' the
pupil becomes interested and his mind en-
gaged with the substance of the lesson, and
he will gain all the advantages that other-

_ _

wise cost so much labor, without direct and
conscious enV The reading exercises

should also be bed to the condition of

the pupil's mind at each period of growth,
and should constitute appropriate models of
style, leading in the direction of literary ex-
cellence. Hence b sgested the propriety
of introducing lessons bearing on some topic
of study which the pupil is pursuing at the
same time. Text-books rive, necessarilv, the
bare outlines. The reading-books might
help to fill up the outlines with details,
giving fuller descriptions of the most inter-
esting features, and the stories which the
children love so web. When these supple-
mentary elements are chosen from co-
authors, we have what we might call an

700

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ideal reading-book on the subject in hand.
The present work is an attempt to apply
these principles to geographical topics. The
order of the topics is the same as is found
in any well-arranged text-book on the sub-
ject ; and the articles are from writers of ac-
knowledged excellence. We have in twenty
chapters selections on the several varieties
of natural features and scenery, on the sur-
face of the earth, volcanic and meteorolog-
ical phenomena, natural curiosities, wild
animals, national characteristics, peculiar
customs, regions, and people, cities, ancient
works and ruins, and modern works, , etc.,
given in the form of essays, popular descrip-
tions, narratives of travel, scientific ac-
counts, and poems, by a list of writers em-
bracing the names of European and Ameri-
can authors who have become distinguished
in various fields of literature and science.

The Science of Ethics. By Leslie Ste-
phen. New York : G. I\ Putnam's Sons.
Pp. 4G2. Price, $4.

The author of this book has his own
views of morality, and, although he does not
profess to have made any great revolution
in the science, he has still made a book
which is worthy of careful consideration. It
is an unusually spirited and attractive vol-
ume on what is commonly regarded as the
dullest of subjects.

Mr. Stephen began as an orthodox utili-
tarian in morals, and avows that the Gama-
liel at whose feet he sat was John Stuart
Mill. This, however, he regards as an im-
mature proceeding, in which he merely joined
other thoughtful lads in deferring to one
whose authority was decisive. At a later
period his mind was much stirred by the
appearance of Darwin's " Origin of Spe-
cies." He acknowledges great indebted-
ness to Darwin's writings, but so far as
ethical problems are concerned he came at
length to think that the Darwinian resources
were unsatisfactory, and that a deeper view
was necessary — this conviction being due
to the influence of Herbert Spencer's writ-
ings. After an historical examination of the
English moralists of the eighteenth century,
Mr. Stephen read the " Methods of Ethics,"
by Henry Sedgwick, and, although admiring
the work, he found himself differing from it
at so many points that he resolved to publish

systematically upon the subject himself.
Mr. Stephen regards the relation of evolu-
tion to ethics as its critical point, while Mr.
Sedgwick belittled it, and thus left a great
deal to be done in clearing up the in--
quiry.

Of his attempt Mr. Stephen says : " At
times I have been startled at my own impu-
dence when virtually sitting in judgment
upon all the deepest and acutest thinkers
since the days of Plato. But I easily com-
fort myself by remembering that the evolu-
tion of thought is furthered by the efforts of
the weak as well as of the strongest ; and
that, if giants have laid the foundations, even
dwarfs may add something to the super-
structure of the great edifice of science. So
far as my reading has gone, I have found
only two kinds of speculation which are ab-
solutely useless — that of the hopelessly stu-
pid and that of the hopelessly insincere.
The fool who does not know his own folly
may be doing nothing, and the philosopher
who is trying to darken knowledge may be
doing worse than nothing, but every sincere
attempt to grapple . with real difficulties
made by a man not utterly incompetent has
its value. I claim to come within that
description, though I claim nothing more.
And I have the satisfaction — not a very edi-
fying one, it may be said, for a professed
moralist — to reflect that i f my book does no
good to anybody else, it has provided me
with an innocent occupation for a longer
time than I quite like to remember ; while
I hope that there is nothing in it — if I may
apply to myself what a discerning critic has
said of Dr. Watts's sermons — " calculated to
call a blush to the cheek of modesty."

Modern Aitlications of Electricity. By
E. Hospitalier. Translated and en-
larged by Julius Maier. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. 1882. Pp. 456.
Price, $4.50.

In the present state of public interest in
the applications of electricity, any author
who succeeds in presenting the subject in a
popular manner may expect a favorable re-
ception, and we doubt not such will be ac-
corded to this latest addition to works of
this character. M. Hospitalier's exposition
is clear and concise, and popular enough in
form to be interesting and intelligible to a
wide circle of readers. The work consists

LITERARY NOTICES.

701

of four principal parts, in the first of which
'the author considers the sources of elec-
tricity— hydro- and thermo-electric batteries
and machines — and also various apparatus
for transforming currents, under which
heading he places accumulators or second-
ary batteries. The second part is devoted
to electric lamps — regulators, candles, and
those producing light by incandescence. In
the third division the subject of telephones
and microphones is taken up, and all the
later forms of these pieces of apparatus are
described. In the fourth and final part
there are considered various applications of
electricity, such as devices for indicating
fire-damp in coal-mines, fire-alai*ms, etc., the
electrical transmissional power, electro-mo-
tors, and electric distribution.

"While the book will be found in many
respects an excellent popular resume of the
subject, it is not without defects, and lacks
the completeness which a work of this char-
acter should at the present time possess.
The daily as well as the technical press has
familiarized most persons interested in the
subject with the various types of lamps
which have so far been developed, and the
questions of interest now are mainly those
of cost and the conditions upon which elec-
tric lighting in general depends. Much of
the description of different forms of lamps
of the same class might, therefore, have been
dispensed with — such, for instance, as the
various forms of candles and the lamps of
imperfect contact, neither of which promise
to have much of a future before them — and
been given with advantage to incandescent
lamps employing a carbon filament. The
treatment of this class of lamps is, to say
the least, meager, and that of the workers
in this field far from satisfactory. One
would hardly get a correct idea of the rela-
tion of Mr. Edison's work to the present
successful results by the author's presenta-
tion of it. The treatment of the problem
of distribution is hardly as full and com-
plete as might be desired, or the work of
M. Marcel Deprez in this direction as clear
and as full as it should be. The work on
the whole is, however, a very readable one,
and will give those unacquainted with the
recent advances in the industrial applications
of electricity a fairly good idea of what has
been so far accomplished.

An Etymological Dictionary of the Eng-
lish Language. By the Rev. Walter
W. Skeat, M. A., of the University of
Cambridge. New York : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 799. Price, $2.50.

This work may be regarded as in certain
senses a pioneer in the field of literature
to which it relates. The aim of the author
has been to furnish students with materials
for a more scientific study of English ety-
mology than is commonly to be found in
previous works on the subject. The older
dictionaries were rich in quotations illustra-
tive of the words they defined, but their ety-
mologies were defective and of the crudest
kind, being in most cases thoroughly un-
scientific guess-work, and most likely wrong.
In many instances, Mr. Skeat says, he has
found evidence that the dictionary-makers
manufactured words for the express pur-
pose of deriving others from them. The
earlier editions of "Webster's " Dictionary "
gave the corresponding words and the one
under consideration from a great number of
languages, without any discrimination based
upon the possibility of their having or not
having a real relation with the English
word. Such comparison was, perhaps, in-
teresting as a curiosity, but was confusing
to etymological students, and could give no
clew to the derivation of the word. Better
work has been done in the later editions of
"Webster, in which Dr. Mahn's etymologies
deserve and receive commendation ; but the
plan of the work, says Mr. Skeat, " does
not allow of much explanation of a purely
philological character." In preparing his
work the author has been guided by certain
canons, a few of which, such as commend
themselves to the general reader, are : Be-
fore attempting an etymology, ascertain the
earliest form and use of the word, and ob-
serve chronology, observe history and ge-
ography, observe phonetic laws. The whole
of a word, and not a portion only, ought to
be reasonably accounted for; mere resem-
blance of form, and apparent connection in
sense between languages which have differ-
ent phonetic laws, or no necessary connec-
tion, are commonly a delusion, and are not
to be regarded ; and it is useless to offer an
explanation of an English word which will
not also explain all the cognate forms. The
attempt is made to give the exact history of

702

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

each word, and, to make its pedigree com-
plete, it is traced through all the ascertained
successive changes, in their order, which it
has passed through in the several languages
through which it has come down, as if by
descent, to us. Thus, in the case of the
word " canopy," it is shown, by the brief,
clear notation which is adopted throughout
the book, that the word is derived in English
from the French, the French from the Ital-
ian, that from the Latin, and that from the
Greek ; and if the ultimate Aryan root can
be deduced, that is indicated. This, Mr.
Skeat believes, is the first attempt of this
kind that has been made, except partially.
Another notation, equally simple and plain,
shows cognate forms and distinguishes them
from descending forms. Many of the arti-
cles are quite full histories, and all are rich
in suggestions to the thoughtful student.
Mr. Skeat frankly confesses to a number of
short-comings. The remark to be made
about them is not so much that they exist,
as that the author should take the pains to
call attention to them. On review they ap-
pear generally to be such as must inevitably
beset the student who has to undertake so
large a subject alone, or such as every one
who attempts to advance into so extensive
a field, that has been heretofore so little or
so unskillfully cultivated, must expect to be
liable to.

Our Merchant Marine : How it Rose, In-
creased, became Great, Declined, and
Decayed ; with an Inquiry into the Con-
ditions essential to its Eesuscitation and
Future Prosperity. By David A. Wells.
New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
219.

Professor "Wells undertakes a diagno-
sis of the disease with which our merchant
marine is afflicted, through the operation of
which, from having once been our pride and
boast, it has fallen in the course of a quar-
ter of a century into a contemptible insig-
nificance; or, to illustrate the subject by
figures, from carrying in 1855 75*5 per cent
of the imports and exports of the country,
by steady diminutions to carrying only 16*2
per cent of them in 1881. The most direct
cause of decay is found in our navigation
laws, under which the privileges essential
to the prosperity of an American merchant
marine are confined to American-built ves-

sels, and denied to all ships bought abroad.
In connection with this cause others are
operating which bear with peculiar hard-
ship on American vessels and American
ship- building enterprises, such as high duties -
on imported materials used in ship-building,
and various local burdens, in the imposition
of which a positive discrimination appears
to be made against American vessels. Back
of these causes and under some of them
lies the fundamental cause, in the protective
system, some of whose most positive advo-
cates have avowed the belief that the policy
of the country is to discourage commerce,
and the provisions of which have been ad-
justed, whether designedly or not, in con-
sistency with this belief. No one measure,
the author concludes, " will arrest the decay
of American shipping, bring back prosperity
to our ocean carrying-trade, or revive the
industry of ship-building in this country.
The field of reform to be entered upon is a
very large one ; the number of details which
are to be attended to are numerous ; but
reform, nevertheless, is both possible and
practicable if the American people desire
and will it." He then mentions the most
essential measures of reform, the nature of
which is indicated generally by the refer-
ences we have made to the evils that de-
mand a remedy.

Science Ladders — No. I. Forms of Land
and Water. Pp. 67. No. III. Vegeta-
ble Life. Pp. 78. By N. D'Anvers,
author of " Heroes of North African
Discovery," etc. Both illustrated. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Trice, 50
cents each.

The author states that his design in plan-
ning the series of which these works are a
part h|ts been to teach the great laws of
Nature in language simple enough for every
child to read, and to awaken the powers of
observation and reasoning by means of pure-
ly elementary descriptions. " The Forms of
Land and Water" gives descriptions of the
earth and its general features and phenome-
na. " Vegetable Life " is intended to teach
the laws of the life and growth of plants and
to serve as an introduction to elementary bot-
any. The effort has not been a happy one.
The style is childish instead of simple, and
is calculated to lead to inexactness and con-
fusion ; pains are taken to give a knowledge

LITERARY NOTICES.

7°3

of scientific terms and their definitions which
should rather have been applied to the com-
munication in really plain language of the
facts which the words indicate. The mat-
ter is above the comprehension of the kind
of children for whom the style seems to
be intended, and the style is not adapted to
the tastes of larger ones. The illustrations
are excellent.

The Gospel of Law. A Series of Dis-
courses upon Fundamental Church
Doctrines. By S. J. Stewart. Boston :
George H. Ellis. Pp. 326. Price, $1.25.

The author is pastor of the Independent
Congregational Society of Bangor, Maine.
The substance of the volume was originally
delivered as a series of regular Sunday dis-
courses before his people. The principal
motive of the book is stated to be " to ap-
ply the facts of science to inherited doc-
trines, and then to give a positive basis of
belief and conduct in consistency with these
facts, to interpret the results of the best au-
thorities, and to bring them into a practical
form and conclusion." The author appar-
ently belongs to the advanced rank of " free
religious " thinkers. He denies the super-
natural character and authority of the
" Church of tradition," and of its gospel,
and would substitute for the latter a " gos-
pel of law," the fundamental principle of
which is that every effect is the natural
product of some natural cause.

Manual of Object-Teaching, with Illus-
trative Lessons in Methods and the
Science of Education. By X. A. Cal-
kins. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Pp. 469. Price, $1.25.

The author of this book is and has lono;
been one of the Superintendents of the
Public Schools of the city of New York,
and the supervision of object-lesson studies
falls within his department, nis writings
upon that subject have, therefore, a broad
basis of experience, involving the trial of
methods and the improvement and exten-
sion of the objective system. Mr. Calkins
published, some years ago, the " Primary
Object Lessons," which has been well re-
ceived and generally adopted. The new
work now issued — the "Manual" — extends
over a broader field, and embraces subjects
and methods for more advanced teaching

than those presented in the author's earlier
work. It is, therefore, not a substitute for
that book, nor a revision of it, but an en-
tirely new treatise, with a great variety of
appropriate topics, materials, and sugges-
tions to aid teachers in oral instruction. In
this line Mr. Calkins's books are authorities
at the present time.

Hints and Remedies for the Treatment of
Common Accidents and Diseases ; and
Rules of Simple Hygiene. In Two
Parts, complete. Compiled by Dawson
W. Turner, D. C. L., late Head-master
of the Royal Institution School, Liver-
pool ; sometime Student of Westminster
Hospital and of Charing Cross Hospital.
Revised, corrected, and enlarged by
Twelve Eminent Medical Men belondns
to Different Hospitals in London, and by
one Right Reverend Bishop of the Estab-
lished Church, formerly Surgeon to one
of the London Hospitals, and F. R. C. S.
With numerous Additions, from the
eighth English edition. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 106. Price, 50
cents.

A book so well backed and braced by
authorities as this may seem to need no
commendation from us ; but a careful ex-
amination of it has shown that it is a most
practical, judicious, carefully considered di-
gest of hygienic rules and hints about health
which is well calculated to be useful to
everybody.

Good Cheer. A Monthly Paper devoted to
Home Science and the Interests of the
Family generally. Greenfield, Massa-
chusetts : Good Cheer Publishing Com-
pany. Pp. 16. 50 cents a year.

This new venture in the literary field is
bright, varied, and spicy, and the best news-
paper bargain for the family now a-going
at fifty cents. There is a practical turn
about it that is promising, and its scientific
side will probably improve with time. The
mechanical style of its title, however, seems
open to criticism. An artist has been let
loose upon it, and the consequence is ob-
scurity. A title, of all things, should be
clear, and not so buried up in artistic beauty
that we have to spend time digging out
what it means. Give us clear, plain, sharp
lettering that tells its whole story at the first
glance, and let the artist revel in the adver-
tisements.

7°4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Copyright in Books : An Inquiry into the
Origin and an Account of the Present
State of the Law in Canada. A Lecture
delivered before the Law School of Bish-
op's College at Sherbrooke. By S. E.
Dawson. Montreal: Dawson Brothers.
Pp. 40, with Appendix.

This is a very instructive address, by
one who is well up in copyright erudition.
The account of the origin of copyright is
particularly excellent, while the exposition
of the present state of copyright law and
practice in Canada, and how the policy of
the home Government has borne upon the
British Provinces, will be of interest to all
who are concerned about this subject.

It is curious to note how the first insti-
tution which was invested with the control
of publication in England, by which authors'
rights in their books were protected, was
established as a means of maintaining relig-
ious orthodoxy. The Stationers' Company,
which, like all the other ancient trading
guilds, had existed from the middle ages, re-
ceived a chartered extension of its powers
" to search out and destroy " books printed
in contravention of the company's monopoly,
" or against faith and sound doctrine." On
this point Mr. Dawson observes :

Kb record exists of authors' rights having
heen claimed for more than one hundred years
after the invention of printing. There was no
restriction in printing books, any more than
there had been in copying manuscript hooks.
Every printer printed what he chose, without let
or hindrance from any person. At the end of
that period, however, the enormous power of
the press became manifest. The stir of thought
which produced the Reformation had heen
caused, and was kept up, by the art of printing ;
and when Philip and Mary came to the throne of
England they set themselves to stem the tide of
innovation. For that purpose they incorporated
the Stationers" Company by royal charter for
licensing and regulating the printing and sale of
books, and they vested in this company a mo-
nopoly of multiplying copies. The preamble to
the charter se'ts forth its object. It reads :

"Know ye, that we, considering and mani-
festly perceiving that several seditious heretical
books, hoth in verse and prose, are daily pub-
lished, stamped and printed, by divers scanda-
lous, schismatical, and heretical persons, not
only exciting our subjects and liegc-men to sedi-
tion and disohediencc against us, our crown,
and dignity, but also to the renewal and propa-
gating very great and detestable heresies against
the faith and sound Catholic doctrine of Holy
Mother the Church, and heing willing to provide
a remedy in this case," etc.

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 ; Dermatologist to the Philadel-
phia Hospital ; Consulting Physician to
the Dispensary for Skin Diseases, Phila-
delphia ; Author of the "Atlas of Skin
Diseases," etc. Third edition, revised
and enlarged. J. B. Lippincott & Co.
Pp. 684. Price, $6.

A third edition of this excellent work
having been called for, the approbation of
the profession must be taken as determin-
ing it to rank as one of the standards of
medical literature. The plan of the work
is that of a practical treatise, which, while
making no pretension to being exhaustive*
yet comprises sufficient to afford a clear in-
sight into the elements of dermatology, and
a knowledge of the important facts in con-
nection with each disease treated of. The
progress of dermatological science, in both
its physiological and pathological aspects,
has been very rapid in recent years, which
makes indispensable the frequent revision
of works on skin-diseases. The second
edition of this work was accordingly care-
fully rewritten and much extended. The
third edition has also been critically revised,
and brought sharply up to date. The chap-
ter on the anatomy and physiology of the
skin has been rewritten and elaborated,
this change being demanded by the recent
studies in microscopic anatomy. The book
as a whole has also been considerably en-
larged. Numerous additions in the way of
cases illustrating rare forms of disease, new
and important observations, personal expe-
rience, and therapeutical information, will
be found upon almost every page.

Errors in the Use of English. By the
late William B. Hodgson, LL. D., Fel-
low of the College of Preceptors and
Professor of Political Economy in the
University of Edinburgh. American re-
vised edition. Pp. 246. Price, $1.50.

There are few things to be done in this
world that can not be overdone, and among
the things that can be studied out of all
proportion to their importance are the ex-
quisite niceties and transcendental refine-
ments of language. The danger of excess
here is, however, because a high standard
of excellence is justly demanded. Dr. Hodg-

LITERARY NOTICES.

70S

son's book recognizes the need of adopting
such a standard in the study of English ;
and, what is more important, it adopts the
right plan to secure this as a practicable
thing. The author's principle is that exam-
ple is better than precept, and instead of
working up a lot of rules to be learned and
applied, his book consists of examples of
the erroneous use of language, from many
and reputable sources. He points out errors,
faults, and blunders in composition, but he
shows that all writers — even the best — have
their lapses. The book is very interesting
and teaches in the best manner by concrete
illustrations of the errors to be avoided.
Dr. Hodgson was a man of fine literary
taste, very widely read, and methodical in
his observations ; he has accordingly en-
riched his book with a host of examples of
incorrect language, commonly overlooked,
which will be of invaluable service to the
critical students of English.

Mrs. Hodgson appends the following note
to the preface : " The materials of this little
volume were selected by my husband from
his notes of many years' extensive and va-
ried reading, and they were arranged for
publication in their present form before his
death. In now conducting the book through
the press I have had the assistance of kind
friends to whom his memory is dear. But,
deprived of his own revisal, there may be
errors and imperfections that have escaped
our notice, and for such I must ask the
reader's considerate indulgence."

This incompleteness or lack of finish in
the volume on the part of the author made
desirable a critical revision of the Ameri-
can edition; this has been done by Mr.
Francis A. Teall, with excellent judgment
and discrimination.

American College Directory and Uni-
versal Catalogue. Published by C. H.
Evans & Co., Managers of the American
Teachers' Bureau, St. Louis. Pp. 168.
Price, $1.

The Directory contains descriptions of
more than 3,600 institutions of every kind,
from the Kindergarten to the university,
throughout the United States, with lists of
State, city, and county school-officers and
educational periodicals ; a synopsis of the
public-school system; a sketch of educa-
tion in foreign countries ; and much other
vol. xxi. — 45

valuable matter. The present volume is
the fourth in annual series ; it has been pre-
pared under such advantages as it is be-
lieved make it more full and accurate than
its predecessors, and is enriched with four
new departments-i-those of " College Y. M.
C. A.," city superintendents, county super-
intendents, and the foreign department,
which embraces the comparative statistics
of elementary education in fifty different
countries.

What is Bright's Disease ? Its Cura-
bility. By Seth Pancoast, M. D. With
Illustrations. Philadelphia: Published
by the author, 917 Arch Street. Pp.
152. Price, $1.

The author maintains that the view of
Bright's disease as a local disease and its
treatment under that view are mistaken. He
advances the idea that the primary cause of
the disease lies in the organic nervous sys-
tem, which controls the nutrition and growth
of the entire organism, as well as the elimina-
tion of the products of disintegration ; that
it may exist for many months, if not years,
before albumen is detected in the urine;
and that then other organs are involved, not
from sympathy with the kidneys, but from
innervation of the nervo-vital energy. He
has found it curable when treated in the
light of his theory, provided the disorgani-
zation has not proceeded too far.

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason : A
Critical Exposition. By George S.
Morris, Ph. D., Professor in the Uni-
versity of Michigan. Chicago : S. C.
Griggs & Co. Pp. 272. Price, $1.25.

The present volume is the first of a se-
ries of " German Philosophical Classics for
English Readers and Students," to be issued
by the publishers under the general edito-
rial supervision of Professor Morris, each
volume of which will be devoted to the crit-
ical exposition of some one masterpiece of
German philosophical thought. The editors
will seek in each case to furnish a clear and
attractive statement of the special substance
and purport of the original author's argu-
ment, with interpretations and elucidations
in the light of the historic and acknowledged
results of philosophic inquiry, and independ-
ent estimates of the merits and deficiencies
of his work, and they will have especial ref-

yo6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

erence to its relations with British specula-
tion. Besides the general editor, several
eminent scholars and teachers have been
invited to prepare particular volumes of the
series. The prominence of Kant among
modern philosophers and the general merits
of his work make it eminently fitting that
he be given the first place in the series. His
thoughts certainly deserve and need to be
set forth in a shape in which they may be
accessible and intelligible to the average of
thinking readers. Professor Morris has un-
dertaken this task in the face, he acknowl-
edges, of considerable difficulties, among
which are that " Kant's work marks and
conspicuously illustrates a stadium of tran-
sition in the history of modern thought,"
that " it is far more eminently the story of
a process of inquiry and demonstration than
a didactic exposition of finished results,"
and that "Kant's intellectual attitude, in
some of its most essential aspects, remains,
to the end, thoroughly confused."

The Psychology op the Salem Witch-
craft of 1692, and its Practical Ap-
plication to our own Time. By George
M. Beard, A. M., M. D. New York : G.
P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 112. Price, $1.

Dr. Beard's essay has less immediate
bearing on the Salem witchcraft than on
the case of a murderer who was recently
executed at Washington. The witchcraft
excitement of 1692 is used as a pivot on
which to hang a plea in behalf of the mur-
derer. The people of New England were
under a delusion when they tried and hung
the Salem witches ; so, it is argued, we have
been under a terrible delusion in trying and
hanging the murderer of our President.

Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad.
By Archibald Geikie, LL. D., F. R. S.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 335.
Price, $1.75.

Professor Geikie is a very sound geolo-
gist, but we are inclined to think he is more
at home in the work of exploration than in
that of essay-writing. The papers of this
collection are all good and solid, and will
interest those already instructed in its line
of topics, but they have not a large share
of the quality which will attract general
readers.

Unscientific Treatment of the Insane.
— In his paper on " Insanity in its Relations
to the Medical Profession and Lunatic Hos-
pitals," Dr. Nathan Allen points out several
serious defects in the management of our
hospitals for the insane. The first of his
objections is to the separation of the ex-
perts from the medical profession and the
placing of the study of insanity and the
care of the insane so exclusively in their
hands. A second fault is in the erection of
so large and expensive buildings, by which
a multitude of difficulties, avoidable in the
multiplication of smaller establishments, are
encountered. The system itself, moreover, is
wrong, in that it aggregates such large masses
N of diseased persons ; and it violates sanitary
laws by bringing the diseased in contact
with each other, to infect each other with
the most infectious of all disorders — those
of the mind. A fifth objection is that the
magnitude of the congregations precludes the
employment of the highest order of sanitary
agencies for the health and improvement of
the patients. Finally, it is objected that
the present system tends directly to confine
the knowledge and treatment of insanity
to a few individuals. Add to this that no
plans are devised or means employed to
prevent insanity, and we have abundant
reason, Dr. Allen thinks, to revise our sys-
tem.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

The Prehistoric Architecture of America. By
Stephen D. Peet. Reprint from the " American
Antiquarian." Pp. 16.

The Prevention of Yellow Fever. By Pro-
fessor Stanford E. Chaille, M. D. New Orleans :
L. Graham & Son, Printers. 1882. Pp. 22.

The Culture and Management of our Forests.
By H. W. S. Cleveland. Springfield, 111.: H. W.
Rokker, printer. 1882. Pp. 16.

Tenth Census of the United States. Forestry
Bulletins Nos. 1 to 16. With Special Refere/ice
to the Lumber Industry. December, 1881.

The Fiftv-eighth Annual Report of 'he Offi-
cers of the Retreat for the Insane of Hartford,
Connecticut. Hartford. 1882. Pp. 35.

Consumption: Its Causes. Prevention, and
Hygienic Management. By W. H. Smith, M.D.,
Ph. D. St. Clair, Michigan. Pp. It.

Report on Surgery. By W. O. Roberts, M. D.
Reprint from the " American Practitioner," Lou-
isville. 1882. Pp.16.

Socialism and Christianity. By H. Cheroung.
Printed by the Author. New York. 18S2. Pp.
42. 15 cents.

Account of Field Experiments wi(h Ferti-
lizers. By Professor W. O. Atwater. From the
Report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture.
1881. Pp.25.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

707

Cooperative Experimenting as a Means of
studying the Effects of Feriilizers and the Feed-
ing Capacities of Plants. By Professor W. O.
Atwater. Washington: Government Printing-
office. 1882. Pp.33.

Anlagen von Hausentwasserungen nach Stu-
dien americanischer Verhaltnisse. [Elements
of House-Drainage, after Studies of American
Arrangements.] Mit^etheilt von W. Paul Ger-
hart. Civil Engineer, Newport, R I. Berlin,
1880: Polytechnische Buchhandlung, A. Seydel.
Pp. 33, with Five Plates.

House-Drainage and Sanitary Plumbing.
Providence, R. L, 1882, pp. 104; and Diagram of
Sewer Calculations, Newport, R. I., 1881, pp. 7.
By William Paul Gerhart, Civil and Sanitary
Engineer.

An Organ-Pipe Sonomoter. By W. Le Conte
Stevens. Reprint from the "Journal of the
Franklin Institute,'1 July, 1882. Pp. 5.

Physiological Perspective. By W. Le Conte
Stevens. From the " Philosophical Magazine,"
May, 1882. Pp.17.

Two Cases of Hemi-Achromatopsia. By
Henry D. Noyes, M. D. New York. 1882. Pp.
12.

Second Annual Report of the Astronomer in
charge of the Horological and Thermometric
Bureaus in the Observatory of Yale College. By
Leonard Waldo. New Haven. 1882. Pp. 16.

Dangerous Illuminating Oils. By J. K. Ma-
comber. State Agricultural College. Ames,
Iowa. Pp. 6.

Plastic Splints in Surgery. By Samuel N.
Nelson, M. D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 1882. Pp. 18.

Pro and Con of Spelling Reform. By Pro-
fessor E. O. Vaile. New York : Burney & Co.
1882. Pp. 20.

Double Irrigation and Drainage Tubes ; Uter-
ine Dilatation by Elastic Force ; The Cure of
Hernia by the Antiseptic Use of Animal Liga-
ture. By Henry 0. Marcy, M. D. London: J.
W. Kolckmann. 1881. Pp. 12.

First Annual Report of the Committee on the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Pp. 13.

Professional Papers of the Signal Service: No.
1, Solar Eclipse of. July, 1878, by Cleveland Ab-
be, 1881. pp. 186 ; No. 2, Isothermal Lines of the
United Siates. 1871-1880, by Lieutenant A. W.
Gruely. 1831 ; No. 3, Chronological List of Auro-
ras obsevved from 1870 to 1879, bv Lieutenant
A. W. Gruely, 1881, pp. 76 ;' No. 5, Information
relative to the Construction and Maintenance
of Time-Balls, 1881. pp. 71 ; No. 6, The Reduction
of Air-Pressnre to Sea-Level at Elevated Sta-
tions west of the Mississippi River, by Henry
A. Hazen, A.M., 18«2, pp. 42. Washington:
Government Printing-Office.

Tenth Census of the United States ; Statis-
tics of Power and Machinery employed in Man-
ufactures, by Professor W. P. Trowbridge:
Water-Power of the Southern Atlantic Water-
Shed of the United States, by George F. Swan,
S. B. Washington : Government Printing-Of-
fice. 1311.

Action of Free Molecules on Radiant Heat,
and its Conversion thereby into Sound. By John
Tyndall, F.R.S. From the Philosophical Trans-
actions-of the Royal Society, Part I. 1882. Pp.
64.

Bird-Bolts : Shots on the Wimr. Bv Francis
Tiffany. Boston: George H. Ellis. 1S82. Pp.
180.

Eliane. By Mme. Augustus Craven. From
t'ie French by Lady Georgiana Fullerton. New
York : William S. Gottsberger. 1882. Pp. 340.
90 cents.

Studies in Science and Religion. By G.
Frederick Wright. Andov^r : Warren F. Draper.
1882. Pp. 390.

Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer to
the Secretary ot War for the Year 1879. Wash-
ington : Government Printing-office. 1880. Pp.
782.

Practical Microscopy. By George E. Davis,
F. R. M. S., etc. Second edition. London : David
Bogue. 1832. Pp.335. Hlustrated.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Experiments in Ensilage. — Professor W.
A. Henry, of the Experimental Farm of the
University of Wisconsin, has published a
report of an experiment in ensilage that
was made last year under his direction. A
pit was made, thirty feet long by fifteen
wide and fifteen deep, with thick stone
walls, at a cost of $413.12, and was filled
to near the top with a crop of fodder-corn
that had been raised and cut up for the
purpose, weighing 150,222 pounds, and at
the top with second-crop clover just as it
came from the field, all under the inspection
of many visitors who had been invited to
witness the process. " The comments,"
says Professor Henry, " were as varied as
the visitors. As the weather was very
warm the ensilage heated rapidly, and when
the visitor would run his hand down into
the mass of damp-cut fodder, and find it so
hot as to be uncomfortable, there would
sometimes come a shake of the head and
prediction of failure of some sort : ' It will
burn the barn up ' ; ' May keep below, but
will not on top ' ; ' Think it will be all right
above where it can get some air, but below
it will make a nice manure-heap.' " The
silo was loaded down with an unusual
weight of stones, in order to bring the
more pressure to bear upon the long and
matted clover-stalks ; for the efficacy of the
operation depends upon the prevention of
heating by cutting off the access of fresh
air. After the pit was closed, but little
evidence of the change within was seen,
only occasionally a just discernible but not
at all marked odor. When the silo was
opened, November 29th, the clover was
partly decayed for about a half -inch down,
and moldy for two or three inches below
and around the sides of the pit. This was
thrown out to be put on the manure-heap.
The cows were a little shy of eating the
ensilage at first, but after four or five feed3
all ate it as naturally as they would hay.

joS

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Then the clover that had been thrown away
attracted their attention, and they ate greed-
ily even of that which was musty. A small
extemporized silo was tentatively made, in
the natural ground where it was well
drained, without walling, and was filled
with green clover. The ensilage came out
in perfect condition and entirely palatable.
The result of the last experiment shows
how persons living where the subsoil is very
compact might make a silo with either very
light walls or with none at all.

How Oolite may be formed. — Mr. F.

W. Putnam, in giving an account of a visit
he made some months ago to the Mammoth
Cave, remarks that in one of the newly
discovered chambers he noticed that many
fragments of stalactites and small pieces
from the walls of the cave, which had fallen
into a little pool, were worn round and
smooth by constant attrition, occasioned by
the dropping of water from the high ceiling
of the chamber. Should the water cease
to drip in this place, as it probably will,
and that in the pool evaporate, leaving the
lime to crystallize about these small peb-
bles, a conglomerate would be formed which
would have some resemblance to oolitic
limestone, pebbles of which occurred in the
pool, probably derived from fragments de-
tached from the walls of the chamber.
Calling attention to the formation of " cave
pearls," which he had found in Grand
Avenue Cave some years ago, he remarked
that should such a mass of small pearl-like
lime-concretions as were found in the last-
named cave ever be cemented together, the
resemblance to oolite would be very marked.
"While he did not wish to be understood as
stating that the oolitic limestone was formed
in this way, he could not help thinking that
a rock of similar appearance might be lo-
cally so produced under the conditions he
had observed.

Lead in Food and the Indnstrial Arts.—
M. Armand Gautier has recently published
a memorandum on the dangers arising from
the use of lead in food-vessels and in vari-
ous arts, and on the means of counteracting
them. He shows that lead may be detected
in preserved vegetables, fish, lobsters, meats,
in drinking-water, and water artificially

charged with carbonic acid, in acid foods
and drinks preserved in glass vessels, in tin
dishes, in the coverings of our walls and
furniture, in the leather of our boots, in our
dishes, and in our glazed table-cloths. He
gives a simple and practical test for the
presence of lead in solder or tinned or
solid metal, and for estimating the propor-
tion of the poison that may be there. It
consists in turning on two drops of acetic
acid upon the surface of the metallic ob-
ject, allowing it to evaporate in the air, then
touching with a solution of chromate of
potash, letting dry, and washing with water.
The yellow chromate of lead, thus obtained,
adheres to the metal, and does not change
color for several days, so that the spot can
be kept in evidence. "When a tin thus
treated shows a yellow spot it should be re-
jected ; if it is used in a food-can the con-
tents should be regarded as suspicious, even
if the soldering has all been done on the
outside, as the latest regulations require.
The general use of food preparations done
up in metallic boxes that are soldered with
an alloy of lead necessarily results in the
introduction of a little lead into the econ-
omy, and, according to M. Gautier, the
proportions of lead thus absorbed, gener-
ally very weak with vegetables, are much
stronger in foods rich with fats, and espe-
cially in fish preserved in oil ; the oils that
surround the fish are still more strongly
charged with it ; and preserved meats con-
tain it in widely varying proportions. The
lead" appears to exist in vegetables in the
shape of an albuminate soluble in the acids
of the stomach, in fat-substances as an
oleate and a palminate dissolved in the fats,
and absorbable with them when they un-
dergo emulsion in the digestive tube. The
use of lead in a multitude of arts and
trades, too numerous to be named here,
leads to more perceptible and extensive
poisoning than the minute quantities of the
metal that reach us through our foods and
food-vessels, the importance of which is
indicated by the admission of an average
number of seven hundred workmen suffer-
ing from it to the hospitals of Paris every
year. The compounds of lead with which
these workmen come in contact are absorbed
by the skin, the mouth, the nostrils, and in
breathing. To workmen exposed to such

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

709

danger M. Gautier advises avoidance of
everything that can raise a dust of leaden
compounds, of all unnecessary direct contact
with lead and its preparations, scrupulous
care for the cleanliness of person, clothing,
tools, face, and mouth, and observance of
general hygienic rules and temperance.

Disadvantages and Advantages of Bac-
teria.— In a paper on " Bacteria in Healthy
Individuals," Surgeon George M. Sternberg,
of the United States Army, considers the
question, which many have been ready to
ask, If bacteria are such terrible things,
how is it possible that we can exist upon
the earth, surrounded and infested as we
are by them ? " Certainly," says Surgeon
Sternberg, "there would be an end to all
animal life, or rather there would never
have been a beginning, if living animals had
no greater resisting power to the attacks of
these parasites, which by numbers and rapid
development make up for their minute size,
than has dead animal matter." The obvi-
ous answer to the question, that living ani-
mals have the required superior resisting
power, is supported by Pasteur's researches,
which show that it depends very much upon
certain well-defined circumstances whether
the same bacterium is a harmless parasite
and commensal of man and animals, or an
active agent promoting disease and decay.
" Nature," says Dr. Sternberg, " has placed
in the living tissues of animals a resisting
power against the encroachments of bacte-
rial organisms invading and surrounding
them, which is sufficient for ordinary emer-
gencies. But when the vital resistance of
the tissues is reduced, on the one hand, by
wasting sickness, profuse discharges, etc.,
or, on the other hand, the vital activity of
the invading parasitic organism is increased,
the balance of power rests with the infini-
tesimal but potent micrococcus. . . . Exper-
iment has demonstrated that, by some un-
known mechanism, the ordinary bacteria
of putrefaction, and, under certain circum-
stances, even pathogenic organisms, may be
introduced directly into the circulation with-
out the production of evil consequences, and
that after a short interval microscopical ex-
amination does not reveal their presence in
the blood." There is compensation for the
damage wrought by bacteria, which is de-

scribed by Dr. Sternberg with some exaggera-
tion, and hardly sufficient consideration of
the power of the normal chemical forces of
nature, in these words : " On the other hand,
but for the power of these little giants to
pull to pieces dead animal matter, we should
have dead bodies piled up on all sides of
us in as perfect a state of preservation as
canned lobster or pickled tongue, and there
being no return to the soil of the materials
composing these bodies, our sequoias and
oaks would dwindle to lichens and mosses,
and finally all vegetation would disappear,
and the surface of the earth would be a bar-
ren and desolate wilderness, covered only
with the inanimate forms of successive gen-
erations of plants and animals."

Variable Stars. — Professor A. Ritter at-
j tempts, in his recent work on the " Appli-
' cation of the Mechanical Theory of Heat
to Cosmological Problems," to explain the
1 origin and nature of variable stars by sup-
posing that, stable as they appear to our
i limited vision, the planetary systems are
. subject to ceaseless recurring changes, in
the course of which they go through all the
phases of cosmical evolution. The speed
I of the revolutions of the several members
of the systems being constantly retarded by
the resistance of the ether, they eventually
yield to the attraction of the central body
and fall into it. The concussion generates
heat enough to resolve the whole mass into
a vapor or gas which diffuses itself through
space till its surplus heat is so dissipated
that the attractive force is able to overcome
its power of expansion, when the vapors
begin to contract, and consequently to de-
velop heat anew. The internal heat of the
contracting body at last becomes strong
enough to overcome the force of gravita-
tion, and a new expansion begins. The
gaseous sphere is thus subjected to a move-
ment of rhythmical pulsation, the tempera-
ture increasing with the contractions and
diminishing with the expansions, and will
appear from a distance, if the variations in
temperature reach a certain degree, alter-
nately bright and dark, or as a variable
star. The duration of the pulsations will
vary according to the size of the body, and
the period will bear a certain relation to its
density ; so that we may deduce one of the

710

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

elements from the others. When our sun
filled the orbit of Neptune, it probably ap-
peared to the inhabitants of other worlds
as a variable star, with a period of three
hundred and forty year3. The appearance
of change is confined to the youth of a
star ; for when it has become so dense that
the variations bear only a minute ratio to
the absolute brightness of the body, they
cease to be noticed. The gradual and
seemingly permanent disappearance of stars
that have suddenly shone out is accounted
for by supposing their periods of change to
be immensely long. As hundreds of years
must have elapsed after our sun first shone
out before the gaseous particles began to
move back toward the center, so, if the
concussion is vastly more violent than that
which produced the sun, thousands of years
must pass before a concentration can begin.
The origin of the apparently constant neb-
ulae may be thus accounted for, and their
irregularities of shape may have arisen
from different accidents of the concussion ;
but changes of magnitude have been ob-
served even in these bodies. The origin of
new stars that remain may be explained by
supposing that the concussion was less vio-
lent— strong enough to produce a great
brightness, but not strong enough to cause
immense expansion. Professor Ritter claims
that spectroscopical observations of the
"newer stars" are in harmony with his
theory.

A newly discovered Jewish Tribe. —

Mr. Henry Samuel Morais has published a
short account of the Daggatouns, a tribe of
Jewish origin in the Desert of Sahara, re-
cently brought into notice in the narrative
of the Rabbi Mordecai Aby Serour, of Akka,
Morocco. The rabbi's account is incomplete,
but we may learn from it that the people
mentioned, who are scattered among the
orthodox Tuaricks in the desert, "have
skins perfectly white, are very handsome,
much handsomer than the finest-looking
Jews of Africa," and that not one of them
is black. They are distinguished by the
Tuaricks as Jews that have changed their
belief, and seem to occupy a low social po-
sition among the tribes. The change in be-
lief seems rather to have been a loss of be-
lief, for it is remarked respecting the exer-

cise of their religion that they never utter a
prayer, and have no regular form of public
worship, but simply invoke, the name of Mo-
hammed. To questions on the subject they
emphatically answered that they did not
know the Koran, and that, having- descended
from the Jews, and not resembling in any
manner the other tribes, they could not have
exactly the same religion. " Notwithstand-
ing this," they continued, " even if we ac-
cepted their practices, they would not cease
calling us converted."

The Eucalyptus in California. — Mr. Rob-
ert E. C. Stearns, Ph. D., communicated to
the American Forestry Association, at its
recent meeting, a number of facts respect- '
ing the cultivation of the eucalyptus in Cal-
ifornia, and the probable value of the tree.
About six million eucalyptus-trees have
been planted in the State during the last
ten years, and several million trees of other
kinds. A large proportion of the number
have been planted in the streets and yards
of cities, and for ornament in country
estates, till, in the absence of deciduous
trees, "the vistas afforded by the streets
are somber and monotonous through gen-
eral sameness of form and tone of color.''
The eucalyptus is a greedy monopolist, and,
when planted in a small yard, takes all
there is of it, killing out the shrubs. These
objectionable facts, however, are not faults
of the tree per se, but are only effects of in-
judicious planting, remediable by remand-
ing the eucalyptus to its proper place, and
by interspersing it with native and decidu-
ous trees, for the sake of variety in the
appearance. The globulus species of euca-
lyptus is the one most planted, but it is
probably of less value for most purposes,
aside from the fact of its rapid growth, than
its harder-wooded congeners. This species,
also, " which seems generally to thrive with-
in the influence of the coast climate, where
the saline quality of the coast atmosphere
neutralizes the occasionally too low tem-
perature of the winter months, often fails
in the interior. 28° Fahr. is about the tem-
perature limit as to cold." Touching the
value of the eucalyptus for lumber, based
upon the product of California-grown trees,
" but little can be said. The time has not
arrived to determine that question. The

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

7"

lumber sawed in Australian mills is not
made from trees of only ten to fifteen years
of age, and it is probable that very few of
the eucalypts planted in California are as
old as fifteen years from the seed. Our na-
tive trees of so recent growth are not used
for or made into lumber, and nothing but
soft and sappy wood can be expected from
tree3 so young." Facts bearing upon the
profit of eucalyptus-growing for fuel pur-
poses are furnished by the yield of twenty
acres of a plantation belonging to General
Stratton, of which, after charging every
item of cost, and a yearly rental of five dol-
lars per acre, the net profits were $3,866.04
in eleven years. Notwithstanding that too
much may have been claimed by enthusiastic
friends in relation to the sanitary and medi-
cal value of certain species of the eucalyp-
tus, " there is enough, minus exaggeration,
to justify their being regarded as of un-
questionable merit."

•

Dow Flies climb. — Herr H. Dewitz has
communicated to the Berlin Society of
Natural History some facts that bear very
strongly against the generally received the-
ory that flies adhere to perpendicular walls
and ceilings by virtue of some sucking pow-
er in their feet. He asserts that the feet
of flies can not possess the sucking property
ascribed to them, for they are hard and des-
titute of muscles. The theory has long been
contradicted by the experiments of Black-
wall, who found that flies could climb the
sides of a jar under the receiver of an air-
pump, where there was no atmospheric
pressure ; and who asserted that the power
of adherence was due to a sticky matter
secreted froin the foot-hairs of flies. This
assertion was generally regarded as not
proved, and the case has rested there. De-
witz reports that his investigations have
shown that Blackwall was right. He has
watched the exudation of the sticky matter
from the feet of the flies by fastening one
of the insects to the under side of a plate of
glass and viewing it under the microscope.
A perfectly clear liquid was seen to flow
from the ends of the foot-hairs and attach
the foot to the glass. When the foot was
lifted up, to be put down in another place,
the drops of the sticky matter were per-
ceived to be left on the glass, in the exact

I places where the foot-hairs had rested. The
i adhesive fluid appears to pass down through
the hollow of the hair, and to be derived
from glands which Leydig discovered in the
fojds of the foot in 1859. A similar adhe-
sive matter appears to be possessed by bugs,
by many larvae, and probably by all insects
that climb the stems and the under sides of
the leaves of plants.

Flesh-eating no Sin. — Mr. W. Mattieu
Williams gives a pointed answer, in the
"Journal of Science," to the protests of
a vegetarian writer against eating animal
food, on the ground that it involves cruelty
to living beings. No animals, he says, enjoy
a more comfortable life, or are better cared
for, than those we keep for food. If we did
not eat them, they would be exterminated,
for they would not be able to take care of
themselves. Yet, in the very sight of the
wonderful animal happiness that they en-
joy, " the sentimental vegetarians advocate
the extinction of all the pastoral bliss that
has been a leading theme to poets of all
ages." The final killing of them is in ac-
cordance with the order of nature, and, if
wc are to be denounced for it, the Creator
must also be denounced for giving life, and
at the same time making death one of its
necessary conditions. Then, if the killing
is wrong, the vegetarian kills on a far more
extensive scale, " for the boiling of a cab-
bage involves the immolation of innocent
slugs and caterpillars, and tens of hundreds
of thousands of aphides are sacrificed in
topping a row of broad beans, to say nothing
of the millions of Colorado beetles that
have been mercilessly murdered in order
that ruthless, selfish man may satisfy his
greed for potatoes."

Sun- Worship and the Cross in Ancient
America. — Mr. F. L. Hilder, of the Missouri
Historical Society, has made a study of a
pottery-vessel taken from one of the mounds
in the State, and finds that the ornaments
upon it represent the sun, figured under
four distinct designs. He draws the con-
clusion, from his examinations, that " the
symbolic character of all these devices is
so evident that it is impossible to mistake
their meaning. They are all well-known
emblems of that solar worship which was

712

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

so prominent in all the primitive religions
of the world that it has completed the cir-
cuit of the habitable globe. As such they
form an important item in the evidence to
establish the fact that the symbolism em-
ployed by the ancient inhabitants of this
region was far too refined and abstract to
have been the outgrowth of the religious
ideas of savage hunters and warriors ; and
that it bore a close analogy to, if not abso-
lutely identical with, that in use among the
nations of the central part of the continent
when invaded by the Spaniards." In one
of the forms of the figure, the sun is marked
with a cross, thus giving new evidence of
the universality of that symbol among man-
kind.

The Bacilli of Tubercle.— The "Medi-
cal Press " gives one of the clearest accounts
of the experiments by which Dr. Koch has
established the bacterial origin of tubercle.
In pursuing his investigations, Dr. Koch
used material derived both from human and
animal sources. Examination of the tuber-
culous material deposited in various organs
led to the discovery of minute organisms
possessing all the bacterial characteristics
of bacilli, whence the conclusion was formed
that those forms of life are invariably pres-
ent in such deposits. In a multitude of
cases of miliary tuberculosis, bacilli in in-
calculable numbers were encountered in
every affected situation, and the conclusion
was warranted that they inevitably accom-
pany the development at least of the disease.
To demonstrate, however, that they are the
cause of the affections, required the ac-
cumulation of sufficient actual proof, and
Koch's claim to the gratitude of the world
rests on the fact that he appears to have
made this. Numbers of Guinea-pigs, rab-
bits, and cats were operated upon, with the
result, in every case, of verifying the con-
clusions which the experimenter had reached.
By directly transferring the tuberculous mat-
ter from diseased animals to healthy ones,
through inoculation, Dr. Koch succeeded in
all cases in reproducing the disease. As,
however, it was still possible that the con-
tamination might be due to a virus con-
tained in the transferred material, rather
than to the presence of microscopic organ-
isms in it, " cultivation " experiments were

introduced and conducted on a very exhaust-
ive scale. A pabulum was found in which
the bacilli grew and reproduced freely. By
repeated sowings in new quantities of the
nutritive matter, extending in some cases to
six months, a generation of " purified " ba-
cilli was obtained which could not by any
possibility be accused of communicating
virus. When these organisms were intro-
duced into healthy animals, they never failed
to reproduce themselves in incalculable
numbers, and to set up all the symptoms of
tuberculous infection. Thus, four Guinea-
pigs were inoculated with bacilli of the fifth
generation produced in fifty-four days from
tuberculous matter originally derived from
a human being. In each case the infected
animal sickened and lost flesh, and was
found when killed to have strongly pro-
nounced tuberculosis. This took place what-
ever was the point in the body chosen for the
injection of the infective material. When
some animals were injected with healthy
blood-serum at the same time that others were
inoculated with bacilli, the latter sickened
and became tuberculous, while the former
were not affected. In another series of ex-
periments the sputum of phthisical patients,
even after having been thoroughly dried,
was found to produce similar effects with the
bacilli. Certain conditions seem essential
to the development of the bacilli under the
ordinary circumstances of communication,
and further experiments will bear reference
to ascertaining precisely what they are.

Neglect of the Study of Insanity. — In a

paper read before the National Association
for the Protection of the Insane and the
Prevention of Insanity, Dr. Nathan Allen,
of Lowell, Massachusetts, calls attention to
the neglect in which the study of insanity is
left by the medical profession generally.
Acknowledging that the study of the func-
tions and disorders of the brain presents
more difficulties than any other branch of
medical science, but seemingly considering
this as only a stronger reason why more at-
tention should be given to it, he finds that
in very few instances is insanity mentioned
as one of the subjects in the annual circu-
lars of medical schools advertising their lect-
ures. In only three or four schools is there
a professorship or course of lectures de-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

713

voted exclusively to mental disorders. The
subject is sometimes introduced under the
head of theory and practice of medicine,
but is more often remanded to the lectures
on medical jurisprudence ; and hardly ever
is a book on this subject included among
the standard works of study and reference
proposed for students.

The Albert Medal.— The Albert Medal
of the British Society of Arts has been
awarded, beginning in 1864, to Sir Rowland
Hill, for postal reforms ; to Napoleon III,
for his promotion of art ; to Professor Fara-
day, for discoveries in electricity, magnet-
ism, and chemistry ; to Mr. W. Fothergill
Cook and Professor Wheatstone, for estab-
lishing the first electric telegraph ; to Mr.
Joseph Whitworth, for his instruments of
measurement and uniform standards; to
Baron von Liebig, for chemical and other
researches ; to Ferdinand de Lesseps, on
account of the Suez Canal ; to Mr. Henry
Cole, C. B., for activity in international ex-
hibitions and the South Kensington Mu-
seum ; to Mr. Bessemer, for developing the
manufacture of steel; to M. Chevreul, for
chemical researches ; to C. W. Siemens, for
a variety of researches ; to Michael Cheva-
lier, for general economical activity ; to Sir
George B. Airy, for researches in nautical
astronomy and magnetism, etc. ; to M. Du-
mas, for chemical researches ; to Sir Will-
iam Armstrong, for distinguished engineer-
ing work and development of mechanical
power; to Sir William Thomson, for electri-
cal researches and the development of ocean-
cables ; to J. P. Joule, for establishing the
relations between heat, light, and electrici-
ty ; and to A. W. Hoffmann, of Berlin, for
investigations in organic chemistry and
his promotion of chemical education and
research in England. The award of the
medal for 1881 was to be made in May.

Tree Meteorology. — Mr. Robert E. C.
Stearns, Ph. D., at the close of a paper on
the estimation of the annual growths of
certain trees in California, suggests the pos-
sibility of making valuable investigations
into the periodicity of climates and the di-
rection and effects of prevailing winds by
the systematic study x of the year-rings of
trees. " We might," he says, " find so

close a parallelism between rings of maxi-
mum thickness and seasons of maximum
rain-fall, that we should be justified in re-
garding this parallelism as something more
than a series of coincidences merely, by
finding these coincidences so persistent as
to prove a correlation ; and we could, per-
haps, base our weather prognostications on
something more than a guess, and learn
whether or not there is a periodicity or cy-
clical term of wet and dry years, having the
data before us according to the trees se-
lected and examined — reaching back with
the pines from seventy-five to one hundred
and fifty years, with the redwoods from five
hundred to seven hundred years, and with
the sequoias of the Sierra from twelve to
fourteen centuries, to say nothing of the
testimony of other trees, the madronas and
oaks especially. Differences in the diame-
ters of trees," Dr. Stearns adds, " may be
traced, perhaps, to a difference in the
amount of heat and light which one side of
a tree receives as compared with the other ;
to the influence of prevailing winds accord-
ing to the station, position, or exposure, or
to local or general magnetic influences — lo-
cal as peculiar to small areas, or general as
pertaining to larger or extensive regions.
An accumulation of data might show a
marked and constant character in the rela-
tion of diameters to such factors of the en-
vironment ; and also a marked character in
the diameters of one region, as a whole,
when compared with another region, where
modified or different climatic conditions
exist."

Habits of Wood-Ducks.— The experi-
ments of Mr. George Irvin, of Mayville,
New York, upon the capacity for domesti-
cation of different species of wild ducks,
gave him the means of gaining much knowl-
edge of the habits of the wood-ducks,
which, although they would not be domes-
ticated, bred freely within the inclosure in
which he confined them. They generally
begin to nest about the middle of April,
and always choose trees with suitable holes
and hollows in which to build, preferring
for this purpose rather high elevations, and
lay from nine to fourteen eggs, of a yellow-
ish-white color, the period of incubation of
which is four weeks. When the young

7H

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

birds, twenty-four hours after being hatched,
are ready to descend from their nests,
whether low or high, the old bird comes to
the mouth of the hole and takes for about
a half-hour a careful survey of the sur-
roundings, to ascertain, as it were, that no
intruder is near, and then utters a low call.
The ducklings seem to understand the sig-
nificance of the call and quickly make their
appearance in front of the hole, which often
extends to a depth of from six to ten feet.
By means of their toe-nails, which are
hooked nearly as much as those of birds of
prey, and sharp as the point of a needle,
they easily manage to climb up on the in-
side of the deep holes, at the entrance of
which they remain a few minutes huddled
together about the old bird. After this, the
mother again descends to the ground near
the tree, and calls upon her young brood,
which now drop, one by one, from their airy
perch, without any apparent hesitation ; for
their bodies are already so thickly covered
with down that they seem to fall like leaves
to the ground. When the last duckling has
accomplished its fall, the brood gather again
about the old bird and are led by her to the
nearest water, which is seldom far away,
ard is generally convenient to shelters and
hiding-places.

The Foot, and how it should be treated.

— The human foot is an instrument admi-
rably adapted to all the various uses it has
to serve, which fashion has done its best to
spoil by improper treatment. The bones of
the instep are so adjusted as to form an ar-
rangement which combines in exquisite per-
fection the resistance of the arch with as
much elasticity as enables it to bear safely
the prodigious strain to which it is sub-
jected. The whole frame of the foot is
kept in position and made capable of its
proper range of movement by means of
muscles and tendons, constituting a living
and sensitive bandage, increasing or relax-
ing its pull or pressure in the most exact
obedience to our will. In a sound, free
foot, each part of the machinery is in con-
stant readiness to bring it into the required
position, whether to lift the body, to bound,
or to sustain the shock of the whole weight
in coming down again, or to perform any
other of a number of complications of

movement. How perfectly the foot is
adapted for these purposes, and is protected
against too great pressure and sudden shock,
is shown by the fact that such violent ac-
tions as leaping, or the being burdened
with a weight twice or thrice ,that of the
whole body, cause no uneasiness to a sound
foot; the injury, if any, resulting from
such exertions being usually felt elsewhere.
The skin, very thin and delicate on the up-
per part of the foot, is thick and tough,
though soft and pliable, on the sole. Be-
neath it is a layer of fat, strengthened by
strong fibers crossing it and binding it to
the muscles and ligaments. The sole can
endure great pressure and even violent
shocks, but is at the same time curiously
sensitive, especially to the touch. It is very
easily tickled. This property serves a very
important purpose in walking, for the press-
ure upon the ground stimulates the mus-
cles of the foot to their required activity,
without any effort of the will, and indeed
without our being conscious of the opera-
tion. This spontaneous alertness of the
muscles, on which the energy and grace of
movement depend, can be secured only by
their being kept uncramped, free, and well
exercised. How much the shoemaker's
shoes, cramping the foot, jamming the toes
upon each other, distorting the shape of the
organ, and lifting the heel up so that the
weight of the body is thrown upon the toes,
prevent this, needs no elaboration. The les-
son of these observations is that the shoe
should give plenty of room all around to the
foot, that the sole should be thinnest and
narrowest at the " waist," where elasticity
is wanted, broad and thick at the tread,
where protection is most required, and that
no one should be ashamed of the size of
his foot. UA well-formed large one is a
far pleasanter sight than the smallest one
distorted."

A Lion-Tamer's Method. — A curious his-
tory, and one that sheds many gleams of
light upon the character of beasts in the
menagerie, is that of Henri Martin, the lion-
tamer, who died, ninety years old, quietly at
his home, " among his collections of butter-
flies and his books of botany." Martin, ac-
cording to his own letters, began to cultivate
his gift of control over animals in the days

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

715

when he was connected with a circus, by ac-
quiring an extraordinary power over horses,
which he taught every trick known to the
profession, and some which have hardly
been exactly paralleled. From this he went
on to taming wild beasts ; and, soon after he
had started business as part proprietor of a
menagerie, he had labored eight months in
training a royal tiger, and had taught a
spotted hyena to pick up his gloves. He
was never seen with a whip in his hand ;
but he crossed his arms, and gave his ani-
mals the word of command to leap on and
off his shoulders ; and he considered his
method infinitely superior to that of the
tamers who go through their business chief-
ly by the terrorism of a heavy whip and a
revolver. Their beasts obey them, but, he
said, " they are not tamed as mine were, and,
when one of them rebels, you can judge the
tragic result from the tragical end of Lu-
cas." One day, Martin told his wife that
he anticipated trouble with his lion Cobourg,
who wag then in a dangerous state of ex-
citement. She begged him to put off the
performance, but he said : " No ; for, if I
should do it once, I should have to do it
every time the animals have caprices." The
next night his forebodings were fulfilled.
Instead of performing his part properly,
Cobourg crouched low and dug his talons
into the stage, and his eyes flared. Martin
had no weapon at command except a dagger
in his belt — " I have said, never a whip."
Instead of obeying orders, the lion leaped
at Martin, and a combat occurred, in the
course of which the lion took Martin up in
his mouth and shook him in the air. Mar-
tin struck the animal over the nose for a
second time, and then, feeling his strength
exhausted, gave himself up for lost, and
turned his back to the beast, so that at the
next spring it might attack the back of his
neck, and 'so "make an end of the busi-
ness. . . . But two seconds passed, two sec-
onds that seemed to me an eternity. I
turned around ; the lion's mood had changed.
He looked at the audience, he looked at me.
I gave him the sign to go. He went away
as if nothing had happened." It was four-
teen weeks before Martin could perform
again, but then the lion worked well as usu-
al, and continued to do so for four years
without any more caprices. In taming one

of his tigers, Martin began by taking the
brute's attention off the door of the cage,
and then, armed with a dagger, went rapid-
ly into the cage and stood looking at the
tiger, which for some minutes lay motion-
less, staring at him. Then, feeling a shiv-
er, and knowing that if the tiger saw it all
would be over with him, he went swiftly out.
At the end of a fortnight he went again into
the cage, and this time staid there half an
hour. A third time he paid the tiger a visit
of three quarters of an hour. " The fourth
time the tiger, trembling at first, lay down
before the pygmy who braved it." To tame
a hyena, Martin wrapped his legs and arms
with cords, and protected his head with
handkerchiefs, and then, walking into the
cage, went straight to the animal and of-
fered it his fore-arm. The hyena bit it, and
the tamer, looking steadily in its eyes, stood
motionless. The next day he repeated the
experiment, substituting a leg for an arm ;
"and all the time Martin's black pupils
were flashing into the gray eye of the hy-
ena. The beast gave up, cringed, and smelled
the feet of the master." Martin tamed his
subjects by his personal influence alone ;
and Charles Nodicr once said of him : " At
the head of an army Martin might have
been a Bonaparte. Chance has made a man
of genius a director of a menagerie."

A Merovingian (Frank) Grave-Yard. —

M. Georges Lecocq has described some
articles which he has recovered from a
cemetery of the Merovingian period at Cau-
laincourt, France. He opened 186 graves,
and found in them 156 coffins of wood,
30 cf stone, and 464 articles of glass,
iron, bronze, ivory, coins, beads, flints, etc.
The graves were generally well aligned and
directed from east to west. The stone
coffins were made, some from a single block,
more from two or three blocks, and were
wider at the head than at the foot. The
covers were flat or tectiform, and always
composed of two or three slabs. These
sarcophagi all contained wooden coffins. In
most of the burials a stone was placed over
the breast. The race of men whose burial-
place this was, do not appear to have been
essentially different from the present race.
One skull, which particularly attracted at-
tention, had a hole in it exactly like what

7 16

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a gunshot would produce. The numerous
articles of earthenware presented a great
variety of forms, and were both plain and
decorated. The iron articles were all very
much oxidized, so that traces could hardly
be detected of the silver with which some
of them had been damascened. Lances
were put at the head of the dead and arrows
and battle-axes along by the legs. The
bronzes were made of different alloys of
copper and tin and other metals, and in-
cluded fibules in the shape of a bird (single-
and double-headed paroquet), round belt-
plates, and handsome little shoe-ornaments.

Egyptological Discovery.— Great prog-
ress has been made within twelve months
in Egyptological discovery. M. Marriette, the
official curator of the antiquities of the coun-
try, who died in January, 1881, had, just be-
fore his death, opened three pyramids, two of
them those of monarchs of the sixth dynas-
ty who were among the most distinguished
kings of the old empire — Pepi Rameri, who,
according to Manetho, reigned a hundred
years, and his son and successor Rameri.
The pyramids were richly adorned with
inscriptions, and the discovery pleasantly
supplements the valuable biography we al-
ready had of a chief officer of that period,
relating the wars with the negroes and other
events, which form one of the most satisfac-
tory historical documents which the ancient
empire has yet furnished us. Professor
Maspero, who was appointed to succeed M.
Marriette, shortly after he took his office ex-
plored the pyramids of a still earlier monarch,
Unas, the last king of the fifth dynasty, which
was also richly decorated and contained in-
scriptions, mostly parts of the ritual, a sar-
cophagus of black basalt, and remains of
the mummy, bearing marks of the work of
the ancient tomb-breakers. The excava-
tions of the pyramids are to be continued in
the expectation of finding them to confirm
M. Maspero's theory that the pyramids from
Gizeh to the Fayoom are a series containing
in succession the bodies of the kings from
the fourth to the thirteenth dynasty. A
second great discovery of no less impor-
tance was made in July at the caverns be-
hind the Deir-el-Bahari, or temple of Ha-
tasu, near Thebes. Attention had long
been drawn to the antiquities which had

been offered to travelers for many years
past, and which it was believed must come
from some hiding-place known only to the
Arabs. M. Emil Burgsch secured the ar-
rest of the Arab who seemed most concerned
in these dealings, and succeeded in tracing
the articles to their source, the cave among
the hills where the royal mummies had been
carried and deposited for security against
invasion during the twenty -first dynasty.
The mummies are twenty-seven in number,
several of them being of kings, queens, and
princesses, and persons of distinction of
the eighteenth and intervening dynasties
to the twenty -first, and with them were
thousands of objects — amulets, statuettes,
papyruses which are expected when read
to prove of great value, and a leather tent
of a king of the twenty-first dynasty. Among
the mummies are those of Raskenen, a king
preceding the eighteenth dynasty ; of Queen
Ansera, Amenophis I, and his wife Ahmes
Nof ertari, Thothmes II, and Thothmes III, of
the eighteenth dynasty; Rameses II, the
supposed Pharaoh of Moses, of the twen-
tieth dynasty ; Queen Notemit (to whom the
" Prince of Wales's papyrus " in the Brit-
ish Museum was originally attached) ; and
King Pinotem II, of the twenty-first dynasty.
Cases and other articles were also found be-
longing to other distinguished monarchs of
the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties,
The cave in which the remains were found
is supposed to have been originally the
tomb of Queen Ansera.

The Manageable Zone of Anaesthetics.

— M. Paul Bert has announced some dis-
coveries of great value respecting the mode
of action of mixtures of anaesthetic vapors
and atmospheric air upon the animal or-
ganism. He applies the term manageable
zone to the different degrees of admixture,
rising from the proportion of anaesthetic
which is insufficient to put to sleep, to
the proportion which will cause immediate
death. In the case of chloroform and ether
the mortal dose appears to be exactly
double the minimum anaesthetic dose. An-
aesthesia takes place in the middle of the
manageable zone very rapidly and without
danger, so that the animal may be left for
two hours in the anaesthetic atmosphere
without any one being concerned about him.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

7i7

It is not necessary to insist upon the con-
trast thus afforded between this method of
administration and the one that has hitherto
been used, in which the operator, making
his patient breathe dense chloroform direct-
ly into his nostrils, has to exercise the great-
est caution lest he kill him. The manage-
able zone of ether is a little more than
three times as wide as that of chloroform,
while that of the protoxide of nitrogen is
considerably wider than that of ether. Here
we see why ether is less, and the protoxide
of nitrogen still less, dangerous than chloro-
form. M. Bert's researches further show
that it is not so much the absolute quantity
of the anaesthetic that should be regarded
as the proportion in which it is mixed with
air. A dog can safely be made to absorb
many times as much chloroform as would
kill him, if it were pure, provided it is so
diluted as to bring its strength within the
manageable zone.

Poisonous Food-Colors. — The prefect of
police of Paris has expressly forbidden the
use of any of the following substances in
coloring sweetmeats, liquors, and foods :
Mineral Colors. — The compounds of cop-
per— blue verdigris, mountain blue. Com-
pounds of lead — oxides of lead — massicot
and minium. Oxychloride of lead — Cassel
yellow, Turkey yellow, Paris yellow. Car-
bonate of lead — white-lead, flake- white. An-
timoniate of lead — Naples yellow. Sul-
phate of lead. Chromates of lead — chrome
yellow, Cologne yellow. Chromate of bary-
ta— yellow ultramarine. Compounds of ar-
senic— arsenite of copper, Scheele's green,
Schweinfurth green. Sulphide of mercury
— vermilion. ' Organic Colors. — Gamboge
and Naples aconite. Fuchsine and its
sub-products, such as Lyons blue. Eosine.
Nitro-derivatives, such as haphtol yellow
and Victoria yellow. The use of these sub-
stances in coloring wrapping-papers for any
kind of food is prohibited, and manufact-
urers and dealers will be held responsible
for any accidents that may occur through
disobedience of the prefect's order.

The Meteorograph. — Messrs. Van Rys-
selberghe and Schubert exhibited at the
Paris Exposition of Electricity an instru-
ment they called a meteorograph, for repre-

senting by means of continuous curves
drawn automatically upon a sheet of zinc
all the principal atmospheric variations, the
knowledge of which is indispensable in me-
teorological investigations and in making
forecasts of the weather. M. Theorell, of
Stockholm, exhibited another machine, of a
more complicated character, which indicates,
by printed figures in six columns on an end-
less roll of paper, the hour when the obser-
vation is taken, the velocity of the wind, its
direction, the indications of the wet and of
the dry thermometer, and the indications of
the barometer. Notwithstanding the com-
plicated character of the machinery that
must do so much, the instrument has borne
admirably the test of use at the University
of Upsala, where it has been employed for
two years in registering the condition of the
atmosphere every quarter of an hour. For
immediate use in the observatory it is not as
convenient as the Rysselberghe instrument,
the graphic curves of which can be read off
and appreciated at sight ; but it is much its
superior for use in cases where the facts
have to be transmitted by telegraph.

Sea Telegraphy for Ships. — M. Menusier
has proposed a plan of telegraphy for the
use of ships at sea. Upon his cable, which
he would lay from the French coast to New
York, with a branch to Panama, he proposes
to ingraft at distances of about one hundred
and eighty miles, representing a ship's daily
sailing distance, vertical cables rising to the
surface where the ends may be held up by
buoys. To the main cable he would also
add secondary cables thirty or sixty miles
long, forming cross-cables, like great arms
stretching out on either side, to which other
vertical cables would be attached, each to
be held in place by its surface buoy. Thus
it could rarely happen that a ship keeping
on the regular course would not be able to
meet one of the buoys every day. Each
buoy should have its number and its place
marked on a special chart. If a ship wishes
to send a dispatch, it attaches the wires of
its, own telegraphic apparatus, one to the
cable that is held up by the buoy, the other
to the buoy itself, which is of course in
communication with the earth-currents. M.
Menusier professes to solve the principal
difficulty in the way of the successful cper-

7i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ation of his invention, which is that of fix-
ing the buoys so that they shall not be re-
moved by storms, but declines to make his
plans public on account of the defective
condition of the patent laws. He has, how-
ever, explained it to competent navigators,
and they are said to regard it as practica-
ble.

American and European Palaeolithic Im-
plements.— Mr. Henry W. Haynes has com-
pared the argillite implements found in the
gravels of the Delaware River at Trenton,
New Jersey, with the palaeolithic implements
of Europe, by a personal inspection of both,
to ascertain to what extent they correspond
in character as objects of human workman-
ship. He traces many striking resemblances
between the two groups. The argillite im-
plements are, indeed, of ruder workmanship
than the European flints, but that is because
the material from which they are made is
less susceptible of being finely worked. The
types of the two classes of implements are,
however, remarkably similar, and the Dela-
ware objects are equally well adapted to
any purposes to which the European imple-
ments are capable of being applied. Re-
garding the character of the formations in
which the implements are found, the general

• appearance of the country and the gravels
present a striking resemblance to what he
has seen in the places where the palasolith-
ic implements in Europe were found. He,
therefore, considers the argillite objects of
the Trenton gravels to be true palaeolithic
implements.

Disease from Coal-Dast. — M. Paul Fabre
has published some observations on the part
which coal-dust plays in the pathology of
coal-miners. The effects which result from
the accumulation of dust in the respiratory
passages are obvious and need no particular
description. Coal-dust does not exert any
special action on the skin. The parasitical
pests, the origin of which some authors
have attributed to coal-dust, never appear
except when the chambers of the mines con-
tain water holding some irritant in solution
or suspension. Coal- sorters, who work on

• the surface, live in an atmosphere contain-
ing coal, and handle as much coal as the
workmen in the mines, but do not suffer

from eruptions. Nearly all miners are
marked with characteristic scars of a clear
blue color, which, indelible as real tattooing,
follow every wound produced by splinters of
coal. Coal-dust in the air in a state of sus-
pension may produce a slight degree of sim-
ple conjunctivitis ; affections of the cornea
and iris are also sometimes observed, re-
sulting from blows inflicted by fine frag-
ments of coal. They arc generally cured
after the irritating splinter has been re-
moved. Miners are frequently affected with
defective hearing and other troubles of the
ears, which most frequently arise from a
stoppage of the extreme auditory conduit
with masses of dust that have been cement-
ed into a wad by the ear-wax. This may
be easily removed, and the irritation of the
car-passages may be cured afterward by
washing.

f

What Perils might come out of a Tun-
nel.— The scheme to tunnel the Channel has
excited great alarm, and called out formi-
dable remonstrances in England. The ob-
jection most prominently urged against the
proposed work is that it would expose the
country to a constant menace of invasion
or treachery. The French might fill the
tunnel at any time with soldiers in the guise
of innocent passengers, and seize the Eng-
lish approaches so firmly that it would be
impossible to shake them off, before the
people had begun to imagine that danger
was near ; and the Irish republicans might
form a league with the French, and, seeing
that the telegraph wires were cut, destroy
communication within the kingdom, thus
increasing the danger, which, as it was
previously presented, seemed as great as it
possibly could be. The single defense of the
English would be the power of blowing up
the tunnel suddenly and unexpectedly, " and
what would that power be worth ? The pre-
mier might think himself justified in destroy-
ing twenty millions of property and impairing
twenty-two millions more; . . . but also he
might not. He might be an undecided man,
or a man expecting defeat by the opposition,
or a man paralyzed by the knowledge that
the tunnel was full of innocent people whom
his order would condemn to instant death in
a form which is at once most painful and
most appalling to the imagination. . . . The

NOTES.

719

responsibility would be overwhelming for
an individual, and a cabinet, if dispersed,
takes hours to bring together." The dan-
ger of panic, to which the people and the
markets would be constantly exposed, in
the view of such apprehensions as these, is
one the effects of which would be real. Such
objections to the tunnel have found formal
expression in a remonstrance which has
been signed by men whose names carry
weight everywhere, and have at last brought
about a suspension of the project. A very
curious objection, which Americans can
hardly appreciate, is suggested in "The
Spectator." It is that the tunnel would
turn England into an outlying peninsula of
the European Continent, and " would be al-
most purely mischievous, as slowly destroy-
ing the insularity and separateness of the
national character."

CoIor-IVames and Color-Sense. — Dr. B.

Joy Jeffries, in an article in " Education,"
calls attention to the fact that the power to
give right color-names does not indicate the
possession of a right perception of colors.
" A blind child will give the name of the color
of grass, trees, apples, bananas, bricks, its
companion's clothes, and perhaps even of
hundreds of objects, the color-name of which
it has learned. So, also, the color-blind boy
will do the same. It is one thing to learn
the color-name connected with a remembered
object, and a very different thing to con-
nect the right name with the sensation a
green color arouses. Here has been the
mistake which object-teaching has rather
fostered than corrected." It is evident, he
adds, that teaching color in the schools
must embrace the detection of color-blind-
ness in the boys, the learning the names of
the commonest colors at least, the sharpen-
ing of the appreciation and discrimination
of colors, and thus the gradual education of
the color-sense. Instruction should begin
in primary or Kindergarten work, and be
steadily pursued through school-life. Con-
genital color-blindness is incurable, but it
may be somewhat palliated. It is not ex-
hibited as strongly in artificial as in natural
light. Looking through a piece of lemon-
colored glass will help the color-blind in
daylight or electric ligl^t ; and the same is
true of looking through a solution of gela-

tine stained with fuchsine. No temporary
or permanent change takes place in the
color-sense under these circumstances, but
alterations of light and shade are made
which the color-blind have learned, uncon-
sciously, to avail themselves of.

NOTES.

In our notice, in the July number, of the
death of Professor W. B. Rogers, we as-
cribed it, following the newspaper reports,
to apoplexy. We now learn from his broth-
er, Professor R. E. Rogers, that the deceased
died from heart-disease. Professor Rogers's
physicians pronounced the cause of his
death to be "an attack of the heart, in
which life was extinct before his body
reached the floor."

Antoine Breguet, co-editor with Dr.
Charles Richet of the " Revue Scientifique,"
in Paris, died of a disease of the heart on
the 8th of July, in the thirty-second year of
his age. He was distinguished in science
chiefly as an electrician, and took a con-
spicuous part in the management of the
International Exposition of Electricity of
last year. , Among his earlier writings was
a paper on the theory of the Gramme ma-
chine, which was published in the " Annales
de Chimie et de Physique." He contributed
many articles to " La Nature " between 1S75
and 1878; and became co-editor of the
" Revue Scientifique " on the retirement of
M. Alglave from that journal in 18S0.

Mr. Albert S. Gatschett, in a study
of the Indian languages of the Pacific States
and Territories, and of the Pueblos of New
Mexico, disputes the affinities which are
supposed by many to exist between the
Aztecs and the Pueblos. The oldest and
most important characteristics of race and
language, he alleges, are far from being
common to both races, and even secondary
and more recent characteristics, as imple-
ments, manners, customs, laws, government,
religions, beliefs, worship, and traditions,
have not been shown to be identical in them.
A comparison of all of the four languages
of the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona
results in showing that none of them have
sufficient affinity with Aztec to justify a
classification with it.

The French Department of Public Works
reports that of the 39,938,126 metres repre-
senting the total length of the national high-
ways of the country, 23,731,928 metres may
be bordered with trees. Of this distance,
14,335,311 metres have already been planted
with 2,691,698 trees, leaving 9,396,617 me-
tres yet to be planted.

yzo

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The editor of the " Medical Press " has
visited a canary-bird, in the possession of
Dr. J. MacGrigor Croft, that can talk. He
says he found that the bird could pronounce
a good number of sentences, " clearly imita-
tive of the voice of the lady who had care
of it since its early youth," and that " the
effect produced by the clear, sweetly uttered
sentences pronounced by the bird is almost
weird at first; but the feeling of wonder
thus created quickly gives rise to a sensa-
tion of exquisite pleasure, which is deepened
as the little creature suddenly, at the end
of a sentence, rushes off into an ecstasy of
song."

Mr. Craig, of Montreal, has produced a
novel effect in the electric light by the de-
vice of placing his reflectors under the light
and throwing the rays upward to the ceil-
ing. It is found that by using this method
the light, as reflected back from the ceiling,
falls upon the persons below much softened,
and far more agreeable in tone than when
reflected directly downward in the usual
way. The glaring center of light is hidden
by the reflector below it, and no longer of-
fends the eyes. Objects not exposed to di-
rect light are not in shadow, as in cases of
ordinary reflection, but the whole effect is
described as like that of the sun in the
zenith.

Mount Etna has been in a half-active
condition ever since the great eruption of
18*79. Hardly a month has passed in which
it has not ejected smoke and sand with
greater or less violence and persistency.
The outbursts have been accompanied by
the strong tremblings of the ground, and
the intense subterranean noises which com-
monly precede the great eruptions, but there
has been no emission of lava. Such fre-
quency of eruptive paroxysms, ending in
simple jets of dust, is unprecedented in the
long history of Etna.

The "Echo of Japan" says that a cave
near Beppo-Moura, Japan, had not been
entered by any one for several generations.
According to popular belief, a god made his
abode there, and was ready to punish with
death any one who violated his privacy.
One of the tribe of doubters recently vent-
ured in, and -found there the veritable god
whom the mass of mankind worship. The
ground was strewed with nuggets of gold.
A preliminary examination of the spot has
been made, and shows that it is extraordi-
narily rich in the precious metal.

It is estimated that twenty-nine per cent
of the acreage of Europe is still in timber.
Forty per cent of the enormous territory of
Russia is in forests, and of this two hundred
million acres are in pine-woods. Thirty-
four per cent of the territory of Sweden and

Norway is occupied with woods of useful tim-
bers, twenty-six per cent of Austria, twenty-
seven per cent of Germany, seventeen per
cent of France, seven per cent of Spain, the
timber being cork, oak, and chestnut, five per
cent of Portugal, and four per cent of Great
Britain. Scotland is the only part of the
British Empire (including the colonies) in
which the planting of timber is going on to
any considerable extent. Sweden is now the
country from which the world's supply of fir
timber and deals chiefly comes.

Dr. J. R. Black of Newark, Ohio, in a
lecture delivered at Columbus^ makes a well-
conceived plea for giving more attention to
physical education, saying : " To impart a
knowledge of the three R's is well, but is it
not as well to impart a knowledge of how to
live healthy lives ? Is not a strong, healthy,
self-made man better than a highly cultured
weakling ? Let the State, as educator, at-
tend to this point, earnestly and thoroughly,
and the results would be that, besides gain-
ing for itself a better soldiery in times of
peril, there would also be an increased im-
munity from crimes against the State, a
diminution of the conditions which produce
disease and pauperism, and the rendering of
the life of each more joyful and serene."

In a paper on the aurora of April 16 and
17, 1882, which was read before the Ameri-
can Philosophical Society, Mr. H. Carvill
Lewis points to the occurrence of remarka-
ble auroral displays at this time, as afford-
ing a striking confirmation of the perio-
dicity of these phenomena. " It is just ten
years," he says, " since the last auroras of
importance occurred, and the period often to
twelve years between maximum auroral dis-
plays may be regained as firmly established.
The coincidence of this period with that of
most numerous sun-spots shows a direct con-
nection between the electrical condition of
the earth and sun. At the present time the
sun is exhibiting remarkable disturbances."

News has been received in Paris of the
death of Dr. Crevaux, who had started from
Buenos Ayres on a second exploring expe-
dition in South America, designing this time
to ascend the Paraguay River and its tribu-
taries and thence pass to the valley of the
Amazon, whence he would descend the Ta-
payos. His company appears to have been
murdered by a horde of cannibals. On his
previous expedition, in 18*79,116 determined
with the compass the course of six rivers,
two of which belong to Guiana, and four are
tributaries of the Amazon. While a little
was known of three of these rivers, the Ma-
roni, Oyapok, and Issa, two of them, the
Parou and the Yari were virgin to all explo-
ration, and of the Japura, which is fifteen
hundred miles long, four fifths of its course
were unknown.

RUDOLF VIRCHOW.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

OCTOBER, 1882.

MASSAGE: ITS MODE OF APPLICATION AND

EFFECTS.

By DOUGLAS GRAHAM, M. D.

" "TV /TASSAGE," from the Greek masso (I knead or handle), is a term
-LVJL now generally accepted to signify a group of procedures which
are usually done with the hands, such as friction, kneading, manipu-
lating, rolling, and percussing of the external tissues of the body,
either with some curative, palliative, or hygienic object in view. Its
application should in many instances be combined with passive, resist-
ive, or assistive movements, and these are often spoken of as the so-
called Swedish movement-cure. There is, however, an increasing
tendency on the part of scientific men to have the word " massage "
embrace all these varied forms of manual therapeutics, for the reason
that the word "cure," attached to any form of treatment whatsoever,
can not always be applicable, inasmuch as there are many maladies that
preclude the possibility of recovery and yet admit of amelioration.
Hence the. word " cure " may lead people to expect too much ; and, on
the other hand, the use of the word "rubbing" in place of " massage'1
tends to undervalue the application and benefit of the latter, for it is
but natural to suppose that all kinds of rubbing are alike, differing
only in the amount of force used.

According to the requirements of individual cases, massage may
be o£ primary importance or of secondary importance, of no use at all,
or even injurious. Concerning the extent of its usefulness, it may
with safety be said that, at tolerably definite stages in one or more
classes of affections in every special and general department of medi-
cine, evidence can be found that it has proved either directly or in-
directly beneficial, or led to recovery, sometimes when other means
had been but slowly operative, or apparently had failed altogether.
tol. xxi. — 46

722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In view of these facts, it need hardly be said that those who would
properly understand and apply massage should be familiar with its
past and present literature ; they should also be familiar not only with
the natural history of the maladies in which massage may be applied
when left to themselves, but also with the course of these affections
when treated in the usual approved methods, so that improvements
or relapses may be referred to their proper causes. Moreover, they
should know something about the methods of others who have any
claim to respectability in their manner of applying massage, so as to
compare them with their own. And yet all these qualifications may
fail if the operator has not in addition abundance of time, patience,
strength, and skill, acquired by long and intelligent experience. Meas-
ured by these requirements, I fear that good masseurs (manipulators)
are scarce. Dr. E. C. Seguin, in the "Archives of Medicine" for
April, 1881, says, that even in New York there are few manipulators
who can be trusted to do massage well. Massage may be studied as
a science, but it has, like everything else in medicine and surgery, to
be practiced as an art. Those who have a natural tact, talent, and
liking for massage, united with soft, elastic, and strong hands, and
physical endurance to use them, may be as useful artists in this de-
partment of the healing art as in others. It has been well said that
those who do massage should be tender and gentle, yet strong and
enduring. These are qualities that are rarely found combined in
manipulators. It is a very common mistake to suppose that those
who are of a remarkably healthy, ruddy appearance, plethoric and fat,
are the best fitted to do massage. Such people require a great deal of
exercise in the open air for the proper oxygenation of their blood, and
confining, in-door work, like massage, they soon find to be tedious
and irksome. Besides, the stooping attitude and varying positions so
often necessary while doing this sort of work soon put them out of
breath ; and thus, while suffering from their ignorance and awkward-
ness, they fancy they are imparting " magnetism " to their patients at
their own expense. Better that the manipulators should be rather thin,
though if of too spare a habit their hands will not be sufficiently
strong and muscular and their tissues generally will lack that firmness
necessary for prolonged endurance.

One of the best German medical reviews, " Schmidt's Jahrbiicher,"
in an extensive report on massage, thus indicates the esteem in which
this treatment is held by many eminent physicians and surgeons of
Europe : " It is but recently that massage has gained an extensive
scientific consideration, since it has passed out of the hands of rough
and ignorant empirics into those of educated physicians ; and upon
the results of recent scientific investigations it has been cultivated
into an improved therapeutical system, and has won for itself in its
entirety the merit of having become a special branch of the art of
medicine." Professor Billroth, one of the most eminent surgeons of

MASSAGE. 723

Germany, in a lecture on this subject published in the "Wiener med.
Wochen.," No. 45, 1875, says : "I can only agree with my colleagues,
Langenbeck and Esmarch, that massage in suitable cases deserves more
attention than has fallen to its lot in the course of the past ten years
in Germany. ... As practice in the manipulations, time, persever-
ance, and personal interest in the matter are necessary, and these one
can not bestow who interests himself much in medicine and surgery,
I have turned over to my old experienced surgical assistant suitable
cases for massage, and he has already obtained a series of results both
favorable and surprising, and far exceeding my expectations of this
method of treatment." Previous to the past fifteen years the French
physicians took more interest in massage than any others, but of late
they have almost entirely laid it aside. With their waning interest
the Scandinavians and Germans have taken up the subject with re-
newed zeal, and from time to time furnish instructive accounts of their
experiments, successes, and failures.

How is massage regarded, and what is its condition, in the United
States ? Except among very few — epicures in this matter, if one may
so speak — there is as yet but little evidence of a desire to place mas-
sage, and those who do it, on their merits alone, irrespective of the pol-
icy of employing persons who are only rubbing-machines, or of toler-
ating obnoxious individuals so long as the poor patients' minds are sat-
isfied. This is too often the case, and then massage is said to have
failed and valuable time is lost, when, if it had been properly applied,
it might have been successful ; or, on the other hand, perhaps it should
have been omitted and other remedies employed. The writer of this,
in a recent paper on the " History of Massage," has said : " In almost
every city of the United States, and indeed of the whole civilized
world, there may be found individuals claiming mysterious and mag-
ical powers of curing disease, setting bones, and relieving pain by the
immediate application of their hands. Some of these boldly assert
that their art is a gift from Heaven, due to some unknown power
which they call magnetism, while others designate it by some peculiar
word ending with pathy or cure, and it is astonishing how much credit
they get for their supposed genius by many of the most learned peo-
ple." Let a fisherman forsake his boat, or a blacksmith his anvil, or
a carpenter his bench, or a shoe-maker his shop, and proclaim that he
has made the wonderful discovery that he is full of magnetism and
can cure all diseases, and, be he ever so ignorant and uncouth, he is
likely to have, in a remarkably short space of time, a large clientele
of educated gentlemen and refined ladies. It is not meant to imply
that the previous occupation of such people is at all to their discredit,
but, were they capable of giving a rational explanation of their doings,
the halo of mystery would be removed from around them, and their
prestige and patronage would suffer a sudden decline.

In Boston and Philadelphia, and perhaps in other cities as well,

724 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

efforts have been made by physicians, who are thoroughly familiar
with massage, to instruct intelligent nurses and others how to apply
it, and at the training-schools for nurses the pupils receive some gen-
eral instruction in the matter. In this way something has been ac-
coinplished to bring massage within the rules and regulations of com-
mon sense and rational therapeutics. But still there is great room for
improvement even in this direction, for it is but too often the case that
after one or two persons are specially trained to do massage they are
requested to give instruction to some of the pupils at the schools for
nurses, and to others, a few of whom, after having received some gen-
eral desultory lessons, are in turn delegated or relegated to teach others.
and so on, until, by the time massage reaches the needy patients, there
is often little left of it but the name. Hence it is not to be wondered
at that many a shrewd, superannuated auntie, and others who are out
of a job, having learned the meaning of the word massage, immediately
have it printed on their cards, and keep on with their "rubbin' n just
as thev alwavs have done.

The vaguest generalities exist as to the manner of doing massage,
even among the best authors on the subject, and, after having studied
and tried the methods of all, the writer proposes to briefly formulate,
as much as space will permit of, what he has found to be of value,
without having adopted the methods of any in particular. By so do-
ing it is hoped that some will be able to judge whether those employed
to do massage know anvthing about it or not, or whether it would not
be as well to employ one of their own domestics for ordinary rubbing,
the advantages of which are not to be despised. At any rate, from
the description which follows, I trust that not a few intelligent friends
of chronic invalids, who are beyond the reach of the professional ma-
nipulator, will be enabled to apply massage so as to afford even greater
relief and comfort than can be gained from many of those whom
the ignorance of the community on this subject alone tolerates as
experts.

The multiform subdivisions under which the various procedures
of massage have been described can all be grouped under four differ-
ent heads, viz., friction, percussion, pressure, and movement. Malaxa-
tion, manipulation, deep-rubbing, kneading, or massage, properly so
called, is to be considered as a combination of the last two. Each and
all of these may be gentle, moderate, or vigorous, according to the
requirements of the case and the physical qualities of the operators.
Some general remarks here will save repetition : 1. All of the single
or combined procedures should be begun moderately, gradually in-
creased in force and frequency to their fullest extent desirable, and
should end gradually as begun. 2. The greatest extent of surface of
the fingers and hands of the operator consistent with ease and efficacy
of movement should be adapted to the surface worked upon, in order
that no' time be lost bv working with the ends of the fingers or one

MASSAGE. -:f

portion of the hands when all the rest might be occupied. 3. The
patient should be placed in as easy and comfortable a position as pos-
sible, in a well- ventilated room at a temperature of about 70" Fahr.
4. What constitutes the dose of massage is to be determined by the
force and frequency of the manipulations and the length of time
during which they are employed. A good manipulator will do more
in fifteen minutes than a poor one will in an hour, just as an old ma-
chanic working deliberately will accomplish more than an inexperi-
enced one working furiously. Friction has been described as recti-
linear, vertical, transverse or horizontal, and circular. It has been
stated, and very properly, that rectilinear friction should always be
used in an upward direction, from the extremities to the trunk, so
to favor and not retard the venous and lymphatic currents. But a
slight deviation from this method I have found to be more advanta-
geoQs, for though in almost every case the upward strokes of the friction
should be the stronger, vet the returning or downward movement mav
with benefit lightly graze the surface, imparting a soothing influence,
without being so vigorous as to retard the circulation, and thus a
saving of time and effort will be gained. The manner in which a
carpenter uses his plane represents this forward-and-return movement
verv well. Transverse friction, or friction at right angles to the long
axis of a limb, is a very ungraceful and awkward procedure. It has
been introduced on theoretical considerations alone, and mav with
safety be laid aside, for the method already spoken of, together with
circular friction, will do all and a great deal more than rubbing cross-
wise on a limb can do. A convenient extent of territory, to begin
with, is from the ends of the fingers to the wrist, each stroke being
of this length, the returning stroke being light, without raising the
hand. The rapidity of these double strokes may be from one hundred
to one hundred and fifty a minute. The whole palmar surface of the
fingers should be employed, and in such a manner that they will fit
into the depressions formed by the approximation of the phalang
and metacarpal bones. The heel of the hand should be used for
especially vigorous friction of the palm, as well as for the sole of the
foot. From the wrist to the elbow, and from the elbow to the shoul-
der, are separately convenient extents of surface, and here not only
-:raight-line friction, extending from one joint to the other, may be
used, but also circular friction. The form of the latter which I have
found most serviceable is in that of an oval, both hands moving at
the same time, the one ascending as the other descends, at the rate of
one hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and fifty each a minute,
or two hundred and fiftv to five hundred with both hands, each stroke
reaching from joint to joint, the upward stroke being carefully kept
within the limits of chafing the skin. These observations apply to
the lower limbs also, but, as they are larger than tm? arms, the pos-
terior and lateral aspects, from ankle to knee, will be a convenient

726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

territory, while the anterior and lateral aspects will be another for
thorough and efficacious friction. The same systematic division of
surface may be made above the knees as below, the number of strokes
below will vary from one hundred to one hundred and sixty with each
hand ; above, from seventy-five to one hundred each. From the base
of the skull to the spine of the scapula forms another region naturally
well bounded for downward and outward semicircular friction, and
from the spine of the scapula to the base of the sacrum and crest of
the ilium forms another surface over which one hand can sweep, while
the other works toward it from the insertion to the origin of the glutei,
at an average rate of sixty or seventy-five a minute with each hand
for a person of medium size. It will be observed that on the back
and thighs the strokes are not so rapid as on the other parts mentioned,
for the reason that the skin is here thicker and coarser, in consequence
of which the hand can not glide so easily, and the larger muscles be-
neath can well bear stronger pressure ; besides, the strokes are somewhat
longer, all of which require an increased expenditure of time. The
chest should be done from the insertion to the origin of the pectoral
muscles, and the abdomen from the right iliac fossa in the direction
of the ascending, transverse and descending colon. But here friction
is seldom necessary, for the procedure about to be considered accom-
plishes all that friction can do, and a great deal more in this region.
The force used in doing friction is often much greater than is neces-
sary, for it is only intended to act upon the skin, and there are better
ways of acting upon the tissues beneath it. If redness and irritation
be looked upon as a measure of the beneficial effects of friction upon
the skin, then a coarse towel, a hair mitten, or a brush would answer
for this purpose a great deal better than the hand alone.

The most important, agreeable, and efficacious procedure of mas-
sage has been variously designated as manipulation, kneading, deep-
rubbing, or massage properly so called, in contradistinction to the more
superficial method spoken of above. This is done by adapting as
much as possible of the fingers and hands to the parts to be thus
treated, and, without allowing them to slip on the skin, the tissues be-
neath are kneaded, rolled, and manipulated in a circulatory manner,
proceeding from the insertion toward the origin of the muscles, from
the extremities to the trunk, in the direction of the returning blood
and lymphatic currents. For this purpose the same divisions of sur-
face as for friction will be found most convenient. Beginning then
with the fingers from the roots of the nails, the thumb of the manipu-
lator will be placed on one of the fingers of the j>atient, and parallel
to the latter, while on the opposite side the index-finger will be placed
at right angles to this, and between the two the finger of the patient
will be compressed and malaxated, in a rotary manner, at the rate of
seventy-five to one hundred and fifty per minute. The dorsal and
palmar surfaces will of course receive special attention, while the

MASSAGE. 7 27

lateral aspects will come in for a secondary share. If the manipulator
be sufficiently expert he can work with both hands on this small sur-
face with the same rapidity as with one. Each finger and thumb will
be taken in turn, and the manipulations extended over the metacarpal
and carpal bones as far as the wrist-joint, and finally the palm of the
hand by stretching the tissues vigorously away from the median line.
Each part included in a single grasp may receive three or four manip-
ulations before proceeding onward to the adjacent region. The ad-
vance upon this should be such as to allow the finger and thumb to
overlap one half of what has just been worked upon. Advance and
review should thus be systematically carried on, and this is of general
application to all the other tissues that can be masseed. The force
used here and elsewhere must be carefully graduated so as to allow
the patient's tissues to glide freely upon each other ; for, if too great,
the movement will be frustrated by the compression and perhaps
bruising of the tissues ; if too light, the operators fingers will slip ;
and, if gliding with strong compression be used, the skin will be chafed.
To avoid this last objection various greasy substances have been em-
ployed, so that ignorant would-be masseurs may rub without injuring
the skin. When the skin is cold and dry, and the tissues in general
are insufficiently nourished, as well as in certain fevers and other mor-
bid conditions, there can be no doubt of the value of inunction ; but
no special skill is required in order to do this, and there is no need of
calling it massage unless it be to please the fancy of the patient.

The feet maybe dealt with in the same manner as the hands, using
the ends of the fingers to work longitudinally between the metatarsal
as well as between the metacarpal bones. Upon the arms and legs,
and indeed upon all the rest of the body, both hands can be used to
better advantage than where the surfaces are small. Each group of
muscles should be systematically worked upon, and for this purpose
one hand can usually be placed opposite to the other and in advance of
it, so that two groups of muscles may be manipulated at the same
time. When the circumference of the limb is not great, the fingers
of one hand will partly reach on to the territory of the other, while
grasping, circulatory, spiral manipulations are made, one hand con-
tracting as the other relaxes, the greatest extension of the tissues being
upward and laterally, and on the fore-arms and legs away from the
median line. Subcutaneous bony surfaces, as those of the tibia and
ulna, incidentally get sufficient attention while manipulating their ad-
jacent muscles, for, if both be included in a vigorous grasp, unnecessary
discomfort results. Care should be taken not to place the fingers and
thumb of one hand too near those of the other, for by so doing their
movements would be cramped. The elasticity, or want of it, in the
patient's tissues, should be the guide, the object being to obtain their
normal stretch, £,nd in this every person is a law to himself, the
character of their tissues varying with the amount and quality of

728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

adipose, modes of life, exercise, etc. A frequent error on the part of
manipulators is in attempting to stretch the tissues in opposite direc-
tions at the same time, especially at the flexures of the joints, where
the skin is delicate and sensitive, and where the temptation to such
procedures is greatest because easiest, the effect being a sensation of
tearing of the skin. The rate of these manoeuvres varies from
seventy-five to one hundred and fifty with each hand per minute on
the arms, from sixty to ninety on the legs, and from forty to eighty
on the thighs, where more force is required on account of the larger
size and density of the muscles, and the need of using sufficient force
to extend beneath the strong, tense fascia lata.

On the back the direction of these efforts will be from the base of
the skull downward, stretching the tissues away from the spinal
column while manipulating in graceful curves at an average rate of
sixty per minute with each hand. And here one hand can often be
re-enforced by placing the other upon it, and thus massage may be
done with all the strength the manipulator can put forth. "With the
ends of the fingers the muscles on each side of the spinal column can
be rolled, and the supra-spinous ligament can be effectually masseed
by transverse to-and-fro movements. The ends of the fingers and
part of their palmar surface should also be placed on each side of
the spinous processes, and the tissues situated between these and the
transverse processes worked upon by up-and-down motions parallel
to the spine, taking care to avoid the too frequent error of making
pushing, jerky movements in place of smooth, uniform motions in
each direction.

On the chest and abdomen the same general direction will be ob-
served as in using friction, but the manipulation will be more gentle
than on the back and limbs, for the tissues will not tolerate being so
vigorously squeezed and pinched. Here the massage will consist of
moderate pressure and movement with the palms of the hands, and
rolling and grasping the skin and superficial fascia ; and, after this,
on the abdomen, steady, firm, deep kneading in the direction of the
ascending, transverse, and descending colon, using for this purpose
the greatest force with the heel of the hand on the side of the abdo-
men next the operator, and on the other side the strongest manipula-
tions with the fingers, avoiding the frequent and disagreeable mistake
of pressing at the same time on the anterior portions of the pelvis.

Before leaving this part of the subject, the writer begs leave to
say something more about the common errors into which manipulators
fall, even some of those who pass for being skillful. Many do not
know how to do the kneading or malaxation with ease and comfort to
themselves and to their patients, for, in place of working from their
wrists and concentrating their energy in the muscles of their hands
and fore-arms, they vigorously fix the muscles of their upper arms
and shoulders, thus not only moving their own frame with every

MASSAGE. 729

manipulation, but also that of their patients, giving to the latter a
motion and sensation as if they were at sea in stormy weather. By
this display of awkward and unnecessary energy, not only do they
soon tire themselves, and say that they have lost magnetism by im-
parting it to their patients, but by the too firm compression of the
patient's tissues they are not allowed to glide over each other ; and
hence such a way of proceeding entirely fails of the object for which
it is intended. Surely, cultivation is the economy of effort.

Friction and manipulation can be used alternately, varied with
rapid pinching of the skin and deeper grasping of the subcutaneous
cellular tissue and muscular masses, and, when necessary, with per-
cussion, passive, assistive, and resistive movements, finishing one con-
venient surface or limb before passing to another, and occupying from
half an hour to an hour with all or part of these procedures. Pinching
is used mainly to excite the circulation and innervation of the skin, and
for this purpose it is best done rapidly at the rate of one hundred to one
hundred and twenty-five per minute with each hand. To act on the
subcutaneous cellular tissue, a handful of skin is grasped and rolled
and stretched more slowly than by the preceding method. A deeper,
momentary grasping of the muscles is often advantageous, and may
be called a mobile intermittent compression, and this, indeed, is what
the whole of massage, strictly speaking, consists of. Percussion, ap-
plicable only over muscular masses, may be done in various ways. In
the relative order of their importance they are as follows : 1. With
the ulnar borders of the hands and fingers. 2. The same as the first,
with the fingers separated. 3. With the ends of the fingers, the tips
being united on the same plane. 4. With the dorsum of the upper
halves of the fingers loosely flexed. 5. With the palms of the hands.
6. With the ulnar borders of the hands tigrhtlv shut. 7. With the
palms of the hands held in a concave manner, so as to compress the
air while percussing. More gentle or vigorous and rapid percussion
than any of these methods afford can be done by securing India-rubber
air-balls on whale-bone or steel handles. With these one gets the
spring of the handles together with the rebound of the balls, and thus
rapidity of motion with easily varying intensity is gained, the num-
ber of blows varying from two hundred and fifty to six hundred a
minute with both.

Remedial movements have been so well described in books on the
so-called " movement-cure " that little need be said of them here. It is
well for those who use them to know the anatomy and physiology of the
joints and their natural limits of motion. Except in the case of relaxed
joints, passive motion should be pushed until there is a feeling of
slight resistance to both patient and manipulator ; for by this will be
known that in healthy joints the ligaments, capsules, and attachments
of the muscles are being acted upon. Resistive movements are such
as the patient can make while the operator resists. The opposing

73o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

force should be carefully and instinctively kept within the limits of
the patient's strength, and this, with all these other manoeuvres, should
stop short of fatigue. To alternately resist flexion and extension is
the pons asinorum of manipulators, and, in a considerable experience
of teaching massage, I have found but few who could learn to do it
at all. Its importance can not be overestimated as a means of culti-
vating the strength of weakened muscles, while, at the same time,
finding out how much they can be used. Many a patient who has
recovered from an old injury is still as much incapacitated as ever,
from the fact that his latent energies can only be discovered and
made available in this manner. Midway between passive and resistive
movements, in the course of certain recoveries, stand assistive move-
ments. They are but little understood and seldom used. They may
be illustrated as follows : Let it be supposed that, in the absence of
adhesions and irreparable injury of the nerve-centers, the deltoid has
but half the strength requisite to elevate the arm. So far as any use
is concerned this is the same as if there were no power of contraction
left in the muscle. But, if only the other half of the impaired vigor
be supplemented by the carefully graduated assistance of the operator,
the required movement will take place ; and, in some cases, if this be
regularly persisted in, together with manipulation and percussion,
more vigorous contraction will be gained, and, by-and-by, the patient
will exert three fourths of the necessary strength, and later the whole
movement will be done without aid ; and, as strength increases, re-
sistance can be opposed to the movement. Partial loss of motion can
often be accurately estimated by holding the limb suspended in a
cloth attached to a spring-balance. When the patient makes effort
the limb weighs less. By means of a spring-balance resistive motion
can also be estimated. Still another kind of movement may be spoken
of — namely, vigorous passive motion — with a view to breaking up ad-
hesions in and about joints, a description of which does not come with-
in the scope of this paper. It is the secret of success and of failure of
the people who call themselves " bone-setters," the methods of whom
have been well studied and explained by Dr. Wharton P. Hood, of
London, in his very interesting book " On Bone-Setting, so called."

A description of massage of the head and the benefits that arise
from it must be left to another time.

The relative importance of the foregoing procedures has been
partly indicated while describing them. According to the needs of
individual cases, one or more of these will predominate or be omitted,
and it is well that the advice of a physician be sought on this subject,
for there would be no use in giving a patient friction the capillary cir-
culation of whose skin was already sufficiently good ; and it would be
a waste of time and strength to administer passive and resistive move-
ments to patients who were already fatigued from overwork. To rouse
the dormant action of cold skin and flabby muscle, percussion will be

MASSAGE. 731

of the first importance, and will alternate with friction and manipula-
tion. Percussion is in massage what faradization is in electricity, and
will often answer the same purpose ; manipulation, or deep-kneading,
is to massasre what the constant current is to electricity, and the ulti-
mate effects of each are very much alike. In "Schmidt's Jahrbiicher"
and elsewhere numerous instances are given in which massage has suc-
ceeded, after electricity and other means had failed. The reverse of
this may be true, but as yet I have not seen any proof of it. Let us
now speak of the general effects of massage, and, further on, its influ-
ence more in detail. And, first, it may be well to premise that it re-
quires, on the part of the patient a certain amount of latent energy,
if one may so call it, in order to undergo even a minimum seance of
massage ; for a patient may be so weak as to preclude the possibility
of its being applied without harm resulting. In properly selected
cases, instances of which are frequently seen in individuals suffering
from overwork, or want of work, worry, depression of spirits, and loss
of sleep, together with feeble and tardy digestion — those who can not
get or take rest, no matter how favorable the opportunity — the effects
of massage are generally as follows : While it is being done, and often
for several hours afterward, the patients are in a blissful state of re-
pose ; they feel as if they were enjoying a long rest, or had just
returned from a refreshing vacation, and not a few say that it makes
optimists of them for the time being. It produces warmth, comfort,
and sleep ; relieves or cures constipation, muscular pains, and stiffness.
At the same time it exerts a peculiarly delightful and profound effect
upon the nervous system, its influence being tonic, sedative, and
physiologically counter-irritant, making more blood flow through the
skin and muscles, and consequently less to the brain, spinal cord, and
internal organs. To those to whom exercise would be injurious, mas-
sacre affords the advantages of exercise without exertion while the
subjects of it are resting, their over-taxed will and used-up nervous
energy not being required to express themselves in voluntary motion.
For reasons such as these, we find no less an authority than the British
"Journal of Mental Sciences" (for April, 1878) recommending "mas-
sage for certain melancholies, with trophic and vaso-motor affections,
and also where dementia is threatened after an attack of excitement.
Under this treatment mental comfort and a sense of well-being take
the place of apathy and lassitude."

Lord Bacon has quaintly remarked that " repair is procured by
nourishment, and nourishment is promoted by forwarding internal
concoction, which drives forth the nourishment, as by medicines that
invigorate the principal viscera ; and, secondly, by exciting the exter-
nal parts to attract the nourishment, as by exercise, proper frictions,
etc." Massage excites the external parts to attract and assimilate the
nourishment, brought thither by an increased volume of blood, and
this, at the same time, favors absorption of the natural worn-out

732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

debris. The different ranks of the Sandwich-Islanders are of different
stature ; and we are told that the chiefs, though sunk in sloth and im-
morality, are not diminutive and decrepit, like many of their country-
men, for the reason that they fare sumptuously, take little or no
exercise, and are lomi-lomied after every meal, in order to. aid their
digestion and promote their circulation without inducing fatigue or
exhaustion. Lom.i-lomi is thus interestingly described by Nordhoff,
in his book on " Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Isl-
ands " : " Wherever you stop, for lunch or for the night, if there are
native people near, you will be greatly refreshed by the application of
lomi-lomi. Almost everywhere you will find some one skilled in this
peculiar, and, to tired muscles, delightful and refreshing treatment.
To be lomi-lomied, you lie down upon a mat, or undress for the night,
if you prefer. The less clothing you have on the more perfectly the
operation can be performed. To you, thereupon, comes a stout native,
with soft, fleshy hands, but a strong grip, and beginning with your
head, and working down slowly over the whole body, seizes and
squeezes with a quite peculiar art every tired muscle, working and
kneading with indefatigable patience, until, in half an hour, whereas
you were weary and worn out, you find yourself fresh, all soreness and
weariness absolutely and entirely gone, and mind and body soothed to
a healthful and refreshing sleep. The lomi-lomi is used not only by
the natives, but among almost all the foreign residents ; and not
merely to procure relief from weariness, consequent upon over-exer-
tion, but to cure headaches, to relieve the aching of neuralgic or
rheumatic pains, and, by the luxurious, as one of the pleasures of life.
I have known it to relieve violent headache in a very short time. The
chiefs used to keep skillful lomi-lomi men in their retinues ; and the
late king, who was for some years too stout to take exercise, and was
yet a gross feeder, had himself lomi-lomied after every meal, as a
means of aiding his digestion. It is a device for relieving pain and
weariness which seems to have no injurious reaction, and no draw-
back but one — it is said to fatten the subjects of it."

Dr. Weir Mitchell has successfully proved that many chronic in-
valids can be cured by rest and excessive feeding, made possible by
means of massage and electricity. Under this combination of treat-
ment, skillfully carried out, many become fat, strong, and well, thus
illustrating the truth of Lord Bacon's remark, and the beneficial effects
of the not very scientific massage of the Sandwich-Islanders. The
lomi-lomi of the Sandwich-Islanders is only a series of intermittent
squeezes proceeding toward the extremities, thus hindering the re-
turning circulation ; and this illustrates another fact — that many who
have had but one kind of pinching and squeezing think it is " excellent "
until they try some one who understands and can do it better ; more-
over, it shows that any sort of stirring up of the tissues is often better
than none. In using massage, as much depends on the qualities and

MASSAGE. 733

qualifications of the i:>erson who does it as in any other occupation.
It would be wrong to leave the impression that massage is always
agreeable from the first. In proportion as the muscles, superficial
fascia, and skin are unnaturally tough, tense, matted and hide-bound,
will the massage be disagreeable until they become soft, supple, and
elastic. An appreciation of the proper consistence of the tissues and
their anatomical structure is of the utmost importance for the success
of this treatment.

But we must hasten to consider how massage acts locally. By up-
ward and oval friction, with deep manipulation, the vein's and lym-
phatics are mechanically emptied — the blood and lymph are pushed
along more quickly by the additional vis a tergo of the massage, and
these fluids can not return by reason of the valvular folds on the inter-
nal coats of their vessels. Thus, not only is more space created for
the returning currents arising from beyond the region masseed, but, at
the same time, a vacuum is formed, which is visible in the superficial
veins of persons who are not too fat ; and this is thought by some to
add a new force to the more distal circulation. In this way the col-
lateral circulation in the deeper vessels is aided and relieved, as well
as the more distal stream in the capillaries and arterioles. One would
naturally suppose that the circulation in the larger arteries would, in
this manner, be interrupted, and such is the case. But, herein comes
an additional advantage to aid the circulation, for the temporary and
momentary intermittent compression causes a dilatation of the artery
from an increased volume of blood above the part pressed upon, and
this accumulation rushes onward with greater rapidity as soon as the
pressure is removed, in consequence of the force of the heart's action
and the resiliency of the arteries acting upon the accumulated volume
of blood.

But the same pressure also acts upon the tissues external to the
vessels, causing a more rapid resorption of natural or pathological
products through the walls of the venous capillaries and lymphatics.
When muscular nerves are stimulated, the vaso-dilators are influenced,
and this takes place by massage, whence follows enlargement of the
lumen of the vessels, so that an increased flow passes through them
with greater ease and diminished pressure. When stimuli are applied
to the skin, reflex vaso-motor action shows that the vaso-dilators are
acted upon, hence the redness and congestion of the skin when mas-
sage is specially directed to it. It can be readily seen now that mas-
sage rouses dormant capillaries, increases the area and speed of the
circulation, furthers absorption and stimulates the vaso-motor nerves,
all of which are aids and not hindrances to the heart's action, as well
as to nutrition in general. Seeing that more blood passes in a given
time, there will be an increase in the total interchange between the
blood and the tissues, and thus the total amount of work done by the
circulation will be greater and the share borne by each quantity of

734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

blood less. It will not be surprising, then, to learn that in practice
massage sometimes proves a valuable ally in the treatment of func-
tional and organic diseases of the heart, for "the peripheral friction
of the blood against the walls of the capillaries and small arteries not
only opposes the flow of blood through them, but, working backward
along the whole arterial system, has to be overcome by the heart at
each systole of the left ventricle." This obstacle is in great part
lessened by massage. In exercise there is alternate contraction and
relaxation of voluntary muscles, and this is a powerful aid to the cir-
culation in general ; for at each contraction the vessels are emptied by
compression, and the alternating relaxation allows them to fill up again.
Thus each muscle or group of muscles in activity has been appropri-
ately likened to a beating heart. In this respect the intermittent
pressure of massage aids and imitates the alternate contraction and
relaxation of muscles very accurately, and no better praise could be
bestowed upon any therapeutical agent than the old-fashioned,
haughty, supercilious way of dismissing the subject of massage as
unworthy of notice by saying that it was merely a substitute for
exercise. Exercise favors all the functions, and people who can exer-
cise freely without fatigue, and who can eat and sleep well, seldom
need massage. I am aware that this statement includes many neura-
sthenics, especially those who suffer from want of occupation.

While undergoing massage it is well for the patient to take fre-
quent and deep inspirations, in order to favor the flow of the venous
and lymphatic currents to the thorax. This, however, is often in-
stinctively done, and with such ease that the patient feels as if freed
from an immense load. From a paper by Professor H. P. Bowditch,
in the " Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,"
for 1873, " On the Lymph-Spaces in Fasciae," we learn the following
valuable and interesting facts : " In experiments on animals where the
flow of lymph through the thoracic duct was measured, passive move-
ments of the limbs increased this flow in a remarkable manner. Gal-
vanization of the muscles had a similar but less powerful effect. The
lymph-spaces existing between the tendinous fibers of fasciae and the
connection of these spaces with lymphatic vessels have been described
by Ludwig and others. By virtue of this structure the fasciae play
an important part in keeping up the flow of lymph through the lym-
phatic vessels. A piece of fascia was removed from the leg of a dog
and tied over the mouth of a glass funnel, with the side next the mus-
cles uppermost. A few drops of a colored turpentine solution were
then placed upon this surface, and the fascia alternately stretched and
relaxed by partially exhausting the air from the funnel and allowing
it to return again. In this way the coloring matter was made to
penetrate into the spaces between the fibers of the fascia and to enter
the lymph-spaces on the opposite side. The same result was obtained
when the coloring matter was injected between the muscles and the

MASSAGE. 735

fascia, and the latter stretched and relaxed by passive movements of
the limb. The alternate widening and narrowing of the lymph-spaces
between the tendinous fibers seems, therefore, to cause absorption of
the lymph from the neighboring parts as well as its onward flow into
the lymphatic vessels." This function of the fascia certainly affords
a partial, important, and, so far as it goes, very satisfactory explana-
tion of the success of methods of treatment which involve passive
motion, for the removal of effete matters from the tissues is favored
by an increased flow of lymph.

But Nature, as one of her regular functions, is continually per-
forming this experiment in the voluntary and involuntary movements
of the muscles. The large serous cavities, such as those of the pleura
and peritonaeum, are now regarded as extensive lacunae in the course of
the lymphatic vessels ; lymph-spaces and lymphatic vessels, communi-
cating with each other by means of small openings or stomata, have
been demonstrated in these membranes, and also the communication
of the lymph-spaces with the pleural and peritoneal cavities by means
of intercellular openings. This has been shown by injecting either of
these cavities with colored fluid, and, after killing the animal, examin-
ing the course of absorption of the fluid under the microscope. In
the movements of respiration, alternate expansion and contraction of
the chest- walls, with descent and ascent of the diaphragm, we have a
continual pump-like action of absorption and onward expulsion in the
lymph-spaces and lymphatic vessels of the pleura and peritonaeum.
But we must not forget that the capillary blood-vessels are similarly
influenced, nor should we fail to remember that osmosis may also play
a very important part, and that this, too, can be increased by artificial
pressure. We can now understand why the kings of the Sandwich
Islands should be lomi-lomicd after every meal in order to aid their
digestion, for the externally applied pressure over the abdomen would
force the contents of the lacteals, or lymphatics of the small intestine,
onward, at the same time aiding them in their absorption of digestive
products.

Professor von Mosengeil, of Bonn, has made some interesting and
useful experiments by injecting the cavities of corresponding joints
of rabbits with Indian ink, and in this way proving that resorption
takes place from these cavities by means of lymph-spaces and stomata,
communicating with lymphatic vessels, and through these with lym-
phatic glands. With each rabbit he mass'eed one of the joints and left
the corresponding joint untouched. The swelling that arose from the
injection always disappeared rapidly under massage, and, upon exam-
ination of the masseed joint, it was found emptied for the most part
of its colored contents. Even when the examination was made shortly
after the injection and the use of massage, there was proportionately
little ink found in the joint, part of it was found upon the synovial
membrane ; and upon microscopic examination it was seen that the

736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

greatest part had been forced into, and had penetrated through, the
synovial membrane, and the darkened lymphatics could be seen with
the unaided eye from the injected joint to the lymphatic glands, and
these latter were black from the absorption of the ink. Upon ex-
amination of the injected joint-cavities that had not been masseed, the
ink was still found in the joint mixed with the synovia in a smeary
mass, and it had not even penetrated into the tissue of the synovial
membrane. With the removal of the effusion by the use of massage,
Yon Mosengeil always succeeded in improving the stiffness, and in
obtaining the same appearances in the lymphatics.

From clinical experience in the use of massage in joint affections,
such results as those obtained by Von Mosengeil might have been
with safety predicted. A consideration of the mode of application of
massage in joint injuries and affections, and its relations to mechanical
support, rest, and exercise, would far exceed the limits of this paper.
Scandinavian, German, and French army-surgeons, who with their
own hands have used massage the most in joint maladies, have ac-
cumulated respectable and trustworthy statistics showing its great
value in such cases. At the same time they have not forgotten to
tabulate their failures. The result of their experience in recent joint
injuries admitting of the application of massage is thus formulated :
"It will simultaneously further and increase resorption, accelerate
the circulation, relieve pain, and reduce elevated temperature" I
have illustrated this by a report of over three hundred cases, the de-
tails of which may be found in the " New York Medical Record," No.
353. The " Nouveau Dictionnaire de Medecine " clearly expresses the
action of massage in the following words : " Massage augments inter-
stitial absorption not only by the sur-activite impressed upon the re-
turning circulation, but also by dividing to infinity pathological and
normal products accumulated in the muscular interstices and meshes
of the cellular tissue. The dissemination of these products multiplies
their points of contact with the walls of the veins and lymphatics,
whence result their imbibition and diffusion into the general circula-
tion."

But, discuss any therapeutical agent as we may, there is something
still peculiar to each that evades expression by tongue or pen. Of
what use is it to describe odors, tastes, sensations, sights, and sounds ?
They can only be comprehended by smelling, tasting, feeling, seeing,
and hearing. Just so with the peculiar calm, soothing, restful, light
feeling that so often results from massage, which can not be under-
stood until experienced. It doubtless arises to a great extent from
the pressure of natural worn-out debris being speedily removed from
off terminal nerve - filaments. Furthermore, massage excites and
awakens the muscular sense in an agreeable ■ and beneficial manner
such as nothing else does, and we know that the state of our muscles
indicates and often determines our feeling of health and vigor, or of

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 737

weariness and feebleness. To many minds a more satisfactory way
of explaining the phenomena produced by massage would be by say-
ing that they all occur in consequence of " magnetism," by which they
have an indefinite understanding that this is some sort of impercepti-
ble, ethereal fluid passing from one person to another. Such an ex-
planation is low, gross, and vulgar, and it is erroneously used as a
synonym for personal influence by people who do not know the proper
scientific meaning of magnetism. Those who claim to have a vast
stock of "magnetism" are like those who talk much of their bravery
— sensible people find* them devoid of either.

■♦ ♦♦»

LITEKATUKE AND SCIENCE*

By MATTHEW ARNOLD.-

" ~^\TTO wisdom, nor counsel, nor understanding, against the Eter-
-L-N nal ! " says the Wise Man. Against the natural and ap-
pointed course of things there is no contending. Ten years ago I
remarked on the gloomy prospect for letters in this country, inasmuch
as while the aristocratic class, according to a famous dictum of Lord
Beaconsfield, was totally indifferent to letters, the friends of physical
science, on the other hand, a growing and popular body, were in active
revolt against them. To deprive letters of the too great place they
had hitherto filled in men's estimation, and to substitute other studies
for them, was now the object, I observed, of a sort of crusade with
the friends of physical science — a busy host, important in itself, im-
portant because of the gifted leaders who march at its head, important
from its strong and increasing hold upon public favor.

I could not help, I then went on to say, I could not help being
moved with a desire to plead with the friends of physical science on
behalf of letters, and in deprecation of the slight which they put upon
them. But from giving effect to this desire I was at that time drawn
off by more pressing matters. Ten years have passed, and the pros-
pects of any pleader for letters have certainly not mended. If the
friends of physical science were in the morning sunshine of popular
favor even then, they stand now in its meridian radiance. Sir Josiah
Mason founds a college at Birmingham to exclude "mere literary in-
struction and education " ; and at its opening a brilliant and charming
debater, Professor Huxley, is brought down to pronounce their funeral
oration. Mr. Bright, in his zeal for the United States, exhorts young
people to drink deep of "Hiawatha" ; and the "Times" — which takes
the gloomiest view possible of the future of letters, and thinks that

* Address delivered as " The Rede Lecture " at Cambridge.
vol. xxi. — 47

73 8 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a hundred years hence there will only be a few eccentrics reading let-
ters, and almost every one will be studying the natural sciences — the
" Times," instead of counseling Mr. Bright's young people rather to
drink deep of Homer, is for giving them, above all, " the works of
Darwin and Lyell and Bell and Huxley," and for nourishing them
upon the voyage of the Challenger. Stranger still, a brilliant man
of letters in France, M. Renan, assigns the same date of a hundred
years hence as the date by which the historical and critical studies,
in which his life has been passed and his reputation made, will have
fallen into neglect, and deservedly so fallen. It is the regret of his
life, M. Renan tells us, that he did not himself originally pursue the
natural sciences, in which he might have forestalled Darwin in his
discoveries.

What does it avail, in presence of all this, that we find one of your
own prophets, Bishop Thirlwall, telling his brother who was sending
a son to be educated abroad that he might be out of the way of Latin
and Greek, "I do not think that the most perfect knowledge of every
language now spoken under the sun could compensate for the want of
them " ? What does it avail, even, that an august lover of science,
the great Goethe, should have said, " I wish all success to those who
are for preserving to the literature of Greece and Rome its predomi-
nant place in education " ? Goethe was a wise man, but the irresistible
current of things was not then manifest as it is now. "No wisdom,
nor counsel, nor understanding, against the Eternal ! "

But to resign one's self too passively to supposed designs of the
Eternal is fatalism. Perhaps they are not really designs of the Eternal
at all, but designs — let us for example say — of Mr. Herbert Spencer.
Still the design of abasing what is called " mere literary instruction
and education," and of exalting what is called "sound, extensive, and
practical scientific knowledge," is a very positive design and makes
great progress. The universities are by no means outside its scope.
At the recent congress in Sheffield of elementary teachers — a very
able and important body of men whose movements I naturally follow
with strong interest — at Sheffield one of the principal speakers pro-
posed that the elementary teachers and the universities should come
together on the common ground of natural science. On the ground
of the dead languages, he said, they could not possibly come together ;
but, if the "universities would take natural science for their chosen and
chief ground instead, they easily might. Mohammed was to go to the
mountain, as there was no chance of the mountain's being able to go
to Mohammed.

The vice-chancellor has done me the honor to invite me to address
you here to-day, although I am not a member of this great university.
Your liberally conceived use of Sir Robert Rede's lecture leaves you
free in the choice of a person to deliver the lecture founded by him,
and on the present occasion the vice-chancellor has gone for a lecturer

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 739

to the sister university. I will venture to say that to an honor of this
kind from the University of Cambridge no one on earth can be so
sensible as a member of the University of Oxford. The two univer-
sities are unlike anything else in the world, and they are very like one
another. Neither of them is inclined to go hastily into raptures over
her own living offspring or over her sister's ; each of them is pecul-
iarly sensitive to the good opinion of the other. Nevertheless they
have their points of dissimilarity. One such point, in particular, can
not fail to arrest notice. Both universities have told powerfully upon
the mind and life of the nation. But the University of Oxford, of
which I am a member, and to which I am deeply and affectionally
attached, has produced great men, indeed, but has, above all, been
the source or the center of great movements. "We will not now go
back to the middle ages ; we will keep within the range of what is
called modern history. Within this range, we have the great move-
ments of Royalism, Wesley anism, Tractarianism, Ritualism, all of
them having their source or their center in Oxford. You have noth-
ing of the kind. The movement taking its name from Charles Simeon
is far, far less considerable than the movement taking its name from
John Wesley. The movement attempted by the Latitude men in the
seventeenth century is next to nothing as a movement ; the men are
everything. And this is, in truth, your great, your surpassing dis-
tinction ; not your movements, but your men. From Bacon to Byron,
what a splendid roll of great names you can point to ! We, at Ox-
ford, can show nothing equal to it. Yours -is the university not of
great movements, but of great men. Our experience at Oxford dis-
poses us, perhaps, to treat movements, whether our own, or extraneous
movements such as the present movement for revolutionizing edu-
cation, with too much respect. That disposition finds a corrective
here. Masses make movements, individualities explode them. On
mankind in the mass, a movement, once started, is apt to impose itself
by routine ; it is through the insight, the independence, the self-con-
fidence of powerful single minds that its yoke is shaken off. In this
university of great names, whoever wishes not to be demoralized
by a movement comes into the right air for being stimulated to
pluck up his courage and to examine what stuff movements are really
made of. '

Inspirited, then, by this tonic air in which I find myself speaking,
I am boldly going to ask whether the present movement for ousting
letters from their old predominance in education, and for transferring
the predominance in education to the natural sciences, whether this
brisk and flourishing movement ought to prevail, and whether it is
likely that in the end it really will prevail. My own studies have been
almost wholly in letters, and my visits to the field of the natural sci-
ences have been v^ery slight and inadequate, although those sciences
strongly move my curiosity. A man of letters, it will perhaps be

740 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

said, is quite incompetent to discuss the comparative merits of letters
and natural science as means of education. His incompetence, how-
ever, if he attempts the discussion but is really incompetent for it
will be abundantly visible ; nobody will be taken in ; he will have
plenty of sharp observers and critics to save mankind from that dan-
ger. But the line I am going to follow is, as you will soon discover,
so extremely simple that perhaps it may be followed without failure
even by one who for a more ambitious line of discussion would be
quite incompetent.

Some of you may have met with a phrase of mine which has been
the object of a good deal of comment ; an observation to the effect
that in our culture, the aim being to know ourselves and the world,
we have, as the means to this end, to know the best which has been
thought and said in the world. Professor Huxley, in his discourse at
the opening of Sir Josiah Mason's college, laying hold of this phrase,
expanded it by quoting some more words of mine, which are these :
" Europe is to be regarded as now being, for intellectual and spiritual
purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and work-
ing to a common result ; and whose members have for their common
outfit a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity, and of
one another. Special local and temporary advantages being put out
of account, that modern nation will, in the intellectual and spiritual
sphere, make most progress which most thoroughly carries out this
programme."

Now on my phrase, thus enlarged, Professor Huxley remarks that
I assert literature to contain the materials which suffice for making
us know ourselves and the world. But it is not by any means clear,
says he, that, after having learned all which ancient and modern litera-
tures have to tell us, we have laid a sufficiently broad and deep foun-
dation for that criticism of life which constitutes culture. On the
contrary, Professor Huxley declares that he finds himself " wholly un-
able to admit that either nations or individuals will really advance,
if their common outfit draws nothing from the stores of physical sci-
ence. An army without weapons of precision and with no particular
base of operations might more hopefully enter upon a campaign on the
Rhine than a man devoid of a knowledge of what physical science has
done in the last century upon a criticism of life."

This shows how needful it is, for those who are to discuss a matter
together, to have a common understanding as to the sense of the terms
they employ — how needful, and how difficult. What Professor Huxley
says implies just the reproach which is so often brought against the
study of belles-lettres, as they are called : that the study is an elegant
one, but slight and ineffectual ; a smattering of Greek and Latin and
other ornamental things, of little use for any one whose object is to
get at truth. So, too, M. Renan talks of the " superficial humanism "

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 741

of a school-course which treats us as if we were all going to be poets,
writers, orators, and he opposes this humanism to positive science, or
the critical search after truth. And there is always a tendency, in
those who are remonstrating against the predominance of letters in
education, to understand by letters belles-lettres, and by belles-lettres a
superficial humanism, the opposite of science or true knowledge.

But when we talk of knowing Greek and Roman antiquity, for in-
stance, which is what people have called humanism, we mean a knowl-
edge which is something more than a superficial humanism, mainly
decorative. " I call all teaching scientific" says Wolf, the critic of
Homer, " which is systematically laid out and followed up to its origi-
nal sources. For example : a knowledge of classical antiquity is sci-
entific when the remains of classical antiquity are correctly studied in
the original languages." There can be no doubt that Wolf is perfectly
right, that all learning is scientific which is systematically laid out and
followed up to its original sources, and that a genuine humanism is
scientific.

When I speak of knowing Greek and Roman antiquity, therefore,
as a help to knowing ourselves and the world, I mean more than a
knowledge of so much vocabulary, so much grammar, so many portions
of authors, in the Greek and Latin languages. I mean knowing the
Greeks and Romans, and their life and genius, and what they were and
did in the world ; what we get from them, and what is its value.
That, at least, is the ideal ; and, when we talk of endeavoring to know
Greek and Roman antiquity as a help to knowing ourselves and the
world, we mean endeavoring so to know them as to satisfy this ideal,
however much we may still fall short of it.

The same as to knowing our own and other modern nations, with
the aim of getting to understand ourselves and the world. To know
the best that has been thought and said by the modern nations is to
know, says Professor Huxley, " only what modern literatures have to
tell us ; it is the criticism of life contained in modern literature." And
yet " the distinctive character of our times," he urges, " lies in the
vast and constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowl-
edge." And how, therefore, can a man, devoid of knowledge of what
physical science has done in the last century, enter hopefully upon a
criticism of modern life ?

Let us, I say, be agreed about the meaning of the terms we are
using. I talk of knowing the best which has been thought and uttered
in the world ; Professor Huxley says this means knowing literature.
Literature is a large word ; it may mean everything written with let-
ters or printed in a book. Euclid's "Elements" and Newton's "Prin-
cipia " are thus literature. All knowledge that reaches us through
books is literature. But by literature Professor Huxley means belles-
lettres. He means to make me say that knowing the best which has
been thought and said by the modern nations is knowing their belles-

742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lettres and no more. And this is no sufficient equipment, he argues,
for a criticism of modern life. But as I do not mean, by knowing
ancient Rome, knowing merely more or less of Latin belles-lettres, and
taking no account of Rome's military and political and legal and ad-
ministrative work in the world ; and as, by knowing ancient Greece, I
understand knowing her as the giver of Greek art, and the guide to a
free and right use of reason and to scientific method, and the founder
of our mathematics and physics and astronomy and biology — I under-
stand knowing her as all this, and not merely knowing certain Greek
poems, histories, and speeches — so as to the knowledge of modern na-
tions also. By knowing modern nations, I mean not merely knowing
their belles-lettres, but knowing also what has been done by such men
as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin. "Our ancestors learned,".
says Professor Huxley, " that the earth is the center of the visible uni-
verse, and that man is the cynosure of things terrestrial ; and more
especially was it inculcated that the course of nature had no fixed
order, but that it could be, and constantly was, altered." But for us
now, says Professor Huxley, " the notions of the beginning and the
end of the world entertained by our forefathers are no longer credible.
It is very certain that the earth is not the chief body in the material
universe, and that the world is not subordinated to man's use. It is
even more certain that nature is the expression of a definite order,
with which nothing interferes. . . . And yet," he cries, " the purely
classical education advocated by the representatives of the humanists
in our day gives no inkling of all this ! "

In due place and time we will, perhaps, touch upon the question of
classical education, but at present the question is as to what is meant
by knowing the best which modern nations have thought and said.
It is not knowing their belles-lettres merely that is meant. To know
Italian belles-lettres is not to know Italy, and to know English belles-
lettres is not to know England. Into knowing Italy and England
there comes a great deal more, Galileo and Newton among it. The
reproach of being a superficial humanism, a tincture of belles-lettres,
may attach rightly enough to some other disciplines ; but, to the par-
ticular discipline recommended when I proposed knowing the best
that has been thought and said in the world, it does not apply. In
that best I certainly include what in modern times has been thought
and said by the great observers and knowers of nature.

There is, therefore, really no question between Professor Huxley
and me as to whether knowing the results of the scientific study of
nature is not required as a part of our culture, as well as knowing the
products of literature and art. But to follow the processes by which
those results are reached ought, say the friends of physical science,
to be made the staple of education for the bulk of mankind. And
here there does arise a question between those whom Professor Hux-
ley calls with playful sarcasm " the Levitcs of culture " and those

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 743

whom the poor humanist is sometimes apt to regard as its Nebuchad-
nezzars.

The great results of the scientific investigation of nature we are
agreed upon knowing, but how much of our study are we bound to
give to the processes by which those results are reached ? The re-
sults have their visible bearing on human life. But all the processes,
too, all the items of fact, by which those results are established, are
interesting. All knowledge is interesting to a wise man, and the
knowledge of nature is interesting to all men. It is very interesting
to know that from the albuminous white of the egg the chick in
the egg gets the materials for its flesh, bones, blood, and feathers,
while from the fatty yolk of the egg it gets the heat and energy
which enable it at length to break its shell and begin the world. It
is less interesting, perhaps, but still it is interesting, to know that,
when a taper burns, the wax is converted into carbonic acid and water.
Moreover, it is quite true that the habit of dealing with facts which is
given by the study of nature is, as the friends of physical science
praise it for being, an excellent discipline. The appeal is to obser-
vation and experiment ; not only is it said that the thing is so, but we
can be made to see that it is so. Not only does a man tell us that,
when a taper burns, the wax is converted into carbonic acid and water,
as a man may tell us, if he likes, that Charon is in his boat on the
Styx, or that Victor Hugo is a truly great poet, but we are made to
see that the conversion into carbonic acid and water does really hap-
pen. This reality of natural knowledge it is which makes the friends
of physical science contrast it, as a knowledge of things, with the hu-
manist's knowledge, which is, say they, a knowledge of words. And
hence Professor Huxley is moved to lay it down that, " for the pur-
pose of attaining real culture, an exclusively scientific education is at
least as effectual as an exclusively literary education." And a certain
president of the Section for Mechanical Science in the British Associ-
ation is, in Scripture phrase, "very bold," and declares that, if a man,
in his education, " has substituted literature and history for natural
science, he has chosen the less useful alternative." Whether we go
these lengths or not, we must all admit that in natural science the
habit gained of dealing with facts is a most valuable discipline, and
that every one should have some experience of it.

But it is proposed to make the training in natural science the
main part of education, for the great majority of mankind at any
rate. And here, I confess, I part company with the friends of phys-
ical science, with whom up to this point I have been agreeing. In
differing from them, however, I wish to proceed with the utmost cau-
tion and diffidence. The smallness of my acquaintance with the dis-
ciplines of natural science is ever before my mind, and I am fearful of
doing them injustice. The ability of the partisans of natural science
makes them formidable persons to contradict. The tone of tentative

744 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

inquiry, which befits a being of dim faculties and bounded knowledge,
is the tone I would wish to take and not to depart from. At present
it seems to me that those who are for giving to natural knowledge, as
they call it, the chief place in the education of the majority of man-
kind leave one important thing out of their account — the constitution
of human nature. But I put this forward on the strength of some
facts not at all recondite, very far from it ; facts capable of being
stated in the simplest possible fashion, and to which, if I so state
them, the man of science will, I am sure, be willing to allow their due
weight.

Deny the facts altogether, I think, he hardly can. He can hardly
deny that, when we set ourselves to enumerate the powers which go
to the building up of human life, and say that they are the power of
conduct, the power of intellect and knowledge, the power of beauty,
and the power of social life and manners — he can hardly deny that
this scheme, though drawn in rough and plain lines, and not pretend-
ing to scientific exactness, does yet give a fairly true account of the
matter. Human nature is built up by these powers ; we have the
need for them all. This is evident enough, and the friends of physical
science will admit it. But, perhaps, they may not have sufficiently
observed another thing, namely, that these powers just mentioned
are not isolated, but there is in the generality of mankind a perpetual
tendency to relate them one to another in divers ways. With one
such way of relating them I am particularly concerned here. Follow-
ing our instinct for intellect and knowledge, we acquire pieces of
knowledge ; and presently, in the generality of men, there arises the
desire to relate these pieces of knowledge to our sense for conduct, to
our sense for beauty, and there are weariness and dissatisfaction if the
desire is balked. Now, in this desire lies, I think, the strength of that
hold which letters have upon us.

All knowledge is, as I said just now, interesting ; and even items
of knowledge which from the nature of the case can not well be
related, but must stand isolated in our thoughts, have their interest.
Even lists of exceptions have their interest. If we are studying
Greek accents, it is interesting to know that pais and pas, and some
other monosyllables of the same form of declension, do not take the
circumflex upon the last syllable of the genitive plural, but vary, in
this respect, from the common rule. If we are studying physiology,
it is interesting to know that the pulmonary artery carries dark blood,
and the pulmonary vein carries bright blood, departing in this respect
from the common rule for the division of labor between the veins and
the arteries. But every one knows how we seek naturally to combine
the pieces of our knowledge together, to bring them under general
rules, to relate them to principles ; and how unsatisfactory and tire-
some it would be to go on for ever learning lists of exceptions, or
accumulating items of fact which must stand isolated.

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 745

Well, that same need of relating our knowledge which operates here
within the sphere of our knowledge itself, we shall find operating, also,
outside that sphere. We feel, as we go on learning and knowing, the
vast majority of mankind feel, the need of relating what we have learned
and known to the sense which we have in us for conduct, to the sense
which we have in us for beauty.

The prophetess Diotima explained to Socrates that love is, in fact,
nothing but the desire in men that good should be for ever present to
them. This primordial desire it is, I suppose — this desire in men that
good should be for ever present to them — which causes in us the in-
stinct for relating our knowledge to our sense for conduct and to our
sense for beauty. At any rate, with men in general the instinct exists.
Such is human nature. Such is human nature ; and, in seeking to
gratify the instinct, we are following the instinct of self-preservation
in humanity.

Knowledges which can not be directly related to the sense for
beauty, to the sense for conduct, are instrument-knowledges ; they
lead on to other knowledge, which can. A man who passes his life
in instrument-knowledges is a specialist. They may be invaluable as
instruments to something beyond, for those who have the gift thus
to employ them ; and they may be disciplines in themselves wherein
it is useful to every one to have some schooling. But it is inconceiv-
able that the generality of men should pass all their mental life with
Greek accents or with formal logic. My friend Professor Sylvester,
who holds transcendental doctrines as to the virtue of mathematics,
is far away in America ; and, therefore, if in the Cambridge Senate-
House one may say such a thing without profaneness, I will hazard
the opinion that, for the majority of mankind, a little mathematics,
also, goes a long way. Of course, this is quite consistent with their
being of immense importance as an instrument to something else ; but
it is the few who have the aptitude for thus using them, not the bulk
of mankind.

The natural sciences do not stand on the same footing with these
instrument-knowledges. Experience shows us that the generality of
men will find more interest in learning that, when a taper burns, the
wax is converted into carbonic acid and water, or in learning the ex-
planation of the phenomenon of dew, or in learning how the circula-
tion of the blood is carried on, than they find in learning that the
gc -itive plural of pais and pas does not take the circumflex on the
termination. And one piece of natural knowledge is added to another,
and others to that, and at last we come to propositions so interesting
as the proposition that " our ancestor was a hairy quadruped furnished
with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits." Or we
come to propositions of such reach and importance as those which
Professor Huxley brings us, when he says that the notions of our fore-
fathers about the beginning and the end of the world were all wrong,

746 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and that nature is the expression of a definite order with which nothing
interferes.

Interesting, indeed, these results of science are, important they are,
and we should all be acquainted with them. But what I now wish
you to mark is, that we are still, when they are propounded to us and
we receive them, we are still in the sphere of intellect and knowledge.
And for the generality of men there will be found, I say, to arise, when
they have duly taken in the proposition that their ancestor was " a hairy
quadruped furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal
in his habits," there will be found to arise an invincible desire to relate
this proposition to the sense within them for conduct and to the sense
for beauty. But this the men of science will not do for us, and will
hardly, even, profess to do. They will give us other pieces of knowl-
edge, other facts, about other animals and their ancestors, or about
plants, or about stones, or about stars ; and they may finally bring us
to those "general conceptions of the universe which have been forced
upon us," says Professor Huxley, " by physical science." But still it
will be knowledge only which they give us ; knowledge not put for
us into relation with our sense for conduct, our sense for beauty, and
touched with emotion by being so put ; not thus put for us, and
therefore, to the majority of mankind, after a certain while, unsatisfy-
ing, wearying.

Not to the born naturalist, I admit. But what do we mean by a
born naturalist ? We mean a man in whom the zeal for observing
nature is so strong and eminent that it marks him off from the bulk
of mankind. Such a man will pass his life happily in collecting
natural knowledge and reasoning upon it, and will ask for nothing,
or hardly anything, more. I have heard it said that the sagacious
and admirable naturalist whom we have lately lost, Mr. Darwin, once
owned to a friend that for his part he did not experience the necessity
for two things which most men find so necessary to them — poetry and
religion ; science and the domestic affections, he thought, were enough.
To a born naturalist, I can well understand that this should seem so.
So absorbing is his occupation with nature, so strong his love for his
occupation, that he goes on acquiring natural knowledge and reason-
ing upon it, and has little time or inclination for thinking about get-
ting it related to the desire in man for conduct, the desire in man for
beauty. He relates it to them for himself as he goes along, so far as
he feels the need ; and he draws from the domestic affections all the
additional solace necessary. But then Darwins are very rare. An-
other great and admirable master of natural knowledge, Faraday, was
a Sandemanian. That is to say, he related his knowledge to his in-
stinct for conduct and to his instinct for beauty by the aid of that re-
spectable Scottish sectary, Robert Sandeman. And, for one man
among us with the disposition to do as Darwin did in this respect,
there are fifty, probably, with the disposition to do as Faraday.

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 747

Professor Huxley holds up to scorn mediaeval education, with its
neglect of the knowledge of nature, its poverty of literary studies,
its formal logic devoted to " showing how and why that which the
Church said was true must be true." But the great mediaeval univer-
sities were not brought into being, we may be sure, by the zeal for
giving a jejune and contemptible education. Kings have been our
nursing fathers, and queens have been our nursing mothers, but not
for this. Our universities came into being because the supposed
knowledge delivered by Scripture and the Church so deeply engaged
men's hearts, and so simply, easily, and powerfully related itself to
the desire for conduct, the desire for beauty — the general desire in
men, as Diotima said, that good should be for ever present to them.
All other knowledge was dominated by this supposed knowledge and
was subordinated to it, because of the surpassing strength of the hold
which it gained upon men's affections by allying itself profoundly
with their sense for conduct and their sense for beauty.

But now, says Professor Huxley, conceptions of the universe
fatal to the notions held by our forefathers have been forced upon us
by physical science. Grant to him that they are thus fatal, that they
must and will become current everywhere, and that every one will
finally perceive them to be fatal to the beliefs of our forefathers.
The need of humane letters, as they are truly called, because they
serve the paramount desire in men that good should be for ever
present to them — the need of humane letters to establish a relation
between the new conceptions and our instinct for beauty, our instinct
for conduct, is only the more visible. The middle age could do with-
out humane letters, as it could do without the study of nature, because
its supposed knowledge was made to engage its emotions so power-
fully. Grant that the supposed knowledge disappears, its power of
being made to engage the emotions will of course disappear along
with it — but the emotions will remain. Now, if we find by experience
that humane letters have an undeniable power of engaging the emo-
tions, the importance of humane letters in man's training becomes not
less, but greater, in proportion to the success of science in extirpating
what it calls "mediaeval thinking."

Have humane letters, have poetry and eloquence, the power here
attributed to them of engaging the emotions, and how do they exer-
cise it? and, if they have it and exercise it, how do they exercise it in
relating the results of natural science to man's sense for conduct, his
sense for beauty ? All these questions may be asked. First, have
poetry and eloquence the power of calling out the emotions ? The
appeal is to experience. Experience shows us that for the vast major-
ity of men, for mankind in general, they have the power. Next, how
do they exercise it ? And this is perhaps a case for applying the
Preacher's words : " Though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall
not find it ; yea) further, though a wise man think to know it, yet

-

iS THE POP CLAP SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.

shall he not be able to find it." Why should it be one thing, in its
effect npon the emotions, to say. " Patience is a virtue.'* and quite an-
other thing, in its effect npon the emotions, to say with Homer.

a for an enduring heart have the destinies appointed to the children of
men Why should it be one thing, in its effect upon the emotions.

ny with Spinoza. feUcitas in eo cor .7 homo suutn esse

eonservare potest — "Man's happiness consists in his being able to pre-
serve his own essence/1 and quite another thing, in its effect upon the
emotions. :: ay, u W hat is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole
world and lose himself, forfeit himself": " How does this difference
of effect arise \ I can not tell, and I am not much concerned to know ;
the important thing is that it does arise, and that we can profit by it.
But how, finallv, are poetry and eloquence to exercise the power of
relating the results of natural science to man's instinct for conduct, his
instinct for beautv ? And here asrain I answer that I do not know
how thev will exercise it, but that thev can and will exercise it I am
s ".re. I do not mean that modern philosophical poets and modern
philosophical moral: its .re to relate for us the results of modern scien-
tific- research to our need for conduct, our need for beauty. I mean
that w . shall find, as a matter of experience, if we know the best that
has been thought and uttered in the world, we shall find that the art
and poetry and eloquence of men who lived, perhaps, long ago, who
had the most limited natural knowledge, who had the most erroneous
conceptions about many important matters, we shall find that they
have, in fact, not only the power of refreshing and delighting us, they
have also the power — such are the strength and worth, in essentials, of
their authors criticism of life — thev have a fortifving and elevating
and quickening and sn^rsrestive power capable of wonderfully helping
in to relate the results of modern science to our need for conduct, our
need for beautv. Homer's conceptions of the physical universe were,
I imagine, grotesque ; but really, under the shock of hearing from
modern science that u the world is not subordinated to man's use, and
that man is not the cvnosure of things terrestrial," I could desire no

:er comfort than Homers line which I quoted just now :

TAirrbr yap Motpcu 6vfU)7 Qicav arQp&rrouriy —

" for an enduring heart have the destinies appointed to the children of

men.*'

And the more that men's minds are cleared, the more that the re-
sults of science are frankly accepted, the more that poetry and elo-
quence come to be studied as what they really are — the criticism of
life by gifted men, alive and active with extraordinary power at an
unusual number of points — so much the more will the value of humane
let: : nd of art also, which is an utterance having a like kind of

♦"Iliad," xxiv, 49.

LITERATURE AXD SCIENCE.

power with theirs, be felt and acknowledged, and their place in educa-
tion be secured.

Let us, all of us, avoid as much as possible any invidious compari-
son between the merits of humane letters, as means of education, and
the merits of the natural sciences. But when some President of a

•tion for Mechanical Science insists on making the comparison, and
tells us that " he who in his training has substituted literature and his-
tory for natural science has chosen the less useful alternative,*' let us
sav to him that the student of humane letters onlv will at least know
also the great general conceptions brought in by modern physical sci-
ence ; for science, as Professor Huxley hjh, forces them upon us alL
But the student of the natural sciences only will, by our very hypothe-
. know nothing of humane letters ; not to mention that in setting
himself to be perpetually accumulating natural knowledge, he sets
himself to do what only specialists have the gift for doing genially.
And so he will be unsatisfied, or at any rate incomplete, and even more
incomplete, than the student of humane letters.

I ooce mentioned in a school-report how a young man in a training
college, having to paraphrase the passage in " Macbeth " beginning,

■ Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased

turned this line into, " Can you not wait upon the lunatic ? " And I
remarked what a curious state of things it would be if every pupil of
our primary schools knew that, when a taper burns, the wax is con-
verted into carbonic acid and water, and thought at the same time
that a good paraphrase for

. inst thou not minister to a mir

was. u Can you not wait upon the lunatic ? " If one is driven to
choose, I think I would rather have a young person ignorant about the
converted wax, but aware that " Can you not wait upon the lunatic : "
is bad, than a young person whose education had left things the other
wav.

Or to go higher than the pupils of our primary schools. I have in
my mind's eye a member of Parliament who g s to travel in America,
who relates his travels, and who shows a reallv masterlv knowledge of
the geology of the country and of its mining capabilities, but who ends
by gravely suggesting that the United St should borrow a prince

from our roval familv and should make him their kine, and should
create a House of Lords of great landed proprietors after the pattern
of ours ; and then America, he thinks, would have her future happ
secured. Surely, in this case, the President of the Section for Me-
chanical Science would himself hardlv sav that our member of Parlia-
ment, by concentrating himself upon geology and mining and so on,
and not attending: to literature and historv. had "chosen the more u~
ful alternative

If, then, there ^e to be separation and option between humane let-

75o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ters on the one hand and the natural sciences on the other, the great
majority of mankind, all who have not exceptional and overpowering
aptitudes for the study of nature, would do well, I can not but think,
to choose to be educated in humane letters rather than in the natural
sciences. Letters will call out their being at more points, wiU make
them live more.

And indeed, to say the truth, I can not really think that humane
letters are in danger of being thrust out from their leading place in
education, in spite of the array of authorities against them at this mo-
ment. So long as human nature is what it is, their attractions will
remain irresistible. They will be studied more rationally, but they
will not lose their place. What will happen will rather be that there
will be crowded into education other matters besides, far too many ;
there will be, perhaps, a period of unsettlement and confusion and false
tendency ; but letters will not in the end lose their leading place. If
they lose it for a time, they will get it back again. We shall be
brought back to them by our wants and aspirations. And a poor
humanist may possess his soul in patience, neither strive nor cry, admit
the energy and brilliancy of the partisans of physical science, and their
present favor with the public, to be far greater than his own, and still
have a happy faith that the nature of things works silently on behalf
of the studies which he loves, and that, while we shall all have to ac-
quaint ourselves with the great results reached by modern science, and
to give ourselves as much training in its disciplines as we can conven-
iently carry, yet the majority of men will always require humane let-
ters, and so much the more as they have the more and the greater
results of science to relate to the need in man for conduct, and to the
need in him for beauty.

And so we have turned in favor of the humanities the "No icisdom,
nor understandi?ig, nor counsel, against the Eternal!" which seemed
against them when we started. The " hairy quadruped furnished with
a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits," carried hidden
in his nature, apparently, something destined to develop into a neces-
sity for humane letters. The time warns me to stop ; but most prob-
ably, if we went on, we might arrive at the further conclusion that
our ancestor carried in his nature, also, a necessity for Greek. The
attackers of- the established course of study think that against Greek,
at any rate, they have irresistible arguments. Literature may perhaps
be needed in education, they say ; but why on earth should it be
Greek literature? Why not French or German? nay, "has not an
Englishman models in his own literature of every kind of excellence ?"
As before, it is not on any weak pleadings of my own that I rely for
convincing the gainsayer ; it is on the constitution of human nature
itself and on the instinct of self-preservation in humanity. The in-
stinct for beauty is set in human nature, as surely as the instinct for

WHAT ARE CLOUDS? 751

knowledge is set there, or the instinct for conduct. If the instinct for
beauty is served by Greek literature as it is served by no other litera-
ture, we may trust to the instinct of self-preservation in humanity for
keeping Greek as part of our culture. We may trust to it for even
making this study more prevalent than it is now. As I said of humane
letters in general, Greek will come to be studied more rationally than
at present ; but it will be increasingly studied as men increasingly feel
the need in them for beauty, and how powerfully Greek art and Greek
literature can serve this need. Women will again study Greek, as
Lady Jane Grey did ; perhaps in that chain of forts, with which the
fair host of the Amazons is engirdling this university, they are study-
ing it already. Defuit una mihi symmetria prisca, said Leonardo da
Yinci ; and he was an Italian. What must an Englishman feel as to
his deficiencies in this respect, as the sense for beauty, whereof sym-
metry is an essential element, awakens and strengthens within him !
what will not one day be his respect and desire for Greece and its
symmetria prisca, when the scales drop from his eyes as he walks the
London streets, and he sees such a lesson in meanness as the Strand,
for instance, in its true deformity ! But here I have entered Mr. Rus-
kin's province, and I am well content to leave not only our street
architecture, but also letters and Greek, under the care of so distin-
guished a guardian. — Nineteenth Century.

-<•»

WHAT ARE CLOUDS?

By C. MOEFIT.

THOUGH the clouds are such familiar objects, very little is known
about them, and the processes by which they are formed and give
back their moisture to the earth are unsolved mysteries.

They can not be classified as belonging to the solid, fluid, or gaseous
form of matter. Yet they are defined as being " a collection of watery
particles in the state of vapor, suspended in the air." If they are ordi-
nary vapor, they must be governed by the laws which affect vapors.
Brande defines vapor thus : " When liquids and certain solids are
heated, they become converted into elastic fluids or vapors, which
differ from gases in this respect, that they are not under common cir-
cumstances permanently elastic, but resume the liquid or solid form
when cooled down to ordinary temperature."' According to this defi-
nition, clouds can not be composed of ordinary vapor, for under all
conditions their temperature must be below the condensing point of
water-vapor.

At the elevations at which clouds are often seen, they are in the
regions of perpetual congelation ; and as they float above the highest

752 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mountains they must be exposed, even in the sunshine, and certainly
in the night, when the solar heat is not poured upon them, to temper-
atures colder than those of the frigid zones.

As they occur in all climates, over the poles as well as at the equa-
tor, and even in the warm latitudes at elevations which are above the
regions of unmelted snows, it must be assumed that a low temperature
alone does not cause them to give up their moisture in the form of rain
or snow.

Glaisher, in entering a cloud eleven hundred feet thick, found the
dew-point remained unchanged, showing that there was no more (con-
densable) moisture in the cloud than in the surrounding air. And
aeronauts obtain no dew by Regnault's hygrometer at an elevation of
five miles, but clouds float above that height.

The moisture in the air must not be confounded with the water of
the clouds. This moisture is precipitated by a low temperature, as is
seen in the condensation of water on the outside of a glass of ice-water
on a warm day, and the coating of the inside of window-panes with
ice on a very cold one ; and the formation of dews in summer and of
frosts in winter.

The precipitation of the moisture from clouds must be caused by
some peculiar condition of the clouds themselves. After a rain there
often are as many clouds remaining or passing away as there were at
the commencement of or at any time during the rain. In this there is
evidence that the action going on in a part of a single cloud, or in spe-
cial clouds, does not extend over the whole mass, nor to other clouds
near by.

In countries where it seldom or never rains, or where the rains are
periodic, clouds are as common as in places where it rains often. From
this it appears that the causes which produce precipitation are entirely
suspended, or rather do not exist in certain localities and seasons, al-
though clouds abound there at the time.

Another fact worthy of consideration is that snow and rain fall
slowly, little by little, and not in one sudden down-pour, as would be
the case if the whole mass of cloud or clouds were brought at the same
instant under the action which produces rain or snow.

It must not be forgotten that clouds move in wTell-defined masses,
sometimes retaining their shape for a long time, and do not disappear
in the air, as they would do if they were ordinary water-vapor.

As it is difficult to reach the clouds, little has been learned of their
composition. But at the elevated stations of the meteorological de-
partments of the various nations where the observers are at times in
the midst of clouds, opportunities may occur for observation and exam-
ination of them, which will reveal the laws by which they are governed.
It is not too much to expect that the acute and practical minds of the
present age will, ere long, add much to our present scant knowledge
of these mysterious meteors.

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 753

THE PAST AND PKESENT OF THE CUTTLE-FISHES *

By Dr. ANDEEW WILSON.

FEW groups of the animal kingdom possess a greater interest,
either for the zoologist or for the general investigator, than that
selected as the subject of the present article. From the earliest ages
in which human curiosity concerning external nature began to develop
into scientific observation, the cuttle-fishes have formed subject-matter
of remark. In the writings of the classic naturalists they receive a
due meed of attention. Their peculiarities of form and habits at-
tracted the notice of Aristotle and Pliny ; and even their develop-
ment, in its more readily observed phases, was studied in the days
when biology was but an infantile science. Tracing the lines of cut-
tle-fish lore onward through the centuries of growing culture, we dis-
cern the mediaeval spirit of exaggeration and myth seizing upon the
group as a likely subject for enlargement and discussion. In the fabu-

Fig. 1.— Cuttle-fishes swimming.

lous history and " folk-lore " of zoology, the cuttle-fishes have over and
over again played a more than prominent part. In the days of their
mythical history they have swallowed whole fleets of ships ; they have
been credited more than once with the destruction of even an armored
navy; and on more than one occasion there can be little doubt that
they have played the parts of Sindbad's floating island, and of the
" great unknown," the sea-serpent itself. To the modern zoologist,
however, eager in his search after the causes which have wrought out
the existing order of animal nature, the cuttle-fishes present themselves
as an unusually interesting group.

* Abridged from " Belgravia."
YOL. xxi. — 48

75,4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

. The definition of the Cephalopoda, or cuttle-fish class, is largely a
matter of commonplace observation. Linnajus, naming them " cepha-
lopods," or " head-footed " mollusks, indicated the structural feature
which was calculated to appeal most plainly even to non-technical
minds. The circlet of arms, feet, or tentacles crowning the head-
extremity of a cuttle-fish, thus presents us with a personal character of
unmistakable nature. It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that
the ordinary and, to a certain extent, natural fashion of representing
a cuttle-fish head upward is, in zoological eyes, a complete reversion
of its surfaces. To understand clearly why to speak of a cuttle-fish
head as its lovjer, and of its tail as its upper extremity, is a correct
zoological designation, we must enter upon a comparison of the cuttle-
fish body with the forms of its neighbor mollusks. The contemplation
of such a familiar being as a snail or whelk introduces us to a charac-
teristic example of molluscan form and anatomy. The head of the
snail or other gasteropod is clearly enough defined ; and no less plainly
discernible is the enlarged and broadened surface on which the animal
walks. This surface is known as the " foot." In one shape or another
this " foot " is a characteristic possession of the molluscan tribes. In
a section of a mussel or cockle, we perceive the " foot " to exist as a
muscular mass developed in the middle line of the body below, and
variously used in the mussel class as a spinning organ, a leaping-pole,
and a boring apparatus. Here we note the natural development of the
foot in the middle line of the animal. Let us suppose this foot to be
extended downward, and to be broadened so as to form a surface of
progression, and we may conceive readily of the modification whereby
a simple foot like that of the mussel becomes developed to form the
enlarged disk of the gasteropod. In the latter case we observe that
the foot occupies the floor of the body ; the bulk of the body, and the
head in particular, being borne above.

Cuttle-fish development can be shown to run, so far, in parallel
lines to those of the personal evolution of mussel and snail. But di-
vergent paths soon appear in cuttle-fish development ; and these varia-
tions, while they indicate an ancient departure from the ordinary
molluscan type, likewise give to the subjects of our present study their
most characteristic features. When a mussel or snail is watched in its
earlier stages of development, the embryo is seen, sooner or later, to
produce an . appendage highly characteristic of molluscan young at
large, and named the velum. By aid of this ciliated fold such an or-
ganism as a young cockle, for instance, swims freely through its na-
tive waters. This velum undergoes varied changes and alterations in
the after-stages of molluscan development ; but, when cuttle-fish de-
velopment is studied in its fullest details, no velum is found among
the possessions of the larval body. Such an omission has naturally
been made the subject of remark by naturalists. Some authorities —
Grenacher, for instance — have insisted upon the recognition of the

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 755

arms of the cuttle-fish head as the representatives of the missing
velum. But, as the latter organ always exists on the dorsal or upper
side of the mouth, and as the arms are placed originally behind and
under the cuttle-fish mouth, the correspondence of arms and velum
has not been accepted by zoologists. On the other side stands out the
opinion of Huxley, who regards the " arms " of the cuttle-fish head as
more truly corresponding with the " foot " of the mussel, snail, and
other mollusks.

The margins of the foot, in this view of matters, have been pro-
longed in the young cuttle-fish to form eight, ten, or more arms, and
the front and sides of the foot, having overgrown the mouth, are
united in front, so that the mouth appears to be placed in the center
of the foot, instead of in front and above it, as in other mollusks.
So, also, most naturalists maintain, and with every appearance of cor-
rectness, that the characteristic " funnel " of the cuttle-fishes — to be
hereafter referred to — is an organ formed by two side-processes of the
foot, named epipodia. Adopting the view thus sanctioned by compe-
tent authority, we may trace in a cuttle-fish the highly modified form
of a snail or whelk, and the still more modified form of the mussel
tribes. The foot, instead of growing backward and downward as in
the snail, and thus forming a broad walking disk, comes to grow over
the mouth in front. So that, placing a cuttle-fish in structural com-
parison with a whelk or mussel, we should have to set it head down-
ward, when the foot (or arms) would be lowest, and the great bulk of
the body, with the heart uppermost, would be situated, as in the snail,
above the foot.

The group of the cuttle-fishes may be said to divide itself in the
most natural fashion into two main divisions. The first of these
groups includes all living cuttle-fishes save one — the pearly nautilus.
This first division is that of the Dibranchiates, or two-gilled cuttle-
fishes. The familiar octopus (Fig. 1), the loligos or squids, the sepias,
and the argonauts or paper nautili, are among the best known of its
representatives. The second group is represented by a single living
cuttle-fish, the pearly nautilus (Nautilus JPompiUus), just mentioned,
and by many fossil and extinct forms.

One of the most remarkable traits of cuttle-fish existence is the
curious play of " shot " colors which takes place in their integument.
I have seen a loligo, or squid, stranded on the sea-beach make glorious
its dying agonies by a play of colors of the most astounding descrip-
tion. • The natural purplish tint of the body was now and again deep-
ened to well-nigh a dark blue ; the slightest touch served to develop
a patch of angry pink ; and continually over the whole surface of the
body the hues and tints, ranging from dark purple to light red, suc-
ceeded each other in rapid array.

The assimilation of an animal's color to the surfaces on which it
rests forms a notable circumstance of zoology, which has been denom-

756 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mated "mimicry." That cuttle-fishes possess such a power is well
known. The hue of an octopus may so closely resemble that of the
rock to which it attaches itself, that the observer can with difficulty
say which is rock and which is animal. A flounder's color is in
the same way assimilated to the sand on which it rests, although
in the fish the alteration of color seen in the cuttle-fishes is not rep-
resented.

The manner of production of the changes of hue and play of
" shot " colors in the cuttle-fishes is really analogous to that whereby
the famed chameleons effect their alterations of hue.

The locomotion of the cuttle-fishes forms a point of interest in con-
nection with their general structure and physiology. Any one who
has attentively watched the movements of an octopus in its tank must
have been struck by the literally acrobatic ease with which it accom-
modated itself to the exigencies of its life and surroundings. In their
lithe, muscular, and flexible arms, the cuttle-fishes possess an apparatus
which is equally serviceable for the capture of prey, and for walking
mouth downward — that is, in their structurally natural position.
They possess, likewise, the power of swimming upper side forward —
or popularly stated " backward " — by means of the jets of water
which, by forcible contractions of the muscular mantle-sac, are pro-
jected from the tube or " funnel " situated on the hinder face of the
body. These jets d^eaii consist of the effete water which has been
used in breathing, so that the act of expiration and the effete water
of respiration together become utilized, in the economical wisdom of
nature, as a means of propulsion. The mysterious backward flight of
an octopus through its tank (Fig. 1), when, detaching itself from its
hold on the rock, it swims gracefully and swiftly through the water,
is effected in the manner just described. This form of hydraulic ap-
paratus, imitated in experiments in marine engineering, serves but to
strengthen the wise man's adage concerning the utter lack of novelty
in terrestrial and mundane things.

It is equally interesting to note that some of the squids or loligos
— named popularly " flying squids " — appear to be able to rise from
the surface of the sea and to spring into the air after the fashion of
the flying-fishes. Instances are mentioned of the flying squids having
occasionally landed themselves on the decks of ships in their atmos-
pheric leaps.

The " arms " or " feet " demand, however, a somewhat detailed
mention, on account of their armature. In all cuttle-fishes, save the
exceptional pearly nautilus, the arms are either eight or ten in number,
and are provided with acetabular or " suckers." Those cuttles in
which ten arms are present — and of these the squids and sepias form
good examples — have two of these appendages produced beyond the
remaining eight in length. The " suckers " (Fig. 2, a), which consti-
tute a most noteworthy armament of the arms, are borne on short

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 757

stalks in the ten-armed cuttle-fishes, but are unstalked in the eight-
armed species. Each sucker (Fig. 2) exhibits all the structures inci-
dental to an apparatus adapted to secure effective and instantaneous
adhesion to any surface. It consists of a horny or
cartilaginous cup (a), within which are muscular
fibers converging toward its center, where they ^/S1"^^ c

form a well-defined plug or piston (b). By the iSE8lII£va

withdrawal of this plug a partial vacuum is pro- ^SW^W

duced, and the suckers adhere by atmospheric
pressure to the surface on which they are placed.
The sucker is released by the projection of the
plug and by the consequent destruction of the
vacuum. The number of the suckers varies, but
is always considerable ; and when we reflect that
the array of suckers can be instantaneously ap-
plied, and that their hold is automatically perfect,
the grasp of the cephalopods is seen to be of the FlG- *■— suckers of the

. . Cuttle-fish.

most efficient kind. In some cuttle-fishes, and most
notably in the so-called "hooked squids " (Onychoteuthis), the pistons
of the suckers are developed to form powerful hooks, by means of
which the prey may be secured with additional facility ; and in the
common squids the margin of the sucker is provided with a series of
minute horny hooks. The " arms " themselves, it need hardly be re-
marked, are extremely mobile ; they are highly muscular, and can be
adapted with ease to the varied functions of prehension and move-
ment they are destined to subserve. As regards their arrangement,
they are arranged in four pairs — a dorsal and a ventral pair, and two
lateral pairs ; the two elongated tentacles, when developed, being
situated between the third and fourth pairs of arms on the ventral or
lower surface.

The alimentary tract or digestive system of the cuttle-fish race is
in every respect of well-developed and complete character. Lower
down in the molluscan series the commissariat department is subserved
by a very perfect digestive apparatus, including representatives of
most of the organs familiar enough to us in higher or vertebrate ex-
istence. In the cephalopods we should naturally expect the standard
of lower- molluscan organization to be further elaborated ; and this
anatomical expectation is justified by the actual details of cuttle-fish
structure. The mouth opens on the upper surface of the head — a dis-
position of matters already accounted for when considering the rela-
tions of the cuttle-fish body to that of other mollusks. The mouth-
opening is usually bounded by a raised lip, and leads into a cavity
containing an elaborate apparatus, analogous to the jaws of higher
animals, and by means of which the food of these animals is triturated
and divided. An inspection of the masticating apparatus of a cuttle-
fish readily solves the question, "How are the hard shells of their

75 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crustacean food broken down?" There exists within the mouth,
firstly, a hard, horny beak, resembling closely in shape the beak of a
parrot, and consisting of two chief divisions, whereof one — the front
— is the smaller, and is overlapped by the hinder beak. Set in action
by appropriate muscles, these beaks divide the hard parts of. the food
with the greatest ease. But a second apparatus of more typical nat-
ure likewise exists in these animals. This is the odontophore, a struct-
ure popularly named the "tongue," and which is common to the
whelk and snail class, to the sea-butterflies, and to the cuttle-fishes.
It consists essentially of an elongated ribbon-like structure, bearing
hooked teeth, generally disposed in transverse rows. This apparatus,
set in action by special muscles, and worked after the fashion of a
chain-saw, is used to rasp down the food ; while new growths of its
substance from behind serve to repair the loss caused by the friction
to which it is subjected.

The gills, as already noted., number two in all cuttle-fishes except
the pearly nautilus, and may demand a special notice. Each gill is a
conical organ, consisting essentially of a dense net-work of blood-ves-
sels, in which impure blood brought by the great veins is exposed to
the action of the oxygen contained in the water which is being con-
tinually admitted to the gill-chambers. Each gill is contained within
a kind of chamber to which water is admitted by the front edge of
the mantle-sac. This opening being closed by a valve against the exit
of the water, the forcible contraction of the body-walls ejects the
water, as previously described, from the " funnel." The gills are them-
selves contractile, but they do not possess the armament of minute
vibratile processes or cilia, so typical of the gills of other mollusca.
The need for these cilia as organs providing for the circulation of
water over the gill-surfaces is of course removed, in view of the very
perfect means existent in the cuttle-fishes for the renewal of the water
used in breathing. As a living octopus or other cuttle-fish is watched,
the movements of inspiration and expiration are plainly indicated by
the expansion and contraction of the body-walls, and they imitate in
a singularly exact fashion the analogous movements of the highest
animals. Observers have likewise described in certain members of
the cuttle-fish class a series of minute pores, by which water enters the
great veins and mixes with the blood. It is also certain that water
enters the general body cavity and bathes the organs of the animal,
thus converting that cavity into a physiologically active space, pos-
sessing an influence on the circulation in that its contained water pre-
sents a medium for the conveyance of oxygen into, and for the recep-
tion of waste materials from, the blood.

Connected on the one hand with the digestive system, and on the
other with the more purely glandular structures of the body, is the
organ known familiarly as the " ink-bag " of these animals. The cuttle-
fishes are well known to utilize the secretion of this sac as a means of

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 759

defense, and for enabling them to escape from their enemies. Dis-
charging the inky fluid through the " funnel," into which the duct of
the ink-sac opens, it rapidly diffuses itself through the water, and en-
ables the animal to escape under a literal cloak of darkness. The
exact nature and relationship of this ink-sac to the other organs of
the cuttle-fish have long been disputed. According to one authority,
the ink-bag represented the gall-bladder, because in the octopus it is
imbedded in the liver. From another point of view, it was declared
to represent an intestinal gland ; while a third opinion maintained its
entirely special nature. The ink-sac is now known to be developed as
an offshoot from the digestive tube ; and, taking development as the
one infallible criterion and test of the nature of living structures, we
may conclude that it represents at once a highly specialized part of
the digestive tract, and an organ which, unrepresented entirely in the
oldest cuttle-fishes, has been developed in obedience to the demands
and exigencies of the later growths of the race. It is this ink-sac
which is frequently found fossilized in certain extinct cuttle-fish shells.
Its secretion forms the original sepia color, a term derived from the
name of a cuttle-fish genus. The fossilized sepia has been used with
good effect when ground down. The late Dean Buckland gave some of
this fossil ink to Sir Francis Chantrey, who made with it a drawing of
the specimen from which it had been taken ; and Cuvier is said to have
used this fossilized ink in the preparation of the plates wherewith he
illustrated his "Mollusca." At the present time, recent cuttle-fish ink
is said to be utilized in the manufacture of ordinary artists* " sepia."

The due regulation of cuttle-fish existence is determined by the
action of its nervous apparatus. The ordinary type of molluscan
nervous system undergoes in the cuttle-fishes a decided change of
form. In a snail or whelk, for example, the nervous system exhibits
an arrangement of three chief nerve-masses or "ganglia," connected
by nervous cords. Of these three nerve-centers, one is situated in the
head, a second in the " foot " or organ of movement, and a third in
the neighborhood of heart and gills, or amid the viscera generally.
Increased concentration of this type of nerve-arrangement awaits us
in cuttle-fish organization. Just as the spider possesses a more con-
centrated and localized nerve-axis than the insect, or as the gangliated
chain of the latter becomes the fused nerve-mass of the spider, so in
the cuttle-fish, the molluscan nerve-system, scattered and diffused in
the snail, whelk, or mussel, becomes localized in adaptation to the in-
creased nerve-control and to the wider instincts of cuttle-fish exist-
ence. This process of nerve-localization and concentration is accom-
panied by certain important modifications affecting other regions and
structures of cuttle-fish economy. Thus the nerve-centers are found
to be protected and inclosed within a gristly or cartilaginous case, that
foreshadows the functions of the vertebrate skull, though in no sense
connected with that structure.

76o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Not the least interesting feature of this localized mass of nervous
matter is the fact that it exhibits the same arrangement of gray and
white nerve-matter that is seen in the highest brains. An outer gray
and an inner white layer are discernible in the nerve-ganglia of cepha-
lopods, as in the cerebrum of man ; and, as in the highest animals,
the cuttle-fish gray matter is found to consist of nerve-cells, while
the white matter is chiefly composed of nerve-fibers. Thus the laws
of developmental progress affect the microscopic and intimate struct-
ure of the living form as well as the more obvious details of structure.
From the main nerve-mass of the cuttle-fishes nerves arise to supply
the body at large. Nerves of special sense supply eyes, ears, and
olfactory organs ; while the viscera and the " mantle " or general
body-covering are also well provided with the means of innervation.

Cuttle-fish existence possesses, in all probability, the five "gate-
ways of knowledge," through which the impressions of the outer
world are received, and by which these impressions are modified and
transmitted to the brain-masses as sensations of sight, hearing, smell,
touch, and taste. There is little need to draw upon hypothesis in the
assumption that the arms or tentacles are efficient organs of touch in
Cephalopoda, or that the structures of the mouth may subserve taste,
in so far as the latter sense may be required to satisfy the demands
of cuttle-fish existence. An organ of smell is definitely situated behind
or above the eyes. There two small projections, or, as frequently, two
minute pits or depressions, occur. These pits are ciliated, and be-
tween the cilia " olfactory cells " are situated. These cells, in turn,
represent the similar structures which occur in higher animals, and
which, in man himself, form the characteristic terminations to his
olfactory nerves. That the cuttle-fishes can literally scent their prey
from afar off is an idea confirmed by the facts of their every-day
life.

The " ears " of the cuttle-fishes present us with two sacs — named
" auditory sacs " — which may, as in the nautilus, either be attached
to the chief nerve-mass itself, or, as in the two-gilled cuttles, be
lodged in special cavities in the gristly "skull." A cuttle-fish "ear"
is essentially a sac or bag, called an " otocyst," containing either one
or many "otoliths" or "ear-stones," suspended in a watery fluid.
This, indeed, is the primitive type of " ear " we may find even in the
MedusidcB or " jelly-fishes " themselves. The ear-sacs of many cuttle-
fishes open on the external surface of the body by two fine canals,
named " Kolliker's ducts," after their distinguished discoverer. Occa-
sionally these ducts end blindly, and do not open on the body surface.
These facts lend additional support to the opinion that in the ear of
the cuttle-fish we find primitive structures proper to the ears of verte-
brates, the minute canals of Kolliker corresponding with the recessus
vestibuli of the vertebrate organ of hearing. Once again, therefore,
we find the progressive development of cephalopods and vertebrates

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 761

running in parallel, but nevertheless in distinct and independent, lines;
and this likeness is further strengthened when we discover that not
merely the ear, but the eye likewise, of these two groups of animals
is formed or developed in an essentially similar fashion. The ear of
the cuttle-fish presents us with a permanent example of an early and
transitory stage in the development of the vertebrate ear, and a com-
mon plan of ear-production is thus seen to traverse a wide extent of
the animal world.

"The present history of the cuttle-fishes may be concluded by the
briefest possible reference to their distribution and classification.
Over two thousand species of cephalopods are known. But geology
claims the vast majority, only two hundred and eighteen 6pecies being
included in the ranks of living animals. The cuttle-fishes are very
widely distributed in existing seas. They occur in the far north ;
they are plentifully represented in the colder seas by the squids which
form the bait of the Newfoundland cod-fishers; but in tropical regions
they attain their greatest size and numerical strength. Their classifi-
cation is both simple and natural. Their division into Dibranchiates
(" two-gilled ") and Tetrabranchiates (" four-gilled ") is a method of
arrangement which accurately reflects variations in their existing
structure, as it correctly indicates the main lines of their geological
and past history. Of four-gilled cuttle-fishes there is but one living
example — the pearly nautilus (Fig. 3). Its special and distinctive
peculiarities may be rapidly summed up in the statement that it has

Fig. 3.— Pearly Nautilus.

four gills, numerous arms (c), no suckers, no ink-sac, an incompletely
tubular funnel (f), stalked eyes, and an external, many-chambered
shell, in the last formed and largest compartment (e) of which the
body is lodged.

The absence of| an ink-sac in the nautilus is a fact correlated with
its bottom-living habits and with the absence of any need or require-

762

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment for the sudden concealment from enemies which the more active
two-gilled forms demand. The many-chambered shell of the pearly
nautilus exhibits a flat, symmetrical, spiral shape. Its many-cham-
bered state is explained by the fact that as the animal grows it suc-
cessively leaves the already formed chambers, and secretes, a new
chamber to accommodate the increasing size of body. Each new
chamber is partitioned off from that last occupied by a shelly wall
called a septum (cj). Through the middle of the series of septa runs
a tube named the siphuncle, (s, s), whose function has been credited
with being that of maintaining a low vitality in the disused chambers
of the shell.

All other living cuttle-fishes possess, on the contrary, two gills,
never more than ten arms jDrovided with suckers, an ink-sac, unstalked
eyes, a completely tubular funnel, and an internal shell. If, however,
the nautilus represents in its solitary self the four-gilled cuttle-fishes
of to-day, it likewise, like " the last of the Mohicans," appears as the
descendant of a long line of famous ancestors. In its distribution,
the nautilus is limited to the southern seas. It is still the rarest of
animals in our museums, although its shells are common enough.

H \\

Fig. 4.— Paper Nattilus. A, female argonaut showing shell, around which the two expanded
arms are clasped ; B, female removed from shell ; C, the male argonaut (shell-less).

This, according to Mr. Moseley, is no doubt due to the fact that the
animal is mostly an inhabitant of deep water. The shells of /Spirida
(Fig. 6) similarly occur in countless numbers on tropical beaches, yet
the animal has only been procured two or three times.

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 763

It is thus the pearly nautilus floats under certain, circumstances on
the surface of the water. The argonaut (Fig. 4), credited in poetry
and fiction with this power, never floats on the surface, as was of old
believed. It is simply a mundane cuttle-fish, whose two expanded
arms are never used as sails, after the popularly supposed fashion, but
are employed solely to secrete and attach to the body the false shell
(Fig. 4, a) with which it is provided.

Among the two hundred odd living two-gilled cuttle-fishes, consid-
erable diversity of external form may be seen ; but the general type

Fig. 5.— Shells of Fossil Cuttle-fishes. 1, Turrilites ; 2, Baculites ; 3. Hamites ; 4, Scaphites.

already described is at the same time closely adhered to ; and save in
the case of the paper nautilus or argonaut, in which the characteristic
shape of body is concealed by the shell, the cuttle-fish characters are
readily apparent. The shell of the paper nautilus (Fig. 4, a) is termed
" false " or " pedal," because it is not formed by the mantle, as all
true shells are, but by the two expanded arms, as already mentioned.
In its homology it therefore coincides with foot-secretions (such as
the "beard" of the mussel), and not with the shells of its neighbors.
The female argonaut alone possesses a " shell," the male (Fig. 4, c)
being a diminutive creature, measuring only an inch or so in length.
It is in the ranks of the two-gilled cuttle-fishes that we discover those
phases of cuttle-fish life which most characteristically appeal to the
popular mind. Thus, many species of two-gilled cuttles are eaten and
considered dainties by foreign nations ; it is from this group that the
sepia color already mentioned is obtained ; their internal shells gave
us the "pounce" of long ago, and formed an article in the materia
medica of by-gone days ; and, lastly, it is in this group that the myth-
ical and the real meet in the consideration of the giant cuttle-fishes
which the myth and fiction of the past postulated, and which modern
zoolosr numbers among: its realities.

The past history of the cuttle-fishes unites in itself a knowledge at
once of their present position in the animal world and of their prog-

764

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fig. 6.— Spirttla.

ress toward that position. The history of their past begins with the
recognition of the pearly nautilus (Fig. 3) as a being which, as a four-
gilled cuttle-fish possessing an external many-chambered shell, stands
alone in the world of life. It is the tribes of two-gilled cuttle-fishes

which people our ocean to-day, and which -exhibit
ail the gradations of form and size, from the
minute Spirilla (Fig. 6) to the great Architeuthis
of the American coasts. The history of the cut-
tle-fishes in time begins in the far-back epoch
represented by the Lower Silurian rocks of the
geologist. There are entombed the first fossil
cuttle-fishes, represented by their chambered
shells. The genus Orthoceras, represented by
shells of straight form, is thus among the oldest
members of the cuttle-fish race. The Nautilus genus itself begins in
the Upper Silurian rocks ; we may trace the well-known shells upward
to the Carboniferous strata, where they are best developed ; and we
follow the genus onward in time, as it decreases in numbers, until we
arrive at the existing order of things, in which the solitary nautilus
remains, as we have seen, to represent in itself the fullness of cephalo-
pod life in the oceans of the past. The older or Paleozoic rocks re-
veal a literal wealth of these chambered shells, and therefore of the
existence of the four-gilled cuttle-fishes as the founders of the race.
When we ascend to the Mesozoic rocks (ranging from the Trias to
the Chalk), we meet with new types of the chambered shells well-nigh
unknown in the Palaeozoic period. In the Mesozoic rocks appears the
fullness of Ammonite life. Here we find shells named after the horns
of the Egyptian god, Jupiter Ammon ; these, instead of being toler-
ably plain, like the Nautilidw, exhibit beautifully sculptured outlines,
and folded septa, or partitions, between the chambers of the shell.
The shells allied to Nautilus and occurring in the Palaeozoic formations
differ from Nautilus chiefly in their varying degrees of curvature or
straightness. Lituites is a curved form allied to Nautilus / while
Orthoceras and Gomphoceras are groups representing the straight-
ened forms. But in the Silurian period more complex forms appear,
with elaborate and folded septa. These are the early Ammonites,
such as Goniatitcs and Haetrites. In the Secondary rocks we find
the still more complex true Ammonites themselves. Here the lobes
and saddles of the shells, as the edges of the septa are named, are of
the most elaborate patterns, while the shapes of shell are of the most
varied character (Eaculites, Turrilites, Ammonites, etc., Fig. 5).

There is thus an advance and progression exhibited in the develop-
ment of the four-gilled races which accords perfectly with the theory
of evolution and descent. The seas of the Trias, Oolite, and Chalk
periods must have literally swarmed with these striking forms of
cephalopod life ; but as the close of the Chalk period dawned, and as

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF CUTTLE-FISHES. 765

the Secondary age came to an end, the fullness of the Ammonite gen-
erations disappeared for ever. In the succeeding Tertiary period not
a single Ammonite of any kind occurs ; the genus Nautilus remaining
in the Tertiary period — as it survived into the Mesozoic or middle pe-
riod— as the sole representative of a once plentiful four-gilled popu-
lation.

If the history of the four-gilled cuttle-fishes is thus plainly told as
having its beginnings in the Palaeozoic period, its maximum develop-
ment in the Mesozoic period, and its lingering presence in the Tertiary
period, the two-gilled cuttle-fishes may be said to possess an equally
interesting history. Compared with their four-gilled neighbors, the
two-gilled forms are late comers upon creation's scene. Not a single
fossil two-gilled form occurs in all the Palaeozoic period, extending
from the Laurentian to the Permian rocks. If they existed in Palaeo-
zoic seas, they have at least left no trace of their presence. Their
softness of body may perchance have contributed to their elimination
from the oldest fossil records ; but, laying aside mere conjecture, we
find the first fact of the past history of the two-gilled forms in the
presence of the fossil shells of the extinct Belemnites in the Triassic
rocks. The Belemnites themselves disappear at the close of the Meso-
zoic period ; but fossilized shells of species allied to our living Se-
pias occur in the Oolite ; and the internal shells of squids are found
in the Lias or lower Oolites. In the Tertiary rocks, Argonaut (Fig. 4)
shells occur in the Pliocene deposits ; the Eocene rocks also give us
sepia remains ; and various other two-gilled fossils {Beloptera, etc.)
are found in Eocene and Miocene formations.

Briefly summarized, then, we find that the chief details in the past
history of the cuttle-fishes are told when we are reminded that the
four-gilled forms are by far the more ancient of the two groups ; that
they first appear in the Silurian rocks, while the two-gilled forms ap-
pear first in the Secondary rocks ; and, lastly, that the record of the
one group is the converse of the other. For, the four-gilled species
attained their maximum in the Primary and Secondary rocks, and have
practically died out, leaving the pearly nautilus as their sole represent-
ative in existing seas. The two-gilled race, starting in the Secondary
rocks, and leaving the extinct belemnites as a legacy to the past, have,
on the other hand, flourished and progressed, and attain their maxi-
mum, both in size and numbers, in the existing seas and oceans of our
globe.

What ideas concerning the origin and evolution of these animals
may be legitimately deduced from the foregoing facts of their struct-
ure and distribution in time ? In the answer to such a question, asked
concerning any group of living beings, lies the culminating point of
all biological science. That the cuttle-fishes fall nominally into their
place in the scale of being indicated by evolution, and that in their
individual development, in the growth of their special organs, such as

766 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

eye and ear, as well as in the general relations they bear to each other
as living forms, they illustrate the results of progressive development,
can not for a moment be doubted. The further fact that the existing
four-gilled nautilus, despite its lengthy ancestry, as regards its brain,
its eye, its tentacles, and other features of its history, is a less special-
ized and lower form than the two-gilled cuttle-fishes, clearly points to
the evolution of the two-gilled from the four-gilled stock. The more
active and structurally higher races of to-day, in other words, have
sprung from the less specialized and lower cuttle-fishes of the geological
yesterday. No question, then, of the reality of progressive develop-
ment, as a factor in evolving new species and groups of cuttle-fishes
from the confines of already formed species, can be entertained.

Turning more specifically to the shell in general, we may discover
in the modifications of this single structure a clew to the entire evolu-
tion of the cuttle-fish race. The " shells " of the two-gilled cuttle-fishes
exist for the most part as horny " pens " or as limy plates, secreted by
the " shell-gland " of the mantle which forms the true shell of all mol-
lusks. Starting with the shells which are certainly oldest in point of
time, and therefore of development, we find, in the Nautili and their
neighbors, structures which represent fullness of shell-growth. It ap-
pears a long hypothetical journey from the well-developed shell of the
nautilus type to the limy plate or horny " pen " shell of the squid.
But the halting-places on the way diminish the apparent length of the
journey, as they lessen the seeming irregularity of the path. The
simple rudimentary shells of our two-gilled cuttle-fishes are to be re-
garded as the degenerate remains of structures fully developed in their
ancestors. To this idea, their succession in time bears faithful wit-
ness ; and to its correctness the connecting links, accessible to us,
plainly testify.

Thus the history of the cuttle-fish shell forms an important chapter
in the biography of the race. The rudimental shells of the two-gilled
cuttle-fishes, like the teeth which never cut the gum in unborn whales,
have a reference not to their present life, but to a former state of
things. Contemplating the " pen " or " cuttle-bone " of a modern
squid or sepia, our thoughts become molded in mental continuity with
the past. There rise to view before our mind's eye the ancient Nautili
and their sculptured kith and kin the ammonites, crowding the sea-
beds of the far-back Mesozoic, and still more remote Palaeozoic ages.
Then, through the operation of the inevitable laws of organic progress
and advance — making the ancient world then, as they constitute our
world to-day, the theatre of continual change — we see the two-gilled
stock arise in secondary times from the four-gilled race. First there
is seen the modification of shell. Concurrently with the decrease of
shell comes increase of head-development and elaboration of nerve-
centers, tending to make the new two-gilled form what we know it to
be to-day — the wary, watchful organism, living in the waters above,

MOZLEY ON EVOLUTION. 767

and occupying a sphere of vital activity immeasurably superior to the
dull existence passed by its four-gilled ancestors on the ocean-bed.
The shell degenerates more and more as the cuttle-fish race rises on its
own branch of the animal tree. Development in numbers succeeds
individual advance. The cephalopod tribes of to-day dawn fuller and
fuller as the Tertiary period progresses. Thus the fullness of cuttle-
fish life to-day, exhibited in all its strange weirdness, is interwoven,
like the lines of human history itself, with the warp and woof of the
past. And not the least important clew to the history of that past is
found in the apparently insignificant " shell " we have discussed ; since
in its mere degeneracy it leads us backward in an instructive glance to
those early times when the chief branches on life's tree had not reached
their full fruition, and to the days when the world itself was young.

■♦•♦•

MOZLEY ON EVOLUTION.

By HEEBEET SPENCEB.

IN the "Reminiscences, chiefly of Oriel College," by the Rev.
Thomas Mozley, there occurs on page 1-16, vol. i, the following
passage :

I had indulged from my boyhood in a Darwinian dream of moral philosophy,
derived in the first instance from one of my early instructors. This was Mr.
George Spencer, [honorary] Secretary of the Derby Philosophical Association,
founded by Dr. Darwin,* and father of Mr. Herbert Spencer. My dream had a
certain family resemblance to the " System of Philosophy " bearing that writer's
name. There was an important and saving difference between the two systems,
between that which never saw the light, and perished before it was born, with-
out even coming to wither like grass on the house-tops, and that other imposing
system which occupies several yards of shelf in most public libraries. The latter
makes the world of life, as we see, and take part in it, the present outcome of a
continual outcoming from atoms, lichens, and vegetables, bound by the necessi-
ties of existence to mutual relations, up to or down to brutes, savages, ladies and
gentlemen, inheriting various opinions, maxims, and superstitions. The brother
and elder philosophy, for such it was, that is mine, saved itself from birth by its
palpable inconsistency, for it retained a divine original and some other incon-
gruous elements. In particular, instead of rating the patriarchal stage hardly
above the brute, it assigned to that state of society a heavenly source, and de-
scribed it as rather a model for English country gentlemen — that is, upon the
whole,' and with certain reservations.

As I find, by inquiring of those who have read it, this passage
leaves the impression that the doctrines set forth in the " System of

* It was more than a dozen years after Dr. Darwin's death in 1802 when my father
became honorary secretary. I believe my father (who was twelve years old when Dr.
Darwin died) never sawMiim, and, so far as I know, knew nothing of bis ideas.

76S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Synthetic Philosophy," as well as those which Mr. Mozley entertained
in his early days, were in some way derived from my father. Were
this true, the implication would be that during the last five-and-twenty
years I have been allowing myself to be credited with ideas which are
not my own. And, since this is entirely untrue, I can not be expected
to let it pass unnoticed. If I do, I tacitly countenance an error, and
tacitly admit an act by no means creditable to me.

I should be the last to underestimate my indebtedness to my
father, for whom I have great admiration, as will be seen when, here-
after, there comes to be published a sketch of him which I long ago
prepared in rough draft. But this indebtedness was general and not
special — an indebtedness for habits of thought encouraged rather than
for ideas communicated. I distinctly trace to him an ingrained tend-
ency to inquire for causes — causes, I mean, of the physical class.
Though far from having himself abandoned supernaturalism, yet the
bias toward naturalism was strong in him, and was, I doubt not, com-
municated (though rather by example than by precept) to others he
taught as it was to me. But while admitting, and indeed asserting,
that the tendency toward naturalistic interpretation of things was fos-
tered in me by him, as probably also in Mr. Mozley, yet I am not aware
that any of those results of' naturalistic interpretation distinctive of
my works are traceable to him.

Were the general reader in the habit of criticising each statement
he meets, he might be expected to discover in the paragraph quoted
above from Mr. Mozley reasons for skepticism. When, for example,
he found my books described as occupying several yards of library-
shelves, while in fact they occupy less than two feet, he might be led
to suspect that other statements, made with like regard for effective-
ness rather than accuracy, are misleading. A reperusal of the last
part of the paragraph might confirm his suspicion. Observing that,
along with the allegation of " family resemblance," the closing sen-
tence admits that the course of human affairs as conceived by Mr.
Mozley was the reverse in direction to the course alleged by me —
observing that in this only respect in which Mr. Mozley specifies his
view it is so fundamentally anti-evolutionary as to be irreconcilable
with the evolutionary view — he might have further doubts raised.
But the general reader, not pausing to consider, mostly accepts with-
out hesitation what a writer tells him.

Even scientific readers, even readers familiar with the contents of
my books, can not, I fear, be trusted so to test Mr. Mozley's statement
as to recognize its necessary erroneousness ; though a little thought
would show them this. They would have but to recall the cardinal
ideas developed throughout the series of volumes I have published, to
become conscious that these ideas are necessarily of much later origin
than the period to which Mr. Mozley's account refers. Though, in
Rumford's day and before, an advance had been made toward the doc-

MOZLEY ON EVOLUTION. 769

trine of the correlation of heat and motion, this doctrine had not
become current ; and no conception, even, had arisen of the more
general doctrine of the correlation and equivalence of the physical
forces at large. Still more recent was the rise and establishment of
the associated abstract doctrine commonly known as the " conserva-
tion of energy." Further, Yon Baer's discovery, that the changes un-
dergone during development of each organic body are always from the
general to the special, was not enunciated till some eight years after
the time at which Mr. Mozley was a pupil of my father, and was not
heard of in England until twenty years after. Now, since these three
doctrines are indispensable elements of the general theory of evolution
(the last of them being that which set up in me the course of thought
leading to it), it is manifest that not even a rude conception of such a
theory could have been framed at the date referred to in Mr. Mozley's
account. Even apart from this, one who compared my successive
writings would find clear proof that their cardinal ideas could have
had no such origin as Mr. Mozley's account seems to imply. In the
earliest of them — " Letters on the Proper Sphere of Government " —
published in 1842 and republished as a pamphlet in 1844, the only
point of community with the general doctrine of evolution is a belief
in the modifiability of human nature through adaptation to conditions
(which I held as a corollary from the theory of Lamarck) and a con-
sequent belief in human progression. In the second and more impor-
tant one, " Social Statics," published in 1850, the same general ideas
are to be seen, worked out more elaborately in their ethical and polit-
ical consequences. Only in an essay published in 1852 would the in-
quirer note for the first time a passing reference to the increase of
heterogeneity as a trait of development, and a first recognition of this
trait as seen in other orders of phenomena than those displayed by
individual organisms. Onward through essays published in several
following years, he would observe further extensions in the alleged
range of this law ; until, in 1855, in the " Principles' of Psychology,"
it begins to take an important position, joined with the additional law
of integration, afterward to be similarly extended. Not until 1857, in
two essays then published, would he find a statement, relatively crude
in form, of the law of evolution, set forth as holding throughout all
orders of .phenomena, and joined with it the statement of certain uni-
versal physical principles which necessitate its universality. And only
in 1861 would he come to an expression of the law approximating
in definitenes^ to that final one reached in 1867. All which facts
the scientific reader who took the trouble to investigate would see
are conclusive against the implication contained in Mr. Mozley's
statement ; since, were this implication true, my early writings would
have contained traces of the specific doctrine set forth in the later
ones. But, as I have said, even a reader of my books can not be
trusted to recall a^nd consider these facts, but will certainly, in many

VOL. XXI. — 49

77o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cases, and probably in most, passively accept the belief Mr. Mozley
suggests.

Seeing this, I have felt it requisite definitely to raise the issue ;
and for this purpose have written to Mr. Mozley the following letter.
It is made long by including a general outline of the doctrine of evo-
lution, which it was needful to place before him that he might be in a
position to answer my question definitely. Perhaps I may be excused
for reproducing the letter in full, since ninety-nine out of a hundred
do not know what the doctrine of evolution in its wider sense is, but
suppose it to be simply another name for the doctrine of the origin of
species by natural selection :

" My dear Sie : The passages from three letters of my father,
sent herewith — one written in 1820, which was about the date referred
to in your account of him, one written some thirteen years later, and
the other twenty years later — will prove to you how erroneous is the
statement you have made with regard to his religious beliefs. Having
in this case clear proof of error, you will, I think, be the better pre-
pared to recognize the probability of error in the statements which
you make concerning his philosophical ideas and the ideas which,
under his influence, you in early life elaborated for yourself.

" The passage in which you refer to these gives the impression that
they were akin to those views which are developed in the ' System of
Synthetic Philosophy.' I am anxious to ascertain in what the alleged
kinship consists. Some twelve years ago an American friend re-
quested me, with a view to a certain use which he named, to furnish
him with a succinct statement of the cardinal principles developed in
the successive works I have published. The rough draft of this state-
ment I have preserved ; and, that you may be enabled definitely to
compare the propositions of that which you have called ' the younger
philosophy ' with that which you have called ' the elder,' I copy it out.
It runs as follows :

" ' 1. Throughout the universe in general and in detail there is an unceasing
redistribution of matter and motion.

'"2. This redistribution constitutes evolution where there is a predomi-
nant integration of matter and dissipation of motion, and constitutes dissolution
where there is a predominant absorption of motion and disintegration of matter.

'"3. Evolution is simple when the process of integration, or the formation
of a coherent aggregate, proceeds uncomplicated by other processes.

'"4. Evolution is compound when, along with this primary change from an
incoherent to a coherent state, there go on secondary changes due to differences
in the circumstances of the different parts of the aggregate.

" ' 5. These secondary changes constitute a transformation of the homoge-
neous into the heterogeneous — a transformation which, like the first, is exhibited
in the universe as a whole and in all (or nearly all) its details ; in the aggregate
of stars and nebulse ; in the planetary system; in the earth as an inorganic
mass; in each organism, vegetal or animal (Von Baer's law otherwise ex-

MOZLEY ON EVOLUTION. 771

pressed) ; in the aggregate of organisms throughout geologic time ; in the mind ;
in society ; in all products of social activity.

" ' 6. The process of integration, acting locally as well as generally, combines
with the process of differentiation to render this change not simply from homo-
geneity to heterogeneity, but from an indefinite homogeneity to a definite heter-
ogeneity; and this trait of increasing definiteness, which accompanies the trait
of increasing heterogeneity, is, like it, exhibited in the totality of things and in
all its divisions and subdivisions down to the minutest.

"'7. Along with this redistribution of the matter composing any evolving
aggregate there goes on a redistribution of the retained motion of its compo-
nents in relation to one another ; this also becomes, step by step, more definitely
heterogeneous.

u ■ 8. In the absence of a homogeneity that is infinite and absolute, that re-
distribution, of which evolution is one phase, is inevitable. The causes which
necessitate it are these :

" ' 9. The instability of the homogeneous, which is consequent upon the
different exposures of the different parts of any limited aggregate to incident
forces. The transformations hence resulting are complicated by —

" ' 10. The multiplication of effects. Every mass and part of a mass on which
a force falls subdivides and differentiates that force, which thereupon proceeds
to work a variety of changes ; and each of these becomes the parent of similarly-
multiplying changes; the multiplication of them becoming greater in proportion
as the aggregate becomes more heterogeneous. And these two causes of increas-
ing differentiations are furthered by —

"'11. Segregation, which is a process tending ever to separate unlike units
and to bring together like units — so serving continually to sharpen, or make
definite, differentiations otherwise caused.

" ' 12. Equilibration is the final result of these transformations which an evolv-
ing aggregate undergoes. The changes go on until there is reached an equilibri-
um between the forces which all parts of the aggregate are exposed to, and the
forces these parts oppose to them. Equilibration may pass through a transition
stage of balanced motions (as in a planetary system), or of balanced functions
(as in a living body), on the way to ultimate equilibrium ; but the state of rest
in inorganic bodies, or death in organic bodies, is the necessary limit of the
changes constituting evolution.

" ' 13. Dissolution is the counter-change which sooner or later every evolved
aggregate undergoes. Remaining exposed to surrounding forces that are un-
equilibrated, each aggregate is ever liable to be dissipated by the increase, grad-
ual or sudden, of its contained motion ; and its dissipation, quickly undergone
by bodies lately animate and slowly undergone by inanimate masses, remains to
be undergone at an indefinitely remote period by each planetary and stellar mass,
which since an indefinitely distant period in the past has been slowly evolving;
the cycle of its transformations being thus completed.

"Ui. This rhythm of evolution and dissolution, completing itself during short
periods in small aggregates, and in the vast aggregates distributed through space
completing itself in periods which are immeasurable by human thought, is, so
far as we can see, universal and eternal — each alternating phase of the process
predominating now in this region of space and now in that, as local conditions
determine.

" ' 15. All these phenomena, from their great features down to their minutest
details, are necessary results of the persistence of force, under its forms of mat-

772 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ter and motion. Given these as distributed through space, and their quantities
being unchangeable, either by increase or decrease, there inevitably result the
continuous redistributions distinguishable as evolution and dissolution, as well
as all those special traits above enumerated.

" ' 16. That which persists unchanging in quantity but ever changing in form,
under these sensible appearances which the universe presents to us, transcends
human knowledge and conception — is an unknown and unknowable power,
which we are obliged to recognize as without limit in space and without begin-
ning or end in time.'

" I am not aware that my father entertained any of these views,
either definitely or vaguely. But if he did, or if under his influence
you reached views similar to these or any of them, it will, I presume,
be possible to indicate the resemblances. Or, if specific resemblances
are not alleged, still it will be possible to point out what were the
ideas you received from him which potentially involved conclusions
such as are above set forth.

" I fear I am entailing some trouble upon you in asking an answer
to this question, but the importance of the matter must be my apology.

" I am, my dear sir, faithfully yours,

" Heebeet Spencee."

■

In Mr. Mozley's reply he stated that he had been obliged already
to send off his corrections for a second edition, adding that, " as, there-
fore, nothing can be done now, you would not care for any discussion."
The result is, that I remain without any reply to my question. One
passage, however, in Mr. Mozley's letter serves to give a widely different
meaning to his statement ; and, having obtained his permission, I here
quote it as follows : " You will observe that I have only a vague idea
of my own c philosophy,' and I can not pretend to an accurate knowl-
edge of yours. I spoke of a ' family likeness.' But what is that ?
There is a family likeness between Cardinal Newman's v»iew and his
brother Frank's."

Now, if the " family likeness " alleged is not greater than that be-
tween the belief of a Roman Catholic and the belief of a Rationalist
who retains his theism, my chief objection is removed ; for just as the
views of the brothers Newman have a certain kinship in virtue of the
religious sentiment common to them, so Mr. Mozley's early views and
my own may have had the common trait of naturalistic interpretation
— partially carried out in the one and completely in the other : a com-
mon trait, however, which would give Mr. Mozley's early views a
"family likeness" to other philosophies than mine. This being under-
stood, the only further objection to Mr. Mozley's statement which I
have to make is that I do not see how, even in this vague sense, a like-
ness can be alleged between that which he names and describes as " a
moral philosophy " and " a system of philosophy " of which the
greater part is concerned with the phenomena of evolution at large —
inorganic, organic, and super-organic — as interpreted on physical prin-

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES. 773

ciples, and of which only the closing portion sets forth ethical con-
clusions as corollaries from all the conclusions that have preceded.

There remains only to answer the question, How could Mr. Mozley
have been led to imagine a resemblance between things so different ?
He has himself gone far toward furnishing an explanation. In his
introduction (page 1) he admits, or rather asserts, that " reminiscences
are very suspicious matter " ; and that " the mental picture of events
long passed by, and seen through an increasing breadth of many-tinted
haze, is liable to be warped and colored by more recent remembrances,
and by impressions received from other quarters." He adds sundry
illustrations of the extreme untrustworthiness of memory concerning
the remote past ; and in chapter lxxxiii he characterizes Denison's
" Reminiscences of Oriole College " as a " jumble of inaccuracies, ab-
surdities, and apparent forgets." Moreover, he indicates (page 4) a spe-
cial cause of distortion, saying of those " whose memory is subordinate
to imagination and passion" that " they remember too easily, too
quickly, and too much as they please." Now, as is implied by his re-
ligious ideas and ecclesiastical leanings, and as is also shown by a
passage in which he refers to the scientific school with manifest aver-
sion, Mr. Mozley is biased toward an interpretation which tends to
discredit this school, or a part of it ; and, obviously, to fancy a resem-
blance between scientific views now current and those which he de-
scribes as a " dream " of his youth, which disappeared with his man-
hood, is not unsatisfactory. On looking through the "many-tinted
haze " of sixty years at what he admits to be " a vague idea " of his
early philosophy, he has unconsciously " warped and colored " it, and
imagined in it a resemblance which, as I have shown, it could not pos-
sibly have had.

I will add only that serious injustice is apt to be done by publica-
tion of reminiscences which concern others than the writer of them.
"Widely diffused as is Mr. Mozley's interesting work, his statement will
be read and accepted by thousands who will never see this rectifica-
tion.— Athenceum.

■+*+-

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES.

By ALLAN D. BROWN,

COiClfANDER, TOTTED STATES NAVY.

THE chief explosive mixture used in the arts of war and peace will
probably for a long time continue to be that which we know by
the name of gunpowder. It has been used so long that its origin (like
that of the mariner's compass) is entirely lost in the misty atmosphere
of the middle ages, if indeed it was not known before the Christian
era. The ingredients spoken of by Roger Bacon in 1237, in his for-

774 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mula for " making thunder and lightning," are still in use, and in nearly
the same proportion now as at that early date. The three solid sub-
stances which, when properly and intimately mixed, form gunpowder,
are saltpeter, sulphur, and charcoal ; the first being three fourths, or
a little more, of the mixture, the two latter, in nearly equal but vary-
ing proportions, forming the remaining one fourth. The saltpeter
contains a large amount of oxygen, which it gives up with consider-
able readiness upon the application of heat ; this unites with the
carbon contained in the charcoal, forming a large volume of carbonic-
acid gas ; the potash of the saltpeter unites with the sulphur, while
the nitrogen is set free, adding to the volume of the gases evolved.
As these gases are given off with great rapidity, they are still further
expanded by the action of the heat produced by the change of the
solids into the gaseous form, until, under ordinary circumstances, they
occupy a volume nearly three hundred times as great as that occupied
by the powder itself. One can easily imagine that the expansion of a
pound of powder to a size (if we may so say) so much greater than
its original bulk would exert a tremendous pressure upon any object
in which it was confined. If a small quantity of powder is freely
exposed in the air and fired, the resulting explosive effect is small, as
the gases produced so rapidly can readily push aside the air; but if it
be confined in a large block of steel, in which is a cavity which will
just receive it snugly, the resulting pressure is nearly ninety-three
thousand pounds to the square inch.

From this illustration it will at once be understood that confine-
ment, in a greater or less degree, is necessary, in order that the great-
est amount of work may be accomplished by the explosion. Those
explosives which give off their gases with intense rapidity require
but little restraint, while the slower ones require more confinement.
Among these less quick ones must be reckoned gunpowder, for, al-
though the explosion seems to follow immediately upon the applica-
tion of heat, yet an appreciable amount of time really elapses, in
which the combustion goes on.

The ingredients of which gunpowder is composed are selected
with the greatest possible care : the saltpeter is procured chiefly from
India, being extracted from the soil by natural processes and then
secured by the natives, for marketing. It is also largely prepared by
artificial means, it being quite evident that it would not do for any
country to depend upon a supply without its own borders in case of
war. In this process, heaps of earth are mixed with decomposing
organic matter — ashes, old mortar, and materials of like nature— the
whole being wet with the liquor from stables sufficiently to keep it in
a moist condition ; the moistened heaps are worked over from time
to time, and the air allowed free access. A chemical reaction takes
place, and in time the crude saltpeter appears upon the exterior of the
heap, whence it is removed and treated for the extraction of the pure

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES. 775

material. Both the India and the artificial products are mixed with
hot water, which takes up the salts, leaving the earthy matters be-
hind ; this liquid is then evaporated, the saltpeter crystallizing as a
fine white powder ; if the original be very crude, this product is again
subjected to a similar process.

The charcoal requires more care in its preparation than either of
the other ingredients, as upon its quality depends largely the violence
of the action of the powder ; the more nearly pure carbon it is, the
better will be the result. It is made from some very light wood, such as
the black alder or willow, as these contain much carbon, and but little
ash : small pieces of these woods, stripped of their bark, are placed
in a retort which is kept at a uniform heat ; the vapors are allowed a
free exit, and the roasting is kept up until the experienced eye of the
workman warns him that it is time to withdraw the charge, lest it be
overburned. The entire contents of the retort are removed at once,
and covered in air-tight drums, where the charcoal is left to cool.
Thus prepared, charcoal is quite a different material from that in ordi-
nary use ; it being of a bluish-black tinge, somewhat elastic and
slightly resonant when struck lightly with the finger, with the appear-
ance of the woodv fiber clear and distinct.

m

The sulphur is prepared from its ore, by roasting the latter in a
retort, the vapors given off being condensed, and the resulting liquid
run into molds, and allowed to harden.

Having procured the materials of proper fineness and in the de-
sired proportions, the sulphur and charcoal are placed in a revolving
cylinder with cylindrical rollers inside, by the action of which they
are broken up into small pieces. These are then transferred to a
similar cylinder containing bronze or zinc balls, in which they become
very highly pulverized. When this is fully accomplished, the salt-
peter is mixed with them, and the whole mass placed in the incorpo-
rating mill, being kept moist enough to be like dough, but still not
too wet, as that would interfere with its proper mixture. This mill
consists of two heavy iron wheels, revolving at the extremities of an
horizontal axis, the whole being revolved about a vertical axis in the
center of a cast-iron bed, surrounded with wooden sides. As this
upright axis revolves, the wheels move about their own axes, having
at the same time a forward motion, which causes the powder to be
both mixed and pressed at the same time ; in this manner, the mixture
is rendered much more intimate than by the old method of stamping,
in which the ingredients were placed in huge wooden mortars, and
subjected to the action of heavy pestles of the same material. When
sufficiently mixed, the mill-cake, as it is then called, is allowed to dry ;
after which it is taken to the breaking-down machine, where, on pass-
ing between heavy wooden rollers, it is broken into small fragments.
The next step is to subject it to the action of the press ; this is an
horizontal wooden trough in which are placed (about an inch and a

776 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

half apart) accurately fitting sheets of hard rubber ; the crushed
powder is shoveled into the trough, and a powerful hydraulic press
applied ; a screw-press would be dangerous, as particles of powder
might get into the thread of the screw, and be fired by the friction.
When removed from the press, the powder is in slabs of close texture,
not unlike slate in appearance. These slabs go next to the granulator,
in which they pass through a series of rollers, separated by sieves ;
as the broken powder passes from one set of rollers to the succeeding
one, the sieves are kept in constant agitation, the pieces which pass
through them falling to the bottom of the machine, where they are
collected. Each sort is then taken to a rotating reel of wire gauze, in
which, as it revolves, the dust is removed. If the powder is to be
glazed, the clean grains are placed in a slowly revolving drum, with a
very small quantity of plumbago, or black-lead ; if glazing is not re-
quired, as is the case with some sorts of powders, the same process is
gone through, the black-lead being omitted ; in this manner, the
grains are rounded off, and rendered smooth.

The final step is.the drying, which is done in a steam-heated house,
the powder being spread upon shelves for this purpose. The finished
product is placed in oak kegs fastened with copper hoops, and care is
always enjoined to use no iron tool in opening them. These various
operations are conducted in buildings situated at a distance from each
other sufficiently great to prevent the explosion of one causing that of
another ; they are generally placed along the banks of some stream
from which the requisite power for operating the machinery can
readily be obtained.

The manner in which the powder burns is greatly affected by varia-
tions in its manufacture : the greater the size of the grains, the more
slowly does the burning take place, as the combustion goes on upon
the surface, particle by particle ; the shape of the grain regulates the
amount of space taken up by the charge, .as also in some degree the
amount of surface exposed to the action of the flame ; the density
(depending upon the amount of pressure applied to the press-cake)
also affects the rapidity of the burning ; the lower the density, the more
quickly does the combustion take place.

A desire to reduce the strain upon the walls of the modern guns
has led to many experimental trials of various sizes and shapes of
grain ; the principal credit for these ideas is unquestionably due to an
American ordnance-officer, Rodman. Much care has been taken in
this regard, and we now see much higher velocities given to projectiles
than heretofore, with, at the same time, less strain upon the gun.

There are various other mixtures which are explosive in their char-
acter, but their use is prevented by various considerations, chiefly by
the fact of their greater sensitiveness to friction or percussion, and
their consequent greater danger, or by their corroding effect upon the
metal of which the gun is constructed. A powder which might prove

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES. 777

to be useful where a stronger explosive than ordinary gunpowder is
desired is known as Abel's picric powder ; this is a mixture of picrate
of ammonia and saltpeter, prepared in an ordinary powder-mill by the
processes just detailed. Picric acid (by means of which the picrate of
ammonia is obtained) is derived from the action of strong nitric acid
upon carbolic acid. This powder requires confinement to develop its
force, is not exploded by friction, and, as it absorbs no moisture by ex-
posure to the air, can be used and stored like gunpowder ; for the
ordinary uses of gunnery, however, it can never supersede its elder
brother.

As has already been said, gunpowder burns, rapidly it is true, but
nevertheless the action is a true combustion. We now come to the
consideration of a new class of explosives, which do not burn, but
resolve themselves into their constituent gases immediately upon the
application of the force which suffices to bring about their disintegra-
tion. These are not mixtures like gunpowder, but definite chemical
compounds in which the carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen are held a
little way apart, as it were, by the nitrogen, but ready to rush together
at the first opportunity ; the explosion of one particle means generally
the contemporaneous explosion, or detonation, of the whole mass :
with such bodies confinement to any great extent is not necessary.

Pre-eminent among these detonating substances for its use in min-
ing and engineering operations of a like character stands the compound
known as nitro-glycerine. This is manufactured in greatly increasing
quantities in many places, both in this country and in Europe, and its
use for the purposes above mentioned is becoming more and more
general. Its transportation in the liquid state being excessively dan-
gerous, it was for a long time but little used ; but, it having been
ascertained that it can be mixed with other materials and carried with
comparative safety, its field of usefulness has become greatly enlarged.
It is formed by the action of very strong nitric acid upon glycerine at
a low temperature, the resulting product being removed and washed
free of its impurities.

Glycerine is a by-product of the stearine-candle manufacture, be-
ing separated from the stearic acid contained in animal fat upon the
application of superheated steam. It is subsequently redistilled until
its impurities are removed, in which condition it is proper to be used
in the manufacture of nitro-glycerine. Unfortunately, however, many
manufacturers do not restrain themselves to a pure quality of the glyc-
erine, but, using inferior ones (which are, of course, cheaper), make a
nitro-glycerine which is of a much more dangerous character than
should ever be used.

The process of manufacture is as follows : The nitric acid is mixed
with twice the quantity of sulphuric acid, and both then mixed with
the glycerine ; the nitric acid acts upon the glycerine, leaving a quan-
tity of water free ; were the sulphuric acid not present, this water

77S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

would dilute the nitric acid, but, as the sulphuric acid has a greater
affinity for water, it takes it up, leaving the other of its normal
strength. To proceed to the details : Around a brick chimney is placed
a wooden trough, containing large earthenware pitchers in which is
the acid mixture, the trough being filled with ice. On a shelf above
this trough are placed bottles holding glycerine, communicating each
with a pitcher below, by means of a small rubber tube, so arranged as
to permit the passage of the liquid in a fine stream. The contents
of the pitchers are kept in a constant state of agitation by a stream of
cold dry air forced through them ; as the reaction between the nitric
acid and the glycerine goes on, great heat is evolved, accompanied by
nitrous fumes extremely unpleasant and unhealthy to inhale ; these
fumes are drawn into the chimney through an overhanging hood, by
means of the draught created by a furnace-fire at the bottom. Great
care is necessary that the temperature be not allowed to rise above
48° Fahr., as there would then be danger of the newly formed nitro-
glycerine taking fire and exploding ; constant attention must be paid
to this point, each pitcher being tried with a thermometer at short
intervals. The proportion of materials is about two pounds of glycer-
ine to twenty pounds of the acid, and at the expiration of the process
the glycerine and nearly all the nitric acid have disappeared, forming
nearly four pounds of their compound ; the sulphuric acid, diluted as
before mentioned, also remains. The nitro-glycerine is now partly in
solution and partly suspended in the acid mixture ; the contents of the
pitchers are poured through a strainer into a vat of water, which is
kept in agitation by a stream of compressed air : after all the pitchers
are emptied, the air is shut off and the mixture comes to rest, when
the nitro-glycerine settles at the bottom of the vat, and the acid water
is then drawn off. It is next taken in small quantities at a time, and
carefully washed a number of times, until all the acid is washed out,
and only the pure nitro-glycerine remains ; in this state it is thin, oily,
creamy white, and opaque, but, on being placed in jars and allowed
to stand, it soon becomes transparent. It is now ready for use as an
explosive agent ; it has a sweet, aromatic, pungent taste, and possesses
the very peculiar property of causing an extremely violent headache
when placed in a small quantity upon the tongue, or any other portion
of the skin, particularly upon the wrist. It has long been employed
by homoeopathic practitioners as a remedy in certain kinds of head-
aches. In those who work much with it, the tendency to headache is
generally overcome, though not always, It freezes at about 40° Fahr.,
becoming a white, half-crystallized mass, which must be melted by the
application of water at a temperature of about 100° Fahr. If perfectly
pure — that is, if the washing has been so complete as to remove all
traces of the acid — it can be kept for an indefinite period of time ;
and, while many cases of spontaneous decomposition have occurred
in impure specimens, there has never been known such an instance,

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES. 779

where the proper care has been given to all the details of the manu-
facture.

There are other methods of manufacture, differing, however, only
in the details, the principle of course being the same.

When pure, nitro-glycerine is not very sensitive to friction, or even
to moderate percussion : if a small quantity be placed on an anvil and
struck with a hammer, that portion which is touched explodes sharply,
but so quickly as to drive away the other particles ; if, however, it were
even slightly confined, so that none could escape, it would all explode
or detonate. It must be fired by a fuse containing fulminate of mer-
cury (the compound used in percussion-caps), not being either readily
or certainly fired by gunpowder, the shock of the latter not being
sufficiently quick or sharp to detonate the nitro-glycerine. It is highly
probable that in this case, as in that of other high explosives, the
vibrations set up by the fulminate (which is not stronger than gun-
powder) are of just such a character as to find an answering chord, so
to speak, in the explosive, so that the desired effect is produced. This
would seem to be a correct theory, for it is not always the most pow-
erful explosive which most readily causes the explosion of another
body. For instance, although nitro-glycerine is much more powerful
than fulminate of mercury, yet seventy grains of it will not explode
gun-cotton, while fifteen grains of the weaker fulminate will readily
do so. The fuse generally used, then, for firing nitro-glycerine, is
composed of from fifteen to twenty-five grains of fulminate, and this
quantity is sufficient to detonate a large mass as well as a small one.

If flame be applied to nitro-glycerine it will not explode, but burn
with comparative sluggishness. When frozen it is very difficult and
uncertain of firing. If the material be perfectly pure, it forms, upon
detonation, a volume of gases nearly thirteen hundred times as great
as that of the original liquid ; these gases are also further expanded,
by the heat developed, to a theoretical (though not practical) volume
ten thousand times as great as that of the charge. Practically speak-
ing, the forces exerted by gunpowder and nitro-glycerine are in the
proportion of one to eight.

The great objection to nitro-glycerine, in its liquid state, is the dif-
ficulty of its transportation ; it is liable to leak from the packages in
which it is contained, and there have been several occasions on which
disastrous accidents have taken place owing to this circumstance.
The explosion of a large case on board of a steamer in Aspinwall some
twelve or fourteen years ago, and, about the same time, of a box in an
express-office in New York, caused great precautions to be taken with
regard to it, and also very great fear of it on the part of all transpor-
tation companies. Fortunately, it has been found that it can be car-
ried from place to place by mixing it with some absorbent substance,
which takes up a large quantity of it ; it is just as powerful in this
state, the presence of the absorbent having no deleterious effect. This

7So THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mixture is called dynamite, or giant-powder ; it is made by mixing
nitro-glycerine with a siliceous earth, in the proportion of three to one
by weight. This earth is a fine white powder, composed of the skele-
tons of microscopic animals ; it is found in Hanover and also in New
Hampshire — that coming from the latter locality being the finer, and
therefore most used in this country. The dynamite formed by this
mixture is not unlike moist brown sugar in appearance ; care must be
taken not to put too much nitro-glycerine in it, as there must not be
such a quantity as would cause exudation. Its properties as an explo-
sive, are, of course, those of the nitro-glycerine alone ; but it can be
much more readily handled, and there is less danger from either per-
cussion or friction. It has been dropped from a height upon rocks,
heavy weights have been allowed to fall upon it, and other experi-
ments of a like nature have been made to show how readily it can
bear transportation and hard knocks. This safety, however, presup-
poses a pure nitro-glycerine ; and whenever an accident occurs it may
safely be laid to the impurity of the explosive, and not to anything
necessarily consequent upon the use of dynamite. Under the action
of cold, dynamite freezes at 40° Fahr. in a hard, compact mass, in which
condition it is very difficult to explode. Sometimes, however, it freezes
in a loose and powdery state, and there is then no difficulty in causing
its explosion with the ordinary fulminate-fuse. Generally speaking,
however, it is best with this, as with nitro-glycerine, to thaw it out
before attempting to use it. Instances have been known of careless
men attempting to do this with a red-hot poker, with consequences,
naturally, of a disastrous character. It will admit of being slightly
moistened without injury, and hence can be used when gunpowder
could not be. As a military explosive for mines and torpedoes, as
also for the breaking up and destruction of guns, it has proved itself
useful ; and it has been used as a bursting-charge for shells, though
this is considered dangerous.

Besides dynamite, there are several other mixtures of nitro-glycer-
ine, in which the inactive siliceous earth is replaced by some active
substance, such as charcoal, saw-dust, wood-fiber treated with acid,
chlorate of potash, or even gunpowder. It is extremely doubtful
whether anything is added to the explosive effect of the nitro-glycerine
by their presence, as its own explosion is so rapid as to gain nothing
from the slower combustion of these substances. Experiments with
the pressure-gauge tend to show the correctness of this theory. Of all
these combinations, that called cellulose dynamite is the best ; it is a
combination of the wood-pulp, so much used for the manufacture of
paper, treated with nitric acid and nitro-glycerine ; it possesses the
excellent quality of being able to absorb a considerable quantity of
water without injury ; for this reason it may prove itself a commercial
rival to dynamite pure and simple.

Large quantities of dynamite are manufactured in this country for

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES. 781

use in mining and engineering operations ; among others, the Hoosac
Tunnel and the works at Hallett's Point in New York harbor un-
doubtedly owed much to the powers of nitro-glycerine in hastening
their completion. The effect of a confined charge upon rock is to pul-
verize the portion near the blast-hole, the action being so sudden,
quick, and intense ; it is, therefore, found better not to tamp the hole,
a saving both of time and labor, allowing the gases a greater surface
upon which to act. Ordinarily the dynamite is contained in paraffined
paper cartridges, and is fired with a fulminate-fuse.

Gun-cotton is formed by the action of nitric acid on cotton — a
portion of the hydrogen being displaced in the cotton, just as it is
in the glycerine by the active constitution of the nitric acid. The
essential features of the process are the same as those of the manu-
facture of nitro-glycerine ; that is to say, a mixture of strong nitric
and sulphuric acids is made, the cotton exposed to its action, and the
excess of acid removed from the cotton by careful washing ; the sul-
phuric acid plays the same part, namely, that of taking up the water
formed, and so keeping the nitric acid at its full strength. As in
the former case, only perfect purity will insure safety ; the presence
of acid in the gun-cotton will ultimately cause decomposition and
explosion. Many accidents have taken place since the introduction
of gun-cotton to public notice some thirty-five years ago ; but, as in
the case of nitro-glycerine, all of them may be ascribed to imper-
fect washing, reference being had, of course, to instances of what
may be called spontaneous combustion. With the improved methods
of to-day, however, and the exercise of ordinary care, gun-cotton can
be rendered perfectly stable and safe, far safer for transportation than
nitro-glycerine in any of its forms ; when wet it can not be readily
exploded, and hence it is generally carried in that state, and either
dried for use or else exploded by the use of a dry primer of the same
material. It possesses, however, the disadvantage of rapidly absorb-
ing moisture, and hence it is extremely difficult to keep primers dry
unless they are prepared with great care. In a military point of view
this is no great objection, but commercially speaking it is, for the ex-
pensive water-proof cases would perhaps make its use financially im-
practicable.

The details of the usual process of its manufacture are as follows :
cotton-waste is picked and cleaned, then dried at a high temperature.
After cooling, in quantities of about a pound, it is immersed in the
str6ng acid mixture contained in a trough surrounded by cold water;
after a short exposure it is removed, and the acid pressed from it as far
as practicable. After another immersion of twenty-four hours, it is
placed in a centrifugal strainer, by the rapid revolutions of which
nearly all the acid is expelled; it is then washed in a large amount of
water, and again placed in the strainer. When the acid-water no
longer remains, the gun-cotton is placed in the pulper, an oblong tub

782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

full of water, in which revolves a wheel having strips of steel upon
its rim, similar strips projecting from the bottom of the tub. As the
wheel revolves, the floating pieces are drawn between the steel strips
and thus reduced to a fine pulp. This is again washed for a long time
by mechanical means, after which it is taken to the press, where nearly-
all the water is expelled from it, the final pressure applied being about
fifteen thousand pounds to the square inch. When taken from the
press, it is in the shape of a disk or cylinder, of a close texture, easily
broken when dry, and capable of being cut in a manner not unlike
pasteboard. When a small quantity is ignited by a flame, it burns
quite rapidly, but quietly, if dry ; if wet, it is consumed very slowly.
If a large quantity is ignited, there may be sufficient confinement of
the inner portions by the outer shell to cause an explosion. If dry
loose gun-cotton be ignited, it burns with extreme rapidity, like a flash,
but without any violence ; in fact, a wisp placed on a small pile of gun-
powder and fired will not ordinarily cause its explosion. In order to
have a complete explosion of the dry material, fulminate of mercury
must be used, and this is accordingly employed in the primers made
for the explosion of that which is wet. Two pounds of the dry, de-
tonated by twenty-five grains of fulminate, will cause the detonation
of five hundred pounds of the wet. In this wet state it must be
carefully guarded from a low temperature, as the expansion of the
water in freeziug will tend to break up the disks.

Many experiments have been made with a view to its adoption in
gunnery practice, but it is not at all likely that either it or any of the
high explosives will ever displace gunpowder ; their action is so vio-
lent and sudden that, before the projectile has time to take up its mo-
tion in the bore of the gun, the walls yield and the piece is burst. Its
use for military purposes must therefore be confined to mines and tor-
pedoes, as in the case of dynamite, or as a bursting-charge for shells,
for which purpose experiments show that it is most admirably adapted.
It is used in Europe for torpedo purposes, and is carried for that use
by war-vessels of the English and other navies.

The explosive gun-cotton is not the only kind made ; another sort
(in which a less amount of the hydrogen of the cotton is displaced) is
used for making collodion, largely employed by photographers. This
variety, called collodion gun-cotton, combined with nitro-glycerine,
forms a new explosive* agent called gum-dynamite, or explosive gelatine.
Singular to relate, the ordinary gun-cotton used for explosive purposes
will not enter into this combination, and hence probably the late dis-
covery of the fact that it requires the collodion variety to do so. This
is finely shredded, generally by hand, and placed in small quantities at
a time in the nitro-glycerine, which is kept at a temperature of 80°
Fahr. by means of a water-bath, the whole being constantly stirred with
a wooden spatula ; the proportion of materials is seven per cent by
weight of the gun-cotton to ninety-three per cent of the nitro-glycerine.

EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES. 783

The latter dissolves the former, and the result is an elastic, gelatinous,
semi-transparent mass, which is easily cut or torn apart, and shows no
trace whatever of nitro-glycerine on handling. Its explosive proper-
ties are unaffected by contact with water, and in this respect it is the
most useful of all the high explosives for military purposes. With
the change in the physical condition of the two components comes
also a change in the ease of explosion; these two bodies, each of itself
highly explosive, form when united one which is quite the reverse.
When unconfined, a primer of fifty grains of fulminate will cause
the explosion of but a very small portion of a charge, the rest be-
ing torn in pieces ; if, however, it be strongly confined, so that the
blow of the fulminate exerts its whole force, which is propagated
through the gelatine, it then explodes with a violence as great as that
of nitro-glycerine, if not somewhat greater. This latter point has not
been fully determined, but the probabilities are that the expansion of
the constituents of the gelatine is more complete and is accompanied
with more heat than is the case with nitro-glycerine alone. The gela-
tine freezes at 40° Fahr., and in this state is fired with no difficulty
whatever, being in this respect much superior to dynamite. When
subjected to a pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds to the square
inch, no nitro-glycerine is separated ; the union between the two con-
stituents seems to be complete and definite. If subjected to the action
of flame, it takes fire less readily than dynamite, but burns very much
like it, with perhaps a greater strength of flame, as if urged by a bel-
lows. When heated to 100° it softens, but does not become at all
greasy, and there is no exudation of nitro-glycerine. Explosion by
the application of heat takes place at about 420° ; but it is found
that by the addition of a small amount of camphor, say four per cent,
it will bear an increased heat of 100° before explosion. Experiments
made with the gelatine thus camphorated show that the camphor exer-
cises no deleterious effect upon the strength of the material, while
rendering it less like jelly, and more like that form of confection
known as fig-paste. Six per cent of camphor may be added without
harm, but any greater quantity materially diminishes the explosive
effect. Portions of this gelatine, both pure and camphorated, have
been subjected to a constant heat of 100° for more than six weeks,
and no exudation of the dangerous nitro-glycerine has been observed.
It will not explode under circumstances which ordinarily render cer-
tain the detonation of either nitro-glycerine or dynamite — that is to
say,' a quantity of the gelatine will resist the shock of the detona-
tion of another quantity placed within a very few feet of it ; if very
near, it may take fire and burn, but detonation will not ensue unless
the two masses are almost in actual contact, and even then it will not
always occur. It further possesses the property of permitting the im-
pact of a ball from a gun without exploding, while both dynamite and
gun-cotton may be readily detonated by a blow of this kind. All

784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

these tests tend to show that it possesses in a high degree the elements
desired in the ideal high explosive for military purposes, if not for
commercial use.

So much difficulty was encountered in the first attempts at the con-
struction of a suitable primer for its explosion, that it seemed doubt-
ful whether it would ever be a practicable material, as it was thought
that nitro-glycerine must be used to accomplish the desired result.
Subsequent experiments conducted in this country have shown, how-
ever, that a dry gun-cotton fuse with a fulminate cap containing
twenty-five grains will fire the gelatine with ease and certainty, even
when unconfined. The problem so long confronting the manufacturer
of explosives would seem to be nearly solved : the requisites of great
power in small compass, of permanency when subjected to tropical
heat, of ease of firing when but slightly confined, of safety from the
explosion of neighboring masses of the same or on being struck by a
projectile, and of not being affected injuriously by water, all seem to
be fulfilled by this agent in a manner more complete than by any
other.

If it should be found that a long-continued exposure to heat tends
to produce decomposition, as may prove to be the case, greater care
in the preparation of the materials from which it is manufactured will
probably overcome this difficulty, and it will then bid fair to super-
sede gun-cotton for very many purposes, if it does not altogether take
its place.

Constant allusion has been made to the use of fulminate of mer-
cury as an agent for the firing of other explosives. It is prepared by
dissolving mercury in nitric acid, and then mixing this solution with
alcohol, in a vessel placed in a hot-water bath. Dense white fumes
soon arise from the agitated liquid, until finally, the disturbance hav-
ing subsided, the bottom of the vessel is found covered with a gray
powder, which is afterward thoroughly washed. This gray powder is
the fulminate used in the caps and cartridges familiar to sportsmen,
as well as in the primers for cannon and the fuses for the explo-
sion of a quantity of gunpowder or other explosives. Being harmless
when wet, it is usually kept and handled in that condition. Generally
speaking, electricity is the agent by means of which the fulminate is
ignited ; the fuse for this purpose is ordinarily constructed as follows :
A brass or copper cylinder, about half an inch in diameter, closed at
one end, is partially filled with the desired quantity of the wet fulmi-
nate ; when this has become thoroughly dry, a wooden plug closing the
entrance is inserted ; in this plug are two holes, through each of which
passes an insulated copper wire with bared ends, which project a
short distance above the surface of the plug and are connected by a
very small wire composed of an alloy of platinum and silver ; around
this wire, or bridge, as it is called, is twisted a small wisp of dry gun-
cotton, which, when the plug is in place, comes in contact with the ful-

THE UTILITY OF DRUNKENNESS. 785

minate. After the insertion of the plug, the whole fuse is dipped in
some water-proof composition and thoroughly dried. In use, the wires
are connected with other wires leading from a galvanic battery or an
electrical machine ; when the current is caused to pass through these
wires it reaches the bridge, where meeting with greater resistance to
its progress, it raises the platinum wire to a heat sufficient to ignite
the gun-cotton wisp, which in turn ignites the fulminate. It will be
seen that in all cases it is absolutely necessary to keep the ultimate
explosive dry, as even those high explosives which are not themselves
affected by water require the use of perfectly dry primers. The
orders of Cromwell must still be obeyed — to " trust in God, and keep
your powder [or primers] dry."

-♦♦♦-

THE UTILITY OF DRUNKENNESS.

By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS.

IN" the early argumentative struggles between the advocates of
total abstinence from alcohol and their opponents, the latter
believed they settled the question by affirming that "these things are
sent for our use," and therefore that it was flying in the face of
Providence to refuse a social glass. This and many similar arguments
have subsequently been overturned by the abstainers, who have un-
questionably been victorious "all along the line," especially since Dr.
B. "W. Richardson has become their commander-in-chief.

In spite of this, I am about to charge their serried ranks, armed
with an entirely new weapon forged by myself from material supplied
by the late Dr. Darwin, my thesis being that the drunkenness which
prevails at the present day is promoting civilization and the general
forward progress of the human race.

Malthus demonstrated long ago that man, like other animals, has a
tendency to multiply more rapidly than the means of supporting his
increasing numbers can be multiplied ; he and his followers regarded
this tendency as the primary source of poverty and social degradation.
Darwin, starting with the same general law, deduces the very opposite
conclusion respecting its influence on each particular species, though
his antagonism to Malthus does not prominently appear, seeing that
his inferences were mainly applied to the lower animals. Darwin
shows that the onward progress, the development, or what may be
described as the collective prosperity of the species, is brought about
by over-multiplication, followed by a necessary struggle for existence,
in the course of which the inferior or unsuitable individuals are weeded
out, and " the survival of the fittest " necessarily follows ; these supe-
rior or more suitable specimens transmit more or less of their advan-

VOL. XXI. — 50

786 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tages to their offspring, which, still multiplying excessively, are again
and again similarly sifted and improved or developed in a boundless
course of forward evolution.

In the earlier stages of human existence, the fittest for survival
were those whose brutal or physical energies best enabled them to
struggle with the physical difficulties of their surroundings, to sub-
jugate the crudities of the primeval plains and forests to human
requirements. The perpetual struggles of the different tribes gave
the dominion of the earth to those best able to rule it ; the strongest
and most violent human animal was then the fittest, and he survived
accordingly.

Then came another era of human effort gradually culminating in
the present period. In this, mere muscular strength, brute physical
power, and mere animal energy have become less and less demanded
as we have, by the aid of physical science, imprisoned the physical
forces of nature in our steam-boilers, batteries, etc., and have made
them our slaves in lieu of human prisoners of war. The coarse mus-
cular, raving, yelling, fighting human animal that formerly led the
war-dance, the hunt, and the battle, is no longer the fittest for sur-
vival, but is, on the contrary, daily becoming more and more out of
place. His prize-fights, his dog-fights, his cockpits, and bull-baiting
are practically abolished, his fox-hunting and bird-shooting are only
carried on at great expense by a wealthy residuum, and by damaging
interference with civilized agriculture. The unfitness of the remain-
ing representatives of the primeval savage is manifest, and their sur-
vival is purely prejudicial to the present interests and future progress
of the race.

Such being the case, we now require some means of eliminating
these coarser, more brutal, or purely animal specimens of humanity,
in order that there may be more room for the survival and multipli-
cation of the more intellectual, more refined, and altogether distinct-
ively human specimens. It is desirable that this should be effected by
some natural or spontaneous proceeding of self -extinction, performed
by the animal specimens themselves. If this self-immolation can be
a process that is enjoyable in their own estimation, all the objections
to it that might otherwise be suggested by our feelings of humanity
are removed.

Now, these conditions are exactly fulfilled by the alcoholic drinks
of the present day when used for the purpose of obtaining intoxication.
The old customs that rendered heavy drinking a social duty have
passed away, their only remaining traces being the few exceptional
cases of hereditary dipsomania still to be found here and there among
men and women of delicate fiber and sensitive organization.

With these exceptions, the drunkards of our time are those whose
constitutions are so coarse, so gross and brutal, that the excitement of
alcoholic stimulation is to them a delicious sensual delirium, a wild

THE UTILITY OF DRUNKENNESS. 787

saturnalia of animal exaltation, which they enjoy so heartily that every
new raving outbreak only whets their appetite for a repetition. While
sober they actually arrange and prepare for a forthcoming holiday
booze ; work and save money for the avowed purpose of purchasing
the drink and its consequent ecstasies, which constitute the chief de-
lights of their existence. When a professional criminal has " served
his time," and is about to be released from prison, his faithful friends
club together to supply him with the consolation of an uninterrupted
course of intoxication ; the longer its duration the greater his happi-
ness, and the deeper his obligations of gratitude to the contributing
"pals."

We know that such indulgence has swept away the Red Indian
savage from the American Continent, and prepared it for a higher civ-
ilization, as the mammoth and grizzly bear have made way for the sheep
and oxen ; and this beneficent agent, if allowed to do its natural
work, will similarly remove the savage elements that still remain as
impediments to the onward progress of the more crowded communi-
ties of the Old World. If those who love alcoholic drinks for the sake
of the excitement they induce are only supplied with cheap and abun-
dant happiness, our criminal and pauper population will be reduced to
a minimum.

It is commonly supposed that, because nearly all criminals are
drunkards, therefore drunkenness is the chief cause of crime. This
is a confusion of cause with effect. Crime and drunkenness go to-
gether because they are concurrent effects of the same organization.
Alcoholic stimulation merely removes prudence and brings out true
character without restraint or disguise. The brute who beats his
wife when drunk would do so when sober if he dared and could ; but
what we call the sober state is with him a condition of cowardly de-
pression and feebleness due to the reaction of intoxication. If a num-
ber of quarrelsome men assemble and drink together, they finish with
fighting. If a similar number of kindly disposed men drink together,
they overflow with generosity, profuse friendliness, and finally become
absurdly affectionate. The citizen who would have subscribed but
one guinea to a charity before dinner will give his name for five after
the " toast of the evening."

My general conclusion is that all human beings (excepting the few
dipsomaniacs above-named), who are fit to survive as members of a
civilized community, will spontaneously avoid intemperance, provided
no artificial pressure of absurd drinking customs is applied to them,
while those who are incapable of the general self-restraint demanded
by advancing civilization, and can not share its moral and intellectual
refinements, are provided by alcoholic beverages with the means of
"happy dispatch," will be gradually sifted out by natural alcoholic
selection, provided no legislative violence interferes with their desire
for " a short life ^nd a merry one." — Gentleman '« Magazine.

788 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

DELUSIONS OF DOUBT.

By M. B. BILL.

I PROPOSE to describe an extremely curious form of mental
alienation which does not often occur, except among subjects
whose minds have received a certain degree of culture, and the vic-
tims of which are seldom consigned to the asylum. It is an affection
the subjects of which nearly always belong to the category of free
eccentrics. I refer to the singular perturbation of mind which has
been described by the elder Falret as the doubting disease (maladie
du doute) ; by the younger Falret as partial insanity, with dread of
the touch (crainte du contact) of exterior objects ; by Oscar Berger as
Grilbelsucht, or the mania for subtilties ; and by Legrand du Saulle as
the folly of doubt, with delirium of the touch (folie du doute avec
d'elire du toucher).

Waiving for the present the consideration of the tactile element,
we might, perhaps, designate this mental state, which is always accom-
panied by consciousness, by the name which has frequently been given
it of "metaphysical delirium." The case is really one of a morbid
condition that is variable in its manifestations and which deserves,
according to the particular forms in which it exhibits itself, all the
names that have been given it. One patient, for example, will doubt
everything, even his own existence, and will not be able to fix him-
self to any formal conviction. Another will manifest, besides this
psychological state, a real fear of the contact of exterior objects.
Another will feel a constant inclination to split hairs into quarters,
and to exhaust all the subtilties of the ancient scholastics ujDon the
most frivolous and trite subjects. All of these conditions, apparently
so different, are brought together by one characteristic trait of intel-
lectual restlessness.

" The true basis of this mental disease," says M. J. Valient, in his
" De la Folie Morale," " is a general disposition of the intellect to return
continually upon the same ideas or the same acts, to feel a continuous
necessity for repeating the same words or performing the same actions,
without ever satisfying itself, or being convinced even by evidence. I
have described certain phenomena of this order under the name of
intellectual impulsions. I give a curious example of them. A young
collegian, who had previously been very regular in his habits, was
present at a party where some of his friends were jesting about the
fatal influence attributed to the number thirteen. Suddenly an absurd
thought occurred to him that, if thirteen was an unlucky number, it
would be deplorable if God were thirteen, space thirteen, infinity thir-
teen, and eternity thirteen ; and, to forefend such a woe, he every
instant formulated in his mind an ejaculatory prayer thus conceived :

DELUSIONS OF DOUBT. 789

* God thirteen ! ' or else, ' Infinity thirteen ! eternity thirteen ! ' Yet
he was perfectly accountable, for he wrote to me himself that it was
absurd to figure God as thirteen for an instant, to prevent his ever
being it. But, pursued by this incessantly returning obsession, he
kept on repeating his mental prayer at every instant, and ended with
not being able to continue his studies, or to devote himself to any
serious occupation."

We come now to the history of a patient whose case I have espe-
cially in view, who presents to us an example of the delirium in its
purest, most elevated, and most metaphysical form, and least compli-
cated with any foreign element. He is a young man of about twenty-
eight years, of an agreeable and intellectual appearance and a fine
physical development. He is the fifth son of his father, who is still
living, and has no other infirmity than a light trembling. No heredi-
tary vice exists in his family, but the patient had convulsions in his
infancy, the last of which occurred when he was eight years old ;
since then he has had no other sickness. The normal soundness of his
development is proved by the fact that he is now the support of his
family. He is employed in a bank, and his services are much appre-
ciated there. He is very intelligent, but has never received any but a
rudimentary education. He has never read Descartes nor the other
philosophers, and, when he involuntarily touches upon the most abstruse
questions, it may be said that he makes metaphysics without knowing
it. He was working diligently and regularly at his desk in the bank,
when, one morning in June, 1874, he observed a sudden and curious
change occur in the appearance of objects, concerning the nature of
which I can not give a clearer idea than by repeating his own descrip-
tion of his impressions :

"In the month of June, 1874," he writes, "I felt quite suddenly,
without any pain or giddiness, a change in the aspect of my vision.
Everything seemed to me strange and queer, although the same forms
and colors were preserved. Under the mistaken thought that the dis-
agreeable sensation would pass away as it had come, I gave myself
no more -trouble about it, till a polypus made its appearance in my
left nostril. I then went to a doctor and had him remove the polypus,
without telling him anything about the new state of my vision. I
thought -the polypus was the cause of the strange appearance things
presented to me, and that, when it was taken away, I would be all
right again. But nothing of the kind came to pass. No remarkable
change occurred till December, 1880, more than five years afterward,
when I felt myself diminishing, and finally to disappear. Nothing was
left of me but an empty body. From that time my personality has
wholly vanished, and, in spite of all that I can do to get back that
self that has escaped, I can not. Everything around me has become
more and more strange ; and now, not only do I not know what I am,
but I can not give any account of what is called existence, reality.

79o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

What ia it that has happened ? Does everything around me really
exist ? What am I ? What are all these things that are made like
me ? Why am I ? Who am I ? I exist, but outside of real life, and
in spite of myself. Nothing, however, has given me death. Why are
all these things around me which all present the same aspect? These
things should enjoy life. What are these things ?

" Although in this cruel condition, I have to do as I did before,
and, without knowing why, something that does not appear to reside
in the body urges me to continue as formerly ; and I can not realize
that this is true, that I really act. Everything is mechanical with me,
and done unconsciously.

" When I experience a physical sensation, the substance that pro-
duces it, which is without any significance to me, is a blank. I feel a
pressure on my temples and a stress between my eyes at the top of
my nose, with a twitching of the nose to the top of my forehead. My
ears hear well, but appear stopped up. My left nostril is sometimes
obstructed, then free, then closed. Besides this strange sensation I
remark that when any one speaks to me I answer immediately, and
the answer is a reasonable one.

"My work has so far been done properly and without any mistake;
and yet, when I say to myself, as I am saying continually, ' I am do-
ing this, I am doing that,' I can not bring myself to realize that it is
true.

"I may describe my condition in brief by saying that my person-
ality has wholly disappeared ; it seems to me that I have been dead
for two years, and that the thing that exists does not recall anything
that has a relation with any former myself. The manner in which I
see things does not give me any realization of what they are, or that
they exist, whence the doubt, etc.

" In view of this painful mental condition I come to ask you now
whether I am not about to become mad, or whether I can do anything
to deliver myself from a disorder which has continued so long, and
which has so far only been modified. Without being able to enjoy
life in any way, for I do not comprehend it, I am obliged to suffer
everything that others, who are in their normal state, suffer."

The dominant fact in the psychological condition of this man is the
absolute loss of the sentiment of reality. He compares himself to an
empty paper sack. There is nothing in him. Nothing is left of him
but an envelope which preserves a kind of external appearance, but
which is in fact perfectly empty. He calls himself " a thing." Other
men are " things " like him, but he does not believe in their real exist-
ence. He does not believe in what he sees, and when he puts out his
hand to touch any object he is convinced in advance that he will find
nothing but a phantom that will vanish. Although he really touches
the object, the tactual added to the visual impression is still not
enough to overcome his incredulity. The world, in his eye, is nothing

DELUSIONS OF DOUBT. 791

but a gigantic hallucination. He continues, in the mean time, to exer-
cise the different functions of life. He eats, but it is a shadow of food
that enters a shadow of a stomach ; his pulse is only a shadow of a
pulse. He is perfectly conscious of the absurdity of his ideas but can
not overcome them. Along with this profound intellectual trouble
the physical functions have remained perfectly normal. He complains
of nothing but a slight pressure on his temples, and about the root of
his nose. Deeply sensible of his moral condition, he is afraid he is
going mad, and comes of his own accord to ask for a place in an asy-
lum for the insane.

Facts of this kind have been known for a long time. Examples of
them may possibly be found m antiquity, but the first authentic ob-
servation of one is given by Esquirol. He tells of a young woman
brought up in trade, who was tormented by a scrupulous fear of doing
wrong to others. "Whenever she drew up an account she was appre-
hensive of making a mistake to the prejudice of some other one. One
day, coming out from her aunt's house which she visited frequently,
she was distressed lest she might involuntarily carry off in her pockets
something belonging to her relative. Then she began to take much
time to verify her accounts and bills, for fear that she might commit
some error and do wrong to purchasers. At a later stage she was
afraid, when she handled money, that something valuable would re-
main in her finders. It was of no use to tell her that she could not
keep a piece of money without perceiving it, or that the contact of her
fingers could not change the value of the money she touched. " That
is true," she would reply ; " my anxiety is absurd and ridiculous, but I
can not help it." She had to withdraw from trade. Gradually her
apprehensions grew till they domineered over her whole life. Yet she
was reasonable, intelligent, and lively.

The subject has since been studied and examined in all its aspects
by Parchappe, Trelat, Baillarger, the two Falrets, Delasiauve, Morel,
and Marce. M. Legrand du Saulle published a monograph on it, em-
bodying the results of the labors of his predecessors, in 1875. My
colleague, M. Ritti, has published an interesting study upon it in the
" Gazette Hebdomadaire," and a very complete article in the " Diction-
naire Encyclopedique" ; and Griesinger and Dr. Oscar Berger have
published essays upon it in Germany.

Let us pass to the description of the doubting folly (folic du chute).
The beginning of the malady is sometimes obscure, but it is rarely
abrupt, as in the case we have noticed. Generally the patient, as in
the observation of Esquirol, exhibits odd scruples ; he attracts atten-
tion by his eccentricities, and becomes incapable of any kind of labor ;
he is afraid of compromising himself, reads and rereads what he has
just written, and takes infinite precautions not to make a mistake. A
doctor, afflicted with this folly, having carefully examined the patients
who consult him, gave them prescriptions that he had compiled with

792 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the greatest care ; but no sooner had his patient left the office than he
would run out to take the paper away, fearing that he had made a
mistake, that he had prescribed a poisonous dose of some medicine, or
had given some direction inconsistent with the symptoms.

The doubting folly assumes an infinite number of different forms.
Without making an excessive use of subdivisions, we must establish a
few categories.

We give the first place, in the order of dignity, to the metaphysi-
cians. They are constantly preoccupied with the insoluble problems
of philosophy. They are continually questioning about God, about
the universe, about the creation of the world. They will ask them-
selves, Who created the Creator ? They seek for the origin of language.
They trouble themselves about the end of things, about the immortal-
ity of the soul ; or, turning their attention to the physical universe,
they endeavor to comprehend the phenomena of nature and the fluids
that direct them. Our patient belongs to this category. The great
object of his preoccupations is self, personality, the real existence of
the objects of which he has a subjective perception. He reproduces
without knowing it the ideas and often the expressions of the great
philosophers who have cast the lead into these abysses. Next to the
metaphysicians, we should place those whom I will call the realists.
They are occupied with more or less trivial questions that do not per-
mit any elevation of thought. A Russian prince, mentioned by Grie-
singer, wanted to know why men were not as large as houses ; another
patient, why the fire-place that warmed his room was fixed against the
wall instead of being in the middle of the room ; a third, why there
was only one moon instead of two. Once started in this course, the
patient attaches himself with a morbid tenacity to the most insignifi-
cant subjects, and they become for him the point of departure of an
intellectual torture.

Next are the scrupulous, of whom Esquirol's patient offers a fin-
ished type. They are always reproaching themselves about every-
thing, are tiresome with the precision of their speech, and are con-
stantly afraid that they have not told the exact truth.

The timorous form a fourth class. They are people who, always
afraid they will compromise themselves, are incessantly taking exag-
gerated precautions, and live in a perpetual disquiet. A woman, who
was an artist and very intelligent, could never go into the street with-
out a fear that some one would fall down from a window to her feet.
She would ask what the consequences of such an accident would be,
and saw herself already arrested and taken to prison under an accusa-
tion of homicide.

A fifth class, whose mania is really insupportable, are the counters.
They are persons who, wherever they may be, are concerned with the
number of objects. In the doctor's office, instead of being occupied
with the subject of consultation, they are counting the buttons on the

DELUSIONS OF DOUBT, 793

doctor's coat, or the books on his table. M. Legrand du Saulle tells of
a patient who would say, " Excuse me, it is involuntary, but I must
count." Some celebrated men seem to have a similar mania. Dr.
Johnson never omitted to step on every stone of the walk as he passed
them ; and, if by any chance he thought he had forgotten one, he would
go back to touch it. Napoleon was in the habit of counting by pairs
the windows as he went along the street. Other forms of this mad-
ness escape all classification. I have just seen a patient in whom an
acute rheumatism has been followed by a special trouble of the will.
If he is going into a house, or out of it, he experiences an invincible
resistance at the door-sill, and he has to be urged before he can get
over the obstacle. Sometimes, on the public road, he can not pass a
tree or a stone. He is also persecuted by certain words, and when one
of them gets into his head he repeats it through the whole day.

Some of these patients are described as being affected with an ex-
aggerated fear of the contact of exterior objects. This is true. It
has been attested by numerous observers, but the doubting folly can
exist without such a complication, and our patient, who has no fear of
the kind, is a proof of it. On the other side, the fear of contact may
exist without the doubting folly.

A few additional characteristics will complete our view. The
doubting folly is a conscious insanity. Persons afflicted with it are
perfectly aware of their condition, and able of their own motive to put
themselves under medical care. A second important characteristic is
that persons afflicted with it seldom labor under hallucinations. When
these occur it is the result of some other form of delirium which may
be present in addition to this. A third characteristic is the per-
petual desire the patients experience of having their doubts quieted
by the affirmation of another person. A woman, cited by M. Ritti,
was always afraid that she had said or done something reprehensible.
If a person who could inspire confidence in her told her nothing of the
kind had occurred, she immediately became calm again. A patient,
who came to consult me, expressed doubts as soon aa she entered my
office as to whether I was really a doctor. Upon my answering that
I was, she asked permission to inquire of the persons who were waiting
in the parlor if I really exercised the medical profession. Sometimes
patients of this class, after having solicited reassuring affirmations and
having exhausted all the forms of question that imagination could sug-
gest, add the demand, " Will you write it down for me ? "

One of the most curious instances of this whim is related by M.
Baillarger : A man about sixty years old had a passion, whenever he
went to the theatre, for becoming acquainted with everything relating
to the actresses he saw. He would want to know their age, their
address, their family position, their ways of life, their habits, and their
responsibilities. Tormented by this fixed idea, he had to deprive
himself of the pleasure of going to the play. Soon, however, the

794 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

same idea manifested itself relative to all the women he met, provided
they were pretty. He was obliged to have a person follow him, whose
duty it was to satisfy him on this point. Every time he met a woman
he repeated the eternal question, " Is she pretty ? " The attendant
would answer " No," and that would cut short the otherwise inter-
minable series of his questions. One day he was starting by railroad
for a distant point, and in his hurry forgot to begin his observations
on the woman who sold the tickets, and also to ask if she was pretty.
When he reached his destination, in the middle of the night, he asked
his companion if that woman was pretty. The companion, being for
once worried, tired, or forgetful, answered that he had not looked at
her, and did not know anything about it. This was enough to cast
the patient into such a condition of anxiety that he had to start back
immediately for Paris to assure himself as to the truth in the matter !

If I have been able to give a general idea of this curious mental
disorder, it will be agreed that, amid all its diversities, it is essentially
characterized by a kind of cerebral pruriency which nothing can sat-
isfy, and that the repetition of the same acts, the same questions, and
the same thoughts, appertains to an organic phenomenon which brings
up unceasingly the same impressions. In a similiar way we contend
with ourselves laboriously, while dreaming, in a situation we can not
bring ourselves out of, because the incessant repetition of the same
physical impressions reproduces the same series of ideas. We are not
finally delivered from this obsession till we wake.

The doubting folly is hard to cure, but considerable periods of
remission sometimes occur, during which the patient seems to be re-
stored to his normal condition. Unfortunately, the amelioration is
seldom permanent. The brain falls back into its old habits, and the
delirium begins over again. Patients who are attacked by it at the
period of puberty have a better chance of recovering than others, for
the progressive evolution of the organism may bring them relief from
this psychologic condition. On the other side, the malady hardly
ever ends in insanity. The subjects, when they have reached the last
stage of their malady, remain fixed in their delirium. Incompetent
for all work, sad and morose, they retire from society and live in
voluntary sequestration. The prognostic is therefore extremely grave,
for in the great majority of cases the future is definitely lost, whatever
remissions of longer or shorter duration may give birth to slightly
founded hopes.

The causes of the doubting folly are quite numerous. Heredity
must be placed in the first rank ; then comes puberty, which impresses
a peculiar stamp on the psychoses that are brought under its influence.
Sexual and intellectual excesses may also be included among the causes.
Women are supposed to be more subject to the aberration than men.
The disease is sometimes developed during convalescence from grave
sickness. A certain part in producing it is attributed to moral per-

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 795

turbations, to lively emotions, and sudden frights. Frequently, as in
the case of the patient who has been referred to so often, the origin
of the disease entirely escapes us.

While suitable medical remedies are no doubt proper in their place,
the principal part in the treatment should be given to moral remedies.
It is, of course, useless to reason with the patient, or to try to show
him how baseless his delusion is ; but his attention should be engaged
and his mind diverted from the set ideas that tyrannize over it, and
a wisely arranged intellectual gymnastics should be prescribed. Phys-
ical exercise may also be made of service in turning to the profit of
the body a little of the exaggerated activity that torments the mind.
A final remedy is sequestration in a sanitary institute. It need not be
applied to all patients, but may evidently be of use in cases where the
surroundings, the habits of life, and the occupations to which the sub-
ject has been devoted, seem to have participated to any extent in the
explosion of the psychical troubles.

-+—+-

THE PEOGEESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY.*

By Professor GEOEGE J. BEUSH,

RETIRING PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

ME. PEESIDENT, and Fellow-Members of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science : The change
in the Constitution effected at our last meeting, extending the scope
of the Association and dividing it into nine sections, each with a vice-
president, whose duty it is to deliver an address to the section over
which he presides, has relieved the retiring President from attempting
a general review of the progress of science during the past year.

I turn, therefore, to a more special subject, and invite your atten-
tion this evening to a sketch of the progress of American mineralogy,
since the commencement of this century, with particular reference to
the labors of some of the early workers in the science on this conti-
nent.

During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, while great ac-
tivity existed and rapid advance was made in the study of chemistry
and mineralogy in Europe, almost nothing was accomplished in this
new country. It is true that students in other departments of science,
especially members of the medical profession, in the cities of Philadel-
phia, New York, and Boston, attempted to arouse an interest in min-
eralogy, believing that the diffusion of a knowledge of this science
would be of the utmost importance in the material development of the

* An address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, at Montreal, August 23, 1882.

796 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

country. There were, however, no text-books to aid the inquirer.
There were no collections of minerals to stimulate the student. In
the absence of these it was almost impossible that an interest in this
science should be fostered, or that a spirit of investigation should be
awakened.

As the first distinct beginning of the science, I may mention an
association formed in 1798 in the city of New York, which assumed,
as they expressed it, " the name and style of the American Mineralog-
ical Society." It announced as its object " The Investigation of the
Mineral and Fossil Bodies which compose the Fabric of the Globe,
and more especially for the Natural and Chemical History of the Min-
erals and Fossils of the United States." The distinguished Dr. Samuel
Latham Mitchill, who seems to have been a man of universal genius,
was at once its first president, its librarian, and its cabinet-keeper.
The committee of the society issued a circular in which, while express-
ing themselves " desirous of obtaining and diffusing by every means
in their power a correct and extensive knowledge of the mineral treas-
ures of their country, they earnestly solicited their fellow-citizens to
communicate to them on all mineralogical subjects, but especially on
the following," viz. :

1. Concerning the stones suitable to be manufactured into gun-flints: where
are they found? and in what quantity? 2. Concerning native orimstone or sul-
phur or the waters or minerals whence it may be extracted? 3. Concerning
saltpeter: where (if at all) found native? or the soils which produce it in the
United States? 4. Concerning mines and ores of lead: in what places? the
situation ? how wide the vein ? in what kind of rock it is bedded ?

This warlike demand seems to call more for the discovery of the
materials for national defense than for the advancement of science,
and, besides being a commentary on the spirit of the times, gives a
rather humorous impression of their strangely inadequate conception
of the science of mineralogy and its possible bearings on practical life.
But in justice to them I should add that it is further announced that
"specimens of ores, metals, coals, spars, gypsums, crystals, petrifac-
tions, stones, earths, slates, clays, chalks, limestones, marbles, and
every fossil substance that may be discovered or fall in the way of a
traveler, which can throw light on the mineralogical history of Amer-
ica, will be examined and analyzed without cost, sufficient pieces,
with the owner's leave, being reserved for placing in the society's col-
lection." I have quoted the circular almost verbatim to give you some
idea of the genuine though crude longings for knowledge felt by our
early mineralogists, and also of the generous spirit in which they
worked.

A still more forcible picture of the ignorance of the time is given
by the elder Professor Silliman in 1818. "Notwithstanding the laud-
able efforts of a few gentlemen," he says, " to excite some taste for

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 797

mineralogy, so little had been effected in forming collections, in kin-
dling curiosity and diffusing information, that only fifteen years since
(1803) it was a matter of extreme difficulty to obtain among ourselves
even the names of the most common stones and minerals ; and one
might inquire earnestly and long before he could find any one to iden-
tify even quartz, feldspar, or hornblende among the simple minerals,
or granite, porphyry, or trap among the rocks. We speak from ex-
perience, and well remember with what impatient, but almost despair-
ing curiosity we eyed the bleak, naked ridges which impended over
the valleys and plains that were the scenes of our youthful excursions.
In vain did we doubt that the glittering spangles of mica and the still
more alluring brilliancy of pyrites gave assurance of the existence of
the precious metals in those substances, or that the cutting of glass by
the garnet and by quartz proved that these minerals were the dia-
mond ; but, if they were not precious metals, and if they were not dia-
monds, we in vain inquired of our companions, and even of our teach-
ers, what they were."

Such, then, was the state of knowledge in mineralogy here at the
commencement of the century. A few American minerals, collected
by travelers from time to time, had before this been taken to Europe
for identification, but among these were discovered only two minerals
new to science. The Moravian missionaries found at St. Paul, in Lab-
rador, the beautiful species of feldspar called by Werner labrador-
stein, which in more modern times we know under the name of labra-
dorite. Klaproth, the most eminent analytical chemist of his time,
discovered that the so-called fibrous barytes from Pennsylvania was
the sulphate of the then newly discovered earth strontia. He thus,
for the first time, identified the mineral species celestite which was
subsequently found in various localities in Europe.

Although little had been accomplished in America previous to 1800,
the first quarter of the new century was destined to show great devel-
opment here in the study of mineralogy. During the early years of
this quarter several collections of European minerals were brought to
this country by American gentlemen who had availed themselves dur-
ing a residence in Europe of the best opportunities for acquiring a
knowledge of the science from the great masters of the subject in
Germany and France. About this time also several colleges in the
country had instituted chairs of chemistry and mineralogy, and a com-
mencement was thus made in teaching these sciences in the higher
schools. As the result of these influences the number of persons inter-
ested in mineralogy was largely increased, and an active search for
minerals was initiated throughout all of the older United States and
to a considerable extent also in Canada.

So energetically were these explorations followed up that in 1825
a " Catalogue of American Minerals " was published by Dr. Samuel
Robinson, with their localities arranged geographically, and giving

79S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

only such as were known to exist in the United States and the British
Provinces. It formed an octavo volume of over three hundred pages.
That much credit was due to many workers during this period, both
in the field and in the laboratory, there can be no question, but among
them all I find four men standing forth so prominently as leaders that
I have thought it would be well for us to recall briefly something of
the character of these men and their labors for the advancement of
mineralogy in this country.

First among these I will mention Dr. Archibald Bruce. He was
the son of Dr. William Bruce, a surgeon in the British army, and was
born in New York in 1777. He was graduated at Columbia College ;
subsequently studied medicine, and in 1798 went to Edinburgh, where,
in 1800, he obtained his doctor's degree from that university. He
was early interested in natural science, and while still in college found,
his biographer says, " the collection and examination of minerals — a
pursuit not then at all attended to in this country — was his particular
relief from other studies ; for even during his recreation he was ever
on the lookout for something new or instructing in mineralogy."

When he went to Europe he took with him a large number of
American minerals, and, through exchanges with institutions and prom-
inent mineralogists abroad, he established friendly relations with those
most interested in his favorite science. After the completion of his
medical studies, he traveled for two years on the Continent of Europe,
making the acquaintance of the Abbe Hatiy, and other eminent min-
eralogists, and collecting an extensive cabinet of valuable minerals,
which, on his return to this country in 1803, he brought with him to
New York. This collection, with another brought to New York about
the same time by Mr. B. D. Perkins — both being made fully acces-
sible to all interested in seeing them — contributed, it was said, more
than any agencies had ever done before to excite in the public an ac-
tive interest in the science of mineralogy. Besides this, Dr. Bruce
entered into extensive correspondence with others interested in the
subject, was active in visiting and discovering new mineral localities,
and in advising, encouraging, and inspiring young mineralogists.
Finally, after well considering the matter, he established the first
purely scientific periodical ever published in America. This was
called the " American Mineralogical Journal," and the first number of
it was published in 1810. It contained original contributions, chiefly
on mineralogy, from a number of investigators. " It was received,"
says the elder Silliman, " in this country and in Europe in a flattering
manner ; it excited at home great zeal and effort in support of the
sciences which it fostered, and abroad it was hailed as the harbinger
of our future exertions." But alas ! it was in advance of the age,
and, after struggling for several years, was given up on the publication
of the fourth number. Possibly it would have continued longer had
it not been for the failing health of its founder.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 799

This journal contained several important papers by Dr. Bruce ;
among them, the investigation and description of two new mineral
species, the native magnesia of Hoboken and the red zinc oxide of
Sussex County, New Jersey. These are the first American species
described by an American mineralogist. So thoroughly was the work
done by Bruce, that these species remain to-day essentially as he de-
scribed them, and his papers may well be studied by mineralogists
now as models of accuracy and clearness of statement. . . .

I have mentioned that the importation and exhibition of collec-
tions of minerals from Europe had contributed much to excite an in-
terest in the study of mineralogy. It was necessary to have known
minerals for study and comparison in order properly to determine
those obtained by exploration here. In 1805 Colonel George Gibbs,
of Rhode Island, for many years a resident in Europe, returned from
his travels with a collection of minerals, the most extensive and valu-
able ever brought to America. Colonel Gibbs was a zealous cultivator
of mineralogy, and, fortunately for science, a young man of wealth.
He used his money freely for the purchase of whole cabinets, as well
as in personal explorations in search for minerals.

The larger part of his collection was made by the purchase of two
famous European cabinets : one from the heirs of Gigot d'Orcy, a
noted French collector, and said to have been the result of forty
years' labor ; the other from Count Gregoire de Razamowsky, a Rus-
sian nobleman, long resident in Switzerland. D'Orcy's cabinet num-
bered over four thousand specimens, chiefly from France, Germany,
Italy, and Great Britain ; Razamowsky's contained about six thousand
specimens from the Russian Empire, and the remainder principally
from Germany and Switzerland ; in all, with the other collections
made by Colonel Gibbs, it is said that more than twenty thousand
specimens were brought by him to this country.

In 1807 a portion of this collection was opened in Newport, and
many interested in mineralogy made pilgrimages there, to view the
treasures it contained. Among others was Professor Silliman, who
states, in his diary, that he spent many weeks in studying the minerals
with Colonel Gibbs, finding in the latter " a scientific friend and a
professional instructor and guide." That Colonel Gibbs reciprocated
Professor. Silliman's feelings of friendship there can be no doubt, for,
after various offers to deposit his collection for exhibition in Boston,
New York, and elsewhere, to the great surprise of Professor Silliman,
he proposed to open the cabinet at Yale College, provided rooms
should be fitted up for its reception.

The proposition was promptly responded to by the authorities of
the college, and in 1810, 1811, and 1812, under the personal supervision
of Colonel Gibbs, it was opened and arranged, and generously placed
at the disposition of the institution and the public. The opening of
this collection in New Haven formed an important epoch in the history

800 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the college, and gave a powerful impetus to science throughout the
country. It was not only studied by the pupils of the college, but it
was visited by travelers from all parts of the United States.

In 1825 the collection had for fifteen years been exhibited without
any advantage to the owner, other than the satisfaction of observing
the great amount of good which was effected by the knowledge it
disseminated and the enthusiasm with which it inspired students.
Colonel Gibbs then offered the whole for sale, giving the college the
preference as purchaser. Fortunately, and mainly through the influence
of Professor Silliman, the institution succeeded in raising the funds
($20,000) necessary for its purchase, and the ownership of this collec-
tion has exercised a most important influence in the development of
natural science at New Haven.

Colonel Gibbs, however, did not confine himself to the collection
of minerals in Europe. On his return to this country he made exten-
sive journeys and opened up new mineral localities, giving his time
and specimens freely to aid others who were interested in this special
study. At Yale, as an incentive to students, he for many years offered
prizes for superiority of attainments in mineralogical knowledge and
for services rendered to the science by useful discoveries and observa-
tions.

He published valuable papers both in the " American Mineralogical
Journal " and the " American Journal of Science," and did much by
his counsel and co-operation to support these publications. Indeed, it
was from Colonel Gibbs that Professor Silliman first received the sug-
gestion that he should institute a new journal of science, in order
that the advantages already gained by the short-lived " Mineralogical
Journal " might be secured, and further progress for science might be
made. . . .

Much as had been accomplished by the free exhibition of cabinets
and the explorations and investigations of enthusiastic workers in
mineralogy during the years from 1805 to 1815, a great drawback was
now felt to the progress of the science from the want of text-books.
Most of the literature of the subject was in German and French, but
the works of the French and German authors had not then been trans-
lated, and consequently were accessible only to the few who were ac-
quainted with these languages.

In English there were not many treatises on the subject. That by
Richard Kir wan, the eminent Irish mineralogist of the last century,
was a renowned work in its day, but, as the last edition of it had
been published in 1794, it was already too old to be of much service
to the student. Jameson's treatise was somewhat more recent (1804),
but its great fullness and exclusive devotion to the Wernerian system
made it an undesirable book for beginners, aside from the fact that its
price was such that few students in those days could afford to buy it.
So much progress had been made at home and abroad, that a work

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 801

was needed here which should include the modern discoveries, and one
also which should gather up the scattered facts already published in
regard to American minerals.

Fortunately for the further progress of science in this country, this
was done by Professor Parker Cleaveland. His work was published
in 1816, and was entitled " An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and
Geology."

Professor Cleaveland was Professor of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy in Bowdoin College, and, like many other professors of sci-
ence in the early history of American colleges, was charged by the
trustees to lecture also on mineralogy and chemistry. He was an en-
thusiastic student of mineralogy, was well acquainted with the litera-
ture of the science in various languages, had been a successful teacher
of the suV'ect for many years, and withal was both an explorer and
investigator, and held intimate relations with the leading mineralogists
of the day. The work was modeled on the general plan of Brongni-
art, combining the excellences of both the French and German schools,
and gave in detail almost everything then known in regard to Ameri-
can minerals. It supplied the pressing need for a thorough, systematic,
and American treatise on mineralogy, well suited to all classes of stu-
dents, and it was written in such a masterly style that it won for its
author the highest praise from the leading mineralogists of the world.
" It brought," says Professor Silliman, " within the reach of the
American student the excellences of Kirwan, Jameson, Haiiy, Bro-
chant, Brongniart, and Werner, and we are not ashamed," he says, " to
have this work compared with those of these celebrated authors." His
biographer states that " he received letters of respect and congratula-
tion from Sir David Brewster, Sir Humphry Davy, and Dr. McCul-
loch, in England, from Berzelius, in Stockholm, Germar of Halle, from
Brongniart, Baron Cuvier, and the Abbe Haiiy, in Paris."

The work at once took rank as one of the leading authorities on
the science, and was introduced as a class-book in the principal schools
and colleges in America. The first edition was soon exhausted, and a
new and revised edition, with more than a hundred pages of new mat-
ter, was published in 1822. The demand was so great that this like-
wise was soon out of print, and a third edition was called for by the
public ; but Professor Cleaveland had about this time become so en-
grossed in the administration of the affairs of the new Medical School
at Brunswick that he was unable to respond to the call, having turned
his thoughts and efforts in new directions.

Unfortunately for the science of mineralogy, in which he had ob-
tained such eminence as an author and teacher, he no longer contrib-
uted actively to its progress, although he continued his work as lect-
urer on the science so long as he lived.

The last to be mentioned of these early leaders is Professor Benja-
man Silliman. HJs name is so intimately associated with the progress
TOL. xxi. — 51

802 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of science on this continent during the first half of the present centurv
that his life-work is more or less familiar to all. But the important
service he rendered in the early history of mineralogy deserves espe-
cial recognition here, not only for the work he himself did in the lab-
oratory and the field, but because his enthusiasm and zeal were a con-
stant inspiration to others.

Commencing with the historic " candle-box " of unlabeled stones
which he took to Dr. Adam Seybert, of Philadelphia, to be named, he
began with enthusiasm the acquisition of knowledge and the gathering
of material to illustrate the mineral kingdom. During a residence in
England and Scotland, in 1805-'6, he had opportunities to add to his
information, and collect many specimens, chiefly from the mines of
Derbyshire and Cornwall. On his return to America he at once ap-
plied the knowledge he had acquired in making an exploration of the
mineral structure of the environs of New Haven, and read a paper on
this subject to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in Sep-
tember, 1806.

In the following year he induced the corporation of the college to
purchase the mineral collection of Mr. B. D. Perkins, of New York
(already referred to), for one thousand dollars, thus placing the insti-
tution in possession of means for illustrating the science of mineralogy
far in advance of anything it had before enjoyed.

The occurrence of the fall of the Weston meteorite in December,
1807, offered an opportunity for Professor Silliman to undertake, in
connection with his colleague, Professor Kingsley, an investigation
into the circumstances of the phenomenon, and the character of the
stones which fell at that time. The results of this investigation were
presented to the American Philosophical Society, and published in the
" American Philosophical Transactions," in 1809. The diligence em-
ployed in obtaining all the facts possible from eye-witnesses of the
occurrence, and the care and skill shown in the chemical and mineral-
ogical examination of the meteorite, made this paper one of the most
remarkable memoirs of the time, and attracted the attention of philos-
ophers throughout the world.

As already stated, it was the personal enthusiasm and magnetic in-
fluence of Professor Silliman which led Colonel Gibbs to deposit his
great cabinet of minerals in New Haven, under the care of his friend.
It was due to the same qualities in Professor Silliman that the college
secured the permanent possession of this invaluable collection, which
probably has done more to create an interest in and disseminate a
knowledge of mineralogy in this country than any other single agency.

The establishment of the " American Journal of Science " in 1818,
now everywhere recognized as of inestimable value to all departments
of science, was peculiarly helpful to mineralogy, and the early volumes
are rich in articles on this subject. Professor Silliman's original con-
tributions to science were more in chemistry and geology, but he also

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 803

is the author of several important papers on mineralogy, and was the
discoverer of the occurrence of native tungstic acid as a mineral spe-
cies. For more than fifty years he continued as teacher in Yale Col-
lege, and when he resigned his professorship, in 1853, he had the satis-
faction to have as his successor in the department of mineralogy and
geology Professor James D. Dana, who was already among the fore-
most mineralogists of the day, and whose published works, before and
since his accession to this professorship, have done so much for the
advancement of mineralogy. . . .

It will be inferred from what has been said of these pioneers that
the developments and discoveries of minerals, during the first twenty-
five years of the century, were due entirely to individual enthusiasm
and private enterprise. Up to this time no aid had been received from
either State or national governments, and in looking over the work
accomplished during this period we are filled with wonder and admira-
tion at the energy and rare devotion to science exhibited. The larger
portion of the continent was an unbroken wilderness, and the facilities
of communication even in the settled parts of the country were of the
most primitive character. Yet at the present day, with our means of
rapid transportation, many naturalists would hesitate to undertake the
long journeys then made for purely scientific purposes.

Geologists as well as mineralogists will recall how much science is
indebted to such men as William Maclure, James Pierce, Thomas Nut-
tall (the botanist), and others who made extensive trips through the
whole territory east and in some instances to the west of the Missis-
sippi River. Maclure not only devoted his time and money to making
and publishing a geological survey of the United States and Canada,
the first report of which was made in 1809, but to him the Academy
of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia, owes its first endowment.

I shall be pardoned, I trust, if I mention still another signal instance
of private liberality in this connection. General Stephen Van Rens-
selaer, of New York, a generous patron of science, defrayed all the
expenses of a geological survey of the country adjacent to the Erie
Canal, including the making of a geological section from Lake Erie to
the eastern coast of Massachusetts. This survey was under the charge
of Professor Amos Eaton, with a competent corps of assistants, and
was continued for four years, from 1820 to 1824, at a cost of many
thousands of dollars. General Van Rensselaer was also the founder
of the first school of technical science in this country — the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, which was placed under the charge of
Professor Eaton. It may be interesting here, in these days of summer
schools, to recall, although parenthetically, that what was probably the
first Summer School of Science in the United States was established
more than fifty years ago in connection with this institution. The
school consisted of a flotilla of towed canal-boats, and the route was
from Troy to Lake Erie. It took two months for the trip, and visited

804 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

all important points on the way. Instruction by lectures and exami-
nations was given in mineralogy, geology, botany, zoology, chemistry,
experimental philosophy, and practical mathematics, particularly land-
surveying, harbor-surveying, and engineering. One of the largest
boats in the flotilla was fitted up as a laboratory, with cabinets in
mineralogy and geology, and also scientific books for reference. Stu-
dents were taught the method of procuring specimens, and were re-
quired to make collections of whatever was interesting on the route.

The public mind was finally awakened to the importance of the
work which these explorers and investigators had carried on single-
handed. Government now came to the aid of science. In 1824 one
State Legislature, that of North Carolina, authorized a geological sur-
vey to be made. This example was followed in 1830 by Massachusetts,
and soon after by New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other States,
and also by the national Government, until, as is now well known, the
whole territory of the United States and Canada either has been or is
in the process of being surveyed. Several of the State surveys pub-
lished independent volumes on the mineralogy of their respective
States, and these surveys have been a powerful auxiliary in extending
our knowledge of the occurrence of minerals on this continent. The
opening of mines and quarries throughout the country has also fur-
nished abundant material for study. The large number of original
contributions which have been published in the volumes of State sur-
veys, the treatises by American authors, and the still larger number of
memoirs and papers communicated to our academies of science and
scientific journals, can not be even enumerated in this place ; neither is
it my purpose to attempt to give here a list of the names of those who
have been actively engaged in making researches on American min-
erals. Still less can I attempt to give an account of the work that has
been and is being done by living mineralogists. The sketch which I
have presented of the four typical workers has in a measure shown the
character of our early mineralogists, the earnest spirit in which they
labored, and what they accomplished in the first quarter of the cen-
tury. The point to which the science has reached in the last quarter
of the century can not be unfamiliar to you all.

In the time that remains I desire to call your attention to some of
the developments made in the field in which our mineralogists have
worked. It was thought by many scientists in the first half of this
century that our rocks seemed likely to afford less variety of mineral
contents than the rocks of Europe. Further study, however, and more
careful and extended observations, encourage us to believe that our
mineral riches, even in variety of species, will compare favorably with
those of other continents. Already fully one half of the known min-
eral species have been found here. The present number of known
minerals is variously estimated to be from seven hundred to one thou-
sand. There have been described, as occurring here, nearly three hun-

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 805

dred supposed new American minerals. Of these, perhaps one quarter
are new to science, and the remainder have either been proved to be
identical with species already described, or their characters are so im-
perfectly given that further investigation is needed to ascertain what
they are. Among these new minerals are some of great interest to
science. . . .

In comparing the minerals found in America with those of Europe,
although interesting minor variations are observed, it can hardly be
expected that very marked differences should exist. This is, of course,
due to the fact that, in the inorganic kingdom, Nature has everywhere
to do with the same elements, under essentially like conditions. A
large number of remarkable analogies between the minerals of the two
continents will occur to anyone familiar with the subject, as, for exam-
ple, the character of the occurrence of individual minerals in the rocks
of the Northeastern United States and Canada as compared with those
of Norway and Sweden, and numberless instances of like association
of minerals in various parts of Europe find their counterparts here.

A marked feature of American minerals is the grand scale upon
which crystallization has taken place, individual crystals of large size
being very common. The granite veins of New England afford strik-
ing examples of this kind. We have common mica, in sheets a yard
across ; feldspar has been observed where a single cleavage-plane
measured ten feet ; gigantic hexagonal prisms of beryl, four feet long
and more than two feet in diameter, and weighing over two tons, have
been described ; spodumene crystals, six to seven feet in length and a
foot or more across, and masses of rock-crystal of immense size, have
been found. Canada and New York have given crystals of apatite,
phlogopite, and sphene, which for these species are of marvelous grand-
eur in dimensions. Many other American localities might be men-
tioned where giant crystals occur. While it is true that these are
extraordinary instances, it is also true, as a general fact common to a
very large proportion of the minerals found in this country, that the
species occur in much larger crystals than those obtained from Euro-
pean localities.

Another point worthy of note is the occurrence in comparatively
large quantities, and over wide areas, of some of the rarer elements as
constituents of the minerals found. In illustration of this we have,
among the rare earths, glucina combined with silica and alumina in
the mineral beryl, occurring in large quantity and perhaps in a hun-
dred or more places ; zirconia, in the mineral zircon, is also very wide-
spread in its range of occurrence as an original constituent of the older
rocks, as well as a vein-mineral; localities are known which have fur-
nished this rare species *by the hundred-weight. The cerium earths
are found largely in the mineral allanite, which occurs in so many
places that it may be said to be a common mineral in the United
States. These earths are also found in the rare phosphate monazite, a

8o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mineral that in America has a wide range of localities, and recently
this species has been found in crystals of two, three, and, in one
instance, of eight pounds in weight. Again, three new earth-metals
— mosandrum, phillipium, and decipium — have been described as
occurring with the cerium earths and yttria in the North Carolina
samarskite. The rare alkali metal lithium, sometimes associated with
the still rarer metals rubidium and caesium, is found not only of wide-
spread occurrence in our lithia micas, but the mineral spodumene, con-
taining from five to eight per cent of lithia, occurs by the ton in at
least one locality, and must be looked upon as one of the common
American minerals, being found in the granite veins in Maine, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and as far south as North
Carolina and Georgia. Lithia also is one of the constituents of the
phosphate triphilite, and there are several localities known where this
mineral occurs abundantly. Again, we have the frequent occurrence
of some of the rare metals which form metallic acids : Columbium,
the first metal, new to science, discovered in America, associated with
its twin metal tantalum, is found in columbite in our granite veins
from Maine to Georgia, a range of more than a thousand miles, in a
score or more of places, and sometimes is obtained by the hundred-
weight at a single locality. The American variety of samarskite,
another rare columbate, has also been found in masses of fifty pounds
or more in weight, and these acids occur in still other American spe-
cies. Molybdenum, both as sulphide and in the oxidized form as
native molybdic acid and molybdate of lead, is found in many locali-
ties, and occasionally in large quantity. Quite recently vanadium
compounds have been discovered in several places, and tungstates
have also been observed over a wide range of country. Titanium
has been found in enormous quantities in extensive deposits of titanic
iron as well as in the form of r utile and in sphene. The rare metal
tellurium occurs native in Colorado in one locality, where single masses
of twenty-five pounds in weight have been taken out, and several new
tellurium compounds have been found in our Western mines.

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to enumerate more fully the many occur-
rences of other rare elements in American minerals. Enough has
already been said to show that important developments have been
made in the discovery and investigation of the minerals found in our
American rocks during the past eighty years. Nevertheless, it is but
a commencement in the work. Only a very small portion of our terri-
tory has been explored with any thoroughness, and none of it exhaust-
ively. The enormous production of the precious metals and the
extensive deposits of ores of the more common metals which have been
opened up during the past twenty or thirty years have placed us in
the front rank as metal-producers, but we are still far behind Euroj^e
in the variety of minerals obtained from our mines. This may be due,
in some instances, to the character of the veins or ore-deposits, there

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICAN MINERALOGY. 8c7

being, as in many of our gold and silver mines, remarkably few asso-
ciated minerals. In other cases, however, it is doubtless due to the
fact that very few persons connected with our mines have even an ele-
mentary knowledge of the rudiments of mineralogy, while in continent-
al Europe almost every mining officer is familiar with all the ordinary
minerals. Thanks to the training of our schools of science, an improve-
ment in this respect is already noticeable, as is shown in the discov-
eries made in the mines of our Western States and Territories during
the past few years.

While the service done for mineralogy by our geological surveys is
gratefully acknowledged, we feel that we have a right to demand much
more from them in the future. Mineralogy has been too largely looked
upon as a guide to the discovery of useful ores and minerals, and not
as a matter for scientific study ; fortunately, during the past decade the
discoveries in optical mineralogy and their importance in the deter-
mination of the constituent minerals of the crystalline rocks have led
many geologists to again recognize the desirability of a knowledge of
our science. Much will be accomplished if those in charge of geolog-
ical surveys will direct competent persons to make observations, not
only on the main mineral constituents of rocks but also in the manner
of occurrence of individual minerals. The careful inspection of quar-
ries and mines is greatly to be desired. These are rich sources for
minerals, but, unless constant watchfulness is exercised, valuable mate-
rial for science is in danger of being buried out of sight.

It is too true that many of the most interesting discoveries already
recorded seem to have been due more to the result of fortunate acci-
dent than of systematic and intelligent exploration. If our trained
mineralogists, instead of devoting most of their attention to the exami-
nation of specimens in cabinets collected by others, would give more
time to personal observation in the field in the study of the order and
manner of occurrence of mineral species in place, our knowledge would
doubtless be greatly promoted. Again, if our wealthy amateurs could
be induced to spend their money as freely in the exploration of prom-
ising American localities as in the importation of costly European
specimens, we might hope for many important discoveries, and they
could have the satisfaction not only of gaining novelties for their col-
lections, -but incidentally they would do much to foster science.

In order to keep pace with the progress of the science, we need many
more workers who will devote themselves especially to mineralogical
research, and we need more of the spirit of the early workers. It is
my belief that the number of persons at present interested in the study
here, either as amateurs or investigators, is relatively less than in 1825.
The mineralogy of to-day is a very different subject from the mineral-
ogy of the commencement of the period over which we have so hastily
glanced. Then the study of minerals was .confined almost exclusively
to their external* characters. Led by Werner and re-enforced by his

8o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

most gifted pupil Mohs, the majority of mineralogists claimed mineral-
ogy to be a purely natural history science. They gave their attention,
as has been well said, entirely to " how the mineral looked" and not at
all to " what it was." On the other hand, the development of analyt-
ical chemistry by the labors of Klaproth and Berzelius led many to
take up mineralogy from a purely chemical stand-point. These two
schools working independently brought great confusion into the science.
The discoveries of Haiiy in crystallography, and especially his labors
in establishing a mathematical foundation for the geometrical form of
crystals, and the recognition that the constancy of form depended on
the constancy of the " integrant molecule," were steps which paved the
way for modern mineralogy. In this a union of all the physical, geo-
metrical, and chemical properties is required in order to determine the
true character of a mineral.

Further, we are called upon to investigate the history of its origin,
its relation to associated species, the changes which it undergoes, and
the causes and results of these changes. Here we have to do largely
with both geology and chemistry. From this it becomes evident that
a much broader foundation is now required for the mineralogist than
in the early days of the century. The bearing of physics, geology, and
chemistry, in the study of the mineral kingdom, must be thoroughly
recognized and appreciated by every investigator who desires to con-
tribute to further progress. No mineralogist can expect to have a pro-
found knowledge in all these directions, but he must be at least capable
of intelligently applying to his subject the results obtained by experts
in these sciences. Mineralogy is deeply indebted to special investiga-
tors in all these departments. Without their co-operation it would
have been impossible to discover the relations of form and other phys-
ical characters with that fundamental arrangement of molecules whose
nature it is now admitted controls all the properties of a substance.

The study of natural crystals has yielded rich material for the
physicist. In the department of optics it has given results from which .
many fundamental laws have been deduced ; and natural crystals, too,
have furnished, in many cases, the very apparatus which made investi-
gations possible. Some chemists claim that mineralogy is not at all a
science by itself, and constitutes only a small part of inorganic chem-
istry. It can be unquestionably conceded that a knowledge of chem-
istry is fundamental, and in consequence this claim has a certain plausi-
bility. On the other hand, we contend that it was largely the labors
of the mineralogists on the physical characters of minerals, and espe-
cially their demonstration of the relation of form to chemical composi-
tion, which finally awakened chemists to a more profound study of
their own subject. The law of isomorphism was discovered by a chem-
ist, whose training as an expert crystallographer in the examination of
natural crystals made it possible for him to recognize the wonderful
relation of form to composition. Dimorphism was first established

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 809

from observations made on minerals, and it is in the study of the min-
eral kingdom that the laws of isomorphism and dimorphism find abun-
dant demonstration. From the further investigation of the chemical
nature of minerals we may hope for new light on the molecular consti-
tution of substances which as yet the chemist has been unable to repro-
duce. We have already indicated the interdependence of geology and
mineralogy. May we not claim the same interdependence of miner-
alogy, physics, and chemistry, letting each go on in its own sphere,
contributing to the general progress, sure that every new fact observed
and every new law discovered will be for the common advancement
of all ?

•»»»•

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION EST THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS *

By Professor H. H. STRAIGHT.

THERE is a growing feeling among the students of industrial
problems that our whole conception of education in general, and
of industrial training in particular, needs revision and enlargement.
This feeling is based upon such easily observed facts as the follow-
ing :

1. Paupers are on the increase.

2. Our schools too often educate their pupils out of harmony with
their environment, thus justifying the charge that education (falsely
so called) unfits its possessors for useful industry.

3. The simpler and less important positions in the world's work-
shop are as a rule greatly overcrowded, while in the upper stories
there is a vast amount of unoccupied space.

4. The work done in the lower stories is often exceedingly shabby.

5. Many who aspire to the upper stories fail to enter — or, if they
apparently enter, soon end in failure.

6. The chosen few who truly enter, and build up magnificent in-
dustrial fabrics, with the splendid fortunes which such fabrics imply,
fail to educate their children to carry on their good work, or to do
work of similar value in some other department of useful industry.

7. A whole community of prosperous workmen may be well-nigh
reduced to beggary by the incoming of some new invention, or by
change in the fortunes or tastes of consumers.

8.' When old industries are swept away, and new ones established
on the wrecks, there is usually little power on the part of workmen to
adapt themselves to the new conditions.

9. The relentless law of the survival of the shrewdest and most un-
scrupulous, instead of the Christian law of mutual consideration and

* Read before the New York State Teachers' Association, Yonkers, New York, July 6,

1882.

8io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

co-operation, too generally prevails among individuals and all kinds of
human organizations.

That all education should be industrial, and that everybody should
be industrially educated, we believe to be a perfectly tenable proposi-
tion. For one to be industrially educated he must be in possession of
the following elements :

1. An industrial disposition, which leads to a cheerful and even
happy devotion to some chosen employment, as the avenue through
which to make his contribution to the world's wealth.

2. Industrial knowledge — such general and special knowledge as
will put him in possession of the best human experience in the direc-
tion of his chosen vocation.

3. Industrial power — such a development of physical, intellectual,
and artistic power as will remove as far as possible the chances of
failure, and, by giving a just consciousness of strength, will enable him
to work always with the hope, and expectation of success.

Will not all admit that it is at least desirable that such education
should become universal ?

In the brief time at our disposal, we can scarcely outline the place
the public schools should occupy in the development of such a scheme
and in the accomplishment of such results.

How can the industrial disposition be fostered ? How can indus-
trial knowledge be most economically and efficiently imparted ? How
can industrial power be developed ? How can the different classes of
the world's workers be brought into intelligent sympathy?

These are the great questions pressing for solution upon society in
general, and upon the teacher in particular. Probably no friend of
industrial education would claim that farmers, mechanics, or artisans
of any kind, as such, should be fitted for their special work in the
public schools, any more than that these schools should undertake the
training of physicians, lawyers, painters, sculptors, statesmen. The
public schools should rather form the road leading up to the base of
the mountain of industry and art, thence branching to the various
heights of the special industries, each special height having at its base
a special school to fit its students for its climbing.

As all classes of our people are to be citizens of one common re-
public, popular education must extend sufficiently far to prepare for
the one great common industry of citizenship. The power to read,
write, and cipher, may be destructive or helpful to good citizenship,
according as it is or is not guided by an intelligence suffused with con-
scientious regard for the rights of all men. This intelligence and re-
gard can be developed only as the work of the schools is based upon a
sound platform of principle. We believe this platform can be made
so broad, so catholic — that its inherent naturalness and divinity shall
be so readily apparent — that men and women, who desire to make
united effort for the good of all, can easily stand upon it.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 811

In the first place, the schools must recognize the true nature and
place of the industrial instinct : that it is the creative instinct ; one of
the profoundest of the human soul, and one of the earliest to manifest
itself. The plays in which the child finds his greatest delight are all
embryo industries. My little two-year-old, who with his blocks and
sticks builds a barn for his rubber camel, is as truly creating as the
architect who, with greater skill and kno wedge, constructs a palace.
Why should not the joy in producing, which forms so large a part of
the child's happiness, be carried forward into the industries of maturer
years, deepened and ennobled by a knowledge of industrial relations,
by experience of the value of industrial products, and, above all, by
the consciousness of duty done in the contribution made to human
comfort and well-being ? Give this instinct a proper development, join
with it the best human intelligence and the best human benevolence,
and you have the ideal man — the man perfect as his " Father in heaven
is perfect."

In the second place, the schools must make a wise selection from
the accumulated knowledge of the world. They must impart that
knowledge which will enable their students intelligently to decide
which one of the special heights of industry or art each is best fitted
to climb. They must give that knowledge which will reduce to a
minimum the difficulties in the way of change from one industry to
another, often rendered necessary by the accidents of time and fort-
une.

All classes of citizens must have the knowledge which will form a
basis for intelligent sympathy and appreciation among different classes
of workers, and necessary to their action at the ballot-box, in order
that each may recognize all as honorable and necessary, essential parts
of one grand industrial whole.

In the third place, the public schools must develop general indus-
trial power :

(«.) Physical Power. — They must take the best physiological
knowledge the age affords, and under its guidance develop a body
capable of enduring all the strains and fatigues likely to be brought
upon it by at least the ordinary exigencies of life.

{p.) Intellectual Power. — They must impart the knowledge
which it is their duty to give — according to the laws of mental assimi-
lation— as discovered and interpreted by the best students of mental
growth, to the end that mental dyspepsia may be avoided, and that
the Best intellectual conditions may exist for the quick and accurate
solution of at least the ordinary problems of life.

(c.) Artistic Power. — They must give such a development of
the sense of the beautiful as will enable our people, not simply to
enjoy the beautiful in the objects about them, but such as will give a
finesse and finish xto whatever work they undertake, whether it be the
culture of corn, the making of a coat, the building of a house, or the

812 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

painting of a picture. Every workman should have, to the largest
possible degree, the fine feeling of the artist, while every artist should
be recognized as a working-man.

Over all this knowledge and these powers a conscience should pre-
side that can say " ought " and " ought not " so loudly and distinctly
that its commands can not go unheeded. This work is all to be done
in the schools, through the ordinary subjects, properly related and
taught.

I do not believe in multiplying subjects in our school curriculum.
I believe most thoroughly in reducing them. Even among the old
Greeks the time came when complaint was made that the children
were pestered with a multitude of subjects, all thought necessary to a
proper education, and accordingly all imperfectly acquired.

The territory and the time from which the Greek drew thought
were but the merest fragment of that from which thought and mate-
rial come pouring in upon the modern child. All ages and all climes
are pouring their accumulated treasure and filth upon him. Selfish-
ness and ignorance, backed by the hoarded wealth of generations,
combine to force into his unwilling and aching mental stomach the
products alike of malicious, shallow, and noble brains. The multipli-
cation of subjects of study in the schools of ancient Greece was accom-
panied by a decline of mental vigor and spontaneity.

The only hope for our future lies in a wise choice of subjects for
our schools — in a wise conservation and expenditure of the energies
of our children. This multiplication of subjects, it seems to us, has
grown out of a lack of proper appreciation of the essentials of the
great departments of knowledge and their proper relations. What
God has joined together, man, partly through ignorance and partly
through desire of gain, has violently put asunder. Closely connected
lines of study have been isolated. Great departments of thought
have been cut up into petty fields, and then each little quarter-lot so
covered by rubbish that teacher and pupil alike have been starved and
enslaved when they ought to have been made vigorous and free
through a knowledge of the truth. Industrial knowledge consists in
acquaintance with industrial materials, processes, and relations.

Industrial materials are the various natural forces together with
certain substances from the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds.
Industrial processes are those operations by which crude materials are
converted into forms adapted to man's deeds. Industrial relations
imply the mechanism of exchange, and all those considerations dealt
with in political science. Let us consider briefly the possibilities of
arithmetical teaching as a means of imparting solid industrial knowl-
edge.

It was, doubtless, a great gain in teaching the elements of arith-
metic when beans, corn, blocks, etc., were substituted for abstract
statement. The principles stated and illustrated by Grtibe, Horace

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 81?

j

Grant, Colonel Parker, and others, that a great variety of objects
should be used in teaching number ; that change from one class of
objects to another sustains interest ; that seeing and handling many-
classes of objects train the observing powers to make distinctions and
classify things, are sound from the stand-points both of principle and
practice. The illustrations used are all good ; we only suggest what
seems to us an improvement and a great gain.

During the last few years we have been experimenting with classes
of children in a variety of ways. One general conclusion from these
experiments is that number-lessons can be utilized in teaching children
to recognize a large variety of industrial materials, and this too with
a positive gain in interest and impressiveness to the work in number
itself. Children can be taught in this way to recognize the common
and useful trees by their leaves, fruit, wood, etc.; the common rocks,
minerals, ores ; the more important kinds of goods used in clothing.

The fragments to be had at the shops of the tailor, milliner, dress-
maker, upholsterer, of any town, would supply, without cost, all the
materials desired in this direction. Samples of these materials could
be artistically arranged in numerical designs upon thin board or paste-
board and hung upon the walls for constant reference and review.
It is no more difficult to say " two elm-leaves and three elm-leaves
are five elm-leaves," " two sandstones and three sandstones are five
sandstones," " two broadcloths and three broadcloths are five broad-
cloths," etc., etc., than to say "two blocks and three blocks are five
blocks."

A second conclusion from our experiments is, that measures,
weights, and moneys can be taught more efficiently than now, along
with the early teaching of the fundamental arithmetical processes.

Number, the idea of the single and plural, enters into all our
knowledge both of the external and internal worlds, from the time
consciousness begins to act, until death. Our very first act of know-
ing is the recognition of a difference between two sensations. Dis-
tinguishing external objects into the single and plural — the one and
the many, the little and the big — is one of the earliest lines of investi-
gation for the infant and child. The work of the first few months
of school-life is to bring this unconscious mathematical experience out
into consciousness, and to give the child the beginning of the exact
and quantitative method of study.

A child can very early learn to count twelve with the objects
before him ; can then learn to find the number of objects in a given
group by counting ; then by a single glance, when the groups do not
contain a larger number than he has learned to count.

He can just as early and in the same connection learn to recognize
an inch, two inches, twelve inches ; can draw given numbers of lines
of these lengths ;^ can cut them out of paper, pasteboard, and wood.
Similar work can be done with the foot and yard. Corresponding

8 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

work can be done with the square and cubic inch and foot. The
French measures can be used exclusively, or in connection with the
English. Additions and subtractions can be performed with objects
of these dimensions in the same manner as ordinarily with beans and
blocks. The blocks may be made of wood of different kinds. Thus
at the same time and with additional interest and effect there can be
taught — 1. The fundamental numerical operations; 2. The recogni-
tion of the useful woods ; 3. The recognition of exact dimensions and
proportions.

This last would lead at once into the investigation of the dimen-
sions of the school-room, the objects in it, the parts of their own
bodies, etc. The sense of dimension and proportion, generally so
poorly cultivated, so important in numerous arts and industries,
would thus receive an early and full development.

The constant drawing of these forms and dimensions, crudely at
first, but more perfectly with practice, would lay an early and solid
foundation for both mechanical and artistic drawing.

Why should not children early learn to mix paints and adorn their
squares and cubes with the principal colors and their simpler hues and
tints ; then, with this as a foundation, go on to represent nature's
simpler colors in the plant, animal, rock, and sky ?

Thus not only would color-blindness be detected, but the color-
sense would be thoroughly developed, and the foundation laid in the
knowledge and power given for successful work in numerous lines of
industry. We would, then, urge the practicability of using common
industrial materials, objects of definite dimensions, weights, colors,
imagined values, as the objects by means of which to develop primary
conceptions of number and of numerical operations — thus adding to
the interest, saving time, and imparting industrial knowledge.

For advanced work in the development and application of arith-
metical principles, we would use such simple scientific apparatus as
we have on exhibition, or those materials which would lead at once
into some principle of political economy. It is our conviction that
during the time ordinarily spent by a class upon ratio and proportion,
there can be given a better knowledge of these subjects, as such, than
is ordinarily given ; and in the same time there can be taught, by
actual experiment, the law of action of the lever, the laws of vibration
of the pendulum, the number of vibrations in each note of the musical
scale, and still other important scientific principles. The pupil cer-
tainly will have at the end a tolerably correct idea of the mission of
ratio and proportion in the scientific and commercial worlds. He will
not be likely to make those failures in the application of simple arith-
metical principles to scientific and commercial problems with which
(I know from experience) he is at present justly credited.

The result of such a method would be to show definitely the place
of mathematical science in the progress of civilization. The whole

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 815

study would be dignified and glorified as is every kind of truth, when
its true place and mission are discovered.

Do I hear you say, " This is all very fine in theory, but impossible
in practice " ? " We can not get the apparatus — we can not find the
teachers " ?

As for myself, I have no time for building castles in the air which
can not be brought down to earth and built of solid material. Here
are a few facts of positive knowledge : For a few dollars a working-
room or corner can be fitted up where all necessary apparatus can be
made. There is no school whose boys and girls will not become enthu-
siastic in this kind of work, provided they have a little direction and
encouragement of the right sort. The necessary funds for a begin-
ning may be furnished by an exhibition, or by subscription of parties
to whom the subject has been properly presented. It is our very posi-
tive conviction that for a much smaller sum than most people imagine
there can be fitted up a school workshop in which the following re-
sults can be accomplished :

1. There can be made all the apparatus necessary to give a most
excellent course in the elements of physical science.

2. There can be made, wholly or in part, blocks, weights, etc.,
whose use we have described.

3. Old bottles, test-tubes, tumblers, etc., can be graduated for the
practical teaching of the liquid measures — each pupil having his own
set of measures.

4. Easels, rules, etc., can be made for use in drawing.

5. Cases, shelves, brackets, etc., can be made for collections and
for beautifying the room.

6. Pictures can be framed.

7. There can be made most, if not all, of the needed gymnastic
apparatus, i. e., clubs can be turned, etc.

In short, the pupils can do a very large part of the work of prop-
erly fitting up the school-room, and this work can be so planned as to
teach in the doing of it all the fundamental processes concerned in the
various industries that deal with wood and metal. All this could be
fitted into other lines of industrial work (sewing, modeling), and thus
might be worked out a consistent and comprehensive scheme of gen-
eral industrial training. Where are the teachers to be had? Let
those who are giving their best thought to the problems of education
first determine the sort of work that can and ought to be done in the
schools, then let them submit their plans to the people through press
and platform, and then reform the normal schools to suit the desires
and demands of the people thus instructed. Consider for a moment
what can be got out of a single piece of apparatus such as this system
of levers :

1. There are the industrial processes concerned in its manufact-
ure, making a smooth surface, a straight edge, a good joint, dividing

8i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the lever into equal parts, adjusting weights, little or more work with
metal, according to taste and time — the wood may be finished in oil,
varnish, or paint.

2. A good lesson in form can be given upon it.

3. It affords an excellent exercise in drawing. ' - -

4. There can be performed a series of simple experiments involv-
ing no mathematics. These may be made the basis of a series of
simple language-lessons, the children observing the experiments and
describing what is done and the results.

All this prepares the way for experiments involving arithmetical
processes and leading to the law of the lever's action. I can imagine no
better way of teaching ratio and proportion than through the results
obtained from this series of experiment. The stimulus, interest, defi-
niteness of thought coming from this method would more than com-
pensate for the extra time.

5. The story of Archimedes and the discovery of the principle
of the lever would interest a class of almost any age. Nothing could
be better to cultivate language and develop the historical sense than
the reproduction of such stories in oral and written speech.

This illustrates the uses to which I would put every piece of appa-
ratus in our exhibit.

There is another very important item. The forms in which arith-
metical quantities are actually put in commerce and science should be
forms in which they come before the children in the schools. They
should learn the ordinary business forms and operations, and should
get a sense of the values of industrial products, in connection with
their regular work in school.

These can be taught incidentally in connection with such language-
lessons as I have indicated — punctuation, forms of address, and nearly
all the mechanism of writing, as ordinarily treated in works upon ele-
ments of composition and rhetoric.

During the last year, in my own teaching, I have had the repro-
ductions of lessons in physics, geology, and natural history, put in
forms of letters, advertisements, etc. The novelty added to the inter-
est, while the many changes in the form of reproduction changed the
point of view, stimulated thought, and caused the work, as a whole,
to make a deeper impression.

The special value to the pupils of our schools, of the work involved
in such an industrial course as we have indicated, would be :

1. The cultivation of observation and judgment, the discipline of
hand and eye, obtained in this way, would not be second to that ob-
tained in any other way.

2. The course in mathematics, together with the course in language
and geography, could be made the means of acquainting them with
those natural products and forces which underlie all industries and all
arts.

PHYSIOGNOMIC CURIOSITIES. 817

3. They would learn in a general but efficient manner the funda-
mental industrial processes which underlie the more special processes
of the common arts.

4. This general but genuine knowledge of materials, forces, and
processes, will enable each student to choose, with a fair degree of in-
telligence, the industry for which he or she is fitted by special taste
and power.

5. Such a course would make far easier than now the change from
one occupation to another, which must ever remain an incident of
growing industries.

6. It would give to each person, as employer, some power to judge
of the work of the employed.

7. It would furnish a basis, in intelligence, for general sympathy
and appreciation among different classes of workers.

8. The last and greatest good would be the cultivation of the in-
dustrial disposition, and the killing out of the absurd idea that our
schools are free.

The schools simply represent society organized for the education of
its children. Every stroke of work done in these schools has to be
paid for, and at the proper time children should understand this fact,
and should manifest their gratitude by doing all in their power for
the betterment of the schools and the proper equipment of the rooms.
This, I conceive, would form a most fitting introduction to the great
industrial world, and would go far toward building up that spirit of
industry and mutual helpfulness which should form the essential
characteristic of the American citizen.

■<++-

PHYSIOGNOMIC CUKIOSITIES.

By FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D.

IF the proper study of mankind is man, it is a remarkable circum-
stance that the most important departments of that study are still
alloyed with such an excessive percentage of spurious elements, and
that their exponents persist in identifying their interests with the de-
fense of those apocryphal parts of their doctrine. Hygiene, in the
legitimate sense of the word, is simply the art of avoiding sins against
the Health laws of Nature, but the proposition to omit therapeutics
(poison-mongery, as Dio Lewis used to call it) from the curriculum of
a medical college would provoke a worse storm of protest than the
first attempt to divorce astronomy from astrology. In points of ethics
conservatism is a more than professional duty, yet the Rev. Mr. Free-
kirk, as well as Bishop Highchurch, and Rabbi Tabernacle, is tolerance
in person till you question one of hia mythological tenets. Phrenol-

TOL. XXI. — 52

818 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ogy, or the art of deducing mental characteristics from physical indi-
cations, would have been recognized as a true science if its apologists
had not wasted their efforts in the propaganda of their craniological
crotchets.

Pliny, and his countryman Campanella, already observed that the
art of interpreting the features of the human face is a universal one,
practiced by unformulated but well-understood rules, ever since man
tried to fathom the soul of his fellow-man. " Every one," says Addi-
son, " is in some degree master of that art which is generally known
by the name of Physiognomy, and naturally forms to himself the
character or fortune of a stranger from the features of his face. We
are no sooner presented to any one we never saw before, but we are
immediately struck with the idea of a proud, a reserved, an affable, or
a good-natured man. For my own part, I am so apt to frame a no-
tion of every man's humor or circumstances by his looks, that I have
sometimes employed myself from Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange
in drawing the characters of those who have passed by me. I can not
recollect the author of a famous saying to a stranger who stood silent
in his company, ' Speak, that I may see thee.' But with all submission
I think we may be better known by our looks than by our words, and
that a man's speech is much more easily disguised than his counte-
nance." Even in their present crude and incoherent condition the
rules of this art of symbol-reading have a far greater interest than
those of our dogmatic skull-systems, which, besides minor confirma-
tions, lack the important one of the vox pojmli. There is a deep mean-
ing in the humorous remark of Professor Vogt, that, " if the tenets of
Spurzheim were founded on fact, instinct would have taught us long
ago to finger the occiput of a suspicious stranger instead of scrutiniz-
ing his face " ; and the study of a phrenological bust somehow ob-
trudes the idea that a good deal of this cranial topography was sug-
gested by verbal analogies, such as the location of our higher faculties
in the attic of the skull while the baser propensities occupy the base-
ment, or George Combe's conception that an elongated head must de-
note sagacity — anglice, " long-headedness." Lavater's, Winckelmann's,
Cuvier's, and Dr. Redfield's observations, on the other hand, are often
indorsed by a multitude of analogous impressions which social studies
or self-examination has left in our minds.

The comparison of modern physiognomic theories with the opin-
ions of the ancients suggests many curious reflections, and may fre-
quently serve to confirm one of those semi-conscious notions of our
own which we derive from experience but neglect to " formulate."
" Whitish hair, which at the same time is soft and thin," says Baron
Cuvier, " denotes a feeble organization, a temper yielding and easily
alarmed. It is commonly combined with an oval face and gently
rounded head. Such heads are never found in the descriptions of male-
factors. Black, frizzled hair the ancients considered as a sign of a

PHTSIOGXOMIC CURIOSITIES. 819

savage disposition/' Who is not at once reminded of the timid, flax-
en-haired inmates of our infirmaries and orphan asylums, and, on the
other hand, of the "black, frizzled hair," BO often combined with a
bowie-knife and horse-pistol in the make-up of a prominent border-
ruffian ? And is it not confirmed by national as well as individual
characteristics, that prominence of the canine teeth indicates pugnacity,
or. as Dr. Cams terms it, u the love of overcoming ■ ? The Bedouin
Arabs and the Arizona Apaches have such teeth, and the physiogno-
mies of Western hunters and teamsters and West Indian smuggl-
show that they are developed by adventurous pursuits.

If the experience of mankind is competent to interpret facial indi-
cations, some of the "propensit: ra " and '•' pereeptives *? which Spurz-
heim lodges in the back rooms of his pan-sensorium must have a
penchant for changing their quarters. "Firmnv-s ." for instance,
which he locates in the posterior part of the upper head, undoubte-
manifests itself in the prominence of the chin. ;- Draw a face in pro-
file," Bays Winckelmann, and observe how timidity or its opposite can
be expressed by the shape of the lower jaw. Let the chin be receding,
and vour profile can be made to express pusillanimity and feebleness
of character, even to the degree of imbecility. Then, without chang-
ing: anv upper line of the profile, combine it with a prominent chin,
and it will exhibit firmness. Exaggerate the prominence, and you can
intensify that expression to one of obstinacy and ferocity. That such
contrasts are less striking: in living: fa owing to the eireumsta:

that we take in the expression of all features at a single glance, with-
out analyzing the complex effect."

Have we not here a positive criterion, a rule without an exception ?
Does it not occur to us, on after-thought, that aU warlike, aggressive
nations have such projecting chins, while the weak or degenerate ones
are more or less chin-less ? In their classification of the Xorth Ameri-
can aborigines the Spaniards distinguish between Tndios mango* and
Ihdiosl 1 (tame and savage Indians). The former comprise the

different agricultural tribes of Central and South America, ignorant
but harmless creatures, who subsist on a vegetable diet ; the latter the
earnivorou- - Bges f theXorth, who divided their time between hunt-
ing and warfare. In their physical characteristics these various trr
of the American autochthones could hardly be distinguished, if it were
not for a slight variation in the color of their skins and a verv mark
difference in the shape of their eh ins. Our redskins have chins, thor
thev can not emulate those of the Indo-Germanic race : the Indians of
Mexico and South America have none. In the profile of a vegetarian
Indio from the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, the lower jaw recedes in
a sharp line from the mouth to the throat, so that his nose, though not
excessive in size, becomes ridiculously prominent. Obstinacy with a
projecting chin and shrinking timidity with a receding one are here
strongly contrasted, and the study of individual faces proves TTinckel-

820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mann's rule to be almost, if not altogether, infallible. Can Professor
Fowler point out a corresponding difference in the shape of the pos-
terior skull? "Amativeness," too, may or may not affect the bones
above the nape, but Theophrastus, Galen, Delia Porta, Lavater, Dr.
Redfield, and all portrait-painters, agree that it is disclosed by the eye-
Ms, especially the lower ones.

Lavater and other critical students of the human face have shown
the fallacy of some popular notions — for instance, the connection of a
high forehead with superior intelligence — but also that generally re-
ceived opinions differ less in different nations and ages than should be
supposed ; and it is surprising of what minute symptoms even the
ancient nations have taken cognizance.

There is, indeed, hardly a facial muscle that has not been suspected
of betraying mental peculiarities. " A forehead loaded with wrinkles "
Aristotle supposes to indicate a gloomy, morose, and overbearing dis-
position,, and furthermore thinks that, if these wrinkles are massed
over the eye, it denotes cruelty. According to Galen, a depression in
the center of the forehead announces a melancholy temper or a recol-
lection of an awful crime, though he admits that physical excesses may
produce the same effect.

" Vertical incisions in the bone of the forehead," says Lavater,
"belong exclusively to persons of uncommon capacity and to independ-
ent thinkers." Perjicndieular wrinkles he holds to be the emblems
of wrath, because such furrows are formed in the paroxysm of that
passion. If the forehead is crowded with horizontal wrinkles, it may
indicate ferocity or severe mental application, but their entire absence
can only be the effect of a cheerful disposition.

" If the frontal bone is convex," says Huart, "it indicates an un-
developed mind ; all infants have such foreheads, and, under the in-
fluence of culture, the curve gradually disappears." TVinekelmann in-
dorses this notion, and thinks that the more straight lines the forehead
exhibits the more judgment it will indicate, but at the same time so
much the less sensibility. AVrinkles lengthwise between the eyebrows,
Huart interprets as a sign of habitual melancholy reflections, and he,
as well as Lavater and Redfield, believes that the prominence of the
bone immediately above the eyebrows denotes aptitude for long-con-
tinued mental labor. " If asked what a low forehead denotes," Dr.
Cams remarks, "I should say a vigorous scalp, or a predominating
lateral development of the skull, but certainly not a low degree of in-
telligence" ; and Horace went so far as to celebrate a frons tenuis as
a sign of an ingenious mind.

" Gently arched eyebrows," says Campanella, " accord with the
modesty and simplicity of a virgin ; rough, irregular ones are the
signs of ungovernable vivacity," and Dr. Redfield adds that on this
point the physiognomists of all nations agree. If the hair of the
eyebrows is thin or begins to fall out, Dr. Haller regards it as a sure

PHYSIOGNOMIC CURIOSITIES. 821

symptom of failing vitality ; very heavy eyebrows, on the contrary,
he takes to be a mark of redundant potency and reserved strength.
" Eyebrows which join each other," Lavater remarks, " were consid-
ered among the ancients as a sign of a fallen character," but he him-
self inclines to Goethe's opinion that they denote energische Slnnllch-
keity which does not exactly mean sensuality, but rather active vigor
of all the senses. The deficiency or abundance of eyebrow-hair he
holds to be a physical rather than mental symptom, but owns that he
"never saw a profound thinker, or even a man of a firm and judicious
mind, with slender eyebrows, placed very high."

As to the eyes themselves, opinions differ to a rather perplexing
degree. Their protuberance Gall, Lavater, and Fowler hold to be a
mark of a retentive memory and language, i. e., fluency of speech,
while Winckelmann and the Latin sages consider it as a sign of stu-
pidity. A large eye the Greeks admired as the token of a large soul,
but Gall and Dr. Carus see in it nothing but a large share of curiosity.
The horizontal extension of the eye, if abnormal, Lavater suspects to
be an indication of a designing mind ; Redfield of excessive caution.

Their color, too, has been interpreted in very different ways. The
ancients of Southern Europe, of course, preferred their own black
eyes, and depreciated every lighter shade as sickly or even unnatural ;
but already, before their final subjugation by the Goths, they had
learned to make an exception in favor of a blue iris, and we are told
that, at last, even the dandies of the Roman capital envied the bright
blue eyes and brown locks of Alaric. Gray and light blue, according
to Le Brun, indicate coldness, but a German rhymed proverb calls a
blue eye a pledge of good faith, and associates a gray one with deceit-
fulness. Brown, according to the same doggerel, bespeaks love of fun
and mischievous merriment, while Spurzheim informs us that he found
that color generally combined with a good-natured disposition. Only
in regard to red eyes all nations and doctors agree : they are a sure
sign of staminal weakness and degeneration.

In a treatise on physiognomy, the nose deserves a special chapter.
" There is infinite expressiveness in every bone and every muscle of
that prominent organ," says Sir Charles Bell, and proceeds to give us
a long list of " indications," which may be summarized in the general
remarks that he considers a long and pointed nose a sign of foxy sly-
ness, a broad, short one a mark of a plain, practical mind, and Cal-
muck nostrils a symptom of frog-like stupidity. Redfield, too, locates
" inquisitiveness " at the tip of the nose, and critical acumen in the
next neighborhood, and quotes Aristotle, who speaks of the critical
resources of a powerful and pointed proboscis.

In Seneca's language, an Athenian nose is a synonym for wit ; and
Horace introduces a wide-awake individual as a homo enunctissimaz
naris, a man whq^e nasal ducts are in first-rate working order. Plato
records his respect for a man with a royal nose, an article of which he

822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

himself was a little short, though not to such a distressing degree as
his master Socrates. Caesar, Trajan, and the Abassides had such
noses ; also Henri Quatre and the founder of the Hapsburg dynasty.
Rudolph von Hapsburg, though a righteous man and of peaceful dis-
position, so aggravated the German nobility by the size of his nose
that his election to the imperial dignity gave general offense, and even
men who had favored his nomination on account of his brilliant record
were scandalized after meeting him face to face. But the emperor's
judicious administration soon made his face so popular that he was
besieged by portrait-painters, and once exclaimed in dismay : " God
help me ! Every fool who can draw a big nose wants to take my like-
ness ! "

The Latins called such men nasones, and Ovid's influential family
carried that name as a patronymic. Large hooked noses, according to
Cuvier, Lavater, and Pernetti, indicate aggressiveness, love of con-
quest, and acquisitiveness, and their views are certainly supported by
the abnormal development of those propensities among the ancient
Romans and modern Jews. "When the aggressive instincts of the
ancient Italians were suppressed," says Pernetti," " their noses shrunk
to their present dimensions ; exceptional individuals who have pre-
served the martial spirit of our ancestors are also conspicuous for their
vigorous noses." The family of Napoleon must have preserved these
characteristics in all their pristine vigor ; his nose was as aggravating
as his policy, and the shape of his chin was a triumph for Winckel-
mann's theory.

But, after all, such noses are preferable to the other extreme, the
blunt hoggish snouts of the Calmucks and Southern Russians. A nez
retrousse, a back-turned nose, the great Frederick considered as unpar-
donable in a soldier or any adult male of the Caucasian race, and was
as proud of his own classic profile as of his best campaign. " God
made the Roman, and man made the snub," says Dr. Wells, and
Lavater demands a straight or cfcnm -turned nose as a sine qua non of
a good face. " I never can look at a pug-nose without painful emo-
tions," says he ; " it makes it so sadly probable that our race has de-
generated. I am sure Adam was not cursed with such a feature."

With a flat nose Gall associates sensuality and a groveling disposi-
tion ; Dr. Redfield, also, want of energy and even of self-respect.
But Zopyrus,.the Athenian Spurzheim, went so far as to denounce a
bulbous nose as a sign of a semi-bestial origin, and informed Socrates
that one of his ancestors must have been guilty of an inhuman mesal-
liance of some sort, and that the shape of his nose " implied a tend-
ency to drunkenness, theft, brutality, and lasciviousness " ! It might
be interesting to know what Zopyrus would have said about such
noses as Gortchakoff's or ex-Senator Morrissey's, or the still greater
deformity which made the face of Edward Gibbon a phenomenon.

The portraits of Socrates, in spite of that defect, exhibit a face

PHYSIOGNOMIC CURIOSITIES. 823

that might pass for intelligent and manly, if not for beautiful, in our
days ; but, in contrast with the living models of our classic statuary,
the Mongolism of his features may have appeared more glaring. The
Grecian profile, indeed, has always remained the beau-ideal of perfect
beauty. " The proof that the straight profile constitutes beauty," says
Michael Angelo, " is furnished by the effect of the deviating profile.
The stronger the inflection of the nose the further the face deviates
from its perfect form. The Grecian nose is the most human of all
features ; all other noses are a compromise with animalism."

These noses, as a national type, have utterly disappeared. Accord-
ing to Francisco Diaz, a Portuguese historian and philosopher of the
eighteenth century, the last remnant of the favored race inhabited a
district northeast of Cadiz, which neighborhood their Grecian ances-
tors had settled some two thousand years ago. They were peaceful
tillers of the soil, but their adherence to the unitarian dogmas of Mo-
hammed involved them in the fate of the wretched Moriscoes, who
were expelled by order of the Rey Catolico. We shall not look upon
their like asjain.

The muscles about the mouth are mapped out like a town-chart by
Dr. Carus, and for not less than eleven " qualities " he provides lodg-
ings in that neighborhood. Love has the under lip all to himself, but
four of his relatives, clemency, pity, the love of children, and benevo-
lence, are crowded together in the narrow dell between the mouth and
the chin. Five more inhabit the upper lip and the place below the
nose, while cheerfulness has reserved seats in the corners of the mouth.
Tumid lips must be a sure sign of sensuality, since nearly all physiog-
nomical authorities insist on that thesis, and even Winckelmann, who
commonly has an opinion of his own, is here, at least, neutral. He
admits it to be a suspicious sign, but believes that after it has once
become hereditary, as among certain African and South Asiatic tribes,
it denotes merely a sanguine temper. But, if the upper lip protrudes
so far upward that it fails to cover the teeth, the indication is even
more unfavorable ; it then means lasciviousness and stupidity com-
bined. The habit some children have of keeping the mouth constantly
open is also ominous of future imbecility, if we may believe Dr. Hal-
ler. Dr. Redfield's observation about prominent canine teeth has al-
ready been referred to ; deformed (because decayed) teeth may indi-
cate indolence (as implying a neglect of sanitary precautions), but are
often hereditary, like weak lungs and short-sightedness. Short and
white teeth in adults, as Lavater says, are frequently combined with
uncommon bodily strength, and visible interspaces between the front
teeth are a favorable omen of longevity.

That the art of mind-reading is yet in its infancy is sufficiently
demonstrated by some of the " general rules " which, modern as well
as ancient, physiognomists have recorded as the result of careful obser-
vation.

824 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" The smallest heads," says Aristotle, " are generally stored with
the largest share of sense, and the same rule applies to other extremi-
ties. If the hands and feet are small in proportion to the size of the
trunk, it betokens a refined mind, a noble ancestry." Lavater would
trust only to first impressions. " If I begin to analyze features," he
confesses, "I am biased by my prejudices, and persuade myself to
consider a head a bad one because it exhibits features which my pet
theory objects to. But there are laws of compensation which assert
themselves in the tout ensemble impression."

" In many faces I have seen an habitual expression which at first
puzzled me," says Kant, " but I have found that by mimicking that
characteristic look my mind involuntarily turns in the direction of that
person's predominating passion, and thus furnishes me a key to the
problem."

"How is it," asks Dr. Haller, "that crafty and designing persons
use to keep one, or sometimes both eyes, half shut ? and that only
children and animals are honest enough to meet your glance with per-
fect unconcern ? To other features I look for pathological indications,
but the eye alone is the mirror of the mind."

Lord Byron, in matters of that sort perhaps a better observer,
seems to have formed quite a different view. " Hold on, let me see the
jaw," he called out, when Shelley's body was removed from the beach
of Spezzia — " I can recognize any one by the teeth with whom I have
talked. I always watch the lips and mouth : they tell what the tongue
and eyes try to conceal."

" Let a beginner draw a head," says Le Brun, " and the face will
always bear an expression of stupidity ; never one of malignity or
wickedness. Is not here an important hint ? Stupidity, as expressed
in mind or body, is incongruity, while in a scoundrel the mental ma-
chinery may be well arranged and very efficient, though working in
the wrong direction. Mental turpitude can rarely be discovered in the
features ; mental derangement — which all foolishness more or less
amounts to — very easily."

The comparison of some special rules reveals even stranger contra-
dictions. Buffon, who himself loved a well-stocked larder, accepts
embonpoint as a safe sign of mental health. " Crazy people," he in-
forms us, " are always haggard ; harmony of the mental and moral
faculties is favorable to the development of fat." Redfield, with the
same plausibility, demonstrates the exact reverse. " Only stupid
brutes accumulate fat," says he, " oxen, sheep, and swine. Mental ac-
tivity stimulates our torpid organs, but a sluggish brain induces phys-
ical inertia and fatty degeneration. . . . Dr. Swift," he adds, "was
lean as long as he applied himself to letters ; he afterward lost the
main part of his reason and then became plump again." "A fat, short
neck," says Pliny, " announces a mind ferocious," but Sir Charles Bell
distinctly tells us that it indicates good-natured laziness and love of a

PHYSIOGNOMIC CURIOSITIES. 825

good table. But the difference in national standards of beauty is still
more astounding. We know that Dr. Fowler's lectures made high
foreheads so fashionable that New England exquisites spared no pains
to promote their rapid development — not even those involved in the
removal of a handful of hair ; but the perfumed dandies of ancient
Rome and Syracuse were just as anxious to cultivate a frons parva et
angusta, which Ovid enumerates among the emblems of perfect beauty.
Propertius, too, speaks of the frons brevis, the short forehead of a
comely individual, and we are informed by Aristophanes that the la-
dies of Athens encircled their heads with a black ribbon, so as to make
the forehead appear more narrow. " Monstrum in fronte, monstrum
in animo" was a Latin proverb which certain political adversaries
applied to the enormous forehead of the Dean of St. Patrick.

Galen informs us that "a great belly betrays a vulgar mind,"
while among the Turks beauty is chiefly a question of avoirdupois ;
and the Esquimaux, according to the Rev. Hansen, value abdominal
prominence as the acme of manly dignity. Torngac, the old man of
the sea, the hyperborean Jupiter, they think, will be distinguished
among all the heroes and minor deities of his suite by his conspicuous
belly and his prominent cheeks. Yankee Doodle seems rather to in-
cline to Galen's opinion, though we have fat men's associations, and
German communities where a jolly paunch is a potent element of popu-
larity. The Gaelic mountaineers of the last century thought corpu-
lence disgraceful ; and Byron, according to his best biographer, was
ultra-Scotch in this respect. "He resolved to keep down to eleven
stone or shoot himself," says Captain Trelawney. " I remember one
of his old acquaintances saying, ' Byron, how well you are looking ! '
If he had stopped there it had been well, but, when he added, ' You
are getting fat,' Byron's brow reddened and his eyes flashed. * Do
you call getting fat looking well, as if I were a hog ? ' and turning
to me, he muttered : * The beast ! I can hardly keep my hands off
him ! ' "

The Esquimaux, as well as the Chinese and Calmucks, are shocked
at the appearance of our noses ; the latter speak of a proboscis or peli-
can's bill, if they wish to refer to the nasal organ of an Englishman,
and admire the delicacy of their own stumps. But in mediaeval France
more than one gifted plebeian found a nez retrousse an obstacle to offi-
cial advancement, and the preux chevalier valued a vigorous hook as
one of his primary insignia nobilitatis. Montaigne, however, ridicules
this taste, and suggests that a receipt for elongating noses by artificial
means would make the fortune of the inventor : " Quel bonlieur de
naitre avec un pied de nez ! "

We may realize the feelings of a Calmuck mother, who, shocked
at the abnormal prominence of her offspring's nose, endeavors to im-
prove his looks by flattening the offensive feature ; but it is rather
difficult to understand the taste of a lady who commences her toilet by

Sz6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

blackening her teeth ! — yet this fashion prevails throughout Algeria,
Tunis, and Tripoli.

It has never been fully explained how we came to be prejudiced
against red hair, though Baron Bunsen suggests that it distinguished
the aborigines of Northern Europe, whose descendants have survived
in Jutland and Connaught, and that at a time when these F. F.'s re-
sisted the inroads of the Indo-Germanic tribes, and every man's hand
was against them, the aversion to their national characteristics, red
hair and a freckled skin, became an instinct of Norman and Saxon
nature. However that may be, the existence of the prejudice can not be
denied, and, in certain border districts of Sleswig where yellowish-red
hair has become hereditary, the local drug-stores do a rushing business
in lead combs, which have been found to change the objectionable tint
to auburn. But, when the Venetian Republic was in the zenith of its
power, a considerable portion of the internal revenue was derived from
a tax on artificial red hair, which had become a staple of commerce,
and was bought and substituted for their own raven locks by all the
fashionable ladies from Trieste to Fiorenza.

St. Paul asserts that " if a man have long hair it is a shame unto
him" (1 Cor. xi, 14), and, with some phenomenal exceptions, our Cau-
casian contemporaries seem to share his opinion, though only a cen-
tury ago North America and Western Europe indulged in perukes and
pigtails of stately dimensions. But the Grecian aristocrats, from the
days of Theseus to the accession of the Macedonian madman, sought
to distinguish themselves by the length of their hair, as the Chinese
mandarins by that of their finger-nails. When Alexander marched
his troops against the Persian Empire, he insisted that his Grecian
auxiliaries must submit to a wholesale shearing, as in a hand-to-hand
fight their pendent tresses would give the enemy an unfair advantage ;
and Heinrich Heine is malicious enough to insinuate that the final
abolition of the Zopf, the orthodox Prussian pigtail, was prompted by
similar considerations. " If the old lady once had you by the Zopf,"
he says, " all resistance ended in an unconditional surrender."

[To be continued.]

-*♦♦-

THE FORMATION OF SALINE MINERAL WATERS.

By M. DIEULAFAIT.

AS far back as we may go in the annals of mankind, we find min-
eral waters occupying a considerable place in the life of the
peoples, and at last reach a point when they were the object of a
veritable worship. Notwithstanding, however, the antiquity of the
subject, and the importance that has always been attached to mineral

THE FORMATION OF SALINE MINERAL WATERS. 827

waters, with the immense variety of labors of which they have been
the object, the fundamental questions relating to them still remain
enveloped in profound darkness. An examination of the most recent
and most authoritative publications suffices to show us that, with re-
gard to the most capital point, the origin and mode of formation of
these waters, we, at the end of fifteen centuries, are not much further
advanced than were the Romans. Modern science, it is true, has put
the ancient nymph to flight, and driven from his sanctuary the little
beneficent god that presided at each fountain ; but it has not yet suc-
ceeded in raising the statue of the truth upon the vacant altar.

Mineral waters take up the substances which give them their pecul-
iar composition, and acquire all their medical value, at greater or less
distances within the globe. It is, then, for geology, the science which
deals with the formation of the globe, to seek the solution of the ques-
tions of their origin.

The number of mineral springs is immense, and the variations
among them seem infinite ; but there exist among them certain groups
which distinguish and separate themselves at the first glance. Among
these we place in the first rank the saline waters, or those of which
the sea is the type. This is the division which I propose to consider,
and of which I shall endeavor to set forth the origin and method of
formation.

It is a fact, which I may state as uncontested at the present time,
that all spring-waters, whether mineralized or not, are of exterior
origin — that is, are waters of infiltration derived from the atmosphere.
When these waters return to the light without having met, in the strata
they have traversed, either soluble minerals or gases other than those
of the atmosphere, they constitute ordinary waters. If, on the con-
trary, they have met soluble substances or gases different from those
of the atmosphere, they will return more or less charged with those
substances, and will then be mineral waters. In studying them we
need not, therefore, inquire about the origin of the water itself, for it
comes from the atmosphere, but only about that of the saline sub-
stances which it has encountered in its course.

It has been known from the most remote antiquity that consider-
able masses of saline substances, generally composed of gypsum, more
rarely of rock-salt, exist at numerous points of our globe. The two
salts we have named are the ones that have hitherto attracted the
attention of commercial and scientific men ; but the saline beds are in
reality of a more complex composition than is superficially indicated
by the predominance of those compounds.

The hypotheses which have been proposed to account for the origin
of these salts, though many, may be grouped around three principal
heads : 1. Free sulphuric acid, coming up from the depths of the
globe, has acted u^on carbonate of lime already formed and produced
gypsum. 2. Hydro-sulphuric acid, coming in like manner from the

828 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

depths of the globe, has absorbed oxygen from the air, has become
sulphuric acid, and, acting upon the already formed limestone, has
produced gypsum, as in the previous theory. 3. Salts already formed
in the interior of the globe have been brought up to the surface partly
in solution, partly sublimed. These hypotheses are all wholly gratui-
tous ; and, with regard to the first, it is impossible to admit that sul-
phuric acid, already formed, coming up from the depths of the globe,
should have traversed, without saturating them, the enormous thick-
ness of the underlying calcareous beds to make gypsum in the tertiary
formation. The second hypothesis is more admissible, especially since
M. Dumas has found gypsum that was evidently formed in that way ;
but while we may easily suppose a mass of limestone, of which one
part has been transformed into gypsum by the action of free sulphuric
acid, while the other part remains limestone, we can not admit such
an intervention of the acid in a case where the gypsum is interpene-
trated in all its parts with carbonate of lime. The third hypothesis,
that the saline deposits have been brought up from the depths of the
globe, is only a continued appeal to those mysterious actions which
figure so prominently in the infancy of all the sciences ; but, besides
that it explains nothing, I believe that it is a real error. My studies
of chemical geology have led me to the conclusion that the salts now
held in solution in the waters of the seas, the salts existing in solid
masses in the strata of our globe, and those which furnish the mineral
constituents to saline waters, have a common origin, and that that
origin is exterior to the first strata that were formed in the consolida-
tion of the earth.

According to the conditions assumed in the nebular hypothesis of
the origin of the earth, the rocks forming the first solid envelope of
our globe solidified at a temperature of between 2,000° and 2,500° Cent.
(3,600° and 4,500° Fahr.). Now, according to the law of dissociation, as
discovered by Sainte-Claire Deville, chlorine, sulphur, and their constant
compounds, with oxygen and hydrogen, were present in the atmosphere
at the former temperature, and even below it, in a state of complete
dissociation ; and only at a much later stage than this was it possible
for chlorine and sulphur to effect combinations so as to react upon
the exterior crust and form sulphates and chlorides. The sulphates
and chlorides, in their turn, could have been produced only at succes-
sive and extremely distant epochs. Thus, to mention only the two
chlorides which constitute the largest part of the saline substances con-
tained in marine waters, the chloride of sodium and the chloride of
magnesium ; the former has been formed at a high temperature, for it
can support a high temperature without suffering decomposition. But
the chloride of magnesium can not have been composed until a prodi-
giously more advanced epoch — that is, one nearer to our own time,
when the temperature of the earth had descended to about the
boiling-point of water; for the chloride of magnesium can not sup-

THE FORMATION OF SALINE MINERAL WATERS. 829

port such a temperature in the presence of water without being de-
composed.

As the process of cooling continued, the atmosphere kept inces-
santly yielding by condensation the water which it held, and this
water kept perpetually dissolving the soluble salts which it found
already present, and also those that were continuously produced by
the action of the acids it bore with it. As we have already seen,
these salts were sulphates and chlorides. On the other hand, the
metals competent to combine with the sulphur and the chlorine were
necessarily those existing in the rocks that formed the first crust of
consolidation, and these metals were, as we shall be able to show,
lithium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium. Now, it is these
five metals which, united with chlorine and sulphur, constitute nearly
the total amount of the salts dissolved in the waters of the seas.
Such, to my mind, is the origin of the salts which mineralize the
seas ; and it is an origin wholly exterior.* Thus, from the most
ancient aqueous period of our planet, from the time when its external
temperature was not notably below the boiling-point of water, and
from a time, consequently, before any trace of life was possible, the
seas have had essentially the same composition they have to-day.
Zoologists have for a long time regarded this fact as necessary, be-
cause the animals whose remains have been found in the most ancient
sedimentary beds did not differ as to their general plan from their
congeners in modern seas, and could not, consequently, have lived in
waters that differed sensibly in composition from the water of exist-
ing seas.

If the whole mass of chlorides and sulphates was originally dis-
solved in the sea- waters, then the only way we have of explaining the
origin of the saline formations which exist in the sedimentary beds
is to assume that they have been left by the spontaneous evaporation
of parts of the ancient seas accidentally isolated from the oceans.
I came to this conclusion long ago, not by a more or less intuitive
suggestion, but drawn to it by the logic of facts and the ideas I am
about to present. This conclusion once formulated, I have taken the
consequences, as numerous as important, which it involves, and have
submitted them to an experimental verification.

In approaching the experimental side of my investigations, I had
first to study in its details what takes place when the waters of exist-
ing seas are left to spontaneous evaporation.

First, a very weak precipitation occurs of carbonate of lime with a
trace of strontium, and of hydrated sesquioxide of iron, mingled with

* An objection may be raised to this idea, from the fact that a large number of
chlorides and sulphurous products are developed in modern volcanic phenomena which
we all agree came up from a very profound zone. I refer to it to state that I am pre-
pared to meet it and have elements sufficient to show that the two orders of facts are
perfectly reconcilable.

830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a slight proportion of manganese. The water then continues to
evaporate, but remains perfectly limpid, without forming any other
deposit than the one I have mentioned, till it has lost eighty per cent,
of its original volume. It then begins to leave an abundant precipi-
tate of perfectly crystallized sulphate of lime with two equivalents of
water, or gypsum, identical in geometrical form and chemical com-
position with that of the gypsum-beds. This deposit continues till
the water has lost eight per cent more of its original volume, then all
precipitation ceases till two per cent more of the original quantity of
water has evaporated away. Then a new deposition begins, not of
gypsum, but of chloride of sodium, or sea-salt. The separation be-
tween the end of the deposition of gypsum and the beginning of that
of chloride of sodium is so marked that it is utilized on a grand scale
in the works of the salt-marshes. The salters allow all the gypsum
to be deposited in the ordinary basins, and then run the water thus
cleared of gypsum into special vessels, whereby they obtain a pure
salt, which they can collect down to the very bottom of the basin
after the last mother-waters have been drawn off. The deposition of
pure or commercial salt continues till the volume of the water has
been again reduced by one half, when a precipitation of sulphate of
magnesia begins to take place with it. This continues, the two salts
being deposited in equal quantities, till only three per cent of the
original quantity of water is left. Finally, when the water has been
concentrated to two per cent, carnallite, or the double chloride of
potassium and magnesium, is deposited. Spontaneous evaporation
can not go much further. The residual mother-water will not dry up
at the ordinary temperature, even in the hottest regions of the globe ;
its chief constituent is chloride of magnesium. A body of sea- water,
evaporated naturally, will then leave a series of deposits in which we
will find as we dig down the following minerals in order :

Deliquescent salts, including chiefly chloride of magnesium.

Carnallite, or the double chloride of potassium and magnesium.

Mixed salts, including chloride of sodium and sulphate of magnesia.

Sea-salt, mixed with sulphate of magnesia.

Pure sea-salt.

Pure gypsum.

Weak deposits of carbonate of lime, with sesquioxide of iron, etc.

The examination of this list and the facts that have been ex-
pounded draw with them a large number of consequences ; I will only
call attention to two of them. The first is, that the different groups
of substances named in the list should become more and more rare
as we ascend from the base to the summit ; for each of them corre-
sponds with a more advanced period of evaporation, and the chances
for its production become less and less favorable as we rise. The
second consequence — and I regard it as a capital one — is, that, when we
meet one of the superior groups, we should expect to find, below it,

THE FORMATION OF SALINE MINERAL WATERS. 831

all the other groups which were deposited previously to it in the order
of evaporation. These consequences are constantly verified in the sa-
line beds which exist so numerously on the globe. Thus, to bring up
again the two most important salts, numerous beds of gypsum are
known, without rock-salt, or any of the other deposits, above them —
which verifies our first conclusion ; but no bed of rock-salt is known
without gypsum — which verifies the second conclusion. More than
this, a vast saline bed is now known which corresponds with the com-
plete period set forth in our list — that is, with the complete period of
evaporation ; it is the formation at Stassfurt, Prussia, the disposition
of which corresponds exactly with that shown in the list. The study
of the Stassfurt bed further reveals an entirely new fact — the pres-
ence, in a part quite above the mean of deliquescent salts, of an im-
portant deposit of boracic acid combined with magnesium. All the
geologists and engineers who have ever given their attention to the
Stassfurt deposit have been unanimous in calling for volcanic inter-
vention, and looking to the depths of the globe for the explanation of
the origin of the boracic acid, and the place it occupies in the upper
part of the bed ; and they have all also given a more or less prepon-
derant part to the play of volcanic agencies in the formation of the
whole. This conclusion was the more natural, because the ordinary
laws of chemistry seemed to oppose the probability of boracic acid,
even if it existed, being found in the last mother-waters. Borate of
magnesia is almost insoluble, and should have been among the first
and lowest of the substances deposited. Adhering to the principle
that there are no saline substances in the interior of the globe below
the sedimentary formations, I silenced my protestations as a chemist,
and applied myself to inquire if, contrary to all previsions, boracic
acid did not exist in the ultimate mother-waters of the salt-marshes
of the south of France. The result justified my geological induction
to a degree beyond all possible anticipation. Not only does boracic acid
exist in the ultimate mother-waters, but it exists there in a quantity
relatively so considerable that a single drop of the water is enough to
show it, either by the hydrogen method or by that of spectrum analy-
sis. Thus, the presence of this substance in the upper part of the
Stassfurt bed ceases to be an objection to the theory that the bed is
purely and simply the result of the evaporation of the ancient sea-
waters ; and its presence here furthermore gives a confirmation, as
striking as unforeseen, to that theory.

My chemical and experimental studies are very far from constitut-
ing the only foundation for my theory of the sedimentary origin of
the saline formations of the globe. Existing nature offers us in abun-
dance, and on even a vaster scale than was shown in the ancient ages,
phenomena which it is sufficient to analyze to bring forth anew, even
to the slightest details, the manifestations which accompanied and de-
termined the precipitation of saline matters in the estuaries of the an-

832 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cient seas. From among the numerous instances of this kind that
present themselves to my thought, I select three — the mouths of the
Rhone, the Caspian Sea, and the Dead Sea.

The map of the mouths of the Rhone shows that the lands for about
twenty miles from the Mediterranean are cut up by numerous lakes,
the principal of which, that of Valcares, exceeds sixty kilometres in
superficial area. These lakes have been formed by the action of the
alluvial contents of the river, which, being deposited on the bottom of
the sea, have raised bars inclosing bodies of water. The water within
the ponds, evaporating under the summer heat, is depressed in level.
If the ponds were wholly isolated from each other, and had no com-
munication with the sea, there would accumulate in each of them after
a time, varying with its depth, a deposit of gypsum, and above this
one of sea-salt, and so on through the series we have described ; and,
as the ponds are as a rule quite shallow, the saline deposits would all
be thin. Things, however, do not go on thus. Most of the ponds
communicate with each other and with the sea ; consequently, when
the water in them evaporates, the level is re-established with water
that comes from the sea. In this way a pond, the bottom of which is
only a few feet below the level of the sea, would become filled with
saline substances if the canal of communication did not become choked.
The Lake of Lavalduc, the surface of which is several yards below
that of the Mediterranean, is depositing gypsum.

These facts show us saline deposits in process of formation under
our very eyes, and it is not at all necessary, in order to explain their
formation, to invoke changes of relief or any perturbations in the
crust of the globe, but only to take an exact account of the manner
in which a delta is formed, and of the circumstances that are a con-
sequence of that mode of formation ; and, although the delta of the
Rhone is not one of the most extensive of the deltas of the modern
period, it is one of the most remarkable and complete in respect to the
spontaneous formation of saline deposits. If we should go into details,
we should find a complete concordance between what is going on in
the delta of the Rhone and what has been revealed in the study of the
saliferous formations of past ages. Thus, saline deposits are forming
in these more or less wholly isolated ponds : we have, then, a saliferous
horizon in the delta of the Rhone, with the deposits generally sepa-
rated ; on the other hand, each of the deposits nearly always appears
of a lenticular form, because the ponds of the estuaries necessarily,
from the mode of their origin, assume that shape. The same principal
characteristics are presented by most of the beds existing in the sedi-
mentary deposits.

If, now, by any incident, a pond which has been closed and has
deposited its gypsum is again brought into communication with the
sea, life will reappear in it, and mollusks will leave their shells on top
of the gypsum. If evaporation is resumed, life will disappear for a

THE FORMATION OF SALINE MINERAL WATERS. 833

second time, and new strata of gypsum will be precipitated upon the
marls containing the marine shells. This condition is exhibited in the
delta of the Rhone, where the Lavalduc Lake, which has been isolated
from the sea for centuries, has sunk to fifteen metres below its level.
It has a stratum of gypsum on the bottom, and above it is a thick
formation of mud, that has become a true marl where it has dried, at
the base of which, and at a level corresponding with the epoch at
which the water was nearly normal sea-water, marine shells are abun-
dant. It may occasionally happen that a marine estuary, in which a
deposit of gypsum has taken place, shall receive an accession of fresh
instead of salt water, and then we shall have deposits containing fresh-
water fossils above the gypsum. We can see from this how valueless,
as an argument against the theory that gypsums are products of the
evaporation of sea-water, is the assertion, so often put forward in that
guise, that gypsums are sometimes found covered with fresh-water
deposits.

Similar phenomena and another illustration of our theory are ex-
hibited on a colossal scale in the Caspian Sea. On the eastern side of
that sea is the Gulf of Karabogaz, relatively small, but having a super-
ficial area of at least twenty thousand square kilometres. It contains
no living beings except some of the lower organisms, and its shores
are marked by a complete sterility. Its only communication with the
Caspian Sea is by a shallow channel which allows water to flow over
from the sea, but lets none back. The excessive evaporation always
going on in that hot and arid region causes a constant depression of
the level of the water in the gulf, and this induces an incessant flow
from the sea. In the absence of a counter-current from the Karabogaz
to the Caspian, all of the salt that is brought in with the inflowing water
remains in the Karabogaz ; the amount of salt thus regularly added to
the quantity already held there is not less than three hundred and fifty
thousand tons every twenty-four hours. It is easy to prognosticate the
future of this gulf. If the channel of communication is kept open, the
water, now nearly saturated, will continue to deposit gypsum ; but the
constant accession of water from the sea will prevent its reaching for
an extremely long time the degree of concentration that will permit
the deposition of salt. There will in this case be produced in the
Karabogaz a colossal deposit of gypsum, to which no parallel can be
found in the ancient formations. If, on the other hand, the channel
becomes obstructed, evaporation in the Karabogaz will go on more
rapidly, for it receives no important affluent of fresh water. Then,
at the end of a time which will not be prodigious, we shall have a saline
deposit identical with that of Stassf urt, having large masses of gyp-
sum at the bottom, and deliquescent salts with boracic acid at the top.
The latter ending is more likely to be realized ; for the level of the
Caspian Sea itself is falling under the excess of evaporation over the
supply of water brought by the rivers into it, and will at no very dis-
vol. xxi. — 53

834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tant period sink below the level of the bottom of the channel that con-
nects the Karabogaz with it.

The character of the Dead Sea is still in question. M. Lartet, of
Toulouse, who was connected with the expedition of the Due de
Luynes in 1866, fully recognizes the close analogy of its waters with
the mother- waters that are left from the evaporation of the waters of
normal seas ; but he believes that its waters owe their quality to ther-
mal springs, and that the sea never could have been in communication
with the Mediterranean or the Red Sea. He supports his view by the
assumed absence of certain substances common to sea-waters from its
waters ; but, as I have found these substances by analysis in Dead Sea
waters, I consider the argument resting upon that ground invalid. M.
Lortet, of Lyons, has recently made a discovery that indicates that
this lake once formed part of a normal sea. He has found near the
Lake of Tiberias a plateau covered with gravel and rounded pebbles,
situated at the exact level of the Mediterranean Sea. If the body of
water that washed these gravels and pebbles once occupied the valley
of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, then there once existed here a gulf
like that of Karabogaz. Separated from the oceans by some accident,
it has dried up ; its less soluble salts have been gradually deposited in
the shallower parts of the basin and constitute the saline masses which
are now found in the region — products of the sea instead of being the
causes of its saltness ; and the deliquescent salts have become concen-
trated, as in modern estuaries, into the still liquid part that constitutes
a mother-water fully comparable in all respects to the mother-waters
of the salt-marshes of the south of France.

I conclude with a summary of the principal facts to which I have
directed attention.

At the moment when the first crust of consolidation began to form
around our globe, chlorine and sulphur, now existing in combinations,
were in the atmosphere. When the temperature had sufficiently dimin-
ished, these two bodies, reacting on the exterior crust of our globe,
formed, at intervals otherwise extremely distant, combinations (sul-
phates and chlorides) by uniting with the metals that existed and
still exist in the rocks constituting that first envelope. These metals,
combined almost exclusively with sulphur and chlorine, are precisely
the ones (lithium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium) that still
mineralize the waters of the seas. The salts thus formed, dissolved in
the waters from the most ancient age of the aqueous period of our
planet, have, then, a wholly exterior origin. Later, under the influence
of causes often extremely insignificant in themselves, parts of these
seas have been isolated from the oceans ; they have evaporated, and,
according to the degree of completeness in which concentration has
been effected, they have deposited salt-beds sometimes of a complex
enough nature, but which have uniformly presented the typical char-
acter that they begin with deposits of gypsum. Such is the origin of

A PARTNERSHIP OF ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. 835

the saline masses that exist in the interior of our globe. Whenever
waters of infiltration reach these saline deposits, they dissolve more or
less considerable quantities of them, and, when they come out again
into the light, they constitute what are called saline mineral waters.

■♦•»

A PARTNERSHIP OF ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE.

By K. BKANDT.

THE fundamental difference in the feeding of plants and animals
is conditioned on the presence or absence of chlorophyl. Green
plants are competent to assimilate inorganic matter by means of the
chlorophyl-bodies in their leaves, while animals require organic sub-
stances for food. Were this difference mere comprehensive, it would
incontestably be regarded as the most important of all the differences
between the two classes of organisms. But there are, on the one
hand, plants that have no chlorophyl — the fungi ; and, on the other
hand, animals which have been known for a considerable time to con-
tain chlorophyl, as the fresh- water sponge (Spongilla), the hydra, sev-
eral gyrating moners, and many infusorise and rhizopods.

The fungi feed, like animals, on organic matters ; but it is not yet
sufficiently established whether the so-called chlorophyl-bearing ani-
mals can be nourished entirely after the fashion of real plants, by the
assimilation of inorganic matter ; or, in other words, whether, with an
abundant access of air and suitable lighting, they can live in filtered
water. Before we can approach this question more closely, however,
we must decide another equally important one, whether the chloro-
phyl-bodies present in the animals are really elementary parts, mor-
phologically corresponding with vegetable chlorophyl produced by
the animals themselves, or whether they are not unicellular vegetable
organisms parasitic in the animals — in other words, it must be decided
whether the green bodies in animals are parts of cells or are them-
selves cells ; whether they are morphologically and physiologically
dependent on the tissue in which they appear, or independent of it.

Morphological investigation has been pursued upon hydras, spon-
gillas, a planaria, and a number of infusoria, from which the green
bodies have been pinched off and examined with strong magnifying
powers. All the examinations of these different objects have given
the uniform result that the green bodies of animals are not evenly
green like the chlorophyl-bodies of plants, but contain colorless pro-
toplasm besides the green mass, or, at least, a cell-kernel which can
be easily distinguished on treatment with hematoxylin. Among them
were likewise several cell-kernels, which were regarded as evidences
of the beginning^ of division, for normal chlorophyl-cells never con-
tain a cell-kernel.

836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Thus the green bodies of animals do not correspond with the chloro-
phyl-bodies of the algae, but are independent organisms, or one-celled
algae, which have been named zoochlorella. Yellow cells are found
living under similar relations in actinias and radiolarias, which have
been distinguished as zooxanthella.

The physiological as well as morphological independence of the
green cells is also demonstrated by the fact that when separated from
the animals they continued to live in this condition for days and weeks,
and formed starch in the sunlight. When grafted upon hydras and
infusoriae, which were quite free from chiorophyl, they continued to
live upon them.

The conclusion is drawn from these researches that self-formed
chiorophyl is wanting in real animals, and that, when it is present in
their bodies, it originates in plants that have immigrated to them.
The most interesting result from them is the answer they give to the
question as to the significance of the green and yellow algae to the
animals in which they occur. In order to examine this matter more
closely, colonies of radiolarii containing numerous yellow cells were
put into filtered sea-water. They not only continued to live in it, but
outlived the specimens that were left with the other organisms. Now,
since the radiolarii are real animals, incapable of living on any but
organic matter, while in this case air and water afforded them all
the support they required, they could have been kept alive only by
the yellow cells that lived upon them, working up the inorganic sub-
stances that were provided for them, under the influence of light, into
organic. Further experiments showed that fresh-water sponges could
be cultivated to the best advantage in filtered water, thus demonstrat-
ing that the zoochlorella and the zooxanthella are fully competent to
maintain the animals in which thev live. If the animals contain few
or no green or yellow algae, they are fed, like real animals, by the
assimilation of solid organic matter ; but, when they contain algae,
they may be fed, like real plants, by the assimilation of inorganic
matter. In the latter case, the algae living in animals perform pre-
cisely the same function as the chlorophyl-bodies of plants.

-♦■••"♦-

PEOFESSOE EUDOLF VIECHOW.

PEOFESSOE EUDOLF VIECHOW is almost equally well known
as the leader of one of the principal German schools of scientific
thought and as a prominent actor in the field of German politics. In
the former capacity his name is inseparably associated with the theory
of cellular pathology, which he first expounded and which he has
maintained with eminent consistency ; in the latter character he has
gained an honorable fame as a faithful guardian of the municipal in-

PROFESSOR RUDOLF VIRCHOW. 837

terests of the city of Berlin, and as a brave and outspoken parlia-
mentary leader on the side of liberality and progress.

Professor Virchow was born at Schievelbein, in Pomerania, on the
13th of October, 1821. He studied medicine at the Frederick- Wil-
helms Institute in Berlin, and was graduated in that faculty from the
University of Berlin in 1843. He was made prosector of the Charite
Hospital in 1846, and in the following year was appointed a regular
lecturer in the university. In 1848 he was commissioned by the Gov-
ernment to visit Upper Silesia and study the typhus fever which was
prevailing there as an epidemic, the result of misery and starvation.
His report on this subject commanded attention at once, and is still
held in high esteem by the medical profession and by all who are con-
cerned with sanitary science.

To this period of Virchow's life belongs the establishment of the
" Archiv f tir pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und f iir Kli-
nische Medicin," which was founded by Virchow and Bernhardt in
1848, and has been continued by Virchow since Reinhardt's death in
1852 ; and of the "Medical Reform," which he conducted in connec-
tion with Leubuscher in 1848 and 1849. The " Archiv" is still con-
tinued, under Virchow's direction, and is recognized as one of the
chief and authoritative medical jou^xials of the world. To this period
belongs also his entrance into active political life on the awakening of
his republican enthusiasm by the revolutionary movements of 1848
and 1849. He formed a democratic club, became a popular orator,
and was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, to which, how-
ever, he was not admitted, because he had not yet reached the age of
eligibility. The reaction came on, and Herr Virchow, whose partici-
pation in the revolutionary movement was not agreeable to the pow-
ers whom it displaced for a time, and who had the control of the pub-
lic positions he held, was removed from his lectureship. He could
not, however, stay dispossessed ; the medical societies insisted upon
his recall, and he was reinstated by the force of his obvious fitness
for his position. He accepted an invitation to the chair of Patho-
logical Anatomy at the University of Wtlrzburg, and removed there.
The Government, however, could not spare him from Berlin, and Herr
Manteuffel called him back to his old chair in the university in 1856.
He then became director of the newly founded Pathological Institute,
and soon raised it to the first rank among such establishments, and
made it a center of independent investigations for numerous young
students. While at Wtirzburg he published his " Collection of Con-
tributions to Scientific Medicine," of which the leading paper, on " The
Movement in Favor of Unity in Scientific Medicine," which, previ-
ously published separately, had already attracted much attention from
the scientific world, revealed the tendencies and direction of thought
by which his subsequent career was to be determined. Professor Vir-
chow's most distinguished services to science have been given in the

838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

field of pathological anatomy, in which he is generally recognized as
the founder of the theory of cellular pathology. The character and
value of his work in this field are reviewed by Professor Jacobi, of this
city, in his address before the New York College of Physicians and
Surgeons. He remarks that, before and about the time when Virchow
was preparing to commence his career, medical science in Germany
was by no means independent and self-governing. There was no coun-
try in Europe in which observation and regard for facts, and facts
only, were less esteemed than in Germany. England had enjoyed a
predilection for pathological anatomy since John Hunter. France had
lived through its most brilliant medical career, and could show a roll
of illustrious, sober, and painstaking men, whose successful labors had
placed the medical science of that country far above the level of any
other. " Meanwhile, German medicine was controlled by what was
called philosophy, and mainly by the so-called philosophy of nature.
. . . Everything in medicine, not accepted because it was old and tra-
ditional, was a matter of speculation a priori only. The bases of
speculation were premises construed by reasoning, not founded on
facts ; by theories not built on experience, far less on experimentation.
Both facts and experimentation were claimed by Virchow as the only
admissible foundations of scientific medicine, no matter how long it
would take to collect them or to establish them. At the same time he
was perfectly well aware that the literature of the last two thousand
years contained a great many available points ; nobody ever was more
honest in collecting material or giving credit."

Virchow wrote in the first volume of his " Archiv," in 1847: " We
ought not to deceive ourselves or each other in regard to the present
condition of medical science. Unmistakablv, medical men are sick of
the large number of new hypothetical systems which are thrown aside
as rubbish, only to be replaced by similar ones. We shall soon per-
ceive that observation and experiments only have a permanent value.
Then, not as the outgrowth of personal enthusiasm, but as the result
of the labors of many close investigators, pathological physiology
will find its sphere. It will prove the fortress of scientific medicine,
the outworks of which are pathological anatomy and clinical research."

The cell had been discovered to be the fundamental basis, by
Schleiden, of the vegetable, and, by Schwann, of the animal tissues.
Virchow, after a series of observations and experiments, became con-
vinced that the cell had the power of propagating and multiplying
itself within the individual, and proved that it is the physical body
"with which the action of mechanical substance is connected, and
within which the latter can retain its functions, which alone justify
the name of life. Whatever outside of the cell acts upon it, works a
mechanical or chemical change within it, which change is disorder or
disease." The external cause may excite a reaction within the cell,
when it works as an irritant, or it may go without reaction, when it

PROFESSOR RUDOLF VIRCHOW. 839

is a simple lesion or a source of paralysis, the difference in results
being dependent upon a difference in the condition of different cells.
This difference in the condition of the cell forms its predisposition.
Previous to this, the old humoral theories which regarded the whole
compound mass had held more or less sway in medical practice, and
the recognition of diseases as local anomalies had made but slow prog-
ress. A few workers, from Yesal and Paracelsus down, had gradually
given shape to the local theory, and Virchow claimed that his cellular
pathology was a consistent carrying out of the principles they had
established. In it the localization of disease was taken as a necessity,
and its seat was fixed in the smallest composing element, or the cell.
Therapeutics have also undergone important changes in the light of
this theory, and under the guidance of experimental methods, and have
become vastly more exact and efficient, and local in application. Thus
far, Dr. Jacobi asserts, every new discovery of pathological facts has
found a ready explanation by the cellular theory and its methods.
" The changes worked in and by the white blood-cells, the transmuta-
tion of epithelial cells into benign results or malignant growths, the
influence, real or imaginary, worked by bacteria, have but strengthened
its plausibility."

An antagonism to Virchow has apparently been assumed by some
of the partisans of the bacterial theory of infectious diseases which
has no real basis for existence. No discrepancy need exist between a
theory which regards disease as a disorder of the cells and the one
which finds in the bacteria an external agency provoking and promot-
ing cell-disorder. The publication of an essay on parasitic plants, in
the first volume of Virchow's " Pathology and Therapeutics," in 1854,
shows that his attention had been directed to the subject even then.
In 1856, also, a paper was published by him, in the " Archiv," on the
botanical nature and classification of some forms of parasites to which
an important part in nosology was to be attributed, on which occasion
he invented and first used the term " mycosis," which has since been
generally adopted. Brauell's papers on the bacterial parasite of an-
thrax, following up the researches of Davaine and Pollender, appeared
in the eleventh and fourteenth volumes of the " Archiv," and were
followed by numerous papers in that and other journals. Obermeier
found the spirochete in the blood of relapsing fever, in Virchow's
hospital division, in 1873.

Virchow himself has said on this subject, in answer to an attack
by his former pupil Klebs : " Vegetable and animal parasites are
among the causes of disease. Their place is in etiology, and there-
fore it is easily conceived that, as Klebs expresses himself, they found
no place in my cellular pathology. There it was not any more my
domain to offer an extensive paper on parasites than it was to treat of
traumatic injuries and corrosions. In my cellular pathology I meant
to demonstrate the changes which take place in the elements of the

840 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

organism in the general forms of disease. Thus, I meant to build up
a theory of the essentiality of disease. Specific causes were mentioned
only as examples — for instance, intoxication ; and, though but briefly
alluded to, parasites have not been entirely overlooked."

His attitude toward Darwinism has been likewise misapprehended.
Far from being an opponent of Darwinism, he should be regarded as
one of its forerunners, for, as early as 1849, in his "Movement in
Favor of Unity in Scientific Medicine," he spoke of the origin of life
as a mechanical necessity ; and in 1858, a year before the publication
of Darwin's " Origin of Species," he pointed, in an oration which was
afterward printed in 1862, with three other orations on "Life" and
" Disease," to the changeability and transmutability of species as a
necessary basis for the mechanical theory of life. But, when Haeckel
insisted upon the inclusion of the theories of natural selection among
the subjects to be taught in the public elementary schools, Virchow
objected that only established facts and results, not theories, should
be taught in the public schools.

To Haeckel's contradictions of religious faith Virchow is able to
return a tacit answer, by adhering to what he wrote more than thirty
years ago, that " faith does not admit of a scientific discussion, for
science and faith exclude each other. Not to such an extent, however,
that one of them renders the other an impossibility, but in such a way
that, within the range of science, there is no place for faith ; and the
latter can commence only where the former ends. It need not be
denied that, if this boundary -line be respected, faith may have actual
objects. It is not, therefore, the domain of science to attack faith or
its objects ; but its duty is to mark and consolidate the present ter-
mination of knowledge."

Among the earlier papers written by Virchow and published in his
first collections were some on different features and diseases of the
skull and brain. These were followed by other cranial studies, and
thus the physician was led to the study of anthropology, archaeology,
and paleontology. He was one of the founders of the German Archa3-
ological Society, which was organized at the meeting of the German
naturalists at Innspriick in 1869, and he became the president of the
society in 1870. He has also been the leader of the Berlin Anthro-
pological Society since 1869, and has himself undertaken extensive and
important researches. Having become engaged in a controversy with
Quatrefages respecting the origin of the Prussian race (Quatrefages
maintaining that it was of Finnic descent), he instituted those inves-
tigations, among the school-children of Germany, into the relative
prevalence of blondes and brunettes, which have proved very interest-
ing in their progress and results, and which have been taken up in
other states. As a member of the Academy of Sciences, to which he
was elected in 1873, he read important anthropological papers in 1875
and 1876 ; and in the latter year delivered an address at the meeting

PROFESSOR RUDOLF VIRCHOW. 841

of the German naturalists on the present position of anthropology, in
which he maintained that that branch, although one of the youngest
of the sciences, already occupied as advanced a position as many of
the older branches of study. He opposed the idea that the people
now lowest in development must necessarily fade away when they
come into contact with civilization, and showed that it was contra-
dicted by the history of the Europeans themselves. If the civilized
people of the present day be considered as the product of a higher de-
velopment, he said, we can not regard the possibility of such a devel-
opment as a cause of the extinction of such people as are now on the
same platform of culture which we ourselves once occupied. He took
an active interest in the investigations of Dr. Schliemann in the Troad,
and spent some time there, participating in the work, in 1879. He
gave particular attention to the formations of the swamps in the
neighborhood, and of the building-stones, and showed that they were
all of fresh-water origin, thus conclusively putting to rest, it was held,
the objections of those who, opposed to the view that Hissarlik repre-
sented the site of ancient Troy, that, at the time of the Trojan war,
the place must have been covered by the sea, or too near it to permit
the movements described in the Iliad. While here, he gave valuable
medical aid to the people of the region.

Professor Virchow has labored actively for the spread of scientific
knowledge among the people. He was for a long time a member of
the body of instructors to the Berlin Workingmen's Union, and in
that capacity published, in connection with Holtzendorff, a collection
of popular scientific treatises.

The scientific side, although there is enough of it to fill up an
ordinary human life, is only one side of Professor Virchow's career.
His life is equally full on the political and practical side. Since 1859
he has been an alderman of the city of Berlin, and has in that capacity
given conscientious attention to the details of the government and wants
of the municipality. In direct reference to this office he has written
many papers on subjects of hygiene, drainage, and sewerage, marked
alike by scientific thoroughness and by adaptation to local wants. He
was elected a member of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies in 1862,
having the choice between the seats for three constituencies offered to
him, and has served in that body with distinction ever since. He at
once took the lead among those who opposed the arbitrary measures
of Bismarck and his despotic assumptions ; and has continued one of
the most vigorous and formidable antagonists of that minister. In
January, 1863, he proposed and secured the acceptance of an address
accusing the ministers of having violated the constitution. In 1865 his
opposition was so energetic that there was talk of Herr Bismarck's chal-
lenging him to a duel. He did not, however, assume an extreme demo-
cratic position, but accepted the constitution with the reservation of
the right of protest against objectionable measures which might be pro-

842 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

posed under it. The events of 1866 cast his party into the shade for
a time, but he gradually resumed, in the enlarged Prussia, his opposi-
tion to the measures of military rule and centralization. In 1869 he
made a proposition in favor of an international disarmament, which
was of course rejected. He was elected a deputy to the Diet of the
North-German Confederation, and afterward of the German Empire,
but declined both calls on account of his objections to the constitu-
tionality of those political creations. He, however, consented to enter
the Reichstag in 1880, as a member from one of the conscriptions of
Berlin. He was the author of the expression " KultiirTtampf" — battle
for culture — in connection with the controversy with the papal power,
which was so long a political watchword in Germany. His political
work, well performed as it was, was never allowed to interfere with
his scientific pursuits, which he regarded as his proper and serious
labor, but it often appeared to him, he says, " to be rather a recreation
than otherwise." In 1872 he replied with a refusal to an invitation
by a German society to withdraw from the French scientific societies
of which he was a member, declaring that a rupture of the scientific re-
lations between the two countries would be contrary to the interests of
civilization, of science, and of humanity. He was a member of the
Sanitary Associations of Berlin during the wars of 1866 and 1870, or-
ganized the first Prussian sanitary train, and had a part in the organi-
zation of several military and other hospitals. He is the author of
new laws in reference to the contagious diseases of animals and to
fisheries. Last year he was one of the speakers at a public meeting to
do honor to the memory of our murdered President, James A. Gar-
field.

Professor Virchow's published works are numerous. A large pro-
portion of them consist of special papers on medical subjects, many
of which have appeared from time to time in the " Archiv," or are
included in the two collections of " Contributions to Scientific Medi-
cine " (1857) and "Treatises connected with State Medicine and Epi-
demiology" (1879). Important studies of prevalent disorders and.
epidemics are embodied in his report on the famine in the Spessart
(Bavaria), the typhoid fever in Silesia, and leprous affections in Nor-
way, and in his essays on cholera and trichinosis. His " Cellular
Pathology," which forms the first volume of his " Lectures on Pathol-
ogy," in four volumes, has been translated into several languages.
" The Pathology of Tumors " (three volumes, 1863-1867) is the most
exhaustive and comprehensive work on that subject. Works of a
more general character are "Goethe as a Naturalist" (1861), "Na-
tional Development and the Importance of the Natural Sciences"
(1865), "The Education of Women for their Vocation" (1865), "The
Problems of the Natural Sciences in the New National Life of Ger-
many " (1871), and "The Liberty of Science in the Modern State"
(1877).

EDITOR'S TABLE.

843

EDITOR'S TABLE.

MATTHEW '. ARNOLD ON LITERATURE
AND SCIENCE.

IT was hardly to be supposed that
Professor Huxley's address at the
opening of Sir Josiah Mason's College
would be left without some attempt at a
formal answer. The bare establishment
of a collegiate institution, from which
"mere literary instruction" was ex-
cluded, was not in itself very important,
as it is not expected that mechanical,
technical, and industrial schools will
give much attention to literature at any
rate. But when literary education, as
a method of culture, was attacked as
narrow and inadequate, and another
method more liberal, more efficient,
based upon science, and claiming supe-
riority upon that ground, was forcibly
presented so as to elicit extensive as-
sent, the challenge to the devotees of
literary cultivation could not be passed

by.

In tjiis crisis, Mr. Matthew Arnold
comes forward as the champion of lit-
erature. His position was recognized
by Professor Huxley as among the fore-
most in English literature, and he
quoted from him the positions to be
contested. Mr. Arnold was therefore
in a sense called out, and he has made
his response in an address before the
Cambridge University, which we re-
print from the " Fortnightly Review."
We are interested in seeing how an
eminent literary man deals with the
two methods of study, and from this
point of view the discussion will justify
some comment.

Mr. Arnold first deplores what he
considers the crusade of science against
literature; and then tries to make out
that, properly considered, there is no
ground of controversy. But, because
he does not or will not see the other

side, is not a sufficient reason for de-
nying its existence. There is undoubt-
edly a broad issue at the present time
between literature and science, as dis-
tinctive methods of mental culture.
The literary method grew up and was
carried to great perfection by the crea-
tion of the masterpieces of literary art
long before science appeared. That
method has continued to the present
time as a separate influence, and with
a distinctive ideal in the traditional
systems of education. It is undeni-
able that, as our colleges are consti-
tuted, a liberal, classical, literary edu-
cation can be obtained with but very
little knowledge of science, and it
is notorious that great multitudes ac-
quire a comprehensive literary culture
while remaining as ignorant of the sci-
ences as they would have been in the
scholastic ages. If there is to be any
comparison of methods, their charac-
teristics must be limited and defined,
and certainly there is no difficulty in
distinguishing the quality of literary
cultivation.

Mr. Arnold had said, " In our culture
the aim being to know ourselves and the
world, we have, as the means to this
end, to know the best that has been
thought and said in the world." It is
fair to infer that the word "best" is
here to be interpreted by the literary
standard — not by everything that has
been thought and said, but by the
" best," that is the choicest, the finest,
the most excellent, as found in the su-
preme literary performances of both
the ancient and modern mind. That
this was Mr. Arnold's meaning is evi-
dent from another passage quoted by
Professor Huxley. He says : " Europe
is to be regarded as now being, for in-
tellectual and spiritual purposes, one

844

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

great confederation bound to a joint
action and working to a common re-
sult; and whose members have for
their common outfit a knowledge of
Greek, Bo man, and Eastern antiquity
and of one another. Special local and
temporary advantages being put out ot
account, that modern nation will in the
intellectual and spiritual sphere make
most progress which most thoroughly
carries out this programme."

From this Professor Huxley dis-
sents and declares that he finds himself
" wholly unable to admit that either
nations or individuals will really ad-
vance, if their common outfit draws
nothing from the stores of physical
science. An army without weapons of
precision, and with no particular base
of operations, might more hopefully
enter upon a campaign on the Khine,
than a man devoid of knowledge of
what physical science has done in the
last century upon a criticism of life."

To this Mr. Arnold replies by flatly
repudiating the accepted interpretation
of the scope of literary culture ; lie
would even so widen it as to include all
science. lie says : " When I speak of
knowing Greek and Eoman antiquity
as a help to knowing ourselves and the
world, I mean more than a knowledge
of so much vocabulary, so much gram-
mar, so many portions of authors in the
Greek and Latin languages. I mean
knowing the Greeks and Eomans, and
their life and genius, and what they
were and did in the world. . . . By
knowing modern nations, I mean not
merely knowing their belles-lettres, but
knowing also what has been done by
such men as Copernicus, Galileo, New-
ton, Darwin." And further, "in the
best that has been thought and said in
the world, I certainly include what in
modern times has been thought and
said by the great observers and knowers
of nature." That is, science disappears
as a separate intellectual interest by
its complete absorption in literature:
neat but unsatisfactory.

Mr. Arnold is quite aware of his
disadvantage in dealing with Professor
Huxley, who is strong in both litera-
ture and science, and he repeatedly re-
fers to the slenderness and deficiency
of his own scientific attainments. But,
had he been more perfectly aware of
them, he would hardly have ventured
upon this mode of escaping from the
issues that have arisen between literary
and scientific culture. Had he better
understood what is meant by the scien-
tific method, he would not have tried
to stretch the literary method so as to
embrace and incorporate it.

Without asserting that the relations
of these two methods of culture are es-
sentially antagonistic, it remains true
that they are so profoundly different
that they are not to be confounded or
identified. By literature we mean, and
rightly mean, the study of books of
language, of the arts of expression and
criticism, and familiarity with the most
perfect written productions, as such,
whether in prose or poetry, that have
been produced in all time. And liter-
ature as a method of mental culture is
simply a training in these Various ac-
quisitions and exercises.

But the scientific method which has
arisen in modern times began in an
open and declared revolt against this
mode of occupying the human mind.
It involved new objects, new proced-
ures, and new disciplines of thought.
Seeing that the mind for ages had been
arrested at verbal studies, and had
failed in the production of solid knowl-
edge, men began to demand an advance
to the actual study of things. This is
the essence of the scientific method,
and it has achieved its great results
only by repudiating the old literary
occupations, and proceeding directly to
the research of nature. The sciences
have arisen, knowledge has been ex-
tended, power over nature conferred,
and a new civilization created only by
concentrating thought upon the reali-
ties of experience instead of studying

EDITOR'S TABLE.

845

nature, life, and man, as they are rep-
resented in literature. To incorporate
the scientific method with the method
of literature is impossible ; to subordi-
nate it to that method is to destroy it.
That which is obtained from books
alone, without an acquaintance with
phenomena, is not true science but
sham science. Scientific culture is a
training and a grounding in the scien-
tific method, a mental habit of observ-
ing, analyzing, and comparing the act-
ual facts, and the advantages of this
method can only be gained by a dis-
tinctly recognized, independent, and
systematic culture.

How different and how contrasted
the literary and scientific methods real-
ly are, becomes again apparent when
we observe the feelings to which they
respectively give rise. Mr. Arnold con-
tinually refers in his article to two ele-
ments of human nature to be satisfied
by culture, the sense for beauty and the
sense for conduct; but he nowhere
speaks of the sense for truth, and this,
obviously because truth, as an object of
feeling, does not enter into the literary
ideal. It was, in fact, because literature
as a method had never cared for truth,
and had no interest in the search for it,
that the need for science arose to re-
pair the omission ; and science has only
advanced as the feeling for truth has
been developed and deepened. To the
man of letters, devoted to the beautiful,
the fine in art, and the pleasing in life,
the scientific passion for truth is unin-
telligible and very naturally repugnant.
The annals of literature are full of the
aversion of its cultivators to science and
all that belongs to it. The last example
is given by Mr. Boyesen, who talked
mucU with the poet Longfellow, and
has printed some of his chronicles in
the " Christian Union." He says of
Mr. Longfellow: "The scientific ques-
tions which agitate the intellectual at-
mosphere of the century also left him
cold; and if they were touched upon
in his presence he ^soon showed by the

, vagueness of his answers that the topic
was not congenial to him. His thoughts
moved in a purely literary sphere, and
I believe I do him no injustice if I say
that life interested him primarily in its
relation to literature. He was of opin-
ion that Goethe made a mistake in de-
voting so much of his energy to scien-
tific pursuits, and that his later works
(particularly ' Elective Affinities ' and
his second part of ' Faust ') were much
injured by the influence of his scientific
theories." This dislike of science means
nothing more than intense devotion to
an ideal that is foreign to science. But,
on the other hand, the scientific ideal
gives rise to emotions of its own, of
equal if not even greater intensity.
The history of science has proved that
the love of truth is one of the strongest
passions of human nature. It has abun-
dantly proved that men will forego all
the lower and common enjoyments of
life, when that becomes necessary, to
promote the attainment of truth. So
powerful may this feeling become that
the customary selfish pleasures and am-
bitions of men seem trivial and con-
temptible in comparison ; and who will
say that this love of truth, which is the
inspiration of the scientific method, is
not the noblest impulse that can ani-
mate the mind of man ?

But, when half through his address,
Mr. Arnold does find an issue between
literature and science. He says : " But
it is proposed to make the training in
natural science the main part of educa-
tion, for the great majority of mankind
at any rate. And here, I confess, I
part company with the friends of phys-
ical science, with whom, up to this
point, I have been agreeing. ... At
present it seems to me that those who
are for giving to natural knowledge,
as they call it, the chief place in the
education of the majority of mankind,
leave one important thing out of their
account, the constitution of human nat-
ure." Knowledge, he admits, is inter-
esting, and much of it important, but it

846

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

comes in fragments, and Mr. Arnold
thinks there is something in hnman
nature that desires "to relate these
pieces of knowledge to our sense for
conduct, to our sense for beauty." And
again : " We feel, as we go on learning
and knowing, the vast majority of man-
kind feel, the need of relating what we
have learned and known to the sense
we have in us for conduct, to the sense
we have in us for beauty."

But, if Mr. Arnold had gone on to
say and to the sense we have in us for
truth, he would have struck an element
in human nature more potent than any
other for bringing the disjointed frag-
ments of knowledge into harmony and
unity. It is that use of the faculties
which has led to the creation of knowl-
edge which must be trusted to bring it
into the most perfect relations. Mr.
Arnold parts company with science in
the name of the demands of human
nature, but our first demand concerning
human nature is that it shall be under-
stood. Literature never explained it —
could not explain it, because the study
of principles and laws, and the decom-
position of complex things into their
elements, and finding out the truth, were
not embraced in its method. In part-
ing company with the students of
science on such grounds, Mr. Arnold
virtually concedes that they have a
method of their own, though a method
which he can not approve. He raises
the issue of superiority, but he does not
settle it. He expatiates on the utilities
of literature, but he offers no proof that
its past ascendency is still justified, be-
cause he seems to have no true or ade-
quate conception of the claims of the
scientific method. "We point, on the
other hand, to what science has done
for mankind as evidence of the greater
things it may yet be expected to do,
and to the soundness, comprehensive-
ness, and thoroughness of the training
which it enforces in proof of its supe-
riority in the preparation of men for
the intelligent discharge of their duties

to themselves, to their families, to so-
ciety, and to humanity.

THE MONTREAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING.

The American Association for the
Advancement of Science held its annual
meeting this year in Montreal, under the
able presidency of Dr. J. W. Dawson,
Principal of McGill College, and emi-
nent as a geologist and paleontologist.
The gathering was large, the various
sections were strongly represented, and
the labors of the scientific body every-
way successful. A large number of pa-
pers were registered, many of them im-
portant, and they were got well through
with, notwithstanding the tendency to
consume time in their discussion.

The American Association met at
Montreal twenty-five years ago, and
had an excellent convention at that
time. But the changes of a quarter of
a century have been marked. Strong
men have passed away, and new men
of no less promise have taken their
places. Old scientific questions have
taken on new aspects, and new ques-
tions have come to the front. The city
whose hospitalities were so liberal in
1857 has become a much larger and
more beautiful city in the interval, and
the generous reception given to the
large body of strangers shows that the
prosperity of Montreal has not been at
the expense of its liberal spirit and hos-
pitable feeling. We print the excel-
lent address of Professor Brush, given
upon his retirement from the presi-
dency of the Association. His theme
was well chosen, and, if less ambitious
than those frequently taken on these
occasions, it was none the less instruct-
ive and important. Mineralogy is not
one of the show sciences, that attract
much popular attention, but it is a sci-
ence of profound interest and great
economic importance, and Professor
Brush could not have chosen better
than to give us this admirable account
of its American progress.

LITERARY NOTICES.

847

LITERARY NOTICES.

Natural Religion. By the author of
uEcce Homo."' Boston: Roberts Broth-
ers. Pp. 251. Price, $1.25.

This little book, by Professor J. R. See-
ley, of the Cambridge University (England),
deserves the most serious consideration on
the part of all who care for the higher
questions of modern controversy. Some of
its chapters first appeared in " Macmillan's
Magazine," and were reprinted in the
"Monthly," while the author's name was
unknown. But they were evidently by a
man of power, insight, independence, and
great catholicity of spirit ; and they handled
the exciting and even the exasperating
questions of the time, not only with a strik-
ing originality, but with a forecast of new
agreements most encouraging to all who
are concerned about the religious progress
of mankind. The great distinctions and
differences over which people are quarrel-
ing and disputing in the religious and anti-
religious world Professor Seeley does not
regard as finalities. Under severe critical
examination, they diminish and are found
to have no justification in the truth of
things. The work is one of the most com-
posing and harmonizing that has appeared
in this age. That the writer deals with the
most radical problems of religious thought
is shown in the titles of his chapters. In
Part I the subjects treated are: (1) "God
in Nature," (2) " The Abuse of the Word
Atheism," (3) The words "Theology and
Religion," (4) "The Three Kinds of Re-
ligion," (5) " Natural Religion in Practice,"
while in Part IT the questions discussed
are : (1) " Religion and the World," (2) " Re-
ligion and Culture," (3) " Natural Christian-
ity," (4) " Natural Religion and the State,"
(5) " Natural Religion and the Church."

Holding this book to be of unusual im-
portance, we are desirous of conveying to
our readers a fuller account of it than we
can p'repare, or are in the habit of allowing
in these pages, and we therefore reprint
the review of it which appeared in the Lon-
don " Athenaeum " of July 29th :

If it be the function of genius to interpret
the age to itself, this is a work of genius. It
gives articulate expression to the higher striv-
ings of the time. It p»ts plainly the problem
of these latter days, and so far contributes to

its solution ; a positive solution it scarcely
claims to supply. No such important contri-
bution to the question of the time has been
published in England since the appearance, in
1866, of "Ecce Homo." That the same man
should have written both books, that none but
himself can be his parallel, argues a unique
order of mind. He is a teacher whose words it
is well to listen to. His words are wise but sad;
it has not been given him to fire them with faith,
but only to light them with reason. His readers
may at least thank him for the intellectual illu-
mination, if they can not owe him gratitude for
any added fervor.

The object of this book, one might say with
logical precision, is to extend the connotation
of the term "religion." It groups together all
the great idealisms— art, science, culture— and
claims that these are natural religion. Thus, ac-
cording to this author, everything that takes us
beyond and above our selfish aims is religion.
The opposition between science and theology
becomes vain and of no effect: both are forms of
religion. The indifference of art for the conven-
tions is but another form of the struggle against
worldliness, and here again art and religion join
hands. " Wer Wissenschaft und Kunst beeitzt,"
said Goethe, and our author repeats the saying
with approval, " hat auch Religion." Professor
Huxley and Mr. Burne Jones will be somewhat
surprised to find themselves regarded as great
lights in the religious world. The old triad of
ideals— the good, the true, and the beautiful-
are classed by this observer under the one genus
of religion.

Turning to the practical side of the book, we
have the demand that the Church should learn
the error of her ways in not recognizing her
two companions in the struggle against the
lower life, and should renounce the parts of her
doctrine that conflict with their ideals. The
idea of development must be applied to religion
as to everything else, and the conception of
prophecy be revived in the modern form of a
philosophy of history. Let the cultured classes
teach culture, which is religion, to the lower
classes, who will otherwise lapse into Nihilism;
and let the cultured nations of Christendom
spread the light of religion till one great bond
of civilization span the earth. Above all. if we
wish to master the art of life, let us study the
experiments that have been made by time in the
field of history, and learn the lessons of '• philos-
ophy teaching by example."

Such, in main outline, are the theorems and
problems of this brilliant book. The boldness
of the eirenicon can not but strike every reader;
but the age is bold in these matters, and this
quality is only another mark of the timeliness
of the book. In looking at its practicability,
however, a critic has to remember that, while it
takes two parties to make a quarrel, it also re-
quires two to patch one up. Our author is want-
ing in one of the qualities of the peace-maker
that are almost necessary for the due perform-
ance of his office : he lacks sympathy with one
of the sides. He is entirely on the side opposed

848

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to the angels, and assumes too confidently that
supernatural religion is spiritually defunct, and
its advocates ready to own their in efficiency. He
is candid and clear-sighted, and sees distinctly
that what he calls religion will be called in turn
pantheism and paganism by "religious " people.
But he trusts too readily that they will be con-
vinced that, in using these names, they are mis-
calling persons of practically the same creed as
themselves. He greatly underrates, one can
not help thinking, the power that such concep-
tions as miracles, and heaven and hell, exert
upon minds that have once firmly grasped them.
At times this miscalculation leads him to adopt
a tone toward the adherents of supernatural
religion which is, to say the least of it, by no
means conciliatory. Take, for instance, the fol-
lowing sentence :

"The Eternal and the Infinite and the All-
embracing has been represented as the head of
the clerical interest, as a sort of clergyman, as
a sort of schoolmaster, as a sort of philan-
thropist."

The reminiscence of Mr. Matthew Arnold
might remind our author that Mr. Arnold has
scarcely reconciled Dissent, however he may
have undermined it. In short, our author ap-
pears to agree with Goethe, when he cynically
concludes the above-quoted epigram :

" Wer Wissenchaft und Kunst nicht besitzt
Der habe Religion."

Further, our author is scarcely so successful
in showing the fundamental identity of art and
religion as of science and religion. When touch-
ing on the latter point he draws some instructive
and novel analogies between the creed of science
and the faith of the Old Testament :

" I say that man believes in a God who feels
himself in the presence of a Power which is not
hime elf. and is immeasurably above himself; a
Power in the contemplation of which he is ab-
sorbed, in the knowledge of which he finds safety
and happiness."

" But now, either under the name of God, or
under that of Nature, or under that of Science.
or under that of Law, the conception works
freshly and powerfully in a multitude of minds.
It is an idea, indeed, that causes much unhappi-
ness, much depression. Men now reason with
God as Job did, or feel crushed before bim as
Mo?es, or wrestle with him as Jacob, or blas-
pheme him ; they do not so easily attain the
Christian hope."

" We have spoken of science as replacing
miracle ; prophecy it does not so much replace
as restore. As it. grasps human affairs with more
confidence, it begins to unravel the past, and with
the past the future. It shows the significance
of each new social or political phase as the He-
brew prophets studied to do."

These quotations may serve to illustrate the
author's main contentions as to the relation of
science and religion. But it is more difficult to
explain his views as to the connection of the ar-
tistic and religious ideals. He points out the
great influence of the poet on the higher life of

the time, reviving Mr. Arnold's " criticism of
life " view ; and he recognizes tne ideal tenden-
cies of the Antinomianism that is generally as-
sociated with artistic impulses. But he almost
invariably regards art as solely dealing with
beautiful objects of sight, and thus bringing it
into contact with the scientific observation of
nature. We have throughout observed not one
word devoted to music, yet there are thousands
nowadays with whom the cultus of rhythmic
and harmonic sounds has usurped the place of
almost all other worship, and a work on natural
religion should have taken notice of their case.
And on art in general, barring a few excellent
pages on Goethe and Wordsworth, little is said
that justifies the position given her alongside of
science and religion. That position may be de-,
served ; but the arguments brought forward in
this book do not show adequate appreciation of
the artistic mind.

Apart from this lack of sympathy with the
orthodox schools of religious opinion, and an
inadequate estimate of the artistic ideal, it is
possible to find fault with other lines of the ar-
gument. There is, perhaps, a certain amount
of professional exaggeration in the estimate
formed of the historian's office. It is, to say the
least, paradoxical to assert, "It is not exclu-
sively, but only par excellence, that religion is
directed toward God." It is obscuring a funda-
mental distinction to include, as our author often
does, humanity in nature. The argument from
Mohammedanism, that there may be a religion
without miracles (p. 192), may be turned another
way, when we reflect how inevitably the earliest
traditions introduced miraculous events into the
life of the Prophet. And interesting as is the
attempt to widen the meaning of religion, it too
often results in mere paradox, and manages only
to evade difficulties by denying that they exist,
Still the aim of the author, which is to point out
the large amount of agreement among conflicting
parties, is perfectly legitimate, and permits a
certain exaggeration in looking only at common
qualities, and neglecting divergencies.

Turning to the more pleasant and more prof-
itable task of pointing out the many novel ideas
and brilliant thoushts contained in this book,
one has first to notice the power of acute social
diagnosis that is throughout displayed. Take,
for instance, the following remme of the scien-
tific temper :

"Instead of that painful conflict with tempta-
tion which moralists describe, there may be an
almost unbroken peace arising from the absence
of temptation ; instead of the gradual formation
of virtuous habits, there may be the gradual dis-
use of all habits except the habit of thought and
study; there may be perpetual self-absorption,
without what is commonly called selfishness,
total disregard of other people, together with an
unceasing labor for the human race. A life, in
short, like that of the vestal, ' the world forget-
ting, by the world forgot,' yet without any love
or heavenly communion."

Or, again, take the few but weighty words
dealing with Nihilism ; or the account of the

LITERARY NOTICES.

849

epidemic character of crime ; or the remarks on
the rise of self-distrust consequent on the decline
of authority; or the view that the modern school-
master is a kind of professional parent. And
joined to this power of observation is found the
power of expressing its results in short, pithy
phrases or sentences that stick in the memory.
"Life is interesting if not happy" is a whole
answer to Mr. Mallock. " Is life but a liveli-
hood ? " is a home-thrust at a certain school of
politicians. " Worship is habitual admiration "
is not likely to be bettered for some time as a
working definition.

Nowadays one is not allowed to call a book
brilliant unless it says some witty and therefore
spiteful things. Even these are not wanting in
the pages of " Natural Religion." Let us cull a
few that display this quality:

" If you want to see the true white-heat of
controversial passion — if you want to see men
fling away the very thought of reconciliation, and
close in internecine conflict, yon should look at
controversialists who do not differ at all, but who
have adopted different words to express the same
opinion."

" What should we think, then, if its name and
its glories formed the staple of our religious wor-
ship, if our church-goers sang, ' Oh, pray for
the peace of England— they shall prosper that
love thee1 ?"

" ' Erudition ' and ' philosophy ' are terms of
contempt in their mouths. They denounce the
former as a busy idleness, and the latter as a
sham wisdom, consistingmainly of empty words,
and offering solutions either imaginary cr unin-
telligible of problems which are either imaginary
or unintelligible themselves."

But of far more iaiportance than these isolat-
ed instances of acuteness of thought or phrase
are the many new positions taken up in this
book. The distinction between theology and
religion has never been brought so clearly into
connection with the difference between scientific
and imaginative knowledge. The three different
phases of atheism — by which term is meant by
this author want of adaptation to the environ-
ment—are excellently discriminated.

It may cause some surprise, but can not fail
to cause as much enlightenment, to find our au-
thor, most modern of the moderns as he is, advo-
cating the closest possi bl3 union between Chu rch
and state, and defending his position by all the
wealth of his historical knowledge. But has ever
the modern temper been hit off more exactly than
in the following passage ? —

" Another maxim has to be learned in time,
that some things are impossible, and to master
this is to enter upon the manhood of the higher
life. But it ought not to be mastered as a mere
depressing negation, but rather as a new religion.
The law that is independent of us, and that con-
ditions all our activity, is not to be reluctantly
acknowledged, but studied with absorbing de-
light and awe. At the moment when our own
self-consciousness is liveliest, when our own be-
liefs, hopes, and purposes a^e most precious to
us, we are to acknowledge that the universe is
VOL. xxi. — 54

greater than ourselves, and that our wills are
weak compared with the law that governs it,
and our purposes futile except so far as they are
in agreement with that law."

But enough. We have given the main argu-
ment of the book, aud selected some of its de-
tails for discussion or lor admiration. It remains
to discuss its probable effect on the two parties
between whom, in a measure, it attempts to
effect a reconciliation. It has already been
pointed out that the religious world will regard
its religion as having been misunderstood, and
not sympathized with ; and this complaint will
be just. It is natural, at this point, to compare
the somewhat similar attempts of Mr. Matthew
Arnold in this direction; and it must be owned
that, with regard to knowledge of and sympathy
with orthodox belief, the whilom Oxford pro-
fessor is the superior of his Cambridge rival, if
we may venture so to term the author of " Ecce
Homo." Mr. Matthew Arnold was bent on bat-
tling with religious Philistinism, and did not
disdain to deal it some heavy and rather unfair
blows, chiefly by way of irony. Our author, on
the contrary, cares more to expound the position
of nous antres, and has, for the first time, given
an adequate exposition of the creed of culture.
"Religion," he says, "has been revived under
the artificial name of culture " ; and, again, " The
momentary evanescence of the Church in modern
life is only caused by the decay of one sort of
Church coinciding in time with the infancy of
another." In thus boldly pointing out that the
spiritual currents now flow in other channels
than those that are technically called religious,
the book says what many have been feeling. It
must necessarily give courage to the Antinomi-
ans, and give, for the first time, a true sense of
their position to the followers of ancient lines of
thought. That the followers cf culture will con-
sent, to call their ideal by the name of religion,
and that the believers of religion in its old sense
will grant that name, full of the most sacred as-
sociations, to fie pursuit of truth and of beauty,
are very doubtful propositions. So far, there-
fore, as our author seriously aims at these inno-
vations his efforts appear doomed to failure. No
eirenicon can be effected between two opposing
schools by inducing them to acfopt the same
name on their banners. It is by bringing into
full consciousness the thoughts and feelings of
modern men that this book will exercise its chief
influence It will enable the adherents of the
old and of the upw faith to know for what the
strife is being carried on. And it shows how
fast and for the world has been drifting since
1866 to re^e-t that this b^ok takes the place of
an exposition of " Christ's ttaeolosry " promised
in the preface of" Ecce Homo." But the second
or " practical " nart of the book is not practical
in any sense that leads to action. It merely
shows that the natural religion which is his
theme i* renVv in action among us in influ-
encing men's lives. It may set men thinking,
it can not Kid them to act. Meanwhile, let us
close t' is notice of a book which we assume will
be read by most thinking Englishmen with a

850

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

final quotation, which shows at once the power
and the weakness of the writer, his clear visiou
and his depressing tone :

" For Art and Science are not of the world,
though the world may corrupt them ; they have
the nature of religion. When, therefore, we see
them shaking off the fetters of the reigning re-
ligion, we may he anxious, but we are not to
call this an outbreak of secularity ; it is the ap-
pearance of new forms of religion, which, if they
threaten orthodoxy, threaten secularity quite as
niucu. Now, secularity is the English vice, and
we may rejoice to see it attacked. It ought to
be the beginning of a new life for England
that the heavy materialism which has so long
weighed upon her is shaken at last. We have
been, perhaps, little aware of it, as one is usual-
ly liltle aware of the atmosphere one has long
breathed. We have been aware only of an ener-
getic industrialism. We have been proud of our
national k self-help,' of our industry, and solv-
ency, and have taken as but the due reward of
these virtues our good fortune in politics- and
colonization. We have even framed for our-
selves a sort of Deuteronomic religion which is
a great comfort to us ; it teaches that because
we are honest and peaceable and industrious,
therefore our Jehovah gives us wealth in abun-
dance, and our exports and imports swell, and
our debt diminishes, and our emigrants people
half the globe."

Ernestine. A Novel. By Wilhelmine von
Hillern, author of " The Hour will
Come," etc. From the German by S.
Caring-Gould. In two vols. New
York : William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 711.
Price, $1.50.

Ernestine first appears before the reader
as a little, much-abused, ill-tempered girl,
about ten years old, who was neglected in
everything except her schooling. When
grown up, she thus describes herself : " From
earliest childhood — at a time when most are
rocked in the arms of love — are laid to sleep
in the lap of love — I was trampled on,
kicked about, almost tortured to death, be-
cause I was a girl. Every anguish-cry of
my breast, every thought of my soul, every
feeling of my young heart, was gathered
into this one question, ' Why, why must I
expiate what is no fault of mine — that I am
not a boy ? ' And, in every wound that was
dealt me, the seed of revenge was strewn —
the seed of revenge for my own wrongs and
those of my sex — the seed of ambition to do
all that can be achieved by that sex whose
superiority was so insultingly, so brutally
paraded before me. It ripened quickly in
the glow of indignation I felt at the injustice
my sex is forced to endure, the difficulties

which were opposed to its endeavors to rise
above vulgar routine. It grew with me ; it
became mighty; it ramified through my
whole mental life, like the veins and nerves
of my body." When her application to at-
tend the lectures and to be admitted to the
dissecting-tables of the university was re-
jected, she declared to the committee that
" the great struggle for the emancipation of
woman can only be fought out to a definite
conclusion on the comparative anatomy of
the brain. ... If, in some less scrupulous
universitv, I be admitted to the dissecting"-
tables, and allowed the necessary anatom-
ical and physiological studies, my time and
energies will be given up to the solution of
this question." But unceasing study under-
mined her health, and after a painful and
involved experience the anti-social feelings
that had been fostered by her abnormal
childhood and youth gave way, and she be-
came an affectionate wife and mother.

As a novel the book is engrossing and
satisfactory, and, as a German contribution
to the discussion of " The woman ques-
tion," it is very interesting. The implica-
tion would seem to be that the usual course
of domestic and social life in Germany
does not favor the discontent of woman with
her woman's destiny. It is under most ex-
ceptional circumstances that Ernestine is
developed, and whenever she comes in con-
tact with German society she is rebuked on
all sides. It is the impression produced
upon a very high-minded and accomplished
young savant by her wonderful spiritual
beauty, her purity of purpose, and earnest-
ness of character that leads to her disen-
chantment. She is, however, allowed a little
more time for a radical change of character
than is accorded in most novels. But, as
the author is dealing with people who are
deeply versed in medical science and all
modern research, this much was not unrea-
sonably to be expected.

If Miss Yon Hillern had been writing of
woman's position in a novel of American
life, her problem would have been different.
She would find her discontented, ambitious,
over-intellectual girls everywhere ; which, of
course, implies a state of society that fos-
ters their production. She would find them
both welcomed and influential in society,
and, if not considered the most eligible can-

LITERARY NOTICES.

851

didates for matrimony, it matters very little
to them. There is scope enough in this
country for independent careers, and many
of our "smart" girls fancy that on the
whole an independent career is more desira-
ble than marriage with its inevitable subor-
dination of the woman. Fairly to present
this subject to the American mind requires
a careful study of the influences at home,
at school, and on all sides, that are acting
upon the minds of our girls and modifying
their tastes and feelings, and, also, of those
deeper biological characteristics which must
remain essentially the same from age to age.
It must be shown that from the beginning
woman has been, and to the end she must
remain, an emotional rather than an intel-
lectual being — that much transient mis-
chief and no good can come from a disturb-
ance of this normal balance of thought and
feeling in the mind of woman. It is high
time that somebody in this country, be it nov-
elist or essayist, should bring forward this
view of the subject of " woman's rights."
For the assumption of the identity of the
minds of men and women is wide-spread.
Hence the demand for identical education,
and the opening to women of all our halls
of learning. The fact that the emotional
nature of woman has precedence at the
present time is regarded as a principal rea-
son for the educational movement. It is no
education, or wrong education, we are told,
that has deformed her true nature, and that
her mind may assume right proportions she
is called upon to cultivate intellect as a
means of suppressing emotion.

This is precisely what Hiss Yon Hil-
lern's heroine had striven all her life to
do, and she fancied at one time that she
had gained the victory for intellect. But
all her striving comes to nothing. At last
we find her exclaiming: " What are learning
and fame, what the pride of position, com-
pared with the happiness of this moment ?
Away with them all ! my choice is made, Jo-
hannes," and" she sank upon his breast. And
this, too, when the last words said to her
by her lover were these : " True humility
will teach you to yield your fate unquestion-
ingly to the man who gives his life to you.
Go from me and you may be great, but you
can not be womanly, a*id what is such great-
ness attained at the cost of a heart ? Give

up the false pride that would seek fame be-
yond the bounds of a woman's sphere, and
confess that there is nothing greater that
you can do than to enrich and bless the man
who loves you." But, in Germany, where
all the forces of society conspired to Ernes-
tine's defeat, our authoress had no difificult
task in reaching this result. It is not so
easy to imagine a discipline that would bring
one of our learned girls to this humble
pass.

The subject is one of profound impor-
tance, and we commend the work to thought-
ful readers, as well as to those who read
novels only for entertainment.

Practical Microscopy. By George E.
Davis, F. R. M. S., F. I. C, F. C. S., etc.
Illustrated with 258 Woodcuts and a
Colored Frontispiece. London : David
Bogue. Pp. 335.

The neatly printed and beautifully illus-
trated book before us is somewhat similar
to Quekett's " Practical Treatise on the Use
of the Microscope," but is a smaller and
less costly book, and one that brings the
subject down to the present time. The

! various parts of a microscope are briefly
described from a practical stand point, no
mathematical calculations being introduced,

j nor is any attempt made to explain the
theory of the microscope, further than it is
of practical value. Although intended for

! students and even beginners, some singular

1 omissions occur, such as explanations of
the oft-used term " air-angle," or of the
principle of " immersion lenses." The va-
rious accessories of the microscope are
fully illustrated and described. There is a

1 chapter on the collection of objects, another
on micro-dissections, also on section-cutting
and microscopic measurements. One of the
most valuable features of the book is its
full and accurate directions for making
photo-micrographs, with cuts of apparatus.
Recipes are given for the developing and
fixing solutions, the printing and toning
baths, and other parts of the photographic
operations are minutely described. The
chapter on the polarizing microscope is
more full than we usually meet with in
books of this character. The micro-spec-
troscope, the most modern of all the adap-
tations of the microscope, here receives the

852

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

attention that so remarkable an instrument
deserves. The staining and injecting of ob-
jects are as fully treated of as the size of the
book would permit, and a colored frontis-
piece is introduced to show the effect of
double-staining on wood-sections.

The author exhibits commendable fair-
ness in his treatment of American micro-
scopists, and of instruments made on this
side of the water, especially the wide-
angled objectives of Spencer, of Geneva,
and Tolles, of Boston. Ue says : " It is
only recently that American objectives of
the widest aperture have found their way
into the author's hands. Their definition
is marvelous." Medium angles have been
advised for students' use, because they can
be employed without much previous knowl-
edge or difficulty ; but for all purposes of
scientific investigation wide apertures give
more satisfactory results.

Many of the illustrations have been
photographed by the author from nature
and then cut in wood. Some of these are
very fine, as, for example, the sting and
poison-bag of the bee and wasp, the diges-
tive apparatus of the water-beetle and of
the blow-fly, and various other natural ob-
jects.

The rapid strides that have recently been
made in the manufacture of cheap and very
good working microscopes have created a de-
mand for works of this character, and Mr.
Davis's book supplies a real want.

Guide to the Flora of Washington and
Vicinity. By Lester F. Ward, A. M.
Washington : Government Printing-Of-
fice. 1881. Pp. 264.
This recent publication of the Smith-
sonian Institution contains the scientific and
common names of 1,384 plants found in the
vicinity of the national capital, together
with their time of flowering, and in many
cases the localities where they may be
sought for. Appended arc a check-list and
a map of the region for fifteen or twenty
miles around the city of Washington. The
labor of preparing a " flora " of even a lim-
ited space of country is much greater than
might be supposed, and in the present case
many able and active botanists have co-
operated with the author, as well as many
energetic amateurs. The appearance of this
work recalls to mind a remark of the late

Dr. John Torrcy, that in his younger days
he attempted to prepare a flora of the City
Hall Park, New York. At that time there
was neither post-office nor court-house
there. Even in that small space he met
with so many and such a rapidly increasing
number of varieties and species that he was
compelled to abandon the project. From
its cosmopolitan nature New York naturally
receives fresh additions to her flora annual-
ly from every quarter of the globe. Even in
Washington there has been a considerable
change in the flora since the " Prodromus "
appeared half a century ago. Of the 860
distinct plants enumerated therein, the au-
thor has succeeded in identifying 70S, while
nearly as many more have been added.
Although the primary aim of the author
was to furnish a guide to botanists in ex-
ploring the locality, it will serve as an aid
to beginners in practical botany elsewhere.
An appendix is added, especially addressed
to the latter class, and containing among
other things suggestions regarding identi-
fication of plants, collection of plants, pres-
ervation of plants, making an herbarium,
care of duplicates, exchanging specimens, etc.
On the first of these points the author re-
marks that " a young botanist's struggles
with botanical keys can only be sympa-
thized with ; they can scarely be aided by
any general directions, and there is no more
effectual drill than the persevering effort
to identify, by the aid of a key, a plant to
which he has no clew. It should be the
ambition of every such beginner to analyze
in this manner all the plants of his local
flora." The less help he receives the better,
and, the more ignorant the beginner is at
the outset, the better will be his ultimate
acquaintance with botany if he perseveres
in the work. In regard to localities the
writer very appropriately remarks that " in
many respects the botanist looks at the
world from a point of view precisely the
reverse of that of other people. Rich fields
of corn are to him waste lands ; cities are
his abhorrence, and great open areas under
high cultivation he calls 'poor country';
while on the other hand the impenetrable
forest delights his gaze, the rocky cliff
charms him, thin-soiled barrens, boggy fens,
and irreclaimable swamps and morasses are
for him the finest land in the State. He

LITERARY NOTICES.

853

takes no delight in the * march of civiliza-
tion,' the axe and the plow are to him sym-
bols of barbarism, and the reclaiming of
waste lands and opening up of his favorite
haunts to cultivation he instinctively de-
nounces as acts of vandalism." Yet we
may add, the botanist himself is no vandal,
but his humble labors do contribute to the
onward march of civilization. The humblest
flower or coarsest weed may contain lessons
of wisdom the most profound, and botany
is particularly adapted to combine science
and culture.

We can not close our brief notice without
a mention of his defense of the herbarium
as an instrument of scientific culture. It is
a collection of natural objects, scientifically
classified and ever present for inspection ;
an herbarium is a library to be consulted,
studied, and read. It is a library filled with
volumes written by Nature, and which those
who have learned the language of Nature
can read and enjoy with a satisfaction as
much keener than anything that man-made
books can give as it is nearer to the source
of all truth.

Reminiscences chiefly of Oriel College
and the Oxford Movement. By Itev.
T. Mozely, M. A., formerly Fellow of
Oriel. In 2 vols. Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. Pp. 900. Price, $3.

These volumes belong to a popular class
of works, and have attracted a good deal of
attention as being quite unique in their line.
They are gossipy, sketchy, spicy, and read-
able, and, although dealing with characters
that figured and events that occurred half
a eentury ago, and across the ocean, they
will be read with interest and by many with
avidity in this country. The interest in
Oxford University, as a great seat of learn-
ing, is not ' confined to England, and every-
body has heard of the Oxford movement, an
ecclesiastical fermentation in the university
which greatly disturbed the English Church,
and involved the secession of many of her
theologians to the Church of Rome. The
work is thus characterized by a writer in the
" Quarterly Review " :

" It is, in great measure, a gallery of
portraits, vividly and even brilliantly
sketched, of the remarkable body of men
who were connected with Oriel College for

about half a century of its most famous
period. The book is a succession of short
chapters, each about the length of a leading
article, most of them depicting the appear-
ance, the habits, the capacities, and charac-
ters of a number of men who, for two gen-
erations, have played a leading part in
English thought and life. Nothing but in-
timate daily association could have enabled
even a genius like that of Mr. Mozely to
hit them off with such distinctness and
accuracy. But he and they were, for the
most part, fellows or gentlemen commoners,
or undergraduates of the same college ; even
if of different colleges, tliey lived in the
same university, under similar conditions.
lie saw them going out and coming in ; he
dined with them ; spent the evenings with
them ; worked side by side with them ; man-
aged business with them for years. All
their characteristic and tell-tale traits fell
under his daily observation, and he came to
know them as well as, or perhaps better
than, himself. If we had no other occa-
sion for welcoming this book, we could not
but rejoice to have such a vivid picture of
a kind of life which has played so large
a part in English society, drawn at the
very time and in the very college where,
perhaps, it reached its culmination. Mr.
Mozely depicts it, not only with very rare
powers of observation and of description,
but with the keen appreciation of sympa-
thy and of close attachment. As we read
his pages we live in the Oxford and the
Oriel of his day ; we fellow all its social
politics, slight as they may seem, with the
interest of real human life ; we discern how
all the little details developed characters
and determined careers, and see before us,
in scores of instances, that constant ac-
tion and reaction of individuals and circum-
stances out of which the drama of life is
developed."

In a book of so many details, and re-
lating mainly to distant personal experi-
ences, we might naturally expect a good
percentage of error, and our pages this
month bear testimony to Mr. Mozely's fal-
libility in this respect. He was a pupil in
Derby of Mr. George Spencer, father of Her-
bert Spencer, and some of his reminiscences
of his early teacher have proved so mislead-
ing as to require particular correction.

854

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Students' Guide in Quantitative
Analysis. Intended as an Aid to the
Study of Fresenius's System. By H.
Carrington Bolton, Ph. D., Professor
of Chemistry in Trinity College, Hart-
ford, Connecticut. Illustrated. New
York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 127.
Price, §1.50.

The little book before us is intended as
a guide for the student at his desk rather
than as a text-book for study ; it may be
called a key to the comprehensive work of
the distinguished Fresenius. In the latter
the science of quantitative analysis is ex-
haustively taught, but the young chemist is
too often bewildered by the wealth of ma-
terial therein presented. He can not see the
forest for the trees. Professor Bolton has
cut a path for him through the wilderness ;
he has selected those points which it is im-
portant for the student to see, and placed
them prominently before him. This book
seeks to teach the art of quantitative analy-
sis, without, however, entirely neglecting the
science that lies at its base. The author pre-
sents a course of thirty -six typical analyses,
arranged progressively from the simplest to
the most complex, in the order that they
are taken up in chemical laboratories gen-
erally, in the Columbia School of Mines par-
ticularly. The first analysis is that of
barium chloride ; each step in the operation
is given in detail, and when the student has
faithfully repeated these operations he has
learned how to estimate barium, chlorine,
and water cf crystallization, in almost any
salt. Next follows magnesium sulphate,
in winch he determines magnesium, sul-
phuric acid, and water. A few other salts
follow, and, when the student has become
familiar with chemical operations, natural
and technical products are given, such as
coal, ores, alloys, and slag, closing with
water, sugar, milk, and petroleum. The
whole course of quantitative analysis, both
volumetric and gravim2tric, is herein de-
scribed, and the student who has made the
analyse swith care will certainly have at-
tained a considerable skill in manipulation,
and can scarcely fail of obtaining an insight
into the underlying principles which would
enable him to devise methods adapted to
other cases not given in the book. To aid
in this, every step in each analysis contains
a reference to the chapter and section in

"Fresenius," where the operation is de-
scribed, or to other authorities, when, as in
a few cases, others were made use of. For
this reason we have called it a " key," or
guide, to the study of Fresenius. The book
is intended as an aid to the teachers of
quantitative analysis, to spare them the ne-
cessity of explaining to each student all the
details of each analysis, which, in our over-
crowded laboratories, the teacher has no
time to do. It is equally suitable for "self-
instruction," and by its aid any young per-
son, with a fair knowledge of general chem-
istry, can, by himself, go through a course
of analysis, lasting say two years, that
would fit him for a position in a commercial
or technical laboratory. The work is sim-
ilar to Woehler's " Mineral Analysis," but
fuller in detail, newer in methods, and in
every way better suited to the wants of the
American student. To compare things in
totally different spheres, we would say that
it resembles the " South Kensington Cook-
Book," and this is no small praise.

Astronomy for Schools and General
Headers. By Isaac Sharpless, Pro-
fessor of Mathematics and Astronomy,
Haverford College, and Professor G.
M. Phillips, Principal of State Normal
School, Westchester, Pennsylvania. J.
B. Lippincott & Co. Pp. 303. Price,
$1.25.

This is a very judiciously prepared
school-book, neatly printed and elegantly
illustrated. The explanations are clear,
and the subject-matter of exposition well
chosen for popular purposes. It opens
with a sketch cf the history of astronomy
as part cf an introduction, which is followed
by a general view of the heavens and some
considerations of the usefulness of as-
tronomy. The solar system is then taken
up in Tart I, and the sidereal system in Part
II, while Part III is devoted to the proper-
ties of light and astronomical instruments.
There are no questions to the volume, but
pains are taken to give the proper pronun-
ciation of terms, and there are brief notices
of the eminent men who have contributed
to the progress of astronomy. No one
book can combine all excellences, but this
may be commended as well adapted for
general school use.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

855

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Atlantis : The Antediluvian World. By Igna-
tius Donnelly. Ill.isirated. New York : Har-
per & Brothers. Pp. 490. $2.00.

Astronomy for Schools and General Readers.
By Isaac Sharpless and Professor G. M. Phil-
ips. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott & Co. Pp.
303. $1.25.

Cerebral Hypersemia : Does it exist? By C.
F. Buckley, B. A., M. D., formerly Superintend-
ent of Hay lock Lodge Asylum, England. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 129.

A Guide to Collodio-Etching. By Benjamin
Hartley. Illustrated by the Author. New York :
The Industrial Publication Company. Pp. 48,
with Seven Plates.

Social Equality. A Short Study in a Missing
Science. By William Hurrell Mallock, author
of "Is Life worth Living? " New York: G. P.
Putna u's Sons. Pp.212. $1.00.

A Dictionary of the Popular Names of Eco-
nomic Plants. Bv John Smith, A. L. S., author
of '• Historia Filicum," "History of Bible
Plants." etc. London: Macmillan* & Co. Pp.
457. $3.50.

Light. A Course of Experimental Optics,
chiefly with the Lantern. By Lewis Wright.
With Illustrations. London: Macmillan &Co.
Pp. 368. $2.

Memoir of Daniel Macmillan. By Thomas
Hushes, Q. C, author of "'Tom Brown's School-
days at Rugby." Loudon: Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 308. $1.50.

Strength of Wrought-Iron Bridge Members.
By S. W. Robinson, C. E. New York : D. Van
Nostrand. Pp. 1T5. 50 cents.

Railroad Economics. By S. W. Robinson,
C. E. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 131.
50 cents.

Fir3t Annual Report of the Board of Health
of Detroit. July, 1882. Detroit : Post & Tribune
Co., Printers. Pp.270.

The New Botany. A Lecture on the Best
Method of teaching the Science. By W.J. Beal,
M. 3c, Ph. D. Second edition, revised. Phila-
delphia: C. H. Marot. Pp. 16. 25 cents.

Houghton Farm: E cperiments with Indian
Corn. "1830-1831. By Manley Miles, Director of
Experiments, with a Summary of the Experi-
mants with Wheat for Forty Years at Rotham-
sted. By J. B. Lawes, Bart., LL. D., F. R. 3.
Cambridge : Riverside Press. Pp. 75.

Hand-Book of the St. Nicholas Agassiz Asso-
tion. By Harlan M Ballard, Principal of Lenox
Academy. Pittsfield, Massachusetts : Axtell &
Pouieroy, Printers. Pp. v-85.

Proceedings of the Department of Superin-
tendence of the National Education Association
at its Ma 'iing in Washington, March 21-23, 1382.
Wa.-hiugton : Government Printing-office. Pp.
112.

The Comparative Action of Sulphate of
Daturia an,l of Sulphate of Hyoscyamia upon
the Iris and Ciliary Mu-cles. Bv Charles A.
Oliver, M. D., of Philadelphia. Pp." 7.

M ip of Alaska and Adjoining Regions. Com-
piled by Ivan Petroff, Special Agent, Tenth
Census. Wasiiinuton. Large Sheet.

Re'port. of T. B. Ferguson, a Commissioner
of Fisheries of Maryland. January, 1881. Ha-
gerstown, Maryland: Bell & Co., Printers. Pp.
cxiv, 152, and 6, with PI ites.

Proceedings of the Davenport Academv of
Natural Science--. Volume III. Part II. Daven-
port. Iowa: Published by the Academy. Pp.
132. with Five Plates.

A Synonymical Catalogue of the Described
Tortricidaa of North America, north of Mexico.
By C. H. Fermld, A. M.. Professor r.f Natural
History in the Maine State College. Pp. 72.

The Hyperbolic Curve and the Law of Pro-
gression of Rotating Bodies. Boston : A. Wil-
liams & Co. Pp. 16.

Annual Report upon the Surveys of Northern
and Northwestern Lakes, in charge of Major C.
B.Comstock. Washington: Government Print-
ing-Office. Pp. 24.

Arak-el-Emir. A Quarterly, devoted to the
Expression ol Clear Investigative Thought, con-
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Publishing Company, 21 Park Place. Pp. 82.
75 cents. Subscription, $3 per annum.

Elements of Universology. By Stephen Pearl
Andrews. New York: S. P. Laturop & Co.
Pp. 48. 15 cents.

Ideological Etymology. A New Method on
the Study of Words. Bv Stephen Pearl Andrews.
New York : S. P. Lathrop & Co. Pp. 32. 15

cents.

Three Reports on Nomenclature and Termi-
nology. By W.H.Atkinson. Pp. 6, 12, and 6.
5 cents each. ^

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The American Association. — The meet-
ing of the American Association for the Ad-
vanceinent of Science, at Montreal, which
closed August 30th, was, in every respect,
one of the most successful meetings in the
history of the society. The attendance —
nine hundred and fifty members — was but
little short of that registered at Boston two
years ago, and constituted it one of the
large meetings. Three hundred and twenty-
five new members were elected, and more
than two hundred and fifty papers were ac-
cepted. The meeting was opened on the
23d of August, with a brief address by the
incoming President, Dr. Dawson, of Mont-
real, who spoke of his (a Canadian's) elec-
tion to the presidency as significant of the
society's extension over the continent, and
its disregard of national boundary-lines.
Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, who followed the presi-
dent as the especial representative of the
city of Montreal, also spoke of the expan-
sion of the society, and expressed the hope
that it might yet meet in the city of Mexico,
as the French had already carried their " war
of science" into Africa, at Algiers. The
nine sections into wrhich the Association is
now divided wTere severally opened with ad-
dresses by their respective presidents. Pro-
fessor Bolton, in the Chemical Section, spoke
on " Chemical Literature " ; Professor Hark-
ness, in the Mathematical and Astronomical
Section, on the transit of Venus. Professor
Brush, the retiring President of the Associa-
tion, gave as his official address the compre-

856

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hensive review which we publish in the
present number of " The Popular Science
Monthly," of the "Progress of American
Mineralogy." Dr. Asa Gray gave an ad-
dress on the " History of the Study of the
North American Flora," and expressed the
hope that the work of examination and
classification might be completed in his life-
time, if it could not all be guided by his
hand. The other papers were too numer-
ous to be even catalogued here. We men-
tion only a few, which seem to be of general
importance or interest. They are those of
Professor Mason, unfolding a scheme of
anthropology; of Dr. John Rae, of Lon-
don, on " Arctic Explorations and Ethnol-
ogy " ; of Commander Bartlett, on " The
Gulf Stream " ; of Mr. Franklin B. Hough,
on " Plantations of the Eucalyptus " ; of the
Rev. Dr. Houghton, of Dublin, embodying
a new theory of the evolution of the plan-
ets ; of Professor Cook, of New Jersey, on
" Evidences of Coast Depression " ; of H.
Carvill Lewis, on " The Great Terminal Mo-
raine across Pennsylvania " ; of Professor
Newberry, on "The History of Plant-Life
in America " ; of the Hon. Horatio Hale,
of Clinton, Ontario, on " Indian Migrations
as evidenced by their Language " ; and of
Mrs. Erminie Smith and Miss Alice C.
Fletcher, on topics relating to Indian eth-
nology. Excursions were made to Quebec,
Ottawa, and other places. Several visitors
of distinction were present from abroad.
Among them, besides those already named
in connection with their papers, were Pro-
fessor W. B. Carpenter, of London, who
read a technical paper in the Microscopical
Section ; Dr. Valdemar Kovalevski, of Mos-
cow ; Dr. Koenig, of Paris ; Mr. Fitzgerald,
of Dublin; and D. Szabo, of Buda-Pesth,
Hungary, who had a paper in the Chemical
Section. A good financial exhibit was made,
with the announcement of generous special
gifts. A memorial to Professor Rogers was
determined upon. The Association decided
to hold its meeting for 1883 at Minneapolis,
Minnesota. The following officers were
chosen : President, Professor C. A. Young,
of Princeton ; vice-presidents of sections :
Mathematics and Astronomy, W. A. Rogers,
of Cambridge ; Physics, H. A. Rowland, of
Baltimore ; Chemistry, E. W. Morley, of
Cleveland ; Mechanical Science, De Valson

Wood, of Hoboken; Geology and Geogra-
phy, C. H. Hitchcock, of Hanover ; Biology,
W. J. Beale, of Lansing ; Histology and
Microscopy, J. D. Cox, of Cincinnati ; An-
thropology, 0. T. Mason, of Washington ;
Economical Science and Statistics, F. B.
Hough, of Lowville. The purpose of the
British Association to hold its meeting for
1884 in Montreal was announced.

Scientific Forestry. — There is no mys-
tery in the scientific cultivation of forests,
so far as concerns the tillage of the crop.
All that is needed is to observe the action
of nature in the forest, and follow it, or
utilize it advantageously, when that can be
done. The object of the cultivation should
be to obtain the utmost possible advantage
from the soil by keeping it always covered
with a growth of trees ; and, when the trees
arrive at maturity, to remove them in such
a manner that the smallest possible inter-
ruption may be caused to the productive
work of nature. When the time has come
for the removal of the timber, the ground
should on no account be anywhere all
cleared of trees at once ; but a commence-
ment should be made by felling a tree here
and there, and so breaking the thick cover
of the forest as to allow sufficient light and
air to reach the ground, and cause the seed
which has fallen to germinate. In this wray
about one fifth of the mature trees should
be removed every five or six years, never
by making large gaps in the cover, but tak-
ing a tree here and there, and always leav-
ing the finest and most vigorous trees till
the last, so that in about thirty years the
whole of the old trees will be cleared off,
and a new forest established in their place.
Thus the seeding of the wood will be effected
by the agency of the finest trees, which will
be themselves all the while increasing in
bulk, and the productive power of the soil
will be utilized to the fullest possible amount.
It is not only in the removal of the timber
and the reproduction of the forest that we
ought to study the action of nature, but it
is equally necessary that we should do so
in the felling for improving the growing
crop, or, as it is commonly called, the thin-
nings. The competition between trees after
they reach their full height, at half their
full age, is for space to spread their heads ;

POPULAR MIS CELL AX Y.

*57

and from this time, till they arrive at ma-
turity, they go on always augmenting the
diameter of their stems, but at the same
time decreasing in number. It is calculated
that, if sixteen hundred trees of four inches
in diameter can stand and thrive on an acre
of ground, there will not be more than four
hundred of them when the trees have grown
to eight inches, two hundred when they have
reached twelve inches, and between one
hundred and one hundred and forty when
they have attained sixteen inches in diam-
eter. Little is to be done in the earlier
stages of a forest's growth except to keep
the heads of the most valuable species from
being overtopped by those which stand
near them: and this can be dore best, not
by removing the others, but by cutting off
or breaking the. tops ; for it is desirable at
this stage, for the sake of the natural prun-
ing, to have the trees growing as thickly
together as possible. At a later stage, thin-
nings can be judiciously arranged so as to
pass through the entire forest at intervals
of from ten to fifteen years, enabling the
whole area to be operated on in turn. In ex-
ecuting these, the most difficult of all forest
operations, it will be well to remember that
the object is to give room to the heads of
the trees, and not to their stems ; for the
stems will never be too close together as
long as the heads have room properly to de-
velop themselves. The favoring of the most
promising trees, and the removal of the
weaker ones, together with the preservation
of continuous shade to the surface of the
ground, while all the trees have sufficient
room to grow, should be the particular ends
aimed at.

A tfew Plan for Armored Vessels. — The

Naval Committee of the United States
House of Representatives has given favor-
able consideration to a new plan for build-
ing armored vessels which has been devised
by a retired invalid engineer. The principal
armorial application consists of a submerged
" turtle-back,'' about four inches thick, and
extending from side to side and from stem
to stern of the vessel and below the water-
line, so arranged that an enemy's shot from
any direction can hit it only at a deflecting
angle, so as to be thrown off rather than go
through. The sides of the vessel above the

turtle - back are filled in with cotton or
cork, in which a breach made by the pas-
sage of a ball will be self-closed by the
elastic action of the substance. They may,
moreover, be shot to pieces without destroy-
ing the buoyant power of the ship. The
guns are mounted upon heavy, impenetra-
ble, centrally arranged, cylindrical armor,
which extends to the bottom of the ship,
and is there seated on an hydraulic cushion.
The breech of the gun is also inclosed in an
oval armor, so arranged as to deflect a ball,
striking it from any point, in a harmless di-
rection. The gun is operated by an hydrau-
lic loading apparatus, which is worked by
one gunner, and hydraulic buffers are pro-
vided to take up the recoil.

The Timber-Line of Mountains. — Mr.

Henry Gannett, noticing, in " The American
Journal of Science," Dr. Rothrock's state-
ment that, as a whole, there is little or no
increase in the altitude of the timber-line
toward the equator in the Western hemi-
sphere, south of the forty-first parallel of
north latitude, observes that the height of
the timber-line is purely a question of tem-
perature, and that that is a function of the
latitude, the elevation, and the mass, of the
country in the neighborhood. A great mass
of country, if raised to a considerable height
above the sea, carries with it the isother-
mals. Therefore, in considering the height
of the timber-line, "we must regard the
mountain-ranges in connection with the pla-
teaus on which they stand, their latitudes,
heights, and masses, or what, in a measure,
sums up these three, their temperatures, as
it is by these that its height is determined."
The actual elevation above sea-level of the
timber-line in the Cordilleras of North
America ranges from six or seven to twelve
thousand feet. It is lowest in the Coast
and Cascade Ranges of Washington Terri-
tory, and rises as we go southward through
Oregon and California. On the high Sier-
ras of Eastern-Central California, forests
grow to 10,000 or 12,000 feet, while the
ranges of Southern California do not reach
the upper limits of forests Few of the
ranges of Nevada reach the timber-line,
which varies from the height of 9,000 feet
in the northern to probably 11,000 feet in
the southern part of the State. In Ari-

858

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

zona, probably none of the mountains reach
the timber-line except the San Francisco
group and the Sierra Blanca, where the line
is at 11,000 and 12,000 feet. In New Mex-
ico, the line averages about 12,000 feet
above sea-level, and the higher annual tem-
perature of the southern part of the Terri-
tory is fully compensated for by the greater
altitude of the plateau in the northern part.
In Colorado, the line rises from 11,000 feet
in the northern to 12,000 feet in the south-
ern part of the State; in Wyoming, from
10,000 to 11,000 feet in the Wind River
and Teton Ranges, to about 11,000 feet in
the Park Range ; in Montana and Idaho, it
ranges at from 9,000 to 10,000 feet, and in
the Uintah and Wahsatch Ranges of Utah
it is at about 11,000 feet. It is evident,
if these considerations hold good, that the
upper limit of timber must have approxi-
mately the same mean annual temperature
everywhere. This temperature can not be
measured directly for different places, but
may be estimated by calculation by taking
the mean temperature at some base in the
neighborhood, and allowing a degree of fall
for every three hundred feet of additional
elevation. A calculation made on this basis
for thirteen mountains, including Mounts
Washington and Marcy, and several West-
ern peaks, gives a mean of 30.4°, the ex-
tremes being 2S° and 33°.

The Ssil and Scarlatina. — Dr. Eklund,
of Stockholm, Sweden, has for several years
devoted much time to the pathology and
etiology of scarlatina, and has reached con-
clusions of high practical importance in the
light they throw upon the connection be-
tween bad drainage and other insanitary
conditions and outbreaks of that disease
without actual infection. lie has constantly
found a prodigious number of discoid bod-
ies in the urine- of persons suffering from
scarlatina, and most positively asserts that
he has also noticed those identical or-
ganisms in vast numbers in the soil and
ground-water of the Isle of Skcppsholm ; in
mud from the trenches, dug for the water-
mains ; and among the greenish molds of
the walls of the old barracks, where scarla-
tina was most rife. He furthermore alleges
cases of scarlatina occurring in children
after drinking milk mixed with the ground-

water of the island, and one case which fol-
lowed an immersion in one of these trench-
es, and the drying of the child's clothes in
a small room. In still another case scar-
latina broke out in a block immediately on
the exposure of the ground-water by ex-
cavations around. These observations, how-
ever, and those of other persons who have
found micrococci in the animal fluids in
scarlatina, even if the organisms are observed
to be invariably present, can not be held to
prove that they are the cause of the disease
till the fact has been directly verified by
inoculation into a healthy body carefully iso-
lated from all other sources of infection. .

Lip-Teaching for the Deaf and Dumb.
— Earl Granville, as President of the Asso-
ciation for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf
and Dumb, had occasion recently, at a meet-
ing in behalf of the system, to remark upon
the satisfactory progress that had been made
in lip-teaching, by which the deaf were
placed in a position to converse with their
fellow-creatures without the aid of signs.
The number of pupils in the association's
school had increased, and favorable reports
had been received from the class of the
School Eoard of London. Except where
idiocy or mental incapacity existed, this
method of teaching was applicable to all
cases. Its advantages had been acknowl-
edged in a remarkable degree at a confer-
ence lately held, where a consensus of opin-
ion was expressed in its favor. In evidence
of the great benefits the system conferred
upon persons trained under it, Earl Gran-
ville mentioned that several former pupils
of the school were present who were now
earning their living in positions which they
would hardly have obtained had they been
educated by the system of signs. An ex-
amination was afterward had of pupils of
the training college and school, in which
they showed that they understood, by watch-
ing a speaker's lips, what was said to them,
and could make intelligible replies to it.

Chaldean Astronomy. — The invention of
astronomy is ascribed to the Chaldeans by
some ancient writers. It is said that a cer-
tain Zoroaster, King of Bactriana, was the
first who observed the stars, about 1700
b. c. ; although, according to Porphyry, Cal-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

859

listhenes found at Babylon and sent to Aris-
totle a sei-ies of observations going back to
the earlier date of 1903 b. c. As yet, how-
ever, the Chaldean observations with which
we are acquainted are reduced to the ac-
count of three eclipses of the moon that
took place about 719 b. c. Hopes were
entertained, when the discoveries of cunei-
form tablets were made in the ruins of
Babylonia and Nineveh, that trustworthy
information of the real condition of astro-
nomical science among the Chaldeans might
be gathered from them ; but it was some
time before anything of this kind was real-
ized. Messrs. Oppert and Sayce, it is true,
found a few astronomical documents in the
library of a king of Assyria, but they con-
tained more astrology than astronomy, and
were, moreover, too badly preserved to be
of much use. Quite recently the Assyrio-
logue, Father Strassmeycr, of the Society of
Jesus, has found a few documents relative
to astronomy in the Spartoli collection of
the British Museum; and these have been
carefully examined by Father Epping. They
indicate that the Chaldeans had considerable
knowledge of astronomy. Besides calculat-
ing the time of the new moon, and taking
account of the thirds in their observations,
they followed the courses of the planets,
were acquainted with the retrograde move-
ment of Mars, and referred the positions of
the planets to those of the stars. If other
results similar to these are at all extensively
obtained from the immense amount of study
yet to be made of the tablets, astronomers
may hope to acquire materials of extreme
value for the verification of their tables and
the study of the system of the world.

Pedigree Selection in Food-Plants. —

Major Ilallett, in commending before the
Brighton Health Congress his "pedigree
system" for the improvement of food-
plants, takes notice of the immensely greater
advantages in favor of systematic improve-
ment afforded by plants over animals. A
cow or ewe, he- says, "produces at birth
one (or two) only ; a single grain of wheat
has produced a plaDt the ears of which con-
tained 8,000 grains, all capable of repro-
duction. Now, we can plant all of these,
and of the resultant 8,000 plants reserve
only the best one of all, to perpetuate the

race, rejecting every other." The principle
of Major Haliett's system consists in apply-
ing this rule, of reproducing only the best
plants of each lot in successive years. " Can
anything approaching such a choice as this,"
he says, " be afforded any breeder of cattle
or sheep, no matter how extensive his herd
or flock ? " Cereals, improved by Haliett's
system, have now been cultivated in more
than forty different countries in Europe,
Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, with
complete success everywhere, so far as re-
ports have been received. A parcel of pedi-
gree wheat taken to Perth, "Western Austra-
lia, in 1862, where the average crop was ten
bushels to the acre, produced from twenty-
nine to thirty-five bushels to the acre, with
seventy-two as the largest number of heads
on one stool, and one hundred and thirteen
grains in the largest ear. In 1881 the same
wheat, or its descendant, produced, in New
Zealand, seventy-two bushels on one acre ;
with more than ninety ears, some of them
containing as many as one hundred and
thirty-two grains each, on single plants.
The same return — seventy-two bushels to
the acre — was reported cf three acres in
Essex, England, in 1876, with one hundred
and five ears, containing more than 8,000
grains, on one plant. Reports correspond-
ing with this have been received from Brus-
sieres, France ; Linlithgow, Scotland ; Rus-
sia, Hungary, Italy, Holland, Denmark, and
Sweden. The Hallett wheat withstood the
frosts of 1875 and 1876 in Belgium, when
other varieties were killed. In India, Sir
Seymour Fitzgerald, Governor of Bombay,
in 1870, reported the crop from the pedi-
gree wheat to be fifty per cent greater in
quantity and fifty per cent more valuable
in quality than that produced from the best
other seed that could be bought in the mar-
ket. The same success has been obtained
with barley and oats cultivated after this
system. A friend of Major Haliett's, in
Italy, applied his system to the sugar-beet,
with the result of obtaining, after seven
years of improvement, three times as much
sugar and wine from the same acreage of
roots as he had been accustomed to get at
first. Experimenting with the potato, Ma-
jor Ilallett has started each year, for four-
teen years, with a single tuber, the best of
the year, cultivating for freedom from dis-

86o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ease and for productiveness. Dividing the
first twelve years of the fourteen into peri-
ods of four years each, he obtained for the
first period an average of sixteen tubers
from each single best seed-tuber ; for the
second period, nineteen ; and for the third
period, twenty-seven, or nearly double the
yield of the first period. This plan of se-
lection is on trial, in India, for cotton, and
the reports so far received show already a
marked difference in its favor.

The Mound-Builders in Mexico. — Mr. F.

F. Hilder, in a paper on " The Archaeology
of Missouri," summarizes the results of the
efforts of Mr. S. B. Evans to follow the
works of the mound-builders down the Mis-
sissippi Valley, and connect them with the
ancient works in Mexico. Beginning in
Minnesota, Mr. Evans has, by personal sur-
vey, found an unbroken chain of these works
along the great river to the Gulf, with colo-
nies on the principal tributaries traversing
the States that border on that stream.
" Mounds were found along the entire route,
and on the shores of the Gulf. Crossing
into Mexico, the chain, dropped in the sea
at Galveston, was recovered near Vera Cruz.
On the plain of Cholula is a mound that, if
transferred to Cahokia, would fit the land-
scape, and appear in general keeping with
the works. On the other hand, if the great
mound of Cahokia were brought in pres-
ence of Popocatepetl, it would not be
abashed, but would be a fit companion of
the pyramid. The pyramids of the sun and
moon at Teotlihuacan would be mounds in
Virginia and Ohio ; and the great mounds
of Grave Creek and Selzertown might em-
bellish the ' ancient city of the gods.' Ex-
cavations were made in Mexican mounds, as
they were made in the United States, and
substantially the results were the same."

Elephant-Service in Africa.— Mr. L. K.

Rankin, of the Belgian Elephant Expedi-
tion in Africa, has made a statement of the
probable value of the practical service that
may be expected from elephants if their in-
troduction as carriers is attempted in that
continent. "When the expedition reached
Mpwapwa, a report was drawn up to be sent
to the King of the Belgians, which stated
that " the elephant expedition has now been

proved a complete success." This assertion
was justified by Carter, the head of the ex-
pedition, now deceased, on the three counts
of — 1. The immunity of the elephants against
the tsetse-fly after twenty-three days of ex-
posure to that insect ; 2. Their maintenance
during one month mostly upon the unculti-
vated food of the country, and therefore at
little cost (only about twenty -five rupees, or
fifteen dollars, for four) ; and, 3. Their abil-
ity to march over all kinds of ground, soft,
stony, sandy, boggy; to conquer all eccen-
tricities of topography — hill and dale, river
and jungle — while laboring under double
their due weight of baggage, some fifteen
hundred instead of seven hundred pounds ;
and this in a style that no other beast of
burden could hope to emulate. This brilliant
forecast received a seeming bitter contradic-
tion in less than a week, when the largest
and most valuable elephant, returning from
a day's expedition, in apparently good health,
suddenly lay down and died. Mr. Rankin
believes that the death, which was followed
shortly afterward by that of another ele-
phant, was caused by exhaustion brought on
by imposing too heavy loads and too severe
labors upon the animal, combined with too
great a change from the strong food it had
enjoyed in India to the wild grasses of Africa.
The animals had been stall-fed in India, " on
the fat of the land," while in Afiica they
were turned out to forage for themselves,
and very little corn and rice was bought for
them. Whereas, according to Sanderson,
seven hundred pounds is the limit-weight
an elephant should carry on flat ground for
a prolonged time, these animals bore at first
twelve hundred, then fifteen hundred, and
at one time seventeen hundred pounds ;
while they daily climbed the most tremen-
dous hills. These views are enforced by the
fact that, while the elephants were fat and
round at starting, they had lost so much
flesh by the time they reached Mpwapwa,
that their backbones stood up six or seven
inches from their flanks! These facts re-
sulted from faults in management, in insuffi-
ciency of preparations for the expedition,
and mistaken views of economy, and should
not be allowed to prevail against the com-
petency of elephants, under good manage-
ment, to endure reasonable service, on which
hardly any doubt is thrown. Dearly bought

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

861

experience, Mr. Rankin suggests, -would an-
other time remove the risks that were in-
curred ; and he has not the shadow of a
doubt that there is yet a great future in
Africa for the elephant, especially when the
stage of capturing and taming the native
species has been reached.

Co-operation of Medical Officers and
People in Sanitary Objects. — The Sanitary
Aid Association of St. Leonard's and Hast-
ings, England, during nine years of work
among a population of thirty-five thousand,
has secured a co-operation between the peo-
ple and the sanitary officers, under which
the spread of all infectious diseases has been
effectually prevented. This it has done by
tact in the exercise of its functions as a
medium between the medical officers and
the people. It seeks, first, to guard against
popular jealousy of inquisitorial inspection.
The teachers of the schools are expected to
make weekly returns of all absentees, with
the cause of absence if known ; if the cause
is not known, some fit person is deputed to
make a friendly casual visit to the family,
without any suggestion of suspicion of fever,
and report the information received to who-
ever acts as sanitary manager. The case is
then put into the hands of the health officer,
and his endeavors are furthered by explain-
ing to the mother that she shall receive, for
the strict performance of the processes of
disinfection taught her, assistance, to be al-
lotted according to the circumstances of the
family. The assistance may come in the
form of a milk allowance, beef-tea, wine, or
whatever may be ordered by the medical at-
tendant, a nurse, or a person to do the wash-
ing, or, where no want exists, of little deli-
cacies and comforts which may be given
without offense. It should always be con-
nected with Obedience, by the persons as-
sisted, of the inspector's orders, and should
be accompanied, through the period of ill-
ness, by,the promise of suitable help at the
end. The greatest difficulties the medical
officers have to meet arise from the desire
of the poor to conceal their cases, for fear
of injuring their business ; but, under the
operation of this system, every family that
enjoys the benefit of its application and finds
out what help and reliei it gives tells the
neighbors, and so it is brought about that

the medical officer becomes himself the poor
man's accepted friend. The St. Leonard's
and Hastings society has never incurred a
failure during all the years of its working ;
yet so unobtrusive have been its operations
that one who should go down to inquire at
random about it, without having a list of
its allies, would have difficulty in discover-
ing its existence. By adhering to and avow-
ing the principle that it has no more right
to interfere with the persons it visits than
they with its members, by using persuasion
and sympathy instead of threats, it has re-
duced the number of unmanageable cases
to one a year ; and has always brought even
these around by taking care in conversing
with the persons to give full information re-
specting disinfection. Thereupon, they turn
around and act upon the information they
have gained, so as to show how well they
can do without their visitors.

JYumber of Species of the Orang-Ou-
tang. — The number of species of the orang-
outang has been placed variously at from
one to four. The upholders of the one-spe-
cies theory have doubted whether the char-
acteristics that were regarded as indications
of specific differences might not really have
arisen from the examination of skulls of
different ages. To contribute to a solution
of this doubt, Mr. Frederick A. Lucas has
examined the large collection of orangs of
Professor Henry A. Ward, and compared
the notes taken by Mr. William T. Horna-
day, while collecting orangs, and has satis-
fied himself that the views of the advocates
of one species are correct. He previously
believed that there were two species. lie
adds to his notes on the subject the sug-
gestion that " they point clearly to the fact
that it is extremely dangerous to form a
species from observations of one or two
skulls," and that they render it very proba-
ble that many fossil species have been based
on individual or sexual peculiarities.

The Law of Land Formation on our
Globe. — Professor Richard Owen, of Xew
Harmony, Indiana, has observed some coin-
cidences in the arrangements of continental
lines and in the location and direction of
elevations and depressions of the surface
of the earth, which have suggested to him

862

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a law. by which dry land shows itself above
the ocean, which he believes to be of al-
most universal application to geographical
and geological phenomena. The coinci-
dences which he describes may be traced by
any one on a globe or a large map. The
law, as Professor Owen has stated it in a pa-
per on the subject presented to the American
Association last year, is, in general terms:
" The land on our globe shows itself above
the ocean-level in definite multiple propor-
tions, by measurement; the unit is the an-
gular difference between the axis of revolu-
tion and the axis of progression. For con-
venience, as that angle has been lessening
for centuries, we might call it 24°. We then
have:

Geographical and geological
unit = 24° = z?f- °

Greatest width and length of
continents = 3 x 24° = 72° = ^g° °

Radius for continents = 36° = ffi °

Half radius " = 18° = 4j6j* "

The measure for oceanic distances is the com-
plement of 24° = 06°. The ratio of land
to water, as shown by Professor Dana, is as
100 : 275. The ratio of 24° : 66° : : 100 :
275. All measurements are to be estimated
at the equator.

Regarding his law in detail, Professor
Owen finds, first, that many longitudinal ele-
vations and depressions on the earth's surface
(the result apparently of cooling and contrac-
tion), especially near the greatest median —
north and south — extension of each conti-
nent, coincide with some meridian. This
shrinkage has caused a north and south conti-
nent to appear in each of the four quarters of
the earth, going around on the equator. Mi-
nor north and south extensions can be traced
at intervals, often of 4i° or 9° apart all around
the globe, alternating usually with trends
which form with them angles of 23i°. In
verification of this law, adjust the globe so
that the poles shall be at the wooden hori-
zon and the eastern extremity of Brazil at
the brass meridian. Then we shall find the
two Americas occupying one, Europe and
Africa the second, Asia and Australia the
third, and North and South Oceania the
fourth, of the quarters into which the rules
divide the globe. It will be found that great
elevations are matched by depressions on the
opposite side of the globe, as the Himalayas
and Central Asiatic table-land with Hudson

Bay, the American lakes, the Gulf of Mex-
ico, and the deep southeastern Pacific at
180° from them. A second feature is that
the outlines of continents form angles of
about 23^° with meridians. If we examine
the great continental outlines, we shall find
in the circuit of the globe five eastern trends
of great continents exactly 72°, or one fifth
of 360°, apart. These trends mark belts of
seismic force, or lines apparently where the
crust has less thickness than under the me-
dian lines of continents. The rule of trends
may be verified by lifting the north pole of
the globe 23|° above the, wooden horizon
and bringing the continental trends under
the brass meridian. Professor Owen finds,
third, that besides these two forces which
exert their powers along lines parallel, re-
spectively, to the axis of revolution and to
that of progression, each continent has two
foci nearly on its median line, concentric
circles around which mark important addi-
tions to the land and orography of the con-
tinent, and pass, as they successively en-
large, through areas of consecutive geolog-
ical periods from the older to the newer.
One of the feci, and the dominant one in
the northern continents, is near the Arctic
Circle ; the other is in the geographical cen-
ter of the continent. The southern conti-
nents have only the latter. The foci for
North America are in Boothia Felix, near
longitude 96° west, and latitude 71° north,
and near the height west of Lake Superior,
longitude 94° west, and latitude 48° north.
A radius of 24° from the northern focus
reaches the southern limits of the archaean
area near Lake Superior and its junc.
tion with the palaeozoic ; and one of 29°
or 30° takes in the mesozoic of Kansas
and the new red sandstone of Connect-
icut and Massachusetts, with a valley of
erosion between. Drawing our circles from
the west shore of Lake Superior, a radius
of 11° or 12° gives us Silurian, lower and
upper, from Niagara to near Springfield,
Ohio, Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky,
and Nashville, Tennessee, dominating at
least the eastern half of the circle, while
the western part was still under water. A
radius of 12° to 13° marks the Appalachian
and other coal-fields; and of 15°, the meso-
zoic formation curving from the cretaceous
of Utah and Colorado through the interme-

NOTES.

863

diate of Arkansas and Tennessee to that
of New Jersey. A radius of from 18° to
24° takes in the marine tertiaries of the
East and the West; one of 24° marks
the main outlines of the continent; while
one of 36° takes in the extreme points
of the continent in all directions. The
rule is applied with almost literal simi-
larity to the other continents. Professor
Owen furthermore maintains that the west-
ern Alps became a dynamic focus at about
the beginning of the Cenozoic period, and
that Monte Rosa is nearly the center of the
dry land of the globe, whence a great circle
of immense seismic activity may be traced
nearly parallel with the Asiatic continental
trend to the Himalayas and thence around
to the Andes and the South American earth-
quake-region. Another great circle is nearly
parallel to the North American trend, and
includes the volcanoes of Central America
and the geysers of Iceland, and incloses
and probably aids to heat our Gulf Stream.

Valne of Disinfectants. — Dr. George M.
Sternberg, surgeon in the United States
Army, has reported upon the results of ex-
periments he has made with various disin-
fectants and vaccine virus, the conclusion
drawn from which is that chlorine, nitrous
acid (nitrogen dioxide), and sulphurous acid
(sulphur dioxide), are reliable disinfectants
in the proportion of one volume to one hun-
dred volumes of air. Probably a consider-
ably smaller proportion of these disinfect-
ants would be efficient in destroying the
potency of thin layers of virus in a moist
state, or of virus exposed to the action of
the disinfectant in an atmosphere saturated
with moisture. Experiments with carbolic
acid, on the other hand, " show that the
popular idea, shared perhaps by some phy-
sicians, that an odor of carbolic acid in the
sick-room or foul privy is evidence that the
place is disinfected, is entirely fallacious,
and, in fact, that the use of this agent as a
volatile agent is impracticable, because of
the expense of the pure acid and the enor-
mous quantity required to produce the de-
sired result."

A Selenium Photometer. — M. Leon Ti-
dal has devised a photometric apparatus
of selenium, for measuYing the intensity of
natural or artificial light by means of an

action purely physical and mechanical, and
in a manner analogous to that by which we
measure the temperature and the amount of
atmospheric pressure with the thermometer
and the barometer. The difference in con-
ductibility which results from the action of
light on selenium produces deviations in the
needle of the galvanometer which corre-
spond in extent with the intensity of the
luminous source. In this manner we may
determine, at a glance, the intensity of light
at any instant. The principle is applied to
the construction of meteorological photom-
eters, for which elements of selenium of
equivalent conductibility are provided, to
be substituted for each other as their molec-
ular condition becomes modified ; the plates
may be restored to their normal condition
by heating them, and used again. This in-
strument may be employed for the rapid and
visible record of the instantaneous changes
in luminous intensity, at all heights and
depths, the observer reading the indications
of the galvanometer at the place which may
be most convenient for him.

NOTES.

Tb~e American Public Health Association
will hold its tenth annual session at India-
napolis, Indiana, October 17th to 25th. Pa-
pers will be presented on the different ac-
tion of disease in the white and black races,
the removal of excreta, heredity, sanitary
associations, vaccination, intermittent fever
in New England, sanitary organization, cat-
tle-disease, etc., etc., with reports of com-
mittees on the prevention of venereal dis-
ease, compulsory vaccination, the manage-
ment of epidemics, statistics, cattlc-diseascs,
National Museum of Hygiene, incorporation
of the Association, and necrology.

The American School of Classical Studies
at Athens, Greece, under the direction of a
committee of the Archaeological Institute of
America, is to be opened on the 2d of Octo-
ber. Its object is to promote the study of
classical literature, art, and antiquities, by
graduates of American colleges, and to
prosecute and aid original and co-operative
research in those subjects. The school is
open, free of fees, to bachelors of arts,
properly recommended from co-operating
colleges. Nine colleges in New England,
New York, New Jersey, and Baltimore, have
contributed annual subscriptions of $2,250,
most of them for ten years, in aid of the
school.

864

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Dr. II. P. Stearns, of the Hartford (Con-
necticut) Retreat for the Insane, accounts for
the increased amount of disease of the nerv-
ous system observed of late years, by refer-
ence to the larger part of the twenty-four
hours which the masses of the people spend
within-doors. A far greater part of the
population than used to be are employed in
counting-houses, business-offices, stores, and
factories, inhaling a heated and contami-
nated atmosphere, the effect of which upon
the delicate structure of the brain can not
but be most unfavorable.

Mr. II. W. S. Cleveland, in his impor-
tant pamphlet on " The Culture and Manage-
ment of our Native Forests," says that we
must learn to imitate Nature in our methods
of cultivation, if we would grow new forests
successfully. The primary point is to keep
the trunks of the trees shaded. Nature
does this by massing the plants closely to-
gether in the forests, so that they shade
each other, or by giving a wide spread of
limbs with low heads to trees in the open.
It also protects the cambium layer with
thick deposits of old bark, and we endanger
the health of the tree when we scrape this
off. Another important point is to keep
the roots well mulched, as nature does with
old leaves, thick mold, and mosses in the
forest ; and a third point is to protect the
trees well from the southwest wind — the
breeze which, with its drying heat, is the
most damaging to the vitality of the tree.
In illustration of the validity of this rule
Mr. Cleveland points to the greater luxu-
riance and variety of plant-life on the east
side of seas and lakes than on the west side.

Professor Francis Maitland Balfour,
of the University of Cambridge, lost his life
about the 19th of July, while attempting
the passage of the Aiguille Blanche de
Penteret, one of the buttresses of Mont
Blanc, in Switzerland. He was only about
thirty years old, but had done a very large
amount of original biological work for one
so young. Having entered Trinity College,
Cambridge, as a natural science scholar, he
decided, upon the suggestion of Professor
Michael Foster, to apply himself at once to
original work instead of going through the
ordinary routine preparation for his degree.
He was afterwards encaged at the zoological
station at Naples, and then at Naples and
Cambridge alternately, and had just been
honored by the creation of a special chair
of Animal Morphology for him at the uni-
versity. He was the author of a work of
eminent merit on the " Development of the
Elasmobranch Fishes," and had begun a
work on " Comparative Embryology."

Tiie English unit, or parliamentary
standard, for the estimation of the inten-
sity of light, is a spermaceti-candle, six to

the pound, burning 120 grains an hour.
The French standard, or carcel, a lamp
burning 42 grammes of refined colza-oil per
hour, with a flame 40 millimetres high, is
reckoned as equivalent to 9*5 candles. The
English standard for gas-lights is an Argand
burner with sixteen holes, in a chimney five
inches high and two inches in diameter,
burning five feet of standard gas per hour,
and giving a light of sixteen candles. The
German standard, or Vercinskerze, is a paraf-
fine-candle 20 millimetres in diameter, with
a flame five centimetres high, 7 '6 of which
are equivalent to a carcel. The variations
of the carcel burner do not exceed two or
three per cent, while those of the standard
candles sometimes rise to thirty per cent.

TnE later experiments of Professor W.
0. At water and his aids on the effects of
fertilizers and the feeding capacities of
plants, as recorded in a paper just published
by the Agricultural Department, indicate
that Indian corn has a much greater power
of gathering nitrogen from the soil or air
or both than it has been credited with ;
that in this respect it comes nearer to the
legumes than to the cereals ; and that it may
eventually claim a right to be classed with
the " renovating " crops. The experiments
are, however, not yet considered decisive.
Professor Atwater, projecting a plan for
continued experiments in the line to which
his report is devoted, suggests that chemical
and physical surveys of the land in behalf
of agriculture ought to be undertaken, just
as there have been topographical and geo-
logical surveys in behalf of other industries
and interests.

The death is announced, July 16th, of
Dr. George Dickie, Professor of Botany in
the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, for
seventeen years, and previously for several
years in the Queen's College, Belfast. lie
retired from active duty, on account of im-
paired health, in 1877. He was the author
of numerous papers and several books on
botanical subjects. He was especially in-
terested in the study of alga?.

Professor William Stanley Jevons,
the philosopher and Professor of Political
Economy, was drowned while bathing at
Bexhill, near Hastings, England, August
15th. Professor Jevons was a grandson of
William Roscoe, the merchant author, and
was born in Liverpool, in 1835. He was
connected with the Royal Mint at Sydney,
Australia, for five years after 1854, and
was appointed Professor of Logic and Moral
Philosophy and Lecturer on Political Econ-
omy in Owens College, Manchester, in 1866,
and Professor of Political Economy in the
University of London in 1872. He was the
author of several works in logic and polit-
ical economy, which are recognized as au-
thoritative.

INDEX.

PASS

Advertisements, Quack 121

Africa, Elephant-Service 860

America, Ancient Sun- Worship and the Cross in 711

American Forestry 419

Anaesthetics, The Manageable Zone of 716

Animal and Plant Life, A Partnership of 835

Animals, Domestic, The Introduction of 246

Animal Self-Defense. (Illustrated.) 595

Anthropology, Suggestions to Observers in 139

Apo, The Mysterious Volcano of 429

Aquarides, The, or July Meteors 424

Archaeological Researches, American 561

Architecture, Acoustic 454

Area of the United States, Calculating the 572

Arnold, Matthew 737

Aryans. The Original Home of the 571

Association, The American 561, 855

Association, The British 562

Astronomical Panics 192

Astronomical Symbols, Origin of the 425

Astronomy, Chaldean. 858

Atlantic Coast, Old and New Latitudes on the 574

Aurora Borealis, Forms of 286

Ayres, Dr. TV. 0 350

Bachelor, O. R., M. D 100

Bacteria, Disadvantages and Advantages of. 709

Badoureau, M 391

Beecher on Theology and Evolution 697

Bell, Sir Charles, and Physiological Experimentation 178

Bill, M. B, 788

Bird, A Gigantic Fossil. (Illustrated.) 467

Book-Men, The. 470

Books noticed :

" Physical Education " (Oswald) 127

" Voyage of the Vega " (Nordenskiold) 128

" Origin and Growth of Religion " (Davids) 130

"Bacteria" (Cohn) 131

" Beliefs about Man " (Savage) 131

" Transactions of the Georgia Medical Association " (Campbell) 131

"The Universe^ (Pouchet) 132

" The Gospel of the Stars " (Seiss) , 132

VOL. XXI. — 55

866 INDEX.

Books noticed : pa.&s

" Voice-Production " (Patton) 133

"The Study of Trance" (Beard) 133

"Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer " (Winchell) 133

" Principles of Chemical Philosophy " (Cooke) 133

" Report of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College "

(Pickering) 134

" Palaeolithic Implements of the Valley of the Delaware " 134

" Analysis of Milk and Milk-Foods " (Gerber) 134

"The Brain of the Cat " (Wilder) 134

"Publications of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology" 135

" The Science of Mind " (Bascom) 135

"Myth and Science " (Vignoli) 270

" Easy Lessons in Science " (Barrett) 271

"Die chemische Ursache des Lebens (Loew and Bokorny) 272

" The Oyster Industry " (Ingersoll) 272

"The Seal Islands of Alaska " (Elliott) 272

" The Areas of the United States (Gannett) 273

" Statistics of the Production of the Precious Metals in the United

States " (King) 273

"Eeport of the Chief Signal-Officer of the Army" (1881) 273

" The Constants of Nature— Atomic Weights " (Clarke) 273

" The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning " (Richards) 274

"The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota" (1880)

(Winchell) 274

" La Lumiere Electrique " (Alglave and Boulard) 274

" Bi-Monetism " (Stringham) 275

" Guides for Science Teaching " (Hyatt and Crosby) 275

"The New Ethics" (Sewall) 275

" Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History " (1880) 275

" How to make the Best of Life " (Mortimer Granville) 276

" Report on Diphtheria " (Staples) 276

" The Use of Tobacco " (Hinds) 276

"The Temple rebuilt" (Abbe) 276

" Incandescent Electric Lights " (Du Moncel and Preece) 276

" Diseases of Memory " (Ribot) 410

" The Present Religious Crisis " (Blauvelt) 411

"Egyptian Obelisks " (Gorringe) 413

" The Properties and Motions of Fluids " (Stanley) 414

"Myron Holley " (Wright) 415

" Report of the Connecticut Agricultural -Experiment Station " (1881) 416

" The Occult World " (Sinnett) 416

" Marriage and Parentage " 416

" The New Infidelity " (Grote) 416

" Elementary Treatise on Electricity " (Maxwell) 417

" Management and Feeding of Infants " (Keating) 417

" Opium-Smoking in America and China " (Kane) 417

" Study of the Various Sources of Sugar " (Ware) 417

"Vaccination " (Edwards) 418

" First Aid to the Injured " (Shepherd) 418

" Ants, Bees, and Wasps " (Lubbock), 650

" Capital and Population " (Hawley) 551

INDEX. 867

Books noticed : PAGB

" John Stnart Mill " (Bain) 551

" Medical Adviser in Life Insurance " (Sieveking) 552

" Geological Survey of New Jersey " (1881) 553

" From River to Sea " (Gleed) 553

" Political Institutions " (Spencer) 553

" Production of the Precious Metals in the United States " (King) 554

" Hand-Book of Invertebrate Zoology " (Brooks) 554

" The Floating Matter of the Air " (Tyndall) 555

" A Dictionary of Music and Musicians " (Grove) 556

" Our Homes " (Hartshorne) 556

" The Wine Question " (Ellis) 556

" The Rhymester " (Hood) 556

" The Books of all Time " (Leypoldt and Jones) 556

" A Reading Diary of Modern Fiction " 557

" Practice of Commercial Organic Analysis " (Allen) 557

" Currency " (Willson) 557

" History of the Water-Supply of the World " (Bell) 558

" Dictionary of the French Language " (Masson) 558

"How the Great Prevailing Winds and Ocean - Currents are pro-
duced " (Taber) 558

" Primary Helps " (for the Kindergarten) (Hailmann) 558

" Geology of the Henry Mountains " (Gilbert) 559

" A Bibliography of Fossil Insects " (Scudder) 559

" Tables for the Determination, Description, and Classification of Min-
erals " (Foye) 559

" A Geographical Reader " (Johonnot) 699

" The Science of Ethics " (Stephen) 700

M Modern Applications of Electricity " (Hospitalier) 700

" Etymological Dictionary of the English Language " (Skeat) 701

" Our Merchant Marine " (Wells) 702

" Science Ladders " (D'Anvers) 702

" The Gospel of Law " (Stewart) 703

" Manual of Object-Teaching " (Calkins) 703

" Treatment of Common Accidents and Diseases " (Turner) 703

" Good Cheer" 703

" Copyright in Books " (Dawson) 704

" Treatise on Diseases of the Skin " (Duhring) 704

" Errors in the Use of English " (Hodgson) 704

" American College Directory " 705

" What is Bright's Disease ? " (Pancoast) 705

" Kant's ' Critique of Pure Reason ' " (Morris) 705

" Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft " (Beard) 706

" Geological Sketches " (Geikie) 706

" Natural Religion " (by the author of " Ecce Homo ") 847

" Ernestine " (Von Hillern) 850

" Practical Microscopy " (Davis) 851

" Guide to the Flora of Washington and Vicinity " (Ward) 852

" Reminiscences of Oriel College " (Mozely) 853

" Students' Guide in Quantitative Analysis " (Bolton) 854

" Astronomy for Schools and General Readers" (Sharpless) 854

Borax in America. (Illustrated.) 350

S6S INDEX,

PAGE

Boston Water-Supply, Purification of the 136

Bowen, Eliza A 218

Brachiopoda, The Systematic Position of the 428

Brandt, K 836

British Schools, Sanitary Eeports of '..' 138

Brown, Allan D 773

Brown, Kev. E. Woodward 60

Brush, Professor George J 795

Bryce, Peter, M. D 239

Buell, Charles J 122

Burmese Tribe, A Curious 328

Burnett, Dr. Swan M 86

California, The Eucalyptus in 710

Carpenter, Dr. William B 178

Chemistry in High-Schools 218

Chinese, The : Their Manners and Customs 679

Cities, The Development of. (Illustrated.) 391

Civilization, Food and 282

Clarke, F. W 171

Climate, Forests and 562

Clouds? What are 751

Coal-Dust, Diseases from 718

College Government 549

College Officers, The Appointment of 171

Collens, Hon. T. Wharton 470

Color-Blindness and Color-Perception 86

Color-Names and Color-Sense 719

Correspondence 121, 406

Country, The Topmost, of the Earth 527

Culture, Science and 123

Cushing, F. H 186

Cuttle-Fishes, Past and Present of the. (Illustrated.) 753

Darwin, Charles R., LL. D., Sketch of 260

Darwin, Charles Robert 266

Darwin Memorial, The 699

Davis, Charles E., L. B 121

Deaf and Dumb, Lip-Teaching for the 858

Deaf-Mutes, Provincial Accents among 279

Decay, How Plants resist 524

De Rochas, M. A 645

Diamonds, Brazilian, and their Origin 610

Dieulafait, M 826

Discovery, Egyptological 716

Discussion, A Premature 376

Disease, Progress of the Germ Theory of 462

Disinfectants, Value of 863

Dollinger, Dr. J. von 205, 300

Donkin, Horatio 634

Doubt, Delusions of 788

INDEX. 869

PAGE

Drunkenness, The Utility of 785

Du Bois-Reymond, Emil 317, 433

Ducks, Wild, Domestication of 280

Dumas, Littre, Pasteur, and Taine 667

Earth, The, A New Weighing of 565

Earth-Worms, Influence of, on Plants 122

Eclipse, Solar Observations of the Last 572

Editor's Table 123, 266, 406, 544, 696, 843

Education, Industrial, in the Public Schools 809

Education, National, and National Necessities 444

Eggs of Reptiles and Insects as Food 429

Egleston, N. H 1

Egyptological Discovery 716

Electric Storage-Batteries 408

Electromania 650

Elephants, About. (Illustrated.) 480

Ensilage, Experiments in 707

Entertaining Varieties 112, 402, 541, 692

Eucalyptus, The, in California 710

Evolution, Mozley on 767

Exercise, Du Bois-Reymond on 544

Exercise, The Physiology of 317, 433

Expeditions, French Exploring 570

Experimentation, Physiological, Sir Charles Bell and 178

Explosions and Explosives 773

Fairchild, H. L 595

Fire, Trials by, and Fire-Jugglers 645

Fishes, Dr. Giinther on the Study of 383

Fishes, Eye-like Organs of 164

Flesh-eating no Sin 711

Flies, How, climb 711

Flower, An Insect-lodging 572

Flowering Plant, The Oldest 570

Fly, The Hessian 136

Focke, W. O. 524

Food and Civilization 282

Food-Colors, Poisonous 717

Food-Plants,- Pedigree Selection in 859

Foot, The, and how it should be treated 714

Force, Matter and, Definitions of 406

Forestry, American 419

Forestry, Scientific 856

Forests and Climate 562

Forest, The Great Arctic 569

Galton, Francis 53

Geological Influences in English History 564

Geometry, Transcendental 507

George, Hector 663

870 INDEX.

PAGB

Germ Theory of Disease, The, Progress of 462

Gold, Origin of Native 140

Gorceix, M. H 610

Graham, Douglas, M. D 721

Grave-yard, A Merovingian 715

Giinther, Dr., on the Study of Fishes 383

Hair, Sudden Whitening of the 520

Haldeman, Professor S. S., Sketch of, with Portrait 395

Harvest-Time 574

History, English, Geological Influences in 564

Horse, The, in America 285

Houses, Sanitary Inspection of 430

Hydrocarbon, A New Natural 141

Hydrodynamics and Electricity 253

lies, George .- 331

Illumination, Electric and Gas 577

Implements, Palaeolithic, American and European 718

Indians, Southern, The Mound-Builders and the 563

Indigo, Synthesis of 283

Insane, Unscientific Treatment of the 706

Insanity, Neglect of the Study of 712

Insects, Fossil 567

Investigators, Wealthy Scientific 696

Jacques, William W., Ph. D 454

Japan, Scientific Societies in 566

Jelly-Fish, An Ideal 426

Jewish Tribe, A Newly Discovered 710

Jews, The, in Europe 205, 300

Kepley, Ada H 123

Kingsley, J. S 687

Kirkwood, Daniel 192

Krause, Dr. Ernst 164

Kreitler, Lieutenant G 328, 527

Lakes, Temperature of Water at Top and Bottom of 137

Land Formation on our Globe, The Law of 861

Lane, Alfred C , 507

Latitudes, Old and New, on the Atlantic Coast 574

Lauth, Charles 310

Lead in Food and the Industrial Arts 708

Le Sueur, W. D 96

Light and Heat, Origin of the Sun's 278

Lion-Tamer's, A, Method 714

Literary Notices 127, 270, 410, 550, 699, 847

Literature and Science 737

Literature and Science, Matthew Arnold on 843

Littre, Dumas, Pasteur, and Taine 667

London, Improved Sanitary Condition of. 423

INDEX. 871

PAGE

Longevity 587

Lovett, Robert W 34

Lubbock, Sir John, Sketch of 104

Lungren, CM 577

Machinery, Recent Applications of Science to 565

Malaria, The Microbe of. 563

Mammoth, Folk-Lore of the 137

Manufactory, The Poisons of the 663

Massage : Its Mode of Application and Effects 721

Mastodon, Recent Existence of the 138

Matter and Force, Definitions of 406

McBride, T. H 289

Meats, Some Rare 139

Medal, The Albert 713

Medical Schools, A Criticism of 279

Melograph, The Repeating 142

Memorial, The Darwin 699

Men, Measurements of 53

Merrick, T. B 121

Meteorograph, The 717

Meteorology, Tree 713

Meteors, The Aquarides, or July 424

Method, A Lion-Tamer's 714

Meunier, Stanislas 467

Mexico, The Mound-Builders in 860

Microbe, The, of Malaria 563

Mind, The Future of. 239

Mineralogy, The Progress of American 796

Miracles not out of Date 281

Molds, About the. (Illustrated.) 244

Monkeys 20

Moon, Is the, red-hot ? 571

Moon, Mountains of the 112

Morais, Nina 70

Morfit, 0 751

Mound-Builders, The, and the Southern Indians 563

Mountains, The Timber-Line of 857

Mud- Volcanoes in Sicily 569

Music, The Relation of, to Mental Progress 378

Mythology, Anthropoid 655

Necessities, National, and National Education 444

Nordenskiold, Baron Adolf Eric, Sketch of, with Portrait 533

Notes 143, 287, 431, 575, 719, 863

Obesity and its Treatment 426

Obituary 575

Odors, On the Diffusion of 84

Officers, College, The y Appointment of 171

Oolite, How, may be formed 708

8 72 INDEX.

PAGE

Orang-Outang, Number of Species of the 861

Oswald, Felix, M. D 587, 817

Palaeolithic Implements, American and European -, 718

Panics, Astronomical 192

Parasites 141

Parasitism, Reciprocal 426

Pasteur, Littre, Dumas, and Taine 667

Pearce, S. Austen, Mus. Doc, Oxon 378

Periodicals, Scientific, Catalogue of 421

Perkins, Professor George H 637

Persian Gulf, The Salt Deposits of the 568

Photometer, A Selenium 863

Physician, The, of the Future 637

Physics, Modern, Stallo's Concepts of 96

Physiognomic Curiosities 817

Piseco Lake-Trout, and T-Lake Falis 424

Placzek, Dr. B 655

Plant-Cells and their Contents. (Illustrated.) 289

Plants, How, resist Decay 524

Plants, The Protective Organs of 284

Plants, The Oldest Flowering 570

Poisons, The, of the Manufactory 663

Popular Miscellany 136, 277, 419, 560, 707, 855

Porcelain, and the Art of its Production 310

Pressure, Atmospheric, and the Sea-Level 562

Priestley, Dr 121

Princeton, The Great Telescope at 560

Progress, Mental, The Relation of Music to 378

Progress, The Slow, of Ideas 548

Propeller, The Screw- 430

Property, Problems of 331

Protoplasm 361

Publications Received 135, 277, 418, 559, 706, 855

Quack Advertisements 121

Quinine, The Tree that bears 100

Race, A New, in Course of Development 566

Rain-Fall, The Laws of 423

Randle, E. H . .- 406

Reciprocal Parasitism 426

Reproach, A Very Modern 268

Researches, American Archaeological 561

Richardson, Benjamin Ward, M. D., F. R. S ! 444

Rock Excavator, A Mechanical. (Illustrated.) 427

Rocks, Vibration of 406

Rogers, Professor William B., Death of. 429

Rutherford, R. C 84

Salmon-Disease, The 421

Salt Deposits, The, of the Persian Gulf 508

INDEX.

873

PAGE

Sanitary Inspection of Houses 430

Sanitary Objects, Co-operation of Medical Officers and People in 861

Say, Thomas, Sketch of, with Portrait 687

Scarlatina, The Soil and 858

Schools, British, Sanitary Reports of 138

Schools, Public, Science in the 122

Science and Culture 123

Science in the Public Schools 122

Science, Recent Applications of, to Machinery 565

Science, Speculative 145

Scientific Meeting, The Montreal 8-46

Sea-Level, Atmospheric Pressure and the 562

Seeds, Clouds of 142

Seeds, The Germination and Vitality of 278

Self-Defense, Animal. (Illustrated.) 595

Senses, The Development of the 34

Sewage-Irrigation in German Cities 568

Sewerage of Large Villages 277

Siberian Products 281

Siemens, C. William. 223

Signs, More, of the Times 545

Sioux Superstitions 422

Smith, Professor Goldwin, as a Critic 18

Societies, Scientific, in Japan 566

Sociology, Spencer's Descriptive 406

Sound-Shadows in Water 420

Spencer, Herbert 18, 767

Spencer's Descriptive Sociology 406

Spider, My 513

Spiders, Silk-spinning 281

Springs, Intermittent, The Mechanics of. (Illustrated.) 370

Stallo, J. B 145

Stallo's Concepts of Modern Physics 96

Stars, Variable 709

Stereoscope, The. Its History. (Illustrated.) 37

Stereoscope, The. Its Theory. (Illustrated.) 197

Stevens, W. Le Conte 37, 197

Storage-Batteries, Electric 408

Straight, Professor H. H. 809

Sugar, The Chemistry of 500

Sun-Spots, What are? 422

Sun, The, A New Theory of 223

Sun- Worship and the Cross in Ancient America 711

Superstitions, Sioux 422

Sword, The Genesis of the. (Illustrated.) 79

Symbols, The Astronomical, Origin of 425

Taine, Littr6, Dumas, Pasteur, and 667

Telegraphy, Sea, ft>r Ships flf

Teleradiophone, The 425

Telescope, The Great, at Princeton ■ 560

874 INDEX.

•

PAcn

Terra del Fuegians in Paris 285

Thomson, Wyville 286

Thought, Liberty of 60

"Thought-Reading," A Note on 634

Times, More Signs of the 545

Tobaccoism 284

Topmost Country, The, of the Earth 527

Training-School, Manual, The Functions of an American 621

Tree-Planting, Methods and Profit of 1

Trees, Forest and Shade, Insect Enemies of 280

Tree, The, that bears Quinine 100

Tribe, Jewish, A Newly Discovered 710

Trout, Piseco Lake-, and T-Lake Falls 424

Tubercle, The Bacilli of 712

Tubercular Disease, The Cause of 257

Tunnel, "What Perils might come out of a 718

Tyndall, Professor 257, 462

Underhill, Mrs. Z. D 376

Units, Electric 142

Vessels, Armored, A New Plan for 857

Vibration of Rocks 406

Vibrations, Transmission of 428

Villages, Large, Sewerage of 277

Virchow, Professor Rudolf, Sketch of, with Portrait 836

Vivisection, The Ethics of 344

Vivisection, What has been gained by 140

Volcano, An Artificial 140

Volcano, The Mysterious, of Apo , 429

Volcanoes, Mud, in Sicily 569

Wallace, Alfred Russel 20

Walterhofer, Dr. Otto 370

Water, Sound-Shadows in 420

Water, Tastes and Smells in 573

Waters, Mineral, The Formation of Saline 825

Wealthy Scientific Investigators 696

AVhite, Francis Emily, M. D 361

Whitening of the Hair, Sudden 520

Wiley, Professor Harvey W 500

Wilks, Dr. Samuel 344

Williams, W. Mattieu 650, 785

Wilson, Dr. Andrew 480, 753

Winter, W. H. T 513

Woman Question : A Reply to Miss Hardaker on the 70

Wood-Ducks, nabits of 713

Woodward, Professor C. M., Ph. D 621

Word-Blindness 574

Zufii, The, Social, Mythic, and Religious Systems 18G

END OF YOL. XXI.

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